Stuff Christians Should Know

The Final Post in this 5 part saga! I would compare it to Rocky, but cannot rightfully do so unless I post a 6th one 20 years from now. If you’ve missed them, here is part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Review: If we want to be strong and courageous we must first remember that God is with us, second we must follow his law completely, and lastly we must meditate on his Word day and night.

Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Meditate Day and Night

This third point is really a continuation of the first two. We cannot hope to remember God is with us or follow all of the law unless we constantly meditate on the Word.

The mistake most believers make is thinking that by focusing on doing good works, they can follow God’s law. The true secret, however, is filling our minds and hearts and souls with His truth.

Let’s go back to our example with Solomon. We saw a passage in Deuteronomy that told Kings how they should conduct themselves, but in the verses immediately following them God explains how they can actually follow His law.

Back in Deuteronomy 17: “18 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”

Once more we see the call to not turn to the right hand or to the left, and once more God gives us the secret to doing this. Meditate on His word! Read it! Soak in it! Know it! Breath it in, write it down. All Scripture is God breathed and through them His Spirit changes us and enables us to follow Him completely.

The Powerful Weapon

We are told thousands of lies everyday, and if we do not fill our minds with truth to combat the lies, then we’ll start to believe the lies. Those lies lead to fear and rebellion against God, but the truth sets us free.

God’s Word is also a weapon against the enemy, it is sharper than any double edged sword! What did Jesus use to combat Satan in the desert? Scripture. That was all he needed, and because he had meditated on it his entire life he had no reason to fear and stood up to Satan himself.

And so, in order to follow the straight path of God’s law and remember that He is with us, we do not need to focus on keeping track of the number of times we curse or share the gospel, instead we need to focus on spending time with Him. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we need His Word speaking to us, guiding us as a lamp to our feet and a light for our path.

This isn’t a one stop shop either. This is not a magical pill you take once and suddenly fear is gone forever. Strength and courage are the result of a constant, daily walk with the Lord.

Conclusion

As God’s people, we are called to be strong and courageous. We don’t do this by doing 1001 push-ups, we don’t do this by yelling at people about how wrong their theology is, and we don’t do this by pretending to be tough. First, we must remember that God is with us. Second, we must follow the Word of the Lord completely. Lastly, we must meditate on His word all the time.

What is your favorite Bible verse/story?

*Photo Credit: The Gossetts

Welcome to part 4 of the Eternal Secret to Strength and Courage. Catch the part 1, part 2, and part 3 if you want the full experience. Or, just jump right in with today’s post.

Yesterday, I mentioned that Scripture gives us a great example of Excuse Making. In the book of law that Joshua 1 refers to, God gives some guidelines for the future Kings of Israel. You can see them in Deuteronomy 17:15-17. One to remember is verse 17, “And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”

Solomon, the wisest king of all time, should have known to follow God’s commands fully. For much of his life he did, but eventually he started to bend the rules and turned away from the way of the Lord.

A typical Saturday for Solomon

In 1 Kings 11:1-8 we see that Solomon had “700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines.” First, we should note the general insanity of having that many wives. More importantly however, we see that what God predicted in Deuteronomy came true: “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God”

There is really a progression here. Some of it is clearly in Scripture, and some of it you can kind of fill in the blanks. Solomon’s first move was not to set up idols for all of his wives. He didn’t finish the temple one day and worship Molech the next.

His first decision was to bend the rules by marrying foreign women. Even though God forbid it in Deuteronomy, Solomon did it anyway. He probably wasn’t trying to rebel, he just made excuses to justify his sin. “Does God really mean we can’t marry foreign women? This is for peace! And God loves peace! And besides, I’m the wisest king of all time, I won’t fall for their gods.”

Spiraling Out of Control

He found a way to justify his sin in his own eyes, and so he started to turn, even if it was a small turn, from God’s ways. Like I said yesterday, we do this all the time ourselves. We are professional excuse makers. The problem is, when we begin to turn from God’s ways it is very difficult to stop turning.

And so we saw the downhill progression of Solomon. First, his heart was turned away, and then he wasn’t wholly following God, and then he worshipped others, and then he set up a few idols, and then he set up idols for all of his wives, even the ones that demanded human children sacrifices.

Finally, we see in Ecclesiastes a man who had everything the world would count as a success: money, fame, women, power. But in his heart he felt empty and that he had nothing.

Let me tell you something, if Solomon’s ways are not better than God’s ways, than neither are yours. He thought he could find success by bending the rules, but it only left him feeling empty and without value.

The Path to Success, Strength, and Courage

God’s version of success is not the same as the world’s. “Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.” It’s really simple, if you want your life to be a success, follow His Word!

How does this connect with strength and courage? It’s simple. It is much more natural to be strong and courageous if your life is a success than if your life is a failure. God is good and wants what is best for us, so doing things His way will also be best for us and take away many fears that our sin could bring upon us.

What excuses do you make to bend God’s Word?

*Image Credit: zoetnet

All this week I’m writing on the eternal secret to strength and courage. Make sure you check out the introduction and the first step, Remembering that God is with you.

Step 1 of being strong and courageous was to remember that God is with you. Step 2 is to follow God’s Law completely.

This comes from verse 7: “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go”

The Whole Law

This idea of following all the law, of not turning from the right hand or to the left, is one that Joshua has heard before. Moses called the people to do this several times in the book of Deuteronomy. Unfortunately, I think this is one of the most common sins in the church today. We love to follow God’s Word when it is convenient for us, but we’re also professional excuse makers when it comes to the parts of His Word we don’t love.

It would be foolish, however, to ignore the commands of God because we see, right here in verse 7, that these commands are given to us for our benefit. Even following the laws we don’t love leads to success, and that is a good thing!

The Fine Art of Excuse Making

What often happens is we start to follow our own path to success instead of the straight one that God has given us. We get an idea, and could even have good motivations for this idea, but it turns us, sometimes ever so slightly, from God’s law, and this leads to destruction.

What does it mean turn to the left or to the right? Essentially, it is “bending the rules.” Perhaps we say, “I’m not going to commit adultery, I’m just going to click this interesting link and only look for a second.” Or, “I know God wants me to give to the church, but this month I need a new sports car and he wants me to be happy!”

I like to call it “The Fine Art of Excuse Making.” Humans are professionals at making excuses to justify their sin. Some of those excuses are even based in good motivations, like wanting someone to feel loved. There are lots of reasons for our excuse making, but most of them boil down to pride. We think we know better than God.

If we really want to live a successful life, we need to follow the entire Word of God. Don’t believe me? Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at a specific example in the Bible of a very wise person who thought he could get away with Bending the Rules and see what happened to him. See you then!

Are you good at directions? When was the worst time you ever got lost?

Yesterday I introduced a new series, “The Eternal Secret to Strength and Courage.” Make sure you check out part 1 first!

As was said yesterday, there are three important things we can do to make strength and courage natural.

Remember that God is with Us

The first thing we must do is Remember that God is with us. This thought surrounds verses 5 through 9. In verse 5 we see, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” And then, just in case Joshua forgot, God finishes with the same protective reminder in verse 9, “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Isn’t that amazing? God promises Joshua that He will be with him, always. Imagine  going to the gym to play basketball. It’s a new gym, you don’t really know anyone, and the court is full of guys who are really good. Now, you may not be such a bad player yourself, but these guys are intimidating and you don’t want to be destroyed. As you contemplate whether or not you should play, someone taps you on the shoulder.

You turn around, and there is LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. LeBron says, “hey man, you mind if we play with you?” Now, all of a sudden, you’re probably not too worried about losing your basketball game. Even if you do nothing but walk onto the court, your team will win! Because no matter how big those other players are, no one in a YMCA gym or L.A. Fitness is going to compete with NBA players.

The same is true with God. If we only focus on the challenges ahead of us, they can be daunting. It can be very difficult to be strong and courageous, and that is why it is so important to focus on God and remember that He is on your team. Because it doesn’t matter how big your opposition is, it has no chance of competing with God.

God was with Joshua. If we belong to His people, He is still with us today and will always be with us.

We’re on His team. We cannot lose. Jesus has conquered, and through him, we ourselves are “more than conquerors.”

Practical ways to remember God is with you:
1) When God moves in your life, write it down so you won’t forget. Read these in the hard times.
2) Enjoy the beauty of God’s Creation.
3) Worship God in community with others.
4) Repeatedly fill your mind with His truth by reading God’s Word.
5) When in doubt, look to the cross. Jesus already proved he would never leave us by dying for us and returning to life.
6) Got another idea? Share it in the comments…

Stay tuned for part 3 of “The Eternal Secret to Strength and Courage” tomorrow.

*Photo Credit: Keith Allison

Get ready folks, I’ll be posting every weekday this week! I’m sharing a little mini-series  about being strong and courageous. You don’t want to miss the rest of these, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t done so!

Our Fears

Have you ever been afraid? Maybe you were about to meet someone important, maybe you had to make a public speech, maybe someone you loved was sick, or maybe you had no idea where your next meal would come from.

In the Bible, we find Joshua in a nerve racking position. He just replaced the world’s best religious leader up to that point in history. Talk about some big shoes to fill! As if that weren’t enough, he is about to lead his people in battle against nations who are bigger and stronger than them.

But as we will see in Joshua 1:5-9, Joshua really had no reason to fear, and neither do we today. Before continuing, I encourage you to read Joshua 1:5-9.

Be Strong and Courageous

In these verses, God gives Joshua a personal charge. It is a bit of a pep talk for his new leader. The main idea God is conveying to Joshua here is very clear, and is even said three times: “Be strong and courageous.”

This is a very simple command, but at the same time we don’t exactly have a courage switch that we can turn on whenever we want to be brave. Naturally, that courage switch can be even harder to find when you are you are looking into a country full of giants you are supposed to conquer.

As people, we almost always need more info than to just “be” something. “Be good,” “be joyful,” “be strong and courageous!” OK, all of those things are great, but how do I actually be those things?!

Do I close my eyes and clinch my fists and chant three times, “I think I can?”

Do I purchase a pair of PF Flyers, the shoes guaranteed to make kids run faster and jump higher?

Fortunately, in this passage, God tells Joshua exactly how to be strong and courageous. These three principles are eternal, and they apply to us today as much as they applied to Joshua. In fact, if we do these three things we won’t even have to try to be strong and courageous.

Strength and courage will happen naturally. 

Interested in learning those three things? Stay tuned for the rest of this week(subscribing is the best way!)

In the meantime, what are you afraid of?

*Image Credit: US Army

Welcome to Part 4 of the mini-series on explaining the Gospel!
Part 1 introduced the series,
Part 2 answered why we need the gospel,
Part 3 explained what the gospel does to save us,
and today we will understand how the gospel is applied to us.

As was stated last week, we are saved through faith (not to be confused with by faith). In other words, it is the means through which salvation is applied to us. Therefore, we need an adequate definition of what faith actually is.

The Dictionary defines faith like this: “confidence or trust in a person or thing.”

That is a decent definition, but I think it is incomplete. Let me explain.

A few years ago I went to New Zealand and had an incredible time. One of my best memories was bungee jumping off the Kawarau Bridge. The bridge is 43 meters (141 feet) above a river and the location of the world’s first commercial bungee jump.

Bungee jumping was a life dream of mine, so I seized the opportunity. As I got strapped in, I overheard one of the workers telling a nervous jumper that in 20 years, no one has died jumping. “Of course no one has died,” I thought, “these bungees are perfectly safe. Otherwise, they could never run a business!”

Free Falling

Everyone who jumped ahead of me was visibly nervous. Some wanted to walk away, but eventually they all jumped. When it was my turn, I naturally wanted to prove my manliness by not showing any traces of fear.

When I looked over the edge, however, my manliness forgot to show up. I was terrified. The entire canyon seemed to shift and grow both wider and deeper. All of a sudden, my faith in the “perfectly safe” bungee came into question. “What if my feet slipped? What if the tension is off? What if a crocodile jumps out of the river like in that youtube video?!”

You see, faith is more than just having confidence or trust in something or someone. True faith consists of dependency on that particular thing or person. Sure, I had “faith” the bungee cord would keep me safe when I was standing on the sidelines, but it was a different story when I stood on the edge of the bridge.

When I actually jumped, I put my faith into practice and literally depended on the rope to save me. The same is true about faith in Christ. We are not called to simply stand on the sidelines and believe he has power to save. We are called to depend on him for our salvation and to live our lives in that dependency. We must recognize that our chances of saving ourselves for eternity are equal to my chances of bungee jumping without a rope and then flying out of the canyon in my own power. We simply cannot save ourselves through our own power!

There is one reason I will dwell with God in eternity, and it has nothing to do with me. Doing good works cannot pull me out of the canyon! Only the good work of Christ can. He pulled me out of the wreckage of my sin, and now I have new life in Him.

As exciting as bungee jumping was, a life with Christ is even better.

The Adventure starts with faith.

Next week, we will seek to understand how we live our lives in light of our faith.

Last week we talked about why we need the Gospel. We established the very serious problem of sin: it destroys us and rends our relationship with God. The Gospel is our only hope of resolving this problem, and today we will look at how the Gospel hope is actualized.

2 Common Errors:

When trying to understand or explain the Gospel, there are two mistakes that people often make. Both can be corrected with a proper understanding of Ephesians 2:8-9.

You're odds of saving yourself are less than lifting this mountain with your hands

1) I am saved from my sin by good works: Almost all religions endorse this view. If you want to be made right with God, you must do good works. If you do enough good works, God will forgive you and restore you into relationship with Him.  This means you get to go to Heaven!

Unfortunately, this belief is not Biblical and not true. As Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If we want to be made right with God, then we must be perfect. 1 sin in an entire lifetime ruins the relationship, and no amount of good works can return you to perfection. Ephesians 2:9 clears this up, your salvation is “not a result of works.”

The good news: pressure relief! We can stop worrying about following every rule and being good, because it won’t help our case! The bad (or maybe good) news: We can do nothing to save ourselves!

2) I am saved by my faith: This mistake may seem picky, but it has important implications. Most of the time, when someone asks how you are saved, we respond “by faith.” This, however, is not true.
We are not saved by faith, we are saved by grace through faith. So what does that mean?

Grace, by definition, is a free and unmerited gift. This means that Jesus saves us. His death and resurrection is a free gift he gave to us, even though we do not deserve it. At the risk of sounding repeatedly repitious, our faith does not save us. Jesus’s gift saves us.

Why Did Jesus Need to Die?

Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” Because of my sin and your sin, we deserve death. This may seem harsh, but it reflects the horrible nature of sin. God could not have simply ignored our sin. He is a just God, and will never overlook sin without bringing it to justice. The price for sin had to be paid, either by ourselves or by a worthy substitute.

Jesus, God’s son, is the only person who could fulfill the role of substitute. God, desiring to restore the relationship between himself and man, chose to send His son to die in our place. If Jesus had sinned, he could not have taken our sin upon himself in death because he himself would have deserved death. But he did not sin, and therefore he could die in our place, taking the punishment we deserved upon himself. There is a big word for this, “propitiation,” and it simply means that Jesus was our substitute and died in our place.

If Jesus did not die, our faith would get us nowhere. His gift alone saved us from our sins.

So What’s the Point of Faith?

The death of Christ does not cover the sins of everyone, however. It only covers the sins of those who, through faith, accept the gift of grace he gave. Faith, then, has a pivotal and essential role. It is the means through which we receive the salvation God gave us. We do not receive the gift of God through works, but through faith alone.

Next week, we will take a deeper look at faith and seek to understand what it truly means to believe in God.