Category: How We Grow

Headwind or Tailwind ?

 If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors. (1 Samuel 12:14-15)

I ran on a local track before church on a cold February morning. On the northbound straightaway was a strong headwind from the northwest. The wind was so cold that it was physically painful and it held me back.

But on the southbound straightaway, by the home team’s stands, a strong tailwind pushed me—I started to gloat about how fast I was running, because I did not really feel how much the wind was helping me.

My cold run on the track gave me a picture of what it means to walk with God or resist God.

The headwind and tailwind reflect two different heart attitudes. To live in obedience to God is to live being pushed along by a grace-filled tailwind. But my experience on the track suggests a warning:  it’s easy to forget that God is pushing me, and to take the credit for myself for doing well.

To rebel against God is to run into a very strong headwind.  I wish that when we do this in real life, it would be as quick to be felt as I felt it on the track. But, since we can unfortunately be rather pig-headed, sometimes we start to get a hardened heart, and we begin running into the headwind, often without even realizing that we are doing it. I am thankful, though, that God shows us mercy.  He loves us enough to give us a shout of warning that we are running into the headwind. And…… That means we can stop and turn around and start to run with the tailwind— we call this repenting!

Running on the track, I was forced to run into the headwind half of the time. But, in our walk with the Lord, we can pray “Lord, I always want to run with the tailwind, and do warn me quickly if I start running into the headwind.”

 How are you doing? Are you running with God’s tailwind today? Or do you need to repent and do a quick turn around?

What are your credentials?

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus replied. …..If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matthew19:16-22)

Do you remember when you first went to Motor Vehicles to replace your old license and get a super-duper TSA-approved photo ID license? There was a list of documents that you needed to present to get it.  I was sure I had brought enough of them along. But then the DMV worker said, “Sorry, these credentials are insufficient.” I asked, “What do I still lack?” After hearing what I was missing, I went away sad. I had to go home and start all over again.

Now let’s talk about the eternal credentials we need.

Jesus spoke today’s verses right after he talked with the rich young ruler. This ruler presented his credentials to Jesus: He viewed himself as a fine upstanding young man, a good and moral person. He thought he had all his credentials in order, and Jesus would give him a hearty welcome into eternal life.  But he walked away when Jesus told him to sell his possessions. Being good and moral were not sufficient credentials.

Jesus knew that this young man’s issue was money, but we can extend that and see that really, Jesus is talking about anything that keeps us from loving God with all our heart and soul and mind. And we all have obstacles that prevent us from doing that.

Indeed, Jesus tells us that we are Klingons. We might cling on to material goods. Or cling on to a phony idea of what the good life is. We need to stop being Klingons. For myself, what I was clinging onto was how much smarter I was than those cretins who believed the Bible.

But how can we possibly stop clinging on? The disciples had the same question. These astonished guys asked “Who then can be saved?”  Then, Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26)

It is God who gives us the genuine credentials.  First, by grace, he has drawn us in to believe and to be adopted into Jesus’ family.  As this happened to me, I discovered that people who believed the Bible were not cretins after all! Next, grace gives us the heart to stop clinging on to substitutes for Jesus. This allows us to have even more of him—-I know this process is far from done but I am thankful it is continuing!

Facing Tests and Trials

As Christians, we often undergo trials and tests. Today I’d like to give an overview of Trials and Testing throughout the Bible.

These tests call us to humble ourselves before God and are meant to grow us. But there’s a problem: We (me too!) often switch it around and test God.

Early in Scripture we learn about a huge test failure on a test: The Fall.   Adam and Eve failed the test big time. See Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-6, 3:22-24 to review what happened. The bottom line: Adam and Eve thought they were smarter than God.

Centuries later, after escaping from Egypt, Israel went into the wilderness —- and failed the test. A typical example of this failure is Exodus 17:7:  And he [Moses] called the name of the place Massah[testing]and Meribah [quarreling], because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” To complain against God is to test him and to look down on him. We hold God in contempt.

Jesus began his ministry in a place familiar to the Israelites:   in the wilderness. Good news for us:  Unlike the Israelites he passed his wilderness test! See Matthew 3:16-4:2 and 4:5-7 for how Jesus had victory in this.

The fourth test is the one faced by us Christians. In James 1:2-4 we learn: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. “And James 5:19-20 tells us even more about this.

Through trials and testing, what is our goal? James is confident that when we have trials, and as we seek prayer and encouragement from the body of Christ, we will grow to be able to pass these tests.  We can then share in Paul’s joyful declaration in Ephesians 3:20-21:

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Here are some questions to help you work through the implications of today’s teaching:

  1. When are you most likely to think that you are smarter than God?
  2. When are you most likely to complain against God?
  3. When are you most likely to fail the test? (i.e. hungry, not enough sleep, too busy to study scripture, etc.)
  4. How do you feel and react when you have failed the test? Not just how you are supposed to react, but how you actually react?  
  5. What should happen when we fail a trial or test? See 1 John 2:1-2
  6. Does a trial test our ability to do it OR does it test our faith in what the blood of Christ accomplished?
  7. In what specific area of testing would you like prayer for growth?

My idea for writing this post was inspired by Ed Welch’s teaching in the Human Personality Online Course at CCEF.

http://www.ccef.org/courses/human-personality

I profited from and recommend taking the CCEF online courses. Your growth in Christ and the ability to minister to others will make it well worth the effort.

How come growing in Christ can take so long? Part 2

The Bible does not teach instant transformation into maturity in Christ. I am thankful for Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. This completion can sure take a long time!  I am glad that Christ has been so very patient in dealing with my unwillingness to be corrected.

I love how Hebrews 2:15 describes how Jesus helps me with this. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

When I refuse correction it really means I have an unsubmissive heart.

And the Hebrews scripture makes me ponder how Jesus would be tempted to be unsubmissive, yet without sinning in it.

As he grew up Jesus would need to be obedient to his parents. Since Jesus never sinned, that means he submitted and obeyed 100% of the time. I can imagine the teen aged Jesus may have been tempted to say to his parents “Excuse me, I am the Son of God. I don’t have to obey your house rules.”  Nope, he always obeyed.

I know that Jesus is personally interceding on behalf of my weaknesses, including my own temptation to be unsubmissive. And for whatever weaknesses he is dealing with in YOUR life.

Coming to Jesus did NOT mean that my resistance to correction was instantly killed. But here’s the beauty of life in Christ: God has been faithful and patient with me for decades even when I have been so slow to see things.  But over time, I am quicker to admit that I am wrong and quicker to stop being defensive when it is pointed out (you can ask my wife!) God IS faithful to complete the good work he started in me — and in you!