By Dr Andrew Corbett
22nd February 2011
When you’re feeling particularly weak and vulnerable, it doesn’t ordinarily help to have someone tell you to just get over it or snap out of it! But on the surface of it, this most unhelpful counsel is precisely what the Bible seems to offer when it instructs us to be strong in the Lord.
¶ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10
I think Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians is perhaps one of the most profound pieces of New Testament literature. No other church in New Testament times draws as much attention as the Ephesian church. While it is often a dangerous thing for a reader to confuse “to” and “for” regarding the intended audiences for a Biblical book (modern readers often naively claim that a particular Biblical book was written to them), there can no doubt that the great apostle intended for this Epistle to be read by an audience much broader than the addressed recipients. We know this because we have found ancient manuscript evidence for this Epistle actually being a type of ‘circular’ epistle (it’s contents would have also been addressed to the other churches in the region as well). Thus, we can be confident that while this epistle was not written to us it was most certainly written for us.
“Be strong in the Lord” sounds like something we are called to do. It sounds like a choice. It sounds like the apostle thought that we could do something within us to draw strength from God. As I study the art of leadership I find that all of the great leaders and teachers on leadership were united about the one common ingredient absolutely necessary for someone to be a leader worth following: character strength. That ability to always bounce back when the cause is right and just. The disposition which causes correction from others to be seen as a gift not as an attack. The sense of responsibility borne that needs no overseer to work. Character, inner strength. Be strong in the Lord speaks directly into the recesses of our soul’s identity - our character.
I wonder when the apostle penned these words that he was also speaking to himself. After all, the human spirit can sink quite low when chained and manacled in a prison cell! I wonder too if he pondered the life of King David who is described as having strengthened himself in God?
And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.1Samuel 30:6
What we know, and what David didn’t know at the time of this verse, was that although all the people were bitter toward him, and he was almost overcome with distress, he was on the verge of being crowned king! Often our darkest hour comes just before our finest hour. Speaking to this text, Matthew Henry wrote-
"Great faith must expect such severe trials. But observe that David was brought thus low, only just before he was raised to the throne.”
Matthew Henry
God has made available grace-strength to His children. We sometimes think that grace is only about salvation. But it is actually God’s underserved provision for our needs. This not only includes in our salvation, it includes our sustenance. And there are times when we particularly need God’s sustaining strength. But the way that He has ordained for His sustaining strength to be mediated to His children is very often counter-intuitive. That is, it seems that we have to do the opposite of the very thing we are wanting to do. To move forward sometimes God calls us to wait. To grow rich sometimes God call us to give everything away. To be refreshed sometimes God calls us to keep working.
When we are particularly weak and vulnerable, we tend to withdraw from others. But one of the most counter-intuitive things that God calls us to do in such times is to immerse ourselves in others. In fact, Peter when writing to a buffeted and persecuted church, reminds them that the grace of God actually comes in many and varied forms, through our brothers and sisters in Christ who are called to steward God’s grace to one another.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace
1Peter 4:10
Similarly, the apostle Paul told the Romans that God’s strengthening grace came through the Gospel, but particularly through the Gospel being preached. This is why attending a good Bible-based, God and Gospel honouring church is good and strengthening for your soul.
¶ Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages
Romans 16:25
This can be very counter-intuitive when on a Sunday morning you are tired and weighed down. It’s easier to stay in bed than to get out of bed and get to church for worship and instruction in the Word. But it is the latter that God has ordained for our continual strengthening. Conversely, bad, irrational, exegetically irresponsible preaching can actually drain our souls of strength.
Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
Hebrews 13:9
Based on the above verse, we can see God instructing His children not to seek strength or comfort from food or drink (and therefore by principle, or drugs), but to look for strength from the sound teaching of God’s Word. God mediates His grace to His children through His children but especially through the sacred gathering of God’s children.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16
This is why God imparts strength to His people through the sacred assembly where the Word of God is taught “richly” in “wisdom” accompanied by thoughtful “hymns” and “spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16). If you want your spiritual strength continually topped up, be committed to your local church and “do not neglect to gather together” (Hebrews 10:25).
If you want to deplete your strength, do the following (or if you want to be spiritually strong, don’t do the following) -
- Stop asking God for help.
- Turn to food or drink for comfort or strength.
- Use human wisdom to solve your problems, rather than what may appear to be “counter-intuitive” Biblical wisdom. Human wisdom may reason that sleeping-in on Sunday mornings would be more beneficial than ‘sacrificing’ your sleep to go to church.
- Cease living in a lifestyle of surrender to God (if you want to be spiritually weak do not pray Lord I surrender to You. Have Your way in my life even when I resist. Break those things out of my life that do not please You. Help me to only live for You.)
- Live independently by refusing to fellowship with or receive help from others.
- Refuse to take direction from those that God has placed in authority over you.
- Neglect your spouse and don’t make time for your children.
This is not merely a list of opinions. Each of these sources of strength are addressed by the apostle in his epistle to the Ephesians. Before he concludes with his, “Finally”, where he then tells his readers to “be strong in the Lord” (Eph. 6:10), he has already discussed the importance of their relationship with God (Ephesians 1); their relationship with people different to themselves (Ephesians 2); their relationship with those within the church (Ephesians 3); their relationship with those in authority over them (Ephesians 4); their relationship with their spouse (Ephesians 5); and their relationship with their children/parents (Ephesians 6). God has designed for His children to receive the grace of His strength mediated through these key relationships. If you consider that the armour and weapons which Paul lists following his injunction to be strong in the Lord, they are really a summary of how these relationships strengthen us. So, be strong in the Lord results when we develop our character to know where we can always find God’s grace which we will discover comes gift wrapped in the form of people.
© Dr. Andrew Corbett,
22nd February 2011, Legana Tasmania
http://www.findingtruthmatters.org
22nd February 2011, Legana Tasmania
http://www.findingtruthmatters.org
This article may be copied and distributed if due credit is given to the author, the article is not altered, and the website- http://www.findingtruthmatters.org - is hyperlinked or referenced.
You are not an accident! God has designs on your life! He has given you gifts, abilities, talents, and resources to contribute in a unique way to His Mission for planet earth! He will go to extrordinary lengths to prepare you because He has called you according to His ultimate purpose.
By serving in our local church we offer God our lives to be directed into His purpose for us (Eph. 1:11). Paul teaches on this in his epistle to the Ephesians where he repeatedly refers to the Church as the purpose of God which Christ came to establish for those He redeemed.
I have already shown that the expression the Lord is coming is a Biblical expression of God's looming judgment. It is the classic understanding of the Church that Christ will return. This is where Classical Preterists and Hyper-Preterists part company. Pantelogists (Hyper-Preterists) regard all Bible prophecies as being fulfilled, whereas, Classical Preterists (Partial Preterists) distinguish between Christ's coming in judgment on Jerusalem and His eventual return. There is historical support for this view dating back to the second and third centuries. Nearly all Biblical Commentators prior to the 1800s took for granted that the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) was fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. This can be readily verified by sourcing a very commonly available old commentary such as Matthew Henry's. Both the Hyper-Preterist and the Futurist Dispensational interpretation were unknown prior to the early 1800s. Naturally both schools of interpretation disagree with this assertion, but the challenge for Dispensational Futurists is to find any Biblical Commentator or Scholar who wrote anything about an invisible return of Christ to rapture the Church to then be followed by a physical return of Christ with the Church 3 to 7 years later! The same challenge applies to Hyper-Preterists to show any Biblical Commentator of scholar accepted by the Christian community as orthodox who claimed that Christ had already returned and that the General Resurrection referred to First Corinthians 15 had already taken place. On the contrary, both Paul (2Tim. 2:18) and the corpus of Biblical Commentators and scholars down through the ages have both denounced the heretical view that the Resurrection of all the dead had already taken place!
Dr. Andrew Corbett, Legana, Tasmania, Australia February 16th, 2011
Regarded as one of the leading exponents of the Book of Revelation, Dr Andrew Corbett in this 4 Part series on the Book of Revelation (presented as a seminar) is now available as a 4 Audio CD set.
If you were around at the time Christ walked the shores of Galilee and heard Him, would you have believed Him? What about if you grew up with Him, would you have believed Him? Statistically, if had grown in the family home of Jesus, where you would have witnessed first-hand the most perfect life ever lived, you probably would not have believed what Christ was claiming!
Fancy that! They grew up with Jesus and had the unique privilege of seeing the only sinless life the world has ever hosted. They witnessed His miracles. They saw Him pray. They were reminded of His supernatural birth every time they walked past the chests of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Yet they didn't believe Him!
Even though the half-brothers of Jesus believed their brother was different and that He could do miracles, they didn't believe in Jesus Himself. To believe in Jesus is to place your trust in Him as your worship-worthy Saviour. It is not merely to pay mental assent to something.
The only kind of belief that is genuinely able to save, is not a belief that Jesus was different, or even that He was a miracle worker - it is the belief that results in trusting surrender to Christ as Saviour and Lord. Remember John 3:16? Remember what Jesus said was the only way to have everlasting life in that verse? Whoever believes... Do you believe? It'll be obvious if you do because it will be the kind of belief that is steadfast. It'll endure. It'll grind it out as well as triumph. Notice what the Bible says about this belief in First Corinthians 15:2- it is continually fueled and fed by the preaching of the Word - hold fast to the Word I preached to you. This is why the message of belief is not our appeal to those outside of the Church. Because steadfast, enduring, immovable belief is the only genuine belief it is absolutely imperative we give ourselves regularly to hearing and heeding the preaching of the Word of God. Little wonder the New Testament commands to believers not to forsake gathering together each week for the assembling of the church.
The Book of Revelation should be read in a way that attempts to look over the shoulder of the original audience. When they read of a rider of a white horse described in Revelation 6 it would have been difficult for them not to have identified this as the first Emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, who rode a white horse. When the list of 'horsemen' expires after the fourth horseman, the original readers would have understood that the fifth Emperor of Rome was not a military leader. They would have also understood that it was the fifth Emperor, Caesar Nero, who began martyring the Church which is why we read that when the fifth seal was broken, the martyrs cried out.
Tiger Woods signed a contract for $20,000,000 before he had ever won a Pro tournament then much to his new sponsor's horror, changed. It was a difficult time for all involved. Not only is change difficult, it is also painful. Painful, that is, if there is a commitment to the change. It is in this phase of change that we must settle a nagging question: "Am I really committed to this change?" To answer "Yes" is to subscribe to frustration and pain. But these subscriptions don't last. And while some subscriptions come with bonus offers, the subscription to changing comes with a bonus that can not be achieved any other way: positive improvement.
Before Tiger Woods had even won a professional golf tournament, Nike signed him to a twenty million dollar sponsorship contract and Titlelist signed him for forty million dollars. These companies saw the potential in the young golfer. When Tiger played his first Major, he won it. Actually, he didn't just won it, he won it by an unprecedented 14 strokes! This was a history-making winning margin. Golf writers began speculating that Tiger would go on to become the greatest golfer of all time. But Tiger did something that astounded everyone. After winning his first Major, he went to a golf-coach and asked for help with his swing! Even though he was awarded many accolades he wasn't happy with his game. The coach made some adjustments to Tiger's swings. And unless you're a golfer or tennis player, you're not going to understand what this really means. When a coach adjusts a player's swing it takes many months to fully implement it. And in those many months of change there is huge frustration. Balls that you could hit well with your previous swing and now getting sprayed with new stroke. And this is what happened to Tiger. Golf writers described the next twelve months of Tiger's career as "an off year". As humiliating as that period of change for Tiger was, it eventually paid off. He went on to win all of the Majors - many times - and is now regared as the greatest golfer since Jack Nicklaus.
The saying goes- GOD LOVES US JUST THE WAY WE ARE, BUT HE LOVES US TOO MUCH TO LEAVE US THE WAY WE ARE. God wants us to change. This begins in our thinking. What they think determines our attitude and our attitude determines whether we will, or won't, change positively. Consider the person who never owns their faults and mistakes. Instead, they live in denial by always blaming others. Their story might sound like a string a broken friendships where they were continually being "hurt" by people. In such a story, there is only one common element: them. And what they call "hurt" may actually be someone trying to correct them. To be sure, some people are the innocent victims of abuse, but that is a different story to the kind of story I'm referring to here. Unless this person changes, this story will probably continue - and even worse, this person will never grow up. They need a renewed attitude, a different way of thinking, a Romans 12:2. Instead of seeing people as being against them, if they can change in their thinking to realise that when people try to correct them, it is to help them, they can begin to 'own' their lives and grow positively.
We are so conditioned by our sin-natures to blame and not own our mistakes and failings. Afterall, it started in the Garden when Adam blamed God for his sin ("the woman YOU GAVE me made me do it"). But growth comes from owning our mistakes and failings and then changing. Yes, it hurts. Yes, there is pain. But it's pain with gain. By owning mistakes and faults we are then able to ask a growth question: how can I change this? What do I have to do differently to avoid this happening again? Blame doesn't actually fix anything. Change does. To have someone confront us about our bad, childish, behaviour, presents us with two immediate options- firstly, reject their correction and become defensive (that is, excuse ourselves), or secondly, accept what they say as a gift even if it is painful, and positively change as a result.
The current devastating floods that have washed over Australia have ruined the fruit and vegetable industry. I'd like to brag that I could see prophetically that this was going to happen. But I can't, because I didn't. However, a few months ago I planted a vegetable garden. I have a few corn plants, beans, lettuce, chives, and tomatoes growing. So as the Global Food Crisis (GFC) bites harder, we'll continue to be eating well on chives and beans with home-made tomato sauce! But after I planted my vegetables, I discovered that the local birds and wildlife were helping themselves to my fledgling plants. I then had to fence and net my vegetables. While they were grateful for the protection, I discovered that somehow there was one tomato plant seedling (which I hadn't planted) was growing about 4 metres away from my vegetable patch. This prompted me to make a decision.
I decided to put a wire hedge around this free-range tomato. I still have no idea how this maverick tomato plant got there, but I knew that unless I protected it - it wouldn't remain there much longer. Inside its wire fenced protection it has survived frequent visits by wallabies, rabbits, and various birds. And over the past few weeks this single tomato plant has gone from 3 inches tall to nearly 3 feet tall! It has also meshed somewhat with its wire fence and is now dependent upon it for support. This past week it has gone into horticultural labour. It's amazing what a hedge of protection will enable.
When Satan came before God back in the days of the Old Covenant, when he still had access to God's Throne-Room, he complained that he was unable to attack Job because God had also been "hedged" or "fenced" by God. Today, God still fences and places people inside a protective hedge. In fact, Jesus told a story of a shepherd who cared for his sheep by placing them within a hedged pen. When they were safely protected he went out and searched for the one missing lamb. The Shepherd of the flock of God still places His sheep within a protective pen. And this leads me to my other tomato plants.
While my maverick tomato plant is flourishing, I forgot to mention that within my vegetable patch I have another dozen tomato plants who spend their days singing, laughing, rejoicing, playing, and having a good time. These tomato plants enjoy living within the fenced and netted vegie patch. They are also much larger and much more pregnant and much further into their horticultural labour than my maverick tomato plant. There is something about being protected within a community that causes tomato plants to thrive. I think people might be like tomato plants. Sure, on their own they can do well - as long they live within strong boundaries - but they can always do better they live out their purpose within a protective community.
This week our nation is reeling over the sheer devastation of the floods now affecting three of our States. There has been much heartbreak and sorrow and our hearts go out prayerfully to those affected by this disaster. Already people are beginning to think how this could have been avoided. There was an interesting article in the Australian Newspaper (12/1/11) written by a resident in the flood affected area of Queensland.
Early yesterday morning I went back to the bruised and battered Margaret Street to support any local business that still had the heart to open. My coffee shop was handing out free coffees to the battered owners of the local businesses who had lost so much. When I went to buy my newspaper, the newsagent told me he was devastated, not because of what had happened but because the engineer who had worked on the beautification project told him he couldn't make them listen when he pleaded for bigger pipes - "18-footers" he called them - to let the water through, because it simply didn't suit the aesthetics of the architects and landscapers.
God has placed the church in the world as a wise word of warning to a daring world on the brink of eternal peril. These warnings are often rejected. Those giving these warnings are frequently seen as prudish, silly, and out-of-touch. While the world builds its lives on the sand of life's riverbanks, they bask in the view and the pleasantness of life on the river. Mockingly they scorn those who chose to build on life's rock-foundations of higher ground who, in doing so, deprived themselves of what the world thougt was scenery too good to miss out on.
Let's heed the wise warnings of the aged sages who have seen too many lives ruined by sand-founded living. Let's build our lives on the Rock. Let's warn those attempting to build their lives on the sand. Let's be compassionate toward those discovering that life-sand is no resistance to life-flooding, not just for the physical and temporal well-being of our countrymen, but more importantly for their eternal well-being as well. These floods have wrought severe devastation which has been materially and physically destructive. But it is possible that much good could arise from this. If we can see, and help others to see, the spiritual lessons in such tragedies, it will not only be much good, but great good which can arise.