Faith #1

One of the most significant developments in North American Christianity in the last forty years has been the growth of the faith movement.  Word of faith preachers teach that it is God's will for us to experience physical health and financial prosperity and that if we are not experiencing these things it is due to a lack of faith on our part.  This rapidly growing movement is very controversial with many prominent teachers labeling parts of it as being heretical.  The greatest controversy seems to be centered on three main areas:  to what extent does God want us to prosper financially; to what extent does God want to heal us physically; and to what extent are we to be considered "gods" (note the small "g") because we are created in the image of God.

My purpose in writing today is not to enter into controversy in any of these three areas.  My purpose is to examine what the faith movement is teaching about faith itself and to apply it to areas of the Christian life other than prosperity and healing.  I believe that the doctrine of faith is one of vital importance to both the church of God as a whole and to individual Christians.  Faith is the key to receiving everything that God has for us.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Faith is the key that brings the promises of God to life and causes the power of God to be manifest in our lives.  Faith has applications far beyond physical healing and financial prosperity and we can learn a great deal from the word of faith teachers about how a Christian can grow and develop their faith.

I can't think of a better place to start studying faith than by sitting at the feet of Jesus' younger brother.  In the first chapter of the Epistle of James he wrote, "but if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."  (James 1:5 NASB)  The promise seems simple and clear; in fact he sounds very much like his older brother.  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."  (Matthew 7:7 NASB)

James and Jesus both base their expectation that you will receive an answer to prayer on the goodness of God.  James points out that "God … gives to all generously and with reproach."  Jesus tells us that "if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?"  (Matthew 7:11) 

I think that there are two important lessons we need to learn at this point.  The first lesson is that we need to be very careful to keep our hearts and minds clear from anything that would cause us to doubt the goodness of God.  When trials arise it is so easy for us to begin to doubt the goodness of God.  A clear understanding of God is essential to strong faith.  In fact, I think a lot of faith teachers sort of misplace their emphasis in this area.  We don't have faith in our strong faith, we have faith in God.  I would say that a man's faith is just as great as his knowledge of God, and no greater.

The second lesson is that God will answer prayer, but He will only answer by giving us that which is good.  "Your Father who is in heaven" will "give what is good to those who ask Him."  Real Biblical faith operates in harmony with the will of God.  There is no promise in the Bible that will enable you to claim something in faith that is contrary to the will of God.  I might think that it would be "good" for me to win the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes right now, but God may not see it that way.  God knows that "the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil" (I Timothy 6:9 NASB) and that a good man should be "free from the love of money" (I Timothy 3:3 NASB).  He knows that it would be harmful for me to have more financial prosperity than soul maturity (3 John 2).  So He might decide that winning that money wouldn't be "good" for me and because of that He might not answer that prayer.

But then James goes on to expand upon the prayer process with an emphasis on faith.  "But he must ask in faith without any doubting."  (James 1:6 NASB)  Once again He sounds remarkably like his older brother who told us that we could move mountains with our words, but only if the man speaking in faith "does not doubt in his heart."  (Mark 11:23 NASB)  Jesus goes a step beyond James by locating the part of our being where faith is exercised:  the heart.  Satan may be attacking, putting thoughts of doubt in your head, but when you have the full assurance of faith your heart remains untroubled by these thoughts as it rests on the promises of God.

James adds this critical information.  A man who doubts "is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.  For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord."  (James 1:6, 7 NASB)  Have you ever noticed that before?  Faith doesn't just apply to prosperity or healing; it doesn't just apply to receiving wisdom or moving mountains; a man with doubts in his heart should expect to "receive anything from the Lord."  If I can't receive anything without faith then faith must be the key to receiving everything that God has to give me.  Faith is critical.  Faith is central.  Faith is important.  Faith is a really, really big deal.

How can I grow in faith until I reach the point where I can ask God for something without doubting in my heart?  That is the question that is before us and that is the question we shall seek to answer in the days to come.

Quotation of the day

Happiness is nothing but that inward sweet delight, which will arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God.—From the book "Joy and Strength," quoted in Tozer on the Holy Spirit

Where do we think we're going? (Part 4)

We've been talking about being heavenly minded and receiving heavenly rewards.  By way of review, here is the basic

concept.  If you are a Christian every single good thing you have ever done has been permanently recorded and you will receive a reward for it in the life to come.  Now you may be wondering, "Why would God make a big deal out of little acts of kindness?  Why would God reward me for reading my Bible or praying or going to church?  I should be doing those things anyway!"

The answer to the question has to do with what's inside of us and where we live.  What is inside of us is a nature that has been contaminated by the power of sin.  It's easy to be bad.  Imagine what would happen if you just let yourself go, if you started to live by impulse alone without self control.  Most of us would be in jail before the end of the week. 

And if that weren't bad enough we have to contend with what the Bible calls the world and the devil.  The "world" is the society you live in with it's lifestyle and values.  Trying to live for God on this planet is like standing waist deep in a stream while trying to walk against the current.  There is a relentless pressure pushing you in the wrong direction.  And then there is the devil.  He really exists.  He has minions.  And they do tempt you.  They attempt to mess with your mind and twist your thinking.  And they have had thousands of years of practice in the manipulation of human souls.

You've got all of that going against you.  So this is how I would sum it all up.  For a human being, born with a sin contaminated nature, and having to struggle against the devil and the world, goodness requires a gritty determination that is very precious in the sight of God.  (Yes, I know that we can't overcome these forces on our own and that we have to rely on Him for the strength to do right.) 

So how, exactly, is this going to work?  How is He going to acknowledge and reward us?  I can't tell you exactly because I don't know exactly, but here are a couple of ideas.

Every time you meet someone for the first time in heaven God could introduce you to that person by doing a "data transfer" directly into your mind.  What kind of data would God be transmitting to you?  Think about a grandparent raving about their new grandchild. Imagine what it would be like if, when the new grandparent showed you pictures of the new grandchild, you were actually able to feel exactly what the grandparent was feeling for that child.  Imagine what it would be like if you could share those emotions along with the pictures.

God has recorded every single thing good thing that you have ever done because this information is important to Him.  It pleases Him.  And so when you meet someone for the first time you might get a sudden revelation of every single good thing they ever did and with that information you would also feel exactly what God feels when He thinks about that information.  You would actually feel the love, the tenderness, and the pride God feels when He thinks about that other person.  And they would have the same experience as God "introduced" you to them!

Here's the other idea:  reality TV!  John said that everything was being written down when he wrote the Revelation.  I wonder, if he was writing it today, if he would say that everything was being filmed?  Please keep in mind that every single thing that has ever happened could, very easily, be reproduced as a film from the mind of God who sees everything and remembers everything.

A few weeks ago a young man I know was at a wedding.  That evening, after the wedding, another wedding guest made a "move" on him.  This woman knew he was engaged to be married but apparently that didn't matter to her one bit!  They were staying at the same motel and it was only by saying "No!" repeatedly and forcefully that he was able to keep this woman out of his room (not to mention his bed).  To which we might be tempted to respond, "Ho hum!  Okay, he did the right thing, but was it really that big a deal?  Do we need to give him a Merit Badge or something?"

But that's not the way that God looks at it.  To God, every act of goodness is an important moment.  He records it.  He cherishes it.  He will reward us for it.  That reward could include something very much like our reality TV.  God might honor us by taking episodes out of our lives and turning them into entertainment in the life to come.  Wouldn't it be cool to be able to see the demon perched on this woman's shoulder (if there was one at that moment, there is no way to know for sure) whispering in her ear?  And to be able to see the thing jump over to the young man and whisper in his ear?  And then to see the young man, a committed follower of Jesus Christ, say "No!" not just to the young woman, but to his own sinful desires, to the way most of the world operates, and to the evil spirit behind the whole thing?  That episode of reality TV could then go on to explore the implications of how the young man's life turned out.  It could show the impact of the sin (had he committed it) on his later life and on his family.  Would this sexual sin have opened the door to further infidelities?  Would it have been the first step on a course that would have eventually lead him down a path that would have resulted in dishonor to God and the life long emotional scaring of his wife and children?  Then the TV program could go on to record the way his life did turn out.  We'd be able to see the whole incident from God's point of view.

In some way God is going to acknowledge us and honor us for the good we do in this life.  The actually process by which He does this will probably be much cooler than either of the two ideas that I have suggested.

God is recording the fact that you are reading this blog right now.  He knows what else you could be doing with this time.  He knows how many millions of web sites there are and how you could, if you wanted to, be spending your time on something entertaining instead of trying to saturate your mind with His truth.  (Although I would like to think that some of my wilder ideas might also be at least a little bit entertaining.)  It's not wrong to read for entertainment on the web; I do it all the time.  But when you give that time to God instead of using it for something frivolous you are taking a small piece of your life and giving it to him like an offering.  He notices and He remembers.

Let me sum up by sharing with you the words of a morning prayer that I wrote.

Heavenly Father, it is my sincere desire to live for the praise of Your glory this day. 

I want to please You in everything I do. 

I want to do all my work for You. 

Make me ever mindful of the fact that You are keeping score and that seemingly insignificant actions will bring future rewards. 

Help me to understand that there are no insignificant actions - that the cameras are on and the film is rolling

My life is my ministry. 

Every day is a sermon.

Every human interaction is a witness. 

Every moment counts. 

What I said at Bob and Beth's wedding

Robert and Bethany, our hope for you is that in your marriage you will be able to live the dream.  D  R  E  A  M.  Dream.

D is for daring.

Dare to dream that you will be able to keep your wedding vows.

You are about to make a commitment to one another that includes the words “for better or for worse until death do us part.”  I’ve often wondered if some couples would be more honest if they were to promise “to have and to hold as long as you don’t get on my nerves too much, in which case I’ll drop you like a bad habit!”

Your wedding vows, the promises that you make to one another in the sight of God, are the foundation of your marriage.  By understanding what you are actually promising and making a whole hearted commitment to those vows you start off on the right path in your journey together.  By looking back on those vows and recommitting to them when the going gets tough you stay on course in your determination to live your lives according to the will of God.  Your wedding ring is a symbol of those sacred promises.  Every time you look at it or adjust it on your finger, may you be reminded of the sacred promises that you will make this day.  

As you dare to believe that you will keep your wedding promises, may you also … 

Dare to believe that you can keep the flame of romance alight.

Romance is like a fire; it will burn as long as it has fuel.  Most marriages don’t maintain an even heat when it comes to the fire of romance, and that’s okay.  To some extent it’s probably inevitable.   But when things begin to cool off, it’s up to somebody to get up and put some wood on that fire.

If you ever end up staying in a cabin in the winter where the only heat source is a wood fire in an old iron stove, along about 3:00 AM somebody is going to have to make a decision.  Do I stay in bed under the covers, where I’m actually quite warm, or do I get up and expose my body to the chill that is creeping into this room so that I can put some wood on the fire?  Do I sacrifice comfort now, or do I wait until the morning when I’ll have to get up in spite of the fact that it will probably be about 35 degrees in this cabin?  

 

Don’t think that marriage is the end of flirting and “putting the moves” on the other person.  If it’s getting a little chilly, get up out of that bed and throw some wood of the fire.  You’ve already learned how to capture each other’s hearts.  Don’t let those skills atrophy.  Continue in hot pursuit of one another.  Dare to dream that you can keep romantic love alive.  It takes a little work, but it’s certainly better than the alternative, which is emotional frostbite.

R is for being realistic

One thing I believe with all my heart:  you take Robert and add Bethany and you end up with something the world has never seen before and will never see again.  That’s not to say that you can’t learn from what others have experienced; you can.  But when you take two human personalities and mix them together there is a sense in which you are like a mad scientist mixing together two chemical compounds that have never been mixed together before.  It’s like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re going to get.

The next few years may be among the happiest of your life, but they could also be some of the most challenging times you will ever face.  More than likely they will fall somewhere in the middle of that scale, but the fact of the matter is, no one knows exactly what will happen.

This is what we do know.  The materials you are mixing together are both wonderful and terrible.  You have two people born in the image of God and born again by the Spirit of God.  And that’s wonderful.  But you also have two sinners washed clean by the blood of Christ but not yet made perfect.  And therein lies the potential for difficulties.

If I might offer you some simple advice, I would suggest that you both go ahead and skip your first marriage and consider this your second marriage.  In a first marriage people have a tendency to love, not what they are marrying, but a collection of spare parts that they believe they can rearrange and reconstruct into a suitable spouse.  They are excited to be marrying this person, but of course, there are a number of changes that will need to be made.  And they honestly expect the other person to make all of these changes while the other person has their own little secret laundry list of improvements that they intend to make on the first person.

Five to six years later after a great deal of heart break and thousands of dollars in legal fees they are done with their first marriage and they then go on to marry the person that they will probably spend the rest of their life with.  Battle scarred and much wiser, they now realize that “what you see is what you are pretty much going to be stuck with” and they are much more willing to be realistic and accepting of the second person.

“What you see is pretty much what you are going to be stuck with.”  Yes, there will be some compromises along the way and you will change each other to some extent, but you have to be realistic.  And that’s just another way of saying that you have to be wise.  And now I think that it would be wise for us to go on to the letter “e.”

E is for enjoy

The apostle Paul tells us that “whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  (Phil. 4:8)  And that would make a great motto for any marriage.

I told you a few minutes ago that there were wonderful ingredients about to be combined as you join your life together.  What Paul is telling you to do is to focus on those wonderful things and to remain focused on them.

I just got done telling you to be realistic.  Now I’m going to tell you to be realistically idealistic.  Most people will tell you to that you can’t keep the kind of feelings you are experiencing right now alive.  Most people will tell you that you can’t really keep the magic alive.  And most people would be wrong. 

Let me give you an example.  I’m going to get personal here.  This is what you get when you ask a family member to do the service.  You get personal fatherly advice mixed in with the sermon.  Thirty three years ago I asked a young woman to marry me and she said yes.  And this amazed me.  I’m an oddball.  I know this about myself.  And it was amazing to me that anyone would want to spend her life loving and living with me.  And it amazes me still.  I’ve never gotten over it because I’ve decided that I don’t want to get over it.  I’ve decided that I won’t take it for granted.  I focus on it.  I dwell on it.  

For as long as Bob can remember he’s been listening to me rant about his mother.  People who listen to me talk about my wife are fascinated when they finally get to meet her.  They keep checking out her back, expecting to see little bumps in her shirt where the angel wings are folded.

All these years I’ve been telling you something about your mom.  True things about your mom.  But I’ve also been showing you something about me.  I’ve been showing you what I have chosen to dwell on.  I’ve been demonstrating what Paul meant when he said “whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” 

There will be irritants and there will be disappointments.  The power of sin within and the example of the world around you will move you to dwell on the negative.  And you must not allow yourself to do that.  You must continue to keep at the forefront of your hearts and minds the things you are thinking and the thoughts you are feeling this day.  Your soul is like a garden and the positive things about your spouse, the things that made you fall in love in the first place, are the flowers that you must grown in that garden.  You must, as the apostle says, “dwell on these things.”

And let continue, for just a moment longer, to develop this whole idea of your soul being a garden.  You want the flowers of love to bloom there, but you must always be vigilant to keep the weeds out, and that leads us to the letter “a.”

A is for always forgive and forget

God is omniscient.  He knows everything.  How many grains of sand on this beach?  He knows.  How many sparrows are alive at this moment in North America?  He knows.  But there is one thing He has chosen not to know; there is one thing God has chosen to forget.  God refuses to remember any sin He has forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

If your soul is a garden then anger, bitterness, and resentment are the weeds; and since you are both imperfect people things will happen that will make those weeds grow – if you let them.  Those weeds will eventually strangle the flowers of love and leave you barren and empty inside.  And someday, in a season of testing and temptation, some dark spirit will be delighted to find all of that garbage in your soul, and he will know exactly how to use it as he attempts to destroy your marriage. 

So if you find yourself starting to dwell on some defect in your spouse, make yourself stop.  Pray for your spouse and then make yourself think of all the reasons why you choose to spend your life with that person in the first place.

Is it really possible to live this way?  Can you train your heart and mind to be like this?  Can your love, as it says in 1 Corinthians 13, really “keep no record of being wronged?”  Can you be like God and actually forgive and forget?

Yes.

You can do this and if you will do this you will find that this is nothing more or less than the gateway to joy.  

So let us boldly go through this gateway to joy for it is on the other side that we will find the letter “m.”  And “m” is a very happy letter indeed because it’s rather hot out here and I will soon have to stop because I am about to run out of letters!

M is for maintaining your walk with the Lord

If you want to keep your love alive, live as closely as you can with the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of love.  There can be no substitute for time spent in His presence, speaking to Him, listening for His voice, and meditating on His word.  These spiritual disciplines will continually renew and refresh the life force of God that dwells within you.  Communion with God is the path of blessing.  Never forget that, and never, ever stray from that path; and if you do this God will comfort you, strengthen you, guide you and bless you all the days of your life. 

Here are some photos from the wedding

Where do we think we're going? (Part 3)

It's almost time for our annual mountain expedition.  This year will mark our 24th Rocky Mountain Honeymoon.  We call them honeymoons because we spend these weeks "alone together."  It's just Nancy and me.  I have some of my favorite pictures from past trips up on my computer desktop at home.  When I see those pictures I often pause, if only for a moment, and allow myself to feel the same feelings I experience when I am in the mountains.  I can almost taste the mountain air.  It is also time for me to whip myself into shape.  I exercise year round, but in the next two months I will be exercising more than I usually do.  I'm also trying to drop some weight (down 16 pounds as of this morning).  You could almost say that Nancy and I live in anticipation for that annual Mountain Trip.  We daydream about it and we prepare for it.

One of the little insights that I have come up with is the thought that we are never more than twelve weeks away from a mountain vacation.  This is true even though we only go once a year, and the reason that this is so has to do with the way we are experiencing the passing of time as we age.  The longer you life, the faster time seems to pass.

When you are young, time seems to pass very slowly.  I can still remember a four week period of my life that lasted about four months.  I think I was in the 4th grade and the period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to last forever.  It was like I was trapped in a time warp.  Time just refused to move! 

Now the holidays seem to come and go like a blur and a months seems to last as long as a week used to.  So I have decided to use this to my psychological advantage.  If a month seems like a week used to seem then my next mountain trip will never "feel" like it's more than twelve weeks away!

In the past two posts we have been exploring what the old time saints used to call being "heavenly minded."  You become "heavenly minded" when you begin to think about heaven in much the same way that Nancy and I think about the mountains.  We prepare for it, we daydream about it, and the longer we live the closer each trip seems to be.  So how can you prepare for your trip to heaven and the life to come so that you will find yourself daydreaming about it?

Obviously it begins with conversion.  You have to repent (give up on your own ideas about life and being to try to live the way Jesus wants you to live as best you can) and believe (that Jesus died to pay for your sins and that God the Father will forgive your sins and accept you into heaven if you believe).  That's the way you begin, but many Christians never move very much beyond that beginning.  If you want to take the next step you can't do better than reading Matthew 24:42-25:46.  In this passage Jesus is teaching us to live with the rewards of heaven constantly in view.  How can we actually do this?

At the beginning of each day we must pray to God for strength to live each day the way He wants us to live.  Throughout the dayAnd at the end of each day we must pause and ask ourselves if there way anything in the way we spent our time that day that was pleasing to God.  When you start to consciously live like this the results will amaze you.

Did you spend any time in prayer that day?  Did you talk to God at all?  God wrote that down in His book and He is planning to reward you for that (Matt. 6:6).  The same thing applies to reading the Scriptures, attending Christian meetings, or doing things like reading this blog.  You may have come to this blog today and started reading and thought to yourself, "Okay, he's actually not too boring today, so I guess I'll finish this."  And then you walk away and forget that you even read the thing; but God doesn't forget that you read it.  God doesn't forget one single time you spent reading His word or attending public worship.  Not one single time.  God doesn't forget one single act of kindness.  God doesn't forget one hour of work that you did for a paycheck if you also tried to do it as an act of worship toward Him.  In one of the most astonishing, life altering statements that you can ever read Jesus said that God will not forget it if you give someone a cup of water as an act of kindness (Matthew 10:42).  Everything you've ever done is being written down in a book in heaven (Revelation 20:12).  If you are a believer God keeps no permanent record of your sins but He maintains a permanent record of each and every thing you mange to get right.

So how will this all work out when we get to heaven?  What will God do with this information?  He will sit down in an interview with you and He will go over the good things that you did incident by incident.  And yes, that will take quite a bit of time.  It won't be a matter of minutes or hours.  This interview may last for months and maybe even for years.  And when the interview is over God will honor you for your service to Him in some way that will be very, very public and literally be everlasting.  I have no idea who won the 1943 world series, but I can promise you that your good deeds will never, ever be forgotten by God or by the saints and angels in heaven.

And so you begin to live with this new, revolutionary perspective.  You may be a little hit and miss at first, but as you continue on you will begin to get the hang of it.  I'll try and do things for Jesus today and at the end of the day I will spend a moment or two thinking about what I did right.  And the longer you live this way the more real heaven, and the heavenly reward will become.  You'll start to anticipate it.  You'll start daydreaming about it.  You'll begin to actually think and feel like a person with an everlasting life span.

When death comes to those you love (who are believers) it won't cut you so deeply.  You will begin to live with an everlasting perspective.  You will know that whatever time we have left down here is very, very short, and that you won't be separated from the ones you love for very long.  Months will begin to seem like weeks and years will begin to seem like months to you as you gain a more mature perspective on the passage of time.

And the longer you live this way, as your body ages, your heart will actually be moving in the opposite direction.  You will be young at heart.  Your body will begin to wind down; your physical energy will begin to diminish.  But your heart will sing with anticipation of that which is to come.