Serving God - Part 1

By Gary Watson

“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws, His decrees that I am giving you this day.” Deuteronomy 8:11

Being careful - We must be sure that we do not begin to think that all our blessings came to us on their own.  Moses warned Israel not to forget God when they received their blessings.  He knew they would be tempted to become complacent when they lived in their new homes and enjoyed the riches and comforts of Canaan.  He reminds them of God’s faithfulness and how important it is to remain obedient.  Moses further warned them in the phrase, “when you have eaten and are full,” that they would need to remember God and not live with pride and disobedience.

Several Bible verses reminded Israel to remember God’s goodness even in times of abundance when they might be tempted to forget it.  Some examples are:

• “They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt.” Psalm 106:21
• “For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them:” Proverbs 1:32
• “Lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:9

It’s tough to get someone who has faith in God to consider the possibility they might also be godless since it seems like a contradiction.  It might help to know we are not talking about a total renunciation of the existence of God.  We are talking about the moments we think, act, respond and make decisions as if God were not real and present in our lives.  Moments where our thoughts or focus on God are replaced by people, circumstances, outcomes, or personal desires.  

Godlessness is a constant challenge due to how easily we can seek the approval of men over God or want to be important in the eyes of men rather than God.  Many times, I’ve made decisions driven primarily by the desire to be liked by people or my peers over pleasing God.  Unfortunately, these challenges also have consequences.

Seeking the approval of men produces hiddenness and deceit.  The desire to be important leads to fear and insecurity, while the desire to be liked can lead to compromise.  These are common challenges for us, that meet the definition of godlessness we are addressing here.  Don’t forget it was the religious leaders Jesus was talking about when he said: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”  (Matthew 15:8-9)

Though these leaders believed in God, their actions were consistent with someone who did not believe in God.  They worshiped God in vain, meaning it was futile or ineffectual with no real value and to no end.  We all can believe in God and still forget God.

When we do forget God, who do we put our trust in?  When we forget God, what do we replace him with?

(Part 2 next week)

Self-Willed or God’s Will - Part 2

By Tom Rose

In Part 1 we learned that God has always demanded strict adherence to His word, but mankind has, from the beginning, rebelled against God’s word, placing self above God.  The first woman, Eve, threw out honor and obedience as though she owed nothing to the One who had created and lovingly placed her in this beautiful garden.  She trampled loyalty and love and trust in her selfish stampede toward what today we would call self-realization or self-actualization.  Motivated by self-interest and self-satisfaction, she succumbed to another tactic of Satan: persuade men to disobey God on the promise that they shall obtain good by it.

When Eve (and Adam) sinned, God was not pleased.  By expelling the guilty pair from the Garden, God was acting both justly and in love.  He kept man from the tree of life because it would not have been an act of love but a capitulation to man’s self-indulgence to perpetuate him in his fallen condition.  Sin put the flaming sword of God’s Judgment between man and the tree of life (Gen 3:24).  Further, God was not vindictive in barring man’s access to eternal life, because the entire story of the Bible shows how one Man, Christ, took the judgment we deserved, redeemed us from our sins, and offered us a way back to everlasting life.  The lesson for Adam and Eve, for you and me, and for all mankind simply points to one indisputable fact: if we want a relationship with God, it will be on His terms, abiding by His Word.

As we close, let us distinguish between a humanistic self-denial and a Biblical denial of self.  The first is self still on the throne, denying itself certain pleasures; the second is the death of self through our identification with Christ in His death for our sins (Gal. 2:20).  What the Bible seems to mean by self is man cut off from God, acting and processing independently.  That is why Christ made the denial of self a condition to becoming His disciple (Mt. 16:24), and why there is a fatal flaw in the theology of self-esteem.

When we read and believe God’s Word, we see God for who He really is, bow to His majesty, surrender to His purpose, and turn our life into an instrument of His holy will.  One writer has attempted to describe the self that now lives exclusively for Christ as follows: If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that counts.  It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us.  Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all.

Therefore, if we choose to become God’s useful servants, we must turn away from the popular messages of our day and be more convinced than ever that life’s major purpose is not pleasing self. . .but pleasing God.

Self-Willed or God’s Will - Part 1

By Tom Rose

The prohibition against taking from or adding to God’s Word is consistently implied throughout scripture, and at times it is stated explicitly.  Solomon admonished, “Every word of God is pure. . .Do not add to His Words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar” (Pr. 30:5-6).  Also, the statement in Rev. 22:18-19 is a compelling and sober warning not to tamper with or alter “the things which are written in this book.”

Unfortunately, the tendency to disregard God’s clearly stated commands lurks in every heart and lies at the root of most human problems.  It began in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve were the first to take liberties with God’s Word.  They had no written scriptures, but God had spoken to them personally and apparently audibly: “They heard the voice of the Lord God. . .I heard Your voice in the Garden” (Gen. 3:8, 10).  We know nothing of the marvelous insights which God must have shared with this pair, but we do know that He commanded them not to eat of one particular tree in the Garden.  God considered this of such great importance that the penalty for disobedience was death. (See Gen. 2:16-17)

“That serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9), was immediately at work in the Garden of Eden. With his cunning skill, he provided a most effective rationale for legitimizing disobedience: the reinterpretation of what God has said to bring it into line with human desire.  "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.''  Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like  God, knowing good and evil.'" (Gen. 3:2-5)

Questioning God’s command, Satan perverted its meaning, turned the death penalty into a promise of godhood, and persuaded Eve to accept his innovative and appealing interpretation.  Eve had found a “prophet” whose twisted but appealing perversion of Truth was irresistible.  "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." (Gen. 3:6)

Satan’s seduction of Eve was the original appeal to ''self"– her “self.”  “You can be like God,” was the tantalizing promise.  Something inside Eve responded to that.  It was then that self had its awful birth and established its throne in her life.  Sadly, her submission to her new master of self soon affected her husband, and her example even appeals to us today.  Totally absorbed in what she would get out of eating this wonderful fruit, Eve stifled any concern for what she ought to do.  Indeed, there was no ought at all; no regard for duty, moral commitment, or restraint upon her desires – no real concern for anyone but herself.

(Part 2 next week)

Success in Temptation

By Paul Earnhart

One of the most significant conflicts in the history of mankind was the temptation of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 4:1-11.  Satan did his best to cause Jesus to sin.  His approaches were cleverly devised so that there would be nothing immoral in his proposals and there would appear to be some beneficial result in everything he asked Jesus to do.  But Jesus was wise enough and good enough to see the error in each temptation and to avoid it.  Had He sinned, He could not have been our Savior, and mankind would have been forever lost.

What accounts for the success of Jesus in resisting the temptations?

• First, there was a complete knowledge of scripture.  Every temptation was answered with a quotation from scripture.  This knowledge enabled Him to draw from everything the scriptures said revealing the mind of God.  It also enabled Him to know the full context of the scriptures Satan misused.
• Second, His whole life’s goal was to do the will of God.  Every proposal of Satan, whether direct or indirect, was considered in the light of God’s word.
• Third, He was determined to do ONLY the will of God.  This is clear from the first temptation.  Doubtless His hunger for food made Him want to turn those stones into bread.  That would have been His own will.  But since He had no instructions from God to use His powers in this way, He refused. 

If mankind’s most significant conflict was between Jesus and Satan, our own most significant conflict is between us and Satan.  Despite the victory of Jesus, we still can be lost if we allow Satan to have control of our life.  Satan still tempts through the same avenues he tempted Jesus…through the flesh, through pride, and through the desire for things (1 John 2:15-17).  If we are to be victorious as Jesus was, we must exercise the same defense…a thorough knowledge of God’s word, a strong determination to do God’s will and ONLY His will. 

Avenues of Temptation

By Paul Earnhart

The scriptures teach that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet He was without sin (Heb. 4:15).  This does not mean that He faced every minute decision that we face.  He did not have to decide whether to break into a computer system or whether to go to an immoral movie.  But He was tempted through every channel that we are tempted.

In 1 John 2:16 we have described the three avenues through which all temptations come: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.”  Jesus was tempted through all of these as we read in Mt. 4:1-11.

The temptation to turn stones into bread appealed to His physical appetite.  Doing this would have made Him feel better.  Many of the sins in which people engage today are designed to satisfy some desire of the body.  Hunger is the strongest desire of the body, and if Jesus controlled the desire for food after 40 days of fasting, He demonstrated that He could control any other appeal to His fleshly desires.

The temptation to jump from the pinnacle of the temple was an appeal to pride.  For one thing, Satan said, “If You are the Son of God.”  This was kind of dare and many a sin has been committed in response to a dare.  Furthermore, Jesus would have become instantly famous if He had successfully jumped from that high point and survived.  But Jesus refused.

When Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world, he did not just mention those kingdoms by name.  He took Jesus up on a high mountain and in some way showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.  He was appealing to man’s natural desire to have what he sees.  This was the ultimate visible prize; if Jesus overcame this temptation, He could overcome the offer of any lesser prize that might come in view.

Every temptation that we face comes through one of these channels.  Jesus is our example in resisting temptation.  Let us follow Him in all things.