Ephesians 2:1-10

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (NKJV)

Salvation is the gift of God, not the result of works. And yet, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works.

As people, we want to succeed. There is, built inside us, an ambition to win, to be better than our neighbor, to get the gold ribbon. We want to do and then be acknowledged for what we did. Think about it. How difficult it is for you to regularly do exceptional things at work or for your family that go unnoticed? Doesn’t it rankle you, at least a little, that somebody doesn’t say something about how much you worked? At what you accomplished? We all want recognition.

And yet, Father God Himself, planned salvation in such a way that we are required to do good works, but those works don’t save us. We can’t do anything to save ourselves. We are lost without a savior, without The Savior. But once saved, we become His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Our good works then become the demonstration of our salvation, but not the cause of it.

Paul tells us that salvation is a gift from God so that no one will be able to boast. Christianity is an odd dichotomy. God made salvation a gift so that we couldn’t boast. The point of the Christian’s life is to bring all glory to God, to lift up our Savior as the only one worthy of praise and honor.

But being a Christian is about more than just not boasting about our salvation. The entire framework of the Christian life is designed so be a life of humility. The apostle Paul taught in Philippians 2:3:

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

Gary Thomas, in his book Sacred Marriage, talked about the destructiveness of ambition in the Christian life. He writes:

“I’ve seen men and women blinded by their own ambition, even religious ambition, and that kind of blind ambition does have a tendency to suffocate everything and everyone around them” (p. 258).

Blind ambition. That means an ambition that is distorted to us, an ambition that we cannot see clearly but one that hinders us from being all that Christ wants us to be. It is perhaps, without words, boasting about our lives, our accomplishments, our talents, our dreams. Ambition is an eager or zealous desire for rank, fame, or power. It is also a desire to achieve a particular end.

The word translated “selfish ambition” in the New King James is a Greek word that means “a desire to put one’s self forward.” In a sense, it is a desire to be recognized for what we’ve done. It is the desire to be able to boast. And yet boasting is the opposite of humility, the life to which we are called.

So what can I say about this? My salvation is a gift from God. It wasn’t given to me because anything I did, but because Father God so loved me that He wanted to do this. I simply had to put out my hand and accept the gift. But as a result—that interactive process of grace working in my life and my heart responding to it—my life should produce good works. Not just a good work now and then, but be permeated with good works which enrich the lives of those around me. And I can’t even boast about those good works because they are a result of God’s workmanship in me through Christ Jesus. If anyone deserves a good word or praise, it is the Lord for what He has done and is doing in me.

Father, thank you for my salvation. I hope to someday completely realize the price you paid for me, but as I am able today I thank You so much for loving me as You do. Work through me, Father, to do good works that bring You glory. Help me to learn how to live humbly and not to seek the praise of others. I want to learn how to please You and You alone so that Your thoughts of me become my only reward. I ask this in the name of my Savior.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Ephesians 1:7-14

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (NKJV)

Paul uses a metaphoric structure here when talking about salvation. He uses the idea of a contract where a down-payment is made in anticipation of taking hold of the possession once the full price is paid: “the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

As in any contract, it is possible for one or the other of the parties to the contract to withdraw. Thus to establish that He will not withdraw from the contract, God sent His own Holy Spirit as the guarantee that full “payment” will be made. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee that God will not back out on His promise to accept the Lord jesus’ sacrifice as payment in full for our sins.

But there are two parties to this contract: God and us. And while we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, we can also break that seal and walk away from God. We can reject our salvation!

Why would anyone do that? It seems impossible that anyone would want to be separated from God and yet, remember! Adam and Eve, who walked with God in the garden, were tempted and succumbed to the lusts of their flesh. The apostle John told us that there were three things that would entice us: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16 NKJV). When we let go of the self-control that is the fruit of the Spirit and give in to the desires that lurk within our flesh, we open ourselves to the temptations that surround us.

The lust of the flesh is the desires and cravings of our bodies. Now some cravings—when we have learned to distinguish between true cravings and false cravings—were created in us so that we wouldn’t die: hunger and thirst, the desire to be in a safe environment. But even those natural cravings—along with the cravings that aren’t natural, but are culturally induced—can lead us away from God’s will. After Jesus fasted for 40 days, Satan tempted Him to turn the stones into bread. But the Lord answered, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 NKJV). The Lord knew that we could be deceived even by the cravings that God placed within our created bodies. Thus, satisfaction comes not from satisfying the cravings of our flesh, but from turning to the Lord and asking Him to give us everything we need. We are satisfied when we trust that what God has sent fully satisfies all that we need.

The lust of the eyes is often the first step toward sin. Seeing can be physical or it can be mental. What we have seen in the past, we can visualize with our memories and recreate. In Matthew, the Lord Jesus taught us:

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (6:22-23 NKJV).

We see and we desire. It is the lust of the eyes. And even if we don’t see at this moment, if we have seen in the past, the eyes of our minds are able to recreate it through our memories. We need to control what our eyes see.

Our society, these days, entices us with all kinds of evil through what comes in our eyes: books, newspapers, television shows, movies, the Internet. All of this enters our minds and hearts through our eyes. We have to learn to control what we see and then, if we have seen what we should not, to give it to the Lord and ask Him to block those memories. What we see often leads us through temptation into sin. Our lives become what we see. Do our eyes see evil? Then we will live in the darkness of sin. Are our eyes trained to see what is wholesome and righteous? Then we will live in the light of God’s love.

The last thing that entices us is the pride of life. The pride of life places its trust and delight in this life, in the things of this earth: “This is what I’ve accomplished!” “This is the award I won.” “This is the good I’ve done.” The pride of life accepts this life as the end-all to all things and refuses to understand that life is much more than what we own or what we accomplish. The pride of life places satisfaction in accomplishment rather than character, in success rather than service, in power rather than submission. Pride is the opposite of humility. When I am proud, I demand that people give their attention and energy to me rather than focusing on how I can serve them. The pride of life eventually pushes out Christ until there is no more room for Him.

These three enticements—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—live within our flesh 24/7. They sit at the door to our hearts begging to be let in, even for a moment. But sin is never content to have just a moment of our lives. Sin wants to rule forever. As believers we have been given the freedom to choose whether or not we will serve the Lord or we will serve ourselves. And the Holy Spirit Himself had been given to us as a promise of the marvelous salvation that awaits us if we slam the door shut to sin.

Today, we must make a choice. For me, my choice is made. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 NKJV). I choose to embrace the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, to live for the promise of eternal life to come and to turn my back on the temptations that so easily ensnare us.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Ephesians 1:3-6

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (NKJV)

I think that often my perception of life is too small. I tend to focus on tomorrow, which is wrong because there may be no tomorrow to worry about or in which to celebrate. Or sometimes I focus on the past which is gone—my sins forgiven, my obediences to God stored in heaven for an eternal reward. But where I often fail to focus is on eternity, on heaven, which will be the majority—the vast majority—of my existence.

What activity is it that you really don’t like? For me, one of those things is going to the dentist. I spent six years in braces, going to the orthodontist every six weeks, each visit resulting in weeks of pain and discomfort from the tightened braces. So, for me, visions of dental work are just . . . well, not pleasant. But I know that going to the dentist is important for my overall health, so I endure through the time, knowing that something better awaits me after that visit.

We should actually look at life more like that. This earthly life, in comparison to eternity, is a hiccup (and who can’t endure a hiccup, however painful). And the life that will be “forever” is eternity in heaven with our Father. Thus, when we want—even insist—on having our blessings here in this life (usually to somehow ease the pain of living here), we are focusing on a small moment in time, wanting to store our treasures there, instead of where we can enjoy them forever. The Lord Jesus taught us about this:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV).

So when Paul writes that Father God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, we should rejoice! We are getting ready for a marvelous trip, a trip which will never end. And, as an added bonus, our Father is blessing us with all sorts of spiritual blessings that we will enjoy once we begin that trip. Whether or not our time here on earth is easy or happy, we have the most marvelous time awaiting us in heaven. That should make every pain, every sorrow, every burden seem unimportant when compared to what awaits us as soon as our journey here is done. Father God loves us so much that He has reserved the best blessings for us at a time when we won’t ever lose them, when the blessings won’t fade or drift away.

When God blesses us now, often those blesses are temporal, for a time. They meet the needs of our lives for a season and then our circumstances change and the blessing may not meet our current needs. But the blessings that await us are forever, stored in the heavenly places in Christ! Our Savior Himself is guarding and protecting those blessings, not only in anticipation of the time that we get to heaven, but forever. These are blessings that will last.

Paul enumerates part of those blessings in this passage:

• We are adopted as children of God, chosen before the beginning of the world, predestined to be saved because God saw that we would respond to His offer of salvation

Adoption has a special meaning to me because I’m adopted. I was the baby of an unwed teen mom who very courageously gave me to two married people who were wonderful parents to me. I went from a very difficult situation into an almost perfect family. And God knew. God knew before I was conceived that my mom and dad couldn’t have kids of their own blood. God knew that they would love me, nurture me, and protect me during my growing up years. He knew that they would teach me about His love. He gave me to them and they adopted me.

God also has adopted me! I was always His creation and He was always my Creator, but there was a gap between us, a gap of sin caused by my own sinful nature. I could be nothing more than His creation and He could be to me nothing more than Creator because of that gap. But the Lord Jesus, giving up His precious life, took the punishment for my sin (and for the sins of all the world), and offered me the opportunity to become adopted. And now, while I am creation and God is Creator, that gap between us is gone. I am now His child and He is my Father!

• We stand holy and without blame before Him, drenched in His love

The Greek translated here “in love” actually means that we are inside His love. Our position is in His love. We stand holy and without blame before the Creator and Judge of the universe because we are positioned inside the love of our Savior.

The word “holy” doesn’t have anything to do with behavior, but has to do with where we are spiritually. We are separated away from sin because we are positioned in Christ’s love. God is holy because sin cannot be in Him. Sin can’t have anything to do with God. And now, because we are positioned in Christ, we are separated from sin. That is why we are without blame, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of everything He’s done.

• Doing this pleased God. It was what He wanted to do.

Aren’t you glad that God wanted to save us? He isn’t a vengeful God, standing far off in heaven, shaking His finger at us because we sinned again. Rather, He came to earth, became a man, and died, taking our punishment, so that we could stand blameless, positioned in the love of Christ.

• His grace made us accepted because we stand in Christ

Grace is an interesting word because it is interactive. Strong’s defines grace as “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life” (G5485). Grace influences our hearts, but we must reflect that influence in our thoughts, in our actions, in what we do and say.

While these blessings are, in part, active in our lives here on earth, they are permanent blessings that we will receive fully once we step into heaven. They are everlasting blessings that will never be taken away, that will never fade, that will never change. Oh, how grateful I am that God was willing to move from Creator to Savior, that He adopted me so that I could change from creation to child!

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Ephesians 1:1

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus” (NKJV)

“By the will of God.”

I think that there are inherent dangers in being born into a country that espouses democracy and freedom, one danger being that we are not well accustomed to bending our knee—and our will—to the will of another. While we may feel that we are not in control of much of our lives, the fact is that little of our lives is controlled by those in authority over us. The vast majority of decisions that we make each day are made without thought for what others think; we are free to determine much of the course of our lives. Unless we are Christians. And that’s the rub. As Christians, we should be voluntarily submitting each and every decision to will of God Who is both our Master and Father.

Scripture often describes submitting as humbling ourselves to God. The apostle James wrote:

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (4:7-10 NKJV).

When we submit ourselves to God, when we humble ourselves, we voluntarily place ourselves into His care, but not only His care, but His authority. We regard our decisions as not worthy, but rather, allow ourselves to be guided by His will and His wisdom. We are obedient to His commands—whether they are suggestions or demands—and we acknowledge that He is in authority over us in all things.

We are not much use to submitting to any kind of authority.

If we are confronted by a rule or law with which we disagree, we are more often than not likely to ignore it or circumvent it, rather than simply to obey it because it is a law established by an authoritative body. We see our government—and often anyone in authority over us—as so corrupt that we feel we have no need to obey the rules and laws set into place. I’ve even heard pastors say, “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” when confronted by civil ordinances that they feel are impeding the growth of their churches.

And while there may be occasionally rules that we should disobey (because doing otherwise would place us outside of God’s will), obeying the rules over us gives us practice in submitting to higher authorities. Paul even tells us Romans to submit to the government over us: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities” (13:1 NKJV). And Peter reiterates the same idea: “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13-14 NKJV).

I believe that part of the reason for this is so that we will gain practice obeying authorities.

I am a school teacher by day, teaching in a local elementary school. Our school has rules as does my classroom. Most of my children aren’t accustomed to obeying any kind of rules and have difficulty submitting themselves to the authority over them. I have to teach them every year that the rules at school—however minor seeming—have at least as one purpose the idea of learning to submit to rules set down by those in authority over us. If my children learn to submit to class and school rules, they will be better equipped to submit to the rules of law that will have authority over them as adults.

If we, as adults, lack practice in submitting to authorities, we may have difficulty truly submitting to the Lord. And yet, Paul himself tells us that he was an apostle only by and through the will of God. If God had called Paul to become a ditch digger, rather than an apostle, I’m convinced that Paul would have embraced that occupation and done it gladly simply because it was God’s will.

Am I willing to do what the Lord wants me to do simply (and always) because it is His will? Or do I think that my talents, time, and efforts would be better served doing something else? Am I willing to submit first because He is Master and second because, by saving me, He has purchased me with His own blood? Or do I think that somehow my way will be better?

In the words of Dr. Phil: “How’s that working for you?”

Doesn’t it make sense that we would be better served to submit ourselves to a God Who is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise rather than to try to make our way for ourselves?

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Isaiah 1:23

“Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.” (NKJV)

Isaiah 1 is basically God’s condemnation of the behavior of the nation of Israel. He lists sin after sin after sin. And then, in the middle of verse 23, my eye caught this phrase: “Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.” This struck in my heart because I believe that it is a good description of American society. We are often (usually) in for what we can get. Think about it! How many times have you gone out to eat somewhere because you had a coupon? How many times have you bought something because it was on sale? How many times have you made a decision because there was some gift or benefit for you? I do these things all the time and each and every time, the benefit that I receive is a bribe or reward for making that decision. Decisions made in this fashion are about what we can get out of it, not what God wants or what might be best for someone else. Bribes. Rewards. It’s basically how our society works.

This is God’s judgment on such a society:

Therefore the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, “Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, and take vengeance on My enemies. I will turn My hand against you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” (Isaiah 1:24-26).

I had a great-aunt. She passed away a number of years ago. But when she passed away and her children were cleaning out her home, they found rooms and closets full of dolls. Now there’s nothing wrong with dolls per se, but in this case, all the dolls were in their original boxes and hidden away. Most had been purchased from TV shopping channels. She just bought and bought and bought. Today we call such people hoarders. But the fact is that many of us buy things that we really don’t need. (That’s why dollar stores are so popular; we can indulge without bankrupting ourselves.) The idea is that we self-indulge; we buy to make ourselves happy (whether we buy food, experiences, or stuff). Rather than seeking the Lord and being content with what He has given us, we buy, buy, buy. We get, get, get. We do, do, do in an effort to assuage the pain of living this life rather than turning to the Lord.

The Lord wants to purge us of our compulsions and compel us into His loving arms. The prophet Isaiah writes:

“When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.” (Isaiah 4:4-5:1)

We don’t need to try to run away from the problems that pound us. God is our place of refuge and our shelter from the storm. There is an old hymn that talks about this:

The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide
A Shelter in the time of storm.

A shade by day, defense by night
A Shelter in the time of storm;
No fears alarm, no foes afright
A Shelter in the time of storm.

The raging storms may round us beat
A Shelter in the time of storm
We'll never leave our safe retreat
A Shelter in the time of storm.

O Rock divine, O Refuge dear
A Shelter in the time of storm
Be Thou our Helper ever near
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Chorus:
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land
A Shelter in the time of storm.

How often do I run to Jesus during the storms of life? Rather I would eat, buy, do to distract myself from the things that really aren’t going to go away. Better that I understand that no foe can stand against my Lord and to trust Him, regardless of how the circumstances look. Better that I school myself against bribes, rewards, and self-indulgence and instead lean on the Shelter that is ever near.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Isaiah 1:15-29

“When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” (NKJV)

There is a time when the Lord will not hear our prayers, even the prayers of those of us who are believers.

That is a harsh statement, but perhaps this is a harsh time, demanding harsh truths. The fact is, would you rather hear easy words that may not be true or harsh words that will change your life? I know for me, sometimes I’m tired of harsh things. But harsh things from the Lord are like goodness to my heart because they come from His heart of love, His longing for me to be in right relationship with Him.

“Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.”

I think that many of us have been taught that when God is silent, He is not ignoring us. And that may be true some of the time. But there are other times when God is silent because He is refusing to hear our prayers, regardless of how many prayers we pray. You see, He is waiting for one specific prayer, the prayer of confession, the prayer of repentance. We know that He will always hear that prayer because He has promised so. 1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To whom should we confess? Well, first of all, we need to confess to the Father. After committing adultery (and getting exposed publically), King David prayed:

“For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight” (Psalm 51:3-4, NKJV).

The evil that we do is first and foremost against God. It may also be against others, but our confession must first be to Him.

There is a sequence within the verses in Isaiah that I think are important. The first is to “wash yourself, make yourselves clean.” Now, of course, we can’t expunge our sins ourselves, but we can confess them and seek the Father’s forgiveness. He has promised to cleanse us from all unrighteousness once we confess. However, that cleansing is conditional; it hinges upon our willingness to confess at least the sins we know. (Are there sins we commit of which we may be unaware? Yes, of course.)

The second thing is to put away the evil that we are doing. In the words of my pastor, “Stop it!” It’s that simple . . . and that hard. Things that we have been doing have become habits. We may actually fall into the behavior without even thinking, at least initially. So we need to make a conscious effort to put the evil away.

I think about putting things away. It’s very easy to not put things away. Have you ever done that in your home? I know that teenagers are often accused of not putting away their clothes and other possessions, but simply dropping them on the nearest surface. I do that, too, sometimes, simply leaving things at the closest place and not putting them away . . . in the cupboard, in the closet, in the dishwasher, back on the shelves, in the drawer. It only takes a few seconds to put something away, but sometimes we feel so overwhelmed, so tired. We indulge ourselves by not putting away. And yet, it only takes a few things not put away to completely mess up our homes.

The Lord here is talking about more than just dropping our evil in the nearest drawer so that it is out of sight. He’s talking about putting it away from us completely forever. Digging a hole and burying it so that it can never be seen (or done) again. He says to “put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.” God sees all! So if we are to put away our sin, it means we can never, ever, EVER do it again.

A few years ago I developed an allergy to chocolate. Well, I think I developed this allergy. I spent six of the worse hours of my life in a hospital ER with pains that were so horrible that I wanted to die. The doctor was flummoxed and couldn’t decide what the problem was. They tested me for a heart attack, for ulcers, for all kinds of things. Finally after talking to me, he told me that his best guess was that I had developed a reaction to the chocolate that I had eaten that day. I decided to never eat chocolate again. Even if the doctor was wrong, it’s simply not worth the chance.

Never to eat chocolate again. Now I have to tell you that I absolutely love hot fudge sundaes, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cream candy from Sees. But I will never eat any of it again. I have put it away forever.

There are other things in my life much more important that my reaction to chocolate that I should put away forever. These are sins and are an affront to the Father Who gave His all for me. I need to put them away.

God emphasizes that when He continues with “Cease to do evil.” Just stop it! My husband and I were talking last night about how self indulgent our society has become. Our days seem to be filled with the question of “what do I want to do now?” rather than focusing on what we should be doing. (There are so many ministry opportunities staring us in the face if we would simply put aside the idea that our time, our resources, our efforts are our own.) The scripture commands us to “cease to do evil.” If we have the courage to ask, God will reveal to us those things we are doing that are evil.

Lastly He tell us to “learn to do good.” Do you know that we aren’t born good? We are born innocent, which is actually not a lack of sin but a protection from the sin that has already captured our hearts simply because, as babies, we don’t have the wherewithal to step aside from ourselves and see the Lord. But as babies, we are not good. Quite the contrary, babies are totally self-absorbed! We have to learn to do good. We have to find out what those good things are and then train ourselves to do them. And the best, most reliable teacher is the Holy Spirit. Other teachers may point us in the right direction, but we need to be careful to whom we listen. Some people who appear to be trustworthy actually are not! They are false teachers. But we can listen to the Holy Spirit every time and know that He speaks only the heart of God.

If we want the Father to hear our prayers, we must first deal with our sin. We must confess it, put it aside, and learn to do good. And then the Father, Who longs to speak to us, will hear and prayers and have communion with us.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

1 John 1:7-8

The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (NRSV)

We don’t talk much about sin these days. You used to hear it from the pulpit (at least from courageous preachers who cared more about the Word of God than building large churches). But in the 1960's and 1970's, something happened to the Church in America. We began to buy into all of the psychological research about self-esteem and sin basically went out the window. With it went literally the gospel which also means “good news.” If we haven’t sinned, then we don’t need the good news that the Lord Jesus’ own blood has cleansed us from it.

The apostle John is very clear here: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. I contend that we often not only deceive others, but we more often deceive ourselves by filling ourselves with gobbledygook that sounds good but is, in fact, deception. Our society is filled with this kind of deception. There are many things that likely we take for granted as being true that are absolutely not true; we are deceived.

For example, do an Internet search on children and self-esteem. You will find site after site after site insisting that we need to increase our children’s self-esteem. “Healthy self-esteem is like a child's armor against the challenges of the world.” “Many observers believe that low self-esteem lies at the bottom of many of society's problems.” “Good self-esteem is an important factor in raising healthy children.”

However, Christian teacher Elizabeth Elliot insists (and I agree) that the Bible never concerns itself with self-esteem and, in fact, teaches against it:

“Jesus certainly didn’t die in order to build up our self-esteem. He didn’t die for us because we were lovable. He loved us because we were irremediable. There was no remedy without His shed blood on that cross. He wants us to live in company with Him. He is not interested in our building our self-esteem, but in our learning meekness, gentleness, patience, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control.” (http://www.backtothebible.org/index.php/Gateway-to-Joy/Self-Esteem-And-Sin.html)

We are sinners. I am a sinner. And there’s nothing that I can do, think, say, or believe that is going to change that. I can deny it and it still is true. I can believe something else and it still is true. I can go to college, go to seminars, read books, search the Internet, discuss with friends, do anything I can think of. None of that will take away the fact that I’m a sinner, that I have sinned and unfortunately may sin again.

The good news is that the Lord Jesus’ own blood cleanses me from sin if I accept that cleansing. Without it, I die in my sins regardless of what I believe. With it, I am cleansed and will live with Him forever. That is truly good news!

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Resurrection Day

1 Corinthians 15:12-19, 30, 51-53

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. . . . And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour? . . . Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” (NRSV)

My Redeemer Lives by Eugene Greco

My Redeemer lives and I will see His glory
As He works all things together for my good
Whatever things occur, of this I can be sure,
I know my Redeemer lives

Even though I walk through the valley
I will fear no evil, He is with me
And on the battlefield, although the pain is real
My struggles soon will fade as His glory is revealed

My Redeemer lives and I will see His glory
As He works all things together for my good
Whatever things occur, of this I can be sure,
I know my Redeemer lives

I wish a blessed resurrection day to everyone!

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Isaiah 5:20

“Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (NRSV).

Over the years, I have learned to try to analyze my thoughts and actions, to discover why I think the way I do or act the way I choose. I say “try” because I’m not always successful at doing it. I am greatly influenced by the society around me, a society which isn’t trustworthy and which, if I were wise, I would ignore when it comes to making choices.

I look back over my life and see many places where I should have made different decisions, where I could have made better choices. I see so many times when I have been (and still am) self-indulgent rather than obedient to God’s will. Just this morning, I read a snippet written by a dear Christian sister. It said, “Will I cooperate [with God’s plan] despite emotional pain?” Will I take the hard road?

I think it’s very difficult to look at Isaiah 5:20 and realize that it is about the society in which I live. But it is! We are at the point where, at almost every turn, evil is called good and good is called evil; darkness is embraced and the light of God’s word is rejected; the bitterness of sin, death, and hell are desired and the sweetness of God’s love is thrown down. And this isn’t helped by the fact that many Christians are so confused about what it means to be a Christian! Pastors aren’t preaching hard messages anymore, either being content to preach wishy-washy words to keep the pews full or knowing that their congregations are so spiritually immature that they can only accept milk. And we as Christians haven’t demanded that our pastors step up to the plate; we have become content to listen to a 30 minute sermon, complete with one or two scriptures projected on a screen, and then released to go home for another week to whatever it is that satisfies the lusts of our flesh. “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NRSV).

Are we willing to walk the hard road for the cause of Christ? Are we willing to listen to the teachings that will compel us to grow to more maturity in the Lord? To become a Christian whose moral center is founded upon scripture means two things. First, we have to learn to rely solely upon the Holy Spirit. His will, His plans, His way need to be all that we think about or long for. Second, we need to be immersed in the Word of God. What we think, what we dream about, what we speak must reflect that our thoughts are overwhelmed by God’s word. Do you know that everything recorded in the New Testament as Jesus’ words are from the Old Testament? He was and is truly the Word of God and He wants to be that in us. He knows what is right and wrong, what is sin and what is righteousness. He longs to put that knowledge within us! “My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. . . . For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk blamelessly” (Proverbs 2:1, 5-7 NRSV).

There is so much of life that we embrace because it is fun or cute or even “innocent” when really it is the beginning step to destruction. Only God holds the Truth and only God holds the secret to living a life of morality. Even when His words don’t make sense to us, we can trust them—and trust Him—to know what is best!

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

1 Corinthians 11:1

“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (NKJV)

“I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV).

I’ve had the opportunity of growing up in two different church cultures. The first is the culture that permeated in the 1950's (and has remained in some churches or some communities). In this culture, people dress their best for church, wash their cars before coming, remember to bring their Bibles, attend Sunday School before services, and hide their sins. If they smoked, it was far away from church property. If they had affairs, those affairs were carefully secreted away. If they cheated or lied or stole, those actions were carefully covered up.

The second is the culture that began in the 1960's and has continued in many churches and communities. In this culture, people have taken the understanding that “God accepts us as we are.” People dress casually for church (like they might going to a movie or the beach). They may or may not carry their Bibles to church. If they have habitual sins, they don’t worry about hiding them, but can be seen smoking in the church parking lots, going to the grocery stores to liquor after the service, bringing their live-in girlfriends or boyfriends to church with them.

Of course, these descriptions are characterizations that don’t describe all believers, but they describe many church attenders. I believe that both cultures are both right and wrong in their approaches. Often, people take the emphasis from the “wrong” part of the approach, rather than understanding the truth of scripture. There are others, of course, who God places in our lives that become the “Pauls” for us; they become those that we can imitate, to whom we can go for support and advice.

Yesterday, as Ken and I were driving home, I told him that I wished that Uncle Paul and Aunt Doris (two wonderful saints who went home a number of years ago) were still here with us. We are facing a monumental decision and I would love to have simply been able to talk it over with them, to get their advice. I began to think of my wonderful Aunt Doris, my mom, and my Aunt Audrey—three women who have greatly influenced my life. They were my best friends, at different times in my life, and I miss having their lives to watch and imitate. Immediately, God brought Paul’s words to mind: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” I said to Ken, “I wonder if Aunt Doris, knowing that so many of us younger women were watching her, was influenced by this scripture? Did this scripture encourage her, at times, to be better than she thought she could be because she knew we were watching her?”

If you knew that people were watching your life, were forming their own Christian walk by yours, were learning what decisions to make based on your decisions, would you live differently?

Recently Ken and I have been going through a huge issue in our lives. (It’s not over yet.) As a result we have become more “visible” in people’s lives. Not only are people around us more aware of the fact that we are simply there, but they are watching our reactions to what is happening. I have become aware that people are looking to see how I will respond, perhaps even thinking that they will imitate me in a similar situation.

Am I imitate-able? Could I say to someone, “Imitate my actions because I’m imitating Christ”?

I believe that when we think (or know) that others are watching us, we are challenged to become better, to become more Christ-like, to spiritually and morally rise higher. At least, that’s what we should be doing.

I believe that, as a Church, we have become very comfortable in the casual atmosphere that exists now in many churches. Our clothes reflect our actions; our actions reflect our current morals and beliefs. We are convinced that God will accept us as we are (He does!), but we have forgotten that after that, He has challenged us to die to ourselves and to allow His Holy Spirit to live in us. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:6, 11 NRSV). After we have come to Christ, we should refuse to give Him simply “whatever” and strive to give Him the best that we have . . . and more! To allow Him to make us better than we ever think we could be. And that comes through self-control (a fruit of the Spirit), through love, through kindness to others, through faith in His plan and purpose, through trust in what we cannot see, through reaching out . . . and through become the kind of people that others can imitate. My prayer today is that my actions will become those that others can imitate and, in doing so, become more obedient to Christ and His will for their lives.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Galatians 1:1

“Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead—“ (NRSV)

Paul begins this letter with this powerful phrase: “God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” What is more powerful and affecting in our lives than death and that circumstances that surround it? Nothing changes things more (either for the person who died or for her family and friends). Nothing has a greater final outcome.

Except with the Lord Jesus. Through His resurrection, He brought us the ultimate hope, the ultimate ending to life: more life! “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NRSV). What seemed, prior to the Lord’s resurrection, to be eternal death, is now a temporary state because we are going to receive new bodies, bodies that are incorruptible! Bodies that cannot be sick, that cannot fail, that cannot sin. And Paul concludes this passage in Corinthians with this:

“Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (v. 58 NRSV).

In Galatians, Paul establishes his authority based on the fact that God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. In Corinthians, he establishes our authority based on the fact that God the Father is going to raise us from the dead (our labor cannot be in vain).

What does Paul mean in his description for us?

“Steadfast” is hedraios which means “moral fixity” (Vine’s G1476). The command is for us to be steadfast, to fix our morals upon the Word of God and to not waiver from that moral stand. Morality for the believer is far more than we think of morality. There are so many aspects to it, all of those being the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22b-23 NRSV). Most of us know by now that the “fruit” of the Spirit is one thing, not many things. We are expected to be all of these things all the time, not sometimes one and then sometimes another. Father God’s character is all of these all of the times. When we allow His Spirit to live in and through us, He is all of these things in us.

The only way that we can do that is to stay in the Word and stay in prayer. It is impossible for us to be gentle or self-controlled, to be kind or patient, but it is always possible (not only possible, but predictable) for God because this is Who He is!

“Immovable” means being fully committed through hope and trust in God, never wavering. James talked about the wavering believer:

“for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (1:6-7 NRSV).

The word picture is so descriptive! My parents and I used to sail small boats along the Pacific shore. We never went far enough to lose sight of land and were often within swimming distance of the shore. But one of the things we never did was to go out when there were small craft warnings. Small craft warnings are times in the ocean when the waves and wind are so severe that there is a danger of the smaller boats capsizing. A few times we were caught in the ocean when the warning occurred and had to scurry for the safety of the harbor. But being out in the ocean during those times was not fun. Our little boat was hurled from one wave to another, bobbing back and forth, with water drenching everyone on board. I’ve seen the wind whip the water back and forth, even taking it against the current or normal flow pattern.

As believers, we have two choices. We can look at our circumstances and allow those circumstances to raise doubts within our hearts and minds, tossing us back and forth with anxiety and distress. Or, we can look to the Word, to the heart of God, and trust, regardless of what is happening around us, knowing that this is the God Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead; there is nothing too hard for Him!

Paul tells us in Galatians to be immovable. This means that our faith in the Lord is rock-solid; we refuse to doubt His love or His plan for our lives. We may be in a dark place temporarily, but in the end, He will resurrect us from the dead that this is all that matters!

Finally, Paul tells us to be “always excelling in the work of the Lord.” It’s interesting that he doesn’t tell us to “always being doing the work of the Lord,” but rather admonishes us to excel. God the Father excelled for us in giving us His very best, His only begotten Son. God had many choices in the dilemma of sin and death. He could have destroyed us all and started over. He could have turned His head and let us all die in our sin. He didn’t! His love compelled Him to solve the sin and death dilemma with no less than His best! Why would we then be content to give Him less than our best? And that can mean something as small as providing the best hospitality that we have, be it a feast on china or a sandwich on a paper plate; providing the best friendship to others that we have, be it a long conversation or a snippet email; providing the best witness that we can, be it a sermon or simply living morally straight for others to see.

Paul was empowered by the fact that God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. He recognized that, after that miracle, there was nothing that God couldn’t or wouldn’t do for His people. We are the same as Paul—believers whom the Father loves. There is nothing that He can’t or won’t do for our good, to demonstrate His love for us.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Psalm 90:12

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (NRSV).

I can remember when I was younger—much younger—a conversation that I had with my precious mother. She told me that once she was grown, it seemed like “inside” she hadn’t aged. Even though she knew her body was aging, her mind still felt like a young woman And she commented that the years had seemed to pass so quickly. Of course, then she seemed so much older than I and I really didn’t understand what she had said. But now as I’m approaching another birthday, I totally get it!

I remember also another conversation that I had with my aunt, a wonderful Christian minister who traveled all over the world and whose songs touch the hearts of literally millions. In her 80's I can remember her telling me that the older she got, the more she realized how much she still had to learn about being a Christian, how little she actually knew. I remember thinking that if she only knew a little about being a Christian, I didn’t know anything. But now, again as I’m getting older, I understand what she was saying and thinking . . . because there’s so much about being a Christian that I’m just now getting and so much I still have to learn.

One of the things I’m learning is how fleeting life is. Oh, I know that when we’re young, we think that time will never pass. We measure our lives by the things we haven’t yet done but still want to do:

When I get to Disneyland
When I graduate from high school
When I get my degree from college
When I get married
When I have a child
When I get that job
When I accomplish that (whatever)

The anticipation of wanting and waiting can make time seem like it passes so slowly and we think we will never “arrive.”

Other things in life make time weigh heavy on our hands: trials and tribulations, those things which weigh us down with the worry and anxiety. We become obsessed with the worries of life, focusing on the problems and how we think we might change them. I know that I often become so fixated that I forget to pray, that I forget that every part of my life—every moment—belongs to the Lord and I exhaust myself trying to solve that which is only possible for Him.

The fact is that we may never arrive at our goals and we may never solve the problems that press in around us.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”(Matthew 6:34 NRSV).

When my beloved mom went home to heaven, I had the task of cleaning out her work room. I found three dresses that she had been making for a trip. This was a trip that she greatly looked forward to, going to the Bay area and speaking on a friend’s Christian television show. One dress was almost done except for the hem. One dress was begun, with work still to do, and one dress was just the fabric cut out. As I packed up the dresses, I could imagine her working, even a bit frantically, enjoying the creative task of sewing, but knowing that she was under a time deadline to get them done. And then . . . she was gone! Home to heaven and the deadlines with her. She didn’t need the dresses anymore and didn’t care about them because she was with her Lord!

We are only promised today and the Father is only concerned with what we do on this day. He is only concerned with the lives we’ll touch, with the commandments we’ll obey, with the love we’ll show, with the offenses we’ll forgive, with His presence that we’ll enjoy. The wisdom of which the psalmist speaks, I believe, is the wisdom that comes in understanding what is important and what is not.

Yesterday, we finally got water to our home (after almost a week without it). The house, dishes, and clothes were amazingly dirty, piled up everywhere and I was, a bit frantically I must admit, starting the dishwasher and washing machine, grabbing rags and cleaner to tackle the kitchen, and looking a bit overwhelmed at all that needed to be done. In the midst came a call from some friends who needed to talk to us, who needed ministry and love. We could have said “no” and they would have understood, but that wouldn’t be wisely counting our days. The purpose of life isn’t to leave everything clean and finished. We will never do it! We can’t clean ourselves up and we will never finish the tasks demanded of us. Only the Lord Jesus can do that and He already did it when He announced, “It is finished,” from the cross. Aside from that, all the rest of this is just stuff!

I’m learning to grasp onto what is important and to leave the rest aside. And what is important? Grasping onto Him! Pleasing Him! Praying, studying the Word, being ready in and out of season to love on those around me.

Nothing else really matters.

“For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. . . . How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (1 Corinthians 15:53, 57 NLT).

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Hebrews 4:15-16

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (NRSV)

We know that Father God is spirit. God Himself is an entity whose like we cannot even begin to fathom. He has “appeared” in scripture as a burning bush, as a disembodied voice, as brilliant jewels. John described Him as thus:

“At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald” (Revelation 4:2-3 NRSV).

Daniel described Him:

“As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took His throne, His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and flowed out from His presence” (Daniel 7:9-10 NRSV).

These are amazing descriptions, but they are beyond my understanding. This is a God Who is far beyond me, with whom I cannot begin to have a relationship because He is so far beyond and I am so small. But this very God, understanding the enormous limitations of the creations (humans) He had made, also became a man, the God-man Jesus. And He continues to exist as this God-man, as one who can fully relate to me, having been through life as I am living it and now sitting glorified in heaven, as one day I will also be glorified because of Him.

A. W. Tozer writes:

“Now, at this very moment, there is a Man in heaven appearing in the presence of God for us. He is as certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or Paul. He is a man glorified, but His glorification did not dehumanize Him. Today He is a real man, of the race of mankind, bearing our lineaments and dimensions, a visible and audible man whom any other man would recognize instantly as one of us” (The Warfare of the Spirit).

That God would love me enough to not only die for me, but to become what I am, to bridge the gap with His own nature, is amazing. Of course, it doesn’t mean that He sinned as I have sinned, but He experienced life as I have experienced it with all the temptations, pains, and tribulations. He was hungry, tired, stressed, and betrayed. He has experienced it all and fully understands what I am going through now. Not only that, but having experienced what I have experienced, He was able to persevere through without sin, thus providing me a role model. When He was persecuted, He forgave. When He was alone, He looked to the needs of others. When He was tired, He secluded Himself in prayer. His life alone is all that I need to learn how to live to please God. He is indeed my High Priest, my Friend, and my Savior.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

2 Peter 1:5-11

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (NKJ)

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5 NKJ).

Peter and Paul are the two great foundational warriors of the Church, Peter leading the apostles into the new era with the Holy Spirit and Paul establishing most of the theology upon which our doctrines are established. Both write about persecution, about suffering, and both agree that, as believers, we are to glory in that suffering. The NLT says this: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure” (Romans 5:3). There is a sense that we should embrace our struggles, not because we are masochists and want to hurt, but because we know that God will use these struggles to mold our characters into the image of His Son.

Why is this so important? Peter tells us in the preceding verses:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (v. 3-4 RSV).

Paul described the battle within believers, a battle that is spiritual and involves both the commands of God and the lusts of the flesh:

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15 NKJV).

As believers, we should want to do what the Word says. We should love our enemies. We should put aside sin. We should forgive and leave peaceably. We should witness the gospel to the lost. But often we don’t do those things. We hold onto anger. We seek revenge upon those who have hurt us. We turn to the things that make us feel good to assuage our pain and guilt. So the Lord, in His infinite love and mercy, allows into our lives those things which turn us toward Him. He allows pain, suffering, and persecution to that we “may escape from the corruption that is in the world.”

Peter tells us to “give all diligence” to this process. Diligence is defined as “a steady, earnest, and energetic effort.” Thus, the process to which Peter is calling us is something that we do all the time, that we do with all of our hearts and desire, and which requires energy and effort. It isn’t something that happens to us, but is rather an interactive process in which we are fully involved with the Holy Spirit.

I can remember an Internet conversation that I had with a woman some time back. She basically said that she was who she was, faults and all, and if and when God wanted to change her, He would. She wasn’t the least interested in working at the process of change herself. Yet, here Peter is fully explaining to us that we must be involved in the process of change and that this process will involve suffering.

The first thing that Peter tells us to do is to add virtue to our faith. Virtue is moral purity or excellence. It really means simply doing the right thing (which, as most of us know, is usually not the easy thing). It means telling the truth, being kind and gentle, choosing the honest decision, abstaining from a vast multitude of behavior. We don’t see much virtue in our society today. It may be even difficult to think about what is the right thing to do. Often, what we have been taught (or seen through either our own families or through the media) is actually the wrong thing to do. In order to find out what is virtuous we need to know what the Bible says and then be willing to do it in every part of our lives.

It’s interesting that Peter puts virtue before knowledge. In a sense what he is saying is that we can’t understand the deeper things of Christianity until we understand the basics of right and wrong. As long as we are involved with habitual sin, the discernment of the deeper things of God will remain hidden from us. The writer of Hebrews speaks to this:

“About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil” (5:11-14 NRSV).

We must be trained to distinguish good from evil, trained not only understanding what virtue is, but applying it to our lives. We cannot understand or discern the deeper things of God until we not only understand good from evil, but have practiced it in our own lives! Paul tells us, in Romans, that “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character.” It is suffering (tribulation) that forces us to persevere. And this isn’t necessarily even an external force, but an internal one. It is like a track that we must travel, at track that doesn’t allow us to turn to the left or the right, but forces us to continue in one direction, that direction being obedience to God. Oh, we can make the choice to escape the suffering, but if we do, we lose the opportunity to develop perseverance. And it is that perseverance that develops character (virtue) in our lives. If we want to move on to the deeper things of God, if we want to mature as Christians so that we are able to reach out to those around us with true spiritual maturity and teaching, then we must be willing to push through the suffering, to persevere through it, to reach on to the higher and deeper things of Christ.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

1 Peter 4:7-11

"The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ" (NRSV).

"The end of all things is near . . ."


Once Adam and Eve sinned, the earth as we know it was doomed. God is both too merciful and too just to allow sin to exist forever. Once sin entered creation, creation was doomed. It doesn’t matter that God has restrained His hand for more than 2,000 years. The end of all things is near because the end will　come. It is the same with the end of each of our lives. The one guarantee that comes to all of us is that this life, as we know it, will end. If we are believers, the Lord Jesus will come for us . . . one way or another. He will either return and gather all believers to Himself or He will come to us individually when we die to take us to Heaven. We have no guarantee for this life, only for the promises in His Word. We cannot know if we even have the next breath! The psalmist likens our lives to a passing shadow: "O Lord, what are human beings that You regard them, or mortals that You think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow" (Psalm 144:3 NRSV). Life is that precarious. And yet, we also know that when we breathe our last breath here, we will breathe our next breath there.

The question Peter poses is whether or not we are ready. Life is short. Have we done our best for Jesus? Are we worried about the things in life which do not matter or are we concerning ourselves with the things that bring glory to the Father? Peter admonishes us to do two things: (1) be serious and (2) discipline ourselves. The meaning of both words focuses on the idea of somberness, dispassion, being in control, being calm and collected in spirit. It is the idea of refusing to allow the circumstances of life thrust us this way or that, that we refuse to become upset or angry because of what has happened around us, but rather we remain calm, trusting the Lord to work for our good.

This, I’m beginning to believe, is the key to successful Christian living. Successful Christian living isn’t about whether or not we are happy, but is about how much we trust God to work all things for our good, even when circumstances are insane. It is, I think, much like the account of the disciples in the boat tossed by the storm:

"When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and He was alone on the land. When He saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, He came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Then He got into the boat with them and the wind ceased" (Mark 6:47-51 NRSV).

I find this account interesting. The disciples were alone, straining against an adverse wind. And rather than welcoming the Lord, they cried out in terror, thinking that His presence (His will) would make things worse (that He was a ghost). God’s will, even when it isn’t what we expected or what we wanted, is always the answer to our prayers and the best thing for us! Father God continues to work things for our good, even when we think that circumstances are getting worse. His responsibility is to work all things for our good. Our responsibility is to live sobering, calmly, in control of our thoughts and emotions, praying all the time and submitting everything to Him.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Luke 9:23-25

“Then He said to them all, ‘If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?’” (NRSV)

Who are you? What does your life consist of? How do you define yourself? What do you hold important? All of these questions help us to determine what makes up “our life.” Particularly in Western culture, where there is an abundance of wealth, life is more than simply breathing. It is the satisfaction of fulfilling our wishes and desires. It is becoming who we want to be or doing what we want to do. Even if we spend a majority of our time earning money in ways that aren’t fulfilling or fun, we focus on those times when we can “enjoy” ourselves doing . . . whatever. Maybe you are the kind of person who wants to focus on health, on eating right and exercising. Maybe you are the kind of person who wants to experience new things, challenge yourself to new heights. Maybe you have a particular hobby or talent that is your “pride and joy.” It doesn’t matter what it is. That thing (or those things) which make you happy, for which you long, to which you gravitate, those things are at least part (if not the focus) of your life.

The question that the Lord Jesus presents here is this: Are we willing to give that up for the sake of the kingdom? If giving it up meant that someone would get saved, that someone would listen to the gospel message, would we be willing to give it up?

Dr. Sidney and Helen Correll were Foursquare pastors infused with a passion for missions. This same passion they taught their children. Their son, Sidney Robert, took up the passion and prepared as a medical doctor for the mission field in Africa. Imagine the years, dedication, and expense that were incurred to allow him to fulfill his dream. His parents were overjoyed beyond imagination, that one of their children would take up the dream and dedicate their life to bringing the gospel to a continent where many were nonbelievers. Helen Correll, in her book, quotes her husband:

“Can you imagine what it meant to me when my own son finished his long years of training as a doctor and surgeon, and sailed to the African continent as a medical missionary? I felt a tremendous responsibility to this boy, and to all the missionaries of United World Mission. I dreamed dreams of conquest, conquest of this whole western part of Africa. And then, the cruel message from the Western Union operator: ‘Sidney Robert went to be with the Lord October 15th, 4 am.’ In a blind flash of pain, my world caved in, and the awful question rushed in, ‘Why?’ All these years of preparation. The work was just begun, and there was not another missionary doctor in a thousand miles.”

Sidney Robert hadn’t been in Africa more than a few months, perhaps less, when the Lord took him home in a tragic accident. It seemed that Dr. Sidney and Helen had lost everything, but as mature Christians, they were willing to lose their lives, even their dreams if the Lord required it. Imagine their surprise when, because of their son’s death, more than a dozen people responded to the need for missionaries in Africa and answered the call. Father God was certainly aware of the need and had His own plan to provide for it! But it took the Corrells being willing to give up their “lives,” to give up their dream as they had dreamed it in order to allow God’s plan to take hold.

My husband and I are currently facing the possibility of having to give up a dream, a part of our lives that we thought was an important ministry. And as we have struggled with the thought of this loss, the Lord spoke to me yesterday: Are you willing to give this up for the sake of the Kingdom? If this means that people are drawn to me, is the loss of this part of your life worth it? Are you willing?

I believe that the Lord is asking each one of us this question. We need to be examining our lives and asking what thing is there that the Lord would have us give up. What are the things in our lives—even those things which seem so right and good—that are impeding the work that He has planned? In order to gain our lives with Him, we need to be readily willing to give up whatever He asks in order that the Kingdom might be advanced.

Are we willing?

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Psalm 34:13-18

“Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” (NRSV).

Perspective is everything!

I can remember when I was learning to drive. (And, yes, it was a long time ago.) I would watch the curb and lines very near to the car and often find myself drifting perilously close to the curb or into the oncoming traffic. Only when I looked ahead, into the distance, was I able to correctly steer the car in a straight line.

I think that life for believers is very much like that. When we stare too intensely at the circumstances around us, focusing on them, we lose our perspective and begin to veer into all kinds of sin, including speaking evil and deceit. We forget that ahead—in the distance—is the promise of salvation, is the promise of God to take care of us. That He is working all things for our good, even perhaps the evil things that are currently surrounding us.

When we drive, the curb next to us is rarely our destination. It is simply that which we have to pass by in order to reach the place we are going. It is the same in life. This situation in which we find ourselves enmeshed isn’t our destination; it isn’t our “forever.” It is simply something we need to pass by on our way to our true and eternal home. It’s just a speck in the road.

This passage is clearly about a situation where someone was being persecuted. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. I’m currently in a situation where I am crying out for help, a situation where of trouble. I am very brokenhearted and crushed in spirit, and yet, I know that the Lord is with me and is going ahead of me to make the perfect way.

This passage isn’t alone in its admonition of how we should act when we are in the midst of trials. Throughout scripture—over and over again (probably the repetition is for those like me who are obtuse when it comes to learning how to respond in crises)—we are commanded to respond to evil with good. Paul wrote in Romans:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (12:17-21 NRSV).

Paul’s passage is more powerful that I could imagine. The word translated “noble” in v. 17 is kalos. From Strong’s G2570 it means:

“1 beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable. 1a beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent. 1b good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends. 1b1 genuine, approved. 1b2 precious. 1b3 joined to names of men designated by their office, competent, able, such as one ought to be. 1b4 praiseworthy, noble. 1c beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy. 1c1 morally good, noble. 1d honourable, conferring honour. 1e affecting the mind agreeably, comforting and confirming.”

I know that the definition is long, but I read it again and again. And then I thought about all of this in light of the scripture: Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.

Take thought for what is . . . beautiful, excellent, surpassing, precious, commendable, magnificent, excellent in its nature and characteristics, genuine, praiseworthy, beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, morally good, honorable, comforting . . . in the sight of all.

So, when I am in a hurtful or harmful situation, I am not to respond in kind, but instead to take thought of God, for what else or who else is beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life? Who else is excellent in nature and characteristics? When I hit a bump in the road, rather than focusing on the bump, I need to focus on the beauty of the Lord and His provision for me.

Paul also makes this passage very practical. He commands us to repay evil with good. Now, it might be easy to think that Paul didn’t know what he was talking about if he had never suffered persecution. But he did! He described his suffering in 2 Corinthians:

“Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked” (11:24-27 NRSV).

And what’s amazing is that earlier, in chapter 4, Paul calls all these things “slight momentary afflictions” (v. 17). How could he do that? I think, perhaps, it’s because he was able to keep his eyes on the destination and not worry about the curbs or the bumps in the road. He understood the purpose of being a Christian: to minister to a world that, by its nature, would create pain and heartache and suffering. This world is filled to the brim with sin. People are out of control trying to hang onto their rights, trying to assuage their pain, and trying to justify their own hurtful actions. They don’t need to have any more pain added to their lives. Instead, they need to be ministered to. They need to be fed with the Bread of Life and satisfied with the Living Water. And, who can do that but the believers around them? Who can do that but me? Even if they are the ones who have harmed me, how can I deny them the opportunity to learn about God’s love and what the Lord Jesus has done for them? And if I make them my enemies, how can I share the gospel with them? The psalmist wrote:

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.

The Lord knows what I need. He sees and knows if evil has been done to me and because of His love, He is angry with the evil doers. But He is also ready and willing to offer them forgiveness and salvation if they will repent. I don’t need to stand up in defense of myself. I don’t need to try to find some kind of recompense. Only God can truly restore what I have lost and He will provide exactly what I need. Meanwhile, I need to keep my eyes on the goal at the end of the road, keep myself focused on what I should be doing, and continue to pray and minister to those around me.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Psalm 89:8

“O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as You, Lord? Faithfulness is Your very character” (NLT).

I teach in a public school and these days, there’s a lot of talk within educational circles about character education. The word “character” in that context is basically talking about morality, the ability to see the right and wrong in each situation and to choose the right, regardless of one’s initial impulses or desires. Basically, for me, character means that foundational part of a person that motivates his decisions, his behavior, and from which he cannot deviate without conscious choice or the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Character is who we are when no one else is looking.

A. W. Tozer wrote an entire book on God’s character, The Knowledge of the Holy. In an opening chapter, he wrote: “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.” In his Bible Handbook, Pastor Jack Hayford wrote: “God may be described in terms of His attributes, the inherent characteristics of His person or being.” I truly believe that when the translators of the NLT chose to translate Psalm 89:8 using the word “character,” they chose that word deliberately.

Faithfulness is Your very character.

That phrase is so powerful. Think about how it is different from these phrases:

You are a faithful person.
You are always (or usually) faithful.

Faithfulness—the act of being faithful all the time—is not only a way to describe God; it is God. The very essence of faithfulness, its very existence, is dependent upon God Himself existing. There is no faithfulness without God. Galatians 5 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (v. 22-23). The thing is, these are not simply characteristics or attributes of God; these are God. Without Him, these would not exist. Without God, there is no love, for God is love. Without God, there is no joy, for God is joy. Without God, there is no peace or patience or kindness or generosity or faithfulness or gentleness or self-control. These things do not exist outside of Him and we simply describe Him using them. These things are God!

Faithfulness is Your very character.

It is so very easy to deceive ourselves into thinking that our lives and this world can exist, even for a moment, without God or outside of His influence. It’s easy to “make believe” that we can do something that He won’t see or that we can hide from Him. (It would be easier to hide from the oxygen that surrounds our planet than to hide something from God.) I can’t hide the fear or anger within my heart from Him. I can’t hide my frustration with a certain situation or my desire for vengeance. He sees it and He already knows about it. What He’s waiting for isn’t to discover it, but rather for me to honestly admit that I have sinned and to seek His willing and ready forgiveness. And He is willing and ready to forgive because He is faithful.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Genesis 50:10-20a

“Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good’” (NRSV).

The story of Joseph is always amazing to me. I keep coming back, again and again, during different experiences in my life, to this particular verse and to the reality that was Joseph’s. You see, I’ve heard many preachers extol the honors that Joseph received, how he went from a slave to becoming Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. But that’s not quite the entire story.

Joseph, as a boy, I’m sure was convinced that he was destined by God to live within his family, within that safe known culture, and there to become the family patriarch. That he was destined to grow up and grow old surrounded by all he knew, lauded and respected by his brothers and their families. That he would have a comfortable and secure life.

None of that happened.

We all know the story. Because of his brothers’ jealousy, he was sold as a slave and taken to Egypt. There, he adapted himself to a life of servitude, but was able to prosper under the ownership of Potipher. He became second in power in that household, only his master was greater . . . when a lustful and vindictive wife falsely accused him of rape. He was summarily thrown into prison where he again became successful as the prison scribe (but still in prison). Then, through the interpretation of dreams—given to him by God—he was elevated to the position of Prime Minister of Egypt.

But here’s really where the “untold” story becomes so important. First, he was never vindicated of the rape. So, it’s is highly likely that the Egyptian court still looked upon him as a rapist. There was very likely much gossip and ostracizing. His only “acceptance” into that social circle came from Pharaoh’s power. Thus, outwardly he was accepted and respected, but that was probably all. Second, he came from a tribe that were shepherds, hated in Egypt (that’s why his family was “given” Goshen, a land distanced from Pharaoh’s palace). Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian wife, clothed him in Egyptian clothes, and required him to shed every bit of his previous culture. In other words, Joseph was required outwardly to become an Egyptian. So, here he was, the Prime Minister, bereft of anything familiar and hated by all around him except his boss (who likely didn’t see him a lot). Even though he had the outward trappings of success, his life was certainly very different than what he had wanted or dreamed of.

And here’s where the story becomes so interesting. During his father’s life, Joseph made all appearances of embracing his family. But after Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers became frantic that he would finally take his vengeance upon them. They beg him to be merciful and he responded:

“Do not be afraid! Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”

Joseph had lost “everything” that we normally cherish. He had become, in essence, a stranger to his family. He regularly spoke a different language, wore different clothes, lived wholly in a different culture, had a foreign wife. And yet, in all of it, Joseph kept the one thing that mattered: his relationship with God. In that, despite all of his losses, he was able to understand the perspective of all our lives! You see, our lives are simply a dot in all of eternity. What matters is how much we trust God, how we live out His will, how we trust Him in the darkness. The losses don’t matter because He has promised to work all things for our good! Not some things, not only the good things, not just the fair things, but all things! Life wasn’t as Joseph had dreamed or expected. Life certainly wasn’t fair to him and things never evened out. But his life was what God had planned for a far greater purpose. Joseph was able to learn to take the long view of things and to trust God, regardless of what happened to him. Where he lived didn’t matter. His reputation with those around him didn’t matter. Where he ended up in life didn’t matter. All that mattered was doing the Father’s will . . . and Joseph did that.

I have to ask myself if I can be that obedient, that trusting. Everything was taken from Joseph and though there was an outward form of restoration, Joseph truly didn’t receive anything like he expected until he reached heaven. Am I willing to wait until then? Am I willing to live in a world that certainly isn’t fair, trusting God to take care of everything and being willing to wait for things to even out after I go Home?

Hebrews 11 teaches that many of the great saints of the Bible, both those named and those unnamed, didn’t receive the result of God’s promises to them in this life:

“All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them” (v. 13 NRSV).

These understood the great truth taught by our Lord:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NRSV).

Am I willing to simply walk the path He had outlined for me, shedding everything that He deems unnecessary and clinging only to Him? Is He my only treasure? I would hope that daily I come closer to that Truth in my life.

© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.