Chip Ingram - Living on the Edge

Over the last several months or so, I have really embraced the concept of podcasts. I love downloading great spoken word MP3's onto my iPod and listening to them during otherwise wasted time commuting to work, mowing the grass, and sometimes even while washing the car. It's like an audio book but a shorter, more focused version which can be digested in the time we have available.

I want to recommend several of the best Christian podcasts that I've found in hopes that you too will find these as a way to "renew your mind" (see Romans 12:2 ).

My first podcast recommendation is the "Living on the Edge" podcast by Chip Ingram. I just find that the way Chip Ingram talks about practical application of the Bible in our everyday lives very compelling. His podcast has really helped me grow spiritually. It comes out pretty much every day and each episode lasts about 25 minutes, perfect for commuting.

I was listening this morning as he was going thru a series on the Ten Commandments. His discussion about the commandment about having "no other gods before me" really challenged me about the things in my own life that have the potential to become idols. I have what I hope is a healthy ambition at work. But am I putting too high of a priority on recognition at work? Would my life fall apart if certain people were taken away from me? Would I be willing to give up the nice house, proximity to relatives, or my 401K balance for God if it were really required of me to serve God's purposes? In other words, is God really first in my life?

Listen to Chip now with iTunes or listen online.

My Chinese Church Away from Home

In some previous posts I described the circumstances under which I found myself with the opportunity to travel to Beijing, China on business on several occasions. See When do You Leave a Good Job? and Leaving the Comfort Zone to Experience God's Provision. I've also commented on my experiences attending Beijing Haidian Christian Church and some good news about the freedom of our Chinese brothers and sisters to worship openly and read the Bible. See China, Christianity, and the Bible.

I have enjoyed my worship experience at Haidian so much, I now think of it as my church away from home. (I'm not done yet with my travels to China.) Here's a picture of me and my new acquaintance and Christian brother Chuck who went with me last Sunday. (The English language service is now at 11 am in the basement. Enter from the rear of the building at ground level.) Haidian just moved in a wonderful new building which was dedicated on June 3, 2007.


One of the things which is so exciting to me is to see so many college age worshipers. Haidian has the lucky location to be a next door neighbor to two of the most prestigious universities in all of China, Beijing University which I've heard compared to Harvard in the US and Tsinghua University which I've heard called their "MIT." Note the young and standing-room-only crowd at the English language service below.



As you can see, they didn't start an English language service to reach out to Westerners like me, they started an English language service to reach out to the college students. If you are a bright, ambitious college student in China you want to go to graduate school in an English speaking country. All the top jobs and careers in the new China require regular contact with Westerners and good English language skills are a plus. The result, probably 250-300 Chinese college students worship in English in Beijing each Sunday morning.

See also the China Daily article Modern church, more religious freedom for more information and quotes from Pastor Wu Weiqing saying that over 70% of those attending the church are young people.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Shouldn't We Just Send Money?

(This is something I wrote back in 2005)

A friend of mine at work just returned from a church-sponsored mission trip to Honduras. He described it as “the best trip I’ve ever been on!” He showed me many digital pictures from his trip showing how they built simple houses for people there. People of all ages went including many retirees and teenagers with some doing construction and some teaching a vacation Bible school for Honduran children. One couple that went had been sponsoring a child in Honduras by mail for a while and got to meet “their” child in person. The smiles of delighted children were prominent in many pictures. He showed a picture of himself with his arm around a Honduran teenager with the teenager wearing his hat and sunglasses. My friend had given them as a gift to the teenager right before they left to return home. When was the last time you spent $900 dollars of your own money and used a week of your precious vacation time to go bang nails all day in the hot, tropical sun for people you just met? When was the last time I spent $900 of my own money and a week of my vacation time to go bang nails in the hot, tropical sun for people I just met? I know my answer is “never.”

My own church regularly sends people on mission work trips to a girl’s orphanage in Chile and I have only heard glowing comments from the people who return. If there was any sadness in their remarks, it was that they could not provide even more help. One guy told of eating a meal with the girls where the main dish was chicken. After dinner, he ventured back into the kitchen to find the girls and house mother picking the little pieces of chicken left uneaten off of the bones. Nothing could be wasted. They would put this small amount of left over in soup at another meal. This big, burly guy talked about how now before he goes to sleep in the States at night, he wonders if the girls (who he now knows by name) got enough to eat that night.

I can hear the naysayers now. “Wouldn’t those people in Honduras or Chile be better off if all those Americans did not go down in person but instead sent the cost of their airfare, hotel, meals, etc. to those people?”

I think the naysayers are missing something. Yes, from a short-term, purely economic point of view they may be right. However, their attitude seems to be based on the assumption that only the physical needs of the poor in Honduras matter.

What about the spiritual needs of the person who makes the journey? If they had only sent their money:

• Would they have learned how much faith other people around the world must have to face such hardship and still be happy?
• Would the traveler have learned to be grateful for the many blessings they have already received in life and so often take for granted?
• Would the traveler learn the lesson about what things really are necessities? and how it is possible to be happy with little?
• Would those teenagers be the same kind of husband, wife, or parent in their future if they had not had this opportunity to give to someone in person who really appreciates it... and cannot return the favor?
• How will the world be different if enough Americans have faces with names in their memories and wonder if the person they met had enough to eat today?

What about the spiritual needs of the people in Honduras?

• Would they have learned that when Jesus is actively at work in the lives of someone “rich” they don’t look down on the poor?
• Would those children in the vacation Bible school that week gotten the same life lesson if they had not seen that all those “rich” people who could have been lounging around at the beach for fun would rather come tell them about Jesus while swatting tropical insects?
• If the lady who had a house built for her were to improve her financial situation later in life, would she be as generous face-to-face to those poorer than her if she had not seen the example of those Americans coming to help her when they could have stayed home and pretended she didn’t exist from 2000 miles away?

I think I’m missing something. What about you?

Real Men Friends

I had lunch today with three other Christian brothers. I found it a great source of encouragement to be with other men I know share my faith and also want to find God's will for their lives. It was uplifting to know that I was not alone.

I encourage each of you to find a few same-sex friends with whom you can be real about your struggles and successes.

See also these posts on accountability.

My Glimpse at What Heaven Must Be Like

I had an absolutely wonderful Sunday morning. A friend-of-a-friend had recommended a church in town so I got up at a normal time for a Sunday morning and took a 100 Yuan taxis ride down to the Beijing Christian International Fellowship to attend church. This is a church which serves Beijing’s international community and it meets in the auditorium at the 21st Century Hotel. Church services are only open to foreign passport holders, however.

I struck up a conversation with the lady next to me. She made a comment that “this is what heaven will be like.” I immediately found myself in total agreement with her. Here were many people with many skin colors, many foreign accents, many native tougnes (though this was an English language service), and they all forgot their differences to come and worship.

Then the beautiful singing started. I looked around the auditorium again and as I listened I was reminded of Don Piper’s description of the music in heaven in his moving book 90 Minutes in Heaven . There were no clashing sounds. Each sound blended together in joyous praise despite all the differences in the singers. Students. kids, teenagers, Moms, construction workers, factory owners, secretaries, bankers, and goverment officials were all united in praise.

I felt like I’d been given a precious gift. A glimpse into what heaven must be like.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Confessions of an Amateur Believer

Have you ever wondered if being a Christian meant you had to stop using your God-given brain and blindly follow something you didn’t understand without questioning? Have you come to consider thoughtful self examination of your beliefs something to be avoided? Think it is something you shouldn’t want to do? Is it somehow a sin to have doubts about matters of faith? Have I got a book recommendation for you! Check out Confessions of an Amateur Believer by Patty Kirk and see that you're not alone.

Patty Kirk gives us some revealing insight into her life from which we can all benefit. She grew up in the faith and had that beautiful child-like complete trust that there is indeed a God and that God is good. Then because of family problems and some traumatic experiences she came to leave the faith and doubt the existence of God. After years of persuing more and more education and life overseas, she came home and found her faith again. Even those of us who never left the faith of our childhood can still glean insight into the bumps in the road which may have driven our friends, family, or co-workers away from belief in God.

The book is basically a collection of essays about her doubts and how that God dealt with her doubts through the people around her and her experiences in life. Most of the time, a Bible verse (maybe even one she’d read many times before) struck a nerve. The Holy Spirit spoke to her and and put a bright spotlight on a particular passage and related it to some event or worry or hurt.

In one chapter entitled “On Barns” she tells of how the she and her husband have six barns on their farm in Oklahoma but they don’t really farm much any more. When beef prices fell in the 90’s he became a CPA and she became an English teacher. They were “barn rich and money poor.” While reading the parable in Luke 12 about the prosperous farmer who contemplates tearing down his barns to build bigger ones so he can store up enough to stop working and life the easy life, she took hard the fact that God chose that time to say “You fool! This very night you will die!” He hadn’t actually torn a barn down yet. He was making plans for his own future to be self sufficient without needing God anymore.

“I got to thinking about the fact that this rich guy hadn’t even carried out his plans yet when God told him he was about to die that very night. He was just thinking about it. And it occurred to me, suddenly, that this parable was not about storing wealth but about making plans and to-do lists, about living in the future tense instead of now.....

My barns, I got to thinking, are unpublished books, further academic degrees, things to write in future resumes or please for salary increases, courses yet to come, a clean house, a pretty yard, a place to rest. And my sin is not these things, many of which I already enjoy, but thinking about them, my secret yearning

for more job security and professional acclaim and some sort of future leisure in which to garden, read novels, and throw big dinner parties.

I have thought the rich guy’s thoughts....I work long hours, pour my energy and enthusiasm into my students and writing, and then snap at my husband and children when I get home and dream about a future in which this isn’t so.

Today I wish to consider the barns I am tearing down; my marriage, my two children, my faith in God to take care of my wants and desires. Jesus began his parable with a strange statement. He says: “The ground of certain rich man produced a good crop.” The story is about the certain rich man, his schemes and impending death, but the subject of the opening sentence is not the man but the ground – the land, the earth, the very dirt of which the man himself was made.....

Planning to build bigger barns is cherishing the future of our own creation rather than the good barns full of what we’ve already been given.”

She has this to say about the story in which Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when a horrible storm comes up and the Disciples are terrified. They wake Jesus up as if to say “Why are you doing nothing to help us? We’re all going to drown!”

“Where is your faith?” He asked them, and suddenly I realized that shrieking to Jesus to help me and having faith that He would help take care of me were not the same thing. Faith, that elusive gift that I could not earn, did nevertheless require doing something, something very specific. I had to calm myself with the certainty that I was loved and would be taken care of. ‘Like a weaned child with its mother,’ I had to calm myself enough to let my Master sleep.

“Calm down,” I used to tell my little daughters when they were unreasonably upset or over tired. I reminded them that I was in charge but that I knew they had the power to calm themselves. I made them sit in my lap and take deep breaths. I stroked their hair. After a while, their tight little rebellious bodies would soften and lean into me.

Think of it! Jesus slept in that little boat while the dangerous storm raged. Giving my problems to Jesus is to let him sleep – and to sleep myself.

The Psalmist knew this: it is in vain that we ‘rise early and stay up late,’ he tells us in Psalms 127, “toiling for food to eat” – for the Lord “grants sleep to those he loves.”

There is a similarly wonderful chapter on that perpetual brunt of all kinds of jokes – the mother-in-law. Only this hits hard deep inside because it is based on scripture. Patty Kirk describes how she felt a sense of resentment against her mother-in-law despite all the free baby sitting, meals, and cars she let them buy from her at below market prices. She resented her because she wanted a more independent life for her and her husband and her mother-in-law’s constant “help” was a constant reminder of how interconnected they were.

“Eating a Mamaw’s meant surrendering one of my most precious retreats from the difficulties of life, my escape and solitude, my self-made and hard won identity as the provider of food for my family.”

Then she read the story of Naomi and Ruth with fresh eyes. Ruth’s words to Naomi:

Wherever you go, I shall go.
Wherever you live, I shall live.
Your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God, too.

Today regarding her mother-in-law:

“Hers is the fiber from which whole cloth is made, an inspiration for any would-be Ruth or striving Christian, a model of selfless love of herself, others, and life itself. As I get older and more sure of the choices Ihave made, for better or worse, I begin to see how one might come to cling to such a pillar in time of need. I already cling to her, in fact. More and more, when time is short and stressful, I seek her ease, her meals, her love for my children and attention to their demands.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I received a free review copy of this book in the hopes that I would say something nice about the book. My first reaction was selfish I admit. I was glad that a real book marketing professional thought my humble blog would make good publicity for the book and that some of you might take my recommendation and pick up your own copy.

In hindsight, I must say that I was the one blessed in this process and I’m sure glad that I was given this opportunity because I’m not one to go to bookstores and pickup books from authors I’d never heard of before. But I have my own aspirations of writing a Christian book some day and I hope I can write something that will touch your soul down deep inside like this one touched me – and I exercised my God-given brain, too! I encourage you to go pick up your own copy of Confessions of an Amateur Believer by Patty Kirk.

Churches for the Weak and Needy

"Occasionally I am asked by young men seeking a church to pastor if I know of a church without any problems. My response to them is, 'If I did, I wouldn't tell you; you'd go there and spoil it.' The point is that there are no perfect churches. Churches struggle because all are made up of imperfect sinning people. The church is not a place for people with no weaknesses; it is a fellowship of those who are aware of their weaknesses and long for the strength and grace of God to fill their lives. It is a kind of hospital for those who know they are sick and needy."

John MacArthur, Revelation: The Christians Ultimate Victory Bible Study

I Closed My Business. Was I Correct in Discerning God's Will?

In the spring and early summer of 2005, I began wondering if God was asking me to take my interest in spiritual journaling and writing about my faith to a higher level. At the time, I was also very concerned about the impact of globalization on my career designing business software. I began to wonder if God was leading me to start a business "on the side" to both develop my spiritual gift of writing and provide for the financial needs of my family.

In July of 2005, I believed God wanted me to do it. I felt even if my business venture was not a financial success there must be something God wants me to learn from the process. My plan was to provide some inspirational material "for free" but also offer some Christian material available for sale as eBooks for a very nominal fee (eg. $2.95) and take payments using PayPal. I wasn't expecting to make a lot of money but I wasn't risking a lot of money either. I decided I'd rather try and fail than not try and wonder for the rest of my life whether I had missed out on serving God's purpose or missed out on some blessing He had in store for me.

I took a long lunch from work one day and drove down to the county clerk's office and for $20 took out a business license for Caleb's Publishing. The name is a reference to the Old Testament character Caleb who was one of the twelve spies Moses dispatch to scope out the promised land.
Here's what I wrote back then. (Click here for the original.)

About Caleb's Publishing™

Caleb's Publishing™ was founded by Philip Hartman in July 2005 as a "leap of faith." Like many men in their mid-40's I had achieved some success in my profession but began wondering if God had something else in mind. This then became a frequent topic in my prayer life for approximately 1.5 years. Along the way, I was introduced to the idea of combining a business with a personal ministry. I also began regularly keeping a spiritual journal and discovered I really enjoyed writing about matters of faith. What you see is the result of this spiritual journey so far. I don't know where this journey is going to take me, but that is part of the fun!

Incidentally, I highly recommend the book Halftime by Bob Buford to any man who is feeling the same way. Also, visit the halftime.org website.

I hope to serve the community by:

• Providing original and thought-provoking material to assist Sunday School teachers, small group discussion leaders, pastors, and anyone seeking a closer relationship with God
• Giving you the benefit of the many hours I have spent in research over the last several years reading various books, articles, and websites. If something was thought-provoking or convicted me, then I suspect it may have the same impact on you.
• Encouraging "regular Christians" who feel God may have chosen to use them for His purposes thru their gift of writing.
• Providing a wider, Internet audience for anyone who has a message or story to tell. I want to publish both unique Christian works and original secular works in fields such as history.

Where did the name of the company and website come from?

I devoted a lot of my spare time in the evenings over the coming months to creating a website, writing, editing some sermon materials I inherited from my father and grandfather, trying to figure out how to show up in search engines like Google, and more. I did learn a lot. I felt good about sharing my faith in this way. I was amazed to find from my website statistics that my little website got visitors from far away places like the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Finland, and more.

However, one thing I was not doing was making money. In hindsight, I have come to understand how much free Christian material is available over the Internet. (Like this blog.)

Without any real fanfare, I officially closed Caleb’s Publishing today as a business entity. The ISP still hasn’t shut the site down even though I never renewed the hosting contract.

Now I must wrestle with whether I was correct in how I discerned God’s will 1.5 years ago. Was he leading me to start the business as I thought? Does it even matter if I didn't make money (espcially if I didn't risk much money)? Was it vanity on my part? Was I right about developing my own writing but wrong about the publishing other people’s writing? Was God trying to teach me something that did not depend on whether the business made money? I guess I’ll never know for sure until I’m in heaven some day. For the moment, I'd like to think I did what He wanted. I took a chance for Him. I got out of my comfort zone. People on the other side of the world did read some of what I wrote. I might have had a positive impact.

God, have I learned the lesson about writing and publishing You wanted to teach me thru Caleb’s Publishing? Did I discern Your will correctly? If not, then I pray that You correct my ways and help me discern Your will properly. If I did, then I pray that You reveal to me what You would have me do to serve You next. Amen.

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Will Your Blog Be a Legacy to Future Generations?

We all have trials and tribulations in life. Like most of you I suspect, I have often wondered why God allows the bad things to happen to us. As I have matured in my faith I have tried to replace “God, why did you let this happen to me?” with something more like “God, what are you trying to teach me?” and when I’m feeling particularly strong “God, help me serve Your purposes in this rough time even if I don’t understand what that is right now.”

Back in October I was channel surfing and landed upon the History Channel and a show called 'Skeletons on the Sahara'. (Based on the book of the same name.) The show told the story of James Riley, the captain of the merchant ship Commerce which was ship wrecked off the western coast of Africa in 1815.

“In 1815, a Connecticut merchant ship runs aground off the west coast of Africa. Captured by Arab nomads, Captain James Riley and his crew are sold into brutal slavery and marched across the Sahara Desert, where skin boils, lips blacken and men shrivel to less than 90 pounds. Along the way the Americans will encounter everything that could possibly test them, but Riley and his men will also discover ancient cities, secret oases and a culture largely unknown to the modern world.”

I came into the documentary in the middle of the show but I saw a compelling story of how he and his desperate crew surrendered to Muslim desert dwellers who made them slaves. Captain Riley persuades his new slavemaster that he could make a healthy profit if he would only transport them safely to the nearest major city. There a wealthy American or English businessman or diplomat would buy their freedom back. Depending on your point of view this was either a huge gamble or a leap of faith. He had no way to know if this was really true but he staked his life on it. His master told him if it was not true, the slavemaster would slit his throat. When they arrived at their destination, the slavemaster required him to write a note in his own handwriting that he could give to the wealthy Englishman or American he found in the town. The note was full of prayerful references to God and the compassion of the reader.

The story has a happy ending. The Muslim slavemaster finds an English businessman who does indeed purchase the freedom of the Americans, by now only sunburned skeletons of men. Captain Riley made it home to his family.

I’m sure Captain Riley wondered “Why did God let this happen to me?” and his ordeal was certainly worse than anything that you or I are likely to face. What purpose might the suffering of James Riley and his crewman served? Could God have had a greater purpose that they knew nothing about?

You may have never heard of Captain Riley or his ordeal before, but let me give you the name of one person who did. You see Captain Riley wrote a book about his ordeal that was published in 1817. (Click here to see an historic reproduction.) According to one of the historians interviewed in the television documentary, Abraham Lincoln read the book and listed it as one of the most influential books in his life. The harsh description of how theses white men were treated as slaves in the Sahara is credited by some leading Abraham Lincoln to vigorously oppose the slavery of blacks in America.... and Abraham Lincoln was eventually elected President of the Unites States and served during the American Civil War.

Very few of us who try to honor God when things are not going well will eventually influence future Presidents. But.. you just never know. I offer this story also as encouragement to my fellow writers and bloggers. It is unlikely that Captain Riley would have influenced Abraham Lincoln if he had not taken the time to record his ordeal in his book. I hope and pray that the record of my Christian walk that I leave behind will have some positive effect long after my time on this earth is done. You have a story to tell too.

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Indifference, the Bigger Problem

I love this quote on indifference.

Indifference Is the Problem

The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy; it is indifference. And the opposite of life is not death; it is indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.

Elie Wiesel

Wisdom of Jabez

I think there is a lot of wisdom in the prayer given by Jabez in I Chronicles.

"God’s bounty is limited only by us, not by His resources, power, or willingness to give. Jabez was blessed simply because he refused to let any obstacle, person, or pinion loom larger than God’s nature. And God’s nature is to bless."

Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (New American Standard Bible)

⁹Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain."

¹⁰Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested.

God's Math

We keep an equation in our heart that adds up something like this:

My abilities + experience + training

+ my personality and appearance + my past

+ the expectations of others = my assigned territory.

God’s math would look more like this:

My willingness and weakness + God’s will and supernatural power = my expanding territory.

Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life

I cannot say....

I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself in a spiritual, watertight compartment.

I cannot say “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child.

I cannot say “who art in heaven” if I am laying up no treasure there.

I cannot say “hallowed be Thy name” if I am not striving for holiness.

I cannot say “Thy kingdom come” if I am not doing all in my power to hasten that wonderful day.

I cannot say “Thy will be done” if I am disobedient to His Word.

I cannot say “on earth as it is in heaven” if I will not serve Him here and now.

I cannot say “give us... our daily bread” if I am dishonest or an “under-the-counter” shopper.

I cannot say “forgive us our debts” if I harbor a grudge against anyone.

I cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path.

I cannot say “deliver us from evil” if I do not put on the whole armor of God.

I cannot say “Thine is the kingdom” if I do not give to the King the loyalty due Him as a faithful subject.

I cannot attribute to Him “the power” if I fear what men may do.

I cannot ascribe to Him “the glory” if I am seeking honor only for myself.

I cannot say “forever” if the horizon of my life is bounded completely by the things of time.

An unknown author.. quoted by John MacArthur, Jr. in Alone with God

Why Don't I Seek the Outcast?

My pastor preached a sermon tonight on Zacchaeus. I must admit that I had not read the story in a long time and the extent of my knowledge of him is limited pretty much to a vague memory of the old song from vacation Bible school when I was a kid. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he..

The thing which jumped out at me tonight was not really about Zacchaeus but instead how Jesus treated Zacchaeus. Jesus sought out Zacchaeus. Jesus didn’t seek out the righteous religious leaders or even “regular” members of the religious community. Jesus chose to seek out the outcast Zacchaeus. He was the man that everyone in the community despised because he collected the taxes for the Romans.

I was reminded that Jesus did this all the time. He actively sought the people who had strayed far from God and sought to bring them back close. In Matthew 9 there is a related verse on this topic, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I found myself feeling like I needed to do some healthy re-examination of my priorities. If I was traveling to a new town, would I seek out the outcasts to visit with? Or... would I seek out the “church people” who were a lot like me? My track record is clearly on the side of doctoring the healthy. (heavy sigh) In other words, my own life is too often like the Pharisees and not like Jesus.

So what am I going to do about it?

God, I pray that You will reveal to me some practical way that I can more often seek out the person who has strayed far from You and make myself available to the Holy Spirit to reach someone lost. Prepare me and enable me to venture out of my comfort zone. Give me the faith I need and the spiritual discernment I need to let You use me for Your purposes. Amen.

Unceasing Anguish? Me?

I was reading in Romans 9 tonight and found myself feeling my commitment to spreading my faith inadequate.

Romans 9:1-5 (New International Version)

God's Sovereign Choice

1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.

Notice how Paul describes how he feels about his fellow Jews and how they have not accepted Jesus. “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” Paul’s statement made me question myself and my level of commitment. “What sense of urgency do I feel about spreading the Good News?”

I am not talking about a brute force approach and level of commitment. I am not talking about beating total strangers “over the head” with my faith. I believe that their salvation has very little to do with me, how “in their face”, or how competent I am at presenting the Gospel. I believe that true salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing the person close to God.

That being said, how badly do I want the Holy Spirit to use me? How much energy do I expend in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of the non-believers around me? How badly do I want to discern when the Holy Spirit is prompting me to say something, be somewhere, or do something which might help someone in their journey to come to accept Jesus?

It is just too easy to get too busy. Being available to the Holy Spirit can be inconvenient. Schedules can be unpredictable. And heaven forbid that the Holy Spirit might whisper in my ear “I want you to pack up your things and take your family to the other side of the world and become a missionary.” Am I committed enough to say “yes” when called upon? Well.. maybe a week-long mission trip instead.

God, help me make Your priorities my priorities. Use me in in a way that suits Your purposes. If You need me to make big changes and sacrifices, prepare my heart. Give me the faith I need to say “Yes” when You need me. Amen

Remember Childen of Prison Inmates This Christmas

Last Sunday, my church had an “Angel Tree” outside the sanctuary. Hanging from it were cards, each representing a child with a parent was serving time in a prison. While we were asked to take a child’s card from the tree and purchase a gift for the child, the child would never know our participation. This was because the gift was to be tagged so that from the child’s point of view, the gift came from their incarcerated parent. The card gave the child’s name, age, gender, clothes sizes, and a gift suggestion. The guidance was to spend $20 or less.

I had never done this kind of thing before, and I felt led to do something special for a child who might not get anything for Christmas. I also felt, that no matter what the parent may have done, the child should get at least something from their parent.

My “angel” was a 12-year old girl who wanted a portable CD-player. I ran by Walmart and picked up a CD player that also had an FM radio. (It came with headphones, too.) I felt like the radio might would come in handy, not knowing how many CDs the child owned. It was just under $20 before tax. I noticed it did not come with the 2 AA batteries required. I decided to “splurge” on a 10-pack of AA batteries to go with it. I blew the $$ limit I guess.

God, tonight I offer a prayer for the innocent children separated from a parent because the parent is in prison. I know that when any of us does something against the law, we must suffer the consequences. Some of those suffering the consequences have children and their children suffer from the separation too. It saddens my heart God because these children don’t deserve what life has dealt them. So I ask Your special blessing on those innocent children. Make them resilient and provide for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Work in the lives of people like me who can spare a few dollars and make a difference in a child's life. Show the children how to succeed in life and how not to follow in their parent’s footsteps to prison. Grow them up into productive citizens. Send the Holy Spirit to work in their life. Draw them close to You and bring them to a saving knowledge of Your Son Jesus. Be also with the parents in prison. Work in their lives also and draw them close to Yourself. Use their time in prison to mold them into the kind of person You need them to be. Where there is pain and broken relationships in their young lives, I pray You bring healing and reconciliation. Amen.

The Holy Spirit's Leadership in the Life of a Christian

A couple of weeks ago I was preparing a Sunday School lesson on the leadership of Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. I sent an email to friends asking if they had a story to tell about how the Holy Spirit had worked in their life. This is a great story from one of my friends.


Testimony of the Spirit’s Leading

When I taught at the Christian school in East Tennessee, I had rebuilt the engine in our little Ford Falcon. She was running like a well-oiled sewing machine. A week or so later, my wife was rear ended on Alcoa highway and totaled the auto. She had minor cuts and bruises. We could not buy a car at that time because we had bought our son one in his senior year of high school. We both had asked the Lord to teach us to trust Him, but this wasn’t the method we would have chosen.

As we prayed we sensed the Holy Spirit directing us just to praise the Lord and trust Him for a car.

In the meantime we (the school) had been led of the Lord to trust Him for $50,000 extra for school expenses. One day my wife was on her way to Nashville with one of our staff, and they were listening to a tape by Jack Taylor, relative to giving. She said the Lord asked her how much she had to give. She said nothing. The Lord then said, "You have that $900 insurance check." She almost choked but finally said, "OK, Lord, I am willing but you will have to tell my husband.” When she returned to town she said, “The Lord told me something, but I can’t tell you.” I thought, “What in the world is she up to?”

Well, the insurance salesman called the week of Thanksgiving and told us he would come by Friday and leave a check for $900- a good price for a used car. Now to a memorable Thanksgiving Day. We had a special service in the school chapel (this was a day and a boarding school). When we bowed for prayer to end the service, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Give me the insurance money and trust me for a car.”

I leaned over to my wife, still in the middle of prayer time, and said, “The Lord just told me something but I don’t think you will like it.” She snickered and I thought she was being irreverent. BUT she knew what the Lord had said. Afterward we laughed, cried, prayed and both agreed this was the Spirit’s leading.

At the cafeteria I bowed my head in prayer and a white car flashed through my head. I did not know what to think, since such was not normal for me.

For 2-3 weeks we were filled with joy to give the money and enjoy being without an auto. The only person who knew about this was Jane, the Chairman of the Trustees, my wife’s prayer partner. Jane was in a grocery store when one of her neighbors stopped her and said, “You know I am retiring and we want to downsize to one car.” Do you think the (my friend’s last name)’s could use an auto in their work at the school?” Jane responded, “I don’t know you will have to call them.”

At that time I was out of town and on a school trip. The lady called and offered the auto and my wife said, “We really can’t afford to buy one now. We are paying for our son’s.” The lady responded, “Oh no, it is paid for. I want to give it to you.”

I got back in town and told my wife it had to be white. I had not before told her of the experience at the lunch table. People who see things are sometimes thought to be- you know. Well, we went over to the couple’s house and they had a good running used WHITE Pontiac. Hallelujah!

Now, about the end of the school year, my son for some reason was driving this car and got rear ended. This time the Lord said, “Take the insurance and get another car.”

The Christian Life is Not

The Christian life is not about our life being a succession of one happy day after another. It is not about our comfort or a low-stress lifestyle.

Instead, it is entirely possible that God may want us to leave our comfort zone and embark on a journey of faith. God may lead us towards something which seems impossible for us to accomplish on our own. Usually, that is the point! God, and not us, deserves the all the credit for what is happening. Perhaps He just wants to know whether we will really trust Him. Perhaps He will only reveal the path before us one step at a time. He may place us on a path where we can rarely see what lies over the next hill or around the next corner. At times it may seem like walking alone in the dark with a light that only illuminates the next footstep. But.. God is always right there with us.

The Christian life is not being well thought of by our neighbors.

Your neighbors may think you are narrow-minded. They may think you’re “not very smart” or “intolerant.” They may make fun of you behind your back. “Can you believe that guy? He actually believes that stuff!”

The Christian life is not our ticket to material success in career and life.

We cannot negotiate a contract with God. “Ok God, I agree to worship You and only You. In return, You God will provide me with an above average income and protect me from financial upheaval. Sounds like a fair bargain to me God. Is that a deal?” God is not a Las Vegas slot machine that gives us preference on winning the big jackpot. God rarely tells anyone the winning lottery ticket number ahead of time. Instead, He wants us to be willing to depend on Him for what we really need... not what we say we want.

The Christian life is not a way to banish the Devil and his temptation from our life.

In fact, the more we step out in faith to serve God, the more threatening the witness of our life becomes to the Devil. When we allow God to use us for His purposes, we attract the Devil’s attention. We are likely to get more temptation and difficulty than ever before. After all, the Devil doesn’t need not waste his time on us if we live our lives outside of God’s plan for us.

The Christian life is not a one-time event after which nothing more is required of us.

We should not act like we’ve gotten our ticket to heaven and then just wait around to die. God wants us to grow. God wants us to mature. He wants to have a continuous and on-going relationship with Him. He wants us to enjoy the time we spend with Him in prayer and Bible study. When prompted by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to be willing to step out in faith without having to know the final outcome ahead of time. He wants us to be willing to take chances to serve Him.

The Christian life is not about getting God’s blessing on our plans and the choices we’ve already made.

It is more about asking God to reveal what plans He has for us and asking that He equip us for those plans of His. It is more about being willing to alter our plans to align them with God’s plans. It is more about asking for His guidance so that we make our choices according to His will... and seeking His guidance prior to making the decision.

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

The Sin of Being Too Busy

I got the following in an email today. I'm afraid I don't know who the original author is but as I read it I found myself thinking how true it must really be. I'm curious what you think.


Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said,

"We can't keep HUMANS from PRAYING."

"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and
knowing the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate
relationship with their savior."

"Once they gain that connection with GOD, our
power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have
their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so
they don't have time to develop a relationship with
GOD.."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior
and maintaining that vital connection throughout
their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and
invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,"
he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow,
borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and
the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours
a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will
offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear
that still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player
whenever they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and
their PCs going constantly in their home and see to
it that every store and restaurant in the world
plays non-biblical music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with
GOD."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and
newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order
catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter
and promotional offering free products, services and
false hopes.."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and
TV so their husbands will believe that outward
beauty is what's important, and they'll become
dissatisfied with their wives. "

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at
night."

"Give them headaches too! "

"If they don't give their husbands the love they
need, they will begin to look elsewhere."

"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from
teaching their children the real meaning of
Christmas."

"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about
his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect
on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks,
sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies
instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship,
involve them in gossip and small talk so that they
leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they
have no time to seek power from GOD."

"Soon they will be working in their own strength,
sacrificing their health and family for the good of
the cause."

"It will work!"

"It will work!"

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing
Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed,
going here and there.

Having little time for their God or their families.

Having no time to tell others about the power of
Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been
successful in his schemes?

You be the judge!!!!!

Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Are You Too Comfortable? Am I?

I was thinking about how God wants us to grow. In some ways I think our "comfort" is at odds with what God wants for us sometimes... maybe even most of the time.

I think of Paul's comments about milk and solid food in Hebrews 5:13-15

13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Then there are Jesus' words about pruning in John 15:2

"while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful."

Here are a few related quotes I like on how trials, struggles, and “stretching the envelope” help us grow:

A saint’s life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in
the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the
saint cannot see; he stretches and strains, and every now
and again the saint says, “I cannot stand any more.”
But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until
His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.
We are here for God’s designs, not for our own.

Oswald Chambers

If we study the lives of great mean and women carefully and
unemotionally, we find that, inevitably, greatness was
developed, tested, and revealed through the darker periods
of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of the River of
Greatness is always the Stream of Adversity.

Cavett Roberts

Disappointments that come not by our own fault, they are the
trials or corrections of heaven; and it is our own fault if
they prove not to our advantage.

William Penn


The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.

Howard Macey