Why Send for Peter?

According to the common understanding, good people go to heaven, only very bad people go to hell. According to the common understanding, a person who prays and worships often, and who gives to help the needy is certainly a saved person.

There is a biblical character who prayed and worshipped often. He gave to the needy. His name was Cornelius and his story is told in Acts chapter ten and eleven. He is called a “devout” man and is said to be one who gave to the poor and who worshipped and prayed continually (Acts 10:1-2). According to most people, he must have been a “saved” person. Most modern preachers would welcome him into their churches. But according to the Bible, Cornelius needed to send for Peter so that he could hear “a message by which you will be saved” (Acts 11:14).

So, evidently, being devout did not save him. Evidently, worshipping, praying, and giving alms did not save him. Evidently there was a message he needed to hear and respond to before he could become a saved person.

Do not blame me, I did not write the Bible. If you want to argue, you are arguing with God, not with me.

Unless the gospel message has been heard (Acts 11:14) and obeyed (1 Thess 1:8), even devout people are not saved. Cornelius needed to hear the message. So do we; so do our neighbors.

Word and Worship

"...the word of God is not bound." (2 Timothy 2:9, ESV)

The situation we currently face, not being able to assemble as a church, is unusual for us. Never before in my life have we a faced a situation where assembling for public worship is not possible. But while we have not faced this situation before, many Christians have faced it. In the Soviet Union from 1919 to the 1980s, and in China from 1947 even unto today, the inability to openly gather for worship has been a reality. Other historical examples could be named - going back to the early days of the church. So what we currently face is not really new, although it is new to us.

We are, or should be, better equipped to deal with this situation than our brothers and sisters in other places and in ages past. We have, or ought to have, Bibles and hymnals in our homes. Many of us also have recorded hymn singing available in one form or another. These are all blessings that were not enjoyed by those who resisted Nero, or Stalin, or Mao.

Many of us have extra time available as a result of the current health crisis. How are we using that time? While we cannot assemble for worship, we can worship. While we cannot assemble for Bible study, we actually ought to be able to study the Bible more than ever.

Who knows? Perhaps through this crisis some will learn the joy of household worship and personal Bible study.

Will It Last?

“For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18, ESV)

I used to say that I would never buy a Ford from a Chevy dealer, nor a Chevy from a Ford dealer. I figured that if a person had received good service from a car, he would get another one like it. But, as a coworker pointed out, I was assuming that people look for quality. In truth most are buying style, not quality. That statement holds true for far more than cars.

When it comes to religion, many are more interested in style than in truth.

What are we seeking when we assemble for worship -- a feeling, an emotional experience, or truth?

If you seek experiences – something you can touch, taste, or see, you can get that in lots of places. But, as the above quoted text points out, the empirically tangible is doomed from the start. The great and lasting realities are not the ones we experience with our senses. It is not the message delivered with a pyrotechnic show that lasts. Do not look for the church with music that makes your ears ring. Look for the church that teaches the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

About thirty years ago, the wife of a certain televangelist was quoted as having said, “It feels so good, I don’t care if it is true.” She died about a dozen years ago. Shall I put it plainly? I think I should. Unless she repented of it, she will have an eternity in which to regret that ungodly attitude.

Jesus was about truth, not style. He wants us to feel strongly about the truth, once we know it is truth. He does not want us to believe or to proclaim something because it feels good to us.

The true faith (like many truths) will hurt at first, but feel good, eventually and eternally. A feel-good faith will leave you empty for eternity.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6-8, ESV; see also Rom 1:18-2:8 and 2 Thess 2:1-12)

An Ordinary Day

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10, ESV)

On a day in July of 1985 Sam Shewmaker gathered his family, and those staying in his house, around the dining room table at his home in Lusaka, Zambia. Before beginning the meal, he read from a little book titled My Utmost for His Highest.

I rather suspect that Sam Shewmaker has forgotten all about that day. It was just a normal day in his life. He was just doing what he normally did. But here I am, thirty-five years later, remembering the event. This morning I took the book My Utmost for His Highest off the shelf. As I did so, I remembered the day when I first heard of the book. A year after hearing Sam read from it, I purchased my own copy. I have made use of it many times through the years.

Oswald Chambers, the author of the book, died in Egypt 100 years ago. I am not sure where Sam Shewmaker is now. But Chamber’s book, and Shewmaker’s use of that book, continues to have an influence on me.

This is not meant as an ad for the book. I write this not to promote that book, but to promote the value of the little things we say and do. A man leading his family in a few minutes of worship at his home in 1985 is still having an effect 35 years later. We heard no voice from heaven that day, the angels did not sing, the sky was not opened. It seemed to be just an ordinary day. It was just an ordinary day. But ordinary days make a difference. Little things that we do, or fail to do, may be remembered by someone decades from now – long after we have forgotten them.

We will have seven days this week. The odds are, they will seem to be ordinary ones. But ordinary sometimes turns into extraordinary, often without our even realizing it.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10, ESV).