Choose Kindness

I recently read a notification from a ministry leader who announced shortly after a family came on staff, was found not to be a good fit and were moving on to continue ministry elsewhere.  When I was looking into options to immigrate to Australia, this was something a mission support group warned me about.  There are believers who have good intentions, are called to ministry, go all in with training, raise support and sell everything--only to go to the field and discover things do not go well.  Conflict arises, expectations are dashed, and there can be disillusionment why things have not gone as planned.  As Paul said, being married and bringing a whole family makes any mission work and move more complex and challenging.

When I hear about situations like this, I feel compassion for everyone involved.  An organisation brings a family on board because they have a need, and a couple or family have left their family and culture in the service of God and not fit where they thought they would.  Children left school and friends behind, and many people rallied to support the missionary family through prayer, giving money and helping however they could.  To see things seemingly collapse or fall apart inevitably leaves people scratching their heads and even looking for something or someone to blame.  The temptation to live in regret and shame over things not working out as expected is very real, and if fallout was the result of a sinful scandal it adds another layer of grief for everyone.

It would be a shame to malign anyone in a situation like this, for even Paul and Barnabas had a sharp contention over whether John Mark should accompany them that led to them parting ways for a season.  Their contention should never be an excuse to justify strife, quarrelling and refusing to minister with one another, but it shows genuine apostles who love the LORD and have faithfully served Jesus can experience painful conflicts.  There is no point for me to take one side and condemn the other, to make critical judgments of the situation I am frankly ignorant of.  It would be foolish to do so with the example provided of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15, for who are we to judge God's servants?  On the subject of personal convictions that differ between believers, Paul wrote in Romans 14:4:  "Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand."

I urge you brother and sisters, let us be those who seek to be peacemakers because Jesus is our peace.  Let us realise God is so awesome and glorious that in spite of us and the conflicts we create or contribute to, He is working in and through our lives--and the troubling situation--to accomplish good according to His will.  Since God was able to redeem Jesus Christ being crucified though innocent of all crimes, He is also able to redeem contentions and division to edify the church and increase our faith in Him.  How often we have been embittered by a bitter conflict that did not even directly involve us, and this is evidence we have bitterness in our hearts God has used the situation to bring to light.  As it is written in Ephesians 4:31-32:  "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you."  Rather than criticism and finding fault, our aim should be to be kind to one another.

Dead to Sin and Alive to God

One reason cancer is difficult to treat and cure is it often goes undetected or undeterred by our immune system.  These mutated versions of cells from your own body can rapidly multiply because the body supplies them with nutrition as if those abnormal cells promote good health when they work to undermine it.  When the immune system recognises and attacks viral or bacterial pathogens, symptoms like headache or fever send a message of discomfort we understand:  we are sick and perhaps need medical assistance.  Being able to differentiate the abnormal or foreign cells from the healthy cells of the body is important to maintain overall health and the effective treatment of illness.  A recent article said this:  "Because cancer cells are the body’s own cells that have gone rogue, they have inside information on which signals to send to trick immune cells."  It is crazy to think that our own cells can trick our body from the inside, and there is a spiritual parallel for Christians to consider.

Through the Gospel of Jesus, Christians are forgiven and cleansed of all sin.  The removal of the guilt and power of sin, however, does not mean we are perfect.  Our memories are not wiped at conversion nor are our habits broken because we have been filled with the Holy Spirit.  For a long time we drank sin like water as it was the only way we discovered to temporarily alleviate our sinful, fleshly thirst.  Paul discovered a law, that when he wanted to do good evil was present with him.  It was like he was a cancer patient whose tumours were removed by a surgeon, yet abnormal cells continued to circulate through his bloodstream.  Sin, who seduced him like an attractive woman, had been sent packing and was gone, but whispers of those sweet words she spoke echoed in his ears.  Paul wrote in Romans 7:16-17, "If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷ But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me."  Sin dwelling in us seeks to trick us, but God makes us wise to this tactic.

To people who understood the Law of Moses, Paul affirmed the Law was good to fulfill its divine purpose to bring the knowledge of sin.  By the power of God's word and the indwelling Holy Spirit, Paul knew he was forgiven of all sin and born again by faith in Jesus.  This impulse and draw toward doing sin was not Paul but due to indwelling sin because in his flesh--and in our flesh, though spiritually regenerated--no good thing dwells.  This is a very important point for us to realise as born-again Christians:  we need to see sin as a dangerous foreign body, something that lingers in our flesh that is not us and has no authority over us.  Sin is no longer welcome in us.  We ought to refuse to feed sin by caving to it and do not feel sympathy for it when it cries out and begs to have its desires met.  By the death of Christ we have died to sin and thus sin and death no longer have dominion or control over us.  If God spiritually removed the tumour of sin that was killing us, should we entertain or coddle abnormal cells in our bloodstream?  Pride, fear, lusts, selfishness and deceit can now be identified by the Holy Spirit and rejected by us whenever they show themselves.  We no longer are under a yoke of bondage to sin; we are not debtors to the flesh but to God Who has raised us to new life in Him.

Speaking of Christ Romans 6:10-12 says:  "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."  Through His wisdom, God gives Christians the ability to identify sin we  once thought was normal as breathing and part of us--and to crucify it.  God has also provided the means of continual renewal through repentance when we do sin, for as long as we live in our corruptible bodies we can be easy prey for indwelling sin because we can be swayed, influenced, forgetful and weak.  By the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we are given strength to know and do God's will, to put off the sinful deeds of the flesh and to walk in the Spirit.  The victory over sin for all today is in Jesus Christ, and praise God for the new life provided by Jesus our LORD.

God and Adversity

I have observed among genuine believers when experiencing troubles or difficulties, they view it as a "spiritual attack."  Problems they face serve as a reminder they are "in a spiritual battle" and focus on putting on the armour of God, claim God's promises, and even rebuke the devil for his attempts to rob them of peace and prosperity.  We can be more focused on the satanic volley of flaming arrows than the Holy Spirit who fills us, protects us and on Jesus who has defeated Satan, sin and death.  We can try to fight for victory rather than resting and rejoicing in victory Christ has already won.  Knowing we have been redeemed by God, we can also have confidence God will redeem our suffering He allows for good.

I wonder:  how many times Christians have blamed the devil for attacking them when it was God who stirred up enemies against them?  King Solomon is an example of how this is possible.  Though Solomon feared God and was given more wisdom than any man living, over time his heart departed from faith solely in God.  His many foreign wives turned his heart away from following the LORD, and he erected altars to worship idols on the hills of Jerusalem.  God's anger burned against Solomon for his rebellion, for though God appeared to him twice Solomon refused to keep the God's commands.  Because Solomon adopted the practices of God's enemies, it was God--not Satan--who stirred up adversaries against him.  If it was only Satan who stirred against us, God can and will easily protect us.  But if God becomes our adversary, how can we succeed in a fight against Him?

The Scripture reveals God was the source of Solomon's opposition.  1 Kings 11:14 says, "Now the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom."  1 Kings 11:23 also reads, "And God raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer king of Zobah."  While God limited the amount of damage these adversaries could do to Solomon and his kingdom, these conflicts were the fruit of Solomon's rebellion against the LORD--not Satan taking pot-shots at him because he worshipped the almighty God.  It would have been misguided for Solomon to rebuke Satan or proclaim God's promises to overcome his adversaries when God Himself raised up these adversaries to bring him to repentance.

Eli rebuked his sinning sons in the first part of 1 Samuel 2:25, "If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?"  For those who sin against God, God remains our only Saviour and deliverer.  Hebrews 10:30-31 says of God to God's people, "For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  When we fear God, we do not need to fear or be preoccupied with thoughts that Satan is attacking us even if we suffer from many adversaries.  We also need not imagine every trial or test is God's present judgment against us to condemn us, for there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  God will judge us and will deal with us according to His will, but He disciplines and corrects us as sons for our good and thus shows we belong to Him--which is always comforting to know.

When God stirs up adversity, the way to victory is not by fighting against it but by surrendering ourselves before God in humility, repentance and renewed faith in Jesus Christ who has overcome all adversaries.

God's Workmanship

One thing I relish is the completion of a job done well.  I have caught myself, on a number of occasions, going back to look over a project around the house that finally was finished.  I went out of my way to feast my eyes on my handiwork, drinking in the satisfaction of a completed work.  There were plenty of times I would rather not look at a finished job that was sub-standard.  "Don't look too hard," I've thought to myself or told others.  Sometimes it is better a task be finished than wait for perfection and never complete it.

I have found a similar inclination in myself when I have acquired something I considered valuable.  In preparation to propose to my future wife I bought a ring.  Occasionally I would open the box and look at the ring--as if I had forgotten what it looked like.  It was amazing to finally have the special item in my possession with a plan in mind to gift it to the woman I loved and wanted to marry.  After our marriage we had children together, and seeing our children born into the world was a delightful novelty.  We looked at one another and our children with wonder, grateful to God for making us parents.

When God created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them, God looked upon what He made and saw that it was good.  He did not bask in proud self-adulation but acknowledged everything He created was exactly as it should be.  He literally thought of everything and perfectly implemented His designs.  Man's sinful rebellion sullied God's beautiful world, yet God is a Redeemer and Saviour.  When it comes to being born again by faith in Jesus, I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:17:  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."  Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God's workmanship, and we are made new through the Gospel.  He looks upon us with delight and joy like a father does his newborn baby--because He IS our heavenly Father.  Because God makes all things new and renews us day by day, this season of newness and novelty never wears off.

Paul also wrote in Philippians 1:6 of believers:  "...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..."  Some people are able to look at a rusted-out car and see it how it will look in a restored state, and the thought compels them to tirelessly labour toward that end.  Another person sees in a dilapidated, derelict house a dream home for themselves and their family.  Because God sees our lives from an eternal perspective, He views us as who we are in Christ:  we are complete in Him.  During our lives on earth, God continues to refine His beloved children in faith, wisdom and character to be like Jesus.  It is an amazing to consider God looks upon us with delight as a father over a newborn child and the satisfaction of a master builder drinking in the sight of a job well done.  We never grow old to Him because He makes all things new.