Valiant Men

I Samuel 10: 26 NKJV "And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and valiant men went with him, whose hearts God had touched."

Once Samuel announced God's appointment of Saul as king of Israel, some dramatic things began to happen, just as Samuel had prophesied. 

In the midst of the opening days and weeks of Saul's kingship. God began to show up. "The Spirit of God came upon Saul" (I Samuel 10:6), and he called the people of Israel to holy warfare.

Saul met up with a group of prophets (I Samuel 10) and was filled with the Spirit of God. The transformation of Saul's being filled with the Spirit was so dramatic, that a man fearful of public speaking became a prophet! 

Valiant men gathered around King Saul, attracted to the charisma of the Spirit of God that was upon him. Saul, along with these courageous warriors, went to war against the godless and idolatrous Ammonites, and were victorious.

A valiant person is brave, courageous, and fearless in the face of danger. When I think of valiant men and women, I think of courageous people of faith who faced the danger of impossible odds with a reckless abandonment of themselves to a mighty God whose purpose seemed to call them to an impossible task.

I think of Dr. Becky Luman. I first met Becky when she was a student at Mount Carmel High School in 1969. My parents were teachers and dorm supervisors at Mount Carmel. Becky was a preacher's kid from Pennsylvania who enrolled as a dorm student. She was appointed to her student work assignment as our family housemaid. I followed her life and career. In 1989 she was employed full-time at Wesley Biblical Seminary. She advanced from secretary to the president to a full-time member of the faculty. 

In 2013, Dr. Luman valiantly accepted a role as a member of a presidential search committee at WBS. I was the candidate. In the midst of organizational chaos and despair, Dr. Luman saw hope for a future. The search committee recommended me to the Board of Trustees and I was hired as the president. This valiant woman led a charge of faith, hope, and victory, and now she is completing her 30th year at WBS. 

In 1998, Rev. Rob Pocai became one of my students and advisees at Kentucky Mountain Bible College. In February 1999, he surrendered his all to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and was dramatically and remarkably filled with the Holy Spirit. In 2013, Rob was pastoring a church in Kentucky. He was living in his dream home. Life was comfortable for Rob, Holly, and their daughter, Isabella. 

I will never forget calling Rob on May 4, 2013. Weeping as I spoke, I said, "Rob, the WBS Board of Trustees has interviewed me for the presidency of WBS. If this happens, I need you on my team."

It did happen, and Rob, called by God, joined the team. This valiant man of courage and faith left everything comfortable behind to become a leader at Wesley Biblical Seminary. 

Valiant people make a mighty difference. Valiant people like Dr. Matt Friedeman, Dr. Steve Blakemore, Dr. Rick Boyd, Dr. Gary Cockerill, Dr. Chris Lohrstorfer, and Peggy Price, filled with the Spirit of God stepped forward at Wesley Biblical Seminary to advance a mission for the authority of Scripture and the call to holiness. 

Today, Wesley Biblical Seminary is impacting students from 18 states and 11 nations. Governance and fiduciary crises are behind us. We are moving into a new campus in Ridgeland, Mississippi. We are approaching record enrollment. And we have had a front row seat to some of the greatest miracles of our lives. 

"Valiant men when with him, whose hearts God had touched." I am thankful for valiant men and women of courage, faith, and resolve who have blessed my life. 

The Wolf is at the Door

The move to reject truth and embrace tolerance always trends toward a dogma. Nature abhors a vacuum. Rejecting truth creates a vacuum. Relativistic tolerance creates a vacuum. A more decisive dogma must be advanced to fill the space and allow for a perception of order. 

In the midst of such a conflict of worldviews, not everyone has abandoned a quest for truth. So, truth, relativism, and the “new order” stand in stark contrast to one another. Worldviews stand in social and cultural tension, vying for supremacy. 

The progression seems to follow this order. A traditional worldview holds sway. A new worldview is proposed. Tolerance is espoused as the virtue to balance the conflicting positions. Coexistence is the strategy. However, as the new worldview gains acceptance, the tensions inevitably build. Tolerance is no longer an adequate strategy for the proponents of the new worldview. Dogmatic demands for dominance assert themselves. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, social and moral leftists challenged social and moral traditionalists to define reality. The cry was “Down with the system.” Out with the old morality. In with the new morality. And the new morality was simply the old immorality. 

This tension persisted and grew in the United States of America and throughout much of the world. Tolerance was espoused as the new dogma of the moral leftists. 

“No one reality is superior to another.” 

“You have your reality, and I have mine,” quickly became “You have your truth and I have mine.” 

Equal validity of alternative world views became the demand of a narrative-based, emotionally-oriented culture that insisted empathy was the key virtue of a tolerant humanity. 

“All roads lead to the same place” became the theological platitude. 

“Judge not,” became the practical distortion of the church and society. 

However, culture and values continue moving. And Western culture is no longer a culture based in the postmodern religion of tolerance. Nature abhors a vacuum. Relativism creates a vacuum of uncertainty. People don’t know how to act. There is no script, no template, no predictability. The doctrine of relativistic tolerance just does not work. Human nature demands predictability.

Something must change.

Enter, the new dogmatism. 

Actually, the new dogmatism has been around a long time. It is simply the wolf of the new dogmatism shedding the sheepish clothing of tolerance. The new dogma now bares its teeth and arches its back with a menacing snarl of attack.

The new dogmatics attack in Senate chambers, softball fields, streets, yards, airports, homes, families, and restaurants. Public space is fair game. Private space is fair game. Electronic space is an especially acceptable arena. Any space is fair game for the battlefield. 

The new dogmatics utilize strategies of brutality, mockery, name-calling, ridicule, tactical pressure, terrifying action, threats, lies, and incessant focus upon any who stand between the new dogmatics and their quest to define the dominant worldview.

The strategy is not new. 

Initially, a new worldview is introduced as an equally valid alternative. Tolerance is encouraged. But soon, the wolf of revolution rejects the sheepish goal of tolerance and howls its insistence to prevail. 

The wolf is at the door. 

But Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) remains steadfast. He calls us to truth, justice, love, mercy, and holiness. These immutable standards remain, having stood the test of time.

When the wolf is at the door, send the Lamb to answer.

Alone and Together

I need Christ's church. I need the Body of Christ. While my faith life exists in periods of isolation and separation from the body of believers, God also creates me to partake in the "fellowship of believers."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book devoted to living together in community. He called it Life Together. In it he said, "We recognize, then that only as we stand within the community can we be alone, and only those who are alone can live in the community. Both belong together. Only in the community do we learn to be properly alone; and only in being alone do we learn to live properly in the community. It is not as if the one preceded the other; rather that both begin at the same time, namely, with the call of Jesus Christ" (Life Together, pp. 82-83).

The Hebrew (10:23-25 NKJV) writer wrote: 'Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

I travel extensively with my work. Travel often conflicts with Sunday worship in my home church. I love my work, but I miss my home church. Sunday always finds me in worship. But Sundays are most special when Beth and I are home. I usually fill in as Sunday school teacher for our class, giving our regular teacher, Albert, a break. I occasionally fill the pulpit for Pastor Jay. 

I find that I need other believers. I need the Body of Christ. 

Wednesday mornings are spent with a group of Christian men who disciple one another in the faith. A dozen or so of us gather in Bible Study challenging each other to become disciples of Jesus Christ. We read a brief passage of scripture and talk about five discipleship questions. 

1. What is Jesus saying?
2. Who is Jesus today?
3. What has Jesus done for you recently?
4. How can I feed others?
5. What am I believing Jesus for this week?

But fellowship and discipleship time with others is not enough. 

I need time alone with the Lord. 

I can only contribute into the spiritual lives of others as I  encounter my living Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I can only give as I have received. So, early mornings are spent in the quiet place. I read devotional books, the Holy Bible, write devotional thoughts, journal, and pray.  I seek to furnish my soul in isolation with God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to my heart. 

Are you assembling together with other believers in Christian fellowship, Bible study, prayer, and public worship? Are you tending to your own inner private spiritual life?

Remember the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Only in the community do we learn to be properly alone; and only in being alone do we learn to live properly in the community."

Anarchy Ascending

Incivility has overtaken public discourse. 

Honorable dialogical processes have been corrupted with innuendo, unsubstantiated accusations, slander, and character assassination. 

Dignity has been assaulted, dragged through the streets in utter shame, and exposed to exploitation in the name of justice. Courageous civil servants have become victims of anarchist flash mobs spewing threats and intimidation.

Revolution has no justice. Revolution is about lynch mobs. Anarchy. Revenge upon the powerful. Insurrection.

The Bolsheviks are on the ascendancy. Riots in the streets. Pursuing public servants to private spaces with accusations of “Bourgeois pigs.” The proletariat seeks to flout all order and revolt against all rules. 

“Power to the people”?

A coup d’etatof rebels against civil liberty.

Saul Alinsky was a noted American Marxist and anarchist.  He provided the playbook for insurrection and revolution that included brutality, mockery, ridicule, tactical pressure, terrifying action, threats, lies, and incessant focus upon hated targets. 

Power to no one. Dignity to no one. Worth to no one. Justice for no one. Utter nihilism on parade. 

Dorothy L. Sayers gave an address titled The Other Six Deadly Sins(1941) to the Public Morality Council at Caxton Hall, Westminster. She boldly proclaimed an indictment against the sin of amoral tolerance.

“In the world it calls itself Tolerance; but in hell it is called Despair… It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for.  We have known it far too well for many years.  The only thing perhaps that we have not known about it is that it is mortal sin.”

The political and social deconstruction of order by anarchy’s chaos demands its religious, intellectual, and philosophical twin. In this Bolshevik scheme of anarchy and revolution, there is no sin except to oppose the imposition of the state religion. Anarchy’s social disorder thrives on this truthless doctrine. The state religion, the twin of chaos, is tolerance.

The bourgeois is overthrown. The proletariat is promised power. The once powerful are oppressed, punished, tortured, and even executed. Lawlessness abounds until the revolutionary guard is entrenched in its military enforcement of the oppressive state. 

Groupthink. Thought police. Mind control. Liquidating objectors. Gulags. Work camps. Cultural reprogramming. 

We have seen this all before. 

And what is it about? 

Power. Immorality. Atheism. Abandonment of truth. 

Libertine celebration denies all moral compunction, spiritual value, and divinely created reality. 

But in the face of ascending anarchy, a transcendent God of order, beauty, and love reigns over all. In love, He looks upon his creation, broken and wounded by sin. From ancient times, the Hebrew King David described the glory of the creative Lord of the universe (Psalm 8 NKJV). Creator God establishes His order and beauty in the midst of our sinful anarchy and chaos. 

O Lord, our Lord,

How excellent is Your name in all the earth,

Who have set Your glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have ordained strength,

Because of Your enemies,

That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,

And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;

You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen—

Even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air,

And the fish of the sea

That pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Beyond Redemption?

The morning headlines screamed. The United States Senator from California had some dirt on the 50-something Supreme Court nominee. The dirt dated back to high school.

High school?

Yes. High school.

Television moguls, Hollywood producers, actors, politicians, preachers, and now judges find themselves in the crosshairs of exposure. 

On the one hand, the frequent unmasking of sins from one’s past remind us of the admonition from the Holy Bible, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). What is done in private often becomes fodder for public consumption, especially is the behavior is wrong. 

On the other hand, such allegations and exposure are the norm in the “gotcha” culture of blame and recrimination in postmodern United States of America.

I profess to know no one's guilt or innocence in the current events I have described. The news cycle moves so rapidly that events fly by in a blur. Truth is lost in the blur. Time is lost in the blur. Linearity is lost in the blur. 

But the public perception of Moonves, Hybels, Weinstein, Gothard, or Kavanaugh’s guilt or innocence is not my point. I am addressing a much larger issue. Redemption.

So, what is going on?

Over lunch today, I asked a colleague and friend, “How would you like it if you were held responsible for the stupid and sinful things you did in high school?”

He blanched. He went on to remind me of his teenage shoplifting habit, his speeding, outrunning the law, and the long line of ex-girlfriends from high school. 

“But,” he reminded me, “All that is under the blood of Jesus.”

Why does our culture gasp over a Supreme Court nominees’ high school behavior? How does his youthful sin matter more than your high school transgression, or mine?

All sin matters because sin causes separation from God and other humans. Scripture teaches that sin causes death. Spiritual death. Physical death. Relational death. In the face of death, a Savior must be found. Sin must be atoned. Genuine confession and repentance must take place. Redemption must be sought and found. The reality of redemption is made possible only through God made flesh, Jesus, the “Lamb of God,” who gave his life for the sins of the whole world. Sin matters. Sin cost Jesus Christ His life. 

But our culture seems to believe that sin matters, because, our culture no longer believes in the possibility of redemption. Our culture has abandoned the hope of personal redemption in favor of eternal judgment of the powerful. Political and cultural cynicism leverage power to advance an aggressive agenda of revolution against everything that our culture has historically held as noble and good, including redemption.

Our culture has embraced a neo-Marxist social justice revolution which deconstructs every living obstacle for its agenda of revolution. No member of the bourgeois escapes the postmodern, politically correct sword of judgment and character assassination. The power-wielding are labeled corrupt simply because they wield power, whether elected, conferred, or earned. The powerful are beyond redemption because they are powerful. The proletariat must overthrow them through revolution. 

The neo-Marxist atheism insists, “There is no God. There is no Redeemer. There is no Savior. There is only corrupt bourgeois power, and it must be overthrown. Power to the people.”

And if a judge is a member of the bourgeois power-brokers, he is evil incarnate. Any past sin, moral or otherwise, religious or politically incorrect, incurs unredeemable guilt and condemnation. He must go! Unless, of course, he capitulates to the politically correct, neo-Marxist, social justice warrior endorsed revolution.

How different the situation is with people who possess the hopeful optimism of a living faith in a living Lord. We believe in the potential of God’s grace to transform a person. 

Faith abandons the hopeless edict, “People never change,” in favor of the optimism of transformation through the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because we have a Redeemer. We have a living Savior. And we believe in the power of His grace to transform humanity from sin to holiness, from wickedness to righteousness, from worthless to worthwhile. And we have witnessed the miraculous transformation in ourselves and in others. 

We testify to believing that no one is beyond redemption because we have a Redeemer who died on a cross and was raised to eternal life on the third day. We affirm that He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of His Father, the Lord of the Universe. His name is Jesus Christ, and He is praying for your transformation and mine. 

We assert faith in the potential of people to change, and the power of God to change people.  

But people of faith are not immune to the insidious pessimism of the revolutionaries. Instead of praying for people in authority, we all too often, view them as beyond redemption. We adopt a Republican fundamentalist religion in which we justify hatred and damnation of political and moral foes. Occasionally, I hear things like, “I don’t think a Democrat can actually be a Christian.”

Rather than praying for an opponent’s salvation, we embrace the immoral pessimism of our age. Rather than believing in God’s power to transform, we surrender the sword of the Spirit for weaponized worldly methods and pronounce damnation upon all who defy our crusade for righteousness. 

Ouch.

Do you believe that God has conferred power upon your Democratic mayor (Romans 13:1-3)?

Do you believe that God can save your Republican governor who is cutting your teacher’s retirement plan? 

Can God save neo-Marxists? Revolutionaries? Social justice warriors? What about political leaders you don’t like?

Sometimes we respond to the accusers, “I’ll just dig up some dirt on you! You won’t hold up to the same standard to which you are holding others!”

Everybody gets dirty in a mud fight.

Our collective default to relativistic terms of "Whose sins are worse?" only compromises our position as Christians to respond to sin, our own and those of others, with a truly redemptive message of hope and transformation. If we Christians respond to the progressives’ game of "gotcha" in kind, we engage a godless response devoid of redeeming grace. 

There is no double-standard in God’s Word. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We have sinned. The ubiquitous “they” have sinned. You are not beyond redemption. “They” are not beyond redemption. No one is. The optimism of believing in redemption makes us different. 

The voracious and destructive appetite of the neo-Marxist social justice movement will remain unsatisfied until every powerful person is deconstructed, dethroned, and demoted. Public service is deconstructed. Corporations are destroyed. Clergymen and women are defrocked. Families are divorced. Christian marriage is neutered and replaced with sterility.  

But hatred spans the spectrum.  Especially toward people we dislike. Evil resides both in the religious and the revolutionary. The hypocrisy of hate clinging to a professing Christian and the passion for revolution shrouding the neo-Marxist determines a dark pathway devoid of hope or redemption.

Saint John wrote: 

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (I John 1:8-2:2 NKJV).

Are your sins under the blood of Jesus? Childhood sins, high school sins, adult sins… You must confess and repent in faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. He forgives. He redeems. He fills us with perfect love that makes it possible for us to love even the unlovely. He empowers all who believe on His name to walk before Him in holiness and righteousness. 

Believe in redemption. Believe in a Redeemer. His name is Jesus Christ. And He provides equal opportunity redemption for both the religious and the revolutionary. No one is beyond redemption.

Justice and Love in a Postmodern Age

Justice and love are the legacy of Judeo-Christian influence. No other world religion has embraced justice and love to the same measure, nor can it ever do so.

Islam cannot. It rests upon principles of punitive justice and retribution. 

Hinduism cannot. Its historic track record of burning widows alive and sending orphaned daughters into forced temple prostitution compromise its moral and theological underpinnings beyond recovery. 

Shintoism cannot. It is founded upon a noble respect of elders that expresses itself in a burdensome and inescapable shame, devoid of any redemptive potential. 

Marxism cannot. The only expression of motive is power. Power is always expressed in control and oppression, no matter the source of the power or the object of control.

Even secular critical theorist, Jurgen Habermas, recognized the reality that justice and love are the moral high ground of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

"Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day, there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk." (Jürgen Habermas - "Time of Transitions", Polity Press, 2006, pp. 150-151, translation of an interview from 1999).

Historically, social justice initiatives have been birthed by noble Christian souls, disturbed beyond their complacency by the cultural sins of their day. John Wesley felt a moral obligation in his soul to right the wrongs of British slavery, work houses, and child labor. William Wilberforce, acting upon the influence of the Holy Spirit through the testimony and correspondence of Mr. Wesley, successfully put an end to slavery in Great Britain.  

The Civil Rights movement in the United States of America was birthed in Christian churches, both black and white. 

The social justice warrior initiatives of today have departed from defending Christian values of justice and love. These have extended to promoting values, lifestyles, and behaviors antithetical to Judeo-Christian principles. Progressive social justice initiatives advocate for LGBT rights, abortion rights, and and forcible redistribution of wealth. These misguided postmodern initiatives are based in a rejection of historic Judeo-Christian virtues, and bear little resemblance to the call to justice and love they represent. Nevertheless, social justice warriors parade themselves in the interest of their causes. 

The misguided pursuit of fairness and justice in the current immoral climate of our culture is made possible because of the Judeo-Christian ethic of our culture. Honest, and even disingenuous, conversations about currently popular causes are only made possible because of the surviving influence of the Old Testament value of justice, and the New Testament value of love. 

Even in our sinful rebellion, we  cannot escape the longing for justice, fairness, love, and mercy. The lingering stamp of the image of God from creation, imago Dei, longs for virtue even while embracing sin.  The plan of God, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, beckons us to the real, even when we are trading it for the counterfeit versions.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8 NKJV

Why I Don't Play the Lottery

My grandfather was a coal miner in the mountains of Appalachia. I admired Papaw. He had lost both of his thumbs in coal mine machinery. His eyes twinkling with glee, he often wiggled his stubs at us grandkids while popping his dentures in and out of his mouth. The hideous expression resulted in granddaughters’ screaming with disgust in flight from the demonstration.

I prayed for my grandfather’s salvation all of my young life. When I was 18 years old, my grandfather gave his heart to Jesus and was gloriously converted. It was May 16, 1979.

But Papaw possessed a secret shame from his younger years that had left scars upon his children. He wanted to escape the gripping poverty of a depression-era that enslaved coal miners, Appalachians, and other working poor of his generation. He wanted to hit the jackpot, discover a get-rich-quick scheme, and gamble his way out of oppression. 

But it never worked. 

As much as Papaw longed for riches, he was a really bad gambler. 

My mother remembers Papaw’s failed attempts at a game of dice, a night of cards, or a venture at the pool table. The failure was symbolized in a package of ice cream bars that he brought home with him as a peace offering for Mamaw and their seven children. 

My mother told me these stories of grinding poverty throughout my childhood. She never criticized Papaw. She never objectified his failure or demonized his character. But she always pointed out the evils of gambling and made me hate it. 

My daddy had similar aversions to gambling. We never had a game of playing cards in the house. Dice were taboo. In their place, Daddy made a spinner so that we might play Monopoly. He told me of witnessing games of chance in his childhood. He had a practical disdain for just giving away hard-earned money in a game.

Extreme? 

Perhaps. But nevertheless effective. 

In 1986, Governor Wallace Wilkinson signed state-wide lottery into law in my home state, the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was sold as a cure to raise funds for education. It did not. At least, not in any discernable way. 

Mother’s stories gave me a holy hatred for gambling. I objected. I have never participated. 

Mississippi became my home several years ago. Recently, our state has changed its position on the lottery. Regressive taxation of the poor and marginalized has become the law of our land for raising public dollars. Graft and corruption rise along with it. Every gas station and convenience store will sell the snare of scratch-offs and numbers. Choice between hunger and chance will be made at thousands of cash registers around our state. 

And we are engaging in this social sin because the state needs more money. Hmmph…

No people can ever prosper by raising public dollars through gambling. 

Why?

Gambling appeals to the corrupting influence of greed. Greed is no respecter of social class or wealth. Poor folks are just as greedy as rich folks. Perhaps more so. 

Gambling exposes a citizenry to deeper corruption by legalizing the art of swindling. It’s renamed. “Playing the odds.” 

Gambling invites graft, corruption, and the compromise of the moral fiber of a people group. Instead of seeking legitimate means and motives to acquire wealth, illegitimate means become normatized. Get-rich-quick schemes are legalized and celebrated. Reality shows document the opulent journey from trash to treasure. Even the acquisition of wealth is often short-lived. Plenty collapses under the weight of ignorance, obligation, and squander.

Some Christians ignorantly spout, “The Bible does not say, ‘Thou shalt not gamble.’”

But the whole counsel of God’s entire Word speaks against the motives and means that drive the industry: greed, swindling, lust, materialism, injustice, and exploitation of the weak and the innocent. 

My papaw’s mine-sheared thumbs.

My daddy’s homemade spinners.

My momma’s childhood memories of a box of ice cream bars. 

That’s why I don’t play the lottery. 

Objective Truth

I just saw the news headlines. A former President of the United States of America, in a speech to an international audience called for a rediscovery of objective truth. Although I seriously doubt the integrity of the challenge. If sincere, I applaud the call for objective truth.

In recent centuries, Western thought has been shaped by three lines of reasoning: science, subjectivism, and socialism. The Enlightenment gave us science with its focus upon truth, an external knowable reality, and hypothesis testing. Science advanced by forming educated guesses, or hypotheses. Then scientists gathered data, analyzed it, and drew conclusions that either supported or refuted their hypotheses. The quest was for truth.

Subjectivism gave us the study of art, literature, and culture. Subjectivism reduces truth to the individual's perspective. Subjectivism provides insight into relationships saying that where two people's subjectivity overlaps in a shared way, they may enjoy meaningful connection and relationship. The quest is for meaning.

Socialism reacted against science. Socialism claims that power is the only dimension that matters. Some have it. Others don't. Power exists where the subjective claims of the intellectual elite insists it exists. This invisible group of elitists intersubjectively share in an attempt to bring about revolution to upend the socially constructions of power in a culture. The quest is for social justice through revolution.

Science is agnostic about God, meaning, and justice. Subjectivism loathes truth at the price of meaning. Social justice abhors objective truth, preferring to advance its socially constructed agendas, conferring popular truth claims upon them.

We have ceased to think. We only feel. We only feel what culture tells us to feel.

The following quote may seem obscure; nevertheless, I believe it is important. WWII Germans were faithful to the Nazi agenda out of deluded duty to country. They embraced a socially constructed truth that turned out to be a lie.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Those who limit themselves to duty will never venture a free action that rests solely on their own responsibility, the only sort of action that can meet evil at its heart and overcome it. People of duty must finally fulfill their duty even to the devil."

If science fails us, subjectivism fails us, and socialism fails us, there must be a better way to know what we know! Philosophers call the way we know anything our epistemology.

I call you to truth in the person and presence of Jesus Christ, who said, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32 NKJV).

In Jesus Christ there is objective truth: "You shall know the truth." One Person is truth.

In Jesus Christ there is subjective meaning: "You shall know the truth." This truth is personal. You can possess this truth, this reality, in relationship to a living Person, Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ there is social transformation. "The truth shall make you free." The transformation that Jesus Christ brings is not one of constantly shifting, politically correct, social justice. The transformation that Jesus Christ brings is one of social holiness in which you are transformed spiritually, personally, relationally, culturally, and socially. You become a person of peace, joy, and love in Him.

All epistemology collapses in one Person, Jesus Christ. He is the Holy Spirit conceived, virgin born, holy, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and coming Lord of Lords! You are a free moral agent with rational choice. Choose Jesus Christ. Choose truth. Choose action. Choose to do that which is morally right and good.

Innocence Lost

We live in a culture where human life is disposable. Just look at the news headlines. Reputations are destroyed by accusation and innuendo. A lifetime of good work is torn down in a few hours of character assassination. Unborn babies are ripped from their mother's wombs by militant executioners seeking the bounty of warfare amidst unholy rules of engagement. The elderly are marginalized in warehouses. Legislatures and courts legitimize euthanasia. The specter of death dons its executioner's hood and cloak, brandishing the scepter of its sword, imposing its sentence of morte.

Innocence lost.

We live in a world where reputations are built in a lifetime and destroyed in moments. Suspicion, recrimination, and revenge rule the day. Corporate leaders, entertainers, politicians, and preachers build a body of work. They are known by their resume. Then a salacious report is published. Whether the report is true or not is never the issue. Media accusations are issued.  In a blinding rush to judgment, the "now this" talking heads proclaim the "late breaking" speculation as truth. The public is informed that it has reached a decision. Pretentious journalists, pundits, and revenge-seekers pound the gavel in a quest for their "pound of flesh."

"The people have spoken."

A non-jury of non-peers issues the socially declared non-decree of a death sentence. The mob assembles the hastily constructed noose, tosses it over the limb of socially constructed justice, and completes the vile task, proclaiming its victory.

And that much more so if the "collective cultural conscience" dislikes the accused.

Innocence lost.

Ever since Watergate scandalized the political and social discourse, mistrust and contempt of authority have accelerated toward the yawning abyss of chaotic absurdity. From our earliest years we are taught the mistrust of authority.

Nearly 20 years ago, our family was vacationing in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Parks. While there, we encountered a protestor who was contending with the U.S. Department of the Interior's policies and procedures on management in the parklands. The bumper of his old Chevy Blazer was adorned appropriately with a bumper sticker that read, "Question Authority."

Innocence lost.

Our culture of death is voracious in its appetite to consume. "Old people cost too much to keep around," the sword wielding specter of culture proclaims.

"Let them die with dignity!"

Interpretation: "Kill them."

"They eat too much. They cost too much in medical care. They fill up too much space, and suck in too much air. They are disposable."

So the culture of death marches on to advance its agenda.

Innocence lost.

The truly innocent, the unborn child, is the easiest prey for the all-consuming killers. 60 million babies have been aborted since abortion was legalized in the United States in 1973. The genocide of two entire generations now stretches into its third. The culture of death has slaughtered the next Beethoven, Washington, Roosevelt, Franklin, and Curie.

Innocence lost.

I recoil in horror at the social agenda bent on death and destruction. I recoil at the injustice of character assassination, elder abuse, and abortion. But the culture of death does not stop its relentless stampede of encroachment into our lives. We consume other people through fornication, divorce, and abandonment of our children. We treat our star athletes as heroes, and then watch them die tragic deaths of dementia and Parkinson's disease brought on by our Sunday afternoon entertainment. We consume the latest would-be bachelors and bachelorettes, proclaiming their pornographic presentations as our "guilty pleasures," forgetting that these people are real people, pitiful people, broken people, whom we objectify for our pleasure. And once we conclude our playtime, we dispose of them carelessly.

Innocence lost.

The church of Jesus Christ must be different. Disciples of Jesus Christ must be different. There are no disposable people. We must believe that. We must live that truth.

In the early church, the believers were known to rescue live infants who had been disposed of by temple prostitutes and others upon the trash heaps of city dumps throughout the Mediterranean world of the first century. The church rescued these "undesirable" babies. Believers raised them as their own. The church discipled these children as followers of Jesus Christ. Those of us who claim to be people of the cross of Jesus Christ follow in their train of grace. We are called to love others with the self-giving love of the innocent Christ who gave Himself for all, that we might be saved.

Innocence lost.

Will you resist an all-pervasive culture of death? Choose life.

Get Out and Go!

On April 11, 2013 I read these words from Dr. Dennis F. Kinlaw, Sr. in my devotional time.

"God's way for us is seldom what we would have chosen. This is one fo the sweet surprises that God has for us. When we trust Him and follow Him along unexpected ways and to unexpected places, we find as we look back that the ways and places always fit. We recognize that they were just right for us" (This Day with the Master, April 11).

Eight days later, April 19, 2013, Beth and I shared with our daughter and son-in-law that our season of ministry at the Bible college we had called home for 21 years was coming to an end. Life as we knew it was about to take a major turn. The call of God seemed Abrahamic. And we had no idea where God was leading us.

“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV).

We did not understand the ramifications of it all, but we recognized the disquieting urgent call of the Holy Spirit. "You are too comfortable. Follow me to the greatest challenge of your life. I will be with you."

One month later, May 18, 2013, I accepted the presidency of Wesley Biblical Seminary. Obedience has caused major disequilibrium in our lives. Challenges have been monumental. But the miracles of grace and transformation have been overwhelmingly greater in magnitude and scope. 

Dr. Kinlaw closed his devotional for April 11 with these words: "In Christ, our fears are never justified, but our faith always is!"

The past five years have been filled with some of the greatest miracles of my life. I praise God for counting me worthy to have experienced and endured the discomfort, pain, and fear so that He might grow my faith and obedience in service to Himself. 

Fear of Failure

A fear of failure often dogs our steps.

Dennis F. Kinlaw, Sr. wrote: "There is a 'tide in the affairs of men' that if seized leads to greatness. If it is missed, one is left to wander. Opportunities do not stand waiting at the door. Are you among those who wander?"

Why do we often fail to seize the moment? Why do we often fail to sail the tide? Wy do we reject the opportunities?

When I was 6 years old I sensed God's call to preach and teach. I immediately accepted and embraced the call. I did not know rebellion was an option. That call has defined every choice that I have ever made. 

However, my hunger to obey God had a consequential dark side in my own psychology. It was a fear of failure. School came easily to me. I could get As and Bs with less work than many classmates. I was a quick study on most courses. As a firstborn child, I carefully controlled my world so that I could succeed. I avoided things that exposed my weaknesses. My brother was a great athlete. I followed sports closely, but apart from some pickup games, never sought to excel. Athletic aptitude was harder for me. Avoid failure. Focus upon what you do well. That was my thought.

As an adult, I have had a hard time accepting failure. Even performance that attains something less than perfection is difficult for me. I have had to learn to surrender these matters to God. But sometimes, I find myself worrying over them... to excess.

In recent years, I have learned that I lack the power to judge events in my life as good or bad. If I try to list the top five defining events in my life, I will inevitably identify events that I characterize as both good and bad. Then, when I ask myself about the bad things, I find myself identifying the good consequences that God has worked in my life both in and through events I identify as bad. I am not diminishing the presence or work of evil in the world in any way; however, I have found that surrendering my right to judge many of life's events as good or bad to God is freeing.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28 NKJV).

Only God can transform bad things into good. Only God can redeem consequences of evil events. Only eternity will reveal the eternal reality. Joseph identified with that eternal reality when he witnessed to his brothers.

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive" (Genesis 50:20 NKJV).

I serve a Lord who accepts me as I am. You do, too. He is ever working to transform me more and more into His likeness. I choose, by His grace, to embrace that journey of transformation. I am asking God to continue freeing me from my selfish assessment of my life as a success or a failure. Only He determines my final grade. 

Yes, I don't like failure. Of course, public failure is embarrassing, sometimes even humiliating. Teddy Roosevelt said: “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

Lord Jesus, help me to pursue excellence for your glory. Deliver me from my fear of failure. Help me to "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God" (William Carey). I love you and want to hear your welcoming words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Amen.

Quack Like a Duck

My friend John reminds me that I can be a sponge or a duck. I can absorb all of the emotion and distress of the world around me, or through faith in Jesus Christ, I can transcend it, shedding the spiritual and emotional attacks that pummel me.

The same is true for you. Let me tell you a bit of my recent journey and how the Lord is teaching me to be a duck, not a sponge. Then I want to share some strategies with you as to how you can quack like a duck!

I recently completed a difficult yet rewarding week in the workplace. I answer to a Board of Trustees who employs me and establishes the operational policies for my institution. The Board has a fiduciary duty, which means they are entrusted with the responsibilities of the vision, finances, and mission of Wesley Biblical Seminary.

We have an outstanding Board of Trustees. Each Trustee is deeply committed to the mission of the school. I have a lot of responsibilities to ensure that the Board is provided with the resources it needs to make wise and responsible decisions.

I write the Board agenda in conjunction with the Board Chair. I make any edits and updates to the Board Policy Manual to reflect changes made by the Board. I compose the presidential report and prepare an opening devotional to begin the meetings at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. I collect the reports from the vice presidents and directors. A teammate compiles the Board portfolios complete with schedule, agenda, minutes, resolutions, reports, and policy manual.

Board meetings take place three times per year, and always includes a fellowship dinner. My wife takes the responsibility of hosting the Board.

For two years I have worked without an administrative assistant. That means that the organization and logistical planning for the board meeting falls upon me. In addition, my performance is being evaluated.

In spite of my best efforts at being a duck, I often default to a sponge by the time board meeting comes around. After a recent board meeting, I was exhausted. I went home and crashed on the couch. I spent a quiet evening at home with Beth. Saturday morning, I awoke rested. Monday I talked with my coach, John. I told him about my journey through the board meeting, the stress, the decisions, the anxiety.

John responded, “Did your anxiety make for a better board meeting?”

His question plunged to my soul like a dagger.

“No,” I replied. I had to be honest. In fact, the anxiety probably robbed me of some of the joy of the strategic decisions that were made.

I thought of the words of Jesus.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:25-34 NKJV).

What about you? Have you ever asked yourself the convicting question, “Am I a duck or a sponge?”

Have you found yourself sanctifying your stress? Have you elevated anxiety and worry to a level of false holiness? “If I don’t worry enough about the tasks which God has called me to do, I don’t care enough. If I don’t care enough, I somehow lack in holy commitment to God.”

The problem with this line of thought is that it is just wrong. Our worry elevates our authority and responsibility to a level that only God can achieve. We try to take His burdens upon ourselves, rather than rolling them upon Him. Our faith in God becomes compromised by an idolatrous claim to authority, power, and responsibility that He demands we surrender to His Lordship.

Here are some things I am learning about the tangled mess of worry, fear, anxiety, and stress.

• Worry cannot be sanctified. 
• God sanctifies us in and through our stressful situations.  
• We struggle giving our anxiety to God.
• We multiply my own fears through our anxiety.
• An anxious life is a worthless life.
• A life consecrated to God is a worthwhile life. 

So, here is my question. What about you? Are you a duck or a sponge? Do you see yourself in my journey? Let me suggest some steps to you that I am finding effective in teaching me to quack like a duck rather than absorbing everything like a sponge.

• Trust God.
• Embrace the task God has assigned to you with vigor, enthusiasm, and faith.
• Remember, it's not your job. It is His. Perform the duties for His glory.
• Refuse to sanctify that which God will not sanctify, chiefly, worry.
• Focus on the eternal rather than the temporal.
• Accept God’s assignment with joy and thanksgiving.

Allow all of the extraneous issues to roll “Like water off a duck’s back.” Remain placid on the surface, and paddle hard underneath. Refuse to absorb all of the burdens that people would place upon you, and that you place upon yourself. 

And QUACK! Quack God’s praises. Proclaim His goodness in faith, even as you paddle furiously for His glory.

Are You a Sponge or a Duck?

John is a great friend to me. John has spent his career as a lawyer, a law school professor, a seminary professor of homiletics, a 16-year mayor, a fund-raiser, and a Renaissance man. In the last several years, John’s sister-in-law introduced us. I had expressed to her my need for a coach and friend to come alongside me.

She said, “I think you’d like John.”

I do.

In the midst of seasons of heavy burdens in leadership, John pours into me the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his lifetime. One of the most profound and powerful lessons John is teaching me has to do with how I handle stressful situations.

In the midst of one of my heart-sharing moments, John looked at me and commented, “You have a choice. You can either be a duck or a sponge.”

A duck or a sponge? What does that mean?

Think about it. A sponge absorbs everything around itself. As it absorbs, the sponge becomes heavy with the weight of its surroundings. Only when the sponge is squeezed does it lose its weight.

Do you remember the old joke, “How do you get down off a horse?” The answer is that you don’t. “You get down off a duck!”

The downy feathers of a young duck are water repellant. Even in adulthood, water runs off a duck’s back. As the duck glides across the surface of a pond, it appears placid upon the surface. However, all of the activity is taking place under the surface of the water.

I looked at John and protested, “But being a sponge has worked pretty well for me most of my life.” Then I confessed, “Well, not always. I think it’s time that I learn to be a duck.”

I remember when I was a student life officer. God allowed me many hours of listening, counseling, and pastoring students. They dealt with a wide range of issues including family dysfunction, sexual abuse, substance abuse issues, and sexual identity issues. I poured myself into those young people. I wept with them, empathized with them, cared for them, and led many of them on a journey to a place of wholeness in Christ.

Being a sponge seemed to work pretty well for me.

But not entirely. I made some deliberate decisions when I left the office each evening to leave the brokenness and burdens there. I sought to go home and give myself completely to Beth, Katie, and Nathan. After an especially difficult day of listening to pain and trauma, we would slip off campus to one of the few restaurants in Jackson, Kentucky, and enjoy the escape of a family meal.

I was learning to be a duck.

But it is hard for a caring, compassionate person to live as a duck all of the time. There are moments that the sponge in me really comes out.

My greatest challenge with being a duck is when I face conflict with another person. After a conflicting conversation, event, or series of events, my sponge really starts absorbing. I mull, ponder, complain, analyze, evaluate, and generally obsess about the problem and people involved. Absorbed in the problem, I find myself weighed down.

So, throughout my professional and personal life, I have found myself alternating between being a sponge and being a duck. I was never able to identify the process until John asked me the probing question.

Recently I returned to my office after having been out and about. I spied several foreign objects throughout my office. I grinned. Yellow rubber duckies were strategically placed on my desk, shelf and credenza.

My wife had been to a local dollar store. While there, she spotted a package of three small rubber ducks. They now grace my office as a reminder of my attitude, focus, and faith.

Pastor Lisa’s Prayer

While on vacation recently, Beth and visited a church in another state. Mutual had friends had arranged for us to meet the pastor. Pastor Lisa brought a powerful word from the Lord that spoke to me. The message focused on God’s words to Moses: “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Pastor Lisa illustrated God’s faithfulness to the patriarchs, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the midst of Moses’ call to set the Hebrews free from Egyptian captivity, the challenges were overwhelming. Moses needed the God’s assurance that He would be with him. She pointed out that the God of Abraham is a God of Promise who promised good things for Abraham. 

Pastor Lisa emphasized that the God of Isaac is a God of the ordinary. Isaac grew up in the shadows of a man of distinction and note, yet Isaac was quite ordinary, by comparison. But God was also the God of Jacob—a deceiver, schemer, and coward. Jacob put the “fun” in the family dysfunction. But God had purpose and beauty to transform Jacob’s character and give him a new name, Israel. Yet when God made the promise to Moses, He refused to use Jacob’s new name, Israel—a prince with God. God used the old name, Jacob.

Pastor Lisa emphasized that God is with us in the good, ordinary, and struggling seasons of our lives. After church, Pastor Lisa entertained Beth and me for lunch at a coastal seafood restaurant. The fellowship was rich. We connected as we shared stories of many mutual friends.

As we were about to part company, Pastor Lisa said, “I want to pray for you.” She made a point of telling God that Beth and I were in a hard spot of ministry and service. Neither ease or coasting was a part of our job description at this point in our lives. She told God that He has us right where He wants us, in the midst of difficulties that drive us to complete dependence upon Him. She laid hands on Beth and me and prayed. As she prayed, we sensed God’s presence and courage.

I feel a lot like Jacob today. I am across the brook Jabbok, wrestling alone with God. I am insisting upon His blessing. I feel His touch in my thigh. I sense His transforming power in my character. I hear Him pronounce my new name. I walk with a testimonial limp of God’s mark.

The struggle is ever present, but my God is omnipresent.

The struggle is powerful, but my God is all powerful.

The struggle makes me afraid, but my God says, “Fear not.”

The struggle makes me say, “I cannot,” but my God says, “My grace is enough for you, right now.”

Are you in a good place, an ordinary place, or a place of struggle today? In good places, it is easy for me to forget the Source, and neglect pursuing intimacy with my Heavenly Father. In ordinary places, I have found myself coasting. In the struggle, I insist upon knowing God. I am desperate for an encounter with my Creator. He has me there right now.

Struggling forward in faith.

Evening the Odds

Psalm 3

I love the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir’s musical version of Psalm 3. I have sung, wept, and shouted praises many miles alone in my car to their musical version of this psalm.

“But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” (Psalm 3:3 KJV).

Bible scholars believe that David composed this Psalm as he was fleeing Jerusalem to escape Absalom’s insurrection. David left the city gates with his royal entourage, crossed the Kidron Brook, and climbed the mount of Olives. As he walked, King David wept and tore his royal robes, heaping dust upon his head (II Samuel 15).

The odds seemed against King David. Consider the events surrounding the composition of the Psalm. Absalom had murdered Amnon for raping Tamar and had just been reconciled to King David. Once reconciled to King David, Absalom went through the kingdom with 50 horsemen in a campaign to sow doubt against his father’s leadership and to promote himself as David’s deposer and successor, exalting his own leadership potential. Absalom declared himself king in Hebron and turned his sights toward Jerusalem and the throne.

David was warned of Absalom’s treachery, and fled Jerusalem as Absalom mounted an invasion of the capital city. Mephiboseth, Jonathon’s crippled son, blessed the fleeing David. Shimei cursed the fleeing King.

Absalom set up his kingdom in David’s palace, pitched a tent for his father’s concubines on the palace roof, and had sexual relations with them. He was now king.

“So David went up by the Ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up” (II Samuel 15:30 NKJV).

Absalom was a product of David’s marriage to Bathsheba. But every time something went wrong with one of David’s children, his past sin with Bathsheba continued to haunt him. David’s murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite haunted him. He recalled the long, bony index finger of the prophet Nathan pointing accusingly at him, “Thou are the man,” identifying the sin David had sought to hide. The consequences of sin plagued the repentant King David. The rise of David’s enemies seemed a direct consequence of David’s sin 30 or more years earlier, and his sin haunted him.

David hears the taunts of those who say he has outlived God’s grace, blessing and protection. Some of his enemies wanted to pronounce his situation hopeless.

Some want to pronounce your situation today as hopeless. On your worst days, like David, you may find yourself asking God where He is and why He refuses His help. On your worst nights, the agony of God’s apparent absence deepens.

But in the face of Absalom’s treachery and David’s flight for his life, he shifted his focus from fear to faith. “But you, O Lord,” David proclaimed. In the face of the chaos, David directed his faith toward God. He confessed Him as “Lord,” and worshiped.

The warrior David confessed that the Lord was “A shield for me.” Warrior David knew about shields. He carried many. He fought with shield in hand many times. He killed many enemies with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other.

But in this moment, he cycled between faith and despair. Even his declaration of faith declares God to be the One who lifts up his head.

Do you hang your head when you are discouraged? I have bowed my head in reverence. I have bowed my head in embarrassment or shame. I have seen many discouraged people hang their heads, eyes downcast to the ground, as they shuffle through the motions of living. David’s head had been brought low.

David bowed his head in defeat as he ascended the Mount of Olives. But in faith, David prophesied that his head, now bowed low in defeat as he flees Absalom’s coup d'état, will be lifted up by God. He confesses the Lord to be the “one who lifts his head.”

David’s characteristic cry to God is one of passion, urgency, and desperation. In the face of his desperation, David calls on God. Throughout the Psalms, David allows God to hear his unedited cry. I have spent much of my life trying to sort out my feelings before presenting them to God. I somehow try to have everything untangled and presented in a neat and appropriate format. But it does not work. David had given up trying to organize, arrange, and define his chaos of emotions in a presentable way to God. I don’t have to either. I find comfort in the reality that God can deal with my raw and unfiltered emotions. God heard David. God hears your cry, too.

In the midst of crisis, David describes falling asleep and finding rest. How does this fit right here? What are you doing sleeping, David? You are on the run for your life.

Think about the violence surrounding David. Longtime private enemies had become public foes. His own son had turned against him. Others joined the insurrection. David was on the run. Yet, he found sleep. The Lord sustained him. I sense his surprise that he did not get killed in his sleep. “I awoke.” He found himself rested and refreshed for the flight.

Many nights have been interrupted with fear. Stress and anxiety seem to poke their unwelcome heads into my dreams. Then I awake. I have often sensed Satan’s attacks of fear in the night. On those nights when sweet sleep and rest come, I rejoice. I am refreshed. God’s rest prepares me for the new day that awaits.

David said that his enemies numbered in the tens of thousands. Numbers may scare us. Especially when the odds are against us. The odds against David were grossly uneven. Faced with uneven odds, David boldly asserts his purpose that he will refuse fear even when the odds are impossible.

I often bemoan the uneven odds that seem to face me. But compared to David, I have to remind myself how good I have it.

• I am not on the run for my life. 
• I am not the victim of a coup d'état, that includes the murderous, vengeful betrayal of my son.
• My wife has not been seized by my son and taken to the rooftops as his sex toy. 
• I am not facing violent attacks.
• I am not the victim of people hurling profanities and rocks at me.

David was facing all of this. In the face of impossible odds, numbering in the tens of thousands, David asserts faith in God.

What are the numbers that scare you and me? Are they the numbers of soldiers on the other side? The numbers of dollars needed? The numbers of students needed to enroll in order to keep the university solvent and sustainable? There are some numbers that scare me as I seek to lead the team at Wesley Biblical Seminary. 

• A $500,000 annual fund of a $1.1 million budget, which means $42,000 in unrestricted gifts each month.
• A $2,000,000 relocation campaign to purchase a facility and relocate the seminary in the Jackson, Mississippi metro. 
• A need for a 6-figure emergency fund.
• Enrollment numbers, headcount, and academic hours sold to support the tuition component of our seminary budget. 

What numbers scare you? Numbers are often our enemies. We fight the numbers to defeat some foes and even the odds. David did not fear to bring his impossible numbers to God. David models assertive faith against impossible numerical odds, and asserts relentless courage even when the odds are tilted radically against him.

Why could David demonstrate so much faith when the odds were so against him?

David believed in a God who could even the odds. In faith, he imagined his foes as already defeated by God. He imagined them as disfigured by a conquering foe, God Himself. He metaphorically described God using and abusing his enemies like one might abuse a stray dog. The metaphor is somewhat hideous in the gory image it conjures. Nevertheless, David’s example challenges me to see my enemies as defeated, disfigured, and held up to contempt.

David grappled with the reality that he was too weak and defenseless to conquer his enemies. He was not used to that position. He was used to being in a position of power, strength and might. He was accustomed to the odds being in his favor. Now, aged and weakened, God would have to fight for him. God must even impossible odds. David could no longer save himself. He needed a miracle.

Are the odds stacked against you? Is the enemy overwhelming in its numbers? Do you feel like you are fighting for your life?

Let’s even the odds by holding on in faith God. You serve a God who specializes in evening impossible odds.