The Big "If"

Small things can make a big difference.  When baking bread, cakes, or cookies, a small omission of salt or baking powder will make a tremendous impact on the outcome.  All the ingredients work together with the heat of the oven to rise properly and form the correct consistency.  One little teaspoon of salt missing from the batter can have disastrous results!

Little words in the English language have great power.  Take the word "all," for instance.  In three letters everything can be lumped together.  Every person in the world, every rock in the universe, every star in the heavens, every molecule and atom are included in "all" things.  Another huge word is "if" when used in a conditional sense.  Galatians 6:9 reads, "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."  The immediate context of the passage is teaching the principle of sowing and reaping:  if we sow to the flesh we will reap corruption, and if we sow to the Spirit we will reap life everlasting.  The passage above states that when we do good without growing weary we will reap IF we do not lose heart.  This reveals it is possible to do good and not reap benefits because we have given up.  The KJV version says, "...in due season we shall reap if we faint not."  Faint literally means "to relax."  When we stop laboring for God's glory and relax, we will backslide and lose ground.

How tragic to plant a big field of crops, tend the field, guard from pests and destructive animals, and lose heart before time to reap.  Much labor, time, and expense would be wasted if farmers relaxed during the reaping phase.  Farmers work from dark in the morning to dark in the evening to harvest their crops.  As we travel through this life following Jesus Christ, by His grace our lives will be transformed.  This is a process called sanctification in the Bible.  Every day we have the choice to sow to the flesh or sow to the Spirit.  We can invest ourselves in the temporal, perishing things of this life on earth or we can labor for the glory of God.  It is hard work to raise a field of crops, and it is also hard work to keep our lives clean from sinful influence.  Like leaves that continually blow into the pool, sinful thoughts and attitudes drift into our hearts and need constant removal.  Many people start the race, and far less people finish than begin.  Why?  Because they lose heart when faced with struggles, trials, and hard work.  They choose worldly relaxation instead of spiritual rest in Christ.

Instead of focusing on the negative - the big "if" in this passage - it would be fruitful for us to consider the positive.  When we do good and live for God, we will reap bountifully.  There is great reward for following Jesus Christ faithfully.  I know when I was little, I wanted instant results when I planted seeds in the ground.  Every day I would look at the bare earth where the seeds had been planted and wonder if they would ever grow!  After a few days or a week passed I wondered if it was really worth the effort of keeping the soil moist.  Maybe the seeds weren't growing!  Maybe it was all a waste of time!  But when good seed is planted in soft soil in the right conditions, it will grow and be fruitful.  Sometimes we labor to walk in obedience to God and wonder if the struggle is worth it.  God's Word is good seed, and though there may be little visible growth at times we can KNOW we will reap a great crop.  A lot of growth occurs unseen under the surface.  As we abide in the Vine Jesus Christ, we will be fruitful for His glory.

In this life we can grow weary, but we can be sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit so we will be strong to persevere.  Jonah 2:7 reads, "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple."  It took Jonah reaching his lowest point before he remembered the LORD and cried out to Him.  God delivered Jonah from the belly of the great fish, and God will deliver us from our apathy, foolishness, and vices when we seek Him.  Sometimes we can be lulled into thinking we are sufficient in ourselves.  We might see fruit forming in our field and think the time for hard work is over.  We must continue to wait on the LORD and sow to the Spirit so we will be able to reap for God's increase.  When our hearts are devoted to God and the performance of this will, our hearts are guarded from pride and sin.  We will reap, if we faint not!

From Dry Bones to New Life

"And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." ⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

Revelation 21:3-5

The context for this passage is a time when God will create new heavens and a new earth because the first passed away.  The Bible teaches us that a day is coming when He will dissolve this world and all the works and sin within it.  All who have rejected Christ will face eternal damnation, and all those who have repented of their sins will spend eternity with God in the new heavens and earth He creates.  Because of sin, no person is a stranger to pain, sorrow, crying, sickness, and death.  How wonderful it is to realize that God makes all things new!  He does not just remove pollution, sickness, or feelings.  He makes new, and in what is new is no trace of what was old.  Outside of the realm of time what is made new remains new, for it cannot grow old.

But is this promise of God only meant to be applied to life in heaven?  No!  But unfortunately, many Christians live as if that is the reality.  We have all been there.  A dog returning to his vomit may well describe our life at the moment.  We can be tricked to willingly drown in depression, disappointment, and disillusionment brought through belief of Satan's lies.  He would tell us such a promise does not apply to us, that we are too far gone for such a change to take place.  We have struggled with sin too long, our faith is too small, and we do not deserve such a blessing.  The fact is we have struggled with sin too long, our faith is small, and we do not deserve such a blessing.  But God has promised to give new life to all who repent and trust in Christ by His grace!  That is the wonder of the Gospel!  Completely unworthy of life, we can receive new life through Christ.  God will make us new from the inside today if we will ask Him believing in His promise.

Perhaps you cannot bring yourself to believe this.  There have been times when you were sure you were changed but before long you found yourself back in a pit dug dug with your own hands.  The only way to combat such deep-rooted doubt bred into us through sin is through confrontation with the truth of God's Word.  Are you familiar with the passage in Ezekiel 37 concerning the valley of dry bones?  God brings Ezekiel in the spirit to a valley full of dry bones and asks him, "Son of man, can these bones live?"  Ezekiel said something I would not have said.  I would have said, "Obviously not!"  He said to God, "O LORD God, you know."  There is no potential for life in such a thing as dry bones, at least from our human perspective.  But to God, the one who Creates from nothing, nothing is too hard for Him.

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and they were covered with sinews, flesh, and skin.  God caused these bones to stand up resurrected and breathed life into them.  They stood on their feet and were an "exceeding great army."  The purpose of this vision was a sign of what God would later do:  Ezekiel 37:12-14 says, "Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. ¹⁴ I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD."  God's people would know He was the LORD when He opened their graves.  He would put His Spirit within His people, and He would bring them into their own land.

After Jesus died on the cross, His dead corpse was placed in a tomb carved out of stone guarded by Roman soldiers.  Three days after His death, Jesus would rise from the dead.  But did you know something wondrous happened at the moment when Jesus died on the cross?  The veil of the temple was torn top to bottom, there was an earthquake, and Matthew 27:52-53 confirms the word spoken in Ezekiel:  "...and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many ."  Can these dry bones live?  Yes they can!  God has granted us access into His presence through the person of Jesus Christ.  After the resurrection of Christ, men and women long dead came out of their opened graves and appeared to many!  After Christ's ascension into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to fill His followers on the Day of Pentecost.  It was about 60 years ago when Israel was made a nation once again and were brought into their land.

Without Christ, we are dead bones:  dead spiritually and condemned to die eternally.  But God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and be born again.  Just because you have made a commitment to follow Christ, it will not be easy to walk in this newness of life.  We can be tempted to go back to old habits, old ways of thinking, the ways we used as coping mechanisms before we were transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 6:3-6 reads, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

Once God opened the tombs and raised those saints from the dead, they didn't remain in the graves but came forth as Lazarus.  Those who have been born again have now been raised from death to life.  Satan frantically works to deceive us to crawl back into our graves, isolate ourselves from God's help in self-pity, and roll the stone back over the opening to shroud us in darkness!  Many believers are in this pitiful state.  They have listened to and believed the lies of Satan rather than the truth of God's Word, condemning themselves when Christ has redeemed them!  Can these dry bones live?  YES!  Praise be to God, He makes all things new.  His mercies are new every morning, and He grants us perpetually the promise of new life in Him.

Are you sick of your life?  Are you weary of the stench of death when God has made you alive?  Only God can give you this victory.  Cry out to Him for new life for He has said, "I make all things new."  A man said at this week's conference, "Because of this conference, we will never be the same."  That's just the kind of talk that disillusions people, for the emotional feelings will fade over time.  It is because of Christ we have been made new.  We don't ever have to be without Him and the power of renewal again!  Conferences will come and go, songs of worship have a beginning and end on earth, but fellowship with our Savior is for eternity.  New life can only be found in Him!

The Word Conference

Last night me and two mates took the red-eye from Perth to Sydney following the weekend conference at Calvary Chapel Albany.  We all were blessed by messages and testimonies from pastors Raul Ries and Bill Welsh, as well as from Ryan Ries of The Whosoevers.  The common qualities between these men are a genuine love of God, compassion, and a contrite spirit.  Whether they shared passages from scripture or detailed events of their lives, the power of Jesus Christ to save and deliver was central.  Being grounded and obedient to the Word of God was another uniting point of every discussion.

I was not only able to spend quality time with my traveling buddies Ian and Paul, but also met a lot of great people like Russ, Bruce, Luke, Bryan, and many more.  The more I travel around Australia the more I am struck by the fact we serve the same God.  We come from different backgrounds with different accents and roles in the Body of Christ, but we love and honor the same LORD.  It's amazing how powerful the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, and how it has remained unchanged since the very beginning.  What was Good News then is STILL Good News now.  The message never grows old because this world is still full of sinners who need forgiveness and new life in Christ.  Because there are more people on the world than ever, the need for salvation grows bigger by the day.

There will likely be a string of posts borne out of this conference as I consider what God is showing me.  He still wants to completely change and revitalize my relationship with Him.  Am I willing to grow in faith, obedience, and prayer?  Am I willing to believe that what God has promised He is able to perform?  Because of Christ we are never destined to remain in a rut or repeat past mistakes.  Our God makes all things new.  This promise is not only for those who have just made a commitment to follow Christ.  God desires to bring a newness to the way you approach God, a freshness to His Word, and graft into our hearts a renewed desire to please Him and fall back into love with Him again.  He wants our dry eyes moistened with divine affections, and our hearts to be full of love for Him and the lost.  We are not doomed because of our past, not even by what you did yesterday or today.  Because of Christ, we now have a future.  Will we live for Him?

Bursting the "Christian" Bubble

No matter what our standards are, life will force upon us a barrage of choices.  We will be forced to decide if we will have that fifth cookie, what movie we will watch, whether we should pay extra on the mortgage this month, or if diet Dr. Pepper actually tastes like regular Dr. Pepper.  As parents we not only have to make decisions about our lifestyle, but we must set boundaries for our kids.  Some parents make well-defined boundaries, and others let their children live as they please.  Boundaries to some are no different than a bubble!  Due to hurts they may have experienced as children, many parents work hard to protect their children from every potential worldly influence.  Boundaries are important.  But it is possible to make boundaries so restrictive for the child to be stripped of the decision making process when it comes to morality.  When "obey" or "disobey" are the only decisions to be made, when real choices present themselves many teens and young adults are actually tested for the first time and are usually away from the instruction of a parent.  The results are often disastrous.

All healthy human bodies have an immune system.  This immune system is able to isolate and destroy potential threats to the health of the body.  From 1971 to 1984, a boy named David Vetter lived in Texas who was basically born without a functional immune system.  Any exposure to germs would be fatal.  So he basically lived inside of a bubble and wore special suits designed by NASA.  I was intrigued by this quote from an article:  "Even though David was only five, he recognized his difference and dreaded what the future held - limited choices, feelings of alienation and an increased need to be polite and compliant so as not to reveal his anger."  This struck me as similar to the feelings of many kids whose parents construct a "Christian" bubble around them.  Because all choice is taken away and compliance is demanded, their anger grows.  By the time David was a teen, the doctors had great concern.  "Doctors feared that as a teenager he would become even more unpredictable and uncontrollable."  They decided to operate, and in a few months David became ill with cancer and passed away.  Life had become unbearable in the bubble, and outside the bubble he could not survive.  I have such respect for this tough little guy who faced unimaginable struggles.  The emotional fight must have been as strong as his battle for physical health.

David's case is extreme, and another example is equally compelling.  When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, the Native Americans were absolutely devastated by the common cold.  Without having been exposed to the flu before, the antibodies in the native people were not able to combat the virus initially.  Because medicine was far from what we have available to us today, countless people died as a result.  I have seen the exact thing happen in "churched" kids.  All their lives they have been confined under strict rules and guidelines given for their own "protection."  Like the Native Americans who became deathly ill from the influence of foreign germs, churched kids are easily overcome by worldly influences and temptations.  "Churched" is not the same as "Christian!"  Their anger and resentment builds towards God and church life in general.  When they finally are free from parental authority, many run as far away as possible from a semblance of Christianity and are hardened in their rebellion.  Why?  They see being a Christian as having rules.  They rebel against the bubble and relish to make their own choices even if it kills them.

I read a parenting book which emphasized, "Let reality be the teacher."  As Christians we often fall into the trap of thinking our job is to insulate our kids from reality and even consequences.  I would rather my child be cured of his rebellion under my care than a vain attempt when he is 22 in college and far away or far gone!  It is wise to protect our kids from obvious dangers, like sexual predators, pornography, drugs, alcohol, and friends who are bad influences.  But whenever possible, we should allow our kids to make their own decisions followed up with an opportunity for instruction.  For example, my oldest son Zed wanted to play a video game at his friend's house that was a "Mature" rated game for violence.  I could go with the bubble method and immediately say, "No rated M games.  Period.  End of story."  That would only allow the potential resentment and bitterness to grow inside of him.  So I did something a little different, even for me.  I said, "Zed, you make the decision.  If there's a lot of blood or cursing or stuff you know is wrong, don't play the game.  Let the LORD show you what to do."  This gave Zed an opportunity to make his own decision concerning one of those "gray" areas that will challenge us all our lives.

So after Zed came home, we talked about what had happened.  "Dad," Zed began.  "I'm thinking I made a bad decision."  "What do you mean, son?"  "Well, I played the game...but after I played it I realized I probably shouldn't have."  And then we were able to have a wonderful conversation about the choice Zed made and how he could make better decisions in the future.  It built trust between us rather than resentment.  We were able to talk about what was actually wrong with the game for Zed and encouraged him to seek forgiveness if he was in sin.  He will actually trust our decisions as parents more because we let him make a choice.  In this case it was a controlled environment.  I would never have done this with something blatantly sinful or harmful.  Take every opportunity to reason with your children according to the scriptures.  Instead of throwing out their music CDs because "That's the Devil's music!" it would be better to look carefully over the lyrics.  Allow them to see how the message lines up with the message of scripture.  Then they will make an educated decision.  Either way, you're effectively teaching them the process.

Jesus never told parents to isolate their children from the world.  Instead we are to be light in a dark world, the salt of the earth coming into direct contact with the world's wisdom to turn people to Christ.  We are to teach our children and raise them in the admonition of the LORD, not insulate them from making real decisions.  Our children are like ships on a billowing ocean.  The world will woo them with tempting breezes, subversive currents, and the sway of satanic temptations.  Our job as parents is to guide and direct them, teaching them of Christ and demonstrating a life set apart for God.  Someday your children will take the helm full-time.  Wouldn't it be wise to hand them the wheel while they are still young?  No person would ever think to send their children out in a sailboat without training or guidance. That soul would not doubt face the real threat of shipwreck!  We would never even allow an adult to fly a plane without expert supervision!  Instead of spending all our energy trying to protect our children by environment control, let's seek God's control of their hearts from within.  Let us cultivate in them not a reliance upon their parents for guidance, but a complete trust upon God for His leading according to the truth of the scriptures.