PLANE CRASH EVANGELISM

Today I encountered a story told by Franklin Graham of a remarkable missionary and the timeliness of his preaching through the terror of a plane crash.  Graham writes:

“Traveling in Ethiopia brought to mind a man I met there and got to know in the 1980s. Andy Meakins was a gentle giant of the faith, an Englishman who loved Jesus Christ and served Him in Africa for many years. In 1996 an Ethiopian Airlines flight was hijacked and crashed into the ocean just off the Comoros Islands after running out of fuel—you may have heard the story. The dramatic moment of impact was caught on home video and broadcast around the world. Only later did we learn of something even more dramatic happening in the cabin as the plane headed for disaster.

Andy Meakins and his wife were on that plane, seated together. The hijackers demanded to be flown to Australia even though there wasn't nearly enough fuel for that distance. As they neared the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean, one engine flamed out, and the pilot told passengers that the remaining engine would soon run out of fuel as well. Immediately, Andy's wife heard the snap of a seat belt being unbuckled and turned to see her husband stand up.

"Many of us might die in this crash," he called out, "so there's something you need to know." Andy then began explaining the gospel simply and urgently, moving to each part of the cabin so that everyone would hear. He invited people to place their trust in Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. A flight attendant heard Andy's words, bowed her head, and asked Jesus to forgive her sins and come into her heart. She watched many more respond and, along with another survivor, later told the story. Of the 175 people on board, 125 died, including Andy, who was still on his feet preaching the gospel as the plane hit the water.”

There is no time, nor place where reaching out to others with the plain truth of the Gospel is inappropriate and not needed.  Pray that God will give you a passion for sharing the Good News at any time and anywhere and a sense of urgency as well.  That’s living right and righteous living!

"I want to live right that God may use me,

at any time or anywhere . . ."

THE HIGHEST SPIRITUAL END

Frederick Coutts once wrote:  

“The experience of Christian holiness may be defined as one in which the whole man is redirected toward the highest spiritual end – that is, likeness to Christ, and in this he is granted the continual help of the Holy Spirit.”  

Coutts opens his concluding chapter with this statement and gives us much on which to reflect.

The Whole Person – At the first pass reading the quote above, we might be tempted to jump to the conclusion that Coutts was sexist in his language.  Coutts was writing more than sixty years ago in the normative language of the day.  Given the supportive position of The Salvation Army on women in ministry from it very beginning,  we may assume he was using the phrase “the whole man” generically to mean both men and women.  What is most engaging here is the reference to the whole person:  Body, mind, and spirit; the cognitive, affective, and behavioral; theory, practice, and living; the complete being with nothing left out in pursuit of God’s highest expression of his grace.

Redirected – This strong orientation toward God’s best implies that we are  heading in the wrong direction to begin with.  Sin takes us off course.  The direction in which we naturally are headed is contrary to God’s desire for us.  We are lost unless by the Holy Spirit we are redirected, helped to go forward in the direction best for God perfecting us toward his likeness.  This requires a willingness to be redirected which means repentance so that repentance is an intentional turning away from sin and a redirecting of our journey in way of Christ.  It is a matter of the will, a sanctified will.  God will not force a redirection upon us toward his likeness, but he will guide us by the help of the Holy Spirit us if we will it so.

Toward the highest spiritual end, the likeness of Christ - God’s highest for us is made possible when we grasp the magnitude of God’s love for us and open our minds, hearts, and life to being “filled to the measure of the fullness of God.”  (Ephesians 3:16-19)  The measure is Jesus.  The infilling of the fullness of God, to the brim of whatever may be our capacity to love in return, makes possible the likeness of Christ.  Then the highest expression of our love for God and for others is realized ultimately in revealing the splendor and glory of God.

With The help of the Holy Spirit – In the intimacy of the last supper, Jesus said to his disciples that upon his departure to the father that he would send to them the Holy Spirit, ". . . He (the Holy Spirit) will guide you into all truth . . . he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” (John 16:13&14) “. . . the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of every thing I have said to you.” (John 14:26)  

God does not leave us helpless, but by his grace provides help through the work of the Holy Spirit in us toward his highest spiritual ends, the ever-increasing likeness of Christ in purity of heart to the Glory of God.  Thanks be to God and Glory to his name!

IS "OBEY" ANOTHER FOUR LETTER WORD

Yesterday I had a close call.  On a quiet, back country road, I pulled up to a stop sign with no other cars around.  I came almost to a full stop, but not quite.  I coasted through.  Out of nowhere, there appeared a police car in my rear view mirror.  My heart jumped.  Where did he come from?  Did he see my bogus stop?  Is he going to pull me over?  What can I say to him to mitigate my civil sin?  As it turned out, I kept going and he turned the corner.  Whew!  What a relief.  There was no ticket, no accountability, only cheap grace without consequences.  

My heart settled back down.  But my mind remained in a high gear.  I had a cognitive workout.  All the way home my mind rambled over things like obedience, accountability, faithfulness to civil covenants.  I reflected on a life of rolling through stop signs, always intentionally driving 10% over the speed limit, just enough to not get stopped.  If the speed limit were 60 mph, I would push it to 66 mph, but no further.  I then thought, one’s whole life could be like that, only sinning a little, enough to not really get caught.  Is that true?  Do I speed just a little, coast through the stop signs just a little, bend the truth to those I love just a little, fudge my taxes just a little, pad my resume’ just a little, and so on?  It can be a way of life, a life of cumulative sin.

My narrow escape from a ticket yesterday made me think how sin is cumulative.  One does not have to be an extortionist or murderer to be deep in sin.  The small sins add up.  Quicksand is slow, but effective.  Sin is sin and it is an abomination to God.  He cannot and will not have presence in the midst of sin.  He expects faithfulness and obedience to his commands and directives foremost of which is to love the Lord with all our heart and our neighbor as well as we love ourselves.  Jesus made it crystal clear:  “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love . . .”  (John 15:10).  Obedience is not something that is easily embraced at this time and in the present culture.  I remember saying to my kids when they were young, "If you love me, you will obey me."  The same goes with God.  If we love Him, we will show it in obedience. The Word of God is clear.  If we truly love the Lord we will obey his commands, and be better for it.  We will repent (turn about face) and walk in the same direction as Christ following him.

I confess that yesterday may not be the last time I coast through a stop sign.  If I do in the future, it will be because I was not paying enough attention to my driving.  As the song goes, “I want to live right that God may use me, at any time or any where.”  That means doing my part to obey civil laws and keep my covenant that I made when society gave me a drivers license.  More importantly, it means being faithful to walk every moment of every day in the same direction with Christ and not turn back.  Obey need not be just another four letter word.  It can be our means of showing God that we take His word and His love seriously.

SAYING "SORRY" IS NOT ENOUGH

There was a time in childhood when one of the hardest things in life was to say “sorry” to someone I offended or harmed, usually one of my brothers.  My parents would order me to say the word that seemed stuck in my throat.  Then as children as now with adults, “Sorry” was often mistaken at that moment as an  apology.  It’s not an apology.  It’s an expression of regret for a long list of reasons:  I’m sorry I got caught; I’m sorry I’m to blame; I’m sorry you’re angry at me; I’m sorry I got myself into this situation; and I’m sorry I hurt you.  It’s hard saying it because of pride.  Even when we finally say it, it’s not enough.  It doesn’t guarantee that it won’t happen again.  In “sorry” there is no check against future misbehavior or harm.  What’s needed is not regret, but repentance.

Repentance is a good thing.  It's a new beginning.  It is making a complete change; it’s a 180-degree turn going in the opposite direction and not looking or going back.  It’s going in the direction that Christ is going. It is a matter of the will. It is moving away from the self-will that runs contrary to the love of God. It is aligning self-will to Christ’s will which is always loving and kind.  John Wesley puts it like this:

Sooner or later after he is justified, the believer feels self-will, a will contrary to the will of God.  Now a will is an essential part of the nature of every intelligent being, even our blessed Lord Himself.  But His human will was always subject to the will of His Father.  The case with even true believers in Christ is that they frequently find their will more or less exalting their self-will with all their might, and thus they continue in the faith.

But self-will, as well as pride, is a species of idolatry.  Both are directly contrary to the love of God, as is the love of the world. . . If one does not continually watch and pray, he feels the strongest urges toward loving the creature (self) more than the Creator . . .  (In the pursuit of one’s self will) he is prone to forget God.  And for this, even the true believer needs to repent.[1]

“Sorry” is not enough. When it’s only “sorry,” it’s a good sign that the self-will is out of alignment with the God’s will.  It's time to change and to walk with him in loving-kindness and in the strength He provides to confess, repent, follow Christ in the direction of loving kindness, and forgive.

[1] Renew My Heart: John Wesley, (Barbour Publishing: Uhrichsville, Ohio), 2011, pp.214&215.

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SURPRISED BY GOD AGAIN

The other day I found myself in a conversation with my daughter.  We were being intimate about spiritual realities.  I said to her, “Its my experience that when I am faithful to daily encounter the Lord through scripture and prayer, he has a way of impacting others around me through my life.  I hope you are engaged in those disciplined, daily habits of the heart so that little Jacob (her 8 month old) will grow-up impacted by the quality of your walk with God.”  Then I told her this story . . .

“When you were a little girl in Hawaii, there was a very wonderful young lady at the university who was my secretary.  Her name is Sherry.  Sherry’s parents were Buddhists.  When she was little they sent Sherry and her sister to a Methodist church Sunday school for ‘moral training.’  Sherry was not a Christian, but she was a very good person.  She was a single mom with a young daughter.  She was also an excellent secretary.

In my work at the university, I had a very heavy travel schedule back to Washington and Atlanta (Centers for Disease Control) for funding and out into the Pacific and Asia for the projects that we were contracted to do.  So, I was often out of the office.  It was my habit to have an open Bible on my desk. I read a portion every day I was in the office.  Often I would highlight a verse or passage.  It was just a way of maintaining my personal devotions and walk with the Lord.

One day, when I returned from a trip, Sherry came into my office, sat down in a chair and began to cry.  She was always so upbeat and cheerful.  This was a big departure.  I said, ‘Sherry, what’s wrong?  What’s happened?’  She was obviously distraught and sad.  After a few moments of silence, in tears she said, ‘When you travel I sit at your desk and read the parts of the Bible that you underline.  God has been speaking to me.  I want to become a Christian, but I don’t know how.’  I paused to take that all in and then said, ‘Oh, Sherry.  It’s easy.  I will say a prayer and if the words of my prayer are the desire of your heart then just repeat them as your words.’ 

I prayed a simple prayer of repentance, of petition for Christ to forgive sins, to enter in and take over heart and life, and to be Savior and Lord.  When Sherry finished her prayer, I looked up.  She was beaming with the biggest smile.  She had given her heart and life to the Lord.  We found a Bible believing faith community in her neighborhood so she would have support as a new born follower of Christ.”

Is not God amazing?  I was surprised by God once again.  He asks us to be faithful in our walk with him and then He does the unexpected.  He takes our faithfulness and daily walk and impacts those around us.  

To Sherry I had titles.  I was “Dr. Raymond, Professor Raymond, The Boss,” etc. but in reality God gave me a testimony.  Tony Colson preaches a sermon on “Titles and Testimonies.”  He says “Titles are nice, but more important are testimonies.”   Today, I’d rather be a testimony than have a title.  Thanks be to God who surprises us.  He is able to do so much more than we may imagine when in the small ways we are faithful.