Motivation Part 2--Appetite

Read Part 1 first, now right after this post

So the question is, “How do you motivate someone to do what they should be doing, (and oftentimes will even admit they should be doing it)? We see in the Bible that the law has the power of condemn, but is unable to empower people to obey it. Likewise we can “guilt” them to do what they should--like pray--but they still won’t. Instead they will come out with excuses: “I’m saved by grace, not works. Jesus knows that I love Him, I pray all the time anyway, I don’t pray well; it’s not my gift….” On and on the excuses go--why we don’t have to do what we know we should. What’s the answer? Debating them over the validity of their excuses? We’ll never win that debate. And even if we could, they still won’t pray, because, bottom line, they simply don’t want to. So how do we motivate people to do what they don’t want to do? The Bible has an answer. The answer is to make them hungry. Hunger is a powerful motivator. Prov. 16:26 [New Life Version] says--“A workman’s hunger works for him. The need of his mouth pushes him on.“ God provides the motivation for people to fulfill His commandment to work by tying it to our need to eat. We enjoy food. We also need it and suffer hunger pangs when we don’t have any. Paul emphasized this in 2 Thes 3:10 when he said, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” That woks in the natural. How about in the spiritual realm? Is there a parallel motivator in the spiritual appetite? Yes. That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to work! If you can get a person hungry enough for Jesus, they’ll do anything trying to get more of Him: praying, fasting, even praying all night,and 40 day fasts, etc. Don’t try and shame them into it, that’ll never work. But let them whet their appetites on Jesus and turn them loose. Does the Bible support this? Look at Psalm 34:8—“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” And in Isaiah 55:1 the prophets cries out: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
 come to the waters;
 and you who have no money,
 come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
 without money and without price. 2Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
 and your wages for what does not satisfy?” Rev. continues the same theme in 22:17—“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Jesus was always looking for spiritual hunger and thirst. In John 7, on what the Bible calls the “last, great day of the feast,” Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.“ He picked the day when fleshly appetites would be most fulfilled: all the stops would be pulled out with food and wine and partying—everything the world had to offer. That’s exactly when Jesus cried out, saying in effect, “Are any of you still hungry and thirsty? Do you have an appetite that this world can’t satisfy? Then come to me and try what I have to offer!” Someone who has developed an appetite for Jesus will do whatever it takes to fill that craving. But then we find out that the more He gives us of Himself, the hungrier we grow for even more! Try and be satisfied with one revelation, with one supernatural experience—the more we get the more we want. The person with no appetite is the one who has never tasted Jesus, or it was so long ago they have readjusted their appetites back to the thin and tasteless gruel the world offers. Even worldly fame and riches are paltry substitutes for the true riches of heaven. In His presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. But you must taste and see for yourself. I can’t talk you, or shame you, or scare you into it. You must make the discovery. If you have spiritual hunger, follow it. If you don’t, pray and ask for it and keep on asking until you get it. There are reasons mystics became mystics: they tasted enough to sell everything out for more. There are reasons the apostles were willing to die martyrs’ deaths: they were in hot pursuit of Jesus, and nothing could stop them. Taste and see!

A Question of Motivation, Part 1

I heard a sermon yesterday by a young preacher who hit the nail on the head in identifying a glaring problem. He asked  the the congregation how many of them wanted to be like Jesus? Most people dutifully raised their hands. Then he pointed out the hypocrisy of the 200-300 people in the congregation saying they wanted to be like Jesus and yet only 10 of them had been in the pre-service prayer meeting (busted!). He exposed the yawning gap between what most Christians say they want and what they are willing to go after--as though the character of Christ was going to magically fall upon them from heaven one day. He said, “this is the problem,” and then put a picture on the screen of a man sleeping with a smile on his face, head half buried in his pillow. He used the passage from 1 Cor. 9:24-27 where Paul talks about athletes disciplining their bodies and going into strict training to try and win a crown that will soon perish; therefore how much more should we do the same to win an everlasting crown?

This is not popular preaching in most circles, as the American church somehow seems to think there is nothing more to the Christian walk after salvation than sitting around waiting to die or get raptured to heaven.

They young preacher went to great lengths to exhort the people to do what the Bible says; that they who seek the Lord shall find Him when they search for Him with all their hearts  (Deut. 4:29).

I answered the altar call with a few others, probably many of whom had already been  in the prayer room before the service, but basically it seemed to go over like a lead balloon. “Probably won’t add anyone to the prayer room before the next service,” I thought.

Ass I meditated on this it seemed to boil down to a question of motivation. People know they should do better—pray more, read the Bible more, witness more, etc.—but how do we motivate them to do it? Guilting them--as he was trying to do—doesn’t work. People have learned to live with the guilt of underachieving. Besides, they reason, “I’m saved by grace, not works, so all I really have to do is believe.” We can’t scare them with threatenings of hell for the same reason. I myself have tried preaching the once-in-eternity opportunity we have been given here on earth to be changed into His image and acquire His character, and how Christians will be weeping in heaven when they realize their lost opportunity that will leave them far off from Jesus throughout all eternity—all to no avail. The flesh with its comforts has great power. ("I'll be in heaven; what difference will it make how close to Jesus I am?") How do we break through and motivate Christians to take advantage of these few brief years on earth that will set their destiny for eternity?

(To be continued)

Innocent Blood Demands Accountability

By David Hobbs

An editorial in The Ambassador Christian Newspaper, Dec. 2013

Is it a hard concept to grasp that God demands accountability for the blood of 55 million innocents slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs? 

In Deuteronomy 21, God gave instructions on what to do if a person was found murdered in the countryside. They were to measure the distance from the body to each of the surrounding towns to see which town was closest to the victim. Then the elders from that town had to come and make atonement for the shed blood. Though they knew nothing about it, they still had to take responsibility for it so God could cleanse the land from the shedding of the innocent blood. (“Bloodshed pollutes the land”—Num. 35:33)

If the shedding of the blood from one life demanded such accountability, how can we think to escape accountability for the blood of 55 million innocent babies shed in this country since 1973? In the Deuteronomy case, the elders were instructed to wash their hands over the atoning sacrifice while saying “Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see it done” (Deut. 21:7). How can our leaders plead such ignorance today? For the past 40 years we all know what’s been done. Our civic leaders certainly bear their share of the responsibility, but how much more our spiritual leaders (the pastors) who know how sacred and precious human life is in the sight of God. And only our pastors have the priestly standing before God to plead for the corporate forgiveness and cleansing our nation needs. Will they step forward in this critical hour and attempt to stem the tsunami of judgment sweeping toward us for such horrendous evil done on our watch, or will they stand back and hope the church can somehow escape the judgment (via the rapture?)?

2 Chron 7:14 requires just such accountability before God—“humble yourselves and pray… turn from your wicked ways….” One of our wickedest ways is our steadfast refusal to admit we have any complicity in the killing. One survey found that 70% of the women going into an abortion clinic for an abortion claimed to be Christian. Yet rarely will pastors preach against abortion, though many are quick to say they are “personally against it,” as though that settled the question. If a woman was being assaulted on the street outside your home and you did nothing to stop it, even went to a back room so you wouldn’t hear her screams, and then later told the police that you “were personally against assault, rape and murder”…. How would that fly?

It’s time for the church to “man up” and come clean before God while there is still time. And our pastors need to lead us in this. I am no theologian, but I can’t imagine a holy God rapturing a church with the blood of 55 million babies on its hands. Is there anyone out there who can claim like the elders in Deut. 21, “I am innocent in the shedding of this blood. I did all in my power to stop it: I preached tirelessly against it, led my congregation in fervent prayer and picketing, went to jail trying to shut the clinics down; I bear no responsibility for this atrocity?” If so, let him/her come forward and pray for the rest of us. If not, pastors, please step forward and lead us in repentance.