Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Christians Have an Identity

identityWho am I? The identity a man or women claims profoundly shapes their life. According to the broader secular culture, human identity is found within. Yet the method of discovering one’s true self is fraught with the uncertainty and peril for no person can quickly interpret their biological and environmental influences. They must simply try things and take their emotional temperature without knowing how tomorrow’s experiences could reshape their values. The unending search for uncertain meaning leaves many a soul asking as Kelly Clarkson has sung, “Can someone just hold me?” Don’t fix me, don’t try to change a thing. Oh, someone just know me.”

In contrast to the secular world, Christians claim to be known. They claim to be the sons and daughters of Jesus. And as the children of God, they have clearly defined identities. According to Jude 1, Christians are the called, the beloved, and the kept.

Christians are called. To be called touches on God’s providence but also lands upon holiness. To be called is to be called out of sin and darkness and into righteousness and light (1 Pet 2:9, 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:8-9). Christians have left behind anger, greed, and bad jokes. To be a Christian is to be a man or woman who has been reformed and who is reforming. Those who identify with the calling of God pursue the mercy, peace, and love of God. They quickly confess their sins and offer forgiveness. If they feel the impulse to find meaning in sex outside of marriage, in coveting, or in mistreating their neighbor, they feel from their desires. The Christian knows that happiness comes from embracing the commands of God.

Second, Christians are loved. The believer’s connection to God exists because God loves the sinner. In Ephesians 1:4b-5, Paul writes, “ In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” Salvation is God proactively loving sinners. He sends his son to live, die, and rise again so that our sins will be washed away. He then sends his spirit to open our eyes so that we will repent and believe as we begin to understand the height, depth, and love of God (3:18). And those who identify with God’s love are changed by his love. Jesus says,

I made know to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26).

Jesus gives his children the hug they have been searching for. But the hug does not just surround the Christian; it transforms him or her. Jesus provides believers with the love they lack. The man and woman who identities with Jesus should embody love in all they do. Christians find their identity as they cook diner for the old lady who has unfairly criticized them, as they speak kindly to the child who broke their lamp, and as they meditate upon the deep, deep love of Jesus.

Lastly, Christian are kept. God the Father calls them. Jesus keeps them. Though Christians may find themselves daily if not hourly in need of God’s mercy, they will never exhaust God’s reservoir of forgiveness, grace, and love. The Christian cannot lose their identity in Christ. Jesus tells his listeners in John 10:27-29:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

No person, spirit, or power (including you and I) can break the loving hold of God. Moreover, Jesus’s keeping power means he can keep Christians from stumbling. Christian do not have to fear that they will be undone by the uncertainty of tomorrow. Jesus will keep them from stumbling whether they inherit millions or learn they have cancer. To be a Christian is to have an unmovable divinely appointed, loving, and fully secure identity.

The Christian has been wrapped in the arms of God. And his loving hug will never end; he will never leave you wanting more. Friend, have you embraced your identity in Christ?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Don’t Waste Your Spiritual Crisis

Rahn Emmanuel, the former Mayor of Chicago, sent the media world into a conniption fit when he said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Despite the controversial nature of the phrase, the idea was not born in the political world. The Scriptures encourage Christian to not let their crises go to waste. James reports that crises and trials which test our faith can produce “steadfastness” which enriches and purifies our spiritual lives. Conversely, Matthew 13:21 warns that tribulation and persecution cause one to fall away from the faith delivered once for all. Though ever house on the spiritual bluff will be tested by storms, the outcome of those gails can either lead people to spiritual enrichment upon the rock of Jesus Christ or to spiritual death upon the sands of doom.

How do Christians keep their crises from going to waste?

We love the Lord with all our heart soul mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. After spending a deceitful year in the land of Philistia, David’s life comes crashing to a halt. He and his men had been ungraciously removed from their post in the Philistine army. When they return home to console their wounded egos, they find burnt walls and empty rooms. Every woman and child they left behind had been captured. The text reports that “David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep (1 Sam 30).” David is greatly distressed because his family is gone and because his men speak of stoning him. All David has left is God. And to God, David turns. First Samuel 30:6b says, “But David strengthen himself in the Lord his God.” David returns to God. He stops listening to his heart. He stops listening to his men. David returns to the promises of his God In 1 Samuel 23:17, the expression strengthening someone in the Lord is followed, Jonathan saying, ““Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.” To strengthen their hearts in the Lord, Christians must recall God’s promises of salvation, mercy, love, justice, and grace. They should preach to their hearts telling their weary souls of the wondrous might of their God.

And how do Christians know their hearts have been strengthened?

They ask God what to do. For the first time in more than a year and four months, David consults the Lord about what do to next. And God responds, ordering David to rescue his family and the families of his men. David goes.

Often Christians feel overwhelmed by cancer, financial insecurities, and by troubles at school because they refuse to obey God. They attempt to fix their problems through hard work, determination, and self-centered manipulation. They refuse to obey God and refuse to love others. To make the most of trials, Christians must know and obey the Word of God. There is no other way but to trust and obey.

When Christians love God, they cannot help but love their fellow man. The minute David returns to the God, he begins to love others well. When he meets the sojourning Egyptian slave, David lives out Exodus 22:21 which says, “ ““You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” By following God’s revealed will, David gains helpful intelligence on his enemy’s positions. He and his men sweep down upon the Amalekites, crushing the men who had stolen their families. They defend the defenseless. At the end of the day, David and his men head home with their families, their possessions and the spoils of War. Some of David’s men begin to return to unholy ideas and proclaim that only the men who fought in the battle deserved to profit from the arduous day’s work. David bluntly said, “You shall not do so, my brothers.” Why? David says, “The Lord…He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that come against us.” David shares his wealth because he understands that all wealth, power, and success comes from the Lord. He understands that the man who prays and the missionary who goes are both indispensable to the kingdom of God. David loves both equally. He does not play favorites. He loves his fellow man regardless of whether or not he is a foreigner, in distress, or unproductive in the world’s eyes.

For suffering to be a matter of all joy, we must meet the waves of adversity with the love. Friends, are you ready to make the most of your next crisis?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

The Myth of Wasted Time

Christians rightfully lament the hours, days, and years they wasted fighting with a spouse, entertaining fools, and pursuing the wrong career. They naturally assume that squandered time should equated with godless time. But that assumption proofs incorrect when measured against the teachings of the Bible. Though we may walk away from the Lord, God never walks away from his children. If you are trusting in Christ for your salvation, not one year, day, hour, minute, or second of your life has been wasted.

In 1 Samuel 29, David abandons God and lives with the Philistines. The future king of Israel assimilates quickly into his new culture, winning the confidence of the Philistine King and a place in nation’s military command. David comes within two days of fighting against King Saul, the Lord’s anointed. Had David taken the field with the Philistines, he would have lost his ability to lead the nation of Israel for either he would have fought against God’s King or he would have betrayed the trust of his new friends in the middle of the battle. Either way, David would have secured his kingdom by his hand, marring his conscience and the conscience of his soon-to-be kingdom with the shedding of innocent blood (1 Sam 25:30-31). As David stood upon the brink of spiritual and political disaster, the commanders of the Philistines intervene because the Hebrews had a history of stabbing the Philistines in the back (14:21). Moreover, the gentile Lords knew David was not an ordinary Hebrew; he was the giant slayer, the man of whom was tagged on Instagram as the slayer of “#tenthousands.” Despite the king’s plea, the generals win the day. The king tells David, “Go back now and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines (1 Sam 29:7).”

Instead of recognizing the blessing of divine providence, David objects to the Philistines’ request, saying, “But what have I done?”

We know the answer to David’s question. Though the King of the Philistines thought David as pure as an angel, 1 Samuel 28 reveals that David has been less than angelic in his dealings with the Philistines. He has been raiding their allies, murdering their friends, and lying to them about his success, claiming all the spoils came from the Israelites. The Philistines had ample cause to dismiss David.

But David’s hypocrisy aside, his resolve to continue on with the campaign against Saul remains undaunted. He wants to go to war against God’s people and is restrained by a wicked king who commands David to “start early in the morning and depart as soon as you have light” (1 Sam. 29:10b). Because of the Philistines, David would be more than sixty miles removed from the frontlines when King Saul died. David could not be accused of killing Saul or of participating in the king’s death. God used evil, wicked kings to protect David from his sinful foolish heart and from cultural misconceptions.

In short, David’s year and four months in the land of the enemies was not wasted. God used that time to keep David from being actively involved in Saul’s death. God ordained that time to prepare David for his upcoming reign. God was working admits David’s idiocy.

Friends if you are a believer today, God has been working in your life. Those wasted moments of our lives were being woven together by God to get us to our heavenly kingdom. Though we should lament our sins, learn from their consequences, and seek to avoid the Philistia’s in our life with an unquestionable zeal, we do not have to pretend those time of foolishness did not exist. God was moving in our lives then just as much as now. He was sending us bad bosses, unfair judgements, and petty friends because he was preparing us to reign with him in heaven. He was orchestrating our divine homecoming. Though we may not be able to trace the kind hand of providence that appeared in 1 Samuel 29, we know it is still present. We may leave God; but he never leaves us.

The message of 1 Samuel 29, finds beautiful, succinct magnification in the words of Paul in Romans 8:28.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Christian there are no wasted days in God’s divine economy. Do you agree?