Still Not Stagnant

Mark 4:39

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly, the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.

As the storm raged and the wind threatened to capsize the small boat, there at the bow, Jesus slept.

By no means did He stir nervously as the waves violently rocked the ship. He did not keep one eye open or brace himself so that He would not fall. He did not pretend to sleep in order to present an appearance of disinterest in the storm... He was asleep, and He was disinterested.

Jesus said, "I know where I have come from and I know where I am going."

Oh, that we would know the reason for our existence! That we would know where we came from, what we are to do, and where we will end up! That we would sleep, peacefully, like Jesus, when the storms of life come!

When the disciples woke Jesus, they accused Him!

"Are you a fool? Are you insane? Do you just not care? Look at the situation we are in. This is the end! This thing called "life," which came about without any input from us, which will continue on regardless of whether we live or die, and which is not dependent on us whatsoever, is going to end! We have seen the future! This is it!"

To this, Jesus offered a strong rebuke, "Why are you afraid? You have such little faith!"

I assure you, He did not say this playfully. He did not say it as a parent speaks to a toddler, who has no understanding at all and can not be expected to make a rational decision. He said it as a man speaks to another man. He said it as an officer, coming upon a soldier who is refusing to move out of fear, would grab that soldier by his shirt and say, "Get ahold of yourself! What is wrong with you?! Get up!"

He is saying the same to many men today.

Though we may not be fishermen, we do face storms. The wind and the waves do threaten us still.

Like the disciples, we turn an accusatory fist to God and say, "Do you not care? Are you sleeping?"

We say this because, unlike Jesus, we do not know where we are from, why we are here, what we are supposed to be doing, or where we are going.

We would like to know. We would like to be able to stand, like that Rock, though battered and beaten, unmoved.

We need to know... Though we may distract ourselves from them, some up until the very moment they lie on their deathbed, eventually these questions become so loud, so forefront in our minds that unless we answer them, we can not sleep, we can not enjoy life at all! These questions become a burning fire in our bones that must be answered, or we feel that we will die! (and some, unable to find the answers to these questions, having given in to hopelessness, DO die by taking their own life).

We want to know... We need to know... We cry out to God, again and again, to reveal these things to us until they become our sole focus in life...

The path that leads to life, though... The path that leads to YOUR life... is very narrow and very few find it.

The path that leads to your destruction and to the wasting of the one life you have on this earth is very wide, and many walk it.

That path whose way is destruction has many distractions and attractions. There is money and all of the things it can buy. There is sex and intrigue. There is power and conquest and a position on a hill where you can point down at others walking the same path and say, "You see? Look at me! Look at how high I got!" There are all sorts of costumes you can wear, and there are works of art and scientific contributions.

There are even good things on this path as well! There are libraries, built to serve underprivileged communities and hospitals, with your name plastered on the front. There are charity donations and volunteer opportunities...There are churches, too!

There are many, many men who, in surveying life, find one of these attractions and say, "There it is. I will go there, and when I get there, I will be happy, and I will have done what I was put here to do."

Yet, these attractions and all of the men who patronize them are sliding steadily right into hell.

Oh, and they know it too...

For some, when it is far too late... When they are old men, and they have lost their strength, and they are UNABLE to strive further, they are forced by the nature of time and old age to stop and look at their life, and they see that it was all for naught.

Others, by the grace of God, see it when there is still time. They are enlightened in a moment of clarity as they lie in their bed. They are endowed with wisdom, which is a gift from God, in that He is the only one who has access to it and who distributes it at His own discretion. Their eyes are opened, and they are suddenly unsatisfied. They look around them at all of the things this world has to offer, and they see that they are all the same and that they are worthless.

For such a man who has been given this gift of understanding but who has not the willingness to humble himself and turn to God, this understanding crushes him. Such a man turns to nihilism or stoicism. Like a bratty child, who, out of his own misunderstanding, turns in a rage to a distant corner and refuses to be consoled, such a man rejects the entire affair of life. He comes to despise the world and the people in it, and even his own self for being born.

Such a man has not overcome the world; he has been overcome by the illusion of the world.

There is a path, though, which is worth walking.

This path, though hard to find, is parallel to the wide one that leads to destruction.

It crosses the same terrain, weathers the same storms, and exists in the same broken world, yet those who walk it, refusing to veer to the left or the right, move as that Rock, unaffected and unafraid. They can truly find rest, no matter the circumstance.

This path does not offer elaborate costumes like the other. There are hills, but the ones who stand on them do not shout down at the ones in the valleys. Those in the valleys neither look upon those standing on the hills with contempt.

Along this path walks a select group of people who are meek and mild. Humbly, they walk with a smile on their face and joy in their heart. Abounding joy!

For they have learned where they are from, and they know why they are here, and they know what they are supposed to do, and they know where they are going!

It is that path that Jesus walked!

It is that path that He frequents now! Not because He has to, but because He enjoys being with His brothers and sisters!

He stands at the head of that path and shouts to all men:

“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. “Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Jesus was asleep in that storm because He was walking the path that leads to life.

You can walk it too...

You can't find it via GPS, and I will not even attempt to draw you a map.

It is revealed only to those who have been given wisdom.

Wisdom is only given by God.

James 1:5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and with grace; and it shall be given him.

On The Will Of God

1 Samuel 26:8

“God has surely handed your enemy over to you this time!” Abishai whispered to David. “Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t need to strike twice!”

How can we know that we are walking in the will of God?

There are times in the Bible, as well as in our own lives, when God chooses to intervene in a manner that leaves no ambiguity. When God appears in the burning bush and tells us clearly where we are to go and what we are to do when we arrive, we go there, and we do it. 

There are other times where God chooses silence.

We can be sure that His silence is not a result of His absence, for we serve an omnipresent God. In every moment, He stoops to look down on heaven and earth. He is attentive to our goings-on, even noticing when a single hair falls from our head and accounting for its replacement.

Knowing that God cares about events as seemingly insignificant as our hair loss and growth, how can we, in moments of true importance, even those that have eternal consequences, ascertain the will of God, especially when He has chosen silence as His guidance?

David experienced such a moment as he hid in a cave, fleeing from Saul, who sought to kill Him, alongside anyone with whom he associated. 

He had experienced the “burning bush” moment. He had received the promise and provision of God when, like Abraham, he was commanded to “go to a land which I will show you,” in that he would be the king of Israel. 

This command had seemingly cost everything as he and his companions hid in a cave, fleeing the wrath of Saul. 

The kingdom had already been “torn away” and given to David, yet Saul, willing to kill in his attempt to grasp something which was no longer his, pursued David, day and night.

This pursuit led to one of those moments of silent instruction from the Lord, and David’s handling of the situation instructs us, throughout the ages, as to what we should do when we reach the same point on the road of God’s calling.

Accepting the silence

We live in a time where silence must be sought.

Whereas, throughout history, quiet stillness was the natural state you inhabited, it has now become something you must vacation to obtain.

Our days are so inundated with alarms and notifications, news alerts and public announcements, advertisements and warnings that a state of noise has become our dwelling place.

If you don’t believe me, set a timer and sit in silence for 30 minutes.

Like a fish out of water, you will wriggle and wraith as you are suddenly thrust into an environment so completely foreign to you that you feel its very air is unbreathable.

Far from making the correct use of the silence of God… we don’t even know how to tolerate it! 

If God has chosen silence as His answer, and we have refused to accept silence…  We will inevitably seek our answer from a source other than God.

That source may be the opinions of friends and family, or even worse, those of a stranger. More recently, it may be technology. We may speak to a “language model”, whose sole design is that of an algorithm meant to patronize and tell you exactly what you want to hear…

Worst of all, we might take the very Word of God… abusing and preverting it into some kind of Ouija board in which we run our fingers along its pages with our eyes closed, praying to chance and luck that our finger might land on the answer we are looking for.

If we are to handle God’s silence correctly, we must first accept that silence is a method He uses and then, accept the fact that He is using it in this moment.

We must not run away.

Acting as a delegate 

There was a king who had much to attend in his own kingdom. When news reached the king that a problem had arisen in a far-off land, the king sent a representative to resolve the problem.

This representative, traveling a great distance, was in no way able to communicate with the king.

In a sense, the representative was solely responsible for resolving the king's problem, in that there was no way, in the moment, to receive input from the king. 

Yet, the representative, if he were to remain a representative, could not act in any way that pleased him…The source of his authority being that of delegation.

Just as a hammer can drive a nail only when endowed with the power of a man's hand, so we must consider ourselves when we serve as the True King’s representatives.

We are not the man who chooses when and in what manner the nails will be struck; we are the object that facilitates the striking.

Furthermore, a representative does not need constant communication with what he represents; otherwise, there would be no need for a representative at all! 

To be clear: there is no need for a representative… We serve a God who is sufficient. By His power, and only His power, does this universe and all of its happenings exist. He does not require anything or anyone to accomplish His purposes. (If we are sent as a representative, it is grace, not necessity, which motivates God.)

What I am describing is an attitude of confidence that comes from knowing, actually knowing who and what you represent.

An attitude that can not be manufactured or bought, but one that is obtained only through the daily pursuit of knowing God. 

For though men seek after many treasures in life, there is only one treasure that holds value. There is only one thing in which man can boast…” That he understands and knows Me”.

It is this esteem, this ascension, this appraisal, which we should focus the whole of our attention and pursuit in life.

It is only when we have determined that this will be the direction of our lives that God can use us as a representative.

If we put our hope in an answer from God, we will be dejected when He chooses to withhold answers… But those who put their hope in god Himself “will renew their strength;  they will soar on wings like eagles;  they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.”

They will know what to do, not because He has given them every single answer, but because they know Him. They know what He is like, and how He thinks, and how He feels… They know how He would handle a situation… so they handle it in the same manner! They know what He would say… so they say it! They know what He would do… so, to the best of their ability, they go about doing that!

They make it their goal to stand at the feet of God, beholding Him, and in doing so, become more and more like Him.

God said about David: “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”

David was God’s representative.

Let our goal be to have the same thing said of us…

“O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee;
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.”

On Spiritual Warfare

2 Timothy 2:4

"No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer."

Why did God wake you up this morning?

If you are born again, dying in your sleep would have been the best thing to have happened to you...In dying, you would be with Jesus. Absent of any pain, sorrow, or tears, without the stress of alarm clocks or bills, the worries of this world would disappear in an instant, and you would find yourself at the end of the road, resting in your ultimate destination, experiencing the fullness of life for which you were created.

If God's purpose and plan for you concerned chiefly your comfort or happiness, you wouldn't have woken up! You would be much more comfortable and exceptionally happier if you were with Him in heaven.

Your waking shows that God's chief concern is not your comfort. An army moves and rests by the judgment of its commander. Likewise, Jesus, the Commander of the Lord's Armies, determines the movements of His followers.

Just as a soldier does not expect comfort while in a foxhole, under enemy fire, but rather, accepting his position, prepares himself for battle, neither should we be naive concerning our current situation.

We are told that our enemy, the devil, is like a prowling lion, constantly searching out those whom he can devour.

Make no mistake, if you are alive and breathing, you are an active combatant on the battlefield. You are behind enemy lines. How foolish would a soldier in this predicament be to have their focus on anything other than the mission at hand?

What is spiritual warfare?

Ephesians 6:12

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."

Spiritual warfare is a term that could be used to encompass every second of your existence on this earth, starting with your conception... The prevalence of abortion, with an estimated 74 million children being murdered each year, before they take a single breath, shows that our enemy's strategic objective is nothing less than total annihilation and genocide.

For an unbeliever reading this article, I offer only one instruction: "Give up your life for Jesus's sake. If you try to hang onto your life, you will lose it. If you are willing to give up your life for His sake, you will find it."

Apart from The Holy Spirit, you have no weapon sufficient, no tactic adequate, no ally acceptable, to escape, much less thwart your enemy. He is the "god of this world," and you can not outmaneuver or overcome him.

Except that you turn from the path you are on and come to Jesus to be saved, you are utterly doomed. Your grave is dug, and you are slowly walking toward it.

For those who are born-again, who stand already victorious, with the enemy trampled underfoot, covered by the blood of the one who holds the keys to death and the grave, I offer practical advice, not for the war as a whole, but as to how to handle the individual battles in which we find ourselves.

While we carry with us an internal enemy, which is our sin nature, that is constantly at odds with ourselves, frequently exhibiting behaviors and producing feelings which we find detestable, causing us to groan inwardly as we await the redemption of our bodies, we certainly do face an outward threat, which is Satan.

Outside of our normal condition of moodiness and rebellion toward God, oftentimes we will find ourselves assailed by an outside force. Whereas our regular complaints can be traced back to a set of circumstances, such as an event at work or hurtful words spoken by another, we periodically find within us agitation without a clear cause. In this scenario, existence itself suddenly becomes tiresome. Rather than being dissatisfied with certain aspects of our lives, we find ourselves desiring to shed the entire affair.

Suddenly, the motivation we had yesterday fails us. Along with it, our memory follows. We quickly forget the sweetness that comes from fellowship with our Father. We lose track of His faithfulness and the promises made. We do not recall seeing His strong right hand in action. We overlook the walls that were torn down and the chains that fell off.

Absent of the spirit of gratitude, which is a natural result of witnessing God's clear involvement in our lives, we succumb to hopelessness and despair.

When these things seem to come out of nowhere, pouncing on us suddenly, we can know that we are in the middle of a battle. Being ever-aware of the fact that we are in a war, we can know that it has found us and that we are now being put to the test.

How To Fight

The world would describe this state, in which we have persistent sadness and disinterest, as "depression", and would offer, as a solution, medication whose function is to numb you. Like a medic on the battlefield, unequipped to treat a mortal wound, the world offers to provide morphine in order that you would at least have comfort while you wait for the inevitable.

Though we may be wounded, even deeply so, there is a physician who is equipped to provide healing for those under His command. We must be careful not to shortchange ourselves, removing ourselves from the battle due to misdiagnoses. We must not let fear skew our judgment, causing us to call what is a non-incapacitating wound, mortal. We must hold off on those things that numb us, putting away the morphine we carry, and trusting that our physician will come when we call. He will give us the proper treatment. Being both medic and commander, His determination, again, will not necessarily be the one that addresses mainly our comfort, but rather the objective as a whole.

Once the initial shock of first contact has worn off, when we find our bearings and recognize that we are still in the fight, we must quickly resolve within ourselves a question that will determine our combat effectiveness.

The question is this: "Where does my loyalty lie?"

The bible tells us that a "double-minded person is unstable in all of their ways", and that "this person should not expect to receive anything from The Lord."

Knowing the battle we currently find ourselves in originates from an “unseen world”, waged by an enemy possessing "mighty powers" which we know nothing of... It would be expedient for us to immediately go to God and request His support.

If we are to go to Him, and if He is to support us, there is a condition. We must "believe and not doubt."

From the moment we are born, we are creatures who seek to justify our own actions. We exhibit selfish tendencies, and then, when faced with the consequences, offer a list of excuses that supposedly license our behavior. In reading the stipulation that we must "believe and not doubt", there arises in us a voice that cries out, "Not fair!" There is a plethora of excuses that you can offer as to why you find it difficult to follow this command, but all of us know the value of excuses.

The fact remains that this is a command. In the same way that a sergeant gives the command "move to such and such position," God commands "believe and do not doubt". In the same way that a soldier undergoes training and drill so that he follows, without hesitation, the commands of his leadership, so too should we submit ourselves to the training of our commander.

It is said that a soldier "does not rise to the occasion but rather falls to the level of his training." If we do not take seriously the discipline our training attempts to instill, we will find ourselves unprepared in the midst of the battle. We will be told "take such and such a position," and instead of moving with violence of action, we look around us, and, being in fear of what we see, we will fall victim to doubt. When this doubt overtakes our mind, we will break. Unable to advance, we become useless as soldiers, simply taking up space on the battlefield.

We have all been there. The good news is that our past failures do not disqualify us from being useful in the future. The fact remains, regardless of our participation in this specific battle, the war still wages... We will find ourselves coming under attack in the future.

Let us then enter our next training session with earnestness. Maintaining an attitude of readiness, continually possessing a sober mind, not entangling ourselves in civilian affairs, but rather acting in a way that pleases our Commanding Officer.

Let us decide where our loyalty lies today. Let us conclude that our former methods and aspirations were ill-advised. That they are unbecoming of a soldier and therefore must be put off. That we must prepare our minds so that they do not break, betraying us in the moment they are most needed.

If we do this, if we determine ourselves to be soldiers in Christ and act accordingly, we will not be caught off guard when the enemy appears. Standing watch, already donning the armor of God, we will follow the command given to us. We will ask, correctly, without wavering, that man of war, who is the LORD, to come and fight for us. Then the earth will reel and rock. Smoke will go up from His nostrils and devouring fire from His mouth. He will send forth His arrows and scatter them; He will flash forth lightnings and route them. He will trod them in His anger and trample them in His wrath; their lifeblood will spatter His garments.

He is the one who makes wars cease. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

For it is not by strength nor by might that we fight our battles, but it is by His Spirit.

Our command is simply this: To be still and know that He is the LORD.

A mighty fortress is our God,

a bulwark never failing;

our helper he, amid the flood

of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe

does seek to work us woe;

his craft and power are great,

and armed with cruel hate,

on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

our striving would be losing,

were not the right Man on our side,

the Man of God's own choosing.

You ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he;

Lord Sabaoth his name,

from age to age the same;

and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,

should threaten to undo us,

we will not fear, for God has willed

his truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim,

we tremble not for him;

his rage we can endure,

for lo! his doom is sure;

one little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers

no thanks to them abideth;

the Spirit and the gifts are ours

through him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

this mortal life also;

the body they may kill:

God's truth abideth still;

his kingdom is forever!

David's Faith

Matthew 13:17

For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

David's life is one characterized by courage.

All of us are familiar with the story of how, as a child, he was willing to face and destroy a literal giant in combat. While this feat is impressive, the reasoning behind his courage is even more thought-provoking.

If a seasoned warrior had stepped up to face Goliath, someone who had fought in a multitude of battles, defeating all of their enemies through prowess or strength, we could easily chalk this victory up to competency. If Acheles or Alexander had been the character of this story, we would easily find a narrative to explain what happened. We would be impressed, no doubt, but our exultation would be in the indomitability of the human spirit or the importance of training...

David, in the eyes of the world, was no Acheles. He was a child! Though too small to withstand the weight of a man's armor, he carried, without flinching, something that some of the world's strongest men have proved unable to bear, which was the collective doubt and scorn of the camp around him.

David, with sneers and laughter behind him, walked straight into the tent of King Saul, where he was met with the same questions: "What makes you think that you, a shepherd child, have any reason to speak so courageously?"

David answered, “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats. When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!"

David was not a fool, nor was King Saul. While defeating a lion or a bear certainly is an impressive feat, it is not the same as hand-to-hand combat with a skilled warrior, especially one that was over 9 feet tall... Neither David nor Saul was focused on David's ability to wield a shepherd's rod. They both knew what had happened in the trials David was describing. God had stepped in and fought for and through David.

David had seen and experienced it firsthand. He knew that it was not his own strength that had provided the victory. Saul, also, had seen the mighty hand of God move. In his battles against the Moabites, the Ammonites, Edom, the king of Zobah, and the Philistines, it had been God who had prevailed. While it may have been a surprise to Saul's advisors when he gave the command to put his own armor on David, anyone operating on an understanding of who God is and how He moves would not have been caught off guard.

God's power was the weapon, and David's faith was the hand that wielded it.

The hand could have been anyone's... God is no respector of man, and His eyes continually search the entire earth looking for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him so that He might strengthen them...Had Saul remained committed to God, it might have been he, with a sword rather than a sling, who carried out God's plan. If you or I had been there, maybe we would have seen enough in our lives to say confidently, "God has come through for me every time, and I know He won't stop now!"

In this instance, though, God heard the blasphemies of a Philistine giant, and searching the entire earth, found in David a hand that would deliver a single stone. A stone that would silence unbelievers and likewise speak to every generation of His people.

The entire world knows about David's victory over Goliath. Though they might not understand how it happened, they certainly know it happened.

David continued, throughout His life, to be used by God in this manner. Being "a man after God's own heart", God knew where to look when He wanted to exhibit power.

Over and over we read of David's victories on the battlefield, and over and over we hear the same explanation, from David, as to what happened. When David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “The LORD did it!” David exclaimed. “He burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” So he named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord who bursts through”).

When David went out to face the Philistines, the Moabites, Hadadezer of Zobah, the Arameans of Damascus, and the Edomites, it was this same line of reasoning that provided for his courage: "God delivered me from the lion and the bear, and He will deliver me in this instance also".

It was the reality of God, clearly visible to David, that provided the basis for his faith. It was his faith that led to courage. It was his courage that led to action. It was his action that led to God's empowerment. It was God's empowerment that led to total victory. It was total victory that led to God's glorification.

The formula has not changed!

The highest example we have of walking in the power of God comes from Jesus.

Jesus told us that He had seen the Father, that because of this, He knew where He was from and where He was going. This faith led to His courage to withstand the cross. His action, empowered by God, led to total victory over sin, death, and the grave, and provided the ultimate glorification of God.

This event is what Jesus referred to when He said, "Many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

If David, the prophet, had seen Jesus, The Son of The Most High God, leave heaven and come to earth in order to die on a cross, specifically for David... If he had seen the coming of the kingdom and the rebuke of every lie of the enemy... If had seen every enemy of God defeated in one instant by the blood of The Son... what would be his faith?

If seeing God save David from the lion provided enough faith to defeat Goliath, what would be accomplished by seeing God save David from himself?

David was the hand, but the hand was unimportant.

God is still searching, even today, for those who are fully committed to Him, in order to strengthen them.

The Continuity Of God

Malachi 3:6

“I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.

If someone were to describe you, what would they say?

Each of us carries a reputation, distinguishing us as individuals in the crowd. We are described by our occupation and hobbies, our character and temperament, how we interact with others, and what effect we have on the world around us.

In this world, it is not what we think that gives us our reputation; rather, it is what we do.

Even the environment in which we live is judged by this standard. Each day is counted as a separate and unique occurrence. Every second accounted for and every date marked as a testimony to, and measurement of, the permanence of change.

Every decision we make is founded on this one constant, and, by extension, every promise we make or receive is conditional.

Who I am today, when I make a promise, is not who I will be when the time comes to carry it out. The world will not be the same place. The circumstances will have changed.

It is only children who maintain the promises of others as set in stone. Life experience dictates that we develop a certain skepticism anytime a definitive statement is made in an indefinite world. It would be foolish, even downright dangerous, for us to "count our chickens before they have hatched."

With God, this is not so.

To have faith in a promise of God is not to have faith in God's ability. Rather, it is to have faith in His very existence!

God is the only entity, in the totality of existence, that is unaffected by change. He alone, being creator rather than created, enjoys this attribute.

He is that "solid rock", that "everlasting to everlasting". That one by which and through which and for which all things that are created were created. The beginning and the end.

His steadfastness and perseverance are not tools in his toolbelt. These attributes are not something He employs to deal with certain circumstances. He is unchanging.

He “is”.

"Is" Is His description!

When Moses asked, "Who do I tell them has sent me?" God responded, "I AM."

Not "was", not "Will be", not "sometimes"... "Is", "AM."

There is no other example of this.

This qualifies Him as the solution to all of our problems because He is the antithesis of all of our problems.

When those who loved us change and so stop loving us, He remains the same, along with His love.

When those things that provide security for us change, He remains the same, along with His security.

When even we change, and the very basis of who we are and why we do things falls into question, He remains the same. Yesterday, today, and forever.

When this very world passes away, even the elements of its composition melting away with nothing left over, the solid rock foundation, which is Christ Himself, will remain, unchanged.

Human love, reasoning, planning, feeling, motivation... All of these are temporal, fleeting, contingent.

How foolish it would be to build on these things?… To put your trust in them?…To look at and consider them?

Why would we invest our time in a ship that we know is sinking?

1 John 2:15-18

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.

For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

On Unbelief

Romans 10:14

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

What part did you have in the making of the chair upon which you rest? Were you sought for counsel in its design, or did you labor in its construction? Did your skill contribute to its strength? Yet, when you sat down, did you not trust it to hold you? In resting, did you not demonstrate faith in what you did not build?

Oh, how simple it is to be saved!

As simple as sitting in a chair, so it is to receive the salvation purchased for you by Jesus on the cross.

The materials—His body, His blood, and the cross—were provided.

The design—His life, tested and tried, yet found without fault—was already conceived.

The construction—undertaken by the One who placed the stars in the sky and the heart within your chest—completed for you.

This salvation, which is offered to you, even now, requires nothing of you except your need for it.

A man who prefers to stand will stand even when a chair is present.

A man who prefers to save himself will attempt to save himself even when salvation is present.

A man unwilling to admit his need for rest deludes himself and attempts to deceive others.

A man unwilling to admit his need for salvation does the same.

Many have entered the rest offered by this free salvation, yet countless others still turn away. In my experience, their refusal is not born of ignorance but of unbelief.

Some prefer seeking out salvation by their own methods, believing that the same self that committed selfish actions can somehow commit enough selfless ones to balance the scales.

For these, I believe there is hope.

God, unwilling that anyone should perish, has a method of dealing with the self.

When self is stripped bare and seen in true light, it is revealed as less than nothing—powerless, wholly corrupt, incapable of good, and unending in its own appetite. Its beginning and its end are nothingness.

Some, though, after years of running away from the problem altogether, have deluded themselves into believing there are no consequences at all for their actions!

Though they feel a natural desire for justice when they are wronged, even this fails to awaken them to their own iniquities. Demanding judgment for others, they stand blind to their own faults.

As for this group, I have no hope.

Though night after night, their own conscience convicts them, they harden their hearts.

How can a man who will not listen to his own heart listen to the heart of another?

There exists no external voice more convincing than a man's own conscience.

My hope lies only in the one who created the heart and gave men their conscience. Nothing is impossible for Him. For these men, their waking up to experience another morning is evidence that God has not given up trying.

Psalm 95:6=10

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

The LORD says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.

For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did.

For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’

So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”

The 'No Way' Way

Romans 6:11

You also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

There exists today a method by which the modern church provides a way to salvation.

It is not the actual way.

It is not the way of blood and suffering.

It is not the way in which the highest sacrifice is put on full display for all to see.

It is no way at all.

This counterfeit method proceeds as follows: A watered-down message, full of props and visuals, mixed with personal anecdotes and life stories, is reduced to a palatable, one-hour presentation. In the last 5 minutes, as soft, emotional music plays, the "moment" comes. The crowd is asked to close their eyes, for what is about to transpire might cause embarrassment...

An offer is made. The crowd is told that if they simply raise their hand, they will be counted among God's people. If they repeat a prayer, their souls will be saved.

No dying. No mess. No embarrassment or public proclamation needed.

Simply follow the formula and make sure to come back next week.

This salvation, which was bought with such a high price as the very blood of the Son of God, who was stripped naked and beaten, despised and rejected, mocked and ridiculed, paraded in full view of the public eye, and then brutally tortured to death, requires, from you, a hand raise.

Of course, you wouldn't want anyone to see that you have chosen to associate with Him... This wonderful counselor and prince of peace, this mighty God and Lord of Lords. No, this method of salvation is very personal, and it is mystical too! It is so mysterious that no one around you can tell if it has worked or not. No one can question the sincerity or effectiveness of this process in your life, that is between you and God... We all have our eyes closed.

Jesus's way is different.

Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. Tried and tested in all ways, He was without sin. His life was on full display. His actions testified to His identity. He did not speak an idle word but only spoke those words given to Him by The Father. He did not count His life as something to be clung to and instead, humbled Himself to the position of a slave, even being willing to die a criminal's death on a cross.

He certainly did call others to follow Him in this.

The place He was going was to the cross.

They could come along if they liked.

They could live the way He lived, and they could pick up a cross of their own. They could carry it up that hill and be nailed to it next to Him.

They could receive the same ridicule and rejection. The spit and the slander of the crowd could land on their own faces as well.

They could despise mother and father, wife and children, even their own lives, as He did.

Yes, they could live the way He lived and die the way He died.

If such a person were willing to give up their life, they would find it.

Most would not be willing.

That path which He walked, in which He has now become the path, and that gate He entered, in which He has now become the gate, is very narrow and very few find it. It is a path that leads to life, and the righteous stand at its gate and enter in, giving thanks to The Lord.

Those who, by the grace of God, have been given eyes to see this path see something terrible at its starting point. They see a cross, heavy and burdensome. They see their own sweat and blood, and many shed tears... They hear, from the adjacent path, which moves in an opposite direction, jeers and snarls from the crowd filled with slander and accusation. This crowd, if given the opportunity, would take their life, just as they took His life.

That adjacent path, which is wide and easily traveled by the many who travel it, which includes church every Sunday and volunteer hours at the local food bank once a quarter, the one filled with a semblance of godliness yet devoid of any real power, leads to utter destruction. The ones who walk it do not know where they are headed, and you cannot tell them. They are convinced, in part due to the complacency and ignorance of the modern church, that they have found the way to God. They have earned salvation because they raised their hand and said the prayer.

The conviction they feel as they walk along this path is easily quenched by the idea that everyone is a sinner, indwelled with an incurable disease of which they cannot be held accountable. Words from those on the narrow path, urging them to change direction, are dismissed as self-righteousness and legalism.

"Don't they know that their eyes should be closed, lest I feel embarrassment?"

There exists today a way, which is no way, that leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing. Its entry point is a raised hand and a mouthed prayer. It is easy, and it is wide, and it leads to the destruction of your very soul.

On Free Will

Mathew 19:25-26

The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God, everything is possible.”

Do you have free will?

The will is "That faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action; the faculty which is exercised in deciding, among two or more objects, which we shall embrace or pursue."

We certainly do have a will. We have a faculty by which we choose one thing over another... but is it free?

Freedom is "the power to act without hindrance or restraint".

Paul asked himself this question and came to the conclusion, "I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate... I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."

Paul realized that, by the power of his will, he could not act without hindrance or restraint. That his will was not free.

He came to a further realization when he said, "If I know what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."

Further, he said, "I love God’s law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me."

Paul desired freedom concerning his will... He would have enjoyed the freedom to follow God's laws, which he loved. He realized though, that his will was not free and this caused him to cry out to God " Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?", at which point God immediately answered, speaking through Paul, saying, "The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

I contend that our notion of free will is the linchpin of Satan's campaign to deceive believers.

There was, in the past, a method of serving God which required you to exercise your will properly.

This method is summarized in Proverbs 7:2, "Keep my commandments and live."

Under this system, priests were elected, serving as intermediaries between God and man. These priests offered sacrifices to atone for our failure to "keep His commands".

First, they would offer sacrifices for their own sins, then for ours.

This system, though, "was set aside because it was weak and useless." Under this old system, "the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sin."

Have you ever felt like that priest?

Have you gone through the cycle of day after day, coming to God with tears in your eyes, begging Him to forgive you for the mistakes you continue to make over and over again?

Have you experienced the weakness and uselessness of this system in which nothing is made right?

Have you experienced days where sacrificial tears felt sufficient, causing you to rejoice that God was now pleased with you, only for these feelings to come crashing down when you again failed, causing you to question if anything at all had changed?

Have you come to the place of Paul, who said, "I don't understand myself! I try, but I fail. I want to do good, but I do evil instead. Who can save me from this system in which right relationship with God is determined by the use of my will?"

It is only by the grace of God that you can receive the answer that Paul received, which is, "Jesus Christ, our Lord".

He is the new system.

He is the new priest.

The sacrifice He made, He made one time, and it is sufficient.

He offered Himself to God, and by this one offering, He forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

In planning this system, God said, "At this time, I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." When your sins have been forgiven, all of them, past, present, and future, there is no need to offer further sacrifices.

I ask you again... Do you have free will?

Are you able to act without hindrance concerning God's laws?

If you are, you should rely on that faculty. You should be judged, then, based on the evil that you knowingly and willingly do on a daily basis. In this scenario, Satan, the accuser, is right to bring charges against you.

If you are unable, if there is a power in you that is at war with your mind, making you a slave to sin, there is a solution.

Praise God! The answer is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

By His death, He opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. Since we have a great High Priest, who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly, without wavering, to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.

One Body

Romans 12:5

"So in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others"

To whom do you belong?

American culture teaches us that dependency is a weakness and I agree with that sentiment. I believe there is something to the attitude of Paul who said "I praise The Lord that you were concerned with me but I was never in need. I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, for I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."

When we have found right relationship with God, through Jesus's blood on the cross, we have found the only relationship we, as an individual, need. God tells us "even if your mother and father were to abandon you, I would never abandon you."

There is no human relationship that will ever be able to meet your needs to the extent that God is able. There is no love that will ever match the intensity and fullness of God's. No one will ever know and understand your true needs, and then be able to fulfill those needs, to the degree that your Father is able.

There is something to the attitude of our culture that shuns dependency on others and strives to be self sufficient. When this attitude is taken apart from a relationship with Christ, though, it manifests in prideful ignorance. Someone without a relationship with God is in need. Their self is not sufficient. Someone who denies help in this scenario is a complete fool, akin to a hungry person rejecting food, whereas someone who has been born again is able to say, like Jesus, "I have food that you know nothing of".

When viewed through the eyes of someone who does not know God, Paul's statement may seem arogant. Here other people are, offering help and comfort, and Paul has the nerve to say "I don't need anything." Paul was not dealing with the flu... He was writing from a roman prison, wrongly imprisoned and awaiting judgment to see whether he would be executed or not... In a roman prison he was not provided food or clothing. He was completely dependent, in terms of human needs, on the church to provide these things. How deluded and arrogant would he have seemed to someone who did not know the reality of the provisions and sustainment that God provides to His children? Yet, Paul truly lacked nothing. Even if he remained naked and hungry, he could say, with full honesty, "I have food and clothing,".

Yes, there is a sufficency that comes with a relationship with God in which you, as an individual, do not need any other person...

Yet, the same man who wrote "I need nothing", wrote that he belonged, as a member, to a body. Further he said, "the eye in this body cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' and the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!'"

I believe that we, as a country, at one point understood the paradox of being completely sufficent, even in the most abismal circumstance, yet at the same time being dependent to the degree that the lungs are dependent on the heart and vice-versa.

Like many other qualities that make Americans unique, when seperated from the foundation, which is Christ Himself, these qualities stop being something that build and instead tear down and degrade. Whereas once we were a people who pioneered and brought forth a new system that captivated and changed the world, the very qualities that drove these endeavors, separated from the guardrails of God's instruction and wisdom, have become the wedge that threatens to divide and destroy us.

Paul, when speaking on the paradox of dependency on God alone, yet a member, indivisible and wholly dependent on the body as a whole, explained how to live rightly. He broke down "a way of life that is best of all."

He painted a picture of a man, a man that anyone with eyes would call a "successful man". A man who spoke all languages and could communicate with anyone. A man who possesses all knowledge and wisdom and could tell the future. A man with determination so great that he could literally move mountains. A man who gives everything he owns, in order to help the poor, even sacrificing his own body for others...

He said that a man like this could certainly boast in his actions... Yet if he did not have love, would have accomplished nothing.

He said that he would be nothing.

This unloving man who, by all measures of earthly morality, is the epitome of success and worthy of the highest praise, surely would not need fundraisers or donations. He would be one who "pulled himself up by the bootstraps", never looking for a handout. He would personify, to the highest degree, the American spirit.

Yet he would, in the end, have accomplished nothing.

This man, who, belonging to no one, though he set out to help everyone, would have done nothing whatsoever but make noise and move a lot.

Love, being a foreign concept, would not have its effect.

True love, the force which causes us to be willing to lay down our very life for another, would have not worked in this mans life, causing him to fall into place, not as ruler and hero, but as member.

Jesus called us "gods", (Psalm 82:6) in that, being sons of the true God, we, as individuals, have a power that is unimaginable. He has given us dominion over the earth and everything on it. A single individual is capable of accomplishing what Paul described and we have seen it...

Hitler moved mountains, almost conquering the world! He communicated in a way that reached more than just his own citizens. He showed wisdom by his success. Viewed through the eyes of a sympathizer, he gave everything, even his own life, to the cause.

Yet he did not have love.

He did not have that force that acts as a guardrail, directing all of this awesome and terrifying power.

Separating himself from the body, he rose to become a ruler or a hero. Refusing to be a member, these attributes, which could have benefited the whole, became the very force that destroyed it.

Though speaking in many languages, he became a clashing gong. Though moving mountains, he only created a mess that needed to be cleaned. Though striving to be everything he became nothing, taking the lowest name of which some still shudder when using.

I know of a man, though, who was all-powerful and all-loving.

I know of a man who. though He was God, did not think of equality with God as something to be clung to but instead, humbled himself to the position of a slave, even being willing to die a criminals death on a cross.

A man who, carrying out the acts that this world holds to the highest esteem, allowed love to accomplish its power guiding purpose, causing Him, not to separate Himself, but bind Himself, as member, to the body.

A man whos words not only reached the ears of all people, but their hearts also. Who, when moving mountains, moved the correct ones into the correct place. A man whos sacrifice was deemed worthy not only to save the life of one person, but every person.

Though belonging to no one, being fully sufficient in God, in all things, belonged to one body. Not counting Himself as separate, but in submission, moving as a part of a whole, is now able to boast and be boasted of.

He has become the judgment of the world and His name has been lifted above every other, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess, that Christ is Lord.

He lived "a way of life that is best of all".

How many of us, on our way to work, where we go to lay down our lives for our family and our community, honk at someone for going too slow?

On Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 3:7

"A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak"

All of us would like to know what will happen in the future.

All major decisions we face in life carry the risk of an element of divination in which we try to figure out for ourselves the best course of action. The one that will provide the most benefit.

Our problem is not a lack of prudence. We want to make the best decision... We want to take the deal that will make us the most money, say the words that will make us most liked, move to the city where our dreams will be realized... in fact, most of our day is spent with anxiety as we diligently try to see and anticipate the future.

Ecclesiastes is full of practical advice urging us to be prudent. God is prudent!

A wise man isn't "caught off guard" in life. He does not sit on his hands and let life happen to him...

In our pursuit of wisdom and prudence, though, we must be careful not to fall into divination, which God despises.

There is "a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

Further, "if the light you have is actually darkness, how great is that darkness!"

The wisest conclusion that you can come to, the start of true wisdom... is that you do not have wisdom!

To realize "yes, there is a time to be quiet and a time to speak... and I don't know the difference." This is where wisdom starts.

Jesus said, "I came to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind."

He came to give wisdom.

He did not come to point to wisdom... He did not bring a 12-step program or an e-course.

When Jesus entered this world, wisdom entered the world.

"Christ, the wisdom of God," did not come with words of wisdom. He did not come with wise instructions, though His words and instructions are wise... He is wisdom incarnate.

It is no wonder, then, that divination is such an abomination to God.

Here, God provides for us, in His Son, true, unadulterated wisdom, and yet we run to The New York Post for our daily horoscope...

Standing in front of us is the creator of the universe, the one who wrote its laws and holds the elements together, and we turn inward, trusting "intuition", trying to reason with our created minds something that can not be reasoned.

Not only is it poor decision-making on our part, but it is a terrible sin that prevents fellowship with our Father.

At what point will we give up the fruitless pursuit of searching within ourselves for answers only God can provide?

At what point will we humble ourselves enough to admit, "I do not know, and I do not have the ability to know."

How much pain and suffering would we as a people avoid if tomorrow, the newscasters and scientists and philosophers and teachers and students were honest enough to say, "I do not know, and I have no way of figuring it out."

This would be the beginning of wisdom!

It isn't until we reach the place of Job, who said, "God alone understands the way to wisdom," that we are in a place to receive an answer to any of our questions.

Until then, we will speak when we are supposed to be quiet, and we will be quiet when we should be speaking.

We will be like blind guides leading the blind who, together, fall into a ditch.

Praise God that He has given us the account of Job so that we can learn from reading rather than by firsthand experience, what is required to reach the point of being able to acquire wisdom...

There is a way in which God can force you to understand... He can strip away everything around you and leave you with nothing except humbleness...Or you can humble yourself.

You can reach the end of your life and realize that you have wasted it, stumbling blindly in the dark from one path to another, without understanding or insight, ending up no further down the road than where you started... Or you can stop where you are and admit "I do not see and I can not see."

At this moment, you stop being someone who "thinks they see" and you start being someone in need of the one who gives sight.

At this moment, He will show up.

"For the eyes of the Lord range the entire earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."

Job 28

There is a mine for silver

and a place where gold is refined.

Iron is taken from the earth,

and copper is smelted from ore.

Mortals put an end to the darkness;

they search out the farthest recesses

for ore in the blackest darkness.

Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft,

in places untouched by human feet;

far from other people they dangle and sway.

The earth, from which food comes,

is transformed below as by fire;

lapis lazuli comes from its rocks,

and its dust contains nuggets of gold.

No bird of prey knows that hidden path,

no falcon’s eye has seen it.

Proud beasts do not set foot on it,

and no lion prowls there.

People assault the flinty rock with their hands

and lay bare the roots of the mountains.

They tunnel through the rock;

their eyes see all its treasures.

They search the sources of the rivers

and bring hidden things to light.

But where can wisdom be found?

Where does understanding dwell?

No mortal comprehends its worth;

it cannot be found in the land of the living.

The deep says, “It is not in me”;

the sea says, “It is not with me.”

It cannot be bought with the finest gold,

nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,

with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.

Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,

nor can it be had for jewels of gold.

Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;

the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;

it cannot be bought with pure gold.

Where then does wisdom come from?

Where does understanding dwell?

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,

concealed even from the birds in the sky.

Destruction and Death say,

“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

God understands the way to it

and he alone knows where it dwells,

for he views the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When he established the force of the wind

and measured out the waters,

when he made a decree for the rain

and a path for the thunderstorm,

then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;

he confirmed it and tested it.

And he said to the human race,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,

and to shun evil is understanding.”

The Cross

1 Corinthians 2:2

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

To resolve is to "find a solution to a problem."

For those of us who strive to live a life that is worthwhile, impactful, or meaningful, we face various problems and concerns.

As we lie in the stillness of the night, after the noise and distractions have ceased, we are faced with a life that we know has not met the standard.

God has placed eternity in the hearts of all men, and when we view our lives through this lens, it becomes impossible for us to justify our behavior.

With days spent mindlessly pursuing entertainment, failure to treat others the way we would like to be treated, and squandered opportunities to extend love to those around us, comes conviction as we lie in the silence.

While we may be temporarily motivated in these moments of reflection, showing some semblance of repetenance through a multitude of tears, real change does not occur, as evident by our behavior the next day.

Though sanctification is a process, and though we are being renewed day by day, are we not more than overcomers through Jesus?

We are told that, because the same power that raised Christ from the dead into life lives in us, we are under no obligation to sin.

Though we shed tears and though we wish to be better, we are not able to say it is some condition or circumstance outside of our control that causes us to fall short of what we know to be right. The problem lies solely in our "resolve."

We face a problem, such as someone cutting us off on the way to work, and we resolve to get revenge.

We feel an emptiness and a longing, and we resolve to fill that void with material things or earthly pleasures.

We encounter people who are difficult to love, and we resolve to protect our peace rather than experience the discomfort and vulnerability that comes with love.

whereas once we were slaves to sin and were unable to respond to life in a Christ-minded way, we have now been given a sound mind.

Do not be deceived! If you are not living up to the standard which is Jesus, as a born-again believer, indwelled with The Holy Spirit, it is not a problem relating to your capability, rather it is a problem related to your willingness.

You need not ask God for the capability to love, serve, and forgive... He has given you the fullest measure of capability that you will have throughout all eternity, for He has given you The Holy Spirit, and no believer has ever received a degree of The Holy Spirit, for He is a person who can not be divided. No, when He endwelled you, He made you fully capable.

You can shed tears until your eyes run dry... You can beg and plead until your lungs give out... You can tear your clothes and wear burlap and throw ashes on your head, and you will not receive an ounce more of the capability to live the way that God has commanded you.

How then can we escape the endless cycle of a life void of the wonder-working power of God? Must we wait until we are removed from this earth and these bodies? Perhaps the world is too far gone. Perhaps the trials and tribulations we face are different now. Maybe those days of our youth, when we felt the call to make a difference in the kingdom of God and to go out into the world bringing with us a holy flame that leads to revival, are behind us.

There is a song that says:

Give me that old-time religion,

It's good enough for me.

It was good for Paul and Silas

It's good enough for me.

There is a method to escape this cycle.

There is a way of living that will wake you up before your alarm, that will change the way you drive and work and eat and pray.

It isn't new. It's the same old way that Paul and the others took.

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

It's Jesus!

It's the blood!

If someone cuts you off on the road...look at the cross! Where they cut off our Lord, and He forgave them.

If you feel empty... look at the cross! Where the curtain of the temple was torn, and you gained access to the Holy of Holies.

If someone is difficult to love... look at the cross! Where Christ gave even His shed blood for you when you were at your most vile and in your most unlovable state.

Cling to the cross and don't let it go! Look at it and ponder it in everything you do! Don't go any further than it because there is no further. There is nothing else worth knowing. There is nothing else that will give you life. There is nothing else that will satisfy. There is no other work to be done. There is no other method in which to praise.

There is no other prayer to pray than "Thank you for the cross."

But drops of grief can ne’er repay

The debt of love I owe:

Here, Lord, I give my self away

’Tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross

Where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

Warming With Fire

John 18:18

"Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. They stood around it, warming themselves, and Peter stood with them, warming himself."

How wonderful it would have been to have lived with Jesus.

If you were told that on a certain day, at a certain location, Jesus would be making an appearance, would you not drop everything to go and meet Him?

What appointment, or obligation, or desire would prevent you from going to where He was?

To see His face and to hear His words and to touch Him. To bring to Him your issues and receive His solution. To cry to Him and be comforted by Him. What, in all of this world, would be of more value?

Why do we go to church on Sunday? Why do we sing praises? Why do we open The Word?

Is it not so that we can meet Him?

Is there anything else that can fill us, truly fill us, with encouragement and comfort and fellowship and compassion and love?

Do not all of these things ultimately stem from seeing His face?

Although we see now as if through a glass, darkly, even a glimpse of His light is enough to bring us through any trial. A glimpse is enough to brighten even the darkest of situations.

How much more would our problems suddenly disappear if we could see Him face to face?

How much more clarity would we have as we returned to our workplaces and homes, faced life’s crossroads, and dealt with our internal struggles if we could present these things to Him directly and receive a direct and specific answer?

Peter experienced this reality.

When Peter awoke in the mornings, Jesus was next to Him.

When Peter cried, Jesus comforted Him.

When Peter faced a dilemma, unsure which direction to take, Jesus directed Him.

Though Peter immediately cast aside his net when Jesus said to Him, "Follow me", surely there was skepticism in his heart. Surely he questioned, as the woman at the well did, "Could this be the messiah?" After waking with Him, though, and walking with Him and seeing His face and the work of His hands, Peter's eyes were opened, and he proclaimed by The Spirit, "You are The Christ. The Son of The Living God."

Any skepticism Peter had was incinerated when The Light Of The World shone into his life.

When the storms and the questions and the trials and the tribulations came, they all had to bow to the authority of Jesus.

Though Peter lacked a full understanding, as we all do, of the magnitude and the all-encompassing glory of the reality of who Jesus truly was and what He would accomplish, this one thing was clear to him: that Jesus was The Christ.

God, through His grace, had revealed this to Peter.

In seeing Jesus for who He was, Peter was filled with a zeal and an all-surpassing desire to be where He was.

Peter recognized that he was walking with the source of life.

He understood that there was nowhere else to go, nothing else of higher value to seek after, no other person or thing in which he would find fulfillment of the desire that is placed in all of our hearts.

Peter woke up every morning with an ache and a longing for something, as we all do. When he worked, he felt it. When he ate and drank and slept and cried, he felt it. This longing had driven him to work and to strive and dream, and now it had been fulfilled, and he saw with his own eyes and touched with his own hands the very thing his heart cried out for.

If you were to ask a fish to explain hydrology, there would be no answer. A fish could not tell you where water begins or ends, or how it gets to where it is going and then back again. Yet a fish knows water in a way that you never will. Though it does not have all the answers or a full understanding of water’s reality, it lives it. Every movement, every desire, every need, is found and satisfied in this water.

Peter, like a fish in water, was found in Jesus. He lived Him. He breathed His words and ate and drank from Him.

To remove a fish from water would be to present it with the ultimate dilemma.

Just as if someone were to remove your supply of air, all other issues would become secondary. In that moment, you would not consider your finances or your ambitions. Your soul's focus in that moment would be on obtaining that thing needed for you to continue on into the next second.

When Peter saw the contingent of soldiers, led by Judas, coming to take away his Lord, he saw the oxygen being removed from the room he was standing in. As a fish thrashes and rages against the entire world without care or consideration for the odds that are stacked against it, so Peter pulled out his sword and slashed at something bigger than he could ever comprehend.

When Jesus was led away, Peter followed, asking himself, "Where else am I to go?"

As the gate to the courtyard of Annas's house was shut, Peter was cut off from the source of life, and for the first time since he had started following Jesus, he was thrust back, on his own, into the world that he had grown up in.

As he looked into the eyes of those around him, he no longer saw others who had seen the very face of God; this alone may have been enough encouragement.

Instead, he saw his own face. He saw who he used to be. He saw a group of people living in the world, doing their jobs, concerned with worldly matters, motivated by earthly concerns.

He saw a group of people who were cold, had built a fire, and were warming themselves.

This Peter, who moments ago was willing to throw away even his own life in order to keep himself in an environment that he did not understand or comprehend, yet found, in it, the fulfillment of every desire of his heart, within a few moments more, acclimated back into his original way of being.

Peter, when he felt the cold of the night, surely longed for a fire built by Jesus.

Surely he desired to stand around this fire with the other disciples.

Surely he wished to fellowship about the things of God with the ones who had seen His very face.

Yet, he subjected himself to a fire built by human hands. He entered into the fellowship of people who had never seen God and did not know Him.

As the night went on and time separated him further and further from the light of the world, Peter grew colder and colder. Without the light of man to illuminate his eyes, he became completely blind. Without the source of courage, he became a coward.

Whereas Peter was once like a fish in water, gracefully gliding in bright flashes of light, completely at home in the environment for which it was designed, he was now like a fish on the bank of a river, completely inept.

Peter, separated from the source of true life, became incapable of living, truly living, the kind of living that is willing in a split second to die.

As time went on, Peter faced further failure.

Though he tried to return to the environment in which he was born, he had been too far separated from it.

His time spent in the new environment had changed him to a degree that he was no longer able to operate in the old one.

He had seen the light. He had heard it speak and touched it with his own hands. He had received the answers to the questions his heart asked. His desires had been fully met.

He cried but was not comforted.

He fished but caught nothing.

When Peter’s darkness of night suddenly turned into the full brightness of noonday, he, nor any of the others with him, had to ask what had changed, for they all knew they had entered again into the presence of The Lord.

Right Thinking

(Isaiah 8:11)

"The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does."

Jesus, praying to The Father at the last supper, made the statement that we are "not of this world any more than He is of this world.” He went on to pray, "I am not asking You to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one."

As foreigners on temporary assignment, we must have right thinking. In a 2004 study by Clarke and Garrett, native English speakers demonstrated accent adaptation within one minute of conversing with foreign-accented English speakers.

How many of us, upon traveling to a new city, have been asked, "Where are you from? You have an accent." In this moment, we are always caught off guard. "We have an accent?" Throughout our entire lives we have spoken this way. Everyone around us speaks this way. Our accent is not something we choose or consider; rather, it is something formed by our environment, a part of our story and our identity. Yet something that takes our entire lives to form, changes within one minute of interacting with an outside influence...

While accent adaptation shows that God has created us as social beings with an ability and desire to communicate, it also highlights our susceptibility to outside influences.

We live as foreigners, on mission, in a hostile land. We are "sent as sheep among wolves".

In this land, there is an enemy, and this enemy is in a position of power. To the native population, he is not an enemy at all but is their leader and their god. When they worship, they worship him. When they sing songs of praise, it is in his name. When they seek guidance and speculate on the future, it is him they put their trust in.

God, who placed us in this land "for such a time as this", does not intend that we hide in a cave, away from all influence. He does not want us to plug our ears and avoid the conversations around us, or to find a circle of our countrymen and carve out our own space in which we can live unbothered by the rest of the inhabitants. On the contrary! God, when He views this desolate land full of sickness and depravity, calls out, to anyone with ears to hear, "Who shall I send? Who will go for us?" for "His eyes search the entire earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him".

If you are one of these Citizens of Heaven who, by the grace of God, have stood and said, "Here I am, send me," you, also, have been "given a strong warning".

Just as a soldier sent to a far-off land does not pack his flip-flops and floral shirt, expecting a vacation, but rather packs his duty equipment, anticipating an assignment, so should we enter our workplaces, our social gatherings, and even our homes with the same attitude. Lest, like a tourist who, forgetting where he is from, completely assimilates into the culture around him, ignoring his name and way of life.

In this foreign land of opposite thinking, the inhabitants’ fears are misplaced. Whereas in the city we are from, God is "Holy, Holy, Holy", fully able to deliver us from any situation or danger, able to sustain us in all seasons and circumstances, and offers complete fulfillment for all our needs, the foreign land is in a constant state of conspiracy. It seems that everything and everyone is against each other. It feels as if the entire system is poised on the edge of collapse, with every passing day bringing new fears and instructions on what is needed to prepare. Constantly, a new person or people is proclaimed as Enemy. In this foreign land, the inhabitants themselves are the army, and in the absence of any clear system of leadership, each person takes it upon themselves to defend what they believe to be a hill worth dying on. They live in constant fear and dread, constantly looking over their shoulder. Intently, they listen, so that they might catch a slip-up and be able to point out the enemy hiding among them. With only themselves in charge of their own safety, they live in a state of constant suspicion and conflict.

Recognizing that we are susceptible to such a high degree of influence, we must be vigilant to ensure that we do not forget our own culture and way of living. We must not look at the individual beams of a broken house, which is falling all around us, and try, with the inhabitants, to find some temporary method of propping it up. We must state, clearly and confidently, that this house is in fact falling and that when it falls, it will be "with a great crash". We must stand at that “narrow door” and call out to anyone who will listen, "abandon ship!" "Get out before it is too late!"

No matter the happenings within this house, no matter how intriguing or awful or entertaining or captivating, we must not move from our post. We must stay close to that door frame, ever alert and constantly oriented. We must be ready in every moment to show others the way out, grabbing them by the arm as they pass by, if needed.

One day, Jesus grabbed one of these men and said, "Follow me", and the man replied, "First, let me go and bury my father". Jesus responded, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Jesus tells us that "the road that leads to life is narrow and only a few find it." He paints a picture of a world of zombies! People who appear to be alive but are actually dead.

In the same vein, God says to us, "Shouldn't people ask god for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?"

In a hyper-connected world, where you are constantly bombarded with the thoughts and opinions of people you have never met and know nothing about, how often are you receiving guidance, consciously or passively, from someone who is spiritually dead?

God tells us that "people who contradict my words are completely in the dark!" Yet how often have we spent hours in front of the TV or our phones, letting blind, ignorant people tell us how afraid and without hope we should be? They claim to offer us insight, claiming to have seen something we have not, and we believe them! They have seen nothing, yet we allow ourselves to spend countless hours enthralled with their stories. This robs us of our peace, sending us down rabbit holes that lead nowhere. Would not our time be better spent coming to God? Is there a question or a mystery that He can not answer?

Proverbs tells us, "It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them." God has placed it in our hearts to research and to discover. We all seek intrigue and drama, and there is nothing wrong with that! God has created a system in which this desire can be satisfied in Him. A system that actually leads to something meaningful, which is fellowship in Him! If we want real answers and want to reach the end of the road, let us bring our desire to uncover to Him, and He will reveal true things to us, not speculation

God does not expect us to remove ourselves from this world. When He gives us instructions and commands, it is not to oppress us or rob us of enjoyment. It is simply to protect us from our enemy and from our own destructive nature. These instructions serve as a reminder that we are not of this world, not bound to its customs or under the power that controls it. He does not wish for us to assimilate. He calls us to be salt and light and warns us that if "salt loses its saltiness, of what use is it?"

God shows us the life of someone whose hope lies only in this world in Isaiah 8:21-22

"They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness."

He paints a picture of a people group who are completely blind, hungry, and constantly burdened. They look about them and find no rest or satisfaction. They angrily lash out, looking for someone to blame, but find no one. They search for a meaning behind it all and come up with nothing. They live a life of anguish and depression, with the ultimate destination being the total absence of the only source of good in this universe.

Let us not go to these people for any other reason than to lead them to the one who can save them. Let us not waste any time arguing over the layout of a house that is actively collapsing around us. Let us stand at our post and carry out the mission we have been assigned, never forgetting that we are foreigners and that our home is an eternal one. That our rooms are already prepared and our needs already accounted for. Those problems have been resolved, and victory achieved.

Let us heed God's warning that we "do not think as everyone else thinks".

Let us make "The LORD of Heaven’s Armies HOLY in our lives."

On Fear And Meaning

(Matthew 7:12)

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

All of us want to live a life of meaning.

"Meaningful" means different things to different people.

For some, it means making as much money as possible or being remembered after they are dead.

Others view a meaningful life as one where they have control over their time, such as a life of travel or in learning and experiencing different ideas and ways of living. Artists find meaning in the permeance and impact of what they create...

"Meaningful" takes on many different forms but regardless of the form, meaning is what drives each of us when we are faced with the multitude of choices in our lives. It is the motivating factor in our striving for careers, hobbies, relationships, etc.

It should be no surprise that there is a plethora of opinions on the subject.

There are seminars and retreats selling ten step programs. Entire sections in book stores are dedicated to self reflection and soul searching. Movies, TV and advertisement appeal to the desire in order to draw us in. Motivational speakers push us to get back on the path...

All of us want to live a life that is meaningful.

While our motivation for searching Gods Word should be to learn about His characteristics, the ultimate purpose of Gods Word being to reveal Jesus, God placed this desire for meaning in our hearts and so, naturally, He addresses it.

His instruction, I believe, is the commandment "do not fear".

"Do not fear" is the most repeated command in The Bible.

While much of The Bible is directed at specific people groups in specific time periods, this command of "do not fear" is deeply personal. It is directed at each of us.

It is broad.

God doesn't just say "do not fear running out of food" or "do not fear getting sick". although these things are included in the command. God broadly says "do not fear."

While the command "do not murder" or "do not lie" is pretty straightforward and encompasses a specific act, "do not fear" is much more intricate and far reaching.

In this command, God is not addressing a specific act but rather a way of perceiving and a posture of the heart.

With this being the most repeated command, you would assume that, as Christians, we would focus the most amount of time addressing it. You would assume that it would be the sin we are most on guard against.

Yet, in reality, it seems to be one of the most neglected commands.

You would never hear someone say "well, I'm just a lying person! That's how God made me." or "I have a propensity to murder. I can't help it." Yet how many times have you heard people say "I am a worrier", as if it is an incurable condition rather than rebellion to God?

To be clear, I am not, nor is God, talking about the emotion of fear.

Jesus felt the emotion of fear in the garden, before He was crucified, when He cried out to God asking "If there is any other way, please let this cup pass from me."

I am talking about the act of fear.

Where as the sinful act of fear would have appeared as Jesus running away from the cross, He embodied, instead, the righteous act of overcoming and acting despite fear, when He said "nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine."

Had Jesus followed every other instruction of God, yet failed at heading this one command of "do not fear"... He would have completely failed in living a life of meaning...

All of us want to live a life that is meaningful.

Knowing that our hearts are "deceitful above all else and desperately wicked" and that "the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God and unable to follow His commands", why would we "search our hearts" when considering what the most meaningful use of our time would be?

Searching our selfish hearts will only yield selfish desires.

We will spend our lives chasing money, power and people.

A true life of meaning is exemplified in Jesus and explained in Philippians 2:6-11

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above all other names,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

We see this same selflessness in Moses who "despised the riches of Egypt", The apostles who willingly died to spread the Gospel, Daniel who entered a pit of lions rather than stop praying, even Samson pulling down the pillars of the temple in his final act of life.

If we were to ask God to describe a "meaningful life", He would describe one of selflessness.

The opposite of a life of fear.

Where fear says to preserve, selflessness says give.

Where fear says to guard your money, time, empathy, love, and life.

Selflessness says to give these things freely.

It's why Jesus says “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."

He is describing what a meaningful life looks like.

You won't make a ton of money.

You may not get to see all of the national parks.

You probably won't be remembered or have a library named after you.

In the eyes of the world, you will be viewed as a failure, just as the world viewed the cross as failure for Jesus.

Just as the cross was actually the ultimate victory, giving up your life is the ultimate meaning.

So, "do not fear."

Do not look at yourself.

Give up your privileges', humble yourself in obedience and trust that God knows how best to use the life He created and sustains.

If you find any meaning at all in being lifted to a place of honor in Gods eyes, you must give up fear and pick up a cross.

On Sin

(John 5:39-40)

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

When Jesus was asked which of the commandments concerning sin were the most important, He told us that all of the commandments and instructions of God are summed up in this: "love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt 22:37-38)

The longer you follow Jesus and the more time you spend in His presence, the more you see how woefully inadequate you are when it comes to keeping these commands.

Jesus makes it clear that the instruction is simple.

God does not require us to memorize a handbook of rules and regulations. He doesn’t require an elaborate and exhaustive pilgrimage to some distant land or engagement in complicated ceremonies in order to please Him.

Our problem is not related to how much we give, how much we sacrifice or how many tears we shed when we fail.

Our problem is that we serve a holy and righteous God, in whom there is no darkness whatsoever

When God instructs us to love with every ounce of our being, it is because He loves with every ounce of His being.

There is a way of searching the scriptures which is displeasing to God.

There is a method of trying to please God which is not only unfruitful but counterproductive.

There is a way of trying to serve God which can actually drive us away from Him, where the good we intend, turns to an evil that is disgusting in His eyes!

When we have a surface level relationship with God, we are content with addressing surface level sins. We try to clean up our speech, we put in some volunteer hours and are faithful to make it to church every sunday.

While all of these acts are good and we should do them, we face a perilous position as Christians when we put our focus on these things.

When we believe that the purpose and intent of Gods instructions concern surface level symptoms of our sinful nature such as the way we speak and the way we spend our Sunday mornings, we end up like those people who "search the scriptures thinking they will find eternal life."

In this scenario, we are not following God, a living and breathing Father... We are following a law.

We open the living and breathing Word and are met with dried ink on paper.

Though we see we do not perceive. Though we listen we do not hear or understand. (Isaiah 6:9)

We end up living like Pharisees, content with ceremonial acts that leave us in a more dangerous position than we were before we believed!

Satan, convincing us that we are living the "Christian life", has us right where he wants us.

Thinking that our works are good, we block the growth and transformation that God wants to accomplish in our life.

We give up a continual, ever-lasting life, and trade it for an appearance of morality amongst those around us.

Jesus says to someone in this state: "Woe to you! Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity."

Nonbelievers see this state of living and they are revolted as if seeing a rotting body!

God sees it and says "All of your righteous acts are as filthy rags" (literally used menstrual garments)

Our problem is not that we serve a complicated system but that we serve a holy God.

God truly loves others.

He proved it when He sent His own Son to suffer and bleed and die for you!

God truly is righteous!

He has never had an impure or evil thought!

God truly is courageous and honest and admirable and mighty and strong and steadfast and full of integrity and morality.

When you go beyond the surface of your symptoms and habits, when you hear AND understand, when you search the scriptures and actually see, you see past the surface and say, like Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

You don't say "who will deliver me from cursing." or "who will deliver me from laziness on Sunday morning." or "who will deliver me from drinking in excess"

You say "who will deliver me from this dead, rotting body in which there is NOTHING good?!"

Praise God that He is willing to give us the same power that took the dead, rotting body of His own Son and raised it to fullness of life.

Our problem is that we do not understand Hosea 6:6 which says "I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings."

God is not hiding this power from us.

You don't need to make a pilgrimage to a far off land or set up an elaborate alter to find it.

You simply need to come to The Son, exactly where you are, exactly how you are, and He will give it to you.

Come to Him now!

Come to Him again and again!

Come to Him when things are good and when things are bad!

Come to Him when you feel it and when you don't!

Come to Him when you are doing good and when you are doing bad!

In every moment and every situation, come to Him and you will find life.

There is no other way.

John 7:37-38

Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

On Faith

(Hebrews 11:1-2)

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good testimony.”

When non-believers hear the word faith, they often discount the word to mean "willful ignorance".

Phrases such as "taking a leap of faith" paint a picture of someone blindly committed to a path, in hopes that it will turn out in their favor.

The faith God commands of us is not this kind of "blind hope".

While, in the eyes of the unbeliever, acts of faith can sometimes look like someone jumping off a cliff to their sure death, such as when Daniel willingly went into a pit of lions or when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego willingly stepped into a furnace hot enough to kill the soldier tending it... These men of faith were not acting despite evidence. They did not possess any sort of religious fanaticism...

These men wilfully stepped into danger with sound minds that came to logical conclusions.

The truth is that we ALL operate on faith.

We eat food with faith that it isn't poisoned. We take medicine with faith that it isn't mislabeled. We have faith that our car will start when figuring out how late we are going to be to work...

God never tells us to have faith in faith (also known as "positive thinking").

Jesus commands us in Matthew 6:19-20, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal."

Jesus is not giving us a mystical, religious concept. He is giving us practical financial advice.

An investor, utilizing faith, heeds the advice of a financial advisor when determining his investments.

In choosing Charles Schwab to handle your money, you are coming to a series of logical conclusions concerning their credentials and reliability.

God, concerning faith, simply tells us to utilize the same mental faculties when considering what Jesus says.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples witnessed a supernatural event. They saw Jesus's form changed, they saw men they believed dead, alive and speaking, they saw the terrifying presence of God... for a moment it's as if the veil between heaven and earth was torn away.

Peter, speaking for the group and not knowing how to handle the situation, immediately assumed that some religious and mystical actions needed to take place.

In proposing to build an altar, The Bible tells us "he didn't know what he was talking about".

God answered and provided the proper course of action when He said, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

No mysticism, no religious dance or building of altars...

God simply commanded that we use the mental process, in which all of us are accustomed, to examine the evidence in front of us.

When you go on to read Hebrews 11, you see a list of logical conclusions.

"By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)

Do you understand how the worlds were framed?

When you view a tree, or the sky, or water, or the human eye... do you understand how those things were made or what they are made of?

You, after examining the evidence, may choose to believe the opinion of a cosmologist.

You would be examining the evidence of a process you did not and can not see, resulting in a logical conclusion.

You would be incorrect... but you would be utilizing faith.

"By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." (Hebrews 11:7)

Noah, being warned by God of a process that had never occurred and of which he had no reference point in understanding, built a vessel that served no purpose for his current affairs. In doing so, not only did he save his family, but he condemned the world.

Noah put his faith in what God said.

The other inhabitants put their faith in their experience, reasoning, and estimations.

The other inhabitants were incorrect... but they utilized faith.

"By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace" (Hebrews 13:31)

Rahab, examining the evidence, concluded that it was better to side with the people who had just passed through the Red Sea as if on dry land. She saw the victories of the Israelites leading up to Jerihico and made a logical decision that the safest thing to do would be to assist them.

The other inhabitants of Jericho believed that their walls and their armies would protect them.

Their death shows that they were incorrect... but they utilized faith.

When God tells us to have the faith of Noah, Rahab, Abraham, or Daniel, He is not asking us to do something mystical or fanatical.

He is asking us to utilize a mental faculty that we have all been given and use every single day.

He is commanding us, concerning Jesus, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

(Romans 10:17)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

No Remiyyah

Psalm 32

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

Whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

The word sin means "to miss the mark."

It's the idea of an archer shooting an arrow and missing the bullseye.

Believer or not, we have all experienced the feeling that we are missing the mark

.

At night, when we lie down to sleep, as we are forced to encounter the silence with nothing left to distract us, we are confronted with our shortcomings.

We are not the parents, the partners, the friends, the members of society that we should be.

Blessed is the one who is forgiven for this.

Blessed is the one who can be confronted with the consequences of their actions yet not be crushed by them, knowing that in the morning, they have an opportunity to try again.

Blessed is the one whose sin is covered.

The Hebrew word for "covered" is "kāsāh" (כסה), which means "to cover, conceal, or hide". This word is used to describe the "propitiatory cover" or "mercy seat" over the Ark of the Covenant.

The "mercy seat" is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. Made of pure gold and topped with two cherubim, the cover was where the high priest would sprinkle the blood of animal sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. This act symbolized the "covering over" or atonement for the sins of the people.

The gold cover was not just a physical lid, but the symbolic place where God's presence would appear and where, through sacrificial blood, His wrath against sin was appeased and sins were covered or forgiven.

Blessed is the one whose sin is covered, not by alms or the blood of animal sacrifices but by the very presence of God through Jesus's shed blood on the cross.

Blessed is the one to whom The Lord does not impute iniquity.

To impute is to assign a value to something by inference from the value of that product.

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

If you were to lay out the actions of my life (or your life) and assign it a value, you would see a product that is worse than worthless.

You would see a product that does not deserve to exist!

If tonight, on the nightly news, they were to show my picture (or your picture) and list out the things I have done and the thoughts I have entertained in secret, I would not be able to show my face the next day. I would be completely mortified, as would you.

The consensus would be that I am not a person deserving of love, mercy, or forgiveness. That I (and you) are a monster that needs to be punished, locked away, eradicated...

In contrast, if you were to assign a worth to Jesus's life, with its fullness of works which "If they were all written down, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written", you would see a product of the absolute highest value.

You would see a life that is "more precious than rubies". A life that is of more value than anything you could even think to desire.

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

On the cross, God imputed, or assigned value, to Jesus, the value that you earned.

On the cross, God imputed, or assigned value, to you, the value that Jesus earned.

Blessed is the man to whom The Lord does not impute iniquity.

In whose spirit there is no deceit.

Ask any person on the street what is written in John 3:16 and there is a good chance they can tell you.

Regardless of their relationship with God or the state of their salvation, they have the info.

Even demons believe the info and tremble!

This info and their belief do them no good.

Hell was created for satan and his demons, and it is where they will spend eternity, separated from God, along with anyone not found in Jesus.

The Hebrew word, from which we get the translation of "deceit," is remiyyah.

Having "no remiyyah" means being truthful, transparent, and honest, not trying to conceal sin or live with double standards. This points to someone straightforward with God, not hiding guilt or living hypocritically.

The God who can impute can see your sin.

All of it!

He sees every action, every thought, every posture of your heart.

He sees the effect that your actions have on a scale unimaginable to you! Actions that you may think only affect you actually have a cascading effect that ripples throughout eternity...

Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Blessed is the man who doesn't excuse, bury, or hide the reality of the sin in his life.

It is only when we are honest and straightforward with God that we are able to step into the light of His presence.

Jesus explains this in John 3:19-21: "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."

Anyone who tries to bury or hide their sin does so out of fear and commits evil!

Even children of God, in following the example of their former master, the devil, fall into this old habit.

They mess up, as we all do. They "miss the mark".

Instead of being "truthful, straightforward and honest", they try to conceal their sin!

This behavior takes many forms... all of them futile.

It may appear as making promises to God, such as "I am not doing this anymore."

Sometimes it looks like shedding tears and trying to convince God how much you regret the action... Though we need to repent, sometimes repentance becomes a theatrical act where we believe the persuasiveness of our performance is the determining factor of our forgiveness rather than the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Similar to the hypocrite in a Greek play, we put on the mask of the "repentant sinner".

Sometimes we behave as those people in the future that Jesus prophesied of in Luke 23:30, who "will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ so that they will not have to experience the wrath of God on the day of judgment.

We fall into despair and depression and run from God, choosing to give up and wallow in our sin rather than come into His presence.

Blessed is the man who doesn't do these things!

Blessed is the man who has "no remiyyah"!

Blessed is the man who is straightforward with God! Who says, "You see me. You see my heart. You see what I've done and who I am."

Only this man is the one whom God will accept and welcome into His presence.

Isaiah said, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD"

These gates are only opened to those who are willing to remove the hypocrite mask, those who are transparent and honest with God, who can not be deceived anyway!

David goes on to explain this process:

When I kept silent, my bones grew old

Through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to You,

And my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

He tried the method we all fall into!

He shed the tears, he made the promises, he ran and he hid, and day and night he felt the heaviness of the insufficiency of his effort.

His bones grew old, his strength dried up.

It was only when he took off the mask, when he was straightforward with God, that he was able to enter into the presence of the light and be forgiven.

David experienced the only method of dealing with the sin in our lives, and he went on to give us a charge based on what he learned:

For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You

In a time when You may be found;

Surely in a flood of great waters

They shall not come near him.

You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.

God confirmed David’s understanding and endorsed it with a charge of His own:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule,

Which have no understanding,

Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,

Else they will not come near you.

Further He gives a warning and a promise:

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;

But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;

And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Blessed is the man who hears and understands these instructions from The Lord. Though flood waters surround this man and nations gather on every side, no danger will come near him. He will be steadfast and able to stand in his hiding place, which is The LORD. He will be glad and rejoice. He will shout for joy in the assembly of the righteous. He will be like a tree planted by the water, yielding its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither. He will prosper in everything he does.

He will see God.

Exact Right Place

What if I told you that everything was in exactly the right place that God wanted it to be, right now? That in all of the history of eternity, what is happening, at the very second that you read this, is exactly what is supposed to be happening? That it was all planned and determined?

If you turn on the news or look at an advertisement, you will hear an opposite message.

The news will tell you that things are very, very wrong.

That the ship is headed off course, careening toward a rocky outcrop. That the countdown to total destruction has already started. 

Advertisements will tell you that you aren’t what you should be, don’t have what you should have, don’t look how you should look and that you don’t feel what you should feel.

What if I told you, that YOU are in the exact right place that God wants you to be, right now?

That in all of the history of eternity, what has, is, and will happen to you is exactly what is supposed to be happening?

That God knew you, before He created the earth.

That He planned out and plotted a course for your life.

That He saw the decisions you would make and the events that He would put in place around you and accounted for them?

That, right now, you are in the exact right place, as determined by God, from before the beginning?

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Anxiety is defined as an “emotion in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune.”

Anxiety is the fear of the unknown.

It is the opposite of rest.

Hebrews 4:10-13

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

God wants us to rest.

He commanded us to keep the sabbath, so that we would rest.

His most repeated command in The Bible is “do not fear.”

Fear being the opposite of rest.

Hebrews 4 is a pleading for us to not miss out on this rest.

To try and explain what this rest is, would be impossible.

This rest, in it’s true form, is something that only God has experienced.

After creating everything which was created, He entered into this rest.

To explain what that rest looks like, is as unfruitful as trying to explain what God Himself looks like.

Just as no one can see God’s face, no one could describe something that He created for Himself to enjoy as a reprieve from creation itself.

Yet His believers HAVE seen His face in Christ Jesus and this rest that He created for Himself to enjoy, He extends to His children for them to enter into as well…

To describe this rest would be pointless.

You can not buy it with all of the wealth of the entire earth.

People search for it their entire lives but can not find it.

Through religion, philosophy, determination or ways of thinking, countless people have claimed “here it is, I have found it!” yet come up empty.

You can sell everything you own, quiet every thought, shun every distraction and forsake every noise… you will not find it.

It’s gates are shut up by the one who created everything.

Only those who He allows to enter, may enter.

“There is a special rest waiting for the people of God”

To describe it would be pointless but we have a clear example of what will cause us to be denied entry.

Hebrews 4:2, referencing the Israelites in the wilderness, says, ”For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”

The Israelites heard about this rest.

It was described to them just as it is being described to you now.

They lacked something.

It wasn’t knowledge.

It wasn’t a desire.

It was a belief.

In the garden, Eve was experiencing this rest and she lost it.

Why?

She heard the message, just as you are hearing it now.

She lacked something.

It wasn’t knowledge.

It wasn’t a desire.

It was a belief.

The way that Satan attacked Eve and the way that He attacks you is the same.

Every day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep and even in your sleep, He attacks one thing…

Belief.

God says “for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations”

The news tells us that we have lost control and evil is ruling.

We believe the news, and we miss out on rest.

God says “people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.”

An advertisement tells us that we must do more, buy more, feel more, experience more…

We believe the advertisement and we miss out on rest.

God says “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest”

We look at a circumstance or a situation and we believe the lies of the enemy and we miss out on rest.

The words that we hear from God, not being mixed with faith, do not profit us.

I can’t tell you what this special rest looks like.

I can’t describe what it feels like.

You won’t find a 10 step program that tells you how to reach it and there’s no breathing technique that unlocks it for you.

It is created by God, special, for you.

He holds the key. He opens the gate and lets some in.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear His voice,

do not harden your hearts,

as you did in the rebellion,

in the day of testing in the wilderness,

where your fathers tested and tried Me,

and for forty years saw My works.

Therefore I was angry with that generation,

and I said,

‘Their hearts are always going astray,

and they have not known My ways.’

So I swore on oath in My anger,

‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Weak Is Strong

1 Corinthians 1:27

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

When we think of courage and strength, we think of grit, sweat, blood, and tears.

We think of exerting our will on a situation and overcoming it.

We watch motivational videos that tell us to wake up earlier, to push harder, to “embrace the suck” and to take what we want from life.

While determination and discipline are part of God's formula for sanctification, they are also tools that Satan can use to bring you in the exact opposite direction!

The world is full of examples of men determined to do vile things. Men who exhibited great discipline in carrying out evil.

God puts it this way in Proverbs 16:32: “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”

Strength, determination, and discipline are of no value in and of themselves.

Directed toward the wrong objective, these attributes become destructive. 

It is actually man’s determination that leads him straight to hell!

Satan's determination, when he said, “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High,” caused him to be tossed from heaven.

The LORD says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. (Psalm 32:8-10)

God created men in His Image.

If you have been born again, you are endwelled with a spirit of power! The very same power that raised Jesus’s body from death unto life!

He has “given us a spirit of power, love, and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Unlike the power endorsed by the world, God’s power has, attached to it. self-control.

The God who created the sun, with all of its magnificent power, also set its boundaries and limits.

The God who created the mighty ocean also said to that ocean, “This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!” (Job 38:11)

It is the duty of a Christian man who has been endowed with this mighty power to steward properly.

There is a quote, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Praise God that He gave us His Son, the head of the body, the church, the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, to show us what that stewardship looks like.

God gave this power to Jesus first, before He gave it to us. In Jesus, He set the example of how this power was to be used.

“Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11)

You aren’t going to see that in a motivational video.

God, to shame those who think they are strong, chose what the world calls total weakness and made it total strength.

He chose to arm disarmament.

He chose the humble to lead the proud.

He chose submission to shatter defiance. 

When Jesus exhibited this power by putting on an apron and stooping down to wash His disciples’ feet… He knew they would not understand.

He told them, “You don’t understand what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”

He knew that God would train them. 

God would bring them through the wilderness to be tempted, just as He was tempted.

God would speak to them in those moments of solitude and prayer, just as He was spoken to.

God would perfect the power that He was about to place in them.

Peter, responding based on the only training he had received…Training derived from a world that despises weakness… A world under the control of a being that refuses to ever humble himself… Responded “No! you will never ever wash my feet!

When Jesus revealed to Peter the suffering, shame, and rejection that God had chosen in order to bring about healing, honor, and reconciliation, Peter responded, “Never, Lord!” “This shall never happen to you!”

Peter was not part of the new system of power that God had devised. 

Peter had old training in an old system.

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

A new system had been fully revealed, walking among them, eating and drinking with them. Sleeping next to them.

When we think of courage and strength, we think of grit, sweat, blood, and tears.

We think of exerting our will on a situation and overcoming it.

We see the cross and we say “never!”

We hear the insults and the mocking, and we say “never!”

We feel the blows from the crowds and the spit and the shame and the nakedness, and we say “never!”

We do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

If we want the power that raised Jesus to be exhibited in our lives…

If we want to exist in that new system…

It won’t make sense.

It won’t be easy.

It will require training from God.

If we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. (Romans 8:17)

Micro Changes Macro

“do not despise these small beginings, for the lord rejoices to see the work begin”

(Zechariah 4:10)

On November 9th, 1989, Gunter Schabowski, a journalist and recently appointed spokesman for East Germany, was handed a text containing new, temporary travel regulations concerning the citizens of the communist regime.

These regulations stipulated that East German citizens could apply for permission to travel abroad under conditions less stringent than those currently in place.

Though the text was not explained to Schabowski, he felt comfortable reading the regulations at a press confrence which was televised, live, to the entire country.

Schabowski had previously commented, “all that one needs to conduct a press conference is to be able to speak German and read a text without mistake.”

After reading the text, Schabowski was asked by a reporter when these new regulations would take effect. Speaking off the cuff, based on his own understanding of the wording of the document, he responded, “As far as i know… effective immediatly, without delay.”

He made further statements without direction.

He spoke of “going through the border” and “freedom of travel”

Upon hearing this information, the citizens of East Germany, who had been desperately trying to flee through all means necessary, flooded the Berlin Wall.

Armed with the news of these new regulations and far outnumbering the armed guards, they demanded to be let through.

The guards, unwilling to open fire in order to control the situation, ordered the gates opened.

That day, as nearly all of the oppressed citizens streamed through the border, East Germany, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.

This event shows us that the small, seemingly insignificant actions of even one man can absolutely alter the entire course of history.

making changes

In the wake of the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, an entire new generation of Believers has been called.

Dormant Christians have reawakened.

Citizens from every country, across the globe, have felt led to “do something”

Though this feeling appears universal, among those whose hearts have not been completely hardened, many are asking, “What do we do?”

They know that something needs to be done.

They are no longer satisfied with the status quo, but when faced with a problem so complex, an issue of such magnitude as to concern entire nations, they need practical steps.

it starts with you

courage is doing what’s right, when you don’t know how its going to turn out

-charlie kirk

Every day, moment by moment, each of us faces decisions.

While we are driving to work, we get cut off.

We are faced with a decision to seek revenge or offer grace.

While at the grocery store, we encounter a cashier who is awkward or unpleasant.

We are faced with a decision to avoid contact, fumbling with our wallet and keys, or to have a human interaction.

In our living rooms, we are confronted with a family member who faces real questions concerning life.

We are faced with a decision to keep the peace, to placate, or to speak the truth, in love, even when the reaction may be unpleasant.

In our own private lives, we face hidden struggles and battles that no one sees.

We are faced with a decision to succumb to temptation or to overcome through the strength of the same Spirit that raised Christ from death to life.

All of us would like to believe that we would be willing to lay down our lives for our country, for a loved one, for God…

Are we willing, though, to lay down our lives at the check-out counter?

Are we willing to endure even a minute of the awkwardness that sometimes comes with connection?

Are we willing to let go of the rage we feel on the road that leads us to petty, meaningless behaviors?

Are we willing to speak the truth of The Word to those we love, even when it causes division?

If we won’t allow God to lead us in a simple interaction at the grocery store, we are fooling ourselves in thinking we will courageously lay down our lives if that’s what is required of us.

If we won’t show our neighbor grace for a traffic infraction, how would we handle true persecution?

If we can’t speak the truth in the comfort of our own home, what makes us think we would speak it in front of kings?

In the military, there is a saying: “We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

Integrity, courage, conviction…

You can’t buy them.

They don’t just come to you when you need them.

They are forged in the everyday. In the mundane. Moment by moment.

Men of character, who, when meeting the moment required of them, stand fast…They fell to the level of their training.

All of us feel the calling to be that type of man.

All of us see that Charlie was that type of man. Standing fast even unto death.

It starts today.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls. / Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

james 1:21-22