Homeless in Baltimore 12/21

Back from our street ministry in Baltimore and once again God has blessed me beyond words.  To be used as His hands and feet always brings me to a place of indescribable ecstasy - a privilege undeserved and yet never to be taken for granted. And once again I come home with a new question of "why?"

In the past there have been questions of "why the misery?; why the addictions?; why the pain?; why do some have and some don't?; why, Lord, why?"  This time was no different - but it was different.

Stanley is a black man probably in his 50's although it's hard to tell when someone has been out in the elements for any length of time.  His family has produced four preachers and while Stanley did not profess to be one of them, he could quote scripture and tell us Bible stories better than many preachers out there.  So of course I assumed Stanley was a true believer, disciple, follower of Jesus - and in his heart that may be the truth.  But Stanley told us he is a sinner (response: we ALL are, Stanley).  No, we didn't understand.  Stanley is a HUGE sinner who knows better but can't or refuses to clean up his act.  And Stanley had another secret - he cannot understand why him.  Why, God, why him?  Why is he homeless?  Why is his life meaningless?  What is the purpose of his suffering, sin and feelings of hopelessness?  Why doesn't God just change it when He's so powerful and could do it in an instant?  Why?  Our question was why couldn't Stanley accept grace?

After inadequately making attempt after attempt to answer his questions, Kristina and I began to realize sometimes you just can't answer all questions.  Sometimes, as humans, we don't have the answers and we are being dishonest to try and act like we do.  Sometimes God doesn't give us the answers.  He has His reasons and He doesn't always share those reasons.  Maybe because we don't need to know; maybe because we couldn't handle it if we knew; maybe we just wouldn't understand.

Then my daughter, my very insightful daughter, asked Stanley a question (this, by the way, is a time proven way of answering someone's question).  She asked him if he took these questions to God - to which Stanley said "oh yes, all the time, I ask and tell God all the time how I feel."  And Kristina told Stanley to keep doing that - to keep talking to God, asking Him why, telling Him how he feels.  What great advice to give him. The Old Testament is riddled with people who cried to God, complained to God, shouted to God and questioned God.  What did they all have in common?  Belief.  They believed in God Almighty or they wouldn't be crying, complaining, shouting or questioning Him.  And through it all He grew their faith.

Stanley said he would definitely keep wrestling with God because, afterall, He is his Father.  And there it was - confirmation that despite all the pain, all the disappointment, all the disgrace, there was belief.  God can and will deal with Stanley's doubts as long as he keeps taking it to Him.  And I thank God for yet another lesson showing me I don't have all the answers but He does.  Praise Him for taking the time to grow us, teach us, mold us and love us.  Amen.


Click here to read a great article by Philip Yancey on Faith and Doubt.

Psalm 19

The law of the Lord is perfect,

  reviving the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is sure,

making wise the simple;

the precepts of the Lord are right,

rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is pure,

enlightening the eyes;

the fear of the Lord is clean,

enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord are true,

and righteous altogether.

Psalm 19:7-9

Why Santa's Not a Christian

2Erin Davis | 12.15.14

Twitter: @ErinGraffiti

I've been praying for Santa and his wife, Mrs. Claus. I've invited them to church. They say they'd come if they just weren't so busy. They own a small business that seems to eat up all of their free time. I've shared my faith with them before, and they always smile at me kindly. But they just won't accept Jesus as their Savior. It's not that they have a problem with Jesus. After all, Jesus and Santa are the two faces of the biggest holiday in the world. Santa respects Jesus, but what he cannot wrap his mind around is the Gospel.

You know the Gospel right?

The Part of the Gospel Santa Knows Best

It's the truth that all of us are sinners. From the North Pole to the South Pole and in every nook and cranny in between, the planet is packed with sinners. It's our very nature to rebel against God's holy standards and try to live life on our terms. It rarely works out like we think it will, and that is bad news.

But there is worse news because there is a God in heaven who is not just holy. He's holy, holy, holy. He is set apart. He is perfect. And because He is so holy, He cannot tolerate our sin. Isaiah 59:2 says that because of our sin, God hides His face from us. Our sin keeps us separated from our Creator. What's more, Romans 6:23 says that the punishment that we all deserve is death.

Santa knows all about this half of the Gospel. He's always watching for sin. Sure, he calls it naughtiness, but it's the same thing. He sees us when we're sleeping. He knows when we're awake. He knows when we've been bad or good. The pervasiveness of sin is no surprise to Santa. He has dished out enough lumps of coal to know there are plenty of naughty boys and girls in the world.

But just focusing on sin causes us to miss the beauty of the Gospel.

The Best Gift That Santa Can't Give

Romans 6:23 goes on to say, "But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I can be a lot like Santa. I feel like I have to earn God's love.

God's gift of salvation is totally, 100%, no-strings-attached free. In fact, that is what Christmas is really all about. Jesus came as a baby, but He had no intention of staying so small. He was laid in a wooden crib that first Christmas so that He could bear a wooden cross in order to change my heart of stone. Because of my sin, I deserve so much worse than a lump of coal. I deserve death and eternal separation from the Holy God. Jesus came to pay that penalty. It is an immeasurable gift that I did not earn and could never repay.

Santa just can't get his head around it. He doesn't understand free gifts. His reality is a team of elves working day and night to create gifts for good little boys and girls. He associates gifts with effort and elbow grease.

I can be a lot like Santa. I feel like I have to earn God's love. I find myself often wondering if He will take back the gift He gave me and replace it with a lump of coal. But that is not the Gospel, and it's not the true message of Christmas either.

Jesus came as a perfect bundle so He could die as a perfect sacrifice. No jolly man in a red suit with a bag of toys can offer me anything sweeter.

Santa and his family will have to decide for themselves whether they want to keep clinging to the idea that all good and perfect gifts can only be earned through good and perfect behavior, but I've already made up my mind. Of course, I'm not really praying for our culturally created version of Santa or inviting him to church, but I imagine this is why he would turn down the Gospel if he were my neighbor. It's why so many of us do.

Christmas is so miraculous because it points to a bigger story. Jesus came as a perfect bundle so He could die as a perfect sacrifice. No jolly man in a red suit with a bag of toys can offer me anything sweeter.

Spirit vs. Flesh

Two natures beat within my breast,

The one is foul; the one is blest.

The one I love; the one I hate,

The one I feed will dominate.

unknown author

The greatest enemy.......

........ of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best.  Oswald Chambers

Saw the following article on Brian King's facebook page and loved it!

Good Intentions Gone Bad

by R.C. Sproul

The adage tells us that there is a destination, the road to which is paved with good intentions. It is the destination that we would prefer not to reach. Good intentions can have disastrous results and consequences. When we look at the revolution of worship in America today, I see a dangerous road that is built with such intentions. The good purposes that have transformed worship in America have as their goal to reach a lost world — a world that is marked by baby boomers and Generation Xers who have in many ways rejected traditional forms and styles of worship. Many have found the life of the church to be irrelevant and boring, and so an effort to meet the needs of these people has driven some radical changes in how we worship God.

Perhaps the most evident model developed over the last half century is that model defined as the “seeker-sensitive model.” Seekers are defined as those people who are unbelievers and are outside of the church but who are searching for meaning and significance to their lives. The good intention of reaching such people with evangelistic techniques that include the reshaping of Sunday morning worship fails to understand some significant truths set forth in Scripture.

In Romans 3, Paul makes abundantly clear that unconverted people do not seek after God. Thomas Aquinas understood this and maintained that to the naked eye it may seem that unbelievers are searching for God or seeking for the kingdom of God, while they are in fact fleeing from God with all of their might. What Aquinas observed was that people who are unconverted seek the “benefits” that only God can give them, such as ultimate meaning and purpose in their lives, relief from guilt, the presence of joy and happiness, and things of this nature. These are benefits the Christian recognizes can only come through a vital, saving relationship with Christ. The gratuitous leap of logic comes when church leaders think that because people are searching for benefits only God can give them, they must therefore be searching after God. No, they want the benefits without the Giver of the benefits. And so structuring worship to accommodate unbelievers is misguided because these unbelievers are not seeking after God. Seeking after God begins at conversion, and if we are to structure our worship with a view to seekers, then we must structure it for believers, since only believers are seekers.

When we look at the early church, we see that the Christians of the first century gathered on the Lord’s day, devoting themselves to the study of the apostles’ doctrine, to fellowship, to prayer, and to the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42). This was not an assembly of unbelievers. It was an assembling together of believers. Of course, as our Lord warned, there are always present among believers people who have made false professions of faith. There are always the tares that grow alongside of the wheat (Matt. 13:36–43). But one does not structure the church to meet the felt needs and desires of the tares. The purpose of corporate assembly, which has its roots in the Old Testament, is for the people of God to come together corporately to offer their sacrifices of praise and worship to God. So the first rule of worship is that it be designed for believers to worship God in a way that pleases God. 

The Old Testament has manifold examples of His severe displeasure that was provoked when the people decided to structure worship according to what they wanted rather than to that which God commanded. Perhaps the most vivid illustration of that is found in Leviticus 10, in the narrative account of the sudden execution of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, for their attempts at offering strange fire upon the altar. These young priests “experimented” in a manner that was displeasing to God, and God’s response that He spoke to Aaron through Moses was this: “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified” (Lev. 10:3). Corporate worship is not the place to celebrate the profane or the secular. It may be more attractive to Generation Xers to turn Sunday morning worship into an imitation of Starbucks, but it hardly can be thought to be pleasing to God. 

Another erroneous assumption made in the attempt to restructure the nature of worship is that the modern generation has been so changed by cultural and contextual influences — such as the impact of the electronic age upon their lives — that they are no longer susceptible to traditional attempts of being reached by expository preaching. Early in the twentieth century, the liberal preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick pointed out that people were no longer interested in coming to church to hear what some apostle or prophet wrote a couple thousand years ago. Such words and messages were completely irrelevant according to Fosdick, and so the focus of preaching has moved in many cases away from an exposition of the Word of God. We assume this alteration is necessary if we’re to reach the people who have been trapped within the changes of our current culture. The erroneous assumption is that in the last fifty years, the constituent nature of humanity has changed, as if the heart can no longer be reached via the mind. It also assumes that the power of the Word of God has lost its potency, so that we must look elsewhere if we are to find powerful and moving experiences of worship in our church. Though the intentions may be marvelous, the results, I believe, are and will continue to be catastrophic.

Bridge to Eternity

Around us is a world lost in sin,

above us is a God willing and able

to save it; it is ours to build the bridge

that links heaven and earth, and prayer

is the mighty instrument that does the work.

"Pray, brethren, pray."

E.M. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer

I would contend that Jesus already built the bridge; all we need to do is show others that bridge - how simple is that?  Without prayer, however, it becomes a monumental task. 

Rooted in Prayer

Without prayer the Christian life, robbed of its sweetness and its beauty, becomes

cold and formal and dead; but rooted in the secret place where God meets and walks

and talks with His own, it grows into such a testimony of Divine power that all men

will feel its influence and be touched by the warmth of its love. Thus, resembling our 

Lord and Master, we shall be used for the glory of God and the salvation of our fellow men.

And that, surely is the purpose of all real prayer and the end of all true service.

E.M. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer

Church Age

The only protection and rescue from worldliness lie in our intense and radical spirituality; and our only hope for the existence and maintenance of this high, saving spirituality, under God, is in the purest and most aggressive leadership - a leadership that knows the secret power of prayer.

The gift of these leaders is not in the range of ecclesiastical power.  They are God's gifts. Their being, their presence, their number, and their ability are the tokens of His favour; their lack the sure sign of His disfavour, the presage of His withdrawal. Let the Church of God be on her knees before the Lord of hosts, that He may more mightily endow the leaders we already have, and put others in rank, and lead all along the line of our embattled front.

The world is coming into the Church at many points and in many ways. It oozes in; it pours in; it comes in with brazen front or soft, insinuating disguise; it comes in at the top and comes in at the bottom; and percolates through many a hidden way.

For praying men and holy men we are looking - men whose presence in the Church will make it like a censer of holiest incense flaming up to God. With God the man counts for everything. Rites, forms, organisations are of small moment; unless they are backed by the holiness of the man they are offensive in His sight. "Incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." (Isaiah 1:13)

This truth that God regards the personal purity of the man is fundamental.  This truth suffers when ordinances are made much of and forms of worship multiply. The man and his spiritual character depreciate as Church ceremonials increase. The simplicity of worship is lost in religious aesthetics, or in the gaudiness of religious forms.

This truth that the personal purity of the individual is the only thing God cares for is lost sight of when the Church begins to estimate men for what they have. When the Church eyes a man's money, social standing, his belongings in any way, then spiritual values are at a fearful discount, and the tear of penitence, the heaviness of guilt are never seen at her portals.  Worldly bribes have opened and stained its pearly gates by the entrance of the impure.

The age of Church organisation and Church machinery is not an age noted for elevated and strong personal piety. Machinery looks for engineers and organisations for generals, and not for saints, to run them. Holiness and all the spiritual graces of hardy culture and slow growth are discarded as too slow and too costly for the progress and rush of the age.

The man and his spiritual character is what God is looking after.

E.M. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer

Seek His Face

Some Christians believe all the bad things that are happening to our country is the wrath of God.  Some believe its the consequence of turning our backs on Him. Or taking prayer out of schools. Or allowing gay marriage. Or abortion.  Some believe its all due to a fallen world.  To a wicked enemy.

But whatever the reason(s) are for the bad things happening, God gave us a way to have influence and I would venture to say we have, in large part, forgotten how to petition the only One who can effectually change anything on this earth.

If my people who are called by my name humble

themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn

from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven

and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chron. 7:14

The age may be a better age than in the past, but there is an infinite distance between the betterment of an age by the force of an advancing civilization and its betterment by the increase of holiness and Christ-likeness by the energy of prayer.

                                                                    E.M. Bounds, The Power of Prayer

The Lost Art of Commitment

Why we're afraid of it, and why we shouldn't be.

Chuck Colson with Catherine Larson/ AUGUST 4, 2010

Certain characteristics are so inherent to Christianity that to neglect them is to become a walking oxymoron. A Christian without commitment is such an oxymoron. That's why I was so disturbed when a friend shared a statement from presidential candidates at a Christian college. When asked, "What has changed the most in the past 20 years with young people who are entering college?" all the candidates said that young adults today are far less willing to commit to anything.

Whether we are talking about career, marriage, or faith, studies back up their observation. In 2008, more than half of people ages 20 to 24 had been with their current employer for less than a year. Although the recession has dampened this somewhat, young adults are still floundering when it comes to embracing a calling. Marriage, especially, has suffered; according to U.S. Census data, young adults are marrying later than ever. A 2006 PBS documentary, Generation Next, gave some insight into why: desire for adventure, career advancement, and prolonged adolescence. Lack of commitment is also hitting religion—hard. Studies suggest that the iPod generation is choosing which aspects of the faith to adopt to create their own unique spiritual playlists.

Among today's young adults, the unwillingness to commit is alarming, clearly one result of the philosophies of the 1960s and '70s coming to full flower. In 1979, sociologist Robert Bellah conducted extensive interviews to understand what "habits of the heart" defined average Americans. Many had no sense of community or social obligation. They saw the world as a fragmented place of choice and freedom that yielded little meaning or comfort. They even seemed to have lost the language to express commitment to anything besides themselves. Bellah called this "ontological individualism," the belief that the individual is the only source of meaning. Bellah saw how this attitude would, in time, unravel the church and larger society. Since then, we've seen an almost uninterrupted march toward self-focus, affecting all of our institutions but especially crippling work, marriage, and family.

The basic building blocks of society simply erode without commitment. Any sensible society must address this problem by educating people that commitment is the very essence of human relationships.

At the least, we need to teach this in our churches. How can you begin as a Christian without death to self and total commitment to Jesus Christ?

But beyond the ramifications for society as a whole, beyond even the obvious necessity of Christian commitment, when we refuse to commit, we miss out on one of the great joys of life. When we obsess over ourselves, we lose the meaning of life, which is to know and serve God and love and serve our neighbors.

This was made clear when 33 research scientists investigated the relationship between human development and community in a 2003 report, Hardwired to Connect. Their research revealed that we are biologically primed to find meaning through relationships.

After nearly eight decades of living, I can vouch for this. My single greatest joy is giving myself to others and seeing them grow in return. You cannot discover that without commitment. I first learned it by watching my parents care for my dying grandparents in our home. This is a custom long forgotten today, when such care is subcontracted out. I later saw it in the Marine Corps. You cannot go into combat, commanding 45 men, as I was trained to do, if you aren't committed to one another. You are going to die if the man next to you does not cover your back.

That's a point driven home in the excellent 2010 book Joker One, by Donovan Campbell. It should be required reading for every Christian, because the kind of commitment you see in the platoon—Campbell calls it love for one another—is what needs to be happening in churches. Finally, I see it at this point in my life, when my greatest reward is seeing ex-convicts restored and people I've taught begin to understand the faith in its fullness.

By abandoning commitment, our narcissistic culture has lost the one thing it desperately seeks: happiness. Without commitment, our individual lives will be barren and sterile. Without commitment, our lives will lack meaning and purpose. After all, if nothing is worth dying for (the anthem of the '60s anti-war protesters), then nothing is worth living for. But with commitment comes the flourishing of society—of calling, of marriage, of the church—and of our hearts. It's the paradox Jesus so often shared when he bid us to come and die that we might truly live.

Prayer

So we come to one of the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times - little or no praying.  Of these two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying.  Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion.

E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

Overcome

Let me preface this entry by saying that I love the song Overcome.  It's an awesome song that reminds me of all Jesus has done for us and how worthy he is of our praise and worship.  Great song.

Now, here comes the "but."  In the lyrics there is a quote from scripture (maybe rephrased a little bit):

We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb

And the word of our testimony

actual scripture reads:

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony

Revelation 12:11

However that's not my beef - the meaning there is still intact.  My problem is that the last part of that verse has been dropped.  And it's a really, really (did I mention really?) important part........................

for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Ouch.  That's kind of a downer for such an uplifting song. It reminds me of how we Christians in the western world like to invite others into the Kingdom but so often fail to point out the repentance part of the equation. After all, we might not have as many notches in our belt or seats filled in church, not to mention the nasty looks we might have to endure when we deliver the whole truth and nothing but the truth........ you know how the rest goes.

My small group is currently reading the book Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman and I'm starting to realize maybe I'm still sitting in the bleachers as a fan. If I'm honest (and I try to be) I have to say that I love my life.  Yes, I admit it - I LOVE my life.  It's a great life.  I live in a nice home, have a wonderful husband (Yes, hon, I think you are wonderful ;-), two terrific children, my own SUV (I no longer have to drive a minivan!),  and to complete the warm and fuzzy picture, a dog (even the breed I always wanted).  What is not to love?  Problems?  Yeah, sure, I've got some of those. But when I compare them to the problems others have, they seem pretty insignificant.  And we love to do that, don't we?  Compare ourselves - our problems, our situations, our haves, our have-nots, even our walk with the Lord to those who we consider aren't as fortunate or aren't getting it quite right.  "Well at least I've got a roof over my head .......... or.......... at least I've got food on the table ...... or .......... at least I'm not pregnant and unmarried ....... etc........... you get my drift.

If we stop to think about the Christians around the world who don't have a roof over their heads, and don't have food on their table, and are unwed mothers or perhaps sitting in prison, we may find out that they are actually better off than we claim to be here in the western culture.  And it's all about that last little left out phrase in the song Overcome................

for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Lord Jesus, I pray that I, too, could love not my life even unto death. Why do I pray for that?  Because I AM covered by your blood and without that lack of love for myself the word of my testimony means nothing.

A Life of Faith

Living a life of faith is not a no-brainer.  Faith requires us to think more critically than we ever have before, because our decisions - the big ones and the little ones - have lasting implications for us, for our children, and for all of humankind.

It is in the knowing God, really, that we quit worrying about whether he'll betray us or turn the locust loose on us.  Because it's in that knowing that we understand it isn't about who we are, and what we have or haven't done. It's about who God is, and what he's already done.

Sometimes that knowing comes on the darkest of nights, when all you can really see is the frost-coated stubble of a season passed.

Karen Spears Zacharias, Where's Your Jesus Now?

Discipleship

quote from John Stott . . . . .

 “The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers (referring to Luke 14:28-30) – the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish.  For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so.  The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so called ‘nominal Christianity.’   In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity.  They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved; enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable.  Their religion is a great, soft cushion.  It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience.  No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism.

from MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus  -  

When Jesus called disciples, He carefully instructed them about the cost of following Him.  He turned away those reluctant to pay the price – like the rich young ruler.  He warned all who thought of becoming disciples to count the cost carefully.  Scripture teaches us to deny self (Matt 16:24), consider ourselves dead (Romans 6:11), lay the old self aside (Eph 4:22), and in a sense, treat the selfish aspect of our beings with the utmost contempt (1 Cor 9:27).  Why does Christ use such offensive terms?  Because He is eager to chase the uncommitted away and to draw true disciples to Himself.  He does not want half-hearted people deceived into thinking they are in the kingdom.

Can you imagine us Christians doing that today???  Instead of being inclusive – EVERYBODY is welcome – we instead might be exclusive?  Weeding out those who are not serious, those not willing to give up self, family, comforts of this world, etc.  Isn’t the road narrow and the gate small?  So why have we paved this wide road and erected a huge gate for ALL to come to Jesus when we know that’s not going to be the case?  And by doing so, have we not given so many the illusion they have secured eternal life with the Creator?

MacArthur -

One who is not willing to lose his life by taking Christ is not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:38). That person cannot be a disciple (Luke 13:27).  These statements cannot be made to accommodate the kind of casual approach to conversion that is in vogue in our generation.  Jesus does not ask people to add Him to the milieu of their lives. He wants disciples willing to forsake everything.

Why People Don't Make Disciples - David Platt

Exposed

The enemy has done an excellent job - not just in the world - but also in the Church.  He has convinced us that political correctness should permeate the message we proclaim to the world and each other.  That we should be careful not to appear harsh or judgmental and if we do, we are not showing love.  But I ask, how loving is it to suspect someone might be on the path to eternal damnation and say nothing to them about it?


from MacArthur's book The Gospel According to Jesus.....................

One of the most malignant by-products of the debacle in contemporary evangelism is a gospel that fails to confront individuals with the reality of their sin.  Contemporary Christians have been conditioned never to question anyone's salvation.  If a person declares he has trusted Christ as Savior, no one challenges his testimony, regardless of how inconsistent his life-style may be with God's Word.

The contemporary church has the idea that salvation is only the granting of eternal life, not necessarily the liberation of a sinner from the bondage of his iniquity.  We tell people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives, but that is only half the truth.  God also hates sin and will punish unrepentant sinners with eternal torment.  No gospel presentation is complete if it avoids or conceals those facts.  Any message that fails to define and confront the severity of personal sin is a deficient gospel.  And any "salvation" that does not alter a life-style of sin and transform the heart of the sinner is not a genuine salvation.

Sin is no peripheral issue as far as salvation is concerned; it is the issue.  In fact, the distinctive element of the Christian message is the power of Jesus Christ to forgive and conquer our sin.  Of all the realities of the gospel, none is more wonderful than the news that the enslaving grasp of sin has been broken.  This truth is the heart and the very lifeblood of the Christian message.   No message that excludes it can purport to represent the gospel according to Jesus.

Unless people realize they have a sin problem, they will not come to Christ for a solution.  People don't come for healing unless they know they have a disease; they don't come for life unless they are conscious that they are under the penalty of death; they don't come for salvation unless they are weary of the bondage of sin.

Thus Jesus came to expose us all as sinners.  That is why His message was so penetrating, so forceful.  It tore our self-righteousness away and exposed our evil hearts, so we might see ourselves as sinners.

Treading Water

Increasing our Faith

from a blog by "Linda O."....................................

Over a year ago I briefly mentioned this topic, with a quote from Spurgeon’s “The Necessity of Increased Faith.”

The local pastor recently discussed an amazing story from his dear friend — the man’s daughter miraculously healed of Lyme’s disease (truly something to praise God for, something beyond all we can understand) — and in marveling at the amazing power of God, declared a hope for God to “increase our faith.”  The meaning he apparently attached was the general wish, hope, and nice thought, that God will continue to amaze us by showing the great things He can do in people’s lives and situations, such as this recent testimony of God’s healing.  It was a nice thought, but passive, lacking in depth and understanding as to how God accomplishes the increase in our faith.

It is an easy thing to say “Lord, increase our faith,” but through my own experience I realize that greater faith comes with diligence on our part. (James 4:8, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.)  During my early years of Christian faith, I only understood the basic gospel message, salvation in Christ and having my sins forgiven.  Yet like most young, immature believers, I did not mature or increase in faith so long as I stayed in the same basic situation — singles group teaching and more socially-focused weekly study groups, and only casual Bible reading.  The lack of discipline and diligence in such a life led too often to emotional moments of despair and self-pity, doubting God while focusing more on self’s desires.  Increase of faith never just happens as we continue idly in a routine situation with lack of effort on our part.  Only since taking on more effort, listening to and reading good sermons and spending more time in God’s word, have I noticed true spiritual growth and increasing faith.  As with any growing believer, now I face far greater trials of faith than in those early years; yet the times of doubt and despair — though they still come — do not last nearly as long, and the way out comes to mind more readily: recalling specific Bible passages that answer to a particular personal difficulty and uncertainty; relating specific Bible situations to my own; understanding God’s Divine Purpose of the Ages.  Greater faith reflects on greater understanding, to take God at His word, fully trusting in what He promises concerning our glorious future and the great things yet to come.

Well said Spurgeon, concerning the increase of faith — in its extent, of what it will receive:

Usually, when we commence the Christian life, faith does not grasp much—it only believes a few elementary Doctrines. I find that many young converts have not gone much farther than believing that Jesus Christ died for sinners. By-and-by they get a little advanced and believe Election. But there is very little beyond that they receive—and it is not until many years that they believe the entire Gospel. Some of you, my Hearers, and a great many that are not my hearers are miserable little cramped souls—you have learned a cast-iron creed and you will never move out of it. A certain somebody drew up five or six doctrines and said, “There are the doctrines of the Bible,” and you believe these. But you do not want to have your faith increased—for you do not believe a great deal more that is in the Bible.
…I think, as we grow, we shall have our belief increased. Not only are there a few cardinal Doctrines that will be enough to steer our ship by, north, south, east, or west, but we shall begin to learn something about the north-west and north-east and that which lies between the four points! Many people, when they hear something a little contrary to what they have usually heard, say at once, “That is not sound.” But who made you a judge of what is sound?

So true that is.  (Spurgeon then went on to give a specific example of increasing faith — his then new understanding concerning the Millennial Kingdom.)  Thus, when the local pastor prays that God would increase our faith, it comes across as very shallow and insincere.  For he who casually says “increase our faith” doesn’t really want it — since he picks and chooses which parts of the Bible to believe, even declaring that those who want to “divide” in fellowship over differences in eschatology are being divisive about things as unimportant as food and drink.

A few more quotes concerning the connection between increase of faith and our understanding of the scriptures:
John MacArthur:   if you never get anything else, get this, your faith, your trust is based on your view of God. If you’ve got a little God, you’re not gonna trust Him. So if you want more faith, you get into the Bible. Find out what kind of a God you have, and that’ll increase your faith.

J.C. Ryle especially states the case concerning diligence and growing faith:

All that believers have is undoubtedly of grace. Their repentance, faith, and holiness, are all the gift of God. But the degree to which a believer attains in grace, is ever set before us as closely connected with his own diligence in the use of means, and his own faithfulness in living fully up to the light and knowledge which he possesses. Indolence and laziness are always discouraged in God’s word. Labor and pains in hearing, reading, and prayer, are always represented as bringing their own reward. “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” (Prov. 13:4.) “An idle soul shall suffer hunger.” (Prov. 19:15.)

Attention to this great principle is the main secret of spiritual prosperity. The man who makes rapid progress in spiritual attainments–who grows visibly in grace, and knowledge, and strength, and usefulness–will always be found to be a diligent man. He leaves no stone unturned to promote his soul’s well-doing. He is diligent over his Bible, diligent in his private devotions, diligent as a hearer of sermons, diligent in his attendance at the Lord’s table. And he reaps according as he sows. Just as the muscles of the body are strengthened by regular exercise, so are the graces of the soul increased by diligence in using them.

Do we wish to grow in grace? Do we desire to have stronger faith, brighter hope, and clearer knowledge? Beyond doubt we do, if we are true Christians. Then let us live fully up to our light, and improve every opportunity. Let us never forget our Lord’s words in this passage. “With what measure we use;” to our souls, “it shall be measured to us again.” The more we do for our souls, the more shall we find God does for them.

The Modern Church

from Today's Gospel:  Authentic or Synthetic by Walter Chantry:

"Much of modern preaching is anaemic, with the lifeblood of God's nature absent from the message.  Evangelists centre their message upon man.  Man has sinned and missed a great blessing.  If man wants to retrieve his immense loss he must act thus and so. But the Gospel of Christ is very different.  It begins with God and His glory.  It tells men that they have offended a holy God, who will by no means pass by sin.  It reminds sinners that the only hope of salvation is to be found in the grace and power of this same God. Christ's Gospel sends men to beg pardon of the Holy One.

There is a wide difference between these two messages.  The one seeks to blaze a trail to Heaven for man while ignoring the Lord of Glory.  The other labours to magnify the God of all grace in the salvation of men."

A Christian Challenge

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;

reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and 

instruction.  For the time will come when they will not 

endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears

tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers

in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their

ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 4:2-4

Why I Left Facebook

1) Facebook steals time from my life. Without question, some of the time spent on Facebook is edifying and life-giving.  It is possible to keep up with someones courageous struggle with a disease or donate to  charity/cause through Facebook. It is possible to witness/evangelize on Facebook (as of this date). But most of the time spent on Facebook is gone with no value added. How many hours are wasted posting pictures, comments, likes and viewing page after page? The more friends we accumulate the more we have to keep up with. Minutes turn into hours turn into days.  I wonder how much time we actually lose of our precious lives every year.

2) Facebook friends aren't really friends. Well, some are, but the majority of them aren't. Do you really think you have 256 close friends?  We see how many friends we can accumulate in order to make ourselves feel good. The sad part is while we are on Facebook trying to convince ourselves we have lots of relationships, we are ignoring relationships that are physically in the same room or house.  Maybe that Facebook time would be better spend with a spouse, child, sibling or parent.

3) Facebook brings out the worst in people. How easy it is to respond angrily or critically then revel in how many "likes" we get over it. Tempers flare over politics, religion and social causes. We say things on Facebook that we might never say in person.  How easy it is to "hit and run," offending others and walking away. After all, if you don't have to see them face-to-face ever, who cares! We run the risk of being misunderstood, too.  It's hard to tell the real meaning when you can't hear voice inflections or see facial expression.

4) Facebook creates monsters. Do people REALLY care what we ate for lunch today?  Or that we went to the beach? Do they really want to see yet another picture of our daily life? Our egos are growing at an astronomical rate with social media. News flash - maybe we should be living life in the moment and not recording every second of it to share with others.  Share it with those that are actually with us! Stop the endless photos that say "It's all about ME!"

5) Facebook provides a false view of our lives. We see posts of vacations, fun times, parties, dinners out, etc. No one ever posts, "my day sucked and I didn't do anything." We feel pressure to live up to those lives we are viewing or something is wrong with us.  Why do "they" have all the fun?  What's wrong with me and my life? I never get to go on vacation or eat out.  What is posted on Facebook is a snapshot of a moment in time that is not necessarily accurate. It's like making a movie - how many takes end up on the editing room floor?  We put out there only what we want people to see in order to create an image of ourselves and our lives. Looks glamorous but rarely is that the truth.

6) Less is more. What ever happened to a simple life?  Or just a simpler life?  A slower life that can actually be consumed and not just tasted? Can you imagine if we Christians spent the time wasted on Facebook reading our Bibles? Praying? Calling someone who needs to hear a voice? Visiting someone who needs their hand touched? We love to say "I'm really busy" as if it's a badge of honor yet much of that "busyness" is actually spent sitting in front of a computer screen viewing what others are doing or posting what we've done. The enemy competes for our attention and some days I think he's winning that battle.

For those of you who demonstrate self-restraint and can actually limit your time on Facebook, bravo.  I can't. I have to go cold turkey and completely disengage. The temptation is too great for me. This is my last post which I will leave up for a few days and then I'm done.  So bye-bye Facebook!  To my true friends - let's go out to lunch or dinner soon.  Send me an email or text - I'm still connected to the world, just not as much ;-)

Our Sufficiency in Christ

Just started John Mac Arthur's Our Sufficiency in Christ and already loving it!  Here are some excerpts from the prelude:

I am concerned with the current erosion of confidence in the perfect sufficiency of our spiritual resources in Christ.  As Christians, we find complete sufficiency in Christ and His provisions for our needs.  There's no such thing as an incomplete or deficient Christian.  Our Savior's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.  Human wisdom offers nothing to augment that.  Every Christian receives all he or she needs at the moment of salvation.  Each one must grow and mature, but no necessary resource is missing.  There's no need to search for something more.

When Jesus completed His redemptive work on Calvary, He cried out triumphantly, "It is finished" (John 19:30).  The saving work was fulfilled, completed. Nothing was omitted. And all who are recipients of that salvation are granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:3).  In Him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1Cor 1:30).  His grace is sufficient for every situation (2 Cor. 12:9). We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph. 1:3). By one offering He has perfected us forever (Heb 10:14). We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). What can anyone add to that?

So to possess the Lord Jesus Christ is to have every spiritual resource. All strength, wisdom, comfort, joy, peace, meaning, value, purpose, hope, and fulfillment in life now and forever is bound up in Him.  Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ.

The church is in dire need of a renewed appreciation of what it means to be complete in Christ. The failure of modern Christians to understand and appropriate the riches of Christ has opened the door to all kinds of aberrant influences.  Bad doctrine, legalism, libertinism, humanism, and secularization - to name a few - are eroding the foundations of the Christian faith.  Those satanic assaults are more subtle and therefore more dangerous than the liberalism that splintered the church at the start of this century - and they are succeeding with alarming effectiveness.

In the past two decades or so, for example, theology has become more and more humanistic.  The focus has shifted from God to people and their problems, and counseling has replace worship and evangelism as the main program of many churches.  Christians are becoming more and more dependent on therapists, support groups and similar groups.

This shift in the church's focus did not grow out of some new insight gained from Scripture.  Rather, it has seeped into the church from the world.  It is an attack at the most basic level, challenging Christians' confidence in the sufficiency of Christ.

Contemporary opinion is more utilitarian, valuing physical comfort more than spiritual well-being, self-esteem above Christ-likeness, and good feelings over holy living. Many churches have de-emphasized preaching and worship in favor of entertainment, apparently believing they must lure converts by appealing to fleshly interests. As if Christ Himself were in some way inadequate.

"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"  Luke 18:8

Dross or Gold?

He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and shall purify

the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver.  Malachi 3:3

What do we prize in a day when values are slipping:  the dross of human cleverness and worldly resources, or the gold and silver of divine origin and redemption through Christ?  Many things in Christianity have become cheap today, but there is no easy shortcut to spiritual worth.  Preaching, prayer, witness, these may not seem difficult, but to be of value they will be costly in years and blood and divine discipline.  God's "vessel unto honor" is the man who has waited for the Spirit to teach him, and who has not been ashamed meanwhile to admit he does not know.  For there comes a day when the true character of things is tested.  Preaching, in an hour of departure and confusion, is of little value unless men see God in it.  At such a time they can tell whether the speaker has really been taken by God through the things of which he speaks.  What has not already touched him deeply will have little power to touch others in that day.

Watchman Nee, A Table in the Wilderness

God's Wisdom

from Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Barton . . . . 

Love is the deepest calling of the Christian life, the standard by which everything about our lives is measured.  It is the standard by which Christ evaluated himself at the end of his life. "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end " (John 13:1). Any decision-making process that fails to ask the love question misses the point of the Christian practice of discernment. Discernment is intended to take us deeper and deeper into the heart of God's will:  that we would follow God passionately into love - even if it takes us all the way to the cross.

God does communicate with us through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is given to help us know the demands of love in our situation. At the end of his life, Jesus said that it was to our advantage that he went away, so that the Holy Spirit could come and live with us, closer to us than our own breath. Christ asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be a counselor and a guide for us - one who leads us deeper into truth right here, right now, as we are able to bear it.  In this way the Holy Spirit expands Christ's teaching, taking a particular teaching beyond the moment when he gave it in a particular setting to the moment we are in right now.  The Spirit is given to help us answer the call to love in ways that are consistent with and flow out of our own personality, gifts and calling within our particular situation. We are called to live love in the context of our own destiny as freely and authentically and wholeheartedly as Christ did.

The practice of discernment begins with a prayer for indifference. "I am indifferent to anything but God's will." This is a state of wide-openness to God in which I am free from undue attachment to any particular outcome and I am capable of relinquishing whatever might keep me from choosing for love.  Gaining indifference is one of the most demanding aspects of the discernment process.

Just like everything else that is of significance in the spiritual life, God must accomplish this for us. The question that is most pertinent at this place in the discernment process is, What needs to die in me in order for God's will to come forth in my life?  All we can do is pray and wait:  say to God "I know I am not indifferent. I know there is till something in me that is clinging to my own agenda.  If I am to become indifferent, you will have to do it in me."

The movement toward indifference is the threshold between two worlds:  the world of human decision making and the world of discerning the divine will.  In this waiting room of the soul we are ready to pray the second prayer - the prayer for wisdom.  "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and grudgingly, and it will be given you" (James 1:5). Here we begin to understand why the prayer for indifference was so important: the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world. Discerning people are able to recognize God's guidance sometimes by the very fact that, to some onlookers, it appears at some level to be foolish.  But because we have come to a place of indifference, it doesn't matter.  When we have died to our need to be wise in others' eyes or to prove ourselves according to human standards, we are finally ready to ask for God's wisdom and receive it.

Discernment

Discernment is first of all a habit, a way of

seeing that eventually permeates our whole life.

It is the journey from spiritual blindness (not seeing

God anywhere or seeing Him only where we expect

to see Him) to spiritual sight (finding God everywhere,

especially where we least expect Him).

Ruth Barton

Discernment is a gift cultivated by a prayerful

life and the search for self-knowledge.

Ernest Larkin

Jesus Pure & Simple

When you cannot remember the 22 characteristics of a good wife, the 7 steps to authority, or the 9 ways of love ......
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When a speaker insists (again) that you need to stop your bad habits, increase your devotion, reduce your worry, augment your faith, or banish your fears ....
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you're overwhelmed by testimonies of others praying all night, fasting forty days, raising the dead, and leading thousands to the Lord on their airplane rides home........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you've sat through your one hundred fifty millionth sermon about giving more, suffering more, doing more, or being more.........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you attend another hyped-up conference that promises to be the one that will reduce all your problems, and you buy all the books and CD's and try them out, but nothing is reduced except your savings account............
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When someone points a finger in your face and says, "Thus saith the Lord," but their advice contradicts someone else who shouted a different "Thus saith the Lord," and it sounds different from yet another "Thus saith the Lord"............
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When your mailbox is flooded with a multitude of letters, newsletters, and giving requests from a multitude of organizations with three-initial names..........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

It is time to hear His voice and simplify. It's time we get back to Jesus, pure and simple.

(adapted from Jim May, Living at His Place, 1995)

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his

craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the 

simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

Watched a documentary on Bonhoeffer last night.  I believe this is what he sought for the Church and himself - a "religiousless Christianity" that was not about rules but instead about the heart.  I pray that God would use me even half as much as He used Bonhoeffer - I would die a joyful, blessed follower of Jesus.  Amen.