The Fundamental Blog

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Fundamental Charlie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:28:28 +0000

Hello, my name is Charles Sporleder, (Fundamental Charlie), and I welcome you to The Fundamental Blog. This site is dedicated to building our discipleship as we endeavor to live our lives, focused on the truth of God’s Word. This effort is intended to be a partnership, as we help each other grow in Christ. It is my prayer that you may find the article below, (along with those on the, “Articles,” tab), to be a source of edification and encouragement in your Christian growth. I encourage you to explore all areas of this site.

DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT I SAY
ONLY BECAUSE I SAY IT!

Do your homework as a Berean,
dig for truth within the Scriptures.

Passing the Test

Fundamental Charlie — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:23:20 +0000

“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” 1Thessalonians 5:21. If ever there was a time to test, this is it! I call for urgent prayer that the Lord may yet open the ears of the pastor in Florida who is intent on burning copies of the Quran as a tribute to the memory of the September 11th atrocities committed by those who claim the dictates of radical Islam as justification for the murder of thousands of civilians. You know that I’ve had a go at the Roman Catholic church and before too long I’m liable to go off on the Mormons and I could certainly make a compelling case against the teachings of Islam but that is not what I want to discuss. I want to suggest that we need to examine ourselves!

I claim to be a fundamental Christian, that is, one who believes in a fundamental interpretation of the Bible. Now the fundamental believer is likely to catch some flack because the soft and fuzzy crowd of arena Christians think that a fundamental view is too harsh and antiquated to be of any use in today’s post-modern society. I contend that there is nothing wrong with a fundamental viewpoint as long as that, which one is being fundamental about, is the truth. This is not to say there aren’t times when the Bible needs to be correctly understood as figurative or that every parable is supposed to be received as though the subjects were all literal people, but there does need to be some testing in the interpretations being passed around today.

Was Job a real person? I can’t say for sure, though I have no reason to conclude that he was absolutely not a real person, this is simply mincing. But when we have clear instructive doctrine and the pastorate is fleeing from it to satisfy themselves, we need to draw a line. To take an action, or merely suggest an action, that violates the teaching of scripture is something that should never come from the lips of the lay-Christian, much less the leader of a congregation. But we now see a leader of a small Florida church, (50 or so), getting ready to commit an act which will only serve to anger an entire faith for no good reason.

The logic is that since the radical Muslim has no qualms about burning our American flag, or even our Bible, there is no reason that we should restrain from doing unto them the same as they do unto us. This is the height of absurdity! Because we can not endure the actions that an enemy undertakes, are we are now going to use the same tactics against them and then justify it by saying, “Well, they did it first?” We are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ and though we may face enemies, we are to respond differently than other people.

This supposed Christian pastor in Florida is not Christian if we can know him by his fruit. Where is his doctrine? Jesus said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46. And what He says is that we are to love our enemies and pray for them and do good to them. This can be found in Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27 and other places as well. By example, Jesus did not antagonize those who were against Him but offered forgiveness to them. But is Islam our enemy? This ought to be the first question we decide before we even begin to consider how we should respond to those who follow Muhammad.

The Bible tells us that if a thing is not of God then it is of the Devil; and if it is of the Devil, then it would have to be considered an enemy of Christianity. All religions do NOT teach the same thing so if there is a difference then it must be decided which is true and which is false. Even simple logic will show that Islam is wrong, here’s how I got there… Christianity shows Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, God incarnate, but Islam says that God, (Allah), has no children and that Christ is no more than a prophet. Still, Islam esteems all the prophets of God equally. So if Islam says Christ is a liar because God has no children then Muhammad, (an equally esteemed prophet), is also a liar. Islam defeats Islam! So now, since Christ is God and Islam is counter to this biblical truth, the only conclusion is that Islam must be of the Devil and therefore an enemy of Christianity.

Now that we have reached that conclusion, all that remains is to see how we are to deal with our enemies. We are definitely not supposed to incite the enemy to violence. This is counter-productive on so many different levels. First, it has the potential of increasing hostilities between the faiths, it also makes it much harder to approach them with the truth and it certainly does not glorify God. We are absolutely not called to sink to their level and use their own tactics against them. When that happens, what makes the Christian any different than them? Who is going to be likely to seek Christ when we have posers in public sticking out their tongues saying, “I know you are, but what am I?” Are we a bunch of 6 year olds on the playground?

Christians, it disgusts me to see this type of behavior cloaked in the robes of Christianity. It should be obvious to anyone who is a true believer that this is only a sham gathering of pseudo-Christians acting out in a destructive manner because the evil sides of themselves feel good knowing that they are stirring up trouble for no good reason. But to the worldlings, this is going to look like what Christianity is all about. They don’t know any better and if this does anything, it is sure to drive people away from the church in droves! We are supposed to be loving the lost into the church, not hating them away and this message needs to be ringing out from every pulpit throughout Christendom.

I am not saying that we should bargain away the truth of our faith, never! But neither can I condone the ravings of a lunatic who defies the Word of God for the supposed sake of promoting God. This is not about doing something extreme and claiming that God is in it, as Christians, real genuine Christians, we must remember that it is not about having God on our side, its about us being on God’s side and that can not happen if Scripture is being defended by violating Scripture.

“Father, I pray that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, truth and sensible action may yet prevail in that small Florida church. I ask that you might convict those involved that there is a better way and that the ways which may seem right to them are foolishness bound to bring more problems than they solve. That what they hope to be a statement of righteous indignation will only be seen for what it is; a dangerous, feeble attempt at self glorification. Lord, we know that though this may be the natural inclination of the hearts of men, guide them in the ways which are right and glorifying to You. Help them to see that the ways of man are not Your ways and that the thoughts they entertain are far from Your thoughts. By the authority of Your Son Jesus Christ, Amen.”

I hope you will join me in that simple prayer. Perhaps we might pass the test, perhaps the prayers of sincere hearts might yet do enough to result in a thing which is…

All for the Glory of Christ

If

Fundamental Charlie — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:18:53 +0000

“If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your intellect, look for it in your disposition, it is that which is wrong.” (Oswald Chambers). The thought here is that God would love for there to be nothing in the way of perfect communion with us so whenever there is something in the way, it must be because of something in us, in our disposition, in the way we see things. This is also the case with a lot of the problems that non-believers have hearing and accepting the truth of God, their disposition gets in the way, their intellect has no explanation and they simply can not believe what makes no sense to them. When I am in discussions with non-believers, and even with believers who are struggling with difficult doctrines, the questions, comments and assaults generally form themselves around the same pattern; IF - THEN WHY?

IF God wants us all to be with Him in Heaven, THEN WHY doesn’t He just make it happen? IF God is a loving God, THEN WHY would He order the genocide of an entire people? IF God cares about us, THEN WHY would He kill children? IF God is perfect, THEN WHY do we have disease? IF blah, blah, blah, THEN WHY Yackity Smackity? In our study of the Bible we need to change the structure of the questions we ask to really appreciate what God is revealing to us. If the question starts with, “IF,” then we are already going the wrong direction. If the question has the word, “WHY,” in it then it will almost assuredly be an exercise in futility. God rarely ever answers the, “WHY,” questions and even were he to do it, we would never understand the answers. “’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.

So let’s dispense with the wanting to know, “WHY,” all the time and accept that though He does occasionally give a reason, the Word of God is to be accepted like the answer from your mother when you were two years old and asked, “WHY?” “Because!” That’s your answer, OK? This becomes much easier to accept if we work on changing the word, “IF,” to, “SINCE?” Whenever we ask, “IF…,” we are phrasing things in a manner that says we doubt what God is saying. If we use, “SINCE,” instead, we are accepting what we have been given as truth, even though we don’t necessarily understand the implications surrounding the issue at hand.

“If God is holy and unchanging then why was it OK for incest in the earlier parts of Genesis but not after the law was given through Moses?” This questions the holiness of God, “Is He really?” and also fires an accusation at the nature of God; “It was OK then but not now huh? I thought God couldn’t change! If the Bible can’t contradict itself then why does it?” When we change the, “If’s,” to, “Since’s,” then instead of accusing God of being a liar, we are indicting ourselves for being unknowing. This is were I come up with, “It’s OK to be stupid!” I have no problem accepting that God is smarter than we are and that there will always be questions to which we will never get an answer. I’m OK with that and I laughingly refer to those questions as being on the list I want answered when I get to Heaven. I’m sure that when I get there I won’t care about the answers anyway, but why, if they won’t matter when we enter eternity, should we be so hung up on them here?

Christianity will continue to be a bag of never-ending questions as long as we demand to understand everything. We need to begin with the realization that we, with our finite little brains, will never be able to fully comprehend the infinite! We are human and that’s the way humans are, we have to deal with it. But once we are able to say, “I don’t care what this book tells me, and even though I may not understand the how’s and why’s to everything it says, I WILL believe that it is the truth because Jesus Christ tells me it is true and the Spirit convicts me to believe it is the truth of God.”, then the light will begin to shine. Will it clear up all of our questions? Absolutely not! What it will do though is show us where we are limited. The Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth of God in Christ Jesus and that has to be enough, because that’s all we get.

The Spirit knows what, and how much we are able to receive and He will give us that much. To give us more than we are able to hold would be like pouring 12 ounces of water into a 10 ounce glass, part would be wasted and it would make a mess in the process. Do I understand the prophesies in Isaiah, with the wheels and the eyes and the wings and the ups and downs and all that? NO! I accept that I must not need it right now though or else the Spirit would have opened my eyes to it. This is exactly the reason we need to stay in the word though; what is not revealed with the first read may come in the next, or the 12th, or the 100th read. What we must understand is that the truthfulness of God’s Word does not depend on whether or not we understand or believe it. If the fact that children are going to bed hungry is something that we do not believe, it doesn’t make it any less true because of our disbelief. And because we don’t understand how God was able to part the Red Sea so that Israel could escape from Pharaoh doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.

“IF,” is a word that will keep us bound to an explanation when there is no explanation to be had, and it will hinder our progression toward a deeper faith. Faith is all about believing; “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 Faith is not a blind leap though, nor is it one without a net. Faith is reasonable when we begin to exercise it, faith grows faith and the faith that is as small as a mustard seed can become the largest thing in our lives if we will allow it to grow. Whenever we don’t, “Get It,” we have to make ourselves understand that either we are not ready to receive it, we don’t need to know just yet, or it’s a shortcoming on our part, we’re not applying ourselves to the task. Our failure to understand is never because God made a mistake. That’s one thing He can not do!

“SINCE,” is the new, “IF,” Christian. So if you’re ready to get serious… I mean, SINCE this is the most important thing in our lives, it’s time to stop doubting God and simply accept that there are plenty of good reasons to believe that the Bible is truth. If we are the ambassadors of our Lord here on earth… wait… SINCE we have received the command to spread the Gospel and SINCE we are the property of Jesus, bought at a price and not our own, then it’s time to quit fooling around with arguments against God and get in step with the Creator of the universe. It is not a matter of, “If God will judge the world.” It’s, “SINCE.” It’s not, “If Jesus is the only way,” it’s, “SINCE.” It is not whether our actions and testimony matter, it’s SINCE we live…

All for the Glory of Christ

500 Years

Fundamental Charlie — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:43:36 +0000

I was amazed when I had the opportunity to reach out to a man, (Ted,) who had just gone through the process of having a life-saving procedure completed on his heart, only to find that he was no more awed by the power of God after the event than he had been before hand. We exchanged several letters wherein I tried to emphasize that it was only by the power and providence of God that he was still alive and mightn’t it be that God had something in mind for him to do. Ted insisted that it was science and technical skill, (obviously obtained from someplace other than God), that was responsible for the success of the procedure. As the exchange was approaching the, “pearls before swine,” stage, he said something that seemed odd. He thought that if there were a god, that he should have allowed us to live longer; he thought that 500 years would be enough.

Now Ted is a fairly reasonable man by the standards of the world, but he is convinced that God is a mere fantasy, a crutch for those who are unwilling to accept responsibility for themselves, and that unless God can be proved, there is nothing to convince him otherwise. I asked the un-answered questions; “If you are not happy with the 70 or 80 years that God has given you now, what makes you think that you will be satisfied with 500? Won’t you say, when you get to 497, that you still wish for a few more years past 500? Don’t you realize that you are only putting off the same inevitable death with the same fears that you have now?” By this point the conversation was drawing to a close and I knew that it was simply not his time to hear what the Lord was setting before him, but given an open door in the future, I’ll undoubtedly try again.

You see, science can never do anything toward providing us with proofs for the divine. A.W. Tozer states, “The realm of the Spirit is closed to the intellect … … You see the spirit is the organ by which we apprehend divine things, and the human spirit is dead because of sin. Therefore, the human intellect is not the organ by which we apprehend divine things.” He goes on to point out that the divine is revealed by the Holy Spirit, that there is no other way that we may have any understanding of spiritual things. We can never know God unless His Spirit says to our spirit, “Here He is, come and see.”

The reason that so many people wish for more time is, (I believe), not so that they can do more stuff, finish writing that great novel or even work longer to save the world from this or that. No, they are only trying to run away from the death they know is coming and that they somehow understand that they are not ready for what comes next. Even if they think that all that’s next is eternal darkness and the big dirt-nap, they know they aren’t ready for it. In Romans 1, Paul explains that men are without excuse because the invisible qualities of God were made known to them but, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.” v25. It’s as though the image of God, in which we are all created, knows that there is judgment to face, and that one bit of truth gnaws away at their gut telling them that they have a real reason to be afraid.

If the case could be made that the Bible is the reliable Word of God that Christians believe it to be, then we could show that there explanations to what happens when we, “fall asleep,” and that there is an eternal plan. 500 years is a drop in a bottomless bucket of years when viewed from the biblical perspective. But in order to understand that point you have to be willing to accept that science can not answer the questions of faith. If miracles could be proved then they would not be miracles! The skeptic wants scientific proof of the Divine and that’s impossible. We, finite beings that we are, can not wrap our minds around eternity much less the God who created time, how can we expect to even begin to understand the limitlessness of God? If 500 years seems to be an acceptable amount of time, wouldn’t forever be that much better? What’s more; wouldn’t eternity in the utopian vision that is Heaven be better than the prolonged misery of living in a fallen world for 500 years?

I met two brothers in a VBS program aged 9 and 11. They weren’t all that interested in the whole, “Jesus,” thing and as I struggled for a way to reach them, the Spirit gave me just the thing. I asked the two of them, “What if I could show you that you would live forever?” The older boy said, “Yeah I know, if ya believe in Jesus and do good stuff, right?” “No,” I answered. “No matter what, good or bad, you would live forever, what would you say to that?” “Nah, even my Grandma who went to church and all that stuff died,” Was the response. “OK,” I said, “but if it were true, wouldn’t you want to know?” “Well yeah, I guess so.” Then I sat them down and huddled up like it was a secret that I was about to share and we looked up two verses of Scripture. We read John 3:16 and discussed what the words, “eternal life,” meant for a bit and then we looked at Revelation 20:10 and talked about what, “forever and ever,” meant. I told them that the life we have now, will some day be different, but that it really doesn’t end. It’s all a matter of location; if we trust in Christ to save us from the judgment of God we spend forever in Heaven and if we don’t, we spend it somewhere a lot less fun.

500 years is nothing when its stacked against the Word of God. But as long as we want to claim to run our own lives, that there is no God to give us moral direction, that we can hold out until science proves everything that we need to know; we will continue to live lives in fear of what is next. The fear of the unknown is a terrible thing but it doesn’t have to be unknown; God has explained exactly how the plan unfolds. We are looking at a battle, a war that’s already been fought and decided and we know who wins; all we have to do is decide which side we want to be on! How hard is that? I don’t know about you, but given the choice, I’ll take the winning side, thank you very much!

Returning to Tozer for a moment; I want to share an anecdote from his book, “Mystery of the Holy Spirit.” If you want to argue that science must bear out faith before it’s valid, then consider this for a moment. “There were two scientists talking together and they concluded, ‘We have investigated, searched into, weighed and measured and have determined that the story of the donkey speaking is all false. [Numbers 22:28] The larynx of a donkey could not possibly articulate human speech.’ A Scotsman had been listening and having had all he could take went up to them and said, ‘ Mon, you make a donkey and I’ll make him talk.’” There is a reason that they are called miracles, they occur outside of scientific proofs. And you know, if that Scotsman did manage to make the donkey talk, I bet it would say something that ended up being…

All for the Glory of Christ

The Chicken or the Egg?

Fundamental Charlie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:51:38 +0000

The proofs that would show that we live in a theocratic universe are more lengthy than I can go into here, but suffice to say that we do, indeed, exist within a theocratic framework; that means that there exists a governing God to whom all of creation must be attributed. This God is worthy of, and rightly owed the worship of His created beings and as we look around, we can see a multitude of religions and religious schools of thought from which to pattern this worship upon. So which is the right one? Is one substantially different from the others, or do they all amount to about the same thing with their minor distinctions being negligible? Does it matter if we choose a Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyers, Joel Osteen, Charles Stanley, Billy Graham or any other particular presentation style? Aren’t they all talking about the same God and the same path to salvation?

I am not even going to consider the outlying faiths of the eastern and mid-eastern peoples because for this discussion I am confident that we have more than enough to consider simply looking at the ideological splits within the Christian, (or supposedly Christian), communities. What I want to consider is the way we go about finding a worshipping congregation to be joined to, and whether or not our decision making is trustworthy. Do we find a congregation and then learn the tenets of faith, or do we find faith and then learn which denominational faction is the closest to it? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Theology is the study of religion, of faith and God’s relation to the world, a religious theory, school of thought, or system of belief or a course of religious training. Now God, being God, can not change; it is the character and workings of God that we, mere mortal created beings, are struggling to comprehend but it seems that the field of theology has split into two factions. On the one side we find those who are searching for the true characteristics of God in order to explain the workings of the environment in which we find ourselves, and the other side is searching for ways to fit the way we want to view ourselves into a theological system. The first sees the Bible as ancient writings given by God, through the Holy Spirit, to men who faithfully set down the words so that we might have, “The Word of God,” to use as the ultimate reference; the latter is willing to go so far as to, in some cases, alter the texts to express their own points of view.

Now comes the worldling. He is invited to attend a church with some of his contemporaries and as he does, he becomes convicted by something he hears. The more mature Christian would agree that this is the calling of God to faith in the Son because, as it is written, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” John 6:44. But the worldling who has no learning, no knowledge of what the Scriptures say, has nothing on which to base the nature of that conviction. He is left to decide whether or not the message which convicts him feels like its right. The problem here is that none of us want to think of ourselves as being the wretched, sinful, deceitful creatures that the Bible tells us we are, we would much rather have our egos stroked and come out feeling better about ourselves than we did on the way in. This is one of the reasons that I repeatedly urge everyone to get into the Bible to see if the message, which too often only tickles our ears, is in fact the teachings of God.

It is not all that common that the seeking person feels the pangs to answer the big questions of life by realizing a creator God, and to learning the wisdom of His Word to see what his right relationship with God is, can and should be. More often, man takes his own, over inflated, impression of himself and looks for something that suits him. Instead of learning who we are and how we are to relate to God, we go out looking for a place that allows us to shape God to fit our needs, but as I said earlier; God does not change! Man is so stubborn that he insists on a faith that will tell him whatever it is that he wants to hear, even though it may have nothing to do with reality.

Take the charismatic faith healer as an example. Can God heal the cripple, give sight to the blind and raise the dead? Absolutely! Does He do it today through traveling tent shows? I don’t think so. I may get arguments about this but I have never seen anyone who was genuinely crippled be healed by some guy smacking him on the forehead and commanding the demon to come out. I firmly believe that in the Apostolic ministries of the first century, the Apostles were given this ability to prove the validity of their message through such displays, but I have never seen anyone who had the Apostolic sign-gifts in our time. The healer may have plants in the audience which, “appear,” to be miraculously restored but the fact is that when the genuinely afflicted person is not cured, they end up being told that their faith was not strong enough to be healed. The weakness of the afflicted prevented the healing from being effective. Rubbish! When Christ healed, (or Peter, or Paul…), He sometimes healed to show what faith could do independently of the afflicted person’s faith.

There are many times where we read, “your faith has healed you,” or, “because of their great faith He was merciful,” but not always. In Luke 7:11-17 is the account of Jesus raising the dead son of a widow in the town of Nain. No one asked Jesus to do this, He took pity on the woman and gave her back her son, but it was not dependent on the faith of the dead man, nor that of his mother. This was a miracle which was performed to glorify Christ by the power to raise the dead before a gathering in a public place. Likewise, the man who was born blind and had his eyes opened did not know who it was that had opened his eyes. How could he have been receiving a reward for his faith when he had no clue what was happening to him or who was doing it?

The point is this, it is too easy for us to look to the claims of those who appear to be preaching the Word of God but allow us to be comfortable in our current situations. If you get to go to be with the Lord when you leave this life and have only to claim to be a Christian while living the same life you always have, who wouldn’t want to be a Christian? But that isn’t Christianity. Christianity demands that we change. Not to gain our salvation, there is nothing we can, “DO,” to earn that, but once we have given ourselves to Christ, His Holy Spirit begins to do supernatural things with us that will change who we are. If we didn’t begin to change than we would be violating Scripture because it clearly says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son…” Romans 8:29. The book of James is all about the outpouring of good works that are a result of the change being made in us, not for salvation, but as a result.

Real faith, faith that serves God’s desires, is transforming. It changes us. We do not have the right, or the ability, to mash God into a mold that allows us to like who we are at present. We must learn who God is and then believe what He tells us and when that happens we will discover that we will most assuredly not like the people we are. But then the changes start to happen and we begin to be transformed toward the likeness of Christ and we can praise God for each step along the way, (even the painful ones). He is doing something for our good and it is a beautiful thing. The chicken came before the egg and God, the One true God is before our faith. When we keep this in the right order then, and only then, our transformation is a thing which is…

All for the Glory of Christ

Clay, Greenware and Pottery

Fundamental Charlie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:18:42 +0000

When I was in high school I loved Art class. I was fairly good at it and, being the perennial boy; anything that allowed me to get dirty was cool. I think that’s why finger-painting is fun, but as I progressed through my primary education, pottery replaced finger-paint as the mode of my favorite filth. I was amazed that the clay didn’t come in to the Art department as block of malleable mud but rather as a powder as fine as talc. First the powder was mixed with water until it could not be stirred anymore and then the wedging started. Wedging is the process of scooping up a gob of too-wet clay and repeatedly slamming it down on a canvass covered surface to remove excess moisture and force out any interior air pockets.

Once a moldable consistency was achieved, it would be shaped and then set aside to dry. When dry, the object is still extremely fragile and the slightest mishandling will cause it to break, this is the greenware stage. The greenware is then fired in a kiln which bakes it so that it will be able to withstand handling and allow it to hold liquids without melting into its former mud. It occurs to me that Scripture is exactly right in referring to us as clay in the potter’s hands. “Yet O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8.

In Genesis 2:7 we are told that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, but then what? God has formed each of our hearts in a fashion that is pleasing and useful to Him and as long as we follow in obedience we have life, but sin comes and we find that we want to act on our pride; we begin to dry out. Our arms and legs move fine enough but our motives become selfish and every intention of our hardening hearts becomes prideful. Soon, we stand like statues of greenware, realizing that our hearts are fragile and doing all we can to protect them from being broken. Now, having made our decisions, God must decide what to do with us.

Since He knows the ultimate outcome of our lives He will either break our hard hearts, grinding them into powder again so that we might, once more be useful to Him or He will harden us further for His glory. We, (God and us), both have a part in the hardening of our hearts. “ … God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” Romans 9:18; but then, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts …” Hebrews 3:7-8. So we see that we can harden our hearts and so can God, just like He did with Pharaoh. When we do it, it is because of prideful sin; when God does it, He knows that He is dealing with a heart that will never yield and so He uses it to show His power and glory before the elect. God wastes nothing.

But don’t we feel the need? Can’t we tell when we are being convicted by the Holy Spirit? The tears well up and we sob knowing that we are an offense to God because we have decided to indulge our sinful hearts, but as we weep over our sinfulness, as we begin to crack and crumble before our God, the tears soften us again and we become moldable again, not brittle greenware but clay with limitless potential in the hands of God. If we insist, on the other hand, to remain steadfastly opposed to the things that God would have us do, things which glorify Him, then He may stand us in the kiln and crank up the heat. Our hearts may be able to take it too. When the door opens and we come out of the fire our hearts are baked so hard that nothing can get in. our tears of despair do nothing to ease the discomfort we feel when we struggle through this life on our own and when it’s all over we will stand forever in the fires of Hell where we will remain hardened and in agony for eternity.

God tells us, through the prophet Jeremiah, “ … like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand …” 18:6. He forms us and as we begin to slowly harden from the trials of life, from the wants of our own ways, from the glad tolerance of sin; He may come along and thump the heart’s, “soft-spot,” to urge us to do what’s right, but if we decide that we are superior to God and that our ways are better thought out than are God’s, “If only God knew what I wanted.”; then He is liable to scoop us off the shelf and finish the hardening that we have insisted upon by throwing us into the fiery furnace Himself. After all, what right do we have to resist God’s will? “Shall what is formed say to him that formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” Romans 9:20.

So we don’t like our circumstances; so what? God has allowed them for His own good purposes and who are we to argue? We say then, “God made me to face this or that temptation and He knew what I would choose so it’s His fault! I’m not to blame.” But though He may have allowed the temptation, He is with us through it and we can be comforted in that no matter what we are facing, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” 1 Corinthians 10:13. And even when we choose badly, (and we occasionally will), when we charge into the valley of sin and disgrace ourselves and our God by the things we do; God is faithful to forgive.

When God breaks us, when we weep in response to the foolishness of our wicked hearts, perhaps it’s just the means of providing the moisture necessary to allow the clay to be worked again. The rain in our lives, the rain in our problems and the rain in our souls are all necessary to keep us soft enough to work with. We need to be able to recognize that when we sob and weep it’s a good sign, that God is trying to fix what’s wrong instead of stacking us in the kiln to become hard forever. Our pain can only mean that God isn’t finished with us, that He hasn’t given up on us and that He will continue to help us work out the salvation that He is working in us.

God may have to grind our hearts back into powder, mix us with water and slam us repeatedly on the canvass of His righteousness in order to get us to the point where we can be remade into people who are once again useful to Him, but as we go through it we can rejoice that He has not given us over to the hardness of our hearts. God can, (and does), reshape our hearts and bring us back to life, snatching us back from the edge of death so that we can witness to the world. The man who has never experienced suffering can not witness to those who are suffering. Every bad thing in our lives can be made useful for the sake of the Kingdom if we will only begin to understand that God is performing His perfect work in us, through us and for our greatest good as it serves His purposes.

The road is never as easy as we wish it were but then nothing worthwhile ever is. Jesus had to come and die a death that is beyond our capacity to imagine; His life and death wasn’t very easy but it sure was worthwhile! But there was a reason, a good reason, for the sacrifice He made, and God, the Father, never left Him. He will not leave us either. God is working in our lives so that He will be our God and we will be His people. “I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called, ‘Not my people, you are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” Hosea 2:23. God is busy building us into the image of His Son and reshaping our hearts so that they will forever beat…

All for the Glory of Christ

Preconceived Notions

Fundamental Charlie — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:38:30 +0000

I have always wanted to see the New England states. I always imagined that at every bend in the road one would find a Thomas Kinkaid hamlet just waiting to be discovered. The winding road with the simple white church on the hill with the town, dripping in quaintness, spread out below. There has to be the obligatory stream running through the square, (or at least near by), for the children to catch tadpoles and crayfish and a gathering of older men on the porch of the general store to solve all the world‘s problems before dark. The gas station is one of those that has the glass beakers on the tops of the pumps and everyone greets you as though they have known you, your entire life. What I found instead was that everywhere is pretty much like everywhere else. Sure, I know there are differences everyplace you go but the picture that lives in the heart is rarely found in the real world.

I am reminded of the story of the young couple who, upon moving to a new little town, ask an old-timer, “Are the people friendly here?” The old-timer, adjusting his hat asks in return, “What were the people like in the town you moved away from?” “Oh, they were horrible, no one ever said hello or seemed to care about anyone but themselves.” The old-timer replied, “You’ll find them pretty much the same here then.” We tend to bring our own preconceived notions and unrealistic expectations with us and we find ourselves let down when what we discover is not what we thought it would be. I believe that it is much the same when it comes to our Christian lives. We have a set of expectations of how we think our new lives in Christ should be and if things turn out to not be what we expected, we can become disillusioned.

Some people think that they will receive all that they ask for, wealth, health and esteem from others. No more problems now that Christ is in our corner! Smooth sailing from now on with nothing but blue skies. We’ll have pot luck dinners and church picnics and everyone will get along and we can all hold hands and sing songs and then the fireflies will gather around us and twinkle their little lights and the children will squeal with delight while all the world rests at peace. This Christian stuff is pretty heady alright! Except for the fact that, that is not what we can expect; it is not a biblical picture of the Christian life. The preacher that is able to convince folks to join up for a picture of utopia like that is worse than a demon. He is building an image that will never be realized on this side of the grave and he sets people up to be disenchanted. The worst part is that once a new believer finds that the picture isn’t what it was advertised to be, they are even more likely to disregard the truth when it does come.

Christ never promised an easy go of it. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. “Just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives …” 2Corinthians 1:5. “All men will hate you because of me…” Matthew 10:22. Now let’s not get all in a funk because it looks like the Christian life is one of constant suffering, there is plenty of suffering to go around, to be sure, but for the Christian it does not need to be received as a bad thing which is happening to us. We need to understand that our Father in heaven is in control, using every event we face to better us, to conform us to the image of Christ. After being flogged at the hands of the Sanhedrin, the apostles left, “… rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Acts 5:41.

We will face ridicule and the abuse of the non-believers for our faith but when this happens we need to recognize that it is only the confirmation of our faith, that we are despised because of the truth we believe and knowing that God works all things to the good for those who love Him and are called to His purposes. “But I thought that life would get better if I came to Christ.” Our eternal life does get immeasurably better when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, but this life in the flesh is going to get a bit rougher as we struggle in this temporary existence. But it only makes sense that we should face adversity as we proclaim faith.

We are all born under the curse of Adam, that is; we are all sinful by nature. Now when we are walking in step with Satan in our sinful pursuits, why should we have a problem with the prince of this fallen world? I have read somewhere that if you are finding that you do not have a problem with the attacks of the Devil, check to be sure that you are not walking in the same direction. If we are doing what Satan wants, why should he bother us? But if we should realize that we are the sinful creatures that the Bible tells us we are, and if we hear the Holy Spirit calling us to righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus, well now the Devil has something to be upset about. He thinks, “I’ve had this one all along and I will not let him go without a fight! If he wants to play Christian, I’ll show him how much it will cost.” Now the attacks begin in earnest. Satan would love to have us think that we would be better off walking with him in this life than to endure the trials for the sake of heaven in the life to come.

“And we rejoice in the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:2-5. We rejoice in our sufferings? If we rightly receive our sufferings then yes, we can rejoice because we know that they are being used to our betterment. I know that some may be thinking that its easy for someone to sit, removed from the pain in the lives of others, and tell them that, “Its not so bad.” Well actually, no. I struggle with the same things that we all go through.

When I am being moved to write these things, whether they be related to sufferings or the joy of finding saving grace in Christ Jesus, I know that I am also working out the faith, that God is working in me. If ever the day comes that I don’t benefit more by the writing of these articles than I anticipate that you, the readers, do; I’ll stop. I pray that I never reach the point where I begin to think that I’m writing because the, “other guy,” needs to hear it. I write what the Spirit gives me and only hope that you are enjoying and benefiting as you track my self-therapy. When I came to faith I came in with a whole boatload of preconceived notions. I actually imagined that the church had a heart for God and that being on fire for the Lord was a good thing. What was I thinking? It took me a while, (a couple of years), to see that the church today, (with a few exceptions), is not a spiritual body with social overtones, but a social club with spiritual overtones.

Discipleship is all about teaching and building one another up, it is the sharing of a passion that begins in the heart that has been softened by the Spirit of God to realize that there are eternal consequences to the lives we live today. Its about learning, and helping others to learn, that the truth concerning the Christian walk is not always pretty, but it IS always worth it. The problem with the preconceived notions that we begin our faith-walk with is that they are forged in the fires of a worldly paradigm and that, in itself, makes them untrustworthy. To enter a new supernatural life, that has been created by a supernatural God, who loves us to a supernatural degree, for a supernatural eternity, with the expectations that are born of a natural understanding is foolishness.

We are learning that we are not what we thought we were and that the rules that we thought we had understood up until now are flawed. We are discovering that the ideas that we once thought of as being rock-solid are nothing but chaff in light of the Word of God. We are learning that our preconceived notions get in the way of Godly lives which are intended to be …

All for the Glory of Christ

Hating the Rain

Fundamental Charlie — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:30:12 +0000

I hate to have to work out in the rain. I hate to bring wet raincoats and soggy shoes into my truck, but if I don’t have to get out and I am merely driving through an occasional storm, I am thankful that the Lord has seen fit to allow me to wash my windshield. We make plans to go to the park and the sky opens up and we get stuck inside brooding because our plans were foiled. We work hard to get ahead but the rain of continuous problems drag us to the pit of despair. Our souls long to sing praises but our hearts are breaking and the rain floods our faces. The rain is a horrid thing and we might all be a lot better off without ever seeing it again, except that it is good and useful at the same time as it is troublesome. Rain is a double edged sword.

God sends the rain to water the plants so that we can enjoy the fruit of the field but just as surely as the rain is necessary for the farmers crops, it also nourishes his enemy, the weeds. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, it builds up and destroys and our view of the rain depends on what is going on around us. The farmer loves the rain in June when it causes the corn to send out its deep secondary roots, but he hates it in May when the fields are so muddy that he can not even set out a crop at all. We like that the rain feeds the rivers so that we can fish, swim and go for a boat ride, but when the streams become devouring monsters, when the rivers turn into oceans that consume thousands of acres, when the water is already three feet over flood stage and the forecast calls for more, no one wants rain. And when you feel beaten down to the point that you can’t take anymore and there is still one more problem to face, don’t we cry out, “Lord am I not broken enough?”

I know a man who has had a terrible time dealing with others because his heart is so soft. The things that most, “manly,” men would think nothing of, or scoff at as unworthy of emotional energy, absolutely destroy this man and as a result, he has taken his share of lumps from grade school to the present day. He hates the rain that streaks his face every time the smallest thing tugs at his heartstrings and because his heart is worn so prominently on his sleeve, that happens often. But he is not alone, there are many people who hate the rain. Whether it be the rain of one’s soul or the rain that falls spoiling the plans for a picnic or the rain of trials that come our way in life, most of us would gladly trade away the overcast skies for snow-white clouds, blue sky, sunshine and cool breezes.

It is only because it’s inconvenient to us that we think that God should relent and allow us to live in peace. Until we are completely broken, we are not broken enough. Until we are at the point where the Holy Spirit is able to have His way with us, we are not ready to be rebuilt. Until we accept the humiliation of breaking down in tears for what would seem like nothing to most other people, we are held in that place of purification with our feet to the fire. Until we become absolutely nothing in our ability to do for ourselves, the Spirit can not transform us into the tools that the Father wants to use to fulfill His good purposes, “For My ways are not your ways…”

My friend asks why he is such an emotional wreck and I find that there is no sure answer because who can know the mind of God? He feels as though he is ineffective in spreading the Gospel, (He is a Godly man), because he becomes so wrapped in emotion that he can hardly get the message out before he is overcome by the depth of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. If he goes to a ball game, the playing of the national anthem causes him to crumble because of the numbers of the fallen who gave everything for the sake of freedom. If he drives down a country road and the blowing Autumn leaves make him realize that he just had a Norman Rockwell moment, his eyes fill up. And most films, especially the old classics, forget it! He can not sing a hymn because he knows how unworthy he is to even lift his voice, and the tears come. Even though he knows that God wants him to be rooted in the faith that the righteousness of Christ makes him worthy, its all he can do to get through a church service.

It boggles his mind to imagine that someone could lose his daughters and then, crossing the very spot on another ship where they had drowned on an earlier crossing, write something like, “It is Well With My Soul.” To look around and see the destruction of a world that God had intended to be pure and good, even though he is sure of God’s certain promise of a new Heaven and the new earth, makes him mourn for the paradise lost. His soul is ripped out and the rain comes, the salty tracks forever burned into his face. The only way he can sing along with the radio is to forget that the words are meant for God, and that’s the last thing he wants. If you were to ask him, he would tell you that, that is the measure he uses to gauge his heart; if he can sing a Christian song that’s playing on the radio without losing it, than he knows his walk is not where it should be, but at the same time, he knows that God has something more for him than to always be walking in tears.

“Even when it’s a song that was written as a secular love song, (because all love songs are really hymns), if I can sing it without crying, then there’s something missing in my walk with the Lord.” Here is a guy who really hates the rain! But the question becomes, should he? Is the fact that the rain falls so easily in this man’s soul a problem in itself, or merely a symptom of something deeper? We hear the prophet Jeremiah referred to as the weeping prophet, but even Jeremiah would have to tell this guy to, “Get a grip!” As I said earlier, who can know the mind of God, but maybe it would not be out of line to speculate just a bit as to what may be happening here.

I think that perhaps, (and again this is only speculation on my part), he is like a reservoir in the mountains being held back by a formidable dam. The water is at the very top and every time it rains, a little bit has to spill over the top. Every drop of rain that falls in the watershed ends up causing a trickle over the top of the dam. Perhaps the flood gates are not working right, perhaps there is still some prideful thing that prevents him from completely emptying out so the emotional rains can be managed in a more productive way. The Spirit is trying to make him more than he is, trying to make him into the chosen tool God intends him to be, but is he is still resisting that one thing that would set it all free? Is there still some garbage that needs to be purged so that the Spirit can have His way? Even though the only way to get the air out of an empty bottle is to fill it with something else; unless the bottle is completely empty to begin with, the filling by the Holy Spirit can not be complete. If the filling by the Holy Spirit is anything less than 100%, it is not what God intends.

So how about the rest of us? How are we doing? Are we as filled as the Spirit wants us to be, and if not; what are we holding back? If we are standing around grousing every time it rains in our life, is it because the dam is already spilling over and we can’t stand even a little more? How can we call God a liar? He promises that we will not be given more than we can bear, so if we truly believe that the rain in our lives is going to overwhelm us, then aren’t we challenging the Word of God? Are you standing in a garden that is already overrun with weeds? The rain may have helped the weeds grow, but the rain was also necessary for the flowers, and it’s the flowers that are…

All for the Glory of Christ

End Construction

Fundamental Charlie — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:02:35 +0000

I know that this has had to have happened to all of you. Being a professional driver, I am required to pay closer attention to the happenings on the road than the ordinary, “I’m gonna run to the store,” driver. I have to watch the signs to be sure I don’t get turned around in what are usually unfamiliar places, watch overpass clearances so that I don’t tear off the top of my trailer by trying to get under a bridge that’s too low. I have to look for and assess all of the hazards imaginable because in my world if anything, (ANYTHING), goes wrong, it’s the truck driver that gets blamed. We are simply held to a higher standard; we are the professional drivers with advanced training and federal licenses.

Be all of that as it may, I can not tell you the number of times that I have seen the little orange sign that announces, “End Construction.” This is not a big deal except that there seem to be a lot of times when I say, “Really? I wonder where the, “Begin Construction,” sign was! I don’t know if these are the first signs put up or the last ones to come down or if some guy is making them in his basement to mess with my head by randomly sticking them by the side of the road, but I know for a fact that I come out of more construction zones than I enter. Maybe now that I am giving them some serious attention, God will give me a break. God does seem to repeat a lesson over and over again until we get it, so maybe this is it.

I saw this phenomena again today and it occurred to me that this is what we’re all going through; we’re all under construction but a lot of us never figure it out. Paul tells us that, “… that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus …” Philippians 1:6. So God is in the process of refining us to be ever more in the likeness of Christ; we are under construction! God has created us all and until we close our eyes in this world He is working on growing us.

But just as there are numerous obstacles and dangerous conditions when driving through a construction zone, so are there as we traverse life here on earth. Just as it is easy to slip off the pavement onto a low shoulder as we navigate a bumpy turn on the interstate, finding ourselves in the ditch, it is easy to slip off the narrow path and into the ditch by joining in with, (or merely giving silent assent to), a group of our contemporaries who might be poking fun at someone who is a bit more disadvantaged than we are. If we ignore the warning to slow down for a bump we could break an axle and destroy our vehicle the same way that we can ignore the Word of God in our lives and destroy, not only our own, but the testimony that is being forged by the good work that is being done in the church as a whole.

We are all fallen. We have all inherited the seed of Adam and even though we have that against us, even though Satan is trying to get us to believe that we should be pursuing our own ends here in this life, God is giving us the evidence and the lessons that will guide us toward a better end in the life to come. As we drive down the road and see the sign that warns, “Construction Ahead,” we are on the lookout for the instructions that are to follow. “Reduced Speed Zone Ahead,” “Right Lane Ends, Merge Left,” “Shoulder Closed,” all these direct us to a safe outcome so that we finally get to the desired outcome in the best possible way. We arrive at the, “End Construction,” sign knowing that we did it in the way that was prescribed by the authorities as the safest and most proper way.

But there are many who are going to open their eyes in the next life and see the, “End Construction,” sign and only then realize that they missed the warnings along the way. And make no mistake, when we see the, “End Construction,” sign in the life to come, there won’t be anything we can do to change the lot we cast in this life. 2 Corinthians 6:2 tells us that, “… now is the day of salvation.” We can not wait until we stand at the throne of judgment and then decide that we would like to claim Christ as our Saviour; no, that’s a choice that we must all make in this life, in the here and now. There will be no use in wondering where the construction zone began because by then, it will be too late.

We will not be able to claim that we never heard the Word or that by our ignorance we deserve to be spared. The first chapter of Romans clearly shows that we have been given all we need to make the right choices, that we knew the right choices to make, and went after our own wicked lusts anyway. Actually, ignorance is the perfect word for it too! It’s not a matter of being faced at the end with something about which we had no inkling, but that we chose to, “ignore,” the presentation of God’s glory in this life in favor of our own carnal desires. We will not be able to claim that we were the victims of uninformed decision making because the truth is that we were the willing participants in ignoring the evidence, the incontrovertible evidence, that was all around us, evidence which seemed inconvenient to us at the time.

The reality of our situation is that we are dropped into the middle of a construction zone at birth and it is up to us to realize where we are and that God is directing our way as we progress along life’s road. Some people will fly down the road and think that it’s all for fun. They have this amazing resilient vehicle and they know that they may as well go all out because one day they have to give up the keys and the ride will be over. Bumps and danger aside, we only get to travel this road once and then we are gone forever! Once we have had the awakening of the Holy Spirit and realized that Jesus Christ is the rightful Lord of our lives, we begin to understand that we are receiving the warnings that allow us to protect ourselves from flat tires and ruined suspensions.

On the road we might see signs and a line of orange barrels or cones that indicate that we need to be watchful and pay attention, and even if we enter the work zone in the middle from a side highway, it is evident that we are in the midst of a situation that requires diligence and caution. In life, God supplies the signs for us to follow. First He surrounds us with His glorious creation but since we too easily neglect that, He set up His Word for us to learn from and He sends the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and to recognize our needs. There is a sign that warns us we are sinners and another to say that Jesus is His only begotten Son. We see the only way to God, the Father, is by faith in the completed work of Christ on the cross and that we can never earn our way into Heaven by the works of our hands.

Sooner or later we all face the sign that announces we have come to the , “End,” of the, “Construction.” If we show up in the battered wrecks that we abused through the entire construction zone because we ignored the warning signs in favor of doing things our own way, we will end up on the scrap heap waiting for the lake of fire to burn us for eternity. If we arrive with vehicles, (hearts), that are sound because we read the warnings and learned how to come through the danger; because we believed the signs along our route and accepted the righteousness of Christ , because we believed in Jesus Christ for our salvation; then we will be received into the kingdom of God. But once we see the, “End Construction,” sign it’s done, we have committed to our choice and there is no going back, there are no do-over’s. It’s no time to wonder where the construction zone began because when we come to the, “End Construction,” sign, it’s too late.

We need to recognize the danger and do our best to be tools in the hands of the Holy spirit so that others might be made aware that they are on a road with eternal consequences. When we figure out that this drive is no game we need to pull over and with our finger write in the dust that is stuck to the back of our vehicles, so that others who are following us through the construction zone will be able to read…

“All for the Glory of Christ”

Our Crosses

Fundamental Charlie — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:04:19 +0000

We all have crosses to bear. It is implicit in the Gospels that we have crosses to bear because Jesus plainly states, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” It doesn’t say, “If a person has a cross then…,” no, it seems apparent that we all have them. Surely some are more serious than others, at least to us but there is a deeper truth here that I want to try to point out. Paul referred to a thorn in his side that he had asked three times to have removed so, along with all of his other sufferings, we know that Paul had at least this one persistent cross to bear. It is this way for all of us and I believe that we actually have a number of crosses to bear, like our wardrobe, we open the closet of our crosses and decide which one we will try to bear today.

Satan sees which one we choose and invariably decides to throw something else at us. Not only to show up our failings in the one we are trying to carry, but by showing that we can’t even pick the right one from the closet. “Oh man! If I knew that I was going to be tempted with greed today, I never would have picked the cross of gluttony this morning!” This can be simplified though, if we cook it all down the root becomes obedience. Regardless of which sin we face, which trial is set before us and which of our personal demons launches an attack, if we keep the Word of God in our hearts and strive to be evermore obedient to what it tells us, then we are on the right track.

This becomes important in our prayer lives because too often we fight against our individual assailants by praying to have the them, or the trial, removed. It seems like the natural thing to do, when we struggle against something all we want is for the fight to stop, and how better than to ask that the attacker be vanquished? If we consider the whole Word of God, then we should be able to see that there must be a reason for the struggle, we each have our own particular crosses for a specific reasons. God is not unaware, He never is surprised by what we are facing and you can bet that no one in Heaven ever heard God say, “Oh my, I never thought that Fundamental Charlie would have had a problem with, (fill in the blank).” He knows everything and there is nothing that we face that is not common to the things that all men face. But to us, our problems are always worse than anyone else’s.

Most of the time our crosses are bigger and heaver than the next guys. There are exceptions, the family that just lost the husband and father to a drive-by shooting is more likely to be having a harder time than the person who is stuck waiting for the tow truck to fix a flat tire but none of us like to endure the pain that routinely gets doled out to us all. We forget to stop and consider that God has allowed these problems in our lives as a means of bringing us closer to him. We have to keep in mind that God has the master plan and it is a perfect plan too. So should we just lie down and take whatever misfortune befalls us? I don’t think so. We need to do our parts even as God is doing His. It is the way we respond to the difficulties that shows the grace of God in us, the ability with which we navigate life’s troubled waters is the witness that the world sees. We are glorifying to God whenever we resist the urge to curse, when we refrain from losing our temper and when we refuse to take the Lord’s name in vain.

“But we are told to bring all our petitions before God so what’s wrong with asking that the enemy be removed?” There is really no harm in asking, I suppose, but if God has brought us to the brink of a trial, isn’t it likely that He intends to grow us by shepherding us through it? When Jesus prayed in the garden he asked that the cup be taken from him right? But the more telling part of the prayer is in the other things He said. Jesus said, “If it be possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not what I will but what you will.” You see, Jesus was none too thrilled, in His human incarnation, about the death we was going to suffer and though He did ask that it be taken from Him, He subjugated His own desire to the will of the Father who had perfect knowledge of the completion of His plan for salvation.

Rather than ask that a particular cross be lifted from us so that we need not have to deal with it, I think that the more appropriate prayer is that we be sustained through it. “Lord give me the strength and the ability to endure this trial for the sake that Christ be glorified in the end. Amen.” God is not nearly as glorified by our dodging the bullet as he is when we occasionally take the hit for His sake and endure the trial knowing that it is only for our betterment that this has been allowed to happen. God has promised that He will not allow us to be tempted more than we are able to endure and that when we are tempted, we will be given a way to escape. This is a promise that we can rely on, (as are all of Gods promises), but we oftentimes act as though we don’t think that He will do what He has promised. Why should it be that it is so much easier to believe that Satan is against us than it is that God is for us? Both are biblical. We easily recognize that Satan works his ills against us, and the closer to God we grow, the harder he attacks; why do we not accept as easily that God is protecting us and working things to our good for His own glory?

This is a failing of faith. I don’t mean the faith which saves but rather, the daily faith that we should rely upon to guard our walk. Why should we believe that Christ died for our sins so that by faith we might have eternal life with Him and then disregard the things we are told in the Bible which offer us the promises and assurances that we so desperately need to get through our days? This is not right! Jesus said that we must deny ourselves and pick up our crosses daily. OK, that is telling us that what we think of as the right answers, (ourselves), are not the answers He would have for us so we must deny ourselves and carry the burdens He has allowed for as long as He has determined that we should carry them. In the meanwhile, pray, pray and then pray some more that God provides, according to His Word, the things we require to be able to fulfill this command. At the end of the day let’s give Him the thanks for bringing us through it and start praying for the new day tomorrow, because we are to pick up that cross and follow Him daily.

There are few things that delight the Lord more than our trusting and believing Him. For us to demonstrate our intention to be increasingly obedient to the Word is the one thing that only a disciple of Christ can do and above all else it is the thing that the world recognizes as the actions of a person who is intent on behaving in a way which is…

All For the Glory of Christ