CHOOSING YOUR BATTLES WISELY

 1 Timothy 1:18-19

Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

                When I was in seminary, we were told that we will face many challenges in the ministry. Because we all have limited abilities and limited opportunities, we have to learn to wisely choose our battles. We all have to answer the question, what am I willing to go to the wall for?

                As Christians in America, we have not always chosen our battles well. This is blatantly true right now. We foolishly fight over wearing masks instead of actively caring for the well-being of our communities. We have aligned ourselves with political parties and politicians instead of aligning ourselves with Christ. We have chosen to play the role of morality police instead of extending the love and grace of Jesus to those around us. These and many other battles have diminished our spiritual influence in our society. When we choose to fight the wrong battles, the consequences are less than ideal.

                When Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy to instruct him in the ministry, he told him to fight the good fight of the faith.  Paul didn’t leave Timothy to figure out what that was. He gave him careful instructions on how to fight the good fight. We can learn some lessons from Paul’s instructions to Timothy.

                One of the first lessons Paul gave Timothy was to pay more attention to how he lived out his faith than how others did. The old saying, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, is very true. Christians in Paul’s day were under severe scrutiny. People were watching to see how this new faith played out in real life. The same is true today. Christians have been placed under a microscope, and every flaw is being exposed. Before we can say anything to the society around us, we need to take a radical look at ourselves. Does my life reflect the good news of the Gospel? Does my life reflect the life of Christ within me?

                Paul gave Timothy some specific guidelines to follow that could transform his influence in the world.

1 Timothy 4:12-16

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

                Paul called Timothy to be an example by the way he lived his life. Our lives and our words have to match. If they do not, our words will fall on deaf ears. The way we live our daily lives matters. They way we treat the people around us matters. The first battle we need to fight, and the most important, is the battle within ourselves. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

                The second important lesson Paul wants to teach us is to not get caught up in less important issues. In an issues-oriented culture like ours, it is easy to allow the current cause or issue to dominate our lives. When we jump on the band wagon, we lose our focus on what is most important. It is not that some of these causes not valid, but that they siphon off energy and resources that would be better used elsewhere. Paul warned Timothy to not let the sway of culture control his life.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

                 Too often today we are guided by popular opinion and dominated those who make the most noise. If we are going to make a difference in our world, we need to maintain our focus on what is ultimately important. As Paul says, we need to keep our heads. Stay focused.

                The third lesson that Paul wants to instill in our hearts is that we need to fight with the right weapons.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

                 When we choose to fight with the weapons of the world, we lose in the end. The weapons of power and politics are the weapons of the world, not of Christ. When we look to them to gain what we want, we lose the power of Christ to accomplish His purposes. Instead, we need to use the weapons of God’s grace. When we respond to the world around us with God’s grace, we can disarm them; we can take them by surprise by not responding the way they expect.

Romans 12:14-21

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

                 We have not done a very good job of living this out in recent times. We have chosen the combative path rather than the compassionate path. In the end, we have lost our influence. It is time that we lay down the weapons of the world and pick up the weapons of the Gospel. We need to choose our battles wisely.  It is not wrong for us as citizens to be involved in the political process, but that is not our primary mission. It is not wrong for us to be concerned about social issues, but solving society’s problems is not our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to be salt and light for Jesus, calling people out of the darkness into the grace and love of God.

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

 

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

 1 Peter 1:6-7

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

                 We live in a society that favors ease over effort. We are enticed by “labor saving devises.” We gravitate to anything that makes our life easier and more comfortable. Who doesn’t want a life with less struggle? But we have come to expect that it is our right to be comfortable and for things to come easy to us.

                One of the consequences of our desire for things to be easy has been the lowering of our standards. For example, some educators want to eliminate the grading of students’ work so that no one feels like a failure. Many states allow anyone to enroll in a State university without regard for their performance in high school. Morally we continue to lower our standards to not only allow but condone every kind of sexual expression.

                When things are hard, we often cry foul. We often react like spoiled children who can’t understand why they can’t have what they want when they want it. The idea of negative consequences for our actions is seen as unproductive and an imposition on our freedom.

                On a much deeper level, when negative things do happen in a person’s life, they often get mad at God or at life itself. “I’m a good person, why did this happen to me?” When I was working as an associate chaplain at the hospital, I often heard people express their frustration when something bad happened to them. I vividly remember one case where the person kept saying, over and over again, I haven’t done anything wrong. Why is this happening to me?

                Subtly this idea that life should be easy has filtered into the church at every level. We invite people to come to faith in Christ because He will solve all of their problems. We promise them a “better” life. Some churches take this even a step farther by promising that if we put our faith in Christ, we will never get sick and we will be blessed financially. Come to faith in Christ and enter into a life of ease!

                None of this is supported by what the Bible has to tell us. In fact, Jesus made it very clear that to follow Him was to choose the harder, not the easier path. Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23) That doesn’t sound like the easy life to me.

                Several years ago, I began to run seriously. I set my sights first on running a seven-mile cross country race and eventually raised my sights to running a half marathon.  In order to accomplish my goal, I had to endure the pain of running every day. Once a certain length of run, say one mile, became easy for me, I had to increase it to the next level. Yesterday I went out and ran six miles. The first mile was hard, but with each successive mile it got a little easier. It would have been much easier to stay home and watch TV, but that would not have done much for my overall wellbeing. I run today primarily for my health and not to run a race, but the effort is the same. In order to gain the benefit, I have to put in the effort.

                The Apostle Paul equates the Christian life to running a race. He makes it clear that in order to gain the benefits of our faith we need to put in the hard work. As he said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

                If I don’t work my physical muscles, they become weak. If I don’t work my spiritual muscles, they also become weak. Always seeking the easy path doesn’t lead to “winning the race.” Peter tells us that the path that leads to the salvation of our soul goes through struggle. Like professional athletes who endure grueling training in order to win the big game, we must go through trials and hardships to strengthen our spiritual muscles. Peter says that it is God’s refining process; to make our faith even more precious than fine gold.

                The church in America has been on a pretty easy path during my lifetime. Compared to many other places in the world, we have been on easy street. That may be changing. In many ways it already has. We can ring our hands and complain to God, or we can buckle down and endure hardship as a good soldier of the cross. God is in the process of refining His church, and it will not be pain free. But the outcome, if we endure, will be a crown of glory. As Paul says, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

2 Timothy 2:3

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

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I have been reading Philip Yancey's book "Vanishing Grace". I want to recommend it to you. Although it was written several years ago, it speaks powerfully to the world in which we live today. 

DON’T BE AFRAID

 

Psalm 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.

Selah

                 What makes you feel afraid? One of the things that makes me feel afraid is the apparent decline of the church in America. I have seen several articles lately that have heralded the demise of the church. Church attendance is at an all-time low in America. More and more people are classifying themselves as “nones” when it comes to religious affiliation. Along with the decline of the church is the decline of the moral and social fabric of our nation. If I read the signs of the time correctly, we have moved beyond a post-Christian society to an anti-Christian society. It is a cause for concern.

                I am reading Philip Yancey’s book Vanishing Grace. In that book, he chronicles the increasingly negative image that has been attached to evangelical Christians. Much of this negative image is the result of our own actions. Evangelicals have become known as the “anti-people”. We are characterized by what we are against rather than what we are for. In an increasingly permissive society, any talk about right and wrong or about morality is viewed as hate speech.

                In addition, Evangelicals have for the most part aligned themselves with the political right. They have sought to impose morality on society through political means. This is no more evident than in the unhealthy support for former President Trump. Many Christians placed their hope in Trump as their political savior. Now that Pres. Biden is firmly in office, that hope has been replaced by fear.

                In general, the Church in America is afraid because we have placed our hope in the wrong places. We have placed our hope in politicians and political power. We have placed our hope in conservative causes and moral campaigns. But all of these things have failed to deliver. We see our influence in society eroded on a daily basis. We have descended from a place of prominence into the depths of despair.

                What is happening in the church in America today is nothing new. It parallels the experience of the people of Israel. As God’s chosen people, they became arrogant and exclusive. They expected God to prosper whatever they did. They saw their hope and their future in the strength of their nation and their traditional religious practices. But they lost sight of God’s goal for them; to be a light to the world. Consequently, God allowed their nation to crumble, their center of worship to be destroyed, and their lives to be totally disrupted as they were exiled to a foreign land.

                But God never abandoned Israel and He has not abandoned His church. Psalm 46 is the antidote for the fear that we are experiencing. The Psalmist begins by reminding us that God is our refuge and strength. Our refuge in the storm that is ahead will not be political or economic but spiritual. Our hope is in the Lord and nowhere else.

                The Psalmist continues by reminding us that God has not abandoned us. He is an ever-present help in times of trouble. When we put our focus on the wrong things, we fail to see that God is present in our lives. He wants to protect and guide us, even when it seems like everything around us is falling apart. Jesus said that He is the Good Shepherd and that He cares for His sheep. That was not a hollow promise; it is a present reality. At the end of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus declares, “and I will be with you always to the end of the age.” He has not reneged on that promise.  

                The Psalmist remind us that no matter what is going on around us, we can find courage to face the challenges through the Lord. It may seem like the earth is shaking and the mountains are crumbling, but God is still on the throne. As Isaiah says, those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. When we place our trust fully in Christ, we do not have to be afraid of the future.

                Near the end of Psalm 46, we are encouraged to look back and reflect upon what God has done in the past.

Come and see the works of the Lord,

the desolations he has brought on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,

he burns the shields with fire.

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:8-10

                We are not the first generation to face opposition from our society. As we look back over history, we can see how the church has not just survived, but has thrived, even in the face of persecution. The plans of God cannot be thwarted. He will accomplish what He has determined to do. So we can trust Him.

                At the end of the Psalm, the Psalmist brings us back to the solid rock of our faith. Be still and know that I am God. In times like these we need to banish fear and rest in the strength of the Lord. There are going to be some rough days ahead. But, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid,

I will trust in you.

In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?

 

THE RESURRECTION: MYTH OR REALITY

 1 Corinthians 15:17

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

                People have debated the reality of the resurrection of Jesus since his death and burial. Is it true or is it a cleverly devised story? Whether we believe in the resurrection or not it has had a major influence on all of humanity. The story of the resurrection has become a major pivot point in human history. Contrary to the push to substitute CE (common era) for AD (In the year of our Lord), the life death, and resurrection of Jesus has shaped western civilization and much of the world.

                Every year, as we approach the Easter holiday, the question of Jesus’ resurrection comes to the forefront. The resurrection of Jesus is a historical event that demands a response. We can choose to deny it or we can accept it. If we deny it, then we have to also erase all that Jesus did and taught. If we accept it, then we must bring our life in line with all that Jesus did and taught. It is not a small matter. It is the most important question every person must answer. How will you respond to the story of the resurrection?

                As a follower of Jesus, I find it encouraging at this time of the year to stop and reflect upon the evidence for the truth of the resurrection. I invite you to examine the evidence for yourself and decide how you will respond.

1. It is a historical fact that Jesus was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate. Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-15, Luke 22:66-23:25, John 18:28-19:16

2. Jesus was flogged and cruelly mistreated before his crucifixion. Matthew 27:27-31, Mark 15:16-20, John 19:1-5

3. Crucifixion was one of the cruelest forms of capital punishment. A man would be nailed to a cross, with the nails going through his wrists just below the palm of the hand and a single nail through his feet. Before his feet were nailed, his knees would be slightly bent. Once the cross was in place, the whole weight of the man’s body would be on his wrists. His chest would be constricted, restricting his breathing. He could push up with his legs to get a breath, but the pain would be excruciating. In addition, prisoners were routinely flogged before they were crucified causing them to bleed profusely. As the man became weaker and weaker, he would die of blood loss and asphyxiation.

4. After Jesus died, the truth of this was confirmed when a soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side and blood and water flowed out, indicating that the serum and red blood cells had already separated in Jesus’ body. John 19:31-37

5. Jesus was placed in a tomb carved out of the rock. A large stone was rolled in front of the entrance that would have taken several men to remove. It would be impossible to move the stone from the inside. Given the extent of Jesus’ wounds and the weakness caused by his crucifixion, even if he was still barely alive when he was placed in the tomb, he would have quickly died in the cold airless tomb. Matthew 27:57-61, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56, John 19:38-42

6. The tomb was sealed and a guard of soldiers was placed at the tomb to keep anyone from removing the body of Jesus. Matthew 27:62-66

7. The women were the first to discover the empty tomb. In those days, the testimony of women was not considered valid. This points to the accuracy of the story. Matthew 28:1-7, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-11, John 20:1-2

8. Upon examination by the disciples, it was discovered that the tomb was empty, but the grave clothes were still there. If someone was going to take the body, they would not leave the grave clothes. Luke 24:12, John 20:3-9

9. The guards that had been posted reported all that had happened to the chief priests. The chief priests paid them money to spread a false story. The story does not hold water on a number of accounts. Roman soldiers would never sleep on duty, on pain of death. If they were asleep, how could they know who took the body. If they saw the disciples taking the body, why didn’t they stop them. Matthew 28:11-15

10. The first people to see the risen Jesus were women. Again, if a person in the first century were making up this story, they would not have even included the women. Matthew 28:8-10, John 20:10-18

11. The disciples never anticipated the resurrection. They are not depicted as the heroes of this story, but as scared, dejected men, hiding from the authorities.

12. Jesus appeared to the disciples in a locked upper room. He gave them physical evidence that it was really him and not a ghost. Luke 24:36-49, John 20:19-23

13. Jesus appeared to two other disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:13-35

14. Jesus made a second appearance to the disciples in the upper room, this time with Thomas present. John 20:24-31

15. Jesus appeared to the disciples in Galilee. Matthew 28:16-20, John 21:1-14

16. Paul records multiple encounters with Jesus, by various groups during the 40 days before his ascension. He invited his readers to verify his story. 1 Corinthians 15: 3-8

         There is no doubt that on that fateful Sunday morning the tomb of Jesus was empty. The questions we are left with are how and why?