Fear or Contentment: You Choose

Mt.24:1-2 (Msg) Jesus then left the Temple. As he walked away, his disciples pointed out how very impressive the Temple architecture was. Jesus said, "You're not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there's not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble."  

  

Did you get that?   Jesus said…not one stone upon another. It occurred to me that he wasn’t just talking about the Temple in Jerusalem.  His words are actually a commentary on every building on everything that is constructed by the hands of man…..even if it has been done to God’s glory.   Nothing that we experience or see around us today is eternal. It will all be dismantled….and therefore, none of it has any eternal significance…..only temporary context.  

Jesus also said, Mat.6:19-21 (ESV) Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Much of the fear we carry in our hearts about poverty…about being poor, is based on an incorrect view of our place in God’s plan for His creation.  When we get to be thinking that this is all there is….even though from a Christian perspective that isn’t biblically sustainable to believe those things, we end up buying into the “I have to create it….I have to make it happen” model.  And when we find that we can’t do it….or when it breaks down….just as it eventually will….fear takes over.

   

Fear and anxiety come when we turn our eyes away from what God is doing and look at the world around us through the lenses of faithlessness to see what man can do with his own broken heart & hands.  And because we are broken and imperfect, because what we build with our own hands and our own sinful hearts…separated from what God might be doing in and through us is flawed, we experience imperfection, failure and ultimately fear.   Instead, we are called to keep our eyes on Christ and all of our needs will be met. Matthew 6:33 (NLT) Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  Like everything else in life…it is a choice.

Grace and Works...Works and Grace

Herein is one of the greatest of struggles in our society today.  To be sure, it is not a new problem, or Paul wouldn't have been writing about it 2000 years ago. But, it just seems that as our world slips more and more into a secularist mindset, that the drive is always to "achieve your dreams" or "be the best you can be"....with that same philosophy also taking over much of contemporary church life.  We hear Paul's teaching about salvation by grace through faith alone, and might even assent to it verbally...but does it become the foundation of our relationship with Jesus?  I think not.  It is almost as if we are living a schizophrenic or kind of bipolar existence with two separate persona...one which wants with all that we are to believe in the freely given grace and mercy of the Father and His great love for us...and another that is unsure and needs to strive to be good so that we can earn His favour.  

We are not helped at all by either of the extremes so prevalent in the church today.  On the one hand are the liberals who utterly reject the Law, deliberately setting aside the standards that God calls believers to and promoting a kind of cheap grace bereft of any moral obligations.  On the other are the moralists, modern day Pharisees, who are so rule bound that grace is given mere lip service in the drive to be pure and Holy before Him.  In the middle are those who are torn asunder by their desire to be a part of the world into which they have been born and yet reborn to the one into which they have been called.  Around them stand a confused majority wondering both what the church actually believes and why they would ever want to be a part of it.   And we wonder why our churches are empty!

We are weak...alleluia! "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly...God show His love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.  There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  (Romans 5:6; 8:1; 3:23) "I will put my law within them and will write it on their hearts and they will be my people" Jeremiah31:33 "do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until it is accomplished " Matthew 5:17-18

We don't need the extremes, they are destructive, both in society and the church. What we need, what the world needs is Jesus who is the personification and totality of the grace, mercy and law of God.   It is only when we are focused completely on Him and remain in Him that we are empowered to be righteous and holy before God.

What Can Flesh do To Me?

What can flesh do to me?  The short answer is nothing! In Psalm 56, the writer is asking a rhetorical question, but it is a good one for us to ponder. We often get so focused on the trials and tribulations that daily surround us, that we loose sight of the reality of God's love, protection and provision. God knows when and how we are hurting.(verse 8) He stands before our enemies and turns them away. (9) Ultimately, God delivers us from death (13) Therefore, "What can man do to me?" The answer is nothing!  Why? Because God is for me. (9) 

There is the promise, how then do we access it? The Psalmist has an answer for that too. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in You." (3) For, God is trustworthy. (3,4, 11) And here is the response to God's great love for us. We, "praise His word." (4,10) We are confident in His presence and therefore fearless. (11) We give God thanks (12), and we deliberately "walk in the light". This is the purpose and focus of Gods great love for us.

God's word is so rich in promise for our daily lives...a great, largely untapped resource.  Bishop Silas has found that less that 10% of committed church people have a daily time in God's word. You can help another find this fount of encouragement by reading with them. This is what "walking in the light" really means.

The Battle Belongs to the Lord

How often do we prepare and amour ourselves, put on things made with human hands and guided by broken human hearts…then wonder why the battle is lost?  What do you think would be different if we had the courage to declare as David did to Goliath, “It is His (God’s) battle, not ours. The Lord will give you to us” (1Samuel 17:46 NLT) And…then do whatever He calls upon us to do, no matter how fear or anxiety producing it becomes.  .

If we wait upon the Lord and walk in His power, according to His purposes and timing, the bible tells us that all things will unfold as they should.  As David said in Psalm 9:3, “My enemies turn away in retreat; they are over thrown and destroyed before you.”  He shed the human armour and faced Goliath with God’s weapons. All God is waiting for is for us to call out to Him in the same way.

Each of us have Goliaths that we face every day; problems and resistance that seem insurmountable…even impossible.  Many times they are.  We don’t have the power or the ability to deal with them.  But He does, He knows. He will.  Psalm 9:9-10 NLT, “The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you.

Lord, I pray that you will be a stronghold for all who have the sense put their trust in you, and that they will have the courage and wisdom to depend not on their own strength, but wholly upon you for deliverance.  Amen

An Example of Repentance that Leads to Salvation

In 2Corinthians 6:14 (ESV), Paul says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”   (17-18) Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

This passage has been wrongly used by many in the church to separate themselves completely from the broken and lost, to isolate themselves in what they believe to be a righteous Christian bubble.  However, these verses are not a call for religious isolation that separates the believer from the society around them, but instead a plea holy and righteous behaviour in the midst of a sin bound world.

What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?  The answer is “none!”  These verses are God’s call for a believer to demonstrate a holy integrity, to “be in the world, but not of the world.”  In John 17:15 (ESV) Jesus prayed, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”   Jesus has asked the Father for our protection. We have nothing to fear.   We can be Jesus, show Jesus, demonstrate Jesus to a lost and broken world.

There is no way to witness to God’s love and redemption from within the cocoon of the Christian community. If you build it, they will NOT come.  We are called to be among, to walk along-side those that so desperately need to experience God’s grace and mercy.

The purpose of the admonition in 2Corinthians 6 and 7 is reconciliation… redemption and restoration. It is always God’s will and intent to restore.  Even when He punishes iniquity, the purpose is restoration, repentance and return…to be grieved into repenting. For, “Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.” 2Corinthains 7:10 (ESV) The exhortation for us to come out from among them is a call to avoids their sin, to be a righteous example of repentance that leads to salvation.

God IS Able!

(1Cor.9:8 NIV) “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 

That would be my prayer today and for these next few months…no actually, forever please.  I pray that the Lord would make all grace abound in me.  Lord, I know that even though I possess all things, have great spiritual gifts, abundant wealth, unless I have Your grace, none of it amounts to a hill of beans!

Grace = Sufficiency.  If I am possessed of grace, then it doesn’t really matter how little or how much resource I may have at my disposal.  It will always be sufficient!  It will be sufficient in all things and at all times…and is made manifest through God’s grace and mercy as “abundance” whatever its size! It is sufficient for every good work that I am called into.  

So Lord, thank you for supplying sufficient and multiplying my seed for sowing, that we may increase the harvest of righteousness in this community. 

Original Sin

As a young believer I had some serious questions about the whole concept of “original sin”.  It is a hard thing to accept that humanity is inherently evil and in desperate need of saving.  Our society tells us to believe just the opposite. We are encouraged to seek the good in all people, to be positive and accepting of all…even in the face of almost universal moral degradation.  How can this be?  How did we get to this place?

Over the last three months I have been reading the stories of Israel’s relationship with Yahweh as they approached the “promised land.  In  the book of Numbers we find a God who appeared to all of them in the cloud, fed them and protected them. Yet over and over again, they rebelled.  They knew what would happen when they sinned, yet they blasphemed and brazenly disobeyed God’s commands.

They had even been given an avenue to forgiveness and redemption.  Moses told them that God was….”slow to anger, rich in unfailing love & forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion”, but that he also left, “every kind of un-repented sin unpunished.”   It wasn’t as if they didn’t know…just as we know.  There is forgiveness, but there are also consequences.  Perhaps, we like they, don’t actually believe in either, and therein is the distinguishing mark of original sin. 

We have also been given an avenue for forgiveness and redemption… the cross of Christ!  Only there can the embedded darkness in the heart of man be shattered so that we can find a way into the light!