Born To Win Podcast - With Ronald L. Dart

Not a few Christian folk are beginning to worry. They’re thinking that they may be losing the culture war. The strongest evidence they see: their young people are abandoning the faith in droves.You know, you are up against one set of problems when you are dealing with people who believe that there is a God, but whose conduct is wrong. They are intentioned, and they can be brought back to that God. You have a whole different set of problems when you are trying to reach people who no longer believe that God is. How on earth did we get to this place?Well, how long has it been since God was banned from the schools? Can you trace it back in your mind? Do you know when it was? Because when I was in high school, you could pray at the beginning of a football game (and they commonly did over the speaker system). When I was in school, you could actually pray in the school. People could talk about God, a teacher could have a Bible on his desk if he wanted to have it there. But that was when I was in high school. W

What would happen to you if you were down and out and there was no one to help? Where would you be if you were sick and broke in a strange city with no place to sleep and nothing to eat; no money, no credit cards, no checks; no one to accept a collect call, no one to send you bus fare home, no one to send you money for a meal, and no home to go to; no father, no brother, no sister, no one?You know it doesn’t take long to start looking like a tramp. It doesn’t take very long before you start smelling bad—about two days. It doesn’t take long for your clothes to start looking very dirty and very worn. Do you realize how short the distance is between an executive—walking along the street with his briefcase in hand, and his necktie, hair combed, clean-shaven—how short the distance is between that man and a man lying on a grate in a gutter, if you take away from that man all of his money and all of his support?You know, families have obligations. They have obligations that should

There is a scripture in the 35th chapter of Exodus that opens up a subject I don't recall hearing very much ever said about. Numbers 35, beginning in verse 30:Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Moreover you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. And you shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land wherein you are: for blood it defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.Numbers 35:30–34 AKJVThe only way that the land can be cleansed of blood is by the shedding of the bl

Have you ever wondered why it is that Christian people feel they are never alone? It’s true, you know—we are never completely alone. In the night of the last supper, Jesus told his disciples:If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.John 14:15–17 KJ2000It is curious that John calls it another comforter. The Greek word means advocate, and he uses the same expression in 1 John to refer to Jesus Christ. So Jesus is one advocate, and the Spirit of truth is another. But it doesn’t end there. Jesus urges the Father on our behalf, he encourages us, and we encourage one another. We’ll see this explained in the opening to 2 Corinthians.

One of the saddest things about the ministry of Jesus is the number of people who believed him, believed his message, believed what he said about who he was, believed on him, but could not openly confess any such thing. John told us about them in chapter 12:Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.John 12:42–43 KJVThis is staggering, because it isn’t being said about leaders in secular society, but about religious leaders in the very religion of Jesus himself. And it is in this context that you can best understand what he said on another occasion. It is recorded in Matthew, chapter 10.

Not long ago, Someone I respect very highly commented that she did not have a relationship with God. She believed in God, she practiced her faith assiduously, but did not believe she had a relationship with God. In a way, this surprised me; but in another way it did not. Because I am not at all sure what people mean when they speak of a relationship with God. I have known people who said that they had an experience with God, but an experience is not a relationship.You know all too well that when God is out of sight he is out of mind, and believing that he listens requires an element of faith. And we know that some relationships are closer than others. Just how close do you have to be to call it a relationship? And is the relationship horizontal, as between friends; or is it vertical, as between master and servant? And maybe this is where some of us come up short. We believe in God, we even practice our faith, but we have stopped short of relationship.

Jesus defies explanation. You can’t just put him in a category and then say you have him figured out. Nearly every conventional idea of Jesus is contradicted by the basic source documents—the four gospels of your New Testament.On the one hand, you have the gentleness of Jesus, meek and mild. On the other hand, you have Jesus kicking over the money-changers’ tables in the temple and driving them out. You have Jesus who wouldn’t break a bruised reed or raise his voice in the streets. On the other hand, you have a vengeful Christ returning to make war and to destroy his enemies in Revelation.John, in his gospel, is at some pains to recall and present those sayings of Jesus that identify him as God—the Son of God, even the God of Abraham. And then he turns right around and presents a Jesus so human that he is overcome with grief and weeps, along with Mary and Martha, over the death of Lazarus. We’ll find this revealing episode in John, chapter 11.

I must confess, I was a little puzzled at the reaction of the Jewish community to the movie The Passion of the Christ. But when I reflected on some of the persecution of Jews by Christians down through the centuries, it did make a little bit of sense. You would think, though, that in the modern world we would be past all that.What the director of that film was doing is portraying as honestly as possible the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life as a man. What some call his passion. But because Jesus was being condemned by the Jewish leadership, some people—some fools—have blamed all Jews for what happened. This is an ignorant and foolish mistake, but people make it.I suppose most readers of the Bible forget that Jesus’ mother was a Jewish maiden. And that Joseph, Mary’s husband, was a Jew. They forget that Peter, James, John, and all the rest of his apostles were Jews. They forget that Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, became a disciple. They forget that Joseph of Arimathea, who gave his to

Jesus was a constant puzzle to the Pharisees. Sometimes he is a bit puzzling to us, too. And we have had a lot of time to digest what he was saying. And, let’s face it, some of the things he was saying were pretty far out. This is not just a good man we are listening to; not merely a great teacher.He was standing in the environs of the Temple one day and he said to the people gathered around, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.The Pharisees recognized this as a very large claim on Jesus’ part and they challenged it. They said, Look, We’re not going to believe this just because you say so. You are bearing record of yourself. This was not an unreasonable objection. If I told you I was a prophet you would have every right to say, That’s what you say. Why should I believe it? Let’s take a look at Jesus’ answer in John, chapter 12.

Considering all that Jesus did, and considering his personal charisma, does it strike you as strange that there was a point when many of his disciples turned away and didn’t follow him any longer? What did Jesus do or say that led to the point where John says, From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.Having a religious leader lose some disciples is not a big deal. But we’re talking about Jesus—a man who healed the sick and the lame—a man of great love and appeal. But for some reason, on this occasion, a large group of his followers abandoned him. It was not anything he did. It had to be something he said. The incident comes late in the sixth chapter of John’s gospel.He was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum—not far from his old home. And something he said caused his disciples to say, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? What on earth could have offended them?

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Everyone knows this verse by heart. But there may be something here that lies unnoticed even though it is crucial to the story. Later on in Genesis, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help fitting for him. So, on the sixth day of creation, God not only created man and woman, he created something else. He created a relationship; we call it marriage.And in his formulation, It is not good for man to be alone, God iterated a universal principle—a universal truth—that goes far beyond marriage. We know these things, almost intuitively, but sometimes it isn’t easy to express them clearly. Solomon, however, found a way. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, he said this:Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not an

Of the four gospel writers, it is John who is the theologian. More than the others, he captures and reports for us those words and deeds of Jesus that tell us who he is and what he is all about.For example, Jesus had made his way down to the pool of Bethesda and found a man who had been lame for some 30 years. He healed him and told him to take up his bed and walk. Now, this was no special problem—except that this was the Sabbath day, and the fellow rolled up the pallet he had lain on and was carrying it. Contemporary Jewish law—as distinct from the Law of Moses—did not permit that.How Jesus responded to those who accused him after this miracle is revealing—of Jesus’ nature, of his mission, and of the ultimate fate of mankind. Let’s take a look at the exchange as recorded in John, chapter 5.

Jesus of Nazareth was full of surprises. His disciples often had trouble figuring him out, but Jesus had an agenda. Everything he did was for a reason.Take an incident early on in Samaria. Jesus thought it good to leave Judea because things were getting a little hot for him down there. The shortest road north led through Samaria. It was not a road that most Jews took when they went north to Galilee. They crossed the Jordan—a longer and more difficult route—because they just couldn’t stand the Samaritans.Most Christian readers are aware that the Samaritans were despised by the Jews, but not so many know why. Knowing who the Samaritans are and the story of their origins is important to properly understand what happens on Jesus’ journey through Samaria. So, let’s take a look back at 2nd Kings 17.

From here, it’s hard to imagine what those first encounters with the mature Jesus were like—for those who saw him for the first time. I have no reason to imagine that Jesus was in any way remarkable to look at, but I know that he must have been a terribly charismatic person to be around, by any human standard.John the Baptist knew who he was. John the Baptist knew how important he was. He also understood Jesus’ mission, and there’s really only one way he could have known that—he was told. And when Jesus came walking along the bank of Jordan where John was baptizing, John said—for anyone nearby to hear—Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!Christian readers take that for granted. We all know that Jesus is the Lamb of God. But I can’t think of anything John could have said that would be more astonishing to those surrounding him. It assumes the sacrifice of the person of whom he was speaking. John the Baptist recognized the necessity of a suffe

The apostle John presents us with the most astonishing theology. And he does it right off the bat, without preamble. To the early theologians of the Christian church, he also posed a dilemma.The church from the get-go was composed entirely of Jews who were as strictly monotheistic as any Muslim would ever be. And John presents us with a Messiah who is both Son of God and Son of Man. And the Jews who heard Jesus knew precisely what Jesus meant when he said he was God’s son. To them, it meant that Jesus was claiming divinity.But the theologians of the second and third centuries were moving into a Greek and Roman world where polytheism was normal. How did they avoid the stigma of polytheism while recognizing that Jesus was indeed God in the flesh and that he spoke, at the same time, to his father who was God in Heaven? Over the intervening centuries, their solution to this knotty problem has become the litmus test of Christian dogma. Let’s see what it was—and some of it’s implications.

If you happen to enjoy contemporary praise music, you more than likely have heard These Are The Days of Elijah. (It happens to be one of my favorites. It is very singable and I can really get into it.) But how many of the performers and the singers know what that was all about? What exactly are The Days of Elijah and why are we singing about them?Elijah, for those who don’t know, was the archetype of all prophets. He wasn’t the first, he wasn’t the only, but he was major.The song begins, These are the days of Elijah, declaring the word of the Lord and these are the days of your servant Moses, righteousness being restored, and though these are days of great trial of famine and darkness and sword. Still, we are the voice in the desert, crying, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Now what does all this mean? Why Elijah? Why Moses? It is clear to me that the person who composed this song was driving at something important, but what exactly? Well, the place to start is naturally, the days of Elijah.

Did Jesus die of a broken heart, or was he brutally and violently killed? Now, you have to understand something about us preacher-types. Sometimes we get carried away with our own rhetoric; and so, in the process of giving a sermon and talking about how disappointed God is in us for our sins, and how Jesus’ heart was broken because of the sins of mankind, it is easy to say that Jesus, on the stake, just died of a broken heart because of us and our mistakes. But all that is only rhetoric, because the facts which are written in the pages of your Bible are somewhat different than that. He didn’t die of a broken heart, he was killed—murdered—violently, painfully.Not very long before Jesus actually died, he lifted up his voice and said, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? The crowd standing around thought he was calling for Elijah, but he wasn’t. What he said was, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? At that moment, God left him entirely alone—something (you almost get the impress

I know that Jesus had to die for my sins. But why did he have to die the way he did? Why the pain, why the shame? Why the spitting, why the humiliation? Why couldn’t they just have taken him out and killed him quickly. If you’ve gone to church very much, you already understand about the blood of Jesus, and how it was shed for the sins of all mankind. There are probably many hymns in your hymnbook about it. And we all know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Okay, but why the suffering? Why not a quick death?It may be that the answer lies in our—what shall we say—our theology of sin: the way we understand sin, the reason for sin, and even what sin is. There’s a common belief, I think, that sin is wrong for no other reason than that God said so. Growing up, when our parents say Do this or Do that, we ask, Why? Because I said so, is often the answer. We’re used to that, and I guess God saying so ought to be enough. But the assumption goes on that

It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to kill a man. I suppose, in some cases, people kill out of fear. A burglar, for example, might kill someone because he is afraid of being identified; or a stick-up man might kill a clerk because he thought the clerk had a gun under the counter. In some cases, people kill out of greed. $100,000 worth of life insurance—well, it would be enough to tempt a wife to kill her husband, in some strange circumstances. I suppose, also, that some people kill out of jealousy or anger. More than one jealous husband has come home to find his wife with another man and blown them both away.But, you know, it’s still hard for ordinary people to understand the motives for murder. It just not a part of out lives; it’s not something we think about. And if that’s hard to understand, how much harder is it to understand why anyone would want to kill a man like Jesus. He was a man of the highest integrity—a man of high moral and ethical character. He posed a ph

Everyone wants to know about the end of the world. Just bring up the subject and everyone’s ears perk up. When Jesus’ disciples asked him about the end of the world, he gave them a fairly detailed answer. The answer can be found in chapters 24 and 25 of the Book of Matthew, and can be summarized in two short statements. One: it is not for you to know the time of my return. And two: whatever the time of my return is, you had better be ready.The entirety of his explanation is called the Olivet Prophecy (because it was given on the Mount of Olives). It’s odd, but a lot of people seem to assume that the answer to the disciples’ questions was basically chapter 24—and that 24 is the Olivet Prophecy. But they’re wrong. In chapter 24, Jesus gave the disciples an overview of end-time events, and told them they have to be ready all the time because no man will know the hour or the day of his return.Well, then comes the natural question: What do you mean, be ready all the time? What c