Category Archives: Faith

He walked the dusty road alone.

He was old but strong.

The sun beat upon him as he maintained his swift, determined pace. His long, white hair flowed behind him and his piercing eyes squinted into the broad horizon.

He was sad for the man he had chosen and now left behind. He had begun with such promise but somehow, over time and in ways unforeseen, his judgment faltered and his integrity ebbed.

Samuel painfully remembered the day King Saul pleaded with him to stay so they could worship together. Saul had conceded his sin and willful disobedience to the Lord’s clear command.

He explained to Samuel that the people had demanded he keep the plunder of battle. He listened to them and not to God.

Saul begged Samuel not to leave him. The prophet told him that God “has rejected you as king of Israel” (I Samuel 15:26, NLT).

As Samuel turned to leave, the desperate king, trying to hold him there, grasped the hem of his robe, tearing it.

Samuel turned and faced Saul squarely.

With a look both pathetic and compassionate, tears welling in his eyes, the old man told him:

“The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to someone else – one who is better than you”(I Samuel 15: 28, NLT).

Such high hopes now dashed by character too weak for leadership.

The final verse of I Samuel 15 is one of the saddest in all the Bible:

“And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel”(KJV).

Saul failed.

Samuel wept.

God regretted.

It was the end of a sad and cautionary chapter in the history of God’s chosen nation.

Now Samuel was on his way to Bethlehem. God told him he had mourned for the disgraced Saul long enough. It was time to face the future.

“Find a man named Jesse who lives there,” the Lord said, “for I have selected one of his sons to be my king” ( I Samuel 16: 1, NLT).

The selection of this new king is a well – known and oft – recounted story.

When Samuel first saw Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab, he was certain this tall, muscular, chisel-chinned young man had to be the one who would be king.

“Surely this is the Lord’s anointed”.

God stepped into this selection process early – not just for Samuel’s sake, but for ours.

“ But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (I Samuel 16:7, KJV).

We can’t help it. We’re only human. We’re almost always sure that the cover tells the story of the book inside. And that’s exactly how we judge it.

Then we’re wrong.

Not all the time, but much of the time.

Hey Samuel! Listen to me:

“Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him … Men and women look at the face; GOD looks into the heart” The Message).

And so it went. Jesse presented all seven of his sons to the prophet Samuel. God whispered into the prophet’s ear each time:

“Nope”.

Samuel looked at Jesse. Jesse looked at Samuel.

Samuel scratched his hoary head and quizzically stroked his long white beard. He knew this was Bethlehem. He had heard that right. And this guy standing before him was Jesse – the census showed only one.

“The Lord has not chosen any of these … Are these all the sons you have?” (verse 10-11, NLT).

Jesse looked at Eliab and Abinajab, who rolled their eyes and smirked.

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse told the prophet. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats” (verse 11, NLT).

The older brothers snickered.

Samuel paid no attention.

“Send for him at once”.

The lad was handsome, of average build. He was polite, smiled nervously. He wasn’t sure why he’d been summoned from his father’s back field. Samuel noticed his beautiful eyes. He seemed as innocent and naïve as the sheep he was guarding.

Samuel heard God’s voice: “This is the one; anoint him”(verse 12, NLT).

In this young heart, God saw his own.

That’s how it happened. It was a day like any other. David awakened the runt of the litter and headed for the fields; and the sheep and the goats. By dinner time at sunset, he had been anointed with oil by the mightiest and most revered man in Israel.

He would be King David.

Israel’s greatest leader.

The king upon whose throne would someday sit the King of all kings and the Savior of the world. Born in this very town.

Warren Harding looked every inch a president. James Buchanan had the most star-studded resume.

Today they are remembered as probably the two worst American presidents in history.

It’s the humble and awkward rail-splitter from Illinois who occupies the place of honor; whose homely features are carved in Rushmore, who memory is “enshrined forever” in the hearts of the people.

He served a single term in Congress before he saved the Union.

Unlikely.

The ornate office building had a spacious lobby.

Sitting in the corner, in a large, voluptuous brown leather chair, the dapper businessman in the blue pin-striped suit and dark red tie listened attentively.

He had just finished an interview with The New York Times.

Asked what he believed in, he looked earnestly into the eyes of the young reporter. “God, family and hamburgers”.

Then as he got up to walk to the elevator, he turned and smiled broadly. “But when I go in the office I reverse that order”.

Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s empire, had climbed to the top of the world with a ruthless passion for the franchise sale of hamburgers and fries. By the time Kroc died in 1984, the ubiquitous Golden Arches spanned the globe.

Ray Kroc died rich.

In his business, profits came first, followed by family. God came last. He compartmentalized and prioritized his busy life. Sunday may have been set aside, but it had nothing to do with the rest of the week.

God was good. But money was king.

Christians recoil at such a blatant diminution of God. We all profess to put God first in our lives. For me, it’s sometimes easier said than lived. Every day, I face the world, the flesh and the devil. They work in a diabolical tandem to distract my attention from First Things.

Priorities. They may be important but they’re not always easy. Sometimes I find myself inadvertently reversing the order. It’s a challenge – and temptation – that many of us struggle with. We’re in this world, Jesus sends us into the world and we can’t escape the world – nor does the world escape us.

William Wordsworth observed:

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”.

In the scriptures, God reminds us of the primacy of the spiritual. Jesus drove the point home on many occasions, in many ways.

When the wealthy farmer boasted of his gains and his plans, Jesus tells us that God gave him a dramatic reality check:

“God said, ‘Thou fool! Tonight, thy soul shall be required of thee’” (Luke 12:20, KJV).

Death would sweep away a lifetime of prideful illusions of self – sufficiency in an instant. As often as it happens, man still presumes.

“Man proposes,” wrote Thomas a’ Kempis, “but God disposes”.

“You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail” (Proverbs 19:21, NLT).

“God said …”

God told the man his life would be over that night – not a jealous rival, not a disgruntled employee, not an ignored wife – God said it to him.

Jesus asks each of us:

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36, KJV).

“Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8:37, NLT).

It’s not wealth that is the root of all evil – that verse is often misquoted and misunderstood. Nowhere does Jesus condemn riches or success. It’s the love of money above all else – especially above our love for God – that is the sin that so easily ensnares us and hollows out our lives.

When we begin to lust for more, when we cut ethical corners to succeed, when we abandon our families to pursue our material goals; when we vainly imagine that our own skill and talent and hard work have given us our money – and, worst of all, when we proudly assume it’s our money and not God’s, then we run the risk of losing our own soul in order to gain the world.

Then wealth becomes our master and not our servant; our idol rather God’s gift; our end and not our means.

When this happens it’s a tragedy. Ebenezer Scrooge could warn us of the shallow folly of a materialistic and selfish life.

God forbid it in our own lives!

Priorities? What is profit – and what is loss? Theologian and author Leland Ryken aptly observed:

“We worship our work, work at our play and play in our worship”.

Ray Kroc may have “reversed the order” of his priorities when he entered his office but on the night God required his soul it didn’t matter how many burgers and fries the world was eating.

Jesus told us our priority – the First Thing of our lives; the One Thing that will forever dwarf all others and insure, when that day of reckoning comes, our life was lived at a profit and not at a loss.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”(Matt 6:33, KJV).

The day is hastening when it won’t matter who was rich and powerful or popular – or poor, scorned and unknown.

God tells us what’s important:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NKJV).

Try and save your life by trusting in the power and wealth of this world and you will surely lose it. Lose your life for the cause of Christ and his kingdom and you will save it through all eternity.

There is a profit. There is a loss.

What does the balance sheet of your life show?

The two men walked together down the pleasant shaded road.

This was going to be a nice trip – a journey one man knew of and the other wondered about. The one carried a sack on his back. He looked determined.

“Tell me more,” the younger man asked eagerly. “What will it be like, I mean when we get there?” The man carrying the sack explained what he had read in the book he held firmly in his hand.

It all sounded so wonderful to the young companion.

“Wow! That’s amazing,” he enthused. “Come on, let’s walk faster. I can’t wait to get there!” This was the zeal of a new beginning. Hope always abounds at the start.

When Christian, with that load on his back, and Pliable, his spirited but untried fellow traveler, fall into the Slough of Despond, it suddenly becomes an entirely different story.

Neither saw it coming.

As the two men thrash desperately, sinking deeper into the mire that represents the trials of life and the adversity to faith, Pliable asks, “Christian, where are we now?”

Christian didn’t know.

Pliable becomes indignant and worried.

“Is this the happiness you told me about?” he cries to Christian. “If it’s like this now, at the beginning, when we’ve gone only this short way, what is there still ahead of us?”

Struggling in the murky swamp, Pliable finally gets to the bank that is closest to his home.

Crawling out, he turns to Christian, still flailing in the swamp, and announces, “You will have to take the far country without me – I’m going back!”

And back he went.

Back to his old home, his security, his friends and his comforts.

John Bunyan tells us in this early episode of The Pilgrim’s Progress, that of Pliable, “Christian saw him no more.”

Christian is pulled from the Swamp of Despondence by a man named Help. Christian chooses, despite this early adversity, to continue his journey. He loses his burden of sin at the cross, encounters many a deceitful and powerful foe along the way but finally crosses the river and enters that beautiful far country that will be his eternal home.

Christian never gave up.

He also never saw Pliable again.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan gave the world the greatest single book of Christian faith and doctrine since the Bible. When he began writing it he was in jail because he refused to stop preaching the Gospel. He spent twelve long years in that Bedford prison.

He suffered for his faith and his conscience.

Bunyan knew adversity and understood the importance of Christian perseverance.

Do we?

For the remainder of our lives on earth you and I will live in a world increasingly alien and hostile to Christianity. Our faith and our determination to live it will be tested in new and different ways in the years ahead.

In his story of the sower and the seeds, Jesus tells us that 75% of the spiritual seeds never grew to fruition. The various trials, distractions and temptations of this life deprived them of taking root in the heart and bearing a crop in the soul. The conditions and pressures were various but each of the three cases ended in the same wasted tragedy.

In each instance, there was a lack of perseverance – the failure of determination to stick with it and remain faithful despite the circumstances and opposition. Every time, the situation triumphed over the promise.

The Bible speaks extensively of the urgent need to persevere and The Perseverance of the Saints is a gloriously recurring and integrated theme throughout scripture and throughout the history of Christ’s Church. In Nave’s Topical Bible, the entry for Perseverance runs more than four pages, with biblical references from Genesis through Revelation.

And what is the entry just before Perseverance in this venerated reference work?

Persecution (six and a half pages).

Over and over again, we read that we shall prevail in our struggles of faith and life, “if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:6, KJV, emphasis added).

The writer says that you and I are “partakers of Christ”, sharing in his life and glory, “if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end” (Hebrews 3:14, KJV, emphasis added).

If we trust God “just as firmly as when we first believed” (NLT) – when faith was fresh, the sky was blue and the prospects for our journey glorious – before our first struggle in the swamp of temptation and despair.

Hard times come. They are part and parcel of the authentic Christian experience.

“If you follow Christ” wrote Charles Spurgeon, “you shall have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels.”

You and I will not need more perseverance than the saints of old needed, but we may need more than we have needed until now.

The Christian has always had to endure “many dangers, toils and snares”.

Let us therefore remain “steadfast, unmovable” (I Corinthians 15:58, KJV).

Let us remember and avoid the tragedy of Pliable. And know that the grace that has led us thus far will take us to that far country – and our eternal home.

It’s a pin inserted around the axle to prevent the wheel from falling off.

No linchpin, no wheel; no wheel and you’re not going far.

That’s one meaning of this word.

Here’s another:

“A person or thing that holds something together; The most important part of a complex situation or system.”

“A central, cohesive element.”

Paramount – central, indispensable, irreplaceable, non-negotiable and irredeemable.

That’s a linchpin.

It defines everything and holds it all together.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of Christian belief. If it took place it renders our faith everything. If it did not take place it renders our faith nothing.

No in between.

Certain things in our lives must be regarded as decisive. The resurrection of Christ is the most decisive event in history. It dominates the past, defines the present and determines the future.

For the follower of Christ, the resurrection is the linchpin of life – now and forever.

If Jesus Christ did not rise again, life itself signifies nothing.

In his powerful case for the resurrection, made brilliantly in his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul is categorical and explicit:

“And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless” (I Corinthians 15:14, NLT). We might as well eat, drink and be merry, Paul says, for tomorrow we die and that’s the end of it. We perish in our sins without hope.

Paul argues that but for the resurrection of Christ, life is without meaning and Christianity is a silly superstition.

The one thing that keeps us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, is the fact that he defeated death and the devil when he rose again.

You may reject Christ and Christianity as frauds perpetrated centuries ago upon gullible people by extremist and fearsome quacks. But you must still admit, logically, that the resurrection is central to the understanding of Christian faith.

It is the linchpin.

Paul told the Corinthians that if our hope is limited to this life we are miserable people. Nothing – not our health, not our money, not our homes, or our jobs; not our careers, not our ambitions and not our possessions – none of these things offer us any lasting hope. Not even our family or friends. We search in vain in this life and in this world for anything that will secure our permanent, eternal happiness.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the only perspective on life that makes any sense.

What is the one thing that gives the person and life of Jesus Christ authenticity and reality? That proves his divine identity beyond doubt?

What is the one thing that delivers us from the fear of death?

What is the one thing that gives us a joy-filled confidence at the graveside that we shall see our loved ones again?

What is the one thing that can make us optimists in the face of life’s trials, tribulations and tragedies? In the sad reality of the fallen human condition?

What is the one thing that gives us security in the face of life’s uncertainties?

What is the one thing that gives us an undying hope for the future?

Without Christ’s resurrection, there would be no reason to believe in him, obey him, follow him or to be his disciple.

The resurrection is more than a theological belief. It is more than a historical fact. It’s more than a comforting metaphor or a colorful annual celebration.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a world view. It is a way of living. It is an attitude. Because it is a fact, this new way of living is a hope founded, not on wishful thinking, but rooted in reliable reality.

The resurrection defines our lives and how we live them.

Because the stone rolled away at the glimmering dawn of the third day, the outcome is no longer in doubt. Because the resurrection is true, we can live a resurrection life now. In this world. Come what may.

The evidence for the resurrection is more than circumstantial – it is overwhelming, incontrovertible, compelling, definitive. Paul – who saw Jesus after his resurrection – builds his entire case for faith upon this undeniable truth: Jesus is alive.

Paul appeals to no other historical fact or confidence than the resurrection.

Had Jesus only been born it would be a beautiful but meaningless story; the manger a lovely but empty scene. If Jesus had only died it would be a heroic tragedy and a marvel of sacrifice; but it would still end in defeat. We would still be hopeless.

“Without the resurrection,” declared Billy Graham, “the cross is meaningless…an unopened grave would never have opened heaven. “

Jesus was unequivocal.

He told Martha that he was “the resurrection and the life.”

Jesus dueled with death and raised Lazarus from the grave; he restored to life a little girl when others laughed at the prospect of a miracle; Jesus touched the casket of the widow’s son and turned a funeral procession into a joyful celebration of restored life.

Jesus’ earthly ministry was the precursor of immortality.

Resurrection Day.

A day of hope. A day of joy. A day of glory. A day of victory.

His day. Our day.

The securing of our eternal triumph. The meaning our faith.

The linchpin of our lives.