John

King

Many of you will recognize the title of this article as the tagline from the game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Contestants sit in a seat opposite the host and answer multiple-choice questions in increasing difficulty, but also in increasing value up to the final one million dollar question. As they answer the questions the host asks, "Is that your final answer?" to which the player must respond that it is their final answer in order to "lock it in." Only then will the show proceed to find out if the answer was the correct one or not.

The contestant must lock in an answer, even in the cases when they don't know the answer. Who knows, they might get lucky and actually pick the right one? In such cases, they get to continue to play for even more money. However, life certainly isn't like that. GOD certainly isn't like that. Living for the Lord is a walk of faith that, on occasion, demands we declare we don't know the answer, yet proceed anyway.

The story of Abraham underscores this tremendous truth. In 

-3 we find the call of Abraham and it starts like this:

"The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you."

Genesis 12:1 Close Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

(NLT)

As the call continues, the Lord promises Abram to make a great nation out of him - a nation that will bless the world.

tells us that Abram obeyed the Lord and moved his family. Obviously, the Lord led Abram to the land of Canaan, but often we neglect to delve into the true act of faith required to make that move. Imagine telling not only your immediate family but your extended family that you are moving. They all come over and help you pack up your moving camels (trucks of Abram's day) and keep asking you where you are moving to. Your only response, "I don't know." Abram had no idea where he was going, only a sense of the Lord's leading and that when Abram got there, God would tell him; "To a land which I will show you."

In His famous "Don't worry" teaching from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus told us not to be concerned over the affairs of life:

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:25 Close Matthew 6:25 "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

  (NLT) 

"So don't worry about these things, saying, `What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Matthew 6:31-33 Close Matthew 6:31-33 "So don't worry about these things, saying, `What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God* above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

(NLT)

"I don't know" is a legitimate answer, and often it is the answer required by those who live by faith. Where are you going? What are you going to do when you get there? How will you live? How will you pay your bills? I don't know, I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T KNOW! But I know this, God knows! The fact that God knows, in the end, is the only thing that really matters. As He leads, He provides because He is a good father.

We like to put on the false front that we have it all together and have the answers for everything. It gets uncomfortable and we feel silly telling people that we don't know the answers to their questions. Pretending that we know it all will rob us of our faith. We don't live trusting in luck, we live trusting in God. It is okay to not know. So, the next time someone asks the tough questions of faith and how things are going to work out, for which there is no definitive answer, look them straight in the eye and tell them, "I don't know, but God knows, and that's my final answer."

Copyright © John P. King. Used by permission.

When I was a kid there were a couple of occasions when my Sunday School class held a contest to see who could memorize the most verses of scripture. Invariably, each time this contest was held the first verse out of everyone’s mouth was

:

“Jesus wept.”

This is the shortest verse in the English Bible.

The power of

is often overlooked because it is so small. When we look at it in light of the larger story, we see something truly wonderful about Jesus. The incident of Jesus weeping comes in the middle of the story of how He raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus was a good friend of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus had fallen seriously ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus so Jesus would come and heal their brother. It is mentioned three times in that Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Even though none of these three were numbered among Jesus’s 12 disciples, the scripture speaks plainly of His love and affection for them.

Yet, when Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick, He deliberately delays. Jesus doesn’t run to Lazarus’s side and heal him. Instead, Jesus spends two more days where He is and during that time Lazarus dies. Why? Why did Jesus wait and let His friend whom He loved die? Jesus let Lazarus die because He had a plan. The whole of the matter, from beginning to end, was no mystery to Jesus. The plan from the outset was to raise Lazarus from the dead.

It took another four days for Jesus to get to Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha and where their dead brother, Lazarus, had already been buried. Jesus even missed the funeral. Talk about being late. When Martha finds out Jesus is in town, she rushes out to see Him. In their conversation, we get one of the great verses of hope and promise. Jesus said in

,

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha then goes and gets Mary along with all the others who had been mourning with them.

Now comes the interesting moment. When Jesus sees Mary and Martha and all the people mourning with them, He is moved deeply and weeps as well. Jesus wept. But why? He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew the story was going to have beyond a happy ending. He knew that He was about to do something truly awesome. Yet – Jesus wept. He didn’t try to shush everyone. He didn’t scold them for not having faith. He didn’t try to tell them that everything was going to be ok. He didn’t turn the processional to the tomb into a victory parade. He walked with them and He wept with them.

Jesus wept because He understood and felt their pain and sorrow. God is the God of eternity, but He is also the God of the moment. He doesn’t belittle or dismiss how we feel simply because He knows how He will work everything out. Instead, He walks with us and feels with us in the times of our deepest hurt. Mary, Martha, and the crowd might have thought Jesus was late, but how can the One who can undo anything, including death, be late?

I don’t know what you are going through, but Jesus does. I don’t know how it will work out, but Jesus does. I don’t know how you feel, but Jesus does. Whatever it is, He has a plan. He is walking with you and He feels what you feel. Jesus weeps with you. He isn’t late, and in the end you will see whatever it is that has “died” in your life, raised again. Then, Jesus will rejoice with you.

Copyright © John P. King, used with permission.

The Wizard of Oz ranks at the top of the list of some of the most beloved films in American cinema. In case you forgot how the story goes, each of the main characters wanted the Wizard to help them by giving them something they felt they lacked. The person I want to focus on, the Tin Man, wanted a heart.

The Wizard informs the Tin Man, much to his surprise, that he already had a heart. His good deeds were evidence of his heart. In fact, the Wizard says that the Tin Man’s good deeds were just as good, if not better than the good deeds of the “good-deed doers” of the world (that would be humanitarians for our tongue-tied friend). What the Tin Man really needs is a Testimonial. That’s when the Wizard presents the Tin Man with the heart shaped watch and fob. Now comes the Wizard’s error. Upon presenting the testimonial the Wizard says, “A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”

On its face, this sounds pretty good because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to be loved? But when you really think about it, you realize that the Wizard’s statement is one of the biggest loads of hooey ever pronounced. Even Hitler and Osama bin Laden had people who loved them, and they were two of the most vicious and malevolent men who ever lived. They brought violence and death to anyone who didn’t fit their mold and vision of humanity. They were, and are, beloved by millions. Others might say they got the due and just results of their hatred.

The question remains, should a heart be judged by how much it is loved by others, or by how much it loves others?

Jesus put it this way in the Gospel of Luke:

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Luke 6:35-36 Close Luke 6:35-36 "Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

(NIV)

The Bible also says that we know what love is because God has first loved us and that we are supposed to share that love with others (

). In , the point of God’s love for even the wicked is reiterated when it says:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIV)

So then, real love is about giving, not receiving. We must take that first step to reach out to that person who is our enemy, who does not love us, and show them genuine concern and compassion without expecting anything in return. Stop waiting to be loved and go out and love someone. Indeed, as the Wizard said himself, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” He has no idea what he is talking about.

Copyright © 2012 John P. King. Used by permission.

"The dullest pencil ... remembers better than the sharpest mind." My co-worker, and friend, Ted Cramer, says that all the time, and it is very true. We all like to think we can remember whatever it is we are supposed to remember without having to write it down. If we are honest with ourselves, we know better than that.

I have made enough trips to the grocery store at this point in my life to know that if I go, I better write down everything I need to pick up. Having a written list saves the embarrassment of needing to call my wife before I get in the checkout line to make sure I got everything, because I know I missed something (I hate that). Having a list is also the only absolutely, positively, 100% way to be sure I won't have to make a second trip (I really hate that). And so, I write things down because my "forgetter" works a whole lot better than my "rememberer" does.

There are so many people out there who remember so much better than I do. It makes me praise the Lord that much more for the way He understands me. You see, the Lord has provided the Bible just for me! He knows there is no way I will remember everything He wants me to know. Not only that, but He wants to be sure that when I relay His truths to someone else, I will have something to reference just to be sure I say it right (Ever played telephone? Yeah, I don't want to do that with God's great message of love). And so the Lord used in the neighborhood of 40 different people and took approximately 1,600 years to put it all together. Then He put it in the hands of various men and women over the last 1900 years to make sure it finally came to me. THANK YOU LORD!

My sarcasm is showing, isn't it? Sorry. I just find it amazing that people question the need for and validity of the Bible. They say things like:

"If God wants to tell me something, He can just tell me."
"The Bible is an old book with nothing new for today."
"The Bible? Really? If God is God couldn't He come up with a better way of communicating to man than a book?"

Not only does the Lord understand me, He understands all of us. The Father has a lot of great things to tell us. He knows the best way to get His message to us is to write it down. Glimpses of this understanding can be seen in the Bible. The Lord Himself wrote the replacement 10 commandments for the ones Moses shattered (

). He then went on to tell Moses to write down the words of the covenant that He was making with Israel ( ).

In looking forward to the days when Israel would ask for a king, the Lord gave instructions in Deuteronomy just for the king.

"When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees."

Deuteronomy 17:18-19 Close Deuteronomy 17:18-19 "When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

(NLT)

The king needed his own copy of the law. He had to read it daily and remind himself of who he was before God and to be sure that he obeyed the Lord. Without daily reflection on the Word of God, the king would easily stray from God's path for his life and rule.

The prophet Habakkuk received one of the most famous "write it" directives. In his own frustration and brokenness, he challenged God with some very serious questions about judgment and righteousness. Habakkuk waits for God's answer and the Lord begins with this phrase:

"Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others."

Habakkuk 2:2 Close Habakkuk 2:2 Then the LORD said to me,"Write my answer plainly on tablets,  so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt)

(NLT)

God wanted the answers to Habakkuk's questions to be disseminated to everyone. How do you do that? WRITE IT DOWN! Write it down in plain language so that it can be taken to everyone.

These are just a few examples of times when God told someone directly to "write it down." Of course, the Bible as a whole is God's inspired message to all mankind. Like the kings of old, we all need our own copy to read on a daily basis. The Bible shares God's plans, dreams, and directions for our lives. We need to know and have the plain message of the love of God so we can run with it. Read it. Re-read it. Re-re-read it. Fall in love with the wonderful text on those sacred pages. And as you find verses and passages that speak to you, write them down and carry them with you. Because the dullest pencil…

Copyright © 2012 John P. King. Used by permission.

I have great respect for those people that run a driving school and teach others how to drive (I also give those cars with the "student driver" sign on them A LOT of room). I taught both my son and daughter how to drive, and let me tell you, it was a real adventure for me in patience, understanding, and anger management. New drivers tend to brake hard and start fast, nearly park sideways in the parking space, drift into other lanes, and "wobble" by over-steering, then over-correcting, then over-correcting the over-correction, and that's in an empty church or school parking lot. They still need real time on the road and, hold your breath, the INTERSTATE!

The moments came when I had to reach out and take the wheel or give a "firm" word to preserve life, limb, and the paint job on the car (all in loving grace and mercy, of course). But as we drove around, I began to understand that for me, the great lesson was in knowing when to say or do nothing. The only way they would truly learn to drive is if they did it themselves without my constant intervention. Mistakes would have to be made and the handling of the car would certainly be less than comfortable on my and any other passenger's part, but learning would take place, and that was the goal. Understanding that helped me see something about how the Lord moves in our lives, or doesn't, as the case may be.

Without a doubt, just as I always sat next to my kids as they learned to drive, the Lord is always with us. Jesus, in giving the great commission in

, concluded by saying,

"... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (NASB)

b-6 echoes that truth when it says,

"... for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” (NASB)

Our Father will always be with us and can come to our aid when we need Him to. However, I also believe that there are those times when He will simply do nothing and say nothing. How else will we learn? How else will we grow? That's why

says,

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  (NASB)

We have no money to pay the bills. We hate our jobs, or worse, can't find one. Our relationships at home more resemble a battle zone than a family. Persecution breaks out all over the place, and the devil hits our weak spots so hard we can hardly think straight let alone live straight. It feels like our lives are "wobbling" out of control. If we didn't know better we might say that the Father has abandoned us, but we know He promised he would never do that. He's simply doing nothing and saying nothing so that we can learn and grow. Our faith is being "road tested." If things get too out of hand, He can, and will, take the wheel. But in the meantime, we need to find that joy that James wrote about because, in the end, we will be those people "lacking in nothing."

Copyright © 2013 John P. King. Used by permission.