A Man Like Me

When Nehemiah, who had been given permission and provisions to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem by the king of Persia, had completed the task all but setting the massive gate, he was warned by Shemaiah to go with him and lock themselves in the Temple because men were coming by night to kill him.

His response was epic: "Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” (Neh 6:11).  Nehemiah knew the entire time he was building the wall that his life was at risk.  He also knew that Shemaiah was not prophesying for the Lord but for the money he had been paid by Sandballat and Tobiah, who were dead set against the wall being completed.

Regardless of the threat and the traitorous acts of some within his ranks, Nehemiah would not be derailed because he had a one-track mind: The mind of God.  He knew that he was doing the work God had set in his heart and he would not stop the work, even at the threat of his life.  His personal safety was not to be compared with his sacred duty.

That's what he meant when he said, "Shall a man like me run away."  He was not commenting on his status or stature or strength but rather on his servant status before the Living God.  He was saying, in effect, "Shall a man serving God Almighty, turn away from that service and run for cover or safety at the threat of man?"

Should anyone, who is a child of God, doing the work of God turn back because others don't like what he/she is doing?  Should we, as Christians, back off doing what we know to be God's will because discouraging or threatening rebukes from others?  Should we allow our personal safety or financial security determine the degree of our commitment to God?

The answer is a firm and resounding no! “'My righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.'  But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved" (Heb 10:38-39).  As Christians, we do not need to test the winds of public opinion or even the threat level to decide what course we should take, rather, we are to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Mt 6:33).  Jus' Say'n.

The Fathers Face

Too many years ago to remember, I came across the story of a young husband who lost his wife, leaving him with a small boy to raise on his own.  The night after his wife and the boy's mother was laid to rest, the little boy wanted to sleep with his father.

As they lay in the darkness, the child, unable to sleep asked, "Daddy?"  His father responded, "Yes son?"  "Daddy, is your face toward me?"  Through his tears, the young widower replied, "Yes son, my face is toward you.  Why do you ask?"  The reply he heard in the darkness was, "I think I will be OK as long as your face is toward me."

Do you remember those days when just knowing your parents were looking out for you, paying attention to what was going on around you, ready to step in and protect you or provide for your needs?  Do you remember how safe you felt, how worry free?

What if we knew that The Father's face was toward us, that he stood ready to protect and provide.  What if we knew that saw every hurt, heard every cry, knew every danger and was already working out our deliverance, already sending a blessing, already moving to act on our behalf?  What if we really believed that God's face was toward us?

Let me share some Good News: The Father's face is absolutely toward us!  "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil" (1 Pet 3:12).  His eyes are watching over us and his ears are listening for our cries, ready to rush to our side, providing and protecting his children.

Of course, this isn't good news for those who do evil, who take advantage of the weak or ignore the needy.  God is fully aware of those individuals as well, only he turns his face away from them, allowing them to reap the evil they are sowing (Gal 6:7).

But for those of us who turn away from evil, seeking the Father's face, there grace and mercy and love abound - there the Father's face is toward us and his hands uphold us and he "will never leave us as orphans" (Jn 14:18) but always stand by us, watching over us.  Jus' Say'n.

Double Duty

Nehemiah, the cup-bearer of King Artaxerxes, approached his Persian master with a burden from God to return to Jerusalem to rebuild its wall.  The king was pleased to give him permission and provide him provisions to accomplish the task which God had laid upon his heart.

Nehemiah and the Jewish people were pleased to begin the work, which God had laid upon their heart and begun the work with great fervor.  But the Gentile inhabitants of the land were not pleased, instead they were alarmed and sent Sanballat to discourage them with ridicule and threats.

Sanballat and Tobiah chided Nehemiah saying, "Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble,,,even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones" (4:2-3).  But Nehemiah and the Israelites were not listening, they continued to build.

The Arabs and the Ammonites became more alarmed and determined to stop them by force.  Word of their plot came to Nehemiah and the Jews but they did not stop building on the wall.  Instead, "Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked" (17-18).

Rather than back down due to the added pressure and increased threat level, Nehemiah and the Jews doubled down, continuing to work on the wall while carrying weapons and posting guards while they worked.  The burden on their hearts from God was stronger than the burden they felt in the heat of the day facing intense opposition with every brick laid upon the wall.

What the people of God faced in the days of Nehemiah is not essentially different from what we must face today.  When we are burdened from God to do a good thing, Satan is bound and determined to make it more difficult in order to get us to surrender.  We too will have to pull double duty, serving God on one hand and resisting the Devil on the other.  As the apostle warned, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim 3:12).

We are called to the double duty of building the kingdom while defending against Satan's attacks but we need not fear for Jesus promises, "I will never leave you as orphans, I will come to you" (Jn 14:18).  The pressure will be on but the Prince of Peace will be at hand.  Jus' Say'n.

Making Room For Yes

My natural inclination is to say yes when asked to help someone, participate in an event or work on a project.  As a rule, I feel good about volunteering and others appreciate my help.  But experience over decades of ministry has taught me that saying yes to everything soon results in having to say no to better things and failing to leave room for Divine appointments and prompting of the Spirit.

As a parent, if your day is filled with the demands of work and your evenings taken up with community volunteerism, just when are you taking time with your children?  As a spouse that is busily going and doing, serving in multiple good and godly venues, how well are you meeting the needs of your spouse?  As a businessman, always busy with business, how well are you meeting the needs of your family, friends, church and community?

As a pastor for three decades, I found myself wanting to be a part of everything.  And, for the first decade, I pretty much was - to the growing determent of my family and my health.  I was heading down the path, which is a major contributor to 60% of pastors dropping out of full-time ministry by the 7th year: Over-commitment.

In one of those personality tests I took somewhere back in the early 90s, I registered as a "Golden Retriever"; One of those individuals who wants to please everyone.  But the fact is, even the best of dogs can only chase one stick at a time.  Every time I say yes to one thing, I must say no to whatever else I could be doing or helping in at that given time.

Even Jesus, who came and died in his quest to "seek and save that which was lost" (Lk 19:10), "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Lk 5:16).  As much as he desired to bless people, he often said no to the opportunity in order to make room for saying yes to quiet time with the Father.  Sometimes, he would retreat with disciples for the specific purpose of resting and recharging their batteries.  Making room for yes means saying no to somethings.

So, the point I've been coming to is the need to make priorities and keep them.  Attending worship is a priority for me.  If something is planned during that time, it will likely happen without my participation.  Work is a priority, I don't just miss work.  If something urgent comes up like a family emergency, my priorities will shift.  If there is something really important planned like an anniversary trip, a mission week or our recent Apostles' Habitat for Humanity work day, I'll schedule time off.

As hard as it is to say no, we have to force it out sometimes, making room for yes when the Spirit prompts, making room for those Divine appointments, making room for higher priorities, making room for rest, making room for family, making room for church, making room for yes when it counts the most for any given moment in time.  No, it isn't easy.  Yes, it is worth it.  Jus' Say'n.

Changes

Will Rogers once quipped, "It's not that I'm afraid to die; it just that I've been alive for as long as I can remember and I don't like change."  As with most things he said, most people can identify.  We really don't like change so much.  We take great comfort in  the fact that the way things worked out yesterday can be counted on to work out today as well.

Of course, there are some changes we do welcome: A promotion, a windfall, losing those extra pounds, getting the leaky faucet fixed, having your braces removed for good.  Change that we look forward to, which benefits us in some way it welcome change.  Welcome change is not the change I'm talking about - I'm talking about the change that happens without our input and without our approval.  I'm talking about most change, the kind of upsetting change written about in the little book entitled, "Who Moved My Cheese?"

I'm not going to try to recap the book or even make a direct reference, it just happened to pop into my mind as I was writing that last paragraph and it is a good illustration taken from the business world, which is constantly in flux, using the illustration of a mouse vexed over his cheese being moved.  It's a pretty good read and doesn''t take long.  You might want to check it out.

The point I'm driving at is that while we resist change in general, in general change is coming, regardless of our resistance.  Change is the vital dynamic in things that are alive and growing.  Growing itself is systematic change.  Living things get bigger, stronger, faster, developing and changing on a cellular level constantly, and in more obvious ways, reaching milestones along the way.

The deal is that change happens.  Sometimes change will be welcome.  Often it will not.  Regardless, it will happen.  We can embrace it, cope with it, lament it, curse it - but we cannot stop it with but one exception: Stop living.  Living things grow and growth is change.  There is no change occurring in a cemetery.  But as long as you are alive, expect change.  Go ahead and enjoy things as they are today but be prepared for those things to change tomorrow.

Paul said, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance" (Phil 4:12), which implies the constant change he lived through.  Solomon said, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens" (Eccl 3:1).  Since every thing has its time, when it's time for something else, there must be change.

There is but one static point in life, one thing that will not move about, one anchor we can hold on to in a sea of constant upheaval: "God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change" (Ps 55:19). Embrace the changes of life, holding on to God who instead of constantly changing is The Constant, yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8).  Jus' Say'n.

Marvelous

I have a particular co-worker, who has an especially sunny disposition.  Each day when you ask her how she is doing, her stock answer is, "I'm marvelous!"  Until she came to work at our office, I don't remember hearing that word since Billy Crystal was using it in his imitation of Fernado Lamas on Saturday Night, "You look marvelous!"

But just today I came across it in my reading of the Book of Zechariah, when the Lord Almighty declared to Israel, “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me ?” (8:6).

Marvelous means "Causing wonder or astonishment; Of the highest or best kind or quality: first-rate."    And certainly, there are times when we feel we have accomplished something or conducted ourselves in a rather marvelous way.

I don't know if any churches would say, "We're really marvelous," but I do know that most feel that they are above average if not first-rate.  But does God feel that way?  An example of this contrast is found in Revelation 3:17  "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

This is a very important question  in our personal and corporate Christian walk, "Am I, are we, marvelous in God's sight?"  While I may think I'm doing pretty good, does God agree?  While the church I attend may feel it is operating above the grade, does God think so?

We know that God loves us (cf. Jn 3:16) but do our lives, our words, thoughts and deeds, honor him? A good test is, "Would anyone be drawn to Christ by my life or the body life of our church?  Am I and are we truly, "Set apart" (sanctified) from the world in how we conduct ourselves?  Or would people say we are like all the rest?

I believe that we should be marvelous, I believe that I should be marvelous.  I believe that every Christian and every Christian Body ought to be sanctified.  But are we?  And how can we know?  Well, we "all sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23), so we are not perfectly marvelous, but we could be as marvelous as an imperfect being can manage.

How we can know is by becoming familiar with one who is Perfectly Marvelous: The Lord Jesus Christ who "has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin" (Heb 4:15) is truly marvelous.  And, through prayer, devotional time and study of his life in Scripture, we can come to know him who "left us an example that we should follow in His steps" (1 Pet 2:21).  Jus' Say'n.

Small Things

The prophet Zechariah asks a very pointed question: "“Who dares despise the day of small things" (4:10)?  The answer, of course, is "Most of us."  Especially, I think, in this country.  For us bigger is not only better, bigger is important while smaller is less so.

To feel important, we seek a big job with lots of authority, a big paycheck, a big house and a car in the garage with a big price tag.  As Christians, we want to belong to a big church with a big budget and big influence.  If we teach a Bible class, we want big numbers in attendance.

If we host a seminar or a conference or a gospel meeting, we judge its success by the numbers in attendance.  When we evaluate the success of our churches, we begin to check attendance numbers and the number of dollars in the contribution plate.  Big is good, small is bad.  We dare despise the day of small things.

But the truth is, however, size or amount is not the true measure of worth or value.  The apostle Paul said, "I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue" (1 Cor 14:19).  It is quality, not quantity that gives true value.

Which is of more value, to lecture a class of 1,000 people who forget the message before the day is out or to teach a handful of people who drink it in and determine to apply the principles in their lives?   Which do you believe is more pleasing to God, a mega church in the suburbs, where thousands of members come to hear an eloquent sermon and leave a sizable contribution or a small inner-city church that struggles to pat the rent but is daily reaching out to the helpless and the homeless?

In God sight, which has more worth, $10,000 sitting in a bank account or $10 used to buy food for a hungry child?  What would do the most kingdom good, attending 100 seminars on outreach or 1 week on a mission effort?  The number of steps in a journey is not nearly as important as the direction of those steps.  And in Southern imagery, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog."

Rather than concern ourselves with the number or size or amount, we ought to focus on what is right, what is good, what is helpful.  Consider kingdom worth rather than monetary worth, strive to make a difference instead of a name, take the first step (however small) to doing the right thing.  Do what you can with what you have for, as Jesus said: "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (Mt 10:42).  Jus' Say'n.