You Must Understand

Posted on May 20, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

In his last letter, Paul writes to Timothy to encourage and give him final instructions concerning the church. Paul warns him of tough times ahead when depraved men and women would turn from truth. He stresses Timothy should always be mindful, it is coming. You must understand this (2 Tim 3:1 NRSV). The grammar shows understanding must be a continuous daily practice, and it is more than advice; it is a command. The word Paul chooses for ‘understanding’ is not merely a casual intellectual fact. It means absolute understanding by experience and comprehension. Other writers use this word referring to sexual relations between a husband and wife (Mat 1:25, Luk 1:34).

 Paul then instructs him about what he must be mindful. In the last days difficult times will come. Many take last days as the time just prior to the return of Christ. However, the phrase means much more. Last days comes from a phrase used throughout the Old Testament. We have been living in the last days since the cross of Christ. In these last days has spoken to us in His Son (Heb 1:2). In the last days mockers will come (2 Pet 3:3). Peter quotes Joel on the day of Pentecost; this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘and it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit . . . (Act 2:16,17). The word Paul used for times isn’t chronological time, rather it refers to seasons. He is warning, not only Timothy, but all believers throughout the church age that they will experience seasons of perilous, cruel, harsh, and violent periods. The seasons will come and go but with ever increasing wickedness until the final season prior to Christ’s return. Obviously, we are living in the beginning of one of these seasons and possibly the final.

Christians today must also heed to this admonition seeing it in the context of the times in which we live. Sadly, many Christians believe this is an age of prosperity and blessing. Believers have been lolled into a false sense of security because we have lived in a time of peace for the church. Remember, seasons come, and seasons go. Paul then gives 18 characteristics of the last days. Space doesn’t allow me to discuss each of them. Write them down and cross reference each one as you watch, read, or listen to the news. These characteristics are like a picture painted with words of society today. One writer says, “You see, we are living in an age when it is dangerous for men to live for God. Those who practice righteousness are called intolerant, bigoted, narrow minded, anti-social and are labeled dangerous. While those who practice deviant, sinful lifestyles are praised and labeled heroes by society. These are indeed very dangerous days!” (Sermon Notebook).

You might be saying to yourself, “This isn’t a very encouraging Sustaining Word.” The focus of this SW is to give a word that will help sustain you through the difficult and dangerous season ahead. As with Timothy, we must constantly understand and know what is occurring in our society. This knowledge must be more than casual information we read or hear about the world around us. In Jesus final discourse to the Apostles, He gave them a stern warning about the hatred they would be facing. These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling (Joh 16:1). We, just as Timothy, need to understand the nature of the last days so we wouldn’t become discouraged and stumble. Jesus said when teaching about the last days, because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold (Mat 24:12). 

Note three of the outstanding characteristics that identify these wicked seasons. For men will be (v2) … unloving (v3).  This means “without natural affection” and refers to parents who do not love their children or to children who hate their parents. When Paul wrote this to Timothy, parents abandoned thirty to forty children in the Roman forum every night. Headline this week: SC man accused of killing his 5 children; mother is in jail accused of killing her son; 2-Week-Old Beaten to Death by Parents. In the last days children will be disobedient to parents. Headlines: boy, 9, charged with killing mother; 27-year-old man was charged Friday in the killings of his parents

Paul writes the 18 characteristics in a literary form called a chiasm. The middle word is the central issue. In this list it is men will be . . . malicious gossips. This word is diabolos, which we normally translate devil. Understanding the application challenged me for a time until I examined the full meaning of the word and realized how prominent it is around the world today. It means slanderers, or false accusers. If someone a hundred years from now researched our history, they might conclude this was an age of accusers. My parents taught me when someone loses an argument, they begin calling people names having nothing left with which to prove their point. They accuse other people or situations; it is always someone else’s fault, but they never take responsibility for their actions. In the last days men will be . . . false accusers, slanders, blamers, name callers, or devils.

Sustaining Word for the Week: Don’t be discouraged: When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near (Lk 21:28 NIV).

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Not until Our Appointed Time

Posted on May 13, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

We live in an age when people see death as the end of one’s existence with nothing beyond their final breath. On the other hand, some fear death to the point they do everything possible to evade it by overemphasis of fitness, medicine, extreme diets and supplements, or even preserving their bodies through cryonics hoping science will conquer death and someday bring them back to life. Yet, scripture is clear about death; it is appointed for men to die once (Heb 9:27). I’ve found through the years of ministry people, even Christians, don’t like to talk about it.  However, the older we get the more we realize how fragile life is—loved ones and friends pass away, some older and some younger. Close encounters with death can have a profound effect on most of us. Studies indicate that people in their late 30s increasingly transfer death from an abstract concept in their mind to a pragmatic reality of life.

The word used for ‘appointed’ for men to die means laid up, laid up in store, or reserved. So, death is laid up or (appointed) for every person. Paul chooses the same word in reference to the hope for blessings that are laid up in store for believers. He wrote to the Colossians; we give thanks to God . . . Because of the hope laid up [appointed] for you in heaven (Col 1: 3, 5). Only days, maybe hours, before the Romans beheaded Paul, he wrote in the future there is laid up [appointed] for me the crown of righteousness . . . and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Tim 4:8). We likewise have hope laid up in heaven and a crown of righteousness reserved.

Last month marked twenty-three years since my Dad died. In the ten years before this, he had battled through both prostate and colon cancer. He lost his final battle from an infection. We asked his physician if he had left his previous cancers untreated, how long would he have survived. The doctor replied he would have probably lived the same amount of time until this last illness. The Christian doctor having treated Dad for decades probably broke medical protocol, but explained, “It was just your dad’s time to go.” God brought him through his earlier encounters with health issues because it wasn’t the Lord’s appointed time.

This SW became more personal to me than I could imagine. Three Sundays ago, I was completing the final draft for this thought. By mid-day, I was lying in an ambulance heading to the ER. This was the first time in my life to be admitted into a hospital. I don’t remember much about the first three days. Doctors discovered I had an E-Coli infection in my bloodstream. Until I left the following Sunday, IVs constantly pumped three different antibiotics into my blood. I would describe my emotions as ‘numb’. Yet, the Holy Spirit’s peace reigned through one scripture which He brought to my remembrance when preparing my unpublished draft. Several years ago the Lord gave me this verse which sustained me through this time. In a near fatal accident, I fell ten feet from my deer stand. If that wasn’t enough, when I stopped seeing stars and attempted to stand up, l found that a sharp three-foot pine stub, which I had cut off earlier, sticking through my shirt pinning me to the ground. It left only a gash in my side. Yet, had I fallen two inches over, it would have gone straight through my kidney.

I gave a lot of thought to this close-call. “Is the devil trying to kill me? Is God wanting to tell me something? Why am I still alive?” The Holy Spirt lead me to this scripture. My times are in Your hand (Ps 31:15). Solomon later wrote There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to give birth and a time to die (Ecc 3:1, 2). God spared me in my fall, because it wasn’t my appointed time. During my eight day stay, hope in this truth overwhelmed everything else. It wasn’t a peace that assured me I would get better but an assurance whatever happened, my time was in His hands. Now, sitting at my desk writing this, I know that last week wasn’t my appointed time and God has more He wants me to accomplish for Him. Don’t allow the worries and troubles of what’s happening in our world today cloud the peace, joy, and hope we have in Christ.

Why are you still here? God has something for you to accomplish. If for no other reason, we are alive to show those we encounter daily we have hope and death isn’t the end of our existence. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Pet 3:15 NIV). Jesus taught us, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16).

Sustaining Word for the Week: Death is merely the door through whichour perishable body will put on the imperishable, and our mortal body will put on immortality(1 Corin 15:54). Jesus has gone through this door and conquered death. Until your appointed time, rest in His peace and joy.

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Don’t Miss the Details

Posted on April 22, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

Anyone who has visited the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam has probably, like me, stood and starred in awe at his 12’ by 14’ painting called the “Night Watch”. The surprising experience is the longer you look, the more details you see in the shadows. That’s the closest earthly comparison I can give to studying the Resurrection of Jesus. Even after fifty years as a student of the Bible, the more I study the accounts of His resurrection, the more I see. Here are a few.

We can only imagine the anguish and confusion Jesus’ disciples must have felt in the hours after His crucifixion. Each one had left a career behind, friends and family, and put all their hopes in Jesus. Now, all they knew for certain was He was dead. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed Jesus from the cross and carried Him to the tomb. The two of them bound (knit, tie, wind) His body in linen wrappings with a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds (Jn 19: 39, 40). They laid the wrapped body inside and one of them covered His face with a napkin. Then Joseph rolled a wheel-shaped stone against the entrance of the tomb. The stone weighed up to two tons and was placed in a channel on a slight incline above the opening. It would have required 20 or more men to lift it into the track. Joseph simply removed what was stopping it, perhaps a wedge, and it rolled into place.

Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb (Jn 20:1). The word John used for “take away” doesn’t mean rolled away as it had been rolled into place, but it indicates someone had lifted the huge stone and moved it a distance from opening. She ran and told the disciples. John and Peter raced to the tomb. John arrived first. In his Gospel, he recounts what took place (John 20:3-8) and what turned his despair into hope. Three different words are translated ‘saw’ (v5, v6, v8). John stooped and looked in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. John saw but only gave a momentary glimpse. Peter arrived and entered the tomb and saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth. Peter ‘saw’; he scrutinized the scene looking around with a keen eye. Something caught he attention. The face-cloth was not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 

After His resurrection, Jesus hadn’t been in a hurry. He didn’t just scramble out of His grave clothes and quickly depart. He took time to fold the napkin in order to leave a message for His disciples. A folded napkin had to do with a master and his servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table, he made sure it was exactly the way the master wanted it. After he set the table perfectly, the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating. The servant wouldn’t dare touch the table until the master was finished. Now if the master had completed his meal, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up the napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. In John’s time, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m done”. But if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant knew that the folded napkin meant, “I’m not finished. I’m coming back!”

Peter immediately recognized what Jesus’ message meant. He was telling His disciples, “I’m not done yet, I’m coming back.” Peter must have responded in a way that got John’s attention. Now he entered the tomb and saw what he had overlooked. This time the word ‘saw’ means; to look with understanding and grasps, what you see. Jesus hadn’t wadded up the napkin and thrown it aside but folded and laid it by itself. This was the evidence John needed. When he saw this, he believed.

When the Jewish elders learned of the empty tomb, they paid a large sum of money to the soldiers to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ (Mat 28:13). Skeptics still put forth this argument that someone stole Jesus’ body. Note other lessons that refute this. Why would a thief have taken the time to unwrap Jesus from the linen cloth? But also remember, He was bound or wrapped literally enclosed in the linen. Peter and John saw a piece of still wrapped linen cloth with no body inside. If the spices had hardened, the wrap would have looked like an empty cocoon. Why would a thief have folded the napkin? This was a Hebrew custom.

Yesterday, church attendance was greater than any Sunday of the year except for Christmas. How many only saw a brief glimpse rather than seeing and understanding the message? Believers can often be disappointed in their Christian journey when they don’t see the whole picture. We can take a mere glimpse in our troubles and despair and miss the message Jesus has for us. Take another look. For John – it was a folded napkin. Your message may be different, but it will bring new hope.

Sustaining Word for the Week: The answer you have been searching for is there, you just haven’t seen it yet. Look again.

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When No One is Looking

Posted on April 15, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

Good responses and excellent questions came from the ministers attending the first two presentations of our seminar, Gift Based, Passion Driven, Ethical Ministry. For the third meeting, we drove as far north as we’d ever traveled in Ghana to the edge of the desert. The participants were mostly poor pastors from small tribes scattered across the scorched landscape. It soon became clear they were a unique group with different values and needs. Their questions were often challenging, but nothing we couldn’t answer with God’s help. But one question etched in my mind and still influences my thinking today. A pastor in dusty tattered clothes stood, “Do you mean that pastors are supposed to be ethical and can’t do anything they want?” My partner and I looked at each other both wondering if the man really understood what he asked. After class we took him aside and talked. With no training and barely able to read his Bible, no one had ever taught him basic ethical standards that apply to pastors and believers.

People might dismiss this as an isolated occurrence in a distant land. Sadly, ethical issues are becoming more and more frequent among talented, dynamic, successful leaders, even those pastoring mega-churches or leading huge para-church ministries. When they fall believers become confused because the minister taught them most of what they believe. They can’t understand how this could happen. I’ve personally watched at least fifteen ministers from whom I listened and learned but they fell into sin, not including the longer list of those I didn’t know. Again, this year, we have been shocked to hear that a noted church pastor with over 10,000 attenders, an international teacher, and a writer had joined the list of those who failed. Why does this continue to happen? No one-answer will suffice this question. Multiple issues can lead to failure.

However, a contributing factor, common to most if not all downfalls, comes from hidden character flaws. We tend to confuse spiritual gifting, talents, and charisma for character. Whether we call it character or ethics, it should be the central focus of one’s spiritual development. In the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, Paul gives over thirty characteristics leaders and elders must demonstrate. An exercise I required of my students was to list each character and divide them under the headings know or do or be. The assignment required them to consider if this trait was something they must ‘know’ through intellectual study or a skill they must be able to ‘do’. Most important, was it an ethical characteristic they must ‘be’. It always surprised the class to realize that the majority of Paul’s list focused on the character of a person. We can list only a few under the headings ‘know’ or ‘do’.

Leaders and believers can be educated with a mind full of knowledge and have the skills necessary to do almost anything but have unaddressed flaws in their character. We can hide cracks for a time, but the trappings of success cause them to grow larger and larger. Accomplishments opens the door for pride; financial gains can lead to greed; abilities can facilitate a distancing from accountability—”I know what I’m doing. You can’t tell me how to run a church”. All of this can lead to political power, influence, and an illusion of grandeur.

Note these warnings about pride. Nebuchadnezzar leader of the greatest world empire walked on the roof of his royal palace and said to himself, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan 4:30 NIV). Immediately, the Lord removed his royal power and drove him away from people and to live with the wild animals (v32).  When pride comes, then comes disgrace (Prov 11:2 NIV). GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD (Jam 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5). Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought (Rom 12:3). Leaders can rise only so far until the pressures of success crash through the cracks inundating all the praise, the accomplishments, and the grandeur exposing who they really were behind their public persona and thought no one would ever know.  The Lord will tear down the house of the proud (Prov 15:15).

God gives us talents and gifts to do His work. Character is a choice we make and strive to develop and maintain.  No one builds character overnight, but we grow in character by thinking about good things (Phil 4:8), by putting into practice Christian virtues (2 Pet 1:5-6) and watch what we put into our hearts. Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts (Pro 4:23 MSG). Most important, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18). Few of us have the disadvantages of the Ghanaian pastor who lacked opportunities to learn and ability to read well. “A.W. Tozer described character as ‘the excellence of moral beings.’ As the excellence of gold is its purity and the excellence of art is its beauty, so the excellence of man is his character.”

Sustaining Word for the Week: Who are you when no one is looking? When your life ends, the things you have achieved or the knowledge you gained pale in the light of the person you have become.

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