Walking With Jesus

Are You Clinging to the Cross?

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’” (Mark 10:21 NKJV)

There’s a story that Mark shares in chapter 10 about a man who came running up to Jesus, knelt before Him and asked: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s a question a lot of people are asking today: “What must I do?” The question behind the question is essentially: “How can I earn or deserve my place in heaven?”

Today the question is framed a little differently, but it’s the same message: “How can I live in a way that will reward me with all the riches of this world, all the pleasures, all the advantages, all the excesses, and still give me my rightful place in heaven.” And the premise behind the question is: “Because I’m a good person and I deserve the best of everything!”

Let’s notice some things about the Biblical account (Mark 10:17-21) First, the young man knew who Jesus was. Second, the man who came to Jesus was Biblically literate – he knew the Commandments. Third, he was disciplined – he’d kept the Commandments, at least in his mind. Fourth, he was, from all outward appearances, a genuinely good human being. Fifth, Jesus loved Him. Sixth, he was very wealthy. Seventh, he ultimately decided to love his wealth more than Jesus. What’s my point?

He’s the average church-going American. A lot of folks today want Jesus, they just don’t want to change the way they’re living. In short, they don’t want to pick up their cross and follow Him. What does it mean to “take up the cross?” What did it mean for Jesus?

It meant utter denial of all He wanted in favor of all God, His Heavenly Father, wanted. A few chapters later, in Mark 14:36 Jesus prayed: “’Abba, Father,’ He cried out, ‘everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from Me.’” What “cup of suffering?” His betrayal, mocking, beating, torture that would have killed the average man before they ever made it to the Cross. He was human and in the shadow of the Cross even Jesus wanted a way out. But, unlike the rich young man, Jesus didn’t turn and walk away.

John MacArthur wrote: “The cross is proof of both the immense love of God and the profound wickedness of sin.”

Jesus boldly confessed His desire to please His Father above Himself, praying: “Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.” Self-denial and sacrifice are the ways of the cross. We may not be commanded to sell all we have, but we, nonetheless, are directed to treat it as if it’s garbage compared with the all-encompassing majesty and glory of our Savior.

The “cross” to us is choosing Jesus – His will, His way, His glory, His honor – above and before – our will, our way, our glory, our honor! In light of the privilege of being called a child of God we reckon all things in comparison worthless.

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8-9: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.”

So, by God’s grace and with His help, I’m clinging to that old rugged Cross. How about you?

Blessings, Ed 😊

Self-Worth and Net-Worth

“Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you. See, I have tattooed your name upon my palm”(Isaiah 49:15-16 TLB)

One of the reasons a lot of people miss Jesus is because they’re too busy trying to make a name for themselves. They’re so consumed with the drive to make more so they can get more so they, at least in their own eyes, can be more, they bypass their need of the only One whose opinion of them matters.

Somewhere along the way we’ve gotten our significance mixed up with our net-worth, believing if we have wealth and prestige we can impress others and feel good about ourselves. Our value becomes tied to our bottom line. How differently the Lord sees us.

One of my favorite Christmas movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life” with James Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. James Stewart plays the part of a young man with big dreams. All he can think about is getting an education so he can shake the dust of Bedford Falls off his shoes and never look back. He wants to travel the world and build sky-scrapers and bridges so he can have a sense of accomplishment so he can feel his life matters.

As it turns out, he marries a local girl and takes over the Building and Loan that his father had started. He stays in Bedford Falls, has children, and builds a good life. At one point, due to no fault of his own, his Building and Loan comes up short a lot of money, so he decides his life is worth more dead than alive, but he’s given a gift from God of the ability to see what life in Bedford Falls would have been like if he’d never been born. His eyes are opened to the reality of how “rich” he really was.

That’s what needs to happen in a lot of our hearts, minds, and eyes today. God doesn’t make mistakes and every person who is born has value and infinite worth in the eyes of God. If we’re alive we have purpose, which gives value, not only to our lives, but the lives of those we love and whose lives ours touches.

In my life, though I’ve never made very much money, by God’s grace I’ve had a very “rich” life. I’ve seen poverty and experienced the joy that comes despite how much money I have or the worldly possessions I’ve accumulated. At the end of life on earth all the money in the world won’t help anyone miss hell, only Jesus can do that.

Rick Warren wrote: “One of the reasons people can’t relax is that they confuse their work and their worth. They confuse their net worth with their self-worth. They think, ‘If I work really hard and succeed at work, then I am valuable. If I’m not productive, then I’m not valuable.’ That’s a lie! But in Western culture, our identity often revolves around our work, so we overwork in an attempt to prove ourselves. We believe that if we achieve a lot, then we must be worth a lot. But your significance has nothing to do with your job, your career, or your achievements.”

In an effort to feel validated we often seek to make ourselves look better than we are, somehow hoping to gain glory and honor for ourselves. We crave the praise of men, ignoring our need to give honor and glory to God. But as Andy Stanley said: “Your glory is too small a thing to live for.”

If you’re seeking to find value and worth in the things of this world, whether material, relational, or otherwise, hoping they will make you feel better about yourself, it’s like becoming an alcoholic hoping to dull the pain of life, it’s only going to lead to self-destruction.

The only way to realize our worth is to contemplate the beauty, majesty, and riches of the One who designed and created us. He knows us best and loves us most. His plans are to give us a future and a hope, not to have us work ourselves to death for the trinkets of this world.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Leaving a Hole?

“Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” (Romans 13:8 NLT)

As followers of the Lord Jesus, when we die it’s expected that we should leave an emptiness in the hearts and lives of those whom we love and who love us. But what about our neighbors and friends? “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a commandment which, according to Jesus, is equally important to loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. What’s my point?

Loving God, for all intent and purpose, is valueless unless and until our love for Him translates into love for others. Years ago I heard someone ask a question that haunted me as a pastor, and haunts me today as it relates to those in my spheres of influence. They asked: “If your church was to close it’s doors, would anyone in the neighborhood of your church miss it?”

If the church I attend now would close it would be devastating to not only the surrounding neighborhoods, but to Las Vegas, the West, and on many levels, the world. But I’m not so sure about some of the churches I pastored and which I have attended.

It causes me to think about my life and the people whose lives I am touching. There are at least two aspects of this issue of leaving a “hole.” First, as it relates to your family and loved ones, don’t leave a hole of doubt as to whether you loved them. Say it every day, often. But do more than say it – live it! Be available, not just physically present, but emotionally attentive. As my precious wife will sometimes say: “Listen to me with your whole face!”

Related to that, be fiscally responsible. Don’t leave your family with a mountain of debt, but not the means to pay it. If you can’t afford to buy something and have enough investments and/or life insurance to cover your debt in the event of your death, you probably shouldn’t buy whatever it is.

But secondly, loving your family is a given, but your neighbors and friends are another story. I want my neighbors to miss me when I move away, whether to another location on earth or to heaven. And please hear my heart. I don’t expect to endear myself to every neighbor as I do to my family, but I do want them to miss the fact that I pray for them every day; that they have someone to turn to in a crisis; that I’ve been helpful to them in practical ways; but most importantly, I want my absence to bring to their mind the presence of the One I loved and about whom I talked with them and sought to reflect His image.

A lot of folks are concerned about their legacy, in terms of what they’re going to leave their family and others. But to me, money or material things pale in comparison to the fact that people know you loved and cared for them. You can leave a legacy, but not a “hole,” at least not in the way I’m thinking about it.

You’ve likely heard the expression: “When they left (either by death or separation) it was like my heart was torn out.” That’s the way I felt when my first wife left. There was definitely a “hole” in my heart and life without her. But it was a hole of regret for all I could have done and been but wasn’t.

The “hole” I want to leave is a vacuum only Jesus can fill. On a much smaller scale, it’s similar to when Jesus was preparing to leave and He comforted His disciples with the assurance that His place with them would be filled by His Holy Spirit.

I’m not suggesting that I’m Jesus, but I would love it if when I die, the Holy Spirit would comfort, encourage, empower, and enable my loved ones and friends to recognize that the “hole” that my absence leaves is being filled by God’s Spirit. And as they remember me, His presence with them reminds them of how dependent they need to be on the Holy Spirit. And how full of joy, peace, kindness, and love they are, reflected in their love for others because of the example I lived before them.

I’m not there yet, but I believe that’s what my sister’s homegoing brings to my mind, and, by God’s grace, I’m hopeful I make a lot more headway in that direction before He calls me home.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When Clarity is Called for

“There are many different languages in the world, and every language has meaning. But if I don’t understand a language, I will be a foreigner to someone who speaks it, and the one who speaks it will be a foreigner to me.” (1 Corinthians 14:10-11 NLT)

Having been on 3 mission’s trips to other countries, I know first-hand the frustration caused by not knowing the native language of the person with whom I’m trying to speak. I remember sitting with three little girls trying to communicate. I had my English/Spanish dictionary, but every time I tried to say a word in Spanish all these little girls could do was laugh. Laughter became our “common” language.

But I’ve also been engaged in conversations with people who speak fluent English but have trouble understanding my “Christianeze.” (“refers to the contained terms and jargon used within many of the branches and denominations of Christianity as a functional system of religious terminology.” Wikipedia).

It doesn’t take long to learn the particular lingo of a given group of Jesus followers. We get so accustomed to speaking about “Jesus, the Father, grace, fellowship, salvation, sin, the Word, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity” and on and on that we wrongly assume the average unchurched person on the street will know what we’re talking about. But many of those words are lost on them. They don’t have a clue how they apply to their life.

Dr. Eric Mason rightly noted: “Just because you explained something to someone one time, doesn’t mean they got it! Clarity demands patience and relationship!” That’s why the most effective evangelism (yep, there’s one of those words 😊) grows out of relationship. When we take the time to nurture a friendship, people are more likely to let you know what they’re “hearing” and what they understand and what they don’t.

Sometimes in our zeal we can come across as confrontational, almost angry, which can lead to arguments. Someone told me a long time ago that no one is ever argued into heaven. I agree. But the fact remains that when we’re trying to help someone understand that they’re a sinner, separated from God and headed to a Christless eternity, it may not set well with them.

Keith Green, whom I learned to love and appreciate when I was a teenager in the 60’s said: “I’ve never tried to be controversial. The truth is controversial enough.” Keith was a young man on fire for Jesus who died much too soon. But his point is well taken. The Truth (Jesus) can be controversial, thus the reason for time and patience, to give rise to other opportunities to bring clarity.

There’s a young man I met when my wife and I were looking to buy something for our house. He was personable, knowledgeable, and just the kind of person I’d enjoy getting to know. So, I offered him a proposition: “If I buy this item from you, will you go to dinner with me so I can speak with you about Jesus?” He said “yes,” and that has led to multiple lunches and dinners together.

It’s been almost two years since we met and he’s still not a believer, but I continue to pray for him and reach out to him in order to bring more clarity to his understanding of who Jesus is and why it’s so critical that he understand who He is and why He came. Obviously, insight and true understanding of Jesus is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Our words are simply conduits for the Holy Spirit to speak into a person’s life.

So, clarity, in it’s deepest and best sense, will only come to us and flow through us as we continually seek it in prayer. Prayer is the language of heaven and is the only avenue anyone gains enough clarity to say “yes” to Jesus and open their heart, mind, soul, and strength to Him.

Blessings, Ed 😊

God’s Most Loving Words

“Some people brought to Him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘Be encouraged, My child! Your sins are forgiven.’” (Matthew 9:2 NLT)

If you’re a Jesus follower, do you remember the first time He told you your sins were forgiven? On some levels those words have had more impact on my heart and mind than hearing words of love and compassion. Why is that? Because His love is offered to everyone without exception, but His forgiveness is contingent upon our response to His love, not necessarily our words, but by the attitude of our heart.

In the verse above, the paralyzed man didn’t ask Jesus for forgiveness, at least not with words, but in a way that only Jesus can, He saw in the faith of this man’s friends such love for their friend, Jesus offered forgiveness to the man. Which causes me to wonder. What if, like so many I’ve met in my lifetime, there are those who might never ask for the Lord’s forgiveness?

It’s easy not to feel deserving of forgiveness, from a friend, and certainly not from God. “After how badly I messed up? I can’t forgive myself, let alone expect forgiveness from God!” I’ve felt that way and I suspect you have too. Perhaps that’s why “forgiveness” is one of God’s most loving words.

Another application of that same thought is for us to forgive someone when they’ve purposely and deliberately hurt us. In some ways it’s more liberating for us when we forgive someone than when we are forgiven. It’s like we have our hands around someone’s neck, choking the life out of them with our hatred and unforgiving spirit, but by God’s grace and with the power of His Spirit, we release our grip and forego our “right” to hate, and instead offer forgiveness.

Another loving word that we rarely like to hear is “no!” How many times have we begged God to give us something we thought would be so good for us to have? To spare my loved one! To save my marriage! To save my job or other source of income! To let me have that house, apartment, car, relationship – the list is virtually endless of things for which we’ve asked God and His answer was “no!”

“How is that loving?” you may wonder. Often, regardless of the specific request, God’s answer of “no” leads us down a path we would never have chosen for ourselves, yet one that reaps so much blessing it’s hard to imagine why we wouldn’t have desired it for ourselves. Time is a gift the Lord gives us to help us put things into proper perspective and to give us insight into what He’s known since before the beginning of time.

That’s why trust is such a critical element in our walk with Jesus. We’re so often blinded to what’s best for us, but God sees our journey from start to finish, and He has insight into what’s best for us in ways we could never figure out on our own.

Photo by mohamed abdelghaffar on Pexels.com

Another word with which we wrestle in our walk with Jesus is “wait!” We’re often like the red-faced toddler holding their breath in an effort to make us let them have their way. Stomping their feet or shrieking their displeasure. How childish we can be with our heavenly Father, who, gratefully, never loses His “cool.” He loves us far too much to let us have our way sometimes. If we’ll allow it, waiting for God’s answer can be some of the most important and beneficial times in our lives.

Patience is a virtue that is never developed instantly, it must be learned over time. God in His loving mercy offers us the opportunity to be yoked with Him, not to see how fast we can run, but to see how carefully we can listen. Often, in our haste, we misinterpret or misunderstand the loving words our Savior speaks, not because we don’t hear them, but because we don’t want to obey them.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Seeing Things Imperfectly (Part 2)

“So all of us who have had the veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT)

Based on what I wrote in yesterday’s post, someone may conclude that everything we believe is up for grabs, but that isn’t what I said and is certainly not the “takeaway” I wanted anyone to get. Every human being is imperfect and defiled by sin. The only exception is Jesus. And because He is an exception, He alone was able to pay the penalty for our sin and remove from the “faces” of those who choose to put their trust in Him, the veil of ignorance that hardened our heart to the truth of who Jesus is and what He accomplished on the Cross.

The Bible is clear on many things, especially regarding who Jesus is, what He came to accomplish, and what faith and trust in Him can enable us to become to His honor and fame. Yes, of course, there are points of doctrine on which we may disagree, but the vast majority of Scripture allows us to see clearly what we need to believe and have full confidence in the Bible’s authority and accuracy.

Even in the early years of the Church there were misunderstandings and false teachers who were leading people to believe wrong things, thus the reason the Apostles created this early creed as a guide and guard to the basic doctrines of faith that would keep us grounded in our faith in Christ.

“I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, descended into hell, rose again from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, who will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” *Note “holy catholic Church” has reference to the Church Universal comprised of all those who have been born again by faith in the Lord Jesus. It does not have reference to the Roman Catholic Church)

The goal of our faith in Christ is intimacy with the Father made possible by trust in what Jesus did on the Cross in our place. In John 14 Jesus explained that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. (14:16) Why is that important? Because if we lose sight of who Jesus is – God in human flesh – we can more easily be sidetracked by variations of belief about Jesus that range anywhere from a good teacher, to a misinformed lunatic.

Only God has the power and authority to defeat Satan and to free us from our bondage to sin. Without full trust and confidence in the fact that Jesus is God, it casts shadows of doubt on His virgin birth, His sinless life, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension back to heaven where He continues to bear intercession for the saints (us).

The more clearly we see Jesus, the more closeness we’ll enjoy with His Father, who is now, by faith, OUR Father. We also, because of who Jesus is, are given the Holy Spirit who teaches us, leads us, informs our daily decisions, and empowers us to overcome sin, walk faithfully in obedience to His directives, and share the Good News of His life, death, resurrection, and ascension with those who now walk in darkness, the same darkness out of which we’ve been delivered.

Yes, of course we see things imperfectly now, but the longer we walk with Jesus the clearer the truth of who He is and what He desires of us becomes, and the more certainty we can have in the authority of Scripture and the glorious end He will bring to those who know and love Him.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Seeing Things Imperfectly

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT)

As long as we’re in this human body there are things we’ll never understand. Yes, of course, God gives some people higher IQ’s and greater measures of understanding and insight, but no human being, regardless of how intelligent they are, can know the mind of God or why He does or allows things to happen as they do. Realizing this helps me to come to some personal conclusions.

First, everyone is flawed in their understanding of the Bible. We do the best we can with what we’ve got but estimates of the number of denominations within Christianity in the world today range from 4500 – 40,000. What does that say? Even professing believers have issues with one another, but beyond that, it shouts that our misunderstanding of Scripture is very divisive, which breaks the heart of God.

Second, ultimately we only have a couple of choices as to what we personally believe: we can take someone else’s views as our own – i.e. a respected theologian, of whom there are hundreds, or we can read and study the Bible and draw our own conclusions. The likelihood is that we will do some combination of those two, but the end result is the same – we’ll have an imperfect understanding.

Why is that important to understand? Mainly, since we’re all in the same boat, we need to offer grace to those with whom we disagree. I believe we’re all going to gasp at the simple truths of Scripture that we misunderstood or missed all together.

Thirdly, we’ve got to stop making excuses for God, based on our inability to understand His heart, mind, and actions completely. There are things we won’t ever understand until we get to the other side. Things like why God allows suffering, especially of children and other “innocents.” Why people who love God and have such a bright future die so young? Why so much division within the Body of Christ? There are hundreds of questions that arise for which we don’t have definitive answers, but there comes a point where we just must admit: “I don’t know the answer to that!”

Related to that, God will often give us answers to questions that satisfy us but may not satisfy someone else. I’m content in my own mind and heart to realize that God does and or allows some things that I don’t understand, but I can continue to love and serve Him without a definitive answer. Why? Because He’s God and I’m not. I’m very limited in my ability to see and understand things, God is not. I’m finite and earthbound, God is not.

God gives insight and understanding to some from whom we can learn and gain insight, but only to the extent it aligns with God’s Word, the Bible. But it’s interesting to me that different ones can read the same Books of the Bible or verses within a given book and come to completely opposite conclusions, each giving assurance that their conclusions came directly from God. For example, end times.

A pastor I respect and appreciate did a series on the subject of the Millennium. He explained that there are those who are premillenial, postmillenial, amillenial, then he said there are also those who are promillenial, which means they’re for whatever God decides to do. But his personal position was that he was a panmillenialist. He then explained that he believed it would all “pan” out in the end.

While that may seem to some to take a very important theological issue too lightly, the reality is, we don’t know for sure what God’s going to do, yet we allow our differing views to blind us to our need to love and accept those with whom we disagree.

Yes, of course, as you’ve been taught and because of your personal study you’ve come to conclusions that you firmly believe, and I applaud that. But don’t let your certainty on an issue drive a wedge between you and a brother or sister in Christ who is just as certain that you’re wrong and they’re right.

I’m content to believe that about which the Lord gives me certainty, but I will not argue with anyone who disagrees, because the fact of it is, we’re only expressing our opinions based on our imperfect earthbound understanding.

Let’s look at this from another angle in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Reason or Revelation?

“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10 NLT)

Do you have money or does money have you? And please don’t misunderstand, you may not have a lot of money, but if the goal of your life is to pursue wealth apart from a saving knowledge of Jesus, you’re wasting your life. The purpose of wealth isn’t greed, it’s generosity, and whatever level of wealth He allows, it’s His, not yours to do with as you please.

According to Jesus, the goal of our life as a believer is to “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” That doesn’t necessarily mean He won’t allow us to have more than enough money, but, as a rule, He gives more to those He knows He can trust to use it wisely.

Jesus said in Luke 12:21: “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” The closer our walk with Jesus the more open our heart should be to share with others, whether with time, money, or anything else He gives us. Everything we have is a gift from God, and to hoard it for ourselves is to misunderstand the purpose for which it was given.

So, what does all this talk about money have to do with “Reason or Revelation?” Quite a lot, actually. In Luke 21 we gain insight into the heart of Jesus as He watches people put their offerings in the collection box. Seeing that Jesus is watching, many rich put in more than they might otherwise have given in an effort to impress Him. But what draws His attention is a poor widow who gives everything she has to live on.

What if that poor widow had come to you and asked: “Friend, all I have are these two small coins to live on this month, but God has laid it on my heart to put them in the offering. What do you think I should do?” What would you tell her? Would you use reason to conclude she was making a foolish mistake? Or would you trust her revelation that God spoke, and she should do what God has directed her to do?

Shortly after my divorce I was literally penniless, but someone had given me ten dollars. I was sitting in church, listening to a missionary tell of their work on foreign soil, sharing the great need that the people he was serving had. My plan was to use that ten dollars to get myself something to eat after church, but I decided to put it in the offering. I’d love to tell you that I had a revelation to give that money and I gave it in obedience to the Lord, but the truth is, I was hoping He would see my faith and have someone at church slip me a $20 on the way out of church.

He saw right through my “scheme,” so I went hungry that night, but I learned a valuable lesson. I learned that when I have a need, whether for money, food, or anything else, I just need to trust Him to provide it and He will. “Yeh,” you might be thinking, “but He didn’t provide a meal for you.” No, He didn’t, but He gave me something far more valuable. He gave me a peek into my own heart, putting on full display my own greed and selfishness, enabling me to see clearly that Jesus isn’t our proverbial “genie in a bottle” who provides our every whim just because we think we need it.

God, our heavenly Father, desires faithfulness from us that builds character that allows us to follow His will and desires ahead of our own. Reason is inadequate to understand the heart of God. Only revelation will give us insight into why He gave His only Son for sinful and selfish human beings. And only revelation will enable us to understand what He desires us to do with the wealth He has provided.

One thing I know with certainty: when He gives us an insight or understanding about something we should do, say, or think, the only reasonable thing to do is obey Him.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Where Is Your Hope?

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” (Jeremiah 17:7 NLT)

In what do you have confidence? Confidence is a rare commodity in the world in which we live. To have confidence in something or someone is to place our trust in it/them. Though we exercise trust everyday in multiple ways, we sometimes still struggle trusting God. Why is that?

We get out of bed every morning with full confidence that when our feet hit the floor, the floor will hold us up. We walk confidently across that floor in the comfort of our home, in whose heating/AC system we have trusted to keep us warm/cool throughout the night. We get the sniffles, so we call the doctor, who prescribes medication we often know very little about, yet take it with confidence it will make us feel better.

The list is virtually endless of the things in which we place our trust, yet we’re so often reluctant to put our full confidence in God, on whose sustaining grace we rely, often without giving it a thought. When has He failed to provide the air with which we fill our lungs? When has the sun ever failed to rise? When have the seasons ever failed to change? When has He ever failed to walk with us, especially when we didn’t know He was there?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Jeremiah wrote in the verse above: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord…” The word translated “trust” in this verse means “to feel safe; to be careless; to have confidence.” “Careless” is the word used in the Strong’s Concordance, but it doesn’t mean what we commonly understand it to mean in today’s vernacular. It means exactly what it says: to care less! To be less and less troubled be the concerns of the day. But why? Certainly not because we have less cares.

It’s teaching us that to the extent we care less about the issues we face from day to day and instead place our trust and confidence in the Lord, to that extent our hope in Jesus becomes more visible. “Hope” here means “trust, confidence, security; act of confiding, object of confidence, refuge.”

William Gouge wrote: “Where there is no hope, there is no faith.” Our hope is an act of faith. Faith, according to the writer of the Hebrew letter, is: “…the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Faith makes what we hope for visible in our mind and heart before it is revealed to our physical eyes.

The reality is, we don’t hope IN God, our hope IS God! Notice what Jeremiah said: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” Faith leads to trust, and trust leads to hope and confidence. What’s the implication? If you’re having issues allowing the Lord to be your Confidant and go-to Friend for every detail of your life; if rather than running to the Lord and relying on Him to give you full confidence that He’s got your future, you’re wasting time worrying and fretting about all the things you see in the news, over which you have “0” control, where is your hope?

Our hope in the Lord can’t exist without faith, that leads to trust, that leads to placing our full confidence for our present and future into the hands of our ever-capable, all-knowing, all-loving, ever-present Savior, who alone is worthy of our worship and devotion of every fiber of our being.

To not trust Jesus with every detail of our lives is to deny the hope that only He can give, not only in this life, but the next.

Blessings, Ed 😊

You Can’t Teach Character

“The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and He sustains everything by the mighty power of His command. When He had cleansed us from our sins, He sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3 NLT)

Like so many dimensions of our walk with Jesus, our character as a believer isn’t so much taught as “caught.” What does that mean? It means the longer you hang out with Jesus, the more you’ll begin to act like Him, picking up details of His person that can’t be learned by reading words about Him.

The word translated in the above verse “character” is the Greek word “khar-ak-tare,” and it’s literal meaning is: “a mark or figure burned in or stamped on, an impression; the exact expression (the image) of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect.” (Strong’s) What does that mean in laymen’s terms? It means Jesus is God in human form, and if we hope to attain a godly character it can only come from God.

Further, it means the more time we spend with Jesus the more exact an impression of Him will be “burned” or “stamped” onto our character, into our being. We don’t simply learn Christlikeness, we experience it, we ingest it, so much so the Holy Spirit can actually begin to model it in and through our own character.

It should be no secret that if Christ infills and lives in us, the longer we walk with Him the more freedom He has to manifest His presence in and through us. The implication being, the longer we walk with Jesus, the more mature our faith becomes, the more our life should reflect His character. Chuck Colson wrote: “You can’t teach character; you learn it by associating with virtuous people.”

So, the logical question then becomes: “who are the virtuous people with whom I should associate?” Paul gives us insight in 1 Corinthians 15: 33-34: “Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for ‘bad company corrupts good character.’ Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.”

The context of these verses is a reference to those who deny that there is a resurrection, of Jesus or anyone else. Thus, for our purposes, anyone who denies the truth of Scripture. But again, the context suggests that Paul is writing to and referring here to professing believers. He is not directing us to not associate with unbelievers who hold and speak beliefs that contradict what the Bible teaches. We must do that if we hope to win them to Jesus.

This will likely take some discernment but be careful who you trust when it comes to your closest friends. My goal is to spend as much time as possible with those in and through whom I see and sense God’s holy presence. However, I’m also committed to walking with new believers and those who aren’t yet saved. So, what’s the answer? Balance.

Being guided by the Holy Spirit in every decision we make, let Him direct when and with whom we’re to invest our time and energy. The implication of something being “caught” is that in order to “catch” character from someone else, you must spend time with them. But the same principle applies to those with whom we need to spend time who need to catch godly character from God’s Spirit within us.

Of course, it’s God’s character we desire, not only to “catch” from others, but to allow the Lord to enable others to “catch” from us. But the main way to gain Christlike character is to spend as much time as possible alone with Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊