Tag: devoted

Let’s Be Preoccupied

Neal Pollard

Being engrossed in thought or distracted can be a bad thing, when you are driving, operating heavy equipment, or conversing with your spouse. But if you are preoccupied with those tasks, you should be commended. There is a word found a handful of times in the New Testament which conveys a powerful thought. The word is προσκαρτερέω (prostartereo). Depending on context and whether it is connected with a person or an object, it is translated “stand ready” (Mark 3:9), “devoting” (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; Rom. 12:12; 13:6; Col. 4:2), “continuing” (Acts 2:46; 8:13), and “personal attendants” (Acts 10:7, noun form). Two of the passages speak of physical laborers who were focused on a task for one who had the right or power to command them (Mark 3:9; Acts 10:7; the Greek Old Testament uses this word in Numbers 13:21 when Moses tells the spies to “make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land”). One speaks of how earthly rulers are servants of God, devoted to their rule). The other passages refer to actions Christians took the initiative to do.

What preoccupied the time, thoughts, and energies of the early saints?

  • Prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; Col. 4:2).
  • The Apostles’ Teaching (Acts 2:42).
  • Fellowship (Acts 2:42).
  • The Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42).
  • The Ministry Of The Word (Acts 6:4).

It’s not a long and complicated list. They were engrossed in the public and private practice of prayer. They were riveted on studying and knowing and sharing the Word. They were dialed in to spending time with each other (and welcoming others to become part of them). They were obsessed with coming together to praise and adore God in worship. It affected their whole lives all the time.

The word carries the idea “of decisive or unflinching perseverance” and “emphasizes the persistent and submissive perseverance and tenaciousness of a self-enclosed group collectively oriented toward specific goals” (EDNT, 172). As you evaluate your life, what are your preoccupations? Your obsessions? What are you constantly driven to think, say, and do? Does it reflect the undivided attention of the early Christians, who by such preoccupation took the gospel to the whole world (Col. 1:23) and turned it upside down (Acts 17:6)? Devoutness to exclusively the things that will be destroyed when Christ returns is a tragic distraction! Let’s boil life down to the irreducible imperatives, “the good part, which shall not be taken away from…” us (Luke 10:42).

Devoted Faith

Carl Pollard

In 1799, Conrad Reed discovered a seventeen-pound rock while fishing in Little Meadow Creek. Not knowing what it was made of, his family used it as a doorstop for three years. In 1802, his father, John Reed, took it to jeweller who identified it as a lump of gold worth about $89,000. That lump of gold, which was used as a doorstop for three years in North Carolina, is one of the biggest gold nuggets ever found east of the Rockies. Until its composition was determined, its value was unknown.

Until the composition of our faith is determined, its strength is unknown. God will give you the opportunity to prove your faith. What kind of faith will we have? James wraps up a section in chapter 2 on faith and works with two examples. 

Verses 20-26 say, “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;  and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.  And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” 

These two examples could not be any different from each other to the Jewish mind. Abraham, the father of faith, and Rahab a gentile prostitute. Abraham was justified by works. When was he justified? When he physically took his son to a physical mountain, and placed his physical son on a physical altar. 

HIS FAITH LED HIM TO DO SOMETHING IN THE WORLD AROUND HIM. 

What is your faith causing you to do? At some point your faith needs to move from your mind to the world around you. Rahab was justified through the WORKING OF HER FAITH. Faith demands action. It requires Intellect, Emotion, and ACTION. Noah had a devoted faith so he believed AND obeyed. God told him what was going to happen, and how to avoid the destruction of the world. 

God has warned us what is going to happen, and how to avoid the destruction of the world. Do you believe that? Then have a devoted faith. A belief that will lead you to devote your life to God. A faith that ACTS on the word of God. What is the designed end of faith? Why are we to have faith? Because true faith leads to Justification (Salvation). Just like Abraham and Rahab obeyed. 

If Abraham didn’t offer Isaac, what kind of faith is that? God expects us to have a work of trust. Abraham didn’t know what would happen to Isaac, but he knew God made a promise to Him. Noah spent 100 years building a boat on dry land, but he knew that rain was coming. 

What will we do with our faith? God has warned us of the destruction of our world with fire one day, are you gonna build a boat? He has told us how to be saved, through His son. Many will struggle with dead faith. All talk, no action. Many struggle with demonic faith, God has their intellect and emotion, but He doesn’t have their life. Some have a devoted faith, a trust that is seen through the life they live. 

What kind of faith do I have? If I don’t have works, if God doesn’t own my life, my faith is no good. My belief in God is useless without works. The only thing that comes from that is regret, because one day we will know exactly why we aren’t paradise with God–if we failed to act on our belief.