Deepen the Roots of Faith

Our faith is only as strong and effective as the roots that we mature to anchor it.

“But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”

Matthew 13:21 (NIV)

As believers and followers of Christ, living in a topsy turvy almost near insane world, where values have fallen into the category of “anything goes” and common sense is no longer common, it is incumbent upon us, more than any time in our history, to really engage our God given mind with respect to our faith. To be relevant in today’s world, we must have an articulate understanding that supplies the “reasons” behind our faith. We must position ourselves to live beyond the popular notion that ours is based solely upon “blind faith.”

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

Matthew 22:37 (NIV)

Failure to do so leaves us lukewarm in the midst of the hottest contest in history. The contest I speak of isn’t for money, power, or glory, rather it’s about eternity for human souls. This is a battle that’s all to real, and I believe our complacency, our failure to internalize our faith, to anchor it with deep roots in the rich soil of scriptures, has left us wanting. Particularly when it comes to clearly articulating to others, why Jesus Christ is more relevant now than ever before.

Part of our inability to express our position and to stay relevant in the dialog of the world around us, is directly connected to our failures as individuals to invest in our understanding of what it is we believe and why. True, simple faith brings us to a very important first step, it leads us to an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ, but many of us stop there and never go beyond.

How then, can we as believers ever hope to be influencers of positive ideas when we don’t even understand what it is we believe or why we believe? For our faith to engage beyond the walls of our churches, it must translates itself into actions that can positively impact the world around us.

The scriptures call us to be “ambassadors for Christ.” Jesus told his disciples that when he left this world that they would do even greater things than he. But neither is possible if we as believers fail to grow roots. Another words, we need to deepen our faith, study and better understand the scriptures, internalizing why we believe what we believe. Only then can we hope to weather the storms that we face today followed by the winds of contrary ideas of tomorrow.

If you are not currently involved in a regular Bible study. If all you’re doing is attending a worship service on Sunday, then it’s time for you to put aside your excuses and to up your game.

Most churches offer small groups or Bible studies in addition to their regular services, but in my experience, the vast majority of members don’t participate. Don’t be one of those people and then complain that the rest of the world sees you as irrelevant. Let’s face it, the truth hurts. Without education, without engaging our minds, we are irrelevant to those around us.

Here’s some good news, you don’t have to intellectually conquer the world to be relevant and effective. God will do the heavy lifting and the Holy Spirit will do the job of convicting the heart of those we engage with. Our responsibility is for sharing the gospel, for being engaged in our world around us, for living out the values that please and honor God. Besides, a little gospel goes a long way.

It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Luke 13:21 (NIV)

There are no excuses for not engaging your mind. None.

Find a way to grow your roots. Be the tree that’s anchored in the cliff, a tree that’s around for a long time, a tree that’s respected for it’s quiet strength, it’s ability to become the defender and promoter of a positive message from God. At this point in history, we are but a “remnant” , but if we choose, we can be a powerful remnant.

Each of us can be a positive influencer in the circle of humanity that God brings our way. After all, we are charged with sharing the most important idea of all, the reality of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Helping Our Children Live a Life of No Regrets

Everyone needs purpose in their lives, the challenge we often face is in finding that purpose.

As parents we desire the best for our children. We recognize the importance the role purpose plays in their lives. For all of us, having a sense of defined purpose gives us hope, energy, and passion in life. Purpose allows us to engage, to bring positive change in our lives and in the lives around us. Without purpose we languish.

Often purpose takes on a role that transcends ourselves. Purpose doesn’t have to be great in the eyes of the public. Often purpose is of a much humbler persuasion. With genuine purpose comes a sense of inner peace. For some, purpose is caring for a family member, for others, purpose might be more public and evident.

For a follower of Christ, purpose contains a deeper, spiritual component. An element of eternity comes to the forefront. Such eternal purposes are most meaningful when aligned with Gods will and very nature. After all, it is God that plants the seeds of desire, that when nurtured, grow to maturity as life a purpose in each of our hearts.

As a parent, it is our high honor to help our kids in their search for meaningful purpose with eternal significance. On the journey to adulthood, our children are striving to understand their roles and purpose in life. As they do this, it’s incumbent upon parents, that we actively enable their quest to identify their life’s purpose. We aught to pray for our children and to engage them in meaningful dialog around this quest.

While on this path towards finding eternal purpose, we must remember to resist the temptation to identify our children’s purpose for them. We may coach, educate, and offer council, but we must allow God free reign in this aspect of their lives.

It’s possible that our children’s purpose may not be in harmony with our personal concepts of purpose for their lives. To be meaningful and to have eternal significance, their purpose must be in alignment with God’s nature. In this we must agree upfront to not interfere with God’s divine plan for our children. To do so would ultimately bring them a lifetime of regret. There can be no higher calling than to align our life’s purpose with God’s eternal purpose.

Such a goal should be sought with the understanding that God’s ways are higher than our own ways. We may not fully grasp the significance of His purposes in our lives or in the lives of our children. Instead we must trust Him, we must choose to walk on a narrow trail of faith that encompasses the reality of God’s constant grace to his children.

When William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school in 1904, he was heir to the Borden Dairy estate, which made him a millionaire. For his graduation present, his parents gave him a trip around the world.

As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the world’s hurting people. Finally, Borden wrote home to say, “I’m going to give my life to prepare for the mission field.” At the same time, he wrote two words in the back of his Bible: “No reserves.”

Perhaps his parents would have wanted him to take over the family business or enter into some other aspect of business. Yet despite such promising opportunities, Borden never wavered in what he believed to be a higher calling, a higher purpose, a purpose cloaked in eternal significance.

While attending Yale, Borden started numerous Bible study groups. By the time he graduated, more than half the student body were participating in his Bible study groups in one form or another. When he wasn’t ministering to students on campus, he was ministering to the poor on the streets of New Haven.

Upon graduation from Yale, Borden wrote two more words in the back of his Bible: “No retreats.”

With his family name and education, he was quickly offered several lucrative job opportunities upon graduation from Yale. In the face of these offers, he stayed true to his purpose and turned them all down, enrolling in Seminary instead.

Upon graduation from seminary, he traveled to Egypt to learn Arabic so he could work with Muslims in China. While in Egypt, Borden contracted spinal meningitis. He died within a month at the young age of twenty-five.

Prior to his death, Borden wrote two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words “No reserves” and “No retreats,” he wrote, “No regrets.”¹

While we can’t always understand God’s plans and purposes, we can be confident that when we follow His plan for our lives, plans that are consistent with His character, we will live a life of no regrets.

In the eyes of those outside of God’s kingdom, Borden’s life may have seemed wasted, perhaps even unfair. But the truth is, none of us know how many years we’ve been given to live out our earthly life, but for Borden, he viewed his life from an eternal perspective, he trusted God for his eternal purpose, and that’s what allowed him to live his life fully (John 10:10) with no regrets.

For those of us that God allows to live for many years, we have the double challenge of keeping God’s purpose alive for the long run. Perhaps your purpose is to help others by working in a retail setting, perhaps it’s to bring comfort over a lifetime of service to countless patients as a member of the medical profession, or to minister to co-workers in a business setting, or to give hope to troubled students in the teaching profession. Whatever your eternal purpose, do it to the glory of God, and live your life with no regrets.

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¹ Mrs. Howard Taylor, Borden of Yale (Bethany, 1988) Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 276–277.

Re-imaging

It was Monday morning.

I pop into my cube after a crazy drive into work, traffic was just nuts. I park my brown leather satchel next to my desk and walk over to the coffee machine for my morning coffee boost. I hear it churning away, brewing a fresh pot.

I love those guys that get in early and start the coffee. It’s just so hard to face the day otherwise.

I brought with me my favorite coffee mug, but one look at it told me it hadn’t quite made it to the sink before I left the previous Friday. After a quick wash it was ready to go. Moments later, a steaming hot stream of liquid brain booster poured from the urn, the smell of fresh brewed coffee already hitting my brain.

Ahhhh…that first sip…okay…I can face the day now.

After plopping down in my office chair, setting the coffee on my desk and then pulling the laptop from my satchel, I plug it in and power up.

Nothing.

A blue screen.

It’s the blue screen of death! Nooooo!!!

Not on a Monday! Not anytime!!

I quickly call IT and request assistance. After some moments, I hear the dreaded phrase…the one no one wants to hear.

“Sorry, but the operating system on your computer has become corrupted, the only way we can restore it to its original condition, is to re-image your computer. That means we will restore your computer’s operating system from one of our original master copies.  Once completed, your computer will be restored to its original condition and will function properly.”

“Ohhhh man…are you sure this is the only way?” I replied.

“Yes. I’m afraid so. I know it’s drastic, but the existing operating system has become corrupted and short of a complete reimage, there are no other solutions to fix this problem.”

Moments later, I walked my laptop to the helpdesk center, where a somber looking tech received it. She took it, and told me it would be ready in one to two days.

In the world of technology I’ve had to come to the realization that some problems cannot be solved by small fixes or creative workarounds. They can only be solved using drastic measures.

In many ways the incarnation of Christ was one of those drastic measures for humanity. As we approach Christmas, a season where we celebrate the arrival of Christ, I am reminded that there was a time God had created humanity and the cosmos and all was well. He intended for us to live in a world He created for His most prized of all creations, people. In His world we would live life to the full, we would never suffer, we would never worry about being overtaken by death, and we would walk and live in perfect communion with our Creator.

To have all this, we had only one rule to follow. And all of Creation and it’s perfect state would hang on our following one simple rule. God told us not to consume anything from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen 2:17)

That’s it.

Easy.

In return we would have a life of immortality and have a perfect relationship with God, the creator and sustainer of all life.

What a sweet deal!

We only had one job, and yet we still managed to mess it all up. (Gen 3)

You see, our Creator endowed us with free will, because it’s only through free will that we might express our true love towards God. God could have pre programmed us to “love” Him, but then it wouldn’t be true love from the heart. The trade-off of course is that we could also choose to disobey Him.

Which of course we did.

Thanks guys.

The effect of our choice corrupted all of Creation. It even corrupted our souls. Our basic operating system that had been installed by God as a perfect image (Gen 1:27) was now corrupted. We were no longer in communion with God, we were no longer immortal as God had intended for us all along.

What could we do to fix it?

In our case, there was nothing we could do. Humanity could not fix the problem it had created. According to Athanasius, “no other could restore to man the lost Image but the express Image of the Father…“¹

In effect,we needed to be remimaged by the Master Himself!

And that’s what God did. He came to us, born in a humble manger, lived among us perfectly. And then  a corrupt humanity ultimately killed him by crucifixion.

But not for long.

Three days later, as He promised, He rose from the dead! He overcame death! He provided us with a path to eternity through faith in His work on the cross! (Romans 3:24)

For this reason we have the incarnation of Christ. We celebrate His coming to us at Christmas time, His birth as the God man, the one true image to reset our corrupt image that happened so long ago when humanity chose poorly.

This Christmas we have every reason to celebrate! We have been made new in Christ, we have been reborn…or if you prefer, reimaged by the Master Himself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Notes:

1. Athanasius of Alexandria, Athanasius: On the Incarnation of the Word of God, trans. T. Herbert Bindley, Second Edition Revised (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1903), 29.

”We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.”

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, was the most decorated Marine in American history. He was one of two United States servicemen to be awarded five Navy Crosses and one Army Distinguished Service Cross.

Puller retired from the Marine Corps in 1955 after 37 years of service. He lived in Virginia until his death in 1971 at age 73. In was during WW II and the Korean War that that he was decorated for his leadership and for numerous acts of bravery.

During the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea, Puller’s forces became encircled by over a 120,000 enemy troops. The enemy were under orders from their leader, Mao Zedong, to destroy the UN forces.

His succinct and transparent assessment of the Chosin Reservoir situation was one for the history books. Upon the realization that they were completely surrounded, Puller declared; “We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.” Clearly his problem statement, coupled with the realization that his options were rather simplified, could not have been more understated. In the end, Puller was credited for his part in leading his troops to breakout and subsequently escape the entrapment.¹

Unlike Puller’s assessment of his limited options, our modern lives seem to present us with an endless series of digital options for which we may choose. These options are found in our social media, video content, gaming, etc., are so numerous that they seem only to function as a fragile shield from reality.  Yet they offer little in the way of lasting value, instead they’ve become a facade of life, bringing only the allure of escape from our difficulties without actually contributing to anything of lasting value.

In some ways these digital options have led us to live out a life of dissatisfaction. They genuinely keep us from welcoming that deep contentment our souls really long for. Product advertisers work hard to continue our slide into dissatisfaction with waves of sound bites, ads, video clips and the alike, all aimed at one message: “The solution to your dissatisfaction in life lies in the purchase of our product or service. Buy it and you’ll have the contentment you’ve been seeking.”

Have you ever seen yourself in this situation? I know I have at times. It’s easy to drift into this labyrinth of distraction because we are surrounded by the constant message that we should be discontent with life.  But I want you to know that there is another path to choose that will lead to real, deep, and true contentment in this life. It’s a path found in a single choice, yet it offers us an eternal peace and contentment that reaches deep into our souls.

The scriptures speak about this deep contentment. The Apostle Paul wrote:

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Paul was a man faimular with living life in times of good and in times of bad. He also suffered a medical condition that he asked to God to resolve, but the Lord didn’t heal him. Instead the Lord told Paul; “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness’ “(2 Cor. 12:9–10). You see, in this one act, the Lord revealed to Paul the frame of mind that he needed to carry with him in life. He was to find his contentment, not in his being perfectly healthy or in the many things of this life, but singularly in his dependency upon God’s grace for living out each day.

Long before Paul’s time, King David penned the first sentence in one of the most recognized Psalms ever to be recorded in all literary history. He wrote: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want“ (Ps. 23:1, emphasis mine)

For King David, all he needed was one thing, and he found that in God. Here was a King who could ask for anything, and I’m sure he had many options to choose from. But he saw only one option, and that was the option to love the Lord, and only the Lord with all his being. God was central to his life. He realized that true contentment could only be born out of a genuine relationship with God. With God at his side, he could live his life fully content, without want, because he knew God would provide for him.

Let’s face it, contentment is learned from experiences in life, and when we’ve found the true source of contentment, it will lead us to the ability to conquer circumstances and situations, rather than be conquered by them. The critical factor is in understanding where we get our contentment from. With real contentment we’ll be able to live out our lives with attitude that is the exact opposite of living with worry and anxiety.

Paul also wrote:

“Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11–13, NRSV)

Outside of God, many fall into the trap of believing our contentment will come when we have more power, money, perfect health, the model family, the latest fashions, a new car etc. The desire to seek all these things overwhelms our senses with endless options that we must process each day. Living our lives this way simply ramps up our personal stress and anxiety. Mostly because our point of comparison (Other people, fashions etc.) are in continuous flux, which invariably leaves us in a disjointed state of contentment. Yet, if we were to practice contentment and rest in the Lord, the way he would desire us to, then the things we would focus on would be simplified considerably and we would experience true inner contentment, independent of life circumstances.

Does seeking our contentment in the Lord mean we isolate ourselves from the world around us, that we are not allowed to enjoy the pleasures of life that God has given us?

“No!”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the blessings of God. Thomas Kempis said it well:

“Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them. Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, Who created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists.”-(Thomas à Kempis 1380-1471) ²

What are the important and eternal things?

How about relationships? The very first one of which is our personal relationship with Jesus, without which we are unable to achieve lasting contentment. When our relationship is right with God, then every other options becomes clearer and their relative importance becomes easier to discern.

The bible encourages us to invest in the lives of those around us, whether they be our family, co-workers, neighbors, the recently arrived immigrant, or simply a person we bump into during our day to day activities. (Matthew 19:19)

When our relationship is right with God we can be at peace with all other relationships, even if the recipient is not receptive to us. The point is, we can live contently, because all of that extraneous stuff now falls within the purview of God, it’s really beyond our control. We cannot control how others respond to us, we can only control how we respond the them.

The same principle applies to life. I cannot always control my health situation, I may be able to influence it, but in the end I must remain content, knowing, that from an eternal perspective, my health is covered by God already.

Choosing to be content in the Lord is to simplify our options to the things that really matter in the grand scale of eternity. With God, we have contentment despite our life circumstances, and with that contentment comes a degree of peace for which nothing else compares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesty_Puller

(2) Elliot Ritzema and Rebecca Brant, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).