How To Find Rest

Life in the twenty-first century is hectic and it has us all running around constantly in a hurry. When the age of technology was about to break out of its infancy, we were promised that thanks to computer technology, we would soon have so much leisure time on our hands that life would become a breeze. Oh, how that was a lie. We live a frenetic life style that has stressed us out beyond measure. By the end of our days, we are exhausted. Even our vacations are not things of rest, yet that was the purpose they were implemented for. Thanks to smart phones, people never get a respite from the pressures of work, as they bring work with them through their phones. Thanks to smart phones, we are subjected to a constant barrage of tragic news. Thanks to our smart phones, we simply don’t take much time to simply sit in solitude. Instead, we stare at something that never stops pushing stimuli into our brains. No wonder we are exhausted.

For those of us who are Christ’s, there is an answer. Stop. It was never God’s desire for His people to run themselves into the ground. God feels so strong about this type of behavior that He addressed it in the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:8-9
 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work.”

As New Testament Christians, we are not “under” the law. The Ten Commandments are, however, the basis of God’s moral law, which are still the basis of how we are to live life. Just this past Sunday, my pastor mentioned the Sabbath as the only one of the ten that we are not technically bound to and that is a correct statement in a literal sense. But Jesus told us that He didn’t come to abolish the law, He came to fulfill it. And in Jesus is found the fulfillment of the sabbath. He is our sabbath. In Him we find rest.

Hebrews 4:9-10
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Because Jesus went to the cross and died in our place, we can rest from the concept of working for our salvation. We no longer must try and follow the law of Moses to attain righteousness that might save us from God’s wrath. Thus, the first point of this rest in Christ, is that our salvation and our eternal destination is attained by His work. That work is complete.

But there is more to this rest that we can lay hold of. We can now rest in our faith in God that through Christ, we are now in the family of God.

Romans 8:16-17
The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

If we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified with Him. There is a rest in Jesus that we need to lay hold of. We are now God’s children and that makes us heirs of His promises to take care of us and provide for our needs. Listen to what Jesus says to those who are His.

Matthew 6:25-32
 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

Jesus has just removed any concern we might have over how we will be fed and clothed. He has commanded us not to be anxious over these things. Instead of being anxious over the necessities of life, He gives us this command.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

He also explains how to deal with the tiredness that comes through our work, be it at home or the office.

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Leave the stress of work and home, at the foot of the cross and trust in Jesus to be the one who helps you through it all. To be yoked with Him means He is right there pulling the load alongside you, but by yoking yourself with Him, the load becomes easier. This is faith. This is trusting in the very one who gives you breath.

As to the sorrows of the world that break our hearts and bring us down? Again, have faith in God to handle them. Search the scriptures and you will find that God is still in control and He will take care of things.

Are you angry at someone and long for revenge?

Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

God has this. Turn your eyes to Jesus, open your Bible and find the promises of God. When you do, you will find that every scenario you can dream up has God’s promises which address them. Even when things seem completely out of control and the sorrow and pain unbearable, believe that God is there and working it out for His purposes.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

If you are His, you can trust Him in all circumstances.

As Christians, we have no reason to be all stressed out and worn down. Sometimes, we just need to stop and get quiet. Sometimes we need a nap. Remember, even God rested.

Genesis 2:2-3
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Do the work God calls you to do. But remember that there is a sabbath for you. No, it isn’t just a day. It’s an attitude. An attitude of faith; faith that God has everything under His control. It’s ok to rest. He’s got this.

Why the Bible Never Tells Us That Jesus Laughed

I was in the house of a Christian friend many years back and as he showed me the various pictures of Jesus that his wife and he had put up over the years, he showed me one of Jesus laughing and told me of all those pictures, that was his favorite. He thought my response was a bit strange when I responded by asking him if he knew that the Bible never speaks of Jesus laughing. We had a short discussion over this and he stated that he was sure Jesus laughed. Yes, I agreed that day, that certainly there were times of laughter in the earthly life of Jesus. Today, I am certain that Jesus did laugh, after all, like us, He was a human that experienced all the emotions we do. But I suggest that there is a reason why we can find no narrative in scripture that depicts a laughing Jesus.

Scripture does say that God laughs. But when God laughs in the Bible, it is a laugh of derision.

Psalm 59:8
But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.

Am I saying laughter is wrong? No, absolutely not. Though scripture does not say this, I actually believe that God has given us a sense of humor along with the ability to laugh, as a blessing to help us enjoy life and even at times, to carry us through times of suffering. Solomon tells us that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh.” It’s clear in some of the stories of Jesus, that He had a sense of humor.

So, what’s my point? My point is simply this; The Bible does not show us a laughing Jesus because that is not the primary understanding of who Jesus is, or maybe better says was, as He walked this earth, that the Holy Spirit wants us to have.

This morning I was reading from a book that is a compilation of talks given by the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, that reflect on communion with Jesus. In this message is a reminder of why our main thoughts of the emotional state of Jesus in His time on earth, doesn’t give us a picture of a laughing Jesus. Spurgeon speaks from the text of the great Book of Isaiah, chapter fifty-three. Let us take a look.

Isaiah 52:13-15
 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.  Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.

Isaiah is speaking of Jesus. These scriptures, though they speak of the Gospel, the good news of salvation to us, ought to break our hearts. Though one day Jesus will be lifted up and greatly exalted, before we can see that day He had to be lifted up on a cross to pay the cost of our sin. Before the good news of the Gospel could be our gain, Jesus had to suffer in a way no man has ever suffered. Isaiah tells us that “His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.”

But even worse than that, Jesus suffered something He had never experienced in all of eternity; He had to be separated from God. Mark recorded the desperate cry of Jesus as He paid the ultimate price for us.

Mark 15:33-34
 When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.  At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

This is the darkest day, the darkest moment of time ever in history. God forsake Jesus. You see, this is the price of our sin. Every time we covet something that isn’t ours, we offend the very holiness of God. Every wayward glance at another woman not our wife, every unkind and hurtful word we speak to another person, every time we worry, and every time we simply ignore what God called us to do, we deserve to be forsaken by God. Listen to how the burden of our sin affected the Lord Jesus as He lived out His time on earth again as Isaiah tells us.

Isaiah 53:2-3
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

This is Jesus, the very Son of God, King of Kings, the one who left the glory of Heaven where He eternally dwells with God. Despised and forsaken of men. One from whom men hide their face and esteem Him not. It gets worse.

Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Why is Jesus described a man of sorrows? Spurgeon reminds us that we esteemed Him not. We turn to our own way and esteem Him not. He was crushed for iniquities. Our sins did this.

Let us turn to the New Testament now and see that He was a man of sorrows.

Mark 3:5
 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.

Mark 6:6
And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Mark 8:12
And he sighed deeply in his spirit.

Unbelief and hardness of heart brought Jesus distress. His own friend and disciple would betray Him. But the truth of the matter is this; our sins took Him to the cross. Our hard hearts and our unbelief crucified Jesus.

Solomon also said this in Ecclesiastes 7:3
Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

James expanded on it in James 4:9
Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

Wow. That seems depressing, doesn’t it? But before I close I want to remind you that Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:4 that “there is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

But before we laugh, we must weep. Before we dance, we must mourn. We must remember that it is our sin that made Jesus a man of sorrows.

What do we do?

Every day we have life we must weep over our sins and mourn the very existence of them. Then we confess them, we repent of them, and we cry out to Jesus for mercy and grace. Then and then only can we laugh and dance.

Spurgeon wrapped up his talk saying this, “If we were astonished at the marring of His face, we shall be much more astonished at the magnificence of His glory.”

Let us remember our Lord Jesus. Let us be astonished at His glory. But let us never forget that we made Him a man of sorrows.

Lessons From Jonah - Not Just A Fish Story (Part 2)

The Sovereignty of God As Seen In the Weather 

 

Reading the Book of Jonah provides many great messages and truths of the Bible. As I previously wrote on, Jonah is a classic example of what happens when we choose to exercise free will over God’s will. When God calls us to do something we should listen and obey. But even if we don’t, Jonah reminds us that God is sovereign, and His will shall prevail.

The sovereignty of God is the second gem of truth we find in the story of Jonah. Listen to what happened when Jonah decides to ignore God’s Word and go the other direction.

Jonah 1:4
The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

The fact that God is in complete control of the weather is made evident many times in scripture. We see it in the great flood and then in its aftermath.

Genesis 7:4
"For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made."

Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

Genesis 9:13-14
I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud.

Job knew God was sovereign.

Job 5:10
"He gives rain on the earth And sends water on the fields.”

Its seen in the Psalms.

Psalm 147:7-8
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre,  Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who provides rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.

Psalm 78:26
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind.

And yes, Jesus, in an exercise of His deity, gave a demonstration.

Matthew 8:26-27
He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.  The men were amazed, and said, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

The Bible is clear, God is sovereign. This means when storms come, God is behind it. When God created the world, He also established the laws of nature. In science we can find certain answers to weather patterns and so on, but even if a certain weather event is explained by the laws of nature, that still means God is in control. If a tornado wipes out a town or a flood devastates a community, God could have prevented it. So, whether God directly brings upon an event or He simply allows it, we can trust that even in tragedy, He is working it through for His will. This was the case for Jonah.

Jonah 4:6-8  

So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.  When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."

Jonah was in rebellion to God and since God had chosen Jonah to serve God’s message to the Ninevites, God in His sovereignty, used His power over nature to impose His will over Jonah’s.

What does this story say to us as Christians? The answer is obvious; we need to be obedient to God’s call on our lives. Like Jonah, we cannot hide from God. Like Jonah, we cannot force our will to override God’s. We can try. But we see clearly that things will not go well for us when we live in rebellion to God.

This doesn’t mean that because it rained on your picnic with your family and messed up the day that you are necessarily being disciplined for something you did or didn’t do. But it does mean that when we are amid the storms of life, we should go to God in prayer and seek His Word to see if we are choosing to live in our will or in His. It means that when we are struggling through the floods of life, we can rest in faith that God is behind it and He is in complete control. We just need to turn to Him.

There is a great scripture that provides me comfort and I have committed to memory. I close this message with it for it expresses the truth of God’s sovereignty.

Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Trust Him. Even in the storm.

Lessons From Jonah - Not Just A Fish Story

Our Will Vs God's Will

I love the Book of Jonah, for in it are many theological truths upon which the Christian faith rests. But what image pops into our heads, whenever we hear the name Jonah? The answer is obvious; we immediately think of a big fish. Long before I had ever picked up the Bible to study it, I knew the story of Jonah and the Great Whale, though the Bible never tells us it was a whale. Technically speaking a whale isn’t even a fish, but the story just looks good when we see the cartoon depictions of this great book of the Bible as represented by a whale. But if that is all we ever know of this story, then we are missing out in the lessons that are imbedded into the tale.

As a new Christian, the first reference to Jonah I recall as being important, was that Jesus used the story in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to respond to the demand for miraculous signs to be given as to who He really is. While it is important to grasp the significance of the Old Testament types as used in the Bible, there is so much more to be gleaned from the story of Jonah as we read our Bibles today. Don’t stop at the old Sunday School lessons of Jonah you had as a child but dig deep into God’s Word, for in it is the knowledge of who God is and how we must respond to Him.

The first lesson we find in the great story of Jonah speaks about something that many of us debate in the church. The topic of free will vs the sovereignty of God is certainly one many of us simply do not agree on. It’s not considered an essential of the faith meaning that its not a theological point upon which we ought to break fellowship over. While I agree with that statement, I would offer that it dwells on the border of the essentials of salvation and thus we ought to grow in our faith to a point that we can dig deep into God’s Word to know the truth of the scriptures.

That said, let us look at the story and see what the Word of God has to say about Jonah and his exercise of his own will.

Jonah was a prophet of God and despite those who might suggest his story is merely some fairytale, the Bible presents him as a real man as seen in 2 Kings 14:25 and as one called to be a prophet. Jesus spoke of Him as well, lending further truth of his existence. As a prophet of God, Jonah was called by God. Romans 11:29 tells us that Romans 11:29 “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Whatever you believe about your own free will, it is God who calls us and in the story of Jonah, we find out what happens when we choose to follow our will, in rebellion to His. 

The first lesson Jonah’s story teaches us is that, yes, we do have free will. But the second lesson we will soon learn is that our free will, will not win out over the determinative will of God. It is important here to understand something about the will of God. There are two wills that the Bible speaks of when referring to God’s will. Though theologians and commentators may use different terms for them, they agree that there are two types.

The first will of God is often called His decretive will. Some may call it His sovereign will. These are things that God has decreed will happen and the free will of man will not nor cannot, stop them from occurring. The Bible is filled with stories of this truth. The death of Jesus on the cross is the greatest of these stories and as you read the Gospel accounts you see that His death was not only destined to be; it also could only happen in His precise time and place.

The other type of will God possesses is called His Preceptive will, sometimes called His eternal will or His revealed moral will. These are things God says should happen, but in His sovereign nature He has allowed man to exercise free will in. This is a complex theological discussion. It is not easily understood, but Peter gives us a good example in 2 Peter 3:9 where he tells us that “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” It is God’s preceptive will that all men come to repentance, but clearly, we can see that not all do. God has the power to save all men, yet He doesn’t. If we say He cannot do this then He wouldn’t be sovereign, nor would He be omnipotent. Thus, that all men would come to repentance is not God’s decretive will or it would come to pass. Instead, in His sovereignty and His grace, He has chosen some to salvation. This doctrine, which is offensive to a good many people, is reflected in the understanding of the will of God. I won’t go any further here with this because my goal of this writing is not to argue the doctrine of Election, but to shed some light on the topic of free will vs God’s will.  

Now let us take a glance at the story of Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-2
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”

The calling to Jonah came from the Word of God, it was to go tell the people of Nineveh that they were sinners, sinning against the Holy God. Here we have God’s will for Jonah and notice that it is found in the Word of the Lord. Truthfully this calling of Jonah, is in essence, the same we have been called to in The Great Commission.

Watch the reaction of Jonah to God’s calling.

Jonah 1:3
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah decides to exercise his free will and he attempts to flee from the presence of God. “What! Is he crazy”, we cry out. We all know you cannot escape the presence of God for He is God and thus is omnipresent. Yet can each of us honestly say we don’t do the exact same thing. One reason we do not read our Bibles is that we do not want to do God’s will. So, we think that we can simply ignore it as if God won’t notice.

Jonah found out that this idea of us exercising our free will and choosing to run from God is a bad idea. A real bad idea. Watch what happens next.

Jonah 1:4
But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.

Jonah’s response? He thought he’d just sleep through it. He’d just ignore God.

Jonah 1:5
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

Read through the first chapter of Jonah. Even the pagans aboard the ship knew who was in control of the storm and feared God. So, they acted to find the problem. Even in the throwing of lots the sovereignty of God is at play. Proverbs 16:33 is clear on this saying “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Even more amazing is that as the pagan crew witnesses Jonah directly declare his opposition to God’s will, so they seek Him in prayer.

Then is response to Jonah’s confession they throw him into the sea. Then they worshiped God for even they saw the folly of chasing their own free will against the will of God.

Jonah 1:17
And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

There were no accidents or chance events happening here. God appointed Jonah to be swallowed by a fish. By now the lesson is right in front of us. Yes, we have free will, but when the exercise of our will comes up against God’s determined will, His sovereignty wins out.

I will close this discussion with a suggestion that we take a good hard look at our own lives in comparison to Jonah. We need to look inward at our hearts. Are we responding to the call of God for our Christian lives or are we instead determined to put forth our will instead of God’s? Is the storm we are in a storm that we may have brought upon ourselves because we are fleeing from God? We need not fear the answer for there are more lessons to come in the Book of Jonah. If you know the story, then you know God saved him from the belly of the fish. Next time we will continue to see the good news of the story. It is a story of hope. But as we are seeing, that hope is not found in our will, but in God’s.

How to Survive in a Den of Lions

One of the hardest questions for many to answer, is the question of suffering. Why does God allow so much pain to occur in this life? If what we believe about God is true, then He is omnipotent. He has the power to prevent horrible events from occurring. For the Christian, we might be tempted to allow that God would be just in allowing suffering to occur into the lives of the wicked, those who willfully reject Him and make it their life’s passion to cast aspersions upon His name. But what about the faithful Christian? Many Christians wrestle with this dilemma.

One place to find great comfort in the problem of suffering, is the Book of Daniel. It is clearly, a story of a faithful servant of God being tossed into one of the most fearful situations we could contrive of in our minds. Daniel, a great man of faith and integrity, was a man of prayer. Embedded in this story is an example of how we are to come to God as we pray. Despite the attempts of those jealous of Daniel’s favor with King Darius to get back at Daniel by having the king outlaw any prayer that did not go towards the king, Daniel remained faithful to His God.

Daniel 6:10
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

Daniel had been a faithful man of prayer and even under threat of death, he prayed and gave thanks to God as he had always done. On the surface we might be thinking that certainly God would look down with favor upon Daniel and save him from the perils of the king. But not so. Even King Darius wanted to keep Daniel from facing the consequences of his having violated the decree that now threatened his life.

Daniel 6:14-15
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.  Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”

We study our Bible and in it we find that God is sovereign over all, even kings.

Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

Isaiah 14:24
The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.

Ephesians 1:11
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Yes, God is in control. He could have prevented Daniel from being tossed into the Lion’s den. Whatever trial we might find ourselves this very day in, whatever storm we face, one thing is clear; God has the power to keep us from it. Yet see what he allowed Daniel to face.

Daniel 6:16-17
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”  And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

So Daniel spent an entire night in the lion’s den where he faced not one, but an entire den of nearly starved lions. Imagine the terror of that night. Most likely none of us know what that feels like, but we all have had those nights when we had no idea how we would survive. Maybe it was pain, or sorrow, or simply gripping fear of what was to come the next day. But listen to what happened.

Daniel 6:19-23
Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.  As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”  Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever!  My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”  Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

Daniel was delivered from the den of lions. Why?

First, it says Daniel was blameless. Blameless not mean he was perfect, no man is. Blameless means that Daniel believed in God’s law and his moral code and did his best to live by it.

But the reason Daniel could live a blameless life and the reason he came out unharmed was “because he had trusted in his God.” That, my friends, is faith. Trusting God, in spite of the fact that you are sitting in a den of lions.

The most important lesson we can learn here is this; God does allow us to face suffering and danger. But we also can see why in this story.

Daniel 6:25-27
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you.  I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.  He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Why did God allow Daniel to face that horrible night? Because God knew that by Daniel’s faith, amid sure death, a pagan king would declare to the entire world, the witness of our Great God. The world expects us as Christians to offer all glory to God, yet like the Jews, we often fail to do so. Daniel’s story was part of the bigger picture of God’s glory going out to all the world.

I cannot say why you face the troubles you do this very day. But in the story of Daniel, I can promise you that if you simply dwell in the den by faith, God will be glorified, and God will deliver you. Whether your deliverance is during your time here on earth or it comes in eternity, is up to Him. But know this, He will be glorified.

Read the story of Daniel. Spend your time praying with thanksgiving even if that might bring peril. The life of a Christian is a life of faith and a life that seeks to bring glory to God. If we live with an eternal perspective as bringing glory to God being our end goal, we can find peace, even in the midst of suffering.

Christians, encourage each other in these difficult days. Turn to His Word for the way to do so. I leave you with His instruction to live with peace, even if you are facing lions that wish to shred you into pieces.

Philippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Daniel lived this way. Even through a night in the lion’s den. God bless you.

Sheep and Goats, Wheat and Tares. How Do I Know the Difference (Part 4)

As I continue to look at myself and attempt to answer the question, “Am I really a Christian?”, it is the Word of God that must be my test. Last time I wrote on this topic, we saw that that one of the tests of scripture is the belief that Jesus was not simply a good man, who walked around teaching moral lessons. If one is going to say he follows Christ and is his disciple, then he must agree with the beliefs of our dear Christ. Jesus declared Himself to be God. The deity of Christ is an imperative of the Christian faith, for without it, the sacrifice on the cross would be impotent to atone for our sins.

If Jesus is God incarnate, then certainly the things He stated must be received as true. One of the most important elements or characteristics of the true, saved Christian, was clearly stated by Jesus. Let us turn to the Gospel of John, where we find Jesus responding to the questions of Nicodemus, as he seeks to discover what it means to follow Christ.

John 3:3
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus was confused as he thinks Jesus is speaking of a literal rebirthing process from the womb. Jesus explains.

John 3:5-6
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Jesus has made a clear declaration here. Unless you are born again, you will not be part of the Kingdom of God. Scripture interprets scripture. Peter explains this a little further.

1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There is some very important information here.

First of all, it’s God’s “great mercy” and it’s God who “causes” us to be born again. We cannot simply choose to accept Christ.

Secondly, though some insist you can “lose” your salvation, Peter states here that your hope of this inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” You cannot lose it or give it up because true saving faith, is “kept in heaven for you” by God’s power. It isn’t by our power in which we are born again, it is by His power, which is perfect power. God guards our salvation in heaven.

This information seems to introduce a new concern in those of us who say we are Christians. If it really isn’t our choice that saved us, then how do we know if we are “born again?”

The answer to this question requires we dig into the scriptures deeply. That is up to each of us to do throughout our walk as Christians and I won’t provide the complete answers in this short missive. But I will suggest that scripture will lead us into this conclusion. Before we are born again we are spiritually dead in our sins. Here is what God’s Word says about this.

Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  

Paul is clear in this. Before we become Christians, we are dead and walking in sin. What we cared about was satisfying the desires of our flesh. But when we become born again, there is a change in us.

Ephesians 2:4-6  

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

To be born again is to be resurrected from our dead nature, and now be alive with Christ.

To be born again is to be changed drastically. We must understand that this does not mean we are instantly changed into sinless perfection. At the moment of rebirth, we are immediately justified in the eyes of God and seen positionally as holy, while the process of change to becoming perfected literally is an ongoing act called sanctification. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in his letter to the Philippians.

 

Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

But the born again have had the work started. Clearly, as we examine ourselves in pursuit of testing our faith as per the command of scripture in 2 Corinthians 13:5 which says to “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”, we see that being born again is an element of that test.

There is so much to be gained in our knowledge of this topic. As we read our Bible we must grasp what it has to say about our salvation experience of being born again. I recommend a book to be read that John Piper wrote that helps explain the Biblical teachings on the new birth of the Christian called Finally Alive.

Am I a Christian? Have you been born again? If you cannot look at your life and find any evidence of immediate change and then some substance of an ongoing work in your life that is headed towards you becoming like Christ, then no, you don’t meet the test of scripture.

What do you do if you fail the test? Get on your knees and cry out to God. The good news is that scripture is filled with what to do if we desire to be His.  

Romans 10:8-11
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

John 6:35-37
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.  "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.  "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

Take the test today. Your eternal destination is the most important concern in all of your life.

Next time we will we look at more Biblical proofs of our faith. God bless all of you.

Dealing With Anxiety and Worry

Most have of us have probably told someone to calm down. As someone once asked, has anyone ever calmed down in response to being told to calm down? Usually the reaction to this statement, is a violent response, such as, “Don’t tell me to calm down!”  And most of us have been on that side as well, in the midst of a catastrophe, one just does not simply calm down. Yet in the Bible, we find Jesus essentially telling us the same thing.

Matthew 6:25
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

 That is the Biblical version of “Calm down.”

 If we search the scriptures we will find that we are commanded to not be anxious, some translations use the word “worry” in lieu of anxious, in several places. Listen to what scripture has to say about anxiety and worry.

 Proverbs 12:25
Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down

 Isaiah 35:4
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

Mark 13:11
 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

Luke 12:25
 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

1 Corinthians 7:32
 I want you to be free from anxieties.

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Clearly God does not want us to be anxious or worry. The flip side of this is that scripture is filled with the admonition to not fear or to be afraid.

But in truth, we all struggle with this, especially in the middle of the storms of life. Telling us to calm down and not to worry or be anxious just isn’t that simple. What are we to do?

The answer lies in faith. Because the hard truth of this is, for the Christian, worry and anxiety is a sin. It might be the worst sin of all, because what worry says to God is that I really don’t trust you.

I don’t write these things to make us feel condemnation because we all lack faith. If we turn to the Book of Romans, we can find the comfort we need even in the honest admission of our faults.

Romans 8:1-2
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

If we are in Christ, then we are not condemned, but we rest in the righteousness of Christ. Yet, we must strive to grow in obedience and this can only come if we grow our faith. How do we grow in faith? We look again at Romans.

Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We simply must immerse ourselves into our Bibles. We must know the Word of God, for in it are the promises and when we read His Word and we ask through prayer for the Holy Spirit to help and teach us, then we grow our faith. We also need to be in fellowship with other believers by attending church, going to Bible studies through being in a small group or Sunday school classes. God’s design for His people is that they encourage each other. All believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling their hearts and this is where we derive the strength and the wisdom to counsel each other. We also need close fellowship. Jesus had twelve men that He spent most of His time with and within that group, He was even more intimate with three of them. We need someone we can speak openly with. The term used most often is accountability partner.

Ephesians, chapter six, teaches us that we also have an enemy and we are at war spiritually with this enemy. Listen to the equipment God has provided us with to stand in this battle until Jesus returns.

Ephesians 6:10-18
 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;  and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,  praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Notice that we have been given a shield to deflect the arrows of the enemy. If we are prone to anxiety and worry, then these are the arrows Satan will fire at us. We must use the shield of faith. I ask you this question; How big is your shield? The bigger the shield the more effective you will be at not letting the arrows of worry hit you. We simply must be strong enough to wield a huge shield. As this verse begins, it is in the Lord we must be strong in. Not ourselves. We are not strong. So, stop trying to be. Let Jesus be your strength.

We must get in deeply in faith through God’s Word. We must encourage each other to believe God’s Word, for it is true. This is the answer to the command to calm down and to not be anxious.

I have one more suggestion that I am convinced is an oft missed idea of God. He is sovereign. When you read the history of Israel, take careful note of how He protects them by His sovereign control over man and kings. Stop worrying about this argument that you have free will. Yes, we do have free will, but in a mystery of God we can simply not understand, God is still controlling the events of our world by His sovereign will. Romans 8:28 is a good place to start. But the facts of His sovereignty are all over the pages of the Bible. God is in control and He has the complete power and authority to make true, all His promises. The key to faith is believing God really is sovereign. And if one is sovereign over something, this means complete control.

So, this very day calm down. Do not be anxious. Do not worry.

Instead, believe God.