Posted on October 31, 2008 at 1:59pm.
Today is Halloween - a day we associate with scaring people. TV has movies all day long on multiple channels designed to scare us. I heard on the news that we will spend over 5 billion dollars on this day - TALK ABOUT SCARY! Fear is a really strong emotion. It can paralyze people into inaction, it can cause us to make irrational choices and it undermine our trust in God. I have no doubt that God does not want us to live by fear, even when all of life around us seems to be spinning out of control. However, life and its’ uncertainties can leave confidence in short supply. I don’t believe there are any pat answers or sure fire formulas. Overcoming fear with trust in God is a daily challenge and it is met by living one day at a time.
Posted on October 30, 2008 at 7:15am.
We talked a little about faith yesterday, today some thoughts on foolishness. In particular what turns living by faith into living foolishly. One of the ways this can happen is when I hold God to a promise he never made. For example I tell God “You said we shouldn’t worry about tomorrow” so we don’t prepare, we don’t save and we sit around expecting God to handle everything for us - that is foolishness. When I remove God from the being the source of real life that is also foolishness. Living the Christian life is found in both the strength of the Holy Spirit and the yielding of my being to live in concert with him. Foolishness is when I ignore God or when I demand something from him that he never promised me.
Posted on October 29, 2008 at 6:21am.
It is clear that we are to live by faith.
Hebrews 11:1 states it very plainly - “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Paul adds to this in both Romans and Galatians, “The righteous will live by faith” a thought first expressed by the prophet Habakkuk. So we are to live trusting in a hope that is rock solid and all the time not being able to have visible evidence to go by. I don’t know about you but I don’t always find that very easy. I like the visible, the tangible and mostly I like the things I can control. My life in Christ is none of these. I am called to trust in a God I cannot see, live by values that are the opposite of what the world offers and believe in an eternity that I know little about - but that is exactly how I want to live.
Posted on October 28, 2008 at 8:24am.
Being out of the country in places where I can’t get Internet access makes blogging a tough job. I am back and want to get back in the swing of communicating my thoughts to you. This last trip again gave me the opportunity to encourage believers in places where it is a lot tougher being a Christ follower that it is for me here. I stand amazed that all they really have is Jesus and they walk through life with a joy and trust that is enviable.
Tomorrow I want to get back to the three words I left you with a week ago - faith, foolishness and fear. Talk to you then.
Posted on October 14, 2008 at 7:45am.
We are living in unsettling times, I know that comes as no surprise to any of you. How do we live in the midst of all of this as a Christ follower? Over the next several days I want to explore some words with you that I believe are key in answering that question. The words are faith, foolishness and fear. All three are important as we seek to learn how to live in these days.
