It looked like nobody could tame Tiger Woods just like it looked like nobody could tame Michael Jordan.  It was said that the only person who could hold Michael Jordan’s score under 30 points was Dean Smith (his very conservative coach at UNC).  Apparently, the only person who could keep Tiger from being remembered as the greatest golfer ever to live is Tiger himself.  Count me as badly disappointed – make that disgusted. 

             I have said since he burst onto the scene that my greatest admiration for him was not how far he could hit a golf ball, how well he could recover from a bad shot, or how he could putt under pressure, as impressive as all that was.  It was how he handled himself as a young man with unlimited money, unlimited success, and unlimited amounts of admiration.  Now it turns out that was a fake.  It is certainly symptomatic of our culture where people believe they can do what they want as long as they don’t get caught. 

             The question for all of us is will we say to ourselves, “It doesn’t matter”?  Will we join all of these weak-spined, moral nobodies in saying, “People just can’t help it”?  It’s just like eating and breathing – I just have to do it.  Or will we be people who will say, “We live for God and believe God’s will for us is more important than the satisfaction of personal urges”?  If this is harsh, so be it.  We are in a hole and digging it deeper.  The problem really is NOT Tiger Woods.  It is the culture in which he lives – our culture. 

             In my next blog, I plan to write about the ups and downs of the morality of culture.  But let me say right now the moral fiber of our culture is weakening steadily.  I’m afraid things will have to get a lot worse before we finally decide enough of state-sponsored gambling that takes advantage of the poor, enough talk about legalizing drugs, and enough talk that divorce doesn’t matter or people can’t help it.  Count me as one who is fed up.

We’ve invited our church to get in the game with pledging this year.  It has been such an odd year financially for the nation and for the Columbia area that I wasn’t sure what to expect.  At the end of Sunday, we had pledged $150,000 more than we had pledged at the same time last year, and last year we had a great pledge campaign.

             This can only happen when God’s people dig down deep and get into the faith dimension before they ever start thinking about what they’re going to pledge in the financial dimension.  I’m grateful for the dollars you will give.  Make no mistake, we can’t run this church on air.  However, if it only becomes a matter of affordability or financial wisdom, then we lose touch with the great lessons stewardship has to offer us – that primary lesson being faith. 

             I see a lot of faith in what all of you did.  It demonstrates you love the Lord.  It demonstrates you have a commitment to reaching out to the world in season and out.  I look forward to us finishing the year strong, our giving being great, and our bringing honor to God in demonstrating to the world that we love God more than we love ourselves.  Thank you for being a great church and thank you for sharing the rewards of faith with each other and with the world.

Rule 5:  THE PROCESS SHOULD VARY.  This is a hard rule for me to write about because I have ruined more great periods of walking with God by trying to make my walk perfect than by any other way.  Sometimes the perfect really is the enemy of the good.  I have, at times, been so interested in getting my walk exactly right that I did not enjoy the rightness, imperfect though it might have been, that I had already achieved.  While overt rebellion in the sense that I am just unwilling to have a devotional life has never been my problem, wanting it to be perfect has.  This caused me to change things when I read about how other people did it instead of being satisfied with what God had led my time with Him to be. 

 That being said, if your walk with God becomes stale, don’t be afraid to vary it.  You may be surprised what a small change will make such as reading a different version of the Bible, throwing away your old prayer list no matter how guilty you feel about doing so and then starting over with a fresh prayer list, sitting in a different room, getting up a little earlier, staying up a little later, listening to music, or having your walk with God at lunch.

 Getting to know people who have a quality walk with God can also help give you guidance in the development of your time with Him.  Don’t be ashamed to admit any frustrations or failures to them or to ask them for advice.  They’ll need some from you before it’s all over.

I hope these rules have helped you.  I would love to hear from you about whether you’ve installed some of them or whether you’ve discovered some of your own.  What really works for you in your time with God?  Let me hear from you.

I just finished reading the Bible through in a year or less for the 17^th time.  I can’t wait for January 1 to begin again.  In the meantime, I’m following a reading plan to read the New Testament in 60 days.

             If I were reading this blog and I had never done that, I’d be thinking, “It’s easy for you.  You’re a preacher.  This seems kind of braggy to me.”  So let me help you understand it is not.  It is designed to be an encouragement, not just to read through the Bible in a year but to make reading the Bible in a regular way a habit for you that you miss when you don’t do it. 

The first three times I tried to read the Bible through in a year, I failed.  I laugh about my good intentions being shipwrecked on the rocks of Leviticus, but that’s pretty much what happened three years in a row.  Then I went to a conference led by Francis and Edith Schaeffer.  At that conference Mrs. Schaeffer talked about her struggle with reading the Bible through in a year and how she had gone about doing it by dividing it up beginning at Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Matthew 1.  I did that and it worked for me.  I now have been using the method that we hand out in the church for the last five times I’ve read through it, and it is by far my favorite method.  It is not for everyone.  My wife does not like it.  She prefers a Bible that is set up to help you read it through in a year.  It doesn’t matter at all what plan you use. 

When I read it through the first time, I felt like I had finished a difficult job.  Now when I pick the Bible up in the morning and read my assignment, I feel like I’ve come back to a wonderful and dear old friend.  It took me a number of times through to get to the point where it was that way.  But we need to recognize everything in life that is worthwhile is cultivated. Nothing comes to us wonderful and new.  I think that’s why old shoes and old pants and an old hat are so good for us to put on.  The Bible needs to feel like that to you – something you miss when you don’t read it and something that you rejoice in being with when you do. 

Make the effort with me again this next year to read through the Bible.  We’ll be handing out the Bible reading plan, but the plan won’t do anything for you if you don’t sincerely desire to utilize it.