THE POLLS ARE OPEN

Neal Pollard

All over the nation, poll levers are being pulled, votes cast, and the office of president is in the process of being filled by the winning candidate. People in this place of democracy are, at this moment, helping to decide the political fate of individuals vying for a place of public leadership. Those elected may or may not be persons of worth and integrity. Their careers may be starting, extending, or ending, depending on the majority’s say. They may gain or lose a place of authority based on their political, international, domestic, economic, and social philosophies. After all, public officials are always vulnerable to the fickle feelings of the voter.

Everywhere in the world at every moment, everyone is casting a vote of a different nature. Only one figurative ballot is used in this worldwide decision. Only two choices appear on the ballot. The issues are paramount in importance. This vote is not cast secretly behind a curtain, either. Many times, a righteous minority may be caused to suffer because of the foolish “majority vote” (cf. Proverbs 14:34). When all of life is over, the voting record of every individual will be made public. In fact, all people of all nations for all time will know which choice every individual elected to make in his life. And yet, with this poll, one can change his vote as long as life and opportunity are his.

Does the Kingdom take PRIMARY importance in your life? In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Mat. 6:33). The head of this kingdom is Christ “and he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18, emp. NP). God demands first place. We must love Him more than anyone or anything else (Lk. 10:27). Whatever keeps us from attending the worship assembly, from actively seeking the lost, and from modeling true Christianity before the world, takes priority over serving and obeying God in His Kingdom.

Are you casting the VOTE of your life for or against Jehovah? All Israel stood before Joshua to decide to whom their life belonged. In Joshua 24:15, Joshua had said “God or gods.” “And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; For the Lord our God, he it is that brought up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord: for he is our God” (Josh. 24:16-18). The people of God cast their vote out of appreciation, for they remembered the deliverance of God. The people of God cast their vote out of attention, for they recognized the power of God. The people of God cast their vote out of alarm, for they revered the justice of God. The people of God cast their vote out of aversion, for they rejected the enemies of God. Joshua reminded them that God would go with them only as long as they went with God. Because God is a jealous God who wants first place in our lives, He expects the import of our lives to reflect our submission and trust in His way.

Does King Jesus REIGN in your heart? The promise of Christ’s coming included the announcement of Gabriel, who said, “And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk. 1:33; cf. Dan. 2:44). The “throne of the heart” is often mentioned in figurative language. All of us place something there. We place our accumulation before that throne (Matt. 6:21), our affections around that throne (Col. 3:1; Rom. 12:2), and our allegiance before that throne (Jas. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17). Is Jesus “a resident” in the “castle” of your heart? If so, is He King or peasant to you? The Bible calls Jesus “the King of the ages” (1 Tim. 1:17), “The blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings…” (1 Tim. 6:15), and “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16). How much greater than the mere prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2) is our Almighty King Jesus!

God created every person with the ability to freely choose. He will not rule us dictatorially (tyrannically). He leaves the power of choice in our hand. Yet, we must choose carefully. The decision we make has eternal consequences. King Jesus says, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me” (Jn. 12:48-50). Whether we elect Him King of our lives or not, He has been appointed by God to judge us on an appointed day. The polls are open. Will you choose Christ and His law?

The Greatest Last Place Finish

 

The start gun fired and hundreds of competitors sprung into motion at the Olympic marathon event in 1968.  Spectators watched as the men ran mile after mile.  Hours later, the runners began entering the stadium and soon the race was over.  The other Olympic events continued for a couple of hours until all the spectators noticed a man staggering into the stadium.  The man was John Stephen Akhwari, an athlete from Tanzania.  His knee was badly cut, bleeding, bandaged, and had been dislocated from a fall he had taken earlier in the race.  The audience realized he was still running the marathon and burst into cheers.  Akhwari slowly and painfully made his way around the track.  Every step was agonizing but he pressed on.  Finally, Akhwari crossed the finish line.  Hours later he sat down with journalists who all had the same question on their minds, “Why did he continue the race even though he was hours behind everyone else?”  The Tanzanian runner simply replied, “My country did not send me 7000 miles away to start the race.  They sent me 7000 miles to finish it."

Living life as a Christian is also an incredibly difficult race.  Nonetheless, something even more difficult and discouraging is watching Christian after Christian drop out of the race.  We seem to have forgotten that when we became Christians we made a lifelong commitment to God to finish this race.  Anyone can start this race, but it takes someone special to finish it, and only those who finish will receive the reward (Revelation 2:10).

Notice the uplifting words Paul spoke in Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Let’s always keep in mind that “we did not become Christians just to start this race; we became Christians to finish this race!”  Don’t give up!

Our Pedagogue

Neal Pollard

The modern definition of "pedagogue," a strict teacher who gives meticulous, laborious assignments to the student, is a transliteration of the Greek word from which it comes.  The New Testament uses the word in multiple places.  In the first-century world, a pedagogue was a service whose job it was to take the children to school.  According to AMG's annotated Strong's Dictionary, it was "usually a slave or freedman to whose care the boys of a family were committed, who trained them up, instructed them at home, and accompanied them to the public schools" (2240).  He had general charge over a boy during the stage of life spanning about age 6 to 16 (Reinecker 510), a stage known in the Greek as "epheboi" (or, youth).  Once a Greek and Roman male reached adulthood, he no longer needed his pedagogue.  He was full-grown and mature.

Interestingly, Paul calls the Law of Moses our pedagogue.  In Galatians 3:23-24, he writes, "But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith."  That word "tutor" (NAS; "schoolmaster" in the KJV) is from the aforementioned Greek word, literally meaning "child-conductor."  

•  The "pedagogue" served for a particular religious stage of life for mankind.  That stage is recorded for us in Old Testament history and spanned from the giving of the law at Sinai (Exo. 20) until it was taken out of the way at the cross (Col. 2).  It was in force throughout that time, though it was never God's permanent solution to lead and instruct mankind.
•  The "pedagogue's" work existed until a later date when it was replaced by something else.  When Jesus took this pedagogue out of the way, He put a new, better law into effect.  We are led by His will (Col. 3:17).
• The "pedagogue" could not justify us to God.  Paul says as much, stating that it led us to Christ who justifies us by faith.  The writer of Hebrews speaks of a new and better covenant (Heb. 8:7ff).  

Our pedagogue served its purpose.  The Old Testament pointed ahead to Christ.  The New Testament shows that Christ was known, foretold, and prophesied in the Old Testament.  All history centered around Christ, and that pedagogue sees to it that we learn that essential truth!

The Master Of Winds And Waves

Neal Pollard

A historic storm is bearing down on the east coast.  Many forecasters are claiming that the impending weather phenomenon poised to hit the Mid-Atlantic and northeast, called a nor'easter, is the largest in history.  Coupled with that is the surging, strong category one hurricane, Sandy.  The two will clash together in a super storm being called "Frankenstorm"--due to its proximity in time to October 31st.  It will bring hurricane-force winds, storm surges, blizzards, tornadoes, possible tidal waves, and more.  The dramatic nature of this event was expressed this way by Stu Ostro, meteorologist for the Weather Channel: ""History is being written as an extreme weather event continues to unfold, one which will occupy a place in the annals of weather history as one of the most extraordinary to have affected the United States" (Doyle Rice, USA Today online, 10-29-12).  

Events like this give perspective to who we are in contrast to the living God!  We are small, dependent, and relatively fragile, as events like this prove.  Arrogance and defiance are exchanged for humility and dependency.

The Christian's confidence is in Christ, who proved Himself the Master of winds and waves (Mat. 8:26-27).  As the One who created everything that was made, including the elements of nature (Col. 1:16), His power exceeds anything that it can demonstrate.  As tens of millions face power outages, as property damages will be in the multi-billions of dollars, and as lives will be endangered by the unprecedented storm, this fact becomes more incredible and reassuring.  When the storms of life rage, He is our shelter.  If the physical storms threaten, we can rest in His eternal protection.  When that great event comes that ends it all (2 Pet. 3:10), we can be safe from eternal harm!  The Master of the winds and the waves mastered a problem even bigger than Sandy.  He mastered the sin problem.  If we make Him our Master, we need fear nothing this life may throw at us.

Please pray for the millions of people threatened by this storm, including a great many of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  --NP

History Channel’s “What’s the Earth Worth?”

 

This week the History Channel aired a special episode about the value of our planet.  They examined aspects such as diamonds, gold, lumber, water, and nearly everything on earth and came up with a price tag.  From their calculation, our earth is worth $6,873,951,620,979,800, or to put it in words, nearly seven quadrillion dollars.

It is very hard to comprehend just how much money this is.  Millionaires and billionaires are incredibly wealthy, but their wealth is pocket change compared to the value of the earth.  When we think about what the earth is worth, it really makes the words of Matthew 16:26 come to life, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  In other words, it would be futile for a person to give up his soul, even if he gained all seven quadrillion dollars of the earth’s value.

This should serve as a reminder to examine where our focus is in this life.  There is little value in gaining wealth and prominence.  The most worthwhile way to use our time and effort is on the spiritual and eternal.  Let’s close with the familiar words of Jesus’ in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”