Great Poem

When I Became a Christian – Adrian Plass

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I'll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I'm not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen - I think.
But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I'm not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I've made my mind up, and I say, Amen - a bit.
Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That's true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen - tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I'll say it then, that's when I'll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need to joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I've got it straight, I'll say Amen - tomorrow.
He said, Look, I'm not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen - I quit.
I'm very sorry Lord, I said, I'd like to follow you,
But I don't think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you're man enough to do what he has done.
Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I'm frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I'm frightened, but I also said …

A Fable I remember hearing a couple times

It is said that many centuries ago the Devil called all the demons of Hell together. He asked for suggestions as to how to damn the souls of men. 

One demon gave one suggestion; another gave another; another gave another. Then a brilliant demon came forward and said, "I’ll tell you what let’s do. Let’s tell men there is a Bible; that the Bible is God’s Word. Let’s tell men that there are a real Hell and a real Heaven; that people who die without the Saviour go to Hell; and that those who believe in Christ, when they die, go to Heaven. Let’s tell men that God loves them and has provided a way whereby they can be saved. Let’s tell men they ought to be saved, but let’s tell them they don’t need to be saved now. Let’s tell them to wait awhile."

It is said that all the demons of Hell, and even Satan himself, applauded the brilliant demon and said, "That’s it! That’s what we will do! Men will fall for that! That’s the best way to damn the souls of men!"

Source:
(http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/BTP/Dr_Curtis_Hutson/danger_of_delay.htm)

When is a person truly “in” the Kingdom of God?

It is a valid question for anyone to ask, whether Christian or Atheist. When exactly is a person accepted into the Kingdom of God? Is it at baptism? Is it after one says some lines to heaven? Is is after we confess our sins to a priest? Or, instead, has it all been predetermined millenniums before anyone even asked such a question? When asking such theological questions, it only makes sense to turn to the book of God's word – the Bible.

A. Old Testament Theology

It seems that the old testament is rather blunt when answering who is and who isn't in the Kingdom of God. Throughout the testament, God holds up to a covenant he made with Abraham. (Genesis 15:8) The Israelites became God's chosen people, and the old testament follows their story.

God's Chosen

First of all, we can look at Deuteronomy 7:6-11. God is telling the Israelites that they are his “holy people,” and that out off all nations on earth they are “his treasured possession.” (verse 6) This appears to mean that God values the Israelite nation above all others. They have a special connection to Him. The passage further goes on to explain that God did not choose them because they were a great or mighty nation, but because they were the “fewest of all people.” (verse 7) Therefore, God does not select people based on how great their country or nation is. Such earthly signs of power and greatness mean nothing to God.

God continues to say in verse 8 that they were chosen because God loved them and made and oath with their forefathers. He also says in verse 9 that the “covenant of love” was to last for “a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” This opens up all kinds of questions. First, does Gods love for the Israelites only last for 1,000 generations? Are these chosen people the only ones that will inherit the Kingdom? Or, is God's love more open to anyone willing to “love him and keep his commands?” This does not necessarily seem like an option if God is telling the Israelites to destroy the nations that oppose him earlier in chapter 7. God wants the people to follow his commands because he loves them, and has established laws that need to be followed in order to accept this love. (verse 11)

An Exception?

We often see God angry at the Israelites, causing them to die. Yet, in the old testament we see God saving¹ people for simply helping the Israelites. One such example is Rahab the prostitute. Her story begins in Joshua 2. In particular verse 11² shows Rahab recognizing God as the Lord of heaven. She asks to be spared, and is told that she will be. This is an interesting concept. Rahab, who was not an Israelite, was going to be the only one in Jericho to be saved, yet she was a prostitute, and had just lied to protect two Israelites. She simply protects the Lord's chosen, and is spared when the walls fall. In Joshua 2:15 the Bible says that Rahab's house was connected to the city walls. However, in Joshua 6:20, God causes the walls to fall, but in verse 23 the two Israelites go in and bring her and her family out unharmed. This seems to imply that God must have kept her part of the wall intact, otherwise she would have been crushed. Thus the Lord saved her, and in verse 25 she is brought to live with the Israelites.

But did this allow Rahab into the Kingdom of God? Was recognizing him an entry point to the Kingdom even though she was not Israeli? According to a study done by David Guzik on Joshua 2, a number of factors play into the salvation of Rahab. First, he claims that though she was a prostitute, she had faith. She recognized God as who he is and accepted Him. Guzik goes so far as to say that Rahab wanted to leave her life of sin and join God's people based on Joshua 2:12. (2001) He even claims that God went so far as to send the spies to save her, and that this was God's only reason for sending them. In fact, the fact that the spies went to Jericho did not affect God's strategy at all or help it in any way. (Guzik 2001) A final thing Guzik notes is the importance of the scarlet cord. He claims that theologians as far back as the first century recognized the cord as a symbol of Jesus' blood. (Guzik 2001) In James 2:25³ Rahab is even recognized as “righteous.” It would appear that God accepted her, and even placed her into the Israelite nation. Did God accept her because she accepted him? Or, did God accept her because she was willing to become Israeli and accept their ways because God had chosen them?

Still God's Choosing

Rahab, even according to Guzik, was chosen by God. It seemed that it was part of God's plan to find Rahab. She was already willing to accept the ways of the Lord, but she had no way to do it. Thus, God sent the spies to retrieve her. He chose to accept and save her. By herself, it appears Rahab had no hope of salvation, she was to be destroyed with the rest of the city. God extended his love to her so that she could receive it. She was chosen amongst the entire city to be spared. Not even the children were allowed to live. Therefore, it would seem, that Old Testament theology supports the idea of God choosing those that he wishes to save. This does not mean that a person had to be Israeli because it was possible for someone to join the Israelites and live amongst them.

A. New Testament Developments

It would seem that the New Testament views acceptance into the Kingdom differently. With things like “preaching to the ends of the earth,” and “first the Jew then the Gentile,” and John 3:16, it is hard to see God as only accepting his chosen Israelites into the Kingdom. So what caused this apparent change? Did the 1000 generations meet its end? Or was it something else?

Jesus Wins

First, it should be declared that the rejection of Jesus (as God's Son) is a rejection of God (Himself) as clearly stated in Luke 10:16⁴. Deuteronomy 7:10⁵ mentions that those who reject (hate) God will be met with destruction. Therefore, the rejection of Christ seems to guarantee that a person will not be accepted into the Kingdom. John 8:31-47 relates to the passage in Deuteronomy in a unique way. In John, the Jews are telling Jesus that they are Abraham's children. They are using this as a means of salvation. Jesus tells them they are not truly sons of Abraham because they are rejecting him and trying to kill him; something Abraham would never do. In fact, in verse 37, Jesus recognizes them as Abraham's descendants. Thus, it would seem that simply being part of Abraham's tribe, or Israeli was no longer enough to be accepted by God. Abraham's descendants were missing their promised savior.

Ask, and you are in

Later on in Luke we find another interesting story of Jesus accepting someone into the kingdom. This is found in Luke 23:32-43. Jesus is about to be crucified on the cross. However, he is not alone, but with two other men, criminals. One of them decides to mock Jesus, but the other recognizes his dire situation. He also she Jesus as innocent, and apparently believes that he is the King that he says he is. In particular, an exchange in made in verses 42-43, “then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.'” What did this man do to deserve such an honor? He was a criminal until his dying breath. He doesn't ask for forgiveness, there is nothing indicating that he is Abraham's descendant, and there is no sign of God accepting him first. Instead, the man cries out to Jesus with his dying breath. His simple request is to be remembered, and Jesus promises him that he will be in paradise that day. All this man had to do was ask Jesus before he died to be accepted into the Kingdom, and he was.

Baptism, and the Holy Spirit

In the book of Acts, Jesus has already gone from the earth. He has left his disciples in charge of carrying on the message of life. In Acts chapter 2 Peter is speaking to a crowd of people. After a while of listening to his message, they wanted to know how they could be accepted into the Kingdom. Peter tells them in verse 38 that they need to repent of their sins and be baptized. This will allow them to “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (verse 38) However, it is interesting that Peter does not stop there. He makes a peculiar statement in verse 39 when he says “as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (NASB) This returns to the idea in Deuteronomy that God is calling out and choosing people. In Acts this is not limited to Jews or Israelites, but to everyone. God was opening up the Kingdom to all who would receive His calling. Jesus told the disciples to go to everyone in the world and share what he had done.⁶ It would seem that Jesus was making his call to everyone, so when Peter mentions the statement in verse 39, he is likely referring to all people who will accept God's call.

Here we find two new requirements to entering the Kingdom. The first is repentance. In the Old Testament this meant that someone had to make an animal sacrifice, a blood sacrifice. However, Jesus was the eternal sacrifice, so repentance meant believing that Jesus shed his blood for forgiveness of sins. The second step was getting baptized. This is something that Jesus himself did while he was on earth. This is how Jesus received the Holy Spirit in a special way, and he was setting an example for future believers who wished to follow him.

Being an Israelite does NOT save a person

Paul takes things to a new level. In his letter to the Romans (in particular chapter 10), he explicitly states that the Israelites are not saved. Though the Israelites claim that they are seeking the righteousness of God, they are actually missing it because they have rejected the message of Christ. Pail then goes on to say in verse 9 that a person simply has to state that “Jesus is Lord,” and believe that “God raised him from the dead,” in order to be saved. He does not mention baptism. He explains himself a bit more in verse 10. Here he says that you believe to become justified, but you confess with your mouth to profess your faith. Thus, it seems that Paul is saying that professing faith is required in order to be saved.

Explaining how to become saved is not the end of Paul's message. He goes on to explain that “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.” This would mean that God is not choosing a favored nation to save. Paul ends by saying in verse 13 that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There is no mention here of the Lord calling to people first or people answering God's call. People are the ones calling out to God to become saved.

C. The Trajectory of the Kingdom

It seems that there is not only significant difference in to the means of grace between the Old and New Testament, but also differences between books in the New Testament. So what is the final verdict? How exactly does a person truly become into the Kingdom of God? At what point is a person actually going to heaven? The Bible does not seem to have a completely clear answer, however, some conclusions can still be drawn.

For example, the concept of being a Christian requires the believe in Jesus as God's son. This could not have been the case for the people living in the Old Testament because Jesus had not yet come to the earth. However, today it seems to be clear throughout the New Testament that acceptance of Jesus as God's son, and his death and resurrection are indisputable facts required to be in the Kingdom. However, after this there seems to be some discrepancy as to the formal requirements for salvation. Perhaps this is all part of God's plan. There is no set way of attaining salvation. There is only the acceptance of the Christ story.

A man on his dying breath was saved by asking, a crowd of Jews were saved by baptism and the Holy Spirit, other Jews were pleaded with to accept the message of salvation, but what do these things have in common? All these people accepted or were told about the salvation through Jesus Christ. There is no earthly way to know if another person is actually saved. Only God knows a person's true heart. God may have left the perfect definition of salvation blurry on purpose. This allows him to judge as he will. So how does one answer the question, “When is a person truly 'in' the kingdom of God?” Perhaps the answer is simply, whenever God says so, and accepts a person's heart as genuine. It has been said⁷, there is only one way to salvation, but there are thousands of ways to Jesus. A number of ways are described throughout the scriptures, and each of these people were promised salvation, but it is likely that new ways to Jesus are discovered every day.

Resources

Guzik, D. (n.d.). Joshua 2 - The Salvation of Rahab. Enduring Word Media. 2001. Retrieved October 14, 2011, from http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0602.htm

1The term saving here is directly relating the idea of saving one's earthly life, not necessarily their eternal soul.

2“11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (NIV)

3“In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” (NIV)

4“'Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.'” (NIV)

5“But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.” (NIV)

6Acts 1:8

7This is a common quote used in sermons and conversation, thus there is no real way to target a source.

Revelations Through Ezekiel

A couple of months ago I became the leader of the young adult group at my local church. It wasn't really something that I expected to be leading, but instead something that I had planned on attending. However, the leadership that was doing it decided that it was too much for them to make the weekly commitment and the group would be disbanded if I did not step up and volunteer to take the position. I knew a couple that was currently not attending church or any kind of small group for growth. One of the couple was somewhat new to the faith and I knew that the group would be perfect for them, as I had enjoyed the time that I got to spend with other people my age. Thus, I saw the need for the group to continue.

I started the group by having a study on Dwight Robertson's book, You are God's Plan A. This seemed like the perfect fit for where everyone was in life. It went as well as any book study with a group of young adults goes. No one really had the book read so we struggled through the discussion. Not willing to try another book study yet, I moved to something different – the Bible. But, I couldn't get them to pick a book in the Bible to study. My goal for the group was not to have a teacher student relationship, but they kept turning to me to be a leader and pick a book. So I was at a loss.

However, then in one of our seminary assignments, I was struck by a couple of interesting verses in Ezekiel. I hadn't realized such interesting things were found in the book. On the other hand, I did remember a number of exceptionally awkward verses that would definitely lead to some rather unusual discussion. So I decided to lead the group through a study on Ezekiel . . . having no idea what was in store.

The first week went well as we had a blast observing the imagery used in Ezekiel's vision. Our first assignment was to draw our own rendition of the “creature” for the following week. This was a good time, but now we hit Ezekiel chapter 3, and we found our first bit of seriousness and profoundness. In particular we looked at the following verses:

Ezekiel’s Task as Watchman

16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for[b] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.

20 “Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

22 The hand of the LORD was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.

24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people.

We all sort of fell silent and didn't really know how to handle some of these verses. We were all kind of focusing and reflecting on the idea that we had perhaps missed a number of opportunities to share God's message . . . and would now be held responsible. What it means in the end to be held accountable for not warning people about sin we did not know, but we did know it could not be a good thing.

God was sharing with us the importance to not miss opportunities to share the gospel. We cannot let things like fear and worry hold us back. It is our responsibility as Christians to share God's message and work His Great Commission – regardless of whether or not people accept it.

I was reminded on a man I once knew and spent a weekend with. A man from Illinois by the name of John Kiley. In my mind he is a living here of Ezekiel's responsibility. From the day that John Kiley was saved, he has never missed an opportunity to share the message of Christ with someone. Literally ever single person we interacted with over that weekend he shared something about God or Jesus with. This was anyone from the waitress at a waffle house, to the cop that we stopped to talk to, the lady at the McDonald's Drive thru, and the man asking us for bus fare. Even the ones who rejected his message he managed to hand a book to even if they only accepted it to get him to go away. He was so committed to the people that we talked to that we ate at the waffle house the next day just to see how the waitress was doing and if we could pray for her or do anything more for her. This man was absolutely crazy, and was in his mid 40's I think. Surely there could be no one that would be left accountable for him. However, sadly, I am not sure I could say the same about myself. I have not lived a life of such boldness and passion for Christ. This passage in Ezekiel serves as a reminder and inspiration as to how we should be living out walk with Christ.

So my challenge for you this time is to consider the opportunities that you have missed.  Did you have the chance to make them different? Were you afraid of rejection or persecution?  What holds us back from living a life like John Kiley?

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas

The Shaping of Things to Come

I will be doing a lot of writing and researching the next three years that I am in seminary, so I will possibly be posting things periodically that I find neat or cool.

In Dr. J. Robert Clinton's book, The Making of a Leader, he describes different stages of development in a leader. The first stage he labels as “sovereign foundations.” These are times in our lives that were beyond our control, yet God used to shape us into the people we become. Three of the sovereign foundations in my personal life include: Family, Age of Understanding, and Church.  Below are three things that I came up with that we sovereign foundations.

Family:
I was the first child born to two very young, though married, parents. This caused me to be the experimental child. I was always the guinea pig that paved the way for my siblings. Everything I had they had at a younger age. Due to all this, I was the result of my parents inexperience – something I wouldn't trade for anything.

My family has gone through and is still going through all kinds of hardships. I have even seen my parents go through significant spiritual growth despite impossible amounts of misfortunes. As a matter of fact, my dad really accepted the reality of Christ after he should have died. When I was around 10 years old or so my dad literally blew himself up. While standing in a pool of water, he cut into a main, live, electrical wire after his foreman told him the power was shut off. His nomex suit was completely burned off, and as he crawled out of the hole all he heard was people saying “he's dead.” Then, people started beating him to the ground and when he asked why, they told him he was on fire. He left without wounds (beyond losing part of an eyebrow and some hair), and for the first time in my life I saw my dad crying as he told the story. . . in church.

Things were not easy from there either. I have seen financial struggle, family struggle, and physical struggle as I grew up. One of the things my parents taught me was that life is so much more than being book smart. Intelligence in my family was measured by common sense and the ability to survive and make wise decisions in any circumstance. I feel that I have gotten a firm understanding on many things in the world because of the struggles my family has gone through. God has shown me and taught me many things, not always good things, but useful things.

Age of Understanding: 
I can remember the specific moment in my life when Christianity all made sense to me. It was when I was in a Sunday School class at twelve years old. I was thinking about Hell and the eternal consequences of not following Jesus. Prior to that moment I had understood and knew who Jesus was, but it was never something that was personal or made a lot of sense to me. For some reason everything clicked. In my twelve year old mind I knew that “I did not want to burn and burn and burn for ever and ever and ever.” More interestingly, I also realized that I wouldn't wish that punishment on anyone, even the people I disliked most or the people that hurt me most. There was no single person I could think of that I wished to go to Hell. God gave me an understanding that the consequences of not following Him were severe, and that I should never wish anyone to an eternal damnation.
Church:
I first started going to me church when I was in first grade with my grandmother. This made me the first person in my house to start attending church regularly. I have gone to the same church ever since, and I have always called it home. All the programs at my small church helped to guide me spiritually. Furthermore, I have seen my church grow to over three times the size that it used to be. I've seen them purchase a new expansion, and develop ministries. Watching my church grow from something so small is something that I don't think many people get to experience at such a young age. I saw my pastor take over the church and use dynamic leadership to push it in a direction that God saw fit. More importantly, I have seen my pastor personally go through a number of high stress situations and handle them like a champion of God.

 Now, this same church is providing me with a place to exercise and develop my ministerial gifts. They have given me places of leadership that I once joked about having when I was much younger. I never told anyone that I someday thought it would be cool to come and take over the youth group. The only person that knew was God. Who could have guessed that I would go to school and get a degree in computer science just so that I could come back and actually take over a significant part of the youth ministry and young adult ministry? God used my church and my attendance there to direct me to the point that I am now attending a seminary in order to seek ordination and work full time in ministry.

So there you have it.  Three things that were beyond my control that shaped me into who I am.  This post is in some ways related to my post about scars and how each of us develops our own story.  Thus, the challenge this time is very predictable: What are your sovereign foundations?

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas

First ever video blog: Spiritual Formation

For one of my first online seminary classes we were told to make a video containing our definition of spiritual formation.  Here is my result:

A (very) Brief Study on Mother Teresa Part 2/2

“The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.”

This may be my favorite part of the quote. What more difficult challenge could Mother Teresa have given to us? Human nature and society does not live by this rule. We often want the things we do today to make a difference in the world tomorrow. We want to be recognized, praised, and thanked for the good things that we do. But what does the Bible say about this idea?

Matthew 6:1-5 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
 
That is a pretty difficult verse to live by. Something inside of us tells us that we deserve the attention from other people when we do something good. There is another way to take this quote. Perhaps you have done something good for someone, or have tried to help someone today, but what happens when there is little chance that our help and good does little for that person in the future? It might even seem that our efforts did nothing. The person has taken our help and thrown it away, not caring that we just took the time to think of them first. Or, perhaps they did not listen to our good, kind, helpful words of wisdom. We are called to do good, and to keep trying anyway. Even when nothing we seem to do makes a difference, our hearts are what matters. If we are trying to the best of our ability to do good in the eyes of the Lord, for the Lord's people, and to the Lord's people, then too will we be blameless before Him.
 
For a good biblical reflection on this part I would recommend the book of Jeremiah. Doing a quick search I couldn't find specific verses to back up the idea. However, I do know the idea behind the entire book. Countless times Jeremiah tried to help the people of Judah. He was following God's plan and was trying his hardest to help the people. In the end, despite his best efforts the people of Judah could not be saved. God was tired of tolerating their insolence, Jeremiah was their last chance. Jeremiah was never appreciated for his Good that he tried to do. He was hated an ran out of town. People instantly forgot his message of hope, and nothing he did seemed to matter.

“Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.”
 
Oh how true this can be. How often is our best just not good enough. People will want and expect more. Give a person an inch and they will take a yard is a common mentality, but what happens when there is only an inch to give? We are sometimes blames and called selfish. This is unfair even though we gave our best. The only time we should ever be able to regret is when we know we didn't give our best when we could have. An athlete is often asked if they did their best. Most of the time we would like to believe that they do, and many times their best was not as good as someone elses. Does this mean that we should stop trying to give our best because we are going to disappoint anyway? Not according to Mother Teresa.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”

 
“For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
 
I could not think of a better way for her to end her quote. When it is all said and done nothing matters between us and the world. Everything we say, everything we think, and everything we do is to God, for God, and about God. He is the overall judge. He is the one that we are affecting overall. Nothing and no one matters outside of the Lord. In the beginning God made us, in the end He will decide whether we deserve to be kept, or if we deserve to be separated from the creator forever. We can serve only one master, God, or mankind. I pray that the choice is obvious.

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

In the end it seems that Mother Teresa is trying to describe a model for living. She is likely hinting at a way that we can live like Christ. Everyone knows who Mother Teresa is, and most everyone knows her for her kindness and goodness to the world and mankind. There are some people who question Mother Teresa's dedication to Jesus Christ. It seems that some would even claim that she was very wrapped up in Catholicism and claimed she was an idolater. Such statements are touch to swallow, and I leave them in God's hands to be the judge or her soul, for it is far beyond me to say who is and who is not saved. Still many others would claim that there is not way she is not in heaven, but, these people are also often ones that believe that a 'good person' gets to heaven and that works are important. I think I found after brief study that Catholicism has a heavy belief that both works and faith get you to heaven. I personally believe that faith alone even without works will allow you to heaven, but this is not the life we are called to, and God may not be pleased. (See blog on being Luke Warm) However, there is not way that Mother Teresa was completely crazy, as I managed to find a Bible verse that very closely resembles her quotation.

Luke 6:37-38 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

So I end with this. Examine how you are living. Which master are you serving? And how will you serve the Master? It may be by faith that we are saved, but do not forget, a majority of the Bible is about how we are to live based on faith. How we live our lives now is not to be taken lightly.

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas