Eat Like a Grown Up

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:14 NIV 

My youngest son has now hit his teens and his taste buds are beginning to mature. He still prefers pizza, but, he'll eat a good steak now.  

As you mature you learn what is good for you and makes you stronger. Spiritual maturity is when we constantly train ourselves to distinguish good from evil. 

Let me ask you this: Shouldn't that be easy?

Possible Peace

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

Romans 12:18 NIV

A few years ago I worked with a guy who was challenging, to say the least, to work with. He was an argument waiting to happen. He was a teacher on the same grade level as I was so, we were often in meetings together. That guy could go from "How are you?" to "I can't believe you guys are not teaching (fill in the blank)!" in about ten seconds. Then he'd start yelling and getting red in the face, blaming everyone else for anything and everything. (No one wondered why he was divorced.) Most of the time I could kind of direct the conversation away from volatility. But, not always. 

I tried to talk to him. We tried to talk to him. The administrators tried to talk to him. He just could not grasp that the issue was the way he spoke with other people. During one grade level meeting he started self-righteously declaring that no-one else took their job seriously, cared, or had a clue. Each teacher tried to calm him down but, he was just getting hotter and hotter. Finally, I just had to say, "Do we need to call the police again?" (The police were once called to the school because he was verbally accosting one of the other teachers and refused to stop.) He, looked at me in shock, and stopped. 

A few verses later Paul says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (verse 21). By faith (that God will work things out) do what is right, do what is loving. If peace is possible, God will work it out. 

We Seek, He Sanctifies.

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

John 17:19 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5:25 NIV

As I was reading this morning in John I thought about how I, as a husband and a father, need to continue to seek God in order to sanctify my marriage and my family. I don't mean this as a guilt bomb, but, as a word of exhortation, an encouragement to push on, to go forward, to not give up.

I may not know exactly how, but the Holy Spirit will work. My role is to seek God. Every time I pray, alone, with my wife, with my children, the Spirit works to sanctify us. Every time I read the Bible and seek to do what it says the Spirit sanctifies me and my family. Every time I try to act in faith, to do something in Jesus' name, the Spirit works to sanctify me. 

Our work is to believe in and seek Christ. His work is to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify us through and through.

Father, I pray that as we go out into the world today that you would protect us and use us to glorify your Name. Grant us at least one redemptive moment, action or conversation. Praise be to you in us today!

Because I Said So

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

1 John 4:1-3 (NIV)

I guess I have always been one of those people who questioned authority. Saying, "Because I said so!" didn't really work for me. Shorty after giving my life to Christ I started to attend a Calvary Chapel church. One of the things that impressed me was that the pastors would say, "Don't believe me just because I say something. Compare it with the Bible and if what I say doesn't agree with what the Bible says tell me." The deal is that you have to read the Bible and study it to know what it says. In the same way you have to spend time with Christ to know him. If you don't acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, that he is real, you don't know Jesus. 

A lot of people say a lot of things about Jesus. The Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus was Michael the Archangel before he became Christ and was "a" god, not "the" God, Jehovah. Some say Jesus was a good teacher, a great man, or maybe just a myth. The Apostle John flat out says that if you don't acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, you are not from God. 

Just because someone calls themselves a teacher, a prophet, an evangelist, does not make it true. People say all kinds of things. John tells us not to believe everyone, and to check if they believe that Jesus has come in the flesh. If they are wrong about who Jesus is, that won't be all they will be wrong about, because no matter what else they say they won't be talking about the Jesus of the Bible, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the only way to Father (John 14:6).

Father, help us to know you, to know Jesus and to remain in him. Praise be to you in us today!

How To Recognize the Spirit

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

1 John 2:21-23 (NIV)

Some people just struggle with everything. A very good friend of mine used to think that everyone else at church was doing great, had great faith, overcame every trial with great joy. The reality is quite different. Most people who go to church are struggling with their marriage, kids, jobs, addictions and just the world in general and they smile because they don't want to break down in tears publically. 

In the midst of the pressures of everyday life in the twenty first century we can often miss, as in not detect, the Spirit of God working in our lives. The Apostle Paul reminds us that "no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 12:3). The reformers realized that the effects of sin reached our entire beings (total depravity) and that the grace of God did also. Any thought we have of God can only come from the Spirit of God working in our inner beings. Do you get that? Each thought that you have of God is God calling you to himself. Don't let the enemy turn the conviction of the Spirit of God to pray, read the Bible, or love someone specifically in action, into condemnation. 

John didn't write to the believers so they would doubt their salvation or mire themselves in condemnation, but he wrote that they might, we might live in the light as he is in the light. Remember that as you go about your business today that every thought you have of God is the Holy Spirit calling you to walk in the light with Christ. 

Father, thank you for every thought of you. Help us to thankfully recognize the Holy Spirits work in our lives. Praise be to you in us today!

What's Your Anguish?

But what can I say? 
   He has spoken to me, 
   and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
   because of this anguish of my soul.
Lord, by such things people live;
   and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
   and let me live.
Surely it was for my benefit 
   that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
   from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
   behind your back.
Isaiah 38:15-17 (NIV)

I don't know about you, but sometimes (well, most of the time) I don't know what God is doing. I mean, I know his ultimate goal is to shape me into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. It's just specifically, at the moment I don't often "see" what God is about. I have to take it by faith that he is working all things out for my good.

King Hezekiah was suffering from a life threatening illness when he cried out to God. God answered and healed him. It was after he was healed that he could say that it was for his benefit that he suffered such anguish. It humbled him. And humility is when we see ourselves correctly or truthfully before God. 

You may be going through some form of anguish. I am. Like Hezekiah we can only call out upon God and seek him. He will keep us from the pit of destruction and put all our sins behind his back. 

Father, hear our prayers and see our anguish. Praise be to you in us today!

DO YOU KNOW GOOD FROM EVIL?

"But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Hebrews 5:14

I think one of the more frightening things about the times we live in is the startling blur our society sees between good and evil. At the Democratic convention held just before the last presidential election there was a vote on whether or not to take the name of God off their platform and to not recognize Israel as a country. Former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had to call the vote three times and the yes and no shouts were nearly equal!  

The reason we seek God on a daily basis is to train ourselves in righteousness. Part of that training is to distinguish good from evil. Honestly, isn't the beginning of this just trying to obey what we know the Bible says? 

Someone was trying to tell me that anyone could interpret the Bible anyway they wanted. I asked him, "So how do you "interpret" do not commit adultery?" 

The point is that obedience is the key to maturity. Obedience is my willingness to trust God's word to be true and live accordingly. My guide to knowing what is good or evil is the Bible. By "using it" on a daily basis I mature. 

Father, help us to live by faith. Set your word in our hearts that we will know good from evil. Praise be to you in us today!