Making a Name for Yourself

There are a lot of people in the Bible whose names aren’t even mentioned. Paul’s nephew helped keep Paul alive once, when he overheard some zealots taking a vow not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul; not realizing that Paul’s nephew could hear their plan. Paul got away clean; I wonder if the zealots maintained their vow?
There was a widow woman that Elijah dealt with; she had a pot of oil that didn’t fail, all because she was faithful to God.
Philip had four daughters that were prophetesses, but we are not given their names.
There was a woman that was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. That’s an interesting story, in and of itself. She managed to sneak up, in the crowd, and touch just the edge of his robe. He stopped everything, and asked the question, “Who touched me?” The disciples didn’t know what to think of that. “Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” But Jesus was aware that someone had received a healing. He didn’t mind that she had gotten healed, of course, but He wanted her to make a public profession of faith. If you want to sneak in to get a blessing that’s fine, but you’d better tell people what God did for you…
There was a man who had died, and his friends were on their way to bury him, when they were attacked by the Moabites. In their haste, they just threw the corpse into the open sepulcher of Elisha. As soon as his body touched Elisha’s bones, he revived, and went chasing after his friends (which probably gave them extra incentive to run).
The man that we know as the rich young ruler was never named; just as well, I guess, since he ended up walking away from Jesus…
The boy who gave the disciples the two fishes and the five loaves of bread that Jesus used to feed the five thousand, is not named.
The blind man that Jesus healed in John chapter 9 is not named. That’s an interesting story, in and of itself. This man was born blind, and the disciples wondered about that, because the cultural superstition of the time was that blindness was punishment for sin. How could this man have sinned before he was born? Was he being visited by his parents’ sin? Jesus told them that this man was born blind specifically that God might be glorified, then he made some clay, and put it on the man’s eyes, and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. So this guy goes to the pool that Jesus specified. Now, I don’t know how many pools there were in the area; Siloam may have been the nearest one anyway, so it would be no surprise that he went to that one, but it may also have been that there were several other pools closer, but he decided to do what Jesus told him to do, even if it wasn’t convenient (if I was trusting someone to give me my sight, I think I’d have done exactly what I was told to do). After he washed the clay off, he received his sight. Eventually, someone led him to the Pharisees, who, of course, didn’t want to believe that Jesus had opened the blind man’s eyes. Of course, the man couldn’t have picked Jesus out of lineup; he had never seen Him. The Pharisees called in the man’s parents. Is this your son? Was he born blind? How does he see now? The parents verified that he was their son, and that he was born blind, but refused to say anything about Jesus (the Pharisees were putting people out of the synagogue for confessing Christ). So they came back to the man that had been blind, and gave him the third degree again. Finally, they told him to give God the praise, because they didn’t know who this Jesus was, not realizing that he was giving God the praise. It ended up that the formerly blind man told them that if Jesus were not of God, He wouldn’t be able to do anything, and they put him out of the synagogue.
The point is that, it’s not about becoming famous. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that we should let our light shine, that men may see our good works, and glorify our Father, which is in Heaven. Not that any of us are so great, but that God is great, and if we show His good works to those around us, they should come to know Him. If you get your name in the papers, that’s fine, but be careful that God gets the glory. The Pharisees at least had that much right.

Seek Ye First

Friday I posted about not seeking a spouse, but what I didn’t mention is what one should seek. Jesus said, in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” I think most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the context; Jesus was teaching (the Sermon on the Mount) and telling people that they shouldn’t worry about what they should eat, or what they should wear, or the basic things of life. The important thing is not what one eats, or what one wears; it’s where one will spend eternity. How one lives will determine where one will spend eternity, but not how one handles the mundane things of life; it’s how one handles the things of life that are more important. If you put God first, then everything else falls into place.
God cares about us, and He will take care of us, if we let Him. If we worry so much about this or that, things that He’s planning on taking care of us for us, anyway, that we don’t get done the things that He wanted us to do, then what have we really accomplished? Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good, to them that are the called according to God’s purpose. There are many times when it doesn’t seem that way; we have problems all around us, and it seems that nothing is going right, and yet, the promise holds true. Whatever we actually need, God will take care of for us. Does that mean you should quit your job and go out evangelizing? No, God gave you that job, not only to help provide for yourself, but so that you can be a witness to the people that you work with (not a preacher, by the way, unless that really is your job title). Should you sell all that you have, and give it to the poor, the way Jesus told the rich young ruler? Only if Jesus really speaks to your heart and tells you so. But he told the young ruler… Yes, He did. IMHO, Jesus told the young ruler to sell his things because Jesus had come to the realization that this young man, although it says that he had great possessions, it wasn’t so much that he had great possessions; it was that those possessions had him. There was no way he could keep himself focused on God with all the stuff that he had, and he didn’t understand that they were just things (as evidenced by the fact that he went away sorrowful). That’s conjecture, of course, but I think it makes sense. The bottom line is that he had so many things that he wanted to have, that he wasn’t able to gain the things that he needed to have, even though God wanted to give those things to him.
Well, what if the thing that I need is a spouse? Well, my first question would be, do you need a spouse, or do you want a spouse? Tell you what, never mind, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s the thing: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” All these things. If you need a spouse, then that would be included in ‘All these things.’ If you don’t need one, then once God gives you whatever it is that you really need, you will probably realize that you don’t need a spouse, after all. Of course, if you go about seeking a spouse, then that makes it hard for God to give you a spouse. Does that sound crazy? it’s not; if we keep getting in the way when He’s trying to work, then we just make things more difficult. The Bible says to cast your cares upon Him, for He careth for you, but so many times, we cast our cares, and then snatch them right back, as though we’re afraid that He will make things worse. Why can’t we just trust God?

update: I logged in this morning and spotted a typo in the title. In the title! That has been corrected.