You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2011.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
A few years ago the then-governor of Minnesota made the statement that “Faith is for weak-minded people.” However, weak-minded faith is faith in something that isn’t true. Weak-minded faith is faith in a lie, a system, a human, a philosophy.
Faith in the one and only triune God isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength and courage. It’s faith with a capital ‘F’.
A person with this kind of Faith has the strength to face the challenges of life with the attitude that says I’ll do what I can to make my world better, knowing all the while that the success of my venture isn’t dependent on me but on God.
A person of Faith makes mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are huge. Sometimes those mistakes are willful choices to take the easy way. But in the end the person of faith is secure in knowing that they are loved by God. This person of faith, even when far from where he/she wants to be continues to battle back. Knowing all the while that their ‘righteousness’ isn’t based on their actions but on their hearts desire for a fulfilling relationship with God.
A person of Faith sees the social ills of the world around him/her and works to make them better all the while making the sacrifices needed to show the love and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Even to those people who they disagree with. Even to those people who abuse the system. This person knows that true justice will never come to this world at the hands of mankind but still works towards that end.
A person of Faith looks at family and friends who are living apart from God and loves them back into the kingdom. They realize that restoration of the soul takes time and effort and prayer. They realize that relationship is more important than condemnation and that restoration is done better with gentle hands and patience than a sledge hammer and duct tape.
A person of Faith thinks before he/she talks. Puts themselves in the other person’s shoes before taking action to change things. Loves in the midst of hatred. Brings an attitude of calm in the midst of the storm. A person of Faith realizes that the still quiet voice based on Godly principles is much louder that a beating drum and blaring speakers or legalism.
PRAYER: Father God. I want to be a person of Faith. I’m so frustrated right now with where I find myself on the journey of life. I’m angered and frightened by what I see going on around me both on the world-wide scale and in my own corner of the world. Empower me with your spirit to practice strong faith. Faith that says no matter what happens I know you are in complete control. Help my actions be the change-agent my loved ones need. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 (NLT)
Does it seem to you like the more intelligent we get and the better we get at communicating, the harder it is to know the right answers to the questions of life? Take a look at the struggles around the world. Look at the problems in your own home. Your Church. Your community. What of these problems could be resolved by relationships based on the mind of Christ?
The answer of course, if you are a Christ-follower, is most likely, all of them! The problem is, each of us needs to remember that we live in a world that doesn’t ‘have the mind of Christ’. What does the mind of Christ look like? One needs only look at the gospels.
Jesus lived in a political climate that could best be described as a dictatorship. The Jews, of which Jesus was one, were looked upon as a bunch of religious lunatics! In a society that worshipped many gods, the Jews held to the ridiculous notion that there was one God! There was absolute truth in Judaism, whereas Greco/Roman thinking held to truth on a relative scale. Sound familiar?
Yet the mindset of Christ rose above evil governments, empty religion and a godless society. He lived the kind of life that was attractive to the prostitute, the drug addict, the person held captive by lust or their past or physical and emotional abuse. The mind of Jesus gave enlightenment and wisdom in situations that needed solutions to life. He didn’t concern himself with the external situations. He neither went against or supported any political agenda. His mind was set on helping people cope with the journey called life.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have the wisdom to sort through things? Wouldn’t it be great if you could rise above earthly concerns and have the wisdom to find answers for yourself and others in your own little niche’ of the world?
Good news! You can. Paul tells us we have the mind of Christ when we accept him as Savior. Does that mean things on this earth will be easy? Certainly not. Does that mean others will see you as wise? Not a chance.
What it does mean is that when you confess Jesus as Lord of your life he moves in for good. He isn’t just visiting. He’s making a change of residence. When Jesus moves in, lives change, outlook changes even when external circumstances attack, peace reigns.
PRAYER: Father, the more I see of life around me the more frustrated I get. People seem so set on their own agendas that they completely disregard the needs of others. Forgive me for the times I get sucked into that mindset. Empower me by your Spirit to see life as you see it. Help me to live in the wisdom of your word even when it’s contrary to ‘worldly wisdom’. Help others to see Jesus in me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? John 14:2
Life has been described by some as a journey and in many ways it is. There is, however, an aspect of life which drives us to find a place to settle in, to find our niche’ in life, to find contentment, peace and fulfillment.
We look for this place in a variety of ways. For some it’s relationship. We have the need to love and be loved, and love looks different to different people. All too often relationships in and of themselves fail us. Love grows old. Our perspective on life changes. Things attack and seek to destroy relationship. When relationship dies, we find ourselves without a place in the journey.
Career is another avenue along the journey that people take to find their ‘place’ in life. Years of schooling, hours of hard work, sacrificing important things, including relationships, all for the goal of finding contentment and fulfillment in life. Times change. We grow old. But the luster of the almighty dollar becomes more of a burden than a blessing.
These are just two ways we seek to find our ‘place’ in this journey called life. You can add your own. It may be choosing friends over family, or family over friends; it may be religion and the hopes that your piety will win you some favor with your gods and man; it could be some addiction which allows you a few moments of escape from the potholes and rocks along the path; it could be community service and drowning your own pain by helping others out of theirs.
What ever it is we seek along this journey we come to the realization that Jesus was right after all. One day as he was talking with his disciples about the cost of following him he made the statement “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20.
In this is a truth we each must come to grips with. Even if we are Christ-followers and walk close to our Heavenly Father. Even if our relationships with God and man are strong and filled with love, grace and mercy, there’s emptiness in our soul that longs for a place of rest.
Dear pilgrim, let me remind you, as many New Testament writers have, that we are sojourners in a foreign land. This world is not our home. The more we seek a resting place, the more we realize that in spite of the comfort of our resting places, the rest is temporary.
One day, though we will rest! We will find a place where we will finally be able to fill the gaping space in our souls. A place where we will have and be and do all that we were created to do.
Jesus says, “I’m going to prepare a place…” Not just any place. Not a one-size-fits all place. Jesus left to go and prepare a place designed just for you! I like the idea of ‘rooms’. Special places in a large home where we can enjoy our time alone, yet always be close to those we love!
PRAYER; Father God, I often lose sight of what it really means to be on a journey. So many times I’ve tried to find ‘home’ in the things of the world and been disappointed in the result. Empower me with your Spirit to live in the realization that this world is not my home. With all the good things I’ve been blessed with, I look forward to coming home to you, to a place you have prepared just for me. Thank you for loving me so much! In Jesus name, Amen.
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. John 9:31
Imagine how you would feel if the person you loved more than anything else in the world would only say the same lines every day to you. The responses were predictable, rehearsed and said largely in a monotone. Some days there would be NO conversation at all. Some times there would be new words but only if there were some crisis or your cherished one wanted something from you. Would you look forward to spending time talking with that person?
Suppose you caught your child with his hand in the cookie jar. As you reprimand him/her for taking a cookie you get an apology. But as you listen to the apology your child continues to eat the cookie…and take another one! Would you consider his words as sincere?
What if you were sitting talking at a coffee shop with a dear friend who you hadn’t seen in years. You are trying to listen to what your friend has to say but the subject line seems to change without warning. Thoughts are left unfinished and on occasion your friend simply stops talking as though they have run out of things to say. Once or twice you were sure they had even dozed off! To make things worse, you aren’t allowed to even say a word and when you tried you know you weren’t heard!
I’m guessing, in the first instance you would question the reality of the person’s love for you. In the second instance the apology of the cookie-munching thief would be meaningless. The coffee shop talk? Frustrating to say the least.
Now think of those same three scenes and change characters. Imagine that it’s God that is listening to the words of his loved one. It’s you that rehearses your canned conversation on a daily basis. And while you are apologizing for your mistakes (cookie-snatching) you make no effort to change your actions.
Then there is the scene in the coffee shop. Do you think that if God were sitting across the table listening to your chatter he’d come to a point where he’d realize he didn’t need to be there? That you could carry on this conversation without him…or anyone else for that matter?
Take time to listen to your prayers. If God were visible would your pray differently? Would your words have more meaning? Would your worship be more and your requests be less? Would you listen for his response more and complain about your life less?
Meaningful, effective prayer comes when we look at it as conversation and not a one-way discourse. Your heavenly Father is passionate about you. Let that sink in for a moment. He’s a passionate lover who smiles every time he sees you. His heart skips a beat when he hears your voice. His attention hangs on every word from your mouth.
But often our prayers are rote and trite phrases. We forget that even though he wants to hear us, sin can hinder any prayer that isn’t bathed in heart-felt, sincere confession. We don’t give him the time to speak to us.
Spend some time learning to converse with God, not deluge him with dead words. Spend time learning about him, reading his word, listening for his voice. Time spend with your lover is time spent on the eternal. He longs to hear from you.
PRAYER: Father God. I’m convicted as I realize that I’m so often guilty of offering meaningless chatter rather than conversation with you. Help me to pray with the realization that you are in the room beside me, sitting across the table from me, earnestly wanting to hear from me. Forgive me for the sin that keeps us apart. Empower me with your Spirit to grow in relationship with you through conversational prayer. In Jesus name, Amen.
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, Hebrews 6:1
Ever noticed how everyone is drawn to a baby? It’s always amazed me how a little, helpless bundle of flesh can turn otherwise normal and intelligent human beings into babbling idiots! Okay, maybe that was a bit strong, but how else do you describe the antics, silly words and gestures we do to make ‘baby’ smile?
We coo and aah. We smile and make funny faces. We say senseless things like “So Big!” What does that mean? What’s the significance of a 12 pound, 25 inch, bald bundle of joy spreading his or her arms and smiling like they have a clue as what you are talking about?
Okay, I’ve ranted on long enough on that. The fact of the matter, as I’ve stated earlier, is that we all love babies. There isn’t a one of us parents that haven’t said something to the effect of “I wish they wouldn’t grow up” as they leave the toddler years and become more independent. Then, of course they become teenagers and we change our tune to “I wish they’d just grow up!”
Fact of the matter is, if a baby doesn’t grow up and become more mature physically, emotionally and intellectually they simply can’t function in society. All of life is centered on the idea of maturing, growing and becoming more independent.
The same is true in our spiritual lives. The Apostle Paul talks of the Corinthian believers as being immature children still needing milk when they should be eating steak! Peter says something similar when he tells us we should long for the milk of the word so that we can grow up!
Too many times we get hung up in our walk with Christ. We are, so to speak spiritually, developmentally delayed. We focus on our failures when we should act on our freedom. We worry when we should work. We criticize when we should cooperate. We protect the ways we always did things when we should press on to new horizons.
Our God is not a shallow God. He is not stagnant. He is unchanging in character but not in how he interacts with others. Remember that in order for relationship, any relationship to be strong it must grow deeper. A love relationship is one in which two people continue to learn more and more about each other.
The same is true with God. Don’t get hung up on your past. Don’t get hung up on your failures. Don’t allow yourself to become stagnant because you don’t have this gift, or that ability or the right amount of money or resources. Grow deep with God. Devour His word. Don’t just read a passage, study it. Mediate on it. Talk with God often. Grace teaches us that your heavenly Father wants to deepen his relationship with you so that he can show you great and mighty things.
Be willing to listen and learn. Don’t be like the infant that never grows up. The closer you walk with God the deeper and more exciting your life will be.
PRAYER: Father God. I confess to you that sometimes I act more like a spiritual two-year old than an adult because I demand my own way even if it will harm me. Other times I’m like a teenager and think I know more than you do about how things should be. I get hung up on me rather than growing in you. Empower me with your spirit to grow deeper in my understanding of you. Help me love you more so I can live in the freedom you intended. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 