Forgetting How We Got Where We Are

Seen on a friend's post on Facebook:

We’ve all heard the old football tale about the coach who gathers his new recruits together in the locker room, holds up a pigskin, and declares: “Men, this is a football.”

Sometimes, in any endeavor, it’s necessary to start at the very beginning. Sometimes it’s essential to relearn and reaffirm the most basic fundamentals. Sometimes, whether it’s building a marriage, constructing a skyscraper, or founding a nation, it is imperative to remember and re-embrace the bedrock truths on which those things must be solidly based if they are to stand secure.

The consequences of ignoring this simple principle was once sadly expressed in the words on a hand-written sign taped on the front window of a company that was closing its doors forever. The sign read:

“WE HAVE GONE OUT OF BUSINESS BECAUSE WE FORGOT WHAT OUR BUSINESS WAS.”

Why was America founded? What purpose was it intended to fulfill? Why does it still exist today? What if it no longer fulfills its original purpose? What if it’s now an enemy of that purpose? What if it is now a destructive force against the very reasons for which it was created? What if it no longer deserves to exist?

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once asked to explain the core reason for the triumph of the Communist revolution that left his beloved homeland in ruins. In answer to that question, Solzhenitsyn said he had interviewed thousands of people, read hundreds of books, and written seven books of his own on that very subject. But he said he could think of no words that more accurately and succinctly answered that question than simply to say:

“Men forgot God.”

In their day, Sodom and Gomorrah were important city states. They were located on a broad and beautiful plain. But over time, they became the ancient versions of “Sin City.” The sheer stench of the moral wickedness within their walls brought down upon them the righteous wrath of a holy God. By their own choices and conduct, they lost the right to exist. They were literally wiped off the face of the earth.

Jesus once cursed a fig tree that had ceased to bear the seasonal harvest of fine figs for which it had been planted. It ceased to be of any positive benefit to anyone. His curse caused the useless tree to dry up, wither, and die.

America is dangerously close to becoming exactly like that fruitless fig tree. We are perilously close to being exactly like the wicked cities of the plain. Indeed, we may be very near that immoral, unfruitful point of forfeiting our very right to exist.

Why does America exist? Upon what essential principles was it founded? What sovereign purpose was it created to fulfill?

The most simple and concise answer to those vital questions is: We are meant to be, “One nation, under God.”

The great Boston revolutionary Sam Adams, on that historic day in 1776 when our Founders signed our Declaration of Independence, fervently declared:

“We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”

Our third president, John Adams, one of the most brilliant men ever to occupy that office, said of America’s founding:

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and awe, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

Adams also wisely warned:

“Religion and Morality alone can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure virtue. If this cannot be inspired into our people…they may change their Rulers and alter their forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”

Adams further wrote that the Republic the Founders created could only stand secure if it remained on a foundation of pure religion, austere morals, and public and private virtue.

Adams, in fact, posed to our new nation the very question we are asking here. He asked: “Upon what kind of general principles did our Founders achieve our independence and form our government?” Then he answered his own question. Adams declared it was upon what he and his fellow Founders called “the general principles of Christianity and of English and American liberty.” Those principles, Adams said, are “as eternal, as immutable, and as unalienable as the very existence, attributes, and character of God Himself.”

Adams’ equally brilliant son, John Quincy Adams, also an early president, declared:

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of government with the principles of Christianity.”

He further declared that most of the Americans of his day freely acknowledged themselves to be voluntarily bound by the laws of God and by the principles of the Gospel as the rightful rules to govern their conduct.

In America today, those principles are regarded as laughable. That original foundation is cracked and crumbling. The demolition is being done by misguided, misinformed, and misled new generations of Americans.

Adams once challenged Thomas Jefferson to cite one example in all of human history when a people that had become “thoroughly corrupted morally” ever returned to the path of virtue and Christianity.

Let us say it frankly.

America today has become “thoroughly corrupted morally.” The forces that shape our lives and guide our behavior no longer come from the Holy Bible or the Ten Commandments or even from godly parents and praying grandparents. They come from a sex-saturated, violence-soaked, anger-filled media and from a powerful entertainment industry that promotes sin as the new virtue, that exalts perversity as the new normal, that deviously describes black as white and white as black, that declares virtue to be vice and vice to be virtue, and that hails villains as heroes and heroes as villains. We are a land turned morally upside down.

Watch any segment of “Sex and the City.” Pick up any edition of “Cosmopolitan” magazine. See for yourself how far the American woman has fallen from the pure path of sexual virtue. Scan any of the hundreds of pornography channels. See with your own eyes the filth to which many American men and boys are now addicted. Listen to the waves of titillating laughter from female audiences when any host of any TV talk show hints approvingly about the supposed benefits of adultery.

In the early days of ancient Israel, a false prophet-for-hire named Balaam cunningly corrupted God’s chosen nation by teaching the people there was nothing wrong with sexual sin. In our own day, the late Hugh Hefner and others like him have successfully promoted that same corrupting falsehood.

We hailed that falsehood as the great “Sexual Revolution.” We were certain it would bring in a golden age of “Sexual Liberation.” But countless divorces, diseases, deaths, broken homes, shattered families, abandoned children, abortions by the millions, health complications, emotional depressions, spiritual emptiness, and sad sexual dysfunctions, disappointments, and disillusionments later, those willing to face the facts now admit it was all a lie. God’s ways, though rejected, remained the best ways all that time.

The tragic truth is, we still haven’t learned our lesson. We still are no longer a nation committed to virtuous liberty. We are a people devoted to unrestrained licentiousness. We are no longer a nation guided by Judeo-Christian morality. We are, in fact, a nation that despises and rejects that morality.

So what say you? What fate does a land like the one ours has become deserve? What can be done to avert that fate?

As the leader of our land, John Adam’s answer was to declare a national day of solemn fasting, repentance, and prayer. Adams called on all Americans to lay aside their daily pursuits and humbly bring to mind their many offenses against the Most High God. He called on his countrymen to confess their sins to God with sincere penitence and to implore His pardon for all their transgressions. He asked the refining power of the Holy Spirit to dispose and enable the American people to render unto God “a more suitable obedience to His righteous moral requirements.” He asked God to arrest the spread of the licentiousness that is so offensive to Him and so ruinous to mankind. Finally, Adams asked God to make all Americans deeply aware that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

Many presidents after Adams have felt the need to declare many similar days, including some in our own lifetimes.

The Bible has its own solution to America’s fallen condition. In it, God graciously promises:

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land.”

Let all who truly love this land become part of God’s solution---before it’s too late.

See you next blog,

Ted

Our Culture Makes Men Look Like Fools

Now understand something right away. There are men who are as foolish as their wives, girlfriends and mothers make them out to be. I'm talking about Narcissistic men who only care about one thing-themselves and how everything affects them. However, the women's liberation culture of the 60s and today has done everything possible to neutralize men. Fortunately there are still men who will not bend to the stupidity of the current women's movement but I am concerned about the Millennial generation and those that follow:

Dear Friends,

Last month my letter was dedicated to a celebration of Mother's Day on May 13. I hope you had a chance to read it. This being June, we'll swing to the other half of the equation to take a look at Father's Day. I want to deal with what is happening to men within the culture at large.

Have you noticed that the "women's movement," as it is now called, has again declared all-out war on men? It is pervasive and comes in the form of ridicule, resentment, belittlement, hostility and anti-male bias. It is not a new phenomenon, of course, having begun with a vengeance in the late 60s and 70s. It was then called the "women's liberation movement." In the present permutation, various organizations and leftist groups are still out there teaching hate and conflict between men and women. They include Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, the mainstream media, the entertainment industry, gay and lesbian advocates, liberal universities, and a host of other leftist entities.

Several months ago, former candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, said that she lost the election because men had browbeaten their wives by insisting that they vote for her opponent, Donald Trump. Could she really be serious? Do women not have minds of their own?

The contemporary version of the war between the sexes is an effort to make men look like fools. They are depicted as immature, impulsive, selfish, weak, and not very bright. Evidence of that campaign can still be observed in almost every dimension of the culture, especially in the entertainment industry. Television commercials slam the message home night after night.

The tiresome formula involves a beautiful woman who is intelligent, sexy, admirable, self-assured and well dressed. She encounters a man who brags and blusters and says crazy things. He is ignorant, balding, and almost always overweight. The stupid guy, as I will call him, quickly disgraces himself on screen, at which point the woman sneers or walks away. There are hundreds of these ads on TV today and have been out there for many years. Watch for them on the tube. They are constantly changing, but here are some actual commercials that appeared for all the world to see.

1. The stupid guy approaches a gorgeous girl in a bar who is pouring a Heineken beer into a glass (guess what is about to happen). She smiles seductively. He is so flabbergasted by her beauty that he overflows his own glass. The announcer then calls this "a premature pour." There is little doubt about the nasty meaning of that one.

2. The stupid guy loves driving his Acura so much that he puts lipstick all over his mouth, musses up his hair, and twists his shirt. He is trying to make his wife think he's been with another woman, but when he gets home, she looks at him scornfully and says, "You've been out driving again, haven't you?" He sighs and looks down, like a little boy caught stealing candy.

3. The stupid guy is too scared to talk to a sexy woman in a bar, so a friend writes inane notes to prompt him. He suggests to the dumb dude that he write unintelligent messages to the woman, such as, "Hi" and "How are you?" Ultimately, the girl leaves with the writer, and the stupid guy is left bewildered and alone at the bar.

4. The stupid guy is a flabby man in his forties who is standing alone in front of his bedroom mirror. He is not wearing a shirt. Then he tentatively tries on his wife's bra. At that moment, his wife comes through the door. The cross-dresser is caught. She fails to notice the bra and asks him something about sports. Relief spreads across his face. The caption then reads, "Some questions are easier to answer than others."

5. The stupid guy is trying to impress an attractive girl with his knowledge of professional football, but she corrects his facts at every turn. He then reminds her that he was a "guard" for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The girl says sarcastically, "Larry! You were a parking lot attendant!"

6. Three stupid guys are standing together at a cocktail party when they spot a beautiful woman in red. One of the men identifies her to the others as "the chairman's wife, Mrs. Robinson." (The setting recalls a Mrs. Robinson in the movie, The Graduate, who seduced actor Dustin Hoffman.) At that point, the woman sidles over to one of the men and says, "Have you ever seen something and you just knew you wanted it?" The stupid guy swallows hard and trembles. This is his big moment. Then Mrs. Robinson grabs his "Killian's Irish Red" beer and walks away.

7. This is the most disgusting advertisement I have seen. The stupid guy is a trainer in a gym who is showing a good-looking girl how to toughen her "glutes," referring to the muscles in her buttocks. He stands before her and begins to grunt and strain, bending slightly forward and grimacing. One wonders if there is something terrible happening in his shorts. Then he reaches behind to retrieve a walnut that he has apparently cracked with his rear end. Somehow that disgusting ad was supposed to make the viewer want to rent a car from Budget. It didn't work for me, I assure you.

Television commercials are not the only culprit. Today's sitcoms are downright awful. They blast away at traditional masculinity, much like wrecking balls crashing into a building scheduled for demolition. After taking many direct hits, the structure begins to crumble. As I write, there is not a single example of a healthy family depicted in a sitcom that focuses on a masculine, heterosexual guy who loves his kids and is respected by his wife. Not one!

You'll note that the polarity of the stupid guy ads is never reversed. Not in a lifetime will viewers see a corpulent, unattractive, sloppy woman lusting after a good looking man in an ad or sitcom, who shows disdain for her as she does something embarrassingly foolish. Men, however, don't seem to notice that the joke is on them. Perhaps they (we) have been desensitized by fifty years of male bashing.

Agencies conduct exhaustive market research before committing millions of corporate dollars to advertising programs such as these. So, what is going on here? Is it possible that men, especially male beer drinkers and sports car enthusiasts, actually like being depicted as dumb, horny, fat, nerdy, and ugly? Apparently, they do. We also have to assume that guys are not offended when they are made the butt of a thousand jokes. But why? Women would not tolerate that kind of derision.

Are you old enough to remember the sitcom, "All in the Family?" It was based on a redneck clod named Archie Bunker and his mousy wife, Edith. Humor was used to make a fool out of him, and by extension, every conservative man in the country. From there, primetime television programming has evolved into today's fare, most of which features profane, sexually explicit cohabitants who meander through one outrageous episode after another. The lead characters are usually men with the giddy mentality of fourteen year-old boys. Hollywood writers use these programs to snuff out every vestige of male pride and crush it beyond recognition. 

This leads us to ask, why does it matter? Why should we be concerned about the war between the sexes? There are two primary consequences. First, it effectively weakens the family and damages the institution of marriage. Common sense tells us that dividing the population down the middle and pitting one sex against the other couldn't be healthy for intimate relationships. I am convinced that the war is related to the huge divorce rate in today's world. Many women are reluctant to marry, or stay married to, sniveling men who lack the confidence to lead or care for their wives and children. That hurts everyone.

The second consequence of the war between the sexes is that it warps the minds of children. Do we not know that kids are capable of noticing that men are often made to look like fools in the wider world? They watch the sitcoms too, after all. I'm convinced that many boys and girls learn to disrespect the men in their lives. They should be taught to look up to their fathers and want to emulate them. Boys, especially, need to learn how to become men by watching strong, loving dads who take the time to mentor them. A high percentage of babies are born out of wedlock and have no masculine influence in the home. History teaches that the young and vulnerable suffer most from the ravages of war. In this case, both boys and girls have been wounded by the ricochet.

Remember that the war is not just being waged between men and woman. It is culture wide. Kathleen Parker wrote, "Today's boys grow up in a bizarrely hostile environment. They're told to be tough, not to cry, to be a man. It is an ironic insult in a culture that devalues men and fathers. They're bullied by schools intolerant of boy behavior, told they're less special than girls, and left by too-busy parents to the tutelage of peers, media, and superheroes who wreak havoc to settle scores."

Michael Thompson, coauthor of Raising Cane, said that many women are hoping against hope that their sons won't turn out like their husbands.

Journalist Megan Rosenfeld said that our sons are seen as politically incorrect. "[They] are universal scapegoats, the clumsy clods with smelly feet who care only about sports and mischief."

Harvard psychologist William Pollack said women consider boys to be creatures who might "infect girls with some kind of social cooties."

No discussion of boy-bias would be complete without addressing the discrimination against males evident in American public education. Again, William Pollack said succinctly, "It sounds terrible to say, but coeducational public schools have become the most boy-unfriendly places on earth. It may still be a man's world. But it certainly isn't a boy's world."

And finally, Christine Hoff Sommers, the most passionate and effective defender of boys, echoed these concerns in her outstanding book, The War Against Boys, How Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men. She says this is "a bad time to be a boy in America because of the bias against them in our educational institutions."

In conclusion, let me acknowledge the obvious. Not all men are worthy of respect. Some are jerks. Some drink heavily and abuse their wives and children. Some are severely into pornography or are inveterate gamblers. Some waste the family's resources. Some are lazy. Some are unfaithful and chase after other women. Some have other serious faults. I haven't intended to make excuses in this letter for such individuals. Every situation is unique.

I can tell you this. Women often hold the keys to a man's confidence, his willingness to work, to live a clean life, and even to influence his commitment to Jesus Christ. If you belittle and disrespect him at home, you and your children could be the losers for it.

If that is your circumstance, please don't be offended by what I have written. But I urge you not to get carried along by the radical feminist's universal hostility to men—all men. Their anger is not a good thing. If you join their movement, you might hurt your sons and daughters and destroy your marriage. For all the women out there whose husbands are basically good men, but perhaps they are just not good enough in your eyes, you might want to reexamine the guy you married. He could have some hidden qualities you might have overlooked. Search for the hidden virtues and see what could show up.

Even more to the point, you should never underestimate the power of prayer. My grandmother was married to a man who was not a believer. He told her to do what she wanted with their 6 kids, but to keep him out of spiritual matters. She prayed and fasted for him for more than 40 years without response. Then he became critically ill at 69 and asked his wife specifically to pray for him. He said he wasn't afraid to die, but it was so dark. She knelt at his bedside and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ. Two weeks later, he died with a testimony on his lips. We are going to see him again on the other side. You have no idea what answers to prayer God might have in store for your wounded marriage. I have seen miracles happen many times.

Be encouraged, fathers. Your children will be impacted by your godly guidance and care if you take the time to invest in their lives. Happy Father's Day!

Dr. James Dobson

See you next blog,
Ted

Mark #17: The Wisdom to Deal With Failure (Taken from: Marks of Maturity)

Mark #17: The Wisdom to Deal With Failure (Taken from: Marks of Maturity)

Moral Failure-let that word sink in for a minute! For a Christian believer I don't think there is anything worse feeling than realizing you have failed the Lord Jesus in your human behavior. I know what it feels like and I know the hurt and shame that come with it. Is that the end? Are we doomed to the repercussions of failure for the rest of our lives? The following is by a very brave man named J. Hampton Keathley III, who was diagnosed with cancer in August 2001 and went on to be with the Lord in August 2002. He was a 1966 graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and a former pastor of 28 years. In August of 2001 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and on August 29th, 2002 he went home to be with the Lord. 

Hampton wrote many articles for the Biblical Studies Foundation and on occasion taught New Testament Greek at Moody Bible Institute, Northwest Extension for External Studies in Spokane, Washington.


Introduction
Everyone wants to be a success. I have never met anyone who purposely set out to be a failure. Undoubtedly, this is why so much has been written on the topic “How to be a Success” and why these books are so popular. I think it was Theodore Roosevelt who said, “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” The simple reality is that failure is one of those ugly realities of life—a common experience to all of us to some degree. Thus, the ability to handle failure in its various forms and degrees is a vital part of the spiritual life and another sign of maturity. A careful study of the Bible reveals that most of the great figures of Scripture experienced failure at one time or another, yet those failures did not keep them from effective service for God. As a partial list, this was true of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, and Peter. Though they failed at some point, and often in significant ways, they not only recovered from their failure, but they used it as a tool of growth—they learned from their failure, confessed it to God, and were often able to be used in even mightier ways.

The manner in which a leader meets his own failure will have a significant effect on his future ministry. One would have been justified in concluding that Peter’s failure in the judgment hall had forever slammed the door on leadership in Christ’s kingdom. Instead, the depth of his repentance and the reality of his love for Christ reopened the door of opportunity to a yet wider sphere of service. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

A study of Bible characters reveals that most of those who made history were men who failed at some point, and some of them drastically, but who refused to continue lying in the dust. Their very failure and repentance secured for them a more ample conception of the grace of God. They learned to know Him as the God of the second chance to His children who had failed Him—and third chance, too.

The historian Froude wrote, “The worth of a man must be measured by his life, not by his failure under a singular and peculiar trial. Peter the apostle, through forewarned, thrice denied his Master on the first alarm of danger; yet that Master, who knew his nature in its strength and in its infirmity, chose him.159

Understanding the amazing grace of God and His incredible forgiveness and acceptance through Christ, a mature Christian is one who has grasped the truth that his or her failure is not the end of an effective life with and for the Lord. While there may be consequences to live with (as with David) and serious issues to work through, the mature believer rests in the grace of God and uses the failure as a backdoor to success through growth and understanding.

A favorite hymn for many Christians is “Victory in Jesus” because there IS victory in the Savior. In fact, Christians are super-conquerors in Christ. They are those who have, as translated by the NET Bible, “complete victory” (Rom. 8:37). Significantly, this statement by Paul is made in a context that considers the reality of the varied onslaughts of life which must include failure.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or death? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35-39).

In view of this, we often speak of the victorious Christian life. But the truth is there is a lot of defeat in the Christian’s life because none of us will always and perfectly appropriate the victory over sin that Christ has accomplished for us by the cross. Further, the amount of deliverance we each experience is a matter of growth; so on the road to maturity and even after reaching a certain degree of spiritual maturity, Christians will sin and fail—sometimes seriously so. We don’t like to talk about it or admit it, but there is a lot of failure. Failure is a fact of life for the Christian community, but God’s grace is more than adequate to overcome any situation. The mature Christian is one who has learned to apply God’s grace remedy for failure.

The Prevailing Attitude About Failure
Presently the bookstores are full of popular “How to Succeed Manuals” on every conceivable subject. And why is that? Because we are so concerned with the glory of God? I would hope so, but there are also other reasons. Too often, it is because we look at failure with eyes of scorn. We view failure as a Waterloo. We see it as the plague of plagues and as the worst thing that could happen to us.

As a result, the fear of failure has many people in neutral or paralyzed or playing the game of cover up. We consciously or subconsciously ignore our sins and failures because to admit them is to admit failure and that’s a plague worse than death. People often refuse to tackle a job or take on a responsibility for fear of failure. People believe if they fail they are no good. They think failure means you are a bad person and you are a failure. But, as previously mentioned, most of the great leaders in Scripture at some time in their careers experienced some sort of failure. For instance:

When Abraham should have stayed in the land and trusted the Lord, he fled to Egypt because of the drought. And this was by no means the last of Abraham’s failures.
Moses, in trying to help his people, ran ahead of the Lord and killed the Egyptian. Later, against the command of God, he struck the rock in his anger.
When David should have been out in the field of battle, he stayed home and committed adultery with Bathsheba and then plotted the murder of her husband.
Peter, in spite of his self-confidence and his great boast, denied the Lord, as did the rest of the disciples who fled before the evening our Lord’s arrest was over.
There is a fundamental principle here. Sometimes God must allow failure in us before He can bring about success with us. Our failures are often rungs on the ladder of growth—if we will learn from our mistakes rather than grovel in the dirt and make excuses for our failure.

This is not to make excuses for sin or to place a premium on mistakes or failure. This does not mean that a person must fail before they can be a success, but our failures, whether in the form of rebellion or just foolish blunders, can become tools of learning and stepping stones to success. The point is, we should never allow our fear of failure to paralyze us from tackling a job or trying something that challenges our comfort zone.

Nor should we allow past failures to keep us down or keep us from recovering and moving on in the service of the Savior. This means we should never allow failure to make us think we are a failure or that we can never change or that we can never again count for the Lord or that God can’t do anything with us because we have failed in some way. The Bible says we are all sinners and prone to failure, but in Christ we can become overcomers.

After the horrible carnage and Confederate retreat at Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee wrote this to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy: “We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.”160(Some of you aren't going to like this analogy but like or not Robert E Lee loved the Lord.)

Mature Attitudes About Failure and Success
(1) Mature believers understand that a Christian can become successful in spite of failure because of God’s incredible grace and forgiveness. We may have to live with the results of some of our failures or sins, yet God is free to continue to love us in Christ and use us for His purposes because of grace (cf. John 21 & Peter).

(2) The mature believer seeks to use failures as lessons for growth and change. Mature believers will act on two principles: (a) They understand that failures remind us of the consequences of our decisions. We reap what we sow. This is the law of harvest. Failures remind us of what can happen, they can make us careful, but they should not be allowed to paralyze us. (b) The mature believer recognizes that our failures show us what we should and should not do; they become lessons in where we went wrong and why. You know what they say, “hindsight is 10/20.” It can help us avoid the same mistake twice if we will learn from history.

Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, talking movies, and more than 1000 other things. December 1914 he had worked for 10 years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. This particular evening spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room. Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film, and other flammable goods were in flames. Fire companies from eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile. Everything was destroyed. Edison was 67.

With all his assets going up in a whoosh (although the damage exceeded two million dollars, the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof), would his spirit be broken?

The inventor’s 24-year old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind. “My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “He was 67—no longer a young man—and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ‘Charles, where’s your mother?’ When I told him I didn’t know, he said, ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.’”

The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.” Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.161

(3) When mature believers fail they:

Acknowledge their failures and refuse to hide behind any lame duck excuses.
Confess any sin to God when sin is involved is involved in the failure.
Study or examine what happened so they can learn from the failure.
Put it behind them and move ahead (1 John 1:9; Phil. 3:13).
Being assured of God’s forgiveness, we are to put our failures behind us, count on and rest in His forgiveness, and refuse to use them as an excuse for morbid introspection, pessimism, self pity, depression, and fear of moving on for the Lord.

(4) Mature believers grow through failure. They will know and act on certain truths:

We are accepted in the Lord on the basis of Grace, not our performance.
We are human and, as a result, we are not now perfect nor will we ever be.
God still has a plan for our lives. God is not through with us yet, and we need to get on with His plan.
(5) The mature believer will be one who understands there are different kinds of failure.

There are those who have genuinely failed according to the principles of Scripture. If we fail to know why we believe what we believe and then fail to give an adequate reason to those who ask for a reason for our hope (1 Pet. 3:15), then we have failed in our responsibility to witness. That can become a stepping stone to getting equipped and to becoming bold in our witness, but at that point there was failure.
There is a false guilt of failure because of a wrong view of success. Many missionaries have labored faithfully in foreign countries without much success by way of converts, but that by no means indicates they are failures. A biblical illustration is Isaiah. Right from the beginning, after seeing the Lord high and lifted up, after confessing his own sin and that of his nation, and after saying, “Here am I, send me,” God sent him to preach to a people who would not listen and told him so beforehand (see Isa. 6:8-10). In the eyes of people, he was a failure, but not in God’s eyes.
There is another class of failure; those who mistakenly believe they are successes! These believers may earn an honest living and be fine supporters of the church. They unconsciously (or sometimes all too consciously) consider themselves examples for others to follow. Yet they do not realize that from God’s perspective they are failures. One man put it this way: “I climbed the ladder of success only to discover that my ladder was leaning against the wrong wall!”
Heaven will be filled with surprises! Many “successful” Christians will be nobodies, and some whose lives were strewn with the wreckage of one failure after another will be great in the kingdom.162

(6) The mature believer is one who understands the importance of choosing the right standard of measurement to determine success and failure. There are a number common worldly beliefs about success that people apply to themselves and others, but they are all distortions of the truth.163 Most of these are based on some form of faulty comparison. To those who were guilty of this kind of foolishness, the apostle Paul wrote: “For we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding” (2 Cor. 10:12, emphasis mine)

Fundamentally, this is the distortion of comparing ourselves with others. We are all to do our best according the abilities God has given us and we are right in using others as models of Christ-like character. Paul told the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). But this is not the same as when we compare ourselves with other people from the standpoint of their gifts, abilities, bank accounts, possessions, position and other such standards and then attempt to determine our success or failure or that of someone else based on such comparisons.

When in seminary, we wrote our test answers in a little booklet called “The Blue Book.” After the tests were graded, they were placed in our mail boxes in the seminary mail room. Naturally, we all anticipated or dreaded, as the case might be, looking through the little glass door and seeing that little Blue Book stuffed in our box. The tendency for students was to inquire about the grades of their classmates or to loudly declare the grade they received, “Great, I made 100!” Many students refused to be involved in this game and kept their grades to themselves because of the foolish comparisons that sometimes occurred. Some students, regardless of how hard they studied, actually began to see themselves as failures because they were not able to make the high grades of some of their class mates and questioned whether or not they should even stay in seminary.

Other people determine their level of success by their bank accounts as measured by the luxury items they are able to purchase—a huge home, furniture, automobiles, boats, etc. Lutzer writes,

If money is a basis of judging success or failure, it is obvious that Jesus Christ was a failure! Consider this: when He had to pay taxes, He asked Peter to find a coin in a fish’s mouth. Why? He didn’t have a coin of His own.

Christ was born under the shelter of a stable’s roof. Most of us would be appalled if our children could not be born in a modern hospital! When He died, the soldiers cast lots for His garment. That was all He owned of this world’s goods. He died naked, in the presence of gawking bystanders.

Was Christ a failure? Yes, if money is the standard by which He is judged. The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man did not have a place He could call home.

Of course, earning money (and even saving some) is both legitimate and necessary. But the amount we earn is not a barometer of God’s blessing.164

And I might add, lots of money and things are never an evidence of success in God’s eyes. Many who are wealthy are failures from God’s viewpoint. The point, then, is the absence or presence of money is not in itself proof of success or failure.

The comparison game reaches out to almost every area of life. It may involve comparing friends, i.e., name-dropping to suggest that one is successful because he runs with the right people. Or it may involve believers comparing the size of their church, the size of their mission’s budget, the number of books one has had published, etc. None of these things are in themselves a proof of success in God’s eyes. A classic illustration is when Moses struck the rock when God had told him to only speak to the rock.

Water flowed. The people were jubilant! Was Moses a success? Yes, in the eyes of men. No, in the eyes of God! His disobedience brought water, but it also brought punishment.

Results in themselves are not a proof that God is pleased. It is possible to win attendance contests and disseminate the Gospel and see results; all these activities can be done without pleasing God! Such results can be achieved by deceptive gimmicks or for purely personal satisfaction. It is not enough to do God’s work; it must be done in his way and for His credit.165

Conclusion
There are many causes for failure. Some are the product of specific acts of sin, but some are not. Some are simply the product of ignorance or of circumstances beyond our control like a drop in the stock market or extreme weather conditions (drought, floods), which can cause a farmer or rancher to lose his shirt, as they say. Naturally, this kind of failure, as serious and painful as it is, is not as serious as spiritual failure like, for instance, the sin of David. While David did recover from his sin and was still used of God afterward, there were lifelong consequences in his life and in the lives of others.

Whether caused by sin or by the many things that can happen beyond our control, all failure teaches us the important truth of just how desperately we need God and His mercy and grace in our lives. Sometimes our failures are mirrors of reproof, but always they can become tools for growth and deeper levels of trust and commitment to God if we will respond to them as such rather than rebel and become hardened through the difficulty. “God is adequate for all kinds of failure. Some failures may not be our fault, but they serve as reminders that we must live with eternal priorities in mind. Other failures are directly the result of our own sinful choices.”166

Regardless, God has made more than adequate provision for us in Christ and His finished work on the cross, which is the sole basis of our relationship and forgiveness with God and our means of a meaningful and productive life with Him.

159 Oswld J. Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, Moody Press, Chicago, 1967, 1980, p. 163.

160 “Today In the Word,” Moody Bible Institute, November, 1989, p. 21.

161 Charles Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick, Thomas Nelson, 1978, pp. 82-83.

162 Erwin W. Lutzer, Failure, the Backdoor to Success, Moody Press, Chicago, 1975, 1984, p. 17.

163 For a more detailed consideration of these issues, see Lutzer’s discussion of this on pages 20-26 of his excelent book, Failure, the Backdoor to Success.

164 Lutzer, p. 21.

165 Lutzer, p. 25.

166 Lutzer, p. 42.

See you next blog,
Ted