Sermon Illustrations on Destiny

Destiny

People resemble either the polliwig clinging to old life or the lark soaring to new heights.

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A polliwig swims about in a muddy pool and appears happy and contented. It is in its element. After a while it develops into a frog and climbs up on the bank. Altho it has attained to a higher state of existence, it has a tendency for the old life. It does not go very far away from the muddy pool. It stays near it, that it may take an occasional dip. A boy comes along and stones it, and it leaps back into the muddy pool. The boy looks about for some other moving object. He sees a lark not far away and hurls a stone at it. The skylark spreads its wings for flight. As it soars upward, it sings clearer and sweeter until it is far above the reach of its tormentor.

The contrasted tendencies of men resemble those of the polliwig and the lark. There is a world of meaning in the brief statement about Judas, “that he might go to his own place.” (Text.)

Our Response To Christ Determines Our Destiny

Matthew 25

Our response to Christ determines our destiny. We reap what we sow.

"It is not God's desire to condemn, any more than it is the purpose of light to cast shadows. But shadows are inevitably cast when someone stands in the way of the light."

Matthew 25 shows how God's plan is salvation (v. 34), but condemnation is meant for Devil, not men.

New Testament teaching on predestination. Passages show salvation is God's act, out of grace. But it never teaches double-predestination.

Jesus always spoke of human destiny in a way to provoke decision. It is practical, not theoretical. "The doctrine of hell is not about Judas or Stalin. It is about you and me." But the fact that emphasis is practical should not be construed to mean it is not real.

We're All Lucky To Be Here

Job 40

The latest views on evolution do not see "progress" where organisms become more diverse and complex. Instead, the survival of organisms seems to be due to chance. Ancient seas were more varied in organisms than modern ones. Survivors do not seem to have any special trait other than luck.

Why Bother To Answer?

Lincoln was the very first President to be photographed at his inauguration (the second one). Examination of that ancient photo shows John Wilkes Booth lurking in the background, not far from him.

Satan also prowls in the background seeking to destroy believers.

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Born To Lose? [From "Power of the Plus Factor"]

Job 3:16

Once when he was walking through the twisted alleys of Kowloon in Hong Kong, Norman Vincent Peale came upon a tattoo studio. In the window were displayed samples of the tattoos available. On the chest or arms a person could have tattooed an anchor or flag or mermaid or whatever. But what struck him with force were three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh, “BORN TO LOSE.”

Peale entered the shop in astonishment and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese tattoo artist, “Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, BORN TO LOSE, tattooed on his body?”

He replied, “Yes, sometimes.”

Peale said, “But I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that.”

The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said in broken English, “Before tattoo on body, tattoo on mind.”

Forget and Press

Philippians 3:12

Sermon in Philippians series. Forget past, press ahead. Phil. 3:12-14

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FORGET AND PRESS

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I. Think of it as a race.

A. Athletics in college and ancient Greece.

B. Three keys for successful Christian running.

II. The race isn't over yet.

A. Some Christians act like it is.

1) Perfectionism.

2) Smug triumphalism.

B. Paul: "Not that I have obtained all this."

1) Salvation is a process.

2) Face your faults.

III. Don't look back.

A. "Forgetting what is behind."

B. What we look back at.

C. What memory do you need to let go of?

IV. Focus on the future.

A. Pressing and straining.

B. Aim high.

C. What are you living for?

V. A prize is waiting.

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Vision

Luke 4:18

In MORE THAN YOU AND ME, Kevin and Karen Miller write of the power of a God-given vision:

One couple lived in London 130 years ago. For the first 10 years of their marriage, William Booth, especially, was in a quandary: What was God calling him to do?

Then his wife, Catherine, a skillful Bible teacher, was invited to preach in London. While they were there, William took a late-night walk through the slums of London’s East End. Every fifth building was a pub. Most had steps at the counter so little children could climb up and order gin. That night he told Catherine, “I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, ‘Where can you go and find such heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labors?’ Darling, I have found my destiny!”

Later that year, 1865, the couple opened the “Christian Mission” in London’s slums. Their life vision: to reach the “down and outers” that other Christians ignored. That simple vision of two people grew into the Salvation Army, which now ministers through 3 million members in 91 countries.

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A Little Dark Humor

These are supposedly actual epitaphs from gravestones...

On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery, Nova Scotia:

Here lies

Ezekial Aikle

Age 102

The Good

Die Young.

In a London, England, cemetery:

Ann Mann

Here lies Ann Mann,

Who lived an old maid

But died an old Mann.

Dec. 8, 1767

In a Ribbesford, England, cemetery:

Anna Wallace

The children of Israel wanted bread

And the Lord sent them manna,

Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.

Playing with names in a Ruidoso, New Mexico, cemetery:

Here lies

Johnny Yeast

Pardon me

For not rising.

Memory of an accident in a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, cemetery:

Here lies the body

of Jonathan Blake

Stepped on the gas

Instead of the brake.

In a Silver City, Nevada, cemetery:

Here lays Butch,

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger,

But slow on the draw.

A widow wrote this epitaph in a Vermont cemetery:

Sacred to the memory of

my husband John Barnes

who died January 3, 1803

His comely young widow, aged 23,

has many qualifications of a good wife,

and yearns to be comforted.

(ed: guess they did not have personal ads then)

A lawyer's epitaph in England:

Sir John Strange

Here lies an honest lawyer,

And that is Strange.

Someone determined to be anonymous in Stowe, Vermont:

I was somebody.

Who, is no business

Of yours.

Lester Moore was a Wells, Fargo Co. station agent for Naco, Arizona, in the cowboy days of the 1880's. He's buried in the Boot Hill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona:

Here lies Lester Moore

Four slugs from a .44

No Les No More.

In a Georgia cemetery:

"I told you I was sick!"

John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne, England, cemetery:

Reader if cash thou art

In want of any

Dig 4 feet deep

And thou wilt find a Penny.

On Margaret Daniel's grave at Hollywood Cemetery Richmond, Virginia:

She always said

her feet were killing her

but nobody believed her.

In a cemetery in Hartscombe, England:

On the 22nd of June

Jonathan Fiddle -

Went out of tune.

Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls, Vermont has an epitaph that sounds like something from a Three Stooges movie:

Here lies the body of our Anna

Done to death by a banana

It wasn't the fruit that laid her low

But the skin of the thing that made her go.

More fun with names with Owen Moore in Battersea, London, England:

Gone away

Owen more

Than he could pay.

Someone in Winslow, Maine didn't like Mr. Wood:

In Memory of Beza Wood

Departed this life

Nov. 2, 1837

Aged 45 yrs.

Here lies one Wood

Enclosed in wood

One Wood

Within another.

The outer wood

Is very good:

We cannot praise

The other.

On a grave from the 1880's in Nantucket, Massachusetts:

Under the sod and under the trees

Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.

He is not here, there's only the pod:

Pease shelled out and went to God.

The grave of Ellen Shannon in Girard, Pennsylvania is almost a consumer tip:

Who was fatally burned

March 21, 1870

by the explosion of a lamp

filled with "R.E. Danforth's

Non-Explosive Burning Fluid"

Oops! Harry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York:

Born 1903--Died 1942

Looked up the elevator shaft to see

If the car was on the way down.

It was.

In a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery:

Here lies an Atheist

All dressed up

And no place to go.

In a cemetery in England:

Remember man, as you walk by,

As you are now, so once was I,

As I am now, so shall you be,

Remember this and follow me.

To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone:

To follow you I'll not consent,

Until I know which way you went.

John Gay's epitaph, an 18th century English poet:

Life is jest, and all things show it,

I thought so once, but now I know it.

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Princess Diana's Destiny

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has labeled Princess Diana a “false goddess” with “loose sexual morals,” The Sunday Times newspaper said. Lord Coggan, who was the head of the Anglican church from 1974 to 1980, said the nationwide grieving and admiration for Diana, who died nearly a year ago, had turned Britain into a godless nation.

“Along came this false goddess and filled the gap for a time,” said Coggan. “The British people identified with someone who had pretty loose morals and certainly loose sexual morals.” The newspaper did not say where Coggan was speaking. His words echoed those of Sunday school teachers who sparked a row last week after they told children the Princess of Wales went to hell because of the immoral and unchristian lifestyle she led. Angry parents withdrew their children from the Sunday school and several church leaders leaped to Diana's defense.

Gunman Kills Seven At Church Prayer Rally, Including 3 Seminary Students

A gunman entered a Fort Worth Baptist church during an evening prayer rally Sept. 15, killing seven people, including three Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students, before he sat down on a back pew and killed himself.

The long-haired man dressed in jeans and a black jacket, spouting obscenities and cursing worshippers opened fire on about 200 people in the Wedgwood Baptist Church sanctuary. The church was hosting an area-wide rally for the annual See You At The Pole prayer event, celebrating earlier rallies held at school flagpoles around the country.

The shooting rampage also sent seven others to three area hospitals, some with critical gunshot wounds. ...

The gunman was identified by authorities as Larry Gene Ashbrook, 47, of Forest Hill, a Fort Worth suburb. He was described by neighbors as reclusive who occasionally flashed a temper. Neighbors did not know whether he had any religious convictions but one neighbor said he "has been strange as long as I can remember." Authorities could give no motive for the shootings.

Later that night the church's Internet web site called the shootings an "incomprehensible tragedy. We don't understand why these things happen. God we don't understand. But you don't call us to understand ... just to serve," the statement said. It listed the casualties: "eight dead (including the gunman); seven injured; everyone else -- changed. ... We still serve an awesome God!" ...

"When the first round was done I heard the clip hit the floor and he reloaded," Adam Hammond recalled. "The next thing I knew one of my youth stood up and said 'Sir, I know what you need, you need Jesus Christ in your life'," Hammond said, amazed at the bravery of the 19-year-old. The gunman responded with a muffled comment about why the boy was standing when the youth continued, "I know where I'm going when I die, what about you?" Then, a pause. The gunman sat down on the back pew and took his own life. ...

"I thought I would die there. I didn't know what to do, I don't guess anyone does until you're in that situation, but I can't dwell on all the what ifs."

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(Contributing to this release: Heather Stewart, director of information services at Florida Baptist Theological College, Graceville, Fla.; Public Relations office of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas; and Debbie Moore, Charleston, W.Va., free-lance writer for Baptist Press.)

Hello, My Name Is ESPN: What's In A Name?

Mark 5:9

It was an event all new parents enjoy: Watching their unborn child turn somersaults on the ultrasound screen. Seeing their child hiccup or suck his thumb makes parents realize that, for real, there is a baby in there.

A New Zealand couple, Pat and Sheena Wheaton, were so impressed with the reality of their child that they decided to name their son “4real.”

That’s when their troubles began. A judge told them they couldn’t do it: New Zealand law forbids the use of numbers when naming babies — also, names that are likely to offend, such as Hitler or Satan. Bloggers around the world attacked the Wheatons for their foolishness, calling them names that can’t be repeated here. The “4real” controversy caused a furor at our own blog site, THE POINT.

The Wheatons are not alone in wanting to give their child a name so distinctive it raises eyebrows — and snickers. Two sets of American parents have named their sons ESPN. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow named her baby after a fruit: Apple. Comedian Penn Jillette named HIS daughter Moxie CrimeFighter — apparently anticipating a future career in law enforcement.

But after we stop laughing, we ought to ask ourselves: How will these bizarre names affect the children who bear them?

According to the research, names are far more significant in shaping our characters and personalities than many of us realize.

Susan Seligson writes in REDBOOK magazine that “an increasing amount of research suggests that our names and our destinies may be inexorably intertwined.”

Often, she says, the prophecy in a name becomes uncannily self-fulfilling. For example, one study showed that girls with exceedingly feminine names like Lucy and Rose “did in fact have more girlish personalities.” And although it’s hard to prove, she writes, “our personalities may also evolve to fulfill the subtle mandates our names carry.”

Amy and Leon Kass, professors at the University of Chicago, write in FIRST THINGS that the naming of children is an expression of the parents’ best hopes and dreams. Parents may memorialize a worthy ancestor, historical figure, or biblical character, hoping certain qualities associated with that person will rub off onto the child.

In Scripture, a person’s name was often intimately linked with what God planned to do with his or her life. For example, at the command of the Archangel Gabriel, our Lord was named Jesus, which means “God will save us.”

According to Amy and Leon Kass, the act of naming imparts a blessing to the child whereby parents “dedicate themselves to the work of making good the promise conveyed in the good name thus bestowed.”

This means that Christians, of all people, need to name their children with care. If we desire to raise a goodly seed, as the Puritans put it, we need every resource available to us, including names that point to the kind of character we seek to instill in our children.

Regardless of what we name our kids, we need to teach them how to make good names for themselves.

Most important of all, we need to teach our Lucys and Roses, our Apples and our ESPNs, how to identify their own names with the name that is, for real, above all names — Jesus Christ.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #1461]

What Is Our Destiny

Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, once told a story about a flock of barnyard geese in Denmark. Every Sunday the geese would gather in the barnyard near the feeding trough. One of their number, a “preaching goose,” would struggle up on the top rail of the fence and exhort the geese about the glories of goosedom. He would them how wonderful it was to be a goose, rather than a chicken or a turkey. He would remind them of their great heritage and tell them of the marvelous possibilities in the future.

Occasionally while he was preaching, a flock of wild geese, winging their way south from Sweden across the Baltic Sea on their way to sunny France would fly overhead in a marvelous V formation... thousands of feet in the air. When that happened all the geese would excitedly look and say to one another. “That's who we really are. We are not destined to spend our lives in this stinking barnyard. Our destiny is to fly.”

But then the wild geese would disappear from sight their honking echoing across the horizon. The barnyard geese would look around at their comfortable surroundings, sigh, and return to the mud and filth of the barn. They never did fly. Sadly, there are a number of people in the Kingdom of God who remain in the barnyard rather than spread their winds to fly.

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All of this reminds me of a true yet tragic World War II story.

The {Lady-Be-Good} was a bomber whose crew was a well-seasoned

flight team, a group of intelligent and combat-ready airmen. After a

successful bombing mission, they were returning to home base late one

night. In front of the pilot and copilot was a panel of instruments

and radar equipment they had to rely on to reach their final

destination. They had made the flight many times before, so they knew

about how long it took to return.

But this flight was different. Unaware of a strong tailwind that

pushed toe bomber much more repidly through the night air than usual,

the men in the cockpit looked in amazement at their instruments as

they correctly signaled that it was time to land.

The refused to believe those accurate dials and gauges, though.

Confident that they were still miles away from home, they kept flying

and hoping, looking intently for those familiar lights below. The

fuel supply was finally depleted. The big olive-drab bomber never

made it back. It was found deep in the desert many miles further and

many days later. Its fine crew had all perished, having overshot the

field by a great distance . . . because they followed the promptings

of their own feelings, which "seemed right" but proved to be wrong.

Dead wrong.

What happened in the air back in the early 1940s is happening in

principle every day on earth. There are good, sincere, well-meaning,

intelligent people traveling on a collision course with death, yet

totally unaware of their destiny.

- Charles R. Swindoll, {Man to Man} (Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan Publishing House, 1996) 347-348

A Servant and A Tyrant

Professor Jerome Lejeune, discoverer of the chromosomal pattern of Down's Syndrome once related to us a story he had heard from a geneticist colleague.

"Many years ago, my father was a Jewish physician in Braunau, Austria. On one particular day, two babies had been delivered by one of his colleagues. One was a fine, healthy boy with a strong cry. His parents were extremely proud and happy. The other was a little girl, but her parents were extremely sad, for she was a Down syndrome baby. I followed them both for almost fifty years. The girl grew up, living at home, and was finally destined to be the one who nursed her mother through a very long and lingering illness after a stroke. I do not remember her name. I do, however, remember the boy's name. He died in a bunker in Berlin. His name was Adolph Hitler."

--Dr. & Mrs. J.C. Willke

The Greatest Wonder Is Being There

It is said that at the coronation of Queen Victoria an Indian chief from America was present by the invitation of the queen. When asked what there was about it that impressed him most, the only remark the Indian made was, "The thing that impressed me most was that I was there."

And when we attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the thing at which we will marvel most will not be the glory of the surroundings, but the grace of God that allowed us, sinners and aliens by birth, to be there.

("Choice Illustrations" by W.W. Clay, page 80)

Learned Helplessness

Job 26:2

In psychology, there is a concept called learned helplessness, which arose from a series of animal experiments in the nineteen-sixties at the University of Pennsylvania. Dogs were restrained by a harness, so they couldn’t move, and then repeatedly subjected to a series of electrical shocks. Then the same dogs were shocked again, only this time they could easily escape by jumping over a low hurdle. But most of them didn’t; they just huddled in the corner, no longer believing that there was anything they could do to influence their own fate.

Learned helplessness is now thought to play a role in such phenomena as depression and the failure of battered women to leave their husbands, but one could easily apply it more widely. We live in an age, after all, that is strangely fixated on the idea of helplessness: we’re fascinated by hurricanes and terrorist acts and epidemics like SARS – situations in which we fell powerless to affect our own destiny.

In fact, the risks posed to life and limb by forces outside our control are dwarfed by the factors we can control. Our fixation with helplessness distorts our perceptions of risk. “When you feel safe, you can be passive,” one expert noted.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12025]

Any Other End

Matthew 26:46

THIS AMERICAN LIFE ran a special report following the lives of several people currently living what they unequivocally call “Plan B.” Host Ira Glass expounds his thoughts on an informal poll and a seemingly universal human reality. He asked a room of hundred people to think back to the beginning of adulthood when they were first formulating a plan for their lives. He called it Plan A: “the fate you were sure fate had in store.” He then asked those who were still following this plan to raise their hands. Only one person confessed she was still living Plan A; she was 23 years old.

It seems a trend among us: There is the thing we plan on doing with our lives, and then there’s the thing we end up doing, which becomes our life. Christians might have a nuanced view of Plan A -- it is God’s plan we are trying to follow. But there is still very much an initial picture of what this plan, and subsequently our lives, will -- or should -- look like. God’s best becomes something like a divine Plan A, while any other plan leads the follower to something else entirely.

But akin to the statistics in the room with Mr. Glass, it is likely that the number of Christians who find themselves living the plan they first imagined are ALSO few and far between. For some, this is seen as good news. Many discover along the way that they are doing far more leading than being led, and God in his mercy redirects them. “Many are the plans in a human heart,” the proverb reads, “but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (19:21). Others find the journey with God from Plan A to B to C to D an amusing part of the pilgrimage itself. Yet there are still many others who walk away from Plan A thoroughly defeated. Regretful turns and drastic detours may now be behind us, but our deviation from the journey is writ large before us. We have failed at Plan A, the plan we believe God intended; God’s best is now merely God’s backup.

When life turns out to be something you didn’t plan on, when missteps and unplanned detours loom with guilt, a life of alternative routes and broken roads seems certain. It is easy to wonder in despair what it means to have missed God’s best, and to believe that somehow God must now step back into the picture, disappointed, and find a secondary plan for your life. How significant, then, are Christ’s words to his despairing disciples after an evening of mistakes, and to those of us who have ever felt the sting of falling off track. To these men who repeatedly failed to follow his instructions, Jesus simply said, “Rise, let us be going” (Matthew 26:46).

A wise friend of mine says that following God is something like following the directions on a GPS system. At the beginning of the journey, the plan for arriving at the desired destination is set before you. But when you accidentally turn left or are forced to take an unforeseen detour, the computer doesn’t scold you. It doesn’t force you to start over or announce that you can no longer make it to your final destination because you have ruined the route. In fact, it doesn’t miss a beat. It adjusts the plan from that point onward, the end still in mind, yet as if the wrong turn was a part of the journey all along. For the destination has not changed. Plan A may have switched to Plan B, but the outcome will be the same.

Although Blaise Pascal was a mathematician who saw the created world as one of equations and precision, he saw the God who created this world as one who is innately personal, guiding, and accommodating. “[T]he God of the Christians is a God of love and consolation,” Pascal wrote in his PENSEES. “He is a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom he possesses: he is a God who makes them inwardly aware of their wretchedness and his infinite mercy: who united himself with them in the depths of their soul...WHO MAKES THEM INCAPABLE OF HAVING ANY OTHER END BUT HIM.”(1)

God is well aware that there are turns in life we can never undo, choices we cannot erase, and detours we were never expecting. But God is not deterred by our position. Plan B is not any farther away from Him than Plan A or C or D. In fact, God sees only one plan: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). In this, God is ever at work redirecting our steps, while the end -- God Himself -- remains the same. Despite broken roads and secondary paths, God is forever showing us that the destination is unchanging, and in the end, God’s best comes into our lives not because of our careful steps toward Him but because of his steps toward us. The God of the Christians is one whose plans are all-encompassing, whose arm is not too short to save, who goes the extra mile, who takes every detour, that even one will not remain lost.

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1. PENSEES, (London: Peguin Books, 1993), 141-142. Emphasis mine.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #20557]

(untitled)

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young,

compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and

tolerant of the weak and the strong because someday you will have been

all of these.

- George Washington Carver

No Postponements, No Cancellations

Hebrews 9:27

I'm lucky they don't make me wear a name tag when I go to our dentist. See, he doesn't see me all that often. It's not that I don't need to see him; it's not that I don't pay for it when I put off seeing him. Oh, I'll get around to it - later. Now, don't you think we all have this tendency to avoid appointments that may be unpleasant? Sure we do. And, in most cases, you can put off - even cancel - meetings that you don't want to have. In most cases.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "No Postponements, No Cancellations."

In our word for today from the Word of God, God announces an appointment I have ... and you have. Hebrews 9:27, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." God makes it very clear: we have an appointment with our Creator - or, as the old-timers used to say, to "meet our Maker."

Now that final reality is something that, well, we'd rather run from than face a lot of times. One alternative idea we hear a lot about these days is reincarnation. Of course, that's not really a new idea. Reincarnation proposes that we can escape this day of reckoning indefinitely through this endless cycle of starting over. Of course, the only One who knows for sure what happens beyond death is God Himself. And He leaves absolutely no room for us going around again when He says it's man's destiny to "die once and after that to face judgment."

When God talks about us facing judgment, He says you and I will have to account to Him for our life ... a life that, according to the Bible, has been lived outside our Creator's plans. In God's own words, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Nobody has lived up to God's standards. Everybody has the death penalty of sin to deal with.

That's why so many people become "religious" and try to do good; we hope we can somehow pay off our sins. But again, our way of getting ready for our appointment with God is useless. The Bible says that at the time of judgment, "Every mouth will be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous (that means right with God, qualified to go to heaven) by observing the law" (or doing all the right things).

There's no way you can pay your sin-bill with your religion, your generosity, or your goodness. The only way this eternal bill could be paid was by God's eternal Son, Jesus Christ. The next verses say we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Hebrews 9:28) The payment we're trying to make with our goodness was already made by Jesus when He took our death penalty on His cross. The only question God will ask you when you keep your appointment with Him is, "What did you do with My Son?"

Years ago when prairie fires would sweep across Indian lands, Native Americans would literally fight fire with fire. They would actually set a fire in a trench around their village. When the prairie fire hit the already burned area, it stopped. The principle of stopping the fire was simple: the fire cannot go where the fire has already been.

The fire of God's judgment for the sinning we have done has already fallen on His Son at the cross. If you put your trust in Jesus to be your Savior from your sin, your judgment is canceled. The fire cannot go where the fire has already been.

Other appointments can be postponed or canceled ... but not your appointment with your Creator. Denying it, ignoring it, running from it won't change it. The only thing to do is be prepared for it! You can do that by telling Jesus right where you are that you want to begin this life-saving relationship with Him. And if you're at that point, I would love to send you the booklet I wrote about knowing Jesus called "Yours For Life." We'll tell you how to get it in just a moment.

Somewhere in this country someone is going to keep their appointment with God today. And just like you, no one thinks it will be him or her. Someone will be wrong. Please be sure you've settled your relationship with the Man who died so you can live. Then whenever your appointment with God is, you will have nothing to fear.

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No Escape On A Dead-end Road

John 5:24

They were just a young fire-fighting crew, assigned to work on a relatively small brush fire in Washington State. No one could have imagined what was about to happen. Seemingly timid fires suddenly rumbled to life and then began to roar out of control. In the end, fourteen firefighters had to pin their hopes on the little tinfoil shelters designed to be the last line of protection in a firetrap. Ultimately, four young firefighters died in the fire that day. They had tried to escape the fire by heading for a nearby road - apparently, their superiors had not advised them that it was a dead-end road.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "No Escape On A Dead-end Road."

That was a horrible tragedy - made even more tragic by the fact that what they thought was a way of escape turned out to be a dead-end road. As I read about this disaster, I couldn't help but think that so many people are making that same kind of mistake - when it comes to their spiritual destiny.

Most people are counting on the fact that their religion, their spirituality is going to be an escape route from whatever judgment we all get for the wrong things we have done. To put it bluntly, a way to miss hell and make heaven. Tragically, many sincere people may be counting on a road that won't get them there.

Actually, the Bible says that is exactly what is happening in many lives. In Proverbs 14:12, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Seems right ... leads to death - unsettling words. Because whatever road you're on to escape judgment and get to God usually "seems right." But if it isn't God's road, it doesn't matter how right it seems. It will lead to an end we didn't expect - to spiritual death.

Thankfully, God makes the way to Him very clear, throughout the Bible. One of those places is 1 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 3: "God our Savior wants all men to be saved ... There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." This isn't multiple choice. God says that the only way to Him is through His Son Jesus.

Someone might say, "But that's not fair! You mean only one religion gets you to God?" Actually, no religion can get you to God, including Christianity. Only Jesus can because only Jesus "gave Himself as a ransom" for us. That's ransom as in the price you pay to get someone back. Because our sin has an eternal death penalty - actually described by Jesus as involving a place of fire - the price to be paid is death. That's what you and I deserve for hijacking our lives from God. But Jesus loves you too much to lose you - so He went to the cross to pay that price to remove the sin that will otherwise keep you out of heaven.

If you've been depending on any way other than total trust in Jesus the Rescuer, you're on a dead-end road. But today you can, as the Bible says, "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24) - by grabbing Jesus as if He's your only hope. If you want to begin your relationship with Him today, talk to Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, I believe You died for my sins, and beginning this day, I'm Yours." Then I'd love to send you the booklet I wrote about this called "Yours For Life." Just let me know you want it.

Jesus stands ready to lead you out of the fire. Make sure you're on the only road that will lead you to safety - and to heaven.

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The Most Surprised People In Hell

Luke 13:24

When you have a commercial flight to catch at a major airport, it's important to pay attention. There are so many flights, so many gates, so many people - and there's only one plane you want to board - the one that's going to your destination. I guess folks have made mistakes over the years. I mean, that must be the reason the boarding agent or flight attendant gets on the plane and often says something like this: “This is a destination check. You're on Flight 88 to Atlanta. If Atlanta is not your destination today, this would be a good time for you to deplane.” Yeah, I guess. In other words, this buggy isn't going where you want to end up!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Most Surprised People in Hell.”

It's one of the most chilling truths in the Bible - there are people who are sure their destination is going to be heaven and they're never going to get there. Unless, you might say, they get off the wrong plane and get on the right plane.

Listen to these sobering words from Jesus Himself in Luke 13, beginning with verse 24 - it's our word for today from the Word of God. “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.’ But He will answer, 'I don't know you ... Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with You, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me...”

Then Jesus concludes by describing this heartbreaking scene: “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out.” Man, these are tough verses. But they're here so none of us will end up being one of the most surprised people in hell. They're here because Jesus loves us too much to let us live and die with the spiritual fantasy that we're ready for eternity when we're not.

It's dangerously easy to know all the “Jesus words” and miss Jesus; to have Him in your head, but not your heart. To have lots of Christianity but never have Christ. It's easy to mistake agreement for commitment. I have a number of friends that I agree with on many things, but I'm not married to them. I'm married to Karen, not because of my agreement with her, but because of my total commitment to her. It's the same with Jesus. The question is this: has there been a time in your life when you have consciously given yourself completely to Jesus, committing yourself to live for the one who died for your sins? If you know you've done that, you belong to Jesus. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't.

And you probably need to - and sooner rather than later. Heaven and hell are nothing to gamble with. Don't let your religious pride cost you heaven. Tell Jesus this very day, “Lord, I've known about you all this time, but I've never really known You. But I want to - beginning right now. I'm not putting my trust in my Christianity - that will never get me to heaven. I'm putting all my trust in You, Jesus - in what You did on the cross to erase my sins. I'm Yours, Jesus.”

If you're making today the day you really begin your personal relationship with Jesus, then welcome home. It's time for an eternal destination check - while there's still time to go the way that will get you where you want to go. Forever.

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Within the Ending

John 14:3

The dictionary defines the word “vacation” as “a period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation.” Though I imagine it happens less often than not, it seems the ideal vacation would come to an end just as the life we left behind begins to seem preferable. Yet even if it is with reluctance that we let go of our last vacation day, most of us can imagine why we must. For by definition, a vacation is something that must come to an end. To vacate life as we know it on a permanent basis would be called something different entirely.

Though we know that the days of a vacation are short-lived, we nevertheless enjoy them. Even as they fade away into the calendar, they are remembered (and often nostalgically). That they were few does not hinder their impact. On the contrary, a few days devoted to relaxation are made valuable because of the many that are not.

And we know this to be true of life as well - that it is fleeting, makes it all the more momentous.

Musician Dave Matthews once expressed a similar thought. He said candidly, “There are arbitrary lines between bad and good that often don't make a lot of sense to me. I don't want to die, obviously, but really, the wonder of life is amplified by the fact that it ends.” [1]

Like withering grass and dwindling summers, fading flowers and vacation days, life cannot escape its end. Like the seasons we live through, generations spring forth and die away. Like the vacations we take, so our days pass away into the calendar. If we refuse to look at any of these endings we live foolishly; if we look only to their ends we miss something about living.

The psalmist saw the importance of seeing our lives as they are and living in this reality. “Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life” (39:4). It is a prayer uttered with eyes fixed on eternity even as they are aware of the fleeting nature of time. “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you” (39:7).

To see our lives as they are is to see that we are, as one theologian observed, “a vision of God and a mountain of dust.” It is to embrace the fearful truth that in order to gain one's life one must lose it, that endings though sometimes painful are often necessary, and that somehow to die is gain.

When Jesus stood with the disciples staring down the very hour he came to face, he told his friends that his time with them was coming to an end. He told them that his departing would usher in the Great Comforter, the he was leaving to prepare a place for them, and that in his coming and going the world would see that he finished exactly what the Father sent him to do. He reminded them that in the ending of this season was the budding hope of another. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:3-4). Christ did not just go and so end his days among us; he went to prepare a place for our coming.

The psalmist writes, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” In this great mystery we live our days, knowing that within the ending of a life given to God is a great and imperishable beginning. There is a room prepared.

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1. Washington Post, August 16, 1998.)

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[Original illustration here was a duplicate in HolwickID 25837-26027]

His Resurrection Destiny

Luke 24:2

Our Lord's Cross is the gateway into His life: His Resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the Risen Lord His very life.

Our Lord's Resurrection destiny is to bring "many sons unto glory." The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When Our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know now the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. "I would know Him in the power of His resurrection."

"As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." "Holy Spirit" is the experimental name for Eternal Life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the Deity in proceeding power Who applies the Atonement to our experience. Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him.

Which Way Are You Going This Christmas?

John 1:1

Daniel Boone and David Crockett remain legendary figures in American history because of their explorations and discoveries along the western frontier of the United States. These two men, both famous in western folklore, have been called the greatest hunter heroes of our nation. People often confuse the two men with each other; they lived similar yet very distinct lives. Their distinction lies in the impact they each had on the development of American civilization.

Daniel Boone, older than Crockett by 50 years, was born in a Quaker settlement in Pennsylvania and always felt drawn to the frontier wilderness. He was raised in the quiet formality of the Quakers but was enchanted by the unknowns of the frontier. Paul Andrew Hutton, a historian from the University of New Mexico, stated that Boone “was the Enlightenment hero on the frontier. He in fact brought civilization to the wilderness.”

David Crockett was born into poverty in 1786 in the wilderness of southeastern Tennessee. Crockett’s family lived in various frontier outposts and Indian villages before eventually settling in more civilized areas. Crockett’s legend remains well-known to Texans because of his heroic attempts to help defend the Alamo in 1836.

David Crockett strongly represented the interests of western people while serving three terms in Congress as a representative from Tennessee. Professor Hutton described Crockett as one who “took the values of the west, the values of self-reliance, the values of perseverance, the strength of the character that marked the frontiersman, and he took them back east.”

While these men both thrived on the alluring mystery of the frontier, their impacts were almost opposite in effect. Boone was the easterner who went west, taking the mindset and lifestyle of the civilized world into the wilderness. Crockett, on the other hand, was the westerner who went east, taking the independent and rugged spirit of the wilderness into the more stoic culture of the eastern states.

During this Christmas season, Christians think back to the Savior who came 2,000 years ago and simultaneously think about their responsibilities to serve Him. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Creator God, was born to a teenage mother on that first Christmas and, thus, brought heaven to earth. In one sense, he brought spiritual salvation and the peacefulness of eternity to this sinful wilderness called humanity.

Like Daniel Boone, Jesus came from a more civilized place and moved to a less civilized place, from perfect sinlessness in heaven to the world of sinful humanity on earth.

As followers of Christ, the Christian’s calling is to be like Jesus, which may also mean being a little like David Crockett. While people have been born in the spiritual wilderness of the world, they are to learn the spiritually civilized ways of God and His Word and teach them to their fellow citizens. Christians are called to take their “heaven-ness” back to their homes and neighborhoods.

When a Christ-follower experiences a changed life and receives a new spirit, he or she is asked to share the joy of that experience with others. Like David Crockett, Christians are to take their spirit, no longer independent but now God-dependent, and share it with those who have yet to see what they have seen, who have yet to experience this new life, who have yet to travel to the frontier outpost called new life in Christ.

What can we learn from American history? We can learn that our past is important and almost always impacts our future. We can learn that both Boone and Crockett loved the frontier spirit and wanted to share that with others. We can learn that where we have been matters greatly, but where we are going matters most of all.

Merry Christmas.

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He Sailed Beyond His Destiny

On October 27, 1728, a boy was born to James and Grace Cook in a mud-and-thatch hatch hovel - a structure known as a “biggin” - in Yorkshire, England. Farm animals wandered in and out of the hut's two small rooms. Sacking spread on the dirt floor kept down the damp and odor.

The prospects for the baby, James, were bleak. Four siblings perished by the age of 5 and a brother died at 23. Cook's father was a day laborer. close to the bottom runs' of the social strata. Public education didn't exist; James Cook seemed destined to a tightly confined life of a day's walk in radius, and the well-trod loop of home, field, church, and finally, a crowded family grave plot.

But James Cook exploded the cycle. Escaping to sea as a teenager, he worked his way to the upper reaches of the naval hierarchy and won election to the Royal Society, the pinnacle of London's intellectual establishment. His greatest feat, however, was the three epic voyages of discovery he made in his 40s.

When Cook embarked on his first voyage in 1768, about a third of the world's map remained blank. People speculated that a large, lush continent existed in the Southern hemisphere to “balance” the land masses of the north. Cook sailed into this void and returned three years later with charts so accurate that some of them were still used in the 1990s. On the two later voyages Cook explored from the Arctic to the Antarctic and from the northwest shore of America to the far northeast coast of Siberia. He covered an astonishing 140 degrees of latitude, from 70 degrees south to 70 degrees north. By the time he died Cook had sailed more than 200,000 miles, all in a small wooden ship.

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Source: Adventist Review, ISSN 0161-1119, (c) May 12, 2005, http://www.adventistreview.org/

Submitted by Mary Thayne

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It's Not the Hand You're Dealt, But How You Play Your Hand

Luke 10:19

One of the greatest historians of the past century was a man by the name of Samuel Elliot Morrison. During the course of his life, Morrison taught at Harvard, Yale and a number of other prestigious institutions. At the end of his illustrious career, a retirement party was thrown for him, and at that party someone asked him if he could sum up what his study of history had taught him about life.

Morrison thought for a moment, and then said that history showed him that life was very much like a game of poker. Certain nations are dealt good hands in terms of people, land and resources but they play the game poorly by squandering what they’re given and they end up losing the game. Other nations are dealt very little in terms of people, land and resources but they play their hand well and as a result they end up winning the game. Morrison concluded that history shows us that it’s not the hand you’re dealt but how you play the hand you’ve got that determines whether or not you win or lose at the game of life.

As I’ve thought about it, it seems that Morrison’s analysis is true not just of nations and countries but also of people. Some people have been dealt a tremendous hand in life: they’re attractive, intelligent, capable, come from good families and have great health. Others have been dealt a bad hand in life: they’ve suffered some tremendous handicaps and setbacks. Their spouse walked out or family members have died, they’ve suffered from poor health or some kind of disability or they were physically or sexually abused.

And yet the issue for most people in life doesn’t really seem to be “the hand they’ve been dealt” nearly as much as it seems to be “how they play the hand they’ve been dealt.”

We think of a person like Abraham Lincoln who was raised in abject poverty, wasn’t anything special to look at, had some tremendous problems and losses in his life, served as President at the time of our nation’s gravest crisis and yet became one of the greatest leaders the United States has ever known.

Or we think of a person like Helen Keller who was born deaf and blind and could hardly speak, yet graduated from Radcliffe College, became a talented social worker and went on to become an inspiration to millions around the world for her accomplishments.

Regardless of the hand we’ve been dealt, all of us want to win at the game of life so we need to ask: How do we do that? Is there a key that will enable us to manage our lives and our circumstances in such a way that when life is over, we can say that we handled it well and honored God?

I Know Who I Am, But…

The conductor said, “We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it. Everything is okay.” The conductor walked on down the aisle punching other tickets. Before he moved to the next car, he looked back and saw Dr. Einstein down on his hands and knees looking under his seat trying to find his ticket. He came back and gently said, “Dr. Einstein, please don’t worry about it. I know who you are.” Einstein looked up and said, “I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going!”

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Another version from Snopes.com:

Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

The conductor said, “Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.”

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.

The conductor rushed back and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.”

Einstein looked at him and said, “Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

Your Neighbors Are Possible Gods and Goddesses

John 10:34

Here is how C. S. Lewis says we should regard our next-door neighbor:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. You need to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. On the other hand, they might be a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

“All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

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C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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(This illustration was originally HolwickID #4039. I am not sure how it got deleted.)