The Fundamental Blog

I don’t have the luxury of the nation’s best 3-G network, no; I have a phone that encounters dead zones, and usually at the worst possible times. If I’m in a deep conversation with my wife or in the depths of a friend falling apart, that’s the most likely time for the call to drop. I know that this is common to many of us but I started thinking about how much I depend on the communication link with the goings on at home and how uncomfortable I am whenever I find myself in a dead zone. For most of us, we can move and get back into an area where we have reception but for me it’s a bit different. There have been several times when a call gets dropped in the middle of the afternoon and I don’t get a signal until the next afternoon.

It isn’t that matters of state security are going to unravel because I am unreachable, it’s the little things, the things that we take for granted that that make me crazy. It’s missing, “Good night, I love you,” or, “Good morning, how did you sleep?” And as bad as I start to think that this is, God shifts my thoughts and I start to consider the implications of the Christian losing touch with their Creator. How often do we feel that our prayers are merely bouncing off the ceiling? How easy is it for us to say, “Oh, I’ll pray later…”? The people I usually talk with understand that when our call drops, I must have hit that area in south central Oklahoma and that’s just the way it goes when you drive a truck, but What must God think when He no longer hears from us?

Prayer has been given to us as an amazing opportunity, a miraculous means, to communicate with the Lord, and He is always faithful to hear us. He may not answer our prayers in the way we would like, or expect, but there is never a time when God can’t hear us. As I have pointed out before, God can do anything that does not conflict with His divine nature. If we are entrenched in our sin and not repentant, He may hear and say, “Blah, blah, blah… I refuse to hear this.” It isn’t that God hasn’t heard, (perceived our words and thoughts), but rather, that He will not hear, (respond to), as long as we are rebellious in our sin. Psalm 94:9 asks, “Does He who implanted the ear not hear?” And then in Isaiah 65:24 we find the promise, “Before [my servants] call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

I am sure that we have all fallen in our prayer lives from time to time, I know that I have, but God has promised to forgive the repentant and He is faithful to His Word. Satan, on the other hand, loves to try to trip us up in our prayer lives with trickery. We rush about and though we know that we should take the time to raise our voice to God, we hear the nudge… “He won’t care if you don’t pray. He knows that you’re running late and He understands… it’s OK.” So we skip a day, or two, or three… Then, when we are convicted that we have erred by not glorifying God in our everyday walk and resolve to renew our prayer commitment, Satan shows up again to try to frustrate us. “No use praying now. God has already blacklisted you. You are so loathsome that He can’t hear, even if He wanted to!” And some of us listen.

If there is anything that being out here on the road is teaching me, it’s the power of prayer. I have all sorts of things I pray for. Yes, I confess and pledge repentance, I offer worship just because God is God, but in the petition, I ask for many little things as I go through my day. “Please God I know that the earth needs the rain, and I am glad to see you providing the moisture it needs, but could you let it stop before I have to get out and hook to this trailer?” “Lord, you know all things and among them my needs, please allow that another load will be ready for me after I drop this one.” I am seeing daily that He does hear and answer. Not that I always get my way, no; but more often that you might imagine, He blesses me with these simple requests.

When we slip and get lax in our prayer lives, we can not allow the tempter to deceive us into thinking that it’s an unforgivable offense before the Lord. Jesus taught that there is only one sin that will not be forgiven, and this is not it! God is always longing that when we fall, we should get up and start the walk again with the conviction of the Holy Spirit to urge us on toward the things that please Him. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promises to those who repeatedly fell into error, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven…”

It is one thing to lose touch with our friends and family because of a bad phone network, but it’s an entirely different matter to allow our prayer connection to remain broken or severed. We all know the irritation at being cut off in the middle of a thought by a bad phone connection. We desperately desire to communicate a thought, a need or a bit of timely advice and find the words in our mouth with no way to get them out to the person that we had intended to share them with. If we take the feelings of frustration, helplessness and isolation and multiply it by infinity, (for God is an infinite God), then we might be able to just start to consider, the crushing desolation of the person who has seemingly lost their capacity for prayer.

“But if I could really hear His words in my ear, then it would be different.” But you can! If you want to hear the voice of God, read your Bible aloud! The Bible IS God’s Word to us and He speaks volumes to us through it, but there are countless other ways that He uses to speak to us. We might have a prayer answered through the words of a friend, a Christian brother or sister, or through a situation that speaks directly to our need. We need to learn to hear, that’s all! Take another look at Psalm 19, it should be familiar to all who are called by His name… “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world…”

God is able to make us hear just as He did, the Israelites. Moses, in Deuteronomy 4:36, begins, “From Heaven He made you hear His voice…” Jesus tells us, “All who belong to God hears what God says…” John 8:47a. If we have even a passing understanding of the power that resides within the Godhead, we must believe that He can do this. He was, after all, able to speak to Balaam through his donkey! If you aren’t sure, consider what is written in John 5:28. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out.” Since God can make His voice heard, even by the dead, surely it is not too difficult for Him to make our ears hear.

When we came to the cross and received our eternal promise, did we do it so that we could put a membership card in our wallets and forget about it? NO! “Christian,” is not for a club card that is carried out of sight, it is intended to be a sign, the mark of God to be worn upon our foreheads for all the world to see. This requires diligence on our part, it requires that we learn the character of God by immersing ourselves in the Word and also that we believe what God speaks to us, no matter how fantastic it may seem. We must realize that if the call to God got dropped, it wasn’t because God doesn’t have the greatest communication network imaginable, He does! It’s all on us, we have to be sure that we are sending a strong signal, and are ready to receive the message by which He answers.

We can never allow ourselves to think that we are beyond the grace of God’s redemption. If we fall, we must get up, we must help one another to get up, we must repent, renew our commitment and move closer to God one step at a time. As we look at the developments in the world that seem to be screaming, “We are face to face with the End Times,” we need to be all the more determined to be the salt and light that Jesus taught, we are. The Bible teaches what pleases, or displeases, God. Although our salvation is the work of God alone by His sovereign grace, we are called to do the things that accurately represent our saviour, the Lord Christ Jesus. God hears and speaks to us. In Matthew 25:46 Jesus tells us, “It will be good for that servant whose Master finds him [acting faithfully] when He returns.” This is God speaking to us. He has heard our prayers and knows our needs and is asking, “Can you hear Me now?” This is a call that you can not afford to drop. Only by keeping the communication open through our discipline of prayer can we hear the things we need to know to be a disciple of Christ and to show the world that we truly are living…


All for the Glory of Christ

Does it seem as though, in this life, you are overwhelmed by the demanding pace, the ungrateful associations and the rude, self-centered assaults of those we encounter? I believe that it’s the inescapable condition of the fallen world that Satan uses to beat us down to the point where we just don’t think we can take it any more. I know that it happens to me! This is one of the times that I am thankful for the Word of God living in me. There is such a relief in knowing that I can trust in the promises of God to see me through.

The problem is that it sometimes takes a while before I stop to take the deep breath and remember to call upon the Holy Spirit to comfort me. As I have written before, sometimes I just WANT to be angry for a while. I may even recognize that Satan is trying to play me and I almost want to be able to just let loose and really give this old world a piece of my mind … but I can’t. I realize that I am wearing a Christian T-shirt, and I think of what such an outburst would do to my witness for Christ, and it stops me. It allows me to have a moment of lucidity where I remember, “… God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear …” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

It is amazing to me that the process of reducing a person to the boiling point usually takes a while to accomplish, though there are those who have a hair-trigger that causes them to explode with practically no provocation. But what’s really amazing to me is that a full day’s worth of being beaten down can be reversed, completely erased, by something as simple as a kind word, a considerate gesture or the delight of a child displayed in a genuine smile. What it takes Satan all day to accomplish, God erases in an instant. We are told in James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

It has been one of THOSE days for me, out here on the road. The alarm didn’t ring so I was off to a late start, my phone still had no signal, (I hadn’t been able to talk to my wife for what seemed like forever), I was going to hit lunch rush traffic in Oklahoma City and by the time I had my 75 feet of truck playing, “Where’s the Next Thoughtless Driver,” in downtown, God shined through on me. He provided me with the relief of seeing the innocent glee in a child’s smile when I honked my air-horn for a child in the back seat of a passing car, wildly pumping his little arm up and down. It was a Rockwell moment that took me back to being 6 years old.

As the day wore on it started to build again. Road construction slowed traffic repeatedly, it seemed like I was barely out of one construction zone before I was right back into another, and this went on for miles and miles. Then the exit I needed wasn’t marked so I had to go 10 miles out of the way to get turned around and when I finally got to the little town where I was supposed to deliver my load, I missed the turn that I was desperately intent on not missing and ended up turning around in a dinky little parking lot to get straightened out. When, at last, I was at the dock to be unloaded, it was as though the whole receiving crew was on break. It took a lot longer than I thought it should have to get me emptied out. One aggravation after another.

At least my phone was working so after a nice conversation with my wife I decided to have a shower. When I went into the truck-stop I went up to the counter to get the key for the shower but before I walked away, The woman at the register said, “I really love your shirt.” I realized that I was wearing my, “waiting for the RETURN OF THE KING of kings,” T-shirt, and when I got into the shower room the tears welled up just from knowing that God had allowed me to be His tool to touch someone today, and in return, He blessed me for it. Those 5 simple words changed my entire mood, they refreshed me more that the shower did and I began to think that to provide a word of encouragement to someone is really such a simple thing.

The whole world has days like this and all it needs is a little encouragement to change everything. A lot of people think that they could never encourage anyone about anything, but they’re wrong. The effort to act on the command to encourage one another is far easier than you might imagine. It requires very little effort to open a door, compliment a meal, or simply say that you appreciate some minor thing that someone in your life did, (even though you think they already know). It needs to be said because it needs to be heard.

I heard a story about encouragement, I believe it’s true but I can’t remember where I heard it. It’s about a ribbon. One day a 5th grade class was given the assignment to take five ribbons and award then to different people for being great at something, anything. One child arrived home with one ribbon left and gave it to her father for being a great dad. The next day the father took the ribbon to work and, though he worked for a very demanding man, gave it to his boss saying that he admired the way he set his mind on a goal and was diligent until the goal was achieved. This amazed the employer, but he noticed that his demeanor was changed by receiving the ribbon. He began to think of who in his own life might need to be lifted up and when the demanding employer got home that evening he gave the ribbon to his teen-aged son at the dinner table. He told him that he was proud to have him for a son.

The son was speechless and rushed off to his room and closed the door without a word. Passing the doorway, the man thought he heard sobbing and lightly knocked, asking to come in. When he entered, he found his son sitting on the bed, head in hands, crying. When his father sat down, the son handed him a piece of paper with a note written on it, a suicide note! His son said that he always though he had been in the way, that he was a nuisance to his father, and he had been planning on killing himself that very night, after the house had gone to bed.

That simple act, the gift of a 5th grade ribbon, changed everything. Encouragement is not only something we are commanded to do toward each other, it’s the one of the easiest ways of extending a little common courtesy. It costs nothing to hold a door for the one coming through 2 seconds behind you or to take several quick steps so that you can open the door for the elderly woman ahead of you. The smile you give to the clerk at the hardware store could be the thing most needed to a person who is ready to scream because of the rude customers they have had to deal with all day.

There are people who are in service roles, salespeople, waiters, customer-service phone workers and even truck drivers that are required to cater to the customer’s every whim, but we don’t need to heap insult on top of injury by treating them that way. The very best servants are those who are regarded as though they are a part of the household, not those who are continually reminded that they are beneath everyone else. We are all servants. Some serve others, some serve Satan but we are those who serve the risen Lord, Christ Jesus. In Matthew 20:26-28 Jesus explains to us, “… whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

If you smile at someone your face won’t break, I promise! Maybe it costs 15 seconds to let the other person go first at the four-way stop, but the world won’t end. Even if you are convinced that your spouse knows that you appreciate the things they bring to the relationship, it costs nothing to tell them so. Men, you might not like Hamburger Helper very much but you can still let your wife know that you admire the way she works to get the most out of the food budget. Ladies, your husbands need to hear that you recognize the effort it takes to put up with an ungrateful boss to provide for the family.

Christians, we have received the promise of God, eternal life with Christ in Heaven, this should fill us with joy and childlike wonder whenever we stop to think of it, (which should be always). Jesus said the we should let our lights shine before the world, so lets start spreading that joy around a little. To all we encounter during our day, and especially among our Christian families, spread some encouragement. It takes so little to do so much that you will end up surprising yourself, and it might even be the first step in helping to bring someone to the point of knowing a better way, by beginning to live…


All for the Glory of Christ