Walking With Jesus

Your Soul Has a Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.” (Psalm 23:1 NLT)

If you’re a Jesus follower your soul has a Shepherd. What does that mean? Why should it matter to us that we have a Shepherd? Why do we need a Shepherd? These and many other questions come to mind as I contemplate the essential nature of our great need to have a loving, kind, and gentle Shepherd.

Sheep may not be the brightest “bulb” in God’s animal pack, but contrary to popular opinion, neither are they completely without intelligence. On some levels the comparison between sheep and people isn’t as far-fetched as we might imagine. Just as sheep need a shepherd to guide and protect them, we as Jesus followers need those things more than we like to realize.

John Piper wrote: “Let it sink in that your soul has a Shepherd. Your soul has an Overseer.” An Overseer, like a shepherd, guards, guides, and protects their “sheep.” Like human beings, sheep can become easily distracted and allow themselves to be separated from the “flock.” It doesn’t really matter how old, big, or strong a sheep is, they’re no match for a lion, bear, or many other would-be predators.

Many of us as believers, especially if we’ve walked with the Lord for a while, are tempted to overestimate our spiritual strength, and too often underestimate the power of our enemy, the devil. When I was in Junior High there was a kid in our neighborhood whose name was Joe. Joe wasn’t dumb, but for whatever reason was a grade or two behind.

He was handsome, dressed nicely, was a good athlete, and well liked, but was bigger than most of his peers and wouldn’t back down from a fight. One day someone grossly underestimated Joe’s skills and challenged him to fight. I didn’t have a stopwatch, but it couldn’t have taken more than 15 seconds for this guy to end up on the ground, drained of any incentive to continue.

That’s the way it is with us when we engage the enemy of our soul. We don’t stand a chance, and the irony is, we don’t have any need to engage any enemy. We only need to be strong in our resolve to let King Jesus fight our battles for us. He’s never lost a battle and never will. What’s more, there’s no one who loves us more and is more than willing to fight our battles for us.

“Yeh,” you might think, “What about His defeat on the Cross?” And I’ll have to admit, things were very dark for a few days, but then Sunday came when King Jesus burst forth from the grave forever defeating sin, death, and the grave. In a very real sense, the Cross wasn’t even a setback, it was simply the strategy God designed before the foundation of the world was laid. His plan all along was for us to find freedom from sin and wholeness in Jesus after He paid the penalty for our sin and purchased for us our place in heaven.

For Satan to challenge us is understandable, until you factor in the Shepherd of our soul. For Satan to challenge King Jesus is like an ant challenging a dinosaur, it’s no contest. We only need to remember that we never have to fight our battles alone when we’re willing to seek the Lord and trust Him to stand with us.

He is ALWAYS with us, but if we aren’t willing to acknowledge His presence and allow Him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, it’s like a sheep wandering from the flock. Please take stock of your position with the Lord Jesus and make sure you haven’t wandered off into enemy territory.

Sometimes I fear we get entangled in battles we could easily win if we’d only remember our soul has a Shepherd.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Does a Child Humble Themselves?

“Then He said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.’” (Matthew 18:3-4 NLT)

The world in which we live can be a very scary and harmful place in which to raise a child, yet, thankfully, when a child has parents who love Jesus and seek to model His behavior in their treatment of their child(ren), there is still hope. Obviously I can’t speak for every child, but I was blessed with children who, when they were small, were obedient, polite, and submissive to their parents’ directives.

Realizing there are strong-willed children and those with behavioral issues who give their parents problems from early on, I ask you to please understand that what I’m sharing is for the purpose of making a point, not describing every child. Also, to Jesus’ point, I believe we need to think of young children in the best sense of being a child.

Think of children who trust their parents, who instinctively run to their parents when they’re hurt or afraid; they’re not demanding of their own way, they obey, are cooperative, and fun to be with. They love their parents, believe their parents can do anything, and they love to play.

It was always interesting when our kids were small, we’d search the world over to find the perfect toy or game, just knowing they were going to love it, only to have them play with the box it came in more than the toy itself. Our kids win our heart before they’re ever born and there’s not much that gets us growling faster than someone messing with our son or daughter.

Jesus’ words seek to move us closer to Hm by encouraging us to be more child-like, not chid-ish. Our default mode is “me first,” but gratefully, with the Holy Spirit’s help and under His guidance, by God’s grace we can repent – change our mind – and turn from our sins, to begin a whole new way of life as God’s child.

It’s ironic in some ways that in my relationship with the Lord Jesus, as I age it’s becoming easier to become childlike. Maybe it’s because I’m losing my mind and I need everything to be very simple these days😊, but I think it’s more than that. If we let them, I believe over time, as we seek to walk more closely with the Lord, our heart mellows and it’s easier to trust Him, to humble ourselves before Him, and to be more mindful of just how much He loves us.

For a child, I don’t think they make a conscious decision to be humble, I believe it’s more the way we’re wired when we’re young. At least when I was young, I listened to my teachers and other adults when they gave me instructions. I realize how scary that sounds in this day and age, but when Jesus was speaking of children in His time, they were fun-loving, playful, and innocent.

If a Pastor or teacher invited a young child today to come and sit on their lap, I’m sure some parents, unless they knew the person well, might have second thoughts about letting them go. And I’m with you, but let’s not lose sight of the point of the illustration. Jesus was not only a Rabbi, He was the only begotten of His Father.

His heart was to listen to His Father and to obey joyfully and without hesitation. Today, as I think of being “childlike,” I think of Jesus in His relationship with His Father. So, perhaps a better way to think of it is, “How do we as followers of Jesus learn to humble ourselves?” We just need to think and act like Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why Grief Is a Gift?

“He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.” (Isaiah 53:3 NLT)

The verse above, at least for me, puts all my grief and pain into a whole new frame of reference. Jesus was the only perfect human being who ever lived – perfect in every way – yet “He was despised and rejected” not only by “them,” but by US! Isaiah reminds us that “we did not care.” I’m not sure how that grabs you, but it breaks my heart. I can understand why people would despise and reject me – or you, but not Jesus!

The word translated “grief” in the verse above can also be translated “sickness or disease.” Especially since Covid 19 we are hypervigilant when it comes to sickness or disease. We wear masks and keep our distance. Why? Because we don’t want to get sick or deal with disease. I find it ironic that the only perfect, sinless, disease-free man to ever live invited our sin-sickness into His life and bore our pain and suffering for our sin on the Cross where we deserved to be.

He literally took our sin upon Himself and bore our hell so we wouldn’t have to. We don’t have the capacity to conceive of the pain and suffering Jesus bore, not only to spare us that “grief,” but to give expression to His love for us. That’s why grief is a gift, it aligns our heart and mind with the Lord’s suffering and reminds us of His great love for us that cost Him so much.

Rick Warren wrote: “Grief is, without a doubt, the most painful emotion we go through in life. It’s also the most helpful emotion. How is grief helpful to you? Grief is God’s tool for you to get through the transitions of life. If you don’t grieve your losses, you get stuck.” Without the gift of grief, we’d get stuck in our pain and heartache; if we don’t grieve our losses in healthy ways it takes its toll on us, not only emotionally, but physically as well.

Think of the people you’ve met who continually replay the loss of their loved one, lost marriage, lost job, lost ___________ (and you can fill in the blank). Loss is an essential component of life on planet earth. It is a near constant reminder that we live in a sin-sick environment that will not – cannot – get better without new life in Christ alone by faith alone.

You’ve likely heard or perhaps said: “Why is God doing this to me? Why is He allowing this heartache, pain, grief, tragedy? If He loves me so much, why is He allowing all this suffering?” What we fail to realize is that without His grace and sustaining presence we’d be unable to bear the consequences of our own sin, not only in death, but in life. Suffering is a result of sin, in which we all participate.

Grief is a gift because it gives us glimpses into the heart of our loving Savior. There’s a sense in which the greater the love we have for a person, the greater our grief when they die. Each heartache, each moment of agony of spirit gives us insight into the heart of God as He grieves our lostness. The agony of heart and spirit for our lost loved ones isn’t comparable to the grief God experiences.

Think about it. What if your child gave their life to save another, but rather than gratitude and expressions of appreciation, they took credit for their own rescue. That’s essentially what we do when we fail to take into consideration the unfathomable price the Lord Jesus paid for our salvation. Grief, in whatever form it comes, gives us insight into how much we’re loved and cherished by our Father.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Who Can You Trust?

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT)

I ended yesterday’s post with a question. We’ll get to the question in a minute, but first we must remember the context. My sense is that we have a lot of “one talent” people in the church, not that that is necessarily bad, but it certainly can be. Especially if the one-talent people do what the one-talent man in Matthew 25 did – he hid his “talent” and did nothing.

The value of understanding that is heightened when you realize the “talent” in the parable was the man’s life, not his earning potential or compilation of things of monetary value. God gives each of us one life that is filled with potential, but if we never uncover what that potential is, we can’t maximize the gift of our life to God’s glory and honor.

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The “10-talent” and the “5-talent” guys in the parable didn’t have 10 or 5 lives, they just had more incentive to maximize their potential. On some levels, each of us has unlimited potential to be and do for God’s Kingdom more than we could ask or imagine, but we’ll never know until we try; until we open ourselves to the possibility that when we’re led by God’s Holy Spirit, we have no limits except those we put on ourselves.

Henry Ford said: “If you think you can or think you can’t you’re right.” Jesus masterfully gives us the opportunity to be more than we ever imagined we could be, but it’s up to us to say “yes,” and allow Him to do what only He can do to enable us to maximize our effectiveness for Him. When we come to the point in our lives when we realize we can never be all we want to be without Jesus, that’s when we kneel with our hands outstretched asking Him to take us and make of us whatever will please Him the most.

Because none of us has what it takes in and of ourselves to become who God desires us to be, there must come a time when we’re willing to confess our need of God. Once we’ve sought help from the Lord and been filled with His holy presence in the person of His Holy Spirit, then we need to find at least one other person to whom we can share our heart. That’s when we ask the question I asked in yesterday’s post: “Why is that so critically important?”

Have you ever wondered how that parable could have changed dramatically if the one-talent guy had asked the 5 or 10-talent guy to help him? That’s the tragedy in so many would be massively effective believers today. Satan has us believing we’re ineffective for Jesus because we just don’t have what it takes. That’s why there are so many “1-talent, stay unnoticed, don’t get involved” people in our churches today. That’s why it’s so critical that we seek these people out and give them the opportunity to find someone else who can walk with them, tutor them, guide them, dare I say “disciple” them?

None of us will ever reach our maximum potential alone. We MUST join our lives with someone else we can trust, who loves us and loves Jesus. Those are critical elements if we’re going to grow in our faith. If we try to follow someone who may profess faith, but is full of themselves, not Jesus, then we’re on a dead-end road.

Ask the Lord to lead you to at least one person, but it could be a small group of people who are genuine in their faith and completely committed to following the Lord’s will for their lives. But remember, you have to want that for yourself, or you’ll never find it in anyone else. Trust begets trust, and obedience to the Lord begets growth and maturity in Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You a Promise Keeper? (Part 2)

“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. (2 Peter 3:10-12a NLT)

In yesterday’s post we looked at an example of how God always keeps His promises. He promised to send His Messiah, and He certainly did, in the person of Jesus, His one-of-a-kind Son, but He also promised that Jesus would one day return to this earth. The verses above speak in part to what will happen when He returns.

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The question: “Are You a Promise Keeper?’ is a critical consideration in light of what lies ahead. How so? Think about it! If we profess the holy name of Jesus and are seeking to be His follower, our lives should be ordered in such a way that they reflect not only our understanding of what’s coming but are compelling us to share that news with anyone who will listen.

Remember the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? Why was the master so hard on the servant to whom he gave the one talent? Not because he tried and failed, but because he did nothing! My sense is there are far more “one talent” people in the seats of our churches than we dare believe. What does that mean?

It means there are many who profess faith in Jesus in order to miss hell, then they go about building their kingdom as though God’s Kingdom had no authority over them. They tuck their “talent,” their life, away in their safe deposit box labeled “eternal security,” then go about their life as though they fulfilled their commitment to God by saying a prayer and warming a seat in a church.

Security is for those who hide their lives in God’s heart, who keep their promises, not only to God, but to their spouse, their kids, their loved ones, neighbors, employers/employees, and everyone else in their spheres of influence.

My heart breaks when I think about that “one talent” person. Why? Because that was me for much of my life. I made promises I didn’t keep, to God and others, not because I didn’t want to, but because I was just too afraid to try. What if I fail? What if someone gets hurt in the process? How embarrassing if someone finds out what a loser I am?

Maybe that’s you today. Maybe as you look at your life you see your failures, your shortcomings, your broken promises; you see clearly where you’ve been wrong. But you may also see the glaring moments when you weren’t the promise-breaker; you see that one(s) who didn’t keep their promises to you. It’s crippled you because you don’t want to risk hurting someone like you’ve been hurt. I get it, I really do.

So, what can you do to turn things around? To start becoming a God-honoring promise keeper rather than perpetuating the same failure that has taken its toll on you? There are two critical components on your road to healing, wholeness, and restoration. First, confess your need to the Lord. Open your heart, mind, soul, and strength to the only One who can forgive, cleanse, then fill you with Himself. Then find someone who will walk with you on your journey. Why is that so critically important?

Let’s pick this up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You a Promise Keeper?

“’Don’t be afraid!’ David said. ‘I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the King’s table!’” (2 Samuel 9:7 NLT)

Depending on the source, it’s estimated that between 3,200 to 31,000 promises from God are in the Bible. A round number is there are roughly 8,000 promises that God makes to His people. Why is that even important? Because there’s not one instance in the Bible or otherwise, where God has not kept His promise. And you might wonder: “How does he know that? It’s not humanly possible to verify every promise God has kept.”

And you’d be 100% correct, because no one can; however, I know God and I know He is not able to not keep a promise. And, yes, I understand that’s cumbersome, so, let me state it in another way, using the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:19-20: “For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate ‘Yes,” He always does what He says. For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ And through Christ, our ‘Amen’ (which means ‘Yes’) ascends to God for His glory.”

Why is this important? For two primary reasons. First, we need to know that God is a promise keeper. And, secondly, if we’re to be conformed to His image, as Jesus is, we must be promise keepers as well. How does this work it’s way into the fabric of our lives? A principle that is taught throughout Scripture is – if you’re faithful in small things you’re likely going to be faithful in large things as well. What might that look like for us?

Basically, if you say you’re going to do something, do it! If you tell your wife or child, or anyone else for that matter, you’re going to take them someplace or do something with or for them, keep your promise. And I can “hear” the wheels turning in some of your heads: “Yeh, but isn’t telling them something and promising them, two different things?” Let me give you the best answer I know: “NO!” There’s no difference. Your word as a child of God is your bond, so, to say it is to promise it.

Charles Spurgeon said: “God hath promised to keep his people, and he will keep his promise.” When God says something, it’s done. It may take some time, but you can count on it, it’s going to happen. God promised hundreds of years before it happened that a Messiah would come. Then, after that Messiah grew into manhood and began “construction” of His Church, (which is still under construction), Jesus promised that He was going to return.

His “return” is a multi-dimensional process that in one sense has happened, but in another sense is still to come. What does that mean? It means before Jesus left this earth, He promised the coming of His Holy Spirit to serve as His presence on earth in and through His followers until He came again in a literal form.

Why is that important? Because we’re impatient and we’re easily distracted. That’s why Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9-10a: “The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.”

This is too rich to keep hanging, so let’s pick it up in tomorrow’s post (unless the Lord returns today, then we won’t worry about anything else 😊).

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Only List That Matters (Part 2)

“If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.” (James 3:13-15 NLT)

Being a child of God, like being married, is a 24/7 lifetime commitment from which we never take a vacation. Being a child of God isn’t easy and, like marriage, demands commitment, sacrifice, and a determination to be a lifetime learner. To believe we can say a prayer, then never change is a lie from the depths of hell.

A prayer of confession and a promise to repent and live a faithful life of service to Christ’s honor is not a one-and-done proposition, any more than exchanging wedding vows ends all responsibility to the one with whom we plan to spend the rest of our lives. Like a marriage ceremony, confession of sin isn’t an end, it’s a beginning of a lifelong journey that doesn’t end until we close our eyes in death. To believe we can say a prayer and continue to live the same way we’ve always lived is to misunderstand what salvation means.

Baptism by immersion (see Romans 6) is a perfect picture of what should be happening every day we live as a Jesus follower. When we’re lowered into our watery grave, we die to self and when we’re brought up out of our watery grave, we rise to new life in Christ, never to be the same. Our spiritual journey doesn’t end there, that’s where it begins.

The love I have for my wife didn’t begin on our wedding day. That’s simply the day we made a public and lifelong commitment to one another to begin living out the love we already possessed in our hearts. Marriage is the platform or stage upon which we live out our love for all the world to see. Some days we reveal love and passion as it was always meant to be, but other days it’s a soap opera that includes villains and disappointments.

Similarly, walking with Jesus isn’t a straight, smooth road. It includes bumps, curves, and ups and downs that sometimes make us wonder if we’re ever going to get it right. We fail, fall, and by God’s grace, get back up and start again. In our walk with Jesus, as in marriage, we can’t think of bailing out every time it gets hard.

Ideally, as I’ve seen in my walk with Jesus and with my wife, often the horrible, troubling times lead to the sweetest and most enjoyable seasons of our lives together. Unless and until we can see the depth of our depravity, we can’t fully see the beauty and majesty of our sinless Savior. And to me, the mind boggling reality is, the Lord knew fully the depths of our wickedness and sin before He ever signed on to be our deliverer and best Friend.

We don’t have to try to hide anything from the Lord, He knows it all anyway. We need to see the evil we’re capable of, we need to wallow in the filth of our own sinfulness; otherwise, we’ll have the false sense that we’re really not all that bad and miss the only opportunity we have to find life and hope in Jesus.

The only “list” that matters in this life is to have our name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And the only way to know with certainty that it’s there is to live moment by moment in the presence of our Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Only List That Matters

“And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)

It’s interesting to note that when the Titanic departed on its maiden voyage the passengers were divided into first class, second class, third class, and crew, but after it sunk only two categories mattered: those who were saved and those who were lost. We can argue theology or points of view all day long, but in the end all that matters is: am I saved or lost?

So, the logical questions then become: Can I know for sure which list I’m on? And, if so, HOW do I know? There are lots of opinions and certainly once we die it will become crystal clear, but then it’s too late. What if there’d been a questionnaire distributed to each passenger on the Titanic as they left the port that said: “In the unlikely event that this ship should sink, would you be killed or would you live? Would you be lost or saved from the freezing water?”

Yes, of course, I realize that is ludicrous, but what would most people say? Their expectation would be that surely, they’d be saved, but could they know for sure? No, they could not; however, the Bible is clear that those who have the Son have life and those who don’t have the Son do not have life. Seems pretty straightforward, right? But is it?

What does it mean to “have the Son?” What does it mean to “not have the Son?” The Bible speaks of certain components or elements that should be present if we’re to have a saving relationship with Jesus. Romans 10:9 for example says: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The writer of the Hebrew letter wrote in 11:6: “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”

Balance that with James 2:19 that says: “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” Then, at least for me, some of the most frightening verses in the Bible, found in Matthew 7:22-23: “On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’”

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list of verses, but my point is only to illustrate that we can search and know all the right verses and still not know Jesus in a saving way. So, how can we know? To me it’s pretty simple. On December 18, 1993, I had a conversion experience. I was converted from being single to being married.

When I’m tempted to believe I’m not married I have only to look at the ring on my finger, but even more convincing than that, I feast my eyes on my beautiful bride with whom I live every day of my life. Have there been days I haven’t been the perfect husband? Duh, yeh, like EVERY day! And though I’ve had to ask forgiveness and regroup many times, I know I’m still married because the relationship with my wife is still intact.

In a similar way, I can point to a day in the Spring of 1963 when I realized my sin debt was more than I could ever pay, and I knelt at an altar of prayer, confessed my sin, and invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life. That confession began a journey that has continued through the years to this day. How do I know? Because my commitment isn’t past, it’s present.

Have I always been faithful? I wish I had been. Have I sinned since that day? Regretfully, yes, I have. So, on what basis do I profess that I know I’m saved? Not on my faithfulness, but on the faithfulness of my Savior who promised He would never leave or forsake me; He would always be a very present help in time of need; who forgave and continues to forgive as I continually yield my life to Him on a moment-by-moment basis.

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

Blessings, Ed 😊

God Speaks

“So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” (2 Corinthians 12:7b NLT)

There are things we do and directions we choose that are dangerous and dishonoring to the Lord. So, there are times, as in Paul’s life, when the Lord steps in and puts guardrails in place to keep us on the right path. For Paul it was a physical issue, but for us it may be something else. Whatever it is there are a few characteristics it will have in common with Paul’s “thorn” in his flesh.

First, Satan will use it to torment us and remind us of our weakness. For Paul it was a physical issue, but for me it was a failure. Whatever it is for you when you start to get too full of yourself and pride is beginning to surface, Satan will taunt you and the Holy Spirit will remind you that without the Lord you’re nothing and can do nothing.

Pride seeks to replace the Lord’s rightful place on the throne of our life, and the “thorn” the Lord allows to remain needs to be allowed to be a constant reminder that you and I don’t make very good governors of our own lives.

Second, it likely won’t be sin in and of itself, but if you don’t listen to the Lord and take corrective measures, it will lead you to pride, which can destroy any effectiveness you may desire for the Lord. The Lord is a gentleman and will not compete for His rightful place on the throne of your life, but His Spirit will make it clear that you’re treading on very thin ice.

Lisa Bevere writes: “God speaks to WHO we are BECOMING not to WHO we’ve BEEN. He calls forth DESTINY rather than echo HISTORY.” Our tendency as human beings is to regularly look back, reminiscing about the good times and reliving and agonizing over the bad times. Need I remind you of how God treats your sinful, forgiven past? He forgets it and reserves no capacity to remember it or ever bring it up to us again.

Oh, if only we were so wise. God speaks, there’s no question of that, but His speaking is always forward, never past. When the Lord forgives us, He doesn’t tuck our sin away so He can pull it out at a later time to torment us with it. He cleanses us and sets us on a brand new course, without the shackles of past sin weighing us down and preventing us from running strong in our new race with Jesus.

He doesn’t, as Lisa Bevere suggests: “echo history.” Rather He speaks life, health, and strength into who we’re becoming, not berating us for who we used to be. That’s why it blows me away every time I think about my heavenly Father loving me (and YOU) as much as He loves His dearly begotten (One of a kind) Son, the Lord Jesus.

Is there something haunting you from your past? Something Satan continually uses to break you down and remind you of what a scumbag you are? Welcome to my world, until the Holy Spirit finally convinced me that that person is dead, those sins are not only forgiven, but forgotten. Jesus answered for those sins once for all time, never to be remembered against me (or you) again.

Yes, absolutely, God speaks. He speaks life and health; He speaks hope to those who have lost their way; He speaks forgiveness and new life into every forgiven soul; He speaks wholeness into every life transformed by His grace; He speaks joy into our cleansed hearts; and He speaks oneness with Him throughout all of eternity.

It doesn’t get any better than that! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Blessings, Ed 😊

Created or Revealed?

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (Romans 5:3-4 NLT)

Have you ever seen someone endure something – a sickness, heartache, trial, setback, or difficulty – and you wondered: “How in the world did they get through that?” My Mentor lost his wife after 63 years of marriage. He grieved until his last day on earth, but it didn’t cripple him. He continued to pray, study, write, and share what God was teaching him as long as he possibly could.

Often in a conversation he would pause and say, “Ed, I miss her!” I’ve only been married 30 years, and I can’t imagine life without my wife. How do you endure such a great loss? Daniel Akin wrote: “Christian character is not created in the moment of adversity. Christian character is revealed in the moment of adversity.”

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What will adversity reveal in the moments of our greatest weakness? What is the Lord teaching us today that is building our character to enable us to endure tomorrow? The word translated “endurance” in the verse above can also be translated “patience.” In an age when we can google any fact known to man in a matter of seconds, patience isn’t high on our “to do” list.

We want to rise from the waters of our baptism and win the world. We’re baffled when it seems so many are hardened to the “Good News.” Our enthusiasm wanes and we soon settle into a fruitless life because we’re too impatient to pay the price of endurance. Never stopping to ask why our character is paper thin and can’t bear the weight of a conversation that might challenge our immaturity.

Character isn’t given, in many respects it’s earned. How so? Through hard times, difficulties, trials, heartache, and loss. Until we see those things as gifts from God, we’ll struggle to develop patience which is the pathway to character. Character isn’t a fruit we pluck, it’s a seed we plant, nurture, and painfully wait to come to full growth. But once character grows and develops it gives us “confident hope of salvation.”

Most of the Pastors at the church of which I’m a part are in their 30’s and 40’s, but they’re not cry babies and wimps. They’re not waiting for the Lord to give them maturity, wisdom, and character on a silver platter, they’re earning it in the school of hard knocks. They study hard and stand up to the issues with which they wrestle. They’re not ashamed to share their areas of struggle and to ask for help. I marvel at how God is grooming them to serve so powerfully in His Kingdom. If only I’d been as wise and insightful.

Christian character is a gift from God that is earned through the trials of life. So, if it’s a gift, how is it earned? Good question. Notice in the verse above Paul thanks the Lord, he writes: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials…” In other words, we can be grateful for the gift of problems and trials, but why? “for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character…”

Without problems and trials there is no character development. That’s why it’s a gift from God. Rather than whining and complaining when we have issues with which we wrestle, we should be mindful of James’ words in James 1:2-4: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊