Power in Unity, Part 2

In our last meditation we wrote about the power of unity as it pertains to persons working together such as families, churches, companies, athletic teams, armies, etc. Today I wish to apply this principle to individuals.

In order for us to perform effectively, we need to be united within ourselves. The following passage makes this point quite clear:

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

True to form, let’s define a couple of key terms in this passage.

Waver – Of persons, their sentiments, etc.: To exhibit doubt or indecision; to change or vary; to fluctuate or vacillate (between); to falter in resolution or allegiance; to show signs of giving way.

Double-minded - Having two minds; undecided or wavering in mind.

The thoughts of a double-minded man bounce around from thing to thing. He lacks focus. He has trouble making up his mind and settling on a course of action. He is not united within himself. Instead of controlling his thoughts, he allows circumstances and impulses to toss his mind to and fro like the wind tosses a wave of the sea. His mind is always moving in first one direction and then in another. And having such a wavering mind, he is unstable in all his ways. Unstable things and people lack strength. They cannot be relied on. You see, there is power in unity. When one is not united within himself, he lacks personal power; he is unstable. And this instability effects all his ways, as James said.

In order to be effective in accomplishing a task, we need to be focused on that task. Distractions interfere with accomplishment. This brings us back to what I preached about last Sunday with respect to growing in knowledge. In order to acquire knowledge, we need to concentrate on what we are trying to learn. Note the definition of concentrate.

Concentrate – To bring to or towards a common centre; to collect or gather as at a centre; to cause to converge or meet at one point or place.

When we concentrate with our minds we cause our thoughts to focus on one thing. We are uniting our thoughts around one task. If we are concentrating when we pray to God, read the Bible, or listen to a sermon, we are focusing our mind on that activity alone and we are not allowing our thoughts to wander from it. We are not concentrating if we are distracted by noise, emotions, or impulses. Such distractions must be eliminated or at least ignored if we are to concentrate. The uniting of our thoughts gives us the power to accomplish the task before us. It is the power of unity in action.

Let me again give you a quote I cited once before in a meditation I did on listening. This quote comes from an article entitled Improving Your Memory: Tips and Techniques for Memory Enhancement. This article can be found by going to www.helpguide.org and typing in the title. Here’s the quote:

New information enters your brain along pathways between neurons in the appropriate area of the brain. The key to encoding information into your memory is concentration; unless you focus on information intently, it goes “in one ear and out the other.” This is why teachers are always nagging students to pay attention! If you’ve concentrated well enough to encode new information in your brain, the hippocampus sends a signal to store the information as long-term memory.

While a double-minded man is unstable, the man who is not double-minded is effective. An excellent example of such a man is found in the following passage:

1 Chronicles 12:33 Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart.

These warriors from the tribe of Zebulun were expert at what they did. An army of expert soldiers is a powerful force to be reckoned with. And critical to their expertise was the fact that they were “not of double heart.” Their thoughts and intents were focused on the task at hand. Each warrior was united within himself and focused upon his task. And together they were all focused on the same objective. This is the power of unity.

So unity of heart is essential to being effective in performing any task. It gives us personal power for performance. But nowhere is this more essential than in the task of serving God. You cannot serve God effectively without being united within yourself. Your thoughts and intents must all be focused on one end and that is to become what God wants you to be and so to glorify Him in all things. This being so, we can better appreciate the following prayer found in the Psalms:

Psalms 86:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

Was the apostle Paul a powerful man? Consider how powerfully his life and ministry impact us even to this day. But Paul was also a man unified within himself as his own testimony bears out:

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus..

“This one thing I do.” How is that for being focused? That is why Paul was so effective.

Once you make the decision to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to remain focused on that alone. You need a united heart centered on that goal. Let everything else in your life be arranged around that single purpose. Let there be no looking back or being distracted from that aim. I close with the following passages:

Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Deuteronomy 5:32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Power in Unity, Part 1

I have just emerged from a six-week marathon, as I called it, of busyness. I am hoping that things will slow down now and I can return to my more normal activities, one of which is sending you these meditations.

I have been rereading the excellent work by Gail Riplinger entitled In Awe of Thy Word. I was impressed by the following comments she made regarding the power of unity. This quotation is found on pages 488-489 of her book:

The multiplying of languages by God at Babel was the result of sin. There is power in unity. God said, “they have all one language…and now nothing will be restrained from them” (Gen. 11:6). There is unity and power for good when we have one Bible and one final authority. The devil tries to dispel that power by creating numerous conflicting editions. The wicked speak with multiplied “mouths” (i.e. Jer. 44:25, Lam. 3:46. Dan. 6:22, Titus 1:11). The men (plural) of God speak with “one mouth” (singular) (Rom. 15:6). In I Kings 22:13 “the prophets declare…with one mouth.” Luke 1:70 says, “As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets.” Acts 3:18 repeats, “the mouth of all his prophets.”

To this I will add Paul’s admonition, which Gail Riplinger also cited:

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

There is power in unity both for good and for evil. Matthew Henry made the following comment respecting the power in unity:

As in a bundle of rods, they may be of different lengths and different strength; but, when they are tied together by one bond, they are stronger than any, even than the thickest and strongest was of itself.

As I am sure all of you can attest, unity is essential to the effective operation of anything, whether it be a marriage, a family, a company, an athletic team, a kingdom, or an army. Have you ever tried to coach or manage a group of people that did not work together as a team? If you have, then you know what I am talking about. Our Lord Himself taught this principle.

Matthew 12:25 …Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Even Satan’s kingdom understands and acts on the principle of power in unity. That is why Satan works overtime to bring division in a church. He knows that by this means he can weaken the church and thus more easily destroy it. Satan’s kingdom also manifests unity in its opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ and His people.

Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Psalms 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Under other circumstances, these various nations might have been warring against each other. But when it came to opposing God’s Israel, they displayed amazing unity. They united together so as to mount a more powerful campaign against God’s people. Thanks be to God, as in the case of the enterprise at Babel, God intervenes and blocks Satan’s efforts. Otherwise, this world would long since have become the unchallenged domain of Satan in which the cause of God could not survive.

This principle of power in unity explains why church members are constantly called to unity in the New Testament. I could cite numerous such exhortations. A church that is united in the truth of Christ with every member yielding to the single authority of the same Bible is a formidable force for good in this earth. A unified church is effective in prayer, has a bold witness with great power, and great grace is upon it, as the following example demonstrates:

Acts 4:23 And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Observe in this passage that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were united together against the Lord’s Christ. Their attempt to destroy the Lord’s Christ failed miserably as God by the death of His Christ redeemed His elect and then God raised Him from the dead. And now the forces of evil were uniting against the followers of Christ. Peter and John had just been released from the Jewish court having been threatened and commanded not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. Undaunted by the threat, Peter and John returned to the disciples, who joined together in one accord to call upon God to bless their witness. God so empowered this body of believers that the effect of their bold witness is felt to this good day. Yes, believers, there is power in unity. I shall have more to say about this in another meditation, God willing. I close today with the words of Paul to the Philippians. Observe that a unified church is powerful. It is “in nothing terrified.”

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.

Yield Yourselves

At long last I now have a new computer. I wish to thank all of you that responded to my inquiry as to the readers of my blog. I was quite surprised to learn of how many there are of you that read and profit from these meditations. Therefore, I am encouraged to continue with this project. But please be advised that the next six weeks are going to be quite hectic for me. I have three trips that I will be taking, a big weekend with the church here, and a wedding to perform. So do not look for these meditations to be very regular during this period of time.

For my daily Bible reading I have been going through the book of 2 Chronicles. Today I came across this passage that I would like to make some comments on:

2 Chronicles 30:8 Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

May I suggest that you read 2 Chronicles 30 to get the setting of what I wish to present. The words I have cited were found in the letters that King Hezekiah and his princes sent “throughout all Israel and Judah” calling the people to come “to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jersualem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.” Prior to this, their fathers had been rebellious against God and, as a result, had been given up to desolation. In calling the people to come to keep the passover at Jerusalem, the people were called to yield themselves to God.

Yield – To surrender, give way, submit.

For the people to come up to Jerusalem to keep this feast would be an act of surrender, of submission to God. By their yielding themselves to God, the Lord would turn away the fierceness of His wrath from them. It is interesting to note that yielding to God is placed in contrast to being stiffnecked.

Stiffnecked – Obstinate, stubborn, inflexible, haughty.

Their fathers had been stiffnecked. As a result, God had been at war with them and had brought them to desolation.

The verse we are considering connects yielding to God with entering His sanctuary and serving Him. Under the Old Testament that meant coming up to the temple of God in Jersusalem to observe the passover according to the instructions of the law. For us today who live under the New Testament it means coming to the church of God, the assembly of the saints, to keep the ordinances given to the church to observe in the New Testament. You see, coming to church should be an act of surrendering ourselves to God, of submission to His will. To fail to do this is an act of stubbornness. If the attitude of surrender is missing from our service, then it will not be acceptable to God. When speaking of the service of ministering to the saints, Paul commended the believers in Macedonia (2 Corinthians 8:1-6). They had given abundantly to minister to the saints and they had done so with abundant joy. The key to this joyful service can be found in the attitude with which they approached it.

2 Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

You see, service to God begins with the surrender of ourselves to Him. Yielding ourselves to the Lord our God comes first. Only then will we find joy in His service. Nobody, who enters into the service of God begrudgingly, enjoys it. Such service brings no delight to God and no joy to the soul.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

So when you come to church, do so with the attitude of one who is surrendering himself to God. It is according to our sinful nature to be rebels. If you are stiffnecked and rebel against God, you are going to have a battle with Him. And He will win! He is a lot stronger than you are. So the best thing to do is give up the fight.

Are you in a state of desolation today? Examine yourself for some area of your life in which you are being stiffnecked. Yield yourself to God and enter into His sanctuary and serve Him. Do this and you will find that instead of the misery of desolation, you will experience great joy as did those souls in Hezekiah’s day, who yielded themselves to God, entered His sanctuary, and served Him.

2 Chronicles 30:25 And all the congregation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced.

26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.

Reason for No Blogs

I have been without my own computer for about a month and a half. I have a new one, but it has yet to be installed in my study owing to circumstances that cannot be controlled. Therefore, I have not been posting any meditations.

In addition, I have had a suspicion that the blog is not read by that many people. It has been several weeks since I posted a meditation, yet only four people have commented about not receiving them. This only confirms my suspicion.

Please understand that I am not offended by this. I realize that people are bombarded with e-mails and other information to sift through. With so much stuff to sort through, my blog can easily become just one more thing to read. If it becomes burdensome to read, then the benefit of it is greatly reduced. My ministry got on well before the blog and can get on well without it.

Now my suspicion may not be correct. One way to find out is if you let me know you read the meditations on my blog and would like to continue receiving them. Of course, if few people are reading the blog, I will receive few replys. And with that I will have my answer.

God be praised for any blessing my blog has been to you up to now. And, blog or no blog, may our Lord Jesus Christ be praised.

The Eternal Destiny of Our Loved Ones

All Christians have loved ones who show no Scriptural evidence of being eternally saved. Our loved ones may be good people, as men judge goodness, but yet show no love for the Lord Jesus Christ, His word, His church, or His service. We may have tried to witness to them only to find them indifferent, resistant, or downright hostile to our efforts. They love us and we love them. We may have or have had a close relationship with them. But we wonder where they go when they die. For some, this causes great distress. I, too, have had loved ones, dearly loved ones, who have passed on. I do not know whether they are in heaven or hell. Yet I do not worry about this. Let me tell you why.

First of all, only God knows the hearts of all men.

1 Kings 8:39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

Observe how Solomon in this prayer emphasizes that only God knows the hearts of all the children of men. We judge men by what they outwardly manifest in words and deeds. That is all we have to go on. But God, and only God, can see into someone’s heart. And it is in the heart that God begins His work of grace. If God has given a person a new heart, He sees that heart even though we may not. That changed heart can be within even though it may scarcely manifest itself without. Have you ever met someone that even though they were generally very worldly and ignorant of spiritual things, they showed at times what seemed to be a glimmer of spirituality? Maybe that glimmer was a little ray of light from an enlightened heart shooting out from beneath mounds of years of rebellion, resistance to past abuses, accumulated fears, and God knows what all. Or maybe it wasn’t a glimmer of spirituality at all. How do you know? You don’t! Only God knows.

Then our Saviour gave us the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). The parable presents a field with wheat and tares growing together. The wheat represents the children of the kingdom and the tares represent the children of the wicked one. The servants suggested to the householder that they go and gather the tares from among the wheat. But the householder rejected that suggestion. Let’s read what the householder said.

Matthew 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Our Lord then went on to explain that the harvest is the end of the world. It is at that time that the wheat and tares will be finally separated. If we try to distinguish them now, then we are apt to mistake wheat for tares. You see, sometimes the children of the kingdom can act so much like the children of the wicked one, that we might assume they are the children of the wicked one. So from this I think it wise to defer this judgment unto the harvest.

And then let us remember that we are still in this world very much caught up in the relationships and affections of this world. That is why it grieves us so much to think of our loved ones not being eternally saved. Have you ever noticed that you do not grieve so much over the unsaved loved ones of others? After all, how much sleep do you lose grieving over Esau, or Judas Iscariot, or the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah being in hell? That is because you do not have the natural affection for them that you have for your own. Consider these words of our Lord Jesus:

Luke 20:34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

Our earthly family relationships in this world result from the marriage of men and women. At least that is the Biblical norm for these relationships. But the marital relationship of this world does not carry over into the next world. We will not be related to one another there as we are here. Every child of God will be equally my brother in that world, whether or not he was my father, my spouse, my child, my brother, or my cousin in the flesh in this world. We get a glimpse into this relationship in the relationship we have with our brothers and sisters in the church, even though we have no tie to them by our earthly family. So when we get to the other world, we will not be related as we are here. Our relationships and affections will be totally transformed and we will view everyone saved or unsaved with the mind and affections of the glorified Son of God. Indeed, we will be like Him!

God is absolutely just in all that He does. If he sends one of my loved ones to hell, He is just in doing so. For that matter, if He sends me to hell He is just in doing so. And considering how completely I will be conformed to the image of the just God in that great day of His judgment, I am confident that I will have absolutely no problem with anything He does with any soul in that day. I’ll just be shouting “Allelujah” that I am on His side in the judgment (Revelation 19:1-4).

Lastly, let us ever remember that eternal salvation is by grace and not by works of righteousness that we or our loved ones have done (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:4-5). The salvation of a soul was determined in God’s election of grace. It was secured in the death of Christ for the elect by the grace of God. And it is applied by the Holy Spirit to the elect in regeneration by God’s effectual grace. Nothing but nothing that we do or fail to do has any effect on God’s saving grace. I have preached funerals of people I did not know. I had no evidence that these people were children of God. In these cases I preach the same gospel of grace that I preach over the most devout believers. I tell people that if God wants to save this soul, his bad works will not prevent God from saving him. And if God does not want to save this soul, his good works will not make God save him. Salvation is all of grace and none of works. On such occasions I refer to this verse:

2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord (not you, not I, but the Lord) knoweth them that are his.

Well may we rest all of our concerns for our loved ones on this sure foundation. Did this meditation bless you?