"The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together…Now is the time of their confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies are the members of his own household. But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me."
~Micah 7:2-7
Do you ever feel like we're living in the middle of this passage? Our society is filled with unrighteousness and with people who either deny God or hate Him, or both. Brother turns against brother. Our rulers demand gifts and ceremonies, our government officials accept bribes (at least some of them), and the powerful dictate what they want without regard for those without power. Everybody conspires together to do evil. Confusion, about God and morality, is rampant. We can't trust some of our neighbors. They'll steal from us before we even know it. Those we call friends and lovers betray us, too. Families are turned against one another. The family, once the sacred center and basis of all society, is shattering into a million pieces right before our eyes. It's a horrifying sight, and most of us want to hide our eyes. We vote, but what good does it do? We pray, but murder and crime and hatred are still widespread.
But in the middle of all this, there's hope.
But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
The Lord is the only hope for a lost and dying generation. It's our responsibility to share His love, and though we can devise programs and committees and patrols, God is the only true method we have for lasting change in our world. God our Savior will hear us. We have that hope. Like Micah, we watch in hope for the Lord and wait upon Him, and we will renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31).
Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
November 9: Thoughts on Romans 14:20
"Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food."
~Romans 14:20a
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.
Paul's ministry, as laid out in the New Testament, was an interesting mix. As he tells us in Romans 1:16, his ministry of the Gospel was "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." Because Paul was a converted Jew, he had a passion for taking the Gospel to the Jews, but he knew also that Christ's death made a way for the Gentiles to be saved as well. So his ministry was made up of both Jews and Gentiles.
Judaism has many, many laws about food. Pork, shellfish, catfish and the like are all considered unclean to them, even today. Meat slaughtered improperly (i.e. not through a kosher process) and meat sacrificed to idols are both forbidden to Jews. Obviously, the majority of Rome was not Jewish. A basic history lesson tells us that pork was the primary staple of the Roman diet. Also, because much of Rome served false gods and idols, there was probably a good deal of meat in the market that had been sacrificed to idols.
What Paul had was a cultural conflict. The Jews were disgusted by the diet of the Gentile Romans, the Romans were frustrated by the restrictiveness of the Jews, and there was a serious rift forming in the church. That's what Paul is addressing here. He's saying, "Hello? Y'all are tearing apart the church over food? What's wrong with you? Isn't the work of God a lot more important than food?"
But we're doing this too these days. What have we made more important than God? Have we kept people out of church because of how they look? Because of the clothes they wear or the music they listen to? Have we broken fellowship with other groups because of small doctrinal differences between us?
Christianity is a diverse place. Some believe it is wrong for a woman to cut her hair. Others cut their hair on a monthly basis. Some have a problem with birth control. Others believe it is a wise stewardship of their family's resources. Some believe it is a sin for a woman to work outside the home. Others believe that God has called them to a career outside the home. Some believe public schooling is the Christian choice because their children can "be a light," some believe Christian private schooling is more appropriate, and some choose some believe God wants them to homeschool their children. Some vote Republican, some vote Democratic, and some don't vote at all.
The point is that these differences, while sometimes large, are ultimately unimportant. What's really important here is the message of the Cross. When you picture Jesus upon the Cross and think about everything He did for you there, the rest of it sort of fades away, doesn't it? Cultural differences pale in comparison with the significance of the Gospel.
So the next time you see that new girl in church whose shirt is maybe a touch too short, or that guy with all those tattoos, try to overlook all that and see what God sees: somebody He loves and wants to save. The same goes for the guy getting very drunk at the bar of your favorite restaurant, or the girl who blasts obscene music in her car as she drives down the street.
God is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11), meaning that He doesn't like or love one person more than another. He doesn't care who you are, He still loves you. He's also not willing that anybody should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and that includes people who are culturally different from us, or people whose sins are different from ours. We shouldn't condemn people for their sins, because we were sinners once too. Instead, we should share with them, gently and with love, that there is forgiveness for their sins.
Jesus prayed for unity among believers (John 17:20-23). Paul declared in his letter to the Galatians that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). God wants us to set aside our minor differences and keep the main thing the main thing. In this case, the main thing is Jesus, and anything else just distorts the message.
~Romans 14:20a
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.
Paul's ministry, as laid out in the New Testament, was an interesting mix. As he tells us in Romans 1:16, his ministry of the Gospel was "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." Because Paul was a converted Jew, he had a passion for taking the Gospel to the Jews, but he knew also that Christ's death made a way for the Gentiles to be saved as well. So his ministry was made up of both Jews and Gentiles.
Judaism has many, many laws about food. Pork, shellfish, catfish and the like are all considered unclean to them, even today. Meat slaughtered improperly (i.e. not through a kosher process) and meat sacrificed to idols are both forbidden to Jews. Obviously, the majority of Rome was not Jewish. A basic history lesson tells us that pork was the primary staple of the Roman diet. Also, because much of Rome served false gods and idols, there was probably a good deal of meat in the market that had been sacrificed to idols.
What Paul had was a cultural conflict. The Jews were disgusted by the diet of the Gentile Romans, the Romans were frustrated by the restrictiveness of the Jews, and there was a serious rift forming in the church. That's what Paul is addressing here. He's saying, "Hello? Y'all are tearing apart the church over food? What's wrong with you? Isn't the work of God a lot more important than food?"
But we're doing this too these days. What have we made more important than God? Have we kept people out of church because of how they look? Because of the clothes they wear or the music they listen to? Have we broken fellowship with other groups because of small doctrinal differences between us?
Christianity is a diverse place. Some believe it is wrong for a woman to cut her hair. Others cut their hair on a monthly basis. Some have a problem with birth control. Others believe it is a wise stewardship of their family's resources. Some believe it is a sin for a woman to work outside the home. Others believe that God has called them to a career outside the home. Some believe public schooling is the Christian choice because their children can "be a light," some believe Christian private schooling is more appropriate, and some choose some believe God wants them to homeschool their children. Some vote Republican, some vote Democratic, and some don't vote at all.
The point is that these differences, while sometimes large, are ultimately unimportant. What's really important here is the message of the Cross. When you picture Jesus upon the Cross and think about everything He did for you there, the rest of it sort of fades away, doesn't it? Cultural differences pale in comparison with the significance of the Gospel.
So the next time you see that new girl in church whose shirt is maybe a touch too short, or that guy with all those tattoos, try to overlook all that and see what God sees: somebody He loves and wants to save. The same goes for the guy getting very drunk at the bar of your favorite restaurant, or the girl who blasts obscene music in her car as she drives down the street.
God is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11), meaning that He doesn't like or love one person more than another. He doesn't care who you are, He still loves you. He's also not willing that anybody should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and that includes people who are culturally different from us, or people whose sins are different from ours. We shouldn't condemn people for their sins, because we were sinners once too. Instead, we should share with them, gently and with love, that there is forgiveness for their sins.
Jesus prayed for unity among believers (John 17:20-23). Paul declared in his letter to the Galatians that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). God wants us to set aside our minor differences and keep the main thing the main thing. In this case, the main thing is Jesus, and anything else just distorts the message.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
November 7: Thoughts on 1 Timothy 4:12-13
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching."
~1 Timothy 4:12-13
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young
People grow in wisdom as they age because experience teaches them how things work. However, it's a mistake to say that young people are necessarily unwise in spiritual matters. We are all guided by the same Holy Spirit, after all, aren't we? That's not to say that we shouldn't look to our elders for their spiritual wisdom. Of course we should. 1 Timothy 5 and Titus 2 lay out for us the way God wants our elders to pass their wisdom down to us.
However, there is a tendency, at least for some people, to feel uncomfortable in leadership roles because of their age. These people are often afraid that they don't have enough life experience or wisdom to teach others. The part of the picture they're missing, though, is that God calls the people He calls for a reason. Just as Moses was worried about his speech impediment, so many of us are worried that our young age will prevent us from being good teachers or preachers or leaders or whatever. And just as Moses was wrong, we're wrong too.
When God calls us to do something, He calls us for the here and now, and He calls us knowing our abilities and limitations even more clearly than we do. God knows what He is doing, and if God has told you to do something, you shouldn't let your age disqualify you. If God puts you somewhere, He will equip you for service, so don't be afraid.
set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity
This is the other half of the coin. Here, Paul's saying, don't let anybody look down on you for being young and inexperienced, but also don't try to use your youth as an excuse for bad behavior. He's saying if you want other people to take you seriously as he outlined above, you have to also set a good example.
If we want people (elders or not) to see us as serious Christians who are worth listening to on spiritual matters, we have to be careful of the way we speak (not just the things we say but how we say them), the way we live our lives (in a way that is pleasing to the Lord), in love (love is an identifying characteristic of a Christian – John 13:35), in faith (faith is what saves us - Ephesians 2:8-9), and in purity (which is often an issue for young adult Christians, but very important if we expect to be taken seriously).
And elders aren't the only ones who won't take us seriously if we aren't careful in these areas. In fact, I think the biggest impact of slipping in one of these areas is actually on your Christian witness. If we aren't careful of the way we speak, the way we live our lives, the way we love one another (holy love, not lust), the way we live out our faith, and the way we guard our purity (sexual and otherwise), the world looks at us and thinks, "Hey, they're no different than anybody else. Why would I want to be a part of that?"
It's very important, especially because we're young, to be careful about our behavior because it has a significant impact on how others view us, in the church. Outside the church, our behavior can even have an impact on how people see Christianity and even Christ Himself. We can't forget we're supposed to look different from the world so that no one can find fault with the ministry (2 Corinthians 6:3-18). We have to live in such a way that people won't think badly of the Lord or our church or ministry. But here's the good news: the Lord never allows us to be tempted beyond what we're capable of resisting, and He always helps us resist by providing a way our and helping us stand against sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). He's with us all the way!
~1 Timothy 4:12-13
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young
People grow in wisdom as they age because experience teaches them how things work. However, it's a mistake to say that young people are necessarily unwise in spiritual matters. We are all guided by the same Holy Spirit, after all, aren't we? That's not to say that we shouldn't look to our elders for their spiritual wisdom. Of course we should. 1 Timothy 5 and Titus 2 lay out for us the way God wants our elders to pass their wisdom down to us.
However, there is a tendency, at least for some people, to feel uncomfortable in leadership roles because of their age. These people are often afraid that they don't have enough life experience or wisdom to teach others. The part of the picture they're missing, though, is that God calls the people He calls for a reason. Just as Moses was worried about his speech impediment, so many of us are worried that our young age will prevent us from being good teachers or preachers or leaders or whatever. And just as Moses was wrong, we're wrong too.
When God calls us to do something, He calls us for the here and now, and He calls us knowing our abilities and limitations even more clearly than we do. God knows what He is doing, and if God has told you to do something, you shouldn't let your age disqualify you. If God puts you somewhere, He will equip you for service, so don't be afraid.
set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity
This is the other half of the coin. Here, Paul's saying, don't let anybody look down on you for being young and inexperienced, but also don't try to use your youth as an excuse for bad behavior. He's saying if you want other people to take you seriously as he outlined above, you have to also set a good example.
If we want people (elders or not) to see us as serious Christians who are worth listening to on spiritual matters, we have to be careful of the way we speak (not just the things we say but how we say them), the way we live our lives (in a way that is pleasing to the Lord), in love (love is an identifying characteristic of a Christian – John 13:35), in faith (faith is what saves us - Ephesians 2:8-9), and in purity (which is often an issue for young adult Christians, but very important if we expect to be taken seriously).
And elders aren't the only ones who won't take us seriously if we aren't careful in these areas. In fact, I think the biggest impact of slipping in one of these areas is actually on your Christian witness. If we aren't careful of the way we speak, the way we live our lives, the way we love one another (holy love, not lust), the way we live out our faith, and the way we guard our purity (sexual and otherwise), the world looks at us and thinks, "Hey, they're no different than anybody else. Why would I want to be a part of that?"
It's very important, especially because we're young, to be careful about our behavior because it has a significant impact on how others view us, in the church. Outside the church, our behavior can even have an impact on how people see Christianity and even Christ Himself. We can't forget we're supposed to look different from the world so that no one can find fault with the ministry (2 Corinthians 6:3-18). We have to live in such a way that people won't think badly of the Lord or our church or ministry. But here's the good news: the Lord never allows us to be tempted beyond what we're capable of resisting, and He always helps us resist by providing a way our and helping us stand against sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). He's with us all the way!
Monday, November 5, 2007
November 5: Thoughts on 2 Cor. 5:17-19
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."
~ 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
The dictionary defines reconciliation as "the act of bringing into agreement or harmony, making compatible or consistent." We were once enemies of God (Romans 5:10), through Christ we are brought into agreement with God and His nature so that His Holy Spirit can dwell within us. While once we were at war with God, now we are at peace with Him (Romans 5:1).
Sin and God are incompatible. God hates sin. It disgusts Him and it grieves Him. Before we are saved through faith in Christ, our relationship with God is broken. Through the blood of Jesus, though, we are cleansed of our sins and our relationship with God is healed. God doesn't count our sins against us anymore. We can rely on Jesus sacrificial death on our behalf to wash away our sins if we ask the Lord for forgiveness.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation
This is the message we're supposed to be spreading: that God, who has every right to punish us for our sins, is offering the free gift of salvation, of reconciliation. That's the central message of Christianity. Most people know their own sins. They know right from wrong, yet they still choose wrong at least some of the time. For the most part, they also know that a perfect God wants nothing to do with sin. They are aware of their separation from God. Deep down, they know all the bad news.
Our job is to share the good news, that faith in Jesus brings the forgiveness of sins and a renewed unity with God, that the Christian life is better than the secular life, that a relationship with God is better than anything the world has to offer. So often, we don't do this because of fear of rejection, alienation, or even retribution. However, if we truly care about those around us, we have to overcome our fears and proclaim the message of the Cross with boldness.
If you heard about a federal program that would pay off anybody's debt for free, wouldn't you tell all your friends about it? Be honest. Wouldn't you? You'd email everybody you knew to make sure they got in on this before the government changed its mind. You'd call your family and friends and possibly your teachers from elementary school.
Well, we all owe a spiritual debt that can only be paid one of two ways: through spiritual death and hell (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23) or through the faith in the atoning power of the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:33; Ephesians 2:8). Jesus stands with His offer to pay off anybody's spiritual debt for free, and He's not going to change His mind.
Financial debt goes away when you die, but spiritual debt is eternal. Clearly, Jesus' offer of salvation is far greater than anything the government could come up with, and it's more pressing. While death forgives financial debt, death is only the beginning point of us paying our spiritual debt. I don't know about you, but on Judgment Day I would prefer it if my debt was marked Paid In Full. I would also prefer it if all my friends had the same thing done for them.
As people who have been forgiven, we have an obligation to share with others how they too can be forgiven. We have a "ministry of reconciliation." So get to sharing! Spread the news!
~ 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
The dictionary defines reconciliation as "the act of bringing into agreement or harmony, making compatible or consistent." We were once enemies of God (Romans 5:10), through Christ we are brought into agreement with God and His nature so that His Holy Spirit can dwell within us. While once we were at war with God, now we are at peace with Him (Romans 5:1).
Sin and God are incompatible. God hates sin. It disgusts Him and it grieves Him. Before we are saved through faith in Christ, our relationship with God is broken. Through the blood of Jesus, though, we are cleansed of our sins and our relationship with God is healed. God doesn't count our sins against us anymore. We can rely on Jesus sacrificial death on our behalf to wash away our sins if we ask the Lord for forgiveness.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation
This is the message we're supposed to be spreading: that God, who has every right to punish us for our sins, is offering the free gift of salvation, of reconciliation. That's the central message of Christianity. Most people know their own sins. They know right from wrong, yet they still choose wrong at least some of the time. For the most part, they also know that a perfect God wants nothing to do with sin. They are aware of their separation from God. Deep down, they know all the bad news.
Our job is to share the good news, that faith in Jesus brings the forgiveness of sins and a renewed unity with God, that the Christian life is better than the secular life, that a relationship with God is better than anything the world has to offer. So often, we don't do this because of fear of rejection, alienation, or even retribution. However, if we truly care about those around us, we have to overcome our fears and proclaim the message of the Cross with boldness.
If you heard about a federal program that would pay off anybody's debt for free, wouldn't you tell all your friends about it? Be honest. Wouldn't you? You'd email everybody you knew to make sure they got in on this before the government changed its mind. You'd call your family and friends and possibly your teachers from elementary school.
Well, we all owe a spiritual debt that can only be paid one of two ways: through spiritual death and hell (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23) or through the faith in the atoning power of the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:33; Ephesians 2:8). Jesus stands with His offer to pay off anybody's spiritual debt for free, and He's not going to change His mind.
Financial debt goes away when you die, but spiritual debt is eternal. Clearly, Jesus' offer of salvation is far greater than anything the government could come up with, and it's more pressing. While death forgives financial debt, death is only the beginning point of us paying our spiritual debt. I don't know about you, but on Judgment Day I would prefer it if my debt was marked Paid In Full. I would also prefer it if all my friends had the same thing done for them.
As people who have been forgiven, we have an obligation to share with others how they too can be forgiven. We have a "ministry of reconciliation." So get to sharing! Spread the news!
Friday, November 2, 2007
November 2: Thoughts on Colossians 3:5-10
"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
~ Colossians 3:5-10
Okay, so we're Christians. We're saved. And we confess our sins and pray our prayers and hey, sometimes we even go to church and read our Bibles. But you know what? That's not living the fullness of the Christian life. Beyond the moment of salvation, God continues to shape us and form us to be more like Him. It's a process of separation from sin called sanctification. (Note to theology buffs: we're sanctified at the moment of salvation, but then a process of sanctification follows even that, as we learn to allow the Spirit to guide us.)
In order to become more like God, in order to live a life worthy of our relationship with Him, we must put off the old earthly man and put on the new man. We have to throw away our selfish, fleshly desires and behaviors, but we don't have to do it alone. The Holy Spirit is with us, helping us grow.
So how do we begin to change the behaviors that continue to disappoint God? First, we have to recognize what they are. Of course there are more sins than those listed above, but they make a good representative list to start with.
Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires
I know this won't be popular, but then again, the truth rarely is. Sexual expression is limited to the marriage relationship. Marriage is the only acceptable outlet for shared sexuality. Premarital sex is not okay with God. Porn is not okay with God. Lusting after your beautiful boss is not okay with God. But here's the thing. God's not cruel. He's not out to rain on your parade. He knew what He was doing when He set out these guidelines for us. He created your sexuality and He knows how it functions best. He knows what helps and what hurts.
If your parents gave you a brand new cell phone for Christmas, but you chose to throw it into the swimming pool, the phone wouldn't work right anymore and you would have messed up your gift. Of course, through a purification process (in this case taking the phone to the repair shop), your gift could be repaired, but why go through all that pain when you could have just avoided the swimming pool in the first place? Point being, your sexuality is a gift from God. Don't abuse it. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says that "any other sin that a human being commits lies outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body." And if you have abused your sexuality in the past, go to the repair shop. Tell God you're sorry and ask for His help in doing better and staying away from temptation. I promise, if you try to do it yourself, you'll definitely mess it up even worse. It's only with the Holy Spirit's help that you can overcome your sinful nature. If we didn't need God's help to overcome sin, then Jesus wouldn't ever have had to die. But we do.
Greed, which is idolatry
Wow. Greed. Aren't we greedy people, as a society? We all know we aren't supposed to be greedy. From our early childhood, we're taught to share with other people and not be stingy. But innately, as part of our sinful nature, we're greedy. We want to get what we want and we don't want to wait for God's timing. Okay, so we know that greed is bad.
But here's the part that floored me. It literally jumped right off the page at me. Greed is idolatry. When we're greedy, we make an idol out of money (or food, or whatever we're being greedy about). How many people in our society serve their employer more than God, or love receiving their paycheck more than they love giving to the Lord? How many are holding back from God what is rightfully his, just so they can watch TV on a bigger screen? When God said not to have any other gods before Him (Exodus 20:1-3), He wasn't just talking about Vishnu or Krishna or Buddha. He was talking about the little gods we set up in our lives, the things we allow to become more important than our relationship with Him: money, cars, houses, our boyfriends and girlfriends, etc. Nothing should come before God. He's 1.
Anger, rage
So anger and rage are bad. They make us look bad, for one thing. But what's so bad about them?
Did you know that the Bible says that if you're angry without a good reason, that's just as bad as murder (Matthew 5:21-26)? This passage also incidentally has some interesting things to say about name-calling, but that's for another day. Getting angry and staying that way just isn't what God expects of a believer.
What if God stayed angry with us for everything we've done to displease Him? He absolutely doesn't, though. He is faithful and just to forgive us when we repent. Our God is a God of love and forgiveness and reconciliation. In the process of becoming more like Jesus, we have to love and forgive and be willing to reconcile.
Malice, slander, and filthy language; do not lie to each other
The Word of God talks a lot about what we do with our lips. Proverbs 12:22 tells us that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord (this means the Lord hates lying). We're told that one day, we'll have to give an account to God of all the idle words we've spoken. If you know me (Lori), you know that I'm quite a talkative person. The idea that one day God's going to hold me accountable for everything I've ever said terrifies me. I'm trying to learn to be more careful about what I say and how I say it, because I don't want my words to reflect badly on my Lord. Obviously, malice (meanness) and slander are out because they hurt other people. Filthy language is simply unbecoming of someone who claims to follow God, since God is totally pure.
Another thing we shouldn't do with our lips isn't mentioned in today's verse, but it's important enough to mention. We're not supposed to take the name of the Lord in vain. That doesn't just mean not saying the GD word, as some apparently believe. It also means not saying "Oh, God" when you're tired of listening to something or "Oh, Lord" when you hear about your friend's latest problem or "Jesus!" when you drop something on your toe. God's name is beautiful and sacred, and we should only use it when talking to Him or about Him. It's not just a stand-in word for when you can't think of anything else to say.
"you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator"
Part of the Christian life is taking off your old self with its old habits (porn, gossip, gluttony, profanity, whatever) and putting on the new man in the image of God (love, kind words, self-control, sanctity, etc.). We can't do this on our own, of course, but if we ask God, He will definitely help us get ourselves cleaned up.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
September 12: Thoughts on Isaiah 41:10
"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
~ Isaiah 41:10
Life can be pretty scary sometimes. We have to make huge decisions (and little ones) with huge potential consequences (and little ones).
This week, we're making a big decision in the Holyfield household. We're purchasing our first home. We're so excited, but you know what? We're also scared out of our minds. It's not that we don't trust God to take care of us. We absolutely do. It's just that we also know that we're not supposed to tempt God, and we have to make sure that this purchase is within His will and that it is a financially sound choice.
God calls us to be stewards of what we've been given. If we were to buy an overly extravagant home, or one we can't afford, or one where we'd be tempted to lower our level of giving to the church, that would be sin. So we've been very careful in this decision making process to seek the Lord at each turn, to trust in Him while seeking His heart and His will for us.
So we're convinced that buying this home is God's will for us at this time. And...we're still (or at least I'm still) really, really anxious about it. Afraid. I mean, of course, anytime you sign a loan for six figures, there's going to be a little bit of trepidation, right?
But this verse encourages us. It tells us that wherever we go, God's right there with us. He's not going to leave us or abandon us, and if I need help in my life or encouragement, He's always going to be there. He's my God. MY God – like personally! He's with me, my Creator, my Protector, my Friend. And when I'm tired and frustrated, He'll give me strength. When I'm weak and falling, He'll hold me up. He'll be with us to lead us and guide us and love us when we need Him.
And really, why should we be afraid? Why should we worry about tomorrow? I once read somewhere that for every minute you worry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. The Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow, but to let tomorrow worry about itself (Matthew 6:34). If you really think about it, the whole Bible is about God's relationship with people, about how God wants to take care of us and provide for us.
I guess, for my part, I need to work on having faith in God's promises. He tells us not to worry and that He will provide. He tells us not to be afraid because He's with us. I just need to sit back and calm down and realize that God is in control. Certainly He's better equipped to do great things in my life than I am.
And maybe I'm not the only one. Maybe you're making a decision about whether to go to school (or back to school) or which job to accept or whether it's time yet to get married. I'm not saying you shouldn't consider the pros and cons of these decisions and take them to God in prayer, but I am saying that we should probably fret less and trust more, that we should let it go and allow the God of Peace to give us peace. Rest in Him. Cast your cares on Him. He'll take care of you, I promise. More importantly, HE promises.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:25-33).
Monday, September 10, 2007
September 10: Thoughts on Romans 2:21-23
"You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"
~ Romans 2:21-23
Hypocrisy. It's an ugly word. It's a word you often hear thrown around about Christians. It's the excuse a lot of people use for not going to church. Supposedly everybody there is a hypocrite. Christians often don't look any different from the world, so what's the point in becoming one? At least that's what people ask themselves. But the truth is, we can't judge the value of Christianity by looking at individual Christians any more than we can judge the value of being good stewards of our environment by looking at Al Gore.
I know you've probably all heard this, but read it and really think about it:
"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." ~dc Talk
If we don't look different, how are people to know the love, the peace, the joy of coming to God? When is the last time you shared God at work (and that's pretty much pot-meet-kettle for me to be asking that)? Do you come to work grumbling and angry, or do you show up with a smile on your face, sharing what God has done for you this week? Sometimes we are the only God a person might see in their lives. Are we doing a good job?
If we preach and boast about keeping God's Word, but then don't keep it, we're hypocrites who blaspheme the name of God just like the Jews were in Paul's time were (Romans 2:24). We give God a bad name! God wants us to share His Word with others, but if we do, we need to be warned that we'd better walk the walk as well. Hypocrisy puts a sour taste in the mouths of non-Christians who might be seeking God, and so does judgment. That makes sense, because Jesus didn't bring people to Him through hypocrisy and judgment, but through a righteous life and meeting people where they were.
Jesus didn't boast about all His goodness to everybody, or brag about what a great keeper of the Law He was – and since He wrote the Law, was the Word made flesh, I imagine He kept it best, don't you? He also didn't turn people away just because they weren't perfect or perfectly dressed. I promise, if Jesus had been born in 1990, He wouldn't be hanging out with the well-behaved straight A students (they wouldn't be the ones who needed His help); He'd be out on the streets somewhere healing and touching and loving the unlovable.
So, what are we doing? Have we got this whole "growing the Kingdom of God" thing all backwards? Are we evangelizing the way Jesus would have us evangelize? I don't have the answer to that, but I still think it's a question worth asking. The world's a hurting, dying, dark, painful place. God is the Light in the darkness. Are we really sharing that Light the best way we can?
Friday, September 7, 2007
September 7: Thoughts on 1 John 2:17
"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
~ 1 John 2:17
What do you desire? Really, truly, what do you desire? There are two kinds of desires: Godly desires and worldly desires.
Godly desires might include wanting to grow closer to God, wanting to start a Bible study, wanting to grow closer to your spouse, wanting to find a Godly Christian spouse, wanting to serve in the mission field, wanting to go to Masters Commission, wanting to find a better job so you can give more to God, wanting to increase your devotional and prayer time, and so on.
What about worldly desires? These are desires for things that aren't of God. These could include an intense sexual lust for someone you're not married to (or for anyone, if you're not married), a desire to spend all your money on clothes and a fast car, a desire to go to a party and get fall-down drunk, a desire to date recklessly and without regard for the other person's spiritual condition, and so on.
The tug of worldly desires can be very, very strong. I know we all got those PBS specials about self-esteem and peer pressure in school, but in all honesty, it can be tough to keep our minds on the things of God. Everything around us is competing for our attention and devotion – television, movies, celebrities, friends, family, and God. Out of all those voices, God is usually not the loudest, but of course, His is the right one to be listening to – we just need to tune in more closely to what He has to say! Because worldly desires? We want these things now, but in the grand scheme of things, they're not going to help us (and some of them can even be spiritually harmful to us). They're temporary; they'll end someday. But eternity's forever.
While worldly desires tempt us now, Godly desires are much more profitable for us. It's not in God's will for anyone to spend eternity in Hell (2 Peter 3:9). Those who follow their own way, who focus on the things of the world rather than God, will still live eternally but not happily (see Revelation 14:11, for instance). Those who follow God's will and seek out His offer of salvation through Christ will have eternal life in Heaven.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
September 5: Thoughts on Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
~ Romans 6:23
This verse is basically the Gospel in a nutshell, isn't it? Since Randy Raysbrook does a much better job of this than I do, why don't you run right over to the One Verse Evangelism site and take a gander?
It's really amazing what you can get out of one little verse. Normally I would just copy and paste the material here, but the page in question has images, and I just feel it's better for formatting and, you know, not hotlinking, if I just link you to the page in question.
Again, that's http://www.navigators.org/us/resources/illustrations/items/One%20Verse%20Evangelism.
Monday, September 3, 2007
September 3: Thoughts on Romans 6:15-18
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
~ Romans 6:15-18
People sometimes say that Christianity is limiting, that it keeps us from doing what we want to do, that God is a killjoy who doesn't want us to have any fun. I've heard atheists say that even if there is a God, if God is like Christianity portrays Him, they'd rather burn in Hell than serve a tyrant.
I see a couple of problems with this kind of argument, though. First, they ignore that if they don't serve God, they're serving Satan. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, it might be the devil, or it might be the Lord, but we've all gotta serve somebody. We may not consciously choose to serve Satan, but if we're not with God, we're against Him. So it's not a choice between serving a so-called “tyrant” (God) versus going to Hell. It's a choice between serving the loving Creator or the hateful Destroyer, and we shouldn't forget that.
Second, they assume that God's Biblical guidelines for our lives are there because He doesn't want us to be happy, which is so not true. They're there to protect us. If you have kids, this makes sense. If you don't, pretend for a minute. You're burning a candle in the living room. It's pretty, it smells good, and your two year old wants to touch it, maybe even put it in her mouth. You tell her not to touch it or she'll get burned. She doesn't really understand why she shouldn't touch it. To her it's just pretty and maybe it smells like apples or something and she wants to reach out and taste it, because that's what two year olds do. The problem is, you know it's bad for her and she doesn't. So when you tell her not to touch the candle, you're setting that guideline out of love. You're guiding her because you care about her and about what happens to her.
And really, it's the same way God is with us. His Word and His Holy Spirit serve as guidelines and standards for our lives, because He loves us and wants us to be happy – not because He's a tyrant who wants to ruin our fun. God knows what we don't: that some things that look like fun (premarital sex, drug use, gossip) are actually carefully orchestrated tricks of Satan that lead to destruction (STDs and abortion, death from overdose, trashed relationships). God warns us to stay away from sin not only because it has consequences here on earth, but because it drives a wedge into our relationship with Him. Sin is what separates us from God and from eternal life.
Thankfully, we don't live under the Law anymore. Under the Law, if we violated just one part of it, we broke the whole Law. It was nearly impossible to be found righteous by God's standards (who hasn't, for instance, told a white lie in their entire life?).
So what did Jesus come to do? He came to fulfill the Law so that we would not be bound by it anymore. He came so that we could get rid of the distance between God and ourselves and be reunited with Him. Because of His sacrifice, He can extend His grace to us instead of binding us by the Law.
Still, Paul is warning us here that freedom from the Law is not the same thing as a license to sin. Either we're slaves to God or slaves to Satan, slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin.
We can't serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), but we're going to have to serve somebody.
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
Seems to me you've got a choice to make. (We all do.) Today, think about who you're serving in your day to day life. Are you a slave to sin, or to righteousness? Are you serving the devil or the Lord? Whose team are you on?
(Note: I read all the way to the end of the Book, and God totally wins. Just something to think about...)
Friday, August 31, 2007
August 31: Thoughts on Isaiah 2:22
"Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?"
~ Isaiah 2:22
Chapter 2 of Isaiah talks about the Day of the Lord that is coming, in which God's glory will be revealed and and humankind will be humbled, a day in which "the eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (v. 11). The Day of the Lord is a day in which men will throw away their idols and hide from God, just as Adam and Eve hid from God because of their sin against Him.
But we can't really hide our sin from God, can we? Sure, we can keep our sins from others, we can maintain our perfect image. On the outside we can wear perfectly spotless white clothes, put on our makeup perfectly, and iron our jeans until they have that dorky little crease, but if the condition of our heart is not right, we aren't fooling God. He knows us intimately, and He can see past the image we put forth to others right to the center of our being. Rest assured, you can't hide your sin from the Lord. He knows everything, including what you did last summer (TM).
The craziest part about this little revelation is this: it's actually good news! You'd think that would be bad, that we can't disguise our sin from God, but it actually isn't, and here's why. When we sin, we know we sinned, and God knows we sinned. This isn't like breaking one of your parents' rules, where you go through the awkward stage of how to tell them what you did, because God already knows. Doesn't that make confession at least ten times easier? God already knows what you did wrong; you just need to confess it to Him and tell Him you're sorry, and because He's faithful and just, He'll forgive you (1 John 1:9).
So no matter what you've done, there are two important things to realize here:
1. God already knows about it.
2. God will forgive you if you tell Him you're sorry and ask for His forgiveness.
Now, to the actual Scripture that started this devotional. Isaiah 2:22 is telling us to stop putting our trust in other people, because in the end, people aren't very important compared to eternity. Isaiah isn't telling us not to trust other people. Instead, he's telling us that ultimately, though we trust other people, they're not as important as the Lord, and they are going to let us down eventually because no one is perfect except God. There is a difference between trusting someone and putting your trust in that person. While we should trust other people in our lives who have earned it, we should never put our trust fully in anyone but God. We can't, for instance, trust anyone but God to provide our salvation.
We should trust in the Lord, not in fallible human beings. People will only let us down, but the Lord is good and faithful and steadfast, and He's always true to His Word.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
August 29: Thoughts on James 2:15-18
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."
~ James 2:15-18
Here, James is trying to draw a comparison for us.
We can say compassionate things all we want, like "I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but if we don't act out of that compassion, is it really compassion? If we say to someone, "Gosh, I wish you didn't have to walk around in those awful tattered clothes," but we don't provide them with the clothes even if we have the money to help them out, do we really care about them?
In the same way, if we claim to have faith in God and love Him, but we don't do anything about it, what kind of faith is that? If we really believe that God is the Creator of the universe and the Savior of mankind, why aren't we doing more to further His will? The Gospel is not the kind of thing you can just sit back and listen to and smile about, you know? We're to be doers of the Word of God, and not hearers only (James 1:22).
Faith demands a response, demands action.
What have you done as a result of your faith lately? How have you served the Lord?
~ James 2:15-18
Here, James is trying to draw a comparison for us.
We can say compassionate things all we want, like "I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but if we don't act out of that compassion, is it really compassion? If we say to someone, "Gosh, I wish you didn't have to walk around in those awful tattered clothes," but we don't provide them with the clothes even if we have the money to help them out, do we really care about them?
In the same way, if we claim to have faith in God and love Him, but we don't do anything about it, what kind of faith is that? If we really believe that God is the Creator of the universe and the Savior of mankind, why aren't we doing more to further His will? The Gospel is not the kind of thing you can just sit back and listen to and smile about, you know? We're to be doers of the Word of God, and not hearers only (James 1:22).
Faith demands a response, demands action.
What have you done as a result of your faith lately? How have you served the Lord?
Monday, August 27, 2007
August 27: Thoughts on Psalm 27:14
"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD."
~ Psalm 27:14
It seems most of us are waiting on God for something, whether it's a job, or a spouse, or a child, or simply a revelation about what His will for us is. We cry out to God because we don't know what to do. We ask for stuff, or for His guidance, and sometimes it seems like it's slow in coming.
If I'm being honest, sometimes I feel like telling God to get with the program. But then I have to sit down and have a little talk with myself, because, well, He's God - and He kind of wrote the program. In moments like those, I have to realize that I'm the one who needs to get with it. God knows what He's doing, even if I don't.
Here's what happens when we wait for the Lord's timing:
"Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it." (Psalm 37:34)
"Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22)
"But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)
What happens when we try to take control for ourselves instead of waiting on God's perfect timing?
In Genesis 16, Abram's wife Sarai, who is infertile, gives her servant Hagar to her husband in order that he might have a child with her. She does this even though God has already promised her that she and Abram will eventually have a child together. She's tired of waiting on the Lord, so she takes matters into her own hands. Abram, following Sarai's directions, gets with Hagar, who winds up pregnant. As you can imagine, Sarai's not too pleased about this, even though it was her idea in the first place, and she was really harsh and rude to Hagar (as though this was somehow Hagar's fault). Of Ishmael, the Lord says, "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" (Genesis 16:12). Wow, Ishmael sounds like a model child, right? That went well, didn't it? Not really. And why? Because Ishmael wasn't the child God intended for this couple to have.
So, fast forward 13 or 14 years. It's finally God's time for this couple. He renames them Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is 100 years old, and Sarah's old too, but it doesn't matter; it is God's time for this couple. So God gives them a child (the original child they were promised), and they name him Isaac. Isaac is the one that the covenant of Abraham goes through. Isaac is Abraham's heir. Isaac is the child God intended for Abraham and Sarah, and if they hadn't disobeyed God and tried to work around His will, who's to say they might not have had him sooner? And now they have this extra child to worry about, and Sarah casts Hagar and Ishmael out of her household because they offend her...and the whole situation is just bad.
If they had just waited in obedience on God's timing, it wouldn't have had to be that way.
There's a bit of a contrast here. If we wait on the Lord, good things happen. If we don't wait on the Lord, not-so-good things happen. It's clear that we'll be better off if we wait on God's timing for our lives. We should be strong against the temptation to take matters in our own hands, take heart that the Lord has our best interests in mind, and wait for His perfect timing for things to happen in our lives.
~ Psalm 27:14
It seems most of us are waiting on God for something, whether it's a job, or a spouse, or a child, or simply a revelation about what His will for us is. We cry out to God because we don't know what to do. We ask for stuff, or for His guidance, and sometimes it seems like it's slow in coming.
If I'm being honest, sometimes I feel like telling God to get with the program. But then I have to sit down and have a little talk with myself, because, well, He's God - and He kind of wrote the program. In moments like those, I have to realize that I'm the one who needs to get with it. God knows what He's doing, even if I don't.
Here's what happens when we wait for the Lord's timing:
"Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it." (Psalm 37:34)
"Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22)
"But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)
What happens when we try to take control for ourselves instead of waiting on God's perfect timing?
In Genesis 16, Abram's wife Sarai, who is infertile, gives her servant Hagar to her husband in order that he might have a child with her. She does this even though God has already promised her that she and Abram will eventually have a child together. She's tired of waiting on the Lord, so she takes matters into her own hands. Abram, following Sarai's directions, gets with Hagar, who winds up pregnant. As you can imagine, Sarai's not too pleased about this, even though it was her idea in the first place, and she was really harsh and rude to Hagar (as though this was somehow Hagar's fault). Of Ishmael, the Lord says, "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" (Genesis 16:12). Wow, Ishmael sounds like a model child, right? That went well, didn't it? Not really. And why? Because Ishmael wasn't the child God intended for this couple to have.
So, fast forward 13 or 14 years. It's finally God's time for this couple. He renames them Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is 100 years old, and Sarah's old too, but it doesn't matter; it is God's time for this couple. So God gives them a child (the original child they were promised), and they name him Isaac. Isaac is the one that the covenant of Abraham goes through. Isaac is Abraham's heir. Isaac is the child God intended for Abraham and Sarah, and if they hadn't disobeyed God and tried to work around His will, who's to say they might not have had him sooner? And now they have this extra child to worry about, and Sarah casts Hagar and Ishmael out of her household because they offend her...and the whole situation is just bad.
If they had just waited in obedience on God's timing, it wouldn't have had to be that way.
There's a bit of a contrast here. If we wait on the Lord, good things happen. If we don't wait on the Lord, not-so-good things happen. It's clear that we'll be better off if we wait on God's timing for our lives. We should be strong against the temptation to take matters in our own hands, take heart that the Lord has our best interests in mind, and wait for His perfect timing for things to happen in our lives.
Friday, August 24, 2007
August 24: Thoughts on James 4:13-14
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
~ James 4:13-14
Our lives aren't endless. Because we are young, it is likely that we will wake up tomorrow morning and the sun will rise on another day of our lives, but it's not guaranteed.
There's only a small percent chance that you will die tomorrow. However, there is a 100% chance that you will die. It's what we all have in common. Everybody dies.
A lot of people, particularly young adults, think they can live their lives however they want to because they're young, and that they'll give their lives to Christ when they're older. This isn't such a good idea, for a couple of reasons.
First, it's not a good idea because you don't know for sure that you'll make it to be an old person. Death is relatively rare among young adults, but it does happen. The death rate per year of people between the ages of 20 and 24 is 101 deaths per 100,000 people. That's about a .1% chance of dying in any given year, which doesn't sound like much. And it isn't - unless you happen to be one of those 18,000 Americans between 20 and 24 who pass away every year. For them, it's everything.
Ask yourself - and I'm not trying to be morbid, but it's an important question - if you went to sleep tonight and didn't wake up in the morning, where would you spend eternity (and why)? If you got to the pearly gates and the Lord asked you why you deserved to be let into Heaven, what would you tell Him?
Certainly, I don't think there's anything I've done that makes me worthy of entering into His glory, so my only answer would be that I've been washed in the Blood of Jesus, and the God's Word says that's enough (a whole bunch of Scriptures). God's not a liar, and His Word won't return void (Isaiah 55:11), so I know that He'll have to let me in. But what would you say? Do you truly have a personal relationship with Jesus? Have you accepted His sacrifice for your sins?
The second reason it's a bad idea to wait until later in your life to turn to God is that it's not always possible for you to do so. The longer that you're apart from God, the harder your heart becomes against Him. Let's take, for instance, Ephesians 4:17-19: "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
The longer you are in sin, the longer you're away from God, the more you forget about and the less you desire the things of God, until eventually your heart becomes hard and foolish and you begin saying things to yourself like, "God doesn't really exist" or "there's a God, but He can't care about me after all I've done" or "yeah, God is real, but I'd rather spend my life having a good time than serving Him" or "maybe Hell is a real place, but the future isn't important; right now is what matters."
That's utter foolishness. Think about it. You are going to be dead a lot longer than you are going to be alive. We live but for a season, 120 years at the absolute maximum. But after we die, what is there? Eternity. And eternity, by its very definition, is eternal - it lasts forever. So isn't concerning ourselves with what we're going to be doing forever and ever and ever a little more sensible than trying to have a very short good time while we're here on earth? Isn't it worth considering eternal things, considering God?
We're a mist that appears for a little while on the earth and then vanishes. A million years from now, it won't matter where you went to school, what your grades were like, who you dated, what fraternity you joined - but it will matter whether you loved and served the Lord of all creation and who you shared the Gospel with.
As young adults, we have this sort of overwhelming tendency to think about what makes us happy right now, but maybe we should stop for a moment and just ponder the eternal meanings of our everyday lives. Are we giving our all to God and sharing Him with others, or, in being busy busy busy, are we barely managing to acknowledge Him at all?
~ James 4:13-14
Our lives aren't endless. Because we are young, it is likely that we will wake up tomorrow morning and the sun will rise on another day of our lives, but it's not guaranteed.
There's only a small percent chance that you will die tomorrow. However, there is a 100% chance that you will die. It's what we all have in common. Everybody dies.
A lot of people, particularly young adults, think they can live their lives however they want to because they're young, and that they'll give their lives to Christ when they're older. This isn't such a good idea, for a couple of reasons.
First, it's not a good idea because you don't know for sure that you'll make it to be an old person. Death is relatively rare among young adults, but it does happen. The death rate per year of people between the ages of 20 and 24 is 101 deaths per 100,000 people. That's about a .1% chance of dying in any given year, which doesn't sound like much. And it isn't - unless you happen to be one of those 18,000 Americans between 20 and 24 who pass away every year. For them, it's everything.
Ask yourself - and I'm not trying to be morbid, but it's an important question - if you went to sleep tonight and didn't wake up in the morning, where would you spend eternity (and why)? If you got to the pearly gates and the Lord asked you why you deserved to be let into Heaven, what would you tell Him?
Certainly, I don't think there's anything I've done that makes me worthy of entering into His glory, so my only answer would be that I've been washed in the Blood of Jesus, and the God's Word says that's enough (a whole bunch of Scriptures). God's not a liar, and His Word won't return void (Isaiah 55:11), so I know that He'll have to let me in. But what would you say? Do you truly have a personal relationship with Jesus? Have you accepted His sacrifice for your sins?
The second reason it's a bad idea to wait until later in your life to turn to God is that it's not always possible for you to do so. The longer that you're apart from God, the harder your heart becomes against Him. Let's take, for instance, Ephesians 4:17-19: "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
The longer you are in sin, the longer you're away from God, the more you forget about and the less you desire the things of God, until eventually your heart becomes hard and foolish and you begin saying things to yourself like, "God doesn't really exist" or "there's a God, but He can't care about me after all I've done" or "yeah, God is real, but I'd rather spend my life having a good time than serving Him" or "maybe Hell is a real place, but the future isn't important; right now is what matters."
That's utter foolishness. Think about it. You are going to be dead a lot longer than you are going to be alive. We live but for a season, 120 years at the absolute maximum. But after we die, what is there? Eternity. And eternity, by its very definition, is eternal - it lasts forever. So isn't concerning ourselves with what we're going to be doing forever and ever and ever a little more sensible than trying to have a very short good time while we're here on earth? Isn't it worth considering eternal things, considering God?
We're a mist that appears for a little while on the earth and then vanishes. A million years from now, it won't matter where you went to school, what your grades were like, who you dated, what fraternity you joined - but it will matter whether you loved and served the Lord of all creation and who you shared the Gospel with.
As young adults, we have this sort of overwhelming tendency to think about what makes us happy right now, but maybe we should stop for a moment and just ponder the eternal meanings of our everyday lives. Are we giving our all to God and sharing Him with others, or, in being busy busy busy, are we barely managing to acknowledge Him at all?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
August 22: Thoughts on Psalm 119:9-16
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."
~ Psalm 119:9-16
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."
As young adults, we struggle with purity. There's disgusting, filthy sin all around us, and it's readily available to us everywhere we turn. It is not as though we have to seek out sin to be tempted; it seeks us out!
For instance, the Ignite MySpace originally listed its gender as male. Within days of being created, messages started showing up in its inbox and friend requests started pouring in. Why? Well, these were fake profiles created by women who appeared to be peddling porn. The messages would say things like "If you like my pictures, there are more where these came from, but they were too racy for MySpace" - and they would link to what was essentially a porn site! It's not as though the Ignite MySpace did anything to make anyone think we were pro-pornography. Rather, our presence as a presumed young male on MySpace was enough to send temptation our way. (Apparently this is just the way things work, because while Farris does get these messages on his own MySpace, Lori doesn't get them on hers - and this is presumably because Lori is female and Farris is male.) This is the main reason we changed the gender of the Ignite MySpace, by the way - the messages and friend requests were just time-consuming and frustrating.
Anyway, this is just one example of how Satan targets temptation to exploit our vulnerabilities and undermine our purity. Sin seeks us out (heck, sometimes it even does market research), and we have to resist temptation to maintain purity. How can we do this? By living according to God's Word.
"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches."
Sometimes we don't really think about what a great gift the Bible is to us, but it really is. When we think about Bible study or spending time in the Word, it often feels like a chore, something we have to slog through to be a good Christian. But if you look at what the Word of God truly is - which is, come on, the Word of God, the actual words that come out of God's mouth. It's a way for the God of the universe to communicate with us.
And when you think about it that way, even having the Word of God available to us - the idea that the great God of all creation would stop for a moment and reveal Himself to us in written form - well, studying that is a privilege, not a chore! The Word of God itself is great riches. Keeping the Word of God, following God's laws and statutes, is an even greater privilege.
"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."
Because He's given us His Word, we should not neglect to study it. It's one of the amazing ways He's given us to learn about Him. We should rejoice that we have a God who loves us enough to draw boundaries for us, and who cares about us enough to reveal Himself to us through His Word.
~ Psalm 119:9-16
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."
As young adults, we struggle with purity. There's disgusting, filthy sin all around us, and it's readily available to us everywhere we turn. It is not as though we have to seek out sin to be tempted; it seeks us out!
For instance, the Ignite MySpace originally listed its gender as male. Within days of being created, messages started showing up in its inbox and friend requests started pouring in. Why? Well, these were fake profiles created by women who appeared to be peddling porn. The messages would say things like "If you like my pictures, there are more where these came from, but they were too racy for MySpace" - and they would link to what was essentially a porn site! It's not as though the Ignite MySpace did anything to make anyone think we were pro-pornography. Rather, our presence as a presumed young male on MySpace was enough to send temptation our way. (Apparently this is just the way things work, because while Farris does get these messages on his own MySpace, Lori doesn't get them on hers - and this is presumably because Lori is female and Farris is male.) This is the main reason we changed the gender of the Ignite MySpace, by the way - the messages and friend requests were just time-consuming and frustrating.
Anyway, this is just one example of how Satan targets temptation to exploit our vulnerabilities and undermine our purity. Sin seeks us out (heck, sometimes it even does market research), and we have to resist temptation to maintain purity. How can we do this? By living according to God's Word.
"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches."
Sometimes we don't really think about what a great gift the Bible is to us, but it really is. When we think about Bible study or spending time in the Word, it often feels like a chore, something we have to slog through to be a good Christian. But if you look at what the Word of God truly is - which is, come on, the Word of God, the actual words that come out of God's mouth. It's a way for the God of the universe to communicate with us.
And when you think about it that way, even having the Word of God available to us - the idea that the great God of all creation would stop for a moment and reveal Himself to us in written form - well, studying that is a privilege, not a chore! The Word of God itself is great riches. Keeping the Word of God, following God's laws and statutes, is an even greater privilege.
"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."
Because He's given us His Word, we should not neglect to study it. It's one of the amazing ways He's given us to learn about Him. We should rejoice that we have a God who loves us enough to draw boundaries for us, and who cares about us enough to reveal Himself to us through His Word.
Monday, August 20, 2007
August 20: Thoughts on John 15:5
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
~ John 15:5
"I am the vine; you are the branches"
Have you ever seen a vine in nature? The way it works is that the vine runs along the ground, and little branches branch off the vine and hold the fruit (in this case, a tomato - and yes, a tomato is a fruit).
See how there's a main vine there, and little branches branching off the vine and holding the tomatoes?
Okay, so Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. He's our source. We're dependent upon Him, but He's self-sufficient. His roots gather up nourishment and water for us and deliver them to us. We are the branches, offshoots of Him. Without Him, we can't live, can't bear fruit, because we wouldn't have a source of strength and energy and sustenance.
"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit"
The branches of a vine bear fruit. We see this in nature. It's not the main vine itself that produces the fruit. Rather, the main vine provides support to the branches so that they can produce the fruit.
So, if we remain in Christ (that is, we keep the faith and do our best to follow the Lord) and Christ remains in us (and He tells us in John 6:37 that He won't cast us out if we come to Him, though we can cast ourselves out by turning our backs on Him), we'll do what? Bear fruit. And not just a little bit of fruit, but much fruit. That's a LOT of fruit, not just a single tomato, but maybe more like a whole bunch of grapes, I don't know.
So, we're supposed to be bearing fruit if we remain in Christ. What does it mean to bear fruit? Well, the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Okay, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm kind of good at some of those. I can do love. I even like loving. I can do joy, kindness, and gentleness. But patience? Peace? Faithfulness? I'm not so very good at those. I think my lack of patience contributes to my lack of peace sometimes. Self-control? Well, that's a hard thing. For instance, I can't keep a secret to save my life. Well, maybe to save my life, but you know what I mean. And "goodness"? Fuhgeddaboutit.
But see, here's the thing. God doesn't want us to have just one kind of fruit. We have the seed of the Holy Spirit within us, right? So theoretically, if we allow ourselves to be fertile ground for the Spirit's work within us, we should bear all the fruits of the Spirit, right? But most of us, me included, don't, at least not all the time.
Why? Maybe because we've allowed the root of bitterness to get in. Maybe because we've allowed Satan to spray pesticide on us (when we should actually be the ones spraying pesticide on him, because he's the real pest, right?). Maybe because we've started to turn away from Jesus, allowing our connection to Him to get weaker and weaker, until it's difficult for us to get all the nutrients we need from Him. Maybe unconfessed or unrepentant sin is clogging up the pathway the nutrients would be passing through.
"apart from me you can do nothing"
Wow. So here, Jesus is telling us that apart from Him, we won't be able to bear fruit. We wouldn't be able to get anything done at all! That's a stark contrast to Mark 9:23, which tells us that all things are possible to those who believe, and Phillippians 4:13, which tells us that we can do all things through Christ.
So, we can't do anything without Christ, but with Him, we can do anything! That's pretty amazing, isn't it? The Lord is our strength and our sustenance. He gives us our nutrients and water and His Spirit and His love, because He is truly good.
~ John 15:5
"I am the vine; you are the branches"
Have you ever seen a vine in nature? The way it works is that the vine runs along the ground, and little branches branch off the vine and hold the fruit (in this case, a tomato - and yes, a tomato is a fruit).
See how there's a main vine there, and little branches branching off the vine and holding the tomatoes?
Okay, so Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. He's our source. We're dependent upon Him, but He's self-sufficient. His roots gather up nourishment and water for us and deliver them to us. We are the branches, offshoots of Him. Without Him, we can't live, can't bear fruit, because we wouldn't have a source of strength and energy and sustenance.
"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit"
The branches of a vine bear fruit. We see this in nature. It's not the main vine itself that produces the fruit. Rather, the main vine provides support to the branches so that they can produce the fruit.
So, if we remain in Christ (that is, we keep the faith and do our best to follow the Lord) and Christ remains in us (and He tells us in John 6:37 that He won't cast us out if we come to Him, though we can cast ourselves out by turning our backs on Him), we'll do what? Bear fruit. And not just a little bit of fruit, but much fruit. That's a LOT of fruit, not just a single tomato, but maybe more like a whole bunch of grapes, I don't know.
So, we're supposed to be bearing fruit if we remain in Christ. What does it mean to bear fruit? Well, the fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Okay, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm kind of good at some of those. I can do love. I even like loving. I can do joy, kindness, and gentleness. But patience? Peace? Faithfulness? I'm not so very good at those. I think my lack of patience contributes to my lack of peace sometimes. Self-control? Well, that's a hard thing. For instance, I can't keep a secret to save my life. Well, maybe to save my life, but you know what I mean. And "goodness"? Fuhgeddaboutit.
But see, here's the thing. God doesn't want us to have just one kind of fruit. We have the seed of the Holy Spirit within us, right? So theoretically, if we allow ourselves to be fertile ground for the Spirit's work within us, we should bear all the fruits of the Spirit, right? But most of us, me included, don't, at least not all the time.
Why? Maybe because we've allowed the root of bitterness to get in. Maybe because we've allowed Satan to spray pesticide on us (when we should actually be the ones spraying pesticide on him, because he's the real pest, right?). Maybe because we've started to turn away from Jesus, allowing our connection to Him to get weaker and weaker, until it's difficult for us to get all the nutrients we need from Him. Maybe unconfessed or unrepentant sin is clogging up the pathway the nutrients would be passing through.
"apart from me you can do nothing"
Wow. So here, Jesus is telling us that apart from Him, we won't be able to bear fruit. We wouldn't be able to get anything done at all! That's a stark contrast to Mark 9:23, which tells us that all things are possible to those who believe, and Phillippians 4:13, which tells us that we can do all things through Christ.
So, we can't do anything without Christ, but with Him, we can do anything! That's pretty amazing, isn't it? The Lord is our strength and our sustenance. He gives us our nutrients and water and His Spirit and His love, because He is truly good.
Friday, August 17, 2007
August 17: Thoughts on John 1:10-13
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
~ John 1:10-13
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him"
Jesus Christ walked among us. He was God, through Whom the very world was created, and yet when the world came across Him, they didn't know what to make of Him. Most didn't honor Him as the Creator. Some who claim to be Christians still don't. But this much is clear: the Bible tells us that the world was created through Christ, but it didn't know Him. Do you have children? Your children were created through you. Can you imagine if one day, just out of nowhere, your precious little boy or girl didn't know you anymore, if you went to him or her and they looked at you like "who are you and where's my mommy"? How heartbreaking would that be? That's the way Jesus felt when He came here. God's own people, the Jews, for the most part did not receive Him. They didn't recognize Him for who He was and is.
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
But - and here's a transition - to those who DID receive Him, Jesus gave them the power and the right to become children of God. That's amazing. When the children of Israel turned their back on the Lord, the Lord opened the door wider and gave anyone who received Him and believed in His name the power to become the children of God. This verse tells us that while relationship with God used to be determined by blood and kinship (i.e., Hebrew descent), now it is determined by God Himself. We may not be the "natural" children of God, but we do have the right to become His "adopted" children (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5) through Jesus. And when you're adopted, as I'm sure any adopted child can tell you, you are legally no different than any natural child. You have a right to your inheritance as a child of God.
What is that inheritance? Eternal salvation (1 Peter 1:4).
Who does it go to? The children of God (John 1:12).
How do you become God's child? Believe in His name and be born again of God (John 1:12-13).
~ John 1:10-13
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him"
Jesus Christ walked among us. He was God, through Whom the very world was created, and yet when the world came across Him, they didn't know what to make of Him. Most didn't honor Him as the Creator. Some who claim to be Christians still don't. But this much is clear: the Bible tells us that the world was created through Christ, but it didn't know Him. Do you have children? Your children were created through you. Can you imagine if one day, just out of nowhere, your precious little boy or girl didn't know you anymore, if you went to him or her and they looked at you like "who are you and where's my mommy"? How heartbreaking would that be? That's the way Jesus felt when He came here. God's own people, the Jews, for the most part did not receive Him. They didn't recognize Him for who He was and is.
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
But - and here's a transition - to those who DID receive Him, Jesus gave them the power and the right to become children of God. That's amazing. When the children of Israel turned their back on the Lord, the Lord opened the door wider and gave anyone who received Him and believed in His name the power to become the children of God. This verse tells us that while relationship with God used to be determined by blood and kinship (i.e., Hebrew descent), now it is determined by God Himself. We may not be the "natural" children of God, but we do have the right to become His "adopted" children (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5) through Jesus. And when you're adopted, as I'm sure any adopted child can tell you, you are legally no different than any natural child. You have a right to your inheritance as a child of God.
What is that inheritance? Eternal salvation (1 Peter 1:4).
Who does it go to? The children of God (John 1:12).
How do you become God's child? Believe in His name and be born again of God (John 1:12-13).
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
August 15: Thoughts on 1 Cor. 10:12-13
"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
~ 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
"if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall"
In other words, don't be prideful about your walk with God. Don't assume that just because everything is hunky-dory, it always will be. Don't look at the sins and temptations of others and think with disgust or judgement, "I could never do that. I'm better than that." In other words, if you think you're walking on the straight and narrow with the Lord, don't let your guard down. In fact, this is the time when you should really be on your guard the most, because Satan loves to get between a Christian and the Lord. Satan loves to tempt us and draw us away from God's heart.
"no temptation has seized you except what is common to man"
Okay, so you're tempted to sin. What's Paul telling us here? That we're all tempted to sin. Temptation is common to man - that is, all men experience temptation. Even Jesus was tempted (Hebrews 2:18), though He did not sin in reaction to temptation (Hebrews 4:15). Satan hates our relationship with God. He desires nothing more than to tear us away from the Lord any way he can, and sin is what separates us from God. So Satan tries to deceive us into sin, just as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Does that mean that just because we're tempted that we have to sin? No.
"God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear"
God is faithful. That means He's reliable, trustworthy, true to His Word. We're told here that God won't let us be tempted beyond what we can stand against. That is, the choice to sin will always be that: a choice. Though God will perhaps allow us to be tempted, He will never allow so much temptation that we're incapable of resisting it. Thus we can't excuse our sin. "I engaged in impure acts with my girlfriend because she wore a skirt that was way too short" is not an excuse. Yes, perhaps the skirt and the girl were tempting, but God doesn't allow temptation beyond what we are able to resist. What the Bible is telling us here is that we need to stop shifting blame. If we sin, if we do evil, it's not God's fault, it's not our girlfriend's fault, it's not the dog's fault. It's our own fault, because God doesn't allow temptation to become so strong that we have no choice but to sin.
Okay, so God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can withstand. But how can we withstand it?
"when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it"
God gives us a way out, a way to stand against temptation. Maybe He gives us the strength of will to pull away from the temptation ourselves. Maybe He provides us with an accountability partner. Maybe, just maybe, He provides a perfectly timed phone call from our mother just as we were getting ready to give in. I don't really know what God will do in any given situation to allow us a way out of sin, but I do trust the Word of God, and it says that He will provide a way out. Isn't that an awesome promise of God?
~ 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
"if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall"
In other words, don't be prideful about your walk with God. Don't assume that just because everything is hunky-dory, it always will be. Don't look at the sins and temptations of others and think with disgust or judgement, "I could never do that. I'm better than that." In other words, if you think you're walking on the straight and narrow with the Lord, don't let your guard down. In fact, this is the time when you should really be on your guard the most, because Satan loves to get between a Christian and the Lord. Satan loves to tempt us and draw us away from God's heart.
"no temptation has seized you except what is common to man"
Okay, so you're tempted to sin. What's Paul telling us here? That we're all tempted to sin. Temptation is common to man - that is, all men experience temptation. Even Jesus was tempted (Hebrews 2:18), though He did not sin in reaction to temptation (Hebrews 4:15). Satan hates our relationship with God. He desires nothing more than to tear us away from the Lord any way he can, and sin is what separates us from God. So Satan tries to deceive us into sin, just as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Does that mean that just because we're tempted that we have to sin? No.
"God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear"
God is faithful. That means He's reliable, trustworthy, true to His Word. We're told here that God won't let us be tempted beyond what we can stand against. That is, the choice to sin will always be that: a choice. Though God will perhaps allow us to be tempted, He will never allow so much temptation that we're incapable of resisting it. Thus we can't excuse our sin. "I engaged in impure acts with my girlfriend because she wore a skirt that was way too short" is not an excuse. Yes, perhaps the skirt and the girl were tempting, but God doesn't allow temptation beyond what we are able to resist. What the Bible is telling us here is that we need to stop shifting blame. If we sin, if we do evil, it's not God's fault, it's not our girlfriend's fault, it's not the dog's fault. It's our own fault, because God doesn't allow temptation to become so strong that we have no choice but to sin.
Okay, so God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can withstand. But how can we withstand it?
"when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it"
God gives us a way out, a way to stand against temptation. Maybe He gives us the strength of will to pull away from the temptation ourselves. Maybe He provides us with an accountability partner. Maybe, just maybe, He provides a perfectly timed phone call from our mother just as we were getting ready to give in. I don't really know what God will do in any given situation to allow us a way out of sin, but I do trust the Word of God, and it says that He will provide a way out. Isn't that an awesome promise of God?
Monday, August 13, 2007
August 13: Thoughts on Psalm 51:10
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
~ Psalm 51:10
"create in me a pure heart, O God"
We try so hard to make ourselves righteous, to make ourselves good. This is a worthy cause, but it's one we can't accomplish without God's help. When we face temptation or see impurity within ourselves, we should pray that God will wash it away and replace it with the good. Our hearts are impure by nature, but through Christ they can be made new and pure. God can create purity within us if we ask Him, if we let Him.
"renew a steadfast spirit within me"
When we start out on our Christian journey, most of us do so with a passion, with fire, with zeal for what God has in store for us. Then time and work and life get in the way, and the fire dims. Sadly, we seem to forget everything the Lord has done for us. While in the beginning our spirits were steadfast in following the Lord, as time passes, if we're not careful, we lose our vision and we lose our direction. We wake up one day and realize, all of a sudden, how very far away we've gotten from God. So we need to ask Him to help us get back on track.
What's a steadfast spirit? Steadfast means "fixed in direction; steadily directed; firm in purpose, resolution, faith, or attachment; unwavering; firmly established." In other words, a steadfast spirit is one that stands firm against temptation, has a vision about where it is headed, and allows the Spirit of God to direct it.
So how do we go about getting a steadfast spirit?
First, we must remember why we want a steadfast spirit in the first place. We must remember why we are Christians, why God is worthy and deserving of our honor and praise. He created us, gave us life, watched us sin and throw it all away, and then gave us life again in the ultimate act of love. Think of it. The Creator of the universe cared enough about you in particular to die for you. That's amazing stuff, and it's why we're Christians. We love Jesus because He first loved us.
Second, we must ask God to make it possible. We must ask for His direction in our lives and accept it when it comes. We need to mean what we say. If we say, "Lord, if this man is not the man you have chosen to be my husband, please show me," then we can't go getting mad at the Lord when He shows us! If we want to yield to the will of God, we have to accept that His will is higher than our will, and that what we want is not always what's best for us. Sometimes this is painful, but in the end, if we're mature about it, we can rejoice because the Lord cares enough for us to save us from ourselves sometimes.
Third, we need to get back into the Word of God even more heavily than we already are, and we need to go deeper into prayer than we ever have. God does speak audibly to some people at some times, but the most reliable way to hear from God in any given situation is to read His Word. It's valuable, profitable, because it teaches us about God's mind and His Spirit. God is the ultimate in steadfast. In Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning (James 1:17). God doesn't change - He's the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He knows what He is doing. He is fixed in direction, firm in purpose, unwavering, and firmly established. If we want to be steadfast, the Lord is definitely our model for that. God is forever speaking to us through the Bible, and if we listen, we can learn a lot about how to be faithful and steadfast right from the source.
~ Psalm 51:10
"create in me a pure heart, O God"
We try so hard to make ourselves righteous, to make ourselves good. This is a worthy cause, but it's one we can't accomplish without God's help. When we face temptation or see impurity within ourselves, we should pray that God will wash it away and replace it with the good. Our hearts are impure by nature, but through Christ they can be made new and pure. God can create purity within us if we ask Him, if we let Him.
"renew a steadfast spirit within me"
When we start out on our Christian journey, most of us do so with a passion, with fire, with zeal for what God has in store for us. Then time and work and life get in the way, and the fire dims. Sadly, we seem to forget everything the Lord has done for us. While in the beginning our spirits were steadfast in following the Lord, as time passes, if we're not careful, we lose our vision and we lose our direction. We wake up one day and realize, all of a sudden, how very far away we've gotten from God. So we need to ask Him to help us get back on track.
What's a steadfast spirit? Steadfast means "fixed in direction; steadily directed; firm in purpose, resolution, faith, or attachment; unwavering; firmly established." In other words, a steadfast spirit is one that stands firm against temptation, has a vision about where it is headed, and allows the Spirit of God to direct it.
So how do we go about getting a steadfast spirit?
First, we must remember why we want a steadfast spirit in the first place. We must remember why we are Christians, why God is worthy and deserving of our honor and praise. He created us, gave us life, watched us sin and throw it all away, and then gave us life again in the ultimate act of love. Think of it. The Creator of the universe cared enough about you in particular to die for you. That's amazing stuff, and it's why we're Christians. We love Jesus because He first loved us.
Second, we must ask God to make it possible. We must ask for His direction in our lives and accept it when it comes. We need to mean what we say. If we say, "Lord, if this man is not the man you have chosen to be my husband, please show me," then we can't go getting mad at the Lord when He shows us! If we want to yield to the will of God, we have to accept that His will is higher than our will, and that what we want is not always what's best for us. Sometimes this is painful, but in the end, if we're mature about it, we can rejoice because the Lord cares enough for us to save us from ourselves sometimes.
Third, we need to get back into the Word of God even more heavily than we already are, and we need to go deeper into prayer than we ever have. God does speak audibly to some people at some times, but the most reliable way to hear from God in any given situation is to read His Word. It's valuable, profitable, because it teaches us about God's mind and His Spirit. God is the ultimate in steadfast. In Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning (James 1:17). God doesn't change - He's the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He knows what He is doing. He is fixed in direction, firm in purpose, unwavering, and firmly established. If we want to be steadfast, the Lord is definitely our model for that. God is forever speaking to us through the Bible, and if we listen, we can learn a lot about how to be faithful and steadfast right from the source.
Friday, August 10, 2007
August 10: Thoughts on Ephesians 2:4-5
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved."
~ Ephesians 2:4-5
This was a common issue for me when I first started thinking about God and salvation. First I had to wrap my mind around the fact that I wasn't as good as everyone told me I was.
After I had come to terms with the fact that I was fallen and sinful, it radically changed how I thought of myself. When I first heard Jesus died for me and my sins on the Cross, I was like, "No, no, no, God, take it back. I'm so not worth all that trouble. Seriously. Just let me die. I deserve it." And I really wondered why the God of Heaven - the greatest Being in all the universe - would do something like that for ME.
I knew I wasn't basically good or special or unique or perfect or any of those things they try to tell you that you are in those terrible "self-esteem" talks they give you in school. We just aren't those things. We all sin. We all fall short.
So my question was, okay, so I fell short. Fine, I get that. But why does God want to stoop down and fix it when I've messed it up so badly?
The answer? "because of his great love for us"
The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). It tells us that God loved people so much that He sent Jesus to die for us (John 3:16). Not because we deserved it, because I can promise you we didn't, but because He loved us anyway. He is "rich in mercy," which means He loves us and gives to us even though we don't deserve it.
"made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions"
This is a contrast isn't it. We were dead, but now we're alive! Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we're raised from the dead spiritually. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). Why? Again, not because we're worthy of it, but because "by grace [we] are saved."
Grace is related to the Latin word gratis, which means free. In other words, our salvation is not something we can achieve on our own but a free gift - no strings attached - that we get from God. That doesn't mean we get off scot-free after we're saved though.
God still expects us to do good things and behave ourselves, because faith without works is dead (James 2:26) - and we are gloriously alive, so we should act like it. How? By doing good works - helping others, feeding the poor, spreading the Gospel, giving to the Lord, and living a holy life to the best of our ability (Romans 12:1-2).
What has the Lord done for you this week? What have you done for Him?
~ Ephesians 2:4-5
This was a common issue for me when I first started thinking about God and salvation. First I had to wrap my mind around the fact that I wasn't as good as everyone told me I was.
After I had come to terms with the fact that I was fallen and sinful, it radically changed how I thought of myself. When I first heard Jesus died for me and my sins on the Cross, I was like, "No, no, no, God, take it back. I'm so not worth all that trouble. Seriously. Just let me die. I deserve it." And I really wondered why the God of Heaven - the greatest Being in all the universe - would do something like that for ME.
I knew I wasn't basically good or special or unique or perfect or any of those things they try to tell you that you are in those terrible "self-esteem" talks they give you in school. We just aren't those things. We all sin. We all fall short.
So my question was, okay, so I fell short. Fine, I get that. But why does God want to stoop down and fix it when I've messed it up so badly?
The answer? "because of his great love for us"
The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). It tells us that God loved people so much that He sent Jesus to die for us (John 3:16). Not because we deserved it, because I can promise you we didn't, but because He loved us anyway. He is "rich in mercy," which means He loves us and gives to us even though we don't deserve it.
"made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions"
This is a contrast isn't it. We were dead, but now we're alive! Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we're raised from the dead spiritually. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6:23). Why? Again, not because we're worthy of it, but because "by grace [we] are saved."
Grace is related to the Latin word gratis, which means free. In other words, our salvation is not something we can achieve on our own but a free gift - no strings attached - that we get from God. That doesn't mean we get off scot-free after we're saved though.
God still expects us to do good things and behave ourselves, because faith without works is dead (James 2:26) - and we are gloriously alive, so we should act like it. How? By doing good works - helping others, feeding the poor, spreading the Gospel, giving to the Lord, and living a holy life to the best of our ability (Romans 12:1-2).
What has the Lord done for you this week? What have you done for Him?
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
August 7: Thoughts on Proverbs 27:19
"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man."
~ Proverbs 27:19
Simple but true. Most of us look in the mirror everyday (some more than others, but hey, that's another verse for another day). We check to make sure our hair is in place, see how that "blemish" is doing, or make sure nothing is hanging out of our nose.
And that's all well and good. But how often do we look a little deeper at the condition of our heart. Although you're having an awesome hair day, that's not gonna be what people see when they really look at you. The condition of your heart says the most about what you are.
Great example: Hollywood. Who do we see in Hollywood? Some of the most beautiful people in the world right? Yeah, if you have the mindset that beauty only runs skin deep. It's our ability to look past the outside into the heart of people to know the truth. Look at the wonderful example many of the people in Hollywood are setting for our youth.
When you look in the mirror and you see you have a stain on your shirt you change it. Sometimes you change your whole outfit. Sin stains our heart. Jesus gets rid of sin. As corny as it sounds, Jesus is Tide for the heart.
We have to take a look at our own hearts; they make us who we are, not the clothes we wear, not the way we wear our hair, not the number of pimples we have, not how fat or skinny we are.
I ask you right now to take a look at your heart. Is it blemished? Is it stained with sin? Have you lied to someone you love? Are you harboring unforgiveness against a friend? Your wear your heart on your sleeve whether you know it or not.
As Christians, our hearts are always on display. It is a huge responsibility that our hearts be clean at all times. And though it is tough in the world we live in, we can be shining examples to all who come into contact with us in our daily lives with the help of the Lord.
~ Proverbs 27:19
Simple but true. Most of us look in the mirror everyday (some more than others, but hey, that's another verse for another day). We check to make sure our hair is in place, see how that "blemish" is doing, or make sure nothing is hanging out of our nose.
And that's all well and good. But how often do we look a little deeper at the condition of our heart. Although you're having an awesome hair day, that's not gonna be what people see when they really look at you. The condition of your heart says the most about what you are.
Great example: Hollywood. Who do we see in Hollywood? Some of the most beautiful people in the world right? Yeah, if you have the mindset that beauty only runs skin deep. It's our ability to look past the outside into the heart of people to know the truth. Look at the wonderful example many of the people in Hollywood are setting for our youth.
When you look in the mirror and you see you have a stain on your shirt you change it. Sometimes you change your whole outfit. Sin stains our heart. Jesus gets rid of sin. As corny as it sounds, Jesus is Tide for the heart.
We have to take a look at our own hearts; they make us who we are, not the clothes we wear, not the way we wear our hair, not the number of pimples we have, not how fat or skinny we are.
I ask you right now to take a look at your heart. Is it blemished? Is it stained with sin? Have you lied to someone you love? Are you harboring unforgiveness against a friend? Your wear your heart on your sleeve whether you know it or not.
As Christians, our hearts are always on display. It is a huge responsibility that our hearts be clean at all times. And though it is tough in the world we live in, we can be shining examples to all who come into contact with us in our daily lives with the help of the Lord.
Monday, August 6, 2007
August 6: Thoughts on Exodus 15:11
"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"
~Exodus 15:11
"Who is like the LORD? Nobody. Who is like the LORD? N-n-n-n-n-nobody."
If you're like me, you instantly got that song stuck in your head when you read today's verse.
But really, it's true, isn't it? Who is like God? There's nobody like Him. We work hard and strive to be good people, free from sin, but nobody's perfect. Nobody can be like God.
In my opinion, this is where a lot of religions go wrong. They teach that if you work hard enough, eventually you can be just like their god. While this certainly isn't true of all other religions, it is true of a large number of them.
If a religion really teaches that we can become like its god, its god must not be very great, and isn't our God at all - for none of us can even come close to the greatness of who God is.
He is God and we are His people. We can become Christlike (which is God-like), but that's a daily struggle, and we're asymptotic to godliness (by which I mean that through faith and perseverance, we can get close but not quite to the point of godliness). Wasn't Lucifer's fatal flaw his attempt to be like God?
Luckily, we don't need to be just like God. We don't need to be perfect, because Jesus, who was perfect, died in our place. All we need is faith that He did it. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.
Also, our God is "majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders." God is great, nifty, awesome, majestic, wondrous, glorious, powerful, mighty, etc. I'm glad that I have the privilege to know Him, and that He cares about little old me.
~Exodus 15:11
"Who is like the LORD? Nobody. Who is like the LORD? N-n-n-n-n-nobody."
If you're like me, you instantly got that song stuck in your head when you read today's verse.
But really, it's true, isn't it? Who is like God? There's nobody like Him. We work hard and strive to be good people, free from sin, but nobody's perfect. Nobody can be like God.
In my opinion, this is where a lot of religions go wrong. They teach that if you work hard enough, eventually you can be just like their god. While this certainly isn't true of all other religions, it is true of a large number of them.
If a religion really teaches that we can become like its god, its god must not be very great, and isn't our God at all - for none of us can even come close to the greatness of who God is.
He is God and we are His people. We can become Christlike (which is God-like), but that's a daily struggle, and we're asymptotic to godliness (by which I mean that through faith and perseverance, we can get close but not quite to the point of godliness). Wasn't Lucifer's fatal flaw his attempt to be like God?
Luckily, we don't need to be just like God. We don't need to be perfect, because Jesus, who was perfect, died in our place. All we need is faith that He did it. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.
Also, our God is "majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders." God is great, nifty, awesome, majestic, wondrous, glorious, powerful, mighty, etc. I'm glad that I have the privilege to know Him, and that He cares about little old me.
Friday, August 3, 2007
August 3: Thoughts on Isaiah 53:5-6
"But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
~ Isaiah 53:5-6
That's the story, laid down in the Old Testament, of the Suffering Servant. Isn't it amazing that God revealed such a detailed, accurate prophecy of Jesus Christ to Isaiah, around 700 years prior to Jesus' birth? You can read the rest of Isaiah 53 here. It's eerily accurate - well, at least it would be eerie if we didn't know that God was involved. (On a side note, how strange-looking is the word eerie? Never noticed that before.)
"but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities"
He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Wow. His hands and feet were pierced by nails on the Cross and He was crushed because we sinned.
"the punishment that brought us peace was upon him"
We deserved the punishment, but rather than having to pay the price, He paid it for us. He exchanged His excruciating pain - even unto death - for our peace, because He loves us. And we can have peace, because He's taken our punishment and we're promised peace in return. The Word of God promises peace because God is the God of peace - because to bring peace, He gave His all.
"by his wounds we are healed"
Jesus was beaten heartily before He was put onto the Cross. He was severely wounded even before the nails were driven into His hands and feet. Before He was beaten, He was stressed out to the point of sweating blood. Because our Lord was physically hurt in such a way, we are now promised healing.
This healing is twofold. First of all, because of the Lord's suffering, we are promised spiritual healing. We are promised freedom from the prison of sin. Secondly, we are promised physical healing. Jesus did many miracles involving bodily healing while He walked the earth, and I just don't believe that all that ended when He ascended into Heaven. I believe it's still the same as it's always been: if we have faith, we may be healed (see Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52; Luke 17:19; and Luke 18:42).
"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way."
This is a good reminder. We've all turned from God's way and to our own way at one point or another. It's part of our sinful nature to do so. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short. It makes no sense to argue about who killed Jesus. Even though maybe some of the Jews were the ones pushing hard for His execution, in reality every single one of us killed Jesus, by sinning and making His death on the Cross necessary for our redemption.
"and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all"
Jesus didn't sin. But He took the load of our sins away from us, took them upon Himself. He held the world on His shoulders, the heavy burden of the sins of every human being who ever had walked or would walk the earth. And He bore it all just for us.
He urges us to come to Him, to let Him take our burdens away from us (see 1 Peter 5:7) in exchange for His burdens, because His yoke is easy and His burdens are light (Matthew 11:28-30). It doesn't seem fair, does it? He's done nothing wrong, yet He offers to take all our sins and burdens and worries upon Himself.
Boy, am I ever glad God's not fair by the world's standards.
~ Isaiah 53:5-6
That's the story, laid down in the Old Testament, of the Suffering Servant. Isn't it amazing that God revealed such a detailed, accurate prophecy of Jesus Christ to Isaiah, around 700 years prior to Jesus' birth? You can read the rest of Isaiah 53 here. It's eerily accurate - well, at least it would be eerie if we didn't know that God was involved. (On a side note, how strange-looking is the word eerie? Never noticed that before.)
"but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities"
He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Wow. His hands and feet were pierced by nails on the Cross and He was crushed because we sinned.
"the punishment that brought us peace was upon him"
We deserved the punishment, but rather than having to pay the price, He paid it for us. He exchanged His excruciating pain - even unto death - for our peace, because He loves us. And we can have peace, because He's taken our punishment and we're promised peace in return. The Word of God promises peace because God is the God of peace - because to bring peace, He gave His all.
"by his wounds we are healed"
Jesus was beaten heartily before He was put onto the Cross. He was severely wounded even before the nails were driven into His hands and feet. Before He was beaten, He was stressed out to the point of sweating blood. Because our Lord was physically hurt in such a way, we are now promised healing.
This healing is twofold. First of all, because of the Lord's suffering, we are promised spiritual healing. We are promised freedom from the prison of sin. Secondly, we are promised physical healing. Jesus did many miracles involving bodily healing while He walked the earth, and I just don't believe that all that ended when He ascended into Heaven. I believe it's still the same as it's always been: if we have faith, we may be healed (see Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52; Luke 17:19; and Luke 18:42).
"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way."
This is a good reminder. We've all turned from God's way and to our own way at one point or another. It's part of our sinful nature to do so. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short. It makes no sense to argue about who killed Jesus. Even though maybe some of the Jews were the ones pushing hard for His execution, in reality every single one of us killed Jesus, by sinning and making His death on the Cross necessary for our redemption.
"and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all"
Jesus didn't sin. But He took the load of our sins away from us, took them upon Himself. He held the world on His shoulders, the heavy burden of the sins of every human being who ever had walked or would walk the earth. And He bore it all just for us.
He urges us to come to Him, to let Him take our burdens away from us (see 1 Peter 5:7) in exchange for His burdens, because His yoke is easy and His burdens are light (Matthew 11:28-30). It doesn't seem fair, does it? He's done nothing wrong, yet He offers to take all our sins and burdens and worries upon Himself.
Boy, am I ever glad God's not fair by the world's standards.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
August 1: Thoughts on James 5:16
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
~ James 5:16
Are you ever afraid to ask for prayer? Afraid that someone will judge you because of a prayer need? That they'll know whatever sin you've committed and not hang out with you anymore, or that they'll spread gossip about you? Yeah, me too.
Because, on some level, we're all a little bit fake (aren't you fake at church, even just a little bit?). It's not on purpose, but we feel that we need to put on a different face when we're around "church people" than we do when we're in the real world. But the truth is that we all live in the real world. Nobody's perfect, no matter how much we try to pretend we are.
But the altar (or the prayer meeting) is a place where we can get past all that fakeness and just come before God and be honest, be who we really are.
"confess your sins to each other"
We only need to confess our sins to God. We don't need someone else to be involved in order for God to forgive our sins. There is only one mediator between people and God, and that's Jesus Christ, but (and this is a big but) confessing to other believers can be helpful in several ways.
First, it breaks the fakeness. When we confess that we've done wrong to a fellow Christian, it sends the message, "Hey, you know what, you're not the only person who struggles with sin." It serves as an encouragement to the other person.
Second, it allows us to get things off our chest. Though God can forgive us, sometimes we benefit from confirmation from other people that God really does forgive us if we confess and repent (1 John 1:9).
It also gives us a little bit of extra accountability, because our friends who pray for us know what kind of sins we are susceptible to and thus they can help us stay away from temptation and pray for us more effectively.
"pray for each other so that you may be healed"
Do you believe God still heals? I do. If God can create our bodies, He can certainly set them back into working order. If he made the four chambers of our heart, He can comfort us in our emotional pain. If He can send His Son to die for us, He can heal us from the stain of sin.
In His time here on earth, Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8:25), a woman with an issue of blood (Matthew 9:22), lepers (Luke 17:11-19), and people with paralysis (Mark 2:5; Matthew 8:13), just to name a few. The Bible tells us God doesn't play favorites (Acts 10:34, The Message), so if He healed those people, He can heal us too, if we believe He can.
"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
But, you say, I'm not righteous! Not on your own, you're not, but through the obedience of Jesus unto death, we are made righteous (Romans 5:19).
So, as people made righteous through Christ's obedience, our prayers are powerful and effective. Powerful means "having or exerting great power or force." Our prayers exert our power over the Enemy. Effective means "adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result." Our prayers accomplish what we set them out to accomplish.
Prayer is a wonderful gift to us from God, and it is a gift whose worth is multiplied when we pray with others. As a church body, we exist to win the lost and build one another up. One of the best tools we have to grow closer to one another is prayer.
Father in the Name of Jesus, please bless the reader of this blog. Show them that You love them, that you are there and want to take care of them. If they are struggling, just hold them in your arms and be a comfort to them. If they are ill or in danger, protect them, Lord. If they need a friend, help them find a friend, Father. If it is Your will, let that friend be us. If they are broken, help them become whole. If they are weak, help them be strong. If they are alone, be with them, Lord. If they are lost, help them find themselves in You. You know their needs, Lord, and only You can fill them. We thank you for everything that you've given us, for homes and families and jobs, for strong brothers and sisters in Christ, for a church family that shows its love, and most of all for giving Your life only to save ours. We love you, Lord, and we ask that you bless these readers and all those we pray for. We ask it in the Name that is above every other name, the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
~ James 5:16
Are you ever afraid to ask for prayer? Afraid that someone will judge you because of a prayer need? That they'll know whatever sin you've committed and not hang out with you anymore, or that they'll spread gossip about you? Yeah, me too.
Because, on some level, we're all a little bit fake (aren't you fake at church, even just a little bit?). It's not on purpose, but we feel that we need to put on a different face when we're around "church people" than we do when we're in the real world. But the truth is that we all live in the real world. Nobody's perfect, no matter how much we try to pretend we are.
But the altar (or the prayer meeting) is a place where we can get past all that fakeness and just come before God and be honest, be who we really are.
"confess your sins to each other"
We only need to confess our sins to God. We don't need someone else to be involved in order for God to forgive our sins. There is only one mediator between people and God, and that's Jesus Christ, but (and this is a big but) confessing to other believers can be helpful in several ways.
First, it breaks the fakeness. When we confess that we've done wrong to a fellow Christian, it sends the message, "Hey, you know what, you're not the only person who struggles with sin." It serves as an encouragement to the other person.
Second, it allows us to get things off our chest. Though God can forgive us, sometimes we benefit from confirmation from other people that God really does forgive us if we confess and repent (1 John 1:9).
It also gives us a little bit of extra accountability, because our friends who pray for us know what kind of sins we are susceptible to and thus they can help us stay away from temptation and pray for us more effectively.
"pray for each other so that you may be healed"
Do you believe God still heals? I do. If God can create our bodies, He can certainly set them back into working order. If he made the four chambers of our heart, He can comfort us in our emotional pain. If He can send His Son to die for us, He can heal us from the stain of sin.
In His time here on earth, Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8:25), a woman with an issue of blood (Matthew 9:22), lepers (Luke 17:11-19), and people with paralysis (Mark 2:5; Matthew 8:13), just to name a few. The Bible tells us God doesn't play favorites (Acts 10:34, The Message), so if He healed those people, He can heal us too, if we believe He can.
"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
But, you say, I'm not righteous! Not on your own, you're not, but through the obedience of Jesus unto death, we are made righteous (Romans 5:19).
So, as people made righteous through Christ's obedience, our prayers are powerful and effective. Powerful means "having or exerting great power or force." Our prayers exert our power over the Enemy. Effective means "adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result." Our prayers accomplish what we set them out to accomplish.
Prayer is a wonderful gift to us from God, and it is a gift whose worth is multiplied when we pray with others. As a church body, we exist to win the lost and build one another up. One of the best tools we have to grow closer to one another is prayer.
Father in the Name of Jesus, please bless the reader of this blog. Show them that You love them, that you are there and want to take care of them. If they are struggling, just hold them in your arms and be a comfort to them. If they are ill or in danger, protect them, Lord. If they need a friend, help them find a friend, Father. If it is Your will, let that friend be us. If they are broken, help them become whole. If they are weak, help them be strong. If they are alone, be with them, Lord. If they are lost, help them find themselves in You. You know their needs, Lord, and only You can fill them. We thank you for everything that you've given us, for homes and families and jobs, for strong brothers and sisters in Christ, for a church family that shows its love, and most of all for giving Your life only to save ours. We love you, Lord, and we ask that you bless these readers and all those we pray for. We ask it in the Name that is above every other name, the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Monday, July 30, 2007
July 30: Thoughts on 2 Cor. 4:16-17
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."
~ II Corinthians 4:16-17
Sometimes life just seems hopeless. We can't look past ourselves, and all we see is pain: our physical pain, as we age and our bodies start to fail us (or we *coughBrucecough* break our leg and don't realize it foraweek - must not have hurt too bad ); our emotional pain, as we find ourselves alone or childless or unfulfilled or disappointed or disillusioned; and our spiritual pain, as we realize how far away we really are from God.
(Sometimes, the closer I draw to God, the farther away I feel. I suppose it's just an increased awareness of how far the distance actually is. Sometimes, in my attempts to live a holy life, I tend to forget that I don't have to cross that distance on my own. I have Jesus to bridge the gap, and the Holy Spirit to lead me across it. I just can't do it on my own, no matter what my inflated opinions of myself might be.)
The Word of God speaks to our lives. It is eternally relevant. So what is this passage in II Corinthians saying to us?
"outwardly we are wasting away"
Outwardly, we're getting older. Every day is getting shorter, and, as a secular rock band once so eloquently put it, as time passes we are "shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." We experience physical deterioration.
Outwardly, we may be suffering. We don't have the car or the boyfriend or girlfriend we want. We are rejected for our stand for Christ. We seem depressed, alone, frustrated. We don't know what to do with our lives. Our parents look down on us. Whatever we struggle with, we are usually struggling with something, because that's the nature of spiritual growth. Which brings me neatly to the next part:
"inwardly we are being renewed day by day"
Though we are struggling with things, we are becoming spiritually BETTER. We are being renewed. The Holy Spirit is renewing us, transforming us if we let Him.
Our struggles and trials aren't for nothing. They serve to make us BETTER, CLOSER to God. The Bible says that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So while we can't see it now, and outwardly we seem to be breaking down, inwardly God is doing a great work in us.
This is why "we do not lose heart" - because we KNOW that in the end, it will all be good, because we love God, and God is good. Struggles are just a part of the process of refinement, you know? In the end - the very, very end - we'll have eternal glory because of all that we've struggled with temporarily here on earth. God's amazing, isn't He?
Also see 1 Peter 1:6b-7: "...now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
~ II Corinthians 4:16-17
Sometimes life just seems hopeless. We can't look past ourselves, and all we see is pain: our physical pain, as we age and our bodies start to fail us (or we *coughBrucecough* break our leg and don't realize it foraweek - must not have hurt too bad ); our emotional pain, as we find ourselves alone or childless or unfulfilled or disappointed or disillusioned; and our spiritual pain, as we realize how far away we really are from God.
(Sometimes, the closer I draw to God, the farther away I feel. I suppose it's just an increased awareness of how far the distance actually is. Sometimes, in my attempts to live a holy life, I tend to forget that I don't have to cross that distance on my own. I have Jesus to bridge the gap, and the Holy Spirit to lead me across it. I just can't do it on my own, no matter what my inflated opinions of myself might be.)
The Word of God speaks to our lives. It is eternally relevant. So what is this passage in II Corinthians saying to us?
"outwardly we are wasting away"
Outwardly, we're getting older. Every day is getting shorter, and, as a secular rock band once so eloquently put it, as time passes we are "shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." We experience physical deterioration.
Outwardly, we may be suffering. We don't have the car or the boyfriend or girlfriend we want. We are rejected for our stand for Christ. We seem depressed, alone, frustrated. We don't know what to do with our lives. Our parents look down on us. Whatever we struggle with, we are usually struggling with something, because that's the nature of spiritual growth. Which brings me neatly to the next part:
"inwardly we are being renewed day by day"
Though we are struggling with things, we are becoming spiritually BETTER. We are being renewed. The Holy Spirit is renewing us, transforming us if we let Him.
Our struggles and trials aren't for nothing. They serve to make us BETTER, CLOSER to God. The Bible says that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So while we can't see it now, and outwardly we seem to be breaking down, inwardly God is doing a great work in us.
This is why "we do not lose heart" - because we KNOW that in the end, it will all be good, because we love God, and God is good. Struggles are just a part of the process of refinement, you know? In the end - the very, very end - we'll have eternal glory because of all that we've struggled with temporarily here on earth. God's amazing, isn't He?
Also see 1 Peter 1:6b-7: "...now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)