God Picks a Loser!

My Belief

I think one of the most amazing things about God is that He always WINS with the “Worst”. God uses the weakest worst people around to show his Power and Glory. He does more with people this world considers “Losers” than Satan ever does with the “A” team he puts together. Let me tell you about just a few of the people God uses to do his work.

1. Lon Solomon (my pastor) back in the 60’s was a drug dealing, dope smoking, LSD dropping, Jewish guy. God grabbed hold of his life and now he is pastor of one of the biggest Churches in this Country. He has led thousands of people to Christ and changed my life as well.

2. Saul was an evil man who hunted and destroyed Christians with a vicious passion. God grabbed a hold of him on the road to Damascus, changed his name to Paul, and he is considered one of the most influential Christians in all of the Bible.

3. David was the last and smallest of his brothers. He was a nobody, and yet God gave him victory over Goliath with a rock and a sling shot. He became King of Israel and God called him “a man after His own heart”.

The stories are countless and littered all through out history. The people that have done the most for God are the “Losers” of our world. God uses the “nothings” so that he can show his Mega Power. In the spiritual battle field of earth Satan comes with the A-Team! He comes with the best, the brightest and gears up for a serious fight. God however, laughs at Satan and “Thumps” him with the equivalent of a “wet towel”. If God used the best and the brightest of this world, we would tend to give some credit to that person. God does not share His glory at all. If Brad Pitt, gave all his money and spread the Gospel to the world, we would tend to think he did it, at least in part. God won’t have this, so he picks the worst of us. God does not need the A-Team of this world. He can have victory just fine with the Lon’s, Paul’s, David’, Joseph’s, Moody’s, and mother Teresa's of this world. Our very Little becomes MUCH in the Masters Hands!

Scripture

1Cor 1:26-31 26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."[d]

Application for Life

Are you a “Loser”? God I pray that I am. What is the point to be “Stud” in this world. That puts you on the wrong team. Embrace your weakness, your frailness and your unrighteous self. In doing this God can show his power through you. There is nothing I can do that God did not give me, so I will do everything I can for the Lord. Everything else is not power it is just pathetic compared to Almighty God.

What are you looking at?

My belief

I have a unique vantage point with my Job. I “cruise” for hours at a time at more than 5 miles off the surface of the planet with speeds over 600 miles an hour. Doing this, I get to see A WHOLE LOT of planet earth very often. It is amazing to me to see the beautiful changes in the scenery. Vast oceans, colorful mountains, green expanses of land, and the most amazing shades of light in the sky. Then I look at all the different people and animals and think to myself, this planet is incredibly complex. I wonder how anyone thinks all of this happened by chance or accident.

God’s handiwork is all around us. It is displayed in everything we see and experience. The vastness of beauty on this planet is more than anyone can see in a life time and yet, it is only a sliver of the majesty of God. I don’t know why our world puts blinders on to this? They want God to show up and stand in front of them before they will believe. Even then, I don’t think people will really believe. To know God is to have accountability and to realize that people are not the end all be all. You are not the zenith of life. To look at this world is to see evidence of God. If you can’t see God then it still should motivate you to look until you find the HOW and the WHY. If you are honest, both of these questions will only lead to one place!

Scripture

Romans 1:20 ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Application to Life

Our origin is critically important to what we do in life. Find information about the complexity of DNA or the human cell. Find information about the mathematical probability of all things happening without intelligent design. Ask yourself why science ends up proving the Bible to be accurate. Look at how all the history we know matches the Bible perfectly. If you can’t see God, then I wonder what you are looking at?

Smooth Air, Turbulent Trip

My Belief

I can’t think of a more “Rocky” industry than the airline industry. This industry is plagued by insecurity. Airlines are forever merging, failing, or locked in continual battle between the work groups and management. The statistics of the business are that a person is likely to be “laid-off” 3 times in the span of their career. The giants of the business like PANAM, Eastern, and TWA have all seen the sun set on their corporations. Many of today’s giants are former versions of their selves that are sickly and struggling not to go out of business themselves.

When I was new to this job I always wondered why those senior captains making great money with lots of time off where always so unhappy. This career is all about “Seniority”! The more you have the more money you make and better quality of life you have. The problem is, by the time you have Seniority you have been in this rocky business for a long time. The duration takes its toll on the employee and leaves a lot of battle scars from the stress of instability.

In my mind there is no business that needs the Security that Jesus offers more than this one. Jesus offers security that He will always provide and He will never forsake. No matter how bad it get Jesus does not forget to give us what we need for this life and gives us a Great Hope for what is to come in the next life. When you give Jesus control, you realize that all these things that seam so critical now will all pass away. They don’t matter as much as they once did.

Scripture

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Application for Life

No matter what business you are in and no matter how bad it seams, it is not that big a deal. If you really have Jesus in your life than you can rest because you have real security in your life. Pray and cast all your cares on him. He will give you solutions and at the end of this stressful life, He will take you home to a place with no more stress and no more pain.

The Hard Standard

My Belief

Airline pilots undergo rigorous training throughout there entire career. They are continually trained and tested to verify proficiency. Some of this training is progressive, trained to proficiency or held to a wide standard. Some of it however, is not. Some of it is very strict and must be adhered to perfectly. The most difficult of these test is to become a Captain at a major airline. Within the industry this evaluation is referred to as a “Type Ride”. The standards for this test are very narrow and any deviation by the candidate is met with a strict unsatisfactory completion. Candidates can not deviate from this narrow path or they do not posses what is necessary to be a Captain.

I feel the truth of Jesus Christ represented in the Bible is very similar to this. There is only one way to get to heaven and have eternal life with God. That is through the very narrow path of Jesus Christ. Any deviation from this standard will be met with strictly as unsatisfactory completion. There are a lot of things in the Bible that are unknown and can be left to a wide interpretation. This truth of Jesus Christ is not one of them. Jesus Christ is the “Type Ride” of the Bible. There can be no deviation from this narrow standard.

I tell you this because I so often hear things that are in direct contradiction to this. I hear things like, “it is Jesus plus baptism, Jesus plus good works, or God doesn't let good people go to hell”. The truth is that none of us are good people. We are all evil and in need of Jesus to cleanse us of our sins. To add or change this in any way is to take away from the hardest standard in the Bible. There can be no deviation from (Jesus Christ + nothing = salvation.)

Scripture

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Matt 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Application for Life

Always stand firm for the truth of Jesus Christ. If you allow anyone to add to what is necessary for salvation, it takes away from what Christ did for us on the cross. Anyone who tries to say different is outside the standard of Christ and will be considered unsatisfactory to God.

Captain Tail Number

My Belief

I used to “think” I was a pretty good pilot. There was definitely a streak of arrogant pride running right through me. Many situations presented themselves on the flight deck when I was still a new Captain. In the first year and a half of being a Captain I was successful in handling problems such as a pressurization failure at high altitude, total loss of my de-icing capability while flying through a blizzard, and several diversions for extremely severe weather. I had so many difficult situations happen while flying I use to joke with my wife that anything short of the wings coming off, I would bring the aircraft safely back to earth. I had two hands firmly on the “Steering Wheel” of my life and I was trusting my own ability instead of the Lord God who gives everything.

God will not share His Glory with another and he quickly humbled me and taught me one of the biggest lessons I have had to this point in life. I was riding high and felt bullet proof to just about anything as I began a great trip a few years ago. The trip was worth a lot of money, had good overnights, and had a great start and finish time. Everything was perfect about this trip except the last day. The last day had an early start, a lot of work, and a very short overnight the night before. We were onboard the airplane that morning before 4:00AM. Myself and my crew were all sleepy and none of us realized that the agents at the airport had gotten the wrong airplane ready for us to fly out that morning. We took the wrong airplane flying that morning and it was my fault. The tail number was only one digit different between that airplane and the one we were suppose to have. I had a lot of explaining to do to my company, chief pilots, and peers. It was a simple mistake, but potentially a huge one. I could not believe that I had been so careless. God did not need to flex his muscles to bring me to my knees, He used the simplest thing possible. Thankfully God protected me, but he sent me a real warning. He told me that he is God alone and I am a man. I have no right to boast in anything but Him. He gave all to me and He can take everything away from me. Either way I will praise the Lord.

Scripture

Isaiah 42:8 I am Jehovah, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.

1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Application for Life

What do you do that your AWESOME at? What is your strength. It does not matter what your gift is because all gifts are from God. We are to use all of them to promote God’s Glory not our own. In life or death, in victor or defeat, in success or failure give thanks to the Lord always.