Persistent Obedience
As a young minister I learned a poem that in part explains the intimacy resulting in obedience.
“I had walked life’s path with an easy tread.
I followed where comfort and pleasure led.
Until one day in a quiet place,
I met the Master face to face.
With station and rank and wealth for my goal,
Much thought for my body, but none for my soul,
I had entered to win in life’s mad race,
When I met the Master face to face.
I met Him and knew and blushed to see
His eyes full of sorrow were fixed on me;
I faltered and fell at His feet that day,
While my castles melted and faded away!
Melted and vanished and in their place
Naught else did I see but the Master’s face.
And I cried aloud, ‘Oh, make me meet
To follow in the steps of your wounded feet!’
My thoughts are now for the souls of men,
I have lost my life to find it again,
E’re since that day in a quiet place
I met the Master face to face.
When we do things change — always for the best. The key to a predictive Christian life isn’t mystical, but sheer obedience because of love for the Lord. Obedience demands persistence.
The waterway connecting the Aegean and Black Sea is called the Dardanelles. From their armada the British fought a fierce battle with the shore batteries of the Turks. Finally the British gave up and sailed away. What they didn’t know is that at the moment they quit the battle the Turks had less than one minute of ammunition left. That military lesson from life has served as a reminder to me never to give up and quit the spiritual battle in which we are engaged with the adversary.
‘Oh, make me meet To follow in the steps of your wounded feet!
How Is Your Love Life? Part Two
I Corinthians 13: 4 – 8
The kind of love the Father wants to harvest in your life has several facets. Observe: “Love suffers long,” that is, it is patient. This word was always used to speak of patience with people, not circumstances. We are to be patient with circumstances also, but this word relates to personal relationships. It is the ability to be wronged and wronged again and having the power to retaliate ,but never even thinking about doing it. That is love.
II Peter 3:9 says of God “He is longsuffering — not willing that any should perish.”
“Love …is kind.” This is the flip side of patience. Patience endures the injustices of others while kindness pays them back with good deeds. Inherent in the Greek word for kindness is the meaning of being “useful.”
Jesus didn’t say, “Love your enemies…feel good about them.” He said, “do good to them,” that is, be useful to them.
“Love does not envy.” Another word for envy is “jealousy.” Shakespeare called it “the green sickness,” Solomon spoke of it as “rottenness of the bones.” A Latin proverb called it “the enemy of honor.” It is “the sorrow of fools.”
One form of envy is to want what you have. Another is to wish they didn’t have it. The root word for envy means to “boil.”
“Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.” To be puffed up means to have an attitude of false pride while the idea of parading oneself means to verbalize pride. Our word “windbag” comes from the root word “vaunteth.” This is the flip side of envy. Envy is wanting what others have. To be a boastful windbag is to try to make others want what you have.
“Love does not behave rudely.”
“Love does not seek its own.” It isn’t selfish.
“Love is not provoked.” The root is the word from which we get our word “paroxysm” which means a sudden outburst. Thus, love is never ready to fight.
“Love thinks no evil.” The word “thinks” translates logizomai which was an accounting term meaning “to keep a mathematical account.” Love doesn’t keep score. It is the same word used to speak of God’s pardoning act toward us.
“Love does not rejoice over iniquity.” Love doesn’t brag over sin.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: “Everybody soon or later sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
“Love rejoices in the truth.” Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life is the personification of “the truth.”
Do you rejoice in Him so fully that you are willing to give yourself self-sacrificingly to Him in your daily life publicly?
How Is Your Love Life? Part One
Galatians 5: 19 – 26
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
Love such as Christ spoke of is revealed to be a product of a Holy Spirit-filled life. In Galatians 5:22 we are given a list of the “fruit” of the Spirit. Upon first looking at the passage it appears there is an improper verb tense used. The word “fruit” is singular, but the result is plural. This is easily understood when we understand the meaning of what the Greek word translated “fruit” means to our modern mind. It was the word “karpos” which can be translated as “harvest.” The time of harvest is still called the fruiting season in some areas. In this light the writer was saying “The things the Holy Spirit harvests in a believer’s life are…” The first one is love. The harvest of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is love.
The world has a different meaning when speaking of love. An understanding of the Greek words for love helps the comprehension of what Jesus meant. There are various words and word meanings for love.
Agape is the Greek word in our text translated “love.”
Eros speaks of love means a physical attraction between persons on a sexual level. Their word for that emotion was not related to what was meant by agape. We get our word “erotic” from their word eros.
Philos, was the Greek word for a kind of love which we describe by friendship or brotherly love. It is warm affection apart from any sexual attraction at all.
Agape is the Greek word most often translated “love” in the Bible. The word emerged in the Bible era meaning “”the ultimate willful act of self-sacrificing for the welfare of someone else.” The agape kind of love is Calvary’s love. The proto-type of agape is the love Christ showed us.
Only when we love Him with a love that is self-sacrificing for His welfare can we get eros and philos working right.
Tragedy of tragedy is that in our society an attempt is made to define all love by the definition of eros, that is, sensual, fleshly love. The world has difficulty understanding how brotherly love can exist without sexual involvement. Or, that self-sacrificing love can be expressed without expecting some sexual favor in return.
Try substituting some of the meanings of EROS in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…that He felt romantic about it…that He got a tingling sensation down His spine…that He had a friendly spirit of tolerance and brotherhood toward it no matter what it believed…” NOT!
God loved so much that “He gave His only begotten Son.” Love is an act of willful, self-sacrificing for the good of another. God showed that kind of love.
Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
When we have agape, that is, self-giving love for Jesus that we truly love Him. Evaluate your regard for Jesus. Is it self-giving?
Faithfulness Unto Death – Part Three
Resolve to be faithful in a depraved society remembering, “Faithful is He Who has called you” (I Thess. 5: 24).
If you are faithful Jesus will ultimately reward your faithfulness with “the crown of life.” Out of the ashes of your disaster can rise a tribute to His abiding faithfulness.
At a critical moment during World War II our allied forces broke the German secret code. This major breakthrough enabled our forces to decode and read all the enemy’s secretly coded messages regarding troop deployment, defense placement, and other information vital to our planned invasion of Europe. This gave us tremendous advantages.
One message received chilled British intelligence and was relayed to Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. It told of plans to bomb the beautiful British city of Coventry. This lovely old city was one of England’s crown jewels.
The Prime Minister knew that with the insight gained they could evacuate the city and prepare air defenses to give it greater protection. He also knew that if he did the Germans would know their secret code had been broken. In order not to reveal knowledge of the secret code in hopes to interpret further messages and have greater advantages in preparing for the invasion, the Prime Minister left Coventry with no warning and unprotected.
On the night of November 24, 1940, nearly 500 German bombers bombed the historical English city of Coventry. Over 600 tons of explosives and thousands of incendiaries were dropped. Over 70,000 homes were ruined and 400 people killed. The centerpiece of the city, their 14th Century cathedral was destroyed.
Once my family and I stood amid those ruins. Since that awful night the people have built a modern cathedral. The ruins of the old gothic structure still stand. The old and new walls are architecturally connected. Within the old wall’s hull stand two crosses on soot blackened stone where the altar once stood. One is made from charred beams taken from the ruins. A much smaller one is made from heat twisted spikes used by medieval craftsmen in constructing the original roof. These two spikes were fused in the shape of a cross on the eventful night of the bombing.
There is a message that has been carved in those old walls since the war. It reads: “Father, forgive.”
In front of the altar is another sign with a quotation from Isaiah 6: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.”
The new cathedral of Coventry has much striking art, none more striking than the larger than life sculpture hanging just outside the main entrance. It depicts Michael the archangel with his lance in hand poised triumphantly over a prostrated, manacled dragon, representing Satan. It depicts the ultimate victory.
This artistic depiction of the inevitable and ultimate victory of Jesus over evil is displayed in a spot where only despair and defeat once loomed. It is a reminder of the truth of I Thess. 5: 24: “Faithful is He Who has called you.”
Live each day as an act of faithful devotion to get the most out of it.
Faithfulness Unto Death – Part Two
In an environment known for a lack of commitment our Lord appeals: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2: 10b)
Before reviewing your personal faithfulness under the microscope of this text we are reminded “Faithful is He who has called you…” (I Thess. 5: 24).
We are following the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Leading His people is nothing new to our God. Caring for His followers is assured by His bountiful provisions. Jesus has been walking with His people for over 2,000 years. He is not out of ideas. He’s not even running low. He is no less powerful today than the day He said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”
Faithfulness is exhorted in our text against the background of four major challenges. Thus, it becomes instantly obvious faithfulness is not simply a response of gratitude for blessings. It is as a consequence of devotion to our unchanging Lord.
The word translated “tribulation” means crushing pressure. A hint of the kind of pressure is indicated by two names being used in the text for the devil. One is “Satan,” a direct translation from the Greek word “Satan” which means “adversary.” The other is translated “devil,” which comes from the Greek “diabolas” literally “slanderer.” These titles indicate we are challenged.
Satan is our adversary, our opponent, who slanders. That is his nature and he inspires people to use his techniques. Have you ever been slandered? It is most painful. How is one to respond? Christ answers, “Be faithful…”
Tribulation can be a tributary to triumph. Psychologist Dr. Marie Benoyn Ray has made a study of the relationship between handicaps and achievement. Assuming a handicap to be one form of tribulation, apply the findings to all tribulation. It was:
“No one succeeds without a handicap.
No one succeeds in spite of a handicap.
Everyone succeeds because of a handicap.”
In other words, solid attainment doesn’t come out of the absence of struggle, but can always be traced to it. The things that are against us are often the best things for us.
Resolve to be faithful in a depraved society remembering, “Faithful is He Who has called you” (I Thess. 5: 24).