Bounty Hunting

“…God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself…and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians 5:19

The Old West, so legend has it, was dotted with ‘bounty hunters’. These motley characters, while not lawmen in an official sense, made their living by tracking down fugitives for the price on their heads. The victims were brought either to justice or an untimely end.

Recently, while my mind was rambling, I wondered, “What if a bounty for the gospel was placed on the head of every lost sinner? How would Christians react to their desperate plight then? As it now stands, most of us have not turned the world upside down, nor caused much of a tremor in a quest for lost souls.

But let’s put a bounty on their heads! Let’s offer $10 for every visitor brought to Bible class, $25 for evry bible study we have with people and, $100 for every baptism.   "But the whole thing’s wrong!" You protest. "How could we serve the Lord out of such a self-serving motive? Besides, how many of these baptisms would express real ‘conversion’? Why, such a practice would be reprehensible! And think of the corruption it would breed! How could you even suggest such a thing?”

Okay, I'm sorry.  Let's not put a bounty on souls.  Let's just seek and save them because we love them and the Lord, and because our soul is worth more than the whole world.

"That's better" you say.  Why, I never heard of such a preposterous idea in my entire life.  Now, be off and let me get back to my leisure."

And, suddenly it's Sunday morning and pious voices are lifted to God in praise.

I want to be a soul winner for Jesus every day; He’s done so much for me…”

Larry Fluitt
San Angelo, Texas

A Fire in My Bones

Have you ever had a job that ‘you hated’?  While I was at ACC, I sold Bibles for the Southwestern Company for five summers.  My first summer, I was in Lafayette, Indiana and I HATED MY JOB.  Some mornings, I cried as I drove to my first door-knocking assignment.

          

Jeremiah sometimes hated his job as God’s spokesman.  Jeremiah has been called ‘the weeping prophet’.  Some of his words from Lamentations help us understand this designation.

Lamentations 2:11 My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

Lamentations 3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and  the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

Lamentations 3:48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.  49 My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief.

           

The reason Jeremiah ‘wept’ was his task from God was burdensome.  Listen to these words from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 15:10 Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!  I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.                                                                                                                                                   

Jeremiah 20:14 Cursed be the day I was born!  May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! 15 Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!” 16 May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity.  May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. 17 For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. 18 Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow    and to end my days in shame?

           

Jeremiah wept and he expressed his frustration because God gave him a burdensome task.  His own people cursed him and persecuted him.  So, why didn’t Jeremiah quit?  If it was so hard, why didn’t he say ‘I resign, that’s it!’  His own answer is found in Jeremiah 20:9, If I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.  

There was an inner necessity, a drivenness, a compulsion in Jeremiah.  He must do what God called him to do.

Do you have that kind of compulsion for serving Christ?  Is there an inner necessity,  a drivenness within you that causes you to be faithful in serving Jesus?

Prayer:  God, help us to be strong like Jeremiah.  Help us to stand for you when it is hard.  Help us be faithful when the going gets tough.  Through Jesus we pray. 

Terry Brown

Abilene, Texas

The Power of a Word

 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”  Proverbs 25:11

Oh, the power of a word! How scarcely do we comprehend the might of the spoken message: to set ablaze a heart with zeal, or reduce a reputation to ashes…to bolster the spirits of the weak or destroy the will of the strong...to commend or condemn…to praise or put down…to encourage or inhibit...to heal or wound…to reconcile or alienate…to inspire or inflame! Such is the power of the tongue. 

 It may be that among the sins of the tongue, ranking right along with abuse in the sight of God, is neglect. Perhaps it is as much what we fail to say that we ought as what we say that we ought not that displeases the Lord. A word uttered at the appropriate time can be of surpassing value in providing comfort, inspiration or determination. We may sin against others when we withhold from them the legitimate praise that would strengthen their hearts and hands for the challenges and crises of the day. 

Someone has written the following verses that fit the thought perfectly.

If you hear a kind word spoken

Of some worthy soul you know,

It may fill his heart with sunshine

If you’d only tell him so.

If a deed, however humble,

Helps you on your way to do,

Seek the one whose hand has helped you,

Seek him out and tell him so.

If your heart is touched and tendered

Toward a sinner lost and low

It might help him to do better

If you’d only tell him so.

Larry Fluitt

San Angelo, Texas

Whose Side Are We On?

Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  

- Romans 15:7

When the apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Rome, Jew and Gentile believers were spiritually united as one, but they were all over the map theologically. 

Baptism did level the playing field.  They were of one heart, sinners saved by grace, equal heirs of the kingdom, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Baptism did not wash away their human weaknesses or erase their religious, cultural and familial memories.  They brought those with them into communion with each other and disagreed on how to be a “church.”   

Paul’s letter is addressed to “All in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.”  When his letter was read in the house churches, they understood better than we can that Paul was not taking sides where they were concerned.  The last thing those beloved ones needed was divisive language!

[James Walters’ Chapter on Romans in The Transforming Word, ACU Press, 2009, is an excellent resource for further study]. 

A “zinger” comes in Chapter 15 verse 7 where Paul tells them whose side to be on collectively and how to do it.  “Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”   In other words, each member of the body is to be on the side of God. 

One of my favorite resources is a small yet highly informative book by Stanley J. Grenz & Roger E. Olson entitled Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God (Intervarsity Press Academic (1996).  In it they describe three categories of Christian beliefs and how those categories evolved over the centuries.  (Due to limited space I must summarize more simply than I wish but the book is well worth reading.) 

The first category is dogma – beliefs considered essential to the gospel.  Dogma was first determined by Christian church leaders at Nicea I in 325 AD.  Denial of these beliefs was considered denial of Jesus the Christ and, hence, apostasy. 

The second category is doctrine - beliefs considered important but not essential to the gospel.  A Christian church or denomination may consider doctrinal beliefs “a test of fellowship without claiming that its denial is necessarily outright apostasy.”

The third category is opinion – beliefs that are, “interesting, but relatively unimportant to the faith of the church.”

The question I invite you to ponder with me is this:  When we find ourselves disagreeing over how to be a “church,” could it be that we have accepted opinions as doctrine, and doctrine for dogma?    

Father, give us a spirit of unity through Christ, amen.   

Sandra Milholland
Abilene, Texas

On the Beach with Jesus

While strolling down the beach early in the day, it was calm and peaceful.  The constant lapping of the waves soothes the soul.  Thoughts of Jesus preparing breakfast on the beach for seven of His apostles played over in my mind.

He greatly blessed their nets with multiple fish. 

He met the need of their hunger by feeding them. 

Next He would question Peter.

Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” – Jesus knew the answer before asking.  Some have suggested maybe to counter the three times Peter had denied Him.  Jesus saw the benefit for Peter to verbalize his devotion to the LORD. 

Three times Peter confirmed His love for Jesus.  Jesus responded to him with statements concerning the care of His flock.  Jesus actions and instructions reassured Peter he had been forgiven and was ready to serve in His name.

In our lifetime, Jesus presents the same questions of devotion to each of us. 

Do you love Me? 

Love your neighbor as yourself & keep my commands.

Will you choose to serve in My kingdom?

Serve one another in love.

Will you share the good news of the gospel?

 Go & make disciples of all nations-baptizing and teaching them.

John 13:35

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,

 if you love one another.

John 14:15

 If you love me, keep my commands.

John 15:12

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:17

This is my command: Love each other.

1 John 4:21

And he has given us this command:

Anyone who loves God must also 

love their brother and sister.

A children’s song speaks of “peace like a river, joy like a fountain, love like the ocean.”  Is our love like the ocean?  Deep, constant and powerful.

Majestic, Almighty God,

How magnificent are the creations of Your Hand.  Thank you for the beauty you fashioned throughout the world, it refreshes the soul.  The peace we find in Your Son, Jesus, restores our hope.  Reshape our hearts with the power of Your truth & love like the power of winds & waves reshape the shoreline.  Thank You, Father, for the grace and goodness You extend to us over and over.

In the name of Your Son, Jesus - Amen

Mischelle Oliver, Stephenville

Sin's Forgiveness...and Consequences

“Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house…The Lord has taken away your sin.  You are not going to die.  But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:10, 13, 14.)

Sin’s wages are high. They are deadly. (Romans 6:23.)  “…when it is full-grown, (sin) gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15.)  Nor is there any bargaining with the price that sin extorts for its fleeting pleasures.  King David learned this painful reality in the aftermath of his taking another man’s wife to bed with him.

David was a man after God’s own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14.)  But Satan gained entrance into, and control over, David’s heart through lust, greed, and power.  Does this sound familiar?  As a result, Bathsheba’s purity was stained, her husband, Uriah, was murdered at David’s order, and the king’s heart was hardened in denial for a year – while his enemies held God’s holy name in contempt.  During this time David’s heart was in agony from the guilt he would not acknowledge, nor confess.  Such is painfully described in a number of his psalms “of penitence”.  (E.g. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.)

After Bathsheba bears David’s “love child” (?), The Lord sends his prophet Nathan to confront David. (2 Samuel 12:1ff.)  Finally the king sees from God’s perspective, the evil he has done.  “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’”. (v. 13.)  There is no more denial.  There is no blaming of others.  There is no equivocation.  “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I s said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5.)

God “forgave the guilt” of David’s sin.  Still, “the sword” of painful consequences never departed from David’s house.  His son dies.  A son rapes a daughter, and is killed by another son, who then seeks to assassinate David his father in an attempt to seize his throne.  That son dies, hanging from a tree, during battle. (2 Samuel 11-18.)

Sin’s guilt will destroy. Sin’s consequences will torture.  Only God, by the merit of his Son’s atoning death, can forgive the guilt, and add his mercy as we deal with the consequences.  This is a painful, but life-preserving, lesson.  David, having learned from his agonizing sins, offers God’s blessed assurance through the apostle Paul’s inspired commentary:

“Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’”(Romans 4:4-8.)

                And that is GOOD NEWS!

Ted Kell

Brownwood, Texas

Sharing with Urgency

"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you would take them out of the world but that you would protect them from the evil one . . . As you have sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world." 

--John 17.13-18

This verse is really simple to me. Often, we as Christians desire to hide ourselves away from the world, for fear of being "corrupted" or influenced to be like the world. Perhaps we're afraid of what we don't know. Some of us are afraid of what we do know. Some of us don't want to get off the couch. Some of us anticipate uncomfortable moments. Some of us deeply fear rejection. Well, Jesus said a prayer for us, specifically for disciples, about that. He clearly asked God not to take us out of the world. So why do we try to take ourselves out of it? 

Sure, there are places we probably shouldn't go and things we probably shouldn't see because there isn't a "space" for goodness to flourish there. However, we also aren't called to hide in our church buildings and homes and "pray" for all those faceless people out there who don't know Jesus and hope that maybe they'll happen to wander into the auditorium on a Sunday morning. That's called negligence. 

Admittedly, I also spend most of my time in places doing things that relate specifically to my needs or the needs of people who I already know and love. I really do get it; we're all busy, we have our own lives and people to take care of, and we have our own stresses and issues and problems to deal with. But part of our calling is in having the time to go out into the world, no matter how uncomfortable or scary that may be.

Going out into the world doesn't mean going about my daily business and praying that, in the midst of it, I'll bump into someone who needs to hear the gospel. I think it's easy to say "I'm praying about this" or "I'm praying for them" and then feel released from any actual responsibility in the process of evangelism. No, only "hoping" or "praying" to "be led" to those who need the gospel is irresponsible. I believe that prayer is an essential part of the process, but you could literally walk up to any person, anywhere, anytime, ask them their name and how their day is going, get to know them, and share the gospel. It's a choice that you get to make.

Evangelism is not a game of chance or a mystic maze where you wait for just the right moment in which the Holy Spirit "leads" or "guides" or "directs" you to just the right person who needs to hear the gospel right at that perfect moment. That's actually an easy way out of mustering up the courage and making the choice to walk up to someone you don't know at all, getting to know them, and sharing the joy that you know and have with them. 

Jesus wanted us to be in the world. Being of the world is a choice. And sharing the gospel is a responsibility that we can't shirk. 

Father,
Give us the courage to share the gospel freely, kindly, lovingly, without passing judgment, and with urgency.
In the name of Jesus, who calls us to these purposes, amen. 

Erin Daugherty, Abilene, TX