15. Guidelines for Living in the Light of Eternity
chapter fifteen
Guidelines for Living in the Light of Eternity
As the plane began its final descent, flight attendants busied themselves picking up leftover cups, asking for tray tables to be put up and making sure we had our seatbelts fastened for landing. I found myself wondering what kind of people would be meeting me at the airport.
Tim and Rachel (not their real names) had called me a few months earlier with a startling statement.
“Brother K.P.,” said Tim, “we want to give some money to your organization. But it’s quite a large sum.”
“How much are you talking about?” I asked him.
“A million dollars.”
A million dollars! I had to ask again to make sure I had heard him right.
During the course of our conversation, I learned that Tim worked as an electrician while Rachel stayed at home to care for their children. I could not help but wonder how they were able to give this kind of money away.
“As a family,” Tim said, “we live quite simply. The money we want to give is an inheritance.”
“Is it all the money you have?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s all of it,” he answered.
“Tim, give me three days to pray about it,” I said. “I’ll call you back.”
As I hung up, my heart was troubled. This young couple planned to give away all they had—everything—to our ministry. Their trust in us was sobering. Our need for responsibility and good stewardship weighed heavily on me.
I asked my staff to fast and pray with me about it. Three days later I called Tim back. I did not feel peace about taking the whole sum of money, I told him, but felt the Lord giving us the freedom to accept an amount needed for one specific project about which we had been praying—nearly $300,000. I also told him of other missions organizations he could contact and pray about helping, if God directed him to do so.
A few days later their check arrived in the mail.
Now I was scheduled to be in their area to speak at a missions conference and was about to meet Tim and Rachel.
They were at the gate, greeting me with warm smiles. Nothing they wore would reveal them as an obvious source of a million dollars. I hardly knew what to think, but already my preconceptions were being blown away.
After a warm handshake, Tim led the way to their car. Now I was really in for a shock! He loaded my luggage into the back of an old, well-used station wagon, and off we drove.
Their house was not grandiose by any stretch of the imagination, but Rachel was a gracious hostess and their troop of small children played happily and noisily throughout the house.
As I spent more time with Tim and Rachel, I came to know their story. As a young, single man, Tim had spent much time with the Lord in prayer and in the Word. He became so moved with compassion for the lost world that it nearly broke his heart. He sold his house, cars and most of his clothes, took the money and sent it off quietly to many different countries for the printing of Gospel literature. He lived so radically for Jesus that some people actually thought he had gone crazy.
During this time he met Rachel. Before long they were in love. But Rachel came from a rich family.
“Even though I love you,” Tim told her, “I can’t even think about marrying you.”
“Why not?”
“You know I’ve given my life, my job, everything for one cause—to win the lost for the Lord. If I marry you, with the millions of dollars that come with your name, you may not want to live the life I have chosen. I can’t marry you, Rachel.”
“You don’t understand. I love you because of the way you are. That’s the kind of life I want, too.”
So they made a pledge between themselves and the Lord: They would never touch a penny of the money Rachel would bring to their marriage. Tim would continue his electrician’s job to meet their basic needs. They would live as simply as possible, buying used clothing and driving used cars. And all the money from Rachel’s inheritance, as well as any extra money from Tim’s job, would go completely to the Lord’s work.
I will never forget Tim and Rachel, their house, their car and the lifestyle they choose to live. I will never forget the look of complete contentment and joy I saw on their faces. Every day they evaluate their lives, asking themselves if their actions, decisions and purchases are helping to reach the lost.
Their lives represent a choice to live and interpret everything in the light of eternity.
Becoming More Eternally Minded
Over the years I have heard many discussions on world evangelization. It is interesting to meet with others who share similar and differing viewpoints. But when the discussions involve the issue of living with less, they often take a philosophical turn and offer little practical application.
We can debate practical theology if we want to while millions are plunging into hell, but we must understand one thing about scaling down our lifestyles: One hundred years from now, what will remain? Houses, money, plans, buildings—these will no longer have any meaning. We must adjust our lifestyles now and invest our lives to reach the lost world.
During World War II the people of England scaled down their lifestyles to the barest of essentials. They knew that if they did not commit themselves fully to winning the war, they might lose everything. So they gladly gave money, gold, silver, even their young men for the cause.
Many believers are searching for reality in their lives. They want some way to connect what they believe with what they live, but they do not quite know what steps to take. How do we implement the call of eternity into our lives? How do we become more missions-conscious and begin to live more simply?
There are two dangers we must be careful to avoid. First, we can take the message of the Gospel and translate it into all action and no heart. We can get whipped up into a frenzy of activity and supposed sacrifice that means nothing at all because it is not motivated by love. Second, we can see the life Jesus asks us to live and become overwhelmed by what seem to be impossible demands. The result is no action at all; doing something is just too hard.
The problem with you and me and the culture in which we are immersed is that we are taught the self-help approach to spiritual living. Instead of taking the Bible at face value, we are taught to find Scriptures that justify our need for happiness and more comfortable lives. We are no longer centering on Jesus and His will but using Him as a means to comfort in the here-and-now. We even take what the world offers us and put labels on it to “Christianize” it, whether it be heavy-metal music, color-coordination seminars or aerobic videos. We have allowed ourselves to be deceived by our society and the opinions of others.
One man’s comment in a church recently gave me insight into the workings of human nature.
“I’m a medical doctor,” he said. “If I were to live the lifestyle you preach about, I wouldn’t be able to keep my practice. I own a home and a car. If I were to reduce my standard of living as you suggest, my colleagues wouldn’t take me seriously anymore. I don’t even think they’d want to come into my house. If I’m to be accepted in the medical community, I have to live this lifestyle.”
Did I detect some self-justification? But arguing with him was not the answer.
“All I can offer are some basic guidelines,” I responded. “You have to work it out in your own life.”
I hope the following seven guidelines will help to make your way clear as you seek the Lord for living in the light of eternity.
Go to the Word of God
Any issue that falls into the realm of obedience to the Lord must be found in His Word. As you commit to opening your heart to the Word of God every day, the Holy Spirit will take what you are reading and make personal application.
Apply the Word of God
Apply truths from the Word of God to your own practical realm. Determine to take the Word of God personally. Ask yourself, How does this apply to me specifically—where I am now and in regard to those with whom I live and work?
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Now ask yourself, What does it mean to deny myself and take up my cross today? Wait before the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His truth to you.
Obedience to the Lord, I have found, is seldom a pleasant experience for my flesh. Most of the time I do not enjoy it!
A friend of mine shared once that he was setting his alarm clock a few minutes earlier in the morning in order to get up to pray.
How he hated that alarm clock! A few times he really pounded it, he told me, to shut the thing off. Sometimes he buried his head in the pillow and went back to sleep. When he did get up, he shuffled to the sink and splashed cold water on his face. (He hated that cold water, too!) And as he knelt by the bed to pray, that did not feel good either.
Then, he told me with a chuckle, he began to realize that it was working—he was waking up. His prayers were being answered. And he was drawing closer to the Lord.
We are not ethereal, spirit-like vapors living in plastic shells. We are made of flesh and bone. When we look at the cross where Jesus died, we see agony, misunderstanding, loneliness, rejection, humiliation, loss and death. When the Lord asks us to take up the cross, to understand Christ and His fullness, we must personally accept inconveniences in our lives. It may mean fasting and praying, spending a long time in the Lord’s presence, rejecting the urge to buy an expensive shirt, gathering the courage to tell someone about the Lord.
Your mind may argue with you and try to rationalize this all away. Your emotions may protest the discomfort you have accepted. But deep within your heart, you know that the Word of God is true and that, to obey it, you must apply it to your life.
Implement Decisions Now
Take the actions and decisions you know are right and implement them in your life right now. Do not wait for some big revelation to appear to you in the night sky. Right now begin to sacrifice, pray, fast, witness, repent, ask for forgiveness from others when you wrong them— whatever you know God has told you to do.
As you walk with Him, He will reveal more truths to you and shed more light on your path. (The place to begin, as I said, is the Word of God.) But start right now to implement the meaning of the cross in your life.
We are all at different places in our walks with the Lord. Something the Lord has called me to deny in my life may mean nothing to you. What you must do is take the knowledge the Lord has given you and do what you know to be the right thing.
Say No to Your Culture
Whenever the culture around you hinders your obedience to the voice of God and what He has shown you in His Word, say no to it, no matter how impossible this seems.
Daniel and his friends were taken captive into Babylon and offered the king’s rich food as their daily provision. It was considered an honor to eat the king’s food and drink his wine. (The first portion of both had been offered on a pagan altar, and animals were used that were ceremonially unclean.) Daniel had every reason to say to himself, I’m in Babylon now, and my captivity has not happened without God’s knowledge. There’s nothing wrong with eating and drinking what is set before me.
But Daniel had a revelation that went beyond the culture in which he lived, and he chose to remain true to what God had revealed rather than to the culture. “Daniel resolved not to defile himself ...” (Daniel 1:8).
We must not conform to our culture if our obedience to the Lord is jeopardized in the process. We, and not the culture in which we live, bear the responsibility for our walk with the Lord.
At the same time, every culture perceives needs differently. In India, for example, you rarely see pews or chairs in a local church. We sit on the floor to worship; it is part of the culture. In the West we sit in pews or on chairs; again, it is part of the culture. Floors or pews—neither is more spiritual; it is simply a matter of culture.
Imagine for a moment that the leadership of a Western church decides that regular pews are not good enough but must be replaced with individual, cushioned, reclining rockers for more comfort. Now, that does seem a little outrageous! There is nothing wrong with worshiping God sitting in a pew, but there is no need to squander money on new seating when it can better be used to further the work of the Lord.
We must learn to distinguish between the dictates of culture and what the Lord is asking of us.
Be Persuaded in Your Heart
Ultimately each of us must be persuaded in our own heart and begin to move and act where we are. Nowhere does the Bible say that all-out commitment to Christ means we have to take our family to some remote jungle area and die there. The call of the Lord is different for each individual. One day you will stand before the Lord and be called to give an account for the things He asked you to do.
The national missionaries who labor on the mission field are there because they heard God’s voice telling them to go. They knew the troubles and trials before them. They saw the need, heard the call and obeyed.
We must live in the same reality. When we hear God’s voice, we must act accordingly and do whatever it is He is asking us to do. A multimillionaire who owns a huge business may be more committed to Christ than a pastor who lives in a hovel. You must be persuaded in your own conscience that you are following the Lord’s direction for your life.
As a matter of fact, it may be more difficult to stay behind as a sender than go yourself. You are not on the front lines. You are living simply, working a regular job, remaining faithful to the Lord and preserving your testimony before all your co-workers. Taking the money you earn and giving it faithfully to support a missionary in China or India or Bangladesh—someone you have never seen for whom you are also praying—is true sacrifice and living by faith.
No one can dictate to you a certain standard of living or draw any kind of line, culture or no culture. Each of us must be persuaded to live before the Lord as we are led by Him.
Don’t Be Motivated by Guilt
Let no one intimidate you or condemn your actions. Check yourself if you hear yourself thinking thoughts like I’d be a better Christian if I did this or that or I feel bad about the house [or car] I own.
If you are motivated to do something out of guilt, don’t do it! God is not in the business of putting people on guilt trips to make them do something. He will call you on the carpet and ask you, with love, “Are you living by My standards?” But He will never condemn you.
When Jesus spoke to Peter after His resurrection, He did not say (as we might have been tempted), “You creep, I can’t believe you denied Me! I’m going to get you now.” No, from just one glance Peter could tell that Jesus was saying something very different: “Peter, I love you more than you could ever know. Forget the past—everything is forgiven. Now go and feed My sheep.”
Whatever you hear, whatever you read, whatever challenges you—remember that your resulting actions should never be generated by guilt, which is carnality. Purpose in your heart that you will never live by someone else’s standard, but only by the principles you know to be true from the Word of God, and by the Holy Spirit teaching you daily as you are open to His leading in your life.
Guard Against False Humility
Be on your guard for false humility (which is actually pride) and condemning anyone else. It is easy to read a book like this and think of “So-and-So, who really needs to hear this message!” It is always easier to see the speck in someone else’s eye than the beam in your own. But remember Jesus’ sober warning: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1–2).
No one can live a life that will satisfy everyone. We cannot be motivated to make changes in our lives simply because they will make us look good in our friends’ eyes or because they will make our friends look bad. Pride can drive us to do stupid, unreasonable and downright sinful things.
How grateful I am for the staff God has given us at our Gospel for Asia headquarters in Texas! To describe our relationship I would use the word family. Our work and lives are closely intertwined. We agonize for one another in prayer, come to one another’s aid during struggles and rejoice together in victories, both in our own lives and on the field.
It would be easy to begin comparing lifestyles, salaries and convictions. To a certain extent that is the temptation among any group of Christians. But we must remember that our commitment to one another goes beyond the eight-to-five workday. We all serve the same Master. We all have love for one another. And we all live with the same profound commitment to see the lost reached. Everything else is incidental.
We cannot expect each other to be perfect. We must keep our own consciences and walks with the Lord pure, before both God and man. If we are following God’s Word, we have no reason to fear condemnation from others, nor will we desire to lord it over others as if we were more spiritual.
Picking Up Your Cross
Sometimes after I speak in a meeting, I feel troubled about what I said. Perhaps I was too strong, I think. Perhaps I made people feel guilty and will drive them to legalistic bondage.
But this is not my motivation. My only desire is to stir up hearts to see the reality beyond our own narrow horizons. A world out there is dying and going to hell. All the Lord has asked me to do is share His heart and give some practical guidelines for becoming involved in His work—which I have tried to do.
Someday we will all stand before Him. Each of us is responsible individually for what we do with this information. Will we ignore it, like the nagging alarm clock that wakes us up too early in the morning? Or will we do our part to help reach our generation for Christ?
You are the one who has to live with yourself and the decisions you make.