Tag: experts

DIY

Wayne Moyers

If you have ever watched any home improvement TV shows, I’m sure you have seen the ads for Home Depot and their slogan, “Getting Projects Done.” This ad is aimed at the do-it-yourself’er, the DIY’er.

I have to admit that I am a DIY’er. I enjoy watching TV shows and YouTube videos of other DIY’ers and experts, trying to learn as much as I can to make my next project easier and hopefully have better results. I’m confident that many of you are DIY’ers as well. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from successfully completing a DIY project. No matter how large or small, no matter if it’s something around the house, a landscaping project in the yard, a repair or something to the car, truck, or, my personal favorite, the tractor.

No matter how much we learn on how much knowledge we acquire taking on these projects, there is one project that is way too big and way too important for any DIY’er. That project is our salvation. No matter what our DIY abilities are, we cannot save ourselves. Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Then, he writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8).

No man’s wisdom, knowledge, message, experience or abilities can save him, but God’s gospel can. It is the only thing that can save us and the only way to salvation (John 14:6). God, through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has provided a way to rescue us from the consequences of sin. He offers us salvation so that we can have a second chance at life and an opportunity to experience a spiritual rebirth into a new life in the Spirit and ultimately eternal life with Him in heaven (Acts 2:46-47). God says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

If you have not been obedient to the gospel and need to take advantage of the salvation that God has offered or you have need of the prayers of God’s people, don’t try to do it yourself. Do what God says do for the help only He can give.

Alone!

Neal Pollard

Kathy and I very recently discovered an interesting show produced by the History Channel, and the title of the series is “Alone.” It is a “reality show” (not usually a fan of those), but it involves survival experts dropped, alone, in the middle of nowhere. They get to take ten items of their choice to help them battle predators, the elements, and, most of all, isolation. Food, water, shelter, and fire top their priorities, but even having these cannot prevent the maddening monotony of being deprived of human companionship.

I love the way Solomon says it in the book of Ecclesiastes. “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken” (4:9-12, NLT, emph. mine). At the very beginning, God made it clear that it isn’t good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). Alone one is in trouble, in the cold, and in danger. It is not good for us.

The survivalists on the show figure that out. So does the person, even with people all around them, who keep themselves in isolation. Think of all the ways God combats our loneliness.

  • He gives us marriage (Gen. 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:9).
  • He gives us children (Psa. 127:3-5).
  • He gives us the church (Eph. 2:19).
  • He gives us the assemblies (Heb. 10:24-25).
  • He gives us fellowship (Acts 2:42).
  • He gives us hospitality (Rom. 12:10,13).
  • He gives us counselors and mentors (Prov. 15:22; 24:6; Ti. 2:3-4).
  • He gives us the aged (Lev. 19:32; 1 Tim. 5:1).
  • He gives us shepherds (Acts 20:28).

Life is difficult for the person determined to go it alone! We are left with our thoughts, which may or may not be accurate reflections of reality or at least the whole picture (Prov. 18:17). We are deprived of the very resources God has given to help us successfully overcome life’s challenges. It is an easy habit to get into to withdraw from the company of others, but it is not healthy! We need others, and, just as much, they need us!

The guys on the reality show voluntarily go it alone for money and notoriety, but, even with that incentive, the loneliness gets unbearable. For us, the prize and reward does not require us to cloister ourselves. It requires the opposite! May we never choose to be alone, when we have so many tools supplied by God to survive the challenges of this life.

Armchair Elders

Neal Pollard

He shouts at his TV with a mouthful of Cheetos. “I can’t believe you! Four receivers downfield and you throw it behind the line of scrimmage to a man who’s double covered! You’re pathetic. Must be nice to get millions of dollars to make awful decisions. Where do I sign?” After several additional one-sided conversations with the TV, Mr. Potato (first name: “Couch,” aka “Armchair Arnie”) dusts crumbs off his potbelly with those trademark orange fingertips and limps into the kitchen, stiff from sitting three hours, to get another snack before the second half of the NFL doubleheader.

Water cooler wide receivers. La-Z boy linebackers. The game’s true experts do not prowl the sidelines with headsets, nor do they actually suit up, strap on, and sweat it out. The guys with all the answers are the ones who would crumble with fear if placed on the same field with the athletes they so roundly criticize for bungling with the ball.

I have observed that the same temptation can occasionally strike some with regard to elders. Whether it be their judgment or painstaking decisions, their handling of a member’s problems or needs, or their overall “job performance,” elders get taken to task more often than they realize by pew chair presbyters. They may criticize elders for what they did or for their failure to act, for being too strict or too lenient, for showing favoritism or trying to please everyone, for being too conservative or too liberal–all with the regard to a single action taken or decision made.

There is a striking similarity to the “armchair quarterbacking” done by unfit, unqualified spectators at sporting events. Those who can’t are apt to criticize those that can and do. It is far easier to question and condemn the actions taken by elders without the benefit (and angst) of wrangling with problems and decisions oneself. How we can eloquently outline the plan of action we would take absent the pressure and responsibility of being in the position.

Let’s pray more for our elders and pass judgment less! Let’s support them with might, not scrutinize them under a microscope. They need our cooperation and submission (Heb. 13:17). They could do with less backbiting and murmuring (cf. 1 Co. 10:10).

That’s not to say that elders are beyond reproach and rebuke (1 Tim. 5:20). Occasionally, an elder or eldership may be deserving of question–particularly in the area of doctrine or their personal qualification. As a longtime Falcons fan, I had to endure the likes of Scott Hunter, Pat Sullivan, and June Jones! They were terrible quarterbacks, though much better than I could ever have been. Elders will answer directly to Christ for their shepherding of the local flock. We, as embers, will also answer for how we cooperated with and supported them. Let’s all resolve to get out of the chair and join them on the field (cf. John 4:35)!

sedentary

“What’s Wrong With The Church…”

Neal Pollard

The blogosphere is getting pretty rife with posts about how the church is inept in method or impure in motive on just about everything, from good works to evangelism to preaching to leadership to cultural relevance. It appears that we (the church) have a skewed perspective of the past, we are doing practically nothing now (at least nothing right), and we have a doomed future.  We have no clue how to reach millennials or keep converts (not that anyone’s winning anyone).  We’re losing our young people. We’re full of hypocrites. We have no vision or it’s the wrong vision.  We’re at once too legalistic while too soft on sin and uncommitted in discipleship.

Do such posts draw an elevated number of hits or similar attention?  Do they gratuitously spark or provoke strong emotions from readers?  Do they make good tabloid journalism?

The church faces enormous challenges that require greater service, dedication, faithfulness, and sacrifice.  Being full of sinners, we’re imperfect and have plenty of room for improvement.  I guess my question is what the objective of this “Negative Nelly” approach is.  To better motivate and encourage growth? Or is it to beat down, create guilt, or demonstrate some sort of superiority by the “pundit”? Is it a spiritual approach or does it look more like the world than we might like to admit? May we never be like the ostrich, head buried in the sand and ignorant of reality around us.  Yet, as Christians, may we exemplify a joy and positivity borne of following Jesus.

Because of sin, things have always been bleak–including when He walked the earth.  Yet, rather than lament a falling sky, He came to make a positive difference in this world.  His followers’ writings were rich with words like “hope,” “grace,” “heaven,” “faith,” “unity,” “forgiveness,” and “peace.”

What if we made more suggestions and used less sarcasm? What if we concentrated more on our own example and less on everyone else’s errors? What if we balanced our hand-wringing about what’s wrong with the church with hand-raising about what’s right with it? What if?

“No Doubt You Are The People, And Wisdom Will Die With You!”

know-it-all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neal Pollard

This is, in my estimation, the most withering of Job’s comebacks to those miserable comforters introduced to us as his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (2:11).  The statement is made by Job in Job 12:2 at the end of the first cycle of speeches by these friends, in all of which are accusations and insinuations that Job was suffering due to sins he had committed.  They were wrong, but they were certain they were right.

Aren’t there more than a few Eliphazes, Bildads, and Zophars today?  There are those who act as though they believe civilization has been holding its collective, bated breath in great anticipation of their arrival.  So many complexities, mysteries, and intellectual quagmires have sat stubbornly, mystifying their forebears, but pliably come forward as mere child’s play for them.  Or perhaps they purport themselves to be experts, demonstrating academic or professional credentials in support of such.  They may even move or speak with the air of unmistakeable confidence.  It might be that they have substantial followings and impressive venues to spout their philosophical triumphs.  

But, as the case was for Job, the proof is in the pudding.  God’s Word proved these men wrong.  Job 42 shows that their claims and theories, however confidently asserted, were at odds with His mind.  They spoke words of man’s wisdom.  It may have sounded right on the surface, but it wasn’t right.  

Consider Paul’s message to Corinth.  He speaks of preaching, the foolishness of God, coming in the wake of men’s inability to grasp His wisdom.  Then he writes, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:25-29).

Humility, teachability, and submission are three indispensable quality traits we must possess when it comes to the Bible.  Our theology must be formed by the latter (the Bible) and our character is formed by the former (the quality traits).  Let us forever be less concerned with being judged right by others and be consumed with a desire to be right with God.