Do You Follow Your Heart?

Some people misuse or abuse the word "heart" and think it just stands for how they feel or their emotions. Like saying, "I feel in my heart that you are wrong!" Or "I cannot accept that in my heart." Sometimes things don't resonate or ring true but we are meant to be rational creatures who reason out things and listen to the voice of reason! We must be true to our hearts but realize they have an intellect and volition too. The will is like the driver that controls the two horses on the carriage of emotion and intellect giving feedback and needing direction. When we accept Christ into our hearts, it means to be willing to obey Him, love Him, and know Him! I want to know Jesus more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly!

Too many people are told to follow their hearts in pursuing a career or even marriage and misconstrue that as going by one's feelings or emotions, which can vary like a weathervane in a storm. We are to seek godly counsel in major decisions and go to the LORD in prayer as a fist and not a last resort. If something is God's will, He will provide and give us the love for the endeavor and the means of doing it. God does have a plan for each of us and has even written out our lives before we were even born. God is always in control and our spiritual guide and counselor. If we don’t seek God’s will, He may say, “Okay, have it your way!” We should always bow in relinquishment and commitment to God’s will and favor.

We must realize that no one is purely emotional, intellectual or logical, or volitional; note our will are not born free but the slaves of sin, and when we get to know the Lord, we are set free! "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed." We are to love and seek the LORD with all our hearts, soul, and strength; all our being and essence. We must therefore guard our hearts, for out of them flow the issues of life (Prov. 4:23) and that as a man is in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). We cannot fool God who even sees the motives of our hearts (Prov. 21:2): "The LORD weighs the heart."

Pascal was right: "The heart has reasons the mind knows not!" And Jeremiah was also on target: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Jer. 17:9 This is why Jesus wants to come into our hearts and we must believe in our hearts! He opens the eyes of our hearts to the truths of scripture and opens our hearts to make them receptive to the gospel message. God can also judiciously harden our hearts as He did to Pharaoh. But only after we have done so. Some people are just intellectually in love with the idea of the Bible as scholars or of Jesus as the model or guide of humanity but Jesus is not looking for admirers, but worshipers in spirit and in truth.

In sum, if we do not feel right about a decision, we should wait upon the LORD and pray and seek wise counsel because it may be our conscience speaking to us and God may be trying to prevent us from ruining our lives; remember this: the heart of the matter is that it’s a matter of the heart! Soli Deo Gloria! 

Knowing Truth...

 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," according to Prov. 1:7.  In the Bible, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are linked. They lead to each other. If you know things, you can be wise with that knowledge, understand it, and use it to the best means and ends. We are to increase in our knowledge of the Lord. 

Jesus claimed to come to bear witness of the truth and that those who belong to the truth will listen to Him (John 18:37) and even said He is the epitome of truth itself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6).   Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:7). Because of Christ, we have universal, objective, transcendent, absolute, and timeless truth to live by. 

One must ultimately ask: on what basis do you define or reckon knowledge? It cannot always be certain but must be true to the best possible proof and belief. Without reference to God, can there be any real knowledge? Can you make truth claims when the God of truth doesn’t exist and you deny absolute truth? Knowledge must be accepted and believed! Denying knowledge is denying reality in a way as is not knowing the truth and inventing your own truth.

All in all, one must be justified to believe in knowledge. But what we now have in a secular society is a way to be intellectually fulfilled and have the answers without God in the metric especially by appealing to evolution or saying that science is the answer; au contraire, God is the only Answerer!

The starting point as far as the world or secular society (Secular Humanism) is concerned is mankind as the "measure of all things" or reference point. They believe in commencing with man and contemplating, understanding, and explaining or explaining away God!  Athanasius said that the only system of thought God will fit into is the one where He is the starting point: we begin with God and explain reality or the world, not vice versa. 

Reality has to correspond with the truth and if Christianity is true, then its concept of reality is worth studying and living by. If not, then it is completely irrelevant.  Postmodern philosophy says that "God is dead" and this means God is no longer relevant, meaningful, necessary, or helpful in understanding reality and the world; they only want to believe what science can prove as absolute truths and not what God reveals. 

This is a philosophy and not science and should be called "scientism." That is very apparent when people harness science for unscientific reasons such as making philosophical proclamations as Carl Sagan said, "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." Science cannot know this and this statement cannot be subject to the scientific method. Science is not the only means of gaining absolute or perfect knowledge.  

The point is that without God, we can know nothing at all, we need an infinite reference to understand a finite reference point!  For instance, if there is no God, life has no ultimate meaning and unless there is a God, all things are up for grabs and all things are permissible because we have no reason to believe in morals at all except for selfish preservation like a survival instinct.  To have firm branches, we need firm roots and our worldview is like our roots!  It is the foundation that our knowledge depends upon!  

Because of God, we can say that we can know things for certain (we have a firm foundation) and that morals are absolute and not relevant to the person or situation. When you say that truth itself is relative, is that statement relative? When you say that you must not believe anything someone tells you about God, should we believe that person? When you say that you can know nothing for certain, can we trust that person is certain, and can he be certain?  Soli Deo Gloria!

Dissension In The Church...

There are certain doctrines that Christians, even sincere, will always disagree about and it should be that way for we are not to be contentious about every minor doctrine and learn to distinguish what the main thing is: the gospel. Augustine said, "In necessary things, unity; in unnecessary things, liberty; in all things charity." We should never abandon the essential and nonnegotiable truths of the faith but "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto us." Keep the main thing the main thing!

We are not to stay away from all controversies but godless ones, not godly ones. Some matters are not worth the adrenaline they stimulate or generate more heat than light! It is not always the right thing to do to remain congenial when truth is at stake. Remember, the church fathers did debate doctrines till they could concur on the truth and resolve them with creeds. Note: sectarian spirit is wrong and we should not say "I am of Paul, I am of Peter, I am of Jesus" and so forth. But remember, the spirit of the Reformation was: “I dissent, I disagree, I protest,” meaning we are not slaves to a church dogma but should search the Scriptures like Bereans to see whether those things are so. (Acts 17:11).

Don't major on minors and get sidetracked in gray areas that are a matter of personal conscience in which each should be convinced in his own mind while respecting matters of opinion. Heresy arises to prove whom God approves and who is in error and should be judged. We are to judge those within the church who are false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing. Just because there may be disagreement among sincere believers is no reason to become neutral or refuse to take a stand as a bystander. “If you are not firm in your faith, you will not stand firm at all.” (Isaiah 7:9). “They refuse to stand for the truth.” (Jer. 9:3).

We have a right to our own opinion, just not our own facts! Also, we are to get convicted of the truth knowing that we hold opinions, but convictions hold us! Do you have any convictions you will die for? It was only certain orthodox doctrines that the church fathers fought for and defended and put into their creeds such as the deity of Christ, the resurrection, the inspiration of scripture, and the sinfulness of mankind. The whole point is that we should never become argumentative, divisive, judgmental, contentious, or prejudiced in our discussions.

No one has a monopoly on the truth and knows all the answers. Thankfully, we know the Answerer and have the Answer book, and if we can agree on that we have a basis of fellowship. Remember, our fellowship is based on a relationship with Jesus, not an agreement on a doctrine we cherish as a fetish as having a Bible-club mentality.

What is important is that we all agree that Jesus is Lord and have He is the Judge, not us. If we can balance and reference our teachings to the Word of God, that is important. Can you cite scripture to support it? Now, I do not mean we should be adept at proof-texting or even taking verses out of context but know that our doctrines need biblical support. Inexperienced students of the Word take verses out of context literally concerning their immediate context in the paragraph, book, and rest of scripture; also out of context socially and culturally, and even out of context theologically meaning they ignore the basic teaching of scripture as a whole to prove one far-fetched ideas or teaching.

Remember, "no scripture is of any private interpretation" meaning God is not going to give some gifted teacher the ability to see things that others don't. "The sum [entirety] of God's word is truth" meaning not in isolation or out of context. We must compare scripture with scripture and verse with parallel verses and let scripture be its own interpreter! We must strive for truth in interpretation and know what we believe; not knowing is a kind of unbelief!

In sum, just because believers don’t agree on some doctrines, doesn’t mean we should avoid those doctrines, or take stands on them, but understand that others may disagree and not always intend to dissuade them but “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” and find commonality or common ground on which to fellowship. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Spirit Of The Law...

The Pharisees were guilty of obeying the letter of the Law at the exclusion of the spirit of the Law. They majored on minors and paid heed to minor points such as tithing in small matters and ignored the weightier matters of the Law: faithfulness, mercy, and love. (Matt. 23:23). For instance, one may say that he frowns upon dancing but overlooks covetousness as a minor affair or offense. Being a legalist leads to judging and even condemning one's brother or sister. We are not to compare ourselves to other persons or our Christian brethren (2 Cor. 10:12). Legalism is one way to end up doing that!

Sometimes necessity knows no law like when in the parable of the Good Samaritan and the priest didn't want to become ceremonially unclean by defiling himself or even missing his Sabbath. This is an example of "going beyond that which is written!" (1 Cor. 4:4). Besides going against the spirit of the law, it is fulfilled in loving our neighbor, making up your own rules, and adding sins is also legalism. Tradition is often added to the Word of God and counted as a way to gauge sin. The priest was a slave to his tradition and could not see a need to be fulfilled. Legalism elevates tradition to the level of Law and binds people where the Bible has left them free! Jesus was concerned about the heavier matters of the Law such as "justice mercy and faithfulness."  (Matt. 23:23). 

In my day, good Christians watched the hemlines, movie lines, and hairlines! Spirituality was something to be seen by men and an external thing noticed by others. Basically, believing that faith plus works equal salvation is legalism; actually, faith equals salvation plus works--viva la difference! One must distinguish that legalism sees sins, not sin! Remember, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life! Legalism is a form of spiritual tyranny as one believes he is spiritual but actually still a whitewashed tomb or refined sinner; salvation is not about reform but renewal! 

We are forgiven for our sins and what we did, but delivered from what we are, sinners. The problem of mankind is slavery to sin and that can be any sin, even pet ones or presumptuous ones. When one says, for instance, to give up this or that to become a Christian, one fails to realize we are slaves to sin in toto and are sinners by nature.

The opposite and equally evil distortion of the Law of God is antinomianism! (AGAINST THE LAW!).  The theme song: "Freed from the Law, O blessed condition, now I can sin all I want and still have remission." Some believers may think salvation is a license to sin or that God overlooks our sins. But Martin Luther wrote a book condemning these heretics: Against the Antinomians. The only way to maintain a balance between these two extremes of Bible application is to know the Bible and to understand the definition of sin and what it is not as well. Soli Deo Gloria! 

Do You Pray With Purpose?

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise." Psalm 100:4

 Do you lose track of yourself and God when you pray? Some even fall asleep probably because they are experiencing peace with God! Even wondering in thought, undisciplined, aimless, and undirected or unfocused? You are admonished to stay alert in prayer which means be watchful for prayer opportunities and needs of others first and then yourself. Prayer does have a purpose and it's not to get God to see things your way or to change His mind or to get Him to do you a favor or grant your every wish or whim. Successful prayer changes you, not God!

It is an honor just to be able to go directly to the Father in Jesus' name and to boldly approach the throne of grace to ask God what He is already predisposed to do! Contrary to some, prayer is not just asking God to do things for you and He is no genie! The purpose of prayer is prayer! That's right! We learn to experience God and have an intimate encounter with the Almighty; bare your soul!

It's a privilege to pray as a child of God to the Father and have His attention and audience! When we gain access to the throne room and get into fellowship with God, it's its own reward! We come as we are in prayer but will not stay that way! We should enjoy prayer and our ongoing dialogue with God! We must beware of what breaks this beautiful relationship: unconfessed sin in our lives. First order of business and Job One is to come clean with God and confess known and unknown sins in general. God will then cleanse us of all unrighteousness, even the sins we are not aware of.

We ought to have a divine and spiritual purpose for our prayer like a petition or request, intercession for others in need, praise offering, thanksgiving, or confession. That would be the primary reason for going to God and all the rest is incidental but we must stay focused on our purpose and not get sidetracked or lose our focus. Prayer without purpose (like reading without one) is like going by feelings and they are as variable as a weathervane. We must not worry about anything, pray about anything, and thank about everything! As the spiritual say: "Take it to the Lord in prayer!" Just like when you read the Bible to get a word from the Lord, you must ask yourself: "What is occasioning the prayer; why and for what?

Do you ever wonder why your prayer life seems anemic and you are out of your league compared to the prayers of preachers who get plenty of public practice? Don't give up and figure out and ponder what interferes with your prayers: apathy, lack of prep, lack of Bible interest or reading, sin in your life, negligence, easygoing life with not concerns, no emergencies God forbid! Don't let prayer be your last resort but your fist call for help! You must learn to go directly to God and not first to your friends or family! God is your Provider and has promised to see to it all our needs are taken care of; we just need to learn to lean on Him and trust and obey!

A problem some have is that they give up too easily and accept a "No!" for an answer when God is just asking you to wait or telling you He has something better. You must realize that problems come to drive us to our needs and this is good when we have no place else to go. We ought always to pray and not to give up; praying as if it all depends on God, but living as if it all depends on us! Don’t forget to seek the prayer support of others for urgent causes and needs and be willing admit your own.

Remember, prayer is dialogue with God and God speaks to us primarily through His Word and reading it is meant to put us into the mood to pray and to know what our needs are and what to pray for in a godly manner. The formula or format is to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit (Eph. 2:18; 3:12). In sum, it is paramount to pray “in the Spirit” being attentive to God’s will to be heard and to look for needs to fulfill by your intercession and petition. Soli Deo Gloria! 

What Are You Looking For?

What are you looking for?


Many people admit to be "looking" but don't know or realize for what or for whom. Those who seek God have different motives and reasons: a sense of meaning and purpose in life; peace of mind; filling the void in life; moral fiber to face decisions; strength in crisis; healing; friendship; the absolute truth; forgiveness; freedom from guilt; and the answer to the it all. Many have sought a higher standard of living, human rights, education, freedom, and the supernatural for answers but it eludes them.

We can have all these things and never find God. There is a vacuum only God can fill and we are spiritually empty and restless till we find our meaning and rest in God. He fulfills all our expectations and more. Considering how much God can do for us; how can we neglect such great salvation?

To accomplish the aforementioned, many seek gurus, swamis, wise-guys, cult leaders, mediums, fortune tellers, experts, philosophers, the intelligentsia, the academia, the pundits, the politicians, the religious leaders, the celebrities, the heroes of society, and religion or even drugs and pop psychology. But there is only one true answer to the ultimate and big questions of life: Jesus is the Answer and the Bible is the Answer Book.

All we need to know is in Him and His Word. Without God, life makes no sense! For instance, there can be no objective, transcendent, absolute, universal, and timeless truths but all so-called truths would be relevant because there would be ultimate standard to appeal to and final Arbiter of truth.

But before we can find the answer, we must admit to the questions: are you a sinner and lost without God? Can you find meaning without Him? Do your realize your need? Do you realize that Jesus claimed to be the only way to truth and God?

God is no Cosmic Killjoy, Celestial Policeman, Mother Earth; Clark Kent or Superman (secret identity and super-human under disguise with super powers); Popeye (who is a human with super power); or Man Upstairs who is impersonal and cannot be known; doting Grandpa; or the Force that is to be utilized in our favor. We must see that God is personal and we can know Him. That is why He came to earth as Jesus to reveal Himself. We use things and forces, but we know and relate to persons. None of the assumed deities loves us as Jesus does who proved God's love by dying for us.

To find God, we must first see our need then! To be saved we must realized we are lost. To be made righteous, we must admit we are unrighteous, to be justified we must admit our injustice, to be reconciled, we must admit our estrangement, and to be forgiven, we must admit our sin and guilt! We must seek God with all our heart to find Him (Jer. 29:13; Deut. 4:29; Isaiah 55:6). 

Soli Deo Gloria!

How Do You Love God With All Your Heart ...

 You start out by acknowledging God in all your ways (Prov. 3:5-6) and submitting to His will. It isn’t based in emotion, though they do result. God’s love is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit into our hearts by a work of grace (Rom. 5:5). Remember, the proper divine order is “fact, faith, feeling.” You learn to trust God by acknowledging Him in all your ways and taking baby steps of being faithful first in small things and letting God trust you with more. We progress from "faith to faith." (Rom. 1:17).  We all take a leap of faith in salvation and must go wherever God leads like Abraham went out not knowing where he was going.

 Now we all live in a doubt-certitude continuum and our faith must grow from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). We practice our faith and obey (they go together hand in hand) God makes it grow. It isn’t how much faith we have as much as how big our God is and if we are obedient to the faith. Faith isn’t as much about believing despite the evidence or how big your faith is, but how much you obey--they go hand in hand (Heb. 3:18–19). It isn't how big your faith is, but how well you obey. Faith is not believing despite the evidence or how convinced you are, but obeying in spite of the consequences. 

What believing with all your heart, mind, and soul means is that it is with all we have, our whole being withholding nothing and not having some area of our lives that isn't surrendered to His will.  We prove it by our lives and testimony: "All that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal. 5:6).  This doesn't happen overnight. The more we love our neighbor is indicative of our love for God. We commence by loving them and no one who doesn't love his brother can claim to love God.  Thus, the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, even becoming good Samaritans, thinking of their affairs, not just our own and meeting them in their time of need and using whatever resources, gifts, talents, opportunities, time, blessings, or relationships you have to their benefit.   

Note that  to love God with all our heart, soul, and spirit means with all we are and with all our being--all the bases are covered! 

Are You Living A Secret Life?

 If you are a believer in Christ, you live a secret life, a privatized life in addition to the one most people see; i.e., your relationship with Christ.  Now I am not saying we should not show our faith (we should not broadcast it but let God open the door to witness for Him) for we are to prove our faith by our works; the faith you have is the faith you show!  We are not to wear our religion on our sleeves and advertise how pious or religious we are which may really be religiosity, not spirituality. 

We must also be Daniels in the sense of not being ashamed to take a stand for Christ and be countercultural or even to do civil disobedience and defy the laws of the land if they contradict the Bible. We are not to practice our spiritual life that the public may see but do do good works that men may see them and glorify our Father in heaven. We are to complete the good works God has ordained for us as His masterpiece. (Eph. 2:10).  

We have died! our new life is hidden with Christ.  That means that the only fulfillment, meaning, purpose, dignity we will find must be in Christ and in His will to His glory. Living selfishly will not cut it with God!  We must love our neighbor as ourselves which means that we will come to their aid in times of need and not just be  concerned with only our personal affairs. But God gives us an agape love for others by shedding it abroad in our hearts and we prove our faith and love for God by loving one another. 

We can only find God's will if we are willing to do it! We must seek His will and be willing to do whatever He puts in our way.  This is also how we find our spiritual gift: by experimenting and debuting for whatever opportunities God gives us. God certainly has a plan for our lives and few there be that find it before their senior years. Wisdom does grow with age and the recognition of the brevity of our lives. 

The reason David was called a man after God's own heart was that he was willing to do all God's will  (Acts 13:22). That doesn't mean he never sinned but found God's will for his life and fulfilled it. Even Paul said that his "only aim was to complete [his] mission." (Acts 20:24). We must be careful to fulfill the calling we get from God (Col. 4:17) that we receive a "full reward." 

Remember, only God sees our heart and secret motives and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12; 1 Chron. 28:9). All of us are like a moon with a dark side only God sees! Yes, God sees our shortcomings too but doesn't count them against us (Psalm 32:2; 2 Cor. 5:19). God loves and accepts us with all our warts, flaws, and weaknesses. 

We must transition from doctrine to application: from orthodoxy to orthopraxy or from teaching to ethics. We must practice our faith and grow thereby in it by doing good works. We must turn our creeds into deeds!  the whole purpose of salvation is a changed life!  Remember the formula of the Reformers: "We are saved by faith alone not by a faith that is alone!" We are not saved by works, but not without them either; faith without works is dead and cannot save. We prove and authenticate our faith by our deeds, for we are known by our fruits.  Our faith must therefore be validated by our good works to prove it is saving, sincere, and genuine faith; for God doesn't require  perfect faith, only sincere faith (1 Tim. 1:5: 2 Tim. 1:5). 

In sum, we must become heavenly minded and think about those things that are spiritual, setting our minds on that which is above, not on earth for our citizenship is in heaven and we are mere pilgrims passing through, not preoccupied with the temporal.  To keep our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 3:1; 12:2). Soli Deo Gloria! 

Happy Thanksgiving/Hanukkah

The scholars say that the convergence of these two holidays won't happen again for 70,000 years--what a special day! I recall that Lincoln proclaimed the feast of Thanksgiving in October of 1863 and it was fixed as the fourth Thursday in November by FDR. The Last Supper or Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist (which means thanksgiving, by the way, in Greek) is a unique Christian tradition. Thanksgiving is our heritage (not to celebrate seems un-American). One of the first lessons we learn as children is to be thankful and say thanks, especially saying grace at dinner time (a family ritual, if you will). It is ingrained in us to think of the holiday as Turkey Day, with an afternoon of football and family get-togethers. One of the two real family holidays with Christmas.

Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to give thanks: He said, "Where are the nine?" Romans 1:21 talks about people knowing God (though not in a saving way, of course) and neither being thankful nor giving Him the glory--"so their foolish hearts were darkened" and consequently "God gave them up." Truly sober words and a word to the wise is sufficient. About giving thanks, what if you have a meal for a guest and he was to say afterward, "How much do I owe you?" Wouldn't you be insulted? We can't pay God back even for all eternity to do it. The psalmist says in Ps. 116:12, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His goodness to me?"

Lincoln said the greatest gift God has given a man is the Bible and he said it was the greatest cure for depression. The Great Hallel (Ps. 136) exhorts us to give thanks unto the Lord several times as does Ps. 107 ("Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, His mercy endures forever"). Whey gives thank you might venture to ask. Just as there are benefits to being a veteran like health care and the G.I. Bill and there are fringe benefits to a job, there are benefits to being joint-heirs with Christ and heirs of God. "And do not forget all His benefits," says Ps. 103:2. We thank God for who He is and for what He has done (as recounted the history of Israel in Psalms 78 and 105, and the praises of the Great Hallel. "The Lord has done great things for us; whereof we are glad" (Ps. 126:3). Most importantly, we thank God to gain entrée into His presence per Ps.100:4, which says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise."

I cannot help but be reminded of the following hymn: "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and you will see what the Lord has done." We are to thank God in all things (1 Thess. 5:18), for all things (Eph. 5:20), and with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God (Phil. 4:6). A friend of mine has a daughter that complained about the pain in her foot and he told her to thank God for blessing her foot! What faith! God turns curses into blessings and makes the wrath of God to praise Him (Ps. 76:10). The key to a Spirit-filled walk is to be "abounding in thanksgiving" (Col. 2:7). Finally, the offering of sacrifice makes us acceptable to God (Lev. 22:29), and is considered a thank-offering or a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Jonah offered sacrifice with a "voice of thanksgiving." "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me," says Ps. 50:23. In heaven, the elders and angels will offer thanksgiving to God: "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen" (Rev. 7:12).

The best biblical example of contentment and thankfulness for God's provision despite matters is in Habakkuk 3:17-18: "Though the fig tree, not blossom...yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." We must learn to be content in all circumstances just like Paul in Philippians 4:13. Ever hear of the man without shoes that became thankful when he saw a man without feet? How about the father who took his son to a third world country to show them how they live to teach him gratitude, and the son was impressed that they didn't have fences! I'm sure you can think of examples galore for this blessed day. Soli Deo Gloria!

Neither Were They Thankful

"Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy" (Psalms 107:22, NIV)."But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you..." (Jonah 2:9, NIV).

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and grateful" (Col. 4:2, NIV).

"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" (Rev. 7:12, NIV).

"I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD" (Psalm 116:17, KJV).

They knew God but didn't give Him thanks and for this reason, God darkened their foolish heart. We are responsible for the light God has given us or we will be judged accordingly. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice to God (cf. Psa. 50:14) and praise is another sacrifice to God (cf. Heb. 13:15) that we can offer God as a way to gain entree into His divine throne room and presence. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise..." (Psa. 110:4, KJV). That seems to stipulate a formula for getting into the spirit of worship and prayer. They are juxtaposed in this verse and go hand in hand--thanksgiving for what He's done or will do and praise for who He is and how He reveals Himself in glory.

You can be sure that an ingrate is not filled with the Spirit, neither knows it, for this is a basic lesson of spirituality we all learn to mature in the faith. But a lot of ingratitude is habitual and a matter of nurture and upbringing; i.e., it might be the parents who didn't bring them up right! As Romans 1:21 equates the two and says, "they glorified him not as God." Gratitude and praise go together to comprise an act of worship that we owe God as creatures, knowing that He is alone is worthy of our worship. We ought to be so thanksgiving oriented that we are grateful that someone thanks us for kindness rendered in Christ's name-it should make our day! But we should remember that our tasks in the Lord are often thankless tasks!

Paul targets thanksgiving as the right mental attitude in his epistles: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God..." (Eph. 5:20, KJV); "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Phil. 4:7, KJV); "In everything give thanks" (1 Thess. 5:18, KJV); "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts ... and be ye thankful" (Col. 3:15, KJV). This is stated as the will of God for us. He wants us to learn to see the silver lining behind every cloud and to learn that all our adversity and affliction is Father-filtered and will work together for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28).

The amazing example of having the right attitude of gratitude in dire circumstances is when Paul and Silas were in prison and sang joyfully unto the Lord. No one can take away our attitude and that's why we must cultivate this as a sure way to stay focused on God. Paul demonstrates his attitude of gratitude in prison writing Philippians by opening with thanksgiving.

Gratitude is not the ultimate proof of faith per se but is the sign of a right mental attitude (cf. Col. 4:2; Psa. 100:4). God condemns ingrates: "... for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 5:6, ESV). Nowhere in Scripture are gratitude and faith equated, correlated, or juxtaposed as a measure or keynote of each other; however, faith and obedience are in Hebrews 3:18-19, NASB, as follows: "And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief" (cf. Heb. 4:6, 11). Some translations mistranslated these verses and put in "unbelief" instead of "disobedience." James 2:18, NIV, says, "... and I will show you my faith by my deeds."

But the NASB and ESV are more literal and use what is functional equivalence; i.e., word for word translations not thought for thought. Faith and obedience are eternally equated in Romans 1:5 and 16:26 (that they might "come to the obedience that comes from faith," cf. NIV) and in Acts 6:7, "They were obedient to the faith."

Also, note that Dietrich Bonhoeffer said quite dogmatically, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes." These two are definitely equated in the Word. Doctrinally speaking, the only proof of faith is obedience just as Christ admonished that if we love Him we will obey Him. Thanksgiving, even praise, can be signs of faith but not the ultimate litmus test, but obedience is the plumbline (cf. John 14:21). We don't have the law to obey but are measured by our obedience to the will of God (we are free in Christ but not free from God's will!), which is an easier yoke and we have the Spirit which bears witness with our spirit to give us peace. Clearly, obedience is the test: "... Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22, NKJV).

Jesus made it clear love would be the telltale sign of the believer (cf. John 13:35) and the world would know we are Christians by our love. Love is the distinguishing trait of our faith and its greatest contribution in charity, outreach, missions, evangelizing, and labor. Faith is what pleases God and its expression is love: "... The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (cf. Gal. 5:6, NIV). Soli Deo Gloria!