Realigning our faith

I hate it when I make a quick U-turn and hit the curb with my front tire. In that moment several thoughts fly through my mind:

  • Why didn’t I just wait for the arrow?
  • Why didn’t I gauge the distance more accurately?
  • Why didn’t I just take a different route?
  • I wonder if I knocked the front end out of alignment?
  • I wonder if I should get it looked at?

Usually I adopt a “wait and see” attitude. Eventually, I might notice the car is pulling just a bit or riding a little less smoothly when I am sailing down the highway. In a month or two, I might notice the extra wear on one edge of the tire. 

It isn’t until I actually notice some damage that I take the time to make the appointment to get an alignment. I should have fixed it sooner, but now I realize that I don’t want the problem to get worse than it already is.

Realigning our faith

That’s often how it goes with our spiritual lives too. If you are a consistent reader of this blog post, you are probably not a person that ends up crashing your walk with God very often. Most Christians who spend time reading a blog like this one are people who care about their spiritual lives and living for God’s Kingdom purpose.

That said, all Christians will hit a curb once in a while, and our souls will need a realignment with God. The Lenten season is a great time to give thought to that purpose.

Is your soul showing a bit of wear around the edges? Is your walk with God a tad shaky, especially when life hits a higher speed? Do you feel pulled in some directions that you shouldn’t want to go? 

Jesus said that we should love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and with all of our mind (Matthew 22:37). Jesus left his throne in glory and took on flesh so that he could die for every sin and weakness in our lives. Jesus died at Easter knowing that every Christian would need his sacrifice for their eternity and his Spirit for their daily spiritual lives this side of heaven.

How then can we submit to Jesus as our master mechanic and ask him to realign our souls with his Kingdom purpose? Easter is coming and we want to experience the Via Dolorosa with our Lord.

Jesus knew how to maintain his soul.

We don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews, but we know he was a Jewish Christian who lived with a powerful knowledge of God through his Son. 

Hebrews 3–4 are amazing words of encouragement to God’s people to enter into the “rest” that our Christian faith offers. The Jewish people had been raised to live with a constant awareness of their sins so they could make the necessary sacrifices. There were so many rules to follow in order to feel like they were right with God.

Jesus and the New Covenant changed many things, nothing more significant than the New Covenant walk of faith. The sacrifice Jesus made at Easter was so that we would know, with certainty, we could rest with confidence in our salvation.

The author of Hebrews described Jesus saying, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

I’ve often wondered what Jesus was tempted by during his life. We know his original temptations after his baptism, but Scripture doesn’t describe what tempted Jesus two months or two years after that. We do know that Jesus understood the need to be constantly filled with God’s power. 

  • Jesus withdrew to be alone with God and pray.
  • Jesus left certain situations behind.
  • Jesus wept, laughed, healed, encouraged, taught, and even became angry – all without sinning.

Jesus experienced a real life, in a real human body, and he experienced our human frailties. Jesus was the only one whose life never got out of alignment with God.

Draw near to Jesus and you draw near to God.

Have you ever imagined the reunion of Jesus with his Father in heaven? I will never fully understand the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. I do like to picture Jesus returning to heaven and running into the waiting Presence of God. Jesus must have been overwhelmed with the joy of, once again, being with his Abba, face to face.

The author of Hebrews encouraged his readers to approach Jesus like Jesus approached God.

He wrote, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

One of the best indicators that life is out of alignment with God is our approach to God.

When we have realigned our lives with God’s Kingdom purpose, we can approach him with confidence. When we have received the forgiveness that the blood of Jesus has provided us, we approach the throne of grace. We know that God’s grace is ours, and he stands ready to help us in our time of need. Easter reminds us that Jesus died so we could rest in the certainty of God’s amazing grace.

When our souls doubt the love, grace, and mercy of God, we can know that our souls are out of alignment with the “rest” that Jesus died to provide.

Your realignment will please God today.

Your Easter faith will please God. Easter faith understands the purpose and provision of God through the gift of his Son. God wanted us to be his children too.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” 

Our Easter faith will align us with God’s holy purpose in Christ. God stands ready to reward your faith in Christ and your desire to seek his guidance for your life.

Everyone hits a curb, for one reason or another. The gift of Easter is a free and perfect alignment anytime we draw near to our master mechanic with confident faith. You can walk with him today knowing you can be at perfect rest in your salvation. This Easter season will be blessed when you make the choice to realign your life with Jesus as your holy King.

 

When you need a change, God is able

Why do we continue to repeat the same sins we were sure we had “fixed” with the last prayer commitment to God? 

I’ve grown in my faith over the years and know the Lord better now than I did at my salvation. The Lord is in the business of sanctification, making holy, those of us who are saved. 

So why is it we still repeat old sins? 

Are we “changed”?

The apostle Paul taught this about our salvation: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is a joy to listen to a compelling testimony from a person who led one kind of life only to meet Jesus and become a very different person. 

What about you? 

Has God dramatically transformed your life, or did it look pretty much the same the day after your salvation? 

Paul knew what it was to meet Jesus and experience dramatic change because of his salvation. I grew up in a Christian home and, while I knew my future was forever changed, the present remained pretty much the status quo. The “old” didn’t seem to have passed away at all. But, it had. I had received the Holy Spirit and I was no longer on my own. 

One of my favorite passages in Scripture comes from Romans 7. It is comforting to this Bible teacher to hear Paul say, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19). 

If Paul battled his common sins, even after those moments on the road to Damascus, we will battle our common sins as well. Why do we “keep doing” the same stuff that drove us to our knees the last time? Is it possible to break those sins and allow God to change us, or should we just expect to keep blowing it on a regular basis? 

My answer to that question comes from experience. 

The only way to break our repetitive, natural sins, is to allow God to do that. We can try to do better, but our human strength is insufficient for the problem. 

When you need a change, only God is able

I memorized Proverbs 3:5–6 at a young age. For me, those are the verses to apply to the weaknesses in our human natures we know we need to change. The Holy Spirit constantly convicts our thoughts when we step toward a sin. The next step is acknowledging that, like Paul, we are unable to fix it ourselves. 

God’s verses for repetitive sin are Proverbs 3:5–6. The proverb begins by reminding us that we need God’s word and direction, constantly. The author says to bind the teaching around our neck and write the commandments on the tablet of our hearts (Proverbs 3:3). That is the way we “find favor and good success in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:4). 

But, the way we do those things is found in verses 5–6: “Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

When a change in our lives is needed, God is able—if we are willing to live what the proverb teaches. 

Do we trust God?

It seems hard to trust God, especially with our whole heart. 

After all, we know amazing Christians who have experienced significant failures. Or, some who have been diagnosed with something fatal. Others have lived with a vibrant faith and then lost it. 

Do we truly trust God like we should?  

Trusting is difficult, but we do it all the time. We trust the pilot with our lives. We trust that, behind the closed door, he hasn’t fallen asleep. We trust the surgeon and the anesthesiologist when we need surgery. We trust the elevator and the alarm system and we trust the person driving the car behind us. We have to, in order to live in this world. 

Do we apply that same standard to the Lord? 

We know we can’t trust everyone all the time. People make mistakes—but God doesn’t. I have come to believe this is true in life. We trust whom we want to trust. 

Do you want to trust God? 

Don’t lean on what you know

We trust what we google, sometimes. We trust what a smart person says, or at least we trust people we think are smarter than we are. We trust education. We trust experience. We trust faithfulness. We tend to trust what we can confirm. 

You can’t trust God unless you choose not to lean on your own understanding. 

To lean on what we know or what we are able to figure out is sometimes to lean against a mirage. It only looks real. In order to trust God with all your heart, you have to know him as the ever-present brick wall. There is never a time you will lean on him and fall. 

We know we can’t trust our own knowledge. We make mistakes—but God doesn’t. 

How can we trust what we cannot see?

In every way, at all times, trust what you know God has said. In all your ways, know God’s word and will. 

I know God because I know his word. I know God because I’ve seen his work. I know God because his Holy Spirit lives in me. I know God because he speaks. I know God is real the same way I know love is real. I experience God’s presence in this world and in my life. 

We know love, anger, hatred, compassion, trust, fear, courage, and conviction are real. If we believe in those powerful realities, we can believe in God. We can know the One who created all realities. 

Do you need a change?

Is there a sin you want to stop repeating? Think Proverbs 3:5–6. 

When we know and trust God as his word teaches, he is able to “direct, or make straight” our paths.  

Remember when your mom or dad said, “Straighten up”? They got that expression from God. The next time you are about to repeat a sin, think Proverbs 3:5–6. Chances are, you will hear the voice of God saying, “You know what to do. Now, straighten up.” 

We make mistakes. Thankfully, we have a God who doesn’t. 

Trust him with all your heart

Submit to him all your thoughts

Then you will live his plans, most of the time. 

That’s our only realistic goal until we walk with him all the time. 

If you need a change, God is able.

Ask God Why

The trees have budded and the Texas bluebonnets are beautiful.

Sometimes I look out my window and forget about the fact that I’m stuck behind it.

I love this time of year, usually.

I wish we had never heard of COVID-19, and I wish it could have come to Texas in January rather than March and April.

Why now?

I’ve always tried to view the happenings in the world from the perspective of the One who created it. And, I think one of the best ways to find God at work is to study his timing.

Why is America dealing with COVID-19 during the Lenten season?

How will our Easter season be transformed this year because of a virus? 

February 26 was Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance and preparation for the Lenten season. If we had known the Lord would ask us to give up all that we have been forced to give up during this Lenten season, would we have prayed with greater resolve?

We should be asking God, “Why now?”

Why this?

If we had realized our Ash Wednesday commitment this year would include these difficulties, worries, fears, and inconveniences, would these days seem more like a sacrifice to God than a nuisance to us?

We didn’t know, but God did.

Maybe it’s a good time to revisit our Lenten commitments and remember the verse that says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

This Lenten season is not a normal one. We should ask God why. 

Could it be the sacrifice we are called to make this year is a sacrifice of praise?  

Most of us have a great deal to praise God for during these days. 

While the rest of the world speaks words of fear, we can speak words of hope and peace. 

While the rest of the world speaks words of blame, anger, frustration, and opinion, we can all “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” which is “the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” 

Did you decide to “give up” something on February 26? 

Was it what God asked you to give up or what you decided to give? 

Our answers will come by asking God, “Why this?” 

Why not?

For a nation that has been abundantly blessed, these seem like difficult days.

Granted, they are absolutely more difficult for some than others. At the time of this writing, none in my family are sick, hungry, or suffering, so I don’t have that level of worry. This blog post is written for the circumstances most of us are living with.

Are you becoming news-weary? Family-weary? Work-weary?

One of my favorite Facebook posts contained the words: “And just like that, prayer and spanking are back in schools #Homeschool 2020.” As a former school teacher, I had to laugh. I agree with the person who said, “Teachers should be asking for a raise right now.” 

Apparently, we shouldn’t plan on hearing a lot of good news for the next several weeks. But there is good news that people should be hearing, especially from us.

The word gospel literally means “good news,” and Christians don’t have to wonder how to define our “sacrifice of praise” during this Lenten season. Scripture defines the “fruit of our lips” this way: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Our news isn’t just for a season, it’s eternal.

When we have the opportunity to share the gospel, let’s say, “Why not?”

Why sacrifice?

Romans 12:1–2 are favorite verses for most of us. Read them today with a corona perspective

Those cherished verses say, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

If you look at those verses from the perspective of our current times, what is God asking of you for this Lenten season? 

If you had known on Ash Wednesday what you know today, how would you have prayed?


You can pray that prayer now. 

You will know on Easter Sunday what you can’t know today. 

What can you be completely certain of now? You can share those certainties now. 

A sacrificial life, nonconformed to this world, will be spiritually blessed. 

You can be transformed by a mind that has been renewed. And you can know the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God. 

That is why we present ourselves to God as living sacrifices. 

Ask God Why

We can ask God why, but we will never fully understand. We see through dim glass and we will have to wait for our eternal lives to gain full knowledge of God.

In the meantime, we know enough because we have what we need to know.

Let’s pray the ancient words that have strengthened God’s people for countless generations: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33–36). 


Those sacrificial words of praise can be ours. 

Maybe that is the most important answer for our whys.

How Do We Receive and Perceive God’s Promises?

Sometimes it seems like Scripture makes promises we can’t count on. 

I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years with disappointed Christians. I’ve actually been a disappointed Christian at times. (It’s easy to think that when you are a full-time “paid” Christian that there should be a few added promise-perks. There aren’t.) 

But, most of the time, our disappointment can be overcome with a better understanding of those promises.

Bible promises that aren’t 

One example: Proverbs aren’t promises; they are statements of general wisdom. 

A good example of that is Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

That Proverb can’t be a promise because it would mean that your child didn’t have free will choices. What Solomon was really saying was, “Raise your child now with a biblical knowledge of right and wrong, and chances are good that he or she will make biblical choices as an adult too.” The general wisdom: it’s wise to raise kids with godly values, morals, and behaviors if you want them to be godly adults. 

Another example: psalms are usually words of praise for what God is able to do or has done in the past rather than what God has promised to do every time. 

A new look at a familiar promise 

I wanted to correct another “promise” that a lot of people think is a personal truth for their lives. 

I was reading my son’s First15 devotional last Saturday and had a few new thoughts about a familiar verse. I often quote Jeremiah 29:11, but Craig wisely used verse 11 through 14 for his devotional. I was reminded that verse 11, on its own, doesn’t really tell the whole truth and might set us up to misunderstand the promise. 

Jeremiah preached, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (29:11). This is a great thought about God’s intentions for his people. But, all of us know that disappointment and evil can happen in our lives. Several of my readers are dealing with financial loss resulting from a devastating tornado that came through Dallas. How, then, are Jeremiah’s words a promise to them? 

What did Jeremiah mean when he preached that message? Can we think of Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise for our lives and the lives of other Christians? 

Yes and no. Understanding the promise in verse 11 requires a little more information. 

What was the original promise? 

Jeremiah preached this message to the Jewish people who had already been captured and enslaved by the Babylonian empire. They or their parents had been marched from Jerusalem to Babylon. It would have taken about two weeks for them to get there, and it is doubtful that they were provided much food or water along the way. Many of those people died. 

Verse 11 wouldn’t have been a promise for them. 

By the time Jeremiah wrote chapter 29, it is likely that he was preaching, almost entirely, to the children of the people who had been captured. God had already told the Israelites that they would be in exile for seventy years. The average life span was about thirty years during this time and probably less for people who were slaves. 

In other words, Jeremiah’s words wouldn’t have seemed like much of a promise to the people he preached them to. But they were. 

The rest of the passage provides the truth of the promise. 

What does the passage tell you about the promise? 

Jeremiah 29:10–14 says, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.’” 

What did God promise? 

  1. The Jewish people would be captives for seventy years. For most of the people, the promise was hope for their children and grandchildren, not themselves.
  2. God always had a plan and has a plan. God knew the nation would be taken captive, and he knew he would restore the nation.
  3. God would bring the Jewish people back to their land, restore their fortunes, and gather them back. The promise was their return to Israel, but it would never be entirely the same place or the same prosperity God had originally provided them. It would be Israel, but a different Israel.
  4. The actual promise was a restored relationship with God. “Then you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.” God’s promise for welfare and hope was the promised blessing of a restored relationship with himself.

And, the earthly blessings promised were almost entirely for their descendants, the Israelites who hadn’t even been born yet. 

What does 29:11 mean to Christians today? 

After this blog post, how many of your Christian plaques, pictures, dish towels, and coffee mugs will look a little less promising than they did before? 

Don’t worry though. His word is always true and always relevant. 

Jeremiah 29:11 doesn’t promise us that we will be rich and free from evil. God would never make that promise to people who live on planet earth, surrounded by people who have free wills and the freedom to use them. 

Someone can steal your riches, and people are capable of evil. The prophet did promise that God will always have a plan to restore our relationship with him and provide us with his blessings. We misunderstand his promise and often feel disappointed when we define what those blessings should be. 

There is more to say, but I will say it in next week’s blog post. For now, stand on the promises of God’s word, knowing that the promise can’t be understood except in its context—and, most of the time, won’t fit on a coffee mug! 

Then again, if you could get the whole truth in a few words, those of us who blog about and teach the Bible might be out of a job. 

One of my favorite promises is found in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.’” 

One day, Christians will go to heaven and realize that our best promises were unimaginable to us on earth. 

In other words, our greatest blessings are yet to come. 

And that is God’s promise.

You’ve Been Upcycled

Football season has come to a close and, chances are, you have a little more free time on Sunday afternoons. Next Sunday, you should check out a show called Flea Market Flip.

People compete by shopping for things at a flea market and then upcycling those items into a new and more relevant table, chair, lamp, or whatever. It’s an interesting show, but I don’t blog to give television advice. (Although it can be a side benefit!)

The point is this: in many ways, Flea Market Flip could serve as a parable for each of our lives.

God’s in the restoration business

A lot of people visit a flea market and only see a bunch of unwanted junk. Maybe that stuff was nice in the beginning, but, over the years, it has been dinged up, broken, rusted, faded, or just used up. Most people look at those piles of discards as useless.

But God visits flea markets and sees the potential.

In one episode, two women bought a couple of rusted patio chairs with dirty cushions. The chairs were sitting off in a field, covered by dirt and only worth a few dollars to the seller. By the end of the program, those chairs had been soldered together to become a brightly painted bench with a fancy new seat cushion. Those two old chairs were upcycled and then priced at a much higher value.

Do you ever feel like those rusted chairs?

Maybe the hard moments of life have made you feel useless or less valued. All of us have to weather our share of storms. But God is in the restoration business.

Israel became a world power under King Solomon’s leadership. They had prominence, power, wealth, and wisdom. But later, after most of the nation had been decimated, Jeremiah wrote these words to the remnant in Judah: “For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast” (Jeremiah 30:17).

Judah would be taken captive by Babylon, and the once beautiful and opulent city of Jerusalem was reduced to ruins. God’s people were enslaved and called outcasts. But God knows how to upcycle what has been cast aside. God restored his people, not to their former glory, but to rebuild something new, with greater potential.

A new creation

I am amazed at the creativity of the people who transform their purchases on Flea Market Flip into things I never could have imagined.

  • Two women took an old ladder and a few old frames and turned those things into a shelving unit to display photos.
  • A husband and wife took an old chicken coop and created a beautiful coffee table.
  • A mom and daughter duo took an old door and two rusty stools and created a kitchen table that could hang on the wall of a small kitchen and then transform into an eating area when needed.
  • And two men turned an old, wooden wheel into a beautiful clock.

Paul was teaching the church in Corinth that Jesus could transform their lives. Corinth was known for their decadent culture and immorality. I’m sure some of the people in that Corinthian church thought they would never belong in a group of “holy” people. But Paul taught them that Jesus had given his life for everyone and could forgive every sin. Jesus is able to upcycle any life into something new and amazing.

Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Do you ever wonder what your life would look like if you had lived it without Jesus? Do you ever imagine what the lives of those outside the Christian faith could look like if they chose to make Jesus their Lord?

Jesus would love the chance to continually upcycle our lives and the lives of those around us.

Jesus turns our junk into treasure

At the end of every episode of Flea Market Flip, one of the competing duos receives $5,000. That prize goes to the people who make the highest profit on their upcycled items. Most of the time it is a close race. On one episode, the difference was just a penny, but, occasionally, the difference is several hundred dollars.

The $5,000 prize is the same, regardless.

Every Christian is a child of God and has been given the same promise. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24).

That prize is yours, regardless.

You’ve been upcycled

Maybe it’s time to take a fresh, new look at your life.

Do you notice the battle scars of your life, or do you see yourself as restored? You are a child of God, upcycled to a person of great value to your heavenly Father.

Maybe you haven’t fully recognized your potential. When Jesus came into your life, you were given a new purpose and a new usefulness. You have been upcycled by the Holy Spirit as a gifted disciple of Christ. You are a new creation. Jesus can transform junk into treasure.

And, finally, you are guaranteed to win the final prize.

The apostle John was an elderly man who had developed an amazing ministry in Ephesus. He was captured and exiled to the prison island of Patmos. I imagine he wondered if his life and ministry had been discarded as well.

Instead, he started a church there and began a brand new ministry in his older years. And Jesus appeared to him on that island and said he wanted John to write a few things down!

We call those words the book of Revelation.

Our ultimate purpose

All of us will need to be constantly upcycled on this side of heaven. This life is a journey, and, let’s face it, our witness gets a little dinged up and rusty along the way. But, Jesus told the apostle John that all of us would be winners in the end.

In Revelation 21:1–5, John wrote: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”

In heaven, no upcycling will be needed. There is never anything that looks like junk.

Everything and everyone is eternally made new!