Theology in the Raw

I recently started listening to a podcast called Theology in the Raw. It is a daily radio show hosted by Preston Sprinkle. He is a professor at Eternity Bible College in Boise, Idaho. Each weekday he does his best to take a fresh look at what the Bible really says. Putting down his own opinions and traditions, Preston tries to address each issue by looking at what scripture truly has to say about each topic.

In talking about his teaching style he says, “rather than telling students what to believe, I point them to study scripture to form their beliefs. I mean, really comb through the text and soak themselves in the biblical narrative to gain the massive view of God that Scripture beautifully sets forth.”

For several weeks the podcast has been doing an in depth study on the doctrine of hell. The majority of the time has been spent looking into the question, is annihilation a biblical view of hell?

Just to give you a bit of background, Eternity Bible College is the educational arm of Cornerstone Community Church in Wildomar, California. Eternity Bible College’s statement of beliefs says, “We believe that after death, the souls of unbelievers remain in conscious misery until the Second Resurrection when they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment.”

After reading the statement of belief I was surprised by the recurring theme of the podcasts on hell: Without a doubt the annihilation view of hell is an evangelical option.

In the podcast Preston asked for dialog via e-mail. I sent him the following e-mail. “I recently started listening to your podcast, Theology in the Raw. I enjoy the way that you really dig into the scriptures. I appreciate your insistence that the weight of evidence; i.e. the number of verses that talk about an end to the wicked vs. those that seem to indicate something eternal. It seems to me that the white elephant in the room when Christians discuss this topic is something that you alluded to but then seemed to pass right over. That is conditional immortality. If man's immortality is conditional then Eternal Torment cannot be what the Bible teaches. If man's soul is immortal then annihilation cannot be correct. I would love to hear you delve into this topic with the thoroughness that I have heard in your podcasts on hell.

One comment you made in the podcast was that our emotions shouldn't come into play when we study the topic of hell. I would like to respectfully disagree. The subject of Eternal Torment is also wrapped up into the character of God. We all have slightly different views on the character of God depending on our background and our experience but my view of His character does affect how I discern scripture. Eternal Torment doesn't fit with my view of God's character and I think that if most Christians really thought about their view of His character they would realize that Eternal Torment isn't compatible with their view of God either.

I appreciate a fresh voice that actually studies the scriptures instead of totally relying in thus says church tradition.”

On the February 29,2016 podcast Preston referred to my e-mail and answered the question,  “What role do emotions play in interpreting the Bible?”

He stated, “The reason why I try to stay clear from emotions when interpreting the text is primarily because the annihilation view often gets accused of being built on emotional arguments only. I’ve seen a lot of people say, ‘well it's obviously not in the Bible, people just want that view because they can't stomach eternal conscious torment.’ Let’s try to set our emotions aside and look at what the biblical text says apart from emotions. I don't like the fact that people write off annihilation without even looking at the Bible. So that's my main point in saying that it shouldn’t be based on emotions. I do agree though that whether you like it or not your emotions do play a role in interpreting scripture. That’s just a fact. Human emotions and background and baggage and culture and gender; all these things go into interpretation. They shouldn't dictate your interpretation but they do contribute to it and shape it. I don't want to say that no, we just read the Bible with no emotions.  I don't think that’s possible.  We're human beings that have emotions. I just don’t think our views should be dictated purely by emotions.

This commenter said something really interesting, and I agree with this, that if our view of hell is incompatible with the character of God, then that should mean something. If my emotions regarding the nature of hell, say the eternal conscious torment view, stem from my view of God. I look in Scripture and see the character of Christ, the character of God and the Holy Spirit and that shapes my emotions and therefore my emotions have sort of an allergic reaction against eternal conscious torment; not because of just my emotions but because that view conflicts with what I know about the character of God, then I do think that that should be considered. That's different. I would call those theological emotions. These aren’t just raw emotions like, I don’t like that I will dismiss it, I like that I will take it. We can’t just pick and choose what we want to believe based on emotions but I do think that as we reflect on the character of God certain doctrines should line up with what we know about God.

I would put the burden of proof on those who would say that the character of God in the Bible, the character of God revealed in Jesus Christ, necessitates that He would keep people alive for billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of years so that He can torment them and then He is just getting started. That doesn't make sense to me when I look at the character of God.  But again I need biblical support specifically for why the view is or isn't correct."

For more information from Evangelical Christians who believe the Bible is the final authority for Christian beliefs and strive to understand what it teaches concerning Hell go to Rethinking Hell, www.rethinkinghell.com/welcome

You can purchase the recently released book, Four Views on Hell, edited by Preston Sprinkle on Amazon. The book highlights why the church still needs to wrestle with the doctrine of hell. It uses the familiar counterpoints format, as four leading scholars introduce the current views on eternal judgment.

Unforgivable

Did you know that the Bible talks about a sin that God can never forgive?  Throughout the centuries since the New Testament was written, millions of people have lived in fear that they may have committed it. Is it really true? Is there something that God is unable to forgive?

The Bible says in Matthew 12:31 – “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven unto men”.  So, it turns out there really is a sin that can't be forgiven, and it's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

That raises a really important question, just what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?  In order to understand what the sin against the Holy Spirit is, it's important that we understand exactly what the role of the Holy Spirit is.  In John 16:8, referring to the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  The Holy Spirit works as a kind of "conscience" for the whole world.

What happens when you decide not to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit? What happens when you feel the pang of guilt and you know the right thing to do, but you deliberately choose against it?   Many theologians teach that this is when people actually step into the territory of the unforgivable sin.  They refer to it as grieving the Holy Spirit.

I will agree that it is a serious issue when we tune out the Holy Spirit, but is it unforgivable?  I have to say NO!  As a matter of fact it is not grieving the Holy Spirit; at least that is not what is being talked about in Ephesians, the only place that it is mentioned.  Ephesians  4:30-32 says,  “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you”.

According to the Bible it is bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice that grieves the Holy Spirit along with a lack of kindness and forgiveness; although I am quite sure that He is also saddened when we tune him out.

How can I be sure that grieving the Holy Spirit is not the unpardonable sin?   Matthew 12:31 reads, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men”.

This is a strange verse.  There are two facts separated by a “but”.  Fact number one is, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men”.  Fact number two is,  “the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men”.

Notice that EVERY SIN will be forgiven.  1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now, you might have noticed that there were no exclusions in that verse. It says that if we confess our sins, Jesus will both forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and there are no "ifs", “ands”, "buts", or "maybes" attached to that promise.

Is there a sin that God cannot forgive? The answer is yes, and the sin that God can't forgive is the sin you don't repent of.  If there is no sin that God won’t forgive if we confess it, then what was Jesus talking about there in Matthew 12?

We need to look at the whole chapter to see why he made such a statement.   There are several incidents that happened before Jesus made the statement that blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Incident number one; the disciples pick and eat grain on the Sabbath and the Pharisees disapprove. Incident number two; Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath and the Pharisees disapprove. Incident number three; Jesus heals a blind deaf man and the Pharisees say it was through Satan’s power.

Do you see a pattern?  There is a dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees.  All of these incidents bring Jesus to speak the following words to the Pharisees.  “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men”.  They weren't a sermon that he was giving to everyone, but they were a conversation he was having with the Pharisees.

Why was Jesus talking to the Pharisees about something that was unforgivable?  Earlier we decided that there is a sin that God cannot forgive, and it is the sin you don't repent of.  Why would the Pharisees not repent of a sin?  They were extremely picky about keeping the law.  The reason that they would not repent is because they couldn't see that they were doing anything wrong.

The unforgivable sin is the one that isn't confessed, but there are two very different reasons for not confessing.  The first reason is because you have so tuned out the Holy Spirit that you can’t see sin. The second reason is because you are so sure you are doing right that you don’t see your sin.

There is no sin that you can commit that is unforgivable if you confess.  Remember 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

In Revelation 3;20, 21 Jesus makes this promise.  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Jesus never stops knocking.  No matter what you have done in your life, He is standing at the door and knocking.  Will you open the door?

Higher and Higher

When I was attending grade school during the 1960’s I had two passions that consumed me. I loved baseball. I chewed lots of really bad gum to collect baseball cards. As much as I loved baseball, what really intrigued me was space exploration.

My heroes were the astronauts in NASA’s space program. I read everything about them that I could get my hands on. In 1969 my interest in space was at a fever pitch. Everyone was talking about the race to land on the moon. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, the entire world was captivated. Every newspaper covered the story. I soaked it all in. I couldn’t believe what a marvelous world I was living in. The moonwalk was a part of pop culture. After watching the moonwalk on TV, the Moody Blues drummer, Graham Edge, penned the poem "Higher and Higher", which was used to open their next album.

"Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes.
Man, with his flaming pyre
has conquered the wayward breezes.

Climbing to tranquility,
far above the clouds,
conceiving the heavens,
clear of misty shroud.

Vast vision must improve our sight.
Perhaps at last we'll see an end
to our own endless blight,
and the beginning of the free.

Climb to tranquility,
finding its real worth,
conceiving the heavens,
flourishing on earth".



As I listened to these words I realized even as a boy that this optimism that space exploration would make the world a better place wasn’t the way things would be. I read in my Bible in Obadiah 1:4, “Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord”.

As a Christian I had always looked at space exploration as a way to learn more about the awesome things God had made. I was excited by the new discoveries and what they could show me about how awesome God is. As I studied science and read about space I always kept God in the picture.

While I went through High School I stayed interested in space, but there were many other things to interest me and take up my time. I realized that as interesting as space exploration was it wasn’t changing things here on earth. By now there had been 6 moon landings and moon walks. In just a few years astronauts on the moon had gone from the most exciting and talked about thing on the planet to ho hum, so you can drive a vehicle on the moon. The space race was over and pop culture had found other interests.

NASA didn’t recapture the interest of most Americans until 1981, when the Space Shuttle Columbia made the first flight of a space vehicle that returned to earth and was reusable. Once again man seemed on the verge of conquering the heavens. One of the exciting new directions in space exploration was the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1979 work was started on this new project. After many delays it was finally launched in 1990. Nothing NASA had done since landing on the moon captured the interest of the American public as much as the Hubble Telescope.

The images that the Hubble produced were breathtaking. When I first saw the images I thought of the words of David found in Psalms 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork”.

One Hubble photo in particular fascinates me. It is called The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Astronomers picked a seemingly empty spot in the sky. Staring at the spot in the sky for ten days, Hubble kept taking pictures one after another for the entire exposure time, accumulating data. Astronomers put the exposures together into one final picture. Each time they added an exposure, the view got deeper, revealing fainter objects. When they were done they had the deepest picture ever taken of the heavens.

The image is of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major. It covers an area 2.5 arcminutes across, one part in a million of the whole sky. The image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. That would mean that the whole universe contains a million times 10,000 galaxies. Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, contains between 200 and 400 billion stars. How many stars are in the universe? I will let you do the math.

Isaiah 40:26 tells us “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And He counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away”.

The universe staggers our imagination. It is humbling to realize that our planet earth is simply a speck of cosmic dust in the great universe that God has created. David was amazed by God’s love for us. In Psalms 8:3,4 he wrote, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him And the son of man that You visit him?

Go outside tonight, take a look at the sky and know that there is a Creator who cares for you, who died for you and wants to bring you home to live with him.

Jump

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to go to the roof. A fireman stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to the boy, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see was flame, smoke, and blackness.  He was afraid to leave the roof. The fireman kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, “I can't see you." The fireman replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters."

In life each one of us finds ourselves in the same situation as the young boy on the roof.  We will be destroyed unless we do something. If we stay in our current situation we will be destroyed by fire.  The biggest question in our lives is, what must I do to be saved.  In the little boy’s situation the answer was jump.  What is the answer in your life?

In Matthew 19 the Bible tells us that a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  The first thing Jesus told him was keep the commandments.  The man said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”  Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

This man asked the all-important question – What must I do to be saved?  But notice how he asked the question.  The way he worded the question tells us a lot about him.  What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?  I think that many of us can relate to this man. I’m leading a pretty good life.  What other good thing do I need to do to be saved?

The man wasn't expecting that kind of answer he got. He liked the “limited realm” of righteousness where people stop doing things. He was good at it.  He stepped back when Jesus pointed him to the “continuous realm” of righteousness where there is no limit and no end of really caring for other people.

Many of us are very uncomfortable with this whole concept of being a Christian as Jesus explained it. We tend to be Pharisees by nature. We are very happy with negative approaches to law because we like to know where the limits are.

We feel more comfortable when we can see the extent of our obligations. Jesus wants us to see that his true followers aren't trying to see what the limits of their obligations are.  He taught this lesson to Peter in Matthew 18. “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

Rabbinical law said that you were to forgive three times.  Peter thought he was really expanding on that.   Jesus told him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven”.   Once again, Jesus points out that his true followers aren't trying to see what the limits of their obligations are.

In actuality Peter was not asking “How much can I love my neighbor?” but “When can I stop loving my neighbor?” That’s a very human question. I like that question. When can I stop loving my neighbor? That is where we are as natural people.

When can I stop all this niceness and give people what they deserve? I don’t like grace. Grace is giving people what they don’t deserve. I don’t mind getting it, but I don’t really like passing grace on to others.

Jesus taught Peter that there is never a time when he could stop loving his neighbor or stop passing on God’s grace. Jesus taught that there is no limit to Christian love.  Like Peter, we are much more comfortable with the negative than the positive approach to law. We want to know when we have fulfilled our quota of goodness so we can relax and be our normal selves.

How I treat my neighbor is the acid test of Christianity. Out of that principle comes a meaningful keeping of God’s laws.  Because I love my neighbor, I will not covet my neighbor’s car, house, wife, or husband. Because I love my neighbor, I cannot use him or her as a sexual object for my own pleasure.  Because I love my neighbor, I will not take things that belong to him. Because I love my neighbor, I will not kill or even hate him.

Love to God and neighbor is the centerpiece of Christianity.  “By this,” said Jesus, “all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Let’s go back to the story of the boy on the roof.   The fireman called to the boy, "Jump! I'll catch you." But the boy protested, “I can't see you." The fireman replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters."

What must I do to be saved?  I need to trust Jesus so much that I will jump into his arms.  He can’t save me if I don’t trust him enough to jump.  He can’t save me if I am busy trying to save myself.

It’s time for us to really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Believe enough to surrender our will and jump into his arms.  Will you jump with me today?

Justice

J is for Justice.  It seems like justice is hard to find.  Many high profile cases that are followed closely on television leave many people feeling like justice isn't served.  Cases like O. J. Simpson, George Zimmerman and Casey Anthony leave some people wondering; "where is the justice"?

During 2011 Americans were closely watching the murder trial of Casey Anthony.  She was on trial for the murder of her young daughter Caylee.  On July 5, 2011, the jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of counts one through three regarding first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse, while finding her guilty on counts four through seven for providing false information to law enforcement.

Many people were outraged by the verdict.  I remember reading Shawn Boonstra's comments concerning the Casey Anthony verdict. I was so in agreement with his thoughts as he expressed them that I adapted them for use here at An Arkie's Musings.

The most talked about news story of 2011 was that Casey Anthony was acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. One thing is clear: someone is guilty. Little girls don’t end up duct-taped and garbage-bagged in the woods all by themselves. Collective public outrage has been building in the days since the “not guilty” verdicts left the American public speechless.

I struggled with the verdict myself. As a grandfather of young girls, my blood almost literally boils over when I hear about people mistreating them. And the fact that the most likely perpetrator was acquitted is hard to take. She just looked so guilty. Her stories didn't add up. In the hours since the verdict was read by a court clerk who appeared as visibly troubled as the rest of us, I have begun to consider the possibilities.

One possibility, I don’t want to admit. Twelve jurors might, maybe, somehow, be right. It’s possible that the rest of us have been drawn by the scent of blood into a public feeding frenzy. Like most people, I honestly don’t think so, but I have no choice but to admit that it’s a possibility.

The more comforting thought is that Someone knows every last detail of the case. The Bible reminds us that real justice will have to wait for the final judgement. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 12:14 that we can rest in the knowledge that God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

I don’t like it, but the jury has spoken; the judge has agreed. I will make every effort to keep it from happening to someone else, and will guard my neighbor’s children like my own. I will also, to the best of my ability, share the only thing that can bring genuine hope in a cruelly twisted world – the redeeming, converting love of Jesus.

Someone is guilty of something: little girls don’t end up stashed in the woods by accident. If Caylee’s cruel death has stirred such emotion in our own sin-stained hearts, imagine the way it hurts the heart of Christ. I imagine myself to be incapable of such horrific sins, but I have caused my share of pain, for I am a sinner. I have never had to hide a body, but I am painfully aware that Jesus equates hatred with murder. By Jesus’ standards, I have murdered, stolen, failed to honor my parents, taken the Lord’s name in vain. So have you. More times that any of us would care to admit.

Now here’s what is really unfair. I am going to be acquitted. I’m going to be released from the wages of sin, (death), even though I certainly do not deserve it. My sins killed Jesus, but I won’t receive the ultimate wages of sin because Jesus was condemned for our sins, in which He had no part, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no part. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His.

Now I’m not at all happy with the Casey Anthony verdict. It seems like somebody ought to pay for such a horrible atrocity. But I am also keenly aware that I myself am standing in heaven’s courtroom, with angels marveling at the fact that Jesus plans to take me into the kingdom after all the times I've broken God’s law.  In Psalms 103:10 the Bible reminds us, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins,” nor punished us according to our iniquities.”

Was Casey Anthony undeserving of her verdict? Quite possibly. Maybe even probably. I know for a fact that I don’t deserve mine.

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Your GPS

This is my article as published in the March 13, 2014 issue of The Mena Star.

When my son was a young boy he belonged to the DeQueen Pioneers Pathfinder Club, and I was a Pathfinder leader.  One weekend I took the Pathfinders on a backpacking trip.  We left in the evening and headed to Alexandria, Louisiana. We made it to Alexandria at about midnight.  There I took the eastbound exit off of the interstate instead of the westbound exit.  I wandered around Alexandria for an hour trying to find the right road.  By the time we found the campground it was 1:30 and we still had to pitch our tents.

I would have loved to have some way of knowing the right way to go to reach the campground.  I'm not the only one who has wished for such a device.  For centuries, navigators and explorers have longed for a system that would enable them to locate their position on the globe with the accuracy necessary to avoid tragedy and to reach their intended destinations.

The answer came about because of the Cold War.  U.S. scientists began working on the GPS system because of an Air Force requirement for a guidance system to be used with a proposed ICBM that would travel on a railroad system. On June 26, 1993, the U.S. Air Force launched a satellite into orbit, completing a network of 24 satellites known as the Global Positioning System, or GPS.

This satellite navigation system was intended for military use and therefore the signals were scrambled, limiting accuracy for civilian use.  On May 1, 2000, President Clinton announced that this scrambling would be turned off. Civilians were then able to use the GPS signals.  Soon there were accurate automotive navigation systems available.  Now smart phones come with GPS capability.

I like using my GPS; we have named her Tink. She tells me when to turn. She tells me what lane to be in. On our last trip to Houston to see our son she took us a new way and saved us half an hour.

So now that I have Tink to guide me, I never get lost.  I always know where to go.  Except---

When we first got Tink we were going to Shady Lake. Now I have been to Shady Lake a number of times, and I know how to get there. When Tink wanted me to turn off of my normal route I decided to see where she would take us. She took us on an adventure. She guided us to Shady Lake over forest service roads that hadn't been traveled on in a long time. There was grass growing in the road. We arrived safely at Shady Lake about an hour later than if we had traveled our normal route.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Dierks Lake to see our granddaughters compete in the Pathfinder Adventurer Cardboard Boat Race. Tink wanted us to leave the highway and travel across dirt roads. We declined. On our way home I was curious as to where she wanted to take us so we followed her advice. After travelling on forest service roads we were within just a few miles of the highway when we came to the Cossatot River bridge that was impassable because there was three feet of water flowing over it.

We had to turn around and go all the way back to Dierks Lake so we could take the paved roads. On our way back to the lake we followed Tink and were stymied three different times by locked gates across the roads.  After an hour we finally made our way back.

Sometimes exploring a new road can be quite an adventure. When you are traveling a rural Arkansas road you just don’t know where you will end up.  Sometimes even a GPS doesn't help.

Have you taken any wrong turns in your life?  Have you been on any wrong roads?  How do you know which road to take?

In Psalms 25:4, the Bible says, "Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD; point out the right road for me to follow".

That sounds like a GPS doesn't it.  God will point out the right road for us to follow.  You can trust him.  You might not always be able to trust your GPS, but you can always trust God.  No matter how knowledgeable you are, you aren't the best choice as navigator. Proverbs 14:12 tells us that, "there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death".

The whole point of being a Christian is to have a knowledgeable navigator to guide us through this life to our eternal destination. Why would we decide not to listen to the best guide there is and use our own judgment instead?

Solomon explained it very well in Proverbs 20:24   “how can we understand the road we travel? It is the LORD who directs our steps.

The only reliable GPS for our spiritual life is God’s word.  The Bible gives us direction.  So many Christians I meet seem to want more than the Bible.  The old reliable Bible isn't enough for them and they want something new. Psalms 119:105 states, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path".  If David and Solomon understood that it was God’s Word that directs our steps why should we feel that there is not enough information in the Bible and feel the need to supplement it?

I hope that you know where you are going. Have you studied the map? Do you have your spiritual GPS? Do you use it?

I hope that you and I will be able to say what David said in Psalms 73:23-26. “Yet I still belong to you; you are holding my right hand. You will keep on guiding me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. I have no one in heaven but you; I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever”.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

This is my article as published in the February 20, 2014 issue of The Mena Star.


What is your comfort zone? Do you like to be comfortable? I know that I sure do. Last year my leg started to really hurt. It was very uncomfortable. After several months of pain I finally went to see the doctor. After doing x-rays and other tests, he informed me that I have arthritis. The only treatment is medication to relieve the pain. I was happy that there wasn't a more serious problem, but a bit disheartened that this problem would never go away.

Going to the doctor got me to thinking about how disease parallels our human nature. We are sick spiritually, and God wants to heal us so we won't be sick with sin. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that "anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" We have all heard the term “Born Again” to describe the new life. It is probably one of the most common phrases in the Christian vocabulary. What is a "Born Again" Christian?

In 1 Peter 1:23, the Bible tells us, "you have been born again. This new life did not come from something that dies, but from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s living message that continues forever". To be "Born Again" means to have a new life.

There is a law of life that states, "everything that is new eventually becomes old". That law has been painfully brought to my attention over the last couple of weeks as I have been going through lots of old pictures.  I recently read an appropriate quote, "youth is a disease from which we all recover". I am recovering nicely, thank you very much.


The next time you are in a big parking lot such as at the mall or at Wal-Mart take a look at the cars. There are some nice new cars. There are some that are in need of some body work. There are a number of old work vehicles. Here in rural Arkansas, there are lots of beat up pick up trucks in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Every car in the parking lot was once a new car. My Daddy has lots of antique cars. They all have something in common. Whether they are nicely restored or are nothing but a rusted out hulk, they were all once new.


DADDY'S 1940 BUICK LIMITED

What happens when the new wears off of our "Born Again" experience? What happens when our new life isn't so new anymore? We get in a rut. When we are in a rut, and are just going through the motions, don’t you think God notices?

All of us have a comfort zone in our life. To get out of the rut, we have to move outside of our comfort zone.


How do we get outside of our comfort zone? Here is a list of ideas that I came up with. Everything on the list may not be for you, but maybe it will help you get some ideas how to get out of your comfort zone, and get out of the rut. Maybe they will help your new life to actually be new again.

1. Expand your circle of friends
2. Study a subject you haven’t studied
3. Examine your core beliefs
4. Listen more and talk less
5. Try doing something that you have been afraid to do
6. Eat between meals - spiritually - don’t let religion be rote
7. Make your own list
8. Don’t be afraid of other religious viewpoints – truth withstands
9. Don't worry about what other Christians are doing
10. Hug somebody
11. Go on a mission trip
12. Don’t be afraid to express yourself
13. Be very gentle when you express yourself
14. Tell people you love them
15. Loosen up, don’t be rigid
16. Affirm a leader
17. Smile, be happy
18. Read a version of the Bible you haven’t read before
19. Visit another country or culture
20. Change the order you do things
21. Help somebody who isn't expecting it
22. Don’t be afraid of change – it isn't inherently evil
23. Call someone you haven’t called for a long time
24. If someone invites you to their church--- GO
25. Learn a new song. Buy a new CD
26. Be more gracious
27. Visit someone you have never visited before
28. Read a Christian book you haven’t read before
29. Take time to do something you really enjoy
30. Give a totally unexpected gift to someone
31. Ask for other peoples opinions
32. Volunteer to tell the children's story
33. Pray instead of being critical
34. Let go of resentment
35. Shake up your prayer life. Pray at different times or ways
36. Say thank you more often
37. If you see your devotions are in a rut shake them up
38. Sit somewhere different in church
39. Intentionally use different phrases when you pray
40. Never forget what Jesus has done for you

Let’s resolve to get out of our comfort zone. Ask God every day for a new life.