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TONY EVANS ON GETTING UN-STUCK
Tony Evans, a popular black preacher from down in Texas, spoke of being on an elevator in a high-rise building. He said he’d never been particularly comfortable on such elevators. There was something about riding up and down in a little box several hundred feet off the ground that has never sat well with him. He worried that something would go wrong.
One day it did. The car he was riding in got stuck in between floors way up in the higher floors. He noted that some of the people in the car became frantic. They began to beat on the door hoping to get someone’s attention. Others began to yell in the hopes that their voices would get someone on the surrounding floors to come to the aid. But nobody heard their noise or their cries.
Then Evans quietly made his way to the front of the car, opened a little door in the wall and pulled out a telephone. Immediately he was connected with someone on the outside. He didn’t need to beat on the wall to get their attention. He didn’t need to speak loudly in the phone to receive their help. He could have whispered and they would have heard him.
Evans said that - in this world, we’re going to get "stuck" in places we aren’t comfortable with. Some people begin to beat against the walls, others cry out in dismay. But the person who trusts in the power of confident prayer knows there’s someone on the other end who hears their call and comes to their aid.
Hebrews 10:19ff tells us that we now can have "boldness" (KJV) to enter into very presence of God because of the blood of Jesus. We can think this way only because Jesus has opened the way for us to approach God’s throne and earnestly ask whatever we desire according to His Will.
Mary Pipher, the author of Reviving Ophelia says children need both and control (limits) and affection (grace). ?These two dimensions interact to produce different outcomes for teenagers. Low-control and low-acceptance parents produce teens with a variety of problems including delinquency and chemical dependency. Parents who are high in control and low in acceptance (authoritarian parents) have children who are socially inadequate and lacking in confidence. Parents who are low in control and high in acceptance (indulgent parents) have teenagers with high impulsivity, low responsibility and low independence. Parents who are high in control and high in acceptance (strict but loving parents) have teenagers who are independent, socially responsible and confident. According to this research, the ideal family is one in which the message children receive from parents is: ?We love you, but you must do as we say.? [Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. [New York: Grosset/Putnam. 1994. p 83.]
The Bet -- Anton Chekhov
We live in a world that knows little about what’s truly valuable. People all around us are pursuing things that have no lasting value. That pursuit is ably treated by Anton Chekhov in his classic short story The Bet. This story gives us great insight into the value system of most people.
The plot involves a wager between two educated men regarding solitary confinement. A wealthy, middle-aged banker believed the death penalty was a more humane penalty than solitary confinement because “an executioner kills at once, solitary confinement kills gradually.” One of his guests at a party, a young lawyer of twenty-five, disagreed, saying, “To live under any conditions is better than not to live at all.”
Angered, the banker impulsively responded with a bet of two million rubles that the younger man could not last five years in solitary confinement. The lawyer was so convinced of his endurance that he announced he would stay fifteen years alone instead of only five.
The arrangements were made, and the young man moved into a separate building on the grounds of the banker’s large estate. He was allowed no visitors or newspapers. He could write letters but receive none. There were guards watching to make sure he never violated the agreement, but they were placed so that he could never see another human being from his windows. He received his food in silence through a small opening where he could not see those who served him. Everything else he wanted—books, certain foods, musical instruments, etc.—was granted by special written request.
During the first year the piano could be heard at almost any hour, and he asked for many books, mostly novels and other light reading. The next year the music ceased and the works of various classical authors were requested. In the sixth year of his isolation he began to study languages and soon had mastered six. After the tenth year of his confinement, the prisoner sat motionless at the table and read the New Testament. After more than a year’s saturation of the Bible, he began to study the history of religion and works on theology.
The second half of the story focuses on the night before the noon deadline when the lawyer would win the bet. The banker was now at the end of his career. His risky speculations and impetuosity had gradually undermined his business. The once self-confident millionaire was now a second-rate banker, and it would destroy him to pay off the wager. Angry at his foolishness and jealous of the soon-to-be-wealthy lawyer who was now only forty, the old banker determined to kill his opponent and frame the guard with the murder. Slipping into the man’s room, he found him asleep at the table and noticed a letter the lawyer had written to him. He picked it up and read the following:
Tomorrow at twelve o’clock I shall be free . . . but before leaving this room . . . I find it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience, and before God, who sees me, I declare to you that I despise freedom and life and health and all that your books call the joys of this world. . . . I know I am wiser than you all. . . . And I despise all your books, I despise all earthly blessings and wisdom. All is worthless and false, hollow and deceiving like the mirage. You may be proud, wise and beautiful, but death will wipe you away from the face of the earth, as it does the mice that live beneath your floor; and your heirs, your history, your immortal geniuses will freeze or burn with the destruction of the earth. You have gone mad and are not following the right path. You take falsehood for truth, and deformity for beauty. To prove to you how I despise all that you value I renounce the two million on which I looked, at one time, as the opening of paradise for me, and which I now scorn. To deprive myself of the right to receive them, I will leave my prison five hours before the appointed time, and by so doing break the terms of our compact.
The banker read the lines, replaced the paper on the table, kissed the strange, sleeping man and with tears in his eyes, quietly left the house. Chekhov writes, “Never before, not even after sustaining serious losses on change, had he despised himself as he did at that moment.” His tears kept him awake the rest of the night. And at seven the next morning he was informed by the watchmen that they had seen the man crawl through a window, go to the gate, and then disappear. (From John MacArthur, www.gracechurch.org/sfellowship/pulpitcm/article.asp?id=20&aid=80, Article “Praying For the Right Things; Accessed 04/09/06)
Peace
This question was once asked, "If you could choose what you want most in life, what would you ask for?" The most common answer was "Peace."
People want peace in their marriages, families, workplaces, country and world. Our country has some of the best medical and psychological treatment centers, highest educational institutions and worldwide communication abilities. Yet with all of these things, most people are yet without true inner peach. The results are devastating... broken marriages, split families, hatred, rebellion, financial anxiety, a country unsettled.
The world will offer you peace through many forms of escapism... drugs, alcohol, immoral relationships, and constant entertainment. It is sought through all forms of pleasure, self-satisfaction and positive thinking. Many believe that peace is defined as the absence of trouble. They refuse to face the problems in their lives believing that this is finding peace. The world, however, has never held the answer to true peace.
You can choose to have true peace. True peace comes not from man but from God. This peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit spoken of in Galatians 5:22.
This peace means to be in harmony with God, to be bound, joined and woven together with God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It also means to be assured of, confident of and secure in the love and care of God. There is a consciousness and a sure trust God will provide, guide, strengthen, sustain, encourage, deliver and save completely those who seek Him with all their hearts. This supernatural peace must come first and foremost from receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. Second, it comes from a knowledge of and a love for God's Word.
The Apostle Paul knew this peace. He suffered greatly because of his love for the Lord, love for God's truth and because of his commitment to the commission given to him by Jesus Christ. Yet in all this, his heart was kept in perfect peace.
He had been imprisoned, stoned, left for dead and scourged by the Romans, and yet he said in Romans 8: 28, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who ha...
PEACE
This question was once asked, "If you could choose what you want most in life, what would you ask for?" The most common answer was "Peace."
People want peace in their marriages, families, workplaces, country and world. Our country has some of the best medical and psychological treatment centers, highest educational institutions and worldwide communication abilities. Yet with all of these things, most people are yet without true inner peace. The results are devastating... broken marriages, split families, hatred, rebellion, financial anxiety, a country unsettled.
The world will offer you peace through many forms of escapism... drugs, alcohol, immoral relationships, constant entertainment. It is sought through all forms of pleasure, self-satisfaction and positive thinking. Many believe that peace is defined as the absence of trouble. They refuse to face the problems in their lives believing that this is finding peace. The world, however, has never held the answer to true peace.
You can choose to have true peace. True peace comes not from man but from God. This peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit spoken of in Galatians 5: 22.
This peace means to be in harmony with God, to be bound, joined and woven together with God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It also means to be assured of, confident of and secure in the love and care of God. There is a consciousness and a sure trust that God will provide, guide, strengthen, sustain, encourage, deliver and save completely those who seek Him with all their hearts. This supernatural peace comes first and foremost from receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. Second, it comes from a knowledge of God's Word.
The Apostle Paul knew this peace. He suffered greatly because of his love for the Lord, love for God's truth and because of his commitment to the commission given to him by Jesus Christ. Yet in all this, his heart was kept in perfect peace.
He had been imprisoned, stoned, left for dead and scourged by the Romans, and yet he said in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Note the conditions of knowing God's peace: 1.) You must love God, and 2.) you must be called according to His purpose, which means fitting into His plan and into His perfect will for your life.
Most reject God's peace because they surrender to their own selfishness and their lust for the pleasures of this world. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you." A legacy of inner peace is offered to all who know Jesus Christ, regardless of their circumstances.
In these days of uncertainty and distress, will you receive Jesus Christ into your life? He is the Giver of eternal life and the Prince of Peace!
ON THE SAME PAGE
The man came in and sat down. I'd say he was in his mid-thirties; he looked a bit rough around the edges and hadn't shaved for a few days. We introduced ourselves and the question was asked, "How are you surviving?"
"Well I can't get the benefit right now, so I'm doing a few burglaries. Mind you it doesn't affect anybody, and nobody's getting hurt."
While my fellow worker went to get him a food parcel, I had the opportunity to talk to this bloke. Being all bold and an officer cadet to boot, I asked "What do you reckon the world would be like if everybody followed the two great commandments?"
The reply was a fairly blank look; this bloke had never heard the two great commandments. "What do you mean?" he said.
"In a nutshell, mate," I said, "if everybody was to love God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength and to love their neighbour as their self."
Another blank look and a few moments later was his reply, "No, mate, it wouldn't work!"
All confident-like, I asked, "Eh?"
He summed his reply up this way, "It wouldn't work, because somebody would always be out to rip somebody else off."
I guess that my question hinged around everyone being on the same page with the two great commandments. The truth is that we live in a world where not everyone is.
I'M THE GREATEST!
"I’m the greatest batter in the world!" Such was the cry of a self-confident little boy swinging his bat in the back yard. Once, twice, and three times he could not connect with the ball. Dejectedly, he set his bat down. But then his eyes brightened. Victoriously, he ran around the yard shouting, "I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!"
PURPOSE IN YOUR HEART
Wilma was born prematurely. This produced complications that resulted in her contracting double pneumonia (twice) and scarlet fever. But the worst was a bout with polio which left her with a crooked left leg and a foot twisted inward.
Metal leg braces, stares from neighborhood kids, and six years of bus rides to Nashville for treatments could have driven this young girl into a self-made shell. But she refused. Wilma kept dreaming. And she was determined not to allow her disability to get in the way of her dreams. Maybe her determination was generated by the faith of her mother, who often said, "Honey, the most important thing in life is for you to believe it and keep on trying."
By age eleven, Wilma decided to ’believe it." And through sheer determination and in an indomitable spirit to persevere, regardless, she forced herself to learn how to walk without the braces.
At age twelve she made a wonderful discovery: Girls could jump and run and play ball just like boys! Her older sister Yvonne was quite good at basketball, so Wilma decided to challenge her on the court. She began to improve. The two of them ultimately went out for the same school team. Yvonne made the final twelve, but Wilma didn’t. However, because her father would allow Yvonne to travel with the team without her sister as "chaperone," Wilma found herself often in the presence of the coach.
One day she built up enough nerve to confront the man with her magnificent obsession—-her lifetime dream. She blurted out, "If you will give me ten minutes of your time everyday-—and only ten minutes—-I’ll give you a world-class athlete." He took her up on her offer.
The result is history. Young Wilma finally won a starting position on the basketball squad; and when the season ended, she decided to try out for the track team. What a decision! In her first race, she beat her girlfriend. Then she beat all of the girls in her high school, then, every high school girl in the state of Tennessee. Wilma was only fourteen, but already a champion.
Shortly thereafter, although still in high school, she was invited to join the Tigerbelle’s track team at Tennessee State University. She began a serious training program after school and on weekends. As she improved, she continued winning short dashes and the 440-yard relay.
Two years later she was invited to try out for the Olympics. She qualified and ran in the 1956 games at Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal as her team placed third in the 440-meter relay. It was a bittersweet victory. She had won—-but she decided that next time she would "go for the gold."
Wilma realized that the victory would require an enormous amount of commitment, sacrifice, and discipline. To give her the winner’s edge as a world-class athlete, she began a do-it-yourself program similar to the one she had employed to get herself out of those leg braces. Not only did she run at six and ten every morning and three every afternoon, she would often sneak down the dormitory fire escape from eight to ten o’clock and run the track befor...
HE WILL DEMAND EVERYTHING
Breezy, self-confident Christians tell us how wonderful it is to accept Christ and then have a good time all the rest of your life; the Lord won’t demand anything of you. Yes, He will, my friend! The Lord will demand everything of you. And when you give it all up to Him, He may bless it and hand it back, but on the other hand He may not....
--A.W. Tozer
THE ACCELERATOR OF SIN
The late Ray Stedman recalled a time he was a guest at a conference and was driven around in a Lincoln Continental. He remembered thinking how quietly it rode--he couldn’t hear the engine. Yet, as they drove through mountain passages, he realized that with each push of the accelerator, there was a huge surge of power. He continued:
"That is something like what Paul is describing here. Sin lies silent within us. We do not even know it is there. We think we have hold of life in such a way that we can handle it without difficulty. We are self-confident because we have never really been exposed to the situation that puts pressure upon us--we never have had to make a decision against the pressure of the commandment, 'Thou shalt not...' But when that happens, we suddenly find ourselves filled with attitudes that almost shock us--unloving, bitter, resentful thoughts, murderous attitudes...We find ourselves awakened to these desires. As the great engine surges into life at the touch of the accelerator so this powerful, idling beast within us called sin springs into life as the law comes home to us."
The LAW OF GOD reminds us that there is sin within us which prompts our desires. It waits for the right opportunities to step on the accelerator.
(Ray Stedman, “Expository Studies in Romans 1-8 – From Guilt to Glory – Volume 1”, Word Books,1981, pg. 188)
