Happy Birthday, Christian Challenge!

Forty-one years ago today, Christian Challenge began. I was only 10 years old (about to turn 11), a little too young to fully appreciate the risk my parents were taking by starting a ministry on their own. But over the years, I’ve had the privilege of watching as they’ve walked out their faith in front of me, putting into practice the same principles they’ve taught along the way.

I thought it would be appropriate, especially today, to take some time to talk about a few of those foundational principles that shaped their ministry, and impacted my life.

LEARN TO HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SHEPHERD FOR YOURSELF

I put this one first because it is the most important… because it is the heartbeat of Christian Challenge… and because without it, CCI wouldn’t exist.

My parents began this ministry because they listened to the voice of the Shepherd. There were certainly plenty of other voices in their lives telling them that this wasn’t a good idea. There were practical, financial concerns about raising a family with an uncertain income. There were the objections of those who considered my family to be “backsliders.” But my parents held fast to what they knew God had told them.

Every believer should know and be able to distinguish the voice the the Shepherd. (If that didn’t sink in, or if you just glossed over it, please go back and rea it again. I put it in BOLD so it would stand out. Because it’s important!) John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (NASB - emphasis mine) It’s not enough to know about the Shepherd, you have to truly know Him! To hear His voice means that you can distinguish it from other voices in order to obey it. This is vitally important for the disciple because there are many voices in the world.

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.” (1 John 4:1 NLT)

When we talk about hearing the voice of the Shepherd or testing the spirits, it’s not some mysterious super-spiritual thing. In fact, it’s a very practical thing.

I know my dad pretty well now. Not that he can’t still surprise me sometimes, but generally speaking, I know his heart and how he would respond. So if someone came to me and said that Bro. Buddy wanted me to start offering night-time culinary classes at church, I’d know right away that it wasn’t true. I wouldn’t have to ponder it or pray about it. And it’s not that culinary classes are bad. I’d just know that wasn’t my dad, it wasn’t Bro. Buddy.

That’s the way it should be with us as we follow Jesus. Others may tell us that God wants us to do something - but if what they’re saying isn’t in line with what the Bible teaches, and doesn’t line up with what we already know and have experienced of God’s heart and character, we can safely discard it. It wasn’t the voice of the Shepherd.

That’s why it’s so important that each one of us learn to feed from God’s Word for ourselves on a regular basis. As my dad has often said, “The Bible is God’s speaking place.” That’s where He meets with us and speaks to us. And that’s where we learn to recognize His voice. If you’re only hearing from God’s Word on Sunday, and haven’t become a self-feeder, you won’t know His voice. Maybe that’s why the apostle Peter encouraged us to “like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,” (1 Pet 2:2 NASB - emphasis mine).

DO THE BEST YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT

This has long been one of Dad’s catch phrases, especially in the early days of Christian Challenge. The original building in Boyce was held together “with bailing wire and bubble gum!” At times it wasn’t pretty… but we made it work. Christian Challenge is only here today because my parents were willing to start with very little.

“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” (Eccl 11:4 NLT)

Some people won’t start out unless the conditions are perfect. They won’t try unless they are guaranteed success. The best day to start serving God is today - not when you’ve solved all your problems or when you have more money in the bank. “Those days” never seem to get here. And while we wait for just a few more things to fall into place, we’re missing out on opportunities to serve God today.

Bro. Buddy could have waited until he had an opportunity to get more formal training in ministry for himself before starting the School for Christian Workers. He could have waited until he had enough financial backing to build his own facility before starting services at Christian Challenge. But thank God he didn’t!

Our unquenchable search for perfection often fuels our procrastination. And that keeps us from pursuing our purpose. If you wait for perfect conditions to follow your calling, you’ll never get started. If you wait until it’s easy, you’ll find it easier to wait. There’s no better time than NOW to step out in faith! Maybe that’s why Hebrews 11:1 says “NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (KJV - emphasis mine).

When the disciples wanted to send the crowd away to get food, Jesus told the disciples to feed them. The disciples protested that it would be too expensive and it would take a LOT of bread. Jesus asked a simple question, “How many loaves do you have?” They scrounged around and came up with five loaves and two fish, and asked how could that feed the thousands. But Jesus told them to start with what they had. And when He prayed, what they had was more than enough! Do the best you can with what you have. That’s good advice!

GO BACK TO YOUR LAST INSTRUCTIONS

When you don't know what to do, go back to the last thing you know God told you to do, and do that until He tells you something different! Bro. Buddy and Sis. Betty have modeled this in the life of Christian Challenge as well. Once you hear the voice of the Shepherd and you commit to doing the best you can with what you have, the next part is the most difficult. It’s having the longevity. It’s maintaining the focus.

This piece of wisdom had a profound impact on my life. When I graduated from King’s Way Missionary Institute in McAllen, TX, it seemed that all of my classmates knew where they were supposed to go, except for me. I remember crying out to God for direction and the response I got was silence. I remembered what my dad had said, and the last thing I knew God had told me to do was to go to McAllen. So I stayed there for another 7 months, teaching conversational Spanish to the new students at the school, serving the small house church Russell Cobb and I had pastored together in Reynosa, and working for the Christian Book Shop. Which was owned by Dale Chapman. Who’s daughter, Lori, returned from Austin occasionally to visit. Who I wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t continued doing what God had previously told me to do. In December of that year the Lord released me to return to Louisiana, but not before planting the seeds that would result in Lori and me getting miraculously married 2 years later!

Now can I confess something? (Or is it really a confession if it’s obvious to everyone?) I can be easily distracted sometimes. I have a lot of “ooh, shiny!” moments. Like when I’m preparing for a sermon and get sidetracked because I find an app I want to install, or see an unrelated article that I want to read. Before I know it, an hour or more has passed and I’m no closer to finishing the message!

Sometimes we can be lured off of the course that God set for us because we see something else, something good, and we think we should be doing that too. There have been times in Christian Challenge’s history where we’ve had to take a step back and ask, does this fit into the vision and DNA of CCI? What were our original instructions - and are we still following them?

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.” (Matt 24:45-56 NASB)

I don’t know about you, but I want to be found faithful when the master comes!

Are you confused about something? Does your life feel off-track? The best thing you can do is go back to the last thing you know God told you to do, and do that until He gives you new instructions! If you’ve gotten off-track, it may be that you stopped doing what God told you to do! Start back there and you’ll be amazed at what God can do!

One definition of discipleship is “a long obedience in the same direction.” As I look back over 41 years at Christian Challenge, I can say, without any reservation, that I can’t imagine any better model of that kind of discipleship than Bro. Buddy and Sis. Betty. Happy birthday, Christian Challenge! And thank you, mom and dad, for demonstrating your faith in such a tangible way, and leaving us a trail of wisdom to follow.

Words

In our Facebook Bible Reading group, we just finished doing a plan called the 10 Day Word Fast. It’s been challenging! The idea was that for 10 days, we would identify and seek to eliminate certain kinds of negative talk from our lives. Specifically, the author identified five often overlapping areas of negative words and attitudes to rid ourselves of: Complaining, Criticizing, Judging, Sarcasm, and Gossip.

As we worked through these devotions, many of us - myself included - shared that they were a bit surprised at how often this kind of negative talk cropped up in our daily lives. More than once during this past week I’ve had people tell me, “I blew it today, I knew it as soon as I said it.” And my response has been, “Well, that’s good!” No, it’s not good that we said something we shouldn’t have, but it IS good that we’re becoming more aware of it.

Our culture has become so negative that I don’t think we realize how much of this way of thinking permeates our lives. Our entertainment is full of it. Our news is full of it. And even worse, our culture isn’t just tolerant of negativity - it glorifies it! But negativity has a way of dulling us to the presence of God. Complaining, criticizing, judging, being sarcastic and gossiping can desensitize us to the preciousness of His presence.

Now I know that theologically God is "omnipresent" which is a fancy word that means "always present" or everywhere. But God's presence is sometimes extra special. We've experienced that in worship, which makes sense because the Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people. But that makes me wonder who - or what - inhabits our criticism?

Could this be why we feel spiritually dull and dry? Could this be the source of our spiritual malaise? If complaining is a lack of faith in God's goodness and sovereignty, and without faith it is impossible to please God, then complaining is not pleasing to God. And isn't it our desire to be pleasing to God?

And if we want to please God… how did we wind up in such a negative place? I've become increasingly convinced that the key to so many of our problems is deep-seated insecurity. No matter the root cause, insecurity manifests itself through over-compensation, judgmental attitude, haughtiness, and, yes, criticism. All of these are an attempt to mask the sense of inadequacy we feel, to try to make ourselves feel “bigger” and “better” by cutting down others.

We might even try to convince ourselves that our negativity isn’t sin at all, but based on “righteous indignation” or “discernment.” And while there are certainly times when we are called to make judgments and discern things, we need to watch our hearts. We need to be honest about our motivations.

If we’re complaining or criticizing, is it just to find fault, or are we genuinely trying to make things better? When we make a judgement about someone, is it so we can dismiss them, or are we trying to understand them? Is our sarcasm just an attempt to hurt others under the guise of humor? When we share something we know about someone else, is it out of genuine desire to help - or to put them down?

In everything we do, it wouldn’t hurt to ask ourselves, are we serving God… or playing God? I don't know about you, but I know my rear doesn’t fit well on God's throne! And I don't think He takes kindly to me trying to take His seat! How deceived must I be to think that I know better than God and can adequately assess someone else’s heart or worth!

We need to be more aware of our words and thought patterns. But there’s also a danger in focusing too much on what NOT to say: it can get discouraging. Because we WILL blow it. Because focusing on our negativity can drag us down into even MORE negativity. Because our human nature will just find ways to get around the legalistic boundaries that we set for ourselves. We need so much more than a behavioral adjustment. We need healing for our hearts.

The good news is that there's no medicine like the cross! When we fully surrender everything to Jesus, warts and all, confessing even our insecurities (and our attempts to compensate for them), we can find healing and wholeness. Then we won't be looking for things to criticize to make ourselves feel better. Our observations will be helpful and constructive, full of the same grace we've received. Our speech will be "seasoned with grace."

The way we communicate reveals a lot about us. As the devo writer said, "When you listen to a person speak, you almost immediately know their country of origin. Our words reveal which kingdom we live in – the world or Christ’s kingdom."

My prayer is that my speech will demonstrate I'm a citizen of heaven. The things I try NOT to say are a part of that demonstration - but even moreso, the things that I DO say let people know who I am and WHOSE I am. So I want to leave you with some of the positive things that should be characteristic of our speech as Christians. Negative words are not profitable. But positive words are! These are things we should be looking for opportunities to say.

The Apostle Paul spoke words that were for the benefit of the hearer. In I Corinthians 7:35 he writes, “I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.“ Paul wasn’t puffing them up or trying to smooth talk them. But he was looking out for their welfare.

What kinds of words are profitable words? Sharing the gospel is profitable for saving the lost. This includes but isn’t limited to evangelism. When we talk about God and what He’s done for us, we’re encouraging and building up one another - but you also never know who else is listening. Our coworkers, friends, and family members are watching us. Profitable words bring glory to God.

Profitable words also strengthen the weak. We don’t know what other people are going through. Negative words assume the worst about others. Positive words assume the best. And profitable words will never break a bruised reed.

In Luke 6:45 Jesus tells us that the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. My prayer is that my speech will demonstrate I'm a citizen of heaven. So I pray with the sweet psalmist of Israel: "Set a guard, O Lord , over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips." (Psalms 141:3 NASB) Will you pray that prayer with me?

Falling in Love With God’s Word

“The greatest need in the church today is for God’s people to fall in love with His Word.”

Most folks are familiar with the King James Version of the Bible that was published in 1611. It was truly a “world-changing” book as it brought God’s Word into the common language.

Around the same time, in 1602 in Spain, Cipriano de Valera revised the 1569 translation into Spanish by Casiodoro de Reina and it is as much of a mainstay to the Spanish-speaking world as the KJV is the English-speaking world. The Reina-Valera translation was known as “La Biblia del Oso” or “The Bible of the Bear” because the title page showed a picture of a bear trying to reach a container of honeycombs hanging from a tree. This picture perfectly captured the desire of believers for the Word of God.

Throughout history, many have struggled and even died for their passion for God’s Word. Governments have banned it. Political machinery has burned it. Popular opinion has said it’s old-fashioned and outmoded. Political correctness has said it’s mean spirited and intolerant. But it’s still the only thing that brings peace in the midst of the storm, that quiets the savage heart, that expresses the loving feelings of a loving God for His highest creation. We need to fall in love with God’s Word!

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it has a lot to say about God’s word. It contains many verses, but I’m going to focus on just five examples from that Psalm of how a love for God’s word can help us.

IT GIVES US A CLEAR MIND.

Ps. 119:97 says, “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” What we love, we love to think about. So often, we seem to struggle with clouded thinking. We have a hard time making decisions and can be overwhelmed by options. Some might even feel like they’re sinking, struggling with depression, or wandering about lacking direction. All this is directly traceable to the battleground for our souls: the mind!

In Rom 8:6 Paul shows that the mind can go either way, the flesh or the Spirit! In 2 Cor. 4:4 he shows that Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving. That’s why it’s so important that we grasp the truth of Rom 12:2 where it says we need to be renewed in our mind, then we’ll understand what the will of God is.

The promise of the peace of God guarding our mind is wonderful. Phil 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” But we need to continue renewing our minds. That’s why Ps 119:97 is so important. To keep that clear mind, we have to LOVE God’s word.

IT KEEPS US FROM BEING DOUBLE-MINDED.

Psalm 119:113 says, “I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Thy law.” Double-mindedness (or divided allegiances) can be a major problem in the life of the believer. It’s a sign of a carnal, weak, immature believer, one who has made allegiances to more than one cause. Jesus articulated this truth in Matt. 6:24. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other…” It’s very plain. You cannot serve two masters. But some try!

In 2 Tim. 2:4 Paul speaks of enlisted soldiers and their need to not be entangled with the things of the world so that they can please their superior officers. We need to watch out for entanglements. The more we love the law of God, the more watchful we shall be, to make sure we’re not drawn from what we love.

IT KEEPS US FROM FALSEHOOD.

Psalm 119:163 says, “I hate and despise falsehood, But I love Thy law.” One of the biggest problems in life is lying. It’s one of the Big Ten Sins (aka, “The Ten Commandments”)! It is such a significant issue that God included it in the ten most important areas of our lives that need watching over. Many people struggle with it… and unfortunately, some have become so callous and accustomed to lying that it doesn’t even bother them anymore.

But God HATES lying! The scriptures are full of reminders about this. (Ps 5:6; 101:7; Prov. 6:16-19; 12:22; Rev 21:27) If you recall, the first time God dealt with sin in the New Testament church in a big way was regarding THIS sin (re: Ananias & Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11). Paul warned the church about this area. (Col. 3:9) One way to stay away from this danger zone is to LOVE God’s word!

IT GIVES US GREAT PEACE.

Psalm 119:165a says, “Those who love Thy law have great peace...” One of man’s greatest needs is peace. We can live without many things, but we go crazy if we can’t find some peace and quiet every now and then. (Am I the only one who has “Calgon, take me away!” moments? Or even remembers the commercial?) But those who love God’s word have an inner peace that others often don’t understand.

Phil 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This is what Corrie ten Boom had in the concentration camps of WWII. This is what Richard Wurmbrand had when he was tortured for Christ in a Romanian prison. This is what the Christian martyrs down through the ages have had as their cornerstone. This is what we need, when making decision, with faced with difficult circumstances, when sailing uncharted waters. It’s promised us in God’s word!!!

IT KEEPS US FROM STUMBLING.

We already looked at the first part of this verse, but here’s Psalm 119:165 in its entirety: “Those who love Thy law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.” One of the biggest fears of new believers is, “What if I stumble?” That reminds me of the song by DCTalk of the same name, “What If I Stumble.” It speaks of a desire for holiness and the concern about letting down the people who are watching us. It’s a legitimate concern.

The good news for us is that even if we stumble, we will not fall. Speaking of the righteous man who loves God’s law, David writes, “though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him in His hand.” (Ps 37:24 NIV) And the wisest man in the world (before Jesus) said “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again…” (Prov 24:16 NIV) This is the power of God’s Word in our lives - it keeps us from falling and picks us up when we stumble! In fact, Jesus’ brother, Jude, actually wrote that God is able to to keep you from stumbling…” (Jude 1:24 NASB) If you love God’s word, you are stumble-free!

FALL IN LOVE WITH GOD’S WORD … AGAIN!

If you’re not already making God’s word a daily part of your life, why not start to change that right now? If you’ve been following my blog or some of what I’ve been sharing on Facebook, you know that I’m a big advocate of YouVersion’s devotional reading plans. They’re an easy way to pick up a very positive habit! You don’t have to commit to reading the Bible 7 hours a day! Start out with a small sampling. Find something that speaks to you. Savor it. Enjoy it. And keep coming back for more!

Sometimes you just have to do it! You have to take the first step. Make a choice, from this day forward, you’re going to LOVE God’s word!