Walking With Jesus

Raising Kids in a Secular Age

*This vital message by John Stonestreet of the Colson Center is too timely and good not to share. Please read it carefully and prayerfully, especially if you’re a parent or grandparent. Blessings, Ed 😊

Talking with kids about controversial topics has always been a challenge for parents, but today, the stakes are especially high. With an increasing number of kids who have been secretly “transitioned” by public school staff or who have adopted LGBTQ identities thanks to online influences, parents must know how to navigate tainted cultural waters that are flooding the worldviews of the younger generations.

Opting for alternatives to public education like homeschool  or private Christian schooling is a good start. But it can’t stop there. A 2022 study found that of 57,000 undergrads from 159 of the nation’s most elite postsecondary institutions, homeschooled and private schooled kids “are as or more likely to identify as LGBTQ or non-binary as those from public or private school backgrounds.”

In other words, it’s not enough to insulate children from bad ideas, especially when insulation is accompanied by silence on issues our kids are hearing about all the time from the wider world. Of course, many parents remain silent because they simply do not know how to think about everything. And yet, as a recent Gospel Coalition article noted, silence on these issues undermines Christian formation.

On the one hand, we could unintentionally communicate that God doesn’t care about our sexuality. If we never tell our children that God says a clear ‘no’ to same-sex sexual relationships, we could leave them to conclude that Christians can just follow their hearts. …

On the other hand, our silence could accidentally communicate that sexuality is too shameful to discuss. They might conclude that God wants nothing to do with it because it’s dirty, or that God isn’t interested in saving their friends who identify as LGBT[Q].

This is the same risk churches carry when they never address cultural issues from fear of backlash for being “too political.” But when bad ideas are everywhere, the church, much like parents, must have a response. Scripture is not lacking for real direction in real time and neither should the shepherds of Christian faith be.

A better approach than insulating kids is to inoculate them. The “inoculation” approach welcomes hard questions, encourages students to think and search for the truth, and helps them learn what it takes to find answers that are both thorough and thoughtful. The goal is to equip students how to handle bad ideas, harmful practices, and sinful behaviors, knowing that they will inevitably encounter these things in an increasingly secular culture.

In the 1950s, researcher Dr. William McGuire suggested bad ideas operate much like viruses do, and the more exposure one has to bad ideas in a controlled setting, the less likely they are to succumb to those ideas later. McGuire performed a series of experiments in which he tried to convince subjects of a lie, specifically that brushing their teeth was bad for them. Unsurprisingly, those who received no preparation for what they were about to hear were more easily convinced to stop brushing, while those who had been warned they were going to hear a bad argument were harder to deceive.

More surprising were those found to be easiest and hardest to dupe. The most vulnerable were not those with zero preparation, but those who’d merely had the truth reinforced. They had been told things like, “You know brushing your teeth is good for you, right? You’ve been taught this since you were little. Trust us.” When they heard arguments against brushing their teeth that they’d never heard before, this group felt sheltered and even deceived.

The least vulnerable were those who had not only been warned about bad arguments they’d hear but were also taught how to respond. In fact, they were warned they may face additional bad arguments. In other words, they were prepared to be aware and vigilant.

This experiment demonstrates that the method many Christian parents and churches use to pass on the faith, reinforcement without seriously countering ideas, is doomed to fail. In fact, it may leave young people more vulnerable to lies. We need to equip our kids to think for themselves.

This requires courage. It also requires confidence that the truth is, well, true, and that answers can be found. The good news is that we live in an age of answers, in which most issues have not only been thoroughly addressed from a Christian worldview but are widely available.

Andrew and Christian Walker take this approach in their new book What Do I Say When…? This is a book from a mom and dad doing it right, committed to helping their children come to a solid faith in Christ. To receive a copy, give a gift of any amount to the Colson Center during the month of October. Visit colsoncenter.org/october.

Are You a Grace Graduate?

“The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33 NLT)

What is the greatest evidence in your life of the presence of God’s grace? For me it’s the fact of my salvation in Christ alone by faith alone. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8a: “God saved you by His grace when you believed.” But grace doesn’t end at the point of salvation. In a very real sense, that’s only the beginning of God’s great work of grace in our lives.

Check out this definition of “grace” in Strong’s Concordance: “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ” and that’s the one with which most of us are so familiar. But listen to the rest of the definition: He turns us to Christ, but then grace continues it’s work as the Lord “keeps, strengthens, increases them (us) in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them (us) to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

Some people I’ve met over the years seem to have the mistaken notion that they no longer need God’s grace. It’s as if their attitude becomes: “Okay Lord, You can back off now, I’ve got this!” It’s like a toddler believing they can ride their tricycle on the freeway – “It ain’t happenin’!” There’s not a second of our life – with or without Christ – that we’re not completely dependent upon the kindness and favor of God to survive.

Paul David Tripp wrote: “It’s wonderful that God’s grace never grows weary or runs out because, this side of eternity, no one is a grace graduate.” God’s grace sustains us in the best of times, but most necessarily, when times aren’t so good. And the odd thing about how we tend to think, we often miss the reality of God’s kindness, mercy, and grace until the crisis has passed.

In the fire, we’re so busy (and distracted) by the seeming constant pressures of the current crisis, we miss the nurse’s gentle, calm, kind voice, or the doctor’s smile, or the close friend’s quiet presence. Remember when the Lord instructed Elijah to stand before Him on the mountain? “And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Eliah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”

God often speaks more “in the whisper” than in the turbulence of our circumstances, but like trying to carry on a conversation in a noisy restaurant, we too often miss what the Lord is seeking to say to us. The grace of God fine tunes His voice to our spiritual “ears” and speaks words of life, health, guidance, strength, wisdom, calm assurance, and whatever else we might need, into our life.

When you consider it seriously, there’s not one second of our existence we’re not utterly and completely dependent upon God’s grace for every detail of our lives. We’re not only saved by grace, our very being is sustained by grace. To get a picture of what that might look like, pick up a sizeable rock and extend your arm as you hold it in your hand. Then, as quickly as you can, pull your hand out from under the rock. What happens to the rock? The same thing that would happen to your life without the sustaining grace of God.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Faith and Repentance

“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.” (Hebrews 6:1 NLT)

While faith and repentance are fundamental to our understanding of how to respond to the Gospel, they are like the “milk” of our walk with Jesus, we never outgrow our need of them.

In the early stages of our Christian faith, we struggle with lots of issues that require we change our mind about them. That’s basically what repentance is – a change of mind brought about by a change of heart that longs to be more like Jesus. But a change of mind must lead to a change of direction, thus, the need for faith.

At its core faith is a conviction of the truth of something. That conviction is what allows the door of our heart to open to the Holy Spirit in the first place. Faith stretches our mind and heart to allow the Lord to do things in and through us that we’d previously never dared believe were possible. That’s why it’s an ongoing process.

Joe Holland gives us insight into why this is so important when he wrote: “Faith is being honest with ourselves about God. Repentance is being honest with God about ourselves.” Honesty requires we see ourselves with a clear mind and open, obedient heart. If we can’t be honest with ourselves about God, we’ll likely never be honest with God about ourselves.

We must want to change (repent) before the Lord will enable us to activate the faith it will take to move in the directions we need to move as a new believer. On some levels faith is like walking in the darkness when all you have is a lantern. The Psalmist reminds us: “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” A “lamp,” not a floodlight, typically providing light for only one step at a time.

As a rule, the Lord doesn’t give us a map of His whole strategy when He calls us. I think of Abraham when the Lord told him he was to become the father of a great nation. He was an old man, married to an old woman. Imagine the questions that must have flooded their minds? Like “That’s impossible!” Yes, exactly, like many plans the Lord has for us – impossible without faith and a willingness to repent – change the way we think about certain things.

What is it in your life today the Lord is asking you to believe Him to accomplish in and/or through you that seems utterly impossible? Healing? Salvation for a lost loved one? A new step of faith that may entail a move to a different location, perhaps a new Culture? Regardless of your age or station in life, never underestimate what God can do through a willing vessel.

Faith and repentance are lifelong avenues of greater development in and dependence upon the Lord Jesus. Faith challenges us to believe the impossible and repentance is often the avenue upon which we learn to wrap our mind around new thoughts or ideas that guide us in the walking out of those impossible plans God has called us into.

The adventure of faith is what keeps my heart alive and longing for more – more of Jesus, more faith to see Him more clearly, and more willingness to change my mind to conform my thoughts to His.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why We Work

“But Jesus replied, ‘My Father is always working, and so am I.’” (John 5:17 NLT)

Work is a gift and a privilege, not only giving us a means of making a living, but an avenue of witness for our Savior we too often ignore or underplay. Work existed in the Garden before sin entered the picture and was never intended to be punishment, but to give us a sense of fulfillment. Work is an honorable means of not only being productive but giving visibility to our faith and dependence upon our Lord.

David Jeremiah wrote: “Our attitude and our actions in the workplace are a witness to the people who watch us. We must guard our work ethic so that people won’t say negative things about our Lord. Work heartily at whatever you do for Christ’s sake. There are no little jobs when the Lord is giving the assignment!” (See Turning Point In the Workforce -09-16-24)

From my pre-teen years until this moment, I’ve sought to be productive by being invested in some type of work. Some I have thoroughly enjoyed, as in this season of my life, and some were painful and pure agony, but without exception the Lord has used whatever work I’ve done to build my character and to, hopefully, honor and exalt Himself.

On some levels work is like school, in the sense we can meet those with whom we may become life-long friends. Of course, as a Jesus follower it’s critical that we not only build friendships and working relationships but earn what we’re paid. “Lazy” and “Christian” should never be used in the same sentence. Neither should “gossip” and “Christian” ever be used together in reference to someone who genuinely loves Jesus.

It’s been said that someone who will talk about someone else TO you, will talk about YOU to others. Gossip is an evil, no-win game to play and has no part in a believer’s life; however, and I admit there can be a thin line here, if you’re a supervisor or otherwise a person in authority, those under you or your employees may need to let you know of genuine concerns with their co-workers.

Another consideration regarding work is highlighted in this comment by David Platt: “The gospel brings significant meaning to the seemingly mundane and provides a supreme purpose for every employee and employer on the planet.” We can get very frustrated when we think the work we’re doing is “beneath” us, that somehow the Lord has made a big mistake putting us in “THIS” job, or with “THIS” person.

One of the boldest and bravest acts of service ever carried out in the Scriptures, other than Jesus’ allowing Himself to be hung on a tree, dying a criminal’s death, is described in Luke 7: “When a certain immoral woman from that city heard He (Jesus) was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind Him at His feet, weeping. Her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing His feet and putting perfume on them.”

In light of what Jesus has done as He completed His “work” on our behalf, we dare not see any act of service, whether in our work or otherwise, as below us, or feel we are “too good” for “that!” Jesus was the only perfect human being to ever live and if He didn’t think He was too good to hang exposed on a cross to pay the penalty for my sin, you’d better believe there’s NOTHING I wouldn’t do for Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Loving Truth

“Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your word, which is truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give Myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by Your truth.” (John 17:17-19 NLT)

Truth isn’t as obscure as many would like to make it out to be. There is truth and there is error; there is truth and there is falsehood; there is truth and there are lies; there are those who speak truth, but there is only One embodiment of Truth.

I love what Dr. William Barclay wrote about this: “Moral truth cannot be conveyed solely in words; it must be conveyed in example. And that is precisely where the greatest human teacher must fall down. No teacher has ever embodied the truth he taught—except Jesus. Many a man could say: ‘I have taught you the truth.’ Only Jesus could say: ‘I am the Truth.’ The tremendous thing about Jesus is not simply that the statement of moral perfection finds its peak in him; it is that the fact of moral perfection finds its realization in him.”^[1]

“The Path of Truth” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

When Jesus prayed for His Disciples in John 17, notice some parallels with how He prays for us today. He asked the Father to “Make them holy by Your truth.” The term used that we translate “holy” is the same word from which comes our English word “sanctification.” It basically means to be set apart for sacred purpose or use.

It’s important that we understand our role in the service of our Master. It’s never to hide ourselves away, it’s to be set in the midst of life! “Where the action is” was where kids in my generation wanted to be. For us as Jesus followers, it’s where His heart is, out among the people who need Him most. He sends us “into the world,” He doesn’t hide us from the world.

By His holiness, the presence of His Holy Spirit living in us, we are equipped with the qualities of mind, heart, and character essential for the completion of our service in His Name and to His honor. Truth, which is the presence of Jesus, abides with us and lives in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Whatever we need to be everything He’s called us to be is provided by the Holy Spirit, who is our “Parakletos” (par-ak-lay-tos).

The term literally means: “One who is summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid; one who pleads another’s case before a judge, an advocate.” (Strong’s) Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with us in the same sense that Jesus was with the original disciples. It’s the Holy Spirit who teaches us about Jesus, who IS God’s Word to mankind.

To the extent we understand the Bible, to that extent we’re able to see Jesus more clearly. And to the extent we understand who Jesus is and what He accomplished on the Cross, to that extent we understand the meaning and purpose of Truth. To love Truth isn’t to admire a concept or embrace a body of knowledge, it’s to love a Person and be devoted to a Master, in much the same way as the disciples were devoted to Jesus. So much so they were willing to lay down their lives for Him.

The original disciples didn’t simply listen to Jesus’ words, they watched His life in action. Not only how He spoke, but how He lived His life from day to day: loving, serving, healing, motivating, sending, expecting, exalting His Father, worshipping, praying, believing, in short, being everything He died to enable us to become. They were watching and learning from Truth in the flesh – exactly what He desires us to become to His honor and fame today.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

^[1] Barclay, W., ed. (1975). The Gospel of John (Vol. 2, pp. 216–217). Westminster John Knox Press.

When We Lie to Ourselves

“I weep with sorrow, encourage me by Your word. Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing Your instructions.” (Psalm 119:28-29 NLT)

About what do you tend to lie to yourself the most? Do words like: “Just this once.” Or “This will be the last time, Lord, I promise!” sound familiar? Heartache and sorrow usually follow our lies, but, unfortunately, that’s not enough. We lick our wounds, get up determined to be different, only to rewind and repeat. But why?

Satan is a liar. He can’t help it, it’s just who he is. And what he knows best, he teaches best and, to our demise, we’re his best students. Just like Eve and Adam in the Garden, we fall for his lies and seek for the rest of our lives to find a way to take it back, but to no avail.

My mind is too often the devil’s playground, playing back the scenes I remember best, with the most regret. The times my miserable failures have demanded the most painful payment. Why are we such suckers for what we already know is a lie?

It’s no secret chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake taste better than asparagus, cabbage, and raw onions. And cherry pie with some Vanilla Bean ice cream slides down so much easier than a healthy salad, but oh the price we pay over time. If the Lord had only given me wisdom enough to realize what I was doing to my body when I was young was going to cost me dearly when I got old, perhaps things would be different now.

But here’s the kicker – HE DID! Dozens of times in countless ways, but you know what? I lied to myself, thinking “that won’t happen to me!” But it did! Why? Because I believed a lie. And here’s the even bigger kicker – so did many of you. Some of you in your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s are eating yourself to death, but you’re not willing to do anything about it now while you can. Why not?

It might be different if he sat a glass of poison in front of us, but that’s exactly what he’s doing in much of what we eat and drink, just in much smaller doses. Because the lies we’re telling ourselves taste too good or make us feel too good. And the sad truth is, we do the same thing with sin. We watch “that” or listen to “this,” ignoring time in God’s Word, prayer, service, worship, and many other opportunities because “There’ll be time for that!” But that’s a lie…and you know it!

The words of God in Deuteronomy 30 haunt me, as I pray they do you, when He said: “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. This is the key to your life.”

Perhaps some will say or think: “Praise God! I made that decision many years ago!” And I hope you did. I did, but I still continued to believe the lies that caused me to treat that decision as a “spiritual” decision, not a “body, mind, soul, and strength” decision. The truth is we DO become what we eat, for good or ill, and whether or not we like to think of it like this, as your body goes, so goes you and your service to God.

Some refer to Alzheimer’s as Type 3 Diabetes, with the clear implication, I could easily have missed this diagnosis by paying more attention to what I was eating and by taking better care of my body when I was younger. Care of your body through what you eat, drink, and how you exercise is a critical aspect of your loving God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and BODY!

PLEASE stop believing the lies that tell you otherwise!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Doubt

“Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand into the wound in My side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!’” (John 20:27 NLT)

To doubt is to be faithless in the area in which we have doubt and the antidote to doubt is to believe. For Thomas he had to see for himself that what he’d heard about Jesus was the truth. He did and he believed. But what about me and you?

And please understand, we can believe and still have doubt, but in order to maximize our fruitfulness, we need to find closure for our doubt. Why? Because, like Thomas, it can stop us in our tracks until we do. To think we can seriously doubt the Person of Christ Jesus, who He is, what He did, how His life, death, Resurrection, Ascension, and eternal reign in heaven affects us, and still believe we can be effective in our life and witness for Him is not realistic.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

How can we effectively pray for someone if we don’t have full confidence in the One to whom we pray? Can we in good conscience ask the Lord to do something for someone else that we don’t believe He can or will do in our own life? As I’ve told you before, I begged God to save my marriage of 20 years, but He said “no!” Does that mean I can’t trust Him to help others who are struggling in their marriage? Absolutely I can! But how?

Because in order to have saved my marriage He would have had to force my wife against her will to leave the man to whom she was now devoted and come back to me. It was a price she wasn’t willing to pay, and the Lord wasn’t going to force her. God is a gentleman, and He will not force people to do what they’re unwilling to do.

Which is often the cause of “doubt” in the first place. We may have strong faith in some areas, but not so much in others. I have full confidence that Jesus is exactly who the Bible describes Him to be. He’s proven to me in unmistakable ways that He’s all of that and more. But much of my doubt arises, not in my lack of trust in who God is, but in who I am.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in Mark 11:23: “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”

That’s hard sometimes. If you remember the next verse in Mark, Jesus put another “contingency” upon our asking: “But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” Sometimes doubt grows out of conflict or disruptions in our relationships. We don’t have the heart to believe God for something in our life or another’s because we can’t see past the “log in our own eye.”

We want to believe God for the salvation of our co-workers, while we’re secretly hoping He’ll move some of them to another job. Craig Groeschel wrote: “Never let the presence of a storm cause you to doubt the presence of God.” We don’t have to alleviate every “storm” in our lives in order to put our full confidence and trust in the Savior to whom we’ve committed our lives.

For example, I am fully confident that God is actively involved in my neighborhood, not because I’ve got everything together in my life, but because I know He’s a faithful Father who listens to my heart as well as my words.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Can God Trust Me?

“One day Jesus called together His twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then He sent them out…” (Luke 9:1-2a NLT)

Jesus doesn’t give us anything except He intends it to be used to extend His Kingdom and glorify His Father’s Holy Name! Can He trust you to do that for Him?

We can get so balled up in our considerations of whether we can trust God to do this or that. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! If you can’t trust the only perfect person who has ever lived; the One who embodies all Truth, who said of Himself, on the authority of His Father in heaven: “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me,” (John 14:6) who CAN you trust?

The news puppets? Your lost friends at work? What you see on Facebook or other social media internet feeds? The Politicians – ANY of them? And yes, I’m a bit cynical, because when you compare what God’s Word says and what you hear everywhere else, sometimes there’s an enormous difference. Even to the point of wondering: “Who CAN I trust?”

Put the proverbial “shoe” on the other foot for a minute. How’s your track record with Jesus? Mine hasn’t been filled with positive obedience. Sometimes I’ve failed miserably, debilitatingly, crushingly, to the point I was thinking: “How can I even call myself a Christ follower when I would do such a thing! Or think such a thing!”

We’re only “Saints” because of Him, not because of anything we’ve ever done. Which heightens our need to consider the question: “Can God trust me?” As we ask that question there are certainly some considerations.

Think of the first time you trusted your teenager with the family car. With fear and trembling you handed them the keys to a machine that had the power to destroy them and many others, yet you did it! And, for the most part, at least my kids, lived up to their father’s expectations. What happened as a result? Our trust in them increased, but there was a part of them that learned to trust us more as well.

Hopefully, they considered their instructions as we were teaching them; why we emphasized THAT so much, or why we cautioned them about THIS with such seriousness. Think of the ways the Lord is teaching you in this season of your life. What’s He preparing you to do for Him? Where’s He going to send you? Can He trust you to do what He’s asking you to do?

Think of the twelve, their jubilation when they returned from their preaching and healing mission. What was happening? They were rejoicing that the Lord trusted them enough to entrust to them His power and authority to carry out His commands. Was the Lord happy? Reservedly! But why? This was the tip of the proverbial “Iceberg.” He was preparing them for a mission the likes of which they didn’t then have the capacity to understand.

He was training them to become His hands and feet as He launched His Church and put it in their hands. He knew one day soon He wouldn’t be with them, except through His Spirit. Could they handle the pressure? The Stress? The persecution? The demands of leadership in such a hostile environment? Guess what, child of God, that’s the same environment in which He’s entrusted us to serve.

Can He trust US to carry out OUR mission to His honor? We must pray that He can!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What’s MY Cost?

“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?” (Luke 14:28 NLT))

What if, before you committed your life to the Lord Jesus, someone would have sat you down and said to you: “Before you make this commitment, you’ve got to know it will cost you your life! Yes, even your literal life!” Would you have been so quick to jump on board? I hope you would have, but, unfortunately, too many of us wouldn’t have been willing to pay the price then, and many still aren’t.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24? “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. It you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”

Christians through the centuries have been tenacious in holding to their beliefs

Once we truly see and understand who Jesus is, it’s literally a no brainer. My life is worth nothing apart from Jesus. To be able to have the privilege of giving my life for Him is the greatest pleasure and privilege of my existence. “Yeh, but what if you literally had to die for Him?” Oh, you mean like thousands of believers do every year in other parts of our world? Yes, absolutely, without hesitation!

Actually, that’s what we’re expected to do every day – die to ourselves and allow the Lord to live His life out through us. Our life is not our own, but, as Paul wrote, “for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” We’re so quick to dismiss what God has called us to because we want to separate what God wants and what we want, and, unfortunately, that’s a very real problem.

However, when we see what God wants AS what we want, things get a lot easier. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” “But I have to work, take care of the kids, keep the house up, and on and on it goes.” Yes, and what’s your point? Are you telling me you’re a Jesus follower and NOT doing those things to glorify and honor Him?

We’re so prone to compartmentalize our “walk with Jesus.” It’s almost as if we want to treat Jesus like our dog. “Okay, Lord, time for our walk.” Shame on us! We’ve got to see every detail of our lives as belonging to Jesus and everything we do as an act of worship. And, yes, I understand that can crowd out some things we do that aren’t pleasing to Him. EXACTLY!

The more we allow Jesus to be integrated into the very fiber of our lives, there’s no room for sin or anything that’s displeasing to Him. When He’s ruling and reigning over our lives, He doesn’t steer us into sin, but into things that render Him honor, glory, and fame. Life becomes an adventure we never dared dream it could be once we train our “spiritual eye” to focus on letting Him do what He does best – love, direct, rule, and reign in, through, and over our lives.

If your life in Christ isn’t costing you anything you’re not walking with the Jesus of the Bible. Walking with Jesus costs us everything or we don’t understand the price He paid for our redemption. The Lord Jesus didn’t buy us back from sin and shame for us to remain the same. He cleansed, purified, filled, and enabled us to walk as HIS child to accomplish HIS purposes in and through our lives.

If our lives aren’t costing us anything, if they’re not bearing fruit to His glory, we may be attached to the wrong “vine.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Fierce Father

“But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in Me to fall into sin. It would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. (Mark 9:42 NLT)

As a father, especially when my kids were small, one of the things that got the fur on the back of my neck to stand up the fastest, was for someone to put my child in harm’s way or to threaten them in some way. Think of the momma bear who will spare no fury if she feels someone, or something is threatening her babies.

In the verse above, do you know to whom Jesus was referring when He spoke of “these little ones?” You, my friend, He was speaking of YOU! If you’ve put your trust in Jesus and someone is trying to get you to do something you know in your heart is wrong, they’re treading on very thin ice. But what if that “someone” IS you?

How do you think the Lord views the things we allow to stand between us and Him? And, no, I’m not suggesting He’s going to toss us in the sea, but in a very real sense, that’s what we’re doing to ourselves. We’re jumping off a Cruise ship at night in the middle of the ocean without a life-vest. It may take us a while to go down, but the odds aren’t good we’re going to survive.

Do I mean we’re going to lose our salvation? You can’t lose what you never had and the way some professing believers live gives cause to wonder if they ever really knew the Lord. But to the point, we shoot ourselves in the proverbial foot when we dabble in sin and think it won’t affect us. And yes, of course, addictions can be very hard to break, but do they have to be?

Our fierce Father will fight just as powerfully WITH us as He will FOR us. The only way to break an addiction is to put something in its place. We’re creatures of habit, so, we must learn to replace a bad habit with a good one. My addiction to lust wouldn’t go away until I stopped “feeding” it. Otherwise, it’s like putting grass killer on the grass we’re trying to get to grow. We’re defeating our own efforts.

How do you change to a healthy habit? Get help! First, confess your need to Jesus and enlist His help. If you don’t already have a regular time set aside to feed your mind on God’s Word, get it started. But habits, like New Year’s Resolutions, are short lived unless and until you get someone or some others to join you.

I’m a lot more likely to do something if I know someone’s going to be knocking on my door or ringing my phone and asking me why I’m not where I should be or doing what I should be doing. Jeremy Treat wrote: “The Lord is just and joyful. He is a fierce warrior because He is a compassionate Father.” The Lord cuts us a lot of slack when He knows we’re trying hard to be more like Him.

We’re not perfect and won’t be until heaven, but in the meantime, we need to be about our Father’s business. In this season of my life, I have very few distractions because I realize I’m on the “clock,” and it just keeps ticking. Whatever I’m going to allow the Lord to accomplish through me has to be today, because I have no promise of tomorrow.

And if my focus is on doing what pleases and honors the Lord, guess what? I’m not focused on what pleases and honors me! And here’s the bottom line – you’re on the clock, too! Every second you waste dabbling in sin is a second you’ve been unfaithful and unfruitful for your Savior? Is it really worth it?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊