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For more than twenty years of ministry,
my dedication to God was filled with the idea of sacrifice. How could
sacrifice for the “cause of Christ” be an idol? That is why we call it
a
“subtle” idol. There were so many financial crises in the ministry. Each time
they would occur I
immediately began to plan a strategy of escape from the threat of disaster.
Since I had the “gift” of
salesmanship, my answer was always to get a job to ward off the pending
doom. Bringing to the job the necessary dedication it would take to be
successful in the direct-sales effort would always dilute any efforts of service
in ministry. Time after time, year after year, again and again, I would
“SACRIFICE” by going to work on a “secular” job so I could do my “spiritual”
work independent of any outside support.
The fact that I "sacrificed to
support my ministry" as a pastor of small churches or as a counselor or a
teacher, etc., could be seen as noble and commendable. In time the Lord
showed me how it was actually my lack of faith in His promise to sustain me.
I would even describe my ministry as “a working ministry” knowing full well
that the Scripture says, “Even so hath the
Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”
It was far easier to run to the creative manipulations of the circumstances
in the flesh and call it “being responsible.” I had not learned that the
issue was not my RESPONSIBILITY, but rather
MY-RESPONSE-TO-HIS-ABILITY-IN-ME. I was operating on the premise that these
problems were evil things and I had to do something about them. Instead of waiting
on Him and following His leading me through the difficulty, I sought to
escape the difficulty altogether. I had not learned
SingleVISION at that time.
Since I usually made what people
would call “good money,” I think I grew to like the better standard of
living that making such “sacrifices” could afford. I would cover my greed
(which is called "idolatry" in the Word,
Col. 3:5) by calling it by another name. The
word “sacrifice” became a cover-up for the truer words, such as fear,
pride, greed and carnality. Who could know this? Not even I suspected
myself.
Since then I have discovered that
when we respond this way many Christians do not even know what is happening. When I was a
Pharisee, I had no idea I was a Pharisee. Unless Father reveals things to
you, you will not know them because they are “spiritually
understood.”
I will say it again and should say
it in every article on “OUR SUBTLE IDOLS,” I am not trying to get
you to examine yourself. No. A thousand times “No.” Rather, let us
sense the need to “fix our eyes upon the
Author and Finisher of our faith.” Let us learn to “wait
on the Lord.” Let us turn our backs on the problem and “diligently
seek Him.” Let us “set our minds on things above” and know that
He will deliver us IN the problem BEFORE He will deliver us FROM
it. (See articles on
Dealing with Trouble in Life.)
Remember when Jesus told the rich
young ruler, “One thing thou lackest: go thy
way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
It was after that Peter told the Lord, “Lo,
we have left all, and have followed thee.” To which Jesus
replied, “There is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal
life.”
Jesus did not mean that you would
get materially rich when you followed Him completely – at least not in the
sense that your own private possessions increase. If you think that, He
will tell you, “Foxes have holes, and birds
of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
Instead He is saying that if you are deprived of your earthly family in the
service of Christ, it will be made up a hundredfold in your spiritual
family, the church. But even this may be too limiting.
Surely what Christ means is that He
Himself makes up for every sacrifice. If you give up a mother’s nearby
affection and concern, you get back one hundred times the affection and
concern from the ever-present Christ. If you give up the warm comradeship
of a brother, you get back one hundred times the warmth and comradeship of
Christ. If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you
get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your
Lord owns every house and land and stream and tree on earth. He will say to
you, “I will promise to work for and be for you so much that you will not
be able to speak of having sacrificed anything.”
What was Jesus’ attitude to Peter’s
“sacrificial” spirit? Peter said, “We have
left everything and followed you.” Is this the spirit of
“self-denial” commended by Jesus? No, it is rebuked. Jesus says, “no one
ever sacrifices anything for me which I do not pay back a hundred fold –
yes, in one sense in this life, not to mention eternal life in the age to
come.”
The response of Jesus indicates that
the way to think about sacrifice is to deny yourself only a lesser good for
a greater good. You give up one to gain one hundred. In other words, Jesus
tells us to think about sacrifice in a way that cancels out self-pity.
This is the same argument He used
when He said, “Whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.”
Sometimes I think the most
threatening of all adversities in my life has always been financial, or the
other god. (Mat. 6:21-34) Having the ability to “deliver” myself has
repeatedly removed me from the place where I could be more greatly blessed.
Even to this day, when SingleVISION Ministries
seems to be getting further and further behind financially, I still consider
how I might deliver the ministry and myself from the increasing financial
threat by taking
on another job and diminishing my availability to the ministry.
I will tell you right now,
confessing to you my faith in the truth of God’s promises in Christ Jesus: BY
HIS GRACE I WILL NOT DELIVER MYSELF FROM SUCH THREATS. I WILL, BY HIS
GRACE, STAND IN HIS PROMISE TO SUSTAIN US THROUGH FAITH IN HIS SUFFICIENCY.
(Note: This is how He leads me in this matter and it does not necessarily
mean He is leading you this way if your circumstances are similar.)
See what David Livingstone said on
December 4, 1857. This might be considered what Jesus was teaching Peter:
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“For my own part, I have never
ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk
of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can
that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a
great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice
which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness
of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny
hereafter? Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought! It
is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety,
sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common
conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the
spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment.
All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”
Beware of thinking, much less
saying, that you are sacrificing for the Lord. Such an idea of sacrifice
could be a SUBTLE IDOL of the worse sort.
“Dear
children, keep yourselves from idols.”
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