Gary E.

Roberts

Have you ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you cannot honor a financial commitment to God? We all want to be cheerful givers (see 2 Corinthians 9:7) and give until it hurts, but reality sometimes enters the picture like a giant Goliath, demanding attention. Yes, this was me after a major financial pledge to our church’s capital campaign. My buyer’s remorse inner turmoil was fueled by a perfect storm of uncovered health care costs for my wife’s breast cancer, my daughter’s lupus, another daughter’s wedding, ongoing monetary contributions in helping my disabled sister and elderly mother on fixed incomes, and most importantly—and the real elephant in the room—my spiritual pride for wanting to be a mover and shaker in our church. When we compete with the spiritual Joneses for a leading place of honor, we live by the sword of pride, and if circumstances change, we die by that sword of hubris. As it says in Proverbs 16:18 (NLT), Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

How did I find myself in this predicament, and what did I learn from my sin and mistakes? It began with the rollout of our church’s capital campaign and a meeting of leaders explaining how important it was for us to set an example of biblical sacrificial giving for the rest of the congregation. The exhortations were biblically based, measured, and fair, including the foundational admonition to seek the Lord’s guidance through prayer, fasting, and Bible reading along with discussion with family, and the wisdom of Godly financial counselors. The pastors stressed that this “labor of love” ministry of giving was not an ironclad financial covenant, and we could adjust contributions based upon circumstances. I checked all those boxes, or so I thought. A few months later, after I proudly signed on the dotted line of my monetary commitment, a shadow of doubt started to pierce my peace as the financial strain from the issues I mentioned earlier started taking effect.

As the burdens became greater, I became more anguished and realized that I was in over my head, and unless the Lord turned my Titanic around, I was going to hit the iceberg. As the pressures mounted, the guilt, shame, and condemnation related to having to renege on my church commitment crushed me. As I cried out to the Lord for help, a small still voice whispered, “Look under the hood as to why you pledged this amount in the first place.”

This prompting began a process of painful but necessary heart surgery as I realized that the pledged amount was not really from the Lord, but from my desire to be a spiritual big shot. It broke my veneer of holiness and enabled me to humble myself and gather the courage to change my financial commitment. As it says in 2 Corinthians 8:12, Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. This was a valuable lesson that has helped me be a more cheerful and God-honoring giver.

Heavenly Father, I pray that we all will learn to hear your voice clearly and excel in the ministry of generous God-directed giving, according to our means. I pray that each reader will seek your will through prayer and fasting, receive wisdom from wise counselors, and test the spirits of our giving motivations to cast out all pride, recognizing that we all must live within boundaries and limits. To God be the glory!

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. 

Have you ever had the thought, Why in the world am I doing this? Yes, if we are truthful, we all have been in these humbling situations. As we see in Luke 15, there can be a Prodigal Son (or daughter) moment of coming to our senses when our pain strips away our illusions and we realize we are in a huge mess, exhausting ourselves by continually wrestling with our sinful passions.

Paradoxically, we can also come to these moments when we realize that we are like the older pharisaical son, drowning in our self-righteousness and pride. This sobering realization came to me as I was lying in my bed with walking pneumonia that had sidelined me for two and a half months. Prior to my illness, I had an unrelenting and rigid routine of prayer, running, walking, and picking up trash that took considerable time every day. Rain or shine, hot or cold, summer or winter, tired or sleep deprived, I adhered to the schedule irrespective of how busy I was. As I did my exhausting daily routine, I took solace believing I was sacrificing for the Lord.

My illness shattered my illusion of control when I could not exercise outdoors. Initially, I was frustrated, resented the interruption, and prayed earnestly for a rapid healing that did not come. As I got more irritated, the anxiety became higher until one morning I realized that my exasperation was a product of several factors. First, my pharisaical perfectionism and works-based mindset, and secondly, the residual influence of my obsessive-compulsive disorder. Wow, the lightbulb went on: you can dress up and camouflage your pigsty pride and fear, imagining it is a lamb offering to God!

I recognized that I can still do prayer-walking/running and community service, but in moderation. This realization freed me in the same way as the disciples set at liberty the gentile converts in Acts 15 from the burdens of adopting all 613 of the Jewish Old Testament laws, including circumcision. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. (Acts 15:28-29 NLT).

As Jesus said in John 8:36, "If the Son sets you free, you are truly free!" Jesus has liberated me to follow the leading of the Lord in other areas of my life, hence, a better focus on "God's best" versus my "good." Sadly, it often takes the painful "what-am-I-doing" moments to shatter our illusions and confess our true motives. As Scripture states in 1 Corinthians 13, unless obedience and agape love are the foundation of good works, they profit us nothing.

Heavenly Father, please give us the strength and power through the Holy Spirit to see the deepest and darkest recesses of our hearts and uncover the true motives of every thought and behavior, especially how we serve You in our spiritual disciplines. We confess and repent over the self-righteous works-based areas that deceive and enslave us. Help us to realize the freedom of Matthew 11:28 as Jesus says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." To God be the glory!

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.  

As I sat at my desk reflecting on two of the most difficult but rewarding years of my life as an interim dean at a well-known university, I pondered on how best to end my “tour of duty” in a God-honoring fashion and promote the unity of the school and the success of the next dean. In my heart I was torn, given that I wanted to stay in my position, but I knew that I must “crucify” the emotions of hurt pride and rejection and resist the temptation to pout and “take my toys and go home.”

As a Christian servant leader, John the Baptist set the example of how to respond to leadership changes as his ministry was eclipsed by Jesus by stating that “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less (John 3:30 NLT).” Thankfully this helped to replace my momentary pouting and temper tantrums with the realization that I must practice what I preach by placing the good of the team and the mission first. The eternal truth of this principle is clearly reinforced by Jesus as He prepared His disciples and the church for their Great Commission role in John 14:12 by stating, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” What humility!

This realization filled me with a renewed sense of purpose, meaning, and joy as I grasped that my most important contribution during the transition time was to prepare the way for the success of the incoming dean. I began to develop a strategic succession plan to address key aspects of school operations and ensure the timely completion of the financial, accounting, budgetary and human resource duties, and that the new dean would inherit a “clean ship” with as few problems as possible. Even more importantly, I began to pray for the success of the new dean and the administration. I had worked very hard to promote the unity of our faculty, students and staff, and I wanted to ensure that this level of peace and agreement would endure and be taken to new heights.

I consistently communicated in all my official and unofficial actions my unequivocal support and confidence that the incoming dean will open new frontiers of excellence. Again, Jesus set the model for transitions in His eternally beautiful prayer for the unity of all believers in John 17:21, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” Thank the Lord that I took these steps, and so entered one of the richest and most satisfying stages of my career under the new dean’s excellent leadership, with fewer headaches! All of us will face a leadership transition of some sort in our lives, whether it be on our jobs, our families, or in our houses of worship. As such, Scripture reinforces that we must honor three biblical principles: first to confess and repent of our sins of resentment and jealousy; second, to ask the Lord for the strength to humble ourselves and take every action possible to facilitate a successful transition. And finally, to pray fervently for unity and peace for our successor. When we decrease, God increases us!

Heavenly Father, may we all have the humility to decrease so our brothers and sisters can increase and promote God’s greater glory and the well-being and growth of the body of Christ. When we esteem others greater than ourselves (Philippians 2:3), bear each other’s burdens in love (Galatians 6:2), and consider the interests of others as well as our own (Philippians 2:4), we place a big smile on the face of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and become better kingdom servants. Help us to keep up our well-doing!

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.  

How would you change the “rules” of defining right and wrong if you had the power—if you were emperor for a day? Would they be different from the standards in the Bible? If we are truthful, we, like Adam and Eve, would sadly and tragically do things differently than God.

Since the fall of creation, humanity has consistently used their flawed personal lenses in deciding what is moral and ethical. A foundational element of faith is suspending our judgement of what is fair and right when it conflicts with biblical standards of righteousness. In Luke 13, Jesus healed a woman who had been bound by an evil spirit for 18 years. The Pharisee leader failed to suspend his own judgement by stubbornly staying indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” (Luke 13:14, NLT)

This hardness of their hearts kept the Pharisees from grasping the higher Great Commandment principle of agape love, to do good and relieve suffering, as the only true response. As Jesus stated: “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water?”

Jesus responded, “This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” (Luke 13:15-16) Hence, it requires great humility to repent over positions held close to our hearts but are contrary to God’s standards of righteousness. Will we have the courage to say, yes, God You are right, and I was wrong? 

A personal example that I face is divorce. Christian denominations have various standards for divorce, with only the Catholic church with an absolute prohibition. I personally believe that my divorce was allowable under the condition of spousal abandonment, but that does not matter as ultimately God will decide the true circumstances and motives of my heart. If my divorce was not justifiable, I must be willing to admit that my second marriage is adulterous and that my children are illegitimate, a very painful realization. If I repent, and ask forgiveness, then I believe that Jesus will forgive and “cover the sin” that had such serious consequences for my family. If I stubbornly refuse to accept God’s standards, I am saying I love my sin and standards of righteousness more than God, which will lead to great pain at the final judgement seat of Christ (see John 3:19-20, Hebrews 10:26-27, 1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

This example can apply to any of the many disputed aspects of modern morality such as unmarried co-habitation, sex before marriage, and same-sex marriage. My prayer for myself and all our readers is that our hardness of heart will not be a stumbling block to our repentance. Hence, I urge us all to engage in ongoing self-introspection through prayer, confession, and seeking wise counsel to gain the Holy Spirit’s guidance to uncover those areas of our lives in which we stubbornly hold our own our standards of morality and righteousness—and sin against the Lord. The first step to repentance is to ask God for the strength to be “willing to be willing” to see the situation from His perspective. A second key recommendation is seeking insight from wise counselors such as your pastor or accountability partner to gain added perspective. When we truly understand that God earnestly wants to free us from the illusion that freedom comes from setting our own standards, we are on the road to obtaining deliverance from a serious stronghold. 

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

One of the great challenges facing Christians is how to make decisions that are based on godly wisdom. I know that I remain personally challenged to avoid looking at the surface of an issue and missing the important truths hidden in the heart.

A great example of looking beyond appearances is how God guided the prophet Samuel in selecting the next king of Israel to replace Saul from the eight sons of Jesse. Like a host of candidates interviewing for the TV show The Apprentice, Samuel “auditions” three of the older brothers but strangely selects the least likely candidate, the young and diminutive shepherd boy David, over the older, stronger, tall, and handsome sons! What is going on here? God clearly explains the important spiritual principle to Samuel when he instructs, “Don’t judge by a man’s face or height, for this is not the one. I don’t make decisions the way you do! Men judge by outward appearance, but I look at a man’s thoughts and intentions” (1 Samuel 16:7 TLB). Hence, the great “takeaway” in making decisions is the fundamental need to consult the Lord before every choice, petitioning the Holy Spirit to grant us His wisdom to see into the spirit realm and avoid superficial reasoning. 

Jesus further reinforced the principle of avoiding “skin-deep” decisions in Mark 3 when He healed the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The Pharisees made a hard-hearted decision to condemn Jesus because they viewed all “work” on the Sabbath, even healing and doing good, as violating God’s law. Jesus was grieved and said in Mark 3:4, “Is it all right to do kind deeds on Sabbath days? Or is this a day for doing harm? Is it a day to save lives or to destroy them?” The Pharisees were unable to grasp the higher order principle that God instituted the Sabbath day to help man rest from work and “recharge” their spiritual batteries by loving and worshiping God, not for man to rigidly and legalistically ignore the highest principle and value, that of Great Commandment love, to always do good and relieve suffering. 

A poignant illustration of this principle of godly reasoning in how we view people occurred in my own life when I met my beautiful bride, Connie. In 1982, I was a bearded, long-haired, and sockless soon-to-be PhD student who fell in love with a 100% ethnically Greek woman. In essence, my life was like the 2002 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which the family’s greatest desire is for the daughter to marry someone from the same heritage, looking upon all other suitors with suspicion, distrust, and with the enthusiasm of a root canal patient. However, the Lord had mercy on me as Connie’s beloved mother and the Greek Orthodox priest, Father John, looked beyond the surface and saw into my heart and what was to be, not what was, and blessed the marriage. I am forever humbly indebted to the Lord for opening their spiritual eyes and having them look beyond my many flaws to see the heart. 

Hence, when making decisions, I have found three vital elements to be helpful. First, avoid “knee-jerk” reactions to what we see. Second, take time and earnestly pray about the situation, seeking the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and guidance to see into the spiritual heart. Finally, when the answer comes, suspend my judgment and trust the Lord. When we do these things, we avoid the minefields and walk wisely. To God be the glory! 

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Scripture is quoted from The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

How do you think you would respond if someone unfairly destroyed a “dream come true” that you worked hard to build, brick by brick, through sweat, blood, and tears? The answer is never hypothetical when you are on the receiving end. I personally experienced this unpleasant scenario, and it deeply tested my Christian character. When presented with such a calamity, do we respond with anger, bitterness, rage, and a desire for vindication and revenge against the person who hurt us? Or do we quell the raging “dogs of war” with the supernatural power of God’s grace to forgive and love those who wound us, to view this as another opportunity to humble oneself, and quietly trust in God to be our shield, defender, and vindicator bringing good from what the enemy meant for evil (Genesis 50:20)? Can we resist the impulse to take control and lash out and “be still and know” that God is on the throne (Psalm 46:10) governing the affairs of men for good?

I wrestled with these issues and made the difficult decision to overlook the offense, allowing God to work toward a Romans 8:28 anointing (that God produces good from all circumstances), even in life’s painful episodes. One of the keys in such situations is praying to the Lord for His intervention, as His discernment, wisdom, power, and righteousness far exceed my human desire for a fair outcome, which is infused with the hypocrisy of “grace for my own offenses” and justice for others. When faced with attacks from the enemy that exceed our ability to cope, we need to assume the time-honored and tested example of the saints of the church suffering persecution and lift our prayers as incense to be collected in heaven. Revelation 8:3 states, And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. (NLT) God heard the prayers of the persecuted church, and He, not the saints, brought judgment and justice. We need to have that same trust and confidence in our trials that vengeance belongs to God.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19) The Lord produced good fruit from the fires of tribulation as He burned off the dross of my self-reliance and self-vindication as I trusted God at a deeper level. To God be the glory! 

I now use a three-point formula when faced with the desire to “overturn the tables of the money-changers” and exercise my righteous anger. which is never pure. Perhaps, you will benefit from my experience:

• First, reflect on your own heart and behaviors to see how your actions influenced the problem, and thereby remove the log of judgementalism from your eye. It does not matter if the result is 99 percent someone else’s responsibility and one percent yours, as we must humble ourselves and recognize our contributions to the situation. 
• Second, resist the emotional impulse to strike back or defend yourself. Rest in the Lord in prayer for strength, wisdom, and comfort. 
• Third, pray for those who have harmed you and forgive them while praying for their spiritual and personal well-being, and thank the Lord for the opportunity to be humbled at a deeper level. 

When we kill our ego and pride, the Lord restores what the enemy of our souls stole from us and brings a new day of hope and restoration (Joel 2:25)!

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. 

One of the most beautiful images in Scripture that illustrates the transformation of the universe with the second coming of Jesus is described in Isaiah 65:25 (NLT) where the wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. As I was reflecting on this passage, it struck me that this is also a wonderful metaphor for our own transformation as Christians. As God sanctifies us through the renewing of our mind (Ephesians 4:20-24), promotes our dying to the self (Romans 8:13), works out our salvation with “fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13), we gradually become more like Christ, a process called theosis. Hence, our sinful nature passions and emotions—the “wolves and lions” of pride, anger, bitterness, jealousy, envy, and lust, among many others—are “defanged and declawed.” This painful process, a fundamental element of spiritual warfare, is a lifelong battle that is never completed (Philippians 3:12-14) until we fall asleep in the Lord and are transformed into His glorious image. However, with our ongoing surrender and repentance in this life, God’s strength will work in our weakness to produce the Godly character expressed in Romans 5:3-5.

I experienced this transformation with my own internal wolves and lions of spiritual pride. One of the great saints of the Greek Orthodox Church, Saint Paisios says that the most insidious form of pride occurs in spiritual people who behave humbly, but are motivated by the desire to be praised, recognized and honored, the devil of “vainglory.” These camouflaged lions and wolves cover themselves in the rags of false humility. I was shaken like an earthquake when one of my accountability partners gave me a word from the Lord through a vision of me sitting contentedly with a hideous demon creature that I treated like a pet instead of a dangerous and deadly spirit. My head was spinning, as this reinforced the writings of Saint Paisios that I was concurrently reading on spiritual pride’s devilish presence and influence. This crushed and humbled me and reinforced that this hideous parasitical creature was real and oppressing me. As I repented and reflected, asking the Holy Spirit to uncover my true motives, I discovered to my horror how many are birthed by the need to be loved, recognized, and praised by others, and that when I did not receive affirmation, I pouted, became frustrated and angry, and condemned myself for not being worthy of approval. The Lord was illustrating the great lesson of 1 Corinthians 13 in which any action, no matter how praiseworthy, if not motivated by love, is worth nothing. My goal in so many areas of my spiritual life is at best mixed, but sadly a “little leaven" of pride spoils the entire lump of dough (1 Corinthians 5:6). However, this painful realization began a powerful transformation of freedom. My prideful spiritual scales continue to fall away as I learn to identify the presence of these wolves and lions and repent of them.

The first step in freedom in this area is to ask the Holy Spirit to give you the courage to “test the spirits” of our motives to find the areas of self-love, ego, and pride. Secondly, ask for forgiveness and repent when you discover these lions. Finally, learn to serve the Lord first and only and expect nothing in return, as Paul instructs us in Colossians 3:23-24. When you practice these principles, your wolves and lions will stop being the carnivores of your soul! To God be the glory!

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Scripture is quoted from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

One of the great challenges of being a “hearer and doer” of the Christian faith is praying for our “enemies,” especially in America’s ongoing culture wars. A powerful tool of spiritual and political warfare is to demonize political opponents. It is an ever-present pernicious fruit of the Fall of Man and our sinful hearts to view other human beings made in the image of God as less than fully human when we perceive them to be a threat to our religious beliefs, the moral values and fabric of our communities, and the security and well-being of our families and nation.

In today’s environment, our political dialogue and the ability to civilly interact with those of different political beliefs is exponentially more difficult because of polarized and hyper-partisan media that reinforces the human cognitive bias to seek information that confirms what we believe and discredit information that contradicts our cherished beliefs. This leads to a thinking and reasoning process magnifying the weaknesses of the “other,” minimizing or ignoring their strengths while doing the opposite for “our” side. 

This is not the approach of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who modeled humility of reasoning in conflict situations. In Matthew 7:3-5 we are to remove the log from our own eye first. What is this log? This log is our tendency to judge and condemn others using human standards of logic and reasoning that only sees the surface. Unless we recognize our tendency to magnify the weaknesses of others and minimize and ignore our own, we are hypocritical adding fuel to the fires of destructive conflict and hyper-partisanship. The only winners in today’s politics are the satanic and demonic forces of destruction fueling the pride of all sides. 

What is one practical step that we can all take according to Scripture that will help us see things from the Lord’s non-partisan perspective? First, we must recognize and reject labels of tribal identification as Jesus is not a republican, democrat, or an independent, but the all-powerful, all-knowing and all-seeing Creator of the universe bridging the gap between this fallen world and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus sees that no political party or philosophy, either in letter or spirit, is consistent with the eternal standards of godly biblical righteousness (see Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14: 1-3, Psalm 53:1-3). 

Secondly, we need to honor the Apostle Paul’s admonitions in 1 Timothy 2:2 (The Living Bible) to pray in this way for kings and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quietness, spending our time in godly living and thinking much about the Lord. By praying for the president of the other party irrespective of how much we dislike their policies or character, we please God (1 Timothy 2:3) demonstrating humility and softness of heart. I personally have been challenged by my own beliefs, passions, and strong emotions in praying for presidents that I vehemently disagreed with and viewed as a threat to our nation and its moral fabric. However, when we pray, we surrender our control and recognize God’s sovereignty in changing those in power as the Lord directs the king’s thoughts (Proverbs 21:1). As 1 Timothy 2:5 states, God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, himself man, is between them to bring them together. Let us challenge ourselves every day to pray for those in authority and please God!

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Scripture is quoted from The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.