Light in the Darkness

Genocide. Disease. Broken hearts. Hurt. If you were to turn on the news this seems to be the vast majority of what you would hear about... Well maybe not the broken hearts but you more than likely see those everyday. We live in a fallen world. Ever since that fateful day in Eden (Genesis 3), humans and creation have been fighting to survive and make life a little better. We live in a day and age where for some of us life is pretty easy as far as being provided for and taken care of. Then disaster strikes. 

A number of things have happened in my church family recently that have left me and I'm sure others wondering where God is. We thought that He was all powerful and able to heal us? He is. He is still on His throne. He is still sovereign and He still cares. Then why aren't the diseases and hurt being healed? Why aren't the broken hearts being made whole? Why isn't the genocide stopping? I don't know. 

I wonder if maybe God hasn't  brought healing to us because He has a greater purpose behind the evil that has occurred. I think that even though God didn't cause the evil, maybe He allowed it to happen so that His Church would become unified. Maybe God allowed it so that through every bit of suffering that is occurring, the ones suffering would be met with the love of His people. I believe with all my heart that God will bring healing to the disease and the hurt and wholeness to the brokenhearted, but I also believe that God has a greater purpose beyond us. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9

We don't have to understand why things happen the way they do because we know that God's ways aren't our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We know that God is still in control. Through every sickness and every disease, through every heart break and every hurt, we know! We know that God is in control and we can trust Him. Maybe God hasn't allowed them to happen for the unification of the Church but He has purpose. 

So what do we do now? Almost ironically, we wait on The Lord. We pray, we pray our hearts out for the hurt that is going on. And we trust that God is good and He will come through. We be light in this fallen and broken world, and it starts with the church acting like the Church.

[The believers] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship,

 to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 

 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

 All the believers were together and had everything in common.

 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 

 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. 

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 

praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. 

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

Waiting on the Lord

Wait on The Lord. Put your hope in God. Trust in God.

In a way these all mean about the same thing. In my research of Hebrew and my study's of a couple of other languages, there's generally one word that can mean to wait, or to hope. I've come to realize that there's a reason for this. When you wait on something, you are hoping that it will arrive, you are trusting that it is on its way. It's repeated throughout the scriptures: "Wait on The Lord, Put your hope in God, Trust in The Lord." 

Okay, so what? It's repeated big deal. That's the way something was emphasized in Hebrew literature. Where we might might raise our voice, they would repeat it. "Be strong and courageous" (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:6,7, & 9). The same thing happened to Joshua, repeatedly God told him to be strong and courageous, He wanted to make sure that when Joshua needed to be strong and courageous, he would take heart in God, and know that He who brought Israel out of Egypt went with Him as He did with Moses (Joshua 1:5). Then again in Ezekiel 37, "this is what the sovereign Lord says." What kind of God is He? He is the sovereign Lord! Sovereign meaning supreme, with all authority. Whatever God says goes. He is proclaiming His authority to these bones, saying "Hey! Listen up, this is how it's gonna go down."

This is a big deal. We are so caught up in a society of I want it now and I'm going to get it now, but God's giving the reality check of "WAIT!" God works on His own time which is completely outside of time. We have to realize that God is the Almighty, the One in control. We are subject to Him, not the other way around. He's not a vending machine God, He is the God who will give you what is in His will, that which is good for you, and He will give it to you at the right time, His time.

Matt Chandler does a sermon jam on this topic and one thing that he says is that "waiting on The Lord isn't pleasant at all." In fact waiting on the Lord can be downright awful. At the time that I'm writing this there are Christians in the Middle East are being killed by a terrorist group called ISIS. These Christians are waiting on God to come through and be their salvation, but they know that "if they live, they live for The Lord and if they die, they die for The Lord" (Romans 14:8). It would be hard to say that they aren't waiting on God and trusting Him. 

There's a big difference between what's happening in the Middle East and here in America. They suffer persecution to the point of death sometimes, most of the persecution that we face is people saying no when we ask them to come to our Bible study. There's a lot of directions I could go at this point, but the direction I want to go down is why are they being persecuted and we're not? Could it be that we have so watered down the Gospel that we choose comfort over truth? I believe the message that is most often presented today is the good news that Jesus can save you and He wants you to be happy here in this life. 

This gospel message is yet another thing that takes away from waiting on God. I've heard many people being told that if you just wait and pray you'll receive rich blessings from God. I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is 100% false but I do think that for most people it's not. God might bless you with great riches to advance His kingdom, but there are countless other ways that God can bless you in order to advance His kingdom. I'm tired of waiting for things that won't last, I'm tired of waiting for thing that will bring me happiness for a moment. My prayers are for the advancement of the kingdom. 

I pray that we will recognize the false truths that are preached in America and dispose of them.  I pray that we recognize the true mercy of God toward us and repent. I pray that through our recognition of His mercy we will be given a sense of urgency to spread the true Gospel.

I'm waiting on The Lord. 

Faith, Works, or Both?

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James 2:14-26

A lot of things that are being taken from the Bible today are being mistaken. I think that this section of scripture is one that is vital to our beliefs and one of the most mistaken. There are two very important things to understand about this section:


1. The book of James is written to those who already believe. (-"To the twelve tribes scattered across the nations-" James 1:1b)

and

2.Faith is what brings salvation:

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Romans 3:22b-28 

So what does the section in James mean?

True faith in Jesus will produce good works. And why wouldn't it? If we have come to Jesus and received salvation, then why wouldn't we be producing good works that fulfill what He commanded and advancing the Kingdom of God.

And what if we aren't producing 'good works?'

If this is the case then we should probably check the condition of our heart. Are we following God and His commands?

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:8-10

Scandalous Love

The following video shares a strong message and must be watched all the way through. I have a lot of thoughts going on in my head, most of which will be expressed in the video, so let's just start there.

http://youtu.be/RwX_EpNR4CA

Jesus is enough! 2 Corinthians 12:9 says "and he said unto me,'my grace is sufficent for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" His grace is enough! This salvation isn't a " 5 Step Plan to a Better Life" it's a second birth, a birth into a life with Christ. 

The video mentioned God to have a scanalous love, His love for us is like that of Hosea for his wife. Hosea married a prositute at the call of God, and even after they were married and Hosea had loved this woman, she returned to prostitution. Then Hosea bought her back, because this prostitution was more of sex trafficking. HOSEA BOUGHT HIS WIFE BACK! She was his wife! Her captors didn't care that she was married. And Hosea bought her back at a huge cost to himself! Scandalous love? Look at the cross. Jesus died for the people, you and I, the same. Do we realize that God bought His people back from Satan, Israel was God's chosen people, and they had given themselves away to the things of this world. God bought His chosen people back, for the price of His son. 

No greater love has ever been shown than God buying back His people with the blood of His son. Jesus paid the price so we wouldn't have to. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23