Prayer: An Alternative to Obedience?

By David Ryser

Recently I received an e-mail in response to one of my articles on how we need to love Jesus more.  In the e-mail was a suggestion that I compose a prayer of deliverance for the Body of Christ.  The goal of the prayer would be that the people of God would love Him.  This is an intriguing request.

But I don’t know how to respond to it.

Many years ago, I was talking with a young man in our church.  He and his wife were having problems in their marriage.  He said that he didn’t love his wife anymore.  He asked me to pray with him.  He wanted me to pray that he would love his wife.

What?

I didn’t know how to react to his request at first.  Certainly prayer is a good thing.  The Bible is in favor of prayer.  So am I.  We all would do well to pray more.  But I found myself disinclined to honor his request.

My response surprised him.  “I’m not going to pray for that.  I don’t think this is a matter for prayer.”  He began to blink like a toad in a hailstorm.  Obviously, he was confused.  I continued, “The Bible commands us to love our wives.  I don’t think this is something we can, or should, pray about.  We just need to obey God.”

“Do you want me to pray for you to obey God?”

Prayer is a wonderful thing.  What a delight to come into the presence of our loving heavenly Father and spend time just hanging out with Him.  These times can become quite intimate and are a source of fellowship, comfort, and revelation.  When we are in trouble or in need, we can come to God and ask for His provision and deliverance.  Answered prayer in a time of crisis is a blessing from God that we’ve all experienced.

But prayer is not a substitute for obedience.

Joshua is a biblical example of someone who was rebuked for praying when obedience was the issue.  In Joshua 7:6-9, he is on his face in prayer because Israel had been defeated at Ai.  God appears on the scene, rebukes Joshua, and commands him to get up (Joshua 7:10).  The cause of Israel’s defeat was disobedience (Joshua 7:1, 11, 12).

No amount of prayer will compensate for disobedience.

Many times we are too quick to minister prayer to people who ask for it.  The Bible forbids this (1 Timothy 5:22).  This may be one cause for ineffective prayer.  Ineffective prayer can be worse than no prayer at all.  Ineffective prayer places an additional obstacle in the way of someone who needs something from God.  Now they not only have to approach God in faith, they also must overcome having a prayer fail.

We need to be discerning when ministering prayer to people.  It is not unspiritual to ask questions.

Prayer is not called for when we know the will of God.  If the scriptures command us to do something, we should do it.  If the scriptures command us not to do something, we should not do it (or stop doing it!).  When God speaks to us, we simply need to obey.  It may be hard for us to obey, but it is simple to obey.

Simple should never be confused with easy.

So here I am in a quandary because I’ve been asked to compose a prayer that the people of God would love Him.  I find myself unwilling to do so.  We are commanded/instructed to love Him.  We are called to be the Bride of Christ.  We don’t need prayer…we need to obey.

Besides, I no longer know how to pray.

I didn’t have this problem a few years ago.  I had been trained to pray for all kinds of things.  I had a prayer formula to meet every circumstance and occasion.  I could pray, intercede, and rebuke. (“Rebuke until you puke!”  That was my motto.)  Whatever was needed.

Then I met Jesus…really met Him.

Ever since I discovered Who, I no longer know how.  I don’t know how to pray.  I don’t know how to do anything.  I assume nothing when I meet someone who needs ministry.  I have taken to heart the words that God spoke to my friend Kevin.  He told Kevin, “You are like a doctor who prescribes the same medication for every disease.”

We would do well to heed these words.

So I’m going to respectfully decline the suggestion to compose a prayer for the people of God to love Him.  The person who asked me to do this did so from a sincere heart.  But loving God is not a matter of prayer.  It is a matter of obedience.

But if I did….

If I did compose such a prayer, it would go something like this:  “Daddy, I’m so sorry I don’t love you like I should.  You are so awesome.  You pour out your love on me every day.  In return, I’ve given you ingratitude, indifference, and disrespect.  Please forgive me.  How about I climb up on your lap and let you hold me until it’s all ok again?  Thanks.”

I know…it’s not much of a prayer.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Do You Want to be a Chosen Vessel?: Are You Sure?

By David Ryser

Sometimes when you're in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been replanted. (Christine Caine)

Have you ever heard of someone being referred to as a crackpot?  Did you wonder where that term came from?

In Jesus’ time, pots and other vessels were made by hand.  The potter would fashion the pot on a potter’s wheel.  Moist clay would be molded into the shape desired by the potter.  Then the molded vessel would be placed in an oven where the heat would dry and harden it.  When the firing process was complete, the vessel would be removed from the oven and allowed to cool.

Then the vessel would be inspected.

All vessels looked good on the wheel.  Flaws in the vessel were invisible until it was subjected to the fire.  Flawed vessels would crack under the intense heat of the kiln.  Some pots were cracked so badly that they were ruined.  They were unusable.

The fire did not create the flaws.  The fire revealed the flaws.

Some vessels were cracked in the firing, but the cracks were small.  The potter would apply wax to the cracks and seal them.  These pots would then be decorated and displayed in the shop for sale.  They were good for most household uses, but not for holding hot liquid.  If hot liquid was put into these pots, the wax would melt and the vessel would leak.

The vessel was useful.  But its use was limited.

When someone came into a pottery shop, they would browse until they found a pot they might want to buy.  They would select a vessel and then take it out of the dark pottery shop to inspect it.  They would hold it up to the light of the sun.  If the pot had a crack that had been filled with wax, the light from the sun would shine through the wax in the crack.

Our English phrase “shine the light of day on…” might come from this practice.

A cracked pot would be valued according to the number and size of the cracks.  If the buyer intended to place hot liquid in the vessel, it would be rejected.  If the pot would be used for common household purposes, the buyer might purchase this pot…but at a reduced rate.

The light did not cause the cracks.  The light revealed the cracks…and the wax patch.

Other pots had come out of the firing oven without flaws and cracks.  The potter would inspect them.  Finding them to be without flaws and cracks, he would decorate them.  Then he would place them in his shop for sale.

But he would not display them.

These were chosen vessels.  They had come through the fire without defect.  They could be used for any purpose.  They would even hold hot liquid without leaking.  The potter would take these pots to the back room of his shop and place them on a shelf.  Then he would cover them.

And there they would remain.

These chosen vessels would stay under cover on the shelf until the right person came into the shop.  This person might want a pot that would hold hot liquid.  Or this person might need a beautiful, flawless pot to decorate a home.

When this customer came into the shop, the potter would say, “I have just the pot for you!”  Then he would go into the back of his shop, select one of his chosen vessels, and present it to the customer.  The sale would be transacted.  The pot would be taken from the shop and be used for its intended purpose.

Until then, it would sit in the dark…on the shelf…under cover.  Waiting.

In Acts 9:15, Paul was called a chosen vessel.  He had been molded by God for a special purpose.  Upon his becoming a Christian, he attempted to begin his work of preaching the gospel (Acts 9:20, 29a).  But plots to kill him (Acts 9:23-25, 29b) cut short his preaching career.  For his own safety, Paul was sent to his hometown of Tarsus (Acts 9:30).

And there he sat on the shelf…under cover…for somewhere between 3 and 14 years.

Sitting on the shelf with the call of God burning in your heart is hard.  Every time the cover is lifted off of the pots, you cry out, “Pick me!”  When another vessel is chosen and the cover is replaced, it hurts.  And it’s even worse when a pot that has been on the shelf for less time than you is chosen.

There is no such thing as seniority in the Kingdom of God.

And the whole time you are sitting on the shelf, God is working on your character.  All He seems to want to talk about is what He wants you to be.  You want to talk about what you will do…and when you will do it.

You could try complaining….

I was whining to God one day about not having a purpose in His Kingdom.  He said, “I thought you said I was everything to you.”  I protested, “You are everything, Lord!  I love You more than life!”  He asked, “Then do you have the right to complain about not having something that isn’t Me?”

That shut me up.  For awhile.

Later I was complaining about having to sit on the shelf for so long.  He asked, “Would you rather sit on My shelf or be on display in the religious brothel?”

He does have a way with words.

But one day He will come for you…or not.  If you had to choose between being what you were created to be or doing what you were created to do, which would you choose?

“Do I have to choose?”

I don’t know.  Maybe.  I did.  You may not have to.  But don’t bet on it.

We want to be chosen vessels, but we don’t want to go through the process necessary to become one.  I understand.  It’s not much fun.  But if we love God and trust Him, we really don’t have a choice.

Then, one day….

Barnabas needed help.  The church in Antioch was growing.  He needed someone to assist him.  But it couldn’t be just anyone.  Antioch was a unique situation that demanded a special person.  Barnabas remembered Paul and went to Tarsus to find him (Acts 11:19-26).  He found him and brought him back to Antioch.

And Paul’s ministry was born.

Are you on the shelf?  You might try giving thanks to God and submitting to His training.  Anyone can be on display.

You are a chosen vessel.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Burying Your Talent: A Bad Investment Strategy

By David Ryser

“Will you at least give it a try?”

I was attempting to convince a high school student to make an effort to complete his class work.  Or even to start on it.  He was in danger of failing the class, in great part because he refused to complete any of his assignments.  He seemed to be capable of passing the course if he would just do the work.

Didn’t he know he could fail the class?  Yes.

Over time, I realized this young man was failing the class because he was afraid he might fail it.  This didn’t make much sense to me at first.  If he was concerned about failing, why didn’t he work hard to succeed?

Then it hit me.

This young man wasn’t afraid of failing.  He was afraid of being a failure.  If he put his best effort into the class and failed, he would be a failure.  But if he put no effort into the class and failed, he could always tell himself that he could have passed the class if he had tried.  He was willing to fail…but on his own terms.

He was afraid that his best wasn’t good enough.

I thought about this young man recently while I was reading the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).  In this familiar parable, a nobleman is preparing to go on a long journey.  He calls his servants together and distributes money to each of them to do business with until his return.  He doles out the money to them according to their ability.  To one he gives 5 talents.  To another he gives 2 talents.  To the third, he gives 1 talent.

Then he leaves.

It helps us to understand this parable when we realize that a talent is a lot of money.  A talent was the largest unit of money in Jesus’ day.  One talent was worth 3,000 shekels.  3,000 shekels was approximately 10 years’ wages for the average working man.  So even the man who had 1 talent was in possession of something that had great value.

Then one day, the nobleman returned from his journey.

The nobleman calls his servants together to give an account of what they did with the money he had given to them.  Each of the first two servants had done business and doubled his money.  The third had buried his talent.  He had not lost it.  But he had not increased it.

His explanation for his failure sounds familiar to me.

The third servant defended his failure by explaining that he was afraid to fail.  He feared his master’s displeasure and was afraid he might lose his talent if he did business with it.  He was afraid that his best might not be good enough.  So he didn’t risk the talent he was given.  Instead, he buried it.  He returned the unused talent back to his master.

The master was not pleased.

I run into this kind of person both in life and in the ministry.  Many times they have big dreams about what they will be and what they will do.  They have the call of God on their lives.  God has deposited spiritual gifts, a measure of faith, and the Holy Spirit into them.

And they do nothing with what God has given to them.

I spoke recently with someone who has the call of God to preach.  This call burns in him.  He is frustrated because he is not doing what God called him to do.  I could hear the frustration and pain in his voice as he told me about it.  He confided to me that recently he had been approached by one of the pastors in his church.  The pastor asked him to preach.

The young man said no.

How can this be?  God has called this young man to preach.  An opportunity to preach has been presented to him.  And he refused!

How did this happen?

In the time since God called him, this young man has had a number of disappointing things happen to him.  People he trusted let him down.  Promises made to him were broken.  Things didn’t work out like he thought they would.  Over time, all of his dreams have died.

Except for one.

The dream of being an evangelist is the only dream he has left.  It is his sole source of hope for his life.  As long as that dream is alive, he is not a failure.

What if he accepts the invitation to preach and makes a mess of it?  What if his last dream dies also?  It would devastate him!

In the Parable of the Talents, the servant who buried his talent ultimately suffered everything he feared.  He is proclaimed as wicked, lazy, and worthless (verses 26 and 30).  He loses his talent (verse 28).  And he is thrown out of his master’s house (verse 30).

Do you suppose he felt better about himself because he failed on his own terms?  I think not.

What if he had invested his talent and lost it?  How would his master have reacted?  We will never know.  But could his fate have been any worse?  It may help to reread the parable and note that the servants were never commanded to make money.

They were simply told to do their master’s business.  So are we.

So whatever happened to the high school student who was afraid to fail?  Did he pass the class?  Did he succeed in life?

I don’t’ know.  I was just a substitute teacher.  I was with him for only a few days.

I never saw him again.

What will happen to the evangelist-to-be?  Will he risk his dream?  Will he put his talent to use and possibly fail?  I hope so.

And what about you?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Where are We Going?: Does it Matter?

By David Ryser

It was my eight-year-old son who taught me about walking with God.

I was pastoring a church in a small town.  One of my duties was to pick up the mail and take it to the church.  (Ah, the glamor of ministry!)  I would often take one of my children along with me.  We would walk to the post office, get the mail, go back home, and then I would go on to the church.  It was a routine my children were quite familiar with.  We did the same thing every day.

Until one day.

On this particular day, I decided to go from the post office directly to the church.  This involved taking a different route than usual.  My eight-year-old son was with me.  He was enjoying our walk together as we went hand-in-hand toward the church.  He walked happily along with dad.  He never slowed his pace.

But as we got farther from the post office, he seemed a bit confused.

I noticed his confusion and realized we had broken our routine.  I looked at him and said, “You don’t know where you are, do you?”

I will never forget his answer.

He looked up at me with a big smile on his face and answered cheerfully, “It’s ok!  I’m with you!”

And in that moment, I learned how to walk with God.

One of the difficulties in the most recent season of my life has been a sense of purposelessness.  This seems to be an issue especially for men.  We tend to be purpose-driven.  We need to have a purpose.  We need something to do.

I want to know where I am going.  And I want to know what I’m going to do when I get there.

But walking with God is an adventure.  We often have little idea of where we are going.  We have even less of a clue about what we will do when we arrive.  And even if we do have a notion of where we are going and what we will do, God manages to take us by a route we could not have predicted, and many times would not have chosen.

Has God always been like this?

Consider God’s call to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).  God spoke to Abraham one day and called him to uproot his entire life.  Abraham was commanded to leave his country, leave his family, and leave his home.  And God didn’t even tell him where he was going!  God promised to bless Abraham if he obeyed, but wasn’t specific about what the blessing would be.

What did Abraham do?  What would you have done?

Abraham did what any self-respecting child of God would do.  He left his country along with his family and moved half-way to where God had called him (Genesis 11:31).  And when he finally did go where God had told him to go, he took a member of his family with him (Genesis 12:4).

Does that sound like anyone you know?  And it gets worse.

When Abraham arrived in Canaan, it was not what he expected.  There was a famine in the land (Genesis 12:10a).  Apparently thinking God had not foreseen the famine, Abraham promptly left Canaan and went to Egypt (Genesis 10b, 11).  He wasn’t in Canaan for even one whole verse!

Now does this sound like someone you know?

When God speaks to us, we are so excited!  We are anxious to get where we are going.  It never occurs to us that the reason God spoke to us so clearly and gave us such a great revelation is that we’re going to need it.

Because things are never what we think they are going to be.

Abraham’s trip to Egypt was a disaster.  (Surprise!)  It took God’s miraculous intervention (and 14 verses) to bring Abraham back to where he was before he went to Egypt.  But Abraham learned his lesson.  Didn’t he?  Not according to Genesis 20:1-18).

Are we reminded of ourselves yet?

We start out with such zeal when God speaks to us.  But when we encounter the unexpected along the way, we too often abandon God’s plan and work to engineer our own deliverance.  And then we wonder why everything turns into such a mess.

And then we blame God.

We claim to believe God is omniscient.  We say He not only knows everything, He knows everything in advance.  We walk with God, confident in this belief, until something unexpected happens.  Then we become confused and begin to walk in our own wisdom.

God doesn’t tell us everything in advance.  (I’ve often suspected this is because we wouldn’t start on the journey if we knew what was ahead.)  The Bible tells us that we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If we are going to walk with God, we must trust Him.  We often will not know where we are going.  We almost never know how we will get there.  And we have only the faintest idea of what we will do when we arrive.

So why do we choose to walk in our own ignorance and confusion?

Wouldn’t it be simpler just to take God’s hand and walk with Him?  We don’t have to know anything.  We just need to hold His hand.  God knows where we are going.  God knows the best way (not to be confused with the shortest or easiest way) to get there.  And He knows what we will do when we arrive.  It sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it?

So why is this so hard for us?

My son didn’t know where he was that day, but he didn’t feel lost.  He wasn’t lost because he was with someone who knew where they were, knew where they were going, and knew how to get there.  He didn’t have to do anything except hold onto my hand and keep on walking.

If we are walking with God, we are not lost.

Where are we going?  How will we get there?  What will we do?  And how will we do it?

If we’re walking with God, does it matter?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

So Full: Yet so Empty

By David Ryser

“Here!”  And with that one word, my two-year-old son taught me a lesson about the Kingdom of God.

I was serving as a full-time associate pastor.  With four children between the ages of 2 and 9 to house and feed, money was tight.  We had just returned from the grocery store.  We’d splurged on two bottles of soda and were going to enjoy them as soon as the groceries were put away.

“I’m thirsty.”

The two-year-old had been an angel at the store.  But now he wanted something to drink.  My wife answered, “Hang on a minute, honey.”  He was in no mood to wait and made his displeasure known in typical two-year-old fashion.  “I’m thirsty!!!”  Unable to convince him to wait, my wife poured a glass of water and gave it to him.

He was happy…but not for long.

In a couple of minutes, we had put up the groceries.  My wife laid out some glasses, put in the ice, and poured out the soda.  She passed out the glasses to everyone…except the two-year-old.  He had observed the preparation of the soft drinks with increasing interest and anticipation.  He was obviously disappointed he had not received one.

“Where’s my pop?”

My wife answered, “Sweetie, I’d love to give you some pop.  But your glass is already full.”  I’ve mentioned my son was two years old.  I never said he was stupid.  It took him no time at all to pick up his glass of water and hand it to his mother.

“Here!”

In Luke 4:1a, the Bible tells us that Jesus was filled with the Spirit.  This verse occurs in the time between Jesus’ baptism by John and His temptation in the wilderness.  The implication is that Jesus was filled with the Spirit when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him at His baptism (Luke 3:22a).

If Jesus was filled with the spirit at His baptism, then what was He filled with before His baptism?

Nothing.

According to Philippians 2:7, Jesus emptied Himself (literal Greek translation) and took on human form.  Emptied Himself of what?  Theologians have argued this question for centuries.  Whatever it was He emptied Himself of, we are encouraged to have the same attitude as Jesus (Philippians 2:5).  The same attitude will produce the same results.  So we should empty ourselves also.  Empty ourselves of what?

Have you ever heard a person being described as “full of himself/herself”?

The scriptures command us to lay aside our old nature (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:5, 8, 9).  We are told to cleanse ourselves (2 Corinthians 7:1a; James 4:8b).  Our effectiveness as carriers of God’s life depends upon our doing this (2 Timothy 2:20, 21).

How can any vessel--a glass, for example--be cleansed without first being emptied?

God desires that we be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18b).  We are called to be carriers of the treasure of God’s presence (2 Corinthians 4:7a).  We are commissioned to pour out the Spirit of God from within ourselves (John 7:38, 39).

How can we be filled with the Spirit without first being emptied of ourselves?

Even a two-year-old child knows you cannot fill a glass that is already full.  If we are going to be God’s wineskins, we need to follow Jesus’ example and empty ourselves.  Then, and only then, can we be filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is described as filled with the Spirit (Luke 4:1a) before He is described as empowered by the Spirit (Luke 4:14a) and anointed by the spirit (Luke 4:18a).  This empowering and anointing of the Spirit is what enabled Jesus to fulfill His ministry.

Spirit empowerment and Spirit anointing flow out of Spirit filling.  Spirit filling follows emptying.  Jesus emptied Himself.  Then He was filled.  Then He was empowered and anointed.

If Jesus is our example, then this works the same way for us.

“Here!”

My wife took my son’s glass, emptied it, and rinsed it out.  Then she put ice into it, filled it with soda, and handed it back.  As my son enjoyed the fruits of his wise decision, God was speaking to me.

I wish I had listened then.

So what do we want?  Do we want to be filled with the Spirit?  Do we want to be carriers of God’s life?  Do we want to touch the lives of others with God’s power and anointing?

And how badly do we want it?

Are we willing to be emptied?  Will we hand our glass over to God?  What is in our glass so precious to u, that we would rather have it than have Him?

It’s so simple.  Just hold out your hand to God and repeat this simple prayer:  “Here!”

By the way, I have an idea for a faith-based reality television show.  I’m going to call it “Are You Smarter than Two-Year-Old?”

Would you like to be a contestant?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Learning Obedience: Embracing Suffering

By David Ryser

“Teach him what?”

These words were spoken to me by my father when I was about six years old.  He was looking at me as if I’d just grown a third eye.  I suspect he looked at me like this a lot when I was growing up.

But I particularly remember this incident because it later helped me to understand a certain scripture and apply it to my life.

We were at the supper table.  My parents were discussing the family dog.  This dog had been brought into our home to be trained as a seeing-eye dog.  My dad had agreed to train the dog.  The dog would eventually serve a blind child.  So the dog was placed with our family to be trained and become accustomed to children.

His training had hit a snag.

The dog had developed a bad habit.  Nothing my dad tried had broken this habit.  When anyone would drive in or out of our driveway, the dog would chase after the car.

Chasing cars is an undesirable quality in a seeing-eye dog.

I listened to my parents discuss this problem for awhile.  Finally I spoke up with typical six-year-old overstatement, “I hope that dog gets run over and killed!  That would teach him!”  My dad got the strangest look on his face.

“Teach him what?”

We don’t learn lessons by dying physically.  Usually, we learn by living.  The only way the dog would become a seeing-eye service animal was to learn obedience.  If he failed, he might make a good family pet.  But he would never fulfill his higher purpose.

If we are ever going to walk in our God-ordained destiny, we must learn obedience.  And learning obedience involves suffering.

According to Hebrews 5:8, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered.  I don’t think this refers only--or even primarily--to the cross.  If a person is destined to die on a cross, it seems to me that he would do well to learn obedience beforehand.  He would be trained by life experiences in preparation for fulfilling his ultimate calling.

So how did Jesus suffer in life?  And how did His suffering prepare Him to be obedient to the call of God?

A good part of Jesus’ suffering originated from the circumstances surrounding His birth.  Joseph and Mary were not married when Jesus was conceived.  In the eyes of the people in His hometown, Jesus was an illegitimate child.  Imagine the scorn and ridicule Jesus and His family had to endure.

But we don’t need to merely speculate.  An understanding of the Bible and culture gives us plenty of clues concerning Jesus’ sufferings.

In Luke 2:41-50, we read about an incident in Jesus’ life that occurred when He was twelve years old.  This would have been about the time of His bar-mitzvah.  I am told that in Jesus’ day, a part of this ritual involved the father parading his son through the streets of the village and proclaiming, “This is my son!  I’m proud of him!”

But this parade was reserved only for legitimate sons.

Imagine Jesus’ pain.  And the pain of His parents, both of whom knew the truth concerning His birth.  It wasn’t fair!  It wasn’t just!  It was wrong!

But it happened anyway.

So now Jesus is in the temple at Jerusalem beginning to do the work He was called to do (Luke 2:49).  “I must be about my Father’s business” is a particularly poignant statement when we are reminded that Jesus had no inheritance in Joseph’s home.  Ordinarily the eldest son would inherit the family business and be responsible to provide for his family upon the death or incapacitation of his father.

Jesus was the eldest son.  But Jesus was illegitimate.  He was denied His inheritance, which then fell to the next eldest son.

Ouch!  Wounding!  Pain!  Suffering!  And it wasn’t even true!

Jesus left Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary, and went back to Nazareth.  He submitted to their authority.  He worked at a business He would not inherit.  And He was denied the opportunity to begin His heavenly Father’s business for 18 years!

Have you been denied the opportunity to fulfill your God-given calling because you were under authority?  Was it painful?  Did it hurt?  Did you chafe with frustration?  Did it make you bitter?

Who needs this?  Jesus did.  So do we.

Jesus was denied the father’s public pronouncement of approval at His bar-mitzvah.  But He received it at His baptism.  “You are My beloved Son; In You I am well pleased” (Luke 4:22b, and again in Matthew 17:5b).  He was denied His inheritance, but was also freed from the responsibility of it.  When the time came to begin His earthly ministry, Jesus was not stuck working in a carpenter’s shop.  He was free to do the Father’s will.

And He received an inheritance from His heavenly Father (Hebrews 1:4).

The things Jesus suffered did not destroy Him.  They prepared Him and positioned Him to fulfill His destiny.

The same is true for us.

The subject of God-ordained suffering--and its benefits--was a common topic of apostolic preaching and teaching (Acts 4:22; James 1:2-4; 5:10, 11; 1 Peter 1:6-8--among others).  It is not so common in the tripe that passes for preaching and teaching in the modern American Church.

How can we develop godly character and minister God’s power if we won’t embrace suffering?

Suffering is not evil.  It is uncomfortable.  It is unpleasant.  It is painful.  But if we embrace it, suffering will act as a tool of God to make us what we are destined to be.  And it will enable us to do what we have been called to do.

Just like Jesus.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Bibliolatry (Part 2): Tearing Down Our Idols

By David Ryser & Tim Speer

The preacher held up his Bible and thundered, “You can stand on the Word of God!”

I am blessed...and cursed...with an over-active imagination.  As the preacher dramatically made his point, I could not help but picture myself standing on my Bible.  Why would anyone stand on a Bible?  I thought it would be an excellent way to ruin a perfectly good Bible.

Actually, there is a great deal of truth in that thought.

The Bible was not written so we could stand on it.  This is true spiritually as well as physically.  The Bible itself tells us that it is not our foundation. Jesus Himself, and only Jesus, is our foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11).

So how is it we find ourselves standing on a book?

From the earliest times of the Protestant Reformation, the majority of people who identify themselves as Christians have been People of the Book.  The Bible is one of Luther’s two pillars of the Christian faith:  sole fide, sola scriptura (By faith alone; by scripture alone).  A common faith in Jesus and a belief in the Bible as God’s Word were supposed to unify all Christians.  A common faith in Jesus certainly unites all Christians.

So why are there thousands of Protestant denominations?

Denominationalism is not a new thing.  The apostle Paul had to deal with a primitive version of this problem (1 Corinthians 1:12).  But we have taken denominationalism to a much higher level.  Why are there so many denominations if we all agree that we must place our faith in Jesus and that the Bible is the Word of God?

Because we can’t agree on what the Book says.

If we were standing on Christ, we would be much more unified.  We are divided because we are standing on the Bible.  And we can’t agree on what the Bible says.  Our differences over interpreting the Bible have justified division, in our minds, because we have made the Bible the foundation of our faith.

We have put the Bible in the place of God.  We have become bibliolaters.

Setting up idols in the place of God is not a recent development.  Biblical examples abound.  One such example involves the bronze serpent that Moses was commanded to make during a plague of poisonous snakes among the people (Numbers 21:8, 9).  The people afflicted with the snake bites were told to look upon the bronze serpent.  Those who did so were healed.  The bronze serpent was used as a tool by God to bring healing and deliverance to His people.

What a blessing.  Or was it?

The people of Israel kept the bronze serpent as a reminder of the healing miracle God had performed in the wilderness.  They even had a name for it:  Nehushtan.  Over time, Nehushtan went beyond being a reminder of what God had done.  It was put in the place of God.  The people of God began to worship Nehushtan, and it had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4).

What God had done came to be equated with God Himself.  We can make an idol of anything.  Even the Bible.

Too many of us have put the Bible in the place of Jesus.  We have become bibliolaters.  But what can we do?  How can we tear down this idol?  We cannot--we must not--destroy the scriptures.  The Bible is the living Word of God (Hebrews 4:12).  It is His written expression of Himself.  It will not pass away until it is fulfilled (Matthew 5:17, 18) and we are living eternally in the presence of Jesus.

We need the Bible.  But we must use it lawfully.

We need to understand that the Bible is not Jesus.  The Bible is a sign that points the way to God.  It tells us where we are going and how to get there.

But it is not our destination.

Imagine you are traveling along the road and come upon a man who is clinging to a road sign.  The sign reads:  St. Louis 50.  You stop to assist the man.  You ask him, “Are you ok?”  With a big smile, he answers, “Oh, yes!  I’m so blessed!  I’ve found St. Louis!”

You begin to suspect the man is deranged.

You try to convince him that he has found a road sign pointing to St. Louis, but that he is not yet in the city.  An argument ensues.  You ask, “But if that’s St. Louis, what does the ‘50’ mean?”  He answers, “Maybe it’s his age.”

You get back into your car, lock the doors, and go on your way.  But you don’t tear down the sign.

We need to listen to what the Bible says about itself.  The apostle Paul tells us that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).  The Bible assists us in finding God, but we must find Him if we are going to receive His life and salvation.  We can be people of the Book without being people of the Spirit.

We need to be both.

If we are not careful, we will become like the young lady who is head-over-heels in love with her fiancé.  And he loves her.  He writes to her every day.  She treasures his passionate love letters and never tires of reading them over and over.  One day he comes to visit her.  She is in another part of the house reading his letters.  Try as he might, he cannot coax her out of her room to be with him.

After a time, he leaves.

She has missed out on spending time with the love of her life.  Why?  Why couldn’t she have put the letters down for a few minutes and spent time with her fiancé?  Could it be that she has fallen in love with his letters?

There is a time for reading…and there is a time for fellowship.  Both.  Each in its time.

We must be careful about what we give ourselves to.  We will contend for the thing we love. Are we passionate about a movement or a ministry?  Have we given ourselves to a teaching?

What do we love?

We are called to be the Bride of Christ, not the Bride of the Bible.  If we are betrothed to Jesus, but give ourselves to anything else, what does that say about us?  There are not over 30,000 denominations because we are divided over Jesus.  There are over 30,000 denominations because we are divided over the Book.

We are contending passionately for a book.  We have given ourselves to a book.  What does that make us?

Adulteresses.

The Bible isn’t the problem.  The condition of our heart is the problem.  We need to tear down the idol in our heart.

Read the Bible.  Cherish God’s written Word.  Receive its instruction.

But love only Him.

By the way, have you ever wondered how Peter, John, Paul, and the other early Christians loved God and did mighty works in the name of Jesus…without the New Testament?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com