DENIAL

I Was Just Thinking About – DENIAL.

Our secular culture has become more and more accepting of denial. A suspect arrested for a crime will almost immediately deny guilt. The person who increasingly consumes beer, wine or whiskey will deny he is becoming (or has become) an alcoholic. A person who more and more makes use of marijuana or opioids denies being on the pathway of drug addiction. A public person who is accused of harassment or misappropriation of finances protests and denies guilt.

QUESTION: Is the spiritual culture similar or dissimilar when it comes to the general area of denial? Baker’s Dictionary of the Bible defines the secular as: “To know what is true, yet confess a falsehood…” Jesus touched the spiritual nerve of this issue when He stated (Luke 6:46-49, ESV): “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?...The one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” 

I became tremendously aware and convicted of this truth during my early days of enrollment in a Bible College. I had not considered or planned on being enrolled in any college at that time. I had taken my Army physical and heard that there was a possibility of my being drafted into the military within 30 days. I travelled to the college with some friends with the intention of hitch-hiking back home. God had other plans for my life of which I was unaware. Every meal time as we assembled to enter the Dining Room, my eye became aware of a marble display on the mantle that indicated the purpose of the college for each student’s life: “To Know Him and To Make Him Known.” My eye was not just fixated on that at meal time but soon became the purpose engraved upon my heart and mind. 

Baker’s definition of denial also states the spiritual application: “The forsaking of self in wholehearted consecration to Christ and in service to his kingdom…The godly pursuit of true faith and piety. Christian spirituality is the fruit of the Spirit's sanctifying work in the life of every believer.” Jesus amplified what this godly pursuit must include when He stated (Luke 9:23-24, ESV): “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

QUESTION: Can anyone effectively serve Jesus Christ if one does not know Him – personally, intimately, and living one’s life in His presence? 

How can one purpose to make Him known IF the messenger is not fully persuaded Who Jesus Christ is and what He can and will do? 

We must share the conviction of Paul when he wrote to Timothy, Second Timothy 1:11-14, “I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher…I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced (fully persuaded) that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.  Follow the pattern of the sound  words that you have heard from me…By the (enablement of) Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”

One additional passage for the believer’s consideration and embrace is Second Corinthians 5:14-21, “For the love of Christ controls us…He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised…God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation…We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God…”

It is only after and as one knows Him that he can persuasively and effectively make Him known. You are intended to be His ambassador. Do YOU know Him? If so, are YOU faithfully making Him known (or denying knowing Him by your lifestyle or silence)?

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.