Ron's Blog
September 14th, 2009
Someone asked me if I enjoy international travel. I replied, “I enjoy being in these far-flung places with God’s people. Long airline flights are a means to an end.” Since I don’t usually sleep well on a plane, I have my laptop, a book, and an iPod to keep me occupied on the long haul.
My iPod has an interesting mix of songs. From classical to classic Christian songs. From guitar to a cappella singers…with Gershwin and Tony Bennett thrown in. It makes for an interesting “shuffle” of tunes.
One song keeps arresting my attention these days. It’s on an album by Glad (love that group), though Selah, Shane and Shane, and some worship groups include it on their CD’s, too. The title of this old hymn is, “Before the Throne of God Above,” and the words that touch the tender spot are these:
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me;
To look on Him and pardon me.
One of Satan’s great tools he uses against believers today is guilt. If he can tilt the scale to where the weight of our sin overwhelms us, we are made weak and ineffective in our service to our Lord Jesus. Focus on our failures and we lose sight of the victory God has for us.
Despair abounds in our world these days on a variety of fronts. Whether it’s the economy, politics, denominational tussles, family relations, or personal lifestyle, we can be drawn into the darkness of despair and feel defeated. And then there is our sin. But if we focus on our sin and not His forgiveness, we are relegated to the sideline, and Satan has accomplished his will. Darkness. Despair. Defeat.
The verse I quoted above is the second one in this hymn, written in 1863 in Ireland, shortly after a great revival in that country. No doubt Satan was hard at work to blunt the impact of that spiritual renewal.
However, the second verse is only true because of what is expressed in the first stanza:
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hand.
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
As believers in Christ, we have an advocate who ever watches out for us, and is ready to plead our case before the Father. God’s view of us and our sin is filtered by Christ’s blood. And since our Savior defeated the Enemy at Calvary, we need not live in despair.
The final, triumphant verse should be our song in the night:
Behold Him there, the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace.
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God;
With Christ my Savior and my God!
Let us vow to make our lives a “no despair zone,” and encourage other believers to live in victory, too. John the Apostle put it in these words,
“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”
(1 John 2:1-2 NLT)
“Upward I look and see Him there who made an end of all my sin! My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ, my Savior and my God!”
Dr. Ron Harris
Senior VP for Strategic Partnership.
National Religious Broadcasters
817-446-1094
Off The Mark
August 15, 2009
What keeps you from your goal?
Distractions come in all shapes and forms. Some are small and short-lived. Others are monumental and seem to go on forever. Some distractions are of our own choosing, while others are thrust upon us, requiring great discipline to ignore. This email newsletter may be a distraction for some of you. If so, I hope it is the small one that ultimately has great reward.
I have known for many years that I am easily distracted. Even though I have some Christian music going on my iPod right now, I usually prefer quietness when I am working on something important.
To be honest, I have (usually) learned to deal with the small distractions. Sometimes I’ll just ignore them. Other times, I’ll give quick attention to the distraction and get back to the work at hand in short order. These are not a real problem.
The problem for me is when Satan uses his tools to pull me away from the work of the Lord. These “distractions” are often major events or activities in my life or the life of my family, and they typically aren’t very pretty. No doubt you have experienced these things in your life, too…maybe even right now. How do you deal with them?
While I’m not always successful in battling these, I have learned a few things through the years. When the big distractions loom large and threaten to take me off track, here’s what I try to remember:
• God is Sovereign…on His throne…and His path for me leads to His plan and purpose for my life. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart….lean not on your own understanding….acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
• God has the victory secured if we follow His battle plan. “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” I John 4:4
• The straightest row is plowed when we keep our eye on the goal. I have more experience mowing my lawn than plowing a field. I find while mowing I cut the straightest line when I look to a goal, a mark at the end of the yard, rather than looking down or to the side. “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith….”, “…throwing off those things which so easily distract us…” Hebrews 12:1-2 (By the way, I found out this week it is also hard to mow a straight line while swatting a wasp. Now that’s a major distraction!)
• We need to keep our confidence in God, that He will be with us through any obstacle or distraction that may come. “So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.”Hebrews 10:35-36
The distractions will come. Satan is active in our world. My prayer for you is that you will not be taken off the path God has laid out for you as you serve Him. Set your eyes on the goal and you will overcome the distractions. As the gospel song says,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
Dr. Ron Harris
Senior VP for Strategic Partnership.
National Religious Broadcasters
rharris@nrb.org
817-446-1094
www.nrbpartnership.org
Category of the Possible
July 7th, 2009
If you are like me, you may have a tendency to construct categories for things in life. I certainly do. Little boxes where I place the things of life according to their category. For me there is the fun category, the work category, and the church category. There is a category box for family and another for friends. And that's just for starters.
As I go along in life I'm developing both sub-categories and super-categories. For instance, with work, I have a box for easy jobs and one for the hard ones. For friends, I have one for close friends and one for acquaintances. And on and on.
I mentioned super-categories. These are the BIG ones in life, such as two categories that have been on my mind recently...the possible and the impossible. To be honest, most things fall into the possible box. But it is the few things that I put into the impossible box that seem to draw my attention the most.
You may have sung the same church chorus I did growing up: "Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God...." However, translating the truth of those words into real life experiences is a challenge.
In recent weeks I have been confronted by some tough situations. Humanly, I would have tossed them into the impossible category box. I could see no way that there would be a good and godly outcome. But I began to remember how many times God talked about the possible versus the impossible when it came to His power and His ways. There is the time, found in Genesis 18:14, where God spoke to Abraham about the child that Sarah would have in her old age, and God said, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord?"
When God laid out His plans for Jeremiah on what He would do with the people and the land, he said, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" (Jeremiah 32:27) Of course, there is the account, found in Luke 1, of Gabriel visiting the young virgin named Mary to tell her the wonderful news of how God would place the Savior into the world. As Mary considered how this could be, Gabriel replied (v.27), "...nothing will be impossible with God."
There are two accounts of Jesus teaching his disciples (Matthew 19:26, Luke 18:27) about salvation. When they questioned Him as to how these things could be, Jesus replied, "The things impossible with men are possible with God."
Two days ago, I saw God do an impossible thing. It is as if He reached down into my impossible box, took out a situation that I had placed there, and He moved it to the box marked POSSIBLE. I know God did it, because humanly it was impossible. As the songs (and scriptures) say, "Nothing, no nothing, no nothing is impossible with God."
So...is there something in your impossible box? Reread the Lord's promises, and trust Him to move that situation in your life into the category of the possible.
Comments:
Posted by
paul parry
on
Feb 19th, 2011
I am a retired teacher. I am subbing in the Murrietta school dist. Your daughter was the aide in a class I subbed in a few weeks ago. I found out that she was from Vladimir. I am going to Vladimir in 2 weeks. We are going there to build up some churches in that area. she told me about you and even gave me your home phone #. I felt awkward in calling cold so I found this site and decided to write you. I don't believe in coincidences. I feel god wanted me to contact you, I'm just not sure why. We are also going to Moscow to encourage the staff of spiritual Freedom, a prison ministry that has been decimated with trials. There were only a handful of them, one died of cancer and one is dying. Four had to be layed off because of finances. They have done Bible correspondence with thousands of prisoners all over Russia. We have an afternoon set aside to fellowship with them and try to encourage them. If you could get people to pray for this trip and the people we will be reaching it would be appreciated and needed.
In Christ, Paul Parry
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on
May 17th, 2011
You have shed a ray of snsunhie into the forum. Thanks!
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on
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Comments:
Posted by
Anya
on
Dec 6th, 2010
Hey Dad,
Great messages!!! You doing a great work around the world with God's help anything is POSSIBLE. We miss you, can't wait to see you.
Love,
Anya
