Get Your Hand out of the Cookie Jar!

Have you ever experienced the classic scene of walking into the kitchen to find your child with his hand in the cookie jar...the cookie jar you told him not to get into until after supper?  You say, "Johnny, what are you doing in that cookie jar!"  And he replies, "I'm sorry mommy"...all the while, he's stuffing a cookie in his mouth!  Is this not a picture of the type of repentance most people exercise?  A man is caught in sinful behavior, says he is sorry, yet continues on with his life with no change.  A woman knows she is in disobedience to the standards of God's Word, so she confesses that she is wrong, but justifies her actions and does nothing to rectify them.  I vividly recall counseling a lady not to leave her husband for another man because she would be living in sin, only to hear her say..."I know it's not right, but....."  Then came the justifications and reasons why she should be able to be an exception to God's rules.

Beloved, repentance equals change.  Repentance is a change of mind about sin, that reaches the heart and changes the behavior.  If sinful behavior does not stop, the heart has not been reached and the mind has not been changed and repentance has not occurred.  If you are indulging an area of sin and find yourself asking God's forgiveness, only to indulge the same wrong over and over again...maybe you've never taken your hand out of the cookie jar!  It's not enough to tell God that you are sorry...you must be willing to part with the sin and walk in obedience.  That is true repentance.

One of the stops on our recent cruise vacation was the country of Belize.  Each port of call on a cruise offers many different options for excursions...basically "attractions" at this particular location.  Upon disembarking the boat, tourists are overtaken by "dealers" who want to lure you to their presentation of what they can offer.  Most of these "wheeler-dealers" are somewhat pushy and overbearing.  As soon as our feet hit the dock at Belize City, Belize, I was confronted by one of these "dealers."  He immediately began to give the run-down of where he could take us and what we would see and how "cheap" it would be.  I hardly gave him a nod of acknowledgement.  He pursued and continued to plead his case.  With very little kindness, I brushed him off again by saying, "no...not interested."  Well, as God (not fate) would have it, we ended up listening to his presentation, negotiated a price and he became our guide to a private island in the ocean for a snorkeling adventure.  While riding to our "Gilligan's Island", I struck up a conversation with the man I had unkindly brushed off...and would you believe, he was a believer in Jesus Christ!  He shared of his journey to Christ and about his church.  He turned out to be a really great guy.

I don't have to tell you that upon finding he was a fellow believer, I was immediately convicted in my spirit that I had not treated him respectfully on our first encounter.  My secret thoughts wondered what he thought of me after finding that I was also a follower of Jesus Christ and a pastor at that!  Hopefully, a lesson has been learned. As a Christian, I never have the right, nor reason to treat another person disrespectfully.  Whether I encounter a person who appears to be a believer or not doesn't matter...because I am a believer.  I represent Christ to whomever He allows me to cross paths with...even in places like Belize!

When people encounter you...who do they see?

Ball Fields and Church Buildings

After spending a wonderful week of vacation in Mexico and the Central American countries of Honduras and Belize, our ship docked on Sunday morning in New Orleans and we began the 12 hour trek home.  All along the way, I lamented the fact that we could not be with our church family for worship.  It has been my practice for years to miss as few Sunday in worship as humanly possible.  Even as a pastor, I NEED worship.  I NEED to be with my church family.  I NEED to be taught, discipled, convicted and encouraged by God's Word, even when I'm the one preaching it...and I NEED it as often as possible.

We were passing through Fort Payne, Alabama around the time church meets on Sunday evening...at least when some churches still meet...and I noticed something that reflected where we have drifted as the body of Christ.  A church was on one side of the highway and a ball field on the other.  The church building was quite attractive and appeared to be an impressive facility.  It only had one glaring problem...it was closed up "tighter than a drum."  No cars in the lot, no people milling around, no lights peeping through the windows...just plain ole dark.  But what about the ball field?  Lights were on, cars were in the lot and people were around.  In that moment, the reality settled in...the church no longer values corporate worship enough to strive for it.  We've raised the white flag and thrown in the towel.  Pastors have concluded that "modern" man will not rise to the challenge, therefore cancel services so as not to "inconvenience" the busy schedules of the congregants.  Many (but certainly not all!) professing believers have concluded that they can get enough "Jesus" in one meeting per week to get them by...so they show up on Sunday morning to "pay their dues" to God, then hit the golf course, the movie theater, the lake or the couch facing the TV.  All the while, Hebrews 10:24-25 rings in my ears, "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."  Friends, the Day of Christ's return is approaching...as a matter of fact, it is approximately 2000 years closer than when the writer of Hebrews penned the preceding verse under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  We shouldn't be canceling, but adding!  We shouldn't be finding ways to miss, but to meet!


Dear follower of Jesus Christ, please fight off the desire to protect your convenience.  Remember, life is not about me and not about you...it is about the glory of God.  Our chief aim is to be conformed into the image of Christ.  It is our privilege to receive the preaching of God's Word.  It is our duty before God to exhort one another and stir up love and good works...which requires being together to accomplish.  It is our joy to be with the ones we love...our spiritual family.  And beloved pastors, let me admonish you...don't succumb to the "wind of the day".  Challenge your people to rise.  Don't conform to the lowest common denominator, but call your people to climb!