P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

BLESSINGS FOR MY BROTHER DON’T COUNT

Steve was a man who had some unfinished business with God. And maybe, once you and I quietly peer into the dark corners of his unconsummated partnership, we’ll see ourselves there too.

Steve was a Christian man, but it was a commitment you might peg at fifty percent. In fact, fifty percent was about how often he went to church. Other members would get there at 9:30 in the morning for the Bible study hour, but Steve was lucky to get there just about 11:00 a.m. or a few minutes after.

How about prayer? Steve had been raised to say grace before meals, and usually did that – “Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies” – but there wasn’t much else. Did he have a regular Bible-reading time where he would pray before studying God’s Word? Not really. Once in a while, he would read something like a Max Lucado synopsis or a Chicken Soup book, but not very often in God’s Word.

Well, then, let’s ask this: was he a flagrant sinner? No, not at all. It came naturally to him to be a “model citizen,” to maintain sobriety and be faithful to his wife. It wasn’t that at all. It was just that he knew his spiritual pilot light was set at about 40-50 percent, and he never did anything about it.

Friend, does the story of Steve sound a bit familiar? And maybe we should say “Steve and Stephanie,” because Steve is just a fictional portraying of how many of us live our lives. We operate in the Christian community, but we’re not pillars there. We’re not “players.” For some reason, we’re holding back and making just a token contribution to the kingdom.

And today – as we continue to study about a man named Gideon and his fleeces, first wet, then dry – let me try to articulate why some very good people find themselves perpetually on the sidelines, waiting.

Take Steve. Sometimes going to church, sometimes skipping. Not really reading his Bible; not really sharing Jesus with neighbors or work associates. Not really daring much for God’s kingdom. And the reason is this: deep inside, in a vague kind of uneasiness, Steve really feels that God has never truly gone out on a limb for him . . . and so he has never reciprocated.

A year ago, Steve really wanted a major promotion that was dangling out there in front of him and others. So NOW he prayed! He begged God for that new job. And he didn’t say it in so many words, but it kind of crept in along the edges of his prayers: “God, if I get this new job – then, yeah, I’ll kind of stoke up the fires of my spirituality. I’ll make some changes.” But God didn’t . . . and so Steve didn’t either.

Steve’s younger sister, whom he adored, went through a wrenching eight months where her marriage was on the rocks. Again, Steve’s knees actually hit the hardwood floor for a change as he asked God to intervene, pleaded with Him. Again there was the hint of a deal, a quid pro quo. If God would save that marriage, then Steve would sit up straight and maybe be a deacon in the church again. Start going to Sunday school. Really start passing out those Four Spiritual Laws tracts that were in the glove box of his car. But the marriage went on the rocks, and Steve’s witnessing plans did too.

I want to confess here that I think there’s some “Steve and Stephanie” in most of us. I see it in my own life, where I’ve wistfully seen some greener grass across a fence that I didn’t think God was letting me cross. And in an unstated kind of way, I hold back something in terms of total commitment, fervor, passion, surrender. Even today as I think about it, I don’t think I could write a clear-cut essay about it, but the “unfulfilled deal” is definitely there.

And you know, friend, I think when we live on the lukewarm fringes that way, we’re doing the very thing we faulted Gideon for in our study yesterday. We’re asking for a sign. We’re asking our proven God to prove Himself again. We’re saying to Him: “Calvary is not enough. The heavenly home is not enough. The miracles we see in the Bible are not enough. The fact of my own LIFE, the heart You keep beating in my chest, is not enough. Lord, I still want a sign . . . and I’m not really going to go out and ‘tear down the altars of Baal’ here in Moorpark, California unless You do a ‘fleece’ kind of thing for me too.”

There’s a powerful challenge found in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, and it’s contained in Moses’ long, impassioned soliloquy to the Children of Israel. Here it is, from chapter four, verse nine:

“Watch out! Be very careful never to forget what you have seen God doing for you. May His miracles have a deep and permanent effect upon your lives! Tell your children and your grandchildren about the glorious miracles He did.”

And the lesson is this. Friend, God has already proved Himself to be a loving God, a miracle-working Deity, a sustaining presence among His people. Any time we ask Him for a bonus sign just for us, a wet fleece just in our own front yard, we’re doing two things, really. First of all, we’re indicating that we’ve kind of forgotten all that’s already gone before. The great and glorious history of all God’s dealings with His people, the galactic mosaic of miracles already worked . . . we’re saying we don’t remember them. Or that they don’t apply. Or don’t count.

Secondly, if we subconsciously say to heaven: “You don’t get all of me until I see some ‘flash’ in MY pan,” we are denying the brotherhood of believers. God working miracles for others doesn’t count, we say. If our heavenly Father blesses one of our brothers in the camp, we don’t accept that. If a sister in Christ gets a good job, or has a healing happen, or receives a seismic, charismatic shock at a tent meeting, we steel ourselves with resentment instead of thanking heaven that OUR FAMILY was so bountifully touched.

Now, friend, I’m as human as you are. It’s hard for me too . . . to rejoice when someone else’s barns are overflowing. When someone else’s “Jabez prayer” gets answers and their borders of power and influence increase. When some other preacher lands an international TV deal and I carry on behind the somewhat invisible cloud of radio. It’s tempting to say to God, “None of that counts, ‘cause it wasn’t for ME. And Lord, unless You give me some affirming fleece of fortune, then all You’re getting is the lukewarm half of my talents and my love. Sorry.”

We already mentioned yesterday Jesus’ words of commendation for this Roman centurion who came to Him one day, hoping for healing for his beloved servant. And when Jesus began to head over to the man’s house, the centurion said: “No, no, Jesus. No need for that. I know You have the power and the authority. All You have to do is say the word and I know it’ll happen.”

Now, we can dissect that story in two directions, where this lucky man does get a personal healing right under his own roof. And think: why him, and not me? But the point here is that this man knew about the divine nature of Jesus’ strength, that He was the Son of God. He didn’t need any signs or fleeces. He already knew, based on the miracles Jesus had already done for the people.

And when it comes to a full commitment by me and you, friend, don’t we really have enough to go on NOW? Don’t we already know God is good? Don’t we already believe His kingdom is going to last forever? Don’t we already trust that Calvary was – and IS – an expression of God’s complete commitment to us? Then why are we waiting before giving God our full commitment in return?

A David Washburn writes on the Internet with a brief posted Bible study entitled Fleecing the Lord. And he confesses that well-meaning Christians often DO – and maybe legitimately – seek a sign about how they should conduct their lives or about some decision that looms before them. But then he humbly concludes with this:

“My own view, for what it’s worth, is that God’s will is actually pretty simple to discern: ACT LIKE A CHRISTIAN!”

Isn’t that good? Simply do the Christian thing. Do what the Bible teaches, and what the Holy Spirit leads in, and what your godly Christian pastor is preaching, and what your weekly home Bible fellowship group is discovering. Do those things. Do the things God moves you to do during your times of regular prayer each day. And then this David Washburn adds:

“In non-moral matters such as career, where to live, what kind of car to drive and such, follow your HEART with your EYES on the Lord.”

Jesus seemed to think that the more people knew His Father, the less they’d be asking for signs. They wouldn’t be asking because they wouldn’t need them. They wouldn’t be asking to hear thunder when they were already hearing the Voice. And the best way, friend, to recognize the Voice on special occasions is to be regularly in loving conversation with it all the time.