“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” -Martin Luther

It’s always amazing to me to look at a tree in the dead of winter, and to think that there is still life within. Or at a seed, seemingly dried up and dead, yet soon after it is buried in the ground, it springs up in the greenness of life.

Can life spring from this deadness?

And it should come as now surprise that such a connection between the spiritual world and the physical world is made: for Jesus Himself even used this very same analogy when speaking of His resurrection:

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. -John 12:23-24

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. -Proverbs 8:13

To put it simply, God hates pride. Or perhaps to be more accurate, He hates self-pride. (For to boast in the Lord is worship, not pride.) Clearly God is displeased with those that lift themselves up against Him.

The proud: talented

The trouble is, many people who are proud and arrogant also happen to be talented: and that’s just the problem, as they do not give recognition for the source of their talent, which is God.

Perhaps some would even attempt to use talent as an excuse or a pardon for their pride. “Even though they do let their success go to their head, they still have an amazing ability…” is our reasoning. But what, (or whom), does this bear a resemblance to?

©iStockphoto.com/Fitzer
"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
-2 Corinthians 11:14

Satan’s prideful fall

Another being that had a lot of potential, and seemed to be bursting with ability was an angel named Lucifer. Yet, according to the Bible, his excessive pride was his downfall, and he fell to earth and became the one that we now know as Satan.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. -Isaiah 14:12-14

And it should be noted that simply because Lucifer was very prideful, that still didn’t stop God from creating him with a lot of ability and potential. If the devil himself wasn’t kept from inheriting talent, surely none of us can be kept from it either. As it is written, “[God] maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

Our abilities: stewards over God’s gifts

Yet, it is what we do with our talents and abilities that will define us as human beings. We can either hoard our gifts and keep them to ourselves, proclaiming that we are “the best”—refusing to give God the glory, or we can accept His gifts with gratitude and use them in every opportunity God gives us.

If we are found faithful stewards of His gifts, we shall get an everlasting reward. Yet, if we ascribe greatness to ourselves—however great we may be—we ought to remember that we are acting no better than the devil himself.

The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: -Psalms 12:3

“Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart.” -Percy Bysshe Shelley

A hard heart is owned by a man that is stubborn, obstinate, and set in his ways. Such a person will never recognize their need for the Savior, nor will they let Him in if they should find Him. Of nearly all things, nothing is worse than a hardened heart that refuses to yield to God.

He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. -Proverbs 15:32

The apostle Paul was a man that proved the principle of the saying at the top of this page: he persecuted the church mercilessly, and was consenting to the death of Stephen, one of the Lord’s faithful martyrs.

Yet Paul did not have a hard heart, even though he had been a strong persecutor of Christ’s church. When Paul (then named Saul) was confronted with the truth of his evil ways, he didn’t harden his heart in anger, but yielded to the Lord to the salvation of his soul.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. -Acts 9:3-6

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? -2 Kings 5:13

Here’s an interesting story describing how simple salvation can be for a person.

It started with a man named Naaman, who had leprosy. He sought for Elisha to heal him, yet Elisha simply told him to go and wash himself in the Jordan river seven times.

Naaman, taken aback by the simplicity of this request, became angry and refused to go. Apparently he thought that God was unable to work through such a simple means. Yet as found in the verse above, one of his servants explained to him that he had nothing to lose, and that if his healing would have required a task much harder, he would’ve been willing to perform it.

And so with simplicity, Naaman was healed and restored.

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. -2 Kings 5:14

The gospel: a simple message

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. -Romans 10:13

Some may, like Naaman, be taken aback at the simplicity of this message. Could it really be as simple as having faith? Wouldn’t such a great act as this require some difficult or time-consuming task? The answer, quite simply is no. It is not from anything that we have done, but rather, it all comes from the grace of what Christ has done on our behalf.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9

Half the battle: recognizing that we are sick

For Naaman, he had already been much closer to healing than most. He had a visible disease in his skin: he knew he was sick, and so he sought after a remedy. Yet I believe that one of the chief obstacles in a person’s life for not receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ is that they feel they have no need for a savior. They do not truly believe that they will be going to hell when they die.

And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. -Luke 5:31-32

Stepping out in faith

Once we realize that we are sick, and we’ve been shown the way to salvation, we need but to step out in faith. We ought not to be like Naaman, who initially despised God’s ways as being too simple.

Truly, God’s salvation is available to everyone: to the weak as well as the strong; to the wise as well as the foolish; to the cowardly as well as the brave; to the young as well as the old. God’s simple message, and His precious gift is extended to all.

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. -Acts 16:30-31

And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. -2 Kings 4:2

Here’s an example of Elisha blessing a woman, and it bears a remarkable resemblance to how God blesses a believer.

The situation

First there is the situation of the woman: she is greatly impoverished. She was a widow, and didn’t have enough money to pay off her creditors, and was being forced to sell her two sons.

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. -2 Kings 4:1

And in many of our own situations, especially in the times when we call upon God, it is because we lack something: we are impoverished: whether that be physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

A question

Next, upon hearing of her great troubles, Elisha asks her what he can do for her. But before she can answer, he poses the question in a different way, he instead asks: what do you currently have? She was perhaps hoping or looking for a more direct solution: that Elisha would simply give her the money needed to pay off her debts and deliver her sons from becoming slaves. All she had was a pot of oil, which seemed to be utterly insufficient for the great needs that she had, yet Elisha was able to use it.

©iStockphoto.com/McIninch
God can use what we have on hand.

And in our own lives, many times we are hoping that God will directly give us something that we lack. Yet the question posed to us ought to be: what do you currently have? God doesn’t focus on what we lack, but on what we have, and how He can bless it in a tremendous way. Sometimes the smallest abilities and skills can be used in an unexpected way by God. Think of young David’s skill with the sling, and how he was able to kill the giant Goliath.

An unexpected blessing

Finally, Elisha asked the woman to borrow as many empty vessels as she could find/beg from all of her neighbors. Then, upon pouring out the pot of oil into all of the other vessels, the oil was miraculously multiplied so that it was not depleted when it was poured out into another container. Eventually every last vessel was filled with oil, and the woman was able to sell such a great quantity of the oil at a good price that she was able to pay off her debt.

Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. -2 Kings 4:3-7

I believe what Elisha did with the woman’s oil is exactly what God wants to do with our talents. He is not focused on all of the things that we don’t have: all of the skills and abilities that we lack. Rather, God comes to us and asks us: what do you now have? And in searching and looking, though it may seem at times that we are utterly impoverished and without hope, deep down inside we will find that pot of oil.

God has given us some small thing to always hope in, even if it is something as “small” as God’s eternal salvation of our souls. (And yet, what a large blessing this is in reality!)

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? -Romans 8:31-32

For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. -Leviticus 11:45

What does it mean to be holy? God has told us in the verse above that we ought to be holy. So what exactly does this mean in our everyday lives, and how can we attain to this holiness?

To be holy is to be separate

If you were to read the verses preceding the one quoted above, in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus, you’d find a few indications as to what God meant when He said He was holy: He was separated from evil.

Even though it can be unthinkable to imagine God as being anything other than good and holy, we understand by the things that He isn’t just what it means to be holy. God isn’t darkness. God is light. God doesn’t lie. God is truth. In these examples, we can see that God doesn’t mingle good with evil, but He is wholly and completely separated from impurity. So in this regard, holiness is to be pure and separate from evil.

How Christians can be holy

As Christians, it’s important to realize that in this sin-stained world there is a certain quality of holiness and purity that is only possessed by God. We cannot in and of ourselves become holy without God. The prophet Isaiah writes:

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. -Isaiah 64:6

And so it’s simply not enough for us to separate ourselves from evil: for the very fabric of our being, our earthly bodies are corrupted with sin. As the apostle Paul writes: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). If a Christian’s situation is thus, then how shall we obtain the holiness that God demands?

God sanctifies us for Himself

For God, holiness simply means to be separate from evil. For He is the great Creator, and there’s no impurity in Him: to be separate and distinct from evil is enough for holiness.

Yet for the Christian, it takes on a slightly different form: we are to derive our holiness from Christ’s holiness. And so in this way, holiness becomes a slightly different goal.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. -2 Timothy 2:20-21

Holiness is to be set aside for God

If Christ is our holiness, then we have but one goal: to devote our mind and body to God’s using, and to separate ourselves from the uncleanness that is in the world.

Holiness is a singleness of purpose. Yet this is true only insofar as the purpose that we are channeled towards is holy: this can only come from Jesus Christ.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. -Romans 12:1-2

Paul uses very strong language in saying that we are to be a living sacrifice: holy and acceptable to God. We are not to be a multi-purpose tool, which will do everything for everyone. But everything that we do must be done for Christ’s kingdom.

This is not to say that we must quit our earthly employment, and stop everything that doesn’t immediately appear outwardly to be spiritual. Rather, it means that we ought to always be seeking to use everything, every situation, every job, every circumstance to the glory of God.

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. -Romans 6:19

Yet if we find ourselves in a situation that is clearly sinful, or clearly self-serving, we are called by God from the Bible to surrender such things up to God as part of our sacrifice to Him.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. -Colossians 3:3

If we are truly a “living sacrifice” to God, then we ought not to cling to our own stubborn ways. Being a sacrifice implies that we are actually dead, yet by some miraculous means we are still living: and we are kept alive so that we may serve God whole-heartedly.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. -Romans 6:11

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:9-11

Here we see a solemn foretelling of mankind’s estate: every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yet how we arrive at this confession, (or perhaps more accurately, when), is of the utmost importance for our souls.

Whether you should confess His name in heaven above, or in hell beneath: it matters little to Christ, for all shall bow to Him in the end. But for our own sakes, we have the opportunity to confess Him willingly first on this earth, and once again joyfully in heaven. Those that deny Him on this earth will have no such luxury, and will confess Him only in the afterlife, when judgment has been declared, and their eternal lot has been cast for hell.

A stranger to God

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: -Ephesians 2:12

Those that are unsaved are familiar with the culture around them, and with the ways of the world, but they are strangers to God. They are strangers to His ways, and His doctrines are foreign to them.

Yet we see in Scripture, that God’s people are just the opposite: we are made adopted sons and daughters to God, as family members, and we are made a stranger to everything in the world. “[T]hey were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: -Romans 8:14-16

An example of a stranger to God

One clear example of one who was a stranger to God was the Pharaoh of Egypt. Moses had been sent by the Lord to free God’s people from the bondage of slavery under the Egyptians. Moses approached the Pharaoh about this, asking him to release God’s people, to which he gave a very honest (though unfortunate) reply:

And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go. -Exodus 5:2

Pharaoh was very honest that he didn’t know God, nor did he seem to care that he didn’t know God. Yet as the Scripture at the top of this page indicates, in the end, all will bow their knees to the glory of God.

In reading further along in the example of Pharaoh, Moses speaks to Pharaoh on God’s behalf and explains to him that God will still be glorified through this leader who refuses to acknowledge the Lord.

And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
-Exodus 9:16-17

And in the end, Pharaoh was indeed acquainted with God. He was no stranger to God, though he was defeated and humbled. The angel of death had killed his firstborn son, and upon pursuing the Israelites into the Red Sea, all of his chariots were destroyed and drowned. His nation was left in ruins, and it was all done to the glory of God’s power and might. He became acquainted with God through wrath, and not through grace.

All things, even the rebellious and hard-hearted ruler can be brought to the point of showing God’s glory: we will all know God in the end, albeit in a widely diverging way. Sometimes  it’s through voluntary choices to serve Him, and sometimes it’s through denial and rebellion.

Today, in the land of the living, we have the choice to freely and gladly choose God now. We can become acquainted with God through grace. Let us not neglect so great an opportunity for salvation, and praise God with a willing and joyful tongue.

For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? -Hebrews 2:2-4