Walking in the Way by Cynthia Saladin
John Adams, in a letter to General Horatio Gates, 1776, wrote: “The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
I have found myself thinking of this quote frequently over the past couple of weeks, wondering why that “middle way” might be so appealing and compelling. I think it’s because we, as a society, have blurred the definitions of three words: moderation, tolerance, and compromise.
All things in moderation! I can hear that phrase spoken as a goal, especially in concerning ice cream or riding roller coasters at Six Flags. Moderation is a good goal to keep your life in balance. Don’t overdo it. Strive for the middle ground. But the middle ground is not always the right path.
Tolerance is touted as a synonym of moderation. But tolerance involves listening to another’s viewpoint, weighing it, deciding if it’s a viewpoint consistent with your personal worldview, but allowing him his viewpoint. After all, you don’t have the jurisdiction and authority to force another person to believe the same way you do. That’s tolerance. Tolerance is fine when you’re talking about what kinds of pizza you like to eat or which ride at Six Flags is the best or what activity is your favorite. It is a much different matter when we are talking about absolutes set up by God.
In Esther 3:8, Haman tells the king it is not in his best interest to tolerate the Jews. Haman wants to annihilate the whole race. That’s not tolerance.
1 Corinthians 5:1 also talks about tolerating - tolerating behavior in the church that not even pagans will condone. The third example is in Revelation 2:20. “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel . . .”
Tolerance, then, is a good trait, as long as the ideology doesn’t conflict with God’s law. When it does conflict with God’s law, we are not tolerant of those beliefs personally. That is, when we know what the standard is, we, as ambassadors for Christ, cannot tolerate anything less than the standard. For example, eating pork is not something I will tolerate in my own walk with God. However, I am not going to tell every other Christian that they are forever lost because they do eat pork. When tolerance would mean serious harm to another (murder, stealing, abortion), a Christian who doesn’t have the authority to stop the behavior still has the option of calling in the authorities who do. Tolerance does not mean you compromise your beliefs.
Compromise is the third word which seems to be confused with moderation. You’ve heard,“Oh, can’t you just reach a compromise?” As with tolerance, there are times when compromise is right and appropriate. But that is not always the case.
We were driving south of Union this week. A church marquee displayed, “God says either get far left or far right.” I smiled, thinking how appropriate that is to have on the edge of the highway. If you try to take the middle ground there, you’re going to get smashed, especially if you meet someone bigger than you!
Then it occurred to me that this is a paraphrase of Revelation 3:15-16: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Think of examples of when far right or far left is much preferable to the center line: hot coffee, iced tea, water. All these come quickly to mind, of course. But then consider what Jesus Christ was really saying to the church at Laodicea. It is the compromises of our faith, the way we express our devotion to our God, which He’s scrutinizing. Do some of these thoughts ever float through your mind?
*It doesn’t matter if I go to church today. The Sabbath is a day of rest, and as long as I’m not working, I’m keeping the Sabbath holy.
*Oh, that person I don’t like is here. (You fill in the name blank of a brother or sister in Christ.) I hope I don’t have to talk to him. Maybe I can sit down before I have to interact with him.
*Giving a tithe to God is done away. After all, there’s no Levitical priesthood anymore to support. That’s what the tithe was for after all. And besides, God doesn’t need my money.
*I can’t go to the Feast of Tabernacles this fall. It’s too far. It’s too inconvenient. It costs too much. I don’t like all the people who will be there. It isn’t salvational. God doesn’t really expect me to go anywhere - as long as I acknowledge these days, I can just stay home.
You probably thought of other examples as well. When it comes to worshiping God, there are many variations among Christians. Please note: I am not passing judgment on you if your way of worship doesn’t match mine. I’m trying to make us all, myself included, think about why we do what we do when we say we’re worshipping the Great God of the Universe. Are we worshipping the Sovereign Lord as our King? Or are we worshipping Him as the convenient, genie-like God that our carnal natures would like to Him to be? Do we do as we do because it’s what God wants or because it’s what we want?
“The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
Perhaps one of the reasons why this quote from John Adams struck me so powerfully is because I’m reading Esther Forbes’ Johnny Tremain right now. It’s a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. The copyright is 1943. I’m going to read this book to my children as we start our history studies this school year. So I’m preparing a study/listening guide for them. (Besides, some children’s literature is great reading!!)
It’s amazing how similar some of the events from 1773 are to what is happening today. Case in point: we got the results of our 2010 countywide primary election. I was dismayed that so few people actually turned out to vote. Along the same vein, the people who won the primary, in some cases, are not the true conservatives; they just have better name recognition. Then, on the heels of that news, came the report from California: the ninth circuit court of appeals has struck down as unconstitutional the voter-approved state constitutional amendment which says marriage is for one man and one woman. Already the appeals are being filed. The fight may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a newly confirmed extremely radical lesbian is now sitting.
Despite the reports, it’s obvious that the U.S. people are not really hurting yet. They are not even willing to go vote! News reports touted 23% of registered voters cast a vote in Missouri’s primary, as if that is a huge number! They said it was the largest turnout for a primary since the 2004 election. It’s still not good, not if we really want to preserve our freedoms. How bad does it have to get before the American people wake up and take action?
“The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
There are some of you who are not happy about the political comments here. But, consider the fact that the majority of Americans classify themselves as Christians. If that’s so, then why are we in the mess that we are in this country? We, as Christians, have bought into the myth that compromise and tolerance are good Christian attributes all the time, and that they are synonymous with moderation. They aren’t!
Christianity is supposed to be a way of life. It’s not supposed to just be the activity you do in the privacy of your own home, when it’s convenient, or for an hour on the Sabbath! Should Christianity impact your behavior at work? No, it should permeate the way you conduct yourself at work. It’s the standard by which your behavior is shaped. That means you have to vote Republican? No, it means you take a active role in researching the politicians ahead of time and vote for the one who will represent your values. That means you trust God to protect you? Yes, but if the Jews had not taken up arms in Esther’s day, they would have been annihilated. Note that they did not just protect themselves against a bad law. They used the government under which God had placed them to act lawfully to protect themselves.
Many Christians in the U.S. believe that things will get bad before Christ returns. Most believe God will protect them throughout the trouble to come. A quick perusal of Zephaniah 2:3, Matthew 24, and Hebrews 11 tells us that we, God’s people, are going to experience some trouble. (Christians in most of the rest of the world are experiencing extreme persecution.) We don’t know how bad it is going to be here in the U.S. We don’t know how much God will allow us to go through, but we trust Him because He is Sovereign and He loves us. He knows what we need to go through to be molded into the image of His Son.
Look again at Zephaniah 2:3: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
I don’t see compromise, tolerance, or moderation in this verse. I see seeking God with all my heart. I see doing justly, seeking righteousness, seeking humility. Somehow I don’t think humility works when you do it in moderation. Now is the time to seek God with all your heart. Now is the time to step up to the plate and quit ye like men. Now is the time to devote your way totally to our Lord.
John Adams, in a letter to General Horatio Gates, 1776, wrote: “The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
I have found myself thinking of this quote frequently over the past couple of weeks, wondering why that “middle way” might be so appealing and compelling. I think it’s because we, as a society, have blurred the definitions of three words: moderation, tolerance, and compromise.
All things in moderation! I can hear that phrase spoken as a goal, especially in concerning ice cream or riding roller coasters at Six Flags. Moderation is a good goal to keep your life in balance. Don’t overdo it. Strive for the middle ground. But the middle ground is not always the right path.
Tolerance is touted as a synonym of moderation. But tolerance involves listening to another’s viewpoint, weighing it, deciding if it’s a viewpoint consistent with your personal worldview, but allowing him his viewpoint. After all, you don’t have the jurisdiction and authority to force another person to believe the same way you do. That’s tolerance. Tolerance is fine when you’re talking about what kinds of pizza you like to eat or which ride at Six Flags is the best or what activity is your favorite. It is a much different matter when we are talking about absolutes set up by God.
In Esther 3:8, Haman tells the king it is not in his best interest to tolerate the Jews. Haman wants to annihilate the whole race. That’s not tolerance.
1 Corinthians 5:1 also talks about tolerating - tolerating behavior in the church that not even pagans will condone. The third example is in Revelation 2:20. “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel . . .”
Tolerance, then, is a good trait, as long as the ideology doesn’t conflict with God’s law. When it does conflict with God’s law, we are not tolerant of those beliefs personally. That is, when we know what the standard is, we, as ambassadors for Christ, cannot tolerate anything less than the standard. For example, eating pork is not something I will tolerate in my own walk with God. However, I am not going to tell every other Christian that they are forever lost because they do eat pork. When tolerance would mean serious harm to another (murder, stealing, abortion), a Christian who doesn’t have the authority to stop the behavior still has the option of calling in the authorities who do. Tolerance does not mean you compromise your beliefs.
Compromise is the third word which seems to be confused with moderation. You’ve heard,“Oh, can’t you just reach a compromise?” As with tolerance, there are times when compromise is right and appropriate. But that is not always the case.
We were driving south of Union this week. A church marquee displayed, “God says either get far left or far right.” I smiled, thinking how appropriate that is to have on the edge of the highway. If you try to take the middle ground there, you’re going to get smashed, especially if you meet someone bigger than you!
Then it occurred to me that this is a paraphrase of Revelation 3:15-16: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Think of examples of when far right or far left is much preferable to the center line: hot coffee, iced tea, water. All these come quickly to mind, of course. But then consider what Jesus Christ was really saying to the church at Laodicea. It is the compromises of our faith, the way we express our devotion to our God, which He’s scrutinizing. Do some of these thoughts ever float through your mind?
*It doesn’t matter if I go to church today. The Sabbath is a day of rest, and as long as I’m not working, I’m keeping the Sabbath holy.
*Oh, that person I don’t like is here. (You fill in the name blank of a brother or sister in Christ.) I hope I don’t have to talk to him. Maybe I can sit down before I have to interact with him.
*Giving a tithe to God is done away. After all, there’s no Levitical priesthood anymore to support. That’s what the tithe was for after all. And besides, God doesn’t need my money.
*I can’t go to the Feast of Tabernacles this fall. It’s too far. It’s too inconvenient. It costs too much. I don’t like all the people who will be there. It isn’t salvational. God doesn’t really expect me to go anywhere - as long as I acknowledge these days, I can just stay home.
You probably thought of other examples as well. When it comes to worshiping God, there are many variations among Christians. Please note: I am not passing judgment on you if your way of worship doesn’t match mine. I’m trying to make us all, myself included, think about why we do what we do when we say we’re worshipping the Great God of the Universe. Are we worshipping the Sovereign Lord as our King? Or are we worshipping Him as the convenient, genie-like God that our carnal natures would like to Him to be? Do we do as we do because it’s what God wants or because it’s what we want?
“The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
Perhaps one of the reasons why this quote from John Adams struck me so powerfully is because I’m reading Esther Forbes’ Johnny Tremain right now. It’s a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. The copyright is 1943. I’m going to read this book to my children as we start our history studies this school year. So I’m preparing a study/listening guide for them. (Besides, some children’s literature is great reading!!)
It’s amazing how similar some of the events from 1773 are to what is happening today. Case in point: we got the results of our 2010 countywide primary election. I was dismayed that so few people actually turned out to vote. Along the same vein, the people who won the primary, in some cases, are not the true conservatives; they just have better name recognition. Then, on the heels of that news, came the report from California: the ninth circuit court of appeals has struck down as unconstitutional the voter-approved state constitutional amendment which says marriage is for one man and one woman. Already the appeals are being filed. The fight may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a newly confirmed extremely radical lesbian is now sitting.
Despite the reports, it’s obvious that the U.S. people are not really hurting yet. They are not even willing to go vote! News reports touted 23% of registered voters cast a vote in Missouri’s primary, as if that is a huge number! They said it was the largest turnout for a primary since the 2004 election. It’s still not good, not if we really want to preserve our freedoms. How bad does it have to get before the American people wake up and take action?
“The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”
There are some of you who are not happy about the political comments here. But, consider the fact that the majority of Americans classify themselves as Christians. If that’s so, then why are we in the mess that we are in this country? We, as Christians, have bought into the myth that compromise and tolerance are good Christian attributes all the time, and that they are synonymous with moderation. They aren’t!
Christianity is supposed to be a way of life. It’s not supposed to just be the activity you do in the privacy of your own home, when it’s convenient, or for an hour on the Sabbath! Should Christianity impact your behavior at work? No, it should permeate the way you conduct yourself at work. It’s the standard by which your behavior is shaped. That means you have to vote Republican? No, it means you take a active role in researching the politicians ahead of time and vote for the one who will represent your values. That means you trust God to protect you? Yes, but if the Jews had not taken up arms in Esther’s day, they would have been annihilated. Note that they did not just protect themselves against a bad law. They used the government under which God had placed them to act lawfully to protect themselves.
Many Christians in the U.S. believe that things will get bad before Christ returns. Most believe God will protect them throughout the trouble to come. A quick perusal of Zephaniah 2:3, Matthew 24, and Hebrews 11 tells us that we, God’s people, are going to experience some trouble. (Christians in most of the rest of the world are experiencing extreme persecution.) We don’t know how bad it is going to be here in the U.S. We don’t know how much God will allow us to go through, but we trust Him because He is Sovereign and He loves us. He knows what we need to go through to be molded into the image of His Son.
Look again at Zephaniah 2:3: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
I don’t see compromise, tolerance, or moderation in this verse. I see seeking God with all my heart. I see doing justly, seeking righteousness, seeking humility. Somehow I don’t think humility works when you do it in moderation. Now is the time to seek God with all your heart. Now is the time to step up to the plate and quit ye like men. Now is the time to devote your way totally to our Lord.
Strengthened and Encouraged by Cynthia Saladin
And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. 1 Samuel 23:16
This is such an interesting verse. Think about it: Jonathan knows that the kingship will never belong to him even if he is Saul’s heir. God has determined that David will be king. Jonathan could have been tempted to complain loudly that this was not fair; why punish the children for the sins of the father? After all, we know that God had a relationship with Jonathan too - look at the account in 1 Samuel 14. But Jonathan’s perspective is not on what he can get. He fully accepted and acknowledged that David would be king. More than just acknowledging David’s future, he was actually a very good friend to David. That’s where this verse comes in. Saul had been trying to kill David on and off for years. Despite his father’s intentions, Jonathan strengthens David. In the positive application, this word means to encourage, to make firm, to make strong. But we get a better idea of the degree of strengthening we’re talking about when we consider it in the negative applications. It’s used 12 times in Exodus when speaking of hardening Pharaoh’s heart! Pharaoh’s heart was made so firm, so hard against God’s will that it resulted in the destruction of the Egyptian economy (the loss of the slave workforce, the destruction of the spring food crop, the annihilation of many animals) and as well as, potentially, his own death, if not during the plague on the firstborn, then when the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.
This Hebrew word, then, translated in 1 Samuel 23:16 as “strengthened” is not a slight or minor encouragement.
O.K. But so what? This is just a nice Old Testament story of friendship, right? It doesn’t have any application to us. Or does it?
I think it has a lot to do with us. I think it’s part of how we’re to occupy until He comes (and no, I’m not talking about occupying Wall Street). Consider these verses:
“I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.” Ephesians 6:22, Colossians 4:8
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.” Acts 20:1
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22
These last two verses really highlight the necessity of encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ! This is something that should come naturally to the Christian. After all, we see encouraging behavior from Jesus - and He is the One we are to emulate. Remember the instance in John 16? Jesus tells his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (vs. 33) Then, speaking specifically to Peter, Jesus said, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).
I think Jesus would also tell us to strengthen and encourage one another. What does that look like? I think it has to do with redirecting our focus, should it waver, back to seeking God, looking to please Him, to become holy - always. Think of the physical trappings which can be a wonderful asset in encouraging someone else. But don’t become bogged down in the physical realm to the point that it becomes a distraction, i.e. the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
So what is it that you can do today to encourage a brother or sister in Christ? Look for opportunities. Put it on your list of things to do, every day, until it becomes a part of your natural routine.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:3-4
Find ways to strengthen God’s people - not superficially, but with the kind of strengthening depicted by Jonathan towards David. After all, it’s not really about you; as Isaiah 35:4 indicates, it’s about beholding your God!
Freedom by Cynthia Saladin
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1)
You are free! You are free! O.K. free to do what? Free from what? On Independence Day, I am very aware that the freedoms for which our forefathers struggled and sacrificed have been eroded; we haven’t stood firm. We have allowed ourselves, as citizens of this country, to become again enslaved. Free? Oh, our founding fathers would shudder at the thought that we think we’re free. For instance, do you know that when Benjamin Franklin became the first Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service, mail was not delivered to an individual’s house. Rather it was delivered to the local post office where they would pick up their mail. Why? It was considered an infringement upon their privacy for the post office to know where they lived and to come up to their home. So small a thing, you say. Perhaps the tradeoff of privacy for convenience is worth the loss. Perhaps. But now, “they” say smart meters installed on some homes “know” when your appliances are not energy efficient and the electric company charges you more for energy usage consequently. The slippery slope back into slavery doesn’t seem so slippery until the momentum builds.
But I really don’t want to focus on the postal service or smart meters. They are merely a physical example of a much more serious problem. If you are willing to give up your freedom for the sake of convenience in physical areas, how far are you willing to go in relinquishing freedom in a spiritual sense? Paul continues in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, . . .”
So again, I ask you: from what are you free? In the words of the hymn: “Would you be free from your passion and pride? There’s power in the blood.” I think pride is a good place to start when talking about those things from which we have been freed. In Christ, there’s no room for pride. He has given us all things. He has paid the price for us. He has extended mercy when we did not deserve it. He has called us into fellowship with Him. For which of these things should we feel prideful?
There’s another great hymn which sings “When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride . . .” When we are adoring God, there’s no room for pride. You know this. Think of the many verses where pride is condemned, starting with Proverbs 6:17, among the list of things which God hates
How refreshing! Talk about freedom! I don’t have to have my pride hurt. In Christ, I am free from that carnal emotion! Yet, how often do I begin that slippery slope back into slavery because it is much more convenient to have my feelings hurt than it is to confess my prideful feelings as contrary to God and his will in my life!? It is much easier to feel prideful that “I’ve been given a truth that someone else hasn’t been given; I must share it with them;” or “I’ve been in the church a lot longer than so-and-so, therefore I know more and they can’t teach me anything.” It sounds very arrogant to state it this way, but truly, isn’t that how we conduct ourselves at times? How humbling when a small child says something so profound that hadn’t occurred to me before! And how illuminating that I feel chagrined by that! Pride is only one of the manifestations of again becoming enslaved by our carnal nature, of picking up momentum on that slippery slope. There are others.
But in Christ, we are free from pride and its effects in our lives. We are free to not be offended. We are free to not be threatened by another’s take on prophecy. We are free to fellowship with believers of like mind, rejoicing in the gloriousness of our Savior Jesus Christ and serving one another in love.
Spend some time thinking about the carnal passions from which Christ has freed you. (And no, I’m not advocating freedom from obeying God’s law!!) Anger, strife, jealousy, malice. The list goes on. Next time you feel yourself on the slippery slope and picking up momentum, step off. Recognize the descent for what it is. Repent and step back into fellowship and freedom in Christ.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1)
You are free! You are free! O.K. free to do what? Free from what? On Independence Day, I am very aware that the freedoms for which our forefathers struggled and sacrificed have been eroded; we haven’t stood firm. We have allowed ourselves, as citizens of this country, to become again enslaved. Free? Oh, our founding fathers would shudder at the thought that we think we’re free. For instance, do you know that when Benjamin Franklin became the first Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service, mail was not delivered to an individual’s house. Rather it was delivered to the local post office where they would pick up their mail. Why? It was considered an infringement upon their privacy for the post office to know where they lived and to come up to their home. So small a thing, you say. Perhaps the tradeoff of privacy for convenience is worth the loss. Perhaps. But now, “they” say smart meters installed on some homes “know” when your appliances are not energy efficient and the electric company charges you more for energy usage consequently. The slippery slope back into slavery doesn’t seem so slippery until the momentum builds.
But I really don’t want to focus on the postal service or smart meters. They are merely a physical example of a much more serious problem. If you are willing to give up your freedom for the sake of convenience in physical areas, how far are you willing to go in relinquishing freedom in a spiritual sense? Paul continues in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, . . .”
So again, I ask you: from what are you free? In the words of the hymn: “Would you be free from your passion and pride? There’s power in the blood.” I think pride is a good place to start when talking about those things from which we have been freed. In Christ, there’s no room for pride. He has given us all things. He has paid the price for us. He has extended mercy when we did not deserve it. He has called us into fellowship with Him. For which of these things should we feel prideful?
There’s another great hymn which sings “When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride . . .” When we are adoring God, there’s no room for pride. You know this. Think of the many verses where pride is condemned, starting with Proverbs 6:17, among the list of things which God hates
How refreshing! Talk about freedom! I don’t have to have my pride hurt. In Christ, I am free from that carnal emotion! Yet, how often do I begin that slippery slope back into slavery because it is much more convenient to have my feelings hurt than it is to confess my prideful feelings as contrary to God and his will in my life!? It is much easier to feel prideful that “I’ve been given a truth that someone else hasn’t been given; I must share it with them;” or “I’ve been in the church a lot longer than so-and-so, therefore I know more and they can’t teach me anything.” It sounds very arrogant to state it this way, but truly, isn’t that how we conduct ourselves at times? How humbling when a small child says something so profound that hadn’t occurred to me before! And how illuminating that I feel chagrined by that! Pride is only one of the manifestations of again becoming enslaved by our carnal nature, of picking up momentum on that slippery slope. There are others.
But in Christ, we are free from pride and its effects in our lives. We are free to not be offended. We are free to not be threatened by another’s take on prophecy. We are free to fellowship with believers of like mind, rejoicing in the gloriousness of our Savior Jesus Christ and serving one another in love.
Spend some time thinking about the carnal passions from which Christ has freed you. (And no, I’m not advocating freedom from obeying God’s law!!) Anger, strife, jealousy, malice. The list goes on. Next time you feel yourself on the slippery slope and picking up momentum, step off. Recognize the descent for what it is. Repent and step back into fellowship and freedom in Christ.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
Pass It On: “Better Late Than Never” by Diane Kleeschulte
People who know me will readily acknowledge the fact that I am a stickler for punctuality. I would rather be thirty minutes early than five minutes late. I am a product of my environment. My parents regard punctuality as a virtue so I had no choice. However I did not become a follower of Jesus Christ until my thirties. Realizing that I had a lot of catching up to do, I immersed myself in learning bible basics: the books of the bible, bible map, bible dictionary and concordance. Then I proceeded to learn the Word. It almost overwhelmed me on occasion but I knew people that had learned the bible as a child and I was far from that. But, better late than never. This became my motto the first year, as I fought Satan’s lie and discouragement that I had waited too long to know Jesus Christ. But through prayer and faith that lie was slain. He is indeed an awesome God!
But, I wonder how many people have believed Satan’s lie. His job is to keep people of all ages away from God the Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That job keeps him very busy. And his tenacity has been successful. We are familiar with some of his other lies: you aren’t smart, you’re fat, and you don’t deserve ______ (fill in the blank). Do any of these lies sound familiar? But the most dangerous lie is the one that tells us that we can’t know God because we are too old or we have waited too long. And what does that mean exactly? What is too old? How long is too long? Against what timetable is that measured? At what age do we suddenly stop understanding what we hear and read? It is not a logical argument against reading and learning about God’s ways. If a seed is planted and watered, it will grow. God is the Master Gardener. (I Corinthians 3:6 NIV) Everything will grow under His loving Hand. The Word tells us the promise, Jesus Christ, is for all who clothe themselves with Christ. Scripture says “all”. There are no requirements of age, position, or heritage. (Galatians 3:26-29 NIV)
This became very personal when I heard my mother utter that discouraging phrase: “I waited too long and feel like I have wasted fifty years of my life.” Her underlying message was that she was too old. I told her there was no age limit on learning about God. I reminded her that she was doing a wonderful job of learning and understanding God’s Word in the time she had been studying. I continued to encourage her and she finally admitted “better late than never”. I have never known my mother to be late, but if she was ever going to be late at something at least there was going to be a positive result. She may be older than she would like to be in learning about God, but in His eyes she is still His precious child. And we all know how Jesus, His Son, feels about children, too. (Matthew 19:14)
Recently my mother was preparing to attend her first ever women’s bible study. She was anxious as this was new territory. I told her she was going to be fine and not to worry. The women, I assured her, would be helpful, kind, and gentle. But the most important encouragement I believe I could have given her was this: they aren’t going to check your birth certificate or driver’s license at the door! This advice may be helpful to someone you know, perhaps even a loved one. So be a good steward of the word and pass it on.
People who know me will readily acknowledge the fact that I am a stickler for punctuality. I would rather be thirty minutes early than five minutes late. I am a product of my environment. My parents regard punctuality as a virtue so I had no choice. However I did not become a follower of Jesus Christ until my thirties. Realizing that I had a lot of catching up to do, I immersed myself in learning bible basics: the books of the bible, bible map, bible dictionary and concordance. Then I proceeded to learn the Word. It almost overwhelmed me on occasion but I knew people that had learned the bible as a child and I was far from that. But, better late than never. This became my motto the first year, as I fought Satan’s lie and discouragement that I had waited too long to know Jesus Christ. But through prayer and faith that lie was slain. He is indeed an awesome God!
But, I wonder how many people have believed Satan’s lie. His job is to keep people of all ages away from God the Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That job keeps him very busy. And his tenacity has been successful. We are familiar with some of his other lies: you aren’t smart, you’re fat, and you don’t deserve ______ (fill in the blank). Do any of these lies sound familiar? But the most dangerous lie is the one that tells us that we can’t know God because we are too old or we have waited too long. And what does that mean exactly? What is too old? How long is too long? Against what timetable is that measured? At what age do we suddenly stop understanding what we hear and read? It is not a logical argument against reading and learning about God’s ways. If a seed is planted and watered, it will grow. God is the Master Gardener. (I Corinthians 3:6 NIV) Everything will grow under His loving Hand. The Word tells us the promise, Jesus Christ, is for all who clothe themselves with Christ. Scripture says “all”. There are no requirements of age, position, or heritage. (Galatians 3:26-29 NIV)
This became very personal when I heard my mother utter that discouraging phrase: “I waited too long and feel like I have wasted fifty years of my life.” Her underlying message was that she was too old. I told her there was no age limit on learning about God. I reminded her that she was doing a wonderful job of learning and understanding God’s Word in the time she had been studying. I continued to encourage her and she finally admitted “better late than never”. I have never known my mother to be late, but if she was ever going to be late at something at least there was going to be a positive result. She may be older than she would like to be in learning about God, but in His eyes she is still His precious child. And we all know how Jesus, His Son, feels about children, too. (Matthew 19:14)
Recently my mother was preparing to attend her first ever women’s bible study. She was anxious as this was new territory. I told her she was going to be fine and not to worry. The women, I assured her, would be helpful, kind, and gentle. But the most important encouragement I believe I could have given her was this: they aren’t going to check your birth certificate or driver’s license at the door! This advice may be helpful to someone you know, perhaps even a loved one. So be a good steward of the word and pass it on.
The Not So Popular Cross by Ron Saladin
I’ve been reading some of the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a young Lutheran pastor who joined the underground resistance movement inside Germany against Hitler and the Nazi party. He was involved in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler and was hanged in April 1945 at the age of 39. Bonhoeffer said “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That’s not a real popular teaching here in America. In fact, its probably not real popular with anybody the first time heard. The disciple Peter didn’t seem to particularly care for it.
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:21-26 ESV)
What does it mean to deny yourself and take up the cross?
Here’s a quote from theologian A.W.Tozer: “If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men, the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned, the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh, the new cross encourages it.”
I believe he’s right. Many professing Christians have a very different view of the cross than the view presented by the Bible. The biblical view of the cross is that of an instrument of suffering, loss and death. And, if you desire to follow Jesus, you need to pick it up and embrace it for yourself. That is not easy to do.
In the quote above, A.W.Tozer mentioned “carnal Christianity” and that is what some professing Christians claim to be, just carnal Christians. Through grace they claim the “fire insurance” of salvation but continue to live very worldly lives. The idea seems to come from 1 Corinthians 3:1-3: Paul writes, ”And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” The answer is in verse 1, Paul equates their carnality to being like babes in Christ and babies don’t stay babies forever. In fact, there is a continuing growth process taking place or something is very wrong with the child. A real Christian is one that is maturing and heading toward the death of the cross.
Bonhoeffer wrote: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves, grace without discipleship...Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”
Grace by its very nature is free, but it is by no means cheap. In Adam’s rebellion against God, mankind inherited a “freedom” to find our own way apart from God, to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. ( Moral relevancy is nothing new.) God has granted a period of time for mankind to chart a course away from Him, and we seem very good at getting lost. The Christian is one who has come to realize only God knows the way to what we need. Repentance is a turning away from self direction to God direction. Jesus, with his own blood, has bought us back from a wasted life; He has paid the full price for our redemption on His cross. The cross we bear is not partial payment for our sin; we are not working together with Christ for our justification; we are not earning what God has already paid for us. Rather, the cross we are confronted with is a natural consequence of having been made into a new creature by the sacrifice of Jesus. What we have become as a child of God is now in conflict with the devil, with the world and with the old carnal nature that desperately clings to us and which wants to survive and dominate.
I quoted from Matt.16:21-26 earlier. In those scriptures we see Jesus clearly knew what His cross involved. Sometimes we see conflict or loss or trouble coming because of who we are in Christ and this can be difficult to deal with. Like Peter said to Christ, Satan will tell us we don’t need to go through this, this isn’t for you or me. Is it possible to avoid the cross? In John 10:18, Jesus said He laid down His life of His own decision. In Matt.26:53 Jesus said He could have called 12 plus legions of angels to deal with the mob that came to arrest Him. That’s over 72,000 angels! (The smart money would not have been on the humans.)
What about us? Can we dodge, refuse the cross? Jesus said in Matt.16:24: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Notice the voluntary nature of the words: if, will, let, take up and follow. We can dodge the cross to our own hurt.
Ashamed of Jesus? Matt.10:32-39.
Afraid of losing your “stuff”? Mark 10:17-31
Get tired of the daily grind of being a Christian? Luke 9:22-26.
Not into total commitment? Luke 14:25-35.
From mild disapproval to martyrdom, there are many levels at which we can dodge our cross.
This is hard teaching. We can’t do this by will power alone. The power to crucify the flesh, to turn our will over completely to God, comes from the Holy Spirit of God. More specifically, I think that power is manifested in the love the Spirit makes available to us, not only the love of Christ for us, but also the love we are enabled to feel for Him.
When my father was dying of emphysema, I willingly gave my time and energy to help. It was a long and difficult process, and the last year was very hard. My mother and I did the best we could to care for him, to interface with doctors and medical facilities which didn’t want to spend much of their time on a dying man they couldn’t help. I remember breathing with him as he laboured to get enough oxygen. Over time the stress affected my own health and I began to look sick too. My flesh wanted relief and my mind told me I didn’t need to put myself through this. But I persisted sharing in his sufferings until the end, not because the law commands to honor father and mother, but because I loved them.
I think love for Christ is what it will take for us to daily pick up our cross, to count the things we give up as unimportant, to be partakers of Christ’s sufferings. The message of the “not so popular cross“ is to trade self-love in for love for Christ. In the loss of everything, everything is gained. In dying, eternal life is found. Sounds paradoxical, but it’s a really good deal. Cultivate your love for Jesus every day; find the time and a way.
I’ve been reading some of the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a young Lutheran pastor who joined the underground resistance movement inside Germany against Hitler and the Nazi party. He was involved in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler and was hanged in April 1945 at the age of 39. Bonhoeffer said “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That’s not a real popular teaching here in America. In fact, its probably not real popular with anybody the first time heard. The disciple Peter didn’t seem to particularly care for it.
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:21-26 ESV)
What does it mean to deny yourself and take up the cross?
Here’s a quote from theologian A.W.Tozer: “If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men, the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned, the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh, the new cross encourages it.”
I believe he’s right. Many professing Christians have a very different view of the cross than the view presented by the Bible. The biblical view of the cross is that of an instrument of suffering, loss and death. And, if you desire to follow Jesus, you need to pick it up and embrace it for yourself. That is not easy to do.
In the quote above, A.W.Tozer mentioned “carnal Christianity” and that is what some professing Christians claim to be, just carnal Christians. Through grace they claim the “fire insurance” of salvation but continue to live very worldly lives. The idea seems to come from 1 Corinthians 3:1-3: Paul writes, ”And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” The answer is in verse 1, Paul equates their carnality to being like babes in Christ and babies don’t stay babies forever. In fact, there is a continuing growth process taking place or something is very wrong with the child. A real Christian is one that is maturing and heading toward the death of the cross.
Bonhoeffer wrote: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves, grace without discipleship...Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”
Grace by its very nature is free, but it is by no means cheap. In Adam’s rebellion against God, mankind inherited a “freedom” to find our own way apart from God, to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. ( Moral relevancy is nothing new.) God has granted a period of time for mankind to chart a course away from Him, and we seem very good at getting lost. The Christian is one who has come to realize only God knows the way to what we need. Repentance is a turning away from self direction to God direction. Jesus, with his own blood, has bought us back from a wasted life; He has paid the full price for our redemption on His cross. The cross we bear is not partial payment for our sin; we are not working together with Christ for our justification; we are not earning what God has already paid for us. Rather, the cross we are confronted with is a natural consequence of having been made into a new creature by the sacrifice of Jesus. What we have become as a child of God is now in conflict with the devil, with the world and with the old carnal nature that desperately clings to us and which wants to survive and dominate.
I quoted from Matt.16:21-26 earlier. In those scriptures we see Jesus clearly knew what His cross involved. Sometimes we see conflict or loss or trouble coming because of who we are in Christ and this can be difficult to deal with. Like Peter said to Christ, Satan will tell us we don’t need to go through this, this isn’t for you or me. Is it possible to avoid the cross? In John 10:18, Jesus said He laid down His life of His own decision. In Matt.26:53 Jesus said He could have called 12 plus legions of angels to deal with the mob that came to arrest Him. That’s over 72,000 angels! (The smart money would not have been on the humans.)
What about us? Can we dodge, refuse the cross? Jesus said in Matt.16:24: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Notice the voluntary nature of the words: if, will, let, take up and follow. We can dodge the cross to our own hurt.
Ashamed of Jesus? Matt.10:32-39.
Afraid of losing your “stuff”? Mark 10:17-31
Get tired of the daily grind of being a Christian? Luke 9:22-26.
Not into total commitment? Luke 14:25-35.
From mild disapproval to martyrdom, there are many levels at which we can dodge our cross.
This is hard teaching. We can’t do this by will power alone. The power to crucify the flesh, to turn our will over completely to God, comes from the Holy Spirit of God. More specifically, I think that power is manifested in the love the Spirit makes available to us, not only the love of Christ for us, but also the love we are enabled to feel for Him.
When my father was dying of emphysema, I willingly gave my time and energy to help. It was a long and difficult process, and the last year was very hard. My mother and I did the best we could to care for him, to interface with doctors and medical facilities which didn’t want to spend much of their time on a dying man they couldn’t help. I remember breathing with him as he laboured to get enough oxygen. Over time the stress affected my own health and I began to look sick too. My flesh wanted relief and my mind told me I didn’t need to put myself through this. But I persisted sharing in his sufferings until the end, not because the law commands to honor father and mother, but because I loved them.
I think love for Christ is what it will take for us to daily pick up our cross, to count the things we give up as unimportant, to be partakers of Christ’s sufferings. The message of the “not so popular cross“ is to trade self-love in for love for Christ. In the loss of everything, everything is gained. In dying, eternal life is found. Sounds paradoxical, but it’s a really good deal. Cultivate your love for Jesus every day; find the time and a way.
Romans 13 and Voting by Ron Saladin
For a good portion of my life, I refused to vote. Once in college, a fellow student, in a bit of frustration, asked me why. I gave a rather vague reason about not wanting to be involved in it and told him he wouldn’t understand. What I should have said was the church I connected with discouraged voting and I did not want to be “tainted” with the despicable political process, me being so clean and upright of course. Never mind all the other things I was tainted with. If Jesus wasn’t on the ballot, I wasn’t voting.
That was then; this is now. Jesus still isn’t on our ballot, but He is my Lord and King. In fact, He is KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS as stated in Revelation 19. He has the power; He just hasn’t arrived yet to instigate some changes. Until then, we as Christians and citizens need to chose some temporary fill-ins until THE KING arrives.
Romans 13:1 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
This is a straight-forward statement about the sovereignty of God. A government may do what is right or what is wrong, but the concept of its right to exist comes from God. Man’s politics are usually disgusting, but the battle for the ballot is an effort to gain a power God has authorized. In the course of man’s existence, ordinary people did not have much voice in selecting those who would rule over them. American, the great government experiment, gave its citizens the right to select its leaders. This right is not exempt from God’s sovereignty, nor is it in opposition to His authority. In fact, it’s more like the parable of the talents described in Matthew 25:14-29. It’s a fascinating story told by Jesus about doing the best one can with what God has given. There’s a stern warning there, in principle, against doing nothing.
I’m afraid many Christians are going to find out too late just how important this right from God to select our leaders actually is. The Bible has many examples of people suffering because of bad choices of their leaders. Proverbs 29:2 says it like this: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.” Jesus said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36, NAS). A careless word? What about a careless attitude toward selecting those who will have a power to promote abortion, spread perversion, twist or ignore laws our country was founded on and appoint others to do the same? The right to vote is also a responsibility to choose those who will do you proud in the judgment, or at least give you good reasons to have hoped so. Too many professing Christians vote for economic promises instead of Christian principles. In the long run, they end up with neither.
We have an important election coming up. Look at the candidates’ records, if possible, not what they say. What they have actually done is far more important than what is said. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-16. This somehow seems to me to also fit politicians somehow. Political fruit is what is seen in voting records, how they have used the power we gave them that we received from God. Use that power and use it carefully. What you do with your right to vote may be far more important when we stand before God than a careless word.
For a good portion of my life, I refused to vote. Once in college, a fellow student, in a bit of frustration, asked me why. I gave a rather vague reason about not wanting to be involved in it and told him he wouldn’t understand. What I should have said was the church I connected with discouraged voting and I did not want to be “tainted” with the despicable political process, me being so clean and upright of course. Never mind all the other things I was tainted with. If Jesus wasn’t on the ballot, I wasn’t voting.
That was then; this is now. Jesus still isn’t on our ballot, but He is my Lord and King. In fact, He is KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS as stated in Revelation 19. He has the power; He just hasn’t arrived yet to instigate some changes. Until then, we as Christians and citizens need to chose some temporary fill-ins until THE KING arrives.
Romans 13:1 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
This is a straight-forward statement about the sovereignty of God. A government may do what is right or what is wrong, but the concept of its right to exist comes from God. Man’s politics are usually disgusting, but the battle for the ballot is an effort to gain a power God has authorized. In the course of man’s existence, ordinary people did not have much voice in selecting those who would rule over them. American, the great government experiment, gave its citizens the right to select its leaders. This right is not exempt from God’s sovereignty, nor is it in opposition to His authority. In fact, it’s more like the parable of the talents described in Matthew 25:14-29. It’s a fascinating story told by Jesus about doing the best one can with what God has given. There’s a stern warning there, in principle, against doing nothing.
I’m afraid many Christians are going to find out too late just how important this right from God to select our leaders actually is. The Bible has many examples of people suffering because of bad choices of their leaders. Proverbs 29:2 says it like this: “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.” Jesus said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36, NAS). A careless word? What about a careless attitude toward selecting those who will have a power to promote abortion, spread perversion, twist or ignore laws our country was founded on and appoint others to do the same? The right to vote is also a responsibility to choose those who will do you proud in the judgment, or at least give you good reasons to have hoped so. Too many professing Christians vote for economic promises instead of Christian principles. In the long run, they end up with neither.
We have an important election coming up. Look at the candidates’ records, if possible, not what they say. What they have actually done is far more important than what is said. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-16. This somehow seems to me to also fit politicians somehow. Political fruit is what is seen in voting records, how they have used the power we gave them that we received from God. Use that power and use it carefully. What you do with your right to vote may be far more important when we stand before God than a careless word.
