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Zechariah 3:1-2 says, “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!’”
Here we see a righteous man – Joshua the high priest -- being accused by the devil before God.
The Complete Biblical Library Commentary adds here, Satan has no ground for bringing charges. Neither can he resurrect the believer's past. Satan, the ‘accuser of the brethren,’ may try to harass, but that which God has forgiven He will never remember against us anymore.” This is a true story. A young man and his father were deer hunting in the wilds of Oregon. It was early evening, and they were thinking about returning to camp when a noise exploded in the brush nearby. Before he even had a chance to lift his rifle, a small blur of brown and white came shooting up the road straight for the dad. It all happened so fast; the older man hardly had time to think. He looked down and there was a little brown cottontail -- utterly spent -- crowded up against his legs between his boots. The little thing was trembling all over, but it just sat there and didn't budge. Now this was really strange. Wild rabbits are frightened of people. It is almost impossible to believe that one would come running right up to your feet and sit down, but that is exactly what happened here. As the father was puzzling over this, another player entered the scene. Down the road --maybe twenty yards away -- a weasel burst out of the brush. When it saw the man with the rifle -- and its intended prey sitting at the man’s feet -- the predator froze in its tracks, its mouth panting. It was then that the older man understood that he had stepped into a little life-and- death drama in the middle of the forest. The cottontail, exhausted by the chase, was only moments from a painful death. This tall strange man was its last hope of refuge. Forgetting its natural fear and caution, the little animal instinctively crowded up against him for protection from the sharp teeth of its relentless enemy. The hunter did not disappoint his newfound friend. He raised his powerful rifle and deliberately shot into the ground just underneath the weasel. The animal seemed to leap almost straight into the air a couple of feet and then rocketed back into the forest as fast as its legs could move. For a while the little rabbit didn't stir. It just sat there, huddled at the man's feet in the gathering twilight while the gentleman spoke softly to it:
Where do you run in your time of need?
I want to encourage you -- run to Jesus. You are safe in Him. The accuser can find no place there. The Redeemed Team 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus….”
A mediator is one who stands in the middle between two opposing parties.
Let me give you two examples of a mediator as found in Scripture. First, look with me at the old story of Sodom and Gomorrah from the book of Genesis. In the account, Abraham served as a mediator between Sodom and God. Sodom was a very wicked place. In fact, the place was so wicked God had decided to wipe it off of the face of the earth. Before He exacted judgment, though, He elected to talk things over with His friend Abraham. It is at this point that Abraham begins to dicker with God on Sodom’s behalf. Genesis 18:22-33 captures the conversation. I will skip through the passage while reading from The Living Bible, “Then Abraham … said, ‘Will you kill good and bad alike? Suppose you find fifty godly people there…. Surely you wouldn’t … kill the godly with the wicked! … Should not the Judge of all the earth be fair?’ And God replied, ‘If I find fifty godly people there, I will spare the entire city for their sake.’ Then Abraham spoke again. … ‘Suppose there are only forty-five? Will you destroy the city for lack of five?’ And God said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five.’ Then Abraham went further … ‘Suppose there are only forty?’ And God replied, ‘I won’t destroy it if there are forty.’ … ‘Suppose only thirty are found there?’ And God replied, ‘I won’t do it if there are thirty there.’ Then Abraham said, ‘Suppose there are only twenty?’ And God said, ‘Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the twenty.’ Finally, Abraham said, ‘Suppose only ten are found?’ And God said, ‘Then, for the sake of the ten, I won’t destroy it.’” Abraham was bold in his faith. He knew that the heart of God was to save life, not take it. So, he felt safe in bargaining with the Lord on behalf of the people of Sodom. Abraham serves here as a prime example of a biblical intermediary. Again, he took the place between the one who was offended – God – and those who were the offenders – the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the end, Abraham ran out of numbers before God ran out of grace, and the place was destroyed. In the book of Exodus, we find the people of Israel worshiping a golden calf. This act of idolatry made God angry. So angry, in fact, that He told Moses that He was going to destroy the whole lot of them. That He was then going to start afresh with a new bunch of people and Moses would be the main man. It is at this point that Moses takes on the role of the mediator. Exodus 32:31-32, “So Moses went back to the LORD and said, ‘Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made them-selves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’” Moses stood in the gap between sinful Israel and our holy God. The end result was, God did not destroy the people. When my youngest daughter was but thirteen months old, she came very close to dying. I have little doubt that in March 1979, Satan thought that he had this preacher and my wife down for the ten count. It was almost as if he was taunting us, “your baby daughter has spinal meningitis. She is going to die, or be deaf, blind, or mentally challenged.” But Jesus, knowing our need, stepped before the Father as our mediator and said, “Father, I love that young couple. I am standing here pleading on their behalf. I paid the price for Marci’s healing on that cross and by My stripes she is healed!” And, praise God, she was healed! Today, Marci is a healthy mother of two.
The Redeemed Team Hebrews 7:25 says in part, “He always lives to intercede for them.”
“He.” Jesus is the “He” here. Jesus, the beloved Son of God, stands in the gap and offers up petitions to God on our behalf. He is the One who is interceding for you and me. He “Always.” Jesus prays and keeps on praying.
Matthew 6:8 (New Living Translation) says, “… for your Father knows exactly what you need EVEN BEFORE YOU ASK HIM!” I have here a story that is drawn from an old issue of Guideposts magazine. "I'm 16 years old, and ever since I was a young girl my parents told me that God is always watching over us. I believed this, but I couldn't really say that my experience had proven this to be so. Maybe it will when I get older, I thought. One winter night an unexpected sound woke our household at 3:00 am. My father dashed down the hall, sniffing the air. My sister and I scurried to our bedroom door. When Dad came back upstairs, he said, "I don't understand it." He breathed a sigh of confusion, then returned to his room. I couldn't go back to sleep. I went to my parents' room and said to my father, who couldn't sleep either, "Are you sure? Did you check ‑‑?" "Yes, Tracy, I checked everything," said Dad. I started back to my room, but as I reached the door my mother suddenly cried out, “The coffee pot! I think I left the coffee pot on at church.” Earlier that evening my mother had served coffee at a church gathering. Now, in an instant, Dad was gone. Mom and I waited at home. I could tell Mom was terribly afraid that she might have been guilty of burning down the church. Ten minutes later my father returned. He let out a relieved sigh and said, “The pot was on ‑‑ burned empty and beginning to smoke.” And what, a half hour earlier, had awakened us? The smoke alarm in our own smoke free house! Do you have an explanation for such things?
I choose the third answer. I believe that Jesus is far more involved in our affairs, in caring for us and protecting us, than we can ever imagine. Because He IS ALWAYS on task – even at 3:00 in the morning -- He is able to catch things “even before we ask.” Only in Heaven will we fully understand the impact of the Lord’s intercessions on our behalf. He always “Lives.” Some folks live to eat. Others live to travel. I have known people who live to work. Jesus, on the other hand, lives to pray for you and me. Praying on behalf of His children is His thing. He always lives “To intercede.” Just to be honest with you, there are times when I do not know what to pray or even how to pray. I have two daughters as well as four grandchildren – two of whom are teenagers. I also have two sons-in-law. I love each of these people. I want them to be healthy, to serve God and to be safe.
So, again, how do I intelligently pray for them when there are so many things that I don’t know or understand? The answer is, I let Jesus (by way of the Holy Spirit) pray through me.
He always lives to intercede “For them.” Who makes up the “them” in this verse? We do. The “them” speaks of those who belong to Him. Again, them is us!
The Redeemed Team In trying to deal with conflict, put yourself in the other person’s place. John Maxwell in his book Winning with People quotes educator and chemist George Washington Carver, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” Galatians 6:1-2, “Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out.”
While I do not want to condone or justify sinful behavior, at the same time I must admit to myself and to God that given similar circumstances, I could fall into temptation myself. As a result, the Apostle Paul is telling us to be gentle, forgiving, gracious. Have you ever sinned? Made a mistake? Misjudged someone? Spoke out of turn? Jesus said, “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” How would you want people to respond to your shortcomings? Pray for the other person. The Bible lays great stress on this point. I have found this to be most difficult at times. Nonetheless, I have also found it to be refreshing. I know that when I pray for the other person, I am giving them over to God. He knows the truth about the situation. He knows who is right and who, might be wrong. He will deal justly with both the other person and with me. I can trust the situation to Him. Let me remind you, Jesus prayed for those who were guilty of hanging him on the cross. Given the fact that he forgave those people, he can certainly give you the necessary grace to forgive your adversary. Clifton Taulbert is one of my heroes. He is a black educator, author, and entrepreneur. He once said that when we get to heaven, we will no longer remember that we had been hurt while we lived here on earth. At the same time, those who had hurt us will no longer remember that they had caused us pain. I like that. The statement reminds us that pain and offense are temporary, they are products of the here and now. They will not carry over into heaven. Romans 12:18, “If you've got it in you, get along with everybody.” That is God’s goal for our lives. Let us make every effort to reach that goal. Let’s resolve to minimize interpersonal conflict. I am sure that would both please God as well as our fellow man. The Redeemed Team Jesus stressed the fact that each of us would encounter conflict. Remember his issues with the scribes and Pharisees? He cleansed the temple of the money changers. He once rebuked Peter. He was betrayed by Judas.
Obviously, there are times when conflict is unavoidable. And yet, Jesus told us to steer clear of conflict and offense -- if at all possible. Perhaps you remember His telling His followers to turn the other cheek, to go the second mile, show mercy, love, and forgiveness. I want to now give you some simple but practical steps to consider when it comes to dealing with conflict. Allow for some “margin of error.” I mean, give everyone some “wiggle room” to be different or human. We all make mistakes. I remember a song that we use to play for our oldest daughter as she was growing up. It said in part, “Everyone makes mistakes and so do you.” The message was meant to be affirming and positive. We can still be a worthwhile individual and not be perfect. That was the essence of the Lord’s message about the speck of dust and the beam. He said that we are to get the beam out of our own eye before we get all bent out of shape over the speck of dust in our brother’s eye. In short, we must allow for some margin of error. Don’t demand perfection from someone else if you can’t deliver perfection yourself. Again, quoting Jesus, “let him (her) who is without sin cast the first stone.” Understand that there are two sides of right. Hold up your hand. What do you see? Fingernails? Knuckles? A diamond on a ring? Now have someone else describe your hand. Let them see only the palm side. Wouldn’t their description be somewhat different than yours? Now, which of the two descriptions is the right one? Both are right. Both sides are simply seeing the hand from a different perspective. Due to our competitive natures, we have come to think of everything in a win/lose, right/wrong sitting. That isn’t always the case though. Sometimes, in conflict, both sides can be right. We must allow for that possibility. Maybe we simply need to say to the other person, please describe for me your side of the hand. I have found that even if I am right on an issue, so what? Being right doesn’t mean that I have to proudly drive the point until everyone knows that I am right. Sometimes it is OK to let the other person enjoy a win. No harm done. I hate to admit this, but there have been times when I just knew that I was right only to find out later on that I wasn’t even remotely right on the issue. We do not have to have every conflict escalate into a war. The Bible advises, Matthew 5:25, “Come to terms quickly with your enemy before it is too late….” Maybe you simply need to agree to disagree and to move on peacefully from there. Let things cool down. Sometimes we react to quickly to an affront. That can be dangerous. Take some time to think things through. Pray. Seek counsel, if necessary. That way, when and if you respond, you respond without the emotion. Emotion can be good; it can be bad. If the emotion is bad, then it is best to remain quiet for a time. A reasoned calm voice is less likely to get you into trouble. James 1:19, states, “Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” Then too, Proverbs 15:1 adds, “A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more anger.” That’s good. Be honest with yourself. You are not going to get along with everyone. Again, even Jesus had His enemies. However, if you look around and all you see are enemies, if people seem to purposefully avoid you, if the number one gift you get every Christmas is Dale Carnegie’s book, “How To Win Friends And Influence People”, then you might be the issue. As Pogo once noted, “We have seen the enemy and he is us.” If I have just described you, then admit it. Seek help. Personalities can and do change. Set out to change yours. The Redeemed Team I hate conflict. Don’t you? I mean, conflict can rob me of sleep. It can upset my stomach. It can harm if not sever long-standing relationships. I have even seen conflict cause people to turn away from God.
As much as I hate conflict, conflict has always been with us. Always! Prior to Adam and Eve’s clash with God in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer rebelled against the Lord in, of all places, heaven. As a result, he and a third of the angels were expelled from God’s presence. I don’t think it is by accident that the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, is replete with conflict. Of course, we are aware of the fact that Cain murdered his brother Abel. However, not everyone realizes that in the same chapter that details that killing we find another homicide. Genesis 4:23 declares, “Lamech said… hear my voice! You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for hitting me.” Later on, in Genesis we read of the world’s first war, of Sarah’s conflict with Hagar, Isaac’s conflict with Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph’s fight with his brothers. The rest of Scripture adds such accounts as David’s war with Saul, Jesus’ ongoing quarrel with the Pharisees, Paul and John Mark, the Jews and the Gentiles…. You get the idea. While interpersonal conflict should not surprise us, it cannot help but disappoint us. I am thinking of two Christian brothers. They both attend the same church. They worship together, serve God together, and have known each other for many years. Yet, the truth is, they really do not like each other. I have heard them lob venomous words and make cutting accusations. I have flinched at times due to their mean-spiritedness. I have hurt due to the pain that they have inflicted upon one another. Is it right? No. Is it reality? By all means! Conflict happens. Many things feed into interpersonal conflict. Think of the 3,500-year-old disagreement between the Arabs and the Jews. Most if not all of us have had a personality clash with someone. They simply rub us the wrong way. Then there are clashes that occur between the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the management and labor…. You get the idea. An 80-year-old woman was arrested for shoplifting. When she went before the judge, he asked her, "What did you steal?" She replied, "A can of peaches." The judge then asked her why she had stolen the can of peaches and she replied that she was hungry. The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can. She replied, "six." The judge then said, "I will then give you six days in jail." Before the judge could actually pronounce the punishment, the woman's husband spoke up and asked the judge if he could say something. The judge said, "What is it?" The husband said, "She also stole a can of peas." Do you think that couple had ever had conflict in their home? I am a preacher. A lily-white preacher. Nonetheless, I have had people dislike me for no other reason than the color of my skin. While pastoring in South Dakota I encountered a number of Native Americans that had a very strong dislike for the “white man.” Then I have had people reject me because of my vocation. I remember calling on a family years ago. When the lady of the house welcomed me and my wife in the front door, her husband was making a mad dash out the back door. He didn’t like preachers. I am also conservative, Protestant, and Christian. I drive a Volvo in a GM town, I support Israel, I hate abortion…. Any one of those things could easily separate me from someone else. The same could be said of each and every one of you. Again, many things, even things beyond our control, can feed conflict. Conflict seems to come naturally. The Redeemed Team As I was growing up, I was somewhere south of handsome. I was skinny, had either broken or twisted teeth, didn't take care of my appearance, and I didn’t know the first thing about mixing and matching my hand-me-down clothes. On top of that, I had complex complexes and was terribly shy. While I made excellent grades in college, I made awful grades in the years leading up to college. I really had very little if anything going for me as a person. If you were to look for me on the totem pole, you would have started at the bottom – not the top.
My dad loved to read, and he passed that love on to me. One day, while yet a teenager, I ran across a quote as I was reading. · I don’t remember the name of the book. · I don’t remember the name of the author. · I can’t tell you what the book was even about. · I can’t describe the cover of the book for you. However, I will never forget that particular quote. That passage was used by the Lord to help change the course of my life. Here is the quote: “You’ll worry less about what people think about you when you realize how seldom they do.” I have since found the name of the originator of the quote -- David Foster Wallace. Thank you, Mr. Wallace. Before I read that quote, I would sit around thinking that people were sitting around thinking about me-- my teeth, my weight, my poor grades, about how poor my family was. Me. Me. Me!!! When I wrap it in those terms, it sounds rather vain, doesn’t it? To be sure, almost everyone has at one time or another worried about what other people think of them. But for that poor teenage boy so many years ago, such worry was almost incapacitating. It affected my thoughts toward myself: · Who would like me? · Who would marry me? · Who would even hire me? as well as my thoughts concerning other people. I was held prisoner by my own low sense of self-esteem. Freedom did not seem to be an option for, again, I was held tight by something that I had no control over -- what I perceived to be other people’s thoughts! Yet again, God used an nondescript quote in an otherwise inconsequential moment to turn things around for me. Consider this: Who was I thinking about so many years ago? Me. I was thinking of me! I have come to understand that is the norm. Most people were not sitting around thinking of me, they were doing what I was doing – they were sitting around thinking of themselves. It is a sad but simple truth that the average person filters their world through their ego, meaning that they think about most things in terms of “me”, “my” or "I”. If the truth be known, most folks don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about you or me at all! Next, what people think of you cannot change who you are or what you are worth. People’s thoughts, even the ones about you … cannot add or subtract anything to or from you, unless you allow them to. Sure, you might be embarrassed momentarily, but five years from now, or even five days from now, how much will their fleeting opinions truly matter? According to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, UCLA, the average person thinks some 70,000 plus thoughts a day. Even if someone else thinks about you maybe ten times in one day, that is nothing compared to the sum-total of all of their thoughts. That is so inconsequential it is almost imperceptible. Let me put it this way, if people work eight hours a day, and sleep eight hours a day, that leaves only another eight hours to devote to other things; things such as eating, playing, praying, exercising, studying, and so forth. In all honesty, how much of those eight hours do you think other people devote to thinking about you and your perceived short comings? Don’t get me wrong. I do think that Christians do care about and think about other people. But, as a rule, they are not giving all that much thought to your nose, your weight, your teeth, your stuff. Oh, there may well be a fleeting thought now and then, and even a timely prayer on your behalf. But, let me say again, other people are not just sitting around filling their day with thoughts of you. That is, unless they are a teenager in love. There is one though who does fill His day with thoughts of you. Psalm 139:17-18 (The Living Bible) says, “How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!” The New Living Translation puts it this way, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” Rather than busy your mind with worries about other people’s opinions and thoughts, gravitate to what God says and thinks. In conclusion, l want to challenge you to fill your mind with the truth of God’s thoughts rather than worry yourself over what other people might possibly be thinking of you. The Redeemed Team Sam Levinson, in his book entitled Everything But Money, says his family had plenty of everything -- fights, neighbors, cockroaches, relatives -- everything, that is, but money. The Levinsons were a poor family, but mama Levinson, a woman with a good head on her shoulders, never told the children they were nearly destitute. She took a shoe box, slit a hold in the top for a money slot, and marked it "For the Poor". All the extra pennies went into the box for those unfortunate enough to be poor, whoever and wherever they were.
Mama Levinson had learned an important lesson of faith somewhere. Much of life is determined by the person you think yourself to be. If you think yourself to be poor, you are poor. More than anything else, poverty is a state of mind. Many of our problems are simply problems of perspective. In Hollywood, there is an exclusive school attended by children of movie stars, producers and directors. Asked to write a composition on the subject of poverty, one little girl started her literary piece: "Once there was a poor little girl. Her father was poor, her mother was poor, her governess was poor, her chauffeur was poor, her butler was poor. In fact, everybody in the house was very, very poor." Isn’t that a poor story? Listen to Paul’s words found in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” From all outward appearances Paul was poor as Job’s turkey. He was in prison. Under severe persecution. Life had, in many ways, been cruel to him. Nonetheless, on the inside he knew that he was as rich as Bill Gates! Someone has said that:
Attitude oftentimes makes us or breaks us. The Redeemed Team In the Bible, we find that people were poor for a variety of reasons. The same holds true for us today. Look with me now at the fifth reason for poverty -- some people are poor because they won't work. I am reminded of Proverbs 23:21 which says, “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.”
Sadly, there is a whole stratum of folks out there who simply refuse to work. Warren Wiersbe in his Bible Exposition Commentary states, “The biggest thieves of all are the lazy people who could work but won't, the people who consume what others produce but produce nothing for others to use. The "sluggard" and the "slothful man" are mentioned at least seventeen times in Proverbs, and nothing good is said about them.” Notice:
It's worth noting that the Prodigal Son's first request was, “Father, give me!” But when he returned home, after a season of living with the pigs, his request was, “Make me one of your servants” (Luke 15:12, 19). He'd learned the necessity of hard work. Now I have given you five biblical reasons for poverty:
The Scripture has a different remedy for each of these situations. In other words, there wasn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. According to Dr. Tony Evans:
The Redeemed Team In the Bible, we find that people were poor for a variety of reasons. The same holds true for us today. Thus far, I have noted that sin can cause poverty. Situational poverty and injustice are two additional reasons for this malady.
Notice now, poor financial management. I remember counseling a lady a few years ago that needed help with her personal finances. She came to me with the issue. As I explored her situation, I found that she owed better than $12,000 in credit card debt and, to be honest, she had nothing to show for it. She had a cracker box house, no vehicle, used furniture, and a poor wardrobe. This little widow lady had spent nearly everything that she had to try to get ahead of the mounting debt but was unable to do it. She was sunk. How did it happen? She hardly made enough to keep body and soul together. Therefore, she ended up having to charge her food and her prescriptions on her cards. Then too, the credit card companies were more than willing to continue to send her a seemingly endless stream of credit card applications. As the debt grew, she applied for more plastic. The cycle was endless. As her credit rating slowly sent south, her interest rates went up until her interest payments were literally higher than her minimum payments. In other words, the lady was actually going farther in the hole each month whether she charged anything or not. Tragic! Notice these Scriptures:
The Redeemed Team |