Are You Taking The Easy Way?

James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, took office on March 4, 1881. On his first Sunday in Washington following his inauguration, a member of the Cabinet insisted that a meeting must be called to discuss a matter that purportedly threatened a national crisis. The President refused, stating that he was already committed to another appointment. The Cabinet member insisted, telling the President that the national matter was of grave importance and that he should break his prior engagement. Still, Mr. Garfield refused to do so. Obviously appalled, the Cabinet member remarked, “I would be interested to know with whom you have an engagement so important that it cannot be broken.” Mr. Garfield replied, “I will be as frank as you are. My engagement is with the Lord, to meet Him at His house, at His table, at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, and I shall be there.” What an example! May we, too, be so dedicated to the worship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we shall not forget we have a standing “prior engagement” every Sunday morning. Oh, to witness such attitudes in our Capital today.


[Matthew 7:13-14] I want to share with you an old newspaper article entitled “The Easy and The Hard” by Beverly Heirich. She started her article by saying, “When my husband and I were raising our five children, we taught them everything we knew. Now we know that wasn’t much.” She went on to say, “If we could do it over, here are some critical facts about human nature that I would start teaching them before they were old enough to brush their teeth without help.” Here are just some of the things she listed that she wished she had taught her children: * Bad is easy; Good is hard * Losing is easy; Winning is hard * Talking is easy; Listening is hard * Giving advise is easy; Taking advise is hard * Lying is easy; Truth is hard * Holding a grudge is easy; Forgiving is hard * Watching TV is easy; Reading is hard * Stop is easy; Go is hard * Dirty is easy; Clean is hard * Spending is easy; Saving is hard * Doubt is easy; Faith is hard * Criticizing is easy; Taking criticism is hard * Pride is easy; Humility is hard * Borrowing is easy; Paying back is hard * Arguing is easy; Negotiation is hard * Stupid is easy; Smart is hard * Cowardice is easy; Bravery is hard * Messy is easy; Neat is hard * An “F” is easy; An “A” is hard * Sarcasm is easy; Sincerity is hard * Growing weeds is easy; Growing flowers is hard * Having friends is easy; Being a friend is hard * Following is easy; Leading is hard * “Can’t do” is easy; “Can do” is hard. Certainly these are also very Biblical concepts. As we think about a variety of subjects addressed in the book of Proverbs, we see some similar reminders. For example, the book of Proverbs reminds us that it is easy to get a hand-out but it is hard to work (Proverbs 20:4). Also we learn from the book that it’s easy to follow, but it’s hard to lead (Proverbs 12:24), and that it’s easy to dream but hard to achieve a dream (Proverbs 13:4; 10:4). The book of Proverbs also reminds us that it is easy to make excuses but hard to make due (Proverbs 26:13), and that it is easy to spend but it hard to save (Proverbs 21:5). The greatest example of this truth, I believe, is from the lips of Jesus. He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.” As I think about the article and apply it to God’s words, I can’t help but ask myself, “Am I taking the easy way?” Mrs. Heirich ended her article with a noteworthy thought, “Easy is its own reward. Hard is much, much finer.” “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). It’s getting dark.

Grace Produces Change

He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is a brilliant young man, kind of profound and very, very intelligent. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a very conservative church congregation. They wanted to develop a ministry to the students, but were not quite sure how to go about it. Hearing about this, one Sunday Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, in faded jeans, his T-shirt and wild hair. The service has already started as Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church building is completely full and he can’t find a seat. By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer and closer to the front of the auditorium where he still finds nowhere to sit, so he just cross-legged squats down right on the carpet of the aisle. By now, people are really uptight and the tension in the air is thick. About this time the minister sees an elder is slowly making his way toward Bill. This elder has silver-gray hair, and wearing a three-piece suit. He is a godly man, very elegant, very dignified, and courtly. He walks with a cane and as he starts walking towards this boy, everyone is thinking to themselves that no one can blame him for what he’s about to do. Honestly, how can one expect a man of his stature to understand some college kid sitting on the floor? It takes what seems forever for the man to reach the boy. The building is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes are focused on him. The minister stands silent at the pulpit awaiting the finale of what the elder has to do. Surprised, everyone sees the elder drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won’t be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion. After the minister regains control, he says, “What I’m prepared for, and about to preach, you will probably never remember word for word. What you have just witnessed, you will never forget.” Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read.


[James 2:1-13] John Vaughan writes about a spring day prior to the Civil War. A boy named Jim was looking for work and stopped at Mr. Worthy Taylor’s prosperous Ohio farm. The farmer gave Jim a job cutting stove wood, bringing in the cows and generally making himself useful. The boy ate in the kitchen and slept in the hayloft. During the summer, Jim fell in love with Mr. Taylor’s daughter. However, the father refused to give his daughter in marriage, saying that Jim had no money, no name and very poor prospects. Jim put his belongings into an old carpetbag and disappeared. Taylor could not see it, but this boy was going to amount to something after all. Thirty years later the farmer pulled down his old barn to make way for a new one. On one of the rafters just above the hayloft, he found that Jim had carved his full name into the wood – James A Garfield. He was then President of the United States. The Lord looks beyond what we are to what we can become by His grace. God turned a timid Gideon into a mighty judge. He transformed a powerful persecutor into the apostle Paul. He changed rash, impulsive Peter into his spokesman at Pentecost. A sculpture can turn marble into a masterpiece. An artist can change a canvas into a creation. A carpenter can transform trees, steel and rocks into a building. However, only Jesus Christ can make a saint out of a sinner. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Pray God grants wisdom and grace on all those who are seeking public office in 2020, for the sake of all Americans and the preservation of the Constitution.

The Green Sustainable Life

The vice president of a company died. Early the next morning an ambitious junior officer came to speak with the president, “It certainly is sad about our company’s loss.  I’m sure you feel that everything should keep going. I don’t want to seem presumptuous, but I would like to talk to you about me taking his place.” Without hesitation he replied, “That’s fine with me if you can work it out with the funeral director.”


Go Green! Help the environment! This is the only world we have – Take care of it! People are so conscious of clean air, clean water and clean homes, but what about clean lives? The earth is not our permanent home. We are just visiting as strangers and pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13). Even so, these days it seems that more people are concerned with chlorofluorocarbons than the church of our Lord. Earth Day takes precedence over Sunday, pine trees over praying knees, critters over Christ, and dead water over living water. Yes, this is our Father’s world (Psalm 24:1) and we ought to take care of it. However, we have something else which belongs to our Father that is far more important than any dog or frog – an eternal soul (Ezekiel 18:4). It is from the earth in which we have been made. It is where we live, eat, and where our bodies will return at death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). We are earthly people with earthly minds. We do not pretend to comprehend the nature of the heavenly, but we are all “...longing for a better country – a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).Yet, that heavenly country sometimes seems so far away. Some speak of heaven as a deluded dream or a fanciful fairy tale. We might even catch ourselves wondering what it would be like “if we were there”. Jesus said heaven is real and prepared for those who trust in Him (John 14:1-3). Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1, 14) and the word is truth (John 17:17). Do you believe Jesus? Peter told us of “...an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).


[2 Timothy 2:22-26] Heaven is green. It has always been green and will be green long after the earth is gone because nothing defiled or polluted will ever be there. Pollution comes from sin. The green life is one that abstains from the pollutions of an earthly world (Acts 15:20; 2 Peter 2:20), in order to enter the heavenly world. That is the difference between the earthly man and the heavenly man. Earthly-minded individuals focus on what they have done for themselves, but heavenly-minded individuals focus on what God has done for them (Matthew 7:7-11; James 1:17). While in the body we live amidst the crooked, perverse and profane – Satan’s sinful agents who detect and destroy. It is a tragic reminder of the first earthly man and woman enticed to sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2, 3). Christians are mere earthly “Adams” dressed in the blood of Christ (Galatians 3:27; Revelation 1:5) with the living hope of bearing Christ’s heavenly image. The apostle Paul explained it by saying, “The first man (Adam) was of the dust of the earth, the second man (Jesus) from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47-49). Thus, our earthly nature will not continue. We all have a dying earthly side and a living spiritual side. The earthly physical body will not be everlasting (2 Peter 3:10). However, the spirit is eternal (Matthew 25:46). Knowing this, what is really more important – a green earth with its days numbered and will not continue or a “green” spirit that will live forever. Are you focused on the earthly or the heavenly? Go Green! Clean up your life! You can’t work it out with the funeral director.

The Jury Is Still Out!

A defendant was on trial for murder in Oklahoma. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense’s closing statement, the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all,” the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. “Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom.” Then he looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened. The silence was broken when the lawyer said, “Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I, therefore, put it to you that there is reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty.” The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and gave a verdict of guilty. “But how?” inquired the lawyer. “You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door with anticipation!” Replied the jury foreman, “Oh, we all looked with anticipation ...But your client didn’t! He knew no one was coming.”


[Romans 4:4-7] Having been convicted of murdering Botham Jean, the last thing Amber Guyger probably expected to hear at her sentencing were the words “I forgive you” from a member of the victim’s family. After reading a statement which expressed forgiveness, Jean’s brother Brandt asked the judge for permission to give Guyger a hug. The dramatic scene was recorded on video and shared throughout the world via television and internet. “I wasn’t going to say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don’t even want you to go to jail,” Brandt said. “I want the best for you, because I know that’s what Botham would want … and the best would be to give your life to Christ. I love you as a person, and I don’t wish anything bad on you.” In an era of sensationalism, exaggeration, and drama, this genuine act of selflessness and forgiveness cut through all of the political turmoil, and for one shining moment the focus was on what Christ can do in a person’s life. All of this because a Christian, even from the depths of despair, was able to forgive a person who seriously wronged them. We don’t know what domino effect this act of forgiveness will have. The judge reacted to the scene by going to her chambers and returning with a Bible, giving it to Guyger. Will Guyger turn to the Lord? That’s something that remains to be seen. But the example Brandt Jean leaves should change and encourage us all. For a moment the world was able to see true Christian forgiveness.


Christians often express a desire to have an impact on this world. Simple forgiveness will do, and it will send shockwaves throughout the world. Within popular culture today we find many who are seeking religion without rules, relationships without responsibility and life without the true presence of a changing faith. While this may constitute normalcy I shudder at the thought of how this apathetic attitude can weaken the influence of the Lord’s church. While many religious groups struggle to find broad acceptance, we must not give place to mimicking the religious fads of our day. The “jury” of this world is still out! Greater than any fads, we must possess a life altering faith that will distinguish us from the rest of the world. “By faith” (Hebrews 11), we will never find broad acceptance, because the jury we wish to compel consists of individuals who are sincerely seeking the Truth. At this moment we are gathered as clients in the courtroom of life. The jury looks on. Will our faith be so influential that we might convince them we are truly looking and longing for our Savior? After deliberations, will our verdict be read – “Not guilty”?