Bolivar Heights: When Failure Is Not Final

Author: Leighton Kramer

Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., Meadville, PA, 2018

A Warning to the Unfallen; An Explanation, Hope, and Purpose for the Fallen 

Leighton Kramer’s book is one of the most complex books I have ever reviewed. I felt at times like a judge on “America’s Got Talent” – one minute I marveled at his perceptions and the next, I was totally frustrated with both the structural and grammatical editing of his book. The human insights are so on target. But it is hard to clearly adjudicate who is really doing the writing on any given page, about whom, when, and where.

There were many times when I felt this (or at least most of this) is indeed Kramer’s own story without him wanting to admit it.  There is no other explanation for some of his thoughts on what a fallen person can think or feel except that he personally had experienced the same thoughts and feelings. If I am wrong, then he truly has a great gift.

There is no doubt the book is a much-needed one. Too many people in the ministry do not finish well, as Kramer tells us. Many failures could have been avoided by God’s servants making better and less rushed decisions. Others, by having accountability partners who speak up in a timely fashion. Still others, by prayers that rise upwards, uttered by saints on bended knee.

Kramer correctly points out that everyone has a weak spot. But when it comes to God’s servants, that weak spot is fervently and constantly being observed by the Enemy, seeking the most opportune time and way to hurt it again, and if possible, to the point of death. Satan certainly knew the main character’s weakness and he knew exactly how to use it to his advantage.

This book is a must-read for anyone who is in the ministry, anyone who loves someone in the ministry, and even anyone who knows or is responsible from a governance perspective, for someone in the ministry.

The author capably demonstrates that the battle is indeed spiritual. The Enemy is indeed real. The consequences are deadly – not only for the individual but for those he/she entangles in his/her downfall.

If you learn nothing else from this book (and there is so much to absorb and adopt), every reader should learn at least two things: First, you are not protected from failure in your Christian life. As Kramer contends, life is a “probation” period. This could happen to you. And second, when you know the weak spot in yourself or in your circumstances is at jeopardy of being attacked – take every step possible to address it as God would have you address it. Kramer in a very powerful way, especially in his last chapter, drives home the mistake that many of us make – trying to address our ‘problem’ without God and outside our public world.

Indirectly, this book is a call to prayer for pastors, for those in our family who lead ministries, and for ourselves – for many of us are called to serve God without going into full-time pastoral or similar work.   Highly recommended.

-->

·     Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, March 17, 2019, www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Thinking Twice Before Promising God Anything.

-->

Our Rash Promises to God

Exodus 24:3: Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”

After God tells Moses what He wants Him to do next, Moses goes down the mountain and tells the Israelites all that God has said from Exodus 20:1 to 24:2. Then verse 3 tells us that ‘all the people’ answered with ‘one voice’ saying, “We will do all that God said.”

God had given them all His instructions, His laws, and His ordinances.  What we have here in verse 3 of this chapter is the people accepting the conditions for the promises. (Collectively and as one which is interesting in itself – did anyone have a differing opinion?)  In short, here we have a “Covenant between God and His People” that really needed as much thought put into accepting it as God had put into offering it.  Later in the chapter, we will see the preparations for a ratification of the Covenant celebration. Let us for the moment stick to this verse and the utterance of the people.

Commentator David Guzik suggests, “Israel here is perhaps guilty of tremendous over-confidence. The way they seemed to easily say to God, "we will keep Your law" seems to lack appreciation for how complete and searching God's law is.” But Guzik also goes on to explain why they may have been so.  He writes, “However, a nation that had been terrified by God's awesome presence at Sinai was in no state of mind to do anything but agree with God.”  I am not so sure. I believe had the “awesomeness” of God been met with humility by the Israelites, they may well have said, “God we want to obey your words and keep your Covenant but we need your help to do so.”

Matthew Henry adds some interesting insights. Henry points out Moses did not snow the Israelites but rather explained all that God had said in detail and then “fairly put it to them whether they were willing to submit to these laws or no.”  And he continues, “The people unanimously consented to the terms proposed, without reservation or exception.”

Back in Exodus 19:1-8 they had already consented to be under God’s government (to be His people and He would be their God), but now they needed to agree to His laws.  Henry says, “Many consent to the law, and yet do not live up to it; they have nothing to except against it, and yet will not persuade themselves to be ruled by it.” Yet in so doing, they had signed on the dotted line – if they observed His requirements, He would fulfill His promises. They just had to obey.

Chuck Smith on the other hand, is much harder on the Israelites. He says “The Children of Israel lied to God when they said that they would do all that God commanded them to do.”  I would challenge him on this.  When does a failure to comply become a lie? For example, if a man said to his beloved, “I love you with all my heart and always will”, did he lie at the point when he said that, or does that turn into a lie at the point when he leaves her for someone else? I think the latter but we’ll leave Smith alone for the moment as he was trying to make a point. And that being, that we too have often had our words become lies when we have not kept our promises to God.

He goes on to point out that God knew that we would be lying when we promise to keep His laws or make other promises we have broken. Sometimes we say we will “do” something and don’t.  Sometimes we promise “not to do” something again and do. We have a natural bent and history in behaving that way. So why do we make promises to God?

Unfortunately, it is often to make a deal with God. Smith would agree with us that the problem is not a lack of sincerity.  We mean it when we promise something to God and that is proven by the fact that we are often so very disappointed with ourselves when we “blow it again”. But Smith says there’s a bright side to this whole thing:

“God is never disappointed when you break your promise. He knew all the time that you could not keep it. You see, making a vow is to put trust in our flesh, and Paul said, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing.”

He suggests one possible answer to our failures to keep our promises to God is simply not to make them. Instead, we need to ask God to help us do what is right and to help us overcome the flesh. But we cannot do nothing. It is not okay to simply fail and leave things at that and just go on merrily being, or calling ourselves, Christians. If that were the case, Christianity would be no different than other religions. So, another provision was made for us.  Smith continues:

“Jesus not only taught the right way to live, He fully practiced what he preached. He made provisions for forgiveness for failure. He then promised to come and indwell your life to give you the power to live the way God wants us to live. He said, ‘You will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses of me. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.’”

Finally, Smith writes, “God has not changed His laws to accommodate our weakness. But He has taken residence within us to empower us to keep His ideal. Paul explains this in Romans 8.”

If we do nothing else about failures from here on in, may we think twice before we rush to promise God anything? But better still, may we realize that when we do fail, God does not want us to remain in the “failure” category in anything that we do. He has provided a way for us.

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Happy Easter 2012

Let me just take a moment of your time today to wish you and yours a very Blessed Easter.

It seems to me that as we get older, God has a way of reaching us in a special way.   This has been quite a week for me -- the week leading up to Easter.   I was reminded several times of my shortcomings and my human nature.

It started a week ago this past Saturday.  I was out for something to eat with my wife and a friend and over some silly matter, I got  a little short and upset at a restaurant manager.  Needless to say I did not behave like a Christian and clearly felt very badly afterwards.   It is not a restaurant I had frequented before nor one I would likely return to, so I made my peace with God and with my wife and friend, and thought that would be okay.   Well, it wasn't.   The Spirit kept saying you can't do that.  You need to deal with the individual that you were upset at and towards whom you didn't act very Christ-like.   When God says something like that to you, you can't sleep very well.   Not until you've done something tangible about it.  So, the next day -- Sunday afternoon -- I sat down and did what I felt was appropriate and what would give me peace.  I wrote them a letter, and mailed it, in which I said the following . . .
"Dear __________ Downtown Toronto Manager on duty Saturday night, March 31, 2012:

I am sorry I do not know your name.  But on that night you and I had an altercation.  It was based on the fact that I felt you weren’t flexible enough with respect to a request I was making and I was most upset at the thinking of the company as a whole who would put the value of ______   ahead of having a happy customer for life.

While I still believe that to be unfortunate, that is not the reason for my writing to you.   I am writing to you to apologize for my behavior that night.  I should never have reacted the way I did.  It is not who I am or what I represent.   I make no excuses, only apologies for raising my voice, being somewhat belligerent, etc.

Please forgive me.  I do not like living my life with unfinished business, especially when I was clearly the one that left it that way.

Not only did I upset you and make things difficult for you, but I also embarrassed my wife and my friend who was there with me at the time.  But dear manager, more important to me was the fact that in some way, like the Apostle Peter of the Bible who betrayed his own Master, Jesus Christ three times in one night, I felt that I too had let Him down terribly especially as one of His followers in the way I behaved.  I have asked His forgiveness and that of my wife and friends, and I hope I have yours.

I wish you all the best in your career.  May nights like the one I caused you be extremely rare in your experience.  Again, I offer my humble apologies.  And should we meet again, I hope we will be friends."   And I signed my name, etc.

That was not easy to do, but as I was preparing for Easter, I realized it was nothing compared to what Jesus did for me.   But still, it took some thought and action on my part.  It wasn't enough to just say, "Ah gee, I'll do better next time."   No, I had to fix what I did wrong this time.

On Good Friday, I took my eight (almost 9) year old granddaughter to our Good Friday Service.  It was terrific -- both the service and being there with her.  At one point she looked up at me and wondered why I had tears in my eyes.  I was able to share with her that what we celebrate this weekend means the world to me.  I hope it does to you as well.   It is a mysterious weekend -- it integrates the darkness and sadness of death with the glory and celebration of life.    It is a free yielding of One's self to death, so that all the rest of us can be given the free gift of eternal life.   It is not something that skeptics can easily comprehend or accept.   It takes the thinking and the faith of a child to believe it.

On Saturday, yesterday, I was working away at my desk when the front doorbell rang.   I answered it and I saw a man handing me a little card he wanted me to read, or so he indicated with hand gestures.  He either was or was pretending to be deaf and dumb.   He was selling the card for any amount I would be willing to pay to help him put some food on his table, or so the card said.  He looked harmless.   He was not a derelict.   But I sent him away.   Well, that was it -- I could not get back to my work.  I felt bad -- not because I didn't give to someone who may have been taking me, but because I acted so quickly without reflecting as to whether or not there was some real need here, whether or not there was some opportunity for me to be "Jesus with skin on again".  The Spirit would not let me forget it and goodness knows I was trying hard to fight Him with every standard excuse I could think of.   This was twice now within a week that I had failed being a good representative of Christ, our Saviour.   Finally, I couldn't take it any longer.  I went into the kitchen and asked my wife for a bag and a whole bunch of various fresh fruits.  She obliged me.   By now, some time had elapsed but I could not rest.   I got into my little car and started driving up and down streets in the neighbourhood until finally I caught sight of him.  I stopped the car, went over to him, and showed him the bag, asking him if he would like it.   He was most thankful as I detected from his facial expressions and his bowed body.   What happened at that very moment was not about him.   God was just using him to get to me.  Doing what I did was about me and my relationship to God.

Later in the day, I received a difficult email from a colleague.  I wanted to react quickly with the truth.  I wanted to let them know how wrong they were.  But I knew I shouldn't.  I knew I needed to pray about it first, I needed to gather some more facts that would help the individual see that things were not the way they were describing, and I needed to think about how to bring peace to this situation rather than to add more fuel to the fire.   In short, I decided to seek Jesus for further direction in the situation.  Sometimes that comes instantaneously; sometimes He says wait.  My job is now to wait for the 'red' light to turn 'green' and proceed with Christ-like love into the intersection of humanity.

I was given yet one more chance not to blow it still later yesterday afternoon -- another chance to act with my Saviour in mind, and not with my own strengthen, expertise, wisdom.  A young girl and her father came to my door -- with all the proper papers and documents, raising money for her M.S. walkathon later this month.  The eleven year old had been doing this for several years and last year she had raised over $15,000.   I asked her "what motivates an 11 year old to be so passionate about this?"  Her reply, "my mother has M.S. and I'm doing this for her and other mothers".   I participated in the her campaign.

As I thought about that last experience during our church's Easter Sunday service this morning, I wondered how many of us have friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and so on who have another form of life-destroying M.S. -- a form I call "menacing-sin".  That type of M.S. leads to death every single time unless it is dealt with appropriately.   How many do we know like that?   How passionate are we about helping them find the only Antidote that will work?

As you and I reflect on our Christian celebration of the events that took place just over 2,000 years ago -- will we make a special effort to bring the whole thing into the present, into 2012, into our relationships, into our circumstances?  Will you and I yield to the Holy Spirit's urgings in how then we should live today because of how He died "That Friday" and lived that "Easter Morning"?

Happy Easter.   Ken.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

The Failure of the SuperCommittee is nothing less than the Failure of Obama to lead well.

It's payback time and Obama is making sure that he blames the GOP for the failure of the SuperCommittee. Now did you expect anything else? And Obama intends to veto any attempt to stop the automatic cuts that were the fallback position.

Okay, fair enough. A deal is a deal. I can support his veto. I don't like it, but I can support it because one's "yea should be yea, and one's no should mean no." But this unadulterated bias and garbage about blaming the Republicans is not appropriate for a President who agreed to the Committee in the first place. He forgets the GOP control the House by more than the Dems control the Senate.

He also conveniently seems to ignore even CNN polls that say Americans are siding with the GOP on both spending cuts and tax increases -- they're for the cuts and against the increases. But Obama is not hearing that. It goes in the face of his desire to blame the GOP.

And while we're at it, let me point out how convenient the future military defense cuts will be to what seems to look like plans to hand America, like a Butterball, over to the terrorists on a silver Thanksgiving platter.

The failure of the SuperCommittee is nothing less than the incredible failure of the current American President to lead America well.  It is a blatant call to either impeach him now or throw him out in November 2012.  Are we listening?

Obama: 'I Will Veto Any Effort' to Undo Automatic Cuts - George E. Condon Jr. - NationalJournal.com

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

If The Republicans Don't Use This Data To Defeat Obama, They're Crazy.

And if Americans vote for an administration that has made this data possible, well, you're really not worried about your future or the future of your country.

And for those that need more than just economic data -- how about the Obama administration's position on Radical Islam, abortion, same-sex marriages, ultra-socialism, no clear support of Israel, definitely no clear support of Christians, illegal immigration, one-world government, and so on.

How much more does the American public need to see or feel before they realize that the "Yes, We Can" campaign had some words that dropped off at the time. The full slogan was really, "Yes, We Can Fail Bigtime!"  And he delivered.   Take a look at the link.

All sizes | [Infographic] The Obama Presidency - By The Numbers | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Someone Asked for Hard, Cool, Calm, and Collected Facts About Obam's Dismal Failure. . . And They Got It.

I didn't write this stuff -- just thought it. But I'm glad someone wrote as clearly and rationally as Peter Wehner has in this blog. Take a look at the "hard facts" that cannot be denied and then render your own judgment.

Answering Jonathan Alter’s Challenge � Commentary Magazine

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Obama's Biggest White House Failure? His Justice Department.

If you want to see what a dysfunctional organization looks like, take a look at the U.S. Justice Department in B.O.'s administration. At least as it relates to America's Immigration Laws. This administration has got to go ASAP.

Hey Arizona! Obama 'committed' to immigration law enforcement

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.