You Better Believe It

I was in the 5th grade and was doing my math homework one night (and anyone who knows me knows how much I hate math) and I kept asking my mom, “What’s so-and-so times so-and-so?”, over and over until she lost her patience with me and snapped, “Figure it out!” So, I did. I added and added and added until I got the answer. I know for certain that 7×8=56 and you can bet it will remain with me for the rest of my life.

So, here’s a question for you: Why do you believe what you believe? Because your childhood Sunday School teacher told you a Bible story? Because your pastor preached about a passage on Sunday? Because you read something profound in a book by a smiling author? There’s a malady in the church called biblical illiteracy. It simply means most people in the church don’t know the Bible very well. We know Bible story sound bites. We know a few verses (mostly taken out of context). And we know what the culture tell us – that God is all and only love and doesn’t want us ever to be unhappy or deny our “true selves.”

What we believe is too often just what we’ve been told – but not what we know. And there is a difference. What you’ve heard just sits in your ears, but what you know takes deep root in your heart and, like your circulating blood, affects every part of you. If your faith is built on others’ thoughts and opinions, how can you be sure you are building on solid truth? When someone challenges your belief, you can’t make a good defense and it all starts to crumble. But if your belief is built on what you have mined from the Scriptures and chewed on and have wrestled your heart and mind into submission then your faith will stand up against the questions of the world. Like my math equation, what you invest in stays with you.

Paul said, “I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). Are you convinced that what you believe will hold you up? As Christians come under fire, it’s more important than ever that you know what you believe – and why you believe it. And it’s eternally important that what you believe is the truth. Beloved, you don’t just need to know about religious-sounding stuff. You need to know the truth.

Acts: The Church

Whenever we moved to a new town, among our first priorities was to find a church. My husband and I both grew up in church. We met in a church and enjoyed the blessings of the community of faith. Church is the place we “belong.” It is also a place we love.

The first believers established the church concept as Luke recorded it in the book of Acts. In Acts 2:42-47 he described life in this little Christian community: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (v. 42).  The apostles accepted Jesus’ commission to “teach them to obey every I have commanded you” (Mat 28:20). Their priority was teaching and the church’s role was learning for the purpose of obedience. Not just to fill their heads with information about Jesus, but to understand who He was/is, to understand His mission, and to follow Him in it.

They also gave themselves to “the fellowship” – notice the “the.” It wasn’t about the camaraderie; it was about what Paul would later call “the body.” One people with many moving parts all working together for one purpose: The glory of Christ and the expanse of His kingdom. And there were elements that fostered that oneness: “the breaking of bread and prayer.” This means both sharing mutual common meals and sharing in the sacred meal of communion. One of the most powerful experiences I’ve had was serving the communion elements. As I handed each person a piece of bread, I said, “This is the Body of Christ, broken for you.” That communion service brought the reality of being part of the Body to life for me. It was profound and I’ve never forgotten it.

The first church also gathered regularly and faithfully to pray. Something tells me they didn’t pray for Aunt June’s infected toenail, but they prayed for power, boldness, opportunities, wisdom, and direction. Then again, maybe they did pray for Aunt June for they shared their lives, their needs, their sorrows, their struggles, and their possessions. They were one in every way.

But I want to draw your mind to one word: “devoted.” This means they gave the community of faith their constant attention. Church wasn’t squeezed into their busy lives when they found the time. Their life was lived around and among the body of believers and their shared faith. They were together in the temple and in their homes. The temple was the place of witness and homes were the place for fellowship – for “glad and sincere hearts” joined together in “praising God.”

Are you a devoted part of a local church? Not just there when there’s nothing else on your calendar, but regularly, faithfully, wholeheartedly. You will find no better place to grow, heal, learn, lean, and give yourself away. Beloved, find your place in the Body.

I Want to See You, Lord

I sang with the congregation: “Open the eyes of our heart, Lord; open the eyes of our heart, we want to see You; we want to see You.” In the breath between the first and second stanzas, I sensed God say, “Do you, really? Then why are your eyes closed?”

“Well, I’m offering this to You as my own prayer.”

“Then open your eyes.”

In that brief moment, I was impressed with the thought that the church asks God to give us a vision of Himself, but we close our eyes so that we cannot see.

As I am writing this, God has directed me to Isaiah’s encounter with the Lord. The prophet wrote, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Is 6:1). He was surrounded by seraphs, unlike anything man had ever seen. Now that’s a vision!

Isaiah’s response to the awesome vision of God was conviction, repentance, and surrender to the Lord’s call. But there’s another time when God revealed Himself to men. In Exodus 24, after Moses received the Law, God issued an extraordinary invitation: “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel” (Ex 24:1). And they did. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel . . . they saw God, and they ate and drank” (v. 9, 11). They. Saw. God. How did it affect them? A few chapters over we have these same elders urging Aaron to make an idol for the people to worship. And he did. In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu are put to death by God for disobeying Him.

The seraphs in Isaiah’s vision declared, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (v. 3). Do you see it? “The whole earth is full of His glory.” John Calvin, the 16^th-century theologian said, “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant spark, at least, of His glory.” Now, I’m not preaching a naturalistic theology. We worship the Creator, not the creation. But we can see Him everywhere – if we open our eyes.

Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you . . .” Do you want to see God? Are your eyes open? Are you looking for Him? And when you see Him, Beloved, what will you do?

Acts: Tell them the Gospel

What is the most powerful message you’ve ever heard? How did it affect you and how did you respond? Peter had just declared the gospel to the awestruck crowd. He spoke of God’s purpose in the death of Jesus and the prophecies that He fulfilled. He talked of the Lord’s resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then he proclaimed that “God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:14-36). And the people believed him. “They were cut to the heart . . .” meaning they felt pain and deep sorrow because they had rejected – and even crucified – God’s Son, the Messiah they had long awaited.

But here’s the important part, [they] said . . . ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (v. 37). The message convicted them and moved them to respond. Peter answered with the essential elements of conversion: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). Repentance, baptism, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit.  

There’s an important lesson for the church here. When the gospel is proclaimed simply and clearly, people will respond to it. Peter didn’t add theatrics – he just told them the truth. They were sinners and deserved God’s wrath, but in love, He sent His Son to bear the punishment for their sins. He died and rose to life for their forgiveness and eternal life. If they will believe this, repent of their sins, and submit to baptism they will be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Respond they did: “about three thousand were added to their number” (v. 41).

There is one more important point to Peter’s message. Luke said that He “warned and pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” (v. 40). Charles Spurgeon said, “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” Beloved, you and I live among a corrupt generation and we need to warn and plead with the lost to repent and come to Jesus. We can’t afford to soft-pedal the gospel. We must tell them the truth. Their eternal destiny hangs in the balance.

Somebody is Listening

I am wearing an old green t-shirt this morning that Joy always liked. It reminds me of the days when she was learning colors and she would always point out that “Nana’s shirt is green.” She was so proud of herself for it, and of course, so was I. God has been nudging me about the example I am before her. For instance, the image that accompanies this devotional. Before covid, I taught a weekly Bible study for the women on the campus where I work. My daughter-in-law would come and of course, Joy came with us. She was just starting to cruise and would move from person to person around the chairs that kept her corralled. She stopped at my knee that morning and was listening intently to me teach.  Her mommy snapped the picture and it serves as a constant reminder that she always is watching me and learning from me – whether I am intentionally teaching her or not. That’s a huge responsibility, one I don’t take lightly.

The Lord pressed that point home to the Israelites when Moses taught them God’s Law and how important their daily lives were. He told them: “The [these words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut 11:19). In other words, in everything you do all throughout your day, be a walking, talking, living, breathing testimony to the Lord God.

What happens when we don’t? When the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity and resettled the city, Nehemiah discovered that “half of their children spoke . . . the languages of other people and did not know how to speak the language of Judah” (Neh 13:24). Sound familiar? And I’m not talking about linguistics – I’m talking about the language of truth, righteousness, and holiness. The language of God. The children didn’t know the language of Judah because the generations before them fell into speaking the languages around them so that they might fit in. Again – sound familiar?

This is not just a parenting/grandparenting message. The same applies to the church’s influence – or lack thereof – on the culture. We cannot represent Christ to the world if we sound just like them. Everything about us should speak Jesus. Because, like Joy, someone is watching and listening – whether you realize it or not. Beloved, what are they seeing and hearing in you?

Solid Faith

Waking up on Easter morning when I was a kid meant a new dress and new shoes and an Easter basket at the foot of my bed, a smiling chocolate Easter bunny who stared at me with his little frosting eyes and beckoned me to nibble on his ears. Oh, I could not resist his charms. One year I pulled my chocolate friend out of his cellophane home and bit down on his ear and got a shock. The chocolate caved in and broke apart because the bunny was hollow inside! Mom didn’t realize the bunnies she bought for us were not solid. My brothers and I felt cheated. We had counted on solid milk chocolate that we could gnaw on for several days. We got a thin veneer of chocolate that was gone before bedtime that day. There was no substance to our chocolate Easter bunnies, they were just a shell.

Paul warned believers to be on guard against “hollow and deceptive philosophies” (Colossians 2:8) of this world that will try to fool us and draw us away from the solid truth of Christ Jesus. They are a very real and present danger to Christians. Unlike Christ, in whom is “all the fullness of [God]” (v. 9), they are empty and foolish and they crumble under the bite of real life. Unlike Christ, who is eternal, these philosophies have no substance and no staying power, they are founded on the shifting values and priorities of the world. And unlike Christ who is the Truth, they are rooted in lies and deception. At their core, they deny the reality of God and His authority and put humanity on the throne of existence (Romans 1:18-25). Sadly, they are not limited to the world; they are prevalent in the church as well. In Paul’s day, it was the “higher knowledge” gospel and the “Mosaic-law” gospel. Today we have the “prosperity” gospel, the “social” gospel, the “humanitarian” gospel, the “political” gospel, and on and on. All of these are hollow shells of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Beloved, when the winds of hardship howl and the heat of spiritual battle rages, you need something more than a hollow, Easter-bunny faith. You need something you can depend on, something that will last. You need the truth of God, His Son, and His Word. You need a faith that will not crumble. You need the solid rock that is Jesus.

Taking Back the Church

I have come to believe that it’s time for believers to fight for our faith. Not with pitchforks or guns or verbal attacks across the aisle. There’s a better way and it will do us well to learn it and live it. Join me in the book of Jude.

His opening words set the tone: “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (v. 3). Jude wrote about the danger of “godless men” slipping into the church to “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (v. 4). If ever a verse applied to the church, it is this. It is appalling and grievous to see the immoral condition of the Body of Christ. But it’s also apparent that this has been going on for a very long time.

Jude warned his readers that these wicked people have no regard for the things of God. Their motive is to cause disruption and discord – “these are the men who divide you (v. 19). They are: grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves, flatter others for their own advantage . . . follow mere natural instincts, and do not have the Spirit” (v. 16, 19). I know Jude was talking about his own day, but it’s almost as if he was peering into the future – to the twenty-first century.

So how do we fight? How do we take our church back from the vile hands of wicked people? Jude gave the battle plan: “But you, dear friends, built yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (vs. 20-21). That’s it? How is that “contending” for the faith? Where’s the fight? In the spiritual realm.  Paul said it best: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). We chase away darkness by introducing light. We drive away wickedness by living in righteousness.

The truth is Beloved, you’re in this battle whether you wanted to be or not, so you’d better learn how to fight. Put down your pitchfork and pick up your Bible.  We’ll reclaim the church by being the holy people of God.

Will You Take Him at His Word?

The man, a royal official of the Roman government, approached Jesus and begged for the life of his son. The boy was all but dead, but the father had heard of the miracle-working teacher and took a risk. Every parent (and grandparent) understands; my child is worth it. Jesus’ response seems harsh at first glance: “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe” (John 4:48). But the father would not be deterred; “Sir, come down before my child dies” (v. 49). But Jesus still would not go. How could He ignore this father’s desperate plea? While He stayed where He was, he did not deny the request.

“Jesus replied, ‘You may go. Your son will live.’” Now if I were the father in this scene, I probably would have grabbed Jesus by the arm and dragged Him to my house and the bedside of my child. “No, Jesus – You HAVE to come. You have to be here. You have to touch him. You have to do your magic over him.” But John reports that “The man took Jesus at His word and departed” (v. 50).  What kind of incredible faith is that? The kind that sees miracles.

As he made his way home, his servants met him. The fever was gone, the boy was healed. “What time did he get better?” the father asked. “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour” (v. 52). At the very moment when Jesus said to him “You son will live.” Is it any wonder that “he and all his household believed.” (v. 53)?

Our culture refuses to believe. They say there is no proof that God is real and that Jesus is His Son. I think that is the Church’s fault. It would appear that we don’t believe either. We have an entire book filled with the promises of God. But we live like spiritual paupers and helpless, hopeless orphans. We have His command to go into all the world as His representatives and declare His gospel. We have His promise to be with us, to empower us, and to fill us with His Spirit. But we’re not going. We’re not declaring. And we’re missing all the wonderful things He wants to do.

No wonder the world doesn’t believe. His own people do not take Him at His Word. Can you imagine what the Lord might do with believers who actually believe? What say you, Beloved? Are you going to take Him at His word?

Acts: Holy Spirit Fire

If you’ve been paying attention lately, there is a mighty move of the Holy Spirit afoot in the world today. The reports coming out of Asbury University in Lexington, Kentucky are breathtaking and powerful. Pilgrims from around the US are flocking to Hughes Auditorium where a revival has broken out. A group of students decided to stay after the regular chapel service for a time of worship. Six days later (at this writing) the worship continues and shows no signs of letting up. Social media has turned it into a worldwide phenomenon. It’s not the first time that the Spirit has infiltrated Asbury – a two-week-long revival service occurred there in 1970. Christians across the globe are ecstatic that the Lord is still showing up and showing off.

What will God do as a result of this divine event? Heaven only knows. The first Holy Spirit revival turned the world upside down. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, His followers gathered together in prayer, and the Lord answered in an awesome way. Acts 2 is the account of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost. I appreciate John Polhill’s assessment of the scene, calling it “the great outburst of the Spirit.”[1] Pentecost was one of the three great harvest festivals of Judaism. It fell exactly fifty days after Passover before the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost was the celebration of the Firstfruits or the offering from the wheat harvest. It was one of the most popular festivals and brought many Jews and God-fearing Gentiles to Jerusalem.

It was the perfect time for a mighty display of the Holy Spirit that could not be ignored. And so He came. He came with the sound of a violent wind. He came with the vision of tongues of fire. He came with audible speech in languages that spoke to the foreign visitors in the city; one message declaring the wonders of God to the world. They took the message back home with them and spread the story of God far and wide.

The church was born at Pentecost. Perhaps the church is being “born again” in our day at Asbury. Maybe God is preparing His people for another mighty move of His Spirit in the world. Beloved, let’s not miss the opportunity to be part of it.

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[1]. John B. Polhill, The New American Commentary: Vol. 26:Acts (Nashville, Broadman & Holman, 1992), 95.

Acts: The Praying Church

(Well, I goofed yesterday. I took the day off to spend with my husband for his birthday and forgot it was Monday. I missed the Acts study. I apologize and offer it a day late.)

What do you do when life seems to go completely off the rails? After Jesus’ ascension, the bewildered disciples returned to Jerusalem. And there they set the character of the church. The first congregation was a “praying church” as the disciples and followers of Jesus met together after His ascension (vs. 12-13). Verse 14 says that “They all joined together constantly in prayer.” Now, this doesn’t mean that they all sat in the same room for a prayer meeting. The phrase “constantly in prayer” means “to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing.”

I attended a church where the deacons (which my husband was) and wives (that was me) went to mandatory prayer meetings every Sunday night.  We often sat behind one couple who played games on their phones the whole time. Another woman sat at the end of our row thumbing through a magazine while her husband reverently bowed his head and slept. The same handful of people prayed out loud every week, waxing elephants with their piety. I never felt less spiritual in all my life.

Luke says that all these people were together in one place with one mind and one heart, praying with one purpose – the coming of the Holy Spirit. They believed that Jesus would fulfill His promise (1:4-8) and so they waited in faith and prayer.  By the way – the fact that women were present is shocking for the day as the Jewish traditions kept men and women apart for any religious activity. The fact that his brothers were there is also incredible.  These were the same brothers who scoffed at Jesus and denied His claim to be the Son of God. Now they were crowded together, putting their lives on the line for a truth they had long eschewed. I posed a question at the beginning of this devotional: “What do you do when life goes off the rails? Jesus’ followers turned to prayer and faith while they waited for Him to do what He promised. There have been more than a few times I felt like everything had fallen apart in my life. I’m learning to follow their example. Beloved when everything goes wrong you can too. Pray in faith and wait.