Trust in the Lord and Lock Your Doors - Apples of Gold - June 16, 2010 -vi-

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Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 16, 2010

“Trust in the Lord and Lock Your Doors”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

People I know were robbed yesterday.

Their house was broken into and valuables were stolen.

Thankfully no one was hurt, and hopefully justice will be swift.

But being robbed really messes with your head.  You feel violated and vulnerable.  You kick yourself for things you might have done differently, and you feel like kicking the life out of the jerk who did it.

And as a Christian there is always the question, “Where on earth was God?”  You might think, “Come on, I’m faithful, I’m good and kind, I pray, I’m a better Christian than most people on the planet, and what good did it do me?  I still got robbed.”

Well I know this won’t be comforting, but people get robbed every day.  We just don’t think much about it until it happens to us.  So if we want to get indignant about robbery, we need to be indignant everyday on behalf of all victims.

“But Doug, I was trusting God to protect me and look what happened.”

I understand what you are saying, so here is a lesson I learned early in my Christian life. 

I was fresh out of college, living in an apartment complex; and I had great faith that life was wonderful with God on my side.  I didn’t worry about things like locking my car or my apartment.  I had a bicycle as well, and no need to lock it up.  God’ll protect it.  Like the song says, I had “angels watching over me!”

Then I came home one day and my bike was gone.

I was stunned.  What’s up with this?  How could this happen?

I knew a few of the kids around the complex so I started asking questions, and sure enough, they pointed out a boy who had taken my bike for a joy ride and left it in a drainage ditch.  I gave him a quick lecture and made him go get it, which he gladly and nervously did.

And then it seemed as if the Lord was speaking to me, teaching me a little lesson that went something like this.  “Yes, trust in Me, and yes, lock your doors.”

It reminds me of Nehemiah 2:20, when Nehemiah was preparing to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  Listen to what he said.  “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build…”

See the two elements at work?  Nehemiah had faith that God would take care of them, and because of that faith, they got to work and did their part.

In Psalm 4:8 David wrote, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

Yes, David trusted in the Lord to keep him safe; and he kept his sword sharp and his mighty men battle ready.

In Philippians 4:19 Paul said “…my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  And in Acts 20:33 Paul said “…these hands of mine have supplied my own needs…”

Well which is it? 

It’s both! 

And it’s both when it comes to protection from things like robbery.  Trust in the Lord and lock your doors.

“But God is supposed to protect me!”

Yeah, and that’s what the devil told Jesus in Matthew chapter four, throw Yourself down and the angels will protect You.  And what did Jesus say?  “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

So take precautions.  Lock your doors.  Don’t leave valuables out in plain sight.  Don’t leave your iPod on the dash of your car, for goodness sake.  Don’t leave your purse in the shopping cart while you run to the next aisle.  Don’t post on Facebook that you are going to be out of the country for six weeks. 

Make yourself a difficult target for thieves:  a barking dog, a home security system, motion lights.  Don’t run around by yourself.  Get to know your neighbors.  Join the neighborhood watch program, or start one.

And think of the really big picture.  Tomorrow’s thieves are just children today.  Get involved and make a difference in the lives of some at-risk kids.  Become a Big Brother or Big Sister.  Join a mentoring program.  Volunteer at Sunday school. 

Let me be blunt.  Helping a kid today may keep him from robbing you tomorrow.

And if you have been robbed, don’t let that rob you of your faith.  Keep seeking God and find out what you can gain from the experience, dreadful though it may be.  Let it open your eyes to what is going on in the world, and open your ears to what you may be called to do about it. 

And forgive the criminal.  Press charges, yes.  Hold them accountable, yes.  Do what it takes to shut down their crime and spare their next victim, but don’t forget to forgive.

Robbery is a mess, and unfortunately people do it every day, even to people of faith.

Don’t let that diminish your faith, but keep in mind that it’s a combination of faith and action, a combination I boil down to this little phrase.

Trust in the Lord and lock your doors.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

Navigating the Negev - Apples of Gold - June 14, 2010 -vi-

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Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 14, 2010

“Navigating the Negev”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

“I’d like to share an uplifting moment in my life…”

That’s what the e-mail said, and the writer added this in parentheses:  (there have been so few of them lately.)

Is that how you feel today, like the uplifting moments in your life are few and far between?

Maybe you feel like you are wandering aimlessly in the desert, lost in a wilderness.

Well right now let’s put a picture to that feeling.  It’s a place in southern Israel called the Negev.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “a dry and weary land”?  That would be the Negev.

Have you ever heard of Bedouins?  Bedouins live in the Negev.

Abraham and his family spent time in the Negev, but it’s not exactly a place of prosperity.

Why not? 

Well have you heard of the Sahara Desert?  That’s pretty much most of northern Africa, and the Negev is just east of the Sahara.

You want to know the average rainfall from June through October in the Negev?

Zero.

In Hebrew, the root word for Negev simply means “dry.”

Isaiah 30:6 calls the Negev “a land of hardship and distress, of lions and … snakes…”

Maybe that sounds like your life today, a land of hardship and distress.  Your life is the Negev.

If so, then listen to this prayer in Psalm 126.  Verse four says, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.”

Maybe you have heard that before, but now that you know about the Negev, that verse can really come to life.  It’s a real reversal of fortunes to come across a stream in the Negev!

Maybe that’s what you need today.  If your life is dry and weary like the Negev, you need some refreshing water.

In John chapter four Jesus brought up an interesting concept.  He called it “living water.”

He was sitting by a well, talking to a woman who had come to draw water, and this is what He said.  “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Have you ever seen a real spring of water?  I’ve seen several, and right now I’m thinking of Current River in Missouri.  At its head it just gushes fresh water, seemingly right out of the rock.  It’s cold and clear and never stops. 

That’s what I think about when I think of living water springing up inside me. 

In John chapter seven Jesus brings it up again.  In verse 38 He said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

The next verse explains it a little.  “By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.  Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

There is no life without water.  If you’re traveling the Negev, and you don’t find a source of water, eventually you are going to die.

Something similar is going on inside of us, in our soul perhaps.  Without Christ we are living in a spiritual Negev.  It’s dry and weary and burdensome.

I read a blurb last week about one of the young female pop superstars.  It said she was battling depression.  Well that’s about the standard for life in the spiritual Negev.  This young woman seems to have it all, fame and fortune and talent to burn.  And yet she feels sad and broken and depressed. 

Physically we must have water, and spiritually we need living water, which is the Holy Spirit. 

Without the living water, it doesn’t matter how good things are in this old world, life still feels shallow and void. 

But with the living water, we can constantly be refreshed, even when our circumstances aren’t so great.

Jesus told the woman at the well that if she would have simply asked Him, He would have given her living water.

And in John seven He said that whoever believes in Him would have streams of living water flowing from within.

So is your life dry and weary?  Are you navigating the Negev with no end in sight?

Then turn to Jesus.  Draw near to Him and receive from Him. 

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, and find that source for constant refreshment.

Ask of Him, and He will fill you with unending streams of living water, bubbling up into everlasting life.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

The Masquerade - Apples of Gold - June 10, 2010 -vi-

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Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 10, 2010

“The Masquerade”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

Masquerade is a fun word.

It’s like a combination of mask and parade. 

A masquerade is like a fun party where everyone dresses up and wears masks.  It makes mingling more interesting because you don’t know who you are talking to.

Most people don’t like that, however, so there are few masquerades.  We prefer to know exactly who we are talking to.

The word masquerade shows up in the Bible, in Second Corinthians 11.  It talks about people who “masquerade as servants of righteousness.”

This is someone who wears the mask of a servant of God.  They appear to be a real Christian – but it’s just a masquerade.  They aren’t the real thing.

How can you tell the difference?

Here is one thing to look for.  Are they pursuing personal righteousness?

If someone claims to be a Christian but tells crude jokes, it might be a masquerade.

If someone claims to be a Christian but makes racist comments, it might be a masquerade.

This week in Tallahassee a man of God was waiting for an elevator.  Then he saw a woman he found quite attractive.  She got in the elevator ahead of him, and he realized that if he got in, they would be in there alone.

No big deal, right?

Well it was for this man.  He said he stepped back and let her go alone. 

Why?

Because, as a married man, he didn’t want to be alone in that little box with a woman he found attractive. 

You might think that’s a little over the top, but I think that’s a man who is pursuing personal righteousness.

These are things people do when they are pursuing personal righteousness.  That helps you know their Christianity is not a masquerade.

Here’s another thing to look for.  Follow the money. 

Paul warned Timothy about people who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  Some people will masquerade as a servant of righteousness for the money. 

If they are selfish and pour out the money on themselves, it might be a masquerade.

Another thing to look for is pride versus humility.  A real servant of righteousness will be humble.  The Bible warns against thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.  Jesus said to take the last seat at the banquet. 

If someone seems full of themselves, their Christianity might be a masquerade.

I say might be a masquerade because we have to leave room for immaturity. 

I saw someone stumbling and staggering down the street yesterday.

“Oh, they were drunk,” you might say.

But I neglected to tell you they were only two years old.

So it’s possible that someone is a real Christian but missing the mark due to immaturity, not due to their faith being a masquerade.

But here’s the thing.  If they are immature like that, they should not be in Christian leadership.

That’s what this issue is really about.  Christian leaders who are masquerading as servants of righteousness.

A Christian leader should display more godliness than worldliness.  What is their passion?  What comes out of their mouth all the time? 

A Christian leader will display more self-sacrifice than self-service.  He will have a servant’s heart.  He will be quick to serve you, and reluctant to being served.

The Bible warns us to be on the lookout for leaders like this, but we also need to take a close look at our own life.  I must ask, “What kind of Christian am I?” 

I need to look at myself.  Do I keep my language clean?  Am I generous?  Am I humble?  Am I pursuing personal righteousness?

We need to ask these questions of our leaders, and we need to ask them of ourselves, because we don’t want to be found guilty of what Paul wrote about in Second Corinthians 11.

We don’t want to be one of those people who “masquerade as servants of righteousness.”


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

Mandated Ultrasounds in Florida - Apples of Gold - June 9, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 9, 2010

“Mandated Ultrasounds in Florida”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

 

A bill sits on the Florida governor’s desk.

It requires pregnant women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion.

Pro-lifers love it because it will cut down on the number of abortions. 

Why will it cut down on abortions?

Because when a woman is more informed about what is going on inside of her, she is much more likely to continue her pregnancy.

For example, and I’m no doctor so I’m not going to use big medical words, but I am the father of four and I’ve been through a few ultrasounds, and here’s what they do.  They smear some goo on the woman (and it’s always cold, by the way) and they put this little wand or whatever on her lower abdomen. 

And then the nurse is likely to say something like this.  “Do you hear that?  That’s your baby’s heartbeat.”

Can you see why it becomes more difficult to have an abortion? 

Pro-lifers use this phrase, “Abortion stops a beating heart,” and it’s true.  About the time a woman realizes she has missed her period and goes in for an abortion, that heartbeat will show up on the ultrasound.  In fact, you can see the heart beating.  That’s just six weeks after conception. 

What’s interesting is that lots of women have loaded their ultrasound videos up on YouTube, with titles like “Baby’s Heartbeat” followed by lots of exclamation points. *

When they do an ultrasound, they might first pick up the mother’s heartbeat.  I don’t know, but I think it would be kind of creepy to have my own heartbeat echoing through a speaker.

So you might hear the mother’s heartbeat first, but they continue moving it around until, there it is, your baby’s heartbeat – which is a completely “other” heartbeat than your own.  So now, coming out of the speaker, is the sound of another heart beating inside you. 

No wonder the pro-choice people are having a flying fit about this legislation.  And they are grasping at straws to shut it down.

And what is their big excuse?  That it will cost these poor women extra money to pay for the ultrasound.

Well I don’t know if the law says who must perform the ultrasound, but I do know this.  Women’s pregnancy centers across the state are thrilled to do ultrasounds for free!  You don’t have to spend a dime.  A Woman’s Pregnancy Center here in Tallahassee has been giving free ultrasounds for a long time now.**

Why free ultrasounds?  Because we are pro-life, and the ultrasound reveals that life.  It pulls back the veil and shows the mother what is really going on in her womb.

This law is a way to make sure she really knows what she is doing before she does it.  She should not go into this medical procedure blindly.  She needs this information that the ultrasound will give her, and she doesn’t have to spend a penny to get it.

So now the law sits on the desk of Governor Charlie Crist.  A Tallahassee TV station, WCTV***, is reporting that Crist said there is nothing that he likes about this bill, nothing.  Well if that’s the case, he will likely veto it.

And here’s a curious move.  The TV station also reported that the governor has removed all pro-life language from his website.  You see, Mr. Crist is now running for U.S. Senate, and not as a Republican, which has been his party up until now.  Because he faced strong conservative opposition in the primary from Marco Rubio, Crist decided to pull from the party and run as an independent.  And now, according to WCTV, where Crist once seemed to at least lean in the pro-life direction, he now has erased that language from his website.  And it seems like he is setting himself up to veto this bill that would mandate ultrasounds for pregnant women.

Should we go around mandating medical procedures?  Well no one is mandating abortion.  All we are saying is, if you are going to get an abortion, here is one thing you must do first to be fully informed.

It passed in the House.  It passed in the Senate.  The majority of people contacting the governor are telling him to sign it. 

So now it comes down to this. 

Will Governor Crist veto the ultrasound bill?


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.

*  Baby’s Heartbeat!!!!  See over a thousand videos like this on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22baby%27s%20heartbeat&search=Search&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&spell=1

**  A Woman’s Pregnancy Center:  http://www.awpc.cc/

*** News story on WCTV.TV:  http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/95918214.html

© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

People Are Like Walls - Apples of Gold - June 8, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 8, 2010

“People Are Like Walls”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

I wore out a lot of rubber balls when I was kid.

There were plain red ones, and some had stripes or even polka dots.

Then there were the black super balls that could bounce all the way over your house.

Then they came out with clear super balls, but those were prone to splitting.

But my favorite kind of rubber ball looked just like a baseball.  It even had fake stitches.

My dad nailed a metal pie pan to the side of the garage, and there I practiced my pitching.  If I could hit the pie pan, then surely I could throw a strike.

And the great thing was, the ball would always bounce right back to me; and that gave me the chance to practice my fielding as well as my pitching.

Then I turned it into a game.  I would fire the pitch at the pie pan, field the ball, then fire it to first, which was basically anywhere on the side of the garage.  And then if I caught the ball in the air, with my foot on the base, the runner was out. 

When my mom looked out the window, she probably just saw a kid bouncing a ball off the garage, not realizing the elaborate rules and strategies involved. 

We moved a few times over the years, but I always found a wall for ball bouncing.  Some walls were better than others.  The best walls were big, solid, flat walls.  You always get a true bounce from a wall like that.

The worst wall I ever used was the side of an old barn.  Some boards were puckered, some were sticking out, some had knotholes; you just never knew where the ball was going to go. 

Now a little variation can spice up the game and make it more challenging.  But that barn wall was so bad the ball could go flying 20 or 30 feet away from you.  Or if you hit a really bad spot it might go flying right through the wall, into the wretched old barn.

I played these rubber ball games through most of my years growing up, and I became a kind of connoisseur of walls.  To this day I can still look at a wall and size it up for ball playing.

And now here’s my point.  People are like walls.

Some people are like big, solid, flat walls.  These are people of the highest integrity with the most self control.  When you bounce something off of them, you are always going to get a true bounce.  It will be stable and consistent.  The bounce you get today will be the bounce you get tomorrow. 

You never have to wonder what kind of mood these people are in.  You never have to throw the ball and worry about ducking.  You are going to get a true bounce, every day.

Then there are people who are like that old barn.  You just never know what kind of bounce you are going to get.  Today you might get a true bounce, but tomorrow it could go anywhere.

These people lack stability and maturity.  They might fly off the handle.  They can be cool about something one day, but the next day that same thing might throw them into a tizzy. 

Dealing with them is like bouncing a ball off the old barn.  It’s frustrating and aggravating and finally you just have to walk away.  It’s more misery than fun.  You’d rather not play at all than play with an inconsistent wall.

So the question is, which wall are you?  When people bounce things off of you, do they get a true bounce every time?  Are you a wall of integrity? 

People should always know what they are going to get from us.  We should be like big, solid, flat walls, offering a true bounce every time.

People should never have to wonder what kind of mood we are in.  They shouldn’t have to feel us out everyday to see if we’re safe or not.

Titus 2 talks about the “grace of God that brings salvation.”  And it says that the grace of God teaches us to live “self-controlled, upright and godly lives…”

We must be people of integrity.  We must live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.  We must be that solid wall, plumb, straight and true. 

First Chronicles 29:17 says that God tests the heart and is pleased with integrity.

First Corinthians 15:58 uses these two powerful words – and I’ve heard them as song lyrics – here they are:  steadfast, unmovable.

So what kind of wall are you?  The shaky, quirky, unpredictable wall?

Well instead, let’s all strive to be the solid wall, steadfast, unmovable and self-controlled, a wall of integrity that always, always, always gives a true bounce.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

We Make It Our Goal to Please God - Apples of Gold - June 7, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 7, 2010

“We Make It Our Goal to Please God”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

Imagine a tribe of people, isolated from the rest of the world. 

They are primitive.  They live in huts and carry spears.

And they have a god they must please. 

There is an altar for this god-pleasing, and they often sacrifice their much-needed food and livestock, and sometimes even people, just to keep their god from crushing them.

That’s how some people view Christianity, as if our God is lording over us, demanding to be pleased at any cost.

That causes some Christians to swing entirely the other way.  “Oh, our god isn’t like that,” they say.  “Our god is a god of love and grace and mercy.  His salvation is free to everyone.  You don’t have to worry about pleasing him at all.  He’s not like that.”

While it’s true that God is not like that pagan god, it doesn’t rule out the whole notion of pleasing Him.

Pleasing God is still something we must strive for. 

For example, look at Hebrews 13:16.  It’s going to talk about making a sacrifice that pleases God.  And what kind of dreadful sacrifice is prescribed? 

It says, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

Do good and share with others.  That pleases God.  Doesn’t sound very onerous and tribal, does it?

But we are called to please God, and this pleases Him – when we do good and share with others.

First John 3 gives another way to please God, “to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.”

No, God is not like a pagan god, ogreously demanding to be pleased; but yes, we must strive to please Him.

Second Corinthians 5:9 says “…we make it our goal to please Him…”

The New King James Version says “…we make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him.”

Second Timothy 2:4 says it’s like a soldier working to please his commanding officer.

Colossians 1:9 talks about pleasing Him “in every way.”

And then it mentions a couple of things that please God:  “bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.”

So far, here is the list of what we can do to please God:
--do good
--share with others
--love our neighbor
--grow in the knowledge of God
--believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

First Thessalonians 4:1 says, “Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.  Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”

So pleasing God is not something we do one time and then we are done.  It’s actually something we grow in, something we keep doing more and more.

There are a couple of road blocks that keep people from pleasing the Lord.  One is called the flesh, or the “sinful nature.”  Romans 8:8 says, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

Another road block to pleasing God is a lack of faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

Another thing that keeps us from pleasing God is our desire to please people instead.  Sometimes we hit a fork in the road.  One way pleases God but offends people, while the other way pleases people but disobeys God.    

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

He wrote in First Thessalonians 2:4, “We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.”

So beware of ditches on either side.  One side makes God out to be a demanding ogre, while the other side makes Him out to be a passive pushover who approves of everything.

Well He’s not the ogre, but He desires that we please Him – not through dreadful sacrifice, but by such things as believing in Him and doing good.

So let this be our goal today, to please the Lord more and more, in every way, like good soldiers striving to please our commanding officer.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

What's the Most Courageous Thing You've Done? - Apples of Gold - June 4, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 4, 2010

“What’s the Most Courageous Thing You’ve Done?”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

Here is a question I want you to ponder.

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

When I think of courageous I think of firemen charging up the Trade Center stairs while everyone else is charging down.  Courage is walking straight into danger, right?

Well yes, danger is one thing that reveals courage, but here are a couple others, according to the dictionary.  Courage is facing and dealing with anything that is dangerous, difficult or painful.

So if you have faced danger and put your life on the line for others, like police officers and firefighters and soldiers do every day, then God bless you.  You are truly courageous.

And if facing danger was the only definition of courageous, then I’m not sure I’ve done anything courageous, not like that.

But courage is also dealing with the difficult and the painful.

So think of those three areas – the dangerous, the difficult and the painful – and now think about my question. 

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

Here is what some people said.

One young woman said, “When we went snow boarding in the Canadian Rockies.”

One musician said, “Leaving the band and going solo.”

One woman said it was when she agreed to go out with a certain man – who later became her husband. 

One young man said, “The most courageous thing I’ve ever done is telling my best friend I had a massive crush on her.”

Some judges in Montana were asked that question.

One judge said he actually intervened and stopped a rape that was taking place in a parking lot.

One judge said it was limiting his law practice so he could be an involved father – and isn’t that interesting?  Maybe you don’t think of that as courageous, but I can see how that could be a difficult and painful thing – to squelch your professional ambitions.

One judge said the most courageous thing she had done was, “raise my two daughters with my husband in today’s society.  Being a good parent is the most difficult and most important job a person could have.”

And one judge said, “It takes courage to represent indigent criminal defendants by court appointment.  These cases are generally unpopular and thankless, but representation of criminal defendants is essential to the continued vitality of our adversarial system of justice.”

And that’s from a man who also said he had run with the bulls in Pamplona.

So what about you?  What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

I think for me it was moving my family halfway across the country a few years ago.  I have certainly done more spontaneous and dangerous things, but moving my family away from everything we knew, from a very comfortable place, to a place where we knew no one, simply because I felt God calling me here – that was a courageous move for me.  I knew it would cause pain to some we left behind, and I knew it was a risk for all of us because you never know how things are going to turn out.  But in spite of the risk and the difficulty and even some pain, we made the move.

I’ve done a lot of things that didn’t seem very courageous at the time, but now I realize they do take a measure of courage.  Things like asking a girl out or performing at a music recital.  Public speaking takes courage, as does getting married and having children and buying a house.

For tons of people, starting their own business is very courageous. 

Now I want to ask you another question.

Have you done anything courageous lately?

It’s one thing to live on your laurels, but maybe it’s time to step up and do something courageous now.

Maybe you need to take a stand on something, stand up for what is right.  Maybe there is an injustice and you need to get off the sidelines.

Maybe God is nudging you to do something but you are reluctant because it will be difficult or painful or even dangerous. 

Well it’s time to do the courageous!

First Corinthians 16:13 indicates that we should be people of courage!

I like this phrase from Second Samuel 13:28 – be courageous, and valiant.

So remember, courage is not just putting your life in danger.  Being courageous includes doing something difficult or even painful.  You don’t withdraw from it, but you move toward it.

So ponder these two questions today.  Here they are, one more time.

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

And what courageous thing have you done lately?


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.

Here is what the judges said in its entirety:  http://billingsgazette.com/app/candidates/judges/

© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

Have Faith in God - Apples of Gold - June 2, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for June 2, 2010

“Have Faith in God”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

You may be discouraged today.

You may feel like life has just turned sour.

Yes, you are a Christian, but you are disillusioned.  Things should go better than this for a Christian.  Shouldn’t there be a little reward, a little more smooth sailing?

But now you just feel beat up, like the air is just harder to breathe.

Well I have a message for you today, and here it is.

Have faith in God.

Let your eyes turn back toward heaven.  Fix your eyes on things above, on the Lord and the eternal things that really matter.

When Abraham was 75 years old, and still called Abram, God said to him, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”

Well that was probably way outside Abraham’s comfort zone, and who likes to do anything uncomfortable?  But what did Abraham do?

He had faith in God.

Now listen to what Jesus said in Mark 11:22.  He said this. 

“Have faith in God.”

When you are discouraged, have faith in God.

When life gets you down, have faith in God.

Sometimes we talk about having specific faith, such as faith for salvation.  But what I’m talking about today is a general faith.  It’s a foundational faith.

It’s a faith that says, “I believe in God and I believe He is involved.  He is up to something and I’m going to trust Him.”

This general faith can give you a sense of well-being, even when life is crumbling around you.

In Second Corinthians chapter 4, Paul talked about the many trials he faced.  He used words like persecuted and perplexed and even struck down.

Do you feel struck down today?  Why would God allow such a thing?  How can we trust a God that would allow us to be struck down?

But look what Paul said in verse 16:  “…we do not lose heart.” 

He said, “Though outwardly we are wasting away…”

Do you feel like you are wasting away today?

Paul said, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

And verse 18 says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

That is faith, my friend, faith in God.

It’s faith when we take our eyes off of what we can see and fix them on what we cannot see.

Abraham looked at God, but couldn’t see Him.  Oh, he saw the world around him all right.  He saw the troubles and the challenges, but he couldn’t see God.

But what did he do?  He put his faith in God.

On the other end of the spectrum we see the disciples in those early days.  Even though they witnessed Jesus’ miracles, He still described them as, “O ye of little faith.”

In Mark 4:40 Jesus said, “Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?”

Now let that soak in.  Does that apply to you today?

Here it is again, and see if this is for you.  Jesus said, “Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?”

Are you fearful today?  It’s easy to be fearful when life crashes down and the future looks unstable.

But here’s your message.

Have faith in God.

In Matthew 8 we read about a centurion who came to Jesus.  Jesus commended the man for his great faith, and what was his faith in? 

His faith was in the Lord’s authority.  As a military man, the centurion understood authority, and he simply put his faith in the Lord’s authority.

So do that today.  Don’t worry about believing for something specific right now.  Just have general faith.  Put your faith in the Lord’s authority.  You may not know what He’s up to, but it’s okay. 

So if you are disillusioned and drained and even defeated today, here is a simple and profound message just for you.

Have faith in God.

 
Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

A Man With His Big Boy Toy - Apples of Gold - May 28, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for May 28, 2010

“A Man With His Big Boy Toy”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

Well I finally did it.

I finally found a good way to get my old home video tapes into a computer for editing.

We have a lot of tapes.  First there were the VHS tapes we made with my dad’s big old RCA camera.  Then came the smaller tapes when we got a little camera of our own.

And there they are, all stacked up, hours and hours of footage – and most of it boring.

Once in a great while we might get out a tape and watch it, and it’s fun for a while; but then it gets boring.

For example, there’s the tape of my daughter’s third birthday party.  There is about an hour of footage, and at first it’s really interesting.  It’s fun to see what people used to look like – the clothing, the hairstyles – and that’s good for about five minutes. 

Then there is probably another five or ten minutes worth of cute comments and fun activities.  Unfortunately, all that cuteness is buried under an avalanche of boring.

And, boring or not, it’s all rotting away on those old tapes. 

So, I have a grand vision of editing them all and passing them out on DVDs, thereby saving the memories forever, and making them watchable without seizing up into a boringleptic coma.

In this day and age of powerful home computers, massive hard drives and easy video editing programs, it sounds simple, right?

Well I dare you to try and find the very best but reasonably priced system for this.  In fact, my goal was to spend no money, if it all possible.  My daughter has a powerful computer (which I financed, by the way) so all I really needed was a way to digitize the videos.

Well long story short, I finally found a friend with a great “capture” unit and another friend with the unusual cable I needed to make it work.

So last week I began editing that birthday party.  I started by watching the whole video and marking the best parts. 

Now I probably sound like any other guy messing around with technology, a man with his big boy toy, right?

But let me say this.  There is more going on than meets the eye.  Working on these videos causes something special to happen inside of me. 

It turns my heart to my children.

I use that phrase because it’s found in the Bible.

First there is a prophecy in Malachi 4:6.  “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children…”

And then an angel said it in Luke 1:17 about John the Baptist.  “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children…”

When I read that I think, “You know, this is something important that God wants done.  He wants the hearts of fathers to be turned toward their children.”

A lot of dads are already there.  They coach little league teams and read Bible stories.  They pray with their kids and tuck them in at night.  Their children sit on their lap while they watch a kids show and eat popcorn.

But a lot of dads don’t do it.  They are gone a lot on business, and when they are home they don’t pay a lot of attention to the kids.  Maybe they tolerate them, and maybe they do what their wife tells them to do, like “You are going to this recital.”

And if 50% of marriages end in divorce, then maybe half the dads don’t even live with their children, and I’m sure that often means “out of sight, out of mind.”

I know what it’s like.  We dads can get very focused on things, and if the kids aren’t in the line of sight, they can just fade further and further out of focus.

That’s why this is so important.  What will it take to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children?

Well for me, this is one thing that does it – working on old family videos. 

My kids are mostly grown up now, and I relate to them more like adults than children.  But working on the videos stirs up the old “dad” feelings – and bonds me once again to my children.

So what does it for you?  Perhaps it’s praying for your children, or taking them out to eat.  Maybe it’s going fishing or playing a little one-on-one basketball.

It’s probably different for every dad, but here is one thing that’s the same for all of us.

We all need to do whatever it takes to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.



© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-

Would the Existence of Aliens Be the Death of Christianity? - Apples of Gold - May 26, 2010 -vi-

Click here to listen to the radio version.   

Click here to search the AOG archives.

Apples of Gold
 

Radio Script for May 26, 2010

“Would the Existence of Aliens Be the Death of Christianity?”

 

Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.

When he was a kid, I wonder if President Obama was a UFO buff.

I wonder if he was fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial beings and interplanetary communication.

Did he ever wonder what was really going on at Roswell?

Because if he did, think about it.  After he got settled into the White House, he could have turned to a trusted aid and said, “Now, I want to know what’s really going on.”

Maybe they took him to a secret Air Force base, or a giant underground bunker.  “Here, Mr. President, here is what’s really going on.”

Maybe they showed him fragments of crashed flying saucers or alien corpses.  Maybe there was a giant microphone aimed at the sky, decoding communications from beyond the Milky Way.

Or maybe there was nothing at all.

“Oh Doug, you just hope there was nothing at all.”

That’s what some scientists would say.  And why would they say that?

Because some scientists say that if (and some even say when) aliens show up, it will destroy Christianity.  It will finally crush the creation myth, they say, and put an end to all this talk of Jesus coming to earth and dying for our sins.

The day aliens show up is the day Christianity dies, they say.

Okay, first of all, they’re just making stuff up.  They are dealing a death blow to Christianity based on the existence of aliens, as if aliens exist anywhere outside our imagination. 

We could easily get sucked into that argument and have a long debate about it, but look at the door you have to go through – the tiny door, the almost unbelievable chance that there are aliens.

One young woman, a scientist, was asked if she believed aliens would be discovered in her lifetime.

I was very curious to hear her answer so my ears perked up.  I was expecting some calculated response like, “Oh, there’s a 10% chance.”

But instead she exclaimed, “Definitely!”

Well there is no science to back up her belief.  It’s not like Goldilocks, “Oh, we found an empty porridge bowl on Mars.  There’s got to be aliens up there.” 

So far there is no evidence anywhere, and science is supposed to be built on evidence.

But anyway, let’s go back to the statement that if aliens showed up, it would be the death knell of Christianity. 

Well you know what?  Wouldn’t that depend entirely on what the aliens said when they came?

Again, all we know about aliens is what we made up, and for some reason we have made up aliens that are either hostile to Earth, or who come to help us with their amazingly advanced technology – and they are always uber scientific. 

Well that makes perfect sense since it’s the science fiction writers making this stuff up.

It’s all made up.  Did I already say that?

But if we are just making stuff up, why can’t we make it up this way.  An alien ship lands, these incredible creatures debark, and what do they find but some scientists waving banners that say, “Christianity is Dead.”

So the aliens go over to them and say, “What kind of simpletons are you?  In all your research, how did you miss the evidence for our great Creator, our Father?  How did you miss the fact that Jesus rose from the dead?  How did you miss your own need for a Savior?”

Turns out the aliens are very advanced in faith and in worshiping God “in spirit and in truth.”  Turns out they have a very close walk with God who gave them insights into how the universe works and how to get around in it.  They are advanced in love and grace and kindness.

How do we know aliens won’t come and confirm our faith? 

Well I don’t believe there are any aliens, and I base that on the scientific research I’ve seen.  They keep looking and looking and looking but so far not a speck of evidence.

Now you might ask, “What does the Bible say about extraterrestrial life?”

Unless you want to torture some odd verses into submission, the Bible is silent on the matter. 

But the Bible makes it clear that there is life beyond what our senses normally reveal.  “God is spirit,” the Bible says.  Plus there are angels and demons, lots of them.  And there are the souls of the departed, however that exactly works.

My point is, you have to listen closely to what scientists say. 

And when they say that the existence of aliens would destroy Christianity, just remember two things.

1.  They are making stuff up.

And 2.  It all depends on what those aliens just might say.


Comments?

E-mail me:  dougapple@wave94.com.

May God bless you today!  With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.

Maybe you think there really is evidence for aliens and I’m just not up to speed on the matter.  Well check out this article in a recent Newsweek Magazine:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/237082

Here is just a portion of it:  It's always good fun when scientists argue about aliens, most of all because they don't have any proof aliens exist. They just like to hypothesize that they might. It provides a rare opportunity to watch great rational thinkers and empiricists become poets and dreamers, imagining other creatures, other life forms, and other worlds, and indulging in what almost appear to be flights of fancy.  And we have had plenty of opportunity in recent years, because more and more scientists have begun arguing that intelligent life must exist beyond Earth, despite the fact that there is no evidence of it. The science has not changed; scientists have.


© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip 
 To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here:  http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one:  douglas_apple@msn.com

(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)

Why “The Arrow’s Tip”?  Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold.  Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.”  I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.

Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL  32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-