Faith - Part 4

Hebrews 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

The writer of Hebrews sometimes makes me smile. Through the book, you can tell he has a burning passion and he is trying so hard to plead his case to show the Jews how important it is to get in line and continue the path with God, but through Christianity. At the same time he is talking to the people he knew were in trouble since they had reached a place in their walk with God, they were distressed because of the persecutions they were going through. If you read Hebrews 10:31-39 you will see that he was eager for these people to understand how important it was to continue in the faith. Even though they have started great and suffered a great deal through humiliation (v. 33) to being destitute as they lost their property (v. 34) He was pleading with them to continue because he knew, if we do not continue we forfeit the race.

So, when you read chapter 12 you find that by the time you get to 18-24 he is mainly talking to the Jews on the sideline. He was pleading with them by using imagery and a comparison of the old and new covenant to help them understand that the new covenant was far better than the old.  I chuckled when I read verse 14 because I become conscious that he dropped a bomb on us, yet it is buried in there as if it was an after thought. I felt like he was saying, pursue peace with all men, and remember there is this thing called sanctification without which, even though you have been through all these troubles losing your property, being humiliated, but if you do not go through the process of sanctification, you will not see God. Imagine that you have been through all this with God and lost so much for Him, yet you are finding out that you might not see Him if you do not continue, this is not comforting at all. The writer’s mind was not concerned about being politically correct or making people feel good by minimizing words. There was a danger that they did not seem to be aware of and that was his point.

Even though I chuckled, I do understand where the writer is coming from. There are enough people out there that can write and make you feel loved but you read their posts or their books, you are left with a good feeling, you might even feel it would be nice to follow God, then the feeling subsides. When you love with agape love in your heart, you know the difference when it is time to bring comfort, love and sympathize with people. You know when it's time to be patient with them and you also know when it is time not to mince words but say those words that might be hard to hear, but love them enough to shake them out of their complacency and get them to think twice, and get a move on.

Paul gave us an example of such love and mercy at work when he told the church in 1Corinthians 5 to throw the man who was being immoral, out of the Church. He did it out of love and mercy to save the Church from fraternizing with such individual to avoid the spreading or the acceptance of his sin. Furthermore he did it because he loved this man as well, but since he could not come to his senses and stop sinning, drastic measures had to be taken. How do I know Paul did it out of love and mercy? Well, you just have to read 1Corinthians 5:5

One of the reasons that it is of the outmost importance that someone must love you enough to tell you what you do not want to hear, when your heart is not right with God is because unbelief robs us of this life God wants to share with us. I will share a personal example with you, which I have been dreading but I find some peace in the spirit to share for the good of those reading this post. If one person can be touched by this story than, glory to God. I have someone in my life who is a family member. This person was raised in what you would call a Christian home. Their Christianity was handed down from parents to grandparents. While this person’s life is a disaster when it comes to Christianity, I just want to share one example with you.

Imagine watching this person being livid with their spouse on a Sunday morning and the problem stemmed from not being in control and the manipulation process was not working well enough. When we got to Church we found that it was communion day. The other spouse who is subjected to this person’s whims, decided to try to make peace by holding the control freak spouse’s hand as if to say “ you and I are on the same team, let’s make peace and move on”. I watched this control freak pushing the hand of peace offering away with some sort of repulsion and vengeance. In the meantime, I am trying my best to enjoy the service, almost in vain because the body language of that person sitting next to me was charged with hatred, narcissism, resentment etc. When it came time for communion, people were forming lines to go forward toward the pastors. I saw this person standing up toward the line; I was so sure it was perhaps for my benefit so that I could pass by and join the line up. To my surprise this person was one of the first one to receive communion. I remember sitting there with an expression of shock on my face and I was trying to get my face back to normal before this person comes back, but it was so hard that I felt the need to keep my head down to avoid face to face contact.

The sad thing is this person’s narcissism is coming from one of the long time Christian parent.  The resentful mind, the constant need for a fight, learning not to forgive, keeping bitterness in the heart and learn to live with it decades after decades are all learned from the other parent. So, you can understand why this person felt there was not a problem going forward receiving communion. Every time I am given the opportunity to say something, when I try to open my mouth, I am told I am the one who does not understand salvation. The second reason this family has not bothered with anything else that pertains to the inward work of salvation is because they said God’s word promise to hear when we call Him. The third reason is that God is love so there is nothing to fear because He loves them and always forgive. Believe me I am repeating verbatim what was said to me. Another reason these people feel they must be Christians is because they have status since they were elevated to leadership in the Church, they have years of missions under their belts and they truly sound impressive. Since they are well educated and articulate, people are drawn to them. I just have the pleasure of knowing them in the background.

On Kindle $0.99

Remember these are people who spend great time with God in the morning, and would not dare miss a service on Sunday unless it is warranted.  Keep also in mind that none of these people are what you would call “young” These are people who constantly talk about how they love God. Yet, the word hell has been minimized like crazy based on some pastor’s preaching found somewhere. Certain words have disappeared from their vocabulary like repentance, sanctification and so on, apparently God will honour His word because He cannot lie and He will sanctify them at the right time to take them to Heaven. It does not matter what verse I choose in the Bible it is shut down with these words “God is love and He always forgives and God loves me.” Please keep in mind this is the mildest story that I can share with you. In fact I was talking to a pastor to find out how do I deal with them and how can I help? The pastor answer was “are you sure these people are Christians? I said oh! Yes as sure as I you and I are standing there. Then, the Pastor followed by, “then they need to be exorcised” – I laughed because that’s not what I was expecting. I decided the only remedy left is to keep praying very hard every day.

You know why I shared this story with you? While you might be reading this and said well, these people are blind and you and I are not that bad, but the truth is, we are always one step of becoming one of those sad Christians. I am sure at one point they were not that bad either. But, this is why we ought to heed to God’s word because when we allow unbelief to enter our hearts and we do not deal with it right away, before we know it, we find that it eats us up like a cancer contaminating anything good we had inside of us. When we minimize unbelief and hide behind God’s promises we become infested and it shows up in every choice we make in our Christian walk with God. Furthermore, day after day we are desensitized and become detached from the reality of true Christianity. We blatantly lie to ourselves but we have drifted away so far from the Lord, we cannot hear His voice and Romans 10:17 becomes just a formality. These peoples' faiths are built on human understanding, their own strength, abilities, and intelligence. 

Yesterday I read on Facebook someone said, it is not how you start, but how you finish the race (something to that effect) I smiled when I read it because I know if the Christian life was about how you start, I would have been disqualified right there.  Last night when I was in front of the computer, I stopped to examine my heart with God. You know what? None of us, no matter how far we have walked with God are exempt from being tempted to give in to unbelief. The key is to recognize it, and shut it down as soon as it comes into your life. I have to confess that some days, unbelief is right at my doorstep as I try to come to grips with the fact that God has not made one move that would indicate He intends to replace what I lost as I follow Him. Sometimes I spend a whole morning moping, but, I know I have to get out of it and grab onto the fact that in spite of everything, He always provides for me. It has nothing to do with the way I expect Him to provide, but nevertheless, He provides always the basic and always in the nick of time. So, I learned to get my act together, ask for forgiveness and move on with Him. Does that mean sometimes I fail Him again? Of course I fail Him, but I know it is about a relationship where I have to keep going with one focus in mind which is walking with Him toward that day when He will make me perfect.

Do you know how you know you are in a relationship with Him instead of being someone who only cares about His promises? You will know through the Holy Spirit witnessing to you that you are on the right path, it is actually His job. You will know, because you have given permission to Him to penetrate your soul with His fire of love without an anaesthetic since He wants us conscious when He invades us inside.  You know it, because you are opened to the depth of the reality of this life, and because at any given moment, you are found at His feet (in the spirit) while you say to Him “though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. THAT’S THE WORK OF YOUR SALVATION, AND YOUR FAITH AT WORK! Brother and sisters there is no pause button in this life, we have to keep going forward with Him not our way, but His way.  

Faith - Part 3

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

This morning I was all set to use the post that I have already prepared two days ago which is about how God walked me step by step to understand the faith that is pleasing to Him. But, I have this habit which I hang on to very close to my heart when I am writing a post that I personally feel is a heavy subject.  A heavy subject for me is when you take the stand and you are basically alone in your belief. Times like that, my heart is closer to God for two reasons:

1)    I feel the loneliness of standing for something that I know is true and the only way I will be vindicated is when the world will be no more. So, I need God’s friendship

2)    The other reason is that I would rather die than knowingly or unknowingly lead people in the wrong direction that would lead them to Satan or away from the arms of my Father.

So, I have a habit of going to God even though I already know what the subject should be. I learned to practice this habit a few years back when I learned what David did in 2 Samuel 5 after he was crowned king over all Israel. In verse 17 when the Philistines were at his doorsteps in the valley of Rephaim, instead of going straight out there and fight them, David inquired of the Lord, just in case God had another plan. David did not pray because he was looking for a sign from God, but because of his faith in Him and His relationship with Him.

On Kindle $0.99

So, as I sat there, meditating on His word and His will, my heart was heavy because I would hate to know that I wrote anything that was just my opinion to some extend. I was looking for some bread crumbs from Him just to confirm that I should continue posting or not, then, He met with me. He knew what I was looking for, He reassured me of His will and He said to me. You are not as alone as you think you are and this question of  “fall away” that man is trying to put their own spin on, is right there in the Bible. I said, well I know it is all over the Bible but…. , before I finish my thought He said I am referring to the story of Adam and Eve that is right there in the Bible.  Only then, I realized that I never thought of it this way. Then He said if Adam and Eve had all the privileges they received through me and one of them was to walk with me so closely, yet their lack of belief in me caused them to fall away from grace, why would Christians be exempt?

I am going to say something that will make me sound so stupid, but I have to share it anyway.  Only when I heard God say “their lack of belief in me” I realized I always see Adam and Eve disobedience, but I never focused on what they did as a lack of faith in Him. Yes, I can hear myself saying that, I also realize this is something that even a babe in Christ already knows yet, it totally escaped me. The conversation between God and I went on and on, and I was truly happy and felt free.

Then I sat down while thinking about faith, I came to the conclusion since the word “faith” is about taking God at His word to the point where we can confidently act on what comes out of His mouth, then it all makes sense. What comes out of His mouth is so precious that He promised and warned us that Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words shall not pass away! He also said His word abides forever. God takes what comes out of His mouth seriously. So serious that He tells us that it is a matter of life and death.

Adam and Eve did not keep God’s covenant with them, they questioned His integrity and second guessed His word. Whenever we break God’s covenant with us, we do it because there is unbelief in our heart.  Any time we act contrary to God’s word, we reject Him over and over again. Whenever we act contrary to God’s word, we tell Him we do not believe that He has integrity. Hence the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 11:6 much more than “we must believe” he added onto it that we must diligently or earnestly seek Him. This word means a life purposely lived for Him. This word also involves a deeper commitment with complete awareness of Him. But, Satan fills our mind with unbelief, he keeps us occupied with our shoddy Christianity and tells us that we will be okay. He helps us find joy in saying those verses chapters after chapters when in reality, inwardly, we do not reflect what we profess. While Satan cannot see what is in our hearts, but 99% of the time, Satan finds the foothold that he needs to mess up with us simply because he watches us. He can tell what brings us more pleasure, he can tell where our weaknesses are, and what to use against us to undermine us in our walk of faith with Him.

As God reassured me this morning, when we do not have faith, we reject Him pure and simple and we reject everything He is offering us. We are living in a culture where the emphasis is put on God to keep His word.  If I read one more time that God cannot lie, I will die. Yes, it is good to know we serve a God who cannot lie, but that is not where our problems really lie. People are not interested in telling others that we too, God has given us guidance to follow through His word and we better get in line with His plan. Our culture makes it look like even when we reject Him we will be okay. But it is not biblical at all because the Bible keeps warning us. Without faith it is impossible to please God and God will always test our faith through trials, adversities and pressures of life to give us an opportunity to respond and show that we truly believe beyond our words and beyond our activities.

Faith is the only catalyst that brings us through a life of intimacy with Him. We have something to say about whether we want this life or not. When we decide to go our way while we are paying Him lip service, we force His hand and He cannot do anything else but act according to His nature. How many times God has to explain to us that every time we reject His grace we will lose. Lucifer tried that, as well as Adam & Eve. The stubborn Israelites also learned it the hard way, so why, with all these examples and warnings we still tempt God? 

The Israelites thought they were superior because they found grace in the eyes of God so they felt and acted like He owed them. Doesn’t that remind you of us Christians today? When we take His Salvation for granted we put God through the same thing the Israelites put Him through. We act as if everything is permissible for two reasons.  One of them is that Christ died for us and the second one is that God cannot lie.  Yet, we keep saying with our mouths that we serve a God who does not change. So, if for a minute you are thinking without Satan’s blocking your mind can you see how this does not make sense?

The next time you are trying to convince yourself that shoddy Christianity is good enough because God cannot lie and He has to honour His word ask yourself “ Have I honoured my commitment to Him?” Do I truly live a life that shows that I take Him at His word? Do I stand on all His word or few verses that make things easy for me? TEST YOUR OWN FAITH!

Faith - Part 1

Heb. 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him"

1 Peter 1:7 “These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Hebrews 11:1-39 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary describes faith in this way:  “11:1-3 Faith always has been the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. Where the principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of Christ. And the same things that are the object of our hope, are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation, that God will perform all he has promised to us in Christ. This persuasion gives the soul to enjoy those things now; it gives them a subsistence or reality in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them. Faith proves to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. It is a full approval of all God has revealed, as holy, just, and good. This view of faith is explained by many examples of persons in former times, who obtained a good report, or an honourable character in the word of God. Faith was the principle of their holy obedience, remarkable services, and patient sufferings. The Bible gives the most true and exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe it, and not to wrest the Scripture account of the creation, because it does not suit with the differing fancies of men. All that we see of the works of creation, were brought into being by the command of God.” 

$0.99 On Kindle

When I started going through the wilderness with God, there are times I truly did not know what to do and I needed help figuring out my next step. As I went through this process, I understood Abraham’s decision to go to Egypt when there was famine in the land that God planted Him. I also understood why he made the tremendous mistake of having a child on his own. Prior to my own wilderness with God, Abraham was a symbol of faith but mostly his defiance and his cowardness stood out.  But, I came to understand when God is working out the gift of faith in us, because we are not mature enough and the nature and substance of faith is found in not knowing, to add to the ordeal, we don’t understand God’s way well enough, so we assume if we take matters into our hands by using our own God’s given common sense, we should be fine. We do not see it as a disobedience to God and we do not mean to sin either. 

As I was seeking help to understand how to move forward with God, I went to three different leaders of the Church (two were elders) on three completely separate occasions I got the same scripted answer every single time. The answer was for me to start doing stuff, choose between the choices that I have and pray God to block my way if He does not want this for me. In their defence I have to say most of the pastors all throughout the internet, the mega television evangelists and many more out there have all used this analogy. What is strange is that I have seen pastors who have solid faith in God also used this analogy. Sometimes, I am not sure if they use it because they want to please more people out there or if it is due to the lack of experiencing God. Either way, God taught me that this way is wrong on so many levels, I would need to write a specific post to talk about it. 

About 18 months after I left the Church, the guy who led me to Christ invited me to work with him in church planting. As I went there to investigate things I was already on my fourth year in the wilderness and I was still waiting for God’s leading before getting involved in any kind of big venture.  While I did not ignore any opportunity offered to me, but I always left it to God to make the call. So, I was talking to two people that I met and these people were already involved in the Church planting ministry, they were trying their best to entice me. I started explaining to them how I am waiting for God to show me where exactly He wants to use me before I make a commitment to any project. One of the past elder of the Church that I left behind, interject himself in the conversation as if because of his status he had something that I did not have. So, he interrupted us to tell me how wrong I was to wait for God to make decision for me and that we are given common sense and we ought to use it. Somehow he thought this would be a big finale as he stood there, and said: “there is nothing wrong with using common sense along with God.” – I did not say a single word and since the people I was talking to did not know Him, no one made any comments. 

What this guy did not know is that years prior to this encounter with him,  God showed me how disobedient he was and how in spite of everything that God put Him through, (believe me when I tell you he was going through a lots of trials in his life) God was not able to get this guy to a place where he would stop and think in the spirit before making the numerous decisions He made in order to go forward with God. As God is my witness I am telling you the truth. At one point God showed me so much about this guy, I wrote an email to my Bible group leader and explained all that I have been seeing and how deep this guy disobedience was getting with God. I received an email back saying “you cannot confront him.” I replied back that was not my intention.  You see, the reason I sent the email to my group leader was because they were all part of the same leadership consortium and I was hoping that someone in the leadership would get hold of what was going on and perhaps come alongside of this guy at one point. Did I handle it wrong? YES BIG TIME.

This was during the time God used to show me things about people and I did not know I was supposed to pray for them. Nevertheless God always sustains me when I get bad advice from people and He always walk alongside of me to make sure I stay the course.  Walking in the Spirit is so essential to our Christian faith. This ex Church elder never realized that his walk with God is the equivalent of the Israelites walk of faith that we find when reading 1 & 2 Kings. We find that many kings failed because they could not bring themselves to the point of destroying the high places their predecessors erected. So, they have learned to worship God on their terms. (Man’s way) If we say we believe in Scripture, then we have to believe that God recorded these things about the high places in 1 & 2 Kings for a reason. While we might not have high places in the same way, today’s Christians have to deal with high places in their hearts.  

The truth is, when it comes to faith we can’t be satisfied with words we repeat like in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  We have to learn to live diligently as we are told so that we can grasp the opportunities that God bring into our lives to get us there and to test us. Yes we find solace and great joy in repeating those words, but God wants us to take them one step further by allowing Him to work them out in us. That’s what’s pleasing to Him.