“And say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it'” (Colossians 4:17).

EACH OF US IS A PACKAGE OF PARTICULAR HUMAN ATTRIBUTES. Some of these are birth-gifts from God, while others are specifics we have brought into being by using (and sometimes misusing) the raw materials that were available to us. A human life is “a mixed bag,” a curious assortment of things good and not-so-good. And the challenge is to take our own individual specifics, which are always less than perfect, and get all the good out of them that we can in the time allotted to our stewardship.

In the text above, Paul wanted the Colossian Christians to relay an interesting message to a brother named Archippus: “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.” We don’t know what Archippus’s particulars were, but whatever they were, God wanted him to understand the importance of doing the work that he, Archippus, had been given to do. In the end, the only person’s work we will be held accountable for is our own. But what an accounting that will be!

In another of his letters, Paul described Christians as the Lord’s “body,” and he asked these searching questions: “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?” (1 Corinthians 12:15-17). God intended the body to be as it is.

Wishing we had someone else’s circumstances (a tendency many of us have) seems all the more childish when we recognize how much room for expansion and growth there is within our own circumstances. Few of us have ever done more than explore the edges of our own territory. All of our individual regrets and hindrances notwithstanding, we each have gifts we’ve never used. And while we are busy wishing we could serve God within the framework of someone else’s ministry, He is no doubt saying to every one of us: “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

“Men resemble great deserted palaces: the owner occupies only a few rooms and has closed off wings where he never ventures” (François Mauriac).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; ’tis dearness only that gives everything its value” (Thomas Paine).

CONFLICT AND STRUGGLE AREN’T PLEASANT, BUT IF WE THINK ABOUT THEM IN THE RIGHT WAY, THEY ARE PROFITABLE. Some of the best things in life come to us while we’re fighting to overcome difficulties. And yet, as we’ve suggested, these things don’t come our way automatically; they do so only if we think about our struggles in a certain way. It’s critical that we adopt a militant attitude toward our obstructions: the attitude of the “overcomer.”

There is something we need to be careful about, however. In firing ourselves up to go out and fight “the enemy,” we must not make the mistake of thinking that “the enemy” is other people. While it’s true that the actions of others can make life more difficult, it would not be the most productive use of our time to fight against them personally, as if they were to blame for our problems. When the time comes to fight, there’s much more to be gained by fighting against difficulty in general, rather than attacking people personally. We can be tough on problems and still be gentle with people.

But there are certainly problems to be dealt with, and we need to deal with them actively and forthrightly. We sometimes avoid difficulty as if we thought that ease and pleasure were the main objects in life. But these two things are not the highest human values, and there are times when we need to sacrifice them for more worthy goals. It is, in fact, through difficulty (rather than ease) and pain (rather than pleasure) that we find our character and make our contribution.

So we need to stiffen our attitude and face our challenges, whatever they may be, with the heart of someone determined to overcome. Whether we do this or not is a matter of choice. Yes, we’ll lose some skirmishes in the short run, but we can choose to fight with an unconquerable spirit. And if we act with honor, doing with “true grit” the very best that we know to do, then our heads need never be bowed in shame. In this life, difficulty is inevitable, but destruction is not.

“He said not, ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted,’ but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome'” (Julian of Norwich).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ” (Philemon 20).

IN THE SHORT LETTER OF PAUL TO PHILEMON, PAUL MADE A BROTHER-TO-BROTHER REQUEST OF HIS FELLOW CHRISTIAN. Hoping the request would be favorably considered, Paul said, “Refresh my heart in Christ.” Today, let’s meditate on this aspect of becoming a Christian. Not only do we assume new responsibilities to the Lord, but we acquire a new connection to others who, like us, have obeyed the gospel. As we see with Paul and Philemon, we have the opportunity to “refresh” our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The concept of “refreshing” another person is helpful. Perhaps it goes without saying that we all need to be refreshed from time to time, but most of us probably underestimate the extent to which we can have this effect on others. By our words and deeds, we can energize those around us, breathing new life into them.

But Paul hoped that Philemon would refresh his heart “in Christ,” i.e., as a Christian. It is certainly possible for anyone, whether a Christian or not, to have a refreshing effect on other people, but in Jesus Christ this effect is deepened in significant ways. It is only in Christ that we have the ability to be refreshing in the ways that people most seriously need refreshment. But here is the point that all of us who are Christians need to ponder: we need to see being a Christian not only in terms of what we can get (being refreshed) but also in terms of what we can give (refreshing others).

When all is said and done, we will act in rightful love toward others only when we have a right relationship with God and think about His nature as we should. As someone has said, our “sociology” flows out of our “theology.” If we think there is no God at all, that will have an obvious impact on our relationships with other human beings. But even if we are believers, if our view of God is in conflict with God’s revelation of Himself in the Scriptures as a whole — for example, if it is skewed in the direction of either His judgment or His forgiveness — our relationships will be hampered by that imbalance. So here is a very practical reason for learning about God as He truly is: it is the truth about God that will enable us to be genuinely “refreshing” as Christians.

“There is no brotherhood of man without the fatherhood of God” (Henry Martyn Field).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'” (Luke 12:20).

THERE IS NOTHING THAT PERTAINS TO “LIFE UNDER THE SUN” THAT IS NOT “VAIN.” This is the clear message of Ecclesiastes. Unlike the life to come, this life is fleeting, transitory, and ephemeral. Whatever we may accomplish and whatever we may accumulate of an earthly nature, all of it will be left behind when we die.

As a description of earthly life, the word “vain” does not refer to that which is evil but to that which is temporary, whether good or evil. When Solomon said, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14), he did not mean that there is nothing good that may be done; he meant that there is nothing about this world that is permanent. There are things to be done and things to be enjoyed here, but we must be ready to leave them all behind.

Many people work hard to get the kind of life they want in this world — and many end up getting it. Some acquire wealth or celebrity status. Others achieve historical greatness. Others are content to pursue the simpler forms of satisfaction and happiness. Whatever anyone might want to pursue, the advantages of that pursuit are available. As far as “life under the sun” goes, most of it is there for the taking, whether a person acknowledges God or not.

But when we die, every one of those advantages is wiped out. In their lifetimes, you might have preferred Winston Churchill’s circumstances to those of his chimney sweep, but in death, the bones of one would have looked very similar to those of the other. As Julia C. R. Dorr put it, “Grass grows at last above all graves.”

So while life under the sun lasts, we had better be giving some thought to life beyond the sun. Death is coming, and we need to ask whether we’re doing anything that won’t be erased by that event. Only one such thing is available to us, of course, and that is godliness. Paul said that “godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8). The only “profitable” thing that matters, then, is godliness. Every other kind of benefit will disappear at death.

“Death is the grand leveller” (Sir Thomas Fuller).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life” (1 Timothy 1:14-16).

THERE IS AT LEAST ONE PRAYER THAT WILL NEVER BE ANSWERED, AND THAT IS THE PRAYER TO BE SOMEBODY ELSE. Just as we suppose the grass must be greener somewhere else, it is tempting to think life would be easier if we were somebody else. And while we know it’s impossible to change places with any other person who has actually lived, we do seem to hope for something that is not really much different: we hope that God might transform us in such a way that our past is erased, our personal circumstances are altered, and we are given a life-situation in which it will be much easier to serve God faithfully.

As for our past, God can do wonders, but He cannot make our past anything other than what it is. He can do things in the present that are greater than anything that has happened in our past, but He having done so, the past will still be the past. And we will still be who we are. If we’re praying to be anything other than the unique package of problems and possibilities that we are, that is a prayer that will never be answered. It is not allowed for us to be somebody else. The sooner we give up on that false hope, the sooner we can get busy cooperating with God’s plan for us.

After Paul became a Christian, having previously persecuted the church, he marveled the rest of his life that God could have been so merciful to a person like him. In his preaching, he cited himself as a prime example of just how patient and longsuffering God can be. But Paul wasted no time praying to be released from being Paul. He served thankfully and diligently within the limits of his own life, such as it actually was. Would that we could see what this great man seemed to see. It is not necessary to be somebody else; it is only necessary to make the choices that we ourselves should make. Whoever we are, we have scars and we have limitations. It is impossible for it to be otherwise. God is not the God of imaginary beings, but of real people in all their flawed variety.

“If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere” (Henry Ward Beecher).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).

IN DESCRIBING SIN, ONE OF THE MAIN ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THE BIBLE IS “REBELLION.” This gives us the picture of a subject who commits treason against his rightful king. Rather than submit to the laws of the kingdom, he rebels. Willfully and treacherously, he declares independence from the kingdom with an attitude that says, “I don’t care what the king says; I’ll do my own will.”

After all our rationalizations have been refuted by the facts, this is what sin always amounts to. It is rebellion. When we sin, we willfully refuse to obey God. Paul cuts through all the nonsense of our excuses in Romans 2:5 when he says “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

On the judgment day, there will only be two classes of people: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God] will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:7,8). If we are lost, it will not be a miscarriage of justice. “Sin is not weakness, it is not disease; it is red-handed rebellion against God” (Oswald Chambers).

Even in what we know of God’s will, there is often an element of rebellion in our ignorance. As Eric Hoffer said, “Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.” So when the Scriptures speak of “ignorance,” it is often a reference to the moral blindness that comes from refusing the light that was available to us (Romans 1:28-32; Ephesians 4:17-19).

It marks a huge step in our return to God when we acknowledge that our sins against Him have been deliberate. If all we can say is, “What I did was perhaps inadvisable, but I couldn’t have done otherwise,” we’re a long way from seeing our need for forgiveness. It is only when we acknowledge that we have chosen to disobey God that we’re ready to begin thinking about repentance.

“That is the inner nature of sin always, willful refusal to obey God. But still men go on trying to get conviction upon sinners by telling them they sinned because they could not help it” (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward” (Matthew 6:5).

IN TEACHING ON PRAYER, JESUS SAID WE MUST DO BETTER THAN THOSE WHO PRAY TO BE “SEEN BY MEN.” Those who have no higher goal than reputation had better enjoy the reputation they get, because that’s all they’ll get. “They have their reward,” Jesus said. But of course, even though they got what they wanted, the time would come when they would want more than what they had gotten. But by then it would be too late. Generally speaking, God gives every person whatever that person wants most of all — and not one bit more. Whatever our highest aspiration is, we can’t complain when God withholds from us anything higher than that.

Now think with me. What is the only thing you could want and never be dissatisfied with it once you got it? That would be God Himself, wouldn’t it? Anything else would be less than what it takes to fully satisfy the human heart. But most people are content to seek lesser things, and although they will later wish they had sought higher things, having gotten what they sought, God will say, “You have your reward. You had better enjoy it, because you are not going to get anything more than what you sought.”

So as for me, I hope that I’ll never seek anything so small that it could be received in this world. Short of heaven, I don’t want ever to hear the Lord say, “You have your reward.” I don’t want anything in this world — or all of it put together. What I want can’t be had in this world, and that’s a perfect relationship with my God. If you ever hear that I’ve settled for less, I will have lost my soul.

A public figure died recently who “had it all” from a worldly standpoint, and his wife was quoted as saying, “He was one of the fortunate few. He got everything he wanted in life.” I hope that such a thing will never be said about me. Until I am at home with God, I hope no one will ever accuse me of having been satisfied.

But I’m prone to the same temptations that you are. We win our little battles, and God says, “You have your reward.” Thinking the struggle is over, we live like old soldiers: always looking back.

“We ought to ponder soberly the fact that many Christians already have their future behind them. Their glory is behind them . . . They are always lingering around the cold ashes of yesterday’s burned-out campfire” (A. W. Tozer).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“Everything can be improved” (C. W. Barron).

WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES. Indeed, there are few things we deal with that can’t be taken and improved in some way. Physical things are often raw materials that can be turned into finished products. But other less-tangible things can also be improved: problems can be solved, challenges can be met, potentials can be fulfilled, and goals can be striven for. Nearly every situation we meet presents us with an opportunity to improve something or other.

But what if it were otherwise? Have you considered what your life would be like if nothing could be improved at all? Johann Fichte said it well: “Humanity may endure the loss of everything; all its possessions may be turned away without infringing its true dignity — all but the possibility of improvement.” It’s true, there can hardly be a worse experience for any of us than the experience of despair. To lose the hope that there is anything we can do that will make anything any better, is to be about as close to death as we can be without dying.

I believe that our desire for improvement, and even our inclination to improvement, is not a coincidence. I agree with Andrew Carnegie, who said, “We know that man was created, not with an instinct for his own degradation, but imbued with the desire and the power for improvement.” We are “hard-wired” to want to be better ourselves — and to want to make the things around us better too.

But if our desire for improvement is instinctive, acting on that desire is not automatic. It takes tremendous energy to overcome inertia and act in the direction of improvement, and this energy must be exerted by our will. If we simply live by default, doing no more than what is easy, then dilapidation and chaos are bound to be the results.

So from one standpoint, improvement is optional — a choice must be made. But from another standpoint, improvement is not optional at all. Whatever alternative to improvement there may be, it is not a safe alternative. Our only option is the option between life and death. In our lazier moments, we might wish there were some third way, but really, there is no safe middle ground. Failure to improve is a failure to grow — and a failure to grow is a dire problem indeed.

“He who stops being better stops being good” (Oliver Cromwell).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4,5).

THE STRONGHOLDS DESTROYED BY JESUS CHRIST ARE NOT MILITARY OR GOVERNMENTAL. It is true that Jesus was victorious over the Roman Empire, but His victory was not gained on 28 October 312 (when Constantine won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge) or on 24 August 410 (when the Visigoths sacked Rome). No, in fulfillment of Daniel 2:44, Jesus broke in pieces the Roman Empire (and every other earthly empire) on the morning of His resurrection — and a few weeks later on the Day of Pentecost, when the truth about salvation in His name began to transform the hearts of human beings.

As Paul put it so clearly, the purpose of the gospel is not to tear down earthly tyrannies or take over the halls of worldly power. It is to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” And if any captives are to be taken, the gospel will “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

We do not diminish the seriousness of the struggle when we say that the war between good and evil is an ideological warfare. Ideas are powerful, and you cannot think of a serious problem in the world that is not the result of some untruth that somebody has bought into. The devil’s main weapon is the lie, and Christ’s victory over His adversary consists of putting the truth back in its rightful place. Perhaps we may put it this way: Christ does not waste time hacking at the leaves of the tree; He goes to the very root of the trouble and cuts it off. In other words, as the Great Physician, He is not primarily concerned with symptoms; He is going for the cure.

This being the victory Christ came to win, He did not resort to any of the means that are needed to win a political contest. The kingdom that resulted from His victory can’t be measured by any of the criteria the world uses to judge how powerful something is. And because it is spiritual, Christ’s kingdom is not vulnerable to any of the threats that earthly kingdoms have to worry about. This kingdom doesn’t need weapons. It’s a different kind of kingdom.

Girded for war, humility his mighty dress,
He moves into the battle wholly weaponless.
(Madeleine L’Engle)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

     

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?
Or hast thou walked in search of the depth?
(The Book of Job)

THERE ARE DEPTHS OF UNDERSTANDING THAT FEW OF US HAVE FATHOMED — AND EVEN SOME THAT NONE OF US HAVE FATHOMED. It’s a much bigger world than any of us have yet comprehended, and even in our own little personal worlds, there are many things we’ve not yet explored or been able to explain. We need to be impressed with how much there is to learn out there. How can we fail to be inquisitive? How can we be content with what little understanding we’ve been able to gain in the past?

We should strive to be people who have some depth to us. Few of us would feel flattered if someone called us shallow or superficial, and yet that’s what many of us are. We don’t stand in awe of the mystery of life, and we’re content to be uninformed and unacquainted with the amazing intricacy of the world. What little knowledge we have is often no more than the bits and pieces we’ve stumbled across accidentally. We could do with a bit more depth, couldn’t we?

But there is a danger in depth, and that danger is pride. No sooner have we gained a smidgen of depth, than others notice us becoming smug toward the less experienced. Ever so subtly, we adopt the swagger of the sophomore, the “wise fool.” We’re hardly past the beginner’s stage ourselves, but already we feel superior to those who haven’t been where we’ve been and done what we’ve done. The antidote to pride, of course, is the recognition that compared to the distance between us and God, the distance between any two of us is so small that human pride is simply ludicrous.

Yet if we’ve learned the lessons of humility, can we not see depth as a gift that we can give? Today, wouldn’t others, especially our loved ones, appreciate it if we understood a thing or two that we didn’t understand yesterday? But make no mistake: a healthy measure of depth doesn’t usually come to the lazy or the negligent. In this world, it takes work to end up being anything more than deeply superficial.

“It is easier to perceive error than truth, for error lies on the surface and is easily seen, but truth lies in the depth where few are willing to search for it” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com