PLAYING THE FOOL

Message preached on Sunday, August 23, 2009

Have you ever played the fool? In a sense, playing the fool is biblical conduct. At least, the idea of playing the fool comes from the words of a biblical character. In the King James Version  of the Bible, King Saul described himself as having “played the fool” when he looked back on how he had behaved with his loyal subject David (1 Sam.26:21). Saul had to come to that conclusion because he had manifested a total lack of discernment about two matters:

• The sincerity of the godly, and
• The sovereignty of God

Saul’s History

Saul had not dreamt of being a king. He seemed to have an inferiority complex. When the prophet Samuel indicated that Saul had been chosen by God to be the king of Israel, Saul’s response was that he was a nobody (9:21). Seems a bit silly and futile to say that to God’s prophet who was announcing what God had planned.

As Saul travelled homeward, along the way, everything that Samuel had predicted had happened, even the fantastic experience of coming under the power of God’s Spirit and exercising the gift of prophecy (10:9-11). Still, when Samuel turned up at his home to go public on God having chosen Saul, the man went and hid himself in a storeroom (v.22). That was how reluctant he was to shoulder the responsibility of leading a nation. His bearing and behaviour made some troublemakers raise the question whether such a man could save the nation and they wouldn’t accept his kingship (v.27). Anyway, after the public investiture by anointing had taken place, incredibly Saul went back to farming (11:5).

Finally, Saul rose to the task when confronted by an enemy nation threatening destruction of an Israelite city (vv.6-11). Riding a triumphant wave, his supporters wanted to punish the troublemakers who had questioned his authority as king, but Saul was magnanimous in victory and said that no one would be punished because the Lord had given the nation its salvation (vv.12-13).

Exceeding the Limits

Up to that point in his life, Saul had shown proper humility. But it would appear that being king did go to his head thereafter. He lost his “sense of proportion” and began to exceed the limits of his kingship.

It so happened that Saul had to go into battle with an enemy nation. When Samuel didn’t come in time to bless them for their campaign, Saul took things into his own hands by not continuing to wait for God’s prophet and assumed the role of God’s prophet (13:7-10).

When Saul took over a task that was not his to perform, Saul forgot that he had been anointed king of the people, but in God’s court he was not king; he too was just one of the people.

Gentile nations believed that their kings were demigods to be worshipped. Not so with Israel. Their king had no authority in the tent of worship. (Israel had no temple until the time of Solomon, and instead the focal point of religious activity was a movable tent containing the ark of the covenant, and other equipment necessary to their style of non-idolatrous worship). In the tent of worship, only the man of God dedicated to worshipful activity had authority to function as the intermediary between God and His people. Saul exceeded his authority and brought his kingship into play in the presence of God.

Saul’s excuse was that his army was beginning to disband (vv.11-12). Gone was the Saul who had attributed the earlier victory to God. He now demonstrated that he believed that Israel’s salvation depended on him. Gone was the dependence on God and instead his behaviour seemed to shout, “Yes, I can.”

When Saul didn’t wait for Samuel, the prophet of God, he indicated that he wasn’t willing to wait for God to choose the moment to act. He would take things into his own hands and proceed. He was going ahead and God’s prophet could follow whenever he wanted to.

Defying the Lord’s Order

If exceeding the limits was a matter of attitude, Saul next flouted a clear order. God had ordered that nothing was to be saved from the next battle. Everything would be dedicated and untouchable and consigned to the flames like a great big sacrifice to God (1 Sam.15:3). Instead of doing what God wanted him to do, Saul led his soldiers in saving the best along with being partial to the enemy king. They burnt up only what no one wanted (v.9). When confronted with this blatant disobedience to God’s command, Saul pretended devotion as the reason for saving the best of the enemy’s possessions: he said that they had saved them to sacrifice to God (v.15). This claim was patently false, because the total destruction that God had commanded was itself to reflect total devotion to God.

The prophet Samuel said then,

What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams (v.22, NLT).

Samuel was not alone in challenging God’s people about pretended religiosity.

What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord.

“I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of fattened cattle.

I get no pleasure from the blood

of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to worship me,

who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;

the incense of your offerings disgusts me!

As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath

and your special days for fasting—

they are all sinful and false.

I want no more of your pious meetings.

I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.

They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!

When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.

Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,

for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Wash yourselves and be clean!

Get your sins out of my sight.

Give up your evil ways (Isa.1:11-16,NLT; cf. Jer.6:20; 7:21).

Losing It

His disobedience left Saul disturbed internally. The Lord’s Spirit left him, and he was tormented by a demonic spirit (1 Sam.16: 14-15).

When people give up their faith in God, they become tormented souls. In early science lessons, I learnt that nature doesn’t allow a vacuum to exist. Similarly, in the spiritual realm, there cannot be a vacuum. The space emptied by God, gets taken over by demons. When people leave God, they become open to occupancy by evil spirits. That is what happened to Saul.

Our Lord told a story about an evil spirit being cast out and rendered homeless. It kept searching for a place to stay, until its wanderings brought it back to the space it had been thrown out of. The evil spirit discovered that the space was still vacant. The soul that had been liberated from being possessed by the evil spirit had not bothered to fill up the emptiness. The evil spirit quickly repossessed the space along with a bunch of its friends. The Lord said that the last state of that soul was worse than its first state of being possessed by one spirit (Matt.12:43-45).

In Saul’s disturbed state, he was not able to recognize his own friend. Even though, David had joined Saul’s service earlier to be a personal attendant who would soothe and heal his disturbed state with gentle music (1 Sam.16:21-23), he is unable to recognize David when David showed that he was a very brave soul (17:55-57). Blinded by his envy of David (18:6-9), Saul tried to kill David at the very time when David was doing him good with his music (vv.10-11). Saul then plotted David’s murder by assigning David a task that required bravery knowing that David would rise to the task (vv.17-29) and kept on trying again and again to murder David. Even after David had spared his life (24:1-22), Saul was unable to discern loyalty when he saw it in David. In the end, he lost the services of his most loyal servant (27:1-2).

Another Loses Sanity

One aspect of Saul’s lack of discernment was that of his not discerning the sovereignty of God. From time to time, he did manifest an awareness of it (18:28-29; 24:20-21), but he didn’t go beyond the awareness to submit to the Lord’s sovereignty. Instead he kept bucking God’s authority again and again. Having had a taste of power, he was not ready to give it up even at the Lord’s command.

Beware power. It not only corrupts the soul in its relationships and dealings, but it stands defiant before the Lord God Himself, because power sees itself as power. Within its own circle power is absolute and defies the sovereignty of God. That is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of the future of generations to come. He sensed that this dream of his was different from all the meaningless ones he had shared with his wise men allowing their silly interpretations to amuse him. So unlike other times, he refused to tell the wise men his dream. He figured that if they really could discover the meaning of a dream, then they ought to be able to discover the dream itself. His wise men assured him that they could come up with an interpretation for his dream, if they were told the dream. But Nebuchadnezzar was determined to safeguard against fraud.

When the order to kill wise men unable to tell him the dream and its interpretation went out, Daniel and his friends prayed for God’s revelation. The dream was revealed to Daniel and he told the king that the dream was about four empires, starting with himself (Daniel chapter 2). Even though Daniel’s interpretation made it clear that ultimately Nebuchadnezzar and all other earthly powers would be displaced by the last King, Nebuchadnezzar decided to honour himself by erecting a huge statue of himself to be worshipped. He forgot that the displacement order was already given from heaven.

When Daniel’s friends refused to give in to the command to worship the king’s image, Nebuchadnezzar should have remembered that he was not the main point of the dream, that he was not the aim of it all. He should have backed off from demanding to be worshipped. After seeing God’s intervention rescue Daniel’s friends from the fiery death that he had planned, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the Lord God’s greatness and power (chapter 3), but otherwise continued to ignore all that God’s servant had taught him.

God tried to reach Nebuchadnezzar a second time with a dream. It was a disturbing dream with weird images: a tree trunk, that has the mind of a man, and that mind becoming like an animal’s. This time the wise men don’t try to interpret the dream, knowing that the king would know when they were winging it. Daniel gave warning that doom was coming, but the king, while honouring Daniel as the man who could interpret dreams, continued to enjoy his power as though God didn’t matter. The dream happened. Nebuchadnezzar became insane for seven years as predicted. Healing and the return to sanity came only with Nebuchadnezzar acknowledging God to be God (chapter 4).

Coming to Oneself

In the story of the prodigal son, we see the younger son insanely asking for his share while the father was alive. No one inherits while the original owner is still around. He mistook the father’s kindness and generosity for his own craftiness.

The man went as far away as he could to get away from all the influences of his home. As long as he had the means to ply people with food and drinks and have a good time, he was surrounded by fair-weather friends. When the means were gone, the friends were gone. No one would give him a helping hand when he needed it, and he ended up looking after pigs. He was so desperate that he tried to live on pig’s food. That is when he “came to himself” (Lk.15:17, KJV).

The young man had thought that he could find happiness far from his father, his home, and all the godly influences in his life. He let himself go. He thought he was enjoying himself. In the end, it was the memory of his father and his home that helped him retrace the steps in his life till he found himself once again in his father’s home. Thank God for the godly influences in your life. Their memory may one day save you when you wander off and they will serve in bringing you back to your spiritual home.

The prodigal youth did not have the discernment to see that bad friends cannot be good friends. They don’t know how to be friends. They’re not in it for your good. Sometimes we too fool ourselves with such “friends”, imagining that they are our friends. They are not friends, who only want a good time all the time

The rule of thumb that the prodigal discovered is that any friendships that require us to do a one-sided spending of all of our worldly goods are not friendships. Any relationship based on possessions is not a relationship.

The prodigal son came to himself: that is when he came to his senses. He knew he had to go back to his father whom he had hurt with his demand of his share as though he wished the father was already dead. He knew he had hurt his father by going away and he knew it was time to end the exile and return home even with a sense of unworthiness. It was foolish to have gone away. It would be foolish to stay away after coming to one’s senses. It would be foolish to not recognize that it is time to go home.

Two Fools

While the prodigal came to himself, our Lord taught about two who were fools to the end. One thought it foolish to waste time on foundations. He believed in quick results and proud displays of how quick he was in achieving his aims, while another was plodding along with slowly and painstakingly laying a foundation in rock. The foolish build on shifting sands. The wise build on rock. Both superstructures look the same, until the storms come. Then it is that the structure built on rock shows its solidity (Matt.7:24-27).

The second fool thought that planning his life was all important. His plans were great, and he had bigger and better plans. He thought that all he planned was all that mattered. Sounds like one of us, doesn’t it? The man made all the plans for this life, and none for the next. God looked down from heaven, shook His head and whispered, “You fool. Tonight when your soul is required to appear before me, who will all that belong to?” (Lk.12:16-21).

We do not have all the time in the world. We have so very little time. If we had all eternity to make up our minds and take decisions, then we could delay the moment when we must stop playing the fool. But we don’t have all eternity for that. The time to stop playing the fool is now.

EXALT YOUR COUNTRY

Sunday, August 16, 2009:

Can Ethiopians change their skin or leopards their spots? (Jer.13:23, NRSV)

The rest of that verse reads, “Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.”

When travelling internationally, I am ashamed to be an Indian. Here are my reasons. While waiting for our flight to be announced, an earlier flight is announcing its “last boarding call” asking Ms Rukmani Das, Mrs Rani Chatterjee, Mr Raj Chatterjee and Mr Deepak Rajsekar to get to the gate immediately as the flight is ready to leave. The “last boarding call” is made several times. After about ten minutes of this four persons are seen rushing to the gate, loaded with shopping bags of stuff they’ve bought at the duty free shops. And this is typical. If it is a flight to Delhi or any Indian airport there will definitely be such last calls, and 9 times out of 10, the missing people are Indians.

After our flight has been boarded, and we’ve settled in our seats, there are announcements about switching off mobile phones, laptops and similar electronic devices that would interfere with the aircraft’s systems. Close by is a smart young Indian guy with a fancy mobile phone who ignores the announcement and continues to talk to his contact. The flight attendant approaches him and asks him to please switch off the phone. He nods and indicates that he is doing it, but when the attendant moves on, continues to talk. The attendant returns to repeat her request. This time he raises his palm and indicates that he will do it in a minute. The airhostess hasn’t moved on, and repeats her request. This time there is an edge to her voice. Finally, 7 minutes after the announcement was made the man switches off his phone. This too is typical. In the movie Love Aaj Kal, Deepika Padukone is shown talking on her mobile phone and the flight attendant having to repeatedly request her to switch off her phone. The producer of the movie probably wasn’t showing that to correct any behaviour but to suggest the intensity of her relationship with Saif Al i Khan whom she is talking to. Still the producer did capture an Indian trait. On any flight headed toward India, there are always some Indians who will behave in this manner.

The head attendant makes the announcement that our flight is approaching Delhi. She also adds that everyone is to remain seated until the seat belt sign is switched off. But the moment the announcement is over, two or three men have sprung up from their seats to open the overhead storage bins and retrieve their hand baggage. The attendant makes a strident announcement that everyone is to not open the storage bins and to immediately return to their seats. In one case, a flight attendant had to go up to the person and insist on immediate compliance.

Some may sheepishly grin and make light of it: “We are like that only.” But I cannot take this lightly. I say that at the least, this kind of behaviour is inconsiderate, and at the worst it is dangerous—for others.

Why?

In my view, the reason Indians behave this way is that we are a nation in “civil disobedience mode”. India won its independence through Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement against the British. It was passive resistance. He called it satyagraha. The term literally means “truth force.”

The principles of satyagraha are:

Sat—openness, honesty, fairness: Truth.                                                                    Ahimsa —refusal to inflict injury on  others.                                                                      Tapasya —willingness for self-sacrifice.

Gandhi’s ideas on civil disobedience were not original, though his attempts gained him more prominence than the original propagator. In 1849 Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay to explain his reasons for refusing to pay a poll tax that the American government had imposed on citizens in to order to finance a war against Mexico and to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law.

Martin Luther King picked up Gandhi’s example when he led the revolt against laws that kept blacks oppressed and suppressed in the US of A. Later on blacks in South Africa along with whites who had a sense of justice resorted to civil disobedience methods to overthrow apartheid. American students stopped the Vietnam War with their non-cooperative sit-ins.

What we need to understand is that civil disobedience involves a conscientious objection to a law. Civil disobedience announces its intention to disobey, and accepts that, as long as the law remains unchanged, such disobedience merits punishment.

As “descendants” of freedom fighters our people are in civil disobedience mode. But it’s just a mode. They are just being modish, that is, fashionable.

Our notions of freedom are that we are free from rules. Most Indians have the attitude that rules are not for them, but they believe that it is for everyone else.

The Bible Says

The Christian’s Bible has another take on the law. The Bible says that the law in summary is aiming at everyone loving their fellow humans. What the law does is to prevent any one person exceeding the limits of liberty and intruding in someone else’s space. It prevents us from treading on another’s toes.

This notion comes from the Lord Jesus who described Himself as having come, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt.5:17). Jesus said that all God’s law could be “hung” on just two: love God and love neighbour (Matt.22:40).

Paul followed with an elaboration of this idea, when he wrote that the entire law is summed up in one commandment—to love one’s neighbour as oneself (Rom.13:1-7).

The Bible is clear:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Pro.14:34).

How shameful it is when, year after year, we read that according to Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, India is way at the bottom of the list. We are ranked among the most corrupt of the world. Come let’s break the mould. Let’s not be “like that only.” Let us show that there is another kind of Indian—the kind that is a pleasure to live with and work with, because we are followers of Jesus, who said,

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s (Matt.22:21).

We have a call to be the most law-abiding people in the country. Peter wrote:

For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority…It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, and respect the king (1 Pet.2:13-17. NLT).

To get the thrust of what Peter said understand that we are to

• Do good.
• Live free.
• Live as God’s servants

Peter spelt out that living as God’s servants involved

• Showing proper respect for authority
• Loving God’s faithful ones
• Fearing God
• Honouring those in authority

Between AD 125-200, an unknown Christian wrote to a government official named Diognetus, wrote as follows to explain the distinctiveness of Christians:

Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do. Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh." They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life. They are treated by the Jews as foreigners and enemies, and are hunted down by the Greeks; and all the time those who hate them find it impossible to justify their enmity. To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but does not belong to the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world. The soul, which is invisible, is kept under guard in the visible body; in the same way, Christians are recognised when they are in the world...The flesh hates the soul and treats it as an enemy, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is prevented from enjoying its pleasures; so too the world hates Christians, even though it suffers no wrong at their hands, because they range themselves against its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and its members; in the same way, Christians love those who hate them. The soul is shut up in the body, and yet itself holds the body together; while Christians are restrained in the world as in a prison, and yet themselves hold the world together. The soul, which is immortal, is housed in a mortal dwelling; while Christians are settled among corruptible things, to wait for the incorruptibility that will be theirs in heaven. The soul, when faring badly as to food and drink, grows better; so too Christians, when punished, day by day increase more and more. It is to no less a post than this that God has ordered them, and they must not try to evade it.

While we may not agree entirely with the theology regarding the relationship between the soul and the body, we can understand from the context that the author wrote to show that Christians were the breath of fresh air that comes to revive a nation. Our Lord said they serve as salt that preserves and flavours our food (Matt.5:12), and light that shows the way to those on the inside, but are not hidden from those on the outside, for they are the city set on a hill—the hill of Calvary (5:13-16). No doubt, Calvary is a very small hill, but from the point of view of human history, there is no higher peak than Calvary. That is why everyone expects more from Christians, and when Christians disappoint them, it is the light in our lives that is dimmed.

GIDEON

On Sunday, August 9, Rev J T Raja, took a break from his regular ministry at the village church to be with the city church. The following is the message he preached in the city church.

Throughout biblical history God called and used people, both individuals and group to do great things for Him. Very often He used ordinary men and women to achieve His purpose. He used Joseph an ordinary boy sold as a slave. He became governor of Egypt to save that nation and his own people from severe famine. He used Moses the son of a slave woman, took him to the palace of Pharaoh and made him learn all the skills that were needed to bring His people out from slavery and to the Promised Land.

He used Esther a captive woman, Elijah a settler, Elisha a farmer; in the New Testament He used 12 ordinary fishermen. God has been using people to achieve His purpose. The greatest thing in life is to be used by God.

Today we will look at the life of Gideon whom God used greatly (Judges 6:11-16).  He was an ordinary man like us. He was struggling in his faith as we do; he had doubts, unbelief and fear. God met him again and again helped him in his doubt and used him. We will look at two incidents in his life.

Encounter with God

The angel of the Lord came and sat down to the place where Gideon was threshing wheat secretly in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites. Normally the threshing was done in an open area.  They toss the wheat up in the air and the air blows away the chaff and the grain falls to the ground.

Here he was threshing it in a wine press.  The wine press is about three feet deep pit.  Very often it is cut out on a rock.  The pit is big enough for many people to stand in it.  They put the grapes, and the people stand  and crush it with their bare feet.  The juice flows through a channel to another pit where it is stored for fermentation.  He was inside that pit so that no one could see him.

He was a frightened and a confused man.  He was frightened of the Midianites because they suppressed them so much. He was a confused man because his forefathers had told him that the Lord had done great wonders to deliver them from the Egyptians and brought them to this great land. His confusion was: if God is so great, if what my forefathers said is true then why do we struggle as we do now.  Why is He not helping us anymore? In fact, he thought that God was not with them anymore.  He had abandoned them.

This is the main reason for his fear also.  When we think that the Lord is not with us then we will be afraid every time we face a problem. Here Gideon was a frightened man and in this situation the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” God says two things here. “You are a mighty warrior and I am with you.” His main problem was that he thought the Lord is not with them.  But here comes the Lord and tells him I am with you.

This is God’s promise to us. In the Bible in many places God says “I am with you” or “Fear not I am with you.” Our problem is like Gideon we don’t realize that God is with us when we go through trials. Lack of faith and fear go together.

Gideon’s immediate reaction was, if God is with us why are all these things are happening to us.  Like Gideon we too have felt like this many times.  Whenever we go through trials our faith is shaken and we think the Lord is not with us.  This thought is so terrible.

Two years I went through the same problem.  Every time I knelt down to pray the thought would come to my mind saying ,”He is not with you, He has forsaken you, no point in praying to Him”.  It was so strong that I was not able to pray.  Those days I would just go on my knees and cry.  It took long time for me to come out of that. The Lord spoke to me through Isaiah 41:9, 10: You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I read those verses many times. Later, I realized that the main reason for that problem was that I neglected spending time with the Lord.

You know God is with us all the time whether you believe it or not.  He is with us each and every moment. Because HE has given us the promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

The Lord was with the Israelites also. Judges 6:1 says “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”

Seeing all the trials Gideon thought that God was not with them but the above verse says that it was the Lord who put them under those trials. God was always with them and watched all they did and they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  The Lord was with them each and every moment, but they never realized His presence in their lives and lived as they liked.  The trials they faced were God’s way of reminding them of his presence among them.  Except for these trials they would not have come back to Him. (Verse 6 says,” They cried out to the Lord”) God is always with us and we should remember this fact as we live.  Once you become a child of God you can’t live your life the way you want to. Don’t let Him remind us of His presence in our life.  Recognize His presence in our life as we live.

In verse 13 Gideon was questioning God so much without acknowledging the fact that the people had brought the calamity on themselves. It is easy to overlook our personal accountability and blame God for all our problems. But it neither helps us to solve our problems nor bring us closer to Him. So when problems strike us the first thing we should do is to look within us and confess the sins that may have created those problems.

In verse 14 The Lord turned to him and said,” Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of the Midianite’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Gideon must have thought that the Lord will do some miracles like He did before and save them. It never crossed in his mind that God would ask him to do that and for this very purpose He revealed Himself to him. He said you don’t need any strength I am sending you and I will be with you.  It was God who would accomplish His purpose but would do it through Gideon.

This is exactly what God has been doing throughout the history.  He uses people to accomplish His purposes.  All God wanted was his commitment and the willingness to do what God asked him to do.  But Gideon was giving excuses. “I am small and I can’t do it.” God says,” I will be with you and you will strike down the midianites.  I will be with you and help you in your weaknesses and will give you strength to do it. God revealed Himself to him for this purpose to save his nation.

Encounter with the Midianites

Gideon was a man who had his doubts and fear.  He wanted God to clear his doubts by miraculous signs. (In verse 17 he asked for a sign and again in verses 36 to 40 he asked twice for signs) This shows his lack of faith in God’s word. When Gideon asked second time for a sign he thought God may get angry.  But our God is very slow in getting angry. (Exodus 34:6) He is a long suffering God.  When we doubt Him and turn our backs to Him He suffers and suffers long. But never gets angry.

God did whatever Gideon had asked and cleared his doubts. Can we today seek guidance by putting out a fleece like Gideon? In Gideon’s time, they didn’t have the complete Word of God with them and they had to depend on prophets and some miraculous signs. But today we have the Word of God with us and God wants us to trust His promises.  He wants us to read it, study it and spend time with Him in order to know His will in our lives.

I personally believe that the people who ask for signs are the people who do not spend enough time with Him.  Putting a fleece out is easy but it doesn’t work all the time.  God want s us to spend time with Him to know Him and His will in our lives.

All Gideon had to do was just trust the Lord and go forward and the Lord would have led him but he delayed two days because of his doubt. In chapter 6 God is dealing with Gideon to get him ready for the task.  In chapter 7 God is dealing with Gideon’s enemies through Gideon.  It was God who delivered His people through Gideon and a small army of three hundred committed men. Nothing is impossible to God. When we commit ourselves to Him, God can use us to do great things.  Are we willing to be used by God?

EXITING THE WORLD

Message preached on Sunday, August 2, 2009, after the cremation of a pastor aroused questions and controversy.

Different societies of people have various funeral practices. Did you know that the Zoroastrians or the Parsis of India place the dead bodies of their people in towers of silence? A tower of silence is a place where Parsis leave dead bodies to be devoured by vultures and other scavenger birds. Seems a heartless and gruesome way to dispose of their dead.

The reason they do it this way is that like most religions there is a notion that the body is evil and impure, and disposing of it in one of the elements (the sky, soil, water, air, fire) would defile them. When I was in school, there was no subject like “environmental studies.” Now that they do, I wonder if anyone would say that this method is the most environmental-friendly way to dispose of the dead. Not only is there no contamination of soil or water, but birds in the wild are fed. (What if they are a nuisance to aeroplanes—which are anyway machines that pollute?)

There is another method of disposing a dead body that seems rather uncaring toward family sentiments. I refer to donating the body for research or to harvest as many of the organs as needed. I carry a card in my purse, so that in case I die on the road, attending docs and nurses may go ahead with harvesting all available organs. Some people think that donations will affect their resurrection, because they think that somehow they will be complete in heaven only if they hold on to all their organs. (This argument will be confronted when we look at the arguments against cremation).

Sacred History

Most Christians choose burial to dispose their dead. They think that this is the right way to do it because it is the biblical way. They think that cremation goes against the teaching of the Bible. Most people think that the Bible doesn’t have any record of instances of cremation.

Saul and his sons were killed by Philistines. Later in order to shame Israel, the Philistines identified their bodies, cut off their heads and displayed their stripped bodies ignominiously on the walls of the city Beth Shan. Hearing of the ignominy people of Jabesh Gilead mounted a rescue operation to recover the dead bodies and on succeeding, quickly burnt the bodies (1 Sam.31:to prevent the Philistines getting hold of the bodies and shaming them again). Even if we discount Saul because of his apostasy, Jonathan, a good man was among those slain. The Bible records the story of his cremation without any disapproval of it.

The second argument against cremation is that Jesus was buried, not cremated, and Christians are to follow in Christ’s steps. Sounds very devout, except that Jesus was not buried. His body was laid in a tomb carved out of rock and a stone cover was rolled into place closing the mouth of the tomb. The Jews didn’t practise burial in the same way that we do today. When Sarah died Abraham bought a cave for her burial (Gen.23:19-20). He needed a cave to prevent animals from desecrating the dead body of his loved one. We don’t bury that way. Our way is to dig a hole in the ground, put the body into the hole and then cover it up with soil. There is no record of anything similar to that description being done in the case of any of the burials described in the Bible.

In 1963, the Roman Catholic Church allowed cremation as one of the ways in which to dispose of dead bodies. Usually the Roman Catholic Church is the conservative bit of the Church, and the last to give up any tradition or practice. When they give up a practice, it is most often because they have come to the conclusion that they have run out of reasons and excuses for clinging to custom.

Practical Reason

If we were Christians living in Japan, there would be no question about what to do. It is illegal to bury in Japan and so we would be opting for cremation without questions or qualms.

If the RSS had its way in India, it would soon impose laws that make all minorities conform to whatever the group wished. And we would all fall in line. We are known to accommodate to prevailing law and custom. Christians in the UAE have changed their day of worship to Friday because the weekly day off there is Friday. Christians are not clinging to Sunday as though there is a sacred compulsion to worship corporately on Sundays only.

While we would have no difficulty to changing our customs to suit the RSS, and in this case there is nothing wrong with the change, such readiness to do what we are told should be what is questioned. Do you recall that the excuse of Nazi criminals was that they were merely following orders?

Theological Arguments

The most often asked question that Christians have in the matter of donations or cremations is that of how our resurrected body could be raised if we burn it all up or raised complete if we donate its parts.

If God couldn’t raise people who were totally reduced to ashes by cremation, then what hope would there be for the martyrs burnt at the stake? What hope is there for those eaten by the lions, for those lost at sea, for those who die in disasters such as wild fires or are struck by lightning and incinerated?

Those who ask this, have a very small god, who is totally lacking in sovereign power. If we believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, we would be echoing the line of John the Baptist. He told the Jews that they were not to pride themselves on their lineage and heritage, because if pure bloodline was all that God required, God could produce that out of stones (Lk.3:8). After all, God is the one who created everything out of nothing.

Early Christians did insist on burial (similar to what was done to the body of Jesus, not similar to our practice of putting the body into a hole in the ground and then covering it up with the soil). Their insistence was in contrast to the Roman practice of cremation. Why didn’t they adapt to Roman custom (in line with the notion, when in Rome, do as the Romans)?

For Early Christians, their insistence on burial was a statement of their faith. They believed that their dead were “sleeping” (see Stephen’s death—Acts 7:60) waiting to be awakened by the resurrection call of the Returning Lord. You must remember that their expectation that Jesus would return was an expectation that this blessed event would happen in their generation. They never thought that Jesus would wait for generations before returning. It is because of this belief that their departed were sleeping that they needed cemeteries. The word “cemetery” is derived from the Greek word koimētērion which means “dormitory” or “sleeping chamber”.

Not Soul Sleep

One of the best pictures we have of the present state of departed souls is in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man’s soul is not asleep but acutely aware of his own surroundings and also perceptive of how envious was Lazarus’ situation (Lk.16:19-31).

Paul described life here as living in tents. They are good for camping, but no one thinks of them as permanent dwellings (2 Cor.5:1-5). As a song writer put it,

This world is not my home,

I’m just a passing through...

Paul expressed a longing to be with the Lord, and said that the moment we are absent from the body, that moment we are present with the Lord (vv.8-9). In his words, “mortality is swallowed up by life.” The paraphrase that is echoing in my mind is the line, “Death is swallowed up by life.” We think that death snatches our loved ones from us. The perspective that God gives us is that life eternal has snatched our loved ones from dying and death. From the time we begin life, we are dying. God snatches us from the dying. That’s a totally different picture from what we see when our eyes are filled with tears.

One of the best pictures we have of life in heaven is given us in Revelation 7:14-17:

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God,

and serve him day and night in his temple;

and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

the sun shall not strike them,

nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (ESV).

At a recent funeral, when I thanked the Lord that He had called the departed one to “serve” Him more fully, one who heard me protested. She said, “I don’t want to be working. I’m tired of working.” Somehow, we imagine that in heaven we will sit around on clouds and have golden harps in our hands and we will be lazily singing. But the Word of God uses the word “serve” and one meaning of the word is no doubt “worship”, but it is more than a rite of worship or why use the loaded word “serve”, suggesting that we will be working for the Lord, except that we will not be tired by drudgery, but enabled for the task. The passage also says that the Lord will shepherd and guide us. And you thought that when you arrive in heaven, you would have arrived. But the passage suggests that we will be going on a journey. This time it won’t be one of trial and error like when we try to find places here in our cities. The Lord will be our guide and He is taking us on a journey of discovery. And the best part is that the hand that wipes our tears away, will wipe them away forever. Here on earth when loved ones comfort us and wipe our tears away, the tears will come again and again. But when the hand of the Lord wipes our tears away, it will be for the last time. There will be no more tears.

Indulge me. I’m not being crude. There was a time when I used to be worried about wearing underwear with any tiny holes because I thought that if I should die suddenly, whoever discovers my body would find me improperly clothed. A while back, I realised that it was ridiculous to worry about how I would appear in death. I would be gone. I wouldn’t be there at all. What did it matter what the shell (the tent) looked like.

Similarly, funerals and cemeteries are only way stations. They are not the final destination. Let’s not get bogged down fighting wars about them. Let’s remember that what is important is when our final rites proclaim, “Death is swallowed up by life. It isn’t death that has snatched our loved ones. God has snatched them from dying.”

GRACE TIMES August 2009

Grace Times

Vol. XII/11 Grace Bible Church, C 930, Sector B Mahanagar, Lucknow, India Aug 2009

August Pulpit Calendar

All services begin at 9.30 a.m.

02 HOLY COMMUNION SERVICE

09 Preacher: Rev J T Raja

16 Preacher: Pastor Kuru

23 Preacher: Pastor Kuru

30 12th Anniversary Celebration

Women’s prayer time

August: Wednesday 5th

From 10.00 a.m to 12 noon.

Fridays, Aug 14th & 28th at 7 p.m.

In the home of the Sarwans: E 16 Mahanagar Extension.

from the pastor

Dear People,

We complete 12 this year. But not Grace Bible Church as an entity separate from us. We are the church and we’re finishing 12.

WWJD? That’s “What Would Jesus Do?” The idea is based on Charles Sheldon’s novel In His Steps., the story of a church becoming serious about what Jesus would do today.

For a Christian, the essence of the devotional life consists of answering that question WWJD.

What did Jesus do when He When Jesus was 12? He stayed on at the Temple, and said that He had to be busy with His Father’s work (Lk.2:49).

We’re 12, about to become a teenager. But back then, 12 marked the end of childhood, time to

enter an apprenticeship in dad’s workshop. Yes. it’s time to get serious about the Father’s work.

This summer showed you that you can be a church without Kuru. In Malayalam, “kuru” (pronounced with a thin “r”) means “seed.” A seed’s job is over once a seedling feeds on the split seed to become a plant. My part is done. I’ve fed you God’s Word (seed in Matt.13:19).

God’s work needs all to pull their weight. You can’t leave it to the pastors, the board, Sunday School teachers, the study group...Grace Bible Church will be able to do only what you will do. If you won’t do what you say the church ought to do, it can’t be done. When God gives you an idea, clearly He has chosen you personally for the task.

In Christ’s love, Kuru

Suseela’s house arrest has ended and she is back in circulation after recovering from the fall she had in May.

Kusum had a fall while on holiday and fractured her foot.

Babita’s brother-in-law died after battling leukemia for years.

Nehem has continued to battle chest congestion. When he recovered Whitsy became unwell with congestion and fever.

Elsie Thomas (in Dehra Dun) was to undergo surgery to remove a fibroid, but we prayed that she won’t have to, and the doc has decided to give her medication to reduce the growth.

Pooja recovered from a bout of typhoid and is back at the institute in Hyderabad. Ravi Modwell came down with flu.

Cindy will have her baby in the first week of this month, Naomi mid-August and Shwetha in September.

Richie has gone to Poona, to prepare for international chartered accountancy exams in December. Riya waiting it out until she gets the right opening to pursue a master’s in counseling.

JUST DON’T ASK ME

I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,

Real service is what I desire.

I’ll sing You a solo any time, dear Lord,

Just don’t ask me to sing in the choir.

I’ll do what you want me to do, dear Lord,

I like to see things come to pass.

But don’t ask me to teach boys and girls,

O Lord, I’d rather just stay in my class.

I’ll do what you want me to do, dear Lord,

I yearn for Thy kingdom to thrive.

I’ll give you my nickels and dimes, dear Lord,

But please don’t ask me to tithe.

I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,

I’ll say what you want me to say;

I’m busy just now with myself, dear Lord,

I’ll help you some other day.

—Speaker’s Treasury of 400 Quotable Poems

FAMILY SERVICE – July 26, 2009

As usual the last Sunday was Family Service day. Instead of Indu and Jürgen Eisenberg, Johnson who teaches one of the classes in Sunday School gave the message after a time of singing led by the Eisenbergs.

Johnson works for a non-government organization that does water development in North India. But he also has an interest in teaching kids having been involved with Child Evangelism Fellowship for many years before coming to Lucknow from Bhopal. Johnson and Whitsy have a son Nehemiah who has just started school.

Johnson chose as the subject of his message the story of Rabi Maharaj, summarizing from his book Death of a Guru.

Rabi Maharaj is Trinidadian-born bestselling Indian author. He is descendant of a long line of Brahmin priests and gurus from the holy city of Varanasi (Banaras) in Uttar Pradesh, India. During his adult life, he converted to Christianity, and authored the book Death of a Guru. The book has been translated into over 60 languages.

Here is the story in Rabi Maharaj’s words

No matter how fulfilling life becomes, there are always certain regrets when one looks back. My deepest sense of loss involves my father. So much has happened since his death. I often wonder what it would be like to share it all with him, and what his reaction would be.

We never shared anything in our lives. Because of vows he had taken before I was born, not once did he ever speak to me or pay me the slightest heed. Just two words from him would have made me unspeakably happy. How I wanted to hear him say, "Rabi. Son." Just once. But he never did.

For eight long years he uttered not a word. The trance-like condition he had achieved is called in the East a state of higher consciousness and can be attained only through deep meditation.

"Why is Father that way?" I would ask my mother, still too young to understand. "He is someone very special -- the greatest man you could have for a father," she would reply. "He is seeking the true Self that lies within us all, the One Being, of which there is no other. And that's what you are too, Rabi."

Father had set an example, achieved wide acclaim, and earned the worship of many, and it was inevitable that upon his death his mantle would fall upon me. I had never imagined, however, that I would still be so young when this fateful day arrived.

When father died I felt I had lost everything. Though I had scarcely known him as my father, he had been my inspiration -- a god -- and now he was dead.

At his funeral, my father's stiff body was placed on a great npile of firewood. The thought of his body being sacrificed to Agni, the god of fire, added a new dimension of mystery to the bewilderment and deep sense of loss that already overwhelmed me.

As the flames engulfed him, it was impossible to suppress the anguish I felt. "Mommy!" I screamed. "Mommy!" If she heard me above the roar of sparks and fire, she made no indication. A true Hindu, she found strength to follow the teaching of Krishna: she would mourn neither the living nor the dead. Not once did she cry as the flames consumed my father.

After my father's funeral, I became a favorite subject for the palm-readers and astrologers who frequented our house. Our family would hardly make an important decision without consulting an astrologer, so it was vital that my future be confirmed in the same way. It was encouraging to learn that the lines on my palms and the planets and stars, according to those who interpreted them, all agreed I would become a great Hindu leader. I was obviously a chosen vessel, destined for early success in the search for union with Brahman (the One). The forces that had guided my father were now guiding me.

I was only eleven and already many people were bowing before me, laying gifts of money, cotton cloth, and other treasures at my feet and hanging garlands of flowers around my neck at religious ceremonies.

How I loved religious ceremonies -- especially private ones in our own home or those of others, where friends and relatives would crowd in. There I would be the center of attention, admired by all. I loved to move through the audience, sprinkling holy water on worshipers or marking foreheads with the sacred white sandalwood paste. I also loved how the worshipers, after the ceremony, bowed low before me to leave their offerings at my feet.

While vacationing at an Aunt's ranch, I had my first real encounter with Jesus. I was walking along enjoying nature one day and was startled by a rustling sound in the underbrush behind me. I turned quickly and, to my horror, saw a large snake coming directly toward me -- its beady eyes staring intently into mine. I felt paralyzed, wanting desperately to run but unable to move.

In that moment of frozen terror, out of the past came my mother's voice, repeating words I had long forgotten: "Rabi, if ever you're in real danger and nothing else seems to work, there's another god you can pray to. His name is Jesus."

"Jesus! Help me!" I tried to yell, but the desperate cry was choked and hardly audible.

To my astonishment, the snake turned around and quickly wriggled off into the underbrush. Breathless and still trembling, I was filled with wondering gratitude to this amazing god, Jesus. Why had my mother not taught me more about him?

During my third year in high school I experienced an increasingly deep inner conflict. My growing awareness of God as the Creator, separate and distinct from the universe He had made, contradicted the Hindu concept that god was everything, that the Creator and the Creation were one and the same. If there was only One Reality, then Brahman was evil as well as good, death as well as life, hatred as well as love. That made everything meaningless, life an absurdity. It was not easy to maintain both one's sanity and the view that good and evil, love and hate, life and death were One Reality.

One day a friend of my cousin Shanti, whose name was Molli, came by to visit. She asked me about whether I found Hinduism fulfilling. Trying to hide my emptiness, I lied and told her I was very happy and that my religion was the Truth. She listened patiently to my pompous and sometimes arrogant pronouncements. Without arguing, she exposed my emptiness gently with politely phrased questions.

She told me that Jesus had brought her close to God. She also said that God is a God of love and that He desires us to be close to Him. As appealing as this sounded to me, I stubbornly resisted, not willing to surrender my Hindu roots.

Still, I found myself asking, "What makes you so happy? You must have been doing a lot of meditation."

"I used to," Molli responded, "but not any more. Jesus has given me a peace and joy that I never knew before." Then she said, "Rabi, you don't seem very happy. Are you?"

I lowered my voice: "I'm not happy. I wish I had your joy." Was I saying this?

"My joy is because my sins are forgiven," said Molli. "Peace and joy come from Christ, through really knowing Him."

We continued talking for half a day, unaware of how the time had passed. I wanted her peace and joy, but I was absolutely resolved that I wasn't going to give up any part of my religion.

As she was leaving, she said: "Before you go to bed tonight, Rabi, please get on your knees and ask God to show you the Truth -- and I'll be praying for you." With a wave of her hand she was gone.

Pride demanded that I reject everything Molli had said, but I was too desperate to save face any longer. I fell to my knees, conscious that I was giving in to her request.

"God, the true God and Creator, please show me the truth!" Something inside me snapped. For the first time in my life, I felt I had really prayed and gotten through -- not to some impersonal Force, but to the true God who loves and cares. Too tired to think any longer, I crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Soon after, my cousin Krishna invited me to a Christian meeting. I again surprised myself by responding: "Why not?"

On our way there, Krishna and I were joined by Ramkair, a new acquaintance of his. "Do you know anything about this meeting?" I asked him, anxious to get some advance information.

"A little," he replied. "I became a Christian recently."

"Tell me," I said eagerly. "Did Jesus really change your life?" Ramkair smiled broadly. "He sure did! Everything is different."

"It's really true, Rab!" added Krishna enthusiastically. "I've become a Christian too -- just a few days ago."

The preacher's sermon was based on Psalm 23, and the words, "The Lord is my shepherd," made my heart leap. After expounding the Psalm, the preacher said: "Jesus wants to be your Shepherd. Have you heard His voice speaking to your heart? Why not open your heart to Him now? Don't wait until tomorrow -- that may be too late!" The preacher seemed to be speaking directly to me. I could delay no longer.

I quickly knelt in front of him. He smiled and asked if anyone else wanted to receive Jesus. No one stirred. Then he asked the Christians to come forward and pray with me. Several did, kneeling beside me. For years Hindus had bowed before me -- and now I was kneeling before a Christian.

Aloud I repeated after him a prayer inviting Jesus into my heart. When the preacher said, "Amen," he suggested I pray in my own words. Quietly, choking with emotion, I began: "Lord Jesus, I've never studied the Bible, but I've heard that you died for my sins at Calvary so I could be forgiven and reconciled to God. Please forgive me all my sins. Come into my heart!"

Before I finished, I knew that Jesus wasn't just another one of several million gods. He was the God for whom I had hungered. He Himself was the Creator. Yet, He loved me enough to become a man and die for my sins. With that realization, tons of darkness seemed to lift and a brilliant light flooded my soul.

After arriving home, Krishna and I found the entire family waiting up for us, apparently having heard what had happened. "I asked Jesus into my life tonight!" I exclaimed happily, as I looked from one to another of those startled faces. "It's glorious. I can't tell you how much he means to me already."

Some in my family seemed wounded and bewildered; others seemed happy for me. But before it was all over with, thirteen of us had ended up giving our hearts to Jesus! It was incredible.

The following day I walked resolutely into the prayer room with Krishna. Together we carried everything out into the yard: idols, Hindu scriptures, and religious paraphernalia. We wanted to rid ourselves of every tie with the past and with the powers of darkness that had blinded and enslaved us for so long.

When everything had been piled on the rubbish heap, we set it on fire and watched the flames consume our past. The tiny figures we once feared as gods were turning to ashes. We hugged one another and offered thanks to the Son of God who had died to set us free.

I found my thoughts going back to my father's cremation nearly eight years before. In contrast to our new found joy, that scene had aroused inconsolable grief. My father's body had been offered to the very same false gods who now lay in smoldering fragments before me. It seemed unbelievable that I should be participating with great joy in the utter destruction of that which represented all I had once believed in so fanatically.

In a sense this was my cremation ceremony -- the end of the person I had once been...the death of a guru. The old Rabi Maharaj had died in Christ. And out of that grave a new Rabi had risen in whom Christ was now living.

(If you are interested in a detailed account of Rabi's conversion, his book Death of a Guru is available on Amazon.com. Rabi is presently based in Southern California and is involved in evangelism all over the world. He invites you to write to: East/West Gospel Ministries, P.O. Box 2191, La Habra, CA 90632.)

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

THE BEST BUY

Message preached on Sunday, July 19, 2009

Food, clothing, shelter, employment—these are the essentials of life, aren’t they? But I want to add one more to this list of essentials: shopping. Without shopping you can’t get your food and clothing. You have to shop around for shelter and employment too.

Shopping wasn’t always the way people went about choosing what they would get to fulfil their needs. At the beginning there was the barter system. Men would sit around at a commonly designated place to exchange what they had produced in excess to get something else they hadn’t produced but needed. Maybe the guy with rice would approach the guy who had eggs and offer him 10 hands full of rice for 4 eggs. But the weaver with a bale of cloth was in trouble. No one was buying what he had because people wanted to get new clothes only for festive occasions. A number of people approached the guy with the goat. One said he wanted just a pound of meat, another said he needed three pounds. All the orders came only to about 6 pounds, but there were 60 on the hoof. The worst off was the guy who had nothing in front of him. When people asked him what he was selling he said that he could play 20 songs for anyone who needed a bit of music to be played for a special occasion. The people laughed at him and told him to go home and come back during the wedding season.

As time went on the barter system became exploitative. Those who had essential goods to barter began to take advantage of those whose goods were not that desperately needed. The man who had rice told the weaver that he would give him 20 hands full of rice for his entire bale of cloth. He told the man who had eggs that he would give him a handful of rice for each egg, and told the man who had the goat that he would let him have half a sack of rice for the live goat. It’s when that sort of thing happened that elders of societies began to develop a currency system. In primitive societies cattle were often used in the way we use currency. Imagine going to the market to buy some rice and oil, and taking a cow or two to give as payment for the items needed. In India and other parts of the world there was a time when cowries (porcelain-like shells) were used before currency was minted.

When the barter system ended, community sharing came to an end. It was replaced by selling. Markets and sales depend on exploiting needs and driving hard bargains. When anyone takes more than a fair price people describe is as “highway robbery.”When the highway robber wants to take your purse, he says, “your money or your life.” The challenge of the robber is one that makes us realize what truly matters when we strip our lives down to the bare essentials.

In your life what are the things you are buying? Or, to put it another way, what are you investing in? Never thought that your shopping would reveal your character, did you?

Our Lord talked about two men and their investments. The circumstances of their lives were the exact opposite. One was a poor man, a labourer, the other was rich, a merchant (Matt.13:44-46). The first man wasn’t searching for anything. He was just going about doing a hard day’s work. The other man was a shrewd man on the lookout for bargains and good buys. One found buried treasure; the other found the pearl of great price. Both men decided that what they had discovered was worth all that they had hoarded until then. When they succeeded in getting possession of what they had concluded was worth it all, their dull life of digging or searching was rendered ecstatic in one moment.

Our Lord Jesus said that we are to store up treasure in heaven. On earth stores can be robbed, or spoilt, or destroyed in some way (Matt.6:19-21). Since money can’t be dispatched to heaven, how did Jesus expect His followers to store up money and riches heaven, but let’s face it that all the storing up we Christians do is done on earth. We preach about storing up in heaven, but our aim and goal is to have valuables stored up for our present life and our retirement on earth.

The Apostle Paul, taking his cue from our Lord, said that we are not to run after what the world values, but instead make plans for increasing our riches in heaven:

…run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you…Teach those who are who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life 1 Tim.6:11-19, NLT).

Paul appears to have been the one to clarify how storing up in heaven takes place. He said that we are to be generous toward those in need. But that too came from our Lord, who said,

If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously (Matt.5:39-42).

Instead of hateful tit-for-tat, Jesus said that our tit-for-tat should be one of love. John the Baptist who was Christ’s herald told people that if they had more than what they needed, they were to give away the extra stuff:

Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it (Lk.3:11, GNB).

When the Early Church started up, one of the Spirit-inspired and Spirit-empowered phenomena that manifested the arrival of the Spirit was that there was a whole community of believers practising a life of sharing what they had:

All the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved (Acts 2:44-47, GNB).

Allow me to give you something to easily remember what we must value: 

• Hang loose where it concerns possessions.

  Hang on to what is of value—your faith in Christ.

  Hang out with those who love the Lord.