Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?

May 27th, 2019 § 0

Although Spotify and I-Tunes are the popular music formats of today, most of you can probably still relate to the frustration that occurs when the radio reception goes bad on your favorite station. You are jamming out to a great song while heading down the highway and then the broken lyrics and scratchy sounds take over. After fiddling with the dial and pushing the search button to find the signal again, you get impatient and end up switching to another station. I liken this scenario to the current Christian climate in America, where there is an endless variety of “new radio channels” in the form of “dynamic” preachers, contemporary praise services, churches for the unchurched, trendy best-selling books, TV programs, social media sites, etc. This analogy reminds me of the story in Acts chapter 17 where the Apostle Paul was speaking to the Epicurean and Stoic (Greek) philosophers. The scripture says that “all the Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.”

This is one of the crafty tactics of the enemy to attempt to deceive you, much like he did with “Eve, with your minds being led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3). Scripture tells us that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. So, it is no surprise that the enemy of our souls uses confusion to discourage us and rob us of our peace. Nor is it strange that he would use this obsessive-compulsive search for “some new thing” to complicate our minds and distract us from that “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” to which we have been called.

Can you think of any Christian fads, popular movements, or best-selling books that you got all excited about in the beginning but after some time had passed you realized that they were just “some new thing” that was being peddled for money and/or religious prestige? I have a recollection from the 1990s that in my zeal to “go hard after God,” I attended a large religious meeting in a stadium where we all stood up with our swords of the spirit and slayed a demon hovering over the city. Unfortunately, that demon must have been like the multi-headed Hydra monster of Greek mythology, because in the following weeks that city saw the same crimes and sins being committed as before. Live, learn, and thank God for his patience!

To emphasize my original point further, I now turn to an event in the life of the apostle Peter. In chapter 6 of the gospel of John, Jesus says to the Jews in foreshadowing his death and resurrection, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you … for My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” As a result of this and other related “hard sayings,” scripture says “from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” At that point, Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” Then Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” It should be obvious and go without saying, but there is no other Person to turn to for the things pertaining to life and godliness.

In summary, the next time you hear some “hard saying” in scripture or you encounter some difficult life experience that you just can’t believe God would allow, remember the words of Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” In like fashion, when bad reception obscures the music on your life’s favorite radio station, avoid chasing after “some new thing” on the other channels. There is simply no “new thing” to substitute for Christ Himself that will bring you the satisfaction and joy that your heart longs for and for which He died. As scripture says in Colossians, “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord (by faith), so walk in Him (by faith).”

– Chris Wiley

§ Leave a Reply

What's this?

You are currently reading Lord, To Whom Shall We Go? at Seeing Grace.

meta