Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Pain & Suffering

Trials Don’t Excuse You From Ministry; They Demand It

lonlinessChristians tend to withdraw from church, ministry, and relationships when trials flood over the dykes of happiness that guard their hearts. They fly to their basements of isolation, believing distance from God and from others will help them float atop the waves of adversity. But instead of safety, they find ruin.

In 1 Samuel 23:1-5, David’s troops advocate for such a withdrawal. They are being hunted by the vengeful King Saul who commands an army intent upon their murder. While they hide in the mountains, news reaches David that the men of Keilah face an existential threat.

The Philistines have begun to move against the city of Keilah at the conclusion of the harvest season. The Philistines intend to steal the newly processed crops, leaving the people of Keilah with no food, no income, and no means of remedying their situation. The raid threatens financial ruin and even death. When David heard of the imminent attack, he asks God if he should rush to the aid of Keilah? God tells David to “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah (1 Sam 23:2).” Though God says yes, David’s men say no for they are “afraid.” They feared that saving others from the sword would expose them to the sword.

David’s men like so many Christians today believe that trials excuse them from coming to the aid of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Many believers think hardships such as new medical problem, a death in the family, or a financial crisis absolve them from their Christian responsibilities. They fear that singing in the choir will exhaust them because their new illness threatens to lower their energy level. They worry that volunteering to work in the kid’s ministry will be too much because they are still grieving the death of a loved one. They stop tithing because they fear living on one income will be hard. In short, they assume that their trials excuse their fear and sanction their withdrawal from ministry.

Yet when David goes back to the Lord to make sure he heard God correctly, God reaffirms his message, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” Why does God still send David? Why does tell the hunted and the abused to go help other people with their problems? God sends David and his men on a mission because God knows that evil circumstances have a divine purpose. Cancer, the death of a loved one, and the shrinking checking account down are not signs of God’s neglect. They are not mistakes. B.P. Power reminds us that,

The good God, who has sent you your sickness, is the one who has ordained that nothing shall be useless. God has made you and put you in your present position; and he meant you to be useful in it, of importance in it too.

God’s reigns over both the good times and the bad; and, the bad times have a purpose. God tells to rejoice in our trials, our sickness, and our hardships “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

41HH4orqGPL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Suffering crashes over the walls of our happiness because God wants us to be fully satisfied in him. Illness, grief, and hardships exist to strengthen and enrich the faith of the Christian. When their hearts are covered with the murky flood waters of suffering, Christians should seek to live out their faith with earnest and zeal. Instead of withdrawing in fear, they should go liberate the men of Keilah. They should serve in the choir, help with the kids, and visit the depressed.

Some will counter the above plea, talking of how their presence in choir will discourage the body of Christ. They fear that other believers will look at their sickness, their tears, and their poverty and conclude that God is weak, uncaring, and unloving. Paul says suffering servants have the opposite effect upon the church. The hurting who suffer inspire the spread of the gospel. Paul writes in Philippians 1:12-13:

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

The command to love God and to love others can be accomplished by both the blessed and the hurting. Christians should go liberate their Keilah.

Despite the evidence, hurting Christians may doubt God’s promise of victory. They fear that obedience to God will end poorly. Such fear flows naturally into the heart of the believer, because Adam fathered them all. P.B. Power warns,

As soon as Adam fell, he become suspicious of God; and all his posterity have inherited this suspicion from him…Now here is an evil, plain and well defined, against which we must fight. We must not be always be suspecting God. If he says one thing to us, we must not think he means another. We must not suppose that he is doubleminded in any of his ways.

Christians should not be doubleminded about their God. Their loving God who calls them to serve and to do hard things will give them the power to achieve victory. The Philistines will be destroyed and the men of Keilah will be saved. Obedience to God always results in victory.

My bride, April and I, have witnesses this reality over and over again in our lives. We have come to end of day exhausted by parenting, marriage, and church issues. If we had our way, we would go pull the covers over our head and be done with life for the next few hours, but we have had to press on because someone is scheduled for dinner or a ministry at church is about to begin. Every time we have pressed on, we have experienced amazing blessing and victory. The people and ministries that threatened to drain our souls enflamed our souls. The people of God reminded us of God’s faithfulness, goodness, and power. And the issues that seemed to define the day as a waste only moments before become small and insignificant by the power of God’s grace. Those who fight on in faith never lose.

When the next wave of suffering hits your hurt, will you go to Keilah?

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?