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"SHUT UP!" #4
BAD BOY BRETT BUTLER
In the delightful baseball book Field of Hope, Christian
ballplayer Brett Butler tells a story he admits he's not very proud of.
But back during the 1981 season, he was just starting to date an absolutely
drop-dead gorgeous young lady named Eveline. Now Brett had been a born-again
Christian for about eight years; Eveline was a rather new convert. But
both of them were very dedicated, really seeking the Lord. And as they
went through the head-over-heels-in-love process, they spent a lot of
time going to church discussion groups, Christian study sessions among
the ballplayers, and so on.
Brett was just getting started in his baseball career, playing already
on the Atlanta Braves' triple-A farm team in Richmond, Virginia. Just
one more jump, and he'd be the leadoff hitter for the Braves: the big
leagues, or "The Show," as aspiring rookies called it.
Eveline, still in college with one year to go, had a scholarship and a
good job. But with her newfound faith in Jesus Christ, there were some
shady things going on at the office which bothered her. And she finally
decided to walk away from that job and from the scholarship too. But now
the dilemma: where to live? Brett was a whole 2½ hours away, and
she couldn't stand the thought of being separated from him.
Well, he had a suggestion for her. "Move in with me!"
What? Live together? Even though they weren't married yet? They both knew
they were going to get married some day soon, but not until college and
the baseball situation was more settled. But this was Brett's proposal:
"Honey, let's just live together."
Well, the upshot of it all is this: they began to do exactly that. Two
born-again Christians, both going to church, both reading their Bibles,
both of them praying and attending Bible study groups, were sharing the
same apartment and, yes, the same bed.
And for a while, they honestly didn't think a whole lot about that conflict.
Was it that big a deal? Did God mind? That old, dusty seventh commandment
found in Exodus 20:14 didn't really mean Brett and Eveline, did it? And
Paul writing about "flee fornication" — was that referring to
THEM? Brett was having the time of his life battling another young kid
named Wade Boggs for the AAA batting title, and the big leagues were just
one phone call away. After the season the Braves wanted him to play winter
ball down in Puerto Rico, so, of course, Eveline went along to be his
roommate down there as well.
Now keep in mind that all this time Brett and Eveline were living as Christians.
They were in church every weekend; a bunch of ballplayers in Puerto Rico
had a nice little Bible study group going and they were in attendance
for that as well. And one evening, a ballplayer named Eric Show said to
them: "Can you guys hang around for just a minute after the meeting?"
"Sure," Brett said. And this Eric, and his wife CariMia, just
let them have it right between the eyes. Here's how Brett recalls the
conversation, as he tells it in his book, in a chapter entitled "Reality
Sets In."
"Eric said, ‘You know we really care for
you guys. We've been praying about this and feel led to say it. You're
coming to these Bible studies and you're saying that you love the Lord
and are committed Christians. We appreciate that you've prayed to receive
Christ and that you seem to love God's Word, but frankly you're being
hypocritical."
Well, that hurt. And immediately Brett and Eveline
knew where this was going. And their ballplayer friend charged right on
into the minefield:
"You say you love the Lord," he said
again, "and you're committed to the Bible and what it says, but the
fact is you guys are living together and you're not married." And
then he added these four words: "You're living in sin."
That was kind of brutal to hear. And of course, Mr.
Brett Butler, number 22, had absolutely nothing to say. The Bible said
X and he was doing Y, and that's all there was to it. For months they'd
been ignoring the proverbial elephant in the living room. To their credit,
they went back to their apartment, looked at each other, and said, "He
was right." And Brett put his live-in girlfriend on a plane immediately,
sent her home to her parents to begin planning a wedding. They weren't
together again until the following February 13, 1982, their wedding day.
And you might be asking: what in the world does this have to do with the
concept of a heavenly God saying "Shut up"? Simply this. Often
we ask God a question to which we already have an answer. "Is it
okay if I do this?" we ask. "God, will You sign my permission
slip for such-and-such?" And all along there are words printed in
the Bible we have right there on our coffee table, and those words tell
us God's recorded, stated will. The simple fact is that the Ten Commandments
forbid adultery. Jesus, speaking in the New Testament, forbids it, right
down to the lustful thought. The inspired words of Paul forbid it. And
if a Brett and an Eveline — or you or me — look up at heaven and say,
"But it's different for me. Isn't it, God? Our circumstances are
different. Aren't they? Is it okay for us? Just this once?", God
may not say to us something as harsh as "Shut up," but it boils
down to the same thing.
You might recall the almost amusing Old Testament story of Balaam, the
prophet who owned a talking donkey. At least it talked when God told it
to. And in Numbers chapter 22, Balaam asked God if it would be all right
for him to travel with some Moabite big-shots, and do a favor for their
king, whose name was Balak. The only trouble was this: the favor was to
go there and put a curse, a divine hex, on a certain nation. And the only
other trouble was — that nation was Israel! God's own people! So — "God,
is it okay if I go and curse Your own beloved people?" Talk about
stupid! And of course, God said no. He went on the record: "No. Absolutely
not."
"You must not put a curse on those people,
because they are blessed," God told him.
A little while later, Balak's boys were back with bigger
door prizes and bigger bribes. "Oh, please do come," they begged.
"We'll make it worth your while." And Balaam, foolish prophet
that he was, asked God a second time, already knowing that the answer
was no. To his surprise, God gave him permission this time . . . but if
you read to the end of the story, you find that when Balaam opened his
mouth to give the curses, God made blessings come out instead. Three times
in a row, in fact . . . and the frustrated king probably tried to put
a stop-payment on his check. The point is this: God's in control, and
it just does not pay, or make sense, to ask Him to go against His already
stated will. In fact, in the second of Balaam's attempted curses, which
came out all roses instead, he admits this:
"God is not a man, that He should lie; He
doesn't change His mind like humans do."
I remember a line from somewhere which we can't duplicate
perfectly, but it basically pointed out the plain truth that the Word
of God IS God. It expresses HIM. The book of John, chapter one, makes
that very point: that Jesus IS the Word. The Word in the Bible and the
Word, the Person of God, are inseparable. There's no dichotomy, no digression,
no splitting of opinions between the two. "I am the Lord, I change
not," God says in Malachi chapter three. And I recall how Dr. Tony
Evans likes to declare: "God has spoken — and He has not stuttered!"
You and I can't ask for a retraction of the seventh commandment just because
we have pretty girlfriends and the wedding date's not for several months
yet.
Some of you history buffs might have noticed that September 17, is the
214th anniversary of our United States Constitution. Thirty-nine of the
42 delegates there in Philadelphia signed off on this document, back in
the year 1787, and it still rules the nation today. And friend, what the
Constitution says, it says. A policeman or a politician or a party official
or even a president can't take it in their head to mingle church and state
or outlaw a peaceful assembly or put troops in your house or abolish the
principle of habeas corpus or put their enemies through double-jeopardy
trials. And there's no point asking Judge Rehnquist and the Supreme Court,
because the Constitution's already stated the rules of the road for all
of those issues.
Now, this isn't a perfect illustration as you know, because the Constitution
can be amended, and already has been 27 times. Just 3 years ago this past
April, Congress introduced, but then failed to pass, an amendment which
would have authorized organized prayers in our public schools. And until
they get more votes, the First Amendment and the three-part Lemon Test,
and the principle of separation still stand as the law of the land. But
the Word of God isn't subject to amendment, is it, even if three-fourths
of all the states sign on to wipe out the seventh commandment or even
the tiniest jot or tittle anywhere from Genesis to Revelation.
Maybe this has sounded like a pretty mean-sounding Thursday. I'm sure
Brett Butler had his feelings hurt for a while when his friend showed
him the plain Word of truth. But 20 years later, I think he's glad for
what the Bible says and always will say about a God who loves him. I think
he was glad, when he got throat cancer in 1996, that the Bible said what
it's always said:
"[Brett], I have summoned you by name; you
are Mine." And then this promise: "The Sun of Righteousness
will rise with healing in His wings."
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