A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION

Where do we find true happiness? By rejoicing in God’s truth:

·       “True happiness is to rejoice in the truth, for to rejoice in the truth is to rejoice in you, O God, who are the truth… Man’s love of truth is such that when he loves something which is not the truth, he pretends to himself that what he loves is the truth, and because he hates to be proved wrong, he will not allow himself to be convinced that he is deceiving himself. So he hates the real truth for the sake of what he takes to his heart in its place.” (Augustine’s Confessions, Book 10:23)

How do we love God? We can’t cook for Him, clean His house, or launder His cloths.

Some believe that it is strictly about experiencing God by shutting down the mind. For Augustine, a relationship with God is a matter of abiding in His Word, His unalterable truth:

·       “Only a master who really teaches us really speaks to us: if he does not teach us, even though he may be speaking, it is not to us that he speaks. But who is our teacher except the Truth that never changes? Even when we learn from created things, which are subject to change, we are led to the Truth that does not change.” (Confessions, Book 11:8)

Is it proper then that we limit such a relationship to feelings and experiences without understanding? According to Augustine, the lack of wisdom is both darkness and a punishment:

·       “I am aglow with its fire. It is the light of Wisdom, Wisdom itself, which at times shines upon me, parting my clouds. But when I weakly fall away from its light, those clouds envelop me again in the dense mantle of darkness which I bear for my punishment.” (Confessions, Book 11:9)

Well, what does this have to do with Christmas? A friend called me today to say that he had been reprimanded for speaking out against a visiting pastor. At the end of her sermon, she called the youth of the church to come to the altar to commit themselves to the Babe in the manger, “whatever you might think about Him.”

Well, what we think about Him is all important and shouldn’t be designated as a “whatever.” Paul had insisted:

·       I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel… But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:6-9)

Strong words, but these are Gospel words. My friend yelled out that who that Babe is does matter and was later reprimanded!

His conduct hadn’t been “nice,” but perhaps it glorified God. The children of Israel had sinned against God, having been tempted into sin by the Moabite women. Consequently, a plague broke out and was consuming Israel. Nevertheless, the Israelites continued in their sin, even to the point of bringing Moabite women to their tents, even in front of Moses. However, the priest Phinehas drove a spare through a couple in their sinful embrace and the plague ceased. What did the Lord think about such “un-nice” behavior?

·       The LORD said to Moses, "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them.” (Numbers 25:10-11)

My friend had also been zealous about the Lord! But Phinehas had been a relic of Old Testament morality, right? Well it seems that confronting anti-Gospel messages is also a part of the NT. Peter had denied the Gospel when he withdrew from Gentile believers when the legalistic Jewish believers arrived from Jerusalem. However, Paul was convinced that his behavior actually denied the Gospel and our oneness in Christ. Therefore, he publicly opposed Peter in the midst of his hypocrisy (Gal. 2:11-14).

Perhaps we have become too “nice,” and perhaps Paul’s example should be a model for us? Perhaps we aren’t loving the Lord as we ought by failing to stand up for His truth? I suspect that Augustine wouldn’t have reprimanded my friend but would have honored him as the Lord had done for Phinehas, by honoring him with an enduring priesthood.

WHAT TO SAY TO A FRIEND WHEN HE IS NOT FAITHFUL TO JESUS AND HIS WORD

Here is my letter to a Facebook group which intends to block me:

I can certainly understand your annoyance and discomfort with me, since I am calling question to your Christian faith. However, there are things that are discomforting that are also necessary to endure, like the removal of a malignancy. Jesus had warned:

·       "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;” (Matthew 10:37)

Whenever we elevate a person or even ideas above Jesus and His teachings, we are not worthy of Him. What are the consequences? He continued:

·       “And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39)

We might “find [our] life” through social or professional acceptance/approval, but Jesus warns that the price is high if we have placed anything above Him – We “will lose” our life.

When we fail to abide in His Word (John 15:7-), we risk losing our life:

·       "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:23-24)

You are certainly free to excommunicate me, and I will accept your judgment. I bear you no ill-will. Nor do I have any reason to look down on you. However, I would like you to consider this – That when you reject me, you might also be rejecting the Savior:

·       "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:18-20)

But perhaps I am distorting Scripture? Therefore, I would encourage you to pray that our Lord would examine you (Psalm 139) to see if you are bearing His Name in vain. My prayers go with you.

The Great Commandment, Pragmatism, and Seeker Sensitivity

What is the most important commandment in the Bible?

·       Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40)

It even seems that if we get the first one right, the second one will fall into place:

·       This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)

This means that when we love God and follow His commands, we love “the children of God” at the same time. Consequently, if we want to love others, we cannot do it without first seeking to please God.

This principle also pertains to loving the church and our community. This idea might seem entirely uncontroversial, but it is not. Today, there are many completing ideas about how to build the church and to serve our world. For example, In “This Little Church Went to Market,” Pastor Gary Gilley notes that marketing considerations have trumped the first great commandment:

·       [People are] into spirituality, not religion….Behind this shift is the [church’s] search for an experiential faith, a religion of the heart, not the head. It’s a religious expression that downplays doctrine and dogma, and revels in direct experience of the divine–whether it’s called the ‘Holy Spirit’ or ‘cosmic consciousness’ or the ‘true self.’ It is practical and personal, more about stress reduction than salvation, more therapeutic than theological. It’s about feeling good, not being good. It’s as much about the body as the soul….Some marketing gurus have begun calling it ‘the experience industry.’ (pp. 20-21)

There is nothing the matter with marketing. However, when marketing and pragmatic concerns marginalize the first great commandment, we are treading on unholy ground. Jesus illustrated this principle with the Pharisees who elevated had their traditions to the level of Scripture:

·       “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'" (Matthew 15:7-9)

The seeker sensitive churches seem to be more concerned about results – numbers and building their church – than in loving God by keeping His commandments. This concern can take many forms. Not teaching doctrines that might cause offense and drive seekers away is almost ubiquitous among them. In contrast, Paul claimed that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he didn’t shrink back from God’s entire counsel (Acts 20:26).

By pandering to the culture instead of faithfulness to God, the seeker sensitive church will not preach on many topics, like sexual sins, creationism, and even the persecuted church. They also tend to be ashamed of any show of favoritism towards other Christians, even Christian refugees who face genocide. Fearing the charge of “favoritism,” seekers sensitives hide their prophetic voice. Instead of serving as the light, they have embraced the prevailing, popular culture.  As one expert put it:

·       The church must show society that it does not favor Christian causes. This will merely further the polarization and heighten the tension between the church and its surrounding culture. (Rough paraphrase)

However, by embracing the culture, we have lost our prophetic voice.

Instead, we are directed to show mercy first to the household of faith (Gal. 6:10). Jesus also indicated that loving the brethren was especially important to Him:

·       “’When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'” (Matthew 25:39-40)

In contrast to Jesus’ priorities, seeker sensitive churches pay little attention to the extermination of Christians. Even prayer is seldom offered up on their behalf.

Instead, a disproportionate number of sermons are devoted to maintaining the community of believers, sometimes in ways that stretch the Word of God beyond its limits. For example, one seeker sensitive plant of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC wrote in the front of their Sunday bulletin:

·       “Prayer requires community. Prayer is not possible outside of, apart from, or in spite of the praying community… The assumption that prayer is what we do when we are alone – the solitary soul before God – is an egregious, and distressingly persistent, error.” (quoting Eugene H. Peterson)

Sadly, no one informed Jesus that His solitary mountainside walks to pray by Himself “is not possible” to do, and that His conduct represented “an egregious, and distressingly persistent, error.”

Why would this purportedly biblical church print such unbiblical nonsense? I can only guess that keeping their members in church, the only place that their prayers would matter, trumps biblical doctrine.

The life of Daniel and his friends illustrates the very opposite of seeker sensitivity. No, they weren’t trying to form a church, but they were concerned about their witness as Jews. However, it seems that Daniel hadn’t taken any seminar on influencing the culture. Instead, he rejected the generous Babylonian provisions of food in favor of vegetables in order to honor the Word of God. This could have brought upon him and his friends the contempt of the king. However, they were willing to risk it so as not to offend God. And God blessed them with great wisdom, and, ironically, the king was favorably impressed (Dan. 1:20).

Later, Daniel was able to not only interpret the king’s dream but also to tell him precisely what he had dreamed. As a result:

·       The king said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery." (Daniel 2:47)

What a testimony! As a result Daniel’s faithfulness:

·       The king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, at Daniel's request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court. (Daniel 2:48-49)

But didn’t Daniel realize that having his friends appointed would incur the jealousy of the other officials? And it did! The king had made a great statue of gold before which everyone was required to bow. Some officials reported to the king that the three Hebrew friends failed to do so. He was furious and had the three brought before him. He then gave them another chance to bow and worship the statue.

If they would simply do this, they would not only win their own lives but would spare their Jewish brethren from the possibility of persecution. Furthermore, worshipping the statue would demonstrate to the Babylonians that the Jews were loyal citizens and that becoming a Jew would be something they’d be able to do without great cost to themselves. However, they rejected the idea of seeker sensitivity regarding the Babylonians who might have been contemplating Judaism.

Besides, they could have prayed secretly to Yahweh as they bowed before the statue. However, they wanted to remain faithful in every way. Instead, they proclaimed:

·       "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:16-18)

Evidently, this stance pleased God, who miraculously rescued them from the furnace. Their witness also glorified their God before the King:

·       Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way." (Daniel 3:28-29)

There is no greater witness than our faithfulness before God. All of our politically correct thinking pales before the God who will act on behalf of those who trust in Him. Nevertheless, it is true that some will die as martyrs. But Jesus warned that once we put our hand to His plow, we cannot turn back. We cannot compromise for the sake of expediency or cultural acceptance.

The king then gave the three promotions. He recognized men of conviction.

Many years later under King Darius the Mede, Daniel had to undergo a similar trial. The king had appointed Daniel as one of his three administrators over his kingdom. However, Daniel excelled and incurred the jealousy of the others. Therefore, they persuaded to king to issue an unbreakable edict that no one would be allowed to worship another god besides Darius for the month. Daniel could have demonstrated his loyalty and gratefulness to the king by complying. This might have been sensitive thing to do for evangelism by demonstrating that the people could become Jews and remain loyal citizens at the same time.

However, as his enemies anticipated, Daniel continued in prayer to his God. They were then able to betray him to the king, who had no choice but to throw Daniel to the lions. Miraculously God rescued him. The impression on Darius was profound:

·       Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land: "May you prosper greatly! I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." (Daniel 6:25-27)

Such a witness cannot be the result of seeker sensitivity or a calculated church growth analysis. Instead, this is the fruit of a man who will humble himself to trust in Christ alone!

How did God regard Daniel? Did He regard Him as a rigid legalist who lacked the sensitivity to weigh the obvious costs? Not at all!

·       While I [Daniel] was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill-- while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. (Daniel 9:20-23)

What greater commendation could anyone receive! Let us trust in the One who promised that hell and death would not prevail against His Church. The One who has promised to give us an everlasting kingdom!

Faith also Entails a Willingness to Follow Jesus

 This is my response to a Christian who believes that faith is just a matter of mentally giving assent to a set of teachings without any repentance or willingness to follow Jesus:

You feel that your testimony argues against the need to repent in order to be saved. You reason that since you made no effect to repent after coming to savingly believe in Jesus and consequently, lived like the devil, that repentance is not necessary for salvation. However, there might be other ways to interpret your testimony. (Sorry! I’m probably being a bit presumptuous by trying to interpret someone else’s testimony. So I must beg your forgiveness.):

1. Perhaps you weren’t saved when you came to “believe?”
2. Perhaps you were saved, but God had been very indulgent with you, since you had misleading teaching. (You had been taught that you didn’t have to repent or give up anything, and that you could live in any manner that you chose.) Consequently, your lack of repentance didn’t represent an unwillingness to repent but just a lack of understanding.

After all, the devil and his demons also believe, perhaps more perfectly than we do. They were at the Cross. They were even privy to Jesus’ post-resurrection teachings. Consequently, we shouldn’t assume that mere mental assent to a set of facts saves.

Instead, the Bible gives us a more robust portrait of the nature of faith. All we need to do is to compare the unsaved to the saved in order to see that we are separated by far more than just a mental assent to facts. Paul claims that the unsaved don’t seek God (Rom. 3:10-12) and are even at odds with God and the truths of God (Rom. 5:8-10). Consequently there cannot be any meaningful mental assent without a change of heart.

Jesus taught that we cannot even see the kingdom of heaven unless we are born again (John 3:3). Without this change of heart, the things/truths of God are “foolishness” to the unbeliever (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore, there cannot even be any mental assent without a prior change of heart.

Naturally speaking, we have become lovers of darkness who hate the light of God and flee from it:

• This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Therefore, faith must entail a change of heart! And a change of heart must also entail a change about what we think about the light and the darkness, sin and grace. Loving God and turning to His light is essential. It is inseparable from faith. There are no Scriptural examples of saving faith associated with a hatred of God and a love for the lies of darkness.

Israel’s problem was that they refused to love God. Therefore, they required a change of heart, as Moses informed them:

• The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (Deut. 30:6)

A circumcised heart was imperative if Israel was going to love God and “live” eternally. These elements cannot be separated from faith. No one should expect to “see God” without these changes associated with “holiness” (Heb. 12:14). However, although “holiness” has behavioral implications, it is not itself a meritorious work. Instead, we are granted holiness when we repent and confess our sins (1 John 1:9).

Hebrews offers us a negative portrait of holiness through the example of Esau. He shed tears over the fact that he had lost out on the blessing. However, he failed to confess his sin of looking down on the things of God and repent:

• [Don’t be a] fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it [the blessing] diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:16-17)

Esau lacked a godly sorrow – one that leads to repentance. Paul argued that a godly sorrow was a necessity for salvation:

• Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Cor. 7:10)

I too have my own testimony. However, it doesn’t fit in too neatly with what I have been writing. I had come to a faith in Jesus without even believing in sin. I had been a product of a psychologized society. This worldview promoted the idea that there was no sin. Instead, it was all a matter of needs-fulfillment. If we had our needs met, then we would naturally be loving and merciful. Therefore, I understood Jesus as my needs-fulfiller, not as my Savior and Lord.

Was I saved at that point? I don’t really know. However, I know that the Lord had His hand on me, even from an early age.

Where must We Stand when our Freedom of Worship is Threatened

When my daughter was 16, she asked:

• Dad, if I marry a non-Christian, would you walk me down the aisle?

I answered, “no way!” to which she responded:

• Dad, love is hard to find. You need to take it where you can find it.

I tried to explain to her as best as could that I couldn’t participate in something that I regarded as sinful. I could no more give her away to a non-Christian than I could to another woman:

• While you want me to affirm your relationship with your future husband, you do not seem willing to affirm my relationship with Christ.

My daughter might not have gotten the point, but she knew that it was futile trying to budge me. (Incidentally, she did marry a Christian and has thanked me for my unwavering stance!) However, we are confronted with new pressures today – an aggressive and militant secularism that also refuses to budge:

• If churches are forced by new legislation or by civil suits to conduct homosexual “marriage” ceremonies against their beliefs, it would constitute “a piece of tyranny by which the rights of hundreds of thousands, millions even, of people of faith … will be ruthlessly trampled upon,” said the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

• David Cameron's government has announced that gay "marriage" legislation will be introduced next week. But in a statement issued November 15th, UKIP warned that the writing is on the wall for churches if the government introduces legislation creating gay “marriage.” 

• It is “inevitable that gay couples will seek the right to marry in Church and that Churches will refuse to permit them to do so,” said UKIP. Despite the government’s assurances, “there will, very soon after the introduction of gay civil marriage, be a challenge in first the domestic courts of England and Wales and then in the European Court of Human Rights alleging that the exclusion of gay people from the right to have a religious ceremony of marriage is unlawful discrimination against them on the grounds of their sexual orientation.”

Will the churches budge? I’m afraid that many already have and many others will follow. It’s just too easy to justify what everyone else has justified:

• Well, it’s now a law, and allowing them to use our buildings is not the same thing as allowing them to dictate our faith.

However, it is not that easy. Such a move will divide and poison a congregation. If not to divide them, it will make compromise much more acceptable. “Well, we’ve turned over our church for the sake of peace. Let’s just rejoice with them in their marriage and be peacemakers!” But how can we rejoice over what is offensive to our Lord!

• Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (Psalm 1:1)

We are not at liberty to support the agenda of the world. John warns us against aiding and abetting sin:

• If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work. (2 John 1:10-11)

Although I tend to believe that there might be extenuating circumstances, these do not include allowing the State to take away our liberty to exercise discernment in these matters.

We have to keep ourselves pure from evil. When we help sinners in their pursuit of evil, we are partaking of that evil. Consequently, Paul warned against even ordaining a brother too quickly, because we are then responsible for what this brother will subsequently do. In regards to this, we must keep ourselves “pure” (1 Tim.5:22), and how much more when we know that we are promoting what is wrong before God!

By allowing the State to dictate how the church is to use its own resources will also push the congregation to accept something that they cannot accept. Christians have to retain moral control of their own space. Paul had against warned violating our conscience:

• But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

Even if eating lobster isn’t wrong, if a Christian thinks it’s wrong, it is wrong! Therefore, by eating, he dishonor God and damages his conscience. Therefore, if the pastoral leadership allows same-sex marriage into the church, this also involves their congregants, perhaps enabling them to compromise and violate their relationship with Christ. Paul used the example of eating in a pagan temple:

• For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. (1 Cor. 8:10-13)

Facilitating a gay marriage in the church will also require at least a minimal participation of the staff. In some sense, they will be walking the bride-to-be down the aisle. This is something that we can’t do without becoming participants. It would be like renting out our church facilities for a KKK conference. Instead, we are warned to stay apart from any contact with sin:

• Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephes. 5:11)

The good King of Judah, Jehoshaphat, made an ill-advised treaty with an evil king. Consequently:

• He agreed with him to construct a fleet of trading ships. After these were built at Ezion Geber, Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, "Because you have made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made." The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade. (2 Chron. 20:36-37)

Jehoshaphat yoked himself with the wrong person, thereby compromising his relationship with his Lord. When we offer our resources for sinful purposes, this is exactly what we are doing:

• Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

Some congregants might think:

• Well, this could prove an excellent opportunity for us to give out tracts and talk about our faith. After all, it’s our church. We can do what we want within it!

No! You will find that you no longer own your own church. It has now become subject to the State, and you will be arrested for disorderly conduct! You have already forfeited your sovereignty over your own property.

If we can no longer talk freely about our Lord in our own space, then we have lost the right to speak freely about the Lord anywhere. If we agree to this restriction, then we must agree to any restriction that the State wants to impose on evangelism and our freedom of speech.

When we become yoked to the wrong parties, we can no longer anticipate what other compromises will follow. Next, the church will have to remove anything that might be deemed offensive from the walls.

Against this enforced conformity, our Constitution has rejected any State incursions upon the practice of our religion:

• Congress cannot make a law that favors the establishment of one particular religion; that prohibits the free exercise of religion; or that restricts freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people to gather and engage in peaceful demonstrations and to petition the government for redress of their grievances. (First Amendment)

Where must we stand on this issue? Where Peter stood before the Sanhedrin! The Sanhedrin had forbidden the Apostles to speak about Jesus, but Peter responded: "We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29). We must do likewise! To do anything less is to wound our conscience and our relationship with God.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, had found himself in a similar situation. At the Diet of Worms, Luther’s church had asked him to “repudiate your books and the errors which they contain." To this he responded:

• Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture or by manifest evidence...I cannot and will not retract, for we must never act contrary to our conscience....Here I stand. God help me! Amen!

Here too we must stand and do nothing “contrary to our conscience!”

Spiritual Failures

Have you ever felt like a spiritual failure – a total ship-wreck? As hard as you’d try to please God, you saw that you just couldn’t live up to His standards. Sometimes, we might even give up trying.

Well, take heart! You are in good company! Abraham, the father of the faith, was a spiritual failure. Yes, he believed God and God had credited righteousness to him (Genesis 15:6). However, his faith seems to have been like the appearances of the pilated woodpecker – bright but fleeting.

After Abraham had been a struggling sojourner in a hostile and unpredictable land, God visited him and promised him that his hopes of a child by his aging wife Sarah would be realized in the following year.

However, several months after this glorious visitation (Gen. 18-19), we find Abraham in the land of the Philistines, practicing his well-honed sins as if his God had entirely vanished. He lied that Sarah was not his wife, fearing that the indigenous people might kill him for his beautiful wife.

Deceived into believing that Sarah was merely Abraham’s sister, the king took her as his wife. However, to prevent the king from defiling Sarah and also His promise to Abraham, it seems that the Lord afflicted the king and his country with a horrible disease. He then appeared to the king in a dream and instructed him to return Sarah to her cowardly husband, lest He kill him. What is most strange about this account is how God refers to Abraham in His dream-conversation with the king:

·        Now return the man's wife, for he is a PROPHET, and HE WILL PRAY for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." (Genesis 20:7)

This is extraordinary. At this point, God should have washed His hands of the unworthy Abraham. Not only had he been unfaithful to his wife, Abraham had also been unfaithful to His God. Nor was this a one-time lapse. It seems that he had made a lifestyle out of cowardice, lying, and failing to trust in God. Abraham confessed this to the angry king:

·        “And when God had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, 'This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother." ' " (Genesis 20:13)

Lying and relying on his own sinful ploys had become Abraham’s lifestyle. Nevertheless, he remained God’s “prophet!” Even more surprising, God required that the innocent king humble himself before the devious Abraham to receive Abraham’s prayer of deliverance!

What a portrait of God’s love and forbearance for His children, even when they don’t deserve the slightest consideration! Abraham was not only our father regarding the faith; he was also our exemplar as a spiritual failure.

We stand in a long and venerated line of spiritual failures. Peter denied his Lord three times, even though Jesus had warned that:

·        "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33)

However, Peter’s life testifies that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Paul had also been a dismal failure. He not only hardened his heart against God to kill Christians, he also caused some to disown their faith. What could be worse? Nevertheless, God’s mercy once again triumphed:

·        Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

It is God’s glory to demonstrate His “unlimited patience” to the utterly undeserving. It was also God’s moment of glory to die for all – even those who had put Him to death. What a display of sacrificial love! Paul explains:

·        But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

However, it doesn’t stop here – it can’t if we are going to live with Him everlastingly. Paul continues:

·        Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!  For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Rom. 5:9-10)

Paul’s logic infallibly proceeds like this – If God loved us so much that He paid the ultimate price while we were His enemies, He will certainly protect His investment, especially now that we have been converted into His friends. To not do this would be like buying a dilapidated house, investing all sorts of time and money into it, and then walking away from it without a dime to compensate.

Yes, we are spiritual failures, but we have a God whose utter delight is to refurbish the broken and perverted until He finally brings us home to be with Him (Phil. 1:6).