Edified

Mark Dunagan
07/11/10 - Sunday Morning

I think many Christians have found that in fighting the “good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7) it often happens that one can get worn down rather than built up. God often addresses the problem of becoming discouraged (Galatians 6:9), and the need for Christians to build up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11). In this lesson I want to share with my brethren some thoughts that have keep me encouraged:

I Can Be An Escape Route

We all know firsthand that the devil has his traps and snares (1 Timothy 6:9; 2 Timothy 2:26). “The world is full of trap doors. There is the well-meaning uncle who introduced you to your first drink at age 12 at a relative’s wedding. There is the kid along the fence in the schoolyard who calls you over and has something to show you... Some forfeit your life, with drama. Others just render you ineffective”(Andree Seu). Yet God also has His own trap doors – and I can be one. I can serve as an escape for someone living in the fog of religious confusion, or I can be a life-line to someone over their head in drug abuse, or a light to someone who is living in darkness and doesn’t now which way is true north (Acts 26:18). The eunuch ran into Philip the evangelist out in the middle of nowhere (Acts 8:28), Lydia ran into Paul down by the riverside (Acts 16:14), and another man met a couple of Christians in jail! (Acts 16:30). I don’t need God to fill me in on all the details, I just know that the person searching and me – we are going to run into each other.

I Get To Play With A Full Deck

I feel sorry for the world. Some people actually do want to make things better and solve the world’s heartaches, yet the problem is they are playing with half a deck. They might think that the answer to an issue is more communication or more education, which while beneficial, do not remove the problems which remain unsolved and continue to fester. The issue isn’t about effort – they are exerting plenty of effort. Neither it is a lack of communication – they are often communicating their hatred for each other perfectly. Human solutions don’t work because nothing can change or be resolved until the real issues of sin and selfishness are addressed. I am encouraged by the fact that God has given me a full deck of cards, namely, all truth found in Scripture (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is incredible what problems can be prevented or resolved and how people can change when the sin is addressed. What a blessing that God has given Christians the privilege of spending our lives dealing with – not mere side issues – but the real issue (1 Corinthians 15:58; Matthew 23:25).

My Life On Earth Is Finite

It is healthy to have little or no time left – and to know it (Psalm 90:12). “My house is full of 22 years’ accumulation of junk that I have good intentions of sorting through some day. If the house ever catches on fire, I will suddenly have no trouble deciding what I should save in the 10 minutes remaining” (Andree Seu). Long ago Jonah came to Nineveh and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(Jonah 3:4). That speech got the ball rolling. I am glad that my lifetime here is not going to be five hundred years, I think that would not have been good for me. I have wasted enough time in 51 years on things that do not matter.

“I’m Not Objective And I Know It”

I was impressed when Brit Hume, who stepped down as Fox News Washington managing editor and anchor, said in an interview with Brian Lamb, “None of us is objective... But what you can try to be is fair... I believe that fairness begins with an awareness of that no, you’re not objective. And it is your professional duty and responsibility to be aware of that. And to carry that with you into the work that you do”. Becoming a Christian has given me a healthy awareness of my lack of objectivity. When the proverb writer said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), he was in a sense saying, “You are not objective”! The same is true when the same writer warned us about trusting in our heart (Proverbs 28:26), or following the way that “seems right” (16:25) to you. It is very liberating to step down from the pinnacle of coming up with all the answers and realizing that innately having all the answers is not my job. I don’t need to invent any new answers, God already has. I simply need to show and share them with others. I’m not objective, but that is okay, for I have constant access to God’s impartial and objective truth (Psalm 19:12-14).

God Longs For My Salvation

We see this when we read the book of Hosea. On the one hand there is adultery (2:5), of the serial kind (2:13). Then all that goes with that, lies and deception (4:1-2), ingratitude (8:4), and treachery (10:4). But then God is torn when it comes to His people who have so betrayed Him. He will say, “How can I give you up?” (11:8). “It shows a God who longs for sinners – longs for me. My stumbles He hates, but my repentance He loves. The Almighty is torn, and His torn-ness is my only hope” (Andree Seu). It feels good to know that God actually cares about what happens to me. He is longing for my salvation (2 Peter 3:9). No matter what sins we have committed in the past, God has not written us off for good. We might be tempted to give up on ourselves, but as long as there is life, God has not given up.

My Instructions Are Simple

There is no code that I must decipher or spiritual algebra story problem that only a few can work with accuracy. In various verses God talks about the Second Coming and yet He keeps everything truly simple. No signs are given, rather Jesus is coming like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:1). Neither has God given me a detailed list of canned goods that I need to have on hand, information on living off the grid, or how to build a bunker. The instruction is very simple:

• Be alert and sober: 1 Thessalonians 5:6
• Put on the armor of God: 5:8
• Encourage other Christians: 5:11
• Appreciate and help the elders: 5:12
• Do more than simply “manage” your relationships: 5:14

“A lot of us think we have been doing as well as the next guy at loving people have actually been merely ‘managing’ relationships – avoiding this annoying one; buttering up that important one; being superficial with this one; putting off a needed rebuke to that one; neglecting a thank you to the other one; giving a ‘lick and a promise’ to most of our friendships” (Andree Seu).

• Salvation is getting nearer: Romans 13:11

I Need Not Go Along For The Ride

Before I became a Christian, when anger, self-pity, lust or some other destructive attitude came along, I would have simply go along for the ride. I like my life now. God has given me the resources to pass up the ride, “No thanks, I would rather walk”, and walk in the direction that God and I choose. It is liberating to be no longer controlled by feelings, circumstances, fears, the past, the future, worry and all sorts of other things. Some may feel insulted by the simplicity of biblical instruction, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts” (Romans 6:12). Some might say, “That’s too simplistic; it is far more complicated than that”. Yet anything more complicated than, “Stop doing that” would not be very useful for me. I do not have an unlimited amount of time to get my life together and neither do you. When temptation hits I typically do not have time to analyze my childhood, look at charts, graphs, case studies and ream after ream of research on human behavior. I need something useful right now! “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able...” (1 Corinthians 10:13). That verse gives me everything I need at the moment when the temptation is fierce. It is handy, practical and very useful.

God Has Grand Expectations

In Judges 15, Samson caught three hundred foxes, tied their tails together and in the middle where the tails met, placed a burning torch. He then released all these foxes into the Philistine grain fields, thus burning everything to the ground, grain, vineyards and olive groves (15:5). When he slaughtered a number of Philistines (15:8), the Israelites came to Samson and said, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?” (15:11). Instead of seeing in Samson a great deliverer and rallying around him, they thought he was only causing them problems. Israel had completely brought into the idea that the Philistines were superior and this is the way it would always be. “Say what you will about Samson, at least he knew who the enemy was; at least he knew Philistines were for fighting; at least he didn’t roll over and play dead in the warmth of the status quo as the mighty men of Judah did” (Judges, Dale Ralph Davis, p. 193). I like having God’s status quo where “all things are possible” rather than the status quo in the world where “It’s pointless” “Too complicated”, where “Freebirds” think they “can’t change”. This one did.