Category Archives: Peace

Good Works

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Throughout much of the Middle East it is illegal to convert to Christianity from Islam. And yet hundreds of Muslims break that law willingly.  A church near the Syrian border has recently baptized over 800 converts.  One couple explained their decision before the judge: “When we lived in Syria the Muslims in ISIS murdered three quarters of our family before we could escape.  But here, the Christians have done nothing but love us, shelter us, feed us and clothe us.  So, tell us: Why shouldn’t convert?”

The judge dismissed the charges and let them go.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  (1 Peter 2:15)

Futility

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It is futile to keep doing something that does not work. It is futile to push the elevator button after the first time.  It is futile to attempt to clean up your act and connect  to God by following religious regulations.  Religion that consists of do’s and don’ts doesn’t work. Like the elevator button, however, it seems like it might work if you just keep at it.  That kind of religion reminds me of people using slot machines.  Futility.  They do the same, ineffective thing, over and over, hoping for a better result next time.

Strict religious rules, Paul said, “… have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”   (Colossians 2:23)

I mean no disrespect.  I am not criticizing sincere motives of people who practice religious ritual.  But, what they do is futile.  If you are trying to close the gap between yourself and God, trying to repair what has been broken in your soul, there is a better way.  One that works.  God has promised to fix what is broken, freely and thoroughly, if you will trust His Son.  

Peter said it like this:

“… [Those who trust Jesus have been]  ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…”  (1Peter 1:18b-1:19a)

Just Do It

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Technical support workers will tell you most problems with computers could be avoided by following the instructions.  When the manual says to do X and our natural instinct is to do Y, we humans have a tendency to follow our own ideas.  Then our stuff breaks and we call tech support.  After 30 or 40 minutes listening to a recording tell us how important our call is, when the support person answers, most of the time they will lead us through the process of following the instructions.

Same thing applies with following Jesus.  For example, you have a terrible conflict with someone at church and go to your prayer place to “call up Tech Support.”

“This is God; how can I help you?”

“____________ is such an unpleasant person and I can’t get along with them.”

“How did you handle it?  Did you go to them by yourself and discuss it?”

“Well, no, I talked it over with my friends at Bible study.”

“You gossiped?”

“Me, gossip?  Oh, no; it was just explaining the situation for a prayer request.”

“Nope, that’s gossip.  It messes everything up.  That’s why it says don’t do it in the instructions.   How about returning a blessing fot their unpleasant behavior, have you tried that?”

“Are You serious?  A blessing?    How’s that going to help?”

“Give it a shot; it’s in the instructions…”

And so forth…

When people read computer instructions and then ignore them, chances are pretty good they are going to be waiting on hold for a half-hour for customer service to pick up.  It’s just as true with the Bible.  That’s why they should post these words over the exits from the church as a reminder to folks on the way out:

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  (James 1:22)

What Does God Think?

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Do you order stuff online?  If you do, you trust the process – you place your order and truly expect to see it on your doorstep in a few days.  If not, you probably have suspicions.  Maybe you started to place an order, got everything filled out online and then thought, “I don’t know about this…” and failed to push the “submit” button.  You didn’t trust it completely.  Consequently, nothing is left at your door.

The same principle is true when it comes to asking God what He thinks.  Maybe you are considering a new job.  Or, “Is this the guy for me?”  Should you volunteer for some cause?  Is that what God wants?  When you pray about it, essentially what you are asking is,”God, please tell me what You think.”  If you pray that question but don’t really expect God to answer, you won’t receive it if He does.  It’s kind of like not pushing the “submit” button.  Your request is tentative.  You are not sure the process will work.  But, if you are fully convinced God wants you to know what He thinks, and is eager to share it with you, then your request is wholeheartedly sent off with the full expectation of an answer.  God says, a prayer like that will get answered.  James, talking about getting wisdom in times of trial, shares the principle:

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.  (James 1:5-8)

Look carefully at what that says. The problem is not that God won’t tell you what He thinks.  It’s that you can’t be sure you have really heard from Him.  Your mind goes back and forth on it, wondering if what you heard was really from Him.  But when you are convinced God will show you, He does and you trust it.

Because God’s wisdom is frequently contrary to the ideas of the world, it takes real faith to hear what God thinks.  Hearing what God thinks requires setting aside the ways of the world, listening and trusting.  Do that, and when God speaks you will know.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Romans 12:2)

 

 

Practice Makes Perfect

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Dad installed a chinup bar in a doorway and used it everyday.  He challenged me to a contest when I was visiting.  I was amazed at his stamina but still beat him – hey, I was 30 years younger.  But now, at the age he was, there’s no way I could measure up to what he did then.  Unless I practiced.  The training regimen of olympic athletes is scary intense.  They punish themselves with every greater challenges til they know they can push through them.

In a similar way, we are encouraged to accept the various trials of life as opportunities to train our faith and develop our capacity to patiently push through.  

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  (James 1:2-4)

To test a diving board, you jump on it, tentatively at first but then with greater and greater force.  If you can’t break it then you know it will hold you.  You trust it  Same thing with faith; you jump on it to know if it will hold.  You test faith with trials.  As you learn your faith will hold, you become more able to endure life’s trials with steadfastness.  You become “perfect and complete,” in the sense that you are “good to go” in the faith department.  The faith is not in your own toughness but in Jesus’ ability to hold you safe, no matter what.  Like this:

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 8:38-39)

Ice Cream

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Despite how your GPS led you down a dead ended dirt road, the day is coming when cars will know how to take you from Albuquerque to Alberta.  Or to the store to pick up milk.  But automated controls on cars will be no substitute for what happens when you go for a drive in the country.  Computers won’t be able to spontaneously pull over at an ice cream stand, or slow down to enjoy a view.  That kind of driving takes a real person behind the wheel, one who can think and feel and decide.

That’s what makes God’s decision to change how He directs our paths so exciting.  He began by telling us His laws, His rules..  But rules are clumsy guides.  Think of the toy car that heads in some random directon until it runs into an obstacle, turns and heads out in another direction.  A life lived by rules resembles that.  You crash into some “thou shalt not,” dust yourself off and change course.  But God’s new arrangement is to come live within us and interactively steer us.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone [i.e. a dead, unresponsive heart]  from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh [one that is alive and responsive]. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezkiel 36:26-27  with my explanations added)

When God’s Spirit is behind the wheel, instead of robotically going from point A to point B in life, we can stop for ice cream, so to speak.  We can spontaneously enjoy the ride while safely remaining in the center of His will. As Paul wrote in Galatians 5:18,  “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under  [you don’t need to be controlled by] the law.”

How did God accomplish this new system of control?  Through Jesus.  He came and did everything necessary to install God’s Spirit in us.  Trust Him and enjoy the ride!

Draw Near

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Direct deposit of your paycheck is convenient, but it lacks the personal touch between you and your boss.  Imagine how different it would be to stand before him and have him ask how things are going and then open his wallet, pull out a few twenties and settle up with you. That would feel different.  How would it feel to ask your boss to pay you for work that you had not done – perhaps you had gotten sick or maybe just couldn’t accomplish what he wanted?   You go stand before him and ask him to please pay you anyway.  There are some things about that interaction – both awkward things and good things – that could not happen by direct deposit.  

It strikes me that when it comes to receiving mercy and grace from God, it’s not a matter of direct deposit into our accounts.  It’s not impersonal.  God invites us to draw near to Him in the throne room.  Not hesitantly or fearfully, but confidently.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Hebrews 4:16)
It’s personal, this mercy thing.  Face to face.  It’s not, “Check’s in the mail” or, “You don’t need to ask, I’ve got you on autopay.”  It’s, “Come on in, I’m glad to see you.  Let’s talk about how you are doing.”  That’s a bit of why you hear people say, “God is so good…”

The Rest of the Story

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Violently persecuted in his home land, he joined a group who fled by boat, hoping for safety on some different shore.  But, what they found was terror – from pirates, from storms at sea and even from one another.  In desperation, he jumped overboard.  Soon, he was exhausted from his futile attempts to swim, surrounded by sharks and coughing up sea water with every breath.  A ship drew near and a life ring was thrown.  Should he take it?  Nothing to lose, he thought, and grabbed it.  The next thing he was aware of was waking up in a comfortable bed, washed, rested and fed.  He made his way up on deck, found a place to hide and watched intently for any kind of danger.  When the men working on deck noticed him, he raced away to the rail, preparing himself to fight or jump.

That is when he heard the voice of the captain, saying, “You are safe here and we will not hurt you.  You do not need to hide, or dash back and forth, watching and worrying about who is coming.  If you trust me, you can rest from all that.  Of course, if you are too frightened to trust me, too used to scheming and fighting to protect yourself, you can keep doing so.  I cannot force you to rest, but rather, I invite you to do so.  How about it?  Don’t you want to leave all this stress behind and rest?”

Could this be real?  Could it be true?  He had to decide: either listen to his old fears, try to protect himself and jump overboard or trust the captain and rest.

Hebrews 4, an extended warning about failing to trust God and missing out, also contains these lines about His promise of rest for those who trust:

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”   (Hebrews 4:1)

“Now we who have believed enter that rest, …”  (Hebrews 4:3a)

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  (Hebrews 4:7b)

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest,…”  (Hebrews 4:9-11a)

Free to Believe

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ... (1st amendment to the Constitution – excerpt)

It is a rare and precious privilege to live in a country with that freedom.  Ask anyone who lives under Sharia law, or in a nation where religion is prohibited.  I fear Congress has begun to erode this freedom.  No law should prohibit anyone from conducting their business according to their sincere, religious beliefs.  What I believe guides everything I do, not just how I worship.

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 4:18-20

Time with Dad

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My dad’s time was stretched pretty thin, what with six kids, bills to pay and a constant and growing list of repair projects (everything from a stuck disposal to a tangled slinky).  As a result, personal time with Dad was a rare and precious thing.  I treasured those few times when we had a chance to hang out and talk things over in a casual way.  Priceless.

To say Jesus had a tough day would be understating it, somewhat.  His cousin had been beheaded and, when He tried to get away to grieve, mobs of people swarmed around Him, seeking His help.  Then they ran out of food and He was called upon for some on-the-spot catering.  Finally, when all the dust had settled, the people fed and tucked in for the night, the disciples off, crossing the lake,

Matthew 14:23b
“… he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,…”

Jesus went up by Himself to talk things over with His Dad.  Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know how that conversation went?  I’m quite sure the net effect was restful and restorative.  No distractions, no specific agenda, just Jesus and His Dad, talking things over.

Sound good?  Better.  And get this: You have been invited to do it too.  Your Heavenly Father has time for you, whenever it would feel good.  That’s one of the amazing benefits of a trust relationship with Jesus.  He opens the door to the One He called, “My Father and your Father.”  Need a break? Leave behind everything that might distract (people, cell phones!) and just go hang out with “Dad.”