Faith

If our faith doesn't require us to step outside of what we know, understand or can achieve ourselves, it is not faith in God; it is faith in ourselves.

The other day I was listening to a sermon on-line. The pastor was speaking about contending for the supremecy of Christ in our post-modern age. He spoke about the unbiblical view of Christ that has emerged in many churches...a Jesus that is neither supreme nor omnipotent, one that will not return as Judge, but rather is some sort of good-hearted, sensitive type, verging on effeminate. There is no talk of wrath or holiness or hell. There is no acknowledgement that Christ died to save us from God and His wrath...which we rightly deserve. This "side" of God doesn't jive with the whole love vibe. The human mind can't reconcile wrath and love. We're not supposed to and we don't like that. But the bible is clear: God is love and He is holy. We are sinful and have a debt to be paid...one we could only fully pay in eternal hell. Because He is love, He sent His son to pay that debt once for all. His sacrifice grants us access to God where we might receive forgiveness and be reconciled to God...forever.

To use the vernacular" That don't make no kinda sense!

But God said it and it has to be true because it is impossible for God to lie. So what we are left with is (BIG REVELATION HERE)...we are not God. His ways are not our ways; they are higher and at times simply cannot make sense to us. That is where faith comes in. By faith we can see the plan of salvation, by faith we believe and accept it, by faith we walk it out every day, by faith we can hope for God's glory to be revealed in and through our lives, and by faith we await our inheritance: seeing Christ face to face in Heaven.

Face to Face. What a thought! And, it can only ring true and fill us with yearning by faith through the gift of the Holy Spirit.All of His promises require the gift of Spirit-empowered faith to believe and claim and live. But if our "god" is nothing more than a prettied up version of us, we require no faith at all because we are never going to be required to get outside of our own heads and experiences. There, the impossible is never possible, neither is true endurance, perserverance or hope.

Oh God of the impossible, God of the Bible, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...grant us the gift of faith. Grant us faith that sees you rightly, not as some sort of super human but as All-mighty, Sovereign, Holy, Loving, Just, Powerful God. Let our view of you not be limited by what we think or understand or by our past experiences. Be BIG...bigger than our minds can concieve. Be big in every area. Be bigger than our intelligence, than our past, than our present, that our imagination, than our pain, than our disease, than our puny wishes, than the evil we see in the world, than our apathy, than war, than our age or size, than our sin. So big we have no choice but to surrender our all to our very Big and Holy and Good God! For Your Glory and Your Name's Sake...amen!

Divine Interference

Yesterday morning did not begin as I planned. I planned to get up at my usual time (3am) but slept through my alarm - due, I'm sure, to the fried seafood I had at dinner with friends the night before - and didn't wake up until nearly 4am. When I walked out into the hall, I could see my roommate's door ajar and then a note on the counter saying, simply, "PRAY!" I knew my plans would come to nothing and began preparing my heart for whatever the Lord had instead. I prayed that I wouldn't begrudge her taking my quiet time (again), that I could put aside what I felt I needed to do what the Lord wanted me to do. Truth is, it was difficult because I woke up feeling an overwhelming need for Him that morning. Things are not going as they should. I am not doing well. I need all of the Lord I could get. In that moment of struggle, what I could not see was that God was giving me Himself as I died to me, my plans, and gave my time to another.

As we spoke, as I prayed for words, as I tried to encourage her, I heard the Lord speaking to my heart, as well. Even after I wrapped things up, hastily got ready for work and rushed along my way, He was still speaking, leading me into a moment of worship in my car that made me suddenly have a strong desire for a convertible. The roof just got in my way and all I could do was push my hands up as hard as I could and cry.

"There is within a hunger after God, given of God, filled by God. I can be happy when I am conscious that he is doing what He wills to do within." -- Jim Elliot

So often I try to guage God's working in my by my estimation of how well I "do" things. If I follow my schedule or do such and such or don't do these things, God is moving and working, I think. And, conversely, when I "mess up" or my schedule is met with obstacles and interruptions, God was stopped or hindered. Not so. Just not so. Those moments are divine interference - divinely showing us how much of our flesh has seeped into our pursuit of the Lord, and the iniquity even in our "holy things".

Lord, thank you that you cause us to hunger...and thank you that, though our plans get way-laid, though we fail, though others "interfere" and we respond sinfully...you use it all, you continue to speak, you continue to move, you continue to work out your purposes and do what it is you are doing in our hearts. Make us receptive to your move when it doesn't look like it...when it goes against our plans or even our will. And cause us to submit joyfully to your plan, whatever it may be...For your glory and your name's sake. Amen.

Hope in God

From Whispers of His Power by Amy Carmichael...

Strong Consolation (Hebrews 6:18) ... [Dr. Way says this means an] "all prevailing encouragement...[having] the hope of our heart as an anchor on which our soul rides safely, it cannot slip, it cannot break... Some of us are tempted to wonder about our future. We look ahead and imagine and fear. For us there is something especially vvital in this great thought of consolation that is not for today only, but for endless tomorrows. Another word was written surely for any of us who are looking beyond the borders of today: Isaiah 26:3-4 "Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace whose mind (imagination) is stayed on you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Oh, may our hope be set, not on what may be or what we hope will soon end or peaceful resolution or improved circumstances or others hearts and lives changing or any external thing being any different than it is right this moment, but on God, who we know Him to be when we are most near to Him, when we feel at peace with Him, when we read His Word and know it as truth. Let these gifts of experience that He's given each of us who are called by His Name be equally real and vibrant and tangible when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, wrestling with our own wayward and selfish hearts or yearning for something, someone, some change more than we yearn for Him.

Be near, Oh God...draw us near...your nearness is our good...our only good. Shift our hope from persons, places and things to You and You alone.

Let us Hope in God - knowing that it is only this sort of hope that does not ever disappoint. Let us Hope in His goodness, His ability to do the impossible, that He is for us, working ALL things together for our good and the good of those connected to us, that His will is our sanctification, period. Everything else in life is nothing more than a tool, a vehicle a means for holiness. May we see the people around us, our circumstances, what we have and what we lack as such and submit to the pruning and molding and shaping and purifying He wants to do through them.

...for His glory and His Name's sake...Amen!

New Year, New Heart...hopefully!

Recently, I was listening to an interview with a former Muslim. When asked what the primary difference was between Islam and Christianity, he said: "Both are people of the book, but where Muslim's believe the Koran is a revelation from God, Christians believe the Bible is the revelation of God." He went on to say that, to the Muslim, this type of knowledge of God is impossible, and Christianity's claim to the contrary is offensive. Later in the interview, he made another point that really struck me and has stuck with me ever since...Islam requires no heart change. It is a system of belief and practice that does not require repentance or a change of "want to's"...one which does not change the person or deal with sin at all.

Couldn't that be said of most of "religion"? Even within Christianity, we have various forms of practice, which are primarily that...a system of do's and don'ts which do not require a heart change and therefore do not provoke any other sort of change in the person. People are who they are, year in and year out, struggling with the same sin, carrying the same burdens, going through the motions of religion and effectively keeping it from having the desired effect...a changed heart and a changed life.

"Religion" is easy to do...or not do...because it is about us doing things to try to appease God and make ourselves feel better. But so long as it is about us, we will do neither...and we will remain unchanged. As Christians, though, we are not called to religion...we are called to surrender our lives; to die that we might live; to show brotherly affection that we might love; to not fear what is frightening; to love our enemies; to believe what we do not see; to go out without knowing where we are going...to do the exact opposite of what comes naturally. We cannot do this ourselves. It is only possible by surrendering our will to another and having our hearts changed. In this way, "feeling" will follow action AND what we "naturally" want will be different.

This, and only this, makes for a people, for a religion, that knows God ... that changes lives ... that sets captives free ... and brings glory to Him.

This is my prayer this year, that none of those called by His Name will not be content with any "form of godliness" but will yearn with all that is in them to live surrendered, sanctified lives for His glory and His name's sake.

Duty and Delight

...For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

I live a pretty routine life. I generally wake at the same time each morning and get about my usual morning routine. From week to week, my daily routine does not vary much. I guess you could say, I am a creature of habit. Over the years, the Lord has built up some pretty good habits in me to replace the bad ones, like regular bible reading, fellowship, and prayer times. He's also cut things out of my life and fine-tuned others. On the surface, my daily life could look pretty impressive, spiritually speaking.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
...whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Verses like that should provoke us to ask the question: "How much of my routine proceeds from faith? How much of it is compelled by the desire to be obedient and pleasing to the Lord and how much is just sort of reflex OR, worse, some sort of attempt to control my circumstances/God by my behavior?"

I don't have to look far or long to see evidence of routine for the sake of routine or obedience in hopes of a desired outcome. But the harsh reality is, that both of these motives are sin because they do not proceed from faith. No matter how stellar our routine may be, if we are not also praying for God to use our devotion and obedience to change us and glorify Himself - we are stuck in dead works that will profit neither us nor the Kingdom. If our works do not proceed from faith - from a fear of God based on the character of God and rooted firmly in a hope in God to work all things together for good, including our sin and faithless purposes - then it is sin. We tend to want one without the other - works without faith or faith without works - but they are meant to go hand in hand...they cannot and will not exist independant of each other.

The Westminster Catechism says, "the chief end of man is to know God and enjoy Him forever." Forever includes here and now...today. To know and enjoy involves work and faith...duty and delight. There is a standard. There are responsibilities. God has commanded that the life of a Christian to look a certain way. There is no escaping that, but we can never, not even by our best efforts manufacture a truly godly and faithful life. No amount of planning and habit can do what is necessary for even our best works to glorify the Lord. But add faith to works, delight to duty, and others will see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above, chief among these good and perfect gifts is faith. From the beginning of time, God has intervened into the lives of men and imparted faith...He still does this today. The faith we need to bring glory to our routine, delight to our duty, is a gift from God. If we find our routines to be lacking in faith, we need only ask. God will meet us there, and meet our need if we simply turn to Him. Like salvation, we must be made aware of our need before we turn and ask...and also like salvation, He is faithful to answer.

The Word Became Flesh

"It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. 'The Word became flesh' (Jn. 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation….The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear” (Knowing God p. 53, 63) - J.I. Packer

Refuge in Death

...the righteous finds refuge in his death. (Proverbs 14:32)

It is good to know that even in death, we have a refuge...that if we are truly God's, bought with the price of Christ's life, set apart as His bride, that even death will not separate us from Him. Even death is not to be feared.

I think most people do fear death to an extent. For most, there is the uncertainty of exactly what happens when we die, for other's the mode of death is more fearful. Both are legitimate concerns for mere mortals. But God's promise is that, no matter what happens to the body, if we trust in Him, we will be with Him, our bodies will become glorified, and our tears will be wiped away. In Heaven there will be no wounds, no pain, no fears for we will be one with God as He intended it, as we were created to be.

But, I think the promise of this verse is speaking of more than physical death. We are called to "die daily"...to die to the cravings of our flesh...to die to self. In this death, like physical death, we are promised a refuge. Choosing Christ over what our heart, our mind, our emotions, our physical body, our families, our bosses, our friends are all demanding, every day, is no easy thing. I believe God know's this, but He also promises that when we make the choice, take the step in faith, His grace will meet us there and it will be sufficient to keep us standing in His truth and on His promises. Every time we choose His way over our own, we die a little. And every time we have a refuge, a very present help, a strongtower to run into and be safe, be cared for, and be strengthened. And in so doing, we become more like Christ.

Help us, Lord, to chose you always, to be willing to die that you might live in us and through us more and more. For your glory and your name's sake...amen!