Born To Win Podcast - With Ronald L. Dart

Would you like to be prophet? The prophets of old had to do some really strange things from time to time. It wasn’t enough for them to just speak the words, sometimes they had to act things out. Ezekiel had a strange job when he had to lie on his side with his face against a model city of Jerusalem one day for every year of Israel’s iniquity (and then lie on the other side for Judah). It was a sign of what was to come. Finally, Ezekiel lost his wife. She died as a sign of what was to come. Do you still think you would like to be a prophet? Because there’s no telling what God may require you to do if you were.So why did the prophets do those things? Well, part of it was to drive home the point. To give a visual image so people might be more responsive and might remember it longer. We tend to remember something more if we can visualize it. And these were not a literate people. Many could not read, and so the visual image became all the more important to them.As I read through Jeremiah, I have

Can God feel disappointment? I know, many believe in the impassibility of God. They believe that God is, by definition of the word, impassable—incapable of suffering or of experiencing pain. You can read the prophets for yourselves, and come to your own conclusions about this. But the story runs something like this: God had, among all the men down here, a friend. He made a deal with that friend that included certain promises and obligations. Those promises were fulfilled when he delivered Israel out of Egypt, put them in a land that flowed with milk and honey, and made them rich and powerful. They were supposed to stand as a beacon to the world around them of a better way of life. They were supposed to be a blessing to the nations around them, not only by good works, but by suppressing evil and offering help—a real gem in the world, an example of God’s generosity and kindness.At the height of their wealth and power, the hegemony of Israel in the ancient world really was a blessing. And at th

Is it really possible for a man to know God? Can a man understand God, or is it just really too high for us? To be sure, there are things about God that are a little tough for us. How can the finite comprehend the infinite? How can you grapple with a God who can just say the word and, out of nothing, create a universe that is 15 Billion light years in every direction?Men have hung a lot of labels on God that really don’t help very much. They say that God is omnipresent. That is, he is in every tree, every blade of Grass. There is no place where God is not, they tell us. They say he is omnipotent. That there is nothing too great for God. He is powerful beyond anything we can grasp. The say he is omniscient, that is that he knows everything there is to know and maybe some things that aren’t there to know.But there is something that tends to get lost in all of these omnis: while God is infinite, he is also personal. That while God is or can be wherever he wishes to be, there is a place where God is.

In the normal course of things, if a man falls down, he gets back up. If he runs down a wrong track, he will normally retrace his steps and try to find a better way. So what is it that causes men to behave abnormally—to charge on straight ahead in the face of disaster, to be unwilling, having fallen, to get up again? Through Jeremiah, God spoke to Israel and asked the same question.Say to them, This is what the Lord says: When people fall down, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? […]Jeremiah 8:4–5 NIVWhy, indeed? What is the mechanism that locks people into a way that leads them to certain disaster? Well, concluding verse five, God gives an answer: They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. Of course, said I, slapping my forehead. They have lied to themselves about where they are.I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, s

I used to think that the What Would Jesus Do? movement was a good thing for young people. And it does have merit in helping kids stop and think about the moral issues they face every day. But really, isn’t WWJD? the wrong question? After all, we live in a different world and the best we can do is subjectively guess what Jesus might do living in our culture. A better question might be, What did Jesus say we should do? We know what he said—we don’t have to speculate. Our only problem is whether we are ready to do what he said. If we can just do what Jesus said we should do, we will be a long way down the road on living right.But WWJD? has merit for kids if, for no other reason, it tells them that what they do makes a difference. I know, you think that should be obvious, but there is a healthy slice of Christianity that doesn’t seem to think so. That is, if the way they live their lives is any indication. You tell me. Are there or are there not, people who claim to be Christian—even

One thing to watch as we approach the end of history is the city of Jerusalem. Notice that I said the end of history, not the end of the world. When I was a kid I used to hear people talk about the end of the world, and I did not like the sound of that one little bit. The expression the end of the world entered our language from a mistake in the King James version of the Bible.In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples ask him about the sign of his coming and of the end of the world. The mistake is the word world. The Greek says that Jesus’ disciples asked him about the end of the age. The return of Christ does not bring the end of the world unless you mean the world as we know it. It mark the end of the age of the kingdoms of this world and the beginning of the age of the Kingdom of God. Also in that chapter is something Jesus told his disciples to watch for—and it is of singular interest:When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy plac

There is a very disturbing theme that runs through the Old Testament prophets. It speaks of a complete loss of leadership in a nation. I may groan a lot over the moral decay that afflicts our countries, but I don’t believe we have fallen as far into the abyss as Old Israel had fallen. It would be a mistake to pat ourselves on the back, though, because we are headed pell-mell in the same direction. Jeremiah, chapter 5, begins with this theme:Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is any that executes justice, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it. And though they say, The Lord lives; surely they swear falsely.Jeremiah 5:1–2 KJ2000Just find me one man, says God, one man who wants to do the right thing. All we needed was one man. Perhaps not among the grassroots of society, but particularly among those who are influential—the leaders, the elders. They come into court, raise their right hand, and

One of the truly pivotal events of the New Testament church was a conference that took place some 18 years or so after the church began on the Day of Pentecost. It is often referred to as the Jerusalem Conference, and it seems odd in a way that it took this long for it to occur. By most accounts, the year was ad 49.What was at stake (and it is astonishing to say it) was whether the gospel could continue to go to the gentiles. Think about it. Jesus had said to Go and make disciples of all nations, and yet, for some reason, some people in the church didn't think that should happen. Paul defined the issue in his letter to the church in Galatia. He said that, some 14 years after his conversion, he went up to this conference, along with Barnabas and Titus. All this had to be done because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. Strong words, these, and Paul went on to say, To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the tr

If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not be moved.Jeremiah 4:1 KJ2000If God had a message for this country today, I think this is what he might say. There are a lot of good people in this country who are trying to live a godly life, but they are losing the battle. We just don’t recognize the determination of the anti-God forces in our society. There is a war going on for the minds and spirit of our children, and we are losing battle after battle. The kids may recognize that better than the rest of us do. They are taking steps on their own to maintain prayer and an awareness of God in their lives, and they are sometimes doing so right on the grounds of the very schools that don’t allow prayer.The social structure of Israel was starting to break down. The nation, so dedicated to God in the beginning, was drifting away. There was a direction for their return. It was to the God who is there, to borrow Fr

There is an odd thing about the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry. Not only was he very young (he describes himself as only a child) when he was called by God, but the King he served was very young, as well. King Josiah came to the throne at age 8, and Jeremiah began to prophesy when Josiah was 21.Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.2 Kings 22:1–2 AKJVIt’s talking, at this point, about his overall reign—and overall it was it good one. Josiah had a long reign even though he died young, at age 39. But when he was 26 years old, he embarked on a major restoration of the Temple. Jeremiah’s ministry had started 5 years earlier, and may conceivably have had some influence on Josiah.He told his

In all the many years of human civilization, basic human nature hasn’t changed at all. Technology has changed the way we live, but the basics remain the same—and they are remarkably the same across all cultures and all people. Also, down through all the ages of time, God has not changed. So, we human beings go through the same stuff over and over again, never seeming to learn the lessons. This is why history repeats itself. It is why prophecies are fulfilled more than once. It isn’t that God hasn’t told us. He has sent prophet after prophet, but people don’t listen to prophets.We would like to think that we would listen. But would we? I think one of the reasons people miss the point on prophecy is because they are trying to determine what will happen and when. The prophets are mostly concerned with what is happening and why. There is a genre of literature called apocalyptic which concerns itself with what the future holds. The difference between apocalyptic literature and prophec

If God were going to send us a prophet today, what sort of man would he be? Would he be, perhaps, a rough-hewn, mountain-man type like Elijah—dressed in leather and rising into town on a Harley? Or would he be a smooth, educated orator like Isaiah? Or maybe he would be a man like Jeremiah who gives his name to the Jeremiad, which is defined as a prolonged lamentation or complaint.Well, if God has sent a prophet today, he is awfully well disguised. And, of course, it is also possible that if we ask God, Where is the prophet? that God might say, I have already sent you prophets. Listen to them. After all, the Old Testament prophets spoke to their own generation about what was going on right then, but then they wrote the prophecies down. Why’d they do that? Well, they wrote them down because history repeats itself and, consequently, so does prophecy, History repeats itself because man doesn’t change and because God doesn’t change. One of the prophets—Isaiah—told us how it work

I honestly don’t know what the founders of this nation believed about God. But I do have their words to go by. They signed their names—and pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor—to a document that began this way:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.We have been given and guaranteed certain things by a creator. As King David wrote, we are fearfully and wonderfully made[.]The human body is a great starting point for coming to understand this creator (it is closest to us, after all). What can we learn about God just by taking a closer inspection of things like our sense of sight? Beyond this, what does God reveal to us through a common tree or a starry, night sky?

Is God really there? Or are we just an accident in the universe, a product of blind chance? Is there no design other than that which natural law provides?Stalactites and stalagmites grow in caves by the natural process of water seeping through rock and depositing calcium carbonate. They can create some fascinating, even eerie, forms. In one cave, a collection of these in a corner looks enough like a pipe organ that someone gave the formation that name. Although those things may look roughly like a pipe organ in church, it is still only calcium carbonate, formed over time by dripping water (and it makes no music).A real organ is designed. It is a work of art and craft absolutely unique among Man's inventions. It has a purpose. It follows the laws of nature, but was not created by the laws of nature. But more than that, the organ is a creation designed for creating. It allows for creation to flow from the mind of a Man through his fingers. No one would ever argue that such a beautifully-designed instrument was

Many years ago, in the middle of a theological argument about what is required for the saving of a man's soul, I formulated another of what I call Dart's Laws. This one is, simply stated: Disillusionment Is Necessary for Redemption.I have little doubt that many of you have experienced disillusionment at one time or another in your life. The mentor relationship is a classic example, as the protégée thinks his mentor has the answer to everything. A careless mentor may allow this sort of error to grow if he doesn't make it clear that he is not infallible. Sometimes, when the protégée comes to realize that his mentor has feet of clay, he enters what some call The BOOM years: in other words, becoming one's own man.Two other classic examples of religious gurus come to mind. They occurred right around the same time. Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, both got caught in compromising situations and were branded as hypocrites. A lot of people got disillusioned about that time. One wonders about the followers of Jim Jones i

If God in his wisdom were to send a prophet to us today—to stand on the courthouse steps and preach to us like Jeremiah did to the ancient Israelites—what do you suppose that prophet would have to say? What would his message be?In the first place, the mere presence of a prophet is reason to become apprehensive. God does not usually send a prophet to tell us how well we are doing. He figures that when we do things right, we aren’t really earning any points. We are just doing the best thing for ourselves. There is no reason to send someone to pat us on the head. So, when the prophet shows up and begins to speak, it is time for us to take notice.I think God might tell that prophet to begin by telling us something like this…

Jesus Christ was no fortune-teller. He didn't go around giving people the answers to future Trivial Pursuit questions. Like all real prophets, he gave knowledge of the future for two reasons. One: so you could do something about it. If you know something is coming, you can dodge, you can change your life. Two: so you can understand what is happening to you when it happens. Life would have meaning.But Jesus emphasized one side of the prophet's work above the other. The primary object, really, of the prophet's message is our salvation. In old times, it might have been to save yourself from being bottled up in a besieged city; that's the idea behind Jesus' warnings in Matthew 24. Or it may have been to save your life, save you some pain, save you some suffering. That's generally the point of the prophet's message—tell you what's going to happen so you can change it—or, put another way, repent so you can live.Now, I am going to tell you something that's a little hard to understand. And it's hard to un