Sometimes faith seems so easy, like when you are in church listening to a particularly inspiring sermon, or those times when you feel the Spirit of God speaking to you. For me though, I am continually plagued by the workings of my mind, by the world's wisdom. My mind will question the interpretation of something in the Bible or I'll read something in a FICTIONAL story of all things that brings up nagging questions for me and my faith wavers. My faith in the existence of God or Jesus? No. My faith that Jesus worked miracles or died and rose from the dead? No. But little things that get me to thinking "maybe that part's true, but that part may not be true", especially things in the Bible in relation to modern day life. And from where, for me, do all these doubts stem? From what I have spoken of before, FEAR. Mostly fear of being wrong, of being stupid, of being naive, of being bamboozled. This I think is one of my biggest faith challenges; I don't like to be wrong, I don't like to look stupid, and I like everything to make sense.
But maybe it's deeper than that. Today in church the talk was about healthy marriages and how we live in a disposable society where we throw away anything that doesn't give us exactly what we want when we want it. Many aren't willing to work hard anymore for anything. We want things to come easy for us. To put it simply, many of us have a hard time fully committing, and especially if committing means compromising or surrendering in some way, because this seems to mean we are weak. I can convince myself that I'm actually quite good at commitment; after all, even though I'm on my second marriage, I was with my first wife for about 15 years (9 of it married) and have been with my second wife for about 12 years, and have worked at my job for almost 8 years and 10 years at the job before that. I'm committed to being a good follower of Christ and a good husband and a good father. But what does that mean? Well, it means not only do I have to be good at sticking and staying, but I also have to be willing to surrender and sacrifice. Jesus showed us how to do it when he totally surrendered to God's plan even though he knew how big a sacrifice he would have to make.
The identification with the mind, the ego, the self is what I have to be willing to surrender. Like Jesus, I have to be willing to let God pilot my life, TOTALLY, and when I do that I will inevitably be giving up selfishness for God's selflessness. Surrendering to God totally takes faith. But what if He wants me to do a bunch of stuff I don't like or I'm not good at? I have to have faith that God will put me exactly where I need to be and give me the tools to carry out His plan. But how will I pay all my bills if I tithe and give money to charitable causes? I have to have faith that God will do as promised and will take care of me when I step out in faith in His name. How will He do that? I have no idea. Will I end up doing stuff that doesn't make sense to me if I step out in faith? Yes, most probably. 1 Corinthians 1:19 says "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate". And further in 1 Corinthians 2:5 I am reminded that my faith must "......not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power". I hear and read many of man's "truths" everyday and my worldly mind/ego likes to latch onto them and chew on them and tries to question God's word. I have to have faith though and listen not to man's truths, but to the spiritual truths whispered in that still small voice by the Holy Spirit sent to me by my heavenly Father to guide me on my path. Sometimes I have to listen very hard. Oh, but when I do..... when I really listen with my heart and not my puny little mind, it is so worth it my friends.
So, I pray to my Lord in faith to challenge me to step out of my comfort zone each day, to open myself to selfless possibilities to be there for someone else just when they needed someone to be there as my God is there for me when I need Him. I pray the Lord will help me be a better listener to spiritual truths and to carry them out in action in my life. For faith without action is no faith at all.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Answered Prayer, Faith and Questions
I had to learn again this past week that God always answers our prayers, though not always in the way that we expect. I asked God to help me be a better father and soon after this, my ex-wife called to say that my daughter needed more attention from me. My ego rejected her words while my heart knew her words were true. It wasn't that I thought her words were untrue, it was the sting of hearing it from her. But after more prayer, I came to realize that her call was sent to me from God in answer to my prayer and I needed to heed the message, despite not being comfortable with the messenger.
This led to further exploration into the nature of what was really needed from me by my daughter (and I'm sure others in my family as well). In the book "A Case For Faith", interviewee Peter John Kreefe says that in human relationships, lovers don't want explanations, they want PRESENCE. I have lots of explanations for why I don't always spend very much time with my family, but no one cares about those shoddy reasons, they just want me to be there for them. For my daughter, it's an occasional conversation, a dinner out, help with a school problem, but mostly just BEING with her. I've had similar problems with my son recently in which I did not know how to initiate a conversation with him that wouldn't sound like a lecture. I thought and thought about the right words, but they never would come, and so I just avoided him. Recently, I realized though that the only words I needed were words of love, compassion, empathy and concern for his well-being. Just saying "hi" when he walks in the door and trying to BE there with him. In the Bible, it says that in the beginning there was the Word... I think the original Hebrew word "logos" for "word" actually is translated as "word in action". So, my words alone are meaningless without the action of PRESENCE and BEING that goes with the words. At the end of the book of Job, God speaks to Job, but it is not God's words that Job treasures, but the fact that God showed His PRESENCE to Job.
Sometimes we question whether God is really present in our lives and whether He is speaking to us, answering our prayers and acting in our lives. I can assure you that all you have to do is simply ask God to work in your life, surrender fully to His loving and wise control and then sit back and have faith that He WILL work in your life in amazing ways. He does for me everyday.
This led to further exploration into the nature of what was really needed from me by my daughter (and I'm sure others in my family as well). In the book "A Case For Faith", interviewee Peter John Kreefe says that in human relationships, lovers don't want explanations, they want PRESENCE. I have lots of explanations for why I don't always spend very much time with my family, but no one cares about those shoddy reasons, they just want me to be there for them. For my daughter, it's an occasional conversation, a dinner out, help with a school problem, but mostly just BEING with her. I've had similar problems with my son recently in which I did not know how to initiate a conversation with him that wouldn't sound like a lecture. I thought and thought about the right words, but they never would come, and so I just avoided him. Recently, I realized though that the only words I needed were words of love, compassion, empathy and concern for his well-being. Just saying "hi" when he walks in the door and trying to BE there with him. In the Bible, it says that in the beginning there was the Word... I think the original Hebrew word "logos" for "word" actually is translated as "word in action". So, my words alone are meaningless without the action of PRESENCE and BEING that goes with the words. At the end of the book of Job, God speaks to Job, but it is not God's words that Job treasures, but the fact that God showed His PRESENCE to Job.
Sometimes we question whether God is really present in our lives and whether He is speaking to us, answering our prayers and acting in our lives. I can assure you that all you have to do is simply ask God to work in your life, surrender fully to His loving and wise control and then sit back and have faith that He WILL work in your life in amazing ways. He does for me everyday.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
How Do We Know If We Have The Holy Spirit?
When I was a teenager, a group of young missionaries came to our church and I was absolutely riveted by their faith, their "cool-factor" while being an unashamed witness for Christ, and mostly just the fact that they seemed to be filled with "spirit". One of these young people stayed at our house that week and so I had a chance to observe him and ask him alot of questions. I was also curious because he (like several of the others) had the gift of speaking in tongues. Bottom line: I wanted what they had and wanted to know how to get it. My houseguest said that what I was observing in him was the Holy Spirit and that all I had to do after accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior was to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to allow myself to be totally open to it happening.
Well, I did ask...... and ask..... and maybe that's part of the problem. Jesus says to ask and then BELIEVE that it has been given and we will receive what we have asked for. I think perhaps I did not then, and perhapsI haven't yet now, completely surrendered to God taking complete control of my life. While doing an Internet search on the topic of this post, I ran across a sermon by a preacher who voiced alot of the things I've been thinking. He said that alot of people ask for the Holy Spirit but then are apprehensive about what that might really mean and thus there is ambivalence in their asking and, therefore, ambivalence in the giving. He said that having the Spirit of God take up permanent residence inside of us and be given complete control of our lives is very scary to many and, frankly, many don't want to give up certain aspects of their lives or control over certain aspects of their lives. In other words, having the Holy Spirit is a form of responsibility and many don't want that kind of responsibility. On the other hand, living under God's complete control gives us access to His unerring direction, constant support and love and lack of desire to engage in things not of God. This makes the responsibility a partnership and responsibility is always easier when it is shared with another.
The preacher I found on the Internet also says that having the Holy Spirit is not always (and maybe rarely) a case of being thunderstruck with overwhelming joy, immediately being able to speak in tongues, or being able to perform healing miracles at one's merest touch. Rather, one may know they are filled with the Holy Spirit by the deep sense of peace and serenity they feel on a regular basis, the feeling of being drawn to those things of God and away from things not of God (or beginning to love those things of God more than those things of the world) and hearing God's direction in that "still, small voice" in our everyday practices.
So, when I ask myself if I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I am going to answer yes because I do feel myself drawn to the things of God on a much more constant basis. I find myself praying and talking to God and wanting to talk to God on a regular basis. I find myself wanting to read more and more about God and his word. I feel more serene and peaceful than ever before. I find myself relinquishing my addictions to anger, resentment, jealousy, self-pity, and revenge. I find myself in a state of forgiveness and love more and more often. I find that I am craving the company of other followers of Christ and am less satisfied when around those who are not Christ followers. The preacher I spoke of earlier also says that he believes receiving the Holy Spirit is a process and not a product or result. I like that and believe that I am in the process of daily receipt of the Holy Spirit in my life. I don't have all the answers (in fact I have no answers except that Jesus Christ is my Saviour), but I don't need to have all the answers because God has all the answers for me and I need only ask Him to guide me in the right direction. I simply ask for God to help me be in a state of complete surrender (faith) each and every day and to give me the courage and the strength to do the things He wants me to do out of His love for me and concern for my growth.
Well, I did ask...... and ask..... and maybe that's part of the problem. Jesus says to ask and then BELIEVE that it has been given and we will receive what we have asked for. I think perhaps I did not then, and perhapsI haven't yet now, completely surrendered to God taking complete control of my life. While doing an Internet search on the topic of this post, I ran across a sermon by a preacher who voiced alot of the things I've been thinking. He said that alot of people ask for the Holy Spirit but then are apprehensive about what that might really mean and thus there is ambivalence in their asking and, therefore, ambivalence in the giving. He said that having the Spirit of God take up permanent residence inside of us and be given complete control of our lives is very scary to many and, frankly, many don't want to give up certain aspects of their lives or control over certain aspects of their lives. In other words, having the Holy Spirit is a form of responsibility and many don't want that kind of responsibility. On the other hand, living under God's complete control gives us access to His unerring direction, constant support and love and lack of desire to engage in things not of God. This makes the responsibility a partnership and responsibility is always easier when it is shared with another.
The preacher I found on the Internet also says that having the Holy Spirit is not always (and maybe rarely) a case of being thunderstruck with overwhelming joy, immediately being able to speak in tongues, or being able to perform healing miracles at one's merest touch. Rather, one may know they are filled with the Holy Spirit by the deep sense of peace and serenity they feel on a regular basis, the feeling of being drawn to those things of God and away from things not of God (or beginning to love those things of God more than those things of the world) and hearing God's direction in that "still, small voice" in our everyday practices.
So, when I ask myself if I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I am going to answer yes because I do feel myself drawn to the things of God on a much more constant basis. I find myself praying and talking to God and wanting to talk to God on a regular basis. I find myself wanting to read more and more about God and his word. I feel more serene and peaceful than ever before. I find myself relinquishing my addictions to anger, resentment, jealousy, self-pity, and revenge. I find myself in a state of forgiveness and love more and more often. I find that I am craving the company of other followers of Christ and am less satisfied when around those who are not Christ followers. The preacher I spoke of earlier also says that he believes receiving the Holy Spirit is a process and not a product or result. I like that and believe that I am in the process of daily receipt of the Holy Spirit in my life. I don't have all the answers (in fact I have no answers except that Jesus Christ is my Saviour), but I don't need to have all the answers because God has all the answers for me and I need only ask Him to guide me in the right direction. I simply ask for God to help me be in a state of complete surrender (faith) each and every day and to give me the courage and the strength to do the things He wants me to do out of His love for me and concern for my growth.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Love and Sacrifice
It is Easter time and I can feel the presence and power of God around me and with me. It was especially strong in church today and I felt so happy and so alive. This is the time that we are all reminded of God's great love for us and His manifestation of that love in the form of The Great Sacrifice. While, as usual, my feelings don't strictly follow traditional Christian doctrine, I do believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that His special mission here on Earth as one of us was to challenge our perceptions about God, religion and the nature of our lives in general.
One of our (my) perceptions throughout the old testament of the Bible was of a punishing, vengeful, jealous God who had a lot of hoops to jump through in order to gain His acceptance and very few found themselves worthy. Jesus came and shook all that up and told us that God is love, and since God is everything, love is everything. The most important thing in the world is to love the Lord God with all your heart and second only to that is to love your neighbors as yourself. Jesus, as God's Son, let us all know that God loves us THAT MUCH, that he would sacrifice His child to show us how much He loves us.
I believe that Jesus showed us that it is possible to have a personal relationship with God. Not an Almighty Creator of the Universe Bow At Your Feet relationship, but a friend to friend, brother to brother, father to son, mother to daughter kind of everyday living relationship. Jesus taught us that God has put everything we want and need at our disposal if we simply have faith in Him and His true love for us. Jesus says if a son asks his father for an egg would the father give him a snake instead? Of course not! God wants us to live in abundance and has made all things possible through Him if we only believe, believe with the innocent faith of a little child.
Jesus also taught us that, while it may sound paradoxical, true abundance and riches and fulfilment come from sacrifice and service. When we give truly and completely of ourselves in an attitude of servitude, all that we could possibly want or need comes pouring into our lives. Often we find that it is ALL in the giving that provides our joy and receiving "things" is not such a big deal anymore. So, while on the one hand, the pain and suffering that Jesus underwent on the cross for us was immeasurable and incomprehensible to us, for Jesus it was probably also one of the most joyous events in His life here as He was blessed with the opportunity to give fully of Himself as very few ever have or ever will.
It's not always easy to have faith that doing the hard stuff will ultimately bring us the most joy and fulfilment, and it is this lack of faith which is the only thing that separates us from God. This, Romans 14:23 says, is what we call sin; anything that does not come from faith. Jesus showed us the ultimate in faith and in this He was perfect. He showed us that He had total faith in God's ability to defy death and showed us that, like Him, we can all defy death through faith in God, by becoming a daily living sacrifice to the service and love of others, and live eternally in God's perfect love.
One of our (my) perceptions throughout the old testament of the Bible was of a punishing, vengeful, jealous God who had a lot of hoops to jump through in order to gain His acceptance and very few found themselves worthy. Jesus came and shook all that up and told us that God is love, and since God is everything, love is everything. The most important thing in the world is to love the Lord God with all your heart and second only to that is to love your neighbors as yourself. Jesus, as God's Son, let us all know that God loves us THAT MUCH, that he would sacrifice His child to show us how much He loves us.
I believe that Jesus showed us that it is possible to have a personal relationship with God. Not an Almighty Creator of the Universe Bow At Your Feet relationship, but a friend to friend, brother to brother, father to son, mother to daughter kind of everyday living relationship. Jesus taught us that God has put everything we want and need at our disposal if we simply have faith in Him and His true love for us. Jesus says if a son asks his father for an egg would the father give him a snake instead? Of course not! God wants us to live in abundance and has made all things possible through Him if we only believe, believe with the innocent faith of a little child.
Jesus also taught us that, while it may sound paradoxical, true abundance and riches and fulfilment come from sacrifice and service. When we give truly and completely of ourselves in an attitude of servitude, all that we could possibly want or need comes pouring into our lives. Often we find that it is ALL in the giving that provides our joy and receiving "things" is not such a big deal anymore. So, while on the one hand, the pain and suffering that Jesus underwent on the cross for us was immeasurable and incomprehensible to us, for Jesus it was probably also one of the most joyous events in His life here as He was blessed with the opportunity to give fully of Himself as very few ever have or ever will.
It's not always easy to have faith that doing the hard stuff will ultimately bring us the most joy and fulfilment, and it is this lack of faith which is the only thing that separates us from God. This, Romans 14:23 says, is what we call sin; anything that does not come from faith. Jesus showed us the ultimate in faith and in this He was perfect. He showed us that He had total faith in God's ability to defy death and showed us that, like Him, we can all defy death through faith in God, by becoming a daily living sacrifice to the service and love of others, and live eternally in God's perfect love.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Sin, Salvation and Grace
For someone who in the most technical sense possible has been a Christian for a very long time, I feel like a complete infant. I'm still flailing around, not even walking, maybe barely crawling. Although I believe wholeheartedly that Jesus is Lord and that he died a sacrificial death in human form and was resurrected as the Son of God that He is, I still find myself questioning alot of other things in the Bible. I still, for example, find it hard to believe that God spoke directly to the authors of the Bible over 2,000 years ago and has not spoken directly to anyone else since then. That's why it's easy to conceivably believe that God or Jesus actually did speak to the authors, as they claim, of books like "A Course In Miracles" and "Conversations With God". There is much in these books that seems to have a ring of truth to it, but ultimately, I cannot give my whole support to the fact that these books came from God. While I have some of the same problems with the Bible, I continue to support its long history and support from millions worldwide as the Truth, even as I continue to struggle with it. Admittedly, I can't say that I've really studied the Bible enough in earnest to fully come to any kind of understanding of it.
A good friend reminded me that the Bible is a living word and for me that means that when I read passages from the Bible while in communion with God, understanding and meaning will flow forth as it applies to me personally. My God is a personal God and I know that His greatest desire is to have me come to know Him more and more, not to hide or withhold His truths from me. One good idea that came out of the first few pages of "Conversations With God" and that I think is supported by the Bible is that God reveals Himself through inward experience not outward appearance. Although God is everywhere and in all that I see, I won't find God outside of myself. God is deep within me, in the very fabric of the cells that make up my being, and always has been, just waiting for me to invite Him to be an everyday part of my life.
Paul says in Romans, before Jesus there was the Law, and the Law seemed to enhance the fact that we are sinners (which to me simply means that we are all prone in our earthly human state to act imperfectly) by pointing out to us what sin was. Though the laws were good and meant to bring us the life we were incapable of having as long as we engaged in unrighteous behavior, it also emphasized the fact that we were slaves to sin as the temptations were too great to resist while we fought the slavery on our own. Reminding me of one of my previous posts ("Why Are We So Afraid?"), Paul also says that being a slave to sin means being a slave to fear. In other words, the world had us all in its lethal grip and we were dying as it was virtually impossible to live the laws while in the grips of slavery to sin.
But God's perfect plan and grace brought forth a perfect balance in the universe in that, as Paul says, one man's act of sin (Adam) brought forth the condemnation of many but one other's obedience (Jesus) made righteousness of many! Jesus, through God's grace, made a bridge for us to God so that we are no longer slaves to sin. God's Spirit tempers our sinful natures and leads us instead into loving and righteous behavior which allows us to experience LIFE! When I think of the wages of sin being death, I think more of spiritual death than the corporeal kind and, indeed, a spiritual death is far more devastating to me. By being corporeally alive but spiritually dead for an eternity is to know there will never be any hope, any love, any companionship, any peace. But spiritual life through Jesus means joy, pure and unending love without boundaries or limitations and serenity on a scale that I can't even imagine.
A good friend reminded me that the Bible is a living word and for me that means that when I read passages from the Bible while in communion with God, understanding and meaning will flow forth as it applies to me personally. My God is a personal God and I know that His greatest desire is to have me come to know Him more and more, not to hide or withhold His truths from me. One good idea that came out of the first few pages of "Conversations With God" and that I think is supported by the Bible is that God reveals Himself through inward experience not outward appearance. Although God is everywhere and in all that I see, I won't find God outside of myself. God is deep within me, in the very fabric of the cells that make up my being, and always has been, just waiting for me to invite Him to be an everyday part of my life.
Paul says in Romans, before Jesus there was the Law, and the Law seemed to enhance the fact that we are sinners (which to me simply means that we are all prone in our earthly human state to act imperfectly) by pointing out to us what sin was. Though the laws were good and meant to bring us the life we were incapable of having as long as we engaged in unrighteous behavior, it also emphasized the fact that we were slaves to sin as the temptations were too great to resist while we fought the slavery on our own. Reminding me of one of my previous posts ("Why Are We So Afraid?"), Paul also says that being a slave to sin means being a slave to fear. In other words, the world had us all in its lethal grip and we were dying as it was virtually impossible to live the laws while in the grips of slavery to sin.
But God's perfect plan and grace brought forth a perfect balance in the universe in that, as Paul says, one man's act of sin (Adam) brought forth the condemnation of many but one other's obedience (Jesus) made righteousness of many! Jesus, through God's grace, made a bridge for us to God so that we are no longer slaves to sin. God's Spirit tempers our sinful natures and leads us instead into loving and righteous behavior which allows us to experience LIFE! When I think of the wages of sin being death, I think more of spiritual death than the corporeal kind and, indeed, a spiritual death is far more devastating to me. By being corporeally alive but spiritually dead for an eternity is to know there will never be any hope, any love, any companionship, any peace. But spiritual life through Jesus means joy, pure and unending love without boundaries or limitations and serenity on a scale that I can't even imagine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
