Three Times and You’re Out

            An old story about a husband and father who refuses to go to church goes like this:

Preacher: "Why don't you ever come to church with your wife and family?"

Man: “I don’t go because every time I do, they throw something at me.”

Preacher: “What do you mean?”

Man: “When I was just a baby, my parents took me to church and the minister threw water on me. When I got married, the wedding ceremony took place in a church, and they threw rice at me.”

Preacher: "And if you don’t start going to church soon, the next time you do I’m afraid they’ll throw DIRT on you!”

            That sounds like a preacher story, doesn’t it? However, a deeper meaning emerges.

            There are literally millions of groups in the world seeking to mold people into an image. Only one of these groups is the local church, and its mission is to serve as God’s instrument in molding people into the image of Jesus.

            According to Hebrews 10:19ff, it is essential that Christians place a priority on meeting with that one group—the most important group—in the world.

            19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body.

 22-25 So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching (Heb. 10:19-25.) THE MESSAGE

How’s the Food?

            Someone sent me this a long time ago:

            A sign posted on the wall of an Army mess read: "Don't Waste Food -- Food will win the war."

            Beneath the sign someone had written: "That's fine, but how do we get the enemy to eat it?"

            It is easy to be a critic; it should be easy to be an encourager. Times can be tough in the Kingdom. Maybe Paul had tough times in mind when he wrote, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing”(I Thess. 5:11.)

The Singer

            Dale Carnegie writes about a boy who was ten years old, who lived in Naples, Italy. He worked in a factory, but he deeply desired to be a professional singer. He found a teacher, but she gave him negative feedback, “You can't sing. You haven't any voice at all. It sounds like the wind in the shutters.”

            The boy's mother was certainly no expert when it came to music and voice. She was a simple peasant woman. Yet, her attitude toward her boy’s singing was different.

            She would often put her arms around him and encourage him and his singing. When she noticed improvements, she would rapidly tell him. She would sacrifice her personal comfort and go barefoot in order to pay for music lessons for her son.

            Because of that mother's encouragement, the boy's life was changed. We know him as in Enrico Caruso. He would go on to become the most famous opera singer of his generation.

            God values encouragement. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (I Thess. 5:11.)

The Cheerleaders

            A quarter century ago, Richard Blaisden wrote a bulletin article that inspired me. He credited Knute Larson with the account of Bill Broadhurst. 

            Bill had love running; unfortunately, he became partially paralyzed after suffering an aneurysm. Gradually, he recovered enough to where he could run again, albeit it very slowly—more like a jog for most people.

            Bill looked up to the great runner, Bill Rodgers. Near Bill’s home, organizers were hosting a 10K (6.2 miles) race. Rodgers was slated to participate. Broadhust badly wanted to enter the competition and run with his hero, so he did.

            Not surprisingly, Bill Rodgers easily won the race. Everyone else finished the race within 90 minutes, except for Bill Broadhurst.

            Battling numbness in his left side, Broadhurst struggled to finish. He had fallen so far behind, boys began ribbing him that he had missed a good race. Bill kept running.

            Organizers began moving the barriers to the course. Some began to leave for home.

            Finally, Bill hobbled within sight of the finish line—at least where the finish line had been. The event’s banner had been taken down. No one seemed to be present, yet Bill pressed on until the end.

            As he completed the course, Bill Rodgers and other runners appeared from a nearby alley. Rodgers received Bill in his arms and hugged him. He took off the gold medal he had won and placed it on Bill’s neck.

            The article appropriately cited Hebrews 12:1 -  "Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every thing that hinders and the sin that easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

            I truly believe those in Christ, who have gone on before us, are waiting to receive us in glory. No matter how hard it is, let us run the race until completion.

The Curse vs. The Cross

             When I was a graduate student in Abilene back in the eighties, I heard Rick Atchley tell a story about the great Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Decades ago, Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to a prison camp in Russia.

            Inside that camp, Soviet officials were determined to break Solzhenitsyn’s spirit. Part of their effort consisted of assigning him a job of moving a pile of sand from one spot to another. When he had finished, he was to move it back to the original spot. Solzhenitsyn was ordered to fulfill this mindless task day after day.

            Working under a hot sun—sweating and toiling— Solzhenitsyn one day reached the breaking point. He simply dropped his shovel; he couldn't do it anymore. He knew the guards were going to beat him, but he could not go on.

            It was then that one of the other prisoners, a believer in Christ, went to the sand and drew a cross. Then he rubbed it out with his foot before the soldiers could see it.            

            In that moment, a flood of hope filled Solzhenitsyn’s soul. Thereafter, every time he felt like the world was going to break him, he just remembered that cross.

            The curse of the Fall brings you down. The cross lifts you up.

True Encouragement

           The following story was sent to me in the 1990’s. Credit was given to:

Nido Qubein from Chicken Soup for the Soul Copyright 1993 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

            Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend.

            Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne.    

            When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.       

            "Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!"                    "Yes," replied the man, with sagging confidence, "and what shall we live on while I am writing it?"       

            To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a    substantial amount of money.       

            "Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed.        

            "I have always known you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year."        

            From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.

           

            A form of the word “encourage” occurs over fifty times in the NIV version of the Bible.  God’s word places importance on encouragement.

Releasing the Angel Within

Legend has it, one time Michelangelo was sculpturing a huge block of marble. While he was working with chisel in hand-just chipping away-a guy walks up and asks, "What are you doing?"


Michelangelo replied, "I'm releasing the angel imprisoned in this block of stone."

A fallen world imprisons the angels within all of us. Encouragement is like sculpting. By encouraging others, we can, like Michelangelo, contribute to releasing the angels within others. 

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (I Thess. 5:11.)