Faith > Fear

                Last night was the first night of High School guys group. Bryan, my overseer, allowed Austin, my brother and fellow intern, and I to be in charge of this ministry. At first, I was excited. Next, I was stoked! Then, I was beyond excited. I sat down and began to plan guy's group for the next thirty-eight weeks. If you couldn't tell yet, I was eager to start this guy's group.

                Just the night before, I was freaking out, wondering what God would have me do. I was trying to figure out what He was going to have me do, what order there would be, if there would be order, etc. I was freaking out. Before I knew it, it was Monday night and I was driving over to the house. I was feeling awkward and excited, but most of all nervous.

                I had to come to the realization that I needed to trust in God. I began to pray as I drove, putting all of my trust in Him. I knew that He was going to be in control, and that His will would be done. I just had to keep reminding myself. The night went nothing like I planned, yet it was the most fruitful and powerful night that I had experienced in a long time. I realized that God had a plan all along, and I just needed to stay in submission to His will.

                When I allowed my faith to be bigger than my fear, I was overwhelmed with what God had in store for us. All that I needed to do was stop trying to make it work on my own, stop trying to set everything up for God, stop trying to overkill everything, and realize that God had a plan that I needed to get in line with.

                When we allow our faith in God to be bigger than the fears of the world, we will be pleasantly surprised. Don't trust me, trust God.


                                                                                                                                         -D

To Remember Him

                As a Christian, you know that Christ died and rose from the grave for us and we are now forgiven. In fact, all can be forgiven of their sin and granted access to the kingdom of God as long as they trust in Jesus Christ. This seemed so elementary to me until a question came up: "Why is it important for us to remember Him?"

                This caused me to stop and think. I knew, before even giving the thought words, that it is critical to remember Him and to forget Him was to forget life, but I couldn't explain it all. Yes, Jesus Christ came, died, and rose again for us so that we may be washed clean, but why is it important for us to remember Him? Take a moment and answer it yourself.

                I personally believe that it is important to remember Him because without Him we are hopeless. If we were to brush Him off like an average Joe that we met at a party and expected to never meet again, we would never be able to indulge in the gifts that Jesus Christ has given us: forgiveness, love, grace, mercy, justification, righteousness. We need to remember Jesus in order to be made whole, made clean, and made right before God. If we forget Jesus, we will continue to walk blindly in our sin and never have hope again. We need Jesus Christ. Remembering Him is as essential as remembering how to breath.


                                                                                                                                         -D

Gratefully Rescued

                Every human being has at least one thing in common: we have all been a slave to sin at one point in our lives. Some of us are still slaves to sin, and some of us have been rescued from that slavery. I don't know about you, but I was gratefully rescued.

                I was desperately in need of a savior, and Jesus came to my call. I was drowning in my sins, in myself, and in an empty life without Christ. It wasn't until I accepted the salvation that Jesus was offering that I could breath. I was so grateful for my savior. I still can't put it into words, but only those who have been gratefully rescued can understand.

                Why am I so grateful about the assist? Ephesians 2:8-9 says it all. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." I was rescued and it had nothing to do with my performance. I didn't have to work for the salvation, I didn't have to meet any requirements. God just loved me so much that He rescued me, and that is why I am so grateful. He is loving enough to do the same for you as well. All you have to do is accept His love.

                "And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:26)

Get Real. Get Right. Repent.

                When it comes to our walk with Christ, my friend Mireille says it best, "Get real. Get right. Repent." If we feel as if we are walking with Christ and going no where, let's examine our lives.

                "Get Real:" Be real with yourself. Are you actually reading your word to learn or just for brownie points with God? Are you praying from your heart or for ten seconds before dinner? Are you sinning on accident or are you making excuses to do it on purpose? We need to be real with ourselves. If we can't even be honest with ourselves, how do we expect to walk with the God who calls Himself Truth?

                "Get Right:" If there is a problem, you have to walk to fix it. If you don't want to make something right, you can't expect a change. If you have offended God, or the body of Christ, or anyone else at all, you need to get right. If we are not willing to fix the relationship, then there will be little to no growth happening.

                "Repent:" Birds fly, fish swim, and Christians repent. This should not be surprising. We should be repenting at all times. It's how we turn away from sin and turn to God. If we need to repent of something, now is the time, because putting it off will only hurt us. God doesn't depend on our service. We are the ones that need Him. Hebrews 2:3 says, "How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation...?" We need His salvation, so repentance is key.

                I believe Psalms 51:3-4 sums this all up. "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight; so You are right in Your verdict and justified when you judge."

                Get real. Get right. Repent.


                                                                                                                                         -D

Purpose Of The Test

                When your teacher gives you a test, who is the test for: your teacher, or you? When your teacher gives you the test, you are the one taking it to prove how much you know, not to prove how much the teacher knows. That would not make sense, but sometimes Christians seem to do that with God. For example, Genesis 22:1-14 is when God tested Abraham and told him to go sacrifice his son, Isaac.

                Let me give you a bit of background. At this time, Ishmael and his mother were no longer with them. It was just Abraham and Sarah. Now, God promised Abraham a son that would create the entire Jewish people and bring forth Jesus, but Abraham and Sarah were too old to do this when God promised it. Well, when Abraham was ninety nine and Sarah was eighty-nine, they conceived and bore Isaac, the promised son. Now, Abraham is well over one hundred years old, and God has just told him to sacrifice his only son (Isaac). Keeping this in mind, God did not promise a second son. Isaac was the promised child, so you can imagine the confusion on Abraham.

                Now, when God tested Abraham in this way, do we say that God wanted to see how faithful Abraham was? For some reason, many people do, but that is not true. God is omniscient, that means that He knows everything that there ever is to know. He already knew Abraham's faithfulness, but Abraham did not know the full faithfulness of God. It was Abraham that did not know, not God.

                So often people get it mixed up; thinking that God is too high to know us so we remind Him of the list of "good deeds" that we have done for Him when things go wrong. "God, I don't know why I have cancer, but it shouldn't be happening. I sat in the front row in church all of the time. I read my Bible and pray every night before bed. I go feed the homeless and tithe by ten percent, sometimes even more for the missionaries and church planters. God, you know that I do my share. Why is something bad happening to me?" We act as if we remember and God has forgotten.

                We see that when God calls Abraham to do this, he does not complain at all. He wakes up the next morning and goes off to sacrifice his son. He sets the fire place, places his son on the alter, and is about to kill him with the knife when an angel came to stop him and showed him that a ram was in the wilderness, stuck waiting for them. Abraham called that spot, "The Lord Will Provide." Abraham learned something. When he went on blind faith, he learned that God will provide. It wasn't for God, it was for him.

                Some of us are going through hard struggles right now and we may be wondering why God is testing us. Well, have faith to do whatever it is that God has asked you to do, and you will  learn something. Maybe you know that God is able to heal, but you never knew in your heart that God could heal you until you got sick and needed to trust in Him when you were afraid. Whatever is going on in your life, trust in God and know that He is doing it for your good and for His glory. In the end, it will be better than anything that you could have imagined. Don't trust me on it. Trust God.


                                                                                                                                         -D

Apple Tree

                Imagine looking at an apple tree. Take a second to picture it. Did it have apples on it? Did it have a sign that said that it was an apple tree? What makes an apple tree an apple tree? Is it the fruit that it bears? Is it the title that we give it? Maybe there is more to it. Maybe an apple tree is an apple tree because God made it so. Maybe it has less to do with the fruit and the packaging than we think. Maybe an apple tree is an apple tree, even before we see the fruit or label the seed. Maybe there is less to do with what we see and more to do with how God made it.

                Our faith is the same way. If we plant a seed within someone, we cannot expect for them to be bearing fruits the next morning. A seed has to take root and begin to sprout. Is faith still faith, even when it is new faith? Is an apple tree still an apple tree, even when it is just sprouting out of the ground? We cannot expect for ourselves to become perfect Christians overnight. We have to let God be God and let Him grow us at His pace, just as He causes the apple seed to grow and produce fruit at His pace.

                Just because we do not see the fruit of faith, works and deeds and the fruit of the Spirit, does not mean that one does not have faith. For all that we know, their faith is just taking root and is just beginning to cultivate fruits. For all that we know, the seed inside of them has died a long time ago, as well. We will not know, just like we will not know if a seed that we planted has taken root or not until we see it outside of the ground. Things go on in our lives that we are not always able to see, but we have to have faith in God that we have taken root.

                I challenge you to think of this. If our faith is like the tree, and our works and results are like the fruit, can we expect to bear fruit the moment that a sprout pops out of the ground? No, so let us not attack anyone who is new to the faith. Let us nurture one another and let God be the one who separated the apple trees from the weeds. Let us not judge others, and let us leave it to the only one who will sit on the great white throne in the book of Revelations.


                                                                                                                                         -D

Information, Knowledge, And Wisdom

                Information, knowledge, and wisdom are not synonymous words. They are closely related though. Keep this in mind when I ask the question: are you reading the Bible for information, knowledge, or wisdom? Let's use John 3:16 for example. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

                Information is a sequence of symbols (such as pictures, letters, numbers, etc.) that can be interpreted as a message. If we read John 3:16 as information, we could do basic reading comprehension and understand that it is a sentence. We would walk away with nothing more than a memory verse. Now, nothing is wrong with memorizing Bible verses; but if we only know how to spit out the Bible verse, never knowing what it means, we have wasted out time completely. We can repeat the words, just like remembering titles of books; but what's the point of knowing a book by it's title if you know nothing that is inside? There has to be more than just remembering symbolic patterns.

                Knowledge, is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. Using John 3:16 again, if we understand it through knowledge, we know that God loves us, that God gave His only son for us, that whoever believes in this loving God's sacrifice will have eternal life. With knowledge, you can "own" the information and use it when applicable to teach others or benefit a cause. This is great to have when teaching, but is this it when it comes to reading the Bible? Just being able to tell other people what the Bible means?

                Wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge. Judicious, meaning to have shown, or done something with, good judgment or sense. If we see John 3:16 through wise eyes, we become the person that God sent His son to die for and we want to accept that everlasting life through believing in Him. Wisdom is taking knowledge and applying it properly.

                Are we reading the Bible to comprehend a sentence? Are we reading the Bible to be familiar with the verses? Or are we reading the Bible to know how to apply the verses in the most practical and judiciously proper sense? I, personally, wish to gain wisdom from the Bible; because in order to gain wisdom I must obtain the knowledge, and in order to obtain the knowledge I must understand the information. I wish the gain the most out of every word from the scripture, because they are the words directly from God. Let's take our Bible's more seriously.