Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest baseball players in the history of our National Pastime. Clemente played 18 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, leading the club to a pair of World Series championships in 1960 and 1971. Clemente won 12 Gold Gloves during his career and was a 15-time National League All-Star. He amassed 3,000 hits over the course of his brilliant career and is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Roberto Clemente also was a man of great compassion. On December 31, 1972, Clemente boarded a plane bound for Nicaragua. He was travelling to Nicaragua to deliver aid to earthquake victims there. The plane carrying Clemente probably was overloaded with food and supplies for the Nicaraguan earthquake victims. The plane crashed shortly after it took off. Clemente was killed. He was just 38 years old.

Roberto Clemente was a Christian who showed his faith through his works. He was using his off-season time not just to rest or relax, but to help others in dire need of assistance in Nicaragua. Clemente is a great example of someone who obeyed James 2:17 and James 2:26 (NKJV), "(17) Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead ... (26) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

Roberto Clemente once remarked, "Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't do it, you are wasting your time on this earth."

Roberto Clemente made a difference in this world because he showed his faith through his works.

Are you doing the same?

Feeding Sheep Or Amusing Goats

Charles H. Spurgeon had no use for churches that sought to entertain the masses rather than preach the pure Word of God. Spurgeon's observations are just as timely today as they were more than a century ago. To wit:

"An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most short-sighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them."

"Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll."

"Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? 'Ye are the salt', not the sugar candy - something the world will spit out, not swallow."

"I do not hear (Jesus) say, 'Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow - something short and attractive with little preaching - we will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!' Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them."

"Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods."

Make sure - very sure - that you and your church are feeding sheep, and not just amusing goats.

Justice

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."

Those are the words of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. Jefferson's words are sobering words for any true Christian.

Isaiah 30:18 (NKJV) - "For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him."

Washington

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."

Those are the immortal words of George Washington. Today is the 280th anniversary of his birth in 1732. Washington was a Revolutionary War hero and the first President of the United States of America. He is referred to as "The Father Of Our Country." America never would have gained its independence without George Washington.

The United States of America - today in 2012 - is in dire need of many more George Washingtons.

Church

A church is not a museum for saints.

A church is a hospital for sinners.

Lincoln

Today is the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln guided the United States through its bloody and divisive Civil War between 1861 and 1865. He is considered one of the greatest presidents in the entire history of the United States, if not the greatest of all.

Here are a pair of quotes by Abraham Lincoln which showed his faith and reliance on God as he led the United States through some of its darkest days and years:

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day."

Be Job

Pastor John MacArthur, in his NKJV Study Bible notes on the Book of Job, observes the following about the theological themes surrounding the trials of Job:

"When Satan has unleashed all that he can do to destroy saving faith, it stands firm. In the end, God proved His point with Satan that saving faith can't be destroyed no matter how much trouble a saint suffers, or how incomprehensible and undeserved it seems."

Pastor MacArthur later concludes about Job:

"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."

What, then, is the lesson in this for all of us?

Be Job.

Adversities & Afflictions

Arthur W. Pink on adversities and afflictions:

"For a Christian to defy adversities is to despise 'chastisement.' Instead of hardening himself to endure stoically, there should be a melting of the heart."

"Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us."

Compromise

Rev. G. Campbell Morgan:

"There is a toleration which is treachery. There is a peace which issues in paralysis. There are hours when the Church must say NO to those who should ask communion with her, in the doing of her work, upon the basis of compromise. Such standing aloof may produce ostracism and persecution; but it will maintain power and influence ... The reason why men do not look to the Church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise."

Doing Good

1 Peter 3:17 (NKJV) says, "For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Joseph is a perfect example of this.

Joseph fled from the adulterous temptations offered to him by Potiphar's wife. In Genesis 39:9 (NKJV), Joseph said to her, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Given Joseph's courageous and principled stand against sin, one would think that he would be rewarded and blessed abundantly for it.

Instead, he was sent to prison.

Joseph did the right thing.

Joseph did good.

And God let him suffer for it.

God's thoughts and God's ways are not the same as ours, according to Isaiah 55:8-9, and the same holds true for God's will and God's logic. They are all on a higher level and a higher plane than our own. We assume that our good actions always will be amply blessed by God, at least according to our murky, cloudy, and human-logic-based understanding of divine blessing.

Perhaps you have done good.

And perhaps you are now suffering for it.

Please know that God has not forsaken you. He has not forgotten you. He has not dropped the ball. In His sovereign will, and as part of His sovereign plan, He is allowing you to endure precisely what He has placed in your life.

In the case of Joseph, it all worked out perfectly in the end, as God used what others meant for evil instead for good in the life of Joseph (Genesis 50:20).

God will do the same in your life, too, even if you presently are suffering for doing good.

Tending Sheep

After Moses killed an Egyptian, he fled to Midian. Moses spent 40 years living in the wilderness and tending sheep for his father-in-law.

Only after spending 40 years in the wilderness, and tending sheep in the scorching desert, was Moses deemed ready by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land.

Does God seem to have you in the desert these days? Perhaps your time in the wilderness has gone on longer than you ever could imagine. Perhaps you feel as if it will never end.

Know that God, as part of His sovereign will and plan, intentionally allows us to go through periods in the wilderness. Sometimes very long periods. God frequently allows this in preparation for a new responsibility, just as He did with Moses.

If you seem to be in the desert right now, tending sheep in the wilderness, then please take heart and know that God is allowing it as part of His divine plan. He may have a huge new undertaking for you right around the corner, and He's preparing you for it in the wilderness, just as He did with Moses.

Wrath

Proverbs 15:1 (NKJV) -

"A soft answer turns away wrath ...."

Sand

The amount of time that you will spend on this earth, as compared to all of eternity, is like a single speck of sand, on a single beach, as compared to all of the sand, on all of the beaches, on all of the earth.

The Snail

Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark."

All

"Wherever you are, be all there."

- Christian missionary Jim Elliot, killed while attempting to minister to the Waodani people of Ecuador on January 8, 1956, at age 28.

MLK & Faith

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

- The words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This Sunday is the 83rd anniversary of his birth. Few people remember that Dr. King was just 39 years old when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

The Fires

"If God has chosen you for trials, rejoice because God only chooses His best servants to go through the fires."

- Pastor Terry Tuley of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, citing Job as an example of a servant who exhibited faithful steadfastness in the midst of going through "the fires" in his life.

The Fires

Pastor Terry Tuley of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and author of "Battlefields and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Civil War", wrote:

"If God has chosen you for trials, rejoice because God only chooses his best servants to go through the fires."

Tuley added:

"Is the Lord trusting you with adversity? Could it be that He knows your faithful character, and He wants to display it before others?"

Tuley cites Job as an example of someone "being steadfast even in difficult circumstances." Job was an example of God using one of His "best servants to go through the fires."

Are you going "through the fires" in your life right now?

Perhaps God sees you as one of His best servants, and perhaps He desires to show your faithful character and testimony to others, even in the midst of your life's fires.