Capitol Commission

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost suggests we choose our path wisely, for it will make all the difference in life. At the outset of the psalms, the first chapter says much the same. There are two paths in life—one that pleases God, and one that doesn’t. One path honors the Lord and is blessed; the other dishonors Him and is self-destructive.

Though I cannot say for sure which path you’re on today, I am certain that you believe it’s the right one. The psalmist would exhort you to humbly question whether this is true or not.

The Governor’s Prayer Breakfast was today, and you would think I should be excited about it. Afterall, I like to pray for our political leaders.

Yet, it’s a strange event. The board members adhere to different faiths and believe in different deities from Deism to Christianity, Judaism to Islam. You get the impression it really doesn’t matter what you believe about “god” as long as you believe something and pray to someone. A deity exists, but if he revealed himself, he certainly wasn’t very clear on the subject. Go pray however you like—it’ll all work out in the end.

It’s always heavy to read Jesus’ words to those who misunderstood Him. He never said, “You know, the Spirit wasn’t too clear on that subject. It’s okay.” No, He indicted His hearers asking: “Have you not read…” (cf. Matt 12:3,5, 19:4; Mark 12:10) or saying, “You know not the Scriptures” (cf. Mark 12:24). When God spoke through the prophets and apostles, He didn’t stutter. Apparently, He expects to be understood.

The Lord was clear that there is only one God (cf. Deut 6:4; Mark 12:29), and there is only one mediator between us and Him (cf. John 14:6). By covering all the divine bases, no one leaves offended at The Governor’s Prayer Breakfast… except God Himself.

In some of the bleakest moments, Scripture reminds us that there is a God who remains in control. Our studies in John’s Gospel showed this on the night when Judas betrayed Jesus. The soldiers fell in fear when the Son of God addressed them, they obeyed when He commanded them to let His disciples go, and they apprehended Him only when He allowed it. John wanted us to see that it wasn’t Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, the soldiers, or even Satan who controlled the night. It was Jesus.

Reflecting on this study, I was reminded that things are not always as they seem in life. Consider David as he fled from Saul, Elijah as he challenged Ahab’s prophets, Hezekiah when confronted by the king of Assyria, or Jonah when preaching repentance to Ninevah. It didn’t seem that any of these men would survive, and yet, each did because God saw fit to save them.

The Lord involves Himself in our world, but since we don’t know His sovereign will, we really don’t know what will come to pass. Elijah was faithful, and God saved him; Stephen was faithful, and God did not (cf. Acts 7). All we know is that in all things whatever the outcome, God remains in control and has a good purpose (cf. Psa 31:19).

I think of Daniel’s friends who refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image. It seemed their lives were in the hands of a wicked king, but they didn’t quite see it that way…

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace… But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up”—Daniel 3:16b-18.

The three men knew that Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have the final say, for what would come to pass was in the hands of God. Live or die, they just wanted to be faithful whatever outcome He had determined.

We live in a nation similar to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—proclaiming our immorality, we’re filled with greed, corruption, godlessness, and arrogance (cf. Isa 3:9; Ezek 16:47-50). It could be worse, but it sure seems we’re past the point of no return. It seems the battle is lost, and that our nation will never turn in repentance to God.

We can speculate on what may come to pass, but our nation’s future is in divine hands. Anything can happen. So, whether it seems like we’re winning or losing ground, it shouldn’t matter. Our desire is that as Christians, whatever the outcome, we just want to be faithful to the God who remains in control.

An accomplished heart surgeon steps out of the operating room from what would prove to be another successful surgery. He has performed multitudes of such life-saving surgeries, and on his way home, he trips and scrapes his knee, and is at a complete loss for how to put a bandage on it!

Such an inconsistency is of course absurd, but Christians sometimes hold inconsistent beliefs about the Bible which reach this level of absurdity.

All who trust Christ for salvation have experienced the miraculous power of God. This power of God is so great that it makes the spiritually dead to come to life: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

The means of this life-giving power is the Word of God. To believers Peter wrote, “you have been born again . . . through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23; cp. James 1:18). So a spiritually dead person gets raised to spiritual life by means of the Word of God. Then, down the road of life the believer has trouble, just as everyone does (cf. John 16:33). The believer gets a “scraped knee”: he encounters various temptations, he walks into sin, he experiences the pain of loss which leads to anxiety and depression, and on the list goes.

Do you suppose that the same Word of God which is powerful enough to bring people out of spiritual death and into life can also abundantly supply every spiritual need on the journey of life? Do you suppose that “God, who gives life to the dead” (Romans 4:17) can heal your spiritual scrapes and bruises?

God uses His Word as the instrument for His greatest demonstration of power—the miracle of salvation. The same Word of God is more than sufficient for every matter of spiritual help, just as the psalmist prayed, “Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts” (Psalm 119:173).