Jeff Adams

No, I am not talking about the word of God conceptually. I am talking about the power of a Bible, or a New Testament, the book itself. I’m sure we would all agree that there is power in the word of God! But I want to share testimony of the power of a New Testament.

Several weeks ago on June 22nd I finished a short series on Reasonable Service by telling the story of Mexican army officer captured in Veracruz by an invading French army in 1861. Expecting to be shot by the French officer who had taken him outside the fort, you can imagine his surprise when instead of shooting him, the Frenchman pulled a small, black Spanish New Testament from his pocket. Explaining that his mother had given him the testament to give away, he told the Mexican that he would spare his life if he would promise to read it. The Mexican gave him his word and read it he did, putting his faith in Christ as a result.

From Veracruz he walked to Texas where he grew as a disciple and became a powerful preacher, starting churches all over northern Mexico and raised his children to serve God. Four generations of his descendants have faithfully served Christ and had tremendous impact on Mexico, Guatemala and beyond. His great grandson is a personal friend of mine. His name is Junior; I wrote about him recently and you can read it here.

After telling this amazing story of the long-reaching power of giving away a single New Testament, I challenged our church to do the same and see what God would do. In each pew, on the altar and in the lobby were simple paperback New Testaments in both English and Spanish. Most people took at least one and committed to give it prayerfully to someone who would promise to read it.

I have already received several wonderful stories of what happened to some of those New Testaments. Today, I got a phone call I thought I would share. That very morning a young pastor from Ohio was visiting our church. At the conclusion of the service he was one who took a New Testament. In fact, he took it all the way back to Ohio. After some prayer, he knew exactly who should be the recipient of the New Testament.

He called to tell me the story. Next door to the church is a grimy, urban gasoline station run by an Arab man who works very long hours to make a go of it. Obviously from a Muslim background, the gas station owner could not understand why this young man would be a pastor. Praying for the just right moment after returning from Kansas City, the young pastor gave him the New Testament and had him promise to read the book of John. He did and the result was a series of discussions culminating in his putting his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior this past week.

The New Testaments we gave out were nothing special. We assembled them ourselves in a Bible conference a few years ago. Anyone could go to the nearest Wal-Mart and buy a complete Bible. But, despite the availability, I come across people all the time who have never had a Bible and never read one.

What could happen if we would all prayerfully give away just one New Testament each month to someone who would promise to read it?

Imagine the dilemma of a people tough enough to hold together through 400 years of oppression, yet beat down enough to loose their confidence and self-worth, caught in the limbo of tough-minded failure. This is the story of Israel. Things continued to migrate from bad to worse, and even when a young Moses dared to kill an Egyptian who was abusing one of his Hebrew brethren, his own people lashed out against him.

It’s hard to find motivation to rescue a people who don’t want to be rescued and resist attempts to do so. But such is God’s love that he continued to stalk Moses through 40 lonely years of caring for his father-in-law’s flocks until he deemed that it was finally time to send him back into Egypt to bring out the Hebrews.

Israel had barely passed beyond the city limit signs when the sight of dust rising from the hoofs of the horses pulling Pharaoh’s chariots spooked them into complaining that they should have just died in Egypt. This was the first in a long series of complaining and gripping that eventually led to a led to a generation stalled in the desert wilderness until they died.

Yet, despite the fact that Israel developed the nasty habit of slamming God’s grace right back in his face, God never stopped loving them, never stopped extending to them his grace and never canceled his promise and plan to lead them to the land he had promised their ancestors. In fact, so great was God’s love that every single day he worked a miracle to feed them. The only way for two million people to survive in the hostile desert was for God to cause white, wafer-like cakes to appear with the morning dew.

“What is it?” the people declared, astonished at discovering this “divine energy/protein bar” that was to supply their dietary needs. The Hebrew word for that question is manna, and from that point forward became the brand name of whatever “it” was. Psalm 78 calls it the food of angels (or nobles). I don’t really know what that means, don’t have the nutritional information or the recipe to bake it, but I do know this — God was working a daily miracle to feed those Hebrews in the wilderness.

Consider. God worked a miracle each day to provide the manna. Did this make Israel any more spiritually inclined? Did this even stop their constant complaining and gripping or even have an effect on their stubborn, rebellious nature? No. They may have complained about the limited menu options, but as far as I know no one refused to eat the manna when they got hungry.

Even today, there are those who go by the name “Christian” who simply have to live a miracle-a-day. I am not one who denies that God can work miracles, nor do I pretend to dictate to him what he can and cannot do. I have experienced the miraculous and have removed my shoes. But, I have never become accustomed to the miraculous, nor do I want to.

Don’t judge me harshly, but I do not want to become dependent upon miracles. I want to become dependent upon God, and I want to live according to his plan for my life. I think there is a difference. I have taken drugs from time to time as needed, but only as prescribed for me by my physician. I have had friends who have become dependent upon drugs … and other substances and things. I worship God, not what he does, even when it is miraculous.

The day the Manna stopped

And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. Joshua 5:10-12

Think of it! For forty years the same food. They had grown accustomed to it, depended on it and raised children who knew nothing else. Now it was gone forever. No more daily miracle.

What happened? They had crossed over River Jordan into the promised land. They took a step of faith into maturity, and maturity was not a daily dose of miracles, but a constant life of faith, grace and dependency upon God. On the other side of the river, the people of Israel learned to feed themselves.

You can go to one of those churches with a nightly miracle service or ride the wave of the latest “revival” rolling out of Florida, yet still be a person of dubious and weak character, flawed social skills and lose your marriage and family. Happens every day. I am coming to the conclusion that the miracle-a-day syndrome is symptomatic of a dependency addiction on the level of heroin.

Getting off the welfare list

Israel learned a new dimension of dependency. Maturity is dependency on God that results in personal responsibility. Daily miracles that we begin to take for granted are for the weak and addicted.The same mentality of someone who thinks government, the church or society in general owes them a living is identical to the one that thinks that God owes us a living – or a miracle. God doesn’t owe us a cent. It is by his mercies that we are not consumed by the fire of his holiness. By his grace he miraculously supplies our every need while teaching us to provide for ourselves and our families.

Barack Obama actually did a good job of communicatign this truth today at the NAACP convention in Cincinnatti. Here’s an excerpt.

“I know there are some who’ve been saying I’ve been too tough, talking about responsibility,” he said. “NAACP, I’m here to report I’m not going to stop talking about it.”

Some analysts have suggested Jackson’s gaffe may help Obama appeal to more white conservative voters who might view criticism from the longtime civil rights leader as a badge of honor.

In his speech, Obama stressed that government alone can’t keep gangs off the streets and children in school.

“No matter how much money we invest in our communities, how many 10-point plans we propose, how many government programs we launch, none of it will make a difference — at least not enough of a difference—if we also at the same time don’t seize more responsibility in our own lives,” he said.

Obama may have ruffled the feathers of a few NAACP leaders, but he should have ruffled the feathers of us all, regardless of our color or ethnicity. This is not a Black problem; it is a human problem. We must stop looking for a handout, for a program to rescue us, get us out of debt, or take care of us. We must learn to be responsible as we walk by faith in the grace of God.

You’ve heard of it, haven’t you? Murphy’s Law? The concept is also called Sod’s Law or Finagle’s Law. The basic concept of Murphy’s Law is “if anything can go wrong, it will.”

No one really knows the origin of Murphy’s Law. The concept has been around as long as the human species has inhabited earth, but the name Murphy’s Law goes back to 1952, or maybe a bit earlier depending on whose story you accept. You can read a bit about the concept and its history here or even here. If you really want to get dpressed, just Google “Murphy’s Law” and be prepared to read for a while.

I do not want to whine or complain or get you to feel sorry for me, but sometimes Murphy’s Law just sneaks up and kicks me hard in the behind. I’ve had some very good times this past week. But, I have accomplished absolutely nothing of what I thought to accomplish. The simple things became complicated. The unexpected became expected. I spend my week doing a variety of things that I had not planned on doing — things I’m glad I could do, but not all at the same time. I normally plan for a few unexpected things to happen, because they always do. It’s just that sometimes the heavens open and torrents of unexpected and unexplained things rain on me from above soaking all of my good intentions and plans to the bone.

Just for fun, I found some notes I made many years ago on corollaries of Murphy’s Law:

• Nothing is as easy as it looks.
• Everything takes longer than you think.
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong and circumvent these, than a fifth way will develop.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• Whenever you set out to do something, something esle must be done first. But you will never know ahead of time.
• If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.
• If you do something which you are sure will meet with everybody’s approval, somebody won’t like it.

There are hundreds of those corollaries out there — there is just so much that can go wrong! Or, as another corollary says, “Every solution breeds more problems.” Maybe you have a favorite you’d like to share.

While no one seems to know for sure where the phrase “Murphy’s Law” originated, it seems that most agree on how Mr. Murphey met his untimely deminse. It seems his car ran out of gas somewhere in the United States on a dark night. As he tried to hitchhike to a gas station, wearing white and facing traffic, he was struck from behind by a British tourist driving on the wrong side of the road.

This post is about Emily, but there is nothing second class about her at all. To the contrary! After Cheryl, my beautiful wife, Emily is the second lady in my life who helps me keep my sanity in weeks like this when it seems everything turns upside down. For the past two years Emily has been my executive assistant. Many of you who read this blog do not live in Kansas City. When you try to call or contact me, you often end up in communication with Emily. So, I decided to give you a glimpse of this very special young woman.

I thought to do this a couple of weeks ago when I was in Argentina to train the staff of Thomas Vögelin‘s CEC. Emily has often corresponded with Febe, Thomas’ assistant.  Febe asked me, “What does Emily look like? What is she like?” Great questions!

Emily was born in Iceland when her father was stationed there in the US military. She is, however, Costa Rican. After over 30 years of ministering in two languages, Emily is the first bi-lingual assistant I have had, and I can’t begin to tell you what a blessing that is! She is not only bi-lingual, she is perfectly bi-cultural. Her uncle is Marco Castro, the pastor of our Hispanic ministries and director of Que Dice la BIblia, our Spanish-language Bible institute by extension. She has been part of our church family since she was in high school and she is as comfortable in English as she is in Spanish. So, we enjoy mixing up languages together.

Though she has been my assistant for almost two years, Emily has worked on our staff for seven years in a variety of responsibilites. She has served as a leader in our student ministries and is a great mentor for young women. She is bright, competent, given to details and has a great sense of style. Perhaps most important, she both loves and makes a great cup of coffee! If you can’t find either one of us, you just might bump into one or the other of us at Benetti’s Coffee Experience, or some other fine establishment dedicated to great coffee.

People like me who are out in front leading, speaking, training, and all that sort of stuff are often administratively challenged. People like me simply cannot do what we do without people like Emily. Life is never about a single person. Life is a team sport and we need each other.

If you’ve missed me for the past few days, it’s because over the Fourth of July weekend I declared my independence from this blog. I love doing this blog, but everyone needs an occasional break.

Sunday night my friend Sergio Blásquez gave a concert at our church. Regular readers of this blog will remember Sergio from when he gave a similar concert and master class last year.  To learn a bit more about Sergio, his amazing career and how we became friends, read what I wrote previously here and here. Sergio is currently the principal tenor at the Mainz Opera Company in Germany and is busy singing at the great venues of Europe and beyond. Last year’s highlights include his Carnegie Hall debut, and roles in operas in Berlin, Prague, Stockholm, Hamburg plus a concert with Placido Domingo in his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico.

After the concert, Sergio and I, our own worship leaders, Arturo and Jeremy, along with our wives went out in search of something to eat. After a long season in Germany, Sergio was ready for some Mexican food but knew that authentic Mexican food is in short supply in Kansas City. I surprised him by taking him to a new find of mine, El Rancho in Westport. I have become a regular in recent months but was anxious to see what Sergio and Marisela thought. Home run! Thirty seconds inside the door and we were all family with the staff. The food was fabulous and Sergio gave the tacos an 8 on a 10 point scale. Pretty high praise from a Mexican in Kansas City.

As we sat down and ate, salsa running down to our elbows, Sergio honored us with his wonderfully good Placido Domingo impersonations. Opera singes are all actors anyway, so they pick up on every nuance of personality.

Sergio told of a time when he was with the great tenor prior to a concert. He was so excited to be with him that he tried to engage Maestro Domingo in conversation. Domingo simply put his hand to his mouth and whispered, “Después, Sergio. Después del concierto.” “Later, Sergio, after the concert.”

“Placido Domingo is a very nice, humble and genuine individual,” Sergio went on to say, “but I had simply forgotten that he does not speak on the day or two before a concert. He’s no divo; he just does not speak prior to singing in order to conserve his voice. He’s well into his sixties now and still singing strong.”

“You know,” Sergio said seriously, “if this concert would have been in Germany or any place else, I would not have been talking either. This is a lesson I have had to learn. It’s too hard to do here because of being with all my friends. But, I can tell that I am tired and this is something I could not do often.”

This is the side of greatness that many people never see. They see only the talent but ignore the discipline and focus. I recalled having dinner with Sergio and Marisela in Amsterdam a few years ago with a opera singer friend of his, a member of the chorus in the company where Sergio was singing at the time. His friend walked with me after dinner and shared his prediction of greatness for Sergio because of his technique and focus. “There are many great young voices,” he said, “but most of them ruin their voices before they turn thirty, or they simply do not have the focus to develop them properly and learn the necessary technique.”

I was a minor scholarship musician in college, a French horn player. Our college was a good music school and I was surrounded by some people who went on to outstanding musical careers. I learned early that if I was going to continue on the path of music, I would have to do music and nothing else. I wasn’t ready to make that decision, and it wasn’t long before I discovered I could not keep up. Great musicians begin as good musicians with great talent. They become great musicians by single focus and discipline that enables them to become musicians worthy of their great talent.

I think this was part of the reason for the Apostle Paul’s success. He understood focus, sacrifice and discipline. His words to the Philippians come to mind.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Philippians 3:13-15

What is the object of focus in your life? Do you have focus? Many people have a long list of wants and desires, but few are willing to focus, sacrifice, work hard and exercise the type of discipline necessary to become a great opera singer.

I find that Christians particularly can be lazy and even blame God for their laziness. They call it “waiting on the Lord, or waiting on the Spirit.” They want to live by grace alone, some say, and not force things in the power of the flesh.

There is a time to wait upon God, to be sure, and everything we do should be by the grace of God. There is, though, no conflict between God’s grace and hard, disciplined work. Listen to Paul once again.

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1Corinthians 15:10

What one thing will you do?