You Are Worth It! -- Philippians 1:20-26

Philippians 1:20-26


"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again" (NRSV).

"To remain in the flesh is more necessary for . . . your progress and joy in the faith."

Paul had learned that, if someone is truly a committed Christian, is truly serving the Lord, being alive here on this planet is always hard work and often suffering. In another passage, Paul lists the litany of sufferings that he had experienced as a result of being a missionary:

"In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches" (2 Corinthians 11:23b-38 NKJV).

And yet, he concludes in Philippians that to "remain in the flesh"—to experience those sufferings here on earth—were more important for the believers he loved so he would continue here for their sakes rather than go to heaven (at this point) to be with the Lord Jesus. What would make Paul feel this way? Why would he make this decision, to continue to face suffering for someone else? "[It] is more necessary for you . . . for your progress and joy in the faith." Why would the Lord Jesus allow Himself to be tortured and murdered through the crucifixion? Because it was more necessary for you—for me—for our progress and joy in the faith.

We were worth it to Him! The churches were worth it to Paul. There was placed in Paul’s heart and soul the love of the Holy Spirit. Paul was allowing the Holy Spirit to live out the fruit of the Spirit in his life, the fruit of which the characteristics are "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV). And because Paul had the Spirit’s love working out through his life, he was able to say "I will remain in the flesh for your sakes. You are worth it!"

You are worth it.

Paul could say that, live that, breath that, because to him, living was Christ and Christ loves us, each and everyone of us with a love we cannot begin to understand. When we become Christians, we begin to experience the outpouring of that love through us to those around us. If we want to be sensitive to the Spirit, we will begin to want to sacrifice so that those around us can understand that they are worth it, not because of who they are, but because of Who Christ is and what He did for us. We can become like Paul who was willing to continue living his litany of sufferings for the churches. Paul wasn’t a masochist. He didn’t like to suffer, but he embraced that suffering as necessary so that the people in the fledgling churches to whom he was writing would continue to grow spiritually. "To remain in the flesh is more necessary for . . . your progress and joy in the faith."

You are worth it.

This concept of embracing suffering for the sake of someone else is often rejected. "We need to protect ourselves and our personal time and space." "We need to practice ‘tough love’ and not allow people to abuse us." "We need to love ourselves and take care of ourselves first." Paul wouldn’t have understood any of these as being Christian values or lifestyles. He only understood pouring out his life—facing, even embracing suffering—for their sakes. If we are going to become the kind of Christians who, like Paul, change the world with the power of the gospel, then we are going to have to become the kind of Christians who can embrace suffering, saying to those around us, "You are worth it!"

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Trust Riches or Trust God -- Amos 6:4-7

Amos 6:4-7


"How terrible it will be for you who sprawl on ivory beds surrounded with luxury, eating the meat of tender lambs and choice calves. You sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and you fancy yourselves to be great musicians, as King David was. You drink wine by the bowlful, and you perfume yourselves with exotic fragrances, caring nothing at all that your nation is going to ruin. Therefore, you will be the first to be led away as captives. Suddenly, all your revelry will end." (NLT)

In the past several years, a number of prominent Christian leaders have lost their ministries due to personal activities that involved sexual sin. Even this week, a young pastor who has one of the largest mega-church ministries in the Northwest has been asked to step down, at least temporarily, while he is investigated for inappropriate relationships and demeanor toward his staff and congregation. Even some others who were brought low and have been "restored" either completely or partially are still having reported about them that they act arrogantly with those around them.

There is an arrogance that comes from power, a self-indulgence that is almost impossible to ignore. Amos condemns the rich Israelites who, because they were rich and powerful, surrounding themselves with the accouterments of luxury, complementing themselves on how wonderful they were while at the same time ignoring the fact that their nation—that for which they were responsible—was going to hell in a handbasket. Wealth and power, those things which make it possible for us to insulate ourselves from the cares of the world, make it very difficult for a person to depend on God. It is possible, but it’s also very difficult.

"Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not bear false witness," "Do not defraud," "Honor your father and your mother."’ And he answered and said to Him, ‘Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.’ Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’ But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, ‘Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.’"(Mk 10:17-27 NLT).

"How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!" This story isn’t about being rich; it’s about trusting in riches, trusting in money for our future.

I’ve often wondered why so many American Christians are so focused on money. They are either spending it or saving it. In fact, there are churches in America that have large savings accounts and investment portfolios. Many Christians I know have large investment portfolios; they claim they are saving "for the future." What future is that? A future without God? Because our Father has promised to take care of us each day. And what does it matter if we live in riches or poverty? What would it matter if we had to turn off our phones or our cable TV? Would it change our relationship with the Lord Jesus? (Well, it might change it . . . for the better!) What are we so afraid of?

The Israelites in Amos ignored the reality around them and created a false reality built on this earth’s wealth. Christians in America ignore the reality around them and live in a false reality built on this earth’s wealth. How do we do that? What do we ignore?

We ignore the fact that our children should not be attending public schools. We protest about what’s happening in those schools, but we keep sending our kids so that we can either go to work (and continue to bring in money) or so that we can have that time to ourselves. And we are losing that generation completely! According to one study, 75% to 90% of church members of the mainstream churches in America believe in evolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution). In a separate study, 44% of American Protestants believe that homosexuality is either not a sin or isn’t a moral issue (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/09/southern-baptists-confront-a-third-way-on-homosexuality-and-sin/). With just these two issues alone, this is a huge turnaround from 100 years ago and it is, many Christian theologians believe, due to the influence of public schools.

We ignore the fact that television and the media is changing how we think and how we react to life around us. If we ignore the conspiracy issues of whether or not there are imbedded messages in media, there is definitely an influence that occurs when we surround ourselves with secularism through fictional media. For example, one of the things I’ve heard repeatedly from Christians is that no parent should have to outlive their child. Do you know that is an idea from Hollywood? Children have been dying before their parents since the very beginning of time (Cain was murdered long before Adam and Eve died). While the loss of a child is very sad, we make it worse when our expectation of life is unrealistic.

We ignore the fact that we use fiction (movies, television, video games, books, etc.) and entertainment to insulate us from life’s pain rather than turning to the Lord Jesus Who is our only hope in times of trouble (Jeremiah 14:8). When life is overwhelming, we turn to liquor, smoking, drugs (both prescription and illegal), partying, watching TV, going to movies, going on vacation, rather than face life head on.

We ignore the fact that we have been blessed with material riches in other to bless others, not to indulge ourselves. We don’t need fancy cars, expensive houses, delicious food, new clothes, or varied entertainments to live. We need the Lord! And so does the world around us.

I have a dear aunt and uncle (who are now with the Lord) who, in their older years, listened to a new call of God on their life. This was a couple who, except for a time in Florida with a traveling evangelist and a time in Ohio with a church there, had lived in Southern California their entire lives. They had ministered some across the country and a few times in Europe, but for the most part, stayed where it was familiar; this was were the Lord had put them. They didn’t hold down jobs, but trusted God to supply. They had been able to buy a small house in a poorer neighborhood, but were happy there and continued to minister up and down California in the churches that knew them.

Then one day all that changed.

The Lord took them to Asia. It was there they saw the abject poverty of mothers and children, children who were the offspring of American and European soldiers, soldiers who had sex and left, left the women with children who were reviled and rejected by their Asian cultures. Amer-Asian children. This couple began to pour themselves and every dime they could raise into a group of homes for these children, many of whom had been abandoned even by their mothers. My aunt and uncle limited their own meals to one or two a day (and half of that usually being saved to share with their own grandchildren who were living in poverty). They often neglected their own health in order to make sure these homes were adequate for these precious children. They began trying to find homes in America for some of the abandoned children, and even at their own older age, adopting two themselves. Meanwhile the publishing company which held the copyrights on my aunt’s music never paid her a dime of royalties. It didn’t matter. They trusted God and the ministry thrived. They trusted God and people donated money for dental bills. They trusted God and He would provide another used car for them to drive. They trusted God and they always had food and a roof over their heads. They didn’t need a portfolio or savings account. They knew God would take care of them.

I often wonder, in our obsession to plan for the future and to insulate the present, if we miss those precious ministry opportunities. Is God calling us to something greater and we are ignoring Him because we can’t miss the next edition of "The Simpsons?" Are we too insulated from life that we have also insulated ourselves from God as well?

The fact is, whether in judgment or in death, suddenly our revelry will end. The Lord Jesus will come for us. What will we say to Him? More importantly, what will He say to us? I hope He will say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21 NKJV). Nothing else matters.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

One Nation Better than Another -- Amos 6:1-3

Amos 6:1-3


"How terrible it will be for those who have an easy life in Jerusalem, for those who feel safe living on Mount Samaria. You think you are the important people of the best nation in the world; the Israelites come to you for help. Go look at the city of Calneh, and from there go to the great city Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. You are no better than these kingdoms. Your land is no larger than theirs." (NCV)

"You think you are the important people of the best nation in the world."

As I have lived and tried to broaden my thinking as far as peoples and cultures and perspectives, I’ve come to realize that most, if not all, people have a strong sense of national and/or cultural identification. Most are unwilling to change their world view significantly, but want to have others identify with them. "If only we all agreed . . . if only we all had the same perspectives . . . if only we all shared one common goal . . . that would fix all the problems in the world."

That is one of the root problems between differing groups of people. Muslim insurgents have been claiming that if everyone followed Islam, there would be peace, but even now ISIS is killing off other Muslims for disagreeing with how they interpret the Koran. The gangs in Los Angeles fight because they are different gangs. "If you just joined our gang, there would be peace." But even within each gang, there is violence and fighting. Within marriages, one of the common complaints is that one spouse doesn’t exactly see eye to eye with the other. The result? Often, divorce.

There is an inherent egocentricity within the human heart that demands that others be like me, think like me, act like me. We all think we are the most important person in the world. We all think our position is right. We all think that we should encourage—or even demand—that others think and do as we do.

That is not how Christians are to live.

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. . . . Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:5, 11 NKJV).

We are born egocentric, thinking that we are the center of the universe. Once we become Christians, that person is crucified with Christ and that body (of sin) is to be done away with. We are no longer slaves to sin, but should reckon ourselves dead to sin. We are transformed to become theo-centric, God-centered. And when we become God-centered, we no longer demand that others see things our way, but rather we begin to see things God’s way.

And what is God’s way?

It is that one kingdom is no better than another. One place is no better than another. One person is no better than another. God created it all; He is in control of it all; and Christ died for all! Even the most evil person on earth our Lord Jesus Christ loved and died for. I believe this is why the thief on the cross was saved at the eleventh hour. This is why tax collectors were included with the original disciples. This is why Paul—who orchestrated the murder of Stephen (and lived with that guilt all his life)—was appointed to be perhaps the greatest of all apostles. To show us that our Lord Jesus loves everyone, died for everyone, and counts everyone worthy of being offered salvation. We are all the same.

"Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:1-4 NKJV).

"Prayers . . . for all men [people], for kings and all who are in authority. . . . God . . . desires all men [people] to be saved."

All. Paul doesn’t tell us to abandon where we are because the rulers are bad. (The fact is, rulers are usually bad because absolute power corrupts absolutely.) In fact, in the Amos passage, the Lord pointed out that feeling "safe" in one location, as opposed to another, is a false peace. There is no "safe" place except in the arms of Jesus. There is no nation better than another. There is no people better than another. Rather, if we want to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness (Is that our goal? To live godly?), then we are to pray for our rulers. That is "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." Why? Because even bad (or evil) rulers need the Lord. Because our Lord Jesus loves them; He died for them, too! We pray for people because God commands it. We pray for people so that they will be saved. We pray for people because the Holy Spirit in our lives demands that we put aside our egocentricity and begin to think like God thinks. We pray for people because that’s what our Father longs for us to do.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

True Worship -- Amos 5:21-24

Amos 5:21-24


"The Lord says, ‘I completely hate your feasts; I cannot stand your religious meetings. If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them. You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle, but I will ignore them. Take the noise of your songs away from me! I won’t listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like a river, and let goodness flow like a stream that never stops.’" (NCV)

There are, these days, worship conferences. Some sponsor—usually looking to make money—will ask a number of worship leaders from mega-churches to come together and talk about how to "do" worship. When you attend the conference (or watch the videos posted online later), you see person after person talking about music—how to compose it, how to play it, how to sing it. Rarely does anyone talk about how to live worship and even then, rarely, very rarely, do you hear anyone talking about sin.

You see, discussions of sin should be the focus when we talk about worship. The Lord is much more concerned about the states of our hearts than the ability of the band when it comes to worship.

Near the end of the Lord Jesus’ life here on earth, an interesting thing happened. He and the disciples were traveling. "So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, ‘Is it not written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" ? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’" (Mark 11:15-17 NKJV).

House of prayer. Not a house of worship. Not a house of sermons. Not a house of programs. A house of prayer.

Prayer is first and foremost communication with God. It is interactive as it requires us to seek His face and then to listen to His voice. We pray and God responds. We pray and God acts. We pray and God changes who we are. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV).

Guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Prayer doesn’t change God; prayer changes us! As we are in His presence, we are accosted by our sin and our sinfulness. As we are in His presence, we become mindful of how little we have achieved (nothing!) and how desperately we need Him! As we are in His presence, we learn how much we deserve punishment and how great is His mercy. And only in and through prayer can our hearts and minds be changed so that we live out the justice and goodness that He so desires from us, so we can truly begin to worship Him as He demands.

You see, worship isn’t about music. We can worship through music, but we can also worship through giving a lift to a weary traveler, through talking on the phone to a despairing friend, through buying a meal for a hungry soul, through reaching out to a lonely child.

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’" (Matthew 25:31-40 NKJV).

Just as our relationship with the Lord should flow out from us to a hurting world, so, if our hearts are right before Him, should our worship of the Lord. In Amos, the Lord is angry with the outward trappings of worship that have failed to reflect an inward heart change: "I completely hate your feasts; I cannot stand your religious meetings. I won’t accept your offerings. Take the noise of your songs away from me!" Why is the Lord so angry? Because justice and goodness are absent from the hearts of the worshipers. Worship without righteousness isn’t worship and the Lord hates it. Worship is only true worship when we understand our sinfulness, when we understand our need for the Lord Jesus Christ, and when we choose to act out His love in our lives.

"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist," says the Lord. "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." (Isaiah 66:1-2 NKJV).

"Who trembles at My word." When we start taking God seriously, when we begin to believe that our sinful foolishness will result in His judgment, and when we allow that truth to begin to bring about change in our choices and our behavior, only then will He accept our worship in whatever form we bring it, good music or bad, skillfulness or ineptness, in a group or alone. God desires worship from our hearts and that only comes when we start to live out His commands in our daily lives.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Resisting Evil -- James 4:7-10

James 4:7-10


"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." (NKJV)

I had my outside fence painted gray last year to match the house. Oh, I could have left it the original redwood color, but it just didn’t seem to go. So, I had it painted gray. If it had been red, I might have missed what happened yesterday.

I was in the house, talking on the phone to a friend, and looking outside at the yard. I enjoy looking at the yard this time of year. The few flowers I’ve planted are trying to bloom, the multitude of birds that I feed are busily scooping up as much seed as they can eat, and there are often fluffy white clouds over the mountains to the south. It’s a beautiful view.

So, here I was talking on the phone when I noticed a copper ribbon had gotten caught on the top of the fence. Finding things in my yard isn’t unusual because I live in the high desert and we get a lot of wind. I never really know what might show up. But here was this shiny, bright copper ribbon. "What in the world is that?" I thought.

And then . . . I saw it move. It was a snake! Now I’m all for live and let live with the creatures around me, but I have to admit. I’m just not a fan of snakes. I have no idea which are "good" snakes and which are "bad" snakes, so having them in my yard makes me very uneasy. But here I found myself on a phone call that I didn’t want to terminate "just because of a snake" and there’s this snake on my fence. A conundrum. The call was one of ministry. The snake was a possible threat. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just kept talking and watched.

After a few minutes, the snake dropped down into my yard. (Why couldn’t he have dropped down into the vacant lot behind me??) So, still on the phone, still listening and talking, I walked outside—not too close, mind you—to watch where this snake was going to decide to go in my yard! Amazingly enough, this is what happened.

The snake dropped to the ground and raised his head. He didn’t pan his head around, as if looking. He simply raised his head, as if smelling. (I’ve since found out from the Internet that most snakes have a good sense of smell.) It didn’t take long, perhaps a minute, and the snake headed for the bottom of the fence (that makes sense since now he’s on the ground) and began slithering, rather hurriedly along the bottom, looking for a space between the fence boards large enough for him to pass through. After a few tries, he found such a space and was gone, back into the other lot, before I knew it.

I didn’t have to fight the "evil" after all. The environment which I had created within my backyard was so uninviting to him—regardless of the flowers, plants, and water—that he wanted nothing better than to leave as quickly as possible.

Then the Lord spoke to me. "I sent the snake to teach you a lesson. Satan and sin will try to come into your life. They may even drop over the edge and look to see if the environment is inviting. But if your life is permeated with my Spirit, they will want to leave as quickly as possible. They can’t exist where I AM."

We never have to focus on evil. We never have to focus on the wiles of the devil (more than to know that he is crafty and will do whatever he can to deceive us). What we need to do is to focus totally on the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father’s love for us. We resist the devil just by being in the presence of the Lord and doing His will!

Look at the passage in James. James gives us the secret to overcoming any scheme of evil: submit to God – resist the devil. What’s interesting is that we don’t actually have to resist the devil. What we have to do is submit to God. By submitting to God, we resist the devil. When we are doing God’s will, the Holy Spirit so permeates our lives and hearts that the devil flees. He cannot exist in that environment.

So what’s involved in submitting to God, in doing His will? How do we do that? I believe there are three rather simple things: (1) Living humbly (v. 10); (2) living the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23); and (3) being content where God has put us (Philippians 4:11).


Living humbly
Humility is something that isn’t easily embraced in America. We are, as a country, arrogant. We believe we are important. We believe our opinions are right. We believe that we have rights that should not and cannot be violated.

Humility says that the other person is more important that I am, that I should spend my time and resources ministering to those around me (and trust God to take care of me). "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3 NKJV).

When we are humble, we put aside our "rights" and look to the needs and concerns of those around us. We drop into prayer at a moment’s notice when we see a need. If we have the resources (regardless whether we think we need them or not), we meet the needs of those around us, trusting God to take care of us. When we are humble, everyone comes first. We are willing to take the last place in line because we know that God is with us there.


Living the fruit of the Spirit
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5:22-25 NKJV).

Again, in this passage, we see the idea of conceit, of arrogance, placed against or in opposite to how the Christian should live. Paul tells us that our former life and its desires is crucified, dead. We stop living for ourselves and live for those around us, for those for whom our Lord Jesus died. We do that by being loving, joyful, at peace with God, patient (longsuffering), kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.

The "list" of the fruit of the Spirit isn’t a list of separate characteristics, but rather interwoven and interrelated characteristics that cannot exist apart from each other. We can’t live out one or two of the fruit, but must live out all of the fruit. Love cannot live without peace. Faithfulness cannot exist without self-control. Kindness cannot be evidenced without goodness. And all of these exist upon a foundation of humility.


Living contented
"I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11b-13 NKJV).

If we have learned to be humble, if we have learned to live out the fruit of the Spirit, then we will have learned to be content because the stuff around us—even the bare needs of life like housing and food—won’t matter because we will have learned to trust God in all things. We will have learned that Christ Himself is our housing and food, Christ Himself is the Supplier of our needs, Christ Himself is enough! And if we are living humbly, if we are living the fruit of the Spirit, if we are content in Christ, evil and temptation will flee! Just like that snake who couldn’t get out of my yard fast enough, Satan will drop in our lives, look around, and scurry away as quickly as he can because he will discover that we are living in the presence of the Almighty King of the universe and evil just isn’t welcome where He is!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Do We Think Punishment Won't Come? -- Amos 5:16-17

Amos 5:16-17


"This is what the Lord, the Lord God All-Powerful, says: ‘People will be crying in all the streets; they will be saying, "Oh, no!" in the public places. They will call the farmers to come and weep and will pay people to cry out loud for them. People will be crying in all the vineyards, because I will pass among you to punish you,’ says the Lord." (NCV).

I recently read an op-ed about the rioting that’s been occurring in a small Missouri town as a result of the police officer shooting of a young man. While the details are so confused in the media (and I’m not, in this study, dealing with the original event), this op-ed is what drew my attention. Apparently, in sociology, history, and political science classes (check out the Internet), looting as a political statement (looting as being an ethical behavior) is being taught. Here’s a snippet of what this editorialist said:

"On a less abstract level there is a practical and tactical benefit to looting. Whenever people worry about looting, there is an implicit sense that the looter must necessarily be acting selfishly, "opportunistically," and in excess. But why is it bad to grab an opportunity to improve well-being, to make life better, easier, or more comfortable? Or, as Hannah Black put it on Twitter: "Cops exist so people can’t loot ie have nice things for free so idk why it’s so confusing that people loot when they protest against cops" [sic]. Only if you believe that having nice things for free is amoral, if you believe, in short, that the current (white-supremacist, settler-colonialist) regime of property is just, can you believe that looting is amoral in itself." (from http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/in-defense-of-looting/)

"Why is it bad to grab an opportunity to improve well-being (through looting)?"

While the author presents some interesting points about the issues of differences in culture, I think there is a more important underlying issue that we, as a society, are failing to address. We are failing to address it because we want to believe that God is non-existent, or if He exists, He truly doesn’t care to be involved in our affairs. We don’t want a God Who is a moral being, who insists on ruling His creation with moral laws, and who, if thwarted, will bring about punishment.

We don’t want to believe that there are behaviors that are immoral because we don’t want to be punished for our actions.

Currently, there is, sweeping the country, a philosophy in our public schools that bad behavior shouldn’t be punished. This philosophy is based on the premise that everyone is born good and really wants to do good if only they were given what they needed. (Perhaps even you believe that?) In schools, we are told to evaluate student behavior based on that student’s "inherent" need and then asked to change the environment in such a way that the need is met. The assumption is that when the need is met, the behavior will change from "bad" to "good."

I’m sorry, but that’s a crock! Why? Because scripture tells us that the unsaved will act only according to their nature (Romans 8). It’s not much better for the saved. We are told to choose righteousness, but also given admonitions to seek forgiveness when we sin. In other words, we are told that we will do bad (evil) things. We are born into sin and we will want to sin until we come to that place where, in humility and gratitude, we throw ourselves completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him to become in us what we cannot become on our own.

The other choice is punishment.

The Lord will not—can not—allow sin to continue unchecked. "The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Psalm 145:8 NKJV). He is slow to anger, but at some point, His anger will be fulfilled.

While the scripture in Amos is unclear about timing, I have to wonder if the Lord is predicting that the people will cry out even before the punishment begins. Obviously the punishment hasn’t fallen full bore because they paid people to cry out for them. (Perhaps like we pay people in the media to express our opinions about things?) The people here weren’t crying so much in pain over the punishment as in protest of it and they wanted to hear the voices of others agree with them.

They wanted to believe that punishment wasn’t coming.

Is that what we believe? I think so. I often think we believe we are so privileged that God will simply tolerate our faults and allow us to continue in our sin because it makes us feel so good. The fact is, the Lord is aware that if we continue and continue and continue to sin, we will reach a point where we will choose not to stop. Our sins will be so familiar and comfortable, we would rather face a future punishment than give up our sin. The original King James Bible calls this a "reprobate mind" (Romans 1:28). The dictionary defines "reprobate" as "to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil; to foreordain as damnation; to refuse to accept." A reprobate mind is a mind that has so rejected God that the possibilities of this person turning to accept salvation are zero.

There is a point where we can so turn away from God that we will never want to turn back to Him again.

We want to believe that punishment isn’t coming.

Rather than pay people to agree with us—rather than believe, as the editorialist appears to believe, that immoral acts can somehow be moral—perhaps it’s time we understand that we aren’t in control. That the Almighty God of the universe is the only One who can establish the rules of life and that His morality will demand punishment if we continue to disobey Him. Thankfully, rather than face our punishment, we can throw ourselves on God’s mercy, embracing the salvation given so freely through the death of our Savior, and avoid the punishment we so hate. But we should never believe punishment isn’t coming. Because it is and when it comes, it is always righteous and just.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Are You a Fan or a Player? -- Ephesians 4:14-16

We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." (NKJV)

You can tell the change of seasons by what people wear. No, I’m not talking about the change of weather seasons (like winter or summer), but rather the change of sports seasons. Hats, jerseys, even face paint depict which season has begun and which team is favored.

America is sports-crazy! I don’t know about other countries, but here folks not only choose the teams they root for, but which sports they prefer. And now with cable TV, nine bajillion channels, and split screens, you are able to watch sports all weekend and more than one game at once. Just go into a local sports bar and you will see several games being played on the various monitors. (For people like me who crave peace and quiet, that’s not the place to go, but many love it.)

Inherent in sports watching is also sporting analyzing. In the lunch room, in the hallways, in the car, at the restaurant, people are talking how the coach missed this or a player missed that. Replays (in slow motion, of course) and reruns allow people to relive crucial moments over and over again, talking what should have been done differently, praising the attributes of their "own" team, and criticizing the faults of the opposing team. (There’s usually a lot of criticizing the opposing team.)

If you visit the local stadium early enough, you can see players, coaches, and fans mingling together. Unless you actually know the faces, it’s sometimes difficult to tell who’s who. They may all wear team paraphernalia or team colors, speak the same language, and have the same goals.

But’s there a huge difference!

Fans will never know or understand what it means to be on that field, to have the fate of a game or championship in your hands. They will never know the tension and effort that it takes for the coaches to analyze and design plays that will bring about victory. Fans will never understand that true sacrifice that it takes to play the game.

Fans sit back and observe, but they don’t truly join in.

As people who call ourselves Christians, we need to decide whether we are fans or players. We may call ourselves Christians. We may attend church, sing the songs, listen to the message, and interact in the parking lot with the others who are there. We may dress alike, speak similarly, and have the same goals (such as defeating what culture moral is the "sin of the hour"). But that doesn’t make us a true Christian. As the saying goes, "Being in a garage doesn’t make one a mechanic."

So what actually makes someone a Christian? Well, contrary to popular belief, saying the "sinner’s prayer" won’t make you a Christian. It can be the start, but it’s the start, not the process, and it’s the process that creates a Christian. Paul talks about this process in Ephesians, dividing it into three parts: (1) grow up in all things; (2) joined and knit together; and (3) the head, Christ.

Salvation is a process, a lifelong journey, in which it is possible to step off the path momentarily or even forever. Each day, each moment, we make decisions whether or not we will be obedient to our Lord or obedient to our own flesh, whether we will choose righteousness or sin. Using our analogy of fans and players, when we "grow up," the difference between fans and players is what happens inside our hearts. Fans of Christianity embrace all the trappings. They may or may not attend church, but they know the "speak." They have a Bible version of choice (and often defend it "to the death"). They often listen to Christian worship music and may be familiar with the different professional recording artists. They have seen the latest "Christian movie" and are demanding that everyone else go see it. They probably have a closet full of Christian t-shirts which they wear proudly and they are very visible, either in their communities or on the Internet, with their opinions about how the Christian life should be lived.

Players of Christianity—the Christians who are on the playing field—on the other hand are often too busy to be consumed with the trappings. They regularly join together in a physical meeting with other believers because the Lord commanded it, but rather than spending their money on CD’s, DVD’s, and t-shirts, are liberally giving to the poor, the needy, and to missions work. They are often seen volunteering at places that most other people wouldn’t even think about. They open their homes to the homeless, share food with the hungry, volunteer in schools in order to hug a lonely child, and visit those in prison. They are consumed with wondering if they are doing enough, but they continue to minister, even if it’s one person at a time, and everything they do is done because, in all the hours of prayer they spent, the Lord told them to. They would jump into a lions’ den if that’s what Jesus wanted.

Players are totally immersed in the process of salvation. They are working everyday to surrender themselves completely to the Holy Spirit. Their only goal in life is to live out the fruit of the Spirit in every encounter they have. They know they are interconnected with all other believers in the Body of Christ and they regularly interact within the Church in order to allow God to fully develop every aspect of His Church. They spent time in prayer and Bible study in order to continue to know Christ fully and the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).

Players don’t advertise they are Christians. Like the tax collector who prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13), players are constantly aware of the temptations to sin and stand humbly before God, greatly thankful for His love and mercy. They work to constantly love all others in the House of God because God loves them and because they are commanded to (John 13:35). But their light shines brightly because it’s the light of the Holy Spirit. It’s impossible to miss a player. You know immediately who they are.

The question becomes, which are we . . . fans or players? Which do we want to be?

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Don't Do the Lord's Work -- Colossians 1:24-29

Colossians 1:24-29


"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." (NKJV)

"I now rejoice in my sufferings . . . and fill up in my flesh . . . the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body which is the Church"

Paul rejoiced in his sufferings. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, he called them "light afflictions" (NKJV). What exactly were these sufferings, these "light afflictions?"

"From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness" (2 Corinthians 11:24-27 NKJV).

Paul was unjustly imprisoned, beaten, whipped, and stoned. He was shipwrecked three times, once being in the water for at least 24 hours. He was threatened, cursed, reviled and maligned. And yet, he rejoiced in those sufferings. No, Paul wasn’t mentally ill. He wasn’t a masochist. But Paul learned the secret of being a Christian because he wasn’t doing these things for the Lord. The Lord was doing these things through him.

The Lord is saying to us:

Don’t do for Me.

Be with Me and I will do through you.

"His working which works in me mightily."

It sounds foolish: "I am going to do this for the Lord, for the Master and Creator of the universe". But the fact is, that’s how most of us live out our Christian lives. We do for Jesus. We go to church to show Jesus how much we love Him. We sing worship songs to give Him praise. We read our Bibles to grow spiritually. We write opinions and argue on the Internet to try to change other people’s opinion in an order to do God’s work. (We actually use that phrase: "I am doing the Lord’s work." Do you see the irony? I’m doing God’s work. How arrogant we are.)

We do and do and do and do.

And the reason that we can’t begin to have Paul’s life—which, by the way, is as readily to us as it was to Paul—is because we are doing instead of allowing the Lord to do in and through us. The Lord doesn’t need us to do His work. He needs for us to be with Him, in His presence, in His peace, in His will. And then, once we are totally surrendered, He can easily do what He wants with our lives. He can, as He did through Paul, allow us to go into situations where we are greatly at risk, where we will greatly suffer, but we will be suffering for the sake of the Church!

Right now, most Christians I know don’t even want to die (and go to be with Jesus). And when we die, we want it to be peacefully at the end of a long life. Think of suffering? Not if we can help it! Paul was not only willing, but eager to embrace suffering for the sake of the Church! And with each suffering, he rejoiced! In Acts 16, after Paul and Silas had been whipped and thrown into prison, they were in their shackles (chains) "praying and singing hymns to God" (v. 25) so much so that the other prisoners were listening to them. They weren’t crying or complaining or petitioning to be released. They weren’t afraid or complaining about their unjust suffering. They were praying and singing hymns. These weren’t supermen. They were Christians who had discovered that life as a Christian is about being in the presence of Jesus and allowing Him to work in and through them, "striving according to His working which works in me mightily."

The Lord is saying to us:

Don’t do for Me.

Be with Me and I will do through you.

How do we "be" with Jesus? We pray and pray and pray some more. That is the first and most important step. Paul tells us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). This doesn’t mean that we have to be on our knees every moment (though having a lot of that kind of time is important), but it does mean that we have a constant communication with the Lord. We are in His presence, being with Him, and then He fills us with His Spirit Who will do mighty things through us.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Faith and Depression -- 2 Peter 3:17-18

2 Peter 3:17-18


"You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
The Internet is reeling with the news with the recent suicide death of a certain celebrity. It seems like every few years, someone famous dies in a particular way that garners an unusual amount of discussion and concern. But this is more than that. It seems lately that suicides are on the rise. In the past several years, at least two children of well-known pastors have taken their lives and I know there are many others whose deaths weren’t reported by the media, but whose families and friends still grieve at the horror of it all. 

One of the things that’s come out of this particular instance is a renewed discussion about mental illnesses, particularly clinical depression. And as someone who has contemplated suicide more than once in her life, I believe such discussions are valuable.

Yes, I have seriously contemplated suicide and once was at the verge when I was miraculously stopped. Does that surprise you? Unknown to me, I suffered from what is now known as PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Of course, it was unknown to me at that time because it was unknown to everyone. But every month I would suffer from such depression that I would want to quit my job, leave my family, dig a hole and hide in it and literally die. It took every bit of self-control and some "tricks" I learned about dealing with my own depression to see me through years and years of suffering.

I even had a nervous breakdown (for which, great thanks to my Christian doctor at the time, I was treated for at home, rather than hospitalized, which he threatened to do several times over the months he treated me). I was also medicated, but even the medication didn’t help much. It was a very dark time in my life.

You know what I learned through all this? Yes, there are physical causes of depression, changes in our brain chemistry or tendencies toward these behaviors due to our genetic make-up. But what I needed most of all was the Lord. And not "just" salvation, though that has to be the starting point. I needed to increasingly surrender to the Lord, to His will, not mine, to His plan, not mine, to His control, not mine.

The only light at the end of my very dark tunnel was the light of Jesus Christ.

People need the Lord. I know that’s a line from an old song, but it’s so true. The only hope for those struggling with the darkness of depression is Jesus. And not just salvation! Yes, we need salvation. Everyone needs to be saved. But even Christians are committing suicide. "Salvation" how it is taught in America isn’t saving us! We need to continue, as Peter wrote, to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Look at what Peter wrote:

"Beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked."

　
This is written to Christians, Christians who have the ability to fall from their own steadfastness. The Greek word here, sterigmos, has to do with the condition of the mind. (It is in the mind where depression lives.) Peter is talking both about a healthy mind and a healthy spiritual condition. It may be, due to God’s mercy, that you can be a Christian and commit suicide; however, you will not even contemplate suicide if you are strong and healthy spiritually. It just won’t happen! So notice how steadfastness is undermined: by error! An additional meaning of this word is delusion. While depression seems very real and the darkness is overwhelming and debilitating, the fact is it is a delusion brought by the enemy! And a Christian who is spiritually healthy and strong will be able to defeat the delusion. The battle may be a long and difficult one, but victory is guaranteed! However, a Christian who is spiritually undermined and weak may be overcome by the delusion. They may fall from their own steadfastness.

Peter tells us to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." The word really means to increase or enlarge. It means that our relationship with our precious Jesus must change every day. Every day we need to learn how to trust Him more, learn how to please Him more, learn how to surrender to Him more. If our faith isn’t changing everyday, isn’t increasing everyday, we are heading toward that fall from steadfastness. Our Christian faith cannot be stagnate. You cannot stand still as a Christian. You are either moving toward God or away from Him. You are either increasing your faith or diminishing your faith. You are either trusting Him more or trusting Him less. There. Is. No. Middle. Ground.

People need the Lord! He is the only solution to the suicide problem. He is the only solution to depression. He is the only thing we need. But we need more than salvation. We need to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. There is NO OTHER WAY.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Seek Good -- Amos 5:14-15

Amos 5:14-15


"Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the Lord God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." (NKJV)

"Seek good and not evil."

There is an active sense in the word "seek." You can’t seek by randomly just walking along, hoping that whatever you seek will fall into your path. You have to diligently search for what it is, looking carefully, persevering until you find it. Amos isn’t telling the people to do good when it’s convenient or easy. He’s telling them to make doing good their lifestyle.

There is also a sense of the covenant relationship with God in this Hebrew word, darash:

"This word is often used to describe the ‘seeking of’ the Lord in the sense of entering into covenantal relationship with Him. The prophets often used darash as they called on the people to make an about-face in living and instead "seek ye the Lord while he may be found …" (Isa. 55:6)" (Vine’s).

Seeking good is then a specific and deliberate act. For Christians, seeking good should become a way of life every moment of every day. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

"Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow" (1:16b-17 NKJV).

"Learn to do good." Doing good is both something we choose and something we can learn how to do. We aren’t born good. Babies are innocent in the sense that they are not yet responsible for their sins, but we are all born sinful. We are ego-centric from birth, wanting to rebel against God and against every authority. But once we are saved, we are given the ability to choose whether or not we want to obey God, whether or not we want to do good. We can learn to do good, we can choose to do good, we can seek to do good rather than evil.

"It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious . . . "

God never stops being gracious or loving toward us. He never stops wanting for each person to be saved.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

But there is a point—the point of judgment—when God will judge justly and there will no longer be salvation, not because God doesn’t want to extend it, but because the person will have so hardened his heart toward God that he will refuse to accept it:

"You are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin. For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who persist in doing what is good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and practice evil deeds" (Romans 2:5b-8 NLT).

One of the first things that the American Church "gave up," back in the mid 1950s was an active understanding of hell and eternal judgment. Preachers previously had actively preached about hell and folks who didn’t want to repent got tired of hearing it. So preachers changed their message to one of love. The problem is this. It isn’t that God doesn’t love each of us; He does. We saw that in 2 Peter 3:9. It’s that God doesn’t love us in a way that allows Him to tolerate sin. God can’t tolerate sin because sin is basically anti-God. (If you’re a sci fi buff, think of the concept of matter and anti-matter. The two can’t exist; they cancel each other out. It’s the same with God and sin except that God is all powerful and sin is rebellion against Him.)

Don’t be deceived. There will be a day of judgment for every soul who has ever lived and if that soul isn’t trusting on the mercy of God, then the judgment will be terrible and final and eternal. I’ve read a lot of articles from nonbelievers who joke about and even say they welcome being in hell. They won’t once they are there, but it will be the only choice for them because their hatred of God will be so complete, so final that they will eternally continue to refuse to bow down to Him in worship, even if it meant releasing them from the punishment they are suffering. Hell is worse than anything we can image, worse than anything anyone has ever experienced. But the only time to make a conscious choice of where we will spend eternity is now! Now is the time to seek to do good. Now is the time to put away evil. Now is the time to throw ourselves on the mercy of our loving Father.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The One True Enemy -- Ephesians 6:10-13

Ephesians 6:10-13


"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (NKJV)

"And Jesus, answering them, began to say: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows.’" (Mark 13:5-9 NKJV).

We live in distressing times. Not only are there many instances of wars and fighting going on, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but with the advent of technology, we can hear and see examples everyday. We can also share opinions and ideas and "facts" of all these conflicts.

It saddens me that I see Christians taking sides in such conflicts against other Christians, not only those Christians involved in the direct fighting, but even more so, Christians on the sidelines, demanding that their opinions are right and trying, in many ways, to coerce other Christians to agree with them against those they believe are in the wrong.

We are the ones who know the Truth, not only the written Truth (the Word of God), but the Truth embodied in our Lord Jesus Christ! We know that the battles being fought are first, and most importantly, spiritual battles. The people who are involved are simply pawns being used by our one adversary, the devil, and all his minions. "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood!" In any conflict, whether it is a nation-against-nation war or a person-to-person fight, as believers we have the obligation to remember this! "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood!" The Lord Jesus died for everyone, Russian and Ukrainian, Iraqi and Kurd, Jew and Palestinian. He loves us all! It is God’s will that "none will perish, but all will come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

As Christians, our weapons are spiritual, not carnal. Our primary weapon, first and foremost, is prayer . . . and then prayer with fasting. The Lord never said that our weapons were public opinion or voting or demonstrating. And while the Lord may ask you to peaceably do any one of those things, it will always be through the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we begin to war against other Christians in order to promote our opinion about the rightness of something, we are warring against the Body of Christ.

I would plead with my brothers and sisters, in this desperate time, to begin to fall to their knees, to give up their recreations and other pleasures, and seek the face of God. Living as a Christian is never about being right, but always about being righteous, worshiping at the Throne of Him who loves us. We worship the God of the universe who is in control. We fight against one adversary, the devil. All those who are unsaved aren’t our enemies, but rather our harvest field. We are commanded to pray for even the most evil of them for it’s our Father’s will that none should perish. Pray that God will soften our hearts that we can love as our Lord Jesus loved. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NKJV). While they are still sinners, let us at least be willing to pray for them.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Judgment and Salvation -- Amos 5:8-9

Amos 5:8-9


"God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion; He changes darkness into the morning light, and the day into dark night. He calls for the waters of the sea to pour out on the earth. The Lord is his name. He destroys the protected city; He ruins the strong, walled city." (NCV)

There is nowhere to hide.

I look around at the godlessness that surrounds me. Even from those who claim to be Christian, even from those who regularly attend church. I read through history at the godlessness of cultures, of the cruelty that we thrust on each other, of the escalation of self-indulgence and self-interest. Last night, I read the tale of Noah, of the evil that people were compounding and the anger of God for their doing so.

God will not be mocked.

We can try to logically talk His existence away. We can use "scientific tests" and philosophical debates. We can listen to celebrities and "experts" declaring that He doesn’t exist. We can ignore the tug of our hearts until we no longer feel it. We can desensitize ourselves with alcohol and drugs and television. In the end, none of that will matter; none of that will be successful.

God is able and will bring judgment upon the people He created.

Amos uses three strong images to demonstrate the power of the Almighty God: God made the stars. He placed them in specific positions and He continues to control them. God created the night and the day. He specifically placed the sun and moon to create day and night and He continues to control them. The Lord created the seas and the dry land. He created seas to be salty and lakes to be fresh. He controls their boundaries and their purposes.

God is in control of all of this universe.

He determines whether or not the laws of science continue to work because miracles themselves are often events that occur outside of these laws. These laws don’t rule God; He rules them.

God can and will destroy anything that we think will protect us from His judgment.

Amos describes two strong cites. The first city is described (in Hebrew) as "greedy, power, mighty, strong, fierce." (Strong’s H5794). And translated literally, the connotation could be made that these are descriptions not of the physical city, but rather of its inhabitants. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you are a powerful person with great influence and control over thousands or perhaps even millions of people and resources. God can and will destroy you in judgment if you continue to refuse to submit to Him.

The second city is a "fortification, fortified city, castle, stronghold" (Strong’s H4013). The connotation here is that it doesn’t matter where you go. There is no physical structure that can hide you from God’s judgment.

So, there is no person you can become and no place you can go that you can hide from God. There is nothing that will prevent Him from exacting judgment at the time of His choosing.

In between describing God’s might and His ability to judge, Amos writes: "The LORD is His name." The Hebrew is actually YHWH, which is the name that God has given Himself. It is a name that describes the covenantal relationship that He has with His people; it contains all the promises of Who He is and Who He will be when we trust Him. It’s as if Amos interjects in between two pronouncements of judgment that God Himself will be our salvation.

The Lord never warns of judgment that He doesn’t also offer salvation. His justice and His mercy are equally offered to us. In fact, the warnings of judgment are mercy because He doesn’t have to even tell us we are disobeying Him. But His love and mercy compels Him to warn us—usually again and again and again—giving us opportunity to turn from our sin and seek His forgiveness. In all things, in all situations, He loves us! He is waiting for us to love Him back.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Sign of the Stars -- Amos 5:8

Amos 5:8a


"God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion . . " (NCV)

Have you ever checked your horoscope? Most of us, at one time or another, whether in "fun" or when we were too naive to know better, bought into the idea that the stars could guide our lives. However, there is truth in the stars, perhaps more than we ever realized.

In this passage of Amos, there are the names of two star constellations, Pleiades and Orion. (Constellations are groupings of stars that make a particular shape or form in the sky).

The Lord could have positioned the stars in any manner He chose. Their relationship to earth could have been ever changing, even random. But God positioned the stars in such a way that their relationships to each other, in a three-dimensional manner, presented such obvious shapes and forms (constellations) that mankind was able to both identify and name them. Joseph Seiss, in his book The Gospel in the Stars written in 1882, proposed that these star positions, known as constellations, were specifically created by God as signs: "these astronomic figures, in their original integrity and meaning, are from God." He continues in his premise that the constellations which comprise the Zodiac, rather than being signs of pagan religions, actually tell the story of the Lord Jesus, tell the story of salvation.

The star group, Pleiades, according to Seiss, is a grouping of seven stars often known as the Doves and is associated with Noah and the Great Flood. In other words, Pleiades is associated with judgment and salvation from judgment.

Orion is a constellation which depicts a great hunter. In his hand is the head of a lion, and the handle of his sword is the head of a lamb. This constellation is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, both the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5) and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).

Amos wrote: "God is the one who made the star groups Pleiades and Orion." These two constellations weren’t named at random, simply to prove that God made the stars. These two constellations specifically symbolize judgment and salvation. It’s particularly interesting that Amos mentioned Pleiades which is associated with the "ultimate" judgment, the complete destruction of the world (by a great flood). Amos had been prophesying about the evils embraced by God’s people. And now he reminded the Israelites that God had already—in the history of mankind—brought about a cataclysmic judgment through the Great Flood. Amos also spoke of Orion, foretelling the Great Salvation in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Great Judgment and Great Salvation.

Our God is so good! He never warns us about our sin but that He provides a way for us to escape judgment through His never-ending mercy.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).

Here with the comparison of Pleiades and Orion, the Lord is again reminding us that while He is a just God and will bring about judgment for sin, His love is ever yearning toward us. These reminders light the sky above us at night. In those hours of darkness, when our lives seem to be most illuminated to our souls, we can look up and know that our God has provided a wonderful salvation for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the promise that is in the stars can also be within our hearts.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Everything's Upside Down -- Amos 5:7

Amos 5:7


"You turn justice upside down, and you throw on the ground what is right." (NCV)

Things are crazy in America these days. There are so many changes in our culture and I am constantly hearing about or reading about how right is becoming wrong and wrong is becoming right.

Well, it’s true. There’s no getting around it. There is more concern for criminals than victims. There is more concern for sexual rights than for the lives created through sexual relationships. Children want to be bad in order to be respected. The list goes on and on.

The problem with all this is that the Church has fallen with the culture, perhaps even before the culture. And so we criticize those without (the unsaved) while we continue to accept the sins from within (the saved). That in itself is backwards. Paul was very clear in Romans that those who are unsaved are simply acting according to their natures, the natures to which they are enslaved.

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16-18 NKJV).

A slave has no choices. A slave must do what the master says. Prior to salvation, people are slaves to sin. When they do sinful things, they are doing what their sinful nature commands that they do. They can’t do otherwise! Even when they do what appears to be right (or righteous), it is still sinful because it is done with the wrong intentions. Only the Holy Spirit can "clean" someone up and first must come salvation.

We seem to spend a lot of time and energy on trying to "clean up" the unsaved around us. We would be much more comfortable if they adopted a culture that emulated righteousness, even if they themselves weren’t righteous. This entire thought process is backward! First, we should be concerned with saving the unsaved, not somehow dressing them in a "Christian" culture. And second, any cleaning up process that occurs should and must happen within the Church! And boy, do we need cleaning up!

When Amos wrote God’s prophesy, God was speaking to His people, not to the Gentiles who lived around them. It was God’s people who had turned justice upside down and thrown what was right on the ground. It is the same today. We live in a Church that would rather throw a party than pray, rather divorce and remarry than submit to each other, rather look for villains without than deal with the demons within, rather leave in a huff than confess sin, rather spend money than meet the needs of others, rather practice "tough love" instead of sacrificing indulgence. And on every point, we are wrong.

The problem in America isn’t about villains or the other guy or some group’s agenda. The problem is America is with us, the Church. We have stopped being what Christ intended for us to be:

　

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they slight a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV).

We are supposed to be the light of the world. And Jesus ends this teaching with "Let your light so shine before me that they may see your good works."

Where are our good works?  Often Christians excuse their bad behavior with "Well, I’m just a sinner like everyone else except I’m forgiven." We have so diluted what it means to be saved that the world truly believes that we have embraced sin. Here is a cartoon I copied from an atheist website:



　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

(Cartoon from http://www.thinkatheist.com/photo/forgiveness-1)
　

　
Most unbelievers are convinced that we take sin lightly. That we believe we can do anything we want and "poof" we get into heaven by just saying a few words. That is a terrible commentary on the life of the Church, but we deserve it because we have turned our judgment onto those outside rather than learning to judge ourselves (and judge ourselves aggressively). We are no longer the salt of the earth or the light on the hill. We are the nuisance that everyone would like to see gone!

If we are ever to become a spiritual force again on this earth, we need to get back to the basics. We need to repent of all those things that have kept us from God. We need to focus our attention, our energy, and our resources on the things that please Him rather than hoping He’s pleased with us simply because we showed up for an hour on Sunday. We need to get brutal with ourselves in confession, repentance, and restoration. We need to get on our knees and pray and pray and pray until the Holy Spirit begins to shine again through us. Until that day comes, we will continue to be the people that Amos condemned.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Come to God and Live -- Amos 5:4-6

Amos 5:4-6


"This is what the Lord says to the nation of Israel: ‘Come to Me and live. But do not look in Bethel or go to Gilgal, and do not go down to Beersheba. The people of Gilgal will be taken away as captives, and Bethel will become nothing.’ Come to the Lord and live, or He will move like fire against the descendants of Joseph. The fire will burn Bethel, and there will be no one to put it out." (NCV)

"Come to Me and live."

There is life, there is safety, there is provision only in the Lord. Nowhere else. From no one else.

We often change our situation in order to try to change our lives. We get a new job in order to improve our financial situation. But only God really provides for us. We get a new partner, a new family, in order to improve our relationships. But only God can improve how we interact with others. We change our situation in order to get rid of our problems. But only God deal with our sin. We change where we live in order to protect us from disaster. But only God can protect us.

We are only safe in Him.

I think as Christians we don’t always understand how crucial it is to live in the center of God’s will. And, in fact, we talk about the "center" of God’s will when that actually is a misnomer. There isn’t an "area" of God’s will where we can be at the center or to the right or left or at an edge. There really is only in God’s will or out of it, in sin or in righteousness.

Psalm 19:12-13a talks about the kinds of sins we commit:

"How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me" (NKJV).

There are two kinds of sins in our lives, the sins that we don’t know are sins and the sins we choose. The psalmist acknowledges that our knowledge about sin is so limited that we don’t even know everything that is a sin. These are hidden faults. Perhaps it’s an arrogance in our lives. Maybe it’s a self-centeredness. While the Holy Spirit is revealing other sins to us, these still exist and wreck havoc with our relationships with God and each other.

This is why it’s important everyday (if not more often) to confess our sins. This doesn’t mean just confessing that we are sinful or making some kind of blanket confessional statement ("God, forgive me of all my sins"). It means spending time before the throne allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal, slowly but surely, all the sins in our lives. It takes us trusting Him for this to happen. If God revealed to us, in one quick moment, all of our sins, it would destroy us. We are too egotistical to stand such revelation. We also wouldn’t believe Him.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts" (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV).

We often believe we are doing right, but if we ask the Lord—if we simply ask the Lord—we may find that we are living in disobedience (sin) when we didn’t even know it. Hidden faults.

The other kind of sin is sin that we choose to do, deliberate sin. It’s interesting that the psalmist then says, "Don’t let them control me." It takes only 5-7 times to make something a habit. It takes 37 times to change the habit. We are so often controlled by our sin! Have you found yourself, even without thinking, doing something you had decided you weren’t going to do? "Don’t let deliberate sins control me." The Lord knows how difficult it is for us to change our behavior. He wants to reveal our sins and to continue to convict us so that we will change. He uses all manner of devices to compel us to change including His love and His justice.

Lord, don’t let our deliberate sins control us.

The apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest writer of all the writers of the Bible, at one time wrote this about himself:

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15b NKJV).

I never understood why he would say this about himself . . . until yesterday. It’s so easy to get into that mode of really not believing that you are sinning until God begins to once again dig into your life with you. I’ve been studying Amos, with a side trip for a study in humility, and the Lord has been revealing all kinds of sinfulness in my life to me, things that I truly didn’t believe were sin. "Every way of a man (or woman) is right in his own eyes." My ways seemed right in my eyes . . . until the Lord began showing me that being right is very different from being righteous. And I so long to be righteous!

There is really no place for me but in God’s will. While others around me, encouraging me to do this or that, have the very best of intentions, I have to follow what the Lord says. The Lord says to us, "Come to Me and live." There isn’t life anywhere else, only a pretense at life. Where do you want to live?

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. 

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Learning to Live Humbly -- Luke 18:9-14

Luke 18:9-14


"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

"So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:7-11 NKJV)

What is humility? What does it mean to be humble?

"For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation" (Psalm 149:4 NKJV).

When is the last time you heard a sermon on this topic? A long time ago? Never? To be honest (and I’m getting up there in years), I’ve never heard a pastor teach on humility, never attended a Bible study that focused on this quality, never read a book that taught me how to be humble. When I did an Internet search, I found two books available, one by Andrew Murray (written over 100 years ago) and one by C. J. Mahaney.

And nothing else.

Now of course, that doesn’t really mean anything. There could be more books out there, but it seems to me that this is a topic that isn’t discussed, isn’t taught, isn’t even considered very much. And yet, when doing a search through scripture, it became clear that humility is the hallway to God. Salvation is the door, but humility is the hallway. We open the door and there’s this hallway we must travel to get to God. And it’s not about earning about salvation; it’s about becoming more like Christ.

One of my favorite verses is 2 Chronicles 7:14:

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV).

It’s interesting that God combines "humble themselves" with "and pray" as if prayer is impossible without humility. At least in this instance, of wanting our land to be healed, prayer and humility are part of what the Father desires.

• Humble ourselves

• Pray

• Seek His face

• Turn from our wicked way

First we need to humble ourselves.

Do you know what that really means? I certainly didn’t and even after all this study, I’m still not sure all of what it means. I know that part of humbling myself before God means trusting Him fully, allowing Him to work through a situation rather than throwing myself into its midst (as if I had enough wisdom to solve it). It means being patient (suffering without complaining). It means reaching out to others in love, regardless of how they treat me. It means living out the fruit of the Spirit every day, everywhere, with everyone.

What does the Bible say about humility?


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

As Christians, we are to choose to live humbly.



"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV).

"Let this mind be in you." Choose to think this way. Choose to direct your life as Christ did. And what did Christ do? He humbled Himself.

As God of all the universe, the Lord Jesus obviously has rights! After all, He’s the creator, the master, the Lord. He’s the boss of it all! He can do what He wants and He has the right to administer mercy or justice whenever and upon whomever He chooses.

He chose to die.

Not only that, but He chose to allow Himself to be executed. Not just murdered (though it was murder), but executed for crimes He hadn’t committed. He was innocent and He never defended Himself.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth" (Isaiah 53:7 NKJV).

"And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, ‘Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?’ But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly" (Matthew 27:12-14 NKJV).

"He humbled Himself and became obedient to death."

He didn’t defend Himself . . . which He could have. He didn’t rescue Himself . . . which He had every right to do. He didn’t escape . . . which He could have easily done. He allowed Himself to be humiliated, to be punished, to be executed because this was what the Father wanted! He was obedient regardless of the situation, regardless of the outcome . . . because He trusted the Father!

He chose to trust God. So, in choosing to live humbly as Christ did, we first have to choose to trust God, to trust that He is powerful, that He loves us, that He is working it out . . . and that He doesn’t need our help to intervene. He needs us to trust, to be obedient, to pray! But He doesn’t need us to manipulate or coerce. He needs us to live the fruit of the Spirit—to be Christlike—and allow Him to be God.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

What might be a second step?

"But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:11-12 NKJV)

"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:507 NKJV).

We need to live as servants. Not as servant leaders, but as servants. Real servants.

"Servant Leadership is exercising real, godly leadership, as Christ did when He used a towel, and influencing, equipping, and empowering people to accomplish God's purpose and plan. It is serving others unselfishly while influencing and empowering them to grow in a Christ-directed, purposeful direction. This was an uncommon trait in Jesus' time, just as it is in ours; do not let it be uncommon for you! Being a leader in the church, or in the home for a husband, is never a force of personality; it is earning that respect because you love and care" (from http://www.churchleadership.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=41928&columnid=4540).

This sounds good . . . except for the fact that the Bible never teaches about servant leadership, only about being a servant. Servant leadership is, unfortunately, a secular concept developed by a nonbeliever named Robert Greenleaf. This concept was embraced by the Church. And it sounds good! (In fact, in most articles you read on Servant Leadership in the Church, you would ask, "Why wouldn’t we want this?")

The problem is that the Lord didn’t teach Servant Leadership. He taught servanthood, being the least, being humbled. Our only leader is the Holy Spirit. Everyone else is commanded to service, to mutual submission.

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but fin lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (Philippians 2:3 NKJV).

The word translated here "better" is huperecho and it means to be superior in rank, authority, and power (Strong’s G5242). Think about that for a minute. If you are at work and you and your boss disagree, who gets to make the final decision? Your boss! Obviously. Well, as Christians, we are to treat others as being superior to us in rank, authority, and power. In other words, they get their way. (Now, of course, if they are insisting we sin, we refuse. But in everything else . . . ) We defer to others.

The problem is . . . rights.

Americans are big on rights. Citizenship rights. Basic human rights. Our rights. And as American Christians, we often confuse "rights" with "righteousness." The other problem is that we often decide ourselves what is righteous without spending a lot of time in prayer. And then we justify our actions and our beliefs with scripture without ever asking the Lord what it is He wants. Let me present two scenarios.

In several states in America, various wedding vendors who are practicing Christians have refused to provide services to gay people who want to get married. They have done so stating that their beliefs prevent them from participating in a gay marriage. What does scripture say?

"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— snot even to eat with such a person" (1 Corinthians 5:9-11 NKJV).

This is an interesting scripture because Paul is basically saying that he expects Christians to associate with (to keep company with, to intermingle with) sexually immoral unsaved people. And in doing so, we know that we are to live out the fruit of the Spirit in our lives all the time. So how is refusing to bake a cake or take pictures being loving, or kind, or gentle?

What these well-meaning Christians are doing is actually trying to force unsaved people to act like they are saved, to act morally . . . which we know from scripture is impossible for the unsaved. So they are actually demanding that these unsaved folks do what is impossible. How is that being loving or gentle or kind? How is that righteous?

Here is another scenario:

Dozens, if not hundreds of Christians, protest abortion clinics everyday. (Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m totally against abortion.) Yet, where are these Christians on Friday and Saturday nights when these young women are alone and wanting companionship? When they are settling for sex because they feel unloved? Where are the Christians during the day while their children are taught in public schools that sex is natural?

What I’m saying is that we are attacking the symptoms of several underlying foundational problems. And when we attack symptoms, we ignore faces, real human beings who are lonely and hurting, real human beings who have been emotionally abandoned by a Church that is more into hype than substance.

Abortion is horrible—murder, genocide—but as Christians, if we are truly servants to those around us, we need to look at what causes someone to seek out an abortion, to look at these women as real people with real lives and real hurts and deal with those issues. How much church money goes into the community in an effort to meet real needs? Less than 10%! The remainder of the funds go to the things that serve us! We need to rethink what it means to be servants.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

"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" (James 4:7-10 NKJV).

The most difficult thing about sin is that we can be trained by instruction or experience to believe that our actions are not sinful.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts." (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV)

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." (Proverbs 3:7 NKJV)

Since the 1960's, psychological and sociological ideas have become to permeate Church thinking. So many ideas followed, many taught from the pulpit, but others taught from Christian conferences, books, television shows, and the Internet. Then other things happened and Christians just fell into the wave: Lives became busier and people stopped going to Sunday evening services, Sunday School, and Wednesday prayer meetings. (So the church cancelled them). Then technology came around and people stopped bringing their Bibles to service because the scriptures (or at least some of them) were projected on the big screens. Then the Internet came and people began believing whatever they read or watched without checking it against scripture and prayer.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV).

"You will know them by their karpos." The same word used in Galatians 5:22 to describe the fruit of the Spirit. "You will know the false prophets by whether or not you see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives." Well, how can you do that if you are simply reading a book or watching a TV show or reading an Internet article? You can’t unless you have researched that person’s life thoroughly! You can only know what they want to show you. So what happens? People begin to judge the "work" of the person, rather than the person’s life. Only, the Lord Jesus warned us that false prophets come in sheep’s clothing. They will LOOK AND SOUND AND ACT like Christians! So what they say or present or write will seem to make sense. And if you don’t know scripture well enough (who does?) and you don’t know what these folks’ lives are like, you can’t know whether or not they are false prophets. And false prophets prophesy falsely. It’s what they do. The Lord Jesus told us to "beware," but instead we just eat up what we hear. Why? Because it seems to make sense to us.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes . . . " (Proverbs 21:2 NKJV). "Do not be wise in your own eyes . . . " (Proverbs 3:7 NKJV).

We need to humble ourselves before the Lord in prayer and in serious study of the Word. We are sinners and we have sinned. We may even been sinning now! David talked about "secret faults" (Psalm 19:12), sins that he didn’t even know he was doing:


"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults."

"Who can understand his errors?" Which of us can truly see ourselves as sinners and know that we are sinning without the Lord to reveal our sins to us? We are wise and right in our own eyes! Each of us. In order to live humbly, we need to admit that we are sinners—that we sin everyday—and that we desperately need the Lord to reveal our sins to us so that we might be forgiven.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me" (Matthew 18:1-5 NKJV).

I recently visited my two very young granddaughters (a baby and a toddler). One only has to be around the very young (a little child) to understand how helpless children really are. They need to be fed or reminded to eat. They need to clothed or helped to choose appropriate attire. They are strapped into car seats, strapped into shopping carts, strapped into high chairs. They are carried or held by the hand. They are supervised and cared for.

Little children are helpless and need adults.

We are helpless and need the Lord. Humility requires that we acknowledge that we aren’t as smart, aren’t as able, aren’t as talented as we would like to present ourselves. Humility requires that we stop trying to run our lives (and everyone’s around us) and begin to pray, pray, and pray some more to find out what it is that our loving Father wants for us. My oldest granddaughter (not quite 3) would spend all or most of her meals using the food as wonderful art supplies to make designs on the dining room table. But after a few days of that, her health would begin to suffer. She needs her parents to make sure that she’s fed and fed properly. We need the Father to take care of us. We aren’t capable of taking care of ourselves. We aren’t any more capable than little children. We need to submit to the Father for His care.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

(5) Understand that when we learn, we must learn in humility

As a teacher, I know that there is learning . . . and then there is learning. I think back to most of the weekly spelling tests that I’ve given in my career. I bet, even if you’re not a teacher, you remember taking those tests. You would cram like crazy on Thursday night to memorize the words, do as well as you could on Friday on the test, and then promptly forget most of the words by Monday.

There is learning . . . and then there is learning.

Sure, students "learned" those words enough to probably pass a test the next day, but the learning didn’t stick; it certainly didn’t change their behavior because they were still misspelling those words in their writing assignments a year or two or three later.

There is learning . . . and then there is learning.

One of the first steps of learning is coming to the realization that you need to learn (whatever it is). Without understanding that there is a need for you to know what it is we’re learning, we tend to forget it as soon as the immediate need has passed. In order to learn the lessons that God wants us to learn, we have to admit that we don’t know it all, that we don’t have it all together. We have to realize that we need teaching, that how we’ve done it—even all these years—just isn’t working the way that our Father wants it to work. We need to become like little children and understand that there is Someone Who knows far more than we do and Who is desperate to teach us if we will humbly submit to His teaching.

Sometimes we are so stiff-necked, arrogant, and stubborn that God will lead us into a desert experience just to get our attention! He did that with the Israelites when they first were liberated from Egypt.

"And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you" (Deuteronomy 8:2-5 NKJV).

God chastens us so that we might learn. (Did you know that chastening was a form of teaching?) I have a very wise pastor who often says: "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you just the way you are." Our Father isn’t content with just saving us; He wants to teach us how to become more like our Savior, how to grow in the knowledge of His Word and of the Holy Spirit. He wants to teach us so that we will be prepared to truly be the Bride of Christ.

"Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way" (Psalm 25:8-9 NKJV).

"He teaches His way." We need to learn God’s way, His way to live, His way to serve, His way to love. It isn’t enough for us to just live for Him, we need to live His way! It isn’t just enough to serve Him, we need to serve His way! It isn’t just enough for us to love, we need to love His way! He so wants to teach us His way, but He can only do that if we approach the learning humbly. We can’t demand certain learning experiences or bring to it our own ideas or knowledge. We must kneel at His feet, admitting that we are powerless to truly understand anything aside from His teaching, and then submit ourselves to the instruction of the Holy Spirit.


Steps toward Humility
(1) Live like Christ and choose to trust God.

(2) Live to serve others.

(3) Live with the realization of our own sinfulness.

(4) Understand how helpless we really are

(5) Understand that when we learn, we must learn in humility

(6) Humility must become a lifestyle

"For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15 NKJV).

"I dwell . . . with him who has a humble spirit." Do you want God to live with you? Do you want to live with Him? God promises to dwell with us if we have a humble spirit. What does that mean? This Hebrew word, shakan, is the same word used for tabernacle (the worship tent in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed). It means that God will reside with us, taking up His residence in our hearts and lives. When we live humbly, God lives with us and we become able to hear His voice, to move at His direction, to trust Him above all else.

Walking humbly is what God expects of us. Why? Because this is how we access the Throne of Grace. We can’t walk into His presence thinking we know what’s right. We need to come to Him humbly, willing always to admit we were wrong and to seek His wisdom and His will.


"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8 NKJV).

How do we walk humbly? Paul outlines this in Romans 12.

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:14-21 NKJV).

Humility is the robe which clothes the believer. In humility, we freely admit our sins, embrace the fact that we frequently make mistakes, and thankfully live under the mercy of God the Father Who loves us. In humility, we learn to love and pray for those who seem to be our enemies, submit to those around us, and esteem others as better than ourselves. In humility, we learn to live like Christ.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

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