Category / Truth

by Chad

Living in the Darkness

If you find it difficult to love someone when they stab you in the back, offend you, lie about you, curse you, hate you, or worse… then consider 1 John 1:7-11. You may already be in the darkness apart from God.

PLEASE HEAR ME ON THIS!!!

If we are in the light as He is in the light, then we will see others as Christ sees them AND us!

Often times we think that hating someone will lead us down a dark path, but that’s mixing up the cause and the effect. Hating someone is actually the result of our life being in darkness. John wrote chapter 1 as a warning sign that hating a brother is evidence of us living in darkness.

Yes, this truth hurts. We’ve all been guilty of hating someone even though we may not actually want to call it hate.  If we truly are Christians, then we will love those who offend us just as Christ loved those who stood at the foot of the cross mocking him, cursing him, and hating him while he plead for God to forgive them.

Do you plead for those who hurt you that God will forgive them? Do you desire to do good to those who hurt you? Do you truly want them to get blessings from God instead of getting what they deserve? If you’re like me, the truth stings. The action of loving our neighbor as ourselves means that we pray for them just like we pray for ourselves. We truly don’t deserve the forgiveness, blessings, and life that God gives us, yet the love of God is so GREAT that He forgives us, gives us life, and provides for our needs. It’s good that we don’t receive what we deserve. Can you see that, pray that, and be used to accomplish that in the lives of those who have hurt you?

John is warning us that hatred is a sign that WE are in darkness. There is NO darkness in God. If we are in darkness, we are not in God. 

There are no extenuating circumstances of justifiably hating someone for what they have done to you. Christ loves us so much that while we were still sinners, He died for us. We are called to be in that same light as He was and love those who are still even now offending us. When we are in the light as Christ is in the light, we will see those who offend us, those who hurt us, those who even hate us as Christ sees them: not as enemies, but as people loved so deeply by God that Jesus died for them. Don’t wait for them to repent and apologize. Love them NOW.

We know that our battle is not with those who have offended us. Our battle is spiritual and we are at war with the evil spirits that fuel hatred, jealousy, enmity, strife, and a host of other sinful behaviors that cause people to offend each other. In the light, we can see to fight the enemy that binds up people that are precious to God.

In the Light we CAN and WILL LOVE EVERYONE as Christ LOVES US, and we will fight for their freedom as hard as we fight for our own!

by Chad

Life in the Wilderness

James packs so much wisdom and truth into just the first four verses of his letter that it’s easy to overlook the answer to joy, perfection, completeness and everything that God has for us.

Let’s take a few moments to really explicate these three verses of Scripture.

James 1:2 is a familiar scripture that is quoted by many, but truly understood by few. I wasn’t able to understand how someone is to find joy in the midst of trials and bad circumstances until I understood how God uses trials and circumstances that make us uncomfortable, often VERY uncomfortable, with life and where we are to motivate us.

When Israel left their life of bondage in Egypt, God led them across the Red Sea, stopped those who pursued them, led them across the wilderness to the Promised Land. The same God that did all of that told them that they would possess the Promised Land presently occupied by giants, armies, and fortified cities. But even though God had shown His faithfulness and power through miracles and providing for them time and time again, fear stopped the Israelites from following God into the Promised Land. Moses told the Israelites, “Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” They knew of God and had even witnessed His power over their enemies numerous times, yet they still allowed their own fear and unbelief to supersede their faith in God. They were not ready mentally or spiritually to walk into the promises God had for them.

Is this starting to sound familiar??

God swore in His wrath that they would not enter his rest in the Promised Land, and it took 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness for the old to literally pass away and the new to come into adulthood. God provided for the Israelites while they were being transformed from doubters into believers, but he provided just enough to sustain them. They ate the same food everyday for breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks in between for 40 years. That’s 14,600 days or 43,800 meals. I’m pretty sure that they were so sick of manna, they ate it out of necessity. Munchies and late light snacks probably didn’t exist. Bleh.

They also ran out of water more than once, yet God still provided enough to keep them going around in circles for the duration of their transformation.

What does this have to do with building our faith? God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, but just enough to sustain them. He didn’t provide so much that they would be comfortable and content with life in the wilderness. He kept them alive, but allowed the trials and their want to continually irritate them and serve as motivation to get out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

Did you bring me this far only to abandon me and allow me to be destroyed??

Don’t miss this! God is operating in our lives just like He did with the Israelites. We may find ourselves wandering around in the wilderness, angry and discouraged, griping about our situations, lacks, needs, wants, and everything else that we are dissatisfied with, and telling God, “I see that you are providing for my needs, but come on!!! You, the God who owns everything, are giving me just enough to get by, and barely enough at that! What gives?!?! Did you bring me this far only to abandon me and allow me to be destroyed??” I put that in quotes because I’m sure I’ve said that more than once.

I thank God here and now for His grace, mercy and patience with me!

God doesn’t want us to stay in the wilderness. IT’S A WILDERNESS, PEOPLE!!! No one is meant to live in the wilderness, especially when God has ALREADY prepared the Promised Land for us! If God were to satisfy all of our desires in the wilderness, we’d overlook the fact that we’re STILL IN THE WILDERNESS, surrounded by sand dunes, snakes, and death all around us, while just over the hillside lies the land of rest and plenty. Why move out of the wilderness when it’s so comfortable to just stay in it?

James 1:2-3 says to, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” I now see that the trials I go through are motivation for me to exercise my faith by putting it into action and follow God out of this wilderness.

So trials produce motivation, motivation produces exercise, and the exercising of my faith produces steadfastness. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines steadfastness as a fixedness in place or a firmness of mind or purpose. These trials exercise my faith in God so that it is solid in my mind and my purpose.

Now let’s apply that rock solid faith in God to verse 4. “And let steadfastness [your rock solid faith in God, His ability, and His Will for your life] have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (Chad’s Amplified Version)

Knowing this, we should all get excited when we face trials in the wilderness, because we realize that the trials are preparing us mentally and spiritually to walk into the Promises of God.

Finally, in Hebrews 3:7-19 we are again reminded of the story of the Israelites in the wilderness and warned not once, but twice, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness…” Instead of hardening our hearts, we must listen to the Holy Spirit and rejoice in the trials being careful that we do not develop an evil, unbelieving heart that will lead us away from the living God. Unbelief is the opposite of faith, and to those who do not have a firm, unmovable faith in God, he says, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Have faith in God, living your life through the trials knowing that he is leading you to the Promised Land. And if you’re going through a trial right now, thank God for this opportunity to walk with Him and grow your faith!

[Original image by Andrew Shiva used under the Creative Commons License. Some scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

by Chad

Meat and Potatoes

I spent a few minutes studying the Bible this morning asking the Holy Spirit to clear the junk out of my mind and allow me to hear what He wanted me to hear, and I came across a few treasures. They’re treasures that lead to even greater wealths of knowledge in God.

So allow me to execute one of these treasures right here and now.

Hebrews 3:12-15 warns each of us to be careful and diligent to prevent any one of us from falling victim to an evil, unbelieving heart that will lead us to fall away from the Living God. We are instructed in verse 13 to exhort (strongly encourage or urge someone to do something) each other EVERY DAY. This is to keep us from hardening our hearts by the deceitfulness of sin. The Holy Spirit is saying, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

This is my exhortation for you and myself today.

Stop focusing on the basics of Christianity to the point of wasting time! Why do so many people, myself included, spend years just studying and playing around with the elementary teachings of Christ? Hebrews 5:12 – 6:12 address this very issue. (Read it) For many of us it is far past time to move on from basic Christianity and on to answering the call that God has placed on our lives! The message of salvation, repentance from dead works, faith in God, how to live, healing, prayer, etc… All of these have been clearly written about in God’s Word. The author of Hebrews (likely Paul) calls these things the “elementary doctrine of Christ.” Learn it quickly and move on to the meat and potatoes that God has for you.

If you’re wondering what God has in store for the mature, you’ll find it in verse 14. It is the very embodiment of living a Spirit filled life. Those who recognize that the Holy Spirit is living in them and follow him accordingly are the ones who “have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

So what does all of this mean? God’s Word is showing us that spiritual maturity goes beyond basic knowledge of the Bible and into a life where the Holy Spirit, not just the Bible, becomes our guide. God’s Word is the starting point for our spiritual growth. It is full of the milk that we need to begin growing, but we can’t stop there. God’s Word leads us to the Holy Spirit and teaches us to live and follow the Spirit. Use the Bible and the Holy Spirit to train your powers of discernment constantly to distinguish good from evil. Like it or not, if you want to grow strong in your faith and abilities in God, you have to move on from the milk of just reading the Bible and on to the solid food of conversations with the Holy Spirit.

Meat and potatoes.

by Chad

Poisoned Pastries

My wife and I have a bread maker. It is quite possibly the most amazing device we have ever owned. All of the science, skill, mystery and knowhow required to bake bread are condensed down to add the ingredients and press the start button.

I find myself staring through the window on top in total fascination as this compact machine mixes, kneads, and bakes a complete loaf of bread on its own. The smell of fresh baked bread fills the entire house with the same hunger-inducing power as that of cooking bacon. If you own a bread maker, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Jesus spoke of bread a couple of times in scripture. Jewish tradition and Mosaic Law use bread to represent spiritual things. The bread used in these examples all had one thing in common–a complete lack of yeast or leaven. Unleavened bread is flat, dense, and can be cracker-like.

Crackers are okay, but personally, I love sour dough breads, yeast dinner rolls, and even plain ol white bread. Yeast is what causes bread to rise and be fluffy. Just a tiny amount of yeast will cause the entire loaf to transform into fluffy bread. It takes such a small amount, that bakers often go for years without having to purchase new yeast. If you’ve ever wondered why a baker’s dozen is actually 13 instead of 12, it’s because bakers save the 13th roll and add it to the next batch of dough. The yeast living in that 13th roll is transferred just by contact into the new dough and continues on from batch to batch, multiplying each time.

With an understanding of how just a little bit of yeast can go a long way, let’s consider what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16:5-12. Jesus wasn’t warning the disciples about poisoned pastries or griping because they forgot to pack lunch… again. Jesus was warning them of poisoned religion. The best lie is 99% truth, and just like yeast in the dough, it only takes a tiny little lie to turn the entire truth of the Gospel into something completely wrong.

Today, we most certainly need to heed the warning Jesus gave. In American Christianity the leaven takes on many different forms, but there is one that is very consistent and persistent–the leaven of self. Adding just a little “self” into the Gospel turns the message from God-focused to self-focused. Instead of seeking God’s Will for our lives, we begin looking at the Gospel for how we can use God to accomplish our own will, and it quickly spreads throughout our entire way of thinking. In a very short time we end up with churches full of men and women who believe in God, but only want to seek Him for what He can do for them, how He can fix their problems, and how He can make their lives more comfortable. They will help those who are like-minded all the while “praying” for and condemning those who disagree with them or cause them to consider their own shortcomings. They’re quick to point fingers at the sins of others, then hide behind misquoted scripture, eisegeted understandings, or just ignore the evidence of a completely different truth from the lies that they so desperately cling to. They blame the world for its condition instead of realizing that they are called to change it. They live their isolated lives “just waiting on God” to do something about the state of the world.

In short they have reduced the Gospel to a religion of self gratification, self justification, and self righteousness.

There is no way to remove leaven once it’s in. The only solution is to throw the entire batch away, clean the work area, and start over with extreme care to not reintroduce leaven into the new batch.

So, let’s start over in our understanding of the Gospel, and this time be very careful to focus on the Truth, not our own selfish desires.

The Truth, whose name is Jesus, said very clearly in Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

Do you hear the truth here?? We must deny ourselves, pick up the very thing that we are to crucify ourselves on, and follow Jesus! The cross that we carry is the Truth. The Truth is God’s Love. When we take up the Love of God for all mankind, we see the world and our lives the way God does, and seeing it in Truth we are faced with the burden that Love brings. We obediently follow Him, losing our lives to save the lives of the lost. We crucify our own selfish desires and pursuits so that we may live to reach the lost.

With the leaven gone, we see and understand the promises of God and their purpose. Jesus didn’t promise to take care of us and grant our requests so we could pursue our selfish desires. Jesus promised to take care of us and grant our requests so we can reach the lost. Look now at the commands and promises in the word, and see them in truth.

Matthew 28:16-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

John 14:12-14
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 14:15-21
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”