God never said believing in him would ensure your life didn’t have struggles. He never guaranteed that you’d be without pain or suffering. All he guaranteed you was that during those times, he would be there with you.”
                    –G. Michael Hopf  (The Last Ride)

       “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
                    –Hebrews 12:3 (NIV)
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               “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through…and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
                          –unknown (often attributed to Jim Reeves, claimed by A.P. Carter)

Look at the world around you, in the news, on social media, while you drive, in the stores…  What in the world is going on?  Voices, hundreds of them, most of them are foolish.  Sounds…where is the quietness?  What is happening to you on life’s journey, and remember it is a journey, not a settling place.  Times of rest and relaxation are good and needed, but the travel must continue.  Comfort or character?  Ease or the Lord’s will?  Step out, time to move on, back out into the wilderness.  The wilderness of the world.
     Watch out, for it seems that with each step a jumping cholla leaps out to claw at you.  But is it really cholla?  Dust abounds, the mouth again is dry, the lips parched.  You’re not long out of the time of rest, and yet, it seems that weariness is already seeping into your body again.  Why continue?  It’s the same over and over:  failure, weariness, despondency, blahs, the voice in your mind whispering, “stop, it’s no use, quit!”  The whisperer continues, “Quit, quit…”  But somehow, with strength from the Holy Spirit you take another step.  The bone-weary body moves, the tired aching feet lift and another step is taken, then another, then another.  One more, then one more–that is the means of survival–one more step.  Reach out, the Spirit will grasp your hand—one more, another step.
     You have been facing the physical, mental, and emotional struggles of the journey.  You have been refreshed at the oasis or at the wells along the way, but now you find yourself, again, in the midst of struggle.  The struggle of mind and spirit.  Remember that the world and the enemy of your soul wants to bring desolation and then death.  The fangs of the enemy lash out at us; the thorns along the way grip and tear at the flesh.  We are strangers in this land, struggling through, often bleeding and torn.  The sights and sounds seek to tear the life from the soul.  This world, this enemy, is cruel; bringing desolation, and yes, you’ve seen them along the way, the bleached bones of the many that have given up and quit.  They become snatched up, entangled in the clutches of its thorns, and listen…in the distance, the devil laughs with glee.
     Hear his cackle?  He laughs when the children of God are pricked by a thorn, or when the hidden serpent strikes at one of God’s own.  The sting of the scorpion brings a snarling grin to his face, and he sits back in the shadows with a smirk.  Another fallen?  Many get caught up with the things Satan sends our way–the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the snares and obstacles along the way.  One more step…  Don’t get snared, trapped, or caught up with the things on the journey, but look to your Guide for help–the wonderful Holy Spirit.  He will warn us of danger, put salve on our cuts, pull thorns from our flesh, and will direct us to the next tank of water.  One more step…
     The devil, that enemy of our souls, wants to see our bones bleached white in the sands of desolation like so many he had snared before.  He wants to gloat that another has dropped along the way.  Take one more step…  Look up, keep your focus on Christ, faith and hope will see us through.  The reason the Lord sent us to the wilderness was not for us to succumb to the devil, but to develop character and as Forrest Johnson said, “Everyday the wilderness shared some new experience.”  Don’t worry, don’t be anxious, for the Master, at the right time, will bring relief and strength to the weary soul.  Don’t listen to the many voices along the way; don’t listen to the voice of the devil.  Just take one more step…one more step.
          “I have a loving Savior up in glory-land,
          I don’t expect to stop until I with Him stand…
          He’s waiting now for me in heaven’s open door,
          And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
One more step…

 

You must know how to use the tools given you.”
                    –D.C. Adkisson  (The True and Unbiased Life of Elias Butler)

       “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”
                    –1 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV)
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     Why, why do we insist on living by the world’s ideas, philosophies, and systems?  Yes, I understand that we live in the world, and therefore, we must to a certain extent live according to the culture in which we live, BUT, but we must have a Biblical worldview in which to live, view, and understand how we are to live.  Paul writes:

               We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
                         –1 Corinthians 2:12 (NIV)

     There is no reason or excuse to say that the world controls us.  No, as John Owens wrote, “A spiritual attitude of mind is no hindrance to secular work:  even though a pot is full of chaff (the secular) you can still pour a lot of water (the spiritual) into the same place.  In fact, as Christians we should make the workplace a better place for we are to be salt and light.  We are not of the world, we do not view the world as those in it do, we do not seek the things of the world, yet we live here and thus must impart our abilities, gifts, and light to a darkened world.
     Why do some Christians then insist on being part of the world?  Paul refers to them as carnal Christians.  We no longer continue to live on a carnal level.  The Christian who desires to do so lives a life of perpetual conflict and repeated defeat.  But know this, we have the Spirit of God within us to help us overcome, live a joyful and victorious life in the midst of this wicked and evil world.  Alan Redpath said, “Every Christian–no matter how weak and feeble, how poor and helpless, perhaps with a sense of utter inability and frustration–whatever his own personal feeling may be, is indwelt by the Third Person of the Trinity.”
     How then do we live, survive?  There are two major components to preserving one’s spirituality while living and working in secular matters.  First there must be a time set apart in the day for prayer and Bible reading, and even more for some Bible study.  The spiritual man must be fed properly, or the carnal man will hunger more.  This time of prayer and reading must be regular.  I cannot emphasize that enough–regular, not haphazard, not willy-nilly, not when you feel like it.  If not, other things will crowd it out of your life.
      As people of the Spirit we should be led and guided by the Holy Spirit.  We should, in fact, we must be sensitive to His leading and His character.   We must seek to serve Him with all that is within us, not the things of the world.  That involves a spiritual attitude, not a carnal one.  Seek to have an earnest desire to spend more time with God, spend more time seeking and doing His well.  Do not become friends of the world.
     I like the way Dr. Henry Harbuck translates this verse, “Now we have not received the spirit (inner mind or disposition) of this age [that is of a human source], but the [Holy] Spirit Who comes from God, so that we may gain insight into the blessings and gifts that are freely given to us by God.”  Oh, Lord, let us seek You more earnestly as we live and walk in this pagan world.

 

But greed had a way of being all consuming. It burrowed into your mind so that all you thought about was money or gold.”
                    –B. S. Dunn  (Last Stand in Sanctuary)

       “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.”
                    –James 1:9-10 (NKJV)
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Here we see in Proverbs 10:15 another contrast.  This time it is the wealthy versus the one in poverty.

          “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” (NKJV)

Wealth can bring many things, some of them good, some of them bad.  Much is on how wealth is used.  The rich must be careful not to make their wealth an idol thinking that it can cure and help in any situation.  Bob Beasley reminds us that the “fleeting riches of this life protect us from very little.”  Pestilence can run wild in a city, terror and evil are still rampant, life is in a rush.  It is a mistake to look upon wealth as a “strong city.”  It cannot secure us from the evils of life.  J.L. Flores warns us about this thinking, “Strongholds can be undermined, and those who had trusted in their strength have been destroyed by that very confidence.”
     There are over 900 billionaires in the United States.  Man, sometimes despairingly, seeks wealth.  I think of the gold rush back in the 19th-century.  “Pikes Peak or Bust” and most of them busted.  Or the slogan, “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted” as many did not even reach the gold fields.  Gold, the symbol of wealth, is elusive.  It often causes delusions in those who seek it.  Think of the great disaster of October 1929 when the Stock Market crashed.  Some lost everything and could not handle that loss and took their own lives. See, the problem is not wealth; the problem is making it a god.  So often the old adage regarding wealth is true:  Here today–gone tomorrow.  The prophet Jeremiah tells us, “Nor let the rich man glory in his riches.” (9:23, NKJV)
     Then there is the poor man.  What more can be done to the poor?  They are already down and out.  What hope do they have?  They cannot turn to their riches, their money.  If they have it, most likely they squandered it foolishly.  They live daily in their destruction, destitute, homeless, addicted, stricken and many without hope.  It is important that both the rich and poor realize “that the blessedness of life here does not consist in what a man has, but in what he is.” (Flores)  You for sure can’t take it with you.  What is the saying, “I’ve never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch”?
     Those with wealth are expected to be a good steward and use it wisely for the kingdom of God.  They should know that to whom much is given, much will be required.  They are required to share their blessings, and I will say many do, but then…why do they share?  Heavy heart, guilty conscience, appease the soul, do penance or is it out of a love for God?  Jesus gave a warning that we find in Luke 12:15, “…Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (NKJV)  Listen, wealth may be a curse, poverty may be a curse, “but a good conscience, a godly character, is a continual feast.” (Flores)

 

Men must struggle or they deteriorate.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Californios)

       “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
                    –Romans 8:10 (NIV)
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         “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled.”  –Matthew 5:6 (KJV)

     Let me begin this with some background of the times in which it was written.  William Barclay does an able job explaining the life of the period.
               “The fact is that very few of us in modern conditions of life know what it is to be really hungry or really thirsty.  In the ancient world it was very different.  A working man’s wage was the equivalent of three pence a day, and, even making every allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money, no man ever got fat on that wage.  A working man in Palestine ate meat only once a week, and in Palestine the working man and the day labourer were never far from the border-line of real hunger and actual starvation.
               It was still more so in the case of thirst.  It was not possible for the vast majority of people to turn a tap and find the clear, cold water pouring into their house.  A man might be on a journey, and in the midst of it the hot wind which brought the sand-storm might begin to blow.  There was nothing for him to do but to wrap his head in his burnous and turn his back to the wind, and wait, while the swirling sand filled his nostrils and his throat until he was likely to suffocate, and until he was parched with an imperious thirst.  In the conditions of modern western life there is no parallel at all to that.”
     I am thirsty just from reading that.  We may cry, “I’m thirsty,” but this beatitude is speaking of a deep thirst.  Not for real water but having an appetite for God.  There is an ongoing hunger for Him that is never fully satisfied.  The term means to have a “vehemet desire” or a “vividely expressed desire.”  Barclay refers to it as a “starving spirit.”  How thirsty are you for “righteousness”?
     There are actually three parts to righteousness.  The first is legal.  This is justification, a right relationship with God.  This was taken care of at the cross, but now we move into this meaning of this verse.  There is a moral righteousness which is an inner right-of-heart, mind, and motive.  Do you long to do right in all your motives?  Hmmm.  Then there is also social righteousness, this is outside of the private and is expressed in the community.  D.A. Carson says that the righteousness that Jesus is speaking of is “wholly to do God’s will from the heart.”  Barclay says, “It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food, and the thirst of a man who will die unless he drinks.”  That is the righteousness that we should and must have.
     The question is:  how intense is our desire for goodness, for righteousness?  The great author, Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote that “There is the malady of not wanting.”  Oh, we want all right.  We want this and we want that.  We want in our selfishness.  But…what do we hunger after?  We have a “jaded appetite.”  We want the calories of dessert or pizza or something that will fill the craving of our taste buds.  Friend that is not the same as spiritual hunger.  “Spiritual hunger is the characteristic of all God’s people.  Our supreme ambition is not material but spiritual.” (John Stott)  We want just a taste of righteousness but then we look at the things out there and we have a different type of hunger.  Listen, “Blessed is the man who hungers and thirsts for the goodness that is total.” (Barclay)
     We do not seek legal righteousness, that was taken care of at the cross.  To do this is crossing into legalism.  Longing and thirsting after salvation when it is already taken care of is not true hunger.  Our hunger should be after God’s righteous character.  To be like Him.  Oh, we can never reach that lofty goal.  But the key is, as Barclay writes, “Not necessarily the man who achieves this goodness, but the man who longs for it with his whole heart.”