Punching Bag or Ambassador?

When you are at work, do you feel like a punching bag? Are you an employee your supervisor loves to hate?  

Have you asked God how he feels about this? Here’s the answer King David discovered: 

In my distress I called to the LORD;
   I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
   my cry came before him, into his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked,
   and the foundations of the mountains shook;
   they trembled because he was angry (Psa. 18: 6-7).

I don’t know about you, but I was surprised when I read this psalm and realized that the Lord cares that passionately about his children. 

So what are you asking the Lord to do for you? Immediately remove you from that situation? Miraculously change your employer’s attitude toward you? Take your boss out with a heart attack and bring in one who appreciates you?  

How about asking for . . . comfort? Before you say, “I need a whole lot more than that!” let me explain that comfort includes a whole lot more than we normally think.  

God’s comfort not only heals hurt feelings and damaged self-esteem, it strengthens. In fact, the second part of the word “comfort” comes from the Latin word “fortis,” which means strong. If you receive comfort from the Lord each time someone mistreats you, you will eventually become so strong on the inside that you will no longer feel humiliated when people harass you.  

If all you ask the Lord is to help you escape each difficult situation . . . well, there will always be another one. With the inner strength that Christ gives, you can be an overcomer in any situation. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom. 8:35, 36). 

And here’s another reason to let the Holy Spirit (the “Comforter”) make you strong—and it’s a very important reason. The Lord has called us to be his ambassadors to hurting, ugly people.  

. . . God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:19-20).

How are we going serve as ambassadors without going where messed-up people are, rubbing shoulders with them, and showing them God’s love? And here is how we show his love:  

Jesus said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:44-45). 

The apostle Paul said, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:13-15). 

The apostle Peter said, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Pet. 3:9).  

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Pet. 2:12). 

It’s a strategy that will take your “enemies” by surprise. It will open their hearts to learning about the God whose love—and strength—they see in you.

This little light of mine

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn (Isa. 60:1-3).

In the past, when I have read this passage, I have envisioned a time of especially great grace for the church, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit which will cause believers to be filled with the glory of the Lord. I still believe that. However, the political and economic circumstances have caused me to see this phenomenon in a new light. I am noticing that in the above prophecy, a glorious light rises on God’s people at a time when thick darkness envelopes the (rest of) the earth.

Could it be that one factor in this brightening of believers is that light appears much brighter in darkness? Automobile headlights which barely show up at high noon are practically blinding once night falls. And, in the dark, even a small light is visible from a distance. I am aware of this because of an object lesson I observed a number of years ago. Our pastor instructed the ushers to turn off all of the lights in the sanctuary. Then he lit a match. In the dark, that pinpoint of light flared up brightly—to the farthest row of pews. Even a small amount of light is conspicuous in the dark.

So what is it about a believer that shows up as light? This verse contains a clue:

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe (Phil. 2:14-15).

A cheerful, willing attitude in the midst of low morale. Honesty instead of corruption. Peace rather than anxiety. Helpfulness in place of self-centeredness. None of these spring up automatically in those of us who follow Christ. We become more and more like him by seeking and praying, by trusting and obeying.

It may seem that our small daily choices, our trust and our loyalty to the Lord are unseen, private matters. We may forget how different these attitudes are from those of people around us. But to those watching us, the bright contrast is unmistakable.

Then . . . let disaster strike. Let the moral climate spiral to all-time lows. How do simple displays of goodness appear then? They blaze up gloriously. Those who observe this distinctively godly behavior no longer simply say, “How commendable.” In their dark uncertainty and fear, they are irresistibly drawn to the brightness of this light. It stirs up hope. It challenges them to better things. They begin to crave the glory of God in their own lives.

In these unnerving times, following close to the Lord is much more than a matter of survival. It is a prime way for each of us to arise and shine. In the dark, even small amounts of light in us will brilliantly show forth the glory of the Lord. Let's be ready to introduce to the Lord those who come to the brightness of our rising.

Boxed in!

Righteousness exalts a nation . . . (Prov. 14:34).

Now we are on the other side of the 2008 presidential election. In view of the fact stated in the proverb above—that it is righteousness—not a president or a platform—that exalts a nation, I doubt that it could be God’s will for us to have a president who promises to oppose some of God’s key principles for society. Not unless he has a great surprise in store for us in the form of the conversion of Barack Obama. However, even before the election, the question in my heart was “How can God give us the godly leaders we’re asking for, knowing that then we will settle back for ANOTHER four years, thinking we’ve done our duty by our nation—not realizing that the slide into ungodliness cannot be contained by better government, but only by bringing lost and deceived souls into the Kingdom?” Could it be that we have put the Lord in a position in which allowing an Obama presidency is the lesser of two threats to the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the United States?

I am reminded of Abraham’s prayer for the sparing of Sodom and Gomorrah. God didn’t answer his spoken petition, but he granted the prayer of his heart; namely, “Lord, spare my nephew and his family.” Could it be that our real prayer—“Lord , restore our land to godliness”—could not be answered without blocking the easy way out, without plunging us into a situation which forces us to abandon complacency and denial, without allowing circumstances which guarantee that we will seek the Lord for radical solutions instead of quick, temporary political fixes?

The radical, most permanent, and far-reaching solution, I believe, will be to concentrate most of our efforts to shining the light of the gospel and the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ wherever we go. We can choose to stop condemning, criticizing, and blaming the ungodly. (After all, what are sinners able to do other than sin?) We can pray for them. We can demonstrate for them the peace and security that are in Christ. We can speak the truth to them boldly, but in love and in the hope that God will grant them understanding and repentance. As we lift Christ up in these ways, enough of the ungodly will be drawn to him that this nation will naturally elect righteous people to rule over us.

We are fortunate that when we were sinners, Christ had mercy on us and came seeking us. That has always been the way that the enemies of the gospel have been won over—by sacrificial, seeking love. Not by force, not by angry rhetoric, but by willingness to show them a better way.

For too long most of us Christians in America have ignored this mandate to seek and save the lost. I greatly fear for us and for our nation if we ignore it much longer. Could it be that God, in his mercy, is boxing us in to wake us up?