“THE GREATEST OBSTACLE”

  Great obstacles have confronted us as a people but over many of these we have been victorious.  Back in 1776, we conquered our forefathers, then in 1861, we conquered our brothers, but still the real battle in life goes on unconquered.  For we have not learned to conquer our greatest enemy, self.  Daniel Webster once said, “My greatest obstacle is me.”

  The Apostle Paul, in the 7th chapter of Romans, admits his greatest struggle is within.   Listen to him, “I do; not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do.”  Romans 7: 15  
We need to take an intimate, honest, personal inventory of self.  It would almost seem as if the whole course of modern life is determined, with the deliberate intention, of preventing us from ever looking into our souls.  The craze today is, ‘whatever happens, do not let me think about myself.’  So, we have surrounded ourselves with things; thing to listen to, things to look at, things to handle.  Silence makes us afraid.  Yet, the Bible teaches us, “Be still and know that I am God.”  The one thing that Jesus compelled men to do was to face themselves honestly.

  But, it is not enough to merely look within.  We must do something about what we see.  We are to look within that we may find the weak places, the insecure places, the unholy places, the places that give us shame. To look within and see some insincerity is to have taken the first step in removing it.  To discover a breach in the soul’s defenses is to have taken the first step toward it’s repair.  It may come as a shock to us to realize that we aren’t as good as we think we are, or as others think we are, but the shock may prove a blessing in disguise, as we set about to do something about it. To be compelled to realize that we are not what we thought we were, is the beginning of conviction.  Conviction can lead to repentance and repentance to confession before God.  Confession leads to forgiveness and forgiveness to restoration and salvation.

  Even as the Apostle Paul fought the inward struggle, so do we.  It is a fierce hard fight, for we fight against self, the greatest obstacle of life.  But, in Christianity there is help through Jesus.  There is forgiveness through Him, and opportunity to begin again, no matter the defeats.  The purpose of religion is not primarily the social, the outer man, although there are inescapable obligations there.  The real purpose of Christianity is to help a person to stand when alone, and no one can stand when he or she is alone, unless they have as a resource; strength of soul, goodness of character, faith in God.   

  Listen to Paul as he closes that 7th chapter of Romans, “What a wretched man I am. Who will  rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” 

  May this be our prayer:  “Father, help us to dare to take an honest inventory of our lives, letting the light of Your Holy Word, the Bible, search our souls.  Help us to allow Your spirit to guide us by that truth.   Then, give us the courage to do something about our need to be more like Your Son, Jesus. With Your help, we will become more like what You would have us to be.  In Jesus name.  Amen”

“SAINTS WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN CAUGHT”

“When some fellow yields to temptation and breaks a conventional law,
We look for no good in his make-up, but God how we look for a flaw;
No one will ask, “How tempted?” nor allow for the battles he’s fought.
His name becomes food for the jackals, for us who have never been caught.

He has sinned, we shout from the housetops, we forget the good that he’s done.
We center on one lost battle, and forget the times he has won.
“Come gaze on the sinner,” we thunder “and by his examples be taught.
That his footsteps lead to destruction,” cry we who have never been caught.

I’m a sinner, O Lord, and I know it.  I’m weak, I blunder and fail.
I’m tossed on life’s stormy ocean, like ships embroiled in a gale.
I’m willing to trust in Thy mercy. To keep the commandments Thou has taught.
But, deliver me, Lord, from the judgment of saints who have never been caught.”

       From book, “Prison Is My Parish” – Story of Park Tucker, Chaplain

  What a powerful bit of verse.  We have lots of sayings that state about the same thing.  Such as: “People in glass houses, should not throw stones.” “When you point a finger at people you have three fingers pointing back at you.”  “Only thing you get when you throw mud is dirty hands.”  “You can’t whitewash yourself by painting others black.” 

  Jesus said in Luke 6:37, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”   I believe the judgment that Jesus is speaking of here is determining the final destiny of a human being.  It is not up to us to decide the eternal destination of any one.  But, we are to judge people’s actions.  Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them.”  (Matthew 7:20) We are to be fruit inspectors.

  Judging others is such a past time for many of us.  Someone said, “the only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions.”  We tear others down in order to make ourselves look better.  Our judgment is so lacking in the spirit of truth or love. We look on the outside of man, while only God can see the heart. This statement by Jesus really cuts me to the quick. “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”  Matthew 7:2
Do I really want to be judged with the same prejudice, premature, partial knowledge that I am using about others?  Of course not.
Jesus strikes home at the heart of the matter when He said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, ‘let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Matthew 7:3-5  

  We have no need to judge, God will take care of that for us.  Jesus encourages discernment, but warns against allowing it to make us a critical, judgemental, condemning person.  This we must not do.             We know that the only perfect person was and is Jesus, and we are not Him.  The sinless One came to wipe away the sins of the sinful.  He gave His life to make possible the forgiveness of our sins.

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS

  A man had a wife who was not very strong, but who always imagined she was far worse than she was, and complained accordingly.  The husband was a strong man physically, and, at first, caved into her.  He used to carry her from room to room, or, if she wished out into the garden.  Of course, as you would expect, the woman got worse and worse.  She became a doll.  He had to lift and carry her everywhere.  One day, the husband made up his mind, after receiving advice of competent people (doctors), that she was quite able to walk into the garden by herself, and he made her do it.   He had to stand back and watch her struggle and stumble.  In a sense, he had the power to save her from falling; but it was his purpose, even to let her bruise herself, in order that she might learn to walk.  It was the exercise of a greater power to stand away.  To intervene would have been weakness.  To refrain was power. It was much harder to refrain. But, it achieved its purpose’   Again and again she complained.  Many times it would have been easier to have carried her, and he suffered anguish when he saw her fall.  But, at last, she was cured, her character was strengthened, and happiness, which would other wise have been impossible, was produced.

  This made me think about the Apostle Paul and his thorn in the flesh.   I will not speculate as to what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was.  Whatever it was, Paul counted it as torment.  He prayed (pleaded) with God three times for Him to take it away.  Listen to God’s answer to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul’s response, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  
2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 

 Like Paul, we must learn to be content with things as they are. Of course, making them better, if we can, but accepting what cannot be changed. The woman in the illustration must have been hungry for her husband’s strength.  How hungry the husband must have been to take her in his arms when she stumbled.  Yet, this would have never enabled her to grow strong.

  We cry for God’s strength, and power, and might and wonder why, He doesn’t stop wars, cancer, tragic accidents, suffering, wrongs.  God in his infinite power is eager to sweep us up in His arms, and save us from all of this. But, if He did, we would cease to grow and develop. 

  We need to understand the purpose of God for all mankind.  What is His purpose?  Is it not, that we come to a knowledge of His will, and to chose His will for our lives?  The Bible is the adequate piece of His mind. God’s word, the Bible, is the mind of God.  We can know His mind by knowing the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation.  God would have us to use all of His resources to bring us into complete harmony with His will.  Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “Not my will but Your will be done.”

  That must always be our prayer whatever the circumstances.  Don’t rob yourself of struggle.

ESCAPE FROM LONELINESS

In his play, Tennessee Williams has dealt again and again with the problem of loneliness and alienation.  He speaks for a whole generation of literary prophets.  In one of his earlier plays, Williams wrote, “If loneliness is as prevalent as we are led to believe that it is, than surely the great sin of our time must be to be lonely alone.” 

All of us know this grim battle with loneliness.  Everyone lives in their own world of perception, one that nobody else can really know.  Everyone feels isolated to some degree.  Loneliness is so frightening because it is born out of fear.  We fear one another, lest we be rejected by the other.  We fear that we will be misunderstood, unloved and unwanted, so we draw within ourselves, afraid to live courageous, honest lives.   

I like the incident in the life of Rupert Brooke, the handsome poet.  May 1913, he was to leave Liverpool docks to sail for America but there was no one to see him off.  Others had friends but he had none.  Looking down the liner he saw a dirty, little ragamuffin.  He went to him and asked, “Will you wave to me if I give you sixpence?”  The boy agreed.  So, as the great liner slipped away from shore and friend waved to friend, a dirty rag was waved by a dirty hand.  The poet wrote later, “I got my sixpence worth and my farewell.” 

Perhaps, these things can help us find the cure for our loneliness.
First, we must ask our self a question which is, “Is my loneliness my own fault?”  I once read about a woman named Edith of whom this was said, “Edith is a very small island, bounded on the north, on the south, on the east and on the west by Edith.”  Imprisoned in self, a self full of self-pity and bitterness which dirves people from us.
Secondly,  we must remember something and that is, that there is power in belonging.   We belong to the human race.  We are creatures made by God. If Christians, we belong to the family of God, members one of another in Christ’s body, the Church.  We must belong to something or someone bigger, stronger, and better than our self.
Then, thirdly, we must have something to do. There must be an expression of our self in some kind of service to others.  We must reach out to do something significant.  Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”  Mark 8:35 
Man’s true escape from loneliness is found in a relationship of love with others and with God.  All of us want to be loved, to feel desired, counted important and to be wanted.

God is providing the only sure escape from loneliness in the offer of His love and companionship.  God through His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit has determined not to leave us alone. He has promised His presence.  Our loneliness comes out of our stubborn refusal to be loved and to love.  Accept God’s love for you and share His love with others.  Remember, Jesus said to all who are obedient to Him,                       “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

MEASURE YOUR POWERS, NOT YOUR PROBLEMS

        Read from God’s Word, the Bible, Matthew, the 15th chapter, verses 32 through 38…

Doctor Jay T. Stocking told the story of the loaves and fishes, but with a new interpretation.  He stressed not the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand with a few loaves, but the attitude that takes into account the resources possessed, rather than the difficulties presented.  “Measure your powers, not your problems.”

When the disciples counted the crowd and complained that a few loaves were not enough to feed so many, Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have?”  He was saying, ‘don’t look at the hillside, look at the baskets, don’t count the crowd, count the loaves.’  Now Christ was not minimizing the task, but rather trying to get the disciples to do what they could.  If they couldn’t feed 4,000, they could take care of a few people with what they had.

How tragically true this is today.  We stand around talking about what we can’t do, seeing the multitude of problems, until we don’t even do what we can do.  God’s eternal law is, if we use what we have, our resources and powers increase.  Don’t worry about your few little loaves.  Invest what you have.

The task of being a Christian, living Christ like is not easy.  God’s service is not for softies.  We are living in critical times.  Living for Christ, against the tides of evil, is daring to live at our best.  He must be our priority.  He will not be our Savior, unless He can also be our Lord.  His truth must possess us completely.  He must rule us by His spirit and His word.  It is all or nothing at all.  We cannot invite Christ into the living room of our lives, while we entertain Satan in the kitchen.

Being a Christian means living and serving God in a dirty world.  It means unpopularity, peril and sacrifice.  It calls for daring men and women who fear God, and because they fear God, have nothing else to fear.  There is no greater task on earth, nor no greater satisfaction for your heart, than to know that you did your best for the Master.   
Measure your powers, that you have with Christ, not your problems.

May this be my prayer:
“Heavenly Father, help me to face life realistically, seeing its problems and evils, but may I see most of all the powers which are available to me to overcome these difficulties.  Help me to dare to live my best for You.  May I find my true happiness in rising about the littleness, pettiness and sins in my life. 
Bless us all this day as we have need.  We pray in Jesus name.  Amen.”