April 20, 1993
Imprisoned television evangelist Jim Bakker is now saying, “I have been convicted twice...”
A small news item reports Bakker is asking former supporters to forgive him. He claims that a study of the words of Jesus has deeply convicted him of his guilt in teaching false doctrine. He admits that he once believed having money was a sign of God’s favor on a person’s life. He now says, “if that is true, then crooks, pimps and drug lords are blessed of God — and that cannot be.”
Bakker’s downfall produced far larger headlines than did this story. Perhaps that’s because his reputation seems forever scarred by deceit. Few editors want to publicize what seems like another false claim by an exposed has-been.
But what if the change is real? Could it be that the Bible has the power to transform lives, just as God claims?
This lack of publicity concerning Bakker’s confession could indicate society is more interested in bad news than good news. Certainly the sordid stories of Bakker’s sins, complete with photographs, gained attention. However, isn’t it newsworthy that reading the Bible can turn people from lies to honesty? from sin to godliness? This is good news and good news should attract attention too.
Yet some people don’t want to hear about the power of God to make bad people good. It is acceptable to fantasize or talk about a world of wonderfully good people, but in reality, does anyone care to know if God can make us that way?
Notice the Bible knows what we are like. It says, “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they have all become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one” (Romans 3).
According to God, no one is interested in being holy. He says that whenever we try to be godly, our efforts are a mere “form of godliness” lacking divine power. Even though some “religious” people pretend to be holy and some “good” people try hard, He says none of it holds a patch on the true holiness He wants and will even give to us.
Some might wonder why God would bother giving anything to a religious traitor who preached a false gospel of prosperity and kept wanting more, bigger, and better (to prove God favored him?). When this man became blinded by his lies, tripped over his own error and fell into disgraceful immorality, onlookers even mocked the Christian faith he claimed to have. For months after his trial and conviction, he still insisted he was not in the wrong. Why wouldn’t God simply let a hopeless case like him fade out of the picture?
First and contrary to the way we tend to think, God is interested in hopeless cases. Jesus said He came to call sinners to repentance. Working a change in the likes of a convicted hypocrite is just what He loves to do.
Second, if Bakker really does know God, then God is committed to change him. The Lord does not accept sinners because they are already righteous but because He plans to transform their lives and make them into godly people. He does it all the time. But this good news seldom makes headlines.
Showing posts with label confess and repent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confess and repent. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Good news for those willing to take the blame ................ Parables 310
March 24, 1992
Months ago a humorous article from the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel caught my eye. In it, Ray Recchi makes long comments about the state of the nation and the main reason for it. He concludes that “a lot of Americans are just plain stupid . . . .”
Recchi supports his charge with statistics and offers pertinent questions about the foolish things that people do and say — but the label “stupid” makes me mad. If most people who read the article are like me, they immediately assumed it was about a whole lot of other people, not them.
Counselors call this transference or some other long word that simply mean blame-shifting. We all do it. It is a defense mechanism. I use it too. Whenever someone’s accusations are hitting too close to home, if I can find someone else it fits better, then the pressure is off me. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t let me get away with it.
God’s Word certainly doesn’t gloss over our humanness. People shifted the blame and pointed fingers just as much then as we do now. Jesus had to command us not to judge others. It is so easy to accuse someone else of having a “splinter in their eye” when we have a log in our own (Matthew 7). However, Recchi’s article has another Scriptural parallel. When God told Israel the reason for the mess they were in, He basically said, “a lot of my people are just plain sinful.” Of course, true to human nature, they basically said, “Who? Me?” They were not prepared to accept the label either.
Again, we haven’t changed much. We resent being called sinners and will adamantly deny sin is present in our lives. We will rationalize and even re-define it so we can escape the label. Unfortunately, both Recchi and God can back up their label with statistical proof.
From one end of the Bible to the other, there is record of the sinful deeds that all people commit. Adam and Eve disobeyed the only command God gave them. Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy. Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. David committed adultery and murdered the woman’s husband. Solomon, wise as he was, multiplied for himself gold, horses, and wives and fell to idol worship at the end of his life. The kings of Israel built shrines for pagan deities. The people of God killed the prophets He sent and crucified His Son. The early church also struggled with sin in its midst. The apostle Paul wrote that everyone can see the glory of God in creation and are aware there is a God that deserves our worship — yet many are not thankful and turn from Him to make and worship idols.
Jesus jumped with both feet on the hypocritical religious leaders of His day. He called them “whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead bones and all uncleanness.”
Certainly, from pagan to priest, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The sin might be overt things like murder, adultery, stealing and lying or more hidden things like cursing God in our heart and doing our own thing, independent of His will. Refusing to thank God for His abundant care is just as much as sin as lust, hate and jealousy.
Our problem is admitting it. We hate the label, pin it on someone else who seems worse, rather than accept what the evidence suggests. We don’t want to consider the consequences: “the wages of sin is death . . . .”
Ricchi’s article failed to offer a solution for stupidity, however the Bible does offer a remedy for sin. When we are willing to admit our need, we can understand, want, and accept the solution, “. . . the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Months ago a humorous article from the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel caught my eye. In it, Ray Recchi makes long comments about the state of the nation and the main reason for it. He concludes that “a lot of Americans are just plain stupid . . . .”
Recchi supports his charge with statistics and offers pertinent questions about the foolish things that people do and say — but the label “stupid” makes me mad. If most people who read the article are like me, they immediately assumed it was about a whole lot of other people, not them.
Counselors call this transference or some other long word that simply mean blame-shifting. We all do it. It is a defense mechanism. I use it too. Whenever someone’s accusations are hitting too close to home, if I can find someone else it fits better, then the pressure is off me. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t let me get away with it.
God’s Word certainly doesn’t gloss over our humanness. People shifted the blame and pointed fingers just as much then as we do now. Jesus had to command us not to judge others. It is so easy to accuse someone else of having a “splinter in their eye” when we have a log in our own (Matthew 7). However, Recchi’s article has another Scriptural parallel. When God told Israel the reason for the mess they were in, He basically said, “a lot of my people are just plain sinful.” Of course, true to human nature, they basically said, “Who? Me?” They were not prepared to accept the label either.
Again, we haven’t changed much. We resent being called sinners and will adamantly deny sin is present in our lives. We will rationalize and even re-define it so we can escape the label. Unfortunately, both Recchi and God can back up their label with statistical proof.
From one end of the Bible to the other, there is record of the sinful deeds that all people commit. Adam and Eve disobeyed the only command God gave them. Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy. Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. David committed adultery and murdered the woman’s husband. Solomon, wise as he was, multiplied for himself gold, horses, and wives and fell to idol worship at the end of his life. The kings of Israel built shrines for pagan deities. The people of God killed the prophets He sent and crucified His Son. The early church also struggled with sin in its midst. The apostle Paul wrote that everyone can see the glory of God in creation and are aware there is a God that deserves our worship — yet many are not thankful and turn from Him to make and worship idols.
Jesus jumped with both feet on the hypocritical religious leaders of His day. He called them “whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead bones and all uncleanness.”
Certainly, from pagan to priest, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The sin might be overt things like murder, adultery, stealing and lying or more hidden things like cursing God in our heart and doing our own thing, independent of His will. Refusing to thank God for His abundant care is just as much as sin as lust, hate and jealousy.
Our problem is admitting it. We hate the label, pin it on someone else who seems worse, rather than accept what the evidence suggests. We don’t want to consider the consequences: “the wages of sin is death . . . .”
Ricchi’s article failed to offer a solution for stupidity, however the Bible does offer a remedy for sin. When we are willing to admit our need, we can understand, want, and accept the solution, “. . . the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Friday, April 10, 2015
God Changes Lives .............. Parables 259
(March 20, 1991)
What kind of people go to Bible school? The average person might think only holier-than-thou types, or Bible-thumpers, or the exceptionally religious would be interested in full time Bible study. But how about a group of bikers who ride Harleys and wear leathers? Or those who have spent time in prison?
The Bible college I attend, well-known as a good school and one of the largest in North America, has just that among the 700-plus student body.
Before I tell you about one of them, it is important to know what the Bible says about people with a past who have come to faith in Christ. Not only has God forgiven them, He also has changed their very natures: “...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
New life means new interests. The bikers may still like their bikes, but like all sinners they no longer like their sin. Because of changed hearts, actions begin to change. The Bible puts it this way: “... and such were some of you: but now you are washed, and you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (Notice those verbs are in the past tense.)
Grady (not his real name) is one of those people most would not expect to wind up in Bible college. He used to be a high-roller, financially successful but spending it faster than he earned it. He also had a problem with drugs and alcohol. Somehow he began thinking his wife was an obstacle to what he wanted in life. Obsessed with the idea of getting rid of her, he contracted someone to do it for him. The man said he wouldn’t do it, but gave him the name of someone who would. Grady didn’t know the second person was a policeman.
His wife was safe; he was arrested and sentenced to nine years for conspiracy to murder. He began the prison term and within weeks turned to the Bible. Through the assistance of other Christians and the power of the Spirit of God, he saw his need to be forgiven of his sins. He invited Jesus Christ into his heart and new life began.
Grady says out of all prison “conversions” only about 1% make their life count for God when they get out. The Lord had definite plans that Grady be in that small percentage. Through unusual circumstances, he found himself at Briercrest Bible College, remarried, and in his 4th year of a B.A. program, heading into a Master’s in the fall.
All of that is outstanding but there are more things that show the power of God in a person’s life. Grady came through the last semester under a great deal of stress. A baby was born. Finances were tight. His work load in this last semester was difficult with final courses and an internship, but he came through with a 95.75 % average. Besides that, Grady served this past year as Student Body President!
Every time I see Grady in the halls I think of how Jesus Christ is in the business of putting broken lives back together. Actually, looking in the mirror often gives me the same thoughts. Every one of us has a “past.” How much God loves His children; He not only forgives the past but cleanses our hearts and lives. How wonderful His grace for those whose faith is in Him!
It is not only the Gradys of this world who can have hope and permanent change. Life does not need to stay a mess when we mess it up. The Lord is able to make good things out of whatever raw material we give Him. All He wants is a humble admission of our need before Him and a willingness to give Him our trust and our selves so we will let Him have His way with us.
It may be a frightening concept for some to turn their lives over to a Person they cannot see, yet when we think it through, how could God hurt us? In fact, the Bible asks: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
The “all things” may not mean money, fame or power but it does mean a fresh start and the inner resources to live a life that pleases God. Take note, with grace and love, He can even make a prisoner into a president!
What kind of people go to Bible school? The average person might think only holier-than-thou types, or Bible-thumpers, or the exceptionally religious would be interested in full time Bible study. But how about a group of bikers who ride Harleys and wear leathers? Or those who have spent time in prison?
The Bible college I attend, well-known as a good school and one of the largest in North America, has just that among the 700-plus student body.
Before I tell you about one of them, it is important to know what the Bible says about people with a past who have come to faith in Christ. Not only has God forgiven them, He also has changed their very natures: “...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
New life means new interests. The bikers may still like their bikes, but like all sinners they no longer like their sin. Because of changed hearts, actions begin to change. The Bible puts it this way: “... and such were some of you: but now you are washed, and you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (Notice those verbs are in the past tense.)
Grady (not his real name) is one of those people most would not expect to wind up in Bible college. He used to be a high-roller, financially successful but spending it faster than he earned it. He also had a problem with drugs and alcohol. Somehow he began thinking his wife was an obstacle to what he wanted in life. Obsessed with the idea of getting rid of her, he contracted someone to do it for him. The man said he wouldn’t do it, but gave him the name of someone who would. Grady didn’t know the second person was a policeman.
His wife was safe; he was arrested and sentenced to nine years for conspiracy to murder. He began the prison term and within weeks turned to the Bible. Through the assistance of other Christians and the power of the Spirit of God, he saw his need to be forgiven of his sins. He invited Jesus Christ into his heart and new life began.
Grady says out of all prison “conversions” only about 1% make their life count for God when they get out. The Lord had definite plans that Grady be in that small percentage. Through unusual circumstances, he found himself at Briercrest Bible College, remarried, and in his 4th year of a B.A. program, heading into a Master’s in the fall.
All of that is outstanding but there are more things that show the power of God in a person’s life. Grady came through the last semester under a great deal of stress. A baby was born. Finances were tight. His work load in this last semester was difficult with final courses and an internship, but he came through with a 95.75 % average. Besides that, Grady served this past year as Student Body President!
Every time I see Grady in the halls I think of how Jesus Christ is in the business of putting broken lives back together. Actually, looking in the mirror often gives me the same thoughts. Every one of us has a “past.” How much God loves His children; He not only forgives the past but cleanses our hearts and lives. How wonderful His grace for those whose faith is in Him!
It is not only the Gradys of this world who can have hope and permanent change. Life does not need to stay a mess when we mess it up. The Lord is able to make good things out of whatever raw material we give Him. All He wants is a humble admission of our need before Him and a willingness to give Him our trust and our selves so we will let Him have His way with us.
It may be a frightening concept for some to turn their lives over to a Person they cannot see, yet when we think it through, how could God hurt us? In fact, the Bible asks: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
The “all things” may not mean money, fame or power but it does mean a fresh start and the inner resources to live a life that pleases God. Take note, with grace and love, He can even make a prisoner into a president!
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