writing to remember, mature and grow

I find it “coincidental” that my last two posts have unknowingly followed a progression that will be completed with this post.

If you’ve been following along, you know that recently God has given me a greater level of faith and the right “heart” desire to walk out that faith.

Since I’m in a season of life that is requiring faith and I find myself struggling to walk out that faith, I decided to read up on it today. I needed some encouragement, so I went to the Word. Pretty cool idea, huh?

Here’s an excerpt from The Bible Exposition Commentary.

… faith is based on God’s Word, and it involves the whole man. […] The whole person plays a part in true … faith. The mind understands the truth; the heart desires the truth; and the will acts upon the truth.

I’m going to go through those three things, but the focus of this post is really on the third one (the will).

The Mind Understands the Truth

The truth that I’m understanding nowadays is the object of my faith. It is definitely and utterly no longer myself that I have faith in.

“Faith is only as good as its object.” The new object of my faith is in God and Jesus Christ.

The Heart Desires the Truth

Really, I think this boils down to an internal surrender. A willingness to let go of your life and allow God to freely direct it as He sees fit. This is the kind of heart attitude and faith that says . . .

“Bring me anything that brings You glory.” Bring it. I’m game.

The Will Acts Upon the Truth

This final stage is where I find the current battle taking place. I have the mental understanding. I have the heart attitude.

But now, I need to walk it out. This is where it sucks to be me. And probably you if you’re in a similar situation.

James 2:21-22 (NIV)
²¹ Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

Only when the three things above (the mind, the heart and the will) operate does faith become complete.

If we want to see completion happen in our current situation, not only do we need to understand who our faith is in, surrender the situation completely to God, but we also have to execute and walk out surrender in our daily lives.

Had Abraham not continued to walk up the mountain to the place where God wanted Isaac sacrificed, Abraham’s faith would not have been completed. God’s plan would not have been completed. Abraham’s promise would not have been completed.

Faith and action work together in order to complete God’s work in us and in order for God’s work to be complete through us.

Imagine walking up the mountain as Abraham.  With every step, you look over at Isaac.  You know full well what you’re about to do, but you continue walking.

With every step and every look at your “Isaac,” you are one step closer to completion.

Continue walking to the place of completion.

There you will find God returning what you have given Him (Genesis 22:12; Luke 6:38).

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I received some advice once. It was “give it back to God.”

That advice really began to come alive at a concert I was at couple of weeks ago. MercyMe was closing out the night with a song called “Bring the Rain.”

God was wrecking me through this song.

The chorus goes something like this:

Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

During this song, God gave me a new take on the story of Abraham and Isaac.

There are times when God asks you to surrender the very things He’s given you. The very things you hold dearest and closest to you.

In the case of Abraham, God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. The same son Abraham had waited 20 years to conceive. The same son that Abraham had raised as a boy and understood to be part God’s promise to him.

The thing closest to your heart.

White-knuckled and protective. The thing you hold the tightest.

“Give it back to God.”

It hurts. There’s turmoil. Inner pain. Rampant emotions.

But should we expect anything less? God expects our very best. He wants our first fruits. Why wouldn’t he also want whats dearest to us?

What struck me about the song was the line “But if that’s what it takes to bring You praise.”

If my pain brings You praise. If my sacrifice brings You praise.

Then Jesus, “Bring me anything that brings You glory.”

We may focus on the hurt it brings us. But is our hurt not an act of worship?

You want to fight it. You want to make sure it never really leaves your hands. The flesh wants to retain control. You look around. Maybe there’s a way out.

There is. “Give it back to God.” Freely and completely. Complete surrender and sacrifice.

It is worship that hurts.

Abraham worshiped God in this way. The power of this story is that God returned the sacrifice back to Abraham.

If I were Abraham, I probably would’ve cried afterwards.

You know why?

I knew what I was about to do would have hurt me in a ridiculous way. I knew how badly I wanted to modify God’s plan (even just slightly) so that the hurt would be less. I knew the internal struggle my spirit had with my flesh and how drained I was.

But . . . I sacrificed willingly and completely. I worshiped God with my pain.

I would have cried knowing God had returned it back and it was untouched and unblemished by me. Instead it was purified and accepted by God.

It had God’s approval on it.

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Alright, it’s time for some post-fast thoughts and reflections. God has been doing so much that I really need to take the time to “log” it all.

To summarize, God is doing something way different in my life. I remember half kidding awhile back that I’ve been through more valleys than mountaintops.

But whatever God is up to now in my life is making all of those valleys completely worth it. It is a feeling/sense that I’ve never felt before. So let’s take it all from the top . . . the start of the fast.

I think what initiated all this was a message Pastor Stovall Weems gave on fasting called God’s Chosen Fast. I had struggled with the reasons to fast before, but now fasting made complete sense and I was excited to take part in the 21 day fast at the church. Based on the message Pastor Stovall gave, I had four very specific and some off the wall prayers that I was going to focus on during the fast.

As I began to pray, God began to stir a faith within me that was quite frankly scaring me. It was like “whoa, who is this guy in this Asian body and what have you done with the other guy who didn’t have much faith?”

It was a steadfastness. A confidence in God. A complete trust.

Not just a faith that believes God answers and wants to act on our prayers. But a faith that goes far beyond what God does, but more a faith in who God is.

A faith in a loving God. A faith in a God that follows through on His promises. A faith in a God whose plans are far greater than my own.

What I’m experiencing now would really disqualify my past “level of faith” as faith at all.

I’m telling you. A faith on a whole new playing field . . .

There are valleys and then mountaintops. And then there’s Mount Everest.

I find myself chillin’ 8500 meters above sea level and the perspective is a lot different.

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Lately, I’ve been starting to develop good, solid friendships.

What did I do tonight? I had dinner with some friends. We came back to my place and watched a movie. Then we talked about what Jesus was doing in our lives. We encouraged each other with things God had taught us or situations we’ve been through in the past.

To wrap up the night, we prayed.

It’s a different type of friendship and it’s not one I’ve really experienced before.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for answering my prayers from a few months back and bringing people into my life and getting me out of my “I can handle it myself” attitude. The friendships you have given me have been of huge value and encouragement and I pray you continue to strengthen and develop them.

May these friendships bring you glory and help advance your Kingdom.

Amen

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Is there a contradiction in the Bible when it comes to temptation?

Generally, people think of Job when they think of God allowing someone to be tempted. After all, God actually gave permission to Satan to tempt Job (Job 1:11-12). Even if it was Satan who carried it out, God’s permission was the initial source of the temptation.

Then you also have:

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

The italicized section implies God will let you be tempted; it’ll just be of the “bearable” variety.

The contradiction comes when you read:

James 1:13 (NIV)
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

Translation: God does not tempt anyone.

So what’s the scoop?

The contradiction can be cleared up pretty easily by understanding the different uses of the word “tempt.”

Specifically, we’re going to look at the different forms of the Greek word peirazo. All Bible references below are based on the word peirazo.

The Bad Kind of Tempt (Peirazo)

• to test maliciously (Matthew 22:18; John 8:6)
• to lead away from God (Matthew 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:5)

These definitions are all in line with the general connotation of the word tempt. It is an an enticement towards sin/evil and away from the good stuff of God. It’s the perfect description and why Satan is called “the tempter.”

However, in the Bible there is also another form of the word.

The Good Kind of Tempt (Peirazo)

• “testing” or “proving by testing,” to determine the depth and integrity of one’s commitment to God (Hebrews 11:17 cf. Genesis 22:1)

The easiest differentiation here is that the word “tempt” would be better replaced with “test” or “trial.” Namely, a test or trial designed by God is for your own benefit.

They are good things.

For example . . .

James 1:2 (NIV)
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

The italicized word “trials” is peirasmos which is based off the root word periazo. Later on in that verse it goes on to talk about how these trials bring you to a point of maturity. This is the God-kind of tempt (peirazo).

So it’s important to understand that God does not tempt us towards evil or sin. He will tempt (i.e. test, try) us in order to make us better disciples of Jesus.

Other Resources

• Does God Tempt? (recommended)
• Greek definitions of the word “tempt”

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It may be 2008 AD (In the year of our Lord), but as far as I’m concerned, it is now The Year of the Word as well.

One of the things that I have been praying a lot about this year is a deeper relationship with Jesus. I know that is a really broad prayer, but God spoke some specifics about it into my life.

Namely, it’s time to dig into the Bible.

Of my three main spiritual disciplines (prayer, worship, Bible reading), I see both prayer and worship as outward extending. I am presenting my requests before God. I am singing songs to God.

Only when I read the Bible am I actually feeding my spirit.

Not to say prayer/worship doesn’t do that. But, honestly, I feel like I could prayer/worship all day for the next year and not grow in my relationship with Jesus Christ.

I won’t know his heart, his character or his desires.

There’s a reason God’s given us the Bible. It reveals all those things.

So because of that, it’s time to really make Bible reading, memorization and study more of a priority.

It’s the Year of the Word.

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God’s ultimate goal for your life is to make you happy and healthy.

So if you are ever unhappy and/or unhealthy, you can blame God for it because it’s his job to give you the tools necessary to achieve his goals. But we know everyone isn’t happy or healthy. There’s depression, cancer, AIDS and a myriad of other things that can make living a pretty miserable experience.

There must not be a God then because he’s obviously sucking at being a god.

I’ve been thinking about this lately. This whole line of thinking is probably one of the biggest roadblocks for people believing in God. How can a loving God allow suffering, disease and “evil” to exist in the world?

That line of thought only works if we assume health, happiness and goodness are God’s ultimate goal for everyone.

If that’s what God set out to do when he created us, then we can “fault God” because he definitely screwed up somewhere along the way.

It’s got me thinking.

What is God’s ultimate goal for us?

And how would knowing it “frame our thinking.” How would it change our perspective on the way the world has been setup? What would we learn from the issues we face in life?

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There’s a lady in her late twenties in my small group. This past week she shared how just over a year ago her husband died of cancer. And shortly after that (to further compound the situation), her mom died of cancer.

In our discussion about finding contentment in God, she offered the following wisdom:

I prayed for healing. And the way I figure it, he will either be healed here on Earth or healed in Heaven.

Here is a person who has found contentment in death.

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In elementary school, I remember riding the bus to a local Baptist church. I don’t know how long or how regular, but it couldn’t have been more than a couple of years and only semi-regularly at best.

But the bottom line was that I didn’t really have much of a church background growing up.

That was until my junior year of high school. I started attending the same Baptist church’s youth group because some of the guys from my tennis team attended and it was fun having something to do.

And plus they had a ping pong table (I’m serious, that was one of the reasons I went).

Although I was there for social reasons, I was also indirectly learning about Christianity and what Jesus was all about.

I learned . . .

• Christians have sex.
• Christians do drugs.
• Christians get drunk.
• Christians like to tell you how much Jesus loves you.

After about a half year of being told about the life transforming capabilities of Jesus and how much Jesus loves me by the same people who did the things above, I had learned all I needed to know about Jesus and Christianity.

Christianity was nothing more than a label people gave themselves.

It was no different than me calling myself a jock or a band nerd.

So after about half a year of a lot of hypocrisy, the ping pong table and social venue wasn’t compelling enough for me to keep going. I had learned all I needed to know about Jesus and it wasn’t worth my time.

When Christianity became a label was the first spiritual milestone I can remember.

And it stuck with me for a couple of years.

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