Dear Lighthouse,

 

            “Are you willing...?”  We hear this phrase a lot in our daily lives.  Are you willing to try?  Are you willing to give it up?  Are you willing to risk it?  Sadly in today’s world there is a monumental difference in saying something versus doing something.  There is so much talk about changing this or that but very little change.  We see it in our national politics, we see it in the corporate world, and we see it in our day to day lives.  It is very easy to say something ought to be done or not to be done but its another thing entirely to see it through to action. 

            Jesus was not like this and He didn’t want His disciples to be people with this nature either.  He literally said what He meant and meant what He said.  Check out Matthew 5:37.  “Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ ‘no’.”  God admires people who have this philosophy.  God expects genuineness in our lives and He searches the heart to detect it.  I Samuel 16:7 bears this out when he writes that “.. the Lord looks at the heart.”. 

Take the example of Abraham in the Old Testament account of a test of this man’s willingness to do what he would – serve God.  Abraham had encountered the Lord and had given Him his heart in worship and dedication.  So, God chose to test the man’s mettle.  Would he be willing to go all the way, like he said he would?  Was he that committed to God?  We find the account in Genesis 22. 

Abraham was instructed to take his only son, Isaac, to the top of a mountain and sacrifice the boy.  This was the very child that God had promised him years ago and the very boy who was to become the father of the future nation of Israel.  Yet, God clearly instructed Abraham to sacrifice the boy.  Seemingly without hesitation Abraham set out to do just that.  The text records no wavering in Abraham’s resolve to carry out God’s instructions.  He took the boy up to mountain, he bound Isaac to the pyre, and he took the knife in his hand --.  What would he do?  Would he really carry through with it?  The answer was yes, he would have.  Abraham was a man of faith and a man of action and therefore a man of God.  He knew that if God was telling him to do something it was right and it was necessary.  Perhaps God would raise Isaac from the dead and restore him to Abraham.  Perhaps something even better.  What mattered, though, was God’s call.  So, did Abraham take Isaac’s life?  No.  God intervened after Abraham had proven his willingness to obey the Lord.  God provided an alternative sacrifice - a ram caught in the bushes.  Isaac was saved.

When I first read this account I was perplexed.  Why would God demand such a thing - a thing so clearly in violation of His nature and character?  After many years of pondering this I believe that this was more a test to mature Abraham for service than a fact finding mission for God.  Samuel already makes it clear that God knows our hearts, but do we?  I think troubled times often come upon us to teach us to trust our footing along the path that God has marked out in our lives.  God is gauging our willingness to do as He has commanded.  Without our willingness to go, our willingness to trust, our willingness to obey, God is left with hardened clay that is non-mutable.  He cannot shape our lives if we refuse to let Him.  What a statement of God’s restraint!  God will not force us into His service.  No, He only uses those of us who are willing.

I want you to reflect on this in light of the material we are covering in Sunday School now - the Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5-7.  This sermon was delivered by Jesus Himself.  His life was the final iteration of Abraham’s story.  You see, God was willing to sacrifice His Son so that we, like Isaac, could be saved.  He did go all the way.  What a willing servant!  In His sermon before His appointment at the cross Jesus challenges us to the same commitment. 

The question is, are you willing?  Are you willing to humble yourself and make the first move in resolving conflicts with your brothers and sisters in Christ?  Are you willing to cut out an eye or a hand if it would bring about and end to lust in your life?  Are you willing to give up your rights to strike back and take revenge for wrongs inflicted on you by Christian and non-Christian alike?  Are you willing to give it all now in order to receive so much more later?  These are not easy questions.  Nor can they be answered once and never again considered.  Discipleship, as Jesus calls each of us to, is a daily decision to willingly follow His Lordship or not.  “You cannot serve two Masters,” Jesus proclaims later in Matthew 6:24.  Very few of us will be required to pass the ultimate test of a disciple - dying for the sake of Christ.  But all of us must mature to the point of being willing to do just that.

Tired of riding the fence?  The get off it and come willingly to the very throne of God today.  There’s room.  Sadly, thousands every year are dying for the sake of the cross in our world today.  Though they - or even you - may lose your life here, Jesus assures us that we will find it again with Him in Heaven. (Matt. 10:39)  Oh, what awaits us if we are only willing.

 

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you that make up the Lighthouse Fellowship.  You are an exceptional bunch of willing saints.  I have been truly impressed by the caliber of individuals I’ve had the pleasure to meet for the first time this year, to work with, and to watch grow in Christ.  You have been a true challenge to me to reach deeper and higher in my own life and glorify our God.  In 2003 I saw willing you serve, sacrifice, and sell out to Jesus Christ.  I commend you and thank you for being the sweet fruit for which I labor in Christ.  You are a blessing to me and Julie.  Thank you for truly making the Lighthouse Fellowship a beacon in a bleak world and a warm shelter full of friendship.  God bless you all!