Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 9

We should be drawing this study to a close this week. I hope you have enjoyed this look at 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. I can only say it was one of those Holy Spirit directed studies that I had not been intending to do. You must understand, what I put on the blog is most often things I am learning and/or struggling with. I hope I can always bring you the same clarity and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives me when revealing truth in His word.

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“10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

— I Corinthians 2:10-16 (NASB 1995)

Last week we looked specifically at verse 13 diving into the concept that it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us and who gives us God’s wisdom. Paul’s teaching came, not from human wisdom, but from the wisdom taught to him by the Spirit of God. The same is true in our own lives as we grow closer to God and learn to listen to His Spirit with open ears. We looked specifically at 1 John 2:27 which reminds us that when we have His anointing, or the Holy Spirit we have no need of other teaching or wisdom. God’s wisdom is all we need. I also made a note that we must have His discernment to make sure that what we are saying is of the Spirit actually is His Spirit and not the spirit of the world. Remember, the spirit of the world is not for God.

Let’s start looking at verses 14 - 15.

14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

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I think this verse is pertinent to what is happening in the world as we look around at the violence, hatred, and sin that permeates all cultures. In our own country we have seen a definite uptick in violence as a way to respond to ideas, people, religion and beliefs that are not liked or agreed with. This is the response of the natural man. Our sin nature wants what it wants and it looks at the things of God as ridiculous.

Even as believers we find ourselves regularly battling against this old nature and fighting to turn to Jesus and His truth rather than give in to our baser sin nature. The difference is, we have God’s Spirit gently reminding us how much God loves us, what He did for us and why His wisdom is always better than the world’s.

Why does the natural man think God’s teaching and wisdom is foolish, after all, didn’t God create man in His image? Shouldn’t that give man His wisdom? Unfortunately, this is what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with in the Garden. See Genesis 3. There were two things going on in the Garden. The first, the Serpent, or Satan, was intent on causing God’s beautiful creation to crash and burn. The second, Adam and Eve made a choice to not trust God. If instead of listening to the Serpent they would have ran to God and asked Him what to do, they would not have made that same choice. God’s wisdom, would have given them the understanding to know what Satan was plotting.

Sin is what took away the ability to know and understand God’s wisdom. What God intended to be the norm, a regular, intimate, relationship with Him, became obscured by the veil of sin. It is only by giving our lives to Him in an intentional choice to trust Him, that we receive the Helper and the ability to know God and understand His teaching and wisdom.

“12 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

— 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (NASB 1995)

What we see in our country right now is the spirit of the natural man fighting against what they see as the foolishness of God, because they can’t understand it. Why does this surprise us? God has always had a better way, but He allowed mankind to make their own choices and He still does, even to the point of violence and persecution.

“5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

— John 1:5 (NASB 1995)

15 - But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.

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Seeing that our Creator is a spiritual being, and when we are in Him we are also spiritual beings, we are able to appraise, or to use a more unfavorable word, judge, all things. (I thought that chicken looked pretty judgmental to me. what do you think? Ha, ha.) What does this mean? In simple language it means that we are able to look at everything around us and discern what is actually happening. For instance, the things that are happening in our country are looked at political and idealogical differences, but one who has the Spirit of God, knows there is a spiritual element to these things. Of course if we speak that, we are seen as even more ridiculous and unaware. What is most concerning to me is the disparity in the church. We know it is okay to have differences of opinion, but when that turns into anger, and anger turns into hate, then as people with God’s Spirit we need to step back and recognize the spiritual side of things.

With regard to the second half of that verse, we are appraised by no one. In other words, people can judge us on the outside. If I commit a crime I will go to court and be sentenced, but only God judges our eternal soul. Only He knows where we are at spiritually. That, to me, is why it is important to get to know people and have dialogue with people. We may find we have a lot more in common than we do differences.

16a - For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?

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There is not one person on this planet that knows the mind of the Lord to the extent that he is able to instruct Him. God doesn’t have to be teachable. He knows everything. The theological word for this characteristic is omniscient. It is not just knowing things like 2+2=4, or that all matter is made up of atoms, and all the other billions of bytes of data in the world. Omniscience includes an awareness, understanding and insight. God doesn’t just know stuff, He knows us. Isn’t that mind bending? Read through Psalm 139. God knows our thoughts, when we lay down, when we rise, where we go, what we are going to say, and the very condition of our heart. He knows every child ever used in the sex trade. He knows every tumor rooting itself in a human’s body. He knows where your lost cat is. He knows the pain you carry deep beneath your smiling exterior.

To the natural man, this doesn’t make sense. In fact, it may be the case they don’t want it to make sense. Knowing that there is a being who knows your every thought, your every pain, your every dark sin is too much. The crazy part is, He knows all that and still He loves us. He loves you, and He wants you, every single bit…the good, the bad, and the dark ugly.

16b - But we have the mind of Christ.

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Perhaps it is because I have the mind of Christ that as I have been typing this I want to fall to my knees and cry. Not only to shed tears for so many who are hurting, angry, and lost, but for my own wretched soul. He has done it all. He has provided a way when there was no way. He provided a light in the darkness, a path through rocky mountain slopes; food for my peckish soul and water for my dried up heart. He has done it all, and I have nothing to boast about, except in Him.

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 8

I have been doing a series that looks more in depth at the first couple of chapters of 1 Corinthians. You can see each of the previous parts in this series by clicking on the following links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7. Today we are going to dive deeper into the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

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“10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

— 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (NASB 1995)

Let’s get a running start at the next few verses.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

If you read through last week’s post you know that when we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior we do not receive the spirit of the world, which has to do with the mindset of the world, a mindset that is against God and all He wants us to know. We receive the Spirit who is from God, or the Holy Spirit. We are given the Holy Spirit as a help so that we might know the things of God which are freely given to us.

In other words, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us understanding of God’s mind and ways. He gives us understanding of the Words of God in the Holy Scriptures, and He enables us to have God’s wisdom in all situations.

…which things we also speak…

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Paul was referring to himself and the preaching, teaching and letter writing he was doing for the churches

…not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit…

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Paul, is one of the most famous of the apostles, whose own testimony tells of him persecuting the Christian church with a fervor that included having many believers imprisoned and killed. On the road to Damascus Jesus appeared to him (at the time Saul) in a bright, blinding light and questioned, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (See Acts 9.) Saul became Paul and became a major contributor to the spread of the Gospel.

This same Paul was not teaching or preaching words that came from his own human wisdom, but words taught to him by the Holy Spirit. While he was alive at the time of many of the disciples, he was not one of the twelve that originally lived and walked with Jesus. His learning was not first hand, but through the work of the Holy Spirit, just as ours is.

I love this, especially when I feel utterly stupid in my Christian faith. Obviously, I know lots of things, just as Paul did, but my book learning is not what drives me to write these posts. I do it as a ministry of the Holy Spirit to encourage anyone in their Christian walk. Believe me, I have had numerous moments where I have been ready to give it all up, but it is then that I get that little prodding in the back of my mind. Even if only one person benefits there is a ripple affect with a single drop of water.

…combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words

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“27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

— I John 2:27 (NASB 1995)

I came across this verse in 1 John some months ago and and it keeps coming back around to me. It talks about our anointing which we received from Him and abides in us. This anointing is not something special that only comes to those who are prayed over for the ministry. His anointing is the living, breathing, Holy Spirit inside of us when we accept Christ.

As we see with Paul, and I would say even someone like Charlie Kirk, they did not need a theology degree to speak, preach or teach. They got their words, responses, messages from the Holy Spirit who dwelled inside of them. This verse clearly tells us that we have no need for anyone to teach us because the Holy Spirit teaches us about all things and He is true and not a lie.

Now, do we need to be careful to not take this out of context and start spouting off anything that comes to mind? Yes! But do we need to hide the light of Christ under a bushel because we are not “educated” and might not know what to say? No!! We are meant to be the light of Christ in a dark world, and can be confident engaging people in conversations about Christ because His Holy Spirit lives in us.

I will add to this idea next time as we finish off this chapter.

Have a great week and remember you are anointed by God and have the Holy Spirit in you. Abide in Him and shine His light!

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About: Part 7

We have been looking at verses from I Corinthians 1 and 2. We have learned that the cross of Christ, born of God’s wisdom for a sinful world, is seen as foolishness to the very humanity it is able to save. We have also learned that God does not think as we think. He uses the very things we see as foolish and ridiculous to save the lost and confound the wisest individuals. In addition we have discovered God’s intention in choosing the foolish and weak things of the world was to remind us that without him we are nothing. We were created to be a reflection of His glory and every one of us bears His image.

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Last time, we began learning about the Holy Spirit’s part in our lives and in the work of revelation of God’s truth. Paul, himself, who determined to “know nothing…except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” recognized it was the Holy Spirit and His power that gave his preaching the desired outcome of people coming to know Jesus. We also learned it is God, through the Spirit, who reveals His truth to us, for it is His Spirit that searches and knows the very depths of God.

“10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

— 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (NASB 1995)

I want to take a closer look at the next two verses in this passage.

For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

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There are individuals who claim to be able to read our minds. They may have some sort of ability, but it is most likely they are extremely intuitive and can read people through their actions, words, body language and facial expressions. The point of the above question is that no one can truly know what is inside of us except our own spirit, or our own being.

Today it seems that many people do not even have that knowledge or understanding. People read books, listen to podcasts, go to psychiatrists, psychologists and others to help them understand themselves and even decipher what they are thinking. It seems to me, the further we have grown in the areas of knowledge and understanding the less we really know. Knowing these limitations is there any doubt that we cannot fully know or understand the Holy God?

Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

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God is so far beyond our ability to truly understand, and our earthly wisdom, as we have seen already, is foolishness when it comes to knowing Him. However, God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, this same one who becomes part of us when we give our lives to Christ, He knows the thoughts of God.

You see, the Holy Spirit is not just the after thought of the God head when Jesus knew his ascension was soon to take place. The Holy Spirit is a living and active part of the trinity.

He was there at the beginning:

“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

— Genesis 1:1-2 (NASB 1995)

He was involved in human industry:

“1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,
4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze,
5 and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. ”

— Exodus 31:1-5 (NASB 1995)

He was involved in governance:

“16 The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone. ”

— Numbers 11:16-17 (NASB 1995)

See also the book of Judges as well as I Samuel 16:13.

The Holy Spirit was also regularly involved in prophecy, coming on whomever the Lord willed and speaking through them to those who needed to hear the prophetic word. This third person of the Triune God has been busy from the beginning of our world, and it is He who knows the thoughts of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God…

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Note there is a difference between the spirit of the world, and the Spirit from God. The spirit of the world is not seen as a proper noun, and it has to do with the mindset and attitude prevalent in the world. This mindset is anti-God, and moves to create a culture that is only set on serving itself.

On the other hand, the Spirit of God is completely in tune with the Father and the Son. He moves with them, agrees with them and is in complete communion with them. Jesus told us we would receive this helper. This Holy Being is the one we receive when we give our hearts and lives to Jesus. Isn’t that just mind blowing?

“26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

— John 14:26 (NASB 1995)

Why did the the triune God head make this choice to send this helper?

…so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.

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We would be in error to say God does not love us, care for us, or want to be intimate with us. He gave us One who knows Him. He gave us a part of Himself; a part that knows His very depths. Without this amazing helper we cannot know God. No matter how much head knowledge a person develops over time; no matter how much historical date a person can dredge up, there is only one way to truly know God, and that is by believing in the work of Jesus Christ and by receiving the Holy Spirit.

We will look a bit more at this work of the Holy Spirit in our lives next time. Until then, keep fanning the flame!

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 5

As we see August come to an end, and September begin, I feel the pull of fall. I have always loved this season. From the changing leaves and the cooling temperatures, to the pumpkin muffins and jack-o-lanterns, fall always gives me a feeling of expectation. I think part of that stems from the fact that fall includes Halloween, Thanksgiving and leads to winter and my favorite time of year, Christmas. Seasonal changes give us many things to think about with regard to our faith walk with Jesus, and I will be pursuing some of those ideas soon, but today, I want to continue our walk through 1 Corinthians 2.

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“1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
9 but just as it is written,

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.””

— 1 Corinthians 2:1-9 (NASB 1995)

Right now we are still looking at verses 1-9. We learned from Chapter 1:18-25 that man’s wisdom and God’s wisdom are two distinct things. The reality is God uses all that is contrary to our wisdom to accomplish His plan from the weak and foolish, to the cross of Christ, His wisdom is contrary to all that our wisdom believes is important. We see Paul reiterating these same ides as Chapter 2 begins and we read, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified…”

6 - Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; however, not of this age or of the rulers of this age who are passing away;

Paul, who has made clear that he was weak, and fearful when it came to his ability to speak, and who also made clear that his message was not of his own wisdom and ability, but God’s, now states with confidence he speaks wisdom among the mature.

Who were the mature? People who already knew the gospel, believed it and were living their lives following Jesus. Think of your own situation as a Christ follower. Do you feel like you know more now than when you first came to Him? Have you gained more understanding as you delved into His word? Would you consider yourself more mature than you were several decades ago? I say a resounding yes, but it is because of His work and His wisdom.

Let’s take a closer look at what this wisdom is (verses 6 - 9).

What it isn’t - Not of this age (and that is true just as much today as it was in Paul’s time). Not of the rulers of this age (who come and go, live and die). Not able to be understood without God.

What it is - Of God. A mystery. Hidden. Predestined before the ages. Prepared by God for those who love Him.

One may wonder if it is something God wants us to know and understand, why does He keep it a hidden mystery? Go back to the title of this series - Nothing to Boast About. He did the work. He does the work. He has hidden it, He will reveal it. What then is my part?

To believe.

It seems so very simple, but how often do we doubt? How often do we find ourselves second guessing? How often are we pacing the floor because we don’t see our prayers answered in our time line? How often do we live in the flesh, rather than in His Spirit?

Man’s wisdom says, “You do you! Be all you can be! Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!”

God’s wisdom says, “Come to Me! Believe! Trust!”

How are you living today? By your own wisdom, or by trust God?

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 4

After a few more busy weeks we are at the end of our summer hiatus and schools are back in session. My spouse, who is a college professor, is back in the classroom next week. I wanted to return to the verses we had been looking at in 1 Corinthians. You can see the first three parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by clicking on the links.

“1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
9 but just as it is written,

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.””

— 1 Corinthians 2:1-9 (NASB 1995)

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Last time we looked at the first two verses and we emphasized two important points: 1 - Paul determined, and 2 - to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We looked at the disparity of a social gospel built only on the foundation of love and good works, and the true gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection. Make no mistake we are responsible to love and to do good works, especially to those who are less fortunate (see Matthew 25:31-46), for without the good works we are merely a clanging cymbal or a ringing bell in a symphony of humanity. Part of what makes Christianity different is the example Christ set of loving others, but not just that. The true difference lies in His death on a cross, and His ability to walk out of the grave. This is the power that gives us the ability to love the unlovely, and help the helpless.

Paul continues his letter by reminding them - I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. This was a reference to himself, and not to the people he was with. Paul was not an entertainer. Even though he was learned in the teachings and ways of the Torah and his own people, it is possible he felt “less than” among the intellectuals in Corinth. Orators of that time period were expected to wow the crowd, and this was not Paul’s gift. He simply preached the truth of the gospel. Paul continues this line of thought.

…and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…

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How often do we pine for the notoriety and visibility of being someone important? I grew up in an era where every young person wanted a guitar or a set of drums so they could become the next great rock and roll sensation; myself included. Now we live in a world saturated with images, and videos of people being “important” in what they say, how they dress, what they do, how they identify, and all of it being based on how many views, thumbs up or hits they get on their social media posts. We have people like Taylor Swift who started out by sharing her music on YouTube and now she is “…a cultural icon of the 21st century. She is the highest-grossing live music artist, the wealthiest female musician, and one of the best selling music- artists of all time.” (Wikipedia) How many will long to follow in her footsteps, but will never make it past the borders of the small town they grew up in?         

We now hear speakers in seminars, podcasts and talk shows discussing the art of persuasion. Being able to persuade seems to be important enough that it must be taught and discussed like ancient history or English grammar. Why are we so anxious to persuade? Because we want, not just recognition, but community in our ideologies and thoughts. We want people to agree with us, and join us in turning others to our side and our way of thinking.

Paul recognized the work of the Spirit was beyond a seminar on the art of persuasion. It was a supernatural affair. Any effect he had as an apostle he attributes to the work of the Holy Spirit. People coming to Jesus when he spoke were a demonstration of Spirit and the power. What power? God’s power?

“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.””

— Acts 1:8 (NASB 1995)

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Do a quick walk through of the book of Acts and you will see numerous places where the Holy Spirit moved, and saved, and worked. His power filled the disciples and helped the fledgling churches to grow into a world wide movement that today still holds the power of God.

Once again we are reminded that we have nothing to boast about when Paul says, “so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” God intended from the beginning that the foolish things would overcome the wise and the weak would overcome the strong.

Until next time, keep walking in His strength and in His Spirit!

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 3

This second chapter of 1 Corinthians seems a perfect continuation of the verses we looked at previously in Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 1, and Nothing to Boast About - Part 2.

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“1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
9 but just as it is written,

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.””

— I Corinthians 2:1-9 (NASB 1995)

Paul continues his discourse on the wisdom of God versus the foolishness of man by stating that when he came to the church at Corinth he did not preach by his own ability, but by the ability God gave him.

“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.”

If anyone could have boasted in his own abilities it was Paul. Born a Hebrew, he was raised in the prosperous city of Tarsus, a center for trade on the Mediterranean coast, a city which also housed a well known school.

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“4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”

— Philippians 3:4-6 (NASB 1995)

“6 But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!””

— Acts 23:6 (NASB 1995)

Paul referred to his upbringing not to boast in his abilities, but to appeal to the audience he was talking to. He always made clear that his abilities to teach and preach were from God .

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

This stands out to me for two reasons. First, Paul determined. This word does not give us a feeling of being wishy washy. It shows us the apostle was firmly resolved. It is convicting to me, because when I ask myself what am I firmly resolved or determined about, I realize in this chaotic world we are living in I have become more uncertain, unsure and even doubtful about many things, even my relationship with Christ. Yes, there are things I am sure of: my salvation, the Bible, God’s good character and so on. Perhaps, like Paul I need to focus on the main thing.

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Second, what was Paul determined to know? Nothing…except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Why is this so important? Isn’t it more important to preach and teach love? After all Christ loves us and desires that we all be in heaven with Him. This is where I am beginning to see disparity in the church. If we do not preach the reason Christ came, and had to be crucified, all the love in the world will not fix all that is wrong with it. Christ came because we are sinners. Not one of us is good enough to earn our way into heaven, no matter how much love we show. And the truth is, if I only preach the love of God, then I do not really love. We have to talk about the darkness, the disobedience, and the distance between us and Him.

Remember these verses? Jesus said of Himself:

“6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

— John 14:6 (NASB 1995)

“5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

— John 15:5-6 (NASB 1995)

“23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

— John 15:23-25 (NASB 1995)

“18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,”

— Matthew 20:18 (NASB 1995)

“31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

— Mark 8:31 (NASB 1995)

These are just a few of many verses in the Gospels where Christ talks about His purpose, which was to be obedient to the Father, and die on a cross for sinful humanity.

Does the Bible talk about God’s love? Of course it does. One of the most famous verses many of us memorized as youngsters in church follows:

“16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

— John 3:16 (NASB 1995)

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

However, even this verse talks about God’s love in the context of our need, and our sin. Why would we perish if we were perfect? Why would we need God if love was the answer to all our problems? Love is the answer, but it is God’s love; God’s pure, perfect, and holy love.

I would like to let these first two verses of this second chapter of 1 Corinthians sink in for the next week. Do you think we need to be more determined like Paul? If so, what are we to be determined about? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment or two below.

Until next week, have a great weekend!

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 2

Last week I started a short series revolving around a number of verses in I Corinthians 1. In the first part we looked at verses 18-25. This week I want to continue by directing our thoughts to verses 26-31.

“26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God.
30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.””

— I Corinthians 1:26-31 (NASB 1995)

Let’s work our way through these verses by statements.

Image by Umkreisel-App from Pixabay

For consider your calling…

Paul wants the recipients of this letter to think about their calling. Why is this important? I think we need to remember when, and how God called each of us into a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. I was raised in a Bible teaching church by believing parents, but it was at age 12 that I stepped into the promised land. I recognized my sin, my inability to live life without Jesus, and gave my life to Him. God called me, not like some through a lightening bolt, but more a continuous soft whisper. Everyone’s calling is different. What was yours like? It is good to remember where we came from and what God called us out of.

This is also a challenge to those who have been called to remember, “according to the flesh” there were, “not many wise…not many mighty…not many noble….” In other words we weren’t all that. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden we have been fighting a battle against the truth. The truth of God says we are nothing without Him. The truth of God says all our righteous works are as filthy rags. The truth of God says that man’s wisdom will never rise above the wisdom of God. In fact, as we look at the next few verses we are struck, once again, it is all about Him.

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But God has chosen…

Did you get that? God has chosen. It wasn’t our abilities, or beauty, or wisdom, or might, or power that God chose. Indeed, He is a beautiful study in contrasts. The almighty God chose the foolish things, the weak things, the base things, the despised, and the things that are not. Why did He do this? He could have chosen the best of the best; the bright and beautiful; the pure and holy; the pretty and clean; the popular and well liked, but He chose everything that was not in order to nullify the things that are. He chose the foolish to shame the wise. He chose the weak to shame the strong. He chose the things that were not shiny and perfect - SO THAT - no man may boast before God.

“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB 1995)

Image by Paul Stachowiak from Pixabay

But by His doing…

Here’s the good news…You are in Christ Jesus! Of course, you had to make the choice to believe who God is, who God says we are and who Jesus is, but it has always been God working behind the scenes wooing, drawing, orchestrating, working, sometimes tripping you up and other times washing over you with His lavish love and undeserved mercy. It has always, is always and always will be an act of God that we come to embrace His boundless grace.

In addition, the beautiful perk to this astounding gift is Jesus becomes to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; all of which come from God through His Son. We do not have to worry if we are not wise. We cannot sanctify or redeem ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous. All of these things come to us freely when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Why?

So That….

“Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Faith Musings: Nothing to Boast About - Part 1

I want to apologize for the inconsistent status of my blog right now. Life is, as it has so often been in the last decade, relentless. Just trying to live each day has become something closer to survival and I often have to stop myself from saying, “If I can just make it to 5:00, or if I can get to Friday…” Many of you are living this life as well, so I know you get it.

It seems somewhat appropriate that the thoughts coming to my heart and spirit today for this blog post are a bit of a continuation of my post from last week on The Plague of Individuality. I was searching the Scriptures wondering what to write about and this passage came across my line of sight.

Image by Pedro Ivo Pereira Vieira Pedin from Pixabay

“18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

— I Corinthians 1:18-25 (NASB 1995)

I want to focus on these verses and what follows for the next few weeks. From these eight verses we can see that God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom are vastly different. What man deems as wisdom, God deems as foolishness. What God sees as wise, the world sees as ludicrous. Let’s take a closer look.

The Cross - Foolishness or Power?

Verse 18 says “…the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul used the phrase, “the word of the cross” in reference to the preaching and teaching of the gospel: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is in the cross, and its purpose that we only experience the true power and might of God.

The world sees the cross of Christ as a crutch; as something offensive and undesirable, just as the Jews of Jesus’ time did. They could not believe Jesus was the chosen One of God, nor could they believe He was the Son of God as He had claimed, because that would mean everything they had built to control and govern their people would come crashing down around them. Jesus was supposed to be a victorious king; a man of noble birth. He certainly wasn’t suppose to be the son of a carpenter and die a horrible death on a few pieces of splintered wood.

As Christ followers it is in this “foolishness” of the cross we find our greatest power. Jesus and the sacrifice of His own life on that cross has given us the ability to not only have life in Him, but to have abundant life here on this earth, even amidst the struggles and relentlessness of the fleshly grind. The cross and the blood that flowed is what gives us hope. The cross is the reminder that we are not our own, but bought with a price. The cross deletes all our boldest attempts to have peace with God, because we can’t. Only the cross could do this!

…For it is written…

I cannot say enough how important the written word of God is to the believer’s faith walk. It is with increasing numbers that people, including our children, have walked away from the faith because they have chosen to disbelieve the authority and validity of the written word. Books like Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict, and Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, are just two of the many books that explore the claims surrounding the inspiration, writing and collection of the word of God as it is laid out in our Bibles.

However, the true test of the validity of scripture is the Word itself. It baffles me how a person can read a news article, take it as God’s honest truth, with little validation, but the Bible which has been around for centuries is constantly doubted and touted as having all sorts of inconsistencies, etc. Jesus himself attested to the validity of God’s word in His high priestly prayer.

“17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

— John 17:17 (NASB 1995)

The Wisdom of the Wise, or of God.

What follows, “For it is written…” is a reference to Isaiah 29:14. The main message of this Old Testament chapter had to do with the warning God was giving Jerusalem for pretending to follow His ways and His laws, but not really meaning it in their hearts. Matthew Henry’s Commentary says it rather well:

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“Here, I. The prophet stands amazed at the stupidity of the greatest part of the Jewish nation. They had Levites, who taught the good knowledge of the Lord and had encouragement from Hezekiah in doing so, 2 Chron. 30:22. They had prophets, who brought them messages immediately from God, and signified to them what were the causes and what would be the effects of God’s displeasure against them. Now, one would think, surely this great nation, that has all the advantages of divine revelation, is a wise and understanding people, Deut. 4:6. But, alas! it was quite otherwise, Isa. 29:9. The prophet addresses himself to the sober thinking part of them, calling upon them to be affected with the general carelessness of their neighbours.”

— Matthew Henry's Commentary

What follows is God’s discipline of His people by taking away their ability to be wise or clever. Does this seem at all familiar? “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

The rest of this passage reminds us that it is through God’s wisdom, not man’s, that He is found. In other words, we can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, watch all the YouTube How To’s, follow all the health, spirituality, exercise and mental well being gurus and still never find our way to God. The Jews asked for signs, which they rejected, because they could not believe Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. The Greeks searched for wisdom, but when it came in the form of the gospel of Jesus Christ it was just foolishness.

The wisdom of God is Christ crucified. This is our power. This is our wisdom.

Because -

The foolishness of God is wiser than men,

And -

The weakness of God is stronger than men.

All we need to do is put our trust in Him. End of story.

Faith Inspiration: Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 5: The Plague of Individuality

Since it has been a while since I have posted under this Faith Inspiration post, I wanted to give a bit of a refresher. We have been looking at a quote from Oswald Chambers, which inspired me to dive deeper into the ideas revolving in and around the quote, and into the Scripture to find God’s words on these ideas. Here’s a look at the quote, which I took from the devotional book put together by Oswald’s wife Biddy from copious notes she took of his preaching and teaching. (For a look back click on the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.)

“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest - November 18th

Note: I took this quote out of my devotional book. If you go online to the website you will see the book has been reissued a number of times and the language changed slightly to make it more modern. I prefer the quote as I have shown it here because it actually lists three things: sin, our individuality and wrong thinking as the deterrents in our great capacity for God. I think all three of these need to be looked at.

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Let’s look at this idea of individuality. Webster’s Online Dictionary defines individuality in this way: total character peculiar to and distinguishing an individual from another; personality; separate or distinct existence; individual, person; the quality or state of being indivisible.

Being an individual is not a bad thing. The Bible has many verses that talk about God creating us to be unique and gifted.

“13 For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.”

— Psalm 139:13-16 (NASB 1995)

“27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

— Genesis 1:27 (NASB 1995)

“4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

— Romans 12:4-8 (NASB 1995)

“10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. ”

— 1 Peter 4:10 (NASB 1995)

In addition to these verses we have been taught that our relationship with Christ is a personal one; one of intimacy, friendship and love, and one where our unique personalities remain intact.

Why, then, does Oswald say that our own individuality can deter us from our great capacity for God? For the rest of this post, I want to point out certain societal messages regarding individuality and how these can become problematic.

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Be yourself. This one seems relatively harmless, at least superficially. I think that in the beginning the idea of being yourself was not necessarily a bad one. Individual preferences like food, books, movies, or even singing in the shower are certainly part of who we are. I like pizza, fantasy novels, murder mysteries and only occasionally hum in the shower. These are my preferences and part of what make me myself. Being anything other than yourself would be to live a lie, but that is where this gets complicated.

Our enemy, Satan, is the Father of Lies. Jesus makes this clear in a conversation with the religious leaders of His time.

“42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ”

— John 8:42-44 (NASB 1995)

This idea of being yourself has become a toxic campaign instigated by Satan to turn people away from Christ and plant them in the soil of self centeredness and political agendas.

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Don’t Follow the Crowd. I remember my own parents using this phrase when I was young, and I used it with my daughters. As parents we used this to try to keep our kids from following people we deemed were the bad influences. Unfortunately, for many, this only made our kids more interested in following some other crowd.

This is more fodder from the Liar King. There is no way to not follow a crowd. We live in community. We work, go to school, even go to church with other individuals, and the simple truth is, no matter what we decide to believe, or what choices you make, you will always be following another group of people who think they are all about being individuals. What really matters is who we are following.

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Don’t Care What Others Think. If there is any being who doesn’t give a care it is the domestic feline. Ha, ha. Not caring what other’s think might seem innocuous, but once again a seemingly sublime idea can become a weapon when wielded by the Prince of Darkness. When we stop caring what others think we open ourselves to not caring about anything, or we begin to care more for ideas and appetites that revolve around pleasing ourselves.

In our current world is is easy to get caught up in caring too much. We have all heard horror stories of attempts gone wrong of people attempting to look like, act like or be someone they are not. Look for instance at the whole transgender culture. Women trying to be men; men trying to be women and parents leading their children to make decisions about their sexuality before they even know if they like colas or fruit sodas certainly has the flavor, on the one side, of caring too much; and on the other side of not caring enough.

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You Do You. This is the latest phrase I see and hear all over social media platforms. Once again, it sounds so kind. It has the feel of open mindedness, and tolerance. It seems to encourage rather than correct or control. Indeed it is quite freeing, and even I buy into this idea. I’m a casual style blogger, and I don’t have to be like all those other bloggers who regularly wear dresses and show off their pretty legs. Ha, ha.

However, just like the three other phrases, the mentality behind you do you is giving ourselves the permission to do whatever we want. In addition, it also relieves me of the responsibility of caring about people’s well being, especially when it comes to eternal issues, and engaging people in difficult and uncomfortable discussions.

All of these ideas overlap, and on the surface are relatively harmless, but there is a darker agenda going on here, that we as Christ followers need to remember and be in constant prayer about. Next month I will delve into the Scriptures to more clearly understand why these ideas keep us from owning our great capacity for God.

Word for the Year: Trust - Its Connection to Belief

I decided to take my word for this year and approach it in a little different way than I did the word wait, last year. I would like to look at the word trust in the context of how it relates to other words and ideas. For instance, in order for a child to trust their parent they must feel safe. Safety is a key component in understanding how and why we trust or don’t trust.

I would like to start with the connection trust has to the idea of belief. In 2022 my word for the year was believe. You can see that post here. In order to trust we must also believe. One might even say that belief has to come before trust can be invested.

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Take, for example, the idea of gravity. Gravity has been here since God created the world, but it was Sir Isaac Newton that came to understand how gravity worked and who developed the Law of Universal Gravitation. Gravity is a reality, whether I believe it or not. However, because I trust the Law of Universal Gravitation I am completely confident to walk outside and not fear falling off the earth into the vastness of space. Belief allows me to act.

“5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.”

— Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB 1995)

In order to trust the Lord with all our hearts we must believe in Him. How can we possibly trust an entity we know nothing about? How can we trust a being we haven’t met? In order to truly know God I must believe in Him. Not in a superficial way, but in a life changing commitment. I must move from merely knowing about Him to knowing Him in an intimate way.

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The way we grow in our relationship with God is by digging deep into His word, the Bible. The Bible is His story. It is also a collection of historical accounts starting with the creation of our world, the entrance of sin into that world, the growth and history of the nation of Israel, the succession of the kings of that nation, and the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

As we learn and grow the trifecta of the divine Creator works together to reveal and open our minds to a deep and intimate understanding of His word. Not only do we realize the reality of the historical accounts, we also dive deep into the processes God uses to turn us towards Him and away from our sinful habits and ideals. We come face to face with the reality that He alone is worthy of our trust, and we are but dust blown whichever way the wind might go.

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“And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.”

— Psalm 90:10 (NASB 1995)

The above verse begins with, “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You…” We have to know His name, His character and His work in order to put our trust in Him. The psalmist goes on to give us a reason, He has not forsaken those who seek Him.

Let’s think about this for a few moments. I am pretty sure all of us have felt forsaken at some point in our lives, whether it be by our family or our friends. We may have also felt forsaken by God. However, He is always with us. He alone is true to His word.

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“For the king trusts in the Lord, And through the lovingkindness of the Most High he will not be shaken.”

— Psalm 21:17 (NASB 1995)

“In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them.”

— Psalm 22:4 (NASB 1995)

“To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed.”

— Psalm 22:5 (NASB 1995)

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.”

— Psalm 28:7 (NASB 1995)

“Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.”

— Psalm 32:10 (NASB 1995)

“For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.”

— Psalm 33:21 (NASB 1995)

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There are many more verses that talk about our trust in God. I love the last one…our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Perhaps we don’t experience joy, because we do not trust, and we do not trust because we do not believe, and we do not believe because we do not know. In order to truly know Him we must be in His word listening for His voice.

I hope, if you are reading this, you made a choice to commit your life to God, to believe in Him, in doing so you have taken the first step to being able to trust Him.

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 4: Sin's Effect on Our Capacity for God

Now that we have looked at sin’s beginnings, and the truth laid out in God’s Word about sin we need to talk about how sin affects our capacity to know and believe God. Obviously, sin is all around us. We are human and frequently fail to resist temptation, or find ourselves giving in to the sin nature in the form of anger, envy, gossip, or even over indulgence. Does the occasional sin keep us from this great capacity that Oswald was talking about?

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The first thing we have to acknowledge as truth is that we have sin in us as long as we walk in the flesh. While we obtain salvation and are fully redeemed when we believe in Jesus we don’t automatically stop sinning. Won’t it be nice one day when sin no longer appeals to us: the lure of things that only momentarily satisfy, and the pull of wrong thinking? The key is to not allow sin to reign in us. Look at the following Scriptures.

“5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

— 1 John 1:5-10 (NASB 1995)

“1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.”

— Romans 6:1-7 (NASB 1995)

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If we have given our lives to Jesus sin no longer has ownership over us. We are no longer slaves to sin. That being said, it is a daily choice to live a sinless life. In fact, sometimes it is an hour by hour or even a moment by moment choice. As we saw above in 1 John 1:9 we have a pathway to deal with our sins. When we fall, we confess, and Jesus who is faithful and just will forgive us. What a blessing.

Sin affects our capacity to know and understand God in the following ways:

1 - It keeps us in the dark. Look back at 1 John 1 again. Sin, when regularly allowed to have sway in our lives puts a veil over our ability to know God’s truth and dig deeper into His layers. We will find ourselves stumbling in the dark because we are not making use of the light He has given us.

2 - It prevents us from having full fellowship with God. It is in this intimate fellowship that we really begin to understand this Almighty Being who created us and loves us. When we walk in the light and we keep short accounts of our sin by confessing to Jesus, we start to engage in a relationship that is so much more than just believing words written in a book. It becomes vital, essential and real.

3 - It warps our thinking. We will look at this more in the future, but for now we know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might by done away. In order to live a victorious life we must bring our thinking into line with the truth we find in His word. In addition, we must allow the Holy Spirit to have sway in our thinking so that we are living according to Him rather than our flesh.

Next month we will begin our descent into the depths of wrong thinking and how that affects our great capacity for God.

As always thank you for following along as we journey deeper into the layers that are God!

Mulling It Over: Romans 8:37-39 - Conquerors because We are Convinced

It has taken us a long time to get through this one chapter of Romans, but I believe it has been worth it to take such amazing doctrine one bite at a time. God’s Word is truth and it is life transforming, so we do ourselves an injustice when we skim quickly through its unfathomable wisdom and insights. Today we are going to finished this chapter with the last three verses.

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“37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

— Romans 8:37-39 (NASB 1995)

We spent the last two years looking at Romans 8 and we have discovered amazing things. We learned that if we are in Christ Jesus we are not condemned. We also learned that the law is not able to accomplish what Christ accomplished by the shedding of His blood on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. In addition we learned our flesh is something that we will struggle with until it no longer binds us to this earth, but the good news is that even in our flesh we are loved and cherished by an amazing God who desires that we call Him Father. His Spirit prays for us at a gut wrenching level that we cannot understand.

Even still, we face obstacles as we walk this life. The enemy of mankind, Satan does everything he can to trip us up and to make us think that we are separated from our Creator. He regularly sabotages our efforts to abide, but the truth is he cannot separate us from God.

Let’s look at these last three verses phrase by phrase.

But in all these things - This grouping of five words is referring back to the list Paul gives us in verse 35: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. However, I would like to add that it can also be referring to what was previously said throughout the chapter which would include: condemnation, the flesh, suffering, corruption, and death. Indeed, in ALL these things…

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We overwhelmingly conquer - We aren’t just scraping by, winning by the skin of our teeth, we are overwhelmingly conquering. If we look more closely at the word overwhelm we see that it includes the idea of overcoming, and engulfing.

I love this idea. We don’t just conquer sin and all the other things on the list, we do it by overcoming it and completely engulfing it. I had a flash back to the movie, The Blob, from 1958, where an alien entity crashes on earth and begins consuming everything in its path. Ha, ha. We crush and smother the opposition, that’s what it means for us to conquer in His name.

I know many of us don’t feel like we are conquering. I have days where I feel more like I am being consumed by that alien blob, than crushing the things that come against me. So how do we do it? Obviously, it isn’t something we do in our own strength. The next phrase gives us a clue…

Through Him who loved us - Just as Jesus said -

“4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

— John 15:4 (NASB 1995)

It is time we own up to the fact that without Jesus we are lost, and I don’t just mean spiritually. We just can’t do the things that Jesus does. We aren’t immortal, yet, and as long as we are in this flesh we will struggle. This was part of the reason Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.

Image by Arnie Bragg from Pixabay

“5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

— John 16:5-15 (NASB 1995)

We are able to overwhelmingly conquer because we have the Holy Spirit. Through this third person of the Triune God we don’t just learn of His love, we know His love. Through this ethereal being we are given full knowledge of who God is and how He operates in our lives. True, there are still things we don’t and won’t know until we have transferred from this earthly world to the heavenly one, but with the Holy Spirit’s life in us we are overcome and engulfed in all that is holy, beautiful and right.

For I am convinced - the author of this epistle, the Apostle Paul, is confident in who Christ says that He is, and knows the transformative power of the Spirit in his own life. The Holy God did the work of convincing him, let Him do the work of convincing you.

“6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 1:6 (NASB 1995)

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That neither death, nor life - I might be stating the obvious, but we often think death is the main thing that will, in the end, separate us from God’s love, but those of us who have put our faith in Christ know this will not be the case. Death will be the thing that takes us out of this world and opens the door to our heavenly home.

It is more likely the case that we allow life to separate us from God’s love, and this is where we need to be aware and keep an eye on our walk with Him. In reality, there is nothing that can keep us from God’s love, but we can certainly do things that make us feel as though He is far away.

You regularly hear me talking about the idea of abiding in Christ. That is because it is so very important to stick close to Him. Life is hard, and our enemy is relentless. He will use any chance he can to turn our eyes away from our Savior to the crashing waves around us.

Image by Myriam - No AI pictures in my gallery. from Pixabay

Nor angels, nor principalities - We might wonder why Paul included this in the list, but it is understood that not all created beings remained true to God. Satan was an angel and so were the demons that followed him in his attempt to usurp the throne of the King of Glory. None of these can keep us from the love of God. Let’s not forget, His seal is on us, and nothing comes into our lives that hasn’t first passed through the Father’s hands. We see this in the book of Job.

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Nor things present, nor things to come - We know time is relentless and we cannot get away from it’s passing. In fact, its passage has a profound affect on our lives in that it makes us age, and there is nothing we can change about this fact. However, no matter what we are going through right now, or what we will face in the future, we go through it wrapped in the loving arms of Jesus.

Nor powers - We are living in uncertain times and it is pretty clear people are concerned about the powers that be, not only in our own country, but in other countries around the world. I am so thankful that God holds me and the world I live in, in His hands. Only He can and will bring about the new heavens and the new earth. No matter who is in charge, they only hold the power that God’s allows them to have.

Nor height, nor depth - It does not matter the heights we achieve in this life; not the riches, the glory, or the fame. It also doesn’t matter the depths we have fallen to; the darkest cave, the deepest ocean, none of these can separate us from the love of God. You may feel you have done something so bad, Christ will never take you back, but if you made a decision to follow Him, you cannot be separated from His love, and it is that love that can help you find your way back to Him.

Nor any other created thing - There is nothing in this world that hasn’t been created, either by the omniscient God, or by the beings He created.

Will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus - It is important to note, this love of God is only found in Christ Jesus. It is not found in Allah, Buddha, Krishna, or any of the many other beliefs and ideologies that populate our world like a patchwork quilt. Only Jesus, because He and the Father are one (John 10:30). Jesus is the One who binds us to the Father and we know this through the Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much for coming along on this journey through Romans 8. I hope you have enjoyed it and learned as much as I have.

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 2: Sin's Beginning

Last month we started a deeper dive into this quote from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest.

“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers - November 18

I discussed what it might mean for us to have a great capacity for God. You can see that post here. This week we are going to start looking at the three things keeping us from experiencing this great capacity for God. The first of these deterrents is sin. Let’s do a quick Biblical review of sin’s origins.

Image by Petra Ohmer from Pixabay

Once again, we are taken to the beginning. In the book of Genesis we see the story of the creation of the world, including all that is living from plants and animals, to fish and humans. We see that God placed Adam, the first man, and his wife, Eve in a beautiful garden called Eden. He gave them everything they needed and they could eat from any tree in the garden but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

— Genesis 2:15-17 (NASB 1995)

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

All we need to do is read the following chapter to see that Adam and Eve chose to do exactly what God told them not to do and from that tree they ate. Of course, they were manipulated by God’s enemy, Satan, who was disguised as a beautiful serpent.

“1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

— Genesis 3:1-7 (NASB 1995)

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

We need to look at this passage and really understand how easily one wrong thought, one wrong choice led to the downfall of humanity. Let’s look at Satan’s tactics (and yes I have covered this before, but it is important), and look at Adam and Eve’s responses.

1 - Satan went to Eve first. We are not told where Adam was, but the serpent started with Eve. I don’t know why he approached her first. Perhaps he knew she was more easily persuaded by his charm and beauty.

2 - Satan immediately manipulates God’s words. He asks Eve, Did God say you couldn’t eat from the trees in the garden? I am assuming he already knew exactly what God had told the couple. He knew they could eat from all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3 - Eve misquotes God. We can see in chapter 2 God told them if they ate of the tree they would surely die. He said nothing about them touching it. Eve adds the idea of physical touch also leading to death, as though that would seem more dramatic.

4 - Once again, Satan manipulates. “You surely will not die!” While we know it was not an immediate physical death, we also know eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did lead to both an eventual physical and spiritual death; just a little detail the serpent left out.

Image by Alex Yomare from Pixabay

5 - Satan turns the screw tighter. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” Satan offered, not only the possibility of being like God, but he caused Eve to question whether God was trustworthy. Can’t you hear her thinking, “If God really loves us, why didn’t He tell us this from the start? Why is He withholding it from us?”

6 - Eve looked and desired. Instead of turning away from Satan and looking for Adam to seek his input, she looked at the tree and saw it was desirable for food, and a delight to look at. You can see the wheels spinning in her mind. She saw that it was beautiful, then she desired it, then she remembered what Satan had just told her, it would make her wise…so she took and ate.

7 - Eve took her husband down with her. We can’t say Eve did this with any bad intentions. She may have just been very excited and perhaps the fruit tasted divine and she wanted to share it with her beloved. Whatever her reasons for including her husband in this defiance of God’s command it lead to the fall of humanity from the grace of their loving Creator.

Image by Nika Akin from Pixabay

8 - Adam and Eve immediately experience shame and want to hide. The serpent was absolutely right about one thing, their eyes would be open and they would know good and evil. It would be interesting to hear their conversation as they suddenly came to the realization they were naked and as they sought to find leaves to cover themselves.

The reason I covered this in detail is to show you the progression that all sin takes and has taken from the very beginning.

1 - Satan finds us when we are alone and vulnerable. When do the temptations come in our lives? It is always when we are struggling and discouraged, and most often when we feel no one has our back. Sin will creep in when we feel alone, sad, angry, discouraged, overwhelmed, anxious, and not enough.

2 - Satan will manipulate God’s words. How often have you heard people say, “If God is good, why is this bad thing happening?” Or, “God must not really love me, or I wouldn’t be struggling.” Or, “Where was God when this terrible thing happened?” Satan takes the truth about our God: that He is good, that He loves us, or that is with us always, and turns it on its head. “God didn’t really say….”

Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay

3 - Satan doesn’t just manipulate God’s words, he manipulates our circumstances and the voices we hear around us to reinforce the lies he has begun to feed us. God isn’t really loving if He condemns people to hell. God isn’t really good, just look at all the terrible things going on in the world. There is no such place as hell, we will all be in heaven one day. When we die we become our spirit animals and play happily in the clouds. I am sure you can list other thoughts and ideas you have heard.

If we do not know God’s word well, or we begin to question God’s love and authority, we will begin to question the authenticity of the Bible. I know many who were raised in the the church who grew up under the teaching of God’s word who now are questioning that it was actually inspired by God, and that the men who wrote it were just interjecting their own opinions and thoughts. It is not too far a leap to give up on the truth of the Word all together when going down that path.

4 - We no longer talk about sin. The word sin is no longer politically correct, or woke. This is exactly where our enemy wants us to be. Sin has gone into hiding, covering itself with the beauty of the world’s philosophies that everyone is okay and no one is bad.

Next month we will delve deeper into what the Bible says about sin, this obstacle that keeps us from our great capacity for God. I hope you will join me.

Let me know your thoughts by leaving me a comment. I appreciate all of your feedback.

Mulling It Over: Romans 8:35-36

This month we are going to look at Romans 8:35-36. Last time we looked at two questions that needed to be answered. Here we find one more question written in two ways, that begs a response.

“35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 Just as it is written,

’For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’””

— Romans 8:35-36 (NASB 1995)

As we learned in the last installment we are God’s elect, and as such there is no one who can bring a charge against us. Only God has the right to judge, because he is the only one who can do it with purity and without prejudice.

We also learned that while the world condemns, for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. He is the one who died, who was raised from the dead, who sits at God’s right hand and who intercedes for us.

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With this knowledge we are now faced with the most important questions of all: Who will separate us from Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword? This list Paul gives is meant to be inclusive of whatever trial or tribulation a Christian might find themselves in. Many of us have never known persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword, but that doesn’t mean we never will. The world is becoming more under the influence of our shadowed enemy and he regularly does all that he can to make us feel separated from our precious Savior’s love and care. However, that is all he can do.

These questions are followed by a description from Psalm 44:22. What does this mean, and why does it follow these questions? Our knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament remind us that as God’s people we will suffer. Christ, Himself, said, “…in this world you will have tribulation, but take heart I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

The phrase, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long…” was part of a Maskil written by the Sons of Korah. A Maskil was a contemplative, didactic (meant to teach), and skillful psalm. In other words it was not written off the cuff, or in response to a difficulty being experienced. Many of David’s psalms are wholehearted emotional songs both of praise and thanksgiving or of discouragement and despair. This psalm was thought through and had the purpose of teaching us, not only about God, but about our struggle to find Him when we are suffering.

Let’s look a little more closely at this psalm.

“O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.”

— Psalm 44:1 (NASB 1995)

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As the psalm begins the author(s) remember what they have learned from their forefathers. They understand how God moved and was involved in the lives of His people.

“4 You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through You we will push back our adversaries;
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.
7 But You have saved us from our adversaries,
And You have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted all day long,
And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.”

— Psalm 44:4-8 (NASB 1995)

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They recognize God as King. They know that it is not their own efforts that will save them, but God will give them the victory. However, in the next set of phrases we see that this same God who had given them victories and fought for them, allowed them to be brought low.

“9 Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And do not go out with our armies.
10 You cause us to turn back from the adversary;
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
11 You give us as sheep to be eaten
And have scattered us among the nations.”

— Psalm 44:9-11 (NASB 1995)

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The psalmist is left questioning. He even goes on to suggest the unwritten question: Why?

“17 All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You,
And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
And our steps have not deviated from Your way,
19 Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals
And covered us with the shadow of death.”

— Psalm 44:17-19 (NASB 1995)

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The author allows himself to question to the very end of the psalm, but he also makes that statement in verst 22. He knows it is for God’s purpose that God is silent. He knows it is for God’s glory that we suffer.

“20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or extended our hands to a strange god,
21 Would not God find this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22 But for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awake, do not reject us forever.
24 Why do You hide Your face
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul has sunk down into the dust;
Our body cleaves to the earth.
26 Rise up, be our help,
And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.”

— Psalm 44:20-26 (NASB 1995)

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I think it is important to end this post focusing on the very last phrase of the psalm, “….redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.” For those of us who have been studying the Word, and maturing in our Christian walk we have wrestled with the very same thoughts that the author of this psalm did. “Why did you leave us? Where did you go? Why have you let us be cast down? We have been faithful, but still we suffer?”

We can certainly look at our own circumstances or those of the people around us that we love and care about and see the suffering. But, we can always appeal to His lovingkindness. God does not have to save us, or rescue us or give us comfort, but He does. Our struggles and feelings will come and go, but when we place our focus on Him and remain in Him (John 15), He will always be found faithful.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, no matter how we feel; no matter how far away we might think He is, He is always with us.

“9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ”

— John 15:9 (NASB 1995)

Word for the Year: Trust

Here we are, barreling through another January. A new year has begun and time continues to fly. As I was mulling over the idea of doing another Word of the Year, I had several in mind including a return to believe, or a look at hope. As a friend and I were discussing after our Saturday morning Zoom Bible study the words believe and trust came up. Both words are rich and full of meaning and depth, especially when taken in the context of the Holy Scriptures and our relationship with Christ.

Image by Lisa Caroselli from Pixabay

The word believe is defined: to accept something as true, genuine or real; to have a firm, wholehearted religious conviction or persuasion that the existence of God is true; to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy or ability of something.

The word trust is defined: the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something; dependence on something future or contingent - hope; to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of - believe; to place confidence in - rely; to hope or expect confidently.

Both of these words have similar tones and you honestly can’t have trust without belief, nor can you experience true, life changing belief without trust. We can see this idea in the the story of the man who brings his demon possessed son to Jesus for healing. I did a more in depth look at this passage in 2022 when I chose believe as my word for the year.

“20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth.
21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.””

— Mark 9:20-24 (NASB 1995)

Image by Artur Skoniecki from Pixabay

This man took an actionable step from belief to trust. He recognized he did not have enough belief to go from “…if you can do anything…” to “Of course you can heal him! You are the Son of God.” (My own idea of what he might have said if he already placed his complete trust in Jesus.) He placed his trust in Christ when he exposed his vulnerability by saying, “help my unbelief."

This idea of trust is not easy. It is a step that takes us from a place of alleged safety to a place of exposure. Take for instance an individual going to a counselor seeking help for a mental health problem. Perhaps they are struggling with depression or anxiety. In order to take this action step they first need to see they have a problem that requires help. After they make that discovery they must call a therapist or psychiatrist. It might be that they ask friends and co-workers for the name of someone these people deem trustworthy. They make the call, setting up the appointment, then with some additional amount of fear they go to their first appointment.

When they are sitting in the therapist’s office they must answer this question: “Am I going to trust this person enough to really open up to them? Am I going to expose my inner most fears and struggles? Am I going to let them peek into my inner closet where all the skeletons and, perhaps demons, hang?” It is only by choosing to trust the professional with their struggles that the individual is going to make progress towards being mentally healthy and whole.

The same idea is true in our relationship with Christ. We come to Him by believing, but what makes our belief different than that of the fallen angels?

“18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? ”

— James 2:18-20 (NASB 1995)

Our belief is a choice to open up to a mighty God and the first thing we must do is admit we have a problem. We are sinners. We are of the lineage of Adam and Eve and their sin became our sin. The only healing for this problem is to place ourselves in the hands of a pure and holy God. We come to Him hoping for His mercy, love and forgiveness and He freely gives it to us. This is the beginning of a life of trust.

Over the next twelve months we will look at the word trust and how a lack of it leads to a life of worry and fear, whereas a life of abandoning all to Him will free us up to know joy unspeakable. I hope you will join me.

Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 1

Oswald Chamber’s devotional book My Utmost for His Highest has been one of my most used devotionals over a span of nearly three decades. The book, put together by his wife after his death at the young age of 43, gives 365 devotions taken from her notes of his sermons, talks and writings. Each devotion emphasizes a verse or two from the Scripture, and my personal habit is to read the entire chapter where the verse or verses are found. This has been a great exercise in learning more from God’s word and understanding the context of certain passages. Today I want to look at a quote from the devotional that struck me as profound and has stimulated a good deal of additional thought and study.

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— November 18th

There are three things, Oswald lists that keep us from God. I want to take the next few months of these Faith Inspiration posts to look at these in depth and talk about steps we can take to get closer to our amazing God. Before we take an in depth look at the first of these deterrents, sin, next month, I want to talk about what it means to be “designed with a great capacity for God.”

We learn in the very first book of the Old Testament that we are creations of God. Not only are we His artistic work, we are made with His image stamped on our beings.

“26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

— Genesis 1:26-27 (NASB 1995)

We also see evidence of this Creator/creation connection in the New Testament.

“10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

— Ephesians 2:10 (NASB 1995)

Image by endri yana yana from Pixabay

Just as an artist, or a craftsman puts a bit of themselves into the things they make: the pictures they paint, the statues they mold, the beautiful furniture they carve, God put a bit of Himself in each of us. It is in this imprint where our great capacity for Him lies. This image of Him we are created in enables us to know Him intimately, and to enjoy a pure and beautiful relationship with Him. This frontier is wide open, and yet we know so little. Just as many of the Israelites stood at the edge of the Promised land, but were denied access due to their stubborn sin of pride and lack of trust in God, we too stand at the edge of our great capacity to dive into the deeper layers of God, but fear, mistrust and pride keep us from jumping off the precipice.

The Psalmist also recognized our position before God. We are not His equal. We are His possession, but not a possession to be taken advantage of or abused. We are a possession He longs to come along side and care for.

“6 Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,”

— Psalm 95:6-7 (NASB 1995)

“1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3 Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.”

— Psalm 100 (NASB 1995)

Sheep do not care for themselves. They are cared for by a shepherd and Christ described Himself as our Good Shepherd. It is not the fact that we are truly like sheep. We can certainly take care of ourselves. Our humanity demands that we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and do what we have to do. Unfortunately, this independent spirit limits our capacity for God, and we will talk more about that when we look at the idea of our own individuality. No, we are not sheep, but perhaps the Psalmist and our Savior are making the same point, we should be.

“11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ”

— John 10:11-15 (NASB 1995)

I believe to truly understand, as Oswald states, “our great capacity for God,” we must learn the ins and outs of humility and trust. We will look at these more fully next time as we delve into how sin keeps us from truly experiencing what that great capacity is. I hope you will follow along.

Mulling It Over: Romans 8:33-34 - Two Questions

I know a lot of time goes by between these Mulling It Over posts, so if you feel a little lost that is understandable. In order to bring you up to speed I am providing links to the last two posts: Romans 8:30 and Romans 8:31-32. You can always go back even further by venturing over to my Faith page and scrolling through. Today we are looking at verses 33 and 34.

Image by stempow from Pixabay

These two short verses present us with two questions:

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect, and who is the one who condemns?

“33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

— Romans 8:33-34 (NASB 1995)

There are several simple, yet profound truths in these two verses. The first question asks who will bring a charge against God’s elect. Those who have put their faith in the work of Jesus Christ are God’s elect. They are the ones that placed their trust in Him.

Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay

Truth 1 - God is the one who justifies. The word justify as it is used in this verse means to judge, regard, or treat as righteous or worthy of salvation. God, the Creator of the universe, the beginner of all time, the maker of humanity, and the author of the plan is the only one worthy to administer justice on that which He created. No one else can do this. No one else can stand in His place, because no one else judges without partiality. No one else is pure, righteous and holy. He alone can justify.

The next question begs yet another answer. Who is the one who condemns? In today’s world we often feel the weight of condemnation, whether it is our own voice that condemns us, or the voices of others around us, or the masses on social media. Condemnation seems to leak through our pores making us feel worthless, and hopeless.

The answer to the question is not a list of those who are condemning, but the second truth, which involves four clauses.

Image by Kati from Pixabay

Truth 2 - Jesus Christ is He who died…rather who was raised…who is at the right hand of God…who also intercedes for us. We see here, four things that Christ did for us so that we would not be condemned. Look again at the first verse of this chapter.

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

— Romans 8:1 (NASB 1995)

This beautiful truth has to be repeated to make sure we get it. If you are in Christ Jesus you are not condemned, not by anyone! Read that again. You see Jesus died, rose, sat down at the right hand of His Father, and now intercedes for us in order that we no longer fall under condemnation. It is sin that condemns, and Jesus has washed us whiter than snow. He is our surety. He became our bail so we might get out of the jail we were trapped in by the enemy of our souls. What blessed and beautiful truth.

These verses allow us to rise in the morning without feeling the heavy weight condemnation puts us under. These truths remind us that we can move through our day without fear. They also surround us with the truth that we are His and He provided everything we need.

I hope you find His encouragement today through this reminder. Thanks for reading.

A Year of Waiting - Anticipate - Part 2: Waiting for Hope

The time between the Old Testament and the New Testament is often referred to as the intertestamental period. It is a silent period of over 400 years where there was no direct revelation from God and nothing was being written as far as future prophesies. This does not mean there weren’t plenty of events taking place with regard to the people of Israel. The last we hear from Malachi closing out the Old Testament was written during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah when the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem was taking place. (Info gleaned from this article from Focus on the Family - Canada - What Happened Between the Old and New Testaments by Subby Szterszky.)

Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay

By the time of Christ’s birth the Jewish people were ready for a Messiah. They needed a sign. They wanted to hear God’s voice speaking to them once again as a nation. They longed for hope, but for many of them that hope did not come in the form of a babe born in a stable in Bethlehem…even though it was prophesied in their very own writings from the Old Testament. However, there were a few who faithfully waited with anticipation for what God was going to do. One of these was a man named Simeon.

“25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,
28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”
33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.
34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—
35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.””

— Luke 2:25-35

I want to look more closely at this man whose story is only mentioned in the book of Luke. What was it about this Jew that made him different from many other Jewish men in his time?

1 - Like our friend Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth in Luke 1, Simeon was righteous and devout. Some commentaries believe he was a priest in the temple, thus his ability to take Jesus from Mary and Joseph and raise him as a blessing to God. There is something to be said for being a righteous person. Zacharias and Elizabeth were described as, “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” (Luke 1:6) The word “devout” used to describe Simeon, would portray a similar commitment to Zacharias and Elizabeth’s walking blamelessly.

Image from Pixabay

2 - Simeon was looking. He wasn’t passively waiting, He was looking. He was looking for the consolation of Israel. The word consolation can be described as giving comfort to; being compassionate; counseling; and giving relief to. Simeon was waiting for God. He was waiting to see how God would provide His compassion to Israel, and what sort of relief it would bring to them. In my own opinion, I think Simeon believed, and what I mean by that is He trusted God.

3 - The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. We do not know by this short character sketch in the Scripture whether Simeon had the Holy Spirit upon him for his whole life, or if the Spirit came on Him just for this particular incident. We do know the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that He would not die before he had seen the “Lord’s Christ.” The name Christ meant the chosen or anointed one. Simeon was meant to see Jesus, the Messiah.

4 - Simeon moved with the Spirit. The Holy Sprit led the man into the temple at the exact moment Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus came into the temple to register their first born. This was done according to the law.

5 - He took the baby Jesus into his arms.

6 - He blesses God by stating what God had done for him, which was to let him see the salvation of Israel before he died. We do not know if Simeon was a young, middle aged or old man and we do not need to know. God was faithful in allowing him to see the Messiah as He had promised him.

Simeon was familiar with the Old Testament prophesies. He knew that the baby Jesus was the One that God had promised. He also knew that this salvation was not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well. This child would be a light of salvation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.

7 - He speaks a prophecy to Mary. This was a difficult prophecy for it told of Jesus’ controversial ministry; that it would cause many to rise and fall and that He would be opposed to the extent that Mary’s own heart would be pierced with the outcome.

We learn these things about Simeon by reading the passage. There are many things we do not know about this man, but we can learn a lot from studying his example in these eleven verses by asking ourselves the following questions:

Am I an upright person? Am I, like Simeon, righteous and devout? With so many ideas and terms being redefined these days I think it is important to remember being righteous looks much different to God that it does to fallen humans. However, if I am seeking Him, reading His word, and listening to His Holy Spirit’s voice in my life I have a much better chance of being righteous in God’s eyes.

Image by andreas N from Pixabay

The term devout is rarely heard in our current society, but it simply means devoted. Am I devoted to God’s truth? Am I devoted to obeying His truth to the best of my ability? Amy I devoted to my spouse? Am I devoted to keeping my heart and mind pure, whether married or not? Am I devoted to shining the light of Christ in this dark world?

Am I looking? Am I like Simeon in that I am looking for Jesus? Am I looking to see where He is at work? This one has been hard for me. I get so caught up in life and in the overwhelm that I neglect to see all He is doing, and all the ways He is still actively involved in my life and in the world. I believe this is where the act of thanksgiving is important.

Image by CJ from Pixabay

In addition, am I passively looking or am I anticipating? Am I anticipating where God is going to intervene, or where He is going to perform a miracle, or where He is going to bring about something I never thought possible. He is God, and He is trustworthy.

Am I familiar with the Holy Spirit, His work and His leading? For some reason it seems many in the Christian community have forgotten how to wait on the Holy Spirit, and have moved away from the truth of His revelation in our lives. He is just as much an active part of the triune God head as the Father and the Son. Indeed, in our lives He is our closest companion. He knows our hearts, our desires and our unspoken prayers. He is the One who works out Christ’s salvation, and sanctification in our lives. Perhaps it is time to reacquaint ourselves with this ever present part of God’s person.

Image by Iuliia Bondarenko from Pixabay

Have I taken the baby Jesus into my arms? Have I honestly made a choice to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, came as a vulnerable baby, born to a virgin, in a tiny town called Bethlehem? Do I believe that He grew into a man, lived among and taught a rag tag band of disciples, that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life? Have I embraced the fact that we are all sinners, and because of that sin Jesus, in obedience to His father, died on a cross as the perfect, once for all sacrifice? Do I cradle the reality to my breast that He rose from the dead and walked out of the grave, and that whoever calls on His name and believes will be saved?

Image from Pixabay.

Do I bless God? If you have ever thought about this idea of blessing God, then you have probably asked the question, how do I do that? It is simple, offer praise and thanksgiving to Him for all that He is and all He has done. Even if you are struggling in a dark place right now, you can bless God. You can identify His character by looking at scripture: He is good, just, faithful, compassionate, righteous, all knowing, forgiving, merciful, full of grace, creative, glorious….the list is endless. Even when things are chaotic we can bless God by taking time to thank Him, even for the smallest pleasures like a hot shower, food, blankets, clean air to breath….

Do I speak truth into other people’s lives? Simeon prophesied, but not all of us have the gift of prophecy. but we all have the choice to speak into other people’s lives the truth of God’s word in the form of encouragement, admonition, and even rebuke when it is called for. I think we can speak encouragement much more regularly than we do. Admonition and rebuke need to be done with love and it is best to think it through and really pray about the situation before proceeding. However, this is an important part of being in the body of Christ and probably isn’t done as often as it should be.

As I finish this post, we are winding down to Christmas. Tomorrow is the day. All the waiting and preparing and anticipating will be past tense in a matter of hours and some of us will be feeling a bit blue that it is over. As we age, we also begin to think about the what ifs. What if we don’t make it to next Christmas? Will everyone still be here? What will the world look like by the end of next year? But God…

To anticipate is to look forward to, and that means I have hope. I am choosing to look forward with trust in the Holy God for all that He will do!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. See you in 2025!

A Year of Waiting - Anticipate - Part 1: Waiting for the Wrong Things

The year is quickly drawing to a close and it is time for me to finish up my monthly series on my word for the year - Wait. This month I am going to focus these last few Faith posts on the word Anticipate. As we look forward to Christmas, the word anticipate seems apropos for the season. We are anticipating the holidays, the family gatherings, the cookie baking and the gift giving, but we wouldn’t celebrate if over two thousand years ago the birth of Christ was not anticipated.

The coming of the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born to a virgin in a pauper’s stable in Bethlehem. See this article on the Jews for Jesus website showing 40 Old Testament prophesies and their New Testament fulfillment. These are a few of the most famous surrounding Christ’s birth:

Image by PBernfeld from Pixabay

Born to a virgin.

Prophecy:

“14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

— Isaiah 7:14 (NASB 1995)

Fulfillment:

“31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

— Luke 1:31-35 (NASB 1995)

“23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,
25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

— Matthew 1:23-27 (NASB 1995)

Image by G.C. from Pixabay

Born in Bethlehem.

Prophecy:

“2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.””

— Micah 5:2 (NASB 1995)

Fulfillment:

“1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:

6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”— Matthew 2:1-6 (NASB 1995)

Image by GERVASIO RUIZ from Pixabay

Descendant of David

Prophecy:

“12 When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men,
15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’””

— 2 Samuel 7:12-16 (NASB 1995)

Fulfillment:

“32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.””

— Luke 1:32-33 (NASB 1995)

“1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:”

— Matthew 1:1 (NASB 1995)

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Called out of Egypt.

Prophecy:

“When Israel was a youth I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.”

— Hosea 11:1 (NASB 1995)

Fulfillment:

“13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.
15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.””

— Matthew 2:13-15 (NASB 1995)

I wanted to share these with you, not only as a reminder of what Christmas is truly about, but a reminder of who and what we are anticipating. The people of Israel were knowledgeable of the Old Testament scriptures. They memorized multiple portions and read and reread the commandments, the laws and the prophecies. However, knowing all this did not make them any more in tune when the true Messiah actually was born and dwelt among them. I believe that was because they were waiting for the wrong thing.

Many of the Jews at Jesus’ time were looking for a Messiah who would overthrow the oppressive Roman empire and lead them into a new kingdom with their Messiah as king. We have been studying the book of John in my Saturday morning Bible study and I have the distinct impression that the religious leaders would have preferred a puppet king that they could control. Jesus was far from the Messiah they were looking for.

“37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.
38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,
40 “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.”
41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.
42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”

— John 12:37-43 (NASB 1995)

We see in the above passage that unbelief was prophesied about Jesus’ ministry, and it was not just the unbelief of choice, but in many instances a situation where God “blinded their eyes” and “hardened their heart”. This is not an easy thing. We don’t like to hear that our loving God would purposefully keep people from getting into heaven, but many commentaries reveal that this hardening and blinding was already in process by the individuals’ unrelenting disbelief. Disbelief almost always turns a soft heart into unmovable stone. This truth makes me more grateful that our Lord has always kept a remnant of the Jewish people who believe He is the true Messiah, and that those of us who are Gentile were brought into the family of God just as much His sons and daughters as those who were from the lineage of Abraham.

All of this causes me to pause and ask the question, this Christmas what am I anticipating? What am I waiting for? Am I looking for a God who will get me out of a jam; who will get rid of the oppressive people in my life; make life comfortable for me? Or am I awaiting and anticipating a God who will bring me from the edge of the abyss to the deepest most profound peace a person could ever know?

Next week we will take a closer look at this idea of anticipation and how it leads us to hope. Until then have a great week.

Mulling It Over: Romans 8:31-32 - What Shall We Say?

We are looking once again at Romans 8. I have been going through different chapters of the book of Romans in the New Testament on my own in recent months. I have started the practice of writing out several verses at a time, word for word as they are written in my English Standard Version of the Bible. After I write the verses out, I ask the question what do these verses tell me about God. It has been a wonderful practice to not only hand write, and yes I am doing it in cursive, but also to dwell on who God is and what He has done for us that has given us the ability to come into His presence as one of His children.

Image by Amanda Truscott from Pixabay

I have not written out Romans 8 as of yet, but it has been eye opening to go through this chapter over the last year and a half with all of you who read this little blog. Today we take a closer look at a few very familiar verses that I am sure many of you can quote.

“31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ”

— Romans 8:31-32 (NASB 1995)

Let’s do our usual and look at these verses a phrase at a time.

What then shall we say to these things? This question is a referring back to the previous verses. Verses 1 - 25 remind us of our deliverance from bondage, and the awaiting transformation to glory. Verses 26 - 30 remind us of our position in Him. What can we possibly say to all of that? Can we condemn God, saying He is a malevolent being who does not care for us; that he has not provided a way for us to have peace with Him; that He cares not for our well being? How could we say such untruths when it is clear that He provided the way, and He gives us all we need, and even in our weakest moments His own Spirit is praying for us; interceding according to the Father’s will.

If God is for us, who is against us? I can hear the voices accusing, “If God is really for us then why are there all these problems? Why is our world is such a state of chaos? Why is there so much hate? Why is there so much pain?”

I do not want to throw out pat answers or give a couple of other verses to support this idea and send you on your way. This is tough. Once again, however, I must remind all of us of our Savior’s very own words.

“33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

— John 16:33 (ESV)

Once again, we have to refer back to Genesis 3 when the serpent, Satan, tempted Eve. He didn’t just tempt her flesh, he tempted her ability to trust in her Creator. Isn’t that true of the world ever since? Why did Adam and Eve sin? Because they did not believe that God really loved them and wanted the best for them. They believed, with the help of Satan’s manipulation of God’s words, that they would be better off making their own choices and decisions.

Image by Briam Cute from Pixabay

We still live in that shadow of mistrust. We begin to doubt God’s Word, we stop going to church, we start reading and listening to philosophies and voices that tear apart Christian thoughts and beliefs, and we start focusing on what is going to make us happy. We become rights based. No matter how much faith we put in our founding fathers, the reality is they were fallen men, and only God and His truth can be fully trusted. The only true rights we have are those given to us by the Creator of life. Without Him we are nothing.

Why do we have trouble, problems, struggles and trials; because sin entered a perfect world, but the beautiful thing is God provided a way. It doesn’t require my work, my money, my time, my identity it only requires my faith. It isn’t just faith in a verse here or there, but in the whole inspired Word of God. When we start throwing scripture out the window we tear down the foundation He laid for our redemption, justification and glorification. We open the door to racism, fascism, humanism and communism. We make up justifications for our behaviors saying like Madonna sang, “I was born this way.” We descend into mind numbing chaos revolving around a continuous search for peace, identity and value.

But God….

It is God who is for us. It is God who created this little blue and green gem we live on. It is God who gave us the law as a foreshadow of a more perfect way, and then gave us His son Jesus Christ who died on a cross for our sin so that we might be made right with the Father.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

“15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ”

— Romans 8:15 (NASB 1995)

It is God who imprinted His very own image on us and no matter how hard we try to run from that imprint we are distinctly God’s because of that image. God is not against us. He is the only one who is truly, purely for us, because He loves us and recognizes each one of us as His handiwork.

He who did not spare His own son, but delivered Him over for us all… This needs little explanation. God sent Jesus as a baby to Mary. He was born, and lived a human life for approximately 33 years. The last three of those years he ministered and taught His disciples doing miracles and teaching about His Father and the Kingdom of God. Most of the Jews in His time did not believe what he said, even accusing him of having a demon (see John 8:48). Eventually, it was His own people, the Jews, who condemned Him to death via Pilate. He died an agonizing death on a cross, but it was what He did after that made all the difference. If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, we would still be slaves to sin. It was God’s power displayed in this act of resurrection that gives us the ability to leave the world of shadow and emerge into His light.

…how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? So what does this mean? We know the triune God isn’t Santa Clause. We don’t just ask Him for anything we want like He is our very own Genie in a Bottle. When you grow in your relationship with Christ you come to realize He provides everything you need: peace, love, joy, strength, rest, hope, thanksgiving…these are not physical things, but He is also providing our physical needs as well. Things like jobs to buy food and pay our bills; family and friends to provide a space of security and joy; a home to live in, blankets on our beds…the list is pretty much endless. He will always come through and give you exactly what you need when you need it. I have found, the more I rely on Him for every single thing, the more He provides when I haven’t even asked.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

““For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.”

— Psalm 50:10 (NASB 1995)

I hope these verses were a pertinent reminder of how very secure you are in Christ, and I hope that helps you to walk with peace, joy and confidence in Him.

Have a great weekend!