Walking With Jesus

Are You Discouraged?

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (Psalm 34:18 NLT)

Discouragement is Satan’s most effective tool in dealing with those of us who are seeking to follow Jesus. On some levels it’s like a gut punch, you may not even see it coming, but you certainly feel its agonizing effects.

Are you discouraged today? Hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Child of God, in your desperation you are not alone!

Pastor Rick Warren wrote: “Life is filled with unexpected circumstances. Some of them knock you flat on your back! They make you feel like the roof of your life has caved in. What do you do when your world collapses? When the dreaded phone call comes? When the divorce papers arrive? When the bankruptcy is filed? The first question many people ask is, ‘Who cares about me?’”

Are you feeling uncared for today? I assure you on the authority of God’s Word and His powerful Spirit who resides in you child of God, that nothing will prevent Him from comforting, healing, and helping you in your time of need.

There have been seasons of my life when all I wanted to do was die. It seemed I had to look up to see the bottom, but I can bear witness to the truth that the Lord has NEVER FAILED to make His presence known and to lift me with His strong, loving arms to a place of refreshment and restoration. It’s ironic that we so quickly forget that Satan is a liar. Just as God will never speak a lie, Satan is incapable of speaking truth, yet, in our downtrodden condition we so quickly fall for Satan’s lies.

He whispers things like: “Where is God when you need Him? You’re worthless! Who are you to believe God will do anything for you? If you’re so close to God, why does He allow you to feel like you do?” and on and on he goes until, by God’s grace and with His strength we respond by acknowledging our dependence upon our heavenly Father by shouting in our spirit: “I’m a child of God! God will never leave me nor forsake me; He’s a very present help in my time of need; I walk by faith and not by sight! He will deliver me in His time and in His way, and even while I’m walking through this difficult valley, I am learning things about myself and my Savior that I can learn in no other way!”

It’s in those seasons that it’s so vital that I remember the words of my Father when He says: “I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new.”

Isn’t it wonderful that there are always new things the Lord wants to do and to bring into our lives, regardless of how old we are or how long we’ve walked with Him. God is always about new things, thus the reason He challenges us with discouragement with old things.

Have you noticed that often when we’re discouraged it’s to reveal to us the worthlessness of holding on to old ideas, old methods, old conceptions of God and the old ways He’s worked? God isn’t limited in the ways He can teach us, lead us, equip us, prepare us, and direct us onto paths that are hard at first, but lead to the most beautiful visions of Himself.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Choose Grace

“Then Peter came to Him and asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’ ‘No, not seven times,’ Jesus replied, ‘But seventy times seven!’” (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT)

Like forgiveness, grace is a choice. How so? In the verses above Peter wasn’t questioning the fact of forgiveness, but the frequency; he wasn’t questioning the need to forgive, but the number of times before he could stop forgiving. And what was Jesus’ response? We never reach that number!

In a Family Life article without an author’s name, I read: “Overlooking the same old offenses is tough for a lot of reasons. We tend to think, If you really cared about me, you’d change. Or, This is just a representation of a bigger problem. Sometimes, both of those things have validity. But sometimes our spouses—and we—are just profoundly human.

Sometimes, we’re keeping a tally and creating a culture in our homes that demands perfection rather than gushing grace. We’re keeping that record of wrongs because it feeds that slight superiority over our spouse, gives us a reason to guard that grudge, or hands us just cause to keep our spouse at arm’s length.

But the world runs on giving us what we deserve, on insisting we perform in order to be loved. Our homes could be different. What would it look like to choose grace? To choose patience, tenderness? To let it go? Leave some wiggle room for each other, some warmth around the edges. Make your family a place of refuge from conditional love.”

It occurs to me to ask: “What if Jesus had set a limit on His grace? What if instead of loving the world, He chose to love only Jews or only those who are really kind or only those of His skin color, nationality or preference, or…?” What if Jesus had arbitrarily drawn the proverbial line in the sand and decided “this many and no more!” and you were the next in line after the last one was chosen?

To seek to limit grace is to cease to be like Jesus. When I’m honest I have to admit I don’t deserve to be forgiven or invited into His holy presence; I’ve done nothing deserving of being treated like a child of the King. Yet, He continues to forgive and forget, freeing me to take another step in the direction of His likeness.

How dare us to not forgive others when we’ve been lavished with such undeniable love and grace! Philip Yancey wrote: “I doubt God keeps track of how many arguments we win; God may indeed keep track of how well we love.” It’s simple to say, “Love as we’ve been loved; forgive as we’ve been forgiven,” but that’s the essence of the golden rule.

Jesus has set the example – in loving, sacrificing, forgiving, caring, helping, and in every other category with which we’ll ever be faced. John Stonestreet often says: “Choices have consequences. Bad choices have victims.” How many in our families, among our friends, and in our spheres of influence are victims of our bad choices.

Bob Kauflin said: “To worship God is to humble everything about ourselves and exalt everything about him.” How better to exalt Jesus in our worship of Him than by choosing to extend grace rather than condemnation, anger, and shame. Offering grace is a choice. It’s a choice Jesus chose and the choice I want to always choose. Why? Because I want my life to be a living sacrifice to God as an expression of my love and dependence upon Him, illustrated by the way I forgive and treat others. That can only be accomplished by choosing grace.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Holiness Lives

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.” (Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT)

Having been saved, trained, and served in a holiness tradition, I’ve seen many manifestations of holiness, both genuine and counterfeit. For some it’s such a high and exalted state of spiritual maturity that they dismiss it as impossible, while others embrace it, yet, like the Pharisees of old, distort it into something God never intended it to be.

The simplest way for me to understand it is to see it as the process of sanctification. Just as salvation is a process, so is sanctification or growing in holiness. The Bible teaches that we are saved (past tense, are being saved (present tense), and will one day be saved (future tense). That’s true of sanctification as well.

When we accept the free gift of God and receive Christ Jesus as Savior, we are saved, but we are also given the fullness of the Holy Spirit and begin the process of being sanctified. Sanctification and holiness are derived from the same Greek root word and mean to be set apart for sacred use or purpose.

Like salvation, sanctification/holiness is a joint venture between us and God. There’s a sense in which when we’re saved, we’re given all of God, being cleansed and purified by His Holy Spirit. We stand before God pure and sinless as God views us through the robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness. Our right standing with God is all because of Jesus and His sacrifice in our place and on our behalf, and that will never change. Jesus will always be the initiator and finisher of our faith.

But ideally, when our hearts are filled with hope, peace, and rest, our minds are motivated to make what we are in God’s sight, in ever increasing measure, the reality of who we are, how we live, and treat others. The longer we walk with Jesus the more closely our lives should resemble His. That’s sanctification in a nutshell.

Just as Jesus gave visibility to the invisible God, our lives should give visibility and credence to our profession of faith in Jesus. How so? In how we think, speak, and live. Nancy Leigh DeMoss wrote: “True holiness isn’t cold and deadening—it’s warm and inviting. It’s irresistible. Those who think otherwise have never seen it, but only its caricatures.”

In the verses following the ones above, Paul outlines numerous practical ways our holiness should become visible. For example, stop lying, don’t let sin allow your anger to get out of control, stop stealing, find a job and make your life productive. Then in chapter five Paul writes: “Live a life filled with love…let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among God’s people…”

What’s my point? Simply this, holiness, how God sets us apart for His sacred use, reveals its life in and through us in visible means that should be attractive and inviting, not demeaning and haughty, pushing others away. We should give evidence of God’s rulership in us and over us through our kindness, thoughtfulness, patience, gentleness, politeness, warmth, and love. In short, by allowing the fruit of the Spirit to be made manifest in and through every avenue of our lives.

Will we ever be perfect like Jesus? Not in this life, but the longer we live and love Jesus the more fully His Spirit’s power and presence should be evidenced in our lives. William Gurnall wrote: “Pray not only against the power of sin, but for the power of holiness also.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

“Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king.” (Joshua 8:1 NLT)

When are you most likely to be discouraged? It’s ironic, but many of us are most likely to get discouraged after some kind of high point or spiritual victory. Sounds crazy, but that’s how Satan works.

In the chapters preceding the verse above, Joshua and the army of Israel had annihilated the city of Jericho after following the Lord’s instructions, but in the very next battle they got badly beaten by a much smaller army. But why? Because they’d disobeyed the Lord’s directives!

Photo by Miroslav Stau0161evskij on Pexels.com

That seems to be a pattern in our lives as well. We have a mountain top experience, then, because we’re feeling spiritually “invincible” we cut corners. “I don’t need my devotions today, the Lord is feeling so close,” or “I think I’ll go out with my lost friends rather than attend church, so I can witness to them,” never stopping to consider, that’s the time we’re MOST vulnerable to Satan’s attack.

The hours after our “defeat” are critical. Like Joshua, we’re feeling powerless and exposed to the enemy. We wonder about our fitness to fight the army we’re facing, but thankfully, the Lord knows exactly how we feel, why we feel that way, and what needs to happen to put us back on track.

The Lord gave Joshua a strategy for winning the battle with the same army that had beaten them so soundly just hours earlier. I believe the Lord does a similar thing for us. Discouragement is a master at debilitating us and causing us to believe, not only that we’ll lose the battle, but we should actually run in the opposite direction before the battle begins.

The Lord’s strategy was to hold back a portion of the Israelites army, by letting them hide from the enemy in the back of the city, while the other portion of their army feigned fear and fled before the attacking army as their enemy left their city vulnerable, thus allowing the rest of the Israelites to attack and capture the city with relative ease.

What’s the lesson for us? First, defeating discouragement is a “team” effort. Alone we are too at risk of doing something stupid. Our feelings are not trustworthy, but ironically, sound most believable in our weakened state. The reality is, God will supply the right person(s) to walk with us through our “battle,” but it may not be who we would normally go to, or who might normally make themselves available to help us. Why would the Lord do that?

Largely because we’re not the only ones who need to see a victory in our lives. Though the whole army of Israel didn’t personally experience the defeat firsthand, they all experienced low morale and a weakened desire to put themselves at risk for another defeat. That’s why God’s strategy, whatever that may look like in our case, needs to be followed to the letter.

In a community of faith, we rarely fall or fail without our brothers and sisters feeling our pain. In any healthy family there are those who know us well and willingly offer to walk with us through our season of discouragement. The kicker is, too often we’re not in a place where we’re smart enough to accept their help. That’s why we can’t trust our feelings when we’re discouraged.

After many bouts with discouragement the Lord has given me three rules of thumb: first, don’t trust your feelings, second, don’t allow yourself to isolate, and third, stick to God’s plan. You need friends and loved ones to walk with you. Entrust yourself to the Lord and a faithful few you can trust with whatever you’re feeling and whatever is causing you to feel that way.

God always has a strategy if you’re willing to see it and follow it without giving up!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Do You Measure Yourself?

“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:8-10 NLT)

Have you ever met someone who was full of themselves? Perhaps they made a lot of money, had a nice house, car, or other material things, a prestigious position that gave them access to powerful people, and a part of you found yourself thinking: “Wow! What I would give to be that guy!”

When you measured yourself with that person, you found yourself falling very short, but why? What if you measured that same guy with Jesus? What if you measured yourself with Jesus? Yes, of course, you’d still fall short, but the beauty of measuring ourselves with Jesus, He’s never trying to “out-do” us, He’s always seeking to pull us up, to be better than we can be ourselves, to enable us to be more useful to Him and to His eternal Kingdom, thus far more than we ever dared dream we could be.

Discouragement is the breeding ground for greed, lust, pride, envy, covetousness, and a host of other negative attitudes that Satan uses to destroy our effectiveness for the Lord. If the enemy can keep us focused on what we don’t have or what we can’t do, or can’t be, or can’t have, he’s got us exactly where he wants us to be – useless for the Kingdom of God.

On the other hand, if we allow the Holy Spirit to continually teach us God’s Word, affirming us in the Spirit and enabling us to see beyond who or what we are, to who or what we can become in Christ, there’s no limit to what God can do for, in, and through us to His honor and fame.

Early in my ministry I would often wonder why God didn’t gift and equip me like that speaker or that teacher or why couldn’t I pray like that Pastor? I hadn’t yet realized that God will never make us like anyone else, because we can be of value to the Kingdom only when we allow Him to make us the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.

The closer I get to Jesus the more my heart longs to be like Him, to love like Him, serve like Him, pray like Him, and allow Him to so fill and use me that He gets all the credit for my life. No longer do I long to be like anyone else but Jesus. The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon said: “Let us measure ourselves by our Master, and not by our fellow-servants: then pride will be impossible.” Why would pride be impossible?

Largely because pride seeks to build us up and make much of ourselves in the eyes of others. Measuring ourselves by our Master keeps our eyes on Him, thus desiring nothing except honor, glory, and recognition for Him. The closer we get to Jesus the less recognition, honor, fame, and glory we desire for ourselves and the more we desire to stay in His holy shadow.

If you’re discouraged today because you don’t feel you’ve gotten the breaks you deserved or the prestige or recognition your contribution to the Kingdom of God deserves, your focus is on the wrong person. One thing I’ve learned in my long life is this: all I want is to be at the feet of Jesus, rendering to Him the glory and honor He deserves, and to wait patiently for the words that will mean everything to me from the lips of my Master: “Well done My good and faithful servant!”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Myths We Believe

“Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teaching that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.” (1 Timothy 4:1-2 NLT)

Life is hard for a believer. Every morning I pray for those who are living every second under the threat of persecution and death. They have no promise that this won’t be their last day in their house, with their family, on this earth, yet they persist with undeniable confidence that they are God’s child and whatever happens to them is inconsequential compared to knowing, loving, and standing strong in Jesus.

For us in America and other places on the earth where living for Jesus doesn’t put us in the literal “crosshairs” of those who hate even the thought of Jesus and His Church, we often mistake hardship or “bearing our Cross” for someone taking our parking spot at church or cutting in front of us in the Starbuck’s line.

On many levels we have no concept of what persecution or sacrificing for the cause of Christ really looks like. We believe “myths” or “lies” that give us confidence in a false Jesus who indulges our every whim and protects us against every threat.

For example, we believe in a “fairy tale” marriage. C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity wrote: “People get from books the idea that if you have married the right person you may expect to go on ‘being in love’ forever. As a result, when they find they are not, they think this proves they have made a mistake and are entitled to a change. The sort of thrill a boy has at the first idea of flying will not go on when he has joined the R.A.F. and is really learning to fly. The thrill you feel on first seeing some delightful place dies away when you really go to live there.”

Just as in marriage our relationship with Jesus may begin with a lot of emotion. We hear verses that teach that He will “never leave me or forsake me,” and wrongly believe that that means we’ll never lose the strong emotional connection that we felt when life in Christ was new. But that verse and others like it aren’t given to keep us on the proverbial “mountain top,” they’re given to sustain us in the valley.

Janel Breitenstein, in a Family Life devotional, wrote: “Your lack of stomach flip-flops isn’t a sign you’ve got the wrong kind of marriage. Life on this side of heaven will inevitably leave us hungry. (Not even a relationship with God provides endless butterflies and happy-hormones.) This world is a prescription for faithfulness and perseverance, preparing us for a world we can’t see. So set aside some of the emotion—and buckle down for a far more rewarding level of devotion.”

When we believe the Lord desires everyone who follows Him to be rich in the trinkets of this world, we believe a lie from the lips of Satan himself. On my first mission’s trip I met believers whose life expectancy was early 40’s, largely because of poor nutrition caused by their annual income of only about $400 a year. Yet, I could literally tell who loved Jesus by their countenance.

Meeting these brothers and sisters gave me insight into what loving Jesus should really mean and helped me curb my insatiable appetite for the things of this world. It also taught me that love for Jesus doesn’t result in an ever present emotional high, any more than marriage or any other love relationship.

Loving Jesus, like marriage, is a decision to love regardless of the “curves” life throws us, realizing that whether He blesses us with a new Mercedes or whispers His love as we’re turning in the car we can no longer afford, His love never changes and every circumstance He allows in our lives is meant to draw us ever more closely to Him, not to diminish our trust, but to build our trust in Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Ready?

“And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ dies once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him. Hebrews 9:27-28 NLT)

Readiness is an issue with which we must deal in virtually every stage of our life. As children our “readiness” is mostly our parents’ responsibility, but as we age and begin assuming more responsibility for ourselves, our lives can become very complicated. “Are you ready yet?” may be a resounding echo of our parent’s voice or our siblings, our spouse, our employer, and on and on it goes.

“Are you ready?” can stir our heart and mind as we prepare for a part in a play, a test at school, get ready for our first date, as we try out for a sports team, apply for a job, as we contemplate marriage, as we invite our first child into the world, as we anticipate the death of a family member or friend, or even as we come to the end of a relationship.

Ron Hutchcraft said: “If our dreams reflect our fears, then there must be this fear deep down inside of many of us that we won’t be ready when an important moment comes.” And while some of those moments generate more anxiety and fear than others, none should concern us more than readiness to meet Jesus at the end of our time on this earth.

It sometimes occurs to me that for everything we do there will come a last time to do it. Things as simple as opening or closing the refrigerator door, picking up the mail, or driving a car, to kissing our spouse or hugging our child for the last time. Part of the irony is, we never know when we do those things if that will be the last time. And while all those kinds of things will happen while we’re still alive, none of them will matter as much as whether we’re ready to meet Jesus when we take our last breath.

Ron Hutchcraft continued: “So, the moment you take your last breath, there’s God. Earth appointments? They can be postponed. They can be canceled, but God has this one in indelible ink in His calendar. The One who gave you your life is the One you will meet at the end of your life. The question the Bible raises is, ‘Are you prepared?’ You say, ‘Well, yeah, I’m a good person.’ Unfortunately, that doesn’t answer the question.”

Since becoming a Jesus follower I’ve asked dozens of people: “If you were to stand before God and He was to ask you ‘Why should I let you into my perfect heaven?’ what would you say?” Do you know what the vast majority say? Some version of “because I’m a good person.” Do you want to know the sad truth? Most of them were good in many ways! But our personal goodness is not the criterion upon which entrance into heaven is based.

Acts 4:11-12 reminds us: “For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Each of us has an unavoidable appointment with God. Each of us will stand alone before the King of kings and Lord of lords to give an account of our life. What does that mean? It primarily means “What have we done with Jesus?” Did we receive the gift of eternal life that only He offers? Or did we try to find another way, like trusting in our own goodness or our adherence to some religion?

If you aren’t certain that Jesus is your Lord, that He has forgiven your sins and filled you with His Holy Spirit, please click this link to Ron Hutchcraft’s Bridge to God. It’s the only way to be ready to meet Him when you die!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed

What Kind of Christian Are You?

“If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.” (2 John 10-11 NLT)

There are those in our churches and who attend our gatherings who not only don’t believe the Truth of God’s Word, they are radically opposed to it, and I say, “Praise the Lord!” Where else will they learn the Truth? However, when they become “evangelistic” in spreading their lies, it’s time to take action.

Alistair Begg wrote: “The Word of God is the means employed by the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ.” Only the Holy Spirit can penetrate the barriers sin has erected in our heart that keep us from God, from learning His holy Word, and from applying His Truth to our lives. No one anywhere in any time has or will know everything the Bible teaches except the Lord Jesus Himself.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Every believe is lacking when it comes to the knowledge of God’s Word. But having said that, it should encourage us to a life-long mission to learn as much as we possibly can and apply it rightly to our lives.

It doesn’t take long when we’re talking with someone about the Christian Faith to find areas of disagreement. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Very likely both parties are lacking in one area or another.

Preston Perry made an interesting observation when he wrote: “Judgmental Christians have a lack of understanding of God’s grace. Which is why they should be given grace even more.” Just because someone has walked with the Lord a long time doesn’t in and of itself make them more knowledgeable or a better “Christian.”

Anytime we try to more sharply define “Christian” we lessen it and cheapen it. How so? Anytime we add a descriptive term such as “carnal,” “fully committed,” “Spirit-filled,” “growing,” “backslidden,” “Calvinist,” “Wesleyan,” “Armenian,” “Baptist,” “Pentecostal,” or any of a thousand other denomination “tags,” we’re driving a wedge between believers.

The early church knew none of those divisive “titles,” and the Church grew quickly and harmoniously. Yes, of course they had their issues, but nothing to be compared with what we have to deal with today. Bob Goff nailed it when he said: “We won’t be distracted by comparison if we are captivated with purpose.”

Having traveled to other countries and made new friends who are believers, I’ve never been asked about what kind of Christian I am. We embraced one another in love recognizing we all belonged to the same Christ. That’s one of the things I love about the family of God I’m a part of now. We don’t talk about titles or tags, we accept and welcome one another based on our mutual love, acceptance of and mission for our only risen Savior. Jesus IS our unity!

Corky Calhoun wrote: “There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and humility is the filter.” We’re sinners saved by grace – period, end of story! But I’m not naïve. Just as there were in the first century, we have rascals who seek to infiltrate and divide churches today. Hello! That’s how Satan works, but God gives His people who are filled with His Spirit discernment that enables them to recognize and deal with heresy. However, heresy isn’t what someone says or does that violates what we believe, it’s what they do or say that violates God’s Word.

Please, I know this is a sensitive subject, but even in light of all the bad press the term “Christian” receives, can we just decide that our oneness is in Christ alone, by faith alone, and let our titles die a quick and painless death?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Habitat Rule

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)

Do you know how to love? I’m an old man and I still mess up at love nearly every day. Love isn’t unilateral, in the sense that we can love everyone the same way. Sometimes love demands that we speak up, but at other times it means to be quiet. There are times love looks like being proactive and other times when it means doing nothing. Sometimes love looks like standing our ground and fighting with every ounce of energy we possess, but other times it demands we walk away.

So, I’ll ask again: “Do you know how to love?” Would you agree love is a long-term process that has a sometimes very long learning curve? In a Family Life devotional I read by Ben McGuire, he wrote: “We have a rule in our house: ‘The Habitat Rule.’ As long as the bugs or pests stay in their natural habitat, they live. But once they cross that line between nature and our home, they become a threat or a nuisance, and they die a swift, merciless death.”

And you may be thinking, as I did when I first read those words: “How on earth could that possibly relate to anything related to spiritual growth and development?” But then he said: “In moments of stubbornness or fragility, I can erect those same kinds of barriers in my marriage. As long as my wife stays outside my established perimeter, we’re good. But if she violates the threshold with uninvited personal questions, constructive criticism, or helpful correction, she crosses over into the category of threat or nuisance.

The last thing I need, though, is for her to remain distant. As much as I might try to push her away, I need her to press into my heart. Obviously, she is no cockroach. God created us for intimacy on all levels, especially in our marriage. My wife knows me better than any person on this earth. She sees me at my worst and doesn’t ever give up … because she loves me. It’s out of love that she is willing to risk crossing my sometimes-well-fortified perimeter, to risk being hurt by me.

It’s because I know she loves me that I should tear down my defenses and invite her in. ‘The Habitat Rule’ will keep your house insect or rodent free. But it will kill your marriage.” It can also kill other relationships.

As believers it’s important that we set boundaries, how else can we guard our purity of heart, mind, soul, and body? But love sometimes has to cross a barrier that someone has built to keep us out, in order to share with them the truth of the Gospel.

Jesus crossed a lot of “boundaries” the Pharisees and others had built to protect their “religion,” and we too often do the same thing in an effort to protect what we believe is truth. However, there can be a very thin line between “protecting our beliefs” and closing the door to new revelation that God is trying to teach us. Just because someone doesn’t believe exactly like us doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong.

Yes, of course, there are things people believe with all their heart that are clearly wrong, so if what they believe, and that which they’re trying to convince us to believe, doesn’t coincide with the truth of Scripture and the Truth of who Jesus is and taught, our love for God demands that we eradicate it from our belief system as quickly as we’d kill a rat that gets into our house. But we must still love the one who holds that wrong belief just as Jesus loves us in our quest for Truth.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When Grace Wins

“So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14 NLT)

There are several words with only a one letter difference, but none so graphic for a believer as grace and grave! Apart from Jesus the grave is a terrifying prospect. To leave this life without Jesus is to enter an eternity of misery and suffering separated from the light and life of our only Redeemer.

Five times in the book of Revelation separation from God is described as being “cast into the lake of fire.” Think of the pain of burning your finger by touching a hot surface, yet that’s only one of several ways of describing the agony and torment of being separated from God with no recourse, no hope of ever being with Him again.

The grave holds no fear for those who have yielded their life and allegiance to Jesus, but for those who have no relationship with Him, their “hell” begins long before their last breath leaves their body. Having walked with the Lord for many years I can’t imagine the Lord Jesus not being with me. His grace, mercy, kindness, and goodness are so much a part of my daily living that the thought of not having Him in my life is literally terrifying.

Please, I implore you, if you don’t yet have a personal love relationship with the God of the Bible through faith in Jesus alone, by faith alone, please click the highlighted link and learn how you can begin your walk with Jesus today, before it’s eternally too late. Click on Ron Hutchcraft’s Bridge to God.

Another set of words that is closely akin to grace and grave are fail and fall. One thing that is common to every believer, regardless of when they lived, is failure. No one except Jesus has ever traveled flawlessly in their walk with God, yet, because of God’s grace, failure doesn’t have to be final. While none of us likes to fail in our walk with God, since it’s common to each of us, often the most healing aspect of failure is confession, not only to God, but to each other.

May I assure you, based on the authority of God’s Word, the Bible, regardless of how far you’ve fallen, God’s Holy presence is never far from you. The only sin that’s unforgivable is the sin for which no forgiveness is asked. You haven’t fallen so far that the hand of Jesus can’t reach you. Though you may not believe you’re worthy of forgiveness, and I assure you, like me, you’re not, Jesus died for you and His blood is able to cleanse you and free you from the guilt and shame of every sin.

A few weekends ago I attended a Men’s Retreat in the California mountains. It was a beautiful setting for an enjoyable time together with Christian brothers from several states and churches. We enjoyed wonderful times of worship together in one large group and in many smaller group settings.

On Saturday evening at the end of our worship time, one of the Pastors explained that as a rule men keep secret from others about 10% of things with which they struggle. We may confess to God the things that haunt us – the pornography, lust, greed, pride, unfaithfulness, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, envy, drugs, alcohol, and many other things that seek to debilitate us in our walk with God – but we’re very hesitant to confess those things to one another, as the Scriptures instruct us to do.

An invitation was given for men to come to one of the men standing in front of the chapel for the express purpose of confessing the 10% that was holding them back. After dozens of men came forward to confess and pray with another brother, we all went together to an amphitheater where there was a firepit in the center. We worshipped and shared communion together. It was among the most celebratory and moving moments of my life.

Please don’t rob yourself of an opportunity to be free of what’s holding you back in your faith. Find a brother, if you’re a man, or a sister, if you’re a woman, confess to one another, then pray for one another as James 5:16 directs, and be healed. It’s a beautiful thing when we let Jesus crush Satan and He enables us to let grace win!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊