Necessity

Faith understands that God's work is never purposeless. He always has a reason when He acts. Whatever happens in our life is not happenstance but necessity. God's lexicon does not contain the word "random." Or
"accidental." To believe otherwise robs us of our confidence in His good and wise work on our behalf. In fact, any other viewpoint is just as believable and as defensible as Aaron's excuse: "I just threw in the gold and out came this golden calf."
He has brought into your life exactly what you need to have in your life if you are going to more deeply understand His love and more powerfully show His love to others.
May God enable us to "count it all joy."

Guard Your Heart

The Christian must guard his heart daily. We are constantly being bombarded with other things to love. We are tempted to love the world's pleasures. We are tempted to love the things we can see, the things that we wish we had. We are tempted to love the attitude of the world, the adoration of ourselves and our hopes and dreams. We are tempted to love temporal things--be they people or objects. We are tempted to love those areas where we excel, those characteristics or skills that we possess that make people admire us. All those loves are betrayals. They are spiritual adultery. The preeminent love of our life must be our Savior, our Bridegroom. There is no greater sin than the betrayal of unconditional, pure love--the love that God has for us. It is the rejection of God's love that sends men and women into a Christless eternity. And yet, we who are Christians, who have experienced the transformational power of such love, so often choose another lover--reject that same love. We have an impure love. Our intimacy with God is broken. We are unfaithful "brides."
And what is God's response? He prods us with the indwelling Spirit to cleanse ourselves and return to His embrace. And when we confess our sin--our unfaithfulness--He cleanses us of all our sin renewing a right heart within us. And even if we deny our sin, call Him a liar, He stands before the Father claiming eternal forgiveness for that sin, sin that He paid for with His life.
Such love, if we fully comprehend it, should not cause us to be apathetic toward our Lover. It should not cause us to take our sin lightly. It should cause us to passionately love Him back, purely, and with an undivided heart. It should cause us to begin each day with a simple but fervent prayer: "Lord, guard my heart today. Let me walk in love and purity. Let me this day be your faithful bride."

Hiding the Word

When I hide God's Word in my heart, I give the Holy Spirit the opportunity--the freedom--to build the following into my daily walk--into my experiences.

Knowledge: the accumulation of information of a sound character; the cultivation of a keen mind; the amassing of the treasure that is sweeter than the honeycomb and more valuable than all the gold on earth--to be rich in eternal thoughts
Wisdom: the skill to use knowledge correctly in any and all circumstances
Justice: right behavior--the ability to do the right thing at the right time all the time spontaneously
Instruction: teaching--insight--that will allow me to perceive what God is trying to do in my life through His discipline--and yes, at times through His chastening
Understanding--literally "to bereave"--the wisdom to know Him more deeply through times of sorrow--to know Him is to love Him; to love Him is to be obedient in the worst of times; the ability to trust and obey no matter what
Judgment: the insight to test new ideas--things that differ--against the truth of God's Word; to know the difference between good, better, and best
Equity--developing in my life the principles that allow me to live a life of integrity--the putting to death of hypocrisy in my walk
Discretion--a life immersed in thoughtfulness; a spiritual alertness in one's daily walk; the ability to detect craftiness and subtlety in those who would lead me astray; the insight to identify wolves in sheep clothing--to know a destroyer when I meet one no matter how charming he may appear to be
Prudence: the ability to foresee evil and be prepared for it
Fear of the Lord--the spontaneous making of decisions based on how they will affect my relationship with Him; a reverence that is not afraid of what God will do to hurt me but what I might do to hurt and grieve Him--a reverent and obedient heart; genuine love

How much time do you and I devote to His Word? Godly transformation into His likeness does not occur by accident. You are what you feed on. You are what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out. Truth in--Christ-likeness out. Who do you and I want to look like--to act like? How deeply do I actually love those people in my life that God has given me--assigned me--to immerse in His love?

Doubt

Most of the time we do not really doubt that God means what He says. Nor do we doubt that He is in control. What we doubt is whether we want Him to be. We don't really want a life of consequences. We don't really want God to do all that is necessary to conform us into His image. We doubt if the cost of discipleship is worth it, if Christian maturity is the path we wish to walk, if being refined like gold is worth the trial by fire. We doubt that the place God has placed us in is the place we want to be.
What is the cause of such doubt? Fear is one. We doubt that it is love that motivates our Savior to discipline and train us. Irrational, is it not, to doubt that One who died for you and defends you before the Father would act out of anything but love? Do you really doubt that the One who cared for all the needs of all His people when they wandered through the wilderness shaking their fists in His face, testing His every move, complaining about every trial, is not the God of love?
What does doubt cost us? Much more than submission will cost us. We lose God's peace, we lose confidence in prayer, we lose the fullness of His joy. Oh, we don't escape the trials. We just wander through life--a wilderness--always on the edge of Christian victory and the rest it affords in the worst of conflicts. We wander through life always afraid to enter the "Promised Land," always afraid of the enemy who cannot defeat us because of Him. Do you know of any people more miserable than the generation of God's people who wandered for forty years short of God's best? Doubt put them there. They were always testing God to see if He was good or evil--to see if He was the God of love and mercy and lovingkindness that He claimed to be. And though He was--and is--they lived the miserable existence of one who doubts. Of one who constantly questions what God is doing in his life and how could it possibly be good--how could it possibly be His love at work.
Do you really want to be more and more like Him? Then you must consider it all joy when He brings into your life those things that will purify and refine you into His image. Will it make life easy? Not a chance. But it will keep you from a life of misery, of wilderness wandering. You will have a life, regardless of the circumstances, basking in the full awareness of His love for you. Certain that when "sorrows like sea billows roll," that "peace like a river" will attend to your soul. And all will be well. All will be well with your soul.

Formalism

One of the great dangers of Christianity is formalism. It comes when I base someone's spirituality on outward appearances. That someone being me. When I replace inward devotion with reluctant external obedience, I have become a formalist. I have the form of godliness but not the power of godliness. Others may be taken in by my pretense; God is not. And in most cases, I know that I'm living a lie. I am doing all the right motions but there is not a song in my heart. I may with great flourish sing "deep and wide," but I'm wading in the shallows--and I know it. Now, I'm not talking about those times when the struggle is hard, when obedience demands all my focus and energy. I'm talking about those times when obedience is easy but motivated by what I think people expect of me. I want everyone to think I'm spiritual knowing that if I moved to another town where no one knew me, I wouldn't go on with the pretense of loving God.
The great danger of formalism is the susceptibility to temptation. In the moment when I think the formality of obedience can't be seen, I opt to give in to sin and disobedience. The result is that I become an even bigger stickler for external obedience and enchained by secret sin. That eventually leads to a great fall when my real internal me becomes visible to all around me. Many men and women have lost any further chance of ministry at such a time.
What is the cure? It begins with honest confession. I must agree with God that I am going through the motions with a cold heart. And then I must repent. I must ask Him to bring to my remembrance those times when His love for me controlled my every thought and thus my actions. Then, I must go back to doing those things. The time to start that process if I am a perpetrator of formalism is now. You cannot walk on the edge very long without a disastrous fall.

The Difference

"A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel"

"Fools despise wisdom and instruction."

The difference between a wise person and a fool? A teachable spirit.

Growth

The Christian Growth Cycle:
"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light."

It begins with you and I praying for growth in the lives of those we love. Our prayer? That they become filled--completely satisfied with and completely saturated with a knowledge--understanding, discernment, comprehension--of His will--in all spiritual wisdom and understanding--in the ability to see everything in their lives as He sees it. Evidenced by a walk in which everything they know they put into practice in their lives; a pleasing walk--the walk of faith, which allows them to bear fruit--to become more and more like Him, doing the good things that He would do if He were "in their shoes." And such a walk saturates them with an even fuller understanding of the character and nature of the God they serve. And what does growth produce in their lives? An increase in God's power to enable them to be faithful; the might of His glory, His abiding presence in their lives as they make His grace and truth visible to those around them; an enduring steadfastness in every situation; a patience characterized by joy and a thankful heart toward the Father; and a deep life affirming confidence in the sure hope that as He promised He is coming again for us that we might spend forever in the eternal room He Himself has personally prepared for us in His Father's House.

Remember where it all begins! For whom are you faithfully interceding that God might continue His work of spiritual growth and maturity in their lives?

Fools

Foolishness has nothing to do with IQ.

We are all capable of becoming a fool.

When the Bible warns us to not walk with the ungodly, one step is one step too many. 

"Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly." 

Synonomous

In his first epistle John tells us: "God is love."

In his gospel he says the same thing just in a few more words: "And we beheld His glory, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

"God is love." "Full of grace and truth." Synonyms. Unless the meditation of my heart, the words of my mouth, and the actions of my life fully reflect grace and truth, both, I do not love as God loves. As Christ loved when He walked among men. And do you think that there is anything that more deeply grieves the Holy Spirit who resides within me than a sham love?

"And we beheld His glory." Unless our lives radiate grace and truth in every way, we are not making His glory known; we are not making the invisible God visible. We are parading about foisting upon the world a god of our own making--a god who looks, thinks, and acts an awful lot like ourselves. I can't think of anything more frightening. Or ineffective in drawing men to our Savior's love.

The Struggle for Contentment

Have you ever been in God's will; and yet, at times, wish you weren't? Yeah, me, too, once in awhile. In fact, I've been hovering in and out of that inane mindset for a couple of decades. I love the kids I teach. (Shhh, don't tell them they're still kids.) I love loving the kids I teach. When it happens, I love being loved by the kids I teach. I love teaching! The problem: I have very little use for education. Its standards, practices, and values are decidedly headed in the wrong direction in many areas--from my perspective. More and more Christian education tries to prove its worth by imitating the mindset and methods of public education. Now, being decidedly human, my "vision" is undoubtedly flawed in places, but I perceive those trends as real; and thus, I, at times, in my pride, struggle with contentment in the place that God has called me to serve.
Yet, on the other hand, I see, in at least some small ways, that God is using me on a daily basis. He is certainly still teaching me many things and continuing to prune away those things that get in the way of His ability to bear fruit through this old branch. And as I continue to abide--to rest--in His Word and to submit to His Spirit, He is able to do His transforming work despite my struggles in the place He has called me to. He continues to surprise me by allowing me to touch the lives of students and adults.
The question is what to do in those times when God graciously continues to perform His work of godliness in your life, but you yourself are struggling with the contentment necessary to make you rich toward Him--to make you a recipient of great gain? I have found several things vital to my walk with Him in such times.
The greatest thing is the absolute reliance on Him that becomes an absolute necessity for me in order to be what He has called me to be. I have found so uplifting the truth that His grace is all-sufficient--that at my weakest moments He empowers me beyond my ability or desire. When I struggle with even the desire to be faithful, He remains faithful to me. He energizes me through each day.
I have also come to rely on the great power of encouragement. (And to practice it daily I pray.) The steady love of my friends, the love of my students, a word of encouragement from others, a gentle touch of thank you, all those things remind me of His ever-present love. And though some may see that as another weakness and perhaps, even selfishness on my part, I have come to rely on encouragement as a way in which He meets with me every day. It is, certainly, a weakness, but a weakness that has engendered in me the strength I need for each and every day.
I have also found that when I am struggling with contentment that our enemy likes to "pour it on." You would think that after all these centuries that he would have learned that "pouring it on" just sends the child scurrying for the arms of His Father. When things appear out of control, I am more likely to talk--complain--to Abba; and thus, the lines of communication are opened wide, and I become more sensitive to His leading and direction. I am not saying that I enjoy the "pouring on," but that when the winds of adversity increase, I must rely on the eagle's wings of faith that He has given me and without even realizing it, I find myself soaring. Consequently, He enables me to please Him by causing me to live by faith in His eternal, ever-present love for me. I more deeply sense His love for me in the turmoil of the storm.
Finally, I must continue to remind myself--constantly--that the things I know to be true about God are indeed true even if I am feeling that they are not. I must always continue to testify to the right things about God. Always! I must always express my thankfulness to Him for all He has done for me, all He has done through me, and all the patience He constantly shows me as I struggle to become more and more like Him.
Yes, godliness with contentment is great gain! And it is something that I must continue to learn through a variety of circumstances and struggles. The more deeply He makes that truth real to me, the more assuredly I will rest in the promise that I can do all things only through Him, and that He alone, not just can--but abundantly will--supply all my need according to His infinite riches that are mine through my Savior's love. And as I learn how difficult life is when I fail to be content in the place where He would have me serve, the more lovingly, patiently, and kindly, He keeps reminding how marvelous that truth can be: Godliness with contentment is great gain!

Real Riches

"Godliness with contentment is great gain."

Godliness--living in such reverential awe of the character of God that obedience is becoming more and more spontaneous and His likeness in our daily walk is becoming more and more evident to those around us.

Contentment--living each day in the certainty that God is in complete control of our lives no matter what the circumstances seem to be saying. Spiritually earthquake proof.

Great gain: A soul that is daily immersed in unquenchable joy. A life of real unrustable, moth proof, riches.

Psst

Psst. Hey, you. Yeah, you, over there in the corner having a pity party and pouting.  The reason God answers your prayers in the way you least expect--He's smarter than you. No, really. It's true.

Vows

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament warn us about the danger of making vows. The reasons for that are worthy of consideration and reflection especially in a church today that places so much emphasis on altar calls, pledges, and similar public responses. First, vow making is usually an impulsive, emotional, response; rarely is it a thought-out, prayed-over decision. Second, vow making is usually an act of self-will, a statement that I am going to do something through my own will power. Because of that, we usually find a third problem--failure, guilt, and the growing doubt that we are useless to God and unable to live a life that will please Him. Frequent vow makers eventually just give up. I am afraid that far too often the church tries to do the Holy Spirit's job and demand an instant transformation when He is into a life-long, one-day-at-a-time transformation.
God's alternative to vow making is to fear Him and to develop a sense of integrity--to live a life that doesn't need vow making; to be men and women of action not verbiage. It takes a much deeper sense of devotion to live a life that's centered on pleasing Him than to promise to live such a life. If we constantly remind ourselves that we are living in His presence, we will make wise choices each day as they need to be made. Our growth will be gradual, but steady, and able to endure the inevitable stumbles and struggles than accompany the Christian maturation process. We will be better able to see our failures as part of the process, not reasons to throw up our hands in frustration and quit. We will become men and women of integrity, men and women of our word. People will know that when we say, "yes," we mean "yes." And when we say "no," we mean "no." They will know that we have reached those conclusions through careful thought and diligent prayer; that they are well thought out decisions.
Those of us who teach God's Word must be careful not to coerce the listeners into impulsive, spur of the moment, self-reliant vows. If they make those vows, God expects them to keep them; and obviously, there are dangers in not doing so. It is not mere semantics when Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, and Jesus, the God-man, warn us about the making of vows. Or the danger of enticing others into making them.

Three Loves

Today, there are many people making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ whose life would indicate that such is not the case.  We, of course, cannot see into anyone's heart to test the genuineness of their belief in Him.  Yet, Paul encourages the church at Corinth to test themselves to be sure their faith was saving faith.  Jesus Himself, as we read in the gospels, would not commit to some who claimed to believe in Him.  In one passage in John, in fact, Jesus, speaking to a crowd of people who claimed to believe in Him, completely destroyed the illusion that they were real believers.  He even told them that they were of their father the Devil, liars and murderers just like Satan.
And it is in that same message that Jesus clearly identifies those whose faith is genuine, those whose faith is solid, rooted faith, a faith that will grow and produce spiritual fruit.  And the characteristics He gives of those who are truly His disciples are easily discernible.
First, He says that they love Him.  Anyone who knows Him and fully understands who He is and what He has done for them, and what He is doing for them on a daily basis, and what He intends for them to experience in their eternal future, cannot help but fall madly in love with Him.  No Name is sweeter.  No longing greater than the desire to one day see His face, to be embraced by those arms.  True believers love Jesus.
A second characteristic of possessing faith is a love for His Word, His instructions.  Those with such a faith never get tired of hearing about Him.  They love the time they spend in His Word.  They never tire of conversations about Him.  Their Bible is a treasured book.  Studying is never a chore.  When they go through times away from His Word, they sense the emptiness such a vacuum leaves in their lives. They long to get back to the feast, to the meat and the milk of the Word that strengthens them day by day.
The third characteristic that Jesus gave as proof that someone was indeed a disciple was their desire to follow Him in obedience.  They long to do what He desires them to do.  When they fail to do so, they are eager to confess.  They treasure each opportunity to shower Him with love through acts of obedience.
If someone has never experienced these three loves--a love for Jesus, a love for His Word, and a love for an obedient life--his or her faith is not genuine.  To claim to believe in Him and to hate to hear His name mentioned, to claim to believe in Him and have no desire to hear His words--to cringe when the Word is opened and taught, to claim to love Him and have no desire to follow Him in loving obedience, is to have a false claim.  It is time for a genuine profession of faith, a genuine confession of sin, a genuine repentance, and a genuine regeneration and a new life in Christ.  He is eager to adopt you into His family of true believers.  "Now is the day of salvation."
If someone has known these three loves, he senses a deep need to return to those first loves when one or more of them is missing from His life.  He knows he is miserable, and he knows why.  And it is only when he returns wholeheartedly to those three loves that the full measure of joy returns.  And all of us who have possessing faith have struggled in these three areas at times.  And hopefully have known the joy of embracing them again.  There is no sweeter life than a life filled with a love for Jesus our Savior, a love for His Word, and a love--a deep desire--to please Him through daily acts of obedience.
Professing or possessing?  Jesus Himself tells us how we can know the difference.  And He willingly died that we might possess the faith that gives eternal life.  He did not come to condemn and judge mankind.  He came to rescue us from condemnation.  He is waiting for you to truly trust in Him with all your heart.  And He is waiting for you who have drifted from love to return to those always open arms.

Anger

Anger can never heal a relationship. Wrath is almost always confronted with more wrath. And the old cliche, "Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never harm me," is a lie. Angry words wound the soul, crush the spirit, break the unmendable heart. Usually, anger comes from a hurt heart and is an attempt to hurt the offender as deeply as I have been hurt. Thus, it is the renunciation of our Savior's love: "Father forgive them." It is a violation of the principle of relationships found in Philippians: "Let each esteem others better than themselves." In every relationship the prayer of the saint is always, "if anyone is going to be hurt in this relationship, let it be me." We are called to do as our Savior did, pour ourselves out for others. Anger leads to bitterness. Bitterness leads us to a hard-hearted, stone-cold, point of no return. We may, like Esau, weep tears, but they will be tears of self-pity not restoration. It will be too late for restoration. It is a soft answer that turns away wrath, it is a forgiving spirit that enriches love, it is a pouring out of oneself for another that saturates the world with Calvary's love. The spiritual weapons of a Christian soldier, the weapons that tear down every idea opposed to the knowledge of God and take captive every thought into obedience to Christ, are gentleness and mercy--not a sharp tongue and an angry word. May we be unafraid to be the wounded so that the glory--the presence--of God will be evident to those around us--to those we claim to love the most.