Getting Younger with Each New Day

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
 – Isaiah 40:29 NIV

But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
 – Isaiah 40:31 NLT

Years ago I had an interesting conversation with a guy who I figured to be at least a decade older than myself. When the conversation ended he left, but then he returned and said he just wanted to share a verse with me. He then quoted II Cor 4:16 to me from the KJV:

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.

Most of you would know this better from the NIV:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

He then went on to tell me that he has been told, and has felt that he is “getting younger.” He said he felt more rejuvenated, and more energetic than at any time in his life.

This is not the first time an older follower of Christ has told me something like this. A woman told me that she’d noticed that the new hair growth on her head was coming in darker, replacing the grey hairs.

Looking for a way to respond somehow, I told him — and I hope this didn’t sound too new age — that he was simply filled with fresh passion about his faith and that he was drawing on the energy from that passion. He didn’t argue that point.

That’s the kind of faith to aim for; a faith that is vibrant and exciting and informs the other areas that make up the four parts of you: your mind, your social interactions, your emotions; and even your physical body. (See this four-part division in Luke 2:52.)

Renewal Means Being Made New

There was once an SNL skit by the comedian who played a priest in which he talked about a planet where people reached a certain age and then started getting younger. The punchline was something to the effect that “you didn’t know if someone was coming or going.” It’s not applicable here except insofar as it introduces “outside the box” thinking. Renewal — if you really think about it — is just that; being made new.

Paul tells the Corinthians,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (II-5:7)

I once heard someone say that the Greek on this passage is not talking about a metamorphosis like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but more like a caterpillar turning into a “winged elephant.” In other words, anyone in Christ becomes (his words): “a species of being that never existed before.” So we are all not who we were, we are changed and are being changed.

The idea of “getting younger” goes against the basic rules of science, but with God anything is possible. In John 3:3, Jesus introduces Nicodemus to the idea of being “born again.” In the next verse Nick asks the obvious question,

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
 – NIV

In the upside-down kingdom Jesus brings, the new birth isn’t quite that dramatic, but it’s just as significant. The man I met said he is “getting younger” and frankly, I have no reason to believe he is not.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
 – Isaiah 41:10 NLT

Renewal Means the Dead are Made Alive

A parallel comparison can be constructed from the more central idea of scripture that, rather than looking at the aged recovering youthful vigor, we should be looking at those who are spiritual dead — which was all of us at one time — being given new life.

This is the message of 1 Corinthians 15:22

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. (NLT)

A new energy. A fresh start. A clean slate.

How can anyone walk way from that offer?

 

Ezra, Revival, and the Church

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8

by Russell Young

We may tend to think of spiritual revivals in more recent terms, however Ezra led a revival in the Jewish nation during his day. The Jews had been released from captivity by the Babylonians and Cyrus king of Persia had been “appointed by God”, according to his testimony, to build a temple for the God of heaven in Jerusalem. The city had been deserted during the exile and most of it had been ruined. The returning Jews were ignoring the covenant law and were being assimilated into the surrounding nations through intermarriage and the assumption of their “detestable practices”. They had lost their spiritual identity.

Ezra was alarmed. The Israelites were to be a holy nation separated unto God. Their women had married foreign men and their men, including priests, had married foreign women and many had children from their unions. When Ezra realized what was taking place, he tore his cloak, pulled his hair from his head and beard and sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.

His reaction challenged my heart. I do not recall such concern and anguish over the insult being done to my holy God, the state of my nation, or the practices of my Christian brothers and sisters. Ezra’s torment had not become of such personal concern to me. His alarm was for his people and for the consequences that would befall them for rejecting the covenant law enacted by their faithful God. He felt shame and disgrace.

Unfortunately, the common assumption of God’s “free grace” blinds the eyes to sin’s practice, whether personal or in others, and certainly to any consequences for it. Do you feel God’s pain? His pain is real. Because of the hurt to his heart (Gen 6:6) Christ was charged to destroy the devil’s work (1 Jn 3:8) and to offer up a people who would be acceptable for his eternal kingdom. (Rom 15:16) Are you distraught over your own practices or the practices of others who have claimed “freedom” to live as they wish? Are you concerned about living God’s truth, about walking in the light? (1 Jn 1:7) Ezra knew that the nation of Israel would be blessed through obedience and cursed through defiance of their sovereign Lord. God has not changed, but the assumed grace of God has removed all sense of fear or alarm from many of those who have confessed belief.

A remarkable decision was made. Ezra, the Jewish leaders, and the people decided to send their foreign spouses and children away that the Jewish nation might remain pure. For three rain-filled days the people listened to Ezra and all the people responded and admitted their unfaithfulness. They abandoned their rebellious practice at great price. They had to choose to obey their God or to enjoy their ungodly relationships. This must have been a heart-wrenching time. Like the unfaithful Israelites all those who have confessed Christ as their Lord will be required to make difficult decisions to honor his sovereignty and holiness through the abandonment of unrighteous practices. Paul has written, “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rom 8:13−14) Pleasure can be gained through the flesh, but life through the Spirit. (Jn 6:63) God will not be mocked!

It took the sensitive heart of Ezra to recognize the waywardness of the Jews; they were oblivious to their state. Until the hearts of God’s children become tuned to his heart and their desire becomes focused on living according to his commands, godliness will be aborted and with it life. Many church communities need an Ezra, someone to put the light on the holiness of God and the hurt brought to him through the rebellion and defiance of his law (through Christ) and his will. When the cost of their disobedience to God, self, and others is appreciated revivals will take place, judgment averted, and destruction avoided.

Ezra recognized a problem and did not fail to address it. The first step to spiritual revival comes through recognition that the church has a need. Revival means to re-vive or to bring back to life, to restore, or to renew. Where a body is functioning properly it does not need revival. Introspection and appreciation of the current state needs to be gained although it can become difficult for people to see their own faults and from that recognize their need. Ezra recognized the need, acted, and addressed the people accordingly. Many churches speak of their desire for a revival but consider it most often to be a community need not a church need. Communities need to be awakened, but churches revived. In many cases, the pervading acceptance of God’s “free grace” has eliminated the reality of any need within the body and where many bodies enjoy their supposed freedom, the nation suffers.

The LORD revealed, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (or, church). (2 Chr 7:14) During Ezra’s time it was not just the people who had sinned, but the priests as well. Honesty, humility, and repentance are needed for a revival to take place. Has the christian community reached the state of the Lord’s complaint to Isaiah? “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (Isa 29:13) Corporate worship is easy to orchestrate, but personal godly worship requires complete humility before God and the recognition and practice of his sovereignty. His will must be done starting in the lives of those who covet renewal and the blessing of God’s heart.

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Russell Young’s column appears here on alternate Tuesdays. His first book, Eternal Salvation: “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” Really? is available in print and eBook in the U.S. through Westbow Publishing, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble; in Canada through Chapters/Indigo.

To read all of Russell’s contributions here at C201, click this link. There is also an extended article at this link.

 

Cultivating The Inner Life

Where we live, Labor Day weekend marks the kickoff of the school year, and therefore, the official beginning of a new season in educational, personal, business, and church life. This blog post seemed most appropriate. Jim Williams has not been writing consistently, so this appeared back in February at his blog The Journey, under the title Better Every Day. I think it’s equally important for this time of year.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor 4:16-18 (NIV)

‘Outwardly we are wasting away.’

One look in the mirror exemplifies this truth. Physical beauty fades and youthful vitality wanes.

‘Inwardly we are being renewed every day.

Inwardly we are getting better every day. Renewal of spirit and inward refreshing are experienced by those who embrace Christ-like living.

The choice is ours …

a) We can live focused on the ‘outward life’ but the Bible warns us that this only leads to despair and destruction.

b) We can live focused on the ‘inner life’. The scriptures tell us that when we do this we can live a better life every day. This is in spite of any natural decay of our outward life. The inner life can get better, fresher, newer every day.

It starts with spiritual renewal and rebirth.

John 3 recounts the incident when a religious leader named Nicodemus visited secretly with Jesus in the middle of the night. Jesus told him that to experience the kingdom of God one must be ‘born again’. He wasn’t speaking of a physical rebirth but of a spiritual rebirth. You and I can experience this new birth by acknowledging our need as sinners, and making Jesus our personal Lord and Saviour.

Sometimes when we feel life is not improving, or things aren’t getting better we get discouraged. This portion of scripture encourages us that when we are tempted to lose heart remember these three things:

1) The inner life is more important than the outer life.

2) Things that are of eternal consequence outweigh things that are temporary.

3) Natural circumstance is temporary but spiritual reality is eternal.

There are many voices that are vying for our attention. The natural, outer life continually tugs us away from the better life in Christ.

It is constant and will not cease until we step into eternity with Jesus. It is something we must deal with daily.

How does one keep themselves focussed on the more important inner life?

The best way I know is to practice ‘Everyday Faith’. The fellowship of which I am part, The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, is encouraging its members to do just this by combining the following four habits. (http://www.everydayfaith.ca) Below is a brief summary:

a) Read every day.

– Hebrews 4:12 “ For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double- edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

– The truth is that when we engage scripture, we engage God. Engaging God renews us internally.

b) Pray every day.

– Phil 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

– Prayer is conversation with God. Conversation with God energizes our spiritual life.

c) Give every day.

– Acts 20:35 Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

– Practicing generosity with our finances, time and resources help us to focus on eternal values.

d) Share every day.

– There is something about sharing our faith that brings joy to the one who is sharing.

We are unable to stop the ‘wasting away’ of our outer life. It is happening and it will continue.

We do have the opportunity to embrace the renewal and refreshing of our inner life. We can experience the joy of getting better every day when we embrace life in Christ.

Q: What does it mean to you to have an inner life that gets better every day?

King David’s Worst Day

Today’s post is from popular author Mark Buchanan.  It appeared under the title below which also links you to Mark’s blog…

Come Alive

I’ve been thinking about King David’s worst day. He had many, if the psalms are any guide. Bleakness stalked him, calamity lay in ambush. He made stupid decisions that cost him dearly. He suffered betrayal, divorce, assassination attempts, coup attempts. Some of his best plans went horrible awry. He was hunted by a crazy king. He lost his best friend. One of his sons raped one of his daughters, another of his sons murdered the rapist, then his chief henchman killed the son.

There is more bloodshed and sorrow in David’s story than in a Shakespeare tragedy.

But I think his worst day is when his son Absolom overthrows his kingdom – not because losing a kingdom is the worst that can happen, but because that day is a perfect storm: all his sorrows converge. A tsunami of accumulating disaster surges, breaks, and engulfs him. He is woebegone in a thousand ways.

David evacuates Jerusalem. Like Jesus on his own lonely and sorrowful night two millennia later, David crosses the Kidron Valley and climbs the Mount of Olives. An old enemy shows up to taunt him, hurl rock and dirt on him. The writer captures with terse vividness the weight of it all: “The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted” (2 Sam. 16:14).

Exhausted. In Hebrew, it means he was fainting tired. He was collapsing with weariness. He was dead on his feet. He was completely empty.

But then the writer adds this: “And there he refreshed himself.”

Refreshed. In Hebrew, it means he breathed deep. He restored his soul. He came alive. He was abundantly full.

I think this is a spiritual skill David learned back in the sheepfold: how to locate God – his presence, his strength, his goodness – in the thick of troubles. How to hear God’s voice in the din – beneath the condemning silences, above the jeering shouts. Indeed, I believe David wrote Psalm 23 out of the experience of this day, as he walked through a valley of death, surrounded by enemies. It’s here he turns afresh to God, and finds God’s comfort, and provision, and guidance, and renewal. “He restores my soul,” David says in Psalm 23. It’s the same word used here for refreshed.

This is a skill every Christ-follower needs to cultivate. Finding God in the dark. Resting in God in the turmoil. Trusting in God in the teeth of catastrophe. Being restored by God when all earthly comforts fail.

It’s a skill you cultivate daily, until it becomes a muscle memory, an instinct, a default. And then, just when it’s needed – when you’re dead on your feet – it kicks in. And you come alive.

The Apostle Paul puts it this way:  

I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. (Phil. 4:11-13; Msg).

I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

Scripture portions from various translations quoted at Christianity 201 are always in green to remind us that the Scriptures have LIFE!

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Got 41 minutes to listen to an amazing message? Check out Louis Giglio’s video of a November appearance at Liberty University.

Powerful Worship Song: Speak, O Lord

Do you appreciate the worship songs posted here, or do you wish that every day was a text devotional or Bible study?  We’ve somewhat evolved a style here with something different in terms of mix or balance, and I think some days a great worship song can say as much or more than a great devotional post.

I saw this online at Tim Challies blog a few days ago, he had the making of the song with Kristyn Getty, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  I thought it would be great to share all three verses of the song.

Allow God to speak to you as you listen.

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow’r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

Renewal Means Being Made New

I had an interesting conversation today with an older guy.  I figure him for late 60s or early 70s.    When the conversation ended he left, but then he returned and said he just wanted to share a verse with me.   He then quoted II Cor 4:16 to me from the KJV:

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.

Most of you would know this better from the NIV:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

He then went on to tell me that he has been told, and has felt that he is “getting younger.”   He said he felt more rejuvenated, and more energetic than at any time in his life.

This is not the first time an older person has told me something like this.   A woman told me that she’d noticed that the new hair growth on her head was coming in darker, replacing the grey hairs.

I told him — and I hope this didn’t sound too new age — that he was simply filled with fresh passion about his faith and that he was drawing on the energy from that passion.

That’s the kind of faith to aim for; a faith that is vibrant and exciting and informs the other areas that make up you:  your social interactions, your emotions; and even your physical body.  (Compare with Luke 2:52)

There was once a skit by the comedian who played Father Guido Sarducci in which he talked about a planet where people reached a certain age and then started getting younger.   The punchline was something to the effect that “you didn’t know if someone was coming or going.”    It’s not applicable here except insofar as it introduces “outside the box” thinking.    Renewal — if you really think about it — is just that; being made new.

The idea of “getting younger” goes against the basic rules of science, but with God anything is possible.     The man I met today said he is “getting younger” and frankly, I have no reason to believe he is not.

We Need Revival

God says, “You praise me with your lips
And call me ‘Lord’ each day
But deep inside your mind and hearts
And thoughts are far away
You build your empires
Motivated by power and greed
And crush the spirits of the people
Near you who have needs…”

Jesus said that He is coming for a
Church that’s without spot
Yet as I look around I am quite sure
That’s what we’re not
We point out all the specks and flecks
In other peoples’ eyes
To the point our inward hidden sin
Is never recognized

We need revival that will drive us to our knees
We need revival let it start with you and me
We need revival that will make the whole world see
That what we’re doing here is real and not a game

We sing the choruses proclaiming
He is Lord
As we’re glancing at the clock because
We truly are quite bored
And if the service runs too long
We cannot wait to leave
As we eat our Sunday dinner
The Holy Spirit’s grieved

We need revival that will drive us to our knees
We need revival let it start with you and me
We need revival that will make the whole world see
That what we’re doing here is real and not a game

Now I am quite convinced
The walls are tumbling down
Though it’s happening quite slowly
Still the children hear the sound
They question where the meaning’s gone
But those who still remain
Must truly seek to be Christ’s church
Alive and well again

We’ll have revival it will drive us to our knees
We’ll have revival, it will start with you and me
We’ll have revival, it will make the whole world see
That what we’re doing here is real and not a game
‘Cause what we’re doing here is real and not a game

© 1983 Paul Wilkinson