VIEWPOINT
Belief means something
Do you believe in God? No, seriously. This is not me asking if you think there is a God, but whether or not you believe in Him. Belief in someone means that you trust them to do what they say they will do, and that they will not do what they say they will not do. Now, don't take this personally, unless, of course, it really applies to you. Most people who say they believe in God are not trusting Him to do what He says He will do. And they are "trusting" Him to do exactly the opposite of what He said He would do.
Now everyone out there is jumping up and down and shouting, "No, we don't do that! We believe in God and believe that He will do what He said!" But, after you calm down, I'll give you some examples of what I mean, and hopefully you will stop and think about the reality of what I say. Many of you will disagree with me, but I will give you Bible verses and examples of what God said. There is an email address at the bottom of this page where you can send your objections - so I can print them on the other VIEWPOINT.
O.K. Now that we have that out of the way, we can get to the point of this page - courage:
OXFORD LANGUAGES defines it like this:
cour-age
/'korij/
noun: courage
the ability to do something that frightens one.
"she called on all her courage to face the ordeal"
strength in the face of pain or grief.
"he fought his illness with great courage"
Courage
So, what are we talking about here? Most people who identify as Christians claim to believe in God, share their beliefs with others, and do what their church tells them to do. No, that wasn't a mistake. They do what their church tells them to do. Is that wrong? Well, that depends on what their church is telling them. If you have read other pages on this site, you will know where I am going. But, bear with me while I tie this concept into courage.
Courage is standing up for what you believe when it causes friction, fear, or danger. Most people think that means approaching a non-believer and sharing the gospel. Sure, that takes some courage, but there is no real friction or danger in that. If they don't believe, you haven't lost a friend and the person hearing you usually will not beat you up. If the person to whom you are witnessing claims Christianity, but disagrees with your witness, then at worst they will say, "That's not what my pastor says, so you are wrong."
Being a Biblical Christian
Now, if you claim to be a Christian, then I assume that you attend a congregation, or, more importantly, at the very least read your Bible. If so, and you are asked the question, you will probably say that the Bible is the "Word of God". However you look at that idea, it means that God said or did what is in the Book. In some cases, He spoke to people who passed on His words. Now, Jesus made a comment that few contemplate, or even consider lightly. In Matthew 4:4
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
Jesus said something that very few people do, yet no one seems to be afraid of any consequences because of that. He made another comment in Luke 6:46
46"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
that emphasizes the same idea, but no one seems to think that it applies to them. According to Jesus, the One everyone claims to believe and follow, what God said is pretty important. So, why does nearly every church in the world do exactly what God said not to do? There will be consequences to that. Whoa, there goes all that shouting again...!
Consequences
Remember the word "consequences" from the last paragraph? A consequence is "a result or effect of an action or condition". The Bible has consequences that God has spelled out very clearly to the people to whom He spoke in the world that have written His instructions down to give to the nations of the world. You know, people like Moses, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul. Most of the words they have written, some were written about or for them, and these words have statements made by God that have clearly defined consequences.
O.K. We are there. This page is about courage. Not the charge-the-enemy-when-he-is-shooting-at you kind of courage, but similar. When God says something that is a clear instruction, yet everyone is ignoring those instructions, it is easy to go along with everyone else. However, when God says to do something that almost no one is doing, it takes courage to stand up and do it. No? You say that should be easy, as long as it is instructions from God?
Clear instructions
All right. Let's take an easy one. Everyone says they keep the ten commandments, right? I mean, no one in his right Christian mind says that we can break any of the ten and still expect to gain eternal life with Jesus and the Father. Notice, for later, that I did not say, "expect to go to Heaven". We'll get to that later. So, why is it that nearly everyone who claims to be a Christian does not keep the fourth commandment - the third commandment for the Catholics? Oh, everyone keeps the second one, the fifth one, the sixth one, the seventh one, and supposedly all the rest, but not the fourth one. Why not?
Oh, sorry, what is the fourth one? Well, that depends on who you ask. The Catholics say it is:
"Remember to keep holy the LORD's Day."
What day is the Lord's day for them? Sunday. In the original language of the Old Testament, the English translation of the words for what we call the fourth commandment is:
8"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Holy
God made the day holy! But everyone says that it is Holy only for the Israelites. So, we can just trample God's Holy day? Now what day is Sabbath? The seventh day of the week. We call it Saturday. But not our Saturday from midnight to midnight, but from sundown on what we call Friday night to sundown on what we call Saturday. I put it like that because there is only one day of the seven-day week that God felt was worthy of a name - the Sabbath. The other days were called the first day (we call it Sunday), the second day, and so on. We humans made up the names for the other days by following the pagans (Romans and Norse) suggestions for naming the days after the planets and their gods.
"We would rather have a non-Holy day!"
So, all you Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and all the other Sunday-keepers are following the Catholic lead, but without a pope. That's not all.
Now, God had a purpose in mind when He set aside the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. If you think I am making this up, look at Exodus 16:4-8. I prefer the CJSB translation, but to minimize confusion, let's use the NIV:
4Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
"No, we will not do it your way!"
That's pretty deep, but I think you can figure out what He meant. He wanted His people to follow His instructions. For those of you who say that these instructions were only for the Israelites, does that mean that we don't have to follow any of the ten commandments in order to gain eternal life? Careful, you may commit yourself to something. If we don't have to follow any of them, they why do you bother with the other nine?
Courage, by fighting with God, or fighting for Him?
What has all this to do with courage? Well, if you want to follow God's instruction, start keeping the Sabbath. No working on "Saturday" - work, house-cleaning, going to the store (making others work for you), mowing the yard, building a shed. When you start doing this, or, really, stop doing this, it will show up in your actions and people will start noticing that you have changed. When they find out what it is, that's where the courage part will come in. When you tell people you are keeping the Lord's Sabbath, you will get into the Sabbath/Sunday discussion and they will start looking at you sideways.
One more thing, keeping the Sabbath does not mean you can't go to church on Sunday. That is a day of worship and we are to worship God every day. The only thing you might consider is the other things that most Sunday-keepers do that God said not to do. Two of the BIG ones, besides the Sabbath, are worshiping God while celebrating pagan holidays (Deuteronomy 12:30-31
30and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same." 31You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
) and eating things God said not to eat (Leviticus 11
Clean and Unclean Food
1The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2"Say to the Israelites: 'Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: 3You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.
4"'There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you. 5The hyrax, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. 6The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you. 7And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
9"'Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales. 10But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean. 11And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat; you must regard their carcasses as unclean. 12Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.
13"'These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle,[a] the vulture, the black vulture, 14the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15any kind of raven, 16the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
20"'All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you.21There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. 22Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. 23But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean.
24"'You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. 25Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening.
26"'Every animal that does not have a divided hoof or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean. 27Of all the animals that walk on all fours, those that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. 28Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening. These animals are unclean for you.
29"'Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, 30the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. 31Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. 32When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean. 33If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean, and you must break the pot. 34Any food you are allowed to eat that has come into contact with water from any such pot is unclean, and any liquid that is drunk from such a pot is unclean. 35Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean. 36A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but anyone who touches one of these carcasses is unclean. 37If a carcass falls on any seeds that are to be planted, they remain clean. 38But if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, it is unclean for you.
39"'If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass will be unclean till evening. 40Anyone who eats some of its carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash their clothes, and they will be unclean till evening.
41"'Every creature that moves along the ground is to be regarded as unclean; it is not to be eaten. 42You are not to eat any creature that moves along the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is unclean. 43Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. 44I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
46"'These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves about in the water and every creature that moves along the ground. 47You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.'"
). Once again, if you start following God's instructions, you will again stand out and will need the courage to keep at it.
"But, that's not for us Gentiles."
After learning about this for the first time, everyone immediately says that this was only given to the Israelites, so we don't have to follow those rules. Well, God gave those instructions to see if they would follow His rules and be His people. There is an example of the final result of disobeying God (Numbers 15:32-36
32While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp."" 36So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.
), but I see that as more of a warning about the final judgment rather than immediate consequences - especially since we don't see those bad people dropping around us all the time.
We don't know when the end is coming...
This is a message that there is a final consequence to disobedience toward God. After Jesus, that consequence applied to people after death, (John 5:14
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
and John 8:11
11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
), but was a good consequence only if they walked away from their life of sinning. People don't seem to get that. The Samaritan woman was a Gentile, so you can't say that Jesus' words apply only to the Israelites. For her to change her life and follow the Lord would require courage. That gives everyone time to consider their actions and change before it is too late. In today's world, that takes courage.
Disagree? Find an error? Contact us at glenjjr@gmail.com and give us your view.
