THE GREAT MOVIES OF 1939

They say 1939 was a great year for movies: Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz," Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in "Gone With the Wind," Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." 

"The Wizard of Oz" had an impact on people because it came out in during the miseries of the Great Depression" and people needed hope that there was something better "somewhere, over the rainbow." "Gone with the Wind" was a huge best-seller as a book, so it had a built-in audience before it was released for its debut in Atlanta. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"is about Jefferson Smith, a naive local hero who stands tall for what he believes to be right against the political bosses who got him into the office so he'd cooperate with their nefarious plans.

That's quite a line-up. I've seen "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and I've seen "The Wizard of Oz," in spite of the fact that there's a lot of singing in it, but I've never seen "Gone with the Wind." My family tried to educate me to its greatness, but I fell asleep somewhere during that long, long movie. 

But regardless of my Philistine ways about "Gone with the Wind," those were the big three movies of 1939, movies that are now considered classics.

But, how about another 1939 movie, Secret Service Of The Air, featuring Lt. “Brass” Bancroft — a pilot who gets recruited by the Secret Service to infiltrate and help bring down a ruthless gang of smugglers based just below the American border in Mexico? Ever hear of that film? They made four Brass Bancroft movies.

You never heard of Brass Bancroft? Me neither. Join the crowd. One critic wrote: "In all earnestness, none of these films about Brass Bancroft are what most people would refer to as 'good.' These were little more than wartime B movies when they were made."

Forgettable. Certainly not "Gone with the Wind." The Brass Bancroft movies were so bad that those who played in them said they were awful, just awful. Even the star said that the first Brass Bancroft movie was the worst film he ever made.

But there was this little boy, a kid named Jerry Parr, living in Miami, who made his father take him to see that first one. More than once. Jerry was ten years old at the time and he loved that movie. It captured his imagination so much, he vowed that, when he grew up, he would become a Secret Service agent.

But you know boys. Growing up, they want to be baseball players, cowboys, firemen, or policemen, but their immature, impossible hankerings go away as they mature and they settle for being plumbers, accountants, lawyers, and regular, boring 9-5 guys, not Secret Service agents.

But not Jerry Parr. Jerry fulfills his dream and becomes one of those few, super-select men, a Secret Service agent.

 Jerry Parr

Forty-two years later, on March 30, 1981, he's there when John Hinckley opens fire at President Ronald Reagan. It's the duty of Jerry Parr to guard the President of the United States, and, if necessary, to give his life for the Chief Executive.

Parr braves the bullets, grabs Reagan, and pushes him into the waiting car. It's Parr who sees the President coughing up blood. It's Parr who makes the split-second decision to head straight to the hospital, although he doesn't know just how bad it is--a bullet had sliced into Reagan's chest, causing massive internal bleeding.

It was Jerry Parr's lightning fast actions and decisions that saved the President's life that day, 42 years after seeing that movie. Brass Bancroft could not have done better.

Jerry Parr was there that day because his dad took him to a bad B movie way back in 1939. If his Dad lived to see that day, I'm sure he was mighty proud of his son. What father wouldn't be? I'm sure the President was proud of Jerry Parr that day. And the actor who played Brass Bancroft, Secret Service agent would have been proud of Jerry too.

And that actor was proud! You see, it was Reagan who, in 1939, was Brass Bancroft in that movie, the film he said was the worst he ever made. History makes some fascinating turns, doesn't it?

It reminds me of the story Peggy Walters told. Her neighbors, Tom and Nancy, called on her because their baby was on the way and they needed help fast. There was no time to get anywhere for the birth, so Peggy came as fast as she could. Peggy said that her friend Nancy was having a pretty had labor. "Harder than most, but not as hard as some," was the way she put it.

Looking back, after the birth, Peggy remembered that both parents were very proud when the boy was born, that the Tom was beaming, after he learned that Nancy was OK. Peggy said that Tom and Nancy had a name picked out, but Nancy suggested they change it right then and there. Earlier, they had wanted to name the baby "Tom," but that wasn't to be his name. They opted for another name, not "Tom," but "Abraham," and thus baby Abraham was born that Sunday to Tom and Nancy Lincoln.

There's an old story people tell, a fictional one, about that Sunday, February 12, 1809. At the end of the day two men, residents of Hodgenville, Kentucky, are talking about the day's events and one asks the other, "Any news today?" The other answers, "No, nothing much. Tom and Nancy Lincoln had a baby boy this morning, but that's about it."

 Few outside the Lincoln family thought much about the event.

If Jerry Parr's dad was a lot like me, I think he forgot all about taking Jerry to see Brass Bancroft. One time when some of my children were asked what they remembered most about growing up and what I said or did with them, what they mentioned were things I didn't even remember doing, and when they refreshed my memory, I still didn't remember those things, but to them, they were important things from 20--30 years ago. Go figure.

 We never know what the results will be of the little, forgettable things we do, do we? In retrospect, what 1939 movie had the greatest impact? It wasn't "Gone with the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz," or "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." It was that forgotten little terrible B-movie--the Brass Bancroft movie, the film that inspired Jerry Parr to be there to save the life of the President of the United States who would later command, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and that Berlin wall came down. The Soviet Union, what Reagan called, "The Evil Empire," crashed and burned, changing world history, both events coming after Parr's heroic saving of the President's life.

You may never see the results that your reading and explaining a story in the Bible will have on some six year old kid. You may never know what that child you tell about Christ will do for God. You may never know the results of your teaching that Sunday school class or taking your children to church or discussing some spiritual truth with them.

A Brass Bancroft movie changing the world? Who would have thought! Long live the memory of Jerry's dad!
__________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

SHAME, SHAME ON THE YELLOW BIRDS

I'm an avid reader, so avid that wherever I go, I take a book, just in case I have some spare time. Reading for pleasure is a delight; reading because you have to is drudgery. Short and simple, I like to read.

But it was not always so. When I was in the first grade, reading was an exercise in humiliation for a group of us. Our teacher, Mrs. Berry, and our classmates knew us as "The Yellow Birds." Everyday, the teacher called the Yellow Birds to come and sit with her at the reading table and it was there that we read all about Dick and Jane and their dog Spot.

After we were through, the teacher called on the Red Birds to come to the table and they read too, only the Red Birds were better readers than we Yellow Birds. The Yellow Birds weren't as smart as the Red Birds.
After the Red Birds finished, then the premiere group, the Blue Birds, took wing and came to the table. The Yellow Birds were the low group on the totem pole. Everybody in the room could read "Dick and Jane" better than we.  Compared to the Blue Birds, we were dumb and dumber squared.

Somehow though, nothing short of a miracle occurred as the year progressed. For some reason, I began reading better, until one day, I became Mrs. Berry told me to move up to the Red Birds! That was a big day for me, so big, I still remember it. I was mighty proud because I didn't know that pride was a sin, and even if I had known, I'd still have been full of hubris and enjoyed it to the hilt.

I started to read with the Red Birds and more time went by. Then one day, Mrs. Berry promoted me to the Bluebirds, and at long last, I had arrived! Now, instead of being looked down upon, I could look down on everybody else! At age seven, the cup of my pride was running over and I enjoyed it. In that classroom, I, and only I, had moved from worst to first, and was now sitting proudly everyday with the Blue Birds, looking down from my lofty perch (pun intended) on the lowly Red and Yellow Birds from whence I'd come. I was Joseph whom God had delivered from the pit.

Hey, this was back in the days before anyone thought of "social promotion." This was back in the day when you didn't get a "participation trophy." If you didn't win, sorry, deal with it, no trophy for you. If Mrs. Berry moved you up, you had earned it. Neither she nor any other teacher gave a moment's thought that it might damage your psyche to be a "Yellow Bird," known by one and all as a dumb reader. If you want to move up, then start reading better or stay a Yellow Bird all your first grade life. Back then, Bluebirds had to earn their feathers.

I have no idea how it happened, but something must have clicked somewhere along the line that year. And since that time, reading has been important, as well as pleasurable to me. Mrs. Berry never knew how many books I'd read over the years and that I'd write three; she was just a good teacher doing a good job with the pitiful Yellow Bird minds fate had dealt her.

There are far, far too many people who are Yellow Birds when it comes to reading the Bible. Like the Yellow Birds, their reading skills are poor. Oh, they may be the cream of the crop, Harvard, Yale, or Texas Tech graduates, but their Bible reading skills are terrible.

How so?

Because they're reading as if it's a Dick and Jane Rule Book on how to get to heaven. As they read the Bible, they read, "Don't do this," and "Do that," and they read it as if, by their not doing XYZ and by their doing ABC, they'll get to heaven. That's a Yellow Bird skill level.

The Yellow Birds just don't get it: heaven is a free gift (aren't all gifts free?). God is the great Giver: He gave His only Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He gives forgiveness of sin and eternal life without cost to us when we trust Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the dead, having finished all that needed to be done to be able to save us without its costing us a thing.

Yellow Birds are constantly seeing but not seeing, hearing but not hearing, reading but not reading. For the Yellow Birds, "believe" is a hard word; "faith"is even more difficult, and "grace" is the hardest of them all.

They see those three words over and over again, yet they don't read that it is by believing (trusting) in Christ's finished work alone that God saves them from the guilt and penalty of their sin. Instead, when the Yellow Birds see "believes in" in John 3:16, they read "works for" instead. They read it as, "Whosover works for Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

When the Bible-reading Yellow Birds gather around the table in Mrs. Berry's class and she asks one of them to read Romans 3:24, he reads, "Being justified through working for it;" he doesn't read what it's saying, "being justified as a gift." But that's a Yellow Bird for you.

She calls on another student to read Ephesians 2:8-9. He reads, "For by works are you saved through effort, and that is of yourself; it is the payment of God to you."

Mrs. Berry calls on the next Yellow Bird to read Romans 3:28, and he looks at the Book and reads, "For we maintain that a man is justified through works . . ." The Yellow Bird has missed it again!

There was one Yellow Bird that was the best of all the Yellow Birds, so Mrs. Berry asked him to read John 19:30, an easy sentence if ever there was one. The Yellow Bird looked at the verse and read, "He [Jesus] said, 'It is incomplete.'"

"This is pathetic," Mrs. Berry thought, "finished is a simple word, even a Yellow Bird should be able to see that the word isn't "incomplete," yet these Yellow Birds are missing it." 

Mrs. Berry is getting frustrated with the Yellow Birds, but she calls on another to read Romans 5:9, and the reader says, "Much more then, having now been justified by our works we shall be saved . . ."

Mrs. Berry has had enough! The Yellow Birds can't read the simplest statements in the Gospel of John and they can't read Romans either. These Yellow Birds are stupid. Illiterate.

"Shame, shame on the Yellow Birds," Mrs. Berry says, and rightfully so.

________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
 





 

WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THIS CITY FOR CHRIST!

Evangelistic campaigns often have lofty goals, such as the title for this article notes. 

The evangelist, the pastor, and the church or group of churches will conduct evangelistic endeavors as if they were engaging in battle. They map out the city by quadrants and delegate their troops to all the sections they've marked. They train their foot soldiers in the method they're going to use and this method is their ammunition which they'll fire at the unbeliever. Usually this method is a scripted approach which comes with "If-they-say-this-then-you say-this" list of things to memorize.

Every battle has an objective and for the evangelistic campaign, the pastor sums it up: "We're going to take this city for Christ." 

In order to seize the city, the troops must capture the mayor, the city council, other various officials, and the school board. (Good luck with that.)

After their rigorous training in the method of choice the troops move into the various quadrants that are their responsibility, many of them hoping against hope that no one answers the door when they knock. They're overwhelmed by the script and hope they don't get lost trying to remember the contents of pages 7-8, and they're so unnerved by the task and the fear of someone's arguing with them that their knees are knocking together. 

There are many problems with this scenario, but let's focus on one: the pastor has set both an impossible and unbiblical goal for them, a goal so far out of reach that he may as well have told them to go to the shores of the Pacific and throw a rock all the way to Hawaii. 

The Great Commission never tells us to take a city for Christ, nor offers the hope that we can. History shows us that Christ never took a city for Christ, in fact, He found opposition in His own home town to the extent that the citizens "were filled with rage and rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff" (Luke 4). Not exactly giving Him the key to the city.

Did Christ take Jerusalem, the capital city? No. In Jerusalem He heard the shouts of "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!

Did Paul win cities for Christ? No way. They stoned him in one town, ran him out of several, while the educated elites of Athens laughed at him. He sometimes shook the dust off his feet and left.

What did Paul say of his winning people to Christ? "I become all things to all men so that I might win some." He didn't set the unrealistic goal for himself of winning "all" and in no Scripture are we commanded to "take and hold a city for Christ." Paul never said, "I become all things to all men that I might win and control cities.

Yet, that's exactly what some are advocating. "Have you ever really considered taking your city and holding it for Jesus," a newsletter asks its readers. The church has no command to take and hold a city for Jesus, to rule over society, any society; we do have the command to give the gospel, to make disciples, but a command to take over cities? No. 

Those in the let's-take-our-city-for-Christ-movement see themselves as the "architects of cultural change," which is their term for their desire: to reshape the society. 

Back to Christ and Paul: did Christ change the culture of His home town of Nazareth? No. Did Christ change the culture of Jerusalem? No. Did Paul lead the charge up the Seven Hills of Rome and change the Roman Empire? No. Its leaders remained either corrupt and insane or both and its people imitated their leaders into the pit. 

Fallen man has within him an egocentric power lust and this is the case with those who would tell us to take and hold cities for Christ. Listen to the words of their power lust: "God's people doing the will of God will take dominion over the power of Satan, paralyze parliaments, change legislation, and run the devil off the face of the earth. God's people doing the will of God will bring about God's purposes and God's reign [on earth]."

Really? Where, exactly, do we see these things happening? There's no country which is becoming Christian and there's not a single city in the world where Christ rules. Corrupt parliaments are alive and kicking, not paralyzed; Satan is still alive and well on the planet earth, and there's no nation  baptizing any legislation into the Christian faith, so get let's get real.

We have such sin natures that even if it were possible for Christians to take and hold a city for Christ, that power would not only corrupt, but it would also corrupt absolutely. A dictatorship by any other name still smells the same. 

By taking and holding a city for Christ, would they require everyone to go to church? (Which church?) Would they require all Jewish people to be baptized or face execution? Would their social architecture require everyone memorize John 3:16? Ban alcohol, books? Would the they arrest and execute those practicing the occult? Would the they arrest and execute homosexuals, blasphemers, adulterers, and those who lie under oath? 

Don't laugh; some who want to take and hold your city for Christ are advocating such laws.

Don't laugh, history says that they would enact such laws. The governments of France forced conversions in 626 AD; Italy did the same in 661 AD, as did Spain in 616 AD, Rome, ditto.

In 1648, the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America instituted fines for anyone caught working on a Sunday. The authorities hauled some members of the congregation into court for the crime of sleeping in church. (The jails must have been full!)

In Colonial Virginia, Governor Thomas Dale forced everyone to attend church or face severe penalties. If you dared to disparage a minister, the fine was 500 pounds of tobacco and an apology. Hey, that law doesn't sound so bad. :)

In Colonial Virginia, a minister, by law, had preach Anglican doctrine or be punished. 

Massachusetts arrested, tried, and banished the expecting Anne Hutchinson for challenging its Calvinism. For her "crimes" against the state, they threw her out in the snow to leave on foot. 

Massachusetts sent Roger Williams into exile from Salem for "disseminating dangerous information" and saying that the Indians should be paid for the land taken from them, and that's how we have Rhode Island today.

We've all stood in our churches and sung a hymn which reflects this capture-your-city-idea. Listen to it:

We've a story to tell to the nations, 
 that shall turn their hearts to the right, 
 a story of truth and mercy, 
 a story of peace and light, 
 a story of peace and light. 

For the darkness shall turn to dawning, 
 and the dawning to noonday bright; 
 and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, 
 the kingdom of love and light. 

 We've a song to be sung to the nations, 
 that shall lift their hearts to the Lord, 
 a song that shall conquer evil 
 and shatter the spear and sword,
 and shatter the spear and sword. 
  
We've a Savior to show to the nations, 
 who the path of sorrow hath trod, 
 that all of the world's great peoples 
 might come to the truth of God, 
 might come to the truth of God. 

This hymn is blatant in its advocacy of postmillennialism. It's saying that the church will bring the kingdom of Christ to earth by its efforts. Taking and holding a city for Christ are part of those efforts.

One author writes, "I’ve come to believe it is wrong to sing lyrics that express theology with which you strongly disagree.  It seems dishonest–IF you think that singing a hymn or song is something serious and not frivolous."

Song writers pen hymns to teach doctrine; we should only sing songs that are true to the Word of God and not mindlessly warble anything with a catchy tune. We are thankful at the Hangar Bible Fellowship; our song leader evaluates every song we sing by the Bible. The hymn must pass the test or we don't sing it.

We do have a story to tell to the nations--Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins, rose from the dead. The payment He made was a finished one, a perfect one, a complete one. There is no work we can add to it; it's finished. There is no sin to give up; it's finished. There is no promise to try to be better to be made; it's finished. It's on the basis of that complete and perfect work that God promises everlasting life to anyone who trusts Christ alone for it. 

But the idea that our telling that story will result in nations shattering their spears and swords and that by our telling the story nations will come to the truth of God and then Christ's great kingdom will come to earth isn't going to happen. 

Read this morning's newspaper, any newspaper, and you'll see one story after another that there is no "Christian nation" on the earth today as witness this recent headline from our own capital: "Teen thugs in D. C. Run Wild--Even While Wearing GPS Ankle Bracelets."

As the Bible says, "Evil men . . . will get worse and worse" as time goes on. Our task is that, by telling the story of Christ and Him crucified, we will win some, we will disciple some. 
_______________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
 

 

HERE COMES FLASHMAN!

In 1857, Thomas Hughes wrote Tom Brown's School Days, the chronicle of an English boys' boarding school. PBS made the book into a series for Masterpiece Theater and, it's such a powerful story that there are three movies based on the trials, tribulations, and torture of Tom Brown at the prestigious Rugby School.

The modern generation will be interested to know that Tom Brown's School Days had a direct influence on J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. Her first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has many direct parallels in structure and theme to Tom Brown's School Days.

At Rugby School, the boys learn to parse the verbs and decline the nouns of Latin and Greek under the stern eyes of rigorous teachers. They delve into history and mathematics; they play soccer on the pitch. Sounds like a good education, a pedagogical paradise. But into this Edenic education comes the serpent, a boy named Flashman who, in accord with the hoary tradition of the school, is a bully and eleven year old Tom Brown is his target. 

Flashman turns Tom Brown's school days into a hell on earth. Bullying back then in the English boarding schools was rife, notorious, and cruel. It didn't consist of memorizing and reciting facts that would make you a winner of any Trivial Pursuit Game on earth. The bullying at Rugby School left scars. 

Flashman forces Tom stand in front of and so close to a fire that his clothes smoulder and the heat burns young Tom who is expected, by the unwritten ancient code of the students, to take it in silence; not one of the authorities at Rugby School is to know. To snitch is to betray the code.

Thomas Hughes so finely etched the character of Flashman that his very name has become shorthand for "Bully," just as Harriett Beecher Stowe did with the cruel and greedy Simon Legree in Uncle Tom's Cabin whose name we use for an overbearing boss.

Bullying is a hot topic in our society because the Flashmans yet walk among us in our schools, ride on our school buses. The brutality of the hazing at the Rugby School lives on in fraternities, school clubs, school bands, and various student organizations both formally and informally.

And you know what? There are Christian Flashmans abroad in the land, those who want you to toe the mark on their legalism and their whims, and if you don't, those sweet saints will morph into Flashman and you will pay and pay until their bullying has done its cruel work, that is, until you submit.

The tactics of the Christian bully aren't those of Flashman, but by the time the church bully is through with you, he will have burned you. The Christian Flashman has many arrows in his (or her) quiver and once they find their mark, you'll find them to be the cruelest cut of all.

One of the especially pointed arrows is that of silence. Flashman will freeze you out of the inner circle. The Christian bully will converse with you, but his responses will be in monosyllables until you get the unspoken point, "I don't want to share my life with you, in fact, I don't even want to talk to you." He plans his silence and works the plan.

There are other flinty weapons in Flashman's quiver. Flashman loves emotional blackmail. To get you and others to bow before his desires, the bully will storm out of meetings, just so you'll know that he or she has been offended, and he wants you to know, "Offending me is not a good thing." This is a clever ploy by which the bully knows he can have his way with you if he storms out of a meeting with flags flying and drums beating. Next time you'll be careful not to offend him at the church business meeting, You'll come around; you'll vote his way. Egg shells now litter the aisles of the sanctuary.

Emotional blackmail also includes the tantrum: don't you dare upset the bully, lest he explode and his anger, like lava, pour all over you and others at the meeting. To get his way, the church bully will always hold a potential explosion over the collective heads of the assembled. She learned the tactic long ago; that's how she's gotten her way in her office, in her family, and so, why not bring the threat to the church business meetings? It's worked everywhere else, why won't in work in the sanctuary?  It won't be long before you and the others will learn your lesson and let her have her way lest her fury, lie a woman scorned, erupt.

Flashman's quiver is never empty. There are other arrows at his disposal to get you to say, "How high," to his, "Jump!" The bully will stoop to secret meetings held for the purpose of dealing with you and when word gets back to you that others have been in conclave, you can easily be intimidated. Mission accomplished. The secret meeting may masquerade as a prayer meeting or a Bible study to give it a spiritual hue.

A favorite arrow is that of the innuendo: "I heard that (insert your name here) wrote a bad check in 1987," the bully says to others. Flashman is clever; when the claim is shown to be false, he can say, "All I said was that I heard he wrote a bad check;  I didn't say he did." But his hope is that the innuendo will snowball into an irretrievable rumor that takes a life of its own.

Then there's the quilt trip. The bully suggests to the conscientious victim that he or she does not care enough, is too selfish, or has it too easy. This usually results in the victim's feeling bad, keeping him in a self-doubting, anxious, and submissive position. Many a pastor has a Ph. D. in guilt-tripping.

The arrows of the bully multiply: he uses sarcasm and put-downs to increase fear and self-doubt in the victim. He makes you feel unworthy. A fierce look or glance, an unpleasant tone of voice can do the job. Bullies can make you feel ashamed for even daring to challenge them. 

There's a soft arrow in the quiver of the manipulative bully: The Arrow of Tears. If all else fails, the bully tears up so as to get her way. (This is arrow of choice among female bullies.) Many have noted this manipulative strategy. "When a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears," so said Dionysius Cato way back in the 4th century AD. And the fictional character, Sam Slick notes: "Every woman is wrong until she cries, and then she is right - instantly." Mothers are adept at this form of manipulation and only compound the problem when they bring their tears to church to get a meeting to go their way.
 
What are we to do about the Flashmans, Christian or otherwise? Ah, Proverbs to the rescue! A first principle is Proverbs 20:22 and Proverbs 19:11--don't retaliate in kind (let God handle the bully) and don't get angry. (The bully isn't worth it.)

But is that all Proverbs says? Those are good principles, but are there more?

I'm glad you asked; the good news is, "Yes," and this is where we see the strong bones of  Proverbs underneath its holy cover.

Are you supposed to become a Pollyanna doormat for the muddy feet of the Christian bullies of this world? Is our method to follow the lyrics to the song, "Open Up Your Heart?"

"Mommy told me something a little kid should know.
It's all about the devil and I've learned to hate him so.
She said he causes trouble when you let him in the room.
He will never ever leave you if your heart is filled with gloom.

"So let the sun shine in, face it with a grin.
Smilers never lose and frowners never win.
So let the sun shine in, face it with a grin
Open up your heart and let the sun shine in."

Are we to "Let the sun shine in, face the bully with a grin and take repeated slaps to the face?" Not according to the Bible.

There's danger in the bully: "Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly" (Proverbs 17:12). You're in danger when you put yourself close to the bully. So . . .

"Do not associate with a man given to anger, or go with a hot-tempered man"  (Proverbs 22:24). And . . .
Proverbs 20:3: "Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel." 

So, here it is, the end of the matter, presented in living color by Solomon himself: Do not repay bullying for bullying; be kind to the bully, but don't be stupid enough to continually put yourself in the same position to be mistreated by the fool. Remove yourself from the church and the bullies who are hurting you and are cruel to you.
 __________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
 

YES, WE HAVE NO BUTTER

YES, WE HAVE NO BUTTER

A waiter once told me that there was one complaint he'd never heard from a diner: "This has too much butter." We love butter; it adds a flavor that tantalizes the taste. During WWII, the U. S. government rationed butter. "Red Stamp" rationing covered all meats, butter, fat, and oils, and with some exceptions, cheese. (Rationing cheese was a good thing; it's terrible.)  You couldn't walk into a store and buy all you wanted of whatever the government rationed. 

"Yes, we have no butter," was the watchword of the day. Our government decided that the American people would have to learn to limit their use of it. So families, in good patriotic fashion, willingly gave up butter. 

But, did you know that while our government was rationing butter, it sent 217,660,666 pounds of it to the Russia? While our government was saying "Yes, we have no butter," to its own people, it was shipping over 108 tons of it to the Soviets. Say what?

Wait a minute! You mean that we couldn't have butter, but Stalin and his communists could have 108 tons of ours? That's what the record says. This looks like an example of our government's depriving our families, our men, women and children, of what's ours and sending it to a foreign government, a communist regime at that!

According to Stanford historian Norman Naimark, Stalin "had nearly a million of his own citizens executed, beginning in the 1930s. Millions more fell victim to forced labor, deportation, famine, massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin's henchmen."

He continues, "In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested, [which] some officials over fulfilled as a way of showing their exuberance." (Stalin's Genocide)

And that butcher gets our butter!

Let's think about this. If a government can deprive and hurt its own people, can a church do the same? Can shepherds deprive their flocks, not of butter, but of still waters and green pastures?

I would submit to you that pastors, elders, and deacons deprive their flocks of still waters and green pastures with impunity, all for the sake of their "vision." Legion are the visionaries who've declared with with Bible in hand, “God has called us to build a new building, and we need to step out on faith. We need  more space, and God is leading us to build.”

In a quest for more, bigger, and better buildings, many a shepherd has led his flock into debt and, consequently, must put pressure on them to get their wool.

 Here's one sad scenario that happened to the Lookout Mountain Community Church. The pastor left the church and when he did, their debt burden became impossible to carry. Long story short, good-bye edifice. Mr. Banker foreclosed on them.

Their cost was more than financial; the foreclosure took a personal and emotional toll on the sheep. The congregation had worked hard; they wanted to repay the debt. They made sacrifices. They cut the budget everywhere they could. In the end, they said, "We just couldn't pay it back." There were no still waters in Lookout Mountain Community Church as the handwriting on the wall became more and more legible.

A west coast church borrowed millions for a new building. But the giving dropped and the church had to refinance, yet the struggle continued. When the church was late on one payment, the bank moved in and took over the church finances, required budget cuts from the staff and "suggested" that cuts be made in other areas. The church had literally fulfilled the aphorism of Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender."

Some creditors go to great lengths when a church can't pay the money it owes.  The horror stories abound: more than a few church leaders who have personally guaranteed their church's loans have been pursued by the creditors and in a few rare cases, the church members themselves have been billed to pay the bad debt. It's scary when the bank, carrying its shears, comes after sheep.

But we can hear the church shepherds saying at the pledge dinners: "We need to build to attract new people, to expand our parking, to have ministries (i. e. "recreation") for youth, for Sunday school space, for outreach to the community, and to keep pace with the ecclesiastical competition (i. e. "to get our market share.") Shepherds are creative; they can invent many reasons.

There is no need, no ministry, no vision, however pressing, that justifies putting any sheep or all the sheep in a position of being a surety for the debt and of becoming the slaves of the First National Bank. In fact the Bible is clear: Don't do it! The person who becomes surety for the debt of another is likened unto an animal caught in a trap. He is exhorted to sleep no more until he has got out of the trap, or freed himself from this obligation Proverbs 6:1-5. The warnings continue in Proverbs 11:15; 17:18; 22:26.  

When that happens, debt dominates everything from the sermons and Sunday school lessons to every hand-wringing business meeting as the slaves try to figure out new ways to get the wool needed for the next payment. Debt can so dominate the church that the sheep violate III John 7 and go after the "wool" of the goats. 

It never occurs to the slaves to ask more basic questions than "Where are we going to get the money?" And, truth be told, by then, it's too late to ask the questions anyway.

But how about asking,"Is it the church's God-given task to provide recreation for its youth and go into debt for a youth center." Or, "Is it the church's task to provide a Sunday school class for the children, or should the church train the parents to provide biblical instruction at home?" (If the churches weren't crushed by debt, the shepherds could write and publish grace-oriented literature for its children of all ages.)

Another thought question: "Is it the task of the church to build a children's wing for children's church, instead of the children's sitting with their parents in the service?" Four and five year old children sit all morning in K4 and K5 classes at school, while first graders attend school for seven hours a day.

But they can't understand the sermons preached in the auditorium. But, if the parents were doing their job of training them, they would be understanding more than we think.

How in the world did churches of bye-gone days produce stalwart Christian adults who never sat in a children's church, in fact, who never even heard of a children's church? Besides that, there is something dynamic about a six-year old sitting with a seventy-six year old. And, we might ask, do the parents even know what's being taught in children's church or their SS class?

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

Here's another thought: Are not these buildings spreading out like a college campus and demanding cash payments every thirty days silent witnesses to the fact that the churches are failures at training their parents to pass on the faith to their own children? Are they not mute testimonies saying to Dad and Mom, "You're such dismal losers, you can't even provide the proper Christian recreation for your own children. Don't worry, we're going into debt to save your children from your pathetic parenting."

I know that shepherds "cast their vision" before the sheep and lead the sheep to vote for the vision, but what about the sheep who baa, "Nay?" If enough of the sheep baa, "Yea," then the Yea group of sheep has just forced the other group into debt against their will. When the payments get hard to come by, the minority sheep become more and more resentful. Angry business meetings ensue.

The shepherds have inflicted damage on the flock Paul charged them to protect. The sheep are restless. The waters are no longer still. The pastures have ceased to be green.

Debt, cruel and relentless with its monthly demands, is now their shepherd.
________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, "Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church," is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

I NEED LOVERS

I NEED LOVERS

I need lovers. There's nothing quite as exciting as a lover and when a lover comes into your life, man, oh man, they're the spice of life. The fine arts, literature, music, TV and movies demonstrate the power of the lover in our lives. Lovers change us, impact us, and nothing is ever the same once a lover enters your life.

The lover I need isn't the one the novelist writes about, not the one the movies and TV glamorize. I'm not talking about the Romeos, the Lotharios, and the Delilahs. I'm talking about the philosophers.

Say what? Philosophers? Yes, the lovers I need are philosophers. In the etymological sense of the word, "phil" is a Greek root meaning "love," and the rest of the word means "wisdom," so a philosopher is "a lover of wisdom." 

I crave friends and relatives who are out and out, certified, card-carrying passionate lovers of wisdom. I want to be with philosophers every chance I get, and when I'm not, I feel as if I'm on Mars, in another world.

This brings us to the next step: what is wisdom? There's a book that answers that question: Proverbs, a book which mentions "wisdom" almost 50 times, a book which tells me that the starting point for a philosopher (a lover of wisdom) is "the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:7; 9:10). 

To have a fear of the Lord is to have the proper perspective of Him. I require that the starting point for my lovers be that they have a proper perspective of God, a perspective which can only be gained from the Bible. My lovers must be philosophers who place their love of God's wisdom over money and pleasure (Prov. 16:16).

My lovers can't armchair philosophers--I want to see their passion for wisdom in action (James 1:13; 3:17-18). And when I do, I'll see gentle people, not judgmental, argumentative folks, nor pugilists spoiling for a fight. These philosophers show me "righteousness and peace," not drama.

I don't want those who've read Proverbs and said, "Thanks, but no thanks." They're one soap opera after another. Isaiah wrote about them, saying, ["they] are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud" (Isaiah 57:20).

What have you noticed some things about Christian youth who refuse to become the philosophers I'm talking about? Look at their lives 40 years later. Look at their arms and see the needle tracks. Look at the broken lives and ruined relationships they've left in their wake; look at the people they've needlessly gashed by word and deed.

Look into their eyes and see the hollow men, men for whom life is now flat, a dull brown; the technicolor is gone. For them, zest is a bar of soap. Their eyes don't have the light of life.

Look at their resume and read of jail sentences here and there. Look at their inflated car insurance premiums or note their use of public transportation because the authorities suspended their driver's licenses. Read the police reports of injuries they caused to themselves and others because they started the ignition non compos mentis.

Look at their bodies, old before their time. Why? After thirty years of rejecting the promise of Proverbs to be "health to their bones," their bones have grown old, and are now eighty year-old bones locked in a forty-year old body. 

Look at their mental landscape--they're not as sharp as they should and used to be. They're like a fighter who's taken too many blows to body and brain, they're the punch drunk pugilist has-been who never was all he could have been who shuffles down the street, the object of pity by all who see him. 

All so avoidable. Such things didn't have to be.

I knew such a believer; he and I, the same age, went to the same school. We both were exposed to the Bible, to Proverbs. He went one way; I went the other. He was smart as a whip, an IQ way up there. 

He began to argue with the Book and with everyone who loved it, developed that angry spirit the Bible warns us against, and put a lot of things into his body he shouldn't. 

Proverbs wasn't for him. Thanks, but no thanks. He was the demographic at whom ad agencies aim their commercials during football games, trumpeting beer, women, cars, and, as always, fun. His response was an ad agency's dream come true.

I'd see him rarely, only periodically, and when I did, I noticed that, as the years went by, he began to look like the picture of Dorian Grey. The years were piling up, years he couldn't get back, even if, he, like Esau of old, "repented with tears." 

He'd made his choices, choices made in spite of the grace of God calling him back to Proverbs, back to the Bible. He had openly scorned the old Book, argued with it and others about it, closed his ears to  Wisdom's calling in the streets to come feast at her banquet (Prov. 9). He preferred to sit at the world's table.

There came a time when, after the countless calls of Wisdom, "that was all she wrote." Proverbs says that Wisdom will call only for so long a time. As the repeated refusals pile up over the years, the "dread comes like a storm, the calamity like a whirlwind, distress and anguish come . . ." Choices become irrevocable (Prov. 1:24-27).

At the end, he'd become a poster boy for the old adage: "He broke all the rules until the rules broke him."

No, thanks. I want philosophers in my life. They bless me, guide me, inspire me, and  encourage me. 

They leave grace in their wake.

I need those lovers. I suspect you need them too. 
____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, "Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church," is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

A character on a fictional ABC Network television series said it, and when she did, she hit a nail right smack on its head. Whoever wrote the line has wisdom not often heard on television. 

One of the characteristics of wisdom is that, when we hear it, it makes us think. Another aspect of wisdom is that it's short and to the point, like the book of Proverbs, like the discourses of Jesus and the Epistles, most of which you can read in twenty minutes or less. Wisdom gets inside you and places a burr in your brain. Wisdom is a stealth bomber which approaches unseen, delivers its payload, and vanishes into the night. Wisdom is a lightning strike. This wasn't a "Christian" program, but I've already told you that since I said it was on ABC.

The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth."

Wow! And double wow! She said into the teeth of a society which believes that there is no such thing as truth which is true for all people everywhere at all times and in all locations. She said this into the teeth of a society that has been soaked in relativism, the dogma that holds that  truth is changeable, depending on time, place, and culture; your truth isn't my truth; what's true for you may not be true for me. Relativism says that what I do one day may be right for me and then the next day, wrong for me.

For example, "In Eskimo culture, and in Holland, killing old people is right. In America, east of Oregon, it's wrong. In contemporary culture, sexual anarchy is right; in Christian cultures, it's wrong." (Peter Kreeft) Relativism means, "Truth, then, is utterly dependent on the way the individual sees his circumstances. The individual can, with supposed impunity, act one way at one time, and entirely a different way at another, and who is to judge him?" (Fay Voshell) The ultimate aphorism of moral relativism is Judges 21:25. Read it. Israel became infected with it.

This statement on ABC was a punch in the solar plexus of a society which fears the very idea of absolute truth.

A college professor stands before his class at the beginning of the semester and says, "My goal this semester is to convince you that there is no such thing as absolute truth." This would prompt one to ask, "Why isn't your purpose to teach whatever subject you're hired to teach and whatever course the students paid (or their parents paid) tuition (your salary) for you to teach?" 

No, he's a man on a mission, a mission to destroy the last vestige of what they learned at the knee of their parents and grandparents, as well as what they learned in their Bible teaching church.

I remember in my American history class at Texas Tech University hearing a professor say, in the middle of a lecture on the War Between the States, "The Jews didn't have a Flood story until they came out of the Babylonian Captivity." He meant by this that the Jews borrowed the Genesis account of the Flood from the Babylonians, late in Israel's history, a long time after Moses' day. 

At the time, I didn't know the false presupposition into which he had bought in order to make that statement (the Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch, also called the JEPD Theory), but I wondered, "What in the world does that have to do with the American Civil War of 1861-1865?" He too was an academic on a mission.

Such an unlofty goal isn't isolated to the university; it's everywhere. The world system is on a rampage against the concept of absolute truth from kindergarten on up. (Go to: http://www.districtadministration.com/article/senate-bill-48-california-sets-new-curriculum-standard) 

Our movies deliver an all-is-relative-message; there's no right and wrong in an absolute sense and the arts seek to ridicule into silence those who believe that truth exists. The sophomoric television comedies delight to stereotype  such the Christian by portraying him as a backwater bumpkin with missing teeth, standing in front of a Nazi or Confederate flag, quoting the Bible. Or the script makes him into someone so unbelievably rude, boorish, holier than thou, devious, blunt, and cruel that the viewer can't stand him. All of this is by conspiratorial design (II Cor. 4:4). In contrast, the everything-is-relative-character is likable, funny, friendly, erudite, polished, and is always, without fail, given the last word.

But back to ABC. The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth." Why?

One reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then what comes with that is that there is Someone behind that truth and that Someone is higher than we are. Man cannot conceive and deliver absolute truth because he is finite and limited, a being who cannot know all the facts on which to formulate truth for all people at all times everywhere. 

Fallen man comes with a boatload of hubris. Someone higher than he is? Fallen man fears the thought. 

Another reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then, not only is there Someone out there, but also man is accountable to that Someone. Embedded in absolute truth is the loss of our autonomy, a loss fallen man fears. With the loss of independence, man finds that he can't make up the rules. He can't make up the rules about when life begins or what marriage is or what, to get right down to it, truth is. 

With the loss of autonomy, men in government, science, and education lose the authority to determine what's right and what's wrong. In essence, they lose control and they fear the loss. If absolute truth exists, then man is not free to make up his own definitions, categories, morals or ethics by which he lives.

This would explain why Communist officials hunted down and beat an old man holding a Bible in a home church meeting in Russia in the dead of night, confiscating the Bible and some handwritten Christian literature reported to be on the premises. (The Communist official who led the mission describes it in his book, "The Persecutor.") The might of the Russian government coming against one man with one Book? Such is the fear of absolute truth.

This explains why officials shred Bibles at airports in some nations. Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born evangelical pastor now based in Australia said in an interview, "It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport [in Saudi Arabia], and if they find the Bible, the Bible is taken and put in the shredder. If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."

This shredding, confiscation, and control of the Bible would indicate, at the very least, that  governments recognize there is something powerful in that Book, something dangerous. Their actions are an example of what the Bible says about itself: "The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. . ."

In regard to a Book so powerful, what are you to do with it? Turn it loose all over people and watch it work!

On the cover of every Bible should be the words, "WARNING: READING THIS BOOK MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR WORLDVIEW."

___________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

 

THE NEED OF THE HOUR: MEDIOCRITY

THE NEED OF THE HOUR: MEDIOCRITY

Let's lift our glasses (of lemonade) to mediocrity. We need more of it. Bring on more mediocrity and less A+, Number 1 perfection.

I know. I know. This goes against the grain of 99% of the sermons preached around the world. Whoever heard of a sermon or a book entitled, "In Praise of the Mediocre Man?" Every sermon every Sunday urges the faithful on to excellence. Every homily and every book shout, "If you're mediocre, you're a loser; we want only the best." 

Our military doesn't want the average; it wants "The few, the proud." It wants "The best you can be." Commercials flood from our TVs and inundate us with slogans which use, overuse, and abuse the word, "Excellence."We are sloganeered by the constant use of the word.

But, are we missing something here? I asked a group of long-time church-going, Bible-soaked believers to tell me the number one reason why they never witness for Christ. Their number one answer was, "We don't know enough."

Wait! Let me get this straight: you've been sitting in a church for thirty years or more, a church in which every sermon and every Sunday school lesson come drenched in biblical truth, and you say, "I don't know enough?"The Gospel is baby food, not rocket science. There aren't reams of pages to memorize to evangelize.

All you have to do is open your mouth (that's easy, you do it all the time) and discuss with people the fact that Jesus Christ as the Son of God died and rose again to pay the penalty for their sins and will give them eternal life when they trust Him alone for it. (Count the words in that statement.) Can you memorize John 3:16 or perhaps Acts 16:31? Those verses don't strain the brain.

Maybe those dear people, bless their hearts, gave that reason, because they've been brainwashed to believe that if their presentations of the gospel aren't A+ #1 EXCELLENT, and they can't answer every question every member of the human race might ask, they'd better not try.

How deep does this I-have-to-be-excellent-before-I-do-anything-idea go? How many don't teach anybody anything about the Bible because their Bible study won't be excellent? How many ministry dinners for others have gone uncooked because they might not turn out like Emeril's? How many songs have never been sung?

Dr. Joseph Parker, who was the pastor of the City Temple of London, England, attended a concert by the great Polish pianist Paderewski. The concert was during the day, and that night, Dr. Parker spoke to his congregation: “I have had, today, most forcibly presented to me, the folly of trusting in the power of a great example.  Many of you know that I’ve always been a lover of music, and some of my friends have been kind enough to make me believe that I had some talent as a pianist. 

"It has often been my delight, when weary of other things, to sit down at my piano and play some of the classical selections, or improvise according to my mood.  But, today, a friend took me to hear that great master of the piano, Paderewski. 

"For two hours, I listened, enthralled.  I heard music that I had never heard in all my life, and when the last lovely note was struck and the applause had died away, I felt I wanted to slip out quietly, speaking to no one, with the thrill of it still stirring my soul.”

“An hour or so later, I was standing before my piano, when my wife called me to dinner.  At first, I didn’t hear her, and when she came to me, I turned to her and said, almost in anger, ‘Bring me an axe!’ 

She looked at me and said, 'What do you mean?’ 

I said, ‘You know, I’ve always thought I was something of a pianist.  But I’ve heard real music today, for the first time, and I realize now that what I thought was musical talent amounts to nothing.  I feel like chopping my piano all to pieces.  I never want to touch it again.”

Dr. Parker came to his senses; the axe never met the piano.

See what's going on? The Cult of the Excellent paralyzes us. If we won't step out for the Lord until we and everything else are perfect, we'll rot in atrophy. The Type A personality is the person most easily paralyzed by excellence because of his drive to the point of perfection. "If what I do can't be as good as what _________ does, I'm not going to do it," Mr. Type A says. (We often find this Type A personality highly competitive, a no-no in the Christian life. Phil. 2:3 )

We have a cliche: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." How about changing that to: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing."

This idea that we must show excellence in everything we do is a debilitating distraction. How about Paul? He made tents. Do you think his tents were the best in the land? Probably not. Were Peter, James, and John the best fishermen on the Sea of Galilee? I doubt it.

We live in the cult of the professional and the celebrity. Everyday, television brings into our homes those who dazzle us with the artistry of their craft. Their speaking, acting, and singing drips with expertise. The one who brings us the nightly news does so with perfect pitch, diction, timing, and elocution. His pear shaped tones impress us. He is beyond good.

Then there are the awards shows for "The Best." The best movie, best song, best actor, best TV comedy, drama, and documentary. You name it, and there's an awards ceremony for the best. These awards shows brainwash us, making us feel that we're competing with other believers, just as the world competes. We must be better, or we don't enter the "contest." In the the Cult of the Excellent, if they can't be the best, the most excellent, they don't do anything.

Is this a plea for the shoddy? Not at all. Hebrews 6:1 tells us that we should be maturing in our service for the Lord. Those who teach the Word can mature in their teaching by listening to excellent speakers and teachers; they can read good books on communication. Those who evangelize can mature in their  presentation of the gospel and their people skills by observing others and immersing themselves in the gospel. Those who write can read good authors and build their vocabulary. They can put their minds to telling the old, old story in new ways with the written and spoken word.

No, this isn't a sonnet for the sloppy or a laudation of the lazy.

There are no statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that a huge percentage of the service for the Lord is done by mediocre people like you and me who are filled with the Spirit, under the control of the Word. You and I will never win awards for giving the best SS lesson, delivering the best sermon, writing the best book, singing the best song, showing the most appropriate mercy, having the most faith, being the best leader, cooking the best dinner for the sick, giving the most money to help the most people, or being the the best evangelist, but, . . . . so what?

If something is worth doing, isn't it worth doing?
________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

competitiveness, drive, perfectionism

competitiveness, drive, perfectionism

BEDLAM AMONG THE BOOKMANS

BEDLAM AMONG THE BOOKMANS

The John Bookman family is in turmoil; a cyclone has hit their hearth and home. 

The Bookmans have come to understand grace, that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone; no works, no feeling sorry for their sins, no walking down an aisle, no begging God to save them, no shedding great tears of repentance, no promises to do better in the future, and no giving up of their sins. 

Understanding this and believing this has brought them into the Kingdom of God and they're a thankful family. But they are also a family in an uproar and the cause of the furor is the church in which they've been ensconced since the Flood. Their roots go deep into the bedrock of the First Church. John is a deacon there, and has been since Hector was a pup. In fact, no one can remember when the venerable Mr. Bookman wasn't a deacon. 

Barbara Bookman's roots run deep, too. She's the president of the Women's Missionary Union, the go-to girl when there's work to be done, a visit to be made, and a meal to cook. All the ladies of First Church admire and envy Barbara's casserole dinners which she prepares with care for the sick and the recovering. Barbara guards her casseroles from the envious; she keeps her recipes in a safe deposit box at the Wells Fargo Bank ten minutes from her home. Others may contribute to the "Pan-Sational Cook Book" of the church, but Barbara never does.

Their children, Bobby, Brittany, and Basil are in the Sunday school and the youth groups appropriate for their ages. The children had been in the Cradle Roll since birth. Even their dog, Bocephus,  attended First Church on "Bring-Your-Pet-to-Church-Sunday" when the pastor was teaching about Noah's Ark. 

When the light of the glorious gospel of Christ dawned on John and Barbara Bookman, it also occurred to them that the First Church wasn't teaching salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. They were disseminating a "gospel" shot through with works, moralism, be-goodism, and doing something in addition to trusting Christ alone.

John went to the pastor, Pastor Goodpasture, to talk to him about the gospel, but he, a man who preached six inches above contradiction, got all huffy at John, telling him, "It just can't be that easy! You have to do something!"

Pastor Goodpasture  became especially splenetic when, as John was talking about I Corinthians 15:3-5 and John 3:16, he thought about his parents who thought some works had to be involved in salvation somewhere. He got really angry and stormed out of the room, but then realized it was his office, so he came back and listened some more, but when all was said and done, John got nowhere and he knew it.

The Bookmans realized that a false, Lordship salvation gospel, like a microbe, had infected everything in First Church from the deacons to the Sunday school teachers, to the youth pastor. They had come to understand that the First Church was infected with legalism--works plus faith for salvation and a steady stream of man-made rules to keep so they could be "good" Christians.

John and Barbara, not knowing what to do next, began searching the Scriptures and ran across some hard words: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (II Cor. 6:17).

That verse applied directly to the Bookmans and they knew it. Paul was talking about the false teachers who were luring the Corinthian believers away from the truth and he was telling them to get away from them and get away from them now. There was no getting around that verse, and that's what caused the family explosion. The Bible was telling them to get themselves and their children away from the false teachers who had infected and infested the First Church and into a grace oriented church free of legalism, one which presented the accurate gospel and taught the Bible, not man's rules.

But the Bookmans were ingrained at First Church. Their toil, their tears, and their tithed treasures were there. Their grandparents had started it. And, to them, the most important thing of all, their friends were in that church. 

Leave their invested treasure? Leave their ancestral heritage? Leave their friends? Say it isn't so, Paul!

As their turmoil continued, John and Barbara crashed into Matthew 8:21-22, which caused more mental pandemonium: "Another of the disciples said to Him, 'Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.'  But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.'"

They realized that, since they had the salvation issue settled,  if they were going to be followers of  Christ, they had to let their heritage and their friends go. 

They realized that the whole thing boiled down to this: What did they love more, their heritage or the gospel?  Their present power and prestige or the gospel? What did they love more, their friends or the gospel?

John and Barbara Bookman have enough biblical information. The will of God is clear.

What do you think they did? 
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Newsletter."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

 

MOMMY AND DADDY DIGGING WITH THE DEAD

MOMMY AND DADDY DIGGING WITH THE DEAD

It comes across to us as one of the most insensitive statements ever made. Jesus has been issuing a call for discipleship and when He invites one man to follow Him, the man tells the Lord, "Let me first go and bury my father." To this request, Jesus answers, "Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead."

Good grief! Doesn't He care? This is outrageous! After the news of a death of a loved one, our humanity gives wide latitude to accommodate whatever a person says, be it said in anger, despair, or frustration. "Certainly," we'd say, "take as much time as you need." 

Is Jesus being harsh and out of bounds? Only if we give the text a superficial reading. 

What appears to be going on here is that the father of the man to whom Jesus has issued the call to follow Him isn't dead. The custom of the day was that when a person died in the sultry Near East, the funeral was that day, the interment within 24 hours. Had this man's father been ill and dying, the man wouldn't have been with Jesus, but would have been at home making the arrangements. How could he not be with the family at the time his father was to be buried? What was he doing out and about and in the presence of Jesus if that were the case?

No, what's much more likely is that the man is telling Jesus that he'll follow Him, but not now. "Wait until my father dies, then I'll join You," is what he's saying. How many years will that be? Who knows? He wants to delay doing what Jesus wants him to do now so he can see to his parent(s) in their declining years. 

No, that's not discipleship. In discipleship Jesus is first; He has the preeminence.

We learn from this that the permission of one's parents isn't necessary in order to follow Christ. He and His will have priority over parents. A disciple doesn't seek Mommy's or Daddy's permission to do God's will. This is a major reason why many never go to the mission field--they're caving in to Mommy and Daddy who've pitched a fit because they'll be taking the grandchildren away to some distant land; Mommy and Daddy must come first or they'll get all huffy.

Then comes Jesus' famous statement: "Let the dead bury their dead." This statement is a paronomasia. He's saying, "Let the [spiritually] dead bury their [physically] dead," using the same word ("dead") in two different senses. Brilliant!

Now, let's think further about this statement.

The marching orders for the disciples had nothing to do with mending society. Their message after Christ's earthly ministry was that all men everywhere needed to repent ("change their minds") about how one becomes righteous before God (faith in Christ alone, rather than works).

We believers are citizens of a kingdom which isn't here, Christ's kingdom, but it's coming. We've been removed positionally from the kingdom of darkness and transferred over the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13).  Since we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 1), since our citizenship is in heaven, we're to set our minds on things above, not on the things of the earth (Col. 3:1-2). 

If we try to establish His kingdom now before He comes, what do we get in return? Absolutely nothing. We will fail, no doubt about it. Efforts to pass laws won't bring in His Kingdom. The unbeliever doesn't want His laws and is only embittered and angered when we try to force him to live like what he's not, a Christian. We have a problem if we expect the spiritually dead to act as if they are spiritually alive and will applaud our efforts to make them share a biblical worldview.

Remember the Reconstruction after the War Between the States? The radical Republicans tried to force the South to bend to its will and produced a region of the country called, "The Solid South." For a hundred years, because of the Radical Republicans, the south would vote for a yellow dog it it ran on the Democratic ticket rather than a Republican. If we expect the praise of the unbeliever, we'll wind up depressed and disillusioned, bitter and broken. 

I was in the home of a lady whose TV was tuned to MSNBC. It was constant and went on and on and on, no matter what happening in the home, even if we were trying to have a conversation. (A good practice to follow with guests in the home is, if you're going to watch TV, watch TV; if you're going to talk, talk, and turn off the TV.)

A woman once complained that I didn't visit her enough. But whenever I did, she never turned off "Jeopardy" or the weather report, or whatever was on, so I concluded she was a chronic complainer who really didn't want to visit, and I certainly didn't want to watch the weather, so I didn't return.)

I know what you're thinking: you're thinking, "MSNBC? What a waste of her time." But where's your focus? Fox News? Facebook? The Supreme Court? The Congress? The President? The Republican Party? The Tea Party? The Democrat Party? David Barton calls for Christians to focus on making the U. S. into a theocracy by taking over "education, the media, the government, religion, and entertainment." (This is called "Dominion Theology" but that's not the role of the church. He's basing this on Is. 2:2, a promise given to Israel at the Messiah's Second Advent, not something for the church to do.)

Our focus is to be on Christ. The man called to discipleship was focused on Mommy and Daddy.

The activities of the Congress and the Supreme Court are activities of the spiritually dead. The activities of the Tea Party and the Libertarian Party are the activities of the spiritually dead and to focus on those activities is to grab a shovel and dig with the dead. (The key words in this case are "focus" and "priority.")

 We have a higher focus--following Christ to make disciples. Like someone said, if we do that, if we make just one disciple, we'll do what the Apostles did--we'll leave the world a better place than we found it.
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Newsletter."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org


 

HELICOPTER PARENTS

HELICOPTER PARENTS

Helicopter parents is the term for parents who hover over their children, the sort of parent we’d call “overprotective.” An example of helicopter parenting occurred in Colorado Springs in 2012, where, at a neighborhood event, a whole host of parents got way too involved.

You’re thinking, “Well, after all, what parent hasn’t gotten worked up during their child’s Little League or Youth Football game?” (I've seen parents running up and down the sidelines of soccer games screaming at their child.)

But this wasn’t a baseball or a football game. This was a neighborhood Easter egg hunt! Unruly parents hurdled over the rope marking the boundary of the hunt, and started scooping up the eggs for themselves, since, as one parent said, “You better believe I'm going to help my kid get one of those eggs. I promised my kid an Easter egg hunt and I want to give him an even edge." This, in spite of the fact that there were thousands of the colored eggs lying in plain sight for the kiddies.

With the larger reach of their biscuit hooks, these helicopter parents easily pushed the children aside to grab the goodies. How proud they must have been at the end of the day.

One parent, however, takes the award for "Most Hovering Mother of the Year." She has two boys in college and she schedules  every hour of their lives, in addition to monitoring their personal email accounts and bank account balances. She obtains copies of every syllabus and emails them their homework assignments for every class, which they never miss because she gives them wake-up calls every morning. She performs all these services as she holds down a job. How's that for hovering! 

Wow! Has she never heard of the biblical responsibility that parents train their children to be independent? I wonder if their bosses are going to give them a wake up call every morning to make sure they're not late to work. (They won't, but she will.)

I can picture her at dinner when the lads are home from college. I can see her filling each spoon with food, placing it their mouths, then massaging their throats for safe swallowing.

Parents have become super safety conscious. Gone are the halcyon days of being a child and bouncing around in the breeze in a fast moving pickup. No. By law, the parent must purchase a car seat in which they must always buckle their little bodies. I remember seeing a pack of at least nine Cub Scouts in the back of a white pickup arriving to play a baseball game singing, "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" at the top of their lungs, having a great time. (They piled in the pickup and left in a depressed state: we beat them to win the championship.)

Today, when a child skates or rides a bike, the latest, safest helmet must be atop the cranium and buckled snugly under the chin. (Not saying these are bad things, just sayin'.)

At Port Washington in New York, officials at Weber Middle School are worried that students are getting hurt during recess. They've instituted a ban on footballs, baseballs, lacrosse balls, or anything that might hurt someone on school grounds. They're not only banning playing football; tossing the pigskin is also verboten. The Port Washington czars have also banned cartwheels and games of tag.

 Did you hear the story of the ultra helicopter mother? She wouldn’t let her kids play football, baseball, basketball, or soccer. She relented and did let them compete on the chess team, but they had to wear helmets. (That’s a joke; lighten up!)

Let's move to an area where helicopter parents are as rare as congressional fiscal responsibility and it's the one area in which we need them. In fact, we might say that it's an area in which parents show little, if any, interest at all in their child's safety. I'm talking about their spiritual safety, the biblical education of their children.

I'm not talking about the parent who drops the child off at the door of the church for Sunday school, then heads for Starbucks; that's too obvious to mention.

I'm talking about something deeper; something that escapes our notice because it's culturally ingrained in us. It's the separation of the child from his parents for his spiritual training.

Let me explain by asking, "How well do you know your child's Sunday school teacher?" "How well do you know what that teacher is teaching?" Is he/she presenting the accurate gospel or does he/she have works mixed into it, like Lordship salvation? How about the youth pastor? How well do you know him? Ever quizzed a Sunday school teacher or a youth pastor on the gospel? Have you just assumed they're OK? How about visiting your child's Sunday school class so you can hear what they're hearing? How about taking an in-depth look at the teaching and the ministry of the youth pastor. After all, you're trusting them with you kids, and what if you learned that your children are learning the ways of the world in that group?

Are you assuming that the teacher at your Christian school is presenting faith alone in Christ alone, or are you depending on the school's doctrinal statement to tell you? Be careful. One parent learned that the principal didn't agree with his own school's "faith alone" statement. He said, "There just has to be more to being saved than 'just believe.'" (He was firing teachers who taught faith alone.) When it came to the teachers in the school presenting the gospel, one parent found the situation to be desperate.

The Christian camp to which you send your youth--have you been a noble Berean and checked it out? Many camps are so hungry for counselors, they'll lower their standards and have some leading the campers into grace, others into law. One parent found that the materials used at a Christian camp instructed the children not sin for a day and come back and tell the others how they did it.

This is one area in which I wish there were helicopter parents because their biblical instruction, their introduction to the gospel from someone other than yourself is as crucial as it gets. There one mother who came to a church for the first time who, before she put her children in children's church had a sit-down with the youth pastor and gave him the third degree over the gospel and sat in her daughters' Sunday school class just to make sure all was in biblical order. I say, "May her tribe increase!"

Let's go deeper. Where did we come up with the idea that children must be separated from their parents at church and in Sunday school? What could be better than their hearing and interacting with their parents and other adults concerning the gospel and the truths of Scripture in open discussion, asking questions and getting biblical answers?

I noticed a while back that teens have a difficult time relating to and talking to someone outside their own age group. I've found that it's a rare teenager who can carry on a conversation that's more than a few monosyllables with an adult. Why? Because they're segregated from adults. And that's not their fault--their schools and their churches are keeping them separate.

It would be eye-opening to sit down and figure out how many hours a day/week you and your child are separated. Take a typical first grader--he leaves for school at 7:05 AM and returns to hearth and home at 2:45 PM. That's an absence of 7 hours, 45 minutes per day, and a total of 38.75 hours a week! If both parents have to work to pay the excessive taxes we have to deal with, then it's after school care for the tykes, adding more hours absent from the parents.

We could add to that "lessons mania,"the phenomenon of enrolling children in acting lessons, horseback riding lessons, violin lessons, judo lessons, and on top of that, getting them on soccer teams, softball teams, and youth football teams. All that means more time under the influence of anyone and everyone other than the parents. 

Once the family is reunited at the end of the day, there's the meal to prepare or go get from the local fast food chains, homework to do, and then it's time for bed, so everyone can get up and do it all over again.

Julius Caesar began The Gallic Wars, by writing, "All Gaul is divided into three parts." So is the modern family: father, mother, children finding themselves in an AAA condition: All divided Almost All the time.

You will one day leave your church in the hands of your children and their friends.

That's food for serious thought.
___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Newsletter."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org