Bludger or Servant?

"The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway."

Proverbs 15:19

A couple nights ago a segment aired on Channel 9 called the "Dole Bludger Challenge."  According to an article written in 2010, an alarming number of Australians are "on the dole," basically receiving a welfare check or unemployment benefits.  A "bludger" is someone who can physically work but is simply too lazy to do so.  While there are people who have genuine needs and are the victims of redundancy or downsizing, there seem to be many who would rather be a bludger than work for their living.  This "bludger" tendency can be seen throughout all cultures and people of the world.

King Solomon compares the way of a lazy man to a hedge of thorns.  He has an excuse to avoid doing anything, seeing potential harm and difficulty in every movement.  A lazy man will not get out of bed because it is too cold.  He gives up buying cigarettes because of the expense but does not quit smoking, bumming off his friends and co-workers.  He cannot afford petrol, but he can afford Foxtel and beer!  If he cannot be the boss he will not work at all because it would be a waste of his genius.  It is amazing how hard some people will work to avoid working.  Instead of seeing opportunities all around him, a lazy man sees any effort as a dangerous, unnecessary intrusion upon his life.

Paul laid out a principle which still rings true today in 2 Thessalonians 3:10:  "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat."  God instilled this precept with His people when He led them out of Egypt and they were required to rise every day and gather their daily portion of manna.  If they woke up late after the sun grew hot, the manna would melt.  The only day when they were able to gather a double portion was the day before the Sabbath.  There will be no "spiritual dole bludgers" that inherit the kingdom of God.  We are all called to serve the LORD faithfully, following Christ's example as servant of all in obedience to His Father's will.  God has given to each of His children talents to use for the increase of His kingdom.  If we use our talents wisely and faithfully we will be greatly rewarded with heavenly rewards and responsibilities.  But if we are self-serving, bury our talents in the ground, wasting our life and resources, we are not servants of God at all.  Those in this life who used the grace and mercy of God to cloak their sloth and selfishness will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:24-30).

The way we order our lives now counts for eternity.  Unlike the lazy man whose way is as a impenetrable hedge of thorns, the "way of the upright is a highway."  We can choose to do things the world's way or God's way.  Through His Word, God gives us clear direction for living.  We are told how we can live a life which is fully pleasing unto God, for He has given Christians all things necessary for life and godliness.  Our lives can be free from the impediments of sin through the deliverance and cleansing blood of Jesus Christ by grace through faith.  The chains of sinful addiction are broken and the thorns of doubt and unbelief have been cleared away.  Following Jesus is not an easy path, but it is one already trail-blazed and cleared by our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Instead of faltering we can press forward with confidence in our God and His promises.  May our lives echo the words of Christ when He said in John 9:4-5, "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  Jesus is the Light, and may He shine brightly through us!

Family Update!

It's been awhile since I have provided a family update, so I figure now is a great time!  Life seems to charge forward at an incredible pace, and I am amazed we are already in July!  At times I step back and simply appreciate the almost bizarre life we are living:  a family from Southern California transplanted in Sydney, Australia.  Only a few years ago I thought a "pitch" was a throw, "State of Origin" was perhaps a place I never heard of, and a bonnet was something women wore on their heads to protect them from sun.  Little did I know that God would open a door for ministry and relocate us to the other side of the world.  I have been having the time of my life.

The family is doing well.  I still walk the boys to the bus stop in the mornings for school (about 1.8 kilometers) and they walk themselves home.  It seems like Zed and Abel have both been growing out of their shoes, blazers, and pants practically as fast as we replace them!  They attend the same private school, Norwest Christian College located in Riverstone (pronounced "Riverstn").  Zed has 10 subjects, and Abel has 6.  Both have brought home a good report card for the end of second term and are now enjoying three weeks of holidays.  Laura put together a daily schedule for them to keep up with their reading, music, exercise, and typing.  I am certainly not missing our daily trek to the bus stop, as it is quite chilly and breezy at 7:20am along Windsor road!  Laura just booked a trip to visit SoCal with the boys in September, so that is another thing to look forward to.

As far as church, we are blessed and thankful with the great things God is doing.  God is continuing to supply our financial needs through our church family in Australia and from folks in the States.  We are excited about some of the events coming up at church.  We have Men's and Women's ministry events planned for the next two Saturdays.  The deposit has just been paid for a weekend Women's retreat at the end of October hosted at Camp Kedron.  Also, a small team from our church and I have just purchased airline tickets to serve in Cambodia for a 10-day mission trip starting towards the end of December.  Looks like I will have to make sure I have been vaccinated for malaria!  I have also recently been notified that there is an "Envision Australia Conference" being planned for Manly (a suburb of Sydney in the northern beaches).  And if that's not enough to look forward to, in a couple months we need to put together all the paperwork to renew our visa to remain in the country for another two years.  I don't need to tell you, but it feels like the "to do" list keeps growing no matter how much we do.

God has been faithful to us.  He has kept us from illness, provided for our needs, and has blessed us with great friends and family in Christ here.  Words cannot convey the sweet aroma of the fruit which we have seen produced for the glory of God.  It has not been without struggles, challenges, and seemingly insurmountable odds, but through God we will do valiantly.  When God is brought into the picture, odds are the fancies of fools.  With God, all things are possible.  Looking back, it's amazing how far God has brought us.  He has encouraged and strengthened us.  We look forward with great expectancy, believing God will bring to completion the work He has begun.  How exciting is that, seeing that the ride of our lives is just beginning!

Rescue from Hell

"For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them."

 Proverbs 1:32

Prosperity in this world is seen as good, not evil.  But to a man that does not fear God, prosperity is the means to bring him to ultimate destruction.  The Bible says it is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no God." (Ps. 14:1; Ps. 53:1)  Fools despise the wisdom and instruction from God, claiming the Bible is no more than rot, rubbish, and fodder for feeble minds.  Proverbs 15:16 reads, "Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith."  Riches and prosperity are not evil in themselves, but in the hands of the foolish it brings certain destruction.  That is why Jesus says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich man to inherit eternal life.  Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What a sobering thought, that prosperity can be the vehicle on which a man races to his eternal doom!  Hell is not merely an expletive, but is a real place of torment.  It is a place God has prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41) where unrepentant men will also face everlasting punishment for sin.  Ezekiel 33:11 writes, "Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'"  Death in the world is a result of sin.  So abhorrent is sin and consequent death to God that He sent Jesus Christ, His own Son, to die on behalf of all sinners.  Jesus drank of that bitter cup of the Father's wrath so sinners might be saved.  When a man agrees with God's righteous Law that he is indeed a sinner, confesses his sin and repents, trusting in Christ to forgive and save him, he is born again through the Holy Spirit.  But those who reject Jesus Christ and have no fear of God, choosing sin over repentance, it would be better for them if they had never been born.

Can you see them?  People you know and people you have never met - blindly surging toward the dark chasm of Hell?  They jostle and shove one another, pouring over the brink into unspeakable torment which never ends.  People who say that have experienced "hell on earth" show their ignorance of actual Hell:  a place of outer darkness where the fire is not quenched and the worm dies not.  Instead of a living hell it is a dying Hell, yet man nor spirit can die.  Hell is not a heathen reunion, where the party never stops:  it is a place where the worms continually gnaw your insides and fire is burning your flesh.  The suffocating stench of sulfur is as unbearable as the screams of the tormented.  Have you ever seen a man on fire?  He rolls on the ground, he tears at his clothes.  All his focus is on extinguishing the flame which scorches him.  Nothing else matters.  One minute of burning on earth is too much.  In Hell, the flame cannot be put out.  There is no water, only darkness.  There is no hope of salvation, no second chances.  People will gnash their teeth in the pain, suffering eternal regret.  Does it give you pleasure to read such things?  It gives me no pleasure to write of them.  I would not dare even think upon it but the Bible puts the existence of Hell forth as a stark reality, the inevitable result of sin and a life apart from Christ.

Jesus said in Luke 16:19-31:  "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴ Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' ²⁵ But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.' ²⁷ Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' ²⁹ Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' ³⁰ And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' ³¹ But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "

Jesus came and fulfilled what was spoken through God by the prophets concerning the Messiah.  He lived a righteous life in fulfillment of the Law, and instituted a New Covenant (agreement) through His blood.  He proved His deity through rising from the dead three days after being crucified.  If Christ's love, teachings, wisdom, miracles, resurrection, and ascension do not persuade you to believe in Him as LORD and Saviour, nothing will.  For those who believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be - the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, and the Life - then we are tasked to use our remaining days to save as many as we can through the power of the Gospel.  We are to tap those on the shoulder who are throwing themselves headlong into eternal destruction and ask, "Friend, do you not know the wages of sin is death in Hell but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD?"  Jude 1:22-23 says, "And on some have compassion, making a distinction; ²³ but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh."

Satan would love people to deny God's existence and reckon there is no such place as Heaven or Hell.  But Satan is a liar and a murderer from the beginning.  God speaks the truth in love.  It is because He loves us that He warns us about the eternal consequences of sin.  He does not diagnose our disease without providing a cure.  We are all sinful, but Jesus has paid the price for our sins.  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Let us be bold to share the Good News so many will inherit eternal life!

Transformed into the Image of Christ

God spoke to His people in Jeremiah 13:23:  "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil."  Through Jeremiah the prophet, God told the people of Judah they were incapable of self-reform.  They were accustomed to doing evil and had no power to be righteous.  The skin pigment of a person and the natural markings of a leopard's fur are due to genetics.  If a leopard should want to look like a zebra, it is a change the leopard would be incapable of making.  The day when pigs can fly and grizzly bears are born with lime green fur will be the day when people can turn from their sin to doing good on their own.  But God is able to do what is impossible for man or beast.  He is not in the business in changing spots to stripes:  He is the One who transforms people from within.  All are born with a sin nature, but Jesus gives us forgiveness, new hearts, a future, and an unfailing hope.

Living longer has afforded me the blessing (and sometimes feels like a curse!) of being able to look back upon my life and the way God has changed me.  I naturally am like the leopard, unable to change myself.  When I look back to my years of high school, college, and university, I do not like what I see.  I am saddened by how I used to be:  the way I spoke, the things I thought were important, the way I thought about others, especially how my heart was far from God.  I led a "clean" life in many respects if compared to some, but my heart was as filthy as ever.  I rejoice today that I am not the person I once was.  Should someone from Grossmont High School who knew me converse with me today, they would not be speaking to the same person.  I have completely changed:  it is not I who have changed, but Jesus Christ in me.

Even though I have been changed, I still have my unique personality and perspective.  It is like the real me was initially suppressed by my ignorance, pride, and foolishness and now, more than ever, the purity of who I am in Christ has begun to shine through brighter than ever.  This is a transformation all people are incapable of.  I know better than anyone that I am too stubborn and stupid to change myself.  Only God, through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, could possibly create such an inner transformation.  I am not perfect, but I am moving towards perfection.  I am by God's grace heading in the right direction.  Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" had a compass that directed him to wherever he wanted to go.  In my natural state I held no such luxury in my hands or heart.    Pursuing the desires of my flesh drove me away from God and into bondage.  There was no climbing out of the pit I dug for myself, and I was headed to certain destruction in Hell.

I am thankful that God revealed Himself to me through His Word, the Bible.  When I decided to actually follow Jesus with my life, for the first time I had real direction and purpose.  Because God transformed me from within through the Gospel, I actually had the power to do what I knew to be right and flee from temptations to do wrong.  The Holy Spirit became my Guide and Helper.  I always admired the wisdom, power, and love of Jesus Christ.  Even as a child, I always wanted to be like Him.  But when I went my own way I could never make the change.  Lady Gaga at the moment is touring Australia, and many of her fans whom she calls "Little Monsters" come to her shows with dyed hair and costumes.  She has even written a "Manifesto of Little Monsters."  A portion reads, "We are nothing without our image. Without our projection. Without the spiritual hologram of who we perceive ourselves to be, or rather to become, in the future."  People can create an image, but that is not who they are.  They can dye their hair, put on make-up, create and wear wild costumes, and sing along, but that is merely an outward expression of an inner desire, a longing, a "spiritual hologram" that is empty and void of saving power.

Contrast this superficial change with the inner transformation and sanctification through faith in Jesus Christ as LORD and Saviour:  2 Corinthians 3:16-18 reads, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."  The greatest freedom I have found is through salvation through Jesus Christ.  As Christians fix their eyes upon Jesus, we begin to reflect the One we look upon.  Previous to this passage, Paul was talking about how the face of Moses shone when he enjoyed prolonged fellowship with God on Mount Sinai.  When we look upon Jesus in faith, we see Him with unveiled face.  The same way a person stands before a mirror to examine their face is like when we open the scriptures, pray, and make Jesus the focus of our lives.  The more we look to Him the more we are like Him because of the transforming work He does within.

I am being transformed into the same image of Christ, not by the outward things that I attempt to do, but because of the work the Holy Spirit is doing within me.  Titus 3:5 tells us it is "...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit..."  By God's grace, I much more resemble Christ today than when I was a teen.  Thinking back upon my High School days is like eating a mouthful of sawdust!  Should God tarry, I expect that one day I will look upon myself today with as great as disdain as I do upon the days of my youth because I will be more Christ-like still.  And when God calls me home into His everlasting presence and takes me from this world, do not weep for me.  That will be my great coronation day, the day when I am finally transformed into the image of the One who loves me and gave His blood and life for me, Jesus Christ.  I will not become Christ, but I will be like Him - in a way more profound and real than I can even imagine.

No man can change themselves, especially when it comes to sin.  If you look back 20 years, do you like what you see?  Look at yourself now:  how will you be in another 20 years if you continue your current track?  Where will you spend eternity?  I urge you to examine yourself in light of scripture, considering Christ and His claims.  What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose His own soul? (Mark 8:34-38)