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Love of Christ

Romans 8:35-39

In The Grip of Grace (Baker, 1992), Bryan Chapell writes:

On Sunday, August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport. One hundred fifty-five people were killed. One survived: a 4-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.

News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name.

Cecelia survived because, as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.

Nothing could separate that child from her parent’s love—not tragedy or disaster, not the fall or the flames that followed, not height nor depth, not life nor death. Such is the love of our Savior for us. He left heaven, lowered himself to us, and covered us with the sacrifice of His own body to save us.

—Phillip Gunter, Round Rock, Texas (Sacrifice, Security)

I would rather walk inthe dark with God thango alone in the light.

—John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress

GRACE

Very Important People

John 1:12-13

On September 8, 1998, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire made history by hitting his 62nd home run of the baseball season.

It was an emotional moment for four people sitting in the VIP section of the stadium. They were the grown children of Roger Maris, the man who hit 61 home runs in 1961 to establish the record.

The children of Roger Maris were an important part of the celebration that night. Yet none of them had played a Major League baseball game in their lives. Maris’s children did not receive special attention because of what they had done, but rather because of who their father was. He had made it possible for them to be present and honored because of his achievement years before.

One day we will sit down at a feast with Jesus Christ and enjoy the benefits of the eternal kingdom, not because of who we are but because our heavenly Father redeemed us through Christ.

—Timothy D. Keller, Carlisle, Pennsylvania (Fatherhood of God, Works)

Religion in America

Matthew 28:18-20

According to the Princeton Religion Research Center, the percentage of Americans in 1998 who

said religion is “very important” in their lives: 61 (the highest percent recorded in recent decades)
believe in “creationism”: 44 (the same proportion as recorded two decades ago)
described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians: 47 (an all-time high)
were fearful of being unforgiven by God, or cut off from God’s love when they die: one-half.
say they feel the need to experience spiritual growth: 82 (up 24 points, from 58 percent in 1994)
say they have thought a lot about “the basic meaning and values of their lives”: 69 (up 11 points, from 58 percent in 1985)

—Emerging Trends (December 1998) (Evangelism, Outreach)

Prayer

Luke 5:15-16

I used to write in my daily calendar, “7:00-7:30 a.m.: Prayer.” But many times I passed that up. It was one more thing to pass by that day. Now I write “7:00-7:30 a.m.: God.”

Somehow that’s a little harder to neglect.

—John Riches, in Christian Spirituality: Themes from the Tradition by Lawrence S. Cunningham and Keith J. Egan (Paulist Press, 1996) (Testimony, Witness)

CURRENT QUOTES WORTH DISCUSSING

A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT …

“I’m not a practicant, but I pray. I read the Bible. It’s the most beautiful book ever written. I should go to heaven, otherwise it’s not nice. I haven’t done anything wrong. My conscience is very clean. My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight, straight to heaven.”

Actress Sophia Loren, in USA Today (2/4/99)

SO WHO’S GOT JURISDICTION HERE?

“If you’re only going to have 10 rules, I don’t know if adultery should be one of them.”

Media mogul Ted Turner, in Newsweek (3/1/99)

ANYONE LOVE A CHEERLESS GIVER?

“You can either be good or you can be comfortable. Now, most people choose to ‘solve’ the problem by giving 10 percent of their income or some other number they feel comfortable with. But if there are people literally dying because they don’t give 15 percent, are they good? They’re not even a little better … And I’m not immune to this problem. I don’t give 100 percent. So I’m evil. The only thing that’s different is that I walk through every day of my life thinking, ‘I’m a little bit evil.'”

Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” in the New York Times (1/24/99)

CHEERFUL AND COUNTING

“[My wife and I] measure the success of the year on how much we give away. The bulk of it goes to church and related activities.”

Novelist John Grisham, in USA Today (2/11/99)

DOING JESUS NO FAVOR

“To preach Christ without the cross is to betray him with a kiss.”

Pastor Charles Stanley, in Strategies for Today’s Leader (Summer 1998)

The Power of Blood

Hebrews 9:14

I used to think it strange that the Bible keeps talking about the cleansing power of the blood (1 Pet. 1:2). It seemed to me that blood was messy stuff. I needed to wash my white lab coats if they became stained with blood.

Today, I love the analogy; it is so true of the body. The blood is constantly cleansing every cell, and washing away all the debris that accumulates all the time. I like Paul’s phrase in Hebrews 9:14 (kjv), “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works?”

—Dr. Paul Brand in God’s Forever Feast (Discovery House, 1998) (Atonement, Cleansing)

Slow to Take Offense

2 Timothy 2:24

Clara Null writes in Christian Reader (“Lite Fare“; Mar/Apr 1999):

When I lived in a small town in Mississippi, I heard that the local Baptist minister got a phone call from a teenager whose mother was very ill.

“Brother John,” he said, “Mother wants you to come pray with her.”

The Baptist minister was flattered since he knew the family attended the Church of Christ. But he had to ask, “Is Brother Syms (the Church of Christ minister) out of town?”

“No, sir,” the boy said. “We don’t want Brother Syms exposed to what Mother has.”

(Forbearance, Resentment)

SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES

Single Fathers on the Rise

Ephesians 6:1-4

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1998 single-father families were 18 percent of single-parent families (of which there are 11.9 million in America, defined as a householder and one or more other people living together and related by birth, marriage, or adoption).

Single-parent families

in 1989 headed by:

Mother 8.3 million
Father 1.2 million

In 1998:

Mother 9.8 million
Father 2.1 million

—Cindy Hall and Marcy E. Mullins, USA Today (12/21/98) (Family, Fathers)

Fellowship

Luke 10:1

I can talk myself out of anything, but if I know I’m meeting somebody for a run, even once a week, it gets me out the door,” says Mark Allen, six-time champion of the Ironman Triathalon.

quoted in Outside (Feb. 1998) (Accountability, Community)

In Remembrance

Romans 12:11

Melissa Falk, a pastor in New York City who ministers among the Asian gang culture, writes:

A young man who had been involved in a gang came to Christ, but his ties with his gang, the Ghost Shadows, remained intact. He came into my office one day with a stack of what he called “hell money.” He informed me that hell money, which looked like Monopoly dollars, was burned at the grave of another gang member who had died while helping you. As the money turns to ash, they believe it is supernaturally deposited into their friend’s possession in hell.

The deceased, he informed me, had saved his life by maneuvering him out of a gang fight. “Pastor,” he said, “you always gotta remember the one who brought you out. You can’t forget the guy who brought you out.”

It is amazing to see how the gang culture respects its own to such an extent of devotion. They remember everyone who has ever helped them.

In the church, we should do the same. We should remember not only the person who shared with us that she woke in the middle of the night with a burden to pray for us, but also the board member who spoke words to correct and develop us.

Most of all, we should remember Him who brought us out, our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Community, Gratitude)

Future

Isaiah 42:9

Percentage of Americans who say the following can predict the future:

Biblical prophecies	49
The Farmer’s Almanac	22
Astrologers	21
Psychics	16
Pollsters	10
The Ouija Board	3
The Magic Eight Ball	2

USA Today (1/5/99)source: Peter D. Hart Research Association for the Shell Poll (Occult, Prophecy)

Regrets

2 Corinthians 7:10

Percentage by age group of people who, if they could start over in life, would do things “much differently”:

ages
16-31	59%
32-50	71%
51+	59%

USA Today (1/4/99) source: Yankelovich Monitor (Choices, Consequences)

Experience is thehardest kind of teacher.It gives you the test firstand the lessonafterward.

—Unknown (Experience, Consequences)

ENDURING HARDSHIP

Escalators Anyone?

Acts 14:22

The following was taken from registration sheets and comment cards returned to the staff of the Bridger Wilderness Area in Wyoming in 1996:

Trails need to be wider so people can walk holding hands.
Trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.
Too many bugs and leeches and spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness to rid the area of these pests.
Please pave the trails so they can be plowed of snow during the winter.
Chairlifts need to be in some places so that we can get to wonderful views without having to hike to them.
The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.
A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed?
Reflectors need to be placed on trees every 50 feet so people can hike at night with flashlights.
Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.
A McDonald’s would be nice at the trailhead.
The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.
Too many rocks in the mountains.

—Mark Neifert, Argonia, Kansas; from Light and Life (Feb 1997) (Convenience, Comfort)

Burdens

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Going down some old cement steps, I noticed an ant carrying a leaf on its back. The leaf was many times bigger than the ant. Then the ant came to a big crack in the cement that it couldn’t cross.

The ant stopped a moment. I wondered if the ant would turn back or proceed into the crack without the leaf. Instead, the ant put the leaf across the crack and then crossed the crack by walking across the leaf. On the other side, the ant picked up the leaf and continued on its journey.

It made me think that the burdens of today will be the bridges by which we will be able to cross the hard places in life in the future.

—Bernabe Spivey, (Hope, Redemption)

Conscience

1 Timothy 4:2

During my college years, I decided it made no sense to stop at red traffic lights when there was clearly no traffic around. So, I began to stop only briefly—just long enough to check for cars—and then proceed. My stops became shorter and shorter, and eventually I was no longer stopping at all. I would simply check out the landscape well in advance and—if no cars were coming—proceed full speed through the red light.

One day something changed all of that.

I was approaching a light in an isolated area where there was rarely traffic even in the busiest of times. I had already checked out the landscape and was near the empty intersection when a car topped the hill to my left. It was too far away to pose any threat, yet it did pose a problem in that it was a police car. I hit the brakes hard and managed to get the car stopped and received no more punishment than a dirty glance.

I’ve never run a red light since.

It wasn’t the police car that scared me enough to stop running red lights. It was what occurred in the seconds between spotting the patrol car and getting the car stopped. In that instant, my foot moved from the gas pedal to the brake pedal, and then back to the gas pedal! I did not will my foot to do that; it just did it. And it did it because I looked up at the light and saw red, but saw no immediate oncoming traffic. To my subconscious mind, those circumstances meant proceed—because that is how I had trained my mind to respond. By my ignoring of what had once been a clear signal—a red light—that signal was no longer clear.

The same occurs with sin. Our God-given conscience warns us when sin is approaching. We can heed those signals or ignore them. But if we ignore them often enough, we eventually fail to recognize them as signals at all.

—J. Douglas Burford, Mission, Kansas (Habits, Sin)

Small and Mighty

Deuteronomy 7:7-9

In The Big Small Church Book, David Ray writes: “Throughout Scripture God affirms the few, the small, and the insignificant who live by faithfulness rather than forcefulness. With few exceptions biblical faithfulness does not come from, or result in, large numbers.

“God is willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if only 10 righteous people can be found. Christ is present where two or three gather in his name. The widow’s mite is the largest gift. The boy with a few loaves and fish provides food for thousands. Jesus fed 5,000 but only shared the Lord’s Supper with the Twelve and was revealed to the two in Emmaus as they broke bread. The mustard seed, the pearl of great price, the leaven in the loaf, the lost sheep and coin, the sparrows, and the numbered hairs on a person’s head are all powerful signs that small can be theologically mighty.”

—Stan Friedman (Faithfulness, God’s Power)

What’s Wrong with You?

Romans 7:7-25

The Lord sometimes leaves in us some defects of character in order that we should learn humility. For without them we would immediately soar above the clouds in our own estimation and would place our throne there. And herein lies perdition.

—Theophan the Recluse, from The Desert: An Anthology for Lent (Failings, Weakness)

MONEY

What Spending Reveals

Matthew 6:19-24

A U.S. News and World Report (12/8/97) article titled, “The Junk Mail Deluge” says: “The people who fill your mailbox with 34 pounds of junk [mail] each year know what you paid for your moose-hide slippers and whether you paid by credit card or check. They know how much you owe on your house, whether your hobbies are fly-fishing or fiddling, whether you buy used golf balls … they may even know whether you’re straight or gay, and what chronic illness you have. They know all this, simply, because it is their business to know. … Direct mail is a booming industry because it targets us with scientific precision.”

The junk mail moguls have discovered something that Jesus taught long ago when he said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6). The way we use money (as evidenced by the thousands of transactions we make each year by check, cash, or credit cards) gives the best evidence for the things we value and cherish most.

—Jonathan R. Mutchler (Money, Priorities)

Longings

Matthew 16:26-27

Swing magazine calls itself “the magazine of the twentysomething generation.” In July 1997, it polled 507 adults between 18 and 34 years of age. It was balanced for age, race, and educational status. The results:

73 percent said if they didn’t need the money they would still work.
83 percent said they would rather be self-employed than work for someone else.
53 percent said they would rather live in the country versus 25 percent in the suburbs and 21 percent in the city.
51 percent thought the ideal age to marry was 25-29, while only 16 percent thought the age should be higher.
On an interesting question: Whether or not you believe in an afterlife, which would you choose? 69 percent chose “to go to heaven,” while 23 percent chose “to be reincarnated.”

cited in Church Champions Newsletter (Heaven, Work)

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