My Daily Pause

This morning on Facebook, I read a general comment from one of my friends about the inconsistency of the American Christian (used here as a follower of Christ, regardless of denomination.) He made some observations that I believe were right on the mark.

Where has the troubled Christian in America failed?

• There is a lot of talk about violation of rights and even “persecution” of Christians in an attempt to make followers of the false religions feel better.
• There is a lot of confusion as to what the Lord’s kingdom is all about.
• They have forgotten that being persecuted for Jesus’ sake is a blessing. (Matthew 5:11-12)

If I had to pull one reason out of the air as to why this has come about, it would be because the American Christian’s Bible is left in the corner untouched. If the American Christian were as familiar with their Bible as were the people that came to this “new world”, the events of today would unfold far differently.

• They would have better responses to a non-believer’s challenges.
• They would not have allowed non-believers and false teachers convince them the Bible says things that aren’t in there.
• They would be energized and motivated by the attacks of the lost.
• They would be able to defend it with confidence.

Jesus, Peter, Paul and James said that Christians can expect to be reviled in any number of ways and can expect blessing and reward from it. (Matthew 5:10-12, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4) The book of Revelation is all about encouragement of the Christians facing some tough times. Knowing this, the American Christian has a choice to make:

• He can capitulate or ignore the problem and be lost with the rest
• He can be invigorated by the trials as the passages above suggest and work harder to get the word out.

A fully developed and fed faith gives us the hope to continue. It helps us understand what being a member of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom entails. It enables us to keep planting the seeds.

We weren’t promised an easy path to our reward, but it is a path we need to be proud to follow.

Daily Bible reading for September 2

Psalm 31
1 Samuel 20
Daniel 3
Luke 2:1-21

Le vanneur (The Winnower) – 1846-1847 – Jean-François Millet

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. – Psalm 1:3-4

His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. – Luke 3:17

Chaff is the husks of the wheat seed that is removed before being ground into flour. It is used throughout the Bible as a metaphor for the sin, or sinful people and the treatment they will receive at the judgment.

We know who or what chaff is, but what does it do?

For just a minute, I want to think about the military version of chaff rather than the husks and stems in wheat. Chaff is a very simple and effective defensive weapon used to fool missiles and other devices that use radar. It is comprised of flakes and strips of material that are highly reflective to the radar signals. The net result is when chaff is launched into the air, a cloud of this stuff forms around the target and is obscured in a way that causes the weapons to miss it.

Let’s look at all of the opportunities that the world offers us for diversions and time wasting

• TV
• Video games
• The Internet
• Hanging out with Friends that don’t share our godly goals

To keep our chaff metaphor going, one might say that Satan is launching chaff to counter our goal to get to heaven. Nothing is wrong with these activities in and of themselves, but how much is leeched from our visitation, our Bible study or our family time?

Now think about some of the “overlooked” sins

• Social drinking
• Clothing that isn’t as modest as it should be
• The lottery
• Dancing

Even if we are good time managers, many of today’s activities are desensitizing us to things that should be offending us. Even so called family shows and cartoons are riddled with innuendo and “mild” curse words.

In the end, an active Christian in good standing with his peers might find himself off target when it is all said and done. Just like an experienced radar operator can pick out his target in the midst of the chaff, we need to keep our sights on the target. We became Christians when salvation became our objective. When the chaff is “burned away,” will you still be on course?

The moral to Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare is often given as “Slow and steady wins the race” or compared to Solomon’s idea that “the race is not to the swift”. (Ecclesiastes 9.11)

I see a call to finish the race. Tortoise won because he stayed on track and crossed the finish line. The hare on the other hand, napped and frolicked because knew he had plenty of time to take care of business.

Paul compared our heavenly journey to a race. (1 Corinthians 9:24, 2 Timothy 4:7, Philippians 3:12) We are to run it in a way that keeps us on course and allows us to finish, and qualifies us for the prize,

Like the tortoise, the mature Christian has this attitude. He forgets what is behind him and focuses on what lies ahead. He examines what is left to do to prepare for the call of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:14-16)

So continue on and fight the good fight. Finish the race. Keep the faith.

Daily Bible reading for May 7

The offerings are listed  at the tabernacle’s consecration. The Lord is Israel’s only Savior. Paul says to press on and don’t look back.

Psalm 126
Numbers 7
Isaiah 43:1-44:5
Philippians 3:1-4:1