Faith - Part 4

Hebrews 12:14 “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

The writer of Hebrews sometimes makes me smile. Through the book, you can tell he has a burning passion and he is trying so hard to plead his case to show the Jews how important it is to get in line and continue the path with God, but through Christianity. At the same time he is talking to the people he knew were in trouble since they had reached a place in their walk with God, they were distressed because of the persecutions they were going through. If you read Hebrews 10:31-39 you will see that he was eager for these people to understand how important it was to continue in the faith. Even though they have started great and suffered a great deal through humiliation (v. 33) to being destitute as they lost their property (v. 34) He was pleading with them to continue because he knew, if we do not continue we forfeit the race.

So, when you read chapter 12 you find that by the time you get to 18-24 he is mainly talking to the Jews on the sideline. He was pleading with them by using imagery and a comparison of the old and new covenant to help them understand that the new covenant was far better than the old.  I chuckled when I read verse 14 because I become conscious that he dropped a bomb on us, yet it is buried in there as if it was an after thought. I felt like he was saying, pursue peace with all men, and remember there is this thing called sanctification without which, even though you have been through all these troubles losing your property, being humiliated, but if you do not go through the process of sanctification, you will not see God. Imagine that you have been through all this with God and lost so much for Him, yet you are finding out that you might not see Him if you do not continue, this is not comforting at all. The writer’s mind was not concerned about being politically correct or making people feel good by minimizing words. There was a danger that they did not seem to be aware of and that was his point.

Even though I chuckled, I do understand where the writer is coming from. There are enough people out there that can write and make you feel loved but you read their posts or their books, you are left with a good feeling, you might even feel it would be nice to follow God, then the feeling subsides. When you love with agape love in your heart, you know the difference when it is time to bring comfort, love and sympathize with people. You know when it's time to be patient with them and you also know when it is time not to mince words but say those words that might be hard to hear, but love them enough to shake them out of their complacency and get them to think twice, and get a move on.

Paul gave us an example of such love and mercy at work when he told the church in 1Corinthians 5 to throw the man who was being immoral, out of the Church. He did it out of love and mercy to save the Church from fraternizing with such individual to avoid the spreading or the acceptance of his sin. Furthermore he did it because he loved this man as well, but since he could not come to his senses and stop sinning, drastic measures had to be taken. How do I know Paul did it out of love and mercy? Well, you just have to read 1Corinthians 5:5

One of the reasons that it is of the outmost importance that someone must love you enough to tell you what you do not want to hear, when your heart is not right with God is because unbelief robs us of this life God wants to share with us. I will share a personal example with you, which I have been dreading but I find some peace in the spirit to share for the good of those reading this post. If one person can be touched by this story than, glory to God. I have someone in my life who is a family member. This person was raised in what you would call a Christian home. Their Christianity was handed down from parents to grandparents. While this person’s life is a disaster when it comes to Christianity, I just want to share one example with you.

Imagine watching this person being livid with their spouse on a Sunday morning and the problem stemmed from not being in control and the manipulation process was not working well enough. When we got to Church we found that it was communion day. The other spouse who is subjected to this person’s whims, decided to try to make peace by holding the control freak spouse’s hand as if to say “ you and I are on the same team, let’s make peace and move on”. I watched this control freak pushing the hand of peace offering away with some sort of repulsion and vengeance. In the meantime, I am trying my best to enjoy the service, almost in vain because the body language of that person sitting next to me was charged with hatred, narcissism, resentment etc. When it came time for communion, people were forming lines to go forward toward the pastors. I saw this person standing up toward the line; I was so sure it was perhaps for my benefit so that I could pass by and join the line up. To my surprise this person was one of the first one to receive communion. I remember sitting there with an expression of shock on my face and I was trying to get my face back to normal before this person comes back, but it was so hard that I felt the need to keep my head down to avoid face to face contact.

The sad thing is this person’s narcissism is coming from one of the long time Christian parent.  The resentful mind, the constant need for a fight, learning not to forgive, keeping bitterness in the heart and learn to live with it decades after decades are all learned from the other parent. So, you can understand why this person felt there was not a problem going forward receiving communion. Every time I am given the opportunity to say something, when I try to open my mouth, I am told I am the one who does not understand salvation. The second reason this family has not bothered with anything else that pertains to the inward work of salvation is because they said God’s word promise to hear when we call Him. The third reason is that God is love so there is nothing to fear because He loves them and always forgive. Believe me I am repeating verbatim what was said to me. Another reason these people feel they must be Christians is because they have status since they were elevated to leadership in the Church, they have years of missions under their belts and they truly sound impressive. Since they are well educated and articulate, people are drawn to them. I just have the pleasure of knowing them in the background.

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Remember these are people who spend great time with God in the morning, and would not dare miss a service on Sunday unless it is warranted.  Keep also in mind that none of these people are what you would call “young” These are people who constantly talk about how they love God. Yet, the word hell has been minimized like crazy based on some pastor’s preaching found somewhere. Certain words have disappeared from their vocabulary like repentance, sanctification and so on, apparently God will honour His word because He cannot lie and He will sanctify them at the right time to take them to Heaven. It does not matter what verse I choose in the Bible it is shut down with these words “God is love and He always forgives and God loves me.” Please keep in mind this is the mildest story that I can share with you. In fact I was talking to a pastor to find out how do I deal with them and how can I help? The pastor answer was “are you sure these people are Christians? I said oh! Yes as sure as I you and I are standing there. Then, the Pastor followed by, “then they need to be exorcised” – I laughed because that’s not what I was expecting. I decided the only remedy left is to keep praying very hard every day.

You know why I shared this story with you? While you might be reading this and said well, these people are blind and you and I are not that bad, but the truth is, we are always one step of becoming one of those sad Christians. I am sure at one point they were not that bad either. But, this is why we ought to heed to God’s word because when we allow unbelief to enter our hearts and we do not deal with it right away, before we know it, we find that it eats us up like a cancer contaminating anything good we had inside of us. When we minimize unbelief and hide behind God’s promises we become infested and it shows up in every choice we make in our Christian walk with God. Furthermore, day after day we are desensitized and become detached from the reality of true Christianity. We blatantly lie to ourselves but we have drifted away so far from the Lord, we cannot hear His voice and Romans 10:17 becomes just a formality. These peoples' faiths are built on human understanding, their own strength, abilities, and intelligence. 

Yesterday I read on Facebook someone said, it is not how you start, but how you finish the race (something to that effect) I smiled when I read it because I know if the Christian life was about how you start, I would have been disqualified right there.  Last night when I was in front of the computer, I stopped to examine my heart with God. You know what? None of us, no matter how far we have walked with God are exempt from being tempted to give in to unbelief. The key is to recognize it, and shut it down as soon as it comes into your life. I have to confess that some days, unbelief is right at my doorstep as I try to come to grips with the fact that God has not made one move that would indicate He intends to replace what I lost as I follow Him. Sometimes I spend a whole morning moping, but, I know I have to get out of it and grab onto the fact that in spite of everything, He always provides for me. It has nothing to do with the way I expect Him to provide, but nevertheless, He provides always the basic and always in the nick of time. So, I learned to get my act together, ask for forgiveness and move on with Him. Does that mean sometimes I fail Him again? Of course I fail Him, but I know it is about a relationship where I have to keep going with one focus in mind which is walking with Him toward that day when He will make me perfect.

Do you know how you know you are in a relationship with Him instead of being someone who only cares about His promises? You will know through the Holy Spirit witnessing to you that you are on the right path, it is actually His job. You will know, because you have given permission to Him to penetrate your soul with His fire of love without an anaesthetic since He wants us conscious when He invades us inside.  You know it, because you are opened to the depth of the reality of this life, and because at any given moment, you are found at His feet (in the spirit) while you say to Him “though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. THAT’S THE WORK OF YOUR SALVATION, AND YOUR FAITH AT WORK! Brother and sisters there is no pause button in this life, we have to keep going forward with Him not our way, but His way.  

Faith - Part 3

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

This morning I was all set to use the post that I have already prepared two days ago which is about how God walked me step by step to understand the faith that is pleasing to Him. But, I have this habit which I hang on to very close to my heart when I am writing a post that I personally feel is a heavy subject.  A heavy subject for me is when you take the stand and you are basically alone in your belief. Times like that, my heart is closer to God for two reasons:

1)    I feel the loneliness of standing for something that I know is true and the only way I will be vindicated is when the world will be no more. So, I need God’s friendship

2)    The other reason is that I would rather die than knowingly or unknowingly lead people in the wrong direction that would lead them to Satan or away from the arms of my Father.

So, I have a habit of going to God even though I already know what the subject should be. I learned to practice this habit a few years back when I learned what David did in 2 Samuel 5 after he was crowned king over all Israel. In verse 17 when the Philistines were at his doorsteps in the valley of Rephaim, instead of going straight out there and fight them, David inquired of the Lord, just in case God had another plan. David did not pray because he was looking for a sign from God, but because of his faith in Him and His relationship with Him.

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So, as I sat there, meditating on His word and His will, my heart was heavy because I would hate to know that I wrote anything that was just my opinion to some extend. I was looking for some bread crumbs from Him just to confirm that I should continue posting or not, then, He met with me. He knew what I was looking for, He reassured me of His will and He said to me. You are not as alone as you think you are and this question of  “fall away” that man is trying to put their own spin on, is right there in the Bible. I said, well I know it is all over the Bible but…. , before I finish my thought He said I am referring to the story of Adam and Eve that is right there in the Bible.  Only then, I realized that I never thought of it this way. Then He said if Adam and Eve had all the privileges they received through me and one of them was to walk with me so closely, yet their lack of belief in me caused them to fall away from grace, why would Christians be exempt?

I am going to say something that will make me sound so stupid, but I have to share it anyway.  Only when I heard God say “their lack of belief in me” I realized I always see Adam and Eve disobedience, but I never focused on what they did as a lack of faith in Him. Yes, I can hear myself saying that, I also realize this is something that even a babe in Christ already knows yet, it totally escaped me. The conversation between God and I went on and on, and I was truly happy and felt free.

Then I sat down while thinking about faith, I came to the conclusion since the word “faith” is about taking God at His word to the point where we can confidently act on what comes out of His mouth, then it all makes sense. What comes out of His mouth is so precious that He promised and warned us that Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words shall not pass away! He also said His word abides forever. God takes what comes out of His mouth seriously. So serious that He tells us that it is a matter of life and death.

Adam and Eve did not keep God’s covenant with them, they questioned His integrity and second guessed His word. Whenever we break God’s covenant with us, we do it because there is unbelief in our heart.  Any time we act contrary to God’s word, we reject Him over and over again. Whenever we act contrary to God’s word, we tell Him we do not believe that He has integrity. Hence the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 11:6 much more than “we must believe” he added onto it that we must diligently or earnestly seek Him. This word means a life purposely lived for Him. This word also involves a deeper commitment with complete awareness of Him. But, Satan fills our mind with unbelief, he keeps us occupied with our shoddy Christianity and tells us that we will be okay. He helps us find joy in saying those verses chapters after chapters when in reality, inwardly, we do not reflect what we profess. While Satan cannot see what is in our hearts, but 99% of the time, Satan finds the foothold that he needs to mess up with us simply because he watches us. He can tell what brings us more pleasure, he can tell where our weaknesses are, and what to use against us to undermine us in our walk of faith with Him.

As God reassured me this morning, when we do not have faith, we reject Him pure and simple and we reject everything He is offering us. We are living in a culture where the emphasis is put on God to keep His word.  If I read one more time that God cannot lie, I will die. Yes, it is good to know we serve a God who cannot lie, but that is not where our problems really lie. People are not interested in telling others that we too, God has given us guidance to follow through His word and we better get in line with His plan. Our culture makes it look like even when we reject Him we will be okay. But it is not biblical at all because the Bible keeps warning us. Without faith it is impossible to please God and God will always test our faith through trials, adversities and pressures of life to give us an opportunity to respond and show that we truly believe beyond our words and beyond our activities.

Faith is the only catalyst that brings us through a life of intimacy with Him. We have something to say about whether we want this life or not. When we decide to go our way while we are paying Him lip service, we force His hand and He cannot do anything else but act according to His nature. How many times God has to explain to us that every time we reject His grace we will lose. Lucifer tried that, as well as Adam & Eve. The stubborn Israelites also learned it the hard way, so why, with all these examples and warnings we still tempt God? 

The Israelites thought they were superior because they found grace in the eyes of God so they felt and acted like He owed them. Doesn’t that remind you of us Christians today? When we take His Salvation for granted we put God through the same thing the Israelites put Him through. We act as if everything is permissible for two reasons.  One of them is that Christ died for us and the second one is that God cannot lie.  Yet, we keep saying with our mouths that we serve a God who does not change. So, if for a minute you are thinking without Satan’s blocking your mind can you see how this does not make sense?

The next time you are trying to convince yourself that shoddy Christianity is good enough because God cannot lie and He has to honour His word ask yourself “ Have I honoured my commitment to Him?” Do I truly live a life that shows that I take Him at His word? Do I stand on all His word or few verses that make things easy for me? TEST YOUR OWN FAITH!

Faith - Part 2

Hebrews 3:12-19 “ See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts  as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?  And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?  And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
Hebrews 3:14-19 The saints' privilege is, they are made partakers of Christ, that is, of the Spirit, the nature, graces, righteousness, and life of Christ; they are interested in all Christ is, in all he has done, or will do. The same spirit with which Christians set out in the ways of God, they should maintain unto the end. Perseverance in faith is the best evidence of the sincerity of our faith. Hearing the word often is a means of salvation, yet, if not hearkened to, it will expose more to the Divine wrath. The happiness of being partakers of Christ and his complete salvation, and the fear of God's wrath and eternal misery, should stir us up to persevere in the life of obedient faith. Let us beware of trusting to outward privileges or professions, and pray to be numbered with the true believers who enter heaven, when all others fail because of unbelief. As our obedience follows according to the power of our faith, so our sins and want of care are according to the prevailing of unbelief in us.

Brothers and sisters, you cannot read Hebrews 3:12-19 and minimize what you read by playing fancy footsteps around it. You are neither allowed to use one or two Bible verses to justify the reason why you do not heed to these verses. I do not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings nor insulting you or judging you. I am simply sharing with you that the God that I got to know the past fifteen years do not take kindly when we assume that a presumptuous faith will do. We have examples throughout the Bible from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation. When it comes to our faith in God, Satan is no joke. The kind of temptation that caused the fall of Adam and Eve is very alive today.

When you cultivate a childlike mind, as you read a verse like Ephesians 2:6 you do not go prancing around as if God never wrote anything else. As a child of God, if indeed you have received true Salvation and Satan is not reigning in your life, then you go directly to God through humility and patience, you tell Him that your mind is not able to reconcile these verses in Hebrews 3 and the fact that we are supposed to be saved by grace alone so no one can boast. I promise you, He will love the fact that you would rather come to Him in your ignorance than believing glibly what some Satan’s child is telling you to believe.  If your heart is right, He will always take you further and reveal His word further. The truth is, Ephesians 2:6 and Hebrews 3:12-19 are true and consistent and God does not contradict Himself. But, to go on understanding more, you have to know Him, sit at His feet, worship Him with your life, carrying the cross He puts in front of you. You have to live a life that shows you understand the depth of the sacrifice He made on the cross. You have to learn what it truly means to find rest in Him. You have to know what it means to live and walk in the Spirit. Above all else we have to live a life that shows we are truly living in union with Him. And we have to live with complete reverence for who He is. All of what I have mentioned in the way we are to live this life of faith in Him, is about His grace getting us there because, alone, we do not have the capacity.

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When you get to know God, you learn to see things with a different set of eyes, “your spiritual eyes” and this is why Paul said: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Don’t make the mistake of missing out on the key word there. Paul says “those who believe” Then you ought to examine yourself to see if you truly believe. Does your life reflect the word of God? How is His word changing you inwardly? Or do you believe in vain?

If you are dead set on claiming for instance Ephesians 2:6 and you do not want to have anything to do with Hebrews 3 it does not matter what spin you put on it, what you have is nothing short of presumptuous faith. You simply presume certain things in your own strength and your own understanding because that’s what convenient to you. Satan actually knows that about you better than you do and he not only succeeded in tempting you, he moved on for the kill and you are no wiser. I know most of you are going to say “wait a minute, most people believe in this way.” Well, for one, hell is going to be more populated than heaven so there is no surprise there. Secondly stop being a sheep because most people are going the wrong way, don’t follow them, and follow Christ. Stop living your spiritual life because it feels and sound good. Stop tweaking God’s covenant, and stop trying to find loopholes like you are a lawyer fighting to win your case.

Sto

p putting a spin on it to make it feel like if you go forward claiming your inheritance, it feels like lordship salvation. It is simply recognizing the plan of Salvation was conceived by one architect and He alone knows what is needed. He put it forward, He paid the price for it and He alone tells us how it all works out, hence the whole Bible. We go forward embracing the whole Bible, because we recognize that we are nothing and we need Him. Also, we go forward because we are grateful that He actually thought of a plan to reconcile with us.

Jesus Christ Himself gave us an example of this kind of presumptuous faith and how God feels about it. Satan in his audacity tempted Him in Mathew 4:5-6 “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ --- Does the word God really say that? Did Satan lie?  Well, take a look at Psalm 91 start reading from verse 11 “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. ….. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;;” When you read this you realize Satan did not twist God’s word and he did not lie.” What was Christ’s answer? Have you ever pondered on those words uttered by our Lord and Savior?

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ – I do not know about you but when I pondered on those words before I knew Him well, I knew I had to go further than what I was being fed by man because certain things are written in black and white and I did not think I could use an excuse with God. Even with a minimum understanding, I knew if Christ was not exempted from living a presumptuous faith then why would I be? All I understood from Christ’s response there, when I was a baby in the faith was that Christ was telling me that every word of God is important and had to be applied. How? I did not know yet. Personally, I felt God contradicted Himself like crazy but I was not trying to insult Him or taking advantage of Him, He knew this was the extend of my understanding. But, as I went forward, He taught me.

I beg of you, do not take those words in this post and try to make someone else tell you what to believe. In fact, I do not want you to take my word for it because it is not about me. I am not going to be the one deciding if you deserve hell or heaven. Take it directly to Him who is the supreme authority. When you take certain things to a pastor or a mentor with a hidden motive because you are seeking someone to tell you that it is okay to remain in your shoddy Christianity and God will honour His word, you do not fool God and you will pay the consequences of your actions. What I said above, in no way means that you are not to talk to your pastor or your mentor. There are great pastors out there who have been literally placed by God to feed us and guide us to Him. My point is, at the end of the day, in the depth of your heart, you already know what you want to believe and what is convenient.

Part 3 tomorrow...