Systematic Bible Reading Plan

For those of you reading with me through the New Testament this year, you have noticed an error in our reading plan. The error can be corrected if you just look ahead a few days. There seems to be some inconsistencies between the conclusion of Hebrews and the opening to Titus and then through Timothy. If I can figure it out, I know you can.

Speaking of the Bible reading plan, I have had several of you ask whether or not we plan to provide another plan for 2007. The answer to that question is yes, most definitely.

Before too long I will be leaving town to spend a few days alone with the Lord. I try to do this at least once a year. While away I work on my message plan for the coming year. Additionally, I spend time praying about the future of CrossPoint. I also work on some of the individual spiritual development plan for the coming year. Part of that development plan includes how we read and study the Scripture.

While adjusting my Bible reading plan this morning, I decided to forge ahead a few days. I usually read a day or two ahead just to be open to whatever God desires to say to us next. While reading First Timothy 1 & 2 this morning, I was particularly drawn to the following paragraph:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:12-14

I agree with Paul; the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. I am so blessed. You are so blessed. We are so blessed.

As I continued reading, I was inspired once again by the Word of God, when Paul recorded:

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:15-17

Here and Now and the Hereafter

My mind is on heaven this morning. I am thinking about heaven because I know what we are experiencing here on earth is not all there is to life. There is more to life than the here and now; it also includes the hereafter.

While thinking about the hereafter, I started listing a few observations:

• Peter reminds us that we are just passing through the here and now when he said, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world…” (1 Peter 2:11).
• Some day I will live in the hereafter, perhaps I should prepare for that existence by studying more about my eternal life through Jesus Christ.
• Paul reminds us to set our minds on the hereafter when he said, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above , where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).
• I have plenty of family and friends who are no longer living in the here and now; they are now living in the hereafter.
• Some day the here and now for me will be in the hereafter. Am I prepared for that day?
• Are the people already living in the hereafter able to look back on the here and now? If so, what do they remember? What do they see? The writer of Hebrews said, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…” (Hebrews 12:1). Does that Scripture infer that people in heaven can look down on the here and now?

Have you given much thought lately to the hereafter? I would be curious to read what comes to your mind when you think about heaven. Please share your thoughts. I am sure others would like to read them as well.

That’s Racing; That’s Life

There is a secret about me few of you probably know. I am a major fan of NASCAR.

Several years ago I had the pleasure of going to a NASCAR race at Talladega. Thanks to bad weather on Sunday, the race was postponed until Monday; which afforded me the opportunity of attending the race. Since then, I have been hooked.

I am also hooked on NASCAR because a few years later I actually drove in the Richard Petty Experience at Talladega. My 8–lap average speed of 166.5 MPH was an adrenaline rush I will always remember. For those of you who have heard that story, you are now grimacing because you think I am about to recount that experience. You can take a deep sigh of relief; I will reserve that happening for another blog.

NASCAR drivers have nerves of steel. Unless you have experienced a race first hand it is impossible to imagine what it takes to drive a car at 199 MPH, three abreast, with 40 competitors, around a 1.5 mile track for 500 miles. NASCAR drivers may not look like it, but I think they are incredible athletes.

Did you watch yesterday’s race? In between naps, I watched Brian Vickers crash his teammate Jimmie Johnson into Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the backstretch for Vickers' first career Cup win. Of course the Earnhardt-favored crowd erupted with mocking, heckling and booing. Minutes after the race concluded, a television reporter stuck a microphone in Dale’s face. What would he say? Would he erupt with a tirade of expletives? Would he sneer at the camera and say, “No comment.”? What would be his reaction?

Dale surprised me. Dale said, “That’s racing!”

Dale Jr. was not the only racer to make such a statement. Many others recapped their thoughts on the race and the last-lap accident by saying much the same thing.

“That’s racing!”

I like that response. It is an admission that racing has its hazards, and that losing on the last lap due to some reckless driving can be a consequence of the sport.

I think the same can be said of life. There are times in life when something unfair or unfavorable happens. Without sounding too fatalistic, we should learn to say, “That’s life.”

There is nothing easy to living, just like there is nothing easy to racing. When life hands us something beyond our control, we should learn to take it in stride and move on. That is what it sounded like Dale and the other racers were doing yesterday. Besides, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ we have one more advantage to admitting to the dangers of life. Paul worded our advantage this way, when he said:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:34-39

Laus Deo!

For those of you who have visited our nation’s capital you have noticed that the skyline of the capital is low and squatty. There is a reason for the buildings being so low. While visiting there are few years ago l learned from a local pastor that there is a law in Washington DC that no building can be of greater height than the Washington Monument.

That’s interesting, isn’t it?

What is more interesting than that is what is on top of the highest structure in the city. Enscribed on the aluminum cap of the Washington Monument are two Latin words: Laus Deo.

Now you may be thinking, what do those two words mean and why are they 555 feet high where no one can see them? That is a great question. Beyond that, the words are written facing the open sky and are unnoticed by the thousands of visitors to the monument each day.

Laus Deo! Two seemingly insignificant, un-noticed words. Out of sight and, to some, out of mind, but very meaningfully placed at the highest point over what is the most powerful city in the most successful nation in the world.

These words were intentionally placed there by the fathers of the city in the 1800's.

So, what do those two words, in Latin, composed of just four syllables and only seven letters, mean?

Very simply, they say... "Praise be to God!"

Thinking about the new buildings of our Phase II project, I contemplated how cool it would be to place Laus Deo on the top of one of them. Just like the Washingtom Monument, we would be declaring to the heavens, “Praise be to God!” Yes, these new buildings are being built to reach JUST ONE MORE. However, the higher objective for every building we build or ministry we begin or vision we make reality is, ultimately, for praise to God alone.

What Do Christians Do?

A missionary from the Middle East was a guest in my CrossPoint University class last night. I am not mentioning his name for security reasons. He is a missionary in a part of the world that is closed to the gospel, and the local governing authorities typically enforce that censorship with either imprisonment, or worse, death. Actually, this friend is not listed as a missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in order to protect him and his family.

My missionary friend taught us much about the Middle East during our class. Perhaps one of the most amazing stories he shared concerned a brand new Muslim convert. The new believer wanted to know what it is that Christians do. My missionary friend advised, “Christians are supposed to tell other people how to become Christians.”

The new convert took our missionary at his word and began immediately telling everyone in his family and village about how to approach God by faith through Jesus Christ. He passed out Bibles and tracks, and even showed the Jesus filim in his house. Of course, this evangelistic effort was not well received by the local Muslim leadership. So the new Christian was always under constant surveillance.

The story progresses to a time when the new convert was visiting his dying grandmother. Knowing his grandmother was near death, he felt led by the Spirit to share his newborn faith with her. He wanted her to know about the comfort and salvation she would receive by believing in Jesus. But he also realized he could lose his life if someone overheard him, or if his grandmother turned him into the local authorities. Yet the new convert did what our missionary told him to do—tell other people how become a Christian.

The man’s grandmother did not turn on him. Instead, she turned her heart over to Jesus and was born again. When our missionary asked him how he decided to communicate the gospel message while risking death, the new believer said, “I would rather die for telling my grandmother the truth, than live knowing that I did not.”

As our missionary friend said last night, “There are no casual conversions in the Muslim world.” The new convert’s story is a prime example.

For those of you wondering what we Christians are supposed to do, I encourage you to accept my missionary friends’ challenge: Christians are supposed to tell other people how to become Christians. I pray the Lord leads JUST ONE MORE individual to you today for you to tell how to become a Christian. Why? Because that is why Christians are supposed to do, tell other people how to become Christians.

Into the Hands of God

Sometimes the most profound statements are some of the simplest statements. Today in my Bible reading I was reminded of one of the simplest yet most profound statements in the Bible, which reads,

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31

That summary sentence comes at the end of a seminal passage in Hebrews. When I concluded reading that portion of God’s Word I was reminded of the terrifying consequences of living a life of intentional sin. Listen to the sternness of the writer’s words.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."

Hebrews 10:26-30

The writer of Hebrews gives us three definitions of sin:

1. Sin is to trample the Son of God under foot.

2. Sin is failure to see the sacredness of sacred things.

3. Sin is insult to the Holy Spirit.

As one commentator noted, “Sin is not disobedience to an impersonal law; it is the wrecking of a personal relationship and the wounding of the heart of God whose name is Father.”

While praying this morning I contrasted Hebrews 10:31 with 2 Samuel 24:14, where the Bible says,

David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."

Contrasting the two situations (Hebrews 10:31 & 2 Samuel 24:14) I thanked my Father that I have fallen into His hands according to His mercy through Jesus Christ and not His wrath. What about you? The writer of Hebrews warns us, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Parenting Isn’t For Cowards!

I was in a melancholy mood last night. My son, Taylor, and I attended War Eagle Day yesterday at Auburn University. This was his second of three college campus visits he desires to make this fall. His first visit was to Samford University. His third visit will include UAB.

I was melancholy because I cannot believe my oldest child is leaving for college in less than a year. Yesterday morning during the orientation the leader mentioned how some of the parents in the room may be emotional because they are sending their first child off to college. He was speaking directly to me. Soon after he made that comment I noticed a mother seated next to me pat her son on his lead and start to weep. I could relate; my heart was filled with waves of emotions as well.
This is a MAJOR transition for Vonda and me. We were prepared for just about every stage of parenting other than this stage. It is one thing to take your child to kindergarten. It is quite another thing to take them to college.
As for Taylor, he was in his element. He was quiet, yet excited. I think he was particularly impressed with the number of beautiful females planning to matriculate at Auburn. Don’t tell his mother, but I was more than impressed. I was concerned also. Some of those young ladies needed more clothes on than what they were wearing (or not wearing!).
While driving home last evening I was remind of a title from a James Dobson book: Parenting Isn’t for Cowards! I agree with Dr. Dobson. His title rang true in my heart today. Parenting is not easy—today or any day. It is a tough assignment being a parent, especially when that assignment includes letting one of the chicks leap out of your nest in order to spread their wings.

For parents of pre-school aged children, I promise to pray for you. I promise to pray for parents of elementary, middle school and high school-aged kids also. Your day is coming, just like my day has arrived. And when that day comes, don’t be surprised if you weep a tear or two. Dobson was right, parenting isn’t for cowards!