Don't Look Back

One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

— Philippians 3:13–14

 

The apostle Paul said, "one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead . . ." (Philippians 3:13).

Paul had committed horrible things, hunting down Christians and throwing them in prison. Yet he said, "I am forgetting it. I am not going to be crippled by my past."

The devil desires nothing more than to cripple you with your past. "Remember what you used to do. Remember the sins you committed. Remember the horrible things you did," he says.

Paul put his past behind him and moved forward as a new person in Christ. You can do that, too. The Bible says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

You say, "I have done some pretty horrible things." Welcome to the club! We all have sinned. We have all fallen short (see Romans 3:23).

But God can change you and make you a different person on the inside. It's so great to say, "I'm not looking back. I am moving forward as a Christian."

Lot's wife looked back. She was led by the angels and actually left Sodom and Gomorrah with her family. She was almost out of that place. But she didn't get far enough. She just had to steal that one last backward glance.

The lesson of Lot's wife is clear: don't look back. Don't let that happen to you. You can be crippled by past failures and past sins. Or you can put them behind you as you start over again and follow Jesus Christ.

A Preserving Factor

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

— Ephesians 5:15–16

 

In the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth . . . " His listeners would have immediately understood what He was saying: "You are a preserving factor in the culture today."

Salt not only was a valuable commodity in the first century, but it also was used as a preservative. In the absence of refrigeration or ice machines, salt would be rubbed into meat to keep it from the process of putrefaction. Also, meat would be sliced into slender strips, dipped into a saline solution, and thereby preserved until a later date.

In the same way, Christians can act as a preservative in the culture. As a representative of Jesus, you, as a believer, can change the dynamic of a room. That very tension says that you are a representative of Jesus Christ, and people know it. Your presence makes a difference.

But we can't sting the world's conscience if we go against our own. We cannot be an influence for purity in the world if we are compromised in our purity. We cannot be used by God to stop the corruption of sin in others if it has corrupted us. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men" (Matthew 5:13).

It is the Christians who stand up for what is right. It is the Christians who speak out against what is wrong. It is the Christians who are always at the front line of every effort around the world to help people who are hurting, regardless of whether they have faith. That is what Christians do. We are the salt of the earth.

Warriors in the Battle

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood . . .

— Ephesians 6:12

 

A spiritual battle wages in our world today; and God is looking for men and women who are ready to go into that spiritual battlefield and make a difference.

The battle has been raging since the very beginning, as Satan has tried to keep us apart from God. The apostle Paul described this spiritual struggle when he wrote, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).

The devil has always opposed Christ, and he will oppose those who follow Jesus Christ.

One of Satan's strategies was to try to stop the Messiah from arriving in the first place. Remember in the book of Exodus when Pharaoh commanded all of the Hebrew baby boys to be killed? That was Satan's plan to wipe out the tribe the Messiah would come from. Satan tried again with Haman in the book of Esther and with King Herod who killed all those babies in Bethlehem, intending to stop the arrival of the Messiah.

Well, those plans didn't work, but the battle continued.

Certainly the devil was at work when Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. You might have thought that Satan was basically successful when nails went through the hands and feet of Jesus on the cross.

But as the devil hammered home those nails he was hammering home his own defeat, because it was the blood of Christ that redeemed us.

Thank God today for that redemption! Let's be warriors in the battle.

The Spiritual Soldier

"Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."

— Luke 14:33

 

The people were following Jesus in great numbers, but for the wrong reasons. So He made a series of statements intentionally designed to thin out the ranks. He wanted to be left with those who really wanted to follow Him, truly committed disciples and soldiers.

Let's look at the qualities Jesus wants in the soldiers He is enlisting in His service. We can see just what He expects in the Gospel of Luke:

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. . . . So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:25–26, 33)

Jesus laid out plainly what is necessary to be His disciple, to be a soldier in His service. In essence, Jesus said, "If you want to follow Me, you must love Me more than anybody else."

If someone is trying to hold you back, say to that person, "I'm sorry, but I am following Christ. If you want to walk with me, come on. You can be a spiritual soldier with me."

A spiritual soldier must also forsake all he or she has for Jesus. That means you take everything in your life and say, "This belongs to you, Lord."

That is what it means to be Jesus' disciple. That is what it means to be His soldier: you love Him more than anyone, more than anything—just as He loves you!

Have You Been with Jesus?

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

— Acts 4:31

 

Just as with the apostles Peter and John, your relationship with Jesus should be apparent, even to your enemies.

What are the earmarks of a person who has been with Jesus? When you spend time with Jesus, you become more like Him.

A person who has been with Jesus will boldly share his faith:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)

A person who has been with Jesus will be a person who knows the Scriptures. If you are walking with Jesus, you must spend time in the Word. Jesus said, " 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed' " (John 8:31).

The book of Acts shows us that a person who has been with Jesus will also be a person of prayer:

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord. . . . And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:24, 31)

If you share your faith, if you know your Bible, if you are a person of prayer, people will know that you have been with Jesus.