Things Revealed

This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy; if you're not helping, you're making things worse.

Matthew 12:30 (The Message)

On this issue, there are no shades of gray. We are either with Jesus or against him. Whether overturning tables in the temple, speaking to the woman at the well or warning that “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me” cannot be his disciple, the choice is always the same. Joshua put it this way: "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..."

We tend to forget how significant this choice is. And we can barely comprehend all the life-changing ramifications of choosing Christ. But Jesus knows every one of them, including this one: He knows that not everyone will embrace the choice you’ve made. In fact, many will hate it. And they will hate you for making it. Because for those who are perishing, for those who reject Christ, we are the scent of death. Even if you don't say a word about whom you have chosen, some will be repulsed by you. Somehow, they will know, and they will leave you wondering why they don't like you.

Peter explained it this way: “you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do — living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.” To your friends, your coworkers, even to members of your own family, you are no longer the same. Now, by the choice you've made, something about your life makes them uncomfortable. It's this: You have become the very presence of God in their lives—a living epistle—and the Holy Spirit in you brings conviction like a two edged sword, piercing their hearts and exposing the choices they have made.

We may think you we can work out our differences with those who continue to follow the ways of the world. That maybe, by compromising with them on some things, by keeping our faith to ourselves, by biting our tongue when we ought to speak out, our relationships won't change and our old friends won’t be offended. It would seem, however, that no such compromise is possible. Jesus so much as told us so with this parable:

Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

We are in a battle to the death. Everything is at stake. And it is the Prince of Peace who will have his way and who is dictating the terms of engagement. We are called to be holy as Christ is holy. We are called to be pure. And we are called to follow Christ wherever he leads, to surrender only to Him. Compromise with God's enemies—even with those who don't realize they oppose Him—compromises us. Jesus demands everything. Compromise means Jesus gets something less than everything, while the enemy gets something in us, something to leverage and use to separate us from God's loving embrace. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy our relationship with Christ. Jesus comes that we may have eternal life by being crucified with him.

Such is the cosmic battle for our hearts and souls, a paradox with eternal consequences: Our enemy wants us dead. So too does Jesus, only he wants us to willingly pick up our cross and lay down our old lives that we might find new life in Him. That is what it means to be on the side of Jesus, to be for Him.

Let the world think it strange that we no longer plunge into the same old flood of dissipation, let the abuse come and let us celebrate that we have been changed into His likeness enough to offend anyone!

Paul says we are the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved and the scent of death to those who are perishing.

Either way, we carry a fragrant offering to those around us.

If they don't know that it's Christ in us, the hope of glory, we owe it to them to say so.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho."

Joshua 2:1

Sound familiar? It was for Joshua. He had been there before. Last time, he was one of the men sent into the land by Moses. This time, he was the one doing the sending. This time, he was leader of all Israel.

We first hear about Joshua in Exodus when Moses told him, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." It’s a battle that clearly shows how God moves in the spirit and in the natural all at once. Moses, Aaron and Hur stood on the top of the hill while Joshua led the physical battle against the Amelikites. “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amelikites were winning.” It goes on to say that Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands till sunset, until Joshua overcame the Amelikites with the sword.

As the leaders of Israel warred in the spirit with uplifted arms, Joshua led on the battlefield to defeat the Amelikites here on earth. It was one of many lessons Joshua learned about spiritual warfare and the unstoppable power of God.

When Moses went up the Mountain of God to receive the Ten Commandments, it was Joshua alone who accompanied him (at least part of the way). When Moses met with God in the Tent of Meeting and then returned to the camp, his face radiant with God's glory, Joshua “did not leave the tent.” Instead, he basked in the afterglow of His presence, trusting that he too would be changed by just being where God had been.

It was by his zeal for God and his faithfulness that Joshua became the spiritual leader the Lord chose to complete the work Moses had begun. Joshua had been transformed by his encounters with God: He had witnessed God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt; experienced God’s victory over the Amelikites; and saw something others didn’t see when he was one of the twelve sent to explore the promised land: he saw the inheritance of his people and the invisible hand of God at work.

That’s often the way it is. Some people have eyes to see, some don’t. Some people see first, others follow. Some people never see, or worse, see and pretend they didn’t. The battle over spiritual truth—what God has actually said and revealed to us—has been raging since Adam and Eve set foot in the Garden. Jesus tells us, "he who is not with me is against me," and the Apostle Paul reminds us that this battle is not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

To be prepared for this struggle, we need to be able to see into the heavenly realms—to see by the spirit.

God puts people in our lives to teach us how to apprehend such things and how to grasp spiritual truths. We don’t automatically get it by being born again. But as we grow in the Word, as we desire to know God more, we begin to get revelation and we begin to see that which is unseen.

It was Joshua and Caleb who brought back the good report after they explored the land. They knew God showed it to them, not to scare them, but to excite them about this new beginning and the victory that he was about to hand them. The other ten, however, saw only inevitable defeat, and shared their view with all Israel. In spite of what they had seen when they were delivered from Egypt, their understanding of God had not been affected. They still only saw with natural eyes. They did not understand divine power. They did not comprehend the promises of God and that he would overcome all obstacles to fulfill them. And they refused to see with spiritual eyes, a choice for which they paid dearly. Only Joshua and Caleb were spared.

Forty years after trekking through the desert for the sins of his people, Joshua was right back where Moses had been when he sent the twelve to spy out the land. The moment was very familiar to him. But his experience with God and with Moses had taught Joshua to think like a man of God and to lead accordingly.

Forty years earlier, at God’s direction, Moses had sent twelve into the land. There was no need for a jury of twelve this time, because the verdict was still the same: the promised land is Israel’s. So only two were sent in to spy out the land. Two who were zealous for God—two a lot like Caleb and Joshua himself—who had spiritual eyes to see and reported back with total confidence, "The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."

Joshua did something else because of what he had learned through Moses: he sent the two “secretly” into the land. Why? Because after Moses sent out the twelve, he received their report in the presence of assembly. When all Israel heard how the ten were melting in fear, their faith evaporated and they rebelled against Moses and Aaron and what God was doing. Joshua had learned the hard way that not all men have the same level of faith or the same understanding of spiritual matters. This time, there would be no such rebellion. The two would report back to Joshua first so he could consider their words before sharing them with the assembly.

Joshua learned from his experience and from the men of God that had been placed in his life. He learned how to lead while being led by the spirit. By running after God, Joshua learned to walk in the spirit.

So must we, for we are also a spiritual people.

There are people all around us still waiting to be led into the promised land. The Holy Spirit is showing them to us. Many have been wandering the desert for a very long time. It’s time to lead them out of the wilderness. It’s time for us to be as "strong and courageous" as Joshua and to step out in faith. God will lead us and give us the words and the authority necessary to accomplish the challenge before us.

He always has.

And He always will.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:22-24

How can it be that “the whole of creation” which God spoke into existence and certified as "good,” groans—right up to the present time—as in the pains of childbirth? How can God’s perfect creation be so distressed? And what of us? Paul says we "who have the first fruits of the Spirit” are groaning inwardly right along with creation.

In truth, all of creation has been groaning for the Kingdom to come almost from the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were not exactly like us. At least not at first. For they were created innocent, neither of them having been birthed in sin as we were. But like us, both were given free will. They were also given the perfect opportunity to thrive in the most perfect place on earth—Eden—the place where God walked in the Garden with them, blessed them in every way and held forth the perfect plan for their lives. There was just one warning for the man (and through him for the woman): whatever you do, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” That was God's only law. But like any law, it placed a limit on what they could do. And like anyone with a free will, they could choose to obey or disobey it.

By the fourth chapter of Genesis, the fall of man was complete. Paradise was lost and sin and death entered the world. Mankind was now so far from innocent that his every inclination was to do evil all the time.

In his fallen state, man cannot get out of his own way. Sinful man still has free will, but there have been some drastic changes. Before the fall, he shared the Garden of Eden with the holy and righteous God of the Universe. Since the fall, he shares the earth with, “the god of this world,” Satan, who in his rebellion "was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."

Is it any wonder the world groans? Is it any wonder we groan? We live in a world contaminated by sin, populated by fallen men and fallen angels where evil flourishes and truth is nowhere to be found. As a result, the world disappoints. Our families and friends disappoint. And even the church can disappoint. Because none are without sin, and no one is immune from the pain of sin or its grip on their life. The Apostle Paul described it this way: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Like Paul, we all can say “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

But Paul also recognized he was no longer captive to sin, “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” We still struggle, but Jesus has made a way through the Holy Spirit. We still battle sin, but defeat is not inevitable. We may “groan inwardly” when we glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven and see just how fallen our world really is, but “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

Here in the world, where the fallen live among the fallen, we are nevertheless called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and to be a light in the darkness. We are the redeemed with feet of clay, new creations in the same old body, living in the same fallen neighborhood, battling many of the same old demons. If only believing in Christ and receiving his Holy Spirit would have changed us forever, our struggles with sin and temptation would have come to an abrupt and definitive end. If only. We are profoundly changed, but our fleshly nature refuses to submit or renounce its claim on our desires.

God could have permanently transformed us in all ways at the moment of our rebirth, but he did not. Because had he done so, had he changed our nature in that fundamental way, he would have taken something so important from us that our transformation and our love for God would have lost all meaning by the next day.

Free will.

We have become children of God and are now heirs of the King and friends of Jesus. But we must still make choices when we are tempted; when our faith wanes; when we are wounded, rebellious or just plain tired of persevering. Which is why scripture says "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." That's not quite as easy as it sounds.

Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Jesus uses the language of war because a battle for our souls rages all around us all the time, only “the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world.” Our battle is in the heavenly realms and in our minds, where the choices we make affect not only our own walk with God, but the lives of those who look to us as "Christ's ambassadors." As believers, we see action every day. It is as if every voice we hear, every argument we entertain and every choice we make is the front line of the war. We may be prepared by God’s word, strengthened by his love, armed with His holy spirit and equipped with the mind of Christ, but at the moment of decision it is our free will that determines what actions we take and whose side we choose.

We are constantly confronting the same choice as the first couple. As we battle our flesh, as we battle temptation and false teaching and vanity and the need for recognition, and as we successfully force our will to bend to His will, the Kingdom of Heaven forcefully advances, and forceful, imperfect but saved men and women, struggling sinners all—people like us—lay hold of it.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It is also near you, beckoning you home and holding forth the promise of God's ultimate redemption for his wondrous creation. Grasping this truth will energize you. It will lift your spirits and put hope in your heart for this troubled planet. There may be much that’s wrong in the world, but we’ve had a glimpse of the Kingdom to come and the unstoppable power of God's love to bring it to fruition. This fallen world we know is not the natural order our creator planned. Timothy Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, put it this way: "Jesus’s miracles were not so much violations of the natural order, but a restoration of the natural order. God did not create a world with blindness, leprosy, hunger, and death in it. Jesus’s miracles were signs that someday all these corruptions of this creation would be abolished.”

With every choice you make for God, every time you put others before yourself, pray for those around you, step out in faith and share your love for God with the broken hearted and the lost, you are serving as God's chosen vessel to restore the natural order in your corner of the Kingdom. And your obedience to God, even if it sometimes takes the full force of your will to obey Him, is a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is still advancing, that love never fails and that the corruptions of this creation are much closer to being abolished than any of us can ever know!

Now that is worth groaning about.

However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

How awesome is this revelation: Our great and mysterious God whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, whose power is without end and whose love is unequaled, has revealed to us what he has prepared for those who love him.

Right before the quoted text, the Apostle Paul says he is speaking “of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” And Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

It's hard to fully grasp the meaning of all this, but let's settle on this: Now we know.

We know at least this much: God has made a way for us to enter back into relationship with him. We know that he has never stopped loving us and that our sins are forgiven just for the asking. We know he wants to make himself personally known to us. We know he wants to dwell in us by his Holy Spirit. We know Jesus is the Messiah who was “pierced for our transgressions” and that “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” We know he gave his life for us. We know that there is a heaven we can enter and a hell from which we can be saved. We know we can be born again. We know we can receive eternal life. And we know that Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, revealing by his life, death and resurrection that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are one and the same.

We know this too: That God has a plan for those who love him. He has given us supernatural gifts, wisdom from heaven, an ability to understand spiritual things with a spiritual mind and a glimpse into things to come. He has set Jesus as an anchor for our souls in a world of constant change and increasing dissipation, and he enables us to stand firm in the midst of the storm.

No small matters, these things God has revealed. But they require something profound and simple from us: that we keep our eyes on spiritual truths, that we hear what God is saying and that we think about such things with the mind of Christ. Otherwise, what God has revealed to us won’t matter. For we run the same risk of falling that those in ancient times ran. Ezekiel said it this way:

Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

That’s why the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” It’s the one certain way to stay focused on the things revealed, rather than on the things concealed. The world focuses on the latter, insisting there is no truth while rebelling against all that is good, holy and righteous. But for those of us who fix our eyes on Jesus, we know God’s truth. Despite all the confusion, distortions and hostility around us, we can see it and hear it and know it because he has made it known by his Spirit.

Truth never changes. But our grasp of truth can if we don’t remain vigilant and steadfast. So be encouraged and encourage others. Not only do we know the truth, but we have chosen the way and the truth and the life—we have chosen Jesus. And he confirms his truth every time we look, every time we listen and every time we think about how he has transformed our lives.

Such good news should not remain our little secret. We're called to share it with everyone who has an ear to hear!

Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.

Acts 6:38

These were the words of Rabbi Gamaliel to the Sanhedrin after Peter and the apostles were arrested for preaching the word. The members of the Sanhedrin wanted to put them to death, but Gamaliel cautioned restraint: “consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.” Since Gamaliel was highly honored, they heeded his words. The apostles were flogged instead, and freed with a warning “not to speak in the name of Jesus.” As for heeding that warning, Acts says this about the apostles: “Day after day...they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

So much for derailing God’s plan.

Jesus said, "Many are called but few are chosen.” In fact, the call of Jesus is for the restoration of all mankind. Our response to that call is one of the rare instances in life when we actually choose ourselves. Sadly, few do, so few are chosen. But for those of us who raise our hands or hearts to the Lord, for those of us who exercise our right to become “children of God,” we receive "the Spirit of sonship" and become “heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ.” From that moment on we no longer walk alone or only in our own strength. And what we share with others—the good news that Jesus is the Christ—is more than mere words; it is the word of life infused with the power of God Almighty.

Gamaliel understood something we need to lay hold of. If what we do for God, or rather, what we think we are doing for God, is of human origin, it will fail. If we share the word to be noticed, to get recognition or to get credit from God, we will accomplish nothing. In the same way, if our motivation is to be seen as different or holy or somehow better than those around us, we will accomplish little that lasts. Worse, because our motivations are never as concealed as we think, we will likely harden the hearts of those who hear us because our words will be eclipsed by our motives. All they will see is more of the world.

But if we love God and are committed to pleasing him, we will share with others out of the overflow of our hearts. Whatever that leads us to say or do, no matter how inadequate we think our understanding or delivery, they will hear and see something supernatural. Something uniquely different. Something unstoppable. For as Gamaliel explained to the unbelieving Sanhedrin, “if it is from God, you will not be able to stop [them]; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

As for those who try to stop us, don’t take it to heart or make it personal. Their opposition is not our fight. That battle belongs to the Lord. Let them fight against God.

And isn’t that really the point? To draw them into a fight with God (who says “come now, let us reason together”), then trust that the Lord of Hosts will bring them to the point of surrender, death and new life in Christ Jesus. To the place where to lose is to win.

There’s no stopping God.

And there’s no stopping us if our purpose or activity is from him.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.

Luke 11:23

Keeping the faith is not always a stroll in the park. Even Jesus tells us that "the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." As believers we embrace God’s values. We try to view the world with Kingdom eyes. We accept that there are angels and demons, heaven and hell, and decisions to be made moment to moment that will either feed our flesh or fan the Spirit of God within. We are always confronted with what God has set before us: “life and death, blessings and curses.” God watches from his heavenly throne as we struggle and encourages us to “choose life” and press on.

Scripture says our walk with God is like a race. Paul tells us to “run in such a way as to get the prize.” The writer of Hebrews tells us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” So the saints who went before us cheer us on in our walk with God. The angels in heaven join in that chorus of encouragement. And the Lord himself implores us to choose life at every turn in the race.

Yet despite all the holy encouragement, there are times when we are just plain tired of running the race, times of fatigue, exhaustion and frustration. It’s in those moments of weakness that other voices can suddenly be heard more clearly above the cherubic cheerleaders. And they are not the voices of encouragement. They are worldly voices. Hostile voices. Voices of people whose lives are set on a different path and who look to “cut in on you and [keep] you from obeying the truth.”

Let’s embrace Paul’s analogy and accept that we are running a race. Now picture a single runner in a marathon. Thousands of people have turned out for the race. They line the streets, shouting, yelling and attempting to attract the runner’s attention. Only in this race, it is not encouragement that reverberates from the sidelines, it’s discouragement and disdain. As if knowing the runner’s inner struggle, the crowd shouts such things as “Why are you bothering with all this? Who cares if you finish the race? What’s the point? You call that a prize? Don’t you have a mind of your own? You can’t really believe God cares what you’re doing!” These and even more demoralizing words come at us with every heavy step we take, from every message our senses receive, because we are running one way and the world is heading in the exact opposite direction.

Everyone chooses sides. At times it feels like everyone has chosen the other side and that we who embrace Jesus walk alone in a world gone mad—a world that passionately and irrationally hates Jesus and his followers. But take comfort. It’s been like this from the beginning. When Israel rejected the Lord, demanding a flesh and blood King like all the other nations, God’s prophet Samual took it very personally. It was the Lord who comforted him with these words: “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” Jesus said almost the same thing to his followers: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

Yet as we run the race, struggling but undeterred even as the crowed heaps scorn on our motivations and beliefs and is almost giddy when we stumble, some in the crowd will wonder. Some will look on with curiosity. When the Ephesian craftsmen (idol makers) thought their business was in danger because idol worship was condemned by Paul and his followers, they caused a near riot. Two of Paul’s traveling companions were seized. But it says this about the mob that had gathered: “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.”

Most of the people watching us run the race don’t know why they are there either. But God does. Because it is from the ranks of the crowd, from among those who truly want to see us fail, that God calls forth his people, that God opens their eyes to see. And the unseeable God uses us to show those people the way. If we run the race that has been marked out for us, those who are called will follow.

As a disciple of Christ, we will never be able to please all the people all the time. “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” To those who hate God, we stink of death and are a reminder here on earth, right now, that all will be judged. When they look at us, they see the choice that they did not make. To those who are being saved, we smell of life and new beginnings. And we draw them after us simply by being faithful. That is what it is to gather with Jesus.

So keep running.

You never know who’s going to follow when they see you leading the way.

In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

1 Samuel 3:1

Although we live in unprecedented times of both turmoil and radically earth-changing technological advances, too often it seems that even in these days, the word of the Lord is rare. Danger lurks in every corner of the globe—from terrorism to swine flu to the economic collapse of the western world. Trying to understand the times while living among a people who embrace everything but Jesus, is no easy task. But we have been called and empowered to do just that.

In Samuel’s day, it wasn’t much different. Israel’s miraculous delivery from Egypt had receded into history. It had conquered and settled Canaan. And while its special role in God’s eyes had not changed, its view of itself and its commitment to God’s ways had. Now it wanted to be like other nations. Being led by an unseen God no longer satisfied; Israel wanted a King. A real flesh and blood king, not just the King of the Universe.

Once the Israelites were no longer satisfied with their special role as God’s chosen people, they were no longer vigilant to keep his ways or to remain holy and set apart as the Lord desired. With its eyes off God, Israel could only backslide. First in small things. Then in all things. It says that Eli was the priest in God’s temple and his sons, also priests, “were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord.” From the top down, Israel had fallen to the ways of the world.

Some things seem never to change. We live in times where having no regard for the Lord is thought not just preferable, but enlightened. There is an ongoing effort to sanitize American history so its Judeo-Christian roots are disparaged or denied. There’s an effort to recast the founding fathers as singularly secular men who did everything possible to eliminate the role of God in the fledgling nation they were creating.There’s even an effort to claim that America has always been a Muslim nation. And like in Samuel’s time, the fruit of these views is that the word of the Lord is rare, there are not many visions and we look to Kings (presidents) for hope, instead of to the God of hope who fills us with joy and peace as we trust in him.

It is only with an understanding of just how secular things had become that we can appreciate the diligence of Samuel’s mother. In a culture that no longer valued prayer, that no longer even recognized it (Eli thought Hannah was drunk), she pressed on because there’s always a faithful remnant (even today). It says “In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” She did it year after year at the temple, beseeching God for a child, promising that if he gave her a son, she would give him to the Lord. God granted her prayers, and she gave birth to a son. Hannah knew God heard her prayers so she named him “Samuel,” which means "heard of God." Fulfilling her promise, Hannah brought the boy to Eli in the temple and told him, “For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And Samuel lived with Eli in the temple. A boy dedicated to God by his faithful mother, raised by priests whose hearts had gone cold and who reveled in their positions instead of God’s promises. But God’s will for the faithful few cannot be thwarted by the unfaithful many no matter how important or powerful they appear to be.

When he was about 12 years old, Samuel was lying down in the temple near the Ark of God. The Lord called him. Samuel thought it was Eli so he ran to him and said, “Here I am.” But it wasn’t Eli calling. The Lord called him again and again Samuel ran to Eli saying “Here I am.” But it still wasn’t Eli, so the boy went back and lied down. It wasn’t that Samuel was dense or unreceptive or dimwitted. It was something more fundamental:

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7

How sad and pathetic. Living in the temple, sleeping near the Ark, being taken care of by the priests and the Levites, by Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. How did a people set apart for God foresake their special role, their special responsibilities and their special relationship with the Lord of the Universe?

How do we do it? We are God’s chosen vessels for these times. Yet many of us have foresaken our special role in God's Kingdom. Many of us have gone through dry and trying times. Times of no visions. Times of disappointment. Times that have so worn us down that we don’t hear what God is saying, can’t discern the times we live in and don't think our prayers are even heard. Samuel didn’t hear because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. So why don’t we hear? We have heard the word of the Lord; that’s why we are believers. But if we are not diligent to be in the word, we are as good as deaf and are heading for spiritual death. That's the problem: the spiritually dead and dying cannot hear or see clearly. Which is why we are commanded to choose life.

Even in a backslidden nation, in a nation that looks to shake off its destiny and its roots, God still speaks to the remnant that's listening. He says pray. He says I am with you. He says I hear the prayers of my people. He says persevere through the dry times, just as Hannah did. And he reminds us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

Samuel became a great prophet in Israel, anointing Saul the first King of Israel, then anointing David King when Saul’s throne was taken from him. But before Samuel could walk in God’s authority, something fundamental had to happen.

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shilo and there revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

1 Samuel 3: 20

It was the word of the Lord that transformed Samuel. John begins his Gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And later he tells us, “the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The Lord revealed himself to Samuel through his word. The Lord revealed himself to us through his word, through the word made flesh and through the Holy Spirit who quickens the word to our hearts. We too must dwell in the word. We too should be recognized as the people of God. We too should be attested as prophets among the lost, speaking with authority about Jesus’ return, about his redemption and about the increase in wickedness as love grows cold all around us.

Someone needs to speak these things.

Samuel didn’t recognize the call of God because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. It is our responsibility to reveal the word of the Lord that has been revealed to us, so that those around us can recognize God’s call on their lives. It is our responsibility to hear the word of the Lord ourselves, to read and reread the word of the Lord and to let the word of the Lord dwell richly in us so that we will be transformed and recognized as God’s very ambassadors.

And it is our responsibility in these ever-changing and chaotic times, to speak words of life and love and hope to a lost people who think that the best we can do is to get past the God stuff and get down to fixing the planet and ushering in world peace on our own.

And people think we’re foolish!

You want to hear the word of the Lord like Samuel did? Read it.

You want the word of the Lord revealed to those around you? Speak it.

Because this is how we've been charged:

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

2 Timothy 4:2-5

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it.”

Genesis 28:16

Life is full of peaks and valleys. There are times of trouble and tears and times of testing and triumph. But for better or worse, the uncertain road into the future rarely announces a curve in the road, a steep incline or a sudden drop off.

For believers, life is full of even higher peaks and lower valleys. Nothing is more profound or exciting than an encounter with the living God. There is no higher high. But when God is silent and we cannot discern his leading or presence, we become profoundly aware of his absence. Having known the riches of God’s presence, his silence can test the limits of our faith and endurance. We pray. We wait. We press in and keep doing the things we’re called to do. But in those quiet times—often very long times—it seems like we are completely on our own.

A day of feeling alone is bad enough. A few months of it is trying. A few years of it is life altering. Look at the people of Israel in Egypt. At Moses. At Joseph, Mary's husband. It’s in those long periods of waiting that God is most mysterious. And challenging. For it's during those very times that doubt and hope battle for supremacy in our hearts and minds.

Like all of us, Jacob was on a journey. Somewhere along the way he reached “a certain place.” He had a dream there. In it, he saw angels of God ascending and descending a stairway reaching from earth to heaven. Above it all stood the Lord, who said, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go...” When Jacob awoke, he thought “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Then, when the awesomeness of where he was struck him, he realized, “This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Wherever we’re heading, there is a certain place along the way where God is just waiting to reveal himself. None can know where or when he will do it, but we can proceed with the knowledge that he wants to demonstrate his power. In fact, God has said to all of us, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” almost the exact same thing he said to Jacob. Knowing God is with us means he is every place we are. It also means we live every moment at the edge of the miraculous—because God likes to move through our testimony, through our witness and through our willingness to step out in faith and prayer. That’s how the lost get saved, the sick get healed and the gates of heaven swing open to receive God’s prodigal children.

We are the gatekeepers in the house of the Lord.

God’s certain place may be in a restaurant with a waiter, your place in line with a cashier or on the phone with a wrong number. And, like Jacob, you are unaware what God has planned. When the gates of heaven swing open, you may be the one pushing on them.

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. What better time for him to move then when we are exhausted from the wait and from the battle for our hearts and minds. It’s not a question of being beaten, but of being surrendered.

God loves to bless the battle weary. It shows those entering the gate that it was he, not us, who made the way. And it reminds us that apart from him, we can do nothing.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:8-12

It is hard to wrap our minds around the magnitude of God’s grace and mercy. Because it's sometimes so hard to be like him. No matter how much we try, it seems that resentment and unforgiveness can dog us our whole lives. Whoever has wronged us, how ever long ago it happened, we seem built to remember. And even when we have gone through all the steps we know to do as believers, the wrong timing coupled with the wrong moment and the wrong thing said can bring on the wrong response. Some wounds just keep on giving and leave us confronting our own inability to completely forgive. The great irony is that even in the face of our own unforgiveness, we have an uncanny ability to forgive that sin in us. That part of being made in God’s image seems always to function on all cylinders!

But there is a cost to pay for our unforgiveness toward others. While we may forgive our inability to be free of the pain and judgment that comes with old offenses against us, too often we are just as unforgiving about old sins in our own lives.

While fasting in the desert, Jesus could not be distracted from his mission by the twisted words and promises of the enemy. But Satan quickly realized his timing was off and “left him until an opportune time.” That time came later in Jerusalem. The enemy is always waiting for an opportune time to take us down or make us ineffective. And the opportune time is inevitably when we are about to do something for the Lord, something for the lost, or something that advances the Kingdom of God. Until then, why would the enemy bother with us? But when he does, it’s no small matter, for “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

What better way is there to attack us than to use our weaknesses against us. As we step out in boldness, our enemy seeks to destroy us. And it’s almost always the same technique: He reminds us how inadequate we are. What we’ve done. What only we know about our past. How we believe we have been forgiven, but how unforgiving we are to others. And that being the case, how we must not be forgiven either. And if that’s true, how unqualified we are to do anything on God’s behalf because we are no different than the pagans and enemies of God.

Half truths, misquotes and the opportune time. Attempting to devour us right when God is ready to move through us. Could there be a better time for Satan to move against us? And could there be an easier way to do it? To remind us of old sins we have forgotten and to make us believe they are unresolved, even though Jesus was “pierced for our transgressions.”

God has already forgiven the repentant believer. He has already covered us in the righteousness of Jesus. He has already declared our sins white as snow. He has already said “It is finished.” And he has proclaimed that our sins are removed “as far as the east is from the west.”

We can't get any more forgiven than that.

We are free, because who the son sets free is "free indeed." The sin that enslaved us and the guilt and condemnation are gone. That’s God’s promise through the ages. It is the whip he has given us to tame the devouring lion. Our response to the enemy reminding us of our sin must be acknowledgement. Yet in the same breath, it must also be “but God has set me free.” Then, in recognition of his mercy toward us, we must again forgive those who have hurt us. The enemy may prowl around like a roaring lion, but we serve the Lion of Judah, the King of Kings, the compassionate and gracious God who is abounding in love and forgiveness.

Forgive yourselves! God has. And put the matter to rest. “The past cannot be redeemed. What has been and what might have been both bring us to what is." (Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz). You are here now. Your past cannot be redeemed. It’s over. But you have been redeemed. And you have been forgiven for whatever you’ve done in your past. And more than that, God will use your past to mold you into the vessel of his desire. So close the book on it and don’t let the enemy read you the story of your sin to sabotage the call on your life. Those transgressions are history, but your life in God is his story in you, and it is without sin.

You are qualified. You are forgiven. And you are without excuse. He has put the call of God in your heart. Do you really want to take issue with his judgment? He loves you. And he’s proud of you. Now accept that truth humbly as you step out boldly to fulfill what he has set before you.

Or would you rather forgo God’s assignment for your life and give the benefit of your doubts to the enemy of all that’s good, holy and righteous.

That is not God’s plan.

Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

Isaiah 59:15

Although Isaiah was talking about ancient Israel, what he said could apply to America today. In fact, it could apply to most western nations. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life,” but his place in our culture has been challenged for the past 50 years, and public references to him are the exception rather than the rule. Our culture's twisted view seems to be that if Jesus is the way, he's the wrong way. Oddly, one of the remaining places where limited references to God are acceptable is the courtroom. Witnesses still must swear to tell the truth while laying hands on the Bible. Yet if a potential witness was asked if he really believed what the Bible said—if he believed in angels and demons, heaven and hell, gifts of the spirit, in healing and speaking in tongues—his credibility would be in shambles before he uttered a single word under oath.

Because in these days, Truth is no where to be found.

In Moses' time, the Lord moved in profound sea-parting and earth-shaking ways. There were plagues. There were signs and wonders. There was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God’s fingerprints were everywhere and it didn’t require great discernment or wisdom to see what he was doing. Yet even in those miraculous times, the people of Israel grumbled and complained and fell into sin as soon as Moses took a little too long to return from the Mountain of God. The Lord saw the gold calf they had created while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments and told him, your people have become “corrupt.”

Becoming corrupt about the things of God is man’s natural tendency. In science, it’s called “entropy”—the process of degradation or trending toward disorder. In man, it’s called sin. And the environment in which sin flourishes is one where man and the culture in which he lives forget about God.

So God told Moses to teach the Israelites about God’s laws and decrees and to “be careful to obey” them. But it was more than a warning. It was an exhortation to remember:

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6: 1-12

Moses finished by admonishing God’s people to “be careful that you do not forget the Lord.” But in spite of the warning, they forgot anyway. Again and again, bringing God’s wrath and discipline upon them, causing them to be dragged into captivity and to live, to this very day, in constant struggle in the land God gave them, rather than in the peace he promised (a promise which will yet be fulfilled).

Are we living in peace? Are we remembering Jesus and being careful not to forget the Lord? Is our culture honoring him in any way? or are we squirming uncomfortably to avoid any quote, parable or reference to him out of fear of offending or being politically incorrect? Think about it: we live in times fraught with danger on every front: Nuclear weapons are being developed by outlaw nations. Pornography, always just a click away, is one of the biggest businesses on the planet, supported by the slave trade of women and children. Terrorism is a global problem that strikes locally and randomly. The world economy teeters on the brink of collapse. There’s supposed global warming, cooling relations with Russia and the disaster du jour on the front page of any newspaper you see. And we are busy trying to forget God, and worse ,trying to prohibit references to him in public and by people in government.

The Apostle Peter knew how important it was to remember God. He called on believers to “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world” or they would become "ineffective and unproductive" in their knowledge of God. In fact, he says such people are nearsighted and blind, “having forgotten" that they have been cleansed from their past sins and having forgotten that "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

He then says “I will always remind you of these things” and that “it’s right to refresh your memory” and that “I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.” Not satisfied that his point had been made, Peter begins chapter 3 of 2 Peter by saying this: “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as a reminder to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” Why? Because the world is constantly reminding and overstimulating us about the pleasures of corrupt thinking and living, enticing us to go the way of the world and embrace sin wholeheartedly. Peter, however, wants us to be on our guard so that we “may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from [our] secure position.” 2 Peter 3:17

We live in a time of lawlessness, of false teachings without end, of moral relativism and the embracing of all sorts of sin under the rationalization of tolerance, and in a time when man’s systems and creations are being shaken to their foundations. The people of Israel did not remember God less than 40 days after he parted the Red Sea and delivered them from Egypt. How in this world of more subtle moves of God can we remember him?

By making our “calling and election sure.”

We need to know who we are. We need to constantly remember that we have been empowered by God. Chosen by him. We need to know we are God’s heirs. That we are his children. Individually called. That we have repented and have been redeemed. That we are transformed, renewed, born again, spirit filled, and are overcomers who are able to take a stand for God. That we are different than the world, aliens, pilgrims and sojourners whose home is in heaven and who have received the promise of salvation and eternal life. That we are Ambassadors of Christ, salt and light in a land of darkness, a land corrupted by the ruler of the kingdom of the air. And we need to remember it by being in the word, by talking about God with our children, by talking about him when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. By encouraging and reminding ourselves and by encouraging and reminding each other daily about who God is and what he has done.

If we don’t remember daily, moment by moment, making our election sure and being effective and productive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are destined to fall. There’s a tidal wave of temptation, sin, fear and false teaching trying to sweep us up in its destructive power, and resisting its force is exhausting and futile, unless we stand in the power of our God. We cannot do that unless we remember what Jesus Christ has done in us and the power he has made available to us by the Spirit of truth. Paul exhorted us this way:

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:12-18

Only those who truly know God know that he hears their prayers. Only those dwell in God's word can remember daily that he is with them. Only believers who are armed (in the spirit) and dangerous (wielding the sword of the spirit) can withstand the pounding surf of dissipation that wants to drown us in sin. And only those who constantly remember what Jesus has done, can do and is doing, will stand firm. There just is no other way to persevere.

Because “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?'

Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:35-40

Not only do all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments, so too does the true nature of our relationship with God. Once we grasp the magnitude of what Jesus did on the cross, we begin to appreciate who he is. The more we understand, the more we respond. And the more we pursue God, the more likely we are to love him. But it is not enough to simply profess our love for Jesus, however wonderful that may be, because the idea of loving Jesus is both alluring and deceiving.

It’s easy to proclaim love for God, to read and attend meetings in pursuit of the object of our affections and to be genuinely enamored with the Him. And who would dare to question the depth of our relationship with the Almighty, for who really knows it? Certainly a changed life can be proof of a changed heart. But not always. Sometimes the outward changes are just that, the first and last fruits of our encounter with the Eternal One. Which is why John identifies a more reliable standard by which to measure a life transformed by God:

If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:20-21

To this he adds the following: "This is love for God: To obey his commands." 1 John 5:3. And this: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18.

Professing love for God is the easy part. The true measure of your love for him comes down to obedience and to this: If you do not love your brother, you cannot love God.

But we do love you Lord, we protest. Can't you see how our hearts are toward you? Yet his command to love the brethren exposes our own unwillingness to yield and reveals a heart steeped in worldly ways. After all, there are so many people who have done us wrong. Unthinking people. Selfish people. Dishonest people. Manipulative and unfaithful people. And not just people we read about. But people we know! People with names and with common history. People who were once part of our lives. Surely there’s room for us to claim an exemption from the requirement of loving those people, or at least room for us to merely tolerate them from a distance. The Lord must know our feelings are justified—he's seen what they've done. Yet Jesus, who suffered fools and evil men, who hated their arrogance, rebelliousness and religion, loves them still and said even of those who nailed him to the cross, “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

There's no getting around it. God loves the brethren. So too must we.

Brotherly love is one thing. But loving your brothers—real people in your life who push only your blood pressure heavenward—is the measure of your love for God and your willingness to obey his commands. Because loving someone is way harder than loving everyone.

Dean Koontz describes the difference in Odd Hours:

To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous self-delusion. Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed from the struggles and the duties that come with loving people as individuals...

Loving actual people is a never-ending struggle. It is the place where flesh bows to Spirit. Where anger and resentment yield to obedience. Where we choose to love and forgive rather than respond in kind. That’s what loving with actions and in truth is about.

Love with actions is an effort. To love those who hurt us is incredibly difficult. To forgive those who persecute and defame us doesn’t seem fair. To hold one’s tongue when there’s so much to say and defend and set right feels like injustice. And to love those who mock and hate Jesus is painful. Nevertheless, lovers of God are called to love them anyway—to love them supernaturally. Because supernatural love is the lifeblood of the Body of Christ. We are told that “God is love.” And on this side of Heaven, we who are transformed by the Spirit of God must translate that love into action. Such love takes care of the poor and the widows. It encourages both the lowly and those in high position. It is selfless. It is forgiving. It seeks no recognition. No reward. And most of all, it seeks no vengeance or retribution. Instead, it grows and multiplies through obedience to God and through the struggle to love those who hate or hurt us.

Love with actions and in truth is a spectacle to behold. Praying for those who see us as enemies, forgiving them, releasing them—not to God’s judgment or Satan’s plans—but from the icy grip of our own heart’s bitterness toward them, is a supernatural act without equal.

Don’t underestimate how profoundly freeing and life changing supernatural love is. And don’t be surprised when what you do in obedience to God’s commands gets more attention and has more impact than the words of love you share with those around you. Love with actions and in truth does that. For many, it’s the only evidence they can see that the transforming power of Jesus Christ is more than mere words and wishful thinking.

It's proof that the Kingdom of God is real.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

Mark 11:15-18

The whole crowd was amazed at Jesus’ teaching because it shattered their understanding. In a moment, what they had known and seen and done was revealed as wrong. Maybe even ridiculous. Until Jesus shook their reality with his display of righteous anger, the crowd had accepted the practices that he found so offensive. They had been brought up in a system and culture that had been captured by the world for so long, they weren’t even aware of the great divide between the Kingdom of God and the way of the world. Worse, for them, the two had become virtually one and the same.

Things are not much different today.

There is nothing inherently wrong with trade and business. Commerce makes the world go round, whether in cyberspace or Samaria. But there are things that are holy and things that are not, and the Lord has ordained that the holy things not be treated with irreverence or contempt.

Look at Belshazzar, the Babylonian King. He held a great banquet for all his friends and decided to break out the good China. Only the good China was the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. It was while they drank from the sacred cups and celebrated their good fortune that “fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall.” Daniel was called to explain these things and told the King that by praising gold and silver instead of the God of all things, he set himself up against the Lord of heaven. By treating as common that which was holy, Belshazzar sealed his fate. Daniel then translated the writing on the wall and told the king that he had been weighed in the balance, had been found wanting and that his days were now numbered. Severely numbered, as it turned out. He was slain that night.

Most of us are confident that we would never set ourselves up against the Lord of heaven. At least not knowingly. But something very similar happens all the time. The market place that’s out there has a way of creeping into the temple, into the church and into our own understanding of scripture and of what is or is not acceptable. In our culture, almost everything is acceptable. In fact, tolerance is the god of our times and one of the reasons Christians are so reviled. By taking a biblical stand on almost any issue, we are seen as intolerant and closed minded—heretics of the new world order.

Yet that same tolerance for just about anything infects our own thinking. We’ve all seen how easy (and seemingly reasonable) it is to use proven marketing strategies to grow churches, sell books and worship music, evangelize and advertise. But it's like a Trojan horse. Once we accept the world's way of doing business and apply it to Kingdom matters, lots of other ideas, paradigms and philosophies enter in and become just as acceptable. Just as tolerable. As a result, growth and influence often trump love and intimacy. In the end, believers and unbelievers can become a kind of funhouse mirror image of each other, the one worshipping tolerance but having none for people of faith, the other worshipping the God of love but having none for the lost or even for each other.

Like those who ran the temple of old, we rob the lost of opportunities to hear the gospel when we judge them unreceptive or beyond hope; and when we withhold love out of frustration with their stand against what we value, we rob them of the power of the gospel. If we don’t guard our hearts, we can end up like Belshazzar, setting ourselves up against the Lord’s call to the lost and celebrating our works instead of his worthiness. Or we can end up like the money changers in the temple, exchanging God’s currency for man’s. Love for power. Godliness for worldliness. Then, as now, it’s the righteous anger of the Lord that shows us how much we have unknowingly embraced the world’s way of doing things.

Realizing how worldly we’ve become and just how broke we are in God's economy can elicit two diametrically opposed responses. The chief priests and the teachers of the law had one: they wanted to kill the messenger. Many still want to kill the messenger. The Psalmist has the other; he wants to kill the worldly ways within him:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

How we respond depends on our hearts since "no one can serve two masters."

Either way, search me is a killer invitation.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

Peter had just healed a well known man crippled from birth, telling him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." When the man arose on his newly restored legs, not only was he shocked and ecstatic, jumping and walking and praising God, but the people who knew of him were equally amazed (well, maybe not equally amazed, but amazed nonetheless). Everyone was caught up in what happened, and there was a great commotion. Peter seized the moment: he reminded his fellow Hebrews that they had disowned “the Holy and Righteous One,” had rejected him as Messiah and had been party to his death on the cross, only to see God raise him from the dead. And he told them “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.” Basically, Peter told them, it wasn’t me—it was Jesus. And he called on his people to repent and acknowledge that Jesus was Messiah.

The Book of Acts reports that 5000 men became believers that day.

Now this was troublesome to the rulers, elders and teachers of the law. Jesus had already been crucified, and now—after his death—thousands decided he was the Messiah. These same rulers, elders and teachers had already rejected that claim. They had already discounted his miracles. And they had treated his teachings as blasphemy. But the people were not so sure, and apparently, not so hard hearted. In fact, Peter said they all acted out of ignorance and his message hit home with 5000 of them.

Nothing Jesus had done astonished the rulers, elders and teachers of the law because they were not open to see with the eyes of the spirit. What he had done provoked them. It infuriated them. And it challenged their authority. Now, however, what really astonished these same men wasn't that the crippled man had been healed—that was just an inconvenient fact—but something that hit closer to home. It was the boldness of Peter and John and that they were “unschooled, ordinary men.” Why? Because men without title, men who had not been trained in the proper religious schools, men of no importance, fame or reputation, men who did not have a birthright claim to be part of the priesthood, men who were not rabbis or part of the ruling council, men who did not pay their dues and advance by proper channels—such men simply did not go about preaching with authority to the people, or even more outrageously, to the Chief Priest and the Sanhedrin.

This was just not how things were done. There was an established order and Peter and John were out of order.

But Jesus had changed the way things were done. And when those 5000 came to Christ, something became apparent to those paying attention. Jesus had not only overturned the tables in the temple courts, he overturned the existing order of things. He made us all priests (not just the Levites), he proclaimed that he would destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, he made us the temple of the Holy Spirit and he became our Sabbath rest. He commissioned tax collectors, fishermen and tent makers to preach the Gospel. He sent out the twelve Apostles on his behalf, and 72 others who were nameless, positionless, without fame and without title, all of whom returned proclaiming “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He broke down the religious barriers and commissioned ALL OF US to act and speak on his behalf.

For the leaders of Israel, they had already made a decision, like many of our family members and friends, and they were not ready to reconsider it: they had already rejected Jesus. For them the miracles weren’t important. The message wasn’t important. That Jesus was crucified wasn’t important. But something still got their attention. It was that ordinary, uneducated men spoke boldly to the crowd and had the courage to take a stand before the Sanhedrin. Since the leaders had already rejected Jesus, all they could do was “note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Maybe that’s the first witness we have. People notice us. That’s what it means to be salt and light. They should note that there’s something different about us. Something special. Something that sets us apart—something supernatural. Which is why, like Peter and John, we must spend time with Jesus.

We are called to learn the word of God. To pray about all things. To worship. To fellowship with one another. To lay hands on the sick. To speak about Jesus. To proclaim his Lordship. To "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” To be transformed.

We are ordinary and uneducated people, changed by the Spirit of God. That's what the Lord has ordained through Jesus Christ. A new order! Not only have we been given Kingdom authority, but we have been given boldness in God. We are priests called to proclaim the Gospel, to heal the sick in the name of Jesus and to lead others to repentance and salvation. With all that has been given to us, something ought to be different! And it ought to be obvious to those around us.

Our friends and family should note that we have been with Jesus. That’s the first step for them. To see something new. Something other than what they see in everyone else. For us, being with Jesus—abiding in him—is the only thing that will ever set us apart and make us noteworthy. And it is often the very thing that will lead our friends and families to Christ.