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).

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?

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.

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.

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...)