Obey: The Power of Love and Surrender

Copyright © 2014 Alec C. Zacaroli.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright (c) by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-3755-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3754-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3756-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909036

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/19/2014

CONTENTS

Forward

Preface

Chapter 1: Just The Facts

Chapter 2: The Way

Chapter 3: The Time Is Now

Chapter 4: The Bread Of Life

Chapter 5: Confess

Chapter 6: Judgment

Chapter 7: Love One Another

Chapter 8: Remain In Him

Chapter 9: Ask

Chapter 10: Follow

Chapter 11: Go

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

If you love me, you will obey what I command.

- John 14:15

FORWARD

LOVE IS BORN IN THE heart of the Sovereign Creator of everything that exists. This real love has a compelling nature. It moves us to do things we would not normally do. It is in no way selfish or looking out for its own benefits.

If you love me you will do what I command, Jesus said. And when we do as He said, we discover a growing willingness in ourselves to do exceedingly more than we ever thought possible. This is a growing obedience to the One who exemplified selfless love.

This supernatural love will put you, willingly, in the position to choose obedience against the tide of popular opinion. It will compel you to persevere against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It will embolden you to move beyond the cozy comfort of giving and helping a bit, or even significantly, here and there and then retreating safely into the peace of an ordinary comfortable life. A life that insulates one from the more demanding realities present in our world.

Love expresses itself in obedience; leading us to the coalface where the real difference can be made. It never happens instantly, but only through consistent obedience. Then we discover that not only are we obeying, we are being fashioned by Christ to reflect in our lives more of Himself.

I had the privilege to see this conviction of obedience to God grow into ever more obedience in the lives of Alec and Amy Zacaroli. We are partnering with them in a ministry to save orphaned and vulnerable children in the desperately poor and rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is here, on a mission in the village of Canzibe, where the Lord called me to serve. And it is here where the Lord connected our paths.

We were brought together in God’s provision, through a shared conviction rooted in Matthew 25:40. God used this passage to direct His purpose for our lives at different times and in different countries, separated by oceans but connected in Him. He brought us together, through His sovereign plan, to unite His believers for a purpose through which He will bless many of the least of our brethren.

During 2012, Alec took a sabbatical from his legal career to invest more time in 25:40, the ministry he and Amy founded. In that time, he also grappled with the implications that this call to minister to vulnerable children, this call to be obedient in even this one small way, might have for his life. The fruit of that time is in your hands right now. As you too choose daily to obey Jesus out of a heart of love, your reverence for our Savior will result in the sun of righteousness rising in your life, with healing in its wings.

Wikus van der Walt

Minister and Missionary - Canzibe Mission.

PREFACE

One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam.

– Oswald Chambers¹

WHAT MAKES ME QUALIFIED TO write this book? That was the first question my publisher asked, and frankly, it was the first question that came to mind for me when I set out on this endeavor. As I note in Chapter 1, I have never attended seminary, or done anything remotely close. In fact, I am just a guy who, having experienced the gift Christ gave us in dying on the cross, wanted to know how I can live for Him. 2 Corinthians 5:15. What I learned was summed up best by Oswald Chambers roughly a century ago. To know Christ doesn’t require a degree in theology. To know Him simply requires obedience to Him.

Chambers writes: "All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes… Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam."² I experienced a call for drastic obedience in my life, and this book is, in some respects, an account of what followed. Having lived the experience of knowing Christ in just one small moment of obedience, I desired to know what other commands I have been ignoring; what other ways I have starved myself of the truth. I studied His commands with a desire to know just one thing. What does it take to obey? I discovered anew what Chambers wrote so long ago. It doesn’t take tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit to know Christ. It just takes a desire to follow Him. We need not study volumes on theology. We need only embrace a moment of obedience.

This all begin in 2012, when I took a leave of absence from my legal career to work full time on a ministry my wife Amy and I founded to serve orphaned and vulnerable children in southern Africa. I’ll be honest, the decision scared the heck out of me. We have four children, the oldest of which would be heading to college in a year. And then there were all of the expenses: mortgage, food, insurance, gas, school and sports activities, etc. It wasn’t the most convenient time to go without a salary and live on savings that, though very much a blessing, were by definition limited. And naturally, I had grave concerns over what this decision might mean for my professional career. But the Lord was unequivocal about it. Our ministry had reached a point where we needed to grow and, more importantly, so had I. Particularly in relation to my trust in God.

During my time off, while working on our ministry’s program at a mission in South Africa’s rural Transkei province, I spent some time reflecting and praying over what God was asking of me. For years I had tried to decipher His plans, believing them to be some elaborate scheme for making the most of my passions, talents and experience to further His kingdom. It wasn’t until I tried to put all that into practice that I realized the plan God had for me was something far simpler. Though He found ways to use these things, He really wasn’t all that interested in my worldly experience, my human intellect, or my professional training. All He wanted was my attention and my obedience. All He wanted was for me to know His commands, and do my most to follow them.

Jesus first spoke to me through John 14:6, challenging me to explore the depths of my commitment to the absolute truth captured in this verse. If I accept that He is indeed the way, the truth and the light, how then must I treat rest of His commands? Following this, and starting with the rest of the book of John, I went directly to Jesus’ own words, focusing on what precisely He asks of us.

This voyage took me some places that were uncomfortable, other places that were downright painful, and still others where I felt deeply and personally convicted. What I found challenged and tested me in profound ways. But ultimately, what I discovered was that truly walking with Jesus is the most comforting, beautiful experience anyone can imagine. This book is a reflection on that journey.³

CHAPTER 1

JUST THE FACTS

I AM NOT A PASTOR OR a priest. I am not a theologian. The only time I set foot on the grounds of a seminary was in twelfth grade when I took a girlfriend to see a cool lookout spot that happened to be located on one. Someone left nails under my tires, and I don’t blame them. But still, I never went back.

I took a religion class in my freshman year of college, but I can’t even recall the name of the instructor, never mind the content of the class. And apart from a confirmation class I (kind of) took, premarital counseling (twice), and my kids’ first communion classes, I have received precious little formal instruction about God. Sure, I have attended church for years, listened to countless sermons, and taken part in numerous Bible studies along the way. But it wasn’t these activities that brought me to where I am today – a place where I felt compelled to write this book. Rather, it was three other sources of light and experience, founts of knowledge that had been under my nose all along. The first is the Holy Spirit. The second is the Scriptures. And the third is simply life itself. How these three interact determines everything.

After studying and reflecting on these sources of light and experience, I found myself grappling with some difficult questions:

•   Have I truly taken a close look at what Jesus said? I mean, a really close look?

•   Have I measured this against my life?

•   Have I really come to know Him in the most precise details of His commands?

•   Do I even know Him in the most basic sense?

Have you ever pondered similar questions? Have you tried to answer them? If you have, and are anything like me, you probably found that the truth can be something very different than what you expected. If you haven’t, this is your chance to try. Trust me, the truth you find will set you free.

As I mentioned earlier, there are three sources of truth I drew upon for this book: the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, and life. On the subject of life, I could probably write a volume on the lessons I have learned solely through mistakes and poor judgment. But I’ll spare you. Two salient facts, however, are that I spent ten years as a journalist, followed by fifteen more as a lawyer. So my professional life largely consists of two careers that some might say are most in need of biblical correction. Perhaps so, but the larger point is this. Just as Jesus made use of a ragtag and dubious set of fishermen, tax collectors, and a guy totally out to get Him, He also makes use of us, whoever we are and however many warts we bear. And He makes use of us just as He finds us. Or so He did with me.

You see, while I don’t have years of training in how the Bible came to be – all the circumstances and all the history – I do have more than twenty years of experience in doing a few things that help one get to the truth; namely, finding the facts, analyzing them, putting together the story, and making the argument. And so I sat down with the greatest set of facts there is, the gospel, and realized things both amazing and startling.

This process actually started back in 2003 (if not before) when my wife, Amy, and I founded our ministry, 25:40 (after Matthew 25:40), upon a firm calling from God to help suffering children in South Africa. Nine years later, after trying to balance God’s call with a career, and largely failing at it, I found myself challenged by the Lord to stop being halfhearted about His purpose for me. So I took a leave of absence from my law practice to focus my time on building the capacity of 25:40, with the hope that we would improve our chances of meeting the ever-growing needs of the children we were serving. Feed my lambs was the only direction I can point to, and Ask, and it shall be given unto you was the sole rationale.

During that leave of absence, I found myself on a mission in South Africa alone with the gospel. When I honed in on Jesus’ words, I realized something rather startling. Many Christians don’t seem to believe all of it. We don’t really buy everything Jesus said. I also realized in that moment both the enormity and forthrightness of the truth of Jesus. He tells it like it is, really. Just the facts.

Good Facts/Bad Facts

One of the hard truths you learn early in any legal career is that every case has two things: good facts and bad facts. And when your bad facts outweigh your good facts, it’s usually time to settle. Let me illustrate.

Good fact: I have a completely clean record – not even so much as a parking ticket.

Bad facts: I was caught doing forty-five in a twenty-five mile-per-hour zone while texting my broker to move some stocks based on a tidbit of inside information I received from the guy I had bought a stolen TV from in a parking lot twenty minutes earlier.

Analysis: Time to cop a plea.

You get the point. There is always more than one side to a story, and at times, there are several. What’s more, they are not always helpful, flattering, or easy to deal with.

The same is true of the gospel. There are good facts, like the enormity of God’s love for us (John 3:16)⁴ and the breadth of his promise to us (Matthew 7:7–8).⁵ And there are bad facts, such as the reality of the road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).⁶ If we accept only one and not the other, we’ll end up with only half of the facts, or a half-truth, if you will. I couldn’t imagine walking into a courtroom armed with only half the facts—those helpful to my client—while simply ignoring, dismissing, or otherwise not dealing with the other half, the hard facts. Not only would I lose the case, as my opponent surely would have prepared to address both sides of the story, I likely also would be sued for malpractice. If this is true of human law, why would I pretend it’s not true of the eminently more powerful laws of God? Do I really want to stand before my Savior having lived a life based on half of His truth? I expect most Christians would answer no. Yet this is precisely what many modern theologies seem to suggest we do.

Just look at the good stuff.

Again, let me illustrate. In 2003, after Amy and I experienced God’s call to start our ministry, we found ourselves struggling over what to call it. I was reading my Bible one night and came across the following Scripture: The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.⁷ Those familiar with this scripture will recognize it as part of the parable of the sheep and the goats – in which the sheep (those who do unto others as they would do unto Christ) earn their eternal reward, while the goats (those who do not) earn their eternal punishment. In that moment, the Lord revealed to me that this truth, in Matthew 25:40, was the very foundation of our ministry. Whatever we did for the suffering children of South Africa, we were indeed doing for Jesus. In doing for the least of these, therefore, we have evidence of the fruit that He has borne through our lives – that we have truly followed and are worthy to receive our inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for us. Matthew 25:34. And so it was that this ministry, 25:40, was named. Here, God had revealed to us the good facts for purposes of serving Him – that whatever we did for the least of these brothers and sisters of ours we did for Him. And in so doing, we would inherit the Kingdom.

But God could have equally revealed the bad facts – or hard truth. 25:40 (the ministry) could have been called 25:45, after that verse in Matthew, which states He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.⁸ And hence they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.