Author Archives: Joe

It turns out that God is a micro-manager

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“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).  “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?  And yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:29-30).

Ask any scientist.

Nothing is too small for God to take notice.  If the atom obeys set laws and the microscopic universe is predictable to us humans, if the computer can be reduced to an astonishingly tiny entity, if hummingbirds and honeybees can do all they do, surely the Creator God has charge of the details.

The details are pretty impressive, I think you’ll have to agree.

Every baby in the womb.  Every child.  Every widow.  Every elderly.  Every prisoner.  Everyone.

Every word. Every act. Every leaf of every tree. Every flower of every meadow.

God is big enough to handle the little things.

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The subtle way we preachers brag

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Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; let not the mighty man glory in his might;  nor let the rich glory in his riches.  But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these I delight, says the Lord.  (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

I am a preacher, bear in mind. So, I know how it’s done.  After all–pay attention now–I pastored six churches for forty-two years, some of them large, influential churches.  Why, in one of my churches, I had a deacon who was a commissioner of the F.D.I.C., appointed by President Reagan.  And the sister of Dr. Billy Graham was a member.  In fact….

Okay.  See what I’m doing here?

Bragging in a subtle, indirect way is  an art not taught in seminary, but picked up along the way, believe me.

Yes, friends, you too can learn how to brag on yourself in an indirect, humble way!!

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If you are lonely in Kingdom work, you have only yourself to blame

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And He sent them out two by two. (Mark 6:7)

When the Apostle Paul gave us his list of burdens and hardships in the service of the gospel, loneliness was not one of them.  2 Corinthians 11 speaks of beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, and hardships galore.  At the end, he adds one more all-inclusive category: “my deep concern for all the churches.”

But not loneliness.

Paul was not lonely.

We rarely see Paul by himself.  In Antioch, he was one of five leaders. On his first missionary journey, he was accompanied by Barnabas and John Mark and possibly others.  On his second journey, Silas was his companion, along with Timothy, Luke, and others.  The last chapter of his letter to the church at Rome lists twenty-five saints by name to whom he was sending greetings, along with “his mother and mine” and “his sister” and “all the saints who are with them.”  Then, he names eight brethren who are with him at that moment: Timothy, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater, Tertius, Gaius, Erastus, and Quartus.

Paul was no loner.  Nor was our Lord.

Jesus chose twelve “that they might be with Him” (Mark 3:14). (The exception, we need to add, would be Gethsemane when He said, “Could you not pray with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40) )

Then, why, someone please tell us, are so many pastors loners, trying to lead the church, prepare life-changing sermons, and bear the burden of a thousand responsibilities all by themselves?

It was not meant to be this way.

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Too toxic to keep, too popular to fire: What to do about that difficult staff member

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“Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

I once asked a pastor friend, “Are you afraid of (a certain member of his staff who was causing him grief)?”  He said, “No, I’m not afraid of him.  But I fear  the damage he could do if I were to fire him.”

Therein lies the dilemma:  What to do about a team member  too powerful to fire but too difficult to keep.

Read on.

I’ve been reading H. W. Brands’ The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War. Dr. Brands is a highly respected professor of history at the University of Texas. Back when Brands taught at Texas A&M, Stephen Ambrose brought him to New Orleans for the 1998 conference on the Spanish-American War. My son Neil and I took in the conference and have been big fans of Professor Brands ever since.

In April 1951, Truman fired the most popular general in American history, becoming in one act the most reviled President in memory. During this period of his presidency, historians agree that Truman had become  one of the most unpopular presidents in history.  Interestingly, however, history vindicates Truman in his decision to dismiss the egotistical and out of control general.  You will search long and hard to find a military historian who thinks that MacArthur should not have been fired.

Someone asked Dwight D. Eisenhower once, “Didn’t you serve under General MacArthur?” (Ike had been his right-hand man in the Philippines in the 1930s.)  He answered, “I studied dramatics under him for eight years.” He is quoted as saying, “MacArthur could never see another sun, or even a moon for that matter, as long as he was the sun.”

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The consistent, historic malady afflicting the people of God

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“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but  their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).

I suspect some of us are marginal Christians,  just around the edges.

The Lord Jesus knew His Bible.  He was quoting Isaiah.

In the 8th century B.C., the prophet said: “Therefore the Lord said, ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, therefore I will again do a marvelous work among this people….'” (Isaiah 29:13-14).

Look out at the typical congregation most any Sunday morning.  It isn’t hard at all–nor, in my opinion is it judgmental–to see on display this very thing: people honoring God with their lips while their hearts roam across some foreign country somewhere.

It’s not a new thing.  While Isaiah preached in the 8th century B.C. and our Lord eight centuries later,  you and I witness the same two thousand years afterwards.  It seems to be a human affliction.

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The wrong people are being blamed

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“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling….” (Matthew 23:37).

You were unwilling.

I would, but you would not, God says.

As a result, Jerusalem was reaping what she had sown.  Getting the consequences of her neglect.

The resources of Heaven are standing by;  we neglect this to our detriment.

See what the Lord Jesus said to the leper in Mark 1.  This fellow violated every convention, every standard, and instead of calling out “Unclean! Unclean!” and avoiding Him, he ran to Jesus.  “Lord,” he said, “if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  The wonderful Lord Jesus did the unthinkable and touched the untouchable.  “I am willing,” He said.  “Be cleansed.”

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Uncomplicating your prayers: Just do it!

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“When you pray, say , ‘Our Father….'”   (Luke 11:2)

I used to have around fifty books on prayer.  C. S. Lewis said he would never write one, but that’s been done for him  posthumously.  Someone took articles he wrote in various books and insights from his letters and assembled them into How to Pray, which Bertha and I are reading with enormous pleasure.  (Most of my collection I gave away over the years as I down-sized my library twice.)

I fear with all the books on the subject that beginners may be scared away from serious praying, thinking it’s harder than it is, more complicated than it should be, and reserved just for the most religious among us.  And what a tragedy that would be.

Prayer is for every child of God.

I love to find insights and encouragements in Scripture about prayer.  One of the best is on display in the amazing and rich 8th chapter of Romans, everyone’s “mother lode” of treasures.  It’s this…

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The one question we are not allowed to ask

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“You do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.”  (Ecclesiastes 11:6).

“Of what use is this?”

What fruit will this bear for the Kingdom of God?

We never know.

It’s the question we should never ask.  First, we’ll not get an answer until we get to Heaven.  And second, to insist on knowing what God will do with our effort, our gift, our witness, before we act is to remove all faith from it.  And without faith, pleasing God is impossible (Hebrews 11:6).

You drop your offering into the plate at church.  There it goes.  Where it will end up, what it will accomplish, God alone knows.  Your church has a budget, you know how the money will be added together and which causes it will fund.  But your particular gift, you have no way of telling.

You’re distributing flyers for your church.  Some, you know, will end up in the garbage.  Some will never be read. But what if one or two become instruments for the Holy Spirit and someone’s life is forever changed?  Wouldn’t that be worth all the effort?

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A fine romance this is.

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Romance comes in all shapes and sizes.

Love does what it wishes and will not be confined to our formulae nor our fences.

The Hollywood slander is that only the young and beautiful fall in love, that somehow the plain and the aged are outside the bounds of this most wonderful experience in life. It’s a lie, of course, as is so much of what Hollywood peddles.

I’ve just finished David McCullough’s account of the settling of Ohio when it was the “far west” in the American experience.  The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West is a slow read, one I had to make myself stay with.  Scattered throughout the story, however, were delightful episodes, worth the effort of reading the book.

Ephraim Cutler (1767-1853), one of the earliest settlers and a champion for a hundred reasons, was widowed at the age of 40.  The death of his wife left him with four  small children.  Interestingly, however, before her death,  Leah chose Ephraim’s next wife.  We will let McCullough tell the story…

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The one question we would have for Jesus

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Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him…. And he questioned Him with many words…. (Luke 23:8-9).

Someone asked Larry King, the legendary television interviewer, if he could sit across the table and interview one person in all of history, who would it be.  “Jesus Christ,” said this man who is Jewish.

“And what would you ask him?”

“I would like to ask Him  if He was indeed virgin-born.  The answer to that question would define history for me.”

To be sure. That answer could change everything.  As it  has for many a person.

So with the resurrection.  Answer that in the affirmative and everything else falls into place.

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