Investigating the Bible: What about resolutions?

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

Many of us make resolutions this time of the year. Johnny Hart, the artist of the B.C. comic strip, drew a cartoon with two ants talking: First Ant–”This year I resolve to quit gambling.” Second Ant–”You’ll never keep it.” First Ant–”You wanna bet?” Harmful addictions and behaviors are hard to drop. The Bible is the textbook for Christian resolutions.

Replace the old with the new. Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, English Standard Version used throughout). Jesus called it rebirth: “…Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3).

Author John Perkins explained how he overcame his addiction: “I didn’t drop gambling because anybody preached against it. That kind of push never really works over the long haul. True Christian change works more like an old oak tree in the spring, when the new life inside pushes off the old dead leaves that still hang on.”

Feed the new life. Apostle Peter said, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation...” (1 Peter 2:1-2). The food of faith is the written word of God. Jesus rebuffed Satan quoting the Psalms: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).

Accept help from others. It is ludicrous to imagine a newborn jumping off the birthing bed saying, “Thanks, Mom. I’ve got it from here!” Yet, some young believers go it alone. The author of Hebrews counseled: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Expect struggles. Charles L. Allen wrote, “Sometimes God puts us on our backs in order to give us a chance to look up.” Mark had failure and success. He was sometimes called John Mark and in one passage, is mentioned only by the name John. He was a Jerusalem teenager, living in a home Jesus used for teaching and probably was the person who fled after Jesus was arrested: “… (A) young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.” (Mark 14:51-52).

Mark joined his cousin Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey. They sailed the Mediterranean to the island of Cyprus. Next, they traveled to another seaside village, where something happened. Mark ran away. Perhaps the work was hard; maybe he was homesick. Whatever the reason, he abandoned Paul and Barnabas to return to his home in Jerusalem. When Paul planned his second missionary trip, Barnabas wanted to bring Mark again. Paul objected and “…thought it best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them… and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they (Barnabas and Paul) separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed…”. (Acts 15: 38-40).

Years passed and Mark matured. With the help of Barnabas, he became a valued missionary. Paul was in a Roman prison when he wrote to his young disciple, Timothy: “…Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11). Later, this man who painfully failed, provided an enduring service by writing an account of the life of Jesus, which scholars agree was the first ever written: The Gospel According to Mark.

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)