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 Completeness of the Cross

I Corinthians 1:18-25 NKJV

The Jews wanted sensation. The cross was only a momentary sensation, and a disappointment at that. The Greeks wanted wisdom. The cross seemed like such a waste to them, and that was surely foolishness. But what does the cross mean to you?

For you and me, the cross speaks of separation, sacrifice, and salvation. Jesus was tried before the elite of His countrymen. He was convicted on trumped up charges before an illegal court. He, the Lamb of God, gave Himself for the sins of His nation, His people, and the whole world. Jesus, through His sinless life and death, became the once for all sacrifice.

But He did not remain in the grave. The scandal of the ages is that He arose from the dead, He conquered graveyard guards, a government grave seal, doubting disciples, pernicious priests, death, Hell, the grave, and our slavery to sin. He became our Champion, our Victor, our Savior. And through the cross, He brings salvation to all who believe on Him.

But what is your response to the message of the cross?

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:26-31).

He is our wisdom, not mere sensation or human reason.

He is our righteousness, our forgiveness.

He is our holiness, our sanctification. 

He is our redemption from destruction, the One who gives order and meaning to life.

The cross continues to be controversial!  But the Christ of the cross calls us to Himself, inviting us to experience His great salvation through the cross. All too often, in our sinful, self-indulgent state, we recoil.  The sinful self is:  self-preserving, self-protecting, self-pleasing, and self-prospering.  But Jesus calls us to self-denial.  He calls us to the cross.  Salvation and self-denial involve coming to Jesus, confessing our sins, clean living, consecrated living, crucified living, confessing Christ, and being confessed by Christ. He who took up the cross for the sins of the whole world invites us to take up our cross and follow Him.

John Newton penned these words of verse.

In evil long I took delight,

Unawed by shame or fear,

Till a new object struck my sight,

And stopp'd my wild career:

I saw One hanging on a Tree

In agonies and blood,

Who fix'd His languid eyes on me.

As near His Cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath,

Can I forget that look:

It seem'd to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke:

My conscience felt and own'd the guilt,

And plunged me in despair:

I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,

And help'd to nail Him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!

But now my tears are vain:

Where shall my trembling soul be hid?

For I the Lord have slain!

A second look He gave, which said,

"I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom paid;

I die that thou may'st live."

Thus, while His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue,

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,

My spirit now if fill'd,

That I should such a life destroy,

Yet live by Him I kill'd!

John Newton, 1725-1807.

The Controversy of the Cross Part 1

I Corinthians 1:18-25

The controversy about the cross is an ongoing battle between the world and the church, between the secular and the sacred, between the unbelieving and the believing. What is wise? What is foolish?

Mel Gibson produced The Passion of the Christ, a graphic motion picture portrayal of the last 12 hours in the life of Christ.  Believing Christians from a variety of faith traditions defend the motion picture for its Biblical and historical accuracy.  But Mel Gibson had to fund the $25 million movie out of his own pocket, because Hollywood studios feared controversy surrounding it.  They wouldn’t even nominate it for significant Academy Awards. The cross was foolish to many critics.

In God’s eyes, being beaten beyond recognition by a Roman legionnaire, tried and found guilty by an illegal, fixed court, brutally dragged the streets of the nation’s capital, and shamefully crucified on a cruel cross, is really wise.  In God’s eyes, becoming the sin sacrifice for the world, a crucified Savior, and being raised from death to life on the third day, is wisdom.

For two thousand years the cross has been controversial, and it continues to be.  Believers embrace the cross.  Doubters deny it, or even worse, replace it with a pretend cross that cost Christ nothing, and demands nothing of us in return.  A. W. Tozer wrote, “The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it.”

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18).

Jesus prophesied that the cross would be controversial.

“But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” ((Luke 12:50-53 NKJV)  

The cross was an ancient method of torture and capital punishment.  It was originally developed by the Persians, and later borrowed by the Romans.  The Romans perfected the art of death by crucifixion and used it throughout their empire.  Crucifixion was used to eliminate the dregs of society: thieves and insurrectionists. 

Yet the cross remains controversial!  Consider the varied audiences to the cross. Everyone from the Jews, the Greeks, Jesus, and we ourselves, has an opinion about the cross.

What was the Jews’ response to the message of the cross?  Sensation!

“Show me a Miracle!”

“Heal me!” Cast out my son’s demon!

“Raise my dead child to life!”

“Throw Rome out of Israel and reign over us as a political Messiah!”

“Amuse me!”

And at the end: “The Messiah wouldn’t die as a weakling!”  And when He died, many of the Jews construed His life and even His death as foolishness.

“If you are the Messiah of God, come down from the cross. Throw the Roman bums out. Make a kingdom of Israel once again.”

To the Jews, the cross was foolishness and a stumbling block.