Letters to Annie: Don’t Worry about Others’ Opinions

Dear Annie,

            Love, I just want to share with you this story…

            A variation on one of Aesop’s fables tells of a wise man whose son was ashamed to leave the house because he thought other people would think him ugly. The father told him that he shouldn’t worry so much what other people though, and to follow his own mind and heart. To make the point, the father asked his son to join him on his trips to the market over the next few days.

On the first day, the father rode the donkey, and the child walked alongside. As they travelled they could hear passersby criticizing the father for making a small child walk in the heat of the day.

On the second day, the child rode the donkey, while the father walked alongside him. This time people commented about how disrespectful the child was for making an old man walk while he rode in comfort.

On the third day they entered the market, both walking alongside the donkey. They heard the people saying how stupid they were: “Do they not know that donkeys are for riding?”

The following day, both father and son rode on the donkey, and people expressed their indignation about how cruel they were to burden the animal in such a way.

On the fifth day they carried the donkey on their backs. Everyone in the market laughed and ridiculed them.

The wise man then turned to his son and said: “You see, regardless of what you do, there’ll always be people who will disapprove. Therefore, don’t worry about others’ opinions, and do what you think is just and right.”

I think you might need this: Annie, if you are constantly worried about what other people think, you will never get to where you need to go in life. You are going to have to do things that don’t always meet people’s standards. You will come into situations where you have to put your pride, and your reputation on the line to get what God wants you to have in life. If you are constantly worried about what people are thinking, you will never have the will to do what’s right. God’s approval matters the most; while people’s approval will expired soon.

I love you,

Rich

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men and Women, Consider the Love of Jesus

“[The] love of Christ… this love that surpasses knowledge”
(Ephesians 3:18-19, NIV)

Love expresses itself in a seemingly contradictory way. Parental love expresses itself in a wholesome and loving discipline, not in the indulgence of a child’s every whim. But not every child appreciates this expression of love. It is the same with the Lord’s children. In the gospels, three expressions of Christ’s love are recorded for our instruction. In each case it is stated that the Lord loved the person involved.

We learn first that Christ’s love corrects the one whom He loves. Speaking of the young ruler, Mark says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (10:21). And what did His love move Him to do? Jesus saw that the young man had many attractive qualities, but he lacked the greatest essential. He discerned the fatal flaw in the life of the ruler and dealt faithfully with him about it. The young man clinging to his great possessions, he sacrificed the greatest Possession. So will our divine Lord put His unerring finger on our fatal flaw, the thing that will rob us of His highest blessings? Shall we ask him to show us what that thing is?

Next we see that Christ’s love allows suffering by His loved ones. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister [Mary] and Lazarus” (John 11:5). Jesus spent more time in their home than in any other. Was He soft and indulgent with this favoured family? No, He was not. He did not intervene to prevent Lazarus from dying. He did not spare the sisters the heartbreak of seeing him slowly slip away. Rather, He waited two days before responding to their appeal for help. Did He not care? He cared so much that He permitted their suffering.

And what was His purpose? “So that you may believe” (John 11:15). The cultivation of faith was the object of the discipline. After their trail, they had an immeasurably greater Lord, and their suffering has been used to impart comfort and insight to succeeding generations of believers.

Last, Christ’s love cleanses us. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end… [He] began to wash his disciples’ feet” (John 13:1, 5). At that moment, He was on His way to cleanse their defiled souls with His blood, but He paused to give a matchless demonstration of the humility of love. No task is too menial for love. Jesus washed their feet with water, and then with blood from the basin of the cross.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

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Young Men and Women, Consider the Mind of Jesus

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus”

(Philippians 2:5, NIV)

In this great Christological passage, Paul throws out a starling challenge: Reflect in your own mind the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ was more than His thinking processes; it was His entire inner disposition. It included His thoughts and motives and desires. Because we reflect the mind of Christ so imperfectly, we make a very slight impression on the cynical world around us. J. Stuart Holden writes: “The world does not believe in Him whom it has not seen, because it has cause not to believe in us whom it has seen.”

The mind of Christ is seen operating on two levels in this passage. On the level of deity, Christ did not count equality with God and its attendant majesty something to retained and grasped at all costs. He did not greedily cling to His rights as God’s equal. Instead, He emptied Himself. He resigned all His outward glory, veiled His majesty, and accepted the limitations involved in assuming human form. He could never be less than God, but He renounced the outward display of His majesty and glory. Yielding up the independent exercise of His divine attributes, He became a servant. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (KJV).

The mind of Christ displayed on the level of humanity. “He humbled himself” (v.8). We have every season to humble ourselves, but it was not so with Him. He did not demand, as He might well have done, such a standard of treatment as befitted His dignity. Instead of a palace, He chose a manger. His throne was a carpenter’s bench, and His sceptre a hammer. His university was a village school. So low did He stoop in His self-humiliation that He accepted the lowest step – death on the cross.

This display of His mind was progressive. It began in His thinking, led to self-abasement, and culminated in self-oblation. Sacrificial love led Him to take these downward steps, and we are to follow His example. His mind was the exact reverse of the worldly mind that revels in position and power; that considers wealth and possessions the greatest good; that delights in being served rather than in serving others; that shrinks from suffering and shame. “Have the same mindset.” “Let this mind be in you.”

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men and Women, Consider the Unchanging Jesus

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”
(Hebrews 13:8, NIV)

No one can doubt that we are living in a changing world. Indeed, the rate of change in every realm of life is so rapid that we find it impossible to keep pace with its multifaceted movements. H.F. Lyte’s hymn is more appropriate today than when he wrote it:

Change and decay in all around I see,

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

In the midst of our changing and unstable world stands the unchanging Christ. In Hebrews 13:7, the writer exhorts Christians to remember their former teachers; but in verse 8, he turns their eyes to Jesus, who is always the same. All that He was in the past, He is in the present and will be in the future.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, will care for all our yesterdays. Our past sometimes haunts and even paralyses us, and the devil delights to keep us chained to it. But the changeless Christ is able to cleanse us from all the guilt and defilement of the past. He is able to deliver us even from the tyranny of memory. We must not allow the devil to resurrect what God has forgotten. We should remember, too, that for the believer He is the God of the second chance. “Lord, who is a God like you? You forgive sin. You forgive your people when they do what is wrong. You don’t stay angry forever. Instead, you take delight in showing your faithful love to them” (Micah 7:18).

Jesus Christ, the same today, will take care of all our todays. He who delivers from the tyranny of the past will dissolve the complexity of the present. And how insoluble they often seem – cares of family, health, finance, business, age, etc. But no problem is really new; they are common to all ages. Jesus experienced family problems. He had no money to pay His tax. He wept in sorrow with Mary. He can solve temperamental problems as He did with Peter. As Great Physician, He can help in our physical problems.

Jesus Christ, the same for ever, is well able to care for all our tomorrows. He is able to dispel the uncertainties of the future. We are all apt to succumb to fear. There are fears that assail us at every stage of life. Fear of the future can cripple us in meeting the demands of the present. But in the midst of life’s uncertainties stands One who is utterly dependable and entirely competent. Trust Him fully.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

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Young Men, Consider the Returning Jesus

“I will come back” (John 14:3, NIV)

The return of Christ to earth is the denouement toward which the Church has been looking for centuries. “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11) and so is the second coming of our Lord. It is not only the object of our anticipation, but of admonition to very practical Christian duties. A careful study will reveal that this event is linked to every great doctrine and ethical duty.

It sounds a call to consecration (means the separation of oneself from things that are unclean, especially anything that would contaminate one’s relationship with a perfect God). “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed” (Revelation 16:15). We are to be careful in keeping our garments of the soul stainless. Are we as careful in this realm as we are of the garments we wear? When others see our garments, they see us. We are to “clothed with Christ” (Galatians 3:27 or “put on”) so that others will see Him when they see us. In these Laodicea days our Lord counsels us to “buy from me… white clothes to wear…” (Revelation 3:18).

His return carries with it the assurance of reward. “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me” (Revelation 22:12). There is a tendency to regard the reward motive as a commercializing of Christianity, but it played a prominent part in the thinking of the early Church. Paul frequently refers to it, as did his Master. Some Christians piously protest that they will be content with the lowest place in heaven, but this is false humility and could be a cloak of spiritual lethargy. “Run in such a way as to get the prize,” that is, the promised reward (1 Corinthians 9:24). It any case, rewards are not given. They are earned. Heavenly rewards are for earthly renunciations.

The second coming is an encouragement to continuance. “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown” (Revelation 3:11). In Hebrews 2:1 we are exhorted not to drift away from the truth we have heard. The ascended Lord urges us to hold fast what we already have, lest our reward be taken by someone else. His imminent return provides the motive for this. There may still be years before this blessed hope is realized. Let us fill the days with sacrificial service. Spiritual idleness/laziness means eternal loss.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

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Young Men, Consider the Ascended Jesus

“[Jesus] left them and was taken up into heaven”

(Luke 24:51, NIV)

The ascension of our Lord directs attention to the fact that He is not only risen, but enthroned. It is that event in which the risen Christ finally and visibly withdrew from His disciples and passed into the heavens – a fitting climax to His life of perfect obedience on earth. His glorious ascension was the necessary and appropriate complement to His resurrection, and the manner in which it took place was consistent with His miraculous life and achievements.

He did not vanish out of sight as He did at Emmaus (Luke 24:31) leaving a question as to whether there might be yet further appearances. He walked away from them, and then He was carried up into heaven, there to sit at the right hand of God. It took place as they were looking on, in broad daylight (Acts 1:9). There was no possibility of mistake. He was really and finally gone.

He ascended bodily, and carried His glorified human body into heaven. He left the disciples, with His hands outstretched in blessing. As soon as His nail-pierced feet left the earth, He commenced His ministry as their Advocate and Intercessor. They exchanged His physical presence for His spiritual omnipresence.

The ascension was an important part of the Lord’s ministry on our behalf. It imparted the assurance that His death was effective and that all God’s claims against sinful men had been met. It evidenced the fact that the problem created by man’s sin had been finally solved. It enabled His disciples to give a satisfying account of the disappearance of Christ’ body from the tomb.

Further, it was the necessary prelude to the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised by the Lord. As the Scriptures says, “the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:39). Now the way was open for the Pentecostal effusion. By the ascension, the local Christ became the universal Christ whose personal presence was mediated by the Holy Spirit.

To Christ, it was the reward of His obedience unto death. “Therefore God exalted Him…” (Philippians 2:9). The ascension reversed man’s verdict on the Son of God. Had the Saviour not ascended, we would be without a representative in heaven, and without the Comforter to lead and guide us on earth. His presence in heaven makes heaven a blessed reality to us. Amen.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men, Consider the Risen Jesus

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NIV).

These verses enshrine the essence of the Christian faith. They contain the essential message of Easter, the most important even in the church year. Three great truths are emphasized. On Friday Jesus died on the cross. On Saturday He lay in Joseph’s tomb. On Sunday He rose from the dead. Deny these fundamental facts and you negate Christianity.

Two other very important things about Christ emerge from these verses. First, He was truly man because He died. Death is characteristic of mankind. In this fact lay the necessity for the incarnation. He was also really God because He rose from the dead. Man cannot rise from the dead. Because Jesus was infinite, His death was of infinite value and made expiation for the sins of the whole world.

Exactly in the manner and for the purposes revealed in the Scriptures, He died for our sins. He was buried, not in a common grave, but in a new tomb. He rose again on the third day under the circumstances recorded on Scriptures. It was a bodily resurrection. When the women and Peter and John looked into the tomb, it was empty except for the grave clothes, still lying in the folds that had encased Him. The butterfly had flown, leaving an empty chrysalis (Muslims glory in a full coffin in Mecca. Christians glory in an empty tomb in Jerusalem. We have a living Christ; they have a dead prophet).

But how can the resurrection be explained? Christ’s body must have been removed either by human or by superhuman hands. If by human hands, it must have been by the hands of friends or foes. His foes would not, because that would look as if He really had risen. His friends could not remove the body for the tomb was sealed, and a guard of sixty soldiers watched to ensure that it was not rifled. The only alternative is that “God the Father… raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1).

If Christ did not rise from the dead as His disciples claimed, we cannot account for the complete transformation of these men who had been cowering behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. Their radiant joy and fearless witness is testimony of His transformation.

You ask me how I know He lives?

He lives within my heart.

(A.H. Ackley)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.