Category Archives: Faith

God, give us believing hearts

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“And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” (Deuteronomy 29:2–4 ESV)

The Israelites had been witnesses of the loving care, miraculous power & sovereign rule of God and yet they did not have seeing eyes, hearing ears or understanding hearts.  They had wandered in the desert and their clothes & shoes had not worn out, God had defeated kings and given them their land (29:5-9).  Their obedience was designed to flow out of grateful hearts that remembered their God & His faithfulness to them.  It is easy for us to look down on the Israelites for their unbelief – after all they saw God do mighty miracles with their own eyes!  We ought to be careful with our self-righteousness, because unbelief is our problem as well (“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” (John 6:29 ESV), see also 1 John 3:23).  Jesus alludes to unbelief by using the same analogy of having a hearing problem (Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9, 12 & 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

Why didn’t the people obey?  Because the Lord had not given them believing hearts.  Unless the Lord opens our eyes, ears & hearts, we will remain blind, deaf & cold towards Him.  God is the one who opens hearts (Acts 16:14), and enables faith by the regenerating power of His Spirit; our only contribution is the sin that makes reconciliation necessary.  One of the major themes of Deuteronomy is Israel’s need for right hearts; it foreshadows the people’s inability to respond rightly to God (Deuteronomy 5:29, 8:17, 9:4).  It looks forward to a day when God would give His people new hearts (10:16, 30:6), which is a theme that is continued throughout the Old Testament (see Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Our greatest need is not more impact, influence, morality or even obedience.  Our greatest need are hearts that truly believe the seemingly impossible promises of God.  The Central Promise of the bible is that a good, perfect, holy & all powerful God would make a way for His rebellious creatures to be reconciled into a relationship with Him.  The staggering implications of this should mark our entire lives.  The more that we understand that we are far more sinful than we first thought, but the gracious sacrifice of God in Christ covers our ongoing apathy & rebellion, the more that we walk in dependent humility.  A deeper, fuller understanding of the gospel shatters self-righteousness which is rooted in our own performance & morality.

Let us abandon our propensity of pretending to be godly, and let us actually pursue godliness.  Let us beg God to give us faith to believe, for we cannot produce this on our own.  God, take our far too small faith & multiply it, we do believe, but help us with our unbelief (Mark (9:21-24); help us to behold you for who you really are and cause us to become more like you (2 Corinthians 3:18).

You Can Rest

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“He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:9–14 ESV)

“Feel the futility of it. In the Old Testament, the priests of Israel were required to offer daily sacrifices to atone for sins. Hebrews points out that the fact these sacrifices had to be performed over and over for hundreds of years shows that they were ineffective in removing sin (Hebrews 10:1–2). Let the language of these tasks being “endless” and being required “year after year” make you tired.

But when Jesus comes, acting as our high priest, he makes a sacrifice of his own life and body that pays the debt once and for all. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). Jesus, unlike any other priest, completed his work and was able to sit down. Like his Father in Genesis 1, Jesus sits because his labor for us is perfect and complete. In other words,

“It was very good.” Because Jesus rests, you can rest.

Jesus’ death and resurrection embody the promises of Sabbath. His work is perfect; complete. He has redeemed us from our sin. By trusting him and obeying his words and his Spirit within us, we are no longer slaves to our corrupted nature. We are free to be God’s children. His resurrection is a picture and promise of the new life we have now and will have forever when Jesus returns and we are resurrected as well.”

by Winston T. Smith, April 17, 108.  From Heart of the Matter: Daily Reflections for Changing Hearts and Lives by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Copyright © 2012 by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Used by permission of New Growth Press.

Worried?

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“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
O Israel,trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the LORD, both the small and the great.
May the LORD give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth!
The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!” (Psalms 115:1–18 ESV)

“All that’s left to do is trust God. But that just happens to be the hardest thing for a human being to do. If it were natural to us, everyone would happily follow Jesus, and divided allegiances would be an aberration. But trust isn’t natural, and divided allegiances are the norm. We are all guilty of little faith and, to make things worse, it isn’t enough to simply understand this. Acknowledging the diagnosis does not automatically lead to a cure. You can confess it, and worry will creep in even during your confession! The cure is not to simply know what the problem is. The cure is to know the one we are called to trust. Keep looking at the triune God and how he has revealed himself throughout history. Don’t spend your time focusing on your wavering allegiances.

How do you seek the kingdom? When you seek the King, you are seeking his kingdom. This kingdom includes everything that comes from him. It includes his law, his grace and mercy, his blessings of life, adoption, and holiness, and all his promises throughout Scripture. Those who seek him feed on his Word and seek to imitate him.

Are you worried? Jesus says there is nothing to worry about. It isn’t our kingdom, it is God’s. We take our cue from the King, and the King is not fretting over anything.

He is in complete control.”

by Edward T. Welch, Dec 17, p 352.  From Heart of the Matter: Daily Reflections for Changing Hearts and Lives by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Copyright © 2012 by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Used by permission of New Growth Press.

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Forgiven

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““Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”” (Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV)

“Is the evidence of having forgiven someone forgetting what he has done to you? Jeremiah 31:34 is often quoted, where God says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

There are at least two problems with this understanding of forgiveness. First, it is not realistic. Trying to forget a sin someone has committed against you will only encourage you to remember it. Completely erasing an offense from your memory is not realistic. Second, it is not biblical. Our omniscient God does not forget anything! The word “remember” in Jeremiah 31:34 is not a memory word, but a promise word, a covenant word. God is promising that when we confess our sins, “I will not treat you as your sins deserve. Instead, I will forgive you.” Forgiveness is a past promise you keep in the future. It is very important to understand these two dimensions of forgiveness. If you don’t, you will veer off in one of two equally wrong directions: (1) You will be plagued with doubts about whether you have forgiven someone because you think that forgiving equals forgetting.

Or (2) you will give in to bitterness because you think that, since you have forgiven someone in the past, you are allowed to hold onto the vestiges of hurt in the present. Neither reflects the way God has forgiven us.”

by Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, May 26, p 147.  From Heart of the Matter: Daily Reflections for Changing Hearts and Lives by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Copyright © 2012 by Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Used by permission of New Growth Press.

Frustrated & Fruitless?

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“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” (Philippians 4:4–5 ESV)

The Apostle once again brings rejoicing back in to focus.  Rejoicing (joy) is a deep contentment, an abiding joy, a soul level happiness that is not dependent upon our circumstances – it has at its root a dependent trust in and reliance upon a good and sovereign God.  All Christians know that they are supposed to be joyful, after all if is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  So why are so few Christians really joyfully?

We may think that it is our responsibility to manufacture joy (and many other traits like love, patience, compassion).  But it is not our responsibility to produce these traits in our lives – we cannot and will not ever be able to manufacture these.  Most Christian’s wear themselves out trying to produce them.  Simply put, we lack the resources on our own to produce good things in our lives.  Joy is a byproduct of something deeper – it is the fruit of something that is happening inside.

So how do we become joyful like the Apostle is admonishing us to be?  Our lack of joy indicates a deeper problem.  We all know, that we can’t just make ourselves joyful.  Lacking joy, indicates a lack of faith (trust) in God which is often times manifested in our believing that we know what is best (though we’d never say it) as if we have ultimate vision and perspective on things or that God is not really after our good.  Do you see that?  We think we are privy to how things really work.  We think we have things all figured out.  We think we know what is best.  We are not convinced that God is really after OUR good.  Our work (and it is work) is to believe that God is good and that He is able to do all that He has promised (Philippians 3:20-21).  The more that we believe this and draw near to Jesus in utter dependance, the more He will produce wonderful things in our lives.  Your role is dependance and faith, His role is producing beautiful things – don’t get those backwards or you’ll be frustrated and fruitless.

Battling Bitterness with the Gospel of Grace

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“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:14–15 ESV)

This section comes on the heels of the section of scripture (Hebrews 12:3-13) that encourages the reader to endure their difficult circumstances and to view them as God’s loving, fatherly discipline.  He calls them (and us) to strive or work towards being peaceful with others and toward holiness – without which no one will see God.  We know that we are positionally holy because of the perfect life and atoning death of Jesus, but we are also called to live holy lives – to see our outside begin to match what He is doing inside.  The community aspect of our faith comes in to focus in verse 15, as we are called to make sure that no one in the community of faith fails to obtain the grace of God – that is everyone in our community understands and embraces the grace that God extends to the elect.  We are called to preach and press the gospel constantly in our lives and in our churches.

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;” (Hebrews 12:15 ESV).  Press the gospel and grace, bathe yourself and your community in it and make sure that there is no “root of bitterness” among you.  This is the same Greek phrase that the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses in Deuteronomy 29:18:  “Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,” (Deuteronomy 29:18 ESV).  When our heart turns away from God and looks to created things as the object of its worship, bitterness is the common byproduct.  Why?  Because we feel entitled to goodness and blessing and we aren’t getting what we think is due us.  Bitterness indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of grace and it is contagious in a community of faith.  When you find yourself struggling with anger or bitterness, the answer is not “just stop it,” or “try harder.”  The answer is to beg God to help you with your unbelief (Mark 9:24) and to help you to see His spectacular grace (undeserved approval) afforded to you, the chief of all sinners.  Grace is not owed to us, but is freely given in the person of Jesus.

Pursue peace and holiness as a community; in order to do this we must keep the gospel of God’s grace as the central component in our minds or else unbelief & idolatry can sneak in and produce bitterness in our lives and in our communities of faith.

By Faith…

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The bible describes two types of belief:  one might look right on the outside, but lacks the power to save or transform, but the other drives us to an abiding walk with the God of the universe.  Having a mere mental assent to Jesus and the gospel is powerless to save or transform (James 2:9).  Unfortunately, our churches seem to be full of those who have “prayed a prayer,” walked an aisle, serve diligently, know & have shared the gospel, pray and attend church regularly, but their belief only resides in their heads and has no real root in their hearts.  Jesus addresses this phenomenon in Matthew 7:23 when people will come before Him and put up their impressive (in our eyes) resumes of the works that they have done in Jesus name.  Jesus response?  Depart from me, I never knew you.  Too many church goers have little regard for God, His glory and have no true, sustained desire to follow Him, walk with Him or know Him; we want His blessings, benevolence and good gifts (i.e. good marriages, successful careers, moral children, influence or even ministry significance or success), but really have no desire for God Himself (Romans 1:25).  Far too many have what Paul describes as “an appearance of godliness, but they deny its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).  Morality and obedience to a form of external religiosity are not the primary indicators of true belief.

Getting belief from our head to our heart is an impossible task for men.  God must do this, God must regenerate the heart so that our desires and affections begin to change.  The bible calls this type of transforming belief faith.  The bible defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV), and says that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV).  Faith is a settled confidence & trust that the things that have been promised by God will actually come to pass – especially that Jesus has atoned for our sins and that we no longer need to strive in an attempt to appease God or win His favor.  This faith is rooted in God, who is sovereign, majestic, holy and true – He will bring to pass everything that He has promised to do.  Our faith is in God and who He is, not in the blessings of God.  Yes, we long for heaven, for all things to be made new, but ultimately our faith is in God.  As faith changes us on the inside, it moves us to obedience on the outside.

So what does faith look like on the ground; what does it look like in real life?  Hebrews 11 gives us examples of those who exercised trust in God.  With names like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Moses Jacob, Joseph, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David & Samuel, it is nearly always the goto place in scripture when it comes to faith.  Abraham, the father of faith, was called by God to exercise faith and abandon all sources of identity & security and trust & rely completely on God for his provision, protection & identity (Hebrews 11:8-10).  Faith always yields obedience, but our white knuckled obedience never produces faith.

We often times think that the bible gives us these great people who have gone before us, as examples for us to follow.  That is partially true, but the bible does not tell us these people’s story as a means for us to mimic their lives, but, rather, to reveal the faithfulness of God.  God is in focus in this passage, not Abraham or Sarah or David.  Yes, they exercised faith in God, however, it is a good thing that God’s plans, actions and benevolence are not predicated on our belief & obedience; His sovereign will comes to pass regardless of our obedience.  The bible does not gloss over people’s failures and stumblings.  Look at Abraham’s life:

  • God calls Abram to be a great nation (Genesis 12)
  • Abraham lies to Pharaoh about Sarah being his sister (Genesis 12:10-20)
  • Abraham struggles about being childless, but believes God and this simple belief/trust/faith was credited to Him as righteousness.  Genesis 15:6.  It is important to note that God views Abraham as righteous based upon His trusting God, not on His obedience to God.
  • Abraham & Sarah attempt to fulfill the promise on their own by Abraham having sex with Hagar and getting her pregnant (Genesis 16).
  • God gives the covenant of circumcision after Abraham was declared righteous before God (Genesis 17).
  • God promises the birth of Isaac, but Sarah doubts God ( Genesis 17-18, 18:9-15)
  • Abraham again pretends that Sarah is not his wife to save his own skin with Ablimilech (Genesis 20)

Our battle, like Abraham & Sarah, is to believe the seemingly impossible promises of God that are rooted in His good, sovereign and transcendent nature.  Abraham & Sarah both struggled with believing that God was able to do what He said He would do.  Abraham lied about Sarah being His wife (twice!) and they attempted to “help” God by trying to fulfill the promise on their own with Hagar.  Let us, with Abraham, Sarah, David and those who have gone before us, battle for belief that this great God of ours is indeed faithful to what He has promised.  Let us go to the scriptures, swim in books and talk to others in such a way that our faith in our sovereign Creator is bolstered and our affections for Him are stirred up.  This is the work that we must be about, it is a work of battling unbelief and developing a deeper faith that draws near to believing that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6 ESV).  Note that it tells us that we primarily should draw near to him and seek him; it does not say to do great things for Him as if God needs us to accomplish anything.  God is not reliant upon us, but He allows to play a part in His grand redemptive plan.  Let us all draw near to Him and believe that He exists and will reward us as we seek Him!

Perfect peace

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“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:3–4 ESV)

Perfect peace is supplied to those whose minds are “stayed” on God and TRUST in Him alone!  He is an unmovable Rock.  What are we trusting in?  Our own self salvation or the eternal God that reigns on high?  God will humble those who trust in their own self sufficiency.  “For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.” (Isaiah 26:5 ESV)  Trust in God!

Iranian Pastor Faces Execution for Refusing to Recant Christian Faith

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“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10–12 ESV)

Pray for Youcef Nadarkhani, he is facing death for his faith in Iran.  Read more here.  Is Jesus worth that much to us?

VIDEO UPDATE

Ultimate Trust

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“Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them” (Isaiah 19:1 ESV).  “They will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.” (Isaiah 19:3–4 ESV).

Egypt’s ultimate trust was in their idols and the ultimate result was oppression.  Where is your ultimate trust?  Does that trust lead you in to freedom or oppression?  The interesting thing about idols is that you can inquire of them for wisdom and direction, but they don’t answer.  Where do you go for wisdom, insight and direction?