What Does Your Schedule Say?

In the same vein of thought with yesterday’s post about “What Do Your Stats Say?” another worthy question for us would be what does your schedule say? To be an effective person, you have to control your time. If your schedule has not been determined then days will get frittered away and wasted or they end up being consumed with the well described tyranny of the urgent. The man who masters his time will master his life. Go buy you one of the cheap Timex watches that have the number 1440 on it and then wear it. When you glance at the time you will forced to remember that every day has 1440 minutes. How you spend those minutes make all the difference in the world.

Malcolm Gladwell pointed out the 10,000 Hour Rule in his book, Outliers, and how that concert violinists, professional pianists, and master chess players were those who had the discipline to spend 10,000 hours working to become what they were. You may think that 10,000 hours is a long time but when broken down it is really a ten year time frame where you spend about 20 hours a week with whatever discipline you are pursuing. Just think what might happen to you if you were to determine to begin spending 20 hours a week on your primary calling—preaching the Word? It is the most important and effective way that you can lead and direct a church. Such efforts add to the health, vision, and general well-being of the church.

The big question for a lot of preachers would be ‘where is your time going?’ In my thoughts, where your time is being spent is a huge matter of faithfulness. It is good to develop a rigid schedule that you follow to pull every bit of the ability that God longs to get out of us. If you don’t have a schedule, you will find that the demands of small things will consume the large priority of life. I remember J. T. Pugh in a seminar one time talking about the man who couldn’t get up and get going every day. By the time he made it out of bed around 10 or so, his day was already half-way gone and little could be accomplished. Brother Pugh then shared with us that he was very big on a disciplined approach to time. He told us that we should know our time and that it is the one commodity that cannot be saved; it can only be spent during that particular time frame. I have often quoted him from that particular seminar when he told us that “time is the coin of life, don’t let a fool spend it for you.”

To be effective, you must budget your time just as you would budget your money. Last year about this same time, I wrote a series of blogs about various preachers and their habits of preparation and while they all were varied in their approaches, the key was that all of these men were disciplined with their time. (The posts follow: Jeff Arnold, Scott Graham, Doug White, Jason Calhoun, John Carroll, Ben Weeks, J. H. Osborn.)

More often than not our time can get out from under us if we are not diligent about it. I remember a time management seminar that I once went to and the speaker was talking about the necessity for ministers to have a schedule. The argument was raised by one man that he did not want a schedule because it would confine him and not allow him to respond to the needs of the people he was serving. The speaker began to dismantle that view by showing the man how much time he was wasting as he was in his self-described wait mode. This is the sin of the convenient season.

J. C. Ryle—Laziness and frivolity are bad enough in any profession, but worst of all in that of a watchman for souls.

Every day needs to be filled with time for prayer and study. In fact, I strongly believe that the most important thing that I do for the church I pastor are fulfilled in those two areas. The congregations need most of all to see a godly example of purity, holiness, and a life that points them God-ward. This will not take place unless a man gives himself to prayer and the Word. In addition to this there are other components of leading a church—meetings of various sorts, hospital visits, etc.—and all of these have time factors involved.

What if I were to walk with you through your week, would I recognize your passion as being focused on God and His work or would your schedule tell me otherwise?

Do you consistently set aside blocks of time to prepare yourself spiritually and mentally for the task of preaching?

Do you guard your schedule from distractions that hinder this?

Are you willing to have the courage to decline some meetings that are going to waste time even though they may not be inherently wrong?

Do your recreational pursuits overwhelm your spiritual pursuits?

Do you waste large amounts to time clicking from one website to another? (Even this blog that I appreciate you reading, it can still waste your time.)

What do our schedules say about our passions and priorities?

I will not exhaust you with further questions but I would encourage you to see where your time is going. There are many different websites concerning time management that might be helpful for you.

What Do Your Stats Say?

I have developed a ritual every Thursday morning of going to the local Barnes and Noble here in Dothan. I go in and drink their overpriced coffee and read their books. Several weeks ago, I was just browsing around and stumbled across a book and found myself hooked by the opening chapter. It was written by Michael Lewis entitled Moneyball. It has turned out to be one the best books that I have read in the last year.

The book surrounds a philosophy that was developed by Billy Beane who was the general manager of the Oakland A’s. In the decade of the 1990’s, he had the formidable task of having the lowest operating budget among professional baseball teams but still faced with the challenge of winning. He would have 30 million dollars to work with as opposed to some clubs which had operating costs approaching 100 million dollars. Obviously those teams who had deep pockets could afford to purchase ball-players that were going to place them in contention for a championship but Beane did not have this luxury.

Just to give you an idea I rounded off these figures to show you what Beane meant. In the 2002 season his budget was $42 million and he won the division with 103 wins. The second place team was the Angels at $62 million; third was Seattle at $86 million; and last place was Texas at $106 million. Beane’s A’s won 31 more games than Texas with $60 million dollars less. The lesson in this: You have to quit looking at what you don’t have and make a difference with what you do have. It is funny now but Beane said it wasn’t too funny in the developing stages especially on draft day when the A’s looked like they had lost their marbles so to speak.

So with this challenge facing Billy Beane, he found some computer wizards and started looking at the statistics of college players and a small number of high school players. He discovered very a remarkable fact. Sometimes those fellows who looked like ballplayers weren’t worth what they got paid. It wasn’t long before he started drafting these very unlikely players and in doing so put the Oakland A’s in a position to beat some of the teams that supposedly had more talent because they had guys who looked like ballplayers.

He came to understand that talent is a curse rather than an asset for a ballplayer. Over time a player who depends on his talent never develops or reaches his potential. In fact, Beane discovered that players who had little or no talent but had a good work ethic and discipline were able to exceed what the players who supposedly had more talent did. There was a great quote that I scribbled down from the book by Cyril Connolly (Enemies of Promise): Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.

As I read this book about ballplayers, I started firing off some personal questions about whom I was and what I was about and this blog are some of those observations.

What do my habits say about me? There was a chapter about “How to Find a Ballplayer” and it went into the huge thing that baseball scouts often miss. They are overwhelmed by a player’s hitting streaks, size, and personality but rarely look beyond his batting average. Beane discovered that if he would draft guys who just got on base consistently it would be more important in the long run than someone who jacked the ball out of the park occasionally but had far more strikeouts and pop-ups. One part of the book describes a scene where Beane is in a very heated battle with about 10 of the A’s scouts. He wanted to draft a catcher who they all said was too fat. Beane finally yelled at them that he was not finding guys for jeans commercials but for guys who could get on base. They drafted him and he ended up playing a role in a year when they won 90 games. All of the players that Beane drafted had incredible habits. They were consistently on time for practice and did everything their coaches asked of them and it doing so their habits shaped their success.

Our society is consumed with image. Not only was this evident with the A’s scouts but it is played out on a much larger scale in our society. There is a maddening obsession with image not character. Image leads one to believe one thing but if there is no character to match the image, the image will dry up like last year’s corn husks. The scouts were only interested in players who looked like they could play. The real test is whether they can play or not. There has to be a conscious quest for godly and righteous things to rule us. But if you take great care in the condition of your soul, time will put you in places of influence to be able to encourage and care for others.

Power isn’t everything. Lewis wrote that the tendency is to gravitate toward power hitters and a massive amount of money is often wasted. When the Beane boys sought out players who had the stats and could get on base the coaches understood these players could be coached to develop power. But power did not necessarily equate to more runs or championships. The older I get the more impressed I am with those faithful ministers who started as plodders and have spent 10 or 15 years developing their calling. If you are a young minister and you are reading this blog, don’t let those fellows who blow by you, so to speak, confuse or discourage you. Don’t be victimized by what you can see. You slog your way into greatness and persistence and dedication are so crucial in ministry. Furthermore don’t fall for the bait of a denominational position because positions will drastically limit who you are and who you can become.

Discipline is always better than talent. Talent will make treaties with the status quo and little or no growth will ever be experienced. Don’t sell your soul to talent. Keep in mind a principled approach to God and life and over the years you will have invested in the most worthy things of life.

There is more than one season. Don’t ever forget mistakes and errors are part of your life. Just because you strike out a few times or make some throwing errors, pick it up and go on to the next play. Some men let themselves become paralyzed by a past mistake and they never recover from it and go on to the next level.
Everyone who has ever picked up a bat or put on a glove is an expert. You will contend with armchair ballplayers and spectators for the rest of your life. Get your plan and work it out and stick with it. You don’t build something overnight; you do it with your life. Don’t let the subjective tide of public opinion discourage you.

These things caused me to remember an A. W. Tozer quote from sometime back:

There are preachers looked upon by their people as divine oracles, who wag their tongues all day in light, frivolous conversation. Then before entering the pulpit . . . seek a last minute reprieve in a brief prayer. Thereby they put themselves into the position where the Spirit of the prophet will descend upon them. It may be that by working themselves into an emotional heat they may get by, may even congratulate themselves that they had liberty in preaching the Word. What they have been all day and all week is what they are when they open up the Book to expound it to the congregation. . . .



What do your stats say about you?

How much time do you pray . . . not preach about it or read about it?

How much time do you read the Word . . . not preach from it or talk about it?

How much effort are you putting forth in evangelism. . . .Not encouraging others to do it but your own involvement in it?

What do your stats say about you?

How are you spending your life?

How much are you studying to bring forth meaty and weighty messages to the congregation who hears the wisdom of the world all week long but are starving from the famine of the Word in our pulpits at large?

Are my sermons more stories than Scriptures?

Am I a true man of God . . . not the American caricature but the man of God that Paul describes in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus?

What do your stats say about you?

Is my preaching my own . . . or is it something I hastily scribbled down because I wasted time all week long?

Am I more aware of the things of the world or the things of the Kingdom of God?

J. T. Pugh -- 1923--2010 -- The Lighter Side

When I was at Texas Bible College (1989-1992), J. R. Ensey was the president of the school. It just so happened that some years prior to this, he had been the promotions director for the Home Missions Department when Brother J. T. Pugh was the Home Missions director. During that time, their close proximity working together had built a friendship between the two.

Brother Ensey was telling us one day in class that every Monday about mid-morning that he would go to Brother Pugh’s office and they would swap tales from their weekend preaching engagements. For those readers who come by and aren’t Pentecostal, an explanation might be in order leading up to this tale.

For whatever reason, Pentecostal churches over the years have always had the ability to attract some of the world’s first-class fruitcakes (as in people, not the brick-like dessert). I can remember as a kid some of the loony tunes who came through our church and I always held my breath, fearful of what antics they might get involved with before the service ended. In fact when I was in Houston going to school, one of the instructors, Ken Gurley, gave us a good piece of advice. He told us not to run off the village idiot (and every church had one) but to keep them around because if we ran them off they would be replaced with seven who were worse than they were. This provoked great mirth from our class. However as the years have flown by I have just about come to the same conclusion that Brother Gurley had.

So on this Monday morning, Brother Ensey came in and sat down and Brother Pugh, who was an incredible story-teller, began his tale. He had been invited to preach for Brother John Cupit who pastored a great church in New Orleans. Brother Pugh preached and gave the altar call. When he did, most of the church responded. A rather large crowd gathered in the altar area and before long, one of the village misfits began their harangue. Whatever this woman was doing it was complicated by some shaking activity and before long Pastor Cupit felt it wise to call her down. So he told her to stop shaking to which nothing happened, she kept on shaking; this continued on about five times or so until finally Pastor Cupit, with a great booming voice said, “I said stop that confounded shaking!”

As Brother Pugh was telling this story, each time he repeated what Pastor Cupit had said, he notched his voice up a bit. What Brother Ensey was not aware of was that with the HM Director’s office door open, a small group of people had been collecting out in the hall and were creeping up every time Brother Pugh would repeat the words to stop shaking. On that last, long, loud call with Brother Pugh almost shouting, “I said stop that confounded shaking!” there were five or six people with their heads stuck through the door all looking at Brother Ensey, who was sitting in his chair, back to the door, totally unaware of the gathering crowd. So engrossed in the story that Brother Pugh was telling, he had forgotten the open door.

When one of the people who was looking in the door asked, ‘Brother Pugh, is everything alright?’; Brother Ensey told us he looked around saw the crowd and then heard Brother Pugh say to them, “He’s OK now.” We all howled at this story. As time has passed, I periodically remember that tale and think of how hilarious that it must have been on that Monday morning at WEC when Brother Pugh was Home Missions Director.

Brother Ensey told us another story about a hospital visit that Brother Pugh made one day with General Superintendent Stanley Chambers. In addition to Brother Chambers there was another WEC official with him. Brother Pugh took off about four or five steps in front of these men and headed down the hall at a quick clip right behind him because they assumed he knew where to go. After a few turns, Brother Pugh walks up to a door, opens it, and holds out his arm leading Brother Chambers and his neighbor in the door. Both step in and Brother Pugh closes the door and heads off down the hall. He stops at the nurses’ station and then turns around and watches the door that he has just led these men into. In about 30 seconds or so, Brother Chambers and his cohort both step out and began looking around trying to get their bearings. . . . Brother Pugh had opened the door to a large janitor’s closet and they had both walked in. Again, we all howled at the antics of Brother Pugh.

Obviously, while he was a very serious man, it was also evident that he had a great sense of humor. . . .

What a bittersweet experience this has been remembering Brother Pugh but there is another chapter in his life. From the website of the church in Odessa comes the following announcement:

UPDATE: Bessie Pugh, wife of Bishop J.T. Pugh, passed away in her home at about 11:30PM on Wednesday March 24, 2010. Preliminary funeral arrangements are set for a double funeral service as initially scheduled for Friday, March 26, 2010.

J. T. Pugh -- 1923--2010 -- The Wisdom and Power of the Cross

With the passing of Brother J. T. Pugh, I am drawn to some memories that I have of him. I mentioned yesterday how that I had about a 30 minute conversation with him back in September, 1997. We were at a licensing seminar and he was the main speaker. After lunch I did not have a session that I was required to teach at the time and so just he and I were at a table in the fellowship hall of the church.

It was during that time that he was writing the book, The Wisdom and the Power of the Cross, which is one of the most incredible books I have ever read. Over the years, I have picked it up over and over and re-read various portions of it and now as I flip through some its pages, they are quit marked up and have numerous comments written out in the margins.

As he was writing this book, he told me a story about a bridge in Michigan. From that particular bridge 100 people have jumped in an attempt to commit suicide. Of those 100, 87 have died and thirteen have lived. Of those thirteen who lived, they have gone on to become very successful people in business and finance, education, and so forth. One of the thirteen was asked what it was that had made the change in his life. He related that the “shock” of the water, how cold that it was, how that he suddenly realized that if he did not swim that he was going to die. From this shock, he found the motivation to give life his all.

Brother Pugh then told me that the Cross brings a similar shock to our lives. Once men gain the understanding of the Cross Principle, it forces them to come to terms with their soul. What are we going to do with the shock that takes place with conversion? Will it have the capacity to change us? Will it direct us or will we direct it? Will it cause us to reach beyond ourselves in a spiritual sense for God or will we fritter away our opportunities?

The Cross brings the following to our lives:

The Shock of Contradiction -- No matter what we may tell ourselves or that others may tell us, the power of the Cross gives to us an identification of our own sin.

The Shock of Repentance -- Suddenly finding our lives convicted by the Spirit, we must do something. That something is the emptying of our hearts of the vile things that are generated by the flesh.

The Shock of Self-Surrender -- This goes against all that we have ever known. To give up, to give in to the call of God. Self-preservation is not the real focus of the kingdom. When self-surrender occurs, suddenly we began to overflow to others what God has given to us. Self-surrender helps us to understand that there is something of higher value and a greater cause in life.

The Shock of Holiness -- The power to overcome the wickedness of the flesh not on our own but by the drives of the Spirit.

Galatians 6:14 -- “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

Jesus reached the conviction that He must bear the Cross. He could not come to terms with the world, but was compelled by love to renounce deliverance and bear the Cross.

To take up the Cross:

Means to take sides with Christ.
Means to stand with Him at all hazards.
Means to oppose the worldly spirit even until our death.
Means you will have to bear some shame and loss what this world has to offer.
Means you will have to have far more courage than those in the world.

The Lord leaves us no room to doubt that every true follower of His must bear a Cross. It has to be a definite act of faith and taken up to follow him.

This was the gist of the conversation because as soon as it was over, I went and took my marble notebook and scribbled down all that I could remember that he had said. In the conversation, he did mention Brother Kilgore as a man who had entirely lived out the Cross Principle in his ministry. Today as I write this, it comes to me that both of these stalwarts grew up in incredible poverty and determined to change their worlds with the help of God. What does this say to our generation who has so much of an entitlement mentality? Will our entitlement mentality sink us whereas those who grew up in great poverty become world changers?

Here are some excerpts from that book that I underlined:

Ours is the generation that has witnessed the death of the American dream. The dream died because it was based on economic growth, technological progress, and military prowess. There is nothing in this to cause us to reach beyond ourselves in a spiritual sense. (p. 9)

The basic principle of self-giving is symbolized in the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross stands for self-sacrifice. The cross is a principle that spawns true Christian character and generates the only energy that drives the church in evangelism and missions. Church history reveals that the church is healthy, balanced and invincible when the cross is the center of all its considerations. (p. 11)

Often the children and successors of vanguard champions do not share the same vision and this first flaming zeal is reduced to a smoldering nostalgia. (p. 11)

How can we be captured by a new biblical vision of the future? How can we begin to truly live out the faith that we claim? The first step to a closer walk with God is repentance. This involves turning our backs on the current agenda of the world and all it embraces. It means to recognize and unmask the selfish motives of the flesh that are a major part of mere religion. Mere religious function must be put away in a hungry quest for a real personal relationship with Jesus Himself. To that end have I written this book. (p. 12)

Jesus had not clothed the task of evangelism with romance and glory but had introduced it in rough garments of duty. (p. 28)

Just last night, I stood on the parking lot at the Texas District camp meeting and, for over an hour, poured my heart out to a very promising young preacher. One of the things I tried to point out was the difference between a man who is only a preacher and another who may be both a preacher and a minister. I did my best to show that no preacher attains a ministry without suffering. Only in the folly of the Cross does our vision clear and our hearts truly “burn within us.” (p. 45)

There are a host of other things in this book that I cannot place here but you owe it to yourself to get it and read it over and over again.

On a closing note, I share with you some of the comments that I wrote in my copy of Brother Pugh’s book, The Wisdom and Power of the Cross, which he also signed for me:

The life totally devoted to God is a lifetime process, primarily because we often lack knowledge of what God is attempting to do. As our knowledge increases, often our commitment increases. This has to be applied to my life every single day! To become one who longs for and chases after the Kingdom of God. Often the pursuit of God’s kingdom takes us through humiliation, defeats, distresses, pressures, but as we go through these rites of passage, we become God’s man!

J. T. Pugh -- 1923--2010

An incredible stalwart among us has passed to his reward on this day. An e-mail found its way to my box this afternoon from UPCI General Superintendent David Bernard informing us of the passing of Jessie Truman Pugh. Over the years Brother Pugh has provided great insight and encouragement to a lot of men who are in the ministry. He was an icon among us and did his job with incredible discipline and insight. A number of sermons preached by Brother Pugh over the years can be found at Faithbuilder (enter the site and then select his name from the drop-down menu).

This week I will resurrect some of the recollections that I have of Brother Pugh. Although I cannot say that I was close to him, I did have a few opportunities to spend some time with him. The first time was in the fall of 1996 when I was involved in teaching a few sessions at the district licensing seminar in Alabama. He happened to sit down at the table where I was eating and since I did not have an immediate obligation in one of the after lunch sessions, I was able to spend about 30 minutes talking to him. It has been one of those lifetime memories that remain with me.

I heard another story recently about J. T. Pugh that probably fits well with this blog. J. T. Pugh was raised by his two older sisters in an old clapboard sharecropper’s cabin in Noble, Louisiana. His father died when Brother Pugh was just four years old. A tornado came through the town and he died in the tragedy of that storm. His mother died when he was just in his early teens and he was left with his two sisters to make the best of things as they could. He said that there never was a day in his life when he felt that he would just skip school and quit. He saw it as a way out of the deep poverty that he was so accustomed to growing up with.

It just so happened that when he was in high school that a teacher noticed that Brother Pugh had a talent for public speaking and the more she noticed him the more convinced she became that he could perhaps do something with it. She would go home at night and tell her husband about Brother Pugh’s thirst to learn and better himself.

Her husband owned a general story in Noble but this man also had some attachment to the local VFW. One day, Brother Pugh was walking home and passed by this store when the man was out front sweeping off the porch. He called out and said, “Are you J. T. Pugh?” to which Brother Pugh answered, “Yes sir, I am.” He told Brother Pugh that his wife, the schoolteacher, had been telling him about how he had applied himself to the books and lessons and also that he had a knack for public speaking. The conversation went on and he mentioned that every year the VFW would sponsor a student to give a patriotic speech and there were prizes that were awarded to the winners. If Brother Pugh was interested, the store owner told him he would work with him and it could be that he might win. He told Brother Pugh that they gave scholarships to various colleges around the country.

Time passed and Brother Pugh, the store-owner, and the schoolteacher, worked long hours after school with Brother Pugh crafting and working through his speech. Somewhere deep in his mind, Brother Pugh saw this as an opportunity for education to get him out of his deep seated poverty. So the work, the self-denial, was not a task but almost a relief.

The day arrived when he was to give his speech for the state competition. He did it flawlessly and won the competition at the state level. The next step was the regional competition which took place in Memphis. On the night that they gathered in Memphis, all of the contestants were taken behind the stage and placed in individual rooms so that they could not hear the presentation of the other speakers. Brother Pugh was in his room pacing back and forth giving his speech to the air when there was a knock on his door. One of the assistants stepped in and said, “Jessie Truman Pugh, it’s your time!” Brother Pugh said in his mind he thought, “Mister, you’re mighty right, it is my time!”

One of the finer details had been revealed to all of the contestants just before the competition had begun. The winner of the regional event would go on to New York City and compete nationally for a scholarship to Yale University. Brother Pugh felt like this was his ticket to get out of all of the poverty and downtrodden life he had lived. Something begin to beat on the inside of him like never before.

He went out on that stage in Memphis and delivered his patriotic speech and he won the southeastern regional division. Now it was on to New York to deliver his speech and to get the scholarship from Yale. Opportunity had finally swung in his direction!

There was a space of time between the regional competition and the national competition and during that space of time, Brother Pugh's two sisters were praying for him. The praying sisters lived in Tupelo, Mississippi where a very primitive Pentecostal Bible college had been set up. It so just happened that Brother Pugh went over to see them during the Christmas break. He said that when you get around praying people it has an effect on you and the Lord started pulling at him in Tupelo. His sisters were praying because they knew the end effect that would happen if he were to win this scholarship to Yale.

So late one night after going to church and getting in late, his sisters went on to bed and Brother Pugh was sitting in front of a pot-bellied wood stove in that cold December winter. The Lord was dealing with him about a call to preach and he was having all of his excuses torn down by God. After a while, he reached into his pocket and pulled out that speech and began to pace back and forth while he read his speech on that tattered notebook paper. Finally at last, he walked over to that stove and opened up the door and tossed his speech into the roaring fire.

However it happened, it did. . . Brother Pugh said that in that moment the Lord showed him his whole entire life. He won the speech contest, he went on to Yale and finished. The Lord showed him the woman he would have married. The Lord showed him the job he would have had and then it all turned and the Lord showed him a miserable life. One in which his material dreams would have been realized but his marriage would have been a prison trying to love a women who despised him, children out of control with no spiritual aspirations, and largely a very miserable life.

Fast forward in time to Deleon, Texas where he knelt down in a clapboard house by a threadbare, worn couch and asked, “Bessie, will you marry me? I can only promise you a life of wearing worn-out shoes, faded out dresses, without a car for several years, and you won’t have much. I can only promise you a life of doing the will of God but if you will have me, I will love you with all of my heart.” He said that with tears dripping off of her face, she said yes.

That was well over sixty years ago. Now, Sister Pugh is stricken with Parkinson’s and Brother Pugh is confined to the house and takes care of her night and day. He feeds and dresses her. He takes care of every need. Someone asked, “Brother Pugh, how do you feel about it now?” He told them, “It is my happy privilege to do it because for years she has sacrificed for the call. . . and her reward will be great!”

I told this story in a sermon I preached about 2 months ago to the home crowd here in Dothan. The story demonstrates the power of the call on a man’s life. It is highly, highly doubtful if Brother Pugh would have gone on to Yale that he would have made the impact on the Kingdom as he has done over the years. . . .

NOTE: Photo of Brother Pugh was from flickr account of Keith Womack. Apparently taken at a conference in Monroe, Louisiana.

The Neurosurgeon, Richard Dawkins, and Me -- Part 3

This is the third installment in this little series about my neurosurgeon friend recommending to me a book by Richard Dawkins (Part 1, Part 2). I am going to get ahead of myself just a bit with this particular post. There are other specific things that I will address most likely sometime next week concerning those who are trending toward atheism.

One of the chief reasons that I cannot buy into the concept of atheism is because of what I have been associated with for my entire life. I have been an eyewitness to the transforming power of the grace of God and the Gospel. My father-in-law started the church that I now pastor 43 years ago and over that course of time I have only been absent from it for 3 years when I was a kid because of a job transfer that my dad took in Niceville, Florida. Another three year absence occurred from 1989-1992 when I went to Texas Bible College in Houston, Texas. Other than these two times, I have been actively involved in our church.

So when Richard Dawkins gets on his podium to lecture about the fact that there is no God, I don’t get angry with him, I feel more of a profound sadness than any other emotion. It is simply for the fact that he has never been exposed to a side of “religion” that I grew up with.

This brings me to a short point today. If there is no God then how do you explain to me, logically, clearly, and rationally the power of transformation that I have witnessed in a whole lot of lives over the forty year history of our church? I have seen some of the dregs of society come into our church and God totally change them. I have witnessed marriages that were in shambles and family situations that were in total chaos come in and God step in and turn it around. We have former alcoholics, dopers, meth heads, down-and-outers, and up-and-outers experience God’s grace. They all walked away from lifestyles that were highly sinful and detrimental with hardly a backward look. I also have to tell you that there have been others who came in and did not make and slipped back out into horrific and painful situations. But I await Dawkins’ and anyone else’s explanation as to how these sorts of things take place.

One of my favorite stories to tell is how that my father-in-law went into a bar one Saturday and pulled someone out of the muck. Robert Redden was an alcoholic and a troubled man. For several Saturdays in a row, my father-in-law went by to try to get Robert to come to church on Sunday but he would never be there. One Saturday, he asked Pat (Robert’s wife) where he was and she told him the bar that he was at. So my father-in-law drove down to the bar and went in and sat down next to Robert while he was tanking up. Robert was stunned that a pastor would walk into a place like that and next thing you know, Robert is crying and pouring his heart out to my father-in-law. The next day Robert was in church with his wife and kids. God has worked incredibly through their lives over the years. Keep in mind, that there are many others in our congregation that the same thing has taken place in their lives.

We have had the gamut of people to come through over the years. Some of these folks were so scary that when I was praying for them, I had one hand on their head and the other on my billfold in my back pocket just in case they were pick-pocket artists! I have had people tell me, “You’re the last ditch effort for our marriage!” as if I were the one who could fix the problem. It is those moments that the sensible thing to do is let God begin to do His work in their lives. . . the God that Richard Dawkins says does not exist! Mr. Dawkins and my neurosurgeon friend are too late. . . I’ve already seen too much!

As earlier promised, I am going to pick back up with the academic side of the argument next week, but as a concluding point, I am attaching a video of the Atlanta West Pentecostal Church choir who won the Verizon Wireless “How Sweet the Sound” national choir competition. For them it was more than just a competition. . . It was God working through them because I have no doubt that there are some testimonies behind the faces that are in the choir. At the end, you will find yourself exposed to a small taste of what goes on in a lot of Pentecostal churches every Sunday night across the country. . .

God Bless and thanks for reading. . . .
PH

The Neurosurgeon, Richard Dawkins, and Me -- Part 2

Picking up from yesterday’s post about Richard Dawkins’ book The Greatest Show on the Earth, I have had several e-mails asking me if I would recommend someone to read this book. I have two answers to that.

First, I would suggest that anyone who is not very well founded in Scripture or if they are questioning the authority of Scripture not to read it. What Dawkins is doing is preying on those who are on the fringe of the Church. Having done a bit of investigation on Dawkins, it is very important for us to note that he has a very strong influence among a younger set, generally college-aged crowd. YouTube has some various lectures that he has given and one that I watched was at Oklahoma University. Another lecture that I watched as given in Washington, D.C. to a large and somewhat rowdy group of old fat guys (like me) who fancied themselves as intellectuals.

Paul (1 Timothy 4:1) mentions a seducing spirit and it is my thoughts that this is what this book is based on. Dawkins is an outright atheist, but his tone in this book is not necessarily one of antagonism but more so the serpent trick that Eve encountered in Genesis 3. The serpent inserted doubt by asking a question, “Has God said?” and the question plagued her mind until she fell. Dawkins works the questions that attempts to do nothing more than create doubt. There are times that Dawkins is very antagonistic, in fact one of his earlier books The God Delusion takes that approach.

Secondly, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get down to the nitty gritty of apologetics. The reality of the fact is that you don’t need a lot of theology to discount Dawkins arguments. If you are a logical and critical thinker, you won’t even get through the preface before all sorts of questions begin to arise concerning Dawkins ideas about evolution and atheism. Frankly I enjoyed the challenge that Dawkins presented because it pushed me in a direction of study that I rarely go, the zone of apologetics. The majority of people to whom I preach, teach, and write to are either believers or they are leaning in that direction. Dawkins is an outright atheist but what was very scary to me was that some of the ideas that he was touting were embraced by some of the popular authors of our times, not just popular secular authors, but popular “Christian” authors. It is apparent that the fox is guarding the henhouse. 2010 needs to be a year of increased discernment. Discernment is very closely attached to loving God with your mind!

Dawkins begins his book by creating a scenario about Rome not existing and how that a teacher cannot even explore the intricacies of Roman society because he is too busy having to defend its existence. He moves from this concept and makes the comparison with evolution and how that teachers cannot even explore evolution because they are having to defend it against the creationists or intelligent design proponents.

Dawkins also threw in a blurb about atheism in his opening salvo. The first thing that struck me was what Paul wrote to the church at Rome.

Romans 3:3 KJV For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

Romans 3:3 NASB What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?

It does not matter what men think about God, He is still there! It does not matter if it is a 7th grade science teacher, a full-blown atheist like Dawkins or my friend, the neurosurgeon, the thoughts and intents of their heart has zero effect on whether or not God exists or does not exist. The sad thing is that they will face God when their lives are finished and have to give an explanation for how they spent their personal talents and gifting.

Another thing that struck me was a rising question that came to mind, “Do you know everything?” For an atheist to say there is no God, he has to know everything. It is very obvious to me that they do not know everything because we are still waiting on a number of cures for various diseases in the medical field. They do not know a solution for the economic problems that the world is currently embroiled in. They do not have answers to the plaguing problems of world peace. These three areas are just the tip of the iceberg for what they do not know. So if they cannot give answers to those social questions of the day then how in the world can they give a valid answer to a spiritual question?

Yet another question that came to mind was one of ethics and behavior. All men come with an innate and I believe God-given process of conscience which causes them to observe some form of moral law. Man basically knows that murder is wrong. He is also aware of various other degrees of behavior that is either right or wrong. From where did this come from if there is no God? The question of conscience has to be answered.

I shall continue this. . . .

Thanks for reading. . . . .

PH