Author: Tim

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How Did We Get This Bad?

Well, the Charlie Kirk saga has been covered pretty extensively by now, but I figured I’d throw in my two cents, too. Prior to a week or two ago, I don’t think I’d even heard of him, but now he’s a household name.

Sorry, but I have to get political in this post. I ordinarily try to avoid that, but it seems necessary to help explain some of this. There’s an old political saying that goes something like: “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a middle-aged conservative, you have no head.” The strategy of the Left (by which I mean Democrats/Liberals) is to appeal to peoples’ feelings; they tug at the heart strings rather than appeal to logic.

Donald Trump has effectively confounded the Democratic Party in the United States. Right now Democrats struggle to even articulate what their platform is. All they do is oppose whatever Trump advocates for. Party leaders stoke anger in their base because when you keep people seeing red, it reduces their capacity for rational thought. At this point fostering rage is the only thing they have. That’s how we’ve arrived in our current absurd situation; even if something is a good idea, if Donald Trump happens to support it, it is to be violently opposed. We now find ourselves in an environment where the Left opposes cracking down on violent crime and drug use, releases those with violent criminal histories, and opposes the enforcement of laws that have long been on the books, simply because Trump supports them and they believe there’s no possible way to find common ground with someone they label as so terrible.

The politicians themselves don’t believe the statements they’re making about how dire the situation is. It’s theater. It’s for the cameras. They don’t really believe Trump is going to throw them in jail for opposing him. If they did, they’d flee the country or go into hiding. It’s simply the rhetoric they use to keep their base engaged and fired up. A normal human being understands these people don’t believe the things coming out of their own mouths. For a while they tried the whole “he’s a threat to Democracy” thing, but that approach lost a lot of its effectiveness when the landslide electoral victory which installed Trump in the White House a second time was the direct result of Democracy in action. The Left, decimated and leaderless in the wake of the election, then had to crank up the rhetorical intensity, to the more recent claims of aspiring fascist dictator.

The problem is that when you keep things at a boil for so long, even if you don’t buy in to what you’re saying, there are people listening to you who do. They figure “a Representative/Senator gets to see it up close each and every day, they know even better than I do what a $@&#! that guy is.” The average Joes and Janes who get hyper political tend to spend time surrounded by people of the same opinion. Then, when they search things on YouTube, it follows each video with suggestions on similar videos. They don’t hear any other viewpoints, so they get further entrenched in their own. The boil builds further.

After living in an echo chamber of hate and vitriol for so long, eventually somebody from the more easily influenced among us says to themselves “here’s this threat, this guy who’s a danger to the country, and even to the world, who shouldn’t be president. Everybody I talk to knows it, but nobody’s doing anything about it! You know what? If nobody else is willing to do anything about it, I will!” This type of rhetoric and environment already radicalized two men enough to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. One guy actually pulled the trigger and even struck then-candidate Trump, and the second attempt was foiled before the shooter had Trump in his sights.

For a while people on both sides started to realize the heat had been turned up too high. They backed off for a little, but a 24-hour news cycle demands something to report, even if nothing’s there. News cycles of this sort are incapable of toning things down; they can only ratchet things up. (Case in point – the word “unprecedented” has been used so often the word’s now lost a lot of its impact.) News channels simply cannot throttle back; they have to up the ante just to maintain ratings. Try going back and watching news coverage from the days of George W. Bush, who at the time was a highly controversial president. You’ll long for those “simpler” times. Is it any wonder people who watch a lot of news coverage for any length of time experience increased levels of anxiety?

Well, imagine you’re someone who’s been radicalized enough to become violent. You’ve seen Trump survive two assassination attempts, and figure he’s a pretty hard target to reach and his security has only increased. So who else can you take a look at?

Details are still emerging, so I don’t want to speculate on specifics, but evidently the shooter at the Utah Valley University campus determined it was acceptable to snuff out the life of someone who espouses a viewpoint contrary to his own. Charlie Kirk voiced such an opinion, was a known Trump supporter, and presented an opportunity. The gunman saw an opportunity and took it.

I’ll concede that while neither side is completely guiltless of exaggerating the rhetoric, it’s far easier to find inflammatory remarks from the Left than it is from the Right. (For every Marjorie Taylor Greene there’s a “Squad.”) I’m not sure why higher numbers of radicalized criminals come from the Left than from the Right. Maybe it’s the Left’s dependence on emotions, or would-be Right-leaning radicals having the viewpoint of “as long as Government stays out of my business, I don’t care.”

We need a reset. We need to be willing to listen to people with different opinions. Republicans: continue pointing out that this level of highly charged rhetoric contributed to the loss of life, and it can’t continue. Democrats: turn down the heat and for goodness’ sake, come up with a platform that appeals to people in the center rather than on the fringe. You’re on the wrong side of just about every 80/20 issue. Both sides: You need to work together to get something done. Start with some bipartisan stuff like stopping Daylight Savings Time or something easy for both sides to agree on. News media: diversify your coverage! With multiple 24-hour news channels there’d better be more than six to eight main stories…there’s more going on in this world than politics; mix in some good news, too, even if it means your ratings take a hit. Don’t worry, you’ll still get sponsors as long as people are watching you.

We’re losing our capacity to accept that not everyone thinks the way we do. Charlie Kirk didn’t spread hate; he challenged the basis for viewpoints. Healthy debate over ideas used to be an important thing in this nation, but we’ve moved from attacking ideas to attacking their supporters. Pray we’d all take a step back from the brink and see those with opposing viewpoints for who we are…fellow humans.

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This Year’s Patriot Day Message

Today we mark another somber anniversary. Believe it or not, it’s been almost a quarter century since one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.

For those on the younger side, I’m sure you’ve heard of 9/11 and you know what happened and all that, but it’s hard to really convey everything the nation went through that day and how it changed things for us. Imagine the nation as a whole feeling a blend of confusion, horror, fear, anger, grief, patriotism, and rage, all at the same time. As strange as it sounds, people of just about every political persuasion got along with each other in the weeks that followed, because being Americans united us more than it divided us.

There were three sites physically impacted that day: the field in Pennsylvania where the plane whose passengers rose up against their hijackers ended up crashing, the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon near DC. Watching the images from the site in Manhattan had the biggest effect on me; I had been up on the observation deck multiple times before, and within the previous year or two I’d had lunch with my Mom, Dad, and sister in a park made famous by a picture of an exhausted firefighter. Even though the Manhattan site was the most personal to me, there were lives lost in all three areas, either airline passengers or unassuming souls on the ground. Even though it’s 24 years later, that memory is still powerful to me, and I’m sure many people have similar powerful memories of that day.

This probably isn’t the last time we’ll get a bloody nose (or worse) as a nation. What I can tell you for sure, though, is that it’s not going to be the last time you see a wicked scheme succeed.

The Bible addresses incidents where wrongdoers seem like they’re getting ahead in life. David saw it and wrote about it. In Psalm 37:7-9 we read some of the most difficult instructions in the entire Bible: when you see wickedness seem to prevail, be patient.

“7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

9 For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”

This Patriot Day, take the time to pause and remember the innocents who lost their lives, but remember as a Christian that two wrongs don’t make a right. When you witness evil succeeding, be patient and wait on the Lord; He sees it and will deal with it in His time.

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You Can be 100% Right and Still Lose the Debate

One nice thing about having very young kids is having the freedom to vacation without being at the mercy of the school calendar. Before our kids were old enough to start school, we took them for a beach vacation the week of Labor Day, when rates dropped but the weather was still warm.

The Labor Day weekend was packed, of course, with lots of people wanting to cram in one last beach trip for the summer. Once Tuesday rolled around, though, we had the beach to ourselves. Even the lifeguards stopped working. The kids could chase seagulls all they wanted without worrying about anyone else on the beach.

While the kids ran around on the sand, I noticed a guy who was probably in his 50s standing in the dunes, just kind of keeping an eye on us. He was almost, I don’t know, disapproving in the way he watched us. After awhile he came walking across the sand to speak to me. He wanted to remind me that there would be no lifeguards on duty at all that day, and that “even he” wasn’t going to stick around much longer. In my mind I thought “dude, if you left, I’d probably be more at ease. Don’t stick around on my account.” He added something like “it would be a real shame” if we let the kids get too close to the water and something happened to them. Thanks buddy, we drove all this way to come to the beach and not watch the 3-year-old and the almost-2-year-old. I just assumed he was some kind of senior lifeguard switching off summer mode, but without introducing himself, the whole “even he” statement and his “helpful” advice landed in a way he probably didn’t intend. I believe he meant well, but without even introducing himself or stating his role, you can imagine that he just kind of came across as a little condescending.

Have you ever tried to tell people about Christ without taking the time to “read the room” first? Even if you have the purest of motives, people don’t often take kindly to folks who jump into a conversation with them and tell them how they should be living their lives. I’m not saying God can’t use the encounter, but it seems prudent to consider how the people you’re engaging perceive your entry into the conversation. Maybe at least try a little chit chat to demonstrate your willingness to listen to their perspective before hitting them with fire and brimstone or “sinners in the hand of an angry God.”

I’ll concede, though, that if it comes down to a choice between having a curt discussion about the need for Christ and saying nothing at all, being curt takes priority. The Gospel doesn’t get spread without people spreading it. My point here is simply that when you’re about to tell people they’re destined for eternal punishment because they’re living life apart from Jesus Christ, it’s best to have a little empathy because making people defensive right off the bat tends to help them reject what you’re saying.

Going back to the guy on the beach, nothing he said was incorrect. I even think he meant well. It was his attitude and delivery that overshadowed his message and made me want to tell him to buzz off, and I want to prevent anything like that from getting in the way of someone’s acceptance of Christ as their Savior.Lord, I know You call us all to spread the message. Even if I don’t feel well-practiced, give me the words and the boldness to jump in when I feel you calling me to do it. Help me remember that even though I could obsess over not “doing it right,” You can build poor attempts into something magnificent, and are pleased by my obedience.

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Like it or Not, The Buck Stops With You

It’s funny how the concept of individual responsibility and discipline has faded into the background. When I was a kid, there were plenty of limits on how much junk food I ate, how much video game time I got, and what I did with my money. As you grow up, you’re less at the mercy of someone else’s limits on your choices, and you determine your own circumstances.

I don’t know if anyone’s told you this or not, but you are responsible for the choices you make. Those choices take many forms, but please don’t fall for the false narrative our culture as a whole seems to push on people: you’re not to blame for the consequences of your decisions.

While it’s true there are some things outside our control that restrict the choices we make (car accidents, inherited medical conditions, etc.), the things I’m about to cover usually aren’t the result of one or two choices, but the result of patterns of choices. Let’s start with something we can probably all relate to.

How can I say this lovingly? Gaining five pounds is not a huge deal. I’ve come out of weekends weighing about five pounds more than I did going in. Gaining 10 pounds more than where you want to be…well…that might be okay if we’re between Thanksgiving and New Years. Putting on 20 pounds more than your desired weight…please tell me you’re noticing this?

If you’re 30 or 40 pounds overweight, we’re not just talking about a couple days’ worth of bad decisions. This is a pattern. It’s a little tough to believe you didn’t see it coming. The consequences are now much more likely to negatively affect your health (and by extension, your bank account). The risk of problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart disease are all now needlessly increased. Yes, you can probably take medicine for some of them, or you can bypass the need for most of those medications by addressing the problem instead of the symptoms. I have to give credit where credit’s due; the country music singer Jelly Roll hit a max weight of 540 pounds a few years ago, but has since lost about 180 pounds to drop below 360. While 360 pounds is still morbidly obese, I have to tip my cap to him; losing 180 pounds is a tremendous accomplishment. At his max weight, I wouldn’t have given him another 10 years. I’m rooting for the guy, and I hope he’s able to achieve his goal of dropping enough weight to someday go skydiving with his wife, even if it means he needs to find a new stage name. (“Pop Tart?”) If you find yourself wanting to drop some extra pounds, start with simple changes like swapping sugary drinks for water (aim to eat your calories instead of drink them). A soda or something like a lemonade every day adds up fast. (Don’t switch to the diet version, just cut it out completely.) Also, while exercise is important, diet is more important. Cardio is good for your heart and mind, while strength training builds muscle, and increased muscle mass burns more calories even while at rest. None of it makes much difference if you’re consistently taking in more calories than you burn.

Let’s talk finances. If you’re living beyond your means, that’s something to try to change right away. I’m not talking about cases where you’re temporarily between jobs, or you’re paying back a big medical bill or something like that. I’m referring to situations where you’re spending more money than you’ve got without having a better reason than “because I want it.” Yes, we all need clothing, but why does it have to be designer? If you truly need a vehicle, brand new cars are a lot more expensive to own and insure than cars a few years older. Dining out or having food delivered is convenient, but expensive, especially if it’s multiple times a week. Consumer debt is a trap you don’t want to have to deal with. If you can’t pay your credit card bills in full every month, maybe you shouldn’t use them (unless the vendor doesn’t take cash). Pay in cash when you’re out and about. Physically handing your money over to someone has a way of helping you question whether the purchase is really worth it or not. Swiping a card and using “invisible money” is so easy, you don’t even realize how much you’re pledging to pay, and the bill piles up fast. If you can’t seem to help yourself, ask your credit card company to lower your credit limit. Keep in mind that if you drastically lower your amount of available credit, your credit score will take a hit. If you’re applying for a mortgage or other loan soon, you may want to hold off on lowering the limits until after you get the lender’s decision.

Finally, are you always short on time? Why is that? If you made a pie chart of the activities you do during your free time (not when you’re sleeping and not when you’re at work or engaged in other responsibilities), which slices would be the biggest? I’m guessing a screen is involved. I don’t know if this is true or not, but the other day I heard on the radio that on average, we scroll a whopping 95 miles per year on our phones. It can’t all be worthwhile. Video games are a black hole for guys, especially. I knew guys in college who would skip classes to play video games. Too much of that and your grades suffer, and college is a pricey thing to give a half-hearted effort to. Unless you’re able to make money off your video game prowess, consider whether the time investment is worth it. I understand wanting to decompress and relax, but good grief, set a limit on how much time that takes. Other time-suck activities: binge-watching shows, watching six hours of football in a given weekend (or single day), and aimless meandering on the internet.

To sum up, you’re in charge of you. If you can’t do it on your own, ask a trusted person for help with your weak spots. When my kids were little, my wife and I were pretty careful about how many sweets we let them have. Occasionally, I’d come home from work and have some ice cream. Once in awhile, one of them would say something like “I can’t wait until I’m a daddy so I can have ice cream whenever I want.” Yeah, life as an adult comes with some privileges, but Spiderman was right: with great power comes great responsibility. Take ownership of your choices. The buck stops with you.

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Two Guys Who Were Each Literally One in a Million

Ever feel like you’re the only one in your circle who trusts what God’s doing?

Sometimes even other Christians’ faith seems to wilt in the face of apparent obstacles. It can be tough to believe you should pursue something God’s called you to do, especially when your senses are telling you to go the other way.

That’s exactly what Caleb and Joshua came up against as they neared the promised land. After God led them out of Egypt, but before entering into the land God had arranged for them to take possession of, He told Moses to take 12 men, one from each tribe, and send them in pairs to spy out the land to see what it was like.

They did just that. Five of the six pairs came back and lamented about how difficult it would be to conquer the land. The people were too strong, the cities were too fortified, etc. They lamented about how futile it would be to try to take the land by force. The last pair, Caleb and Joshua, were excited. “God promised us this land; whoever or whatever obstacles lay in front of us are inconsequential. We only need to move when He says to move, and He’ll take care of the rest to fulfill His promise to us!”

Despite the enthusiasm of these two, the people of Israel decided things were so bleak, they should reject the leader God had given them (Moses), appoint for themselves a new leader, and head back to Egypt! The people even started talking about stoning Caleb and Joshua! (Numbers 14:10) At that point the Lord stepped in. Exasperated with the Israelites, He spoke with Moses about their faithlessness and declared His intent to ensure no Israelite who was age 20 or older would live long enough to enter the promised land. The only two exceptions would be Caleb and Joshua, who believed God and advocated for His path.

There were roughly two million Israelites at this point. Out of those two million, there were only two who had the faith and focus on God to please Him. When you average it out, these two men of faith were literally one in a million.

Popular sentiment does not guarantee alignment with God’s will. There will likely be times when, even among other Christians, you’re in the minority about believing God’s promises or pursuing what He’s called you to do. When you’re the only one God’s given a particular assignment to, don’t be surprised when nobody else understands it. If you’re consistently in God’s word and you’re regularly in prayer, He’ll lead you in the direction He wants you to go. Follow God’s lead even if nobody else sees it.

Lord, it can be hard to step out in faith, especially when it doesn’t make sense. Thanks for this example of two men who believed in your power and promise, and help me to recognize when You’re moving me toward something You want me to do. In those times, give me clarity of vision and boldness of heart. Amen.

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It’s Funny What A Big Difference a Single Second can Make

I used to really enjoy kneeboarding. It’s an activity where you’re kneeling on a board while being pulled behind a boat. The boat’s wake makes a ramp you can use for jumping or sliding around on. I was able to master a couple of minor kneeboarding tricks, but for some reason I really had my heart set on doing a barrel roll.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that particular trick wasn’t possible to do with the setup we had. The boat we used only had the factory/stock pylon, which is where the ski rope connected to the boat. For this trick to work, we needed an extra tall pylon or a ski/wakeboard tower, so while you’re still mid-air, the rope is pulling you up, rather than straight ahead. It allows you to get a little extra hangtime, resulting in some additional rotation.

Of course, I was blissfully ignorant of this. I figured I just needed to work harder on my technique. I’d get halfway, maybe three quarters of the way around, then crash into the water. Sometimes my face would be the first thing to hit. Other times I didn’t know what hit first; I’d bob to the surface with my neck suddenly sore from an awkward entry into the water. Every now and then the kneeboard would go flying high into the air in a spectacular wreck. The life jacket was nice because I’d be so disoriented upon being thrashed into the water, I didn’t know which way was up. Thankfully, it pointed me in the right direction.

I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. We tried different speeds so the shape of the wake changed, but we determined the speed range to get the best shot. I figured “well, I probably just need to hit the wake faster and tuck tighter so I can rotate quicker.” Looking back I don’t know if this trick was even possible, but I sure tried hard to squeeze every bit of rotation out of each attempt.

At the time, I had a video camera, and I had someone in the boat film so I could try to figure out how to get better. I could probably show you snapshots from 20+ failures when attempting the roll, but I found something I thought was more interesting. Like the post’s title says, it’s funny what a big difference a single second can make. I grabbed a couple of snapshots of one particular attempt.

In the left picture you can see me setting up for the jump. I’m trying to pick up as much speed as possible before hitting the wake. I’m zeroed in on what I’m trying to do. Just one second later, in the other picture, it’s perfectly obvious everything has completely fallen apart. There’s a crash landing in progress, and the board looks like it decided to travel in another direction than the one I did. Chalk this one up to failure.

In fact, chalk them all up to failure. I never landed that trick.

Now, I’m not saying I would’ve been able to crack the code on this trick if I’d had more time, but I’m saying a situation can look very different even if two different snapshots are only a second apart. Have you ever been in a situation where you found that to be the case?

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God’s Evolution vs. Darwin’s Evolution

Last summer I visited some family in Kentucky, and while we were there we took the opportunity to go visit the “Ark Encounter.” If you’re not familiar with this attraction, it’s a full-size replica of Noah’s ark, built to the specifications listed in the Bible.

There’s no getting around it…the thing is huge. I mean, it’s massive. One of the questions I had before showing up was “okay, yeah, Genesis lists the external dimensions of the ark, but it doesn’t say a whole lot about what the place looks like on the inside. What would it look like?”

Well I’ll be the first to admit that the replica’s designers took liberties with some of the things they displayed, but it was still interesting to see. This is one way it could have looked (though probably without water fountains, restrooms, and handicap-accessible decks). “Here’s how they could have stored this or that.” “Here’s how they could keep some of the bugs contained.” “This is one way they could have managed all the waste.” “During nice weather, they could have opened the roof like this.” They did present interesting ideas like “We usually imagine the animals on the ark to be full-grown adults, but since God’s pretty smart, He may have chosen to do something else, like bring adolescent or juvenile specimens to Noah’s doorstep. After all, a pair of 2-year-old elephants would take up a lot less room, eat a lot less food, and have time to produce a lot more offspring than a pair of 50-year-old elephants.” Hmmm, I never thought about that; that’s a good point.

One of the things I thought was most interesting was an explanation of Evolution after the flood. When we think of Darwin’s version of Evolution, the theory supposes that when an organism needs to gain some kind of function for the sake of survival, it simply adds to its DNA. Mutations occur, adding new combinations of DNA base pairs. When confronted with scientific reality, the chances of this happening in a single generation (“evolve or die”) are pretty remote. It’s much easier to look at a different type of mutation: deletion.

Instead of adding to our DNA, what if the different species on the ark were so genetically rich and diverse that they were all able to lose a great deal of their DNA to deletions over multiple generations and still lead to specialized species differentiation? After all, if all the humans on the planet, in all their vast genetic diversity, came from the same pair (Adam and Eve), those two progenitors must have possessed the DNA necessary for every genetic trait we can observe in present-day humans. The only difference between all the different people is the DNA that got dropped over the years.

That’s a fantastic amount of variety! After the flood humanity spread around the planet, but often clustered together into gene pools with similar traits. At the very general level, Asians looked like Asians, Europeans looked like Europeans, Africans looked like Africans, and so forth. It’s not that one race of people somehow evolves into another, it’s more like the physical appearance of these different groups have become more specialized over time through generation after generation of people that have offspring with people who are similar to them. Over time the genes become less diverse, not more diverse.

Things are different in the modern age. The original trunk of very diverse humans split into many smaller less-diverse trunks, but now the convenience of modern travel has made the world smaller, and it’s become much more common for people of mixed races to have children together. Though I’m sure it pales in comparison to what it looked like at the beginning, it’s injecting gene pools with big doses of genetic diversity.

Dogs are another example. If there were only two dogs on the ark, every breed of modern dog you see today came from that one pair. Chihuahuas, Schnauzers, Great Danes, Boxers, Hound Dogs, Pugs, Border Collies, and Teacup Poodles all came from the same ancestors, but breeders intentionally isolated particular genes to produce specialized types of canines, dropping the genes they’re not interested in. A mutt has more genetic diversity than a purebred dog does.

Regardless of whether an individual person has a lot of diversity or almost none in their DNA, they are our neighbor. They need to hear about Christ and His offer to pull us out of a future of eternal condemnation, and they need to hear about Him through you and I. If you’re talking to someone who doesn’t want anything to do with the Bible, though, stuff like this is one way you can point to the idea of Intelligent Design. Life didn’t just spontaneously spring into existence; someone put it here, and the Bible says how God did it.

Anyway, I thought that visit was interesting. God and science co-exist. I hope you can use stuff like this in your conversations with unsaved folks.

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A Missed Opportunity is a Lost Opportunity

Ever hear of a sloppy, unrehearsed presentation trouncing a very polished one?

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve written about the urgency of our situation as Christ-followers. We’re not recommended…we’re commanded…to go out and make disciples of all nations. That can be tough. What’s that look like?

The most important thing is that we try. Making an honest attempt equates to obedience here, and obedience is one of the things God wants from us. Although a well-rehearsed, logical presentation of the Gospel is something to work toward, lack of a prepared version is not a good excuse for skipping the attempt. No matter how prepared you are for the pitch, you’re not the one who gets to decide if it penetrates the heart:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. –John 6:63

God can use a fumbling and bumbling version of a Gospel presentation just as much as He can use a highly stylized, well-practiced delivery. Jesus is pretty particular in reminding us about this. Later in the same chapter, Peter started speaking a little pretentiously, and implied that he and the “true disciples” had somehow acquired superior insight, and as a result of this insight, had decided to believe. Jesus was quick to correct him about who did the choosing:

Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. –John 6:69-70

God expects us to obey, but He doesn’t expect us to be rock stars at evangelism. Picture a dad playing with his young kids and a ball. “Throw Daddy the ball!” All the kiddo has to do is get it close, and Daddy will make the catch and complete the play. Same thing here. Just obey, and get it close. If it’s part of His plan, God will take it from there.

This leads to an important point. Not everyone who hears the Gospel will respond to it, especially the first time they hear it. That means there needs to be more presentations of the Gospel than there are acceptances. That’s where you come in. You don’t have to be successful, you just need to be obedient. Obedience is your responsibility; outcome is God’s responsibility. He won’t be disappointed in you for obeying what He told you to do.

I understand it’s a scary thing, and we’ve been conditioned not to talk about God in the workplace. Let’s start small and you can grow from there. If you’re not going to go out and tell people about God, use the times He brings people to you. The next time a solicitor knocks on your door, guess what? They’re not going to complain to HR about you discussing God with them. They came to you. They’re on your turf. Just because they have something to offer you doesn’t mean it’s a one-way street. I guarantee what you have to offer them is far more valuable than what they’re offering you. Don’t pretend you’re not home.

Not sure what structure to follow? There are a ton out there, and some methods lend themselves to different personalities or levels of memorization. As long as you’re covering these three areas, you’re sharing the Gospel. 1. Why we must be saved. 2. How Jesus can save us. 3. What we must do to be saved.

Try learning about some of these quick methods, with longer descriptions (and additional methods) available at https://dudedisciple.com/methods-of-evangelism/:

  1. The Pray and Say – More people than you’d think are open to having you pray for them. Try articulating the Gospel during a prayer with them.
  2. The Roman Road – Using five different verses in the book of Romans, you walk folks through the need for Jesus. Think you can memorize five verses?
  3. The 1-minute Gospel – Some people reject the Bible because it’s the Bible. No Bible verses required for this one.
  4. The Billy Graham Method – It worked for millions of people, and is pretty simple.
  5. The Five-Finger Method – Five fingers help you remember five points to make.

Ultimately, you’re the best judge of the method you should use…these are just some ideas to get you started and work with complete strangers. You’re welcome to use these, or any other method, on strangers, people you know casually, or people who are very important to you.

I encourage you to check out the link. We (Christians) are here for a reason, and the enemy doesn’t want you to follow through on it. Remind yourself that you don’t have to present the Gospel perfectly, you just need to present it, and it gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to do some big stuff in a person’s life.

Lord, help me remember what’s truly important in this life and to be willing to follow through with what You’ve called me to do. When the time comes, give me the words to say, and may You be glorified through me. Amen.

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Not to Alarm You, But Are You Living a Life of Disobedience?

Last week I talked about living “in the final minutes of the game.” If Satan knows he’s losing, and that the clock’s getting closer to zero, he’s going to pull out all the stops in his efforts to derail God’s plan. There are no rules of conduct he’ll voluntarily abide by.

Well God’s going to do what God’s going to do, and none of us know exactly what’s going to take place or His timeline for doing it. We know God wins, but we don’t know what the battles look like between now and then, or which of us are going to step into crucial roles in the fight.

I feel I need to drop some truth on my fellow Christ-followers here, and for some it may be uncomfortable. Here it is: If you are not living your life actively looking for ways to build God’s kingdom (either by bringing new souls to Christ or building up the faith and capabilities of those who are already His), you are living a life of disobedience.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19-20

This isn’t a verse that says “as long as you’re up for it,” or “once you get that job,” or “when life is going well for you.” This is not an optional aspect of Christianity, this is a command. Yes, if Jesus Christ is your Savior, you’ll spend eternity with Him in Heaven, but there’s a lot of joy you’re going to miss out on if you duck the Boss’s directive.

And we get to be part of countering those efforts. Thank you John MacArthur!

I recently spent most of the day accompanying someone to the hospital for a surgery. Time seems to pass slower when you’re sitting in a hospital waiting room. It gives you the opportunity to do a lot of people-watching, and if you’re paying attention, you get to see a lot. For some, this is a place of business; it’s where they earn their paycheck. For others, it’s a place to volunteer. For many others, it’s a place of uncertainty, of worry. I saw elderly couples gingerly walking around together, taking great care to navigate obstacles I think nothing about. If the Lord sees fit to allow me to live that long, that reality isn’t as far off into the future as I’d like it to be. If I want end my time on Earth having lived a life of impact for the Lord, I need to be pushing now, and the same is probably true for you.

I’ve written in the past about the parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30). A talent in this case is a measure of weight, so a talent of gold or a talent of silver is worth quite a bit. The master called three servants together and gave them different amounts of money, according to their abilities (5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent), and told them to grow the money while he went away on a journey. The first two servants worked hard and doubled the money they’d been entrusted with, while the third was lazy and only returned the original amount to the master.

We all have the opportunity to demonstrate growth in our Christian walks. Those who do well with 1 talent graduate to being entrusted with 2, and those who do well with 2 demonstrate their worthiness to be entrusted with more. I feel like this blog is my “2-talent act.” I’ve been reliably posting content here for over six and a half years. I feel like my “5-talent act” is the book series I’ve posted about before. That series is a little too much for me to handle right now, but I’m growing into it. Being faithful at smaller-talent acts will help prepare me for the bigger lift, and the same goes for you. It’s become glaringly apparent though, that if I want to complete that 5-talent act, it’s not something I can just wish and hope for; I’m going to have to make deliberate efforts to get it done. It’s going to cost me something…usually my time. I’m trying to build something that will still be making an impact long after I’m gone, but if I want it to really happen I have to get moving now. I’ve already been working on it for a few years, and even though I’ve started to accumulate a few sizable manuscripts, there’s still years’ worth of work to be done.

That’s why it’s important to remember, and keep in perspective, the brevity of life. It’s easy to brush aside the idea of committing to something big God’s called you to, because people of all ages can talk themselves out of it. If you’re a teenager, you figure you’ll have plenty of time for stuff like that later. In your early career you’re still focused on getting yourself established, or even just paying rent. Maybe you get in a serious relationship, maybe little footsteps follow behind not long after. Well then, since you’ve got a young family, you have other priorities. But then you get pulled into volunteering at school activities, and then you get caught up in the college search. Then all your kiddos leave the nest and it’s just you and your special someone, or maybe just you. But then you get a pink slip, or an unexpected diagnosis. You eventually make it through that, and at some point you become a grandparent. Retirement isn’t super far away, and maybe you take a big vacation once in awhile. You eventually retire, and then you have to figure out what that looks like for you. You do some fun things and spend some time with the grandkids, but before you know it you’re trying to decide if you want to retire in place, downsize, or move into a retirement community.

“Wow, that went fast.” Sometimes it seems like it’s over in a few blinks of an eye. “I guess there’s really no ‘good’ time to get to work on the stuff God assigned to me.” That’s part of the reason why He rewards the followers that make time for His work.

Not sure where to begin? Start small and grow from there. I bet your church needs help with child care (or some other ministry). Maybe you can think of a practical way to demonstrate love to someone who needs some help (both Believers and non-Believers). Is there someone you know who could use a little discipling?

It’s not too late. God has work for you to do. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” I’m sure we’ll celebrate together in Heaven, but don’t let a lifetime of disobedience pass you by.

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Sportsmanship Tanks if You’re Losing As the Clock Runs Out

I never really got into playing basketball, but I’ve played a few games here and there in my younger days. I was always pretty tall, so I got invited to jump into some pickup games. It turns out being tall was the only asset I really brought to the game. I couldn’t shoot. I didn’t understand coordinated plays. I was the goofy-looking lanky guy who could run around and set a pick, and I could rebound, but that was pretty much it.

What’s kind of funny is that regardless of whether I was on the winning or losing team, as the game began winding down, people on the losing team seemed like they started committing more fouls. Ever notice that? Maybe it was to try to stop the clock and catch their breath. Now and then it was because the guy they fouled wasn’t good at free throws. Most often though, it seemed like it was out of frustration with the increasingly clear notion they’d soon lose the game.

I don’t know what kind of timeline God’s working with, but it’s been nearly 2,000 years since Christ died on the cross. It’s been a few less decades than that since Christ said “Behold, I am coming soon” in the book of Revelation. We’re a lot nearer to the End Times than we used to be. Prophetically, there’s no event that needs to occur before the Lord raptures His saints. There’s nothing standing in the way. It could literally happen any hour now.

Our enemy, Satan, knows this, too. He doesn’t know how much time he’s got left, but he knows his time’s getting short and that when the clock runs out, he’s in for a world of hurt. He, too, is dealing with the increasingly clear notion he’ll soon lose.

What that means for us, though, is we’re going to get fouled more often. Satan’s always been sneaky, played dirty, and taken advantage of every opportunity, but that’s how you have to be if you’re trying to compete with someone who’s stronger than you. He can’t hope to compare with God, even if he can convince a percentage of people otherwise.

Between now and whenever the Lord pulls His team out of the game, look for those fouls to increase in frequency and to get more flagrant. Your sense of decency will be assaulted. Nothing will remain sacred. Innocents will be dragged into the fight. Hatred for Christians and Jews (but not other religious groups) will rise, and so will hatred for Christian and Jewish principles.

I say this not to scare you, but to help you anticipate the challenges we’ll be facing. Doing the Lord’s work will come with more conflict than in the past. At the same time, however, God will still equip you with what you need for following His calling. We’re not immune from harm, but we’re on the winning team. Step with boldness into the Lord’s assignment for you, and let the enemy forces rage.