Category Archives: Discipleship

An answer to an email: Giving to the Lord

Posted on June 22, 2015 by | Comments Off on An answer to an email: Giving to the Lord

givingGiving to the Lord has been an issue for many Christians. Often confused by the ridicule of the lost world and those Christians who have made giving to the Lord a part of some legalistic doctrine, it has become a subject that makes many feel uncomfortable. This morning, as I was going through my emails, I had someone send me an email asking what I believe about giving to the Lord.  Now, in all honesty, I have never been to seminary. I have come to the understanding of giving, tithes, and offerings on my own personal Bible studies, from the writings of Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, Andrew Bonar, and the sermons of a handful of other Christian leaders. I will also share that I always did not have this understanding of what giving means for the Christian.

We are saved by God’s grace

Before I share what I have come to understand about giving, it is important to understand what salvation means. The Bible records a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus: Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? (John 3:4). Jesus answered that question in the simplest way possible so that the meaning would be perfectly clear: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (John 3:5-7). Jesus also taught what is at the heart of man’s salvation: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:14-18).

Ssalvation is truly that simple as the Bible bears witness. Even the apostles understood the simplicity of the message taught by Jesus: the apostle Paul wrote, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9) and For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). We must come to the place where we realize that we, personally, are in need of a savior because of sin. On our own, we are sinners. The apostle Paul wrote, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and he is absolutely right. All it takes is to watch the evening news to see the condition of man’s heart. What are we saved from? We are saved from what the Bible calls the wrath of God. We are saved from final judgment through our faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ; for He alone has made the atonement for our sins.

There are those that believe that there must be some great work or deed that also plays a part within salvation. Salvation is not dependent upon our works and too many times people get confused by the role of works in our faith. James wrote,  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works (James 2:17-18). While they claim this proves the concept of works for salvation, they often neglect the rest of the passage: Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:21-24). Throughout this chapter in James, he is teaching us a very important concept – our faith should cause within us a desire to do things for the Lord. We do them not as a part of our salvation but because of our salvation. He uses the teachings of Abraham; what allowed Abraham to offer his son, Issac, to the Lord upon the altar? His faith in God and his belief in God’s promise: And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him (Genesis 18:10) and  And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? (Genesis 18: 17-18). By Abraham’s faith, knowing God would keep His promise, he knew that if he sacrificed Issac at the request of God, God would still make a provision to fulfill the promise given! It was this demonstration of Abraham’s faith in the Lord at work.

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What’s is holding you back?

Posted on June 9, 2015 by | Comments Off on What’s is holding you back?

RichardWear7827596853This morning as I was doing my daily reading of the Bible, this verse jumped up at me:  I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works (Psalms 9:1). As I continued to read the rest of the chapter, three questions kept coming to my mind: 1) What am I holding back from the Lord? 2) What is keeping me from praising Him with my whole heart? and 3) Why do I not share the blessings from the Lord with others? I’ve been a Christian since 2006 and have seen the Lord working within my life in some pretty amazing ways, yet in light of all three of the questions, I could not believe how difficult it was to honestly answer them.

What am I holding back from the Lord?

This is a simple and straight-forward question. What am I holding back from the Lord? It is fairly easy to start with the most obvious ones, such as praise, worship, and giving. But we must go deeper than those – what am I holding back? Many of us have a true friend that we share every aspect of our life with; for some this may be a spouse and for others, it may be a childhood friend. Remember the hurt feelings and shock you felt when you found out they held something back from you? Remember how you felt when you found out through someone else about it? If so, you can probably imagine how God feels when He knows we are holding things back from Him. There have been times where I have not had the faith in Him I should have. There are times I have not been as grateful for his mercy, grace, and blessings as I should have. There are times I know I needed to ask His forgiveness for sin, yet I could not bring myself to pray about it.

I think about conversations I have had with other Christians in the past who have told me they were surrendered completely to the Lord’s will. One even told me that he believed that the Lord was calling him into full-time ministry and he was willing to do whatever the Lord wanted him to do – except be a missionary. At the time we laughed it off, but now, with a fresh perspective, he was holding something back from the Lord. He was not completely surrendered. Can the Lord still use him? Absolutely, but he will never receive the joy that comes from serving the Lord as long as he is holding something back. I think of the exchange between Jesus and the rich young ruler as told by Luke: And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me (Luke 18:18-22). To paraphrase this passage, Jesus was telling this young man that he had to be willing to surrender everything he owned and all that he was and all his personal power and prestige in order to follow after Jesus. He could not hold anything back.

What is keeping me from praising with my whole heart?

This is another question where it is easy to claim that I’m already doing this. In all honesty, I know that it’s not true. Just as I hold things back from the Lord, I also hold back my praise from Him. David wrote, And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee (Psalms 9:10). If we are His child, then we have every reason to praise Him with our whole heart. Through the Bible we have the testimony of God’s love for us and the proof of His great salvation offered to us. So if we have every reason to praise Him with our whole heart, why is it so difficult? Each one of us who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and personal Savior can think of at least a half-dozen things He has done: Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings (Psalms 9:11).

As I honestly began to consider this question, the first thing that came to my mind is unconfessed sin. Unconfessed sin will separate us from the blessings and joy that Jesus brings. We feel conviction brought about by the Holy Spirit and and not repent of our sins and praise the Lord, we decide to hide ourselves from Him. The last thing we want to do when running from the Lord is to praise Him. We also are hesitant to praise the Lord with our whole hearts when we know things are not as they should be between us and someone else. We also find it hard to praise the Lord with our entire heart when we know He has set something before us and for whatever reason, we don’t do it. It’s hard to praise the Lord when we are not living fully in His will.

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It is either right or wrong; there’s no grey area

Posted on June 3, 2015 by | Comments Off on It is either right or wrong; there’s no grey area

right or wrongEvery situation and every decision we make boils down to one thing – it is either right or wrong. Sometimes it is difficult for humanity to accept this and we try to justify what we know to be a wrong decision by claiming what we face was somehow in a grey area in between both right and wrong. We will sometimes cry that others should not judge us by what we have done but by the intentions of our heart, believing that as long as our intentions were noble then it excuses our acting on the bad decisions we’ve made. A quick glance at human civilization, particularly what is happening in the West today, gives many examples of what happens when we begin to cloud the decision-making process with imaginative grey areas, a departure for biblical absolutes, and a lack of moral clarity.

Each situation has but two choices

Earlier in my life I bought into a lot of the humanistic philosophies that teach there are no absolute morals and no absolute right or wrong. I believed what I had been taught in public school that each person is free to assign their own personal value system based on what is best for them. In 1988, while attending college, I had an emotional experience with the Lord; I do not call it salvation because I was anything but saved – something that I have heard others refer to as being a pseudo-Christian. I bought into the worldly logic that even in Christianity, there were those grey areas where there simply was no guidance found in the Bible for situations faced by people in our modern society. There are many Christians today that not only believe this false teaching, but actually excuse their sins by claiming that God didn’t provide any guidance to them (I could literally do a number of posts revealing God’s will for the specific “grey areas” that I have heard people discuss within the last six months).

A study of the Bible shows the nature of the two choices we face with every situation: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19) and No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13). Every situation we face in life boils down to us making a right or wrong decision. It has taken me a while to understand this teaching found all through the Bible. With God, there are no grey areas; there’s simply right or wrong. The prophet Isaiah was led by the Lord to write, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD (Isaiah 55:8); it is easy to understand this once we get a good look at how we try to justify our failures and poor decisions and not to accept the simple truth that we made a wrong choice.

Right or wrong – a study in practice

A few days ago I was reading an article on CNN news about the ongoing social debates within our nation. The article was written about how the moral standards in America – what is considered as proper and inappropriate behavior – are rapidly changing. Issues such as abortion, alternative lifestyles, personal gender determination, gay and alternative marriages, and even euthanasia and right to life are being questioned. As I read the comments from those responding to the article, one thing became painfully clear – many wanted to blame God for the hardships in their lives. One female poster actually asked the question “where was God when I was planning my abortion?”  Again, the verse from Deuteronomy comes to mind: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19). Is it really that simple? Yes, it is. Every decision we make comes down to a very finite point – either our decision will bring forth life or death. Life simply is in obedience to the Lord, death is simply the results of rebellion.

Without becoming bogged down within the topic of abortion, there are some startling truths about abortion that society ignores. Under the banner of women’s rights, society has created an excuse and solution for an age-old problem. Although advocate for abortion will say that it must be available for cases of incest, rape, and the preservation of the life of the mother, statistics available through the Department of Health and Human Services and Planned Parenthood actually tell a different story. According to statistics, there were 1.21 million abortions performed in the United States in 2014. Of those, less than 1% (actual percentage was 0.067% or 187) abortions were because of rape or incest. The three most common reasons for abortions performed in 2014 were 1) 37% – less than ideal relationship status or personal convenience; 2) 21% – inadequate finances; and 3) 21% – not ready for the responsibility of parenthood. When Christians and other religious groups point to personal responsibility and refraining from premarital sex to avoid pregnancy, the world lectures and sneers at the suggestion. Instead, abortion is seen as a more responsible choice for the modern woman. In the end, the choice of abortion boils down to a choice between life and death.

Right or wrong – it is our choice

A while back I was reading from a book that has the collected writings of Andrew Bonar, a member of the Puritan clergy from back in the early nineteenth century. One of the concepts he was teaching is that we are a product of our own choices. Much of what we see as our failures or our successes in life are really based on the decisions we made when God provided us with choices. When we begin to see our lives as the results of the choices we have made and not random happenings or even as God intervening in our lives, God’s grace becomes even so much more magnified in the life of the believer. Now it becomes increasingly important to follow the pleading and the calling of the Lord: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18). It is both eye-opening and comforting at the same time to know that in the past, I made decisions based on my understanding but I do not have to continue to make those wrong decisions now. As a child of God, I am free to come and reason with the Lord, to seek His guidance and wisdom before I make my decision.

 Looking at my own life, I am where I am at because of the decisions – good and bad – that I made. There are also times in my life that I was simply shown mercy by the Lord in spite of my own short sightedness and stupidity. As recently as 2011, I have been impulsive in my decision-making and have not always sought the will of the Lord. The good thing is that I am a work in progress and God’s not finished with me.

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