Walking the Road of Obedience

If life is a quest to become the people God created us to be how do we discover which way to go?  There are many roads out there on which we can travel, but only one leads us to God.  If we are unwilling to follow this road we will miss out, not only on God, but also the life He created us to live.

Henry Blackaby in the workbook Experiencing God wrote:

God’s commands are designed to guide you to life’s very best.  You will not obey Him, however, if you do not believe Him and trust Him.  You cannot believe Him if you do not love Him.  You cannot love Him unless you know Him (p. 63).  

The road we are to travel is the road of obedience.

This quest to become the people God created us to be begins with our knowledge of who God is.  We cannot love, trust, and obey God unless we first know Him. Knowledge is the foundation of faith. This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote:

But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news! (Romans 10:14-15; ESV)

Without a knowledge of God it is impossible to have faith. And what is faith? This is the definition that I use: Faith is the combination of trust and action and is demonstrated by our obedience. Without faith there is no true obedience.

The great biblical example of faith is Abraham. In the land of Ur Abraham heard the call of God.  How well did Abraham know God at this point in his life?  I know that it has been suggested that at this time Abraham may have worshiped other gods rather than being a worshiper of the One True God.  Blackaby in Created to be God’s Friend makes this point; "To our knowledge, Abram was not seeking God; God was seeking him" (p. 16).  In other words the beginning of this journey is actually found in God’s desire to have a relationship with us and not in our desire to have a relationship with Him.

The revelation of God, found primarily in the Bible, provides us with the initial knowledge that we need to trust God and obey Him. This revelation provides us with enough knowledge to make that first step of faith, and as we continue to trust and obey God with our live we begin to develop a deeper relationship with Him.

The relationship Abraham had with God at the beginning was not very strong.  Abraham knew God well enough to trust God to lead him to the Promised Land, but based on the biblical account know that there were other areas of Abraham’s life that He did not trust God.  Yet over time Abraham learned to trust and love God like few people in history have.  At the end of his life Abraham knew God a whole lot better than he did when he first left Ur to follow God into the unknown.

The apostle John talks about the relationship between obedience and a relationship with God:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:3-6; ESV)

The only way to know God and thus become the people God created us to be is to obey God. There is no other way that will happen. We can spend time talking about purpose and goals and self-improvement techniques, but if we don’t turn to the Life-Maker we will miss out on life.

Remember we will not begin this quest to become the people God created us to be if we do not have a minimal knowledge of God.  If we do not believe God exists we will not seek to know Him better let alone discover the life He created us to live.  This quest begins when we act on the little bit that we know about God.  Through living this journey and experiencing God along the way we begin to know God better and better.  Ultimately our knowledge of God is increased through living a life of obedience, and not just through Bible study and church attendance.

By traveling the road of obedience we not only discover who we are, but we discover God as well.  Only as we obey God do we begin to experience Him at work in the world around us.  It is this experience which helps us understand the heart of God, and thus brings us a little closer to Him.

Point to Ponder: The only way to know God and thus become the people God created us to be is to obey God.
Verse to Remember: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:6; ESV)
Question to Consider: Does my faith stop with belief or does it continue through obedience?

Daily Thought: It is About the Quality of Life

"In other words, eternal life is not primarily duration but quality of life, 'life to the limit.' It cannot be stolen from us, and so it does go on." ~ John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire, p. 39

Daily Thought: Classic Counterfeits

"To be authentic means literally that we are not false or copied, that we reflect the original. Our separation from God has made us into imitations, no longer reflections of the Creator. Although we are born of a template designed in the image of the Creator God, that template is broken, and the reproduction flawed. We are classic counterfeits. We pass as the real thing. We might even fool ourselves. Yet the evidence of our inauthenticity can be seen in our departure from the character of God. The first and most important step in becoming genuinely authentic is once again to be authenticated by the original designer. God longs to place within each of us a new heart, that reflects Him in both action and desire (Ezekiel 36:26)." ~ Erwin McManus, Stand Against the Wind, p. 59

Daily Thought: The Moment of Personal Surrender

"There is a place for knowing and hearing and reading.  But there has to come a moment of personal surrender.  Our commitment to God has sufficient objective truth so that the truth claims can be verified.  The Bible is not a fanciful book of spiritual speculation conjured up by dreamers.  There are historical, geographical, and philosophical  assertions that can be measured and confirmed by the historian, the archeologist, and the philosopher respectively.  But the point of real contact comes when that third-person knowledge--that knowledge about God--becomes first-person trust in God and commitment to His will.  Only then does personal understanding bring a transformed attitude." ~ Ravi Zacharias, Cries of the Heart, p. 82

Daily Thought: Convincing the World

"Thus you can bless the world.  As the forgiving one, Jesus has set up His kingdom and continually extends it.  Through the same forgiving love, the church will convince the  world of God's love.  If the world sees me and women loving and forgiving as Jesus did, it will be compelled to confess the truth that God is with them." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 124

Daily Thought: Faith and Wisdom

"We need to live our lives with the faithfulness we would have if we knew Jesus were coming back today, but with the wisdom that he may not return for another thousand years or more." ~ Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p. 19

Love Expressed as Faith

{Luke 14:25-27}

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Take a moment and ponder this question: How do you know you are really a disciple of Jesus? If someone asked for proof that you are indeed a follower of Jesus Christ what evidence would you provide? Perhaps there is an even more fundamental question that we need to consider: What does it mean to be a Christian? I think many Christians are frustrated because they go to church once a week, pray everyday, and even manage to read the Bible on a regular basis, but it feels like something is missing in their lives.

I believe that many Christians are frustrated with their lives because they go to church at least once a week, pray everyday, and even manage to read their Bibles on a regular basis, but in spite of their efforts there seems to be something missing from their lives. They question if being a Christian even matters.

In the past Christianity has focused on “spiritual disciplines” to help us understand what disciples, followers of Christ, should be doing. These things include study, pray, meditation, service, fasting, fellowship, and worship. Let me be absolutely clear in this: these disciplines are essential in helping us understand how to live the life God created us to live. The problem we run into is that being a follower of Christ is that we make following Jesus about the disciplines rather than using the disciplines to become more like Jesus. This brings us to the one thing that is absolutely essential to the life of a disciple and that is faith. Faith is what makes the spiritual disciplines effective, because it is that obedient trust in Jesus that produces the results of the disciplines in our lives.

Faith is not just about belief. Belief is the foundation of faith, but if all we have is belief then all we have is a stone foundation without a house. Faith must grow into trust, commitment, and action. Trust means that we will believe Jesus even though His way of living seems contrary to what we think is best. Commitment means that we will remain loyal to Jesus no matter what happens to us. Action means that we will be obedient to what Jesus tells us to do, even when it is difficult. Only when we have faith do the spiritual disciplines of Christianity come alive and help us mature as Christians.

Jesus tells us in Luke 14:25-27 that we need faith if we are going to be true disciples. The type of faith that we need produces love in our lives. Jesus tells us that unless we love Him above everything else in our lives we will not be able to follow Him. We may be able to go through the motions and look like we are His followers, but we will not be the fully devoted people He demands us to be. When we are not fully devoted to Jesus we will only follow Him when it is convenient to us
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Love will motivate us to behave in a certain way and will lead us to do certain acts of service, and it is the love expressed in the way we live our lives that set us apart as followers of Jesus. Our love is an outgrowth of of faith. Discipleship for the Christian is about love expressing itself in faith.

If something seems to be missing in your life take an inventory of your life. What do you love the most? Are you following Jesus out of faith? I think those are two very important questions we need to consider as we seek to grow as Christians. Being a Christian is about doing the right things out of the love and faith that we have in our heart.

Daily Thought: Absolute Obedience

"Any place will not do with God. Absolute obedience to His directives is essential to God's fulfilling His purposes...Absolute obedience is in fact a matter of life and death, and has eternal consequences." ~ Henry Blackaby, Created to be God's Friend, p, 55

Daily Thought: Fear Producing Heretics

"There is no limit to his presence.  There is not place where we can go, no activity we can engage in, where he is not watching over us.  'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

"But fear tries to convince us it is not so.  Fear has created more practicing heretics than bad theology ever has, for it makes u live as through we serve a limited, finite, partially present, semi-competent God." ~  John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, p. 131

Knowing What Really Matters

{Philippians 1:9-11; NLT}

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

A few years ago there were a series of shirts that carried this sentiment: _________ is life, the rest is just details. The blank could be filled in with a number of different things, usually sports, that people were passionate about. Often we live our lives in this fashion. Some live as football is life and others live as if politics were life and still others live as if family were life. We have a tendency to raise both good and bad things to be the focal point of our lives. As followers of Jesus we need to recognize that the person who has made golf their is living a life that is just as empty as a the person who has made crystal meth their life. One maybe easier to overcome and less destructive to those around them, but both can consume a person’s life and passion.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons Paul’s prayer for the Philippians is for knowledge and understanding, for the Apostle wanted his readers to know what really mattered in life. Paul knew that what really mattered in life wasn’t whether or not the Republicans controlled the government, the Steelers played in the Superbowl, or you are still the same size you were when you were in high school. What matters is the way we live. In other words Paul wants to make sure that his readers to live lives that are about bringing glory and honor to God.

This is hard to do. It is far easier for us to abstain from bringing dishonor to God’s name than it is to intentionally bring glory to His name. I think that is where many of us are at in our walk with Christ, we are satisfied with trying not to sin, and we are not all that concerned about actually doing God. We are content with not hating our neighbor rather than truly loving him.

For many of us what is required is living a life that moves past merely intellectual agreement with Jesus to a life that truly follows Him. Here is the point I want you to remember: What really matters is a life that faithfully follows Jesus. That only happens as we are filled with the spiritual wisdom and understanding that comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. May this be our prayer for ourselves and for those we love. This certainly was the type of prayer Paul thought was important to pray, check out Colossians 1:9-10 to see another example.

When we make life about anything other than following Jesus so we can live a life that is actively bringing God glory and honor then we have missed out on the point of life. We may be doing incredible things and we may even be extremely happy, but we won’t be living out our God given design. May God, through the Holy Spirit, bless you with spiritual wisdom and knowledge so you can have an understanding of how you are to live and in the process bring glory and honor to our Creator and Savior.

Daily Thought: The Danger of Prayer and Bible Study

"Even the most sincere and committed Christian faces a danger: it is the danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God.  Your desire to pray earnestly and diligently may so occupy you that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you.  Your Bible study may so interest you and intrigue you that, yes, the very Word of God may become a substitute for God Himself.  These pursuits can hinder fellowship because they keep the mind, heart, and soul occupied instead of leading you into the presence of God." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 123

To Live a Righteous Life

{James 1:19-21; ESV}

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 

James wants followers of Jesus to live righteous lives.  This doesn’t mean that we will be perfect, after all we still live in the flesh, but it does mean that the direction of our lives will be towards righteousness rather than sin.  The way we live should provide evidence of whether or not we are pursuing righteousness.

If we are going to pursue righteousness then we have to be quick to hear.  We will not discover the pathway of righteousness on our own, we need to be shown the way.  In order to pursue righteousness we have to submit our lives to the teachings of God’s Word.  If we are not listening to teachers and preachers then we will never live the righteous lives God desires us to live.

Not only do we have to be quick to hear but we also have to be slow to speak.  Too often we want to get our two cents in and share our opinion, and as a result we miss the truth that is being taught.  If we are going to listen it requires us to intentionally focus on what is being said, rather than formulating in our mind our response.

Righteousness also requires that we are to be slow to anger.  This one seems out of place, until you think about a couple of ways we avoid dealing with the sin in our lives.  The first way is to show anger at the world for the way they are living.  I have been in enough Sunday School classes and Small Groups to know that one way people avoid dealing with the truth is to talk about how evil people are and the way our country is falling apart, and some even get pretty worked up about it, but they don’t deal with how God’s truth applies to their lives.  

Sometimes we move in the opposite direction and get so angry with ourselves for not having the strength to resist temptation and sin.  The result is that you soon believe that trying to overcome sin is a worthless cause and you give up.  This is what I have done, and it led me to almost walking away from Jesus, and it is what I have to constantly guard myself against today.  Angry doesn’t produce righteousness, so there is no point in getting angry with yourself.

If we are going to live righteous lives we need to put away filthiness and wickedness.  This requires two actions.  First, it requires that we get rid of those things and people that lead us into sin.  Two years ago I reduced the size of DVD collection (which is very tame compared to collections other Christians have), and the criteria that I used was what my first thought was when I picked up the movie.  If it was an implied sex scene (I didn’t have anything that was more than implied) or a woman in a scantily clad outfit I threw it out.  We have to be strong enough to admit that there are some things we just can’t handle, and we need to put up defenses to protect our minds and hearts from those things.

We also have to identity areas of sin in our lives and start taking steps to get rid of that sin.  Simple things we can do in this process is to pray (something that has helped me in this regard is to lay down “my right” to sin at that feet of Jesus), find accountability partners, establish goals, and find professional help.  God is not going to take away our ability to sin, and therefore it is something that we must choose to do.  It is an act of faith to take steps to eliminate sin from our lives.

Finally, we need to receive with meekness God’s word.  We can’t rely on our own understanding and cleverness in the battle with sin.  We need to rely on God’s word, and the requires us to apply it to our lives.  Instead of just believing the Bible, we have to apply it to our lives.  This takes work.  Change doesn’t happen just because we hear something and accept the truth of it.  Change happens because we apply that truth to our lives.  The key here, according to James, is that we are to be humble.  If we are proud or think we can figure things out on our own then we will miss out on the wisdom found in the Bible.  The meek person understands that he/she doesn’t have what it takes to be righteous and that they need help and guidance.

We are called to live righteous lives.  The problem is that we can’t live righteous lives on our own we need help.  That help comes from God.  He makes it possible for us to righteous through Christ Jesus.  Righteous living is the result of following Jesus.  He is our guide on the pathway of righteousness.

Daily Thought: What the Bible Says

“It requires but little reflection to discover that the fiercest disputes about religion, are about what the Bible does not say, rather than about what it does say.” ~ Alexander Campbell

Daily Thought: We Cannot Remain the Same

"You cannot follow Jesus and remain the same. The journey itself will change you forever--notonly your priorities, but your passions. It alters not only your direction, but your desires. It transforms not only your actions, but your values. It makes you just like Christ and unlike anyone else. It is nothing less than leaving the fake for the real. There is great risk in abandoning the artificial in pursuit of the authentic. Yet if we've never known the real thing, it is easy to understand why we are mesmerized with the best versions of the imitation." ~ Erwin McManus, Uprising, page 35

Daily Thought: A Great Mystery

"God--eternal, boundless, and of infinite power--does great things in heaven and on earth that are a complete mystery to us. There is no searching out his wondrous works. If God's works were such that human reason could easily figure them out, they could not be said to be wonderful, nor would they be far marvelous for words to express." ~ Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Be Encouraged

{1 Thessalonians 5:9-11; ESV}

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Take a moment and ponder what Mike Yaconelli wrote in his book Messy Spirituality:

Sprinkled throughout our congregations are good people who have been paralyzed by feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, insecurity and self-doubt, insignificance and guilt, which are what cripples most of us who are trying to follow Christ. (p. 24)

Think about your church family. If we are struggling with sin, temptation, doubt, uncertainty, guilt, loneliness, insignificance, heartache, and fear, then it would seem likely that the other people we worship with struggle with similar things in our lives. Yet, there is an unspoken expectation that Christians need to have it all together, and so we end up hiding our true selves from one another. This is what Mike Yaconelli made me think about: Followers of Jesus need to encourage one another. Following Jesus is hard if we don’t have a support system to help us keeping going when we would rather give up.

I don’t know about you, but I have been there. In 2005 I was ready to throw in the towel and walk away from God, Jesus, and the Church. Guilt, doubt, and insignificance weighed me down and I wondered if this Christian thing was worth it. I have been one of those people sprinkled in the congregation, but I wasn’t an occasional visitor I was the youth minister. If I was struggling as the youth minister imagine how the occasional visitor is feeling. Think about the times you have struggled and the reasons you didn’t give up.

The New Testament book of Hebrews was written to a church family who were struggling. They were ready to give up in the face of persecution. Apparently they were Jews living in Rome and had accepted Jesus. These Christians had already been through one persecution where they lost most of their possessions. This new wave of persecution though was threatening their lives. A return to Judaism, which was a legal religion, was very appealing to them. It is in this context that the writer wrote:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25, ESV)

The writer of Hebrews called His readers to encourage one another, the echoes of his call fall upon us today. Following Jesus isn’t easy and we need all the encouragement we can get. How will we hold on to the hope we have in Jesus if we don’t have people encouraging us along the way? Encouragement is essential for remaining faithful through the struggles of life.

How can we receive the encouragement that we need? Encouragement doesn’t find us by accident. We have to take initiative if we hope to be encouraged in our lives. The writer of Hebrews provides us with two ways we can take the initiative to find the encouragement we need.

The first way we receive encouragement, according to the writer of Hebrews is to meet together. In other words we have to be involved in the lives of others and we need to allow people into our lives. The negative promise of the passage is that if we isolate ourselves then we will not be encouraged. We need to take the initiative to meet together.

Along these same lines we have to be willing to invite people in. Just because somebody is sitting in a pew or attending a small group doesn’t mean they are meeting together. We can be present in body but absent in every other way. By engaging other people we invite them to be part of the Church Family or the group and allow them to find encouragement.

The second way that we find encouragement is through faithful examples. Chapter 11 of Hebrews contains a list of Old Testament saints who endured struggles and remained faithful to God. It was important for the first readers to be reminded that following God isn’t easy, it never has been, and that there have been people who have endured to the end.

We need to be reminded of faithful examples. They could be ancient saints, modern day believers, or someone in between. These examples often provide encouragement and hope for the remind us what God can do through the most difficult of circumstances.

Following Jesus isn’t easy. In our church families their are dozens of people struggling with their faith, and you might be one of them. Through these dark times of we life we need encouragement, and that encouragement is found in fellow believers. Are you being encouraged? Are you an encouragement?

Daily Thought: The Evidence of Faith

"Faith is obvious in our lives when we are confronted with an opportunity to believe God and we obey Him immediately." ~ Henry Blackaby, Created to be God's Friend, p. 122

Daily Thought: We Need God's Heart

"The church cannot live when the heart of God is not beating within her. God's heartbeat is to seek and to save that which is lost. The church exists to serve as the body of Christ, and it is through this commitment to serve that we are forced to engage our culture...When the church refuses to serve the world, she begins to waste away. She finds herself deteriorating, withering, and losing her strength." ~ Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p. 23

Daily Thought: A Sense of Urgency

"For one to realize God is working out His eternal purpose in his life is to live with a sense of urgency. Only one life to live, and it will soon be past, and only what is done with God will last! This can, if one believes this truth, bring to all of life an urgency to live meaningfully and to live well! To know God will give urgency. To have urgency will bring a willingness to obey God quickly. To know that what is done with God will last gives urgency to setting priorities and living with intentional focus and certainty not to waste life or live life carelessly." ~ Henry Blackaby, Created to be God's Friend, p, 8

Ransomed Heart: A Loss of Heart

I wanted to share with you today's Daily Reading from Ransomed Heart Ministries.

Monday, January 17, 2011

A Loss of Heart

It was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest warnings about a loss of heart.

It is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought was lost. For others of us, when he called, it felt for the first time in our lives as if our heart had finally found a home. We responded in faith, in hope, and in love and began the journey we call the Christian life. Each day seemed a new adventure as we rediscovered the world with God by our side.

But for many of us, the waves of first love ebbed away in the whirlwind of Christian service and activity, and we began to lose the Romance. Our faith began to feel more like a series of problems that needed to be solved or principles that had to be mastered before we could finally enter into the abundant life promised us by Christ. We moved our spiritual life into the outer world of activity, and internally we drifted. We sensed that something was wrong, and we perhaps tried to fix it-by tinkering with our outer life. We tried the latest spiritual fad, or a new church, or simply redoubled our commitment to make faith work. Still, we found ourselves weary, jaded, or simply bored. Others of us immersed ourselves in busyness without really asking where all the activity was headed. At one point in my own spiritual pilgrimage, I stopped to ask myself this question: "What is it that I am supposed to be doing to live the spiritual life in any way that is both truthful and passionately alive?"

(The Sacred Romance, 7-8)

Daily Thought: Our Glory Restored

"But the Scripture is abundant and clear: Christ came not only to pardon us, but also to heal us. He wants the glory restored." ~ John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, p. 136

Engaged!

Today I became engaged to the most wonderful woman in the world.  It has been a great six months and we are very excited about what God has in store for us in the future.

Daily Thought: Receiving God's Best

"It comes down to this: God's best is available only to those who sacrifice, or are willing to sacrifice, the merely good. If we are satisfied with good health, responsible children, enjoyable marriages, close friendships, interesting jobs, and successful ministries, we will never hunger for God's best. We will never worship. I've come to believe that only broken people truly worship. Unbroken people—happy folks who enjoy their blessings more than the Blesser—say thanks to God the way a shopper thanks a clerk." ~ Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams, p. 57

Daily Thought: Who We Are At The Core

"Character is neither conformity or uniformity. Character is the mark that defines who we really are when you get to the core. When our character is defined by integrity, we can be trusted with power. Power does not become a corrosive agent, but a creative power energy. When we lack integrity, we use power to control. When we lead with integrity, we use power to bless. Power minus integrity equals the will to power. Power plus integrity equals the will to empower. The condition and depth of your integrity determines how you will use authority when entrusted with it." ~ Erwin McManus, Uprising, p. 79

Daily Thought: Intercession

"God's intense longing to bless seems in some sense to be graciously limited by His dependence on the intercession that rises from the earth.  He seeks to rouse the spirit of intercession  so the He may be able to bestow His blessing on those who seek Him.  God regards intercession as the highest expression of His people's readiness to receive and to yield themselves completely to the working of His almighty power." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 116

Daily Thought: Our Initiative

"Once the individual has through divine initiative become alive to God and his Kingdom, the extent of integration of his or her total being into that Kingdom order significantly depends upon the individual's initiative." ~ Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 68

Ten Books I read in 2010 that You should Read in 2011

I know that my annual top ten books of the year list is a late in coming, but I still wanted to take some time encourage my faithful followers to pick up a book and read.  Here are my lists from 2008 and 2009 just in case there is a book on one of those lists that might peak your interest.

10. Liberalism: The Classical Tradition by Ludwig von Mises
I didn't find this book the easiest to read, but it did help sharpen my thinking in terms of liberty and freedom.  If you are interested in liberty this is a good book to read.

9. The Best of George MacDonald: 120 Daily Devotions to Nurture Your Spirit and Refresh Your Soul from Honor Books
Good devotional books are hard to find.  Most of the offerings out there are little more than cotton candy fluff and so it is exciting when you are able to find something different.  I liked this book so much that I also got The Best of Andrew Murray which I am currently reading through with my wonderful girlfriend.

8. God is Great, God is Good edited by William Lane Craig and Chad Meister and Contending with Christianity's Critics edited by William Lane Craig and Paul Copan
These are both collections of apologetic essays.  I like essay books when comes to things like apologetics because it gives you a piece from a wide variety of issues and if you get bogged down in one essay you can jump to the next one without missing anything.  These are good places to start if you are interested in apologetics and want to graduate beyond Lee Strobel's books.

7. Prodigal God by Timothy Keller
Keller goes through the the parable of the two lost sons (aka the prodigal son) and reminds us of the radical nature of God's grace.  Books like this are important to read, not because they will tell us something new, but because they remind us of a truth that begin to take for granted.

6. Satan and the Problem of Evil by Gregory Boyd
This book took the better part of the year for me to read.  While I don't hold to Boyd's open view of the future (Open Theism as it known), I do think it is valuable to read what he has to say.  I think too often we don't consider the part Satan is allowed to play in this world and so we either end up blaming God or ourselves for the evil that is in creation.

5. Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg
Gives a great over view on how Communism, Fascism, and the Progressive Liberal movement in the United States all come from the same root of socialism.  In other words Fascism is a left leaning ideology and not a right leaning one.

4. Simply Christian by N. T. Wright
A great simple book on what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Nothing more needs to be said.

3. The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
Willard does a wonderful job at explaining what we need to have spiritual disciplines as part of our lives. I would also recommend reading Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard as well.  I think the church has focused so much on sin management that we have missed the important thing: helping people become more like Jesus.

2. Humility and Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray
This was two books in a single volume.  I picked this book up by "chance" because I was looking to expand my reading to encompass some older disciples, men and women who lived faithful lives long before I was born.  I had never heard of Andrew Murray before, but the book was cheap so I bought it, and I am very glad I did.  Murray has been one of my spiritual mentors this past year, Absolute Surrender is a fabulous book and I think it is one all followers of Jesus should read.

1. The 5,000 Year Leap: Principles of Freedom 101 by W. Cleon Skousen
This book is a must read for those who are interested in freedom, liberty, and small constitutional government.  Americans are so badly educated about what liberty is and the principles that founded our country that we need know just how far off track we have come from our founders' vision.  Great book and one that I gave as a gift this year for Christmas.

Daily Thought: Knowing God

"We forfeit that birthright when we take folks through a discipleship program whereby they master any number of Christian precepts and miss the most important thing of all, the very thing for which we were created: intimacy with God. There are, after all, those troubling words Jesus spoke to those who were doing all the 'right' things: 'Then I will tell them plainly. "I never knew you"' (Matt 7:23). Knowing God. That's the point." ~ John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, p, 96

Daily Thought: Connect with God

"You can't be connected with God until you're at peace with who you are. If you're still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You'll be at odds with your maker. And if you can't come to terms with who you are and the life you've been given, you'll never be able to accept others and how they were made and the lives they've been given. And until you're at peace with God and those around you, you will continue to struggle with your role on the planet, your part to play in the ongoing creation of the universe. You will continue to struggle and resist and fail to connect." ~ Rob Bell, Sex God, p. 46

Daily Thought: Towards Perfection

"On the other hand, you must realize from the outset that the goal toward which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal." ~ C. S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian, p. 78

Being Truly Religious

Do you consider yourself to be a religious person? I know I do, in spite of the fact that I am told that Christianity is a “relationship not a religion.” The reality is that religion is how we communicate our love to God since we cannot relate to Him in the same way I can relate to my friends and family. Religion is how we have a relationship with God.

Some of the rituals that are part of religion have been handed down by God. This is especially true with Judaism. The books of Exodus and Leviticus contain the rules and regulations of how Israel was to relate to God. A person cannot help but notice as they read through these books that God was very specific on how things should be done.

Some of these rituals that make up religion are the result of tradition and are the product of human ideas of what should be done in order to relate to God. They have little or no Scriptural base, but they are accepted because that is how things have been done.

As a person who follows Jesus I recognize that most of the laws and rituals handed down by God to the Israelites applied specifically to Israel as they tried to be God’s holy people. So I don’t offer sacrifices or keep the Sabbath, instead I trust in Jesus’ sacrifice and weekly observe the Lord’s Supper. I also recognize the benefit of some traditions as well such as the celebration of Christmas and church buildings. Our traditions have a place in our worship of, and thus our relationship with, God.

Besides helping us relate to God, religion has another purpose for our lives. That purpose is to help us change. I can’t speak for other religions, but the purpose of Christianity, those rituals and traditions that we do, aren’t just to help us to relate to God but also to help us become the person God created us to be. Read what James had to say about religion:

If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you (James 1:26-27; NLT).

James spent much of the first chapter of his book talking about how trials, God’s wisdom, and God’s Word are needed to help us become the people God created us to be, because sin has corrupted us. What James points out in these two verses is the truth that going through the motions of religion, doing the rituals and the traditions, is not the same thing as changing. If we can’t learn self-control, if we can’t have compassion for the needy, and if we cannot remain pure in this sinful world than our religion is worthless.

The only way religion has any effect on us, this is also true for trials and God’s Word, is if we first commit ourselves to being faithful. Faith, our choice to commit and trust God, is what makes the difference. Without faith religion is just empty rituals and traditions. Without faith the trials and tragedies of life serve no purpose. Without faith God’s wisdom, which is found in His Word, is nothing more than a nice way to live.

Faith, our trust in God, is what makes all the difference. God cannot change our lives, cannot restore us to true life, until we trust Him. So in the end it isn’t about being a religious person, but it is about being a faithful person. Two questions we have to consider are: Who am I faithful to? Will I trust Him with my life? If the answers aren’t Jesus and yes, our religion just might be worthless.

Daily Thought: Understanding Our Nature

"Without an understanding of our nature and purpose, we cannot have a proper understanding of redemption." ~ Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 45

Daily Thought: The Greatest Joy

"People who insist on happiness never find joy.  They allow themselves to feel only those desires that are met.  Denied desires they deaden.  The effect is to feel happy for a season, perhaps a long season, but it's a selfish happiness.  They live for the ongoing satisfaction of desires other than the desire to know God.  They become self-absorbed." ~ Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams, pp. 74-75

Called to Influence

The God-given mission that we have been given is to influence the world around us. It is through our influence that we will have the best chance at bringing change into the lives of people. Condemning people and using power plays will not get us the results we desire. If we are really interested in helping people find love and forgiveness in a relationship with God then we will seek to be people of influence.

Though I have to admit it is hard to have influence because it takes time and work to establish the trust and relationships needed so others will listen to what you have to say. Relationships are the path over which influence travels. Without a relationship we have little hope of influencing a person.

As we seek to be people and churches of influence we have to remember that influence require character and integrity. How we live our lives say much more about what type of people we are than anything we might say. We have to think about what our lives are saying to the people around us. This is also true about our local congregations. We need to be aware of how the community views our church family and do our best to be a loving place to be. People need to know that we care about what is happening in their lives.

Not only does influence require character, but it also requires us to be compassionate. The old adage is true: People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. In order to influence people we need to go out of our way to do simple acts of kindness. When we show people that we care about them they become more receptive to what we have to say. It makes us people with the potential to influence their lives for good.

Influence is essential in making a difference in the lives of people. We see this clearly in the relationship of a parent and a child. A child becomes the person he/she is due to a large part to influence of the parent. Intentionally, and often unintentionally, the parent teaches their child how to live.

The question we have to consider is: Am I being an influence for good in the relationships that I have? Each one of us influences other people, probably to a greater degree than we know. Therefore it is important for us to constantly be aware of what our lives maybe saying to those around us. We need to be influences for good in this world.

The Commission we have received from Jesus to make disciples is about being positive influences in the world. Even Jesus' metaphors, salt of the earth and light of the world, point to the influencing nature of our lives as Christ Followers. Jesus has called us to be influencers so that the world may know Him. Let's go out and change the world.

Daily Thought: Transforming Cowards

"The history of God's people is not a record of God searching for courageous men and women who could handle the task, but God transforming the hearts of cowards and calling them to live courageous lives." ~ Erwin McManus, Uprising, p. 89

Daily Thought: The Outcome of Worship

"Worship is a deliberate, steady, focused time with God.  Worship anticipates not only an encounter with God, but also a clear next word from God.  Worship is totally God-centered! God-focused! Out of worship comes a clearer and more focused relationship of faith and obedience with God.  Worship is God's way of developing character and directing the life into the center of His will...The ultimate outcome of consistent worship is a life totally yielded to God, on God's terms." ~ Henry Blackaby, Created to be God's Friend, p. 83

Righteousness Begins in the Heart

Jesus called Satan a thief who intends to steal life from us (John 10:10).  One of the ways Satan robs us of life is to get us to believe lies about ourselves.  These lies can prevent us from taking steps to change our lives, can hold us down with oppressive guilt, and can hold us back from developing relationships with other people.  It is hard to step out in faith when you believe that you don’t have what it takes or that you are a failure in some way.

This is clearly seen when we decide to attack the sin that continues to be part of our lives.  Too often the followers of Jesus label ourselves moral failures when we are unable to achieve victory over the sin that plagues our lives.

You may have tried to stop gossiping, but every now and then you can’t resist the temptation to pass along a particular juicy bit of information. Perhaps you have been trying to quit telling “dirty” jokes, but when you get together with the guys you can’t seem to pass up the opportunity to join in.  Then there are the things that you do when no one else is around, from what you look at on the internet to the movies that you watch.   All followers of Jesus have sin that seems to stick with them no matter what they do.

That is what I want to encourage all of us today. Yes, God wants us to overcome the sin in our lives. Sin hinders our relationship with Him and is a stumbling block as we try to reach out to others with the grace of God.

I believe that God is more interested in the desires of our hearts than our sinlessness. God is pleased when we enter the battle against sin and start to take action against those behaviors that have held us in bondage for so long.  Through the struggle we have with sin God shapes us into the people He wants us to be. 

Please remember have that every sin you commit doesn’t make you a moral failure.  As long as we live in these bodies of flesh in a world that is dominated by evil (things opposed to the life God wants us to live) we are going to sin. We need to remember the amazing grace of God, for without the safety net of grace every sin would result in our destruction. Not only is God patient with us but it is also only by His power that ultimate victory from sin can be achieved. We cannot undo the sin we have committed so our only hope is to be saved from sin, that is what God has done through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The habits that have been ingrained in our lives have often taken years to form, and we cannot expect to overcome those sins overnight. We are going to win and lose battles as we fight the war of righteousness. It is an act of faith and it pleases God when we engage the enemy and begin the long campaign to rid our lives of sin in order to develop the holy character God wants us to have.

The writer of Hebrews wrote about this truth:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
 
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4; ESV)

These witnesses to the life of faith all struggled with the sin in their lives. The great icons of faith in the Old Testament (Abraham, Moses, and David) all had periods of life when they disobeyed God and sinned, but God still counted them as righteous. Why? Because their hearts belonged to Him and they were willing to follow God wherever He led them.

What matters most to God are our hearts. We can beat ourselves up because we still have sin in our lives, but God is pleased when we faithfully follow Him. I am not saying sin is not important, what I am saying is that when our hearts belong to God then sin becomes insignificant. Sin is insignificant because we are willing to do whatever it takes to live our lives according to God’s will. That means we will repent and we will take steps to keep ourselves from falling into the same traps again. To have a heart that belongs to God means that we will fight against the sin we have in our lives.

Satan will attack us and try to get us to doubt our salvation by reminding us of the sin we cannot seem to overcome. He wants us to get frustrated and give up. Remember as long as we are in conflict with sin then God is pleased, because He knows our hearts belong to Him.

Daily Thought: Feed on God's Word

"Bread must be eaten.  I may have bread in my house and on my table in great abundance—but if I cannot or will not eat it, I'll die.  Likewise, mere knowledge of God's Word will not help me.  It is not enough to hold it and think about it; I must feed on God's Word.  As it is absorbed into my life, I am sustained and strengthened." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 112

Daily Thought: Fellow Image-Bearers

"When a human being is mistreated, objectified, or neglected, when they are treated as less than human, these actions are actions against God.  Because how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator.

"To be a Christian is to work for the new humanity.  Jesus commands his followers to feed and clothe and visit and take care of those who need it.  They're fellow image-bearers, they're just like us, and when we love them, we're loving God." ~ Rob Bell, Sex God, p. 28