Confronting Community Sin

As a believer, your sin is your responsibility to confront and remove from your life as you follow God. As a believer, the sin of others in your community is also your responsibility.

One of the hallmarks of a true follower of Christ is that they actively attempt to rid themselves of their sinful practices as they are sanctified by their relationship with Jesus, the evidence of which is seen as sinful behaviors fade from a person’s character and are replaced with the Fruits of the Spirit.

And in concert fashion, the distinction between a true community of believers and a community of “church-goers” involves the removal of selfish and sinful behaviors, reactions, and outlooks in the local community and the addition of selflessness, outreach, and good will towards the local community.

But contrary to what many might believe, the responsibility to push away sinful behavior and bring in righteous behavior in the church does not belong to merely the pastoral staff or those whose sin is more easily visible, but to all members of the church.

The Sin of the Few is the Responsibility of All

Deuteronomy 13 tells the Israelites what to do if someone tries to entice them away from God and promote sinful behavior, starting with family members and expanding to entire cities.

Verses 6-11 say, “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’—which neither you nor your fathers have known, any of the gods of the peoples around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other—you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him. Instead, you must kill him. Your hand is to be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. All Israel will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer do anything evil like this among you.”

This starts the idea that God wanted to provoke among the Israelites: when one person falls to sin, it is the responsibility of those closest to the idolater, then the entire community surrounding the idolater, to end the idolatry and purge the sin. In the OT times, before Jesus’s reconciliatory death, the only true purge was death—complete and total annihilation of the sinner to keep the community from being infected. This is especially true with the post-Exodus Israelites, whom you’ll notice are an incredibly fickle people, ready to jump back and forth between God and idols at the drop of a hat.

The Consequences for the Few have Far-Reaching Effects

And, in true biblical fashion, there are consequences if the community fails to do what it is supposed to do. Verses 12-15 say, “If you hear it said about one of your cities the Lord your God is giving you to live in, that wicked men have sprung up among you, led the inhabitants of their city astray, and said, ‘Let us go and worship other gods,’ which you have not known, you are to inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable thing has happened among you, you must strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Completely destroy everyone in it as well as its livestock with the sword.”

If the idolator manages to spread his/her view enough that word of the heresy is heard elsewhere, it becomes the responsibility of the entire nation of Israel to wipe the idolatry out. The consequences of such action means that not only do the idolaters in the city die, but the innocent, too.

But were the innocent actually innocent? Not really. By virtue of verses 6-11, we know that if the idolatry has spread beyond one person, the people sinned by going against God’s orders to stop that idolatry. So, they must face the consequences of their own inaction.

Current Day Sin-Banishing Responsibility

It’s entirely likely that some people reading this are thinking “But this is about the Israelites, and obviously, we can’t go around stoning idolaters.” And, well, you’re right. Please don’t go around trying to kill people who are not believers.

But, despite the fact that this passage is directly intended for the Israelites and the Israelites alone, there is a modern-day equivalent given to us by the New Testament.

Matthew 18:15-17 says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Let’s run the parallels: In the OT, family members were to take care of sin in their family on their own, only calling in the community to help after they had done their part. In the NT, one person is to confront the sin of another, only bringing in more members of the church if that fails. The Israelites were meant to treat cities that failed to stop idolatry as enemy nations, wiping every last bit of life in them out for good. We are to treat those who fail to confront their sin as if they are not believers, but outcasts to the Christian community.

Confronting Sin is not Judgment

This subject is something the church fails at so often. We’re afraid to confront sin in others because we don’t want to lose friends, we don’t want our own sin to be called out, or we feel like it’s not our place. But it is our place.

“Do not judge lest you be judged” doesn’t apply here. Confronting sin is not judging someone. Our cultural definition of the word “judge” has changed from its original meaning, which involved sentencing someone for their actions, to mean mentioning someone’s wrongful actions to them in any way. Confronting the sin of a brother or sister in Christ is not judging them or a statement of condemnation; instead, it is a show of concern for their spiritual welfare.

Don’t let people point out your log as a way to avoid confrontation of their sin, either. You don’t have to be perfect to point out sin when you see it. (I’ve written more in-depth on these verses here, if you want to have a read, as I don’t have time to explain it more thoroughly in this post.) We’re all sinful—each of us has a log worth pointing out, and it’s time we started drawing attention to them so we can remove them.

A Call for Christian Qualification

As a, hopefully, quick last word, I think it’s time we start living out Matthew 18:17 a little more. Folks calling themselves Christians, but who are actually idolaters, are hindering the Christian community in a huge way. When people who aren’t actually believers start calling themselves believers while perpetuating a false gospel, we need to say something against it. We need to step up and qualify Christians as separate from “Christians” or we risk the Church falling apart as idolatry and sin topple it from within and without.

It’s time for us to call out prosperity gospels and pew-sitters who throw dirt on the name of God and His people and make sure the world knows they are not part of us because they’re hampering the mission, the Great Commission. We have “churches” like Westboro Baptist tarnishing the name of Christ under the guise of Christianity because we have become too lax in our qualifications, letting nearly anyone call themselves a Christian, and that needs to stop. The quitting begins by confronting sin.

Completely Destroy Sin

I champion the Israelites as our (current Christians) people because we are, in so many ways, exactly like them. Put simply, we are mirror images of each other in every way that matters, which is why it’s so brilliant to read through the struggles of the Israelite people and identify with them as I do so. It also makes for great teaching material because we can see exactly what helped them succeed and what caused them to fail. If our God is a God of metaphors, which I say He is, then the Israelites are our big metaphor, our great comparison.

And in Deuteronomy, they have quite a lot to teach us on how to best sin.

Doing What We Don’t Want

For me, it’s a fact of the matter that I sometimes feel too weak to stand up to the sin I perpetuate in my life. When I’m in a cycle of, as Paul says, doing things I don’t want to do, that I know are wrong, I frequently feel incapable of driving out the feelings, temptations, and behaviors I know are incorrect.

But what is truly factual is that I, and we, have the strength to destroy sin at its source in the flesh, just as the Israelites did, thanks to the power of God going before us and fighting the battle.

The Big Metaphor

If you pay close attention as you read the Old Testament, you’ll find an incredibly stark contrast between the Israelites and everyone else, and if you break that contrast down to its simplest pieces, you get two different adjectives to describe them. For the Israelites, we have righteous; for everyone else, we have sinful.

It’s fairly easy to work out: God’s people are righteous, just as we are made righteous when we become His today, and everything that is not with God is against God. Every person and thing that does not belong to God is sin.

It’s simple, then, to carry on this idea of the Israelites driving other peoples out of the Promised Land as driving out sin. (It’s even easier to carry on the idea when you read Deut. 7 because the Bible just tells you, but I had to explain the big comparison between the Israelites and us for teaching’s sake.)

The Strength to Thoroughly Destroy Sin

Jumping back up to the idea from the introduction in this post, the Israelites, then, felt too weak to destroy the sin they faced in the Promised Land. If you’ll remember, they were exiled from the land for 40 years because they were too afraid to fight for it, thinking they would be destroyed by the nations in it.

But, what the Israelites, and we, often forgot in fear, is that they had the strength from God to drive out that which does not belong, that which is not good.

Deuteronomy 7:15b, 17-19 says, “He will not put on you all the terrible diseases of Egypt that you know about, but He will inflict them on all who hate you. (17) If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I drive them out?’ do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt: the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you fear.”

Fear of being incapable, fear of the sin we face, even fear of facing God in our failures can hold us back from defeating sin. But God has given us the strength to destroy it, just like He gave the Israelites strength to destroy the nations inhabiting the Promised Land if they would stop being afraid of the people because of what they looked like.

But if we remember the strength of God to defeat our sinful natures and pull us to Him for salvation, if we remember the miracles He worked to draw us away from death in the first place, we’ll remember He easily has the power to inflict destruction on our sin now that we are His.

Why We Fail to Defeat Sin

Sometimes, even though we have the strength of God on our side, we still fail to defeat sin, though, right? Paul most certainly had the Lord with him whenever he was tempted, and still he sinned and did things he didn’t want to do. That’s because, so often, we fail to completely drive out and annihilate sin in the place we live.

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 says, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you—the Hittities, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.”

And just like the Israelites, when we fail to completely destroy sin and route any chances it has at coming back to us, it slithers its way back into our lives. That’s why Matthew 5:29-30 urges us to gouge out our eye or cut off our hand if it causes us to sin because that’s the kind of extremism we need to go to in order to completely eliminate sin. (Please don’t actually go cutting your hands off and pulling your eyes out at the behest of this blog post.) It’s a metaphorical expression of extremism: whatever it takes for you, do it to stop yourself from sinning.

Extremist Application Methods

God’s goal with the Israelites was to create a land without even the barest hint of potential temptation for idolatry because He knew that was the only way the Israelites could resist putting the gods of Earth above Himself. That’s why Deuteronomy 7 is almost completely full of God telling them to destroy literally every last bit of the culture, practices, and evidences of the people who once lived there.

For us, it’s much of the same. When you allow yourself to even briefly consider sin, you’ve opened yourself up to temptation that is difficult to resist (Matthew 5:27-28). That’s why you must go to incredible extremes to avoid the hints of sin all around us. If that means you have to give up social media, TV, music, reading, sports, games, whatever, you should do it until you are capable of standing up to the temptation with God-given strength.

You have to destroy the world around you (metaphorically) to keep it from infecting you with sin until you glow brightly enough with the power of God to walk through the darkness without stumbling.

Disciple like Jesus

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 is the Great Commission, and I would wager a guess that pretty much every Christian at least knows the verse, if not the book or the chapter and verse number. It’s likely mentioned frequently when talking about missions work, especially in other nations. It’s a command that all Christians should know and strive to follow each day, but do you know how to make disciples?

I reckon that almost everyone knows the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19, but do you know that’s not the entire command?

Here’s the whole thing from Matthew 28:19-20: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

A lot of times, Christians translate this verse to, “Go, therefore, and make believers of all nations.” But that’s not what it says. It says to make disciples. And a disciple is so much more than someone who just believes in something. A disciple is a student, a deep studier of someone’s teachings. They are experts in the knowledge of their master or teacher. Everything the master has ever taught, the disciple knows.

There’s a footnote for my Bible from the word “disciple,” that adds a few words, making Matthew 28:19 say this: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of, and disciple, all nations.” Disciple is as much a verb in English as it is a noun. When you disciple someone, you teach them everything you know with the goal that they will be able to teach someone else all that you know.

We, as Christians, as the Church, are incredibly good at making extras out of nonbeliever converts. Extras as in movie extras. Here’s what I mean: In a church, the pastor, deacons, and a few members tend to be main characters—they’re always involved in some way—and the rest of the congregation are just unnamed characters who fill out the void space in the movie so it doesn’t look like it was filmed in a vacuum. If you ever read the credits, they don’t even have names: they’re listed as “extra 1, extra 2,” etc.

And there are so many “extras” in the Church. They don’t speak, they don’t participate, they don’t really contribute, they just fill up the empty space in the pews. And when they die and they go to the credits, the Lamb’s Book of Life, their name won’t be there. And it’s not because they didn’t have a chance to be there; it’s because no one bothered to give them what they needed to become a main character.

Extras and background characters don’t know much about the plot of the story. One may be there to show a character along, to be a stepping stone, but they generally know nothing and serve little purpose to the theme. Main characters, on the other hand, have a deep knowledge of the workings of the story and are contenders and participants in the plot.

As Christians, as evangelists, as teachers and leaders and disciples of God, it’s our job to teach new believers how to step away from the role as an extra and become main characters. Because that’s what a disciple is: a main character. They have to know the plot that God’s writing, know how He works, understand what He teaches so that they can be active participants.

So many new believers are convinced to leave the Church, to not follow God, because they are confronted with the world and are unable to combat that with the teachings of Jesus. They don’t know enough about Him to deny the accusations and grasp of sin. They don’t know enough to resist temptation; some don’t even know they should resist temptation. They’re left hanging high and dry with scavengers picking at them, the sun burning them, and they can’t help themselves off the hook because they don’t know how.

And why is that? Because they weren’t taught how. It’s going to hurt, but I truly believe we, as believers, have a real habit of just believing that getting someone into church is enough, getting them to show up is the end goal. But it’s just not. We’re way too lazy about the work we’re here to do.

The end goal is more than getting someone into a pew or a Sunday School classroom. It’s teaching, instructing, loving, caring for, and preparing them to leave the safety of the church with the knowledge they need to protect themselves, and go out fishing for a person of their own to bring back and disciple in the same way.

We’ve frankly forgotten how to spread the Word of God like Jesus, Peter, and Paul did. God doesn’t care about the number of people sitting in your pews. He cares about the number of souls destined for Heaven. And it’s time we stop being lazy and start caring for souls the same way He does.

Life Isn't Fair

I think it’s incredible how some people are capable of taking incredibly complex topics and thoughts—wanderings about life, eternity, God, and anything else—and turning them into a paragraph or less that conveys the entirety of the thought process in just a few words. Take a couple of the following quotes, for example:

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”

            -Nelson Mandela

“If life were predictable, it would cease to be life and be without flavor.”

            -Eleanor Roosevelt

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”

            -C.S. Lewis

I mean, I understand words pretty well, and I think I’m decent enough at using them, but some of these folks are able to grasp and synthesize information so well that they’re able to tell books worth of stories in a single sentence. But I came across a sentence today that tells billions of lives worth of stories. It’s found in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 11.

“Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or the bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.”

Man, is there a ton to unpack in that. Not only is Solomon explaining a universal truth that most people accept in each statement, like “the race is not to the swift,” but he’s counteracting them by pointing to the contradictions that come from the world we live in, which is both logically imperfect and divinely oriented.

This sentence briefs the hubris of man in every case, believing that we have guaranteed success when we have gathered sufficient skill, that our achievements come from the diligent work of our own hands and abilities. That’s a fact of our own human pride, and why many believe the way to Heaven is through works.

We believe if we are fast enough, we can outrun others to our goals; if we are strong enough, we can beat back the competition; if we are wise enough, we can make ourselves rich beyond imagination; if we are skilled enough, we can accomplish anything; if we are good enough, we can get to Heaven. In fact, this sentence reflects on similar events to the Tower of Babel, wherein people determined it among themselves that they could reach Heaven if only they could build a tower tall enough.

And if you know the story of the Tower of Babel, the Lord humbled those who attempted to reach Heaven in that way. He turned the hubris of the people into their humbling by acting in such a way to turn their beliefs on their heads. Because no matter how fast, wise, strong, or skilled we are, God is greater, and no amount of anything we possess is enough to displace God and His will.

But not only are we incapable of surpassing God’s will and feats, but we are also victim to sin, which has corrupted the world and turned the good processes God created here upside down in order to wreak havoc. Sometimes, we end up with people being in places they have no business being. Some businessmen have no understanding of running a business, but because of extenuating circumstances, they find themselves in control of a business. An unskilled worker may get a promotion over a skilled worker due to in-company politics. Because of the corruption of sin, things don’t always turn out like they logically should.

But more than that, things don’t always turn out like they morally should. Verses 13-16 say, “I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me” There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. And I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.’”

It’s not likely that this is the case, though I’m sure it’s possible Solomon could have had a vision about the future, but these verses remind me of Sennacherib’s invasion against Hezekiah. Compared to Sennacherib, Hezekiah had an incredibly small army, and he was expected to give in to Sennacherib’s strength. Instead, Hezekiah outwitted Sennacherib and forced his armies to retreat, delivering the city by his wisdom. Though his story is written in the Bible, he’s probably a less popular historical figure than Sennacherib.

But I know for sure that no one remembered Hezekiah’s wisdom, which came from the Lord. Not even Hezekiah himself. Shortly after, Judah returned to its old ways, abandoning God, and finding themselves in trouble once again. I think it fits pretty well, but what Solomon’s getting at more than a possible reference to events that happened a couple hundred years in the future, is that, sometimes we are outfitted with gifts and skills for a position we aren’t in.

It’s probably better explained in Ecclesiastes 10:7, “I have seen slaves on horses, but princes walking on the ground like slaves.”

This could be a literal reference to captured princes being forced to walk while servants of a conquering kingdom ride horses, but, as I wrote here: (https://nathanielgevans.net/blog/god-of-metaphors), God is a big fan of teaching us through metaphors, and I can think of no better figurative representation for Solomon’s statements in verses 11-16 than this.

Sometimes, you just happen to have skills for one thing but be in a place to do another. I’m sure there are many people out there who could be smart enough to cure cancer, fix many world issues, or unite people, but who will never see a science lab, a government seat, or a place of influence; it is simply a fact of this world.

Verses 17-18 say, “The calm words of the wise are heeded more than the shouts of a ruler over fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much good.”

The good news is that, more often than not, people end up where they are supposed to be to do what they are called to do. Generally, you’ll find the science whizzes in the lab, the thinkers writing and speaking their thoughts into existence, the mathematicians with a calculator, the physicists discovering more of God’s design. But all it took was one to change this world from, “everyone will end up where they’re supposed to be,” to, “most will end up where they’re supposed to be.”

In the end, you can boil Solomon’s statements down even more—to just three words, in fact. Life isn’t fair. But I’ll qualify that statement. Keep this in mind the next time you see someone whose talents aren’t being employed properly, even more so when you become disgruntled with your position and believe it is your own talents that are being wasted. Life isn’t fair, but the God who holds it in His hands is just and good. He will not forsake you nor abandon you; He will use you as He needs you used and work things together for your good.

Where You Belong

Election day is tomorrow. I don’t really want to touch politics more than I have through mere references in other blog posts. This morning, I woke up not knowing what I was going to write about today, but I prayed and asked God to give me a message to deliver while I was listening to music, and the song that came up shortly thereafter immediately gave me something worth writing to Christians about.

I know I’ve touched on this before, but last time I meant it to teach a lesson. This time, I’m here to pass on some hope to you with a reminder that this is not where you belong. This life and the things that infect it are merely a temporary dwelling leading up to a fabulous eternal life.

Whenever I feel down thanks to the struggles of this life, the first thing I jump to is good, healthy, Christian music because it speaks to me, and one of the songs that hits me harder than most when I’m feeling depressed and anxious about where things in my life are going is “Where I Belong” by Building 429.

Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside

Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing, but am I alive?

I will keep searching for answers that aren't here to find

I sometimes dwell too deeply on things that I can’t change, questions I can’t answer, experiences I go through yet feel no control over. I know that right now a lot of others are doing the same things. It’s easy to look at the state of the nation we live in—no matter where you are—and despair over the past, wonder about the future, and worry for the current situation, which seems so bleak.

In the United States, specifically, many Christian ideals, biblical ideals, and their implementation in our society, are being decided over and over again as elections come every four years, and as we so desperately cling to what we know is right by the Bible, it becomes so easy to feel like we’re losing the presence of God in our nation. We have questions for God about why he would allow leaders in charge who condone the ruthless murder of unborn children, about why he would allow His people to be persecuted when He could protect them.

So when the walls come falling down on me

And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea

I have this blessed assurance holding me

And sometimes, we feel so hopeless, like the world our God set up is falling in on itself, preparing to crush us. We’re outnumbered and in over our heads. We’re not capable of doing what must be done on our own. But here’s the hope.

All I know is I'm not home yet

This is not where I belong

Take this world and give me Jesus

This is not where I belong

When it feels like it’s too much; when you think you have no hold, no influence, on the situation, remember these things. Here—this Earth—is not the end. There is more to come; there is better to come.

We sometimes try to grasp the world and hold on for dear life as we work to finagle and wrangle it around to God’s way of thinking. We try to take the whole world in our arms at one time and wrestle it into submission. But we don’t have to.

Sometimes—all the time—we need to step back and stop trying to take the world. We need to let God take it, the only one who can hold it all in a single hand. The third line of the chorus in this song is so simple, yet so profound. “Take this world and give me Jesus.” When you feel overwhelmed, keep that in mind, too. When you chose to follow Jesus and love the Lord your God, you made a trade.

We think of salvation as a gift, and it truly is, but it’s a trade just as much. You get to trade the weight of the world for the help of Jesus. You get to say to God, “take this burden from me,” and be carried by Jesus to the place you belong, because you don’t belong here. I don’t belong here. You and I belong with the Father.

So, no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter who becomes president or senator or representative or governor, remember that your time here is temporary. The lease on your home here is short; soon you won’t have to pay that rent anymore. When all’s said and done, you’ll have a wonderful, permanent home waiting for you. And there, you will be at home forevermore.

Listen to Where I Belong on Spotify. Building 429 · Song · 2011.

A Peacemaker's Peace

Do you have peace? Do you truly know what peace even is? I thought I did, and then I started doing a little digging into the Hebrew word for peace, into the Biblical definition of peace, and I found that my understanding was far too humanistic, much like my understanding of love was until I truly found the meaning of the Gospel.

There’s no better time to be thinking about this than now, when peace in the world is threatened. I’m glad my pastor taught about it this past Sunday because it’s relevant, and it led me to my own ideas I want to portray.

The King James Version of the Bible has the word “peace” written more than 400 times. Even the NIV, which substitutes more contextual English words in place of peace fairly often, has it written 263 times. Clearly, the word, and more importantly, the idea behind it, is integral for believers to understand and apply.

So, what do we understand about peace? In most English dictionaries, you’ll find the definition of peace to include things such as tranquility, freedom from disturbance, a period of no war, etc. Typical synonyms include harmony, safety, silence, tranquility, calmness, amity, etc.

And yet, these definitions haven’t even begun to scrape the surface of peace as the Hebrew word, shalom, describes it. To take from the definition provided in another’s blog post, which I have linked down below, shalom means “to be safe, sound, healthy, perfect, complete.” It “signifies a sense of well-being and harmony both within and without.” It also “includes the idea of vigour (that’s vigor, for us Americans) and vitality in all dimensions in life … shalom speaks of holistic (‘holy’) health for our souls and spirits.”

I want you to pay close attention to this next description of shalom, though, because this is how it’s best described in totality biblically: “shalom is the gift of precious well-being … it is the establishment of a lasting, righteous, good.”

A couple things to break down here: the first is that peace is something that starts within you. You cannot effectively have a peaceful life if your inner turmoil is not settled. Your life is not performed within a vacuum; anything that causes troubles in your heart and mind will cause trouble in visible character. As I wrote two weeks ago (nathanielgevans.net/blog-1/controlling-your-character) the things that create your character are not what you take in but what you give out.

In the worldly vision of identity, we become what our surroundings make us. Metaphorically, the world believes us to be like a sculpture that is carved out and chipped away at by forces around us until we assume the shape we were forced to become by those forces. But God tells us differently. He says that we are more like extremely intricate balloons. We shape ourselves from within using the breath of God to provide form and pressure, and as we grow, we exert ourselves on the world around us, carving out our own unique space to influence our surroundings.

That’s why peace must start within you. You cannot apply peace to the situations and people around you if you have no inner force of peace to exert upon them. We see this consistently described in the Bible as those with wisdom, joy, peace, knowledge, etc. influence and inspire those around them to have the same qualities. You can even see this in the world at large now. Leaders with confidence inspire confidence. Happiness is infectious.

Peace, like joy, is not something that comes from circumstances. It’s something that comes directly from your relationship with God. I think that’s why one of the things Jesus says to the disciples at Passover before He goes to the cross is about the peace He was leaving them with.

John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

The disciples are about to go through quite the rough time as Jesus is crucified; clearly it was going to impact them considerably. Jesus doesn’t say, “have faith,” or “be strong.” He says, “you will have My peace.” And that peace is something that they had to have to get through the ordeal of losing their teacher. It’s something Paul had to have to survive his imprisonment as long as he did.

Speaking of Paul, the influence of inner peace from Jesus has no better example than when he calmed the Roman guard who was planning to kill himself when the doors to the prison shook open in Acts 16:25-34. In fact, the peace that he inspired was so strong, the man immediately rushed to him asking how to be saved, how to have the peace that Paul did. And Paul went on to introduce the man’s whole household to Christ. Just from a little peaceful influence.

Okay, now I get to my real point, and one that my pastor stressed in his sermon briefly. Peace is mentioned often in the Bible, but the ability to make peace is, though highly praised, minuscule in its comparative presence. Peacemakers are mentioned but one time—in the Sermon on the Mount. And that’s intentional in a couple of ways.

The first is that there is a lot of peace to be made but few peacemakers to actually make it. As I said before, peacemakers can only be those who have true peace from God; therefore, only believers can be peacemakers, and we’ve got a lot of peace we need to inspire. The whole world relies on us to be the ones to confront that which causes anger, pain, injustice, and fear, and make things right; we’re the only ones who can.

The second is that few peacemakers are able to inspire a lot of peace. Just like Paul’s peace was enough to inspire a whole family to Christ, so, too can the peace of one person make a difference in the lives of many. You may have even noticed this if you’ve paid attention. It’s likely that, when people close to you struggle, they come to you for help because they know they’re going to find some form of solace in your advice and companionship.

The affect of even one peacemaker can be incredibly significant, as expressed with an image I’ve provided below. If hostility is like fire and people are like matches, there is a massive chain reaction that occurs when one person steps away from inspiring conflict. The actions of that one person can save hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands from being burned uncontrollably.

You’ll find that the peace of this world is brittle, taut, and actually nearly as peaceless as full out war. The tension in the air in times of worldly peace is so thick it can be cut with a knife, but the true peace of God is malleable, flexible, and able to be applied at all times without breaking. It can lift any weight, stop every flood, calm every fight, drown every fire.

As believers, we are the only ones capable of being peacemakers; it’s important that we step up to the task and provide what so many are seeking but cannot find. We must be the voice of completeness to the incomplete, the level-headed tranquility to explosive hostility. It’s just one more way we are meant to live out the Great Commission.

https://www.preceptaustin.org/shalom_-_definition

The power of just one peacemaker can show true peace to many, saving them from so much pain.

Full Sprint Commitment

How committed are you to following Christ? Don’t just read through that question without genuinely putting your mind to task in figuring out your answer. Don’t read any further until you’ve come up with an answer that is genuine. Don’t cheat yourself to pretend you’re more committed than you are, and don’t sell yourself short. But truly analyze exactly how much of yourself you commit to following Christ.

I’m somewhat breaking from my typical Monday lyric breakdown blog post to discuss this topic because we went over it in Sunday School yesterday, and I wanted to approach it from a different way than the book we’re using did.

We started discussing with Mark 10:13-16, which says, “Some people were bringing little children to Him so He might touch them, but His disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you: Whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ After taking them in His arms, He laid His hands on them and blessed them.”

Often, we approach these verses from the faith perspective: You should approach God with the unquestioning, confident faith of a child. And that’s a perfectly fine way of interpreting these verses. But I also challenge you to view this through the lens of commitment.

When kids choose to do something, they rarely, if ever, do it halfway. If a kid finds a perfectly breakable vase in the house, he’ll smash it into minuscule pieces. If she scatters 10 Lego bricks, she’ll scatter 1,000. If a kid wants to be obstinate… well, there’s nothing you can do to break through the stubbornness. It’s a neat thing about children, but they don’t truly understand the concept of limiting how they apply themselves and their energy to tasks. Whereas adults tend to jog through multiple things a day, kids sprint full out through one thing until they’re exhausted.

Y’all know it’s true; I know it’s true, and I don’t even have kids. I know this idea seems out of context with those verses, but keep that idea of childish commitment in mind until the end. I promise I’m going somewhere, starting with verses 17-20.

“As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call Me good?’ Jesus asked him. ‘No one is good but One—God. You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.’ He said to Him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.’”

Scripture lends itself here to a few ideas. Firstly, that the man was looking for affirmation of his own beliefs. He likely wasn’t looking for a real answer to apply to himself. There’s no guarantee this is the case, but Jesus telling Him the textbook Jewish answer to his question, reciting the Ten Commandments, is pretty good context.

The second, though, comes first, and it points to the fact that this rich young ruler wasn’t paying attention at all. When Jesus says, “No one is good but God,” and the man follows the Ten Commandments with, “I have kept all these,” it’s clear that he missed the point. Jesus is telling him that the affirmation he’s looking for won’t be found because the man was convinced the way to Heaven was keeping himself in the lines of the law.

Here’s where the important bit comes, and where I differ from the textbook interpretation of scripture. Verses 21-22 say, “Then, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.’ But he was stunned at this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.”

Rightfully so, many people attribute this to greed. And I won’t deny that greed is contextually what is being referred to, as confirmed by the following verses, which you can read on your own. But even more than greed, I think Jesus is referring to selfishness, which breeds a lack of commitment. Why? Because, up until this moment, everything the man obeyed was easy for him to do because it was selfish in nature.

I think it’s important that Jesus doesn’t mention all 10 of the Ten Commandments in verse 19. He only lists six. The interesting thing about those six commandments is that they’re all designed to protect the person who abides by them. Committing any of the actions these six commandments advise against could lead to genuine real-world, legal/cultural punishment.

These are the selfish six of the Ten Commandments because living them out can only benefit the one who adheres to them. This rich young ruler followed them not because he wanted to do as God commanded but because he knew that doing so would benefit him, keep him out of trouble. He was following these laws out of pure selfishness.

We know this because he didn’t follow the commandments that were hard. He didn’t follow the first two commandments, and we know this from his reaction to Jesus’s command in verse 22. It was clear to Jesus that this man was greedy and his idol was money, so He commanded the ruler to give up his idol. He had the idol of money because he was selfish and benefited from it; it was easier to make money his first god and God his second. He wasn’t truly upset at losing the money; he was upset at having to be selfless when, his whole life, he had been selfish. He was upset that he couldn’t continue trying to serve himself and God simultaneously and make it to Heaven.

Now bring back the idea about a child’s commitment and that metaphor about jogging and full sprinting. Commitment is something that can’t be parsed out to multiple things simultaneously. You can’t commit yourself to a round of golf and a church service at the same time. Likewise, you can’t commit yourself to yourself and God at the same time.

When we talk about commitment to God, we must commit everything in a full out sprint to God, like little children, else we risk selfishly holding back parts of ourselves from Him, and that’s no way to enter the kingdom of God. He wants all of you, and He’ll settle for nothing less.

How's Your Prayer?

What’s it like for you to pray? I don’t think we ponder that enough, at least, I don’t. And that’s a shame because prayer is one of the things that believers should do the most, right along with reading your Bible, so it’s something that should be heavily considered.

A few years ago, I had a non-Christian friend who I spent quite a lot of time around suddenly ask me why I prayed over my food before eating, and what I prayed about. It was an odd question, so I told her, then asked why she brought it up, and her response kind of struck me a little dumbfounded. She said, “It looked like you were in pain, and a little angry.”

Three years later, that hit me. In the place I was at the time in my relationship with God, that facial expression could only have been revealing how I felt about prayer, about God, and about myself. That’s why I think it’s important to reflect on how we approach prayer and the other necessities of a relationship with Christ, it provides a good example of how our relationship is progressing or stagnating.

To put it in a human perspective, it’s like finding yourself dreading to speak to your best friend, your boyfriend/girlfriend, or your spouse. The feelings that come along with the actions you’re meant to take in a relationship are indicative of the health of that relationship. But it’s not the feelings you get that are the problem, it’s when you don’t try to fix them that issues arise.

Before I go too much farther, I want to clarify a few things because one of the things that bothers me about bloggers and podcasters is when they discuss a deep and difficult subject like this but only from one angle, leaving readers and listeners confused about what’s right and what isn’t. I do not mean that you should not pray or read your Bible just because an emotional desire to do so is not there, or because your emotions are in turmoil. Regardless of your feelings, pursuit of a relationship with God is a choice that must be made—I’ve mentioned this before and have a whole blog post on it here: nathanielgevans.net/blog-1/when-motivations-gone.

I’m not even talking about the mindset we must approach prayer and Bible study with, though the Bible does discuss that in many places, and I’m willing to analyze both of those topics. I’m talking about an introspection regarding your emotional and mental health that should be ongoing as you pursue God. I’m talking about self-counseling, and therapy if necessary, like you might do if you’re struggling emotionally with your spouse in your marriage. I’m talking supporting your choice to follow God with the emotions that come from loving the God who loves you.

Okay, now we can jump into things. It’s a fact of the matter that we devote energy to the things we desire; we even impart some of our emotional wellbeing into those things. An athlete puts energy and emotion into his/her sport. That’s why it’s devastating when they lose a tournament. A reader puts energy and emotion into stories—that’s why they are able to empathize with fictional characters. A musician to music, an artist to painting, etc.

The Bible does confirm this in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure lies, there will your heart be also.” You devote your heart to the things you consider treasure. With devotion of the heart comes emotion. When you give your loyalty to someone or something, your heart and mind work together to establish rewards for your actions and punishment for your inaction. That’s a really brief and simplified version of how hormones are expressed via brain rerouting.

There are a million ways to describe how that works, but it’s most easily done in a relationship context. When you devote yourself to a person, to making them happy, to enjoying time with them, your brain secretes hormones that support those actions, your emotions follow along with the loyalty and love you give them. That’s where the idea of heartbreak comes from: when you’ve spent time and energy into developing pathways for those hormones to be secreted, suddenly being in a position where you’re no longer experiencing those feelings due to a breakup creates pain from that loss.

There’s so much truth and wisdom in Matthew 6:21, just that short sentence, that I could probably break it down and explain it out over a novel length, but I’ll keep it short by breaking down the reverse. If your heart’s not in it, it’s not something you treasure.  If you’re only doing something just to do it, because you’re supposed to, required to, expected to, you don’t care about it.

That’s going to hurt some people. But it’s true, no matter how much you rebel against it. There are a lot of people out there who have a relationship with God but don’t treasure it. There are a lot of people who go to church, read their Bibles, pray every day, but don’t really mean it. There are people who can talk the talk all week long, but their feet just don’t move. I know. I was one of those people. I was one of those people for so long that I never truly experienced what a relationship with God was until I was 22 years old.

Here’s the big breakdown of the point I mean: do you truly appreciate, love, and desire your relationship with God? Do you know the emotions that were likely running through the minds of people when Martin Luther oh-so-dangerously declared that people don’t need to go through a priest to speak to God, to learn from God? I don’t know them, but I can imagine: there was likely unbridled joy. I’m sure many stopped to pray without ceasing knowing that God could hear them. I bet many tore up their Bible translations they were suddenly allowed to read from how much they studied it.

In that regard, how do you treat your prayer time, your Bible time? Is it something you rush through because you need to do it? Are you merely performing the physical acts out of an obligation? Or are you devoting your heart to it like it’s something you treasure?

Gambling with Satan

I love being able to take something that isn’t Christian, or is only Christian-adjacent, and use it to teach a Christian message. Not only does it freshen up whatever lesson I’m using it to teach and potentially reach more people, but it also serves to affirm that the things of this world point back to the God who made it, even if they’re not always intended to by the person who idealized it.

So, today, let’s take a look at the popular country song by Charlie Daniels, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

I think most people look at this song in a pretty positive light, as in “Wow, Johnny faced down Satan and won. I can, too!” If they took this song that deep in meaning, that is. I, however, want to use it to explain why you should not try to face down the devil in a challenge of skill, wit, endurance, guts, or what have you, because the outcome is the same no matter the result. If you lose, you lose, and if you win, you lose. It’s best not to do battle at all if you don’t have to.

So, let’s detail the story of Johnny’s fiddle showdown with Satan. It starts with Satan doing what he’s always doing: trying to steal souls and cause people to experience eternal suffering. And let me pause for just a minute because the imagery from “He was lookin’ for a soul to steal” is so potent. It should serve as a reminder that your soul doesn’t belong to the devil. You and your soul belong to God; Satan’s trying to steal you away from Him.

When Satan appears to Johnny and challenges him to a duel, he appeals to two different sins. In fact, if you’re familiar with some Roman Catholic church teachings, you’ll note that they happen to be two of the seven deadly sins: greed and pride.

Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the Devil his due.
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you.

The first thing he does is appeal to greed. Look, I’ll give you a shiny fiddle made entirely of gold! Do you know how much a solid gold fiddle would be worth? Well, I did the research so you wouldn’t have to guess. A solid gold fiddle would weigh around 30 pounds and be worth $251,520 in 1979 when Daniels released this song. In today’s money, that’s $901,730.38.

Next, Satan appeals to Johnny’s pride. He basically pulled the, “Anything you can do, I can do better” card. So, not only does he have the hook into Johnny on the value of the fiddle—despite the fact that Johnny clearly has a perfectly good one in his hands—he also suckered him in on claims that he wasn’t good enough.

So, what does Johnny do in response? He sins, and he knows it, too.

The boy said, "My name's Johnny, and it might be a sin,
But I'll take your bet
And you're gonna regret 'cause I'm the best there's ever been.

He admits that what he’s doing is wrong, but he’s been so thoroughly ensnared by his greed and his desire to prove his superiority that he jumps right into boiling water without thinking twice. There’s also something incredibly dangerous in the last line above, but hold off on that in the back of your mind until I get through the next two verses.

Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard.
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia and the Devil deals the cards.

Have you heard the saying, “The house always wins?” In gambling, it’s a poorly hidden allusion to the understanding that even when you win you lose because, at the end of the day, no matter how much money you make, the house always makes more. The house always comes out better than the people gambling in the casino—how else do you think a casino manages to run itself if it doesn’t win more money than its patrons?

That’s the case here, too. It doesn’t matter if Johnny comes out on top in the fiddle duel because the devil’s victory is so much larger than Johnny’s. That’s why you don’t gamble with Satan/sin. When you do, Satan always deals, and the dealer always wins.

When the Devil finished, Johnny said, "Well, you're pretty good ol' son, But sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done."

If you’ll refer back to the idea I wanted you to keep in mind earlier, here’s where the devil’s plan all falls into place. In the context of the song, the “let me show you how it’s done” from Johnny right here sounds like he’s talking about playing fiddle. However, if you take it in the context I’m providing, he’s actually claiming hierarchical superiority over Satan, and even over God.

We know that Satan’s biggest wrongdoing was when he tried to claim himself as God’s equal. One of the things about pride is that it makes you believe you’re superior to your own position. If you apply what Johnny says in the context of his pride and the theme of sin, you don’t get an uppity boy claiming to be better at fiddling than Satan. You get a boy claiming to be better at sinning than the devil. You get a boy saying, “Satan, this is how you challenge God. Clearly, you’ve been doing it wrong.” Because what else is sin but challenging God as if you’re equal to Him?

The Devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet.
Johnny said, "Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again,
'Cause I've told you once--you son of a gun*--I'm the best there's ever been.

Bear with me; there’s a lot left for me to unpack to wrap this up, but it’s fairly simple. When the devil bows his head here, I can guarantee to you that he’s not doing it to admit defeat but to hide the ear-to-ear smirk on his face. Because even though the song says the devil was beaten in the fiddle battle, he didn’t lose the war.

Here’s how he won: to start with, Johnny’s prize is meaningless. He’s a fiddler, but he receives a useless fiddle. How on Earth are you going to play a fiddle of solid gold? You wouldn’t be able to hold it up, and even if you could, the strings wouldn’t reverberate. Even if they did, though, the acoustics would be horrible. It’d never work. Sure, he could sell it, I guess, but that’s like throwing away the prize from the story he could be telling everyone.

Real quick metaphor time because I know that reads a little awkward. Selling the fiddle would be like trying to hide the sin in your past and acting like you never messed up. It doesn’t do justice to your story or the story God’s working in your life when you repent.

Goal 2 in Satan’s winning plan is that Johnny’s pride is still intact. He still firmly believes himself to be above Satan and above God because he thinks he fought off sin and won on his own.

The final phase of Satan’s winning outcome stems from the third line when Johnny says to Satan, “Come on back whenever you want now.” He’s given the devil free reign to continue inviting sin into his life. And you know what that means? It means that Satan walked out of Georgia one soul richer. That line was enough to indicate that Satan won Johnny’s soul in the battle. Why? Because the way the devil gets your soul is by you continuing to act against God’s will and grace by sinning against Him.

Johnny thought he won by gambling himself against Satan, but Satan had two pocket aces the whole time. In the end, when we try to beat sin by wagering ourselves against it, we only lose. The only way to win against Satan is to walk away from the table, to not be dealt a hand at all. Because even if you’re walking away from the cards with a couple extra dollars in your pocket, Satan’s walking away with your sinful soul.

Battling the Unknown

What does the future hold? That’s a question a lot of people have, and no human has the specific answer to. Yet, many still question the one who actually knows the answers, who guides life in the right direction. Many worry fruitlessly about the things that have yet to come, even knowing that the only thing they can do is live through it and choose how to react.

Anxiety: it’s dangerous and terrible and altogether a thorn in the minds and lives of people everywhere, but especially to believers who know the one true God who has all of time in His hand. I know it’s hard to live with, through, and around, but I hope the message Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 8: 1-9 will help you a little in tackling and overcoming anxiety.

Ecclesiastes 8:1 says, “Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.”

I think, and I think psychology backs me up on this thought, that how we choose to think overrides how our brains actually think, given time. Solomon, at least, seems to agree with me. In this first verse, he details something similar, if you can get past the weird phrasing he used. One of the things that helped me battle my own anxiety was the knowledge of, not only my own thought process, but what my thought process should be.

Let’s translate verse 1 into some more common English: who is wise enough to know what everything means? Who knows exactly what will happen based on what has already happened? A man’s wisdom enlightens his mind, and the strength of his mind is changed.

If we finagle with the words a little bit, we can adjust a brightening of the face to an enlightenment of the mind. (The Hebrew word “panah” used here has a whole paragraph and a half of possible translations. One of them is mind. Whether that’s more correct than face, I don’t know, but it does fit the idea.) And there is some sense to this: the brain works by establishing neural pathways to memories, actions, emotions, and more, and it is fully possible to override and rewrite pathways that have already been constructed. Thus, it is fully possible that coming to terms with your thoughts, knowing how you should think, and changing how you think could strengthen your mind against anxiety.

Knowing is half the battle, and with the mind, it’s even more than that. I think it’s important to note that, in verse 1, the verb is “changed” not “increased.” In this case, the strength of your mind isn’t increased to handle anxiety, but it is changed to rely on God, who does know what will happen, instead of yourself.

Verses 2-4 say, “Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God. Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’”

I think the thing to take from this verse is the fact that you don’t have control. Part of the problem with anxiety is that you can’t control things you want to control, specifically, our lives. As believers, God has full control over our lives, just like a king would have full control over his subjects. There’s no point arguing or railing against it because we promised to follow what He says. And there’s no point in running away to do whatever you want, either, because He is an authority. He knows all that was, is, and is to come, so asking God what He’s doing as if He doesn’t know is silly.

And Solomon writes all this to point it out: you wouldn’t say or do these things to an all-knowing human king, so why would you do the same with God? It’s important to come face to face with this thought process, to know, unequivocally, that the one who guides your life has everything under control, and you don’t need to do anything but follow his plan. And it’s important to know because, again, knowing that is half the battle to changing your mind to have reliance on God.

Verses 5-6 say, “The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though man’s troubles are heavy on him.”

Part of verse 5 is a promise from God: if you do as I say, I promise that evil will not come to you. And we can take God at His word for this because, even things that seem evil will come to good if we follow His plan. The rest is an assertion and a reminder that you can’t rush things. In God’s plan, there is a time for everything. Even when it feels like the world is weighing so heavily on your shoulders you feel like you’ll be crushed, there is not a moment of your life that the Lord has not looked over and prepared personally for you. He knows what you need and when you need it even better than you do, and he knows just how to give you what you need in the right time for good.

Verses 7-9 say, “Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen? No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.”

You can take thoughts like those expressed in verse 7 as either good or bad. It’s kind of like one of those: which animal you see tells you about your personality quizzes on Facebook, but this verse actually does something useful. Verse 7 can either be assurance or fear. You can read it as “Despite not knowing what will happen, I know God knows, so I have no need to worry,” or you can read it, “I know God knows, but I still don’t know what will happen, so I worry.” I think the way you first interpret this verse is an indication of your battle with anxiety.

But look, another key thing to know in the battle against our own minds is that, even if you had all the knowledge, you still would have no power to control things; therein lies the crux of the anxiety problem: part of the cause of anxiety is that we believe we have power to change things. But as verse 8 says, we don’t. It would be like trying to restrain wind or stop death. It’s just something we cannot do. You can’t control others without harming yourself, just like a soldier in war can’t be sent home unless he’s injured. And those who do try to control others will only harm themselves by the wickedness they practice.

I know this is a hard battle to fight. Anxiety is a beast that does not let its prey slip from its claws with ease, but you can escape it. There is much power in knowing God has it all under control; you can rework your brain to be dependent on Him rather than yourself, to trust Him, even when your mind tells you to fear. I don’t say this to just be optimistic or lessen the struggles, but I know it helped me, and I know it can help others.

Life-altering Power

Words are powerful in the mouth of anyone who speaks, as I wrote on Monday. But words are even more powerful in the mouths of those who teach and lead because they have a responsibility to guide correctly with the things they say. The wrong word can ruin your life or someone else’s. And that’s why, as Christians, how we teach the Gospel is incredibly important.

James 3:1-2 says, “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is also able to control his whole body.”

I know that James 3 is talking specifically about teachers, but we can spread this verse out to apply to all who teach. That means it applies to every believer who teachers others about the Gospel (which we should all be doing, by the way). But let’s apply it to teachers first.

I think it’s fair to say that teachers are judged more strictly by society. And I feel confident that every elementary, middle, high school, and college teacher will agree with me there. That’s because judgment typically goes hand in hand with responsibility: the more you are responsible for, the more people look up to you to always do the right thing, the harsher you are judged.

A teacher in a school will have their every action monitored and critiqued by other teachers, administrators, and parents of the children in their classes. Some children likely do some critiquing of their own, as well.

It’s the same for teachers in the church, too, especially pastors. Every word they say is critiqued by the congregation, other pastors, and anyone else who happens to hear their message. And actually, that is as it should be. Never hear a message preached without checking what is said by what the Bible says. That’s why James says that not everyone is fit to be a teacher.

Being a teacher requires constant monitoring of your heart and actions to make sure they are good and showing the fruit of the Spirit. It means constantly analyzing your lessons to make sure they are God-inspired and spoken so that you do not say anything careless, nor anything that is not backed up by scripture.

I say all this to say that you will be judged by what you say just as much as by what you do. Matthew 12:36 says, “I tell you that one the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.”

Why is this the case? Because, as I’ve said, words are important. The tongue has the power to direct the body and soul. One of the reasons why teachers are judged more harshly is because they must give an account for every soul they directed through the lessons they’ve taught. I take this idea from Hebrews 13:17, which says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.”

But, indeed, as Matthew 12:36 says, we all must give an account for what we say. This rings true for those of us who go out to act on the Great Commission and speak the Gospel of life to those who need to hear. If we say the wrong thing, we must give an account for it. If we speak unbiblically, we must give an account for that.

James 3:6 says, “And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell.”

I want to focus on “sets the course of life on fire.” With what you say, you have the ability to guide someone to Heaven or send them on a crash course to Hell. And this is my whole point. If God tells you to show someone the Gospel and you don’t know it well enough to speak the truth of life into them, you have to give an account of that. If you say the wrong thing and they turn away from God because of that, you have to give an account. You have to tell God when you approach the judgment seat what happened there.

1 Peter 3:15-16 says, “But honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.”

Look, you can’t control other people’s actions, but you sure can influence them. If someone is going to turn away from God and Heaven, you can’t control them. But you can make sure you are not the reason they do so. When it comes to teaching the Gospel, make sure you’re ready to speak life into the person the Spirit directs you to share with.

Don’t let what you say be a stumbling block for someone else. I write all this because we talk about not letting what we do be a stumbling block for others, but it’s equally as important to watch what you say with the same fervor. True, sometimes actions speak louder than words, but often, a misplaced word is enough to make your actions meaningless.

Guard your tongue, guard your mouth, speak the Gospel backed by scripture. Speak carefully and exercise caution when provoked to answer, and don’t let what you say be the reason for someone turning away from the way, the truth, and the life. You have the power to change someone’s life; use it wisely.

Words are Powerful

“Actions speak louder than words.” “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” “Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment; for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who is also able to control his whole body.”

We were, at least I was, raised in a society that repeated the first paragraph over and over again, that perpetuated this idea that words spoken by the tongue and mouth were somehow less important, less impactful, than actions done with the hands and feet. And I hate to break it to you, but that’s just so wrong. Words are just as impactful, just as meaningful, as actions are. Not more so, and often they need to be backed up by what you do, but words are important. And even more so now that we live in an age where we can bandy them back and forth without ever revealing our own actions to others via social media.

Personally, I heard “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” frequently as I struggled to get over the mean words and insults spoken to me by students and even a few teachers who were not my biggest fans. From as early as 1st grade I was taught to repeat this phrase to myself whenever someone insulted or bullied me to attempt to stop it from hurting so much. And I know millions of other kids are likely taught the same thing.

But you know what? Words do hurt. Words are powerful. They can build and break people, cities, countries, ideals. They can incentivize a rebellion or quell one. They can speak through high-strung emotions and broken hearts and minds. They can drive a person to the edge of a cliff and convince them to jump, and they can pull up someone who’s hanging by their fingertips about to let go.

But we don’t talk about that enough, especially now. With the advent of social media, words have become tantamount to actions in our society. You can impact someone across the world through a pair of screens without them ever seeing your face or watching you live. Just a few words can hurt or heal someone you might never meet. And that, and more, is why you need to take the song “Words” by Hawk Nelson and memorize it, hide it in your heart, and let everything you say flow from the understanding that your words are powerful.

They've made me feel like a prisoner
They've made me feel set free
They've made me feel like a criminal
Made me feel like a king

Honestly, this song is fairly straightforward in its lyrics, so I’m just going to provide examples to fit the lyrics so you can more easily apply them.

A child might feel like a prisoner in his/her own mind if a parent doesn’t take time to converse with them daily about what they think and feel. When you tell your kids, “because I said so,” you tell them that their thoughts are not important to you.

A healthy parent/child relationship is one where the child is encouraged to freely share what he/she thinks because the parent talks and explains actions, decisions, and the world that the child is so inquisitive about.

A child might feel like a criminal for everything they do when they are constantly berated for mistakes but never praised. But the right compliment at the right time puts them on top of the world.

Parents, sorry for picking on you so much, but I’m just using some of my life examples as inspiration.

Words can build you up
Words can break you down
Start a fire in your heart or
Put it out

Another way I realize the power of words in my own life comes from myself and how I used to speak compared to how I try to speak now. If you knew me even two years ago and got on my bad side, you’d know just how much words could hurt because I was an expert at making them sting. And while I’m not proud to say it, I’ve broken down plenty of people with my vocabulary and proficiency with the written and spoken word. You can turn a confident individual into a stuttering mess when you know what to say and how to say it.

But you can also turn the shiest mouse into a lion roaring with confidence. Sometimes, just one compliment is enough to start off a career or a passion. The right word about someone’s singing or playing could create the next Casting Crowns or Matthew West or Francesca Batastelli.

And I’ve seen this happen a thousand times, but you can start fires in people’s hearts for their passions or end them entirely with a careless word. I’m here, writing this today, because a few people took the time to tell second and third grade me that I could be a good writer. But there are also millions of people out there who never pursue their passions because a parent, teacher, friend, or significant other never told them that. Their passion was never realized because someone told them, “that will never work out.”

I look at words kind of like the Butterfly Effect. One small word in the right place at the right time can change the course of someone’s life. Their changed life could impact millions or billions of other people. Even though they seem small and insignificant, words can make huge waves just like actions can.

The Bible tells us that the tongue is powerful. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” And it’s important to know this, and that you have no power to stop the tongue from speaking. The only thing you can do is guide it to speaking the right things. Whatever comes from your mouth is what is in your heart, so make sure to only feed good things to your heart and tongue so that you only speak good.

So, let your words be life, truth, healing, fixing, complimenting, and pointing people to Jesus. Don’t hold back that compliment because you’re afraid it would sound awkward. Or for whatever reason you might hold back a good word. Compliment endlessly and unashamedly. Tell people how much they mean to you. Lavish people with praise about their skills. Learn about your friends’ passions and talk to them about them. Tell people about Jesus, even when you feel like you can’t.

Listen to Words on Spotify. Hawk Nelson · Song · 2013.

Knowing the Plan

What’s in store for you and me? What’s ahead of us in our futures? Which choice should I make? Which option should I pick? These are thoughts that likely run through any given person’s mind fairly often. I know I think about them, probably more than I should. And I decided to write about this today because it’s recently come up in my church community.

Without getting into the specifics of other people’s lives, there are a couple people in my church who don’t really know the details of what’s ahead of them in their lives. It’s likely that a lot of things will be changing for them. To paraphrase, the individuals said, “We don’t really know what we’re going to do next. We don’t really know the plan.”

I spoke to my worship pastor about it after service, and I said, “I think it’s okay to not know the plan. When we know the plan, we tend to get in God’s way and mess it up.” He said I should probably write about that subject, and I at first kind of dismissed it because I wasn’t sure how to tackle the subject, but I heard a song on the way home from church by Avicii that hit me. It’s not even a Christian song, but it had just the words I needed to inspire this:

These are the days we've been waiting for
Neither of us knows what's in storeYou just roll your window down and place your bets
These are the days we won't regret
These are the days we'll never forget!

Think about that for a minute. Really, from the moment you give your life to Christ, you should be waiting for the day He says, “Go, it’s your turn to make disciples. Here’s what you’ll do.” I think that comes in the moment you’ve grown in Christ enough to spread the Gospel, because there is a certain level of spiritual maturity you need to reach for that, in my own opinion.

It’s kind of like how we all grow up. You spent a majority of your younger years being cared for, fed, and nurtured by your parents, ideally, and then, once you’re grown in maturity, you go out on your own. As Christians, we must be fed by the Spirit and nurtured until we are capable of going out and spreading our faith. So, really, you should be spending every moment you are being nurtured by the Spirit preparing and waiting to be sent out into the unknown.

I’ve talked about not knowing what’s in our future before, briefly, when I wrote about Tenth Avenue North’s song, “What You Want.” But I want to expand on the not knowing. I think all throughout the Bible we have examples of all the things that happen when we know God’s plans for us, and very few of them are good. We often end up causing problems for ourselves due to our own unbelief and prejudices.

Moses, for example, when told that God wanted him to free the Israelites by speaking to Pharaoh, was so worried over his own oratory skills that he tried to avoid going through with it. He tried to stop God’s plan because he was worried he couldn’t do it. Jonah tried to run from God because he knew His plan for Nineveh and didn’t think the people could be changed. The Israelites got themselves banished to wander the desert for 40 years because they knew God wanted them to wage war against the peoples in the promised land to uproot them and thought they couldn’t do it.

But when people didn’t know exactly what God had in store for them, they were able to rely on God rather than be discouraged by what they saw in front of them. I think of the disciples shortly after Jesus returned to be with the Father. They didn’t know exactly what they had to do. But they did know which direction they had to go in. Would, perhaps, Peter have been too scared to go to Rome if he knew ahead of time that he would die there? Would Paul have gone to all the places he went if he knew how he would be received?

Perhaps even the most telling story about this is Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Do you think he would have trotted out to them as carefree as he did if he knew what they would do to him? If he knew the pain that would come from it? Even if Joseph knew it was God’s plan for him? I wouldn’t have.

And therein lies the problem: when we know too much, we come up with regrets. We bring up all the things possible we can to convince ourselves that the upsides to our choices will be far less significant than the downsides. Our fear often outweighs our faith and our lives are unbalanced. The more we know about what’s ahead, the more courage we need, and that is something we sadly lack.

To put it in more concrete terms, it’s kind of like asking someone out on a date and being rejected. The first time you go to ask a girl or guy out on a date, it might not be that hard, especially the younger you are. You’re either confident he/she will say yes, or you’re sure you can handle the pain that comes from rejection. Why? Because you don’t know what that feels like yet. But each subsequent time, asking that question becomes harder and harder because you know how much it hurts to be rejected, and you fear that pain. Since you know it hurts, you’re less likely to do it.

But what I urge everyone to do is to not focus on the pain, which is why I think it’s beneficial for us to know less rather than more about what God has in store for our lives. When we hear from older, wiser folks about their lives, it’s not often that we hear about the hurts as they reminisce. It’s far more common for them to retell the good things.

But one thing I’ve noticed as I have matured is that even when you have to tell about the pain in your life on the way to big things, you rarely end up saying you regretted making that decision. In fact, I don’t know anyone who has regretted getting the courage to ask their now wife on a date. I don’t hear anyone say they regret taking the chance on asking their boss for a promotion for all the hard work they’ve been doing when they’ve made it to the manager position. I don’t hear anybody who stepped out into the unknown on the word of God say they wish they’d never done it.

Why? Because they didn’t allow themselves to get in God’s way and mess things up. They didn’t let their fear or pain control their lives. They didn’t let sorrow or shame make their choices. They let courage and faith step out for them.

Do you think Peter regretted walking on water? Do you think he would have regretted it if the rest of the disciples picked on him as Jesus told him he had little faith? No. I’m sure he regretted doubting as he stood on the water, but I know in my heart that he didn’t regret taking the step out of the boat for a single second after all was said and done.

And it’s likely something he remembered doing for the rest of his life. It was something he could share with others thousands of times as he preached the Gospel and showed them who Jesus was and why they needed him. That one small act of faith when he stepped into the unknown, not knowing what would happen, could have impacted thousands of lives. Just like you stepping out in faith when you don’t know what’s in store could do the same for thousands more.

You don’t need to know the plan. In fact, I still say it’s better you don’t. Lean on your faith in the one who’s writing the story, the one who holds your tomorrow, and know that He will work everything together for the good of those who love Him.

Listen to The Days on Spotify. Avicii · Song · 2014.

Free, Different You

Sanctification is a process. That’s probably something we don’t mention enough in the church, but it is something that we acknowledge nonetheless. You don’t choose to follow Christ one evening and then wake up following His will perfectly. The chase after Christ is a progression of tiny, yet radical, steps designed to make large changes overall.

But we’re impatient, faulty. We seek clear, unique, and massive changes in our lives and our actions because of Christ, and sometimes we try to engineer those things when they don’t need to be done. We try so hard to be others because they look like they’re doing it right, or for whatever other reason we concoct in our hearts and minds. But that’s not what we’re supposed to do. You are called to be uniquely you, doing what God has called you to do, changing how God has called you to change, and being different from the way you used to be.

I’ve touched on this subject in the past briefly, but I felt the need to reiterate it today. It’ll be somewhat of a running theme across today’s and Wednesday’s post. Here it is: Your job is to be different from the worldly you, not like other believers. Your job is to be salt of the earth, bringing out unique flavor from where you are, not where others are.

I think people get this idea that they have to be a pastor, a teacher, a worship leader, or a missionary in the Congo to make an impact for the kingdom, and they try so hard to make themselves into one. And I don’t fully blame this on the church, but I somewhat do, because we have stopped being the salt of the earth.

We don’t look any different from nonbelievers. We don’t act any different. And worst of all, individual members of the church are not doing their jobs of going and making disciples. And we’ve created this false dichotomy that only church leaders can spread the gospel, not because it’s true, but because they’re the only ones who are actually doing it.

And we dig deeper and find that younger Christians see this happening, and whether they fully understand it, they’re basing their faith on that. And now, instead of modeling their life after Christ and seeking what He has planned for them, they’re fixated on becoming pastors and teachers and worship leaders and missionaries in the Congo because “being a stay-at-home mom can’t further the kingdom. There’s no way that’s what God wants for my life,” or “working a 9-5 office job won’t allow me to spread the gospel. That can’t be what I’m called to do.”

The song of the week comes in with this theme: God makes you free to be you not someone else. It’s time we stop modeling our faith after the faith of others and start modeling our lives after Jesus and let the faith come along with that. Stop trying to live like your pastor or your mentor and start trying to live like a you who knows Jesus.

See, the way that this works is actually a pretty simple equation. Without God, you are unable to be who you are supposed to be. Why? Because you are made in the image of God, and without Him being Lord of your life, you can’t live up to everything you are, only part of it. So, when you come to know God, you are enabled to be fully you. When you become fully you, you enable God to be fully Himself in your life. If part of God’s character is being Lord of your life, then when you know Him, you give Him this part of His identity.

The equation is thus: a broken you + God = Fully You and Lord God. Because all of you is equivalent to a you who follows God’s plan. A you who chooses to follow someone else’s life is not fully you. Who you are is dependent on who you follow. So, stop trying to be other people. You’re free to be you only in Christ Jesus, only when following His will. So be you.

Listen to Free to Be Me on Spotify. Francesca Battistelli · Song · 2008.

Feeding the Wolves

What do you feed yourself? Weird question to start off a Christian blog if you’re not checking this out with the right mindset, but I’m not talking about the food that goes in your stomach to provide sustenance for your body. I’m talking about a spiritual sustenance, a metaphysical food plan. Because you’re feeding your heart, mind, and soul something, even if you don’t realize it, so let’s talk about what you should and shouldn’t be feeding it.

There are a ton of ways to go about this subject, but I’ll start you off with a story of unknown origin, though it is sometimes attributed to the Cherokee or Lenape Native Americans. It’s been adapted and worked into a number of popular movies and shows, and it goes something like this: “There are two wolves inside you who are always fighting. Which one wins? The one you feed.”

This applies pretty well to spiritual battle for us. There are two sides: Good and evil, God and Satan, and they’re fighting for control over your very being. They are literally warring inside you just like those two wolves. But because of free will, it’s not up to them who wins this battle, it’s entirely up to you. And it all depends on which one you feed.

But this can be a problem because the evil wolf is an incredible scavenger. He can feed off the dregs of pretty much anything. In fact, he gets sustenance merely by you being alive in this world thanks to the evil that occurs in it every day. This world itself creates food for the evil wolf and shoves it down your throat. Sometimes, this food is foul language, sometimes it’s lust, sometimes it’s greed, jealousy, murder, bullying, anger, pain, sadness, loss. Seriously, think of anything bad that happens in this world, anything that hurts you or someone else, anything that causes you to think something bad: it all feeds the evil wolf.

You don’t even have to try to give him food; he’ll just take it. You have to try and stop him from getting food. You have to lock him outside, away from the table, so he can’t get the scraps off the floor.

The good wolf, however, is picky. He only drinks pure milk and eats pure meat. The milk has to be at the perfect temperature, the meat cooked flawlessly, otherwise, he won’t eat it. Things that feed the good wolf include generosity, gentleness, peacefulness, kindness, joy, love. Basically, the Fruits of the Spirit. He’s pretty picky. But that’s because eating anything else makes him sick and keeps him from fighting. It’s detestable to him.

But there is a way to stop the evil wolf from getting any food. And it takes time, hard work, and dedication to the task, but it will work. And it involves you blocking out all the things that tempt you to sin.

Matthew 5:30 says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” These are the kind of measures you should go to: If watching a TV show causes you to lust or be jealous or curse, cut that off. Stop watching it. If your phone or computer tempts you to watch porn just by being near it, throw them away. If playing and losing sports or games causes anger, stop playing sports and games. The only way to effectively weaken the good wolf is to completely cut him off from any chance of food, kind of like a siege.

The verses that brought this whole thing on actually come from 2 Chronicles 32 with Sennacherib’s invasion of Jerusalem. Verses 2-5 say, “Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he planned war on Jerusalem, so he consulted with his officials and his warriors about stopping up the waters of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. Many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land; they said, ‘why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?’ Then Hezekiah strengthened his position by rebuilding the entire broken-down wall and heightening the towers and the other outside wall. He repaired the supporting terraces of the city of David, and made an abundance of weapons and shields.”

Most important are the verses about cutting off the water access to Assyria. Typically, a siege works the other way around. By surrounding a city, an attacking army can cut off their supply of food and water so the city will have to survive from only what is stored inside its walls. But Hezekiah turned this around on Assyria by removing access to any water for the Assyrian army but granting his city access through means of a reservoir that channeled water from outside the city directly into its walls.

Instead of his people starving and thirsty, the Assyrian army was cut off from any sustenance and likely would have been forced to abandon its siege had God not stepped in and removed them Himself as indicated in verse 21.

It is to this extreme we must go to stop the evil wolf. We have to wall ourselves in with the good wolf, with God, and lock the evil wolf out, cutting off his access to our problems, fortifying ourselves until the good wolf is strong enough to go beyond the walls and defeat the evil wolf in battle.

The evil wolf brings despair and death with his victory. After he’s grown strong enough to defeat the good wolf, he will devour you and slink off to scrounge up his next meal somewhere else.

The good wolf, however, brings joy and satisfaction with his victory. After he’s grown strong enough to defeat the evil wolf, he follows you everywhere and hunts at your side. He helps you track down his food and food for yourself. And because you have help in the hunt, you both grow stronger and stronger the longer you work together. And one day, he will grow strong enough that he will hunt down the evil wolf and he will tear it limb from limb so it cannot hurt anyone anymore.

Spiritual Warfare Tactics

I’ve brushed over this topic a few times so far in these last few months blogging, but I want to hit it from a new angle today. Thanks to a study my Sunday School class has done in Ephesians, I’ve viewed the ordeal of our spiritual battle in a new light, and it’s put some other verses into a better context in my mind; I hope it does the same for yours after reading this explanation of my revelation.

Spiritual warfare is a complex topic. There’s a lot that needs to be talked about, a lot that needs to be prepared, and a lot that needs to be done. The difficult part is that the subject matter is complex and often rather difficult to discuss in concrete terms simply because spiritual warfare can be incredibly far from concrete in its essence, which is that it rarely appeals to the five senses. It’s more of a metaphysical attack on the heart and mind, and that’s hard to quantify.

On top of the actual attacks themselves being hard to describe, it’s also difficult to tell when you’re being attacked. One of the key things to remember about Satan and his demons is that they are not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent like God is. They are finite, created beings, so they can’t level attacks against you all the time. But even more important than the knowledge that we are not fighting this battle 24/7 is the knowledge of what to do in the downtime to prepare for each fight.

Ephesians chapter 6 gives us a lot to go on regarding spiritual warfare and how to go about doing it. First, from verses 10 and 11, we must acknowledge that we cannot stand against the devil on our own.

“Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil.”

Only with God’s help can we stand firm against Satan. As we are, we have no protection, but God provides us with armor that is specifically designed to combat the ways of Satan.

Earlier, I said that it’s hard to quantify exactly what our battle is against, and verse 12 explains why. “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”

This verse separates the concrete from the abstract. Our fight is not against other people. It’s more akin to a fight against ideas. Without broaching the political bubble, it’s a lot like wars on common nouns, such as drugs. There’s a general idea of what you’re fighting against, but your enemy is more conceptual than physical.

Our fight is against concepts that invade our minds: things such as, stealing under certain circumstances (from the rich or to provide for yourself when things get rough) is perfectly okay; greed is fine so long as I use some of it to help the poor; lust and adultery are okay so long as I marry the person I have sex with afterward; it’s okay to gossip because I’m asking for somebody to pray about it; or one of the more deadly concepts, that it’s okay to sin whenever we want because God forgives us anyway.

Our fight is against things that we cannot see or hear. It is against ideas that are in direct contrast to the character of God. So, in order to know what it is you’re fighting against, you have to know what is in direct contrast to God’s character, which means you have to know what God’s character actually is, as verse 13 says.

“This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”

But how do I know what God’s character is? Specifically for newer Christians, it would be difficult to truly know a lot about God’s character, which can be dangerous because the more intimately you know God, the better you can defend yourself, and newer Christians will likely be attacked harshly and often due to being the most vulnerable. Well, Paul kindly gives us a shortcut to what we need to defend against by explaining what our defensive strengths are in verses 14-17.

“Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with the gospel of peace. In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.”

Our five main characteristics we must be ready to defend with are truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. The antonyms of these things, the concepts in direct contrast with God’s character, are falsity, wickedness, unrest/conflict, disbelief, and damnation.

Satan will attempt to twist the truth to convince you that you don’t know what is right and what is wrong. He will attempt to pervert this world with wicked deeds, such as murder, rape, and slander. He will attempt to bring about disagreement between people and ignite anger to cause conflict and war. He will attempt to infect your trust in God by bringing about disaster in your life and the lives of those around you. And he will attempt to convince you that nothing can save you, that you are too far gone into the darkness for God to reach.

These attacks will take on many forms. Some of the most prevalent, on a large scale, today are wickedness, like abortion, and conflict, like the one between U.S. government and its people. And the most difficult part of it all is that each attack can vary based on who you are and your weaknesses. For some, Satan may fire dozens of arrows to attack your faith. For others, he may attempt to pierce through your righteousness by causing you to sin. For yet others, he may disrupt your peace with God by causing anxiety and depression. For yet more, he might attempt to convince you that your salvation isn’t legitimate, that God did not speak truth.

And he will attack until your armor is in disrepair and you are too weak to defend. That’s why the next verse is just as important as the armor of God. It describes how to properly care for the armor of God so that it can defend you every time you put it on to do battle.

18 “Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” And I’d like to add to this verse since it’s not explicitly mentioned here, but reading your Bible is also something you must do to care for your armor.

Praying to God, speaking to Him, and hearing from Him by reading His Word is like sharpening your sword, banging out the dents in your helmet and breastplate, and reinforcing your shield so that it maintains its integrity. If your armor is in disrepair, it cannot protect you from attacks. A dented shield will lead to concussion. A dented breastplate could cave in your chest if struck. A shield that has taken too many arrows without being replaced is no more than pulp—another arrow would go right through it.

Remember that we are soldiers in this battle. When a soldier has downtime, his first job is to repair his gear so that he can trust it in the battles to come. For us, we do so by refreshing ourselves in the presence of God via prayer and studying the Bible.

But now, I want to take us back to the last part of verse 13, because the setting of the battle is incredibly important. Paul’s words here, “so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.” These aren’t the words of a man who is insisting we charge at the enemy to wipe them out. These are the words of a man imploring us to stand firm where we are until the fight dies down.

Here’s why: we know that the war is already won from John 16:33, 1 Corinthians 15:57, Colossians 2:15 (which explicitly mentions two of our enemies), and 1 John 4:4, among others.

When Jesus died on that cross, He won the war for us. The end result is guaranteed, so charging at the enemy would only hurt us. All we have to do is survive.

Oftentimes, when war is fought, battles are waged after the peace treaty is signed because news of the war’s end hasn’t reached the entire army yet. Even after Hitler’s death in WWII, Nazi soldiers still fought in an attempt to take a holding from American and Austrian military.

Much like the Nazi soldiers, Satan’s army has already lost, they just don’t know it yet. Meanwhile, we know the plans that God had for the war, we have a defensive location set, and we have the provisions to last through a siege. Our goal is not to win, to wipe out Satan’s army, but to merely survive until word of God’s victory reaches our ears and those of our enemy.

When Motivation's Gone

I’ve come across a number of people recently who have expressed that their “burning passion” for God is deteriorating. Many struggle to find the feelings that they may have had when they felt God close. Some feel like God is distancing Himself from them. Others lack the expressed feelings of joy and happiness that they had when they were on fire for God and feeling the comfort that comes from that emotional high.

And when times like these come, the common question is, “How do I get that fire for God back? How do I get motivated to continue chasing after God?”

And the very simple answer is that you choose to do the hard work that comes with love. When you lack the motivation to read your Bible, choose to read it anyway. When you lack the motivation to pray, choose to pray anyway. When you lack the motivation to attend church, choose to go anyway. When you lack the motivation to fight temptation, choose to fight temptation. Because let me tell you, a feeling is not strong enough to get you through the harsh realities that will try to destroy your love for God. No feeling will ever be strong enough to support love when things go bad. The only action that can support love is choice.

The long answer is this: Let’s take the idea of a relationship, specifically marriage. Now, I’m not married, but nonetheless, I believe that I can provide an accurate representation and breakdown of what is required to make a marriage work using Biblical principles. I’m just going to do it in reverse, so bear with me.

Ephesians affirms that the concept of earthly marriage is meant as a reflection of the church’s relationship with Christ.

Chapter 5 verses 22-29 say that wives should submit to their husbands in the same way that the church should submit to Christ. Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He is to give himself to her. Husbands are also called to love their wives just as much as they love themselves to see her as his own flesh such that he provides and cares for her, just like Christ does for the church. He clothes us in His own righteousness so that we may be seen as righteous like Christ and not the sinners we are because we have been made one with Christ.

I don’t think Paul could have written it any clearer without literally writing, “God made marriage so that you could get a glimpse of what your relationship with Him should be like.”

I’ve been listening to a number of podcasts about marriage recently to prepare myself for when I, hopefully, get married, and one of the most consistently spoken about conflicts is how to handle separation between husband and wife. What do you do when life gets busy and the butterflies disappear? Even generally speaking, you’ll likely hear married couples talk about the disaster that is the ending of the “honeymoon phase.” What do you do when you’re no longer pursuing each other like your relationship is new?

The most spoken answer? Act. Do something about it. When a husband and wife are distant from each other emotionally, things won’t magically fix themselves. One or the other has to step up and begin pursuing their spouse in an effort to love them. When husband and wife get into an argument and neither of them feel like loving the other, the way to resolve that issues is not to wait until the feelings of love return. The way to resolve the issue is for one of them to sacrifice themselves, despite their feelings of shame, embarrassment, anger, whatever, and choose to love through the hard times.

Here’s why you can’t rely on emotions to get you through rough spots in marriage. When the rough spots come, the only emotions you are going to feel are ones that will make it that much harder for you to do what you know is right. You will be angry. You will be sad. You will be distraught. You will be ashamed. And none of those are conducive in motivating you to love. All of those things are conducive in motivating you to hate.

Okay, I know I’ve given some very vague examples. Sorry! When I get married, I’ll revisit this topic and give y’all some very clear situations in which you will have to choose love over emotional motivation, but until then, you’ll have to settle with these and one more passage of scripture that gives the clearest example of how this works as there could ever be.

Matthew 26:38-39 says, “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is swallowed up in sorrow—to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me.’ Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.’”

Do you really understand the deepness of this passage? Jesus is in emotional distress. He knows what is coming. He knows what He should do. Yet He desires another way. His emotions are saying, “I don’t want to do this.” He’s feeling unmotivated. He was so stressed by His feelings that He was literally sweating blood.

But what does He do? He chooses to do what He knows is right, what He knows must be done. And He goes and sacrifices Himself on the cross so that we could be saved. And that is the most perfect example of what you should do when you don’t feel so good about God.

In retrospect, what we sometimes lack the feeling to do is such a minuscule sacrifice when we compare it to what Jesus did. How hard is it, really, to read your Bible every day? Does it really take that long? Does it really take so much out of you to pray in the morning, at night, before meals? Does it cut a huge swath of time from your day to just be with God? I don’t think so.

And you know, the greatest thing about choosing to love God when you don’t feel like loving God is that the feelings come back. You might not notice it at first or it could hit you like a flood. But when you genuinely pursue God, you will find the joy that allowed Paul to live in a nasty dungeon while writing letters to encourage believers all around the known world. You will find the peace that comes with knowing that our all-powerful God has everything under control and is right there beside you at all times.

It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.

Resisting the Devil

This last week has been a week preaching to my heart about resisting temptation. My pastor’s been teaching on it for the last three weeks, and though it wasn’t the focus of my Sunday School lesson last night, it did come up in the verses we covered, and I had a pretty neat revelation that I felt I needed to share (yeah, we’re doing Sunday School on a Tuesday because of Coronavirus, but it’s working quite nicely).

There is a small joke that has been running around the Gen Z-younger Millennial Christian community about being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and repenting from it. The joke that follows this line of thought regards being convicted of your “favorite sin,” and not wanting to give it up because it’s comfortable or feels good or whatever.

And let’s face it. We all have a “favorite” or “pet” sin that we constantly fall prey to. For some of us, it’s lust, for some it’s anger, for others greed, for others jealousy, for many, it’s gossip. Whatever it is, I feel confident in saying we’ve all got one; I’m sure you’ll find yours if you properly examine your thoughts, words, and actions.

I would argue, however, that it is less our “favorite sin” and more our most common, and easily given in to, temptation. It is the one thing that Satan can trick us with that he knows will get us more often than it won’t. Just as much as I guarantee you that you have a “favorite sin” as it were, I guarantee you that you are tempted by far more things than just that one you happen to give in to.

Just take a few moments to go through your day and all the things that happen in it; mark down all the times something that could have led to sin occurs. I’ll give you a typical example of what could happen by describing a potential day I could live through:

I could wake up in the morning and lie in bed until I’m almost late for work—laziness. I could rush out the door, jump into my car, and drive ten over down the road—Failed to be subject to governing authorities. I could get stuck at a stoplight and yell a few choice words—foul language. I could arrive to work late and tell my boss I got stuck in road work—lie. I could see a pretty girl at work and fantasize about her—lust, adultery. I could hear of my coworker getting a raise and bitterly wish he were fired because I was supposedly next in line for promotion—jealousy. I could arrive home and be short with my parents and refuse to do chores—disrespecting my father and mother.

See what I mean? You can be tempted hundreds or thousands of times a day. But you’re not likely to pay most of those temptations any mind thanks to the renewing of your mind by the Holy Spirit as a believer. This also serves to back up the point that temptation isn’t the sin. Even Jesus was tempted, as seen in Matthew 4:1-11. Temptation is something we cannot control; it’s our reaction to it that we have to work on. And that leads me to the verses that prompted this whole article: Ephesians 4:26-27.

“Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.”

First, let’s note that anger is not sin. Anger may lead to sinful behavior, but being rightfully upset by something is not, in and of itself, wrong. Even Jesus was rightfully, and righteously, angry at times—flipping tables in the temple comes to mind. But anger is a temptation to give in to incorrect behavior, just like all the actions I mentioned earlier are temptations to give in to sin.

The important part is not necessarily that you were tempted, but how you react to the temptation, and verse 26 gives us the method. It says to not let the sun go down on your anger. One of the most common things associated with the movement of the sun is the passage of time. So, how do we avoid falling prey to temptation? Deal with it in as short a time as possible. Don’t let it be present in your heart and mind for any longer than it takes you to recognize that it’s temptation. Turn away from the thought, separate yourself mentally from the setting, and turn to Jesus.

There are a number of methods to doing this, though the best is obviously having scripture at hand to quote and remind yourself of the God who can give you all things and provide for you in every way. Whatever works for you, do it. But don’t give Satan time to work, chipping away at your defenses.

If there is one thing the devil is, it’s an opportunist. He’s not omniscient, he’s not omnipresent, and he’s not omnipotent. But he is incredibly sneaky, quick, clever, and dedicated. His only goal is to make sure you suffer with him in Hell. And he’s great at taking advantage of any openings you give him to work at you. While he may not be able to punch a hole in the armor you wear for protection in one hit, give him enough time and he’ll find the hold and slip a blade through.

That’s why verse 27 is so important. To avoid giving the devil an opportunity, you have to make sure you give him as little time as possible to study you while you’re in duress from temptation. If a lustful thought comes across your mind, don’t play around with the idea and flirt with fantasies. Cast it away from you as quickly as you can. The longer you ponder that lust, the more likely you are to give into the temptation and actually commit adultery. (Doing inappropriate things with someone in your head is just as much adultery as doing it physically—Matt. 5:28.)

When your friends start gossiping, either get them to stop or remove yourself from the conversation so that you’re not convinced to join in. Even if your resolve is strong at first, you will break down eventually just to become part of the conversation. For every second you remain, you give Satan an opportunity to get you to sin.

Combat jealousy with encouragement, greed with thankfulness, anger with love and understanding. And do it quickly so that you don’t sit and stew in the feelings and opportunities to do what you know feels good temporarily, what appears to satisfy.

The reason I love verses 26-27 so much is because the whole picture lends itself to this lesson so easily. When you’re really angry at someone, it’s so easy to sit and stew in your emotions and imagine all the mean things you’d say or do to get back at them for how they wronged you. The longer you stew in that anger, the easier it gets for your “justice” to become harsher, and the harder it becomes to show them love and forgiveness as we are called to do.

It’s the exact same with sin and temptation. The longer you play with that temptation, the easier it is to give in to the sin, and the harder it becomes to do what you know is right. So, don’t let time pass in temptation. Hurry and turn to Jesus, rebuking Satan all the while so that you can be protected by the righteous shelter that is Christ.

What Christian Means

Just this last weekend I was introduced to Christian rapper Nathan Feuerstein, otherwise known as NF, by my little brother. I’ve only heard a few of his songs thus far, but I’ve found quite a lot of valuable information in them to mine, especially in “Therapy Session,” which I want to talk about today.

I want to discuss a few ideas before I get into the lyrics and the themes in this song. The first is the meaning behind music. A lot of times, I think people forget that music is a language—it is meant to convey things: feelings, thoughts, experiences, dreams, life. It’s not just entertainment, and it’s usually not single-minded in purpose. One song can portray a variety of things when you analyze it as you should. My point in this is that you shouldn’t dismiss music just because it’s not something you enjoy listening to.

It’s something we, meaning the Christian community (and others) do far too often. The older generation typically doesn’t like contemporary music during worship because they prefer the style of hymns. The younger generation typically doesn’t like hymns because they’re too slow and boring, or they’re hard to sing during worship, or whatever. And, to be honest, the argument between the two groups has left worship music in kind of a dark place of extremely simplified lyrics sung loudly to appease both.

I say all this because I don’t want anyone dismissing the message from music like this because it’s “not their style” or because NF doesn’t necessarily define himself as a Christian rapper and his music isn’t always the prettiest in terms of sound. Therapy session is actually rather dark at surface level. But when you go deeper, there’s a ton of God-given wisdom behind the words.

So, into the lyrics.

This music is more than you think
Don't book me for just entertainment, it's entertaining
Hearing these parents, they telling their kids
My music is violent, you gotta be kidding me
I guess that your definition of violence and mine
Is something that we look at differently

These verses go back to the topic discussed earlier and breach into the next. A lot of times, we Christians have an incredibly bad habit of railing harshly against things that don’t look, smell, taste, feel, and sound Christian right off the bat. Rap is a prime example in and of itself. Wider sects of the Christian community hate it because sometimes it sounds angry or too loud, and the words aren’t straight from Bible verses. Heavy metal is another genre that tends to get the stink eye from us because of similar reasons.

But this causes a ton of problems when the rest of the world sees it. Trust me when I say that we often have this reputation as practitioners of “cancel culture.” If you don’t know what that is, it’s the name behind the practice of blacklisting something because it doesn’t fit your idea of “good,” or because it made a mistake and said or did something “wrong.” I’m going to avoid getting technically political here, but just go search up some news articles about “Christians boycotting companies,” and just see what’s pulled up.

I won’t deny that there are certainly groups and companies we shouldn’t give our business to, but we exercise the “that’s satanic” thing way too much. We’re talking about those who don’t allow their kids to read Harry Potter because it has witches and magic in it or Percy Jackson because it’s about Greek mythology. In all honesty, Christians are becoming rather like the Pharisees in practice, disallowing things like video games, certain books, movies, songs, bands, etc.

Want me to smile, you want me to laugh
You want me to walk in the stage with a smile on my face
When I'm mad and put on a mask, for real though
I mean, what you expect from me?

Another thing we do far too often as Christians is attempt to come off as perfect. We sugarcoat ideas, we put on masks to hide our true identities and feelings when we go to church on Sundays, we live double lives because we think that’s what it means to be Christians. But I think the rest of the world actually has it right when it comes to talking about how you feel.

It’s okay to be real with your emotions and thoughts. It’s okay to admit that sometimes you doubt God. It’s okay to acknowledge how hard it is to love how Christ loves. It’s okay to admit your struggles. And it’s high past time we started making the body of Christ a safe place to be imperfect humans.

I'm taking pictures with thousands of people
But honestly, I feel like nobody knows me
I'm trying to deal with depression
I'm trying to deal with the pressure

How many people do you actually know? How many actually know you? Who can you genuinely say you are vulnerable with? That’s what’s being expressed here. How many times do you walk out of church on Sunday, talk to some people on the way out to your car, and then not speak to them again until the same time next week? Are you connecting? Are they? It’s so superficial, and most certainly it is not what God wanted for us when he declared that we should meet together and fellowship.

How many Christians deal with depression and anxiety but no one in the church knows? No one is there to help them? It goes back to some of my earlier points—we’re too willing to judge and not willing enough to learn. Personally, I fall victim to not connecting with others well. I have anxiety—talking about myself and being vulnerable is akin to jumping out of an airplane in my head, but these are the things that we must do better, even if it’s difficult, or else we risk failing at the mission God has for us.

I ain't gon' walk on these stages in front of these people
And act like I live my life perfectly
That doesn't work for me
Christian is not the definition of what perfect means

I love that last line more than any other line in this song for a number of reasons. Being Christian does not mean to be perfect. It means to follow the only one who lived a life of perfection. We strive for perfection knowing we will never reach it. The problem is that we pretend to be perfect far too much.

I’ve said this more times than I care to count at this point, but I’ll say it again. I honestly believe that most nonbelievers have no problem with God. If they knew Him, they’d love Him. They all have a problem with us. Because we do an absolutely miserable job of showing them who He is. Nonbelievers don’t hate God; they hate us. We’re judgmental and prudes and snobby and rude. We hate and despise them and then act like we’re better than them because we’re “saved.” They don’t want anything to do with that, and I don’t blame them.

What you probably don’t know, unless you’ve heard this song before, is that pretty much the entire song is NF venting his thoughts and emotions at fellow Christians. Why? Because, not only has he gotten death threats for his music, but someone, and I can almost guarantee it was a “Christian” threatened to slaughter his entire family. Why? Because he didn’t fit their idea of being saved.

That has to stop. NF has likely done more to spread the kingdom of God by the age of 29 than many Christians will manage in an entire lifetime. Now, I’m not trying to be high and mighty about this. This message applies to me, too, as all of my blog posts do. But it needed to be said, and it needs to be said over and over and over again until we get it and start changing how we live.

Listen to Therapy Session on Spotify. NF · Song · 2016.

Preparations for Courage

One of the things I love about reading the Bible is finding the parallels between New Testament and Old Testament scripture, even, and especially, when it’s not just a NT author quoting the Old Testament, but when the two align even though the reference may not have been intentional.

In the case of John 14 and 1 Chronicles 17:25, the parallel wasn’t quoting OT scripture, but it is very likely that Jesus made the allusion purposefully.

When you take a look at it, it’s actually rather neat how similar the covenants are that the Lord made with Jesus’s death and resurrection and with David. Of course, this makes sense because from the covenant God made with David came Jesus, who was of the house and line of David.

But what I want to talk about specifically is God’s promise to David to build and establish a house for him as he prepared to lead Israel and glorify God in his life.

1 Chronicles 17:25-26 says, “Since You, my God, have revealed to your servant that You will build him a house, Your servant has found courage to pray in Your presence. Lord, You indeed are God, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.”

To really get into the feel of what I’m trying to teach, put yourself in David’s position. David was 30 years old when he became king, when he became the ruler of an entire nation. Keep in mind that he was a shepherd for a decent portion of his life—that’s not quite adequate training to be a monarch. Ruling the kingdom of Israel, and especially turning it back from its idolatrous ways under its previous rulers, would have been quite the daunting task.

Even someone groomed to become the ruler of such a nation would have been stressed and afraid of taking on that task. But these verses indicate that the covenant the Lord made with David gave him courage to work through that? Why? Because he knew something great would come of it. He knew that the Lord was before him, preparing the way for success and peace.

This is incredibly important to our understanding of John 14.

Verses 1-6 say, “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way where I am going. ‘Lord,’ Thomas said, ‘we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

These verses are meant as encouragement. To the disciples, it was meant to give them peace about the days and weeks to come after Jesus’s death on the cross and the subsequent resurrection and return to Heaven.

But this is more than just timely encouragement for the disciples. This is meant to give us peace over the plan God has for our lives just as much as it was to give them peace about God’s plan for Jesus. It was meant to give us courage that, no matter what, we have a place prepared for us with the Father.

David was encouraged to go through all the trials of his kingship, all the wars and politics, all the idolatry of the Israelites, the troubles with the Ark of the Covenant, and anything that came up to oppose him because he knew that God would not let it fail.

Far too often, we Christians fail to fully understand that God does not fail. We’re afraid to tell the Gospel to a coworker because we might get fired. We’re scared to witness to a friend because he/she might refuse to speak to us afterwards. We don’t help the homeless guy who needs food because we’ll be late getting home, or we think he might go spend the food money on drugs. We don’t speak to the woman on the street who looks like she’s been down and depressed because we’re afraid of potential public outcry or that someone will perceive it the wrong way.

But why are we so scared? We know that God does not fail. We know that he always has our best interests at heart. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him. We know that this place is only temporary, that there is far better waiting for us. So, why are we scared?

But whatever you do, understand this: Jesus has a place prepared for all those who know Him. We should take heart and have peace in that statement. We should have the ultimate peace knowing that no matter what happens on this Earth, even if it is the worst torture imaginable, there is the ultimate peace and love waiting for us on the other side. Have courage because no one can take away that reward! No one can separate you from God’s love.

Go back to verse 1: “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Don’t let any of the potential circumstances you could find yourself in stop you from reveling in the fact that your potential to do good is endless. Never stop relishing in your knowledge that to die is gain.

Yeah, even if things go wrong here and you’re killed for your faith, is that really that horrible? In some ways, no, it would not be good. We would hate to leave behind loved ones, but when you’re afraid of the small things like helping out a homeless person or showing love to a friend or even an enemy, keep in mind that to die is to gain all the benefits of being with Jesus. What’s a little fear in the perspective of eternity?