DON’T WIDEN THE PLATE

In 1996, the first week of January in Nashville, Tennessee 4,000 baseball coaches gathered.  The speaker was John Scolinos, who had been a coach since 1948. He stood before the group with a full sized, stark-white home plate hanging around his neck.  He finally said, “You probably are all wondering why I’m wearing a home plate around my neck. I want to share with you what I have learned about home plate in my 78 years of living.” He then asked the crowd, “Do you know how wide home plate is?” The answer came thundering back, SEVENTEEN INCHES. Now what do we do with a pitcher who can’t put the ball across that 17-inch plate? Get a pitcher who can. What would happen if we decided just to widen the plate to suite the pitcher?
If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target, we will make it eighteen inches, or nineteen inches. Do we change the size of the plate to fit each pitcher? Of course not.

This is the problem in our homes today and in our marriages. We don’t expect accountability to meet standards, we just widen the plate. Without discipline for our children, we just keep widening the plate.

This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful and to educate and discipline our young people. We just widen the plate so as to get by.

This is the problem with the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Leaders are allowed to air their opinions as if it were the gospel truth. Our church leaders are widening home plate.

If we keep widening the plate, our families, our faith, our society will continue down an undesirable path. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard, standard that we know is right. If we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools, churches, government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, we are headed for dark days.

Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91 but not before touching the lives of hundreds of people.  His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players, no matter how good they are, your own children, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches. QUIT WIDENING THE PLATE.
(I hope I have not done injustice to the original article as I have shortened it to fit for my devotional.)

More Than We Can Stomach

A hard saying: Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”   John 6:53-36 NIV
Have you not read or heard this passage of scripture and wondered what Jesus meant?  Well, the people of that day heard Jesus and were shocked.  So much so, that many ceased following Him.  The New English Bible’s translation of their reaction: “This is more than we can stomach.”

  Before we judge the words of Jesus to be crude, what about some of our own expressions?  We talk about “sweating blood.”  Sometimes, in a moment of happiness when we have something that someone else may want, we say, “Eat your heart out.”  Of course, we like it when someone says,”I love you so much I could eat you.”  We call demanding people “bloodsuckers”.  The idea of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood ought not offend us.  We know that Jesus was not suggesting cannibalism.   So, what was He saying?

  Jesus calls us to eat His flesh. The flesh of Jesus stands for His full humanity.  In Jesus, God took human flesh upon Himself and lived among us for a time. When Jesus died on the cross, He gave His body, flesh, for us and all who would believe in Him. We should never tire of chewing that over, thoroughly digesting such magnificent nourishment.      

  Jesus said, we must drink His blood.  We know that life is in the blood.  So, to drink the blood of Jesus is to take His life into our life, into the very core and center of our being.  Jesus is inviting us to assimilate Him, internalize Him.  When we drink Him in, we absorb into ourselves: His life, His teaching, His character, His ways, His virtue, His wisdom.

  How disappointed and hurt, Jesus must have been, that after uttering these words, many left following Him.  Jesus turned to the twelve disciples and asked, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”  Peter spoke up saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  John 6:66-68  NIV

  There is no where else to go in order to be fulfilled, satisfied, made whole, forgiven, saved.  The world cannot fill the emptiness in our lives.  Enslavement to our selfishness will not bring us inner peace.  Only our surrender  to Jesus can put us in harmony with God.

  When we eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood, we actually receive his spirit and we begin to grow into His likeness.  He enters into our mind and heart and He helps us grow, become what He would have us to be. It is a life long process and He is not finished with us.  Feed on Him through hearing and studying the Scriptures. 

 Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  Matthew 4:4  NIV

Say It With Love

Talk, talk, talk, talk, you hear it all the time. So often, talking is the source of much misunderstanding. It is disturbing that there is not enough ‘love talk.’  There is hate talk, fear talk, pain talk, guilt talk, threat talk, regret talk, envy talk, and spite talk.  But, there is so little ‘love talk.’  It seems that we have become embarrassed to talk about love.  Leo Buscaglia tells this sad story.  A woman whom he counseled told him, “I know that my husband is a good man, and he can be tender and he can speak of love.  I know that because he talks that way to the dog.”
What a tragedy that we are not expressing love one to another.

  The Apostle Paul clearly defines the Christian’s task when he writes to the church in Ephesus telling them to  “Speak the truth in love.”   Ephesians 4:15   NIV

  The word “speak” here is used as conversation, primarily the conversation of our lives.  Our actions are our loud speakers.  Our actions speak so loud, people can’t hear a word that we are saying.  Our task is to declare and demonstrate the truth of God.  Remember, “our walk talks and our talk walks, but our walk talks further than our talk walks.”

  “Truth”  is what we speak.  We speak a good word about Jesus.  Jesus is truth in flesh.  The living word,  Jesus, is revealed through the written word, and becomes the spoken word through us.  Love is the means of making the speaking of the truth effective, productive, fruitful.

  “We’ve A Story To Tell To The Nations.”  What an amazing, incredible, marvelous story.  The story of God’s love for mankind.  How He went down into the valley of the shadow of death; there to labor, suffer, in order to give life to man.  The Good News is that “God so loved people that He gave His only Son to save them.”
What is the Good News?  It is the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  This message that we speak is not our subjective experience but the objective truth of God.  It is God’s message, His power unto salvation, for those who believe.   How can people refuse such love as the love of God?  I don’t think that they could if they heard God’s message correctly and understood it properly.  I want you to know that it is not only our responsibility to say the right thing (God’s Word), but we are equally responsible to say the right thing right.  God’s truth must be said in love.

  The Christian’s task is to plant the seed of God, which is His Word.  We must water and cultivate that truth but it is God who gives the increase.  Our responsibility is not to save souls.  Ours is to speak the truth in love, and God by His convicting Spirit will do the saving, if man responds.  People are confused, hurt, lost, going to a Christ-less grave. They can be reached, saved, through God’s message.
                                                         “Say  It With Love.”

“BLIND BUT NOW I SEE”

I appreciate the beautiful stories that come to me by way of my e-mail.
This is such a story.

  There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I would marry you.”  One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.  He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”  The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected that.  The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.
Her boyfriend left her in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying, “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they became yours, they were mine.”

  Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind.  The kinds of blindness of which He speaks are ignorance, prejudice, haughtiness. Our prayer should be, “Open our eyes that we may see glimpses of truth you have for me.”

  It is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, the 4th chapter, how Jesus went into the synagogue, as was His custom. He took the scroll and read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah these words:  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”    After rolling up the scroll and giving it to the attendance, Jesus sat down and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”     Luke 4: 21

  When I think of blindness, I think of Aunt Maggie.  She was a blind, black women living alone in a cabin up in the hills about five miles from Johnson University.  We students would help take care of her, providing food and company.  Her favorite song was “Amazing Grace.”  We had to sing it every time we were there.
She died and was buried in an unmarked grave. The college students and others who knew her would not have it that way.  They took up a collection and bought a marker for that grave. It read:  “Aunt Maggie Widener 1870 – 1951. Inscribed at the bottom were the words:  “I was blind but now I see.”

  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.   I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”  

BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH

Pentecost Sunday, marks the birthday of the Lord’s Church.  Pentecost means 50.  After Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to individuals and groups during a period of 40 days.  Then, He ascended, went up to Heaven, to be seated at God’s right hand.  10 days later, He sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles.  The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles in divine truth.  For the first time in history, everything was complete for the presentation of the Good News.  The preaching of the Gospel (Good News) is what offers to mankind salvation.  You can be saved by becoming believers of that Word.  The saved are Christians and Christians are the church.

Luke records this for us in chapter 24, verses 46-49 “He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” 

The climax of all that God was doing to save sinful mankind was here at Pentecost, as recorded for us in the second chapter of Acts.  The miracle of Pentecost was an appeal to the hearing (sound of a rushing wind), seeing (tongues of fire), and understanding (as the Apostles spoke, the people heard in their own language.) The Apostle Peter, spokesman for the Apostles preached the first Gospel sermon.
I was taught early in my ministry that a sermon should consist of three parts: It should be Bible Based, Christ Crowned and People Pointed At.  Peter took his message from the second chapter of Joel, he exalted Jesus saying, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Acts 2:36   And he pointed it at people, ‘you crucified Him.’  What a shock to the Jews assembled there in Jerusalem, that they had killed their long awaited for Messiah.  They realized in their hearts what they had done. They felt their desperate need for reconciliation with God, forgiveness of their sins. They were pricked by their guilt of sin and cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  The divine answer came, “Repent and be baptised every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Acts 2:38
3000 people responded. Here the Church was born.
The Church is the body of Christ.  Christians are the Church.  God’s action is through His people.

A five year old girl had lost her way in the downtown streets of a city.  To a policeman, who was questioning her, she said, “If I can find the Church, I can find my way home.”

That is not as simple to answer as it sounds. There is great confusion in the religious world concerning the church.  May we return to the Bible and hear Jesus say, “I will build MY CHURCH.”  Mathew 16:18
The Church belongs to Jesus.  You can’t join the church, you can only join Jesus and when you do that, He adds you to His body, the Church.
Be the Church.   Be God’s family.

THE MASKS WE WEAR

Halloween is a time of pretending, a time of wearing masks.  We enjoy this for we have been wearing masks ever since childhood.  As children we dress up in other people’s clothes. We pretend to be someone we are not.  The Greek stage represented tragedy and comedy by wearing masks.  A mask with a frown showed tragedy and a mask with a smile showed comedy.   However, we must not be deceived by outer appearance.  “Man looks on the outside of man, but God looks on the heart.”

What about the masks we wear?  Am I wearing a false face as I go through life?  How do we appear to God who sees us as we really are?  We wear many masks.  Let me mention a few.

The Mask Of Piety.   Piety may be defined as being religious, the outward actions of being reverent.  Jesus said, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  We must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We may look holy but are hollow.  Self righteousness is a terrible sin.  Too many think that they will be saved because they are good.  You can’t be good enough. Our salvation is not based on our goodness, but the goodness of Christ, who died for sinners such as we are.  The mask of piety won’t save.

The Mask of Mediocrity.   We often are content with less than our best.  We try to get by with just doing what little we have to.  We excuse ourselves by saying that we don’t have that person’s talents or means. Jesus taught that each person is talented differently but each is responsible to use what they have been given.  God doesn’t ask us to do what others can do, but only to do, to the fullest, what we are gifted to do.  We must strive for excellence in the Master’s service.  It is a sin to give less than our best to Him.  Don’t hide behind the mask of mediocrity.

The mask of Materialism.   We think money will buy anything.  It will buy a bed but not sleep. It will buy food but not health.  It will buy a house but not a home. It will buy people but not friends.  It will buy a crucifix but not a Saviour.  We try to drown out the voice of Jesus when He said, “A man’s life consist not in the abundance of that which he possesses.”  We must not love the things of this world, but love the things of God.  Wearing the mask of materialism is one of our worse masks.

We are to come to God, just as we are, without any mask. The real self  humbled before Him.  We must come repentantly, trusting fully in Him.  We can not stay as we are. We can be changed, made different, by hiding ourselves in Him.  Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain”  and again “It is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me.” 

May God help us to take off our false faces, our masks, and lose ourselves in Christ Jesus.  He knows us.  If we are true to God, we can be false to no man.

MY MOTHER

Mother’s Day.  I want to write concerning MY MOTHER.

My mother, Mabel A, Smith died March 29, 1977 at the age of 74. Her husband, my father, died November 6, 1954 in a terrible accident.  He was only 53 years of age.      So. mother was a widow for 23 years. Ten of those years were what they called, “black out” where she received no social security money.  Mother was a worker. She was born and raised on a farm just outside of Owosso, Michigan.  She knew how to work. In order to provide for herself, she took in washings and ironings.  What she loved most was to take care of children so she became a paid baby sitter.  She even rented the upstairs of the house to single persons.  Mother took care of the house in which I was born.  She mowed the grass with a hand mower.  The front yard was small but the back yard was good size yet she did it all.

My mother was a quiet, humble lady. The only time I remember when she got upset was with my dad.  Dad was out in the winter time trying to get our old car to start but it would not turn over. So, he got the crank and started cranking it and it still did not start, Finally, dad began beating the front of that car with the crank, cussing it out.  My mother stood in the doorway and yelled out to him, “Now, Floyd, you know that won’t do any good.”

We three sons would, as often as possible, come home from school and eat lunch with mother.  Mother always listened to three stories by radio.  So together, we listened to “Ma Perkins”, “Helen Trent” and “Our Gal Sunday.”  We got hooked on them.

Most of all, she was the spiritual leader in our family life. She sang in the church choir.
She saw to it that we four children were in Sunday School and Church service. She was a faithful member of the First Church of Christ (Christian) of Owosso.  In my teen years I would attend with her.  I attended the youth group on Sunday nights.  I became a Christian when I was baptized at 15 years of age.  It was due to my mother’s influence that I started following Jesus.

When I decided that I wanted to be a minister, go away to college, I asked my mother. She said, “ask your dad.”  This I did, and he said “If that is what you want to do, we will help you as much as we can.”.  Mother encouraged me all the way. My dad was not a Christian but still was proud of me.

Mother never complained.  We did not know when she did not feel well.  She died of a heat attack. A neighbor found her on the floor with a pillow held tightly to her chest.

I love my mother. I miss her even after all these years.  She still is a part of my life encouraging me to become what God would have me to be.

What a blessing are Christian Mothers. It is said, “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”  May the influence of Christian Mothers increase.

Devotional: HOLD ONTO YOUR FORK

I want to tell you a true story of an old friend, Glen Wheeler. In 1963, his wife, Evelyn had open heart surgery. For 18 years she was kept alive by a Starr-Edward artificial heart valve. During those difficult years of ill health, Glen and Evelyn frequently quoted this phrase in Robert Browning’s poem, “Grow old with me, the best is yet to be.” Another favorite phrase of theirs was “Hold on to your fork.” You know where that phrase comes from. You have a delicious meal. As the hostess removes the dinner plates from the table, she says, “Hold on to your fork.” She knew what was coming and it would be the best part of the meal. In a few moments, the hostess brings you a generous helping of your favorite dessert. You pick up your fork and enjoy the best part of the meal. No wonder she said, “Hold on to your folk.”

And this is the way life is. “THE BEST IS YET TO BE.”

Evelyn died March 5, 1981. Glen said, “The fork not only slipped, but it seemed to break.”
After the graveside service as Glen was leaving the grave, he looked back for one final glimpse. His eyes were filled with tears, his heart nearly bursting. Glen said it seemed as if he heard a familiar feminine voice whisper, “Glen, the best is yet to be, it really is. Hold on to your fork.”

GOD’S MESSAGE IS “CHRISTIAN HOLD ON TO YOUR FORK – THE BEST IS YET TO BE.”

Listen to God’s Word in 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out weighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Saints In Caesar’s Household

The Apostle Paul closes his letter to the Philippians with a very surprising greeting when he wrote “All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.”   Philippians 4:22
Remember, Paul is writing this letter from a Roman prison. He has been given liberty to carry on his ministry from his house of confinement.  God’s Word, through Paul, had a great impact on Rome, even to influencing many people in the employment of Caesar.  It is difficult to imagine that there were Christians in such an ungodly environment as Caesar’s palace.  In such an unfavorable environment, there were devoted followers of Jesus.   How can this be?
There are three factors which combine to determine life which are: heredity, environment, and self.  We have no control over heredity and we have little control over environment, but we are solely responsible for self.  Someone has said, “we may not be able to help what happens to us, but we are totally responsible for the attitude we take toward what happens.”  It is true that ‘life is what you make it’ because living is primarily a matter of attitude.      

  May I make some suggestions, that may help us to live Christ like in our unfavorable environment.
  First, face realistically the environment in which you live.
The permissiveness of our society, with its low morals and lack of discipline, takes a terrible toll on all of us.  I confess to you that I believe it is becoming increasingly difficult to be spiritually strong.  our environment is anything but conducive for us in our Christian living.  Our culture has a tendency to undermine us, and if you please, to brain wash us.
It will help us to know that there were saints (Christians) in Caesar’s household.  What a terrible time the Christians must have had in such an ungodly environment as Rome.  These Christians can tell us a lot about living for Christ in an unfavorable environment.

  Secondly, it takes moral backbone to live as Christian in an unfavorable environment.
Being a Christian demands self denial and discipline. Against all the practices of sin, we need to have the courage to be different. Different, not for the sake of being contrary, but for the sake of being Christ like.
It requires stamina to stand up against the currents that deny Christ’s way.  It takes moral backbone to come out from the crowd and be separate.  We must seek the good pleasure of God, rather than the applause of men.
It will help us to know that there were saints (Christians) in Caesar’s household.  These Christians knew that they had a fight on their hands. They were persecuted and even put to death, because of their faith in Christ. They confessed Jesus as Lord, not Caesar.  What a challenging example for us.

  Thirdly, there are inner resources that nothing, nor no one, can take away.
The Christian has spiritual blessings that the world knows nothing of, nor can they, until they accept Christ.  God supplies our lives from His world above. God has a private door into every heart through the Bible, prayer and the fellowship of His people.  Christians must not neglect to use these God given resources.
Pastor Martin Niemoeller was placed in a German concentration camp.  After many months of silence, he sent this simple message, “Say for me that I am like a ship at sea in a tempest, dragging its anchors, but God is good and the cable still holds.”
It was these inner reources of faith that enabled the Christians in Caesar’s household to maintain their faith.  In spite of their bad environment, they were true to God and served Him.

  A little girl was asked for a definition of a saint.  She thought and the only saints that she knew were those in stain glass windows. She finally answered, “A saint is one through whom the light shines.”
That’s it.  A Christian is one whom the light of God shines through.  No matter the darkness, no matter the adversities, “Let your light shine that others may see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in Heaven.”   Don’t be apart of the problem of our sinful world, but be apart of the solution as we change it for Christ.
                                     Shine for Jesus where you are.

PITHY SAYINGS

i am attracted to PITHY SAYINGS.  “Pithy” is defined as “concise, short, brief, compact, condensed.” Generally, pithy sayings are forceful, meaningful.  Let’s try some of them:
Hope that some of these will help lighten your load.

“No education in the second kick of a mule.”
“To write with a broken pencil is pointless.”:
“Did you hear about the fellow whose whole left side was cut off?  He’s all right now”
“Police were called to a day care where a three year old was resisting a rest.”
“Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.”.

Dr. Vance Havner gave some good ones:
“If we could answer all the whys, we would not need faith.”
“A Christian is not a citizen of earth trying to get to heaven, but a citizen of heaven making his way through this world.”
“If you growl all day, you will end up “dog tired” at night.”
“Christians are not just nice people, they are new creatures.”
“The greatest ability is dependability.”

“Suffering is not for our pleasure but for our profit.”
“Forgiveness is not a matter of calculation.  It is a matter of the heart.”
“To return evil for good is devilish, to return good for good is human, to return good for evil is Christlike and divine.”  By Philip Schaff

Three things go when you are older.  The first one is memory.  I can’t remember what the last two are.”

I love this little prayer:  Dear Lord
“So far today, God I’ve done alright. I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper, haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over-indulgent. I’m really glad about that.
But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot more help.”  AMEN