Luck OR Lord?

     A man, commenting on his bad luck, remarked, “Just as it seems I’m about to make both ends meet, something breaks in the middle.”  There is no doubt about it, we live in a society that places its trust in luck and good fortune.  Years ago, Doris Day popularized it in song with the words, “Qué. será será, whatever will be will be.”  We see this expressed today in Lucky Lottos and the insatiable desire to get something for nothing.  With the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day, the images of luck are swirling around us—from lucky shamrocks and leprechauns to pots of gold at the other end of the rainbow, the concept of our days being ordered out of pure luck is everywhere.

     Luck, as defined in the dictionary, is “that which happens by chance, good fortune, or happenstance.”    Oddly enough, it was precisely this pagan worldview that Patrick would spend his life battling.  Magnus Sucatus Patricious was born in 389AD in Britain.  Roman protection of Britain had greatly deteriorated, and bands of Irish pirates tormented the coastal areas, pillaging the farms, slaughtering the villagers, and kidnapping the teenagers in order to enslave them.  Patrick was taken at age 16.  He was sold to Miliuce of Slemich, a Druid tribal chieftain, who put him to work herding pigs.  He felt helpless, as well as hopeless—from nobleman’s heir to swineherd overnight.  Many today would say that he had nothing but bad luck, but the reality was that he was now stripped of his pride and was now ripe for the mercy of God to save him and change his heart.  Though he had been raised in the “church,” like many today, he was not truly born-again and saved.  He later wrote, “I was sixteen and knew not the true God, but in a strangeland, the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes, and I was converted.”

     Following a daring escape at age 22, Patrick returned home to joyous parents who prayed that he would never leave again.  But his heart burned for his former captors, and late one night, he dreamt of an Irishman begging him to return to the Emerald Isles in order to bring them the gospel.  After several years of studying the Bible, he did return to Ireland as a missionary. The Irish, at that time, were almost entirely unevangelized, worshipping the elements, seeing evil spirits in trees and stones, and engaging in magic, which included human sacrifices performed by the Druids.  Today, we see the same paganism in the New Age movement, the occult, and the observances of satanic high days such as Halloween—and all of it becoming more and more acceptable in the “church.”

     He planted over 200 Bible-believing churches and baptized approximately 100,000 converts.  Good luck?  The pagans tried to poison him many times, and succeeded in burning to death a close follower of his.  Bad luck?  No, he knew it was all under the hand of God, and later wrote, “Anything that happens to me, whether pleasant or distasteful, I ought to accept it with equanimity, giving thanks to God…who never disappoints.” His greatest heartbreak, however, came when the “church” questioned his fitness to lead and replaced him as Bishop of Ireland, the result of a meeting at which his friends spoke against him—in his absence.  Patrick had stood firmly against a heresy within the “church”—Pelagianism.  In essence, it claimed one could live a good life, attend church, and thereby be saved.  The same heresy is the heartbreak of every true pastor and Christian today, for true salvation comes through surrender to the Lordship of the One who took the wrath of God upon Himself.  Jesus was crucified on a cross, not a shamrock.  It is not by good works or decent lives—it is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary, poured out as the price for our sin.  In many “churches,” however, it is believed that because Jesus came, all are now saved.  Missing is the Biblical concept of recognizing your own sinfulness, repenting of it, and forsaking it—all in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Luck or Lord?

     Know this—anytime the true gospel of Jesus Christ—His Kingdom, His grace—goes forth, it is not by luck or happenstance—it is because the hand of the Lord was upon the ordering of it.  Patrick later wrote, “I am greatly a debtor to God, who has bestowed His grace so largely upon me, that multitudes were born-again to God through me.  The Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshipped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called sons of God.”   One does not have to go very far in the Scriptures to find examples of lives lived by the Lord and not by luck.  Consider Joseph and Daniel, two Old Testament teens, whose kidnappings took them to distant countries, where they later became ambassadors for the Lord—and luck, whether good or bad, had nothing to do with it.  We see His all-powerful hand in Mark 5:21-43, as well.  Jesus was approached by the synagogue ruler, Jairus, to come and heal his 12-year-old daughter, who was at the very point of death.  Having agreed to do so, they started down the road, but were “interrupted” by a woman who had had a terrible bleeding sore for 12 years.  Her healing then took the precious time Jairus needed, and his daughter died.  Of all the rotten luck, some would think, but Jesus told him, “Be not afraid, only believe.”   Jesus is saying, “Jairus, put your faith and trust in my sovereign hand—be fully persuaded that I am in total control, even though it doesn’t look like it.”  But would Jairus’ belief go all of the way?  Yes, because his focus was on the Lord and not luck.  Jesus reached out, took the girl’s hand and told her to arise—and she did!  Luck or Lord? 

     Listen—Jesus didn’t just then put His hand on her—it was on the whole situation since her birth.  King David expressed this in Psalm 139—“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  In fact, His plan precedes even our birth—Paul writes, “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Eph. 1:4)  His hand was always on this situation.  Notice that the very year that little girl was born, the woman down the street developed that open sore.  When the girl blew out the candle on her first birthday, the woman down the block was worse.  By the time she was five, the afflicted woman had seen many doctors and got worse.  Now the girl was twelve, and the woman down the road was desperate.  Do you see how none of this just happened to happen?  Jesus knew years before that He would need to be slowed down on the way to Jairus’ house—enough so that she would die—she wouldn’t “just” be healed from an illness, she would be raised from the dead!  And isn’t that the whole purpose of God—to take a spiritually dead people and infuse them with resurrection life through Jesus Christ?  That collision on the road that day was not an unlucky interruption—it was all part of God’s redemptive plan.

     Luck or Lord?  Put aside the shamrocks—their association with luck is all a sham.   Scrap the pots of gold and lucky leprechauns, for they are nothing more than “blarney.”  And worse than that, the whole concept of luck and good fortune only draws you away from trusting in the sovereign hand of God— knowing He is in ultimate control, even though it doesn’t look like it.  As we begin the season of Lent, know that He has a purpose for your life, and He has had that purpose long before you were born—even before the foundation of the world.  Surrender to that purpose; surrender to that Lord!  Today is not your lucky day—“Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

 

Throughout the Year 2001, we will be providing you with Bible readings from Genesis to Revelation to help you see Him as Lord.

 

March 1          1 Samuel 5-8                          16                    1 Kings 10-13

2                      1 Samuel 9-12                                                17                    1 Kings 14-17

3                      1 Samuel 13-16                      18                    1 Kings 18-21

4                      1 Samuel 17-20                      19                    1 Kings 22-2 Kings 3

5                      1 Samuel 21-24                      20                    2 Kings 4-7

6                      1 Samuel 25-28                      21                    2 Kings 8-11

7                      1 Samuel 29-2 Samuel 1        22                    2 Kings 12-15

8                      2 Samuel 2-5                          23                    2 Kings 16-19

9                      2 Samuel 6-9                          24                    2 Kings 20-23

10                    2 Samuel 10-13                      25                    2 Kings 24-1 Chron. 2

11                    2 Samuel 14-17                      26                    1 Chron. 3-6

12                    2 Samuel 18-21                      27                    1 Chron. 7-10

13                    2 Samuel 22-1 Kings 1           28                    1 Chron. 11-14

14                    1 Kings 2-5                             29                    1 Chron. 15-18

15                    1 Kings 6-9                             30                    1 Chron. 19-22

                                                                        31                    1 Chron. 23-26

 

April 1             1 Chron. 27-2 Chron. 1           3                      2 Chron. 6-9

2                      2 Chron. 2-5                            4                      2 Chron. 10-13

 

On March 29, 1981, twenty years ago this month, Rev. Roy D. Warren, Jr. was ordained into the gospel ministry.  After serving thirteen of those years in two denominational churches, the Lord called him out and He raised up Christ Our Rock Bible Church.  For almost seven years, the Lord, not luck or happenstance, has led this fellowship of believers to stand firm on His Word and to seek Him continually.  We, empowered by His Holy Spirit, preach the whole gospel—the love of God, but also the wrath of God towards sin; Heaven, but also Hell; freedom from the bondage of sin, not just from the condemnation of it; and God’s desire for true life-surrendering born-again commitment, not spurious conversions following “sinner’s prayers.”  Our message is the Lord’s message—the whole Bible, not just the parts some like to hear.  Please pray that this God-ordained ministry will continue to exalt Him and Him alone.  You are welcome to copy this message and give it to your friends and family.