Category Archives: Salvation: A New You

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June 30, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, God's Plan, Obedience, Salvation: A New You

WHAT A DEAL!

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? [Luke 9:23-24 (MSG]

daisyAlthough we do our best to maintain our cars by getting new tires, touching up the paint, repairing dented fenders, and changing the oil, eventually we want a new one. How would we respond to an ad that said we could turn in the old car (no matter how battered or worn) and get a brand new one, absolutely free? Of course, there’s some fine print at the bottom of the ad. We won’t hold title to the car; it will belong to the manufacturer. Moreover, if we accept the new car, we don’t get to pick the model or accessories and we have to let the manufacturer decide how fast we drive, where we go and how we get there, where to park, what neighborhoods we travel through, how bumpy the ride will be, and when we arrive at our final destination. In full disclosure, there’s even mention that, while the ride will be quite an adventure, we’ll probably end up with some scratches and dents along the way. Would we make the deal?

But wait! When we continue reading the fine print on that arrangement, we learn that the car’s final destination is the Kingdom of God? Would we make the deal then?

Ever wonder why there is a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell? Apparently, there’s more traffic going to hell! [A bit of anonymous humor from the Internet]

Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.” [John 3:3 (MSG)]

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June 26, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, Holy Spirit, Obedience, Prayer, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin

WE NEED HELP!

But I need something more! For I know the law but still I can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. [Romans 7:17-20 (MSG)]

butterfly weedWe all know the speed limit, but most of us break it. Obviously knowing a law is not enough to make us obey it. We know the guidelines for a healthy lifestyle, but most of us still eat and drink more than we should and exercise far less than recommended. Evidently, self-determination is not enough to make us behave as we should. We may believe in Jesus, but we still succumb to sin. Clearly, calling oneself a Christian doesn’t create an invisible shield against temptation and bad behavior.

If someone as devout as the Apostle Paul struggled with sin and couldn’t overcome it on his own, we are in good company. As Paul found, knowing God’s law is not sufficient and struggling to obey it on our own is unsuccessful. Like Paul, we will continually struggle with the attraction of sin. It’s not easy to repent and tougher to forgive. It’s challenging to love our neighbors and even harder to love our enemies. Having faith is only easy when we already know the results. Try as hard as we can, honesty, humility, and obedience seem to escape us while pride, anger and deceit rush in to take their place. Being God’s child is a life-long process. We will continue to be a work in progress for the rest of our lives. Willpower is not enough; we cannot do it on our own.

We must follow Paul’s example and call on the Holy Spirit to give us the power we need to change. God promises he will be there! Every time we fall (and, like Paul, we will fall many times), God will be there to pick us up.

“I told myself not to do it, but I didn’t listen!” [Neighbor girl’s excuse to her grandmother]

I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be – I can truly say that I am not what I once was – a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and say that “by the grace of God I am what I am! [John Newton]

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. [Romans 7:24-25 (MSG)]

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June 22, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Fruit of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, Knowing Him, Peace of God, Salvation: A New You, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

THE DAILY BLESSINGS OF FAITH

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [2 Peter 1:3 (NLT)]

pale purple coneflowerI have a friend who describes herself as being a “Birth and Resurrectionist.” Her idea of Christianity simply consists of church attendance on Christmas and Easter (maybe), with an occasional funeral or wedding thrown in.

Setting aside the promise of salvation and how we will spend eternity, what would our lives be like if our relationship with Jesus and His church was merely a twice a year event? We’d still have a code of ethics, a sense of right and wrong. Yet knowing what’s right doesn’t mean we do the right thing. When we have a relationship with Jesus, we also get the Holy Spirit to guide (and prod) us through our moral choices. Without Jesus, our sense of worth would depend on things like social status, wealth, education and looks; without those assets, we would feel worthless and unlovable. With Jesus in our hearts, we know we’re worthy of God’s love not because of who we are or what we have but because of who made us. Without Jesus in our lives, the blessing of God’s forgiveness would be missing; we’d be burdened with guilt, regrets and even anger. If we had no relationship with Jesus, we’d miss that wonderful sense of peace that comes from Him. We’d always be searching for the next best thing without ever realizing that we have the best thing right beside us. Without Jesus in our hearts, would we be able to love? Probably, but certainly not with the unconditional love about which Jesus spoke. Finally, without Christ, we’d lose our sense of hope and trust; we’d fight our troubles instead of accepting them with the knowledge that God will get us through them. While salvation is the final reward for our faith in Christ, our daily lives are continually blessed for that faith.

Let us pray for those many “Christians in waiting.” May they accept Jesus as their Lord and come to know the joy and peace that can be theirs when, instead of occasionally visiting church, they have a daily relationship with our Savior. May they enjoy the rewards of Christianity that come both in this life and in the next.

Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. [John 10:9-10 (NLT)]

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June 15, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, God's Promises, Money & Wealth, Nature, Peace of God, Salvation: A New You, Today: Make it Count, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

A FIRM FOUNDATION

Santa Rose de Lima - Abiqui NM
You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. [Ephesians 2:19b-20 (NLT)]

Four years ago, a Seffner, Florida, man went to bed and disappeared. As he screamed for help, he, his bed and then his entire bedroom vanished into the earth, never to be seen again. A sinkhole some twenty-feet across had formed beneath the house and the house simply collapsed into it. The house was demolished and the hole filled with four truckloads of gravel. Two year later, the hole reappeared, measuring 17-feet across and 20-feet deep and the area now is deemed uninhabitable.

Apparently, sinkholes are a natural component of Florida landscape and pose a geological hazard throughout the state. My “Sunshine State” lies on bedrock made of limestone or other carbonate rock which is dissolved by naturally acidic rainwater. As the rock dissolves, underground cavities or caves form. Eventually, the ceiling of the cavity can no longer support the overlying weight of what’s above it. Since our Florida home is made of poured concrete, I thought our foundation was firm until I learned about sinkholes. Florida is not alone; about 20% of our nation’s land is susceptible to sinkholes.

How firm is your foundation? If you live in the San Francisco area, not very! One of the most dangerous seismological zones in our country is the Hayward Fault in California, running between Richmond, south through Berkeley, Oakland, and Hayward to San Jose. Every year it spreads or creeps about 4.6 millimeters a year. That’s only about an ant’s length, which doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up. In a hundred years, that’s about a foot and a half. That little bit of creep every year moves curbs, creates gaps in roads, and cracks foundations and walls.

When Hayward’s paving crews repave and fill in cracks, they are only treating the symptoms, not the cause, and the pavement continues to crack. Steel bracing rods are inserted into buildings but they, too, are only short term solutions. Hayward’s first City Hall was built in 1931 directly on top of the fault line. Gradually splitting in two, no amount of plaster, cement or steel rods can hold it together; it is now unusable and abandoned. All along the fault line, the ground continually moves and pulls apart sidewalks, pipelines and any structures sitting on it. It’s not just the Hayward fault that endangers structures and people—we have the San Andreas (California), Cascadian (Pacific Northwest), New Madrid (Midwest), Ramapo (East Coast), Wasatch (Utah), Denali (Alaska) faults and numerous others. As the man who sank to his death in Florida learned too late, sometimes we think our foundation is much firmer than it actually is.

While sinkholes and earthquakes are a fact of life and reason for concern, we should be more concerned about the base upon which we build our lives. We may think we’ve got a disaster-proof life built on a firm foundation of money, job, health, family, education, skills, talent, friends, status, or even looks. If Jesus isn’t the cornerstone, watch those bricks start to collapse when even one of those things is removed. When we choose to build our lives on God’s bedrock, even if we live over a sinkhole or the Hayward fault, when disaster hits (and it will), we will neither cave in nor fall down!

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. [Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT)]

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand. [“How Firm a Foundation” (attributed to Kirkham or John Keene)]

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May 30, 2017

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Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, Fruit of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Temptation & Sin

WOULD I? COULD I?

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. [Matthew 5:10 (NLT)]

As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. [Acts 7:59-60 (NLT)]

old world wisconsinHis testimony enraged the Jewish high council and he was taken from the city and stoned to death. Stephen was the first of the Christian martyrs but clearly not the last. We’ve all been horror-stricken by the recent news from Egypt where ISIS thugs attacked Coptic Christians on their way to a remote monastery. According to witnesses, the men were told their lives would be spared if they recited the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. When they refused to do so, they were gunned down. Since December, more than 100 Coptic Christians have died in Egypt in four different attacks. On Palm Sunday, two of their churches were bombed leaving forty-four dead. It’s not easy being a Christian in Egypt.

Apparently, it’s not that easy in India, either. Last winter, Bartu Urawn and his wife were forced to stand all night in a freezing pond. When they refused to renounce their Christian faith after being immersed in the frigid water for seventeen hours, they were beaten. Although his wife survived, Urawn died as a result of the torture. A decade ago, Christianity was embraced by ten families in this remote Indian village. Unfortunately, in the years that followed, seven of those families caved into threats and returned to their indigenous tribal religion. The Urawns, however, remained faithful to Jesus.

After watching the news of the Egyptian attack last night, my husband asked how I would respond in a similar situation. I wondered. Would I choose to be a martyr? I’d like to think I would. Like the Urawns, could I endure hours of torture and still stay true to Christ? I’d like to think I could. What if, rather than saving my life, renouncing Christ meant I could keep my children from suffering torture or death? Now it’s getting harder to know the answer. Could I watch them suffer? How could I live with myself in either scenario? Perhaps I’d find an excuse for verbally abandoning Jesus by telling myself that they were just empty words from my mouth and my heart didn’t mean them. I’m not so sure God would see it that way and it doesn’t much sound like something Jesus would do. These are not easy questions and, hopefully, I’ll never be forced to ask them. Nevertheless, the uncertainty of my answers indicates the level of my faith and it’s nowhere near as strong as I thought it was. Jesus told us to pick up our crosses and follow him; let us never forget that the cross was an instrument of torture and He was walking to Calvary. We have been called to share in His suffering and persecution should not deter us.

Living here in the United States, we’re not likely to be threatened with torture or death for our Christian faith. We don’t risk our lives by reading the Bible or gathering in worship and prayer. Perhaps, rather than wondering if we would stand up to ISIS soldiers or an angry mob of non-believers, we should ask ourselves how well we stand up to the world in which we live. Although we may never have to choose between Jesus and our physical survival (or that of our loved ones), there are plenty of opportunities every day to forsake Him in far more subtle ways. If we’re not walking in His footsteps and led by His Holy Spirit, we’re denying Him. There’s more than one way to lose one’s soul.

 I will not deny Christ…I will continue to believe until my last breath. [Bartu Urawn]

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? [Matthew 16:24-26 (NLT)]

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May 25, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fruit of the Spirit, Knowing Him, Love & Works, Peace of God, Prayer, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Today: Make it Count

OUR LAST LECTURE

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. [1 John 2:6 (ESV)]

monarch-butterfly

Last Friday, I was blown away when I walked into a restaurant to discover that my family had gathered from both far and near to surprise me with a 70th birthday party. I couldn’t believe how beautifully they had secretly choreographed the entire celebratory weekend. With tears of joy leaking from my eyes and a heart bursting with love, I prayed that they would be as fulfilled in their lives as I have been in mine. Having just finished yesterday’s devotion about last lectures, I couldn’t help but think of the passing along of life lessons. Although I’m in good health, I know that much sooner than later my time in this world will be over. Is there a last lecture I should prepare?

Remembering that my children rarely listened to any of my lectures when they were young, I realized they certainly wouldn’t listen now they’re grown adults. I recalled Randy Pausch’s last lecture and what he considered the most useful weapon in a teacher’s arsenal: the “head fake.” Simply put, the head fake is indirect learning. While thinking they are learning about one thing, the students really are learning about quite another. Perhaps these devotions are my version of a head fake. They aren’t just about finding God in both His Word and everyday occurrences; they’re about how to lead our lives. And, like Professor Pausch’s lecture, while freely shared, they are actually for my children.

Most of us, however, aren’t professors or writers and yet we all have a last lecture, a legacy of sorts, to leave to those who follow in our footsteps. The best last lecture, of course, is the ultimate head fake—a life well lived. We can teach more with our examples that we ever could with our words. Unlike most lectures, however, that lecture lasts far longer than an hour or so. It is ongoing; every time we interact with our loved ones or they observe us with others, we’re giving that lecture. Do we treat people who can do nothing for us with the same respect and dignity we do to those who can do something for us? Is the Fruit of the Spirit obvious in our conduct? Do our actions match our words? In the end, the example of our lives will be far more powerful than even the most eloquent of lectures. If Christ can be seen in us, we will have given the most powerful lecture of all.

Heavenly Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit and guide us so that we are living examples of Jesus. Enable us to walk as He walked, talk as He talked, give as generously as He gave, care as deeply as He cared, forgive as freely as He forgave, and love as largely as He loved.

Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone or an obituary in a newspaper. [Billy Sunday]

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. [Romans 12:9-18,21 (ESV)]

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