God’s Investment

Several years ago, I applied for a job at a public library. I had already been volunteering there for some time, and I had been asked to apply for a minimum-wage position with basically the same responsibilities as I had already been carrying out. Accordingly, I filled in the application, completed the interview, and had a mandatory drug screening. The man who would be my supervisor offered me the job and sent my information downtown. All I lacked was official approval.

Unfortunately, the day that my paperwork arrived downtown was the same day that the administration announced a hiring freeze due to budget concerns. When I arrived for my volunteer duties that evening, the supervisor explained that he had been on the phone all day with Human Resources, trying to get my hiring approved. In his eyes, he had already hired me and the freeze shouldn’t affect my hiring; from their standpoint, the hiring wasn’t official until they made it official, which they couldn’t do because of the hiring freeze.

After many phone calls, my supervisor won out, and I had a job. Now, I hadn’t done anything to “earn” that job. I hadn’t asked him to work so hard on my behalf. Whether I got the job or not didn’t matter a great deal to me, as I was already doing the work that I wanted to do. However, having seen how hard he had fought to secure my position made me determined to be the best employee I could possibly be, so that when he looked at my work he would think, “I am glad I was able to add her to the library.”

I remembered that story when I read 1 Corinthians 15:9-10. “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.“

Paul is saying a lot here in these two sentences. At first, he may sound like he’s bragging a little: “I labored more abundantly than they all.” But what Paul is saying is that he had no right to be doing what he was doing: unlike the other apostles, he hadn’t been a part of Christ’s earthly ministry. In fact, he had originally been on the complete opposite side: a zealous Pharisee (Philippians 3:5), Paul (as Saul) had persecuted the church and killed Christ’s followers–until Christ Himself stepped into Paul’s life.

Paul here recognizes and states that it is by God’s grace alone that he is doing what he is doing: he isn’t a super-apostle. He wasn’t a disciple of Christ during His ministry. Despite being “blameless” in keeping the physical law (Philippians 3:4-6), Paul knew that God would have had every reason to write him off–he had persecuted and worked against the truth. The blood of believers had been on his hands, so to speak. And so here, Paul points to the gift of God’s grace: a reprieve he could never have earned, a gift he would not even have known to ask for.

What is his response to that gift? Paul writes, “His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all…” Paul’s recognition of the awesome gift of grace that God had given him was determination to make a good return on God’s gift to him. He sees God’s grace as an investment, one on which God may rightly expect a return (think of the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30). He has labored more abundantly than the other apostles because he sees the enormity of the gift that God has given him. This is reminiscent of Christ’s teaching in Luke 7:40-43. “And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” “

Paul worked incredibly hard not because he thought he was better than everyone else, but because he knew the enormity of his past sin and what had been forgiven. And he didn’t labor under his own steam alone: as he points out back in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” He hadn’t earned his position by his works; and the works he did through determination to respond to God’s gift weren’t done by himself alone, but through that same grace. It was God’s grace that saved him, and Paul’s response to that was to turn and throw himself into following God’s will.

In Micah 6:6, the prophet asks, “With what shall I come before the LORD, And bow myself before the High God?” In verse 8, he answers himself, “He has shown you, O man, what is good;
      And what does the LORD require of you
      But to do justly,
      To love mercy,
      And to walk humbly with your God?“

King David also echoed this idea when he wrote in Psalm 40:6-10,

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
         My ears You have opened.
         Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
         In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
 I delight to do Your will, O my God,
         And Your law is within my heart.” ”

David knew that what God desires is our wholehearted love of Him and His ways. John wrote in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” And just like Paul, when we recognize God’s gift of grace to us and we determine to make that gift not in vain, it is His grace that allows us to understand and to follow His commandments, to demonstrate our love and appreciation for the gift He has given us. Well did the author of Ecclesiastes write, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.”

Personal Best

We are a culture that greatly prizes achievement. We applaud success and winning, not always effort. I was thinking about this while I was working out this morning. I happen to be a Tae Bo devotee, partly because Billy Blanks is so encouraging in the workout DVDs I have. He talks a lot about giving yourself the opportunity to try to see whether you can do it.

This made me start thinking about how exercise is really of great benefit only when it is a challenge–when it is something that you have to put effort into in order to complete. The same thing is true of our brains; just before Thanksgiving, I read an article about keeping your brain fit. The article made the point that while we might think that doing crossword puzzles is enough to keep our brain active, what our brains really need is challenge: we have to be putting forth some effort to increase our brain power.If we can do it with total ease, it’s not really increasing our ability to do anything.

And that made me think about the resolutions that so many make and the examination process that inevitable begins as we look to the spring Holy Day season. As Passover approaches, it is so easy to see all the times I’ve missed the mark. There are so many things I wanted to do better, so many promises I tried so hard to keep; but all that I can see are all the slips, stumbles, and near-misses. It can be so frustrating to contemplate the issues I continue to battle, and to realize that the struggles I face in Christian life have not fundamentally changed much since I began my walk in earnest. Oh, I make progress, but the same personality issues are always there, the same heart failures continue, and the same attitudes creep back in when I least expect it.

When I thought about these things together, I thought about the apostle Paul and what he wrote in Philippians 3:12-14. “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.“

Those were words I needed today. It’s important to remember that there is much to be learned from the striving. It is not all loss that we have not yet attained or been perfected: we learn and we grow in the attempting. And God, ever patient, keeps on waiting for us as we slip and fall–as long as we get up again, repent, and keep trying. Not, of course, that we shouldn’t put our effort into attempting to overcome, once and for all! After all, Paul also wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24).

If I were to boil it down to one idea, I think it would be this: the idea of a personal best. We are all strong in some areas and weak in others. It is so tempting to look at our weaknesses and either salve them by regaling ourselves with tales of others’ weaknesses or make them greater by contrasting them to others’ strengths. What God wants is our personal best. He gives us gifts and waits to see how we will use them. He’s not comparing us to others: He is looking to see whether we tried with everything we had to put those gifts to good use. It’s pointless for us to look around, then, and compare ourselves to others. What we must do is run with endurance the race He sets before us, looking to Him and not to each other. As Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:1-2, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.“

We run for no ordinary prize. We compete–not with each other–but with ourselves and “…against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). To win this race, we are going to have to look to Jesus Christ and follow His example with all of our might. And as we struggle, as we strive, as we fall and get up, we learn and grow and become stronger. As we do those things, we look forward to the day when that struggle will truly be over and we will have conquered all those things that cause us so much trouble now.

Let’s not grow discouraged because we have not yet attained the goal; instead, let’s put forth our personal best and reap the rewards that challenges bring as we work to overcome.

Set Apart and Brought Together

In the opening verses of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul address his letter to “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” (1 Cor. 1:2). This word “sanctified” has the meaning of something being set apart for a specific purpose–in this case, set apart by God’s calling. Now, the idea of being set apart implies a separation of some kind. And indeed, we read in John 17 that we are to be set apart. Christ, in praying to His Father, said, “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:14-17).

So we see that we are called by God to be set apart from the world–in it, not of it–set apart by His truth and His Spirit (1 Cor. 6:1). As Christ was in the world but not of the world, so we are to walk among the world but not along its paths. We are called to be something different. We are to be strangers to this world, as Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:11-12: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

Not only does Peter explain how we are to walk apart from the world, he tells us why: so that those who are in the world will see our good works, our “apartness,” and be moved to glorify God. We are to represent God and His ways to those around us, and thus flee the works of unrighteousness. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

For all this talk about being “set apart,” however, there is one way in which we are not supposed to be set apart; we are not to be set apart from our brethren. In Jesus’ prayer, He does not pray for His followers as individuals as much as He prays for them as a body. In fact, a few sentences later, He prayed, ““I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23). Notice that He ties a mission (teaching the world that Christ was sent by His Father to the world) to our unity.

No wonder, then, that back in 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul pleads with the Corinthian brethren, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Christ prayed that we would be one as He and His Father are one, with no division at all. Paul points out that none of us has anything to glory about, save God’s mercy: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹ that no flesh should glory in His presence…that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD’” (1 Cor. 1:26-29, 31).

Division amongst ourselves in unacceptable. As Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 1:13, is Christ divided? No! But before we start looking at larger divisions and corporate issues, perhaps it is best to first look at ourselves as individuals. It is very easy, when thinking of division, to start thinking about groups that disintegrate. However, any group that experiences a division experiences it because of what started as individual decisions. So let us ask ourselves: do we ever speak things that cause division? How is our speech? What are our actions like? Do our words and behaviors “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Pet. 2:17)?

James had plenty of reason to rail against the improper use of speech in his book. He wrote, “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:8-10). How are we doing? When someone’s name comes out of our mouth, is it because we are talking about their positive qualities? Is it because we are speaking in love and honor? If they heard what words we attached to their name, would they be uplifted and encouraged, or devastated?

Do we have our own little group that we think is somehow “better” than everyone else–or at least “better” than a small group of others we see as inferior? Watch out! James warns, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality…If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:1, 8-10).

Division and partiality are serious matters. We are called to be “set apart” from the world and united with our brethren. As Peter wrote, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). We who are Christian are called to be a special people to God. We were not, before our calling, a nation or people unto ourselves. His calling may be the only thing we have in common with some of our brethren. Paul put it very clearly in Colossians 3:8-15: “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.”

As Thanksgiving approaches this week in the United States, let us carefully consider our calling and sanctification. We have been set apart for the Lord’s purposes. It is by our unity that we are to show forth His greatness. We ought to be thankful not just for our individual calling, but for the calling of our brethren in the faith. We will show that gratitude in our actions and words as we speak to and about one another, as we move among one another in love. Let us be sure that in our speech and behavior there is no partiality or malice toward anyone, but love and right speaking and right action. Let us “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Pet. 2:17).

More Than a Feeling

The command that we love one another is nothing new to those who read the Bible on a regular basis. Typing the word “love” into the search box at Bible Gateway brings back 329 results in the New King James Version. We are told to love God, to love His commands, to love one another. In John 15:12, Jesus says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  In John 13:35, He stated, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What do we think of when we think of love? For many of us, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is falling in love: a special person that we come to adore. For most of us, thinking about love prompts us to think about a feeling, a tenderness of heart, a smile when we think of that person. We desire that person’s well-being. We want them to succeed. We want good things to come their way. But is there more to it?

I think there is. In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The indication here is that there is far more involved than simply feeling loving: that love should motivate us to do something, to keep His commandments. There is action involved. It is no surprise, then, that throughout the New Testament the concept of concern and love for our brethren is closely linked to service, to doing something about their needs. Christ, after all, loved us in far more than just feeling: He gave His life for us. He said, in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

In Romans 12:9, Paul writes, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.” In Hebrews 10:24, Paul instructs us to “…consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…”

In 1 John 3:16, these ideas are solidified: John writes, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” Likewise, James–linking faith and works–wrote in James 2:15, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”

Loving others–especially the household of faith (Gal. 6:10), but by extension all mankind–is a matter of deeds, then, and not just feelings or words. We are called to follow Christ’s example, not by necessarily dying for someone else, but by daily choosing to lay down a part of our lives for someone else. When we love in deed, it means that we choose to give up something we would rather be doing at the moment to come to the aid of someone else. We give up looking after our own needs in order to espy the needs of others. We give of our energy, time, money, and goods in order to ease the burden of another person. And if we are following Christ’s example, that other person is likely to be someone who doesn’t look as though they “deserve” our sacrifice. After all, Christ died for us “while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8). None of us deserve His sacrifice. In like manner, we must be careful to serve all in love, not just the people we like: James 2:9 tells us that showing partiality is sin.

When we love our fellow man, we demonstrate to God not just our understanding of His word but our understanding of how He thinks. We demonstrate, too, a desire to please Him above pleasing ourselves, and we gain His approval by our conduct. Paul, in Hebrews 13:16, writes that we ought not “…forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” In 1 John 3:14, we read, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.”

Let us continue to grow in love towards our brethren and towards all mankind. In doing so, let us remember not to simply rely on feeling loving, but on performing also acts of love, that our faith may be demonstrated not so much in our profession as in our action. Let us remember to lay down our lives daily for the sake of our brethren in the same way that our Lord and Savior laid down His life for us before we knew Him or could love Him. Let us make our love more than a feeling, but rather the hard evidence of what we believe.

Milk, Honey, Giants, or God?

In Numbers 13, the Lord speaks to Moses and tells him to send 12 spies to the land of Canaan, one from each tribe of Israel. Accordingly, Moses chooses 12 men and instructs them to, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land” (Numbers 13:17-20).

The spies went out as he said and followed Moses’ directions. It took them over a month to “spy out the land” (Numbers 13:25). Their initial report answered Moses’ questions: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.  Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan” (Numbers 13:27-29).

This initial report is pretty factual: it’s a good land, but strongly fortified. However, there does seem to be a certain amount of emphasis on the strength of the inhabitants instead of on the goodness of the land. God had said that He had given this land to them, and their initial impression seems to have been, “Well, it’s nice, but…” The report seems to have caused a stir, because Caleb–one of the twelve–stood and “quieted the people.” His recommendation? “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30).

Here is where events take a nasty turn. Ten of the other spies–everyone except Joshua and Caleb–reiterate the scariness of the land’s inhabitants and advise against entering the land. “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants(the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:31-33). The children of Israel responded as they were wont to do: they complained. They cried. They accused God and Moses of wanting to bring them out into the wilderness to die. And they started casting about for another leader, one who could lead them back into slavery in Egypt.

But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:6-9). Joshua and Caleb emphasize the good of the land, but especially the Lord’s strength and purpose for Israel. Unfortunately, their words do no good: the Israelites try to stone them.

Because of their rebellion, the Israelites would wander for 40 years in the wilderness, until all of that older generation had died. Well, almost all. In Numbers 32:10-12, Moses reminds the children of Israel, “So the LORD’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, ¹¹ ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, ¹² except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’ “

Joshua, in fact, would be the physical leader of the people as they entered the land. And what about Caleb? In Joshua 14:6-12, we see that Caleb hadn’t changed a bit: “You know the word which the LORD said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said.”

Caleb hadn’t forgotten the Lord, and he hadn’t forgotten the giants: he came back to the land of Canaan ready to go up against people–no matter their size–who temporarily stood in the way of his receiving the blessing that God had promised.

The moral of the story? We can learn a lot of things from this story. What struck me was this: ten of the original spies couldn’t really see the goodness of the land or the goodness of God. They saw fear, and it was shaped like giants. They allowed their fear to turn them into faithless leaders who led the people into rebellion and cost a generation their inheritance. Caleb and Joshua, though, looked right past the fear, right past the giants, and into the inheritance promised by God. Because their hope was in God, they were filled with courage.

We are being led into an inheritance, and it’s going to involve some testing. Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seenyou love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:3-6).

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). When we look at our lives, what are we focusing on? Are we looking at the giant-shaped hurdles in our way? Or are we glimpsing the milk and honey of God’s promises? Most of all, are we focusing on what God’s power can do instead of on our own strength? If we keep our focus right, we can rest assured that if God is for us, no one can be against us (Romans 8:31)!

Don’t Sell Out for Soup

In Genesis 25:29, we read of one of the steepest bargains ever made. Esau, the firstborn son of Isaac and Rebekah, had just come in from hunting and was enticed by the stew that his brother Jacob had prepared. Exhausted, he asked Jacob to give him some of the stew. Jacob, seizing an opportunity, replied, “Sell me your birthright.”

Now, in those times, the birthright was extremely important. It conferred a great deal of status on the firstborn son, as well as a double portion of the inheritance that would be left to the sons when their father died. All this, simply by the happenstance of having been born first.

We’re not told whether Esau took any time to think this deal over. What we read is his next statement: “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Jacob caught him at a weak moment, and Esau apparently failed to attach to his birthright the value he should have. Esau seems to have thought only of the current moment: he was hungry, he was worn out, and the soup was right there in front of him. The birthright wasn’t doing anything for him at the moment, so he bargained it away for a bowl of soup that was quickly consumed.

I mention this because it popped to mind when I read Matthew 4 in the Gospels class I am taking. Here, we read the account of Satan’s temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness. Like Esau, Christ had to be tired and hungry, and the devil began his temptation of Christ by suggesting he perform a miracle, turning stones into bread. Christ refused, quoting from the scriptures. Satan, however, seemed unabashed. He simply raised the stakes higher, culminating in an offer of glory and wealth:

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8).

Fame. Power. Glory. Wealth. Something seemingly far greater than a simple bowl of soup. Would this firstborn Son fall into denying His far-off inheritance for the riches of the right-now? Of course we know He did not. His reply? “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

Christ held His ground and refused to bow down to the god of this world. He treasured His inheritance enough to forsake every other offer, even knowing that He would have to suffer a great deal to come into that inheritance. I was intrigued by the way that my instructor summed up the scenario. How long, he pointed out, would Christ get to enjoy an earthly kingdom, even if Satan actually delivered on his promise? 30 years? 35? 40? But it is, after all, appointed for all men to die, and then it would all be over for Jesus. Jesus Christ, however, knew that if He ignored Satan’s schemes and held onto that future inheritance, He would have trouble immediately…but glory for eternity. The real option: sell His birthright for a temporary kingdom, or suffer temporary loss for eternal glory. Christ couldn’t be bought–He didn’t have a price tag.

Do we? The world offers us all kinds of tempting things. We can have all we ever wanted, it seems, if we just sell out a little bit. Is it really that important to do right all the time? Is bending rules really all that wrong? Why bother doing without when we could so easily buy into promises of fame and popularity and trendiness?

We have to keep in mind that nothing the world can offer will last. Money, fame, fortune–all of them come and go. Once won, they do not guarantee continued success or even fleeting happiness. Like the high of an expensively illegal drug, the pinnacle comes crashing down frighteningly quickly. And if we choose that route–if we forsake our values for the world’s glitter–it will all be over once our life is gone.

We face the same choice that Esau and Christ faced. What is our price tag? What is impressive enough that we would give up our future inheritance to possess it? Will we choose temporary loss for eternal gain? Or will we sell out for a bowl of soup?

Walking in Trust

I am currently taking a Bible class (through the Ambassador Bible Center program) on the former prophets. As part of the introduction to this class, we’ve been looking at the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land of Canaan. One thing that was of interest to me today was the fact that–even before the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness–the Israelites were not taken on a direct route to Canaan from Egypt. Instead, they took a fairly circuitous route.

Now, there are probably many reasons that this was so. But one possibility that occurred to me was this: the people being brought out of Egypt were a people being delivered from bondage. Any time that someone has been mistreated for so long, there is going to be some amount of mental and emotional “baggage” (for want of a better term). Would it not make sense, then, for God to bring the Israelites along a route that would–little by little–help them to see His love, compassion, and provision for them? It’s one thing to be thankful for having been delivered; it would be quite another to trust in the Lord to continue to deliver them.

We see the Israelites encountering many obstacles throughout this journey. They worried about lack of food, about lack of water, that God would bring them out and just leave them to die in the desert. And yet every time, God did deliver them. Despite this, the Israelites never quite got to where the trusted in God to continue saving them. Instead, the pattern was established: they would encounter a problem, they would begin to grumble, they would look back to or even threaten to return to slavery in Egypt, and would accuse God and Moses of having brought them out to die. Psalm 78 speaks to this. We read, “a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also came up against Israel, Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in His salvation” (verses 21, 22).

The one thing they never seemed–as a body–to look back to was the providence of God. They always seemed to remember how “good” they had it in Egypt, but never seemed to remember that God had delivered on His promises, over and over again. They had been fed. They had been watered. They had been protected. In the end, the initial generation of Israelites could never bring themselves to trust God, and ended up paying the price. It would be a new generation that would enter the Promised Land.

What is the application for us today? We are to put our trust in God. Every new trial should not bring the same old fear to bear. Instead, we must reach the point that the Israelites could not: we must be able to look back and see God’s deliverance–in our lives, in the lives of others, in the Bible–and expect that same deliverance from Him. We must rely on His strength to get us through trials, instead of immediately beginning to doubt His goodness in having brought us to where we are.

Psalm 9:10 tells us “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, writes of his trust in God’s deliverance, showing us the example of looking back to previous deliverance and allowing that to inform his trust that God will once again deliver: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”

We are given our own long journey to a Promised Land that seems far off. In John 16:33, Christ tells us that we will have tribulation. We will have troubles, and we will have trials–He hasn’t pretended that we won’t! But what is His answer to this fact? “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” We are to remember the examples that have already been set. We are to look back to the examples of God’s deliverance and learn to trust Him, no matter how deadly whatever is in front of us looks. It is in this way that we will build that relationship of trust in God and be ready to enter into the Promised Land.

When We Offend

A friend of mine commented the other day upon an exchange she happened to witness between two acquaintances, wherein one acquaintance pointed out–politely, lovingly, and quietly–an error in the behavior of the other acquaintance. What she commented on was the response of the second to having been corrected: the woman listened carefully and then thanked the first for pointing out what she had overlooked.

Why did my friend comment on this? My thought is because it is so rare. It seems that we humans are so very insecure that we erect any number of barriers to being shown to be wrong in anything–even when we are wrong and we know we are wrong. It hurts to have an error pointed out, no matter how merited or polite or loving the correction. What typically happens in an interchange like the one mentioned is that the corrected party becomes angry and defensive. The usual answer to criticism is denial that there is a problem, or a counterattack aimed at the other person.

That is, of course, if the issue ever gets that far. Because we have gotten to a point, I think, where we are so wary of being the target of another’s anger that we either swallow our observation of some error or we share it…with other people. We point out flaws not to someone’s face, but behind their back, which does no one any good at all. This is even more true when the error is an offense against us, personally. It is so much easier to hold a grudge instead of going to someone who has hurt us, isn’t it?

The Biblical point that I am getting to is in Matthew 18:15, where Christ instructs His followers how to deal with a brother who has sinned against us. “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

Now, this is not a newly discovered area in Scripture. We may have read it a hundred times before. But usually, at least in my experience, we read it with ourselves in the place of the person who has been sinned against. Today, let’s think about how we might react–how we do react–when we are the person who has sinned against someone else, or even when we are simply a person whose fault is being pointed out to them.

We have a precedent for how humankind reacts in these instances. In the very first book of the Bible, we read the sordid story of what happened when fault was pointed out to Cain. Cain, you will remember, had presented an offering to the Lord, as had his brother, Abel. For some reason, Cain’s offering was rejected. We aren’t told why. We aren’t told that he offered the wrong thing, or offered at the wrong time. Commentators often suppose that the problem may have been Cain’s attitude, which seems a reasonable supposition. For the first time we see Cain, he is angry. “So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother;and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him” (Genesis 4:6-8).

Here, it isn’t even Abel who pointed out the error: it was God Himself. And Cain’s response is not to apologize, to repent, or to ask what he should have done differently. Instead, he is jealous and angry that Abel is accepted and he is not…and he kills Abel.

So, what about us? When we are approached by someone who points out an error in our ways–whether the error is sin or simply accidental offense–how do we handle it? What does our response say about the God we serve? Are we gracious? Quick to apologize? Do we listen even if we think the other person is wrong? Do we give the matter prayerful attention in case we might be mistaken or blind to that particular flaw in ourselves?

As Christians, we strive for perfection. We won’t attain it in this lifetime–no one is perfect. We must remember that in order to correct faults, flaws, and sins, we must be aware of them. We never know when God is using our brother to bring us closer to His perfect example. And as Christ said, if we listen, then we have restored a relationship with our brother. That alone ought to give us motivation to hear our brother out.

Let’s not be like Cain, defensive and angry. When flaws are pointed out to us, let’s respect the courage it took that brother or sister to come to us. Let us listen, apologize as necessary, thank them for coming to us, and give the matter our attention and prayer. In this way, we build and strengthen relationships not just between brethren, but between ourselves and God.

A Good Word

The other day, I was sitting at my computer when I was struck by the enormity of what I was doing. What was I doing? I was looking at a timeline, in real-time, of status updates that had been typed by friends around the world. From the comfort of my own kitchen table, I was watching the lives of hundreds of friends unfold, a few words at a time. And even more amazing, I could correspond with them instantly via my computer or my phone. And this was something that I have been doing nonchalantly for months, via the social network Facebook.

There are a lot of opinions about social networking. I have to be honest and say that it has been an amazing help for me in what it allows me to do. Having moved a great deal with my family when I was younger, I have friends and acquaintances all over the United States. The Facebook platform allows me to stay current in what is happening in friends’ lives, from the trivial (“Bologna for lunch again”) to the exciting (“I’m going to be a mom!”). But as I sat there considering the amazing potential of just this single social networking tool, I started to compare its potential with how it is actually used.

Technology has been a blessing and a curse, possibly as far back as man first bent some force of nature to his will. Television, with an amazing capability for instruction and enlightenment, is so often misused or used for wrong purposes. The computer age has both helped us and, sadly, made life more complicated. The Internet is a source of both good information and bad. And pundits are all over the map with their take on what social networks might be doing to our relationships with real people, face to face.

It was while I was thinking about this that a friend shared a heartfelt plea via another social network. “There seems to be no shortage of discouragement and whining and arguing,” she said. “You positive encouragers, speak up!! Share your awesome!” Her comment got right to the heart of what I find to be true of so much of what we say to one another, whether we’re online or face to face. Given the power to speak to others–sometimes hundreds of others–so often we choose to whine. To complain. To make snippy comments about other people. To vent about our pet peeves. To argue and debate about topics that are barely worthy of conversation, let alone heated arguments. There are some days where it feels like every interaction with another person loads one’s heart down with negatives.

Of course, we all have times in our lives when we need to share the bad, hard things. That’s what being real and vulnerable to one another is about. After all, in Galatians 6:2, we are commanded to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  We can’t bear a burden we don’t know about. On the other hand, a few verses later we read, “For each one shall bear his own load.” This, too, is true: we all have a burden to bear. We can’t possibly help anyone else with their burden if all we are doing is frantically unloading every burden we have onto them.

I do think that one accomplishment of ready socialization via the Internet has been the breaking down of social boundaries. We have become much more open. Who hasn’t heard of people who have been too open, at the cost of jobs and relationships? With the resulting casual approach to what we share, and when, and with whom, perhaps we have become people who are convinced that every thought is worth sharing…with everyone. Are we remembering to think before we speak, even if that “speaking” is done with a keyboard?

James said, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body…But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh” (James 3:2, 8-12). Christ, in Luke 6:45, is quoted as saying that, “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” What does what we say tell the world about us? And what effect does it have on those who hear? On those who read?

In Philippians 2:4, we are instructed to look not only to our own interests, but to those of others. Communication is not just about the speaker, but also about the hearer. How will someone come away from talking with us? Will they feel encouraged and motivated? Or just melancholy? In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul instructs us to “…encourage one another and build one another up…” And in Ephesians 5:19, we read, “…be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

Proverbs 12:25 puts it plainly: “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.” We all have our share of depression and anxiety. It takes a resilient heart to battle against the bad news that fills our world. How are we doing at looking to the interests of our fellow walkers? Are we singing to them? Encouraging them? Or are we just adding to the flood of negativity that swirls around us all?

We need to reflect on the incredible power our words have, whether online, in a letter, or spoken. We need to carefully consider how many of our words are encouraging and how many are negative. When our heart speaks through our mouth, what abundance is shown? When we share our burdens, do we do so carefully, considering the weight we put onto another’s shoulders?

I was so thankful that my friend’s message caught me at a time when I was willing to listen. It was the spur I needed to see my words and their power anew. Who is waiting for you to “share your awesome”? Who needs you to be a positive encourager?

Choice

This morning, a friend shared a link that included this quote by author Mary Crowley: “We are free up to the point of choice, then the choice controls the chooser.” This quote immediately put me in mind of another passage about choices, this one by C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: “…every time you make a choice you are turning into the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.”

It is easy to think about our baptism as the Big Moment in our Christian life: it marks a dividing point, a serious choice, a commitment. But what I want to talk about today are all the little choices that go along with that. To illustrate what I mean, let’s look at  Deuteronomy 30:19, where God, speaking through Moses, offers a choice to the children of Israel. The Israelites had accepted  His covenant years before, and now before they entered the Promised Land, He reminds them of the covenant and renews it with them. After He lists the blessings of following Him and the curses of life apart from Him, the bottom line is this: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…”

This is a pretty clear choice. But here’s the point: this is, in one sense, not a stand-alone choice, that once made must never be made again. If we skip backwards a few verses, we get a better picture. In verse 15, we read, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”

The Israelites had to make the first choice: to accept a covenant with God. But that choice made a whole lot of other choices necessary. Choosing life meant that they must, from that point forward, consistently choose to follow God’s commands. It meant that they would need to make daily choices to continue in that commitment that they had made with one Big Choice. The choice to enter into a covenant with God set in motion a whole new series of choices that would need to be made. Like Mary Crowley pointed out, we are free until we make a choice. Once a choice is made, our life will change; by the virtue of making a choice, we have denied the other possible choices and we now progress down a one-way path. We become a different person with every decision, which is what C. S. Lewis was getting at.

Not all decisions, of course, are going to change us a great deal. What I plan to eat for lunch is a relatively small choice. But let’s look at the changes that happen with even this small choice. Say that I, thinking of my diet plans, choose a salad instead of a fast-food double cheeseburger. Making that choice means I’m taking a small step toward my diet goal. I become a teeny bit more “a person who sticks to her diet.” This might mean that I’m more likely to make the “I’m not going to eat the doughnuts on the break room table” choice later on, which nudges me a little further along the diet pathway. Every time I make the good-diet choice, it makes me more likely to choose along that same principle again.

Other choices are much more life-changing. For example, choosing to marry not only produces certain changes in my heart and mind, but it also dictates certain things in my life from that point forward. By choosing marriage, I’m choosing not to continue seeking a mate. I’m choosing to share a domicile with someone else. I’m choosing to give up certain freedoms I would have had before marriage. But I now confront a series of new choices I didn’t have before: do I choose to act in other-centered ways? Or self-centered ways? Will I make choices that build my relationship, or will I choose behaviors that are destructive? This choice, like many others, carries with it not just a new set of choices, but also a set of constraints and benefits.

It’s the same thing with Christianity. Choosing to follow God is a big choice, a life-changing choice. It is a commitment that will ripple throughout every day for the rest of our lives. We cannot simply sit back and say, “Well, this is it. I’m a Christian now. I made the commitment, and now my work is done,” any more than we can get married and say, “Well, now I’m married. I don’t have to do anything.” Oh, we can decide not to act any differently. We can decide that the commitment was The Choice and that nothing else must change. That in itself is a choice..a choice to move away from God, a choice to become–more and more–a person who does not seek out God or His ways.

Making the choice to follow Christ brings with it certain benefits and certain constraints. There will be things that we are asked to give up–and not all of them are inherently bad or wrong. They may simply be things that are not beneficial to us in our relationship with God. The choice also carries with it the reality that every single day, we will need to make new choices that are directly linked to the commitment we made to Him. The conversion process–that process of making choices that will push us closer to or farther away from God–will continue as long as we draw breath.

So…what will we choose?