¹⁵ And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

“Of course it could be better. That’s not the question, not really. The question is, “what are you going to do about it?” And, to follow up, “what effort are you willing to put in to make it better?” If you’re not willing to make it better, it’s probably going to stay the way it is. The changing of seasons is as good a time as any to say, “now, I’m going to make it better.” The key word isn’t ‘better’. The key words are now and I.” These are the words of Seth Godin, from his daily blog, and they ring true in every aspect of our lives; physical, mental, spiritual, work, or leisure. 

In any given moment, there are thousands of things that we could do:  go for a walk, exercise, call a friend, read a book, study, watch tv, listen to music, and on and on. So, we choose. Most of what we do is borne out of habit, and our habit is formed by countless choices in countless moments that came before.  If we want things to be better our best path usually begins by acknowledging that we do, in fact, have a choice.

Joshua told the Israelites, in Joshua 24:15, to “choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We first make the decision to start serving the Lord.  But we refine the decision by every choice we make.  “Line upon line, precept upon precept,” each choice we make draws us closer to, or further away, from the Lord.  Where are your choices leading you?

In Colossians 2:6-7, Paul commands us, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (NRSV). I want to focus on Paul’s command to be “rooted” in Jesus.

When we root ourselves in Jesus, we receive nourishment and life from him. Just as the soil provides nourishment for the plant through the roots, so also Christ provides nourishment for us. Jesus himself says, “For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26) and “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” (6:54). To truly live, we need Jesus, the source of life.

When we root ourselves in Jesus, we have a foundation that will not fail. If a tree has a deep and broad root system, it will better withstand the storms to come. We will have many storms in life: Death of friends and family, sickness, political and social unrest, false teaching, injustice, and many other vices and unfortunate circumstances.  Rooting ourselves in Jesus is the best way to prepare ourselves for these storms. As the old song goes, we will be “like a tree planted by the water, [we] shall not be moved” (cf. Ps 1:3).

To root ourselves in Christ, we need to strengthen our faith. We strengthen our faith by study, worship, service, and many other spiritual disciplines that focus our mind, body, and spirit on our Messiah. They will help us to remove the faltering foundation of faulty reasoning, mistaken trust, and sinful inclination. Simultaneously, they establish our foundation upon the
Living Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-10). He alone is how we can weather the storm and he alone is how we can have life.

Like all married couples, sometimes Rachel and I have disagreements. On occasions these disagreements can be sharp or heated. A couple of weeks ago, Rachel grew angry with me because of my failure to keep a commitment I made to her. Her anger made me feel defensive and angry back. It made me want to yell and say hurtful things back to her. I even said some things that, while not being directly spiteful, were irrationally defensive of my behavior. So, the verbal battle continued.

At this point I had a choice. I could continue to act on the burning anger I felt within myself. I could defend my actions with reasonable excuses. I could tell her off and attack her to take the sting of her rebuke off me. Or I could take a step back and evaluate my own actions. Instead of acting on my emotions, I could act like Christ. I could be gentle toward my wife instead of retaliating.

Who was wrong or right does not matter here. There are times for harsh rebuke and times to defend yourself against unjust remarks. However, those occasions are seldom for Christians. Instead of being defensive, when reviled, we need not revile in return (1 Pet 2:23; cf. Isa 53:7). Additionally, Solomon says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov 15:1). Instead of speaking harsh words back, I decided to humble myself and apologize for my lack of commitment. Instead of looking at how she hurt my feelings, I looked at how I hurt her through my failure. I hope that we can take this story and reflect on our struggle with defensiveness and controlling our tongues. Instead of crushing the other person’s spirit, I hope our healing words can be a tree of life(Prov.15:4). (Printed with the permission of Rachel Murphy.)

When Satan sought to annihilate Christ via the cross, he was actually setting himself up for failure. The same is true when he causes Christians to suffer. Paul describes this in Romans 5:3–4 (ESV). “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that SUFFERING produces ENDURANCE, and endurance produces CHARACTER, and character produces HOPE,” …

So, how exactly does this work?

1. SUFFERING: Accept the reality of the suffering. Our first instinct is to deny what is happening. We say and believe lies like: Our loved one did not really die; We did not really lose our employment; Or our addiction will not cost us everything.

2. ENDURANCE: On the path to healing, keep moving through all the uncomfortable emotions and/or cravings. Express the hopelessness but do not live there. Move through it.

3. CHARACTER: Look for or discover your new normal. This means, if the suffering was alcohol, then endurance stops the cravings. The new normal is a person who no longer has alcohol urges as part of his/her character. In this stage resist the urge to return to the past.

4. HOPE: Find hope in this new normal. For David, after the agonizing loss of a child, his new normal was a hope that he was going to be reunited with his innocent baby in heaven.

On December 1st, 1984, I stopped drinking all alcohol. I endured through the change. Today my character has no yearnings for that past life. My new normal is a life without that addictive, depressing, liver, and memory destroying crutch.

Friend, what is causing you to suffer today?

Crazy to think that our society needs to be taught how to be nice. It seems like our world has turned on a dime and become mean-spirited. But is this really a new thing? Many years ago, a young shepherd boy was just trying to live out a good life in service to his king. But, unfortunately for David, the King took offense to his incredible and sacrificial service. 1 Samuel 18 puts it this way:

⁷ And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

From that moment, King Saul became mean-spirited. However, prior he must have lost his humility and become narcissistic. Some of his current character traits would have been: Grandiose sense of self-importance; a fantasy world that supported a delusion of grandeur; a need for constant praise and admiration; a sense of entitlement; exploiting others without guilt or shame; and frequently demeaning, intimidating, bulling, or belittling others.

So, what is the cure. Saul allowed envy to take over his life. It became all about him and not the people he was supposed to be leading. The cure is to become a servant and realize that if other humans are doing well everyone wins.

Practically, start being nice to others. By smiling we can make someone’s day a little sweeter; think of ways to promote peace (stop accepting or looking for accusations against others); simply in silence listen; send a card, text, or flowers; be liberal with genuine compliments.

Friend, be nice not because others are nice, but because you are.

Possibly the most difficult verse in the Bible is Matt 5:44. It is not difficult because it is obscure or hard to understand. It is a clear verse spoken by Jesus, “Love your enemies.” Sadly, we often fail to keep this command because we want to do the bare minimum. We stay out of our enemy’s way to avoid conflict. We do not think about them, talk to them, or associate with them. However, we sometimes fail to do even this. We get on social media to post something that ridicules our enemy (maybe a politician we dislike). We gossip about or demean our enemies. We are overjoyed when bad things happen to them.

Jesus’ words require us to go beyond hating our enemies and simply avoiding those who hate us. He calls us to actively love them. Later Christian scribes added some words to Matt 5:44 to further explain what Jesus demands, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (NKJV). When was the last time you did a good deed for someone whom you dislike? When was the last time you got down on your knees and prayed for your enemy? When was the last time you uttered a blessing to or about your adversary?

If we truly want to be like Christ and our Father, we must love our enemies. I encourage you to do the following:

1. Identify your enemies. Your enemies may not even be someone you know personally but you see them as an antagonist in your life.

2. Write down how you have behaved toward them this past year. Were you actively antagonistic toward them? Were you avoiding them both mentally and physically?

3. Pray for them. See them as a potential friend and brother or sister in Christ. View them as a child of God.

We as a congregation focus greatly on conforming our actions to be like Christ’s. This is a noble and right concern, because living with correct actions is one way we can show our submission to Christ. But it is only one way since our actions are only one facet of our existence. We are called to submit ourselves entirely to Christ, that is, in every aspect of existence. Therefore, we must go beyond simply acting correctly. We must also conform our thoughts and emotions to Christ’s. It is the latter that I want to focus on here.

How are we to conform our emotions to be like Christ’s? One way to begin is by meditating on the psalms to see how Christians ought to feel. Most recently, I meditated on Psalm 63. The Psalmist is “in a dry and weary land without water” (v. 1), yet it is God he thirsts for. His flesh is longing for God, rather than food. In fact, he says that God satisfies his existence like a juicy quarter pounder (v. 5).

This psalm teaches me that I am supposed to feel (and act) that God’s loyal love (hesed) is better than life itself (v. 4). I am supposed to want to see his power and glory in his church more than I want food, water and sleep (vv. 1, 5, 6). We must conform our feelings to the Psalmist’s. Personally, I believe fasting while meditating on this psalm can be effective. You are choosing to seek God and be satisfied with his power and glory rather than food and water. Hopefully, after you come out of the fast, your desire for God will be stronger than your desire for food and life itself.

Think back to a decision you made recently that didn’t honor God. Maybe in the moment the choice “felt right” or you were just “following your heart”. Our “feelings” can easily trick us into doing things that don’t align with God’s will and make us wonder, “Why do I seem to do what I know is wrong?”

Romans 7: 18-19 (NLT) ”¹⁸And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”

And the world encourages us to follow our hearts, but our hearts can be very deceitful.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT) “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

This makes it clear that the heart is part of our sinful nature and that it plays a role in our sin. I am sure we have all done things that we regret, and I’m sure there are stories in our lives that we would like to rewrite or even chapters we would prefer to erase, and with God’s help we can live a life that honors Him.

First, remember, while we were still sinners, Jesus came and died for us (Romans 5:8). This is not because we deserve it, but because God always desired it. So, if you don’t know Jesus, the first step you can take to overcome sin is to take Jesus on as your Savior through baptism.

Secondly, you can ask Him to renew your mind and transform your life.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Finally, ask God for wisdom to search your heart.

James 1:5 (NLT) “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

It is easy to fall into the routine of forgetting and forsaking God. But we can still choose whether or not to continue in sin. We can concede to a specific temptation, or we can ask God to help us resist the temptation when it comes. We can only change when we allow God to change us.

As Jesus was leaving this world to join His Father in Heaven, He left us these words: Acts 1:6–9 (ESV) — “… 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” …

Douwene and I have just returned from “the end of the earth”. Alaska is beautiful and is filled with friendly people. It was bought by the USA from Russia in 1959 for $7.2 million. The 731,545 population inhabit an area bigger than Texas, California, and Montana combined!

Ben lives ten miles outside Anchorage in a place called Eagle River. The church he preaches for, Spring Brook Church of Christ, is very active and growing. He also works with many of the other churches of Christ in the area – and is loved by all. On Sunday night, as we pulled up to the large Valley church of Christ, at least ten young people poured out of the building to welcome and hug Ben.

It is a comfort to know that, through our work in Alaska, we are spreading the Gospel to the end of the earth.