I Beleve...Now What?

In my personal library at home I would have to say 2nd to books on prayer, I have more books on the topic of how to behave as a follower of Jesus. I have accumulated them over the years to help me live as a follower of Jesus and to help others. Basically it is trying to help with myself and others with the question, I believe... now what do I do?

 I had so many questions, and I continue to find others with questions. Are there a set of rules to follow? Can I do this or that as a Christian? Will I just start living like like Jesus? Why can't I stop some of my old habits? How good is good enough? The questions go on and on...

I would like to over a series of blog posts keep returning to this question. I by no means have all the answers. I continue to learn myself. But I do believe after many years of trying to follow Jesus with my life, I have learned a few things that I would like to share.

For simplicity sake let's say there are two camps. Of course, it isn't this easy or broad, but for argument's sake let's just go this route. On one side we have people who believe that there are a list of rules that we are given to obey as followers of Christ and we should obey them. In the other camp are those who quote Paul the Apostle and say," Christ is the end of the Law". It may take us awhile to figure out how to live as Jesus wants us to, we may make many mistakes along the way, but eventually we get there. Any of these two camps sound familiar?

Camp A believes there are rules for us to keep whether we like it or not. Camp B doesn't want to be hypocritical, so they think we should be authentic. Part of being authentic is that we are going to mess up as we "discover" the life we should live.

Camp A thinks that those in camp B are moral relativists, no black and white, just grey. Those in camp B think that those in camp A are legalists. Those who live by everything the Law says and push that belief on others without showing mercy like Jesus did with sinners.

Which camp would you say you identify with more?
Which camp have you encountered at church?

What I find is that both camps are really just trying to help us to become followers of Jesus and experience the life that He has intended for us.

Let's look at another issue. What am I here for? That is a question most human beings eventually ask themselves. It is also a question you will return to after you begin to follow Jesus with your life. We go through our lives not following Jesus and we ask the question What am I here for? Then we find out it is to serve God and live the life that He has prepared for us. But after that realization comes, we ask the question again, because now we want to know how do I live that out? We also wonder, do I just wait to die so I can go to heaven? What do I do with my life? How do I live it out between now and when I go to heaven?

Essentially what I am saying is that after we believe, we ask ourselves two questions, many times without knowing we are asking these two questions.
How do I live my life out between now and the time I die?
How do I make moral choices  now that I am a follower of Jesus?

I don't want to try to sell you on my view (actually I wonder if I have a view). But I would like to make us aware of some various views and explore these questions. I would like to help you explore those questions more in depth. The reason being, those two questions will be a part of your life now that you are a follower of Jesus. It all can begin with a simple question, I believe, now what?

Troy

How Quickly Things Can Change In Life

We don't know what he did except that he was a thief of some sort. Whatever it was, it was ruled that it was worthy of death. He is sentenced to die along with two others. As the day progresses, he along with the other thief who has been sentenced to die insult the other man sentenced to die. In fact, many in the crowd are insulting this other man who is not charged with being a thief.

I have had the opportunity to play music at many correctional centers, prisons if you will in my life. For the most part, the residents behave well and even helped us with carrying our equipment and wanting to talk with us. But, I will always remember the first prison I played at. Why? One reason is that I was around 15 or 16 years old and as we were setting up our equipment  to play outside in the yard, there was a small building somewhat close to where we were going to play. Inside the small building, though we couldn't see who was in there, we could here who was in there. What we heard was just filth coming from these men's mouths who were in that building. I don't know if it was directed at us or not. The guards told us just to keep walking to where we were supposed to set up. But even from where we set up we could still hear them cursing at us. I know they weren't directly mad at us, they were just made at the world.

I mention that story because when you get around people mad at the world, mad at their circumstances, they all basically start acting the same. I imagine those two thieves being like the inmates that I encountered at that first prison I played at. They were mad at life, mad at their situation, and they just take it out on whoever is around them. These thieves start yelling insults at this other man sentenced to die along with them.

As the day progresses, something interesting is taking place. The third person sentenced to die that day isn't acting like the other two. He isn't striking back and insulting the other two who are insulting Him. That would be a natural reaction. You are getting ready to die and you aren't going to let someone get the best of you as you leave this Earth. He also isn't striking back at the crowd insulting Him.In fact,  He hasn't said anything against the people who are helping to kill Him. What you do hear Him say is,"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."


 All the two thieves know is that this Man has claimed to be the Christ. Of course, earlier in the day they don't believe it.We aren't told when, we aren't told how, but at some point during that day one of the thieves sentenced to die realizes there is something different about this third man sentenced to die. He is not acting like everyone who has been in that situation acts. He is not defending Himself to those insulting Him. He is not taking one last opportunity to lash out at people and this world before He dies.

As their lives are drawing nearer to death one of the thieves makes one last ditch effort to save himself. He doesn't believe that this other man is the Christ. But maybe he figures," hey, what if He is, He can get me out of this situation." The thief is just thinking of himself. But as we read what follows, it isn't this man's life that is going to be rescued, but the other thief's life that will be rescued. Not from this experience, not from this death, but from eternal death.

One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ ? Save Yourself and us!" 40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation ? 41 "And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds ; but this man has done nothing wrong." 42 And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom !" 43 And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Luke 23:39-43

He had been on this Earth for approximatley 33 years. He had spent the last 3 showing who He truly was. Teaching about God's Kingdom, healing the sick, showing kindness, forgiving, and yet at this point about the only one who understands who He truly is, is this convicted criminal. The disciples? Outside of John none of them are here. Peter? Some hours earlier he had denied that he even knew Jesus. Not once, but 3 times. The crowds  who were shouting,"Hosanna" a week earlier? They were yelling," Crucify Him" a few hours ago. The religious leaders? They are insulting Him. They are telling Him if that He really is the Christ then prove it by coming down from the cross.

At the end, it's this convicted criminal who gets it. He sees who Jesus truly is. In the end, we once again see God's heart. Here is a man who probably had spent much of his life in crime. A man who society had given up on. A man who had probably years earlier given up on himself. But One hadn't given up on him, and that was Jesus.

We get another chance to see that it doesn't matter what we have done in the past. If we truly recognize Jesus for who He truly is we can spend eternity with Him. Your past doesn't have to define your future.

This thief starts out his day knowing that he is going to die. During the day he is insulting Jesus along with everyone else. Later on, he realizes who Jesus truly is. Before the day is over, he is in paradise with Jesus. How quickly things can change in life.

Troy

When We Are Feeling Sorry For Ourselves (a lesson from C.S. Lewis and Narnia)

Over the past year I have been rereading C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. I was first introduced to The Lion Witch and Wardrobe in a Children's Literature class in college. I remember enjoying that book as a fairly new follower of Christ with all the allegory.

Currently I am reading The Horse and His Boy. I won't go into all the details of the book, but for those of you who are not familiar with the series let me give you a very quick background. There is a place called Narnia and there is a Lion named Aslan who is a Christ like figure. There are diffeent characters in the book but, Narnia and Aslan remain constant.

As I was reading chapter 11 today, I was again reminded of Lewis' wonderful way that he could put spiritual truth in a "children's book".What I would like to do is relate what I was reading to our lives.

 There is a boy named Shasta who is feeling sorry for himself. We have all been there I'm sure. We feel like the world is against us. That nothing is going right and nobody cares about our situation. When we are feeling like this we think of everything that has gone wrong in our lives, even since we were kids. This is what Shasta is feeling like. At this point Shasta is crying because he is feeling sorry for himself, but then he senses a presence. Lewis puts it like this:
It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about, he stopped crying.

Eventually Shasta starts having a conversation with this presence. He doesn't know what this presence is, but he begins telling it all of his troubles, and how things have gone bad for him. He also tells this presence how lions had been chasing him etc...

The presence lets Shasta know that he was the Lion that was in all these different episodes of his life:
I was the lion who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.

Again you have to remember that in Lewis' Narnia series, the lion Aslan is a picture of Jesus. In this passage we are being reminded that Jesus has always been with us. Think over your life, Jesus has been there with you through it all. He has been orchestrating it to get you to this point of your life. Though you and I may have only seen bad in the past, what we fail to see so often is that Jesus is leading us to something that He has planned for our good. Sometimes that involves difficulty. But remember what is going in our lives isn't just happening by chance. There is purpose behind it. I agree that it doesn't always make sense to us. We are just human and we don't always understand God's ways. But make no mistake, He was there in your past, He is with you right now, and He will be with you in your future.

After his encounter with Aslan, Lewis describes what Shasta feels:
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.

When we encounter Jesus in our lives isn't this what happens. We know He has the power to destroy us if He desired to do so. We know that He would have every right to pronounce judgment on us if He desired. But we realize that He isn't going to. And a new and different sort of trembling comes over us. But it isn't a negative fear but a positive fear. A reverence if you will, what the Bible refers to as "fear of the Lord".

As Shasta finally sees Aslan and His glory, here is what happens:
But after one glance at the Lion's face he slipped out of the saddle and fell at its feet. He couldn't say anything, and he knew he needn't say anything.
The High King above all kings stooped toward him......He lifted his face and their eyes met.

Some day those who have followed Jesus will see Him and what will we be able to do in response to seeing Him? Probably like Shasta nothing but fall at His feet like Shasta did with Aslan.

If you have never read The Chronicles of Narnia series I would encourage you to do so.Though geared towards children, countless adults enjoy these stories. If you have read the series, let me encourage you to go back and reread them as I have. Though I have enjoyed the movies made so far in the series, they don't come close to depicting what you experience when you read the books.

Finally, the next time we are feeling sorry for ourselves, let us remember that Jesus is there with us in our situation.

Troy

Infected

Well it finally happened. I got my first computer virus. After all these years, I was finally infected. The worse part for me was the fact that I didn't have my stuff backed up, and yet I couldn't just reformat the computer because I needed the stuff that was on my laptop. All my church work was on there, not to mention my strat-o-matic baseball games. I am in the last week of a replay of the 1971 season and Hank Aaron has broken Roger Maris' record. I have an assembled team of my own from the 2009 season and Cliff Lee is 13-0 at the All Star break. Not to mention all of the other season I have played and keeping all the stats. The strat-o-matic forum is waiting to see how my two current seasons are going to finish. (strat o matic is my stress reliever. It is my nothing box for those who are familiar with Mark Gungor) In all seriousness all the church stuff from the past year is the stuff I didn't want to lose.

So I had to make a trip to Best Buy to see if the geek squad could get rid of the virus and yet save all my data. Thankfully they said yes it would be possible. All I would need to do was give them $300. Well I was stuck with no other choice so I said ok. A $300 mistake.

You may be wondering how I contacted the virus. This is the frustrating part, for had it been any other day I would not have hit the link. Recently I purchased a Blu Ray of an old western. But the audio was out of synch. I did some research and found that this title had that problem and that it was better to contact Warner Brothers to get them to send a replacement. I contacted Warner Brothers and they sent me a fed ex envelope to send the defective disc in and then they would send me the new one. As I woke up yesterday I was thinking of how it had been a few weeks since I sent off the disc and was thinking this week I will probably get the new one. As I checked my email there was one that said it was from Fed Ex and that that it could not deliver my package and that I needed to click on the link to get the info..... so I clicked, and the rest is history. If I had just thought for a second before clicking I would have thought through how Fed Ex would not have my email address. Warner Brothers does but not Fed Ex. If I would have just had thought it through I would have been able to remind myself that when something in the past couldn't be delivered there was a message left on my door. But no, I had just been thinking about the disc coming and I clicked. A $300 mistake.

Obviously I didn;t write this to bore you with how I got a computer virus. I like to look at the every day things that happen to us and see how those things can relate to our relationship and living life with God.

The big coorelation that I see is that, everything was just right for me to get the virus. What I mean is that had I not been expecting a package from Fed Ex I would have deleted that email instantly. It wouldn't have meant anything to me. I have seen that this is how the enemy works in our lives. He is very cunning, very deceitful, he sets us up waiting for the right moment. He is good at it, he has been able to trick us all our lives. He doesn't necessarily do things that are so obvious, because he knows we wouldn't fall for it. But he is very sneaky, waiting for the right moment to bring the temptation. And then .......we are infected. It looks right, it feels right, it's what we are looking for, but it is a setup.

Next, my computer contracted a virus but there were people who could help. My computer does not have to live with the virus. You and I have made mistakes and picked up bad habits, wrong thinking, we have a nature that is at war with God, etc.... but we don't have to stay that way. There is someone who can fix us, and His Name is Jesus. The Bible says,"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8b

Finally, it cost me $300 to get rid of the virus and save my files etc... When it comes to our lives, our sin, it doesn't cost us to get fixed, it cost Jesus His life. Even though we made the mistake, even though we knew better, even though we are the ones infected with sin, yet Jesus was willing to give His life so that we could be fixed. We can receive the grace He offers if we would just accept it.

Remember you don't have to stay the way you are. Jesus can help. Call out to Him. He is real and He will help. Not always the way we think would be best, but He can and will help. We don't have to live our lives infected.

Troy

Did You Do It?

Did you do it? Did you do something that you shouldn’t have? Did you not do something that you should have?


Did you do it? Did you think a thought you shouldn’t have? Did you react the wrong way? Did you open your mouth when you should have kept it shut? Did you keep it shut when you should have opened it?

Did you do it? Did you look at what you shouldn’t have? Did you not look at what you should have?

Did you judge, indulge, make wrong choices etc…?


How are you feeling? Discouraged, worthless, defeated, condemned, guilty?


Did you do it?

Did you confess it to Jesus?

Did you ask for forgiveness?

Did you remember that He forgives?

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9

Did you remind yourself that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus?

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit
Romans 8:1-4

Did you remind yourself that He is faithful?

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
2nd Timothy 2:13

Did you remind yourself that you are victorious through Jesus Christ?

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place
2nd Corinthians 2:14

We can’t take sin lightly, but we also can’t allow it to paralyze us and keep us stuck in the past. We don’t have to be defined by our failures when there is a Savior who offers forgiveness for our past, power to overcome what keeps holding us back and the opportunity to move forward in life. Remember Jesus went to the cross for us and rose again with all power and authority. Did you do it?

Troy

Life Can Get Tough, But God Is Still With You

Throughout all of human history, the voice of God resounds with absolute assurance: "I am with you."
Richard Foster

I sure do enjoy it when things go smoothly. I love it when I hear a song and I think I have it figured out before I even pick up the guitar to learn it and when I go to learn it, the chords are as I thought. I love it when there is a challenge and a thought comes to me as to how to resolve it, and when I follow that action, it does work out.

If only life were that smooth all the time. It seems every time I go to download some new program for the computer I missed a step, or I don't have some type of software that is needed. It just never goes smoothly.

Of course, there are more serious issues than those that we have to face in life. When we face those really troubling issues and there is no fix, or it doesn't seem like anything is changing, we can begin to doubt God even being there with us.

Sadly, there have been many who have come to the conclusion that God isn't there for them ,or after praying and seeing no result, or it turns out worse, people can come to believe that God isn't real.

When life is falling apart it is not always easy to believe that God is there for you, but He is. The enemy of our soul wants us to believe that God doesn't care, or that He isn't there, but He is.

Facing a challenging time right now? He is there.
Life isn't getting any easier? He is there.
People are telling you to give up on God? He is there.
Thoughts inside your head telling you nothing is ever going to change? He is there.

The Bible is full of stories of people going through tough times and God having to remind them that He was with them.

To Issac on the move: "Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you" (Genesis 26:24).

To Jacob escaping from the wrath of his brother: " I am with you and keep you wherever you go" (Genesis 28:15).

To Joshua, the man who follow Moses as the next leader : "I will be with you as I was with Moses" (Joshua 3:7)

... And the list goes on:

1st Chronicles 17:2

Isaiah 41:9,10

Jeremiah 1:7,8

Matthew 28:20

Acts 18:9,10

We could mention more.

 Richard Foster says,"Across thousands of years, with wave upon wave of names and faces and recurring events, the Bible threads God's patient words of love and faithfulness: I am with you."
 
 
Troy

Struggle

In our North American context, failure and struggle are often viewed as problems, jagged detours on what is supposed to be the smooth, straight road of life. It's a distinctly Western phenomenon, but one that subtly impacts our Christian perceptions.  Chuck DeGroat


For some reason, those of us who follow Jesus have bought into the above statement at one time or another in our life of following Jesus. Sadly, many stay in the mindset of the above quote.There are those who have come to find out that even though you are a  follower of Jesus your life will still have struggle. But even then those people can fall back into the above mindset, if the struggle goes on too long.

What makes it so hard for us to accept that struggle is a part of life? Why do we think that if we begin to follow Jesus with our lives that there should be no more struggle? If we fail to see that struggle is a part of life we will come up with all kinds of untrue explanations. Worse yet, we will have to hear the opinions of those who don't believe there should be any struggle in the Christian life.

See if you have heard any of these statements before;
"There must be some sin in your life"
"I'm not saying you are possesed, but you may have an evil spirit oppressing you"
"You just aren't exercising enough faith to get out of your situation"
"If you were more committed to Jesus, this wouldn't be going on in your life'
"This is probably a generational curse passed down from your great, great, great grandparents"
The list could go on and on.

Now let me say, I believe all of the above statements can happen in a person's life and be the reason as to why they are experiencing struggle. But I believe as followers of Jesus, that we aren't to just throw out ideas like these and go down our "list" on someone. Imagine the damage you could do to a person who is really struggling with something and then you just throw out one of the above statements without really knowing the person's situation. You could make the situation worse. Sadly, many want to feel as though they are "spiritual" and will throw out the above solutions quickly, rather then taking the time to get to know the person and their situation.

I think at the root of the situation is that we are uncomfortable with struggle. Obviously we don't like it in our lives, but we are also uncomfortable in seeing it in someone else's life. So we try to come up with a quick fix.

I was reading recently in the Book of Acts where the apostle Paul was telling the people that even though the Prophets, the Books of Moses, etc... had been read regularly in the synagouges, yet the people didn't recognize who Jesus was when He came and they had Him crucified. Think about that, they had been reading for hundereds of years about a Messiah to come, and when He came they didn't recognize Him.

Well, those of us who are followers of Jesus have the Bible to read. Isn't it interesting that in just about every story in the Bible, and in just about every person who we get some detail about their lives, there is struggle. Think of it, Abraham, Joseph, David, Peter, Paul, and the list could go on and on. All of them had struggles and not all of those struggles were the result of them doing something "wrong". Yet, we somehow can believe that there is something not right about experiencing struggle even though everyone in the Bible experienced it. Aren't we just like the people that Paul spoke about in Acts, just in a different way?

We have difficulty with struggle many times because at the heart of the matter, we think we can control God. When struggle comes we have to realize that we aren't in control. If times are good we look at what we are doing, our actions, and we think we have somehow found a way to please God and with that some way in that we are controlling Him. But, when struggle comes we have a hard time excepting it because we haven't changed our actions, so our thought process is why did the struggle come? Which then can lead to the realization that we aren't in control, which means we aren't in control of God. We would never admit it, but deep down many of our actions are ways of trying to see if we can manipulate God. We want to find God on our terms, but He wants it on His terms.

Struggle is a part of life. For some reason we have trouble with this truth. Struggle is going to come even when you are living a life that is pleasing to God. Sometimes the struggle is a result of wrong actions on our part. When we realize what we have done that was wrong, let's adjust our lives accordingly. Struggle can be the result of the enemy,of our souls, at those times we have to rely on God and fight. Remember though, not every struggle is the result of you or I or some other person doing something wrong. Let us not be hasty in jumping to wrong conclusions. It can lead to more harm than good.

 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to  Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
 Acts 14:21,22


 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
 Psalm 34:19

Troy