Built-in Mirrors

Dress-up occasions. Did you ever attend an event where you need to look especially formal, with a nice suit or classy dress, and wonder when you arrive if everything looks right? As a preacher, this happens all the time. And then I’ll start thinking, “Is my tie straight? Did I cut myself shaving and not stop the bleeding?” I worry about that stuff because, over the decades, it has happened many times.

Earlier this week, I woke up in the night, and as I did in the total darkness, I could see eyes looking back at me. This has happened before and I don’t know if it is a reflection off the insides of my eyelids, or if my brain is just trying to accustom me to wakefulness. But, in any case, I think it would be helpful to have automatic mirrors so I could see myself, especially in those formal situations.

God also wants us to be constantly aware of ourselves; not so much our physical appearance, but what really matters: how do we look to God – our spiritual appearance. Remember, He can see to the very core of our souls (Psalm 139)!

God gives us plenty of warning about checking ourselves out.

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV). You mean we can be disqualified! Now that’s attention getting.

“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load” (Galatians 6:3-5). We can, indeed, be fooling ourselves.

“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). Coming just short of God’s finish line is the worst of tragedies.

You might be wondering exactly how you can examine yourself, so the above horrible results don’t happen to you. Where is this spiritual mirror we can use?

God gives us one, His message to us: the Bible. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

How do you look?

Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ

Watch Out for the Waves

The first wave is over. You might be thinking I’m talking about COVID-19, but actually it’s my yard, which is surrounded by poplar trees. The huge leaves have finally stopped falling. However, I can’t rest yet; the dozen or so Bradford pears are just beginning to turn red and pretty soon they’ll be blowing over my way, too. Another wave of work!

Funny thing about those waves: we tend not to be ready for the next one. In the two times I have fished in the ocean’s surf, I’ve had the same shock. I like to stand out in it almost waist deep, but the last time at Cape Hatteras, even though it was a relatively calm day, I was bowled completely over a couple of times. Too busy casting to watch out for the waves.

The one-chapter poetical book of Jude offers us another theme of waves. Jude thoroughly points out the vast corruption of the “ungodly” by stating they are “raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame” (v.13 NKJV). Yes, sin keeps on coming, doesn’t it?

Pity the “young man devoid of understanding” as he encounters the harlot in Proverbs 7. He wasn’t even able to fend off this first wave of sexual temptation and suffered “as an ox goes to the slaughter.” Yet that is not the end of this one Bible book’s warnings about this type of temptation. Why? Because the waves keep on coming!

Jesus tells a parable of an “unclean spirit” going out of a man seeking a place to “rest” elsewhere, but finding none. He decides to return to the man and finding the man’s “house” “swept and in order,” and “takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first” (Luke 11:24-26). While there is much conjecture about Jesus’ actual meaning, we see one thing missing from this man succumbing to further waves of evil. He did not improve his defenses against future evil.

A long time ago I was on the job in my old mail Jeep, when I pulled out at an intersection in front of a motorcycle. I screeched to a halt just in time, but I did what most all of us would do: I made a mental note to take a moment longer to look out for those small vehicles. We all must constantly be watching out for evil. As Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 P. 5:8). You may have fought off Satan’s first wave. Be ready for the next!

Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ

Are You Pumping the Brakes of Life?

Oh, the serene countryside. Such were my thoughts on my way to making a visit a while back. I was just taking my time and enjoying the ride . . . till I wanted to slow down for a curve and my brake pedal went clear to the floor. Talk about a change in emotions – from cool and calm to wildly frantic in less than a second! A few pumps on them enabled me to arrive at the destination and fortunately they had some brake fluid to top off my reservoir.

Did you know that God wants us to pump the brakes of our lives, from a few perspectives?

First, to check that they’re working. This is a constant theme throughout the Bible. “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV).

Second, we pump our brakes to build the pressure back up in them. “They work; I’ll be okay.” If you “test yourself” and find things aren’t so good, you can take yourself to the throne of the Great Physician through prayer and attention to His precepts. Solutions will be found aplenty to get you back on “the way which leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).

Third, we just need to slow down. I am convinced by experience that most folks, even Christians, don’t value God’s instructions about self-control enough. In the Apostle Paul’s comparison of the Christian life to sports, he says, “And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Cor. 9:25-26 NASB).

We are a nation of indulgers. “If it feels good, do it” has become our theme. We have problems with obesity, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, sexual activity outside of marriage, greed, and on and on. What does this all come back to? A lack of self-control. We refuse to pump the brakes on our physical and emotional desires.

We try to justify ourselves by saying, “Well, I’m not as bad as the inmates at the jail,” but we’re still heading for the giant rock in the next bend. 1 Cor. 6:9-10 NKJV states, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

We can indulge in all sorts of sins that we won’t go to jail for, but we will go to hell for. So how about pumping your brakes right now. Drive safely!

Jeff Greene, minister for the South Stokes Church of Christ