The Words of My Life

As most of you already know, I love missionary stories. Many of the best ones are out of print and about vibrant believers that we have never heard of. One of these is called *Not by Might, Nor by Power. It tells the story of Paul and Etienne Metzler, missionary pioneers in the country of Chad.

They arrived in Central African Republic in the early 1920s, finally getting permission to set up a mission station in Chad in 1926. They found the Africans very receptive and even told the account of one chief who, with tears in his eyes, shared that he had been wondering about a “god who cares” as he lay in his bed the night before the missionaries came to share the good news of the Gospel. Only God, right?

As the Africans started getting saved, they began to hold believers’ baptisms. In order to be baptized, the Africans held special classes and then the person wanting to be baptized would meet with the missionary and a local deacon.

I was struck profoundly by what I read in regards to these meetings. Here is what is written—

     After some months of instruction, a candidate for baptism would meet with the national deacons and the missionary. Often the missionary would have passed the candidate because he or she knew all the answers, but a deacon would disagree.
      “The words of your mouth are satisfactory,” he would concede, “but the words of your life are not. You cannot walk two ways at the same time. When you show that you have left the way of paganism and superstition, we will approve your baptism.”

Can you imagine what would happen in our churches if the church leaders challenged our lifestyles before they would baptize us? There seems to be little (if any) interest in knowing if the words of a person’s life matches the words of a person’s mouth.

If it did happen here I believe cries of “how dare you judge me!?” would rise up rather quickly.

This book is written back in the early 1920s and already we can see that the Americans would have tended towards letting things slide compared to the Africans. And, oh, how far we’ve come since then. There have been slow, steady, subtle changes that eventually brought about a mainstream church that tolerates sin and worldliness and doesn’t tolerate the truth.

It would seem as if actions do not matter, by and large, in the church of today. But what does the Bible say?

First, we know that all that is good within us comes from God. We can do nothing without Christ. Jesus puts it like this–

 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5)

We also see from this verse that when we abide in Christ, we bear fruit. What is that fruit? The Bible gives us much to meditate upon in this regards. But let’s take a look at Galatians 5:22-26 for a “nutshell” description of what we should desire to look like as a genuine believer–

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Overall, there has been quite an emphasis on the the specific fruits of the Spirit, as recorded in verses 22-23. Books and songs and sermons abound on the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. But do we really stop and think about God’s definitions of these things? Researching each of these words from scripture (and not from some other book) would probably be a really great study for us all.

But let’s take a look at the verse following the verses about the fruit. It’s interesting to me that this verse seems to much ignored in a worldly Christianity. Again, it says–

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

This does not tend to be the most popular topic in our churches today. But if we are going to follow Christ, we need to mine scripture for all of its treasure, even if it’s hard.

What are “affections” and “lusts”? I believe this would be anything that leads us into idolatry or away from God. This includes innocuous things that are not sinful in of themselves, as well as plain old sin and all things God has declared He hates. What does this look like practically for us in this era of Christianity? I don’t have enough room or time to really delve into this but let’s take just a moment to think about this.

If we go back to the Africans, the deacons refused to baptize Africans still steeped in superstition and paganism. What are superstition and paganism? Surely, we do not have any of these things in 2024 American Christianity?

Isn’t it interesting that right now one of the most popular movies (with both non-believers and believers) is the movie “Wicked”, a film steeped in both superstition and paganism?? Witchcraft is no joke to God and we are to avoid it completely. How can watching and enjoying witchcraft on a screen (or on a Broadway stage, for that matter) please our Lord? As I heard a young lady say yesterday: Why would we want to fill our lives with the things that Christ went to the cross to die for? Ironically, earlier in Galations 5 (verse 20), witchcraft is included in the list of things that keep you from inheriting the Kingdom of God. Dabbling with it any way is displeasing to God and oh, so dangerous.

But let’s think on this idea of superstition for a bit. Practically, it is the mysticism that surrounds us in both our culture and our churches. It’s believing that if we talk about something it will happen. It’s believing in messages from our loved ones who went on before us to heaven. It’s relishing and longing for supernatural experiences. I believe there’s actually far more superstition in modern day Christianity than we realize.

But shall we take a moment and look beyond the paganism and superstition that was the evidence of a disingenuous profession in 1920s Africa and take a hard look at our current “Christian” culture specifically?

I submit to you that it is the worldliness in our lives that gives evidence of whether the words of our mouth match the words of our lives. God hates worldliness and, in fact, says that if we are friends with the world we are His enemy! (James 4:4) This is extremely strong language, making it clear that we are one or the other and can never be both.

This love for the world has invaded and seeped into our lives in every area. It has entered our minds through education. It has stolen our time through its entertainment and technologies. It has hijacked our brains through ungodly therapies, books, and podcasts. In general, we are a people professing Christ and yet living like the world.

Please hear me when I tell you that I struggle with this, too. I don’t think this is something we can ever conquer on this side of heaven. The world has so invaded our hearts and minds that we scarcely realize how much.

BUT…

As the Lord convicts us we must act on that conviction.

We can’t just throw up our hands in the air and cry, “It’s too much! Just forget it!”

I was talking about this with someone just last night. There are so many ways the world has invaded that it feels like our choices barely make even a dent in our lives as we strive to move towards holiness. But we must soldier on, surrendering one thing at a time, as the Lord opens our eyes.

I have told you often before how God has been at work in my life in showing me areas that keep me from being holy and godly. I have shared how, despite my initial rebellion and unwilling heart (which has sometimes lasted years), that final surrender has been filled with sweetness and zero regret. Oh, how I have fought God on certain things. He must get so frustrated with me.

But, one thing at a time, we yield what He reveals to us. So let’s not worry about being perfect because it isn’t going to happen. Let’s just worry about today. How can I please the Lord with my life today?

If the African deacons were familiar with my lifestyle and interviewing me, would they be willing to baptize me or not? Would they say that the words of my mouth match the words of my life?

* Not by Might, Nor by Power, written by Joyce Metzler Baker, is hard to find in hard copy. However, it is available on Kindle. Click on this link if you are interested. There is so much more to this faith-building book than this one excerpt. It’s been such a blessing to me already and I’m only half-way through. I feel comfortable recommending it to you (usually I wait until I am done with a book, just in case) because someone I trust recommended it to me. I hope it’s as much a blessing to those of you choose to read it as it has been to me.