The importance of doctrine

 Each of us live our lives in a state of perpetual belief.  There are certain things that we hold to be true even though we do not have any necessary reason to hold them as true.  Allow me to demonstrate this fact.  I have no idea who built my house.  I bought it 7 years ago from a couple that I did not know.  I think they may have actually been the ones who hired the people who built the house, but I am not positive on that.  It was built over 60 years ago.  In all likelihood, the people who built it have died and I could not, even if I wanted to, ask them about the process.  I have no idea what the foundation looks like.  I have never seen it.  I have never torn off the interior or exterior of my walls to ensure that the materials built upon the foundation are solid and good.  And yet each day, I come home.  Each day I rest.  Each night I go to sleep unthinkingly confident that my house will stand.  

If I examine this objectively, I know that there are people who have homes who do not stand.  Homes that fall.  In many respects this is what faith is.  But when it comes to Christ, faith, while critical is never blind.  It is not unknowing.  It is an examining faith - a faith that looks to Christ and to His Word for answers and for certainty.  Every one of us believes something, but what we believe is critically important.  If I am coming home to bed each night in doctrinal uncertainty, I have my hope in nothing but hope itself.  And that is no hope.  But if I come home each night to my sure Savior.  To the One who died in my place.  To the One who was born of a Virgin.  To the One who lived a perfect life.  Suddenly, even though I do not have to think about each of these things in every moment, I have a foundation that I can be confident in.  That I can welcome others into.  

My prayer is that my faith in Christ is not in any way like my faith in my house.  Both have a foundation.  But one I know to be solid.  My house I only hope is solid.  One I know to stand true and straight.  My walls I only hope are built of good material.  One has been tested and has stood the test of time.  My house has only been around for about 60 years and will at some point fall apart and need repair.  Take the time to get to know Christ.  Examine Him through His Word.  And may you find Him Glorious!

Thanksgiving

 At our church we are doing something different this year.  Leading up to the Thanksgiving Praise Service that we hold annually (on the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving day) we are asking for a few people to give a brief testimony of praise.  It is interesting to me to think about my own life and what I would say, but more interesting to me is why this kind of thing seems to come up only around the holiday.  

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples."  (1 Chronicles 16:8, NASB)

We have a responsibility to tell people what God has done, and not just "our" people - the church, it is a responsibility to tell the world about the things that God has done.  If we took this as part of our personal job description, how well would we grade ourselves.  Does your neighbor know of the good that God has done for you?  Does the teller you see at the bank each week?   What about your unsaved friends?  Are we telling the world that God has done good things for us?  Or do we bottle it up and keep it to ourselves, maybe sharing it at church?  Make it a personal challenge today to make known what God has done for you among the people of the earth!

A prayer for teens

 I have three teenagers at the moment.  And so I love Kathleen Nielson's book, Prayer of a Parent for Teens. (P and R Publishing) In truth, the whole 4 book series is good and highly recommended, but I am in the teen phase of life right now and so for me and my wife, this book in particular has a lot of meaning.  Today I want to simply share an excerpt of one of those prayers - "For Identity in Christ" with you. 

"May she know you knew her from before creation, Father God, and that your perfect hand knit her together in the womb.  May she understand her fallenness, and may she know your Spirit breathed new life into her heart, creating her anew, and clean from sin, through faith in Christ.  And may she know the Spirit as your constant presence with her - Spirit of the risen Christ who lights the meaning of your Word and gives us power to obey." (p. 19)

Prayers for students and teachers

 As school is starting back up, I thought it would be fitting to remind us to be in regular prayer for the students and teachers within the context of our local churches.  Schools have been a battle ground for ideology for some time and it would seem that our culture is striving at a younger and younger age to indoctrinate our children and so they are using the schools as a place to fight for lies and for what the Scripture calls evil.  

I believe that this is in line with what the Scriptures say will happen in our world, and so we as Christians do not need to respond with panic or alarm, but we can respond with the calm assurance that all that God has promised He will do is going to come to pass.  But as we watch His plan unfold, He calls us to lift up one another in prayer.  And so we pray for our students - that they would be able to tell right thought from wrong thought.  That they would have boldness they have seen in us to proclaim that which the Scriptures say is right.  That they would have courage to go against the grain.  That while they do this they would do so with love and respect so that no one can speak ill of them.  

Pray for our teachers.  Pray that they would have moments when they can speak the truth to the lives of kids who are misled by so many others.  Pray for courage and boldness when these moments come.  Pray that God would provide for their families and take care of their needs should they lose their job over a stand that they have taken.  

May we as God's people be faithful to lift up those on the front lines of the battle, and may we realize that the battle is in our schools, in our homes, and even in our churches.  God strengthen us for the task ahead.

Selfish

 If we are all being totally honest, we are selfish.  I don't mean mostly honest where we all think we are good people and all think that we surrender and give more up than we take, I mean totally honest.  This means we look at each moment of each day and honestly consider am I doing this for me, or for someone else.  In fact, I have been testing this theory in my own life, and it would seem that each time I even try to do something selfless, I fail.  I fail because when I do it I want gratitude and recognition.  When I don't get those I pat myself on the back for how patient I am with people who clearly are blind to see how great I really am.  When that is not enough I tell them all the things they need to work on in order to be able to see just how lucky they are to know me.  Of course I do not do these things out loud, that would be boastful, and mostly think I am a humble person.  But not when I am totally honest.

I have also found that it is hard to see selflessness in others.  When they do something nice for me, I don't see it as service or selflessness, I see it as expected and I want more of it!  I feel the need sometimes to reciprocate, but it is not because I am honestly selfless, but because I want some of the glory that they got from me when I said thank you.  

I wonder if you face the same thing?  Are we truly so selfish we find it hard to be even the slightest bit selfless without expectation?  How can we truly say, "to God be the glory" when we want so much of it for ourselves?  I am selfish.  God help me.

Untethered

 This weekend we had our church campout.  I noticed that for myself when I got out of a place where my cell phone worked constantly, and instead found myself in a place where I had no service, a few things happened.

1. I looked around more.  I saw more things, more people, more of the creation that God so beautifully made.

2. I talked with others more.  I asked them about their lives.  We had conversations about things that matter and not just small talk.

3. I chose to participate.  There were many events we could do and suddenly I found I had time and energy to do them.  

There were a few more things that I noticed, but I wonder if you notice this too when you unplug.  Maybe it would be wise to force an unplug every once and a while.  We are so connected that we have become unconnected.  So maybe we can connect again by unplugging for a bit and getting back to the basics of shaking a hand instead of holding a phone.  But what do I know - I have been off the grid for a few days!

God is my Creator

 We are running our VBS program at our church this week and we are learning about the character and nature of God.  We saw on day 1 of VBS that God was our Creator and we belong to him.  I think that this is a foundational thought.  I think that because it is where God begins when revealing himself to us in His Word.  I think that because much of what we see in our world today is because of a failure to see ourselves as accountable to our Creator.  The word accountability may even be out of fashion in a world that wants us to center solely on ourselves.  But it is a truth that the Bible presents early and often - I have to do what God says because God made me and I belong to God.  But accountability is not the only issue.  

I think that we have lost a proper perspective on the center of our value.  We place our value in all the wrong places- in what we do, in what others think of us.  When in reality, we are valuable because we are created in the image of God.  And we as Christians often talk about the value of human life (and this has certainly been in the news lately) but then often devalue those that disagree with our positions.  We dehumanize those that disagree with the Bible and it makes it easier for us to dismiss them.  But we who hold that all are created by God in the image of God MUST admit that we should value the lives of those we argue most vehemently against because of the fact that they too have value and are made in God's image.  So we have accountability and value because of our creation.  But a third word comes to mind.

Dependence.  We strive against this from the time we are little and keep striving against it until we die.  We do not want to accept or admit that we need help, and yet our creation tells us that we are perpetually in a state of need.  A state in which we rely on our Creator to provide for us that which we cannot provide for ourselves - which points us to salvation in Jesus Christ.  

I wonder if you would consider your role as a created being today.  To whom are you accountable?  Where are you placing your value?  Are you acknowledging that you have need of things.  May God use your dependency to point you to Him.