GodSprings - March 31, 2016

Am I Self Reliant or God Reliant?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

A family had put their Grandma on her first plane flight, but she hadn’t been very confident about the experience of leaving the ground on this contraption. When they met her at the airport on her return, one of the family members kidded her by asking, “Well, did the plane hold you up okay?” She grudgingly replied, “Well, yes,” and then quickly added, “But I never did put my full weight down on it!”

Many Christians are like that Grandma. The truth is, they’re being sustained completely by God, but they’re afraid to put their full weight down on Him. As a result, they’re plagued by anxiety and aren’t able to enjoy the flight.

Few of us are strangers to anxiety. It creeps in over big and little things, gnawing away at our insides. Someone graphically described anxiety as “a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained”.

Given the complexities of today’s demanding world, we will inevitably experience times when we are feeling stressed-out. But stress, left untreated, can severely impact our everyday life. Physically, stress can cause fatigue, headaches, upset stomach, and sleeplessness. Mentally, stress can lead to forgetfulness and trouble concentrating. Emotionally, stress can leave us depressed, worried, and filled with anxiety. But before stress wreaks havoc on our body and in our life, remember that the Bible tells us we can exchange our problems for peace, we can trade in our anxiety for assurance, and we can live permanently released from the weight of worry.

God wants us to avoid anxiety at all costs, so much so that we are commanded to be anxious for nothing. If you think you are entitled to stress out about life’s difficulties, think again. “Be anxious for nothing” means we are to be anxious for absolutely nothing! No exceptions, no exemptions, no excuses. We cannot avoid all of life’s difficulties, but we are never to become a victim of anxiety. Anxiety is a sign of distrust in God, and disrupts our communion with Him, leading us to settle when we should be submitting to God.

Stress can cause us to overreact and jump to conclusions instead of waiting for direction. Stress makes us focus on details and fail to see the big picture. And, stress can cause us to be self-reliant when we need to be God-reliant.

What, then, do we need to do to stop a little stress from turning into sin? We pray. Prayer is the path to the peace that God promises. We must remember that prayer is not designed for us to get what we want out of God; prayer is a way for God to get the selfishness out of us.  

Paul is not reducing all of life’s problems to a pocket-sized solution. He is not saying that a prayer a day keeps the problems away. What he is saying is that if stress is building, prayer must be lacking. Prayerlessness is a sign of faithlessness. Anxiety enters our heart when our trust in God leaves our minds. Anxiety grows when we allow our problems to become bigger in our eyes than God is in our lives.

Prayer helps us to refocus and refuel our faith, which results in a divine transfer of the peace of God into our lives. If you do not know how to start praying in stressful times, begin by thanking God. Even in difficult times, we have much to be thankful for.

The next time you feel the pressures of life mounting and stress building, remember: be anxious for nothing and pray about everything for only then will we be God reliant rather than self reliant.

GodSprings - March 30, 2016

Will I Be in Heaven?

If someone dies, will they live again? John 14:14 (NIV)

During an impassioned sermon on death and facing judgment, the visiting evangelist said forcefully, "every member of this church is going to die and face judgment." Early on in the sermon he noticed a gentleman smiling on the front row.

The minister kept pushing his theme, "Every member of this church is going to die." The guy smiled even more while everyone else in the congregation had a very somber look. In an effort to get through to the guy, the preacher repeated it several more times forcefully, "EACH MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO DIE."

Each time the phrase was repeated, the man smiled more. This really got the preacher wound up and he preached even harder. The man still smiled. The preacher finally walked down off the platform to stand just in front of the smiling man and shouted, "I SAID EACH MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO DIE."

At the end of the service the man was smiling from ear to ear. While everyone else was looking pretty grim from the prospect of entering eternity, the man seemed quite happy. After the service the preacher jumped down off the platform and worked through the crowd to find the man. Pulling him aside, the preacher said, "I don't get it. Every time I said, 'Every member of this church is going to die,' you were laughing. I want to know why you did that?"

The man looked the preacher square in the eye and said confidently, "Because, I'm not a member of this church."

One of the Bible's greatest forms of communication is by means of questions. One of the greatest questions is asked in Job 14: 14, "If someone dies, will they live again?" That is a great question because it is a question everyone must answer. Everyone faces the question, and everyone must find an answer to the question, "If a man dies shall he live again?"

Most people do not like to think of their mortality, and they will often go to great lengths to avoid talking about the subject with others. But in two instances the reality of our mortality rises to the surface and forces us to face the dreaded subject: when we attend the funerals of loved ones and when we are personally suffering from a severe sickness. In these times, people who previously avoided pondering the subject are often left to wonder, what will happen to me when I die?

Job was experiencing both of the above conditions in his life. First, Job had to bury his ten children while still grieving their sudden and unexpected deaths. Second, Job had his own illness to deal with, as his physical suffering brought him near the brink of death. Out of his pain and agony, Job cried out to God, asking if life existed after death. We must remember that Job did not have the same revelation we have today. Although he was a man of faith, he did not have all the answers. Although Job would later display a strong faith in the living God and demonstrate a confidence that he would one day see God face-to-face (Job 19:25–26), at this moment, Job was wrestling with the subject of life after death.

During times of grief and pain, hopelessness can cloud your vision and cause you to think that God has forgotten you. Whatever uncertainties Job may have wrestled with regarding life after death, no one needs to wrestle with that kind of uncertainty ever again because Jesus answered the question once and for all by declaring, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). These words are not dead, spoken by a dead God. God is not dead. Jesus rose from the dead and conquered the grave, bringing hope and everlasting life to all who believe in Him.

Life is short, and how much we run, walk, bike, swim, or work out does not matter. We can diet, eat right, or give up fatty foods. These are all good habits for living a healthy life. But in the end, no one can cheat death. No one knows the day or the hour of his or her own death, but one thing we can know for certain. All who have faith in Jesus Christ, all who can say, as Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25), can know that when they die, they will be with God in heaven. Will I Be?

GodSprings - March 26, 2016

Is Cross Story too Simple, too Foolish, too Humbling to Accept?

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV)

Oswald Chambers in one of his devotions on cross said, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.” Why does the cross of Christ cause some to fall to their knees in worship and others to walk away, shaking their heads in defiant disbelief?

Only two ways are appropriate to look at the cross of Christ: either you see the action upon the cross as the greatest miracle ever exhibited by God toward mankind, or you consider the act to be the most absurd claim ever made by mankind about God. The cross of Christ is both repelling and appealing, horrific and holy, ridiculous and reasonable, outrageous and outstanding, and is both foolishness and wisdom.

The answer is found within the message of the cross. In order for us to understand that message, we must first understand what the cross was all about. Crucifixion was a horrific form of capital punishment used by several ancient nations, including the Romans, whereby the convicted criminal would be nailed to a cross to die a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation. Crucifixion was incredibly painful, tremendously humiliating, and consequently was reserved for only the worst criminals.  The thought of God using the cross as the instrument of glory through which He would accomplish His greatest work seemed counterintuitive for most and remains that way even today.

The message of the cross is, at its very core, God’s remedy for humanity’s terminal disease of sin. The cross was God’s plan from before the creation of the world. The cross would be the divine tool through which Jesus, His holy Son, would sacrifice his life in a glorious and victorious demonstration of God’s love and power. God knew he would make a bold invitation that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished through His death on the cross would be given eternal life. Despite God’s clear message of love and mercy, some find the story too simple, too foolish, or too humbling to accept.

The Jews were offended at the message of the cross because they wanted a conquering king, not a suffering Savior. The Greeks were offended at the message of the cross because the plan was not polished with rational philosophical sophistication. Others, however, saw in the message of the cross of Christ the perfect display of God’s love and power, a faultless example of His forgiveness, and a genuine display of God’s genius.

Why the message of the cross of Christ has offended people’s sensibilities throughout history is simple; behind every objection to the message and meaning of the cross is the sin of pride. Always and forever, pride calls the message of the cross foolish. Pride believes that mankind’s way must be the right way, that human reasoning must be higher than God’s reasons, that human intellect must be greater than the infinite mind of an all knowing God. But the message of the cross is central to Christianity, and a dividing line between foolishness and faith.

In message of cross, we must never compromise, water down, or eliminate from what we believe, what we stand for, and what we proclaim. Better to be a fool in the eyes of mankind and be found wise in the eyes of God than be considered wise to mankind and found a fool to God.