Sunday: Set Free By Truth

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"     John 8:31-32

These verses begin indicating that Jesus was talking with "Jews who had believed," in other words believers. The previous verse "as he was saying these things, many believed in him," follows Jesus proclaiming who He is to a group of people, then many believed in Him. The next verse is where we pick and Jesus is now talking to those who believed. Leon Morris seems to think that Jesus was talking to people who believed, yet did not believe. Meaning they were inclined to think what Jesus was saying was true, but were not prepared to submit their life to His teaching and trust his Word whole-heartedly. This is the most dangerous spiritual state for man! I think that Morris makes a valid point as we look into what Jesus says to these people.

Jesus states clearly, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples" (v.32b). It is very clear here that as "believers" in Jesus if we abide or act in accordance with His Word then we will TRULY be His disciples. If this is true then the opposite must be false because truth is not relative. Therefore, if we do NOT abide or act in accordance with His Word then we will NOT be His disciples. How can we say we believe the Bible if A: we do not read it, and B: we do not act in accordance with it? Today it is too easy for "Christians" to believe in God and be okay with that. Even the devil and his demons believe in God. James 2:19 says, "you believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder!" Saving faith is not the faith in the existence of God but the faith in living according to His Word.

Secondly, by knowing the truth it will set you free. What this means is that by believing Jesus and being His TRUE disciple, living according to His Word you will know the truth. By knowing this truth and living according to it, it will set you free. For sin cannot bind truth.

I really hope these verses will impact you the same way they impacted me. It is so important that our faith in backed up by a lifestyle. Remember: Saving faith is not the faith in the existence of God but the faith in living according to His Word. Have a great week!

In God's strength,

Jon

Saturday: Speak Lord Your Servant is Listening

"And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, 'Samuel! Samuel!' And Samuel said, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.'"  -1 Samuel 3:10

There is much more context to this story which is important that it isn't lost or this verse taken out of context. I encourage you to read this chapter in it's entirety, but I will try to represent what the Bible is saying to the best of my ability, well actually with what I believe God has revealed to me for I have no ability apart from God.

In this passage Samuel, a young boy working in the temple with Eli at this point, is called upon by God. Literally God calls out Samuel's name three times and three times Samuel goes to Eli thinking it was Eli who had called him. Finally, on the third time Eli realizes that it has been God calling Samuel and he instructed Samuel to go lie down and the next time God calls him to respond by saying "speak LORD, your servant hears." So Samuel did so and then God revealed to him a what was going to happen to Eli's family, which Samuel was frighten to tell Eli. This was the beginning of God continuously revealing His plan to Samuel. The important part here that I want us to grasp is the call of God and the response of Samuel. God called out to Samuel a total of four times and finally on the last one Samuel responded by telling God that he was listening.

God still calls us to various positions and directions in life today, however it is done very differently today as God communicates to us through His Spirit. God has a plan for each one of you as He does for me also. It is important that we ask God to reveal to us His plan for our lives. And God will tell you in His timing (this is not always exactly when you want Him to, but He will reveal it to you when you are ready). It is also important that we live in a way that there is no hindrance between us and God such as sin for this can hinder us from hearing is will as we will be distracted in sin. When I was decided where to go to school I asked God to show me and I asked Him to only let me get accepted into one school, that being the place in which I was to attend. However, God has a different way to reveal His will to me as I was accepted to every school I applied to including the Ontario College of Art and Design. This was the school that if I was to pursue art then it was a no brainer to go here because it is extremely hard to get accepted and their art program is head and shoulders above Liberty's. So it was getting close to the time where I need to make a decision so I resorted to my knees day in and day out asking God for direction. Only a couple days later God revealed Himself to me in a way that was unmistakable. He very heavily laid on my heart, "seek me and I will provide." That if I would fully seek God He would provide me with a job exactly where He wants me whatever education I get. Therefore, I came here to Liberty so that I might study graphic design, but above that study the Bible as I have felt a clear calling to ministry sometime in the future.

God will provide!
When in doubt resort to your knees!

God will direct you!
When in doubt seek Him alone!

God will call you!
When in doubt ASK!

Friday: Prayer Changes Everything

As Christians we need to be devoting time to prayer each day. Not simply because it's the "Christian thing to do" but because without prayer we are unable to communicate with God and our relationship with Him will be strained. Prayer is not an issue of trying to change God's mind because simply we as humans are unable to convince God of anything greater then that which He already has planned. Now you may ask then what is the point of praying if God already knows what going to happen? This is a very good question and something that needs to be asked. If we don't know why we pray then are we simply saying words for God to hear? See prayer is a method of communication in which we talk to God. God communicates to us through the Holy Spirit and through His Word. Without communication a relationship struggles for air and eventually stops breathing and living, not that you are no longer a Christian, but that your faith is no longer alive and active.

Prayer consists to not just of calling upon God for various requests, it is so much more then that. Prayer can be broken down into four parts which is commonly remembered by acronym ACTS

1: Adoration- praising, worshiping and uplifting God (worship is not only done in song! In fact corporate worship should reflect your personal worship otherwise you need to check your motives)

2: Confession: We need to be continuously confessing our sins to God not that we need to be "re-saved" but that we need to remove anything that may be hindering our relationship with God and His work within us

3: Thanksgiving: We also need to be daily thanking God for all that He has given to us. Just think you came into this world literally with nothing! Everything that you own God has given to you. He has given you a new day each time you wake up and He has blessed you with food and shelter. We have so much to be thankful for!

4: Supplication: Finally, we need to come to God when we are in need of something. However, when we come to God in asking for something it is important that we are seeking Gods will over our own so that He may be glorified. The Bible says "seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these thing shall be added unto you" (   ). This does not mean God will give you anything you want. This does mean that if you seek God FIRST, then anything you ask for He will give you. Now in seeking God you are seeking to glorify Him and not yourself, therefore in all you ask for will be in line of His will and for His glory. Yes, there are times where we want things and it is not wrong to want things or ask God for them, but we need to be seeking Gods will in it all and be okay if He has other plans because we do not know the big picture as He does, many times He has something better in store for us.

Finally, we are to be in prayer daily in order to submit ourselves to God's will and ask Him to work through us, this is all a process of submitting to Him. God wants His relationship with you to be intimate meaning closely acquainted. To have an intimate relationship with God is to not hide anything from Him and fully rely on Him. Through prayer we become intimate with God. So in a way I guess praying is "the Christian thing to do" because that is what a Christian needs to do in order to have an intimate relationship with God.

"A non-praying Christian carries his or her Christianity, a praying Christian is carried by his or her Christianity" -Ravi Zacharias

Thursday: I Thought God Loved Everyone

If God really loves the world (Jn. 3:16) why doesn't He just fix everything and make it perfect? Why doesn't God just let everyone into Heaven if he truly loves the world?

The reason is that God cannot let everyone into Heaven is because darkness and light cannot coexist and the smallest amount of impurity put into something pure makes the whole unit impure. If the slightest bit of salt is added to fresh water then it is no longer fresh, the salt resulting in saltwater affects all the water. If God allowed sin into Heaven then Heaven would not be perfect and it would be the same as earth is today, full of darkness.

This is why God sent His only Son, Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins. Christ bore our punishment creating a way, the only way to God. This filled the gap that sin created between God and man. Christ did everything, we only need to accept this and be born into a new life with Christ. If not then God cannot allow us into Heaven. He initiated this relationship by providing a way because we alone cannot get to God. But if we do not receive the sanctification that is found in Christ then we cannot enter into Heaven.

Wednesday: A Shadow Proves the Sunshine

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” John 3:19-21

Many people wonder why in fact there is evil in this world. I mean if God says he loves the world (Jn. 3:16) then why does our world consist of war, violence and hatred? Why is there poverty and sickness?

These are all great questions and it something that you should not be content not knowing the answer to because God has revealed the answer to us in His word. Yes, there are many things that are unanswered and God has done that for reasons that we don't know, it may be to build unity, but all we know is that there are some aspects of God that we will never understand on earth because a finite mind cannot grasp the infinite God. Our heads would explode! However, we are to search and understand the answers in which God has revealed to us, these things that are critical to understanding God meaningfully even though we will never understand God exhaustively.

That being said, the fact is that darkness exists because of sin. Sin exists because of the fall of man in the garden, therefore we are  all born with a sinful nature. However, it is not completely Adam's fault that you sin! We sin on our own, by our own choice because that is all we know coming into this world. Sin is as natural to us as breathing, yet no one forces you to breathe. It's the same with sin. Sin is developed from desire and results in death (James 1:15). So we see that all of humanity lives in sin and the world is in darkness. But what makes sin, sin? I mean why are the things that we call sin wrong? The only way something can ever be wrong is when it does not meet a set standard in which make something right. If a 60% is the standard to pass a class then anything short of that is wrong or a fail. If 4 is the correct answer for 2+2 then anything else is wrong! God has set in place a standard in which is perfect and anything short of that is wrong or sin. When Jesus came to earth in the form of flesh He lived a perfect life living up to God's standard and provided a way for us as sinful creatures to be made righteous and be approved by God's standard. He died on the cross.

Now when John, in the above verse, writes about the light has come into the world he is talking about Jesus who is perfect (light) and stepping into a world of darkness (sin and death). When a light shines it always casts a shadow somewhere. The fact that there is evil in our world shows that there is a standard of some kind that makes evil, evil. John writes that people loved the darkness and turned away from the light. Darkness is the absence of light meaning that darkness hates the light because it with light it ceases to exist, therefore anyone in darkness turns from the light because they naturally hate the light because it would expose them. However, anyone who comes to the knowledge to truth and does what is right, John says that he comes into the light because he has been exposed in his darkness.

What I am getting at is that there will always be an opposition to the light, when a light is shining there is dark somewhere and there is always a shadow somewhere because the light exposes the darkness and creates a distinctive line between what is dark and what is light. When God created the heavens and the earth there was darkness over everything and that's all there was, but as soon as God created light there was a very clear difference between light and darkness. In the same way when Jesus came to the earth in light He made very clear what was right and wrong because in His perfect light He exposed the darkness and made clear that everything that was not in the light was wrong. Whenever a shadow is cast it is because it is the opposition of the light in which is shining, not creating the shadow but the shadow is the result of the light. When the sun shines on one side of a house on the opposite side there is a shadow because the darkness cannot coexist with light so it hide behind that which the light cannot reach. The sun doesn't create this shadow, the sun creates the light, but the shadow exists because of the light proving that there is a light shining. The fact that there is evil in this world proves the fact that there is truth that also exists.

A shadow proves the sunshine.

Monday: Another Day Given to Me

Thinking back on my day there was nothing that stood out as making it special, I attended class, did a bit of work, ate dinner with a couple friends, but all in all nothing exceptional happened today. Classes brought both learning and frustration, yet they were again just typical routine classes. Today was a day that I wouldn't say I wasted, yet I wouldn't say I will ever remember. The fact is, today was another day that was given to me by God Almighty. Almost everyday goes by and I forget to simply thank Him for waking up.

It rained hard last night as God watered Lynchburg and today the sun shined down to dry up much of the left over water. It was a beautiful day! Today was actually very special in its own way because God created it uniquely and He had me be apart of it. I just want each of you to stop and think about your day, whether it was great, terrible or of the norm and thank God for the day that has just past. Whether you accomplished something great, learned something new, copped with something tragic or even if the only notable thing was reading this post, causing you to see your day differently, God handcrafted the events and structure of your day for His will. He allowed you to open your eyes this morning once again to breath another breath, taste another meal and take another step. Take this moment to stop flying through life and reflect on what gifts God has given you today. We ought to be thanking God each day simply for another day among other things.

So now, how was your day?

Sunday: One Foot in Front of the Other

Well this year I actually decided to make a new years resolution, this is a new experience for me as I have never seen it as being something other then nonsense. However, this year I saw a need for it as a way to make a pact with myself and with God. I decided that each day I would take one step closer to being more like Christ . Although because God is perfect even if everyday I succeeded in moving one step closer to being more like him I will not be just as far away from perfection as the day I began. Simply this is because God is perfect and anything short of that is imperfect, and let me tell you I am certainly short of that mark!

With each passing day there are many stupid things that I do. Each night I go to bed I always remember those moments as I wish so dearly I could take back those words or actions. This year I have decided to make more then an effort to fix these issue and build up my character. See an image is who you are around others, but character is who you are when no one is around. For example: if we tend to pray a long prayer at meals for others to see yet our personal prayer life struggles then somethings wrong.

Ask yourself this: do I care more about the clothes I wear on Sunday or how much money I put in the offering plate?

There is an endless list of things we can improve upon each day and some things may even take weeks to conclude. But just think where you would be in your walk with Christ if you took one step closer to being like Christ 365 times! I mean it shouldn't stop there but it's a start. Thing seriously about taking this challenge with me.

Remember: "an image is who you are around others, but character is who you are when no one is around"

Saturday: Impressing a Perfect God

1 Peter 5:6-7: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he care for you."

I was reminded yesterday at convocation of a very important truth, God is not looking to see how many mountains we can climb ourselves, he simply is looking for us to reach out for His hand. Many times I find myself trying to prove myself righteous before God, when it comes to theological issues I can often try to figure out what is right and how I can support and prove that what I believe is right. The fact is so many times I reach a conclusion and realize that I forgot to consult God personally. I figure I think I know what God is trying to say in scripture without actually asking Him to reveal this to me. God has not called us to do anything on our own because inevitably we are unable to. God has simply called us to reach out our hand and grab hold of His for He cares for us.

Deism is the belief that God created the world and then abandoned humans to fend for themselves. This goes completely against what Peter is saying in chapter five, verse seven. God wants us to look to Him in times of difficulty and cast our burdens on Him because He loves us. God never expects us to do anything on our own because we are simply unable to. The fact that man is totally deprived proves that we are unable to do any good without His intervention. As sinners there is not way we were able to initiate salvation because of our sinful nature, this is the job of the Holy Spirit through conviction (1Thess. 1:5). If this is true and we are unable to initiate a relationship with God, then how are we able to please Him under our own strength?

James writes that if anyone lack wisdom let him ask of God (Jms. 1:5). This is because any knowledge or wisdom gained apart from God is not of God, therefore it is foolishness. In no way will we ever please or glorify God on our own for our nature is sinful and anything we desire apart from God is sin, as saint who are renewed in Christ Jesus we desire righteousness through the blood of Christ under His power and His strength over sin. You cannot impress a perfect God, for He is perfect, what can you do that He cannot do infinite times greater? However, allowing Him to do things through you bring Him glory.

Remember this: "any knowledge or wisdom gained apart from God is not of God, therefore it is foolishness"

Back At It

Well it's a new year, a new semester and I have sufficient internet again!!! It is my goal and my desire to get back into a daily time of devotion over this blog site for anyone who cares to follow along. As busy as times get I will try my best to post daily.

Jon