Involved in Saving Souls

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. one morning several years ago, a young lady was attacked in the street by a man with a knife. She was attacked a couple of times, and each time, the lights around the street came on to see what was going on. Thirty-eight people witnessed this attack, but no one wanted to get involved. Thirty-eight people watched a young lady assaulted three times, and they watched her die. No one, however, interceded in any way – not even to call the cops. The young lady’s death may have been prevented had someone simply decided to get involved.

Staying Uninvolved

Think of the souls you see every day. How many of them are dying spiritually? How many need us to become involved in their spiritual lives? With how many of them do we study the good news of God’s word? Too often, like those witnesses to that murder in the illustration, we just don’t want to get involved.

We make many excuses about our lack of involvement. We claim to not know enough, but II TImothy 2:15 says the remedy to that is simple: study. Ephesians 5:17 calls on us to understand that word. Think of all the things you’ve learned in your life – a specialty, how to cook, trivia and information that fascinates you. We should put more same energy into our study of God’s word than we do into those other topics.

We may believe we don’t have anyone to study with, but think of the numerous people we see every day. How many people do you tell when you have a piece of good news to share – around our workplace, on Facebook, on Twitter, with perfect strangers. Matthew 10:38 calls our world a field in which to sow the seed of God’s word. Everyone we meet is a potential recipient of God’s word.

Unfortunately, we sometimes decide those people are unwilling to hear God’s word. I Peter 3:15 tells us to always be ready to share the hope within us, but we may fear ridicule or rejection. II Timothy 3:12 and Matthew 10:35-39 both warn us that we will indeed face that rejection we fear, but we can’t let that stop us.

Conclusion

We cannot be timid when it comes to God’s word, and we need to be seeking God’s approval more than man’s. Romans 1:16 calls the gospel God’s power of salvation. Do we truly believe that? Are we really unashamed of that good news? What will we say when we see those souls again on the last day? John 15:1-2 warns us against being cut off for lack of bearing fruit.

We should be making every effort to share God’s word every chance we get. We should be actively involved. Matthew 5:13 calls us the salt of the earth, and verse 14 calls us the light of the world. We must be active sharers and doers of God’s word if we are to fulfill those roles. We cannot be like those who just stared out their windows when tragedy struck one of their neighbors. We need to be involved in saving souls.

lesson by Jason Farmer

Consider the Paperclip

I want you to think a moment about paperclips. Now, at first blush, you might think there is not much to think about when it comes to paperclips. They’re pretty simple, aren’t they? You don’t have to tax your imagination overmuch to figure out what they are for. They say what they do, and they do what they say. They also do it pretty well, but is that all they have to be? Do they have to be regulated to the lowly function of clipping papers together all of the time?

Consider the Paperclip

View more presentations from Robert Smelser.

Thinking Outside the Box

In the book Breakpoint and Beyond by George Land and Beth Jarman, the authors use paperclips – among other objects, rubrics, and techniques – to measure divergent thinking among fifteen-hundred people. This divergent thinking is simply the ability to come up with varied solutions to one problem, and one of the problems they measure is this: how many uses can you think of for a paperclip? Most people may come up with ten or fifteen, but a truly divergent thinker will come up with a couple hundred uses. Yes, for a paperclip.

The research they did was a longitudinal study, meaning they kept coming back to the same subjects over a period of several years, evaluating them on their divergent thinking at multiple stages in their lives from early childhood to adulthood. They found something pretty staggering. At age five, 98% of the children scored at the highest level for divergent thinking. By age ten, that number had dropped to 50%. By adulthood, that percentage had fallen drastically farther.

Everyone in Their Place

As we get older, we like to impose order in our lives. Things fall into narrower and narrower categories. We like a place for everything and everything in it’s place. Unfortunately, while paperclips may not be adversely affected by our tendency to categorize everything, we also do this to people. We have those labeled as “friend,” who we share our joys and secrets with; those with whom we live closely and will be well aware of our spiritual walk; those who may even be sharing that spiritual walk with us.

Everyone else, we lump into categories based on our opinions of them, and those opinions are not always kind. We throw around various terms and labels that serve to dehumanize those with whom we differ behaviorally or ideologically. Even if we don't intend dehumanization, those labels, at least, form a barrier between us and them – many synonymous with "enemy" in our minds. How likely are we to share God’s word with someone we view as an enemy?

Then we have those harmless labels that still serve as barriers in our spiritual relationships with others. These labels are not demonizing or nefarious in any way. They are merely functional labels. They describe the purpose that person serves in our lives. These are perhaps the true paperclips in our lives – those we see often in our daily jobs, errands, and chores, but we never try to pursue anything more than that context-specific relationship.

Looking Beyond the Labels

If everyone is pigeon-holed as either someone unlikely to receive the gospel (because we’ve judged them to be unlikely) or as someone we never even think of outside the context of their function in our daily routines, then the number of people we may actually consider sharing the gospel with can grow vanishingly small.

Let’s look at some of the people Jesus reached out to in His ministry:

• A Centurion. In Matthew 8:5, a centurion comes to Jesus, expressing faith in Christ’s power to heal his servant. Here is an idolator; here is one oppressing Jesus’ people, but He shows mercy upon this one the world would define as an enemy.
• Zacchaeus. In Luke 19:2, Jesus meets and goes to the house of Zacchaeus, despite his being a potentially dishonest tax collector, one who would have been looked upon with scorn and loathing by others.
• An Adulteress. In John 8:3, the Scribes and Pharisees haul a woman caught in adultery to Jesus’ feet. Instead of condemning this immoral and immodest woman, Jesus shames her accusers and offers her mercy.
• Peter. In John 21:16, Jesus speaks to Peter, the two reuniting after Peter had cursed and denied Christ. He had betrayed the very one he professed to follow, but Jesus forgives him and charges him to continue serving Him.
• Judas. In John 12:3, Jesus gives a soft answer to Judas, despite Judas having a heart of greed and betrayal. Even with one who for whom all hope seems lost, Jesus shows kindness, even up to the very end.

How might we have treated these people differently? To illustrate, here’s a story I saw getting passed around Christian circles a couple of years ago:

…Inside one of my favorite restaurants, I noticed that my waiter was wearing a bright blue ,“Obama 08” tie; again I laughed to myself as he boldly and proudly advertised his political preference for all …When the check finally came I decided not to tip my waiter and explained to him that I was going to implement a practical application of Obama's Redistribution of Wealth concept…He stood there in stoic disbelief as I explained to him that I was going to redistribute his rightfully earned $10 tip…

The problem is that this (presumably) Chistian didn't look at the waiter as a soul who needs Christ. All he saw was a "liberal joke" that needed to see the error of it's ways. Whoever this guy was may have felt like he won a political argument for a day. He might have felt better about himself at the expense of another. He might have earned praise and accolades from those who agreed with him, but what did he do for that waiter’s soul?

Seeing What God Sees

To get past our secular labels, we need to see each other as Christ and God sees us – as helpless sheep in need of guidance and protection. In the final Servant Psalm of Isaiah, the prophet laments that we, like sheep, have gone astray. No matter the sins we have committed or the great deeds we have done, we are no better and no worse than straying sheep. Jesus, in Matthew 18:12-14, tells us the value God places on every one of His sheep.

If we can do that, then there will be no reason for us not to be willing to share the gospel with every person we meet. We need to stop seeing “cashier,” “bank teller,” “mechanic,” “liberal,” “socialists,” “wing-nuts,” “illegals,” “welfare queens,” or whatever other labels secular minds place on their fellow souls. Instead, we should be thinking divergently from the world and see something beautiful and new when all they see are paperclips. Then, just then, we may be able to begin loving and teaching the way Jesus did.

lesson by Robert Smelser

Warnings from Hebrews

The book of Hebrews was written to people who are likely second-generation Christians who are still struggling with the tensions between the traditions of Judaism and the teachings of Christianity. Many had, currently or at one time, relatives who would have seen Jesus as a false teacher. They would have had family and friends reject them, and the temptations would have been great to slip back into the traditions of their past. In this light, the Hebrew writer includes five warnings in his epistle to these struggling Christians.

Neglect

Hebrews 2:1 encourages them and us to give all the more earnest heed to the teachings of Jesus and His inspired apostles, confirmed by signs and wonders from God, lest we drift away in neglect. Hebrews challenges us to ask ourselves how we plan to escape judgment if we neglect and reject so great a salvation, a salvation planned from the foundations of the world.

John 20:30-31 concludes that the miracles and signs recorded in that gospel are for confirming our faith. Like those steps overviewed every time we get on a plane, have we heard God’s word so much that we filter it out? Ephesians 2:8 reminds us of the role grace plays in our salvation. While we were sinful, vile, and disobedient, God sent His Son as an unmerited gift of propitiation. God has given us a gift in salvation and eternal life in His Son, and the Hebrew writer makes sure we understand that we should not neglect so great a gift.

A Hardened Heart

In Hebrews 3, the author repeatedly quotes the 95th Psalm, saying, “Today, if you hear His voice…” He calls on us, in verse 12, to take care we do not develop an unbelieving heart, and he uses the next several verses to help us overcome unbelief – exhort each other, share in Christ, hold confidence, even to fear failure. We need to be aware that it is possible to harden our hearts and miss salvation.

We may simply choose unbelief, but I Corinthians 10:6-13 warns us to learn from the mistakes of those who came before us, lest we be overconfident in our faith and slip into arrogant disobedience. This is why the Hebrew writer warns us against becoming hardened to God’s word, for it can happen without us realizing it.

Immaturity

No one likes being called immature, and, when we most dislike it is when we are most guilty of it. In Hebrews 5:11-14, the author does just this. He admonishes his readers for being too spiritually immature to understand some things they should. He goes on in chapter 6 to then encourage maturation, so they and we do not fall away despite having tasted of the heavenly gift.

When we are not growing spiritually, skepticism, indifference, and apostasy may find room to creep in. An arm kept in a cast for several weeks quickly becomes smaller and weaker than the arm being used every day. Growth takes effort on our part, and it is something we should be working toward every day.

Falling Away

In Hebrews 10:26-31, the author addresses the dangers of deliberate sin, specifically quoting from Deuteronomy 32. Again, these are things his readers are familiar with from Moses’ teachings, but now it is being applied to rejecting Christ’s sacrifice, a sacrifice sealing a covenant greater than the one brought by Moses.

Refusal

The author uses the illustration of Esau in Hebrews 12:16-17, who refused to acknowledge the worth of his family birthright. This is compared to our own spiritual birthright, standing before the holy mountain, and we are warned, in verse 25, to not refuse the one who speaks to us now (Jesus Christ according to chapter 1:1).

Conclusion

In Jeremiah 44, after God calls on His people time and again to listen to His word, the prophet makes a final appeal. In verse 16, though, the people state they will not listen. Rather than refusing the word of grace, we should receive it gratefully, knowing the promises and gifts that come from our God who delivered Him.

God’s word can work in our lives if we avoid turning our back, hardening our heart, and closing our hearts to it. His word can change us from sinful creatures without hope into sanctified children with the hope of eternity. No one can force us to soften ourselves to His word, though. It has to come from within. We need to heed these warnings just as much as those second-generation Christians, holding to our faith despite anything that might try to take it from us.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Resolute Resolutions

I’m not the type of person to make resolutions when a new year comes. It’s not that I have anything against self-improvement. It’s not like I don’t want to be a better person. I don’t hold anything against others making resolution, but I’ve just grown a little jaded about resolutions over time. It’s almost as if we make resolutions simply to break them, and we make these resolutions with full knowledge that we will not keep them. Some resolutions, however, are worth keeping, and we don’t have to look any farther than our Bibles to find a few.

Resolute Examples

We see, in Daniel 1:8, that Daniel resolves to eat no unclean food while in captivity. Even though he is away from the temple, away from many of his peers, away from the priests and Levites, he resolves to do what is right in God’s eyes. This pattern then continues throughout the rest of his life.

Think also of Joshua, in Joshua 24:14-15, challenging the people of Israel to choose their allegiance between Jehovah and other gods. Joshua is resolute in his faith, and his example impacts his entire generation and the one to come after him.

In Acts 19:21, Paul resolves to go to Jerusalem despite the trials that will face him there. He purposes in his heart that this is the path he will take. Again, his resolute nature impacts many more than himself.

Being Truly Resolved

We should be resolute followers of Christ, but our resolutions cannot be lip-service. Simply making the statement does not make us follow it. Nor can we be purposeful because of peer pressure, for we cannot maintain a resolution if we lack individual commitment. If we are to serve God the way He deserves to be served, it takes a sincere determination of will that we will put our all into working for our God.

How could Daniel keep himself pure in God’s eyes despite all the ungodly influences around him? He and his companions could maintain their faith because they were determined to do so. Joshua, as well, sincerely wanted to serve God despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges associated with that service. Paul, Peter, Timothy, Titus – determination of will is what separates them from the pretenders of their day.

We should so want to do what is right. We need to be determined and we need a heart willing to sacrifice for that resoluteness. Paul, in Romans 12:1-2, speaks of spiritual service in terms of sacrifice, holiness, transformation, renewal, and proving. Long before Daniel, Joshua, or Paul demonstrated their own spiritual resoluteness, they had particular mindsets. We need to change our minds to be followers of God. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above, for we have died to all else. Philippians 2:5 simply calls on us to have the mind of Christ. When we set our minds to be like His, we can do anything.

This determination, however, requires a compliance of our hearts. In Matthew 22:35-40, one asks Jesus what the greatest of the commandments is. Jesus answers with two, and they both come down to love – loving God and loving our fellow man. We may readily submit to God intellectually while our hearts remain far from Him. Romans 10:8-10 reinforces the need of both heart and mind in faithful service to God. Finally, Ephesians 6:6, in the context of discussion serving earthly masters, admonishes us do God’s will from the heart.

Conclusion

Our spiritual resolutions do not have to be empty. Will you resolve to be a more faithful servant to God in all things? Philippians 4:13 encourages us that we can do anything in Him who strengthens us. We can rid ourselves of skepticism, uncertainty, and indifference if we are determined to have a Christ-like mind. We can be holy in an unholy society if we but yield our hearts and our minds to our Creator.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Priorities & Time

As our lives progress, our priorities change. Different things consume our time and our interests as we transition from childhood into our teenage years into our college years into becoming husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Over time, our focus drifts away from self and eventually upon others, on friends, on loved ones, on children, on family; and, as we grow from serving self to serving others, it helps us understand what it is to live a life of service unto God.

We reach a point in our lives when we start building a faithful foundation for another, and that, in turn, causes us to look more carefully at our own faith, how we live, how we spend our time. Ephesians 5:15-17 admonishes us to be careful with the way we walk and how we use our time, and we know our time is limited. James 4:14-15 calls our lives a vapor. It passes away quickly as do the other things of the world in I John 2:15.

Idleness Versus Diligence

Proverbs 19:21 remind us that man’s plans come and go, but God’s purpose is everlasting. He never stops to relax His work. Proverbs 6:6-11 calls on us to be like ants in our lives, not allowing laziness to creep in. Proverbs 24:30-34 warns us that poverty follows closely at the heels of inactivity. Finally, Proverbs 21:25 calls laxity a path to death, and this death is just as likely to be spiritual as physical.

Diligence is the answer to slothfulness. Proverbs 10:4-5 and 12:24-27 extol the benefits of industrious living. Chapter 13:4 says the soul of the diligent is made content, and Proverbs 4:23 calls upon us to guard our hearts with care and diligence, seeing it as our source of eternal life. This takes time, and it takes effort, but the work of diligent living drives idleness and sin from our attitudes and activities.

Diligence in Our Lives

We can work harder to be diligent in our home lives, managing our time and our priorities as a household. What kind of needs and growth do we plan for? What decisions consume the most of our time? Who do we look to for personal guidance or to guide our children? We all serve as spiritual leaders and examples in our families, and we must be diligent in how we spend our time with our families.

This diligence spills over into our work lives, in our reliability, in our career decisions, in the example we set for those around us. What kind of relationships do we build at work? What do our coworkers, our employers, our employees see in us? Christians in the workplace will look different from others, and we must be careful not to have the same priorities that the world often models for us.

God tells us we should be learning and teaching His word. II Timothy, Mark 6:15, II Timothy 4, John 13, Philippians 1 – these chapters and more contain verses reminding us that we should be spending time learning God’s word and then sharing that word with others. This affects how we spend time with out family, how we spend time with our jobs. It informs the way we behave around our family, friends, and coworkers. It should change the way we look at those around us, seeing them as those who can teach us or who need mentoring themselves.

Conclusion

It’s very easy to get bogged down in the countless details of this life, but our focus should be first and foremost upon God. Our time upon this world is short, sometimes driving us to an almost frenetic pace of living. In His sermon on the mount, though, Jesus challenges us to look beyond the rapid events of this life to look forward to eternity. How we spend our time now, the priorities we have, the activities we choose, will determine how we spend eternity.

Every day is an opportunity to focus on God and do more in His service, to grow spiritually and to help others grow spiritually. God created us for good works, and, as followers of God, His teachings should permeate every moment of our lives. Our time should be spent reflecting His grace, mercy, and goodness in our lives, putting Him first in all things and at all times.

lesson by Alan Miller