Total Life Journal

What If You Won the Lottery? By Gary Taylor

 

You see the signs almost every day.  They promise multiplied millions of dollars if you can just hit the jackpot with a winning lottery ticket. 

 

When you see those outlandish sums emblazoned on the billboards, do you dream about what your life would be like if it happened to you?  What if it did?  Would you suddenly become a better, happier person?  Would all of your dreams come true?  Would all of your problems be solved?  Would you be guaranteed a long and happy life?

 

Several years ago a friend of mine, who is a bank executive in my hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, looked up from his desk.  Through a glass window that looked out onto the lobby he saw an anxious couple.  Both the man and the woman were wearing jeans and T-shirts.  They were obviously from the hard working lower middle class.  He quickly pegged them as being broke and desperately hoping for a loan.  When his administrative assistant called asking if he had the time to meet with new customers, he reluctantly said that he did.

 

Within moments after receiving the couple in his office, all of the banker’s assumptions were dispelled.  The couple had just won a $10 million lottery jackpot!

 

They were from a large city, about an hour’s drive from the small town bank.  They had made the trip hoping to find a safe haven for their new riches; a place where they could deposit the money without anyone knowing.  They were looking for a way to escape the glare of publicity and its certain complications.   

 

As the baffled banker listened, the couple explained what seemed to be a logical plan for eluding the hazards that such a windfall brings in its train.  They wanted to do this right, and it seemed that all of their dreams had just come true.   

 

Now, put yourself in their place.  What would you do if you won $10 million? 

 

If asked that question by a television interviewer, most people would announce that their first intention was to give to their church or some charitable organization.   In reality, this seldom happens.  People say those things to picture themselves in the best possible light.   

 

Within a few weeks after the newly rich couple had deposited their winnings in the small town bank, the news about their fortune leaked out in their community.  That which they had feared came upon them.  Everyone wanted a piece of their action.  Their days and nights were spent fighting off the pitches of financial consultants, estate planners and insurance salesmen.  Then they began getting calls from family members they had not known existed.  This one needed a new car, another needed a loan.  On and on it went. 

 

In desperation, the couple tried to appease their clamoring family while satisfying themselves with the luxuries they had always dreamed about.  After giving each member of their family what they saw as a generous allotment, they bought new cars for themselves.  They bought a new house, then a second home in Florida.  They secured the stuff they thought necessary to appear and feel that they had arrived.

 

However, the more they helped their family, the more their family wanted. As they continued to be bombarded with lavish requests, they watched their lives begin to spiral out of control.  People they loved and really wanted to help were angrily arguing over who had received the most money. 

 

As the storm raged around them, the couple started drifting away from each other.  The wife spent more and more time away from her husband while he tried to hold things together.  Then, the day came when she announced that she wanted out of their relationship. 

 

Just 18 months after winning $10 million dollars, a broken man wept in the office of my friend, the banker.  Slamming his fist onto the desk, he groaned, “I wish we had never won that lottery.”   

 

Now, let me ask you again, “What would you do if you won $10 million?” 

 

God is not really interested in how we answer that question.  He is interested in what we are doing right now with what we already have.

 

We have to understand that we cannot cut deals with God.  His principles are non-negotiable.  We can say that we would do this or that if we just had better circumstances and more stuff.  But, what really counts is what we are doing with what we have. 

 

A wide canyon separates the United States of America from the rest of the world.   We have only four percent of the world’s population, but we own and consume about 30% of the world’s produce.  We consume more electricity, fuel and food products per person than any other country on the planet.  Our dreams are based on consumption, power and money.  For the most part, we are ruled by greed. 

 

Why do we in America love money so much?  We love it because it gives us a temporary fix to our addiction to control, power and influence.  We love taking care of ourselves, and it is hard for us to see beyond ourselves.  We believe we are better than other people because of what we have.  We have bought into the lie that money and power will bring happiness.  However, the reverse is really true.   

 

For over 20 years, I have worked with people in poverty-stricken Third World countries.  I am constantly amazed by what I find.  In the poorest places, in the places where people have the least, I find those whose lives are overflowing with joy.  They know Christ in deep intimate relationships.  They have made the liberating discovery that nothing outside of Him can make them really happy; no person, place or possession…not even $10 million. 

 

How does this happen? 

 

Of ourselves, we cannot make it happen.  We cannot will the greed and lust out of our hearts.  By nature, we are controlled by an attitude of selfishness and rebellion.  As a result, our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9).  We must have new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26).  All we can bring to God is our broken selves.  We must come to the end of ourselves and come to Him just as we are.  Drawn by the Holy Spirit, there must be an “about face” in our lives.  We need total transformation (John 3:3).  We need to have a new direction and focus.  Everything within us needs to be realigned (2 Corinthians 5:17).  We need to be delivered from our addictions to money, power and control.  We need to be addicted to Christ, controlled by Him (Ephesians 5:17). 

 

There can only be one priority in your life (Matthew 6:24).  Christ must occupy that place.  He takes that place, the throne in your heart, when you come to the end of yourself and submit to Him. 

 

Jesus said, “Do not be called masters…because you have one Master, the Messiah.” (Matthew 23:10, HCSB)

 

When Christ becomes your Priority, you are on the right path.   Then, everything and everyone gives way to Him (Galatians 2:20).

 

Out of this relationship with Christ, I have discovered my own personal mission.  It is summed up in these words, “Seek not the powerful and the privileged, nor admire the rich and famous, but search for the poor and needy and you will find the power of God.”

 

God’s kingdom operates in ways that are radically different from the world’s values and laws.  In the world, one plus one equals two.  In the Kingdom of God, one plus one can equal 100 or even more.  God can multiple what is yielded to Him and cause it to expand at an incomprehensible rate.  He uses the weak to shame the strong (I Corinthians 1:28). 

 

Will you allow the trials and heartaches, the storms of life, to bring you into a vital relationship with Christ?  Will you yield yourself to total dependence on Him?  Will you let Him realign and adjust your worldview to His own?  Will you submit and allow Him to reign in your life as Lord?  

 

As Christians, we gain by losing.  The smaller we become, the greater He becomes in and through us. 

 

Jesus said, “Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it.” (Matthew 10:39, HCSB)  

 

Would that new luxurious home ultimately make you happy?  Would a career promotion, that meant spending less time with your family, really result in fulfillment and satisfaction?

 

Personally, I have had to stop, take an inventory, look deep within myself, examine my motives and ask if I am really allowing Christ to radically touch a lost world through me.       As I struggle to be set free from the grip of materialism, I am arrested by the gravity of Jesus’ command, “Go…and make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19a, HCSB)

 

You may say, “If I won $10 million dollars, I would give most of it to God.”

 

You could do that and still not give God what He wants.  He wants more than any material thing you can give Him.  He wants your heart fixed completely on Him.

 

The Christ for Every Crisis

More and more, I am being challenged to jettison the term “Christian” and talk about being a follower of Jesus.  Isn’t that what it really means to be a Christian?  Only as we follow Him can we know Him, experience Him and hope to become like Him.

 

This is wonderfully illustrated in the lives of the twelve men who heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” and did just that.  Join me in following with them through an amazing night and day of their journey.  As we do so, we will see Jesus as they saw Him, as the Christ for Every Crisis.

 

In the Crisis of the Storm

 

“On that day, when evening had come, He told them, ‘Let's cross over to the other side [of the lake].’” (Mark 4:35)

 

Jesus had spent a long day sitting in a boat and teaching people gathered on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. In this natural amphitheater, He had used stories to communicate vital truths about the Kingdom of God.

 

Jesus was teaching His followers that they were not with Him just to receive blessing. They had been called so that they could become channels of blessing. He was equipping them to be servants. They were being entrusted with a powerful, revolutionary message about the King and His Kingdom.

Now, Jesus decided that it was time for an object lesson. He had business to do on the eastern shore of the lake and on the way His men would learn faith in the grip of fear.

 

“So they left the crowd and took Him along since He was [already] in the boat. And other boats were with Him. A fierce windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, ‘Teacher! Don't you care that we're going to die?’” (Mark 4:36-38)

 

It is easy for me to imagine this scene. In 1978, our son, Rob, was with me in Israel. We had enjoyed a good meal at our hotel in Tiberias, on the south shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Before going back to our room, we walked out onto a pier to watch the moonlight on the water and the lights on the Golan Heights. Then, we stretched out on our backs and marveled at the brilliance of the stars over Galilee. Not a breeze was stirring. The sky was clear. The only sounds to be heard were music and laughter from the hotel, and the gentle sloshing of lake water against the sea wall. We retired soothed by the tranquility of such a night.

 

At about 2:30 a. m., I was jolted from sleep by the crashing of thunder, the howling of wind and blinding flashes of lightning. Sheets of rain were being driven against the hotel’s windows. I had washed a pair of Rob’s jeans before going to bed, and had laid them on our balcony to dry. When I rushed out to retrieve them, I was stunned to see the lake, which had been so quiet a few hours earlier, now churned into angry crashing turbulence. I thought, “This is what happened on that night that Mark wrote about.”

 

Most of the men who were with Jesus were experienced fishermen. This lake was home to them. They had been in storms before, so this one must have been the mother of them all. The boat was filling with water. They were powerless against its fury. They were afraid…and Jesus was asleep.

 

Have you ever been afraid? Sure you have. Show me a man who says that he has never known fear, and I’ll show you a man who is either lying, or he doesn’t have a clue about the realities of life.

 

Here’s the test. What do you do when you are afraid?

 

King Jehoshaphat of Judah was faced with an overwhelming invading force. In 2 Chronicles 20:3, the Bibles says that he “was afraid, so he resolved to seek the LORD.”

 

When he stood before His people to pray, he said, “We are powerless before this vast multitude that comes [to fight] against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to You.” (v. 12)

 

Here is the answer to His prayer: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.” (v. 15)

 

This is the lesson Jesus was teaching His disciples and us during that threatening storm.  In their fear, they cried out to Him. He woke without alarm. When he spoke, an immediate calm fell on the lake; no wind and no rain. The danger, that had been so real, fled at His command.

 

“Then He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful? Do you still have no faith?’" (Mark

4:40)

In retrospect, it is easy for us to say, “Hey, guys, why were you afraid? Jesus had already told you that you were going to the other side. Your destination was guaranteed. He was with you, and He was perfectly at peace in the midst of the storm…so, no problem!”

 

Put that to the test the next time you get a bad report from the doctor or the bottom falls out of the economy. Then, paraphrase Jesus’ response to His men like this: “Okay, you were a little slow making the call and a little shrill when you did, but you made the right call. Count on this, storms will keep on coming, all kinds of them. Some are going to be a lot worse than the one you have just been through. When they come, remember tonight. And remember this; your faith is only as strong as its object.”

 

John may have whispered under his breath, “Whoa! Who is this?”

 

Staring at the glass-like surface of the lake, Peter may have said, “I think that’s what He’s trying to tell us.”

 

• Being in a storm does not always mean that you are out of God’s will.  Jonah got into a storm because he was disobedient.  The disciples got into a storm because they were obedient.
• Jesus told the disciples that they were going to the other side.  He did not promise an easy trip.  He did promise a safe arrival.
• Because Jesus is the Master of Circumstances, His followers can say, “I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, Lord, make me live in safety.” (Psalm 4:8)
• The greatest danger was not from the storm, but from the unbelief in the hearts of the disciples.  Our greatest problems are within us, not around us.  We must beware of “an evil heart of unbelief.”

 

In the Crisis of a Broken Life

 

In the first light of a new day, the dark mouths of the caves along the lake’s southeastern shore may have greeted Jesus and His disciples like the eye sockets of the dead.  In reality, this place, on the edge of the region of the Gerasenes, was a graveyard. That stark reality would have added to the shock of what was about to happen. The adrenalin rush of the stormy night had left the disciples shaken. Now, they were all but wiped out by the screaming of a naked man who was running straight at them. Again, Jesus showed no surprise.

 

“As soon as He got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him. He lived in the tombs. No one was able to restrain him any more—even with chains — because he often had been bound with shackles and chains, but had snapped off the chains and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. And always, night and day, he was crying out among the tombs and in the mountains and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before Him.” (Mark 5:2-6)

 

In our “civilized” Western world, encounters with demon-possessed people are the stuff of Stephen King novels and Hollywood horror films. However, in much of the world these fantasies pale in the face of reality.

 

In 1979, my dear friend, Jimmy Hodges, and I arrived in Uganda just as the madman Idi Amin was about to plunge that country into eight years of unimaginable carnage. Before we went into the bush for two weeks of village ministry, Missionary Webster Carroll gave us his “this isn’t a game” field orientation. One segment went something like this: “Fellows, this is a place of darkness; a place where the devil and his demons have had free reign in the minds and hearts of people. If you go out there carelessly, thinking that you know all the right words and moves, you will not only get surprised, you might get hurt. Don’t attempt anything in your own strength. Go in Christ’s strength, completely dependent on Him.”

 

Since then, I have had encounters in Africa, Central America, Brazil and Haiti that I can’t explain. I have seen people in the grip of something that unmasks the folly of our civilized skepticism.

 

That morning, Jesus was confronted with a man who was out of control. He couldn’t control himself. His family couldn’t control him. Society labeled him as a hopeless menace. Its answer was to isolate and bind him. Even that didn’t work. He was destroying everything he touched and he was being destroyed. He was a walking dead man, existing in a graveyard. He was a horrifying example of Satan’s plan for man.

 

Jesus said in John 10:10, “A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.”

 

In 1 Peter 5:8-9, we are warned, “Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world.”

 

Describing us before we were drawn to Christ, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit now working in the disobedient.”

 

Amazingly, while the disciples were still wondering who Jesus was, they heard it clearly confessed by demons. Having been ordered out of the man, the unclean spirit “cried out with a loud voice, ‘What do You have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God, don't torment me!’” (Mark 5:7)

 

Satan and his demons know who Jesus is, and they fear Him. In James 2:19, we are told,

 

“You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.”

 

As this pitiful man trembled before Jesus, it is interesting to note that the multitude of demons possessing him did not know what Jesus was about to do. They were begging Him not to cast them into the pit of hell. They knew His power, but they couldn’t read His mind.

 

We often give the devil more than his due.

• He is not present everywhere.
• He is not all powerful and all knowing.
• He is a fallen creature.
• He cannot do anything that God does not permit.

 

However, in their arrogant rebellion against God, men choose to cooperate with Satan’s destructive plan for their lives. Because of this, our neighborhoods and campuses are full of people who are out of control. Even though they may not be possessed by a legion of demons, sin has accomplished the same terrible work in them that we see in the Gerasene madman.

 

• Like him, they have lost everything; homes, families, friends and decency. 
• They are bound by the chains of addiction.
• They are without peace and purpose.
• They desperately need to an encounter with Christ!

 

When Jesus gave the demons permission to go into a herd of pigs, we see the finished product of the Thief, death and destruction.

 

When people from the nearby town heard that something was happening by the lake, they came running. One would think that they would have rejoiced to find a man made whole, clothed and in his right mind (5:15), sitting before a Man with power over demons. Instead, the Bible says, “They were afraid. The eyewitnesses described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and [told] about the pigs. Then they began to beg Him to leave their region.” (Mark 5:15b-17)

 

Given a choice between people and their needs over against anything that might have a negative impact on the economy, it’s always the economy.

 

Jesus is a gentleman. He does not stay where He is not welcome. The King landed on their shore and they asked Him to leave.

 

We should tremble as we see America doing the same thing. His name is the most offensive word that can be spoken in our nation. Over and over, He is being told, “You are not welcome in our courthouses, our libraries, our classrooms and boardrooms.”

 

However, where Jesus has touched and transformed a life, there is an undeniable witness to His saving power. Men may treat the Bible with contempt. They may belittle the churches and scoff at God’s law. But they cannot explain a new man. For as long as he lived, there was a man among the Gerasenes announcing the good news about Jesus.

 

Every person who had known anything about him before his deliverance knew that he was the proof of what he was saying.

 

In the Crisis of Desperate Need

 

Early that afternoon, the Christ who had been rejected by the Gerasenes was enthusiastically welcomed back to the shore near Capernaum.  Jesus both repels and attracts.

 

“When Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him while He was by the sea.” (Mark 5:21)

 

In that crowd were two people with great need. One was a respected and wealthy religious leader who was discovering that position and money could not save his dying daughter. The other was an unknown woman who had already lost all of her money and health. Now, she saw Jesus as her only hope.

 

Before she could press her way through the crowd, Jairus, the synagogue leader got Jesus’ attention and laid claim to His time.

 

“He fell at His feet and kept begging Him, ‘My little daughter is at death's door.  Come and lay Your hands on her so she can get well and live.’

 

“So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against Him.” (Mark 5:22b-24)

 

Jesus was on an urgent mission.  A young life was slipping away. There was no time to be lost. No distractions could be allowed.

 

“Hold my calls. Cancel all of my afternoon appointments. Don’t let anyone bother me.”

 

That’s how it is done when important people are doing important things.

 

With Jesus it was different. He is never surprised and He doesn’t wear a watch. When someone showed up without an appointment, there was no waiting. When He was “on His way,” look out! Something unexpected and good was about to happen!

 

As He walked through the streets with the anxious Jairus, He was being thronged by many, but He was about to be touched by one. That timid touch got His undivided attention.

 

“A woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. Having heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His robe. For she said, ‘If I can just touch His robes, I'll be made well!’ Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was cured of her affliction.

 

“At once Jesus realized in Himself that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My robes?’

 

“His disciples said to Him, ‘You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'

 

“So He was looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came with fear and trembling, fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth. ‘Daughter,’ He said to her, ‘your faith has made you well.  Go in peace and be free from your affliction.’” (Mark 5:25-34)

 

Jesus didn’t have to be told what had happened when the sick woman touched Him. It was done. She was well. Still, He did not allow her to slip away. He called her out of the crowd. Why?

 

He wanted her to have more than a healing experience. He wanted her to know Him and have a relationship with Him.

 

If she had touched Him and gone away healed, she might have seen what happened as the magic result of a superstitious action. He wanted her to know that she was the object of God’s love. For as long as she lived, she would remember Him calling her “daughter” as much as she would remember being healed. She probably talked more about Him than she did about her health. One day, she would lose her health again. In Him she had something that could not be lost.

 

Can you imagine the turmoil in the mind and heart of Jairus while Jesus was stopping in the street to deal with this unclean woman? Then, his worst fears became reality.

 

“While He was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house and

said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?’” (Mark 5:35)

 

Just when it seemed prayer was going to be answered, everything was lost! What if someone had stopped that woman from distracting Jesus? Those precious lost minutes might have made the difference between life and death. His shoulders sagged and the light of hope went out in Jairus’ eyes.

 

“But when Jesus overheard what was said, He told the synagogue leader, "Don't be afraid. Only believe." (Mark 5:36)

 

Literally, Jesus was saying, “Go on believing.”

 

He was telling Jairus, “It took faith and courage for you to come to me in the first place.  I know that your fellow synagogue leaders would not approve of you asking me for anything. You saw what just happened when that woman reached out to me. Now, don’t give up. Stay with me and keep believing.”

 

After telling everyone else to stay put, Jesus took Peter, James and John (Rocky and the Sons of Thunder) with Him and followed Jairus home. Long before they entered the house, they heard the wailing and warbling of the professional mourners. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that the girl was dead. That reality gave what Jesus said next a ring of absurdity.

 

“He went in and said to them, ‘Why are you making a commotion and weeping?  The child is not dead but asleep.’” (Mark 5:39)

Something is not dead until Jesus says that it is dead.

 

Ignoring the mourners’ laughs of derision, Jesus cleared the house of everyone but the grieving mother and father and that trio of men on whom He was staking so much. He never conducted a healing crusade or advertised His next big miracle. He was stirred with compassion for broken hearts, and He was teaching vital lessons about Himself.  From the storm until now, this night and day had unfolded according to His agenda.

 

Speaking in her mother tongue, Jesus took the girl by the hand and said, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"

 

Here Mark used his favorite word. He was inspired to write, “Immediately the girl got up and began to walk.”

 

In less than 24 hours, Jesus had calmed a violent storm, delivered an out of control demon-possessed man, healed a desperately sick and ostracized woman, and given a dead child new life. At the end of all of that, He demonstrated simple, practical, common sense. Turning to the girl’s “utterly astounded” parents, He said, “Give her something to eat.”

 

When Jesus brings life out of death, feed that which is now alive.

 

Back out on the street, James, shaking his head, might have turned to Peter and John with, “And we thought the storm was something!”

 

Perhaps the Apostle Paul had heard his first mentor, Peter, talk about that extraordinary night and day with Jesus.  No doubt, he had remembered it time after time during the crisis of shipwreck, beatings, rejection and sickness.  He may have been thinking about it when he was inspired to write:

 

 ‘In all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!’” (Romans 8:38-39)

 

It was true then, and it is true now.

• Storms will rage.
• The devil will take his best shot. 
• Health will fail and death will come.
• Through it all, He is more than enough.
• He is the Master of Circumstances.
• He is never dismayed.
• He is always in control.
• He is the Christ for Every Crisis

All scripture references are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

© 2010 Wayne Bristow