Sabbath Psalms - On The Edge

Psalm 14:1 The fool says within himself, “God does not exist.” They are immoral, their deeds are disgraceful; there is nobody who does good things.

Like everyone else, I struggle with my faith at times. I’ve always believed in God as far back as I can remember, but it’s what I believe in God that keeps changing. When I first became a Christian, I wanted to convert the entire world. I actually preached on street corners in Scotland and sang hymns outside Glasgow pubs. I was fearless for Christ and wanted to show the world what unbelievers were missing. I guess I must have appeared like a religious freak to most of my drunken audience, but I was on fire for the Lord, and it didn’t bother me.

These days, I would find it tough and perhaps be too embarrassed to preach outside a city bar. I got in enough trouble preaching from the relative safety of a church pulpit. Sometimes my zeal to get the Gospel message across caused some people to get upset and leave the church. A sermon that stings is sometimes too close to the truth, even for me.

Faith is a precious gift from God, but sometimes we foolishly take it for granted or allow ourselves to cast it aside in order to indulge in sinful things. We stumble on the edge of foolishness which, for some people, can lead to affluence and unbelief, indifference and apostasy. I’m not one of those who subscribes to the belief that ‘once saved means always saved.’ I think that we can lose our salvation if we lose ourselves to the wiles of the world, which is why Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel: “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."(Mark 4 v 25). If we were saved for all time, we could give our hearts to Christ at the age of three and spend the next 97 years doing whatever we liked.

When I preached the message on Sunday mornings, I was very much aware that we’re all just living on the edge of eternity. Who knows what tomorrow may bring, so that is why we all need to get our hearts and minds, our lives and ways right with God through Christ today. To do anything else or to leave it for another time is plainly foolish and just as spiritually harmful as the person with no belief at all.

Point to ponder: What things disrupt my belief in God? How does Christ restore me?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, let this be the day when we all completely surrender our lives to You. Let this be the time when we allow You totally into our hearts, to change us forever. Enable us not to keep back anything or any part of us from You. Take away our foolishness and fill us with true faith. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is a retired Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.