No Excuses

by Joshua Bland

We have all made excuses.

I teach high school. Periodically, my students will come to me having had some issues completing their homework assignments. Some favorite examples are: "My computer was not working," "I forgot," "I left it at home," or "You never said that..." (this last despite the fact that everyone else in the class heard me say it). I have even been given the classic "My dog at my homework" on several occasions. One student was wise enough to bring me the demolished shreds of said homework as proof.

While only one student was wise enough to bring evidence, it is quite possible that some of these other excuses were legitimate. The computer may actually have not been working, or perhaps in the busy-ness of the day you actually forgot about the assignment. What is common, regardless of the truth of the excuse or not, is our tendency as humans to make excuses when we find ourselves in trouble.

We use excuses to try and ease up the trouble or burden which we have to carry. This is a learned trait which we can trace all the way back to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Making excuses is not strictly an individual phenomenon: we can see it present everywhere from a group of kids on the elementary school playground to the highest levels of government.

With this abundance of excuses, it should not surprise us that we do the same thing with God. We think that we are too ill-equipped or unworthy to answer the call of God. We tell God that He could not use us because of what we have done; that our past is too dirty. We challenge God when He calls us to something hard because we do not like what it will cost us (financially, socially, or in any number of other ways).

A classic example of this can be found in Exodus 3-4. God was calling Moses to be His servant, to go "to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt" (3:10). This was a very specific purpose. If you read through the rest of these chapters, you will find Moses doing the same thing that we so often do: he made excuses based on his insufficiency. Each time, God challenged Moses with a divine response.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 writes that he was given a thorn in the flesh. He begged God that it would be taken away from Him. God's response can be found in verse 9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."

Here's the point: those things which we use as our excuses may be the very things which God wants to use for His glory. The call which He places on our lives may seem scary, and often we will not be good enough to fulfill it on our own, and that is fine- He wants to make us good enough. He wants to use our lives as examples through which to demonstrate His own strength.

Our challenge this week is quite simple: NO EXCUSES. Let's have courage to trust God as He leads, not relying on our strength but His.

Bibliography

New American Standard Bible. La Habra, CA: Lockman Foundation, 1977. Kindle.

The Next Steps

by Joshua Bland

Life involves change. While most of the details of life are somewhat inconstant, that particular fact is not. Everything changes: we grow, our families grow, our jobs change, our interests and hobbies change, and we move.

It is amazing to me to think that God is working change in each of our lives. He is the sovereign Lord of all creation, and He knows every detail long before we do. David writes: "O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways" (Psalm 139:1-3). A few verses later he notes that "Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (Psalm 139:16).

As I am writing, my wife and I have been discussing what we are going to have for supper. In the big picture, this dilemma seems to me to be quite trivial. Since God knows all of my days before one of them came to be, He knows our present discussion, both its debate and its outcome. He has long known of the passions and opportunities which He has set before us, and is intimate with the details of my life. This becomes even more incredible when I realize that I am not the center of God's attention: the same way He saw the life of David, He sees and knows each one of ours. He knows all of our meal dilemmas, as well as everything else about us.

Recently, the Landing underwent an address change. This has occurred for several reasons. For quite some time, God has been guiding my heart and passion more and more towards educational ministry. This meant balancing time between family, school, and pastoral responsibilities. In recent months, He has affirmed and reaffirmed my calling to teach. After much prayer and consideration, I have resigned from my pastoral duties at Ouachita River Fellowship.

This change brings about much opportunity. For myself, my family, and my scholastic roles/responsibilities, this will open up many doors to serve and grow. However, it also offers a new dynamic to ministry. While I will no longer be a pastor at ORF, I will continue to write here at The Landing along with Thomy and Wade. Though the situation has necessarily changed according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, my commitment to sharing the Gospel and helping the Church grow in faith and ministry has not.

Knowing that God is omniscient, that He sees our every step and so much more, we are faced with an interesting question: will we trust Him as He leads? Will we step out in faith to answer His call in our lives? I can honestly say that I am no perfect example in this, but that I am eager to see how God will work in the days ahead. I pray for each of us that God would give us both discernment to hear His voice and courage to follow wherever He leads.

Bibliography

New American Standard Bible. La Habra, CA: Lockman Foundation, 1977. Kindle.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

by Joshua Bland

"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

We have all been hurt by somebody. Perhaps it was intentional, perhaps not. Regardless, throughout the course of our lives, we get hurt and we are changed by that hurt. We may not always recognize the last part of this, but it is true. Sometimes this hurt leads to drastic changes in our character or behavior; at other times, all it does is cause what relationship existed to erode away bit by bit.

When I was younger, I was occasionally picked on. Even as I sit here writing now, I can remember their faces. I remember the names, the taunts, and the laughter. I remember how much it hurt. I remember trying to solve it by taunting back, by pushing them the way I was being pushed. It never worked. I also remember the first day of high school, several years later, when some guys tried to start it up again. We were standing in the lunch line as our freshman year began and I heard them in line behind me. I remember turning around, laughing with them, and asking how their summer had been. I did not know then the importance of that single moment, but it was the catalyst that God would use over the next few years to lead to mutual respect through reconciliation.

The Bible has much to say on this topic. Murray J. Harris defines reconciliation as "not some polite ignoring or reduction of hostility but rather its total and objective removal" (353). As Paul writes to the Corinthian church, he describes how divine reconciliation works: though we had committed the offense, God, through Christ, reconciled us to Himself. God then calls us to the ministry of reconciliation. We are made, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5:20, "ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

We, as disciples of Jesus Christ, are called to reconcile others to God. We are His agents of reconciliation, seeking to help all mankind return to a right relationship with our Creator. We represent Him.

In the fourteen years since the story I told you earlier, I have both hurt others and been hurt by them. Though we are Christ's representatives, there are still things in our lives that we need to work on, and these works can only be accomplished by His power. Reconciliation, as Harris notes, "is a continuing process as well as an accomplished fact" (354). Paul writes in other passages of the ongoing struggle between our flesh and the Spirit. Daily we must allow our spirits and minds to be reconciled and renewed in Christ Jesus.

Something interesting happens in the midst of this. If I am being reconciled to God and you are being reconciled to God, we are inherently being reconciled to each other. Whatever our differences, we are being made one in the body of Christ. This does not mean that we are perfect or that we are not going to have our differences, but by the example of Christ we are reconciled also to each other. Our relationships with one another are redefined and we can begin to challenge each other positively towards growth in Christ.

Just as God, despite our offenses, sought to reconcile us to Himself, we should strive for reconciliation with those who have offended us and with those we have offended.

Bibliography

Harris, Murray J. "2 Corinthians." The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Ed. Frank E. Gaebelein. By Arthur A. Rupprecht. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1981. Print.

New American Standard Bible. La Habra, CA: Lockman Foundation, 1977. Kindle.

Standing?

by Joshua Bland

The song included above, Coat of Arms, has become very important to me as of late. This has been a challenging year for me, and I have learned much pertaining to both academics and life in general. However, as of late, there has been a particular challenge that has been impacting me. Take a look at some of the lyrics from the chorus:

What do I live for?

Can you tell on my face what my heart beats for?

Do the words that I speak show it to the core?

Does my glow outshine the stars?

Can you see my coat of arms?

What do I stand for? When I ask this question, it is not, as is often considered in American society, directly referring to a political stance, although that certainly would be the logical conclusion. Instead, the heart of my asking is this: what ideas and worldview and I going to represent? If I am completely honest, I feel that many days I take a somewhat passive or even negligent approach to this.

You can learn much about a person through their actions. While this is certainly the case, I know myself to be a creature of habit. There are things that I do because that is the way I have always done them. Going through the mechanics every day has a tragic side effect: I forget to really, deeply evaluate the cause. Do I get the door for someone because I usually get the door, or do I get the door to show that they matter? Is my action just that, an action, or is it done with the purpose of showing others the love of Christ?

So is every little thing I do going to be done to share the Gospel? Because I am still human, the answer is a resounding no. The point is this: we need to be intentional. Paul writes to the Colossian believers, saying, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity" (Colossians 4:5). Curtis Vaughan offers the following in his commentary: "To 'be wise in the way you act toward outsiders' is to show practical Christian wisdom in dealing with secular society. Paul's words imply that believer are to be cautious and tactful so as to avoid needlessly antagonizing or alienate their pagan neighbors."

And there, my friends, lies the challenge. We need to think about what we are doing and the impact it is having on those around us. No man is an island, and no action goes without interpretation. By simply going through the mechanics, no matter how nice we may be, people will just see the action. Love must be intentional. Living and acting out of love for others must be even more so.

Bibliography

New American Standard Bible. La Habra, CA: Lockman Foundation, 1977. Kindle.

Vaughan, Curtis. "Colossians." The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Ed. Frank E. Gaebelein. By Arthur A. Rupprecht. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1981. Print.