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. . . the simplicity that is in Christ —2 Corinthians 11:3 Theirs not to make reply,Theirs not to reason why,Theirs but to do and die. These famous lines are from The Charge of the Light Brigade by  Alfred, Lord Tennyson. They refer to soldiers in battle. We should apply them to ourselves in our Christian walk. Too often when we God calls us to do something, we respond by trying to reason “why” He so calls us. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you ( 2 Corinthians 10:5 ). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing […]

If I am in a vehicle, I much prefer to be the driver. When watching TV, I like the remote control next to me. I am much happier as a solo practitioner, than I was as an employee or even a partner (which I was for most of my life.) I like to think that God is my Co-Pilot. I guess you could say I have control “issues.” I believe I am a control freak. This makes the concept of surrender a difficult one for me. It’s not much consolation that I’m not the only one. or that control freakism is rampant. There is great anxiety in our country now principally because most of us feel things our out of control: the economy, politics, national morals. It is no consolation that these things have been out of control for most of my 61 years. There is no worse feeling in the world. than loss of control.  The feeling is almost universal that things are “out of control.” It is also no help that “control” is mostly an illusion. We are never really “in control.” It is no wonder that we give but lip service to the spiritual concept of […]

Jesus answered and said, ’You do not know what you ask’ —Matthew 20:22 We are not meant to always understand what God is doing in our lives. Spiritual confusion is natural and should be expected. If we hold to basic truths we can walk through periods of confusion. We must hold on to the fact that God is God; God is in control. God loves us. God is all powerful. God wants the best for us. Sometimes it may seem that God is not in control or that He doesn’t love us or can’t handle some situation or delights in our discomfort. These things are never true. When we are challenged with these assault on our basic faith our response is to keep on walking, to keep on trusting, to keep on believing. Eventually, the fog will clear and we will, once again discover that hindsight is 20/20. When will look back on what has happened, His faithfulness, power, control and love for us will, once again be proven. Is this a period of spiritual clarity or spiritual fog? It matters not. Walk on child of God. Your Father in heaven loves you and leads you onward. Be blessed. […]

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet —John 13:14 I love my daughter. She is very cool. Recently I  asked  if she had ever considered being a missionary. She said that she had until she realized she didn’t like kids or bugs. With those two dislikes how she ever serve as a missionary?   It’s clearly the way we think. . . of serving God in far away places with radically different environs or with people we just don’t handle very well.   That’s not how missionary service really is. It is being willing to perform the most menial task in His name, whether it’s washing feet, listening to the broken hearted, or raking leaves. This kind of service is so important that Jesus made an example for us the night before He died.  There are many spiritual needs out there and most can be met with little spiritual expertise. and no exotic travel. We can listen to the lonely.  We can help the disadvantaged. We can pray with the lost and confused. God places these opportunities in our path. We don’t have to travel to places […]

When you were under the fig tree, I saw you —John 1:48 Football season seems to have begun this week. The Saints are hoping to Two Dat and start with a game against the Vikings tonight. College teams will play their second games this weekend. But for those who play the game, the season never ends. These guys work to stay in shape year round. Actual practice has been going on for college for a month and preseason games have separated the players from the watchers in the professional ranks. For those who have not worked and prepared there is no season opener. We need to do the same. It is easy to say when God calls on me to do something great, I’ll be ready. Well, we will only be ready if we are preparing now. If we aren’t doing the little things now, we won’t be asked to suit up for the big game. In fact, maybe we have already been called up and found wanting. Have we had a crisis in our life in which we floundered, doubted our faith, held back from making a necessary move?  Crises don’t make our character they just reveal it. […]

We build our character through a succession of moral decisions, wise choices. Even if our “intentions” are the best, we can not accomplish what God intends for us unless we take every thought captive and place ourselves always in line with the will of God. Spend some time viewing various programs on the Christian networks. You won’t have to watch many programs before it becomes clear that many are failing to do this, but are performing  Christian mission by impulse.  In a world so full of need as our world today, it is easy to see a need and determine that we should be doing something to meet it. We do this without taking our thoughts captive and make sure, first, that the need is one we are called to address and, two, how we should be addressing it.   True determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature.    We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and […]

For me one of the most difficult things to grasp about the Christian life is the part we are to play. What is our responsibility? I know that Jesus did it all on the cross and I can add nothing to that; but I am also told that I am to “work out my salvation.” What does that mean?  When we are born again, our salvation is secured; but a struggle continues, our nature is transformed but our natural life continues. It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. We sometimes believe that the fight is against sin. But the fight for us is not against sin but against the human nature. As to sin, we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord . . .” (see Exodus 14:13).  The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It […]

The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life —John 4:14 Oswald Chambers devotes several days to the picture of living water and the flow that should come through us. The images deserve this attention because they show our very reason for existence. Consider the lessons to be learned from these descriptions by Christ. First: That He is the source of all that is good in us and of all good that comes into our lives.Second: That the good is not to stay within us; because for it to do so results in death and a loss of blessing.Third: That the function of the blessing is for it to flow to others. So that the blessings will multiply and so that they will be noticed by others and a proper credit given to the source. The ultimate purpose being to bring others to the fountain.Fourth: The health of the flow is dependent on the healthy status of our relationship to the source. This idea is also portrayed in the image of the vine and the branches, with Him as the vine and us as the branches. A connection […]