King David was the greatest king of Israel, but he was not without flaws. In his one major blunder, he chose not to go to war when he was supposed to and stayed home in Jerusalem. While at home, he saw a woman bathe on her rooftop. He went after her, had an affair with her and ultimately killed her husband, who was one of his Mighty Men, to cover up the pregnancy. This is all recorded in 2 Samuel 11. In the next chapter, Nathan the prophet, came to David told him a parable, and it broke him. David repented of his sin, then Nathan said this: “You have given the enemy cause to blaspheme God.”
How many times have we been guilty of this? In Ken Ham’s study of why youth are leaving the church in Already Gone, one of the top ten reasons cited was hypocrisy. The Christian leaders were speaking these “great truths” and yet their lives revealed nothing of the sort. I have frequently wrestled with this reality. I do a great job at speaking the truth with full conviction, but do I live it? Is it part of my reality in my life? Sometimes yes; sometimes no. I am not talking about perfection here at all. These teens want genuineness, not perfection.
For a supposedly “Christian” nation where frequent polls indicate 60-70% of the nation claim to be Christian, how exactly are we doing in following what we claim to believe? Thousands are killed on a daily basis by abortion. Sexual deviancy is all but completely loosed from its chains running around like a wild, crazy, rabid dog. The drug craze in this nation is #1 in the world by a long shot. False teachers are easier to find in public than sound preachers. All of this is what the world sees in a “Christian” nation. This is the image they get when they hear of a “Christian.” And they laugh and mock not just us, but the God we claim to worship.
That’s on a national level. What about in a church level? Gossip runs rampant in prayer groups under the guise of concerned prayer. There is far more interest in sports and politics in the church foyers than talk about God (not exactly innocent of that myself). Cliques in the churches tend to not look outward to needs, and visitors tend to be shown the “new kid on the block” response. Church youth groups look more like teen hangout centers just without drugs or alcohol and very little actual discipleship and teaching on true Christian living. Now there are many good churches out there, but they are getting harder to find.
On a family or personal level, are we being genuine behind our faith? Will someone hear what we say, observe our lives, and be able to conclude we practice or seek to practice what we preach? We claim to love God and be Christians, but does God have anything to do with our lives? Or is he just there when we need him to answer our call and desire?
David’s sin would haunt him the rest of his life. Yes, he was forgiven and yes, God restored his relationship with him, yet all the nations around him knew what he did and they had reason to mock God because of it. This is the same reason that Moses pleaded with God several times to not destroy Israel in the wilderness because of their sin: it was so Egypt and the other nations would not have reason to blaspheme him. Sure God and Moses would know the truth of what actually happened, but why give the enemy any legitimate grounds to speak what they speak?
Nehemiah recognized this tactic when Shemiah, a man of prayer, was hired to try to get Nehemiah to go hide in the temple to save his life from an assassination attempt. He refused to go in and cower in fear. He knew if he did, then Sanballot, Tobiah, and Geshem would have grounds to accuse him of not trusting God and eventually could bring him down.
We have to realize the entire world is watching us. Yes, our reputation with them is not important. If they think we are blundering idiots, let them think that, but let us not give them any reason to make such accusations true. Jesus said to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Daniel had the entire Persian government hierarchy turn against him because he was so much better than everyone else. The king, Darius, loved Daniel because of how good he was. Yet the officials could not find a single thing to charge Daniel with other than believing in his God. So they created an offense to charge him and got him thrown into the lions’ den. That’s how the enemy works. If he can’t get real dirt on you, he’ll make it up. But Daniel did not fear them nor the lions, and the rest is history.
The enemy is seeking any cause he can to force us to be silent and subdued, and if he cannot find legitimate evidence, he will make it up. My challenge here is that we have to do everything we can to make sure any such charges he brings cannot be founded. Paul got into a lot of trouble when preaching the Gospel in public and the only thing the authorities could say about it was that it was nothing but a religious disagreement. The time is coming when real formal political persecution is going to hit us here in the U.S. We will be arrested and imprisoned and who knows what else what they will do to us. Let it be found that the only legitimate charge they can bring up us is that we are Christian. Let us not give the enemy any cause to charge us with any other crime. Let not the enemy be able to accuse us of gossip or slander, or being contentious, lying, hateful, rebellious. Let him only be able to accuse us of being a Christian.
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2 comments:
Could words Charlie and I reposted for some family who need to hear this. Great timing, just like God, he always comes through when you need him to. God bless.
I think you mean "Good words", but it is a privilege to be able to share what God puts into my heart. Because I know if he is putting it in me, it is for two reasons: 1) to work it in me and 2) others around me need to hear it. You may use as you need to.
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