Ahab and Jezebel.  These two names are associated with evil; in fact listen to their description in the Scriptures: There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. I King 21:25.  But their influence goes way beyond themselves.

                 Jehoshaphat the good King of Judah made an alliance with Israel because he had allied himself to Ahab by marriage.  As a result he went to war with Israel against Syria and almost got himself killed. He broke the treaty his father had made with Syria.  The next King of Judah, Jehoram, was influenced by Ahab.  The Scripture again says in II Chronicles 21:6 He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 

                 What about the next King of Judah, Ahaziah?   II Chronicles 22:3 He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother [Athaliah, the granddaughter of Ahab’s father] encouraged him in doing wrong.   It gets worse.  Listen to II Chronicles 22:10: When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah.  Athaliah would have destroyed the whole line of David.  Yet God intervened, saved Joash by Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram, who hid Joash in the house of God.  WOW!

                 What devastation and ungodly influence by Ahab and Jezebel!  All of us have influence.  We can influence people for good or for evil.  I can think of wives who have kept their husbands from bible studies because they did not want YBL’s influence over their husband.  Ladies, you have unbelievable influence.  Men want peace at home.

                 I can also think of a guy who called me years ago who was having marital issues.   I could tell by his voice he was looking for permission to get out of the marriage, but I did not let him off the hook.  They got counseling, and they have been married now for 35 years.  Thankfully God allowed me to influence him for the good. 

                 I can think of another guy we continued to call to be involved one of our studies.  He was in a very difficult time in his life, staying up all night and sleeping all day.  He came to the first Concentrating on the Majors study after he had been up all night; he hadn’t been to bed.  It was through the COM study that he surrendered to Christ.  Influence.

                 Stop for a moment and think.  Whom am I influencing?  Think of your family, your friends, employees and co-workers.   Think of people you with whom you spend leisure time.  Think of the kids you coach.

 You may not even be aware of the people watching you.   I have a picture that I received from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes that shows a little guy holding a football with a jersey hanging down to his ankles.  In the distance, he observes a group of men studying the Bible.  The picture is captioned, “Influence.”   I challenge you as I challenge myself to use our influence for God’s glory. 

                 We have had a very successful and busy fall.  We just finished our Sporting Clays Fundraiser and our Fred Exum Banquet.  We are staring a new study this week and our Golf Tournament Fundraiser will take place in just another week.  I do ask you to pray for our new studies, our Couples Banquet and end of the year gifts towards YBL.  We are trusting God for His direction, deeper commitment, and more participation in all areas as we move into 2012.

                 Always I want to express my gratefulness for your continued prayer,  involvement, support and faith in our Lord and in this ministry.  I am humbled and thankful for those that believe in us.  Let’s commit together to use our influence to reach more people together than we could alone.

According to Merriam-Webster

Poor: a: lacking material possessions b: of, relating to, or characterized by poverty

Lazy: a: disinclined to activity or exertion: not energetic or vigorous b: encouraging inactivity or indolence

Last week, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about helping the poor.  I went into my whole spiel about grace and mercy, and just loving on people.  It seemed like the more I talked, the more reasons he developed in his head that people “may take advantage” of him.  He told me that he did not mind giving but he thought most people were lazy.  We went at this for at least an hour, and then it hit me…he really could not recognize the difference.  He really did not know that “poor” and “lazy” might look the same at first glance, but are very different.  My friend had not been around the “least of these” very much.  Now, his lack of experience or bad experience in this matter is not an indictment on him personally; it is simply a perspective that many Christians share. 

 Physically, poor and lazy both may look the same: impoverished.  Both personalities and mannerisms may be the same: needy.  On paper, both look the same: zero.  Again, at first glance, they look exactly the same.

So, how can you tell the difference between the two?  Interaction.  How else would you know the difference without stereotyping?     

In my life experiences, I have met very few “poor” people that accepted anything from a giving person without desiring to offer something in return.  The poor are almost embarrassed that they are in poverty.  That is why many of them stay in their current situation: pride and humiliation…not laziness.  Have you ever tried to be charitable to someone who never personally needed help before?  I bet trying to help them nearly required an act of Congress…their pride and embarrassment of needing help that one time was overwhelming for them.  Now imagine if you lived in a state of need for years.

The conversation with my friend led me to write this to you.  He is a believer and a decent man, but we all have blind spots.  In my friend’s case, this one blind spot has, over time, suffocated his desire to give and consequently, in his mind has elevated him to a so-called “higher class” of Christian.  Because of simple misconceptions like this one, the implementation of the Great Commission runs the risk of becoming overcomplicated and condescending.  Mathew, Chapter 28: 18-20 is all about personal interaction and relationship with anyone who desires to listen.

              Two months ago I wrote about King Asa of Judah.  King Asa was a good king who did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord.  Early in his reign he encountered an enemy; he relied on the Lord; and God gave him an overwhelming victory against unbelievable odds.  The result was peace in the land for thirty-five years.  But in the thirty-sixth year of his kingship another enemy came against him – actually the King of Israel, Baasha.  This time he chose to align himself with the King of Aram rather than rely on the Lord.  Even though his action prevented Judah from going to war, it displeased the Lord.  God sent His messenger, Hanani, to say that because of Judah’s alliance with the King of Aram he has escaped out of your hand.  

                What was it that Asa did during the first thirty-five years of his reign that pleased the Lord? It says in II Chronicles 14 and I Kings 15 that he: (1) smashed the sacred stones, (2) he cut down the Asherah poles, (3) he commanded the people to seek the Lord and to obey His commands, (4) he removed the high places and altars in every town – I will have more to say on this later, (5) he brought back to the temple silver and gold and (6) he even got personal – he removed the idols his father had made and disposed of the queen-mother because she set up an Asherah pole. He worshiped the Lord, he served the Lord, and he obeyed the Lord.  The question is am I tearing down the idols in my own life, following His commands and dealing with sin in my own life? 

                Later on in I Kings 15:17 the scriptures say that he actually didn’t remove all the altars from every town.  What happened was either he began to remove them and didn’t follow through, or pagan worship was so entrenched in the culture that they popped up later during his reign. Sin is always a step away.  Satan is very patient in causing us to stumble.  In fact I’ve heard it said that Satan will wait a lifetime to engineer a failure. And that’s really what happened in Asa’s last five years of his reign and lifetime.

                What happened in year thirty-six? He made that alliance with Aram and used for collateral the silver and gold he had put back in the temple. He took his anger out on Hanani and had him imprisoned. He also began to oppress the people.   When God afflicted him with a disease in the thirty-ninth year the chronicler said, Though his disease was severe, even in his illness, he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians.  (II Chronicles 16:12b)

                What a tragedy! It causes me great alarm and great caution when I read these words.  For thirty-seven years the Lord has graciously allowed me the privilege of influencing others for the Gospel as my full-time vocation.  It is a reminder to me and to each one of us to worship, to spend time with God, to live obediently by the power of His Spirit, to be accountable to others, to put on the full armor of God, and to stay on the alert for our enemy is like a roaring lion seeking those that he may devour.  I’m reminded of John Piper’s letter January a year ago in which he said, “I pray for my eighty-four year old father that he will not fail at the end of his life.”

                In his book Finishing Strong, Steve Farrar, shares his personal mission statement - Don’t Screw Up.  It may sound simple, but it’s a great goal. Don’t screw up my marriage, my witness, my ministry. Can we learn from Asa as it says in Romans 15:4?  For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

                This fall is going to be one of the busiest in recent memory.  We just finished our banquet with Fred Exum CEO of Krystal.  There were 50 men who were first-timers, who requested a study, or who wish to have a Mentor or Mentee relationship.  We are seeking to get with these men.  Our Sporting Clays event is on October 14^th, our Golf Tournament is November 7^th and our YBL Forum is on October 25^th. 

                I want to thank each of you who have responded to the letter from our Board Chairman or a phone call from me.  I cannot adequately convey how grateful I am for those who have continued to labor with us through your prayers, your financial support, and your participation in this ministry.  God never meant for us to do this alone. 

                Thank you, my team of warriors who want to finish strong with me.  Let’s pursue the goal of hearing Jesus say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” 

Currently, in my personal small group, we are reading John MacArthur’s book Twelve Ordinary Men.  In this book, MacArthur illustrates the background, personality and character of Christ’s first twelve disciples. Last week, we discussed the disciple, John.  The book highlights that balancing suffering and glory was one of John’s most important lessons learned.  John had a healthy desire for glory; but a dislike for suffering.  Romans 8:17 NASB reads, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  The Apostle Paul clearly articulates that there is a price for glory with the Father; and that is suffering.  While we were discussing this chapter, an experience that I had came to mind.  

Almost eight years ago, I attended a men’s conference here in Birmingham.  During the conference, we did teambuilding and prayed quite a bit.  One of my prayers at the conference was to become a more humble and strong leader; and of course, who would not turn down the glory that would come with being that.  After all of the meetings, the conference concluded with a visiting Bishop prophesying over the men in attendance.

Let me give you framework for this story…up until that day, the only prophesying that I had seen was a pastor on TV lathering his hands up with oil and shoving people to the ground.  I had already made up in my mind that if this Bishop pushed me, I was definitely going to push him back.  Nevertheless, it was nothing like that; it was a very decent and respectful experience. 

All of the men were in a single filed line; and I was reluctantly in the very back.  I eavesdropped as he spoke over the men in front of me to see what type of things he would be saying.  Some of the things that I heard were materialistic; but most of them were encouraging.  So here I am…the very last person to make it to the Bishop.  He looks at me and says “son, you seem stubborn.”  I am thinking to myself “you don’t say?” Especially, since you can read it all over my face and in my body language.  At this point, my guard is up and anything that he could have said I was going to sabotage it with pessimism.

A few seconds later, he reached over a put a dab of oil on his fingers, and then touched my head.  He looked at me again, and said “son, you are going to endure great pain for the Kingdom.  You will become a pillar for the Kingdom.” Again, being immature and smart-aleck, I thought to myself “why couldn’t he just tell me that I was going to get a new car?!”  Nonetheless, I left the conference with that prophetic word. I did not give it a second thought the day afterward.

It was not until two years ago, that I walked into a building downtown that I go in rather often and noticed for the first time a very large steel pillar in the foyer area.  I have been going in this building for years and never noticed the pillar because the paint was so mild.  And then it hit me…that pillar is holding this entire building up; and I had never given one thought to it. I had not recognized it, appreciated it or given thanks for what the pillar had been doing.  People walked by this pillar everyday and had not realized the strength and sturdiness that it provided.  But on the other hand, let that pillar collapse or give way…I guarantee everyone will notice it then.

In conclusion, I understand that there is ongoing debate on the interpretation of prophesy within the different denominations of the Body; but I do know that God used this situation to shape me.  It was not until that moment that I understood what the Bishop was talking about that day; becoming a pillar.  Whether with my family, at work or in any environment, would I be willing to be Christ-like and take the high road or bear a burden for someone who sometimes did not appreciate me; and in some cases never realized what I was doing?  Imagine that the pillar is doing its job unto God…now that would be humility; holding the building no matter the cost; and without recognition or thanks.  Recognizing that pillar changed my entire perspective on humility. I realized that I am far from where I need to be in humility; but most importantly, I now have the image of the pillar to encourage me.