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Avoiding the Faith Cliff

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The brashness of the rich young ruler is evident. Can you imagine believing that you have kept all of the commandments of God? Nobody could! That was why Jesus had to come to earth to begin with! Scripture however gives us no reason to doubt the sincerity of what the rich man believed. He believed he was "all in." In his mind he was on the express bus to heaven and asking Jesus was merely verifying what he already knew. How often we can be like this as well in our own walks. We stop at some point to "work out" our salvation. We lose the fear of the Lord in our lives. Christianity becomes something we do instead of something we are. This is not an exercise in doubting your salvation beloved. If you are genuinely saved by the blood then the Bible says none can be plucked out of the hand of God. What it is about however is allowing something to arise in our life that pushes us towards the faith cliff. Pushes us towards a point of no return. For this man it was his money.

 

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.   "There is still one thing you haven't done,"   he told him.   "Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." -- Mark 10: 21 (NLT)

 

Jesus looked at him. He actually looked into him. He saw that money was more important to this man than God. Comfort in this temporal life was more important than assurance of eternal life. God is not speaking against money here as much as He is speaking against allowing anything become more important than God. For some of us it could be lust or pride. For others it might be fame and worldly recognition. When anything becomes greater than the God we serve that we start inching towards that faith cliff. You see, what Jesus did here with the rich man is He imparted some hard teaching to him. The same type of hard teaching those who walked away from Him in the key verses could not deal with. Something that pushed the limits on how deep his faith is. This man had strived for his entire life to keep commandments all the while building a stronghold in his heart bigger than the God he kept trying to appease. "I love God, but don't make me give away my money!" "I love God but don't tell me He doesn't want me to go to clubs!" "I love God but don't tell me I can't live with my girlfriend!" I am sure the rich young ruler did not see his money as blocking his way to God but it was. I am sure he had his rationalizations like we do. "I go to clubs to witness to people." "I am living with my girlfriend because I love her, isn't that more important?"

 

The Bible says the rich man went away sad. Pushed to the edge of his faith cliff -- he went over the edge. Likewise, when we come up against hard teaching, teaching that pushes the edges of our sin, we too can say -- "who can accept it?" The second clue from the story of the key verse is found in verse 61:

 

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them,   "Does this offend you? -- John 6: 61 (NIV)

 

Sometimes we can allow offense to push us right over the faith cliff. I know so many people who walked away from the faith because someone offended them. In their minds they only walked away from the church but in reality it is the faith they are straying from. Churches are made up of imperfect people -- just like you and me. Sometimes it seems that the more offensive people are actually in church! Satan will use this to wedge you out. He employs this strategy for a reason beloved. As imperfect as churches may be, they are the bride of Christ and the devil knows how much more vulnerable we are when we are alone:

 

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. -- Ecclesiastes 4: 12 (NLT)

 

I have written extensively on the abuses in the modern church but I have no illusions. We must find ourselves around people of like faith or we will find ourselves around people who do not share our beliefs. Sometimes we can be the agent for positive change within the church and if not, then we can always seek to find another church where God can use us. Just as our salvation is something that is being worked out; our faith is something that is in flux as well. It is strengthened with each victory in Christ and can be weakened with each step towards the cliff. To illustrate this we turn back to the Gospel of Mark, where we find the father of a demon possessed boy. Right away we see the faith problem in action:

 

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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