The Heaton File

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)

The Blessed Life

Jesus taught the multitudes in a manner that was very different from what they heard from the scribes. His message was a radical change from the stoic form worship so common. The Jewish leadership had made much of the worship to God a matter of salvation by works with its liturgy of keeping the traditions of the fathers rather than heartfelt worship. As the multitudes came to the Lord on the mountain, He began with a startling view of a follower of God. The disciple of the Lord would have a heart that sees how wretched they are before a merciful God. Entering the kingdom of heaven begins with the removal of self and acceptance of the dire state of sin found in every man. Poverty begets the riches of God’s glory. This brings about a spirit of sorrow in knowing how great the Savior is and how much we need Him. Living under the grace of Christ we see what our sin did to God’s Son in dying on the cross.

People of God are meek souls who know how much God loves them and how much life is dependent upon the love of God. This spirit removes pride and arrogance. Man has a tendency to serve himself first. Followers of Christ submit their whole spirit to the will of the Lord leaving nothing for man to boast. “Thy will be done” is on the lips of all those who seek Him in meekness. It is not about the worship of self but the praise of how much God has done for man through His Son Jesus Christ. Hungering after righteousness is the passion that drives the heart to long for a deeper relationship with the Father. In the physical body, hungering and thirst are powerful motivations. Jesus illustrates the need of having a desire to follow those things that are right and true. This does not happen on occasion but like hunger and thirst – daily.

Disciples of Christ are filled with the mercy of the Father. No man can fully grasp the measure of mercy given to man. We show mercy to others in the same manner the Father extends mercy to us. Forgiveness from God is seen in our forgiveness of others. Kindness, love, compassion and all the characters of mercy received from the Father live in our lives as we show the same attributes toward others. Born from a pure heart we see clearly the face of God. Longing to have a heart free from sin will only come with the heart is filled with poverty, sorrow, meekness, hunger and mercy. Purity of heart is derived from the desire to look deeply into the eyes of the Father and find the peace that passes all knowledge. Sons of God are those who seek peace, make peace and show peace. Persecution will not hinder the spirit of God’s child because he knows the reward to living a blessed life is found in the words of Jesus on a mountain long ago.

Be happy today. Do not let this day be a day of gladness – let it be a day of exceeding gladness to know the blessed life of serving an awesome God. Be blessed. Be a blessing.

To some, Christianity is an argument. To many, it is a performance. To a few, it is an experience. (Vance Havner; 1901-1986)

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17)

The Unseen Army

It was a frightful scene. A huge army surrounded the city with horses and chariots and there was no hope in sight. The king of Syria had sent his army to Dothan to capture one man – Elisha. Under the cover of darkness, the Syrians had taken up positions around Dothan waiting for the morning to dawn. Frustrated by the word of Elisha warning the king of Israel about his battle plans, the Syrian king had put a bounty of the head of the prophet. As morning dawned, the servant of Elisha looked out beyond the city and saw the great army encamped throughout the land. His heart was faint with fear as he faced what he thought was certain death. Anxiously he asked Elisha what they should do. It would be a good time to leave or to barricade themselves in a secure place and the servant knew that time was of the essence.

The spirit of the servant and the spirit of Elisha were very different. What Elisha knew filled the mountain – the servant had not seen. The prophet of the Lord was not concerned about the Syrian army for there was a greater army that Elisha belonged that would defeat any army of man. He tells his servant the army of the Lord is greater than the Syrian army. Praying to the Lord, the eyes of the servant are opened to see a wondrous thing. All over the mountain stood the army of God full of horses and chariots of God’s ministering angels ready to do battle for the righteous. When the Syrians attacked, Elisha prayed for the Lord to strike them with blindness. Leading them to Samaria the prophet showed mercy to the enemy and let them return home unharmed.

We fight a great foe daily that is a defeated adversary. Satan has no power if we stand against him. What Elisha saw on the mountain has not gone away. The army of the Lord will still fight for us if we but call upon the commander of the Lord’s army. Before Joshua went against Jericho the commander of God’s might stood before him giving him assurance. Our Father in heaven has given us the armor of God to fight against the wiles of the devil and to defeat him time and time again. We are joined in battle by the horses and chariots of the unseen army in Elisha’s day to cause Satan to flee from us. Faith will open our eyes to see this army and implore the Lord God to send His army to vanquish the forces of evil that seek our destruction. Knees bent in prayer petitions the militia of holiness to rise up against the foes of God. Prayer is the power of the army. Faith is the sight of our trusting in the Lord to fight our battles.

Elisha exhorted his servant to remember the power of the Lord is greater than any power man has. The power of Christ within us is greater than the power of the devil. Let us call upon the power of God to fill our lives each day. Never allow the forces of Satan to defeat us on the battlefield of faith because our Lord is King of Kings and Lord of Lords leading a victory parade of white horses to the throne of our Father. Open your eyes to the power of God’s might.

Satan, the accuser of the saints, takes great delight in worrying feeble believers who sigh when they should be singing. (Vance Havner, 1901-1986)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Remember The Basics

1. Faith is necessary for salvation. Without faith, there is no hope, no joy, no knowledge, and no promise. Faith guides us, fills us, moves us and keeps us. It is the foundation of our relationship with an unseen visible God. Faith.
2. Birth does not grant faith; it is born from hearing. When we come into the world, our hearts are pure and undefiled. The ravages of sin mar the landscape in time and we need salvation. Hearing is the action of receiving faith on a heart filled with sin. Without hearing, there can be no faith and without faith, there can be no redemption. Hearing.
3. The word of God is the lock-pin of the hope of salvation. Grace is found in the mind of God revealed to man through the written word. Without the written word, man would be hopeless. It is not in man to save himself. The word of God is the only means that man can find the knowledge of redemption. Found in the word of God is the nature of man, the failing of man, the need of man and the answer for man. This is not revealed in the world. It is only found in the Bible and the Bible alone. The question of what a man must do to be saved is found in the written word. God’s love in sending His Son fills the pages of the written word from cover to cover. The word of God.
4. Faith comes from hearing and hearing will only come from the word of God. The degree of faith is first measured by the knowledge of God’s will. Without a loving relationship with the word of God, faith diminishes. If faith is a fire, the word of God is the wood that builds that fire. How much wood you have in your heart will determine how much faith you have in your life. More wood – more fire; more faith. Faith + hearing + the word of God = joy and peace.

Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God. (Ecclesiastes 8:10-13)

Delayed Justice

The Lord does not desire that anyone perish extending a longsuffering spirit for men to change their lives. Since the beginning of time, the grace of God has allowed men to continue in their rebellion with the hope of repentance. In the days of Noah, the kindness of God’s love allowed the earth to remain for many years while Noah preached the message of salvation. In the end, only eight souls were saved. Through the prophets, an appeal to repent was given to the nation of Israel before calamity came but largely went unheeded. The northern tribes were destroyed with the southern tribes enduring seventy years of foreign captivity. When John the Baptist heralded the coming of the Christ, his message was simple: repent. Jesus preached the same message. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles declared remission of sins began with repentance. The early church spread the news of God’s longsuffering to a lost and dying world.

One of the reasons that so few repent is because they mistake the forbearance of God as saving grace without any future retribution. The wise man exhorts his readers to embrace the kind mercy of God but not be lulled into believing that judgment will not come for their rebellion. Sin has a price to be paid but for many the cost is not realized until judgment. Warnings are posted of the danger of sin but no consequence is experienced in this life. For many who live without God they do not understand why anyone would fear punishment for sin. Living a full life with all the gusto of a reckless life has no serious consequence so why worry? What they fail to realize is that while no penalties may be incurred in this life there will be a reaping in the everlasting.

The law of sowing and reaping is an absolute. What is different is the timing. The sentence against evil may not be seen until after death but it will become clear when death surrounds the soul. Whatever a person sows in life, he will reap in eternity. If evil is his way of life there will be a consequence when he awakens in eternity. Satan lulls us into the belief there are no consequences to sin. He convinced Eve and he was found to be almost true when he told her she would not die. When she ate of the fruit, she did not die – physically. What he failed to tell her was the whole truth. The nature of sin has always been the same. Sin is like a credit card with no limits – what you buy now you pay for later. Because there is no immediate consequence to sin in this life men fully set their hearts on drinking deeply from the deceitful cup. Too many people think they can charge their life will all this sin and declare bankruptcy without any penalty of payment. That is a lie. Payment will always come due.

Sin will not go unpunished. There will always be a payday. The heart of men can be fully set to do what they desire to do but there will always be a judgment day. Two things are certain in life whether men believe them or not: there is a day of death and there is a day of judgment. All men can see the reality of death but few believe that beyond death another day awaits. Denying the judgment does not dismiss the reality. It will be well with those who believe in death and judgment because they know a loving, caring and forgiving God. Sin does not have to have dominion over the soul because through Jesus Christ it can be defeated. The victory we have in Christ is that perfect love casts out fear. There is nothing to fear in death because judgment is glory. Sadly, for most men, death will be the final realization that while evil was not punished in this life – there will be a day of recompense. Then it will be too late.

In this day, when law and order seem on the way out and criminals get only a slap on the wrist, it is well to remember that the wages of sin remain the same and what men sow they will reap. (Vance Havner; 1901-1986)

Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. (Joshua 23:14)

The Faithful And Sure Word Of The Lord

Joshua had lived to be one hundred and ten years of age. His early life had been spent in Egypt under the harsh hand of the Pharaoh. He had witnessed the power of God in the deliverance of the Hebrews from bondage through the miracles of the plagues, crossing of the Red Sea, deliverance by the hand of the Lord from enemies; great and powerful miracles in the forty years of wilderness wanderings. It was Joshua that led the people across the Jordan River to conquer first Jericho and then the promised land. As death neared the old soldier of the Lord, he exhorted the people to choose whom they would serve. The reassurance he could give by his personal witness was that God never lies, always keeps His promise and everything – everything promised by the word of the Lord came true.

No man or nation of men can make a boast of the integrity of keeping every word from generation to generation. Joshua had seen one hundred ten years of unbroken promises. No matter what came up against the people, God was always faithful. Often the people mistrusted the Lord rebelling against His grace but the Lord remained true to His word. The Hebrews murmured, complained, rebelled, rejected and tried the patience of the Lord but in every story, it was the Lord who kept His word. God never failed. The people failed often. When the Lord promised to protect the people He did. When the people disobeyed the will of God He punished them – just like He said He would do. Joshua affirmed from personal experience that God never lied.

If there is one single theme throughout the Bible, it is this: the Lord God keeps His promises. The goodness of God and the severity of God are sure and true. All of the blessings of His goodness are given to men who obey Him. All of the promises of punishment will be meted out to those who reject Him. All the good things will come and all the harmful things will come. Men forget. God does not. That is good. That is bad. When we believe the Lord will overlook our rebellion forgetting what we have done we have deceived ourselves into thinking that God is like us. It is impossible for man to keep all the promises he makes. It is impossible for God to lie. Big difference.

The assurance of the doctrine of God’s pure word is that He has promised eternal life. This is not a “maybe” proposition but the sure word of the Lord. There is a place of eternal rest for all the faithful of the Lord who love Him, obey Him, embrace His word and walk in His footsteps. Heaven is a real place built upon real promises. There should be no doubt or fear. Not one word of God will fail. On the other hand, the wrath of God is just as sure. To those who refuse to obey the will of the Lord sure judgment will come. Either case – God does not lie. One of the great lessons from the Old Testament is the stories that prove this point. Repeatedly God reveals when He promises blessings they come in accordance with His word; and when He warns of destruction His promises are sure and steadfast. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord God of truth and promise keeping. Lord come quickly.

God’s word is not simply a communication or an object statement, but a positive command which does not permit man to assume the attitude of a spectator or to enjoy mere disinterested research. (Adolph Keller, Religion and the European Mind, 1934)

But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:46-49)

Life On The Rock

The teaching of Jesus has a simple side to it. His disciples admitted from time to time there were some things hard to grasp but more often than not it was crystal clear the meaning of the Lord’s message. He was trying to draw the hearts of the people of God back to the Father. Ritualistic religion had become the norm and the Jewish people had forgotten the roots of true worship. The teaching of Jesus was radical to their way of thinking and powerful to point of their astonishment. He spoke plainly. He was not concerned about whether it offended the Jewish leaders of the day. The work His Father had sent Him to do was the one way, the one truth and the one life. It is important we view His teaching in this manner.

Many desired to call Him their lord but did not want to do what He said. This was contradictory to His message. God has always required men to be obedient to Him. From the Garden of Eden, submission was paramount to happiness and only when man decided to disobey God did sin enter in. Jesus challenges the people to remember that if they want to follow the King they have to give full submission to His will alone. Following Christ is not a democracy – it is a monarchy. There is one king and that king is Jesus Christ who is King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. Calling Him lord necessitates submitting to His total will.

Jesus explains the reason for submission to His Kingship. Satan is the enemy of God and the deceiver of God’s people. He is powerful, cunning, and crafty and doing everything he can to destroy men. His tactics are as violent as a storm against a building.  Using a familiar picture the Lord explains the assault of the devil like a giant storm blasting against a house. A flood will destroy anything in its path. An uncontrolled river barreling down a valley will remove anything not secured. The effects of evil will come against man and without the proper foundation, there is no hope. Life is like a house: it will have either a sure foundation or little footing to withstand the pressures of Satan’s assault. When we secure our lives on the teaching of Jesus Christ, nothing will sweep us away. Unfounded lives will be destroyed easily by Satan. How great that fall will be.

Jesus does not promise a life without challenges. There will always be pain and sorrow because life this side of eternity is filled with the storms that seek to destroy us. Hearing the word of God and doing the word of God will build a solid foundation of faith in our life so that when the difficult times come we will be able to withstand whatever Satan throws against us. It requires hearing but it especially requires doing the will of the Father. Our roots of faith must remain deep within the word of God. Faithful children of God will know how to face the storms of doubt, fear and troubles. The more we spend time with God the deeper our foundation. Life on the rock will be a life of joy and happiness because of our eternal security in the love of God. My hope is built on nothing less.

Speed-reading may be a good thing but it was never meant for the Bible. It takes calm, thoughtful, prayerful meditation on the Word to extract its deepest nourishment. (Vance Havner; 1901-1986)

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)

Our Father Which Is In Heaven

My earthly father died in 1989. Mom followed a year later. Father’s Day is a day I miss seeing my dad and smelling his musk he liked to wear as he opened the presents we would get him. I enjoyed 32 years with my dad. He was not a preacher nor the son of a preacher but he left a legacy in me that I treasure. I was blessed to be the son of two godly parents who loved the Lord and did their best in difficult times with few nickels to rub together. I miss my father. The older I get the more I miss my heavenly Father. I have never seen Him face to face but I know one day I will be able to do that. The amazing part of meditating on the word of God is how much clearer the image of His face becomes. Even then, it is such a whisper of a face that I think about. I am certain that when I see Him face to face it will be nothing as I have imagined.

John’s revelation reveals the joy of being in the presence of the Father. We will see the face of the Father. No one has seen God at any time save His Son. Imagine that. From Adam no man has seen the face of God. Moses came close but not really. The passing glory of the Lord is so intense no human could withstand its might and power. Blessed with eternal life is the knowledge that we will be able to stand in the presence of the Almighty Lord God and peer deep into the eyes of a loving Father. People often have such a distorted view of heaven. They may comment on how boring it will be to just sit around ‘playing harps’ and ‘floating on clouds.’ This is such a carnal view of what the glory of eternal life will be. I believe it is safe to say that standing before the presence of God will be an experience that we will not be able to take our eyes off of His face – forever! His name will be on our foreheads and we will be glorifying His name. What a joy that will be.

Our eternal Father’s day will be a place where there is no curse, no sin, no pain, no sorrow and no death. All the saints will gather around His throne in the eternal glory of His majesty and worship His name as we behold His face. What a day that will be when our Savior we shall see. His image will be clearly before us. His love will pour in our hearts. Everlasting joy will consume our thoughts as we bask in the sight of seeing our Father face to face. In the hope of redemption, my earthly father will be there along with my mom. As much as I miss them both it is my eternal Father that I cannot wait to see face to face. His glory will be so amazing. Don’t you miss Him already?

Heaven at present is out of sight, but in due time, as snow melts and discovers what it lay upon, so will this visible creation fade away before those greater splendors which are behind it. (John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 4, 1843)

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

The Bug Man Who Was A Litter Bug

If you have lived in North Central Florida for any length of time, you are familiar with a successful pest control company who has had a popular motto that says, “The only bugs we can’t control are litter bugs.” The company has been very involved in the community and offers services that are established upon the principle of exceeding  customer expectations. This past week I was driving behind one of their small cars with advertising all over the vehicle. On the bumper was the familiar slogan I have seen most of my life, “The only bugs we can’t control are litter bugs.” The driver had the window down and he was smoking a cigarette with the obvious cloud flowing out. What caught my eye was as we pulled away from the red-light, he threw his cigarette butt out the window. My reaction was rather humorous because here is a man driving around my fair city representing a successful company of long standing and in one small act went against much of what the company stands for. It’s human nature.

I know that if the company knew what happened they would be disappointed. It is not a reflection upon the principles of the company but the careless act of someone not thinking. It did occur to me of how many times I have done the same thing but on a grandeur scale. I serve the King of King and Lord of Lords. His principles are so high they reach the throne of God. The teachings of Jesus are to reflect the character of holiness in every part of my life. All my life should be a mirror of what the Father teaches me in His message of redemption. And then those days happen when I throw that influence right out the window and someone sees me. Not a good image. In a careless act or word, the person who sees my life does not see the glory of God. They see anger, frustration, and anything that glorifies my carnal nature instead of the goodness of my Creator.

None of us are perfect and we all throw things out the window from time to time. I guess life is trying to limit what we throw out and how often. There are some of God’s people who are throwing huge amounts of debris out the window as they go through life. They struggle and we need to pray for them. We should try very hard to be a good influence of righteousness to everyone we met and to those we influence without knowing it. Paul’s prayer for the saints at Corinth was to remember their lives were like books, known and read by all men. We do not know how many read about our lives. The pictures they see are good and sometimes not so good. As epistles of Jesus Christ, let us try diligently to present an example of grace to everyone. Remember that some see us and we do not know it. Let our lives be written by the Spirit of the living God upon hearts seeking the glory of the Lord. I thought that was a good story.

Someone has said … that the only Bible which millions of people read today is the daily example of Christians – your example and mine. (James E. Murray, Address, March 31, 1948)

Now in the fourth year of King Darius it came to pass that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev, when the people sent Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to the house of God, to pray before the Lord, and to ask the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?” Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me–for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?’” (Zechariah 7:1-7)

Did You Really Fast For Me? For Me?

The prophet Zechariah lived around 2500 years ago during the reign of the Persian king Darius. God’s people had languished in captivity for seventy years before returning to a destroyed city of Jerusalem. Apathy filled the hearts of the disheartened people. The city was in complete ruin and efforts to rebuild the Temple were met with distrust and opposition. It was laid at the feet of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to kindle a spirit of devotion for the work of the Lord in the people. The task was daunting. There was a foreboding cloud of selfishness among the people who cared more for themselves than worship to the Lord. Religion was only a prosthetic they wore when required. Sound familiar?

Remember when children were small and tasked with a job they would say to the parent, “Do I have to?” It becomes a whining thing. They do the job but with less than enthusiasm. The job is done but there is no desire to get excited about the whole thing. Worship to God becomes like that. When the people sent their messengers to inquire about whether they should weep and fast or not the reply of the Lord shows their hearts were filled with hypocrisy. During the captivity, they went through the motions but not the fervor. The emphasis of the Lord’s reply: “Did you really fast for Me – for Me?” illustrates how devoted the people were. It was not much. Very little in fact. The walls of the city lay in ruin and no one cared. Work on the Temple had begun but then stopped and would take a long time to finish. Captivity had taken away the desire of the people to worship idols but now their worship was anything but going through the motions of doing what is minimally required by law. Sound familiar?

The captive people had fasted and mourned during the prescribed months but it was not because they had a longing desire to worship the Lord in truth. They had turned their worship into the worship of self. “My needs must be met” is what they were saying. “Our designs must be fulfilled” is how they lived. Suddenly the worship of God had turned into a ‘clock-watching-limited-time-doing-things-in-a-rigid-prescribed-manner-of-worship-don’t-ask-me-to-do-more-than-that’ kind of religion. They had a heart for worship; it was a heart for themselves – not the Lord. It was remarkable they had the audacity to ask the question. If they could get away with doing as little as possible, they would be happy. Sound familiar?

Obedience of the heart has always been the need for man. The Lord required sacrifices to test the hearts of the people, not the hands. Going through the motion of worship does not bring holiness. A parrot can be taught to pray but he is only saying words. The heart of true worship is rooted in an obedient heart of truth, mercy, grace and thanksgiving for the wonderful blessings of a loving God. True worshippers never ask the question, “Do I have to?” They do because they love the Lord with all their heart, their soul, their minds and their bodies. Worship is not contained in a box. Praise God for who He really is because of who we really know ourselves to be. Thank you Father for your enduring patience and love.

Adoration means that you put yourself in the attitude of him who is nothing before Him who is everything. It means total submission, even annihilation before the object of your adoration. (Jacques Leclercq, Back To Jesus, 1959)

Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God in me. (Galatians 1:18-24)

The Most Unlikely Candidate

Saul of Tarsus was on a mission. He wanted to destroy every vestige of Christianity he could find. His reign of terror over the church reached to foreign cities as he punished anyone who named the name of Jesus Christ. Compelling disciples to blaspheme their faith in God, Saul was a man seeking to destroy the followers of the man from Nazareth. His name was often discussed among the saints as they heard of families being taken away to prison or killed. The story of Stephen’s death would have been common knowledge among the faithful. Saul of Tarsus was feared.

Among the candidates for the gospel, Saul was not on the top of the list. It would be easy to assume he was not even on the list. No one wanted him to find the list. Saul was the antipathy of the children of redemption. The Lord saw in the Pharisee of Pharisees a heart completed devoted to Him; however misguided. On the road to a city called Damascus the man opposed to Christ changed into a candidate for teaching the truth. Three days later when Ananias came to him, Saul became a child of God under the grace of Christ. There were many people like Saul who hated the disciples of Christ and wanted to destroy them. What set the man from Tarsus apart was his heart to serve the Lord in truth. Saul’s conversion was not an act of miraculous changing against the will of his heart. He had a good heart. He made the decision to follow after what he learned to be the only truth. The most unlikely candidate in the world was now a child of God.

There are a lot of Saul’s in our midst. The mistake so often made in teaching the gospel of Christ is how we look for candidates. People like Saul are seldom considered. His lifestyle would be the last consideration to show the gospel of grace. Unless the person is close to obeying the gospel and is of a clean, godly, moral nature we are horrified to suggest the possibility to save them. They are so wicked – why waste time on them. Seeing the cigarettes hanging out of their multiplied pierced lips with alcohol reeking from the breath does not exude the environment to have a conversation about Christ. The neighbor is so worldly they would never consider a Bible study – we conclude. The man or woman working in the next cubicle at work? Don’t waste the time. And then Saul of Tarsus comes to mind.

The brethren were challenged by the new Saul. What do we do with this man? When Saul went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, he was not known in the churches. They had heard that he persecuted the church heavily and now through the grace of God was a preacher for Christ. That amazed them to wonderment. Their conclusion was simple: praise God! It encouraged them to look for more men like Saul. Anyone was a candidate to teach. Souls were saved. Satan lost many followers to Christ. Look around and you will find many people that are rough around the edges but inside have hearts yearning for something more. The love of God is the answer. Go beyond the external and the habits and see the possibilities. There are many Saul’s out there.

God wishes no narrow-hearted souls or empty heads for his children; but those whose spirit is of itself indeed, poor, but rich in the knowledge of him; and who regard this knowledge of God as the only valuable possession. (G. W. F. Hegel; 1770-1832; The Philosophy of History, publ. posth.)