Pride and Humility

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”   —Romans 12:3b

As I write these words, I am attending the annual gathering of our denomination. During the second week of June, every United Methodist clergy from western Pennsylvania and an equal number of laypersons (nearly 2,000 delegates in all) meet at Grove City College for worship, legislation, and fellowship. The conference ends with the Bishop ordaining new ministers and “fixing” the appointments (that is where the Bishop officially tells us where to go).

Each year at Annual Conference, I experience what I call the yo-yo syndrome. As I begin to greet my colleagues leading different-sized ministries from all over western Pennsylvania, I feel intimated in one moment and puffed up the next. As I observe eloquent and charismatic pastors from large innovative churches, I feel very small and insignificant. Down I go. Then I hear about pastors serving declining churches in depressed areas of the state, and I lift my head a little higher and think, “We’re not doing so badly.” Back up again. I know pastors are not in competition with other churches and ministries, but it’s human nature to look around and compare ourselves to others. We all do it with our children, school, and work.

The Scriptures urge us to think of ourselves with “sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given.” To think of ourselves soberly means in a serious and restrained manner. When seeing someone we look up to, we must not minimize our gifts and maximize their strengths. Likewise, we dare not compare ourselves to someone who is struggling. We may be tempted to overlook our own faults and fail to recognize the other person’s strengths.

I seek to think of myself soberly by comparing myself to no one but Jesus Christ and judging my successes and failures according to the gifts God has bestowed upon me. By remembering not to make human comparisons and by understanding my God-given Spiritual gifts, I have been able to break free from the yo-yo syndrome.

This eliminates two problems we often face in the Christian life in particular and everyday life in general. The first is the “I can’t do anything problem.” Because someone around us is experiencing some measure of success, we think we have nothing. We are all uniquely gifted with a certain measure of faith by God. Unique means God has special plans and opportunities that only we can experience.

The second problem is the “I can do everything problem” with its two corollary problems: “You can’t do anything” and “I must do everything.” If we look at our own life soberly according to the grace of God we have received, we will find our place in life and will more readily accept ourselves and others.

Christian, you are a child of God. You are uniquely gifted by God for a life and ministry just suited for you and needed by others. Keep your eyes on Jesus. You will avoid the dreaded yo-yo syndrome and will find a healthy balance between pride and humility.

Holy and Pleasing Worship

 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”           —Romans 12:1

I have always been inspired by heroic stories whether they are in the Bible, movies, or real life. The British movie, Chariots of Fire, portrays Eric Liddell, a college athlete and Christian. Liddell was a son of Chinese missionaries and a very fast runner. He told his sister and ministry co-worker, “Jenny, I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.”

Liddell competed in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He was slated to run the 100 meter dash and join his fellow Englishmen in the 4 X 100 and 4 X 400 relays. Because some preliminary heats were on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, Liddell refused to run. He withdrew from the 100 meter dash, his best event, and from the relays. He did, however, win a bronze medal in the 200 meter race and gold in the 400 meter race. Before running the 400 meter, not his best event, a paper was given to him that quoted 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor me I will honor.”

One of my favorite scriptures and powerful description of worship is Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” A living sacrifice to me is someone who surrenders their life, talent, time, and will to the Lord to be used as God chooses. Further on, Romans 12 urges Christians to consider who they are in Christ and how the Holy Spirit has gifted them for service. Eric Liddell knew God created him for a purpose but also knew God created him to run. By running Liddell glorified God.

The movie does not tell the entire story. After winning medals in the 1924 Olympics, Liddell gave his life in missionary service in China from 1925-1943. He died in February of 1945 at the age of 43 in an internment camp five months before liberation. While in the camp, Liddell taught the children and organized the distribution of food and medicine that were in short supply.

In his last letter to his wife, written on the day he died, Liddell wrote that he was suffering a nervous breakdown due to overwork. He actually died from an inoperable brain tumor. Overwork and malnourishment probably hastened his death. In 2008 near the time of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities revealed that Liddell had refused an opportunity to leave the camp insisting a pregnant woman take his place. The news of his act of sacrifice came as a complete surprise to his family members.

We have been uniquely created and gifted by God. Holy, God-pleasing worship involves surrendering our talents and gifts to God to be used in blessing others. Each of us has been made for a purpose. We have special God-given gifts that make us best in some particular area. Surrender is not merely giving God our best efforts, but allowing God to use what the Spirit has given us for His glory. If Eric Liddell would have competed and won all his best events, people may have simply thought, Eric is very fast. But because he competed and won in races he was not expected to win, people gave glory to God.

True worshippers acknowledge our Lord’s gifts in their lives and give themselves totally to God’s purposes. Will you allow God to be glorified in your earthly body? Will you become the hands and feet of Jesus to a lost and hurting world? This is acceptable and pleasing to God.

Never Give Up

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”—Galatians 6:9

Please don’t send me any more emails about how Madalyn Murray O’Hair is petitioning the FCC to get Christians off the radio. Since 1974 this rumor continues to circulate that there is a Bill before Congress (a non-existent House Bill #2493) to remove all Christian programming from our airwaves. It comes around every six months or so and makes Christians look silly and stupid because they sign a petition that is a hoax. Madalyn Murray O’Hair was murdered several years ago and, trust me, is no longer petitioning Congress.

A more challenging question might be whether Bible reading and prayer were taken from us or did we give them up? I am beginning to believe that the government and O’Hair did not take Bible reading and prayer from our culture, but we, who call ourselves Christians, gave it up. My concern is not whether Bible reading is done in public schools, but do Christians and Christian families read the Bible and pray at home.

On Thursday, May 5 I participated in the Celebrate One unity service and National Day of Prayer observance in downtown Johnstown. As far as I know, this was the only National Day of Prayer observance in Cambria County. The attendance was up from last year, probably the highest attendance since the first Celebrate One service held seven years ago. But the Pasquerilla Convention Center was still far from full. I am certain most Christians in the Johnstown area were not at home reading their Bibles and praying together with their families.

The Celebrate One service opened with a clip from the movie, “Sheffey.” In the clip, Robert Sheffey, a Methodist preacher, farmer, and evangelist from the late 1800s, says, “And someday when the world tells us we can no longer have our religion, except where they say, and God is driven from our schools and our government and our homes, then God’s people can look back and know that our religion was not taken from us.  It was given up, handed over, bit by bit until there was nothing left.”

Robert Sheffey over a hundred years ago foresaw exactly what is taking place in our country today. Christians are giving back our freedoms and the Christian privileges to worship, pray, and read God’s Word by neglect. If you don’t exercise a muscle, it will atrophy, wither and die. If we don’t exercise our rights as Americans and our privileges and duties as Christians, our Christian culture and nation will wither and die.

Many persons attribute the saying, “Never, never give up” to Sir Winston Churchill. Actually, Churchill said, “Never give in.” The Bible urges us to “not become weary in doing good.” Galatians 6:9 further states that we will reap a harvest if, “we do not give up.” The King James Version beautifully puts it, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Let us not grow weary in well doing. Let us put Jesus Christ back into the center our lives. Let’s begin in our homes, our churches, and our nation. We shall reap, if we don’t give up. Next year, May 3, if Jesus does not return before then, I will join fellow Christians in Johnstown to praise Our Lord and pray for our nation and city. I hope you will join me. Until then, Christians, let’s not give up. The time of harvest is still around us.

Choosing My Happiness

“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ...For every man shall bear his own burden.”—Galatians 6:2, 5 (KJV)

We have just completed another season of Easter. I pray the high moments of this year’s celebration have lifted you to a higher plane of living in your spiritual journey. One image from this year’s festivities continues to linger in my mind. Each year, I participated in an annual Cross Walk on Good Friday. This year, eight churches joined in carrying a wooden cross from Beulah United Methodist Church in Dale borough up Bedford Street to Mt. Calvary Lutheran on Scalp Avenue making five stops along the way.

At one moment walking just above Oakland UM Church on Bedford Street, I found myself walking completely alone in a crowd of seventy or so pilgrims. I had been chatting with a couple fellow clergy members when they began to engage in a private conversation. I slowed my pace to allow them to walk together, and I walked alone in the crowd. As I reflected momentarily on being alone in the crowd, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus being so alone in the world even as He was often thronged by crowds of followers. On the Cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

The Holy Spirit almost immediately reminded me of two verses of scripture from Galatians 6. Verse 2 tells us to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” In life, we are called to alleviate suffering and to minister to our neighbor. Anyone in need around us and around the world is our neighbor. A second verse, Galatians 6:5 teaches us that every person must bear his/her own burden.

As we carried the cross up Bedford Street and Scalp Avenue, I understood clearly that I was not carrying, nor could I carry the cross Jesus was called to carry. In a similar way, although I can help my neighbors in a wide variety of ways, I cannot make them become believers in Jesus Christ. I cannot make them happy people. I cannot carry the burdens they have been called to bear. We so often strive to make the lives of those closest to us perfect. We desire to make them perfectly happy, but we cannot. We all must experience and work out certain things for ourselves.

I am quite sure it is not a quote from scripture, but I believe the title of the book by Frank Minirth and Paul Meier, Happiness is a Choice, is a truth we must learn to accept. I cannot fix another person’s life, but I can do those things God calls me to do to alleviate suffering and show love to those around me. After I have done my duty, given my care, and lifted others before the Lord in prayer, I can do no more. I have borne their burden and fulfilled Christ’s command.

Jesus invites anyone who would be His follower to “deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). We all have our cross, our stuff, to bear. Our unique situation, strengths, and weaknesses become our personal cross we must learn to bear. I believe we can learn to bear it with joy and happiness. Paul said he “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Phil. 4:12). He gives us his secret in the next verse, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (4:13). With each cross, God gives grace and strength to bear it with joy and happiness. Let us do all we can for one another, but let each of us choose faith, hope, and happiness.

The High Cost of Sin

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”—Isaiah 53:5

One of our favorite pastimes these days is complaining about the high cost of gasoline. Oh, remember the good old days when you could buy several gallons for a buck. “Buying several gallons for a buck” is a new phrase I heard yesterday. The cost of gas may be going up, or down this week, but the cost of sin has always been high and doesn’t look to come down anytime soon.

God told Adam as He placed him in the Garden of Eden to eat freely of any fruit but avoid one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God further said, “When you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Most of us know the story. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, ate the fruit, and life on earth changed drastically. Although Adam and Eve did not instantly die physically, their innocence died, and death entered the world. Had it not been for God’s grace, their and our relationship with God would be dead forever as well.

Adam and Eve did what all human beings try to do; they attempted to cover their nakedness and sin on their own. They made coverings from fig leaves and hid themselves from God (Gen. 3:7-8). We see grace and forgiveness at work as God sought out Adam and Eve and made garments of skin for them (vs. 22). Some see this as the first animal sacrifice.

Sin costs. Sin causes death. I am currently reading through the book of Leviticus. Leviticus describes in detail the sacrificial system for the Jewish people. Chapter 4 graphically describes how to make a Sin Offering. The person was to select a young, perfect animal without defect, bring it to the priest, lay their hand on its head, and slaughter it before the Lord (Lev. 4:4). I have lived on a farm. I have had a butcher come to the farm, slaughter cows, and haul them away. But I have never with my bare hands laid my hand on the cow when its life was taken from it.

The graphic nature of the sacrifice was to remind the sinner that sin has consequences. Sin costs a life. The book Hebrews tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). Adam’s sin affected everything and everyone one around him. Eve and every mother to ever live would experience pain in childbirth. The earth would be overrun with thorns and weeds. Adam and every person to come would have to work to bring food from the earth.

Most of us never know the entire cost of sin. Sin affects our relationship with God. It hinders the effectiveness of our prayers. Sin affects our family and friends. Sin even affects the unbeliever who watches the actions and motivations of those who call themselves Christians. More importantly, sin caused the suffering and death of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Remember the movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” produced by Mel Gibson a few years ago. It so graphically portrayed the suffering of Jesus that it was rated “R,” and many church goers refused to watch it.

Jesus’ death is the highest cost of sin. He is God’s final and perfect sacrifice for sin. God loves you. God paid the ultimate price for your sin so you could be forgiven and live in a personal relationship with Him in this life and eternally with Him in the next. I invite you; Jesus invites you, to call upon Him. Ask for His forgiveness. Thank Jesus for paying the price for your sin. Confess Him as Lord and begin to walk in a love relationship with Him, today.

Will Over Emotions

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  —Proverbs 14:12

I was involved in a fender bender a number of years ago. I was barely moving on an icy road as I approached a sharp right turn onto a main road. I prepared to stop on an upgrade and make the turn onto the highway when a young man turned off the main road cutting the turn short. Startled upon seeing me, he stopped on the road in front of me. Equally startled, I tapped the brake, my tires locked up, and I slowly slid straight into his car. I wasn’t even going that direction.

If the young man would have continued across my lane, we would not have crashed. If I would have simply continued on my way to the stop sign and turned right onto the main road, no paint mixing. Neither car was badly damaged. We played the insurance blame game and had both cars repaired. My biggest challenge was not the damaged car, nor the young man’s upset father interrogating me at my house, but my telephone interview with the insurance company.

Someone warned me that the first question of the insurance interview would be, “Were you wearing your seatbelt?” I was not. Although the Pennsylvania seatbelt law was enacted 1987, wearing a seatbelt just didn’t seem comfortable to me. It was easy to simply forget to put it on. I guess I didn’t feel like wearing it. I really wanted to tell the insurance company that I was wearing my seatbelt, but I was not. My dilemma was how could I not say that I was not wearing my seatbelt without lying. I felt such pressure to say I was doing the right thing when I was not. I was tempted to lie.

We often get into these kinds of predicaments when we allow our emotions and feelings to rule over our wills and minds. We do what we feel like doing rather than what we know is right. We make comments like, “It just felt right!” Unconsciously, we live by the motto, “If it feels good, do it.” Proverbs tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Have you ever given or received the advice, “Just follow your heart.”? Although it sounds so true (and would be if we were perfect reflections of Jesus Christ), this advice often leads us to make poor decisions, disobey God, and hurt ourselves and others.

What would our world and lives be like if God acted solely on emotion? What if God reacted with “sin rage” every time we fell short in the same way humans react with road rage when cut off by another driver? What if Jesus didn’t go to the Cross because He didn’t feel like it? What if He prayed in the garden, “Father, I just don’t think it’s going to feel good.”?

The scriptures tell us that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). He prayed in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). There is always a right thing to do. The next right thing to do might not be easy, and we might not feel like doing it, but it is always right to do the right thing, the righteous thing.

Some of you are facing dilemmas about what you would like to do and what you know is the right thing to do. There is a way that seems right to man; it leads to death and God will give you no support in that direction. There is always the right thing to do, and Jesus promises His presence and power to do that which is pleasing in God’s sight. Stop and pray; trust the Lord and do the right thing. You will never regret it or feel the need to lie about it.

Relationship Not Rules

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”                                                                                                                                 –John 13:34

Many people have a false image of God as a fire-breathing, cosmic cop waiting for us to slip up so we might be eternally condemned. We may have acquired this mistaken understanding about God from overpowering bosses, controlling pastors, or legalistic parents. These types of heavy-handed control freaks have rules for everything. Basically, they have two rules. Rule #1, I’m the boss. Rule #2, refer to Rule #1. By the way, to me, a legalistic parent is one who gives discipline but has no relationship. Healthy children come out of an environment where discipline exists within loving relationships.

God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites immediately after their deliverance from the Egyptians in the Exodus. Rule #1, “I am the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). To someone far from God, this sounds like a pretty jealous and demanding God. Considering the fact that eight of the Ten Commandments begin with, “No,” God could appear as a negative, sinner-condemning kind of being. Just wondering: Do our children learn to say, “I love you,” before they learn to say, “No?” Do we teach relationship or rules?

The truth about God, whether we feel it or not, is that God is love and desires an intimate relationship with you and me. The Ten Commandments serve as the bare minimal requirements for God’s people. They are the least we must do if we are to represent the people of God. The Ten Commandments may have been written in the negative because these acts destroy life and the community of God’s people. They simply must NOT be tolerated.

God walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden describes God’s intention and ultimate end for humans. Both the Catholic and Protestant catechisms tell us that God created man to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Notice the word, “enjoy.” The catechisms further define man’s purpose as to know, love, and serve Him. Notice that know and love come before serve.

God desires a people for His own possession who will love Him and want to serve Him from an inward desire rather than from an outward observance. God does not seek a collection of moral robots that legalistically follow a set of rules. Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments with two: Rule #1, Love God, and Rule #2, Love your neighbor. At the Last Supper after Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He gave a new commandment to His followers, a new Rule #1, “Love one another, as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Our God is a God of love who gave Himself for us and desires us to respond to His love by loving Him back and loving others.

Is your relationship with God and others lacking love? Let us respond to God’s love offered to us in Jesus Christ. Then, out of the love of God abiding in us by the Holy Spirit, let us offer love to others.