Sunday, October 28, 2018

GET OFF THE TRACKS!!!

My heart is broken! This was an avoidable tragedy. Recently in South Asia, a festival was being celebrated where an effigy of a large man was being burned. The effigy represented evil and he was filled with firecrackers. The atmosphere was one electric with the anticipation of the fire being lit and the evil man being vanquished.

As the effigy was being engulfed in the flames the fireworks started igniting and the night sky was filled with bangs, pops, whistling, and the din of general celebratory chaos. A large group of men, women, and children moved to higher ground to have a better view of the festivities.

As their eyes were fixed on the burning evil man before them their ears were filled with the sound of the explosions and their hearts were filled with the joy of the festival. No one heard the sound or saw the light of the speeding train heading right for the poor souls who were distracted by the entertainment that had captured their attention. The higher ground they were standing on was the raised railway track. The train engineer could not see them in the darkness and even if he did see them there was no way he could stop the train in time.

The train mowed people down in an instant. Bodies were flying about like rag-dolls. A festival had turned into a tragedy. Laughter turned into mourning as 60 people entered eternity.

Oh that there would have been someone there to warn them of the coming train. Oh that there were people who were not distracted by the lights and whistles of everything going on around them. And how evil that person would be if they saw disaster coming and failed to warn as many as they could.

There is another train coming. This is the train of the wrath of God. This is the coming judgement where people will have to give an account of what they have done with Jesus. People did not believe they were in danger, but that did not change the fact that the train was headed their way. People may not believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, but that does not change the fact that judgement is coming.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are called to tell people of the coming judgement. You are not responsible for what they do with the information, but you are responsible to tell them.

The Lord spoke to the prophet Ezekiel about the responsibility of the watchman. If the watchman was to stand on the city wall and see an attack coming against the city but said nothing to the people of the city he would be held responsible. But if he warned the people of the coming attack he would be free from responsibility. And so it is with us.



Ezekiel 33:8–9 (ESV) If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.



Our job is not to argue someone into heaven. Our job is not to trick people into signing a pledge, saying a prayer, raising a hand, modifying their behavior, or changing their religion. Our job is to tell them about Jesus. Our job is to exalt Jesus. They are held responsible for what they do with the information. If we truly believe Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven why do we not tell them?

I was talking to a man of another faith the other day. He told me he knew a little about Jesus (most of which was not accurate) but he said people have tried to convert him. He looked a little puzzled as I told him my job was not to convert him. My job is to make much of Jesus. And Jesus would destroy his other gods when He is ready. False gods cannot stand in the presence of the One True Living God.

The Children of Israel would carry the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God, with them into battle. Once the Ark was captured by the Philistines. They placed the Ark in the temple of their god, Dagon. In the morning Dagon had fallen onto his face before the presence of the True God. The priests propped up their god (Side note: If you have to prop your god up you are worshipping the wrong god) but the next morning Dagon had fallen over and broke his arms and head off (1 Samuel 5:1-5). False gods cannot stand in the presence of the One True Living God.

There is no way we can "convert" anyone. Only Jesus can transform the human heart. But we do have the responsibility of telling people about Jesus. It is our job to tell people to "GET OFF THE TRACKS!!!"

Monday, March 12, 2018

The View From The Top - A Lesson For Leaders

This morning while sitting in my hotel room in South Asia I made a cup of coffee with my AeroPress coffee maker, because if you want good coffee while you travel abroad you carry your own coffee maker. While sipping on my delicious, freshly brewed coffee I opened my Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 11. You know the story. It's the story of King David and his rape of the wife of one of his Mighty Men, the elite fighting force of David's army. This is one of his Special Forces men. A trusted warrior. A man of valor and honor.

David was a man who had fought his battles valiantly and won. He deserved a break. It was time for him to rest. So David sent Joab out to fight for him. Then the Bible records that David got off the couch  and went up to the roof to stretch his legs in the cool of the evening, and that's when things start to go south. David sees a beautiful woman bathing on her rooftop. Now before you blame Bathsheba, step outside of your culture and into the culture of David's day.

The other day I was on the roof of a guest house in Kathmandu. As you can see in the picture, rooftops are a useful part of the home. This would have been similar in the time of King David, except for the satellite dishes. The roof is where the women would dry the laundry, but it is the roof where the family would go to bathe as well. The average person did not have servants to heat water and fill a soaking tub. They would take a bucket of water, usually room temperature, to the roof where they could enjoy some privacy. Bathsheba would have gone to the roof to wash the sweat of the days work off while there was still some daylight left.

King David went to his roof to survey all that he had accomplished and because his roof was higher than any other around him he was able to see this beautiful woman pouring water over her body in what we would call a bucket shower or camping shower. The problem wasn't that David saw her bathing, it was that David watched her bathing. It is so very ironic that David stood there in the fading daylight transfixed on that which did not belong to him as the sun was setting on his kingship. He did not see what he was setting in motion. He had let his guard down. He wasn't thinking clearly. He was lost in lust.

You know the rest of the story, but what struck me this morning as I was reading was the unintended consequences of his actions. David think he would get caught in his sin. He thought he was smarter than everyone else. But when Uriah has more integrity than David he decides he has to kill him in order to cover up his sin. But the unintended consequences were that Uriah was not the only one who was killed because of David's sin. Verse 17 of chapter 11 tells us that "some of the people among David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died." Uriah was not the only one who died because of David's sin. Other men died who were not a part of the story. David did not rape their wives, but he did orphan their children. What a tragedy!

When the prophet Nathan confronted David he told the king these words from the Lord:


2 Samuel 12:7–8 (ESV) Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.

David went to the roof to survey all that he had accomplished but he failed to see it was not his accomplishment, it was what the Lord had given him. And then these words, "I would have given you as much more." David settled for too little. He stole what did not belong to him with his own hand when the Lord was ready to give him so much more.

So here are a few things we can learn from David's mistake as a leader:

  1. Do not surround yourself with "Yes" men. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. I have a friend who told me over 30 years ago, "I love you enough to tell you the truth, even if it costs us our relationship." And there have been times that he has, and I love him like a brother.
  2. Never let your guard down. Guard your eyes. Guard your heart. Guard your mind. When you let your guard down the enemy will attack you at your weakest point, and sometimes the weakest point is where you think you are strong but you neglect you protection in that area. Your pride will be your downfall every time.
  3. Don't try to cover your mistakes. Take your lumps and move on. The coverup only makes things worse.
  4. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. There is no such thing as a victimless sin. People who have nothing to do with your sin will also pay the price. Uriah died. Other innocent men died. And the baby born from David's sin died.
  5. Don't settle for too little. God wants to give you so much more than you can even imagine.
  6. Don't live in the failures of the past. When you were a child learning to ride a bike you probably fell off the bike at some point and scraped your knee. But you got back up and rode your bike like a boss. Learn from your mistakes, don't live in them. That is not your identity. The Lord said of David that he "is a man after my own heart" even knowing David would make a huge blunder. The Lord does not see your failures, He sees Jesus. Get back up, get back on the bike, learn from your mistake, and move on forward.