How to hold firmly to our faith

June 22, 2010

Maria 1 Corinthians, 2 Peter, Faith, Gospel , , Leave a comment

Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 1 Cor 15: 1-2

How do we hold firmly to the Word?  Before we get there, let’s look at what happens when we don’t hold on. If we don’t actively retain a grip on truths in the Bible, it’s as though we never heard any of them.  They don’t do us any good!  How can that be?  Doesn’t everything we hear/read/learn affect us?

Realistically, we retain very little of what we hear. Think about your years at university, or sermons you have listened to.  What do you recall?  Hardly anything.  So if we want to retain some information, some truth, we have to do something with it.  This is what Paul means by holding on firmly.

I teach French and know that my students will truly only acquire a phrase if 3 things happen 1) they understand what I am saying  2) they are interested and 3) they hear it at least 75 times.

What is true about learning a foreign language is true for any content.  So how do we truly digest and ‘own’ what we hear? – By repeating it to ourselves over and over again in a meaningful way to us.  Teaching others and using the content in different but related contexts are also helpful.  In short, plain ‘ole’ messing around with the material is what is required.  I think of kneading bread.  How do you get bread to rise?  You put your hands in the goopy flour, salt, yeast and water mixture and work the 4 ingredients well – for about 10 minutes.  We have to do the same thing with meaningful input – work with the material.

Here is an example.  My license plate says ‘SOLA FID’. (In Virginia, we can use up to 7 letters/digits for a personalized plate.)  Those seven letters refer to one of the doctrines of reformed theology – sola fide.  Someone once asked me what my license plate meant and I stumbled all over myself.  I knew inside, sort of, but couldn’t articulate it.  You can bet that I have practiced my explanation many times now, so that I am ready:

Sola Fide means that we are justified by God and made right with him only through our faith in what Jesus has done on the cross. What did Jesus do?  He took on himself God’s entire wrath that was due us AND gave us all the benefits and credit of his perfectly-lived life.  His sinless life and righteous deeds count for us.  These two transactions come to us by a faith that we don’t produce – the faith is even a gift from God.  So God gets all the credit and glory and we get all the benefits!

So when Paul says that we are saved by the Gospel and that we have to hold on firmly to what we heard and received for it to be effective, I take that to mean that I have to remind myself daily, hourly of the truths of the Bible, the gospel promises.  Else I forget and they have no effect on me.  Peter warns his readers that if we don’t make every effort to develop qualities based on the promises God gives us, we will be like a man who looks in the mirror and then forgets what he looks like.

2  Peter 1: beginning with verse 2 – “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.  5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.  10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

This then is what Paul means by holding firm to the Word, to the truth.  We don’t work at this in order to be justified, but we certainly work at it to continue to possess our inheritance, yet…..God’s grace is such that he won’t let us go.  Nonetheless, if I don’t remind myself continually, then my joy drains away and the world becomes more real.  And that is depressing.  So let us be active in rehearsing our faith.

An Experience in Sharing the Gospel

June 14, 2010

Maria Gospel, Reflections, Uncategorized, Wisdom , , , , Leave a comment

Colossians 4:5-6 Be wise in the way you act with outsiders, make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I clobbered my mother-in-law with doctrine.  I wrote her a letter outlining my concerns about her spiritual life.  I shared some basics about sin, repentance, the Good News of what Jesus has done for us and how to grow in the love & knowledge of God.  But I overwhelmed her with my intensity. And I have irrevocably moved our relationship into a new territory where neither of us knows how to maneuver.  All of this – 2 weeks before our youngest son’s wedding when family will gather.

My mother-in-law is 81.  She grew up in the Catholic Church, switched to the Episcopal Church in college, met & married a seminarian and shared the life of an Episcopal priest & bishop for almost 59 years.   Thus has the Episcopal Church been the center of her life.

My concerns for the state of her soul were cumulative over many years as my husband and I were graciously drawn out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light.  Looking back on our past, Mike & I recall how we truly THOUGHT we were Christians all the years we were faithful church-goers and served in different ministries.  Indignation and denial most likely would have been our reaction had someone confronted us with the state of our souls.  So I understand how it must seem puzzling to someone living a ‘religious’ life, that it might be possible not even to belong to Christ.  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”  Matt 7:21

As we discovered truth and life, we wanted to share this joy and the assurance of salvation with those closest to us.  My mother was a believer, yet died before I was regenerated.  I failed to share the Gospel with my father.  I tried, but was not equipped and backed off many times when he didn’t want to talk.  Out of that experience, my husband and I approached his parents.  Our concerns for their spiritual well-being intensified over the past months as my father-in-law was dying.  We prayed for opportunities to have authentic discussions about the reality of Christian hope.  But we could do no more than skirt the periphery of religiosity.

I don’t understand people’s boundaries.  To my discredit, it is very difficult to imagine or empathize, and therefore yield to limits and walls friends and family erect to protect emotions or comfortable routines of looking at life.  (Why wouldn’t you want to talk about the most important topic in life? – your future after you die?  Don’t you want to know if what you have staked your life on is valid?  Don’t you want to even know WHAT it is you believe?) My grown children and husband consider me intense.  But I can’t see that:  I am what I am.  Is a fish aware that he breathes in through gills?

So returning from my father-in-law’s funeral I wrote my mother-in-law THE letter and launched her on a roller-coaster of emotions of anger, shame, indignation and horror.

Here is what I have learned from this experience:

(1)   – Patience is not something I practice naturally, so just as a pilot must intentionally crab into a wind to keep her flight path straight, so must I wait longer than I think is necessary.  I composed THE letter on a Friday and sent it to two people whose opinion I value.  I received a green light from one, but did not wait long enough to hear back from the other person before mailing it off.  She replied 3 ½ days later and suggested restraint.  But I had already mailed off the letter. To my ‘partial credit’ I had slept on it and prayerfully revised it over a 3-day period.  Yet I should have waited for this second person’s wisdom, since I had explicitly asked for it.

(2)   Offhand remarks I wrote that were not even my main point were received poorly.  This really surprised me.  I should have considered every sentence.  When I closed the letter to my dear mother-in-law with the reassurance that her grandsons would be praying along with me for her, I thought that would encourage her.  Instead she was horrified that I had shared something ‘negative’ and had ‘misrepresented her’ to the boys.  I never would have anticipated that reaction.

(3)   Less is more.  I dumped TOO much on her (14 pagesL).  The quantity had two negative effects: a) she missed some important parts because it was too much to take in all at once and b) she felt bludgeoned by the sheer amount of what I wrote.

I failed to SEASON my written conversation with her; I just dumped out the whole blue container of Morton’s iodized salt.

So, I am trusting God now to work my blundering efforts for her good and for mine.  I am praying that we can sort out a way of relating that is safe and comfortable for her when she arrives next week for the wedding.  I am sorry that she will feel self-conscious around her grandsons and us.  That was not my intention.  But I don’t regret that I initiated the discussion.  I could never have said some of what I wrote face to face.  I will continue to share the Gospel with others when appropriate and will trust the Holy Spirit to let me know His timing and the proper words.

Reflections on the state of Dad’s soul

June 6, 2010

Maria Philippians, Reflections , , , Leave a comment

Philippians 1:6 – being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus

We’re back from the funeral for Mike’s dad who died after a yearlong journey with cancer.  He was a retired Episcopal bishop living in Seattle, an Episcopalian all his life.  We, too, were brought up in the Episcopal Church.  But once my husband, I and our two sons started to grow in the knowledge of the Word about 10 years ago, (being transformed by the renewing of our minds à la Romans 12:2), we left the Episcopal church at different rates. Graham (age 27) & Wes (age 22) exited with no regrets once they moved on to college. Mike and I took a slower route, transferring first to a more orthodox-believing Episcopal Church and then finally altogether out of TEC (the Episcopal Church) in April 2009.  We now worship with all our minds and hearts, at home in a Reformed PCA community (Presbyterian Church of America). Our boys are not affiliated with any denomination, their only criterion being – does the church preach the Bible?

When Dad died we all hoped he was a believer.  He was the kind of man who didn’t seem to want to talk about his faith beyond the superficial.  Knowing that he was dying, I flew out in April during my spring break.  I prayed that I would have an opportunity to share about the Hope that awaits us.  He had to go the hospital during my 4–day visit, so we didn’t get to talk much.  I did ask my mother-in-law if she and Dad shared much about heaven.  Sadly to me, she said that they had talked only about funeral details and that she wasn’t going to bring up weightier issues if he didn’t.

When I left Dad in the hospital, parting for what I knew would be the last time on this earth, he seemed sweetly serious.  I told him I would see him again, either here in Seattle or in heaven.  He understood and affirmed the same.

Graham and his family were the next to fly out to Seattle. I thought, if ANYone can share the Gospel and be sure they were saved or at least sure that they heard the Word of God in all its fullness, then Graham could.  He is a worship leader with a student ministry down at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  But he, too, encountered pushback from his grandparents, the reaction of a couple who didn’t want to engage in something out of their comfort zone.

Then Mike flew out the first week of May to visit his dad, arriving about 10 hours before Dad actually died.  Mike took his Bible and read a few chapters out loud from Romans and from the Gospel of Mark.  Dad was mostly in and out of consciousness, but Mike’s mom was beside his bed and alertly engaged in a discussion about the Gospel.  She apparently doesn’t believe in a God of wrath – only the God of love in the New Testament.  At least we know where she stands.

The funeral was delayed 3 weeks to give us time to celebrate with Wes the end of his four years at West Point.  Mike, Wes, Graham & I flew back out to Seattle over Memorial Day weekend.  We had a lot of time to pray and to seek closure about where Dad actually is – in the presence of God or not.

The service, in its typical Episcopal liturgical style, was full of words that were very biblically sounding.  Unfortunately, many Episcopalians are ignorant of their original meaning due to the pernicious liberal movement in church scholarship, dating back to the end of the 19th century.  The church is focused NOT on the good news of God’s provision for our most serious problem- that we are saved from His justifiable wrath by Jesus dying for our sins.  Instead today’s Episcopal Church preaches the gospel of social justice. Furthermore, political peace and environmentalism are seen as pressing problems for the Church to address.

Yet, I came away from the funeral with hope for the man who had been my father-in-law for 30 years. Although we never had a serious discussion about the Bible or about God, I do think he was a believer.  But the state of his eternal soul was NOT helped by a church which continually re-interpreted its own doctrine, a set of beliefs that he had pledged to support first as a young deacon in 1951, then as a fully-ordained  priest,  and finally as a consecrated bishop in 1976.  Yet almost despite the Episcopal Church, he had sucked out basic truths from the Bible.  I saw this in the detailed instructions he left for his funeral, setting the tone with a theme that was centered on the Resurrection.  The scripture readings in particular were chosen to point all of us to the truth of life with Jesus after death.

I thank the Lord for His assurance that my father-in-law is in heaven.  Since our God is one who does more than we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20) I am praying that not only does my mother-in-law come to a saving faith, but my brother-in-law too and many who were in that gathering of 500 in Seattle.  The words my brother-in-law delivered in the eulogy were Gospel truth.  He labored over them as an act of love, a gift to his father.  Since God’s word is alive and full of power, I am hopeful that these words of truth will not return void to the Lord, but will actually convert Steve.  After all, faith comes from hearing the word of Christ.  I’ve read of an English preacher who became converted while delivering one of his own sermons he was preaching.  I am counting on God to do the same for Steve.  May many others present in that service also come to a saving faith in the Lord.

West Point and the God of Abundant Grace

May 24, 2010

Maria Grace, Romans, Uncategorized , 6 Comments

“….God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine according to His power at work in us.”  Ephesians 3:20b

West Point Graduation – the culmination of a 47-month journey for 1002 young men & women in the graduating class of 2010.  A journey of prayer for many moms & dads.

Events I had no control over:

  • The weather!  It poured as we drove up from Virginia to New York on Tuesday, 18 May.  The events scheduled outdoors were the Superintendent’s Garden Reception,  a Thursday Parade,  Graduation Parade on Friday, followed by a family picnic down by the Hudson River, Graduation itself on Saturday in Michie Stadium, a picnic lunch celebration with Officer Christian Fellowship, and an evening barbecue picnic with 70 friends and family.  Then there were the many walks around the post, sight-seeing and trekking from parking lots 30-40 minutes from event locations to include walking in heels and ball gowns to the Grad Banquet.
  • Parking far away and being able to get to events on time.
  • When our group of 12 praying Moms-In-Touch would be able to meet and not cause a burden on the rest of the family members.
  • Family and friends showing up on time and getting through security.   Because President Obama was the speaker, inspections of persons, belongings and cars was intensified , therefore unpredictable.  Traffic backups were forecast.
  • A 11-month old baby!  Dear Chloe functions best with a morning nap and an afternoon nap.
  • Safety for family members flying in and driving in.
  • Harmony among the group.

How God met every need with abundant grace

  • Perfect weather – only the Supe’s garden reception got moved indoors.  We were able to walk around and push Chloe and enjoy the outdoor beauty of West Point.  During the 5 hours in the stadium for graduation, the sun was not too hot the first 3 or so hours.
  • We were able to park and get to events on time.
  • 9 of us moms were able to meet, hug, cry and pray in person.
  • Uncle Steve made it to the graduation banquet with plenty of time to spare. Joan & Jeff arrived on time to the hotel.  Fiancée Anne showed up at about the same time as her parents.  We drove onto post in plenty of time for graduation.
  • Wes’ sponsors, the Sturdivants, opened up their home to us for all 4 days so we could hang out, flop on their sofa and watch movies while Chloe napped upstairs in their guest room.  It was great to have a place just to relax and chill.  Grad week is INTENSE!
  • Chloe had at least one good nap a day and was able to adjust to her different schedule.  She was an amazingly happy baby.  Jeff, Joan and Anne took turns playing with her and walking her around.
  • Lots of laughter AND the good kind of tears.  Wonderful, memory-making times among the 10 of us.

Extra Grace that blessed us:

  • Wes’ grandmother in Seattle actually watched the graduation on C-SPAN and heard Wes’ name being called and watched him receive his diploma.
  • A foreign language awards ceremony where the personal care of loving professors was evident.  A slide show of baby & grown-up pictures of each of the 150 FL majors set to music was a special treat at the end.
  • The blessedness of a Spiritual Commissioning where Jesus Christ could be mentioned.
  • The personal and humorous anecdotal remarks that Col Rod Sturdivant made as he swore Wes in at his Army commissioning ceremony.
  • The warmth and care of two front-desk people at our hotel in Nanuet.
  • Seeing and hearing about the spiritual growth of Wes and his special small group of Christian brothers at the final event.
  • The layout of the hotel suites with kitchens so Chloe could be comfortable and we could have our creature comforts.
  • The joy of being with wonderfully-supportive Uncle Steve, Wes’ future in-laws- Jeff & Joan, Anne – Wes’ fiancée, and our beloved Graham and Shay with little Miss Chloe Isla Cochrane.
  • Restaurants that were accommodating to a  baby and provided high chairs that were perfect.
  • Anne being willing to drive Graham and family to the La Guardia airport which was MUCH easier than a taxi.
  • No traffic driving home.

What this experience taught me about how God answers prayer:

  • I am convinced that God delights to bless us with good things.  I take all these answers to prayer as evidence that the God of the universe does exist and does want us to cast ALL our cares on Him.  These ‘perfect’ 6 days have encouraged me to keep praying for those long-term prayer requests, the ones that seem to linger with no answers.  I believe that God showered us with all these blessings as a way to stress his teaching in Luke 18:1 –  Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Words & Doctrine Matter!

May 12, 2010

Maria Gospel, John, Uncategorized , , , Leave a comment

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:30-32

Words matter.  Many words are equivocal, they mean different things.  So two people can converse and think they are communicating when they really are not.  And if words matter, then content matters.

I had a conversation with someone close to me recently who has grown up in the church and uses all the right language but is not saved because of two problems.  Of course the main reason she is still not born again is that the Holy Spirit has yet to ‘quicken’ her.   The other problem is that she has words, but not the correct content. She would maintain that she believes in Jesus, that He is the Son of God and that He died for our sins.  But she doesn’t believe she is a sinner who has God’s wrath bearing down on her.  She believes that the idea of a wrathful God (‘the one portrayed in the Old Testament’) comes from a primitive people’s understanding of God.  The god she likes is the god of the New Testament, namely Jesus, and He is a god of love.

Let’s return to our verse in John.  Jesus says that if we are to know the Truth, then we have to abide in His word. Therefore, it is important to know the content of the word we are abiding in. If the word is a doctrine, then we need to know the exact meaning of words that explain that doctrine.  If the word is a person, i.e. the Logos/2nd person of the Trinity, then we need to agree on the character of that Logos.  We can’t just make up what we think the words mean, whether they refer to doctrine or a person.

So this dear woman is still locked up in her sins, not yet set free by the Truth.

Pray with me that I can clearly and persuasively argue three points:

a)   God’s plan for redemption is one story throughout both testaments. Furthermore, this overarching mega-story begins early in the Old Testament, when Adam & Eve fall and God provide animal skins to cover their nakedness.  Not much later, God’s rescue plan is reinforced with a hint of Christ’s sacrifice to come when a substitute animal is caught in a nearby bush.  Finally, Moses is instructed to set up and teach the people to observe an elaborate sacrificial system pointing to Jesus, with the offering of animals and the transferring of sins on the scapegoat

b)   Our God is one God with many attributes.  God’s loving-kindness (chesed) in the Old Testament is as well known as His hatred for sin.  Jesus’ love in the New Testament is as prominent as his discussion about Hell.  God does not change

c)    Finally, what one must do to be saved?  Being baptized and attending services does not make one a Christian.   I want to carefully lay out the plan of salvation and not assume this woman understands what terms mean.

I’m thankful that the results lie in God’s hands.  I’m to do my part and trust Him for the rest.  May I faithfully represent the truth without pride or condemnation, but with humility and love.

Sola Fide – how to be prepared to share

May 3, 2010

Maria Ephesians, Gospel, Hope, Uncategorized , Leave a comment

I read something that Ken Boa wrote recently – it was a very succinct summary of the essence Gospel.  I realize that if I am to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the hope that I have, then I have to be ready and prepped with, at a minimum,  a 30-second blurb.  But I want this good news to roll off my tongue, in order to feel confident.  It’s stressful, if I am not prepped, when someone asks, “What does your license mean – ‘sola fid’?” I purposefully chose those 7 letters just SO someone would ask.

I have taken what Ken Boa says and massaged it a bit to strip it of ‘Christianese’, to make it more accessible to those with no knowledge of the Bible.

“Sola Fide” means – by faith alone. That refers to being right with God, having a right relation with him.  We are right with God only through God’s GIFT of this right standing with him, and that through faith.  Furthermore, this right relationship or ‘righteousness’ is found in the good news or gospel.  The Gospel teaches that Christ died for sin as a sacrifice.  We have to let go of our own efforts of justifying ourselves:  this giving up that is an action called repenting.  Only then, with empty hands and no agenda can we receive as a gift his sacrifice, thereby making us right with God.  Amazingly, this right standing with God brings a boat-load of benefits that defy imagination.

Our record, with the listing of all our innumerable misdeeds since we were infants, is taken away and Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account.  Together, these 2 actions guarantee our admittance into the presence of Holy God for eternity.  But that is not all!  We also get the assurance that we are LOVED, we get a PURPOSE for life that will satisfy us (to live for the praise of the glory of this grace) and we get a NEW FAMILY – we are brought into relationship with other believers both for our comfort and our growth. Last, but not least, we get POWER for daily living – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  He is a guarantee of our future place in Heaven, kind of like an engagement ring.   After all, the Church IS the bride of Christ. (arrabon meaning a deposit/security in biblical Greek and in modern Greek, it means engagement ring). The Holy Spirit is also the ultimate power source – Paul reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.  So we don’t have to despair of being incapable of obeying God and relying on him.  The HS gives us the power. We just have to trust and step out to do what He calls & empowers us to do, no matter our fleshly feelings of weakness!

The good news of the Gospel is amazing – but I need to be amazed and astonished daily or I slip into fear, worry and complaining.  So prepping to share the kernel or essence of the Gospel actually helps me as I rehearse continuously.  It keeps my mind focusing on this good news and it prepares me to give a reason for the hope that I have.

Be prepared!

April 27, 2010

Maria Colossians, Gospel , 1 Comment

Col 4 : 5-6  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

My prayer every day is that God will give me the opportunity to share a portion of the Gospel.  That implies that I need to be prepped, ready.  That means that I need to be meditating all the time on why the Gospel is such GOOD NEWS.  That means I have to be preaching to myself, encouraging myself.

What is all that good news? And how do I boil it all down to a 5 second sound-bite that would be salty enough to cause someone to want to talk to me?

My challenge is that I live in a family of believers (a blessing) and I teach in a Christian school.  So my contact with the outside world, the ‘gentiles’ of my day, is limited to encounters at the gym, on neighborhood walks, at the grocery store and in emails to relatives or other friends from my past.

What line will be the best incentive to encourage someone to engage in a conversation?  That’s all I want.  At the grocery check-out line, I usually ask the cashier, ‘How are you’ and she/he responds ‘fine’ and you?  That’s my cue for the 5 second line.   Here’s what I have thought about the past few days:

  • Great!  I’m meditating on the secret of life (go into how there IS purpose in life, both here on earth and in heaven)
  • Great !  God’s goodness is so apparent this time of year (beauties of Spring)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about heaven and how cool it’s going to be (new body – appealing to an elderly person)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about man’s greatest problem and what the solution is  (God’s wrath against us – and how Jesus takes care of that)

A good line will suffice to prompt a discussion if the other person wants one, or it can be easily ignored/ dropped by the other person.  My job is to fish.

But I find that I have to be prepared always.  I have to remind myself of the story –and its component parts:

a)   The truth about God – He is loving, perfect and holy

b)   The truth about humans – i.e. the good news AND the bad news which leads to THE PROBLEM

c)    God’s solution to the problem – Jesus

d)   What awaits us – when Jesus comes back – our AMAZING inheritance

What works for you?  I get discouraged that I don’t have MORE of these conversations.

**

If you need to get a glimpse of what awaits us, then I would recommend John Piper’s sermon from 18 April 2010 – it’s all about how much God loves us.  Here is the link to the audio, video and print.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2010/4581_How_Much_Does_God_Love_This_Church/

Know….!

April 20, 2010

Maria Uncategorized , Leave a comment

Psalm 46: 10 Be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;…

Okay, so we know a lot of God’s commands to us:  Wait/ Fear not/Fret not/ Love/ Do justice/Trust and obey/ Honor/ Give/ Baptize/Teach/ Pray/Be strong/Take refuge/Lean on/Count it pure joy/Set your mind on things above….

We could go on and on.  But have you ever considered that we are commanded to KNOW certain things?  I had never seen this before yesterday.  If God is actually commanding us to know certain truths, then it really IS true that we are to love God with our minds as well as our heart and our soul and our strength.  Mark 12:30 says and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength’

Why would it be important to know certain things?  Knowing doctrine or truths about God and knowing his character are fundamental to being able to love, trust and eventually obey God.  We can’t love someone without knowing content about him.  And why would we trust anything or anybody with our eternal future or even our life without knowing if it/he is trustworthy.  Knowledge IS vital. This world is a corrupted and dangerous place; we face dangers within and without. There are choices to be made.    Life and death await us as consequences for what we do and do not know.

Finally, knowing is not just an instantaneous action commanded by God.  Inherent in knowing is learning and study.  That is why we have to invest time so that we CAN know the truths of God, the story of God, the promises of God, the character of God.  And once we know about God, we need to keep telling ourselves over and over again all this good news.  To obey God’s command to KNOW will be an activity that lasts a lifetime.

The best is yet to be!

April 15, 2010

Maria Ephesians, Grace, Romans Leave a comment

Eph 2 :5-7 (God) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (vs 7) in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Did you know that God has big plans for the universe AFTER this present age?  What exactly is this present age?  It’s the time between when Jesus was resurrected and when He comes back.  Upon His return to Earth, Jesus will inaugurate the period called the ‘coming ages’.  Looking at just verse 7 – the truths one can pull out of those words are astounding.  Here are some:

  • God loves to express/communicate/show off/display His grace to the universe
  • The best way He has conceived of to show this grace is to have His son, Jesus, die on the cross as a substitute for us – the Messiah undergoes the punishment we deserve and we receive His righteousness as a credit on our balance sheet
  • Someone/something in the future will be WOWed by this out-of-proportion displace of grace  (that pitiful creature was worth dying for?!!!)

Therefore, God has chosen certain totally undeserving humans to be the recipients of this grace.  I wonder how incomparable these riches are.  The implication is that we haven’t seen anything this kind of grace during our present age – (The old ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet!’)

Paul expresses the difference between our experiences now and in the future in his letter to the Romans when he writes in Chapter 8, “… but I consider our present suffering not worth comparing to the glory that is about to be revealed to us, in us and on us…”.  Even though he mentions the concept of glory, in my mind, glory and grace all blend together in something unimaginably wonderful.

The next time you are feeling the blahs of ordinary life, allow your thoughts to play and be encouraged by imagining your future.  In a paraphrase of Jonathan Edwards:  a) our suffering is being fashioned to benefit us    b) what is truly good in this life will remain   c) the best is yet to be.

Hope that comes from being grafted into Christ

April 9, 2010

Maria Hope Leave a comment

“…If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things have passed away, all things have become new.” 2 Cor 5:17    “ ….it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” Gal 2:20  “…if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit..” John 14:5b    “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ, in God.” Col 3:2  “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.”Romans 8:11

So what is it?

  • Am I in Christ?
  • Is Christ in me?
  • Am I in God?
  • Is the Spirit in me, or along side of me?

I’ve always been confused about the Trinity and my relation to the three-in-one.  Now I realize that once transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, I am thoroughly mixed in, combined with, part and parcel with all three persons of the God-head.  This is why Paul can say with certainty that if someone is a Christian, he is a new creation with a changed essence.

What are the implications for this change?  As a born-again believer, I now have all the resurrection power necessary to do what God commands me to do.  I can even resist temptation.

This battle with temptation took on new significance the other day.  I had succumbed to overeating while up in NYC and was frustrated with my same old patterns.  A verse from Isaiah kept going through my head, only God had substituted some of the words to make the verse personal to me – Is 58:4b – You cannot fast (overeat) as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high (and expect to be thin).

Then when I was wallowing in discouragement and despairing of ever changing my behavior, I was struck by the reality and fact of the new me.  I CAN battle sin and gain victory through the power of God’s spirit IN me. I am no longer the former Maria, I am in Christ, in God, with the Spirit’s power, too.  Then an idea grew –a way to deal with my besetting battle with food, a plan to change just ONE behavior and to practice that change for 21 days.  My overeating had been primarily in indulging in dessert after the 3 dinners.  So the behavior change to practice was to stop with coffee after dinner and say ‘no’ to any more food in the evening.  I thought, “If I do this for 21 days, it will become a habit”.

Day one was just a matter of setting my mind. Day two I had to deal with what looked like sabotage from a caring hostess who was anxious to feed me mid-evening when I arrived.  I was beginning to think I had to succumb when all of a sudden; she acquiesced and accepted that I ‘wasn’t hungry’.  I was overwhelmed with the realization that God had indeed provided a way out of temptation.  Day three I felt stronger to say ‘no’ graciously to this hostess and stick with my resolve.

Victory, hour by hour, comes from a combination of right thinking and right walking: that is knowing  who God is and who I am in Christ and then walking in a posture of what I have  dubbed ‘TRC’ (my acronym for Trust in, Rely on and be Confident in the Lord and His promises).

Of course, this is just one teeny example of how trustworthy God is even in life’s practical issues.  But if I am a child of God through faith in the power of God, then nothing is outside of his purview or beyond his care.  And when I start to wobble, reminding myself that I am a new creation, totally entwined with the God-head is a good place to go back to!

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