Devotions

A church that’s accepted and approved by the world is a contradiction in terms because it is an impossibility. According to Jesus, any church that is loved by the world is of the world, and not of Christ.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

My life has been greatly influenced by the writings of George Bowen, a Presbyterian missionary who labored in India from 1848 to 1888. Bowen gave up all his missionary support to move into a slum and live as the natives there did. He led a frugal existence, in near poverty. Yet, because of that choice, he left behind a testimony of the true power of living in Christ.

This godly man warned of an antichrist spirit to come which he identified as being “the spirit of modern society.” According to Bowen, this spirit would infiltrate the Protestant church with the mindset, methods and morals of the larger society.

The antichrist spirit would continue its influence until society and church couldn’t be differentiated. Over time, the world would lose its hatred for Christ’s Church and true believers. It would stop its persecution, and the Church would be loved and accepted by the world. Once that happened, Bowen wrote, this antichrist spirit would have taken the throne.

Several years ago, as the doors to Iraq were about to be opened to Christian relief organizations, The New York Times ran a derogatory article. That is to be expected from a liberal, secular press. They might applaud the distribution of food in Iraq, but certainly not the preaching of Christ.

The article quoted a Protestant scholar who was critical of the whole effort. He completely denounced it, saying the church should mind its own business; he seemed actually embarrassed that the church would be evangelizing. Now that is a worldly mindset!

The closer we get to the mission of Christ—to preaching the gospel that He has ordained—the more we will be despised by the world.
 

Abraham did amazing exploits as God led him into the fullness of his blessing. Later, though, when circumstances turned bad, Abraham lost his focus on God’s glory. He turned instead to his own resources: “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe” (Genesis 12:10).

The story makes clear that Egypt was the last place Abraham should have gone. Along the way he put his wife in jeopardy; he lost her to a hostile king for a season, and he lied and manipulated things to save himself. This man had trusted God wholly up to that point. Why didn’t he trust God to see him through his difficulty?

Maybe similar things happen in your crises. When life gets hard—in your finances, your health, your family—do you keep your eyes fixed on God’s glory through it all? If you’ve ever “gone to Egypt” for help in such times, you know how lifeless an effort it can be. Often it complicates the problem, adding shame and despair.

My point is this: Our separateness from the world doesn’t happen through our efforts or abilities. It happens through a revelation of God—and His glory remains with us even in our hard times. Consider the prophet Isaiah. When he entered the temple, he saw the glory of God: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). That holy sight sent Isaiah face down on the floor in humble awe: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6:5).

At that moment Isaiah recognized God’s separateness. The Lord told him, “I have separated you for My holy purposes. I am sending you to preach My Word to a corrupt people. They will resist you, but you’ll be able to endure it because you have seen My glory. When they turn on you, you won’t have to ‘go to Egypt,’ because you’ve seen the nature of the God who has called you.”
 

God will never refuse a sincere heart that comes back to Him to rebuild an area of his spiritual life that has been broken down! I want to share a promise with you. Believe it. Meditate on it. Hold it tight and oh-so-close to your heart. Promises are love letters from God, destined for you, written with you in mind on the pages of His faithfulness with the ink of His blood offered for you.

“There is none like our God who rides the heaven to help you and in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:26-27).

When you have made your worst mistakes and the storms of life are raging; when you are so ashamed of yourself you want to disappear; when you have fallen so low and you look down, underneath it all you will always find the everlasting arms. When you give up on yourself and your closest friends can’t believe what you’ve done; when everyone has left you and you can’t even look up, underneath the entire mess you will find His everlasting arms. When it takes everything you have just to pick up the first and smallest stone to rebuild your altar, and your attempt at a comeback with God and His calling on your life seems so futile, ridiculous and really hopeless, you will always hear His voice speak these words to you and for you, “A bruised reed He will not throw away and a smoking flax He will not quench. He will not fail, nor be discouraged till He has established His kingdom.” (Isa 42:3-4).

When our faith is strong and our altar is straight, and we are standing tall before God with all the passion of our commitment, and with our eyes looking high to the heaven, at such times it is not hard to believe that His arms can carry us. We experience moments of grace and amazing answers to prayer, and His presence is so near and so real. We accomplish exploits that surprise us and fill us with wonder and passionate worship. His face is so near we feel we could just touch Him; His word is sweet and moves us.

Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.
 

I ask you, dear saint, if there is any regret in your life. Is an unfulfilled expectation distressing you? Has something offended you in Christ? Did you call out to Him for help, but He didn’t come in time? Have you been praying for an unsaved child without any visible results? Do you feel imprisoned in a difficult marriage or job, and yet nothing has changed despite years of prayers? Do your requests seem to be falling on deaf ears?

Right now, Satan wants you to be impatient. He wants to make you anxious about God’s promises concerning your life, your family, your future, your ministry. He’s working to convince you that God is too slow, that He has ignored your requests, that He has left you behind. The enemy wants to bring you to the point where you’re ready to give up all your confidence in the Lord.

That’s right where Satan led John the Baptist. Yet, John did the right thing in his moment of distress: he took his doubt directly to Jesus who knew immediately that John was calling for help. Jesus so loved this man that He gave him exactly what was needed. As a result, I believe John never again voiced his impatience. I’m convinced that when John stood before the executioner, his last words were, “Jesus is the Christ, the Lamb of God. And I am John, the voice crying in the wilderness. By God’s grace and power, I have made His path straight.”

Likewise, beloved, God is doing a work in you and He will finish that perfect work in your soul. Your job is simply to hold on in faith. Then, when you have endured, you’ll be able to say: “Christ is resurrected and enthroned. I am His beloved and I have no regrets. He has fulfilled all my expectations.”

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

The devil seemed to sense impatience in John the Baptist as he was being held in prison before his death. Impatience is the inability to wait or bear afflictions calmly. And when we grow impatient with God—eager to receive answers from Him—and we mix impatience with faith, our attitude in prayer becomes a “strange incense” to the Lord. It fills our being, His temple, with a noxious odor. And instead of sending up a sweet-smelling incense of prayer, we exude a foul smell. Satan picks up this scent quickly.

Impatient believers are offended when they see God working miracles all around them but not in their lives. They’re offended at what they believe is God’s slowness to answer them, and over time they feel neglected and imprisoned. Hebrews tells us such impatience is a form of spiritual laziness: “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). We are instructed to follow Abraham’s example: “After he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise” (6:15).

Scripture also tells us that “the Word of God tried [Joseph]” (see Psalm 105:17-19). Likewise today, God’s promises can try us at times, and if we don’t add patience to our faith during these trials, we’ll end up being offended at God. Proverbs 18:19 states, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.” The Hebrew word for offended as used here means to “break away, apostatize.” In other words, when we’re offended by God, there is a danger of spinning out of faith completely. And the longer we hold on to our offense, the harder it becomes to break through our prison bars of unbelief.

Yet James 1:2–4 gives us the cure: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”