The Bible – Page 21 – Growing 4 Life

The Prison of Worry

2 Comments / November 5, 2015 November 5, 2015

I would like to tell you that I am worry-free. But, alas, I am not. There are just so many things that can go wrong! If we are the kind of person that thinks too much, we can tend to be worriers. Am I the only one who thinks there is something desperately wrong if I am unable to get a hold of my child on their cell phone for ten minutes or if I have a strange pain somewhere?

Worry can be so debilitating.

It steals our peace.

It controls our thoughts.

It takes our joy.

And the wonderful reward for all this worry?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The time we spend worrying steals our present, yet makes no difference in the future. Worry keeps us locked up in a prison of our own making, far away from the joys and blessings of life.

When I was a young twenty-something, I was positively crippled by worry. I would lay on my sofa for wasted hours feeling sick because of worry. It was so awful. But God rescued me. He taught me to take my thoughts captive. I learned to move my mind from my worry to something else. Oh, the first few months it felt impossible. But it got easier and easier, until it became a habit. Of course, every now and then, a few question marks show up in my life to remind me that I haven’t mastered worry.

Theologically, I have learned that worry is really an affront to God. When we worry, we are telling Him that He doesn’t know what He is doing. That we can’t trust Him.

But this week as I was reading in Luke 12 for the Bible Challenge, I found some very practical and helpful principles for this raging battle with worry and anxiety that so many of us face–

We are loved and valued by the Father. Luke 12:7 tells us that not even a sparrow is forgotten before God and that we are of far more value to Him than many sparrows. We need not fear.
The Holy Spirit will guide us through trials. Luke 12:11 tells us that the disciples brought before magistrates and authorities for the sake of Christ will be given words to answer the accusations through the Holy Spirit. When I read this verse the other day, I felt comforted to know that if (or when) the church faces persecution, we will not be alone. And there are other verses throughout scripture to show us that the Holy Spirit is there to comfort and to counsel us: John 14:26; Romans 15:13; 2 Timothy 1:14.
Worry changes nothing. Luke 12:25-26 asks this: And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ²⁶If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
When things are outside our control, many of us tend to stew and fret and make those around us miserable (if we are honest!) and yet, all that frustration and misery won’t change one thing. That is sobering to think about, isn’t it? Especially for us worriers. How many precious hours have we wasted on this time-sapping activity?
God promises to take care of us. A little further on in Luke we read this in verse 28: If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? Worry is probably a timeless sin that has affected almost all human beings at one time or another. And yet, Jesus tells us here that we can trust the Father. He will care for us.
Knowing God and making Him known needs to be our first priority. I don’t think it is an accident that verses 34-35⁽Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.) follow right after this whole passage on worry. After all, worry is often the result of having our priorities a little out of order. It is much easier to yield our will to the Father’s when we can keep our worldly possessions in perspective or when we truly want to please the Father in all things first and foremost– even before our own health or popularity, before any relationship, or before our reputation. When we really keep God first in our lives and seek His kingdom, it helps us to sift and sort through all of the trivial–and not so trivial– things we worry about.

Of course, all of these principles are well and good, but if you are in the midst of a battle with worry this may feel a little rote to you. And some of you are facing really big struggles right now, with no good conclusion forthcoming. Illnesses, loss of jobs and income, straying kids. There are very legitimate causes for concern in so many of our lives. If this is the case, I encourage you to pray, begging God to help you live out these principles in your life. If you are a true believer, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort and guide you.

Sometimes in the midst of a deep, dark trial that has me captured by worry, I find myself unable to even pray. If you find yourself in a similar place ask a friend or family member to pray for you until you get though the worst of this.

But, most of all, let’s keep our eyes on the Father, the author and finisher of our faith. He will never leave or forsake us. Let’s glorify Him by showing the world that we trust Him implicitly instead of staying locked up in our prison of worry.

How Well Do You Know Jesus?

4 Comments / October 29, 2015 October 29, 2015

One of the things that I find really fascinating in this current church age are the lies that are told about Jesus. One clear example is from the movie Walk to Remember. It’s the story of a terminally ill pastor’s daughter who falls in love with the typical bad boy. While the story was beautiful, there was a line in there that was not biblical in the least. The teen-aged girl and her father sat on a porch swing talking about her relationship with this boy and she made this statement–

“I believe He {Jesus} wants me to be happy.”

Her father never pointed to scripture and said no, your happiness is not the purpose of life (which any godly pastor would have done, by the way).

Have you heard that statement before? Do you believe that Jesus wants you to be happy? What other misconceptions do we have about Jesus? Thankfully, the lies we have heard about Jesus are cleared up quite nicely as we read the gospels. If we believe the Bible, then we simply cannot believe these statements–

Jesus wants me to be happy and to fulfill my dreams.

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Mark 8:34)

Jesus says that we will be loved and adored by the world.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.(John 15:19)

Jesus came to bring peace on earth.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)

Jesus expects us to eliminate poverty.

For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. (Matthew 26:11)

Jesus never said a negative word to anyone.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. ¹⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. (Matthew 23:13-14)

Jesus tells us that we need to be like the world to win the world.

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.(Matthew 5:13)

Jesus unified people wherever He went and expects us to do likewise.

And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people. (John 7:12)

So there was a division among the people because of Him. (John 7:43)

Jesus’s death and resurrection means that I can do anything I feel like doing.

She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. (John 8:11)

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (John 15:10)

Jesus would never allow anyone to spend eternity in hell.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— (Mark 9:43)

Jesus would never be so narrow-minded as to say there is only one way to heaven.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

Have you, too, heard these lies about our Savior and King? Does it pain your soul like it does mine? Jesus has been remade to be someone who He is clearly not in so many of our churches. Can you understand why it is so important for Satan to undermine our trust in the Word of God? For it is there– and only there– that we can truly learn about our Savior.

If you are continuing in the G4L Bible Challenge with me, you will be discovering who Jesus really is for yourself. When I sat down and read the gospels through for the first time last year, I became really and fully aware of just how warped the view of Jesus is in the minds of most people–even many Christians. And I believe this is mostly due to the fact that we do not know the Word and what it says about our wonderful and merciful Savior.

The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) give details about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. While each of the gospels tells each event just a bit differently and some add details that others don’t include, they all harmonize in a marvelous way. Each author is from a different background and education and, at the time, was writing for a different audience, and yet, we can clearly see that God is the Master Author of them all.

The more we study the scripture, the more we will get to know Jesus. So keep reading. And if you haven’t started, I hope that you will join us! You can find the reading schedule here. You can just pick up with us where we are (Week 43, Day 4) or you can start from the beginning. Just get into the Word and start learning to know who Jesus really is.

Lessons from A Phone Bill

2 Comments / October 22, 2015 October 22, 2015

About a month ago, I received an email that our business cell phone account had used all of its shared data. This was quite unusual, but since I literally hate to make phone calls to the customer service departments of large companies, I decided on a “wait and see what happens” approach.

And then a few days ago, in the middle of the following billing cycle, I received another one of those warnings. So at this point, I knew that I needed to make that dreaded call to get to the bottom of the “mysteriously disappearing data.”

I dialed the number and after pushing several numbers to get to a real, live person, I was pleasantly surprised to be connected to an English speaker that I was actually able to understand. She was quite friendly as I shared my problem and we started going over the bill together. She blamed the problem on an unauthorized change to our account that had happened almost a year ago and started trying to fix it. While I had my doubts that this was actually the cause of the “mysteriously disappearing data”, I also realized that this problem did need to be fixed so I let her do her thing. However, she didn’t really seem to know what she was doing exactly and I grew just a little more nervous as the minutes–very long minutes— ticked by.

After I had been on the call for over an hour, I finally told her that I had to go and asked if she would call me back or email me when she had sorted through it all. A half hour later I received a rather unsatisfactory email from her. A few moments after that, I received another notice that our data was almost 100% used up.

*Sigh*

Obviously, whatever she had done had not solved the problem.

I really did not want to make another phone call to this company. I think I’d rather go to the dentist than make phone calls like this. They are long and time-consuming and generally very frustrating. I put it off for a short time. But the next day I decided I may as well get it over with as the problem–unlike the data– was not going to disappear.

This time, I ended up getting connected to a very nice lady who was also quite knowledgeable. Within a few moments, she had solved my problem and then handed me off to her supervisor to get the authorization for a very sizable credit that was due us.

Those two calls were like night and day. Literally. One phone call lead to over an hour of wasted time spent listening to an incompetent representative try to solve a problem that was way over her head. The second call was with someone who knew exactly what she was doing and she solved the problem efficiently and quickly.

This incident brought to mind a few spiritual correlations-

1. We cannot grow or change without a little self-examination. If we just live at status quo our whole lives we will not only remain baby Christians but will also reap the costly consequences of this choice. When we don’t examine ourselves, we are like our company with that phone bill–thinking everything is fine, when, unknowingly, something is really wrong and we are actually paying dearly (2 Corinthians 13:5).

2. Sometimes deeper, abiding issues come to light when we start examining our lives. I had no idea when I called about this more recent problem with our cell phone account, that there was also a completely separate issue going on. Actually, as we investigated our account thoroughly together, we found two other problems along with the original issue. This is true of our own self-examination, as well. Sometimes we will recognize a sin in our lives and when we start reading and studying the Word, other hidden and connected sins will come to light. For example, perhaps we struggle with being overweight. We know we shouldn’t overeat and we go to scripture for insight. In the process, we may come face to face with our own prideful heart as we discover the reason we really want to lose weight. Examination can lead to some real eye-opening moments.

3. Waiting can be costly. While the phone company gave me that nice credit for the mistakes of the past year, life, unfortunately, gives no credits. Emotional and spiritual harm compounds as we live in ignorance and can never be completely rectified. Only the Holy Spirit in a saved heart can take something so broken and heal it, but still there will be scars. It is wiser to deal with our sin issues immediately, rather than letting them smolder in the background of our lives.

4. Make sure you are talking to someone who knows what they are doing. How frustrating my first encounter was with the lady who thought she knew everything but didn’t really know anything. There are so many people who give counsel to us as we navigate life’s problems and yet so many have absolutely no idea what they are doing. So how do we know if they are someone who can help? The first test for me is always this question: Are they taking me to the Holy Bible? The Bible is God’s Word and it speaks to all of our problems. If the person who is counseling us is only using their personal experiences or their own human wisdom, they are probably not going to be much long-term help to the situation.

But we also need to remember that there is no person who will always give us perfect counsel. We are all flawed and born sinners. While people can– and often do–help us on our way, we need to seek our counsel first and foremost from God and His Word.

5. When we get connected to the right person, it is amazing how quickly a problem can be solved. I experienced nothing but frustration until I got connected to the lady who knew what she was doing. Our spiritual life is a little like this. We will experience no true victory in the Christian life until we are connected to Jesus. Until we repent and place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ we will remain separated from God (John 14:6). Upon this saving faith, we know that our prayers will be heard (I John 5:12-15) and we can fully expect God to work as we surrender our lives and wills to Him.

And so I guess that phone bill incident wasn’t a complete waste of time. After all, I got a whole post out of it. But I will be very happy if I don’t have to make another call like that anytime soon!

Why Do You Follow Jesus?

6 Comments / October 15, 2015 October 10, 2019

If you are new to Growing 4 Life, I want to fill you in briefly on what has been taking place here this past year. We have a 2015 Chronological Bible Reading Challenge going on and we have just entered the New Testament. Over the past year, I have spent most Thursdays writing about what we are reading in our challenge. I plan to do that through the end of this year. By the way, this would be a great time for you to join us since we are only a week into our New Testament reading. You can finish out the year with us. Click here for more information.

I am really excited to finally be in the New Testament and reading about the life of my Savior. This morning’s reading was from the gospels and was about Jesus healing the multitude (Matthew 12:15; Luke 6:17-19). I found myself wondering what it must have been like to be part of that group of people. Can you imagine if there was a man who was healing people –like really healing them? Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to visit him if you were terminally ill? Or if your child or sister or father was suffering from cancer or mental illness? This man would provide the quick fix our human hearts long for. Healing would mean relief from the pain and anxiety that accompanies any illness.

This helps us to understand why the multitude followed so passionately after Jesus. They naturally longed for relief from their physical ailments and struggles.

But what I find really interesting is the fact that the adoration of this multitude (that was given a miraculous respite from their worry and pain) was rather short-lived. It would seem that as soon as they were no longer benefiting, most turned away (John 6:66). Where were all of those who were healed on the day that Jesus was crucified? Why weren’t they crying for his release?

Of course, He couldn’t have been released or there would be no sacrifice for sins and we would have no way to be reconciled to God. Nevertheless, I do find myself wondering about the fickle multitude who passionately clung to Him when they could get something they wanted from Him and who wanted nothing to do with Him when it would cost them.

Perhaps the followers of Jesus still do this very thing today.

What is keeping us dedicated to serving Jesus? Is it because we are hoping that He will give us all of our desires? Is it about the material wealth or freedom from disease that some {false} teachers would promise? Perhaps it is because we long for the peace and joy that seems to constantly eludes us?

But if this is why we are serving Jesus then when things get a little rough, we will walk away. When we go through a spell where we don’t “feel” like He is there, we will search elsewhere for some other quick-fix. And when we are teased or persecuted for our faith, we will determine it’s not worth the cost.

How critical to remember that Jesus didn’t come to make us rich. Or to make us happy. He didn’t die on the cross to make us comfortable or healthy. He died to reconcile us to God. A miraculous, merciful, and amazing rescue. To save us from our sinful selves. We deserve nothing but hell. And yet, God in His infinite grace and mercy, made a way for us to be saved.

I know that there are so many of us who are serving Christ passionately because we love Him. We find ourselves full of gratitude for the grace and mercy we have been shown and we want to please Him with our lives. But even we can get a little off-track sometimes, can’t we? We can be tempted to give up or to be quiet. We can consider our reputation as more important than our witness and our relationships or jobs or worldly desires as more important than the truth we read in the Word of God.

So how do we stay strong when others cave? How do we keep our eyes on Jesus and stop worrying so much about our own comfort and feelings?

I know of no other way to stand against temptation than being in the Word. When I am immersed in the Word and I am taking time for prayer, God gives me strength to keep my eyes on Jesus. When I have grown lazy or too busy, I tend to cave and become self-absorbed.

Oh, how essential it is that we stay in the Word regularly, learning to know God and growing in our faith. How important that we pray, petitioning our Father for a thirst for righteousness and a hatred of evil. We need to ask Him to give us a hunger for His Word and a discerning heart and mind, so that we can sort through all of the false doctrine that abounds today. Only through prayer and studying the Word will we be able to keep the right priorities as we live out our Christian faith.

The Wish List

4 Comments / October 12, 2015 October 11, 2015

I have 244 items on my Amazon Wish List. Seriously. The great majority of the items are books I would like to read someday.

Someday.

That elusive word that helps us feel so much better about our now. But as I have grown older, I am starting to understand something–

Someday doesn’t usually come around without some intentional work in the now.

I will never reach someday with my wish list of books unless I make a priority to actually read them. This is so true about much in life, isn’t it?

We will never grow our business without lots of hard work. Or lose weight without making changes in how we eat and/or exercise. We will never be stable financially if we don’t work at staying on a budget. Our desires and dreams will rarely come true without some kind of effort and sacrifice and someday is probably not going to come without some intentional behavior on our part right now.

Most of us have at least one thing on our wish list that is pretty important to us. We wish to be thin. Or we wish to be rich. Or perhaps it is a great career that we long for. Some of us really wish for kids who will grow up to serve the Lord. Or maybe we wish for a great marriage. What is on your wish list? And what are you doing to get there?

But something much more important to reflect on is our spiritual “wish list”. Are we intentionally working to learn to know God and His Word? Are we giving deliberate effort to our purity and holiness? With all of the other wishes consuming our thoughts we often neglect the most important area of our lives– our own growth as a believer in Jesus Christ.

Stop and ponder this for just a moment. Where would you like to be as a believer in five years? What about twenty years?

What are you doing to get there?

Unfortunately, we can’t magically inhale the Bible one day and just know the Word. Instead, we have to study and memorize it. If we do so with humility and a heart of obedience, we will be changed.

One of my favorite verses is Hebrews 4:12–

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

And 2 Timothy 3:16-17 —

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If becoming a godly man or woman is on our wish list (and it should be for all genuine believers), it will never happen without serious dedication to the Word of God. God’s Word is so powerful. It teaches us truth and pure doctrine, giving us a solid grid through which to judge false teaching and every other thing that comes our way. By studying the Holy Bible, we become convicted of the sin in our lives and are trained in holy and righteous living.

But learning and studying the Word takes precious time. Time that we would often prefer to spend somewhere else.

I can almost hear some of you saying, “I don’t have a choice. You have no idea how busy I am.” And I get it. I remember those days when I felt like I was meeting the needs of my kids 24/7. I know that many of you are extremely busy with families or jobs. But may I submit to you–

You always have time for the things you put first.

Where does God and growing as a believer fit in your list of priorities?

I have no idea how many of the books I will ever check off of my Amazon wish list. Some of them are much more important to me than others and they are the ones that I will read. The rest will probably just sit there on the list until I clean it up one day and purposefully remove them.

Perhaps it is time that we reflect on our “wish list”. Is it filled with things that should be important to us from an eternal perspective? And, if so, what are we doing to get there? And what is on the wish list of our lives that is taking up space and could be removed? Is godliness even on our wish list as a priority? These are certainly some questions to consider.

Lessons from Esther

Leave a Comment / October 1, 2015 October 1, 2015

After reading the prophets, I have to admit that I breathed a big sigh of relief to get to Esther. I have loved this story since I was a child. With this time through, I found it very helpful to see where it fits in chronologically. I did not realize that this story takes place while the Jews are still exiled in Babylon. I guess I just never really thought about the details of the story before.

As I was reading this time around, I was amazed at the practical lessons that we can take away from what appears on the surface to be just another story of God’s miraculous work in saving the lives of the Jews–

1. Sometimes God uses beautiful and powerful people. We tend to place a lot of emphasis on the fact that God uses the weak and the broken. We sit in our mundane lives filled with financial pressures and family struggles and we enviously watch the lifestyles of the rich and famous, clinging to 2 Corinthians 12:9 and comforting ourselves with the promise that God uses normal people like us to accomplish His will. And He sure does. But Esther shows us that, sometimes, God uses beautiful people like Esther to accomplish His will, too. She, of all of the young women chosen to present to the king, is the one he prefers. God raised her to a place of great power and position and, through this providential placement, saved the Jews. God can use anyone. There are no limitations.

2. You are where you are for such a time as this. When Mordecai presents the terrible plot to kill the Jews to Esther, he asks her to go to the king. She hesitates, knowing that he could command her execution on the spot (aren’t you glad you don’t live in that kind of world??). Mordecai then reminds her that just because she is in the King’s palace doesn’t mean she will escape death. And then he gives Esther a final and compelling reason: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Since we know the end of the story, we know that she was put in the kingdom for just that reason. Just as we all are exactly where God wants us to be. We were born at the specific time and place God planned for us. There are no accidents with God. He knew that you and I would be in this world right now–a world that is pushing globalism and one-world everything. A world that is heating up in the Middle East. A world that is dark and lost and needs Jesus Christ–the real Jesus Christ of the Bible– not the fake, feel-good version so many claim to follow. What are you doing for God? What is the eternal reason you are where you are right now?

3. Keeping ourselves as our top priority hinders our work for the Lord. After Mordecai presents his argument as to why Esther needs to go to the king and beg for the lives of her fellow Jews, she agrees. She asks him and all of the Jews in Susa to fast for her and then says she will fast, as well, in preparation for the fearful duty of speaking to the king. She concludes with this statement: If I perish, I perish.

Esther was willing to put her own safety and well-being aside in her efforts to save the Jews. How convicting is this for us? We don’t even want to give up our comfort and convenience to do good. We don’t go to church for reasons like soccer games or needing more sleep. We don’t visit our elderly neighbors or grandparents because it makes us uncomfortable or we find it boring. We don’t speak up when God’s name is cursed because we are fearful for our reputations. Why is this? Because we are our top priority. Our comfort, our convenience, our desires, our success, our health, our pride– these are the things that often keep us from doing the right thing. Saying no to self and submitting to God’s will is a constant battle but one we can never stop fighting. Esther sets a great example for us.

4. Planning is best. Some of us — we know who we are– are the ones in this world who speak before we think. Instead of thinking and planning, we emphatically present our half-baked ideas in our efforts to fix things. Esther shows us a better way. Instead of going to the king and stating her case with tears and anger, she asks him to come to a banquet, along with Haman; carefully planning her presentation to the king. I have to be honest, reading that this time around, convicted me. She was so deliberate and so tactful in how she went about it. That does not tend to be how I present things. I want to be more like her when I have an urgent situation that needs to be remedied, don’t you?

5. When you live a life of sin, your whole family pays. Haman was a wicked man. His pride and desire for power cost him not only his life, but the lives of his ten sons. I wonder if sometimes we forget about the cost that is involved for our kids when we practice sin? When we can’t make our marriages work, it isn’t just us who pay. When we cheat or lie or steal, our kids are watching. Our pride, our complaining spirits, our grudges–all of these hurt those around us. Sin is not a solitary exercise, is it? Instead it encompasses everyone in our circle of influence, raining down consequences on those we love.

6. God can turn what looks to us like inescapable tragedy into triumph. Instead of the Jews’ enemies being able to eradicate them, the tables were miraculously turned and the Jews were able to rid themselves of many of their enemies through the king’s edict. Verse 1 of chapter nine says that “the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.” Think about how dreadful things looked for them only a few days before– there was much weeping and mourning about their certain doom. And yet, only a short time later, there they were– the victors! Of course, it doesn’t always happen this way, but we certainly do need to remember that anything is possible with God! The same God that saved the Jews in the book of Esther is the God we serve today. He has not changed. What a comforting thought!

And so concludes my lessons in Esther. I am sure there are more lessons there to be learned in this short book. Do you have any to share?

Today is October 1– and that means that we are now in the month that we start the New Testament! If you are still with me in the Bible Challenge, we can now say that we have made it almost 3/4 of the way through! Let’s keep going. Only a few months to go :)

The Red Glasses

4 Comments / September 28, 2015 September 28, 2015

I have had the strangest thing happen to me this summer. Not once or even twice– but three times! But let me start back at the beginning.

Earlier this summer, I could tell that my eyes were getting worse. I was sad to admit it, but the bottom line was that I had to increase my magnification in my reading glasses. Which meant I needed a new pair.

A few days later, I was out shopping and came across a cute display of polka-dotted reading glasses. I had a hard time choosing from the fun colors, but finally settled in on the red ones. I don’t usually pick such a bright color for glasses, but since I was just going to be using them at home I decided that it wouldn’t really matter.

The new glasses were quite comfortable and so they quickly became my go-to pair for my summer mornings on our porch swing, as I would spend some time with God, reading His Word and praying.

About a week or so after I got the glasses, I was reading when suddenly I heard the familiar whir of hummingbird wings. I eagerly looked up for my little familiar friend and saw her at one of the ivy geraniums in the hanging basket closest to me. I watched with interest until, quite suddenly, she started flying towards my face. She was about a foot away from me, when suddenly it dawned on me! It was the red glasses! I quickly removed them and the bird flew away.

About a month later, the same thing happened again.

And then, just on Friday, I heard the familiar whirring once more as the bird flew directly towards my head. I really wanted to see how close she would come, but I just couldn’t bring myself to take the chance of having my eye damaged by a hummingbird! I know it sounds silly, but when you are in the moment, it’s such a natural reaction to protect yourself. As she moved closer than ever before–within just a few inches of my face–I removed the glasses.

So why did this hummingbird keep coming towards my red glasses? Well, quite obviously, it was because they were red. If you know anything about hummingbirds you know that they love red flowers. I am assuming the little bird got a little mixed up and thought my glasses were a strange type of delectable flower. Can you imagine how disappointed she would have been if she would have actually tried to imbibe my glasses?

You would think that the hummingbird would have realized that just because something is red doesn’t mean that it’s worthy for consumption.

Of course, we often do the same thing.

We see something that is called “Christian”, it looks like it’s Christian, and we even have the added bonus of hearing well-meaning Christians rant and rave about it. And so we buy it. We consume it. And it changes our view of God.

I am thinking of books like The Shack* or Jesus Calling*, unbiblical books that have no basis in scripture but make us feel really good.

When we read books like this (these are just two of the most popular–there are so many others), we aren’t fed real food, but are instead consuming fake food. And, unlike the hummingbird with the glasses, the fake food tastes pretty good going down. It makes us feel special and gives us a perception of God that we like.

But if we compare it to scripture, we will see that these books do not hold truth.

Of course, in order to do that, we need to know and study the Word. We cannot spot the false if we don’t know Truth. I would guess that biblical illiteracy is the main reason so many of us Christians have such a hard time staying on the straight and narrow today. In this world of outrageous soundbites and instant everything, quiet and routine Bible study seems so old-fashioned and maybe even a little boring to some of us.

Can’t you see how clever Satan is? If he can keep Christians out of the Word of God then he has rendered us quite ineffective. We are like waves tossing to and fro, going one direction, then the next, never really knowing if something is really biblical or not. And because we don’t have the solid rock of the Word beneath us, we fall for books and teachers that are not teaching truth.

Jesus warns us that this is to be expected in Matthew 24:23-24– “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

There will always be — and have always been– false teachers. One of our most serious duties as believers is to study the truth in the Bible and then to use the insight and wisdom gained there to discern good from evil. We do this for all things secular and religious. The label “Christian” should not mean an automatic stamp of our approval, but instead should make us even more wary.

Oh, how I wish that our culture wasn’t filled with so many spiritual land mines. It’s frustrating. It’s especially frustrating when godly Christians defend books that aren’t biblical. Many well-meaning people love the books I mentioned. And yet, if we do any study at all (see below) we will have to admit that these books are not based on the biblical God but, instead, on some man’s imaginations of a warm,fuzzy god that is much more palatable to our rebellious hearts.

“Red glasses” (false teachings) absolutely abound in our culture, don’t they? How critical it is to keep ourselves fed on the truth of God’s Word so that we can discern the false.

*Below are some links for anyone who may be interested in the real truth about these popular books–

The Shack

http://www.gotquestions.org/The-Shack-review.html

https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/emergent-church-what-is-it/thirteen-heresies-in-the-shack/

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=12290

Jesus Calling

http://herescope.blogspot.ca/2013/11/another-jesus-calling.html

http://standupforthetruth.com/2013/01/is-jesus-calling-in-your-library/

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=17704

Is There a Wrong Way to Pray?

Leave a Comment / September 14, 2015 May 19, 2017

I saw the movie War Room on Friday night. While I sat watching the big screen in front of me, I found myself contemplating my own prayer life and the great need for growth in that area of my walk with God. While there are a few things in the movie to concern the biblically discerning viewer (I’ve listed them at the end of this post), I think it does remind people of a very important principle of the Christian life that we often forget:

We need to fight on our knees.

Oh, how often we get caught up in our daily lives, barely squeezing in a chapter or two of the Word and a few sentences of prayer each day. It is interesting to reflect on just how much this world would change if we Christians would pray longer, more often, and more sincerely.

But one of the things that worries me is, while I do think it is a good idea for Christians to pray more, I am also very concerned that Christians– moved by this movie to create their own War Room– will pick up unbiblical resources on prayer. And, oh, there are so many of them! This subject of prayer has been hijacked by the enemy and it’s one of the quickest ways for him to gain access to our hearts.

One of the most popular ways to pray right now is called Contemplative Prayer. This prayer focuses on saying the same word or sentence over and over and then being still and “emptying and opening” your mind for God to speak to you. However, prayer is never described in this way in the Bible.

Many people use Psalm 46:10 to promote this type of prayer. And yet, to do so would necessitate taking this verse very much out of context. If we read the whole chapter we will see that the verses before verse 10 are focused on God’s help in our time of storm. It is clear to see that when we get to this phrase “Be still and know that I am God” that it is referring to resting in the Lord, even in the raging storm, because God is still in control. This is a great example of how damaging it can be to take a verse out of its context.

There is a short, very helpful article over at gotquestions.org on this topic of Contemplative Prayer. I really encourage you to read it, so that you will be able to better discern the information you read or hear about prayer. But let me share a paragraph of that article here–

Contemplative prayer, by design, focuses on having a mystical experience with God. Mysticism, however, is purely subjective, and does not rely upon truth or fact. Yet the Word of God has been given to us for the very purpose of basing our faith, and our lives, on Truth (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What we know about God is based on fact; trusting in experiential knowledge over the biblical record takes a person outside of the standard that is the Bible.

The pattern for prayer that we are to follow was given to us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:6-15. As we read through the Lord’s example of praying, we will notice that He gives us no indication whatsoever that we are to sit still for hours, waiting for God to mystically speak to us, neither before we start speaking to God or after we are done speaking to Him. In fact, there really is no mention of this anywhere in the Bible.

And if we do just a little research, we will find that this practice of emptying and opening our minds for supernatural messages comes straight from false religions and has nothing to do with biblical Christianity.

So, yes, there is a wrong way to pray. And we need to be very careful. As I’ve mentioned so many times before, Christianity today is full of land mines. We need to constantly keep our guards up and be looking for red flags. Not in a “witch hunt” type of way, but in a concerned and prudent way, comparing everything that comes across our path to what the Word of God says.

If you are truly interested in strengthening your prayer life, as I am, then where can we turn for some good biblical resources on this subject of prayer? Unfortunately, we have to go back a few years to find the best resources. If you’ve never read some of these classics, I highly encourage you to do so.

Perhaps you say to yourself, “I just can’t read stuff like that.” Well, then, let me tell you a little story. I was right where you are. I felt the same way. I found them dull and dry and could barely get through any nonfiction book, much less an old, musty one written by a guy who lived fifty or more years before I was born. But, one day, I simply made the decision to push through the book Humility by Andrew Murray. And that book changed my life. Not only with what was written within its pages (which is excellent, by the way!), but by showing me that I could not only read those books but also that they would be a great asset to my growth as a Christian. Yes, it was work to get through the first book like this and sometimes I had to read a paragraph three times before I got it, but, oh, it was so very worth it! And the good news is that it grows easier and easier with each one. You are never too old to train your mind.

So did my little story convince any of you to pick up one of these books on prayer? I hope so! I asked my brother, Pastor Dean, for his favorite books on prayer. Here is the list he gave me–

A Call to Prayer by J.C. Ryle (this one is more of a booklet and a great one to pick up first)

A Privy Key to Heaven by Thomas Brooks

Prayer by John Bunyan

A Method for Prayer by Matthew Henry

If you do prefer to read more recent authors, then I would recommend this book. I found it to be biblically sound and extremely helpful–

Alone with God by John MacArthur

Prayer is a very important topic and we can’t treat it lightly. Contemplative, mystical prayer has become almost the norm. Test all things through the scriptures–no matter how good and “spiritual” it sounds–as you work to build a stronger and deeper prayer life.

Issues and concerns from the movie War Room for the biblically discerning viewer–

There is a scene where the main character moves throughout her house shouting at the devil to get out of her home. But I can’t find anywhere in scripture where we are ever encouraged to have a conversation with the devil. I believe that God will take care of that for us. He fights for us and we can rest in His hands. Getting into that shadowy world of speaking to Satan and demons is dangerous and unbiblical business. Here is a great post on this topic if you’d like to study this further.
I think this movie may have the possibility of leading us to the grave danger of treating our heavenly Father like He is our own personal genie, waiting to do our beck and call. While I understand the dilemma presented in this movie for the producers–they had to show the mighty power of God and how He can work and so we needed a happy ending–I would hate for anyone to think that God is going to make life perfect if they just start praying. The truth of the matter is that many women pray for years and years for their husbands to be saved. If you read last Thursday’s post, you will remember that my friend prayed for 32 long years before her husband came to know the Lord. Just because we get on our knees and pray does not mean we will get the answers we want in the time frame we desire. Prayer is not some magical formula that puts all the puzzle pieces of our lives together. Now, can God work? Oh, my goodness! Yes! I have seen Him do marvelous things! But does He always choose to? No. And the fact that this wayward husband turned to the Lord so quickly, while making for a nice happy ending, was pretty unrealistic. If you are a wife who was convicted to pray for her husband by this movie, please, please don’t get discouraged if things don’t end up like this. It might take years. It may even take a lifetime. I remember reading once of George Muller’s prayer list of five unsaved people. In his lifetime he watched three of those people come to know the Lord. But the final two never got saved until after he died. We need to keep praying, even when we don’t get the results we want. And that may be the hardest thing of all.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

2 Comments / September 3, 2015 September 3, 2015

A few months ago, we celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary. I talked a bit about that in this post, sharing a few bits and pieces of their testimony of God’s faithfulness as they presented it on that day. But this celebration came to mind, once again, when we started Lamentations in our Bible Challenge this week (I am a few days behind, so perhaps it was last week for you). I always love to hear the stories of God’s faithfulness to His people, through all of the stressful moments, questions, and dark places.

And it becomes clear that we Christians don’t lead an easy life, but traverse through the same fallen, broken world as our unsaved counterparts. In fact, many times our lives may be harder because of the hatred that we experience from a world that can’t see the Truth.

We love to quote verses 22-23–

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

In fact, these are two of my favorite Bible verses. But I guess I never really thought about the context of these verses. The words of God’s faithfulness come after several verses of really hard things that God has allowed. Seriously, go read all of chapter three–even if you aren’t doing the Bible challenge. It’s full of unbelievable difficulty and pain. But then we get to those glorious verses of God’s promised faithfulness.

No, the Christian life isn’t easy, but we are never alone and God provides just the right amount of grace and peace we need to get through the difficult tunnels in which we all find ourselves sometimes. Some of us travel through more tunnels than others. And some are longer and pitch black. But we all have our tunnels of blackness through which we walk in this life.

I finished a book about a small country in Asia this week and it brought all of this so fresh to mind. It was the story of a new church with people who had never heard anything about the true God of the Universe who loved them enough to send His Son. It was the glorious testimony of the difference God’s Word makes in the lives of people, despite the weaknesses of the messengers. But the most noteworthy part of the story was that the people of this village that turned to Christ endured prison, persecution, and maltreatment with songs in their hearts. It was amazing. They counted it joy to be in prison for Christ and although they suffered illness and great trauma, God walked with them each and every step. (As a side note, I do not feel good about recommending this book because, although God’s powerful Word did what it always does, the missionary that brought God’s book to this village seemed to be a little mixed up in His faith, seemingly caught up in some philosophies of men and causing me to wonder if even really understood what the Bible says!)

But this story reminded me that no matter what is ahead of us, God will remain faithful. And, actually, Eric and I were just talking about that the other night as we drove home alone in the car. We can look back and see choices we have made or events that have happened that caused us great fear and trembling. What would become of us? Did we do the right thing? And, yet, through it all, God worked and changed and grew us and now we can look back and see God’s hand through it all.

Reading about God’s faithfulness, talking of God’s faithfulness with fellow Christians, and seeing it in our own lives firsthand are a big part of what makes us stronger as believers. It helps to take the pointlessness and frustration out of the hard times– giving us hope for coming through our present trials stronger and looking more like Jesus.

Verses 25 & 26 of Lamentations 3 aren’t quoted as often, but they, too provide such hope–

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.

God’s faithfulness is real. It is not a made-up fairy tale told by naive and stupid people who need a crutch of faith to get them through life. It’s real and amazing and incredible! Follow hard after God and study His Word and you, too, will experience it. And that is a promise I feel I can confidently make.

Why Does It Matter What I Believe About Creation?

2 Comments / August 27, 2015 August 27, 2015

I have not really addressed the topic of creation on this blog before. Or at least I don’t remember having done so. But as I have been reading through Jeremiah I have been struck by a few of the statements this prophet makes that absolutely discount evolution. I wonder– if you are still with me in our G4L Bible Reading Challenge— if you caught them, too?

Jeremiah 10:12 It is He who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

Jeremiah 27:5 It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.

When I read these verses, I am reminded once again that scripture unapologetically confirms that God is the powerful Creator– creating all that is in the world from absolutely nothing and doing so completely in six 24-hour days. For my theist evolutionist friends, I ask you: What power is shown by an outstretched arm that creates a tiny cell? That statement seems completely incongruous, does it not?

There are many passages in scripture that would also confirm a six-day creation–

Deuteronomy 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Psalm 148:3-6

Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord!

    For he commanded and they were created.

And he established them forever and ever;

    he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
These are just a few of the verses that confirm God’s creation of the world. You can choose to believe it or you can choose to not believe it. But melting two totally opposing world views together is just not a logical possibility.
But why does our viewpoint on creation even matter? What is really the big deal?
I learned a really key point several years ago from Ken Ham, whom I was privileged to hear at a conference for homeschoolers. Many people haven’t given this a lot of thought but it is critical to this argument of theistic creation. And that is the subject of death. If the world was only started by God and then left to develop on its own, as many Christians proclaim, then death would have entered the world before sin. Do you see how this changes everything? Millions of creatures would have had to die before Adam and Eve came upon the scene. And yet, we are taught all through scripture that death is the result of sin. If death came before sin, then what exactly is the punishment for sin? And if the gospel doesn’t save us from death, then what does it save us from? I turn your attention to the following verses–
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
James 1:15  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 
 I Corinthians 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
 
These are verses from the New Testament confirming that death is a result of sin–that death came by man. Can you see how believing in any form of evolution systematically destroys the inerrancy of the Word of God? If death isn’t the result of sin and the world’s theory of evolution is correct, then not only do we need to conclude that the Genesis account is allegorical, but we also are forced to believe that the New Testament authors lied, therefore concluding that we can’t trust any of  the Bible. Believing in theistic evolution doesn’t only destroy Genesis, it destroys the whole Word of God!

I find it more than a little interesting that we Christians find ourselves caving so easily to the brainwashing of society. If you do any studying at all, you will realize that there is no possible way that such a vast and wonderful creation could have ever happened by chance. There is NO scientific evidence for an intricately designed organ developing from a simple cell. Not even one shred. And, in fact, do a quick google search of intelligent design and you will find that even many non-Christian scientists are coming to the conclusion that there must be a designer–although they will certainly not admit to God as Creator. In fact, some of them even suggest that aliens on another planet created the world here before they will admit that there is a God. (Romans 1:22)

Did you know that even Darwin himself admitted the implausibility of his theory? John MacArthur puts it this way–

“It was a hard sell. Even Darwin had a hard time with it. If you read anything of Darwin’s you find he’s continually filling all his writings with tremendous doubts. For example, he says in the sixth chapter of his Origin of Species, “Long before having arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to the reader. Some of them are so grave that to this day I can never reflect on them without being staggered.” In his chapter on instinct he conceded, “Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.” And to think, he said, that the eye could evolve “by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” In his chapter on imperfections in the geological record he complained that the complete lack of fossil intermediates in all geological records was perhaps, quote, “the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.” In other words, he was at least honest enough to admit that the thing didn’t make any sense.”**

So why this elaborate theory to remove God from the picture? A look at Darwin’s life may help us gain at least a bit of understanding. Charles Darwin lost his precious daughter, Anne, to illness when she was only ten. She was the light of his life and he was absolutely crushed when she died.

Wikipedia says this about Anne Darwin—

According to biographers, she was a delightful child who brought much happiness to her parents. Eminent Darwin scholar E. Janet Browne writes of her:

“Anne was… the apple of her proud father’s eye, his favourite child, he confessed to” [his friend and cousin William Darwin] Fox. “More than any of the other children she treated him with a spontaneous affection that touched him deeply; she liked to smooth his hair and pat his clothes into shape, and was by nature self-absorbedly neat and tidy, cutting out delicate bits of paper to put away in her workbox, threading ribbons, and sewing small things for her dolls and make-believe worlds.”^[1]

In 1849, Anne caught scarlet fever along with her two sisters,^[2] and her health thereafter declined; some authorities believe that she suffered from tuberculosis. In vain pursuit of help from Gully‘s water cure, Charles Darwin took his daughter to the Worcestershirespa town, Great Malvern. She died in Montreal House on the Worcester Road, aged ten, and was buried in the Great Malvern Priory churchyard.

Annie’s death was a terrible blow for her parents.^[3] Charles wrote in a personal memoir “We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age…. Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still & and shall ever love her dear joyous face.”^[4]

Here was a man greatly distressed at the hand he had been dealt in life. Instead of shaking his fist at the Heavens and cursing God, he chose to write Him completely out of history. Perhaps that was an easier explanation for the tragic events of his life than believing in a God who would allow such a thing? I don’t really know this, of course, having never met the man nor studied him at great length, but grief is a very powerful thing. And so it does make one consider the possibility.

I wonder if Darwin had any inkling that the ridiculous and illogical theory he concocted would become a giant, hard ball of snow, hurtling down the hill that is the world, destroying all in its path?

Even if the majority of the scientific community changed their viewpoint to intelligent design right now at this moment, the damage of Darwin’s theory has been done. There is no going back. We have an entire country– or perhaps a whole world–who believe they are nothing more than a bunch of cells and that there are no moral absolutes. Ah, yes, enormous damage has been done. The God of the Bible has been effectively removed from the picture and man feels free to do whatever he wants without fear of consequences. The world will never be the same.

As believers, we need to continue to stand strong and firm on the Word of God. I leave you with this statement by John MacArthur–

And there are only two options when it comes to origins. The two options are: there is a Creator God, or there is not. Those are the only two options. There either is a Creator God or there is not. If there is not, then everything is an impossible, implausible, irrational result of chance. And the equation that I gave you last week is “nobody times nothing equals everything.” If on the other hand there is a creative intelligence, if there is a Creator God, then creation is understandable. It is possible, it is plausible, it is rational. And even the scientists who have left their mark on the scientific world, those who think honestly and make honest confessions about origins, will tell you that there must be a creative intelligence. Even Einstein said that.**

Be strong and courageous, my friends! Keep the Bible as the fixed and solid ground beneath your feet and you will stand firm. Let the scientific world sway you and you will become like the wind, shifting and lurching with every new “theory” that comes along.

**John MacArthur quotes are from his excellent series “The Battle for the Beginning”, which I highly recommend and is available for download, free of charge.