Wednesday Morning Devotional

Working Out

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; — Philippians 2:12

I want to focus in on five words within this verse today. The five words are “work out your own salvation.” Notice it does not say, “Please feel free to work out everyone else’s salvation for them!” I imagine that Paul mainly wrote this because the good Christian people of Philippi were beginning to argue about the issues of the day and vehemently take sides. Paul basically writes this to say, “Guess who the one person is that you need to worry about when it comes to salvation? You!”

Now, this is primarily a message for people who would call themselves followers of Jesus. If you consider Jesus your Savior and Lord, this is for you. This is certainly Paul’s target group when he wrote this. If you don’t call yourself a Christian, then you get the luxury of setting your own standards of what is right and what is wrong (at least within the laws of the land). However, as a Christian, Christ is the standard. Unfortunately, instead of constantly striving to grow into Christ-likeness, the overwhelming majority of today’s Christians like to set their own standards of what Christianity should look like. Then, they draw a line in the sand and say, “This is where I stand!” Now, I don’t really see a problem with this . . . unless you look down on everybody else for not standing where you do and begin to impose your standards of righteousness upon others who believe in the same God you do and were saved by the same blood that you were.

We do not lack for polar issues to talk about today. I’m not talking about cut and dry issues that the Bible addresses plainly such as lying, stealing, or sexual immorality. Good luck trying to justify those actions! I’m talking about today’s issues that the Bible doesn’t directly address: Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Are cops becoming more violent or is it just that people are becoming more and more disrespectful and refuse to do what they are told? Am I a better Christian than you because I refuse to drink alcohol and you don’t? Am I a better follower of Jesus because I took Cinderella and Godzilla trick-or-treating around our neighborhood while you took Dracula, Jason Voorhees, and some mutilated looking Zombie? Or, maybe it turns out that you are a MUCH better Christian than I am because you didn’t participate in the Pagan heresy called Halloween at all. I will stop here, but this list could go on for miles.

Here’s the thing: Everyone has pretty much drawn his or her line in the sand on these issues. Here’s the other thing: There will always be somebody out there who would tell you that you are being too lenient. On the other hand, there will always be someone out there who would accuse you of being unnecessarily strict.

So what are we to do?

We are to do what Paul instructs us to do; work out our own salvation. Which sounds nice, right? Just decide what you believe is right for you and your family and live that way. However, Paul adds 4 more words that change the game . . . with fear and trembling. As a Christian, we should absolutely never take or make moral or cultural decisions lightly. We should, no we must, search the Scriptures diligently, pray for the Holy Spirit to prick our conscience, and even seek out the advice of Pastors and Elders who have actually produced the fruits of the Spirit for a consistent number of years. Exhaust all possible resources before you officially arrive at your conclusion and draw your line in the sand.

Once we have decided, we must under no circumstances look down our noses and call people “heathen” for setting what we feel is a lesser standard. At the same time, you don’t get to look at the people who seem to set a higher standard than you and call them “fanatics.”

When it all comes down to it, each of us will stand before The Almighty God and give an account for what many would consider the “insignificant” decisions we made in our individual lifetimes. On that day, stammering out, “But, but, but everybody else . . .” will be of no use to you. There will be one person, and one person only for which you will be ultimately responsible.

You.

Work out your own salvation.

Work it out with fear and with trembling.

Later

Adam

Looking to be Saved

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the Earth:  for I am God, and there is none else.  – Isaiah 45:22

By far, my favorite conversations involve individual beliefs.  I have talked to atheists, Muslims (well, a Muslim), and even people of the Jewish faith. Then, of course, within Christianity there are hundreds of subsets:  Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Catholics, Pentecostals . . . and I could go on, but you get the point.  What I have found is that we all consistently look at things that encourage our own belief systems.

For example, one time I made an atheist fairly angry.  He was trying to convince me that God does not exist and was presenting his position quite well.  However, many of the arguments he was using I had recognized from reading the book “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins (Unless you want to wrestle with some serious doubt, stay far away from this book).  I called him on it and told him he was just as religious as I was.  I told him that he read things that encouraged his atheism from other atheists just like I read things that encouraged my faith from fellow believers.  I pointed out that Atheism has its own leaders that people read about, learn from and follow just as every other belief system does.  He didn’t like that very much.

Here is my point: if you want to not believe the God of our Holy Bible, then you can find plenty of literature that says, “The Bible is only a book, it was written by men for men to control others.”  Whatever you want to believe, there are things you can look at as well as other people who believe likewise that will encourage those beliefs if you will continually and regularly look to them.  If you want to believe in humanism, which places your faith in yourself and other people, there are more than enough books to keep you busy until you draw your last breath.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), according to the Lord, Jesus Christ, all roads do NOT lead to the same place.  Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  I realize that this is a seriously narrow minded statement.  But, personally, I’m glad the directions to Heaven are simple and clear.  Look to Jesus, and be saved.

Today, evaluate what you look at and ask yourself, “Why do I look at this?”  What music do you gravitate toward?  What television shows do you watch?  What books do you read?  What websites do you frequent?  Then, ask a couple of simple questions:  Does this encourage my faith in God?  Does this help me look unto Him?  If we ultimately want to be saved, we must consistently look unto Him.

Right believing will always involve right looking.  I found out the hard way that I can’t just say I believe in God, go to church and be bored to near death, listen to whatever I want, watch whatever I want, and do whatever I want and call that Christianity.  I have never been so miserable in my life as when I have tried to serve God and still maintain the pleasures of this world.  Had I been looking to Jesus, He would have flat out told me in the first place, “You can’t serve two masters.”  (Matthew 6:24)

Every single day, I now look to Jesus Christ.  I read about Him, I listen to songs that uplift His Holy name, I converse with Him, and I make my best effort to live in strict obedience to Him.  It is my way of constantly calling on Him.  The Bible says, “All who call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved!” (Romans 10:13)  Doing this stuff helps me stay focused on Him and live the life He has called me to live.  I don’t want to make it sound as if it is my own effort that saves me, it doesn’t.  But the command to look at Him does take conscious, deliberate effort on the part of every believer.  We have an enemy working overtime whose only job is to get every person, especially Christians, to take their eyes off of God and look to anything, and I mean anything, other than Jesus.

Look to Him.  Every day, somehow and in some way bring Him to mind.  Isaiah says it as a command, not an option.  The mighty men and women of God that I know consistently look unto Him.  The ones I know who sway back and forth between faith and doubt look unto Him rarely, if they ever look to Him at all.

Look unto Him, and be saved!

Later

Adam

My friend, Scott, wrote today’s WMD.

Directions

Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path”(NLT)

Let me begin by asking a question: when you’re getting ready to go somewhere for a vacation or a business trip, do you ever ask around to see if anyone’s been there before? Maybe you want to know what the best places to visit are or which restaurants have the best food. I think everyone probably has at some point. Here’s another question: if you asked your best friend if they had been there and they said no, would you start asking them for more specific directions and suggestions? Silly, right? You wouldn’t ask someone who’s never been in SC what the best way to get to Clemson from Atlanta was, would you? You’d want someone who knows, someone with experience, am I right? Now, set that thought aside for just a moment.

Be honest, have there been times in your life when you have had serious doubts about God? Maybe about His plan, or His love, or maybe even His very existence? I know I have. I also know I’m not alone. Have you ever asked “God why?” or “Don’t You care?” or “Where are You?”

I’ve had times, plenty of them, where it felt like it was all I could do to hold the crumbling pieces of my heart and mind together. And all the while I’m begging God to do something, if nothing else then just give me a sign that He’s there and He cares.(By the way, I’ve come to understand, He already did. In fact, He wrote us all a big long love letter called the Bible. It’s a wonderful guidebook to keep us from getting lost along life’s journey but also to help us find our way back if we do wander off trail).

Last week, a friend and I hiked a pretty difficult hike(about 3.5 miles each way) to one of the most unique and incredible places in the Carolinas, Big Falls on the Thompson River. If you’ve never been and are in good health, it is well worth the effort. It is a big and powerful waterfall that is surrounded on one side by this huge rock wall. When you first emerge from the woods, the wind generated from the falls is like standing on the beach as the tides roll in and the breeze washes over you. I’ve never been anywhere that comes close to it.

Now, please don’t do what I did, which was get within a mile or so of the car on the way out and realize I dropped one of my boots, then backtrack about a mile and a half searching for it in the dark (walking right past it about 20 feet from where I started searching). However, that enabled God to continue a word He spoke to my heart as we were climbing out.

As my friend and I were climbing up the huge, steep hill from the Thompson River back up to the trail, we started talking about a friend of hers who runs a ministry for drug addicted men. It’s not some fancy rehabilitation center that people pay thousands of dollars to come to. Instead, it’s run on nothing but donations and a lot of love and grace. You see, the director was once an addict himself. He’s been there. He knows these men’s struggles. He is one of them. He’s walked in their shoes.

As we were talking about him and his dedication, this thought hit me and I just spoke it out loud: “perhaps the reason God allows us to go so far into dark and frightening places in our lives is not because He doesn’t care or doesn’t love us. Could it be that once we have made our way back to the light, He knows that we are the only ones who will know how to go back and rescue others?” I think when we finally vocalize thoughts or ideas that God is giving us, they can so powerfully hit us that we are overcome with emotion. I know I was. Standing there on the side of this hill that runs straight down, I just had to stop and let the tears out.

But isn’t that what we constantly see? How many drug counselors were at one time an addict? How many sponsors are recovering alcoholics? How many preachers were once, like Paul, chief among sinners? Which brings me back again to my travel analogy, who better to guide someone out of the darkness than someone who has been where they are? That’s what I realized God was showing me, metaphorically, as I searched in the dark for my lost boot. Only I knew where to look and only I cared enough to go searching for it.

So as you walk through your valley of darkness, don’t lose hope. Keep your eyes open and your mind alert. In the end, He may ask you to go back for others. And don’t think He doesn’t care or that He doesn’t love you. The enemy will whisper that in your ear, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, I think you could make a pretty good argument that He holds a very special place in His heart for the hurting and broken and lost. After all, didn’t He say He left the 99 to go find the 1? One final thought: in the darkest places, light shines the brightest. Let your light shine.

God bless, Scott

Love Does

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. – 1 Corinthians 13:1 (MSG)

I love to watch one of our setup guys at Lifeline Community Church. Being a church that sets up and tears down weekly takes a lot of time and effort. This particular guy comes early, cranks up his praise and worship, and as it fills the auditorium he goes to work for about a solid hour. I have never heard him talk about how much he loves his church, but his actions show that he loves his church and wants it to succeed.

Love does.

If you love your spouse, you will work to maintain your marriage. If you love your job, you will do your best because you want your company to succeed. If you love your children, you will intentionally spend time with them. If you love your school, you will listen in class, bring your materials, and to the best of your ability you will work for it. You wouldn’t even think of “Christmas treeing” a test which would produce a score that would make your school look bad. If you love God, you will pursue Him relentlessly and serve Him wholeheartedly. To me, love is the action that should always accompany your words.

I say that to say this: There are two things that I haven’t been able to erase from my mind these past few weeks. The first involved a conversation that I overheard about being a Christian.   Several people were roasting a guy who said he was a Christian and were calling him a hypocrite. All he could say in return with was, “You don’t get to judge me!” They were claiming that they had caught him in several lies and that his life just didn’t line up with his beliefs. As I thought about this person, he had lied to me several times; he made excuses for absolutely everything he did wrong, blamed others, and never took responsibility for his own actions. I thought, “I hate it dude, but your judgers are correct. If you speak of being a Christian, and don’t show love by doing the simple things you know are right, you are as annoying as a creaky, rusty gate.”

The other situation involved my alma mater. The little school that I attended for 13 years and then worked at for 17 years is currently on the chopping block. As our numbers have declined over the years, good old-fashioned economics continues to work against us. The blade of the guillotine hasn’t dropped yet, but all that is left is for a vote to let go of the rope.   I’m not here to argue whether or not the blade should drop or not. I’m here to tell you what I saw.

I went to the last school board meeting and saw nearly 200 people pack the place. I looked around and was amazed at how many people I knew. Many were alumni from decades back. Many were current students. Many were in between. All were saying, “don’t close our school.”

Now, I believe the vast majority of the people who were there genuinely love the school. I saw faces of people who sacrifice their time, their efforts, and even their money to support it. You know they love the school because love does. Then, I saw the faces of some who actually harmed the school. Here they were saying, “I love this school,” but I know that all they did for the most part was stir up dissention and use the school for their own social entertainment. They would not bring a pencil, bring books, bring a halfway decent attitude, nor would they show an ounce of effort inside the school walls. In fact, if the teachers and parents did not absolutely do everything in their power to beg and plead them to do their work, absolutely nothing would have actually gotten done.

So, here is the point: All of the people at the meeting said they loved the school and wanted it to stay put. Not all actually loved the school because even though they said they loved it, they did absolutely nothing for it other than show up as a consumer.

Love does.

In the same way, Google just told me that 83% of Americans call themselves Christians. 4 out of 5 people in the U.S. say, “I love God.” How many of these actually follow through when it comes time to show that love? I see people who would rather have their sexual immorality than actually live by the teachings of Jesus. I see people who would rather be lazy and take short cuts than work like Colossians 3:23 tells us to work, “as unto the Lord, not for men.”

Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not claiming to be some prime example of a Christian. I have spent more than my share of years as a horrible example of what it looks like to follow Christ. However, upon giving my life to Him, my desire to represent Him well has always been there. Slowly, over time, he is molding me and shaping me into His masterpiece. In no way have I “arrived,” but I will keep doing that which I know is right and continue to seek after Him.

Will you?

Later

Adam

Completely Trusting God     

Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. – Psalms 40:4

It is so easy to say, “I trust God.”  It is not so easy to live your life like you really do trust Him.   This verse tells us that a person who fully puts their trust in God will be blessed.  I am certainly the happiest and most content when I am looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.  (Hebrews 12:2)  On the other hand, I am the most miserable when I take my eyes off of Him and begin to listen to others or simply do my own thing.

The God of the Holy Bible has done an amazing thing.  He has offered to be in a personal relationship with anyone and everyone who will place their trust in Him.  If we are completely honest, this is a very difficult thing to just straight up give Him our trust.  When I first got saved, I believed for the first time that Jesus was God in the flesh and had come to give His life on the cross as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).  Now as cool as that is and as much love as that shows, I had a hard time making it personal.  I had a hard time believing He did that for me.  Preachers always worded it as if Jesus would have done what He did even if I had been the only one who would have received Him.  But, in my mind, He had done nothing for me other than the stuff He did for everybody.  Of course, now I know and understand that what He did for everybody was and is crazy amazing, but as a sixteen-year-old ignorant kid . . . I just didn’t know.

My very first test came at work.  I directly disobeyed my boss’s instructions at my first job.  I had recently read Colossians 3:9; “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.”  I realized that my current self was a liar; it was simply in my default settings.  I also read in Revelation 21:8 that “all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.”  Hell was the last place I wanted to go.  So I prayed and told God that my new self would stop lying, and asked for His help.  There was this very big, dramatic moment where I had to stand before my boss man.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  I can’t even begin to tell you how bad I wanted to lie to him.  Had I not prayed my prayer earlier that day, there is no doubt I would have done just that.  Instead, I manned up possibly for the first time in my life and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  He was shocked at my honesty.  He had expected me to lie.  Since I told him the truth, he let me keep my job and didn’t even make me pay for one cent of the hundreds of dollars in damage I had done.   I left work that day with a pure trust in Jesus Christ.  My relationship with Him had just become personal.

That was over 20 years ago.  In no way did that experience “cure” any of my other faults.  I was still loaded with other sinful behaviors and wasn’t sure they were ever going away.  I realize now why God set all that up as my first test.  From that moment on, I was able to be honest with God.  I didn’t have to pretend to be something I wasn’t.  I was able to bring the brutally honest truth of my sinful behavior before the throne of grace. If I drank alcohol underage at a party, I confessed to Him that I flat out sinned by breaking the law.  If I had sex with my girlfriend or even looked at pornography, I confessed to Him that I was sexually immoral.  If I was angry with someone, I told Him that I flat out hated that person.  If the Holy Spirit or the Bible in any way pointed out to me that I was wrong, I simply admitted it to God in my prayers.  He had taught me that He could be trusted and that I could be totally honest with Him about the truth that He knew anyway.  To this day, the best thing about knowing Christ is our open and honest conversations.  I still confess my sins to Him as well as rejoice on the few occasions where I actually get it right.  There is nothing like a real deal authentic relationship with the Lord.

Do you have one?

Do you absolutely trust Him with every single fiber of your being?

If you don’t, you are missing out on absolutely the greatest thing this life has to offer.

There is and never will be anyone like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Later

Adam

 Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. – Luke 16:29

Upon arriving in Hell, the rich man immediately learned a lesson that everyone alive desperately needs to learn before it is too late; there is a place called Hell.  It is far worse than any can imagine, and is the final destination of a countless number of people who believe it either doesn’t exist, won’t be that bad, or will somehow be cleverly avoided.  Make no mistake, without true conversion of the heart, mind, and soul through our Lord, Jesus Christ, hell awaits.  In fact, it is constantly expanding simply to receive the countless number of souls going there.  Isaiah 5:14 says, “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.”

The rich man knew his family was headed to hell.  He begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus to talk to them.  He figured if they saw someone come back from the dead, and he told them about Heaven and hell, they would repent of their sins and change.  Father Abraham simply said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”  In other words, “they have the Bible.”  At the time, it was just what we know now as the Old Testament, but it was still enough information to save unconverted souls according to Abraham.

I would venture to say that there is not a single person who reads this today that does not have access to a Holy Bible.  Unfortunately, it goes unread because we are, for the most part, uninterested.  It took me five years after being saved to actually start reading the Bible.  Nearly 100% of the people that I counsel who are struggling with sin do not make it a regular practice to simply read the Bible and pray.  Nearly 100% of the time that I begin to feel far away from God, you guessed it, I have gone a long stretch of time without hearing Moses, Jesus, or the prophets and apostles.  I neglect the simple act of reading my Bible and praying.

So, no wonder there is a “screen generation” rising up who have zero interest in reading any book, much less a hard to understand, difficult book that will take a lifetime of study, such as the Bible.  As long as we have texting, gaming, television, movies, and other various forms of entertainment, who needs it?

You do.

I do.

One day we will draw our last breath and our eternal destination will be sealed.  Every person who reads this probably thinks he or she has lots of time, but so did the rich man in the story two thousand years ago.  His time ran out.  He never planned on making hell his home.  Sooner than we think, our time will run out as well.  Where will you spend eternity?

Pick up your Bible, also known as “the sword of the Spirit,” read it, learn it, live it.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:2

Adam

A Cry from the Pit

“For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” — Luke 16: 28

Oh how I used to love singing along with Bon Scott from AC/DC, “Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there, too . . . I’m on a Highway to Hell!” Bon Scott got his wish on February 19, 1980. He was 33 years old. There are a lot of rock stars that I looked up to and even wanted to be as a teenager who are dead now. A quick search on the Internet says the average age of death for a rock star is 45 years old.

Jesus told of a certain rich man that went to Hell. In that story, the rich man says what I have chosen as my main verse for this week’s WMD. According to Him, Hell is not the big party AC/DC claims it is. It doesn’t sound like any of the rich man’s friends are there partying with him. If they are present at all, having them in Hell with him is of no comfort. It appears that the rich man is now thinking of his family. Hell was of no concern to this man while he was alive and he had a chance to make things right with God. It is of chief concern to him now. He doesn’t want his family to join him in torment. He would do anything to warn them so they could avoid his fate.

Jesus and Bon Scott can’t both be right. Jesus says Hell is a place of torment that is to be avoided at all cost. Bon Scott says Hell is one big party.

Many, many people are living today unconcerned with eternity. I think I know why. Most people look around at the horrors and atrocities going on in our world and it becomes easy to believe that you aren’t that bad of a person. It becomes easy to believe that you are “good enough” to avoid the place called Hell. It also becomes easy to believe that if Hell is your destination, at least it is the destination of countless others.

Somehow, I don’t believe having company in Hell will be of any comfort.

I wonder if on April 15, 1912 as the Titanic was sinking with over 1,000 people still on board if any of them found comfort in the fact that others were with them. On May 31, 2009, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic died. Eventually, we all step into eternity.

I wonder if on September 11, 2001 any of the 3,000 people who were perishing found comfort that others were with them. The most horrifying thing for me to watch is the footage of the people who jumped. Faced with the choice of jumping 1,300 feet to their deaths or burning, some chose to jump.

I realize not everyone believes in a literal Heaven and/or a literal Hell. There are plenty of other theories with little or no consequences to your soul. They are nice to believe because they absolve you of all responsibility as far as the way you choose to live your life. However, if you call yourself a Christian and claim to have put your trust in Jesus Christ, you must believe absolutely everything He taught. He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6)

At the age of 16, I chose to leave this burning world, trust Jesus, and jump. Just like I caught my daughter the first time she jumped from the edge of the pool . . . Jesus caught me. I love my Father in Heaven and trust Him completely. There is none like Him.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Later

Adam