There Is No Try, There Is Only Do

James 1:22 says, “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James goes on to compare a man that hears, but doesn’t obey, to a man that looks at his reflection in the mirror, and then walks away, and forgets what kind of man he is. If you look in the mirror, and see that your hair needs to be combed, you would comb it, wouldn’t you? If you don’t like the way you look in the mirror, you would take some kind of corrective action, right? If you see something in the mirror that you don’t like, and then walk away and forget about it, what does that say about you as an individual? Worse than that, if you hear the Word, and realize that you need to make some corrections, and just forget about it, what does that say about the state of your soul?
There are a lot of passages in the New Testament that talk about doing things. In Luke 6, Jesus made a similar comparison, but Jesus compared the doer to a man who built his house upon a rock, and the hearer to a man who built his house upon the sand; one had a solid foundation, and the other didn’t. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus told us to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us, and to do good to people that hate us, and to pray for those that persecute us. In Matthew 7:12, He taught us the Golden Rule. In Mark 3, Jesus came across a man with a problem with his hand on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees watched to see if Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath. Jesus asked them if it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, but they wouldn’t answer Him (of course, Jesus healed the man anyway). In Luke 17:10, we are told that when we have done everything that we are commanded to do, we are still unprofitable servants (good thing God is rich, and doesn’t need us to turn a profit). At the wedding at Cana, Mary told the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” That’s good advice for all of us.
Jesus Himself said that He did nothing of Himself (John 8:28). The former blind man in John 9:33 told the Pharisees that unless Jesus were of God, He could do nothing. In John 14:12, Jesus said that we would do greater works than He did.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, we are told that whatever we do, we should do to the glory of God. Hebrews 13:16 tells us to do good. 2 Peter 1:10 says to be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, ye shall never fall. 1 John 3:22 says that when we ask of God, we receive, because we do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
Now, Romans 7:15-22 gets really interesting. Here Paul talks about not doing what he wants to do, but doing things he hates doing, because in his flesh dwells no good thing, so, as much as he wants to do good, he finds himself committing sin, anyway. So, if we do things that we don’t want to do, it isn’t because of us, it’s because of the sin that lives in us. Of course, if you commit sin because you want to, then you are just a sinner, but if you get caught up doing things that you really, honestly don’t want to do, then God understands. Galatians 5:17 tells us that the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. The two are contrary to each other, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, so the flesh is going to try to get its fun now, while the spirit is going to strive for an eternal reward. The question is, which one do we want in charge? Which is more important, to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh in this life, or to reap rewards in the life to come?
The bottom line is, we can never do enough, that’s why salvation is a gift. At the same time, if we don’t do anything, we aren’t going to make it. A lot of people get hung up n the ides that it is simply a matter of faith, but read Hebrews chapter 11: How is the faith of those that have gone before us described? Isn’t it by their actions? Look at James 2:17, faith without works is dead. Don’t walk around with dead faith; that doesn’t do anybody any good.

Naaman

I started to mention Naaman the leper on Thursday, when the subject at hand was water, and we got into the rite for recovering a leper, but I realized that the story of Naaman would have taken up a lot of space, and not contributed that much more to my point. However, yesterday, my pastor preached the story of Naaman, so, now I will blog about Naaman. If you haven't read Thursday's post yet, though, you might want to read that before you read the rest of this.

Naaman was a general with the Syrian army who also happened to have leprosy. He was also married (with kids? the Bible doesn't say), and his wife had a Hebrew slave girl. I have to believe that Naaman was a benevolent master (for more than one reason). The girl (what was her name? the Bible doesn't tell us that either, even though she is very important to the story)told him that, in Israel, the man of God could heal the leprosy. Naaman, being an important man in the Syrian military, gained audience with the king, and asked permission to go to Israel to try to be healed. The king, who would have liked to have had this general healed, gave permission, and Naaman went to Israel. Naaman first went directly to the king of Israel. The king believed that this was a trick, and bemoaned the 'fact' that the Syrians were trying to pick a fight. Elisha the prophet sent a messenger to the palace, and told the king to send Naaman to see Elisha. The king, afraid that he was going to have a war on his hands if Naaman was not healed, sent Naaman to Elisha. Elisha then had his servant, Gehazi, tell Naaman to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was, at first, upset. I can imagine the thoughts running through his head: "What? we don't have any good rivers in Syria? There's something special about the Jordan river, I had to come all the way to Israel to take a bath? Are you suggesting that I am a leper simply because I don't wash enough?" But one of his servants said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith unto thee, 'Wash, and be clean?'" So Naaman relented, and went and dipped himself in the river Jordan, according to the words of the prophet. Now, he went under once, and came up still a leper. He went under a second time, and came up still a leper. After he obeyed completely, and dipped himself the seventh time, then he came up clean. So then Naaman went back to the house of Elisha, and tried to give him presents for the healing. Elisha told Naaman that God had healed him, and that he should be grateful to God, and wouldn't accept any gifts. Gehazi, meanwhile, is thinking, "What? Are you crazy? He's got all this stuff that he brought specifically for this healing, and you won't take any of it?" So Gehazi snuck off, and ran and met Naaman's chariot before he had gotten very far, and told Naaman that Elisha had some unexpected guests, and could he just get a little something for them? Naaman was only too happy to give Gehazi whatever he wanted (which, to be honest, was still only a fraction of what Naaman had expected to pay for his healing), and wished Gehazi and Elisha well, and went on his way. When Gehazi returned to Elisha (after hiding the stuff), Elisha asked him where he went. Gehazi didn't think Elisha had even noticed him being gone, and replied, "Thy servant went no whither" (I didn't go anywhere). And Elisha told Gehazi exactly where he had gone, and what he had done, and then told him that Naaman's leprosy was now Gehazi's. Gehazi looked, and he was leprous.

Now, I mentioned that Naaman was a benevolent master. The Hebrew girl might have told her master about the greatness of God even if she didn't like him, but the one servant called Naaman, "My father." I have heard some people say that that servant was Naaman's son, but I don't think so. I know that sometimes slave owners have taken advantage of their female slaves and wind up with little ones, but they generally either brought those children up as slaves, and never acknowledged that those slaves were their own children, or they brought them up as their own children, and not as slaves. It seems to me that this servant was basically using shorthand: He was saying, "Master, you know that I love you and respect you as my own father..."

I think that it is very telling that Naaman went to the king of Israel and the king didn't have a clue what to do. A lot of times we get into situations, and we may pray about the situation, we may believe that God has the answer, but we try to work it out on our own anyway.

When the man of God told Naaman what he needed to do, at first Naaman didn't like it; but, when he realized that what he had been asked to do was simple (maybe a little weird, but easy to do), he went and did it. Once his obedience was complete, then he was healed, but it wasn't a question of, well, I'll dip myself three times, and then be about half healed, and that will be good enough. Okay, I admit it, that's kind of stupid: Why would anyone settle for being half healed of leprosy? But so many times God gives us something to do, and we either do it half way, or we do it half-heartedly, and then we wonder why we don't get the reward. If you were washing cars for a living, and only washed half of each car that came through, would you expect a whole paycheck? Keep it up, and you won't get a paycheck at all...

Naaman can be forgiven for thinking that the gift of God can be bought with money. God owns everything, he doesn't need money-but churches have expenses, and God has given parishioners to churches, and he's given jobs to those parishioners, and he blesses those that pay their tithes...

Gehazi, on the other hand, tried to turn a profit just because he was present when a miracle took place. To be honest, out of all the people in the story, Gehazi is the one that I can identify with the most. I probably would have fallen for that. Naaman's got all this stuff that he wants to give away, and you won't take it because you didn't do anything... Can't I at least have some of it? Yeah, I know I don't deserve any of it; I didn't do anything either, but he wants to give it away... But, you know, God has so much for me that I already don't deserve.

Christmas Is Coming

Here we are at the end of November. Only a few more "shopping days" 'til Christmas. Everybody wants to know what they're getting for Christmas. We've already been given a great gift. It's available to everyone, but some people won't accept it. Some would, if those of us that understand it could make it clear just what it is, and how easy it is to obtain it. It's a free gift, but that doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything. What does that mean? I'll try to explain, but let me remind you of the scripture that says Great is the mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:16). Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:3) that you must be born again. Whatever you think you had before accepting salvation, it isn't yours anymore. It might still be in your possession, but it isn't yours. It belongs to God. Really, it always did anyway, so it's not really a loss...Sometimes it seems like a great loss. Apostle Paul also wrote once, "What fruit had ye in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed?" It took me awhile to understand that question, because I read it as if he was challenging the Romans on the ground that they were ashamed of something that they did before they accepted Jesus Christ. I couldn't understand what could be wrong with being ashamed of something that one did before they had direction... Then, after some prayer, I realized that he was challenging them on the grounds that they were ashamed of what they were doing for Christ, and kind of wishing for the days before they got saved. Very much like the Children of Israel got out in the wilderness and started wishing that they were back in Egypt. The point being that there will be times when it seems like life was better before you got saved, Notice I said 'seems.' The Bible also says that it rains on the just and the unjust, but we have a bad tendency to not remember the bad times in our past.

I saw something in a sit-com once where one of the main characters is trying to explain prayer. He said, "Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you get what we need, and sometimes, you just get what you get." A lot of times, the things we need the most, we don't even pay attention to, because they don't look like the things that we want. Sometimes we get things that we don't even understand why we got them until much, much later, and then it is often too late--we've already discarded it, thinking it wasn't something we wanted. All too often, too, the things that we want, are not what we need, and can keep us from getting what we need. The late Ruth bell Graham once said that if God answered every prayer, she'd have married the wrong man three times. Of course, she didn't really mean that God doesn't answer prayer, but His answer is 'No' a lot more often than we would like. What we have to keep in mind is that He says no because He has something better for us.

I hope that helps, Lyn. I'll be praying for you.