Trust

Obedience

Posted on by Jesse Walker

Have you ever sung the song, “Trust and Obey”? It’s a beautiful song that speaks to our submission to God. The chorus goes like this,

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

There is one word that will reveal if someone’s faith in God is genuine. And that word is obedience. In James 2:19, the Apostle James teaches that belief is not enough. For even the devil believes and fears God but will not submit to God’s authority.

The Apostle John said in John 14:15, ‘if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” It is not enough just to believe in Jesus, the bottom line with God is obedience. Those that keep His commandments are those that have come to know Him. (1 John 2:3-5).

Every single aspect of our Christian life hinges on our obedience to God. Our obedience is crucial to our spiritual happiness. It’s indispensable to our spiritual health. It is vitally critical to our spiritual holiness.

Obedience is taking up your cross daily and following close to Jesus (Luke 9:23). Without the cross there is no crown. There is no redemption without suffering.

The American church has forgotten about the cost. It has reinvented itself to appeal to our uncontrollable desires and our extravagant living. While the church has succeeded in making herself acceptable to many it has abandoned the cross.

This doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself every pleasure of life. Or to pledge to live in poverty. But it does mean that whatever you do, you must do it as you are working for God. Not for human gain, but to bring glory to God, and to His Kingdom. (Colossians 3:23-24). Let’s become a people, who put the cross back into the center of everything we do. And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.

 

Promises of God – His promise to deliver His people

Posted on by Bob Mathews

“So I have come down to delver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8).

The children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, but thanks to doubting and unbelief, they wandered in the desert from 40 years. However, there is something we need to remember. Year number 41 came, and they didn’t wander anymore. They entered into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey God had promised them. Maybe, for whatever reason, it seems you are in a desert period in your life. Maybe you feel like you’ve been stumbling around for 40 years. Don’t worry! Year 41 is on its way.

Look at these examples: Noah and his family were on the ark while it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Day 41 came and the rain stopped. For 40 days Goliath showed up every morning to taunt the people of Israel, but day 41 came and David took him down! Of course, that was with the help of God as we might imagine. There are plenty of examples like this in God’s Word. They may not all have the number 40 attached to them, but we can see people go through struggles or troublesome times all throughout. The key factor that you will notice in all of those instances is that God is there to deliver those that trust in Him.

God has promised to bring you out of your “Egypt” as well. If you will hold on to your faith in Him, He will not let you down. Whatever situation you are going through right now, don’t give up. God is on your side. So, if it seems like trouble has been raining down on you, don’t worry because day 41 is on the way. The rain is going to stop. Whatever giant is in your life, day 41 is coming and that giant will be crushed. We have the power to conquer any obstacle because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has given us that through Him (Rom. 8:37).

We may not know or understand the timing, but we can know that He will deliver us out of our “Egypt,” our struggles.

Promises of God – Nothing is too hard for Him!

Posted on by Bob Mathews

“And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’ Is anything to difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”” – Genesis 18:13, 14

When difficulties beset us, we tend to try and work our way out of them (on our own) until a situation comes along that we can’t handle or is too hard and we just give up and lose hope. Sarah is an example of this. They were promised a child and when that promise wasn’t being fulfilled quick enough she tried to take matter into her own hands by offering her maid Hagar as a way to obtain that child (Gen. 16:1-2). She couldn’t wait for the promise from God, putting trust in Him, and wanted to trust in what she could do.

To add a little more context, this promise was given when Abraham and Sarah, his wife, were both well on in years. Abraham was about 100 and Sarah about 90. Past the point of childbearing as is mentioned in Genesis 18:11. So, this would come across as a ridiculous promise to any normal person, which is what led to Sarah’s laughter.

Like Sarah, we look at what we understand about how the world works and go off of that knowledge. Sarah knew children were out of the question for her body at that age and all of us would agree that to be true. We are not here to deny how the world works. What we have to do is push past those things to the one who made the world! God created all things and governs all things. Just because something doesn’t work regularly for us, doesn’t mean that God can not dictate a change in that normal process.

Though some things in life seem too difficult for us, nothing is too hard for God. Sometimes He does His most amazing work when all hope seems gone. He gives hope when all seems hopeless. He fills us with peace when we’re in the middle of chaos. He saves the souls of people who deserve death. He makes the impossible possible. Think about the hard times; the last second, the darkest hour, the deepest hole. They are “mission impossible” for us. Trust Him with your hard times. Every one of them is “mission possible” for Him.

God has never promised that there wouldn’t be difficulties in our lives. However, He will be there for us, helping us through if we let Him. Sometimes we sing a song called Trust and Obey. In the song we sing, “trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” God has promised and proven time and time again that nothing is too hard for Him! He now offers true happiness to all through His Son if we are willing to trust and obey.

Promises of God – A Promise set with a Rainbow

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Genesis 9:9-16 says, “9Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10and with every living creature that is with you; of all birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12God said, “This is a sign of the covenant which I am making between Me an you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

16When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

People had become sinful beyond what you might believe, and God’s heart was broken. He couldn’t put up with it any longer. So, before the rainbow appeared God did something massive. He brought a worldwide flood to wipe out the evil and corruption that had taken hold of all He created. Almost every person and animal on earth was lost. Only the people and animals on Noah’s ark were saved. When they got off the ark, you may imagine their thinking. Will this ever happen again? Or maybe, will we live through it again if it does? God calmed them down by promising that He would never destroy the world by flood again. To help all the people remember, He gave us something we can see. He put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of that promise.

Did God need the rainbow so He could remember what He’d said? No, the rainbow was for Noah and his family. It was for all his descendants who would live after him (9:9). Today, it’s for you. It lets you know that God keeps His promises. After all these years, God still remembers the promise He made to that group of people on the ark. When He made that promise, He knew that as long as the sunlight hits the raindrops, people can see the rainbow and know that He remembers His promise.

Even greater for us is the understanding that God remembers all His promises, whether they come with a rainbow or not.

What do you rely on?

Posted on by Bob Mathews

This is a question that popped into my head yesterday. With all the cold weather around the country, it should be no surprise that we got our share. The snow was nice to see and it was exciting for our young son to experience it for the first time. However, troubles come with snow most of the time. It is always a possibility that power may go out when the weather gets bad enough. Sure enough, we lost power sometime in the middle of the night. This is not something we haven’t dealt with before though. My wife and I have lost power before but this time seemed very different. It was the first time that we went without power with a baby in the house. It made me realize just how much we needed that electricity. If it was just us, we could have managed the cold. Our son has needs that only the electricity could supply. He doesn’t understand how to keep himself bundled up for warmth when the temperatures are freezing. Luckily, he will drink cold milk but it is definitely not his preference. All that to say, we rely on the ability to flip a switch and have power at our fingertips more than we ever realized.

It made me think though, do I rely on God and Jesus this much? Are they so important to our everyday lives that without them our days grow difficult or even unbearable? The truth is, we must rely on God and Jesus that much. Without them there would be nothing, no life, no you or me. “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). You can continue reading on from there and see God go on to create all aspects of life including people. If you look at John 1:1 and following you would see that Jesus was there at the beginning with God as the Word that helped to create all things and continues to hold all things together. Unfortunately, after we were created, like bad weather causing problems, sin was brought into the world by going against what God commanded. This continues today whenever we choose to go against God. Because of our sin we are separated from the one who we need the most. Luckily for us, this is not the end of the story.

Insert God’s love here. If we look further into the gospel of John, we get to the famous passage John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This is not the only passage we should know, but it does give us an idea about why we need to rely on God and Jesus so much. God loves us enough to show us grace and mercy. Mercy because we deserve punishment that He is willing to forego. Grace because He is willing to also bless us with a gift that we don’t deserve and could never earn in spite of our sin. But the only way we could be blessed in either of these ways is because He was willing to allow His Son (Jesus) to die for our sins and it is our belief, trust, and obedience to Him that affords us the blessings of His sacrifice.

So, what do you rely on? Is it the amount of money in the bank? Is it the job that pays the money? Is it the car that gets you to the job? Is it your family that takes care of you? Is it the government that provides what you need? The truth, however sad it may seem to be, is that all of those thing like electricity could be gone. And they may never come back. Nothing on this earth will last forever or ultimately be reliable. God and His Son are the only truly reliable sources that you will ever find. They were here at the beginning and the will continue after the earth is no more. Don’t take them for granted like electricity. A day is coming when the light switch of life will no longer work. When that day comes it will be too late to start believing and relying on them. If you have a desire not to perish and have eternal life, than choose to rely on Jesus today. It is those that believe and follow Him that have blessings from God that are necessary for eternal life.

The faith of Jesus

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Not faith in Jesus. The faith of Jesus.

Did Jesus have faith? Did He need faith? How does the Spirit describe faith?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

That’s one of those types of statements that to me is like describing grace as “unmerited favor”. It sort of makes sense, but it’s hard to understand what that really means without seeing some examples.

First, let’s look at how faith is used in the New Testament…

There are two New Testament Greek words for faith — one a noun (pistis) and the other a verb (pisteuo). The verb form is generally translated believe.

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matthew 9:22)

“The time has come,” [Jesus] said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

The word translated believe here is the verb form of faith (pisteuo) for which there is no English equivalent.

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”(John 6:29)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The word translated faithfulness here is the Greek pistis.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Everything Jesus did glorified the Father, and such action was living testimony of His own faith.

Several things are clear from these examples:

To have faith in someone means to put your confidence in him.

Faith is an action word, regardless of whether it’s used as a verb or a noun. In other words, there is no such thing as faith without action (James 2:14-26).

Jesus expected His followers to have faith.

In order to be pleasing to the Father, we must have faith.

Reading Hebrews 11:1 without context, one could easily draw the conclusion that Jesus did not have faith in the Father because he didn’t need faith in the Father.

“substance of things hoped for”. Jesus didn’t hope for eternal life with the Father, for “who hopes for what he already has?” (Romans 8:22-25)

“evidence of things not seen”. Jesus had already seen the Father. He didn’t need any further evidence.

Therefore, one might conclude Jesus didn’t need faith. Now I’d agree that Jesus didn’t need to hope for what he already had, and he didn’t need any evidence of God’s existence, but I also believe that drawing the conclusion from Hebrews 11:1 that Jesus had no faith is as faulty a conclusion as one could possibly draw. Jesus had confidence in His Father; He knew God would fulfill His promises — every one of them. Everything Jesus did glorified the Father, and such action was living testimony of His own faith.

Hebrews 11:1 is not intended to be a complete, final, last-word definition on faith. Like many sections of scripture, it is given to us, written in words that we can understand, to help guide our understanding of the concept of faith. Like the rest of scripture, it would also be a mistake to consider this verse in isolation. It only makes sense in the context of the whole scope of God’s revealed Word.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. If you’re so moved, write a comment below.

God Comes Through

Posted on by Bob Mathews

In 1 Kings 18:20 and following verses, Elijah, a great man of God goes up to Mount Carmel and sent a message to King Ahab to bring the people and the prophets of Baal up to the mountain. Elijah then proceeded to ask the people why they waffle between worshipping God and Baal. He tells them that they need to choose one or the other. After saying this he sets up a way to show the people that God is the almighty living God. He challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to a duel. He had both set up altars and see which God would answer by fire from heaven.

Elijah gave an abundant amount of time to the prophets of Baal to attempt everything they could to try and get an answer from their god, even to the point of cutting themselves. Inevitably their god never answered them. Elijah stood up and built his altar to God, prepared the sacrifice, and then soaked it all in water for emphasis. As soon as Elijah prayed to God rained down a mighty fire that consumed the soaked sacrifice as well as everything else. God came through for Elijah to prove his point to the people that they need to choose the true God.

Today many people look at the world and see how many people, who don’t follow God, seem to be better off and more blessed in this life. However, just because they have what they want in this life does not guarantee their spiritual life. Many times the wicked people of the bible prosper, right up until God brings judgment on them. God’s judgment will come to all of us, but we have a sense of peace because unlike those who don’t follow God in this life, God will come through for us on the Day of Judgment, just as he came through for Elijah.                                                                                                              Jacob Saarloos