FIRE INSURANCE. Matthew 7:24.

In 1942, Winston Churchill made interesting remarks when the British had General Rommel’s Nazi army on the run in Egypt.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

We think the war is over when a sinner gets saved. Have you noticed that when we share stories of salvation, the stories often end when someone “asks Jesus into their heart”?

But that is not the end of the story. 

To paraphrase Churchill, giving your life to Christ is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. 

That is, giving your life to Christ is the START.  Think of it this way: when you are born again, are you born an adult? No.  You are a “babe in Christ” according to 1 Corinthians 3:1. Salvation is only the beginning.

Yet most Christians do little more. Are you reading the Word? Studying? Worshipping? Praying? Sharing? Singing? Teaching?  Are you growing in Christ? Or are you content to remain in diapers, eating strained carrots and apple sauce forever? “Solid food is for the mature,” Hebrews 5:14.

Salvation—cynically referred to as a “Get Out of Hell Free Card,” or as “Fire Insurance”—is only the BEGINNING.  In fact, it is unfortunate we make so much of it. God never called anyone to an isolated, single decision. He calls us to a WHOLE NEW LIFE.  Being a disciple is a calling to be different every day—forever. Jesus preached sermons. Do you listen to them? God gave us 66 books. Are you studying them?

“The Christian life is hard work. Christianity involves systematically striving to implement the truths of God’s Word into your life. Spiritual depth and maturity do not come without consistent effort … Jesus knew, even as He was concluding [the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7], that some of His listeners would leave and never apply a word they had heard.”[1]

Is that you? Are you too busy for the Word, or are you working to apply it to every decision you make?

“Jesus said that a man who takes the words of God and builds them into his life is like a wise man who builds his house on a rock” (Henry Blackaby paraphrasing Matthew 7:24).  Are you building your house on a solid foundation? Do you “take the words of God and build them into your life”? 

Salvation alone was never the point. Jesus does not just want your heart.  He wants your WHOLE LIFE! Giving Him your heart is only the beginning.

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[1] Henry and Richard Blackaby, EXPERIENCING GOD DAY BY DAY, p351.

THE FINISH LINE. 2 Timothy 4:7.

Beginnings are exciting.  Even kids who hate school can sense the excitement of back-to-school time.  We used to enjoy meeting our new teachers and seeing who would be in our class.  The beginning of things can be fun. When the gun fires and you take off in a race!  Or when you show up for your first day at the new job!  Or what about young love? Those early days of dating and getting to know each other are filled with an excitement you may never experience quite the same way again.

New is exciting.  When I was a little boy running races, those early strides were effortless, absolutely EFFORTLESS. I was flying, a bird on the wind soaring with ease—for about a hundred yards.  And then effort kicked in, and maybe a touch of asthma, and suddenly it no longer felt like flying. Imagine being a jockey in a horse race: you’re riding a thousand-pound beast around the track over 40 miles an hour–RAIN OR SHINE. The horse RICH STRIKE won the Kentucky Derby–against 80-to-1 odds–by coming from the back of the pack on a rainy, muddy track. In the winner’s circle, both horse and rider were caked in brown mud. They were the muddiest pair out there, because they came from behind. And that, my friends, is how you WIN.

Life is like that.  It is an endurance race.  As they say, life is a marathon, not a sprint. No one cares how amazing your wedding is if you end up divorced.  It’s not getting married that matters, but STAYING MARRIED.  It’s not starting college that matters, but finishing college and earning a degree.  It’s not receiving a job offer that matters, but being able to stay there long enough to make a difference and retire one day, proud of your years of service. 

Paul said it well. In the final chapter of his final letter, he seems to have known he was near the end. Are these not the greatest of all “famous last words”?

“I am already being poured out like a drink offering. The time of my departure is near. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith” 2 Timothy 4:6-7. 

I quite deliberately chose to echo Paul’s words when I began my father’s obituary by writing, “Ernie Wales finished the race on a sweltering day…”[1].  He certainly did.  Daddy was an excellent finisher.  He simply put his head down and kept going.  In everything he did in life, he was a “grinder.” He never, ever quit. He had no quit in him. And here’s the secret: he never quit because he never thought about it. You don’t consider giving up. A good marriage never hears the word “divorce.” The thought should not enter your mind. If you want to win a race, you never take your eyes off the finish line.  

Serving the Lord well means serving Him faithfully—in the beginning, when things are exciting—and later, when things are boring, difficult, or even scary. Paul says it is a fight.  It’s a good fight, but make no mistake: it is a fight. FIGHT the laziness that tells you to skip Bible reading just this once. FIGHT the shyness that would rather not see people. FIGHT the urge to skip prayers or skip church or whatever else.  Fight … and finish the race.

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[1] https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/charles-wales-obituary?id=52598696#obituary

Middle Management. Jeremiah 38:20.

When a teacher wants to become a principal, she seeks a masters degree in middle management. The degree may be officially named “Educational Administration,” or something similar, but the nickname among teachers is “mid-management degree.”

The challenge of working in middle management is that you are trapped in the middle. 

You are not a top boss, like a president or chief executive officer.  And you are not on the bottom, like those employees who have no supervisory duties. Being in the middle means being battered by problems from all sides.  Consider the Assistant Principal of a high school: all day long he handles the most difficult students, he must address the problems created by any teachers who neglect their duties, he takes phone calls from angry parents, and he has the constant pressure of keeping the head principal happy.  The AP gets it from all sides. That is middle management: being trapped in the middle.

King Zedekiah was something of a middle manager—an odd thing to say about a king. But Zedekiah, had been appointed King of Judah by the much more powerful King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. 

King Zedekiah had to keep Nebuchadnezzar happy.  Meanwhile, his entire nation was being forced to move 600 miles to Babylon. Zedekiah was trapped between pleasing the new boss, pleasing his advisors, pleasing his people, keeping Babylonians at bay, and pacifying the Judeans who had fled to the Chaldeans. King Zedekiah was trapped in the middle, squeezed in a way that only middle managers can understand. He was getting it from all sides. You can tell by his contradictory decisions:

When his advisors want to kill Jeremiah, King Zedekiah says “he’s in your hands” and they toss the prophet into a cistern where he will starve. When a court official questions Zedekiah about that decision, he tells the man to take 30 men and rescue the prophet. Then when Jeremiah talks to the king, the king explains his fears and how he feels pulled in different directions.  Jeremiah gives him the only advice you will ever need:

“Obey the voice of the Lord so it may go well for you and you will live” Jeremiah 38:20.

You can’t please everyone.  It is not possible. Sometimes you will find yourself trapped in the middle, as if you were a rope and everyone around you is having a tug-of-war. It is not unusual to be trapped between two, three, or even more parties, each of them pushing you to make a different choice.  What can you do?

“Obey the voice of the Lord” Jeremiah 38:20.

There is no other way to survive when you are trapped by the conflicting expectations of people who are all seeking different things. Seek God. Let Him lead you. And study His word so you will have wisdom. The Bible is so practical, with answers for every question and solutions for every problem.

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The Gambler’s Fallacy.

The Gambler’s Fallacy looks at good fortune and says, I’m due!  For example, if a coin toss resulted in heads twice in a row, the gambler’s fallacy says it will land on tails the third time, because tails is “due.” But the results of past coin flips have no impact on a future coin flip.

Instead, each coin flip has a 50/50 chance of resulting in heads or tails. Past losses do not cause future wins.

When it comes to games of pure chance, the events are entirely disconnected—the past has no influence on the future[1] It’s like the 2:00 a.m. gambler at the slot machine who thinks, I’ve been losing for the last three hours, I’m bound to win this time.  I’m due!

I am not a gambler but I have been fooled by the gambler’s fallacy all my life. I always think I’m going to win on the next roll of the dice.  I remember having amazing job interviews and being certain I would get the job—even jobs I did not want—because I was so sure I was due for one reason or another. 

In 2007, I finished writing a novel and I just knew it would make a big splash. Why? Because I was due. (It was also a timely book about the civil war in Sudan when that was all anyone was talking about.)  The book never saw the light of day.

The gambler’s fallacy holds special appeal for believers. We know we serve a just God. He can make all things FAIR.

(Is that what Jesus said in Revelation 21:5? “Behold, I make all things FAIR?” Ha ha.)

Believers know God sees the unfairness. He knows your sacrifices. And He is God—He has those heavenly scales of justice to balance the good and bad. So why doesn’t He balance things out right now–on the next roll of the dice?

But God sees a BIGGER PICTURE. He sees eternity.  

Maybe God looks at you and me and agrees: “Yes, you are certainly DUE. You endured well. And great is your reward.  IN HEAVEN.”

He also says, “LEAN NOT on your own understanding,” Proverbs 3:5. Because in spite of all the confidence you gain from the gambler’s fallacy, “You do NOT know what tomorrow will bring,” James 4:14. 

But one thing you do know: Jesus said, “In this world YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE” John 16:33. That’s what you can believe in: trouble in your future. But “our troubles will produce for us an eternal glory that exceeds them in every way,” 2 Corinthians 4:17. Things will work out for you—and it will be more than merely “fair.” Forget what you think you’re due.  God will bless you with an eternal glory that will outweigh your sufferings so much, the two things cannot even be compared! Romans 8:18.

The blessings to come in eternity are so heavy, if you put them on a scale next to your problems, the blessings would break the scale. NO COMPARISON. Stop thinking like the 2:00 a.m. gambler at the slot machine. Let He who began a good work in you keep on bringing you closer to completion, Philippians 1:6. His work in you is all that you need.

To put it another way, don’t look at your sufferings as evidence of some magical and immediate destiny on earth. The gambler’s fallacy is wrong: you are not due to win on the next roll of the dice. Instead, train your mind to see your sufferings as evidence of your incredible future IN HEAVEN. That is where you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of any man all that God has prepared for those who truly love Him” 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Life is not a sprint, but a marathon–and the best rewards come at the end.

Ask God to show you where you have embraced the gambler’s fallacy. Then release your grip on the magical destiny that the gambler’s fallacy tells you is just around the corner. Maybe you will land a new job or publish that novel or find love. But don’t put your hope in the magical thinking of the gambler’s fallacy. Instead, take your struggles and problems–the things that convince you that you are due–and embrace them as evidence of the amazing rewards God is storing up for you in Heaven.

God, fill us with an eternal perspective. Remind us that the blessings of Heaven are so great that today’s problems cannot even be compared to those future blessings.

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[1] By contrast, in mixed games of chance and skill, like baseball, past failures CAN influence future results, because the past can impact the level of skill at which a team plays a future game.

Treasure Your Treasure. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Football players learn early protect the ball. Linebackers will punch the ball to knock it from your hands—and if you drop it, you will probably not be the one who picks it up. You MUST hold on tight or you will lose the ball and hurt your team.

When you find something you love, hold on tight! This goes for relationships, work positions, and more. Never let your anger or envy or pettiness or laziness or lust destroy something in your life that is a source of true joy. If you are bearing fruit for the Lord, PROTECT THE FRUIT-BEARING TREE like it’s your great treasure–because it is!

A friend we’ll call Tom was upset with something in a sermon and complained about it to me. I disagreed, but when I could not persuade him, I tried reminding Tom of how happy he and his wife had been at our church in recent years.  “You are so involved, so plugged-in. You’ve been posting about it every Sunday afternoon, telling the world about the cute kids you’re teaching in Sunday school.  Don’t put all that at risk.”

But there was no convincing him and Tom drove that bus right off the cliff. He and his wife have only been to church once in the two years since and only to support some friends. Tom did not cling tightly to the great things happening around him at church. He failed to treasure his treasure.  I know he would argue he took a stand for doctrine, but even if his position were correct, the point was trivial and not worth destroying something great.

You see, here’s the thing. You have an enemy. And while you are busy critiquing your pastor’s sermon, the devil is busy filling you with righteous indignation. Suddenly you’re fuming over something trivial and you let it destroy relationships. Marriages are destroyed this way every day—not by huge betrayals like adultery, at least not at first. It starts with fighting about who will wash the dishes, and then resentment metastasizes throughout the marriage.  Relationship cancer begins with anger over trivial things—and the anger blinds you to the danger threatening the one thing that matters most.

Paul says, “Hold fast to what is good” 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Henry Blackaby put it this way:

“Hold fast to what is good, or the world will take it away. Satan is the relentless enemy of good. When he saw that what God gave Adam and Eve was good, he set about to take it away from them. When he saw that King David was pleasing to God, he attempted to destroy David’s relationship with God. Never take the good in your life for granted. If you do not hold on to it firmly, it may be lost.”[1]

Cling tightly to what is good. Protect it from your own pride and anger, or it will be destroyed. Winning the battle is not worth it if it means losing the war.

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[1] Henry & Richard Blackaby, EXPERIENCING GOD DAY BY DAY.

How Do You Do … Without? Jeremiah 35:6-9.

Most of us are prepared to do without—on occasion.  Dieting is easy if it’s temporary. It’s not that hard to give up ice cream for a day or two.  But what if someone told you to give up something for the rest of your life? Jack Lalanne, the “Godfather of Fitness,” met a health food speaker when Jack was 15. The speaker, Paul Bragg, asked what young Jack had eaten in the last 24 hours.

“Cakes, pies, ice cream.”

“Son, you’re a walking garbage can.”

Bragg told him if he would eat right and exercise he could become “healthy, fit, popular, smart, and happy.” After that day in 1929, Jack NEVER ATE SWEETS AGAIN.  He went on to become a fitness guru, birthing a worldwide fitness industry through his gyms and television shows, and kept eating clean until his death at 96! (He lived forty years longer than his father. Read about him here.)

Has God asked you to give up anything for the rest of your life? Do you fear missing out? Face it: No one gets to do it all or have it all. (Consider the example of marriage: God calls most of us to to be married to only one person for our entire lives–billions of others on earth, and they’re all off-limits).

And God rewards those who exercise discipline–who live lives of appropriate abstinence. One day Jeremiah told the king to bring the Rechabites to the temple to drink a glass of wine. When the Rechabites heard the offer, they spoke up:

“We do not drink wine, for Jonadab [our ancestor] commanded: ‘You and your sons must never drink wine. You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil….’  We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab in all he commanded us. So we haven’t drunk wine our whole lives … [or] built houses to live in and do not have vineyard, field, or seed” Jeremiah 35:6-9.

Can you imagine giving anything up for YOUR WHOLE LIFE? I can’t imagine giving up sweets for the rest of my life like Jack LaLanne. Yet, these people gave up not only wine, but HOUSES! What a commitment. And although God had told the Jewish people to build houses in Babylon and to plant vineyards, the Rechabites (worshippers of God, but apparently not descendants of Jacob) honored the wishes of their ancestor by living in tents for several generations.

And God blessed them.  “Because you obeyed your ancestor, … [your family] will never fail to have a man to always stand before Me” Jeremiah 35:18-19. Some believe descendants of the Rechabites are still alive today.

Abstinence is tough. Giving things up is tough. Self-denial is hard. Telling yourself ‘NO’ is hard.

But God rewards self-discipline.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” Hebrews 12:11. 

God, prepare us to live lives marked by great self-discipline. Grant us self-control and the humility and contentment to say ‘No’ to many things. Deliver us from F.O.M.O., the Fear Of Missing Out, and from envy of those who receive what we want for ourselves.

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RESPECT THE WORD. Jeremiah 33:3.

I always thought grownups were a little silly about Bibles: don’t drop it, don’t set it on the floor, don’t wrinkle the pages, don’t let it get wet, etc. But that comes from a good motive. Most people in history had no Bible or shared one, and had to treasure it.

And consider this: when Jeremiah wrote God’s message on a scroll and sent it to the king to be read, King Jehoiakim burned it. It was winter and the king was sitting by the fire. Each time the scribe read 3 or 4 columns, the king sliced them off with a knife and threw the parchment in the fire. Soon the entire scroll was burned.

I wonder how God felt?

God told Jeremiah to write it down again. This time God added punishment: “the king of Babylon will come and destroy the land … there will be no king to sit on David’s throne, and King Jehoiakim’s corpse will be thrown in the street to rot. Even his descendants and officers will be punished….” Jeremiah 36:29-31.

Can you imagine treating God’s word that way? Especially when it is the world’s only written copy? And yet, many of us own Bibles, maybe more than one, and they sit collecting dust. Is the one who never reads the word any better off than the one who destroys it in the fire?

We should cherish the word, love the word, and CRAVE the word. Look back three chapters. God says He wants to reveal to you amazing things:

“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3

That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? God calls Himself the “Revealer of Mysteries” (Daniel 2:29), and He reveals them through His word. But you gotta open it! Ask Him to give you the desire, then pray the prayer of Jeremiah 33:3. He will amaze you! For example, a THIRD cool thing I read today (3 of 4) [1] was that the angels are as innumerable as the sand of the sea! (Jeremiah 33:22). That’s an incredible army on our side!!

God, give us a passion, a hunger for your word! Amaze us! Help us feast on it daily, and be amazed by Your revealed mysteries!

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[1] The fourth was that the descendants of Jonadab reported that their ancestor told them never to drink—and they had been obedient to him for generations! Further, though drinking is not forbidden in scripture, God blessed these people greatly for honoring their ancestor. Jeremiah 35:6,14,18-19.

P.S. It is worth noting that when the king burned God’s message, God responded by having Jeremiah dictate it to his scribe a second time, just as when Moses broke the tablets of the law, God helped Moses make new tablets. GOD PROTECTS HIS WORD, no matter what skeptics may say.

You Have Not Because You Ask Not. Jeremiah 33:3

Call to me—ask me—and I will show you great and incomprehensible, amazing things that you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

Just ask. Are you asking? Am I? –What an amazing promise.

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HOW DO YOU PROVE OWNERSHIP? Jeremiah 32:9-15.

When I was a child, Mama wrote my name on the tags of my coats, so they would not be lost or stolen. The older and more careless I became, the more things needed my name on them: books, toys, balls, bats, bicycles.  The simplest way to assert dominion over goods (portable property) is to write your name.

But what about land, what we call “real property”? How can you prevent someone stronger showing up and claiming it belongs to him? The best way to protect real estate is today’s recording system: file written deeds with the local government so everyone can go to the same source for information.  This system dates back to the prophet Jeremiah.  To give the banished Israelites hope God would one day would bring them back to Israel, He instructs Jeremiah to purchase real estate.

“So I bought the field … and I weighed out to him the money—17 shekels of silver. I recorded the purchase on a scroll [today’s deed], sealed it [today’s signature], called in witnesses [today’s notary] … I took the purchase agreement … and gave it to Baruch [like the county clerk].”  Jeremiah instructs Baruch to record and file the deed.  “Take these scrolls and put them in an earthen storage jar so they will last a long time. For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land’” Jeremiah 32:9-15.

God uses this purchase to give His people hope: you will not be in Babylon forever.

But here’s what I find amazing: the recording system for keeping track of property ownership that Jeremiah creates in this passage is identical to the recording system in use today, some 2,600 years later.

What about people? How do we assert dominion over our betrothed? Rather than write a name on a husband or wife, we place a ring on his or her finger. The ring serves as a warning: this one is no longer available.

To summarize: You can protect your ownership by writing your name on things, or by filing documents with the government. You can assert dominion over a spouse with a wedding band.

And—you may not know this—God asserts His ownership over us. How? By giving us His Holy Spirit.

“When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” Ephesians 1:13-14.  (We are God’s possession—He OWNS us. See also 2 Corinthians 1:22.)

Imagine that. God owns you—and He writes His name on you with the Holy Spirit to show the universe that you belong to Him!

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DOES GOD HAVE AN ANGRY FACE?Jeremiah 33:9.

Children are so honest. I remember mine asking me directly, “Daddy, are you mad right now?” Kids look for clues and when the clues are not clear, they just ask.

Children wonder about God in the same simple terms: ‘Does God have an angry face or a happy face?’

God is angry about sin, injustice, corruption, and perversion. He is passionate about justice.

But God does not define Himself by anger. Throughout the word, He reminds us that He is holy. But when God labels Himself, He does not choose ANGER.

He does not say “God IS anger.” He says, “God IS love” 1 John 4:8.

Holiness reminds me how KIND God is. Holiness means God is pure, of course. But when it comes to the way God treats me, I know He is KIND. You see, because God is holy, God is kind to me. And God is going to bless me, not because I deserve to be blessed, but because GOD IS LOVE. Consider how deeply He desires to bless His people. It’s THROUGHOUT the Bible. He blesses us in spite of our disobedience:

“I take delight in you … Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things… I will bring health and healing… I will let you experience the abundance of peace and truth… I will purify you from the wrongs you have committed … I will forgive… You will TREMBLE WITH AWE BECAUSE OF ALL THE GOOD AND ALL THE PEACE I WILL BRING ABOUT FOR YOU… There will be heard again a sound of joy and gladness… I will restore the fortunes of the land….” Jeremiah 32:41, 33:3,6,8,9,11.

Do you fail? Do you sin? Of course. Israel also failed. But God wants to forgive, and more than that, He wants to bless. God looks at His children and smiles.

Dear God, thank you for your kindness, your holiness, your forgiveness, and the undeserved blessings you pour on us so generously. Help us love You more every day!

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