Faith At Any Cost

Can you imagine how much courage it took for Martin Luther to stand up against the established religious practice of the day, the tradition for over a thousand years, to state what he believed to be true about God and His character? I’m sure it cost Luther his job, his status, maybe even his friends and family. He held his convictions so strongly that he faced public ridicule to bring attention to the differences between what the Bible teaches and what was being practiced by the established church.

I’m sure John the Baptist went through the same thing. The son of a priest, a relative of Jesus Christ, he began to speak about the coming Messiah. It seems this should have been welcomed news to the Jewish people. The Messiah was their whole focus. They knew God was sending Someone to redeem them, to restore them, yet they refused to hear John’s message when he proclaimed the Messiah had come.

Noah faced similar circumstances. A flood was prophesied; total destruction would result. He gave people an opportunity to escape certain death, but they did not hear him.

When Saul (now known as Paul) was converted on the Damascus road he changed from being a killer of Christians to one of the strongest proponents for the cause of Christ. People were skeptical, thinking it was perhaps a ruse to entrap them. Now we use Paul’s writings to learn how to live the Christian life.

I’m sure as you read those short paragraphs that things came to your mind. Some immediately applied these thoughts to the current political turmoil in the United States and the need to overthrow the “other party”. Others had ministers or ministries come to mind whose belief systems are clearly not scripturally based and should be brought down. Others thought of “the rapture” so you could escape all the madness in the earth. For me, this shows a tendency in human behavior to allow things to drift from the original intent of things to a place of apostasy and turmoil, but also the faithfulness of God to bring individuals who will do His bidding, to speak truth regardless of the consequence.

It cost Noah 100 years of his life, but he saved mankind. It cost John the Baptist his life to hold to his convictions, but he gave himself to introduce mankind to their Savior. Paul gave up his prestige and position in order to represent Christ to his world. Luther opened himself up to public ridicule and shame in order to stand for what he believed was right. What has your faith cost you?

Dance Like Nobody's Watching

This is my first blog post in quite a while. When you get out of the habit of writing it is difficult to get going again. I guess that is true with most things.

The past few decades gave us a couple of songs that came to mind this morning. As I drove home yesterday I noticed in my rearview mirror the young lady in the car behind me. She was singing with whatever music was playing in her car. I love music. I love to sing. It always seems to dampen the enthusiasm when we realize someone is watching.

Lee Ann Womack had a hit back in 2000 called “I Hope You Dance”. It starts out:

            I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

            You get your fill to eat, but always keep your hunger

            May you never take one single breath for granted

            God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed

The hook of the song comes with this line: And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance … I hope you dance, I hope you dance!!

Apparently the young lady behind me yesterday had heard the song “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching.” The lyrics of the song have unclear origin and attributed to many. That doesn’t diminish their impact. It goes something like this:

            Dance like nobody’s watching

            Love like you’ve never been hurt

            Sing like nobody’s listening

            Live like it’s heaven on earth

Children do this all the time. I believe that’s one of the things Jesus implied when He said, “Anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Little children are curious. They trust completely. They love fully. They play with nothing held back. Oh, if we could only find that place again. I do not believe these are the “childish things” that Paul intended to be “put away” when we mature in Christ.

The prime example of this is given in the story of the woman of Bethany that came to the home of Simon the Leper while Jesus was there. She was described as a “sinful woman.” Footnote here: We all are sinful! She was not an invited guest but she had an unquenchable desire to see Jesus. She brought with her a box, or bottle, of expensive perfume. When she saw Jesus, she broke the container open and poured the fragrance on Him. This was her worship!

She did not care that she was a “sinner”, or uninvited. She only knew one thing: if she could get to Jesus she would bless Him the best way she knew how. She gave the most precious thing she had. For her, this was “living like it’s heaven on earth.” I don’t know if she knew that it literally was heaven come to earth, but she was drawn to Jesus because He embodied everything that she desired: unqualified love, complete forgiveness, and total acceptance.

That’s really what all of us want, but we know others are watching or listening. We have been hurt. Until we can find a way to let God heal the hurt we will never find the freedom to worship Him with abandon. Oh, how I wish we could.

Better Than I Deserve

A radio talk show host has made famous a phrase now used by many. When asked, “How are you?”, they respond with, “Better than I deserve.” On the surface this sound rather noble and altruistic. The reality is, for the Christian, it is part of what is keeping the Church hamstrung and off mission.

Here is the truth. You deserve to die. Therefore anything short of death is better than you deserve. The reason Jesus came and gave His life in exchange for yours is so you can have His life. Scripture calls it abundant life. The Greek word is “zoe”, which means, “life and plenty of it.” That is much better than you deserveD (capital D for emphasis), but because of Jesus (for the Christian) you now deserve the life of a child of God. That life is full of joy, peace, longsuffering, healing, provision, strength, passion, and this list goes on and on.

If you are still living at the doorway into the Kingdom (where many Christians live) then you keep the mindset of “better than I deserve.” That is not humility at all. It is actually pride disguised as humility. You are actually boasting about the fact that God is not faithful to His promise to give you the abundant life that He promised.

Look at few folks in the Bible that knew a thing or two about the God they served. Adam named all the animals that God created. Noah built a boat before rain was invented, in a desert, in order to preserve the human race. Abraham believed what God said before it was a thing. It’s called faith. David learned the ways of God as a shepherd, then led armies against the enemies of Israel and united the kingdom under his reign. Moses went before pharaoh to free the nation of Israel from captivity. The prophets spoke forth that which they heard from an invisible God and brought things into sight for all to see.

John the Baptist declared he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the path for the Anointed One that would come after him. Paul forsook everything he knew about God to embrace that which he had only encountered briefly on the Damascus road. John wrote a vision after being banished to an island to die.

All of these, and many, many more, knew who they were. What if any one of them had said, “I’m better off than I deserve.” Thank God, they didn’t. If you are a Christian, wake up and realize that “you are much more than you have become.” (Lion King) You don’t have to settle for scraps at the threshold of the Kingdom. Step inside and learn about the life that has been provided for you through the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 1 – a poem

Psalm 1 – a poem

Where can I find a place to call home?

My feet always wanting to roam

Down a path that takes me to strange places.

Who can I look to for peace, for hope?

My mind always tugging the rope

Pulled on by people with plans of their own

The only hope of home I can find

My heart holds to One of a kind

He leads me to where the fresh water flows

The good, the bad, I don’t know which one

Both vie for their place in the sun

I must choose to die so that He may live

Buried in the rich soil of His grace

I find there is no better place

For I live as one dead to my own will

Though dead, still living by Grace alone

So His fruit can be born in me

More alive after dying than ever

By Dudley M. Harris

© 2017 Kurios Publishing

Foundations

One of the more intriguing verses in the Bible is Psalm 11:3, “… if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” When I first heard this verse as a young man it gave me great pause. I began meditating on the implications, which, if taken to the extreme, could cause fear to rise up in your heart. Other verses came to mind like, “If God is for us who can be against us?” The inverse of that would be, “If God is not for you there is no hope.”

It is this type of thing that causes people to fall into great depression and fear. Others begin to lash out in anger at what they feel is injustice. They shout, “Who is God that He would not be for me?!?” First of all, they do not understand the nature and character of God, and secondly do not understand scripture. Let’s look at this a little more closely.

I’m 58, but I have never seen the type of things going on in the world that are happening today. I’m sure others have, and possibly in history much worse things have transpired. But in my lifetime this is the most unusual. We have at our disposal the greatest amount of information ever amassed: the Internet. Just about anything you can imagine is available at your fingertips via smartphone, tablet, laptop, or even a watch! Yet, I have never seen such confusion. For most of us, we grew up with a worldview given to us by our parents, teachers, and preachers. Today, even from an early age, you can have access to any worldview that exists.

Knowledge can be dangerous. Knowledge without wisdom is like playing with bullets without a gun. Inside a gun bullets are safely housed in chambers where accidental firing is a minimal risk. Outside of a gun they are a danger. Knowledge (bullets) inside a gun (wisdom) can be fired at a target with great precision and accomplish the desired result. Outside of wisdom, knowledge may shoot any direction lacking the barrel to guide it, not only missing the desired target, but also potentially causing harm to innocents.

For many, knowledge is considered a “foundation” upon which we can build a structure with little risk of it ever crumbling. Modern science is this way. The main issue with knowledge is that it is always changing. We are constantly learning more about our world, and this new knowledge totally changes our previous understanding. Many theories have been developed about how earth, and the entire universe for that matter, came into being. Every day new information is obtained which totally refutes the knowledge from yesterday.

So, back to the topic at hand. If you base your life on knowledge alone it will most likely crumble over time. There has to be an absolute; bedrock. You have to get beyond the fluff and hype, especially in today’s world of “fake news” and straight out propaganda, and find truth. Once found, drive a stake in it so you cannot be blown from it, and you will not wander from it. Live your life from that place of truth. Look at the text again, this time in context.

Psalm 11:1-3 (ESV)

In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

“In the Lord I take refuge…” That is this psalmist’s bedrock. Then he continues, “How can you say to my soul …?” He is refuting others that say, “You better watch out! What if God doesn’t …?” For the psalmist there is no doubt that the Rock to whom he has attached himself cannot, and will not, be moved, destroyed, or in any way shaken. When you find this place in your relationship with God you, too, will be uneasily moved by anything that someone may say, or any knowledge that may present itself that is contrary to what you know to be true about God. If you are not there yet, keep digging. Once you get through the layers of junk, mistruth, deception, etc. you will find the unshakable Kingdom of Heaven!