St. John Studies

In the film clip on this post is a scene from the popular Christian movie, “God Is Not Dead.”

If you have not seen the film, let me give you a little context.  Dean Cain’s character is a hard-driving businessman who runs over people to experience success.  People just don’t matter to him.  In the clip, he also has no fond feelings for his mother, who has dementia.  He seems disgusted that she is in the state she is in and seems to mock her by talking about his “perfect” life.

Then mom has a lucid moment.  She talks about the jail cell that is so comfortable.  We go in and enjoy ourselves, knowing that the door is always open and we can leave after we take our pleasure.  We think we are free as we come and go.

Little do we realize that we become slaves to the sin we are committing.  We grow to need the visits to the cell, but what the heck, we can always leave.  No biggie.

We think we have choices and we do.

We can turn our backs on the sinning and not go into the cell.  With God’s help through our Holy Spirit, He can give us the strength to fight the temptation if we would ask.

Some ask and walk away.

Some don’t and keep returning.

Then mom speaks a truth that Dean Cain’s character just does not understand or won’t accept.

“The door’s wide open. Then one day, time runs out, the cell door slams shut and suddenly it’s too late.”

He leaves after this, more disgusted than he was while he was sitting with her.

“The Gates of Hell Are Locked from the Inside” is a famous quote from the novelist C.S. Lewis but it fits right into the message of Chapter 12 in AHA.  We don’t have to throw up our hands in defeat.

It’s not too late.

God wants us. Satan wants us.

God gives us discernment through the Holy Spirit which resides in all of us.  Use it.  Make the right choice.

Now.

We all know it.

Jesus is on the cross.  On either side are two criminals, people who deserved to be punished along with one who did not deserve punishment at all.

One criminal hurled insults at Jesus.

The other one repented.

Too late?

I don’t think so; when he said “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom” what did Jesus say?  “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Luke 23

This drama is acted out every day.

The woman on her deathbed, wracked with cancer who comes to know God before she passes. [the story in AHA].

The professor in the movie “God is Not Dead” who comes to know God right before he dies from a car accident.  He has spent his teaching career getting students to doubt the existence of God.

Did he get into paradise?  You bet he did.

I have a friend [one of my best] who watched his father slide into alcoholism.  He loved beer and he had much sadness in his life.  He tried to drown the sadness with beer.  I watched him in the grocery store buying the stuff.  I tried to talk to him repeatedly as he slurred his words and made nonsensical comments.  Once I followed him down Fort Campbell Boulevard as he went all over the street, swaying from one lane to another.

I listened to the son tell the story of the last year of his life, how he came to be peaceful about his life.  How he came to love beer less and love God more.  How he became close to his family and how one day, when my friend went to his house, he was “asleep” in his favorite reclining chair.

He had gone to be with his Lord.

Too late?

Not at all.

We have all used the cliché “better late than never.”  It is true.  It is better to find God while you are alive than never to find Him at all.

However consider this.  Isn’t it better to make a strong move toward God before we are on the deathbed, the wet pavement of a crash scene or even the last year of an alcoholic life?

Wherever you are in your life right now, MOVE.  You know what to do.  Make a better choice rather than falling into your old habit.  Force yourself to be honest with yourself and call upon the Holy Spirit for help.  God will be there to help you because you don’t have what it takes to do it on your own.  He knows you don’t have it and He is ok with that.  He made you the way you are, to depend on Him.

We don’t have to test the idea that we can make it to His Kingdom at the last minute.   We can start living in His Kingdom…RIGHT NOW!

I am a golfer.  I am not consumed by the sport but I enjoy it and I can play reasonably well despite my age.

One of the big mysteries in recent years plaguing the sport is “what has happened to Tiger Woods?”  On track to dominate golf with 79 PGA Tour Wins including 14 major championships, his marriage crumbled in 2010 due to multiple episodes of infidelity.  He has never been the same since.

Pastor Idleman writes about the 2010 news conference where Woods met the press and confessed to all his sins.

It was not the confession that Pastor Idleman focuses on as much as Tiger’s recovery plan.

Tiger is a Buddhist.

I don’t know much about Eastern religions other than some flirtation I had with them in the early 70’s.  I was in college and had a teacher who was fascinated by Eastern religion and he sought to teach his classes with this worldview as his backdrop.

I really admired the guy.

Naturally since I admired the teacher [as a teacher], I warmed to his lessons based on Eastern religion.  I wondered about that path.

What Pastor Idleman says about Tiger is very much what I feel about this form of religious practice.  “He laid out his plan of action, telling the world what he was going to do…Buddhists have an eight-fold path, a religious walk that is based solely on an individual’s performance.”

This is the key.  This is why I moved away from my interest in Eastern religions.  I realized at the heart of it all is man taking action for man’s improvement and folks, we need to take action but we don’t have what it takes to do it all alone.

We have to rely on God.

Christianity is my religion because it has a heart other than just my heart.  There is a higher power that we can draw upon to help because like it or not, we just don’t have the strength to get to a better level on our own.

Paul writes “By the grace of God, I am who I am.” I am able to do many things because God enables me to. He will give me the strength to achieve my goals and accomplish my necessary responsibilities.

But to take credit myself, that is not appropriate.

Some Christians do just that.

They are what I call the “worker bee Christians.”  They are intent on working their way into heaven.  But despite all the work they do, they will never do enough.  We can’t do enough.  We have to rely on God.

Let’s don’t go the opposite direction.

We can’t sit and let God do it all.  God has given us all unique talents and abilities which He intends us to use.

Our problem is how much do we do?

As much as we can, giving God the glory and then let Him do the rest…because he is fully capable.

You know about Tiger, it’s all about him being good enough and really there is always something that he can do to clean up his act.  In fact there is a long list awaiting all of us every day.

Don’t rely on yourself to check off your “to do” list.

Rely on God.

“ For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, and You have put to shame those who hate us.” – Psalm 44:7

My kids are too old.

My marriage is too broken.

My friend is too angry.

My reputation is too far gone.

My debt is overwhelming.

My addiction is too powerful.

My life is too messed up.

Pastor Idleman includes this sample list of “too lates” in Chapter 12.

Have you felt it was too late?  I have.  I get so discouraged with myself at times that I don’t think things will ever get better.

What’s going on with me?  I am sinning.

It’s shocking isn’t it?  No just honest.

I was reading in the Scripture of John [Chapter 3 verses 14 and 15] and I was very perplexed.  The Scripture reads “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

The words were from Jesus and it seems like he was comparing himself to a serpent.  I had to have help, so I went to my trusty Wycliffe Bible Commentary.  The commentary explained that the lifting of Jesus may mean two things: the ascension and also the raising of Jesus on the cross.  All men are inflicted with the deadly poison of sin and Jesus is our substitute.  He came into this world and had the likeness of sinful flesh but he was not sinful.  He just took the poison of the serpent for us.  In effect Jesus is our antidote.

What does this mean for us “too laters”?

It is not too late.

God promises eternal life for those who are honest with Him.  He knows we have weakness.  He made us.  He knows our frailties all too well.

I just spent the weekend with a person who was trying so hard to be perfect.  Her efforts are focused on her diet.  Guess what?  She did not seem to be a happy person.  I won’t be either if I set a goal that is unreasonable—perfection in anything.

I am a human.  I am weak.  I goof up from time to time.  Sometimes badly.

But it is not too late for me.

That “too late” talk is straight from the devil.  He wants us to believe that lie.  He wants us to lose hope.  Nothing makes him happier than a Christian who gives up.

Do you want to add your problem or problems to the too late list?

Don’t.  There is always tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the day you will begin to grow.

It all starts with I’m sorry God………

Chapter 12 in AHA is about defeatism. According to my trusty Webster’s Dictionary,  defeatism is “expectation or unresisting acceptance of the prospect of defeat.”

I want to say I don’t have this but I do in some areas of my life.  There are some things that I have a very fearful attitude toward.  Maybe I tell myself that I don’t have the talent.

Defeatism can even be worse than that.

Defeatist statements that we say are those little thoughts like “It is too late for me.”  “I am past my prime.”  “I need to let the young people do this.”  “It is beyond me.”  “I am an old dog, and I can’t be taught new tricks.”

In my opinion, defeatism is so scary.  You are admitting that your time has run out.

I don’t want to admit that.

God doesn’t want me to admit it either.

Sure, I am not the man I was when I was 25 but what I am has been brought about by 63 years of living.  I know my wife doesn’t believe me but I remember what I felt like when I was 25.  It wasn’t a “bowl of cherries” back then.

However I am not dead.  God has 63 year old opportunities for me and he wants me moving forward.

Several folks at my church know I work with Christian Education, the arranging of opportunities for growth in spiritual learning in Sunday School and special education experiences at St. John United Methodist.  I spent many years as a college student and many years as a college professor and I had an expression in Latin posted on my door at my office at my college:  ancora imparo.

That expression is on my wall at home now.  It means “still learning.”

I am disheartened by people at church who don’t participate in Christian Education classes or Sunday School classes.  In my mind, they seem to not want to learn.  Maybe they have no need to grow.  What they are doing right now is good enough.

What will happen to them one day?

Their time will run out.

Why are they stuck in habits of doing the same thing over and over again?

Maybe they are saying in their minds:

“It is too late for me.”

“I am past my prime.”

“I need to let the young people do this.”

“It is beyond me.”

“I am an old dog, and I can’t be taught new tricks.”

Why not ancora imparo?

It is such a common problem to not be able to move on a project.  It is so hard to motivate yourself.  It is so hard to deal with the idea that change needs to be made and you can’t do the change.

You procrastinate.

Putting it off is so easy.

I want to share a little story from psychotherapist’s Phil Stutz and Barry Michels.  They are authors of the popular self-help book, The Tools.  Pastor Idleman uses so many illustrations in AHA but let me borrow from another source.  It is about a football player who runs right at obstacles.

Maybe this is what we need to do.

Run right at obstacles; get started; don’t delay and overpower what is stopping us dead in our tracks.  It is about football but it is about more than football.  The little story goes like this:

“He sat next to me in my 10th grade mechanical drawing class. I was 13 years old and weighed a measly 125 pounds. He had five years and 100 pounds on me. That was intimidating enough, but he was also the captain and star player on our football team. I was afraid to even speak to him until we discovered we had one thing in common: We both sucked at mechanical drawing.

That broke the ice and we began to talk. He was eager to explain why he was the best running back in the city. He admitted he wasn’t the fastest runner, nor the trickiest. He was the best runner, he said, because he wasn’t afraid of being tackled. In fact, he welcomed it. Given my limited life experience, this seemed like the craziest thing I’d ever heard. Just hearing him explain it was frightening. But it did have its own logic.

He told me he’d get the ball on the first play from scrimmage; but, unlike the other running backs, he wouldn’t try to avoid the tacklers. Instead, he’d pick one out and run right for him. I’ll never forget how he described this: ‘I get knocked on my ass. It hurts for a minute, but when I get up, I feel like I can conquer the world.’ He didn’t avoid the pain of being tackled, he desired it. He knew that by going right at the pain, it would shrink. He knew that when you move toward it, pain turns into power.”

Don’t let procrastination kill you.  Go right at it.

In Chapter 11 Pastor Idleman tells of Zacchaeus, the ultra-rich tax collector.   This story is a miracle of change.  Zacchaeus has spent his whole life taking money from lower-level tax collectors, skimming money from the folks who go to steal from the poor.

He is not a well-loved man to say the least.

Then Jesus comes to town and Zacchaeus wants to see him.  Maybe it was his shortness, maybe it was his rich clothing, maybe it was that he is the most unlikely man in the whole world,  but Jesus singles Zacchaeus out.

Wow, this is a shocker.  Jesus gets invited to dine with Zacchaeus and Jesus accepts.

Over and over again, Jesus does not run with the devout of his culture, his faithful followers.  He extends his hand to the prostitute, the sick, the child, the criminal and now to the most despised man in society, the head tax collector.

Why?

He knows Zacchaeus is the “hard sell.”

Also one needs to reference the words “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” …. Matthew 18:11

Dining with Zacchaeus sends a strong message to all who have sin burdens that need to be laid down.

What does Zacchaeus do in the middle of the meal with Jesus?

He stands up and declares a change in his life.  He says in Luke 19:8 “Here and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor.”

Why does Pastor Idleman single out this action and put it in Chapter 11?

Because it is an example of a man who is taking action.  He is not waiting. He is doing what he knows to be right.  He is taking his ill-gotten gains and giving them back to the poor.

Too often, we may know we need to act, we are filled with emotion that we need to change, we are told that things need to be different and we put off acting.

The need is there but we just can’t deal with the change.

Don’t overthink it, don’t shy away from the pain, don’t wait for the “perfect time”, just do it.

Just do it.

Just do it.*

Here and now.

*apologies to the Nike Company

This week it is all about putting things off.

Today it is my time to be honest.

I suffer from this just like everybody else and I have two problems that need to be expressed.

1. I overthink things
2. I have to have stuff perfect.

When I get ready to do anything I have a tendency to make simple things hard.  Some folks have the ability to jump right in and tackle problems.  I have a tendency to get introspective and start thinking out my problems from all angles.

This stops me in my tracks.

The perfection thing is a real killer.  Nothing is ever perfect.  It is a waste of time to pursue it.  It is not in me.  It is not in reality.  Yet when I start working on a problem, I hesitate because I know I can’t achieve perfection.   It is just a nasty habit that I have.

I was teaching Sunday School this past Sunday and the question before the class was “what do you want to get from your faith?”

This woman in my class said she wanted to be sinless because of her faith.  I don’t have very many moments of lucidity but I think I had one this past Sunday.  I said I wanted my faith to get me to sin less.  I want my faith to allow me to love the Lord more and to sin less.

For a procrastinating, overthinking perfectionist, this was a step forward.

Questions for Chapter 11:  What are the areas of life where you procrastinate?  If you look back honestly, what has procrastination cost you?  How do you see putting off the pain, prolonging the pleasure and/or planning it to perfection playing a role in your procrastination?

Is it time to act now!

Pastor Idleman says procrastination is one of the chief ways that Satan keeps us stuck in life.  You see, Satan wants you and me to stay just the way we are.  He does not want us to try to address our problems.  He wants us to hang on to them, to be mired in them, depressed by them, stuck in them.  Satan wants  zero spiritual growth.  When spiritual growth occurs, this is threatening to the forces of evil.

Pastor Rick Warren writes about the “8 phases of procrastination”.  See if you can relate:

Phase 1: “I’ll start early this time.” (Hopeful)

Phase 2: “I’ve got to start soon.” (A little tension)

Phase 3: “I should have started sooner.” (Creeping guilt)

Phase 4: “There is still time to do it.” (False reassurance)

Phase 5: “What’s wrong with me?” (Getting desperate)

Phase 6: “I can’t wait any longer!” (Intense pain)

Phase 7: “Just get it done!” (Get it over with!)

Phase 8: “Next time, I’ll start earlier.” (The cycle repeats)

Since procrastination cycles, it can become a habit, a lifestyle.  Then it really hurts us.

Many who study procrastination believe it is based on fear.  When we are talking about addressing serious soul-killing problems, fear definitely becomes relevant.  What kinds of fear are we talking about.

• Fear that you’ll fail or do badly. Probably the most common one.
• Fear of the unknown — the task is not familiar to you, so you don’t know what to do or where to start.
• Fear of the uncomfortable. It’s easy to do things we’re comfortable with, but doing new things is uncomfortable so we put them off.
• Fear of starting in the wrong place. You don’t start because what if you’re not starting the right way?

These fears are very real but I would add another one, just plain old fear of change.  You have all heard the expression that “it is better to dance with the devil that you know than to dance with the devil you don’t know.”  This is pure fear of change.

I go back to an earlier post when I referenced a couple of psychologists Phil Stutz and Barry Michels.  They state the obvious.  Procrastinators act like they have an endless amount of time to get things done.

The problem is, we don’t.

Let me end from a quote from author Margaret Atwood.  “Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you’re gonna die, so how do you fill the space between here and there?  It’s yours.  Seize your space.”

Enough said.

Honestly now, who doesn’t procrastinate?

You can’t do everything on time, all the time.  Some things get our attention and other things get “put on the back burner.”

We have to prioritize.

What can we procrastinate?

The list is endless.  I am a hobbyist and most people could care less about what I am interested in.  So if I procrastinate about that, no one cares.  I am a retiree and I have a nice ability to see work around the house to do.  It helps me; I can stay busy.  I know that people ignore some of the stuff I see.  I visit other homes.  If I procrastinate some of my little jobs, who cares?  Other people don’t care.

Some jobs just don’t require immediate attention.

Others do.

Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. James 4:17 (NIV)

That’s a pretty strong statement isn’t it?

Should we procrastinate making that change that will make us a better Christian? Should we confess that sin?  Should we make amends with that family member who has felt our wrath?  Should we take steps to stop our addiction?  Should we be a good leader in our church?  Should we be a good leader in our family?

This list goes on and on also.

See anything in common in all the items above?  These “good” actions can help us to have a more pure soul.  These “good” actions can help us to have a deeper relationship with God.  These “good” actions can help us to grow in our faith.

Psychotherapists Phil Stutz and Barry Michels explain that there are reasons we don’t act; we put off; we procrastinate.   To act will cause pain.  To act will make us get out of our “comfort zone.”    Stutz and Michels say “our time on earth is limited. Every moment is an opportunity we’ll never have again. Procrastinators act as if they have all the time in the world. But deep down, they know they’re wasting parts of their life. The trouble is, most of us don’t know how to free ourselves. That’s why, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, most people ‘live lives of quiet desperation and die with their song unsung.’”

You can procrastinate some things; we all do.

However, don’t procrastinate everything.