A Great Work

 "... 'I am engaged in a great work so I can't come.  Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?'"  (Nehemiah 6:3, NLT). "... [Yes], establish the work of our hands!"  (Psalm 90:17, ESV). "[Also] that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil--this is God's gift to man"  (Eccl. 3:13, ESV).
"In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty"  (Prov. 14:23, ESV).
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might..." (Eccl. 9:10, ESV).
"Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need"  (Eph. 4:28, ESV).

Do you see yourself as being assigned by God to do a "great work" just like Nehemiah did?  How you interpret your duty as a lot to say about your mission in life.  Do you have a mission statement as an individual?  We may have goals, which may or may not be accomplished, but we need a purpose in life to fulfill what God has called us to do.  Jobs don't last, but missions do!  I'm sure you've heard of the three bricklayers who were asked what they were doing:  One said he was laying bricks; another said he was making so-and-so much, but the one with divine viewpoint said he was building a cathedral.  Do you see yourself as a man on a mission?

St. Francis of Assisi was asked what he would do if he only had one hour to live: he'd finish the row he was gardening!  He knew what God wanted for him and was ready to meet his Maker.  Have you ever heard of Brother Lawrence, who was a monk in a Carmelite monastery in France in the seventeenth century?  He practiced the presence of God all day by keeping the dialogue open in prayer, no matter what his hands were doing, even washing dishes.

Nehemiah was a great motivator, who is chronicled as the man behind the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem in 52 days--a work of God!   He praised the people for their hard and dedicated work, and said, "the people had a mind to work"  (Neh. 4:6).  You could say, as the NLT does, that "they worked with enthusiasm." This is a problem today (even if we retire, we never retire from the Lord's work!), because the lazy are often rewarded equal to the hard-working, and the good-old-Protestant-work ethic is fading and people are not trying to see how much they can produce or contribute, but how much they can get or receive from society.

As a for instance, in 1607 Jamestown, Captain John Smith had a similar dilemma, where the so-called upper classes didn't see fit to work, and he quoted 2 Thess. 3:10, that says, "If a man doesn't want to work, he shall not eat."  We all have a duty to contribute to society, and no one is incapable of it, it is even possible for the disabled to do something, and make their mark on society.

God has blessed us with the pleasure of work, whereby we exhibit the image of God, for even Jesus worked and Adam did before the Fall.  We can find fulfillment in our work but must be careful not to make it our life--we need a work ethic, but we need a life too!   Solomon said that your work and your food and drink are blessings from God and we are meant to enjoy them (cf. Eccl. 3:13).  It seems unfair to work all your life and have your fortune left to others, but you must not see yourself as serving mammon, but God, not building a kingdom, but being in one!

Your purpose will last on after death, no matter who gets the fruits, and the most important thing you can leave is a legacy, not money--something bigger than you because it isn't all about you.  It is more important to have an impact and be somebody that God uses than to be a nobody with riches.  Einstein said that we shouldn't strive to be a success but to be persons of value.  I will mention in passing the wise words of Mother Teresa (now canonized):  "God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness."

A good work ethic entails doing our best, as unto the Lord (cf. Col. 3:17, 23) and finding the work God wants for us; for we are all called to and designed for something--don't make your God out to be too small, but bigger than your tasks, seeing divine purpose in everything ("Whatsoever you do...").  We are not called to be workaholics, but to do what God has assigned and to finish that work, just as Jesus said, "I have finished the work thou has given me to do"  (cf. John 17:4).  Some people try to get away with as little as possible and only work for themselves.  Actually, the greater we are, the more people we serve, not how many serve us.  We are to get the servant's heart and orientate ourselves to being God's slave and bond-servant.

It is key to have the mindset of Christ's servant or what Paul said in Romans 15:18 (NIV): "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me...."   (The NKJV says, "For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me....")   In the same vein or framework of mind and viewpoint Isaiah said, "All that we have done, you have accomplished through us"  (cf. Isaiah 26:12).  We are only vessels of honor being used by God and God will reward what He does through us!

In conclusion, let me demonstrate how orientation affects you:  Remember the song:  "I'm working for the man...."  To illustrate:  One athlete said he was a team player; another that he was the best on the team; another that he was on God's team!  Are you God's dishwasher, a member of the union, or only the best dishwasher, as it were?  Be God's man doing His work! We are not just called to pursue a job, but to labor in the name of the Lord, doing His divine work, according to our ability.   We are all laborers harvesting in the Lord's fields.   Soli Deo Gloria!    

Do You Have Enough Faith?

"The greatest question of our time is not communism versus individualism, not Europe versus America, not even the East versus the West--it is whether man can live without God."  (Will Durant, humanist historian) "God is dead."  (Nietzsche); "Nietzsche is dead."  (God)  [Graffiti in NYC subway]
"Men have forgotten God." (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)  "A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts."  (Historian Paul Johnson)
"With the exception of certain mathematicians and physicists, all authors of the Great Books are represented in the chapter on God."  (Mortimer Adler, The Great Ideas Syntopicon)
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God..." (2 Cor. 10:5, ESV).
"Where is the philosopher?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the debater of the age?  Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish?"  (Cf. 1 Cor. 1:20).

It isn't how much faith you have, but the object of the faith that matters: faith doesn't save, Christ does, though!   Jesus mentioned faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains.  It is better and more advantageous to have faith in the right direction, no matter how small it is ("O ye of little faith"), than to have misdirected, but strong faith in the wrong object--God desires sincere, unfeigned faith, not perfect faith (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5).  This can be illustrated by having a lot of faith in the Pope or the church, but none in Christ alone.  Your faith, no matter how much, must be solely in Christ (the Reformers' formula:  Faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone, brings salvation, by the authority of the Scripture alone [not the authority of the church or Pope!]).  You are adding to the grace of God by trusting in your merits or adding to your faith by adding a little trust in your church.  Don't add to the gospel's simplicity!

The spiritual man is no less a person of reasoning power than the natural, secular man. The dispute is not faith versus reason, but faith versus faith!  Faith is not to blame, but blind, misinformed faith.  It is not a conflict between faith and reason, but which set of presuppositions or assumptions you willing, knowingly accept.  Christians start with the faith that God has supernaturally revealed the truth or special revelation, while the secularist denies the supernatural as his assumption!  It is prima facie everyone has faith in something, even themselves: but faith is necessary for knowledge of any kind (Augustine).  The key to knowledge is the fear of the Lord, not evolution (cf. Prov. 1:7).

To today's Secularists, science has become a sort of religion (with the answers!) but faith in science is still faith!  Science has become a universal language! They believe all man's problems can be solved by science, but you cannot prove this presupposition by the scientific method! This is not science, but harnessing science unscientifically for unscientific purposes and is "scientism!" (An example of this: Carl Sagan said, "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.")  "Scientism" espouses the tenet that the only reliable source of truth is science.  Science cannot make philosophical or religious pronouncements, period.   Without God, you cannot have a metaphysical answer to a physical world since only matter exists (materialism) and everything can be explained by natural causes (naturalism).

Science has been wrong--scientists make mistakes, period; there's no such thing as perfect objectivity and flawless induction. And Science cannot make value judgments: it can tell us the "know-how", but not the "know-why" or meaning of reality (metaphysics)--this knowledge is not in the realm or domain of science. (That is, some things cannot be defined by, or confined to, laboratory conditions, and cannot be measured, repeated, or observed!)

However, everyone starts with some presupposition they cannot prove logically or empirically (by reason or experience--a priori, a posteriori). All-knowing, then, necessitates faith, which precedes knowledge! Though faith precedes knowledge, knowledge must be intelligible or understood by the reasoning power.  N.B. that the presuppositions one brings to the data determines one's deductions or conclusions. We commence with a presupposition no one can prove.  Christian faith steps beyond the reason and isn't contrary to it.  But faith in God is a reasonable proposition--we don't kiss our brains goodbye--"'Come now, let us reason together,' says the LORD" (cf. Isaiah 1:18).  (I refer to A Reasonable Faith, by William Lane Craig.)  N.B. that there is no fundamental strife between true science and the Bible--Francis A. Schaeffer wrote No Final Conflict to prove this.

Theology is the "queen of sciences" (according to Thomas Aquinas) and Christianity is the "mother of science" (it couldn't have evolved under any other worldview)--Sir Francis Bacon invented the scientific method and is the father of modern science, and all the first scientists were Christians, who believed a divine Lawgiver would create a predictable law-abiding universe worthy of study: Sir Francis Newton was a Bible scholar, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei jump-started scientific endeavor and discovery.  In contrast, Secularists deny the supernatural as their presupposition and rule God out of the equation even before beginning it--they are blinded by Satan (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4) and don't see the big picture of God at work.

Be ready for the skeptic's challenge!  When they say, "Where is God?"  Answer:  "Where isn't He?"  I would like to see the skeptic go to somewhere on earth untouched by the gospel and declare himself an atheist!   If someone says you cannot prove God, you must counter:  "You cannot disprove Him either, for logic says you can never prove a universal negative unless you are omniscient and omnipresent."  If someone says, "I don't believe in God," ask them if they think their belief makes any difference to God:  "God doesn't believe in atheists!"  You should always turn their objections or smokescreens back on them as a weapon they cannot fight.  Ask them for the evidence!  They will realize, then, that they cannot defend their position and it's pure, blind faith. They don't believe the Bible not even fathoming its main message!   Do you see the evil and say, "Why," or the good and say, "Why not?" Note that the Bible says that a fool has said in his heart [not mind--his heart's in the wrong place!] that there is no God (cf. Psalm 14:1).  "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them"  (Rom. 1:19, ESV).

There's no hard, definitive evidence that God exists or doesn't exist, but if you want to believe, and are an honest seeker, not a trifler, then God will find a way to authenticate Himself to you personally.  God wants to be found by faith because only faith pleases Him (cf. Heb. 11:6).  There is enough evidence in nature (His fingerprints and imprint) and in Scripture (His revealed will and testimony), that anyone with an open mind, willing spirit, and needy heart will believe.  If they tell you to prove the Bible is the Word of God, tell them to prove it themselves by exposing their soul to it by a sincere perusal.

Scholar Norman Geisler wrote a book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, and he is implying that it takes more faith to be an atheist than a believer; there's simply more evidence in God's favor and He answers more questions while having more unanswered questions for the atheist.  It's simply easier to believe that be a skeptic--go with the preponderance of the evidence! Descartes said, "Cogito, ergo sum" or," I think, therefore I am!"   He went on to conclude that God was, by the same logic--thinking requires a thinker, who, by definition, exists, and God is defined as the ultimate, final, higher thinker--the Higher Mind or Supreme Mind or Being.  Sir Francis Bacon, the so-called father of the scientific method, said, "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." Amen to Goethe, who said, "Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own."

Note that the vast majority of philosophers (including the Greek triumvirate of antiquity: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the philosopher) have expressed belief in God. Since ideas have a special impact and natural consequences, whether right or wrong, here are some men and one woman who changed history through atheism.  As you read this carefully, notice that Pandora's box of horrors was opened with the denial of God's reality, just like it says in Romans that God gave them up.  Give a passing thought or cursory reading to the manifold can of worms that has been opened! Note the havoc that atheists have wreaked on the social and moral order:  "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?  (Psalm 11:3, ESV).   A few famous, notable, great minds have been influential, or should I say militant atheists either in fact or in effect, though throughout history (no specific order):

Epicurus and his Epicurean philosophy ("eat, drink, and be merry"); reformer of Hinduism Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha--the Enlightened One), said if there was a God He can't help you find enlightenment--you must attain that on your own; philosopher Confucius; Greek philosophers, skeptic Democritus and existentialist Heraclitus; Roman Lucretius; skeptic David Hume, known for saying that miracles are a violation of natural law, but science cannot forbid miracles--their truth depends upon the veracity of the witness and credibility and dependability of the historical records; John Stuart Mill, along with David Hume and Bertrand Russell, he tried to disprove and discredit Christianity, and was the so-called most intelligent man who ever lived; Frederick Engels, philosopher, and coauthor of Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx; Ethan Allen, American patriot, said only science gives reliable ethics; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher of "dialectic [historical] idealism" or materialism, the basis and foundation of communism and Utopian theory, who said, "Everything is in the process of historical change," and who said that everything moves in stages to increased complexity, even societies and ideas [a state of flux];  Karl Marx, utopian with PhD in philosophy and author of Das Kapital, because he believed evolution gave the scientific basis for communism and wanted Darwin to write the intro, who said "Morality is only the expression of self-interest," and "Religion is the opiate of the people," and who became midwife to Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Zedong;Charles Dawin, credited with being the promoter of evolution and naturalist-biologist with an interest in uniformitarian geology influenced by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, which he took along- and turned philosopher--whose grandfather Erasmus Darwin originated evolutionary thought in Zoonomia, known for The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859 (hailed as "one of the most important books ever written" because it attacked the most important book ever written, the Bible, because it gave atheists a way to explain the universe without God in the equation, or to have academic and intellectual freedom), Darwin set sail on board The Beagle in 1831 to do empirical research and who thought that evolution, not God, was the ultimate truth or reality; Darwin's Bulldog Thomas Huxley; humanist Aldous Huxley, who said that atheism allowed for "sexual liberation," and the author of the "philosophy of meaninglessness"; social Darwinist Herbert Spencer, and a popularizer/promoter of agnosticism;  the famed Great Agnostic Robert Ingersoll, who was known for his anti-Christian oratory; existentialist Martin Heidegger; journalist at the Scopes trial, also known as the Monkey trial H. L. Mencken; the redoubtable Madalhyn Murray O'Hair, famed and infamous activist, who said ironically that nothing good ever became of Christianity and then succeeded in getting prayer banned from public schools in 1963, and was murdered by a former employee; Lord Bertrand Russell, philosopher-mathematician, who wrote iconic Why I Am Not a Christian, who ironically said that "what the world needs is more Christian love," while trying to disprove God's very existence and said there needs to be more evidence; philosopher Francois Marie Voltaire, who, on his death bed, died in despair and bemoaned the fact that he had to die without Jesus and enter hell forsaken, also said that "man created God in his image"--he was a Deist and mason, but a practical atheist and enemy of Christ; Jeremy Bentham who believed in the "greatest good for the greatest number" as the state's ethic (utitilitarianism);  William James, who said there's no universal truth, but you can only determine an idea's usefulness; Jean-Paul Sartre, French popular litterateur and teacher; Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher who deemed himself the Antichrist, was a homosexual, wimp, and anti-Semite, was also author of  Ubermensch" or superman, Hitler's model for Aryan supremacy and a master-race,  and philosopher of evolution and professor of philology; Ivan Pavlov, Russian behaviorist and psychologist, known for experiments with dogs' saliva; Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist and psychologist-neurosurgeon-anthropologist (who made Vienna the center of psychoanalysis) and was the father of psychoanalysis, who said religion and belief in God was a neurosis or even a psychosis and God was a throwback to our need of a father-figure--he came into vogue and was the most influential psychiatrist of the twentieth century; famed author Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide; Richard Wagner, composer of Hitler's favorite, Thus Spake Zaruthurstra; humanist historians, H. G. Wells and Will Durant; John Dewey, psychologist and educator, revolutionizing American public schools, and along with Charles Pierce and William James architect of pragmatism, whose ideas led the way to relativism, and who wrote the manifesto A Common Faith and contributed to the first Humanist Manifesto, to delineate humanism as religion without God, and was the champion of pragmatism:  "The test of an idea is not whether it's true, but whether it works"; John Kenneth Galbraith, former Humanist of the Year and socialist; French cynic Albert Camus, who said  that "the only philosophical question worth considering is suicide;" Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said that he didn't attribute to man any more significance than a baboon" and that "Law is the majority vote that can lick all others"; psychologist B. F. Skinner, pioneer of  Behaviorism, and who wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity implying we don't have responsibility, dignity, nor freedom (that "freedom is a illusion and dignity a lost cause"); humanist, and socialist John Kenneth Galbraith; humanist psychologist Erich Fromm, who wrote You Shall Be As Gods, saying belief in sin is our downfall, and we can become gods; philosopher-author Julian Huxley, who rendered evolution unequivocally as fact and that history is in a process of evolution, and who wrote Religion Without Revelation postulating that we don't need God for ethics; humanist psychologist Carl Rogers, known for popularizing the "self" or the "soul" and who denied that man was inherently evil; scientist and humanist Isaac Asimov; Carl Sagan, astronomer, author of Cosmos, and humanist-of-the-year, promoter of "scientism ("The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be:)"; entrepreneur Ted Turner, who said Christianity is for losers and that the Ten Commandments are obsolete and proposed the Ten Voluntary Initiatives, such as treating the earth with respect; author Richard Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion, saying believers catch belief like a fever and "Religion is a mental virus"; and finally, Stephen Hawking, brilliant scientist-professor-author, who wrote A Brief History of Time, and is an avowed enemy of God.


However, these examples only prove there is always the exception which proves the rule and these men's lives demonstrate their lack of faith in God and the fruit speaks for itself. "... [There] is none that doeth good" (cf. Psalm 14:1, 53:1, KJV).  Just like it says:   "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (cf. Rom. 1:28); "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie"  (cf. Rom. 1:25).  If you study the above list, you will see what evil has been perpetrated by introducing atheism and setting it loose on mankind.  "[If] the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3, ESV).   Why such animus aimed and directed toward God?  God is good and His fruits are good (cf Psalm 34:8:  "Taste and see that the LORD is good,...").  What evil has Christianity done, that they hate it?

There is always room for honest doubt but not a spirit of skepticism (cf. "I believe, help thou mine unbelief,"  Mark 9:24), but God still welcomes the skeptic, because there are answers to any honest scrutiny, which will be contravened by the Truth, which is absolute and timeless.   Christians have naught to fear from honest inquiry or scrutiny!  The Greeks invented skepticism, and dogma was their enemy--they didn't want to know anything for certain!  This is where Postmodernism puts us:  "You can know nothing for certain."  This truth claim has no truth value since it is a self-contradiction of truth relativism! Actually, the only truths they hold relative are the Christian ones!   How can they know that statement for sure anyway?  Atheism is a bankrupt, irrational, and invalid philosophy that cannot be defended, and the only motives for espousing it are moral rebellion and intellectual arrogance.

The problem is that the conclusions these men drew were prejudiced by their subjective presupposition that there is no God.  They ruled out His very existence before they even made any investigations because God is not palatable to their way of living; it wasn't suitable to their mores and didn't fit their lifestyle.  In other words, they didn't want to believe, not they couldn't believe--for this is man's problem (his intellectual arrogance, not his intellectual integrity).  You don't have to commit intellectual suicide to become a believer, for there is enough evidence for anyone willing to believe (If you are willing, you will know for sure, according to Jesus in John  7:17).  The Jews had this problem, for they had seen many signs and miracles, and still would not believe, not could not (cf. John 12:37, NIV; Psalm 78:32, NIV).

No one can be argued into the kingdom--you cannot rationalize God, through His presence is seen everywhere--His imprint from atoms to the galaxies shows His laws and nature at work!  Infidels are seldom convinced by argument--they just want to play mind games or power trips, to stump the Christians with unanswerable queries.   It is the skeptic that has the facts to fear, though!  Because Jesus is the personification of Truth (cf. John 14:6:  "I am the Truth...")!

We should note that in antiquity there was no sharp distinction between science and philosophy--they saw no contradiction, and indeed there is "no final conflict" (according to Francis Schaeffer), as the Bible has no scientific absurdities, has proved over and over again to be ahead of scientific discovery, and wherever it makes a scientific statement it is accurate--you don't have to be an atheist to be a good scientist, contrary to modern thought science has not disproved the Bible or God. In the final analysis, the only truth that counts is that which is according to reality--as Locke puts it:  that which corresponds to reality.  This is called the "correspondence theory of truth" or "true truth" as Francis Schaeffer terms it).   In summation, don't put your faith in the moving train of science, but in the eternal, immutable, infallible, inerrant Word of God as the definitive, final arbiter of truth!

But just notice how atheism is the ultimate irony:  order minus an "Orderer"; design minus the Designer; purpose minus any "Purposer"; justice minus a Judge; art minus an Artist; laws minus the Supreme Lawgiver; matter without a Creator (they don't refer to creation--this is like a building without a builder!); thought without a Supreme or Ultimate Thinker or Superior Mind;  can there be good without the Ultimate Good or standard of goodness?  Time without any beginning and no  Beginner; no Big Bang because that implies and necessitate a Beginner, too,  and a beginning of time!  They believe in the laws of nature, but not in nature's God or a Lawgiver!  They believe in naturalism, or that there are a natural reason and explanation for anything, and anything can be explained away in terms of the natural, not the supernatural. They believe in matter and materialism (or that only matter exists), but see no meaning behind it; they say we've come from nothing, have no meaning, and are headed nowhere! They deny a beginning and an ending of history--matter is eternal and "uncreated"!   If you saw beauty what good is it without someone to appreciate it and to be designed for someone to be enjoyed?  How can you believe in thought if you believe everything is material/energy/quanta and there is no supernatural or immaterial?   You cannot believe in rationalism without a rationale behind the cosmos!

Atheists take a leap of faith based on sentiment, not reason ("The fool has said in his heart that there is no God").  Atheists are the ones with great faith and out on a limb, with no defenses!  Most atheists just feel like atheists and haven't thought it out--they are atheists by consequence not a conviction and they don't want to believe the inconvenient, uncomfortable, or unpalatable.  Most atheists cannot defend their faith and thus have blind faith by definition, not knowing why they don't believe.  Atheism is a bankrupt philosophy that cannot answer the basic questions of life and gives nothing but a bleak outlook on our purpose and meaning, to the point of despair.  It raises many more questions than it asks and can challenge people of faith that should be able to answer them (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15).    Soli Deo Gloria!

Fighting God...

"There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD" (Prov. 21:30, NIV).

On the road to Damascus Jesus confronted Saul that it was "hard for [him] to kick against the goads." (Cf. Acts 26:14, ESV).   The NLT says, "... It is useless for you to fight against my will."  God's will is stronger than ours--He's the Almighty! He gets His way!   His power "works mightily in us" (cf. Col. 1:29).  We have a will, but God decided our nature, and we act according to our nature, which God has the power to manipulate.  

If everything seems to be against us, perhaps we are going the wrong way ourselves!  For God is at work within us, "both to do and to will of His good pleasure" (cf. Phil. 2:13).  He will make us willing on the day of salvation (cf. Psalm 110:3).  God's will overcomes ours and it is vain and futile to oppose God:  "... For who can resist his will?" (Rom. 9:19, ESV).

When God decides to save us, He doesn't just help us to believe (we cannot believe apart from God, as it says in John 15:5 that "apart from [Him] we can do nothing"), but He makes believers out of us (quickening our spirit with faith), by virtue of irresistible grace, called the effectual call of God (cf. Rom. 8:30).  When we call someone they may or may not respond, but when God does it, the result is guaranteed and efficacious. Jeremiah proclaims "...[Y]ou are stronger than I and have prevailed..." (Jer. 20:7, ESV).  We must not find ourselves contrary to God!

We must not find ourselves contrary to God's revealed or preceptive will (which can be thwarted), because God will find a way to work out His plan regardless:  "If he snatches away, who can stop him?  Who can say to him, 'What are you doing?'" (Job 9:12, NIV);  "... No one can hold back his hand or say to him:  What have you done?"  (Dan. 4:35, NIV).  God gets His way:  "... 'Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen'" (Isa. 14:24, NIV); "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him [going against His decreed or secret will]?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" (Isa. 14:27, NIV); and finally, "'Have you not heard?  Long ago I ordained it.  In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass...'" (Isa. 37:26, NIV).  Even the Gamaliel recognized the futility:  "'... You might even be found opposing God!'..."  (Acts 5:39, ESV).

God accomplishes His will in us:  He will "equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.."  (Heb. 13:21, ESV).  God will accomplish His will with or without our cooperation, and it is our privilege to be the clay in His hands, our Potter.  For this reason, we ought to stop fighting God or kicking against the goads and get with the program.  We are made to do His will and this is the only way to find fulfillment (in His will).  Our wills follow our minds and God can change our minds and give us a "knowledge of the truth" (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25, NLT).

Isaiah wondered:  "O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart so that we fear you not?..."  (Isa. 63:17, ESV).  God can "uphold [us] with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:12, ESV).   It is for our own good that we pray the prayer of relinquishment and put ourselves in God's hands, praying that His will be done through us willfully, with our cooperation.  Wycliffe's tenet applies:  "All things come to pass of necessity," and we must realize God's sovereignty, that He is in complete control, working all things for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28) if we love Him. It is important to know that we are aligned with God's will, to know whose side we're on; it is vain to fight God the Almighty One, for He is stronger than us, His creatures, and there is not even "one maverick molecule in the universe," according to R. C. Sproul!

"...'The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will...'" (Acts 22:14, NIV).  Christians are exhorted to seek His will and have the unique privilege of knowing it.  We also pray in His will and all our prayers are answered if they comply to His will (cf. 1 John 5:14).   One petition of the Lord's prayer is for God's will to be done.  God's will is laid out to us in Scripture and revealed and illuminated through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.   Even Paul tells the Greeks:  "For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God" (Acts 20:27, NIV).  We are responsible for what God has opened our eyes to; to whom " much is given, much is required" is the principle (cf. Luke 12:48).

Jesus said that those who do the will of God are His brother, mother, and sister!  (Cf. Matt. 12:50, NIV).  And so it is paramount that we seek, know, and do God's will.  Why?  "... For whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17, NIV); "you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised"  (Heb. 10:36, NIV);  "... [That] you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured"  (Col. 4:12, NIV).  Soli Deo Gloria! 

Fideism Versus Faith...

We choose to believe with our volition, it follows from our heart and where that is; if it's in the right place.  We don't believe despite the evidence or demand that all the evidence be presented before drawing a conclusion or taking a stand.  Just like in a jury trial we go with the flow, or in the direction of the preponderance of the evidence--which isn't always conclusive or even certain, and there may be unanswered questions or doubts.  Belief is not independent of the facts or evidence but concordant with it.

Evidence is not always conclusive, and may be subjective too (it can be circumstantial, indirect, or direct), but is only one argument to consider in making the final decision.  There may be evidence pro and con, arguments for and against, we must weigh all the facts pertinent before making the final decision.  We don't reach a conclusion irrespective of the evidence; however, some people cannot be convinced no matter the evidence because they don't want to believe.

(Faith is not believing something you know isn't true!  Everyone has faith in something, even Secularists have faith that science can answer the questions of man; it's not a matter of faith versus reason, because we all commence with some presupposition we cannot ultimately prove, whether divine revelation or science.  Fideism is the belief that we can attain to knowledge (of God) by faith alone, apart from our reason, while rationalism is the opposite, that truth is arrived only by reason--true biblical faith is based on the evidence and respects the mind, it doesn't insult your intelligence.

Fideism is basically the conviction that faith is mutually exclusive of and opposed to reason. Augustine said all knowledge begins in faith, or "I believe in order to understand." You are entitled to your own opinions and faith in them, but not your own fabricated facts.  Conclusions must be based on fact, fitting, and following them, the facts aren't made to fit and follow the preconceived conclusions or notions.)

We must not succumb to the notion that believing something makes it true or disbelieving something makes it untrue-- the evidence is either true or false regardless of acceptance or belief.  We cannot prove without a doubt that Christianity is true because God requires a step of faith and we can demonstrate that faith is much more reasonable than doubt and even that doubt can be an element of faith itself (cf. Mark 9:24:  "I believe, help thou mine unbelief").  We must make our decision in a rational manner and decide which one fits the facts more fully and completely.  Christianity is not rationalism, though, and can be defended on the open marketplace of ideas, but is rational--Christians aren't asked to kiss their brains goodbye.

However, we are exhorted to defend our faith and to have a reason or rationale why we believe in 1 Pet. 3:15 (cf. "have a reason for the hope that is within you")--if we don't, we only confirm infidels in their unbelief!  If we just go by feelings we may fall by the wayside and not endure testing and challenges to our faith, as people of other faiths may have duplicate feelings about their God or religion.  The unique aspect of our experience in Christ is that it's backed up by and the only religion supported by the objective, external, historical evidence of the resurrection of Christ, as well as personal, internal, subjective experience in the life and heart of the believer--Christianity is based on evidence and facts of history, not fable or sayings of wise men such as Confucius or Buddha--which are really philosophies with religiosity.  Christianity is a historical faith or it is nothing, and disproving its historical credibility would discredit the faith itself.

Many have tried to disprove historical references or its historicity, but have failed in the process and have even gotten converted to Christianity in the process against their wills.  No amount of argument will convince the unwilling, you cannot argue someone into the kingdom of God or persuade him by rationalism; Christianity is rational, but it isn't rationalism. No one will come to faith in Christ apart from the work of the Spirit within his heart, but he must not base his faith on the fact that he feels Christ lives in his heart--going by feelings--a duplicate experience can be had by other faiths, but he must learn to see the power of the Word in changing and sanctifying him.

God asks no one to have blind faith, which is demeaning to believers and an outrage to God, but only to take a reasonable step of faith into the light--faith is the antidote to blindness, not its cause!  In the end we all have a rationale for our faith and should be able to defend ourselves with our personal testimony--like the blind man who testified, "I was blind, but now I see."  This cannot be refuted and no one can deny the reality of his profession.  We are exhorted to testify of what we do know and the reality of our faith, not another person's.  When we witness we declare the facts as we see them and can verify by experience--it's admissible in a court of law!

The problem with unbelievers who don't believe is that they don't want to believe, not that they cannot.  "Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him"  (John 12:37, NIV). John Stott adds that "we cannot pander to someone's intellectual pride, but must cater to their intellectual integrity."  No one is required to commit intellectual suicide or believe without any answers.  However, we all must take that leap of faith in obedience to the faith.  The problem most have is moral rebellion, not intellectual problems or hindrances, and their questions or challenges are mere smokescreens to avoid the real issue of surrender to the lordship of Christ.

The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart!  Nonbelievers are described in Rom. 2:8 as those who reject the truth, and this truth is true objectively, regardless of whether one believes it or not or who told us.   What they do is feign intellectual problems to try to stump the Christian and change the subject from making a decision for Christ in surrender.  God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to any seeker who desires to know Him, but Jesus said that also that only those willing will believe:  "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know..." (cf. John 7:17).

In exhorting decisions, one must realize that he doesn't need all the answers to believe, but he can believe anyway if he is willing and wants to believe--no amount of evidence will convince the person whose heart is hardened.  Just like a jury making a verdict based on known evidence, not all evidence may be in, so we just go ahead and believe anyway, though we don't know all the answers.  The important thing is to know the Answerer!

We must realize that Christianity is a reasonable proposition and we will never be disappointed in our decision.   As volumes have been written about the so-called evidence that demands a verdict and God gave us a mind and expects us to use it and inquire of the Lord.  The evidence can be presented cogently and there is hardly any question that hasn't been answered--Christianity is not going to come tumbling down by some brand new doubt that hasn't been resolved before!

When the plain facts are presented cogently one will realize that Christianity is based on a rational body of truth, based in history, and it's veracity was proven in the blood of the martyrs who died for their proclamation about Jesus as having risen from the dead.  Even the historicity of the resurrection is vouched by multiple sources and is probably the most attested fact of antiquity--would any historian doubt the reality of Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great in contrast--Jesus was no myth and his historicity is vouched for by many pagan sources too.

All in all, we cannot deny the facts and one must be confronted with making a decision for or against Him--making no decision, is making a decision against Christ!  It is not the believer who has to fear the scrutiny of the facts, but the skeptic who refuses to face the facts and acknowledge the truth! It has been said that Christianity goes beyond reason, but not against it!  If the facts of the Bible were presented to any court of law, the jury would have to declare them true based on the evidence which would be admissible. 

What is interesting is that most people who don't believe have never examined the evidence or even read the Bible.  This is the whole crux of the matter--that we don't have to defend it or prove it, the seeker can do that himself by reading the testimony of the evangelists in Scripture himself. God, indeed,  welcomes any honest inquiry and doubt, because He expects no one to believe something he isn't intellectually convinced of, or to commit intellectual suicide.     Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Focus Of Relinquishment

We all must face a crisis in our faith whereby we will have our "moment of truth" regarding our faith in God's will versus our own way--we are all like sheep gone astray, each one to his own way (cf. Isaiah 53:6).  If you've never grappled with the will of God, you probably haven't surrendered; once you have made the once-and-for-all relinquishment of control and ownership of your life, it only becomes a renewed effort on a continual, progressive, ongoing basis, even with day-by-day re-commitment.

We may one day be backed by God's will that clashes with the way we see things.  Once we have made this initial surrender that Romans 12:1 mentions as "our reasonable service," it becomes a pleasure to walk in the Spirit as we desire God's will (cf. Psalm 40:8:  "I delight to do thy will..."), and actually inquire as to what it is, whereby before we never even wondered about it.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, we learn that even Jesus had a will of His own, but He interposed it with the Father's will throughout His life, coming to a climax here; even at age 12 He said, "I must be about My Father's business [doing  His will]."

We are rebellious at heart and God has to work on us to mold us in His image, someday we end up backed into a wall and will make that decision to "follow Jesus."  This is the summation of our ethics: to follow on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3), doing His will to His glory.  Even Jesus had His time of testing and trial in the Garden of Gethsemane and surrendered to the Father's will, which He knew was something He didn't want in His humanity and was actually relating to our struggle with relinquishment.  Christ never asked us to do anything He didn't do Himself; in fact, our so-called crosses pale in comparison to His and He relates completely, even sending the Comforter to guide and lead us.  Jesus surrendered voluntarily and our surrender is the same, God wants us to want His will, not to feel that we have to submit to something we don't want.  In the end, all that counts is not how much of the Spirit you have, but how much of you the Spirit has; i.e., re your surrender!

Jesus doesn't ask us to die for Him, by and large, but to live for Him, to dedicate our lives to Him as living sacrifices, which is only a reasonable service of worship (cf. Rom. 12:1-2).  We are in the serious business of seeking God's will and obeying it; a genuine sign of a believer is that he wonders about God's will and submits to it gladly.  We are not Christians at all if we have never prayed our prayer of relinquishment, like Christ did Himself, and have given over the ownership of our lives to live them for His glory and not for ourselves.  It should be noted that often our surrender occurs after a good time or even a time of anxiety or stress (there's good stress).  And we are most vulnerable to testing after a victory or a "spiritual high," just like Jesus was tempted after His baptism by Satan.

Trusting Jesus is no less daring and brave than getting married and we must not run from God or avoid the corner we are backed into, but face the dilemma with the courage of God in our hearts.  Remember that He gives the Spirit without measure and some believers don't have more of the Spirit, they are just more surrendered and walk closer with the Lord.

Jesus had a divine as well as a human side; we have a flesh as well as a spirit and we must surrender our spirit to God's to overcome our flesh.  We may be facing some pet sin or a sin that easily besets us, but we can be reassured of victory only after our surrender. This initial surrender is often accompanied by a fear of the unknown, since the seeker may wonder if God is going to make them do something they don't want to do, like go to Africa, but if we realize the love of God and how He establishes us in the faith with all the provision to do His will, we can have faith in Christ despite our fears.  We must overcome our fears and get the courage to obey by having a heart fully surrendered, holding nothing back and having no reservations--then we will be able to walk with God and live in the Spirit day by day.  That is, we face our fears head on without running from them or dodging the bullet.

It may be as easy as just starting by making confessions of all fears and reservations, and having a person-to-person or one-on-one talk with God to resolve the areas of doubt and what your fears are.  God only reveals His will to the willing believer; it's only personal fears that keep a person from surrender and God will give you the courage to obey His will if you are surrendered--those who are rebellious will never know! We must trust God to only give us crosses we can bear and that He will give us the power to do His will, as well as the provision needed per Heb. 13:21 (NASB):  "[Equip] you in every good thing to do His will...."

According to Rom. 12:2 we have to surrender to know God's will, that is the divine order of events and link.  A true believer ultimately delights to do God's will, though he may falter or fail at times, deep inside he wills or yearns to please God and live for His glory (Psalm 40:8, KJV, with emphasis added, says plainly, "I delight to do thy will...").  Paul's prayer for the Colossians was to "be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding"  (Col. 1:9, NASB).  We must bear in mind that God is able to overcome our wills (cf. Rom. 9:19), and make us willing to do His will, by taking our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26) and, according to Psalm 51:12, will give us or sustain us with a "willing spirit."  We are to imitate or emulate Christ's example and motto of His life:  Thy will be done!

You can always discern those who haven't ever made the prayer of relinquishment:  They don't know God's will or wonder about it; are apathetic about it; have reservations or something they're holding back on God with; or they aren't seeking God or walking with Him in a growing faith and relationship as they "learn to love Him more dearly, follow Him more nearly, and know Him more clearly" (Richard of Chichester).  Usually, upon salvation, one is cognizant of God's will in the short term, but no one knows His will in the long- erm because it isn't rolled out for us in a life plan, but the "course of our life is in [His] hands" (Psalm 31:15, HCSB).  God makes us willing to do His will progressively per Phil. 2:13 (NASB):  "[F]or it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." In the final analysis, it's not how much of the Spirit that you have, but how much of you the Spirit has!   Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Lowest Bidder

If you've ever heard of public auctions, you very well know that the item goes to the highest bidder, even if they cannot afford it, they made the mistake of outbidding and must live with their decision and choice of what he bought and the consequences.  Salvation is the reverse:  Salvation doesn't go to the highest bidder, though, if you will, because you couldn't possibly bid high enough to pay your ransom price--Christ alone paid the price we couldn't afford or handle, as we were in the red and hopelessly in debt with a debt, we couldn't possibly pay--in effect we were bankrupt! 

But Christ volunteered to pay our debt of sin and didn't have to do it, or it wouldn't be mercy, but justice!  God owes no one salvation, and it is not a payoff for having faith as "good work."  Nothing we did qualified us for salvation--we can not prepare ourselves for it in a "pre-salvation work", nor meet God's standards.  Unless we realize our condemnation, we're not ready for grace.

What is meant by the lowest bidder, who will get saved?  First of all, our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God, and our righteousness is as filthy rags per Isaiah 64:6.  If you will recall the sinner's prayer in Luke 18:13, where the publican prays for God to be merciful to him, a sinner.  Actually, he meant "the sinner," because he loathed his sin and didn't try to justify himself or compare himself to anyone else and think he was better than them.

Unlike the Pharisee who thanks God he is not a woman, Gentile, nor slave, and that God should give him kudos for all his self-righteousness, such as fasting twice a week, and giving of a tithe of everything he owned, while neglecting (cf. Mat. 23:23) the heavier duties of the law:  justice, mercy, and faithfulness--which are the virtues of the redeemed and putting the essence of the law of Moses into action.  All that really matters, according to Paul in Gal. 5:6 is faith being worked out in love.  Why?  Love is the fulfillment of the law!  Did the Pharisee have this attribute?

The lowest bidder seeks no lame excuse for his sin, but comes clean with God and renounces his pet sin as well as his private ones.  We must all disown our old way of life and seek a new life in Christ.  Whenever we justify ourselves and compare ourselves we are not wise (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12).  Now maybe you recall Jesus saying the prostitutes were closer to the kingdom of God than the Pharisees; they knew how empty their lives were with no meaning or purpose, and the possibility of a new life sounded appealing to them and especially being forgiven and set free (recall the woman caught in adultery!).  

In speaking of low bids, we must realize our slavery to sin ("a man is a slave to whatever overcomes him," says Rom. 6:16).  "Some people are enslaved to whatever defeats them," (cf. 2 Pet 2:19).  It's a lot like quitting smoking: you don't know your addiction till you try to stop!  Sin is like that:  you don't know how bad you are till you tried to be good, and you can't be good till you realize how bad you are!  This is like a catch-22.  In the end, what we do in essence is to throw ourselves into God's hands and sue Him for mercy in the heavenly courts.


The lowest bidder is like Paul thinking of himself as the "chief of sinners," and also of John Bunyan, who wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  This is because the closer we are to God and His kingdom, the more clearly we sense and see our own personal sin, and don't look at the other guy or accuse him. We must acknowledge that only God is good and that we are depraved through and through and can do nothing to please God of ourselves: John 15:5, ESV, says,  "... [F]or apart from Me you can do nothing."   Paul says in 1 Cor. 4:7 that we are the product of grace all the way:  "What do you have that you didn't receive?"  It is the goody-goodies that are more distant from the kingdom of God, being do-gooders and having self-righteousness that is an abomination to God.

We come to God as we are, but we don't stay that way--we are changed from the inside out by a work of grace to change our hearts (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).   If we think we came to Christ of our own power, we probably left Him that way too!   God must woo us and enable us to come to Him (cf. John 6:44, 65).  God can take any heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh according to Ezek. 36:26.  No one is too far from salvation to be saved and faith is something anyone can have as a gift--it's the only way to be saved by grace and not by merit.  For we don't deserve it, cannot repay it, and did not earn it, to begin with--it's all grace from start to finish so that God alone gets the glory (in Latin, Soli Deo Gloria!).

We are bad sinners, but not too bad to be saved, in other words--God's grace can reach anyone!    We are all in the same boat, drowning sinners in the sea of evil, and God rescues us by grace, and we owe it all to Him.    Recall the pertinent praise song:  "All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife..." In conclusion, what does it take to be saved?  The qualification for salvation is to realize you aren't qualified!   We have nothing to offer God for salvation, but He wants us despite ourselves.  He seeks those who are lost and not righteous (cf. Luke 19:10; Matt. 9:13).

All in all, we must acknowledge our feet of clay and uselessness before God's plenipotence or omnipotence, and Jesus sees through our veneer (we are not basically good, but inherently evil); our radical corruption permeates to the core and we have no island of righteousness to please God (indeed, we are as bad off as we can be, though, because of His restraint, not as bad as we can be!).  Man does have a high opinion of himself, but God's estimation of man is total depravity through and through.   Soli Deo Gloria!

He Makes Something Beautiful

The song goes, "Something beautiful, something good; all my confusion He understood; all I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife; He made something beautiful of my life!"

"I know, LORD, that a person's life is not his own.   No one is able to plan his own course"  (Jer. 10:23, NLT).

"The LORD will work out his plans for my life--for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever.  Don't abandon, me, for you made me"  (Psalm 138:8, NLT). 

"How can we understand the road we travel?  It is the LORD who directs our steps"  (Prov. 20:24, NLT).

"John replied, 'God in heaven appoints each person's work" (John 3:27, NLT).  

"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified"  (Acts 20:32, ESV).  

"Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm"  (Isa. 7:9, NLT).  

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16, NKV).

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity"  (Rom. 12:2, J. B. Phillips).

"Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?"  (Lam. 3:38, NLT). "... Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" (Job 2:10, NLT).

We don't need a self-help or self-improvement course to become what God wants us to be, just learn to walk in the Spirit and avail ourselves of His power over sin.  There's always room for improvement and we are all works in progress!  Even Paul never claimed to have arrived and said that he wasn't there yet (cf. Phil. 3:12-13).  Christ exhorts us to be perfect or mature in Matt. 5:48; however, though perfection is the standard, the direction is the test!  Christians aren't perfect, but they are forgiven; there's no such thing as perfectionism, whereby we don't sin anymore:  "Who can say, 'I made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin?'" (Prov. 20:9, ESV).  The psalmist in Psalm 119:96 said he'd seen the limit of all perfection.

When we are mature in Christ we will be overcomers and find victory over our private sin:  "I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt [sin]"  (Psalm 18:23, ESV).  As Job said appropriately in Job 14:14 (NIV), "All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come." As Psalm 103:4 (ESV) says, "[He] redeems your life from the pit [of despair or depression]."  Just like the transformation of the apostles after the resurrection to make them bold witnesses, we can count on the same power to change us from within.

Religion is just that:  Reaching out to God and trying to gain His approbation.  Christianity is where God stoops down in grace and reaches out to us, doing a work of grace in our hearts that we cannot do; if we had to do anything for salvation we'd mess it up and fail!  The whole point of salvation is that it's a fait accompli or done deal, it's not "do," but "done!" We don't turn over a new leaf or resolve to make amends, or make New Year's resolutions, but are changed by the same dynamic that resurrected Christ--we are given a new life with a fresh start, freed from our past's power over us. Salvation must be recognized as a gift and we don't earn it, didn't deserve it, and can never pay it back!

Unfortunately, we are incurably addicted to doing something for our salvation, but Jesus said the work of God is to believe in Him (cf. John 6:29)!  In a works religion you can never be sure and never know how much work is enough--Christianity alone, of all faiths, offers assurance of salvation and admonishes to make sure of our calling and election (cf. 2 Pet. 1:10) so we won't be the casualty of Satan and our walk won't be paralyzed or stuck in a rut!

We have three areas of weakness that Satan attacked Jesus on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (cf. 1 John 2:16).  Note that one who is born of God doesn't practice sin or make it his way of living--he has renounced sin!  (Cf. 1 John 3:6).  Knowing ourselves, our adversary the devil and his schemes, and the world-system is key to victory since the best path to victory is to know the enemy! Satan is no original and hasn't thought up any new attacks since tempting Eve in the perfect environment--this means we cannot blame the environment, for we are all depraved through and through by sin's corruption--body, emotions, intellect, and will or volition.  Socrates said that the "unexamined life is not worth living," and the Greeks of antiquity said we must know ourselves--this is true because we are our own worst enemy and Satan knows our vulnerability and weakness and "seeks whom he may devour" (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8-9).


God has wonderful plans for us and it is never too late to get on track--He has no Plan B, but if we don't seek His will, He may say, "Okay, have it your way!" which will never work out for us:  We must be convinced that all things work out together for our good according to Romans 8:28, but we can thwart God's preceptive will for our lives.  Psalm 81:12 (ESV) says:  "So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels."  We don't clean up our act and then we are ready to do His will or to be saved, but we are incapable of getting our act together apart from grace:  "Apart from Me you can do nothing"  (cf. John 15:5).

We are either in God's will, or not, and we can't say that we'll settle for God's second-best either!  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11, ESV).  Job's faith was tested as he couldn't understand why we must accept adversity from the LORD if we accept blessing--He sends both good and bad times.  But God can remake our lives into Christ's image because He is in the resurrection business, and no one is too much of a challenge for Him, Jeremiah proclaims "... Nothing is too hard for you"  (Jer. 32:17, ESV).   God answers  Abraham and Sarah:  "Is anything too hard for the LORD...?" (Gen. 18:14, NIV).

We must realize that Christianity is not a catalog of rules, a list of dos and don'ts, a system of ethics or conduct, a philosophy, but a relationship getting to know Jesus--it's not a creed to believe, but a person to know.  Paul said in Acts 13:38-39 (ESV--italics mine) that "everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." We are set free from sin's dominion (cf. Rom. 6:14) and if Jesus sets us free we shall be free indeed (cf. John 8:36).  Our new life is one of victory and glorifying Christ as we progress from faith to faith (cf. Rom. 1:17) and glory to glory (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18) in our sanctification by the Holy Spirit.

God causes us to triumph (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14) and we "are more than conquerors" (cf. Rom. 8:37).  We don't try hard, but trust in His power to change us from the inside out ("If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.").  We must remember that nature formed us by procreation; sin deformed us in Adam; schools inform us by education; prison can reform us by punishment when evil; but only Christ can transform us by the power of the Spirit.

Where does this power come from?  The Word of God, the Spirit, God through Christ.  The Word is alive and powerful (cf. Heb. 4:12); the Word is able to work within us for our good (cf. 1 Thess. 2:13); and the same power of the Holy Spirit that resurrected Christ is at work within us--no one is too big a challenge!  (Cf. Phil. 3:10).  He's still in the resurrection business, and changing lives is Christ's vocation.  Jesus is in the business of changing lives!  We can do all through Christ, who strengthens us (cf. Phil. 4:13).

We must rely on the power of God in us and walk by the Spirit, not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:16); for as many, as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God (cf. Rom. 8:14).  We are transformed by the renewing of our mind, done by the power of the Word sanctifying us (Jesus prayed in John 17:17:  "Sanctify them by Your Word, Your Word is truth").  Note that no problem is too big a challenge for God, but the change doesn't come all at once either!

We must be overcomers over the sin that easily besets us (cf. Heb. 12:1), and even our pet sin and let no sin have dominion over us (cf. Psalm 119:133). In the same vein:  "How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins. Don't let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin"  (Psalm 19:12-13, NLT).   Paul writes:  "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful, All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything."  It is important to realize that our sin doesn't demonstrate our freedom, but proves our slavery and we can be set free (cf. Rom. 6:14).  "You are slaves to whatever you choose to obey" (cf. Rom. 6:16).

We can be set free from the vicious circle of sin and death (cf. Rom. 8:2).  Anyone who has faith can overcome the world and no evil can control us because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (cf. 1 John 4:4).  There is no temptation that we cannot overcome and find a way of escape that we can endure it (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13) and nothing will overwhelm us:  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and your troubles will not overwhelm you"  (cf. Isa. 43:2); "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you, When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown..." (Isa. 43:2, NLT).

We have three enemies of our sin nature, the flesh; the devil and his minions and cohorts; the world-system itself that we are not to love what it has to offer (cf. 1 John 2:15).  But our worst enemy is ourselves and we will find more trouble with ourselves than with anyone else! It has been said facetiously that "We have met the enemy and he is us!"  We live in enemy-occupied territory, or Satan's turf and are on his hit-list. When we get saved the battle has just begun, but remember, "The battle is the Lord's."  Martin Luther sang in "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God":  Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.

The only way to sure victory is to be armed with God's heavenly armor:  "Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might"  (cf. Eph. 6:10).  Our only offensive weapon of choice is the Word of God and this is how Jesus defeated Satan, by quoting it:  "It is written!"   We must have our defenses intact too:  the shield of faith; the belt of truth; the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace; the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation!   So get in uniform with other believers and you'll be ready to wage war on Satan!   Christians are set free form evil and the evil one cannot touch them (cf. John 17:15; 1 John 5:18)--knowing the truth of the matter will set us free (cf. John 8:32).


Everyone has a crutch and it is no shame to lean on the Lord and the Word of God as comfort; He'll never leave us nor forsake us (cf. Heb. 13:5), and will be with us to the end of the age (cf. Matt. 28:20).  'The Lord is my strength and my song, and my salvation" said David in Psalm 18:2.  Our Rock is Christ (cf. Psalm 18:31, 46; 1 Cor. 10:4).  If you don't trust in the Lord, you will trust in man or yourself, and they are not rocks at all.  The biggest reason believers fail is a lack of knowledge and that they don't know the Lord (cf. Hos. 4:1, 6, 14).  As Sir Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power" referring to Proverbs 24:5.  Our God is not a throwback to our need for a Father-figure!  He is not a projection that we imagine because we have nowhere else to go!  God can be experienced and made real--He will authenticate Himself to any earnest seeker who is not a trifler (cf. Heb. 11:6)!  "Taste and see that the LORD is good"  (cf. Psalm 34:8, NIV).  There are perks and fringe benefits to knowing the Lord:  "What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?"  (Psalm 116:12, ESV);  "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits"  (Psalm 103:2, ESV).

And so salvation is freedom from guilt, sin's power, condemnation, and the penalty of sin with the promise of being delivered finally from its presence in glory!   Many Christians live defeated lives and fall prey to the devil's schemes of divide and conquer mind games, and deceit or lies.  The best offense is to be armed with the Word resident in our souls to give us the divine viewpoint and worldview to see him at work and fight him and his influence.  Our faith is not a do-it-yourself proposition or lifting ourselves up by our bootstraps, but a work of grace transforming us into new creatures in Christ or being regenerated by the Spirit.   We are saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved, praise the Lord!   We must give God all the credit, our righteousness is as filthy rags and any goodness we have is God's gift to us, not our gift to God:  "Who makes you to differ?  What do you have that you didn't receive?"  (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).


In perspective, man ruins his own life and blames God (cf. Prov. 19:3), and when he's a success he gives himself the glory and credit, not realizing that God gives them success (cf. Deut. 8:17; Psalm 1:3; Josh. 1:8;  Jer. 29:11).  It is said that modern man is like the Englishman:  a self-made man who worships his creator!  In contrast note Psalm 100:3 (NKJV):  Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture."  That is:  God is the Potter; we are the clay!   Note God's providence; we need to realize our lives are ultimately in God's hands (cf. Psalm 31:15):  "The course of my life is in Your power..." (HCSB); "My future is in your hands..." (NLT); "My times are in your hand..." (NIV, NKJV).  God orchestrates our lives and plans out each day before we were yet born (cf. Psalm 139:16).  We have a destiny with God in control, not a fate with no input--viva la difference!

In conclusion, seven rather obscure passages come to mind with italics mine:  "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace:  thereby good shall come unto thee"  (Job 22:212, KJV); I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me"  (Psalm 57:2, ESV); "But He gives more grace..." (James 4:6, NKJV); "... [But] the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways..." (Daniel 5:23, ESV); I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living"  (Psalm 27:13, NKJV, italics in Bible for part A); "You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever"  (Psalm 16:11, NLT);  "Look at those who are honest and good, for a wonderful future lies before those who love peace"  (Psalm 37:37, NLT).  Finally, quoting Paul in 1 Cor. 15:10 (NIV, CAPS MINE):  "BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM...."  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Contrite Heart

"For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret..." (2 Cor. 7:10, ESV). 

"... 'Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.'"  (Acts 11:18, ESV).

 "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart And saves such as have a contrite spirit"  (Psalm 34:18, NKJV).  

Note that repentance (metanoia--to change your mind or "re-think"--in Koine Greek) is a recurring motif in the New Testament, mentioned seventy times and also in juxtaposition with faith so that the two complement each other and are both works of grace:  true conversion involves either believing repentance and penitent faith if you will.  True repentance has fruit as its poof:  They are "[Performing] deeds in keeping with their repentance"  (Acts 26:20, ESV).  God doesn't want your apology, but your conversion!  Note: there can be no genuine repentance without saving faith!    If you don't believe it, it's because you won't repent, and vice versa.  

According to Psalm 51:17, God doesn't despise a broken and contrite heart--no matter the sin!  We can never exhaust the mercy of God, who delights in mercy because all of our sins were paid for at the cross and God knew about them before we were even saved--we don't surprise or shock Him with new sins! Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost, and the prerequisite for salvation is to realize you don't qualify for it all; we ought to be like the publican who pleaded for mercy:  "God me merciful to me, the sinner!"  Salvation goes to the lowest bidder, i.e., the worse off we realize we are the closer we are to salvation (that's why Paul's estimation of himself was as "the chief of sinners!")--and that's why some prostitutes may be closer to the kingdom of God than respectable people who are self-righteous. 

We ought to beware of thinking too highly of ourselves than we ought to, which is pride!  Remember the Bill Gaither Trio song that goes,  "Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion He understood, all I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife and He made something beautiful of my life..." Then, the more highly we estimate ourselves to be ("some who are first shall be last!"), the further we are to heaven's kingdom--we don't need self-esteem, but God-esteem; not self-confidence, but God-confidence.

The whole point of conversion is change, and change from the inside out, not self-improvement or reformation-- a transformation of the whole person so that we become a "new creation per 2 Cor. 5:17.  After salvation, we have a change of heart, new convictions about what sin is, and a whole different worldview or frame of mind and mentality.   We don't just change our opinion, but get convictions from the Holy Spirit--there's a difference:  you hold opinions, while convictions hold you!

Repentance is one way of looking at conversion because it's the flip side of faith, whereby we turn from sin to God.  It's a turnaround, an about-face, a 180-degree turn, or a U-turn!  (Note that there is no genuine repentance without saving faith--they go hand in hand and are complimentary.)  Repentance is not remorse nor fire insurance either!  We come clean with God and own up to our sins, even being willing to right any wrong we've done by restitution. Jesus said, "that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations..." (Luke 24:47, ESV).   We must realize that repentance is granted by God leading to a knowledge of the truth according to 2 Tim. 2:25, and it is a gift of God that comes with faith in God's work and act of regeneration, which is passive on our part.

There is contrition, which is true sorrow over sin, and then there's attrition--spurious repentance like Esau and Judas had--i.e., being sorry you got caught and don't want to be punished or the consequences (like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar!). True repentance involves the whole heart: emotions, will, and intellect.  We must be willing to resolve to turn from our sin and be aware of what they are by conviction with real heartfelt sorrow or regret.  

We must renounce sin and hate it with no excuses!   We must have relinquishment, surrender, and yielding to God's will for our life (i.e., put Him in charge)--that doesn't mean accepting the status quo in a complacent manner.  What does God want?  He wants you, and that you be faithful in what you have been given as a steward.  This is our sacrifice to God in return:  a broken and contrite heart.  Our reasonable service is to "offer our bodies a living sacrifice," God doesn't expect us to die for Him, but to live our lives for His glory per Rom. 12:1!

We can relate to David asking for the joy to be restored, as Peter said:  "Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord..."  (Acts 3:19, ESV).  Note that both the ministries of John the Baptist, Christ's herald, and Jesus both started out preaching repentance: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand! [Jesus added that we believe in the gospel]."

We can never lose the Spirit though, for Jesus will never leave us, nor forsake us (cf. Heb. 13:8), but we can lose the joy of our salvation (cf. Psalm 51:12) and "joy of the Lord is [our] strength" (cf. Neh. 8:10).  Christ gives joy that no one can take away!   David prayed that he wouldn't lose the Spirit, as a consequence of his sin, but the Spirit never left him:  "And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward..." (1 Sam. 16:13, ESV).   We are in a similar condition since God has given His Spirit to us and Jesus will be with us, even to the end of the age (cf. Matt. 28:20).   We can lose out on fellowship with God and believers when we sin, but we can be restored (cf. Gal. 6:1) by confession (cf. 1 John 1:9).

In summation, it is important to realize that repentance is progressive--not a one-time act performed at salvation--and we are to walk in the Spirit with a continual attitude of repentance and short accounts of confession of all known and convicted sin.    Soli Deo Gloria!  

The Obedient Believer

"And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him"  (Acts 5:32, ESV).
"[T]eaching them to observe all that I have commanded you..." (Matt. 28:20, ESV). 
"And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal [not temporary, probationary, nor provisional!] salvation to all who obey him" (Heb. 5:9, ESV).  
"For they have not all obeyed the gospel..." (Rom. 10:16, ESV).
"[I]n flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus"  (2 Thess. 1:8, ESV).

"... [A]nd a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith"  (Acts 6:7, ESV).  Unbelievers are called "sons of disobedience" in Eph. 2:2 and God delights in obedience:  "To obey is better than sacrifice..." (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22).  Jesus said that you cannot love Him and be disobedient, for if we love Him we will obey Him as the proof of the pudding.  Christ doesn't give suggestions, hints, or good advice, but commands!  He instituted two ordinances to be done in His name and memory (baptism and communion).  Jesus said, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me..."  (John 14:21, ESV).  What are these commands that are so pivotal to our salvation being fulfilled?

Jesus did say that His yoke is easy and His burden is light in Matt. 11:30, and John said in 1 John 5:3 that His "commands are not burdensome."  "And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us"  (1 John 3:23, ESV). Note that in the Upper Room Jesus instigated a new command:  to love one another as Christ has loved us.  He who loves another has fulfilled the Law!  Paul says in Gal. 5:6 (NIV) that the only thing that matters is "faith expressing itself through love."

At the Bema or tribunal of Christ, our works will be judged, not our shortcomings and mistakes or sins, because they were judged at the cross, and this includes sins of omission.  If Jesus commanded us to do something and we fail, it's a sin of omission.  He is not going to inquire as to what school of theology or denomination we subscribed to, but will be interested in granting us rewards for the deeds done in the Spirit--the ones done in the energy of the flesh will be burned as wood, hay, and stubble in a fire (cf. 1 Cor. 3:10-13).  Sin can be defined as knowing the right thing to do and falling short or not doing it.  There is a legitimate place for ignorance if it's not willful.

There is a danger in sectarian pride and bias, such as feeling you're right and everyone else is wrong or disobedient to the Word of Truth.  Churches aren't saved en masse, but members individually as if going through a turnstile one at a time.  A good believing and faithful Lutheran has the edge over a disobedient Baptist because churches don't save and aren't necessary for salvation, as Roman Catholics espouse, Christ alone is the Savior.  However, it is important to remain faithful to the faith you were taught and to abide in the truth without apostasy or heresy.  A church is a cult when they get exclusive and think they have a monopoly on the truth, or think they are superior to other churches or denominations.

The real reason we get baptized is that we are disciples who desire to follow our Lord and His example in baptism to inaugurate or make our testimony official and public.  We should never feel that it is just a hurdle to jump over or test to pass to get accepted and that we "have to do it for salvation."  Grace-oriented believers never feel they "have to" but that the "get to" or "want to" obey their Lord and do as He did, following in His steps.  Baptism is a chance in a lifetime to get on track and give your testimony in public in order to be welcomed with "the right hand of fellowship" per Gal. 2:9 (ESV).

There are many measures and standards of obedience, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes: "And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him"  (Acts 5:32, ESV).   Whether we pray regularly and walk in the Spirit, abide in the Word, witness and fellowship and worship through association with the body of Christ are also crucial factors to weigh and consider.

You cannot say that Baptists are the obedient believers because they are correct in this ordinance (i.e., baptism), while Lutherans are disobedient.   There are way too many aspects of obedience to just label believers like that due to sectarian bias.  As Paul says in Rom. 1:5 that he wants to "bring about the obedience of the faith," he is primarily concerned with the entirety of the person's walk--the whole package, net effect, or sum total and result.

The church needs to fulfill the Great Commission to be obedient as a body, though individuals can do it, it's usually a joint and cooperative effort to evangelize, preach, teach, baptize, and disciple.   As Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much is required."    But teachers are especially responsible for disseminating sound doctrine and being good examples to the flock.  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Deeper Truths

"[F]or everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil"  (Heb. 5:13-14, ESV). 

A word to the wise is sufficient:  We are all theologians, or on the learning curve of sound doctrine, and a good theologian is not someone who got A's in theology class, but applies what he knows--something cannot be in the heart that is not first in the mind, thus the necessity of study.

Deacons are to be able to teach and have "great assurance in their faith" (1 Tim. 3:13, NIV).  They must not be recent converts and have a good reputation with those who are outside, so as not to fall into the condemnation or trap of the devil.  Deacons are not necessarily theologians, but have a familiarity and background in the relative subjects, and do not balk at learning the things of God in depth.

Now, theology is one of he keys to a sound faith, and we cannot escape theology simply to avoid bad theology--this would be spiritual suicide.  It is childish to remain immature in the faith and to refuse to grow by limiting yourself to the mere milk of the Word (cf. Heb. 5:14).  Theology is necessary for spiritual maturity, but it is not sufficient!   We aren't content merely to be theologically correct, as if it's all in our head--it's infinitely more paramount that our hearts be in the right place and have room for Jesus!  Also, it is not necessary to be a nit-picker or to split hairs over doctrine to value it; the good student of the Word knows what truths are necessary and which are negotiable: Augustine appropriately said, "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity."  Brotherly love is more important than enjoying being impeccably right all the time like a know-it-all--who doesn't "know as he ought to know" (cf. 1 Cor. 8:2).

To sum up, 1 Timothy 3:9, NIV says, "The [deacons]  must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience."  This implies a systematic study of basic Bible doctrine or truths, and besides:  He must be able to teach!   Deacons who serve well as teachers are worthy of double honor.  He is not a theologian per se, but a student of the Word, who knows his way around the block theologically-speaking.  A theologian, by the way, is not just someone who's good at theology, and is more of a calling than a spiritual gift, like apologist would be to the unbeliever.

We cannot avoid theology just to avoid bad theology!  Christianity is based on sound doctrine and it is requisite of any good teacher to teach sound doctrine:  "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:2, NIV).  They are to "preach the Word" (cf. 2 Tim. 4:2) and to be able to instruct those who stray from the truth accordingly.  It is detrimental to the church body to become anti-intellectual, in the sense of rejecting sound theology and study and to become what would be a mystical heresy.  Rejecting theology is rejecting knowledge, and this is no option for Christians!  The primary reason believers are negative to theology is a rejection and distrust of theologians, by and large, and the impact and mark that bad theologians have made, even in seminaries and so-called Christian institutions of higher learning.

We must not reject theologians nor theology because theology is a sum total of our spiritual heritage through the ages, starting with the church fathers, such as Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy, the great Saint Augustine. the Doctor of Grace, and Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor.  If it weren't for these larger-than-life figures of history, where would we be today?  Don't get me wrong:  the mere presence of sound teaching or doctrine will not change our heart, but it must be matched with heart in the right place--doctrine is intended to be understood by the mind, but our whole heart (do we love Jesus, the personification of Truth?), and we must respond to God (intellect, will, and emotions).  There is an ideal balance of doctrine and application or love in action, and we never stop learning, in fact, to learn we must admit our ignorance!

Trying to make infant believers digest the solid food of Bible doctrine may become counterproductive and leave them cold, turning them off to the deeper truths with the bad experience.  As we mature in Christ, we gain an appreciation and taste for sound doctrine.  Remember, the Pharisees hated and rejected Jesus' unconventional and novel theology, and we might find ourselves being unpopular at the outset likewise! In other words, we must have a heart for God, nevertheless, and be willing to do His will as revealed.  Soli Deo Gloria!