Should We Be Men-Pleasers Or God-Pleasers?

Christians are often faced with the alternative of pleasing God or man. It is all too obvious that many times it is impossible to do both. God’s ways are not man’s ways. The paths that lead to a position of popularity with God and man do not often run parallel. It was Jesus Himself who spoke of their divergence. He pointed to a broad way and a narrow way. He made it obvious that the broad way that leads to eternal destruction is man’s way. He also said, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” It was the wise man who gave us the proverb, “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

How true the statement, “A man who wishes to lead the orchestra must first turn his back upon the crowd.” So it is with spiritual leaders and Christians who wish to please God. The desire to be liked, accepted, popular, and comfortable, compromises and destroys the witness of many today. Perhaps this is the primary reason we see those who once were looked upon as sound and scriptural preachers of the Word falling away from the truth and departing from the faith. The one thing that seems to be common among them is a seeking for popularity with the world and the approval of the powers that be in the world.

Some marketing organizations exist today for the purpose of determining just what churches and pastors can do to please and attract the world around them. Whole movements are focused upon the concept of structuring and implementing ways of worship that titillate the senses of the lost. Methodology and music are adopted in order to appeal to the tastes and attitudes of the unregenerate mind.

The Christian should seek the approval of God above all else. He should determine to be popular with Him, no matter what the cost. But so many today are like those in the day of our Saviour. He described some very religious folks as men pleaser's rather than God pleasers. He said of them, “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:43)

These same difficulties sometimes face New Testament Churches today. The world’s view of a with it church has never coincided with God’s view of a church that glorifies Him. The choice today seems to be much the same as it has been in every age. Should a church seek to be in the mainstream of religious activities and be accepted by the world or strive to be in the center of God’s will?

A person who pleases God is a person God will bless. A church that pleases God is a church that is after God’s own heart. Why? Because the praise of man is at best fickle and fading. It means nothing in God’s economy. Its echoes in time will not even penetrate God’s eternity. But it will be sweet music to the ear when the sound of our Savior saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” fills His heavenly universe. The harsh sounds of some worldly church music and the words of praise and accolades spoken by men will have long since faded into trivial insignificance!

Why We Should Have Thanksgiving

Many in Australia may not know that the primary and most widely celebrated family holiday in America is Thanksgiving Day. It is the day that everyone who is anyone would like to go back to his or her roots and spend the day enjoying a special traditional home cooked Thanksgiving meal with their family. No matter how far one roams from the land of his birth, this remains the case. As one with this heritage, I would like to share with you some facts about this special day and its origins. In 1621 a little band of pilgrims, who had fled the religious persecution of an established church and sought religious freedom in a new world, paused in their struggle for survival to feast and give thanks to God for His blessings upon them. They feasted and gave thanks, in spite of the fact thatthe hardships involved in hewing a haven with their bare hands from the somber, granite hills of Plymouth, had already taken the heavy toll of half their number. Their meal was sparse. It primarily consisted of such things as native turkey, maize, pumpkin and cranberries; food the native Indian tribes had shown them how to gather and prepare. It is said that when they sat down for that first Thanksgiving meal they found five kernels of corn on each plate. This served as a reminder of the hardships they had endured during the previous year when rations had been reduced to five kernels of corn for each person each day.

A little over 150 years later, in 1789, George Washington, the first President of the new nation, issued this national proclamation of Thanksgiving, “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favour . . .etc..” Some seventy-five years later President Abraham Lincoln made and proclaimed the last Thursday of November a perpetual national Day of Thanksgiving. Even though the nation had just lost over a million of her sons in an awful and deadly civil war, the aftermath of which would soon take the President’s own life, there was still much for which to be thankful. Those of us who have the blessings of freedom today also have much to be thankful for. We should give thanks for the grace of God. “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” (Psalm 95:1)

We should give thanks for the greatness of God. “For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:3)

We should give thanks for the goodness of God. Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)

We should give thanks for the gift of God. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." (II Cor. 9:15)

Lest We Forget

November 11 is Remembrance Day in my adopted land, Australia, and Veteran's Day in the land of my birth, America.   As we celebrate these special days of remembrance, it would be good to stop for a moment and take stock of the blessings of freedom God has given the citizens of both nations and to remember the sacrifices of those who purchased these freedoms with their blood.

We who have attended the dawn services and marched in parades with our fellow returned service men, have watched the faltering steps of those honored men who have served their country in many conflicts. We have seen the tears fall freely upon the cheeks of stooped and graying men, as they have wept openly for their fallen comrades in arms. We have heard again and again the poignant words, “Lest we forget,” issue from the lips of those who hold the memory of the fallen so dear. We have  heard the mournful notes of the last post or taps; played in remembrance of those who lie in graves on faraway fields. Such observances should move us to once again thank God for those who have gone before us.

God has richly blessed Australia and America.   Both are beautiful countries with rich and abundant natural resources. Both have good forms of government based upon a Judeo-Christian heritage and British Common Law. Citizens of these two great lands enjoy freedoms that most of the citizens of other lands  can only dream about. This is confirmed each year by the thousands of those who risk life and limb to seek safety, security and prosperity in these  nations.

There are no concentration camps in either nation. People are not executed for seeking to flee these lands. There are no dreaded knocks in the middle of the night. There are no mass graves filled with the bodies or those who have been killed by despotic dictators and godless regimes. Every person in these nations has a free voice and a free vote.

In governmental matters, the voice of the people can reflect the way and will of God. There is freedom of religion and speech.  Pastors can still speak freely from their pulpits. There is yet no law that can muzzle such free expression.   Although it seems clear that certain forces are active in both nations to change this.

Mark Twain once said, “…a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. … If the Christians .... could be persuaded to vote God and a clean ticket, it would bring about a moral revolution that would be incalculably beneficent. It would save the country — a country whose Christians have betrayed it and are destroying it...Christianity...is on trial now. And nothing important is on trial except Christianity.” He said this a century and one-half ago. How much greater are the weight of his words today!

Henry Blackaby wrote in Fresh Encounter: “Christians should not be surprised by the spiritual darkness around us. That is all it can be. Darkness is dark. The greater problem is not with the darkness. The problem is with the light. When light shines, it dispels darkness. We face a growing spiritual darkness in our land because the light is not shining brightly.”

On this Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, let us praise God for His past blessings upon our nations and pray He will continue to bless. But at the same time let us remember that if we are to expect His continuing blessings, we must recognize our need for Him in our national life today. We must be willing to meet His conditions for such continuing national blessings. Conditions that are made crystal clear in His word: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14)"