Articles
CALLING A SPADE A SPADE, Part 4
Hopefully, it has been recognized over the past several weeks that there is indeed the
tendency to make light of some of our struggles as Christians to live the life the Lord has planned
for us from the beginning. Reference has been made to the concern that we have moved further
from the Lord than we are willing to accept. That sounds harsh, but perhaps it is time to put away
the “politically correct” rhetoric and begin to speak plainly the words of the Lord.
We need to understand that this is not the first time God’s people have found themselves
in this situation. Speaking through His servant Isaiah, God warned, “Woe to those who call evil
good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in
their own sight” (Isaiah 5:20-21)! We may consider Jesus as being harsh when he pronounced
the woes against the scribes and Pharisees and labeled them as “hypocrites” because of the lives
they were living, contrary to the ways of God (Matthew 23).
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can live the lives the Lord wants us to live, but it
does take much effort. It begins by recognizing where we are in relationship to God. I am not
discounting the grace of God, but we must live a life of obedience. “And by this we know that we
have come to know Him, if we keep (obey) His commandments” (1 John 2:3).
To keep His commandments demands that we know His commandments. That is only
possible by spending much time in study (2 Timothy 2:15). Even though 82 percent of adults in
the United States naively consider themselves at least moderately knowledgeable about the
Bible, 46 percent of Americans in general and 61 percent of American millennials are “non-
Bible readers” (defined as those who read the Bible less than three times a year outside of a
church service or event). *Provided by the Barna Group, The State of the Bible, American Bible
Society, 2013 (Gospel Advocate, August 2017). Calling a spade a spade, what percentile do you
fall into?
We need to become a prayerful people. We need to fashion our prayer lives after that of
Daniel, who prayed to the Lord faithfully three times a day. It is not about how often we pray (1
Thess. 5:17), as much as it is about developing a relationship with the Lord which will guide us
on the strait and narrow (Mt. 7:13-14) which leads to heaven.
There is much more that we need to practice in our lives, but my space is gone. Consider
the admonition to “...lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, …” (Hebrews
12:1-2). ~P. Mowrer
