Author: lesterhutson316

Oh how easy it is to forget where we fit in the overall scheme of things! Selfishness and self-sufficiency is a disease with which all of us are fatally infected. Me. Mine. What I want. My way. My car. My money. My home. My job. My wife. My time. Jesus once asked one of us, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” Luke 12:20.

The truth is that we are all stewards, not owners. That’s right. In the big scheme of things, not one of us owns one thing. God owns everything including the air we breathe, the earth where we reside, time itself and even us. We didn’t bring even one penny into this world, and we won’t take even one penny out. We’re just passing through, privileged to enjoy a few of the things that belong to God the owner. When you back off a bit and look at the true picture, it becomes obvious that every moment is precious. Yes. Precious! Call it a lifetime trip or the trip of a lifetime; either way, life is quite a trip.

The older I get the more keenly aware of stewardship I become. Managing what God lets me have is a daily balancing act, especially time management. From the deepest recesses of my soul I want to use wisely all he allows me to touch. It is not uncommon for people to become somewhat irritated with me because I’m not as readily available as they think I should be. They can’t always instantly reach me by phone, and I don’t return their call quickly enough. They want me to call or visit someone, make a hospital or shut-in call or be somewhere or do something. Usually on their timetable. With all the preaching and seminar work I do (all of which requires lots of preparation, usually many hours), the books and other materials I write, the travel and the help and advice I give to people all across America and often foreign countries, I often find myself overwhelmed. There’s more work than there is boy, not to mention a wife and family and a seemingly incessant increase in time spent in doctor’s offices.

More and more this forces me to view my time and other resources in light of the eternal, what my owner would have me as a steward do with His resources including the time He allows me to have. Only He knows how much I want to make it count! My use of it may sometimes disappoint and irritate others, but more than anything else I want my stewardship to be acceptable to God. If I have disappointed you, please forgive me. Sometimes my days and weeks end well before I complete all that is before me. Thanks to all of you who have cut me a little slack and been so patient and understanding. Pray that I will give the very best I have to my Master, and be a good steward of the resources He has entrusted to me. I am well aware that the day of accounting for my stewardship is not far away.

The incessant parade of counterfeit ways to be right with God and soothe the conscience never ceases to amaze me. Quit your sins. Be baptized. Baptize the babies. Go to church. Join a church. Be a good person. Be sincere. Be zealous. Work hard. Sacrifice yourself. Crawl on your bare knees over rocks to a holy shrine. Give lots of money. Pray The Sinner’s Prayer. And now the wave is, you don’t need a church or a particular religion; just be spiritual.

No need for a church or any formal religion or religious activities. In fact, “We don’t like religion. We don’t need it. We have our own spirituality.” On its Today show, NBC recently aired a series legitimizing this kind of thinking. I’ve heard it for years, “God and I have an understanding. I don’t believe in organized religion. I don’t need a church. I have my own arrangement with God.”

I’m reminded of one of Israel’s lowest points: a time of lawlessness, violence and utter chaos. The prevailing idea of the day is summed up in Judges 21:6. “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Sounds like today; every man insists on being his own spiritual authority. “No church, no preacher, no Bible is going to tell me what to do. That’s between me and God.”

The fact is that had not God told us, not one of us would know what He thinks, what is right or wrong or what it takes to be right with Him. If He hadn’t told us, it would be any man’s guess and no man’s opinion would be any better than any others. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Romans 11:33. But, He has told us. Talk about presumptuous and egotistical, to bypass and ignore the Bible where God has clearly stated who He is and what it takes to be right with Him and in turn substitute your own ideas about Him exalts folly!

Thank God for a free country where any person can believe anything he chooses even when he is blatantly wrong, but do not forget that believing something doesn’t make it right even when you are passionate and sincere. God is the author of and final authority on truth: who He is, what is right and wrong, what is takes to be right with Him. It is pretty obvious that people all over the world have their own ideas about God, and the general consensus is that it really doesn’t matter what you believe, even if you don’t believe there is a God. Just be deeply spiritual. That’s the only thing that really counts, and in the end it will all work out.

God said, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 14:12. It’s not up to each person to come up with his own scheme about God, to write his own code about what spirituality is and how to be right. To be right you have to think God’s way and do things His way; and it is in the Bible that He tells humanity who He is, how he thinks and how to do things right.

All concepts out of step with His will ultimately fail. Sadly all who embrace concepts which are not founded in the Scriptures are doomed to perish with their homemade concepts. It takes more than a baptism, a church membership, a parade of good works, a prayer and being spiritual to be right with God. No one is right with God who has not had a personal meeting with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, God is the author of organized religion. Yes. According to Him, every person who personally meets Christ should give his life to serving Christ in one of His churches. No one who fails to do that is right with God.

Improvement. Doing better. It’s a part of all of us. Coaches work to get every ounce of performance they can out of every player. Coaches, players and fans alike dream of going to the top: the state championship, the Final Four, the Super Bowl. There’s something about J.J. Watt that inspires all of us to be our best.

You hear a lot about it as a New Year cycles across the horizon. Resolutions to eat better, to lose weight, to quit bad habits and to get into shape. The desire to do better gets really cranked up at church. The Rev thunders about the need to better serve the Lord. He trounces dead beat and half-hearted Christianity, and we know he’s right. There’s conviction. We’re at a natural doorstep of new beginnings and opportunities to straighten up and get things right. So with considerable emotion, we go down front and promise God things are going to be different. This time, we’re for real. We’re going to do it. We’re going to do better. We say it in our hearts and out loud to those around us.

History has proven that most of the time our pious promises don’t hold up. But, they make us feel good. We thought about it and have a good heart. Our intentions are good. In well over half a century in the ministry, I have heard lots of promises. My! They really roll out when people think they’re about to die. At a time like that, they’ll promise God just about anything. If He’ll spare their lives and heal them, they will serve Him faithfully forever. I am sad to say that I’ve heard a lot more talk than I’ve seen follow-through.

Someone has wisely said that talk is cheap. It shouldn’t be, but too often it is. I rejoice when people become convicted about where they are in life and when they aspire to do better. I say, “Yes. Do it. That’s God’s way. He wants growth in all of us. It’s not His will that any of us plateau and stalemate.” At the same time I am wondering how the person with the good intentions is going to get it done. Has he taken a serious look in his mirror and diagnosed his situation? Does he really see his weaknesses and where he needs to improve? Is he truly honest about where he is? What is he going to improve: his attitude, his priorities and his integrity? Is he going to become kinder, more caring and competent and a more effective worker? Is he going to treat his mate better? What about the people at work? And, the neighbors? What’s he going to do about that loose tongue, those irresponsible ways and that self-centered approach to life?

I’m also wondering about his game plan. I’m curious to know how he plans to get from point A to point Z (or even B). Is he going to get into the Bible and seek God’s counsel on his issues? Is he going to seek out people with proven track records and let them help him? Is he going to deliberately address his weakness and work to do better in specific areas? I know for sure that until a person gets specific about areas of need, little if any improvement is going to occur.

Change for the better is a wonderful concept, but usually it is nothing more than an empty pipe dream. There must be more than good intentions and empty rhetoric. Vain words and a trip down front won’t cut it. Improvement involves serious intentions followed by lots of hard work. Athletes who win gold medals pay a high price: sweat, endless practice, long hours, dedication and plenty of sacrifice. Everybody wants a great body with a gold medal around the neck. Not very many are willing to pay the price. It is easy to say, I want to improve and be a better person. It is not so easy to get serious about it.

Christmas is really about Jesus Christ. He left heaven where all power, glory and praise was His and came to this earth where He was rejected, hated and abused beyond adequate description. The Bible puts it this way. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:5-8.

Imagine that! He was the creator of all things. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” John 1:3. He is the “Almighty,” Revelation 1:8. There can be many who are mighty, but there is only one Almighty. Jesus Christ was (and is) “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords,” 1 Timothy 6:15. Nobody made Him come here and go through that absolutely horrendous, bloody, mind-boggling ordeal. He did it voluntarily, of His own free will. Hear it in His own words. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” Matthew 28:18. “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself,” John 10:18.

What would move Him to do such a thing? Just one thing: His love for you and me. Yes! “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” John 3:16. God knew that all of us are sinners and that sin has consequences. “The wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. That’s not merely a grave, it’s separation from God. Unless sin is properly addressed, the separation is eternal in a lake of fire. No man is capable of properly addressing his sins. Only the blood of an innocent, sinless sacrifice can do it. If the sin problem damning every man was to be addressed, God would have to personally address it. Only He is sinless and qualified. Would He give Himself in the place of sinners or would He stand by and let all of them perish in the lake of fire? We know the answer to that question. He’d willingly and voluntarily do for them what they could not do for themselves. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for us . . . God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:6, 8. What made Him do it? Love, not for the lovely and good; but love for us as unlovely as we are! “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us,” 1 John 3:16.

Oh what a joyous season Christmas is! We love the special time with family and other loved ones. We make little chubs out of ourselves with all that great food. Who doesn’t like to be remembered with special cards and gifts? So much glitter, the festivities, a little time off from work! I love those beautiful Christmas trees and all those decorations. The music is great, especially the carols. The kids are all full of anticipation. The excitement is contagious. Yes, it’s a great, great season!

But, the bottom line is Jesus Christ! Christmas is really about Him. Our hope is in Him. If He had not come, Christmas and life would be empty, meaningless. There would be no hope, especially beyond the grave. It would all be about right here; and with aging, disease, death and a world that is more and more dangerous and out of control there couldn’t be very much joy. The good news is that He did come; and while He was here He died on the cross, went to the grave and three days late conquered it in resurrection. Yes, that’s really good news. Upon the strength of what He did, every man can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Someday the body will go back to the earth from which it came, but the spirit of all who come to Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life will go to be with God forever.

In view of His coming and sacrifice Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,” John 10:28. Friend, don’t miss Christmas. It’s about Jesus Christ doing for you what you cannot do for yourself. You have one and only one lifetime to get it right. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” Revelation 22:17.