Stand part 4
If you're going to make a stand... make sure its worth it. Don't give your three t's (time, talent, treasure) to things that don't deserve them. And, to be perfectly clear, I'm NOT talking about people here. Because I believe there are only two things that ARE worth it--God and people. Love God, and love people. Love God BY loving people. And I'm not saying things like, keeping the earth clean and liveable, for example, AREN'T important. I'm simply trying to say, when you choose to stand for something, make sure you're standing FOR something, and not AGAINST something. It seems like all we ever want to do--especially in the church world--is fight against things. People ask us what we believe in and all we can come up with is things we don't believe in. But always being on the attack is exhausting. It'll wear you slap out. And it'll wear out everybody you come into contact with. You know those people... where you have to sigh just thinking about how much energy its going to take just to be around them. Well, don't be that guy. Don't think you have to fight every battle. Jesus went to the cross and won the war to end all wars. Which means... an end to war. The only fight we're supposed to fight is the good fight of faith. Which is laying hold of eternal life. Which is the gift that we've been given. So we're not fighting to get something. We're fighting to believe--faith--that we have something. We're receiving and releasing the gift we've been given, and in that way we're experiencing the gift we've been given. Let me say it this way, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber" (John 10:1). Jesus is the door. His rest is the sheepfold. He did the work, so that we could enjoy the fruit of His labor. OUR "work," if I can say it that way, is to BELIEVE that He finished it. Again: The good fight of faith. And when Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10), the thief He was talking about... was us. When we try to get into the sheepfold any other way but the door. Because we rob OURSELVES of the gift we've been given when we try to get it any other way but simply receiving it. That's the stand we ought to take. What's the old saying? "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." Right? Something like that? And while God saying it settles it completely... the truth can only set you free and make you free if you know it and believe it. So when we're "building" our house, or rather taking up abode in the house that Jesus built, we need to know that it is built on the Rock that is Jesus. That is grace. That is love. That's where we stand. That's what we stand on. That's our foundation. That's where we live. So when you are confronted with something... make sure you're where you're supposed to be. Don't attack. Don't waste your time, talent, and treasure trying to fit a square peg into a round hold. Some things ARE out of your control. Deal with it. Let go and let God. And the things that you CAN control... do it in love. Do it WITH love. Don't worry so much about what you haven't got. Just give what you have got. Because what you have got... is what you need. Its love!