“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  Ezekiel 36:26 

The other day I was reading something online and the discussion was about Christ the Peacemaker. Well, there was a misspelling and in one part it said Christ the Pacemaker. As is my habit, I was instantly looking for my red pen to make the correction when I realized that in reality Jesus is a Pacemaker of sorts.  A pacemaker is a small electrical device that helps a heart beat as it should. It helps it maintain a rhythm that is natural and healthy.  It is used for those folks whose hearts don’t beat correctly and need a little outside help (well, actually inside, but you know what I mean).

We are told to listen to our hearts when making decisions and it has become default advice line people use all the time when they are asked for help with a problem. “Just listen to your heart” is the same advice given for decisions as diverse as buying a home or deciding whether to marry an internet acquaintance. But is this advice the wisest advice?  I would say without Christ, the Pacemaker, our hearts are pretty unreliable and really not suited to make decisions much larger than choosing a coffee at Starbucks.

We would like to think that we can think with our hearts. But our hearts make a better pumps than brains.  When we use our heart for guidance, we are really relying on the part of us that is on the search for ultimate joy at any price. Unfortunately, our heart has a true nature that is not capable of being the brains of the outfit. It it born broken and needs to be fixed before it can be anything at all reliable for decision making.

When the Bible talks about the human heart, it’s referring to the center of people’s being. It involves their emotions, reason, and will. From the very earliest times, we find that the nature of our hearts is the source of many of the world’s heartbreaks: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)

Sadly, from the beginning the result of following the heart was not comfort and guidance, but death and destruction. The myth that leads this false assumption that we can rely on the heart is that we, and of course our hearts, are basically good. If we base our thinking on this premise, we think- “since our hearts are good, they can be a guide for decisions that lead to good.”  But the Word paints a different picture, one that has been proven out through thousands of years: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10) Even Jesus tells us that sin, not goodness, originates in the heart.  “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22) Wow, and we advise people to follow it!

In Kansas City, during the great Gipsy Smith revival years ago, an old preacher came into the room where the Gipsy was sitting after the service. Thousands were being blessed and hundreds saved. The older minister placed his hands upon the evangelist’s head and felt about it. ‘I am trying to find the secret of your success,’ he said.

`Too high! Too high! My friend, you are too high,’ Gipsy said. ‘The secret of whatever success God has given me is not up there but down here,’ and he placed his hand upon his heart.

Gipsy Smith could say that because the Great Pacemaker was controlling  the beats of his heart.   Gipsy had been born in a tent,  had little schooling, and rose up through poverty.   But even the poorest man can afford the heart surgery that God offers, because it has already been paid for by the Son.  For over sixty years Gipsy preached God’s gospel to men.  As he preached, again and again the tears would course down his cheeks, and his heart stirred the hearts of thousands.

What made the difference in his life and millions of others.   It is Christ, the great Physician, who performed a miracle on the cross. Because of what He did we can become new. If Christ the Pacemaker is in our hearts then they become stronger and more reliable. They can beat the way they were meant to before the fall. Our hearts don’t have to be the out-of-control, emotion-driven part of us that beats wildly and cannot be relied on for good decisions. When Christ the Pacemaker indwells us through the Holy Spirit, we can begin to listen to our hearts more because they are controlled by God. Of course, when we disconnect our Pacemaker, let the battery go dead, or don’t maintain it like we should, we are right back to the evil heart-making decisions.

We must be careful not to direct people to listen to their hearts unless we know that they have a working Pacemaker beating in their chests. Caution: there will still be a battle between our old and new hearts. We should listen to the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, and spirit-filled Christians when making decisions. But if we are going to listen to our hearts, we better make sure our Pacemaker is kept tuned up.

“No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God.”  — Romans 3:11

Some people speak about their search for God.  They might say something like, “I’m on a spiritual journey. I am trying to find the truth. I am trying to find the light. I am trying to find God.”  Yet the Bible says that no one is really searching for God on their own.

Years ago I heard the story (that I have probably already related to you) about a little girl who was lost during a snowstorm.  The parents and neighbors desperately tried to find her, knowing if they did not, she would soon die.  Just when they thought they had exhausted every possible place, they saw a small bump in the snow next to the porch.  They pulled away the snow and saw the smiling face of their daughter who looked up at her parents and said, “I found you.”  Obviously, the finding was in the hands of the parents, not the little girl’s.

We like to think that God is distantly hidden away somewhere and through many years of tedious search, we come upon him and we have finally completed our journey.  The fact is that most of us are hiding from God.  He calls our name, He puts signs of His presence all around us, and He maps out clearly in His Word how we can be with Him.  He desires for us to come to Him, more than we desire to go to Him.  We go searching for God “in all the wrong places,” and wonder why He is not there.  If we wait upon Him with an open heart then He will come to us, for He desires that none will be lost.

If we want to know God we need to ask Him to come to us with open and willing hearts.  He has done all the groundwork for us.  Our seeking should not be some blind, dart board effort that samples every religion known to man.  Life is not Baskin-Robbins where you order the flavor you like and it’s all good.  The difference between Christianity and all the other “religions” is not like the difference between vanilla and rocky-road.  There is no “right” flavor of ice cream, but when it comes to spiritual things there is one truth.  Christianity and Islam are not two faiths on two sides of the same coin.  They are not on the same coin.

If we try the sixties approach of sampling everything out there, that does not mean we are  necessarily searching.  It can be a built in excuse for never having to accept anything.  We can’t commit if we haven’t tried everything.   God says,  “If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.” (Jeremiah 29:13).  So although all roads don’t lead to heaven, all earnest-seeking leads to Christ.

Sometimes people will say something like, “I found the Lord 10 years ago,” as though God had been lost. But God is not the one who is lost; we are. God is seeking to save us, and if we really want to know Him, then He will wipe the snow away and rescue us.  What keeps most of us from earnestly seeking God is an unwillingness to accept God’s assessment of us. We are unwilling to acknowledge our guilt.  We might glibly say we are bad, but those are just words.  We accept our “badness” as a reason to be bad.  We want believe the Christian life is  based on our goodness or badness rather than the shed blood of Christ.  If we fully accept Him and His Word, goodness and badness will not be our focus-  serving Christ and loving Him will be.

If we are “searching for Jeus” we need to look to the WORD and objectively look at what it says.  There was a commercial once that used a different approach to the product advertised.  Let me paraphrase it- “Some will tell you to get prices from many others and come here last because you will see we are the best in every way and you will use us.  I say, instead, come here first and save yourself the trip to other places.  We will let you know their prices if you want, but I can say with confidence that you will stay with us.”  I think that God’s Word says something similar.  “If you want to go around trying out other faiths, hobbies, relationships, locations searching for lasting and deep satisfaction, you can, but if you are earnest in your search you will end up here.  If you come here first, you will save yourself the other trips.”

There is no other place you can find a single inoculation for a seemingly endless number of afflictions.  Although pain may come in varieties, the cure for them all comes in one antidote…. the healing power of the cross of Christ.  He the only God who desires us to come to Him, and He will work sacrificially to that end.  So we can search if we must, but the path is laid out, and all the searching for something to make us happy does not create something that will make us happy.  He already exists and He is reaching down to us.

“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.  It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.  It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The other morning I was thinking how easy it is to take things for granted.  I forget that God has given me such wonderful blessings such as a house, church, safety, friends, and a wonderful family.  Especially family.  If you are like me, I often forget how special that is.  There are those that have no one, but that is not my family.  We have each other to share our laughter and our burdens, and that is a wonderful thing.  The above verse from the love chapter in Corinthians explains how important it to love one another.

Someone once said we should write the good that others do on a rock and the bad they do on the sand to be washed away.  I think that good advice.  If we are not forgiving of others (and especially our family)  for their inadequacies (of which we all have many) the good they do will be overlooked (and there is much good they do)  and the negative will be accentuated (and will cloud our  feelings).  Because we expect more out of those closest to us, we are sometimes much more forgiving of non-family than family; often in the same way that we are more forgiving of non-Christians than Christians (another type of family).

The closer people are to each other, the more they can become irritating.  Porcupines find that out!  Our pokiness will be most apparent to those who get closest to us.  As you can sometimes tell, I don’t always shave and my half beard gets in the yucky pokey state. (I try to stay shaved because people keep dropping money in my coffee cup when I am in the scruffy state).  The last time I was with the grandkids I was telling Gracie good bye and my beard poked her cheek and she reacted with an “ouch.”  Not one other person that weekend was bothered by my beard (well, maybe the looks, but not the feel) because I did not get that close to anyone else.  When we get close to people like we do in a family, pokiness is the chance we take, but that is why it is doubly important to remember that  “love is patient.”

Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.”  Notice the key here.  Living by the Spirit.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to do all the above things in our own strength.   The problem with us is that we so often try to do that-  We know what the Christian walk is all about and we try to walk it on our own.  As Barney Fife used to say, “Not goin’ to happen.”

We have all been in the situation where the people that we love most anger us the most.  It hurts much more later because we know that “A joyful heart makes the face cheerful, but by a painful heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13) and we hate breaking the spirit of those close to us.  God calls us to be more Christ-like and what did Christ look like when He was sent by God?  He was everything Galatians 5 calls us to be. 

We should be patient with others because God is patient with us.  Exodus 34:6 tells us He ”isn’t easily angered.“  Instead of giving us what we deserve, He sent Christ to die for us.  He made a sacrifice; He gave his only Son on our behalf  (John 3:16).   That is the kind of love we need to strive for through the spirit; sacrificing love that puts others needs before our own.  Love that looks beyond the negative and looks at others through the eyes of God.   We need to put others before ourselves even if they’ve hurt us or angered us,.  We need to be patient with them because love is patient and we are called to patiently love.

We have so much less drama than almost any family I know, and I should be thankful (ever watch Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, or Judge Judy? Wow!).  Members of families need to be there for each other.  Sometimes we marry into the better or worse covenant, but families have the same covenant, only they are born into it.  Thank you to my family for being so easy love (and I will try to be easier to love, but until then be patient!). Thank you, God, for giving us family.

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”1 Thessalonians 5:14-18.

We make decisions every day and we would like to make decisions that are compatible with God’s will. But how do we know God’s will? I believe that about 99.99%of God’s will can be found in the Bible. If we think we have found God’s will but our decision is contrary to the Word, we can be assured that it is not God’s will. But it is not that easy!What about things that are not spelled out for us. What if we are trying to decide what job to take, which house to buy, or even where to put our money, can we really find places in the Bible that can help us?

When making decisions like this, the first thing we should do is to see which of our decisions will be more compatible with God’s Word.  If the decision will result in compromising a Biblical truth, then it would probably not be a good decision.  Let’s say we were considering taking a new job, but that job would greatly interfere with our ability to spend any time at all with our kids.  Because there are many verses in the Bible that point to importance to family, we might see this as an indication that that job might not be God’s will and thus not to our advantage.

So where do we find these very helpful verses?  All through the Bible!  Let’s just take a look at five verses from 1 Thessalonians and look at how many valuable aids Paul has left us if we are trying to do God’s will.  If we are making a choice and that choice will violate one of the following instructions, we should think twice before making it.

Take a moment to think about these clear and powerful exhortations concerning the will of God for believers in our verses from Thessalonians. These exhortations express the specific will of God in relationships with others, with ourselves, and with the Lord. Packed into these short verses are patterns of life and behavior which will receive His blessing in these relationships.

“Warn them that are unruly…” When we know people who are idle, undisciplined, pleasure seeking, they need to know the danger they are in. Watching silently as people destroy their lives is not in the will of God. Other parts of God’s Word show us how to approach them; these words just tell us we should.

“Comfort the feebleminded…” We should comfort people who are disheartened, disoriented or confused.  We should come alongside them with brotherly affection, encouraging words, and prayer.

“Support the weak…” Our natural tendency is to despise and neglect weaker people, to stay away from them since they have nothing to offer us, can damage our reputation and often require a long-term time commitment. Jesus says find them and lift them up whenever we can.

“Be patient toward all men…” We must realize how patient God is with us, and that “patience” is the first thing that love is. See 1 Corinthians 13:4 for confirmtion!  Patience means waiting in love and hope, with prayer, for people to see what they need to see, do what they need to do, change how they need to change.

“See that none render evil for evil…”  We should not allow evil men in this world to corrupt our own behavior and character. This is a constant temptation throughout life because evil people are everywhere, including the church.  It is easy for us to compromise our own faith because others do it. We need to stay strong in light of worldly influences.

“Follow that which is good…”  Doing good of every kind is our lifelong mandate as believers; there are millions of ways to obey it. (unfortunately also as many ways to disobey it)  God’s will for us to do good toward all men – even those who don’t deserve it!

“Rejoice evermore…”  This is sometimes a tough one to get a handle on, but we know that Jesus has rescued us from an eternity unspeakable misery and pain to everlasting joy and pleasure. This constant reality in our lives can give a reason to rejoice even when the woes of this world attack us.

“Pray without ceasing…” Some of us might find the idea of praying constantly just a pipe dream. The Lord, however, is wide open to communication with Him 24/7, why not continually include Him in your words and thoughts?  He should never be far from our minds and we should continuously look for reasons to speak to Him.

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you…”;  Before we pray, before we work, before we travel, we should be do so in the spirit of thankfulness.  Gratitude can change our whole approach to everything.  Thankfulness to our Redeemer in all things lets Him know that we know who is in charge and what He has done for us.

Just think what the result would be if all Christians followed just these instructions from Thessalonians on a daily basis.  It is often said that if all believers looked like believers, it would cause the biggest evangelistic explosion the world has ever seen.  God’s Word shows us how to be the kind of people we should be.  If we will search for God’s will in the scripture and will act on the His will, we will be different.

The will of God is not so hard to figure out when we realize that these kinds of verses we see above are throughout the entire Bible. Just obeying these exhortations in these verses can give us direction in many, many decisions. Wherever the Lord calls us, He calls us to live out these things. God’s Holy Spirit inspired these words, and He alone gives us the power to carry them out. Our part is to believe and act, and He then will direct our paths.

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13

Sometimes we openly and deliberately defy God. Other times we try to resist him in passive ways, giving God the silent treatment as we refuse to pray, worship, or even talk about him. Another strategy we sometimes use for resisting God may be the worst of all. We pretend to be following God. We merely go through the motions, looking okay on the outside, fooling even the most keen observers and maybe even fooling ourselves.

We can do that same thing in many other areas of our lives. We may dutifully go through the motions of fulfilling our spouse’s demands, our boss’s demands, our kid’s demands, while inwardly resenting the burdens placed on us. We may technically do the tasks that are put upon us, but inwardly we’re not doing them willingly. When we have this attitude toward God it is doubly bad because, for one, He cannot be fooled and two, pretending leads our lives into destruction.
,
There is a story about a little boy who is told to stand in the corner by his mother. He defiantly sits in the corner. He is mother tells him to stand up. He stands, but yells back over his shoulder, “I may be standing on the outside, but I’m sitting on the inside.” When we look like we are taking a stand for God, but are actually “sitting on the inside,” we can’t fool anyone for long. Eventually the charade will catch up with us. Sincerity of heart has always and will always be how God views our actions. When our kids were kids (some of you remember), we didn’t like it if a task was assigned and they rolled their eyes. Rolling the eyes is a show of dissatisfaction with the task at hand. Too often we roll our eyes at God when doing work for Him.

If we appear to be participating wholeheartedly in the things of God, but it’s mostly for appearances, we will not grow. We will be eventually hit by something that requires “realness.” If we have spent all our time learning to fake it, we will be unprepared for times of actual spiritual need. A counterfeit bill might get by before it is tested, but once it is tested it is worthless. The same goes for us. If we sing in worship or participate in a Bible study, but our participation is a pretense having to do with what we should do rather than what we want to do we will eventually be found out- usually under fire. We have counterfeited honoring God and it will not stand true scrutiny.

When I was young, my brother, sister and I used to put records on and fake like we were singing and put on concerts for our parents and other family members. We sounded just like the Beatles or Dave Clark Five or a hundred other groups. When I tried out for choir in sixth grade, I think I was the only one not to make it. Acting like a singer did not make me a singer. Acting like a servant of God does not make us servants of God. Being a servant of God does. One of the scary aspects of “religion” is that we can easily “fake it.” But we are not in a religion, but a relationship. That is harder to fake.

It is possible to go through the motions in church for years while carefully keeping God at arm’s length. The result is usually a religiosity that lacks a real relationship. Without that relationship there is no joy, no peace, no satisfaction. Eventually, they say, “all pretenders will be separated from true contenders.” I think that is true. Remember, we are called to contend for the faith. We can’t do that by pretending.

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7

I once heard a wise saying that brings the perspective of distractions into focus for me. “Whatever is not your assignment is your distraction.” I used to talk to my athletes a lot about this, especially on game day. I would say that during the game your assignment must be primary. If the guy across the line gets you thinking about him and the way he is holding you on every play or starts talking about your mother or even tells midget jokes about your head coach, you cannot let your mind go to those things. They are merely distractions that interfere with your assignment.

A distraction is anything that divides the attention, prevents concentration, diverts, or entertains. Wow, is that almost our entire world! Television, radio, video games, smart phones, sports, hobbies, are all available at a moments notice, and these are only a few of the hundreds of activities that are ready and willing to take up our time. How do we discern between distractions of the world and assignments of God? How do we stay on task in a world that provides so many play things.

Most of us welcome distractions into our lives. They divert our attention from those more mundane things that can close in on us at times. Unfortunately, if we are not careful the distractions become our lives. Distractions in and of themselves are not necessarily bad, but when they interfere with more important assignments with regularity, it is time to reevaluate. Our spiritual life is important. When it becomes a rather small part of our day as opposed to other activities, it is probably time to do a distraction check.

One of the devil’s greatest weapons against Christians is our own ignorance. If he can deceive us, he can beat us. But do we allow our distractions to keep us from the assignment of knowing God? The Apostle Paul said, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.” (Colossians 2:4) If we put all our energy into things that don’t strengthen our spiritual lives, we will remain ignorant and thus vulnerable. God warns us in Hosea that, “My people perish for a lack of understanding.” (Hosea 4:6) So to keep from being deceived and to keep from perishing, we need to know God better. To know God better, we cannot be live in a state of distraction from Him.

We can gain better understanding by reading the Word, listening to Christian music or sermons, fellowshipping with other Christians, praying, serving… well, you know the drill. If we were to draw a line in the sand and wrote all our time commitments that do not include God on one side and wrote down all the things that increase our spiritual understanding on the other, what would those lists look like? No matter how spiritual we are, the spiritual list will be shorter. We all have jobs, some of us have children, some of us have wonderful hobbies and all of us have a multitude of activities. It is not whether the spiritual list is shorter, it is whether it exists at all.

In Colossians 2:4 Paul attempts to expose the things that would keep us from growing in spiritual wisdom. The verse reads, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you.” But his actual meaning is, “I am saying this so that no one will distract you.” The original language in Colossians 2:4 uses the word “beguile” which is a synonym for distraction and deception. What Paul is trying to say is “be aware.” Knowing that we cannot be in church 24-7 and knowing that there are many activities in our life, we must be careful that we do not involve ourselves in the world to the detriment of the things of God. Paul says in Romans, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:19-20). If we don’t allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, Satan will be crushed by God. If we allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, it is us vs Satan and we are sorely overmatched.

We need to test our distractions. How do we do that? God told us in Philippians 4:8 when he said, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable–if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise–dwell on these things.” If our distractions don’t include these things, we may want to find some other distractions to be involved in. If they do, that probably means that we have Christ where he should be in our lives- at the center.

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”  Luke 15:17

We have all heard the story of the Prodigal Son, but made little application to ourselves.  After all that is the story of someone involved in egregious sins that lead to the pigpen. It is obviously speaking of someone else.  It  is the story for the other guy. But really, the story of the Prodigal Son describes us all as the children of God. We are all unfaithful children of our benevolent Father and have squandered the abundant inheritance he so graciously has bequeathed to us. We have a place set for us at the banquet table, and though we may not be eating with pigs, many of us are, at the least, eating in the basement.

Let’s set all physical pleasures aside for a moment and concentrate on the spiritual blessings God has promised us. In Philippians we are told that, “God will supply every need of ours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)  This seems to be a promise, but do we live lives that reflect those blessings?  If we do not, is it because God’s promises are false, or is it because we live lives that don’t allow his promises to exist.

Sin is an insane, unreasonable, illogical, self-destructive way of life. It negates the plain hand of our heavenly Father, full of every provision we need, and follows after the hallucination of worldly pleasures and fulfillment. We look at our lives, however and think, “I have not thrown away everything; I am not running with harlots; I am not eating with the pigs; I am not the prodigal, but are we positive about that?  Has our Father set the table of spiritual blessing for us and we are satisfying ourselves with less?  Are we running with a corrupt world and eating mush instead of marvelous meals?  Are we prodigals not miles from our Father’s house, not outside the country, but close at hand, seeing the blessings, but hanging out in the courtyard, the garage, the basement, knowing the blessings are close, but not experiencing them anymore than the Prodigal.

We are the King’s children! He tells us in Isaiah 41:10 to “Fear not, for (He is) with (us); (we need not) be dismayed, for (He is our) God; (and He) strengthens (us), (He) will help (us), (and) will uphold (us) with (His) righteous right hand.” Isn’t that blessing?  Isn’t that an invitation to the table where we can receive from Him, what we cannot receive from the world. He is serving up peace for us, strength for us, help for us, and perseverance for us?  And that is just the entree’s.

No one God’s house is hungry or wanting, and yet here we stand in the fast food line of the world indulging ourselves with empty calories and wondering why we feel so weak and emaciated.  We have an open invitation to the table when we have Christ as our savior.  We walk into the banquet room and God the father looks at Christ the Son and Jesus says, “He is family,” and God says “Please grab a plate.”  On the menu are all the blessings promised in the Word.

Here is a thought.  Once we taste the blessing of God, why don’t we walk out to the courtyard and tell those who are also part of the family about the feast within. Let them know that there are no spiritual corn dogs being served in there.  Tell them about the warm welcome that awaits them and the banquet table that is set for them.  Of course, to tell them about what we have seen, we need to have seen it.  In our own way, we are all prodigals if we have not taken advantage of the spot God has set for us at His table.  No reason to wait. I am sure we are pretty hungry.

“If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 4:10)

This is a wonderful verse. It is a great reminder that we do not exist alone on this earth, nor should we. When God made Adam he said it wasn’t good for him to be alone. I don’t think that need for companionship was confined to marriage alone.

God gave us a need to have others in our lives. We especially need people when times are hard. The verse above begins with the word if, but it could just as well be the word when because we will all stumble at times and when we stumble we need someone to reach out to.

In Galatians Paul reminds us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) We are told that we need each other and also that we need to be there for each other. We sometimes think we can rely totally on ourselves, but that is seldom true. Often we need to come to the rescue of others and often, even though we don’t like to admit it, we ourselves need rescuing by others. Although our best friend and rescuer is God Himself, He gives us each other because sometimes it is good to lean on someone with skin on.

Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball, ran into some very tough situations while breaking baseball’s color barrier.  He faced jeering and antagonistic crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. He stood like that until fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.

We will all run into times when we need someone to stand with us.  When we need an arm around us.  There may be times when we need to be that pillar of strength to someone else. We should constantly work on our relationships with others to prepare for those times, especially those closest to us. Whether it’s a friend, neighbor, sibling, child, parent or spouse, investing time in these relationships will help us and them get through difficult times.  Once we have these friendships we need not be too proud to lean on each other when tough times come.

The body of Christ is a family. Like our worldly family, no member of our spiritual family should ever have to bear grief, or pain, or problems alone. As the Word tells us in detail and infers from cover to cover, we should  “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Through Christ’s sacrifice we are to bear one another’s burdens. We are able to encourage others through the power of Christ.  Let’s not walk this world’s rocky path alone.  A friend in need is a friend indeed.  Sometimes we meet the need for others; sometimes we have the need ourselves. 

John Wesley once said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”  Bearing each other’s burdens is part of that good.

“My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.In return for my friendship they accuse me,but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.” Psalm 109:1-5

“But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” Psalm 109:21,22

“With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.” Psalm 109:30,31

Psalm 109 is about a man who is under attack from rather unscrupulous persons. They care little for the truth, but care greatly about hurting others. They are untrustworthy and deceitful. They do not care about the hurt they are inflicting or about the consequences of their action. Throughout this Psalm the writer David calls for God to bring the hammer down on his enemies. Whereas some psalms are soothing, such as Psalm 23 and others are comforting like Psalm 91, Psalm 109 is very troubling to most because it is perhaps the strongest imprecatory Psalm that David wrote. The word imprecatory means to call down destruction on someone and much of Psalm 109 does exactly that.

Most of us have had the experience of being the recipient of terrible treatment from someone.  We have been slandered, had our character besmirched, and even had those who have tried to ruin our reputation.  If that has not happened to you that is great, but unfortunately it is not unreasonable to think it could happen.  There are some pretty unjust people populating this world.  Well, if we have even had some of these unjust things happen to us, we can identify with David.

Notice that these people are wholly unjustified in these attacks. David says they do this without a cause and we take him to be an honest man. He sees absolutely no reason for their accusations. They are afflicting him, upsetting him, and attacking him without cause. That very well may have been the case, but what should he do in response?  The writers in the old testament and even a few times in the new, vent themselves to God about their enemies and call for some pretty awful punishment for them. Should we call down curses on our enemies like that (as though we haven’t once in awhile already)?

I think David gives us a pretty good formula for dealing with these kinds of problems. First of all,  David commits the whole matter to the Lord in prayer.  In the first five verse he outlines his problems.  It is not as though God does not know them already, but by David verbalizing them, he can do a truth check on his own feelings.  Is this really what is going on?  Are these things really unjust?  Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? This is really important to do.  Why?  Because in verbalizing our woes, we may realize that our emotion is unfounded or maybe we are in the wrong or that our accusers need mercy.  By talking to God about it, we can decide on step two in the process.

If we decide that we should handle things differently, then we do.  Maybe instead of bringing wrath down upon our accusers, we should pray mercy for them.  Maybe we should confront them.  Maybe we should forgive them.  Whatever it is that we should do- we should do.  In the verses above, David has decided that he wants the hammer dropped down on his enemies.  By the way, with all his flaws, David was a man after God’s own heart.  If we call for God to deal out appropriate discipline to others, we better be disciplined in our own walk first.  Remember, we are all beggars just pointing other beggars to food. We better not be a kettle calling the pot black (old saying, but a goody).  If we are going to wish punishment on others, we better be sure we don’t deserve it ourselves.  Someone once said that if we point our finger at someone else , three of our fingers are pointing back  at us.

In verses 1-5 David commits the cause to God.  “But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake.”  He understands that the lord has said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.” in both the Old and New Testaments.  (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19).  He says that vengeance is His! We shouldn’t try it; leave it up to God and don’t try to ‘get even,’ because if we do, we will only make matters worse. We will end up damaging others and creating all kinds of difficulties both for us and for them. The Lord is the  only one who has the wisdom to adequately to handle these kinds of a problems.  David recognizes that and commits the cause to God.

But David also understands that God’s name is involved in all this. When God’s people are being persecuted, then God is also being persecuted. After David thoroughly checks the situation and decides he is not being petty and checks his own heart to make sure he is not outside God’s will, he then calls on God to defend God’s name. When Paul was Saul and was converted on the road to Damascus, Jesus identified Himself by saying “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  Saul was persecuting the Christians, but when he was persecuting them, he was also persecuting the Lord. God is involved in His people’s tribulations. David understands this, commits the whole cause to God and says, “God, you deal with it. It is Your problem. Your name is involved; you handle it on my behalf for Your name’s sake.”  That is also what we should do.

We should ask God to keep us from striking back when we have been falsely accused.  If we ride into town, guns blazing, there will probably be a lot collateral damage. If God rides into town guns blazing, He will only hit what should be hit.  We must ask Him to help us commit the cause to Him, trusting that He knows how to work these things out.  We might tell God what we think should be done, but in the end we need to turn the whole thing over to Him.  He will do, what He will do, in His own time and in His own way.  And it will be right and good in such a way that our feeble minds could have never done it as well.

While the prayers of David were severe, his personal actions toward his enemies were often gracious and kind.  David talked about Saul a lot in his prayers (Saul was out to get David).  Even though David cried out for God’s justice, David still extended mercy to Saul.  David refused to take personal revenge, even when he had the opportunity. When he had the chance to kill Saul, he cut off a piece of his robe instead (1 Sam. 24:1-8) and later he was conscience-stricken for the spirit which had prompted even this small this act (v. 5). David may have prayed fiercely, but his actions were absolutely gracious and kind.

We need to do the same as David. At the end of his prayer he shows the right attitude, the right reaction, and the right way to handle this kind of a situation.  Tell God what we think and step away.  If God decides correction is necessary, let Him handle it.  If He thinks mercy is necessary, let Him show it.  If He thinks we should be part of it, Let Him reveal it.  This kind of thing is way above our pay grade.  Let God take care of it.  There used to be a very popular TV show in the very old days.  It was called “Father Knows Best.”  I have to believe when it comes to the handling of our accusers, our “Father knows best.”  If He knows best; let Him do best!

”For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

These verses are two of my favorites, and you have probably figured this out,  since I have written about them quite a few times.  Well, they came to mind recently when I was talking to someone I knew while shopping for camping stuff.  Boy, did she get worked up about the condition of the country.  I remember specifically one thing that she said a couple of times.  She said, “People today want something for nothing.  They don’t feel like they need to work for anything.  They think they are entitled to everything.”

As I made my escape I thought to myself, “I couldn’t get a word in edgewise,”  (that very seldom happens, so I thought I would mention it), but right after that thought, I thought to myself that there is one situation when many people do just the opposite of what she is saying.  A time when they refuse a free gift and instead think they must work for it.  That is when it comes to their salvation.  Isn’t that funny?  Not funny ha-ha.  Funny strange.  I think that the lady I was speaking to was correct that many people believe that their everyday needs should be met for free.  I think that sentiment  is probably worse than ever and is just a sign of the times.

We have all heard the phrase “entitlement society” before, but the truth of the matter is when it comes to salvation we are the “unentitlement society.”  We are “unentitled” to salvation and it needs to be free, because we can never earn it.  Even if it only cost a tiny bit of what was worth, we could not afford it.  Even if our “worthiness” was added into the equation, we could not afford it.  Even if all our good works were counted toward the payment, we could not afford it.  No matter what, we could not afford it; yet, ironically, no matter what, many will not accept the gift of salvation without trying to pay for it.

In America, especially, there is a strange dichotomy.  Although many may want “freebies” they are also told  that working hard will give them more “good” things in life and that doing nothing will bring more “bad” things in life. They hear the message, but are left to decide how to use it.  Some sit and wait to receive things on the backs of others and others work hard and carry the load for themselves and others.  The burden of salvation is only carried on the back of one Man.  The cults and “isms” and even some “non-believers” all have the same mantra.  “If I do enough, maybe I will be accepted into eternity by god.”  Right now we have some zealots that believe they can “kill” their way into heaven.  What we all must understand is that we can’t work our way into heaven with good deeds, bad deeds, or any deeds.  Yes, indeed, there is only one deed that can pay the price for our salvation and that deed took place on a wooden cross over 2,000 years ago.

This will come a shock to many but the lines, “He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good.  So be good for goodness sake,” is not about God’s plan for salvation.  It is important to understand the grace of God so that we can experience it, and also so we can share Jesus accurately with non-Christians. There are two things to keep in mind when we are sharing Jesus with others.  One, we can never be good enough to earn salvation and we can never be bad enough to be ineligible for salvation.  This salvation is based on God’s grace and we can only receive it, “lest we should boast.”

So in conclusion (yes, I can reach a conclusion) , we can never be good enough for salvation. The book of James (2:10-11) tells us if we break any one of God’s laws that we are guilty of breaking all of them and Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 that even if we only think sin, we are guilty of sin.  We cannot be perfect, yet God’s righteousness demands perfection. Since we are in the middle of baseball, let me put it this way.  We have to hit 1000% to get into heaven.  We can’t.  But there is designated hitter that will go to the plate for us who does hit 1000%.  Even if we hit .300 or .500 or .700, we will always fall short unless we use this designated hitter. Let’s encourage others to step out of the batter’s box and accept Substitute who has never failed.

There is a saying that says, “Nothing in life is free,” and what that means is that somewhere somebody has paid for it.  That is true.  And in the case of salvation it has been bought and paid for at great cost.  What a shame if it is not accepted.   The greatest thing that we can do is not try to earn salvation, but to say, “I give up. Christ, You do it.”  That is what Ephesians is telling us.  The bases are loaded.  It’s the bottom of the ninth.  We are behind.  No one should allow pride to keep them in the batter’s box.  Here is a guarantee- we will all strike out.  Only Jesus who has already come through, will come through.  Go back to the dugout and watch Him do His thing, then come out and enjoy the win.