Wherever The Wind Blows

One of the interesting facts about retail is that you never know who is going to breeze into the store unexpectedly. When you work in retail where the population is mostly senior citizens, several things are true that might not be otherwise. For example, most of the seniors in my town live in retirement homes. They only leave their complex for one of two reasons. They are either going out to get food from the store, or they are going to play bingo with their crew.

The fact is that when you work retail in this kind of environment, most of your customers do not always have friends, family, or, frankly, anyone to talk to at all. Technically this can be true in any society anywhere, but it is even more true in a town full of senior citizens.

I am going to tell you a story that was only made possible because of some current events that have been encouraging, and the sovereignty of God that made everything possible.

God's Sovereignty In Meeting

Last night I met a man named Bob. I had seen him before in the store, but it had been quite some time. He bought a few ordinary things such as milk and bread, but what happened after he finished paying for everything at my register is the reason for this post.

I told Bob to have a good day (as I do with all of my customers) and I turned around to finish putting some product behind the register away. As I turned around, Bob said before leaving, "Can I ask you a question?" Before I could answer, he followed with this: "Jared, are you a praying man?"

Rewind the clock slightly and follow my thought process: Before heading to work that afternoon, I had just read this article, where two evangelists asked a man if they could pray for him. It had the effect of humbling the man and opening up an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fast-forward: This was the exact same situation I was now in, only reverse. Bob had asked me if I was a praying man. As I turned around to answer Bob's question, I noticed that the store was almost entirely empty when it very rarely is. Here is some of the dialog that took place after his question:

Without hesitation, I answered Bob with a question: "How can I pray for you?"

"I'm hurting inside and I need help," said Bob.

"Would you like to talk about it?" I said.

Bob replied, "I don't have many people to talk to, and a family member just died and I'm the only one left."

"I am real sorry for your loss." I replied.

Then Bob looked at me and said this, "I am the only one left and I don't know what to do. I know this disease runs in my family (I can't remember what disease he said), and I know I could get it and die soon."

God's Sovereignty In Conversation

I don't really know why I said what I said next, but it might have had a little to do with the store being so empty: "Bob, let me ask you, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?"

He said, "Well, I think so. I trust in God, and I've repented of my sins. I know I'm not perfect, and that burdens me." While he was talking, he was making gestures with his hands to show the conflict in his heart; as if he could not put it to words, but knew there was a longing in his heart for something.

Not wanting to increase his guilt too much more than necessary, while realizing that he had just admitted his sinfulness and need for a savior, I directed him to Jesus Christ. I told him briefly about Jesus Christ and how He could forgive him for his sinfulness and his failure to be perfect; I told him how he could be made right with God because of Jesus Christ, and I told him how he could have a peace in his heart by having a hope for the future. I told him that I, too, was brought out of the pit of my guilt and my sin, and because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross at Calvary, I am now a new man with a peace in my heart and a joy to serve the Lord.

I asked him again, "Are you sure you know Jesus Christ?" I said to him that Jesus had asked His disciples this same question. I handed him a gospel tract to tell him more about Jesus Christ, I shook his hand, and told him I would be praying for him. He did ask if I was a Jehovah's Witness. I said no and then I thought about how I failed to make that clear as I told him about Christ.

Bob asked what church I went to, and after I told him, he told me that it was too far since he could not drive. I referred him to a local Bible church where I have been good friends with the youth pastor for several years. I gave him this man's name and directions to the church. I then shook his hand and said that I would pray for him and if he ever needed a friend to talk to, I am usually working. He thanked me and headed on his way.

God's Sovereignty In Salvation

As of today, I ran into Bob at the local grocery store. He was in a big hurry because someone had driven him there, but I asked him if he was able to read the gospel tract yet. He said he read a little bit of it, but had not had time to read the whole thing yet. I asked him if he wanted to talk (since I was not working then), but he was desperately looking for his ride home. He calmed down when I asked him again if I could pray for him. He explained that he has been "searching" for something to fill the "longing in his heart."

I can tell you that as I watched Bob say this, I could tell that God has pricked this man's heart and he is searching for a peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7). Please be in prayer for Bob: That he would have heard the message of Jesus Christ accurately; that he would read the gospel tract thoroughly; that he would become a part of a good local church, and that the Lord would open his eyes to the gospel and show him the way to salvation. Pray that if the Lord wills it, the Wind would blow in Bob's direction (John 3:8), so that he might come to true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

Handling The Critics

I realize that I haven't posted in a while, which is mostly due to a busy schedule, illness, and discouragement. I am hoping to get back to my blogging schedule soon, but for now I want to talk about the third item in that list for a moment: discouragement.

It seems quite clear to me that almost anytime you desire to do anything for the Lord, you will either battle the flesh or Satan; sometimes both. The encouragement that prompted this post came after a long week of opposition. This blog post by Justin Edwards brought me to tears as he used my testimony in an attempt to reach those who think they know Christ, but in reality they are self deceived. This was a follow-up post that came after I discovered and commented on this really good blog post by Justin as it had been reposted over at the Stand-Up-For-Truth blog.

Over the past few weeks I have been discouraged due to many criticisms (not just one). They usually amounted to accusations of being unloving or condemning in some way or another, or perhaps a disagreement on a theological perspective. Nonetheless, the reason I am writing this post is to give all of you readers some encouragement on how to handle critics. All subsequent points will ultimately drawn from Scripture, but they are points taken from a sermon which you can listen to here if you are interested.

The Context

In the book of Nehemiah, we see several different ways that Satan tried to stop Nehemiah from doing the will of Yahweh as he went to Jerusalem (in Judah), to the city of his father's tomb, in order to rebuild it (Neh. 2:5).

Here is a little bit of historical background: Between 605 and 586 B.C. the Lord used the Babylonians to utterly destroy Jerusalem. There were three returns to Jerusalem thereafter. The book of Nehemiah chronicles the third return. The first two returns are in the book of Ezra. The temple had already been rebuilt by Joshua and Zerubbabel in the first return (Ezra 1-6). The second return was an attempt by Haman to wipe out the Jews (Ezra 7-10). The third return is seen here in the book of Nehemiah, which dates at 445 B.C. This was the prophecy that came from Daniel around 539 B.C. where Daniel was told by Gabriel that when the decree from the King to rebuild Jerusalem came, that in 483 years, the Messiah would enter into the city of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25). This prophecy is one of the greatest in all of Scripture because it works out to the exact day from 445 B.C. to 32 A.D. (don't try and do the math, it is a little complicated since you have to translate to the Jewish calendar) when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, enters the city of Jerusalem. If that doesn't give you the chilly-willies, I don't know what will!

To continue, Nehemiah had been issued the decree to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the entire city (Neh. 2:6). However, Nehemiah was merely following the will of the Lord and he was bound to meet some opposition. Two men continually nagged Nehemiah on his way to Jerusalem, and even once he began rebuilding the city, they didn't cease to intimidate him. Satan used these men to try to convince Nehemiah to stop doing the Lord's will, and there are at least four ways Satan tried to stop Nehemiah (there are more than four, but this short list will do. For the full list, listen to the sermon mentioned above). We need to know these four ways because this is how Satan tries to keep us from doing the Lord's will. He doesn't have any new tricks up his sleeve. It's a never ending cycle. This is what we need to expect from him.

1) Ridicule

One of Satan's best strategies is using people to ridicule us. Look at verses 18-19 in chapter two with me:

...And they (Nehemiah and the men with him) said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" (Neh. 2:18-19).

This was merely the beginning of the mockery. These men jeered at them and despised them. Nehemiah responded with a short rebuke to these men in verse 19: "The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem." This was minimal intimidation which Nehemiah responded to easily, but it didn't end there. Satan will always use people to intimidate us in order to discourage and provoke us. His goal is to intimidate us so much that we will ultimately quit, especially if what we are doing is for the Lord.

The ridicule didn't end there, however. Sanballat and Tobiah continued to criticize and attempt to provoke Nehemiah to quit in chapter 4:2-4. Nehemiah's response was simply to ignore his critics and pray to the Lord. Check out Nehemiah's response in verse 4 and 5:

Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders (Neh. 4:4-5).

And so, they built the wall (Neh. 4:6).

Satan will use people quite often in order to intimidate by ridiculing and mocking us. We need to be on guard against this. And when a simple response doesn't end the ridicule, we need to pray to the Lord, ignore the criticisms, and move on. Not always an easy task, but this is quite necessary.

2) Violence

Another way that Satan will try and thwart the plans of God is through violence. Sandballat and Tobiah did stop at mocking Nehemiah, they actually became very angry with Nehemiah (Neh. 4:7) and conspired to attack him and his men (Neh. 4:8). When Satan was theatening Nehemiah with violence, he did the same thing he always did. Verse 9: "And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night."

These guys were literally going to attack them from all sides (Neh. 4:12), and what did they do? They prayed. Then they set up a guard as a protection. Although the text doesn't say this, it reminds me of how our flesh will attack us. We need to be on guard against the flesh and against Satan with an active mind, ready to put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13). Nehemiah prayed and then stationed men all around the wall to guard against these men who were going to attack them (Neh. 4:13).

When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work (Neh. 4:15).

3) Discouragement


A third way that Satan will try to hinder us is by discouragement, which is seen throughout the whole of chapter 5. The people were being charged usury taxes, which was illegal. They were becoming poor and starving. Because of this the people were becoming discouraged and it threatened to discourage Nehemiah. But Nehemiah realized the situation (Neh. 5:6-8), and he pleaded with the King's men to give back the money they had taken (Neh. 5:8-11). These men promised, but Nehemiah showed great wisdom in verse 13:

I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, "So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said "Amen" and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised. 

When Satan tries to hinder us through discouragement, we need to recognize the situation, and with wisdom continue doing the Lord's will.

4) Compromise

The final way that Satan will try to hinder us, although more points could be added, is compromise. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem conspired one final time to stop Nehemiah from building the wall (Neh. 6:1). They came up with a plan to have Nehemiah dialog with them. They wanted to compromise with him; they wanted to find a middle ground of agreement.

Then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me (Neh. 6:2 NASB)

They said they wanted to meet with Nehemiah and dialog, but in reality they wanted to harm him. Here is his response:

And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner (Neh. 6:3-4).

Nehemiah refused (1) because he knew they were planning to harm him in some way, and (2) because the Lord had commissioned him to do His will and Nehemiah didn't want to leave the work in order to converse. Satan will always send people our way in order to get us to compromise. Maybe to only do half of the Lord's work, or maybe none at all. If the Lord has given us a job to do, we cannot compromise, we cannot stop and dialog even if people find what we are doing offensive. Now, don't take me out of context here. All that the Lord has commissioned us to do as Christians is in the Word of God. If the job we claim God has given us doesn't line up with Scripture, then it is not a task from the Lord.

Then I sent to [Sanballat], saying, "No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind." For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done." But now, O God, strengthen my hands (Neh. 6:8-9).

What we need to see as we conclude is that Nehemiah never gave in to the ridicule; he never allowed the violence to be done; he never became discouraged; and he never compromised. Every time opposition came, Nehemiah prayed to God to give him the strength to complete the task. No matter how hard Satan tried to thwart the plan of God, God's plans could not be thwarted.

We need to be like Nehemiah when the post-modernists want us to dialog, and compromise. When they ridicule us and claim we are being unloving when we are dogmatic about the Truth of the Word of God, we need not become discouraged, but we need to pray to God for strength and continue preaching the Truth of the Word of God, even if it means correcting error. And we must ignore the critics that Satan will inevitably use against us to thwart the plans of God.

Two practical ways to handle critics that we learn from Nehemiah are: When opposition comes (1) ignore it, and (2) pray. The best option is to see the attacks of Satan and ignore them, and then pray for strength to persevere through the opposition. We need to be like Nehemiah and his men as they sat on the wall with their trowel in one hand as they built the wall, and their sword in the other hand as they defended the wall.

"Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other (Neh. 4:17)."