Daily Thought: The Goal of Faith

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character.

~ Oswald Chambers

A Marriage Prayer

Our Father in Heaven,

Bless us with the wisdom to see each other as our companion, lover, and friend, but not as our source of life.  Empower us to encourage each other into a deeper communion with You and in the process help us discover the best marriage we can possibly have.

We ask that You will make us a blessing to our children, to our parents, to our siblings, to our neighbors, and to our church family.  May the people we know experience a taste of Your love and grace through our marriage.  Use us to be a light in this dark world.

It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Daily Thought: Sin is Expensive

The Security of Faith

Daily Thought: Both Friend and Enemy

If we are not giving our life for both friend and enemy, then we have departed again from the Christian way. Jesus Christ is our example and he gave his life not in a contest between friend and foe, but for both.

Snow, Michael (2011-10-01). Christian Pacifism: Fruit of the Narrow Way (Kindle Locations 833-834). mikesnow.org. Kindle Edition.

True Repentance

Daily Thought: The Kingdom of God Must Take Root

The kingdom which Jesus came to bring to earth as in heaven must take root in, and be implemented through, the cleansed and softened hearts of his followers.

N. T. Wright, After You Believe, Harper One (2010), p. 123

The Fruit of the Spirit is...

LIFE.

In January I preached a sermon, The Fruit of Life, on Galatians 5:16-26, and in that sermon I contended that the fruit of the Spirit is life and the nine virtues were adjectives describing that life.  This reasoning was based on the fact that in Galatians 5:21 when Paul writes;  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God (NLT).  So when our lives are described by the works of the flesh then we are not living the true and eternal life God has promised to those who follow Jesus.

It is also based on the fact that the word fruit in verse 22 is singular:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (NLT)

So Paul isn't talking about the various fruits the Spirit produces in our lives, but he is describing the ONE fruit that is produced in our lives.  Now it is true that each of us will have these qualities to varying degrees as the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and changes the direction of our lives, but each of them must be present if we have truly inherited the full abundant life God desires us to live.

Yesterday for my Bible reading I read through the book of Galatians and in chapter 6 I saw something that I missed before, but further validates my thinking.  In verse 8 Paul writes; Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit (NLT).  According to the apostle Paul the harvest that we reap when we follow the Spirit is LIFE.

Why is this important?  I think it is important because it reminds us that God is interested in us becoming a certain type of person and that transformation process depends on the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  We cannot manufacture eternal life, it is something that God must give to us through His spirit.

Don't Let Life Slip Away

As I grow older the more aware I am of the passing moments of life.  The younger you are the easier it is to put things off by saying, "I will do it tomorrow".   With each passing day time slips through our fingers.  We have to remember that we only have a limited supply of tomorrows, and we don't know when they will run out.  The good intentions that we have will remain undone if we don't begin to make an effort to accomplish them..

We all have dreams, goals, and passions that we would like to accomplish.  Maybe you want to start improving the relationship you have with a distant brother/sister or maybe start to pursue a romantic relationship.  Perhaps you want to write a book or go back to college.  Maybe you want to change careers or start your own business.  Perhaps you want to serve God in a new capacity or go on some type of missions trip.  We will not accomplish any of it unless we put forth the effort to accomplish them.

Tomorrow will not be any less busy than today is. We can be certain that tomorrow will bring with it a new set of troubles and expectations.  The only way to achieve the good we wish to accomplish today is to start taking the steps we need to do in order to accomplish our dreams and goals.  Sooner or later we will realize that tomorrow will not come and the chances we had in the past are now forever lost.

The big problem I face in this process is the lure of entertainment.  It is so easy to get sucked into watching that next TV show we were told we couldn't miss or to watch the latest movies releases so we can have something to talk about with our friends and family.

The hours spent watching TV shows, movies, playing video games, and surfing the net are hours that we could have spent doing something productive.  Entertainment keeps us from using the blessings God has given us when we allow it to consume our lives.  I am not saying the entertainment is evil, what I am saying is that when we allow the entertainment industry to consume us we waste the time, money, and talents God has blessed us with.  We have to realize that one of the victims of our over indulgence of entertainment and other distractions are the good intentions of our lives.  Lost are the relationships we wanted to cultivate, the projects we wanted to complete, and the people we wanted to help.

In the book of Hebrews we read:

Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.  Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near (Hebrews 10:23-25; NLT).

There are two points I would like to draw from this passage in Hebrews.  First we are to encourage each other "to outbursts of love and good deeds"  It so much easier to accomplish the good we intend to do if we have people in our lives encouraging us to do the right thing rather than enabling us to waste the time God has granted.  if we do not have people in our corner urging us on is so easy just to be swept along by the current of everyday demands.  Encouragement is needed if we are going to make good on the intentions that we have.

There is is a flip side to this as well.  If we expect encouragement then it is very important that we offer encouragement.  We cannot expect from others what we are not willing to give.  I believe that was we get involved in the lives of other people we will find ourselves being more intentional with the way we use our time.

Second point is "that the day of his coming back is drawing near".  Jesus never gave us a blue print by which we are to map His return.  The "signs" that so many point to are so general that they can apply to almost any age, and as we look at history we will notice that they have been.  That doesn't mean the Jesus isn't coming back, but it does mean that we can't predict when He will return.  Even if Jesus doesn't come back in our lifetime (though I have a belief in my heart that He will) we still have the fact that with each passing day our death becomes more of a reality.  We can only put things off for so long before time and death catches up to us.  Then it will not matter what our good intentions were because they have simply remained intentions.

We can intend to do good all we want, but if we never start to work toward accomplishing them they won't mean a thing.  Unlike in gift giving it is not the thought that counts.  It comes down to whether or not we will use what God has given us to accomplish the good works that He has called us to do.  What are you doing to accomplish the good you want to do?

Daily Thought: Desire and Prayer

Desire is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep seated craving; an intense longing, for attainment. In the realm of spiritual affairs, it is an important adjunct to prayer. So important is it, that one might say, almost, that desire is an absolute essential of prayer. Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before prayer, and by it, created and intensified. Prayer is the oral expression of desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then prayer must be expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. Such perfunctory, formal praying, with no heart, no feeling, no real desire accompanying it, is to be shunned like a pestilence. Its exercise is a waste of precious time, and from it, no real blessing accrues.

~ E. M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer, Logos Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: Accepting God's Covenant

God has chosen to relate to mankind on the basis of covenants. All of God's covenants with man have been designed to achieve the good of humanity. God has revealed himself as a covenant-making God. He has entered into agreements based upon His perfect character. He has placed himself on record by making immutable promises. The fact that one covenant supersedes another is not attributable to fickleness or caprice, but to the changing condition of the world of mankind. Our relationship to God must be a covenantal one. We must enter such an agreement freely as the party of the second part. It is a profound truth that the infinite Creator respects the sovereignty of the human will, to the extent that the created may reject the Creator. Finite man may refuse the hand that made him, but he cannot refuse the consequences that follow.

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 125-130). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Created to be a Hero

Who am I?  It is one of the great ancient questions of life.  Even though we are existing in this body and doing certain actions and believing certain beliefs, there is a part of us that wants to know who we are.  We know that we are not our jobs, we are not our hobbies, we are not are political party, and we are not even our relationships.  Most of those things are just masks and disguises we use because we are so uncertain about our true identity.  Any identity is better than no identity so we settle for these counterfeits.

Here is a thought: What if it were possible to gain a glimpse of who we truly are? What would that be worth?  What would you be willing to pay?  Rather than existing in life trying to fulfill on the responsibilities of the different roles we play we can start to live the life God created us to experience.  What an awesome thing that would be!



In order for that to happen we have bypass the mental barriers we have erected in our minds and allow Truth to speak to our hearts.  We can be told in a thousand different times that we are new creations, God’s children, God’s holy nation, and saints but unless these truths make it past our mind and into our hearts they are just words and our lives remain unchanged.



One of the ways the Holy Spirit bypasses the defenses of our mind and attacks our hearts is through the use of stories.  In 2 Samuel 12 we see a good example of this.  In the previous chapter we read about King David’s terrible sin of adultery and treachery.  He stole the wife of one of his most devoted men and then had him, Uriah, murdered.  David took advantage of Uriah’s trust and sent him to battle carrying the orders that sealed his demise.



For more than a year David continued life as normal, believing that he had gotten way with it.  There was no repentance when David went to offer sacrifices or worship in the tabernacle. David’s mind told him that everything was okay.



But we know things weren’t okay, and God sent Nathan the Prophet to confront David.  Nathan told David a story about a rich man with lots of sheep his neighbor a poor man with one pet ewe lamb.  One day the rich man has a visitor, but rather than using one of his own sheep for supper the rich man steals his neighbor’s ewe lamb and uses it for supper.  What was David’s response?


David was furious.  “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.” 

Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man…” 

Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:5-7, 13; NLT).

What a year of Torah reading and sacrifices failed to accomplish a single simple story accomplished.  Truth was able to get around the defenses erected in David’s mind and come in through the back door of his heart.  That is the power of story.

As we seek to discover who we are and the life God created us to live not only do we have to look to God’s Word, but we also have to look at other ways Truth is communicated in our lives. One of those way is through stories, and the stories we enjoy reveal much about the life God has called us to live.  The heroes and heroines we come to love through those stories help us to understand the role God has called us to play in this life.

Each one of us has been called to be a hero.  True some us are called to be Batman, others Batgirl, some Commissioner Gordon, and still others Alfred.  Not one us was created to be Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, or Penguin, a villain who seeks to bring pain into people’s lives.  We are called to be heroes, to rescue people, and to give them hope in the midst of their pain.  In his short letter Jude wrote:

But you dear friends, must continue to build your lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit. Live is such a way that God’s love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. They are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren’t contaminated by their sins” (Jude 20-23; NLT).

The heroes we connect with in the stories that we love help us understand the way God sees us, the potential that our lives posses, and the calling that is on our lives.  John Eldredge in Waking the Dead wrote:

There are stories that you’ve loved; there are characters that you’ve resonated with down deep inside, maybe even dreamed that you could be.  Do you know why?  Deep is calling into deep.  They spoke to you—they speak even now—because they contain some hint or glimpse of your true self” (p. 83).

There is a hidden greatness within you.  You are more than your hobbies, jobs, political views, and relationships.  You are a Hero created by God.  Your glory isn’t discovered in trying not to sin as you go to church every Sunday.  Taking a risk and stepping out into an incredible adventure is how you discover your glory as you begin to rescue people from the Evil One.  You were created to be a hero.

Daily Thought: Be a Child of Light

If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says—‘Oh, I can explain that away.’ When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.

~ Oswald Chambers; My Utmost for His Highest; Dodd, Mead & Company (1935); p. 83

Daily Thought: Prayer Unlocks the Storehouse

God has not changed, and His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer and His hand is just as long and strong to save as they ever were. "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save: neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But our iniquities may "have separated between us and our God, and "our sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" ( Isaiah 59:1 , 2 ). Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, are at the disposal of player. But we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the one who knows how to pray and who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays.

~ R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: Pride Prevents Us from Know God

The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.  Other vices may sometimes bring people together:  you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people.  But pride always means enmity—it is enmity.  And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself.  Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all.  As long as you are proud you cannot know God.  A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as longa s you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

C. S. Lewis, A Year with C. S. Lewis, HarperSanFrancisco (2003), p. 90

The Way of Faith is 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 not increased through study and church attendance, but through living a life of obedience.

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.

Daily Thought: To Make Us Good

The Lord cared neither for isolated truth nor for orphaned deed. It was truth in the inward parts, it was the good heart, the mother of good deeds, he cherished. It was the live, active, knowing, breathing good he came to further. He cared for no speculation in morals or religion. It was good men he cared about, not notions of good things, or even good actions, save as the outcome of life, save as the bodies in which the primary live actions of love and will in the soul took shape and came forth. Could he by one word have set at rest all the questionings of philosophy as to the supreme good and the absolute truth, I venture to say that word he would not have uttered. But he would die to make men good and true. His whole heart would respond to the cry of sad publican or despairing pharisee, 'How am I to be good?'

MacDonald, George; eBook-Ventures (2010-08-07). Unspoken Sermons - Series 1, 2 & 3 (p. 152). Unknown. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: The Royal Spirit

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike.  Oh, that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of Heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of Heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all! This is the path to gladness and the glory of Christ's presence ever in us, his power ever resting on us.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 20

Daily Thought: It is by Prayer

By prayer the windows of heaven are opened, and showers of refreshing dew are rained upon the soul. It is as a watered garden, a fertile spot where blooms the unfading rose of Sharon and the lily-of-the-valley; where spread the undecaying, unwithering branches of the tree of life. By prayer the soul is nourished and strengthened by the divine life. Do you long for a brighter hope and deeper joy, for a deeper sense of the divine fulness, for a sweeter, closer walk with God? then live in prayer. Do you love to feel the holy flame of love burning in all its intensity in your soul? then enkindle it often at the golden altar of prayer. Without prayer the soul will weaken, famish, and die, the fountain of love dry up and become as a thirsty and parched desert. Do you admire the character Jesus? Behold his lowliness and humility, his gentleness and tender compassion. Have they any beauty and do you desire them to grace your soul? then draw them down from the skies in all their glorious fulness by the fervent prayer of faith.

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (pp. 49-50). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: Written on Our Hearts

When we read that we are not under law, the apostle is not telling us that we are no longer under the sovereignty of God, but that we are no longer under a written code or legalistic system. We can no longer strive for justification, or seek to arrive at guiltlessness, by observance of such a code laid down or imposed from without. Law, in its primal meaning, is a principle of action. It is the basis, or foundation, the motivating dynamic that governs our whole course of conduct.

God does not write numbered statutes and commandments upon our hearts as the Romans engraved laws upon the twelve bronze tablets in the Forum, or as His finger carved the Ten Commandments upon two tablets of stone at Sinai. Instead, He infuses our hearts with a divine principle of action, and this spontaneously and automatically responds in harmony with His will. Incorporated within that principle, which involves the divine nature or essence, is the fulfillment of all the commands of God, not as a way of life, but as "the life of the Way."

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 729-736). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Be a Living Sacrifice

{Romans 12:1-2; ESV}

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

What has made the American church ineffective in her mission? Is it not the reality that we have allowed ourselves to be conformed to the world? I am not going to point my finger at anyone else, all I have to do is to look at my own life. A life that I have wasted pursuing movies, video games, sports, and politics. In many areas my life has looked just like any other person of my generation. It is so easy to get sucked into the culture in which we live.

We defend getting sucked into the culture by claiming freedom; “I am free to do this! After all it isn’t a sin.” That maybe true, but I recall the apostle Paul writing something about things being permissible but not being beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23). Just because we are allowed to do something doesn’t mean that we should. What is the benefit of the hundred of hours we have devoted to entertainment? In that time have we served another person or grown in our knowledge and understanding of God? The question we need to ask more often is: What is the benefit of this__________ (activity, possession, entertainment)? Pursue those things that benefit your faith and reject those things that become a distraction. Otherwise we will find ourselves constantly conforming to the ways of the world.

If we take a look at what Paul wrote in Romans 12 we notice something very important. What should jump off the page to us is that sacrifice, offering myself to God as a living sacrifice in response to His mercy and grace, is what helps us not to be conformed to the pattern of this world and instead to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. The reason American Christians are being conformed to the culture, being made in the likeness of the world, is because we have refused to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. If we cannot sacrifice we cannot be transformed; the two go together.

I wonder if the reason we aren’t sacrificing is because God’s mercy and grace mean so little to us? After all Paul says it is because of God’s mercies that we should offer ourselves as living sacrifices. I think many of us want God to save us from our sins so we can pursue the life that we want to live, and we give little or no thought to the life God created us to live. The comfortable life I want to create for myself is more important to me than the faithful, and at times difficult, life God created me to live.

If we are thankful for the grace and mercy of God then that will be reflected in the way we live. Be a living sacrifice, don’t conform to the world, and be transformed into the new person God is creating you to be.

Daily Thought: Being Devoted to God

Devotion is neither private nor public prayer; but prayers, whether private or public, are particular parts or instances of devotion. Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God.

He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in doing everything in the Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory. We readily acknowledge, that God alone is to be the rule and measure of our prayers; that in them we are to look wholly unto Him, and act wholly for Him; that we are only to pray in such a manner, for such things, and such ends, as are suitable to His glory.

William Law, A Serious Call to a Holy and Devout Life, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: We Need Power

I think it would be perfectly safe to say that the church of Christ was never in all its history so fully, so skillfully and so thoroughly and so perfectly organized as it is today. Our machinery is wonderful; it is just perfect, but, alas, it is machinery without power; and when things do not go right, instead of going to the real source of our failure, our neglect to depend on God and look to God for power, we look around to see if there is not some new organization we can get up, some new wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have altogether too many wheels already. What we need is not so much some new organization, some new wheel, but "the Spirit of the living creature in the wheels" we already possess.

R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer, Olive Tree Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: Fear Holds Us Back

Fear does not seem like the most serious vice in the world.  It never made the list of the Seven Deadly Sins.  No one ever receives church discipline for being afraid.  So why does God tell human beings to stop being afraid more often than he tells them anything else?

My hunch is that the reason God says "Fear not" so much is not that he wants us to be spared emotional discomfort.  In fact, usually he says it to get people to do something that is going to lead them into greater fear anyway.

I think God says "fear not" so often because fear is the number one reason human beings are tempted to avoid doing what God asks them to do.

John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk On Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, Zondervan (2001), p. 118

Linkage: The Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer

Prayer is one of the great mysteries of the Christian life.  I know that we have all been frustrated by prayer and we have all experienced God's hand at work through prayer.  There have been times when we have felt the psalmists when they question God about His apparent lack help as well as when they praise Him for His faithfulness and strength.

Prayer is one way we are able to participate in the full life Christ Jesus has promised us.  Prayer is one of the ways we can help usher in the Kingdom of God into the world.  It also softens our hearts, aligns our wills with God's will, and reminds us that God is our great provider.  Prayer is an essential discipline for the Christian.  Though this essay from N. T. Wright is on the long side I think you will be blessed by it as you discover the importance of the Lord's Prayer in our lives.

“AS OUR SAVIOR CHRIST hath commanded and taught us, we are bold to say: ‘Our Father. . . .’”  So runs the old liturgical formula, stressing the Pater Noster as a command and its use as a daring, trembling, holy boldness.  At one level, this is entirely appropriate.  At another level, however, it fails to catch the most remarkable thing about the Lord’s Prayer — and so fails to grasp the truly distinctive feature in Christian prayer that this prayer points us to.  For the Lord’s Prayer is not so much a command as an invitation: an invitation to share in the prayer-life of Jesus himself.
   
Seen with Christian hindsight — more specifically, with trinitarian perspective — the Lord’s Prayer becomes an invitation to share in the divine life itself.  It becomes one of the high roads into the central mystery of Christian salvation and Christian existence: that the baptized and believing Christian is (1) incorporated into the inner life of the triune God and (2) intended not just to believe that this is the case, but actually to experience it. 

The Lord’s Prayer, along with the Eucharist, forms the liturgical equivalent to what Eastern Orthodox church architecture portrays and western Gothic architecture depicts — both developing, each in its own way, the central temple theology of Judaism.  The God worshiped here, says this architecture, is neither a remote dictator nor simply the sum total of human god-awareness.  This God is both intimately present within the world and utterly beyond, other, and different from it.  He is present to celebrate with his people and to grieve with them, to give them his rich blessings and to rescue them from all ills, because he is also sovereign over heaven and earth, sea and dry land, all the powers of this world, and even over the urgings of the human heart.  The Lord’s Prayer is an invitation to know this God and to share his innermost life.

Continue reading The Lord's Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer.

Daily Thought: Cultivate Compassion

Compassion is the spirit of love that is awakened by the sight of need or wretchedness.  What abundant opportunities there are every day to practice this heavenly virtue, and what need there is for it in a world so full of misery and sin!  Every Christian ought therefore by prayer and practice to cultivate a compassionate heart, as one of the most precious marks of likeness to the blessed Master.

Opportunities for showing compassion are all around us.  There are poor and sick, widows and orphans, distressed and despondent—people who need more than anything the refreshment a compassionate heart can bring.  Pray earnestly for a compassionate heart, always ready to be an instrument of divine compassion.  It was the compassionate sympathy of Jesus that attracted so many to Him on earth.  That same compassionate tenderness will still draw people to you and to your Lord.

Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, Cook Communications (2005), p. 49

Prayer: The Proclamation of Freedom

Many of us take our words for granted and we don't think that what we say has very much authority.  Simply reflecting on the reality of how the words of other people have wounded us or have blessed us shows us that what say has power attached to it.  That is why we need to be very careful about making false promises and statements.  What we say is one way we bring things into reality.  That is why a prayer like this, a proclamation of the reality that we want to live, can be so powerful.  There is nothing magically about these words, but the words carry power when we say them with the intention of living a life of faith.  This proclamation of freedom is adapted from an exercise Pastor Greg Boyd did at Woodland Hills Church on September 4, 2011.  I hope that you find blessing and freedom through it.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 

~ Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

Through the authority of Jesus Christ, who died for sin, I declare that I am free.  He has rescued me from the kingdom of darkness and He has brought me into His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Light.

On the authority of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, I declare that I am no longer a slave, that all chains are broken, the power of sin has been defeated, and the bondage to Satan has ended.

By the authority of Jesus Christ, who now stands at the right hand of God, I declare that I will stand fast in freedom, that I will be a good steward of the life given to me, that I will hold on to the inheritance promised to me, and that I will not return to the slavery of sin.

On the authority of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord, I renounce all bondage to fear, to insecurities, to greed, to despair, and to depression.  We renounce all sexual addictions, all drug addictions, and all people pleasing addictions.  And I renounce all bondage to self-centeredness, to the cultural idols, and anything else that has the power to enslave me.  For who the Son has set free is free indeed!

Daily Thought: We are not Competent to Combat Sin

God 'gives his Holy Spirit to them who ask him," according to his revealed will; and without this gift no one could be saved or ultimately triumph over all opposition.  He know but little of the deceitfulness of sin, or the combating of temptation, who this himself competent to wrestle against the allied forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 50

Daily Thought: There are Bound to be Difficulties with the Bible

Some people are surprised and staggered because there are difficulties in the Bible. For my part, I would be more surprised and staggered if there were not. What is the Bible? It is a revelation of the mind and will and character and being of an infinitely great, perfectly wise and absolutely holy God. God Himself is the Author of this revelation. But to whom is the revelation made? To men, to finite beings who are imperfect in intellectual development and consequently in knowledge, and who are also imperfect in character and consequently in spiritual discernment. The wisest man measured on the scale of eternity is only a babe, and the holiest man compared with God is only an infant in moral development. There must, then, from the very necessities of the case, be difficulties in such a revelation from such a source made to such persons. When the finite try to understand the infinite, there is bound to be difficulty.

R. A. Torrey, Difficulties in the Bible, Logos Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: Following Hard after God

Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand."

A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, SoHo Books, p. 5

Daily Thought: A Spirit that Looks Outward

There are those who are greedy for this world's goods. Once again only Christianity can banish that spirit. If we judge things by purely material standards, there is no reason why we should not dedicate our lives to the task of getting. But Christianity introduces a spirit which looks outwards and not inwards. It makes love the highest value in life and service the greatest honour. When the love of God is in a man's heart, he will find joy not in getting but in giving.

William Barclay, DSB: The Letters to the Corinthians, The Westminster Press (1975), p. 47

Linkage: The Forgotten Beatitude

As we follow Jesus we will be tempted to turn our back on him, to doubt his promises, and to disown him. This is the result of the difficult nature of life.  When life doesn't turn out like we planned and hope we tend to think that we are messing up or that God doesn't necessarily care for us, if he even exists.

Frank Viola points out that Jesus promised that those people who are not offended by him will be blessed.  When we cling to the promises of Jesus we will experience the blessing of life that Jesus desires to give us. In this post Frank Viola identifies three reasons why we would be offended by Jesus, and thus miss out on his blessing.

 “Blessed is the person who is not offended by me.”
~Matthew 11:6 

To be offended means to stumble or trip. The Scripture tells us that Jesus is a rock of offense . . . or a rock of stumbling . . . to the disobedient (1 Peter 2:8). In His earthly days, the Lord Jesus was constantly offending the religious establishment. 

But in the above text, Jesus has someone else in mind. He’s speaking to His followers: “Blessed are you, my followers, when you are not offended by me.” The context bears this out. 

John the Baptist was utterly loyal to Jesus. He walked a life of total self-denial. He gave everything up for his God. And now he is in prison.

Continue reading The Forgotten Beatitude.

Daily Thought: It Can Be Lonely

It is a moment of trembling to realize the Heart of God, but this comes to the one who chooses to let God draw him closer to Himself.  Often this will occur in one, while others around him do not know anything at all about the seriousness of the moment with God.  But God desires such a relationship, where He can share His Heart.  This is the "friend" He is looking for.  This is the kind of relationship He is shaping in the one He calls.  This one will see father, see clearer, and see more than others around him.  This, too, will often separate him from those around him, especially because of the intensity with God this revelation creates.  It is sometimes lonely being a "friend of God"!

Henry Blackaby, Created to be God's Friend, Thomas Nelson (1999), p. 131

Keep Up the Struggle

It is no secret that life is hard.  Even when we are following Jesus and doing God’s will life doesn’t get any easier.  There is a part of us, even though it has never been promised, that expects things to be easy if we are doing what is right.  We want to be validated and reassured that we are doing the right thing.

Though it would seem to me that if we are truly doing God’s will then things would be difficult.  Why?  Because the enemy is opposed to God.  If we are making progress in overcoming sin in our lives, if we in a relationship God wants us to be a part of, if we are part of a ministry making a difference in the community, or if we are standing up for what is right we shouldn’t be surprised if things are easy.  In fact, I might even suggest that if things are easy it might be time to evaluate what we are doing.

True we can’t evaluate things solely on the basis of whether things are going well or not.  Sometimes things will go well even though it is God’s will and sometimes things will be a struggle even though it goes against God’s law.  All I want to do is point out that struggling isn’t a bad thing.  When God’s will become a struggle gives us an opportunity to grow and will help us appreciate what God has for us on the other side of the struggle.

In the midst of the struggle we need to remember what Jesus said to the church in Smyrna:

“To the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write: The first and the last, who was dead and became alive, says: I know how you are suffering, how poor you are—but you are rich. I also know that those who claim to be Jews slander you. They are the synagogue of Satan. Don’t be afraid of what you are going to suffer. The devil is going to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested. Your suffering will go on for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Let the person who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Everyone who wins the victory will never be hurt by the second death.
Baker Publishing Group (2010-07-16). Holy Bible, GOD'S WORD Translation (GW) (with direct verse lookup and book and chapter navigation) (Kindle Locations 52581-52587). Baker Books. Kindle Edition. 

Jesus tells this group of Christ Followers not to give up in the face of persecution.  “Hang in there,” He says, “this won’t last forever.”  Our struggle may not be persecution, but it maybe that circumstances haven’t turned out the way we expected.  Reality isn’t anything like our dreams and we wonder if we are in the right place.  Should we have faith or should we give up?

I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules for such situations, but let me offer you a few thoughts.  First, is your struggle tied to right and faithful living?  If it is then we are doing what God wants us to do.  When our desire is to honor God, encourage people, help others, and grow in our knowledge and faith then there are a lot of places we can go and things we can do and remain in God’s will.  These are certainly things that  Satan would oppose, so if you are being faithful and loving God and people and things are a struggle stay faithful you are in the right place.

Second, let go of your dreams.  I think God allows us to struggle sometimes because our dreams need to be changed.  We are missing out on the life God wants us to live because we are clinging too tightly to the dreams we have for our lives.  Even good dreams need to be let go in order to experience God’s best.  This is an act of faith because we have come to believe that only in these dreams will we discover happiness, so we are relying totally on God to bring joy into our lives.

A last thought I would offer is to get the opinions of different Christians.  These could be people you are close with or not, but they need to be people you respect and who live faithful lives.  While we need to evaluate what they say, more than likely they will help us see things from a knew perspective.  Too often we get so close to the situation that we fail to see the entire picture.  The perspective of other Christians can help us see things more clearly.

Life is tough.  Just because life is tough doesn’t mean that we are not doing God’s will.  Often the struggle is an indication that we are doing what God wants us to do and we are being opposed by the Enemy.  We need to stay faithful and in the end we will experience the life God created us to live.

Daily Thought: We Cannot Pay the Price

How can he make up for this past?  What can he trade to God in exchange for his soul?  What can he do to stop the vengeance of God?  How shall he come before Him?  How shall he pay that which he owes?  If he were, from this very moment to perform perfect obedience to every command of God, this would make no amends for the past.  He already owes God all the service he is able to perform, from this moment to the end of eternity.  If he could pay this, it would make no manner of amends for what he should have done before.  Therefore, he sees himself utterly helpless with regard to atoning for his past sins.  He is unable to make any amends to God.  He cannot pray any ransom for his own soul.

John Wesley, The Sermon on the Mount, The Christian Community (2010), pp. 71-72

Linkage: How Do You Keep From Getting Distracted?

We can feel important when someone asks us for help, and therefore it is easy to lay aside our agendas so we can help that person.  The problem is that each of these pleas for help can begin to distract us from what we need to be doing.  There needs to be a balance in our lives in finding time to help people and doing those things that God has called us to do.  Sometimes those two things line up, and other times they don't.  Jesus didn't stay in one place to help all the people in that community, because His call was larger than that, and so He travelled around helping people when He could.  Similarly we need to be aware of what God has called us to do and make those things a priority, as well as making sure we find time to help those people who ask us for help.

Don Miller has post on his blog that deals with this issue:

A few weeks ago I was tempted to put off a high-priority job because somebody needed something from me and said it was urgent. The truth is what they needed from me was urgent, it just wasn’t urgent for me. What they needed was going to help them get their job done. 

I call these kinds of distractions a “ringing phone.” It’s amazing how much a ringing phone takes priority over everything else, and often the stuff that is more important given your various responsibilities. When a phone rings we rarely know what the person who is calling wants, but we drop whatever we are doing to answer.

Continue reading How Do You Keep From Getting Distracted? Don’t Answer the Ringing Phone.

Daily Thought: The Mission of Jesus

Because we easily imagine ourselves in need, we imagine that God is ready to forsake us.  The miracles of Jesus were the ordinary works of His Father, wrought small and swift that we might take them in.  The lesson of them was that help is always within God's reach when His children want it.

The mission undertaken by the Son was not to show Himself as having all the power in heaven and earth, but to reveal His Father, that men may know Him, and knowing, trust Him.  Jesus came to give them God, who is eternal life.

George MacDonald, The Best of George MacDonald, Cook Communications (2006), p. 36

Seeing the Harvest

{Matthew 9:36-38; ESV}

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 

I think one of the ways we can measure our spiritual growth is the greater compassion we have for people in tragic situations. When I was younger it was easy for me to negatively judge people because of the bad circumstances in their lives. “After all,” I reasoned; “if they would make better choices they wouldn’t find themselves in those difficult circumstances.”  Compassion was absent from my life.  Now my heart breaks when I see people throw their lives away, because I know God has a life that is so much better than the one they are living.

I don’t want to diminish the responsibility each of us has for the choices that we make, but I have come to realize that many choices are made because people just don’t know any better. They have had bad models for their lives and are unaware where to turn for help. They may want to change but don’t know what to do. We also need to remember many of the sin addictions people have are the result of their desire to cope with the tragic circumstances of their lives and now they are in a cycle that they can’t break.

When we read the gospels it appears that when Jesus looked at a crowd of people He didn’t see dirty rotten sinners; instead He saw lost travellers. Rather than condemning people for their faults and sins, Jesus showed them compassion and acceptance.  Jesus was the one person who could sit in judgment but He chose to extend help instead.

If we believe we have God’s truth it is tempting to judge people, rather than to help them. That was one of the sins Jesus condemned the Pharisees for having.  Focusing solely on the truth can make us feel superior, and thus we think we are in the position to judge the lives of those around us. It also gives us a sense that we are doing God’s work since we are standing up for God’s truth.  Yet, in Revelation 2:1-7 Jesus told the church in Ephesus that they were in danger of being shut out of the Kingdom because they did not love.  The Ephesians were known for standing up for the truth, but somewhere along the line they had lost their love.

Compassion, which is a form of love, must be mixed with truth.  It is the mixture of the two which provides us with the ability to influence the people in our lives.  The example of Jesus is that of compassion and truth.  Jesus loved people, where they were at, and yet He always told them the truth.  Truth is a lot easier to take when you know it comes from a person who cares for you.

Jesus looked at the crowds of people and He saw people who were lost and who had no idea how to find their way home.  What these people needed was a person who would show them compassion by pointing them in the right direction.

The legions of people who need help are more than we can help by ourselves, so what can we do? If we are going to show compassion to the world we have to pray. Prayer helps us gain a proper perspective on life and what is happening around us. It also helps us to align our hearts with God’s hearts. On top of that we are to ask God to provided what we need: workers for the harvest. There is a shortage of leaders able to show the lost the way home.

Compassion is not just reserved for our prayer life, but it is also about how we live. Jesus lived in such a way to show the people around Him that He knew the Way they were to travel. As Jesus’ Followers we have that same responsibility of living our lives in a way to show people that there is a better way to live.

Ultimately what we need is a change of perspective. Instead of seeing the people of the world as dirty rotten sinners we need to see them as lost travelers trying desperately to get home, or better yet, a field ready for harvest.

Daily Thought: God Wants Us to Shine

God has left us down here to shine. We are not here to buy and sell and get gain, to accumulate wealth, to acquire worldly position. This earth, if we are Christians, is not our home; it is up yonder. God has sent us into the world to shine for Him—to light up this dark world...Let no man or woman say that they cannot shine because they have not so much influence as some others may have. What God wants you to do is to use the influence you have.

Moody, Dwight Lyman (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 595-600). Kindle Edition.

Video: OnePrayer-Francis Chan

Giving My Life for Jesus

In his book What the Bible Says about Jesus, Donn Leach wrote; “Yet Jesus considers Himself, His mission, and the spiritual welfare of men of such surpassing importance that He calls for the absolute loyalty of the disciple to Himself even when that brings enmity from those most closely related to the disciple by blood or marriage. It is even more important that self-preservation. Jesus calls on men to be willing to die for Him.”

Salvation was not just about being promised eternal life, but it was being rescued from the kingdom of darkness and being brought into the Kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13-14). That means Christians are citizens of God’s Kingdom, and that our desire is to see God’s will done here on earth as it is done in heaven. Let me ask you a question: Are you willing to die to see that happen?

To be honest, we cannot fully know how we would respond to a life and death situation until we experience that type of situation. Peter, before Jesus’ arrest, was confident that he would stay with Jesus, even if it meant death. Though you and I know the rest of the story. When the apostle was confronted with the prospect of being captured he denied that he even knew Jesus. Brave talk and positive thinking do not necessarily translate into courage when the chips are down.

Yet, isn’t necessary to think about such things in order to prepare for what may happen? I think our imaginations can help us prepare for the tasks that lie ahead, and that includes the possibility of laying down our lives for the Kingdom. One of the things the coaches I had for basketball and track asked the team to do was visualize the game or the race. It was about mentally preparing for success. So, on the one hand, we cannot know for certain how we would respond to the threat of death, on the other hand, we can prepare for that possibility by employing our imaginations to imagine our thoughts and feelings during such an experience.

There are other difficult situations that we have to prepare for besides the prospect of dying for our faith. Some of us will face the difficult reality of being shunned by family because of our Christian faith. The temptation to walk away from faith, or at least water it down, has to be so appealing during those moments, and yet Christ thought His Kingdom and mission were so important for you to walk away from your family instead.

The scenario can play itself out in a number of different ways: to break the law or lose your job, to pursue a forbidden love or stay single for the rest of your life, to party each weekend or lose your buddies. You get the picture. To die for Kingdom and to give up our lives for Christ is just the ultimate example of the choices we face over and over again in our lives. Will we remain faithful to Christ or will we give into the pressure?

How can we develop the type of faith that will stay with Jesus even when our world crumbles around us? I think this is question needs to be asked of the Church as a whole and not only just for ourselves. Remember, one of the Church’s tasks is to build each other up in faith. In other words the Church is to facilitate the spiritual growth of each member. Spiritual growth is not just a personal responsibility, but it is also a corporate responsibility. The Church should help Christians become people who are able to remain faithful amidst family conflict, persecution, and the threat of death. Is your church family producing such people?

Being a follower of Jesus is tough. Jesus was always very straight forward about this fact. He never tried to candy coat the reality what it meant to follow Him. It remains the same today, though because of our blessed situation in the United States we have forgotten this reality. It is tough to follow Jesus, and that is true in United States as it was in the Roman Empire during the first century. To be a Christian doesn’t mean that we believe certain things about Jesus, but that we trust Him enough that we would die for Him. The question we need to answer is: How can we become people who will die for Jesus?

Daily Thought: The Invitation to Desire

This may come as a surprise to you: Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person.  It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society.  It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is alway the aftereffect of something else, something at the level of our hearts.  At its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire.

John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire, Thomas Nelson Publishers (2000), p. 34

Daily Thought: A Mere Bowl of Soup

Jesus does not deny us personal fulfillment, but shows us the only true way to it.  In him we "find our life."  He would keep us from selling our birthright as creatures in God's image—a birthright of genuine goodness, sufficiency, and power for which we are fitted by nature—for a mere bowl of soup (Genesis 25:30-31): perhaps a little illicit sex, money, reputation, power, self-righteousness, and so forth—"the pleasures of sin for a season"—or for the mere promise or possibility of such.

Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, NavPress (2002), p. 68

Daily Thought: Doctrines Don't Save

Doctrines do not save or transform lives.  Christ does.  Doctrines do not give specific guidance to lives.  A divine Person does.  You do not pray to a doctrine; you pray to a Person.  Merely to believe and understand a doctrine is not to experience the abundant life Christ desires for you.  In order to do that, you need to experience a Person.  The doctrine can lead you to Christ, but it can never substitute for him.

Henry and Richard Blackaby, Hearing God's Voice, Broadman and Holman Publishers (2002), p. 12

Daily Thought: Redeemed from Pride

All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all it ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of others, has brought us.  It is pride that made our redemption needful; it is from our pride we need, above everything, to be redeemed.

Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, Hendrickson Publishers (2005), p. 10

Video: William Lane Craig and Doubt

Daily Thought: Using God's Gifts Properly

If a man has the gift of speech or the gift of healing, if he has the gift of music or of any art, if he has a craftsman's gifts upon his hands, all these are gifts from God.  If we fully realized that, it would bring a new atmosphere and character into life.  Such skills as we possess are not our own achievement, they are gifts from God, and, therefore, they are held in trust.  They are not to be used as we want to use them but as God wants us to use them; not for our profit or prestige but for the glory of God and the good of men.

William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: the Letters to the Corinthians, The Westminster Press (1975), p. 12