Tag / believe

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

Where is Your Joy?

Hey, Christian! Remember the day you told God you would follow Him and do whatever He tells you to do?

Are you?

Do you live each day with His joy filling your heart, or are you so busy with your own excuses for not following His Spirit that you’re missing out on the joy He has for you?

It’s easy for us to fall into a rut and lose sight of the life God has for us. It’s also easy to turn it all around and get back to where you’re supposed to be WITH Him.

If that’s you, stop what you’re doing right now, get alone and away from any distractions for just a few moments (even if it’s just in your head with your eyes closed) and ask Him with the full expectation of Him answering you, “What do You want me to do?” Give the Holy Spirit the ability to lead you through the day, and LISTEN to Him.

Trust God. Believe that He is working on your behalf even when you don’t see the changes coming. He is Good, and that is the biggest understatement in the universe.

God is awesome in that when we follow Him, He goes before us and stands behind us all at the same time. He can because He’s God.

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.”

by Chad

A Priest Walks Into the IRS…

One of my favorite Bible Stories is a story that is often overlooked. It’s a story that is only one verse long. Thirty words. One complete sentence with a two word quote. It’s such a short story that most people don’t even consider it a story, yet it speaks so much to the reality of Christianity.

I’ll tell you the story, but first I want to give you an alternate version. Once you’ve heard both versions, take a moment and decide which version sounds more like your life.

Version One
One day a man named Matt was sitting at his desk. Matt worked for the IRS and was quite successful. He had many friends… well, he had many people that called him a friend, but truthfully they only liked his money. Most people who knew him really didn’t like him because of his occupation. For years Matt had sat at the same desk, collecting taxes from people, but for the last few weeks he had been hearing talk around town about a new guy that had been performing miracles and wonders. He was feeding people free meals, healing them, and teaching them with a passion and love that they had never seen before.

On this particular day, Matt was thinking of the things he had been hearing about this new stranger, and as he stared at his desk, he realized he was staring at a shadow of a man across his scattered paperwork. He looked up to see the stranger standing right there in front of him.

The man stretched out his hand toward Matt. Matt reached up and shook his hand, and as he stared at him in disbelief, the man said, “Matt! My name is Jesus. I’m the Son of God, and it’s a real honor to meet you. I’d like to offer my services to help you out, if you will let me.”

Matt could hardly believe his great fortune as Jesus continued, “You see, I’ve known you since before you were born, and I know that you struggle sometimes. Many people don’t like you, and frankly, a lot of your co-workers are doing much better than you. But don’t worry! I’m here to help you out. If you just believe in me, and let me follow you around for awhile, I’ll show you how to be much more successful, happy, healthy, and how to get everything your heart desires. As a matter of fact, I’m working on a book deal right now, and I know my book is going to really help you achieve your goals in life. So, if you’re okay with it, I’d like for you to invite me into your life so I can follow you around and make sure everything goes smooth for you. I really want you to be successful in your goals. What do you say?”

Naturally, Matt invited Jesus into his life, and the two of them went back to his house to talk about their game plan.

Version Two
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow Me.” And he rose and followed him.  (Matt 9:9 ESV)

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Version Two is the actual Biblical version, but we often live our lives as though the Jesus in Version One is the Jesus who wants a relationship with us. We live as though Jesus wants us to invite him into our lives, fix all of our problems, bless us with riches and success, and make our lives comfortable in exchange for just acknowledging that he exists. In reality, that Jesus doesn’t exist.

Jesus, the real Jesus, isn’t waiting for you to invite him into your life so he can follow you around. No. He’s actually inviting you to follow him, just like he did Matthew. Jesus said two words to Matthew, “Follow me.” Matthew did exactly that. He go up, left his desk, and followed Jesus. And he didn’t stop following Jesus at the end of the day. He continued following Jesus the rest of his life.

Stop and think for a second about the idea of inviting Jesus, the SON OF GOD, to follow us around. Aren’t Christians supposed to be FOLLOWERS of Jesus Christ, not masters of him? Aren’t Christians supposed to be doing the Will of God? It seems that most spend their time trying to dictate the Will of God. “God, I need this.” “God, I need that.” “God, help me this way.” “God, open these doors, not those.” “God, do this, and that, and bless me as I go about MY day.”

What if we, as true Christians not just the academic ones, stopped asking God to do our will, and instead we ask God to help us do HIS Will. Something like, “Father in Heaven, Holy is Your name! Show me Your Will, and let it be done in my life just like it is done in Heaven.”

Wow! What a concept! Asking God to show us what He wants us to do! Madness?? No. It’s called obedience. It resembles humility. It requires us acknowledging where and who God is, and where and who we are. He is God. We are His creation.

And once we get that very basic concept, we can move on to the promises He has given to us. We can ask Him to provide for the needs we have so that we can accomplish His Will. Something like, “And give us today what we need for today. Forgive me of the wrongs I have done as I walk in forgiveness of those who have wronged me, angered me, offended me, and treated me with all forms of disrespect. You forgive this undeserving me as I forgive those who don’t deserve my forgiveness.”

If we can get that far, then we can go all the way and make it a habit! “Lead me away from temptation to go back to my old ways, and deliver me out of the evils of this world.”

Wow. God is awesome in His ways! He deserves our praise! He is who He is, even if we don’t recognize who He is. Let us remind ourselves every day who He is! “For Yours, Most High God, is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory each and every day forever and ever.”

Amen.