A Head of Gray Should Be A Crown of Honor!

Posted on November 27, 2013 by ronelfran

My head is full of gray hair. I’m not sorry about that. It’s a blessing to have a full head of hair, whatever the color! But I don’t look at my gray as any sort of negative. To the contrary, I wear it as a badge of honor.

First of all, just making it to the point in life where most of my hair is gray is a great blessing. Every day on the news we hear of people who die unexpectedly (in today’s world, often deliberately killed) at a young age. Every day of life that is given to us ought to be treasured as a gift from God.

That reminds me about what the Bible has to say about gray hair:

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Proverbs 20:29 (NKJV) The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head.

A head full of gray hairs ought to speak of a life well lived, crowned with wisdom and honor. That’s what I want my gray hair to say about me! My head of gray should mark me as an “elder” in my community, one who can be looked to for wise counsel (backed up by wise practice) regarding the issues of life.

A person who has a head of gray, but who still thinks like, talks like, and acts like someone who has learned very little about how life works, is a tragic individual. Gray hair ought to mean something! But even if a person’s life was not so well lived at the beginning, it’s never too late to begin gaining the wisdom that should be signified by the graying of your head.

Psalms 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

So, when I look at younger people whose heads as yet show no trace of gray (but only their hairdresser knows for sure!), I don’t envy them that they still retain their original hair color. Instead, I wish for them the kind of life that will make the gray, when it inevitably comes, a true sign of the wisdom and honor they have attained with their years.

Ron Franklin

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Don’t Be Afraid of God!

Posted on November 26, 2013 by ronelfran

To be fearful in the presence of God seems to be a natural human reaction. But believers never have to be afraid of Him!

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Matthew 17:5-7 (NKJV) While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. 7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”

When God the Father spoke from the cloud, the disciples who were with Jesus were terrified. Jesus told them, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”

That’s a pattern that we often see in Scripture. Whenever someone finds himself in the presence of God, the immediate reaction is fear. And the Lord, through an angel or speaking directly, has to reassure them – “do not be afraid.”

For disciples there is never any reason to be afraid of God! His purpose is not to hurt us but to bless us. The disciples felt comfortable in the presence of Jesus. He spoke of Himself as the Son of Man, identifying with us. He is still the Mediator between God and man. We can be comfortable and unafraid because we are in Him.

God is awesome – and to be in His presence should be an awe-filled experience. We should never forget or neglect the awe that is the proper response to His awesomeness. But Jesus, by the blood He shed on the cross, won for us the right to enter confidently into the presence of the Father, not as groveling supplicants, but as His beloved children.

We need never be afraid in the presence of our Father.

Ron Franklin

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Handling Provocation

Posted on November 1, 2013 by ronelfran

My devotional reading in the Bible this morning included these verses:

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Proverbs 15:1-2 (NKJV) A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. 2 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.

The word that came into my mind as I read this was “provoked.”

How do I respond when someone provokes me by inconsiderate, unkind, or disrespectful words or attitudes? Sometimes that happens in a personal relationship. Much of the time these days, I find myself feeling provoked by what I hear from politicians or media pundits, or even anonymous individuals making comments on the internet.

When that provocation comes, the natural reaction is to want to lash out at whoever is causing the irritation. But, as these verses say, that just leads to more harsh words and greater anger and turmoil. I’ve got to be wise in the way I use my tongue – or keyboard!

Popping off at people who provoke me (even if they are on TV or online rather than in my presence) may temporarily relieve my feelings, but it actually makes reaching solutions to the things that bother me harder. Angry exchanges or even just angry attitudes hinder more than they help. When I stoke my anger by speaking or even thinking wrathful words toward others, I close my mind to them. Anger has no interest in seeing things from the other person’s point of view!

When I allow my anger to come forth as harsh words or thoughts toward somebody else, it’s very likely that I’m fitting myself into the last part of verse 2: “the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.”

Ron Franklin

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Complaining and Blaming: Natural but Deadly

Posted on October 31, 2013 by ronelfran

Have you ever found yourself “between a rock and a hard place”? That’s a situation where it appears as if some very bad things are about to happen in your life, but there seems to be little you can do to avert the calamity. You can’t see any way out of your threatening circumstances.

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That’s the kind of situation in which the children of Israel found themselves in Exodus chapter 14. Moses had brought them out of their slavery in Egypt, only to lead them into what seemed like a trap at the Red Sea. The sea was in front of them, and the Egyptian army was coming up behind with violence on its mind, intent on re-enslaving them. The people were trapped between the two – almost literally between a rock and a hard place.

Their first reaction was to cry out to the Lord (Exodus 14:10), which was the absolute best thing they could have done. But they quickly moved from that to a more typical reaction – they started complaining about their situation, and looking for someone to blame.

Exodus 14:11-12 (NKJV) Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12  Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

Complaining and blaming are very natural human reactions when we face seemingly out-of-control circumstances. In fact, they are as old as the human race itself. When God confronted Adam about his having eaten of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, Adam’s first response was to blame and complain:

Genesis 3:12    Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

In one stroke, Adam blamed his wife for his sin, and complained about God having given her to him!

But blaming and complaining never help us actually deal with difficult circumstances. For one thing, it only increases our depression.

Psalm 77:3b  . . . I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

Complaining and blaming in the midst of our difficulties is a very natural reaction, but a deadly one. By increasing our sense of being overwhelmed, it robs us of the ability to take God-directed action to overcome our circumstances.

But that’s not the worst of it. There is an even more compelling reason why we need to avoid blaming and complaining when we face challenges in our lives: complaining and blaming actually help keep us trapped in our predicament. But that’s a story for another day.

Ron Franklin

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Replacing Anxiety With Peace

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ronelfran

I’ve been thinking about a time in my life when I was feeling really down, but for no reason I could put my finger on. Things were going reasonably well at that point in my life. In fact there were some distinctly positive possibilities on the horizon. But still I was experiencing this slight depression, and couldn’t understand why.

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Then one morning I was awakened at about 4 am. I say “awakened” because I’m sure it was the Lord who woke me. Unable to get back to sleep, I began praying about why I was feeling the way I was. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the word “insecurity” appeared in my mind. I immediately understood.

I was facing a financial issue at the time that I wasn’t sure how to handle. I was determined not to worry about it, but now I realized it was still lurking in the back of my mind, and I was feeling insecure. Then, as if to reinforce the lesson, I opened my Bible, and my eye fell on this verse:

Proverbs 12:25 (NKJV)  Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.

Wow! That exactly described what had been bothering me. It was my unacknowledged anxiety about my finances that was making me feel depressed. The mistake I had made was in assuring myself that I wouldn’t worry about that issue, then trying to push it out of my mind. It didn’t go! It just hung around in the recesses of my consciousness, causing anxiety I didn’t even know I had.

My problem was that I had neglected to fully apply one of my favorite passages of Scripture:

Philippians 4:6-7  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

God’s prescription, when we have anxiety about some issue in our lives, is for us to bring it directly to Him, and ask Him for the answer we need. Then we can confidently expect the peace of God to replace anxiety, insecurity, and depression. I’m sure I did pray about my situation, but here’s where I fell short. Having prayed, I tried to put it out of my conscious mind, telling myself I would not worry about it any more.

What I needed to recognize was what Jesus taught in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge:

Luke 18:1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,

We ought ALWAYS to pray and not lose heart. In other words, as long as an issue is on our minds, we ought to pray until it is resolved. The Bible never teaches “once and done” praying. Rather, over and over it emphasizes being faithful in prayer until God answers. That’s how we receive and keep “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”

So, now, instead of trying to push issues that concern me out of my mind, I pray about them whenever they come to mind. In fact, any feeling of anxiety or depression simply becomes a trigger for prayer. The result is that I have a lot more of that peace of God than I ever experienced before.

Ron Franklin

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Prospering In Life According To God’s Promise

Posted on July 30, 2013 by ronelfran

I may not know you, but I’m pretty sure I know some things about you. I’m confident, for example, that you want to be successful in life, and not a failure; that you want to be happy, and not miserable; you desire to have your needs met, so that you are not struggling just to survive. In other words, you want to enjoy life.

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If all that is as true of you as it is of me, the Bible has some good news for us. As much as we want those things for ourselves, God wants them (and more) for us!

Psalm 35:27  Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, “Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

The Hebrew word translated “prosperity” in this verse is shalom. It signifies a person’s overall welfare in life: peace, health, safety, wellness, happiness. (Note that biblical prosperity is not about gaining great wealth! See 1 Timothy 6:6-11).

Scripture is very clear that it is not God’s design that His people should live struggling, miserable, barely-making-it kinds of lives. Rather, He purposes that every legitimate need in our lives be met.

Psalm 34:9-10  Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. 10  The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

All this is the birthright of the people of God. But it’s not automatic! There are several conditions we as individuals must meet before we will see God’s desire that we prosper work out in our lives.

The first condition is very clear in the passages cited above. Notice to whom God’s promises are made:

  • His servant
  • His saints
  • Those who fear Him
  • Those who seek the LORD

Only those who have become part of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord qualify! (If you’re not sure about this, please see How Can I Be Saved?).

However, just becoming a Christian will not automatically insure that a person prospers in life. As a pastor I deal with many people who have professed Christ, yet still have lives that are in a mess. Many times the problem is not that they are insincere in their faith. But they often literally become their own worst enemy by the decisions they make, and their lives end up in shambles. Here’s why:

Proverbs 14:12  There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

If you are anything like me, you’ve probably learned the truth of this verse the hard way. We’ve made decisions in life the best we knew how, doing whatever we thought we had to do to make things work out the way we wanted – and they didn’t. What seemed to make so much sense at the time turned out to be a disaster, leaving us deeper in a hole than when we started.

The problem is, I believe, that many of us were never taught the biblical key to unlocking God’s promise of prosperity for our lives. What is that key?

Joshua 1:7-8  Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.  8  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

How can we make our way prosperous and prosper wherever we go? It’s only as we commit ourselves to “observe to do according to all that is written in” God’s Word. The promise of prospering in life comes to fruition as we allow the Word of God to not only guide us in specific decisions, but to reshape the way we think (Romans 12:2 calls this “the renewing of the mind”).

The conclusion I’ve reached for my life is that I must make it my practice to subject every decision I make to the commands and precepts of Scripture. Before doing anything, I need to specifically ask, what is God’s stated will or counsel about this sort of thing?

  • If in the normal course of my job I would find myself spending a lot of private time with a married coworker or client of the opposite sex, does God have anything to say about that kind of situation? (He does!).
  • If I really, really want to have a big screen TV like everybody else in my neighborhood has, but would have to go deeper into debt to get it, have I considered God’s take on such a course of action?
  • If my relationship with my spouse has reached a level of dysfunction and pain where I just can’t take it any more, is getting a divorce as quickly and quietly as possible really God’s way out?

As a pastor, I’ve seen far too many Christians make decisions like these first, and then only after finding themselves in misery because things went badly do they seek God’s counsel about their situation. And let me be honest – that “far too many” definitely includes me!

But I’m learning. I’ve made the commitment to do nothing without first understanding the counsel the Bible provides about my decision. And if I don’t know, I’m committed to taking the initiative and making the effort to find out. Exclaiming that I didn’t understand about the law of gravity won’t help me when I lean too far over the railing at the Grand Canyon!

I certainly don’t claim to be perfect at this. But I’ve had it impressed on me by hard experience, on several occasions, that I would have saved myself a lot of trouble and misery if I had refused to act until I was sure I understood and was abiding by the counsel of God’s Word.

How can I have the prospering life God takes pleasure in providing for His people? By taking care that in all areas of my life I “observe to do” according to God’s Word.

Ron Franklin

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Rejoice In Sufferings?

Posted on July 18, 2013 by ronelfran

When I look at all that the apostle Paul went through for the sake of Christ … well, it’s hard to imagine rejoicing in such suffering. Are Paul’s testimony and his example really meaningful for me?

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2 Corinthians 11:24-27  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.  25  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26  in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27  in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-

Colossians 1:24a  I now rejoice in my sufferings for you …

Like most American believers, I never have been, and never expect to be, subjected to the kind of abuse Paul had to endure in fulfilling his ministry. It would be easy to dismiss him as a giant of the faith, a man used by the Holy Spirit to pen more than half the books of the New Testament, and therefore someone who lived on a spiritual level far beyond what I ever expect to attain.

But that’s not who Paul was. He was not some super-Christian! He did not have some special level of spiritual strength that is available only to super-saints. He was an ordinary person, just like me, whose source of strength was exactly the same as my own:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul had no greater ability to handle the challenges of life than I do. And if God’s grace was entirely sufficient to allow him to not only endure but rejoice in his sufferings, that same grace can give me the power to rejoice in mine. I may never be beaten with rods or stoned or shipwrecked. But I face my own issues that sometimes seem (and I knew they only “seem”) just as serious.

And when those things happen, I want to have a testimony like Paul’s. Rather than moaning, groaning and complaining about the things I have to go through, I, too, rejoice in Christ in my sufferings.

Ron Franklin

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Be Unfair To Yourself!

Posted on May 29, 2013 by ronelfran

I was born selfish — and so were you. Yet selfishness and a me-first attitude are the very opposite of what God’s kingdom is about. So, what are we as believers going to do about our inborn selfishness?

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Philippians 2:3  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

In the Greek “selfish ambition” is eritheia, which combines the idea of being ambitious for selfish ends with pursuing those ambitions with strife or contention.

How easy it is to fall into selfish ambition! We naturally see things from the perspective of how we ourselves are affected, and of course we desire the best for ourselves. From there it can be a pretty short step to putting a priority on what would seem to gratify our own desires. And woe to the person who gets in the way of us getting what we consider to be our just due! The resulting contention and strife are obviously entirely the result of their ignorance, stubbornness, and selfishness.

This verse is a warning that Christians must be vigilant about the selfishness that is inherent in fallen human nature. For many of us, I think the issue is not so much that we intend to act out of ambition or conceit, but that they are so much a part of the way we’ve always thought about things, we don’t even recognize them for what they are when they get us in their grip.

How often has it seemed that when I’ve been perfectly fair and just in my dealings with someone, I ended up feeling that their response was insufficiently considerate toward me? And vice versa. In other words, if I act on the basis of what I think is an even balance of my interests with the other person’s, I’m likely to tilt unconsciously toward myself. The same applies to them. So, now we have a “consideration gap” that neither wanted, but both resent. That’s where strife can arise.

So, Paul doesn’t stop with “do nothing through selfish ambition or conceit.” He knows that to overcome the inherent bias we have toward ourselves, we must consciously and deliberately put the other person first. It’s not about being fair; it’s about being deliberately unfair, but to the other person’s benefit.

So, when George and I arrive simultaneously at the desert table during a church fellowship, and there’s only one piece of that wonderful lemon meringue pie left, who gets it? Actually, while I’m insisting that George take it, and he’s insisting that I should have it, Mary comes up and grabs it!

Wait a minute – that’s not fair! Right. But think about it: now three people, and not just one, will enjoy that piece of pie. I think that’s a great outcome.

So, let’s overcome our natural selfishness by being deliberately unfair to ourselves in order to bless someone else.

Ron Franklin

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I Don’t Need An Emergency Chute!

Posted on May 10, 2013 by ronelfran

I believe God has called me to be an overcomer in life — always a victor and never a victim in whatever circumstance I may be confronted with.

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Romans 8:37    Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

In August of 2010 Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater had finally had enough.

When a passenger verbally abused him, Slater snapped. He got on the PA system and cursed all the passengers out. Then he grabbed a couple of cans of beer from the galley, pulled the lever to release the emergency chute, jumped on it and slide to the ground (fortunately the plane had already landed!), ran to his car, and drove home.

Steven Slater immediately became a folk-hero, with web pages honoring his exploit, offers of media appearances, and People Magazine listing suggestions about who should play him in the movie about his graphic refusal to take any more abuse.

But from a Christian perspective, is Steven Slater really a hero? Or is he a chump?

Probably all of us at one time or another have felt like that overtaxed flight attendant did that day. I certainly have! There have been many times when I felt like throwing up my hands and shouting, “This is too much – I can’t take it anymore!”

But, is it ever OK for Christians to give in to their emotions the way Slater did? I’m not really thinking so much about the cursing and the beer, but about just letting go and venting your frustrations.

One thing that helped me to answer that question for myself was imagining this man being interviewed on the news about the way he handled that pressure situation on the plane.

“Well, I’m a Christian,” I imagine him saying, “and before I did anything, I prayed about it, and what I did was what I believed would most honor God.”

That doesn’t track very well, does it? I think most of us already know that what he did is not God’s way. It’s never God’s way for us to get so upset and overwhelmed by the circumstances we face in life that we just totally lose it.

Proverbs 24:10    If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

I believe God is looking for people who won’t faint in the day of adversity, who won’t give up and throw in the towel and run away because they’ve reached the I can’t take it any more point with the challenges they are facing.

Here’s the kind of Christian I think God is looking for:

2 Timothy 2:3    You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

God is looking for soldiers! God is looking for battle-hardened warriors who are willing to stand up and keep fighting the good fight until they win!

1 Samuel 17:48    So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

That’s the attitude mature Christians have about the challenges they face in life. Instead of jumping down the emergency chute and running away from their situation, they have the weapons of their warfare ready, and they run forward to defeat the enemy in the name of the Lord!

To me, that’s the attitude of an overcomer, of one who is a victor and not a victim in the circumstances that confront them in life.

Ron Franklin

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Receive God’s Grace and Peace

Posted on May 8, 2013 by ronelfran

God’s grace: His unmerited favor and the assurance it brings; and His peace that can keep our hearts and minds settled in joy rather than anxiety, are precious gifts to every believer.

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Galatians 1:3    Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

This verse is not just Paul’s hope or desire for God’s grace and peace to be manifest in the lives of believers (it is that), but is also in itself a means of ministering them to us. The man of God here offers a blessing that can be received, ignored, or rejected. When we read this word of the Lord to us, it allows us to make the decision, here and now, to receive His grace and peace. And when we make that choice, we actually do receive them, for God’s grace and peace are always available to us.

Paul has no grace or peace to offer. But he reminds us, and leads us, to receive in this moment what God is always ready to give us. So, these words are a reminder that God’s grace and peace are there for our taking, because they are His free gifts to His children, and we have only to receive them.

By giving us this word, Paul – and any man or woman of God who delivers a similar blessing – becomes an actual conduit of God’s grace and peace into our lives. His words stimulate us to slow down and actively envelop ourselves in the grace and peace God offers to us every day.

So we should never think of these words of greeting in Paul’s epistles as simply a prolog to the real message. If we stop and actually take them in, they have a spiritual force all their own.

Grace and peace be to you all from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ron Franklin

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