We have been called out to shine and exemplify the love Christ demonstrated to this world. Our ability to mirror Christ can only be manifest through spiritual maturity.
Robb Harris
Making Room for Christ
During this holy day season we are consciously trying to root out all sin from our lives. Like all brethren before us, this was an imperfectly performed task, and yet necessary for our spiritual growth. Paul extolled the Church at Colossae to fill themselves with the truth of Christ as a method to displace the sin that so easily ensnares us all. Paul’s message is as critical for us today as it was to the Colossians thousands of years ago, while the world around us collapses with ungodliness.
From All Sides
We are pressed on all sides by Satan in his attempt to discourage and ultimately rob the promise of God. But we are surrounded by the examples of our brethren, as outlined in the bible, to combat the Devil. Living by those examples we can expect, like Job, to be protected by God.
Giving Up for Gain
Some of the wealthiest men in the Bible were called upon to walk away from their monetary comforts in order to pursue a relationship with God. Anything, including money, that engulfs our attention is a means to drive a wedge between our relationship with God. While God promises to always take care of our “needs”, we must be willing to ignore our “wants” if they draw us away from God.
Are We Remaining Just in Our Actions?
When Moses struck the rock at Meribah and caused water to flow, was he justified in the anger he felt towards the Israelites? One third of Moses’ life (see Exodus 7:7 and Deuteronomy 34:7) was spent leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land. In those 40 years he dealt with a rebellious people that struggled to place God before their own lusts and desires.
At one time, God even wanted to destroy those rebellious people immediately, “Then the LORD said to Moses: ‘How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they’” (Numbers 14:11-12). But Moses interceded and quieted the anger of God, “Then the LORD said: ‘I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it’” (Numbers 14:20-23).
A generation died out and did not enter into those physical promises because of their rebellious attitude towards God. This punishment was severe to those who failed to follow after God. And this same punishment was leveled against Moses for his anger. “…and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. Moses said to them, ‘Listen now, you rebels; must we bring you water out of this rock?’ Then Moses raised his hand [in anger] and with his rod he struck the rock twice [instead of speaking to the rock as the Lord had commanded]. And the water poured out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank [fresh water]. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you have not believed (trusted) Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, you therefore shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them’” (Numbers 20:10-12, Amplified Bible 2015).
There are no exceptions made for rebellion against God, “For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:11). Moses understood God (through God’s Holy Spirit), something the Israelites around him could not do. But the same consequences for sin still applied to Moses, and he likewise did not enter into the Promised Land.
God guided and trained Moses his entire life in order to lead His people. He governed a nation with Pharaoh, tended sheep for Jethro, and lead God’s people out of captivity. But the years spent with a people that constantly drifted away from God undoubtedly had an impact on his attitude, at least in that moment at Meribah. And one (seemingly) small act caused swift punishment from God.
Being surrounded by such ungodliness in our day can have that same effect on our attitudes. Left unchecked, we can sin in a way that distances us from the Will of God (however valid our actions might seem to the world). And one small act can cascade into a loss of eternal life. Understanding and retaining the Will of God in all our actions is fundamental in each of us reaching the lasting promises of becoming part of God’s eternal Family.
Prepared for Evil
Committing ourselves to God and not to ourselves was the example Christ left for us and is a key in enabling the Spirit within us to grow and thrive. The permanence of achieving God’s praise and sharing in and being part of His Family must be the focus and ground we stand upon. Ground that we never back down from.
A Light that Convicts
Our examples have the ability to be conduits for changing people’s hearts. That can be for either a positive or negative reaction. We cannot let the light of God’s Truth be reduced in brilliance or be put to shame because we allow ourselves to be led by our carnality. We are called to let our lights shine and we must be doing so at all times.
Reckless Endangerment
A rescue worker recently died while trying to find a lost hiker. As reported by CNN, “A volunteer rescue worker died Saturday while searching for a hiker on Mount Baldy in California, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. Timothy Staples of the West Valley Search and Rescue team, (a ‘dedicated volunteer’ for nine years), was among those looking for Sreenivas ‘Sree’ Mokkapati, a 52-year-old reported missing December 8 while hiking to the Mount Baldy summit. The West Valley Search and Rescue team said on Facebook that Staples died after a horrible fall.”
Volunteering your time and putting yourself in dangerous situations to help others, especially those in dire or deadly predicaments, is a truly noble action. The Bible speaks to the selflessness of this act, “‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends’” (John 15:13).
This desire to help others while putting oneself at risk quite often leads to accidental death as well. Of those killed in the 911 attacks, 343 firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers died rushing towards the burning towers with the intent of rescuing others.
One publication states, “In certain situations, the data show, more people are killed trying to rescue others than are killed in the initial accident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently examined reports for fatal, confined-space accidents and found that when multiple deaths occurred, the majority of the victims were rescuers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health previously reported that rescuers account for more than 60 percent of confined-space fatalities (slate.com).”
While many have selflessly given their lives to help those in dire need, what about those who place themselves in danger by their own choice or ignorance? The desire to climb Mount Everest has become a worldwide endeavor since Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Since then, “Some 290 people have died climbing Everest in more than a century of attempts, according to the Himalayan Database, an archive that tracks expeditions in the Nepalese Himalayas going back to 1905. About a third, 94, have been Sherpas (npr.org).”
While many might argue that Sherpa deaths are part of the job they have chosen to take part in, it still doesn’t excuse so many deaths merely for man’s folly in desiring to conquer a mountain.
When we seek to conquer and overcome our own mountain of human carnality, are we being conscientious in how we attain that goal? Spiritual recklessness can cause our own defeat and quite possibly that of those around us. Christ warns of this mindset and the dangers it poses, “‘But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea’”(Mark 9:42).
There is no place in God’s Family for those that lead believers astray. Those words are terrifying in implication and will be the ruin of many who have walked this earth lead by deceit. But the warning given by Christ should not dissuade us from trying to do good. We must continually lead by example and be lights to those in darkness. Christ didn’t call us IN perfection, He called us TO perfection. Paul, with all of his troubles, understood this quite well. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).
The willingness to give our lives for Truth is the hallmark of what it means to be a Christian. Let us be sure to save and not destroy that Truth or those whom God calls into it.
The Plausibility of the Impossible
On his own, man seeks to answer basic questions of life through the foundation of science. The observable universe is a standard by which all carnal theories base themselves. We know the vanity of these pursuits and that truly important answers are found only with God.
FOT: Walking with God
God gives us the ability to see the world without the blindness caused by Satanic deception. We are given the spiritual tools to seek and progress towards eternal salvation. Each of us are required to come to God based upon our own decisions—no one else can gain our salvation. But we are not alone in this life-long pursuit if we allow God to lead out path.