TheHighCalling.org: Classic Audio

Spectator-itis

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I don't know about you, but I don't play football anymore. I used to love to play football. But at 62, football is not exactly my thing. I watch the Dallas Cowboys play football.

I don't play basketball anymore. We watch the San Antonio Spurs play basketball. And that spectator-itis—which is really characteristic of the twentieth century—is relatively harmless in these areas of enjoyment and recreation and entertainment that we get from professional sports. It's one of the lavish gifts of the electronic age. We can see the finest athletes in the world regularly in our homes. And that's good.

But if that spirit invades the church—which I believe is exactly what it's done, that spectator-itis—that is not harmless. That's hellish.

Is the church a theater or a body? When we talk serious church—not just "play church" but serious church—what are we talking about? We are talking about nothing more nor less than the Kingdom of God. We are talking about nothing more nor less than those of us who want to be a part of the answer to Jesus' prayer, "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

—from a talk called "Jesus the Enabler" delivered in 1989 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' "
(Matt. 6:9-10)

The Master Author

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

There is a plan, and we are here because we are in the process of surrendering to that plan. And that plan is making you into the poetry of God, the masterpiece of God.

"We are the only Bible the careless world will read. We are the sinner's gospel, We are the scoffers creed. We are the Lord's last message given in deed and word. What if the type is crooked, what if the print is blurred?"*

This just devastates me. My type is blurred so often. My print is so crooked, but the Master author keeps perfecting the poem. from a talk called "The Poetry of God" delivered in 1983 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
(1 Pet. 2:4-5)

*lines excerpted from a poem by Annie Johnson Flint

Christ, I Plunge

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

In the parable of the talents, Jesus says the people most likely to fail him are the one-talent people. The five- and ten-talent people both did well, but the one-talent man buried his talent. He buried it because of his low self-image. He said, "I was afraid, and you are a hard man" (Luke 19:11-27).

That is precisely our self-deprecating mentality as lay people. We say to ourselves, "Anything that I do is so trivial it's not worth doing; it's not worth the risk. If I do it, it will make no appreciable difference. If I leave it undone, it will never be missed." And so we bury our talents.

All of us are not Billy Grahams. All of us cannot be Pope Johns. All of us cannot be Mother Teresas.

Robert Browning prayed,

Are there not . . . Two points in the adventure of the diver, One—when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge, One—when, a prince, he rises with his pearl? Festus, I plunge!

A Christian is a person who says, "Christ, I plunge. I take the step. I form the discipline of doing it every day."

from a talk called "The Laity Lad" delivered in 1987 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
(Mark 16:15)

Burning Bushes

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I want us to think for a minute about the potential of the ordinary. And to realize with Moses the lesson of the burning bush—that you are in a holy place all day, every day, if you will only realize it.

Every time the church of Jesus Christ has been authentic, it has had that note of helping people to realize that every place they are is a holy place. And that every building where they work is a sanctuary. This is the reason that Jesus exploded on the consciousness of the people around Him—because he saw God in everything.

He stood up to speak about the sparrows, and he saw God in the birds. He talked about the lilies of the field, the flowers that everybody just walked over every day. But he saw God in the flowers. You see, this was the revelation. It was the genius of Jesus Christ. He was saying that all around us there are burning bushes.

from a talk called "God of the Commonplace" delivered in 1974 at the Layman's Leadership Institute in Atlanta, Georgia

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up." . . . "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
(Exo. 3:1-3, 5)

Find Your Great Commission

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Elton Trueblood loved to say that when Jesus told us, "Go into all the worlds and preach the gospel" (Matt. 28:16-20), he did not mean that just geographically. He didn't mean just go to Africa, China, Japan and preach the gospel.

He meant go into the worlds intensively. Not only extensively, but intensively. Not only geographically, but vocationally. Go into the world of business, and preach the gospel there. Go into the world of homemaking, and preach the gospel there. Go into the world of law, and preach the gospel. Go into the world of aeronautics, and preach the gospel. Go into the world of electronics, and preach the gospel. Go into all the worlds . . . and preach the gospel there.

from a talk called "Jesus the Enabler" delivered in 1989 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
(Matt. 28:16-20)

Play Games for God?

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

St. Charles Borromeos was one night with a group of people playing chess. This was a social evening; they sat playing chess. And somebody injected into the conversation that evening, "If you were going to die this very night, what would you do?"

And so one person said he would do one thing, one another. One would seek a reconciliation. Another would go to church.

Finally, the conversation came around to Carlo, and St. Charles Borromeos said, "If I knew that I were going to die tonight, I would finish this game of chess. Because," he said, "I began it for the glory of God. And I cannot think of anything that I would rather be doing when going to meet my Lord than a task undertaken in His praise."

You see, that is Christian maturity. And that's what the Bible is talking about when Paul says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). There's nothing very religious about eating or drinking. It's just ordinary life. But there's where I am called to glorify God.

from a talk called "God of the Commonplace" delivered in 1974 at the Layman's Leadership Institute in Atlanta, Georgia

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom . And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
(2 Cor. 3:17-18)

Image is "Intercession of Charles Borromeo" (1714), a ceiling painting for the Karlskirche, Vienna.

The Priesthood of All Believers

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I'll never forget: I was speaking on Christian leadership once to a civic club in Atlanta, Georgia. A member of the Georgia Legislature came up to me and said, "Mr. Butt, that was a wonderful talk." He said, "I have always wanted to be a leader, but I never made it."

Now isn't that revealing? I know what he was saying. He wanted to have some leadership he never got.

The book of Revelation in the letter to the Philadelphians says a very profound thing, "Let no man rob you of your crown" (Rev.3:11). You are a leader. You are glorified with Jesus Christ right now. You share in his ruling and reigning of the universe right now. Don't let anybody take that away from you. Assert it, be conscious of it, be rational about it, have it prioritized: Because you cannot be a priest without standing. Christ in you stands in the place of leadership that truly is yours, not in the places you lust for, but the places of leadership that are truly yours. Our priesthood means we stand. Our priesthood means we serve.

Of course, without service Christian leadership is just the same old thing. It's tyranny. It is oppression—and that is the human experience. It is the experience of oppression. But there's good news! A new leadership style is coming, and it arrived washing the disciples' feet. It is leadership that serves.

from a talk called "Celebrating our Priesthood" delivered in 1981 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, TX

No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.
(Ps. 75:6-7)

Looking for the Miraculous

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

We want to see God in the miraculous. We want to see God in the spectacular. We want to see God in the inexplicable. I go through life wanting earthquakes and thunder and lightening and visions, and I refuse to see God in the dusty, ordinary affairs of every day. And when I lust for the miraculous or some inexplicable thing to happen in my life, I am really kicking at the God who has given me these pesky, dusty, ordinary problems. Looking for the miraculous, looking for the spiritual, looking for the religious, I stumble over the ordinary.

Some men die by shrapnel and some go down in flames, but most men perish inch by inch in play at little games.*

And, my friend, it is in the little games of your life where you either become like Jesus Christ or you become like his enemy. from a talk called "God of the Commonplace" delivered in 1974 at the Layman's Leadership Institute in Atlanta, Georgia; lines of poetry excerpted from "The Night They Burned Shanghai," The Saturday Evening Post, Mar. 25, 1939

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
(1 Thes. 4:11-12)

Walter the Stocker

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Some while ago, we were opening a large supermarket in Corpus Christi, which was the headquarters of our company at the time. And everything was going along well. Many people were coming to see the store and the business was good, and I was busy as a little bee, making sure that everything was going right.

But I was afraid that we might begin to run out of some of those fast-moving items on the shelves—like sugar, coffee, shortening. I took a quick turn through the store and, sure enough, we were nearly out in the shortening shelf, and the coffee shelf was way down, and the soap shelf was nearly gone. I knew there was one boy still on the floor, a fellow by the name of Walter, who was out there to plug those empty holes. I went breezing through the backroom looking for Walter, and I found him. He had one of these little two-wheeled dollies, you know that you carry merchandise out on, and he was just breezing down the aisle at about 30 miles an hour, it looked like.

I said, "Walter, where are you going?"

He said, "I'm going to get those holes filled up."

I said, "That's wonderful, what do you have there?" I looked to see a case of La Choy Chinese bean sprouts. I said, "Man, what on earth are you doing with those bean sprouts?"

He said, "I'm going to get those holes filled up."

I said, "Let's get some of this coffee and shortening and sugar and the stuff we really need out there. That's what is important." And so we did.

What I had illustrated to me that day was the prime principle of success in any field, whether it's running a grocery store or running a house or taking care of children or any job you may have. The successful man, the good operator, the wise man always sees the most important thing and does that first and lets the secondary things wait until later.

from a talk called "What is Success?" delivered in 1956 at the Greater Boston Crusade in Mechanics Hall

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
(Matt. 16:24-25)

He Puts Significance Into the Simplicities of Life

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The further I go in the Christian life, the less I'm bored. Christianity is not a way of doing special things. It's a special way of doing everything. Our Lord puts significance into the simplicities of life. One of my favorite scriptural pictures of that quality is found in Ephesians 2:10.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

My analytical lexicon that I was reviewing yesterday says, "We are His work." We are His creativity. We are His workmanship. "We are His creation," says the Lexicon. We represent God's creativity. The word in the Greek is the word poieema. It is obviously the word that we transliterate "poetry." We are his poetry. from a talk called "The Poetry of God" delivered in 1983 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
(2 Pet. 3:8-9)

The Football Suit

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 28 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

People believe that success consists in what a man has, rather than what a man is. That success consists in externals rather than in internals.

This Christmas, our little three-and-a-half-year-old boy just had one thing he wanted for Christmas. Our little fellow is named Howard. He said, "Daddy, I want Santa Claus to bring me a football suit."

That's what he wanted, and he talked about a football suit morning, noon, and night, all the time, before Christmas: "I want a football suit!" He's just three-and-a-half-years old. And when he's got a football and he tries to lean over and center it, he can hardly get it between his legs. He's still just a little tiny twerp. But he wanted a football suit. And he had gone on incessantly about that football suit. So, you know what happened. He got a football suit.

He got out there Christmas morning, and there it was. We got the littlest football suit we could find in our city. But it wasn't little enough. The other thing he got was a little cowboy holster set, and so in order to keep the football pants up, we had to put the cowboy holster set on. We were kind of an all-American and a cowboy simultaneously. But at any rate, we got all dressed up in those great big shoulder pads and that shirt that hung down and these pants that were sagging, and he got all that fixed up and he said, "O.K., Daddy, let's go play."

And so we got outside, and I really think he thought that all his football problems were going to be overcome by that new suit. He got out there, and he said, "Throw me a pass." I threw him a pass, and he just wandered all over like he always does.

Well, we laughed at that, but do you know, that that's exactly what most people are trying to do? Most people are trying to take the same old man and dress him up in the outward appearances and think that that makes the man inside over again.

from a talk called "What is Success?" delivered in 1956 at the Greater Boston Crusade in Mechanics Hall

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."
(Matt. 23:25-26)

The Scattered Church

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 07 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Your church is in the hearts of the people who gather to worship there and then are scattered to live their lives. So your church is in your homes. Your church is in your shops and businesses and schools and in your doctors' offices and in your hospitals. On your football fields. That's where your church is.

Your church is in the lives of its ordinary membership, and what goes on in the buildings is nothing more than the training and equipping and inspiring of the church to be what it is out in the secular world every day.

from a talk called "Jesus the Enabler" delivered in 1989 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
(1 Cor. 3:16-17)

A Broken World

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The only way Christ can use us is by breaking us; it is the rule of our nature. Before the house can be built, the tree must be broken, or there is no lumber. Before the stone can be laid, the rock must be broken from the quarry bed. Before the grain can bear fruit, the soil must be broken by the steel tooth of the plow. Before the birds can sing, the eggs must be broken in the hatching of new life.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" (Ps. 51:17).

What is there that breaks your heart? Give thanks today for what God can do with that!

from a talk called "The Laity Lad" delivered in 1987 at Laity Lodge in Leakey, Texas

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Ps. 51:15-17)