Jeff Adams

A friend of mine tells a story that fascinates me for the way it represents a truth of life. The image is powerful and lodges in the mind.

Years ago my friend was invited out by a good-looking man who appealed to her immensely. By all appearances he was intelligent, charming, witty and many other qualities she admired in a man. The much anticipated moment arrived as he came by to pick her up.

Riding along in his car, they were having a perfectly delightful time. The conversation was engaging and the more they talked, the more her hopes rose that this would be the relationship for which she had been waiting.

Suddenly, he rolled down the window, took the Pepsi can from which he had been drinking and casually tossed it out the window.

In that one moment of time, with that one simple act, everything changed. Any feelings she had for him, any respect, any interest, romantic or otherwise, went right out the window with the Pepsi can. That single event burst the bubble and ended it all. She never saw him again, nor did she want to.

She would later use that incident as an object lesson for her daughter. For years they have continued to speak of those Pepsi-can-out-the-window moments. All it takes is one crass action, one selfish, thoughtless remark or deed to dash all respect or feeling for someone.

Have you ever had a Pepsi-can-out-the-window moment? I have thought about this so many times since I first heard the story. More than once I have found myself thinking, “Well, THAT was a Pepsi-can-out-the-window moment!” Have you had one of those moments lately? Any you’d care to share? Have you ever been guilty of a Pepsi-can-out-the-window moment?

What a great workshop with Dr. Pat Cate this morning! He taught a Discover Missions Workshop that was required for our Shepherd School Students and open to anyone who wanted to attend. He did a great job! Many of our people have read Pat’s missions workbook Through God’s Eyes. I require it in my first year missions classes. Some of our short termers have used it, too. Pat served in Iran, Egypt and for 20 years was president of Christar. He has a Ph.D. in Islamic studies.

The first section this moring was very effective. Pat opened by asking for concerns about missions. The issues raised were written on the white board, and then he dealt with them one by one. In the second session he divided the group in two and sent one to another room. Each group learned some basic cultural rules and formed a people group with their own culture. They spent some time practicing and refining their cultures. Then, small groups were sent from one culture to visit the other. Eventually, everyone got to visit the other culture. What a blast! There was much laughing as well as confusion and frustration. Those who participated will never forget it. Then final session explored what we learned through this simple exercise.

Dr. Cate will be speaking in both services in the morning. I am posting this so late most of you won’t read this until it’s too late to come and hear him. As always, you can listen to the message on the www.kcbt.org website.

When I finish a series people often ask where I’m headed next. On September 14th, the same day of several significant changes at KCBT, I am starting a series called Building World Changers: Direction in Real Time. I want to tell the part of the Apostle Paul’s story that is seldom told – the story of how Saul the Pharisee became the Apostle Paul. What are the ingredients, the building blocks, the key elements that made up his personal development and how do we make application to our lives today?

The very first thing to explore is his transformation. One day the resurrected Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Paul had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ and his life was forever transformed.

I like the word transformation. I prefer that to words like conversion, saved or born again. Those are all good words, or course – biblical words. There’s nothing wrong and everything right about them. The problem is that overuse and wrong use of these words by many followers of Jesus have weakened their ability to communicate. Many think of conversion as changing churches or religions. A born again experience has entered the vernacular and is understood as a new start, no more, no less. Saved – from what?

The past few decades of shallow Christianity have given many the idea that because they once prayed a prayer, “went forward” in a church, or held up a hand during an invitation means that they are good to go. Too often churches have reinforced this concept by appearing to be more interested in adding notches to their Gospel guns than actually nurturing people in spiritual growth.

I can hear the objections. “Those are Bible words! We can’t ‘dumb down’ the Gospel. People need to understand them because they are from the Bible.”

Of course we need to understand these words. And if churches are doing their job of teaching people the Bible instead of serving warmed-over pop psychology, people who have been transformed will come to understand these words and many others in due time. The problem is when we self-righteously cross our arms and demand that unbelievers without understanding understand our understanding of biblical words and concepts before we let them into the club. This is a great trick if we can get away with it. We preach that people without personal knowledge of God have no understanding. Then we put the onus on them because they don’t measure up to our level of understanding.

Ironically, if we can just coax them to say the right words and/or pray the right prayer, we pronounce them saved, converted or born again as though they had just learned the secret handshake or password. Is this all there is to it?

No! I believe that a genuine encounter with God results in transformation. If not, then let’s just cut 2Corinthians 5:17 out of the Bible. (Look it up). Transformation means a change of nature. By the way, this is what those other words used to represent. Praying a prayer is a great way to begin a transformed life, but if there is no transformation there was never a real prayer. Being transformed does not mean instant maturity or being faultless. It simply means life is totally different now becaue we are different from the inside out. God has transformed us by his grace and mercy. Paul is an excellent example of transformation.

Sunday morning we prayed for the folks in New Orleans and surrounding areas that were targeted by a very threatening Hurricane Gustav. Not that long ago a team from our church returned from helping the ongoing rebuilding efforts in the infamous Ninth Ward that was devastated after Katrina three years ago. Just a couple of weeks after Katrina another team from our church had been on the scene doing what they could to help. Those types of effort result in relationships that put names and faces on challenging times like these.

As I write these words Monday night, it is now apparent that while Gustav was a major hurricane and brought great destruction to property along the Gulf Coast, it was no Katrina. There have been no confirmed deaths reported at this time and New Orleans is still standing. For this we are all very thankful. It will take some time and effort for life to get back to normal, but most agree it could have been much, much worse.

One interesting aspect of this was the amazing evacuation of 95% of the population of New Orleans, the largest such evacuation in our history. Evidently the horrific memories of Katrina, only three-years-old, did a great deal to motivate people to take this storm seriously. Local, state and federal governments worked together in an admirable way and it would appear that their hard work and planning paid off.

I’m sure there will be some who will accuse leadership of “crying wolf,” but that brings to mind one of several old adages that apply — better safe than sorry. I’m sure most reasonable people, though, will understand that officials did the right thing in getting as many people out of the way of this storm as possible.

How do we apply this truth to life? Are we as wise of government officials in their preparation for this storm? In our recent study of Haggai we saw several times that God reminded his people to prepare for judgment to come. This is a common theme in scripture. Here’s some questions I’m asking myself. Maybe you’d like to join me to see if you really believe that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

• Does the way I save money reflect good planning and preparation for the future?
• Would I be prepared to simply walk away from my home in the event of an evacuation like this receont one in New Orleans? Have I thought through my priorities and planning?
• Am I laying up treasure in Heaven?
• Am I prepared for the Second Coming of Christ whenever that may be?
• Am I prepared for the future by my continued growth in Christ and the knowledge of his word?