The Peril of Cruising

 

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

—Romans 13:11-12

I recently read an article by an author who compared the life of the present day Evangelical church to a cruise ship, rather than a battleship. As I’ve pondered this image, I tend to agree that we, who consider ourselves part of the Evangelical branch of Protestant Christianity, do often resemble this luxury conveyance that promises services to excite every fancy.

Cruises promise an enormous list of luxurious activities:

• spa and salon services
  
  
• shore excursions
  
  
• foods from around the world served in casual and formal settings
  
  
• free lessons in a wide range of activities, including even fencing and archery
  
  
• Broadway shows and many other types of entertainment
  
  
• even cool aquatic and other activities for children, in order to keep them occupied while the adults drink, dine, dance, and talk to each other.
  
  

Like the cruise ship, in our Evangelical churches, we try to satisfy the tastes for entertainment and comfort for each person who steps into our church foyer:

• We produce professional materials for children that rival any Disney production
  
  
• we serve food and refreshments in the lobby that will draw even the most picky coffee connoisseur
  
  
• we arrange the seating and an environment that allows those present to observe worship in comfort
  
  
• we provide music, with many elements of a stage production, that offer as much as many entertainment venues, so that drawing outsiders becomes the most important outcome of our efforts.
  
  

Contrast this image of our Evangelical churches to the image if our churches were more like a voyage on a battleship. What a letdown!

• no varieties of grand dining
  
  
• no long, restful spa treatments
  
  
• no Broadway-like entertainment
  
  
• no extra efforts to provide comfortable surroundings
  
  
• no time to lounge around enjoying the efforts of staff to wait on us and provide our every desire
  
  
• no cheerful activities to distract our children.
  
  

Instead, we enter such a battleship and prepare to stand in readiness for war. We eat what the battleship rations supply. Our schedules and work are planned and ordered by those above us. We live on alert at all times.

The ship itself boasts no deck lounges or vast swimming pools. Instead, it carries large-caliber powerful weapons. The hull is lined with heavy ironclad armor plate, able to absorb the damage from enemy fire. Onboard, we see anti-aircraft armament and we rest in the seaworthiness of the ship and the expert preparations of the crew.

The first ship is designed for rest and sleep. The second for tireless work and a sinew-stretching fight against the powerful enemy.

If an Evangelical church takes on the similarity to a battleship, how does it look? What does it have for priorities?

First of all, when the “passengers” come on board, they realize the expectations. Everyone must push against the foe. Everyone looks to the Captain and the “manual” He has prepared for instructions. Feeling entertained no longer even comes up in conversation. Each member no longer looks for his or her favorite pastime. Instead, all members work together for the greater goal—winning against the enemy and pleasing the Captain.

The crew on a battleship gives its attention to the danger of the enemy, the great struggle needed to defeat him, and the training one has received—and must continue to receive—from those in higher rank. The written Word of God must train the Christian in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:17 tells us the reason for this:

That the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It is reasonable for those of us who attend Evangelical churches to ask this question: “Do our churches equip their people with thorough battle preparation through the written Word of God?”

In the early Church, the believers knew what it meant to pray with divine power, in order to affect change and to obtain miraculous answers to prayer. In Acts 4:29-31, we read how they prayed:

“Now, Lord, consider their [those conspiring against them] threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Within our Evangelical churches, how often do we ask God in prayer to give us boldness in proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? How often do we ask for strength and protection to fight against sin and the persuasive influence of the evil one? Answering those questions may help us determine the answer to yet another question: “Do we serve the Lord on a cruise ship or a battleship?”

In these days of moral decay within our culture and of the increasing struggle of Christians around the world, should we not engage in battle rather than take a luxury vacation?

 

 

Living on Popcorn

 

The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.”

—Jeremiah 33:3 AMP

As a teen, I remember hearing lessons and sermons in which teachers or pastors referred to short prayers of the “God, please help me now!” variety as “popcorn prayers.” They encouraged our spiritual formation by teaching us that God loves and cares for us, and that in His omniscience—His ever-abiding presence—He listens to every prayer we pray. When we get into confusing or difficult circumstances, we should, first of all, go to Him.

I send up “popcorn prayers” all the time. But, I know from my longtime experience that I can’t base my life on those quick requests for help. Instead, I need to seek out the God of heaven and earth in His holiness and power on those daily occasions when I sit down with Him for a “full meal” of His written Word and, in my inner being, listen to discern His explanation for what I am reading.

Please let me illustrate by relating this account from the first chapter of Nehemiah:

Nehemiah, one of the exiles who lived in Persia, had risen in importance within the government to the place where he served King Artaxerxes as his cupbearer. The king trusted Nehemiah with his very life. In turn, Nehemiah knew that the king expected him to come in good spirits and a friendly heart in order to deliver poison-free refreshment.

One day the king questioned Nehemiah because he looked sad. Now, if we go back in time a bit, we learn that Nehemiah had heard from a fellow Jew, who had traveled to Jerusalem, that the walls of the city had been ruined and torn down.

As a result of hearing this bad news, God gave Nehemiah such a burden for this former vital city of the Jewish nation—a city that Nehemiah had never seen, but a city that was the seat of his ancestry—that Nehemiah wept over this news. Then, Nehemiah fasted and prayed for four months about a solution.

We get a glimpse of the kind of prayer that Nehemiah prayed from reading one of those prayers in this passage of Scripture. Nehemiah worshiped God as the covenant God, reminding Him of the sins of His people, and also reminding Him of the promises given to Moses. By the time Nehemiah finished this prayer, he felt he had heard God calling him to go and serve in Jerusalem.

These events had taken place immediately before this encounter over the wine with Artaxerxes—the very day when Nehemiah went to the king with a sad face, causing the king to ask Nehemiah about his countenance. Perhaps the king thought Nehemiah had tasted something that wouldn’t have been healthy for the king! But no, the conversations went like this, as recorded in Nehemiah 1:2-5. The king said to Nehemiah:

“This must be sadness of heart!”

Nehemiah explains: I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever!” Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city of Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.

As you read this account, did you see it? Nehemiah prayed a “popcorn prayer”! But, we must remember that this prayer came after four months of long, thoughtful, submissive, listening prayer. Of course, God heard and answered Nehemiah’s prayer.

I suggest that “popcorn prayers” shouldn’t make up the totality of our prayer life. We need to have them handy in the moment we come up against a problem. But, only after we have built a relationship and a life of long, extended prayers with our Heavenly Father.

God longs for us to come in quietness to commune with Him. Yes, He listens to all our prayers. But, God also waits for us to come to the place where we have time to listen to Him. At such a time He will tell us great and mighty things which we do not know. We may need them from time to time. But, we can’t live on “popcorn prayers.”

 

 

Tapping Into Power

 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

—Ephesians 3:20-21

Have you ever tried to use an electric tool or an electric appliance and found that it wouldn’t work? After checking it over and finding nothing awry, did you then notice that you forgot to plug it into the electrical outlet on the wall?

How often have you wondered why you had so little compassion, patience, peace, joy, forgiveness, and so forth, for the people in your life? Have you come to realize that your lack of these important qualities probably has something to do with the fact that you haven’t been “plugged in” to the fullness of the Holy Spirit?

In our human nature, at times we can express those good human traits. But, they hold little power unless fed by that divine Power that accomplishes divine works.

To take the illustration further, we could also compare our powerlessness to the battery running low because we haven’t connected it to the battery charger. Without coming to the Source of our real Power at the beginning of our day, we will not have the divine ability to live in the way we want to for our Lord.

Jesus referred to this connectedness in His vine and branches illustration in John 15. In that passage of Scripture, Jesus was expressing that if His disciples, as the branches, were to bear fruit, they needed to “remain attached” to Him, the Vine.

When we pray, we plug into the Source and can rest in the knowledge that we will be able to do great things by His power. Puritan preacher, George Swinnock, put it this way: ¹

Every saint is God’s temple and may pray anywhere. Every house is a house of prayer. Prayer is pouring out the soul to God in the name of Christ, crying, “Abba, Father!” A prayer in a moment can fly to the highest heavens. It is a sweet savor to God, a terror to the devil, and a shelter to a Christian. Bernard calls it the conqueror of him who is invincible, and Luther says that it is omnipotent. By prayer fire has been quenched, water divided, the mouths of lions stopped, iron gates opened, the windows of heaven opened, the course of nature overturned, diseases removed, health restored, sin subdued, grace bestowed, kingdoms supported, enemies scattered, the blind restored, and devils cast out. Prayer is the midwife to bring mercies to the believer that were conceived in the womb of promise.

______________________

1 From “Works” by George Swinnock, as quoted in Rushing, Richard, editor. Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 315.

 

 

Know Your Foe - Part 3

 

He, [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

—John 8:44

As a teacher, I noticed the ability of some students to lie, even in my youngest students. I’m sure that this ability to lie came from practice. They had learned the skills of pseudo-believability and used those skills to their own advantage.

In contrast to the graphic at the beginning of this blog post, you have likely seen a similar picture of a person with the devil on one shoulder whispering in one ear, while an angel sits on the other shoulder whispering in the other ear. In such a situation, the individual seemingly does not know which one to believe. But, of course, that person should know.

We must never forget the clever pseudo-believability of our foe, the devil. Adam and Eve learned the hard way that Satan always tells lies. From the very beginning, in Genesis 3:1-5, we observe the following exchange, with Satan speaking to Eve in what I imagine is his high-pitched, scratchy voice:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan always begins his manipulations by distorting and maligning God’s truth. In the case of Adam and Eve, God had given very precise and very specific instructions. In Genesis 2:16-17, God actually said:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Yet, Satan ever-so-cleverly twists and distorts Eve’s thinking about what God actually said that she unknowingly adds to the restriction that God had placed on the one special tree. Then, Satan takes advantage of Eve’s confusion and offers Eve a false promise, saying in Genesis 3:5:

“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Throughout Scripture, we read of the devil lying. In Psalm 10:6, speaking about the wicked oppressor of the poor, the Psalmist states that the wicked one says:

“Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.”

This oppressor heard what he wanted to hear. In the same Psalm 10, in verse 11, this same oppressor spouts the lie of Satan, that God is not omniscient, by saying:

“God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.”

Continuing to spout Satan’s lies, further on in Psalm 10:13, the same oppressor says about God:

“He won’t call me to account.”

Satan’s manipulation of the truth continues to this very day. We have all heard these kinds of lies coming into one of our ears. Have we believed them? Has all Satan’s trickery worked to undermine God’s truth in our lives? Have we listened to the evil one so long that we have a hard time recognizing God’s voice when we hear it?

Even when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, we read in Matthew 4:1-11 that Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus, twisting the meaning of it in order to try to tempt our Lord. Of course, Jesus was not fooled. He knew the truth of what His Father had actually said.

Where does following this kind of false “wisdom” from Satan lead? Why, into sin, of course.

In John 8:44, we read Jesus’ words stating that Satan:

“…was a murderer from the beginning.”

And, Romans 6:23 tells us that:

“For the wages of sin is death…”

Living in such a way as to compromise God’s truth, to deny it, to ignore it, to turn our backs on it will lead to death. Our enemy loves to promise us the “moon” and actually deliver eternal damnation in hell.

In the book, Voices from the Past, Puritan writer Thomas Brooks writes: ¹

One of Satan’s devices to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait, and hide the hook; to present the golden cup, and hide the poison; to present the sweet, and the pleasure, but hide from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow … Satan promises the soul honor, pleasure, and profit, but pays the soul with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss … Sin will usher in the greatest and the saddest losses that can be upon our souls. It will usher in the loss of that divine favor that is better than life, and the loss of the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the loss of the peace that passes understanding.

We do well to fight this evil foe with the truth of Scripture. We need to know and understand the written Word of God and use God’s truth as a sword against the lies of Satan that we hear day after day, as the evil one speaks to us in one sly way after another. After all, we are told in 1 John 4:4:

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, [the spirits of false prophets and antichrist], because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

May God receive our highest praise!

______________________

1 Brooks, Thomas (author) and Richard Rushing (editor). Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Reading. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 15.