“Career Christians”

I came across an interesting expression in one of Arthur Pink’s books—“Career Christian.” Imagine if someone were to ask you, “What is your occupation?” and you answered “I’m a full-time Christian.”

I don’t know about you, but what with setting my mind on things above, taking all thoughts captive, renewing my mind, putting off the old self and putting on the new, watching over my heart with all diligence, letting the peace of God rule my heart, walking in love, in unity, in light, and by faith, and don't forget walking worthy, speaking the truth in love, loving my brothers and sisters from the heart, loving my wife as Christ loves the Church, and making sure all I do, even eating and drinking, glorifies God, well… I’m fully occupied.

Is this what Jesus meant when he said “occupy until I return?”  Yes.  And, thankfully, He furnishes us with an infinite supply of grace to assure our progress and success until He does return (2 Cor. 9:8; 2 Peter 1:10).

Blinders

I recently read “If you can see where you are going, you are not walking by faith.” That definition fits me: I am presently waiting for the Lord to give me new direction. Having finished my cancer treatments, I am now officially in remission, though I will, however, be receiving quarterly CT scans and blood work that will alert me to cancer's return. That said, what is better than an unknown future to foster a life of faith?

Yesterday I told a friend that God has graced me with ‘blinders.’ The word just popped into my head. So I searched Google and asked ‘why do they put ‘blinders’ on a horse?’

I learned that the main reason for blinders is to help a horse stay focused on what is in front of him and oblivious to the rear. Blinders also encourage the horse to pay attention to the race rather than other distractions, such as other horses, or boisterous crowds that might spook him. Little did I know how appropriate it was when I told my friend that God had graced me with blinders.

Personal Milestones

In yesterday's post, I wrote of historical milestones of 2 monumental men. The word “milestone” is a clever word picture. First used by the Romans to help travelers know how far they had come on their journey, today it means significant life-changing events that mark psychological and spiritual growth. “Milestones” are personal; and sometimes very private. Looking back on our milestones gives us perspective. Yet, while they reveal where we’ve been, they do not tell us where we are going. In fact, Solomon says God does not show us “the beginning from the end” (Ecc 3:11) of our journey.

We can take comfort from Abraham whose milestones—some of success and some of failure—were a testament to his patience. And though Abraham could look at his milestones and ‘see’ where he’d been, he could only ‘see’ by faith where he was going (Heb. 11:8). It is in the uncertainty of the next milestone that faith is forged. Paul understood this: “forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead... we walk by faith, not by sight” (Phil. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:7). And by faith we can say, ‘the best milestones are yet to come.’

Take a Stand against Sitting

Has there ever been a time in history when people sat more?  Sitting disease is rampant in the U.S.; it is killing us. The colloquial term sounds cute enough: couch potato. But there’s nothing cute about chronic health problems, or premature death, brought on by excessive sitting. Government statistics tell us that half of Americans report sitting more than 6 hours a day. People who sit more than 11 hours a day have a 40 percent higher risk for chronic diseases than non-sitters. But the good news is that even sitters who exercise at least 5 hours per week are as healthy as non-sitters.

So what’s my point? In all his letters, one of Paul’s favorite metaphors for Christian living is the word “walk.” Of course the prime meaning of “walk” is motion. So why do so many Christians think if they are sitting in a pew (or cushioned chair) in a Sunday morning service they are making progress. I know that pastors try hard to promote active participation among the sitters. In our sedentary culture, it would be all too easy to produce a generation of “sitters” instead of “walkers.” Perhaps this explains why we are seeing so many spiritual health troubles—lack of appetite for the Word, powerless prayer life, spiritual depression, and joyless living, to name a few.

Think of this. If we are ‘following’ Jesus, we ought to be moving! A 'sitting follower' is an oxymoron!  “Whoever claims to abide in Jesus must walk as He did” (1 John 2:6).

“Distracted walking may cost you”

Enlightened Christians will perceive the double meaning of the above title from an article in USA Today. Many States have laws against texting and talking while driving; but now States are making it illegal to text and talk while walking. Some are issuing fines for careless walking. More proactively, the state of Delaware posts warning signs near crosswalks, “Look Up: Drivers aren’t always looking out for you.”

In Scripture, walking is a metaphor for the Christian life. From the first pages, God and Adam walk together in Eden. Thereafter, walking depicts the choice of right over wrong, God over self. With that backdrop, Paul says “be careful how you walk” (Eph 5:15), the word “careful” meaning cautiously, guardedly. Interestingly, the Greek word is "akribos" from which we get our English word “acrobat”—one who walks a straight and narrow line or tight rope.

There are many distractions to make us stumble or fall. The prevention is not unlike Delaware's: Look up! In Biblical language, “Lift up your eyes” (Is. 51:6); “Fix your eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12:2); “Do not anxiously look about you” (Is. 41:10). And most importantly, be careful when you are walking in the dark. Jesus said, “Those who walk in the darkness cannot see where they are going” (John 12:35). So, Paul says: “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).

Have a “New” Year!

With each passing year, I am more grateful for the “newness of life” in Christ (Rom. 6:4). Though natural men may call me a senior citizen, as a spiritual man, I am actually getting newer, “being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).  The world says I am the sum total of everything I have ever done, including my failures (ugh!) But the Bible says "all things are new" (2 Cor. 5:17).  And it is the new that defines me, not the old.  My life is now being “summed up in Christ” (Eph. 1:10).

When God created the world He separated each day with the curtain of night. Yesterday is behind the curtain.  Regardless of yesterday's failure, today is a new start.  “His mercies are new every morning” (Lam. 3:23). That doesn’t mean I can’t learn from the past; it just means I am not going to live in the past and let it hold me back.  

Paul said, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Phil. 3:13-14).  How can you make this a “new” year? Leave yesterday behind; after all, you can’t change it. All of God's today’s are brand new.  Don't waste another day in bondage to the past. When Christ was buried, so was your past!  Enjoy your freedom.  Walk in the newness of life!

Politically correct trees

As in the last several years, the advent of Christmas brings on the anti-Christmas campaigners. Last year, one public school administrator tried to prevent students from wearing red and green. Last week, a Rhode Island Christmas tree farmer who had donated the annual Christmas tree for the State Capitol threatened to take it back after the governor said he would be referring to it as a “holiday tree” at the lighting ceremony tonight. In other words, he may turn the lights on “a” tree, but it won’t be a Christmas tree.

Turning off Christmas, as it were, is a fitting parallel to the increasing darkness that is covering the western world (U.S. and Europe) with anti-Christian sentiment. For those of us who has been alive for more than a half-century, this increasing moral darkness is very real. But sadly, the millennial generation have so accustomed themselves to this present darkness, they think it is normal.

Can you imagine how dark it is going to be even five or ten years from now? If you are you afraid the darkness is going to snuff out the light, don’t worry. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light because Jesus gave life to everything that was created, and His life has brought light to everyone, and His light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never extinguish it.” (NLT, Isaiah 9:2; John 1:4-5) They may turn off the Christmas lights, but they’ll never extinguish the Light of Christ!

How did they find missing children before there were milk cartons?

Some years ago, there was a TV program called “Without a Trace,” about persons who disappeared suddenly. Do you remember the missing kids on milk cartons? Before there were Amber Alerts, the faces of America's missing children stared out from milk cartons during a short-lived initiative by the National Child Safety Council. The problem of missing persons is severe enough that there are national organizations devoted to finding them—children and adults.

It occurred to me recently that the first missing person was Enoch. We know little of him—only that “he walked with God; and was no more, because God took him.”  In Hebrews, we read, "he was pleasing to God." (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5) Do you realize how humble Enoch, the recipient of such grace, must have been? How else could he please God? "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

I think that the more that you and I, like Enoch, walk in humility with God, the more likely we are to disappear. Paul said we are “hidden in Christ” (Col. 3:3). I think that means, in part, that people won’t see you and me anymore—they will see Jesus. Could this be the meaning of Paul's words, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  Could  this be the secret John the Baptist learned, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:3). What do people see when they look at us? Have “we” disappeared yet?

Black and White

If you’ve been reading this blog for any time at all, you’d be surprised if I didn’t say something on the day that is called “Black Friday” (in the States). In the Bible, the color black or the word “darkness” symbolizes sin and death. The color white portrays purity, righteousness, joy, and light.

As born again people, we live in a world of black and white—darkness and light! Those living in darkness are subject to Satan—the god and ruler of this world (2 Cor. 4:4; John 12:31). Even though God's light came into the world, through Jesus, people love the darkness more than the light (John 3:19).

Satan’s system of consumerism/materialism will be working today like the law of gravity, pulling people further into darkness.  Black Friday serves as a good reminder to us to beware of getting pulled in by this spirit. Paul said that once we are born again, we should no long live like the Gentiles (non-believers) whose darkened minds (and Black Fridays) leave them in a state of futility (Eph. 4:17-18). 

THE PRESENT MADNESS by David Wilkerson

I am shocked by the present madness of the world. Government leaders are under God’s judicial blindness. You cannot explain the blindness of so many politicians and leaders. They grope about like the blind leading the blind. It seems like all restraint is being cast aside and a moral madness has hardened multitudes.

Seeing all this madness makes me rejoice all the more that Christ Jesus has quickened those of us who were dead in trespasses and sin. I rejoice that those who once walked according to the course of this world—who were under the spirit of the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience—who once fulfilled all desires of the flesh and of the mind, even dead in sins—are now raised from the dead, quickened by the Spirit—sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  Today, as you grieve over the present madness, give God praise that you have been saved out of it all. God be praised!

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As I [Greg] reflected on David's article today, the Lord brought to my mind the following verse:  “He died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live” (Galatians 1:4).

Did You Make an Appointment with God Today?

I know many brothers and sisters in Christ who love to take prayer walks.

“Walking” pictures two people side by side (sometimes hand in hand), keeping pace with one another, heading in the same direction, and having a shared destination—in a word: “fellowship.” John says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” (1 John 1:7). John equates "walking" with "fellowshipping."

The prophet Amos’s use of the “walking” metaphor reveals another element of fellowshipping with God in prayer: How can two walk together except they have made an APPOINTMENT? (3:3 RSV), implying place and time.

Jesus had a daily appointment with His Father (early in the morning): while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there (Mark 1:35).

You may not have a long prayer walk—you may only walk to your prayer closet! But if you are going to enjoy an intimate “walk” with Jesus (even while sitting in your closet!), you will need to make a daily appointment. I am surprised and saddened that many people who have a calendar full of appointments do not have a regular, daily, appointed time with God.

What does your calendar look like?

Is Life a Road Trip without a Destination?

In yesterday’s blog I wrote about the importance of asking God for directions—using the analogy of a road trip. Imagine going on a road trip without a destination in mind. Asking for directions would be irrelevant.

I think this is how many unfulfilled Christians live their lives. To them life is like a road trip without a destination, or you might say, they have no sense of destiny. Such people focus on motion (or activity). They may not know where they are going, but they are on their way! Unfortunately, thousands who sit in church pews week after week have somehow missed the truth which provides meaning, direction, purpose and commitment: a sense of DIVINE DESTINY [or DESTINATION].

As the sons of God, our life is like a road trip. And in fact, we may not be aware of the specific “destination” we are “destined” to arrive at. But if we truly believed we were people of destiny, we would surely be mindful of seeking His direction every day. Why? Because we would know that each day’s assignment, given by Him, is a preparation and a precursor to the next step and the next, until we attain to that destiny for which we were called.

God has destined you for something that no one else can do. Do you believe it? Let us ask God to awaken us to this sense of divine destiny. Understanding God has a destination (a destiny) for us gives meaning to every step. And not wanting to miss-step, we are very careful to ask for directions!

“I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus…for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared [for us] beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Philippians 3:12; Ephesians 2:10).