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Resolutions
January 5,
2013
As 2012 came to an end and 2013 begins it is common to either make a resolution or to hear of others who have made resolutions. We think of resolutions as intentions and something that is easily broken. Resolute means purposeful, determined, and unwavering. In other words, those who are resolute, those with resolutions, are those who have predetermined to not give up, and not giving up is a key theme through the Bible. Life throws us so many challenges it is easy to get frustrated and just give up. Life has become so complicated in so many different ways that for many being resolute is just a fantasy, yet being resolute is essential for salvation. Looking ahead to 2013 we donot know how challenging it will be for us. All we know is that we will face our share of challenges and for some more than our share of challenges. How we face these challenges may predict how we face the spiritual challenges of life. If we give up easy and quit with the challenges of life today we may find ourselves giving up on what is meaningful in life later. The Bible tells us to to be resolute by sharing with us how important it is to endure to the end.
Matthew
24:1-15
And
Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him
for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto
you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down. And as he sat upon the
mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when
shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of
the end of the world?And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no
man deceive you. For many shall come in
my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of
wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet. For nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be
famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my
name's sake. And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall
deceive many. And because iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the
end come. When ye therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand:
We are reminded by Jesus that we cannot give up on our faith even though we live in world that routinely discards or recycles unwanted objects. While both practices might suit the needs of society, the idea of discarding or recycling faith is hard to reconcile with the idea of enduring to the end. It would almost be like borrowing elements of worship from another faith to augment our own. There was an example of this from the Exodus. The children of Israel became concerned when Moses was delayed with God and developed a system of worship that to many might look like an Egyptian system of worship.
Exodus 32:1-35
And
when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us
gods, which shall go before us; for this Moses, the man that
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the
golden earrings, which in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and
of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden
earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand,
and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and
they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the
land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it,
he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is
a feast to the LORD. And they rose up
early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings;
and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee
down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have
corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way
which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped
it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O
Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen
this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let
me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them:
and I will make of thee a great nation. And
Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot
against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with
great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and
say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to
consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent
of this evil against thy people. Remember
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own
self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven,
and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they
shall inherit it forever. And the
LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. And Moses turned, and went down from the
mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were
written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they
written. And the tables were the
work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the
tables. And when Joshua heard the noise
of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of
war in the camp. And he said, It is
not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the
voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them
that sing do I hear. And it came to
pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the
dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands,
and brake them beneath the mount. And he
took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it
to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of
Israel drink of it. And Moses
said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so
great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot:
thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which
shall go before us: for this Moses, the man that brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any
gold, let them break it off. So
they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this
calf. And when Moses saw that the people
were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among
their enemies:) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is
on the LORD'S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves
together unto him. And he said unto
them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and
go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his
brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the
word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to
day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may
bestow upon you a blessing this day. And
it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned
a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an
atonement for your sin. And Moses
returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and
have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if
thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out
of thy book which thou hast written. And
the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book. Therefore now go, lead the
people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine
Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit
their sin upon them. And the LORD
plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
Sometimes given a challenging set of circumstances, it may appear easier to give up rather than stay resolute. The example from the children of Israel shows us that those who give up on faith will meet with the displeasure of God.
1
John 5:4
For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory
that
overcometh the world, even our
faith.
It is our faith that overcomes the world, and yet we must be resolute to not give up on faith, because when we give up on faith, we have abandoned our resolution and will find ourselves unable tocelebrate what is good, embrace what is good, and do what is good.
All verses are from the King James Version.
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