There’s No Such Thing as a “Nominal Christian”

“The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren’t actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them.”
― Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

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“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46 NASB)

The mechanism by which the hammers strikes the strings in an acoustic piano was, in its day, a revolutionary invention. To that point, no matter how softly or heavily one engaged the keys, the sound would always be heard at the same volume level. When this new keyboard action was created, the resulting instrument was called a pianoforte which literally (in Italian) means “quiet-loud.” An oxymoron.

A few years ago at Thinking Out Loud, we looked at the idea of a “nominal-Christian.” After I write an article, I usually come up with a sentence or two to promote the piece on Twitter, and sometimes those ‘teasers’ have an extra level of clarity. I said,

“I’m a Christian, but I’m non-observant.”
Theologically speaking, that makes no sense at all.
And yet… there are people for whom this fits.

Truly, Jesus doesn’t give us the option of half-hearted service.

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Rev. 3:15-16NLT)

A pianoforte can be quiet or loud and even both at the same time, but the Christian has no such luxury of spiritual ambiguity. To push the analogy to its limits, we need to be loud all the time!

Mark Batterson posted this summary of his 2013 book All In on his website:

The Gospel costs nothing. You can’t earn it or buy it. It can only be received as a free gift compliments of God’s grace. It doesn’t cost anything, but it demands everything. It demands that we go “all in,” a term that simply means placing all that you have into God’s hands. Pushing it all in. And that’s where we get stuck―spiritual no man’s land. We’re afraid that if we go all in that we might miss out on what this life has to offer. It’s not true. The only thing you’ll miss out on is everything God has to offer…

…The message of All In is simple: if Jesus is not Lord of all then Jesus is not Lord at all.  It’s all or nothing. It’s now or never. Kneeling at the foot of cross of Christ and surrendering to His Lordship is a radical act of dethroning yourself and enthroning Christ as King.  It’s also an act of disowning yourself.  Nothing belongs to you. Not even you…

In the book he also writes,

We all want to spend eternity with God. We just don’t want to spend time with Him. We stand and stare from a distance, satisfied with superficiality. We Facebook more than we seek His face. We text more than we study The Text. And our eyes aren’t fixed on Jesus. They’re fixed on our iPhones and iPads – emphasis on “i.” Then we wonder why God feels so distant. It’s because we’re hugging the rim. We wonder why we’re bored with our faith. It’s because we’re holding out.

We want joy without sacrifice.
We want character without suffering.
We want success without failure.
We want gain without pain.
We want a testimony without the test.
We want it all without going all out for it.

and

There is a fine line between ‘Thy kingdom come’ and ‘my kingdom come.’ If you cross the line, your relationship with God is self-serving.

You aren’t serving God. You are using God.

You aren’t building altars to God. You are building monuments to yourself.

In a 2011 book, Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman emphasized that Jesus is looking followers not fans. Many who heard him teach were fans, but when the going got tough, the tough got going. Scripture tells us that many walked away. The ominously verse-referenced John 6:66 says, From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (NIV)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1:22 NLT)

Yet many of those people could have been said to have a fairly good knowledge of what Jesus was teaching. (In fact that was the issue, some of them knew exactly what he was teaching, and exactly what this was going to cost them.)  Kyle writes,

Fans have a tendency to confuse their knowledge for intimacy. They don’t recognize the difference between knowing about Jesus and following Jesus. In Church we’ve got this confused. We have established systems of learning that result in knowledge, but not necessarily intimacy…

…Now don’t get me wrong, studying and learning from God’s word is invaluable. Jesus referenced, read and quoted all kinds of passages from the Old Testament, ample proof that he had studied God’s Word with great care and diligence. The problem isn’t knowledge. The problem is that you can have knowledge without having intimacy. In fact, knowledge can be a false indicator of intimacy. clearly where there is intimacy there should be growing knowledge, but too often there is knowledge without a growing intimacy. …Knowledge is part of intimacy, but just because there is knowledge doesn’t mean there is intimacy.

And of course intimacy is developed over time and time involves an investment. Kyle also notes,

For many Christians the concept of denying themselves was not part of the deal. They grew up with the message that such a radical decision really isn’t necessary. So they signed up to follow Jesus, but if denying themselves was part of the explanation, it was definitely the fine print. That’s especially true of American Christians. In part, this due to the collision of Christianity with American capitalism. It has created a culture of consumers in our churches. Instead of approaching their faith with a spirit of denial that says, “What can do for Jesus?” they have a consumer mentality that says, “What can Jesus do for me?”

…One of the reasons it’s so hard for us to deny ourselves is because the whole idea seems to go against our greatest desire in life. Most everyone would say that what they want more than anything else is to be happy. We’re convinced that the path to happiness means saying yes to ourselves. Indulgence is the path to happiness, so to deny ourselves seems to go in the opposite direction of what will make us happy. The right to pursue happiness seems to be in direct conflict with the call to deny.

…That’s what the story of the Rich Young Ruler is really all about. It’s not just about giving up money and the things that money can buy; it’s about giving up, period. That’s what it means to deny yourself and follow Christ.

 

 

 

 

God Vindicates Us

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” ~Genesis 30:6a

vin·di·cate

[vin-di-keyt] 

verb (used with object), vin·di·cat·ed, vin·di·cat·ing.

1.  to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like: to vindicate someone’s honor.

2.  to afford justification for; justify: Subsequent events vindicated his policy.

3.  to uphold or justify by argument or evidence: to vindicate a claim.

4.  to assert, maintain, or defend (a right, cause, etc.) against opposition.

5.  to claim for oneself or another.

~Dictionary.com

One time at a funeral service I heard someone quote the scripture “Vindicate me, O Lord;” in reference to a man who lived a God-fearing, God-honoring life. When I went to look up the verse I discovered that the writers of Psalms use this form several times:

1. Psalm 7:8
   Let the Lord judge the peoples. Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.

   Psalm 7:7-9 (in Context)  Other Translations

2. Psalm 17:15
   As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

   Psalm 17:14-15 (in Context)  Other Translations

3. Psalm 26:1
   Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

   Psalm 26:1-3 (in Context)  Other Translations

4. Psalm 35:24
   Vindicate me in your righteousness, Lord my God; do not let them gloat over me.

   Psalm 35:23-25 (in Context) Psalm 35 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

5. Psalm 43:1
   Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked.

   Psalm 43:1-3 (in Context)  Other Translations

6. Psalm 54:1
   …Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.

   Psalm 54:1-3 (in Context)  Other Translations

7. Psalm 57:2
   I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.

   Psalm 57:1-3 (in Context) Other Translations

8. Psalm 138:8
   The Lord will vindicate me; your love, Lord, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands.

   Psalm 138:7-8 (in Context)  Other Translations

This time, I’ve left the links from BibleGateway.com intact, so you can connect to how other translations render these verses. (I’m hoping some of you get totally hooked on doing translation comparison.)  Between these verses and the dictionary definition of vindicate above, it’s hard to add anything.

What we’re really talking about here is that in the ways and purposes of God, it will be evidenced that living a life of integrity and righteousness will be both rewarded and is its own reward.  This is mentioned in Proverbs 28:6,

“Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked though he be rich.”

The opposite to integrity is compromise. The person of integrity is therefore defined as much by what he does not do as what he does. The man or woman of integrity doesn’t compromise, doesn’t bend, doesn’t yield, doesn’t cave in… to pressure, temptation or the need for acceptance.

Then — keeping in mind what we’ve studied previously about the contextual meaning of Galatians 2:20 — we can rest in the assurance that our ultimate vindication is assured by our position in Christ, as we read these verses from the same epistle:

1. Galatians 2:16
   know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
2. Galatians 3:11
   Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”

This justification or vindication is a gift of God’s grace.

With Abraham we see that the measurement of him being accepted by God was not tied to outward conformity to a standard — acts of commission or omission — even though he certainly lived a righteous life. Instead, we’re told — twice, once in Genesis 15:6 and once in Romans 4:3 —

For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (NLT)

His trust (faith) in God’s perfect way and perfect plan — which is trustable because of his conviction that God is sovereign — credits him with righteousness. Any good that he does — and bad he avoids doing — are the fruit of his faith. It begins with faith.

Our ultimate and final vindication will come by means of the grace of the God. Yes, we will be seen by others to be living a God-fearing, God-honoring life; but it is the grace of God at work in us that gives us the power to avoid compromise.

Our position will then be not only that Christ is in us, but that we are in Christ.

 

 

What it Means to “Sow to the Spirit”

My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. – Job 4:8 NLT

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! – Romans 6:21 NIV

Sometimes in the rush to translate scriptures into more reader-friendly forms, we can lose the context of what the writer is saying. When Paul talks about “sowing to the flesh” and “sowing to the spirit” we can try to make that understandable, but can forget that in the overall passage, the Apostle Paul is using agricultural imagery.

We have readers here who are new to Christianity, or new to the Bible, so here’s the contrasting image — sowing to the flesh — from the key verses below in two other translations:

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. (verse 8a; NLT; notice the image of harvesting is preserved)

If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death. (verse 8a, GNT; notice the use of planting instead of sowing)

Hope that helps. Now on to the devotional itself.

Today we are again highlighting the writing of Bernie Lyle who writes at Musings from an Idle Mind. Clicking the title which follows allows you to read this at its original site.

Sowing to the Spirit

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The days are increasingly evil. The prevailing tendency of humanity is to sow to the flesh; performing deeds, not or the benefit of others, but advancement of self. There is little concern for the law of sowing and reaping, for many have long lost the ability to consider the ultimate spiritual consequences of our actions. The natural man sees only what gives him pleasure and personal gain.

The eternal being; one who has thoughtfulness regarding the longterm consequences of life; is aware of the cost and takes actions that serve to glorify the lord they know that. This is especially true of those who are in the household of faith. Christians know that they are a part of something far greater, for they are part of the household of faith, and all that is done in the body affects everyone. The air.

We are entering a time when the church of Jesus Christ will be dependent upon itself, for the world will turn away, becoming an adversary.

Even now there those who are struggling as the world that surrounds them reflects the prince and power of air. Yet it is crucial that all be like the early believers just beyond Pentecost.

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭42‬-‭45‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The world we live in consumed with the idea of sowing to self, laying aside the commandments and mission that the Lord has given us; instead seeking to created ones own comfort. The things that we allow to consume us that lend themselves to the flesh; ultimately become corrupted.

Brothers and sisters, we are not receiving that which is perishable, but that which is enduring and eternal. All that we did for the glory of God will not perish, and ultimately builds the body. Let us be mindful to do all that we do for the eternal, making sure we do good for all, for we are all called to the mission of sharing the gospel.

Let us also do good to those in the household of faith, for there will be no help from the world. Do not be weary in doing good, for the Lord has great blessings for many who meet the needs of the weak among us.

May we walk as those who are filled with the Spirit of God; demonstrating and abundance of fruit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 

A Fish Story: Sorting the Catch

Today we’re pleased to introduce a new author to you. Doug writes at Engineering the Bible. He has been writing this blog, about the intersection of the Bible and science, since September, 2017. Click the link in the header below and send him some traffic as you read this where it appeared first.

Bible Stories, A Story from Matthew

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:47-50 NIV

In today’s lesson, Jesus is with his disciples and is again using a parable to explain the kingdom. I can say with great confidence that I know very little about fishing. I have only fished three times in three different locations.

The first time was at my Uncle’s Midwestern farm, by his little fish pond on the edge of his property, past the plots of corn. I was around five years old, and I was the only one to get a bite that day. My uncle grabbed the fishing rod and did most of the reeling.

The next time was close to the house where I walked over to nearby lake. According to Wikipedia, the lake is stocked with fish species including largemouth bass, tiger muskie, channel catfish, sunfish, perch, and crappie. None of those or any other fish took the bait that day. And the last fishing trip I did was on I real fishing expedition on the Chesapeake with a skipper we called Captain Salty because of his “salty” language. I did get a Rockfish and a little bit seasick.

In this parable, Jesus discusses a type of fishing known as net fishing, where a large net is used to catch a whole lot of fish in a single go. One end of the net is typically connected to the shore while the other is connected to a fishing boat, and the net is “dragged” across the sea, scooping up the fish (and anything else) along the way.

When thinking about this parable, two scripture references come to mind. The first is Psalm 139:14 where the psalmist (probably David) says he praises God because he is fearfully and wonderfully made. And the second is in Acts 17:25-27 where the apostle Paul says God doesn’t need anything from us, but he gives all people life and puts us into a place where we can reach out and find Him.

These passages show God’s care in making humankind. I say this as an inference to today’s message in Matthew about the separation of good and bad. From the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, God has ordered things on this earth in His way and for His glory and our benefit. He ordered that the seas be separated from the land (an ordering of place) and the night from the day (an ordering of time).

Jesus’s definition of “good” fish versus “bad” seems to be indicated in verse 49, where his angels are separating the “wicked” from the “righteous”. To be honest, I am not sure that it can be assumed that Jesus’s followers are necessarily totally righteous per se. If you look back at verse 41, Jesus is also separating ungodliness from the godly within His kingdom.

So, then “Why” is Jesus doing this separation? In the sower parable, he says he will remove the worries, distractions, and deceitfulness of riches that choke the word, which bears good fruit. The deceits are coming from wicked people. And in the parable of the weeds, he says he will send his angels to remove all who practice evil by leading others to sin. This, then, allows the righteous to shine forth and bring forth new life like the sun.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, thank you for ordering and shaping our world to bring forth good things for us, including the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Bring to us your righteousness and let it shine forth abundantly in our lives. Amen.

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From the same author: Use the Archive menu on Doug’s blog to drop into various months and explore different series. You might enjoy the “God and the Natural World” series of posts; if you’re interested in Theophanies, check out three posts in August, 2021.

Whose Word Do You Trust More?

A year ago we discovered (and introduced you to) a wealth of devotional/study content at Unashamed of Jesus which has been active since October, 2014. All of the material is classified by Bible book or topic. As we often do, we simply chose the newest devotional to feature here, but you are encouraged to study the home page to see what else might interest you. They use the KJV exclusively. If you’re a new Christian or English is not your first language, you’re encouraged to look up the Bible passages on Bible Hub and choose a more modern translation, such as the NLT.

Click the title below to read this one where readers saw it first.

1 John 5- The Voice of Truth

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 1 John 5:9-10

The Word of God is greater than the word of man. Ever since the beginning, man has been trying to make themselves “like God,” man has followed the errors of Satan to believe they can exalt themselves, man believes he doesn’t need God, that he can rule over himself. And what happens is what we are seeing today in society, total depravity overruns the human race as God has given them up to a debased or reprobate mind (Romans 1)

As the Apostle John says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit “The witness of God is greater than the witness of men.” Today we see liberal , progressive “Christians’ ‘ who want to rewrite and reinterpret the Bible to fit their agenda. They will say “The Bible is not the Word of God” they will say “These are not literal stories in the Bible” and so this gives them their justification to rewrite the Bible in their mind and make up a false god of their liking.

This is the same thing Satan has been doing since the garden of Eden, “You surely won’t die” (Genesis 3:4)  Satan tried to rewrite the Word of God to Adam and Eve, however Satan is a liar and Adam and Eve spiritually and physically died in paradise. The Word of God stating “In the day you will eat of it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:7) The Word of God will always be true and the words of man are false. Don’t put your faith and trust in a fallen world with fallen people, salvation is in Christ alone

So how do we overcome this curse of death from the wages of our sins? (Romans 3:23) As the Apostle John states “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself, He who does not believe has made him a liar” There is the dividing line once again, are you Born Again in Christ or are you still dead in your trespasses? (John 3, Ephesians 2)

Who is the witness that lives inside of you? It’s the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, that shall regenerate you and indwell inside of you, teaching you the things of God. Without the Holy Spirit you are walking in darkness, being deceived by the lies of this world and Satan. The Word of God is our standard of truth, without the Word of God how do we evaluate truth in a deceived world?

As Jesus said “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32) Jesus Christ will set you free from sin and death, and will give you the Holy Spirit to guide you through this life, Amen!

Contending for the Faith: The Book of Jude

A year ago we introduced you to a new author, Jesse Hoffman who writes at The Coin Jar. Clicking the title below will take you to where the article appeared first. Also, note that if you do online research, you’ll see four or five theories as to the identity of Jude. You’re encouraged not to let that debate distract from the theme of today’s devotional.

Jude Ruminations

The book of Jude in the Bible is only 1 chapter long, quite an easy read, and contains a powerful message that I have been thinking of quite frequently the past several days.

Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, writes in the beginning verses “although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”.

We see that Jude wanted to write a happy letter, but instead he ended up writing a warning to his believer audience. He reveals his desire is peace and his heart is cordial, but the encouragement he desires is less important than the warning he bears. The word that catches my attention in this brief opening statement is contend.

Contend means to strive in controversy or debate; dispute.

Why would Jude say this? Because there are false teachers sneakily embedding themselves in the church. These people pervert the grace of God, using it as an excuse for sinful indulgences, and they deny Jesus as Lord.

Too often we don’t contend for the faith. The popular options most Christians take are to either stay quiet and ignore the criticism, lies, and slander that bombard the faith, or to defend themselves personally, giving a generic reason as to why they follow God. This is not contending. To contend is to push back on false statements and ideologies regarding the Word of God.

You don’t have to be ultra-confrontational, but you do have to be willing to state what you believe and defend it. We aren’t attacking, we are sharing the truth with a winsomeness the world is unfamiliar with. As Christians, when contending with lies we should not end up defending ourselves, nor should we remaining quiet, but we should dispute them for the sake of God’s glory. If we do not dispute the lies perpetuated about our God, how are we honoring Him or helping others come to know Him?? Entreat others to follow the truth.

Jude then reminds his readers that, while God is merciful, He will judge those that abuse His mercy. Even though God led Israel from Egyptian captivity he ended up destroying those who refused to believe! Deceivers want to belittle the significance of sin, tricking people into unrepentant lives that lead to captivity in sin.

Today do we see “Christians” belittling sin? Do we see Christians not repenting from sin and/or saying that sins aren’t really sins? YES! Jude then follows up with a call for Christians to persevere. He reminds them of 2 Peter 3:3-4 that says “in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions” and then says “it is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

We are meant to know the battle we are in as Christians. We are called to contend for the faith. To push back on the lies that pervade our culture! Resist the lies that are thrown your way by examining the truth and following it! Persevere through the power of the Holy Spirit that you have as a Christian. Know the mercy God has for you and don’t abuse it!

 

Characteristics of Godly Sorrow

About 25 years ago a Christian publisher did a series of books titled “Lists to Live By” which I seem to recall were a copy of something trending in the wider publishing world.

As a culture we love lists. We gravitate to visual representation of what previous generations would have put in paragraphs when it appears today as numbered lists, bullet points, charts, graphs, Venn diagrams, etc. Even in editing this devotional, I tend to do more frequent paragraph breaks than would have been needed in previous decades.

As Christians we tend to over-organize and over-analyze what should be an organic faith. Instead, people dealing with the issues of faith, the issues of life, or both seek answers online and are happy to find resources titled “Six Steps You Can Take to…” or “Four Ways to Find…”

Still if you like lists — and we do — the Apostle Paul’s epistles (letters) do not disappoint. If you’ll forgive the bullet points, he brings us:

• 9 fruit of the Spirit
• characteristics of love
• 7 pieces of the armor of God
• 9 supernatural spiritual gifts
• marks of spiritual growth (Col 1:9ff)
• evidences of the works of the flesh (Gal. 5)

So I was a little surprised this week, upon beginning my day with the NIV Bible app, to realize I’d missed his list of the fruit of godly sorrow.

The context was 2 Corinthians 7:9,10

And now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

You’re probably familiar with the section underlined above, that true, Godly sorrow brings repentance.

But then there’s the next verse which spells out what that looks like:

Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

I want to break that list down in — appropriately enough today — bullet points. Let’s jump to the NLT:

Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you!

• Such earnestness,
• such concern to clear yourselves,
• such indignation,
• such alarm,
• such longing to see me,
• such zeal, and
• such a readiness to punish wrong.
  You showed that you have done everything necessary to
• make things right.

Eugene Peterson (The Message) renders it as,

And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has

• goaded you closer to God?
• You’re more alive,
• more concerned,
• more sensitive,
• more reverent,
• more human,
• more passionate,
• more responsible.
  Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with
• purity of heart.

I love the spiritual intensity of what Paul is describing here.

…I realize for some, we put the cart before the horse so to speak, and you’re wondering what is the “Godly sorrow” that produces all this. GotQuestions.org tells us that,

…Paul’s reference to godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7 was brought about by the reaction of the Corinthian believers to a previous letter in which Paul rebuked them for the dissentions that were present in the church. Although he was sorry to have to hurt them, he rejoiced that his letter brought them to godly sorrow “as God intended.” Godly sorrow is that which brings the repentance that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:8–9).

Godly sorrow is a kind of wretchedness that can bring the repentant sinner to tears of grief. A good example of this is Peter at the time of Jesus’ arrest and trials. When accused as being one of Jesus’ followers, Peter disowned Jesus by cursing and swearing to his accusers that he did not know the Man. Upon hearing the rooster crow three times, he remembered the words of Jesus, who had prophesied Peter’s very actions, and he went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:74–75)… [italics added]

The NLT for verse 9 reads that “It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have.”

We’ve often quoted Jerry Bridges here, who said that “We never see sin correctly as if we see as against God.” Have you already broken a New Year’s resolution? You probably let yourself down, and perhaps some friends or family who were in on your best-laid plans, but it wasn’t sin. Sin is that which grieves the heart of God. We sin against God.

That should produce Godly sorrow, which in turn should produce the type of resolve to live the life we’ve listed three times above.

You Were Doing Great! What Happened?

One of the most frequently appearing writers here over the past 5000+ posts has been Gary Henry at the blog WordPoints. Clicking the title below will take you to his site, where today’s thoughts are also available as a 3-minute audio.

Continuing to Obey the Gospel

“You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).

Paul’s question, “Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” was addressed to a group of Christians. He was concerned about some in Galatia who, having been baptized into Christ, were turning away from the truth. They were no longer obeying the gospel, and Paul was worried about their salvation.

Beginning with the initial response, culminating in baptism, that brings one into a forgiven relationship with God, the Christian embarks on a lifetime of obedience. It is not too much to say that “obeying the gospel” defines everything the Christian does. Every obedient thought, word, and deed is a grateful response to the good news of what God has done in Christ to save us.

But if it is possible to obey the gospel, it is also possible to quit obeying it. Faithfulness to God and gratitude for His grace are not automatic; we have to choose to live this way. And the Scriptures are clear: if we quit living in obedience to the gospel, we will go back to being under condemnation for our sins. The Letter to the Hebrews, for example, is a powerful warning against apostasy and a plea to remain true to Christ. It was written to some in the first century who were becoming unfaithful and were in danger of losing their hope of heaven, just as many in Israel left Egypt in the Exodus but failed to reach Canaan because of unfaithfulness (Hebrews 3:12–4:11).

So becoming a Christian involves making a commitment. To “confess” Christ is not merely a statement that we believe the truth of the gospel — it is a promise of obedience to His will for the rest of our lives. That is a serious commitment, obviously, and Jesus urged us to “count the cost” (Luke 14:25–33) before we make it.

Reading the New Testament even briefly, we can see there are two phases or stages in obeying the gospel: first, we accept God’s forgiveness on His terms, and second, we live the rest of our lives under the lordship of Christ. To do the first but not the second is to deny Christ. Paul put it succinctly: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Colossians 2:6). So the question is not just whether we’ve accepted Christ at some point in the past — it’s also whether the gospel is what we’re obeying right now.

“There are two things to do about the gospel — believe it and behave it” (Susanna Wesley).

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Personal, from Paul:

For me, being able to audit a graduate-level theology course for the first time was the dream of a lifetime, but for my wife — Ruth, who you read here frequently — it was the beginning of something positively life-changing.

I’m talking about a course we did in the summer of 2019 at Regent College in Vancouver. If you have a undergraduate degree or think you wouldn’t be intimidated spending a week processing Christian studies at the graduate level, the summer schedule at Regent has recently been finalized and it’s most impressive.

Furthermore, unlike us, you don’t have a hop on an airplane. The intervening years brought us Covid which in turn brought online options to Regent summer courses.

Choose from Summer faculty such as Karen Swallow Prior, John H. Walton, Andy Crouch, Beth Allison Barr, Douglas Moo, Mark Noll, and Gordon. T. Smith, just to name a few.

Registration for these courses goes live on February 14th.

Learn more at https://www.regent-college.edu/summer

Regent College did not solicit this mention nor are they aware of it.

 

Remembering C. S. Lewis on the 60th Anniversary of His Passing

On this day 60 years ago C. S. Lewis died.

For most people, this day is remembered as the day of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. For that reason, Lewis was often not mentioned. The only silver lining in that is that his writing seems so immediate, a person could be forgiven for thinking he is still alive.

For the first time I can remember, I am repeating something from our quotations series. Today, all the quotations are not only by the same author — C. .S. Lewis — but from the same book, Mere Christianity. The scripture verses are not part of the quotations, but have been added by me afterwards!

I also wish to say something about the pictures. The one below is of the type more commonly seen, but in researching Lewis afresh for November, 2023, I discovered the above picture of a younger Lewis, and decided to include both. (I apologize for not noting the source of the younger picture.)

Also, this time around, there an excerpt below from a piece about Lewis I wrote for other media.

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“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
 II Cor. 3:18

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 “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:16

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“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”

“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.”

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7

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“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Luke 9:57

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“I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man’s actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner. …I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life — namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.”

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6

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“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”

Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
Romans 5:5 (AMP)

Here’s the link to the quotations.  There are eight pages.  Choose a couple that I have not selected here, read them slowly to get an idea of what they’re about, and then ask yourself, what scripture verse might I attach to Lewis’ thoughts on this subject?

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About Clive Staples Lewis

It’s been 60 years since November 22, 1963. A day etched in memory as the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

For every breaking news story, there is often another story that gets pushed off the front page. Such is the case here.

The same November day, writer C. S. Lewis died.

A recent article in The Catholic Review noted that Lewis’ books are actually gaining popularity all these years later, as are his academic writings.

Until recently, paradoxically, C.S. Lewis had been largely ignored at Oxford University, where he taught for three decades until his early death from bone cancer Nov. 22, 1963. He gained greater recognition in the United States, which he never visited.

A writer at the C.S. Lewis Foundation notes:

I’ve often thought he would have been an intimidating man to hang out with.  He and his wife Joy played Scrabble in five languages, including Chaucerian English.  Lewis kept up a correspondence with an Italian priest in Latin, the only language they had in common.  Of the hundreds of books in his library, a visitor could pick one at random, start to read aloud any sentence – and listen to Lewis quote the rest by memory.

N. T. Wright adds that

Millions around the world have been introduced to, and nurtured within, the Christian faith through his work where their own preachers and teachers were not giving them what they needed. That was certainly true of me.

Lewis did not see himself as having a “crisis” conversion to the faith, but compared it to someone in a sleeper car onboard a European train, who wakes up and realizes he is in another country. Theologians refer to this as “process” conversion.

If you haven’t already met “Jack,” as his friends called him, start with the book Mere Christianity, but read it slowly, perhaps only a few pages per day.

His life and death are being marked around the world this month by everything from lectures to concerts.

Where is God Asking You to Go?

Today we’re featuring the writing of Mark Brady who lives in Tulsa and having retired from AT&T, now writes, speaks and edits full time. He is the author of the Christian novel, “Kill the Preacher Man.” (Sounds interesting!) His blog is Mark Brady: Words to Inspire You. To read this where it appeared first, click the link in the header which follows.

My Favorite Phrase

Life brings its own set of challenges. Keeping on top of everything or ahead of it all is a full-time job. But what if God gives you a command or challenge to carry out? Do you blindly obey with all the faith you have? Do you say, “Okay, God, but help me?” Or do you debate why He should probably choose someone else?

Earlier this year, April and I went to Texas on a mini vacation. The hotel we stayed at, of course, had a swimming pool. I talked April into joining me. The water was warm, but the air was a little cool, so as we entered the shallow end, we knelt so the water would rise to our necks. We were having a good time when I suggested to April we go to the other side. She agreed and climbed onto my back as I swam to the deep end until she could grab the edge. April trusted me to get her to the other side even though she couldn’t swim. She remained calm and didn’t put up a fight or resist. She went for it.

A dear friend from one of my past churches I used to attend in another state told me God asked her to bake pies and to take them to her neighbors. It was a way for her to get to know them and to have an opportunity to share the gospel. Some of those neighbors lived on the other side of the street. She obeyed.

What is God asking you to do? Jesus once told his disciples, “Let us go to the other side.” They did.

^35-38 Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”

^39-40 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” Mark 4:35-40 (MSG)

The above is a popular portion of scripture preached a lot about faith. And it is good. I mean, Jesus told them they were going to the other side, so they should have known they weren’t going to drown. My favorite part is what happened next in Chapter 5. Jesus set a man free from the possession of a demon named Legion, for there were many demons in him. As a result, a whole town heard of Jesus and had an opportunity to accept Him.

So, if God is asking you to do something, obey. Don’t argue, don’t resist, believe and go, even if you can’t swim. He will calm the storms that may try to prevent you from reaching the other side, but have faith. For what is on the other side most likely has eternal dividends.

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady. Used by permission.

 

Is God Inviting You to Start Something?

Four years ago, Ruth and I were invited to a Breakfast Fellowship meeting at a local country club to speak about the various projects, initiatives, and mini-organizations that we’ve started. This was the 4th part of a four-part tag-team teaching we did encouraging people to “start something” unique to their vantage point on the world. There is much scripture here which I haven’t highlighted today, but I am sure many of you will know what is quoted and what is original.

by Ruth Wilkinson

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.

Life was in Him,
and that life was the light of men.

That light shines in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering like a mother hen over the surface of the waters.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Then God said, “Let Us make humanity in Our image, according to Our likeness. To watch over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl.”

So God created humanity in His own image;
He created them in the image of God; He created them male and female.

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And that’s how God started something.

He sat in His own infinity of light and love and He imagined time.
He imagined energy and matter.
He imagined life and diversity
and he imagined us.

Having imagined us, he made us
to be just like him.

He made us to watch over creation and to watch over each other.
He made us to look into emptiness and see possibility.
To see something new.
He made us to see what could be.
He made us to imagine.

To ask, “What if?”

What if I said something? What if I did something?
What if I sat down next to her, opened that door,
asked for permission?

What if I challenged the status quo?

What would happen?

Well, what happened when God started something?

It began well. It began with life and love, understanding, friendship and community.

And then?

Then, somebody stuck their oar in.
Somebody with big ideas and ambition. Somebody who thought they knew better.

Then there was division and disagreement, grief and separation.

But God didn’t walk away. Didn’t give up. He kept on looking into the darkness and seeing what could be.

He kept working. Kept reaching out.

Because he has a goal. There is something that only He can accomplish. He knows that only He can bring us back to where we belong – next to Him.

When we start something, when we turn our “What ifs” into action,
—we take a chance – on the people we work with, on the circumstances that will arise, on ourselves.

People drive us crazy. Circumstances conspire against us.
We disappoint ourselves.

All we can do, the best we can do is remember…

There is a reason we tried in the first place. There is something that we can do. Maybe not only you.
But definitely you.

God is still walking us through His plan, his story from eternity to eternity.

Jesus kept walking through the plan, from birth to resurrection.

And he walks alongside us and within us and for us.

It’s been said that the difference between a good idea and a vision is that a vision is something you can’t not do. Something that fills you with fire and won’t let go.

If that is where you find yourself, struggling to find the courage to step out,
keep this in mind…

God doesn’t call you to go anywhere he hasn’t already been himself.
He knows our weakness,
our strength.

Everything we can experience,
He has experienced in the flesh.

He has been there and He will help.

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There is a time for every activity under Heaven-
a time to plant and a time to uproot;
a time to tear down and a time to build;
a time to be silent and a time to speak;

This I know… that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

When we will see a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth will have passed away,
and the sea will no longer exist.

When He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer.

When the One seated on the throne will say,

“Look! I am making everything new.”

One Church’s Goals

If you spend any time in and around the orbit of Bridgetown, a church in Portland, Oregon you will quickly learn that their church is “organized around three goals” namely, “to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to do the things that Jesus did.”

I’m sure they have some teaching audio or video online which fleshes these out better than I’m about to, but part of the process of taking ownership of these goals is to slow down and consider each in light of other scriptures and experiences.

Be with Jesus

The scene is Acts 4. On one side is Peter and John who are doing what we might call street preaching. On the other side are the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees. That latter group is hoping to rein in John and Peter, but they are so confident in what they are preaching and the authority by which they speak and heal that we find this verse 13:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.  NIV

One version states, ” they perceived that they did not know the scrolls and that they were uneducated,” while another renders it as “they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures,” but oddly, the second part of the statement about them stands very simply with little variation between translations, “they had been with Jesus.”

Their courage and boldness stemmed from having been with the one of whom they spoke. That’s it. Simply stated.

Become Like Jesus

The first thing which came to mind — and remember this is my own take on these three phrases, there are vast resources at the church’s website — was a verse in Philippians, verse 10:

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; NASB

I chose the NASB here because of the classic phrases, “the fellowship of his sufferings” but also found the use of the word conformed which should be part of every disciple’s goal; being conformed to his image.

The Amplified Bible is usually more wordy because of its design, but is especially so with this verse:

And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did]

[Slow down and read that one more time!]

The idea of being conformed to his image can have two meanings as shown in 1 Corinthians 15:49:

And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. CSB

My takeaway may be different, but I see we who follow Christ as endeavoring to be conformed to his image here in our earthly bodies, but knowing some day we will be conformed to his image in our heavenly bodies, in a way not entirely dissimilar to how he had an earthly body here, and is now in a glorified body. Or to say that differently, there is a slow, ongoing process to that day when we are so much more conformed to his image, but that process begins now, it began the day we earnestly said yes to Christ.

Do What Jesus Did

John 14:12 contains an audacious promise by Jesus:

I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. NET

It isn’t the idea of doing the things that Jesus did which trips people up, but the idea of doing greater works which begs the question, How could any of do greater things than Jesus?

Some have explained away this by pointing out that today good works and miracles can be televised or live-streamed and seen around the world by millions of people, but the text says nothing about having a greater audience, it’s talking about miraculous acts themselves.

If this seems beyond reach, then take a step back and just consider the possibility of doing what Jesus did.

What would that look like in your life?

There Will Be Challenges

Today we’re again introducing you to a new writer named teniiiola who writes at Faith+Blog, or Faith Plus Blog. You’re urged to send the writer some encouragement by reading this where it first appeared. Just click the header below.

Struck Down but Not Destroyed 

It’s a mistake for any believer to believe that we would live in this world without challenges. What Jesus promised us is victory in the end, in spite of the numerous challenges. He told us plainly that we would face many challenges in life but went ahead to comfort us to be of good cheer as He has overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). This post is a reminder to every believer that though your challenges are numerous, they will not consume you. Though you be struck down, you are never destroyed (2 Cor. 4:9).

Joseph is a typical example of someone who faced many challenges. He was struck down one too many times. However, none of those strikes served as a final defeat. He always got back up again. He went from being thrown into a pit to being sold into slavery, to being falsely accused and eventually imprisoned to be forgotten. But as God assured us that He will never forsake us, Joseph wasn’t forsaken. Eventually, his time for a high and sustained rise came. (Gen. 37-50; Heb. 13:5) 

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“…yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that has loved us”. Rom. 8:37 AMP

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God makes the difference
You may be wondering what the difference between a child of God and an unbeliever is, since we all go through the same difficulty. The difference is God. The difference is His promise to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). The difference is that He always gives us victory (1 Cor. 15:57). He does not let those challenges overwhelm us to the point of destruction.

A good number of interpretations relate James 1:3 to your walk with Jesus. However, I believe it is a valid message for every aspect of our lives. Every challenge of life is a test of your faith. Will you trust God through this setback or will you try to solve it your own way? Will you trust God through the hardship or will you give up and react as unbelievers would? Would you hold on to the promises of God or begin to internalize the lies of the devil?

We constantly face trials that test our faith. And Apostle James tells us to count it all as joy when we go through these things (Jas. 1:2). Not because the trials themselves are entertaining or pleasant to endure. But because those trials produce in us something that cannot be stolen. He said that these trials produce perseverance which produces maturity and completeness in us, such that we lack nothing. In other words, it fine-tunes us and moulds us to be better versions of ourselves.

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“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James. 1:2-4 NIV

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Are there other ways for this fine-tuning to happen? Yes. Nevertheless, trials are just part of life. Even Jesus went through trials. That is why He can tell us that there are challenges we would face in this world. But we can be content with knowing that He has overcome the world. That is, He has promised us victory alas.

You may be pressured on every side by the rise in the cost of living but be assured that you will never be crushed. And even if you are confused about a way out of that challenge, never despair because God makes ways even when there seems to be no way. You may be persecuted for your choice to stand for Christ, to do things the way that pleases God even when it doesn’t seem to be going well for you but know that you are not abandoned. God is with you every step of the way. God did not abandon Job, or Joseph, He won’t abandon you either. Though you are struck down, you can never be destroyed.

Again, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord (Rom. 8:28). Even when it looks like it is made to be against you, it will eventually work together for your good. This is what God has promised in His word. If we doubt this then we make Him to be liar. He is not one to go back on His word. And the fact that He causes all things to work together for our good doesn’t mean that He orchestrates all these challenges. It means that even what the enemy has meant for evil, He is more than able to turn around for your good (Gen. 50:20).

Every day your faith is tested and challenged. On some days you weaken and fall. On some days you stand gallantly as God would have you do. Here’s what God says: be of good cheer because I have overcome the world –and all that is within it that challenges you.

So, when we are faced with challenges, like David, we must encourage ourselves in the Lord –with the promises of His word. We must recount His faithfulness and unchanging nature. Only then will we be able to remain above the waters that trouble us. Only then can we say we have been struck down but weren’t destroyed.

Allowing Our Light to be Visible

A year ago we introduced you to the writer of the blog Echoes of Heart: Reviving Righteousness, and today we’re back. Click the header which follows read this where it appeared first, or to listen to it as an audio devotional. [Note: The abbreviation BBE, appearing here for the first time, refers to the Bible in Basic English.]

Humble Pie

We all have known that awful taste they call humble pie. Its not easy to confess our sins to others! We all seem to have an image to uphold.

For as far back as I can remember, I’ve never felt like I was better than anyone else. There were however times, of course, when I judged my own abilities against another’s, like when engaged in talent competition’s. Still my fellow competitors and I were equal in value and worth, that’s just the way I’ve always seen it.

It wasn’t Christian to be prideful and I made a conscious effort not to be.

I, up until just recently, thought I did a good job in this endeavor.

I have found, that once I let go of my own self perception of being a good Christian, that gives me a false sense of my own true character, I open myself up to being shown the truth that is in my heart.

I didn’t realize fear of becoming prideful or self-righteous took root in my life, and because of it, I was walking with a false sense of humility.

Common symptoms of false humility I exhibited were; never being able to take a compliment, having little to no self worth, always needing opinions of others to decide what my own opinions were, low self esteem and next to no self confidence.

I could build confidence up in others no problem, but I stayed a long ways away from the chance of building my own self confidence up..

I truly don’t, and purposefully won’t, stand in judgment of others and I never have felt myself to be better than anyone else.

I thought I was doing good understanding I am a child of God and making sure I stay humble, lowly, un-selfish, usable, putting everyone else first to the best of my ability. I was getting real good at not giving pride or self-righteousness a chance in my life.

Then, while fasting one day, Lord Jesus opened my eyes to what I was truly working under and He showed me how my heart was good, my desire was right, and my approach was wrong.

2 Timothy 1:7 BBE — For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.

I wasn’t surrendered in that area as I hoped because my fear drove me to works.

I was operating with a spirit of fear, thinking myself genuinely humble. I would down play my gifts, and testimony making them seem un-note-worthy or common.

Never did the thought cross my mind that I may have been hurting God’s feelings. Of course I was hurting His feelings! I was turning His blessings into nothing out of the ordinary! That’s not humility, that’s ungratefulness! I believed the enemies lie that to be happy and confident in the talents Father God blessed me with, would be prideful. I avoided pride at the cost of true gratitude! And can you imagine how habit forming it is to make yourself small and insignificant? False humility can be a tough habit to break!

Because I was trying so hard not to be self righteous or prideful I allowed my light to be put under a vessel..

Matthew 5:14-16 BBE — You are the light of the world. A town put on a hill may be seen by all. And a burning light is not put under a vessel, but on its table; so that its rays may be shining on all who are in the house. Even so let your light be shining before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Father God, Creator of all there is, fearfully and wonderfully made each and every one of us, giving us unique gifts and talents to share with the rest of the world. He meant for us to be exceptional and to be noticed.

We, created in His Image, were meant to stand out. All honor, glory and praise belong to Father God and that’s the difference between true humility and false humility. Who, will those who admire our work, glorify? Us or Father God?

Does it Matter if I Do _______ ?

This is another one of those days where we reached back a decade and found a writer we’d used in 2013 was still actively writing in 2023. The site is Gulf Coast Pastor and the author is David R. Brumbelow, a Texas Pastor. Clicking the link in the title below will also take you there.

Is It Worldly?

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.  -Titus 2:12 NKJV

1. Does the Bible speak directly against it?
2. Do biblical principles teach against it?
3. Will it give the devil a foothold in my life?
4. Will it lead me or others into sin?
5. Will it diminish my Christian life?
6. Does it support that which is evil?
7. Is it awkward to thank God for it?
8. Are there reasonable doubts about it?
9. Is it reasonable to stay away from it?
10. Will it help or hurt my Christian witness?

Examples: Drinking alcohol, marijuana, smoking, dancing / some forms of dancing, night clubs, questionable places or parties, gambling, cards, dice, immodest dress, some kinds of music, pornography, crude language and joking…

No, not all Christians will agree. But that is no reason to not take these principles seriously. Christian liberty should not be abused to justify everything.

See 11 Reasons to Not Drink Alcohol. It deals with some of these general principles.

But, you can certainly laugh, joke, and have a good time. As a matter of fact, you can have more fun when you avoid the things that tear you down. Discipline in the Christian life can bring great joy and freedom.

Scripture to consider:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. -1 John 2:15

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. -Romans 12:2

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. -Titus 2:12

For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica. -2 Timothy 4:10

But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. -1 Corinthians 8:9

As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. -1 Peter 2:16

Worldly – a practice that directly or indirectly contradicts God’s Word.  That which can lead me or others astray.  A practice that fits into the culture of this present unredeemed world, but does not fit well in the culture of the Kingdom of God.

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Christianity 201 is a melting-pot of devotional and Bible study content from across the widest range of Christian blogs and websites. Sometimes two posts may follow on consecutive days by authors with very different doctrinal perspectives. The Kingdom of God is so much bigger than the small portion of it we can see from our personal vantage point, and one of the purposes of C201 is to allow readers a ‘macro’ view of the many ministries and individual voices available for reading, as well as encouraging the many people doing devotional writing that their work is being seen.