Only believing in what you can see?

"I only believe in what I can see, feel, touch or eat" that was a statement I received just recently. And I guess it pretty much sums up everything we have been taught over the past generations.

Science tells us not to put our belief in anything that can't be proved - only trust the tangible!

It's so interesting to note that verse in Luke 18:8 when Jesus Himself says "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on earth?' Open to much discussion.

The way the world is going today our 'faith' in God comes under much scrutiny sarcasm and derision. It amazing how closely the prophesies of the Scriptures line up with today's attitude on faith and belief in Christ and the church.

Jesus tells us plainly in Luke 21 and Matthew 24 just some of the signs that will herald His coming back to earth.

Jesus tells us in Luke 21:26 "People will faint from terror: apprehensive of what is coming on the world" and honestly, what has happened in Syria, Paris, Afghanistan, Iraq - that is exactly what is happening.

Our world lives in terror! "There will be wars - but it is not the end." Jesus said so Himself - earthquakes and famines everywhere - people turning against each other - brother against brother - it's happening right here right now!

There will be many deceiving the nations, many will follow the path to destruction - all predicted - all happening!

So many enemies of God - so many enemies of our faith.  So where/what is faith?

Because our world is so opposed and is so much in denial and contra-faith in God, Jesus reveals what we need to know to counteract those in opposition and to use our gift of faith to grow in Him.

The very epitome of Christianity is our Faith - without faith we cannot please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

Faith isn't just a 'nice thing to have' in our lives - it is ESSENTIAL if we want to have a REAL relationship with God. Faith is a mandatory and imperative step we need to have and take when we first come to Christ.

Faith is SO important that without it we can't possibly come to Christ at all.

There are many many examples of faith in the Bible. many listed in Hebrews in the so-called "faith chapter" (Hebrews 11). We read here of amazing things done because of faith.

My personal way of looking at faith is believing God and His Word over anything you may see, hear, feel or experience. Faith is so much more than a 'warm and fuzzy' feeling - it is a strong and steadfast belief in the Creator God and the amazing work of Christ on Calvary all those years ago.

Just recently I read the horrific story of a young 12 year old lad and his father kidnapped by the evil ISIS. The father, a Christian and believer was asked to revert and deny Christ. He refused and was tortured brutally - when he still wouldn't deny his Lord they tortured his son in front of him, finally crucifying them both.

We see reading this horrible and brutal account of the strength of faith here in our world - right here right now. So much more than lip service, bells and steeples and waving incense down church aisles.

Faith is real and tangible - changing peoples lives for good and eternity.

Our mere human brains can't possibly take in the magnitude of FAITH. It effects us spiritually and emotionally - an amazing gift from God, the very SOURCE of faith in the first place.
"For by grace you have been saved through FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

So let's not be swayed by so-called experts in the scientific fields who tell us we must prove before we believe - rather let's be bold and courageous, asking God with confidence to impart to us His amazing gift of Faith.

Of course after we have faith given by the very grace of God, we turn to the cross where we repent and ask forgiveness for our sins. Another incredible gift from Him.

God bless you as you step out in faith this week, relying on Him to supply all of your needs. Be confident in God's love, be content with what you have and be courageous and steadfast in your witness for Him

lay off - I've heard it all a million times before!

You have to live right and do the right things - obey the rules and make a go of your life - stay true to yourself and obey your parents and everything will be OK.

That's exactly how the world  looks at 'proper' living. We have rules for this and rules for that and actually when you look at it thoroughly that is precisely how it should be - after all where would be without rules?  Anarchy reigning supreme!

Of course we need rules and heaps of hoops to jump through sometimes it seems way too many hoops.

We also have a myriad of people willing to enforce those rules to make us 'live right'. I like to call it the "Pharisee Syndrome". People who love to point out to us our mistakes.

There always seems to be an 'achievement point' that we should aim for in life. Some far off distant place where we must set our sights. "Work harder son and you will achieve". "Act smarter and work longer hours".  Do this and do that, go here and go there break your back climb the corporate ladder and keep pursuing your dream.

It's the same with our salvation. How many times have we heard "It's not through works" it never was and never will be. Yes! We have heard it all a million times before. BUT there is something nagging in the back of our minds "maybe if I tried a little harder it really wouldn't hurt - God may approve".

If I achieve this and help out in here - If I can organise that group or run that camp - organise the worship group or run the creche just perhaps I can win a few "brownie points" with Jesus and just squeeze into heaven.

Something in the back of our minds keeps prompting us that, well, after all, yes, we 'need' to do something, anything really, to live right and stay in the lines so God will eventually approve.

So many of us jump through the hoops, take on a workload, join the circus, break our backs and knock ourselves out trying to win the approval of God which we have been told a million times that it just won't 'wash' with our Heavenly Father.

All of these works are great and good and deserving of our father's blessings BUT we must do these works out of lives of faith and trust not out of some sort of duty bound necessity.

In James 2 we read:-  "What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?" so we see here that deeds ARE essential to our faith BUT they must come from a heart given to Christ. They are natural out-pouring of a heart changed permanently by our Father God.

Often these outpouring of 'works' can be a torrent - a gushing of praise and thankfulness to a mighty work of change and transformation in our lives.

These works are so different to the "obligatory' works that we so often find ourselves doing out of a sense of duty and necessity.

In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we read about all types of works being "proved" by God -  just how He will do that remains a mystery to me, but at the end of that final day, works that are done out of a sense of duty or obligation will be burned up.

BUT those done out of a heart turned to Christ and done with faith and trust, out of a natural out pouring of a life changed, will last eternally and bring honour and glory to God.

Okay, so we may have heard this a million times before, BUT the message is unchanged and still rings true today as it will eternally. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Jesus has done it all.

When we grasp this amazing truth, it's like seeing God's grace in a brand new light as if we are seeing it for the very first time.

Let's not build our lives on a foundation of 'self' breaking our backs building monuments that will not last, just like our wonderful tree house here, but let's build on a firm foundation, one built on faith in Christ and trust in Him.

Any 'works' emanating from our 'heart change' will reflect the very love of Christ and come from Him via us. It is these types of 'works' that will last eternally, not so much the physical side, but the motives and the consequences will glorify God for eternity.

We don't have to jump through any hoops, we don't have to break our backs and minds trying to prove ourselves worthy of God's love. Everything is done for us, all we need to do is to accept, through faith, this amazing and astounding gift of love offered to us.

Let our faith in Christ bring forth the amazing deeds and works that He has promised us. Let's not 'jump the gun' and try to get God's approval. He loves you because YOU are YOU. He made you and He loves you.

God bless you as you work through your salvation. Take heart in the fact that you REALLY don't need to 'earn' anything. God through Jesus paid that price once and for all time.

.

When you've mucked things up

Where do we go from here? I have said that to myself over and over again seemingly all of my adult life. Where do I go from here?

Mistakes aplenty seem to exude from my life like water over Niagara and accompanying these endless displays of 'hiccups' is the self-pity syndrome that comes along for the ride.

I love to throw "pity-parties" and have the world see exactly what a wonderful martyr I can be.

What does a guy like me have to do to break these cycles of worry, self-pity and the endless mistake making? What have I learnt after all these years.

I reckon one of the things I have learnt and am so grateful for is that God isn't finished with me yet. Praise him that He has shown me that not one of us will ever be perfect and our very salvation is being perfected through His Holy Spirit constantly.

Usually when things go wrong instead of acting appropriately and working with God to find solutions I often indulge myself in a depressive mindset, feeding my melancholy state with my own despondency. I wallow in self-pity, become morose and start playing the 'blame game' to all and sundry who happen to be in my personal firing line.

When people like this sink into the 'pity-party' attitude they tend to focus on themselves and crave the attention of others, inadvertently inviting all and sundry to attend their 'pity-party' and join in the "poor me" chorus.

Self-pity is probably one of THE most destructive attitudes we can have. It robs us of self-confidence and Independence. Focusing everything on ME, we become self-centred and often physically exhausted.

We tend to worry more over every detail, becoming short tempered and easily upset by seemingly innocent remarks or actions by other people which in turn leads us to a never ending cycle of hurts and upsets.

Thinking about this problem has driven me to seek the Lord with a totally new focus. I have gleaned much from reading about how others in the Bible coped with 'mucking things up'. It's encouraging to know that where I am as a Christian many others have been there before me and yet have led lives for God in fulfilling and amazing ways.

Reading in 1 Kings 19, I was astonished to see that even Elijah fell into the "mucking things up and self-pity' brigade.

He had just shown what a mighty warrior he was for God because he had actually killed all of King Ahab's and his wicked Queen Jezebel's prophets of Baal with the sword - the lot by himself, then surprisingly took off because he was afraid of Jezebel's promise of death.

She had said to him "may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them" 1 Kings 19:1

Elijah had had enough, he fell into wallowing in self-pity and said to God "it is enough! Now Lord take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"

I can relate so well to Elijah here. He started to worry, then worry led to a presumption of an outcome that was pretty much sewn up in his own mind. He focused on the problem and he focused on himself!  Does it ring any bells with you? It certainly did with me!

Elijah retreated into himself - he turned away - you can imagine him crawling into a foetal position and just asking to die.

What does God tell him to do - well in a nutshell "get up and get moving"! It's quite a story and well worth the read - I learnt so much here.

God wanted Elijah to be obedient rather than relying on his own emotions. He wants from us the same thing - genuine repentance and a reliance and trust on Him.

It's just so easy to become a victim instead of a warrior. God Himself has provided solutions for us time and time again to alleviate and get rid of the victimisation and self-pity syndrome. He has told us and re-told us not to worry and certainly not to bring others in on our worrying and self-pity cycles.

Jesus is ALL we need - all of our worries, all of concerns and uncertainties and indeed our misgivings and apprehensions can be handed to him.

In fact all of our self esteem and confidence comes FROM Him so we really don't need to go bandying about and sharing our worries with all we meet, seeking pity and self confidence in them when we have the very best listener and the actual author of empathy, sympathy and supportiveness right here in our lives.

Being focused on ourselves can bring about pretty big disasters. Look at Abraham and Sarah. Told by God that they would be the parents of a great nation - as numerous as the sands of the seas or the stars in the sky. Did they believe Him? in a way they did but they thought they would do it their way and so the whole 'Hagar incident' came about with disastrous effects.

Yes we can 'muck things up' so easily. We can through self-pity spoil amazing plans God has for our lives, simply by looking inward and not trusting God.

We can let worry overtake us and inadvertently drag others down with us to an never ending spiral of self doubt and depression.

I guess in lots of ways it is only natural, being human, that we can respond to difficulties, trials and struggles with self-pity and 'what did I do to deserve this' attitude, but don't be mislead, it is not because of worldly pressures that ultimately lead us to self pity.

These pressures can either lead us to excessive worry, self-pity or to all sorts of dilemma and mistakes or it can lead us to overcoming through the example of the selfless Jesus - the great overcomer.

So, with God's Spirit living in us we can choose to trust God and refuse to indulge and wallow in our so-called natural desires of feeling sorry for ourselves and giving in to our all-consuming worries.

We can be warriors for Jesus, regardless of our past mistakes. we can be overcomers with Him who saved us in the first place.

May God bless you as you put aside any thoughts of  self and stride out purposefully with Jesus. The very 'author and finisher of our faith.