7/23/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“”Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4.7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As I brought my reflections on the book of Revelation (that which was given to John the Elder, the Presbyter, the Apostle, the beloved Disciple of Jesus the Christ), I began with the passage above from James, the brother of Jesus. The call to resist and rebuke the enemy, whether in the flesh or in the spirit, may be the greatest witness of our faith in Jesus as the Christ. As mighty ones of God who take that Revelation to heart, we ought to focus on the straightforward approach to accomplishing the fulfillment of this calling. In the battle against Satan and his armies of “walking dead,” because their end is death and a fate they would fiercely choose, Christ alone employs violence. He doesn’t call His angel armies to stand against the amassed horde of hate but a holy conflagration out of the very Heaven they are rebelling against. It is a fire of such intense spiritual reality that none can escape it nor defeat. It is a fire of purification reducing one down to only the good that remains. I pray we would understand that there was no good left in them. They had totally surrendered themselves to the Great Deceiver. He used their “good” for evil. That is a far cry from what God does as we learned from Joseph when he confronted his brothers who had sold him into Egyptian slavery. In that moment, he declared, “What you have intended for evil, God has worked for good.” Paul declared to the Church founded within the Roman Empire, even within Rome itself, which was the entity of evil in that then known world, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8.28) Paul did not say that God used only good things to be used together for the good of those who love Him. Paul said “God uses all things.” We have to think about the challenge of that action simply because we know we live in a fairly subjective world. What seems good to some seems evil to others. What seems evil to some seems good to others. Some even see the good and bad in all things and are caught in the conundrum of what is truth and what is real. In the ultimate consideration only God knows. But, the fiery conflagration which the Lamb of God calls down from Heaven exposes what God knows is the truth. If there is anything redeemable, it will be redeemed. If there is nothing redeemable, it will be lost forever.

So, where does that leave us being urged by James who was speaking to the Church in Jerusalem “Resist the devil and he will flee.” If we think that the test case in the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter and his sword and the temptation of Jesus on the cross by one who intended evil are true, what are we left to do? In the case for Peter who took a sword and cut off Malchus’s ear with the intent of taking off his head, Jesus rebukes Peter and heals Malchus. No “evil” was going to impede the good which was about to happen. Good? Jesus was arrested brutally, tried aggregiously and crucified horribly in the following hours. How, in the moment, could good be seen in that? Of course, this is the trial and tribulation of every human being. Caught in the midst of “evil,” by whatever definition you use, what is the best response? Ideally, of course, it would be the response of faith believing in the word which has been given to us by Christ Himself. We are, because of that word, intended to embrace His perspective as our own. It requires the resisting of short term vision and the capturing of the long term revelation. Jesus said to Peter, “How else am I supposed to drink from the cup given to Me?” A blood bath in the Garden of Gethsemane would not have resulted in the sacrifice of the cross for the hope of salvation. Jesus may well have been killed on the spot. His life and ministry would have been remembered but as that of a martyr or a good man who ended up as collateral damage in a very brief skirmish of poorly armed disciples and a well-armed Temple guard already stirred to a frenzy by the fear spawned by the Temple leadership. [We see such “skirmishes” today and the mindlessness and more importantly the spirit-lessness of them spawns only further conflict and dangerous retaliations as a “justifed” response.”

Then there is the conflict on the cross between the thief who was committed to evil and the temptation he placed before the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. “If you are the Messiah…” he taunted. The desire for proof of His divinity by the forsaking of His mission both by letting Himself down from the cross as if it never bore Him and the calling down of angel armies to defeat the evil in their midst, the Roman Empire, would equally have defeated the purpose for which Jesus lived and then was willing to die for. It was not Jesus who silenced him and the murmuring crowd but the thief who saw the evil in himself and knew he was justly being punished. But even in that moment, he could not refuse recognizing the divinity of Jesus and pleaded a merciful death and a fond remembrance of him in Paradise. Jesus promised not only to remember him but they would enjoy Paradise together after the cross. In both instances, what we find is a battle of wills: will we believe by faith or will we believe by works.

We are confronted with this battle in today’s world. The culture and climate of the world seems to favor “works,” whether they are of good or evil intent. Such works required that other lives are given for our safety and self-identity. Someone else must die and give up their rights, privileges and hopes so that we may have our own. The challenge exists for all people regardless of which side of the line they choose to stand. It is a part of that great debate which becomes more important than the truth to be learned from it.

But, as mighty ones of God, we are called to affirm and embrace the way of “faith.” Paul’s call to arms/armoring which we read in his letter to the faith community in Ephesus speaks to the reality of a “faith” battle. He wrote “We are not fighting against flesh and blood but rather against a dark force which exists in every venue of life.” The armoring Paul solicits is that of a “prayer warrior” who speaks the truth and prays for deliverance of others as they themselves have already been delivered. They are members of a “royal priesthood of all believers” that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God who is accepted and proclaimed as Lord of all and the true Messiah. [What is a faith that is smaller than a mustard seed? Is it that which the modern Church exemplifies in its piety, evangelicalism and “good works”?] I ask you to think on that as battles rage, we complain but do we “resist, rebuke and reconcile” openly and confrontationally in love armed with the power of prayer? Following James’ urging to “resist the devil” in 4.17, he adds in 5.18 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

It is time to step of our prayer closets and dust off our knees and pray openly, witness boldly and serve gladly for the sake of promoting the gospel which liberates eternally. It is one thing to say “I thank God for letting me have this opportunity to serve others or to provide for their needs.” It is a totally different thing to complete the effort which we are called to exert and that is “to bring in the harvest, the lost lambs, the broken and wounded” and show them the place that is theirs “on earth as it is in Heaven.” If we are not witnessing to the thrust of the gospel, then we are doing no more than Peter cutting off ears or Judas representing a prophetic misunderstanding or a thief who denies the truth that is before His eyes professing a false hope or a Church who adopts a social gospel over the true gospel. We are keeping Christ from drinking the cup which is given to Him. It is the same cup that is offered to us who are in Christ confessing our sins and professing Him as the “way, truth and life” which makes all the difference in the world.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, Your love is almost beyond our imagination as to its full meaning and implementation. Yet, in Jesus you have made it abundantly clear. We desire more than simply to be saved. We want to be harvest gatherers and change lives even if the world refuses to change and accepts the dead end as its only end. Pour out Your Spirit on us and clear our minds, hearts, souls and bodies so that You can use all of us to bring about Your good. We want Your will to be ours. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.