Anyone Listening?

Years ago when I was in college, I took a Business Law class where my soft spoken professor uncovered a host of lawsuits that had resulted from a lack of warning. In one case a ladder company was sued for having too many warning labels. Another one was from some guys who sued a lawnmower company for not warning against using a push mower as a hedge trimmer; needless to say the two men who used it to shape the bushes can now only count to 4 on their hands between the two of them.

Even if we go beyond product lawsuits in the material world, we still would love to have warnings on life. What if we had been able to warn a loved one before they took that trip, went with those people, experimented with that drug, bungee jumped off that bridge, or any number of things. Warnings are lifesaving if we listen. If we fail to listen then they are a guilty reminder that we could have done something. God gives us tons of warnings about making choices. One in particular is the warning God gave Cain in Genesis 4:6-7, “Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected?” God said as Cain sulked over his rejected sacrifice to God. “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Cain failed to listen and it cost Abel his life, and it cost Cain his security and freedom.

Generation after generation God continued to give warnings to kings, to leaders, to the citizens of cities and countries. He even gave warnings to his own children. Sometimes they listened, many times they didn’t.

Looking at our own slice of existence causes me to think about how responsive are we to the warnings of God? Violent crimes are typically in direct correlation to state of the economy; hard times equal higher crimes. Regardless of the countless mall, movie theater, and school shootings there seems to be little consideration as to what’s at the root. Although guns are often targeted as the problem for violent crimes, there’s something deeper that is too often overlooked or deliberately ignored. Just like Cain, many people across our globe have rejected the humble, selfless, and holy way of living prescribed by God; and thus we are all paying the penalty of social chaos and constant reminders that the American dream can become a nightmare when we too fail to listen to God’s warnings or instructions for life.

He still warns us of a day coming, and it’s not too late to listen. It’s a day “when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Paul also described what the world will look like once more and more people reject God’s plan for mankind. He said in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

How will those people in the “last days” get to that point in life? Overnight? No, instead little by little they’ll reject one of God’s warnings until one day they realize they don’t even know who God is.

We can read literally hundreds of verses that warn us against letting lust, hate, envy, apathy, and bitterness from becoming part of our lifestyle. Christians are equally guilty of failing to “submit to God” or “resisting the devil [so that] he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:7-10).

However, many people have listened to God’s warnings and saved themselves “from many griefs.” Even the warning that Jesus gave his followers in Matthew 24 about the upcoming destruction of their holy city, Jerusalem. He told them how they should respond when they see the “signs of the times.” They didn’t try to hang on to everything they had but realized the need to go. Delay was not an option.

Interestingly, some historians claim that a rather small number of Christians were actually killed in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Why? Because they listened to the warnings Jesus gave them. What about us? Will we be spared from a life of guilt and shame by listening to God? Or will we do as too many have done before us, and refuse to listen to him? Remember it’s in the daily decisions we make that demonstrate our listening hearts.

Freedom in Christ

The New Testament is typically broken down into 5 categories: Gospels, History, Paul’s letters, General letters (or epistles), and Prophecy. The more you know about the Bible, the more you can understand why it were written and how it can help us today. The biggest part of the New Testament was written to churches dealing with struggles, some inside the church, some outside. That so many inspired writers address the various issues they did tells us that under the New Covenant, God still cares about the motives behind our actions, and that there is a pattern of life we are supposed to be living by.

There were issues of whether the Jews had any leverage over the Gentiles. There was the issue of circumcision, special feasts, leaders, teachers, and pretty much anyone or anything that could influence how those believers of the first century accepted God’s message. Those letters basically helped define what “freedom in Christ” means.

Today we struggle with similar battles, and churches need just as much guidance and encouragement, challenges, or reprimands as the first century church did. Paul said in Galatians 5:1, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Freedom is always enticing, however some people handle freedom different than others. It’s for this reason that we see why it was so important that Jesus spend his life down here modeling how we are to respond to freedom without making ourselves vulnerable to attacks of Satan. Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

In John 17:1-24 we read of one of Jesus’ last recorded prayers to God before His arrest and crucifixion. In this passage He explains what He’s made possible to us, as well as His hope for all believers. Here’s a few lines from this wonderful prayer.
(1-3) “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so He can give glory back to you. For you have given Him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given Him. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
(7-8) “Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.”
(11) “Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.
(13-19) “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.”
(21-24) “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!”

If we could adopt even a portion of His same passion about the freedom He’s made possible to us and how that changes the way we live, then the world would truly see Christ as not only a good option but essential to peace–inside the church and outside of it. Praise God we’ve been given not only a Redeemer, but an example of true freedom.