Close Your Window!

 

“The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” D.L. Moody

 

  Earlier this month a Massachusetts man left the sunroof on his family’s minivan open in 63-degree weather only to return to the vehicle two days later to find it filled with about nine inches of snow. Steve Maguire of Scituate said he and his family took a ride in his wife’s minivan on a Saturday with the windows down to enjoy the record-high temperatures in New England. 

  “Saturday was so beautiful I'm like, ‘I’ve got to get some of the kids out of the house,” he told a local TV station. “It was 63 degrees here.” But Maguire said he didn’t realize until returning to the vehicle that he’d left the sunroof open, allowing about nine inches of snow to accumulate inside.

  “When I opened the van, I’m thinking it's Valentine's Day. It’s my wife’s car. This is not going to end well. I came in and said, ‘I hope you're in a good mood because there are about nine inches of snow in the van.’”

  Maguire said the situation could have been much worse. “This could only happen in New England. I’m grateful it wasn’t rain, and it was super easy to clean up because it was so light and fluffy.”

  Here’s the kicker! Maguire admitted he should have known better. “I’m a high school teacher and one of the electives I teach is meteorology. So if anyone knows the weather, I should know the weather.”

  That’s my problem. It’s probably your problem too – I know better than I do. I know that I shouldn’t say what I say, but the words are out of my mouth faster than a bass spitting out a hook. I know that I shouldn’t get irritated at that person talking on their phone at the next table in the restaurant but the heat is up in my heart faster than a microwave. I know I shouldn’t look down on that homeless person asking for handouts but “King Scott” who has it all together is ascending the throne of my soul.

  I’m so grateful that my Heavenly Father is gracious, as I come to Him again and again because even though I knew better, I didn’t do better. I’m a “spiritual loser,” yet He still loved me and gave His Son to pay for my sin…and He always forgives me (1 John 1:9).

  This is a reality of all of life in a sin-contaminated world. Knowing something, knowing the truth too often doesn’t break down into transformed behavior. As James warns us, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

  But you must know the truth before you can apply the truth. The Bible is the source of truth. It’s the absolute standard. Maguire knew the truth of meteorology, yet failed to live up to what he knew. We do the same thing.

  There are two spiritual disciplines that are vital for a healthy, growing Christian life – reading God’s Word and prayer. When I open my Bible, God speaks to me. When I pray, I speak to God. Yet, there is no excuse for a Christian in America to not regularly spend time in the Word. We will never do the right things as believers if we’re not letting God’s Word soak through our souls.

  Please understand, I’m not suggesting some kind of spiritual Olympics. Five or ten minutes consistently in the Word is a great place to start. Start with one of the four Gospels or the Epistles. It’s much better to read some Scripture consistently than to read none and stay spiritually ignorant.

  Truth without application is foolish. James continues with, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:23-25). The purpose of looking at yourself in a mirror is to make change as necessary. That’s true of God’s Word, too.

  The purpose of reading God’s Word is not for education or information. It’s for life-change, spiritual transformation. The same is true of listening to a sermon or participating in a small group. As John Stott said, “We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.”

  Reading my Bible is a waste of time if it’s not being applied to my life if I’m not becoming more and more like Jesus. It’s spiritual work. The Holy Spirit must empower me and work in my life to bring about that change. Yet, if I don’t know God’s truth, He doesn’t have material to work with.

  In America, it’s polite to say “good sermon” to the preacher as we exit. BUT it’s not a good sermon if it’s not applied to our lives. It was just a nice talk. The purpose of God’s truth whether read or listened to is to make you and me more like the Savior (Romans 12:2).

  Faithful application begins on the inside. James 1:19, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” James’s initial focus isn’t external, it’s internal. God is much more concerned about my heart and character than He is about my behavior. The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, peace, patience, self-control, etc.) begins in my soul and will then be evidenced in my life.

  Too many Christians erroneously believe Christianity is evidenced by externalism, i.e., the way you dress, the things you do or don’t do. It’s not! That was the focus of the men who crucified Jesus, the Pharisees. It’s why a lost world is often repulsed by professing Christians.

  It’s increasingly common today to see online or in our churches “Christians” claiming to defend the gospel who fail to demonstrate attitudes and character in line with that same gospel. They’re arrogant, mean, and sometimes even hateful.

  The most wonderful thing that can be said of us was said of those early disciples, “And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). That happens as we spend time in God’s Word and sit under Bible teaching – and apply it to our lives. To know the truth but fail to apply it is as foolish as leaving your sunroof window open in the middle of January. 

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Character Still Matters

 

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, 

but it is made in the small ones.” Phillips Brooks

   I wonder if A. Bartlett Giamatti is spinning in his grave. Giamatti, one time Commissioner of Major League Baseball, will be forever remembered as the man who banned baseball legend, Pete Rose for life after it was discovered Rose was gambling on baseball games, including those of his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. A chapter in the book of the baseball writings of Giamatti, A Great and Glorious Game, unpacks the intense struggle Giamatti had before determining Rose should be banned for life. 

  What a contrast to another former commissioner of baseball, Faye Vincent, who recently stated that “character” should be removed as an issue for the election of individuals to the hall of fame. In other words, in an argument that we’ve heard ad nauseam in recent decades, character doesn’t matter. But in our heart we all know that it does. While Vincent was willing to give PED users a pass, at least he held the line that Rose should be permanently banned. 

  When it comes to American politics, particularly presidential politics, character issues have continually entered into the national debate, whether it was Bill Clinton in the 1990s or Donald Trump in the present. When Trump was running for president and his debauchery was well-known, even some Christians sought to rationalize it away with “I’m voting for a president, not a pastor” (not that most of the other choices were individuals of sterling character).

  In spite of our blusters we all know that character matters…and in our day to day lives, we live that way. For example, if you knew that your financial consultant had been convicted of embezzling, would character matter? If you learned that your cardiologist had lost several malpractice lawsuits, would character matter? Or, if you learned that your favorite restaurant had continual health code violations, would character matter?

  Currently, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is in the hot seat with his political future in jeopardy. Recently, Boris Johnson addressed Parliament to defend his continuation as Prime Minister because of a report with 500 pages of evidence and more than 300 photographs of Johnson and his staff flouting his own COVID lockdown rules. He required, with police power, the citizens of the U.K. to obey those rules, while he and his own staff flaunted those very same rules. Sadly, the flouting of rules by the rule makers is an all too common occurrence during this pandemic.

  Please understand, character is NOT sinlessness. The only person to live a sinless life was the Lord Jesus. Though Christians will struggle with their sin nature until they get to heaven and receive their perfected and glorified bodies, by God’s grace, we must strive to sin less. We must seek to be individuals of godly character because God is all about character.

  What is character? Evangelist D.L Moody had this to say about character: “Character is what you are in the dark” and “True character is what we are when nobody’s looking, in the secret chambers of the heart.”

  Character is more than talk. Anyone can say they have integrity but their behavior is the true indicator. James 2:18, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” One of the first places character flaws show up is in our language patterns. When we are “in integrity,” we speak from a place of honesty and wholeness. Words match actions. As Dr. Seuss put it, “We say what we mean and we mean what we say.” When we break from this pattern and say things we don’t really mean, we jettison godly character, moving out of integrity. “Your walk talks and your talk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.”

  Talent is a gift, character is a choice. There are many things in our life that we have no control over. We don’t get to pick our parents, our upbringing, our talents, our IQ, but each of us can choose our character. We create character every time we make choices.

  Maybe that’s part of our attraction to superheroes. These very talented individuals are so unlike what we commonly think of as celebrities. They really are the good guys.

  It’s certainly why a Tim Tebow is loved and admired. Despite all of the mocking and Tebowing memes, no one seriously questions his character. At one point he had the world watching him, waiting for him to crack under the pressure of being a self-proclaimed role model. To his credit he never did. The only thing that Tebow has devoted his life to more than football, is helping others. He’s gone to Africa countless times as a missionary and has helped countless children through his “Tim Tebow Foundation.” He isn’t just a great athlete to look up to, Tebow is a great person of character to aspire to be. 

  A lack of character carries a high price. Other than the most avid sports fans, once an athlete’s abilities wane, if they’re not a person of character and because of it were admired outside the game, the memory of them soon drops into the dustbin of history. Even in our personal lives the teachers, neighbors or former bosses we remember were often men and women of character. Character is what made them stand out and adhere to the pages of our memory. They went the extra mile to do the right thing and often did the right thing when others did not or when it was unpopular.

  God’s intent is that each of us develop character throughout our lives as Jesus did, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). God values character and so must we. Too often in our homes and churches we focus on the passing standards of a dying world and place character on a backburner. Yet, it is godly character that pleases God and wears well when talent and other abilities are long gone.

  A man took his daughter to the carnival, and she immediately ran over to a booth and asked for cotton candy. As the attendant handed her a huge ball of it, her Dad asked, “Sweetheart, are you sure you can eat all of that?” “Don’t worry,” she answered, “I’m a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside.” That’s what real character is – being bigger on the inside. 

  As an old German Proverb says: “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.”

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

It's NOT about the "fish"

“We think of missionaries as God's ‘super servants,’ Jesus’ Navy Seals. The word ‘missionary’ is never used in the Bible, however, not even once. That’s because all of God’s people are sent; all of God’s people are commanded to go. There is no ‘special class’ of sent ones.” J.D. Greear

 

  Okay, I’ll confess. I’m not a bumper sticker person. Hopefully this won’t offend you, but I’m also not a Christian t-shirt person. It’s just that I know myself. Too often my actions and tongue are in motion far ahead of my brain and heart. I’m still working on the sanctification of my right foot. While I’m not what’s dubbed an aggressive driver, I’m an offensive one. I learned to drive in Chicago…sometimes it still shows. And I don’t wear Christian t-shirts because my mouth can leap ahead of my heart.

  My family still remembers the time that I’d had enough of a guy giving me grief and I called him in front of God and everybody, a “Twit.” It wasn’t my finest hour. Later I apologized to him for losing my cool.

  Maybe you know of it happening, but I’ve never heard of a motorist being flagged down by another driver who was convicted by the sight of a fish on the back bumper. Nor am I aware of anyone who asked the wearer to tell them about Jesus because they saw their Christian t-shirt. More than we want to admit, we’re bad advertisements for Jesus instead of good ones.

  Please understand, as Christians, we’re not perfect. The Bible is clear though that if we know Jesus, we should be very different from those who don’t know the Lord (2 Cor. 5:17) There should be areas of our lives, that to a non-believer, are totally unexplainable. Let me suggest three.

  Peace. Peace is an increasingly rare commodity in our raging world, yet everyone wants it. Many spend lots of time and money attempting to somehow artificially manufacture it. A quest for peace is the motivation behind the addiction epidemic. Everyone wants true peace, yet few have it.

  When others see it, it makes them curious: How could you sit there and just take it? Doesn’t that scare you? Don’t you hate her? You forgave him? Aren’t you worried? Do you realize what’s at stake? How do you sleep at night? You’re going to sue, aren’t you? How can you be so calm?

  Being a person of peace always stands out. While peace and joy are benefits of being a believer, they’re not just for our benefit. They’re beacons in our lives that create curiosity, causing others to pause and wonder. Peace and joy demonstrate the authenticity of our faith. God brings dark circumstances in our lives to give peace and joy an opportunity to shine brighter than normal. Most folk around us pursue “happiness.” Peace and joy are God’s gifts freely bestowed on us at salvation. We don’t pursue them. We accept them as gifts from our Heavenly Father. Because we have peace and joy, we can be okay on both the outside and inside.

  So, how’s your peace these days? Would others want the peace and joy that you have? Would they know that you know the Prince of Peace?

  Healthy Relationships. Ours is a relationally challenged world. Very few couples or families know how to, much less have, healthy relationships. Many have relationships with cyber friends, yet continually bicker with those with whom they share physical space. Dysfunction abounds. People are disillusioned and desperate relationally. They squeeze those around them for as much love and acceptance as they can, but still come up very short. But then, they see a husband and wife who love each other with a healthy marriage. A loving family stands out, one where siblings actually get along and adult children enjoy and long to go home for the holidays.

  It forces them to ask questions: Why them and not me? How did they get there? What’s their secret? Are they for real or is it a façade? They’re so lucky? I wonder what they’re like behind closed doors?

  It’s why it’s vital that we seek to live biblically and problem-solve in our marriages and family. Strong marriages are rare. Loving, healthy families are a sad exception. All of the trappings of success – a huge house, nice car, lots of toys, out of this world vacations – never bring soul satisfaction. Being a big deal at work with bad relationships at home is a vacuous life. Those with healthy relationships often find that others are watching. Others notice when relationships are robust and want to know what you have.

  Character. A shrinking minority know what character is. Few have actually met or observed someone with character. Instead, everyone is suspect. When the average person meets someone who appears to have character, they’re suspicious…cynical. They assume there’s duplicity or a hidden agenda. Character is rare and it’s hard to believe that it’s authentic.

  Character is who are you are when no one is looking. It means doing what’s right, as God defines right, regardless of personal cost. Because character is so rare, it makes some feel uncomfortable. They don’t know how to handle it. It goes against the amoral, non-absolutism of our society.

  A Christian is to be a person of character. To be blunt, you can sleep around and still be a good surgeon. You can cheat on your mate and have little trouble continuing to practice law. You can be a successful salesperson and cheat on your taxes. But you can’t do those things if you’re a Christian and continue to enjoy God’s blessing. Compromise makes us unblessable. Christians are to have character. When it’s real, others notice.

  If no one is wondering what makes you different, maybe it’s because you’re not. Being a “missionary” means letting God’s light shine through you. It would be good if Christians started praying something like this: “Father, let my light shine before others in such a way that they may see my good works, and glorify my Father who is heaven” (Matthew 5:16)? It’s time for Christians to stop only asking God for His blessing and protection. We must get back on mission and ask God to use us and to shine His light through us. Pray that He’ll shine His light through you, and your marriage and family! Others are watching. Hopefully, they see peace, healthy relationships and character. Hopefully, they see Jesus in you! 

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.