Tag Archives: Faith

Keep the Faith – Part 4

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Let’s make a million bucks together; we’ll split it.  I’ll provide the idea; you do the graphics.  Let’s make a T-shirt with a picture of the screen of a GPS across it.  However, instead of the street arrow pointing to the next intersection, it points to the sandaled feet of Jesus, as He walks up the road ahead of us, leading us forward.  Then, below that picture, one word: “Recalculating!”  Nice, huh?

Hebrews 12:2, continuing with coaching tips for those who are struggling to hold on to their faith (this topic starts here), says this:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Heb 12:2)

This tip builds on the previous one, continuing the idea of living life as a marathon race.  When you are running a race, you keep the finish line in mind to motivate you in the tough moments.  There is a real sense in which Jesus is our finish line!  Think about it…

But this verse also says He is the “author and perfecter of our faith.”  What does that mean?

The word, Author, means He invented faith, He brought it into being.  Ever ride a Segway? – those two wheeled “balancy” things?  Imagine getting on the prototype, the day it was invented, by Dean Kamen.  You get on it and It feels like it is  going to fall over.  What do you do?  You look over at Dean and say, “Am I doing this right?”  Same thing with the “Author” or inventor of our faith.  You keep your eyes on Him.  “Am I doing this right?”

The word, Perfecter, means the One Who brings faith all the way to its complete, intended conclusion.  Again, that’s Jesus.  These challenges we face in this life are used by Jesus to prepare us for a life in which faith, perfect faith, is the norm!  Keep your eye on Him, because He won’t quit working on you until you get there, until your faith is perfect, lacking nothing, complete.

… He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6b)

There’s a reason that people have teams as they participate individually in sports of endurance .  You can run farther, faster and better when you are running with a teammate.  If you are alone in a race, it helps to fix your eyes on a better runner, letting his example “lead you on” and motivate you.  In the marathon of following Jesus, as we struggle to hang on to our faith, it makes all the difference to

“fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”

There’s more to this – too much for today.  Stay tuned.

Keep the Faith – Part 2

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We’ve been getting some complaints about the way you talk so much about Jesus.  If you want to keep your job with this firm, knock it off …”

How can you hang tough with what you believe when there is so much pressure  – tough pressure – to make you let it go?   Hebrews 12:1-3 answers that question with practical tips.  We covered the first one, about the “great cloud of witnesses,” here: “Keep the Faith – Part 1.”  

Here is how that passage continues:

…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,  (Hebrews 12:1b)

Want to hang tough with faith?  Pull up your socks and tie your shoes!  Get rid of anything that will slow you down or trip you up.   

FAMU athlete Robert Hayes practices running on...

FAMU athlete Robert Hayes practices running on the track: Tallahassee, Florida (Photo credit: State Library and Archives of Florida)

 Things that slow you down (floppy socks) include anything you don’t need but have been carrying through life out of habit or laziness. In her younger years, my daughter used to want to take all of her stuffed animals with her on cross-country trips in the car.  Sometimes she would be nearly buried in the pile of fuzzy objects in the back seat of the car.  But there came a time when she realized all those toys were getting in her way.  We all have stuff like that in our lives.

It is time to take inventory and pitch a bunch of stuff.  After I retired, I spent about a month fixing up my woodshop so I could work in it again.  You wouldn’t believe all the useless crap I hauled out to the dumpster.  But now it feels good out there; I can actually see the workbench and get right to work.  You watch Olympic athletes getting ready for track events and the first thing they do is take off everything they don’t need – from jackets and sweats to jewelry – just so they can run faster.   Did you know that sailboat racers spend time scrubbing the dirt and algae off the hulls of their boats?

i don’t know what stuff you have loading you down and slowing you down in life, but you do!   When you “pull up your socks,” you become stronger and more effective.  It is easier to resist the world’s pressure.

If the “floppy socks” in your life slow you down, the sins (untied shoelaces) actually trip you up.  They stop your progress.  Picture a runner who is competing pretty well, right up there with the leaders.  As they round the final turn, he steps on an untied shoelace and loses his balance.  His legs begin to windmill wildly as he fights to stay up. But then he goes down, sprawled awkwardly on the track cinders.  He gets up, he finishes the race, but it’s not the same.  Sin works like that.

I have no idea what your “shoelaces” look like.  But you do!  “Tie ’em up!”  Don’t get tripped up.

When the world comes after your faith, tries to hold you back or knock you down, first, remember that you are a member of a great team, stretching back through history, a team that has left an indelible legacy of powerful acts of faith.  Secondly, pull up your socks and tie your shoes.  Get rid of anything that’s slowing you down or tripping you up.

Keep the Faith – Part 1

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A few days ago, a mob in Egypt burned down a Christian school and then took 3 nuns out into the streets, to parade them around as prisoners of war.   There have been recent reports of courts in Iran sentencing people to death for the crime of believing in Jesus.  It is impossible for us to imagine how great the pressure is in these situations for people to deny their faith in Jesus, or at the very least keep quiet about it.

In my community the pressure is much less forceful (there were 2 letters to the editor in our daily newspaper today, telling Christians to keep what they believe to themselves.) but when it comes against you, personally, it still feels very challenging.    When the push of the world becomes shove, when faith is tested in painful ways or even simply embarrassing ways, there are some things we can do to help us stand firm.  We’re going to look at some of them in more detail over the next several days.

You may think the Bible was written by a drill sergeant and just tells us to suck it up and be strong.  But back when the early Christians were doing a lot of bleeding, real people needed real ways to keep their faith strong.   The book of Hebrews spent a whole chapter telling of great men and women of faith, who resolutely continued to believe in God and His promises, despite severe pressure from the world.  And then, the author of that book gave some practical tips for Christians facing similar threats to their faith. He said, here’s what you can do to stay strong, too:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

We’ll take this in pieces.  The first tip is this: Remember that your suffering has come because you are playing on a great team!   The word, witnesses, probably doesn’t mean that the souls of dead martyrs are watching from heaven as you struggle.  It means that they have borne witness by their lives that holding on to faith in the midst of suffering is really worth it.  The word, witness, is the Greek word from which we get the English word, martyr.  The idea here is that when you are tested because of your belief in Jesus, you have come off the bench to play on a great team that has left a legacy of fearless faith over the centuries.

There is a reason that pro sports teams retire the number and display the jersey of a great player.  The fans love it for sure but the deeper reason has to do with the impact on the team.  Implied in those acts that honor the former greats, is a message to the rookie on the bench: “This is who we are; this is what we play like and this is what we stand for.”

The great cloud of witnesses gives that message to the lonely soul who is being threatened for her or his faith today.  You may feel like giving up, caving in, but look up as you come off the bench.  Look up to the rafters and see those sweat and blood-stained jerseys of the great men and women who have played on this team before.  Remember their courage.  Know that they are glad to know you are standing in the lineup today.

Stay tuned over the next few days, and we’ll dig deeper into the next tip for keeping the faith.

Dangerous Faith

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Speaking of people who lived by strong faith, the author of Hebrews says:

Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—  (Heb 11:36b-37)

Of course, that was back in the old Bible days, right?  What challenges do we face today that test our faith?  Well, last week, 20 churches were burned to the ground.  Homes were ransacked and torched.  People were beaten and a few were killed.  Why?  They were Christians living in Egypt.  In some areas of Egypt, Christians are living as prisoners in their homes, afraid to go outside, even to get food.  Most of us cannot imagine what these people are dealing with, much less really know how we would respond if we were in their shoes.  They are facing a stark challenge to their faith.  What they choose to do, in response to these attacks, will show what they believe.   The world urges us to fight back, to get even, take revenge.  Jesus taught: 

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…  (Matthew 5:44)

Sadly, the situation in Egypt is hardly unique.  Levels of Christian persecution are higher than they ever have been.   This faith business is dangerous business.   Would you join me in praying for these brothers and sisters, asking God to strengthen their faith?

The Source of Power in Faith

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There is a commonly held, new-age idea that belief – belief in anything – in and of itself, does powerful, good things for you.  Sounds nice, but it is nonsense.  A buddy of mine believed he was a magpie (Ahh, yes — remember the 70’s?).  His belief was confusing but it was not powerful.  But there is something powerful going on when God uses faith to interact and connect to humans  (See: “Loud and Clear”).  But how is that faith any different?  Where does the power come from?  Faith is a necessary ingredient, but it doesn’t do the work.  God does.

It’s sort of like this: If I want to start using Facebook, I can’t just do it because my computer is not automatically equipped for it. First, I have to ask the folks at Facebook to send me a download of software or an “App.”  I receive it, install it, and then my computer is enabled to make that connection. Something similar goes on when God connects to people by faith.  It is a powerful something, something that is rarely explained, even by Christians.

Before any connection to God is made by faith, a “download” is necessary.  But it isn’t software God gives you, it is something alive – Someone alive –  the Holy Spirit.  God comes and lives in you, by His Holy Spirit.  Really!   It starts when someone has an “Aha!” moment of understanding that Jesus is God, Who has come to us in understandable human form (See: “One Plus Two Equals One”).  When a person crosses that threshold of faith, their natural response is to want to draw closer to God, to communicate with Him.  God connects interactively with people who believe like that.   But it isn’t the act of believing that makes the connection happen.  It’s the “download” from God, the Gift from God that powers it up. Here’s how Jesus said it.

 “If you [really believe in Me] I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  (John 14:15b -17 – with my added clarification )

This is the key. This is how and why  faith connects us.  God gives us His Spirit and by that Spirit, He lives within us. Really!  It’s so fantastic, so unexpected, that Jesus practically stood on His head to explain it.  He said:

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  (John 14:19-20)

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  (John 14:23)

 

This process of receiving  (downloading and installing!) the Holy Spirit is so crucial, that, after His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Spirit before they tried to do anything.

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…”  (Excerpts from Acts 1:4-8]

When God gives His Spirit, as a response to faith, and therefore lives in a human soul, that soul becomes alive in a powerfully new and full way.  God’s Spirit is “born” in him or her.  That is why Jesus told a religious teacher he must be “born from on above” (commonly translated as “born again” – John 3:1-3).  He said that physical birth is not enough for complete life, for truly connecting to God:

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  (John 3:5-7)

It starts with faith.  Faith is how we reach out to God to receive His Spirit.  But God’s Spirit makes the connection and brings the new life.  Therein is the astonishing power in faith.

What Faith is For

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The guy that picked me up hitchhiking told me to believe in Jesus so I could get cool stuff. He said, “See them ‘tahrs?’ They’s ‘wahd’ oval ‘tahrs’.” (I’m guessing he was from Alabama)  He said, “Ah prayed to Je-us-suhs for them ‘tahrs’ and he gave them to me. You should believe in Je-us-sus…” And on and on.

I wasn’t ready to believe in Jesus that day.  But even so, I could tell there was something fishy with his theology.  I remember thinking that even if Jesus had given him the wide oval tires, this guy has probably missed the point. Them ‘tahrs’ is probably worn out by now.  Is that what having faith is for –  so we can get cool stuff, or do cool stuff?  People get that idea reading things like this:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea ’; and it would obey you.  (Luke 17:5-6)

At first it sounds like Jesus was saying if you have pure faith, even tiny pure faith then you can get or do cool stuff.  That’s the way it  supposedly works with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  But that’s not what Jesus was implying.

If you look back in Luke, you’ll see Jesus had just taught the disciples that they should be willing to forgive someone who sins against them, apologizes but then goes and does it again – seven times in one day!  Jesus was teaching His disciples to have the faith to live by His reality, His teachings, even when they seem to be ridiculous or impossible according to the world’s notion of reality.  The world says you are a sucker to be so forgiving.  Jesus says, “Trust Me on this, it’s better to forgive.”

So their response is, “How can we increase the strength of our faith ?”  And Jesus uses an outlandish exaggeration (moving a tree with faith as small as a mustard seed) to teach them that it is not the size or strength of their faith so much as it is the Source of their faith that matters.  Faith is in God; God supplies the power to accomplish His will.

Remember, faith is given to us by God, and connects us to God. (See: “The Source of Power in Faith“) By faith, His Spirit lives within us and works to conform our thoughts and motives to His ways.  Connected with God, living in harmony with God, forgiveness extended to the repeat offender not only becomes possible but also makes sense!  Same thing if God shows you He wants a tree moved or wants  you to get a new set of ‘tahrs.’

Held by Faith

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When Jesus said to Peter,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)

He was warning Peter about the trial to come.  But more than that, He was encouraging him, informing Peter that He would keep him safe.   Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail!

So, here’s the question: When we suffer, when we are discouraged and confused, who is responsible for making sure our faith doesn’t fail?   After all, faith is our lifeline, our means of connecting to God.  Who protects it?  Whose job is it to keep our faith strong?  Our natural inclination is to believe that we must work harder to keep our faith strong.  We have to tell ourselves to believe.  But is that true?

In Peter’s situation, Jesus prayed that his faith would not fail.   Maybe you think that Peter was more important to Jesus than you are.  Is that true?  (Hint:  What did Jesus teach about “the least of these, my brothers”? – Matthew 25:40ff)  Do you think that Jesus, the One Who promised,

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:39-40)

… would somehow fail to pray for your faith?

And how did you get your faith?  Did you work it up?  Did you “squinch” up your face and ball your fists and hold your breath?  Or was your faith given to you by God?

“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.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

By the way, when God gives out gifts, batteries – rechargables – are included.

The toddler is going with his grandfather, down to the soda shop to get a cone of mint-chip.  As they get ready to cross Main, Grampa holds out his hand and says, “Hold onto my hand and don’t let go.”   Hand in hand, off they go, picking their way through a break in traffic.  Whose job is it to make sure the child is still holding on?

In my Father's Hand

Faithguard

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Just before Jesus went to be tortured to death, He said something strange to Peter:

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. (Luke 22:31)

Regardless of exactly what Satan had in mind to do, it doesn’t sound like fun.  In most church circles, our response would be to pray and ask Jesus not to let that happen.  Most of our prayer requests are for God to remove some kind of suffering, right?  But not Jesus, at least not in this circumstance.  He said:

“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. ” (Luke 22:32a )

Apparently, Jesus was going to grant Satan’s request.  The disciples (the word “you” in v. 31 is plural) were going to experience a time of “sifting.”  In Jesus’ perfect understanding, this time of suffering would produce something good, either for the disciples or for His Kingdom in general.  So Jesus did not take the suffering away.  What He prayed for, instead, was that Peter’s faith may not fail!    Jesus prayed for the continued sufficiency of Peter’s faith, so that he would remain connected to God by it as he went through this period of undefined suffering  –  through, and then by faith, out the other side.  Jesus continues:

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:32b)

When the coastguard sends a ship out on a rescue, their desire is not to keep the ship in the harbor, where it will be safe from the storm, but that their radar and radio systems would remain intact as long as they need them during the rescue mission.   There are lots of flaws with that analogy, but you get the idea:  Jesus doesn’t promise us freedom from suffering, He doesn’t remove us from all temptation and trial.  In fact, Jesus promised us that in this world we will suffer.  But, no doubt, He prays for His followers, as He did for Peter, that our faith may not give out.  He guards it.

When Jesus taught us to pray, the last part of the prayer was that God would lead us from temptation and deliver us from the Evil One.  As we are tempted, He leads us.  As we are attacked, He delivers, or rescues us. We are empowered by our faith as we go through suffering.  We are led on the right path through the suffering  and are delivered out on the other side of the suffering because our faith keeps us connected securely to God.

Think about how those observations fit into all we have been saying about faith (See: “Loud and Clear”  and  “Basic Faith”).  Then ask this question:  Whose job is it to make sure your faith doesn’t fail?

Stay tuned…

Basic Faith

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Perhaps if I gave it a chance, I might get into Downton Abbey, but something about watching stuffy aristocrats having tea just makes me restless. Give me heart-pounding, thriller action. Maybe that is why I’m drawn to Hebrews 11. It is about giants of faith who resolutely held on to what they believed was true, in the face of painful and life-threatening coercion. Some of those guys (and gals) were sawed in two and thrown to the lions because they would not deny their beliefs. Dozens of jaw-dropping acts of faith are attributed to sixteen individuals by name. But the first act of faith listed isn’t specific to any one of them; it was shared by all of them – and, hopefully, you too. After first explaining what faith is (See: Loud and Clear), the author of Hebrews gives examples of faith, beginning with this one:

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

Since that was written, we’ve advanced quite a lot, from swords to drones, from parchment to the cloud. But how the universe came about is still being actively debated. Faith understands that God formed it, by commanding it to be. That sounds old and religious. But, more contemporary and mind-bending, it says faith knows that the tangible universe was formed out of something invisible. Scientists in the field of quantum mechanics talk like that.Notice, please, that the quote from Hebrews didn’t say faith knows when God did it, but that He did. The understanding that God made everything out of nothing (or at least out of something intangible) is a foundation stone for faith. Why start there? Perhaps because, with that understanding and perspective, everything else we do in life is colored by deep respect and reverence for God. We live with a profound awareness that this is His place, He made it.

The antique tea cart in our living room was hand-made by my wife’s great grandfather. It is a thing of old beauty, adorned by hand-carved, swirling trim, and slender, wood-spoked wheels. It is a visible expression of great skill and passion. We don’t put cans of paint on it, don’t use it as a workbench. Sometimes I gaze at it, losing myself in the details of its construction. I imagine the man I never knew, hunched over in his shop, wiping sawdust off his glasses and leaning in to get just the right cut from his old, but carefully sharpened gouge.

That type of humility and reverence (greatly multiplied), in the midst of God’s awesome creation, is foundational for the faith that connects us to Him in a living relationship. Conversely, the arrogant attitude that dismisses such awe and humility disconnects us from that relationship with God. With tragic consequences. As the Apostle Paul said, it’s not that people don’t know that God created the tangible universe, but that they suppress this truth.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:20-21)

Looking for faith, real faith? Open your heart and mind and take a good look around at all that God has crafted so intricately and beautifully.

Stay tuned; there’s more…

Loud and Clear

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Maybe someday we will understand how God connects with salmon and butterflies.  From our perspective, His connection with them seems built-in, automatic.  But the connection between God and humans is conditional.  It depends upon our being in the right condition.  You’ve seen the thriller movie scenes in which the guy in the airport tower is frantically calling to the pilot of an airplane but can’t get through?  That’s a conditional communication; the airplane radio must be set on the right channel and be in good working order or the communication doesn’t get through.  

But what is the necessary condition for communication with God?  God has designed our interaction with Him to depend on faith.  Think of all the other conditions He could have chosen.  He could have given us radios that we needed to set on the right channel.  He could have required us to bring burnt offerings.  We could have been required to follow His tweets.  But God chose faith.  Interesting…  Why faith?   The answer begins by considering  what faith is.

The essence of faith is solid belief that exists in the absence of tangible proof.  The Bible says it like this:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

(By the way, the word “hope” in that sentence did not mean wishful thinking, it means a confident expectation.   It’s not like, “I hope it doesn’t rain on Thursday,” but like our “hope” that Summer will follow Spring.)

If you think about it, if what you believe is true, then faith frees you from the cumbersome process of seeking proof.  When you walk in the dark in an unfamiliar place, every step must be tentative until you know you have solid footing.  But when you walk in the dark in your home, walking by faith that your home is unchanged from when you turned out the lights, then your steps are freer and more fluid.  Scientific measurement methods, by contrast,  are necessarily tedious and plodding, designed to help us feel our way in the dark and they work well for that.  But they don’t work well for an activity that is done with spontaneity, like dancing.  Dancing is done by faith.  And so is talking with God.

God designed us to communicate with Him, not on the basis of touch or sight or measurement, but on the basis of faith.  The more I consider His design choice, the better it seems.  Can you imagine how suffocating it would be to a relationship if you had to stop and measure how much you loved each other several times a day?   Do you remember how cool it was when you didn’t need training wheels?  We are meant to swoop and glide when we communicate with God, not wobble along in tentative fear.  

Without faith, we are not in touch with God.  We are left to our own devices and guesses.  Adam and Eve discovered that in the Garden of Eden.  When they stopped trusting in God, they were left wandering in the dark.  When Jesus came, it was to restore our connection with God.

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  John 6:28-29

To believe in Jesus is also to believe God loves us.  Faith is sure of that.  To believe in Jesus is to believe God will forgive us our many sins, that Jesus willingly paid with His life to settle our accounts.  Faith nails that down.  More than that, faith opens up our communication and relationship with God.  Wow!

When I dish out caramel fudge ice cream, my scoop seeks out the mother-lode veins of gooey, rich, stuff that clusters in the middle.  When it comes to faith in the Bible, one of the gooey, rich, mother-lode veins is found in the 11th chapter of Hebrews.  You saw the first verse quoted above.  Most of the rest of that chapter is a Hall of Fame listing of great acts of faith.  But there is something else, too, something surprising and thought provoking.

Stay tuned…