1 Corinthians 10:12-13

Some Christians see a fellow believer fall into sin but fail to acknowledge that they, too, could stumble. That’s dangerous. Satan has them right where he wants them: deceived by a false sense of confidence. Three enemies are constantly at work trying to bring us down: the Devil, his world system, and our own treacherous flesh.

Even though believers have a righteous standing before God, we must each, like Paul, acknowledge an internal problem: “sin which dwells in me” (Rom. 7:20). Satan takes full advantage of this weakness, luring us with fleshly and worldly temptations. He stokes our pride so we’ll be blinded to our own vulnerability to stumbling.

Christians need to be continually on guard. Since ignorance–of the nature of sin, the strategies of the Enemy, and our own areas of weakness–sets us up for failure, we cannot afford to be careless in our thinking. Anytime you find yourself excusing, redefining, or rationalizing sin, you’ve lost your sensitivity to the Lord. God’s Word must always fill our minds and direct our steps.

If you’ve drifted from the Lord, turn back to Him by acknowledging your sin and accepting full responsibility for it. Repentance simply means changing your mind and going in a different direction–toward God instead of away from Him.

The next step is harder. Respond with gratitude for the Lord’s chastisement. Every time believers fall into sin, God lovingly works to bring them back into a fellowship with Him. His discipline may be painful, but it’s always good because it brings us to our senses and reconnects us with our Father.

I am notorious for reading sentences—sometimes entire pages—before realizing that that my mind is simply elsewhere. With my eyes moving along the paragraphs, taking in the ordered sentences, it is as if my mind pronounces each word into a room with no vacancy. I am reading in a way that can’t even be called half-hearted. Evidently, the practical spirit of multi-tasking isn’t always practical.  Mentally outlining my to-do list while reading Tolstoy isn’t reading Tolstoy. Hearing the words, I have heard nothing. I walk away from the paragraphs as if never seeing the sentences at all.

So it is distinctly possible, as Jesus once stated, to see without seeing, and to hear without hearing. I do it often, and not only with Tolstoy.

Like all communication there are degrees to which we hear the stories of Scripture, the words of Christ. There are levels of interest, concentration, and understanding. Like all metaphors there are levels in seeing, layers to uncover, depths that call for attentiveness. Jesus’s parables, conversations, and descriptions of reality ring in ears on many wavelengths. We can hear them as moral fables, abstract stories, truthful similes and images, great and awful mysteries at which we do well to pay attention, words we must try our hardest to ignore. Like the Pharisees who fumed as Jesus told the parable of the tenants, we might even recognize ourselves in the storyline. It is how we react to these mirrored images that are of significance.

What does it take to look into a mirror and walk away as if completely forgetting what you have seen? I suspect, as with my less than half-hearted reading, not much. When the Pharisees saw themselves in the words of Jesus’s parable, they were furious. Wholeheartedly, they began scheming a strategy to silence him. Ironically, they were plotting to do exactly what the parable said they would do.

Christianity describes our world with a wealth of detail. But more than a system whereby we believe certain information and thus call ourselves Christians, it is a transforming way; it is intended to be life itself. If we merely hear God’s words, or half-see reflections of truth, we actually miss everything. Such a response cannot even be called half-hearted. Like the pages I have read mindlessly—lifelessly—in seeing we have seen nothing, hearing we have heard nothing. As one writer describes this common self-deception, “[I]f any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like” (James 1:22-24).

As when the Pharisees saw themselves in Jesus’s words, so our own reflections wait to be noticed in his words. A response is inescapable; we will hear and live into a new story, or we will walk away as if never hearing.

Upon Jesus’s telling of the parable of the tenants, his hearers walk away from the mirror holding only vacant memories. Though they saw themselves in the story, they walked away from this knowledge. Furthermore, Mark recounts, “Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away” (Mark 12:12).

In seeing will you see? In hearing will you hear?

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia

Morning    “Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer.”    Psalm 66:20

In looking back upon the character of our prayers, if we do it honestly, we

shall be filled with wonder that God has ever answered them. There may be some

who think their prayers worthy of acceptance–as the Pharisee did; but the true

Christian, in a more enlightened retrospect, weeps over his prayers, and if he

could retrace his steps he would desire to pray more earnestly. Remember,

Christian, how cold thy prayers have been. When in thy closet thou shouldst have

wrestled as Jacob did; but instead thereof, thy petitions have been faint and

few–far removed from that humble, believing, persevering faith, which cries, “I

will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Yet, wonderful to say, God

has heard these cold prayers of thine, and not only heard, but answered them.

Reflect also, how infrequent have been thy prayers, unless thou hast been in

trouble, and then thou hast gone often to the mercy-seat: but when deliverance

has come, where has been thy constant supplication? Yet, notwithstanding thou

hast ceased to pray as once thou didst, God has not ceased to bless. When thou

hast neglected the mercy-seat, God has not deserted it, but the bright light of

the Shekinah has always been visible between the wings of the cherubim. Oh! it

is marvellous that the Lord should regard those intermittent spasms of

importunity which come and go with our necessities. What a God is he thus to

hear the prayers of those who come to him when they have pressing wants, but

neglect him when they have received a mercy; who approach him when they are

forced to come, but who almost forget to address him when mercies are plentiful

and sorrows are few. Let his gracious kindness in hearing such prayers touch our

hearts, so that we may henceforth be found “Praying always with all prayer and

supplication in the Spirit.”

 

Evening    “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”   Philippians 1:27

The word “conversation” does not merely mean our talk and converse with one

another, but the whole course of our life and behaviour in the world. The Greek

word signifies the actions and the privileges of citizenship: and thus we are

commanded to let our actions, as citizens of the New Jerusalem, be such as

becometh the gospel of Christ. What sort of conversation is this? In the first

place, the gospel is very simple. So Christians should be simple and plain in

their habits. There should be about our manner, our speech, our dress, our whole

behaviour, that simplicity which is the very soul of beauty. The gospel is

pre-eminently true, it is gold without dross; and the Christian’s life will

be lustreless and valueless without the jewel of truth. The gospel is a very

fearless gospel, it boldly proclaims the truth, whether men like it or not: we

must be equally faithful and unflinching. But the gospel is also very gentle.

Mark this spirit in its Founder: “a bruised reed he will not break.” Some

professors are sharper than a thorn-hedge; such men are not like Jesus. Let us

seek to win others by the gentleness of our words and acts. The gospel is very

loving. It is the message of the God of love to a lost and fallen race. Christ’s

last command to his disciples was, “Love one another.” O for more real, hearty

union and love to all the saints; for more tender compassion towards the

souls of the worst and vilest of men! We must not forget that the gospel of

Christ is holy. It never excuses sin: it pardons it, but only through an

atonement. If our life is to resemble the gospel, we must shun, not merely the

grosser vices, but everything that would hinder our perfect conformity to

Christ. For his sake, for our own sakes, and for the sakes of others, we must

strive day by day to let our conversation be more in accordance with his gospel.

 

You have not bought me sweet cane with money.   Isaiah 43:24

Worshipers at the temple were keen to bring presents of sweet perfumes to be burned upon the altar of God. But Israel, in the time of her backsliding, became ungenerous and made fewer offerings to her Lord. This was an evidence of coldness of heart toward God and His house.

Reader, does this never happen with you? Is it not possible that the complaint of this text may occasionally, if not frequently, be brought against you? Those who are poor in pocket, if rich in faith, will be accepted even though their gifts are small; but, poor reader, do you give in fair proportion to the Lord, or is the widow’s mite kept back from the sacred treasury? The rich believer should be thankful for the wealth entrusted to him but should not forget his large responsibility, for where much is given, much will be required.

But, rich reader, are you mindful of your obligations, and is your giving to the Lord proportionate to the benefit you enjoy? Jesus gave His blood for us; what shall we give to Him? We are His, and He has purchased us for Himself—can we act as if we were our own? O for more consecration! O for more love! Blessed Jesus, how good it is of You to accept our sweet cane bought with money! Nothing is too costly as a tribute to Your unrivaled love, and yet You receive with favor the smallest sincere token of affection! You receive our poor forget-me-nots and love-tokens as though they were intrinsically precious, though indeed they are but as the bunch of wild flowers that the child brings to his mother.

Let us never grow stingy toward You, and from this hour may we never hear You complain of us again for withholding the gifts of our love. We will give You the firstfruits of our increase and pay You tithes of all, and then we will confess, “of your own have we given you.”1

11 Chronicles 29:14

The family reading plan for May 23, 2012

Isaiah 24 | 1 John 2