When heaven is silent ...

Our 30^th President was Calvin Coolidge. President Coolidge was a man of few words and when he did speak he was known for his bluntness. One time a female journalist said to the President, “Mr. President, I made a $100 bet with another journalist that I could get you to say more than three words in this interview. Would you care to comment?” President Coolidge smiled at her and said, “You lose”. From then on he was often referred to by the nickname “Silent Cal”.

There are times when we want to refer to God as “Silent God”. In times of painful trials and tribulations we often cry out, “Why, God? Why me? Where are you?” and in response it seems that heaven is silent; more than once this has been my experience. Job in the bible is the poster child for enduring pain, suffering, and loss. He’s a wealthy family man with 10 children, and God declares he is “righteous”. Satan then accuses God of having bought Job’s worship by blessing him so much. God allows a satanic attack where job loses his wealth, and his children. When Job still doesn’t turn on God, Satan inflicts him with boils from his head to toe. It’s at this time his wife turns on him asking if he still held to his integrity; she wanted him to admit all of their problems were because of him and his sin. As she tells him to “curse God and die” (see Job 2:9), Job’s three ‘friends’ show up and tell Job there must be some great sin in his life or he’d not be having the troubles he is.

For about 35 chapters Job questions his friends and also questions God. While his friends are a broken record saying it must be his sin, God is silent. It’s not until Job 38 that God answers, and when He does, He answers Job with questions of His own. In Job 38:3 God says to Job “I’m going to question you and you will answer Me.” In chapters 38-41, God asks Job no less than 187 questions. Questions like “Where were you when I created the earth?” (38:4-7); “How many sunrises have you made?” (38:12-13); and “Can you control the stars?” (38:31-33).

Let me suggest three lessons that Job learned, that are lessons we need to know when heaven seems silent.

Lesson #1 – God often speaks to us during our storms. Job 38:1 says that “God answered Job out of the whirlwind”. The world whirlwind, according to Strong’s, can be translated ‘hurricane’. So God spoke to Job out of a great storm. I believe God still speaks to us in our storms. Whatever storm you face today; marital, financial, familial, relational, whatever, if you will listen for His voice I think God will speak to you out of that storm. Often the reason heaven seems silent, at least to me, is because I want a different answer than what God seems to be giving.

Lesson #2 – We are speechless before God’s power and His wisdom. In Job 23:3-4 Job had boasted, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him that I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.” Job wants to go all Larry King on God; God you sit there and I will ask the questions and you answer them. But after hearing the 187 questions from God, in 42:6 Job says he “abhors” himself. The word “abhor” is the Hebrew word ‘galal’ which means lightweight. In other words Job becomes overwhelmed by God’s greatness and His ignorance of the ways of God and admits when compared to God he is an intellectual lightweight.

Lesson #3 – There is peace when you trust in the sovereignty of God. The easiest way to define sovereignty in my mind is by saying “God has the right to do whatever He pleases.” God rules and reigns and His way and will is always perfect.

So if you are walking in troubled silence today, and God does not seem to be answering, I would encourage you to remember the words to Arron’ Shust’s song My Savior My God. The words say, “I am not skilled to understand, What God has willed what God Has planned. I only know at His right hand, Stands One who is my Savior.” Here’s a simple prayer you may need to pray today. “Father, I don’t understand You or Your ways today. But I will trust You with today and trust You with all my tomorrows.” Be blessed and know you are never alone (see Hebrews 13:5).

The International Mission Board decision to reduce the number of missionaries on the field

On August the 27^th the IMB ‘senior leadership’ led by our IMB President, Dr. David Platt, presented their plan to put the IMB on a more stable financial footing for the future. The plan includes reducing mission’s staff and personnel by 800 either through attrition, voluntary retirements, or ‘transitioning’ people from roles within the IMB to roles outside of the IMB (aka seeing people go to work for churches, other missions sending agencies, or wherever) over the next several months. In 2009 Southern Baptists had 5,600 missionaries and this proposed reduction will lower that number to about 4,200; a loss of 1,400 in six short years. I find this unacceptable in an age when there are 7 billion people on earth, over ½ of which live in unengaged unreached people groups, which means there are less than 2% believers in their people group and there is no effort being made by Christians and or missionaries at this time to engage them with the gospel. But at the same time I think it is equally unacceptable that the IMB has been forced to spend $210 million more than it has received since 2010. With 80% of what the IMB spends being spent on personnel costs, it is obvious that personnel costs must be part of the solution. Trust me when I say that it is not because our missionaries are getting paid exorbitant salaries and getting rich that these costs are high; our missionaries sacrifice much to stay on the field. But the IMB does a great job providing for the insurance and retirement needs of our missionaries as well as housing, transportation, and so many other things while they serve on the field; things that other missions agencies either don’t provide or the missionary must constantly be coming home to help raise part of their support for.

In my mind there are three things that must happen for Southern Baptists to be as effective as possible in getting the gospel to all peoples.

1.       Stewardship – I think what is happening with the IMB is reflected on a much smaller scale in the local church. I truly believe that God has supplied Southern Baptists with more than enough resources to take care of not just the missions’ personnel we currently have but to greatly increase that number. The problem is that money is still in the pockets of the average Baptist and in the checkbook of the average church. Having been a pastor for 25 years spread over 4 churches of various sizes, I have come to understand the percentage that is given to their local church by the average Baptist sitting in the pews on Sundays; let’s just say it is far less than what I think honors God. In so many of our churches 15-20% of the people are carrying 80% of the financial costs while 80-85% of the people either ‘tip’ God or completely ‘free load’ on God’s church and God’s people. Our sacrifice in giving and going should be nothing less than the sacrifice the Lord was willing to make for us. If I understand Galatians 2:20 correctly, I died in 1978 when I gave my heart to Christ. It is now no longer about what Tom James wants but what Christ wants to do as He lives His life in and through Tom James. As Christ lives through us I am pretty positive that He would give more than 1% to His church and would certainly not ‘free load’ on the people of God; enjoying the pleasures and blessings of the local church all while doing nothing to support the work going on there. But the problem does not just rest in the lap of God’s people; a good part of the problem is found in the lap of God’s pastors and pulpits. Recently as KBC President I had opportunity to hear what many of our KBC churches give to the Co-Operative Program; I was dismayed. For a church to have a $300,000 budget and give 1% to missions or a multi-million dollar budget and give not a dime to missions is completely unacceptable. God’s man must do a better job of leading God’s people to see the need of making sure the gospel gets to the ends of the earth. I think if pastors did a better job of teaching, preaching, and promoting missions in the local church we would not even be having this discussion today. As a pastor has I think part of the solution to this dilemma is stewardship. 

2.       New paradigm of missionaries – As pastors I think we must call our people to a more radical obedience. Southern Baptists numbers of missionaries could explode in just a few years if we led our people to think outside the box while understanding their responsibility to ‘Go’ with the gospel. So many of our church members serve in careers where they could easily find a job overseas be it as an educator, banker, businessman, musician, etc...; the types of jobs available overseas is almost endless. If we would begin to dream of a businessman or teacher going overseas to serve in the field drawing their financial support from the ‘secular’ work they do while not depending upon a mission board to take care of much of the financial cost of their living overseas, if they did this with the ultimate goal of living among people who need Christ, almost every country in the world could come into play as a possible landing spot for a Southern Baptist who saw their role as being one of taking the gospel to the peoples of the world. We must learn a new paradigm while convincing our people that being a missionary is not for the ‘professionals’ only; that God has called us all to be missionaries and witnesses (Acts 1:8). The question is not whether we will be a witness or not, that was decided when we came to Christ; the question has now become what kind of witness will we be. 

3.       Personal Involvement – I can testify that our churches missions giving went up exponentially when we began to engage more of our people in actual missions. Eastwood currently has 8 mission’s partnerships going on 5 continents. For a church our size this stretches us thin. But with increasing the number of people going on an annual basis by 1,500% over the past ten years it seems logical that our giving would go down as people are using their available mission’s dollars to go themselves. But just the opposite has happened. Our giving has increased from $14,000 ten years ago to $80,000+ this past church year. This on top of increasing C/P giving by 3% over that time to 12.25% now. I recite these numbers not to ‘brag’ but simply to say that our God is not ‘logical’ in the sense of how we think He will work. Rather He chooses to bless those who are obedient to pray, to give, and to go.

Pray for the 800 missionaries, families, and staff that will either accept an early retirement offer or be downsized over the next several months. Pray for our IMB leadership to have wisdom as decisions are made. But I’d ask you to pray especially hard for the 16 million Americans who say they are Southern Baptist, that God would grip their hearts to where their commitment to Him, His causes, His Church, and the gospel greatly increases.

Please Mr. President do the right thing even if it is not politically expedient

I know that Jeremiah said that the human heart is deceptive and that no one can really know it. Having said that I do not believe my heart is racist. I try to see men, women, boys, and girls the way I believe that God sees them; namely lost or saved. I believe in the truth of the song we sang as kids at vacation bible school: “Red and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Are there things that ‘people of color’ do that irritate me? Absolutely – but when I say ‘people of color’ I mean people of all colors, including Caucasian. I have to constantly remind myself that “sinners will act like sinners 100% of the time.” But I am disturbed when a person who claims the name of our Lord acts like a lost person, or at best a very carnal believer. I know that I am in no position to judge another man’s salvation and the only person that I can speak to their salvation with 100% accuracy is Tom James.

I must point out that I have not been one to needlessly bash President Obama. On January 27, 2013 I preached a strong message entitled ‘Praying For Our President’ using 1 Timothy 2:1-7 and a few other texts as the basis. I shared how we have an obligation as believers, according to the Word of God, to pray for our President and those in authority over us. Do I agree with all of his policies? No, but then I didn’t agree with all of President Bush’s policies either. This is not a Republican or Democrat rant; this is simply a “Mr. President, please be consistent, do what is right, and lead our nation with integrity before the world rant.”

Many of you who will read this will not agree with me and I’m fine with that. As you read this please read this as Tom James, Christian, husband and father as the author and not Tom James, Pastor of Eastwood, or Tom James, President of the KBC as the author. I am certain that my thoughts do not reflect the attitudes of all who call Eastwood home or all who call themselves Kentucky Baptists. I’m writing as the son of a man whose father went to Vietnam four times when I was a small boy, and he left each time as a hero in his son’s eyes. I’m writing as the brother and brother-in-law to a brother, his wife, and a sister’s husband who all gave their adult career lives serving in our military. I’m writing as a very frustrated citizen troubled by the great, and tragic inconsistencies of a President.

Ok, point blank, here’s what’s bugging me … I will get it off my chest, express myself using my free speech rights, and pray I don’t lose too many friends over it.

• Our greatest, and really only true ally in the Middle East in my opinion, Israel, was recently thrown under the proverbial bus by our President and his administration in the nuclear deal with Iran. Ask yourself why in his 1^st term President Obama never visited Israel once after he said that ‘peace in the Middle East’ would be a top priority of his administration. Iran has vowed repeatedly that they will not settle for anything less than Israel being wiped off the face of the map, and yet we make an agreement with Iran that gives in to many of the things Iran demanded while never securing guarantees from the Iranian Administration that they will recant the demand for Israel’s destruction. Neither did we win the freedom of 3 Americans possibly 4 who are being held without cause in Iranian prisons. Then when the President was asked by a reporter about not gaining the concession of the release of these Americans, as part of any deal, President Obama stared down, and then got indignant with the reporter who asked the question. Meanwhile, Susan Rice, our U. S. National Security Adviser admitted after the agreement that Iran will probably use some of the $150 billion it will receive in unfrozen assets to arm its military, create havoc in the Middle East, and yes, fund terrorism. 

• Why can’t President Obama says the words “Islamic Terrorists” or “Islamic terrorism”? I don’t even mind if he uses the term ‘radical’ in front of it, though the case could be made that the terrorists are staying truer to the teachings of the Koran than are those who are Muslim in name only. Just going back to 9/11 there have been at least 43 attacks on American soil perpetrated by Muslim terrorists, 23 of which have occurred under this President. Yet while never calling any of these attacks Islamist in nature, at the National Prayer Breakfast this year he throws Christians under the bus with comments about Crusades, many of which happened 1,000 years ago.

•  When it comes to race, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray were all Black Americans whose lives were taken either by Caucasian Americans or Hispanic Americans. In all four cases there were Department of Justice investigations opened. Please understand I’m not saying I believe any or all of the 4 deaths were justified. I’m simply pointing out that President Obama saw the need to instruct the Department of Justice to get involved. The President also spoke publicly, in some of these cases many times, about the deaths of these four men and the grief their families were going through; assuring that justice would be done. Whether justice is or has been done is not the point here. My question is why hasn't President Obama reached out to the family of Kate Steinle - the American gunned down in San Francisco by an illegal alien? Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot asked Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson point blank if the administration had reached out to the Steinle family. Johnson replied, “To who?” It was nearly three weeks ago that Miss Steinle was murdered. As of today her family has yet to receive a single condolence note from the president nor has he spoken publicly on the issue. Is this because doing so would contradict some of his policies on illegal aliens?

•  At the church in Charleston, the 1^st Sunday after the horrible, senseless, and racially motivated murders, our President worshipped at the church, spoke, and even sang Amazing Grace; it was a proud moment for Americans and people of faith especially. He did the right thing; he should have been there that Sunday to bring a hurting church, city, state, and nation together. On Thursday July 16^th heavily armed Mohammad Abdulazeez, a young Muslim American man, who based on ISIS social-media postings both before and after the events of that day, had obviously bought in to the Muslim rhetoric of these terrorists and their thousands of posts on social media each day, opened fire at two different military establishments in Chattanooga, TN killing ultimately 5 unarmed soldiers. While President Obama did address publicly these murders calling them ‘heartbreaking’, he has not visited Chattanooga nor has he even shown a willingness to fly the flag at the White House at Half-Staff to honor these veterans who served their country so well. Where is the Department of Justice investigation into the mosque and or people who may have radicalized the shooter? Where is the visit to a Chattanooga house of worship the 1^st Sunday after the same senseless, hatred motivated murders as that of Charleston? Why is it news that NFL and former University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning showed up with his wife announced at the site in Chattanooga to pay his respects? Part of the reason this has been such ‘big’ news is because by his being present Manning gave witness to the conspicuous absence of our Commander-In-Chief who was playing golf at Andrews Air Force Base of all places.

More Than Just 'Camp'

This morning parents, siblings, and pastors saw our youth leave for Mission-Fuge. As a parent I realize the trust that is required to turn a student over to the care of someone else for a week. As we prayed over them yesterday in worship we prayed not just a generic “God please use this time” kind of prayer; we prayed for more specific things. We prayed that in the worship time God would use that to draw them to Him. In the missions experiences their eyes would be open to people who may not look like or dress like them but who also have been created in the image of God. We prayed not only that God would work through them during this time but that He would work in them as well; that they would come home forever changed.

There’s a lot of discussion going on about what it will take to keep our students in church once they move out of the home. I was reading a study called the National Study of Youth and Religion which spoke to that. This study found three specific factors that were crucial to helping a student take ownership of their faith into adulthood.

1. The student’s parents practiced their faith in the home and in daily life, not just in public-church settings. 
2. The student had at least one significant adult mentor or friend, other than parents, who practiced the faith seriously. 
3. The student had at least one significant spiritual experience before the age of 17.

In essence the study found that teenagers are most likely to retain their Christian faith into adulthood if they have had a meaningful and healthy relationship with parents who practice their faith, a faithful Christian mentor outside of the family, and with God himself. I know from raising three kids that men are much more confident and comfortable discipling those outside their family. Most of the men I know (myself included) find it difficult to disciple their own families; I think the devil continually tells us we are hypocrites, that our family knows the ‘real’ us and because they do we are not qualified to lead. Yes they do but know the real us but that’s a good thing. Men, when we mess up and own it we are teaching our kids that this is what a Christian man does when he messes up; he takes ownership of it. Discipling our students is about being real.

As an ‘empty-nester’ (our 3 have moved out of the home) and seeing other parents let loose of their students this morning for a week, Psalm 127 came to mind. Psalm 127:3-5 reads, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.” Our children are a blessing from the Lord and every child should be told that regularly. As parents we must remember that arrows were made with great care but they were never intended to stay in the quiver; they were made to be shot. We raise our kids as best we can then we take them from the quiver, shoot them out into the world and pray that they hit the mark. There are no guarantees in parenting; once a child is an adult they make their own choices. Once you ‘let go of the arrow’, then all you can do is pray. I’m praying our students hit the bulls-eye this week as they serve their Lord and others.