What Others Know

“But if any man love God, the same is known of him.” (1Co 8:3 AV)

 

For such a short verse, it has many implications.  The context is knowledge versus practical application.  Directly, the passage is speaking of doing something that might be objectional to another because one has more knowledge than the offended.  Specifically speaking, this chapter concerns eating meat once offered unto idols.  It was common for shoppers to go to the market and buy meat at discounted prices because it was used in the practice of animal sacrifice within a temple.  The frugal shopper would see meat on sale and would not ask any questions.  The origin of the meat did not matter to him.  Being a good steward of his finances did.  Yet, some were saved out of that false religion who knew of the origin of the meat and were offended that believers would support the trade of selling meat once used for idol worship.  Those who had ‘knowledge’ understood it was just meat.  It was meat after the fact.  If it wasn’t sold, it would have been thrown away.  The sophisticated shopper did not have a crisis of conscience.  Those who did not have ‘knowledge’ of liberty of conscience as yet, were offended.  The counsel was to refrain from meat offered to idols if it offended a weaker saint.  Doing so proved one’s love for God.  That is the context.  However, there is a simpler application at hand as well.  Knowledge of God does not mean love for God.  And, if someone truly loves God, it will be evident to others around him.  It is not something we can fake.

One can tell the love two people have for one another.  It cannot be faked.  Sometimes, the signs are subtle.  You can also tell if two people are not completely devoted to one another even though they try hard to make it appear as such.  I have seen saints try to feign love for one another that does not exist.  The forced compliments or terms of endearment are obvious.  Someone who does not regularly use a pet name for their spouse but does so in public is not that hard to detect.  Someone who opens the door for their spouse or serves him a cup of coffee when it is not the normal thing to do does not fool the discerning eye and ear.  One can pick up on the more subtle languages of love.  The tone of voice when two people converse can pretty much tell you what one thinks of the other.  Respect is a demeanor.  It is an attitude before it is an action.  When two people truly love one another, they seem like one person.  They have more love for the other than they do for themselves.  When two people are deeply in love, one cannot exist apart from the other.  Not for very long, anyway.  They are inseparable.  Their actions are telling.  It isn’t so much the words they use, but rather, their actions while around their true love.

So the question arises.  When we speak of the LORD, what do others see?  When we live out our Christian life, what are others impressed with?  When we say we walk with God, are those mere words, or are they words that mean something?  Love cannot be faked.  It can be spoken of.  It can be emulated or copied.  But deep down love is so genuine, those who observe it are struck by it.  I am beginning the twilight years of my life.  I have passed the age that qualifies for enrolment in the AARP.  I can use the senior’s discount more and more.  My health, although fair, is not what it used to be.  My dear wife and I are entering the years when death becomes a topic of discussion.  We are entering the bottom curve of mortality.  Even though eternity is not as close as it will be in ten years, it is more of a possibility than it was ten years ago.  One wonders what will be written on one’s headstone.  How will people remember you?  Will they remember the things you did for the glory of Christ?  Will they remember the people you have helped?  Will they remember your knowledge of the Bible?  What will they remember?  Will they say, “He truly loved God?”  I would hope so.

Forewarned

“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” (Ex 3:8 AV)

 

These words were spoken by God to Moses at the time of his calling into leadership.  As we know, when Israel was delivered from the Egyptians and was asked to trust God by faith, they refused to enter the land spoken of above because they didn’t think God could give them victory.  What struck me was they knew this was coming.  God did not ask them to do something which they lacked the time or experience in which to be prepared.  Note also the promise of blessing came before the reality of what it would take to realize those blessings.  God does not send us in blind.  When we accept Christ as our Savior, there is no rose garden waiting on the other side.  That is, in this life.  There is utter perfection and blessings untold when we graduate into glory.  Until then, there are battles to fight for the blessings we can have on this side of glory.  The big lesson here is, God does not ask us to go into something without enough faith to conquer it and with enough information to know what we might be getting ourselves into.

We see what we want to see and we turn a blind eye to what we do not want to deal with.  Then, when the obvious occurs, we are shocked and dismayed.  This is not God’s doing.  My father, and two brothers, served our country in the Army.  My father was a staff mathematician for a project at Aberdeen Proving Grounds during the Korean conflict.  My older brother was an MP oversees and my younger brother was an officer in charge of logistics.  My father didn’t speak much of his service.  Mainly because he felt somewhat guilty his assignment was not high risk like many of his peers.  I do remember a few tales of Chris’ service as an MP.  He tells the story of the bus arriving at boot camp.  When they arrived, the drill sergeant barked his directions and ended with, “You have exactly one minute to get off this bus and in formation and I have just used thirty seconds of it.”  The funny thing is, from my father to my younger brother, I cannot remember ever hearing of a letter written back home complaining about the difficulties of military life.  Mind you, they didn’t praise it per se, but they didn’t complain about it either.  Why?  There were several reasons.  But I think the biggest reason was when they went in, they were not disillusioned with what Military life was not.  They were well aware of what awaited them.  Perhaps not every detail, but they knew basic training was not going to be fun.  They knew ahead of time what might be asked of them.  They went in as well informed as they could be.  The Army did not deliberately hide everything from them.  They had heard the horror stories of others who went before them.  Therefore, when their time came, they could endure the hardship because, to some degree, they were forewarned.

Life is hard.  No matter if someone knows Christ or not, life will come with times less enjoyable than others.  Life is not, nor will it ever be, an experience of untold bliss.  There are always troubles and trials which will come our way.  When it comes to walking with God, God does not purposely hide all things from us.  He may delay some revelation because we are not mature enough to handle it.  He may wait until we are prepared to handle what might come.  But God does not keep us in complete darkness.  If it took us by surprise, it might just be that we closed our eyes to what could be because we did not want to think of it as a possibility.  God give a heads up.  The entire Bible has wisdom of what could be.  It warns of consequences from choices.  The word of God tells us God’s objective for our lives is to transform us into the image of Christ.  This comes at a cost.  The Bible also tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please Him.  Therefore, there will be situations in life that require us to trust.  We should not be shocked at anything God sends our way.  Not that we cannot be affected by it, or that we would never be challenged by it.  Job certainly never entertained the possibility his life would take the turn it did. He took it for granted that his godly lifestyle guaranteed a blessed and trouble-free life.  He was naïve.  He didn’t think of the possibilities and therefore, was not emotionally prepared.  Battles are coming.  There is nothing we can do about it.  What we can do is learn to walk with God so that when they come, we are prepared to trust.  That is all God asks.

More Important Than Eating

“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Lu 4:4 AV)

 

The thought for today is a simple one.  After forty days of fasting and testing, the devil tempts Jesus to perform a miracle to satisfy his own desires.  Eating would not have been an issue here.  Jesus would not have fallen into sin if he went to a local market and picked up a loaf of bread.  The temptation here was to immediately and supernaturally satisfy a deep urge because he had it in his power to do so.  Jesus was called to come in the form of a man and suffer as we suffer that he might empathize with our human condition.  To use His miracle-working power to satisfy his own desires without experiencing hunger and a resolution to that hunger as a human would, would undermine part of his ministry.  The response of our LORD is telling.  It is the proper response to all of life’s needs and desires.  Even if a need is a genuine one and a matter of life and death, that need does not supersede the need for the word of God.  It is not that Jesus believes he can live without eating.  Rather, the most serious and life-sustaining of all needs: food, and water; are still not as important as a regular diet of the word of God.  Basic staples are necessary for life.  But without a relationship with God through His word, there is no point in life.

We all have a regimen of one sort or another.  There are things we think we need and we cannot live without.  It is a sad affair going to a restaurant and watching the patrons spend more time on their phones than they do conversing with one another.  If the power went out for a few days so our phones couldn’t recharge, we wouldn’t know what to do.  Others are hooked on sports.  They wouldn’t be able to function if they couldn’t check the scores or watch the latest clip of a great play.  Still, others cannot survive without the one-eyed monster in the center of the room captivating their attention whenever they are near.  There is music, there are relationships, there is family, there is fashion.  There are dozens more things, experiences, or stimuli that seem to be a necessity worth dying for.  Many of these things are necessities of life.  Our lives would not be what they are without them.  Yet, the most needful thing is often the most neglected.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing our needs.  We would die if we didn’t.  Even those things which are not necessary for physical life are still legitimate pursuits.  The strongest desires or needs, however, do not compare with our need for the word of God.  The Bible is the voice of God to our hearts and souls.  We need to hear from Him more than we need a slice of bread.  We need to hear from the Spirit more than we need a drink of water.  This is to what our Savior is referring to.  He will not elevate a legitimate physical need over His spiritual need of a relationship with the Father.  Nothing else is equal to it.  No other element of life is more important than time spent in the reading and studying of the written word of God.  It is this very word that protected our Savior from falling to the devil.  It is this very word that would transform a nation and a world.  It is this very word that has, is, and will bring countless souls to the mercy of God.  It is the word of God that is that which we need the most.

Who's Following?

“Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.” (1Co 4:16 AV)

 

This is a pretty bold statement.  Paul is writing to Corinth, a very carnal and young church.  He is telling them to follow him as he follows Christ.  To that end, he is sending Timothy, a young preacher, to teach them and administer biblical principles in the church that they might grow thereby.  His statement is not one of arrogance.  Although some took it that way.  We know this because, by the time he sent his second letter, they were questioning the qualifications and authority of an apostle.  They began to wonder if Paul could be followed.  At their inception, this young church needed strong leadership to pave the way for them.  They needed someone of a disciplined life to show them how to live.  This is not arrogance.  Sometimes, we need to see how someone applies the word of God so that we can imitate obedience and faith.  We do that our whole lives.  We follow our elders. We follow our teachers.  We follow those who know more than we do so that we can learn and be what we know we can be.  To follow is a human trait.  The question is, who is following us, and is it a good thing?

There have been pastors in my life from whom I learned a great deal.  Others set an example for me to follow, but for one reason or another, I failed.  At least initially.  One such great preacher was Bro. Hal Roscoe.  He was my real first pastor.  He was the pastor of our singles class.  The LORD saved me a few weeks shy of my 18^th birthday.  So, when I started attending our church, I never did go to the teen class.  I went right to the singles class.  Hal was many things.  Above all, he was a friend.  There were times when my heart was completely broken.  He was always there and bore me up as I struggled through hard times.  However, if you were to ask those who knew him well what one trait he had above all others, it would be his personal work in winning the lost to Christ.  You would think as extroverted and genuine as he was he would have pastored a church of thousands, but he didn’t.  It seemed like God asked him to dedicate his efforts to the long game.  The souls God gave him were not the easy ones.  The ones God gave him were the ones that took months, if not years, to win.  The thing about Hal was when you met him, he would never let you forget you had met.  He would build a relationship with you that went deep and lasted through good times and bad.  Before he was your soul winner or pastor, he was your friend.  That was Hal.  I say all that to say, I had much to learn from him.  But the hand of the LORD took me away to other places and towards other principles to learn.  I regret not being able to sit at Hal’s feet and watch him as he worked with others.  He was truly someone to follow.

For better or for worse, some are following.  Our children, grandchildren, church members, friends, etc.  They all follow to some degree.  They follow in good things or bad things.  People will follow a good example as much as they might follow a bad one.  We are being watched. We are being emulated whether we like it or not.  Whether we accept the responsibility or not, it matters not.  That young one is watching.  He is waiving his arms to the music because he sees his daddy do it.  That young lady is fixing her hair the way mom does it.  The mannerisms we use are being emulated by others.  Our question is: can we ask others to follow as Paul did?  They will by nature.  But, are we living our lives in such a way that we can encourage others to follow?  Yesterday, we sat at a restaurant that was filling up with patrons.  I asked if any wanted to pray.  None said they would.  So, I did.  What I did do was to pray loud enough so others in our vicinity would hear it.  Why?  Maybe some will follow.  I can still ask myself, are there areas others are following that do not need to follow?  Can I agree with Paul that I am someone worthy to follow?  Or, do I have much work to do so that I can be an example worth following?

Wide Open

“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1Co 3:9 AV)

 

What a picture of the balance between the laborers and the possibilities.  The word ‘husbandry’ is another word for a field that is tilled or is tillable, yet remains unplanted.  The building here is not a building whose construction is complete.  This building is a structure under construction.  The context is Paul and Apollos watering and planting with God giving the increase.  In this verse, Paul includes the members of the church at Corinth as also laboring with Paul and Apollos.  But my mind goes to that word picture of a tilled field or a building in progress.  What do we see when we look at an empty field?  What do we see when we look at a building that is roughed in or only has a foundation laid?  Do we see what is?  Or, do we see what could be? 

It is really cool to dream.  What could come to pass is always an adventure.  This happens to me quite a bit while I sit atop a tree stand with nothing else to occupy my mind.  There was this property that I was invited to hunt that was stunning.  It was 1,000 acres of old pasture land that had been allowed to go back to the wild.  At least about a third of it or so.  Two-thirds were fields.  Exploring the property, it was easy to see how generation ago, cattlemen ran their herds between the fields to feed on the pasture.  This vast property could have easily handled at least a thousand head of cattle.  There were old fences and gates since fallen and rotting that told the tale of migrating herds.  There were watering holes, some still filled with water.  Most had gone dry.  There were a couple of old stone silos which were claimed by ivy and vines.  The cabin which the hunters were loaned was once a bunkhouse for the hands who worked the land.  My hunting partner and I used to look at this land and dream of what we could do with it if the landowner would bequeath it to us upon his death.  Of course, we would build our own homes for ourselves and our families.  Then we would add some cabins for a Christian retreat.  Not too many, mind you.  Don’t want to scare off the deer.  We would add a rather large pond or small lake.  Crops of corn or beans would pay for all the upgrades and maintenance.  Plus, the crops would keep the deer close.  One dream after another.  All this while looking over 1,000 acres with nothing on it.  It was an open canvas.  With nothing there, there were no limits.

The reason this concept excites me so much is even though the church and Corinth had some really serious issues, Paul calls it a field freshly tilled and a foundation whose end had not yet been seen.  These are labels of hope and possibility.  Paul sees an open field.  He sees the footers laid in the mud.  He sees what can be and not what is.  This statement sets the tone for the remainder of the book.  Paul must rebuke this church for problems ranging from serious immorality to suing one another in court.  And everything in between.  He does so with a tone of hope.  They are a wide-open field.  They are a project that has no limits to dreams.  Even though there are problems and hurdles to overcome, the canvas upon which the final product is painted is blank.  This is true of every church God has planted.  Sometimes we limit ourselves by what we can see and imagine.  But we are not.  We are only limited by what God desires and His plan for that field.  So, when we go to church tomorrow, what do we see?  Do we see empty pews, or do we see souls that one day might sit there?  Do we see an empty choir loft, or do we hear the voices that will come from it?  Do we see a wall or two with nothing on it, or do we see space where more flags and missionary letters can be displayed?  Do we see a half-empty parking lot or a lot that is half-full?  We are limited by three things.  We are limited by our immaturity.  That was Corinth’s problem.  We are limited by our faith.  We refuse to see what is possible.  And, we are especially limited by our sad prayer life.  We have not because we ask not!

He Will Always Desire Thee

“Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” (Job 14:15 AV)

 

Job, although he is struggling with his circumstances and the temporary silence of God, knows that God will answer and that when He does, Job will hear.  He knows God will speak to him because God has a desire towards the work of His hands.  I cannot even imagine how Job must have felt.  To survive this trial let alone thrive after it was completed is something very few would claim.  As an aside, reading through Job this time I am noticing Job utters kernels of truth of which he is not aware.  He is not aware of how deep the truth is and consequently, loses an opportunity for a self-evident truth to do him some good.  This is one such case.  We are like that, though.  In the throws of deep trials, we say a thing or two that speaks directly to our situation and can be a source of enlightenment or comfort, yet it goes over our heads because of the emotional turmoil we are suffering at the moment.  If Job would have truly meditated upon that which he just said, he would have gained even more faith and confidence that would have tide him over for the duration of this deep hardship.

I have this tradition of which my children remind me.  Every major holiday, I make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  It is quite an undertaking.  Making and working the dough is time-consuming.  Over the years, I have made some tweaks to the recipe.  I used to get up four hours before serving time.  It took about a half-hour to mix the dough but at least two hours for the dough to rise and proof.  Then another half-hour to roll it out and put it all together followed by about thirty-five to forty minutes of baking time.  It was quite a project.  I messed with the dough recipe most of all.  I started out buying frozen bread dough.  But that wasn’t sweet enough.  Then I hand mixed the dough.  This took extra time.  I followed that by using a bread machine.  That was ok.  It did all the work for me.  However, I couldn’t make enough in one batch to serve a family of ten people.  Kids, spouses, and grandkids at the time.  I was always trying to perfect this recipe.  A change here.  An overhaul there.  A few more spices. A bit less spices.  Sometimes adding pecans.  Or, walnuts.  Then there was the time we made eggnog icing.  The best!  The last few times I tried a hack on a whim and it worked out great!  The whole project only takes about thirty minutes from start to finish.  I use baguette rolls!  Slicing them into inch-and-a-half pieces, I soak them in melted butter for about twenty minutes.  Placing them in a baking dish, I pour all the butter over them after it begins to cool a bit and will pool on top of the bread.  Then I sprinkle cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg on top; followed by a dollop of brown sugar on top.  Into a 350 degree oven for ten minutes and presto – done!  This is a work of my hands.  I had a desire to keep working with it until it became the best that I could do.  I am sure we will continue to tweak it.

Never doubt that God has a desire towards the work of His hands.  Especially at times when it seems like He may not.  Again, one can only imagine what Job was feeling.  Losing all of his kids, material wealth, and good health, Job had nothing to live for.  He wished he could die or that he had never been born at all.  It can truly be said that Job was suffering from a direct satanic attack.  The Devil’s whole goal was to see Job fall.  If Job fell, then God had no bragging rights.  Being asked to endure what he did, God thought a lot about Job.  What Job refused to allow is the thought that God had completely abandoned him or that God did not have a purpose in all of his troubles.  He couldn’t make sense of it.  He wondered why God would allow such a thing.  Particularly because Job had been so faithful in all his life.  Job hung on to one truth through it all.  The truth stated above.  Just because our perception may say one thing, it does not mean reality has changed.  We may feel like God wants nothing to do with us, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Job did nothing wrong.  Our feelings come amid our failures.  We fail God in great ways and think He has turned His back on us forever.  It is almost like we think we have a home in heaven, but because we are such failures, we will be assigned the furthest point from God’s presence.  This is devil-speak.  God loves us and His desire towards us never fades.  He will work with us to bring us into Christlikeness and love us despite what we are or what we have done.  We can say the same as Job.  We know God will call and when He does, we will answer.  We know this because God desires to work on our lives more than we can comprehend.

In Good Times and in Bad

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.” (Job 13:15-16 AV)

 

To not trust in God would be hypocrisy.  Job trusted in God when all things were well.  Now that things were against him, his faith is tested.  If he chooses to lose hope in God when things are difficult, then he was a hypocrite all along.  Job may have had his problems.  None of us would have borne up as well under the same set of circumstances.  Losing everything within a matter of days would send a normal person into serious PTSD.  Not Job.  He held his integrity fast.  He saw this trouble for what it was.  At least as far as his response to it.  He may have struggled for some greater purpose in the problems.  He may have attempted to understand the logic behind it all.  He may have sought wisdom from God a bit too aggressively.  But who wouldn’t?  In his statement above, he utters the very purpose for it all without letting what he just said to sink into his heart.  It was this integrity that was under assault by the Devil and it was this integrity that kept him sane and stable through it all.  If he loves God and blesses God in good times, he would be a hypocrite if he didn’t do so in bad times as well.  He knows that if his love and faithfulness are circumstantially driven, then he will not come before God.

Sports are all the rage.  At least they used to be.  People were loyal to their team to a fault.  I lived in western Kentucky and people there are avid UK and Cardinal fans.  Now I live in Wisconsin and almost everyone is a cheesehead.  There are avid fans.  And then there are fair-weather or band-wagon fans.  The avid fans will always root for their team no matter how they might be doing in any particular season.  And for good reason.  The above-mentioned teams have had relative success over the years.  If they have a bad year or two, or a bad decade, it doesn’t change anything.  They can always fall back on the successes of the past.  Yet, there are still those fans who remain in the background until their team is doing well.  They are often shunned by avid fans.  No respect at all even though the jersey may come out in the good years.  It doesn’t matter.  Those who paint themselves from head to toe no matter the season’s record doesn’t want to hang with those who only come to games when the team has a winning record.  They may even be a bit of disdain.  If they cannot support their teams in the bad years, then were they really fans, to begin with?

Crisis has a way of showing us what we are.  Not what we think we are.  We can observe Job’s reaction and his bout with depression, but no one can question his integrity.  He never wavered.  He was not going to lose faith in God no matter how hard things got or how much they did not make sense.  He was not going to sin with his lips.  This was Job.  He knew that if he backed out on God because life took an ugly turn, then he was a hypocrite all along.  He would not let that happen.  He was going to stick with God even though God had allowed very hard times.  No way was Job going to back out on a lifetime of experience with God simply because life was turned upside down.  Not him.  He was not a hypocrite.