Tag Archives: Christ

KNOWING GOD

27 Saturday Sep 2014

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I surprised myself a few days ago when I was able to answer a rather complicated question about God posed by a preacher on the radio. As I sat feeling a bit more smug than I should, it occurred to me that the answer would not have been found in any one Scripture that I might have been able to call to mind.  I hadn’t memorized the answer from one of the many books I have read or a sermon I’ve heard.  I was able to arrive at the answer because I know God.  Oh, I still have a lot to learn about Him, but it was a lightbulb moment when I understood that the Creator of the universe is knowable.

When I first became a Christian, I was desperate to learn all I could about the events and people in the Bible. My goal was to learn and remember as much as I could.  I wrote out genealogies, a chronology of all the major events, and each of the Jewish festivals and the meaning behind each one.  I mapped out a timeline of kings adding important notes about each one, whether they were good or bad, whether they ruled in Judah or Israel.  I wanted to be sure I knew what message each of the prophets delivered, to whom they tried to speak, and how they died.  I was clearly learning historical facts about God’s work in our world.  What I didn’t realize was that I was also learning about God Himself.  Through the events He included in His message to us, I learned about His faithfulness, His goodness, and how great His love is for us.

Deuteronomy 4:29 – “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Each year for the past five years I have read the entire Bible. Each year God brings so many new things to my attention. Each time I spend time in God’s Word, I remind myself that this book is how God chose to tell us things He wants us to know and I feel so close to Him.  Sometimes I am surprised at the thoughts He brings to my mind, the insights He gives me.  Some days I read and don’t have this experience but even on those days I feel near to God as I read.  It’s so amazing to know the God that created me wants me to know Him.  The relationship is not one-sided – it is not merely that God knows me so intimately – He has provided ways for me to know Him in the same way.

In addition to reading the Bible, I regularly listen to respected Christian teachers on the radio, at my church and on TV (although I have learned to be very careful about whom I watch on TV – it seems to be the one media where false teachers abound!). Allistair Begg, James MacDonald, Erwin Lutzer, Ravi Zacharias, Hank Hanegraaff, Charles Stanley, Michael Yousseff, Adrian Rogers, Ron Jones, Chip Ingram and Tony Evans are just a few that I can count on to present sound Biblical teaching.  Christian authors are another provision from God to help us know Him better: Arthur Murray, C.S. Lewis, George Muller, A.W. Tozer, Dietrich Bonhoffer, and many current Christian authors.  Each day, after reading and meditating on Scripture, I read other Christian books, often two or three books at a time!  On days when I feel down I pop on the earplugs and listen to Christian music.  It is so uplifting and provides a way for me to praise God instead of focusing on myself.  It’s better than any anti-depressant I have ever been prescribed!

To know God, we must seek Him – earnestly and diligently. There’s no quick or easy way to do this.  Just as in our human relationships, it takes time.  Don’t neglect this essential aspect of your Christian life.  It is so much easier to obey and serve God when you know Him.  It’s easy to come up with excuses.  Those dirty dishes will still be there, the laundry will remain in that hamper until you’ve spent time with God.  Knowing Him will actually make washing those dishes and clothes a more joyful activity – because you will understand how every activity in your day can be used to glorify Him!

For so many years, I worked on memorizing other people’s answers or finding Scripture that answer questions others might ask about God. But as I have got to know God better, I can reason through what I know to be true about Him.  Knowing His character and His attributes is the best way to equip ourselves to lead others to Him and to help them know Him rightly.  Knowing Him also helps me make decisions that will glorify Him and bless me, giving me the best life possible.  Knowing Him helps me get through difficult times because I know of His faithfulness and great love.  He is a very real presence in my life when I make Him the priority.  Not only does He make each day more joyful, His strength and comfort have become real resources that I can call on to get me through the struggles.

How blessed are we that we serve a God that wants us to know Him and has provided so many ways that enable us to have a relationship with Him!

1 Chronicles 28:9 – “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.”

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FOOLS FOR CHRIST

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

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One of the more difficult “responsibilities” we have as followers of Christ is to die to self.  After 50+ years of living a life dedicated to securing my own comfort, this has proven to be pretty challenging.  Not because I don’t want to do it – every fiber of my being wants my commitment to Christ to be evident to everyone I come into contact with.  But as I become more convicted of habits and attitudes I need to rid myself of, I find myself dealing with things that are so ingrained and culturally acceptable that they are not so easy to identify and very easy to justify (to myself – God’s not buying it!).  And once God reveals them to me and I accept that they truly are creating an obstacle in my relationship with Him, I have to admit the real problem is that I don’t really want to get rid of them.  When I first committed my life to Christ, the things I let go of were things I had struggled to let go of for years.  I didn’t mind ridding myself of those things; even patted myself on the back for being able to turn from them!  But now I am at the point where it is time to let go of some deeply rooted habits that make my life comfortable and easy. And as I become more convicted about them, I am disappointed in my level of commitment to Christ as I continue to justify them or refuse to turn from them. 

Romans 7:15 – “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…”

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is Abraham’s great test of faith.  While I’ve never doubted that it was a true story, what Abraham experienced never sunk into my consciousness.  I was reading “The Fifth Gospel” by Bobby Conway and in his chapter titled “Fools for Christ,” he talks about the “weird” and “ridiculous” things God has asked His people to do.  He mentions Abraham.  And, reading about Abraham in this context suddenly made it more real than it has ever been.  Here’s how Mr. Conway put it:  “God promised Abraham he’d be the father of many nations.  Then, after Abraham finally receives his promised son, God tells him to kill the child.”  The degree of faith Abraham had suddenly hit me.  Abraham was being asked to sacrifice HIS CHILD: the child he had longed for his whole life; the child he didn’t believe he would ever have.  In spite of the shock he must have felt when God asked him to do this, Abraham was faithful in obeying God.  In spite of being promised by God that his heirs would be as numerous as the stars he was still willing to obey God and kill the one thing that could bring that promise to bear.  I can only imagine the things I would have said to God, the questions I would have been asking, the justifications for not obeying this seemingly ridiculous request.  But Abraham did it believing that somehow God would work it all out.  I was ashamed at how I struggle to let go of things in my life that are nowhere near as precious as Isaac was to Abraham; ashamed at how little faith I have that God is just waiting for me to clear my life so that His plan and ways can enrich my life; ashamed at how unwilling I am to forego the comforts I have acquired because I fear the things I feel He is asking me to replace them with. 

As Abraham walked to the place where he would sacrifice Isaac, I like to think he spent some time bargaining with God, just as I do.  But as I consider the faith he must have had, Abraham is more apt to have spent those moments asking for strength and comfort.  That’s what my conversations with God need to be.   

The stories in the Bible are given for instruction.  I have to stop glossing over them and pretending they don’t really apply to me.  God will probably not ask me to offer my children as a sacrifice to Him but He is asking me to sacrifice a lot of things that have come to be so important in my life that I struggle to let go of them.  He is asking me to trust that when I do that, my life will be so much more meaningful and joy-filled.  He is asking me to trust that these are the things I must do to become more Christ-like.  The things God is asking me to do aren’t really that ridiculous or weird, but I have been shown glimpses of what God wants my life to look like and I gotta say it’s weird for me to think that I could live like that.  It’s so different from my self-absorbed lifestyle!  But I want to demonstrate my faith and live my life as a testimony to others what followers of Jesus can look forward to and if I can implement the changes God is asking of me, I know for sure that others will see a huge difference and at least wonder at what has come over me! My lifestyle has to be so different that people notice.

Bobby Conway goes on to say: “God knows that most anyone obeys Him when blessing is promised and given.  But what about when that long-awaited gift is delivered and God asks you to give it back?  How many obey then?”  I want to be one of those people that obey when it’s hard.  It certainly isn’t as difficult as Abraham’s test, but dying to self is never easy, no matter what the sacrifice is.  And as I fully grasp the reality of what others have done, particularly the people we read about in the Old Testament, I find a little extra strength to “be a fool for Christ!”

Consider Joshua at the battle of Jericho and Ezekiel lying on his left side for 390 days then flipping over to his right side for another 40 days.  Instead of focusing on how they were being perceived, their faith in God’s ways kept them obedient to what He was telling them to do.  My faith must be my focus to follow through with the things God is showing me.  As God convicts me to spread the Good News of salvation, I find excuses for not doing so.  I would prefer God grant me the gift of singing so I could safely serve Him at church in the choir!  Why can’t He give me the gift of teaching and give me a Sunday School class?  But if handing out tracs to people who want nothing to do with a “Jesus freak” is what God is calling me to do – to give up my comfortable days in the pool or in front of the TV – then I must trust that is how He can best use me and get out there and DO IT.  As I contemplate these promptings, I am curious about how it will all play out and excited to see what God can accomplish with me if I can only find it in me to obey Him.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “…for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”

This is what Conway says about these Isaiah 55 verses: “…there is an infinite gap between the way He thinks and the way we think.  Think about that. But God’s creative, out-of-the-box ideas not only challenge our thinking but also test our faith.  We Christians are quick to sing and talk about trusting God and following Him no matter what.  But when He asks something odd, difficult, or uncomfortable of us, that’s when things get a bit complicated.”

My response to God’s requests of me so far has been “God knows how fearful I am of people, He’ll understand if it takes me a while to work up my nerve.”  Here’s the last quote from Pastor Conway that has turned my thinking around: “Never before has the church tried so hard to fit in with society, when in reality God still wants us to think different and stand out. We’ve spent so much time, energy, and money trying to convince the world that we’re normal – just like them.  And why?  Because deep down we want to be accepted by our friends and culture. And this stems from two roots – an insecurity about our faith and a subtle fear of man. Both of these contribute to our desperation to be liked. And neither are characteristic of the Fifth-Gospel Christian.  …we still recognize that radical obedience to God may sometimes lead others to think we’ve gone off the deep end.”  And that’s what I have to accept.  The things God is calling me to do are so out of character for me.  But I am out of character.  That night I committed my life to Christ and He sent the Spirit to dwell in me I became a new creation.  Until I actually do what God is calling me to do, I will not be an effective witness for Christ.

Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

CHRISTIAN CLASSICS

12 Saturday Apr 2014

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If you’ve never read any of the “Christian classics,” I highly recommend you do so. I began reading authors like CS Lewis, AW Tozer, Andrew Murray and George Muller and the book Pilgrim’s Progress late last year and cannot tell you how inspiring I found them to be. I actually read CS Lewis a couple of years ago and have yet to finish all of his works, but it definitely left me hungry for more. As I read or listen to respected Christan leaders, I take note of references to these early Christian authors and keep a list to read. I am now working my way through my collection, sometimes reading 2 at a time! You can get entire collections in one book and because most are no longer on any Best Seller lists (but should be!), you can generally get them for a little bit of nothing. My only regret is that I bought most of them to read on my Kindle so I cannot pass them along to others to read!

 I do have to warn you, many people find it a bit challenging to stay in them long enough to get hooked but if you can stick with it and get used to each of the authors’ idiosyncrasies, it is well worth it. For the older authors and books, the language is not what we are accustomed to, but that is part of the attraction for me. We have so butchered and “dumbed down” the English language! To read it as it was once spoken and written can take some getting used to but it is like listening to great music! Experiencing the beauty of words and phrases seldom used anymore is heavenly (pardon the pun)! I read that Tozer wrote much of his work in a cramped upstairs apartment in the middle of Chicago – whether that’s true or not I haven’t taken the time to confirm. But, if true, I agree with one commentator I read – it’s hard to believe such inspired work came out of such a familiar, everyday place.

Numbers 21:9 (NIV):9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

It’s not only the language, it’s also their treatment of Scripture that we seldom see in modern-day authors. In contrasting the classics with modern-day works I think Tozer hits the nail on the head. We are so busy defending the faith or outlining how to get it into our lives that we seem to have lost the only real answer: fix our gaze on God; remind ourselves continuously of His presence. Just as in Numbers where God directs Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people so that those who have been bitten can gaze upon it and live, so should we simply “look” constantly throughout our days upon Jesus as if He is sitting at our side. I guess this wouldn’t sell many books or programs. Living a life of faith, and experiencing the many blessings God promises us, according to Tozer, is simply this: looking at Him, for looking is believing. The first chapter would be the last chapter. As we move farther away from the simplicity of it, we are inundated with book after book and method after method of how to get our faith into our lives. I know I sound like a broken record when people come to me seeking relief from a burden in their lives. I can think of no other answer but to remind them to look to Jesus, keep your eye on Him, abide in Christ, remind yourself of Him every minute of every day.

 As I began to grow in my faith, I sought out mature Christians, writers, speakers, preachers to help me understand what living for Christ should look like in my life; how I could rely on an unseen being to bring me comfort. It was overwhelming: I was introduced to all kinds of lists of things I should do; the beginning letter of each item on each list would begin with the same letter to help me remember the things I should be doing. But I couldn’t keep it all straight and my life became very similar to what it was before I found Christ – constantly working at developing better life habits. There was just one habit they failed to tell me about: reminding myself every minute of every day of Christ’s presence in my life (a.k.a. the Holy Spirit). This truth became clear to me as I read Andrew Murray’s “Abide in Christ.” It became clearer as I read Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God.”

 Each of the authors I have read so far has given me a gift – Lewis has brought me extended knowledge and new ways to think about Scripture; Murray has added a level of peace to my life I never thought imaginable; Pilgrim’s Progress formed truths about our walk with God into visual pictures for me. I’ve not read enough of Muller to find what impact his writing is going to have. But Tozer has left me with a concept that I pray all Christians would grasp hold of and can be included in all of the things mentioned here: spiritual receptivity – our willingness to accept that the unseen spiritual world is as real as the physical world we can see.

 I ran across Tozer’s concept of spiritual receptivity in his book The Pursuit of God and in my mind it answers the question as to why these works have lasted, why one person stays in the Bible consistently while another does not, why one Christian can truly find peace with Christ while another does not, while one finds it “normal” to walk with God while another struggles to stay in that place, why one struggles with handling their emotions while another has learned how to act on them in a Biblical manner . We must understand and KNOW that the spiritual realm of God is an unseen reality, and though we cannot experience with any of our five senses, it is no less a reality. One can believe in the principle of God, but not in the reality of Him. As long as I have even the slightest doubt about the reality of Him, I have no real being on whom I can rely. Though I tell myself I hand my burdens over to Him, if I do not truly believe there is anyone really “there” to see to them, I am left with nobody to take care of them.

 I have spent the last 4 years desperately trying to understand what living out my faith should look like in my day-to-day life. I felt it shouldn’t be something that changed with my emotions or the circumstances I found myself in each day. It needed to be so ingrained in me that, when external things threatened my peace or my joy, I overcame it no matter what the threat was. I wanted God’s presence in my life to be so entrenched in my minute-to-minute living that when I found myself feeling the consuming fear I had lived with for so long, I would be able to turn loose of it because I truly trusted God and His working in my life. I reached that level of trust and faith as I read Andrew Murray (Abide in Christ; The Two Covenants). His revelations were reinforced by Tozer’s concept of spiritual receptivity (The Pursuit of God and Man: The Dwelling Place of God). I found I can live more spiritually not by checking things off of a list of behaviors that all beginning with the letter “P” but by keeping my mind on Christ as much as possible. As I read my Bible each day, I formed a “book club” with Murray and Tozer. Their written words elaborated on what I was reading in God’s Word, emphasizing the points I wasn’t paying enough attention to, pasting together the verses that I needed to see in one place about living this Christian life.

 If you want to accept my challenge to begin reading the Christian classics, I recommend starting with Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. The prayers at the end of each chapter are amazing. I truly believe you will find a new level of spirituality as you gain insight from these amazing followers of Christ!

ME IS A HARD HABIT TO BREAK

23 Monday Dec 2013

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I know our focus on self is nothing new.  It’s human nature.  As Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes “There is nothing new under the sun.”  Since Cain killed Abel, man’s priority has been himself.  The degree of self-absorption in the world is a cycle – it peaks, and then subsides.  Each generation feels more justified in elevating self and the consequences of decisions made during the peak times are disastrous – the value of human life declines , violence increases, God is put on trial, morality becomes relative, selfish desires overtake morality as a basis for personal and political decisions, and individuals emphasize their rights without acknowledging responsibilities.  As self-absorbed as we are today, I often wonder what life will look like for my grandchildren.    

Luke 9:23-24 -“If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

In my 20’s I told myself that I wasn’t going to waste my life being unhappy.  I read somewhere that if I was unhappy, my spouse and children could not possibly be happy as they would suffer the effects of my misery.  That sounded logical and I bought it hook, line and sinker.  If something in my life wasn’t going the way I thought it should, I changed it or got rid of it.  The few times I did stop to think about how my lifestyle was affecting others, I was convinced I was saving them from having to live with an unhappy me.  The thought that this way of living was me-centered never crossed my mind.  I was afraid of getting old and having regrets.  Living a life centered on me became such a habit that much of the time I wasn’t even aware that’s what I was doing. 

As I struggled with confidence and trying to fit into the world, I bought into the idea that it was a self-esteem issue, my locus of control was out of whack, as I learned in a college class.  The gist of this theory is that in order to enjoy life we must believe that we have the ability to control the events in our lives.  My boss once said to me, “Stop walking into a room wondering what everybody thinks about you.  Walk in and ask yourself what you think about them.”  He was getting closer to the right answer, but still missed the mark.  Even the solutions to my “me problem” left me focusing on myself!    

Despite being assured that putting myself first in life was a sure path to a happy life, at fifty years old I had nothing but regrets.  I was no closer to feeling comfortable in the world than I had been in my 20’s and 30’s.  We justify putting ourselves first in so many ways – we have a “right”, we expect life to be fair, the world tells us to put ourselves first.  We live in a self-centered society that approves of all of this.  We’re told to build our self-esteem, achieve self-actualization or self-realization.  We’re encouraged to find ourselves and never get so involved with others that we “lose our identity.”  It doesn’t work; we only end up getting buried deeper in ourselves. 

Philippians 2:3 – “Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.”

Then I committed my life to Christ.  I thought my “me problem” was solved.  After all, I was living for Jesus now.  But it crept into my Christian life.  I went to church waiting for people to come to me.  I quit going when I wasn’t getting what I needed.  I waited for people in the church to help me without asking.  I expected my church to provide the things I needed.  I hesitated to make friends because I dwelt on my past life and used it as an excuse to keep people at arm’s length.  My husband didn’t attend church so I felt lonely and sorry for myself.  It was all about me and the problems I was encountering as a new Christian. I wasn’t focusing on Jesus – I was still focused on myself.  I had moments when I was aware of what I was doing and I would tell my daughter “Me is a hard habit to break.”  Finally, it sunk in.  God began making me aware of how many times I thought about my Christian walk in terms of “me, my, I.” 

Romans 7:15 – “For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate.”

I began to look for the part of God’s truth that would put me on the right path once and for all.  Each time I thought I had found it, I failed again and each time found it harder to forgive myself for not being able to master this problem.  I began to think that my “me habit” was unconquerable.

Then I ran across Steven Cole’s Bible Study “Following Self or Jesus” at Bible.Org (Lesson #43).  He assures us that “dying to self is a daily task.”  I found comfort in that.  It gave me a different battle plan.  Rather than looking for one single answer that would rid me of the problem, I had to begin to look at it as a daily battle with the potential that each day’s struggle may demand a different answer.  But the answer will always be found in God’s truth.  When my emotions or desires tell me to act in a way that’s opposite of God’s commands, I must choose God’s way.  And I can only do that by being silent and remembering God’s Words.  In order to do that, I must be familiar with them.  Reading my Bible every day is the key.  Praying for strength and wisdom is the other tool I use.  While Steven Cole reminds us it’s a daily struggle, I suggest it is a struggle in each situation we deal with.

Read Steven Cole’s words on the role of self-esteem in Christian life (Following Self or Jesus? Lesson #43):   Thirty years ago, the teaching that Christians should love themselves and have proper self-esteem was virtually unheard of in evangelical circles.   …, for many years I taught that we need “proper” self-esteem. But then I came to see that the entire teaching is opposed to and condemned by Scripture. And I have grown increasingly concerned that because of the pervasiveness of this false teaching, there are many who think that they’re following Jesus, when actually they are only following self. They have been taught that the Christian faith and even Christian ministry are the avenues toward self-fulfillment. They’ve been told that Jesus will help you learn to love yourself, when in fact Jesus taught nothing of the kind. 

Taking up your cross is not something you accomplish in an emotional moment of spiritual ecstasy or dedication. You never arrive on a spiritual mountaintop where you can sigh with relief, “I’m finally there! No more death to self!” Nor are there any shortcuts or quick fixes to this painful process. The need for dying to self is never finished in this life; it must be a daily thing.  …When selfish thoughts (“I have my rights! I don’t have to take this!”) crowd your mind, you nail them to the cross by praying, “Lord Jesus, You gave up all Your rights, took on the form of a servant and became obedient to death on the cross for me. Help me to display that same attitude right now” (Phil. 2:5-8).

If, like me a few years ago, you have been taken in by the self-esteem teaching, I encourage you to re-evaluate it in light of all Scripture, especially, Luke 9:23. You won’t find a single verse telling you to build your self-esteem or to love yourself more.

Love Christ, put Him first.  Listen to what you’re saying to yourself in each situation.  When you hear any reference to yourself, consciously make yourself focus on Jesus.  It’s an ongoing struggle because our sin nature still resides in us, but you can build the habit of re-focusing on Jesus and doing things His way.  You’ll find your value only in Him.  He counted you worthy to die on the cross for. 

Romans 5:7, 8 – “ (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.)But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

WHEN “MERRY CHRISTMAS” BECOMES A STUMBLING BLOCK

11 Monday Nov 2013

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I love Christmas.  It’s my favorite holiday.  As I think about what we are celebrating, it never ceases to amaze me:  the Creator of the universe enters our world and takes on human form.  He begins His time on earth as a baby born of a virgin.  Our faith rests on believing Jesus’ virgin birth as a true historical event. As Christians we are to share the fact that God dwelt among us as a man with as many people as possible and Christmas provides a great opportunity to do that.  Jesus as a baby is easier to talk about than Jesus the man.  In the movie Talladega Nights, Bobby Ricky (played by Will Ferrell) proclaims “Baby Jesus is my favorite Jesus” to his dinner guests.  My guess is that’s how most people feel. Baby Jesus is safe.  Baby Jesus is a symbol of peace on earth, goodwill toward man.  Those messages are much more appealing than the things the adult Jesus stands for.   

There is one seasonal phenomenon that has started to rear its ugly head that needs careful thought:  Christians insisting that “Merry Christmas” is the only permissible phrase to be used this time of year.  In our zeal to insure Jesus is kept in the spotlight, we declare that “Happy Holidays” won’t do.   A couple of years ago, there was even an online effort encouraging people to boycott stores that refer to this time of the year only as the holidays.  In defending this stance, we claim we are trying to keep Christ in Christmas.

Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

As a committed follower of Jesus, we are to be conscious of how our behavior affects others, making sure it reflects Christ.  Every word we utter should be measured to insure we do not turn non-believers away from Him.  No matter the season, we must strive to show others’ His love.  Christmas provides an opportunity for talking to others about Jesus as we celebrate His birth, but focusing on telling everyone “Merry Christmas” with no regard to what they might believe is short-sighted.  It can also be regarded as a form of Phariseeism.  Just as the Pharisees wore their phylacteries on their forehead and long fringes on their robes to show others their religious position, wishing others Merry Christmas is merely an outward sign of our religion.  God isn’t concerned about outward signs.  He cares only for what is in our hearts.

Matthew 23:27: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

I jumped right on the bandwagon of letting everyone know that December is the celebration of Christ’s birth.  I was determined to put Christ back into Christmas.  I was a real soldier in the fight to re-claim December for Jesus.  I wore my “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” pin and responded to “Happy Holidays” with “Merry Christmas” believing I was standing up for my Savior.  One day I wished someone a Merry Christmas and her response was, “I’m Jewish.”  She smiled and wished me a Merry Christmas, telling me she hoped I enjoyed the holidays.  Her response showed much more love than I had been willing to show others.  While my hope is that all will come to know Christ, the reality is that many are not there yet.  If I am to be used by God to win people over, I have to demonstrate His love, just as this woman had done.  I showed no love for the lost during the time I was celebrating God’s great love for me. 

I Corinthians 8:11-13: “…when you … wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”

That brief conversation could’ve turned out much worse.  I was fortunate to have encountered a forgiving, tolerant Jewish woman who understood the holiday she celebrates during this time of the year is not that of the majority.  She was gentle in her correction of me.  I realized my insistence that Christmas be the only holiday recognized only demonstrates to others that I care very little for them.  It disregards the fact that many people do not know Jesus as their Savior.  My “Merry Christmas” message wasn’t about winning them to Christ – it was all about me.  It was more apt to be a stumbling block, moving them farther away from considering my faith as I shoved it onto them, showing little, if any respect for where they are spiritually at that moment.  I realized that lady was one of Christ’s lost sheep and I did nothing to draw her closer to Him with those two words.

The real spirit of Christmas is becoming more like our Savior in the spirit of selflessness.  Showing respect for others’ current belief only strengthens the chance they will consider Jesus.  As I shoved Christmas down the throat of every shop clerk and holiday shopper I could, I did not understand how selfish my crusade was.  My priority was MY belief, MY holiday.  I was not thinking about how disrespectful I was being to anyone who was not a follower of Jesus.  This was about as far from selflessness as I could get!  I heard a well-known teacher and preacher tell about his trip to India and he began talking about the need for the man he was visiting to go pray at his mosque.  I expected the Christian to use the opportunity to teach something about Jesus, but instead he agreed to accompany the man to the mosque.  I was quite surprised!  He didn’t object, didn’t use the situation to proclaim how wrong the other was in his beliefs.  He simply showed respect by allowing their meeting to be interrupted by the man’s religious practice.  He went on to tell how the incident helped their friendship grow as the man was more willing to listen due to the respect he had been shown.

Galatians 5:14: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

I thought about how I felt during my December “crusades” when someone wished me “Happy Holidays.”  I was offended.  I realized that is probably the reaction a non-believer has when I insist they have a “merry Christmas.”  Right or wrong, the fact is different people are celebrating different things at the very time we celebrate our Lord’s birth and we must recognize that.  Jesus meets us where we are.  He doesn’t require we clean up our act before He will extend His grace to us.  And He is our example of how we are to treat people. 

So what are we to make of businesses that have gone the way of the generic holiday?  Well, they have a business to run and they are trying to provide goods to anyone who might walk into their store.  “Happy holidays” covers everyone.  There are a number of different holiday celebrations during December:  Hanukkah is being celebrated by the Jewish people, Kwanzaa is celebrated by many African Americans, Eid Al Adha by Muslims, Festivus, a tongue-in-cheek holiday idea introduced on the TV show Seinfeld, has even been taken up by atheists!  Consider how a Muslim will appreciate your acknowledgment of Eid Al Adha, or how a Jewish family will cherish your card wishing them a Happy Hanukkah.  Your respect for their religious beliefs will open up many more opportunities for a discussion about Jesus. 

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only…

Keeping Christ in Christmas is so much more than a phrase we utter or words we use during this time of the year.  We do a great disservice to God when we focus on these outward signs. If someone wishes me “happy holidays,” I can assume they are not a believer and should look for opportunities to share the good news with them.  Jesus made it very clear that we should not be like the Pharisees, bearing only outward signs of our love for God.  God’s desire is that we show compassion, mercy and love for others.  Wishing a non-believer a greeting that is in keeping with where they are spiritually is one way to show your respect and leave open the possibility that next year you’ll be able to wish them a “Merry Christmas!”

As the holiday season gets under way, I pray that I will remember the other celebrations taking place during this time and that I will look for opportunities to share the good news of Christ’s birth with someone ready to hear it.  But I must always remember that an appropriate greeting should be appropriate to the hearer.  I don’t want to slam the door on my ability to reach anybody – Merry Christmas should not be a stumbling block!

Worry about NOTHING?!

19 Saturday Oct 2013

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One of the greatest struggles I had in building my relationship with God over the last four years is overcoming worry.  When I accepted Christ’s sacrifice for me and decided to follow His direction for my life, I was overwhelmed with worry, fear, depression and anxiety.  I desperately needed the peace He promises.  But I struggled to find this rest as my family and I went through some tremendous trials.  During my Bible study one day I came across this verse:

Philippians 4:6 – “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”

It was hard for me to fathom how God could expect me to live in this world and not worry about anything.  The only way I thought that could happen would be to stop caring about people.  That wasn’t going to happen and it certainly wasn’t consistent with the person God is and the kind of person He wants me to be.  Surely God understands if we worry about our loved ones, people who have not accepted His gift of salvation, world events that we have no control over.  But these words come from Paul, who suffered greatly.  He faced death numerous times, endured torture time and time again, had many friends who suffered and died, and was pursued endlessly by powerful people who opposed his message.  Yet Paul exhorts us through his words to the Philippians that we are to be anxious about NOTHING.  Paul didn’t provide us with a list of things we are allowed to worry about.  He says we are to be anxious about NOTHING.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  NO THING.  NOTHING. 

There is only one way to worry about nothing:  absolute trust in God.  When I am faced with a struggle, I come up with a solution that I want to see.  It’s generally a quick solution because the sooner the issue goes away, the sooner I can quit worrying.  I know how I want things to turn out and I go to God asking Him for those results.  Then I become anxious when I see even a slight possibility that things might turn out differently than I have planned or when nothing seems to be changing.  As I provide God with solutions, the absurdity of what I’m doing hits me and I have to switch gears.  I begin to focus on turning the situation over to God, but still I often worry whether or not I will be able to handle the outcome He might choose. 

Each time I’m faced with a new struggle, I face the challenge of totally trusting God.  I have to remember that He will work it out in a way that accounts for many things I cannot possibly consider.  He can account for every possible consequence for every individual and for eternity.  My limited view of life leaves me wanting answers that don’t include any kind of suffering or pain.  I don’t consider answers that will benefit someone I am harboring hard feelings for.  When I trust God’s answers, I can know He is able to take all of this into account and bring about good.  My view is too limited to even begin to accomplish this.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

 I love reading the Old Testament.  I get really frustrated with the Israelites as I read of their constant lack of trust in God during their time in the wilderness.  They worried about what they would eat and drink and expressed their displeasure with Moses for taking them out of Egypt where they had plenty, conveniently forgetting how they had suffered there.  They were fearful of the approaching Egyptian army and they feared the inhabitants of the land God promised them.  I question how they could ever worry about anything after the miracles they had witnessed – the parting of the Red Sea, God leading them by fire at night and the cloud by day, water pouring out of rocks and manna falling from the sky.  I sometimes think that if God would perform one of these miracles today, it would be easier to trust Him.  But if it didn’t work for the Israelites, I have to understand it wouldn’t work for me, either!  As I read these stories, I also have to remember that I have the advantage of reading about these things centuries after they happened.  I am no different from the Israelites when I face the trials He allows in my life.  I have to trust what He is going to do and I have to keep in mind that it might not look like I want it to look.  That’s the tough part. 

There are several things about God that I keep in mind.  God is outside of time.  He is able to work in my life as if He is reading about it centuries later.  He is omniscient so He knows what the consequences will be of everything that He allows in my life.  He orchestrates all of it so it works for good for all those who love Him who are involved even in the smallest way, not just the people and things I am aware of. 

Even when the solution God provides is difficult, I can rest assured God is still taking care of me.  As the Israelites’ wandered in the wilderness for 40 years as punishment for their lack of trust, God provided everything they needed.  As long as I remind myself that what He is doing takes into consideration everyone who loves Him and that He is preparing all for eternity, I am able to free myself from the anxiety I experience when I cannot see or understand the reasons for the difficult things He allows into my life. 

God’s timing is vastly different from mine.  More often than not, God’s plans require a lot of patience.  My most earnest prayer is that my loved ones will accept Christ.  As I watch things in the world unravel, I am convinced that this world has just about tested God’s patience to the limit and He will soon bring it to a close.  This leaves me with a sense of urgency for those who haven’t accepted His gift of salvation. There are days when I plead with Him to let me see some progress and there have been times when He shows me how someone has become more open to Jesus or they ask a question that indicates they are thinking about something we have discussed.  But, again, He didn’t provide a list of exceptions that I’m allowed to worry about, not even others’ salvation, nor did He say He would relieve my worry through visible evidence.  He will relieve my worry through faith and trust in Him and I must be patient.

The Philippians verse also tells us that we are to be thankful.  Giving thanks allows us to focus on God’s goodness.  It reminds us that He has cared for us in the past and will continue to do so.  Thanking and praising God as we petition Him for help in getting through trials changes our attitude and should help us realize that He truly cares for us.

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

My husband has head knowledge of Jesus but is not a committed follower.  We were talking about money and I reminded him that it could all be taken away in the blink of an eye despite his methodical, careful management.  I told him that if God wants me to live in a box, I’ll live in a box.  He said “But I don’t want to live in a box.”  In a misguided attempt to help him understand something about God’s nature, I tried to assure him if that were God’s plan, it would happen no matter what we do and we can rest in knowing that God would take care of our needs while teaching and refining us.  It wasn’t a well-timed conversation – like trying to teach someone geometry before they’ve mastered basic math – but it reminded me how thankful I am that I can trust God’s plans for me, no matter what they look like.  I wish my husband could find this peace.  

Luke 12:22-25 – “Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

Even my Christian friends often approach a struggle with their own plan in mind.  I try to find ways to remind them that God might have something different in mind for them.  Perhaps they will not be healed of a health issue, perhaps they will not get that job they desperately want, or maybe a family matter won’t be resolved in the way we believe would be best.  But they can still trust that no matter what happens God will use it for good.  God wants us to bring the desires of our hearts to Him and we are to be persistent and bold with our requests.  But we have to remember God is part of all answers, even when we don’t like them or understand them.  Too often we celebrate His presence when the answers look like we want them to look but chalk up His more difficult responses as unanswered prayer.    

Mark 14:32- 36: “ Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

Does this mean we will never have a minute of worry?  No, I don’t expect that.  After all, we still live in a broken world and we still care about other people.  Even Jesus, God in the flesh, experienced great anxiety on the night of His arrest.  On that night Jesus was deeply distressed and exceedingly sorrowful.  He turned to God in fervent prayer, asking God three times to take the cup from Him.  But Jesus yielded to God’s will.  Unlike us, Jesus knew what God’s plan would demand and how difficult it would be yet He still trusted in what God was doing, knowing what that plan meant for every person who ever lived. This should be our example during our struggles. 

I want to be as confident in God’s plans as Jesus was at Gethsemane; to live as if I can see through to eternity and rest assured that God’s plans are always the best for everyone involved.  I know I can approach God with my requests time and time again but when I convince myself that is the only acceptable answer, I invite worry and anxiety into my life.  I must always turn it over to God in the end and let Him work it out His way.  I must learn to lean on Him and trust that He will get me through those answers He provides that are painful or that I don’t understand.

The payoff is huge:  Philippians 4:7 – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

MY SANTA CLAUS gOD

04 Friday Oct 2013

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Before I committed my life to Christ I believed in a god I refer to as the Santa Claus god.  I called Him that because I believed God exists solely to give us everything we need to insure our lives are comfortable.  I believed that the only thing God wants from us is to love Him and to love others.  My Santa Claus god is pervasive in our culture.  Prosperity preachers assure us God wants us to have everything our heart desires.  When things don’t work out like we expect them to, many conclude God is dead or “sitting this one out.”  False teachers have reduced God’s Truth to His loving, caring attributes, throwing out all references to His wrath and judgment.  We have decided that we will determine what’s right and wrong so we don’t have to control our desires and we twist Scripture to support those decisions, asserting that God needs to change to conform to our culture.  C.S.  Lewis refers to it as “God in the dock” in his essay of the same name:

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge.  For the modern man the roles are reversed.  .… Man is on the Bench and God in the dock.”

Our world has decided we will define who God is.  We have decided that in many areas, He is just wrong.  We dismiss the idea of God’s judgment so sin becomes a non-issue.  Lewis writes in his essay that his greatest barrier in leading others to the Christian faith was “the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin.”  My own life attests to the price we pay when we determine what sin is instead of understanding God’s view of it.  I chose to believe that God loved me unconditionally so as long as I loved Him, I could do whatever I wanted to do.  Obedience was not something I felt I owed Him.  On those rare occasions when I read the Bible, I either ignored the parts I didn’t like, explained them away, dismissed them as old-fashioned, or interpreted them in a way that fit my life choices.

Adrian Rogers once said laws without punishment are nothing more than advice; without judgment, God’s laws become advice but God is not in the business of simply giving advice.  The world has decided His laws are outdated and those who choose to follow them are old-fashioned, narrow-minded and naïve.  I was happy to accept that line of thought because it meant I didn’t have to change anything I was doing.  As long as I defined God in my narrow way (loving and forgiving), there was no need for me to let go of any of the bad habits and behaviors that controlled my life.  We all know how hard it is to fight natural desires and urges.  My Santa Claus god allowed me to give in to them and the culture’s approval provided further validation.  As a result my unchecked desires for material possessions, worldly success, and intimacy determined how I was going to behave.

I was never afraid of the consequences of my behavior because I believed a loving God would rescue me from them.  Because I ignored the fact that God does run out of patience with us, that He does anger (albeit slowly) and will judge us, there was nothing in my belief system that made me accountable to Him. I never really tied the struggles I was having to my behavior; I blamed something or someone else.

I Kings 19:11, 12: “…but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

On December 10, 2009, when I committed my life to God, it was initially a cry out to my Santa Claus god.  My “Christmas list” included my need for Him to fix everything that was wrong in my life, to show me how to cope with life, and to give me peace.  I threw in joy but didn’t see how that would be possible, given my history with depression.  But as I kneeled by the side of my bed, crying out to Him, I heard that still, small voice we are told Elijah heard.  It was real enough for this stubborn, hard-headed, skeptical woman to take note.  As I think back on it, it wasn’t demanding, it wasn’t threatening.  It was a gentle urging, a settled thought that assured me I could trust God, no matter what I would discover about Him in the months to follow.  I knew I had to decide to believe everything I was about to learn, whether I liked it or not and I made a commitment to that.   My Santa Claus god disappeared from my life on that day.

Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

As I learned about the complete character of God, I always kept at the front of my mind the fact that I know God to be loving, good, fair and just.  Even when I don’t understand why He does certain things, I must always go back to this truth about Him and view everything through that lens.  Serving God based only on the fact that He loves me didn’t provide me with anything to hold on to when things went wrong or when something happened that seemed to contradict the fact that He is good.  I was left questioning Him and I was afraid of Him.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

I’m very careful about what I tell unbelievers and new Christians.  The first thing I want them to know is how much God loves them and that He wants the best for them.  I want them to know that He offers them forgiveness that requires they do nothing but believe in His Son.  I went to God because I needed His love and forgiveness.  But I couldn’t stay at that point.  I had to grow in my understanding of God in order for my faith to grow.   As I studied Jesus’ life, I realized that following Him isn’t always going to be easy.  I had to accept that and I can’t lead a new Christian to Christ with a lie that His path results in a cushy, comfortable life, that all it requires is to love God and others.  The first time they experience struggles and disappointments, they will want to know where God went.  New believers must know that Jesus died on the cross to save us from judgment of our sin.  Introducing my Santa Claus god just won’t cut it!

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I see my Santa Claus god in the attitude our country has about God.  We believe somehow America is a privileged country and we expect everything to be done to insure our affluent, excessive lifestyle is left intact.  We call on God when disasters strike but insist on keeping Him at bay when it comes to our principles and values, clinging to the false conclusion that He will protect us no matter what.  He does anger, He does judge and He will whether we choose to believe it or not. We don’t understand the history of God’s judgment on nations and how He has used pagan, evil nations to judge His people.  We don’t want to accept that God might be capable of doing such things.  It is helpful to read the comments written by J.W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton in their book The Fourfold Gospel, “we must be cautious how we derive arguments of our own from the analogy between God’s attributes and the corresponding characteristics of man.  …The fallacy in the argument consists in assuming that the feeling in question must work the same results in every particular in God that it does in man.”

Isaiah 60:12 “For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.”

As Christians, we know that the world is going to come to an end because man continues to turn from God.  It surprises me when Christians fret over world events.  Allistair Begg said it best (loose translation): “It’s not about politics or nations, it’s about His kingdom.”   We have to come to terms with the fact that America no longer follows God’s direction and there’s a price to be paid for that.  As believers, we know how this will end and we know we will overcome it all.  We have hope, not in our country, but in our God.

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

I love reading the Old Testament and the stories that come to my mind as I watch world events are those about Rome, Babylonia, Greece, Assyria and Egypt.  These governments controlled the world at the height of their power and nobody thought they could ever fall.  But they did.  God’s purposes aren’t going to be fulfilled by any government or nation.  Even the nation He set apart to demonstrate His love to the world failed Him! His plans will survive the downfall of any nation, including America.

In our personal lives and as a nation, we must focus on spreading the Gospel to avoid God’s wrath.  We must also understand that, as the world draws to a close, there are going to be more things that don’t look like we want them to look.  We can’t cling to a “Santa Claus” god.  That belief system will only leave us angry at God because we don’t fully understand Him.  He has warned us about how He deals with rejection and provided us with plenty of history to know that He judges and why He must do so.  We have no need to question His ways if we know His entire character.  My Santa Claus god provided me with no basis for any hope or understanding.  I had to dig deeper to find His full character:

“No life can be founded upon Christ’s teaching unless it be founded also upon faith and trust in His personality.  For this we must dig deep, for as St. Gregory says, “God is not to be found on the surface.”  J.W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton “The Fourfold Gospel”

Simply loving God and believing that was all He required of me was not only self-serving but, more importantly, it totally negated my need for Jesus.  As long as I didn’t believe in God’s judgment, I had no debt to pay and Jesus’ death on the cross was pointless.  The fact that God’s character includes wrath and judgment doesn’t mean He loves me less – it allows me to see how great His love is.  He’s provided His word to inform and guide me and knowing that He does judge allows me to see His patience, grace and mercy.

Colossians 2:14 “By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross”

DISCERNMENT – EXAMINE SCRIPTURE

19 Thursday Sep 2013

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About 30 years ago I started a Bible study that I ordered through the mail.  At the time I wasn’t sure about the beliefs of this particular group and assumed they could be trusted to teach me Biblically sound doctrine  Each lesson included a pamphlet with the actual lesson, an outline I was to fill in, and verses from the Bible I was to read. One week something about the lesson didn’t ring true to me.  I had never studied the Bible so it wasn’t that I read it and knew it wasn’t Biblical.  The more I compared the lesson to what I was reading in the Bible, the more it bothered me.  At some point it said something that very clearly misinterpreted the Scripture it referenced and I knew I was being led down the wrong path.  I threw the lessons away and requested the organization stop sending the lessons.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

Several years ago I committed my life to Jesus and began listening to preachers on the radio and TV.  One morning I heard a message from Joel Osteen.  At the time I was struggling with managing my money, had a large amount of debt and only a seasonal job.  What Joel was saying was so inspiring because, according to him, all I had to do was believe God would provide me with more money and He would.  Joel Osteen was telling me something I really wanted to believe and I was buying it hook, line and sinker.  I was in real danger of going back to the Santa Claus god I had believed in.

When I told my daughter how encouraged I was by what Mr. Osteen said, she warned me about the prosperity preachers that were becoming popular.  I had never heard of them. I listened more closely to his sermons and finally realized that he wanted me to believe in the power of my faith rather than trusting God.  I’m sure if Mr. Osteen knew about my financial situation he would have blamed my insufficient faith but my faith in God was very strong! I was learning how to lean on God more each day instead of trusting in things of this world.  Through my trial I was discovering God’s commands and how doing things His way was bringing much better results than doing them my way.  The things Mr. Osteen claimed all Christians should do often left me feeling confused (a sure sign something is amiss!). One example was a story about his wife asking him to run to the grocery store so she could finish dinner.  By the time he showered, shaved and put on good clothes, he was too late to get the things she needed so “he enjoyed his TV dinner that night.”  His point in the story was that Christians should always appear in public neatly dressed because of the impression we might leave on others. It bothered me on various levels: his wife’s need for his help was secondary to how he was going to look to other people; he didn’t seem to have any regard for the work she had put into their dinner; he could have quickly washed and put on clean clothes and met his standard while helping his wife; he must judge others by their appearance if he puts that much importance on his own.  The story was like a rock in my shoe.  It just kept coming to my mind and troubled me.

Now, I’m sure this incident bothers me a lot more than it bothered Mrs. Osteen and they were most likely in agreement that Mr. Osteen did the right thing.  It just seems to me he’s got his priorities a little mixed up and I can’t determine what negative message we send when we’re out in public not perfectly dressed. In addition to that confusion, I was disturbed by the minimal amount of time he spent talking specifically about Jesus and sin.  I knew God’s message to His children isn’t about how we can all get rich.  At that point in my life I needed to hear about God’s forgiveness and mercy but wasn’t hearing about either of those things from Joel Osteen.

Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

 One author said that the theology Mr. Osteen presents is like feeding our spiritual life with nothing but candy.  Hearing only the “good” things about God is not a sufficient spiritual diet.  Learning about how Christians have suffered helps me understand its role in my life and prepares me for those times I’m tested or experiencing the consequences of sin, whether my own or from living in a fallen world.  I have learned that God’s plan for my life is better than whatever plans I have ever had, even when His plans don’t include comfort, wealth or perfect health.  Learning about all of God’s attributes allows me to get to really know Him and have a meaningful relationship with Him.  Even with my limited Bible knowledge, I knew God never promised that every believer would be wealthy and healthy, no matter how much we want to be.  I have learned how I can trust God to help me through whatever troubles I experience in life. He allows trials to make me stronger and help me become the person He needs me to be.  I would never have learned any of these things if I had been given everything my heart desires nor would I have learned about them from Mr. Osteen.

Acts 17:11 “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so”

I had also been listening to Joyce Meyer.  At first, her uplifting, encouraging sermons appealed to me.  Even the name of her TV ministry relieved my itching ears: Enjoying Everyday Life.  For a long time, I didn’t detect much error in Joyce’s sermons.   Then I heard Hank Hanegraaff talking on his radio program “The Bible Answer Man” about one of her sermons and learned that in this particular sermon she changed a word in Scripture so that it meant something entirely different. I looked up the verse and saw Mrs. Meyer’s lie.  I learned the importance of checking the Scriptures after listening to any preacher or teacher.

Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

In another sermon, Joyce expresses no compassion for the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-47).  In her interpretation, he just lay there suffering for 38 years, doing nothing to help himself.  She questions why, in the span of 38 years, he did not inch his way to the pool so he could roll into it and be healed!  Like Joyce’s analysis of the paralytic, faith preachers would have us believe if we’re suffering in any way our faith simply isn’t strong enough – we’re at fault!  What they’re telling us is we have to have faith in our faith instead of having faith in God. I stopped listening to her because I don’t want to support someone who misleads believers.

 2 John 1:11 – “Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.”

A few years ago, I was made aware of the belief that Jesus and His family were actually very wealthy.  According to proponents they gained their wealth from the magi that visited Jesus shortly after His birth.  Their theory goes that there had to have been a large number of magi who came to see Jesus after learning of His birth all of whom would have brought expensive gifts to present to the family leaving them very wealthy.  They further the argument by pointing to the fact that Jesus and His disciples had a treasurer (Judas), which, according to them, tells us the group needed someone to manage their large pot of money.  Yet another argument used to support this distortion is based on John 1:39.  Proponents conclude that Jesus invited a large group of followers referred to in previous verses in the chapter to His own home, which would have had to be large to accommodate all of them.  A friend once presented me with some of these points but at the time I couldn’t defend what I believed and realized I had, in fact, simply taken others’ word for it, never taking time to research Scripture to insure I could defend the truth.  I did the research, using Biblically-sound teachers, websites and my concordance to find Scripture to support what I had always believed about Jesus’ poverty.   Take a minute and look up John 1:39 and you will read that Jesus invites only two followers, Andrew and another, possibly John, to follow him to “where He is staying” (not His home).  A cross-reference would include Matthew 8:20 where Jesus tells us He had no place to lay His head. Luke 2:24 can also be used to confirm Jesus’ family was not wealthy.  This verse tells us about Mary’s sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons required after the birth of a child.  The cross-reference verses in my Bible include Leviticus 12:6-8 which tells us a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons can be offered by those who cannot afford a lamb sacrifice. Here are four Bible stories I can use to defend the truth of Jesus’ poverty.

Revelation 22:18-19 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

False teachers understand that the majority of Christians are not reading their Bibles nor taking the time to compare verses and look up background information, impeding their ability to discern truth from lies.  It’s much easier to let them do all the work.  They do not deserve this level of trust.  We have to start holding them accountable and stop using excuses for not being equipped to call them out on their lies.  Any confusion we might experience when studying the Bible will be dispelled if we ask questions, read the notes contained in most Bibles, and look up related verses.  Contradictions disappear when we consider the context of the verses and gain an understanding of the Bible as a whole.

“Context! Context! Context! That’s the antidote to the compromise and to the confusion and to the contradiction of Christ and the Canon. We as Christians need to read the Bible for all its worth, otherwise we are going to be misled by a cacophony of voices that have a siren call that is leading us not towards biblical truth but rather away from biblical truth.” The Bible Answer Man with Hank Hanegraaff, 6/24/2010

It’s important to pray for guidance as we read Scripture and allow the Spirit to show us things in His time.  When I first started studying the Bible, I wanted to immediately understand everything I was reading.  But I took it at God’s pace and allowed Him to show me things in His time.  At first He revealed simple things but with each read-through, I learn more and God reveals deeper truths.

Regular Bible study, researching Scripture, listening to the Spirit, discussing Scripture with other Christians, and reading Biblically sound Christian authors are tools God has provided to help us discern between solid Biblical doctrine and false teaching.  Use a concordance and make use of all the wonderful internet sites that help you find passages based on topics or keywords.  Be sure to check the accuracy of each resource with trusted Christian friends.

Allistair Begg often says “The main things are the plain things.”  There are certainly ideas in the Bible that can be debated, but the main doctrinal points are very clear and non-debatable.  These include original sin; Jesus’s virgin birth, His sinlessness, deity, and humanity; the Trinity; our need for God’s grace; the necessity of faith; Christ’s atoning death, His bodily resurrection and ascension; Christ’s intercessory work for us; and His second coming, final judgment, and reign. (From The Essential Doctrines of the Christian Faith (Part One), Christian Research Institute, Article ID: JAE100-1, By: Norman L. Geisler.)

Discernment takes time, but it is time well spent. We must spend sufficient time in His Word to be able to discern the truth from the lies.  It is no longer an option.

1 Timothy 6:3-5 “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

The Old is Gone, The New Has Come!

01 Thursday Aug 2013

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I have always been content being somewhat of a loner.  My life before Christ almost demanded I not get too close to anyone for fear they would find out some unpleasant things about me or ask me to give up some things I didn’t want to give up!  I didn’t want to be accountable to anyone.  The few times I had tried to build friendships had failed and I explained this away by blaming others or my “painfully shy” personality, but the reality is that I didn’t try for the reasons listed above.  I also had a general mistrust of people and a fair amount of bitterness towards the world.  The older I got, the worse it got and I had become pretty isolated.  God was about to change that!

I love studying God’s Word: how He works in the world, discovering new and deeper truths in the Bible, reading Biblically-sound authors to get their thoughts on various topics.  For three years I read and studied everything I could lay my hands on.  I couldn’t get enough and would often be reading 2 or 3 books at a time, while reading all the articles in the magazines I had subscribed to.  In addition, I was reading the Bible all the way through each year and studying it as I went.  I felt led to study, knew that’s how God wanted me to spend this time.  Then the hunger dissipated. I kept buying books, reading my magazines and finding websites, but I sensed my time of intense, focused learning was drawing to a close.  I found myself reading only one or two chapters of a book or an introduction to an article, with no desire to finish.  New material seemed repetitious.  I would become frustrated waiting for an author to lead me down a new path.  I had to admit I longed to connect with other Christians and knew I needed to find some way to serve God in addition to witnessing for Him.  I recognized these stirrings as the still, small voice of God guiding me to the next step in my walk with Him and, though I tried, I couldn’t ignore Him.

I was overcome with fear when I thought about building relationships with other Christians.  I was comfortable sitting at home, reading my books and articles, learning and understanding new things, writing papers and journaling, listening to sermons at church and on the radio.  But it became very clear to me that it was time for me to get out of the house and interact with other Christians, become an active part of the body of Christ.  I made a feeble attempt at one point, but when it didn’t work out like I thought it should have, I retreated again.  I couldn’t put my finger on why this was such a struggle; I expected connecting with Christians would be easy.  I talked to my daughter about finding a church where members reached out more than they did at our current church.  Of course, THEY were the problem!  But I couldn’t continue to blame others for my failure to connect.  After all, there was only one common denominator in all these situations – ME!

We did start attending a new church after much prayer and to meet other needs we felt were no longer being met where we were.  This is a larger church and an important component of it is the Life Groups.  Members are encouraged to join a small group of members that meet in homes on various nights of the week to take part in fellowship, Bible study, and social activities.  The aim is to build relationships with the members, something that is difficult to do in a large church.  A friend introduced me to the leader of a group she thought would be a good fit for me. The leader called to give me information about that week’s meeting but I didn’t return the call and I certainly didn’t go!  She called me again and left a message telling me about the next meeting and asking me to let her know if she was calling the right number.  At that point I knew I was just being rude so I called her back.  I actually enjoyed our conversation but still found an excuse not to go to the meeting that week.  The battle was on and Satan was winning! 

I felt a deep regret and very unsettled about not going and figured someone would ask why I hadn’t yet attended.  I was tired of lying, making excuses and dealing with the fallout of disobedience to what God had clearly laid on my heart.  I decided to talk to my daughter about my struggle.  For the first time in my life I talked about my fear of seeking out friends, how I panic at the thought of spending time socially with someone. I admitted to the fear that they would find out about my history and not want anything to do with me.  Her response:  “Mom, you have to forgive yourself for things you’ve done in the past.” 

That hit me like a brick.  I thought I had done that already.  I knew God had forgiven me but I realized she was right: I hadn’t forgiven myself.  I was wallowing in all the harm I had done to myself and others, using the memories to remind myself what a horrible person I AM (not was), working desperately to understand how I could have done the things I had done.  In my mind, I was still THAT person, still capable of making the kinds of decisions I had made in the past, still someone that good people should avoid. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 

Jeremiah 18:3-6 (NIV) tells us: “So I went down to the potter’s house and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me:  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord.  “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

Unlike the words of Jeremiah 18:3-6, where the potter forms the clay into “another pot,” what I actually believed was that God was merely repairing some cracks or re-shaping my handle.  Who I had been in the past still lurked beneath the repair job God was performing on me.   In my mind I wasn’t a new creature, just the old creature with a layer of fresh clay covering the nicks and cracks.   But both the 2 Corinthians passage and the Jeremiah passage clearly state that God isn’t just repairing us.   “The old has GONE….”  “…the potter formed it into ANOTHER POT….” 

It’s only been a couple of months since I figured this out.  But in that short amount of time, God has worked miracles in my life.  I actually FEEL different; I feel clean inside.  I look at others expecting them to ask what’s different about me.  I see through clearer eyes, as if there had been a veil in front of them before.  I do feel that a huge boulder has been lifted off my shoulders.  I marvel as I realize God’s love is greater than I had realized (and I thought it was pretty tremendous to begin with!).  I care about the people I have met and can feel that they care about me, too.

I am looking for another Life Group so I can be with other Christians during the week.  I plan on going to this second group by myself – my daughter won’t have to babysit her mother, though I know she doesn’t mind.  (She is planning on continuing with the other Life Group and it’s nice to be able to share that with her.)  I am beginning to talk to other people at church, not waiting for them to speak to me first.  Instead of thinking about how I’m handling a conversation or worrying about whether I might have to reveal something about my past, I am relaxed and am beginning to enjoy these interactions.  I can truly see myself as God sees me, a new creation.  My daughter commented that she is so happy to see her “new mom;” proof positive that I’m not an old pot with patches; I’m “another pot!” 

The world is in the business of trying to repair people.  God is in the business of making people new.  There is a huge difference between the two and we must understand that difference and claim it.  If you’re unable to forgive yourself, consider the possibility that you haven’t turned from something God is asking you to get rid of.  If you find nothing in that inventory, pray and meditate on what God is saying to us in these passages.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross only for the sins we’ll commit after we accept Him: He died on the cross for ALL our sins; past, present and future.  They’re all covered with His blood.  We’re not just being fixed, we’re being made new. 

“…the pot he was shaping was marred, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”   “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand….”  (from Jeremiah 18:3-6)