King Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden idol in Babylon and demanded that it be worshiped. Every official, leader and citizen in Babylon’s one hundred-plus provinces had to fall down before this god or face death — roasted alive in huge ovens. However, three devout young Jews in the kingdom refused to bow and the furious king had them thrown into the fiery furnace.
There is a cost to being completely sold out to God but there is also a great reward. When you are lukewarm, having a form of godliness without power — not overly sinful nor overly holy — you are accepted and your life is relatively quiet. You are no trouble to anyone, not even the devil.
“One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil” (Luke 7:36-38).
When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was being held in a Roman prison, his feet chained to a soldier on either side. The conditions were horrible and Paul suffered great indignities, with no time alone and no freedoms.
Think about it. Here was a man who had been very active, traveling the open road and high seas to meet and fellowship with God’s people. Paul drew his greatest joy from visiting the churches he had established throughout that region of the world. But now he was chained down, literally bound to the hardest, most profane men alive.
The Lord appeared to Abraham and gave him an incredible command: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).
How amazing! Suddenly, God picked out a man and told him, “I want you to get up and go, leaving everything behind: your home, your relatives, even your country. I want to send you someplace and I will direct you how to get there along the way.”
Jesus tells us what we are to do when we begin to see upheaval in the world: “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:25-28).
Jesus tells the story of a young man who took his portion of his father’s inheritance and squandered it in riotous living. He ended up broke, ruined in health and spirit, and at his lowest point he decided to return to his father’s home. Scripture says, “He arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
Becoming the kind of servant who walks in God’s authority requires us to stand face to face with our conscience in the sight of our Father. When we stand before the Lord, we are driven to our knees in humility before his holy presence.
The apostle Paul describes the kind of servant upon whom such authority is bestowed: “[He has] renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
What can God’s people do to move the heart of the Lord in these perilous times? Is the church powerless to do anything? Are we to sit and wait for Christ’s return or are we called to take drastic action of some kind? When all around us the world is trembling, with men’s hearts failing them for fear, are we called to take up spiritual weapons and do battle with the adversary? Surely Christ’s followers have a role in these dark times, but what are we supposed to do? Are we to fall in line with the rest of the world, grabbing for our piece of the pie? No, never!
It seems the whole world is trembling right now over current events. Almost every day we wake up to another development that shakes our foundation, it seems. Within the last year the earth has experienced record-breaking floods, devastating fires that are wiping out entire towns, hurricanes, earthquakes. And then we have the rapid, indisputable moral decline of our society.