It was a fine dinner. Many dignitaries and people of high class were in attendance. The gentleman plunged his fork into a piping hot baked potato, and put a reasonable amount into his mouth. It began scalding the inside of his mouth. He instantly spat it out on his plate, to the obvious surprise and displeasure of the others at his table. As the atmosphere of disapproval grew at his apparent break with manners, he said, "Some fools would have swallowed that." Sometimes you end up having to break with what is widely accepted as normal to keep from endangering yourself and others. On that note... It is Election Day in America. By all counts, this election has given us the worst possible candidates on both sides of the aisle in recent history, and possibly in the history of our nation. Basically, most people are not voting for their candidate as much as they are voting against the other person. This never ends well. We were made to be for something more than against something. Since most people are not voting for the person they want, they are having to justify their vote. Ironically, these same people are finding fault with people who don't feel like they can participate in something they feel is wildly dangerous. There are many who are writing in the name of a person they believe would best lead our country. These people are often told that they are throwing away their vote, even though they are voting according to their principles, which is more in the spirit of voting than voting whatever a party tells you you should vote. Not only are many of the dissatisfied voters finding fault with those who are voting for someone other than the main contenders, they are also finding great fault with those who have decided they cannot in good conscience vote for anyone, whether it is because they don't have confidence in the candidates or they have lost faith in a system that lets criminals and buffoons run for President. This has recently become bullying, where many say that if a person does not vote they should not have a voice in the culture. This of course is unAmerican. The first Amendment includes freedom of speech, but does not protect the speech only of those who vote. Beyond that, I am seeing pastors and other Christians lay a Pharisaical burden upon those Christians who, for conscience sake do not vote in the election. They are being told by some voting Christians that it is our Christian duty to vote, and if they don't vote against the worst evil they are doing nothing... or worse, they are helping evil prevail. There is a great irony in someone who admittedly votes for a form of evil condemning someone who does not cast a vote for evil, because they feel like not voting for evil is helping evil, while voting for a lesser form of evil is righteous. I mean, if you can get your head around that, congrats! This is sheer spiritual bullying. Nothing less. The Bible never mentions the idea of voting for elected officials. So there is absolutely, positively no Biblical mandate to vote. But that doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want. I would say that voting is a choice. And the Bible talks a lot about choices. The Bible tells us that God have given us the ability to choose many things. You literally make hundreds if not thousands of choices every day. And for the believers, every one of those is a responsibility. Every choice has consequences, whether it is a choice to eat a box of doughnuts or an apple. The choice of choosing a person of proven character has consequences. Making the choice to approve of a person who is desperately vulgar or exhibits criminal behavior has consequences. Choosing to not participate in utterly broken and false systems has consequences. The Bible talks a great deal about choices and actions. Everyone is responsible before God for their own choices. But for the believer, there is a greater responsibility because we are here to change the world by living out a Christ-centered worldview and theology. This mindset is radically opposed to that of the world. Some systems are so broken and corrupt that we can't participate in good conscience. That is the nature and purpose of our conscience. It guides us to good choices. At the end of the day, choices do not establish our values... they reveal our values. A vote is a choice. In America, we vote for a person. Whether we like it or not, a vote for a person is a choice for that person's values. That then is a true reflection on our values. That is simply the way it works. So some... many have chosen to not vote for certain values because they aren't their own. So if a person makes the choice to not vote, are they then doing nothing? Well, only if you believe voting is everything. Frankly, at this stage in the game, with all sides recognizing that there is rampant fraud and rigging in the election system, one's vote does not count as much as it did, or as much as it should. On a good day, everyone admits that. But on a contentious election day, those who vote often suggest that those who don't vote are doing nothing. This is not only illogical, it is ridiculous. You may vote once every four years. That isn't much. But many who make the choice to not do something once every four years are praying every day. They are trusting God every day. They are giving their time, talent, and treasure to serve God and others every day to make this a better place. They are being faithful to their spouse every day. They are sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ every day. To suggest that one of these people is doing nothing because they don't check a box for an unqualified candidate that goes against the person's principles... understanding that the vote itself may or may not be counted, is irresponsible at best, and insidious at worst. The Bible is full of people who obeyed God by 'doing nothing'. The people of Israel stood still and watched God part the Red Sea... while they did nothing. Later they stopped marching and watched God tear down the walls of their enemy... while they did nothing. Later one of their kings led them to a valley and by the order of God did nothing, while He destroyed their enemies. Later a man stood in a den of hungry lions and watched God close their mouths... while he did nothing. His friends were thrown into a fiery furnace, but did not die... while they did nothing. And then there is the story of the man who was betrayed, railroaded, abandoned, nailed to a tree and saved the world... while He did nothing in return. "Doing nothing" is often the way a believer does the most important thing. Christians are not responsible for the candidates or the winner of an election. We aren't responsible for Presidents, judges, or legislators. We aren't responsible for school superintendents or dog catchers. We are only responsible for our choices. A choice is a vote. We aren't responsible for whether or not we vote. That isn't a mandate. We are responsible for how and why we vote. Are we voting to make people happy or peer pressure? Are we voting out of hate? Are we voting out of duty? Are we making choices out of any other reason than to honor God? Because glorifying God with our choices is the only bar that matters. The apostle Paul said this about our choices... "Whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory." (1 Corinthians 10:31) Christians are only responsible for their choices, because it is in choosing to follow Jesus and glorify Him that we have the greatest impact in the world. All of the votes in the universe cannot change our culture. But every Christian making choices that rise above the standard of this world will bring God's Kingdom to Earth. Electing officials is not our responsibility. God-honoring choices are. So if you are led to vote by your conscience, vote according to the Spirit for the glory of God. If you are led to not choose any of the candidates because they don't reflect your Christian worldview and theology, then abstain according to the Spirit for the glory of God. It is election day. Partake if you like. But don't misjudge the person who spits it out because it is more dangerous for them to swallow. It would be nice if everyone was on your team... all the time. Can you imagine how much you could accomplish in life if everyone supported you? What if no one ever opposed your ideas or actions. You could really be successful if everyone simply agreed with you and put in to help you do what you want to do. Now... back to reality. We don't live on that planet. There is no idea that everyone on which everyone agrees. I mean... literally not one. I don't care how good it is, there will always be someone who finds fault with it. If you said, "We should all love our children," someone would say, "Well, you can't love some children." It doesn't matter your idea or plan, someone will oppose it. I'm not saying opposition is always bad. Sometimes opposition is good. It can keep us from doing good stuff. My point is that there is no such thing as a world without opposition. Unfortunately in a world where the pattern is broken by sin, there is a lot of opposition to the things of God. In fact, if you seek to follow Jesus, you will experience great opposition. The elements are against you, so to speak. Serving God should be easy in a world He created. But the world is in a state of rebellion. So things that should be easy are now more difficult. One who serves God will face spiritual opposition from Satan and his forces, as well as human opposition from people, and even natural opposition in the form of sickness, and other things that have come into our world through sin. I don't like it. But it is true. And I like truth more than I dislike the bad stuff associated with truth. Because at least if I know truth, I can deal with it. The Bible is full of stories of people of God who were trying to do God's will but ran into opposition. One of those stories is Nehemiah, who was charged with the task of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem which was in ruins after being attacked. So the story begins with God's 'city of peace' in ruins. Obviously there is opposition in play already. The city was in ruins because God's people had opposed Him for generations, and He finally sent in oppressors who would take His people away into slavery. So people opposed God, then God sent people in to oppose them. So much opposition. Welcome to Earth, right? God raises up a man named Nehemiah to go back to the homeland and rebuild the city. You would think everyone would be happy, right? Well, no. There were people there who had an interest in not seeing this project go forward. Here is what Nehemiah recorded, "I said to the people, 'You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned down. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.' I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, 'Let’s start rebuilding,' and they were encouraged to do this good work. When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, 'What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?' I gave them this reply, 'The God of heaven is the One who will grant us success. We, His servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.' (Nehemiah 2:17-20) Throughout the project Nehemiah and the people faced opposition. They ended up building the walls with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. But they pushed through because they believed their mission was more important than the mission of those who would stop them. End of story... the city was rebuilt. If you want to know about opposition for someone seeking to do God's will, just look at Jesus. He told His disciples, who were on a mission to save the world, "If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you." (John 15:18-19) The apostle Paul, who basically faced opposition in his mission every day said, "In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (2 Timothy 3:12) This is not to discourage you. This is to let you know that you aren't alone or messed up simply because you are being opposed. Now, you may be opposed because you are doing things in a dumb way. But the fact that people are opposing you as you serve God does not mean you are wrong. It means you are a restored person in a world that is still broken. So stand. Do not let brokenness break you. Stand... and after you've done all... stand. As a believer today, you will face opposition. But remember, you don't need the world to be in agreement with you to be successful, but you do need to be in agreement with God to succeed. The world is not in opposition to you. It is in opposition to God. So if you are in alignment with God, you will be opposed. This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. When I was a child, my parents and other adults told us kids to not peel the bark off of trees. They said it would hurt the tree. I didn't quite understand it. I could peel whole sections off and the tree would still be standing tall and strong. They tried to explain that the bark of the tree was like our skin on us. How painful would it be if someone peeled my skin off of me? Well, pretty painful. But I knew for a fact that if you peeled my skin off, I would bleed. I'd seen it happen. I had never seen a tree bleed after peeling off the bark. But recently I have been reading a little about trees. Trees figure heavily into the text of the Bible. In the first Psalm we find this statement about people who choose to follow the right way of living... How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3) Trees have various qualities. Some are very tall. Some are very strong. Some are very fruitful. Some are very beautiful. And some exhibit several of these and other qualities. I was recently watching a video about one of the tallest trees in the world. The author talked about the thick bark of the tree being vital to its health. The bark protects the tree. What do you know.? My parents were right again. But one of the way the bark protects the tree is by warding off diseases. So the heart of the tree is protected by layers that are tough enough to absorb damage from attack and disease. This means that trees with thin bark are more susceptible to damage from attack and disease. If the Godly are like trees, what is the application from the bark principle? Well, my first thought was... "We as Christians need to be tough, and develop a thick skin to protect our hearts by resisting attacks and hurt that comes from Satan and other people. We just need to develop our outer wall to become impenetrable." Makes sense, right? I mean, Jesus was tough. He was tough enough to face the cross after being betrayed and abandoned by His friends. He must have just hardened Himself to the pain and shame. Well... not so fast. The way of Christ is not to develop a hard shell of determination and resolve so that we won't be damaged by others. It is not the stiff upper lip that will withstand the enemy. Rather... it is love. Love is our outer layer. Love is our protection. Love sustains us through attacks. I know... it sounds counter intuitive. But the apostle Paul, who was no stranger to attacks and spiritual poison told the early Christians this... "Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all, put on love—the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful." (Colossians 3:12-15) Look at what he says... "Above all, put on love." Love is our outer layer. After we put together the rest of the spiritual ensemble, we cover it with love. Love enable peace. Peace is stability. This peace of Christ controls our hearts. It rules over our well-being. Love is our protective layer. Love is our bark. Strength is not our bark. Faith is not our bark. Praise is not our bark. Determination is not our bark. Love is our bark. As our love grows, our bark grows. Our protection grows. Jesus endured a lot on the cross, but what took Him to it and got Him through it was His love for us. The President Tree is a sequoyah, and one of the biggest trees in the world, standing at around 250 feet tall, and having a diameter of nearly 30 feet. It is estimated that the tree is approximately 3,200 years old. It has around 2 billion leaves. There is approximately 55,000 cubic feet of wood in its trunk and branches. Some of its branches are 8 feet in diameter. And this tree is what it is in great measure to the thickness of the bark. I guess it is a good thing I wasn't around when the tree was starting out. It may not have made it 3,200 years. My spiritual health is very much dependent on the thickness of my bark. My bark is love. If my love is thin, I will be likely be damaged beyond repair by people in my life. If I try to exchange steadfastness for love, I am not helping myself. But if I make sure that love, Godly love is my outer shell, I can grow to whatever height God has for me and live a productive life, while resisting the disease and injury that comes from those around who want to pick away at or peel back my outer shell. Today someone will pull away at your bark. Make sure it is made of love. Love will protect you, and if the other person is going to take something from you, at least it can be love. This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. Last night I had a dream. A child had a cereal box, but was not content until the box had been folded up and basically turned into a cardboard ball. At that point, they were as happy as could be. If you have children, you know this is entirely plausible. Kids... go figure. I awoke from the dream and this passage was filling my head... Now we have this treasure [of the Gospel] in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who live are always given over to death because of Jesus, so that Jesus’ life may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak. We know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and present us with you. Indeed, everything is for your benefit, so that grace, extended through more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to increase to God’s glory. Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. - 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 I'm not trying to find meaning in my dream. I had chili, Cheetos, and a Milky Way candy bar right before bed. But I woke up from a contented child with a crushed cereal box thinking about how being crushed isn't the worst thing. Christ was crushed because of my sin. It isn't good that Christ was crushed. But it was good for me. Now, whatever I go through is far less than what He endured for my benefit. So whatever stress I go through, whether from the enemy, or from God, it is to turn me into what will make God happy. It isn't for my pleasure, but for His. Yes, as Paul related in the above passage, the enemy puts the stress test to us in order to break us. But as children of God, the enemy cannot break us entirely while we are in God's hand. Think about Job. But God also puts us through a stress test. After king David's great sin with Bathsheba, he speaks very intimately with God and says, "Surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. Turn Your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt." - Psalm 51:6-9 He asks God to purify him with hyssop. This is a purifying agent. It just does what it does when applied. But he also asks that God would wash him. This refers to a scrubbing process. It is about elbow grease. It puts stress on the fabric. Satan does not purify or wash us. He tries to make it so we are all washed up, but he has no plan to clean us up. Sometimes you can apply a chemical agent to clean dirty clothes... but sometimes you just have to pull it to the side and scrub it up. God is willing to scrub us to make us clean. This is good, but there is stress involved. Look at what David said about God causing the bones that He had crushed to rejoice again. Yeah... that's difficult to read. But what a relationship that he would trust the same God who crushed him to heal him. He was able to do this because he was focused on the end game... holiness. I don't know what you are going through. You may be in a good spot. You may feel crushed by the enemy. You may be crushed by God. But God can clean and restore. And in the end, you will be better for it. Do not focus on the temporary chaos and crisis. Jesus looked beyond the cross to save you. You can look beyond your affliction to serve Him. This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. You have probably never heard of Epaphras. If you are a person who reads the Bible, the name may sound familiar, but you might not be able to place him. There are probably thousands of such names in the Bible. People who are mentioned in passing, but we just don't know much about them. While we may recognize that they at least made it into the Bible, it can reinforce their insignificance. But we should know by now that no one is insignificant. The apostle Paul was involved in many ministries around the world. Some he started, others he came alongside to help. Along the way he wrote letters of encouragement and challenge. Some of these actually became books of our Bible. They were generally written to whole churches, or even groups of churches in an area. The first church would read it aloud in the congregation, someone would copy it down, and they would pass along the original to the next church. He would often end these letters with greetings to certain people, or instructions to certain others. Sometimes they would include updates about mutual friends. Epaphras was one of these people. In the book of Colossians we find this section... "Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always contending for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills. For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis." (Colossians 4:12-13) Now, Epaphras wasn't a one-hit wonder. He was also mentioned in the first part of that letter. "You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave. He is a faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit." (Colossians 1:5-8) And in Philemon we find this mention... "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you." (Philemon 1:23) So Epaphras doesn't take up a lot of space in Scripture. But what we can see in the three passages is that he was a true follower of Jesus. I mean, Paul vouched for his relationship with the Lord. Come on. We also know that Epaphras was close to Paul. He was a fellow minister, working in the church at Colosse. He was a man who loved his people dearly, and apparently was glad to talk about their spiritual successes. He was a man who took the ministry seriously and taught the true doctrines of Christ, desiring the people in his care to become strong and stable in their walk with Christ. He apparently came to Paul with some ministry issues, because Paul is reinforcing his worth to the body of Christ. At some point, he was imprisoned for his work in the Gospel. And Epaphras was a man of prayer who would go into combat with the enemy for the sake of his friends. You see... Epaphras was not just a footnote in Christian history. He was known and loved by many, and he left a legacy of spiritual warfare and leadership. He was a faithful man of God. There are no footnotes in history... only faithful and unfaithful people. Everyone is their own book. The question is, what story are we writing? What story is God writing through us? What are we doing for the Kingdom of God? What do people know about us? What do they say about us? The people whose opinion matters in eternity. What will people say of us when we are gone? You may not have known about Epaphras before today, but I'll bet you've heard of Jezebel. So obviously fame isn't the goal. Hidden faithfulness trumps famous wickedness every day of the week. There are thousands of such people in the Bible... people who are not main players. Many times we just scroll over them. But God used them. Now, sometimes these people were not very good people. They were examples of what not to be as Epaphras was an example of a Godly person. But the fact is, most of us are less King David, and more 'just David'. There are a few Pauls, but more Epaphrases. That's okay. I'll be honest... if people can say of me, "David is always contending for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills. For I testify about him that he works hard for you," I would be quite satisfied. I hope you can see that God is looking for faithfulness. And not just faithfulness to Him... but faithfulness for others. Not only are people watching you, but they need you to be faithfully praying for them. Do I pray for others as faithfully as I pray for myself? Am I as generous with the spiritual walk of others as I am with my own? Do I care about the spiritual welfare of others like I do about my own? Do I see that we all in the body are connected? Am I living connected to God and my fellow man? Today you will add to, or take away from your story. Think about those who have faithfully contended for you before the throne of God as well as at the gates of Hell. And then think about those who need you to be their Epaphras. Be faithful. Be loving. Be for others what you want someone to be for you. No one may know your name in 2000 years, but it isn't your name that will matter, is it? This is an absolutely free resource. If you would like to support us, you can give via the above link. The video below is associated with the topic. |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
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