Dying Daily

 For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you. (1 Corinthians 15:31 NLT)

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria

Athanasius, one of our early church Fathers, said, “If we live as though dying daily, we won’t sin.”  His take on Paul's words was that if we understand the uncertainty of life, it will determine how we live.

If our immortality is always before us, it will cause us to make decisions based on an eternal and not temporal perspective.  When we sin by gratifying the flesh in forbidden ways, are we not choosing short-term gratification over submission to God’s laws?  Athanasius continues in his thinking by saying, “but daily expecting death, we will abandon wealth, forgive everyone for everything, and won’t harbor lust for women or any other foul pleasure.” 

As I set about to write this piece, I hesitated.  I thought an overemphasis on death may be a little morbid or severe.  Yet, when I pondered this, I wondered if the influence of the world on the modern-day church had blinded us to the mentality of our church fathers. Has easy-believism and hyper-grace distorted the theology held by the first-century church?  In this devotional, more than instruction, I have been thinking out loud.  Ponder the questions that I have posed and make up your own mind.

Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria and defender of the faith, finished by saying, “For the dread and danger of torment always destroys the ease of pleasure. It lifts up the soul that is likely to fall.”  I must admit that my conclusions about his thoughts are still in flux, but I am sure that anything that will help the modern church deal with sin, we desperately need.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Absalom Spirit

 Now Absalom was praised as the most handsome man in all Israel. He was flawless from head to foot. (2 Samuel 14:25 NLT)

 

Absalom was a handsome man, and humanly speaking appeared to be without a flaw.  Yet, people can portray on the outside what they are not on the inside.  The Absalom spirit promotes a false narrative.

The False Narrative (2 Samuel 15:1-6 NLT)

Absalom hired fifty footmen to appear impressive.  When people came to the city gate for judgment from the King, he told them that they had a strong case, and if he were the judge, they would get justice. He did not let them bow to him but embraced them.  Absalom led them to believe that he was just like them, and he was on their side.  Though he never outwardly stated it, but plainly implied that the King did not care for them as Absalom did.  The problem was that his intent was not to help the people but usurp the kingdom from his father, David. He did all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

If you create a false narrative you can manipulate any group of people, and that is just what Absalom was able to do.  If you tell people a lie long enough, they will start to believe it and begin to act accordingly. The only solution for the Absalom spirit is for the untruth to be eliminated.  This is why Absalom had to die.  If he had lived, the false narrative would have been perpetuated.  Joab, who killed Absalom, disobeyed an order of an overly indulgent father (2 Samuel 18:5), but in doing so did great service to the King and all Israel.

We can fight the Absalom spirit by countering a lie with the truth.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Servant and Friend

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15 NIV)

 

When we become a friend of Christ, are we no longer a servant?  Or, does friendship with Christ make us a more perfect servant?

Jesus calls his disciples friends, but they were still servants.  A quick reading of this could lead us to conclude that a servant and a friend are two separate categories.  Scripture must always be compared with other scripture before we can interpret it correctly.  If there was ever anyone who was a friend of Christ, it was the Apostle Paul.  Yet, at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul says, “Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ,” not a friend of Christ.  Adding friendship to service is determined by our motivation for serving.  Service to Christ should never be just legal or compulsory in nature.  We serve Christ because we want to, not because we have to, based on genuine affection.  It is possible to serve Christ and not be his friend, but it is not possible to be his friend without a desire to serve him.

Context is essential for understanding the meaning of any verse of scripture. The previous verse (14), Jesus tells them that his friends do what he tells them to do, and what is that?  To lay down their lives for their friends (13). Discipleship only happens through obedience, and without it, you will never be friends with God.  Friends confide with each other, and  God reserves his secret thoughts for his servant friends. It is not servant or friend, but servant and friend.

Are you and I friends with God?  Only the Lord knows that.  Friendship with God is like possessing humility, if you have it, you don’t recognize that you do.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Uriah, A Man of Integrity

Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents,^[a] and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.”

 (2 Samuel 11:11 NLT)

David and Bathsheba

Uriah was a man of integrity, yet I have never heard a sermon preached about him.  Our righteous acts on occasions seem to go unnoticed, but the best rewards are those of an eternal nature.

King David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.  David then had arranged to have Uriah killed in battle to cover up his sin (vs.14-16).  Before this, David devised a plot to bring Uriah back to his wife from the battlefield to mask the identity of the child that David had spawned (vs. 6-10).  Because the Ark and army of God were camped in the field, he refused to go home and sleep with his wife.  Uriah’s reward for his selfless act was that he lost his life.  We live in a fallen world, and often the innocent reaps the consequences of other peoples’ wrong choices.  If we read this story just from a human perspective, it can appear to be a tragic event.  But remember, God never misses one of our righteous acts, and he never, ever forgets. 

We must interpret the events of our lives from an eternal and not just a temporal viewpoint.  Doing righteous acts and receiving a blessing is a good thing.  Continuing to do good when you are only receiving bad is a great thing.  Someone once said, “do right because it is right to do right.”  Uriah was a man that did well, and I can just imagine the reception he received when he arrived in heaven.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

 

Are You Hiding Among the Baggage?

So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.”.  (1 Samuel 10:22 NLT)

Commentators have often said that this incident showed the early modesty or humility of Saul.  It is possible to start out on the right path and end up on the wrong one.  It is never right to allow our inadequacies to limit God’s sufficiency.

Israel had requested a King and Saul was chosen by the Prophet Samuel.  Samuel had anointed Saul and explained to him that he was appointed to be the leader of Israel by God (v. 1).  The signs of his calling were confirmed as he prophesied among the prophets (vs. 9-11).  There was no question about his calling, yet when it came time to be publically proclaimed as the King, he was hiding among the baggage. Why?

Samuel may give us some insight into the root of Saul’s problems.  In 1 Samuel 15:17, the Prophet says, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel?”  Though Saul was a giant of a man, he was small in his own eyes. Today we would call this a low self-image.  We all know that in ourselves we can do nothing. Yet, if we do not turn that coin over and say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), we will never become what God wants us to be.

You may not be what you think you are, but what you think, you are.  It is never humility to say you can’t when God says you can.  Are you hiding among the baggage?  If you are, then you are following King Saul in his destructive path to failure.

Image used with permission by Microsoft. 

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com