Genuine Leather Bible

There are some words in the Bible that have always struck me as funny. The Bible uses the word “stuff” several times. Stuff doesn’t strike me as an overly biblical word, but I guess it is since it is used 13 times.

One of my favorite uses of the word stuff is in the story when David and his men went to battle in 1 Samuel 30. Some men had to stay behind because they were too tuckered out to continue the battle (v. 10). At the end of the chapter, after the battle was won, the 400 men who went to battle came back to join the 200 men who stayed by the stuff.

A conflict arose among the men who actually fought in the battle. They wanted to keep all the spoils for themselves. They did not want to share with the men who stayed behind.

David taught a valuable lesson in verses 23 and 24. He said that those who stayed behind and guarded the stuff were just as worthy to receive the rewards as those who fought the battle. His point was that it is not just the guys on the front line who make an army strong. Those who are in the kitchen feeding the troops or making the uniforms are just as critical to the effort.

When I worked in a camping ministry the president of the organization tried to help the 15-year-old high school boys understand that their job was just as important as his job as the preacher. If they didn’t do their job right by serving the food properly, then he could not do his job effectively by trying to preach to disgruntled campers. If the high school boys would see their job as important then they would work the job with the respect it deserved.

Regardless of your position in the service of the Lord, you need to work as if you were the guy fighting the enemy on the front lines. God rewards those who are faithful in their position. Your job as a stuff guarder is just as important as the warrior on the front lines.

This week I was talking with a fellow missionary and he brought up an interesting line of thinking. He said that we outsource so much of our daily lives that many have forgotten how to do things for themselves. Particularly he was applying that thought to missionaries who go to the field woefully unprepared to do some basic tasks on their own.

When he used the term “outsource” I immediately thought of big businesses that hire cheap labor from foreign countries. What he was referring to was that we pay people to do things for us so that we don’t have to do them or learn how to do them. There was a time when people who drove cars knew how to work on their own cars. They could at least change the oil and perform basic maintenance. Now it is easier, and sometimes cheaper, to pay a mechanic to do those tasks for us. Our grandparents probably knew how to perform basic plumbing and electrical work in their houses. It may be that they even built their house with their own hands. Today we outsource any plumbing work we need done in the house by calling a plumber.

What about your Bible reading or spiritual growth? Are you paying other people to take care of that for you? It certainly isn’t wrong to go to church and get fed spiritually, but it should not be a replacement for reading the Bible for yourself. Listening to good preaching on the radio will help you grow, but just because you listen does not mean you are growing in knowledge and maturity. You have to apply what you learn.

No one becomes a good plumber without someone helping them learn the tricks of the trade. You won’t become a spiritual giant in a vacuum. But you also have to apply the things you learn in church to your life so that you mature into a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

This morning I heard a man speak about an addiction recovery program called FAR that he has started in his church. He gave a definition of an addiction this morning.

An addiction is any time a person feels (or believes) that he needs something that God has not built him to need.

In other words, when a person has a real feeling, or a perceived belief that they need something that is not naturally given by God, then they have an addiction. He added that while we need to breathe, breathing is not an addiction. God made us to need air, therefore it is not wrong to feel that you need air. However there are many wrong things that can gain control over your life. This is not just drugs and alcohol but can be applied to anything that gains power over you.

One of the convicting verses he shared in his message this morning was 1 Corinthians 6:12:

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

What is it that has control over your life that needs to be brought to the Lord and surrendered to him?

Last week I was privileged to hear a friend share about who Jesus is for us using the outline that J. Wilbur Chapman gives in his hymn, Our Great Savior.

1. Jesus, A Friend for Sinners
2. Jesus, A Strength in Weakness
3. Jesus, A Help in Sorrow
4. Jesus, A Guide and Keeper

Jesus is a friend to sinners: Psalm 17:6,7; 40:1-5; 103:3-5

Jesus is a strength in weakness: Psalm 27:13, 14; 40:16, 17; 73:1, 2; 73:23-26; 116:6

Jesus is a help in sorrow: Psalm 10:14; 18:1-6; 27:7-10; 30:10-12

Jesus is a guide and keeper: Psalm 9:9, 10; 25:8, 9; 25:19, 20; 31:19-21; 32:8, 9; 48:14

As a summary to all these things, Chapman concludes the song with the words, “Jesus, I do now receive him. More than all in Him I find.”

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Refrain
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah! what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my Strength, my victory wins.

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows over me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.

Jesus! what a Guide and Keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night overtakes me,
He, my Pilot, hears my cry.

Jesus! I do now receive Him,
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am His, and He is mine.

When David went to the front lines to check on his brothers in obedience to his father, he was confronted with the taunting of Goliath. He immediately began to stir up the people around him in 1 Samuel 17 saying that there was a cause for which to fight. Goliath had not done anything personal to David. David’s fight with Goliath was impersonal. What David fought for was a cause. Goliath had made an attack on God and His people. David chose to fight for God’s cause.

In the following chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul began to mount a personal attack against David. He ignored the attack. But God didn’t. God fought on David’s behalf. David was a man who did not fight out of anger or emotion—he fought for causes (at least at this point in his life).

As I sat at lunch today talking with other missionaries we reflected on how important it is to not take confrontation and attacks personally. We need to look at the reason we are on the mission field and fight for the cause. When you start internalizing the frustrations you begin to think that the whole country and culture needs to change to match your perspective of the world. You forget that you are there for a reason. That reason is not to change a country, but to win people for the Lord. As you fight for the right cause you will see the personal attacks as being petty and unnecessary to fight.

Allow God to fight on your behalf when personal attacks come. Your cause is to bring others to Christ.