Good and Bad

There may be several new believers who were sold a bill of goods when they were won over to Christ. They may have been told that when one becomes a believer, God will miraculously change their life situation; that he will soon transform their rough circumstances into something better. They may have been led to believe that God will always protect them from every kind of harm, and because they are a believer, life will be frictionless if only they would put their faith in God. But mature believers know this to only be half true. We know that God does protect us, but we also know that he may choose for us to go through the storm. Job knew this, even though his wife struggled with the concept. It says in Job, chapter 2, verses 9 and 10: 

“His wife said to him, ‘Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ He replied, ‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?’ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” 

It is a huge disservice to promise new believers a frictionless life. Because when their faith is tested; when they find that there is a circumstance that God wants them to walk through, not rescue them from, their faith may fail. Job said, “shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” If you are walking through something today and you’ve prayed for deliverance, all to no avail, consider this verse. Consider that God may want you to walk through the storm. He may have decided not to rescue you from it or to help you avoid it. But also know that in all situations, God is with you. Regardless of what you see with your eyes, know that he can see the bigger picture, and may be working in ways you cannot see. I encourage you to trust him. I encourage you to have faith.

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“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Job reminds us that God is sovereign. And in his sovereignty, he may decide to have us walk through something instead of rescuing us from it. If you are familiar with the story of Job, you will know that God allowed Satan to have free reign on him and his family. God already knew, and had decided, that Job would have to walk through all of the calamities he faced. It was only at the end did Job see the bigger picture, and because of his faithfulness God restored to him all that he had lost and more. Will you be like Job? Will you trust God? If you are struggling today, I encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to give you a new perspective on your situation. Allow him to lift your head and give you hope. Allow him to remind you that God has your best interest at heart, and understand that this may be one of the times he chooses for you to walk through your situation instead of rescuing you from it.

No Vile Thing

The fruits of evil can be enticing. That is why our struggle, as believers, is widely referred to as temptation. If it weren’t enticing, it would be easy for us to be holy and blameless all of the time. But we aren’t a sinless species. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we give into the temptation and allow vile things to enter our eyes, ears, hearts and lives. God wants us to avoid such things. In fact, if we are to be like him, we should hate them. We should treat them like an icky slime that once tossed on us makes us want to rush to the sink and wash it off so that it no longer clings to us. But it begins with a decision by us to watch what we set our eyes upon. It says in Psalm, chapter one hundred one, verse 3: 

“I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.” 

It shouldn’t take long for you and me to identify what tempts us. It should be obvious what causes us to stumble. When you hear this verse, what comes to your mind? What is it that you shouldn’t set before your eyes, or your heart? I encourage you to determine in your heart and your mind that you “will set before your eyes no vile thing”, as this psalm by David challenges. It goes on to say the the deeds of faithless men he hates; that they will not cling to him. What is clinging to you today? I encourage you to think like David. If there is any sin, or any vile thing that clings to you today, come before the Lord and ask him to wash you clean; to scrape off what is vile that you may walk in right relationship with him once more. Practically speaking, when we are dirty, nothing will make us feel as good as a hot shower to make us clean again. Spiritually speaking, I would suggest the same remedy is required. Nothing will make you feel as good as a repentant and recommitted heart cleansed by the Holy Spirit to make you clean again.

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Are you familiar with teflon? If you enjoy cooking you might be. It is a synthetic resin used to coat cooking utensils so that food doesn’t stick on them. Let our countenance be like teflon. As Psalms 101 says, let us hate the deeds of faithless men. Let us proclaim that like teflon, they will not cling to us. I understand that it may be more easily said than done for most of us. But with the Holy Spirit, it can be done. So I encourage you to have the heart of David. I encourage you to proclaim that you will set before your eyes no vile thing; that you will learn to hate the deeds of faithless men; and that they will not cling to you. If you are currently winning the sin battle, great. But if you are struggling to make this verse real in your life, I encourage you to pray with all sincerity to the Holy Spirit, that he will help to change your heart.

Worship Him

I was reading Matthew recently and as I arrived at the birth of Jesus, the motivation of the Magi who went to visit him in Bethlehem made me pause in consideration. Their unwavering faith in a prophesy proclaiming the birth of the Messiah and the star indicating the time of his arrival was incredible. Without ever seeing him, they packed expensive gifts for a long journey to meet the king of the Jews motivated only by faith. And their plan when they were to finally see him was not to expect anything from him, or to ask anything of him, but to simply worship him. It says in Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 and 2: 

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw the star in the east and have come to worship him.’” 

When we seek God in prayer, most of the time we come to him with requests. But what if we adopted the attitude of the Magi? What if we came to him with the sole purpose of  worshipping him? I’ll always encourage you to set aside time to pray to God, but next time, consider dedicating all of your prayer time worshipping him. There will be plenty of time to share your requests with him later. But I believe that every believer should consider the power of admiration. Consider Jesus’ response when he healed the ten lepers and only one came back to worship him. He is God and he created us to worship him. My question is, how are we doing on that front? Many of us worship him on Sunday, but what about the rest of the week? I’d like to challenge you, as well as myself, to try to make our prayers as much about worshipping God as we do requesting something of him. Jesus modeled it and as we can see in Matthew, the Magi did too. So what do you say we practice it as well with our hearts engaged and our love and adoration evident toward the one who saved our soul.

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When the Magi came to find Jesus lying in a manger, their primary intent was to worship him. What is your intent towards our Lord and Savior? How often do you truly worship him, love him and adore him? Just like a good earthly father loves to have his children lavish their love upon him, God, our heavenly Father loves it when we love and worship him in spirit and in truth. After all, the greatest command is for us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. Are you doing that? I would challenge you to focus your heart upon him today; to pray with thanksgiving and uplifted hands; to lavish all of the love and adoration you can muster on him. He is worthy.

Everyone Knew

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Don’t toot your own horn”? If not, it is a saying encouraging us to avoid braging about our accomplishments, because if we do, we can come across as arrogant, prideful and full of ourselves. Instead, it is best to remain humble and reserved, only allowing others to speak well of us. If you’ve ever met someone who continually talks about how wonderful they are, or who always seems to share their lists of accomplishments, you may be able to understand how annoying that could be. Because it almost always appears to be self-serving and self-elevating. Instead, we should be like Cornelius, a centurion Gentile believer who let his actions speak for themselves. And in doing so, everyone knew how righteous he was - even God. It says in Acts, chapter 10, verse 22:  

“The men replied, ‘We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”

The Bible recounts that it was because Cornelius was devout and God-fearing, giving generously to those in need and praying to God regularly, that God gave him a vision of an angel telling him to send for Peter. And in this passage, we learn that his righteousness was evident to those around him as well. It goes on to say that he was respected by all of the Jewish people even though he was a Gentile. I believe that we should aspire to live a life that speaks for us, like Cornelius did. If we are walking in step with the Spirit, we shouldn’t feel the need to tell others how good we are, because they will already know.

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Everyone was aware of Cornelius’ devout lifestyle, even the Jews, and all without Cornelius saying a word. He didn’t concern himself with trying to impress anyone by letting them know how much he gave to the poor. He didn’t tell everyone about how frequently he prayed to God. And he didn’t do his good deeds so that he could be seen, or praised, by men. He just lived a devout and God-fearing life, and not only did God notice, but men did too. I would submit to you that it is always more powerful, and more credible, to be spoken of highly by others than to “toot your own horn”, so to speak. So I would encourage you to not concern yourself with impressing men. Live to glorify God, and he may choose to lift you up on his own.

Relative Truth

Relativism is an interesting concept. If you are poor and others around you are poor, you may not be aware of how poor you are because of your relative wealth. In other words, compared to your neighbor, you may be doing okay financially. But compared to a pop star, you might be incredibly poor. As a human race, we share this idea of relativism no matter where we live. But if you live in America, you live in a country where concepts like “good”, “wise” or even “truth” are also relative terms. Do you think you are a “good” person? Well, that might depend on what you consider “good”. Are you “wise”? Well, are we talking about street wisdom or book wisdom, and wise compared to who? What about “truth”? We live in a time when even facts aren’t necessarily considered “true”. But when it comes to faith in Christ, believers know that truth is not relative. It never has been and it never will be. In John, chapter 18, verses 37 and 38 we read this exchange between Pontius Pilate and Jesus. It says: 

“‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’” 

When it comes to our eternal salvation, there is only one truth. It doesn’t matter if our culture changes, our laws change, or even our thinking changes. Truth - as it applies to Jesus - will never change. After all, it is Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” When he identified himself as “the truth”, I believe he was explaining that there is only one truth, and it isn’t relative. With him, you idea of truth and my idea of truth can’t be different. How do we know what truth is? Through his word; the Holy Bible. John identifies Jesus as “the Word”. And Jesus said, “everyone on the side of truth listens to me”. Are you on the side of truth? Or does your idea of what is true change? Let us not be like Pilate. Let us not ask “what is truth?” as if the answer should be different for everyone. Because with Jesus, truth is not relative.

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The devil would like us to think that truth is relative. You can have your truth, I can have my truth, and both will lead to heaven. But the Bible teaches us that there is only one truth, and that is Jesus. He is the only way to heaven. No words that have ever been spoken are more true that his words. Our moral code, our idea of what is right or wrong, what is good or evil, and what is truth or a lie should all be filtered through him. He will help us align our skewed view of life, love, our future and everything that we know to the truth. And if we know the truth, Jesus assures us that the truth will set us free.