It’s okay to have questions

Doubt can be dangerous for Christians. Doubt often causes us to distance ourselves from God. Distance leads to disobedience and soon our faith atrophies. God wants us to believe without wavering. But sometimes that’s hard. If anyone should have believed without wavering, it was John the Baptist. Even in the womb, Jesus’ cousin recognized the Lord, leaping at the sound of Mary’s voice (Luke 1: 41-45). John’s whole life was, “to prepare the way for the Lord” (Luke 3:4). He declared Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” How did he know? “The one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and I testify that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34).
Later John asked a big question, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 7:20). What changed? John was in a prison cell after speaking out against the Roman king and his adulterous marriage. He had faithfully proclaimed the coming of God’s Kingdom. He had rebuked the religious elite and the irreligious royals. And rather than blessings, his efforts brought down wrath. He did what God asked of Him and the results were harsh. He would lose his head over it. Can you blame the poor fellow? Haven’t you and I questioned God for less?
With all that he knew, John – weary and discouraged – began to doubt. But Jesus didn’t chastise John. He pointed him back to the evidence. “What do you see, John?” “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Luke 7:22). Look beyond your circumstances, John. You preached the coming of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 3:1). You spoke of my power (Mark 1: 7). Your own words are being fulfilled in Me. Then He added, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me” (Luke 7:23).
My questions made me search for answers. And those answers strengthened my faith. Ask your questions Beloved. He will not chastise you. He will give you answers that will ground and strengthen your faith. Jesus not only has the answers, He is the answer.

If the Truth Offends . . .

According to Scripture, my job as a Bible teacher is to make you mad. My brothers will tell you I’ve been practicing for this my whole life. The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:24). The word “spur” means “to incite, irritate, or provoke” and it comes from a root word that suggests a sharp disagreement. “But wait a minute,” you say, “I thought we were supposed to always get along and be at peace with one another.” We are. But sometimes peace requires confrontation. The church suffers greatly because we are not willing to confront uncomfortable issues like what a Christian should look like. The writer pointed to two specific things: Love and good deeds.
Jesus said that love would be the distinguishing mark of His followers (John 13:35), and His Apostle John went a step further (on someone’s toes) and said if you don’t love fellow believers in Christ, that’s a good indication that you are not in Christ (1 John 2:9-11). Love is non-negotiable for the Christian.
We are also called to do good deeds. Paul said that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). But James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Who’s right here? Both. Salvation comes by faith in the grace of God and is evidenced by good works. No, you don’t have to go to Calcutta and join Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to prove that you are a Christian. Simple acts of love, kindness, gentleness, and compassion are good fruit in the believer’s life. Hate, harshness, rudeness, and indifference are evidence that one is not a Christ-follower. If there’s no good fruit there is no root in Christ.
Love and good deeds are the identifying marks of the Christian. If they are absent, then Christ is not present. If that makes you mad then take it up with God – He’s the one who said it first, not me. Also, you might need to re-examine your relationship with Him.
The writer of wisdom said, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17). Sharpening iron involves rubbing it with an abrasive stone to grind the edge. Sometimes we need kind words and other times we need a gritty whetstone. I’m called to give you both, Beloved. I love you too much to not tell you the whole truth – in love – even if it makes you mad.

The Sovereign Will of God

Sometimes God gives me the devotional early in the morning – sometimes even in my sleep. The message and Scripture are firmly planted in my heart. And sometimes I have to hunt around in my Bible a little before the Spirit highlights something. Today is one of those days.
This morning one verse jumped out at me – and the truth is, it has been jumping out at me for several weeks, but I didn’t realize this was the word until today. Maybe this is just the right time for this message for someone. Maybe me.
In the last chapter of Job’s saga, after 129 statements of His power and authority over creation, the Lord takes a breath, and Job, in humility says, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). I felt a nudge from the Spirit but I kept searching. A few pages over another verse sprang to life: “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord” (Prov. 21:30). And it all came together.
This is the word today: The Lord God is sovereign. What Job and Solomon said is that God has absolute authority over all things in heaven and earth, including human lives and human history. Yes, we have free will, but God has authority even still. I can’t explain how it works, but I know it does. And what God wills, man cannot break. Oh sure, we can run away or fight Him, but Jonah will tell you, in the end, His plan will prevail.
I count that as great news because God’s will is “good, pleasing, and perfect” (Rom 12:2) and His plan is “to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11). Here is where God’s sovereignty comforts me. God has a plan for my life, and satan and people are trying to stand in the way. But God. God will win the day. God will bring His plan to fruition. I know this because the enemy has tried to destroy God’s work in me, but the Lord has rescued me time after time and set me back in His will.
I don’t know who else needs this word today, but God clearly wanted you to hear it – He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth – and your life. Receive it and believe it, Beloved. If you are in Christ, everything He declares for your life will succeed. His plan cannot be thwarted.

Piddles and Pankins and the Doctrines of the Faith

Joy loves to play doctor’s office and Nana is her favorite patient. She takes my temperature, looks in my ears, listens to my heart, checks my reflexes, and even examines my teeth. She also usually gives me a shot. Lately, she prescribed me piddles. I thought that was what puppies do, but I was wrong. Piddles, in her medical practice, are what the rest of us call pills. It was one of her malaprops. I thought it was so cute that I didn’t correct her. I love her tangled-up words like pankins for pancakes and Honey School for Sunday School. I know that one day she will learn the correct words, but for now they are harmless so I let her hang onto them as long as she wants.
But there are some things that she – and all of us – need to get right. They are theological and doctrinal truths that carry a tremendous amount of weight. They make up Christianity’s core and all other truths are derived from them. If we get them wrong, everything else is wrong too. And therein lies great danger. If we do not correct the misunderstandings and errors concerning these issues the consequences will be most severe and eternal.
They raise questions about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, man, sin, salvation, the gospel, the Bible, the church, the Christian life, resurrection, eternal life, the Kingdom of God, heaven and hell, and more. They are “spine issues” because, like humans, a healthy spine is vital for a healthy body. A broken spine leads to paralysis and even death. In many ways, the church’s spine is near the breaking point because we have drifted from biblical truth and embraced error and dangerous false teaching We are weakening her spine – and her witness. The church is unable (or unwilling) to fulfill the great commission because her people are paralyzed by false doctrine.
Paul warned Timothy, “Watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Tim 4:16). It is wise counsel we need to heed. He said, “In later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (4:1). “They will gather around themselves a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim 4:3).
God has impressed on my heart to dedicate Sunday’s devotionals to studying the core doctrines of Christianity. No more piddles or pankins Beloved. Get ready to strengthen your spine with the truth.

Acts: Tell Me the Story of Jesus

I love to hear testimonies of how people came to salvation. Some of those stories are very dramatic – being rescued out of a life of drugs, alcohol, immorality, even satanic involvement. Mine is very mild in comparison. I grew up as a church kid and was 9 years old when I accepted Jesus during VBS. I didn’t always follow in in His footsteps, especially in my teens and early adult years. But God would not let me go and in my 30s I surrendered fully to Christ and He has been my Lord ever since. I have stumbled more than a few times, but He never let me get too far away. I cannot imagine my life without Him.

Please read Acts 21:27-22:29.

Paul is now in Jerusalem and preparing to go to the temple to fulfill a vow when he is accosted by an angry mob who falsely believed he had taken Gentiles into the temple with him. Such a violent ruckus was raised that the Roman guard arrested him. Paul mounted a defense by sharing his testimony. He told of his early life under the tutelage of Gamaliel a Pharisee of great reputation. He told how, in reverence to God, he persecuted followers of the Way, the new sect of believers in Jesus. Then he shared his experience on the road to Damascus when this same Jesus appeared to him and turned his life upside down and inside out.

Paul was obedient to the Lord’s calling and when He sent him away from Jerusalem, his mission field became the Gentiles – the ones Jews considered to be unworthy of salvation. God used Paul to change the first-century world and the waves are still washing over sinners in the twenty-first century. Throughout history God always uses fallen people to reach the world for Christ – it’s the only kind of people there are. He used great religious men like Paul, Tertullian, Augustine, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, and Billy Graham, to name a few. He also uses VBS and Sunday School teachers, local church preachers, street evangelists, unnamed missionaries, coworkers, neighbors, friends, family members, and yes, gray-haired grandmothers from South Alabama to spread His Gospel and declare His salvation.

Beloved, you and I have a calling and a mission to share the Gospel. If we don’t a whole generation – and every generation that follows will be lost eternally. Somebody you know needs to hear the story most precious, Sweetest that ever was heard.

“Tell Me The Story of Jesus” 1880, written by Francis J. Crosby (1820-1915) and John Sweney (1837–1899).

Why God Can Never Coexist

Warning: get your steel-toed boots on this morning. I’m dipping in and out of Jeremiah this morning. Jeremiah was called by God to prophesy to the Southern kingdom of Judah before and during the Babylonian captivity. He was not popular among the Jewish hierarchy because he spoke against their greed and idolatry, proclaiming the coming judgment of the Lord.

Why would God bring such hardship upon His chosen people? “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in the house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ – safe to do all these detestable things? ‘I have been watching!’ declares the Lord.” (Jer 7:9-11).

The people – God’s people – thought they could commit all these sinful things and worship pagan gods and still run to the Lord for His protection and provision. They believed God was there only to serve them whenever they called for Him. They refused to obey Him but they expected Him to accommodate them. Is it any wonder that He sent the Babylonians to deliver His judgment?

I hope you can see the correlation to the church today. We have taken the Lord God for granted. We have made Him an accessory to our lives – a convenience when we need Him and a Deity-on-a-shelf when we don’t want Him to disturb us. We expect Him to come to our rescue in a catastrophe and fade back into the background when the crisis abates (see 9/11). We have welcomed all sorts of evil and wickedness into the Body in the name of “inclusion” – which means we have excluded Him.

Consider God’s words in the verse above. What might He say to the church today? It ought to throw us to our knees. One thing is for certain – He is still watching. He sees the parades of sin and celebrations of evil in His house. He sees the way we dishonor and discredit Him in our daily lives. He hears us give lip-service to His Word and live as if we have never read it.

I realize this has not been a warm and fuzzy devotional, but it is a word that God has burned into my heart. Make no mistake: God cannot and will never coexist with any other religion or god. He stands alone as the One True God. All others are pretenders to His throne – not the one in heaven, but the one in your heart. Beloved, won’t you give Him His rightful place?

Only One Way to God

“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself”

Do you believe that? I hope not because it is a lie from the pit of hell. It is also a popular philosophical statement from Swami Vivekananda. He was a Hindu philosopher, mystic, author, and religious teacher in the late 1800s who introduced and popularized many Hindu practices in the West, including yoga. He was the driving force behind interfaith awareness – popularized in recent years by “Coexist” bumper stickers. It’s a trendy theory, but it’s not true, and it won’t grant you eternal life. It is interesting that someone who does not know God himself would counsel the world on how to know God.

I discovered the quote while looking for an image about believing God. Google orders search results by popularity. This is what the world wants. A spirituality that is built around themselves rather than built on God. They want a God who is made in their own image, rather than recognizing that they are made in the image of God.

God wants us to know and believe in Him. The Scriptures repeatedly say that God works and acts “that you may know that I am God.” Those words are so frequent I can’t note all the references. But you and I won’t know and believe in God through ourselves. We will only know Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus declared “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Let me be clear: there are not many roads to God. There is only a one-way street. Jesus is the only way. That is not a popular statement, but it is a true one. Jesus also said, “If you really knew me, you would know my father as well” (Jn 14:6-7).  Jesus is God. He acts in accordance with the Father. He speaks for the Father (v.10). He is “in the Father, and the Father is in [Him]” (v. 11).

Jesus prayed to His Father, “Now this is eternal life; that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3). Beloved, I don’t want you to miss this. There is no hope “if [you] ignore such a great salvation” (Heb 2:3). Oh, but if you believe, there is hope and peace and Joy and love. Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in God. Believe in His Son. And you will have eternal life.

Acts: A Winsome Witness

I remember a plaque on the pulpit of a church that said: “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” Paul said, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). But we are wise to remember that sometimes we must “show” the word of Christ before we can earn the right to share it. Paul and Silas did just that. Please read Acts 16:16-40.

Paul and Silas angered some shysters who made money from a girl who was possessed by an evil spirit. They started a riot and the pair were stripped, beaten, flogged, and thrown in prison. They were kept in the innermost cell and bound with their feet in stocks. If that were you or I chances are pretty good we would be most unhappy. We certainly wouldn’t be in a holy state of mind.

But Paul and Silas did not allow their circumstances to determine their hearts and they spent the night “praying and singing hymns to God” as the other prisoners listened (v. 25). Suddenly an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. The prisoners’ chains were broken and the doors flew open. Not just for the missionaries, but for everybody (v. 26). That in itself is extraordinary, but the bigger miracle may be that no one ran away.

The jailer, expecting a mass escape, “drew his sword to kill himself,” but Paul assured him, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” (v. 27, 28). The jailer came to them trembling and asked “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (v. 30). And they shared the gospel with him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (v. 31). The man and his whole household believed and were baptized in the middle of the night.

Someone said, “The greatest witness is to tell people you are a Christian and not act like a jerk.” I’ve met some Christian jerks. You probably have too. Paul talked often about “gentleness” in dealing with the world and Peter said, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15). We have a powerful, life-giving message to share, but nobody will listen if it comes from arrogance and finger-pointing.

Beloved, are you a winsome witness for Christ?

Be an Outstanding Christian

“Look at this pretty dress,” my Mom said, “this style would look so nice on you.”

“It’s okay, but it’s not exactly the style today, nobody’s wearing stuff like that now.”

My mom was a master seamstress and made a lot of my clothes; we were in the fabric department, looking at patterns. Or she was. I was impatiently trying to drag her to the young women’s section to buy the things my peers were wearing. I wanted to be like them. My mom wanted me to be different – or as she said, “to be yourself.” I didn’t want to be myself – I wanted to be like everyone else. The thing is, on those rare days when I did wear something my mom wanted me to wear, I got the most compliments. Other days, I was just one more face in a look-alike crowd.

When God called the nation of Israel to be His people he said He had “set you apart from the nations, to be My own” (Leviticus 20:26). He wanted them to be distinct, set apart – holy – like Him. His people were meant to reflect Him to the nations. They resisted this throughout their history, and when they had settled in their own Promised Land, they demanded a king “Then we will be like all the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:19). They did not want to be like God, they wanted to be like everyone around them.

Not much has changed. God’s people, now under Jesus’ sacrifice, are called to be different, to be like Christ – distinct, set apart – holy. But instead, we try our best to fit in – to be like everyone around us. We don’t want to “stand out from the crowd.” But the crowd needs to see you and I looking like Jesus, talking like Jesus, loving like Jesus – not a mirror image of themselves. You may not get compliments, but you will be noticed, and that gives you the opportunity to “give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Do you blend in with the world, or do you stand out in the crowd? Do people see their own weary reflection when they look at you – or do they see the hope of Christ? The truth is, you cannot be a follower of Christ and look like the world. You are either one or the other. Which will it be Beloved?

Real Questions and Real Answers

When my younger brother was little, he was full of questions and I, being the wise older sister, tried to answer all of them. Until he became obsessed with this one: “Who put outside outside?” None of our answers sufficed. Then our dad said, “When people built buildings there wasn’t enough room for the whole world to be inside, so some of it had to stay outside.” And that satisfied him.

We may not ponder questions as complex as that, but there are questions that every person on earth needs to face:

1. Where did life come from?

2. What happens when we die?

3. How can we explain human behavior?

4. How can I determine right from wrong?

5. What is the purpose of man?

These questions shape our worldview and our worldview shapes our belief system. Our entire outlook on life is informed by our answers to these questions.

The greatest tool of Satan is to numb man’s mind so he does not think about these things. Instead, he has us obsessing over worldly, useless things that have no eternal significance.  We are awed by the opulence of celebrities rather than by the Creator of the brilliant heavens.  We fill our minds with worldly wisdom and ignore the wisdom of the Bible.  We build fortresses to protect us from our enemies and the enemy of our soul laughs as he wanders into our homes through the world wide web.  We refuse to worship God but pour out our highest accolades on athletes who carry a ball down a field.  Republicans and Democrats battle each other while our true enemy has free reign in our nation.  We are chasing after success rather than chasing after God. 

Satan doesn’t want us to ponder these questions because he knows that the answers will ultimately point us to God.  Life came from God (Gen 1-2). After death, we stand before God for eternal punishment or eternal life (Heb 9:27). Human behavior is the result of the first human’s sinful rebellion against their Creator (Gen 3). Right from wrong is spelled out in the Bible (Ps 119:9). The purpose of man is to love and worship God (Col 1:16; Rev 4:11). Until we face the real questions of humanity – and discover the true answers – we will continue to see evil in this world.  We must start asking the important questions, first to ourselves then in our homes and churches and communities.  Beloved, how will you answer these questions?