All to Him I Owe

A few months ago, I was involved in an accident that did an immense amount of damage to the front end of our vehicle. In the process of getting it repaired, I realized that I had a multifaceted problem: the body and engine were damaged, as well as some other key parts. The multifaceted problem required a multifaceted solution. I needed a guy who could do body work and a guy who could do engine repair.

Our past is multifaceted as well. It is not just one big lump. It is not a large, mysterious entity that cannot be understood or properly addressed. God’s Word can help us assess it and handle it well! It is important that we learn to properly look at our past and categorize it Biblically so that we can find the specific principles that Scripture gives us to help us with the specific facets of our past.

Think about it this way:

1. To those who suffered innocently but responded right, you have the riveting story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50.

2. To those who suffered innocently but didn’t respond right, you have the sobering story of Naomi in the book of Ruth.

3. To those who sinned in your past and did respond right, you have the humbling story of the disciple Peter.

4. To those who sinned in your past and did not respond right, you have the sad story of King David.

Today, here is your homework. Practice the discipline of categorizing your past correctly. You may not be responsible for all that is in your past, but you are responsible for how you respond to each event. My prayer is that God will help you respond right with the help of these email thoughts.

When I was growing up and my mom told me to relay a command to my younger brother Rick, our conversation would go something like this: “You need to clean up your room!” “Says who?” It was always gratifying and comforting to reply with, “Mom says so!” I had no personal authority in my brother’s life, but my parents did.

As adult Christians, I am afraid we have a subtle version of “says who?” that we use when someone tells us that we need to witness for Christ. Our frustration with having our personal priorities re-ordered or a convicting pressure placed upon us reveals that nature of our heart to resist the authority behind the command. Don’t resist the authority of Christ that prefaces His Great Commission to us. This authority that drives us to obey is the same authority that gives us confidence as we go. Matthew 28:18-19 says that all power is His–both the power to give us a command and the power to make our way prosperous. It is no surprise that we doubt the success of our mission when we regularly doubt the authority behind His command.

John Stott said, “The fundamental basis of all Christian missionary enterprise is the universal authority of Jesus Christ, ‘in heaven and in earth.’ If the authority of Jesus were circumscribed on earth, if He were but one of many religious teachers, one of many Jewish prophets, one of many divine incarnations, we would have no mandate to present Him to the nations as the Lord and the Savior of the world. If the authority of Jesus were limited in heaven, if He has not decisively overthrown the principalities and powers, we might still proclaim Him to the nations, but we would never be able to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Only because all authority on earth belongs to Christ dare we go to all nations. And only because all authority in heaven as well is His have we any hope of success.”

My travels over the last month have allowed me to cross paths with a number of pastors in the Rocky Mountain area that are consistently serving God but seeing minimal fruit. In fact, some of them can only number the salvations they have seen in their small towns with single digits. These men have not demonstrated sorrow or depression over the single digits, because they know the value of the one. Mark 16:26 reminds us of the great value of a soul. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The few souls that some are seeing saved are more valuable than this whole world combined. A life spent ministering for the sake of one is not a wasted life. Take heart, even if your harvest numbers is in the single digits.

This is important, because our view of the one may be a determining factor in our faithfulness to that Great Commission command. Former President George H. Bush was rescued at sea during WWII. Time magazine carried an article a number of years ago that shared the following: Bush met a former Japanese soldier who claimed he actually saw the rescue of Bush when the submarine Finback surfaced and plucked him off his tiny dinghy. The old man related that one of his friends had remarked as they watched the swift rescue, “Surely America will win the war if they care so much for the life of one pilot.” Serve your Lord today with a sense of the value of one!

The authority behind the commission gives us great assurance to our mission’s success. Don’t be discouraged by single digits in your harvest field. Stay faithful!

Each of us has distinguishing physical features, including scars that are simply part of who we are. Each of my scars represents a story, involving either my foolishness or something that happened to me outside my control.

Our past is like that! It is marked by scars that are the result of our foolishness and scars that represent events outside our control. I talked to a teen recently who told me he wished there was a way to completely erase his memory so he could start a day with a completely clean slate. Like that teen, many of us think we would be better off with no memory of the past. But is that true? What if our past is not entirely a bad thing? What if there were a way to look at our negative-seeming past in a positive way?

Our past is in essence a record of God’s past dealings with us. Last week I encouraged you to think correctly about God when you survey your past, and that means to focus on Who God is while you review what happened to you. Below are two suggestions to help you clarify your view of God.

1. As you read God’s Word, look for characters in Scripture who had circumstances similar to yours. Study their lives asking this question: “What did God do in their lives that He has also done in mine?” I believe you will find many parallels. Just as God spared them from things, He has spared you from things. Think about it right now. What has He spared you from? I believe you will also find that just as God gave special provision to them, God has also met your needs in special ways. Combat bad memories of the past with thanks for the things God provided in your past. You will also find that God often led people to particular destinations and for particular causes through the difficulties they encountered. Have you thought about the places God has led you and the things He has allowed you to do as a result of your past? This simple exercise has a way of driving us to the Word where we are reminded that God is constantly at work in our lives and does not take His hand off us during hardships.

2. Look for promises in Scripture. Do you realize that God’s promises are not prevented by the difficulties we encounter in life? He is a God of His Word. He always does what He said He would do. As you look for promises in Scripture, stop and ask yourself, “How have I seen these promises fulfilled in my past?”

People like you and me tend to drift between two extremes when considering our past. Some people believe the past is nothing, causing them to simply focus on today. Their mentality is, “I just need to do right today. I will be fine. The past happened, but it doesn’t affect today.” Other people believe the past is everything, causing them to believe that they are failing today because of the past. Their mentality is, “My emotional state is tied to my past. Your past needs to be changed in order for me to be of any true value today.”

Both of these extremes are problematic. If the past is nothing, then why did God give us an ability to remember? Students of Scripture cannot escape the many examples of men and women whose past was instrumental in making them the servants of God that they were.

The view that the past is everything is equally troubling. The Scripture never encourages us to see ourselves as helpless victims who are unable to change. To be told you are a helpless victim may provide temporary comfort but not lasting comfort.

So, what is the right perspective?I submit that our past is something, because it is an evidence of the goodness and grace of God.

When a person thinks theologically, he can find his past to be something that illustrates the great goodness and grace of God. The key is thinking correctly about God. Many of our pasts are filled with the following:

• Unanswered Questions
• Unaddressed Hurts
• Unsolved Problems
• Unwise Choices
• Unconfessed Sin
• Unlearned Lessons

All six of these contribute to our past being a heavy weight to us when we fail to process them through a right thinking about God. When some people look back over their past, they think it consists of nothing but the bad; but a careful review of the past with a Scriptural lens may reveal that God was doing a good and gracious work in your life.

The famed preacher C.H. Spurgeon struggled with bouts of depression and deep discouragement but found what he called a healing balm. Here is what he said, “Oh, there is, in contemplating on Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balm for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”

To the person struggling with your past, think right about God and immerse yourself in the richness of His character. You will find that your past is a wonderful testimony to the goodness and grace of God. Our past weakens us and weighs us down when we fail to see it through a Scriptural view of God.

Hello, my name is Ron Perry, and I have a past. My past consists of both good things and bad things. The mysterious difficulty of my past (and your past) is that the good things seem easy to forget and the bad things seem to be unforgettable. The good things in our lives are all a gift of God (Ecclesiastes 3:13; James 1:17). God has graciously sprinkled our lives with wonderful things and experiences, but they seem to quickly hide behind the bad memories. The bad things in our past all fall into one of two categories.

1. Past sinful actions that I have done.
2. Painful circumstances caused by the hands of others.

These bad things are hard to forget! It seems to only take a song, smell, or statement; and a flood of those bad memories flow back into our minds.

That past, whether good or bad, affects our present day lives. One Christian author defines the past as “the accumulation of events, choices, responses, habits, attitudes, desires, feelings and beliefs that frame the patterns, interpretations, and routines of our lives today.”

Our past is powerful! People fill pastors’ offices and counseling couches trying to figure out how to handle their bad past. It is imperative that we learn how to respond right to our past, and the Bible teaches that it is possible to do this. I’m going to take the next few posts and use this  forum to help us respond right to our past. I’m calling this series “Finding Hope when We Look in the Rearview Mirror of our Lives.”

I’m looking forward to presenting some helpful truths to each of you. Your past–the sin and the suffering–does not have to be an unbearable burden that is always weighing you down! God provides perspective and power to move beyond that!