Monthly Archives: July 2013

Discipline vs. Punishment

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God said, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.”1

Nine-year-old Al had disobeyed his father who, as a strict disciplinarian, sent him with a note to a police station in London. When Al came in late after curfew, his father met him at the door and handed him a note and said, “Take it to the jailhouse.”

Al was terrified.

“The officer, a friend of his father, opens the note, reads it, and nods,. ‘Follow me.’ He leads the wide-eyed youngster to a jail cell, opens the door, and tells him to enter. The officer clangs the door shut. ‘This is what we do to naughty boys,’ he explains and walks away…. The jail sentence lasts only five minutes. But those five minutes felt like five months. Al never forgot that day. The sound of the clanging door, he often told people, stayed with him the rest of his life.

“The fear of losing a father’s love exacts a high toll. Al spent the rest of his life hearing the clanging door. That early taste of terror contributed to his lifelong devotion to creating the same in others. For Al—Alfred Hitchcock—made a career out of scaring people.”2

True, discipline is important, but it always needs to fit the crime. Some children are impaired for life because of severe punishment as a child. Others are left terrified if they were beaten severely or abused. It is imperative that parents never discipline out of anger because that is punishment, not discipline. Discipline always needs to be in love.

Those whom God loves, he disciplines in love—not punishes in anger. We need to do the same with our children.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that when you discipline me it is always out of your love for me and for my good. Help me to do the same when disciplining my children. May it always be in love and never out of anger. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Revelation 3:19 (NIV).

2. From UpWords from Max Lucado, www.maxlucado.com

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A Sermon Walking

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“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”1

In 1953 reporters gathered at a Chicago railway station waiting to meet the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

He was a big man, six-feet-four tall with bushy hair and a large mustache.

Reporters were excited to see him and expressed what an honor it was meet him. Cameras were flashing, compliments were being expressed—but seeing beyond the adulation the visitor noticed an elderly Afro-American woman struggling to carry her two large suitcases.

“Excuse me,” he said as he went to the aid of this woman. Picking up her cases, he escorted her to a bus and then apologized to the reporters for keeping them waiting.

The man was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary-doctor who had invested his life helping poor and sick people in Africa.

A member of the reception committee remarked to one of the reporters, “That’s the first time I ever saw a sermon walking.”

The measure of any man or woman is not their name, their fame, nor what they say—but what they do.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a doer of your Word and not just a hearer. Grant that my life will also be a sermon walking. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 1:22.

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Sometimes Dads Win

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“Do you see a man diligent in his business? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”1

When singer John Davidson was learning to drive, he wanted a car of his own. His father, a Baptist minister, told him he could have a car providing he got good grades at school, read his Bible more, and got his hair cut shorter.

“On my next report card,” John said, “I got all B’s and told my dad I had been reading the Bible. He said that was fine, but how about the haircut? ‘Well,’ I told him, ‘in reading the Bible I found that Jesus had long hair.’”

“My father agreed and said, ‘Yes, but he also walked everywhere.’”

There seems to be something about human nature in that many of us want as much as we can get for as little effort as possible. However, we only truly appreciate that which we work for. The reality of life is that there are no free lunches.

I tried to instill in my sons the belief that they can pretty much do what they want with their life and accomplish what they desire providing they are willing to adequately prepare themselves for what they want to do and work hard enough to achieve it. As Solomon put it, “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”2

As another has said, “Everybody is self-made. Usually only the successful will admit it!”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to become the person you want me to be and diligently do all that you would have me to do. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 22:29.

2. Proverbs 13:4 (NIV).

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Rising Above Discouragement

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“Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when dreams come true at last, there is life and joy.”1

“These boys won’t make it. Go back to Liverpool, Mr. Epstein, you have a good business there.” This is what a recording company executive told the Beatles’ manager at their first audition! Can you imagine that?

“That kid can’t play baseball. He can’t pull the ball” is what the manager of the Brave’s Triple-A team said about Hank Aaron in 1952. Aaron went on to hit 755 home runs, the most ever in the history of baseball.

Remember, no matter what the critics say, in God’s economy everybody has a purpose and everybody has something of value to offer. Never give up until you know what your God-given talent is, or talents are, sharpen them, dedicate them to God, and give them all you’ve got. Take courage. Nothing you do for God will ever be in vain.

If what you are choosing to do is in harmony with God’s will for you, then dream big dreams, work hard, trust God and in time you will reap what you sow—and will be richly rewarded. Know your God-given dreams and keep hope alive. In due time you will be rewarded if you “faint not.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to know my God-given life purpose and dream. Help me to be faithful to this calling and keep hope alive so that I will receive the reward that comes from you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 13:12 (TLB)(NLT).

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The Power of Courage

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“Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”1

When she was only nineteen months of age, Helen Keller suffered an illness that left her blind and deaf. Soon she was unable to speak. By the age of seven she was extremely frustrated by her inability to communicate. Fortunately, her parents were able to hire a 20-year-old teacher to come and live with them.

The teacher, Anne Sullivan, was a very capable and loving individual and was able to put courage into Helen by teaching her to communicate with the use of her fingers. Helen was greatly encouraged, learned to read by Braille and then read everything she could lay her hands on.

She desperately wanted to earn a university degree and, passing the entrance exams to Radcliffe, pleaded with officials to allow her to attend and bring Anne Sullivan with her to translate the lectures into her manual code. The following is part of what she wrote to the admissions office:

“I realize that the obstacles in the way of my receiving a college education are very great—to others they may seem insurmountable; but, dear Sir, a true soldier does not acknowledge defeat before the battle.”

Helen was admitted and graduated with high honors. She then spent the rest of her life helping to improve the lot of and put courage into other handicapped people at home and around the world.

Indeed, “A true soldier does not acknowledge defeat before the battle!” A good word for today.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the courage to face any and all battles that may come my way knowing that you are with me and will never leave me or forsake me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Joshua 1:9 (NIV).

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Three Great Abilities

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“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”1

Three of life’s greatest abilities are dependability, responsibility, and availability.

First: Dependability, among many things, is keeping one’s word. It’s doing what we say we are going to do. It’s keeping the commitments we make. It is being authentic; for instance, sometimes, instead of saying what we truly feel and want, we say what we think others want to hear to be “nice,” and then we do the opposite, which is far from being nice. It’s being dishonest. Such a person cannot be trusted or depended on.

Second: Responsibility; that is, realizing that I am totally responsible for what I say, for what I want, for what I feel, for what I do or don’t do, for getting my needs met in healthy ways, and for every area of my life.

Unless I am handicapped, no matter what happened to me in the past relationally, if it were negative, I am responsible for what I do about it and for what I become. As another has wisely said, “I may have been a victim in the past, but if I remain a victim, I am now a willing volunteer.” As long as I fail to accept personal responsibility for my life and blame anybody else for the difficulties I have, I will never overcome them. That is, if I keep playing the blame-game, I will B-LAME!

Third: Availability. If I want my life to be fulfilling and meaningful, I need to be available for my family, for having a part in worthwhile causes (without being obsessive), and for being available to participate in God’s work here on earth. As I have shared on a number of occasions, when it comes to being involved in God’s work, every morning I pray the following prayer of commitment: “Dear God, again today I’m available, please make me usable, and use me to be a witness for Jesus, and, Lord, please help me to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch this day.” I encourage you to also pray this prayer at the beginning of every day.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to become the person you want me to be, to always be dependable, responsible, and available for you to use to have a part in what you are doing in the world today—all for your glory. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV).

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When God Becomes a Drug

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“A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.”1

“My name is Leo. I am an alcoholic, a co-dependent, a religious addict and a religious abuser. I am a recovering priest.” This is how the Rev. Leo Booth, an Episcopal priest introduces himself.

As a recovering alcoholic he has been sober for over a decade and a half but also points out that he is recovering from a very narrow-minded religion.

Author of the book, When God Becomes a Drug, Booth points out that for some people, religion is as much an addiction as alcoholism, smoking, problem gambling, and work addiction. Religious addicts want God or Jesus to take away their pain and problems without accepting personal responsibility for them.

“For many years,” Booth said, “I was asking God to help me with my drinking, asking Jesus to give me courage and strength to resist drinking too much, asking the Holy Spirit to help me with my alcoholism. But I wasn’t putting the cork in the jug…. The more I drank the more extreme I became in my religious practices, medicating my guilt with ritual and dogma.”

Religious addiction can be just as destructive to the family as any other addiction because the addict is in denial and isn’t facing his real problems nor accepting responsibility for his recovery.

Like the alcoholic, the only hope he has for recovery is to quit lying to himself, admit exactly what he is and say, “I have a problem. I need help.” He then needs to get into an effective recovery program to help him quit his self-destructive acting out (hiding behind his religion), and overcome his problem.

The biblical mandate for healing and recovery is simple but not easy, but it’s the only way to recovery: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”2 (See footnote for additional help.)3

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to face reality, admit to any addictive or destructive behaviors in my life, confess these to you and to at least one safe person, and (with your help) accept responsibility for getting the help I need to overcome my problem/s. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 28:13 (TLB)(NLT).

2. James 5:16 (NIV).

3. For help see “Counseling Resources” including “Celebrate Recovery” at https://learning.actsweb.org/counseling_resources.php

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Scary Leap of Faith

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“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”1

Brennan Manning in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, tells about a child caught on the second floor of his house when it was on fire. The family members were all running out of the house when the smallest boy panicked and ran back upstairs.

Terrified, he screamed from a smoke-filled window. Below, his father could see him and cried out, “Jump, son, jump! I’ll catch you.” “But daddy, I can’t see you,” the boy cried.

“I know,” the father called, “but I can see you.”

The father could see the son and that’s all that really mattered.

Many a time in our lives we are in difficult situations and we panic and long for God to help us. But not being able to see him, or sense his presence, we don’t know what to do. Let us always remember that God is there regardless of our feelings. He can see us. And when we call to him and choose to put our trust in him, he will help us. He is our refuge. Underneath us are his everlasting arms. And he loves us with an everlasting love.

“And that may be all we need to know!”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to commit and trust my life and way to you when darkness surrounds me and I am lost and do not know the way. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Deuteronomy 33:27 (NIV).

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On Logs and Splinters

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“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”1

An issue of Our Daily Bread shares and incident in the life of English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770). On one occasion Whitefield received a very critical letter accusing him of doing something wrong. His reply was brief and to the point: “I thank you heartily for your letter. As for what you and my other enemies are saying against me, I know worse things about myself than you will ever say about me. With love in Christ, George Whitefield.”

Whitefield didn’t defend himself. Probably because he wasn’t guilty of doing the thing he was being accused of. We often get defensive when we are guilty, or if we are more concerned about our image than we are about pleasing God, or if we are insecure and need to appear “perfect” in the eyes of others.

The fact is, we are all sinners and we all have faults and make our share of mistakes. So, before we try to take the speck out of another’s eye, let us first, as Jesus suggested, take the log out of our own.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of a critical attitude that is constantly looking for a speck in another’s eye as a means of avoiding the log in my own eye. Please give me the willingness to see the log in my own eye, and make the changes in my life that need correction. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Luke 6:41-42 (NIV).

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The Gagging of God

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Jesus said to his followers: “Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.”1

In the last quarter century or more we’ve spent millions of dollars on church growth but there has been little increase in the number of Americans being born again. Much of what we have seen is church movement—people moving from one church to another. Furthermore, according to surveys conducted by research specialist, George Barna, here in America there is little or no measurable difference in lifestyle between average Christians and non-church people. As Vance Havner put it, “Our doctrine is sound—sound asleep.”

In the 1800s many of the great spiritual movements were coming out of Great Britain. At the beginning of the nineteenth century fifty percent of the British people were in church. I have read that, by the end of the Twentieth Century, it will be less than five percent. People left the organized church by the multiplied thousands. According to Gavin Reed (a British minister) in his book, The Gagging of God, over time in England the needs of the people changed, but the average church program remained the same and became irrelevant. Church people ended up talking mostly to themselves and except for scattered pockets of revival, the church in Great Britain lost its impact of bygone years. The same is true throughout Europe, once the cradle of Christianity.

Are we doing any better in the U.S. and other Western nations at communicating effectively to those outside the church? Aren’t most of our efforts in the print media, Christian radio, music, TV ministries, and now in Christian web and email ministry talking primarily to ourselves and “preaching to the choir?”

What will happen to over-the-seas evangelism if across-the-street evangelism dies?

And what will happen to this nation of U.S.A., built on a spiritual foundation with justice and liberty for all, if the church here becomes irrelevant to the needs of today’s generation and loses its impact. The consequences for our children and our children’s children are unthinkable. And the sad fact is that the church in the U.S. is already in decline.

Perhaps the answer begins in God’s word to King Solomon: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”2

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please send a revival and a spiritual awakening to churches and Christians everywhere and let your work begin in me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 4:35 (NLT).

2. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV).

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