Coddle

If every church member were just like me, what kind of church would my church be? We can go even further, if every man, every father, every Christian, every doctor, were just like me, what kind of world would this world be? This is a question we face as we churn in our minds the reasons for the mess our country and our world is in.

Have you ever met someone who just stands out? When this person walks in a room, everyone is aware of a rare presence...not always because of appearance, usually because of an engaging personality, a magnetism which is infectious, affecting everyone. He is probably long dead, but I still remember him, his name was Charles Ramsey, the most dynamic, magnetic, infectious personality I have ever met.

I had just arrived in Memphis where I was preparing to go to medical school, having just graduated from the University of North Carolina. One of the first men I met on campus was Charles S. Lewis (not the famous C.S. Lewis) but Dr. Lewis did become well known where he practiced for many years. Right off, first conversation, he said, “I would like for you to go to church with me.” He was originally from Kentucky, graduated one year ahead of me, married in Memphis and stayed there. He said, “I'll be by to pick you up, I also pick up some children from a housing project and take them to church every Sunday.” This is the type of man this man was.

One Sunday school class at Bellevue Baptist church was for male professional students. Charles Ramsey was teacher of the class. When I walked in the room, there was an electricity in the man when he came over to shake my hand and welcome me in the class. His Christianity was genuine, his compassion real. He was a marvelous communicator, reached into the depths of his subject. He had been a military officer in WWII, knew firsthand the mercies of God in saving his life. He would stand in front of the class with tears running down his face as he taught the Gospel...it was so real to him. But I noticed over the years, that everyone in that large church was revitalized when he approached them. He had a disease which we all wanted to catch.

I was in the home of Mohandas Gandhi, famed leader in the nation of India, twice. I stood by the monument on the holy Ganges River where he was cremated. Gandhi, a Jain Hindu, an outstanding lawyer, a scholar who studied Christianity. He actually attended some Christian churches, but said he never saw anything there that he wanted...the people were just sad, more or less just going through the motions. Perhaps his most famous commentary on Christianity, “I would have been a Christian if I had not known so many Christians.” Just think of the millions of lost Hindus and Muslims, that through his international influence, he could have won to Christianity.

I don't think parents realize what they are doing when they rear a child...the values instilled in the home, things that no school can teach. You do not realize it, but you may be preparing a missionary, a doctor, a teacher, to face the world with the values they get from you.

There is no other personality like your personality, you are one of a kind, of the billions of people who have lived on earth, there is no other person who has had your fingerprints, your voice, your facial character, or even the flex of the iris in your eye. A new science, biometrics, involves scanning the facial characteristics of every human being. Body parts can be transplanted, but you and you alone are the possessor of your soul (which will never die), your personality. Just as God designed every snowflake that has ever fallen, beautifully-specifically, so he did with you. Don't discount yourself, don't cheat others.

When a patient came to my office, it was not just a treatment, it was an experience, you can be sure they never left the same, they had met a dynamo personality, articulate, convincing, concerned. Why just be a “blah” doctor, teacher, preacher, a nondescript anything? I am the same way with anyone who visits my home, as two black preachers who came to me for financial help, leaving said, “we will never be the same again.” In every speaking engagement, even a commentary such as this, with the mercy of God, I trust I made that difference. Someone may steal your credit card, or other forms of identification, they may think they have stolen your identity, but your identity is all yours. There is not another you.

Suicide is a great cause of death with young people in this nation, especially in the military. I notice that more and more criminals kill themselves after they kill others. Those who hate God love death. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:36) For so many, especially young, it is a way of escape.

The demise of Christianity started in Germany, at one time the world's pinnacle of knowledge, spread across Europe. Only the uninformed have not noticed the decline of the church in America...large churches, large buildings more like civic clubs than a place to worship a God of mercy and glory. I understand that in some churches you do not see a Christian cross, the baptistry seldom used, some so-called believers go for years without observing the Lord's Supper. The secular-humanist, liberal, phony-baloney impostors, tares have taken over. The greatest personality to ever live, Jesus Christ, the saints who worshiped and adored Him, believed in His Mercy are our example.

In this profane nation, such preachers as Rick Warren and Richard Land, are willing to compromise, thinking that the world's psychology is more important than God's theology. You can always identify the convinced, the convicted, the committed, most church members, most churches, most seminaries need a spiritual defibrillator. God is not an ATM machine. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:16) The coddling of children, students, Christians, will not produce the character and personality needed in God's service.