Death

The pastor urged the congregation to give generously to the church building fund stressing the benefits it would offer the saints. He drew on the generosity shown for the tabernacle and the temple in a bid to press home the importance. All this for what appeared the umpteenth time.

The sister opened her front door and closed it to the echo of silence she had heard all these years of being alone. While she knew others would have the sound of children or at least have a spouse to relate to, all she had for company was her cat. The loneliness was becoming unbearable as she fell to her knees again to beg God to do something about her situation.

The brother was wracked with guilt. It was so easy to put on a show for the church. Even his parents thought he was a conscientious student getting on with his uni work and contributing to the church youth group as a role model of dedication for those looking on. Yet he knew that when he went to the privacy of his own room, he was feeding his porn addiction with the material he could get online. He knew it was wrong, but he felt he just couldn’t help himself. He also felt he couldn’t tell anyone.

All these issues and similar ones all relate to a need for God to make the breakthrough, to make the difference, to provide or to deliver. There is also an element to which we can miss the point in trying to deal with surface issues.

What if the church got the new building, the sister got a husband and the young brother got delivered from his addiction? What would that matter, if the root worship issue wasn’t addressed?

Some of our requests for reasonable actions by God, actually do not lead to positive outcomes. The brother goes from one addiction to another more subtle and corrosive addiction to pride. The sister demands her husband to be the answer to all her issues and grows in frustration and bitterness when his flaws appear ever before her. The church spends so much on the building that it becomes the focus of all attention with the vast majority of income spent on maintaining it to the cost of actually developing the lives of those who are the church.

In situations like this I am reminded that Jesus invites us to come and die. We must die to self to follow Him. The New Life cannot emerge until the old life is disposed. The new wine won’t be wasted in old wineskins. Our daily devotion to Him is to be ever aware of His presence and allow His Lordship to expose, uproot and reject anything that is unlike Him. That may mean dying to things we think are so important to us like material creature comforts, or relationships that have become engrossing to the neglect of God’s Kingdom priority.

The altar of sacrifice is where things are consumed completely, and God expects everything – however well intentioned, to be available for sacrifice. As we do so His life and His plans can be fulfilled in us who claim to follow and worship Him only.

That may very well see deliverance from addiction or provision of a spouse. More importantly what it means when we die is that He who is life will shine even through the hard times and His glory can be expressed as we surrender to Him.

To the praise of His glory and His glory alone.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden