New Video Blog

Hello everyone. I have to apologize for waiting so long to post on this blog. Let me explain my tardiness. I have recently started teaching a class with our teens at church on Sundays called "Theoretical Idealistic Christianity." This class has taken a very interesting approach to our everyday christian lives. It started out as a discussion of why we always talk about christianity in theoretical terms and then act like it is an enigmatic idealism that is only referenced from pulpits and other theological circles.

In reality our Christian lives ought to be something we live out every day of our lives. That is where my idea came for my new video blog. These will be short videos (around five minutes) that will attempt to give you a practical step you can take to live out your christian life beyond the walls of the church. I hope that you will subscribe to it and watch each video that I post.

This is an attempt to build a culture in the church that takes our idealistic approach out of theory and into practical and actionable things that we can do on a daily basis. Click here for the link to the video.

Thanks for watching.

Waiting To Hear That Still Small Voice

In 1 Kings 19 we read an incredible encounter Elijah has with God. God tells Elijah to go out and meet him. An in the next few verses we see a windstorm, an earthquake and a fire. But God is not in any of those things. He comes to Elijah in a still small voice.

First of all, we can certainly see that we need to be silent to hear from God. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 37:7 says to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Psalm 62:5 says wait in silence. Job learned to be silent before God and listen to Him. In 1 Peter 3:4 we see that God finds a gentle and quiet spirit precious and beautiful.

All this shows us that being silent before God is a good thing. We know that the busyness and “noise” of life can drown out God’s voice. We know that when the world around us distracts us we take our focus off God. Like Peter walking on the water, when we take our eyes off Christ we sink.

But I have to think about all the times God spoke through something else. He spoke to Moses in a burning bush. He led Israel with a pillar of fire. He spoke with a thunderous voice from the top of Mt. Sinai. He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus in a brilliant light. The prophet Isaiah talked about His presence filling the room as if with smoke and the whole house shaking. And, on the day of Pentecost God’s Spirit came to the disciples with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and with fire, shaking the foundation of the building!

All too often it seems we wait around to hear a still small voice from a God who is shaking our foundation! If we only listen for a still small voice are we missing the shouts from God? Are we missing the burning bushes? Are we missing the pillar of fire He sent to light our way? Are we missing what He has already told us to do?

From my experience, I have seen many people cry out to God to reveal Himself to them and then they sit back and wait. God wants to confirm our faith in Him, but it does have to start with faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6).

Do you want to do great things for God? Then do them! But do them with faith knowing that He wants to do great things through you! Here is a good first step: Allow God to change the way you think. Romans 12:2 tells us to let God transform us into a new person by changing the way we think. That is how we will learn God’s will for us.

Here’s the thing, we know that God wants us to be good. We know He wants us to follow Christ. We know He wants us to get others to follow Christ. Even if it comes in a still small voice, those things won’t change! Are we doing the things we know we should be doing? If we are not, then what are we waiting to hear? Do we need God to say it again? Do we need to hear him whisper, “Go into all the world and make disciples”?

There are certainly times when God will speak to us. But until then are we doing what His Word has already told us to do? Do you want to know the work of God? Believe in the one He sent (John 6:29). There is so much that Jesus already told us to do, but yet we wait around to hear the “still small voice” to tell us what to do.

James 4:17 tells us, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

If you don’t know what you ought to do then read the Bible. Read the Gospels. Hear from Jesus’ words. Put them into action. Then, if you need further direction, listen for the still small voice.

Help My Unbelief

Matthew 14:31b, “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why do you doubt me?”

How do you deal with doubt? How do you handle this struggle of justifying your religion with you beliefs? We even sing during a lively worship service words like this:

            “And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore.”

But how do we really feel when our strength is failing? How do we deal with the questions about the Bible or God that we just don’t understand?

There are two different forms of doubt that I want to look at today. There is the defiant doubt that demands proof and there is the pleading doubt that desires reassurance.  These two types can be seen in Matthew 16:4 and Mark 9:24.

In Matthew 16 the religious leaders who gathered around Jesus demanded that he show them a sign. And Mark 9 tells the story of a man pleading with Jesus to heal his son. These two approaches to doubt can be an encouragement to us today as we deal with our own unbelieving spirit.

First lets look at the religious leaders. Here is a group of people who know a lot about the Jewish religion. They knew what they were looking for in the Messiah. Now there is a man who claims that he is the messiah but he does not measure up to what they were expecting. So their natural tendency is to doubt him.

What do we do when God does not measure up to our standards? What do we do with unanswered prayers? How do we deal with God when we ask for Him to prove himself to us and He doesn’t?

This kind of doubt comes from pride. It comes from a place similar to that of the Pharisees. They knew what they wanted out of a Messiah and Jesus was not delivering that. They wanted a king and a ruler to overthrow the Roman Empire and give them the throne of David. This man Jesus came teaching a much different doctrine. He taught that to become great you must become a servant. He taught that if you want to be first then put others first and yourself last. He taught that you need to love others and treat them as being more important than you are. He taught that serving others was more important than serving yourself. He taught forgiveness and grace. He taught humility and mercy. He taught something different than what they wanted to hear.

Doubt is the natural reaction to hearing inconsistencies. When we hear a teaching that goes against our natural tendencies we want to challenge it. We are naturally self-serving. We want what we want when we want it. Jesus teaches us something different. So we doubt His teaching. We don’t like to admit that we doubt it because then we look bad. We don’t look like the good Christian person that we are trying to portray. We want others to think we have it all together and that we have solid faith.

This brings us to our next example. The man who asked Jesus to heal his son told Jesus that he believed but then he asked Jesus to help his unbelief.  He wanted to see his son healed, but he knew that he did not fully believe Jesus and his teaching. The difference here is that he was willing to admit that he had doubts. Alfred Lord Tennyson once said, “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”

We can say the Christian creeds with our mouths but unless we search something out to know its truth then we will be left trying to support our unbelief on our own. That is where this man in Mark 9 was different. He asked Jesus to support his unbelief. He asked Jesus to help Him in his shortcoming.

Too often we try to prove ourselves worthy and end up falling short. Too often we try to lift ourselves up only to be humbled. This leads to more unbelief. If we can admit that we do not have enough faith then God can grant us more faith by reassuring us and supporting us when we are weak.

Jesus is the author of our faith. He perfects it for us when we can’t hold it up on our own. Faith comes from hearing from God. It is a gift from God. We start a process of salvation by believing in Him and He perfects that salvation through developing our faith. When we doubt and try to force God’s hand to prove Himself to us we falter in our faith, but when we genuinely ask Him to help us in our unbelief he can reassure us and build up our faith.

As Christians, how we deal with our unbelief will make or break us. How do you deal with unbelief?