Protesting Evil

Piper’s devotional for today is a letter to a company that advertised an erotic film in a place where it could be viewed by children. He gave sound reasons why this was wrong, not only for children but for society in general.

He didn’t publish the results, but I remember making a similar protest many years ago. A local corner store had a magazine section with several close-to-porn covers on lower shelves, clearly visible to children. I didn’t write a letter. I called for the manager and made a statement and left the store. The next time there, not only were those magazines moved, they were not even on any shelves! Sometimes it’s possible to make a difference just by speaking up.

Piper makes a good argument to that advertiser. Mine wasn’t much. What stands out to me is saying what needs to be said and having the courage to say it. This is an obedience thing. The Word of God generally focuses on rebuking sin in other Christians, but it does not leave out commands to hold the unsaved world accountable for their sin.

AI says these are the most damaging sins to others: murder, adultery, lying, deceit, exploitation, abuse, neglect of others, and gossip. In one reference, the NT lists these:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21)

Such sin is deadly to the person committing them, but also harmful to others. How many families have been split up or destroyed by sin? How many nations and cultures are not doing well because of sin?

While Christians know that change of heart comes through the activity of the Holy Spirit, we are responsible to give the Spirit our cooperation. Silent Christians are not useful. Neither are sinning, self-centered Christians, or those too fearful for losing their own comfort so stay silent rather than being persecuted.

But how do I know what the result will be? Asking a store owner to move magazines could have resulted in her saying, “There goes a goody-two-shoes” and laughing, or much worse, but it didn’t. I’ve not thought about it much, but speaking up could have saved someone from a life of addiction to that junk. That seems minor, but it is on the list of the junk that resides in the human heart. That junk defiles us as well as hurting others. Jesus said:

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:18–20)

While the NT speaks of my responsibility to warn others concerning their fate, the OT says if
I don’t, God will hold me accountable for their loss. The connection? If God wants me to speak so the Holy Spirit can use what I say, I must obey. I need to pay attention to His voice and do whatever He asks. My motivation is not to be thwarted by wanting my own comfort.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:17)

PRAY: Jesus. this is important stuff. You tell me that I “have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel” and to “speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests my heart.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4) May I listen to know when to speak, and to know how to do it, and to trust You for the opportunities and the results.

 

The value of spiritual disciplines

 

Most Christians know what spiritual disciplines are: Bible reading and study, prayer, worship, fellowship, silence, and others. Some might suppose these make us more spiritual, but it is God that does that. The disciplines merely put us in places where we can experience His transforming power. On the other hand, if I do them all but refuse to obey, these disciplines have little value.

One detour to spiritual growth is thinking I cannot grow in less than perfect surroundings. However, that is often the situation for flourishing if I remain faithful to the disciplines and remember the truths God has taught me and still teaches, truth like:

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

This is an important “place of grace’ in that it puts the flesh where it belongs and centers life in Christ, where it actually is — even if the world, the flesh, and the Liar keep telling me otherwise. Jesus is the source of my life and I need to remain in that thinking, abide in it. This means all my thoughts, words, and actions spring from His Spirit, not from anything else.

I’ve used the illustration of a cup. Upright it is filled, but if I sin, I ‘tip over’ and the Holy Spirit is no longer filling me because I’ve let in something else, either the ideas and love of the world, the desires of the flesh, or the lies of Satan.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

The flesh is given many descriptions. Some are at the lower end of our human sin scale:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19–21)

However others are not so blatant: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) This verse describes anything I do apart from the will of God. My own way might be ambitions that serve my ego, and other self-centered and selfish motivations.

The lies of the enemy are designed to knock out faith with suggestions like: “God does not want the best for you. God’s love should be making you comfortable. God does not control everything” and a host of thoughts contrary to Scripture and truth about Him. 

Again, spiritual disciplines offer a variety of reminders, clues, rebukes, and helpful reasons to keep my source on Jesus instead of getting knocked over or off track by spiritual enemies, including my own pride and foolishness. It keeps this “glove” on the “hand” that moves it, not stuck in some useless place without any power.

The most common knockout punch is disobedience. This enemy is rooted in lack of faith in the Lord and putting faith is something other than Him. It keeps sinners from salvation and Christians from living fruitful lives that prove our faith, ensure answered prayer, fill us with joy, and enable us to love one another:

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:6–12)

PRAY: Jesus, I’m so thankful that You give me a love for Your Word and a desire to go to those “places of grace” that help me focus on You and on truth. They also rebuke my sinfulness and hold me accountable. The only ‘cure’ for disobedience is confession and Your forgiveness and cleansing — certainly not “trying harder” for I cannot save myself or fix my sin. You are truly my Savior, not even the disciplines and not my will. You love me and keep all Your promises to forgive, cleanse, and transform my life and will take me home to live with You forever.

Obvious or oblivious?

 

 

While searching for a word in one of those word search puzzles, I often wonder if they left it out. But when I find the word, it is so obviously there that I wondered how I missed it. Another person might find it sooner because what seems obvious to some is not plain or even noticed by others.

This is true in spiritual matters also, except that some things are OBVIOUS, plain to everyone. For instance, this passage speaks of God’s wrath against those who suppress obvious truth, then says,

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19–20)

If this were not from God’s Word, I would shake my head. It seems to me that most people are oblivious to what seems obvious to me, yet God says all human beings can know certain things about Him, suppressed and muddied as these things are by various other theories to explain how and why they exist.

What else is obvious about God? It is not the identity of Christ as God in human flesh; this truth needs to be revealed. It is also not that God is wise and sovereignly rules over all, for people curse Him rather than trust Him. It is not that He does miracles, for many are dismissed as coincidental.

According to the Bible, a significant answer to what God is like should be obvious by the behavior of those who follow Him. 1 John 3:10 says, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

This has been muddied also, partly by excuses for unrighteous behavior and partly by a failure to practice spiritual disciplines that keep believers close to God and in a godly lifestyle.

One writer says we obviously, need reminding that knowing God has challenges, but knowing ourselves also has challenges. This becomes obvious when we do something awful and are surprised by it. Yet the Bible says:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

“Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12).

Someone once said to me, “It must be easier to be a Christian as you get older.” Obviously, he was younger and had no idea what older people experience. He didn’t realize how oblivious we are to the depth of our sinfulness and how God persists even to the very end to reveal our sin and sanctify our souls.

Humanity is also oblivious to the will of God. Jesus’ brothers assumed he would want fame and public recognition and would go to Jerusalem to gain it at the feast. They were wrong, as were the crowds who assumed that Jesus was a deceiver, or the religious leaders who assumed He could not read their minds and know  their plot to kill Him. To them, it seemed obvious that Jesus’ message must be false since only the ‘ignorant’ took it seriously — but that was wrong too.

Sincere belief in what appears to be obvious is no excuse for not searching for truth. Our belief system should rest on what God says, not on the opinions of others, social media, critics, pundits and soothsayers.

Galatians 3:10–12 points out the obvious by saying it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ ” Is this obvious to all? Hardly.

Yet sin can be obvious. Galatians 5:19–21 lists some of it: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

And 1 Timothy 5:24–25 adds this, “The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.” The evidence that sin is obvious is described later concerning those who “oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all . . . .”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. While not all is obvious, keeping my focus on the Lord makes seeing truth about Him easier, clearer. Besides, “When the day of the Lord arrives, the work I have (or have not) done for the Lord will be shown for what it is” so it seems obvious to discover and do His will rather than be oblivious and ashamed on that day.