I love church history. I love reading about the courage and bravery of these men and women from the past. The way they held fast to their convictions against mocking societies, persecuting kings and corrupt churches. On first glance, it’s easy to think of them as super-Christians, to whom God gave a special measure of grace. But the Apostle Paul writes that “there is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called” (Ephesians 4:4). The same Holy Spirit that filled the Apostles at Pentacost, worked in men like Clement of Rome, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, and Jim Eliot—and that same Holy Spirit continues to work in the hearts of believers today. There is no reason that the quality of our faith should be any less than these.
And as much as my heart burns when I read of these faithful saints dying for their faith, I’m beginning to recognize that it’s just as important to remember that they and many others lived for their faith as well—which in many ways, may be even harder. I was recently reminded by a brother that God is equally pleased by the many lives that were never imprinted on pages for us to read—the farmer who tilled his land peaceably and supported his family by the sweat of his brow; the banker who did business with integrity and honesty while devoting hours to keeping the church’s books; the wife and mother who kept an organized home and raised the children that would become the future Edwards and the future Whitfields; all these saints who were faithful in their humble posts. Their faithfulness may be long-forgotten by human history, but just because they didn’t die by fire or sword doesn’t mean that their lives aren’t just as bright in the eyes of God. Certainly no amount of faithfulness is lost in a omnipresent, omniscient God. In fact, just as it takes conviction and courage to stand up to the powers and principalities of the world, it takes the same quality of faith to stand up to our alarm clocks every morning and redeem those fleeting moments for the kingdom of God.
As I ease my way into some Church History courses, I think this thought has been a great lesson for me—to not get carried away by delusions of grandeur, as I am being soberly reminded that living for Christ in the grander moments of life will be meaningless if I’m not living for Christ in the mundane ones. This is true Lordship.
17 Comments
September 11, 2007 at 8:37 am
good stuff & reminder
September 11, 2007 at 11:15 am
“the farmer who tilled his land peaceably and supported his family by the sweat of his brow; the banker who did business with integrity and honesty while devoting hours to keeping the church’s books; the wife and mother who kept an organized home and raised the children that would become the future Edwards and the future Whitfields”
Do you think God would really see that these people are doing all they can to honor Him and really “give up” their lives for His sake by doing what they do? How are these people “living for their faith”? Is their faithfulness towards God and not just their jobs in these circumstances?
I sometimes–more often than not–worry and am discouraged because I don’t really see God’s glory or honor in what I do. I wonder (mostly for myself) how what an engineer does at work would give honor to God by merely doing the engineering work instead of directly sharing the Gospel constantly. Or, am I actually sharing the Gospel constantly in an indirect manner by being faithful to what I do at work? I wonder if this is really “giving up my life” for His sake, being all I can be as a Christian, and not just living for myself.
This kind of thought makes me wonder if I’m really doing all that I can to live for His sake and not my own.
What do you think?
September 11, 2007 at 11:17 am
sorry for the long comment. well, it’s more of a question, I guess, than a comment.
September 11, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Encouraging entry, thought-provoking question posted by H.
My limited mind doesn’t understand the way God measure “greatness” or “great living” either.
Someone who just came to mind is Enoch.
All that the Bible tells us is that “Enoch walked with God, & he was not, for God took him” (Gen 5:24). What’s noted is how closely he lived in communion with God, not any of his “glorious deeds” on earth.
What did he ever DO? I haven’t a clue.
But God was so pleased with Enoch that He spared him death & took him to heaven. My reasoning says, “Enoch? He got the ‘free ride’ & King David didn’t? & Abraham? & Moses?”
& he’s even in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11!
I guess this is it partly comes down to, again:
Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
September 11, 2007 at 1:36 pm
mmm…sounds awfully familiar to some things you told me a month or so ago. thanks steven (& tia) :]
September 11, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Interesting stuff.. I think I’m gonna go home and read up on Enoch and Gen. 5.
Thank you, tia.
September 11, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Hi Engineer,
The greatest people in this world are those who do the small things with love. Think of Jesus, who spent 30 years preparing himself for his ministry. Was he serving God less when living such a normal life, waking up early to pray, eating dinner with his family, going to work fixing roofs as a carpenter? No. In fact, God probably liked it even more since it was so normal. It is tough to love God in the normality of life- which makes it that much sweeter to God.
September 11, 2007 at 6:43 pm
i was reading this one book for my reformation europe class. it’s called “Wallington’s World”
i loved it!
Wallington is a simple artisan puritan in London, and the book is based on his journals. i’m not sure if the author of the book was Christian or not, but he wrote the book to convey the “flavor of popular Puritanism.”
reading about his was so encouraging because he lived a “normal” life – he wasn’t a martyr or a great theologian, but he lived loving the Lord…
a quote from the book (sorry, it’s kind of long)
“‘Oh, let not one night pass over my poor head in which I examine not how I have spent the day’ – but such an examined and painfully introspective existence was never seen as an end in itself, as a work of art or an effort to create meaning in a meaningless world. Rather, what scrupulous self-examination revealed was at once a record of human failure and of God’s mercy in accepting and loving his fallen creation nonetheless. It was this latter aspect, the attention of a divinity who noted even the fall of a sparrow, that gave shape and dignity to the small triumphs and failures of an ordinary life, that elevated such a life, in fact, into a part of a cosmic drama. It was his (wallington’s) determination to convey this central fact to his posterity – that even the life of an insignificant London artisan was of consequence in the eyes of God…”
=D
September 11, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I just wanted to let you know that I love this blog… It made me think, and it also pointed out one very significant point… And that is that in all of these lives that we have “immortalized” we are giving less of the glory to God for their lives and more to them as people. Col. 3:2 says to set our minds on things above, and these people did that… But Any who truly does that will be remembered. Thank you so much for the thoughts! I will be reading more of your blogs as they come!
http://uriahministries.wordpress.com
tim kurek
September 11, 2007 at 10:27 pm
“I sometimes–more often than not–worry and am discouraged because I don’t really see God’s glory or honor in what I do. I wonder (mostly for myself) how what an engineer does at work would give honor to God by merely doing the engineering work instead of directly sharing the Gospel constantly.”
I feel you on this one. You know I struggle with this too. I don’t feel the result of the curse as sharply as when I’m having work piled up on my desk at work and watching the seconds crawl by. But the fact is, the ground has been cursed, and we have been called to hard labor. I think that’s why I think what Pat (http://pastorpatrick.wordpress.com) preached a few weeks ago from Titus 2:9, on “slaves being submissive to their masters…so that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” was so poignant; it is a matter of integrity, which is very important in God’s eyes. Also, Paul writes that we work hard, “as unto the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23), because our treasures are in heaven.
Considering those passages, it’s not so much the product of our work that God is pleased by, but the hard work and integrity we do it with (like in the parable of the talents). These things are hard to write, because this is certainly a continual battle for me.
And I second Tia’s response.
“I will be reading more of your blogs as they come!”
Thanks for the encouraging words, Tim!
September 11, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I’m not so familiar with this wordpress thing, but it’s kinda nice that you get people that you don’t know offline to read your blog and comment on it. Or do you actually know everyone that comments personally?
With this particular entry, I feel like I got so much out of it even though this isn’t even my blog.
Keep up the good work.
September 11, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Oh, and thanks. haha
September 12, 2007 at 7:23 am
I think people find the site through the tags on each entry. WordPress has a Tag Surfer function, where you can read other people’s blogs that are writing about the same thing you are.
September 12, 2007 at 12:44 pm
wow… great thoughts. i appreciate this post, and the comments.
September 12, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Saw this great quote a couple days ago:
“I think that young men should be specially exhorted to read old books. If you have a friend in the ministry who is growing old, urge him to read mainly new books, that he may freshen his mind and keep in sympathy with his surroundings. “But must not young men keep abreast of the age?” Certainly, only the first thing is to get abreast of the age, and in order to this, they must go back to where the age came from, and join there the great procession of its moving thought.”
John Broadus, Lectures on the History of Preaching, 230-31.
September 13, 2007 at 1:51 am
Some day I want to write a book about about this very idea: that leading quiet, peaceable lives of integrity and faith in Jesus is the lot assigned to the overwhelming majority of God’s people in the world. In the US, we seem to need to be told that God has great things in store for us, important things which we need to have courage to pursue for His glory, yet obviously most of those who loved and served God before us lived and died in relatively obscurity and anonymity. Many do the same today.
September 13, 2007 at 7:11 am
amtog,
I would definitely pick up a book like that.