Everyone has his own contender for that honor–the “best thing in the Bible”–and here’s mine.

“Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

“And might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Those two loaded verses tell us why the incarnation (the act by which Jesus became human) and why the crucifixion (His death on the cross). It all pointed to the same purpose.

Jesus defeated the one holding the power of death, the devil, and delivered those in bondage to the fear of death. (That would be “us.”) He accomplished this by His death.

Eugene Peterson restates that in The Message:

“Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by His death. By embracing death, taking it into Himself, He destroyed the devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.”

Think of that: “scared to death of death.”

It describes our generation to a T.

Now, a wonderful little glimpse of something. Fast forward over to the first chapter of Revelation. In John’s vision of the ascended/glorified Jesus, there is a detail you may have missed.

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We’re not in the dark as to how the Lord prefers to train leaders. Take a gander at His favorite leaders in the Scriptures….

In Genesis, Joseph. In Exodus, Moses. Later, Joshua. In I Samuel, David. In the New Testament, it’s clearly Paul.

What one thing do all these leaders have in common?

They all suffered a great deal before the Lord decided they were ready to be used by Him. (And often continued to suffer while serving Him.)

Joseph spent the best years of his youth as a slave in Egypt, then was mistreated by his master and thrown in prison where he seemed to have been forgotten for a number of years.

Moses spent 40 years in remote areas keeping sheep before God decided that at the age of 80, this man was ready to face Pharaoh and lead the Israelites.

Joshua served as Moses’ servant for more years than he could count and endured the entire 40 years of wilderness wandering before Moses left the scene and gave him the keys to the car.

David was anointed as the new king sometime around his 17th year, we think. Soon, he fought Goliath and became a national champion, then a hero acclaimed by the masses. A jealous King Saul put a price on his head, turning David into an outlaw for a number of years.

Want to be a leader greatly used of God? Get ready to suffer first.

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The newspaper column by Andy Rooney, resident curmudgeon of CBS television, does not appear in the New Orleans paper but I found it today in the Baton Rouge Advocate. Rooney thought we’d like to see what he shared Wednesday at the memorial service for Walter Cronkite at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center.

Two stories from that have special meaning for us.

The first illustration…

Rooney says he and his wife were often invited to go sailing with Walter and Betsy Cronkite. “Once while we were sailing in Maine several years ago, we tied up near a little village and Walter and Betsy went into a country store.”

“This strange-looking character comes up to Walter and asks him a question. Walter was always polite to his fans and, with Betsy standing there, Walter said, “Oh sure. We’ve met several times . We’re not really close friends. I talk to him once in a while.”

Outside, Betsy said, “Walter, did you hear who he asked you about?” And Walter, who was hard of hearing answered,”No, I didn’t.” She said, “Well, he asked if you knew Jesus Christ.”

(What if it turned out that that accidental answer was the real one? Let’s hope he knew Jesus well and is in His presence at this very moment.)

And then the second Cronkite story.

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“Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;

“But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord.” (Jer. 9:23-24)

Remember those words. They will be on the test.

The word “rhapsody,” we’re told, comes to us from the Greek “rhapsodia.” That word is made from “rhapso” meaning “to sew” and “ode,” a song. Literally, a rhapsody is a patchwork composition, parts of various songs stitched together into one.

I have my needle and thread this morning. I’m ready to pull together some thoughts on this fascinating declaration from our Heavenly Father for our benefit. In time, with continued reflection and study, my composition will be seamless. But not today, I’m afraid.

Last week, on Facebook–where “friends” try to compress large thoughts and long paragraphs of meaning into two or three pithy sentences–I urged pastors to begin their worship services by walking up to the pulpit and quoting these two verses from Jeremiah 9.

I suggested that the worship leader (the pastor should always be the opening and primary worship leader) should look his people in the eye and with a clear, almost dramatic voice, call out from memory–most definitely not reading–the words of this text. Do it slowly, forcefully, authoritatively.

This is in contrast to the trite manner in which so many worship services begin. “How y’all doing this morning?” “Well, aren’t we having a pretty day?” “Is everyone happy today? I said, ‘Is EVERYONE happy today?’ Maybe you didn’t hear me–IS EVERYONE HAPPY TODAY?”

Oh please. Spare us.

You can do better than this, pastor. Instead of beginning the worship service berating us for not answering your silly question forcefully enough, why not direct us toward the Lord. Lift us toward Heaven. See if you can actually help us worship.

After posting the suggestion about Jeremiah 9:23-24 on Facebook, the next day I made a comment regarding Galatians 2:20. That drew a response from Philip Price.

Price is the new director of missions for the Jackson County Baptist Association, headquartered in Pascagoula, having just left the First Baptist Church of Leakesville, MS (where I’ll be leading in revival in a few weeks). Philip said, “Interesting you would pick those two scriptures.”

The Galatians verse is his favorite and the Jeremiah passage was his text a few days ago when he addressed the state-wide meeting of directors of missions, his new peer group.

Until Philip said that, I was “past” Jeremiah 9:23-24. But that drew me back.

I’ve since memorized it and am attempting to retain it by lying in bed reflecting on its content and quoting it back from time to time.

Let’s take it apart and sew it back together. With me now?

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Every pastor I know is held by two scriptures at opposite poles–and also torn between them.

On the one hand, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” That word from I Timothy 5:18 is a quotation of several Old Testament references. The New Testament will not let the super-spiritual among us dismiss the idea of compensating the minister with something like, “The Bible teaches that the ministers should get out and hold jobs like everyone else; there’s nothing in there about paying the preacher.”

Bad wrong. Read your Bible.

But on the other hand, the other reality that Scripture nails down as a line the minister must not cross says, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (I Timothy 6:10).

On one side, the minister must never put a price on the work he does. He must look to the Lord as the Source for his needs.

On the other side, he should be adequately compensated. The church must do the faithful and responsible thing in providing for these the Lord has called, equipped, and sent into His fields to labor.

He has a hard time saying this. So, I’m saying it for him.

Some thirty years ago, Dr. Bill Prout was a professor of religion on the faculty of Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, MS, where I served the First Baptist Church. I was Bill’s pastor, but he himself was a former pastor of Southern Baptist churches. He often supplied pulpits in the area for absent ministers and took interims when churches were between pastors.

I wrote an article for the old Baptist Program (the wonderful Leonard Hill was editor) based on a conversation Dr. Prout and I had. Fifteen years earlier, when he arrived in the community and began to fill the pulpits, he told me the average check to the visiting minister was 50 dollars.

“It’s still 50 dollars,” he laughed.

A friend who worked at a local bank ran the numbers and informed us that 50 dollars in, say, 1960, would have to be about 125 dollars fifteen years later, in order to have the same buying power. I quoted him in the article and urged churches to be more generous and faithful in taking care of their visiting ministers.

And now, that truth has come full circle for me.

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What started this for me was something a friend said Sunday morning.

We bumped into each other at a restaurant after church. He said, “I’ll miss your sermon tonight. I’ll be in such-and-such a city.” Oh? what’s going on there?

“Fantasy football. Our statewide meeting.”

I said, “You have meetings for these things? If they’re fantasy, can’t you just fantasize you’re there?”

He could tell in a heartbeat that I have no knowledge of how fantasy football works and absolutely zero appreciation for the sport. After all, is it a sport if it exists only in the fantasy world?

He smiled, “I have to be there. I’m the reigning champ.”

Might as well have remarked about weather conditions on Mars.  He lost me.

Readers will understand if I say you fantasy-football people have lost your cotton-picking minds.

Now, real football–well, that’s something else!

Or, then again, is it?

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I made a preacher mad at me the other day. I apologized and he forgave me, but I don’t regret what I did.

Here’s what happened.

I received an email from the man of God telling how a group of liberals is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to end religious programming in the United States. This would stop Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, and a whole host of religious programmers from broadcasting their messages.

The e-mail was a “forward,” of course. My friend had not written it, but merely read it with alarm and forwarded it to dozens of his friends.

I clicked on “reply all,” which sent my response to everyone who had received his note.

I said, “My dear brother, where have you been! This is a hoax! It has been around for nearly 40 years. The FCC never was petitioned to stop religious programming and couldn’t if it wanted to.”

I added, “This meaningless petition has been circling the earth for all these decades, causing gullible, although well-meaning, Christians to tie up God’s resources and their time in bombarding the FCC with thousands and thousands of pieces of mail every year.”

“Christians of all people should not pass this stuff along when they can’t verify it,” I said.

That’s how I hurt his feelings. So, I apologized.

Then, last week, that same petition arrived again.

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“But I say to you who hear, ‘Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.” (Luke 6:27)

Put yourself in the place of the Lord. You want to get across to your people the importance of fellowship inside the body, how to keep relationships strong, and how to correct them when they get out of whack. So, what do you do?

Do you tell your people to love their children? to love their parents? their sweethearts?

They already do. Jesus said even bad people love their own.

Instead, Jesus tells us to love our enemies—the absolute last people on earth we would think of loving. We tend to think of our enemies as completely unlovable, the guy who did us wrong and is planning worse, the kind of people we want to hate or fear or resent and are thinking of getting back at.

Love my enemies? Are you kidding, Lord? I don’t even like them.

The good news is He does not tell us we have to like them. Some of them He doesn’t like very much either. ‘Like’ has nothing to do with it. It’s about love.

We have to love them.

This is not an option. The command to love our enemies is found three times in the gospels–Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27 and 35. The principle, however, is planted all through Scripture. We’re stuck with it. This is something our Lord Jesus Christ fully expects from His disciples.

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One day in 1965, John Steinbeck sat at an outdoor cafe in San Francisco with Howard Gossage, a friend in the advertising business. He said, “Yesterday in Muir Woods, Charlie lifted his leg on a tree that was fifty feet across, a hundred feet high, and a thousand years old. What’s left in life for that dog after that supreme moment?”

Gossage was quiet for a moment, then he said in his slight stutter, “W-w-well, he could always t-t-teach.”

At this time of the year when school has resumed, half the people I know are talking about teaching and teachers. Some friends are themselves teachers and another large segment are the students, everything from pre-K to post-doctoral. Some are thrilled to be back in school, others feel they have been sentenced to Angola for another nine months. That period is ideally suited to bring forth new life in other realms, however in the classroom nothing is guaranteed.

It can be time well invested, life-changing even, or it can be a prison-sentence.

As a lifelong student with two full decades in classroom instruction and the rest in the laboratory of life, learning and teaching have been two of my most enjoyable pursuits.

In fact, I’m signing on to teach a couple of classes at our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2010, one in worship leadership and the other in interpersonal relations, both skills absolutely required in those who would shepherd the Lord’s flocks. Both subjects are dear to my heart. Both classes will be shared with another professor–a real one, I’m tempted to say–to give the students two perspectives and, since the classes are several hours long, to give the teachers some rest.

I’m excited. But I’ve done this before, actually–taught seminary students–and know that it’s real work.

If you think being a student is hard, and my grandchildren do, the teacher’s assignment is far more difficult.

No one lives by faith to the extent teachers do. If they judged the value of their work and the effect of their teaching by what they see sitting before them in the classroom, many would slip quietly into the faculty lounge and slit their throats.

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Cruising down the bayous of lower St. Bernard Parish, Jason Melerine had his crab boat up to 20 mph. Suddenly the vessel caught a piece of sunken hurricane debris, jerking the outboard motor off and giving Jason and his helper the jolt of their lives.

A front-page article in today’s Times-Picayune says there are 6,000 underwater snags in the waterways of our part of the world, remnants from August 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

It’s a sermon illustration in the making.

The other headline that catches the attention of readers is part of the continuing saga of Michael Jackson’s doctor’s legal predicament. “Coroner: Array of drugs killed Jackson.”

Imagine the prestige MJ’s doctor–Conrad Murray, cardiologist from Las Vegas–must have sported when potential patients learned who his celebrity client was. Wow. Doubtless he had a long waiting list of people wanting him as their doctor. Anything to be that close to their favorite celeb. I expect there’s something inside all of us who are insecure about going to doctors in the first place that says, “If he’s Michael Jackson’s doctor, he has to be the best!”

Preachers, this one has your name all over it.

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