Miracles: Is Belief in God Irrational?
Friday, August 24, 2012
The Heart of It All: Humanity
By Peter
August 21, 2012
Why Humans?
In these articles about humanity, we have seen that God created unique beings on this earth—beings that were made in His image and likeness. We’ve seen that human beings have many similarities to God: they have a spirit, are personal, have rational minds, free will, and creativity. God intimately breathed life into us. Humans were made a little lower than the angels, and were given dominion over the earth. We are certainly a special creation, as shown not only by how uniquely God made us but also by the fact that He sent His Son to die for us so that we can be reconciled to Him and live with Him forever.
When thinking about humans being made in God’s image, we can understand King David’s awe when he said, I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.[1]
As we are rational beings, one question that naturally arises in the mind of man is why God made such unique beings as humans. Why were we created, and what is our purpose?
Scripture doesn’t say much about why God created humans, but what it says is as simple as it is profound. It says that God created humankind for His glory.
Glorifying God
Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.[2]
That simple statement tells us that our lives are meant to glorify God.
The Westminster Catechism puts it this way:
Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
J. I. Packer offers the following commentary on the preceding quotation:
We must recognize that He is at the heart of things and that we exist for His glory; that is to say, we exist for Him, not He for us. And it is only as we set ourselves to glorify Him as the one who supremely matters that we are going to enter into the joy and fulfillment which being a Christian brings.[3]
In his Catechism of the Church of Geneva, John Calvin wrote:
Master: What is the chief end of human life?
Scholar: To know God by whom men were created.
Master: What reason have you for saying so?
Scholar: Because He created us and placed us in this world to be glorified in us. And it is indeed right that our life, of which Himself is the beginning, should be devoted to His glory.
In referring to God’s final creation of humankind, Dietrich Bonhoeffer expresses the purpose of this creative act:
Humankind is here the final work of God’s self-glorification. The world is created for God, for God’s honor alone, and humankind is the most precious receptacle, the very mirror of the Creator. It is totally for the sake of God’s glory and honor as Creator that everything comes to pass.[4]
What does it mean to glorify God?
To begin with, there are two general ways in which the word glory is used in the Bible. One is in regard to God’s intrinsic glory, which is the bright light which surrounds His presence as He manifests Himself in His creation. This is used as an outward expression of His excellence.[5]
J. Rodman Williams expressed it this way:
What then is the glory of God? Perhaps the best answer is that the divine glory is the radiant splendor and awesome majesty of God Himself … the effulgence [radiating brilliant light] of splendor and majesty that shines through in every aspect of God’s being and action … In regards to God’s being, the glory of God is like an aureole [aura or atmosphere of splendor] emanating from and surrounding Him.[6]
This light is expressed in both the Old and New Testaments.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.[7]
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light.[8]
The cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.[9]
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.[10]
Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.[11]
The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.[12]
This light of God’s glory is glory that belongs to God alone.
My glory I will not give to another.[13]
Two Meanings of Glory
The main Hebrew words translated as glory in the Old Testament mean honor, abundance, dignity, worth, reverence, to shine, to flash forth light, majesty, splendor, and beauty.
In the New Testament, the main word translated as glory in reference to God is doxa, which means splendor, brightness, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, majesty, a thing belonging to God, the kingly majesty which belongs to Him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity, the absolute perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ, a most glorious condition, a most exalted state.
These terms and meanings above are the words Scripture uses to describe the wonder of God’s glory.
The second general way glory is used means honor or excellent reputation.[14] When used in this way, it isn’t speaking about God’s intrinsic glory, but rather describes the honor which should be given to God. It’s in this sense that glory is used when speaking of humans being created to glorify God.
The Word says that whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God. It also instructs us to glorify God in our body and in our spirit.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.[15]
You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.[16]
The human essence consists of the material and immaterial, which together make up the complete person. When Scripture tells us that we should glorify God in body and spirit, it can be seen as guidance to glorify Him withall of our being—both inner and outer, physically and spiritually—in all that we do and are. It means that the actions of our life, our interactions with others, as well as all aspects of our inner or spiritual life and self, should glorify Him.
What are some of the ways we can do this?
Glorifying God in our Inner Lives
In our inner lives we can be deeply aware of God and all that He is and has done. We can remember His attributes, His power, and His love. We can look at the incredible creation and its beauty and magnificence. We can deeply appreciate the goodness He has shown to all people and recognize that He loves each person. We can be in awe of the grace and mercy He has bestowed upon us through salvation. We can rejoice that we are adopted into His family through Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. We can be profoundly humbled that the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
We can understand that He is personal and has created us to be personal as well and thus able to have a relationship with Him. We can consistently nurture and strengthen that relationship. We can love Him, express our gratitude, communicate with Him in prayer, and listen to Him through the various ways in which He communicates with us.
We can praise Him. The Hebrew and Greek words translated as praise are, by their definitions, essentially telling us to give God the praise which is demanded by His qualities, deeds, and attributes; bless, adore; give thanksgiving, appreciation, and commendation. We can regularly express our admiration, gratitude, awe, appreciation, and love, as we come before Him in humility realizing what an awesome, wonderful, and loving God He is.
We can realize that God has told us about Himself through His Word—that He’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s told us what He’s like, what He’s done, how to be reconciled with Him, how to receive Him, how to have His Spirit dwell in us. Through His Word He’s shown us how to know and love Him, how to trust Him, what pleases Him. He’s expressed His love, His faithfulness, His care for us. We can therefore know Him, love Him, rely on Him, and confidently believe in, trust, and obey His Word.
In our inner lives, in our spirits, we can glorify God by always remembering that He is God, and what that means.—That He is the Supreme Being who has made us, who knows everything about us and everything else; and who, as majestic as He is, loves us and wants to have a personal relationship with us. When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, or looked at in different words, what is the most important thing that humans are supposed to do in our lives, He said:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.[17]
We are to love God, and thus glorify Him, from within our inward being, with our soul/spirit, with our rational minds, and with all that is within us.
As Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote:
We must love God with all our hearts, must look upon Him as the best of beings, in Himself most amiable, and infinitely perfect and excellent; as One whom we lie under the greatest obligations to, both in gratitude and interest.
J. I. Packer in referring to our glorifying God says:
The to-and-fro of seeing glory in God and giving glory to God is the true fulfillment of human nature at its heart, and it brings supreme joy to man just as it does to God (Zephaniah 3:14–17).[18]
Glorifying God in our Actions
In our outer life we can glorify God in our actions.
We glorify Him when we follow what His Word tells us to do, when we live in accordance with it, and put biblical principles into everyday action.
Because we are personal beings who have a relationship with God, we can also follow Him by seeking His direction in prayer and doing those things He shows us. Each of us is different, and the Lord can give guidance that is specific to our life. We show Him honor when we ask Him to lead us and when we follow His leading by faith.
We bring glory to God when we live our lives in a manner which reflects God’s love and the principles of His Word. His Word instructs us to let our lights shine before others, so that they can see what we do and how we live, feel God’s love, and glorify Him because of it. Our godly interactions with others, our living in alignment with the instructions and principles of His Word, are seen by others and can affect them for good.
We also glorify the Lord before others when we witness, when we tell our personal testimony, when we speak of how He has worked in our lives and hearts, when we give out literature or teach or by any means inform people about God and His love for them.
We glorify Him when we help those in need, the widows and orphans, the needy, the poor—when we give of ourselves in any way that reflects God’s love and concern for others.
When we pray and ask Him for help for ourselves or others, when we claim His promises and stand on them, when we seek His guidance, we are giving Him glory. We are acknowledging our belief in His care and concern for us, in the truth of His Word, and in the dependability of His promises. We acknowledge our need and declare, through our prayers, that we trust that He will both hear and answer them. When we confess our sins to Him, we honor Him by acknowledging that we have done wrong and are in need of His forgiveness.
We glorify God when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves;[19] when we do to others as we’d have them do to us;[20] when we love in deed and in truth;[21] and when we love, obey, and revere God and do the things He says, for this is the whole duty of man.[22]
All life activities, too, must be pursued with the aim of giving God homage, honor, and pleasure, which is glory-giving on the practical level (1 Corinthians 10:31).[23]
When we understand that God created us to glorify Him, it should help us to do our best to live in a manner which brings Him glory. Living a God-glorifying life, however, isn’t a one-way street, with all the benefits going to Him. There are blessings received in this life and in the life to come for those who live to glorify Him.
You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.[24]
The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.[25]
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.[26]
Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[27]
I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly.[28]
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.[29]
As Christians who understand that the Lord desires us to live lives which glorify Him, which will be blessed by Him and will bless others, we have the opportunity to fulfill the purpose of our Creator in this life, and to live with Him forever in joy and happiness, always being able to give Him the glory He deserves.
Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.[30]
[1] Psalm 139:14.
[2] Isaiah 43:7.
[3] An Interview with J. I. Packer, Founders Ministries.
[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 3, Creation and Fall (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), p. 72.
[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 221.
[6] J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), p. 180.
[7] Psalm 104:1–2.
[8] Isaiah 60:19–20.
[9] Ezekiel 10:19.
[10] Luke 2:9.
[11] Matthew 17:1–2.
[12] Revelation 21:23.
[13] Isaiah 48:11.
[14] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 200.
[15] 1 Corinthians 10:31.
[16] 1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV.
[17] Mark 12:30.
[18] J. I. Packer, Glory, from the book Concise Theology (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), p. 59.
[19] [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37–40).
[20] Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).
As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them (Luke 6:31).
[21] Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).
[22] The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
[23] J. I. Packer, Glory, from the book Concise Theology (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), p. 60.
[24] Psalm 16:11.
[25] James 1:25.
[26] Psalm 128:1–2.
[27] Matthew 6:6.
[28] John 10:10.
[29] Revelation 20:6.
[30] Revelation 4:11.
Copyright © 2012 The Family International.
August 21, 2012
Why Humans?
In these articles about humanity, we have seen that God created unique beings on this earth—beings that were made in His image and likeness. We’ve seen that human beings have many similarities to God: they have a spirit, are personal, have rational minds, free will, and creativity. God intimately breathed life into us. Humans were made a little lower than the angels, and were given dominion over the earth. We are certainly a special creation, as shown not only by how uniquely God made us but also by the fact that He sent His Son to die for us so that we can be reconciled to Him and live with Him forever.
When thinking about humans being made in God’s image, we can understand King David’s awe when he said, I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.[1]
As we are rational beings, one question that naturally arises in the mind of man is why God made such unique beings as humans. Why were we created, and what is our purpose?
Scripture doesn’t say much about why God created humans, but what it says is as simple as it is profound. It says that God created humankind for His glory.
Glorifying God
Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.[2]
That simple statement tells us that our lives are meant to glorify God.
The Westminster Catechism puts it this way:
Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
J. I. Packer offers the following commentary on the preceding quotation:
We must recognize that He is at the heart of things and that we exist for His glory; that is to say, we exist for Him, not He for us. And it is only as we set ourselves to glorify Him as the one who supremely matters that we are going to enter into the joy and fulfillment which being a Christian brings.[3]
In his Catechism of the Church of Geneva, John Calvin wrote:
Master: What is the chief end of human life?
Scholar: To know God by whom men were created.
Master: What reason have you for saying so?
Scholar: Because He created us and placed us in this world to be glorified in us. And it is indeed right that our life, of which Himself is the beginning, should be devoted to His glory.
In referring to God’s final creation of humankind, Dietrich Bonhoeffer expresses the purpose of this creative act:
Humankind is here the final work of God’s self-glorification. The world is created for God, for God’s honor alone, and humankind is the most precious receptacle, the very mirror of the Creator. It is totally for the sake of God’s glory and honor as Creator that everything comes to pass.[4]
What does it mean to glorify God?
To begin with, there are two general ways in which the word glory is used in the Bible. One is in regard to God’s intrinsic glory, which is the bright light which surrounds His presence as He manifests Himself in His creation. This is used as an outward expression of His excellence.[5]
J. Rodman Williams expressed it this way:
What then is the glory of God? Perhaps the best answer is that the divine glory is the radiant splendor and awesome majesty of God Himself … the effulgence [radiating brilliant light] of splendor and majesty that shines through in every aspect of God’s being and action … In regards to God’s being, the glory of God is like an aureole [aura or atmosphere of splendor] emanating from and surrounding Him.[6]
This light is expressed in both the Old and New Testaments.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.[7]
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light.[8]
The cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.[9]
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.[10]
Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.[11]
The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.[12]
This light of God’s glory is glory that belongs to God alone.
My glory I will not give to another.[13]
Two Meanings of Glory
The main Hebrew words translated as glory in the Old Testament mean honor, abundance, dignity, worth, reverence, to shine, to flash forth light, majesty, splendor, and beauty.
In the New Testament, the main word translated as glory in reference to God is doxa, which means splendor, brightness, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, majesty, a thing belonging to God, the kingly majesty which belongs to Him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity, the absolute perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ, a most glorious condition, a most exalted state.
These terms and meanings above are the words Scripture uses to describe the wonder of God’s glory.
The second general way glory is used means honor or excellent reputation.[14] When used in this way, it isn’t speaking about God’s intrinsic glory, but rather describes the honor which should be given to God. It’s in this sense that glory is used when speaking of humans being created to glorify God.
The Word says that whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God. It also instructs us to glorify God in our body and in our spirit.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.[15]
You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.[16]
The human essence consists of the material and immaterial, which together make up the complete person. When Scripture tells us that we should glorify God in body and spirit, it can be seen as guidance to glorify Him withall of our being—both inner and outer, physically and spiritually—in all that we do and are. It means that the actions of our life, our interactions with others, as well as all aspects of our inner or spiritual life and self, should glorify Him.
What are some of the ways we can do this?
Glorifying God in our Inner Lives
In our inner lives we can be deeply aware of God and all that He is and has done. We can remember His attributes, His power, and His love. We can look at the incredible creation and its beauty and magnificence. We can deeply appreciate the goodness He has shown to all people and recognize that He loves each person. We can be in awe of the grace and mercy He has bestowed upon us through salvation. We can rejoice that we are adopted into His family through Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. We can be profoundly humbled that the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
We can understand that He is personal and has created us to be personal as well and thus able to have a relationship with Him. We can consistently nurture and strengthen that relationship. We can love Him, express our gratitude, communicate with Him in prayer, and listen to Him through the various ways in which He communicates with us.
We can praise Him. The Hebrew and Greek words translated as praise are, by their definitions, essentially telling us to give God the praise which is demanded by His qualities, deeds, and attributes; bless, adore; give thanksgiving, appreciation, and commendation. We can regularly express our admiration, gratitude, awe, appreciation, and love, as we come before Him in humility realizing what an awesome, wonderful, and loving God He is.
We can realize that God has told us about Himself through His Word—that He’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s told us what He’s like, what He’s done, how to be reconciled with Him, how to receive Him, how to have His Spirit dwell in us. Through His Word He’s shown us how to know and love Him, how to trust Him, what pleases Him. He’s expressed His love, His faithfulness, His care for us. We can therefore know Him, love Him, rely on Him, and confidently believe in, trust, and obey His Word.
In our inner lives, in our spirits, we can glorify God by always remembering that He is God, and what that means.—That He is the Supreme Being who has made us, who knows everything about us and everything else; and who, as majestic as He is, loves us and wants to have a personal relationship with us. When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, or looked at in different words, what is the most important thing that humans are supposed to do in our lives, He said:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.[17]
We are to love God, and thus glorify Him, from within our inward being, with our soul/spirit, with our rational minds, and with all that is within us.
As Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote:
We must love God with all our hearts, must look upon Him as the best of beings, in Himself most amiable, and infinitely perfect and excellent; as One whom we lie under the greatest obligations to, both in gratitude and interest.
J. I. Packer in referring to our glorifying God says:
The to-and-fro of seeing glory in God and giving glory to God is the true fulfillment of human nature at its heart, and it brings supreme joy to man just as it does to God (Zephaniah 3:14–17).[18]
Glorifying God in our Actions
In our outer life we can glorify God in our actions.
We glorify Him when we follow what His Word tells us to do, when we live in accordance with it, and put biblical principles into everyday action.
Because we are personal beings who have a relationship with God, we can also follow Him by seeking His direction in prayer and doing those things He shows us. Each of us is different, and the Lord can give guidance that is specific to our life. We show Him honor when we ask Him to lead us and when we follow His leading by faith.
We bring glory to God when we live our lives in a manner which reflects God’s love and the principles of His Word. His Word instructs us to let our lights shine before others, so that they can see what we do and how we live, feel God’s love, and glorify Him because of it. Our godly interactions with others, our living in alignment with the instructions and principles of His Word, are seen by others and can affect them for good.
We also glorify the Lord before others when we witness, when we tell our personal testimony, when we speak of how He has worked in our lives and hearts, when we give out literature or teach or by any means inform people about God and His love for them.
We glorify Him when we help those in need, the widows and orphans, the needy, the poor—when we give of ourselves in any way that reflects God’s love and concern for others.
When we pray and ask Him for help for ourselves or others, when we claim His promises and stand on them, when we seek His guidance, we are giving Him glory. We are acknowledging our belief in His care and concern for us, in the truth of His Word, and in the dependability of His promises. We acknowledge our need and declare, through our prayers, that we trust that He will both hear and answer them. When we confess our sins to Him, we honor Him by acknowledging that we have done wrong and are in need of His forgiveness.
We glorify God when we love our neighbors as we love ourselves;[19] when we do to others as we’d have them do to us;[20] when we love in deed and in truth;[21] and when we love, obey, and revere God and do the things He says, for this is the whole duty of man.[22]
All life activities, too, must be pursued with the aim of giving God homage, honor, and pleasure, which is glory-giving on the practical level (1 Corinthians 10:31).[23]
When we understand that God created us to glorify Him, it should help us to do our best to live in a manner which brings Him glory. Living a God-glorifying life, however, isn’t a one-way street, with all the benefits going to Him. There are blessings received in this life and in the life to come for those who live to glorify Him.
You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.[24]
The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.[25]
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.[26]
Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[27]
I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly.[28]
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years.[29]
As Christians who understand that the Lord desires us to live lives which glorify Him, which will be blessed by Him and will bless others, we have the opportunity to fulfill the purpose of our Creator in this life, and to live with Him forever in joy and happiness, always being able to give Him the glory He deserves.
Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.[30]
[1] Psalm 139:14.
[2] Isaiah 43:7.
[3] An Interview with J. I. Packer, Founders Ministries.
[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 3, Creation and Fall (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), p. 72.
[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 221.
[6] J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), p. 180.
[7] Psalm 104:1–2.
[8] Isaiah 60:19–20.
[9] Ezekiel 10:19.
[10] Luke 2:9.
[11] Matthew 17:1–2.
[12] Revelation 21:23.
[13] Isaiah 48:11.
[14] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 200.
[15] 1 Corinthians 10:31.
[16] 1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV.
[17] Mark 12:30.
[18] J. I. Packer, Glory, from the book Concise Theology (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), p. 59.
[19] [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37–40).
[20] Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).
As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them (Luke 6:31).
[21] Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).
[22] The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
[23] J. I. Packer, Glory, from the book Concise Theology (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), p. 60.
[24] Psalm 16:11.
[25] James 1:25.
[26] Psalm 128:1–2.
[27] Matthew 6:6.
[28] John 10:10.
[29] Revelation 20:6.
[30] Revelation 4:11.
Copyright © 2012 The Family International.
The Holy War!
By David Brandt Berg
Download Audio (10.5MB)
We are all in a holy war together. We are fighting together for our faith, truth, and freedom! We are determined that the poor of the world shall be fed, clothed, housed, and be enabled to labor in freedom, peace, health, and happiness to obtain their needs. We have pledged ourselves to lay down our lives in love for our brothers and sisters around the world. We have dedicated our all that all may be free to live lives of happiness together in cooperation.
Freedom from want, freedom from bondage, freedom from pain, freedom from evil, and freedom from fear—these are our united goals. Mankind cannot be happy when enslaved by oppression, tyranny, and exploitation, robbed by the rich, suffering the pains and pangs of hunger, malnutrition, disease, ill health, overwork, evil abuse, the tortures of war and constant conflict, and nightmares of perpetual fearful insecurity.
We believe that all of these evils are caused by men’s lack of love for God and each other, and their defiance of His laws of love and faith and peace and harmony with Him, each other, and His whole creation, which are the basic beliefs of true faith and every true believer in God and His love and His concern for His creations.
But we must not only know what we are fighting for and against, but also how we must fight. This is not a war of weapons and armies and bodies of men. This is not a war between man and man, nation and nation, race and race, rich and poor, socialism and capitalism, political and economic systems, societies and cultures, religions and faiths. This is not a war of hate and bitterness, killing and slaughter, revenge and vindictiveness, torture, dying and death.
This is not a war for the bodies and possessions and lands and pride of man. Such carnal wars of man have seldom ever settled anything or solved the basic problems of mankind. They have usually only resulted in more suffering, more agony, more pain, more hunger, more slavery, more bitterness, more vengeance, more fighting, more torture, more privation, more destruction, more waste, more misery, more poverty, and more death.
Ours is a war of the spirit in faith and love to win the minds and hearts and spirits and save the souls as well as the bodies of men. Ours is a war to free men from the evils of the spirit and mind and heart of man which cause them to be selfish and unloving and vicious and cruel and unkind to each other, man’s inhumanity to man because of his lack of understanding of how to be happy due to his lack of knowledge of the love and faith and power of God and loving laws of God designed for our eternal happiness.
Ours is a war to free men’s minds and hearts and spirits from the bondage of evil and the soul-slavery of the Devil which bring all these miseries upon us. We are in a war of the worlds—a war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery. Ours is a war of the universe between the good spirits of heaven and the evil spirits of hell contending for our souls as well as our bodies, not only on this earth but also in the spirit world.
Therefore we must fight the much greater warfare of the spirit with the far more powerful weapons of faith, love, compassion, and words and deeds of kindness. We must free men from fear with faith. We must free them from hatred with love. We must free them from sorrow with joy. We must free them from war with peace. We must free them from poverty with plenty, and we must free them from death with eternal heavenly happiness.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Ours is a war of words and ideas to thrill men’s minds with faith and hope, and fill their hearts with love and peace and joy to set their spirits free, as well as acts of love and deeds of kindness to free their bodies from pain. We must therefore wage a war of words against the ideas of evil, a war of faith against fear, a war of hope against doubt. We must inspire men’s spirits to believe in God and His love and His plan for the glorious future of man in the kingdom of God on earth run by the righteous, in which there shall soon be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain nor death, but all shall be light and health and happiness and peace and plenty for everyone.
We must teach them the loving, life-giving words of God Himself through His holy prophets in His holy book, the Bible, that they might have His life and love and happiness forever. Mighty empires of the sword have come and gone, but His words of love and life go on forever and continue to give joy and peace and love and life and hope to billions for generations. The Alexanders and Caesars and Genghis Khans and Napoleons and Hitlers have come and gone, but the words and ideas and religions of the philosophers and the prophets of God live on forever.
They know no boundaries, no nation, no race nor empire, and are not bound by time or space, nor limited by man or war or force of arms, but embrace all mankind and unite their hearts and minds and spirits in faith and love of God and each other for the good of all. The philosophers, teachers, prophets, and men of God seldom ruled empires, but they won worlds of men with their words, faith, and ideas which captured hearts, minds, and spirits and set them forever free. The followers of God are numbered in billions for millenniums, and God’s eternal kingdom of His words of life and love has conquered worlds of men’s eternal spirits, far greater, longer lasting, and happier than man’s mere worldly empires of the sword.
We cannot force men to be good; we cannot legislate righteousness. We must persuade their minds, win their hearts, inspire their spirits, and save their souls so that they will willingly want to do good and not to do evil. You cannot change the world of man without changing his mind, and you cannot change his mind unless you change his heart, and you cannot change his heart without the inspiration of God’s Spirit to save his soul and not only his body.
We must work to save all of man, not merely his body and his environment. He will never be happy with a heavy heart, a troubled mind, a discouraged spirit, and an unsaved soul. We must work to save the whole man, not just part of him. We must work to save the whole world, not just part of it. We must work to save them for eternity, not just for this present time.
Only the power and life and light and love and words of God can do this. We must get His words to all men by every means available throughout the earth. We must convey His ideas, hopes, faith, love and plans for His creations to the eyes and minds and thoughts of all men everywhere, that all hearts may be changed and all spirits inspired and all souls be saved.
We must have a world vision of universal salvation of all mankind. We must not confine ourselves only to the mere matters of the moment and the cares of this life and environment, or those of only one people or one nation or one race or one culture or one ideology or one political view or one economic system of East or West or North or South.
The salvation of man must be for all if it is for any and must include everyone if all are to be happy. Though ninety-and-nine were in the fold, the Good Shepherd was not content until the last lost one was found and saved and rescued.1 Their number was not complete and they could not have been completely happy as long as there was still one unhappy one astray. We must search and find them all, all of His lost sheep, with His loving words of life and faith and duty to both God and man, and we must bring them all into His fold that they may be of one fold with one Shepherd forever.
We must tell all, even though all will not listen nor respond nor be saved. We owe the message of God and His life of love to every man.
If God be for us, no man can stand against us, however great their power or numbers. “Have faith in God.”2 “If God be for us, who can be against us?”3 If you do good, who is he that will stop you?4 None can withstand the power of God nor His forces of heaven if He is on your side and you are on His, doing that which is right.
We are in a fight to the finish, and the victory is ours, praise be to God! We may lose a few battles, but we’re winning the war and the world will soon be won for God and His kingdom. Never give up. Be not discouraged, but be of good faith and of good cheer, for if God is with you, you cannot fail. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”5 We are bound to win, for God is with us, and we fight a holy, right, and just war of faith and love for God and others, and love never fails, for God is love.6
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words shall never pass away.7 They are settled forever in heaven8, and none can deny nor defy them forever. So use them andspread them and His love through every means at your command to give people light and hope and life and love and peace and heavenly happiness forever.
You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep for a love you will never lose.
Originally published May 1975. Updated and republished August 2012.
Read by Peter Amsterdam.
1 Luke 15:4.
2 Mark 11:22.
3 Romans 8:31.
4 1 Peter 3:13.
5 Romans 8:31.
6 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 John 4:8.
7 Mark 13:31.
8 Psalm 119:89.
Download Audio (10.5MB)
We are all in a holy war together. We are fighting together for our faith, truth, and freedom! We are determined that the poor of the world shall be fed, clothed, housed, and be enabled to labor in freedom, peace, health, and happiness to obtain their needs. We have pledged ourselves to lay down our lives in love for our brothers and sisters around the world. We have dedicated our all that all may be free to live lives of happiness together in cooperation.
Freedom from want, freedom from bondage, freedom from pain, freedom from evil, and freedom from fear—these are our united goals. Mankind cannot be happy when enslaved by oppression, tyranny, and exploitation, robbed by the rich, suffering the pains and pangs of hunger, malnutrition, disease, ill health, overwork, evil abuse, the tortures of war and constant conflict, and nightmares of perpetual fearful insecurity.
We believe that all of these evils are caused by men’s lack of love for God and each other, and their defiance of His laws of love and faith and peace and harmony with Him, each other, and His whole creation, which are the basic beliefs of true faith and every true believer in God and His love and His concern for His creations.
But we must not only know what we are fighting for and against, but also how we must fight. This is not a war of weapons and armies and bodies of men. This is not a war between man and man, nation and nation, race and race, rich and poor, socialism and capitalism, political and economic systems, societies and cultures, religions and faiths. This is not a war of hate and bitterness, killing and slaughter, revenge and vindictiveness, torture, dying and death.
This is not a war for the bodies and possessions and lands and pride of man. Such carnal wars of man have seldom ever settled anything or solved the basic problems of mankind. They have usually only resulted in more suffering, more agony, more pain, more hunger, more slavery, more bitterness, more vengeance, more fighting, more torture, more privation, more destruction, more waste, more misery, more poverty, and more death.
Ours is a war of the spirit in faith and love to win the minds and hearts and spirits and save the souls as well as the bodies of men. Ours is a war to free men from the evils of the spirit and mind and heart of man which cause them to be selfish and unloving and vicious and cruel and unkind to each other, man’s inhumanity to man because of his lack of understanding of how to be happy due to his lack of knowledge of the love and faith and power of God and loving laws of God designed for our eternal happiness.
Ours is a war to free men’s minds and hearts and spirits from the bondage of evil and the soul-slavery of the Devil which bring all these miseries upon us. We are in a war of the worlds—a war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery. Ours is a war of the universe between the good spirits of heaven and the evil spirits of hell contending for our souls as well as our bodies, not only on this earth but also in the spirit world.
Therefore we must fight the much greater warfare of the spirit with the far more powerful weapons of faith, love, compassion, and words and deeds of kindness. We must free men from fear with faith. We must free them from hatred with love. We must free them from sorrow with joy. We must free them from war with peace. We must free them from poverty with plenty, and we must free them from death with eternal heavenly happiness.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Ours is a war of words and ideas to thrill men’s minds with faith and hope, and fill their hearts with love and peace and joy to set their spirits free, as well as acts of love and deeds of kindness to free their bodies from pain. We must therefore wage a war of words against the ideas of evil, a war of faith against fear, a war of hope against doubt. We must inspire men’s spirits to believe in God and His love and His plan for the glorious future of man in the kingdom of God on earth run by the righteous, in which there shall soon be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain nor death, but all shall be light and health and happiness and peace and plenty for everyone.
We must teach them the loving, life-giving words of God Himself through His holy prophets in His holy book, the Bible, that they might have His life and love and happiness forever. Mighty empires of the sword have come and gone, but His words of love and life go on forever and continue to give joy and peace and love and life and hope to billions for generations. The Alexanders and Caesars and Genghis Khans and Napoleons and Hitlers have come and gone, but the words and ideas and religions of the philosophers and the prophets of God live on forever.
They know no boundaries, no nation, no race nor empire, and are not bound by time or space, nor limited by man or war or force of arms, but embrace all mankind and unite their hearts and minds and spirits in faith and love of God and each other for the good of all. The philosophers, teachers, prophets, and men of God seldom ruled empires, but they won worlds of men with their words, faith, and ideas which captured hearts, minds, and spirits and set them forever free. The followers of God are numbered in billions for millenniums, and God’s eternal kingdom of His words of life and love has conquered worlds of men’s eternal spirits, far greater, longer lasting, and happier than man’s mere worldly empires of the sword.
We cannot force men to be good; we cannot legislate righteousness. We must persuade their minds, win their hearts, inspire their spirits, and save their souls so that they will willingly want to do good and not to do evil. You cannot change the world of man without changing his mind, and you cannot change his mind unless you change his heart, and you cannot change his heart without the inspiration of God’s Spirit to save his soul and not only his body.
We must work to save all of man, not merely his body and his environment. He will never be happy with a heavy heart, a troubled mind, a discouraged spirit, and an unsaved soul. We must work to save the whole man, not just part of him. We must work to save the whole world, not just part of it. We must work to save them for eternity, not just for this present time.
Only the power and life and light and love and words of God can do this. We must get His words to all men by every means available throughout the earth. We must convey His ideas, hopes, faith, love and plans for His creations to the eyes and minds and thoughts of all men everywhere, that all hearts may be changed and all spirits inspired and all souls be saved.
We must have a world vision of universal salvation of all mankind. We must not confine ourselves only to the mere matters of the moment and the cares of this life and environment, or those of only one people or one nation or one race or one culture or one ideology or one political view or one economic system of East or West or North or South.
The salvation of man must be for all if it is for any and must include everyone if all are to be happy. Though ninety-and-nine were in the fold, the Good Shepherd was not content until the last lost one was found and saved and rescued.1 Their number was not complete and they could not have been completely happy as long as there was still one unhappy one astray. We must search and find them all, all of His lost sheep, with His loving words of life and faith and duty to both God and man, and we must bring them all into His fold that they may be of one fold with one Shepherd forever.
We must tell all, even though all will not listen nor respond nor be saved. We owe the message of God and His life of love to every man.
If God be for us, no man can stand against us, however great their power or numbers. “Have faith in God.”2 “If God be for us, who can be against us?”3 If you do good, who is he that will stop you?4 None can withstand the power of God nor His forces of heaven if He is on your side and you are on His, doing that which is right.
We are in a fight to the finish, and the victory is ours, praise be to God! We may lose a few battles, but we’re winning the war and the world will soon be won for God and His kingdom. Never give up. Be not discouraged, but be of good faith and of good cheer, for if God is with you, you cannot fail. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”5 We are bound to win, for God is with us, and we fight a holy, right, and just war of faith and love for God and others, and love never fails, for God is love.6
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words shall never pass away.7 They are settled forever in heaven8, and none can deny nor defy them forever. So use them andspread them and His love through every means at your command to give people light and hope and life and love and peace and heavenly happiness forever.
You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep for a love you will never lose.
Originally published May 1975. Updated and republished August 2012.
Read by Peter Amsterdam.
1 Luke 15:4.
2 Mark 11:22.
3 Romans 8:31.
4 1 Peter 3:13.
5 Romans 8:31.
6 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 John 4:8.
7 Mark 13:31.
8 Psalm 119:89.
Jesus Is Enough!
By Maria Fontaine
Download Audio (11.2MB)
Throughout life we go through hardships and we suffer loss. The Lord gives, and He takes away. We know He does it in love, but when something is painful for us, it’s often difficult to accept what He has done or is doing, to trust Him, to make the decision to believe that He knows best, and to flow with His plan, no matter how painful it seems at the moment.
There are times when, after something has happened in our lives, we’ve gone through a very difficult time, or had to let go of something dear to us, we reach a point through acceptance and submission to the Lord’s will in our lives where we realize that Jesus is truly enough.—Where our lives are relatively uncomplicated because we’re not so worried about things, or so intensely hoping for them to turn out a certain way; the place where we count everything else “but loss,”1 worthless in comparison to our relationship with Jesus and our desire to fulfill His will for our lives.
Sometimes, however, that hard-earned perspective is fairly short-lived. And it’s often so costly reaching that point. It would be nice if we could carry that perspective through our lives more consistently.
We’re naturally pretty attached to the things of this world. We are earthbound, and our human tendency is to put quite a few limitations on what we want to do, or are willing to do, or even feel we can do. We set boundaries, saying, “I’ll do this, but not that; I’ll give up this, but not that.”
But as disciples, we need a certain amount of detachment from the things of the world, or the values of the world. We need to be more heavenly minded and put a greater priority on those lasting values that are of such great worth in the heavenly realm. We should desire to be so in love with Jesus that other things don’t matter as much, where we have more trust in Him to do what is good in our lives, knowing that He’s in control and is going to bring good out of even the most difficult situations.
How do we reach that level of passion? How do we come to that point where Jesus truly is enough? When life is easy and you’re not having any big struggles, this concept can seem so far off or foreign, and even undesirable. But when you’ve been through something that has touched you deep down at the core of your faith, and you’ve made decisions there in the valley of testing that Jesus is enough for you, then you can relate to this concept, and you don’t ever want to lose that feeling. You know it was hell getting there, but once you have it, you have such peace and confidence in Jesus, and you find such comfort in His Word. Your spiritual life blossoms.
We asked the Lord how we can have that peace and dedication more consistently, that devotion and single-mindedness that enables us to say without regret or reservation, “Jesus is enough.”
Here are excerpts of His answers.
I am nigh to them that are of a broken heart, and I give grace to the humble. What this means is that there is a special closeness that is given to those who are humble and desperate for Me. And this humility and desperation is born often in those who have hit bottom and are clinging to their love for Me and their desire to partake of Me more fully. This is a special gift given to them, the honey that only comes forth after the squeezing.
When someone clings to Me through hard choices and deep sorrows, they experience pure joy and happiness of the soul. They know that they have made Me very happy by drawing close to Me, and they want to continue bringing that joy into their life by serving Me in whatever way I ask of them. They think so little of themselves and much more about Me and what My will for their life is.
There is no testimony without a test, no crown without a cross, no victory without a battle, and it’s often through the difficulties and breakings and hard times that you enter into this special union with Me.
The reason that hardships and difficulties bring this out so clearly is that they cut abruptly through the fog of your everyday life and bring you into direct contact with Me, and you have no other recourse but to cling tightly to Me.
This might make you wonder if trials and hardships are then the only way to be close to Me. The good news is, no. The hardships themselves aren’t what you’re after. What you’re after is knowing that there is nothing standing between you and Me, nothing you have held back from Me.
When you’ve rooted out anything that has stood between us, there is so much more room for Me to fill your life with My love and beauty and blessing.
The challenges in My Word present you with infinite choices over the course of your life to set your affections on things above, to let go of those things that would keep you from Me, to “lose your life” that you may truly save it.
You try to live as I would want you to live and forsake the things that come between us. I give you nudges about the things that stand between us, or about the props that you are carrying around with you, encouraging you to drop them. I show you the rooms of your life that aren’t fully open to Me and I encourage you to give Me access. Through those choices you draw close to Me, and even though you’re not in the middle of hardship, you know that nothing in your life is as important to you as Me.
*
Through putting Me first, and letting My Word humble your pride and bring your will into alignment with Mine, you will be drawn very close to Me, and you will know that I am the heart of your life and that I am enough for you.
Taste and see that I am good. Surrender to Me again and again, turning to Me, and let Me prove to you that with each thing you go through, I am enough to see you through. As you do this again and again—some through your own free-will offerings, some through what I require of you—slowly you come to that place of dependence on Me and knowing that I am enough for you.
When am I enough for you? It’s not necessarily a place that you reach after a certain set of circumstances, or a certain amount of experiences—it’s a place you reach in your heart and mind after personal decisions you have made for Me.
It’s a conscious decision that you make for Me when you hit upon the realization that, “Wow, my life is really not my own. Jesus is the only thing that has remained stable this far.” That’s when it dawns on you that I am truly enough—that even if you lost the whole world, because you have Me, you would have everything.
*
When David Livingstone began his missionary expeditions across Africa, things were a sacrifice for him. At the beginning of his service to Me, he couldn’t truthfully say, “I have never made a sacrifice,” because he hadn’t proved Me yet. He hadn’t tested My promises yet. He hadn’t yet tasted of My rewards in return for his sacrifices. He hadn’t yet experienced that I was enough for him.
And so there were sacrifices. First the sacrifices were relatively small, like the harsh climates he had to endure, the uncomfortable traveling conditions, the dangerous tribes he encountered, the pests and plagues of Africa like the mosquitoes, bugs, filthy water, and much more. Sometimes he wondered why he was even embarking on such a mission when the fruit seemed so pathetic; in fact, for the first few years the fruit was hardly even budding.
Then the sacrifices became greater, like having to leave his wife and children while he went on missions to other tribes; watching his children suffer the sicknesses of Africa; allowing Me to take one of his children home to heaven; sending his family back to England while he labored alone in Africa; trusting Me, although his life was touched with affliction time and time again.
As he continued to serve and sacrifice, he continued to experience My great capacity to satisfy. Each year he found that I was more to him than the year before. And through proving Me, through testing My promises, by the words of his testimony, “I have never made a sacrifice’” you can see that he found that I was enough.
It is through the paths of sacrifice, obedience, service, and lowliness that you discover My great capacity to be the world for you. Sacrifice starts first and foremost in your heart, in your mind. It’s not so much about what you’re giving up or the physical circumstances you find yourself in—it’s about your heart and your attitude toward Me. It’s about your desire to please Me, your willingness to give to Me, your faith to entrust what is precious to you into My hands, your love to give all things to Me.
The more you give Me, the more you lay at My feet, the more of yourself you surrender to Me each day, the more decisions you make for Me, the more you obey Me and choose My way over your own desires, the more you give your love to Me, the more you seek to live My Word, the more you prove Me by your faith to stand on My promises, the closer you come to that place where I am enough.
This is a change that takes place inside you little by little each day. Each time you give to Me, make a sacrifice for Me, or surrender another bit of your heart and life for Me, you come a step closer to Me.
The more you give to Me, the more impassioned you become for Me. The more you live for Me, the more you will see Me work for you. The more you test Me, the more you will find My power is proved. The more you sacrifice for Me, the more you will gain from Me. The closer you draw to Me, the closer I will draw to you.—Until you reach the point in your life where you realize that I have fulfilled all your dreams, I have made good on all My promises, I have kept My every word, I have been faithful at every step, and I have proved that I am more than enough for you.
Choose the paths that I place before you. Let every decision you make be for Me. When met with the choice of doing the humble thing or the proud thing, choose the humble thing. When met with the option of sacrificing something for Me, give Me that offering as willingly as you can.
All the choices you make for Me bring more and more of Me into your life. All the times you choose to stand on My promises and put Me to the test bring you closer and closer to this place of all-compelling love for Me. If you want to reach this place of intense satisfaction that My completeness brings, then choose Me each time you are presented with a choice. Then you too will be able to say with Livingstone, “I have never made a sacrifice, for Jesus has always been enough.”
*
Don’t be afraid of discovering that I am enough. In reality, everything else will at some point disappoint you. Only I never change. Only I will endure and always meet your expectations. Only I can keep things together. Only I can care perfectly for those things that are most important to you, and I do, when you put them in My hands.
Originally published June 2006. Updated and republished August 2012.
Read by Bethany Kelly.
Download Audio (11.2MB)
Throughout life we go through hardships and we suffer loss. The Lord gives, and He takes away. We know He does it in love, but when something is painful for us, it’s often difficult to accept what He has done or is doing, to trust Him, to make the decision to believe that He knows best, and to flow with His plan, no matter how painful it seems at the moment.
There are times when, after something has happened in our lives, we’ve gone through a very difficult time, or had to let go of something dear to us, we reach a point through acceptance and submission to the Lord’s will in our lives where we realize that Jesus is truly enough.—Where our lives are relatively uncomplicated because we’re not so worried about things, or so intensely hoping for them to turn out a certain way; the place where we count everything else “but loss,”1 worthless in comparison to our relationship with Jesus and our desire to fulfill His will for our lives.
Sometimes, however, that hard-earned perspective is fairly short-lived. And it’s often so costly reaching that point. It would be nice if we could carry that perspective through our lives more consistently.
We’re naturally pretty attached to the things of this world. We are earthbound, and our human tendency is to put quite a few limitations on what we want to do, or are willing to do, or even feel we can do. We set boundaries, saying, “I’ll do this, but not that; I’ll give up this, but not that.”
But as disciples, we need a certain amount of detachment from the things of the world, or the values of the world. We need to be more heavenly minded and put a greater priority on those lasting values that are of such great worth in the heavenly realm. We should desire to be so in love with Jesus that other things don’t matter as much, where we have more trust in Him to do what is good in our lives, knowing that He’s in control and is going to bring good out of even the most difficult situations.
How do we reach that level of passion? How do we come to that point where Jesus truly is enough? When life is easy and you’re not having any big struggles, this concept can seem so far off or foreign, and even undesirable. But when you’ve been through something that has touched you deep down at the core of your faith, and you’ve made decisions there in the valley of testing that Jesus is enough for you, then you can relate to this concept, and you don’t ever want to lose that feeling. You know it was hell getting there, but once you have it, you have such peace and confidence in Jesus, and you find such comfort in His Word. Your spiritual life blossoms.
We asked the Lord how we can have that peace and dedication more consistently, that devotion and single-mindedness that enables us to say without regret or reservation, “Jesus is enough.”
Here are excerpts of His answers.
I am nigh to them that are of a broken heart, and I give grace to the humble. What this means is that there is a special closeness that is given to those who are humble and desperate for Me. And this humility and desperation is born often in those who have hit bottom and are clinging to their love for Me and their desire to partake of Me more fully. This is a special gift given to them, the honey that only comes forth after the squeezing.
When someone clings to Me through hard choices and deep sorrows, they experience pure joy and happiness of the soul. They know that they have made Me very happy by drawing close to Me, and they want to continue bringing that joy into their life by serving Me in whatever way I ask of them. They think so little of themselves and much more about Me and what My will for their life is.
There is no testimony without a test, no crown without a cross, no victory without a battle, and it’s often through the difficulties and breakings and hard times that you enter into this special union with Me.
The reason that hardships and difficulties bring this out so clearly is that they cut abruptly through the fog of your everyday life and bring you into direct contact with Me, and you have no other recourse but to cling tightly to Me.
This might make you wonder if trials and hardships are then the only way to be close to Me. The good news is, no. The hardships themselves aren’t what you’re after. What you’re after is knowing that there is nothing standing between you and Me, nothing you have held back from Me.
When you’ve rooted out anything that has stood between us, there is so much more room for Me to fill your life with My love and beauty and blessing.
The challenges in My Word present you with infinite choices over the course of your life to set your affections on things above, to let go of those things that would keep you from Me, to “lose your life” that you may truly save it.
You try to live as I would want you to live and forsake the things that come between us. I give you nudges about the things that stand between us, or about the props that you are carrying around with you, encouraging you to drop them. I show you the rooms of your life that aren’t fully open to Me and I encourage you to give Me access. Through those choices you draw close to Me, and even though you’re not in the middle of hardship, you know that nothing in your life is as important to you as Me.
*
Through putting Me first, and letting My Word humble your pride and bring your will into alignment with Mine, you will be drawn very close to Me, and you will know that I am the heart of your life and that I am enough for you.
Taste and see that I am good. Surrender to Me again and again, turning to Me, and let Me prove to you that with each thing you go through, I am enough to see you through. As you do this again and again—some through your own free-will offerings, some through what I require of you—slowly you come to that place of dependence on Me and knowing that I am enough for you.
When am I enough for you? It’s not necessarily a place that you reach after a certain set of circumstances, or a certain amount of experiences—it’s a place you reach in your heart and mind after personal decisions you have made for Me.
It’s a conscious decision that you make for Me when you hit upon the realization that, “Wow, my life is really not my own. Jesus is the only thing that has remained stable this far.” That’s when it dawns on you that I am truly enough—that even if you lost the whole world, because you have Me, you would have everything.
*
When David Livingstone began his missionary expeditions across Africa, things were a sacrifice for him. At the beginning of his service to Me, he couldn’t truthfully say, “I have never made a sacrifice,” because he hadn’t proved Me yet. He hadn’t tested My promises yet. He hadn’t yet tasted of My rewards in return for his sacrifices. He hadn’t yet experienced that I was enough for him.
And so there were sacrifices. First the sacrifices were relatively small, like the harsh climates he had to endure, the uncomfortable traveling conditions, the dangerous tribes he encountered, the pests and plagues of Africa like the mosquitoes, bugs, filthy water, and much more. Sometimes he wondered why he was even embarking on such a mission when the fruit seemed so pathetic; in fact, for the first few years the fruit was hardly even budding.
Then the sacrifices became greater, like having to leave his wife and children while he went on missions to other tribes; watching his children suffer the sicknesses of Africa; allowing Me to take one of his children home to heaven; sending his family back to England while he labored alone in Africa; trusting Me, although his life was touched with affliction time and time again.
As he continued to serve and sacrifice, he continued to experience My great capacity to satisfy. Each year he found that I was more to him than the year before. And through proving Me, through testing My promises, by the words of his testimony, “I have never made a sacrifice’” you can see that he found that I was enough.
It is through the paths of sacrifice, obedience, service, and lowliness that you discover My great capacity to be the world for you. Sacrifice starts first and foremost in your heart, in your mind. It’s not so much about what you’re giving up or the physical circumstances you find yourself in—it’s about your heart and your attitude toward Me. It’s about your desire to please Me, your willingness to give to Me, your faith to entrust what is precious to you into My hands, your love to give all things to Me.
The more you give Me, the more you lay at My feet, the more of yourself you surrender to Me each day, the more decisions you make for Me, the more you obey Me and choose My way over your own desires, the more you give your love to Me, the more you seek to live My Word, the more you prove Me by your faith to stand on My promises, the closer you come to that place where I am enough.
This is a change that takes place inside you little by little each day. Each time you give to Me, make a sacrifice for Me, or surrender another bit of your heart and life for Me, you come a step closer to Me.
The more you give to Me, the more impassioned you become for Me. The more you live for Me, the more you will see Me work for you. The more you test Me, the more you will find My power is proved. The more you sacrifice for Me, the more you will gain from Me. The closer you draw to Me, the closer I will draw to you.—Until you reach the point in your life where you realize that I have fulfilled all your dreams, I have made good on all My promises, I have kept My every word, I have been faithful at every step, and I have proved that I am more than enough for you.
Choose the paths that I place before you. Let every decision you make be for Me. When met with the choice of doing the humble thing or the proud thing, choose the humble thing. When met with the option of sacrificing something for Me, give Me that offering as willingly as you can.
All the choices you make for Me bring more and more of Me into your life. All the times you choose to stand on My promises and put Me to the test bring you closer and closer to this place of all-compelling love for Me. If you want to reach this place of intense satisfaction that My completeness brings, then choose Me each time you are presented with a choice. Then you too will be able to say with Livingstone, “I have never made a sacrifice, for Jesus has always been enough.”
*
Don’t be afraid of discovering that I am enough. In reality, everything else will at some point disappoint you. Only I never change. Only I will endure and always meet your expectations. Only I can keep things together. Only I can care perfectly for those things that are most important to you, and I do, when you put them in My hands.
Originally published June 2006. Updated and republished August 2012.
Read by Bethany Kelly.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Stephen Baldwin Aids, Prays With Woman Suffering Seizure
Audrey Barrick, Christian Post, Aug. 13, 2012
Stephen Baldwin, an actor and self-professed “Jesus freak,” is being hailed as somewhat of a hero for rushing to the aid of a woman who was suffering a seizure.
Baldwin was at the Peninsula Hotel in New York last Thursday for an informal meeting with his publicist when the actor heard a “loud bang,” according to the New York Daily News.
A woman had fallen to the floor and gone into convulsions, Baldwin told the Daily News.
The outspoken Christian actor said no one aided the woman. Baldwin, meanwhile, said he recognized that the woman had epilepsy (a member in his family has frequent seizures) and went immediately to help her.
As he held her hand, he said a few prayers and made sure her breathing wasn’t restricted.
The episode lasted more than three minutes before a nurse arrived on the scene. The woman regained consciousness.
Publicist Brad Taylor told the Daily News, “Stephen Baldwin was a hero to a girl.”
The 46-year-old actor, director and producer is the youngest of the Baldwin brothers and is known for being outspoken about his Christian faith.
“Loving Jesus is what’s most important to me,” he says in his testimony video on IAmSecond.com. “I know it sounds hokey but it’s the truth. My life is God’s life in me for Him to do with what He wants.”
Monday, August 13, 2012
Peace the World Cannot Give
AUGUST 3, 2012 4:00 A.M
Healing through a look at stories of heroic virtue.
An NRO Interview
Dawn Eden, author of My Peace I Give You
Dawn Eden has a new book about a difficult topic: sexual abuse. It’s called My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints. She writes as one who suffered from abuse as a child and converted to Catholicism as an adult. But what she presents, despite the title and what it might imply — something quite parochial — this is a book that tells the stories of heroic lives and the wisdom of their lived experience of faith. The book can serve as an inspiration for anyone, but it is a powerful aid for those who are suffering. Some of the men and women she covers are well known — such as Augustine ofConfessions fame — but others, including St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese-born slave, are less famous than they ought to be. Eden talks about the book with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.
LOPEZ: Did you find that writing this book was an obligation for you?
EDEN: Yes. I had the idea for it in December 2010, when, while looking at books at a friend’s house, I happened upon the story of Blessed Laura Vicuña in Ann Ball’s Modern Saints. I was stunned to discover that there was a young girl who had been declared Blessed by the Church — just one miracle away from canonization — who had been sexually abused, over a period of years, by her mother’s live-in lover, Manuel Mora. More than that, her mother even in some sense cooperated in the abuse, as she once tried to get Laura to dance with Mora at a party — fearful of what he would do if he were refused.
I had heard of other modern-day martyrs of chastity like Laura Vicuña, but they came from good Christian families. Laura’s story struck me because she knew what it was like to be without human consolation. More than that, she forgave on a level that was beyond anything I had seen in other saints’ stories. As she lay dying following a beating from Mora, she didn’t just forgive her abuser; she offered her life as a sacrifice for the conversion of her mother. Here was a saint who had emotionally suffered what I had suffered, and had the heroic virtues I so badly needed.
Then I thought about all the other people who had suffered childhood sexual abuse, and realized how much it might help them to know that they too had a kindred spirit in Blessed Laura.
LOPEZ: Why share about your own life?
EDEN: In proposing My Peace I Give You to my publisher, it was my intention to keep any revelations of my own life at a bare minimum. All I was going to say was that I was writing as a survivor of abuse; other than that, the book would just be stories of saints. The publisher insisted I put my own story into the book.
Although I make a point of not being graphic, just the same, it was not easy sharing about my own experience. But I’m glad I did, because victims are encouraged when they see other victims come forward.
I have come to believe that people who have suffered trauma as a result of the abuses that are widespread in secular society — the sins committed against the family and against the dignity of the human person — are going to be vital members of the next generation of Christian witnesses. Their witness will be particularly powerful because, having experienced their own Passion, they have risen to new life through faith in Christ.
LOPEZ: People other than abused children need the healing of “sexual wounds.” Is this a book for a lot of different kinds of sexual wounds? Some self-inflicted? Some cultural?
EDEN: I believe that the greatest wound caused by childhood sexual abuse is the wound to the child’s identity. John Paul II in his Letter to Families talked about how children need to develop their identity in an environment of truth and love. You can’t do that if you are subjected to lies and what John Paul called “the opposite of love,” which is “use” — that is, being treated as an object.
Being abused caused me to develop an identity that was founded not on truth but rather on the lies of my abusers — the utilitarian lies that made me believe I had no value beyond my usefulness to others. So, as a teenager and young adult, acting out of the lies I had absorbed, I compounded my pain by using people and letting them use me.
I tell readers in My Peace I Give You that they are not responsible for the abuse they suffered in childhood. We have that truth from the mouth of Christ when he casts woe upon those who would tempt little ones, and it has been affirmed again and again by the Church. But healing means more than recovering from the sins that were committed against us. It also means seeking and accepting God’s forgiveness for those sins we ourselves committed. I address both those issues in My Peace I Give You. For that reason, I believe its message helpful for anyone who is recovering from any kind of trauma or pain, particularly those in twelve-step programs, which likewise distinguish between healing from harm caused by others and ending harmful behavior.
LOPEZ: And it’s really a book for people who have no such memories — who have not been hurt in such a way — as well, don’t you think?
EDEN: I’m glad you picked that up, as I hoped in writing the book that readers would find it inspiring regardless of what experiences they brought into it. When I read Pope Benedict’s encyclical Spe Salvi — “Saved in Hope” — where he uses the story of St. Josephine Bakhita’s conversion to show what it means to have a real encounter with God for the first time, I felt it was a call to likewise use the power of storytelling to help people encounter God in their own lives. So that’s what I seek to do in weaving my own story with those of saints whose lives speak to me.
Syria and the Invisible Hand of Foreign Intervention
Eric S. Margolis, National Interest, August 10, 2012
The Polish Zionist ideologue Vladimir Jabotinsky, the father of Israel’s right wing, observed nearly a century ago that much of the Arab world was a fragile mosaic. A few sharp blows, he wrote, would cause it to shatter, leaving Israel the region’s dominant power. Jabotinsky may have been right.
Even if the Bashar al-Assad regime manages to hang on in Syria, that country’s economy is being wrecked, its people driven into poverty and neighbors tempted to intervene. Israel just threatened to attack Syria’s modest store of chemical weapons. Turkey is stumbling into the morass, egged on by the Saudis and Gulf Arabs. Russia’s national prestige is increasingly involved in Syria—which is as close to its borders as northern Mexico is to the United States. Iran may yet get involved.
We could be observing the beginning of a twenty-first-century version of the 1930s’ Spanish civil war, which became a proxy struggle between Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union. The only thing we know for sure about Syria’s civil war is that it is extremely dangerous to the entire region. Its outcome is entirely unpredictable. Meanwhile, the West keeps fueling the fires.
As a veteran correspondent who has covered fourteen conflicts and closely followed events in Syria since 1975, I have become convinced that there’s much more to the civil war raging in Syria than Westerners are being told by their governments or the blinkered media.
Last week, Reuters reported a classified intelligence “finding” signed by President Obama authorizing aid to the Syrian rebels. This may be the tip of the iceberg that eventually reveals an extensive covert campaign by the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to overthrow the Assad government in Damascus. According to this scenario, these U.S. allies would be using Qatar, assorted freelance jihadists and Lebanese rightists as cat’s-paws to sustain the uprising. Jihadists, both Syrian and foreign, may also play a spearhead role in the fighting.
In fact, the Assad clan was long a target of jihadist wrath, described as godless tyrants oppressing good Muslims, in bed with the heretical Shia of Iran and too often cooperating with Western powers. Osama Bin Laden called on all jihadists to overthrow the Assads. Bin Laden is gone, of course, but the movement he sparked continues to gain momentum.
That revolution has erupted again in Syria is no surprise: the Assad family and its Alawite power base have brutally ruled Syria for over forty years. Rebellions by the Sunni majority, led by the underground Muslim Brotherhood, have been crushed with ferocity. This writer was outside the city of Hama in 1982 when government heavy guns and tanks put down a Sunni rebellion there, inflicting an estimated ten thousand casualties.
But until recently, Syria was in our good books. The Assad regime quietly cooperated with Western powers and Israel, jailed or liquidated Islamists, and kept quiet about the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The Bush administration even sent Islamist suspects to be imprisoned in Syria. Assad was another of our unsavory allies.
However, that was before war fever over Iran gripped Washington. Overthrowing the Assad government, Iran’s only Arab ally, would be a natural first step in overthrowing Iran’s Islamic government and isolating, then eliminating, Israel’s bitter Lebanese foe, Hezbollah.
If Syria were shattered into little confessional ministates and Hezbollah crushed, Lebanon likely would become an Israeli protectorate. Such was the strategic plan of Israel’s General Ariel Sharon in 1982.
Western powers already may be employing destabilization methods in Syria that were perfected in Libya. The DGSE, French foreign intelligence, cobbled together a group of Libyan exiles to form the “National Forces Coalition,” which rallied anti-Qadaffi elements in Benghazi. Britain’s MI6 intelligence had been active there for decades stirring up opponents of the Qadaffi regime.
In Libya, NATO air power intervened on “humanitarian” grounds to halt killing of civilians. News reports showed only lightly armed civilians battling Qadaffi’s regulars. Not shown were French, British and some other Western special forces disguised as Libyans that did much of the fighting and targeted air strikes.
France made use of a similar tactics in its brief border war with Libya in 1986 over the disputed Aouzou Strip on the Chadian-Libyan desert border. Chadian troops supposedly routed Libyan forces. In reality, the “Chadians” were actually tough French Foreign Legionnaires decked out in Bedouin dress. I interviewed some of the Legionnaires involved.
Fast-forward to today’s Syria. As a former soldier, I cannot believe that anti-Assad forces in Syria have made such great strides on their own. All armed forces require command and control, specialized training, communications and logistics. How have anti-Assad forces moved so quickly and pushed back Syria’s capable, well-equipped army? Where does all their ammo come from? Who is supplying all those modern assault rifles with optical sights?
How have so many Syrian T-72 tanks and other armored vehicles been knocked out? Not by amateur street fighters. Powerful antitank weapons—likely French, American or Turkish—have been used extensively. You don’t blow up a modern T-72 tank with light, handheld RPG rockets. Powerful antitank weapons, like the U.S. TOW or French Milan, require professional, trained crews. The use of these weapons suggests that outside forces are involved in the fighting, as they were in Libya.
Now come reports that the rebels are receiving small numbers of man-portable antiaircraft missiles. If properly used, they would threaten the Assad regime’s armed helicopters. Yet using such missiles requires a good deal of training. I saw in Afghanistan in the 1980s how long it took the mujahidin to learn this skill from CIA instructors—and then how quickly the Red Air Force was denied air superiority.
If Syria’s rebels are being trained, it is probably happening in Turkey (which makes the deadly U.S. Stinger AA missile under license). However, the United States has a major campaign under way to prevent jihadist groups from acquiring such man-portable missiles. If the Taliban received effective antiaircraft missiles, U.S. military operations in Afghanistan would be seriously threatened.
According to Reuters sources, the United States may have worked with Turkish allies to set up a command HQ at Adana, close to its Incirlik airbase in eastern Turkey near the Syrian border. This is where it would make sense for U.S. intelligence to coordinate the flow of arms, communications gear, medical supplies, food and munitions to the Syrian rebels.
Other unverified reports from the Mideast suggest that the U.S. mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater (it recently changed its name to Academi) is training Syrian rebels in Turkey, moving in veteran mercenaries from Iraq, where there were once fifty thousand U.S.-paid private soldiers, and sending combat units into Syria.
Antiregime groups such as the Free Syrian Army probably would be ineffective without some kind of covert Western support. Whether they can grasp power from the jihadis who now dominate the streets remains to be seen. This gambit worked in Libya—at least so far. Syria, in contrast, is a very complex nation whose modern era has been marked by instability and coups.
After overthrowing one Syrian government in the late 1940s, Washington wisely backed off from Syria. Now it may get drawn back into the vortex of one of the Mideast’s most difficult nations.
Santos SacrÃlegos
De Hugh Halter
Ele adora o cheiro de cachorro e leite.
Bosco agora tem 42 anos de idade, e é um ateu realmente benevolente que viaja ao redor do mundo e faz documentários para mostrar as pessoas sem teto, a fome e a horrÃvel exploração do ser humano.
Há trinta e sete anos, aos 5 anos de idade, Bosco se viu escondendo-se debaixo da mesa no pequeno chalé de sua famÃlia no norte da Irlanda, tentando desesperadamente manter seu cão quieto distraindo-o com uma cuia de leite. Ele se escondia porque um bando de carrascos do IRA fora matar seu pai, que era um lÃder rival na resistência.
Bosco naquele momento fez uma oração sincera para Deus poupar a vida de seu pai. Dois segundos depois, e ele ouviu o disparo de uma arma e viu seu pai caÃdo ao chão. Ele ainda se lembra do cheio do seu cãozinho e do leite. Ele também se lembra de ver o assassino de seu pai duas semanas depois na missa, cantando hinos e baixando a cabeça para orar. Naquele dia ele resolveu que Deus não existia.
Como vim a conhecer Bosco? Acabei de celebrar o casamento dele. Terri, uma pessoa que busca a Deus, estava tentando me contar um pouco da história da vida dele. “Bosco tem sido o homem mais gentil, amável e respeitoso que já conheci. Espero que um dia, quando eu conseguir entender Deus, ele esteja mais aberto comigo. Deb me disse que você seria uma boa pessoa para ele conhecer, e eu realmente lhe agradeço por celebrar a nossa cerimônia de casamento.”
Comecei com esta história porque Deus realmente Se importa com a história da vida de uma pessoa. Ele não categoriza as pessoas como ateias, agnósticas, boas ou más cristãs, pagãs ou santas. Ele simplesmente vê as pessoas como são e entende sua desorientação ou vertigens espirituais com as quais as pessoas lutam, especialmente a vertigem causada pela religião e as pessoas religiosas.
Foi por isso que houve a encarnação de Cristo. João 1:14, diz, “A Palavra se fez carne e habitou entre nós, e vimos a sua glória como a glória do unigênito do Pai, cheio de graça e de verdade.”
Nós super espiritualizamos ou teologizamos por que Deus veio à terra através de Seu filho, mas a verdadeira razão para isso é que Ele sabia que o ser humano não tinha condições de entender, ver ou perceber Sua verdadeira glória a não ser que Ele viesse e vivesse entre nós como uma pessoa o menos religiosa que eles jamais conheceram.
Jesus tinha uma beleza sacrÃlega.
Ele era companheiro da turma errada, era gentil com os pecadores, abraçou os doentes, permitiu que as crianças fossem até Ele, e os discÃpulos dEle eram ainda piores. Eles não lavavam as mãos direito, comiam, se divertiam e trabalhavam no Sábado, e Ele derrubou constantemente os seus sistemas religiosos focado no templo e nos sacerdotes. Ele foi o homem mais santo que eles já haviam visto, mas com certeza era excentricamente não religioso… chegava a ser sacrÃlego!
Sacrilégio pode parecer uma palavra forte, mas simplesmente significa desafiar o que os outros pensam ser religioso para expor o verdadeiro Deus. E de tudo o que Jesus vez como “Deus encarnado”, o aspecto mais sacrÃlego de Sua vida foi a maneira como Ele deu dignidade a história da vida de cada pessoa.
Ora, isto talvez seja muito for a dos padrões para muitos de vocês, mas apenas 30 minutos antes da cerimônia de casamento, chamei Bosco até o meu jipe e o levei para fora das “premissas sem bebidas alcoólicas” da igreja, parei o carro e tirei do porta-luvas um pequeno frasco do uÃsque irlandês Jameson e lhe dei. Ele ficou com os olhos cheios de lágrimas ao receber e me disse, “Eu não acredito que você fez isto por mim, trouxe meus amigos de todas as partes do paÃs aqui para o meu casamento, mas os cristãos não me permitem ter nenhuma bebida alcoólica. Passei o dia sem jeito.
“Como é que você, sendo o pastor, me deu isto de presente?” Ao que respondi, “Porque Deus conhece a sua história e Ele parece não ter problema nenhum com deixar as pessoas beberem em casamentos.”
Ele tomou um gole, e eu então tomei um gole, e ele imediatamente colocou o seu braço ao meu redor e disse uma bênção irlandesa para mim. Eu então fiz uma oração irlandesa por ele.
“Então, por que você não termina?,” perguntei. Quando ele colocou a tampa de volta, disse, “porque quero dividir o resto com os meus amigos. Obrigado por honrar a mim e aos meus amigos hoje.”
Foi um bom momento, um momento de Deus, e ele sabia que a história de Bosco era importante para mim e quem sabe ele não começou a ver Deus de maneira diferente?
A encarnação o leva a se importar com a história de vida de cada pessoa. A vida incarnada tem a ver com ouvir especificamente aquelas coisas que desorientaram o coração e mente da pessoa. E ao aprender a colocar de lado as generalizações trivias, o dogma debilitante, o legalismo inútil e os versÃculos bÃblicos fora de contexto, você chega a entender o verdadeiro contexto do coração de uma pessoa e descobre as maneiras mais estranhamente apropriadas de ajudar os outros a se aproximarem de Jesus.
Sacrilégio é o segredo para os seus amigos encontrarem Deus, e se você for um discÃpulo de Jesus e fizer da sua meta de vida ser o mais irreligioso, e até mesmo sacrÃlego, verá que todo o mundo frio e preto-e-branco do cristianismo explode com as cores do reino.
Fromhttp://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/sacrilegious_saints_what_the_world_needs_and_what_god_wants_us_to_become/
Publicado por Âncora em julho de 2012.
Tradução Denise Oliveira. Revisão Hebe Rondon Flandoli.
Is Your Prayer Life Saving Souls?
A compilation
Download Audio (9.66MB)
The day started out as a celebration of God’s grace. Hundreds of new followers of Jesus had flocked to our church to publicly affirm their faith through baptism, while their friends, families, and members of the community looked on.
A sixty-something woman walked over to me to be baptized. Next to her was a brawny, tough-looking man who appeared to be a few years older. He looked like a construction worker, his leathery skin deeply etched with lines. I bet he didn’t even need a hammer to pound in a nail—he could probably use his fist.
I turned to the woman. “So, you’re here to be baptized,” I said.
She was brimming with joy. “Oh, yes, I am,” she declared.
I smiled at her answer. “Have you received Jesus Christ as your forgiver and leader?” I asked, although the inquiry seemed merely a formality after I had seen Jesus so clearly reflected in her eyes.
She nodded with enthusiasm. “With all of my heart.”
I was just about to baptize her when I glanced at the man at her side. He had been listening intently to what was being said. “Are you her husband?” I asked.
He straightened up. “Well, yes, I am,” he said matter-of-factly.
That’s when the question popped into my mind. In all of the hundreds of baptisms I have performed, I had never done this before. I asked him in a sincere and concerned tone, “Have you given your life to Jesus?”
He looked surprised and offended. For the briefest of moments, he glared at me. Then his face screwed into a pained expression, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he might hit me. But suddenly he burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably, his shoulders bobbing as he tried to catch his breath.
“No, I haven’t,” he managed to say between sobs. “But I want to right now.”
My knees almost buckled.
“Well, okay then,” I finally said. And with that, as thousands of people watched, he confessed that he was a sinner, he received forgiveness through Christ, and I had the privilege of baptizing him and his wife together.
He hardly looked like the same man moments later as he stood next to his wife as we all sang “Amazing Grace.” His smile was as broad and enthusiastic as hers.
Then at the end of the service, just after I stepped off the platform, another woman I didn’t know came bounding up and threw her arms around me. As she sobbed on my shoulder, all I could hear her say was, “Nine years, nine years, nine years ...”
As you can imagine, I was a bit flustered. “Excuse me, but who are you?” I asked. “And what do you mean, ‘Nine years’?”
She looked up at me, her eyes red from tears. “That’s my sister-in-law you baptized up there, and that’s my brother who you led to Christ and baptized with her,” she explained. “I’ve been praying for that man for nine long years, and the whole time I’ve never seen one hint of spiritual interest. But look what God did today!”
Instantly, a thought popped into my mind: Here is a woman who is glad she didn’t stop praying in year eight.
Maybe you’ve been in a similar situation. This woman would tell you to never give up. Never cease praying. Never stop lifting up those you care about to the throne of grace.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand everything about prayer. I know that God lets each person decide whether or not to follow him, and we can’t impose our will on someone else, as much as we’d like to. But I’m just naïve enough to believe the Bible when it says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”1 In fact, I like the quote popularly attributed to Mother Teresa: “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I stop, they don’t.”—Lee Strobel2
*
When we pray for people who do not know the Lord, God works. God honors the faith of a person who is so burdened for the lost that he or she writes the names on a list and prays for them every day. This is not some sort of magic formula, however. You see, when you become burdened for people … and begin fervently praying for them, God not only works upon their hearts to open them to the gospel, but He works on your heart to go witness to them.
That people are not witnessing is evidence that they are not praying! For the most part, Christians have little burden for the lost. This is no surprise, since the only way to get a burden is to get in touch with the heart of God in prayer. If you want a burden for lost people, then make it personal and put it down on paper. Write the names of a few lost friends or family members on a list and pray over those names every day.
American Christians in particular have become accustomed to an easy brand of faith. We expect all the blessings of God to be hand-delivered to us without much effort on our part. We want people to be saved and complain if people are not walking the aisle, but we do very little witnessing. We want answers to our prayers, but pray very little. We certainly do not want to do anything that might be difficult or that might exact too high a price.
In another generation, praying for the lost was often referred to as “travailing in prayer.” “Travail” is a word most often used for the process of a woman giving birth. Applied to praying for the lost, it teaches us that souls will not be won to the Lord unless we are actively engaged in the labor of prayer. Praying for the lost is the front lines of the spiritual conflict that rages in this world.
Allow me to suggest three practical steps to help you become a praying, witnessing follower of Jesus. First, establish a prayer list of a few lost friends, family members, or acquaintances. I have never written out such a list and prayed over it without seeing people saved. There is something eternally significant about putting names to paper and committing yourself to prayer. God honors our praying when we get serious enough to ask Him every day to save our loved ones. It is best not to make a long list, at first. Begin with three, or maybe five, names. If you are a reader, make your list a bookmark that you keep in whatever book you may be currently reading. Pray over your list as you open your book and then again as you replace the bookmark when you are finished. Keep a list with your Bible and use part of your daily quiet time to pray for those on your list. Whenever and wherever you can, pray over that list, lifting to God their names and needs.
Second, when you pray, really pray. It does little good to have a list if you are not willing to travail in prayer. Christians often falter when it comes to praying. We talk much about prayer, but spend little time actually praying. Also pray that God will prepare your heart to witness. When we ask God to send someone to a lost friend as a witness, He most often sends us.
The third step is to speak. Having prayed, use your voice to invite those on your list to [learn about the Lord]. Share your testimony with them. Explain the gospel to them. Invite them to read the Bible with you. Talk to them about spiritual matters. Tell them you are praying for them. If at first they are cold and nonresponsive, do not give up. Keep praying and keep speaking Jesus to them. Listen to their needs and problems. Love them, and above all be patient as you persevere in prayer.—Woody D. Wilson3
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It can take weeks, months, or even a lifetime to see the results of your prayers, but results are guaranteed! No matter how long it takes for Me to perform the miracle, it will be done, because I always answer the prayers of My children—sometimes immediately, sometimes further down the road, sometimes in the far future, or sometimes I answer in the spirit world.
So don’t ever stop praying for those you love, even if you aren’t seeing immediate results. Prayers bring results! Prayers weave the magical spell of My miracle-working power, and when it’s My time, the answer will be delivered.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy4
*
Oh, the lengths that I will go to save a lost soul! There is no sacrifice that is too much to make for even one of My lost children, no depths that are too deep for Me to stoop to in order to lift a weary and searching soul, no heart that is too far gone for Me to give My salvation to! How far are you willing to go for Me and for others?—Jesus, speaking in prophecy5
Published on Anchor August 2012. Read by Simon Peterson.
1 James 5:16 TNIV.
2 The Unexpected Adventure (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).
3 The Shadow of Babel (Hannibal Books, 2009).
4 Originally published August 2003.
5 Originally published August 2003.
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The day started out as a celebration of God’s grace. Hundreds of new followers of Jesus had flocked to our church to publicly affirm their faith through baptism, while their friends, families, and members of the community looked on.
A sixty-something woman walked over to me to be baptized. Next to her was a brawny, tough-looking man who appeared to be a few years older. He looked like a construction worker, his leathery skin deeply etched with lines. I bet he didn’t even need a hammer to pound in a nail—he could probably use his fist.
I turned to the woman. “So, you’re here to be baptized,” I said.
She was brimming with joy. “Oh, yes, I am,” she declared.
I smiled at her answer. “Have you received Jesus Christ as your forgiver and leader?” I asked, although the inquiry seemed merely a formality after I had seen Jesus so clearly reflected in her eyes.
She nodded with enthusiasm. “With all of my heart.”
I was just about to baptize her when I glanced at the man at her side. He had been listening intently to what was being said. “Are you her husband?” I asked.
He straightened up. “Well, yes, I am,” he said matter-of-factly.
That’s when the question popped into my mind. In all of the hundreds of baptisms I have performed, I had never done this before. I asked him in a sincere and concerned tone, “Have you given your life to Jesus?”
He looked surprised and offended. For the briefest of moments, he glared at me. Then his face screwed into a pained expression, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he might hit me. But suddenly he burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably, his shoulders bobbing as he tried to catch his breath.
“No, I haven’t,” he managed to say between sobs. “But I want to right now.”
My knees almost buckled.
“Well, okay then,” I finally said. And with that, as thousands of people watched, he confessed that he was a sinner, he received forgiveness through Christ, and I had the privilege of baptizing him and his wife together.
He hardly looked like the same man moments later as he stood next to his wife as we all sang “Amazing Grace.” His smile was as broad and enthusiastic as hers.
Then at the end of the service, just after I stepped off the platform, another woman I didn’t know came bounding up and threw her arms around me. As she sobbed on my shoulder, all I could hear her say was, “Nine years, nine years, nine years ...”
As you can imagine, I was a bit flustered. “Excuse me, but who are you?” I asked. “And what do you mean, ‘Nine years’?”
She looked up at me, her eyes red from tears. “That’s my sister-in-law you baptized up there, and that’s my brother who you led to Christ and baptized with her,” she explained. “I’ve been praying for that man for nine long years, and the whole time I’ve never seen one hint of spiritual interest. But look what God did today!”
Instantly, a thought popped into my mind: Here is a woman who is glad she didn’t stop praying in year eight.
Maybe you’ve been in a similar situation. This woman would tell you to never give up. Never cease praying. Never stop lifting up those you care about to the throne of grace.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand everything about prayer. I know that God lets each person decide whether or not to follow him, and we can’t impose our will on someone else, as much as we’d like to. But I’m just naïve enough to believe the Bible when it says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”1 In fact, I like the quote popularly attributed to Mother Teresa: “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I stop, they don’t.”—Lee Strobel2
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When we pray for people who do not know the Lord, God works. God honors the faith of a person who is so burdened for the lost that he or she writes the names on a list and prays for them every day. This is not some sort of magic formula, however. You see, when you become burdened for people … and begin fervently praying for them, God not only works upon their hearts to open them to the gospel, but He works on your heart to go witness to them.
That people are not witnessing is evidence that they are not praying! For the most part, Christians have little burden for the lost. This is no surprise, since the only way to get a burden is to get in touch with the heart of God in prayer. If you want a burden for lost people, then make it personal and put it down on paper. Write the names of a few lost friends or family members on a list and pray over those names every day.
American Christians in particular have become accustomed to an easy brand of faith. We expect all the blessings of God to be hand-delivered to us without much effort on our part. We want people to be saved and complain if people are not walking the aisle, but we do very little witnessing. We want answers to our prayers, but pray very little. We certainly do not want to do anything that might be difficult or that might exact too high a price.
In another generation, praying for the lost was often referred to as “travailing in prayer.” “Travail” is a word most often used for the process of a woman giving birth. Applied to praying for the lost, it teaches us that souls will not be won to the Lord unless we are actively engaged in the labor of prayer. Praying for the lost is the front lines of the spiritual conflict that rages in this world.
Allow me to suggest three practical steps to help you become a praying, witnessing follower of Jesus. First, establish a prayer list of a few lost friends, family members, or acquaintances. I have never written out such a list and prayed over it without seeing people saved. There is something eternally significant about putting names to paper and committing yourself to prayer. God honors our praying when we get serious enough to ask Him every day to save our loved ones. It is best not to make a long list, at first. Begin with three, or maybe five, names. If you are a reader, make your list a bookmark that you keep in whatever book you may be currently reading. Pray over your list as you open your book and then again as you replace the bookmark when you are finished. Keep a list with your Bible and use part of your daily quiet time to pray for those on your list. Whenever and wherever you can, pray over that list, lifting to God their names and needs.
Second, when you pray, really pray. It does little good to have a list if you are not willing to travail in prayer. Christians often falter when it comes to praying. We talk much about prayer, but spend little time actually praying. Also pray that God will prepare your heart to witness. When we ask God to send someone to a lost friend as a witness, He most often sends us.
The third step is to speak. Having prayed, use your voice to invite those on your list to [learn about the Lord]. Share your testimony with them. Explain the gospel to them. Invite them to read the Bible with you. Talk to them about spiritual matters. Tell them you are praying for them. If at first they are cold and nonresponsive, do not give up. Keep praying and keep speaking Jesus to them. Listen to their needs and problems. Love them, and above all be patient as you persevere in prayer.—Woody D. Wilson3
*
It can take weeks, months, or even a lifetime to see the results of your prayers, but results are guaranteed! No matter how long it takes for Me to perform the miracle, it will be done, because I always answer the prayers of My children—sometimes immediately, sometimes further down the road, sometimes in the far future, or sometimes I answer in the spirit world.
So don’t ever stop praying for those you love, even if you aren’t seeing immediate results. Prayers bring results! Prayers weave the magical spell of My miracle-working power, and when it’s My time, the answer will be delivered.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy4
*
Oh, the lengths that I will go to save a lost soul! There is no sacrifice that is too much to make for even one of My lost children, no depths that are too deep for Me to stoop to in order to lift a weary and searching soul, no heart that is too far gone for Me to give My salvation to! How far are you willing to go for Me and for others?—Jesus, speaking in prophecy5
Published on Anchor August 2012. Read by Simon Peterson.
1 James 5:16 TNIV.
2 The Unexpected Adventure (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).
3 The Shadow of Babel (Hannibal Books, 2009).
4 Originally published August 2003.
5 Originally published August 2003.
