Do it Again

Does your faith ever waver? When you are faced with something that is bigger than yourself do you lose heart? If you find yourself in that place where your world has been upended and only God can make things right, I encourage you to give yourself a quick history lesson. Has God ever delivered you in the past? Has he ever come through in a pinch stopping you from doing something that would be a huge mistake or helping you in a situation that is far beyond your abilities or that extends beyond your resources? If he has then I encourage you to have faith that he can do it again. David’s faith was strong - so strong that he knew God would deliver Goliath into his hands even though Goliath was more than a physical match for him. His faith was unwavering because he remembered how God helped him in the past and he knew that God could do it again. It says in First Samuel, chapter 17, verses 36 and 37: 

“Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

David’s faith level may sound extreme, but it shouldn’t. He remembered what we all should know, that God is bigger than any circumstance. We should not depend only on what we see with our eyes, because God is at work in ways we cannot see. Every one of us may find ourselves faced with our personal “Goliath”. We may be faced with a situation, an adversary, or a problem that without the help of God would certainly crush us. When that happens, we should do what David did. We should remember what God has done for us in the past, and remember that he can do it again. If you are in that place right now, I encourage you to allow your faith to be fueled by reflecting on God’s track record. If he has delivered you in the past, know that he will do it again. 

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David had a long track record with God. He was able to quickly reflect on how God delivered him from the lion and the bear, knowing that if God helped him to overcome those physical barriers, then he could help him overcome this one as well. And if David were to face a mental, emotional, relational, financial, or health issue, he may be able to remember a time when God aided him through those challenges as well and could use those experiences to help him know that God could deliver him again. If you have a long track record with God, you can do the same. But what if you are new to the faith? What if your track record with God is short? You may have a difficult time identifying a time when God delivered you. If that is the case, I would encourage you to lean on the experiences of others - those of whom you know God has intervened. Or lean on scripture, like this account in First Samuel, where he showed up for David in a mighty way. The Bible reminds us that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If he showed up for David, or for someone you know, then he can do the same for you. But you must have faith.

Do Your Duty

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that God created us for his pleasure. We have to remind ourselves that he is the master of the universe and we serve him. Because if we don’t, we might begin to think otherwise. With our prayers, we may begin to behave as if God exists to bless us, to save us, to heal us and to protect us and those we love. He does those things for us because he loves us, but we are the ones who should be serving him. After all, he is almighty God, and we are his creation. So, I would challenge you to remember to humble yourself before him; to love him, serve him, worship him, praise him and treat him as Lord and King. And when we do, we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back as if we’ve done something special. Because in actuality, we’re only doing our duty. Jesus says in Luke, chapter 17, verses 7 through 10: 

“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

If you live in American, you live in a culture that fosters self-entitlement. We’ve been taught that we deserve certain things. Many of us think that the government owes us something, that the rights we enjoy are deserved, and that so many of the pleasures we experience were created for us. We may even begin to believe that God owes us. After all, there are so many promises in the Bible that benefit us. The bulk of our prayers may be prayed in order to serve our needs. But we are the created. We were made to serve him, and we need to remind ourselves of that or we may be taught that lesson the hard way. In the account that Jesus highlights in Luke 17, he reminds us that we are the unworthy servants. When we obey God, worship him, tithe to him, or serve him, we are only doing our duty. I would encourage you to consider how much of your life is in service to God, and how much of your life you are expecting God to serve you. 

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If you were in God’s presence right now; if you were there in his courts and were able to see him on his throne with Jesus sitting at his right hand, how would you respond? Every believer would kneel and worship him. We would humble ourselves before the God of the universe, the creator of everything that is, and we would be ready to serve him in any way he desired. It would be our honor to do so. And in serving, we would only be doing our duty. If we would respond that way in his throne room, why would we respond differently here on earth? We are so blessed to know that God loves us. He wants us to pray to him and he will often give us the desires of our heart if they line up with his character. That is because he is our Father. But he is also our king. If we obey him; if we take up our cross daily and follow him; if we give our lives to him; if we run hard after him; if we submit to him by being his hands and feet here on earth helping our fellow man and leading others to him, we are not doing anything worthy of his praise or gratitude. We are only doing our duty. 

Sacrificial Cost

Have you ever re-gifted a present? Have you ever ripped one of your music CDs and given it as a gift to a friend? Have you ever won tickets to an event you weren’t interested in and given them to someone as a present? I guess what I’m asking is, have you ever done something for someone where on the surface it looked like you made an effort, but in reality it cost you nothing? What if you found out that someone close to you did that to you? How would that make you feel? I bet you’d feel as if the gift was really no gift at all because a true gift should cost the giver something. David knew that, and he was not about to provide God with a sacrifice that demanded nothing of himself. He was not about to give God a gift that was really no gift at all. It says in Second Samuel chapter 24, verse 24:  

“But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’”

Earlier, we learn that David went to Araunah to buy his threshing floor so that he could build an altar to the Lord in an effort to stop a plague on his people. Out of kindness, Araunah offered it to King David for free along with animals to burn as offerings to the Lord. But David knew that a sacrifice, or a gift, to God is not any gift at all if it cost him nothing. What are you offering to the Lord? Are you claiming that you are doing something for God, but in reality it is more for yourself? Or are you offering God something that is of no value to you as if you are doing him a favor? God doesn’t need our money, he doesn’t need our time, and he actually doesn’t need our love. But it is to our benefit that he desires these things from us. We can honor God by giving him, or sacrificing something, that is of value not only to the kingdom, but to us. I would encourage you to think about what you are doing in God’s name. Examine any ministry work you do, or any money that you are donating in his name. Are you doing it for him, or for yourself? Are you doing the ministry work with the wrong motives? Are you doing it to get closer to someone you like? Are you doing it to seem more important to those around you? Are you doing it because you’re getting paid to do it? If so, are you really doing it for God? In your financial giving, are you doing it to be thanked or praised by others? Would you still give if there were no tax write off, or free air miles attached to your gift? If so, are you really doing it for God? We all need to examine our motives when serving God, because we should never choose to offer God a sacrifice that costs us nothing.

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There are times when we do something in God’s name, it results in a win/win; the kingdom for which we are ministering gets something out of it, and we also get something out of it. I don’t think there is any inherent problem if that were to happen. But if that is a determining factor as to whether we would do it or not, we might want to ask ourself if it is really for God. It could’ve been a win/win for David to accept the free plot of land along with the free animals for the sacrifice. After all, he gets what he needs with no effort and God gets what he “needs”. But God is more concerned with our heart than our sacrifice. In fact God says in First Samuel that “obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” So I would encourage you to avoid shortcuts when it comes to God. Whatever you do for him, do it with all of your heart, without desiring anything in return. That is the heart of a true servant.

Many Good Days

My uncle once told me that more than desiring a long life, his desire was to have a good quality of life. In other words, his primary desire was to be healthy in his old age, to be able to travel and do whatever he wanted without being hindered by any ailments or disabilities. To him, living without any physical or mental limitations was more important than living a long life. But I say, “why can’t we have both”? Why can’t we love life and see many good days? Psalm chapter 34, verses 11 through 14 shows us one way that we can have our cake and eat it too if we are willing to seek and pursue it. Its says:  

“Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

I agree with my uncle. My desire isn’t really to have “many days” of life. I’d much rather see many good days as outlined in this Psalm. To do this, it says that we need to keep our tongue from evil and from speaking lies; that we are to turn from evil and do good; that we are to seek peace and pursue it. If you think about it, if we are able to do these things, what we are actually doing is managing our stress. If we guard what we say by speaking life with words that uplift; if we avoid divisive speech and telling lies, we will inherently have less stress. It takes work to keep up a lie. As you construct more details about your lies, it will become more difficult to keep things straight and to make sure there are no holes in your story. But if you tell the truth, there is no stress. If you are able to come clean and allow the burden of your secret to be lifted from you, there are no lies to maintain and no added worry from being found out. Evil talk also contributes to stress. Confrontation can heighten your blood pressure and can make you say or do things that you may later regret. By having a calm and peaceful spirit, we can avoid fraying relationships. If you struggle with telling the truth or lashing out in anger with evil or divisive words, I encourage you to diligently appeal to the Holy Spirit. Ask him to change your attitude and your perspective. Allow him to give you a newer purer heart that is less confrontational and less prone to lie. In doing so you may be unwittingly paving the way to seeing many good days in your future. 

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The tongue is talked about a lot in the Bible. One reason is because once we say something we can’t take it back. But if we are able to keep our tongue from speaking evil and our lips from telling lies, we will find that with that comes less stress, and with less stress comes many good days of life. Change isn’t something that comes easily to most, but sometimes change is exactly what we need. This Psalm encourages us to turn from evil and do good; to seek peace and pursue it. This isn’t just a good biblical principle to live by, it could mean the difference between living a hard life filled with stress and regret or living a good life filled with many good days.

Good to Bad

Where do you stand when it comes to the “once saved, always saved” debate? If you’re unfamiliar with this long-standing argument, it stems from the question as to whether once someone becomes a believer, if it is possible for them to ever “lose” their salvation? Is it possible for them to turn from God; to reject him to the point of going to hell, not heaven, when they die? Very intelligent, godly, discerning believers fall on both sides of this argument. Every believer would agree that we can't earn our salvation. The Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith alone. It is a gift - the ultimate gift. But can the gift be returned? Can we turn so far from his righteous ways that we forfeit the gift? I don’t know for sure. There are strong biblical arguments on both sides. But I believe that we can reject him to the point of sending ourselves to hell. There are many verses that I could argue support this notion, and some that may seem to contradict it. But this is what God says in Ezekiel, chapter 18, verse 24:  

“But if a righteous man turns from righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.”

My commentary explains that this is a “warning against those who knowingly and willfully turn from righteousness.” As with everything, I believe that it begins and ends with our heart. What happens when a believer in Christ decides to reject Christianity and becomes a Muslim or a Buddhist then later dies? What happens when a believer chooses to reject his faith, abandon his wife and children, and embrace a life of orgies, drugs and all manner of wickedness, then dies? These are real life examples. And I know of several others; ones where even “once saved, always saved” believing pastors struggle to find answers to those they’ve known who have died under similar circumstances. When it comes to this question, I’ve always thought it wise to err on the side of caution. I think it is better to believe that it is possible to lose our salvation and be wrong than to believe that we can’t and be wrong. As far as my life is concerned, I don’t ever want to test this question. I choose to follow Christ with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength until I die, or until he returns, and I hope you do too.

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I debated, for a while, whether I should explore this argument here. Some may argue that the “once saved, always saved” argument is fruitless; that it doesn’t matter and that we will all know the truth when we get to heaven. But if this question will determine whether some of us will get to heaven or not, it does matter. I heard one pastor say that once we are saved we are going to heaven whether we want to or not. Many ardent believers in the “once saved, always saved” argument don’t even want to consider the other side. Many may become angry, discussions can become heated, and relationships can become frayed. My desire is not to sow fear or doubt. My desire is to encourage us all to seek the Holy Spirit in discerning his word; to allow him to teach us what is true so that we can clearly, and with all confidence, share that truth with others. So I encourage you to read the Bible. Allow what you’ve been taught to be tested through the scripture. If you’re at peace with what you know the Spirit has shown you, great. But if you aren’t, and the question of “once saved, always saved” continues to elude you, press God for an answer. The answer to this question may not affect you, but it could affect someone you know who has completely turned their back on God. It may plant an added level of urgency in your prayers for their soul.