So, having preached on the theme of “Reaching Forward” so often, I am being asked by many: “So what’s your attitude, Mr. Preacher, now that YOU may have a life-threatening disease?”

Well, like Paul, I have my preferences. “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23), But I may not get my preference. I will submit to the doctor’s treatment and be content to DEFER TO THE LORD’S JUDGMENT as to whether my work is nearly done or not. But if it were merely a matter of my personal preference, I would be delighted to find out that my race is more nearly run than I had thought! If the finish line is now in sight, that will come as a wonderful surprise!

Long ago, I used to work for a bridge construction company that was rebuilding the roads in southern Mississippi following the destruction of Hurricane Camille in 1969. To get the roads and bridges back as quickly as possible, we worked long hours: never any less that 12-13 hours a day. And this was in the hot, boiling sun of the Gulf Coast, where weather in the summertime is brutal.

Because the contractors were under pressure to get these roads rebuilt rapidly, there were times when, after a long, hard day, the boss would say, “I need some of you to stay late.” I would always volunteer, even though it was disappointing not to be able to go home at the expected time. I would stay and work (not grudgingly, but with a willing heart) as long as the boss needed me. But as soon as he said, “Okay boys, let’s go home,” I was eager to go home! After a long day in the hot sun, THERE WAS NOTHING ABOUT GOING HOME THAT WAS NOT APPEALING TO ME. In fact, if in the middle of the morning, after only a few hours of work, the boss had surprised us and said, “Let’s knock off and go home,” I wouldn’t have argued with him about it. Whether sooner or later, going home was always something I was interested in.

Nowadays, I enjoy my part of the Lord’s work as much as anybody ever enjoyed their part. And I will stay and work as long as He deems it wise to keep me here. But as soon as He says, “Okay Gary, you can come on home,” I will be thrilled.

So my prayer right now runs something like this: “Lord, you know how I long to come home to You — please let it be now rather than later. Even so, not my will but Yours be done. I will gladly yield to Your judgment, but if there is any way, within Your will, for this incident to release me from this life, I pray that it may be so.”

Whenever I express this viewpoint, many respond that they want to stay and be a good influence on their kids and grandkids. Well, that’s a noble sentiment, obviously, and as long as it’s the Lord’s will, I am willing to do that also. But listen: I AM PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE LETTING THE LORD MAKE THAT CALL. If, in His judgment, my time of influence in this world is drawing to a close, then I’m going to receive that NOT JUST WITH ACCEPTANCE, BUT WITH JOY. Anything that is His will is always preferable to any other alternative!

So I ask you straightforwardly: what is there about going home that is so unappealing to so many Christians? Wouldn’t we “rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)? For my part, I surely would, and the news that there might be even a slight chance that the time of my departure is near is NEWS THAT TINGLES WITH EXCITEMENT.

But, realistically, this episode is not likely to turn out that way, at least it seems so at this point, and if it is the Lord’s will for me to stay and work, I’ll do so . . . cheerfully.

But I’m telling you what: as soon as the “Boss” says, “Okay Gary, you’ve done enough,” then I AM EAGER TO GO HOME.

So if you’re praying for me, be careful what you pray for. ;-)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

Yet today, we Christians often fit so comfortably into our surroundings that we pride ourselves on having no enemies. Ruffling nary a feather, we do the Lord’s work in such a way that no one is seriously challenged or disturbed. Nothing is instigated. Nothing is overthrown. We leave things pretty much as we found them.

Unnecessary controversy is, of course, to be avoided, and therein lies the rub: it takes more wisdom than most of us possess to know when to soothe others and when to disturb them.

But all in all, it seems that we should rock the boat more often than we do. In this fallen world, the status quo is usually something that is not pleasing to God, and we — His countercultural people — need to be the instigators of rebellion against all that is not right, including that which is not right in the lives of those who are nearest and dearest to us.

“Woe to you,” Jesus said, “when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Lk. 6:26).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

(1) SIMPLER. All of the previous materials are there, but they’re grouped under fewer headings. The blog page is now the front page for the entire web site. Most of what you’re looking for will be under the “Resources” tab at the top. Be sure to check that out.

(2) RESPONSIVE TO MOBILE DEVICES. These days, most people view web pages on their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, e-readers, etc.), so we’ve adapted our web site to the post-PC world. Now you will get an optimized version of the WordPoints web site, neatly adjusted to whatever device you may be using.

(3) WORDPOINTS BLOG. We’re now ready to start posting more entries to the WordPoints blog. These will not be every day, just random thoughts on an occasional basis . . . whenever Gary has something to get off his chest. If you haven’t already signed up for this special email list, you might want to subscribe now.

As always, if you find any bugs or broken links, please report them to us.

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

Thanks to all who have conveyed their well-wishes today. Your encouragement means more than you have any way of knowing.

These days, I have a pretty clear idea of the work that is mine to do before my time runs out. So I’d better get busy and get back to it . . .

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

WITH THE PAGES THAT I WROTE TODAY, I AM HALFWAY FINISHED!

I began in May of 1999, and so it has taken me 12 years to reach the halfway point. I hope to be finished by the time I am 70 years old in 2020, so that leaves me only 9 more years to complete the second half of the work. Thanks to the generous financial support of several congregations and individuals, I now have more time to write than I did in the first 12 years, so I believe that I can be done by 2020, Lord willing.

If I finish this work in a total of 21 years, it will have taken me as long to write these books as it took the Egyptians to build the Great Pyramids. Whew!

Well, I’d better go. I’ve got some more writing to do.

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

The problem is that Kinkade has, apparently, departed from his earlier principles and convictions. At least he seems to have been living inconsistently with those convictions, if the news reports are true. As I prepared today’s reading, I had to ask myself, “Do I still quote Kinkade, now that he has dishonored the truths that he used to be known for?”

Well, if I removed the quotation from Kinkade because, as one person said, “he has turned out to be a hypocrite,” I would also have to remove any quotations from Solomon, who became a wicked man and departed from his earlier way of life much more dramatically than Thomas Kinkade.

As a hopeful person, I cherish the thought that Solomon may have returned to God before he died, and likewise, I have chosen not to give up on Thomas Kinkade just because his foot has slipped. I hope that he will repent of whatever wrongdoings he has gotten himself involved in.

But here is what I have decided: the truth is still the truth, even if someone has quit living it. And if someone spoke a truth in a particularly apt way, then those words still stand, even if the messenger has fallen. The beauty and power of the truth do not depend on the personal faithfulness — or the eternal salvation — of the messenger.

And come to think of it, I am mighty glad it’s that way. Aren’t you?

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

Perhaps, as busy people, we underestimate the need for preparation. What about you? If you’ve increased the “quantity” of your Bible study, but haven’t seen good results, perhaps you need to work on the “quality” of your study. There is, after all, much to be said for learning HOW to study the Bible.

Here are ten suggestions that will help you get more out of the time you spend studying God’s word. And if you think you’ve advanced to the point where you don’t need these tips, just ask yourself how often you really APPLY these to your own study. Be honest!

1. Read larger sections. We tend to get bogged down in the details of Bible study to such an extent that we lose the bigger picture. There is much to be gained from backing up and reading larger portions of the Bible at one time. Whenever possible, we need to read an entire book at one sitting, especially the letters in the New Testament which were meant to be read just as we today read a letter that we receive from a friend.
2. Use multiple translations. Regardless of which translation you use regularly, get several of the better translations and compare these as you study. When it comes to translations, there is safety in numbers. What is unclear in one translation is often clear in another.
3. Look up unfamiliar words. It’s amazing how many people will come across words they don’t know in the Bible and never make any effort to find out what they mean. Keep an English dictionary and a Bible dictionary handy, and use them every time you need to. God’s word is too important not to know what the words mean.
4. Outline the books. You don’t have to do the kind of detailed outlines your teachers made you do in school. Just learn to see the major sections of each book and how they fit together.
5. Engage all three parts of the mind: INTELLECT, EMOTIONS, and WILL. God gave us all three parts of our mind, and we need to use them all. When you study, bring your emotions and your will to the aid of your intellect. Having learned intellectually what God says, feel emotionally as you ought to feel about it and then use you will to do what you ought to do about it!
6. Study to learn more than what the text does not say. We certainly need to be able to refute false doctrine. But we need to know more about each passage than what it does NOT say. The question is: what DOES it say? And especially, what does it say to ME? What is God saying that I myself need to hear?
7. Look for three things: INFORMATION, INTERPRETATION, and APPLICATION. When we study, we need to get not only the “information” (what it says) and the “interpretation” (what it means), we also need to look for “application” (how we can use what we’ve learned).
8. Bathe your study in prayer. Prayer is the Number One thing we can do to help ourselves in any endeavor, including Bible study. Without a prayerful attitude, Bible study can actually be dangerous. So pray before you study, while you study, and after you study.
9. Be patient. Much of what we need to learn takes time. We must be willing to go over the text again and again and again. Patient repetition, perhaps stretching over many years, is what will yield substantial results. Don’t give up. Just go over the text carefully, put it away, and then go over it again later. Keep doing this for the rest of your life.
10. Be honest and courageous. When we study God’s word, we must strive to lay aside our preferences and preconceived ideas, and be willing to LEARN whatever the text actually says. And having done that, we then need to have the courage to DO what we should about it.

The ability to get quality results in Bible study is not an inborn trait — it is something that can be learned. And the truth is, most of us have a lot to learn about even the simplest aspects of searching the Scriptures; we’re hardly more than children in our study skills. Let’s decide to do better. Which of these ten tips can you make the best use of?

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

This young woman has put all of her eggs in this one earthly basket. She has invested so much of herself in this goal that if she should not make it, I wonder if she could handle it emotionally. When I asked her about that, she laughed. “I don’t consider failure a possibility,” she said. “Contingency plans are for wimps.”

As a Christian, I couldn’t help but think of James 4:13-15: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’”

Those of us who are familiar with that verse try to have a better attitude about our earthly plans than this young woman, don’t we? We’ve trained ourselves to say “If the Lord wills” at the end of any sentence that contains a statement of our plans. But do we realize what we are saying? Do we really believe that our plans are contingent on the Lord’s will?

I am studying Ecclesiastes right now in my private Bible study, and I have been more strongly impressed than ever before with Solomon’s realistic admission that we are not in control of what happens in this world. We don’t KNOW what is going to happen, and we can’t CONTROL what happens. To try to do either one — know the future or control it — is as futile as trying to “shepherd the wind.”

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make plans or that we shouldn’t pursue our plans enthusiastically. But it does mean that after we’ve done everything we are capable of doing, our plans still may not materialize. Even when we’ve done everything exactly right, the Lord may keep us from reaching our objective. He may have other (and better) plans.

Anytime you and I reach a goal that we’ve been pursuing and things turn out as we wanted them to, that only happened because God ALLOWED it to happen! Nothing happens except by the Lord’s permission, and in our case, He might just as easily have withheld His permission. We could have done all the same things and if He had chosen to do so, God could have brought about a very different result.

So let’s understand that our plans really are CONTINGENT on whether the Lord allows us to complete them, and on those occasions when we HAVE completed them, let’s be very careful in talking about what “we” did. The truth of the matter is, we reached the result ONLY BECAUSE THE LORD ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN!

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

Think first about Paul’s statement in Romans 8:20: “For the creation was subjected to FUTILITY, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in HOPE.”

Next, consider the CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL as they are described in Genesis 3:14-21. In the Garden of Eden, there would have been nothing “futile” about Adam and Eve’s existence, but outside of Eden things would be very different: they would no longer be living in an environment where their desires could be fully satisfied. The LIMITATIONS that God placed on the world outside of Eden meant that, as long as the world remained, human beings would live out their earthly lives in FRUSTRATION, no longer able to get what they needed from this world or accomplish anything of lasting importance here.

In other words, our NATURE and NEEDS have not changed since the Garden of Eden, but our ENVIRONMENT has! God has changed the world such that (no matter what we own or enjoy or accomplish) this world will no longer fully give us what we try to get from it: the satisfaction of our God-created needs. As long as we live here, we have no choice but to endure lives that are to a great extent UNFULFILLED. The decision that every human being must make, therefore, is how to DEAL with that lack of satisfaction, and the decision we make will either lead us back to God or lead us farther away from Him.

In story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9, we have an early example of mankind trying to GET AROUND the futility to which God had subjected the creation. These people were saying, “We refuse to accept that our accomplishments are limited; we will solve our problems, satisfy ourselves, and build an empire that will LAST.” But God said, “No, you won’t. I have subjected the world to futility, and you are not going to change that.”

I’m afraid things haven’t changed much since the early chapters of Genesis. Like the Babel-builders, we also place our confidence in human “progress.” But we (Christians as well as unbelievers) live outside of Eden just as they did, and the things that we can’t do far outnumber the things that we can. Despite our “Yes we can!” attitude, God is saying “No you can’t. I will not permit you to iron every wrinkle out of your lives in this world. When Adam and Eve sinned, I subjected this world to futility, and there is nothing you can do to take the frustration out of it. I want you to ACCEPT the frustration of this world.”

So there is no use denying it: LIFE OUTSIDE OF EDEN IS A FRUSTRATING, DISSATISFYING BUSINESS. God intends it to be that way; His desire is that this kind of world will turn us back in His direction. So what about you? I’m talking to Christians here, not non-Christians. If you are a Christian, have YOU accepted the “vanity” of the things YOU cherish in this world? Honestly now, have you? If you haven’t, I suggest that you get busy working on it.

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

I am absolutely convinced that it “does good to do good.” The law of reaping and sowing can be counted on just as surely as the law of gravity (Galatians 6:7,8). But it may not be given to us to KNOW the good that is produced by our actions. For one thing, it may not take place until after we are dead and gone, but even if it happens in our lifetime, it may not come to our personal attention.

Faith says, “Go ahead and act in the direction of goodness and truth, even if it may not be clear to you how God will use those actions to accomplish His purposes. Just act in the confidence that He WILL use them.” Anything less than that is not faith in God but a reliance on human understanding and foresight.

“Conservatism” is sometimes a good word, but I’m afraid most of us are far too conservative when it comes to acts of goodness. Before we act, we want assurances, guarantees, and promises up front. We refuse to act until we can see all the way to the end of the road.

But in the real world, such information is rarely available to us. Much of the good that we do has to be done in the dark.

If Abraham had thought as we do, he would never have left his home in Ur (Hebrews 11:8-10). Without being told exactly where he was going and precisely how the Lord was going to use that journey to accomplish His purposes, Abraham would have stayed at home. Fortunately, however, he trusted God. The only assurance he needed was that leaving Ur was God’s will — he didn’t need to know what “good” it would do.

In Ecclesiastes, we are given this good advice: “In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good” (11:6). God has given us no specific guarantees. He has simply said, “Do the best you can and leave the results to Me.”

So good deeds can’t wait for perfect operating conditions. And they can’t wait until we completely understand how a certain action is going to produce a certain result. When it comes to doing good, ALL WE NEED TO KNOW IS THAT A PARTICULAR DEED IS THE BEST THAT WE CAN DO RIGHT NOW, BASED ON OUR MOST HONEST APPRAISAL OF GOD’S WILL.

So let’s leave the future in God’s hands and just patiently continue to do the best we know to do. That’s the meaning of faith.

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com