Twenty Meters Separate Victory from Defeat

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Paul compared the Christian life with running a marathon because it requires endurance. It is not a team effort; each athlete must push through pain and fatigue to finish the 26 mile course. However, the marathon of life doesn’t end predictably at the 26 mile-marker. It may be 70 plus years or less. Each runner must finish the course that has been set out for him.

Compare another race, the 4 x 400 meter relay, with the Christian life. The 4 × 400, considered by some to be the most exciting track event, is traditionally the final event of a track meet. Teams consist of four athletes; each running a lap around the oval track. The race is often won or lost in a 20-meter section or box where the baton must be transferred from one runner to the next. The critical hand off occurs three times during the race, and dropping the baton results in instant disqualification.

In life’s relay, each generation has been charged to pass the baton of Faith to the next generation. Like any relay race, passing the baton is critical. Biblical history is filled with examples of one generation failing to pass the baton of Faith to those who followed. The most obvious example is stated in Judges 2:6-10:

“When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:6–10, ESV, emphasis mine)

Note several observations from Judges 2:

  • The conquest of the Promised Land had been completed, and the members of each of the twelve tribes had dispersed to their assigned borders. Each had an amazing story to share.
  • The generation that bravely fought to claim the land had witnessed God’s hand in victory and continued to serve the Lord as long as Joshua and their parents were alive.  
  • The third generation after the conquest no longer “knew the Lord or the work he had done for their grandparents and parents.” The second generation had failed to pass the baton of Faith to those who followed.

Those observations are still relevant. Each believer has experienced God’s faithfulness and has their own personal “God-stories”. Each person in our small home group has shared concern for their children and grandchildren, and we pray that each of them will truly “know” and follow the Lord. Regrettably, many young people who have been raised in Christian homes and Bible-believing churches drop out of the race after leaving home.

The obvious question is “Why?”

It’s easy to blame secular public education. However, even children who are home-schooled drift away from their parents’ faith. We wonder why the proverb, “train up a child in the way he should go” failed? Well, after all, it is a proverb not a universal promise or a guarantee. Obviously, the odds are greater that a child trained in God’s Word will follow the Lord than a child that has been neglected like a weed.

Why this attrition? Perhaps, because the human heart is bent toward rebellion. The Proverbs also teach that truth, and Jeremiah’s diagnosis rings true today: “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.” We’re predisposed from birth to pursue our own way. The first rebel. Satan, has perverted our culture, and the assault against moral decency and the nuclear family is pervasive.

Like all older men, I remember “the good old days.” Things were certainly better when I was a child.

However, I believe there is a more subtle, yet pervasive reason for abandoning the Faith. Perhaps we parents have failed to pass on our stories about God’s of faithfulness. We need to continue teaching our children and grandchildren the old stories about God parting the sea for Israel and about providing water in the desert. Our children need to hear the ten most foundational words in the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Let us teach our children to memorize truths like, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” We must continue to teach doctrinal truth because theology helps us know God better.

The Bible is filled with amazing stories of what God has done in the past. But do our children witness what God is doing in their parents’ lives? Have we failed to recognize God’s provision? We don’t pray for sufficient food to feed our family because the cupboards and the freezer are full? Has life been so good that we don’t feel the need to cry out to God in desperation?”

A life without challenges tends to leave us spiritually weak. It is in the midst of trials like those Israel faced—giants and Jericho’s—that faith becomes personal experience.

Let us, who have been the recipients of God’s provision and faithfulness, share our stories lest there arise a generation that doesn’t know God or what He is doing today. We must tell our stories lest God becomes an ancient myth who is no longer relevant.

I believe passing on our stories is so critical that Mary and I have written our family story—we call it “God’s story—so that we can pass it on to those who follow.

In this marathon relay of life, the baton contains both the ancient stories and contemporary evidence that God is still working in our lives today. There is no “20-meter box” in which to pass the baton between one generation and the next. None of us knows when our race will end, but it will probably not be 110 years like Joshua.

It’s always the right time to be passing the baton to those who will run the next leg of the race.

Lest we Forget

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“Play it again, Sam” may be the most misquoted phrase from a classic movie. I’ve assumed that Humphey Bogart spoke those words in the movie, Casablanca. Instead, it was Isla, (played by Ingrid Bergman) who said, “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.” When Sam resisted, Isla hummed the tune and said, “Play it once for old times’ sake.”

My blogsite, Standing on The Promise’ is not a critique of movies, so what’s my point? As time passes, we sometimes recreate memories. Our childhood house once seemed much larger. However, more often we tend to forget significant things, and that is my point.

While reading about the ten plagues in Exodus, I have been impressed with how often phrases like “That you my know” or “That you may remember” or “Lest you forget” appear. Those phrases are repeated in Deuteronomy and throughout the Bible.

I share a few examples (emphasis mine):

Then Lord told Moses, to “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:1,2)

God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.’” (Exodus 9:13, 14)

Moses warned Pharoah, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.” (Exodus 9:29)

“But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” (Exodus 8:22)

God warned Israel against becoming overconfident when they finally enjoyed abundance in The Promised Land: “Take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

However, Israel did forget. They failed to pass on the story of God’s deliverance from slavery and of His provision in the wilderness.Here’s the way it’s described in Judges: “the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. … And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

Pause to contemplate those tragic words, “They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done.”

Parents had failed to pass the stories on to the next generation, and the consequence was monumental. Grandchildren did not know or love God. He had become irrelevant. Without God, “every person did what was right in their own mind.” That’s another way of saying “Do your own thing. Create your own truth.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The book of The Judges contains some of the most sordid stories in the Bible. Crime and injustice prevailed. Immorality, linked to idolatry, ripped the fabric of their culture apart. Just like our culture pursues the idol of personal freedom. We live with lawlessness. Recently, I was reminded that the problem is not the degree of sin but the absence of God, because if there is no God, or He is just a museum relic from the past, we are free to do whatever we please.

Life is a relay race and each generation must pass the baton to the next. Dropping the baton of truth has serious consequences. Sharing our stories of God’s provision and protection is essential. If we don’t have a “God-story” to tell—only hand me downs—I wonder if we really know God? Or, perhaps, we just haven’t stopped to remember all the things He has done.

When Mary and I reflect on 57 plus years together, we are amazed at all that God has done. We recognize His hands have led, provided and protected over and over again. We have a story—a God-story—to share with our sons and our grandchildren.

After retirement from full-time ministry, I have sometimes wondered where to focus my energy. I want to finish well. Whether I continue to post blogs may not matter. Where I serve in our local church may be insignificant. If I ever write another book is irrelevant.

We have committed ourselves to write down our story about God’s leading in our lives. It was Kordell, our youngest grandson, who challenged me to write our story last year.

Our story will not be finished as long as we are still living. Most of our story resembles an old song like “As Time Goes By.” We sing about what God HAS done. That’s what praise is: singing to God and telling others about His faithfulness. The old songs are good. But with every remaining breath, I want to sing new songs as well.

Here are a few requests in the Bible to compose and sing new songs:

Sing to the Lord a new song,

his praise in the assembly of the godly! (Psalm 149:1)

Sing to him a new song;

play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts (Psalm 33:3)

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples! (Psalm 95:1-3)

I love Psalm 40 because it tells how David “waited patiently for the Lord” and how God answered his prayer by lifting him up out of a miry bog. He then credits God with putting a new song in his mouth.

I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:1-3)

My previous post about Joseph enduring injustice for at least twenty years before he discovered God’s greater plan was to use him to preserve Israel and the promised seed. I assume Joseph asked God “Why?” or, “How much longer?” The Bible doesn’t say, But I don’t need to assume Joseph discovered God’s better plan for his life. Whether or not Joseph ever lamented about his situation while in prison is uncertain, but one thingwe know, God put a new song in his heart! A song of praise and a spirit of grace toward his evil brothers.

So, shall we sing Old Songs or New Songs?

Doesn’t matter. Sing both.

Just sing them over again and over again. And again! And again.

Lest the next generation fails to know God and the things He has done.

Lest we forget as time goes by.

Old Songs: As Time Goes By

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“Play it again, Sam” may be the most misquoted phrase from a classic movie. I’ve assumed that Humphey Bogart spoke those words in the movie, Casablanca. Instead, it was Isla, (played by Ingrid Bergman) who said, “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.” When Sam resisted, Isla hummed the tune and said, “Play it once for old times’ sake.”

My blogsite, Standing on The Promise’ is not a critique of movies, so what’s my point? As time passes, we sometimes recreate memories. Our childhood house once seemed much larger. However, more often we tend to forget significant things, and that is my point.

While reading about the ten plagues in Exodus, I have been impressed with how often phrases like “That you my know” or “That you may remember” or “Lest you forget” appear. Those phrases are repeated in Deuteronomy and throughout the Bible.

I share a few examples (emphasis mine):

Then Lord told Moses, to “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 10:1,2)

God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.’” (Exodus 9:13, 14)

Moses warned Pharoah, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.” (Exodus 9:29)

“But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” (Exodus 8:22)

God warned Israel against becoming overconfident when they finally enjoyed abundance in The Promised Land: “Take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

However, Israel did forget. They failed to pass on the story of God’s deliverance from slavery and of His provision in the wilderness.Here’s the way it’s described in Judges: “the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. … And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

Pause to contemplate those tragic words, “They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done.”

Parents had failed to pass the stories on to the next generation, and the consequence was monumental. Grandchildren did not know or love God. He had become irrelevant. Without God, “every person did what was right in their own mind.” That’s another way of saying “Do your own thing. Create your own truth.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The book of The Judges contains some of the most sordid stories in the Bible. Crime and injustice prevailed. Immorality, linked to idolatry, ripped the fabric of their culture apart. Just like our culture pursues the idol of personal freedom. We live with lawlessness. Recently, I was reminded that the problem is not the degree of sin but the absence of God, because if there is no God, or He is just a museum relic from the past, we are free to do whatever we please.

Life is a relay race and each generation must pass the baton to the next. Dropping the baton of truth has serious consequences. Sharing our stories of God’s provision and protection is essential. If we don’t have a “God-story” to tell—only hand me downs—I wonder if we really know God? Or, perhaps, we just haven’t stopped to remember all the things He has done.

When Mary and I reflect on 57 plus years together, we are amazed at all that God has done. We recognize His hands have led, provided and protected over and over again. We have a story—a God-story—to share with our sons and our grandchildren.

After retirement from full-time ministry, I have sometimes wondered where to focus my energy. I want to finish well. Whether I continue to post blogs may not matter. Where I serve in our local church may be insignificant. If I ever write another book is irrelevant.

We have committed ourselves to write down our story about God’s leading in our lives. It was Kordell, our youngest grandson, who challenged me to write our story last year.

Our story will not be finished as long as we are still living. Most of our story resembles an old song like “As Time Goes By.” We sing about what God HAS done. That’s what praise is: singing to God and telling others about His faithfulness. The old songs are good. But with every remaining breath, I want to sing new songs as well.

Here are a few requests in the Bible to compose and sing new songs:

Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly! (Psalm 149:1)

Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts (Psalm 33:3)

Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples! (Psalm 95:1-3)

I love Psalm 40 below, because it tells how David “waited patiently for the Lord” and how God answered his prayer by lifting him up out of a miry bog. He then credits God with putting a new song in his mouth.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD. (PSALM 40:1-3)

My previous post about Joseph enduring injustice for at least twenty years before he discovered God’s greater plan was to use him to preserve Israel and the promised seed. I assume Joseph probably asked God “Why?” or, “How much longer?” The Bible doesn’t say, but the names that he gave to his two sons born in Egypt reflect his struggle with the injustice done to him. I don’t need to assume that Joseph eventually discovered God’s better plan for his life. Whether or not Joseph ever verbally lamented about his situation while stuck in prison remains uncertain, but one thing we do know: God put a new song in Joseph’s heart- a song of praise with a spirit of grace toward his evil brothers.

So, shall we sing Old Songs or New Songs today?

Doesn’t matter. Sing both. Just sing them over again and over again. And again! Lest the next generation fails to know God and the things He has done.

Lest we forget as time goes by.

(All Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible.)

Thanks for reading this post. If you enjoy Standing on The Promise, please share them with your friends. If God has given you a new song, please share it. Perhaps you can encourage others .

Syd

Joseph: Discovering God’ Plan through Suffering

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“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” 

When we read that God intentionally permits—even plans—for His children to suffer, we struggle.

Jesus went about doing good, but suffered an excruciating death because God willed it. Jeremiah has been called the “weeping prophet” for a reason. 

I naturally want to protect my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I’m concerned when they are ill and would be angry if they were abused. So why would a good God—a loving Father—permit His children to suffer? Since God is all powerful and loving, why does He prescribe suffering? 

In last week’s post, I offered Joseph as an example of unjust suffering. He was the eleventh son of Jacob, but the first born of Rachael, the love of Jacob’s life.

The record of Joseph’s suffering began when he was 17. The favored son was hated by his half-brothers—and it certainly didn’t help when his parents honored him with a special robe. Was Joseph being arrogant—or just naïve—when he told his brothers about his dreams that they would someday bow down before him.? Whichever the case, his siblings began to plot his murder. 

I encourage you to read the story and try to experience it from Joseph’s perspective. He didn’t volunteer to be cast into a cistern to become a bleached skeleton. Nor did he suggest the alternative, being sold into slavery. In fact, he resisted and begged them not to sell him. Imagine his brothers’ guilt at every family gathering and knowing their father assumed that a wild animal had killed Joseph, but they were the predators.

Joseph would be sold again. Imagine him standing with shackles around his legs, waiting to be auctioned like an animal. Gone was the glory of his special robe. After being purchased by Potiphar, Joseph earned his favor and was eventually entrusted to manage Potiphar’s entire estate. Although young and handsome, he resisted Potiphar’s wife’s seductive invitations. Falsely accused, he was imprisoned. His integrity and diligence were rewarded, but he would remain a prisoner.

Joseph’s gift of interpretation provided a glimpse of hope that was dashed when Pharaoh’s cupbearer forgot about Joseph. Years passed until one morning, Pharaoh was troubled over dreams that seemed ominous. When none of Egypt’s elite could interpret the dreams, the cupbearer remembered Joseph. He was summoned before Pharoah where he credited God for his ability to interpret dreams.

Pharaoh’s dreams predicted seven years of severe famine. Joseph became Pharaoh’s right-hand man with all the fringe benefits. However, back home in Canaan, the famine had become so desperate that Joseph’s brothers were sent to buy grain in Egypt.

Imagine Joseph’s emotions when he saw his brothers standing in line to purchase grain. His brothers had prostrated themselves in fear before him, just like his childhood dreams. He remembered their crude laughter when he was sold as a slave. They spoke through an interpreter, but Joseph heard them claiming to be “honest men.” Their report about their younger brother’s tragic death rang hollow. 

When Joseph heard them admit, “We are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us,” he turned away and wept. 

Later, when they discovered the money in their sacks, they trembled and said, “What is this that God has done to us?” Can you not hear the depth of their guilt? Simeon was imprisoned; the others returned to Canaan.

Back home, they reported about Simeon’s incarceration and the “harsh” Egyptian’s command to return with Benjamin.

When the food ran low again, Jacob finally relented to let them return to Egypt with Benjamin.

The second encounter between Joseph and his brothers is one of the most tender moments in Scripture. When Joseph entered the room, they bowed prostrate before him. 

After purchasing grain, they departed but were soon arrested and accused of stealing Joseph’s favorite silver cup. Once again, they “fell before him to the ground.” Joseph could no longer control his emotions. Weeping and struggling, Joseph—no longer through an interpreter, but in their mother tongue—said, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” 

Dead silence!

He invited them to come closer and said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold to Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry” (Genesis 45:5–9*, emphasis mine).

Notice the four strong statements about God’s sovereignty. They had sold Joseph, but God had sent him to preserve a remnant.

Years later, after Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers again feared that he would retaliate. Note Joseph’s response: “Joseph wept when they spoke to him and fell down before him and said “’Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones’” (Genesis 50:17–21*). 

If ever a person experienced undeserved suffering, it was Joseph. Trafficked by his brothers, and forced to live all but 17 years of his life in a foreign country. Falsely accused and imprisoned. Forgotten by the cupbearer. Year after year suffering pain and injustice for something he hadn’t done. Yet, there is no record of Joseph’s bitterness. No angry laments against God: “Why? How long!?” No attempt to seek revenge.

It was not the life that Joseph had anticipated as a teenager. Every painful day was the direct result of his brothers’ hatred. Yet he could say, “You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good…” 

I wonder, what if Joseph had remained at home as the favorite son with the colorful cloak? Would he have become a man of integrity? Would he be remembered for his deep faith in God? We don’t know, but we can be confident of this: Because Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, his family not only survived the famine in Canaan but multiplied into a great nation. Living in Goshen, they maintained their distinctive culture and religion. When I read the story, I am amazed how God used evil men and painful circumstances to accomplish something so profoundly good. 

So yes, God does love His children and has a wonderful plan for them. He forgives. Redeems. And one Day, He will welcome them into His glorious home forever!

That road to glory passes through the valley of suffering because it is in the valley of suffering that our faith in God grows, and we learn to trust Him and discover that our Father knows what is best. 

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, wrote these comforting words: “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:31–33*) 

In a sermon about the potter’s wheel, I shared a line from a song: “When you can’t see Gods hands, trust His heart.”

Jacob could have written those lyrics from experience.

So can I.

My life has been saturated with God’s goodness and grace, but it has also been seasoned with suffering. It was through those darker times, when I wondered what God was doing, that I experienced the Father’s love most intimately.

Thank you for reading this post; if you found it helpful, please pass it on to your friends. Perhaps you have a story about discovering God’s heart when you couldn’t see His hand.

*All Scripture quotations are from the ESV.

Look, Westley, She Always Was Your Little Sister

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In the August 8th post, Look Westley, it really is a watermelon, I shared a conversation that I had with my two-year-old great grandson about the day he would meet his baby sister for the first time. Here is a picture of Westley meeting Melanie for the first time.

I was working on the post, Look Westley, It’s a Watermelon, and Westley was spending the day with us. He was sitting on my lap at the computer while I shared that I was writing about his baby sister that was inside his mommy’s tummy. She was out of sight like a watermelon seed inn the ground. But she was alive and one day he would see her and hold her for the first time. She was very, very small like a watermelon seed that would someday grow and some day it would be a real; watermelon.

I suspect that conversation about his sister and a watermelon may have influenced Westley more than I anticipated. Whenever anyone asked Westley the name of his little sister, he responded “Watermelon.” Now, there is similarity in sound between melon and Melanie.

Mary and I anticipate meeting Melanie for the first time today. Our hearts are overflowing with joy at her arrival. At the same time, there is heavy grief in my heart knowing that thousands of little babies like Melanie are being discarded like an uprooted vine tossed into a compost pile.

Harsh? Yes! But it is reality today when the debate is no longer about the right of a baby in the womb, but about personal freedom and reproductive choice. At this point in history, we have lost the battle over abortion as evidenced by the overwhelming victory to make abortion a constitutionally guaranteed right in Ohio. I would never have considered that possible in once conservative Midwestern Ohio.

It appears, that any candidate committed to restricting abortion is at the mercy of an electorate that reflects the Book of Judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The violence and eruption of anti-Semitism across the globe is shocking. But, what should we expect when the only law is “don’t tell me what to do!”

.

God Loves You and Has a Painful Plan for Your Life 

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No, that’s not a typo or a mistake. I freely admit I am trying to capture your attention and encourage you to read further. 

Perhaps many of us have heard or shared that “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  

It’s true. Absolutely.  

God’s long-range plan for those who know and obey Him truly is wonderful. God’s ultimate plan for His children is incomparable to anything we could dream or imagine. Just consider what is means to be invited into Gods presence—into the very throne room in heaven—and to be over whelmed by His majesty and to be surrounded by people that we have read about in the Bible and by loved ones who have passed on before us.  

But prior to that future amazing reunion, God’s plan for us is to experience life through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Having been justified by faith–pronounced righteous and holy—we can experience victory over sin’s power. Paul captures this “wonderful plan” in Romans 8:30: “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”*

God has loved us, chosen us, justified us and will someday complete the transformation when He glorifies us in heaven. Then we shall be perfect. In that moment, we shall fully experience this wonderful life He has promised. 

However, in the middle of that marvelous description about God loving us, redeeming us, reconciling us, indwelling us with His Spirit and promising to glorify us, Paul inserts another aspect of God’s plan for us. 

Suffering.  

Suffering, you ask? Yes, suffering is part of God’s plan for His children. Ponder Paul’s words: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16–17*)  

Note the conditional statement that we are joint heirs with Christ, “providing we suffer with him.” Consider also Paul’s certainty about suffering: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time…” Paul writes as if suffering was normal, and for him it was. That’s what Jesus promised him at the moment of his conversion, when He commissioned Paul to be an apostle. And it certainly worked out that way.  

Suffering is par for the course for a follower of Jesus in this world. No suffering, no glory to follow. 

Jesus often cautioned His listeners to first consider the cost before choosing to follow Him. To become His disciple was to voluntarily “take up a cross.” Cross bearing always includes suffering and death.  

Paul would eventually lose his life after suffering severely. Listen to this litany of his painful experiences: “with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:23–28*).  

But Paul was not an exception. 

We don’t know for certain who wrote Hebrews, but consider these words about suffering as Christians: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:1–13*). 

Pause to chew on those words about God’s discipline. God purposefully disciplines and chastises His children because He loves them. His discipline is always for our good. Discipline promotes holiness and righteousness—two attributes that we will finally share when He has glorified us.  

Until then, let us say with Paul: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.… So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10,16–18). 

Yes, God loves His children and has a wonderful plan for each one. Even so, the road to glory passes through seasons of sorrow, pits of pain, and detours of discouragement. Each painful experience along the journey is to be received as a gift from God to prepare us for what is yet to come. 

Here’s the way Paul wrapped it up: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39 *)  

What confidence! What assurance! What love! Nothing can separate God’s children from His love and His protection.  

So yes, God loves and has a wonderful plan for His sons and daughters—a plan that includes purposeful suffering. Those who offer a gospel of health and wealth fail to tell the whole story. The road to glory winds its way through the valleys of suffering. 

As Mary and I reflect on our lives, we affirm that God has been good. The summits have been filled with pleasure. The valleys with His presence. Throughout the six months recovery from my serious accident in 1984, God was there. When we add up all the hard experiences and compare them to the hope before us, they are insignificant. Mary is presently going through radiation treatment after cancer surgery several weeks ago, but life remains a blessing because we know God has a plan. We don’t know all the details, but we know His purpose is for our benefit. 

History is replete with stories of people that suffered severely but continued to trust God. People that came to reflect graciousness. In the Old Testament, Joseph is an unforgettable example.  

Hated and abused by his ten older half-brothers, Joseph endured years of suffering that helped mature him into the man that God used to preserve the nation of Israel. Israel exists today, preparing to defend itself once again, because Joseph became their deliverer through severe suffering. 

But that’s another story for another blog post. 

Stay tuned. 

Thanks for reading this post. If you appreciated it, why not pass it on to your friends.

Syd

*All quotes from ESV Bible.

Revisiting the Wonder of Being in Christ

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In Christ.

These two simple words describe the believer’s relationship with our Lord. And the blessings we can experience being “in Christ” are almost beyond belief. Think of it! To be able to pray with confidence because we know God’s will. To be able to resist temptation. To experience peace and joy in the midst of trials. To live a Christ-like life. And that’s just a beginning! 

But a question remains.

How can Jesus be living in me? Is it more like Disney’s “wishing upon a star”? That’s certainly not the way Paul described his relationship with Christ when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20-21).

What an amazing, mysterious passage. Paul seems to be saying that he was so fused or united with God’s Son that Christ’s experiences had actually become his experiences.

Christ’s death for sin was Paul’s death. 

Christ’s resurrection was Paul’s resurrection.

Christ’s ascension was Paul’s ascension.

And the apostle could boldly declare that even though he still walked on Planet Earth, he was also—at that very moment—seated with Jesus Christ “in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 2:6). But this isn’t ancient history or pages from a dusty theology volume. These very same truths apply to believers today. Right now.

When Paul wrote that that he was “crucified with “Christ,” he used the Greek perfect tense to describe something that had happened in the past—and was continuing to influence him. No, Paul wasn’t experiencing a literal crucifixion, but his old self-righteous person had died with Christ after the encounter on the Damascus Road.

Paul was still alive, but the life he was now living was being lived “by faith.” It was different than the old life of striving to be justified by keeping the Law. Christ was now living in him.

I’d like to make one more attempt to explain what it means to be “in Christ.”

Let’s consider the life of Jesus Christ Himself. In the four accounts of His life on earth, especially in Luke, the life of Christ can be divided into two distinct periods: before baptism and after baptism.

Prior to his birth, Jesus already existed as the Logos (John 1:1) in eternity. As the Alpha and Omega, He has no beginning or end. When Mary bathed her newborn son before swaddling Him and laying Him in a manger, He appeared to be just an ordinary baby. There was no halo over his head when the shepherds visited and no heavenly glow illuminated the stable. And when He received circumcision on the eighth day of His life, it was like a thousand other such rites. 

At every stage of development, Jesus appeared to be just another Jewish boy. Another kid from Nazareth. He had to learn to walk by falling. If He been learning to ride a bike, He would have needed training wheels. He had to learn to speak Hebrew. (Something I struggled to do.) Luke summarized it this way, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). He didn’t come pre-packed with knowledge; He had to be taught. His relationship with God grew deeper and deeper through study of God’s Word. He learned how to relate to other people socially. He was normal.

At age twelve, however, something shifted. At that point, Jesus knew He was unique. When His anxious parents found Him in the temple after a frantic three-day search, He replied to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).

Did He know this by intuition? Had Mary and Joseph shared with Him the story of His conception and birth? I’m guessing that was so. Can you imagine Mary not sharing the story about the angel’s birth announcement? In my mind’s eye, I can see His eyes grow wide as He heard that first Christmas story—the account of the shepherds, the magi, Herod, and the flight to Egypt.

But even with this knowledge tucked away in His heart, He must have still seemed normal. We don’t read of Him calling down curses on schoolyard bullies. He studied Torah in the synagogue like every one of his Jewish friends. He watched His earthly father at work and learned how to handle the tools safely. He labored several years in the family craft and trade, taking pleasure in the feel of the wood and a job well done. Every day and every year of his life was just plain “ordinary.”

Every day, that is until age 30, when He went to be baptized by His cousin John in the Jordan. This is where the mystery—the transformation—occurred. Luke painted the scene like this: 

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’”(Luke 3:21–22). 

Suddenly the carpenter from Nazareth had a new public identity. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus began a new phase of the mission He had always had from birth. Every day, every decision, and every action was now guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Luke wrote, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1). Jesus the young man stood tall in that trial, silencing Satan’s assaults with words from the Torah he had learned as a youth.

So intense was Jesus’ relationship with the Holy Spirit that He could sense a disturbance when a woman with a chronic hemorrhage touched His robe. He immediately stopped in His tracks and asked, “Who touched Me?” What a strange question for someone being jostled in the curious crowd. Nevertheless, He said, “I felt the power go out from Me.” 

I could share numerous examples of the Spirit empowering and guiding Jesus over the next three years. Jesus knew when to remain silent before accusers and when to answer Pilate. He was never hurried or stressed, because the Spirit kept His daily calendar.

It was this symbiotic-like relationship with the Holy Spirit that led Jesus and empowered Him during His public ministry. It was this relationship with the Holy Spirit that helps me understand what Paul meant when he wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul taught that the Holy Spirit baptizes (fuses) us into the body of Christ when we repent and trust in Him. We become the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, both corporately as the Church and as individual believers. 

Consider these words from Paul in Romans 8:9-11:

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” 

Note how Paul states that “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ lives in us” and gives us power to live a holy life. There, I believe, is the most lucid explanation of what it means to be “in Christ” and to live “with” and under the authority of Christ.

Reflect once more on Paul’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I believe he was speaking from experience. Like Jesus, Paul had once been a rather normal religious Jew. He had gone through all the required rites—circumcised on the eighth day, studied under one of the premier rabbis, was a member in good standing with the most conservative Jewish sect and was so zealous he thought he was doing God a favor by persecuting the young Church. 

Every day of Saul’s life, he had relentlessly pursued his mission. When he left Jerusalem with legal documents permitting him to arrest Christians in Antioch, it seemed like just another ordinary day. Ordinary, that is, until a searing light from heaven knocked him off his mount and left him stunned and blind in the dirt. A voice from heaven (remember the voice at Jesus’ baptism?) brought deep fear when Paul heard these words: “Saul! Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Fearing death, he responded, “What do want me to do?” He was given a new mission to go to the Gentiles with the good news that Jesus of Nazareth actually was the Messiah and had risen from the dead. 

His eyes were healed, he was baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Almost overnight, Saul began proclaiming Jesus in synagogues, saying, “Jesus is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were confounded and amazed. 

Saul (who became Paul) was a transformed man. Having done a 180 for the ages, he would spend the rest of his life presenting the gospel and planting churches throughout Asia Minor and Europe. 

Let’s consider the similarities between Jesus’ baptism and Saul’s. Both men had been affirmed by God from heaven. Both were transformed. The trajectory and focus of both lives were dramatically changed. Most importantly, both were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Without doubt, Jesus has had the greatest impact on this world of any person. I would argue that Paul may have the second greatest influence. So, these two men, Jesus of Nazareth and Saul of Tarsus, provide living examples of what it means to be in Christ. To experience Christ living in us. 

Consider Jesus’ words to His disciples the night before His death:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:15–20) 

What, then, does this mean for you and me today? 

Actually, it means everything.

If Jesus, the Son of God, relied on the Holy Spirit, certainly I must also. When I submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit in my life, I have the power and ability to live a Christ-like life. In those moments, when I step off the throne and yield to the Holy Spirit, I can say with certainty and humility, “Christ is living in me.”

All Scripture passages are from the ESV (emphasis mine)

If you appreciate these blog posts, please share them with you friends.

Thanks, Syd

Come Apart…Before You Come Apart

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“Come … apart into a desert place, and rest a while….” (Mark 6:31)

What comes to your mind when you hear the word desolate? Is it positive or negative?

An English dictionary offers synonyms like bleak, barren, miserable or lifeless. A “desolate place,” then, could be a desert with nothing but sand dunes as far as the eye can see. (But even sand dunes are beautiful.)

Perhaps solitary would be a better word to describe such a place. It’s not barren or lifeless; it’s just empty of people.

I grew up on a wheat farm in the Nebraska Panhandle, with nothing to see but the distant horizon and our nearest neighbor’s farm a mile away. Some might consider that desolate, but to me it was “home sweet home.” The methodical clank of the windmill driven by the relentless wind and the song of the meadowlark are sounds I still cherish when I desire solitude.

Jesus considered desolate places to be very desirable. Rather than avoiding them, He sought them out as places refreshment. Consider the following examples where the ESV translates the Greek word eramos as desolate:

Mark 1:1-12; Luke 4:1-15:  Jesus was baptized in a desolate area, and was led by the Holy Spirit to spend 40 days in the wilderness. Here in this desolate place, Jesus turned away Satan’s assaults.

Luke 4:42:  After thwarting a mob’s attempt to kill Him in Nazareth—and after an exhausting schedule of healing, miracles and encounters with demons, Jesus sought out a desolate place for respite.

Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12; 9:1-6: Jesus spent a night praying in a desolate place before choosing 12 apostles and sending them on a mission.

Mark 6:30-32:  When the apostles returned and reported to Jesus, He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away to a desolate place by themselves.”

Luke 5:15,16; 9:18, 28:  Jesus routinely retreated to desolate places to pray. On one occasion, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. Three of them witnessed Jesus’ amazing transfiguration on a lonely mountaintop. 

Luke 22:39: So routinely did Jesus seek solitude that Judas knew where to find Him—and hand Him over to His enemies.

Many years ago, I preached a series of messages I called “God’s Mountain Men.” Like the mountain men of the old West, these men in the pages of Scripture preferred solitude over the crowds and noise of the city. Lot, for example, chose the ease of city life, while Abraham preferred the shade of an oak tree and a tent. Seasoned by the wilderness, Abraham became so bold in his relationship with God that he dared to negotiate face-to-face with the Almighty on behalf of his nephew in the city. One day, after the sun had set, Abraham entered into a solemn covenant with God (Genesis 15). There is no greater example of faith in God than Abraham.

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob the schemer, was molded into a man of faith after twice encountering the God of his grandfather while camping in a desolate place (Genesis 28:10-22; 32:22-32).

Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness herding sheep. Lessons that he had never learned as a prince in Egypt prepared Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt and through the desolation. His first encounter with God at the burning bush was frightening—and the second encounter almost deadly. Extended visits with God on the summit of Sinai, however, deepened the relationship—even to the point where Moses dared to speak with God as “friend with friend.” Times spent in solitude with the Lord in the tent of meeting were so transforming that Moses’ face would actually glow (Exodus 33:7ff. 34:29). (Can you imagine him walking through camp in the evening with his face radiating like a lantern?) 

David experienced solitude in the wilderness, both as a shepherd and as a long-term fugitive from Saul. Having experienced desolation in the desert as well as the delights of the palace, he would write: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Solitude shaped David into the “man after God’s own heart.” 

I could write about the prophets, John the Baptist and even Paul as examples of great men who were shaped by the wilderness.

But I offer one man as a case study: Elijah the Tishbite, who suddenly emerges into the biblical narrative in 1 Kings 17. At one of the darkest moments in Israel’s history, this man from the hill country of Gilead boldly confronted King Ahab and warned of severe drought in Israel. Elijah then went to live in desolate place across the Jordan River. After three years of severe drought, Elijah reappeared to announce the end of the drought and to challenge 450 prophets of the pagan god Baal to a showdown. The outcome would clearly demonstrate to his watching countrymen whether Yahweh or Baal was the true, living God. (I assume most of my readers are familiar with the story in 1 Kings 18.) 

On the summit of Mount Carmel, two altars with two sacrificial bulls would serve as object lessons for the people of Israel. Would Baal, the god of the storm, deliver the fire? From early morning to noon, Team Baal chanted and ranted furiously with no response. Then Elijah called the people over to the altar of Yahweh, where a simple prayer was dramatically answered when a lightning bolt ignited and consumed the bull—and the altar. The decision was rendered: “Yahweh is God!”

Elijah challenged the crowd to seize and kill the prophets of Baal. Then, after praying for rain, Elijah ran back to the city of Jezreel to discover that he was wanted—dead or alive—by the evil Queen Jezebel. For some reason, the queen’s warning completely deflated God’s prophet. No longer bold with faith and wanting nothing to do with the city, he fled into the wilderness and prayed to die. (The very thing he had tried to escape.) However, refreshed with sleep and catered by angels, Elijah trekked through the desert to Mount Horeb—the very Mountain where Moses had enjoyed rich fellowship with God. Elijah secluded himself in a cave. His pathetic response, when the Lord asked, “What are you doing here?” revealed his desperate loneliness and disappointment with God. Ignoring a violent windstorm, an earthquake and fire outside the cave, Elijah was intrigued by a low whisper.

God restored His broken prophet, and Elijah finished his life mission with strength and courage. What a lesson for me. For all of us. 

Sleep deprived, physically exhausted and emotionally empty after an adrenalin high, the great prophet had come apart at the seams. Had his earlier boldness been mere bravado? Fearless before 450 prophets, he wilted at the threat of one woman. His great faith faltered. Like us, he was just another man, after all.

Our Creator, who formed us out of dirt, knows that we need respite and solitude. We need times to refocus, refuel and refresh our relationship with God. That is why He ordained the Sabbath day as a time of rest. That is why Jesus said and modeled that the Sabbath was made for man, not as just one more rule to keep. We need down time. We need rest stops—desolate places away from the rat race. With all of our “labor saving” devices and appliances, many of us remain gerbils running on a wheel, but going nowhere fast. Stress, a word almost devoid in the Bible, saturates our conversations today.

One obvious exception was Jesus. He is never described as being in a hurry. He always had time to touch a leper, visit with a Samaritan or counsel a rabbi. He had time to hold little children on His lap while the disciples stressed over the schedule. Most of all, He always had time to pray. Preferably in a quiet, even desolate place.

Do I require less? Can I expect to run “full-bore” 24/7 without complications? Can you?

Living again in a city and limited physically, I can no longer trek through wilderness. So, where is my desolate place? My place of solitude? My tent of meeting? It doesn’t need to be a remote mountain.

For me, at this stage in life, my desolate place is the recliner in our living room between 5:00 and 7:00 am. The house is quiet. I’m alone with my Bible and my second cup of coffee. It’s a time to read. To contemplate. To talk to God. To listen for that “quiet whisper” that drew Elijah form his cave.

It is my time to come apart from life’s demands…lest I come apart myself.

Missing the Boat

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A friend recently shared his frustration after reading about Israel’s cycle of sin, discipline, repentance and deliverance—only to repeat the whole dreary cycle.

The obvious question was, “How could Israel stumble so severely after witnessing all of the miracles God had done? The Jordan River crossing and the walls of Jericho capitulating before them should have been sufficient to keep them on track. The answer is revealed in Judges 2:10. Joshua’s generation had been eyewitnesses, but their grandchildren no longer “knew the Lord nor the things He had done.” Their parents failed to pass their faith on to their children.

Israel’s addiction to sin wasn’t unique to the time of the Judges. If anybody has felt frustration like my friend after reading Judges, it was Nehemiah. After enduring 70 years under Babylonian oppression, Israel continued to stumble after being liberated. 

Nehemiah traveled over 800 miles back to Jerusalem to lead the reconstruction of the city walls, and after placing trusted men to maintain law and order in his absence, Nehemiah was shocked to learn that his reformation movement had disintegrated. The city walls were still standing, but it seemed that everything else he had accomplished had been discarded. His teaching and his strong example had been shelved. It was business as usual.

The same problem has also persisted throughout history of Christianity. Churches planted by Paul drifted away from sound teaching. In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul exclaimed, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are returning to a different gospel…” Paul was deeply grieved, even angry, over their behavior. It would surely have broken the apostle’s heart if he could have known that each of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3—churches planted by him or his team—no longer even exist today. All that remains are scattered stones and tiles—some still bearing the symbol of the fish. 

Our pastor has been preaching through Hebrews, a letter addressing the problem of abandoning the gospel to avoid persecution. At least these believers had a motive for abandoning the Faith.

If we fail to learn from church history, we will continue to repeat it. Are we any different than those who have lived before us? Are we better trained and discipled? Consider the colleges and universities founded to train and equip men to preach God’s Word—and have now utterly turned their backs on faith in Christ. Harvard and Princeton are obvious examples, but the list is much longer and continues to grow. Consider major church denominations that, less than a hundred years ago, were bastions of biblical theology, but today have “deserted” the gospel just like the Galatian Christians before them. They have followed the culture rather than Scripture. Some even deny the deity of Christ and His resurrection, but still call themselves “Christian churches.”

How about television and radio preachers or seminary professors who have moved away from their roots—some ignoring or even apologizing for the Old Testament. Claiming to be “woke” they justify homosexual marriages.

How can this be? Why would anybody, claiming to be a Christian, ignore biblical teaching? 

Here are a few possible reasons people desert the Faith:

1)  Sometimes the message is wrong.

The false teachers in Galatians had gutted the gospel by adding the requirement of circumcision to the pure message of grace. If the message proclaimed from pulpits today is wrong, those sitting in the seats on Sunday will be vulnerable to error.

2) Sometimes the messenger is responsible.

When messengers fail to speak the whole truth in an effort to please people or to identify with our secular culture, they have become the worthless salt that Jesus warned against. If the listener is not taught truth, he will follow a lie.

Perhaps the messenger has failed to apply the truth in his or her own life. When their lives don’t match what their lips proclaim, they become stumbling blocks. Consider the pastor or TV evangelist who has been caught in an adulterous affair or guilty of fraud with money that has been donated in good faith. The verbal message of these preachers may be correct, but their personal duplicity provides an excuse for others to reject it.

3) Every time a professing Christian abandons the faith, that individual was already predisposed toward desertion.

Although the deserter may offer either or both of the above excuses for leaving the faith, the deeper problem is not the message or even the messenger. It is a problem of the heart. Jeremiah nailed it when he wrote, “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:5,9). When Eve was deceived by Satan’s distortion of God’s Word, something changed in her heart. And then, of course, everything changed, and all of Adam’s descendants are now predisposed to go our own way and “choose our own truth.” 

From the time Paul wrote Galatians and John wrote The Revelation, churches have been drifting away—or even intentionally walking away—from the unchanging truth of God’s Word.

Why do denominations and seminaries abandon the truth of God’s Word? Why does a young man who grew up in the church turn away from the faith of  his parents? If the message is true and relevant, I ask why? If a messenger has been a faithful example, why do his listeners desert? 

Why? Because the heart of the problem is a heart problem. 

I offer two biblical examples as evidence of the depravity of the human heart and our predisposition to desert:

Consider Noah. God, who knows our hearts best, called Noah “righteous and blameless” in Genesis 6:5,11. Noah’s life—in both words and actions—was evidence of his authenticity. Although the surrounding culture was marked by wickedness and filled with violence, Noah remained blameless. That’s the way God said it. 

Although neighbors and relatives mocked him, Noah never stopped preaching and warning about impending judgment, but continued building an ark—to float in an ocean that didn’t yet exist. Tragically, all of Noah’s peers, neighbors and relatives missed the boat. He left behind all of his siblings, every uncle, every cousin and every nephew. Not to mention his neighbors and acquaintances. 

The problem in that tragic era was neither the message nor the messenger. God diagnosed the heart problem in Genesis 6:5: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” After the flood waters had receded, the Lord promised Noah, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). 

The psalmist also diagnosed the problem when he wrote, “The fool says in his heart ‘there is no God.’ They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good” (Psalm 53:1). That’s God’s indictment against human history.

Nothing has changed. Men, women and youth still choose to disregard the God of the Bible simply because, as Peter Hitchens admitted in his book The Rage against God, he simply didn’t want there to be a God. He didn’t want any divine accountability, so he could be free to pursue his youthful lusts. Hitchens, now a believer, exposes the motive driving most of the people who deny God or walk away from the Faith they once claimed.

For the clearest example of the ultimate motive behind every decision to desert the faith, consider Jesus’ ministry. He was sinless, faithful to the mission and the message. His claims were validated through miracles, not the least of which was the day He victoriously burst from the tomb. Yet after three years of listening to Jesus teach, witnessing His miracles and after going on several short-term mission trips, Judas eventually deserted Jesus for a handful of coins. Jesus had previously diagnosed Judas’ heart problem—his predisposition to betray and desert. Reclining around the table, Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “One of you is a devil” (John 13:21). 

So, when it seems that many who once claimed to believe but have turned away, I ask myself, “Do I share responsibility? Have I failed to proclaim the Truth—the whole truth? Have I, by my personal example, given them the excuse that they sought?” 

Or is it a heart problem?

Or both?

Is there any hope?

Of course! Fervent prayer for our friends and members of our family.

In our home Bible study of ten adults, each couple has shared prayer requests for our children and grandchildren to remain in or return to the Faith. Since there is power in prayer, might there be greater power in corporate prayer? Acts 2:42-47 describes a vibrant church that had captured the attention of those outside the church because they were devoted to sound biblical teaching, authentic fellowship and praying together.

The Amazing Blessings of being “In Christ”

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In my previous post I compared the believer’s relationship “with” or “in” Christ to symbiosis, but don’t let the word scare you.

The word simply describes the mutual sharing between two distinct organisms. Certainly, we benefit greatly from this relationship “with Christ.” But unlike mistletoe—the parasite that only takes nutrients from its host tree but gives nothing back—our relationship “in Christ” glorifies Him through the fruit of the Spirit. 

This unique “in Christ” experience began the moment we truly believed in and received Christ as Savior and Master. The Holy Spirit baptized or fused us into the body of Christ and a new symbiotic-like relationship with Christ began. 

How real was this relationship to the apostle Paul? In Galatians 2:20, it’s hard to see where Paul ends and Christ begins! In fact, you can’t. They have become one. “I have been crucified with Christ,” he wrote. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20-21). 

When I consider Paul’s claim that for him to live was the same as Christ living in or through him, I am reminded of this excerpt from a song that we sang in our church last Sunday: “For we carry His life in our veins.”* I suspect Paul would raise a hearty “amen” to those words. “carry His life in our veins.” (*Turn Your Eyes, 2019, Sovereign Grace Worship)

I want to explore a few of the spiritual blessings that we experience “in Christ.” And they are many. 

In Christ we are “holy and blameless” before God

Paul wrote “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:3,4). 

Apart from Christ we remain alienated from the holy God because of our sin. Let’s face it, guilt stains almost everything we do in this life. But because we are “in Christ”—and He in us—the slate has been cleaned and we stand blameless. Satan the accuser may throw the book at us through all our days, but nothing sticks. That’s blameless!

In Christ we have redemption

Scripture says: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us…” (Ephesians 1:7,6).

He paid the debt we could never repay. Our account has been stamped “PAID IN FULL,” and we have been forgiven once for all.

Paul expands these truths in Ephesians 2:4-10):

“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, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We have been loved unconditionally, granted mercy beyond belief and lavished with grace. God is the great benefactor; we are the beneficiaries.

In Christ, we can experience a productive life 

Consider Jesus’ words:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:1–8).       

Another translation says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” The very next sentence emphasizes the essential relationship between a vine and its branches. Unless the branch abides—remains—in the vine, it can’t bear fruit. Neither can we be fruitful through our own independent efforts—no matter how well intentioned. But with the resurrected Christ dwelling in and empowering us, we will be fruitful.

The singular purpose for planting a vineyard is grapes. In the same way, Jesus’ metaphor emphasized that the singular purpose of a true disciple is to bear fruit. People who only mouth the name of Jesus (with no real heart connection) don’t bear fruit that will last. They simply can’t. Authentic disciples bear fruit. In fact, God will prune away anything that saps away our spiritual energy. The more intimately we choose to abide in Jesus, the more beautiful fruit we will see in our lives. 

In Christ, we experience productive prayer                   

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

In other words, the relationship flows in both directions. God is glorified, and we enjoy childlike confidence that dares to ask our heavenly Father whatever we desire—because Jesus lives in us. To abide in Christ is to experience fruitful prayer, because this relationship with Jesus enables us to know how to pray.

In Christ, we have a new identity, belong to a new family and are heirs with Him. 

“In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6).

Paul stated that if Christ is in us, the Holy Spirit also dwells in us as well, and identifies us as God’s children.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:14–17) 

Sharing an inheritance with the Creator of everything? How could we begin to wrap our minds around a concept like that? But it is completely true. God says so.

In Christ we receive power to break the bond of sin over our lives

Responding to a rhetorical question about continuing in sin, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:1–14). 

In Christ we will never be condemned to Hell

We need never fear the impending sentence, “I find you guilty.” Why? Because the sentence has already been paid in full. Paul said it this way in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In Christ, we have a new mission

Our new mission, the assignment that will last as long as we have breath, is to know Him and serve Him because we love Him. Having been saved by grace, not by our efforts, “…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

After his dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul considered all his previous attempts to please God as rubbish—garbage headed for the landfill—compared to the sheer joy of knowing Christ. Wanting to become more like Christ, Paul pressed on, endured persecution and eventually martyrdom, anticipating “the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:14). And so we also share his anticipation.

In Christ, we enjoy a new potential                     

Paul’s goal was to live so that “Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me” (Philippians 1:21).

In Christ, we anticipate a new destination.        

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).

Not just to arrive in heaven, but “to appear “with Christ” who is seated at the right hand of God—the seat of highest honor in the universe. Life doesn’t any better than that!

I have only scratched the surface, of course, of what it means to be “in Christ.” But here is a question that ought to concern us all: How do we do it? How do we abide or remain in Him? What does abiding involve? Jesus made it very clear: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:10–11).

There, in plain words, is the key to abiding in Christ. OBEDIENCE. To obey Jesus’ commands is to know and to love Him more intimately. To welcome His word into our hearts as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16. 

By grace, through faith, we have been placed into—fused with—Christ. We share this symbiotic-like relationship with Him, but we can’t abide in Christ apart from knowing and submitting to God’s Word.

*All Scripture is from the English Standard Version.