While the world is entranced with wall-to-wall coverage about Michael Jackson, here are four miscellaneous items of interest to Christians that didn’t make the first page.

• The Body of St. Paul:  Vatican has released new information from the traditional tomb of St. Paul, which is inside the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome.  Carbon dating has confirmed the bones date from the First Century, and it’s likely they really are the mortal remains of the great apostle.
• Obama’s Church:  President Obama has a new pastor – and he’s the nephew of country music star, Johnny Cash.  The Obamas have decided to attend a military chapel near Camp David, and the current chaplain is Lieut. Carey Cash, a Southern Baptist who received his training at Southwestern Seminary.
• Summer Camp for Atheist Kids:  Atheist radical Richard Dawkins has set up an atheist summer camp where children will be taught “rational skepticism” and “evolutionary biology” while they enjoy canoeing and swimming and the blessings of God’s creation in a camp setting.
• Released Gitmo Detainee Kills Missionaries:  Three Christian missionaries were shot execution-style and six others are missing after an attack in Yemen, apparently by an Al Qaeda-planned attack by a former Guantanamo detainee.

I’m still “tweaking” my outline from today’s sermon, but the verse itself — 2 Corinthians 9:7 — needs no improvement.  Arguably the best verse in the Bible on the subject of giving, it says:   Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

1. We Should Give Individually:  Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2. We Should Give Faithfully:  Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
3. We Should Give Thoughtfully:  Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
4. We Should Give Freely:  Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
5. We Should Give Cheerfully:  Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

Conclusion:  That means the Lord gets excited about us when we get excited about giving.  And He seals the deal with a fantastic promise in the next verse:  And God is able to make all grace about to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will about in every good work.

I’m still at Liberty University, but in my free time I’m reading a biography of Franklin.  We all know that Benjamin Franklin was an extraordinary man—a printer, a writer, a philosopher, a diplomat, a statesman, a revolutionary.  But he was also a scientist, and his inventions and scientific discoveries changed the way we live.

In 1757, Franklin was sent to London by the Pennsylvania Assembly to represent them on various issues, and during the first part of the journey Franklin was on a ship that was sailing with a fleet of nearly 100 ships.  From the deck he could watch the other ships very closely.  He noticed one day that the wakes of most of the ships were rough and wavy, ruffled up by the wind and the churning of the vessel, but two of the ships had very calm wakes, as though they were just gliding through the waters.  He asked the captain about the phenomenon.  The ships were all about the same size with the same framework traveling at the same speed through the same waters.  The captain said, “Oh, everyone knows that.  The cooks on those two ships have just thrown their greasy water overboard.”

From that point, Franklin spent years thinking about this mystery.  In fact, he had a walking cane with a hollow center, which he kept filled with oil.  When he was at a lake or river with friends, he would amaze them with a little parlor trick.  No matter how rough or choppy the water, he’d pour the oil onto the surface and it would become calm.  The calmness would spread out and cover a wide area.

Franklin’s discovery became very famous and was the subject of many discussions and papers, and the object of much inquiry.  People wanted to know what it was about the thin layer of oil that created an area of calmness on choppy waters.

Of course, we know.  Ripples and waves are caused by the friction between air and water.  When a gust of wind blows over a body of water, the air grabs at the water and lifts it up.  When the surface of the water is coated with a thin layer of oil, the friction is reduced, and the wind cannot easily get hold of the water; it just blows right over it and slides off.

The lesson wasn’t lost on Franklin and it’s not lost on us.  There are actually to important applications: 

1. Oil in the Bible represents the Holy Spirit.  When our personalities are covered with the Spirit and with the oil of joy, our minds are calm and our personalities are much harder to agitate.
2. What oil is to water, grace is to our relationships.  We have choppy relationships and rough seas when we rub each other the wrong way, when the friction between our personalities creates ripples of disharmony.  But when we pour the oil of grace on these waters, it has a way of smoothing the waters and calming the seas  If we’re gracious to people and don’t let a root of bitterness spring up, we’ll have a much easier time in life.  Perhaps there’s someone right now toward whom you need to change your attitude.  Why not pour the oil of His grace on those waters and see if they don’t calm down?  It can make a difference this week.

PS – This except is adapted from my sermon on Romans 12.

This is a teaching week at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.  I especially enjoyed my Korean students tonight; we had a spontaneous discussion and prayer time in the parking lot after class.  And it’s particularly wonderful to be teamed up again with Dr. Vernon Whaley, who was Minister of Music at TDF when I started pastoring there 30 years ago.  Now he heads up the worship studies program here at Liberty.  He’s still recovering from a serious wreck, but was able to be in class.  His newest book is Called to Worship.

Old friendships never die; they just mature and mellow with the miles.

Introduction:  When we come to faith in Christ Jesus, what’s supposed to change about our lives?  That’s the subject of Romans 12.  Romans 1-11 is that portion of the Bible that sets forth in logical and theological terms the doctrine of being justified by grace through faith.  The remainder of Romans—chapters 12-16—explains to us the changes that should occur in our lives once we have accepted the message of the first eleven chapters.  Since we have been justified by grace through faith, here is how we should then live.  Notice how chapter 12 opens:  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.  These are the two verses that link Romans 1-11 with Romans 12-16 and tell us about our changed lives.  Romans 12 deals with three of these changes.

1. A Life of Giftedness (vv. 3-8) – Our very self-image is now based on the fact that, as new Christians, we have a new reason for living; and we’ve been given a set of gifts with which we can serve God.  Paul summarizes the spiritual gifts we have in seven different categories; and he indicates that when our lives are transformed by grace through faith, we become gifted people, called to serve God in humble ways wherever we are, and every moment in life is an opportunity for service.
2. A Life of Goodness (vv. 9-13) – In terms of our habits and attitudes, we begin turning from what is evil and clinging to what is good, loving others, being devoted to one another, honoring one another, practicing hospitality, and  letting the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ be a live streaming video feed through us every day.
3. A Life of Graciousness (vv. 14-21) – Christians should be easy to get along with, pleasant, gracious, forgiving easily, and personable.  There may be some who won’t get along with us, but if we are gracious to people—we don’t get mad and stay mad at others and don’t let a root of bitterness spring up, we’ll have a much easier time in life. 

Conclusion:  When we receive Jesus as our Savior, He begins unmolding us from the pattern of the world and transforming us into the image of Christ.  We become people of giftedness, goodness, and graciousness.

PS – For my entire sermon, click here.

Poetry has fallen on hard times, especially sacred poetry with traditional rhythm and rhyme.  But take a moment to read this one from a couple of centuries ago.  Its author, Josiah Conder was born in London September 17, 1789.  At age five, an ill-fated inculcation for small-pox blinded him in one eye and he was treated by the new medical practice of electrical shocking.  It must have worked, because he went on to become a powerful writer, hymnist, journalist, abolitionist, and a layman in the Congregational Church of England.  One of his hymns provides a powerful lesson about not worrying about tomorrow, and it contains that great line (later the title of a famous devotional book, Daily Strength for Daily Needs).  Jesus taught us to take life one day at a time—step by step, day by day, and moment by moment.  Conder found the same lesson in the Lord’s commands to the Israelites to gather up only enough manna for the present day.  This is actually an old English hymn; you can hear the melody here.

Day by day the manna fell;
O to learn this lesson well!
Still by constant mercy fed,
Give me Lord, my daily bread.

“Day by day,” the promise reads,
Daily strength for daily needs;
Cast foreboding fears away;
Take the manna of today.

Lord! my times are in Thy hand;
All my sanguine hopes have planned,
To Thy wisdom I resign,
And would make Thy purpose mine.

Thou my daily task shalt give;
Day by day to Thee I live;
So shall added years fulfill,
Not my own, my Father’s will.

Fond ambition, whisper not;
Happy is my humble lot.
Anxious, busy cares away;
I’m provided for today.

Oh, to live exempt from care
By the energy of prayer:
Strong in faith, with mind subdued,
Yet elate with gratitude!

   In today’s newspapers:  Good news from Alaska’s Rat Island.  The rats are finally gone!  Over two hundred years ago, a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rats onto this remote island in Alaska.  The rats decimated the local bird population and ruled the roost for 229 years.  Now, after an intense campaign that involved helicopters and aerial attacks with poison, the last rat has gone to its reward.  The Rat Eradication Project cost $2.5 million, but the money appears to have been well spent.  Birds are returning to the island and residents are sleeping better at night.

The lesson?  We all have some rats running around inside us—those sins that so easily beset us.  There’s no need to put up with them for so long.  If we really wanted to, we could wage an individual campaign for personal holiness.  We could eradicate some internal rodents.

As we look into our own habits, attitudes, words, and behaviors, if there were one thing you or I could change for the better – one rat to eradicate – what would it be?

We can start with that one.

I’m speaking from Romans 12 this coming Sunday at TDF, and in going over the chapter I found one of those recurring phrases that we should all look out for.  For a simple Bible study, sermon outline, or lesson idea, read through Romans 12 and underline the “do nots.”  There are eight of them spread throughout the chapter (in the NIV).

1.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world – v. 2

2.  Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought – v. 3

3.  Do not curse – v. 14

4.  Do not be proud – v. 16

5.  Do not be conceited – v. 16

6.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil – v. 17

7.  Do not take revenge – v. 19

8.  Do not be overcome by evil – v. 21

Conclusion:  Our lives are often simplied and enriched by what we decide NOT to do.

PS – For my sermon applying the truths of Romans 12 to marriage, click here.

The doomed Air France jetliner we’ve been reading about flew through a storm and apparently lost its electronics.  The pilots had no idea how fast or slow they were going.  Their computerized screens were blank, and they could only guess at their speed.  Some aviation experts believe the pilots increased their speed until they were going so fast the plane broke apart in midair; others believed they decreased their speed until they fell into a death spiral.  We fly though a lot of storms in life.  It’s praise that keeps us going at the right speed, flying at the right altitude, and headed in the right direction.

That’s the message of Psalm 147, which I am preaching about tonight at The Donelson Fellowship.  At first glance, this Psalm seems like planter’s mix of assorted verses.  It’s almost as if someone went through the book of Psalms collecting wonderful verses they just tossed together in Psalm 147, without rhyme or reason.  But the chapter theme is quickly detected by noticing the first and last words of the psalm—Hallelujah, or Praise the Lord.  Looking even closer, we notice there are three separate exhortations to praise God in Psalm 147, in verses 1, 7, & 12.  As it turns out, this is a hymn of three verses.  The Psalmist presents three cycles of praise, three reasons to praise God.

1.  Praise Him for Recovery (vv. 1-6).  Evidently this is a post-exilic Psalm (v. 2), and the writer is praising God for the capacity of national recovery from exile.  The same God who names the stars in their courses (v. 4) is able to heal our broken hearts (v. 3) and sustain us in times of peril (v. 6).   He gives us resilience, recoverability, the capacity of bouncing back, of rebuilding after a loss, disappointment, or disaster.  Are you recovering from something?  Anything?  By grace, God builds into our lives a perpetual potential for rehabbing.   Spiritual recovery, moral recovery, emotional recovery, addictive recovery, economic recovery, marital recovery, national recovery.  We have a God who makes recovery possible.

2.  Praise Him for Resources (vv. 7-11).  As God gives recovery from past problems, He also meets present needs.  He sends clouds into the skies to bring rain to the earth to produce grass for the fields to produce food for the cows to produce milk for you and me.  (Well, the milk isn’t in these verses, but everything else is).  He’s more impressed by our trusting Him for our needs than He is by winning a marathon (v. 10-11).

3.  Praise Him for Revelation (vv. 12-20).  This final stanza is all about praising God for the accessibility of His Word, which gives us peace and bestows blessings within our borders (v. 14).  No one else has the Word of God except the people of God, so no one on earth is as blessed as we are (vv. 19-20).

Conclusion:  Perhaps we even have a hint of the Trinity here.  The first stanza certainly focuses on God the Father, who is mighty in power and who grants recoverability for us.  There’s a hint of God the Son in the second stanza, who, in His unfailing love, offers the provision of Himself to meet our needs.  In the last stanza, the Spirit-inspired Word conveys the blessings of God to our consciousness.  Praise God!  Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!  Hallelujah!

  If you have accident-prone children, take comfort in the story of John Henry Yates.  His parents had immigrated to New York State from England; and John was born in Batavia, New York, in 1837.  His dad was a shoemaker and a traveling temperance lecturer.  His mom was a school teacher who loved poetry and literature. 

On several occasions, John gave his parents reason for grave alarm.

• On Election Day, 1844, he fell from a high set of stone steps in a hotel and tumbled down into the cellar, fracturing his skull.  It wasn’t certain he would come to, as he was unconscious a long time.  He kept the broad scar as a lifelong souvenir of the incident.
• In 1847, when his family was traveling by ship, a storm struck so powerfully that young John was thrown across the deck, breaking his leg. 
• At 16, John brought down the curtain on a school play when, during a dramatic scene, he accidently fell on an open double-edged knife, piercing his right lung.  For three weeks, his life hung on a thread.

He survived it all, however; and at age 18, he began helping his aged parents in the shoe business.  About the same time his mother persuaded him to start writing poetry, which was immediately published in the Batavia newspaper, and soon in Harper’s Bazaar and other national magazines.  Before long his ballads, poems, songs, and hymns were being recited and sung across America. 

Despite his newfound fame, Yates kept his day job in retail sales, first in shoes, then working in a hardware store and finally managing a popular department store.  Only later in life did he finally leave the retail business to work for the local newspaper.

All the while, John was preaching here and there.  Beginning in his late teens, he served as a lay preacher in the Methodist church.  For many years, he traveled through western New York State, preaching in churches of all denominations and sharing his faith in Jesus Christ.

That faith was severely tested in February of 1878, when his wife and two sons all died within the space of one week from an outbreak of diphtheria.  He eventually remarried and kept going, giving living illustration that our faith in the promises of God and in our Lord Jesus gives us overcoming victory.

In 1891, Yates agreed to write Gospel songs exclusively for the great Christian song director, Ira Sankey, who directed the evangelistic campaigns for D. L. Moody. Many of his hymns became popular favorites.  Yates also switched from the Methodists to the Free Will Baptists and began pastoring near Batavia.

He passed away on September 5, 1900, and this marker rests over his grave:  In Memory of the Poet-Preacher Rev. John H. Yates… Born 1837 / Died 1900…  Faith is the Victory, Oh, Glorious Victory, That Overcomes the World.

John’s house Washington Avenue at State Street in Batavia is now on the historic register and serves as the home of a quaint independently-owned bookstore — Present Tense Books and Gifts.

Here is John Yates’ most enduring hymn – Faith is the Victory

Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers, rise.
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below
Let all our strength be hurled.
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.

His banner over us is love,
Our sword the Word of God.
We tread the road the saints above
With shouts of triumph trod.
By faith, they like a whirlwind’s breath,
Swept on o’er every field.
The faith by which they conquered death
Is still our shining shield.

Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.

PS – Check out my books on the history of hymns here.