A Really Expensive Hobby

I spend a lot of time, working to live the Christian life. I try to pray for an hour each day. I also try to study the scriptures once each day. My wife and I periodically fast (not often enough, admittedly), and then we have our actual church services, which consist of:

• Monday evening prayer (1 hour, plus travel time)
• Tuesday evening Bible study (1.5+ hours, plus travel time)
• Friday evening Joy Night and Pastoral Teaching (2+ hours, plus travel time)
• Saturday evening prayer (1 hour, plus travel time)
• Sunday services (7+ hours, plus travel time)

If I then factor in all the periodic activities such as district and jurisdictional events, C.H. Mason Bible Institute classes, etc., I think I could safely assert that a significant portion of my life is "Christ focused". I wish to note that I didn't say "church focused", because none of the above time commitments above include "para-church" activities such as car washes, choir practice, bake sales, broadcast ministry work, nursing home visitations, ministerial staff meetings, etc. Just my personal and corporate Bible study, worship, and prayer. So why do I do it? Why do I devote dozens of my busy hours each week to God? What do I have to gain? What's the "return on investment" of this significant time commitment? Does it increase my personal wealth, my fame, or my renown among the people of my community? More importantly, does it make a difference to God? Does God carry some sort of "tally sheet" where he measures the amount of time we spend in devotion to him (perhaps comparing it to the amount of time we spend in front of the television?), and arrive at some sort of "measure of righteousness"?

No, a thousand times. No.

1 Cor 15:19 (NLT) - And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

I give my time, talent, and tithes to God because he loved me enough to give his only Son, so I could have an eternal relationship with him. He gave me his best, and the scriptures tell us he wants our best in return. How do I figure out what my best toward God is? By staying in the scriptures, by praying, by fasting, and by corporate worship.

If I'm doing this for any other reason, then "living the Christian life" is nothing but a really expensive hobby. I want to live my life in such a way that it brings pleasure to God. As Pastor Hunt so often says, "I don't want to just 'make it in'. I want my life to please him."

© 2008 Scotty Ward

Describe God in 25 Words or Less. Be Thorough.

I hope you've been able to read my last blog (fool's cap), because I believe it sheds light on how God has been preparing me to accept His wonderful word of love and redemption, no matter how simple a package in which it arrives.

It's tough to describe, because human words and human intellect fall short of God.

You see, I'm an intelligent sort of guy, and I've always been that way. My SAT scores were sky high when I took them in high school. I scored in the top 1% on my math SAT. I'm so "smart", I qualify for membership in MENSA. I've been the leader (or a leader) in nearly every organization I've joined, since I was a lad.

But God was impossible for me to comprehend, no matter how hard I tried. Someone who loved me and who had a place prepared for me for eternity, if I would merely believe, trust, and love him today? My intellect blew a fuse every time I tried to wrap my brain around that. It just didn't add up, didn't make sense.

So I decided as an adult that I'd just "believe". Here's how you could look at me and tell I "believed". I'd attend church pretty frequently, identify myself as a Christian, wear a cross, put a fish on my bumper, smile a lot, and put (some) money in the plate on Sunday (not MUCH money of course, but enough so God wouldn't get mad and zap me for being too "cheap"). I even learned how to read and become somewhat familiar with the scriptures. Of course, the scriptures never "connected" with my intellect. There was always something missing. I'd look around and see the other Christians smiling, and thought that if I smiled enough, I'd be Christian too.

But something was missing. So I began to browse the shelves in Christian bookstores, looking for some book or study tool that would help me reach a higher state of consciousness, so I would at some point be able to imagine the length, the depth, the height of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19 (KJV) - That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

But the bookstores were full of books from people that wanted to sell their books, not necessarily to save souls. I got lost in the intellectual drone of other "intellectuals", and my mind told my heart I was on the right path, because I was reading Christian books, and so I was learning more each day.

2 Timothy 3:7 (KJV) - Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Finally, I just gave up. I wasn't able to comprehend or to intellectualize God, so I opened my "intellectual armor" just a crack, during a retreat weekend in May of 1993. And that was all God needed.

I just stopped trying to figure God out, and began to consider the possibility that God was bigger than my cranium. I allowed myself to slow my brain a little, and consider that there were things I couldn't comprehend, but just because they didn't make sense to me, that didn't make them any less valid. I had entertained the idea that God might just be able to outsmart even smart-old me.

And that's where faith began to move.

John 3:3-6 (New Living Translation) - Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. ”What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

Intelligent people like me have such a difficult time realizing that our minds aren't complete, that there is something that is terribly important (indeed critical) to our everlasting souls, but can't be computed or analyzed. So that's why, when we as Christians witness to people in the world, we need to pray for those we're witnessing to. We need to pray that God will break up the stony ground of their intellect, and prepare their hearts for the seed which is God's Word.

And as soon as they let down their guard one teensy little bit, God will take it the rest of the way.

© 2008 Scotty Ward

Grab Your Fool's Cap

God's simplicity is smarter than the smartest of humans.

1 Corinthians 1:17-29 (New Living Translation)
For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

The Wisdom of God

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent."

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

..................

So, the world may think we're fools, but that's OK. It's not our job to be accepted, but it IS our job to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ in our lives.

So grab your fool's cap, and let's go EVANGELIZE!

Have a great week, everybody!

© 2008 Scotty Ward

Our Praise and God's Presence: They Go Together

Happy Friday, everybody!

I was looking through the story of Balaam this morning, and as I read it from the Message, I noticed something really cool. Look specifically at the last two lines (v 21).

Numbers 23:17-21 (The Message) - Balaam returned and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and the nobles of Moab with him. Balak said to him, "What did God say?" Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

On your feet, Balak. Listen,
listen carefully son of Zippor:

God is not man, one given to lies,
and not a son of man changing his mind.

Does he speak and not do what he says?
Does he promise and not come through?

I was brought here to bless;
and now he's blessed—how can I change that?

He has no bone to pick with Jacob,
he sees nothing wrong with Israel.

God is with them,
and they're with him, shouting praises to their King.

The Israelites are shouting their praise, and God is with them. Is it any coincidence that praise and God's presence are intertwined?

It's more difficult to see this same message in the KJV, where it says "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them." But the Message paraphrase really brings out the definite relationship between the praise of God's people and His actual presence!

Here's a little more, from Psalm 22:3 (I'm enclosing both the verse and the footnotes):

Psalm 22:3 (New International Version) - Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

NIV Footnotes:Psalm 22:3 Or Yet you are holy, / enthroned on the praises of Israel

So when believers give God praise, the scriptures indicate we actually PREPARE A THRONE FOR HIS PRESENCE.

Here's something to consider: are you feeling far from God's presence right now? If so, then ask yourself the last time you gave Him some top-of-your-lungs PRAISE? Isn't He worth it? Hasn't he done enough for you already, to deserve a "thank you"? Check out Psalm 47:1, below:

O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

So invite God's presence back into YOUR life. Give God some "no kidding" PRAISE today. Don't wait until Sunday. Shut yourself up somewhere or go out into a field, lift your face up, and tell God how much He means to YOU. Of course, you can - and probably should - do the same when you get to church too! You could really help that person sitting next to you.

God Bless! See you in church Sunday!

© 2008 Scotty Ward

Exceedingly Rejoice!

This morning's Points of Power on the Yolanda Adams Morning Show was EXACTLY what I needed today!

I was feeling somewhat (Ok, VERY) glum this morning. Numerous issues seem to be accumulating around me and the family, and all of them tend to drag my spirit down. My wife's exhortation and the words from the radio have helped me tremendously this morning, so I wanted to share a little of it.

I thank God for my wife. She dipped into the Word of God and pulled out a string of "gold nugget" scriptures, each more helpful than the last. I'm so very thankful to be her husband.

Here are some quick notes from the radio show I was able to type as I listened
(I tried to convert everything to first-person, to "make it personal"):

Scripture was Psalm 68:1-3 (KJV) -
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.

Joy comes from personal awareness of an expected end. That's why, when everything seems so dark and hopeless around me, I can still have joy.

That's why I can rejoice in the midst, why I can sing in the storm.

I must never forget, each and every day, the outcome is, WE WIN.

And in the day-to-day struggle, God is never away from us. He sees our situations, hears our cries, and most of all, He takes pleasure with us in our victories.

But we need to stay in his presence. In his presence is protection, power, and providence. In God's presence is everything we could ever need.

Nothing catches God by surprise. He's totally aware of our situations, and our pain. He just wants to see how we'll act under our present circumstances. Will we seek Him?

At the end of the segment, Yolanda said she remembers how she felt when a group of people
threw her a surprise party. Her attitude and demeanor instantly changed from whatever it was, to joy and delight. Then she told the listeners that we may only see our present situations, but God's just setting us up for a surprise party!

Thank you Lord!

© 2008 Scotty Ward

Salvation by Association?

God Bless you all!

I'm a member of our Evangelistic Outreach team, sent by Pastor Hunt into the neighborhoods of Charles County to knock on doors and seek the lost souls. We don't go knocking on doors to find someone to "win over", but instead to offer people a helping hand, if they desire to be saved. In some cases, we pray with them at their door, but more often than not, the people we visit tell us they're not interested.

One Saturday morning, we visited a particular neighborhood, and as a door opened to me, (after introducing myself) I asked our usual question: "Do you believe in our Lord, Jesus Christ?" One woman's response was curious. As we broke the ice with the above question, her only and immediate response was "I'm Catholic". If I'm able to guess what she was trying to indicate with her answer, she seemed to be telling us "Yes, of course I believe. I'm a Catholic, and Catholics believe, so I believe".

Well, praise God. I picked up on her cue, that she was at least affiliated with a section of Christianity, I said "Praise God. Where do you attend?" "Oh, I haven't attended in years."

She didn't seem interested in a message of salvation through anything but HER church (in this case, the Roman Catholic Church) which is entirely her right, but more curiously, she also didn't seem interested in attending worship, or affiliating in any way, even with her own local denomination.

Hebrews 10:23-25 (NIV) - Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

It seemed she felt everything was okay in her life because she was Catholic. She didn't speak of a private worship or prayer life, or of her own study of the scriptures. I got the impression she believed that by being a member of this denomination, that fact alone automatically placed her in right standing with God.

Philippians 2:12-13 (NLT) - Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

This scripture tells me that IF I'm operating in God's will, I'm seeking to do His will all the time, and I'm doing it "with deep reverence and fear". Nowhere in the scriptures (with the exception of the Israelites; the Jews) does God indicate that by being a member of this or that particular religious sect are you any nearer to a right relationship with Him.

Bottom line: It's not about membership. It's about working out my own soul's salvation.

I pray this blog serves as a reminder to all the readers that your (and my) salvation is a personal matter between you/me and God, and you'll find all about it by staying in God's Word daily and by attending worship where Christ is glorified (Scotty's Opinion follows: how can you tell if one or another denomination or service is "good"? Try counting the number of scriptures they use. If you can find only a few scriptures mixed in with all the robes, processions, incense, and high-falutin' language, you might want to pray about where you're at, and why).

Don't make the fatal mistake of depending on this or that particular DENOMINATION (see Hebrews, above). And by all means don't rely on whether what you're doing FEELS right (see Proverbs 16:2). Work your own soul's salvation. It takes work, but Jesus said he'll never leave us or forsake us. The Comforter (Holy Spirit) is with us to guide us to all truth. Denominations don't make the difference. Jesus does.

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend, and perhaps I'll see you at worship!


© 2008 Scotty Ward