31

Jump Start # 1861

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1861

Proverbs 10:5 “He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.”

 

As we end the month of May and head full steam into summer, this is verse is a great reminder for us. In the land which this passage was written, the time to gather was in the summer. This was the harvest time. Our passage shows two choices. A son who was busy during the summer gathering or the son who slept through the harvest.

 

There are certain things in life that one must act upon. We can’t wait until we are ready, they will pass us by. The sleeping son who missed the harvest, will later be ready to go out and gather, but there won’t be anything to harvest. It will have been too late. Then, as winter hits, he will suffer. He will not have enough and then have to beg from others. It didn’t have to be this way. His laziness and his failure to have vision and diligence led to this. There was no one to blame but himself. Why was he sleeping? Was he staying up too late? Did he not realize that it was harvest season? Did he not care?

 

There are “summer harvest seasons” upon us as well. Like the sons in the passage, we can’t wait until we feel like doing things. If we do, we will miss these opportunities.

 

Parenting is one such season. Your children grow fast and they move from one stage in life to the next very quickly. The early years is when so many important foundational lessons about respect, rules, authority, kindness and sharing are established. The “sleeping” parent misses that. Wait until your child is a teenager to start “parenting,” and you have acted shamefully. It will be too late. Your child will become a person of the world—selfish, spoiled and worldly. The time to let the child know that there are words that are not allowed, there is behavior that is not allowed is in the “harvest season.” It is during this time that the child needs to be introduced to God. He needs to learn about God at home and at Bible classes. Parents who are too tired to get to the church house will miss the harvest.

 

Saving money is another harvest season. While you are working, you need to be saving. Spending everything that comes in seems to work only while you are working. What happens when you are no longer working? If you haven’t “gathered” during the harvest, you’ll be in trouble. Some proudly boast, “I plan to work until they carry me out.” Maybe. Maybe they won’t want you. Maybe your health won’t allow that. Then what? Old and broke is not a pretty picture. The wise son will be setting some aside while he is working because he knows someday the harvest will be over and he will have to live on what he has gathered.

 

Helping others is another harvest season. The Galatians were told, “While we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” While we have opportunity is the same thing as the harvest in our verse today. We can’t wait until we are ready, because by then the opportunity may have passed by. So, it’s a Saturday and someone needs you to help them move. But you first want to sleep in. By the time you show up, they are finished. You missed your opportunity. You plan to stop by and see someone who is in the hospital. Today doesn’t work out. You’ll do it tomorrow. But you need to run some errands tomorrow. The next day. You go, and they have been released. You missed the harvest. Helping others often doesn’t fit in with our schedules. You just have to make adjustments and make it work. You have to put some things that you wanted to do on the back burner. You have to get up and miss some sleep.

 

Saving our souls is the most important harvest in all of this. Having a nice nest egg is great, but it’s of little value when we are standing before God. Being a great parent is important but if we lose our souls, what good was that? We have a “harvest” period—it’s while we have opportunity and life. We need to first see that we are right before the Lord. Are there things that you have been putting off? Are there things that you need to apologize about? Are there things that you have not dealt with? Harvest is only a season. Miss it and you have missed it. Save yourselves is what the apostles begged the audience in Acts. How many sermons have we listened to and not done anything about? How many times have we seen a passage and realized that we could do better but there we “sleep” through the harvest. Someday that harvest will be over. Have we acted shamefully toward our own souls?

 

From that we need to be diligent to try to teach our family and friends the Gospel of Jesus. We laugh at their jokes. We listen to them rant about things. We see how passionate they are about eating right, exercising, politics, music, but what do they see in us? Are we passionate about our faith? Do we want the harvest to pass and miss the opportunity to tell them about the Lord? Do we want them to turn to us at the judgment and say, “why did you sleep through the harvest?”

 

Summer is here. It’s harvest time. Let’s get busy.

 

Roger

 

30

Jump Start # 1860

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1860

Matthew 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave, you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’”

 

I know a Christian that is struggling. His journey is like a yo-yo. He’s up and doing well, and then he’s down and not showing up much. There are several factors. Part of his problem is the friends in his life. They are not Christians. He seems to keep one foot in the world and that trips him up. Another problem is his internal struggle with faith and forgiveness.

 

When he is doing well, he helps teach classes, attends most times and seems to be getting a great grasp of what God wants. However, the better he does, the more he struggles with guilt and that opens the door for him to slide back down spiritually. He seems to have a hard time believing that he can be what God wants and that he can please God. He knows of his failures and his mistakes. That haunts him. That keeps him from ever being the consistently strong Christian that he needs to be. There has been Bible studies one on one with him. He’s been encouraged. He’s been invited. This constant up and down seems to be something that he can’t get over. I fear that one day he will just grow weary of messing up and throw in the towel completely.

 

I also fear that he is not the only one that struggles with this. It is the thought that we simply cannot please God. No matter how hard we try, God is never happy with us.

 

I chose our verse today because it helps us to see several things.

 

First, the master in this parable of the talents, was pleased. The servant did what was expected and the master rejoiced. It is possible to please God.

 

Second, the master entrusted the servant with even more to do. His accomplishments weren’t the end of the story. There was more that was expected. This is part of growth and responsibility. The more we do, the more we grow, the more that we will be expected to do. For those with the wrong spirit, they’d think, ‘well, I just won’t grow much so I won’t have to do much.’ That spirit certainly won’t please God.

 

Third, the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. We tend to beat our selves up more than we should. If God has forgiven us, then we need to do the same. The problem with forgiveness is that we can still remember the sin. We remember what led up to the sin. The stain and the scars are there, even though God has forgiven us.

 

We are not the Lord. We will not be sinless nor perfect. We try. We give it our best shot. We learn. We make adjustments. We change. But at the end of the day, we still sin. The servant from this parable of the talents, was not perfect. No one is. Could it be that our expectations are too high? Could it be that we are expecting to be flawless? Could it be that we see others that way? We see each other on Sundays, wearing our best clothes, and it seems that everyone around is doing so much better than we are. That’s not true!

 

All of us are a work in progress. Some are doing better than others, but all of us have issues, areas we need to improve on and moments and struggles that seem to get the best of us. But we journey on. Progress is being made. We don’t stop. We don’t turn around. And we certainly do not quit.

 

It’s hard to see and to measure growth in ourselves. There are things that we can do that will help.

 

  • Challenge yourself—and force yourself to do things that you haven’t done before. I know a young married couple that recently invited 13 people from church over to their home for a dinner during a Gospel meeting. It was the first time they ever did this. They were calling their parents to ask how to cook this, seat that many and do this and that. They cleaned and cleaned before everyone came. It went beautifully for them.

 

Maybe challenge yourself to help teach a class.

Maybe challenge yourself to have some families over to your home.

Maybe challenge yourself to memorize some passages.

Maybe challenge yourself to really dig deep into a difficult book of the Bible

 

  • Surround yourself with someone who is spiritually strong. Get to know them. Take them out to lunch. Ask them questions. Find out what they are doing that you are not. Rely upon them to help you find the answers to your questions.

 

  • Engage in Bible classes as a college class. Come with paper and pen. Come to learn. Look at God’s word carefully. Notice the words. Put yourself in the passages. What would you be thinking if you were there? Do more than read words in your Bible. Let the Bible fill your heart and allow it to push you and change you.

 

  • Don’t quit because you made a bad choice. Temptation is strong. Satan is powerful. God chose one of the strongest animals known, a lion, to illustrate what Satan is like. He’s not a kitty cat. He’s not something that is cute and adorable. He’s not something that you’d want to hold. Satan knows you. He knows how to pick at you and tempt you. Learn your weak spots. Get stronger in those areas.

 

  • Don’t lose ground because somethings are not easy. It’s easy to do whatever you feel like. It’s hard to do what God wants. It’s easy to not put a filter on your mouth or your attitude. It’s hard to watch what you say. It’s easy to be selfish, indifferent and only concerned about your own happiness. It’s hard to be compassionate, forgiving and Christ-like. The best things often are not easy. It’s not easy to make the honor roll. It’s not easy to be varsity. It’s not easy to get the promotion. All of those things takes effort. They don’t just come, but a person has to be focused and try hard.

 

  • Watch what you fill your self with. Our choices of music, friends, TV shows, books, movies, all influence us. Filling your mind with violence and hanging around angry people will turn you into an angry person. Too much of the world in us, pulls us closer to the world. Not every great show needs to be watch by the people of God. Not every blockbuster movie is worth seeing. You are steering your own boat. Set the course toward Heaven. You will have to make decisions that affect which direction you will go. If you want to be in shape, you must watch what you eat. Donuts and Coke won’t get you there. If you want to please God, dancing with the world won’t get you there. We must be transformed people. The list of popular TV shows through the years that many strong Christians never watched would amaze some of us. They found better things to do with their time. They didn’t see much value in those shows. Now, all these years later, the shows are off the air and these Christians do not feel that they missed something in their lives. It was just a show. You decide what you want to use your time and fill your heart with.

 

Pleasing God—it is possible. You can do it. It involves more than just one day.

 

I hope this helps.

Roger

 

26

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1859

1 Corinthians 11:24 “and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”

NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO JUMP START ON MONDAY DUE TO THE HOLIDAY.

 

We are at Memorial Day weekend, the official kickoff of the summer. It’s the time for picnics, cookouts, graduation open houses and a few days off from work. Indianapolis has a famous car race, and Louisville has a massive Beatle festival this weekend. The holiday is to remember those who gave their lives in war for our freedom. Our freedom to enjoy weekends, like this one. Our freedom to worship God the way the Bible tells us to. Our freedom to write and speak about the things we believe. It has been said that the politicians make war but the young people are the ones who fight and die in those wars. Major wars, especially the Civil War and World War II had impacts upon congregations as young men, many were young fathers, went to fight. Their absence emptied a generation of men their age from churches. Some congregations lost nearly all of their deacons as they were gone fighting. And after the war, many never made it back home alive. This left many young widows to struggle with being a single parent. War is ugly.

 

Our verse today reminds us of the greatest sacrifice ever given in the greatest war of all time, the blood of Jesus for our salvation. His death and His resurrection crush Satan, our greatest foe and enemy. We are free because of Jesus. In this Corinthian passage, Paul quotes the words of Jesus that were spoken to the apostles at the last supper. The Lord’s Supper is the grandest memorial of all. Heaven is saying, “Do not forget this!” The actual words are, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

 

What should we remember?

 

  1. We ought to remember why Jesus died. He died to save us. He gave His life so ours would not have to be lost forever. What He did was an act of love. He was innocent and we were guilty. He was pure and we were impure. He had no reason to die and we had every reason to die. Without His death, we would all be doomed. Heaven would not be possible without Jesus. He died for you.

 

  1. We ought to remember how Jesus died. It wasn’t lying in a hospital bed, surrounded with loved ones, holding His hand. He was tortured. It was brutal, painful, long and lonely. People were shouting at Him. His disciples stood off in a distance afraid. His Father turned His back. He died alone. He hurt. It wasn’t quick and humane. It was slow and painful.

 

  1. We ought to remember the manner in which Jesus died. Peter tells us that He uttered no threats. He was reviled but did not revile in return. He prayed. He asked for the forgiveness of His executioners. He made arrangements for His mother’s care. Jesus remained sinless, innocent and true to the very end.

 

  1. We ought to remember that Jesus died by choice. He gave His life. It wasn’t taken from Him. The government of Rome wasn’t in control, Jesus was. He could have stopped it. He could have called for the angels. He went to the cross willingly. He gave His life. It was a willing sacrifice. He wasn’t forced. His death was our gift.

 

  1. We ought to remember what happened because Jesus died. Forgiveness came to those that believe. Hope for the first time filled the earth. The separation between us and God was gone. Believers became reconciled. We were acquitted or justified. We were redeemed. We were saved. We became part of God’s family. The saving message of Jesus has been preached in every land. Thousands and thousands through the generations have believed in Christ and changed their lives. Death no longer is dreaded because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Death is not the end because of Jesus. Christ not only changed our future, and forgave our past, but He impacted our present lives. Because of His death, we walk with Jesus. We model our selves after Jesus. We forgive, because we have been forgiven. We open our hands and our hearts because He was first compassionate to us. We serve. We worship. We changed. All because of a death outside of Jerusalem a long time ago. We are a better people because of Jesus. Our marriages are richer and better. Our families are closer and stronger. Our thoughts are purer. We have put on the heart of a servant because of Jesus. The world is brighter and better today because of Christians and Christians are the way they are because of Jesus.

 

The greatest memorial day takes place every Sunday when saints bow and remember the death of Jesus. His death changed the world. We are better because of that.

 

Roger

 

25

Jump Start # 1858

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1858

Isaiah 28:18 “Your covenant with death will be canceled, and your pact with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you become its trampling place.”

 

God, through the prophet, has warned Judah. Her wicked days were coming to an end. God was going to judge and punish Judah for abandoning Him and chasing after idols. The lies that filled the hopes of Judah and deceived the nation were going to come crashing down. Arrogantly, the nation thought that they had an agreement with death, a covenant. They were so deceived that they believed nothing bad could happen to them.

 

Our verse today is God’s response. Your deal with death has been cancelled. Your false gods, your idols, your lies, will not protect you from the wrath of God. The lies that you have surrounded yourself with and are standing on will crumble.

 

The statement found in our verse, “Your covenant with death,” is an interesting expression. It is well written. It speaks volumes for those today, who have surrounded themselves with lies and believe nothing bad will ever happen to them.

 

The Gospel of Goodness is the most popular belief today. If you are good, whatever that means, you will go to Heaven. Good people go to Heaven. Just be good. Mind your own business, don’t cause any trouble and you will go to Heaven. Nice neighbors, quiet co-workers, sweet grandmas, they all get to go to Heaven because they are good. The guy who opens the door for you at the grocery store. He’s good. He’ll be in Heaven. The person that points out something that you dropped will be in Heaven. He’s good.

 

This false gospel has deceived folks. They believe that they have a covenant with death. They are protected because they are good. Never mind that they may never worship God. Never mind that they are too busy to open a Bible. Never mind that they couldn’t tell you anything about the Bible. Never mind that they have no clue about God expects from them. They’ll be in Heaven, they believe, because they are good. Good people go to Heaven. That’s it.

 

And the Heaven that they believe that they are going to is a fanciful make-believe world of fun, happiness and pleasure. While the misguided Muslim terrorist believes he has dozens of virgins awaiting him in Heaven, our misguided folks believe that Heaven will be fishing and walking through parks with pets and theme parks and food and endless fun, fun, fun. The Muslim will realize too late that he has believed lies. There are no virgins awaiting him. Worse, there is no Heaven for those who kill others. Likewise, many in this land will realize too late, that Heaven isn’t about our selfish dreams, but rather about God. Worse, there is no Heaven for those who have not walked with Christ.

 

Our covenant with death will be cancelled. We will not be protected by the lies that we have believed.

 

Jesus said:

  • Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins (Jn 8:24)
  • Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, who is in Heaven (Mt 7:21)
  • He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day (Jn 12:48)

 

Lies can seem so true. They can make sense to us. They seem reasonable and logical. How could a good God send good people to hell? That doesn’t make sense. How can He be good if He sends anyone to Hell? Either, He’s not good or He doesn’t send folks to Hell. That’s the thinking. It sure makes a lot of sense to us. Yeah, we say, we ought to cut back on our drinking some and we ought to get down to the church house one of these Sundays, and we will, but all in all, we are good people.

 

This is what we are facing when we talk to our family and friends about Jesus. Sure, they ought to know more about the Bible, however, they feel that they are doing a fairly good job of being good. And, remember, good people go to Heaven.

 

There are three lies in those statements and beliefs.

 

First, we are not good. We are not righteous. We are sinners. All of us are. Good compared to what? Good compared to a thug? Good compared to a terrorist? Good compared to Hitler? How about good compared to Jesus? We have sinned. We have missed it. On the current path, we are not going to make it. That’s reality.

 

Second, God wants us to be righteous people who are walking with Christ. Faith in Christ changes us. It leads us to following Him and surrounding ourselves with godly choices and godly people. Forgiveness is found only in Christ and we must continue to journey with Christ all of our lives. God is more interested in our holiness than our happiness. Trials, dark days and hard times are not an indication of God’s displeasure with us. Often, it is through those things that we become stronger and more dependent upon the Lord.

 

Third, Heaven is a gift, not a right. No one earns it. No one deserves it. The police officer who dies in the line of duty doesn’t deserve Heaven. That’s hard for us to get. The lies are so thick that we feel certain people just ought to be there because of who they are and what they have done. One person told me, “I know I’ll be in Heaven, because my life here has been nothing but Hell.” She was wrong. First, she has no idea how terrible Hell is. There are no options in Hell. God won’t be found in Hell. She had options. She had the opportunity to follow God. Second, a person doesn’t “get Heaven,” because they had a hard life here. Heaven is not owed to anyone. Heaven is God’s home. We are invited there by Christ, through His grace and our faith.

 

A person can’t ignore God all of their life and think that they will be in Heaven just because they were good. You can’t be good enough for Heaven. We are to imitate Jesus. We are to love as God loves. We are to forgive as God has forgiven us. We are to be holy as Jesus is holy. We are to walk worthy of our vocation. We are to be diligent, alert, watchful, spiritual and hopeful. Christ is to be our life. Hand in hand with the Lord, following His word, we can have the confidence and hope of Heaven. It is because of Christ, not our goodness, that Heaven is even possible.

 

Paul said that he had kept the faith, finished the course and fought the fight. There is a faith that we must have and keep. There is a course, a journey, that we must travel on and finish. There is spiritual fight that we must engage in. Can Heaven be ours? Absolutely. It will be because of Christ, not our goodness.

 

The covenant with death will be canceled. Our only hope is in Jesus. Know Him. Obey Him. Walk with Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. Follow Him. He will take you to Heaven, nothing else will, including your goodness.

 

The way of the Cross, leads home.

 

Roger

 

24

Jump Start # 1857

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 1857

Galatians 5:15 “But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another.”

The Galatian church had a lot of trouble. It was mostly internal issues caused by Jew-Gentile conflicts and trying to figure out how the law and the grace of Christ worked. Our verse today, illustrates some of the trouble found within that church.

 

The passage reads on the surface as if Paul is describing a cannibalistic environment among them. Biting and devouring one another, is something you’d find in a zombie movie. He is not talking about this being done literally, but emotionally, spiritually and mentally. They were tearing each other up. If you destroy each other, there won’t be anyone left. The enemy was Satan, not each other. What they were doing was not acting like Christ. The spirit of love, forgiveness, patience—many of which are named at the end of this very chapter as fruit of the Spirit, was missing.

 

Internal bickering and fighting often results in people leaving and churches splitting. It becomes a mess. Now, instead of one congregation, there are two. Both want a church building, their own preacher, and now, after the divide, both can barely pay the light bill. Tempers flare. Blame and fault is pointed out. Lines are drawn in the sand, and now neither side will speak to each other. This will continue on for at least two or three generations. Small struggling churches that began because some couldn’t get along with each other.

 

All of this now takes us to a much larger issue. Those that witness these things, often younger people, and those from the outside, make grand declarations that the entire system is broken. It’s enough for some to go find a church that is really loose on things and doesn’t worry so much about the details of the Bible. Love is the only thing that matters. For others, it’s enough to give up totally on ever going to church again. Why, Christians can’t get along. Why, they can’t do what they preach. And, as a result, some declare that it’s not just the Christians that are broken, but the entire system. “Organized religion,” they profess, is a joke. They want no part of it.

 

This is not only true of life in church, but also life at home. Because folks have trouble staying married, does not mean that God’s design of marriage is broken and wrong. Our failure to stay married is not an indication that God’s plan of marriage doesn’t work. This has given some all the proof they need to justify living together without marriage or even to stand with the homosexual movement. At least, some claim, they can stay together.

 

God’s plan is perfect. It was designed by God. It was formed in Heaven. It was not a creation of our minds, but His. It wasn’t something that we developed, but rather something God gave to us. Our sins and our imperfections and our failures to live up to what He wants does not mean that it is impossible to be done, nor that it is broken. The failure is with us.

 

Critics love to point to Christians who fail as an indication that the plan doesn’t work. The plan is not wrong, it’s the people who don’t live up to it. There are always those who want to change things to their own liking. They want to open up the doors to more freedoms. They want more input into what ought to be allowed. They want less holiness and more happiness. They want to do what they feel is needed. More social awareness. More activism. More wholeness of life. More attention upon society’s problems. More dealing with getting drugs off the streets. More help for unwed moms. More options for the homeless. More cleaning up polluted streets and rivers. This is where the modern church has shifted. This is where the attention is. Building better lives for now. Building better schools for tomorrow. Yet all of this doesn’t come from the Bible. We don’t find the first churches following this agenda. The early church was spiritual. It equipped people for Heaven. Stronger faith built stronger families and stronger churches.

 

But it is pointed out that for too many this didn’t work out. Their faith struggled. They wandered from this. And because the people couldn’t live it, the system was abandoned and a new path was forged. Instead of sticking with the ancient Gospel, modern thinking and modern theology has become the new thought and the new direction.

 

The Galatians were biting and devouring one another. They were fussing and fighting. I had two brothers growing up. We used to bang heads a lot. My mom told us to go outside. It’s not fun fighting outside. That always cooled things. Paul didn’t change the plan because the Galatians were fighting. He didn’t call for an international conference and amend what he had been preaching. He forged ahead. The message won’t change. It’s up to them to step up and live as Christ wants. Their failure to live it did not mean the system was broken, wrong or needed to be replaced.

 

There is nothing wrong with the ancient message of Christ. It worked and it still works. Seeing some who can’t live up to it is no indication that all Christians everywhere are failing. That’s a blanket statement without fact nor proof. The Galatians were biting one another. The Corinthians were divided. Laodicea was lukewarm. Throw in the towel? Some in Sardis were doing right. Philadelphia seemed to be doing right.

 

Some of the failures are not really failures. There is some learning and growing that must take place. Getting the Jews and the Gentiles on the same page took some time. Working through differences such as eating meats sacrificed to idols took some patience. Not everyone is at the same place spiritually. We forget this. It’s like driving on the highway. There seems to always be someone ahead of you and someone behind you. Not everyone is right beside you. So, we are not all at the same place spiritually. Some are doing and understanding things better than I am. They are ahead of me. I can learn from them. Others are behind me. We need to look back and help them along. They can learn from us.

 

Be careful about painting the condition of your congregation with a broad brush. It’s easy to do. No one here cares, we declare. Everyone is dead spiritually. They are all worldly. They are all stuck in tradition. They are all hypocrites. Be careful. I doubt everyone is. Most may, but rarely is it everyone. Some are ahead of us and some are behind us. Follow those who are doing right and help those who are behind you. You may only be looking at those who are behind you.

 

God’s way is right. It is perfect. It never needs changing. Don’t give up on the Bible way because some folks aren’t doing what they should be. Don’t let others take you away from Christ.

 

The way of the Cross leads home…

 

 

Roger