Appointment with God

Don Postema wrote, "I used to write in my daily calendar '7-7:30 a.m.: Prayer.' But many times I passed that up. It was one more thing to pass by that day. Now I write '7-7:30 a.m.: God.' Somehow that's a little harder to neglect." http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/search.html?type=keyword&query=%22Fear%20of%20God%22&start=41

I thought about that and the idea of an 'appointment with God'. Oh sure, I've heard the phrase used many times, but I'm afraid I've glossed over the significance of that phrase in the past.

I have meetings and appointments with people weekly. Someone may have an issue they want to discuss, so I'll set up an appointment to meet with that person at such and such a time. When I have an appointment, I try and make sure I keep it unless an emergency arises.

Let's say that someone stops by to simply chat, but I have an appointment in fifteen minutes. I will usually cut that time of casual chatting short, so I'm not late. I try and schedule the rest of my day around my appointments. It honors the person I'm meeting with and shows them that they are important. If I simply skipped the appointment, it would seem rude and inconsiderate.

You do that with doctor's appointments and other appointments. You reschedule only if you have to, but typically you order the rest of your day around the appointment. Only if something is of greater importance do we skip that appointment or reschedule it.

So what do you and I do about our appointment with God? Do you have a daily appointment with God scheduled? Do you schedule your day around your appointment with God or do you try to fit Him in when you have time? When we skip that daily appointment with God, what does that say about the importance of God in our lives?

Now some of you may be thinking, "Well, God is always with me. I can meet with Him any time, so I don't need to schedule an 'appointment' to meet with God."

Doctrinally speaking, I agree with you that God is always present with us, wherever we go. There is no place we can flee from His presence. However, just because He is always with us, doesn't mean He always has our attention. I can attend a football game and sit next to someone for three hours and leave that stadium not even knowing the person's name. God doesn't merely want to be present with us, He wants our attention. He wants that one on one appointment time where we focus on Him.

I feel bad when someone cancels an appointment with me or leaves me waiting because something better came up. I wonder how God feels?

So when's your next appointment with God? Don't leave Him wating!

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

That question has been around since the day God’s curse fell upon the earth because of sin. Suffering has multiplied over the years through famines, diseases, wars, and the wickedness of man. Children are abused and die of starvation. Women are raped and forced into prostitution. Men are beaten and made slaves in some parts of the world and terrorists kill their fellow humans in brutal fashion simply to make a point. Tragically, Keenan Cooper (the son of a friend) lost his life on account of such evil. Then there is the slow, miserable death that cancer inflicts upon its victims.

My wife’s aunt battled with cancer for years, as we slowly watched her waste away and eventually succumb to that evil disease. Recently, a dearly loved resident in our town also lost her battle with cancer. In both instances, people were praying and trusting in Jesus to heal, yet the healing people looked for never came.

How can we as Christians shout, “God is good all the time!” when we see the tremendous suffering in this world? How can God be all powerful and loving, yet allow the horrors of disease, war, famine, and natural disasters? We struggle with that even as Job and others have struggled with that. Job had lost all his children, nearly all his earthly possessions, and suffered from an excruciating and painful disease when he said, “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” (Job 3:20-23)

Job wanted to die in the midst of his misery. He felt God had hedged him in and abandoned him. Why did he have to go through this suffering? That’s the age old question. Why?

In order to try and get some kind of handle on this, we must remember where suffering came from. It actually came from us. When humanity rebelled against God and chose to rule the world in our own wisdom apart from God, the earth and our labors were cursed. The world was doomed for disaster under man’s care apart from God. Weeds began to grow and choke out nutritious plants. Viruses and bacteria mutated into harmful diseases. People no longer provided themselves with the proper nutrition and habits that promoted optimal health. Jealousy and carnal appetites drove humanity to murder, rape, slavery and host of other cruel sins. Earth itself began to quake and unleash cataclysmic disasters upon man. Humanity’s choice to call the shots and be like God has had horrendous effects on this planet and its inhabitants ever since. If we want to understand suffering, then we must understand that reality. Humanity brought on its own suffering through our rebellion against God, which started in the Garden of Eden.

Perhaps God allows suffering to emphasize the horror of sin and our desperate need of Him. Maybe that’s one reason God allows suffering.

Yet, I still wrestle with this issue, because even if suffering is self-inflicted, would I, as a loving father, sit back and do nothing when my son has brought suffering on himself? Doesn’t that seem cruel?

I certainly don’t enjoy seeing my child suffer, nor does God enjoy the suffering of humanity. Yet, there are times that I may permit the suffering of my son for a greater purpose. I may permit a small amount of suffering as a parent to prevent greater suffering in the future. I may let my son experience some of the negative consequences of his action so he avoids it in the future. If I always guard him from suffering, he will never learn from those hardships. I may let him touch the hot pot so that he learns the dangers of fire.

In fact, in this world, experiencing no pain can be quite dangerous. My mother had a cousin with a rare disease that did not allow him to feel pain. One time he took a hard fall on the playground and his mother worried something might be broken. He didn’t feel a thing, but the x-rays revealed he had a broken collar bone. He died from an infection that developed from a deep punctured wound in his foot. He probably stepped on a nail and never knew it.

Even that story may bring us back to the question of God’s role in suffering. If God is so good and loving, why did He allow that boy to have that disease that doesn’t allow pain? Or why did He allow the boy to step on the nail? God allows humanity to make choices and allows us to experience consequences for those choices. Sometimes the consequences are negative and sometimes they even affect other people negatively. If we never experienced pain or suffering, would we ever see our need for God and His salvation? No, we wouldn’t. Pain and suffering can lead us to the LORD.

But what about those people that are believers and do love the LORD? What about those that are serving Him and they have to endure great suffering?

Sometimes God can use one person’s suffering for the benefit of others. Of course the ultimate example of this is the suffering and death of God’s own Son, Jesus the Christ. Yet, other examples exist where the suffering of one or a few has brought about the conversion of others. Jim Elliot and the other men who were martyred by the Waodonis serve as such an example. The majority of the tribe later came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ because of their deaths. So sometimes, God allows the suffering of one for the benefit of others.

I read a story about a father who worked as the drawbridge operator on a train track. He had a young son that he often took to work with him. He would have his son play down by the river in a location that he could keep an eye on him in the operator booth. The boy loved going to work with dad and seeing the bridge go up and down. His dad loved the opportunity to spend time with his son and play with him during breaks.

One day, the father received a phone call from a ship asking for permission to pass through the bridge. The train was not scheduled to arrive for some time and the father gave the go ahead and raised the bridge. Unfortunately, the train was early and ignored the red warning sign indicating the bridge was up. The son heard the train whistle and noticed that the bridge was up. He yelled at his dad, but his dad couldn’t hear him. He remembered a lever his father had showed him that would lower the bridge in an emergency. He ran up onto a platform above the gear room of the bridge and spotted the lever. He rushed over to it, but in his hurry he slipped and fell into the gear room, wedging his leg in the gears.

Now the father heard the train as well. The train whistle startled him, but he knew there was enough time to lower the bridge. He looked out to check on his son and couldn’t see him. The train whistle blew again. He needed to lower the bridge quickly to avoid a major disaster, but he didn’t know where his son was. It suddenly dawned on him where he might be. The whistle blew again in the distance. He didn’t know how many passengers were on board, and he wasn’t sure he cared. His son could be trapped. He looked again outside. No one was there. He couldn’t make it down to the gear box in time to check and pull the lever. The train was coming too quickly. There could be hundreds of passengers on board. He glanced one more time outside. Nothing. So he closed his eyes and pulled the lever. The bridge lowered and the passengers crossed safely, but that was the last day he spent with his son.

Sometimes the suffering of one is necessary for the benefit and protection of others. The suffering and death of Christ has provided eternal life for believers. Sometimes the suffering of a believer can also lead to the salvation of others. Suffering at times serves the greater purpose of saving the many.

Suffering can also sometimes bring healing to relationships as well. The suffering of my wife’s aunt brought healing to her relationship with her husband. The question often asked is “Why would God bring healing to a relationship and then not let that relationship continue for years to come?” Perhaps God allowed the healing of the relationship in this life to bring closure those left behind before the suffering one finishes his or her suffering on this earth and enters into glory. We must remember that, for the believer, eternal life with Christ is the true life.

Finally, in wrestling with this question, we must realize that our perspective is so small. Look at this painting.





Would you consider this a masterpiece?


Probably not. It’s dark, bland, and makes no sense. That’s how we often feel about suffering, because we look at it from such a small perspective. We can only see from our limited time frame and our limited context. God views the suffering from a timeless perspective and a universal context. He sees the ultimate consequences over the ages and around the globe.


Here is the rest of the picture that you couldn’t see earlier.

The Mona Lisa, of course, is considered a masterpiece, but the little snippet I showed looks nothing like a masterpiece. God sees the whole of life and the beautiful portrait He is painting. We, unfortunately, only see the snippets now.

I don’t think we will ever in this life fully grasp the why of suffering. But I do believe that we can get a better handle on it and move from doubt to hope. Paul wrote in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” We’ll quickly forget the sufferings of this life when we enter the glories of the next. And it is comforting for us to remember that those who have already entered the glory of the next life have already forgotten the sufferings of this life.

No, I can't give all the reasons why someone had to suffer. But I can say that God is good, loving and all-powerful even despite the suffering we have to endure in this life.

Preaching to Myself

Fortunately, in my ministry career thus far, there hasn't yet been a Sunday where I was the only one that showed up at church. I have had some Sunday's that came pretty close, but I have never had to preach only to myself on a Sunday morning. However, there have been many times when I realized that I was preaching to myself along with preaching to the rest of the congregation.

The Sunday of our men's fishing retreat at Lake of the Woods was just such an occasion. The LORD used my own mouth to convict me. I shared about Andrew and Peter's calling to discipleship and how Jesus transformed them into fishers of men. That is one of those passages you have to consider from the culture of the day versus the American culture. Most people in America think of fishing as a hobby or recreational past time. We fish because we enjoy it, not because our livelihood depends on it. Andrew and Peter, however, were fishermen by trade. They provided for themselves and their families through the fishing industry. Far from merely a past time, it was their life.

Let's consider Christ's call in light of that. Jesus challenges them to a new life. He declares that now their primary occupation will be making disciples. He calls them to make evangelism their life now. Evangelism was not merely to be a hobby or past time for Peter and Andrew, but their primary occupation.

It was at that point I felt convicted. Do I view evangelism and discipleship as my primary occupation or merely a past time? I share my faith and have had the privilege of leading people into a personal relationship with Christ. But have I treated that as merely a past time? In my head, I know that it is to be my primary focus, but have I always lived that way? The honest truth is that I haven't.

Jesus called Peter and Andrew to a lifetime of evangelism and discipleship. Now I understand that none of us are the original twelve disciples. We all have unique giftings and callings. Yet, scripture does indicate that we our purpose on this earth is to serve as witnesses of His glory. We are to testify of God and His glorious work through Jesus Christ. We may each do it in different ways, but that doesn't dismiss our duty. Evangelism should be more than just a hobby we do in our spare time. Whether we are at work, school, a store, or wherever, we need to serve as witnesses of Jesus Christ and seek to make disciples of Him.

Where you work is not merely a place to earn some money, but an opportunity to fulfill your true calling as a fisher of men. You have the opportunity to testify of Christ's glory and His wondrous plan of salvation. As believers we may earn an income doing certain tasks, but we are not engineers, farmers, teachers, or anything else. We are fishers of men.

How's the fishing been lately?

Faith in what?

Faith. It's a name we give to children. It's a theme of ancient hymns as well as contemporary pop songs. It's even used as a comprehensive term for a person's religious beliefs (e.g., "What is your faith?"). As believers, the very term that identifies us stems from the word 'faith.' "To believe" is mereley the verb form of the noun "faith" in the Greek. So believers are essentially people of faith. But what does that phrase mean in society today?

Last night the President gave an address from the oval office dealing with the BP oil spill crisis and the administration's response to it. At the close of his speech, he made some remarks to inspire hope to Americans. However, his words highlighted the subtle tragedy concerning the "faith" of many Americans. He stated, "It’s a faith in the future that sustains us as a people. It is that same faith that sustains our neighbors in the Gulf right now." After a brief reflection about the "blessing of the fleet" given by clergy from different religions and a quotation from a priest about God's abiding presence, the president then concluded, "The oil spill is not the last crisis America will face. This nation has known hard times before and we will surely know them again. What sees us through -– what has always seen us through –- is our strength, our resilience, and our unyielding faith that something better awaits us if we summon the courage to reach for it."

Now perhaps the president's desire was to point Americans toward something or someone greater than themselves, but unfortunately that did not seem to be what he said. That last sentence I quoted gives evidence to the contrary, "What sees us through -– what has always seen us through –- is our strength, our resilience, and our unyielding faith that something better awaits us if we summon the courage to reach for it."

Where is faith placed in that sentence? The focus is clearly on American's own strength, resilience, and courage to reach for something better. The end of the faith that the president spoke of was simply a better tomorrow based on our own efforts. Now I don't want to misrepresent the president or be unjustly harsh, so I will reiterate that he does make some references to God and even prays that "a hand may guide us through the storm to a brighter day." I'm sure that there are plenty of atheists outraged that the president of the United States would make such references to God.

I certainly hope that the faith he referred to is more than merely faith in humanity's strength and resilience to bring something better. Unfortunately, his reference to God struck me as cursory and his reference to faith as a description of the misplaced faith that so many Americans hold on to. They think that just by believing generally or believing in themselves they can have that "better tommorow."

The object of faith must always be in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not faith in ourselves, it's not faith in itself, and it's not even faith in God in a generic sense. The only effectual faith is faith in the Triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) who became a man in the person of Jesus the Christ and died on the cross for our sins and rose on the third day.

As born again Christians, we are believers in the Triune God of the Bible who revealed Himself incarnationally through Jesus the Christ. That is who we believe in. When someone speaks of faith or says he or she believes, you should ask that person what his or her faith is in?

"I'm a believer!" Americans may shout. But a believer in what? The answer to that question has eternal ramifications.

A Change of Heart

Well, I'm extremely overdue in my posting. I could make excuses like "the dog ate my blog," but that wouldn't exactly fly in the computer age. However, if you've read my earlier post about my dog, maybe I could get away with that excuse. But I will refrain from the excuses and simply dive into a new (overdue) blog.

I was praying this morning and thinking about how I can most effectively help people grow in their relationship with Christ when the phrase "As a man thinks, so is he," popped into my head. So I did a google search. As a result, I found a similar phrase in scripture.

In the NASB, Proverbs 23:7 states, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is." The KJV translates the verse in a similar fashion, but other versions translate it differently. You would read in the NIV, "for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost."

The Hebrew term translated 'thinks' or 'thinking' refers more accurately to calculating or reckoning. The term has a financial connotation to it. Therefore, it seems an appropriate term to refer to a greedy or selfish man, which is the kind of man referred to here according to verse 6.

The greedy man is always calculating the costs to make sure he gets the best deal and has the most for himself. His calculating ways reveal his true nature. The whole proverb states, "Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies; For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you." (NASB)

Even though a selfish man puts on a show of hospitality, inwardly he hates the thought of wasting all that food. His heart is certainly not with his guest.

That verse started me think about the matters of the heart that Jesus so frequently spoke about. Whether it was preaching the sermon on the mount or confronting the Pharisees in the temple, Jesus emphasized the matter of the heart. It wasn't what went into someone that made them unclean, but rather what came out of them because that came out of the heart.

Like the selfish man in Proverbs and the Pharisees in Jesus' day, people today can put on a show of righteousness, but that is not what the LORD desires. He calls us to a heart change, and that rests solely on faith in Christ.

It's so easy to begin our journey with Christ in faith at the moment we trust in Him, and then after a time, we start trying to live righteously in our own strength. We begin to begrudgingly give to others, while inside thinking, "I sure could use that gift myself." We begin to begrudgingly serve the LORD and others, while thinking, "I really would rather be at home right now."

We can't change our heart, only God can do that. That's why we begin the Christian walk in faith, we maintain our Christian walk in faith, and we end our Christian walk in faith. Christ has done what we could not and will do for us what we can not. We trust Him not only for our righteousness for heaven but also for our righteousness here on earth.

What are the thoughts and reckonings of your heart? Are they thoughts focused on the sufficiency of Christ? If that's the case, then you have a very healthy heart.

Are you a beggar?

I have some experience in begging. In college, Christy and I had another friend that we would do things with that was at least as crazy as I was. We were on a college meal plan that limited what we could get for our weekend evening meals. So one weekend evening we had a craving for tacos and no money to get them. [CORRECTION: I shared this blog with our college friend and she thought it was pizza that we wanted to get, so I'll trust her memory on that point more than mine.] We decided to hit up every person we saw for some food funds. Our friend would feign starvation and I would passionately plea with my fellow classmates to spare whatever change they could to aid my starving friend. I think Christy stood off to the side pretending she didn't know us during that time.

One fellow student, in his desire to show Christ's love (it was a Christian college), offered us his credit card. As a side note, that dear brother in Christ also literally offered me the shirt off his back on another occasion. I had commented that I liked his shirt and he asked me if I wanted it. He was ready to take it off and give it to me at that very moment. I didn't take his shirt then, in case your wondering, and we didn't take his credit card in this instance. We were honing in on the pocket change market rather than credit cards.

So I'm an experienced beggar, not only from my college days but also as a child. Numerous pleas to my parents consisted of begging. "Please, please, please Mom and Dad, let me go to my friend's house for the weekend?" If you're a parent, I imagine you've heard a little begging from your children as well.

The apostle Paul was a beggar. Did you know that? Not in the way I've described above, but a beggar on behalf of Christ. Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 5:20, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." NASB

Did you notice that last phrase? "We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." The Greek term for 'beg' is used by a father begging Jesus to heal his sick son. It is used by leper begging Jesus to cleanse him. It is even used by the demons begging Jesus not to torture them. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul invokes the term to describe his passionate plea for an estranged and antagonist humanity to find a restored relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul begs sinners to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus.

That thought convicted me. Have I ever begged someone to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior? I have shared the gospel with a number of people over the years, but I don't know if I've ever begged someone to trust in Christ. The idea seems odd and maybe even seems wrong to us in some ways, but it reveals Paul's heart. He understand in the core of his being the grave situation of fallen humanity. Without Jesus Christ, a person has no hope or future. Such a person can only anticipate God's judgment. That reality drove Paul and burdened him to such a degree that he would willingly beg someone to be reconciled to God through faith in Christ. The urgency of the times drove Paul to begging the lost to come to Christ, if that's what it took.

Am I a beggar? Well I did manage to successfully beg enough money to go out to eat that night I referred to earlier. So, maybe you could say I was a successful beggar in one sense. However, in the matter of passionately urging (begging) the lost to be saved, I tragically don't believe I am a beggar. I have shared the gospel many times, but I fear I lack the heart Paul had when he wrote those words, "I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

How about you? Are you a beggar on behalf of Christ?

"LORD, let Your heart for the lost burn in my heart. Give me eyes to see humanity as you see them and the tragic reality of their situation. Embolden me by Your Holy Spirit to share Jesus with unbelievers in humility and love. Make me a beggar on Your behalf! In Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen."

Daniel and the Sea Serpent

I think it was about three years ago that I and my family were returning from a vacation. My sons asked me to tell them a story to occupy the time as we traveled. So I started telling them about a boy named Daniel and his encounter with a sea serpent. Each night they asked for a little more of the story and continued to ask for it after we returned home. As I thought about the story, I realized it would make a fun and exciting youth novel. After many, many hours of writing, numerous rewrites, critiques and edits, I finally have published Daniel and the Sea Serpent.

Christy and I are planning to use any royalties we might receive (I realize that's a big MIGHT, since people actually have to buy the book) to help pay for the adoption that we are pursuing. We'll see what happens.

I hope through the book that young people and adults discover the importance of trusting God's Word. God's Word has fallen into disrepute these days and many view it merely as a humanly composed book full of myths and stories. They find no authoritative value in the scripture, only some thoughtful advice to consider. Of course, once we throw out the authority of scripture we might was well throw out our faith altogether.

If you want to check out the book you can go to http://www.christianfantasybook.com/

You can read an excerpt of chapter one at http://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Sea-Serpent-Scott-Sheets/dp/1451593716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273277890&sr=8-1#noop Simply click on the "search inside this book" link after you get to the site.

I'm currently working on book two and hope to have it completed and available by next spring. If you do read it and enjoy it, I would appreciate it if you wrote a review for me at Amazon. Thanks for checking it out!