12-4-2016

Good Morning All,

              Revelation 2:10b; “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life”

      We like to use the word faithful a lot.  We want a faithful dog; we want our car to be faithful; we want our politicians to be faithful.  But what do we really mean by that?  Usually it means we want them to do what we want them to do.  We want our dog to roll over, fetch, sit up and play catch when we want to.  We want our car to run forever with a minimum of effort on our part to keep it going.  We want the politician to always vote for our interest; whether it is the best for the country or not.  We really have a warped sense of faithfulness.

    The Bible uses the word “faithful” often.  It actually starts in Genesis and goes all the way through to Revelation.  Throughout the whole Bible; throughout our whole existence; God shows his faithfulness to us.  Through his creative and restorative process of us; he displays his love for us.  Yet God’s love is the outward expression of his nature to be faithful.

     What we as human often fail to see is that what God truly calls us to be is to be faithful; faithful to trusting in his promise of forgiveness.  As much as we don’t like to think it, it is not disobedience which causes us to go to hell; it is unfaithfulness.  Our disobedience is simply the outward sign of our unfaithfulness.  When we do not trust in God’s promise, we look elsewhere for our security rather than trusting in God for it.  It is not a question of obedience; it is a question of faithfulness.

    Many Christians, especially American Christians, struggle with this truth.  They prefer to think in terms of obedience and disobedience.  If we think of receiving God’s grace because we are obedient; then we can remain self-focused.  We can think in terms of “God is rewarding me” so what I have is mine.  Those who do not have must be disobedient.  I am getting mine and they are getting what they deserve.  The problem with that is that God’s love for us is from his faithfulness not our obedience.  When you look at God’s love as a gift and a sign of his faithfulness, it calls into question our faithfulness because ours is lacking.

    If we are honest, it is our lack of faithfulness to God’s promise that causes us all our problems.  We tend to think in terms of “deserve” instead “given”.  Imagine you are at a family dinner gathering.  As you sit around the table, the host brings out the food on platters.  It is given to the first person who takes from it and passes it on.  What if he thought he deserved that platter of food, he might just put it down on his plate and keep it; leaving you and the others to go hungry. 

   We need to see that God’s call to us is to be faithful; to be faithful to his promise for when we are we see God’s incredible grace in our life and we see the need and we have the desire to share God’s gifts with others.  So as we go through life and we look at all the gifts and blessings that God has given us; are we just the first person to receive the platter at the dinner table?  Are we sharing the platter or are we placing it down in front of us?  Are we faithful to God and his promises and his call to us to be his witnesses and his agents here on earth?  Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

Dearest Father, too often we are unfaithful to you and to your promise.  Our faith is weak and we fail miserably.  Forgive us for our sin.  Cleanse us and renew us that we may fully trust in you as our only provider and savior.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret