Sinkhole Saints

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living

–September of 1997

Sinkhole Saints

The residents of a Florida apartment building awoke to a terrifying sight outside their windows.  The ground beneath the street in front of the apartment complex had collapsed, creating a massive depression in the earth that scientists call a sinkhole.  Tumbling into the ever-deepening pit were automobiles, lawn furniture and whatever else fell prey to its gaping mouth.  In a matter of time the building itself would go.

Sinkholes occur when underground streams drain away during seasons of drought, causing the ground at the surface to lose its underlying support.  Suddenly everything simply caves in, swallowing everything on the surface and leaving the area in a state of disarray and chaos.

There are many dear Christian people whose lives are like one of these sinkholes.  On the surface, all looks well.  They are a bundle of spiritual energy and enthusiasm.  They dash about at a breathless pace, involving themselves in every activity imaginable.  Then suddenly it happens.  They collapse and leave onlookers scratching their heads in bewilderment as to what happened to this sincere child of God.

Others cave in more slowly.  They, too, immerse themselves in exhaustive activity, filling their daily schedules from early until late.  However, they are spiritually sensitive enough to feel the cracks developing in the surface of their lives.  They sense that something is about to give way.  They try to warn us about what is happening when they use terms like, “I feel so empty,” or “I’m just too busy to have a real devotional life,” or “I feel that my whole world is just coming apart.”  They are always talking about being stressed out, even after coming back from two weeks of vacation.  They’re like a drowning victim, grasping whatever is in his reach to keep his head above water, yet knowing that unless there is a rescue, he will ultimately go under.

The problem with these dear people is very similar to the problem that creates the Florida sinkhole.  Just as physical drought takes its toll on the underlying streams that uphold the surface, spiritual drought takes its toll on our inner world and we lose the ability to sustain and support all that must be done in the outer world of our lives.  The world’s wisest man was well aware of this when he penned the words, “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).

Those of us who are affected by Westernized Christianity are extremely susceptible to this danger.  Our Western cultural values blind us to this problem.  We are naively inclined to believe that the most publicly active person is also the most privately spiritual person.  We wrongly assume that the more activity we are involved in, the better.  But the truth of the matter is that we can only engage in the quantity of public ministry and activity that our inner spiritual resources can sustain.  That is why Martin Luther said on one occasion, when confronted with an extremely busy day, that it would necessitate him rising earlier to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to handle the day’s busy schedule.  He needed the extra inner resources that only prayer could give him.

It is shocking the number of good people scattered across our country that have become weary and feeble spiritually, when they ought to be strong and flourishing.  I’m amazed at the number who have lost the song from their soul and are ready to put their harp in the willows because they are so deeply discouraged.  I’m sure there is no simple answer.  But I do firmly believe that at the heart of much of this is an empty heart.  Too many Christians are trying to sustain a huge superstructure of activity without the underlying power and strength that comes from close fellowship and daily communion with our Lord.

My world at GBS is extremely busy.  I constantly face the temptation to let the most important part of my life go—strength and care of my own soul.  Recently, back in the spring, I called for several days of prayer and fasting on our campus.  I felt I needed something more and that the campus needed something more.  I felt empty, stressed out, and void of any music in my soul.  After the third day into the fast, my soul began to soar, heaven’s orchestra began making melody in my heart, and I felt prepared to tackle the biggest problem around.

Don’t wait until your world collapses and your inner resources have given way.  Learn what Jesus meant when He said, “Apart from me ye can do nothing.”

Has the Pulpit Gone Silent on Hell?

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Church, Education, Theology

–May of 1997

Has the Pulpit Gone Silent on Hell?

“The biggest problem facing the modern age is what to do about the doctrine of hell.”  I wish that had been the wise observation and assessment of a holiness preacher or scholar.  Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t.  It is the assessment of the eminent historian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times.  While a secular historian has enough insight to see an important issue and speak to that issue, many pulpits have gone underground or become totally silent on the subject of hell.

When is the last time your local pulpit reminded you that there is a hell for sinners who remain rebels to the end?  Several years ago while preaching in a large youth camp, I asked the kids when they had heard a sermon on Hell.  Out of approximately only 300 young people, only three had heard a sermon on Hell in the last two years.  None had heard a sermon on hell within the last year.  As I penned this article, a returned missionary stopped by my office; and I asked her the same question.  Her answer was, “I’ve only heard one sermon on Hell in the five years that we’ve been back in the States.”

When the church does not clearly teach the doctrine of hell, society loses an important anchor.  In a real sense, it is the doctrine of hell that gives meaning to our lives.  When men and women understand the doctrine of hell they also understand that behavior has eternal consequences that daily moral choices have spiritual significance, and that God takes our choices seriously.

Failure to believe in hell is often the by-product of a silent pulpit.  Whatever doctrine the pulpit ceases to preach, the people cease to believe.  When people cease to believe in a final judgment and everlasting punishment, they feel no accountability for their actions and any sense of moral obligation soon dissolves.

Why the silence?  Many preachers have been hushed by the objections of laity and the scorn of higher critics.  Both dislike the frightful intensity of the pains of Hell as suggested by many sermon illustrations and indeed by certain passages of Scripture.  Jesus spoke about Hell under three symbols: First, that of “everlasting punishment”; second, that of destruction; and third, that of separation or banishment.  Connected to each of these is the “fire that is not quenched.”  Each of these ideas convey something unspeakably horrible; and, although many object, any interpretation which does not face that fact is clearly not Biblical.

To be fair, there has been at times more emphasis on the imagery of hell than on the doctrine.  But one abuse doesn’t justify another.  Pulpit silence on the subject of hell is treason against God and heresy to the church.  One old divine said it like this, “If a man has a mind to get a head start and be in hell before other sinners, he need do no more than open the sails of his soul to the pulpit winds of a preacher whose silence loudly denies hell.”

God Will Do What It Takes

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday, Theology

–November of 1997

God Will Do What It Takes

Thanksgiving this year finds me in the praise section, giving God thanks for something a little off the well-worn path of typical praise petitions.  I’m thankful that God will always do whatever it takes to make me His and to get me home.

God has proven over the years that He will do whatever it takes to get me safely home to Heaven.  Popular writer Max Lucado tells a story in one of his books about a plane ride.  While flying over Missouri, the plane encountered a storm.  The flight attendant gave the order for everyone to take his seat.  It was a rowdy flight, and the passengers were slow to respond.  She gave the warning again.  With some still not responding, she changed her tone of voice and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for your own safety take your seats.”  One would have thought that by this time everyone would have been in his seat buckled up; but apparently that was not the case, because the next voice that was heard was that of the pilot.  “This is the captain,” he advised.  “People have gotten hurt by going to the bathroom instead of staying in their seats.  Let’s do what I say.  Now sit down and buckle up!”  About that time the bathroom door opened, and a red-faced fellow with a sheepish grin exited and took his seat.  The pilot was not being insensitive or unthoughtful, but rather just the opposite.  He would rather the man be safe and embarrassed than uninformed and hurt.  Any good pilot will do what it takes to get his passengers to the airport safely.

God has been teaching me that He will do whatever it takes to get us safely home.  He will whisper, shout, touch, and tug.  He will be kind and stern, tender or tough.  He will lift burdens or take away blessing.  He will do what it takes.  He will allow my world to be crushed and my heart to be trampled if that is necessary.  God will do whatever it takes to get me home to Heaven.

He will do whatever it takes to make sure that we are completely His.  God’s goal is not our happiness but our holiness.  He is not scampering about the landscape seeking ways to meet our every want, but He is committed to turning the world upside down, if necessary, to provide us what we need to be holy.  If suffering is what we need, God will let the storm break in upon us.  If it is adversity that we need, God may allow the devil to unleash his hoards against us.  If it is the tender caress of His heavenly hand or a miraculous answer to prayer, God will make sure it comes.  Whatever we need to conform us to His image, God will see that it is there.  This is consistently reaffirmed in Scripture.  Israel could have been out of Egypt and in the land of promise by foot in only eleven days.  But God took them on the forty-year route.  Why?  Deuteronomy 8:22-24 tells us that He wanted them to suffer hunger and then feed them manna so they would know that “man does not live by bread alone.”  Their clothes would not wear out, and their feet would not swell so that they could learn that He is absolutely trustworthy.  He sent the Hebrew boys into the fire, He sent His disciples into the storm, and He sends His Church into a world that promises opposition and hatred.  But through it all, He brings us through.  He does whatever it takes to make us His, to make us holy, and to get us home safely.

This Thanksgiving you can look for me in the praise section, and my note of praise is going to say, “Thank God that our Heavenly Father will do whatever it takes to make us His and to get us home.”

Are You Christian?

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Church, Theology

–Summer of 1997

Are You Christian?

To pose such a question as this to my readers this month will be to many the essence of folly.  I can hear some of you saying, “Of course, we’re Christian.  What else could born-again believers in Jesus Christ be?”

What is forgotten, however, is that a new creation in Christ is the embodiment of growing life, and, as such, may be retarded, stunted, undernourished, or injured.  It is possible for a whole generation of Christians to be victims of erroneous or poor teaching, low moral standards, and unscriptural or extra scriptural teaching, resulting in a life that is not New Testament Christianity.

I’m convinced that there are many in the church today who have never truly understood nor grasped what it means to be a Christian.  I worked for a lady once who smoked, drank, swore, and was consumed with bitterness and hate.  However, she felt confident in her Christianity, because, “all you have to do is just believe,” she said.  On the other hand, I pastured a lady one time who was filled with anger, bitterness, hatred, and a critical spirit.  But, she, too, was confident in her faith because “I don’t do things like the world does.”

Granted, these two cases may be extreme; but there are a lot of people who are taking too much comfort from “comparing themselves among themselves” or simply embracing a false security by accepting certain “historical facts” about Jesus.  They have anchored their confidence to the wrong thing rather than finding the Biblical norm for real Christianity.

God doesn’t leave us guessing on such important issues.  The Bible gives clear principles to guide us in determining and knowing if we are expressing a genuine faith.  One of the broadest-reaching principles that the Bible articulates from cover to cover could be stated like this: The Christian is essentially a unique and special kind of person.  This is a principle that can never be emphasized sufficiently, and nothing but tragedy will follow in the wake of forgetting or failing to understand this.  The Christian is someone quite distinct and apart.  He is a man who lives in the world but is not of the world.  He is a man who can never be explained away in natural terms, but can only be understood in terms of his relationship to Christ.  This uniqueness separates him from those who are not Christian.  It doesn’t dehumanize him, but it does enable him to live far above and beyond the natural man.  His perspective on life is different.  He lives with eternity in view.  He loves his enemy rather than seeks revenge.  He prays for those who persecute him.  He gives more than grudging obedience to the law of God, but actually delights in God’s law and meditates on it day and night.  He faces life with the optimism of faith rather than the debilitating dread of unbelief.  He indeed is different.

How can he be so radically different?  He has been born from above – born of the Spirit.  The power of grace is working in his life, enabling him to be different.  Frankly, it enables him to be Christlike and this is the secret of his difference.  It is essential to the New Testament definition of a Christian that the real Christian is different from the world because he is like Christ.  The Christian is meant to follow the pattern and imitate the example of Jesus.  We are not only meant to be unlike the natural man, but we are meant to be like Christ.  If this Christlikeness is absent from our lives, we have no other way to authenticate to an unbelieving world that we are truly Christian.

The question we must ask ourselves, then, if we want to know for certain if we truly are Christian is this: As I examine the actions and attitudes in my life, and look at my life in detail, can I claim for it something that cannot be explained in ordinary terms?   Something which can only be explained in terms of a life-changing relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ?  Do I see in my life a positive difference that is not seen in the life of a non-Christian?  Can I truly say that because of my faith I am Christlike?  Am I Christian?

The Demands of Calvary

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Theology

–March of 1997

The Demands of Calvary

One of the most striking statements found in Holy Writ about the atoning work of Christ was penned some 700 years before Calvary ever occurred.  Isaiah lifts the veil that shrouded the future and with graphic words paints a moving portrait of our suffering Saviour.  That picture, however, does not stop with His suffering.  With the masterful strokes of a prophetic brush Isaiah shows the triumphant Son of God looking back as it were from eternity, back on all that Calvary meant and provided.  The expression of the Saviour’s heart on all that He saw was framed in these words, “He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.”

He looked back upon his humiliation.  He thought equality with God not something to be grasped, but took upon Himself the form of a servant.  He laid aside the royal robes of heavenly splendor and clothed Himself with the fading garment of our humanity.  He saw all of this and was satisfied.  He saw again as we spat in His face, plowed His back with a scourge, spiked Him naked and thorn-crowned to a tree, and mocked His anguish until the sun hid its face in shame and the earth reeled in terror.  He relived drinking the bitter cup to the very last drop.  He looked upon it all – all the rejection, all the agony – and was satisfied with the travail of His soul.

The travail of His soul has provided a completely adequate atonement for the deepest needs of every man who has ever lived or ever will live.  He met every demand of a broken law, fully satisfied the justice of an offended God, and silenced every accusation of Satan.  He held nothing back.  He gave His all.  Jesus Christ is satisfied with what Calvary has wrought.

The question that surfaces immediately in my mind is this: “Is He satisfied with the full appropriation of Calvary as it touches and works its way out in my life?”  A missionary returning from Africa during the early stages of World War II went down to the bottom of the ocean in an ill-fated ship.  In one of her last letters she wrote, “The gift of forgiveness has become exceedingly precious to me when I ponder the cost to Christ to pardon mankind.  God has to curse His only child to free me from the curse of sin.  To lay nothing to my charge, He charged His own Son with all the guilt a sinful world could produce.  To give me a mother’s care He forsook His Son in His hour of loneliness and need.  To give me a taste of the sweetness of Heaven, He caused His Son to taste the bitterness of Hell.  To fill my heart with all the peace it can contain, He filled the heart of His Son with all the agony it could contain.  Oh, the fathomless love of the Father’s heart for me, a sinner sunk in fathomless sin!  Pray for me that God may get all out of my life that Calvary can get out of it.  And that in me and through me He may see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.”

 The haunting question that leaps from the pages of this missionary’s diary is this: “Has God got out of my life all that Calvary can get out of it?”  When He looks at me and remembers the travail of His soul, is He satisfied?  Have I allowed the cross of Christ to wean my heart from all other affections, from sin, from the world and from self?  Has it met and surrendered to the love that Calvary demands?

Jesus held back nothing.  He gave everything.  He did not withhold one drop of His precious blood or one fleeting second of His life.  Have I allowed Calvary to do that in my life?  Am I clutching to any of the trinkets and souvenirs of this world, or have I forsaken them all in the light of Calvary?

I’m firmly convinced that this Easter we would all shout in harmony that we are satisfied with what Jesus has done for us.  But the haunting question that still remains is this: “Has God received from my life all that Calvary can get out of it?”