Good News 11-20-24 | Daily Devotions

November 20, 2024

The Neglected Virtue of Gratitude

By Christopher L. Reese

As we approach Thanksgiving, our thoughts turn to giving thanks for all the good things the Lord has done and provided, especially since the beginning of the year. At the same time, we know that gratitude is a virtue that we should continually pursue as followers of Christ. In what follows, we’ll consider several ways we can grow in the often-neglected virtue of gratitude and make it part of our daily lives.

(Read the article here.)

https://www.summit.org/resources/articles/the-neglected-virtue-of-gratitude

Be Strong in the Joy of the Lord

November 19, 2024

A compilation

Audio length: 12:22

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Don’t be sad [grieve; mourn], because the joy of the Lord will make you strong [is your strength].—Nehemiah 8:10

Joy cannot remain simply an abstract idea; it must be practiced in the Christian life if we are to benefit from its strengthening power. But how can we experience joy when the world is so full of struggle and suffering? Here are a few suggestions:

Make God your highest joy. We cannot make the joy of the Lord our strength if we are also making something elseour strength. Doing so is idolatry, behaving as if something else will give us more joy than God Himself. While earthly gifts and experiences can give us joy, these pale in comparison with the greatest Gift: God Himself, whose love is poured out to us through Christ. We can say with the Psalmist: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).
Focus on the Holy Spirit.There is a strong correlation in Scripture between the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of joy. In fact, Galatians 5:22says that one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. Acts 13:52 recounts that “the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” In Romans 15:13, Paul prays: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Paul also praises the Thessalonians by saying: “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” Joy … is the wonderful by-product of a life lived following God. If we “are led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:18), “live by the Spirit,” and “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), then the Spirit will grow the fruit of joy in our lives!
Express gratitude for God’s gifts.Though God Himself is our highest joy, he has also given us many good gifts. The writer of Ecclesiastes observes “that there is nothing better for [people] than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man” (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13). … Taking time each day to notice, acknowledge, and praise God for what we are grateful for will go a long way to helping us experience the strengthening joy of the Lord welling up within us.—Jessica Udall¹

Joy is a tremendous source of strength. … Many verses in Scripture speak to the joy that God provides His people:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8–9).

“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you” (Psalm 5:11).

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him” (Psalm 28:7). …

When [we] come to realize how much God has done for [us] and what great things He has in store, the result is joy, and that joy will produce strength. … He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). As we focus on God’s presence and promises, our joy and strength will increase.—GotQuestions.org²

“The joy of the Lord is my strength” is a familiar line. We use it to encourage ourselves and others. But what does it really mean? Where do we get it? …

The term “the joy of the Lord is my strength” is found in Nehemiah 8:10. It’s after the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem from exile. They were listening to the law being read, were overcome with condemnation, and were weeping.

The scripture reads: “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength’” (Nehemiah 8:9–10).

What is the joy of the Lord?

When Ezra was reading the law to the people, it produced sorrow because their lives and behavior were not in alignment with the law. But instead of being rebuked and condemned, they were instructed to celebrate because of “the joy of the Lord.” Why would the Lord have joy when they were “a bunch of sinners”?

The children of Israel were never known for their perfect behavior. They were known for being the people of God. They were His. He loved them. …

How does the joy of the Lord provide strength? …

The joy of the Lord gives us strength to reach for God’s provision of love and salvation.

“For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (Zephaniah 3:17).

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

What is this strength?

The strength that God provides us with is His grace.

“To each one of us grace has been given” (Ephesians 4:7).

“So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son” (Ephesians 1:6).

Because we feel connected to God and loved by Him, it gives us the confidence and boldness to approach Him to “find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). And the grace that He provides is enough for everything in our lives.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“The joy of the Lord is our strength” is brought to fullness when we accept His provision of righteousness by grace that reunites us so we can enjoy His presence.

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

“… those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5:17).

“You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence” (Acts 2:28).—Danielle Bernock³

I want you to be filled with My joy, which will be your strength. I want you to be convinced of My love and at peace.

I want to take away any feeling of inferiority and worry because you have not yet achieved all you had planned or hoped for. Sometimes your expectations are unrealistic and cause you to overextend yourself, and then you feel guilty that you didn’t make the grade. I want to wipe away all those negative feelings. I want to wipe away your fears and worries and give you peace. All is well. As you seek to live according to My Word and My plan, you will find My joy.

As the scripture says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” And so it shall be for you. You can hold on to that promise. That can be your motto from this day forth. Fear and worry are debilitating. Any nervousness, fear, or worry quenches the flow of My Spirit in your life. So trust Me, knowing that I love you.

Now, let My joy be your strength. Rejoice in your victories. Rejoice in the battles. Rejoice in the blessings. Rejoice in the triumphs. Rejoice in the challenges. Do not dwell on your shortcomings and seeming defeats. Knowing and serving Me is a joyous experience! I know it’s not always easy, and there is pain and suffering along the way, but there can always be the joy of My Spirit in your heart. Remember, My joy is your strength.—Jesus

Published on Anchor November 2024. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/ways-to-make-the-joy-of-the-lord-your-strength.html

² https://www.gotquestions.org/joy-of-the-Lord-is-your-strength.html

³ https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-life/what-does-it-mean-the-joy-of-the-lord-is-my-strength.html

November 18, 2024

The Best Preparation for the Future

By Maria Fontaine

Audio length: 9:13

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Throughout Christian history, people have sought to figure out the exact times and dates for Jesus’ Second Coming. In Matthew 24, Jesus said that “no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven… Only the Father knows” (Matthew 24:36). And because we don’t know the details or exactly how or when the final events will play out, it keeps us on our toes, in expectation of His coming, and we don’t get settled down in this world.

While the Lord told His disciples that no one knows the exact “when” of His return, He did tell us how to prepare for the future and how to live our lives in the expectation of His coming—whenever it happens and whether it happens in our lifetime or not. If we live in a state of preparedness, it won’t matter when it comes, because we will have prepared all along.

The One who is all-wise, all-loving, all-knowing delights in sharing His gifts of love and wisdom with His children in order to prepare us for our future in eternity with Him (Matthew 7:11). The Bible tells us in Ephesians to prepare ourselves by “putting on the whole armor of God,” including the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:11–17).

We can also choose in these days of preparation to set our affections on things above and not on things of this earth (Colossian 3:2). We can make everyday choices to live in the Spirit and walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). We can clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12). And we can be faithful to the Great Commission to share the Good News with everyone we can.

In the story of the five foolish virgins, we see that these women got caught without any oil for their lamps and then they had to go out and find some. When they got back, the doors were closed and it was too late for them to get in to the wedding. (See Matthew 25:1–13.) Meanwhile, the five virgins who had extra oil represented those who were looking with eagerness to the coming of Christ.

What are some of the ways that we can live in a state of preparedness?

Diligently seeking the Lord.
Studying and obeying His Word.
Learning to be led by His Spirit.
Separating ourselves from the world in spirit.
Being faithful to the Lord and to His call of discipleship.
Doing our part to carry out the Great Commission.

The following words from Jesus provide encouragement on the importance of our faithfulness to the Lord and His calling to each of us to do our part to fulfill His Great Commission.

As the world grows ever darker, I continue to send you forth to share My truth and gospel with others, so that they will be drawn to Me (John 12:32). My presence will be with you and My Spirit will empower you to be witnesses to Me even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Many people are lingering in the valley of indecision and searching for the truth. But how will they believe if they have never heard or received a witness (Romans 10:14)? I have called each of My disciples to reach whoever you can, so that people who do not know Me or have not heard the truth will have the opportunity to hear and receive.

Do not be overwhelmed by what seems to be the impossible task of reaching the world of your day. Just go forth in faith and My Spirit will work in you to reach the people I place in your path. As you are faithful to sow the seed and shine My light on those around you, you will have done your part (1 Corinthians 3:7).

My Spirit in you will help you to fulfill your commission to reach the lost, to share the gospel, and to bring My love and My Word to others so that they have the opportunity to enter into My kingdom. Pray for My strength and power to let your light shine brightly so that others will see your good works and be drawn to Me and My kingdom (Matthew 5:16).

If you wish to be prepared for the future and that which is to come, be diligent to make your calling and election sure, and supplement your faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and love. As you grow in these qualities, you will be effective in your calling and bear fruit for Me (2 Peter 1:5–10).—Jesus

Living for Jesus is a blessing and a privilege

Living for Jesus is a tremendous blessing! It’s a wonderful privilege! Not only does it “pay” here on earth in wonderful blessings, but it will richly pay above all that we can imagine in the next world. In heaven, the wise people who dedicated their lives to Jesus will shine like the stars (Daniel 12:3).

True and lasting joy is found in a life lived for Jesus, in dedicating yourself to Him, in seeing Him work in your life and the lives of others, and in experiencing His love and mercy. True, there are trials and tests, heartaches, and battles, but we have the Lord to turn to, and He gives us the strength, the Holy Spirit power and anointing, and the love, peace, and joy that we need.

He is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). He upholds you when you are cast down, and “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isaiah 40:29). He changes the darkness into light. He puts light in our eyes, and enthusiasm in our spirits, and joy in our service, and challenge in our tasks. And even sometimes when these seem to fail, still we know He is there holding us close, comforting and reassuring us.

What would life be like without knowing that we can run to Him in our distress? So many people in our world don’t know Jesus and have no hope for the present or the future—much less for eternity. We know Jesus cares for us and loves us so deeply and unconditionally that He gave His life for us and suffered a terrible death for our salvation. We never have to feel alone! No matter how bad things get, we will always have Jesus.

Everyone has trials and suffering, everyone has heartaches. This is a fallen world, still under the curse of sin, until Jesus comes back to redeem it. But as Christians, we know that God works in all those things, including sorrow, tragedy, and death, and makes all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28). He can even turn the greatest challenges we face into a thing of beauty in our lives. Everything that Jesus does or allows in each of our lives is because He loves us.

We are privileged, we are blessed of all people on the face of the earth! We have our share of problems, burdens, and heartaches, but we have Someone who helps us to carry them (Matthew 11:28). We have a wonderful God, who has promised to always be with us and to give us life in abundance and joy that overflows (John 10:10; 15:11). The God of our salvation daily loads us with benefits and blessings (Psalm 68:19).

One day, when He receives you into His heavenly Kingdom and you hear His “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23), you will experience such joy and eternal glory that you will know that it has truly been worth every sacrifice you made in this life and everything you did to bring others into His kingdom.

Originally published November 1995. Adapted and republished November 2024. Read by Lenore Welsh.

Integrity—Part 2

Peter Amsterdam

2018-08-30

Resisting temptation

Each of us is tempted to do things that are wrong. A good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t do something in front of your child, your spouse, or someone you love and respect, then it’s probably not something you should do at all. If you feel you have to hide your action, then there’s a good possibility that you aren’t acting with integrity.

Something to keep in mind is that when we are around others who don’t act with integrity, it can influence our own behavior and morals. The example of others’ lack of morality can make it more likely that we will act in a similar manner. Of course, spending time with those whose moral standard is lower than yours doesn’t necessarily mean yours will automatically drop, but it might be harder for you to maintain your higher standards in such an environment.

It’s especially important to realize that your integrity, your example, can either positively or negatively affect others when you are in a position of authority or respect. As a parent, a pastor or spiritual leader, a teacher, a coach, a public figure, etc., you are an example to others. Others will look up to you and model themselves after you; therefore you bear some added responsibility to conduct yourself with integrity. As Christians, lack of integrity can damage our ability to share the gospel with others. If we are unethical in our dealings, if integrity is weak in our lives, it may make the message that we share appear untrue. It reflects not only on us, but on Jesus as well.

What does integrity look like?

Integrity is living according to scriptural principles. It’s being honest, noble, trustworthy, reliable, acting honorably, keeping your word. It’s acting or speaking with transparency, as if someone you love or respect is watching what you are doing. It’s not speaking negatively about others or gossiping. It’s treating others as you would want them to treat you. It’s living an honorable and respectful life.

When you live with integrity, you accrue numerous benefits:

In proving to be trustworthy, you earn people’s trust, which can be a make-or-break factor in your personal and professional life.
You gain people’s confidence and respect, which puts you in a better position to become a positive influence on them and add value to their lives.
Your relationships with others are stronger, healthier, happier, and more satisfying.
People will be more likely to listen to you.
Because people trust you, they won’t worry about your motives.
Others will be comfortable opening up to you, knowing that you will keep what they say confidential.
You will experience more peace in your life.
God will bless you.

When we have committed to living according to our moral values, it’s important to regularly remind ourselves of them—especially when we are faced with a moral challenge. There will be times when we are face to face with situations where one option might seem beneficial, may be something that we want or want to do, or could bring us rewards or gratification, but that we know is wrong or not quite right. But even though we know it’s not right, we can be sorely tempted. At times like that, we need to reinforce the standard we have committed to. This can be done by reminding ourselves of our values, by praying, by reading or quoting God’s Word, or whatever helps us to reconnect with our standards and affirm our commitment to them.

As a proactive measure, regularly connecting with the foundational touchstone—God’s values as expressed through His Word—is a means of consistently bolstering our integrity. Regular Bible reading, prayer, and communicating with the Lord not only draws us closer to Him but also strengthens our resolve to live His values, to make them our own, and to stay true to them.

What should we do if we’ve let our moral standard fall? What if we’ve had a temporary lapse in living our values, or have even ignored them for a long time? Perhaps we feel we’ve traveled so far from God’s values that we don’t know if we can reconnect with them. The good news is that we can go to the Lord, confess our sins, ask His forgiveness, and reconnect with Him and His truth. We can renew our relationship with Him and seek His help and strength to turn our lives around. By His grace and with His help, and perhaps the help of others, our lives can be turned around and we can rebuild our integrity.

Sometimes we have to pay the price for the damage that our lack of integrity has caused, through restitution as well as admitting our wrongdoing, asking for forgiveness, and working to restore trust and relationship. It costs something to repair such damage, but it is worthwhile, and there are benefits to reconnecting with God’s love and adjusting our values to His.

If we are people of integrity, when we share the gospel with others, they will be more likely to listen, as our example will show that we both live and believe what we are saying. Integrity is crucial to our calling of sharing Jesus with others. Living with integrity is a key to a better life, a better future, and a better eternity.

“Who may worship in Your sanctuary, LORD? Who may enter Your presence on Your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the LORD, and keep their promises even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.”—Psalm 15¹

Originally published May 2014. Adapted and republished August 2018.
Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

¹ NLT.

Becoming God’s Champions

Peter Amsterdam

2013-11-25

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”—Galatians 6:9¹

Over the years I’ve seen a number of movies about sports teams, as I’m sure you have. The story often centers around a new coach coming into a high school that has a weak team. The coach often has a style of coaching that is quite different from the former coach, and the team or the parents or the school officials don’t like it. The coach is tough on the team, he pushes them really hard, he makes them work like never before, and it seems like he’s almost killing the team. The team may even lose the first few games, and he pushes them harder. Then the team starts winning games and eventually wins the championship.

These films are very inspiring, because you see the hard work and determination of the coach and the team pay off. Sometimes they’re tearjerkers, and they almost always have good lessons of some kind. There are usually lessons for the coach, for the star of the team, for the parents, for the teachers, and for the team as a whole.

You often see the rallying speech given by the coach to the team at the halftime of the championship game, when the team is behind and it looks as if they might lose. Sometimes the coach yells and screams; other times he gives a gentle speech invoking the memory of a team player who has died or some past event about the school, which fires up the team to go out and win.

When the game is over and the team has won, there is great jubilation. The team is thrilled, the parents are joyous, and the school is proud because their team won the championship. The players know that this was a great time in their lives, and many of them now go off to college to play for their new school. Many times those films end with the coach either in his office or back home, looking over who’s going to be on the team next year and thinking about how he’s going to do it all over again next year with a new team.

There are many lessons to draw from those kinds of movies or stories, but there are two that stand out to me. The first lesson has to do with something that you generally don’t see in one of those movies.

You don’t usually see the coach, at the end of the movie, when the team has won the championship, get the team together and tell them how sorry he is that the team members had to work so hard and endure so much in order to win. He might let them know that all the training he put them through wasn’t personal, that it wasn’t because he didn’t like the team players that he made it so tough.

But I’ve never seen the coach express regret for the rigors or training, for the difficulties, or for the sacrifice. I’ve never seen any coach show remorse or apologize for the fact that in order for his team to become champions, he had to push them pretty hard.

To the contrary, leading up to the championship game you always see the coach being very demanding of the team. He never seems to be happy with the team’s performance; he’s always wanting more, expecting more. He makes them work out, run, run, and run some more. Sometimes it almost looks like he’s unfeeling and uncaring, especially when they are totally exhausted after a practice, and instead of letting them stop, he makes them do it all over again.

The team is wiped out. They complain. Usually one or two members quit. Sometimes the parents complain, and sometimes they try to get the coach fired. It’s probably not easy for the coach to put his team through so much, but he knows that that’s what he has to do to make them winners. And in the end, when the team starts winning, when there are positive results, and especially when they become champions, then it dawns on everyone else that it was precisely all that hard work and difficulty that brought about the victory.

It’s clear that to become champions requires hard work and sacrifice. It’s clear that there’s no easy road to victory.

It would be an anticlimactic ending to one of those inspiring movies if the coach got the team together after their victorious season and said, “You know, team, I’m super sorry that I expected, in fact demanded, so much of you, and that you had to work so hard as a result. I’m sorry if I pushed you further than you wanted or felt you could go.” I don’t think you’ll see one of those movies end that way, because there’s no one on that championship team who would expect or want to hear such a speech.

Why? Because the team is a team of winners, who put their hard work and sweat into becoming winners. They know that the expectations of the coach were what pushed them to victory, and that without that, victory wouldn’t have been achieved. They wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

The second lesson is that the coach realizes that when the sports season has ended, he has to begin all over again with a new team, because most of the players have moved on to college. He realizes that in order to produce a victorious team next year, he has to do it all over again; that a victory one year doesn’t guarantee a victory the next year. He has to put in the same time, the same work, the same sacrifice, to make his next team a winning team.

He also knows that as he plans ahead for the next season, everything will be different, and he has to adapt his strategy. The teams he’ll face next year will be different teams, with different players. His team will be different as well. It won’t have the same strengths as last year’s team. If one of his players last year was strong in a certain aspect of the game, but now he’s gone, then the coach has to change the strategy so as to play off the strengths and to cover for the weaknesses that the new team has.

These coaches have to begin almost from scratch each year. Last year’s glories are just that—last year’s glories. They’re not renewable glories. It takes the same, and sometimes more, blood, sweat, and tears, to win the next season as it did last season.

I haven’t seen in any of those movies a scene where the coach is bemoaning the next season and all of the work that it’s going to be. They’re never shown saying, “I can’t believe that after this tough year I’m going to have to do it again! How can the school expect me to have a fresh start in a new season when I’ve just given my all last season? I think it should be easier. I think I should be able to coast for a year or two on our last championship. I’m satisfied with our wins, and it’s so unfair to have to keep working hard to produce a championship team.” No, you’ll never see a movie with a scene like that.

The great coaches don’t think that way; it’s not in their blood. They’re hungry to win, they’re determined to keep fighting, to keep sacrificing, year after year, to produce champions year after year. That’s the nature of sports and competition. It’s also the nature of the spiritual warfare we engage in as Christians in our service to the Lord and others, and in our mission of bringing salvation to as many as will receive Him.

I’m sure you’ve had times in your life for the Lord when you were exhausted to the point of giving up, and have wondered if you could go on one more day. But you did. You fought hard, you sacrificed, you laid down your life for others, and you have witnessed the fruit of your labors, or you will one day. But I’m pretty sure if you’re like me, at some point you have felt like, “How can the Lord expect this of us? It’s like the Egyptians making the children of Israel make bricks without straw.² Does He know what He’s asking of us? Does He know how hard He’s pushing us? Does He know how exhausted we are? Does He know that we have our limits? What’s the matter with Him?”

Well, here’s the deal: He’s like a coach who is working hard to turn his team into a champion team. Sometimes He has to push us to the limit so that we can go beyond what we believe we can do and be victorious. Like the coaches in those movies, He’s working to produce champions of each of us personally and His body of believers as a whole.

I’m pretty sure that most of us at one time or another have felt like those team members in the movies. We got angry at our Coach; we couldn’t believe He would be expecting so much of us. Perhaps we complained. I’m sure we have all felt like quitting at some time or another. But the price of victory, the price of progress, the price of championship is sacrifice, hard work, dedication, obedience, perseverance and faith. And we have our Coach—Jesus—to thank for training us in these attributes.

No one wins great victories without paying the price. No battle is won without pouring your all into the battle. No athletic contest is won without the months or years of grueling training. Victory costs! It sometimes costs everything. Victory is the culmination of sacrifice, hard work, dedication, obedience, perseverance, and faith.

When you arrive in heaven you’ll hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord.” You will hear the champions of centuries past cheering your names as you enter heaven’s hall of fame.

This is a war worth fighting. This is a war that’s worth giving our all to. This is a war worth laying down our lives for. It’s a war to free the hearts and souls of the lost. It’s a war to set the captives free. It’s a war to fulfill God’s desire to reach the world with His truth and love.

This war is not a negative. The fact that we’re going to have to fight hard is not a negative. The spiritual warfare that we’re engaged in is a positive, because it’s the means to securing victory—not just for ourselves or for our loved ones, but for the world, for God’s kingdom on earth, for the future of humankind.

We love the fact that our warfare enables us to wreak havoc and destruction on the Devil’s kingdom. We love the fact that we’re ripping souls out of his clutches. We love the fact that by preaching the Gospel in all the world, we’re paving the way for the Lord’s return to come. We love the fact that we can show the Enemy that we’re not afraid of him. We love the fact that we are going to win!

If there is only one route to securing your goals and dreams, and you determine that your goals are so worth it that you’re willing to take that route, come hell or high water, then you realize that you have a choice as to whether you’ll look at that path positively or negatively. Since you have to take that path anyway, and there’s no alternative, then why not look at it positively? Why not decide to enjoy it and make the best of it, to relish every moment of the journey? Rather than just letting your feet flop along, mechanically putting one foot in front of the other, put passion and determination into each step! Choose to do so, because in doing so you will have the kind of outlook needed to lead others to victory.

That’s the point we need to come to in our outlook on the trials and tests we face and the fact that there are years of spiritual warfare ahead of us, because the fight for the souls of humankind is going to continue until the Lord’s return. The Rapture will be the culmination of the victories of this earthly warfare, and it’s going to be thrilling. To get there, we’re going to have to “fight the good fight of faith,”³ and it’s going to be a long and tough fight, but it’s going to be a thrilling fight because we’re going to win thrilling victories.

In our war against Satan for the souls of the world, we know that victory is guaranteed, but we also know that it takes time to win victories and that victories cost. So we have to learn to appreciate, or at least to look very positively on, all that it takes to win the victory and all that it costs along the way.

Embrace the price. Embrace what it costs you to win. Glory in your infirmities.⁴ It makes the victory that much more worth it and sweeter. The training you endure to become fit to run the race and to fight the good fight of faith is acceptable because of what you achieve, because of the victories you win.

He’ll empower us for every situation we find ourselves in. We just have to be willing to go forward, to not give up, no matter how we feel. We have to depend on the Lord and wield His might and power. We have to rest in the Lord and keep fighting.

Why are we willing to fight the good fight? We’re willing to do it because the love of Christ constrains us, because there’s no greater love in all the world than to lay down our lives for Him and for others.⁵ That’s our calling and commission. We can be sure that as we lay down our lives, as we willingly sacrifice in His service, He will quicken us in spirit and give us what we need to keep persevering, to keep fighting, and to keep going.

We know that the Lord never asks anything of us that He doesn’t give us the grace for.⁶ That doesn’t just mean grace to barely make it through, but to rise above, to be victorious, to be champions. So we know that we will have strength, power, faith, and grace equal to the task, that even though the battles we face in this life will be tough and the load will be heavy, the Lord will never let things be too tough or too hard or too heavy.

Sometimes we might feel that we can’t do something or that it’s too much, but actually, when we look to the Lord and find out that it’s His will for us to press on, we find that we do have the strength and the ability to do what He’s asking. We just have to go deeper into Jesus, deeper into the Spirit, so that we can summon strength and energy from His never-ending reservoir of willpower and determination to fight and win.

Originally published November 2008. Adapted and republished November 2013.
Read by Jerry Paladino.

¹ NASB.

² Exodus 5:12–18.

³ 1 Timothy 6:12

⁴ 2 Corinthians 11:23–30.

⁵ 2 Corinthians 5:14–15; John 15:13.

⁶ 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.

You’ll Get Through This

November 15, 2024

By Max Lucado

What happens when life feels like it will never get better? Max Lucado shares an encouraging reminder that even if it takes time, you will get through whatever you’re facing. Because you are not alone—you have God, His Word, and His people with you every step of the way.

(Run time for this video is 41 minutes. This message was given to the Gateway Church following a period of turmoil, after which Max Lucado stepped in as interim teaching pastor. But the message has a broad application to any “pit” we may find ourselves in.)

https://youtu.be/RUwbtFZmqao

Man’s Heart

November 14, 2024

By Virginia Brandt Berg

Audio length: 8:14

Download Audio (7.5MB)

As I’m sitting here praying about this message, I’m in the heart of Los Angeles, and not very far from where I am, there is a terrible situation, a riot that is like anarchy. It’s more like a war than anything I have known since war days.¹

I just read Psalm 140, which talks about violent men, because we are living in an age of violence. This has been a terrible situation—rebellion so vicious that you couldn’t conceive of it unless you had seen some of the things that have gone on here. The brutality of it has been terrible.

Just a few moments ago there was an announcement that a mother was sitting with her two children out in the front yard to enjoy a little breeze, because it’s such a hot day, and a sniper killed the one child and wounded the other child. Cowards have been shooting at will and have not even allowed the firemen to get to the fires; they have been trying to kill the firemen.

There has been $100,000,000 worth of destruction and burning buildings! One entire block of stores burned to the ground. Up to this time there are 28 dead and nearly 700 wounded. Most of the big markets in this area have been burned, and now even a food shortage is acute because of food spoilage.

How can these things be? How can they come to pass in such an age of enlightenment? Let me read this passage from God’s Word:

Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;
preserve me from violent men,
who plan evil things in their heart
and stir up wars continually.
They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s,
and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
preserve me from violent men,
who have planned to trip up my feet. …
I say to the Lord, You are my God;
give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord!
O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation,
you have covered my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah
As for the head of those who surround me,
let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
Let burning coals fall upon them!
Let them be cast into fire,
into miry pits, no more to rise!
Let not the slanderer be established in the land;
let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!
—Psalm 140:1–4, 6–11

You see that verse 11 ends with these words, “let evil hunt down the violent man speedily,” and I’m sure that some of these people that are so violent are going to reap that which they have sown (Galatians 6:7).

We can find comfort in verses 12 and 13 from this same psalm:

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and will execute justice for the needy.
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;
the upright shall dwell in your presence.

As we read in God’s Word, how true it is that there will be a time when evil men shall “wax worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13).

We wonder if things will get better, and we hear about the Great Society ² ushering in much that’s better, and some people are looking for a utopia. Instead of that, we seem to be moving into an age of violence, just like God’s Word tells us that these things shall happen in the Last Days (Luke 21:25).

I started to say that this is a rebellion in the heart of men against the old established order, against authority, and it’s found today in every avenue of life. Some of this violence is even depicted in the movies and in the music of the day. The same with art. I remember my trips to some art galleries, how amazed I was that it was so ugly and distorted, and it hadn’t a bit of beauty about it. And in literature—so rarely you run across a real good book that’s sweet and pure and uplifting.

Now may I just bring this thought to your own heart: Don’t you see that when you are rebellious toward God, when you are disobedient, then you also are a rebel in your own heart? When God has told you to do certain things, and when He speaks to your heart, it’s always for your own good. God wouldn’t tell you to do something unless it was for your good, unless it was that which would not only please Him, but that which would reap a reward for you in the future, as you follow Him.

But when there is rebellion in your heart, when you refuse to listen to His voice and you want your own way, that’s some of the rebel that’s in your own heart.

There isn’t any place for compromise today; you have to be on one side or the other. There cannot be any conforming to this rebellious, violent world. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

I know in some places people have tried to erase that clearly defined line that separates conforming and transforming. You can’t do that! The lines are gray in some lives, but if you’re a sincere Christian, that line of demarcation is clearly drawn. You’re either on the one side or the other in this age of violence and unbelief when men’s hearts are seemingly turning against God in so many cases.

People look for the causes. It’s in the heart of man, which God’s Word says is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Your only hope is to yield your heart utterly to the Lord Jesus Christ in a full surrender.

You know what surrender means. It is expressed in this well-known song.

“I work so hard for Jesus,” I often boast and say,
“I’ve sacrificed a lot of things to walk the narrow way.
I gave up fame and fortune, I’m worth a lot to Thee.”
Then I heard Him gently say to me,
“I left the throne of glory and counted it but loss.
My hands were nailed in anger upon the cruel cross.
Now we’ll make the journey with your hand safe in mine,
So lift your cross and follow, follow me.”
—Adapted from “Follow Me,” by Ira F. Stanphill, 1953

That’s the only safe place, and oh, the reward. I can tell you how He will bless your heart and give you peace and rest. Obey Him, listen to His voice. Do what He bids you. God bless you and make you a blessing.

From a transcript of a Meditation Moments broadcast, adapted. Published on Anchor November 2024. Read by Lenore Welsh.

¹ The Watts Riots took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, from August 11 to August 15, 1965. The 5-day riot resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage.—Wikipedia

² The Great Society was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation, and programs spearheaded by President Lyndon B. Johnson with the main goals of ending poverty, reducing crime, abolishing inequality, and improving the environment. In May 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson laid out his agenda for a “Great Society” during a speech at the University of Michigan. With his eye on reelection that year, Johnson set in motion his Great Society, the largest social reform plan in modern history. https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/great-society

Faith and Comfort Zones

November 13, 2024

By Marie Story

I often hear people talking about “getting out of your comfort zone.” I hate hearing that. I admit that I like my comfort zones. I don’t like doing new things—especially if it’s something I don’t understand or don’t think I’ll do well at. I find it really difficult to take risks, even calculated risks, because risks are uncomfortable and take me into the zone of the unknown.

Lately, however, I’ve been pushed out of my comfort zone on a regular basis, and in that setting, I very quickly start to feel overwhelmed. It’s not the work that I’m afraid of—it’s the idea. As I begin to contemplate the magnitude of some project or venture, I start to shrivel inside, mentally backing away in consternation.

As I was discussing a concept for a new project with a friend some time ago, he was explaining his ideas. He’s the type of person who thinks big, detailed, and long-term—he’s definitely not scared off by the work or the risks. In fact, for him, the bigger and more out-of-the-box, the better. He was laying out his plan and automatically my mind started shutting down, shrinking back, and going into “overwhelm” mode. My eyes started to glaze over, and he noticed.

“What’s up?”

“Well …” I stammered, while trying to look supportive, “umm … it’s a good plan, but it seems a bit big, a bit overwhelming to me.”

“Is it the idea that is overwhelming you, or are you struggling with the idea of introducing change?”

This was food for thought (though I didn’t like to admit it), and I took some time with the Lord in prayer about it. I realized I was a bit of a wimp when it came to stepping outside my comfort zone, and that this was going to hold me back in life, and I needed a plan to grow my faith for change. Here is a three-step faith-building plan that worked for me, so I thought I’d share it with you—in case you find yourself in a similar situation:

Step one: Feed your faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and that we need to desire God’s Word so that we can grow thereby (Romans 10:17; 1 Peter 2:2). If we want to grow in faith, we need to ensure we have a healthy Word diet. Just like our bodies can’t survive on a diet of junk food—or even on an occasional good meal—our faith won’t grow, much less thrive, unless we’re faithful to take in good, spiritually feeding input.

Read things that feed your faith. The Bible is bursting with promises that God has made to us and teachings that will guide us through life and give us principles to make godly decisions. His Word will guide us in our transformation process and help us to not fall into the pitfall of conforming to this world, and guide us to discern the good and perfect and acceptable will of God (Romans 12:2). When your heart is full of God’s Word, His truth, and His promises, your faith won’t be easily shaken.

Step two: Strengthen your faith. Our faith doesn’t thrive when we choose the comfortable option to avoid sacrifice, struggle, or challenges. When all our needs are covered, when we can handle the work on our own, when we are confident about what’s ahead—that’s when we can be tempted to try to carry all the weight ourselves. It’s when things are difficult, and when we just can’t carry the load, that our faith is strengthened, because we have to intentionally come to Jesus and hand the load over to Him and place our trust in Him (Matthew 11:28–30).

The Bible says to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding,” or your own strength, “and He will direct your path” (Proverbs 3:5–6). And “Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). That means putting your weight down. And as we do that—as we depend more on Jesus and put our trust in His promises—our faith will be strengthened.

Step three: Stretch your faith. Be prepared to step out to do those things that seem overwhelming that God calls you to do. In other words, step out of your comfort zone. Often difficulties or challenges present themselves in our everyday lives and we don’t have a choice but to take them on. But at other times, God brings new opportunities into our lives and we need to be willing to stretch and choose to step out by faith and trust in His plan, even if we can’t know the outcome for sure.

When we read stories in the Bible, we see that many times people were placed in difficult situations where their faith had to grow to meet the need; at other times God waited for them to choose to take a step of faith before He performed the miracle.

For example, when Jesus came walking on the water toward His disciples, it was in the midst of a storm, and the boat was a long way from land and being “beaten by the waves and the wind was against them.” Jesus calmed the winds, and that was a great miracle, and it strengthened their faith, and they “worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

But the story that everyone remembers from this passage started when Peter took a literal step of faith out of the boat onto the water. He didn’t have to do that, but he chose to. He said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Matthew 14:24–33)

So, what’s the point of growing and strengthening our faith? Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains (Matthew 17:20–21). And sometimes that small faith is all we can muster, but nonetheless, “all things are possible if you can believe” (Mark 9:23).

God has plans for each of our lives, and step by step He prepares us for those plans. However, sometimes we have to step out by faith and reach toward those plans (whether we know how things will turn out or not). We need to take action and start building on what God’s will is for us. If we hold back until everything is “safe,” we may miss out.

The book of Romans highlights the example of the faith of Abraham, who “did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” This passage goes on to tell us that the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:20–24).

One definition of faith is “confidence or trust in another’s ability.” Faith starts with acknowledging that we’re incapable in ourselves, but we are still stepping out by faith to do what God asks of us because we trust in His ability to work through us (Philippians 2:13).

I’ve still got a long way to go in strengthening my faith. I am, however, starting to look at each “overwhelming” situation as an opportunity for a faith workout!

Adapted from a Just1Thing podcast, a Christian character-building resource for young people.

The Wounds of a Friend

November 12, 2024

A compilation

Audio length: 10:44

Download Audio (9.8MB)

What are the hallmarks of a good friendship? What characteristics do you look for in a friend?

Often, the entryway into friendship is two people sharing a common interest. … Another important bond in a friendship is loyalty. We all want friends who will stick by us when the going gets tough. We want friends who will keep our secrets a secret. And certainly, we want friends who will encourage us, cheer us on, and affirm us. But do we ever look for friends who exhort us? …

A good Christian friend will point out to us when we’ve wandered off the narrow path. … A Christian friend won’t tell us what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:5–6).

As C. H. Spurgeon said about such friendships:

True friends put enough trust in you to tell you openly of your faults. Give me for a friend the man who will speak honestly of me before my face; who will not tell first one neighbor, and then another, but who will come straight to my house, and say, “Sir, I feel there is such-and-such a thing in you, which, as my brother, I must tell you of.” That man is a true friend.

An exhorting friendship is not a relationship where we simply sit around and point fingers at one another. It’s not an opportunity to make people feel bad. … The efforts we make to exhort one another are always done out of love and gentleness. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear” (Proverbs 25:11–12). We go out of our way to speak to [our friend] in kindness, encouraging them, and seeking to spur them on forward in the faith. As the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).

We see the quicksand they are stepping into and we desperately want to pull them out before it sucks them in. So we preach the gospel to our friends. We remind them of the joy found in knowing God and being known by him, of the deep satisfaction found in enjoying the One who made us. We remind them of who they are in Christ and what he has done for them. We remind them they were bought at a price, they are new creations, and Christ will not forsake them. We point them to the cross, to redemption, forgiveness, and the way of repentance. And we offer to walk with them in the journey. …

When a friend exhorts us, we need to take time and consider it. We need to pray about it and ask the Lord to help us see what our friend sees. We need to evaluate our heart for sin and for ways we seek to find joy and meaning outside of God. We need to learn from it and grow in Christlikeness. And we need to respond to our friend with gratitude for being honest with us.

Do you have an exhorting friend in your life? Pray that the Lord would provide you such a friend. Seek out friendships with those who radiate the joy and love of Christ in their lives. Spend time with those who live to enjoy God for the glory of God. Take the time to develop deep, trusting friendships with others and mutually seek the best in one another—including exhorting one another in the faith. As believers, we all need friends who will exhort us because they care about our hearts.—Christina Fox¹

A friend that is willing to tell you hard truths is a very good friend. The Bible says that “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). That means that even if a friend tells you something that hurts you a little bit—like that your attitude is maybe not so great, or that you’re doing something wrong or dangerous—it’s because they care about you.

Those are the friends who aren’t going to leave you in the dark. They’re going to tell you what’s what, even if it’s hard for you to hear. They aren’t telling you to hurt you; they’re telling you to help you. Not every friend will be invested enough in your friendship to say something that could potentially irritate you. But if you have a friend who will, value them.

We all need a friend who will tell us if we have something stuck between our teeth, or if our breath stinks, or we need to find a better deodorant. We also need someone to tell us if our actions have unwittingly hurt someone without us noticing.

Sometimes it’s much easier to not tell someone the truth. That way you don’t have to deal with anyone getting sensitive or upset at you, and you don’t have to be the “bad guy.”

If you want to be a good and faithful friend, you will sometimes be faced with the challenge of having to “wound” your friend. I still find this very difficult to do. Sometimes I manage to say it just the way I planned, it’s quick, and the happy ending comes fast. At other times, I blurt it out and things get worse before they get better.

I know that doesn’t sound very good, and it can go down kind of messy sometimes. After all, the Bible does talk about the wounds of a friend. The word “wound” implies that it could be a bit messy, that it could hurt.

Something important to first ask yourself is why you feel compelled to tell your friend something. If it’s you being moody or having a bad day, maybe you need to refrain. But if your motivation for telling your friend some hard truth is to protect them from being hurt or from hurting themselves or someone else, then you have the right motivation.

With the right motivation, you’re ready to “speak the truth in love.” If you’re nervous or uncomfortable, remind yourself of the reason that you’re saying anything at all. It’s because you care about your friend. It’s what you would want your friend to do for you.

In time, you will come to see which friends really have your back and which ones will be willing to work through the “ugly” with you. Those are the friends you need. In a good friendship, the “faithful wounds” will work both ways. You will both be able to rely on the other for the tough truths. When you find friends like that, be grateful. Take the sting, because the wound will heal, and you will be wiser and happier. Be grateful for a few good friends who value you enough to tell you the truth.—Mara Hodler

“Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:5–6). Open rebuke refers to confronting someone’s misbehavior frankly and truthfully. It may be perceived as harsh or wounding to the recipient, but when the intent is to promote another person’s well-being and help him change his behavior, the real motivation is love. …

The wounds of a friend are faithful because a true friend’s criticism or candid speech is based on a relationship that is loyal, sincere, trustworthy, and authentic. We can rely on a friend who cares enough not to hide his or her true feelings. “You can trust a friend who corrects you,” says the Contemporary English Version. … A faithful friend dares to correct what is wrong, and a wise person is courageous enough to receive correction from a trustworthy friend. …

Paul said, “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7; cf. 2 Corinthians 10:1). He urged the Galatians, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” (Galatians 6:1). Paul taught Timothy to “gently instruct those who oppose the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25). Jesus, who is our ultimate example, said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).—GotQuestions.org²

Published on Anchor November 2024. Read by Debra Lee. Music by Michael Fogarty.

¹ https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/faithful-are-the-wounds-of-a-friend

² https://www.gotquestions.org/faithful-are-the-wounds-of-a-friend.html

The Message of Jeremiah

Huntington Beach Light Club 1968

David Brandt Berg

1970-11-22

God turned Jeremiah around and made a revolutionary out of him, but he had a little difficulty trying to turn the nation around. In fact, he never quite succeeded! But at least he tried.

Are you willing to be a revolutionary even if nobody ever joins? That’s about the way Jeremiah had it. And let me tell you who joined him—God. God took him through in his own little revolution, all the way through a war, the great confusion, and the takeover by the communists of his day, and helped him to survive it.

I told you the other day, there’s revolution rampant in the country and the swelling tide is rising. (The Jesus Revolution!) You know how the surf rises? You spot that wave out there and you watch that swell lift and you say, “Oh, man, there’s coming one, that’s going to be it!” And it rises and rises until it reaches that peak, and then it really begins to roll. And if you hit it just right, you jump on that board just in time, you can ride the crest, and it’s a thrill to ride on top.

But you know, some of these preachers see that swell coming and they don’t want revolution, they don’t want a change, they don’t want to be different. So they take their surfboards and they try to stop the wave, like that guy did to you yesterday. The Lord said, “If these should hold their peace, the very rocks would cry out” (Luke 19:40).

What happens when you try to stop the wave? It just rolls right over you. It rolls you down, that’s all! You can submerge and let it roll over you if you want to, but personally, I like to ride it. Now you can think about that for a while as we study Jeremiah.

There’s only one thing that’s really worth dying for, and that’s Jesus. You’re going to find this book of Jeremiah a very dangerous book. It was plenty dangerous for Jeremiah! Nearly got him killed. Got him thrown in prison, got him thrown in a dungeon where he sank in the slime right up to his armpits.

His own family wanted to murder him and his own church put him in stocks, one of those pieces of wood where your head, hands, and feet are sticking through, where they could spit on him and slap him and make him a mocking derision to his people. Wait till you hear what Jeremiah suffered for preaching revolution! Of course, he preached the same kind we do—not one of violence, but one of the Spirit.

What is revolution? Revolve, turn around, and go the other direction. Similar to the Latin word repentance and the Greek word metanoia, it means a complete change of mind, change of direction.

We’re not interested in trying to patch up the old system; we don’t give a hang about trying to reform it! I’m not talking about the true Christians that love God. I’m not talking about the gospel being preached. I’m not talking about Christians getting together and enjoying fellowship. I’m talking about the system they’ve got. The system of—instead of witnessing and winning souls—of going into all the world and building buildings! Going into all the world and telling everybody to just be a Christian and go to church on Sunday. Not that those things were intrinsically bad to begin with, that a building’s anything evil of itself, or that going to church on Sunday is bad.

God has asked His prophets to do a lot of peculiar things! He asked one prophet—Isaiah, a courtier of the king’s blood, royal family—to go stark naked for three years before all Israel as a testimony against them of how God was going to strip the nation. He asked another prophet, Hosea, to go out and marry a prostitute, to illustrate what Israel had done to God, that Israel had become a harlot in the eyes of God, but that God was still married to her and still loved her and would forgive her.

And Jeremiah, He asked him to do some peculiar things too. One of the most peculiar things He asked him to do was to wear a wooden ox yoke around his neck to illustrate that the nation was going to go into servitude and slavery and bondage to her enemies—yoked, slaves in chains, because of her sins. Popular message?

You’ll find Jeremiah was a revolutionist! He was trying to revolve the nation, turn it around and start it the other direction. But he never succeeded; he was a flat failure. He never changed Israel, he never got them to repent. And God judged them and let their enemies conquer them and take them as slaves because they didn’t repent. Was he a failure? His job was not to make Israel change her mind or heart or repent, because only Israel could do that.

We can’t make the churches change. We can’t make this nation change. They have to make that decision; our job is to tell them. And when it came to telling them, let me tell you, Jeremiah was a huge success! They got the point so well, they nearly killed him. If it hadn’t been for the power of God he never would have made it. Because listen to the kind of call God gave him in this first chapter:

“The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.” He was from Anathoth, his hometown. You’re going to hear what his hometown tried to do with him later. His hometown got so mad at him, they said, “Now listen, this guy is such a radical revolutionary, the king’s going to think that we’re like this too, so we’d better kill him before the king takes it out on us!”

What made Jeremiah a revolutionary? He broke with the system, and he followed God. No matter what the system said or did to him, he was more afraid of God than he was of the system. Now I’m not talking about the government; don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about the people that love the Lord, but their system that they are trapped in.

One government or another makes little difference to us for the plain and simple reason we find out all the way through the Bible, they changed governments like they changed clothes, and all governments amount to about the same thing in the long run: It’s all Roman, still Rome, but it’s put here by God to try to keep the peace and order.

Jeremiah’s message was nothing but trouble and doom for the country! There were little rays of sunshine here and there, a little blessing that was going to be far off in the future after they’d gone through the mill and really suffered—God was going to forgive them then. They’d repent then, He’d forgive them, and then He’d bring them back, but it was going to be a long time.

When God has appointed somebody to a special task, this frequently happens; God sets you aside. He’s got a special job cut out just for you! And you’d better believe it and you’d better obey it and you’d better do it.

“Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6). “Lord, I can’t do it!” You’ll never find anyone in the Word of God who wanted to be a prophet. Almost all of them were forced to be prophets. They didn’t want to be, they were reluctant, and they tried to talk God out of it. Someone once said, don’t ever try to be a leader unless God virtually forces you to be, where He puts you in a position of responsibility where you have to.

There are a lot of people running around the world who’d love to be boss. They want to run things; they want to be an executive behind a big polished desk. If they only knew the problems of those guys. If they only knew the hassle they go through mentally and every other way. We read in the paper just recently, some guy jumped out the hospital window, a big executive. The responsibility nearly drives them out of their minds, all the things they have to do. I saw a sign on the grocery store wall one day: “Work your eight hours a day and don’t worry—maybe someday you’ll be boss, work 16 hours a day, and have all the worry!”

“But the Lord said unto me, Say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak” (Jeremiah 1:7). “Just tell them what I tell you, that’s all you have to know. That’s all you have to do, just tell them what I tell you.”

“Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms” (Jeremiah 1:8–10).

What do you mean? Jeremiah was nothing but a prophet! He wasn’t even of the blood royal. Who was he? Of just one little town of Anathoth, of one little tiny insignificant country in world history. But God said He had set him over the nations and over the kingdoms. You mean this little insignificant prophet was that important to God? Let me tell you, he had a message for the nations, a message for the kingdoms, a message for the world!

Listen to the kind of ministry that Jeremiah had: “To root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down.” Four parts of his message was destruction, two-thirds of his total message. Get rid of the false, obliterate the false, throw out the false, throw down the false, cast out the false, root out the false! Because if you can’t get rid of the weeds, if you can’t get rid of the ruins and the rubble, how are you going to plant or build anything in the same place? Ever had a garden? Let me tell you, if you don’t get rid of those weeds, they’ll get rid of your garden! You’ve got to get rid of them; they can’t grow side by side.

I regret to tell you that so far, according to world history, the prophets have usually gotten it in the neck and the system got them first. But they saved a lot of souls, and they woke up a lot of people, and they preserved at least some truth and some gospel and some salvation. And that’s why you’re here tonight, because somebody fought for the truth!

All the way from the prophets of old up to guys like Martin Luther, Savonarola, John Knox, and Tyndale, who gave up their lives so you could have the truth. But as a result, you’re here today hearing the truth of God and this book has been preserved. And because we are willing to live and die for the truth of God, somebody’s going to hear about it and believe it and receive it and carry it on after we’re dead!

For every drop of blood we shed, God raises up ten more drops to keep on preaching it! Praise God? For the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, some great martyr once said. It was not just what the Christians said that turned Rome to Christianity, it was the way they died! Then people knew they believed. They were fighting the system, and you couldn’t have fought a bigger system than they had then. That’s one case where the system finally got conquered.

The message that we preach down here, this kind of Christianity, is as far from what is being preached in those churches on Sunday as night is from day, as communism is from capitalism. The early church seemed to have more success with some of the Romans than the Jews. And Paul finally gave up on the Jews and said, “From henceforth I will go to the Gentiles! I’m sick of preaching to the church people. I’m going to the heathen; they’ll receive it” (Acts 18:6).

Let’s pray and ask God to help us to have the courage to preach a message that’s hard to preach, a message many will not receive, and a message that they’ll persecute you for.

The Just One and Political Justice

Reflections 340

2006-04-02

By Rui Barbosa

In an essay first published in 1899 and excerpted here, Brazilian jurist, essayist, lawyer, author, politician, and diplomat Rui Barbosa (1849-1923) analyzes the prosecution of Jesus from a legal standpoint and holds it up as an example for the ages of the miscarriage of justice.

Christ was subjected to six trials—three at the hands of the Jews, three at the hands of Rome—yet He stood before no judge. In court after court His divine innocence was evident to all who judged Him, but not one dared grant Him judicial protection. In Hebraic traditions, the concept of the divine nature of a magistrate’s role was emphasized. It was taught that to rule contrary to the truth was to drive the presence of the Lord from the bosom of Israel, while to judge with integrity, even for an hour, was likened to the creation of the universe. It was taught that there, in the place of judgment, divine majesty abode. Laws and holy books are of little worth, however, when men lose sight of their meaning.

In the very trial of the One who was sinless, there was not a precept or rule in the laws of Israel that her judges did not transgress. From His arrest, approximately an hour before midnight, until dawn, all the events of Christ’s trial were tumultuous, extrajudicial, and an assault on Hebrew precepts. The third phase, the inquiry before the Sanhedrin, was the first to even remotely simulate a judicial hearing—the first act in this judgment to vaguely resemble due process. At least it took place in the light of day.

Christ Himself did not renounce such rights. Annas interrogated Him, making a procedural error, as he had no judicial authority in the matter. In resigning Himself to martyrdom, Jesus never resigned Himself to the abdication of His lawful rights. Jesus answered Annas, “I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them. Indeed they know what I said.” It was an appeal to the Hebrew institutions, which made no allowance for courts or witnesses representing only one side of a question. The accused had the right to a public trial and could not have been convicted without a body of incriminating testimony. Jesus’ ministry had been to the people. If His preaching had crossed into criminal activity, the place should have been teeming with witnesses. They stood on judicial soil, yet because the Son of God invoked the law, His judges slapped Him. To answer the priest in this manner was insolence. “Do You answer the high priest like that?” “Yes,” replied Christ, insisting on legal grounds. “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?”

Disoriented, Annas sent Him to Caiaphas, the high priest that year. This matter, however, was also outside Caiaphas’ jurisdiction. It was solely a prerogative of the great Sanhedrin, before whom Caiaphas had already revealed his political bias in persuading them it was necessary for Jesus to die in order to “save the nation.” It was now up to Caiaphas to carry out his own malicious design, which resulted in the damnation of the people he had intended to save and the salvation of the world, which he had never considered.

The illegality of the nighttime judgment, which Jewish law prohibited even in ordinary civil issues, was worsened by the scandal of the false witnesses. They were bribed by the judge himself, who should have, according to the jurisprudence of that nation, played the role of the defendant’s foremost protector. Yet, no matter how many false witnesses they arranged, they were not able to impute to Him guilt as they had hoped. Jesus remained silent. His judges lost the second round. The high priest, in his “wisdom,” suggested a way to open the divine lips of the accused. Caiaphas questioned Him in the name of the living God, an invocation which the Son could not resist. Obliged to reply, He did not recant and therefore found Himself accused of a capital crime. “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy!” Hearing this statement, all present cried, “He is deserving of death.”

The morning dawned, and in the first hours of daylight, the entire Sanhedrin met. It was an attempt to satisfy the judicial guarantees. Daybreak brought with it the required condition of openness. This was now a legitimate judicial proceeding. These were the proper judges, but judges who had already hired witnesses to testify against the defendant could represent little more than a disgraceful travesty of justice. Having agreed beforehand to condemn, these judges left an example to the world, imitated countless times over the years, of tribunals that decide together in the shadows, later merely simulating in public an actual judgment.

Naturally, therefore, Christ was condemned a third time. The Sanhedrin, however, did not have the authority to pronounce the death sentence. It was a jury of sorts, whose verdict was more opinion than ruling. The Roman courts were under no obligation to heed this verdict. Pontius Pilate, therefore, was under no constraint; he could either condemn or acquit. He asked them, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you” was the insolent reply of his prosecutors. Not wanting to play the role of executioner in a case about which he knew nothing, Pilate tried to weasel out of the predicament by returning the victim to His accusers. “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” “But,” replied the Jews, “you know very well that it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” Their goal was death. Without it the depraved justice of the accusers would not be satisfied.

At this point their libel changed. The accusation was no longer of blasphemy against holy law, but of an infraction of political law. Jesus was no longer the impostor who claimed to be the Son of God, but a conspirator who crowned Himself king of Judea. Again, however, Christ’s answer spoiled the morning for His accusers. His kingdom was not of this world. Therefore He posed neither a threat to the security of national institutions, nor to the stability of Rome’s rule. “For this cause I have come into the world,” Christ said, “that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” “What is truth?” asked Pilate, clearly revealing his cynicism. He did not believe in the truth, but the truth of Christ’s innocence penetrated irresistibly into the depths of his soul. “I find no fault in Him at all,” said the Roman procurator, once again forestalling the priests’ plot.

The innocent should have been spared. He was not. Public opinion demanded a victim. Jesus had stirred the people, not only there in Pilate’s territory, but all the way to Galilee. It so happened that Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee with whom the governor of Judea had severed relations, was in Jerusalem. It was an excellent occasion for Pilate to restore their friendship and at the same time pacify the crowds that had been inflamed by the high priests. Pilate sent the defendant to Herod, flattering him with this homage—vanity. Two enemies, from that day on, became friends. Thus tyrants are reconciled over the ruins of justice. Herod, also, could find no way to condemn Jesus. The martyr returned from Herod to Pilate without being sentenced.

Pilate reiterated to the people the purity of that just Man. It was the third time that Rome’s judges had proclaimed His innocence. However, the clamor of the multitudes grew.

Jesus’ fourth defense came again from Pilate’s mouth. “What evil has He done?” The conflict escalated as the uproar of the multitude grew stronger, and the governor asked, “Shall I crucify your King?” The crowd’s shouting answer was the lightning bolt that disarmed Pilate’s attempts to forestall. “We have no king but Caesar!” With this word the specter of Tiberius Caesar arose in the depths of the governor’s soul. The monster of Capri, betrayed, consumed with fever, covered with ulcers, contaminated with leprosy, entertained himself with atrocities during his final days. To betray him was to bring about one’s own destruction—to fall under even the suspicion of infidelity to him was to die. Frightened, the slave of Caesar acquiesced, washing his hands before the people. “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person,” he said, and handed Jesus over to His crucifiers. Behold the proceedings of a court that will not take responsibility for its actions.

From Annas to Herod, the judgment of Christ is a mirror of all the ways in which a judicial system, corrupted by factions, demagogues, and governments, deserts its own. Their weakness, their naiveté, their moral perversion crucified the Savior and continue to crucify Him today, in empires and republics, every time that a court covers the truth with a lie, abdicates responsibility, turns its back on or hides from the truth. Jesus was sacrificed because He was accused of being an agitator and a subversive. Every time that it is deemed necessary to sacrifice a friend of our rights, an advocate of the truth, a defender of the defenseless, an apostle of generosity, a proponent of law, or an educator of the people, this is the order that always rises again to justify the activities of the lukewarm judges whose only interest is power. All believe, like Pontius Pilate, that they will save themselves by washing their hands of the blood that they themselves will spill, of the crime that they will commit. Fear, venality, partisan politics, personal reputation, subservience, a conservative spirit, a closed interpretation, reasons of state, overriding interests—call it what you will—judicial prevarication will not escape being branded.

“For this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

R340—April 2006
Topics: Easter, Jesus, justice.
Excerpted and adapted from Selected Works of Rui Barbosa, Vol. VIII. Copyright ©1957 by Casa de Rui Barbosa, Rio de Janeiro. Translated by John Paul M. Connolly.
Reflections © 2006 The Family International.
Visit our website at www.thefamilyinternational.org.

Patience—Essential to Experiencing God’s Best

November 8, 2024

By Charles Stanley

Patience is a virtue we all respect—that is, until we have to exercise it in our own lives. In this message, Dr. Charles Stanley lays out the truth plainly: Patience is indispensable to our ability to obey God and receive His best for us. It may feel excruciating to wait upon the Lord, but that’s exactly where He said He would renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31). Discover why you can trust God’s perfect timing.

Run time for this video is 37 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD9m9GcUWcI

God’s Amazing Grace

November 7, 2024

Treasures

Audio length: 14:04

Download Audio (12.8MB)

God created human beings in His image with free will and the majesty of choice to choose to love and obey Him as His grateful children. However, the first human beings fell into sin through their choice to disobey God (Genesis 3:1–19). Through this entrance of sin into the world, all people became sinners by nature and separated from God (Romans 5:12–14). But God, in His infinite love and mercy, reconciled humanity to Himself by giving the world His only Son, “so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Anyone who accepts God’s pardon for sin through Jesus Christ is not only forgiven and redeemed, but will live forever in God’s presence.

Salvation is a gift of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness, and can only be attained through belief in Jesus. Once we receive God’s gift of salvation, we have the sure knowledge that after death, we will live forever in heaven. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). We continue to be fallible people in need of God’s forgiveness, but despite our shortcomings and sins, we will never lose our salvation.

According to the Mosaic law (revealed to Moses by God), every one of us is a sinner, because not one of us can keep it. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin” (Romans 3:20). In fact, it is impossible for anyone to live up to the standard set in the laws God gave in the Old Testament.

The law was our guardian or “schoolmaster” to show us that we’re sinners, to bring us to God for mercy, and to show us His absolute perfection and perfect righteousness, which was impossible for us to attain. “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).

The law was a gift to God’s people to learn to walk according to His truth and holiness, and to keep them from the destruction of sin. In Psalms we read, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7–9). By the old law, God taught us that we could never attain to His holiness and perfection. The Old Covenant served its purpose for its time, and has been replaced by “a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22).

When Jesus came to earth, through His life and death He became the mediator of a new covenant of God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, and truth—our salvation by faith in Jesus: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Jesus came and gave His life for us on the cross, and now salvation comes “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” but by His grace and mercy (Titus 3:5).

God’s grace and salvation through faith is the end of the Old Covenant for all who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Paul preached sermon after sermon teaching that the old law was finished for the Christian who is living under God’s grace. “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).

This became a raging controversy in the early church with the “concision,” the converted Jews who said, “We believe in Jesus, but we still have to keep all the old law. We still have to keep the Mosaic laws and rituals under the Old Testament covenant.” (See Galatians 3.) However, according to the New Testament, God’s children today are no longer under the old covenant of the Old Testament with its many ritual and religious laws.

As Paul proclaimed, “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:23–26).

God’s Law of Love

When the religious leaders questioned Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36–39).

He then shocked them by continuing to say, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). “The Law and the Prophets” encompass the entire Old Testament. They had numerous religious and ritual laws, but Jesus said that all the Law as well as all the Prophets depend on this one law—love of God and love of neighbor. In other words, if you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and you love others as you love yourself, you will fulfill God’s law.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). As the sinless son of God, Jesus fulfilled the commandments and requirements of the law. And by fulfilling it, He ended it for all who believe in Him and accept His sacrifice on the cross for their sin. Therefore all who receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior are no longer required to keep the laws of the Old Testament. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).

When the religious leaders of Jesus’ day questioned why He was eating with sinners, Jesus replied, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). In other words, God’s idea of righteousness is not about earning merit with God through dutiful keeping of the law. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection we are freed from the bondage of sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1–2).

Jesus told His disciples in John 13: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). In His famous “golden rule,” Jesus taught: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). The apostle Paul echoed this principle when he wrote: “The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14).

What about the Ten Commandments?

In the Gospels, Jesus reaffirmed many of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20:1–17, which contained the moral code of God’s law. For example, when a rich young ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life,” Jesus repeated many of the Ten Commandments to the rich young ruler. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:17–19). Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament in numerous places. The only commandment not repeated in the New Testament is the fourth one regarding keeping the Sabbath.

Loving God first and foremost and loving others will result in the ultimate fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. If we as Christians love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, we will naturally fulfill the spirit and intent of all the other laws. For example, we won’t put other gods before Him or take His name in vain. To love our neighbors as ourselves precludes murder, stealing, slander, or coveting what others have.

The motivation for us—as Christians—to obey these commandments is because we are compelled by our love for God and others to be examples of His love and kindness to our neighbors (2 Corinthians 5:14). We refrain from activities forbidden by the Ten Commandments because they would not be in accordance with our love for God and others.

In many ways, the new covenant Jesus ushered in requires a stricter code of conduct than the old one under the Mosaic law. The Ten Commandments required that people act justly and refrain from activities that would dishonor God or harm others, but under the new covenant, much more is required of us—sacrificial love and mercy. We are to “owe no one anything, but to love one another: for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well” (James 2:8).

Through Jesus’ fulfillment of the old law, we are no longer bound by it and have been granted grace and freedom. But God’s Law of Love is the most binding law of all and can be much more difficult to keep—in fact, it is humanly impossible. That’s why He taught that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5). But the Bible also teaches that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Philippians 4:13). For “His grace is sufficient for us; His strength is made perfect in our weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

You can’t possibly keep Jesus’ commands unless you have accepted Him as your Savior and God’s Spirit dwells within you, to give you the power and the strength to love others as you love yourself, and to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

As Christians, we have received eternal salvation and a life filled with God’s love—full of grace. It has nothing to do with our own sinlessness or any kind of perfection or works or law-keeping of our own. We all make mistakes and fail, we all sin, and any righteousness we have is only the grace of God. But we have been freed from the bondage and condemnation of sin by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Jesus “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). It was on the cross, at the very end of His ministry on earth, that He proclaimed, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

God’s Law of Love as explained in Matthew 22:35–40 should govern every aspect of a Christian’s life and interactions with others. The biblical passages “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” express the heart and soul of God’s laws and should guide all our actions and interaction with others. As Christians, our actions should be motivated by unselfish, sacrificial love—the love of God for our fellow man.

From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished November 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

Chapter 09 – The Stand of Faith (part 1)

The Promises of God are Streams that Never Run Dry

Virginia Brandt Berg

1970-01-02

I well remember a time in my own life when I had prayed, ceaselessly it seemed, and in fact had done almost everything else that I knew to do, and yet the heavens seemed blank, the Lord seemed deaf; there was no answer to my prayer. I had come to the end of myself and could do nothing more. But why did not God answer? I took my Bible and turning the pages I prayed earnestly, when my eyes fell on these very words, “Having done all, stand” (Ephesians 6:13). Immediately I saw the truth. I had been asking and asking of the Lord but there had been no receiving on my part, and I said to myself, “Why, here I have been virtually blaming the Lord for not answering my prayer when I have not been doing my part at all, though I felt I had done everything I could think of. I will do what this verse of scripture says, that is, “Having done all, to stand.” Immediately upon this determination the following words formed themselves in my mind. Though I had never thought of them before, they seemed to come from out my very heart, sentence after sentence until each verse took shape:

I take the stand, I count it done,
God answers through His precious Son.
It is His Word, it cannot fail,
Though all the powers of Hell assail.
So come what may, the promise mine.
I’ll hold it to the end of time.

I take the stand, I count it done,
God answers through His precious Son.
He’s never failed, oh, praise His Name;
For Jesus Christ is just the same.
So live or die, or sink or swim,
Through every test I’ll trust in Him.

I believed that the Lord had heard me, that His Word could not fail and that what I was asking was absolutely within His will. So I began to praise and thank Him that the answer was on the way. “And having done all” I stood my ground with real expectancy of seeing soon the complete realization. Within six hours the prayer was definitely answered, but I could not praise Him any more than I had when I took the “stand of faith” upon His Word, for so deep had been my assurance and so keen my expectation that it was already mine by faith—”the evidence of things not seen.” I know how deep-seated the natural desire to have some visible evidence that our petition is granted, but to have any other evidence than God’s Word is not faith. God says so, and that’s enough. The man or woman who walks by faith needs no other evidence than that. We shall see because we have believed, not believe because we have seen. David says in Psalm 27:13, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” You will note that he had not yet seen the answer, but “he believed to see.”

It is during this period when we are “believing to see,” (after we have taken the stand of faith, yet we have not seen the full realization) that there comes the test period. You remember that Daniel went through this trying time and how the Lord spoke these words unto him: “From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard”; yet God’s Word teaches that there was a delay of three weeks before Daniel really received the answer, though the scripture says he was heard from the very first day. What sweet comfort there is in this story for we can say to our own hearts right now, “From the first day that you prayed He heard you.”

The answer’s coming,
Never fear,
The answer’s coming,
It’s almost here.
Keep on believing
Just trust and obey,
The answer’s coming,
It’s on the way.

—Phil Kerr

I would like to add one more verse of scripture at this point. This is one of the sweetest faith verses in God’s Word; “They that believe have entered into rest.”

It would really be amusing at times if it were not so serious how very difficult it is for people to grasp this simple principle of faith that can secure them so many blessings and definite answers to prayer. Difficult perhaps, because so simple.

Countless times I have prayed with people claiming some precious promise from His Word and feeling that everything was right, and within His will, and that we might really praise Him for the answer; but upon arising from my knees, I would find to my amazement that the one I had been praying with was not believing at all, but simply hoping that the Lord had somehow heard. Then over and over again I’ve said, “Why your part is to believe that you receive; only believe, Sister, only believe.” And they would repeat the words after me, but I knew from the expression of their face that they were not believing for that moment, but hoping in an indefinite sort of way for some future evidence that God had heard that prayer. And sometimes months and even years afterwards they have come excited as a child, faces all aglow, jubilant in spirit, as if they had just made a brand new discovery, of which no one had ever told them a thing. “Why, Sister, the Lord has just revealed to me the most wonderful thing—I am just to believe that I have received, just as Mark 11:24 says, ‘when you pray, believe that you receive and you shall have.’ Oh, it’s so wonderful to find that all I have to do is just believe.” Somewhat wearily one has to answer, “That is just what I have been trying to tell you for two years”; and I have had them look back at me rather surprised and say: “Oh, is that what you were trying to explain to me?”

So after all God’s spirit must enlighten the heart to understand this great principle of faith. Ask him and He will “Do exceedingly abundantly, above all you ask or think.”

The stand of faith is described in Ephesians 6:13, which says, “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand,” and then it describes very fully, just what we shall do when we want something from the Lord, in other words, “how to get things from God.”

Let us take up this armour piece by piece and put it on ready to go out and face the enemy, who of course will fight us every inch of the way in his effort to keep us from getting things from God. He is an enemy so strong that no natural strength can combat his onslaughts. Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

But with this armour that the Lord gives us, we are perfectly equipped to stand against fiercest attacks.

First we will note He says: “Take unto you the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:13). We do not have to make this armour; God has done that. We have only to take it. The scripture says for us to take it for our use “in the evil day”; that is, the day of Satan’s special assaults, which may come at any moment, the war being perpetual. Then “having done all, stand.” Standing means to maintain our ground, not yielding nor fleeing. (We have already explained this in detail.)

“Having your loins girt about with truth.” that is with sincerity. Truth is the band that girds up and keeps together the flowing robes, so that the Christian soldier may not be encumbered for action. Sincerity is absolutely necessary in the stand of faith, for we are dealing personally with the Lord Himself and any shams or subterfuges will be checked by the Spirit of God immediately.

“And having on the breastplate of righteousness.” It is of course understood in getting things from God, that the heart must be right; any unconfessed sin in the life will hinder faith. Anything unyielded to God will come up before you and accuse you mightily in some time of testing. Do not let this discourage you, because God does not ask for perfection. He only asks that we put our will over on His side, that with all our hearts we are trying the very best we know how. Here is where so many stumble and say, “Oh, I am not good enough. Others may be worthy, but I am not.” And yet in their hearts, there is the deep desire to do right and the great longing to please the Lord. This is all that He asks; a perfect yieldedness, an entire surrender, that everything should be on the altar, and He will do the rest.

“And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” This refers to the military shoes used by soldiers of that day and is significant of preparedness, readiness for the march. The Christian soldier should be ready at any minute to do and suffer all that God wills.

“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Now God’s Word says, “Faith is evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. Faith is that attitude of heart that calls the things that are not as though they are, as in Romans 4:17 the Word says, “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” If we are asking God to let us see before we believe, this is not faith, but unbelief.

You say this is a strange teaching, but we know there’s not a business in the world that’s not based on this very principle of faith. But the natural man’s attitude towards God is such that while he will take man’s word, he refuses to believe God’s in the same way. “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, “the natural man is at enmity towards God.”

Why is it that we thank a man who makes us a promise, just as soon as he makes it, before there is the slightest evidence that he will keep it? But we are not willing to thank God on His promise long before we see it. This has been called the reckonings of faith. This is dead reckoning on the Word of God. One great Bible teacher wonderfully describes this in the illustration of the mariner, who gets his bearings when the sun is shining and all is well; then, when the storm in the night comes and he can no longer sail by sight, nor does he have the opportunity of getting his bearings again, he sails by what is called dead reckoning; utterly dependent upon the “reckonings” he secured when the sun shone.

Just so the one who is getting something from God takes a promise from His Word, stands upon it, and from that moment fully reckons upon it, no matter what happens after he claims the promise and though he may not be able to see a foot ahead of him, yet he sails by dead reckoning. He says, “Back there I claimed that promise from the Lord and I am still standing upon it, no matter if I sail in perfect darkness.” Then according to Romans 4:20 we will be “fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able to perform.” Then we do not look around at the waves, the fog, or the storm—the circumstances—we keep our eyes simply on that promise of scripture, as someone has rightfully said, “For every look at your trouble, take a hundred looks at the promise of God.” This will look foolish sometimes to you and to others, but you can afford to look foolish to uphold God’s Word, for you only honor God when you believe His Word against all feelings, circumstances, and conditions.

Faith is not some great thing, not some glorious feeling, some wonderful sensation, as many think, but simply taking God at his word. Faith says amen to everything God says. Faith is utter dependence upon the veracity of another. You tell a man you have no faith in him and you cannot do business with him. Just so God’s Word says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Hard times were caused by the loss of confidence on the part of men, and so there are “hard times” in the life of faith, when a man or woman loses the least confidence in the Word of God. In Hebrews 11:1 the Scripture says, “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Just as your physical hand reaches out and takes hold of something, so faith is the spiritual hand that reaches out and takes hold of promises of God and appropriates them.

Now God has given us five senses: feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling. When we taste something that is sweet we have the evidence that it is so, because our taste has given us this evidence. No matter what any one else says we know it’s sweet, because we have evidence. This same application can be worked out with the other senses.

Now in spiritual life God gives us faith to witness to us of spiritual things, just as our five senses bring us the evidence of temporal things. We accept what our five senses tell us. Why do we not accept faith as the evidence, for it will bring to pass, and absolutely make real to us, all that we take by faith. Matthew 8:13: “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” Just as our taste is the evidence that the thing we partook was sweet, so our faith is the evidence that we have the thing we have asked. Faith is not an uncertain sort of thing, but is a principle which operates in the spiritual world as surely as the unseen principle of force does in the material world.

In the social world, that is the human sphere, faith is a principle that binds families together and cements friendships. It is the very foundation stone of commercial confidence and business transactions between men. Why is it thought strange then that this same principle should be applied in the spiritual kingdom? For just as an unseen force of attraction holds the material world together, and an unseen principle holds the social and financial world together, just so an unseen law of faith is the underlying force which holds the spiritual world together. It is the mightiest force in the spiritual world, the active creative force, which produces effects and brings things to pass. Just because faith in God’s promises is not in the natural realm, it is none the less a real active force in the universe.

Faith is practical. The law of faith is just as real as any other of God’s laws. And so God says, “The just shall walk by faith”; “without faith it is impossible to please God”; “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even your faith.” And then He gives a very simple clear definition of faith, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” But let us now continue putting the rest of our armour on. (to be continued)

Chapter 09 – The Stand of Faith (part 2)

The Promises of God are Streams that Never Run Dry

Virginia Brandt Berg

1970-01-02

“And take the helmet of salvation.” The head of the soldier was among the principal parts to be defended, as on it the deadliest strokes might fall, and it is the head that commands the whole body. The head is the seat of the mind, which when it has laid hold of the sure gospel hope of eternal life, will not receive false doctrine, nor give way to Satan’s temptations to despair. The helmet is subjoined to the shield of faith, as being its inseparable accompaniment.

“And the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.” It is absolutely necessary when we are asking God for something, that we have the authority of His Word upon which to stand. We must get hold of His promises, not only commit them to memory, but get them deep down into our hearts, ingrained into our beings. We must find the authority in God’s Word, and then faith will come of itself. God’s Words says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the Word of God.” you can never have faith for anything if you are not sure God has given you authority to ask for it. If you really believe the scripture means, “Whatsoever things you desire,” then you will have faith for “whatsoever things.”

It would be impossible to stress too much the committing to memory of some of the outstanding promises. Here are a few that have been standbys of many faith warriors for years: Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”; Mark 9:23, “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”; 1 John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us”; 1 John.5:15, “and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him”; Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knoweth not.”

You may not be able to commit a great many promises, but even one or two will so strengthen your faith in time of need that you will wonder how you ever got along without knowing them before.

Works in Progress

November 5, 2024

A compilation

Audio length: 12:23

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Becoming like Christ is a long, slow process of growth. Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life. Referring to this process, Paul said, “This will continue until we are … mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him” (Ephesians 4:13).

You are a work in progress. Your spiritual transformation in developing the character of Jesus will take the rest of your life, and even then it won’t be completed here on Earth. It will only be finished when you get to Heaven or when Jesus returns.

At that point, whatever unfinished work on your character is left will be wrapped up. The Bible says that when we are finally able to see Jesus perfectly, we will become perfectly like him: “We can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2).

Much confusion in the Christian life comes from ignoring the simple truth that God is far more interested in building your character than he is anything else. We worry when God seems silent on specific issues such as “What career should I choose?” The truth is, there are many different careers that could be in God’s will for your life. What God cares about most is that whatever you do, you do it in a Christlike manner (1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Corinthians 16:14; Colossians 3:17, 23).

God is far more interested in who you are than what you do. We are human beings, not human doings. God is much more concerned about your character than your career, because you will take your character into eternity but not your career.

The Bible warns, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. … Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (Romans 12:2).

You must make a counterculture decision to focus on becoming more like Jesus. Otherwise, other forces like peers, parents, coworkers, and culture will try to mold you into their image. Sadly, a quick review of many popular Christian books reveals that many believers have abandoned living for God’s great purposes and have instead settled for personal fulfillment and emotional stability. That is narcissism, not discipleship.

Jesus did not die on the cross just so we could live comfortable, well-adjusted lives. His purpose is far deeper: He wants to make us like himself before he takes us to Heaven. This is our greatest privilege, our immediate responsibility, and our ultimate destiny.—Rick Warren¹

Recovering sinners

Dallas Willard used to say that we should begin church services like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings: “Hi, my name is Cameron McAllister, and I’m a recovering sinner.” Let’s revisit the apostle Paul, this time in his letter to the Philippians. Consider these words:

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you” (Philippians 3:12–15). …

When we think of transformation in the lives of Christians, we need to think in present-tense terms. Every Christian, like Paul, is a work in progress—a person “being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Moreover, different Christians are at different stages of the journey, displaying varying levels of spiritual maturity. To be sure, this state of affairs can be surreal. Some old people are spiritual infants; some young people are spiritual grown-ups; some giants are spiritual shrimps, and some shrimps are spiritual giants. This is part of what Christ is getting at when He says that the first shall be last and the last shall be first…

According to Scripture, the problems dogging humanity are more severe than poverty and ignorance, as serious as those are. Sadly, a sterling education doesn’t guarantee moral behavior any more than a big bank account does. Even with the best of resources and in the best of circumstances, we still do ourselves and others harm. To use scriptural language, we are fallen. We are sinners.

Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission. In all of human history, His is the one perfect life, the shining example, and the beacon of hope for us all. He alone can address what we are and point us to what He would have us become. True Christians are the ones who have made Jesus their Master and who stagger forward on the road to becoming like Him, picking up many scrapes and bruises on the way. They aren’t perfect, but their Master is, and He’s the reason they keep pressing stubbornly forward, even if they have to limp.—Cameron McAllister²

God’s unfinished business

In a way, we are all unfinished business, as far as God’s concerned. He’s started a lot of “projects” that are well begun, even perfect in their own right, but not complete. The Master never stops work on His creation—the molding, the shaping, the chiseling, the polishing are all meant to help us make progress and bring us closer to Him.

We can lean into God’s work in our lives by intentionally seeking to grow in our relationship with our heavenly Father. We can do this by involving God in our decision-making and applying the spiritual principles in His Word to our decisions (James 1:5). We can seek to learn through the things we experience in life and remind ourselves in the hard times that we grow spiritually when our faith is tested and we see that God is the ultimate solution to life’s problems. “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2–3).

We can recognize and work on weak areas. We all have room for improvement. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It’s not too hard to accept in a general way that we are imperfect. It gets harder when we get specific about our mistakes or weaknesses. It’s humbling to acknowledge where we fall short, even if only to ourselves and God. But doing so helps us to make spiritual progress. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).

We can focus on giving of ourselves to others. As we forget ourselves and focus on meeting the needs of others and bringing them the gospel, we become conduits of God’s love to those people. And as we pour out, God’s Spirit works in and through us. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).—Alex Peterson

Prayer for progress

When we first received the good news of the gospel, we became God’s handiwork, newly created in Christ for good works (Ephesians 2:10). Emphasizing the newness that has already come to us, Paul can write in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” Yet, earlier in the same letter, Paul writes, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed [present tense] day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

So what is it? Are we already renewed? Or are we in the process of being renewed? The biblical answer is “Both.” This answer is based on the eschatological dimension of our lives in Christ, the “already and not yet” reality in which we live. When we became Christians, we were already made new by God’s power through the Word and Spirit. Yet that newness isn’t complete yet.

Our lives in Christ are a long process of ongoing renewal through the Word and Spirit as we live in communion with the Triune God and God’s people. In Ephesians 4:23 [“to be renewed in the spirit of your mind”], the present tense of “to be made new” reminds us of this fact. As you look at your life today, you should be able to see ways in which God has already renewed you. And I expect you can also identify ways still in need of renovation because you are God’s work in progress. …

Prayer: Gracious God, thank you for all the ways you have begun to make me new inside. I’m sure I can’t even count half of them. Yet, how grateful I am for what I can see. Thank you! Still, Lord, I know that I am a work in progress. Yes, you will bring this work to completion one day. But, for now, I am still being formed and reformed by you. Thank you. And may this continue to happen as I open my whole life to you. Amen.—Mark Roberts³

Published on Anchor November 2024. Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by John Listen.

¹ https://www.danielplan.com/you-are-a-work-in-progress

² https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/why-go-to-church-its-just-full-of-hypocrites

³ https://depree.org/you-are-a-work-in-progress

In the Garden of Affliction

November 4, 2024

Words from Jesus

Audio length: 10:46

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But we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.—Romans 5:3–5

My children often tend to see the time they spend in the garden of affliction as a time of languishing and sorrow, a place where they fear to tread. The ground seems harsh and rocky, the outlook grim. But I know the breadth, depth, and height of this garden, and I am with you in this place. I know its every corner and I understand your every suffering and difficulty.

This time in the garden may appear to be shrouded in darkness, but wonderful grace can grow from affliction—greater compassion for others, and tenderness, sympathy, and longsuffering. The times of affliction and the things you suffer on Earth work to prepare your spirit and character, both for the present life and for the next life.

Trust Me and pray fervently that My purposes will be established in your heart and spirit through every time of trouble. Through all that you experience in this life, because you love Me and trust Me, you grow spiritually, and you gain eternal benefits and rewards. Nothing is wasted; nothing is in vain. Every experience can benefit your spiritual growth and can serve to draw you closer to Me if you will allow it.

I know that when you are going through trying times, it can be difficult to endure. But if you let Me comfort you, you will find rest in the assurance that things won’t always be like that. The cross to bear is heavy for those who are afflicted, but with it come blessings and My grace.

Why afflictions

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.—James 1:2–4

There are many reasons why you experience afflictions and times of testing in this life. There are many lessons and blessings you can receive through them. Seek Me when you face a time of affliction to understand what you can learn through it, what you can do to rise above it, and how you can grow through it.

Sometimes the cause of your affliction might be physical—something in your diet or health that you need to pay attention to or change. Sometimes you might need a time of rest—either physically, spiritually, or both. As your body ages, you often face new afflictions or physical weakness, and you have to make adjustments for that stage of life.

Sometimes there’s something out of alignment in your life that needs to be corrected or adjusted, and this time of affliction draws you close to Me, as you remain under the shelter of My wings and in communion with Me. Sometimes I allow a minor affliction in your life so that you will be moved to pray for those who are desperate for your prayers for their much larger afflictions.

Sometimes affliction serves to humble you and draw you closer to Me. It can help you to gain more compassion, understanding, or brokenness for others. Sometimes times of affliction give you a break from your normal routine—a chance to step back and see things from a different perspective.

No matter what you are facing, bring your every care and anxiety to Me, and I will give you comfort and faith (1 Peter 5:7). My promises in My Word will remind and encourage you that by faith you can rise above and rest in Me, and receive spiritual treasures from every experience. There is always good that I want to bring out of everything you go through in life, which you can keep and treasure.

In every situation, as you come to Me and seek Me, whether you are healed quickly or the affliction lingers, I will give you My grace and strength for times of trouble. My hope, peace, and promise of blessing will be with you through your time of affliction. I will give you My comfort and the joy of My presence, as you take time for prayer for others, or for praise and thankfulness for the many blessings I give you.

When you face long-term battles with affliction, continue to come to Me and hold on to My Word and promises. Tell Me your fears, and let Me wipe away every trace of fear or anxiety. I know it’s difficult to go through these times of afflictions, and I feel your pain and weep with you.

In your weakness and brokenness, you are truly a testimony of faith and perseverance. Others who see how weak, afflicted, and even discouraged you are at times, also see how you continue to trust in Me, praise Me, and how when it seems you can’t walk one more step, I give you the strength to continue to put all your hope in Me.

Strength in weakness

And then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.—2 Corinthians 12:9

Through all that you suffer, you can learn to manifest understanding and compassion for others who suffer. When you’re battling an affliction and turn to Me for help in prayer, you can also say a prayer for others. Pray for those with critical life-and-death conditions, and for the health and well-being of others. And as you pray for these and thank Me for other afflictions that I have healed you from, you’ll see that the burden of your affliction will be easier to bear.

Don’t give in to despair or fear with every new affliction you face, but thank Me for the good health you do have. Seek Me in prayer and remember that I will never let you suffer more than you are able to bear, and will always bring My promised deliverance (1 Corinthians 10:13). I see your silent tears, and I feel the intensity of your pain. I see the times that you praise Me even in the midst of affliction, as you smile, you walk in faith, trusting in Me and My will in your life. For this you will be blessed.

Come to Me and spend time with Me to be renewed and strengthened, for when you are weak, I am strong, and I can renew your strength so that in spirit you will mount up with wings of the eagle and run and not be weary, and walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). My grace is sufficient for you, and My presence will always be with you. So take comfort in My Word and promises, for I will never fail to help you and comfort you. Take these quiet moments in My arms and be refreshed.

This time of affliction and suffering is not worthy of comparing with the glory that will be revealed in you (Romans 8:18). So come to Me in your time of sickness and seek Me fervently, and allow Me to manifest My power through your weakness. Lean fully on Me, keeping your eyes fixed on Me and the eternal joy that awaits you (Hebrews 12:2). One day you will see that this time that has been so difficult to bear and to understand will reap eternal rewards and blessings.

Originally published March 2001. Adapted and republished November 2024. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. Music by Michael Dooley.

The Good News in a Culture of Consumerism

A compilation

2021-10-26

In a very perceptive book called Life: The Movie, author Neal Gabler argues that entertainment has conquered reality. All of life has become a stage, and the way to success is through the pathway of becoming a celebrity. Gabler suggests that we spend our lives buying and shopping according to images and ideals that we hold as we seek to shape ourselves for our own performance.

The constant use of significant celebrities to model lines of clothing, sporting goods, and cosmetics tell us subtly that if we own these items, we too can be like our heroes. We are strategically convinced that we don’t simply have to watch the rich and famous; we can become them. The democratization of credit and the availability of easily-accessed goods guarantee our ability to play the part or parts we choose.

The practical aids are many. Credit and finance options bluntly inquire, “Why wait?” In earlier times people had to consider whether they could afford such things, and they might have had to delay while they saved. The time between viewing and having was often considerable, but not anymore. The messages are clear that we can have it if we want it, and we can have it now. It comes, of course, with a huge price tag in terms of increasing debt and anxiety. …

Is the bottom line to make money at all costs? Is happiness really being able to get what you want when you want it? Maybe it is time to recognize that life is far more than these trivial yet powerful views. Maybe it is time to call foul, to insist that real life is something far more nuanced, focused, and holistic than what the prophets of materialism have to offer.

The Christian view and alternative is that we are the products of a personal, loving Creator, and that our lives, opportunities, and resources are gifts to us. We interact with nature and the material world, we see God within it, but we also have other dimensions to our nature. The psalmist explains it in a way that much of the world rejects: The earth is filled with the glory of God. Because we have been made by God and for God, our ultimate glory—our claim to fame—is found in God.

The pretensions of the world are many, the seductions vast, and the attractions powerful. Yet in a world of invasive desires, intrusive demands, and restless indulgence, another voice can be heard: “Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The answer is not in a product but in a living Person.—Stuart McAllister

Relaying the message in contemporary culture

As Christians we face the task of delivering the good news, the Gospel, God’s message of love and salvation, to the world of today. In order to do so in a relatable fashion, it’s important to understand the fundamental changes that have occurred in society, affecting many people’s worldview, values, and perception of Christianity. Recognizing that these changes run deep and bring with them fears and insecurities, as well as skepticism, can help us to better convey the message in a manner that relates to those we are commissioned to reach.

We know that the Gospel is a message for today’s world, but finding the manner to reach those who have not yet been attracted to the message, or who have been put off by it for one reason or another, is an ever-increasing challenge. The modern world has changed incredibly and rapidly within the past thirty years, and it continues to do so. Secularism has heavily permeated spheres of thought and influence with values that promote self-interest and materialism, as well as other values that are incompatible with and ultimately undermine Christian and traditional values.

Meanwhile, certain principles or concepts that have been accepted as bedrock in the West for the past half century are no longer as solid as was supposed. Many people feel insecure about their future. They have much less trust in governmental, religious, and educational institutions, or in the veracity of what they read and hear in the news and media. Even saving money has increased risk, as many financial institutions have failed, and even countries are teetering on the brink of economic collapse.

Today’s cultural, societal, intellectual, secular, and moral environment, fused with widespread questioning, skepticism, and rejection of what have been accepted standards and values for years, has brought about a fundamental shift in many people’s values, ethics, worldview, relationship to authority, and their interactions with other people. For many it’s much more difficult to know what one can place trust in. While for some, conditions of the world and society may draw them to the message of the Gospel, for others the environment of today’s world makes it much more difficult for them to relate to it, much less believe it or receive it.

This presents those of us who are committed to sharing the Gospel with numerous challenges, not least of which is that we are called to bring a message about a man who lived and died and was resurrected 2,000 years ago—with the claim that this is the most important message they will ever encounter. It is therefore vital for the mission-minded Christian to find new and creative ways to express and deliver the timeless message of the love of God in a manner that speaks to the people of today’s world. No doubt Christians of the past have had challenges in their time periods as well, but today’s world is our challenge.

We are faced with the challenge of how we present Jesus in a manner that resonates with those we interact with, especially when, in the West at least, many non-Christians hold values which cause Christianity to be seen as irrelevant to their lives and worldview. In many countries, it can sometimes be difficult to bring up the topic of God, let alone Jesus, because widespread secularism and materialism have replaced belief in God and made Him irrelevant to their belief system.

Many people today are wary of the messages they hear, and why wouldn’t they be? Every day on the Internet, on television, in the news, in advertisements, they are bombarded with messages that they need this, that, and the other, that this is the right way to think, the right position to take. To them the message of the Gospel might seem like another advertisement telling them what they need, how to live, what will make them happy. People are often not inclined to trust such messages, because their experience is that many messages contain little or no validity. People are searching for answers, but many are cautious regarding where they place their trust.

To be effective in making the Gospel known to people, it is necessary to relate to them. To reach the people in your city or your country, or those you work with in your job, or your neighbors and acquaintances, you need to understand them, their culture, what they value.

Each person in every country or culture deserves and needs to hear the Gospel. As Christians, we are commissioned to bring it to those in the country, culture, and community in which we live, in a manner which they can most easily relate to and understand and accept.—Peter Amsterdam

Countering the gospel of consumerism

The gospel of consumerism has three core tenets: (1) we are created to be individual consumers; (2) we are meant to be passive; (3) our sole duty is to consume more.

The first tenet relates to our identity: who we are and how we see ourselves. The second tenet relates to our agency: how empowered we are to effect change and engage the world around us. The third tenet relates to our purpose: what is our reason for being and our way of life? The gospel of consumerism infiltrates every part of our personhood and runs counter to … the God revealed in Scripture.

God is not a consumer. God is a creator. Being created in the image of God means we are made to create too. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”—Reesheda Graham-Washington and Shawn Casselberry¹

Shaped for a greater purpose

Jesus spoke often about the challenge of materialism. Sure, there weren’t all the advertisements, brands, cosmetics and fashion magazines, but he did explain in Luke 12 how things have a way of taking hold of our hearts and becoming our master. He did talk about how we can so easily give our heart to the wrong grid, define ourselves by our “treasure,” and end up serving money.

Paul writes in Romans 12 that we get “conformed to the patterns of this world” without even thinking. Paul wasn’t writing about consumerism as such, but he was talking about how the dominant values of the empire have a way of moulding who we are. Consumerism, as an advanced cultural expression of materialism, is just a modern institutionalised expression of the same selfishness that has always been the problem. As Christians, we are called to live with a different hope and desire and remember that we are shaped for a greater purpose. …

The biblical story of Daniel highlights how we can live, and even thrive, in Babylon—an empire that symbolises false worship. Daniel purposed in his heart that he belonged to a more significant empire. He prayed with and sought support from friends with similar values. He recalibrated around God’s purpose for him often (at least formally three times a day) and remembered that everything, including his intellect and ability to interpret dreams, was from God and that only God was worthy of ultimate glory. …

As Christians we are called to give our life to a different story. Rather than conformed, we are to be transformed.² We will consume, but with different glasses on. We will find our hope, desire, and identity in Jesus and ironically find our life by giving it away—shifting from our agenda to serving God’s. We will value people, take time to grow, serve, share, and worship in ways that resist commodification. We will live to God’s glory in a world that focuses on self. This is the starting point of a significant life that matters for now and eternity.—Brendan Pratt³

Published on Anchor October 2021. Read by Simon Peterson.

¹ https://outreachmagazine.com/resources/books/compassion-and-justice-books/30710-countering-gospel-consumerism.html.

² Romans 12:1–3.

³ https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2018/01/12/i-see-i-want-i-take-%25E2%2580%2593-materialism-consumerism-god-and-discipleship.

Virtues for Christ-Followers: Faithfulness

By Peter Amsterdam

October 15, 2024

The seventh virtue in our list is faithfulness. Much is written throughout both the Old and New Testaments about faithfulness. In biblical terms, faithfulness expresses the concept of being reliable, steadfast, and unwavering.

Throughout Scripture, God is spoken of as being faithful. When God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, He declared: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.^”¹ He is described as “a God of faithfulness^,”² and in the Psalms, we read that “the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.^”³

God is faithful, unwavering in His promises and His love for us. Even if we weaken or lose faith, “He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.^”⁴

In the context of cultivating the virtue of faithfulness in our lives, faithfulness means being true to our commitment to live in accordance with God’s Word, to put Him first, and not give anything else priority over our commitment to Him. This concept is expressed in the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”⁵ The commitment for us, as Christians, is to be faithful to God by giving Him our primary allegiance, our love and dedication.

Faithfulness also means being trustworthy. When you give your word, you keep it. You fulfill your obligations. Someone who is faithful, who keeps their word, who acts honorably, will do so no matter what the situation.

As Christians, we are called to be faithful, honorable, trustworthy, and reliable in our speech and our interactions with others. In so doing, we reflect the Lord to others. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.^”⁶

The following articles provide helpful encouragement on how we can grow in faithfulness and manifest this fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The One-Day-at-a-Time Fruit

Faithful people are dependable and true. They’re faithful to God, faithful to the work He has called them to, whatever that may be, and faithful to keep their word and fulfill their obligations to others. All of these things are part of their Christian duty.

Faithful people are that way because they are full of faith. Their faith is what gives them the strength to be responsible. They’re full of God’s Word, which is the source of faith,⁷ so it comes naturally for them to do what it says. Theirs is a living faith, and it shows.⁸ Faithful people keep going through thick and thin because they know Him in whom they believe and are persuaded that He will work everything out for their good in the end.⁹

How can you remain faithful? Stay close to Jesus. If you strengthen your faith through reading God’s Word and do your best to be faithful today, you’ll stay faithful, and that will be a testimony to others.—Rafael Holding ¹⁰

What does faithfulness look like?

When a person walks consistently with God, in humble service to Him, he or she can be called “faithful.” When Nehemiah had to leave Jerusalem to return to Persia, he put Hanani and Hananiah in charge. The reason for his choice of these men was that they were “more faithful and God-fearing … than many” (Nehemiah 7:2 ESV). Nehemiah needed men of character whom he could trust. Men who would not take bribes, who were committed to the welfare of the people, and who would uphold the integrity of the office.

Notice, also, that faithfulness is associated with fearing God. The better we truly know God, the more we will want to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1). Other examples of faithfulness include Silas (1 Peter 5:8), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), Onesimus (Colossians 4:9), and Moses (Hebrews 3:2). Some of the names included in this “faithful list” are unfamiliar to most people. Not much is known of Tychicus or Epaphras, for example. But faithfulness, even in small matters, is known to God and rewarded in the end (Luke 19:17).—Got Questions ¹¹

Never Give Up

The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is that unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful people keep on keeping on.

Faithful people are determined. Faithful people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Faithful people don’t know how to quit. You know how a little acorn becomes an oak tree? An oak tree is just an acorn that refused to give up…

You are never a failure until you quit, and it’s always too soon to quit. God uses tough times to test your persistence.

When we started Saddleback Church, I thought we’d quickly get into a building. But we went 15 years without one. In the first 13 years of the church, we used 79 different facilities. You know how many times I felt like giving up? Just every Monday morning!…

If you’re going through tough times right now, then this verse is for you: “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17 NLT).

God is more interested in what you’re becoming than what’s happening to you. He often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, and problems in your life to teach you diligence, determination, and character. What about the problems you’re going through right now? They’re a test of your faithfulness. Will you continue to serve God even when life stinks?

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).—Rick Warren ¹²

Choices for Eternity

Here are some ways you can make choices now that will positively impact your eternal destiny:

Be consistent as you serve God, striving to be faithful in little things as well as big things. You don’t have to worry about trying to impress God with huge accomplishments that impress other people. For example, God will smile on you if you diligently change your baby’s diapers day after day. If God has called you to that mundane task and you’re faithful to it, God will be as pleased with you as if you had written a Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Even when no one else notices your service, God does, and He applauds you for it. Doing whatever God wants you to at a particular moment is what’s most important.
Arrange your priorities around loving God and loving the people He has made. If you strive to do that in every situation, every aspect of your life will fall into place in ways that please God.
Realize that you don’t have to wait until you have better circumstances in your life to be faithful to God. If you’re faithful with what you have right now, God will know He can trust you enough to give you more…
Strive to handle every situation with integrity, and fulfill the commitments you have made.
Persevere in your service by spending regular time in prayer with God each day and asking for fresh grace to strengthen you and keep you growing. Don’t ever quit; remember that God has a prize waiting for you in heaven.—Kent Crockett ¹³

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”—1 Corinthians 4:2

Picture yourself standing before God on the day that he rewards believers. You are longing to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but as you glance to your left you notice Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China. To your right stands Corrie ten Boom, the saint who put her life on the line to hide Jews from the Nazis. Somehow, you feel a little small and insignificant.

There’s no need to. God is only looking for you to be faithful in what he’s called you to be and do. No matter if your calling is lofty or lowly, it is faithfulness for which he will commend you on that day when all believers stand before him. That means that your faithfulness may be rewarded by God with as great a glory as that reserved for the Billy Grahams of this world!…

So remember: God requires you to be faithful. That’s enough. That’s everything.—Joni Eareckson Tada ¹⁴

The following anecdotes express touching stories, especially for those of us who are now in our senior years. It is encouraging to see how God continues to use His faithful followers throughout their lives to bring people to Him and to share the good news through words and actions with their neighbors and communities.

Biblical Greatness

I had the great privilege of seeing my grandfather cross the finish line. One moment he was sucking stale air through an oxygen mask; the next moment he was inhaling the glories of heaven.

By worldly standards, my grandpa wasn’t great. He didn’t have a single Facebook friend or Twitter follower. He never wrote a book, never spoke at a conference, never created a viral video. He didn’t have a popular blog.

Despite his lack of public fame, my grandpa was truly great in God’s eyes. That’s the funny thing about true, biblical greatness. Biblical greatness almost never goes viral, because biblical greatness almost always involves doing things no one ever sees.

No one saw my grandpa help his blind neighbor, Homer, pay his bills.

No one saw my grandpa give weekly Bible lessons at Saint Andrews Retirement Home.

No one saw my grandpa take Tom and Tony (older men on welfare) out to get groceries every week.

Every month my grandpa hand-painted approximately thirty birthday cards, which he sent to friends and members of the church. Over the course of his life he painted somewhere around 6,000 cards.

In our celebrity-infatuated culture, my grandpa was the quintessential anti-celebrity. He shopped at Wal-Mart. He once pulled out a rotten tooth with a pair of pliers. He kept score at local church softball games. He was a WWII vet who was most certainly not impressed with himself.

But my grandpa was most certainly great in God’s eyes. Shortly before he took his last breath, I read Matthew 25:20–21 to him: “And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

I wish I could have heard the cheers when Jesus said those words to my grandpa.—Stephen Altrogge ¹⁵

Dr. Charles McCoy was a pastor with seven degrees. His church expected him to retire at 72 and move into a retirement home.

But Dr. McCoy was an explorer at heart. He retired to India. His friends said, “You might die in India.” He replied, “It’s just as close to heaven from there as it is from here.”

He shared Christ before political leaders, educational institutions, large crowds. He planted churches in Calcutta and Hong Kong. At age 86, he died. A friend said, “He had come to the end of his great adventure. … He had been faithful.”

God intends for us to be rivers, fresh and flowing, ever growing, never stagnant. He wants us to press on, to keep the wonder, and to think of our life in Christ as a Great Adventure.—David Jeremiah ¹⁶

One of the great things about being around Christian mission work is associating with people who are more faithful, more committed and more passionate about serving God than you are. They are a “cloud of witnesses,” as Hebrews 12:1 describes the saints of old, who motivate the rest of us to pursue a higher calling.

Anna, a 98-year-old lady in my church, participates in multiple ministries during a typical week. Recently she spoke at a women’s detention facility and 14 inmates gave their lives to Christ. Anna has a great sense of humor, too. No one can top that! But we can listen to her wisdom, learn from her life and follow her example with God’s help.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, faithful is as faithful does.—Erich Bridges ¹⁷

I have never met Mary Ruth, but I’ve received inspiring letters from her. She has known Christ as her Savior for 63 years, and she is investing her life in doing business for Him until He returns. Here is an excerpt from one of her letters:

“Each night before I go to sleep, I say, ‘Good night, Lord Jesus. I love You. I’ll see You in the morning, either here or there (heaven).’ When I awake and see that I am still here, I say, ‘Good morning, Lord. I love You. I see we have another day together.’ Immediately I report for duty and ask Him to let me know, moment by moment, His plans for the day so we can ‘get with it’ together. I aim to help everyone I can to get ready to meet Him.”

Mary Ruth then wrote about recent opportunities she and her brother had to witness to people from other countries, and she said that several had received Christ. “God reached Chinese, Vietnamese, Buddhists, and a Jew—all in 3 days, and I didn’t need a passport, visa, or plane ticket. God brought them to us, and all I had to do was report for duty.”—Joanie Yoder ¹⁸

Prayer for Faithfulness

Dear Heavenly Father, I am humbly reminded of my commitment to You—a commitment that calls for faithfulness in both the calm and the storms of life. I understand that faithfulness is not determined by the absence of storms, but by my unyielding allegiance to You in the midst of those storms.

When the winds blow and the waves rise, when I am tossed to and fro by the challenges of this life, help me to remain steadfast and faithful. I am acutely aware, Lord, that faithfulness during the storm is a testament to my trust in You. It means looking beyond the raging storm, beyond the unsettling waves, and focusing my eyes on You.

I need Your strength, Lord, to remain anchored to You, to hold on to Your promises… Teach me to not only be faithful in the storm but to also find joy in the midst of it. Amen.—ChristiansTT.com ¹⁹

Food for Thought

“Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]” (Hebrews 10:23 AMP).

“I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour.”—Charles Spurgeon

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do and the words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithful or true:
Just what is the Gospel according to you?—Paul Gilbert

(To be continued.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ Exodus 34:6.

² Deuteronomy 32:4.

³ Psalm 117:2.

⁴ 2 Timothy 2:13 NKJV.

⁵ Exodus 20:3–5.

⁶ Proverbs 3:3–4 NIV.

⁷ Romans 10:17.

⁸ James 2:18, 21–26.

⁹ 2 Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:28.

¹⁰ “Faithfulness—the one-day-at-a-time fruit” (adapted), Activated, August 2013, https://activated.org/en/life/the-whole-you/personal-growth/faithfulness-the-one-day-at-a-time-fruit/.

¹¹ https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-faithfulness.html

¹² https://pastorrick.com/its-too-soon-to-quit/