Doormat

Charles Spurgeon:

"Do not desire to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. Be humble. The best man in the church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all, so long as God is glorified."

A Lesson In Cuba

I have had the great privilege and honor of ministering in Cuba on multiple occasions. One time, after I had finished speaking in a wonderful church in Havana, the pastor of the church asked me if I knew the difference between Cuban Christians and American Christians.

"What is the difference?" I asked the pastor.

"Here in Cuba, we do not have the distractions that you have in America," he responded.

The Cuban pastor was absolutely correct.

Here in the USA, our high-speed lives are filled with the likes of iPhone, iPad, Xbox, Wii, texting, tweeting, Facebooking, and a million other distractions that cause us to busy ourselves more and to glorify God less.

In Cuba, the average person makes about $5-10 a month. Yes, you read that right.

In Cuba, the average person cannot afford to buy a computer, let alone have access to high-speed, or even low-speed, Internet. The same goes for the average Cuban not being able to own an iPhone, iPad, Xbox, Wii, or being able to text, tweet, or Facebook.

But in Cuba, the Christians are not as distracted as we are here in America.

Distractions are ruining the American church.

Distractions have caused us to stop gazing heavenward.

In Matthew 6:33 (NKJV), Jesus says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness ...."

Too frequently in America today we seek pleasurable, amusing, and entertaining distractions instead of the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

It took a Cuban pastor to show me this. And he was right.

Scourging

The gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ tell us that Pontius Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged by Roman soldiers prior to crucifying Him. The scourging of Jesus would have involved stripping Him, tying Him to a post, and beating Him with an instrument which consisted of a short wooden handle to which several leather thongs were attached. Each individual leather thong would have had pieces of jagged metal or bone attached to it on the end. The purpose of the scourging was to physically weaken and to humiliate Jesus prior to His crucifixion. If you have ever seen "The Passion of the Christ", then you most certainly remember the brutal scourging scene in the film.

Jesus was scourged prior to His crucifixion, but Hebrews 12:6 (NKJV) tells us that God also scourges His true children as well:

"For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."

Verses 7 and 8 then tell us that only God's true children receive His scourging and chastening. In fact, a person who has not been chastened and scourged by God may not be one of His true children.

Scourging is brutal, radical, and extremely painful. Generally, scourging in our lives comes in the form of testings, trials, and sufferings, all as allowed by God as part of His sovereign will and plan. God scourges in order to educate, train, discipline, and perfect His true children, even though the process is an extremely painful one. The objective of God's scourging is to yield "the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11, NKJV)

Scourging is never easy and it is never pleasant. God allows it, however, for the perfecting of His true children, and as proof of His love for them.

God Is God

Elisabeth Elliot:

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

Evil & Good

Joseph's brothers cast him into a pit and then sold him as a slave. Joseph was then unjustly accused of rape by Potiphar's wife and spent probably 13 years in prison for a crime which he did not commit. Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker while in prison, but then the chief butler forgot about Joseph for two years. Finally the chief butler remembered Joseph when Pharaoh was looking for someone to correctly interpret his own dreams. Joseph was presented to Pharaoh, correctly interpreted his dreams about seven years of abundance and seven years of famine in Egypt, and then Joseph was made Pharaoh's second-in-command. God used Joseph to save Egypt from the coming famine, and God used Joseph to save his brothers and their families as well, the exact same brothers who had hated him, cast him into a pit, and then sold him as a slave.

In Genesis 50:20 (NKJV), after Joseph had revealed himself to his brothers and had been reunited with his father, Jacob, prior to his death, Joseph told his brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."

Joseph's brothers had meant evil against him, but God had meant it for good. God showed His sovereignty over both the evil and the good in the life of Joseph.

People will hurt you. People will wound you very badly. People will mean evil against you. Those closest to you may hurt you the most, and may wound you the most, and may mean the most evil against you. You may suffer greatly, just as Joseph did. But God, in His sovereign will, may even take man's evil against you and use it for His eternal good. Only He can do that. Ask Him to do so.

To My Knees

Abraham Lincoln is revered by many as the greatest President of the United States. Lincoln served as U. S. President during the nation's bloody and divisive Civil War between 1861 and 1865. More than 600,000 soldiers died during the war.

At one point during the Civil War, as the nation appeared to be near death due to self-inflicted wounds, Lincoln confided to an associate, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go."

President Abraham Lincoln was right.

Crises draw us closer to God.

Crises strengthen our prayer lives.

Crises drive us to our knees.

It's the best place to be.

Need & Have

Dutch Christian and World War II Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom:

"You may never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have."

The Will Of God

Elisabeth Elliot, whose first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca Indians in Ecuador, once made the following observation about the will of God:

"The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger."

Pains

C. S. Lewis:

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

(The Problem of Pain, 1940)

Will

Charles Spurgeon:

"When your will is God's will, you will have your will."

Missionary Or Imposter

Charles Spurgeon:

"Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter."

Humble

Charles Spurgeon:

"Every Christian has a choice between being humble or being humbled."

The World & The Church

Charles Spurgeon:

"I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church."

A Nation

Proverbs 14:34 (NKJV):

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

Do you want God to bless your nation?

Then work to make it a nation of righteousness.

Heal

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV):

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

The Widow's Two Mites

In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus sat opposite the temple treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. Jesus saw how many who were rich put in much.

Then along came a poor widow.

She came and threw two mites into the temple treasury. The widow's two mites had a modern-day value of 1/4 of one U. S. cent. Her donation paled miserably in comparison to what the rich were giving - at least in terms of monetary value.

Yet as Jesus observed the rich putting in their piles of money, and then the widow humbly offering her two small copper mites, it was she who He commended.

Jesus called His disciples in Mark 12:43-44 (NKJV), and He observed, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

The impoverished widow put in all - everything - that she had.

Her whole livelihood.

Her donation left her with nothing.

She exemplified true sacrificial giving and true generosity.

That's why Jesus commended her and not the others.

It's easy to be generous when you already have a lot.

It's hard to be generous when you have nothing.

The widow was down to nothing.

Yet she still gave.

All that she had.

That's where the true test of our generosity and of our trust in God lies: when we still are generous, and when we still give sacrificially, even when we are down to nothing.

Can you do that?

Can you give like a poor widow gave?

It's great to put a lot of money into the temple treasury when you already have a lot to give.

But it's even more generous to put in two small copper mites when you have absolutely nothing else left.

The Pharisee & The Tax Collector

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus spoke the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both men went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee's prayer was quite self-congratulatory in nature. He told God how he was not like other men - extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even the tax collector lurking nearby. The Pharisee reminded God how he fasted twice a week - more than what was required by any biblical standard - and how he gave tithes of all that he possessed. The Pharisee's prayer was quite self-righteous. One can almost imagine the Pharisee patting himself on the back as he prayed.

Then it was the tax collector's turn.

He stood afar off. He looked downward, not heavenward. He beat his breast. He cried out, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

The tax collector's humility, brokenness, and utter sense of his own sin and lack of worthiness contrasted starkly with the empty, arrogant, and self-righteous words of the Pharisee.

We tend to read this parable, shake our heads at the self-righteousness of the Pharisee, and nod our heads in commendation at the humility of the tax collector.

And then we go on being just like the Pharisee.

Our human nature convinces us that we are better, more spiritual, more holy, and more righteous than those all around us, as if somehow that was going to get us into heaven. We forget about God's grace and God's mercy.

Don't compare yourself to others when you are praying. Don't tell God how great you think that you are in comparison to others. Instead, humble yourself before God, pray for His mercy, and give thanks for His grace.

The Lessons Of Job

It is almost impossible for us truly to understand the severity, the intensity, and the extent of the sufferings of Job. He lost all of his children, his property, and his health as God allowed Satan to test Job's faith. Even Job's wife told him to curse God and die.

In the MacArthur Study Bible (NKJV), Pastor John MacArthur lists 6 truths in Job's suffering:

1. There are matters going on in heaven with God that believers know nothing about; yet, they affect their lives;

2. Even the best effort at explaining the issues of life can be useless;

3. God's people do suffer. Bad things happen all the time to good people, so one cannot judge a person's spirituality by his painful circumstances or successes;

4. Even though God seems far away, perseverance in faith is a most noble virtue since God is good and one can safely leave his life in His hands;

5. The believer in the midst of suffering should not abandon God, but draw near to Him, so out of the fellowship can come the comfort - without the explanation; and

6. Suffering may be intense, but it will ultimately end for the righteous and God will bless abundantly.

Pastor MacArthur concludes his introduction to the Book of Job by observing, "We may not know what is going on in heaven or what God's purposes are, but we must trust Him. Because of this, the matter of believers suffering takes a back seat to the matter of divine wisdom."

Labor Day

Today is the Labor Day holiday in the USA. If you are gainfully employed, then you should be very, very thankful today. More than 25,000,000 Americans are unemployed, underemployed, or have stopped looking for work.

If you are an employee, then remember Paul's words about work in Colossians 3:23-24 (NKJV), "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."

If you are an employer, then remember Paul's words in 1 Timothy 5:18 (NKJV), "The laborer is worthy of his wages."

Paterson, New Jersey

Please join us in praying for all of our Peruvian friends who now live in Paterson, New Jersey, and who have been severely impacted by the massive flooding after Hurricane Irene.