aSacredRebel

Trust?

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25, ESV)

Can you picture this scene?

Can you image being there? How would you have felt? Would you be the one racing to wake up the sleeping Jesus? We all have been there when life is coming at us from all different angles, and it seems like everything is going right down the drain. We then turn to see where Jesus is and what He is doing… How do you think the disciples felt when they saw Him asleep when they were about to die? How do you feel when you turn to see Him sleeping when your world is falling apart?

But isn’t the just what Jesus asked them? Where is your faith? We have faith in something we can not see, we hope in the promises of God which we might have experienced some of them, but have we experienced all that He has promised us? We have faith in a God we have not seen, we have sen His effects, and affects, but have we seen Him, yet we still believe in, have hope in, have faith in…

How much more should we have faith in Jesus who is here with us? Why does it matter if He is sleeping? He has promised to be with us and provide for our every need, and do we trust that?

Faith is not understanding, but trusting. We must not think it is possible for God, we must believe God will take care of us. Even in the darkest valley, even in the deepest most terrible storm our lives have seen, God will be there and He will protect us. In this we can trust, and we can have faith that no matter what happens He is with us and watching over us.

The Gift of Being Yourself by David G. Benner

“Spiritual transformation does not result from fixing our problems. It results from turning to God in the midst of them and meeting God just as we are.” (page 67)

David G. Benner opens up a topic most Christian think is taboo to show us it is the one thing we truly need to embrace to become the person God is calling us to be. In order to live the uniquely created life God has for us, we must first except ourselves as God has excepted us, just as we are. In order for us to this we must look at the darkness inside of us, and see who we are and acknowledge our sins and troubles. In order for us to change something we can not crucify it on the cross as sin if we deny we do it. We must accept who we are and work with God to use it for His glory!

The gospel is not a method book for sin management. It is not a guideline for avoiding sin and a way to deal with our guilt when we fail as we always do. The gospel is a way for us to understand who we truly are, who God created us to be, and move forward in who God created us to be. “Self-acceptance always precedes genuine self-surrender and self-transformation.” (page 58)

David G. Brenner helps us to look at who we truly are and accept that, and then move forward with God in being who He has uniquely created us to be!

If the Church Were Christian By Philip Gulley

What if the church took following the example Christ gave us to be in the world was actually the way the church was?

If we would take seriously the way Jesus lived and follow the example He gave us would we be able to contain the people seeking after God in the confines of the buildings in which we worship?

Philip Gulley writes with zeal and integrity using his beliefs to help us see who God is and how we are to live in life. He gives wonderful examples from his own story to help us see how the church might have gone astray from where God has called us to be.

If you are looking for a book that lays out a plan for you to be a good Christian, this is not your book. If you are looking for a book that helps you see the hard things that Christ has given us an example of and calls us to do, then Philip will help you see who Christ was and who we could be.

This book may push your thoughts and beliefs, but is a good read and will help you see who you are and help you possibly understand what you believe about God and how your faith is an integral part of your life.

Favor

Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger. Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps. (Psalm 85, NRSV)

The Lord has forgiven our iniquities and forgiven our sins! He has removed His wrath from us and given us a hope and a future!

His salvation is at hand, it is here, it is with us, it is near, it is all around us. Can you reach out and grab? It is not something you can hold, but it is something that can and does hold you. He gives good things to those who love and follow Him, and provides for their needs.

Here we read the psalmist tell us that the Lord will give what is good, that the land of the Israelite’s will yield an increase, it will not only produce what it had, but more! And He will prepare a path for the steps of the people!

God is placing a path in front of you and preparing your land for an increase. He is giving you good things, and filling your life with riches, but more important, He is forgiving your sins, and wiping away your iniquities! God loves you and will provide for your needs. Just follow and love Him and show the world the grace you have been given!

Call…

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased. All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. (Psalm 138:1-8 ESV)

I called on the Lord and He answered me.

The Lord is close at hand all the time and will never let your call go to voice mail. He will provide for your every need and supply strength to your soul. He will give you the words to speak before everyone you encounter. He will protect you and shelter you.

All we need to do is be open to His calling and open to God by cultivating our relationship. We need to keep the lines of communications open and call upon the Lord and be prepared when He calls upon us.

Appear

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ (John 6:41-51, NRSV)

Those who heard Jesus were complaining about Him, because they thought they knew Him…

That doesn’t happen today does it? Do we always agree on the way things should go and what things are? We always agree as the body of Christ on what is sinful, and what is not… We use the the word of God to prove our own points of view and leave out the possibility that another member of the body of Christ might have a different understanding then us and could be right. We are hung up on the “way we have always done it” and “that is what I learned in Sunday School” that we lose sight of Jesus.

The Pharisees knew Jesus as the son of the carpenter Joseph, and that is who He was. They could not hear His words to make Him to be even a prophet, or to the length they needed to go that He was God incarnate before them. And because they could not look beyond what they could see or had known, they could not live into the life that was right in front of them!

Only God can call us to Him, as Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

We are called to God and when we open our hearts and lives to Him we will be able to see what He has set before us and see things in the light and follow Him. It is not about believing the right things, or following the right set of doctrines. It is about loving and following Jesus where He leads us, into the unknown for us, but what is truly known and set in place before the beginning of time by Him. So look not on appearances but look through the eyes of God!

Rebekah Bell: It’s Possible to Graduate Debt-Free. Here’s How – WSJ.com

Great advice for parents to impart to their children at any age. It is never too early to start learning about the value of money, hard work and perseverance!

Rebekah Bell: It’s Possible to Graduate Debt-Free. Here’s How – WSJ.com.

lair…

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. (1 John 2:1-7 ESV)

Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar…

If we take Jesus’ explanation of the commandments, none of us keep the commandments, so all of us are liars… We need to walk in the way that Jesus walked. That means we need to welcome the person that no one else will and eat with sinners, and the outcasts.

We are liars and need to acknowledge that, and realize that we are still covered by the blood and Christ and asked to walk in His way. We will be known by walking in His way and doing what He did, which was calling out the religious uptight for what they were, people who looked out for themselves and not the last, lost, least and little. We need to love as He did and allow Him to work in and through us.

Rooted

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:1-7 ESV)

Walk with the Lord and be rooted in Him and built up through Him.

A root is the system through which a plant gets its nutrients, it’s substance for living.

So the author of Colossians is telling us to be fed and get our substance for living from Christ.

This text made me think of Pando the largest living organism. Pando is a collection of Aspen trees in Utah that share the same root system. They are really one tree or branches off the same root system. Isn’t that exactly how we are to be in the body of Christ? Rooted together in Christ we are all interconnected, and part of one another. We are one, rooted together in Christ.

pulled, dragged, jerked…

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:38-42 ESV)

Here we have a text some would say leads us to think we only need to sit at Jesus’ feet, and listen. That doing is not necessary. And if you only read this text, then yes you could come to that conclusion. Yet we can not take this text by itself. We must remember what came before it, the story of the “Good Samaritan.” So we must do and also sit at Jesus’ feet.

You see the word distracted in the verses above means, pulled, dragged, or jerked. Martha was pulled, dragged and jerked around by many things. How many of us are pulled, dragged or jerked around by lots of things?

We let so many things creep in and take our time and attention, but as Jesus tells Martha, on,y one thing is necessary, and what is that one thing?

From last week, and the lawyer answered Jesus, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27 ESV) This is the one thing that is necessary. That is why Jesus says to Martha, that Mary has chosen the better thing and it will not be taken from her. We need to have a balance of loving God and loving neighbor. If you only love your neighbor but take no time for God, then you are incomplete, and if you only ever sit at His feet and listen, you are not living out your faith.

So go and serve, and come and sit, and allow God to work in and through you.