Category: faith

“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.” I Thessalonians 1:3

Child of God: I noticed that not only did the love the Thessalonian Christians had for each other increase, but Paul also said their faith was growing. That’s what I’d like this New Year — more faith.

Father God: That is a worthy desire… are you sure this is what you want?

Child: Honestly, I’m not sure. The great heroes of faith were asked to do some difficult things: “Leave your home and go to a land I will show you”; “Believe you will be a father of nations when you and your wife are too old to have a baby”; “Sacrifice your only son… the son of promise.” If this is the way a person’s faith increases, I’m hesitant.

Father: So you don’t really trust me? Faith is about knowing me… which is why it is so important. Do you realize that Jesus walked by faith? He trusted me completely and did only what his Father showed him to do. The disciples witnessed his bold living and said, “Lord, increase our faith.”

Child: Yes, and then he told them that if they had only mustard seed sized faith, they could move mountains. Jesus always challenged people to have more faith… and I know we have the same need.

Father: So are you willing to trust me? To enter my Kingdom, a person humbles himself as a child and puts faith in my Son. My children believe the impossible… just as Abraham did. The Son of God came in the flesh; He took all sin upon himself and died on the cross; He was buried; and He was raised from the dead on the third day. If you believe I’ve accomplished everything in Jesus, you are standing in my grace… now simply obey your King.

Child: This is the Good News. Thank you for saving us!

Father: I’ve saved you and I’ve given the Holy Spirit so my children will grow up into the likeness of my Son. Every child has been given a race to run. The better you know me, the better you’ll run your race. Faith is about trusting who I am and what I can do. Abraham put his son on the altar because he knew I made a promise that I would not break. Even if Isaac was killed, Abraham believed I could raise him from the dead. I am love; I can do all things; I can be trusted.

Child: So I guess the apostle Paul came to a point where he truly did believe he could do all things through Christ.

Father: Yes, but he came to that place of faith by simply walking with the One who saved him… the One who gave him strength. Do not make faith complicated, my child. Walk with the One who saved you. Jesus is the author and perfecter of your faith. Keep your eyes on him this year and do everything he tells you to do. ‘Christ in you’ is your hope of glory… and your secret for growing in faith.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry bush, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” Luke 17:5-6

Happy New Year!

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” John 12:24-26

Jesus said this as the hour of his betrayal drew near. His path of bearing fruit led to the cross and he invites us to follow. But how can we accept such an invitation? How did Jesus accept his? The Son loved his Father and his Father’s purposes more than his own life. When we die to our own goals and comforts and pleasures and simply say, “Here I am Lord; I want to do your will,” then we follow the Master.

Our whole future is based upon a trust in the miraculous power of God. Through death comes life… really? If I die, will I really live again? If I surrender, will I really gain victory? If I am baptized into the One I believe to be Savior and King, will I really be raised to live a new fruitful life? So often we look at ourselves and think, “My life does not seem so abundant. I believe in Jesus, but what can he do with me? Have I really died and received new life?”

The Holy Spirit keeps telling us to look to Jesus. “You believe Jesus died and was raised, right? You believe death has no mastery over him, right? You believe the life he lives, he lives to God, right? You are in him! You died with him and you are raised with him. Because he lives, you live. You believe in the power of God in the Son, now believe in the power of God in you!”

A twenty-two year old girl amazed 13,000 listeners in an Atlanta arena last week as she told about moving to Uganda as a teenager and adopting thirteen orphan girls. The power in the message of Katie Davis is not the fact that she gave up ‘normal American life’ to serve the poor but that she knows a Savior who changed her life. She says her story is not about Katie… it is about Christ. Jesus gave her God’s dreams and the faith and strength to live boldly. Katie Davis is very happy.

God may not lead me to Uganda, but he will live powerfully in my life if I trust him. God does not have the same exact plan for you that he has for me, but he will not fail to accomplish his wonderful purposes if you trust him. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death has no mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:8-11

John Lennon wrote the chorus of Come Together for his friend, Timothy Leary, who was planning to run against Ronald Reagan for Governor of California. Legal problems and a jail sentence hindered the campaign, but the strategy of ‘coming together in unity’ has been around a long time.

The heart of Jesus for his followers has always included one great desire: “Come together right now over Me.” In the first week of this new year over 22,000 college-age young people gathered in Atlanta to hear God’s Word, to worship the Lord, and to encourage one another to let the Light of Christ shine on their college campuses throughout the world. Our two oldest children, Taylor and Kinsey, and their future mates, Emma and Jordan, attended this event last year and were built up in their faith. The leaders of the Passion Conferences always challenge the young people to ‘do something now’ to meet urgent needs. During this past gathering, thousands of blankets and socks were donated for the homeless of Atlanta and well over a million dollars was given to target specific world challenges. Here are a few: dig wells in India to provide clean water for villages, rescue women and children caught in sex slavery in the Philippines, serve a family from Haiti, help provide loans to start businesses in war-torn Afghanistan, feed starving children in poor countries, and perform life-saving surgeries on babies in South Africa. Amazed that lofty goals in every single area were surpassed, I could not help but think, “Wow, these must have been some wealthy college students,” but the person who shared the report gave an astounding statistic: the average gift per person was $52.

Jesus’ call to come together goes far deeper than meeting financial needs. If the builders of the Tower of Babel had power in unity to accomplish ignoble purposes, how much more power will there be for the children of God to accomplish Kingdom purposes? We see the effects of the ‘law of gravity’ (drop an apple and it falls), but I wonder if there is an unprovable ‘law of unity’ (come together in mind and purpose as God’s children and all things are possible).

“‘Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…’ The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’” (see Genesis 11:3-9) God understands the power of unity… and so does the devil. Have you noticed the lengths to which he goes to divide families, communities, and the Body of Christ? Our enemy fears unity greatly, Jesus desires it greatly… so perhaps we should pursue it greatly.

“‘…Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of the Lord boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one proclaimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:29-32

“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21:3-5

Her ‘two cents worth’ was all she had… and Jesus used her as an example of trust.

“Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me… I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Mark 14:6-9

Her gift was called ‘wasteful’, but Jesus said her story would accompany the sharing of the gospel.

“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Luke 1:38

Though her reputation would be at stake, her acceptance of God’s purpose enabled the greatest Gift of all time to enter the world.

I want to be like these three ladies…

First of all, a couple of personal things. I got a great six month report at Emory this week. No sign of cancer! Susan overheard my doctor (behind me as I walked down the hall): “There’s my star patient.” If he only knew how many people prayed for me, he’d know the reason! So we praise God for his faithfulness and thank you again for your love and prayers. Because someone dropped out of one of our school mission trips, I am heading to Ecuador Saturday. True missionary heroes died in Ecuador in the 1950’s. The tribe that killed them found Christ because courageous women continued to share the Gospel despite incredible loss. (Read “End of the Spear” or “Through Gates of Splendor” for the whole story.) Karlyn is going to Brazil with another school group and a third group is going to Honduras. I won’t write next week… Once again, we would cherish your prayers.

Here’s an important verse from the Old Testament regarding the Gospel: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) We know this is an important verse because Paul quotes it in Romans and Galatians and James quotes it in his letter. The reason the Gospel is such good news is that it is full of grace and mercy and love. There is nothing ‘cheap’ about God’s grace for it cost him the life of his most precious Son, but the Father’s will is that no man boast before him. He knows us well.

If I had circumcised myself as an adult, I’d tell everyone I deserved to go to Heaven! But when was Abraham declared righteous? Before circumcision or after? Paul makes it plain: “It was not after, but before!” (Rom 4:10) “Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” (4:9) So God asks, “Do you believe I exist? Do you believe I reward those who earnestly seek me? Do you believe I have accomplished everything for you in my Son, Jesus? You can bring nothing of worth to me… I have done it all. Do you believe this? Do you believe in my Son?”

“The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him (Abraham) alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (4:23-25) “Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.” (Gal 3:6-7)

Don’t you love good news?

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:9-10