7 Things You Better Have Nailed Down Before All Hell Breaks Loose by Robert D. Wolgemuth, Robert Wolgemuth

From the Publisher

Stephen Covey wrote, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." For men and women searching for truth amid the noise and clutter, this principle could never be more crucial. And while the church is tossed about by the same uncertainty, Robert Wolgemuth's provocative 7 Things You Better Have Nailed Down Before All Hell Breaks Loose puts a stake in the ground and says, "Here's something you can count on, no matter what." In life you don't rise to the level of your circumstances; you fall to the level of your training. This strong exposition of the foundations of the Christian faith brings a calm, clarity, and confidence to train those who need something certain to claim. The seven things are:

1. God Is God: the Creator-Holy, Sovereign, and Merciful

2. The Bible Is God's Word

3. Mankind Is Eternally Lost and in Need of a Savior

4. Jesus Christ Died to Redeem Mankind

5. Grace and Faith Are Gifts

6. Belief and Works Are One

7. The Church Is God's Idea

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 0785221697
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Pub. Date: May 2007
• Condition:
• Attributes: Dust Jacket

Comments from the Seller: VERY NICE CLEAN COPY, LOOKS NEW & UNUSED.

• Table of Contents
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Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

7 Things You Better Have Nailed Down

Thomas Nelson

Chapter One

One of my closest friends can't stand Major League Baseball. I have tried to talk to him about the physical challenges and intricacies of the game, but his response is always the same.

"Borrrrrring," he says smiling.

My friend's disdain for the game has had no affect on me. Whether in person at a game or watching on TV, I have always been captured by the sport. The remarkable skill of a pitcher as he throws a baseball ninety miles an hour, sixty feet, six inches away from home plate with the precision of a surgeon, or the catlike silkiness of an infielder scooping up a ground ball and rocketing it to first base.

I'm also taken with the skill of a batter, actually catching up with the speeding baseball and hitting it 450 feet into the stands. Success is so elusive that even the best of hitters fail more often than they succeed.

If you're like my friend and are eager for me to move along to something you care about, please hang on for a couple more minutes. There's a point to my talking about baseball.

Clutch Hitting

One of the baseball issues that has been discussed and researched over the past few years has to do with howcertain batters do when the outcome of the game is on the line and the batter's success could mean the difference between his team winning or losing ... clutch hitting.

It seems that some hitters are considered to be more proficient when the game depends on it than when they step into the batter's box under more ordinary circumstances.

Because baseball has, since its inception, been populated by geeky statisticians, a serious controversy has arisen over whether or not any batter-today or throughout the history of the game-has actually done better in the clutch. Intense scrutiny has been given to the minutia of statistics about players who have been known to be great at clutch hitting.

The results may surprise you.

The evidence is conclusive: what a player does under specific game-dependent pressure is exactly what he does at other times. There may be a season or two when a hitter is more productive in the clutch, but the statistics over his lifetime always average out.

A batter is a batter is a batter. What he does under stress is what he does every other day. If he's terrific on those ordinary days, he'll be terrific under pressure. If he's not very good day to day, he won't be any good when the game is on the line.

Given this information, how would you coach a hitter who wants to be better in the clutch? How would you help him be dependable and confident when the game is on the line?

That's right. You'd teach him to improve under normal circumstances ... before he's in win-or-lose situations. The better his skill has been honed for the ordinary, the more ready he'll be when it really counts.

Baseball and Hell Breaking Loose?

Although the title of this book sounds a bit like a wailing siren, it's really as simple as the principle behind clutch hitting.

If you and I want to be prepared for the inevitable difficulties, challenges, and even tragedies that life will throw at us, we need to learn how to "survive" the normal. We need to nail down essential truth before all hell breaks loose.

Final Instructions from The King

Nothing pulls back the curtain on what you and I have nailed down like death, especially the specter of our own demise.

When King David was about to die, he laid down his own list of things he wanted his son Solomon to have nailed down.

Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: "I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn."

Can you imagine Solomon looking around for a piece of paper and a pencil? "Let's see," he must have whispered to himself as he wrote. "Walk in God's ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies."

The instructions from David to his son were thorough and specific. A veritable cornucopia of things he wanted Solomon to nail down. The promise David gave to Solomon if he did these things made the rigors of following them well worth it. "You [will have] prosperity in all that you do and wherever you turn."

A New Way of Turning

You and I understand the meaning of the word prosperity. But what about the expression "wherever you turn"?

Here's a new way of looking at this old promise.

Spinning things-turning things-have always been a fascination to me. As a young boy, yo-yos and spinning tops were among my favorite toys. As a teenager I was introduced to the magic of the gyroscope ... where spinning things and physics joined hands. I don't remember if I saved my own money for my first gyroscope or if someone gave it to me, but the toy captured my imagination.

About the size of a small apple, my gyroscope was a spinning top resting inside a simple wire frame. With a piece of string wound around the spine of the top, I pulled with all my might, making the top come to life in a whir. Then I'd take the string and hold it in between my outstretched hands. One of my brothers would set the spinning gyroscope on the string and, like a skilled tightrope walker in the circus, the gyroscope would balance perfectly on the string. Balance was achieved because of something going on inside.

Solomon's obedience to his father's specific instructions were going to prosper him wherever he turned. "Remember to do all of these things," David said, "and you will be prosperous wherever you turn." Although drawing a comparison with a gyroscope may seem strange to you, it's an incredibly important principle to learn.

Let me show you how a gyroscope works.

Regardless of the pressure it faces, a spinning gyroscope cannot be thrown off balance. Now you know why this is true.

At this moment, our life situations fall into one of three categories. We're either just coming out of a crisis, in the middle of a crisis, or about to have a crisis head our way.

Like the illustration of the finger pressing on the edge of the gyroscope, something or someone has just tried to tilt our lives. It's pressing down on us, or is about to come crashing in.

Although he probably didn't understand much about physics, King David was admonishing his son to hold steady, regardless of what was happening to him. "Walk in God's ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies."

The result of obeying his dad's admonition would provide Solomon with prosperity "wherever he turned."

Batter Up ... When It's Your Turn

You hear the ambulance siren, as you have many times before. Only this time, instead of the sound waning, its reverberation gets louder and LOUDER. It's headed for your house. The moment seems surreal, as though you're in a time warp, disjointed from reality. Things that just seconds before were so important now disappear into irrelevance.

The telephone rings, and you answer, with no idea what is about to happen to your life. As soon as you say hello, the caller delivers the news-the last thing you expected-or wanted-to hear. You stand there in body-numbing disbelief. One of the most cherished people in the world to you is gone. There wasn't even time for a final good-bye.

There's a knock on your front door. You weren't expecting anyone, at least not that you could remember. The man seems overdressed. Perhaps he's a salesman. You're a little surprised when he speaks your name, lifting his tone at the end as if it's a question. You nod, and the man hands you a legal document, then a clipboard with a paper for you to sign, acknowledging receipt of the document. You knew your marriage was in trouble-your spouse has seemed more distant than ever-but you hadn't predicted anything this final. You scribble your name, step back into your home, and close the door, staggering in disbelief. You can hardly breathe.

You're at thirty-seven thousand feet, clipping along at five hundred miles an hour. Your laptop is open, and you're catching up on some correspondence, when you feel the plane tremble slightly. Just a little rough air, you say to yourself. But when it happens again, the trembling is a little more violent. You look around at the other passengers. Most of them haven't looked up. Then there's a loud crack, and the plane drops suddenly, pitching first to the left, then sharply to the right. As the flight attendants rush to their seats, the captain announces, "There's been an equipment failure on our aircraft, and we're looking for the nearest airfield for an emergency landing. Remove everything from your lap and prepare yourself." Some passengers cry out, but most, like you, lean forward quietly and wrap their arms around their legs. You're not sure what's happening, but you know it is serious. Maybe perilous.

You've heard the expression. Now it's real: All hell has broken loose. For you. What are you going to do?

There's a good chance that one of these things-or something similar-has already happened to you. You know the sense of desperation. There's nothing you can do about what's happening. But it is. You feel naked and vulnerable-and very afraid.

What did you do? Where did your mind take you? Was it a freefall, or was there something to hang on to?

Even if you're not experiencing one of these panic-producing events right now, go ahead and think back to one you've had before. What did it feel like? What was racing through your consciousness? Can you remember what you did in the face of this unexpected crisis?

History is peppered with accounts of ordinary people, like you and me, who have faced indescribable crisis. As a boy, I was enthralled by their stories. Here were people who stood strong in the face of their own personal "hell breaking loose" moments. What they did was unbelievable.

A Young Boy and a Book

In one corner of my childhood living room sat a large upholstered chair, nestled beside a brown stone fireplace. Behind the chair was a small bookcase, built smartly into a short corner wall-a knee wall.

The triangular space on the backside of the chair made an ideal place-a fort-for a small boy to lie on his stomach and read a book. The youngster was me, and the book was Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

My minister dad had purchased this book with specific intentions. His children would need to get ready. All hell was going to break loose for America.

The Cold War was at full volume. The Soviet Union was brandishing its weaponry, its rhetoric strident and brash. "We will bury you," Nikita Khrushchev had said to a group of Western ambassadors. And Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison, an army commander during the Korean War and a friend of my dad's, had told him, in no uncertain terms, that our generation would face persecution.

It was in the late 1950s-I was ten years old-when I first met Thomas Bilney in the pages of Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Thomas was a student at the University of Cambridge in the sixteenth century. He had shown a remarkable love of learning. And he was the kind of man I wanted to grow up to be.

I remember being drawn by his grit and determination. A gentle and humble lad, Thomas studied law and religion. He was particularly fascinated with the Bible and the claims of Christianity. His interest turned to passion as he became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

After graduation, many of his friends pursued "respectable" professions. But Thomas and his friend Thomas Arthur devoted their lives to telling others about their love for God. Their mission took them to prison cells and to the poorest areas of London. At first, Thomas Bilney preached at small gatherings in private homes, but as the quality and power of his preaching and teaching grew, so did the size of his congregation. He filled churches with compelling messages of God's judgment and grace. "Salvation is through Christ alone," he preached. "Rites, rituals, and work are mere emptiness unless they are done in Christ."

One day, while traveling through Norwich, a city fifty miles northeast of London, Thomas stopped to visit a woman in her home. He gave her a copy of a Tyndale Bible, translated in English. He knew this was against the law.

For unlawful distribution of the sacred Scripture, Thomas Bilney was captured and thrown in prison. After examination and condemnation by the church, and thoroughly unwilling to alter his actions or recant his beliefs, Thomas was sentenced to die at the stake.

August 19, 1531, was a windy day, and as the first large flame flared in his face, singeing his beard and burning off his eyebrows and lashes, Thomas did not flinch. As people gathered to watch the spectacle, the gentle Thomas Bilney shouted, "Jesus!" and "I believe!" Soon the flames had taken his life, his clothing burned from his body, his naked head charred. One of the executioners removed the staple from the chain fastened to the back of the stake, and Thomas's body fell into the fire and was soon completely consumed.

The heart in my small body pounded with such fury as I read this story that I could feel my temples throb. I was overwhelmed by Thomas's courage-his fearlessness at the specter of his imminent execution, simply because he loved and believed in Christ. And I remembered his dying words as the flames burned him. His shout of "Jesus!" identified his Savior. "I believe!" let all those present know that no external forces would be able to extinguish what he knew to be true. No one-no terror-would have the power to change his mind. For Thomas, all hell had broken loose. And he had faced it with confidence.

Where did this stalwart confidence come from? How did he die with such certainty and poise?

Besides Thomas Bilney, Foxe's Book of Martyrs introduced me to others. People with funny names, like Polycarp, Chrysostom, Denisa, Wycliffe, and other men ... and women and even children who died unspeakable deaths for their belief in Christ.

The irony for me was that these people died because they chose to-the hell they faced could have been avoided. Unwilling to secure their own release by renouncing their love for Jesus Christ or condemning their passion to preach, some of these martyrs sang hymns as their bodies burned at the stake. Some prayed aloud for their executioners as swords impaled their bodies. Others quoted Scripture as wild dogs tore at them. Like obedient apprentices, some held sharp chisels against their own arms, while their torturers hammered the chisels that severed their limbs ... all the while telling these monsters that God loved them. And forgave them.

What fascinated me back then-and still does today-is that the very torture that these saints faced, galvanized their beliefs. The hell they endured stripped away their doubt, sealing their determination. Their faith was enough.

A Few Years Later

When I was in college, almost ten years after my childhood encounters with the martyrs, there were other brave men to meet. Men my age. An understanding of why the martyrs' stories had stirred me so powerfully showed up in the lives of people I actually knew. Like Scott.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from 7 Things You Better Have Nailed Down by Robert Wolgemuth Copyright © 2007 by Robert Wolgemuth. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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