Peter Witkowski Discipleship

King Saul, Fear, and When Anxiousness is a Sin

Fear, anxiety, and paranoia often reveal a lack of faith.

Admittedly, a lack of sleep, an unbalanced hormones, and other physical causes can also contribute to fears and anxiety. If we fail to recognize the physical aspect of our personhood, we can misdiagnosis the cause of our emotions and further entrap ourselves in anxiousness. We wrongly can assume that the solution to our disorder emotions is repentance when its sleep.  As Martyn Lloyd-Jones notes, “You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind, and spirit.” But when physical causes have been accounted for and the fears, anxiety and paranoia continue, then we must turn our attention to our souls and to the concept of sinful fear.

One of the most paranoid, anxious, and fearful biblical characters is King Saul. In 1 Samuel 22:6-19, he thinks the whole world is against him. He accuses his closets supporters of revolution and murder. Consumed with worry, Saul then orders his troops to murder God’s priests because he believed they had “conspired against me.” Fear led Saul to commit unspeakable atrocities.

Saul’s soul pulses with fear because he had rejected God and had repeatedly tried to find his security, peace, and hope in men and women. Saul offers unlawful sacrifices in 1 Samuel 13:11 because the “people were scattering from me.” He also refuses to destroy the Amalekites because he “feared the people and obeyed their voice.” In response to Saul’s sin, God rejects Saul. The prophet Samuel declares, “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel (1 Sam. 15:26b).” Saul felt anxious about everything from his friends to his political power because he lacked saving faith. Those who do not know Christ cannot help but be anxious.

Sadly, Christians struggle with anxiousness, fear, and paranoia even though “perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).” Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, William Cowper and many other Christians have found themselves engaged in a lifelong battle with fear and worry.

Because Christians of all eras and ages regularly battle fear, evangelical leaders have begun to label anxiousness and her sister terms as being mental illnesses, deserving of acceptance, love and compassion. One author tells us to “Never judge those with anxiety.” Another Christian counselor has said chromic anxiety cannot “be cured by having more faith or praying more prayers.” The evangelical world has begun to view fear as an experience to be embraced, tolerated, and ultimately accepted. Essentially, the thinking goes, “I’m fearful and I am ok.”

Though many Christians struggle with fear, that struggle originates from a lack of faith. As seen in the Life of Saul, fear could only gain control of the life consumed by unfaithfulness. The priest Ahimelech and the future king David who have much more to fear than Saul find peace amidst the threat of death for they locate their trust in God, the King of Kings. Biblical Counselor Lou Priolo concluded,

Fear is God’s built in alarm system to let me know that I do not love God and others as the Bible says I should.

Christians experience fear, anxiousness, and paranoia because for brief moments they are living apart from faith like Saul. They should not embrace their fears. Rather they should examine their hearts to see where they have begun to stray from their faith.

To battle fear, Christians must do more than generically pray and have faith. They must reflect upon their God, their, salvation, and their purpose. The antidote to worry is the power of God. Even when Ahimelech and his family are murdered God reigns. Back in 1 Samuel 2:31, God had told the corrupt priest Eli, “Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.” Though God hated Doeg’s actions, he still reigned even as evil destroyed Ahimelech’s family. In a much greater way, God reigned while evil men killed Jesus on the cross (Acts 2:22-24). Yet that great evil led to our greatest good, our salvation. If God’s will and his plan cannot be thwarted by the greatest tragedy of all time, Christians have no cause to fear the tragedies the sit outside their doors. They have no cause to fear employment, broken relationships, or even death itself. God reigns and their salvation is secure. Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted,

Of course they [those in heave] are happier than we are, they are in a land where there is no sin, no shame, no sorrow, no sighing; more happy – yes – but they are not more secure.

Jesus’s words found in John 10:28 should inflame our souls with hope and confidence: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Christians have no cause to fear; the perfect love of Christ cast out fear.

The followers of Jesus should also not fear because no trial can keep them from their purpose.  In Mark 12:30-31, Jesus said men and women were designed to do two things,

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Christians can love God and their fellow human beings whether they live in palaces like Jonathan or are persecuted like David. They can live for the glory of God even if they are broke, are perpetually single, or receive discouraging news. Circumstances cannot keep us from God and keep us from fulfilling all that God requires of us. Christians have nothing to fear.

To eliminate fear, Christians do not need to flee their problems, they need to rest in their God, their salvation, and their purpose. And to foster a heart of faith, Christians must dive into the Words of God. Isaiah 26:3-4 clear states,

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

If you lack faith dive deep into the Scriptures. Read them; pray them; plead with God over them; use them to remind your heart of God’s character, of your salvation, and of your purpose.

Lloyd-Jones said, “A miserable Christian is, in a sense a contradiction in terms.” Do you agree?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Holy Bread & Jesus: When its “Ok” to Skip Church

skipping-churchChristians feel uneasy when both ministry and people claim the same square on our calendar. We are getting ready to start the service when a young man interrupts the announcements and asks for prayer. We are driving to choir practice when are sister calls and asks us to come over because she is having a down day. We are walking into our Sunday school room when our mom calls and asks if we can run her to urgent care because she has a bad headache. What do we do?

We welcome the young man, we give up choir practice, and we leave Sunday school.

In 1 Samuel 21, David comes to Ahimelech the priest for food. Unfortunately for David, the only food available is the show bread. After being a display for a week, the bread is sent to “Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it (Lev 24:5-8).” David clearly lacked priestly credentials. Yet Ahimelech “gave him the holy bread for there was no bread but the bread of Presence (1 Sam 21:6).” Though modern readers might question Ahimelech’s wisdom in discounting God’s law, Jesus does not. He praises the priest in Matthew 12:3-8, declaring that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.

What does all this mean? Can we dispense with the law of God? Is God saying that the strict Jews of his day and those who champion the purity culture are a bunch of godless, legalists who have misrepresented the heart of our loving God?

No. Jesus is not tossing away the law and declaring as one author said, “God accepts us as we are, without judgement or condemnation.”

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass form the law until all is accomplished.

Jesus spends most of the sermon on the mountain fortifying the law of God, equating adultery with impure thoughts and murder with anger. Jesus does not think we are broken and beautiful irrespective of the law. He upholds and defends the law, calling us to obey it.

If that is the case, why does Jesus allow his disciples to eat grain on the Sabbath and pastors to wear blended suits? The laws against eating pork, touching dead bodies, and wearing blending clothing were attached to the practice of sacrifice. They existed to teach men and women that God was holy and that they were not. They showed that people could only commune with after they had been purified by a sacrifice. The sacrifices were a picture and a reminder of the great sacrifice to come, Jesus Christ. God told Hosea,

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than brunt offerings.”

The sacrifices could not save or purify one’s heart. Rather they taught sinners to fear God and provided men and women who lived before Christ with a means of working out their faith with fear and trembling. The laws gave opportunity for faith but were not the measure of faith. The sacrifices, ceremonial cleansings, and wearing of right clothes could be carried out by unbelievers.

In short, the ceremonial laws were not salvation. They were a picture of salvation. Thus, the priest could work on the Sabbath and violate God’s command against Sabbath work. The things worshiped were always greater than the means of that worship. Because Jesus reigns and we know the sacrifice, we no longer have to slit the throats of pigeons. The curtain has been torn in two by the cross.

How does the above discussion answer our dilemmas? It reveals that we are made to love God and to love our neighbor. Things such as business dress, choir practice, and Sunday school can facilitate the worship of God well. But they are not essential to the faith. They are a means of worshiping God but they are not the thing worshiped, Jesus.  We can worship God by loving our neighbor, by caring for our sister, and by having compassion upon our mom. God is just as honored and glorified by practical ministry as He is by ties, choir concerns, and Sunday School attendance pins. I am not advocating that you regularly skip church like one famous evangelist who intentionally joined a church more than 900 miles from his home so that he would not have “to work in church affairs.” No, we need the local church as Hebrews 10:25 reminds us. But, we must never become so attached to our programs, traditions, and schedules that we neglect the worship of God and the love of others for the tools that were designed to help us worship and love.

Are you ready to handout the showbread?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Deconstruction, Saul, & Why God Wins

deconstructionTerms change but people do not.

Most Christians have encounter the term  “Deconstruction.” The word describes men and women who fall away from the faith once “delivered for all.” They are former church goers who openly deny salvation in Christ alone by faith alone.

Though stories of people walking away from the church are disheartening, they are not new. Since the world began spinning, men and women have boldly pledged allegiance to God while secretly caring on a war against Jesus. The apostle John reminds us,

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. – 1 John 2:19.  

They leave; they deconstruct because they were never truly followers of God. Their open war against God manifests what has always existed.

The question then becomes what do we do when we encounter former friends battling the God of the Bible? To answer this question, we will go back to the Old Testament.

In 1 Samuel 19:18-24, David encounters a man who had “Deconstructed” his faith. King Saul who once professed allegiance to the God of Israel, openly and repeatedly defies God. Seeking to overcome God, Saul decides to kill David because God has said David will be king. Instead of worshiping God, Saul now labors with all his might to oppose God. Fearing for his life, David runs to Samuel at Ramah. He runs to the people and to the words of God.

When we encounter those deconstructing their faith, we too should run to the people and to the prophets of God. The attacks of those who once claimed Jesus and who once sat at our feet as we taught the gospel can drive sorrow deep into our hearts. David said “Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me” because his “companion” his “familiar friend” now “taunts me.” When we feel such sorrow, we should run to the family of God for support. For the family of God loves us and cares for us. Most importantly, the have access to the Word of God. When are hearts are wounded and heavy, we do not need to mull about on Facebook, scan through Instagram, or attempt to lose ourselves in a tub of chocolate ice cream. Rather we should reminded ourselves of God’s promises of salvation.

What promise do we need to be reminded of? We need to be reminded that the Word of God wins. In verses 19-21, Saul’s sends messengers to kill David. All three groups get to Ramah and immediately start prophesying. Irritated by the failure of his men, Saul sets out to do the job himself. After getting directions to Samuel’s location, Saul arrives with murder on his breathe. But he never gets to David. He strips to his underwear and prophecies.

This seemingly odd story reveals a profoundly simple truth. God wins! Though modern deconstructionists pursue God with science, reason, and appeals to love, God’s Word will not be defeated. God will not be defeated of evolution, socialism or the sexual revolution. When the dust settles, God will still be on his throne. And those who believe they can fight against God will be humbled. Instead of calling God to account, God will demand that the say and confess his words.

Even the greatest politicians, scientists, and cultural icons will be humbled. Saul goes expecting a different result and gets utterly humiliated. The greatest man in Israel is exposed as nothing more than a week fool. The former friends, the professors, and the celebrities who can talk circles around us will be exposed by God. Do not embrace their arguments and their promises of power, success, and acceptance. Their titles, their awards, and their connections will not stop God. He will win; he will demand that the confess him as Lord. They will be unable to resist him. Their weakness, their frailty, their puniness will be exposed. God will win. “Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

God wins! Will you run attack him like Saul or run to him like David?