Falling away

My Belief

                           

I feel especially sad for the guy I flew with this week. I was up to my usual. I was dangling “spiritual bait” out there trying to get him into a conversation that I could turn into a chance to share Jesus. We flirted with politics a little. He was all about energy reform and green technology. He towed the California liberal line pretty hard, but would not let me turn the conversation into anything more than surface level stuff. We ran out of things to say faster than usual and I did not know how I was going to gain enough credibility or find an opening to share Jesus with this guy. I prayed about it. I said, “Lord, if there is an opportunity here, please show it to me.” That evening we were on a long flight together and we began chatting about politics again. One of the very first thing out of his mouth FLOORED ME! He said, “The problem with this country is all of these dang retards that call themselves Christian.” He also said, “I use to be part of the “God Squad”, but not anymore.” Well, talk about an opening. God dang near blew the door right off the hinges. I simply raised my hand to this guy and said, “I am one of those retards.”

This guy knew the Bible and the arguments for creation inside and out. I had nothing to give him. He knew it all and said that he use to believe it whole heartedly. He said that now after his research he believes God is an Alien and evolution is the mechanism of life. He had no evidence at all to support these claims. He simply told me that after having researched it heavily, this was his new conclusion. I didn’t know what to say. How could someone with so much knowledge of the Bible and someone who claimed to be a Believer most of their life now be in this position. He also told me, “well if all the Jesus stuff is true, then I am fine because I use to be saved and once saved always saved.” I said yes I agree with you that “genuine” salvation is permanent, but what about the encounter Jesus had with the fig tree? This guy had all sorts of leaves (Biblical knowledge), but he had absolutely no Fruit! He had no joy in his life. He complained about everything. For example: he didn’t like his job, he didn’t like his girlfriends, he hated that he only had an apartment, etc, etc…

I told him that I did not know how he had gotten so far off track, but that I would pray for him. I would pray the God would use the Holy Spirit to convict him and draw him back. That God would show him his original thoughts where not misguided and not to let Satan keep hold of him. I told him that there are traps everywhere and to do some real searching. Question everything and see where the evidence really lies.

Scripture

Matt 21:18-19¹⁸ Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

Application for Life

Even though this is my first time meeting someone who now repudiates his faith, it is not my pastors first time. I have heard him preach about “Leafy” people and “Fruity” people numerous times. Jesus even said that all “good soil” produces fruit. Some 10 fold, some 100 fold, but all produce fruit. We would be wise to test ourselves as to whether or not we truly believe who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us. Do you really believe there is hope after death? Do you have a passion to share Jesus with lost souls? Are you truly a fruity Christian or just a leafy religious person going through the motions? Will you fall away when your faith is rigorously tested?     

 

A Blessing or a Curse

My Belief

I gave a fellow pilot a lift to his home town the other day. He is a great guy to have an intellectual debate with but absolutely denies the possibility of God. I flew with him a few years ago and I think we debated and discussed just about every political and religious issue that can be imagined. He is convinced that Jesus Christ and The Bible were just conjured up to be a control mechanism for society. Even after I had given him a compelling argument to disprove evolution, he still rejected any thought of a creator. He even came up with a new theory while we were flying together. He called it the theory of permanence.  He said that just like matter can not be created or destroyed, the same must be true for people and the universe. He says that people and the earth have just ALWAYS been here. This is CRAZY!!! How much faith does it take to think that is true versus a creator designing the amazing complexity of life.

God declares in several places in the Bible that each person will be Judged based on how much information they have. This directly makes you and I a blessing or a curse to everyone we tell about Jesus. The message of the Gospel will either bless their life by showing them they have a need that only the Lord Jesus can fill or it will be used as evidence against them. God says that no one will stand before Him with excuse and I would say that someone who has had a “Healthy dose of Jesus” given to them does not have much of a leg to stand on. This puts you and I in an interesting position. People who hear the message of Christ from us will either Love the day they met us or Hate the day they met us. I can’t really see any other choice. 

Scripture

Matt 11:21-23 ²⁰Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. ²¹"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²²But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. ²³And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.^[d] If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. ²⁴But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

Application for Life

Even the Apostle Paul freely admitted that not everyone will be saved. Paul exclaimed that his hands were clean because he had told everyone he ever met about Jesus. We need to follow this same principle. We may be a blessing to someone’s life who accepts Christ or we maybe the instrument of God’s judgment. I could envision a situation where the Lord tells each member who rejected Him that our witness was evidence against them. People have the freewill to choose or to reject the Lord Jesus. Our call from God is to give them the option.

 

Heaven on Earth

My Belief

                              

As a pilot I am required to get a regularly scheduled medical check-up. This certifying that I am physically fit to operate an aircraft. It is routine and for the most part a “non-event”. I have been going to the same doctor to do this for years now. Just as routine as the physicals are, are my heavy political discussions with this doctor. He is Jewish, a democrat, a liberal, and does not believe in God in any format what-so-ever. He is well aware of my conservative political and Christian values. Most of our discussion during my examination are always centered around him trying to convince me of his ideals. He is always touting how big business and high profits are destroying the country. He is adamant about how there needs to be healthcare and equality for all. His belief is that in this country there needs to be a perfect society where everyone is provided for, for their entire lives. Most of the time I do a lot of listening and not much talking. He really doesn’t want to debate much, he simply wants to talk a lot. During this recent visit I stopped him for a moment and told him this, “The difference between you and I is this: you think a utopian “heaven on earth” society it possible and I know for a fact that it will never happen while people are running the show.”

I believe those that choose not to believe in God will do their best to create a perfect society on earth. The problem is that people are sinful and flawed by their very nature. Corruption, greed, and plain old sin will always destroy man’s efforts to create heaven on earth. As a follower of Jesus, I know that this world is evil and broken. I know that there will never be a utopia on this planet until the Lord Jesus himself rules it personally. The more that society pulls away from the truth found in the Bible, the worse our society will become. The story of this planet is already foretold in the pages of the Bible. More and more people will move away from the hope that Jesus offers. They will trade God for their own strength and ability. Christians will continue to be a shrinking minority. Take hope though! While people cannot create heaven on earth, Jesus promises that one day He will do this very thing for us, personally.

Scripture

Isaiah 2:4   He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Application for Life

Satan is currently allowed to control this world. God has granted him the ability to have this time of direct interaction with humanity. The Devil will continue to push this world away from God and toward himself. He is preparing the political landscape to hate anything dealing with God, Jesus, or the Bible. Soon Christians will become even more hated and alienated by society. Stay strong in your relationship with God so that you can weather the coming storm. When the SON breaks through the clouds one day soon, we will finally have Heaven on Earth.

Angry Forgiveness!!!

My Belief

All of my passengers had gotten off of the plane, collected there things and where on there way into the airport. My crew and I were also ready to leave the Jetway and head  into the terminal. As we walked the next crew arrived. We exchanged pleasantry's with the other crew. I asked the other Captain things like, “how long is you day? Where is you next overnight? It’s a good plane. etc…” As I walked by his First Officer I made the passing comment “How is it going man?” He then proceeded to give me an evil look and turn away without saying a thing. I was a little shocked and said, “I guess not very good, huh?” As I walked away I heard him turn to his Captain and say, “I hate that guy”! Now I was mad! I looked back with anger in my eyes and gave him the meanest departing glance that I had given anyone in a very long time.

                  

As we walked through the terminal my First Officer asked me, “what was that all about?” I told him that I did not have any idea, but how dare that insubordinate jerk act like that. I then went on to say things like, “Who does he think he is? And he better hope he never has to fly with me!” I was letting my anger get the better of me over what seemed to be random individual insulting me for no good reason.

When I got to my hotel room I felt bad about the entire situation. I felt bad that someone had so much hatred for me and I felt bad that I had not reacted the way Christ would have reacted. Christ never met anyone with hatred. He always offered love and friendship to all that He encountered. I decided to pray about it. I told God that I did not know who this person was or why he had treated me this way. I asked God to help me in this situation. Humbly I told God that I was angry at this person and did not feel I would react well if I ever saw him again. I asked the Father to help me and to control the situation if I ever encountered this person again.

Wouldn’t you know it. It was only 2 days later on the same trip that I ran into this guy again. The odds of that happening are pretty slim in themselves. There are thousands of pilots at our airline that are scattered all over the world. The chances that I would run into him again in a random city 2 days later are slim. I had just collected my paperwork for the next flight and was walking back toward my departure gate. As I stepped out of a doorway I was face to face with this person again. I felt my face tighten up and my eyes focused directly on him. I was ready for what I thought may be a hostile encounter. As he stepped closer to me I expected some choice words. Instead however, I saw his hand stretch out to me in a gesture of friendship. This really floored me! I was expecting anything but that. We had a good little chat and he apologized and explained that he had been an absolute jerk the other day. He said we had flown together a few years ago and I had done something to upset him. He said that he had been holding it against me all of these years and that he was sorry for the way he had acted. We had a great few minutes of clearing the air and straightening out our misunderstanding. As we parted ways I had to stop for a moment and think to myself WOW! How awesome and powerful is our God!

Scripture

Eph 4:32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Application for Life

I believe in this life as believers there are many things that we can not handle by ourselves. There are situations that get the best of us and sins that we can not seem to overcome. By our own means it is impossible to beat or overcome these things. It is only when we pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to help us that we are able to prevail. I think God has set it up this way so that we will learn to rely on Him and not to lean on our own capability. Trust God, ask in the name of the Son, and rely on the Holy Spirit. Through Him all things are possible!

What a “Cowinkydink”

My Belief

                           

In addition to being an airline pilot I also own a crashpad in the New York area. A crashpad is simply a place where airline people crash. Pilots and Flight Attendants often live in a totally different part of the world then where they are based.  Our crashpad just consists of a house and a car that we can all use when we are in our base. It is sort of like a “home away from home”. As a crashpad owner I have gotten pretty good at dealing with all sorts of little maintenance issues. I have a whole list of service people and technicians on speed dial that take care of the house and car.  Well, not to long ago I was on a long overnight outside of the country. I was in Canada and I got a call on my cell phone about a problem some of they guys where having with the car. They called me and told me that the car would not start and it was located in a secure employee parking lot. This was a big problem for me. Not only was I in Canada where my phone costs a lot of money for international calling rates, but it would be a major headache to try to tow a car out of a secure parking lot. I was stuck! Usually, I can handle this sort of thing easily, but this was the perfect storm. I could not really use my phone to make arrangements, our car was stuck where it could not be accessed, and my fellow crashpad buddies were stuck late at night. The only thing I could do was pray. I bowed my head and told God. I’m stuck. I don’t know how to solve this problem. I need help in dealing with this because I don’t know what to do. No sooner had I finished praying when I heard my phone ringing again. I picked it up and one of the guys who was stuck said, “your never going to believe this”! I was nearly frantic to know what had happened. He told me that one of the guys had been removing his luggage from the trunk when he noticed a loose wire. He started playing with the loose wire while the other guy was trying to start the car. Immediately the car sprang to life and they were able to leave the parking lot and go back to the crashpad.

You explain it anyway that you want to, but I am 100% sure that God helped me that night. The odds of these guys stumbling on the problem and being able to easily correct it when I was without a solution had to be ridiculously small. It may seem like a coincidence, but that may be exactly how God prefers to operate. I heard a preacher say in a sermon once that coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous. He also said, “isn't it funny that when we pray, coincidence happens, and when we don’t pray it doesn't happen.

Scripture

John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Matt 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Application for life

God answers prayer! We have the awesome ability to pray to God all the time about everything. I do think that there are times though when God takes special attention in answering our prayers. Those times when it feels like we have no answers, and we don’t know what to do. In those times if we turn to God, then He steps up, taps us on the shoulder and reminds us He has been here all along.

The Best Prayer

My Belief

I felt tired starting a recent 4 day trip. It’s been a hard working summer for me. I feel like I have done about 4 Billion laps across the USA. Even so, I still wanted to be used by God. I wanted to share Jesus with whoever I may fly with, but I really didn’t feel like I had it in me that week. I didn’t feel energized, upbeat or like I was going to be able to start very good conversations. I was sort of in that mode where the best I could do was to simply get the job done. Well, in this situation I prayed my favorite thing to pray. It is just simply to tell God, “Please use me Lord. Please give me opportunity to do your work, whatever it may be.” Let me tell you what, God answers prayer and God takes whatever little bit we have and uses it to His Glory. 

My First Officer was a nice enough guy. In fact, he seamed really nice. He was polite and respectful and not bitter about the current economic situation. We started chatting a little and one thing led to another and he told me that he was a Christian. This was a shock to me. I never have anyone try to tell me about Jesus! Well, all my fatigue faded away and my curiosity was in overdrive. I had not told him that I was a Christian yet so I saw this as a golden opportunity to see what he really believed. I prodded him with all the common questions that I get like “What does Christian even mean? Who is Jesus? Do you really believe all that crazy stuff in the Bible? Well Jews and Muslims believe in God, are they going to Heaven too? Let me tell you what, he had trouble answering my questions. His HEART was absolutely in the right place but his knowledge of the Bible and of his faith was lacking. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I stopped him and told him that I am also a follower of Jesus and that I could help him clean up all these rough spots in his answers. Throughout the course of the 4 day trip we had great conversations about eternal security, creation vs. evolution, the accuracy of the Bible, and God’s plan for the nation of Israel. It was exactly what I needed. God not only let me do a job for Him, but He gave me one that would refresh my own spirit.  My First Officer was encouraged and fired up to share his knowledge of the Bible, and I had a new partner to help share the Love of Jesus with who ever will listen.

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

Application for Life

The very best prayer we can pray is one that brings Glory to God. When we pray with a sincere heart to be used by God, He answers that prayer. If we offer up whatever we have left to God, He will take it and do amazing and wondrous things with it.

Performance Driven!?!?

My Belief                                       

As I so often am, I was knee deep in a conversation about Jesus Christ and Salvation with a First Officer of mine. We had gotten all the way down to the deep nuts and bolts of it. I was telling him that it was all about Grace and not about anything you could do on your own. He was in disbelief and exclaimed to me this, “You mean to tell me that if a baby raping murderer confesses Jesus as Lord and asks for forgiveness he will be saved, but if a Buddhist monk spends his entire life in faithful service to his community but never finds Christ he will burn in HELL?!?!” My response was, “100%, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!”

This is so important to understand in our Christian lives. We are on a GRACE system not a human performance system. We DID NOT get salvation because of our good performance and WE WILL NOT lose it because of our bad performance. God has given a FREE gift to each of us that will believe and call Jesus Lord. It is not of ourselves and not of our works so that NO ONE can boast before God. As I have said before if you stand before God and say it was 99% Jesus and even 1% you, then that is an absolute STRIKE OUT!. If you can say it is 1% or more your own effort than you can boast before God that you helped, did it, or at least gave it the “old college try”. God says that will never happen. Nobody will boast before almighty God. No one will take away from the FINISHED work of Jesus on the cross. We are undeserving and only God’s amazing LOVE has given us the GRACE to have relationship with him and hope for the future.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Application for Life

If you sin then you need to ask for forgiveness so you can be back in relation with God. YOU DID NOT LOSE YOUR SALVATION. All of us fall short and on our best day we don’t even come close to the perfection of Christ. Nothing measures up to the standard of Jesus. That is why the Law/Word was give…to show us how far away from the mark we are! Grace means that it is all Jesus and none you. Embrace Jesus' free gift of life and forget about yourself.