Month: March 2018

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

As we approach the Easter holiday, most churches are readying themselves for the influx of people who don’t normally attend services. I’ve heard them called “Christers” (Christmas and Easter attendees). Easter is normally the highest attended service of the year. Special music is sung. Drama elements are used. The pastor normally packs as much as possible into the sermon, because let’s face it: Easter service is the only Jesus some people will see or hear until next year. In an earlier post, we talked about guilt vs conviction, and I believe guilt is the major factor keeping people out of church, but whose fault is that? Does the church have to shoulder some of the blame? Does it even matter if you attend regularly?

When it comes to guilt, there is enough … uh, guilt I guess… to go around. The enemy of our soul works overtime to ensure that we feel the condemnation of every act we commit. Our conscience uses this flood of guilt brought on by Satan to make us feel even worse. Then of course there are “church folks”. Some are well meaning, some are downright vicious, but either way, they can slice and dice Christians and non-believers alike with their looks, attitudes, or even flat-out rude words. The term I hear most when listening to people defend their absenteeism at church is “hypocrite”.

“Too many hypocrites at that church.”

“That pastor is a hypocrite.”

“I see those people around town and how they act. They are all hypocrites!”

I get it. Some church people need a real lesson on how to behave in public. Self-righteousness doesn’t look good on anyone. I will be the first person to admit that many Christians are so “heavenly minded” that they’re no “earthly good”. There is no such thing as a perfect church. Church is a perfect concept made up out of imperfect people. The only inexcusable crime among church folks is thinking that they have arrived at Christ-like perfection. When this attitude becomes too common in the church as a whole, we have then lost our ability to relate to anyone. Does this attitude exist? Sure. Is it a good enough reason to skip church or organized religion in general? Absolutely not!

From the very beginning of time, God recognized that man is in need of relationship.  Marriage may have been the first relationship, but it isn’t the only one that God wants us to seek. Have you ever seen someone who had an entire change of personality after having a child or getting married? They may have been a downright scoundrel, but the difference is now night and day. You’ll hear people say “Well, I guess being a daddy or a mommy has changed them.” This sentiment is correct, even if it’s misunderstood. What has really changed that person is the elimination of selfishness in their life. They are now putting someone else’s needs above or at least equal to their own. That is what relationship does for us; it works the selfishness out of us.

God established the church in the New Testament, and He hasn’t changed His mind on its importance now. The local church provides us with relationship with fellow believers that create community, strength, and support. As the scripture above declares: iron sharpens iron. We have to have other people to rub up against to keep our edges sharp and useful. A dull knife is not effective. Sometimes there will be friction. There may even be sparks. But as we stay in relationship with other believers, we become that much more effective.

There is nothing wrong with getting your church at home… if you are UNABLE to be there in person. There are some wonderful television ministries that are anointed and powerful. My church live streams our Sunday service on the Internet and I think that is wonderful. You can receive poignant and timely revelations from these outlets. However, God has a very difficult time using us to bless His people if you aren’t present to be used. How many opportunities to be a blessing to people, or to encourage people are we missing out on if we are only interested in getting our blessing? The “us 4 and no more” attitude is not biblical or helpful. People are God’s number one priority; shouldn’t they be ours too?

And if the practical side of it isn’t enough for us, there is the command in the Bible. Hebrews 10:25 reads, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”  God has always intended us to meet together for fellowship, encouragement, support and for the sake of obedience. Is attending a local church required for salvation? No. But to argue the point is indicating what the condition of our heart is. God makes it clear that He desires His church to be a community.

John 14:15

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.’

 

Romans 14:16-18

Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

 

In the book of Numbers, chapter 32, there is a story about a few tribes of Israel asking Moses to grant them the fertile land on the uninhabited side of the Jordan River. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh saw that the land on the near side of the river was fertile and good land for farming and building cities. Moses jumped on these tribes with both feet and accused them of trying to avoid the fighting that needed to be done to posses the Promised Land on the other side of the Jordan. He called them a brood of sinners and said that their actions would bring about the destruction of the Israelites. The tribes immediately defended themselves against the charges by explaining that they were intending to cross the river and fight with the rest of the tribes, but when the enemies were all defeated, they wanted to return to the land on the other side. Moses agreed with this proposition and peace was restored within the two and a half tribes and the rest of their brethren.

Fast forward a few years and we see a similar situation occurring with the same tribes. The Promised Land had been subdued and the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh had just returned to the other side of the Jordan River after faithfully completing their part of the bargain. In Joshua chapter 22 it explains that upon returning to the east side of the river, they built a large looming altar, big enough to be seen on the other side of the river. The other tribes and leadership saw this altar and assumed that these two and a half tribes had forsaken God and were now worshiping a new God. They started mobilizing and readying for war against Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. They sent representatives from each tribe and the high priest Phinehas to try to avoid a war. When levying these charges against these three tribes, they declared destruction and doom for them. The three tribes then explained that the altar was to be a sign to the future generations that even though the river separates our peoples, we all serve the same God. Again, peace was then had between all of the tribes.

Twice in scripture, Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh were taken to task for something that was simply a misunderstanding. Why? I believe that it amounts to a disregard for how others saw them. Perhaps not intentionally, but the attitude of “I can do whatever I want” or “don’t judge me” were just as prevalent then as they are now. It really wouldn’t have taken a whole lot of foresight to see how these situations would look to their fellow tribes. It really wouldn’t have taken a whole lot of effort to go to the leadership to explain what or why they were doing what they were doing. So why didn’t they?

I believe that it’s the same reason that many Christians today are not planted in a church home. It is the same reason that so many people flaunt their lifestyle and choices in front of other people with a “it’s not sin, so don’t look down on me” attitude instead of thinking of how your choices may appear to others who may be struggling and have a different set of convictions than you. The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 6:12 says “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” If your choices cause confusion or hurt to your fellow Christians, maybe a bit of examination is in order before acting. Seek wisdom and accountability from the leadership that God has placed in your life. Don’t let your good be evil spoken of.

John 16:8

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

 

Condemnation and conviction: are they the same? People use them interchangeably. However, we need some mind renewing and spiritual discernment to differentiate conviction from condemnation (guilt) because they are actually not even in the same area code.   One is born of darkness and the other is conceived of light.  We need to make sure that we are listening and yielding to the right one.

Conviction is from the same root word as convince.  Conviction is more of a tug on our consciences than a lash of blame.  The Holy Spirit sends conviction upon God’s people as a guide or perhaps to act as a moral compass.  After receiving salvation, I discovered that conviction has much more to do with a leading away from not only sin, but even things that aren’t wrong in the purest sense, but are wrong for me.  I love to read, and when reading I could very easily lose myself in the story for hours at a time.  The books that I was reading were not evil, in fact some of them were very uplifting, but my obsession with reading was taking up a great deal of time which could be used for God’s kingdom.  Sports, movies, and video games: there is nothing wrong with these things, but if they are eating up valuable time that God wants used for His agenda, then you can expect to feel a conviction.  The point of this is to move you forward in your walk with God.

Condemnation or guilt on the other hand is not a tool of God or the Holy Spirit.  In Romans 8:1, the Apostle Paul declares “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”.  Guilt never originates from heaven.   Condemnation is one of the most valuable tools used by the enemy to derail God’s people.  Millions of Christians are thrown into despair by overwhelming guilt every day.  This is a serious lack of faith on our part and it needs to be addressed.  We as believers seem to have no problem receiving the initial free gift of salvation.  If someone asks us how we know that we’re saved and forgiven, we simply say that it is written in God’s word and we believe it.  However, we seem to lose this sense of confidence in the word when we stumble and fall.  Even though we have a repentant heart and want to do better next time, Satan will often flood our consciences with feelings of guilt.  This type of guilt is not only unhealthy; it often creates a sense of unworthiness and failure that causes millions of good Christian people to quit trying.

I used to be a dedicated smoker (two packs a day) and when I was trying to quit I would frequently “fall off the wagon”.  Time and time again the feelings of guilt and failure would make me throw in the towel and pick up the habit again.  It wasn’t until I was shown this truth about condemnation vs. guilt that I could continue in my walk with God even though I had stumbled.  When being convicted by the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t wait to get things right in my life.  When living in condemnation I would use any excuse at all to avoid church and my church family.  The enemy’s lies about how dirty we are and how unworthy we are to worship God can keep anybody who listens to them out of the will of God.  The thing we must remember is that our walk with Jesus is not a tightrope act.  If we fall, and we all do, we do not have to start all over but just get up and keep walking.

It isn’t a license to sin, but rather a freedom from living under a shadow while we continually move ahead.  As our relationship with Jesus deepens, we will find that much of the work is being done behind the scenes.  The more we seek Him, the more He will transform us into the new creatures that we desire to be.

Being raised in church, I have heard many people talk about bearing their cross when times are tough or when life seems too much to endure.  For some reason however, this has always irritated me.  I know that the Bible is God’s inspired and Living Word, and that the Word never contradicts itself, but I was having a difficult time reconciling the idea of abundant life (John 10:10) and bearing your cross (Luke 9:23).  I felt as if there was something that God wanted me to understand about this.  I decided to dig a little deeper into this subject and find out what God was trying to show me.  What He illuminated for me was extremely eye-opening based on my former understanding.

There are four instances in the gospel accounts where Jesus mentions bearing our cross.  Three of them are the same story told by different accounts (Matt 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23).  The wording is almost identical in these passages.  Matthew 16:24 reads “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’.”  In reading the surrounding passages in all three of these accounts, there is never one mention of illness, poverty, or bondage.  The fourth mention of cross bearing occurs in Luke 14:26-27 and it really gets to the bottom of the issue.  This passage reads “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple”.  Again, there is no mention of heavy burdens and dark times of defeat.  The common thread in all of these scriptures (particularly illuminated in Luke 14) is the concept of self-denial and putting God first.

When praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus very clearly stated that it was not His will to go to the cross, but He was willing to submit to God’s will.  What Jesus, the man, wanted was crucified before His body ever was.  God wants first place in all of our lives.  Family, friends, careers and desires must all fall into place under our top priority: Him.  When Jesus bore His literal cross, He was our greatest example of humility and perfected focus on God’s will.  In bearing our cross daily, we need to be focused on God and humble toward what He wants in our life.

As I was finishing up my eye-opening study of cross bearing, the Lord dropped one final thing into my spirit.  He said that there is a big difference between bearing your cross and crawling up onto it.  It is time for us as a generation of God-fearing people to stop accepting the enemy’s onslaughts with false humility and a defeatist attitude, claiming that it is just our “cross to bear”.  Disease and sickness isn’t a cross to bear. Bondage to addictions or lifestyles isn’t a cross to bear. Poverty or lack isn’t a cross to bear. We weren’t promised a perfect life, but we were promised enough grace and favor to rise above any life circumstance.  A trouble free life is not attainable, but victory over every trial IS. Jeremiah 29:11 proclaims “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”.  God’s plan for us is good and one of peace and hope.  As long as we put Him first, we can step into the abundant life that He desires for us.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

God will talk to anyone that sets his mind to listening for Him. I realize many people get weirded out by people who say that they “hear from God”, but it really shouldn’t be a rare occurrence. Yes, there are a lot of flaky people out there who like to claim “Thus saith the Lord”, but hearing from God should not be creepy or nutty. The manipulators out there usually “hear” God saying exactly what they want to hear. However, there are many God-fearing, God-seeking Christians out there that are following the voice of God.

There was a time some years ago that I had been struggling with an addiction. God had really been dealing with me to lay this habit down, and after a few months of struggle, with God’s help, I was able to get victory over it. For the next few weeks, it seemed that everything I prayed about (financial needs, sicknesses in family members, etc) was being answered right away! During one of my quiet times with the Lord, I was letting my gratitude flow for all of the answered prayers. I remember even saying “I guess letting go of that habit really opened up the floodgates for me”. God spoke to me at that moment, not in an audible voice, but as clearly in my spirit as I have ever heard Him speak. He said “ehhhhh, not really.”

Believe it or not, God doesn’t speak in “King James English”. He communicates with us in ways that we will best understand. For me it tends to be “midwestern-sarcasm”. I immediately stopped my prayers and tried to digest His words to me. After letting me chew on this for a few minutes He continued speaking. God said “To be sure, there are rewards for obedience, but I’m not Someone who is moved to action by your works. You had very little to do with quitting that habit anyway. I enabled and empowered you to do that, so don’t get cocky.  You quitting that habit was being obedient, but the answered prayers since then were not directly related to that.” He continued on “What increased the effectiveness of your prayers was the confidence and boldness with which you asked. You felt confident because of being able to quit that habit and that confidence made you come boldly into My presence to make your requests known. That’s faith! That’s what moves Me to action!”

As I’ve said, I never heard a booming voice from the sky, or even a still small voice in the air. However, God spoke to me the same way He will speak to anyone who is hungry to hear His voice. Rarely have I heard God so clearly and succinctly, but because His words lined up to the word of God so perfectly, I was left no room to doubt its authenticity. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and my boldness projected the faith and trust I had in Him to provide for every one of my needs.

Let’s come to the throne of grace boldly! Let’s let our faith rise up!

 

Hebrews 4: 12

 

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

The Bible is not a mere novel that should be read and added to a list of literature. It is much more than simply ink on paper. It is living! Every scripture is life-giving. We could spend the rest of our time on earth dealing with one passage and never exhaust all of the truth or meaning from it. Every verse can mean something different to each person who reads it, depending on their needs without ever losing its integrity or essential truth. That is the power of God’s Word!

Context is important. I always try not to pull out a single verse without reading what’s around it. The neighboring scriptures can often provide illumination as to what the author is trying to convey. After all, we are told to rightly divide the word of truth, and the only way to rightly divide scripture is with more scripture. However, this admonition will also help us to avoid tunnel vision as well. We don’t want to get so focused on the specific context that we ignore the universal principles that are at work.

A great example of this is Luke 6:38 which reads, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”  Most Christians have heard this scripture used (usually right about offering time) when discussing money. If we look at the context of this verse, we see that Jesus is discussing judgment. The previous verse is discussing the judgment and forgiveness that comes to us as a result of us passing judgment or forgiving others. So are all of these pastors, evangelists, and teachers twisting the Bible to mean something it doesn’t?

We might be able to draw that conclusion if there were no other scriptures regarding sowing and reaping in the Bible, but there are a LOT! In the seventh verse of the sixth chapter of Galatians, Paul writes “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Job 4:8 reads “Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 says “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.“

So while we see that the context of Luke 6:38 may be talking about judgment and forgiveness, the concept of “you reap what you sow, and plenty of it” is not exclusive, but rather is a basic biblical principle. So can it mean money? Absolutely. Can it also mean misery? You bet! If you make it your job to treat others poorly, you can expect to be treated poorly as well. If you plant a kernel of corn, you cannot expect to harvest tomatoes. Not only that, but you won’t reap one kernel of corn from sowing one kernel of corn. You will get a stalk of corn containing several ears which each have many kernels. God is all about multiplication!

Let’s not ignore the context of scripture, but also not take “A truth” and make it “THE truth”. Let’s avoid tunnel vision and instead open our spirits to receive exactly what God wants to communicate to us.