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LOOK AT ME, MA! #3
IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN TO ME
If you're an aficionado of those old classic volumes, Bedtime Stories,
by the late, great Uncle Arthur Arthur Maxwell, of course maybe you
remember the story of a boy who mastered the art of riding his bicycle
without holding onto the handlebars. I don't know if that's still a feat
to give a kid stature with his peers here in 1999, but in the Uncle Arthur
era, it was clearly a way to win friends and influence people. So this
young man kept on zooming down the street with no hands. Despite Mother's
warnings, so in this particular case, our series title, "Look At
Me, Ma!", wouldn't apply. He knew better than to do it in front of
his mother.
However, on one particular day, he noticed a couple of pretty girls walking
along on the sidewalk toward him. And the temptation was just too much.
So, adding a bit of speed and with an extra dose of macho gleam in his
eyes, he took his hands off the handlebars and confidently folded his
arms across his chest. As Maxwell put it, "He was NOT showing off.
Oh my, no. Just showing a couple of girls how fast a boy could ride his
bike without holding onto the handlebars. That's all."
Unfortunately, there was a stray rock in the road or some other such obstruction.
And the words of Proverbs 16:18 came true with a bloody vengeance. Right
in front of fair-haired Molly and Polly, this young man tumbled to his
demise. Which reminds us of the old bicycle line: "Look, Ma, no hands!
Look, Ma, no FEET! Look, Ma . . . no teeth."
Friend, it is SO HARD for the Christian faith to knock us down to the
place where we stop thinking we can ride the bike without hanging onto
the handlebars. Just about all of us bring a truckload of supreme confidence
into the church with us, and we don't particularly care to leave it out
in the foyer.
The verse we're staying with today, continuing over from yesterday's study,
is found in First Corinthians 10:12. Let's read it again:
"If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"
In the familiar King James:
"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
In Mark chapter 10, two of Jesus' disciples, James
and John come to Him with a request.
"Let us sit next to You when You set up Your government, one of us
on Your right and the other one on Your left."
In Matthew's version of this story, Mommy is along
to give her two boys a bit of coaching. But Jesus comes back at these
two guys with what we would THINK would be a confidence-shattering question.
"You don't know what you are asking,"
He told them. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with
the baptism I am baptized with?"
And these two spiritual INFANTS nod their heads eagerly.
Here's their answer: "We CAN." Lord, we can do it. We're ready
to go.
Now, it has to be conceded that James and John didn't KNOW what was going
to be ahead. They didn't grasp that the cross was still coming up, that
things would be SO terrifying there in the Garden of Gethsemane when all
the Roman soldiers came marching through the front gate. They didn't know
what it really felt like to face death. And so they said to Jesus, "Sure,
we're ready," out of IGNORANCE.
But friend, that's precisely the point. How can we be confident ourselves
when WE don't KNOW either? We don't know the future; we don't know what
temptations tomorrow will bring. We don't know the HARDNESS of those temptations,
how difficult or deceptive they might be. And we don't know the weakness
of our own character either. I imagine the angels in heaven must have
shaken their heads in sympathetic amazement as they heard James and John
utter their little boast. "Boy, are the two of YOU heading for a
fall," they must have muttered from the courts of God. "If you
only knew."
In his wonderful new book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey echoes
heaven's amazement as these disciples really, all 12 of them claim
that they're just never going to mess up.
"Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?'
[Jesus asks.] We can,' they insist in their naïveté.'"
One of the colossal talk-big-then-fail stories in all
human history comes back in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 19, where
Moses comes down out of the mountain and tells the Children of Israel
how God had told them to obey Him fully and keep His covenant. And with
one voice, the entire encampment responded with great confidence:
"We will do EVERYTHING the Lord has said."
Isn't that nice? "We'll obey," they said.
"You bet." Except that you flip over exactly THIRTEEN chapters,
just a few pages over to Exodus chapter 32, and you find these same people
putting up a golden calf, having a dance contest, and indulging in flat-out
sexual fertility rites. I mean, in terms of a FALL, these people tumbled
off the Sears Tower. Despite their great confidence that they COULD obey,
that they COULD be faithful.
The summer 1996 issue of Leadership Magazine includes a powerful article
entitled "Strategies To Keep From Falling," by Pastor Randy
C. Alcorn, director of Eternal Perspective Ministries in Gresham, Oregon.
He tells about a girl named Rachel, who was sent by her parents to a pastor
for counseling . . . and ended up sleeping with the man. Another woman,
Barb, student at a Bible college, described how her own father had had
sex with her for years, and was now starting on her sisters. Pam, the
third woman he talked with, was at that Bible college for the specific
purpose of getting away from an affair with HER pastor.
And Pastor Alcorn thought to himself, "What's going on here!"
And here's what he wrote in his article:
"I recall with embarrassment my naïveté
as a young pastor. Every time I heard the stories of Christian leaders
falling into sexual sin, I thought, It could never happen to me."
But then he asks: "What level of pride is required to believe that
sexual sin could overtake Samson, David (a man after God's own heart'),
Solomon, and a host of modern Christian leaders, but not me? Paul's warning
in I Corinthians 10 deserves a prominent place on our dashboards, desks,
or Day-Timers: "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that
you don't fall."
Well, what do we hang onto this Wednesday? In every
single version of the Bible that we spread out on the desk for study here
at the Voice of Prophecy, the same message comes through, the same words
of warning. In the King James: "Take heed." The NIV: "Be
careful." The Clear Word: "Don't become overly confident."
Friend, we need to wake up every single morning aware of our own spiritual
fragility.
I believe the Christian of 1999 is called on to be confident in the Lord,
and utterly UNconfident in self. Every day! When we wake up each morning
we need to be reminded that God is everything in our lives, but that our
own talents and spiritual prowess could lead us THAT DAY into the ditch
of disaster.
We've often quoted a memorable C. S. Lewis paragraph that goes nicely
right here. Let me share it again:
"It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All YOUR wishes
and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals." And maybe we
could add, "All our bursts of self-confidence too." "And
the FIRST JOB each morning consists in simply shoving them all back; in
listening to that OTHER voice, taking that OTHER point of view, letting
that OTHER larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on,
ALL DAY. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings [and
boastings]; coming in out of the wind."
That's a beautiful challenge, isn't it? "Coming
in out of the wind" that blustery blowing of SELF-confidence, of
SELF-assurance. Every single day when we wake up, and then many, many
times through EACH day, we need to consciously retreat from that feeling
of "I can" . . . and keep saying instead, "Help me, Jesus."
We've mentioned before here on the Voice of Prophecy what a beautiful
metaphor is found throughout the book of Revelation. The people of God
are said to be "sealed." You find that especially in chapter
seven, but then other passages tell how these people worship and serve
God DAY AND NIGHT. They're spotless and blameless, we discover in chapter
14. They follow the Lamb, Jesus Christ, EVERYWHERE He goes. In other words,
these are people who have an UNSHAKEABLE trust in the Savior. They really
have been SEALED into the truth of heaven's government. And friend, when
you're sealed, nothing can break that seal. No outside power, no influence
from the other side, can sway that kind of person away from his or her
ultimate loyalty.
And you know, that's what I want as my experience as a Christian. I want
to be sealed in my relationship with God.
Having said that, I read a beautiful statement once where the author suggested
that those who have this incredible experience with God will be the last
to talk about it or boast of it. In fact, if you were to ask them, "Have
YOU been (quote) sealed?'" they probably wouldn't even be aware
that it had taken place. "Who, me?" they might respond in surprise.
BECAUSE . . . their focus has been intently on Jesus and their daily dependance
on HIM, and NOT on their own performance or spiritual abilities. They've
just been clinging to Jesus.
Our time's gone for today, but maybe we can go back to that Uncle Arthur
bicycle story and come to the spiritual conclusion that maybe we'd better
hang onto the handlebars ALL OF THE TIME.
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