Doubt

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’  Matthew 7:21-23


This passage haunts me.  I think these verse keep many Christians up at night.  According to a study by Newsweek magazine, 81% of Americans say that they are Christians.  Clearly, this isn't the case.  So "many" of these professing Christians will stand before Christ and He will tell them He never knew them.  


In light of these words of Jesus, I sometimes struggle with doubts.  Do I really know Him?  Am I saved?  God doesn't want me to doubt.  It is his intent that I would have certainty and an assurance of my salvation and relationship with Him.


The entire book of 1 John was written to new Christians who struggled with these same thoughts.  The whole point of the letter was to give these believers assurance and to get rid of their doubt.  


I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  1 John 5:13


What it really comes down to is the question of: "Have I been adopted by God the Father?"  To give an illustration of a literal adoption, imagine a child who has been taken out of poverty and hopelessness and given hope, a future, and love from a caring and loving father.  What does the child do in return?  Love the father, and spend time with him.  The same is true for us with God.  If we have been adopted by God and have been saved, we will love Him, care about what he cares about, and spend time with him.


The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear (or doubt) again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Romans 8:15-16


But adopted children don't always behave.  We sometimes go through a season of struggles and pruning.  When we struggle with a certain sin or hit a rough patch with our relationship with the Father, the doubts come.  


How I behave doesn't affect whether or not I am adopted by the Father.  Once he adopts me, I'm His forever.  When I hit a rough patch, the last thing I should do is look inward at myself.  This will only produce doubts because I'm not "performing" or "doing well".


I have been adopted by God because of Christ's performance, not my own.  When the doubts come, run to the cross and remember Who is in charge of our salvation.


"True faith takes its character and quality from its object and not from itself.  Faith gets a man out of himself and into Christ.  Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ."  -Sinclair Ferguson


“Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.”  -Jerry Bridges




In light of this post, I have really struggled with sin today.  I have not denied myself, and have fed my selfish desires.  The Gospel always points me to the love of the Father and His saving grace.  This post is mostly for me, to remind me of the "Author and perfecter of my faith".  

Losers (and Tim Tebow)

I just finished reading the book "Surprised by Grace" by Tullian Tchividjian.  It was a great book about the story of Jonah.  But there was a page in the book that really stuck out to me. In it he says:


"For a long time, we Christians have spent time and energy and money trying our best to convince the world we're cool, and that we're winners.  And in our world, cool means being just as prominent and prosperous, just as smart and stylish, just as successful and savvy as anybody else.  Just look at how Christians swell with pride when a successful athlete or actor or politician professes his faith.  It's as if we shout to everyone, 'See!  This guy has everything, and he's a believer - so Christianity has to be cool.'  We want to parade these celebrities and their faith before the world.
In Too Good to Be True, Michael Horton asks, 'Have you ever seen a janitor interviewed for his testimony?'  The reason we haven't is that God-fearing janitors don't represent strength or intelligence or coolness in our culture.  They're viewed as less valuable than the famous entertainer or the sports star or the rising politician.  And we, as the church, have adopted the same categorization."


Of course, when I read this I immediately thought of Tim Tebow.  Over the past month, ESPN can't go five seconds without mentioning him.  And whenever he is brought up, his faith is too.  SNL just did a skit mocking his outspoken Christian beliefs.  To say the least, Tebow is a controversial and polarizing figure.  But I'm not going to talk about him, I'm tired of hearing about him.


Instead, let's talk about the losers.  The janitors, the average Joes, the run-of-the-mill Christians who rarely get noticed or talked about.  While God uses gifted stars like Tim Tebow, He changes the world through the nobodies.  


Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.  Acts 4:13


It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  Deuteronomy 7:7


Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.  Exodus 4:10


These are only three examples, but the Bible is full of stories of God using the most unlikely people.  The people society writes off, the people that have been abused and neglected, the people who aren't amazing, but are just average.


In light of this truth, remember that God can and will use anybody.  When the Spirit of God is in a believer, it doesn't matter who they are, what they've done, or what people think of them, because God can shake the very foundations of the world through a nobody.


But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  2 Corinthians 12:9


"The gospel, however, is not just for the all-star and the illustrious and the legendary.  It's for the loser.  It's for the defeated, not the dominant." -Tullian Tchividjian

Temptation

When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did so by questioning the Word of God.  "Did God actually say, 'you can’t eat of the tree in the garden'?"  Then he said that what God said really isn't true.


But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  Genesis 3:4-5


When Satan tempted Jesus, he questioned the Word of God.


And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."  Matthew 4:3


"If you are the Son of God".  Four verses earlier, when Jesus was being baptized, the Father just told Him, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased".  (Matthew 3:17)  Satan is questioning what God just said to Jesus.  Jesus is able to withstand the temptation and questioning of the Word of God with the Word of God.


But he answered, "It is written,
"'Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  Matthew 4:4


When Satan tempts us, he is questioning the Word of God.


He is asking us, "Did God REALLY say that (X,Y, or Z) won't bring true happiness?" 
"Did God REALLY say that He is the only source of true joy and the only way to be completely content and satisfied?  There are actually other ways…"


As we have seen from when Jesus was tempted, the only way to resist the enemy is the Word of God.  So when you are being tempted with something or someone, the underlying temptation is that the Word of God is not true and Christ is not sufficient.  This is not true.  Resist temptation by running to Scripture, which is the Word of God, and by running to Christ, who IS the Word of God.


No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.  1 Corinthians 10:13

Spirit-Filled

One thing that God has challenged me with over the past semester is to be Spirit-filled.  It is one thing to be a believer and have the Holy Spirit, and it is another thing entirely to be completely saturated and filled up with the power and love that is the Holy Spirit.  

"To be filled with the Spirit means simply that the Christian voluntarily surrenders life and will to the Spirit.  Though faith, the believer's personality is permeated, mastered, and controlled by the Holy Spirit… When we invite the Spirit to fill us, the Spirit's power grips our lives with this kind of strength and passion." -J. Oswald Sanders

But it's important to distinguish something.  Being Spirit-filled does not involve me going out and getting the Spirit.  When surrendered to Him, the Spirit fills me.  As I heard this past Sunday, "I don't get more of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gets more of me."  He takes over our lives by changing our thoughts, actions, and motivations.  All we must do is humble ourselves and surrender to His will.

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."  John 14:26

We are able to understand Scripture and what God is teaching us through living a life that is lived IN the Spirit; a life that is filled with the Spirit.

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:9-11

A life surrendered to and controlled by the Spirit is a life that pleases God and glorifies 

Christ.  Because the Spirit is in believers, we experience new life and a new beginning every day.  We are not people who have gone from bad to good, but people who were dead and are now alive!

There is so much to be experienced in this life.  The Christian life is not boring.  The Christian life is the farthest thing from boring.  When we have the Spirit of the Living God who raised both Christ from physical death and us from spiritual death... how can that be a boring life?!

"You are going to live an adventure.  The question is whether or not your life will be an 

adventure with God or with the sin of the world."

Faithful. Focused. Fighter.

Every year from Christmas day to New Year’s Day, my extended family goes down to vacation in Sanibel Island, Florida.  We have a family tradition that on New Year’s Eve, everyone shares their theme for this upcoming year, and recaps their theme of the past year while sitting on the beach.  So as December arrives and the end of the year and the semester are only a few weeks away, I’ve been spending some time reflecting on 2011 and my theme.

My theme for this past year was “Faithful. Focused. Fighter.”  I wanted to be a Faithful disciple, Focused on Christ, and a Fighter of sin and temptation.  Well, to be completely honest, I have not been any of these things with any sort of consistency.  As Ezekiel 16 tells me, I’m not faithful to God.  But He is faithful to me.  My focus fluctuates.  Christ’s focus every second of His life on earth was focused on being obedient to the Father.  I still sin, and fall into my sinful flesh and sinful desires.  Christ has fought, and finished the fight with sin.  It’s finished.  It’s over. 

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

“For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” Romans 6:9-10

I am not a Faithful Focused Fighter.  But Christ was, is, and will continue to be.  Abide in this Truth.

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  Exodus 14:14