I was recently asked a question, something to this effect: “What has happened to the younger generation Christians? Why are they not worshiping God seriously?” I wondered if the younger generation wasn’t asking the same question about my generation.

It reminded me of the account regarding the church where Matt Redman attended, the author of the popular song The Heart of Worship. (see links below) The church leadership realized that they had made an idol of their music. So they did a bold thing and stopped it altogether, at least the instruments and sound system. They worshiped God in silence, they prayed, and they sang songs a cappella. After several weeks they began to reintroduce instrumental music. The song The Heart of Worship was born out of these events.

The issue, I think, is what is called “religious trappings.” I think we’ll find that were all guilty of that in varying degrees. It’s not just the Catholics with their ceramic idols, beads, and worship of saints. Last Sunday the question was posed, “are you ‘all in’” referring to a term in poker. That is, are you completely sold out to God? Have you given everything, risked everything for Him? Another question was asked, “does your love of Jesus inspire you to shout as loud as you would at the Super Bowl?”  The parable was brought up of the man who sold all that he had to buy the field with a precious treasure.  (Matthew 13:44)

If we are honest with ourselves I think we must admit that we have our own sort of idolatry in spite of the first couple of commandments, that our relationship with God isn’t what it ought to be, and that we practice religion more than we practice the life of Christ in us.  (Ephesians 1:18-21)

At our church we are using a tool called Christian Profile Life Assessment Tool or CPLAT for short. It helps assess ourselves amd each other in three areas, our beliefs, our practices, and our virtues. I rated low on compassion which was no surprise to anyone. It did reveal some other things which encouraged me to want to improve on them. None of the areas where I needed improvement were really any surprise to me. I had simply neatly tucked them away and conveniently forgotten about them.

So now I’m asking questions about myself. This verse in Ephesians comes to mind, “don’t be foolish but find out what pleases the Lord.”  (Ephesians 5:17)   There’s another verse, one that references Eve, the only New Testament reference to her, where the writer says, “I fear that you’ve lost your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3)

I am concerned about some things that I see in some younger generation Christians. But I first need to get the log out of my own eye. I also need to remember that when I, too, was young and foolish I was young and foolish. In other words, I need to give this younger generation time to grow up. I need to trust God in this matter. I need to pray for this younger generation. And I need to remember my responsibility to mentor and encourage anyone who will listen. I can’t just be concerned about them; I’m not off the hook: I have responsibilities.

It is vitally important to assess our health, our faith, find out where we are, what we are doing, where we are going, to see if we are growing, maturing, healthy, heading in the right direction, and worshipping God with sincerity and pure devotion.  I want to be more like Christ every day, becoming like Him, obeying Him doing the will of the Father and thus pleasing Him and glorifying Him.

Only as I do all this can I say to a younger generation, “follow me as I follow Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 11:1)

Links:
The Story Behind the Song as told by Matt Redman (audio file)
Song Story: Matt Redman’s “The Heart of Worship”
Lyrics to “The Heart of Worship”

Postscript: For all who searched incorrectly and still landed here, it is Matt Redman, not Matt Redmond. My son recently moved to Redmond, WA and I couldn’t seem to get the Redman not Redmond thing correct.

It is no secret to those who know me well that the book of Ecclesiastes is one of my favorites. To many people it may seem a depressing book. After all, it starts off, “Vanity, vanity. All is vanity.” But I find the book to be encouraging, even uplifting.

It’s true that this wise writer honestly reveals the things in this world which appeare ultimately to be meaningless. Wealth, poverty, wisdom, and foolishness are all said to be meaningless-but there’s a catch. You have to read the entire book perhaps several times to really understand the intent of the author. Maybe this is a major spoiler, or perhaps it may help jumpstart an understanding of the book:

The bottom line is this: everything apart from God is meaningless. I believe that this is an Old Testament parallel verse to what Jesus said in John 15:5. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Apart from God you can do nothing; Apart from God life is meaningless.

When we see, in this world, how the righteous receive what the wicked deserve and the wicked receive what the righteous deserve we can only conclude that life is meaningless-apart from God.

Not to oversimplify the manner of writing, it does appear that this writer is at times speaking from the meaningless worldly point of view and then giving us an alternative or contrasted point of view. It’s as if you can always add the terminology, “apart from God” at the end of all the verses which speak about our meaningless life.

I believe we are seeing modern renditions of the theme of Ecclesiastes in such popular books as “The Purpose Driven Life” and “Search for Significance.” These books give meaning to our “meaningless” life by pointing out our purpose and significance in Christ. No doubt there are numerous other similar books but these two come to mind.

I think that if you were to read and even meditate upon Ecclesiastes 9 versus one through 10 and then go back and read the entire book beginning to end you would have a much greater understanding of life.

Ecclesiastes 9: 7-10 says this:

“Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”

Toilsome labor, meaningless days, I think another translation actually calls it miserable days. In all this I will anoint my head with oil, go with gladness, eat food, drink wine, and enjoy life with my wife. Because once I’m in the grave I won’t do any of these things. Thus I tell people, “I’m not 6 feet under so I’ll enjoy life (inspite of pain, in spite of the meaninglessness of life).”

For you, your pain may be different than mine. It may be a meaningless 4 hour-per-day commute, a miserable boss that you don’t get along with, financial difficulties, difficulty communicating with your wife or your children, or perhaps you, too, have health difficulties, physical pain, emotional or psychological problems.

For me, to leave the comfort of my bed risking that my feet will get cold, my pain will spike, and sometimes even experience tightness in my chest due to the constant gritting of my teeth (due to pain), I throw all this aside in order that I might enjoy the fellowship of the Saints on Sunday, watch my son at his archery lesson, sit down at the dinner table to enjoy a meal with family and friends. For me these things aren’t just difficult, they are painful. But then life is meaningless-apart from God.

In person I do a pretty good job most of the time hiding my pain, I think. I don’t want the focus of conversation to be on me or my pain. But in fact I’ll tell you honestly here that my pain level can be a 6, 7, or occasionally an 8 out of 10 even while we are pleasantly talking with one another. (I’ve learned a lot about self-control in my learning to manage this pain.)

This is the race marked out for me. I will run it with perseverance. I will fix my eyes on Jesus who demonstrated the manner and way that I should go. I will look for the joy set before me; Jesus said that he goes to prepare a place for me. I will not grow weary or lose heart because in Christ, even when I’m weak-I am strong.

I am in Christ as opposed to apart from God! That makes all the difference in this world!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”   (Hebrews 12:1-3)

If I were to pick one verse out of the entire Bible which has encouraged and directed my life more than any other verse, I think it would be Colossians 3:3. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” There are numerous companion versus such as Romans 6:8. “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” These verses, in fact the entire New Testament, highlight the fact of immediacy, that is, that my life in Christ is in the present, every moment of every day.

It’s no secret that a favorite subject of mine concerns our identity in Christ. True personal freedom comes from dying to ourselves and living the life of Christ in you. From a purely intellectual analysis this does not in any sense. Before I accepted Christ and was born again I was incapable of accepting the truth. And yet at that time I was in turmoil, my life and lifestyle bankrupted, unable to satisfy my soul. In contrast I now have perfect inward peace and joy in spite of the threat and storms around me.

What happened? What’s the difference? Salvation!

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  (Romans 10:9-11)

For many people the busiest, most harried time of the year is the Christmas season. Ironic because it should be a season of peace marked by celebrations of the Prince of peace come into the world. This lack of peace is frustrating, aggravating and it seems to be getting worse every year. I think that it may be an accentuated reminder of how far I’ve drifted from the Lord over the course of the year.

How is it that I drift away from him? Why am I afraid to be intimate with my Lord? Complacency, neglect, avoidance, running–running the wrong way, running for the wrong reasons, running in circles, running away from the Savior who loves me, running to emptiness and ultimately death.

God is so patient, so generous, so loving. His perfect love draws me to change direction. But the choice is still mine to make. Could it be selfishness and pride that keeps me heading in the wrong direction? The choice begins by acknowledging and receiving his love. What follows is humility and obedience, and following the right direction towards life.

For those who read this journal and wonder what I’m talking about specifically, I’ll try to clarify a little. I don’t seem to suffer under the oppression of bad habits which are so common to the flesh. That is, I don’t smoke, get drunk, drink strong drink, or any kind of sexual sin. I also don’t seem to have the common sinful ailments of the soul. I don’t hold a grudge, I don’t fantasize, I’m not lazy, I never give up working dilligently for God’s Kingdom. No, my sin is far worse than any of these. It isn’t a sin of the flesh or of the soul but of the spirit. Sins of the flesh may kill your physical body, sins of the soul will make you miserable, but sins of the spirit are the worst sins of all.

One of the verses that haunts me is this: (Luke 12:48b)

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Not only have I tasted the goodness of the Lord, heard his voice, felt his touch, but I have also seen, just for a fraction of a second,  a beam of his glory shine in front of me.* It was as if somebody opened a door just a crack and a beam of light escaped shining across the floor and onto the far wall. Had I been in a position where the been hit me directly I think it would have destroyed me. God’s glory is so bright, so powerful, so holy.

* This experience, early in my learning to walk with God, was very personal. Not everyone has a “mountaintop experience”. If not then it is because God has given you more faith, He has trusted you more than I. It was in my weakness that He demonstrated His glory, power, and holiness within my mind, not a real vision, but an understanding. I say all this so that no one would be envious of something God gave me. If you are His then you have the very power of God within you! (Ephesians 1:18-21) If you feel lonely or empty there are several possible reasons. For instance, God’s saints will go through a desert, even in the shadow of the valley of death. It is His will that we be tested. Don’t assume that lonliness is a sign of God’s distance. God will never leave or forsake you! Have you ever read Footprints in the Sand?

How can I experience all of this beauty of God and still have any concern for worldly things? Why does my heart still feel any pride? Why do I failed so miserably demonstrating God’s love? Why is it still difficult for me to receive love? Why do I become anxious in a storm?*

* The storm in my life is under God’s control and I trust Him in this process yet not without sinful anxiety. In brief, I had my disability income reduced, received unexpected bills, and both my vehicles broke down in the same week. This is not only a test of my faith. God is teaching me to ask for help and to receive love…and I find these things very difficult to do. I am sometimes in tears not because of the difficulty but that I won’t ask for help. I don’t think it is my pride. I tell people that is because I don’t want to put people out and that is partially true. But the real reason is that I don’t know how to receive love very well. How sad! How sinful!!

Hebrews 12:1-3:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

These verses greatly encourage me. “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” I recommend that you read beyond that verse down to verse 13.

Here is what I will do:

I will throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.
I will run with perseverance the race marked out for me.
I will fix my eyes on Jesus.
I will not grow weary and lose heart.

God is my Shepherd, my Redeemer, my Lord. I will follow Him. I know that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

But I will also learn to ask for help, receive love from others, and praise God in everything! I will not turn away from God’s love or turn down the love of the Saints. I am looking forward to see what God will do through His Body.

I will praise God now and forever!

I wonder how long it will take me to catch on to things. I wonder at the oscillations in my life, the inconsistencies, the incongruities, (“not harmonious in character; inconsonant; lacking harmony of”), the blindness to the depth of my own sin, the insensitivity to my own nature, the confusion, the pride, the deception, the death. When will I finally, completely agree with my brother Paul.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24)

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:” (Romans 7:18a)

I imagine that I long to be like my Lord. But I squirm and struggle in every trial that comes along. If it isn’t comfort that lulls me to complacency then it is pain that makes me desire comfort. Even when I think I have faith it is really by His mercy and His grace that I’m not consumed.

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22)

The phrase “three steps forward two steps back” doesn’t seem to describe the process. It’s something more like “constantly failing and falling apart except for God’s miracles in my life”.

Now it may sound like I’m being hard on myself but that’s not really the case at all. First of all, the reality is that I really do deserve death. (Romans 6:23) Praise God, there is a “however”. The “however” is that I’m born again and now have the life of Christ in me.

“the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20)

Praise God that even the processes is entrusted to Him otherwise there’d be no hope.

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Philippians 1:6)

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2)

The Gospel is good news indeed. I am indeed being conformed to the Life of Christ that is in me as I become conformed unto his death. I lay aside my earthly trophies and loose my life for His sake. (Matthew 10:39)

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown. (The Old Rugged Cross)

Philippians 3:4-15 (NIV):

4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. 

      If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 

 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

The cross is beautiful to me for through it I find Life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says it clearly: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.” Sometimes people incorrectly stop reading there–the thought continues in verse 10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God planned for us to do good works. Whatever those works are, however you want to interpret these verses, the fact remains: we have something to do for God, something He wants us to do.

This makes me wonder: We wake up in the morning, drink our coffee, and go to work. At the end of the day, we drive home, grab a bite, go to sleep. Something’s missing. And we’re too busy and too tired to think much about it. It deserves a little thought.

Getting in touch with what we are supposed to be doing begins with knowing who we are–more accurately, whose we are. We work for God. “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” (1 Corinthians 7:23)  There was a former employer, and our former self worked for him. But we are to put aside that former way of life, change our attitude, and put on our new business suit. Here is the key, in Ephesians Chapter 4:

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I love that whole verse, (I love the whole Bible), but the last part of that first brings me such joy. That we are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness is a thought so big that we should etch it on our hearts and minds. We need help to understand such a lofty thought.

God gave us an employee manual. It tells us everything we need to know for life. It even tells us how we should treat our earthly masters AKA employers. We don’t quit our jobs just because we are born again. We return and work as unto the Lord.

We have to get away from thinking this world is everything there is to life. We of all people should know that. We are here for God’s purpose. It’s not about our jobs, possessions, or security in this world. It’s not about us at all.  “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” (Romans 8:9)

Once we are born again we have a better vocation, a higher calling. That higher calling includes revealing God’s glory as we live out the remainder of our life in this world.

With every breath we take, with every move we make, let’s glorify God. As we walk in His faith and obey Him by His grace, He is glorified. This is what I want to do every day.

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”   Matthew 5:16

The first time I saw the movie “The 10 Commandments“, I was impressed with the special effects. Remember though, the movie came out in 1956. I don’t remember how old I was when I saw it, but it was long before I accept Christ as my Savior. Thus the movie had no spiritual significance to me at all; it was just an entertaining movie.

Many years later, now born again, I watched the CleanFlicks edited version of another special effects movie, “The Matrix“, and thought that it had profound spiritual connotations. (As an aside, it’s really too bad about the judgment against CleanFlicks.)

The difference is easily explained by Jesus in John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” A more detailed explanation for this difference is found in 1st Corinthians Chapter 2:11-14.

This difference in perspective is dramatic, to say the least. It can change a blade of grass from an object to be studied into evidence of the Creator. (Reference Romans 1:18-20) It transforms despair into hope and death into life. (Reference John 5:24) (By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, IE users can hover over most Scripture links to view the Scripture.)

Today I heard someone comment that they’ve never seen a miracle. I’ve never lived a day that I haven’t seen a miracle. The way I see it is this: within every second that ticks throughout all created time there are an infinite number of instances for which we can glorify God.

The practical side of this is the difference between “not another day, I can’t take this anymore” and Lamentations 3:22-23 which says, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

I choose life, for the unborn and for myself. I figure the longer I live the more I’ll have to glorify God. I choose to live life as a joyful servant of my Lord, my King, and to praise Him with every breath. For me, to live is Christ. (Reference Philippians 1:21)

I’ve been working on two personal projects recently.

One was getting my speech recognition software working on my computer. I waited too long to try it again. I felt that I had been burned enough times in the past and simply didn’t have the desire, time, or money to invest in what I thought was a failed technology. But I was wrong. This is my first journal entry in which all the text was entered using speech recognition technology. In this entire journal entry it made three recognition errors. I’ll have more to say about this useful technology later as I become more used to using it.

My other project was something very close to my heart right now. Years ago a friend gave me a tract called, “The Last Days of Edward Payson”, and I needed to find it and read it again. I wanted to share this little gem with the world so I sought and obtained permission to reprint the tract on the Internet. A couple of scans, OCR, proofreading, and editing has yielded something worthwhile. I’ll have more to say about this later, too.

You can see the first-ever-published-on-the-internet article here: The Last Days of Edward Payson, D.D.

That’s all for today.

Alive In Christ, now and forever,
Ed

Our church community has an adult Bible study (ABF) called Foundations which runs during the school year every Sunday. It was a privilege for me to go through the course – twice so far. It isn’t just that I’m slow and needed to repeat it, I’m excited about this study and plan to take it again.

The full title of the study guide we used is this: Foundations: 11 Core Truths to Build Your Life On   –You can see one chapter of this excellent study guide including an outline of what is taught in this PDF file. You can also purchase it yourself from cbd.com by clicking here. (My goal isn’t to advertise on this website, but I do like to be thorough and including a link to the book seemed a good idea. Our youth group does get a percentage of income if you use the link.)

The 11 core truths presented in the book could be considered essentials of the Christian faith. In other words, for a true Christian, one who is born from above, that person must gain an understanding of certain basic truths in order to appreciate their new life in Christ. How can a believer live their faith if they don’t have an understanding of the foundations of their faith?

Here are the 11 topics covered in the curriculum:

1. The Bible
2. God
3. Jesus
4. The Holy Spirit
5. Creation
6. Salvation
7. Sanctification
8. Good and Evil
9. The Afterlife
10. The Church
11. The Second Coming

Most of these may appear so basic as to be an insult to suggest that a seasoned believer should take the study. Allow me to share some of my thoughts about the study guide.

Many of us learn our doctrine by a process of osmosis. (Webster’s has this definition: “a subtle or gradual absorption.”)  By just hanging around and talking with other believers we learn bits and pieces about what the Bible has to say and we put all that together in our mind. But there are several problems with this.

People too often either misquote the Bible, quote it out of context, repeat something they heard, or make something up. In all four cases the information is often wrong – a deception. Learning this way causes serious problems. We need to be in the Word ourselves and not believing hearsay. It is possible that we don’t have things exactly right and that might be important to correct.

Remember that Satan doesn’t always whisper contrary ideas. He whispers something only slightly askew from the truth. Deception begins with a slight variance. That’s all it takes because he knows that it is easier for a person to accept it if it isn’t too far off and that even a slight deviation from the truth causes error that could be destructive to ourselves or those around us. Deception will restrain or prevent us from living out our faith.

How many of us go to the Bible like the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”?  They were double checking everything the Apostle Paul said to them! Paul had an excellent education and reputation and more importantly he had the power of God in him. Yet the Bereans made sure that what he said was true.

So many times I receive emails from well-meaning Christians who passed on something that just isn’t true, things like how Madalyn Murry O’Hair and atheists are petitioning the FCC to get religious broadcasting banned from American airwaves. Not true! Besides, Madalyn Murry O’Hair disappeared in 1995 her body eventually found. She is deceased yet this email still circulates. It has become so bad that Dr. Dobson and Focus on the Family, (mentioned in the email), and the FCC released official statements ([1] [2]) addressing the falsity of the email on their websites. Another source says “Nothing else at the FCC rivals this rumor, in both its longevity and its bizarre ability to withstand the commission’s repeated attempts to convey the truth.”  I personally use Snopes as my primary source for dispelling such urban legends.

On one occasion an email was sent to an entire group of believers on an email list, I responded to the entire group for the purpose of protecting preserving the integrity of those who claim to believe in God. In the email I said this: “We all must be careful to speak and email accurately as we are people of the Truth, and what we believe matters to those who have not yet recognized the Truth.”  If we who claim to believe in the resurrection also claim to believe in what is clearly a falsehood, we become laughable and the Gospel is compromised. I feel bad for those who were embarrassed for spreading the email but I could not stand by and watch the distortion and destruction.

Let’s get back to the subject.  Without a foundation of beliefs understood and practiced then I doubt that we live the holy life that we are called to live. How can we know who we are in Christ if we don’t accurately understand Who God is? Are we able to list doctrinal positions that we believe? Can we defend them with Scripture?

In fact, the Bible lists 8 areas that we must improve as His disciples. In 2nd Peter 1:3-11 we see that we must “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind…”   Paul goes on to say that “if you do these things, you will never fall…”

One of the areas that we need to increase is our knowledge. The Apostle Paul prays several times for believers to increase in their understanding of God and their calling in Christ. Paul says, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

“…that you may know the hope to which he has called you…”  –This is a great “for instance.”  As we solidly know the hope to which God has called us, we will become powerful, immovable disciples of Christ. How do we know except we are taught?

Foundations: We build good houses – and homes – with good foundations. Shouldn’t our faith be built on a good foundation, too? I sure think so.

Someday I really must make my own Statement of Faith using my own scripture references. (Watch this space for it!) Here is an example of a Statement of Faith.  I didn’t make it; I just found it somewhere on the internet and thought it was a sufficient example. Making and having my own will help me to have a solid foundation in my faith that I can pass on to others. But before you endeavor to make one yourself, you may want to invest your time reading through the Foundations study guide that I mention here. It really helped me and others in the class to develop and establish our own faith.

I’d like to address how understanding and able to defend our faith and doctrine helps prevent deception. I’m thinking of the entire chapter of Colossians 2 and at least a dozen other places in Scripture.  But I think that I need to wrap this up.

One final thought. I didn’t mention the great value that I gained from going through the Foundations study guide as part of an adult Bible study. The good discussion and fellowship we had encouraged each of us participating to grow. You may want to consider going through this study with your children, at a Wednesday night Bible study class, or as part of cell group/core group/small group (whatever you call it), — it will be well worth the time. The Teacher’s Guide that can be purchased separately appeared useful to those teaching the class. (My wife and her good friend were the teachers. I was just a student in the class.)

Find out what you believe and why you believe it. Build a good foundation on Jesus Christ.  In my opinion, the Foundations study guide is a good resource to begin with.

Love rejoices in the truth.  Purpose to walk in the truth.    The truth will set you free.

With Love, Truth, and Alive In Christ,  :~)

Purpose:

There are a lot of things that come to my mind, things which seem to have some importance. But when considered in light of the Eternal, all of a sudden those same things become much less important or even empty, vain. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. So I guess it’s okay that I choose to write only about things which I feel strongly, things that I believe are important, things I think are essential.

Also my typing speed is very slow (and painful) and that helps me to keep my online journaling priorities straight.

This is just a qualification as to the purpose and nature of my online journal. The purpose of this online journal  is to encourage and rebuke with all authority (in Christ) so that you might grow in your personal relationship with God.

Scope:

As for scope, God being infinite and I being His child learning more and more about my Heavenly Father each new day, there can be no limit!