But if you know the man in real life, his comic profile is not that funny anymore. As smoke in the eyes, he comes to irritate us because we have found repeatedly that we cannot depend upon him (Proverbs 10:26). You might roll your eyes at him at first, but soon you give an exasperated, Really? “How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?” (Proverbs 6:9). He refuses to plow in autumn (Proverbs 20:4). His hands refuse to labor (Proverbs 21:25). Yet calling up to us from his mother’s basement, he insists that he is wise and life is right where he wants it (Proverbs 26:16). He is a blend of satire and shame, a tragi-comic figure, as Derek Kidner names him (Proverbs, 39).

So to me, the sluggard was always someone else.

I had never considered Scripture’s testimony of the more sophisticated lazy man — one with his shirt tucked in, going about his work, busily adding events to his calendar. I dismissed the cartoon, never taking time to examine myself against one species of sloth given to us in Proverbs: the man who busies himself with starting many things, but doesn’t bring them to completion.

Hunting Sloth

The wise king of Proverbs shows us this active sluggard. He, unlike the traditional sloth, is up early in the morning. He has his eggs and drinks his coffee. Instead of being discovered in the sloth’s usual habitat — buried beneath sheets and pillows — he is up and about, stalking through the forest, pursuing his prey. He is a hunter.

See him tracking his animal — thoughtful, calculated, alert. He sets his traps and camouflages himself for the kill. He knows his target; he knows his weapon; he lies in wait. While his brother sloth is sleeping in the trees, he is armed in the bushes. While the other excuses inaction by complaining of lions in the streets, he is crouched where lions roar. When he sees his quarry, he times his assault perfectly and springs violently. The king sees this man return in the morning with a carcass draped over his shoulder.

So far, he is full of manful action. But notice where the laziness of this hunting sluggard manifests:

“The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting.” (Proverbs 12:27 NKJV)

What a strange picture. The man woke up early. He prepared his tools. He lay in wait. He acted deliberately, forcefully. He took the prize, brought home the meat — but never cooked it. Perhaps he decided he had worked hard enough for one day. Perhaps he realized just how tired he felt. His enthusiasm died before the meal was prepared.

He labored promisingly, for a time. He remained focused, for a while. His was hard but unfinished work. In the end, his plate is just as empty as that of the other sluggard, waking at his return.

Incomplete

Men, how many tasks have you started strong and finished weak (or not at all)? How many deer have we killed but never tasted? How much nourishment has laziness robbed from our souls, our families, our churches, our world?

I think this spirit of so-far-and-no-farther plagues our generation. We recreate at life; we rarely commit. Manhood seems less tethered to follow-through, to roasting the meat we hunt. Consider just a few examples.

Relationships: date, but never marry.

Some men enjoy the chase of dating without taking any real steps toward marriage. They love the excitement, the hunt, the thrill, the flirt, the challenge — but lazily want nothing to do with lifelong commitment. Covenant panics them. They live unwilling to vow,

“I take you to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, comfort, and cherish you, and forsaking all others to keep myself only unto you as long as we both shall live.”

So they date for fun; they go hunting but never roast. Their catch-and-release policy might be less offensive if it didn’t leave behind a trail of pierced and discarded hearts. They put in effort to get to know daughters of the King, but never know the feast that marital love provides nor the lasting fruit it bears.

Church: attend, but never join.

How many men can leave their local church without anyone noticing? They never joined, never served, never devoted themselves to God’s people. Their schooling or career earned their talents and commitment. Their intramural basketball team or local gym received their dedication and time. While they placed their bodies in the church on Sundays, their hearts remained in the world.

Such are the many who know little of belonging to a local church. They come, but bolt at the soonest opportunity. They will listen to the sermon but search for any excuse to stay home and watch the livestream. They disappear for weeks at a time to their cabin or vacation and never get around to joining because of the weight of expectations. These play at Christianity, hunting theological game but never roasting it.

Work: labor, but for appearances.

How many men really commit themselves to excellence, to comprehensiveness in their work? How many drape the kill of their life’s work over their shoulder and take pleasure in the careful roasting of the meat? To the Christian man who found himself a slave in the early Colossian church, Paul instructs, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23–24).

Work heartily — literally, “from your soul” — even in this, the most unpleasant of work situations. How many of us are eye-pleasers in our work — working hard when others watch us, but switching tabs and scrolling Twitter as soon as they walk away? How often have you and I stopped short of cooking the meal God would have for us?

Great Hunter

Where would we be if Jesus were the hunter many of us have been? If he came and lived a couple of decades among us and called it quits? If he fell upon his knees in Gethsemane and went no farther, or felt the first nail through the wrist and summoned his army of angels? What if he came to save as an eye-pleaser, a hired hand who turned tail and ran when Satan, our sins, and God’s righteous wrath bore down on him?

If he stopped short, if he left even one step of the journey for us alone to achieve, we would be lost. If even one ounce of atoning blood needed to come from our veins, we would have no hope. If even one perfect work was yet required to fulfill the law on our behalf, all would remain undone. If Jesus somehow proved only a partway Prophet, a mostly Messiah, a nearly sufficient Savior for us — we all would submerge beneath the burning waves forever.

But oh for a thousand tongues to praise the completeness of our Mediator’s work. Our Shepherd did not bring most of his sheep nearly all the way home. He fulfills: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one” (John 18:9). This great high priest “saves to the uttermost” those who draw near to God through him (Hebrews 7:25). “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). His towering declaration from the height of the cross dealt not with nearlys, almosts, or mostlys, but rather — “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Finishing with Feast

Brothers, our work is not his work, but let us learn from our Master, who embodied the second half of the proverb perfectly: “The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man’s precious possession” (Proverbs 12:27 NKJV). Where are the men of diligence in the church today, men who follow-through, men who sprint through the finish line? Athletic men in the world exercise self-control in all things, but do so for a perishable wreath — should we not much more do so for the imperishable (1 Corinthians 9:25)?

Source: desiringgod.org, Author: Greg Morse

The post Roast What You Kill: Becoming a Man Who Follows Through appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.

In the field of academia, to be regarded an authority on a subject who wields thorough understanding, one must have spent a significant number of years in learning and extensive research works to attain a scholarly status.

However, despite the prolonged number of years some Christians have spent in the Christendom, a chunk of them have still not been able to appreciate basic biblical truths; and this has made them pitiful preys at the mercy of exploitative schemers and charlatans who parade as anointed servants of God.

I am bewildered at the fact that despite the long all nights, extensive fasting sessions and punctual commitment to prayer vigils and morning devotions, some of these Christians are still at sea in their understanding of the scriptures.

Apart from the victimization they suffer due to their ignorance, some of these Christians also turn to demonstrate very unreasonable acts of faith in a manner that utterly ridicules God’s precious gift of wisdom. Is it the case that they are of the stock that scriptures refer to as ‘ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth?’ Maybe!

Since the last decade, after being in Church and giving attention to serious Bible studies at home, I am of the opinion that no Christian should become a victim of the deceptive schemes of the devil.

Satan cannot defeat whom he cannot deceive’; and this affirms the truth that indeed knowledge of the scriptures is indispensable to a victorious living.

Unfortunately, many have strayed from the paths of truth, relegated sound doctrine to the background and have veered into the lanes of deception and erroneous demonstrations of faith that have no justifiable bases in the Scriptures.

Prayer is one of such acts of faith that has been greatly misconstrued in recent times and that has rather become a means through which Satan plagues the Church.

In places like Ghana where the majority of the citizenry are thought to be Christians, the growing spate of indiscipline and blatant disregard for authority is a huge testament of the variance between what many Christians profess and their actual deeds.

Prayer is good, but its content could render it useless. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus employed the parable of the Pharisee and Tax collector to echo that, while prayer is an important spiritual practice, the content of one’s prayer could make moments spent praying a complete waste of time. Evidently, in our part of the world today, a lot of productive hours continue to be wasted away in prayer as well; especially on issues that require the application of common sense.

In this regard, I view moments of prayer in Churches against the perennial flooding in Accra and its immediate environs as a completely useless act and a waste of everybody’s time! The rains have their unique role in our survival, and hence a petition to God to interrupt or alter rainfall patterns may as well plunge the nation into a state of famine.

In Accra, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Lands Commission, the Municipal and District Assemblies and other regulatory outfits still continue to grant permits for the erection of edifices along water ways; in addition to the choked conditions of our drainage systems that have been occasioned by the indiscriminate dumping of refuse into such drainage channels.

Causes have effects; and so the natural consequence of these unreasonable activities is ultimately perennial floods. What then convinces some Christians to think that they can use prayer to reverse the natural consequence of such bad practices?

If all churches agree to dedicate at least half of the actual time of their worship
services on a particular Sunday to drain the choked channels and embark on a mass cleaning of all drainages, that will be a more rewarding approach in addressing the man-made floods which continue to claim precious lives and wreck mayhem. The prayers of the saints against the perennial flooding situation in Accra is a mundane approach because evidently, the nature of the floods we experience are well within the remit of our human capacity to avoid.

Again, Christian prayers against the exponential menace of road accidents is another typically misplaced application of the weapon of prayer. Is it that God does not answer prayers? No. The answer to those prayers are at the human level. God will not intervene in challenges that he has already granted us the wisdom, expertise and abilities to resolve.

Let us fix all the deplorable and depleted road networks. Motorists should henceforth begin to religiously observe traffic and all other road safety regulations, even in the absence of any law enforcing personnel.

In addition, only roadworthy vehicles should be allowed to ply our roads. If such measures are strictly employed, a significant drop in the statistics of road accidents will not be far-fetched.

Another area where prayer is wrongly expended is in the area of our economic circumstances as a country and the state of our governance architecture. The poverty of our country for example is not a consequence of a short supply of supernatural blessings.

Anytime we chant the solemn and prayerful lines of the Ghana national anthem, God responds accordingly and unleashes His flourishing reservoir of blessings. However, we squander these blessings through mismanagement, unbridled corruption, vicious embezzlement and unrepentant acts of thievery. Again, let me reiterate that there is nothing wrong with praying for wisdom to address such situations. However, once we know what to do, praying in a manner that seems to be asking God to come and apply the wisdom He has granted us on our behalf is simply unreasonable.

Finally, there are seasons in Ghana when the pestilence of cholera gains ascendancy and becomes a major prayer topic in most churches and Christian homes. However, cholera is an avoidable disease. Its pervasiveness indicates that certain simple rules of hygiene are not being observed.

Demons are not the principal causes; and hence a spiritual remedy is ill-thought; unless of course it is revealed that those who create the filth are actually possessed; and such a revelation will even elevate the conversation to a whole new level.

But even so, the practical hygienic approach remains indispensable to resolving the issue. It is instructive to note from experience that God has not designed for prayer to be a substitute to hygienic measures to prevent cholera. Cholera is simply not God’s responsibility!

The fundamental reason that accounts for most of our woes is that, many Christians have pulled the breaks on the use of their brains and talents; and are wasting their lives under the illusion that being spiritual means shifting all personal responsibilities to God in prayer.

This is an unfortunate and destructive error and must be radically corrected without any apologies!

Watch for my latest book: NOT BY PRAYER

–By: Rev. Solomon Nortey|Email: solomonnortey26@gmail.com

The post Not By Prayer: When Prayer Is Useless appeared first on Chrife.com.gh.