God is Pro-Choice

God created people with the ability to choose.  In Genesis we discover that God gave Adam and Eve a choice, but He did not dictate their actions.  Even with so much at stake God allowed Adam and Eve to make the choice on whether or not they would obey Him.

When we examine our lives we recognize that God has given us the liberty to pursue whatever we think will make us happy.  Our choices will, at times, limit our freedom.  Addictions and bad relationships, which are the result of our choices, can hold us in chains which are difficult to toss aside.

God's desire is that we will surrender our lives to Him and follow Jesus.  This is the best way to live and it is the way to usher God's Kingdom into this world.  Even though God is the sovereign Lord of the universe He is not a tyrant.  Instead God allows us the freedom to choice our own path, even when that path is destructive to the world He created. God has given us the freedom to love Him or reject Him.

Daily Thought: The Human Contradiction

"The two sides of the great human contradiction, dust and divinity, then, are  set in place.  Human creatures, like all living beings, have a life of their own.  But though that life is mortal and short, it is still a life in which we alone among living beings can stand in opposition to God—in order that we may also choose to stand with God." ~ Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, pp. 52-53

Daily Thought: Choosing Hell

"Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there.  But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited.  It is a place they would in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is.  Whether or not God's will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not.  There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent." ~ Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 57

Making the Choice of Freedom

{Romans 6:15-20; NLT} 

Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

While freedom is a God-given gift there remains certain choices that will either help us live a life of freedom or a life of restriction. For example, if you decide to murder someone, that choice will rob you of freedom. Even if you were able to get away with the crime and therefore didn’t have to spend the rest of your life behind bares, the guilt of the deed you committed and the constant fear of being caught would hamper your ability to enjoy being on the outside of the prison bars.

Here is another, much more practical, example. The choice to use credit to furnish a lifestyle way above your means will lead to the reality that you will be enslaved to your creditors. By spending tomorrow’s morning today you limit what you can do in the future because there is already a group of people who have a legal claim to your money. Not only that, because of the interest that will also have to be paid you will actually be paying more for your things than what they are worth. Your freedom is hindered by the choice that you made.

Our choices will either lead us to greater levels of freedom or they will restrict the freedom that we already enjoy. There are many choices, both large and small, that we make that will end up taking away our freedom. Our freedom and our choices are eternally connected. Ponder for a moment what Erwin McManus wrote:

“Not all free acts lead to freedom. The choices you freely make may cost you a life of genuine freedom. This is why the Bible talks about the human experience in terms of being slaves to sin. Sin creates the illusion of freedom; it fools us into seeking freedom from God rather than finding freedom in God.
“Whatever else Jesus came to do, one thing is clear—He came to set you free. God is not a warden; He is a deliverer. And so earnest is He about your freedom that He was willing to be taken captive and crucified on your behalf just so you can run free” (Stand Against the Wind; p. 14).

If we are going to be free we have to make those choices that bring and enhance the freedom in our lives. This requires that we look towards the future and not just live in the moment. We have to think about the consequences of our actions and ask the question; “What is the true cost of my behavior?” Ultimately we have to realize that a life lived apart from Christ Jesus is a life that is devoid of freedom. Only Jesus has the power to rescue us from the slavery of sin.

In Romans 6:15-20 the apostle Paul tells us that we have to make a choice. We can choose to continue to allow sin to control us, or we can give ourselves over to righteousness. What Paul is asking us to do is to establish disciplines in our lives that help train us train to live lives of holiness, and in this way experience freedom.

The follower of Jesus is free because they have given themselves over to Jesus’ way of living life. We devote our lives to the study of God’s Word, to being part of a Christian community, to taking time to celebrate Christ’s victory over sin and death, and to seeking God’s guidance and blessing through prayer (Acts 2:42). There are other disciplines that I could mention, but these are the basic four that the early church used to grow in faith and freedom.

We need to be devoted to disciplines because that is the way we learn to live in freedom. A person of faith is like a jazz improviser. This musician has learned the chords and studied the music so much that they understand where the song going. The discipline of practicing the music gives them the ability to stay true to the song, even when they go off on their own. The jazz musician has freedom to improvise because they have been a slave to the music.

When we devote ourselves to holiness through observing the spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith we are able to live with freedom because we know our purpose in life and we know where life is heading. These to realizations help us make the right choices in all the thousands of different situations we face in our lives. We are able to do the right thing because we have chose to surrender our lives to following Jesus.

True freedom is not found in doing whatever we want to do, but it is discovered in choosing to do the right thing. We discover what the right thing is when we train our lives in righteousness, but that is a choice that we have to make. Jesus came and opened up the way to freedom, now we have to decide whether or not we will take it.

Daily Thought: Moral Choices

"People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, 'If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing.' I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heaven creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is Heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other." ~ C. S. Lewis; The Joyful Christian; pgs. 123-124

Sunday Quote: Plan not to Sin

"Those who let God be God get off the conveyer belt of emotion and desire when it first starts to move toward the buzz saw of sin.  They do not wait until it is moving so fast they cannot get off of it.  Their aim is not to avoid sin, but to avoid temptation--the inclination to sin.  They plan their path accordingly." ~ Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 119

God's Help and God's Expectation

{Ephesians 4:20-24; ESV}
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When it comes to following Jesus we need to remember two important truths.  The first truth is that we are unable to be faithful on our own.  Salvation begins and ends with God.  He is the one who took the initiative to save us and we can be confident that He will finish what He started.  Part of the way He is bringing transformation and life into our lives right now is through the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God guiding our lives towards faith and maturity.  We must always remember that God does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.

The second truth we need to remember is that God has certain expectations for our lives.  We are intended to reflect God’s love into this world, and therefore God provides us with commands and wisdom in His Word so that we can know the right way to live.  In the passage from Ephesians quoted above we see that we are to take off the old way of living, the way the world lives, and adopt a new way of living, the way of Jesus.  What we need to notice here is that Paul says this taking off and putting on is something that we must do.  God will help us in this process, that is why the gift of the Holy Spirit is such a wonderful blessing, but we have to make the choice to renounce the way of the world and submit to the way of Christ.  God will not do for us what He expects us to do for ourselves.

Take a moment and consider what author Dallas Willard wrote:

“The vitality and power of Christianity is lost when we fail to integrate our bodies into its practice by intelligent, conscious, choice and steadfast intent.  It is with our bodies we receive the new life that comes as we enter his Kingdom...If we are to participate in the reign of God, it can only be by our actions.  And our actions are physical—we live only in the process of our bodies.  To withhold our bodies from religion is to exclude religion from our lives.  Our life is a bodily life, even though that life is one that can be fulfilled solely in union with God” (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 31).

I know this seems rather obvious, but I think the story of our lives show that we don’t do it.  We say we believe in Christ, but we haven’t allowed that reality to influence our behavior.  God expects us to align our lives with what we say we believe.  In other words our belief needs to influence our lives.  After wall that is what faith is all about.

You and I need to trust in God for our salvation.  The reason why we can find security in our salvation is because it depends on what God has done in Jesus Christ and not in what we have done, which would put our salvation on very shaky grounds.  Yet, that trust we have in God for salvation needs to begin to be seen in the way we live our lives, and that involves the choices that we make. These choices manifest themselves into action and through our actions we bring God’s love and His rule into this world.  We need both trust and choice in our lives to experience God transforming power in our lives.

Within Our Control

There is so much in our lives that is outside of our control.  A man who has never smoked a cigeratte gets lung cancer or the woman who runs daily dies of heart attack.  We can reduce risks, but we don't control our DNA, the weather, the government policy, or the actions of another person.  In spite of our efforts to be intentional, a good deal of life is created for us by outside forces.

With this in mind consider the words of Gregory Boyd:

While a great deal of the world in which we live and even a good deal of own lives is determined by forces outside of our control, the conviction that we possess self-determination remains.  However much of life may be decided for us, some aspects of our life are decided by us.  We have some degree of genuine say-so in what happens in our lives and the world, and it is this that most fundamentally gives our lives dignity and worth" (Satan and the Problem of Evil, p. 66).

We have been created with the ability to make choices.  While our lives might be at the mercy of outside forces we can still make choices that determine how we will respond to those forces.

We can, as Paul writes, set our hearts on heavenly things (Col. 3:1); or clothe ourselves with mercy, love, and patience (Col. 3:12). In that same line of thinking we can consider it a joy when hardships come our way as we read in James 1:2.

Followers of Christ Jesus need to keep two truths in mind.  First, we need to remember that much of life is outside of our control.  Second, how we respond to the joys, hardships, successes, and trials of life will reveal our faith the the world.  It is this second truth that is with our control, and therefore that is where our concern should be.

Shun Evil

Consider what Gregory Boyd wrote:

"If love is the goal, it could not be otherwise. God chose to create a world in which evil was possible only in the sense that he chose to create a world in which love was possible. The possibility of evil is not a second decision God makes; it is implies in the single decision to have a world in which love is possible. It is, in effect, the metaphysical price God must pay if he wants to arrive at a bride who says yes to his triune love" (Satan and the Problem of Evil; p. 55)

The nature of love implies a choice. Since there is a choice being made means that there is a possibility of rejection as well. Evil is the result of God's creation rejecting His love.

One of the ways we can fight evil is to make the choice to love: to love God and to love His creation. That choice is played out as we worship, serve the needy, listen to the lonely, or clean up a polluted planet. We need to chose love and shun evil.

Sent from my iPod

Make the Right Choice

The goal of faith in Christ Jesus is not heaven but Christlikeness.  Heaven, which is being in the presence of the Triune God, is the result of our commitment to be like Christ Jesus.  The apostle John reminds us that; Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did (1 John 2:6; NLT).  We can’t be with God if we are not on the road towards Christlikeness.

In the same line of thinking the apostle Paul wrote:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8; ESV).

Jesus could have clung to His rights as God and remained in heaven, instead He laid aside those rights and obediently served humankind out of the love He has for the Father and the love He has for His creation.  It is this attitude of humility that Paul insists that we should imitate.

How do we imitate this attitude of humility?  I think it begins by recognizing that we have certain rights.  I have the right to pursue a self-centered life, that doesn’t mean that is the correct option, but God has given me that choice.  The nature of freedom is that there is more than one option open to us.  While I have the right to pursue a self-centered lifestyle I also have the right to put others ahead of myself.  For example, in the evening I have the right to sit on the couch and “unwind” while watching television.  Couch sitting and television watching is an option open to me if I want to do it.  Yet, another option is to take my dog Barkley for a walk since he has been in his kennel all day long.  I much rather “unwind,” but Barkley need to be walked, and I am free to choose to go for walk and not live a life that is totally about me.

If we are going to be like Jesus requires that we don’t focus simply on what we are free to do, but that we seek to discover what is right.  Adam and Eve were free to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but that wasn’t the right choice.  God told the couple not to eat from the tree, the right choice was to use the other fruit trees as food.

Ananias and Sapphira were free to use their land, and the money, anyway they wanted to, but giving only part of the money and lying about it wasn’t the right choice.  Freedom is a dangerous responsibility because people have the ability to choose the wrong thing.  If we are going to be like Christ Jesus we need to discover the right choice and then commit our lives to doing it.

The apostle Paul said that Jesus chose to obey the Father.  How do we know what the right option is?  The right choice is what lines up with God’s will.  If we just base this choice off of feelings we will often choose wrong because more often than not our feelings are contrary to God’s will, and therefore we will end up living a life of disobedience rather than a life of obedience.

We make the best use of our freedom, not through indulging every little desire that we have, but by choosing to serve people.  When we demand that people acknowledge our rights rights we push people away from us, but when we choose to love we open up an opportunity for people to see God.  Christ chose to serve His followers first and we must make the same choice.

Sunday Quote: Face to Face with the Cross

"When we come face to face with the cross, we have a choice to make: We either recognize its implications and bring ourselves, our passions, and all that we are, to be crucified with Christ so that we might live with the sound of His voice and the feel of His heart, or we walk away from the cross and live feeling alienated from God." ~ Ravi Zacharias, Cries of the Heart, p. 60

Set Our Minds

One of the reasons it is essential to be people of the Book is because it allows God to use the truth it contains to capture our attention. What amazes me is that God will use certain books or passage to really hammer home truth into our hearts. One of the books that God has been using over and over again in my life is the book of Colossians.

This morning I was reading through Colossians once again when I was struck by verses 1-4 of chapter 3. In this passage the apostle Paul writes:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (ESV)

I want you to keep in mind, because it is foundational to what I have to say, that salvation and transformation begins and ends with God. It begins with God’s promise to bless all the nations of the world through Abraham and his descendant, it continues through Christ Jesus (the promised descendant of Abraham), and ends with the return of Jesus and the coming of the Kingdom in all of its glory.

Without God’s initiative, without God’s promise, and without Christ’s faithfulness we would have no hope, no matter what choices we might make. Our hope and our lives are bound up in the actions of our loving heavenly Father.

Yet, that does not mean that we have no part in the transformation process. Paul tells us that there is something that we must do, a choice that we must make. We are to set our minds on the things that are above. This requires an act of the will, for if we don’t choose to set our minds on the things of God, then it will not happen.

So what must we do if we are going to set our minds on the things that are above? First, it requires us to get rid of the negative and earthly things that grab our attention and focus. It means going through our movie collection and chucking those movies that take our hearts down paths that we shouldn’t go. It means buying software that will limit the access that we have online so that we are not tempted to view things that we shouldn’t see. It means saying goodbye to friends that lead us town dark pathways and away from God.

It is not good enough to get rid of the old, but we also have to replace the old with something new. Part of this means that instead of putting junk into our hearts and minds we are putting positive and God-honoring messages into our lives. I think we understand this truth, and many of us have made it this far. We have shunned the negative and we have embraced the positive, but things are still not what they should be. The distractions still come and pull us off course taking us down the paths of sin.

I believe that there is another step that we must take. We have to make the decision to add to our lives certain spiritual disciplines that will help us gain control of the flesh and will help us live more fully by the guidance of the Spirit. We need disciplines like Bible study (private and group), prayer, fasting, simplicity (living a simple life), generosity, and service. Being devoted to these disciplines will allow our hearts to be opened up to God truth, and will make it possible for us to implement that truth to the way we live our lives.

Not only do we have to add spiritual disciplines to our lives, but I think we also have to speak about what God is doing in our lives. So much of the time I think we miss out on what God is doing in our lives because we are not focused on what God is doing in our lives. We miss out on the connection between the changes that are taking place and God’s activity. By speaking out about God and changes in our lives helps us to make that connection, it sharpens our focus on God and His activity in this world, especially His activity in our lives.

God took the initiative to save us from sin and death. Let us respond to that initiative by focusing our lives on the things that come from God. Let us set our minds of the things that are above.

The Greatest of These

Originally posted Friday October, 15 2004

Wouldn’t it be great to win $10 million? Who among us hasn’t taken time to dream about what we would do with that type of money? Of course being Christians we think about the good we could do with the money: the orphans we could help, the missionaries we would support, and the ministries we would start. After all we are not greedy; we just want to be comfortable.

I don’t know about you, but I often play the “if only” game. If only I had $10 million I would use it for God’s glory. If only I had courage I would plant a church. If only I had the ability I would lead worship. The list could go on and on, but I think you understand my point. I tend to think that if I had a couple of additional talents or blessings I would be able to do so much more for the Kingdom.

The truth is that our gifts have very little to do with the difference we make in this world. The important thing in God’s eyes are not our talents, but our love. God is the Creator, and He can provide us with the gifts we need to accomplish the task He has called us to do. The one thing God cannot do is make us love. Love is a choice which we make. It is a product of our free will.

We may be jealous over the amazing talent someone else has, but what makes those talents meaningful and effective is love. Without love our gifts are meaningless. That was the apostle Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 13:

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; NLT).

Paul wants us to understand that the power behind our talents is love, and if we don’t have love then we what we are doing is ultimately meaningless. I think this is an important truth that we should ponder for a while. All the money in the world and all the awards that are won do not mean a thing without love. Love for God and love for people. Are you allowing love to power your talents?

While all the blessing God gives us are wonderful and amazing, none of them has the impact to influence another person outside of our decision to use those blessings in love. Love shows people we care about them. It makes our message both authentic and relevant in their lives.

While love is a choice, I think it is essential to remember that love was first a gift. The apostle John wrote; This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (1 John 4:10; NLT). Because God first loved us we are able to love those around us. It is through His love overflowing from our lives that we are able to change the world. That is why the greatest gift God has given us is love, and that is why He wants us to keep giving it away.

Don't Be a Fool

I was reading through some of my old writings and I came across the following excerpt from What the Bible Says About Goodness by Georgann Bennett. This is what she writes:

For the inspired writers of the Bible, a belief, a reasoned faith in Jehovah, was (and is) demonstrated in the goodness of one’s deeds--the righteousness of one’s life style. Many of us who would bristle up and fight were we to be accused of atheism make such blatant denials of God in the way we do business, the way we treat our children, the way we fulfill our lusts that we have become the Biblical fool (p. 99).

This is one of the the central truths that I want to communicate to people in my life. It is so crucial for people to realize that how they live conveys a message to those around them about what they truly believe. It reminds me of what Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God wrote; “How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God” (p. 109, the workbook). Our behavior is an indication of what we truly believe in our heart of hearts.

Stop and think about what your life is telling others about God? If you say: “Yes, I believe in God” and then go out and do things contrary to His will what are people to assume about us? Yes, there will be times when we fall to temptation and sin, but isolated incidents are totally different from a lifestyle sin. In other words it isn’t about the detours of our lives as much as it is about the direction of our lives.

The inspired writers of the Bible expect Christians to live a life of faith which points the world to God. For example, consider what the apostle Peter wrote:

Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world (1 Peter 2:12; NLT).

Peter believes that we can live in a way that brings honor and glory to God. In other words we are more that dirty rotten sinners saved by grace, we are royal priests and part of a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). When we surrender to Christ Jesus He transforms us and gives us a new heart. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are new creations because of the transforming power of God. The way we live is the greatest testimony we can offer for God’s existence and love.

The way we live our lives comes down to the choices that we make. “Be careful how your live…” Peter tells us. In other words think about how we will respond to people, to circumstances, and to God’s leading. Think about how you will treat your boss, your husband, your children, or your waitress. We are to be intentional in the way we live, and God’s Truth and Wisdom are to influence the choices that we make.

We are fools when we claim to love God and follow Jesus but live like the rest of the world. It means that we haven’t truly listened to God. We have heard His Word, but we haven’t applied His Truth to our lives. It is foolish to ignore the instructions from the Life Maker as we try to live life. It is foolish to possess the Truth, but not to follow the Truth. We are fools if we all we do is claim Jesus and not follow Him.

The difference between wisdom and foolishness in the eyes of God is a small one. The difference lies in one word: application. If we want to be wise we need to apply God’s Word to our lives. This requires two actions on our part. First, it requires that we commit to regular and practical Bible teaching. We cannot apply what we do not know. Second, it requires that we obey God, even when we don’t fully understand His plan. The future is unknown to us, so we don’t know the consequences to our actions, and there will be times when God calls us to do something that seems foolish and will lead us into great hardship, but we obey God and trust Him with the future. The wisest thing to do is to trust our future to the God who has determined the course of the future.

If we are not intentional in the way we live we will end up being fools. We will be fools because rather than trusting God we allow our lives to be determined by the emotions of the moment. The intentional person is able to rise above the swirling emotions of the moment and make choices that are in alignment with what they truly believe. That person is on their way to being counted as wise.

Remove the Dirty Clothes

{Colossians 3:5-10; NLT}

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Do you hear it? Do you hear the cry of your heart? The cry to be transformed into the person God created you to be. Don’t be ashamed, for my heart is crying the very same thing. One of the deepest longs we have is the desire to truly live life, and instinctively we know that true life can only be found with the Life Maker. Only God can truly offer us the life that we so desperately want to live.

While many of us have turned to God to find life we are frustrated with the results. One of the reasons for this reality is that we have refused to give up certain behaviors. We have allowed Satan to lie to us and convince us that these “little vices” are not a big deal and will not harm our spiritual growth, and yet the result of our lives would tell us a different story. We are frustrated because our lives are not characterized by joy, peace, love, or hope they way it should be. In short we are not living the abundant life Jesus promised His followers.

Here is the truth of the matter. While our small vices may not seem to be a big deal and that we control them, they, in fact, control our lives. We keep them because they give us a connection to this world, so we don’t feel out of place. The problem is that God has called us to live as foreigners and pilgrims in this world, in other words, we are not supposed to fit into the ways of the world. We keep them because we are addicted to the way they make us feel, and it would be hard work to break free from their grasp. The problem is that God has told us to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and we cannot be guided if we are in the grasp of an addiction.

Make no mistake about it, these private little sins that we hold on to pose a bigger threat to our relationship with God than we realize. They keep us from experiencing God at work in our lives, and they allow Satan to establish a stronghold in our hearts that he can use to lead us further down the path of sin and death. As long as we are willing to play in the mud of sin, no matter how shallow it might seem, we will continually miss out on the celebration of life God wants us to experience.

The apostle Paul wanted to make sure we understood that there must be a throwing off of our old way of life as we adopt a brand new way of living. We cannot hope to hang on to our old way of life and still follow Jesus. It has to be one or the other.

Paul wrote; Put on your new nature… That means being a Christian is about living in a dramatically different way than the rest of the world. In this world of confusion, pain, and doubt Christians are to SHOW the world that there is a better way to live. We bless the rest of the world when we display the new nature that comes with following Christ Jesus.

As long as we are hanging on to our old vices, no matter how small they might seem to be, we will constantly be frustrated with our relationship with God and the life that we are living because we refuse to abandon the old way of living and accept God new way of life. When we aren’t living the life God created us to live, then we are not able to be the blessing to the world that God intended for us to be.

Please remember that God knows that we cannot change overnight. He knows our weaknesses and our addictions. That is why He is gracious. Grace is all about God giving us the time, the wisdom, and even the strength to change our lives. God wants us to change little by little with each step we take as we follow Jesus.

Take some time and ponder what Erwin McManus wrote in Stand Against the Wind:

“You cannot follow Jesus and remain the same. The journey itself will change you forever—not only 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” (p. 26).

It is time that we abandon the artificial life of sin and addiction and pursue the authentic life of Jesus. Throw off the old way of living and put on a brand new way of life.

• Point to Ponder: We cannot hope to hang on to our old way of life and still follow Jesus.
• Questions to Consider: What sins have I hung on to? Why has it been so difficult to give them up? Where can I turn to for help? Do I believe that God will give me strength to overcome these sins?
• Prayer to Pray: God, my Hope and Savior, I thank You this day for life. With all the ups and downs I have experienced I am still grateful for the fact that You have given me life. I ask today for the strength, the wisdom, and the help I need to get rid of my old way of living and adopt the new way of living as I follow Jesus. Constantly remind me that I am not alone, that You are with me in this process, and that You have forgiven me and are proud of the effort I am making to change my life...

It Was His Choice

As I read Mark Moore’s devotional book, Encounters with Christ, I was hit with this thought: “Jesus died, not because of the treachery of Judas, the cowardice of the disciples, or the avarice of the leaders. He died because of a deliberate decision in the garden before any of these characters came on the scene” (p. 181). Obviously this isn’t a new thought, but it is one that is worth revisiting.

That God would make a decision to save people and that Jesus would make a decision to take on our sins and our death is a staggering thought. This thought leads us to another question: Why would God do this? This is where the above thought connects with a thought I have been pondering the last few days: to create a people for Himself.

Reflect on what the apostle Peter wrote in his first letter:

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:17-21; ESV)

Now let’s jump to chapter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV)

Here we see not only God’s desire to have a people who are holy and faithful, but it also shows us us our responsibility. If Jesus could chose to die in our place, so we may become a holy people, then we can choose to live lives worthy of that sacrifice. That is our responsibility.

Making the Wise Choice

{Matthew 7:24-27; ESV}

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Our lives are the product of the choices that we make. There are big choices which will affect the rest of our lives, and there are small everyday choices which set the direction of our lives each day. Since choices are so important it is essential that we have the proper foundation for making good choices.

According to Jesus the foundation we need to make good choices is His Word. The Bible, the entire Bible, contains the Words of Jesus. The wisdom we need to make good choices comes from the Bible. So how do we go about laying a foundation of Scripture on which we can build our lives? I think if we look at this parable Jesus taught we will find three actions we must do in order to lay the firm foundation of God’s Word.

The first action we must do is to LISTEN to Jesus. Listening implies an active intent on part of the listener. You see a hearer is passive, if we have healthy functioning ears then we hear the various sounds of life. Listening requires us to focus, tuning out the other sounds, in order to hear what is important. It isn’t enough just read the Bible, but we must come to the Bible with the desire to understand what God wants us to know, and how that word applies to our lives.

The second action we must do is to BELIEVE Jesus. We can listen to what Jesus has to say, but if we don’t believe Him then we will not apply what we have heard to our lives. Belief in Jesus is what separates the foolish from the wise. The foolish will listen to Jesus, but because they do not believe who He is or what He has to say, they don’t allow His words to affect their lives. The wise believe Jesus is the Son of God and therefore trust what He says, and their lives are changed as a result.

The third action is to CHANGE the way we live. Hopefully you notice that this action step is the extension of the last action. You have to first believe before you can change. All change is is putting legs on belief. The action of change shouts to the world that we trust Jesus. Since we trust Jesus we will adjust our lives to His word, even when doing so makes us go against the way of the world. Jesus said the fool listens, but does not change His life.

Every single day we are going to be faced with choices, and many times we are not going to have the time we would like to consider all the options. So how do we lay a solid foundation that will help us make wise decisions? We build our lives on the word of God, committing ourselves to listen to Jesus, to believe Jesus, and as a result change the way we live. Without this solid foundation we will be at the mercy of the changing winds of this world, but with this solid foundation we will be able to stand against whatever storm comes our way.

• Point to Ponder: To make wise choices we need the solid foundation of God’s Word in our lives.
• Passage to Remember: Matthew 7:24-27
• Prayer to Pray: Lord God, thank You for revealing Your truth to me. Root me in Your Word so I can live a life that honors You.

We Need to Change

{Titus 2:11-14; ESV}

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

As I examine my life I have this sense that I am not who I am supposed to be. It feels like I am missing out on the life that God created me to live. One reason for this feeling is the reality that I am unwilling to change my behavior. I get use to what is comfortable, even though it holds me back from the life God wants me to live, and become unwilling to move outside of that comfort zone. When I am honest with myself I admit that it is easier to settle for this life I have right now than it is to face the hard work and uncertainty of change.

The problem is that following Christ Jesus requires change. We cannot stay where we are and go with Jesus. Following Jesus requires change in our attitudes, behaviors, passions, desires, dreams, relationships, and priorities. The process of following Christ will change us.

The apostle Paul told Titus that the grace of God provides us with what we need in order to change. Not just to make superficial changes, such as changes in diet and exercise, but true and everlasting change. It is hard to change, and we need to be reminded that God, through Christ, has provided us with what we need to become the people that He created us to be.

This true change first requires us to say no. Paul writes that God’s grace trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. We cannot change if we insist on holding on to the old. God’s grace: the Bible, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, shows us that there is something better than the life we are currently living. This is key because we will not let go of the comfortable and familiar if we don’t know what awaits us is better. The starting place of change is turning our backs on our current circumstances and turning towards what God has promised.

This true change also requires us to replace our sinful behaviors with righteous actions. The Apostle tells us that our lives need to be described as self-controlled, upright, and godly. In other words our lives need to be positively different from the world around us. If we do part one without doing part two, we will discover a life of guilt because we are living a way which we know is wrong. Understanding what is wrong is just the first step, we then need to move on and fix the problems.

Change is what following Jesus is all about. If we are not changing, if we are not adjusting our lives in the light of God’s Truth, then we are not really following Jesus. Ultimately following Jesus isn’t about living the life God created us to live, but it is about honoring Jesus. We honor Jesus by changing the way we live. When we refuse to align our lives with God’s Word we disrespect Jesus, who we claim to be Lord of our lives. Our obedience always brings honor to the Lord, regardless of what happens to us. Remember, Jesus gave Himself for us, we should be able to give ourselves for Him.

• Point to Ponder: We honor Jesus by changing the way we live.
• Passage to Remember: Titus 2:11-14
• Prayer to Pray: Father in Heaven, thank You for giving me the opportunity to know Your grace and allow that grace to change my life. I want to honor Jesus with my life, and so I ask for wisdom to know what to change, understanding on how to change, and the strength to change.

Live as Free People

{1 Peter 2:13-17; ESV}

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Consider the following quote attributed to Samuel Adams:

He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man...The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people

.

One of my fundamental beliefs is the belief that liberty, individual freedom, is a gift from almighty God and not a privilege extended to us by the government. That means real freedom is found in the choices that we make, and not in the type of government which governs the country. Make no mistake about it: there are people in this country who are slaves because of the choices that they have made. Freedom is a gift from God, and the purpose of the Constitution of the United States is to ensure that we have the best opportunity to enjoy that freedom. While that is true, ultimately we find or lose our freedom based on the choices we make.

What does a free life look like? According to Samuel Adams the person who enjoys freedom is the person who lives a virtuous life. That is an interesting thought. In other words it is not the person who simply enjoys the benefits of freedom, doing whatever he/she pleases, but the person who lives according to a code of conduct, who gets the most out of freedom. The person who is honest, loving, disciplined, hard-working, and compassionate (to name a few positive virtues) is the person who will best enjoy his/her freedom.

This reminds me of what the apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 2:16 we read; Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God (ESV). Peter tells us that we are to live as free people, and the best way to do that is to live as servants of God. Ultimately freedom is found by living out God’s design for our lives. The way we enjoy freedom is to be disciplined in how we live.

Please understand this: no one can rob us of our freedom. Even if someone takes over and destroys the Constitution, along with the Bill of Rights, we are still able to live free lives. The reason for this is because it is not the government that makes us free. Freedom is a gift from God. The choices we make, even under an oppressive government, are what enable us to enjoy God’s gift of freedom.

Have hope! God, in His great wisdom and mercy, has placed control of our lives in our hands. The choices that we make are what determine what our lives will be like. God has left it up to us to decide whether or not we will live with freedom. This freedom is not about doing whatever we would like to do, but it is about choosing to live the life God planned for us to live (see Ephesians 2:10).

The ability to be free is discovered in the choices we make. Choose to follow Jesus and enjoy real freedom.

• Point to Ponder: Ultimately we find or lose our freedom based on the choices we make.
• Passage to Remember: 1 Peter 2:16
• Pray to Pray: Thank You Father for the gift of the freedom. I ask for the guidance and wisdom I need to make the most of this wonderful gift.

Living Faith

How do we know if a person has faith in Christ Jesus? While faith starts out with belief, it grows into action. Faith that is living is faith is seen in the way that we live life. If you took time to examine the people who make up your church family you would discover people who had varying degrees of belief, but whose belief was not reflected in their lives. We can say that we believe something, but that doesn’t mean it has made an impact in the way we live life.

William Lane in his book Hebrews: A Call to Commitment wrote; “A Godly life is the response of committed faith to the call of God” (p. 151). If we want to know about a person’s faith then we need to examine their life. Wait a moment. If we want to know about our faith we need to examine our lives. The choices that we make and the priorities that we have will reveal whether or not we really believe all this stuff about God and Jesus. Our faith is reflected in the way we live our lives.

I think one thing that we need to emphasis more in the Church is the call of God in our lives. That call is more than a call to moral living, it is a call to do good. One of the ways we live a moral life, a life free from the dominance of sin, is to do those things that are right. Understanding God’s will, His call, for our lives will lead us away from sin and to the life He created us to live.

The foundation of God’s call for us is the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The reality of Jesus should provide the greatest example, as well as motivator, for living a righteous life. How can we still live a sinful lifestyle when we realize Jesus did for our sins? How can we not struggle with sin when Jesus struggled to go to the cross? How can we not live differently when Jesus has conquered death? How can we not serve others when Jesus laid down His life in service to us?

The apostle Paul tells us:

14 The love of Christ controls us, for we are convinced of this: that one person died for all people; therefore, all people have died. 15 He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15; ISV)

The love Jesus showed in His life, His death, and His resurrection should provide us with an example as well as a motivation for living differently. We will love God and people if we trust that Jesus loves us.

Faith expresses itself in the way we live. So if we are not striving to become more like Jesus, to live a life that pleases God, means that our “faith” is not real faith. We may believe the right things about Jesus and about God, but those ideas are not translated into how we live. To believe the right things, but not do the right things, makes us fools in the eyes of God.

James wrote:

14 What good does it do, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not have any works? This kind of faith cannot save him, can it? 15 Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food 16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.” If you do not provide for their bodily needs, what good does it do? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it does not have any works, is dead. (James 2:14-17, ISV)

Living faith is right believing that is expressed in right living. This truth takes us back to the call of God. God has not called us to be pew sitters and proposition believers, but He has called us to be Christ Followers. The call of God is a call to action and not just a call to belief. If we truly believe the right things about God it will be seen in the way we live. Our faith is proved true by the way we live.

• Point to Ponder: Living faith is right believing that is expressed in right living.
• Passage to Remember: James 2:14-17
• Question to Consider: Is your faith seen in the way you live?