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Work out Your Salvation! During my travels I often encounter needy people. Many times they are just out to make a dollar anyway they can. Some beg for money because they supposedly need a ticket to get somewhere. Others beg for money for various and sundry other reasons. I specifically remember a pitiful case in Las Vegas, Nevada who was begging for money for her baby. Of course, she didn’t know that we had seen her with her pimp just a few moments before and heard him screaming at her to "get him the money or else…" You couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. The situation was strangely troubling and frightening at the same time. Occasionally I run into people who are truly needy. The Lord in me is moved with compassion for those people. One time it was a fellow lying on a bench in Curitiba, Brazil… we handed him the umbrellas which we had purchased for a flash rain shower. Another time it was a fellow digging through the trash, looking for other people’s discarded food so he could have a meal. It is amazing to me that many needy people are just along for the free ride, hoping to get a dollar in anyway they can. It’s likely they could find other means to subsist, but choose this path instead. But others, as this fellow digging through the trash, still carry dignity, and pride. He smelled of alcohol and was obviously a street person. But when offered a meal, he refused, saying, "Oh no thank you, I have enough." When asked if he was sure, he quickly responded, "Oh yes, I am very sure, I have more than enough." It was likely an unhealthy pride that prevented him from being willing to receive, yet I was challenged by this thought; would I say it was enough? Don’t worry about what you will eat… It has to be a terrible thing to eat other people’s discarded half-eaten food; how humiliating it must be. I’ve never known that kind of life. Yet, even in that situation, I still see human pride displayed through the attitude of, “no thanks, I can make it myself.” This is so similar to what we do spiritually. We have been offered a free spiritual meal any time we desire it. We are free to feast upon Christ’s life. Instead we choose the comfortable path by eating other people's regurgitated spiritual food. We find it easier to believe what other people tell us rather than work things out with Him for ourselves. We eat what other people have discarded, or the left-overs of someone else’s walk. Wake up! You can be dining with the king! Don’t settle for someone else’s scraps! Don’t subsist on someone else’s regurgitated spiritual food! Work out your own salvation! Everything He has is at YOUR disposal! Don’t pass up the feast and settle for less. Verses for Reflection No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Behold the birds of the air; for they sow not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not much better than they are? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin, but I say to you that even Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much rather clothe you, little-faiths? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it. (Mat 6:24-34 MKJV) For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself
of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has
highly exalted Him, and has given Him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones,
and of ones under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Phi 2:5-12 MKJV) |
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