April 15 and Taxes -- What Procrastination Will Cost You and How to Avoid It

On March 1, 1985, the International News Network released the results of a survey taken the previous year in the United States Workplace. The survey found that the average worker wastes nine weeks a year procrastinating. Nine weeks wasted just by putting off decisions or delaying actions!

With the April 15 deadline for income tax filing right around the corner, I wonder how many of us who have put off filing our taxes will spend a significant portion of the weekend surrounded by W-2s and piles of receipts?

While some personality types lend themselves more to procrastination than others, we all have a tendency to put off unpleasant projects, difficult conversations, and important tasks. Although some procrastination is conscious and deliberate, oftentimes we postpone activities simply because we "haven't gotten around to it" yet.

Felix, the Governor of Caesarea, was a procrastinator. And it cost him a place in Heaven.

Serving the Romans in 40 AD, Felix was assigned the duty of hearing a criminal case between a group of Jews and the apostle Paul. While waiting for more information on the case, he sent for Paul to dialogue with him about faith in Jesus Christ. Knowing that Felix was well acquainted with "The Way," Paul skipped the preliminaries and cut to the heart of the matter.

He spoke frankly to Felix and his wife, Drusilla, about what it means to be righteous, how God calls us to live self-controlled lives, and how we will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ one day.

This kind of talk scared the robes off of Felix, because not only was he corrupt in his business dealings, often accepting a well-timed bribe to help him decide a matter, he had destroyed Drusilla's marriage and stolen his young wife from another man!

When faced with straight talk from the apostle Paul about his own sinfulness, God's standard, and the coming judgement, he did what many of us do--he procrastinated.

"That's enough for now," he said hurriedly, "You many leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. . . " (Acts 24:25).

"When I find it convenient. . ."


"When I get around to it. . . "


"I'll do it tomorrow. . . "

How many times have we said these words? How many good things have we put off to another day? How many opportunities to make a difference in someone's life have we lost because we ignored the Holy Spirit's prompting and did what we wanted to do instead? How many people have missed eternity in Heaven because, like Felix, they put off making a decision for Christ until a more convenient time?

He was going to be all a mortal should be--tomorrow.
No one would ever be better than he--tomorrow.
Each morning he stacked up the letters he'd write--tomorrow.
Who can say what a credit he might have been--tomorrow.
The world would have known him if only he'd seen--tomorrow.
But the fact is he died and faded from view.
And all that was left when his living was through,
Was a mountain of things he intended to do--tomorrow.
                                                                            ~Anon

What are you putting off 'til tomorrow?

Is there something or someone God has placed on  your heart?

             a relationship you need to make right?
             a phone call you need to make?
             a gift you need to give?
             a conversation you need to have?
             a confession you need to speak?
             a forgiveness you need to ask for or grant?
             a lifestyle you need to forsake?
             a relationship with God you need to begin?

Don't wait 'til tomorrow.

Do it today. 



" Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
                                                                                        (Heb. 3:15)

"Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."   
                                                                                        (2 Cor 6:2)

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Forsaken

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent." 
(Psalm 22:1-2)

It was our first day in Boston.  It was also my mom's first experience with the "T," Massachusett's underground subway system.  Riding the subway was a big step for her.  Keep in mind that Mom has lived the last 15 years of her life in the very small town of Sandy Run, South Carolina, population 5,047.   There, heavy traffic means that the mailman AND the UPS man drive down the road on the same day.

So there we were in Boston, about to embark on a grand adventure, when something went terribly wrong.  My mom and daughter stepped onto the subway train, and I did not.  The doors closed and they were gone, hurtling down the rail at 40 miles per hour.  In the wrong direction.  Away from me.

David, the author of Psalm 22, felt the same way as my mother as the train raced down the track farther and farther away from where she wanted to be.  He felt forsaken.  "My God," David cried, "My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent."

Sometimes we feel forsaken too.  Maybe we have cried until we think there isn't another tear left in our bodies, and then we cry some more.  Maybe we have felt abandoned, afraid, or hopeless.  Despite our earnest prayers, God seems far away, and we feel so alone.  We begin to wonder, like David (and my Mom), if the one who was supposed to be taking care of them had fallen asleep on the job. Or worse yet, didn't care.

Scripture describes David as a man after God's own heart.  Even in the depths of his hopelessness and despair, he arrived at the proper conclusion. Listen to his words:

" But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
  Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.
  They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed."

When his emotions told him that God had forsaken him, David remembered God's faithfulness in the past, and chose to trust Him for the future.  That's what faith is.  It is not a blind leap in the dark.  It is placing our trust in God based on what He has done in the past. The same God who rescued King David from the hands of his enemies is the same God who rescues you.  And me.  And my mom on the subway.

David remembered, "You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God."

Do you feel forsaken today?  Are you struggling to trust God for the future?  If you are, cling to the promise of Hebrews 13:5.  "He (God) has said, "Never will I leave you.  Never will I forsake you."  Trust Him for the future based on what He has done in the past.  Your trust will not be misplaced.

As for my mom on the Boston T, my quick thinking daughter remembered Newton's Third Law of Physics that states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and applied it to the train system.  She ushered my mom off the northbound train at the next stop, crossed the platform to where the southbound trains were departing, climbed aboard, and arrived back at our original stop before I had time to formulate a game plan.  Your rescue may not be as speedy, but you can rest assured that deliverance is near.

God bless you as you grow in faith and trust.

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Does God Allow Do-overs? Lesson Two from the Art Gallery

As we made our way through the art gallery, I took the opportunity to ask my friend Lisa some questions.  A talented artist herself, I knew she would share her knowledge of painting without making me feel ignorant.  Examining the oil and acrylic dabbed onto the canvases, I wondered out loud, "What do you do when you make a mistake?"

"Well," she replied, "sometimes you can wipe it off.  Sometimes you use a cleaner, and sometimes you just wait for it to dry and paint over it."  "Hm," I replied, "like do-overs.  Too bad there are no do-overs in life."

As I thought about my words and compared them with scripture, though, I realized that there are do-overs in life.  In fact, our whole life is a do-over if we know Jesus Christ as our Savior. 

First, if we have accepted Christ as our Savior, the red stain of our sin is cleansed by the washing of his blood on the cross on our behalf.  "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow," states Isaiah 1:18.

Second, we can approach God with confidence, knowing that our hearts and our lives have been wiped clean.  Hebrews 10:22 encourages us, " Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

Finally, we do not have to allow our lives to be dogged by our mistakes, our sins, and our failures.  The apostle Paul described the ultimate "let it dry and paint over it," approach when he encouraged believers to join him in "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead."  1 John 1:9 encourages us not to take sin lightly, but when we do, "if we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Paul again reminds us that there is "therefore now no condemnation to those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:1)

It is important to remember that we begin each day with a new slate.  "His mercies are new every morning.  Great is Thy faithfulness."  (Lam. 3:23)  Let's make the most of God's gracious do-overs by accepting his cleansing, keeping short accounts with God, and pressing on to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

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God and the Gamecocks

"The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness.  He will quiet you with His love.   He will delight in you with shouts of joy." (Zeph. 3:17)

One of the most exuberant demonstrations of joy I have witnessed lately was after the South Carolina Gamecock baseball team beat Florida to win the College World Series. Gamecock players threw their hats and their hands up in the air, screamed, shouted, and jumped up and down. Catcher Robert Beary raced to the mound to tackle pitcher Matt Price, who had his hands raised in celebration, a huge triumphant cry bursting from his lips.  The team dog piled into a wiggling, hugging, backslapping heap as they gloried in their hard fought win. It was impossible not to celebrate with them as I witnessed their joy.

These are not the Gamecocks!

A few thousand people got to celebrate with the Gamecocks on that magic night in Omaha, but did you know that a celebration like this goes on all the time in Heaven?  No, I am not saying that God is having Gamecock parties in Heaven, though one of my Facebook friends stated on her status the day of the win that "God smiled on the Gamecocks."  (I wondered, does that mean He frowned on the poor Florida guys? I think not.)

What scripture does say is that God rejoices over us with gladness and delights in us with shouts of joy.  Shouts of joy.  Not a benevolent smile every once and a while when we please Him, but shouts of joy.  Picture it -- like the Gamecock celebration, only happier if you can imagine that.  Loud, exuberant, dancing, yelling, fist-pumping, dog-piled rejoicing.  Over whom?  Over me!

The third chapter of Zephaniah describes the joy we share with God when we live in right relationship with Him.  "Shout for joy, Daughter, shout loudly.  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart.  The Lord has removed your punishment; He has turned back your enemy.  The King of Israel, the Lord is among you." (14,15)

If you have experienced God's salvation, let the mental picture of the celebrating Gamecocks become an example of how excited God is to have a relationship with you.  If you do not know him as your personal Savior, click on the link to the right that says "Do You Know God?"  You are only a step away from the most glorious celebration you have ever been a part of.

"Likewise, there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance."  (Luke 15:7)

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Are You Ready to Go?

If you knew your life would end tomorrow,  would you be ready?

Several weeks ago a radio preacher made headlines by proclaiming that the end of the world was coming on May 21.  I took special note of this prediction because my youngest daughter was graduating from  high school that day.  Thankfully we had our bases covered, since commencement was to be at 2 pm, and the end of the world was scheduled for six.

 Many biblical scholars countered this man's prediction with Mark 13:32 that says of Christ's coming, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

We know that May 21 came and went without the rapture of the church or the end of the world, and skeptics scoffed at the whole concept of  divine judgement.

Not so quick, I say, Harold Camping made a major mistake, and it cost him his credibility, but he got at least one thing right.  There will be a time when Christ comes back to judge the world and the people in it.  Just because Camping overstepped biblical boundaries and set a date for Christ's return doesn't mean we have the right to throw his whole theology out the window.  Whether you believe the teaching of the Rapture of the church or not, the Bible clearly teaches that one day our life on this earth will end, and we will have to answer for how we have lived our lives.

God always keeps His promises, and His calendar is never off.

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham that his descendents would live in Egypt for over 400 years before God would deliver them from slavery and bring them back to the land of Israel.

Exodus 12:41 tells the fulfillment of the promise.  "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years -- on that very same day -- it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

As the Israelites prepared for the exodus, God told them what to do.  First, prepare the passover lamb, and eat it.  God knew they couldn't embark on a journey without food to sustain them.  How he told them to eat it, though, is most interesting.  "And thus you shall eat it:  with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.  So you shall eat it in haste."

 In other words, God was telling them to do what they needed to do, but be sitting on GO.  "Be ready," he told them.

 His message is the same for us today.  "Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming--in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning-- lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."   (Mark 12:35-40)

This doesn't mean we sell all our possessions and quit our jobs to climb the rooftop and scan the sky.  Christ warned the early church about that.  What it does mean is that we should live our lives, as much as we can, with no spiritual regrets.

 My sister-in-law Kay lived her life like that.   She served God faithfully and taught generations of kindergarteners how to know her Savior.  She shared her faith boldly.  She served those around her unselfishly.  She laughed often.  She gave to the church.  She forgave quickly and asked forgiveness even quicker.    She lived her life with her shoes on her feet and her staff in her hand.  She was sitting on GO.

On August 1, 2010, she went to bed with a headache and woke up in the presence of her Savior.


If you knew your life would end today, would you be ready?

God Is Not Slack -- When Someone We Love Is Lost

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

One of my favorite pastors, Dick Lincoln, of Shandon Baptist Church, often tells the story of how he came to faith in Christ.  As an undergraduate, Dick roomed with a man named Bob Harper.  Bob was, in Dick's words, "a very sincere born-again Christian."  Dick tells how he would watch Bob read his Bible every day, pray, and live out his faith..  Not interested in spiritual things, Dick would sometimes challenge Bob's faith, arguing about the validity of scripture. Sometimes he would mock it.  Always he watched Bob.

Over a period of four years, Dick watched him "handle disappointments, injustice, all kinds of bad things, and do it with equanimity, with peace, with grace. . . he was happy and I was not."  In the spring of his senior  year, Dick Lincoln accepted Christ as his Savior.  Within six months he had surrendered his life to the ministry, cancelled his acceptance to law school at Florida State University, and enrolled at Southwestern Theological Seminary.  Today he serves at the senior pastor of the 6,000 member Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

I wonder if Bob Harper ever got discouraged?  Four years is a long time to witness to a closed-minded, sometimes hostile roommate.  I wonder if he was ever tempted to give up on the hope that his friend might ever come to Christ?

My friend Maryann began her relationship with Christ as a young college student, too.  In her words, she was "loved into the faith," through the consistent witness of her boyfriend's family.  Almost immediately, she began praying for her own family.  Experiencing peace, forgiveness, and a sense of purpose for the first time, she was eager for her family to share that joy.  Most importantly, Maryann wanted the assurance that she would see her family in Heaven one day.

Thirty plus years later, Maryann is still praying for her family to come to faith in Christ. 

Like Bob Harper, Maryann has been a faithful witness.  She has demonstrated the validity of her faith through tremendous adversity. She has sacrificially served her family, shared her faith in winsome, personal ways, and has prayed, prayed, and prayed some more.  Sometimes she sees glimmers of hope.  Other times she gets discouraged.  Thirty years is a long time.

I take comfort in the story of the Apostle Paul.  In his ignorance, he was about as far from God as he could be.  A self-righteous Pharisee, it was his personal mission to destroy the church of Jesus Christ.  I am sure that many believers thought he was too evil to ever be saved.  Listen to his testimony in Ephesians 2:1 (pronoun changes added my me).

And (we) He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which (we) once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. . .  

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Faithful friend, we can take comfort in the fact that God loves our families and friends even more than we do.  It is His desire that they have a relationship with Him, and He is going to do everything possible to make that happen.  Best of all, He is going to allow US, through our prayers and faithful witness, to be a part of their salvation.

So "be not weary in doing good," for we, like Bob Harper and my friend Maryann,  "WILL reap a harvest if (we) do not faint."    PRESS ON!




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Scarred

I have a scar on my hand from an episode that occurred during my foolish teenage years.  It is apparent to no one but me, but it reminds me of where I was before Jesus found me. 

Whenever the subject of justification comes up in theological discussions, someone inevitably defines it as “Just As If I’d Never Sinned.”  I know what they mean, that when Christ justifies us, He cleanses us and makes us new.  To me, though, the thought of the evidence of my sinfulness being completely erased minimizes how lost I truly was.

Don’t misunderstand.  I don’t want to wear a scarlet letter on my forehead forever as penance for my past life.  I just think that to completely erase even the memory of my sinfulness is to deny Christ the proper credit for the amazing work He did for me on the cross.  

I think the psalmist understood this when he shared his testimony in Psalm 40: “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.”

When I look at the scar on my hand, I don’t beat myself up because of my Christ-less past and all the poor choices that went with it.  All that is under the blood.  Forgiven.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to him who is in Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 8:1)

When I see the scar on my hand, it reminds me of how lost I was without Christ, and how grateful I am that He had mercy on my soul and saved me,  cleansed me, and made me a new person.  The psalmist understood this when he said, “He has put a new song in my mouth-Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.”

Positionally before Christ, I stand as if I’ve never sinned, but my scar reminds me that I once was very lost.  I was eternally separated from God.  “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward (me) appeared, not by works of righteousness which (I have) done, but according to His mercy He saved (me), through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on (me) abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace (I) should become (an heir) according to the hope of eternal life.”

May my scar always remind me of how lost I was, and how saved I am.  John Newton, the 18^th century slave trader put it this way, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” May his testimony always be in on our lips, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me . . . I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”