Bible study is valuable, but until we have revelation knowledge it will have little impact on our lives.

It’s true. Especially spiritually.

On the one hand there are things that we learn and can know with our minds. Facts, figures, words, phrases, how things relate to one another – these are all things we can learn naturally. We know this stuff with our brains.

Then there are things that we know with our hearts. The Bible says this stuff is spiritually discerned.

Acquiring Head Knowledge

It’s relatively easy to gain head knowledge. You can just study and spend time learning and then eventually over time your brain will collect more data.

Many people approach the Bible this way. They strive to learn facts and figures about the Bible, the history behind it, or parse the esoteric meanings of the original languages.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of this. But in and of itself it only goes so far where spiritual knowledge is concerned.

Heart Knowledge

In contrast, heart knowledge is something that you just know. This kind of knowledge is sometimes called revelation knowledge because it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

Often revelation knowledge is built on head knowledge. But not always.

This is why we can read the same passage of scripture that we’ve read a bagillion times before and then suddenly get a new insight about what it means. When we get revelation knowledge about a scripture it comes alive for us.

As the writer of Hebrews said,

Soul vs. Spirit

Our intellect is part of our natural mind and therefore it is part of our soul. And that passage in Hebrews tells us that the Bible can reveal things to our natural minds and also to our spirits.

Often folks will talk about the soul and spirit as though they are interchangeable. But they’re not. Our soul is simply our mind, will and emotions. It is everything that makes up our personality and how we relate to one another.

Our spirit, on the other hand is that part of us that comes alive when we are born again. We can know things with our natural minds in our soul and we can know things with in our spirit.

Living Word

The Bible is called the Living Word. And it is not until scripture actually becomes alive to us personally that it really has the power to affect change in our lives.

Until a passage of scripture comes alive to us and we have that revelation knowledge the change in our lives will be limited. Up to that point we are trying to change ourselves and that is limited to the ability of our own will power.

But once we have that revelation knowledge it has power to affect positive change in our lives. That’s the point where we start to really grow.

Until we have revelation knowledge in an area we can only live out a truth to the extent that our own will power is able to do it. And our will power always breaks down at some point.

But once we have that heart knowledge and we know it in our spirit it will affect real change in our lives. And it will happen naturally. We won’t have to “try” to make it happen anymore.

Another benefit of revelation knowledge is that it is unshakable. Because it is all the way down in our spirits and deeper into our being than just head knowledge, heart knowledge becomes part of who we are. It’s not as susceptible to peer pressure and other factors as our other opinions often are.

Bottom Line

Once I realized that there are these two kinds of knowledge it took so much of the pressure off of me for living a godly life. Instead of asking God for more will power so that I do the things I want to do and avoid the things I don’t want to do, I’m asking God for more revelation.

When you know that you know that you know what you believe everything else gets much easier.

The consequences of sin often reach far beyond the people who do the actual sinful acts.

Some people have trouble with that truth. There are those who see think that unless they portray God as raging mad about the sin we commit throughout our lives then there is no reason not to engage in sinful behavior.

Except that there is a huge reason not to sin. (Actually there are several reasons. But today let’s look at just one.)

Consequences

You see, even though as far as God is concerned our individual sins were paid for by Jesus way back when, there are still consequences when we sin.

Sin may no longer be an issue between us and God anymore. But it still causes big problems between us an other people down here on earth.

The sinful things we do all have consequences attached.

Winning Football Coach

For example, Joe Paterno died today. He was the winingest (is that a word?) college football coach in the history of the game. In his 46 years as head coach of Penn State he had an impressive record of 409 wins, 136 losses, and 3 ties.

Paterno had an impressive career and piled up many football awards. Unfortunately that’s not what he’ll likely be remembered for.

Fired in Disgrace

Just a few short weeks ago, Paterno was fired from the head coaching job that he held for decades even though he did nothing illegal. It could possibly even be argued by some (though not by me) that he did nothing wrong.

However one of his assistant coaches was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting young boys. The resulting scandal got Paterno fired in disgrace.

Many Lives Hurt

If the accusations are true then this assistant coach hurt a great many lives with his sin. Most obviously are the victims of his abuse.

Sexually abusing children is a horrible thing. Depending on how long it was going on, there may very well be victims who are adults now.

There’s the victim’s families. I can’t imagine the pain of having a child sexually assaulted.

The perpetrating coach’s life is in ruins now too.

And then there’s Paterno. The assaults happened on his watch and he appears to have done the bare minimum required by law to report the crime.

As a result he was fired just weeks before he died and this scandal will likely become his legacy instead of coaching greatness.

Avoiding Sin

It is true that we should live morally pure and holy lives. But the reason we should do so has nothing to do with being more acceptable to God.

One of the biggest reasons we should strive for a holy lifestyle is so that we don’t leave a wake of destruction through the lives of people around us or destroy our own lives.

Sin has consequences. But we never have to expose ourselves to those consequences when we simply refrain from that sin in our lives.

Our world is a very religious place

Our world is full of religions. I’ve got to say, I’m not much a fan. Of any of them.

That probably sounds like a huge contradiction coming from from someone who claims to be a “Jesus Freak” and uprooted his family to move across the country to attend a Bible College too.

But it’s not.

Jesus Treated People Differently

When we think of Jesus, we usually think of a soft spoken kumbayah guy who never got excited and was overwhelmingly nice to everyone. However, when you actually read through the Biblical accounts of Jesus you see a bit of a different picture.

Jesus behaved very differently towards different types of people. On the one hand he was incredibly compassionate towards the outcasts of society. Whenever people came to him acknowledging their own shortcomings he lifted them up, healed their sicknesses and diseases.

To the woman caught in adultery – which the law said was punishable by death – Jesus simply says, “Go and sin no more.”

He offered healing and restoration to anyone who came to him and believed he could give it to them. Plain and simple.

Jesus Trashed the Religious

But when it came to the religious people of his day… Oh. My. Gosh.

There was nothing nice about what he said. He called them vipers and whitewashed tombs full of dead man’s bones. He told his disciples they were like yeast – a little bit of their religious ways would corrupt the whole loaf.

In fact, one time Jesus got invited to a fancy dinner by a bunch of the leading religious people of his day, and a pretty amazing thing happens. (You can read about it in Luke 11:37-54.)

I mean think about this for a moment. Jesus is one of the most significant figures in religion in the history of mankind, right? And here is is at dinner with a bunch of the most influential religious people of his day. It might be a good time to suck up a little and get on their good side, right?

Well Jesus doesn’t do that.

The first thing these guys notice is that Jesus doesn’t wash his hands before he eats. Now there‘s a scandal, right? “Ooh… Dirty hands!”

How does Jesus respond? What he has to say is not very “nice” at all.

He lights into them for being hypocrites! Says they’re fixated on appearances and ignore the truth.

He points out that all their religion and their rules don’t do anything to make people’s lives better. All religion does is weigh people down with burdens they can never cary.

Jesus even goes so far as to imply that they are murderers and because he says they approve of the killing of God’s prophets.

That’s not a good way to get invited back to dinner. (I’m just saying.)

Jesus had very little nice to say about religion.

Video Worth Watching

Jefferson Bethke made a video where he recorded a poem he wrote about this very thing. I’m not into poetry but this is an excellent video and well worth the 4 minutes to watch.

It’s very possible you may have seen it already because as I write this well over 9 million people world wide have watched it. And that’s pretty amazing considering he only posted the video 4 days ago. Yes it is pretty powerful.

Take a look:

Reactions

Jefferson is spot on, I think.

What I find interesting is how many of the 100,000+ commenters on this video don’t understand how Jesus ≠ Religion. I think that’s a subject worthy of it’s own separate article. I’ll post that another time.

What do you think of the video? It is on track or off base?

Map image from Wikipedia

If we don't heed the signs we may end up at the wrong destination.

It happened to me in Kansas City when we were moving out here to Colorado. Or maybe it was St. Louis. That trip was a blur.

In my case I saw the sign for the exit I needed but I was in the wrong lane to get the moving truck over by the time I saw it. (And why would I have to take an exit to stay on the same highway is beyond me.)

Course Correction

When you realize you are on the wrong road you have to change course and find a way back to where you want to go. In my case there was a loop around the city that we took and didn’t loose much time at all.

However, what if you keep motoring down the wrong highway and don’t realize it?

Then eventually you’ll get somewhere. But it won’t be where you expected to go.

Most people are looking to succeed. I mean no one sets out saying, “I hope I’ll be a huge failure one day!”

Pursuing success is a worthy undertaking. The trick is knowing what success really is.

Looking Back

I got thinking about this reading a year end article by someone I know. He looked back over the past year and a something jumped out to me.

I met this guy years ago and then we were at similar places in our businesses. Since then he’s accomplished quite a bit. He has built up a huge social media following and travels all over the world speaking for large audiences (he now pulls in a 5 figure speaking fee, from what I understand.) He’s published a bestseller and is working on others. He’s also launched several successful online ventures.

Over the years as I watched his business grow I sometimes felt like I wasn’t measuring up because I wasn’t travelling the world and doing all the things that he’s been doing.

Then I read his year-in-review post.

In it he mentioned that he’s now separated from his wife.

Un-Success

Now I realize that there is a ton I don’t know about his situation. But I do know this. No amount of “success” is worth it to me if it tears my family apart.

In fact, that’s not success at all. It’s the opposite of success. Un-success.

Or failure.

Another guy I counted as a friend killed himself this year. He had a huge social media following and traveled the world speaking to all kinds of groups too.

There was a ton that went into his family life falling apart.

But no matter how you slice it, a path that ends with you taking your own life is not the road to success.

Real Success

I’m sure their work choices were not the only factor in the family dynamics of these two guys I know. But they sure didn’t help.

And I’m not saying that their relationship struggles mean that it is better to hang back in mediocrity either.

What I am saying is that there is a better way.

Upside Down

God's ways are not our ways. He often turns things completely upside down from what we do.

We never would have stepped down from heaven and snuck into the world via a barn somewhere. But that’s how God showed up.

No. We would have made some sky splitting grand entrance. Put on a big show. Lot’s of lights. And maybe a fog machine or some pyrotechnics for good measure.

But not God.

The same is true for how we truly see success. Jesus said it this way.

The Right Road

Jesus told us that when we put our priority on him and learning his ways then the rest of it will fall into place. That’s the right road.

And I am seeing that in my own life. We came out here to attend a Bible college because we looked through the book of Acts and saw a huge difference between the believers on those pages and our own lives.

We want to make a difference in this world. So we made the choice to prioritize that over my business.

But here’s the thing. My business is already starting to grow in ways that we couldn’t have predicted just a few short months ago.

I wish I could say I planned it this way. But honestly, I’m not that smart.

I thought I was setting aside “success.” But the truth is my business is already more successful than it’s ever been. And now I can clearly see the growth path out in front of me.

And the best part? I won’t have to choose between my family and my work.

Now that’s not what I expected. But it is true success.

You can see it too. Just focus on knowing Jesus first. Then the rest will follow.

Money itself is not evil. But loving money is the source of much evil.

Money is not the root of all evil.

Many people think that being poor is a virtue because the Bible says that money is evil.

But that’s not what the Bible says. It’s close to what the Bible says. But close only counts in horse shoes, hand grenades and nuclear weapons. When we’re talking about the Bible, “close” often completely twists the meaning.

Here is the actual verse that people are referring to.

As you can see, money is not the root of all evil. The Bible actually says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

Money is Neutral

Like many things, money itself is neither good nor evil. It is neutral.

What people do with money can be good or it can be evil, although much that is done with money doesn’t fall on either extreme.

As human beings we have this natural tendency to want to avoid personal responsibility by blaming the objects that people use to do bad things when the real issue is in our own hearts.

For example, many people see strictly limiting access to guns as a good thing. However the truth is that guns don’t murder people. People murder people, and guns are one of the weapons they use to commit those murders.

Eliminating guns would not eliminate murder. People were being murdered in the middle ages long before guns even existed. Even if we were able to find a way to go back to the middle ages before guns existed, people will still find ways to commit murder without guns.

As with guns and murder, the issue of money and evil is really about the human heart. It’s not about the object.

In Context

We see that even better when we put that verse back in the context of the what Paul was writing to Timothy.

That word “desire” in verse 9 is talking about a longing or a craving to be rich. Paul is talking about priorities here.

Proper Priorities

We will quickly get into trouble when we prioritize getting rich above other things in our lives. And that’s what the Bible means when it says the love of money is the root of all evil.

It should be obvious that when we prioritize acquiring money above God we’ll get into trouble. In fact, when we prioritize anything above God there will be problems for us. The way Jesus explained it is that when we prioritize God first everything else will be provided for us.

So then, putting the pursuit of riches above other things will cause problems for us too. That’s exactly what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy.

Removing the Love of Money

So if money itself is not the issue, how do we remove the love of money from our lives?

The answer is simple, though often times it may not be very easy. Here’s how we do it.

To remove the love of money from our lives simply make the choice to always prioritize relationships with other people over financial gain.

Even though it is a simple thing, it won’t always be easy to choose relationships over financial gain. However God honors that choice.

For example, if you remember in Genesis 13 Abraham and Lot had both grown so wealthy that the land they were on wasn’t able to support the herds of both of them. Their employees were starting to get into fights about the limited resources that were available.

Abraham decided that the best answer was for him and Lot to part ways. And even though Abraham had the right to choose the best land for himself because he was Lot’s uncle he deferred to Lot and let him choose which way to go. Lot selfishly chose the more desirable land and headed off in that direction.

Abraham chose his relationship with Lot over the financial gain of the best resources. Contrast that with Lot who chose to prioritize his own financial gain and in the process ended up on Sodom.

In the end Abraham was blessed by God and grew far wealthier than he was when he and Lot parted ways. However Lot didn’t fare so well. He lost everything when he barely escaped the destruction of Sodom with his life.

We will do well to make Abraham’s choice and prioritize relationships over financial gain. By doing so we will remove the love of money from our lives.

Police are at every accident. But that doesn't mean they cause them!

Far too often in Christian circles we hear things like, “God brought this [sickness/disease/tragedy/judgement] to teach me and grow me.”

That’s a boat load of crap.

You think that’s harsh? I’m sorry. But that’s what it is.

God does NOT bring calamity on us.

He is NOT judging us for our sins.

Natural disasters are NOT “acts of God.”

Bad Things Happen to Good People

Do bad things happen to godly people?

Absolutely. All the time. You’d have to be in serious denial to think otherwise.

In fact, the Bible, and Jesus himself teach us that we’ll have problems come against us in this life. Jesus said that we’d have trouble in this world, but then he went on to tell us to take heart, or as the Amplified Bible says it, “take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted,” because He has overcome the world.

Jesus also promised we’d face persecutions, even in the midst of being blessed.

Yes bad things happen all the time, to good people and to not so good folks. But God is NOT the cause of them.

Making Lemonade vs. Handing Out Lemons

A lot of folks look at Romans 8:28 which says,

Many people look at that and say, “See! God brought this on me to do good things with it. He gave me this cancer so that he would be glorified”

Wrong, wrong and wrong!

Yes, God is with you through the cancer. Yes he will bring good from it and will be glorified as you draw closer to him in your trial. God will take that lemon and make lemonade out of it.

But God did NOT bring it on you.

God is in the business of taking our lemons and making lemonade. He’s not in the business of handing out lemons.

Do Police Cause Accidents?

Did you ever notice how almost always there are police officers around when there is a traffic accident?

It’s sort of like how God is always present when bad things are happening to us.

Yet if we were to say that because police are at so many accidents then they must be the ones who cause them, we’d be fools.

That’s exactly what people say about God. God’s there in my trial so it must be his fault.

The Man Born Blind

Sometimes people point to Chapter 9 of John, which tells the story of a guy who was born blind that Jesus healed. There’s one verse in particular that people claim says, “God brings sickness so that he will be glorified.” Let’s Look at it in context.

Jesus didn’t say God made this guy blind so that God would be glorified in it.

Basically what Jesus is saying is, “It’s not about the cause of the blindness or how it started. Watch this!”

The important thing is that God is going to end his blindness today. Sure God will be glorified. He’s glorified in the removal and healing of sickness and disease, not in causing it.

Jesus Only Heals

Look through the New Testament and find where Jesus put sickness on someone. You won’t find a single instance. Not one.

Contrast that to the number of times Jesus healed someone. There are dozens of times that it says Jesus healed people. And it wasn’t just a onesy, twosy thing either. There are several instances where Jesus healed everyone in the crowd who was sick.

Here are some examples.

What About Ananias & Sapphira?

In Acts 5 we read about a couple who lied about their giving to the church and dropped dead on the spot.

But nowhere does the Bible say that God struck them dead. Peter had a word of knowledge and told Sappira she would die just like her husband did. But Peter never says that God did it.

But the Bible is Full of God Striking People Down!

It’s true, the Bible does talk a ton about God striking people down. The Old Testament is full of smoting and smiting.

Here’s the thing. In the Old Testament God worked under an entirely different covenant than we have now.

The deal then was, “If you follow the law you will be blessed. If you break it you will be cursed.” Deuteronomy 28 has 14 verses of blessing followed by 54 verses of curses.

The Israelites agreed to that and entered into that covenant with God at the mountain with Moses. That was the deal and God had to honor the deal. When people blew it, they got the curses. And they mostly blew it.

However we’ve got a whole new deal now.

Jesus Cursed So We Could Be Blessed

Jesus lived in complete fulfillment of the law. He never sinned and never broke the law. And then he suffered the curses that everyone in the entire world deserved because they violated the law and sinned.

God is no longer cursing us with disease and calamity. Everything mentioned in those 54 verses of curses found in Deuteronomy 28? As believers in Jesus we’re now exempt from them because Jesus took those curses for us.

Yes, the bullet was aimed at us. But Jesus took the bullet for us.

Not only did Jesus take the curse that we earned through our sins, but now we who believe are entitled to all the blessings in the Bible too!

That means those 14 verses of blessing, and every other blessing that is promised to those who fulfill the law is ours because Jesus did fulfill the law for us. He took our curses so now we get his blessings.

Here in the new covenant God is now in the blessing business. He is not bringing calamity on us anymore.

When the second plane hit we knew this was no accident.

It’s hard to believe it was ten years ago already. Every now and then something happens that becomes a defining event for a generation. For mine it happened on that clear September morning ten years ago.

That day everything changed. And yet, looking back, it seems that not enough has really changed.

This is what I remember from that day.

An Ordinary Morning

That Tuesday started out as an ordinary day for me. I worked in the maritime industry down in Jacksonville, Florida back then and we had ships in port on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Because ship days were really long days for us we alternated who worked the ships. As it happened I was off that morning so I was just puttering around the house when one of Gorgeous’ girlfriends called breathlessly telling us we needed to turn on the TV.

Since that particular friend can be a little dramatic at times I poured another cup of coffee before I went into the living room to find the remote and click on one of the cable news stations.

My Full Attention

I was surprised to see the first tower of the World Trade Center burning. That got my attention. The announcers were talking about a plane crash, speculating that it must have been a private or something.

Having flown off of aircraft carriers in jets back in my Navy days I knew there was no way a little Cessna could have caused the damage I was seeing. Since I could see that there was a crystal clear bright blue sky there in New York I knew weather couldn’t be a factor. Visibility must have been unlimited that morning.

I mentally eliminated an airliner since commercial pilots are well trained. I didn’t see any way an airliner could have accidentally crashed into that building.

My thoughts were leaning in the direction of a large private jet. Did some depressed rich guy just find a horribly spectacular way to commit suicide?

Moment of Clarity

Then I saw the second plane hit and I instantly knew. This was no accident.

My brain constantly runs scenarios and play out permutations. It’s one of those quirks about me that I can’t ever turn off. My mind is constantly and very quickly running through combinations of consequences to their logical ends.

Even though I knew I hardly had any real facts, every scenario I ran through in the moments after that second impact ended up in with the same outcome: bad, bad, bad.

My Time in New York

As I was sitting there watching both towers burn I had a jumble of thoughts running through my brain. I knew it was bad news for everyone in the floors above the fires.

I grew up a few hours drive North of Manhattan and I went to college in the Bronx. During school there were many times when I’d get up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and take the 6 train (subway) down to lower Manhattan. There was something about walking around such a huge city with hardly any people around that I enjoyed.

Often the only sounds I’d hear would be the occasional car horn, the hum and swish of a street sweeper or two, and the cooing of pigeons which were everywhere.

It was peaceful and massive all at the same time.

Several times the observation deck of the World Trade Center would open before I left. When the weather was good I would often go up there to look out over the city.

These are the things I was remembering as I watched those towers that were so familiar to me burn.

Stunned Silence

When the first tower collapsed I was flabbergasted. Knowing how massive that building was I couldn’t imagine how many people I just saw die.

It all looked like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie instead of a live news broadcast. I sat there in stunned silence for a long time just staring at the television in disbelief.

Eventually it occurred to me that my coworker was also from New York, had graduated from the same school I did and still had family there. So I called him to see how he was doing.

He was worried about his brother who was a NYC police officer. He hadn’t been able to get a hold of him. Since our job was already high stress on a good day I told him I’d go in and relieve him.

He found out later that his brother was in detective school that day and they wouldn’t let them leave the building.

Everything Changed

As I drove into work I thought about how much things were going to change because of what had just happened. People were afraid. Anytime people are afraid they seem to turn to God.

And they did. In the weeks and months afterward church attendance was much higher than it had been. Folks were looking for answers.

The next few days were strange and uneasy. Jacksonville is at the crossroads of several different jet airways. The sky down there is always crisscrossed with contrails. But for the next few days there were no contrails at all. It was weird.

Our nation has been in 2 long protracted wars as a result of that day.

Folks were defiant too. “We’re not going to let the terrorists win!”

Yet in a small way they have won. As a culture we’ve adapted to the extra security procedures that have been added to our air travel since that day. Each time I fly I can’t help but feeling that we’ll still be caught looking in the wrong direction the next time the terrorists strike us.

It’s like as a nation we are in complete denial as to who it is that wants to destroy us.

Of course I have to admit that if you had told me that day that we wouldn’t see another big attack like that for the next 10 years I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

Counting Blessings

And all that reminds me how thoroughly blessed by God we are. We have been blessed that there have been no successful attacks over the last 10 years. And that in spite of a few colossal blunders on our part.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those folks who are vigilantly protecting us in ways that we’ll never know about.

But we were also blessed on that day itself. As bad as it was, that day could have been much worse. The death toll on September 11th was far smaller than it could have been. None of the commercial flights was anywhere near capacity.

There were tens of thousands of people who worked in those towers. Yet many hadn’t gotten to their offices yet. And the great majority of those who were in the buildings managed to evacuate.

A large part of the section of the Pentagon that was hit was under renovation so there were fewer people in those offices than would have been otherwise.

United Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania rather than into some other building in DC.

I used to say, “I’d rather be lucky than good.” But these days I’ve changed that outlook some. Now I’d rather be blessed than skillful. Of course that’s a false choice though, isn’t it.

There is no reason why we can’t be blessed and skillful.

Lessons

Jesus told us that there is an enemy coming against us whose sole focus is to steal, kill and destroy. The Bible also teaches us that we have a responsibility to resist that enemy.

I think former President Bush said it exactly right today:

9/11 showed us that evil is real. And so is courage.– President George W. Bush

Idolatry is not just worshiping statues.

The Old Testament is full of idol worship. It goes back to Genesis and seems to be a constant theme.

When Jacob decided it was finally time to leave his swindling father-in-law, Rachel, one of Jacob’s wives, stole her father’s idols.

After the Israelites were delivered from Egypt they panicked because Moses had been gone up the mountain longer than they expected. They had Aaron cast a golden calf to worship. The irony there? Moses was receiving instructions directly from God with the now famous 10 commandments including one that specifically forbade worshipping idols.

Second Commandment

I’m sure you’re familiar with the second commandment:

Worshipping Statues

I’ve never understood the whole worshipping statues thing. Even when I was a little kid and was a long way from God I never saw any special power in objects or things.

The whole idea of bowing down before a statue of some sort like they did over and over again in the Old Testament and believing it had some special power over me never made sense. So I didn’t have an idolatry problem, right?

Wrong!

Idol = False Image

In it’s simplest form an idol is just a false image. Whenever we have a false understanding of the character and nature of God then we are actually worshipping a false god and are in fact engaging in idolatry.

Think about that for a moment.

If your understanding of who God is doesn’t line up with who Jesus revealed then you are actually worshipping an idol.

Religion Makes Idols

Religion is all about making idols, creating false images of who God really is and getting people to worship that false image.

Think about the folks who “protest” at military funerals because “God hates homosexuals.” They’ve completely missed the fact that sin is not the issue anymore. They are stuck in an Old Testament view of God before the cross and don’t see that Jesus paid the price for the sins of the whole world.

They are idolaters.

My wife grew up believing in an angry God who was constantly watching for her every mistake so he could punish her. She thought of God as carrying a big stick and was just waiting to smack her when she messed up.

She was an idolater.

When I became a believer I bought into hard core Calvinism and thought God arbitrarily did things. To my understanding everything that happened, good and evil, was completely within God’s will because he was sovereign. There was no way I could have any part in any of it because if I had to do anything then God’s power was somehow diminished.

I was an idolater.

And that’s true for many, many Christians. The God they are worshipping is not the same God that Jesus talked about in the Gospels.

How about you?

Jesus said we must worship God in spirit and in truth. Are you worshipping God as he really is?

Or are you an idolater too?

I'm living in the balance of grace and faith.

When I first accepted the truth of the claims of Jesus Christ and became a believer I was around people who were very Calvinistic (or sometimes called Reformed) in their understanding of what the Bible says.

The Gist of It

This is way over simplified, I know, but here is the gist of what I was taught (and whole heartedly believed.)

Basically, coming from that Calvinistic outlook, I focused completely on the sovereignty of God. Obviously God is all powerful so therefore he is in control of everything. Everything good that happens to me was purely because of God’s grace and had nothing to do with me.

Because God chose me from before the foundation of the world even though I was totally unworthy, I had absolutely no part in the matter. It was all by God’s grace so my faith didn’t factor in.

From that perspective, God picked some to be saved and others to send to Hell. How he chose which was which was totally up to him. Even though we couldn’t actually have any real affect on who was going where we had an obligation to tell everyone because we never knew who was in wich category.

Everything was completely up to God and would happen according to his will regardless of any action on my part.

There was no way I could have any part in any of it because if I had to do anything then God’s power was somehow diminished.

How That Affected Me

Before I became a believer I was a pretty driven person. Pretty much whatever I put my mind to I was able to bring about.

When I decided to do something it invariably happened eventually. Things like getting good grades in school or duty assignments in the military seemed to be pretty much decided based on how much I really wanted them. Those things I decided I wanted I could make happen.

When I became a believer all that changed.

Going With the Flow

If God is in control of everything and things will happen according to his will regardless of my input then what I do or what I want doesn’t really matter any more. As a result I tened to kick back and let things happen.

I mean I didn’t want do to anything that was outside of God’s will. If anything bad happened it must be because God willed it. Perhaps he wanted me to go through some bad experience to teach me something or maybe he brought it about so that he could use the way I responded to impact others in a positive way.

I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but I was really just going with the flow. I figured that God would bring about whatever he wanted anyway so I just needed to wait on him and see what it was.

The truth is, the enemy had very effectively used that mistaken understanding to sideline me in irrelevance.

Looking back it’s hard to see how what I believed was really any different from what Muslims believe. To their way of thinking anything that happens is by definition Allah’s will. Taken to the extreme, if I’m able to kill you then it must have been his will that you die. If I’m unable to the he must have willed for you to live.

In a Ditch

It turns out I was off on an extreme view of God’s grace. It’s possible to go to far off in the other direction and put all the emphasis on our faith. But neither of these extreme views is correct.

The key passage of scripture is this.

Notice that the passage says we were saved both “by grace” and “through faith.” It’s not an either/or thing but rather an all/both thing.

Yes grace is hugely important. It is a free gift that God provides. We cannot earn it.

However we do have a part to play. We have to receive the gift. That’s our faith in action.

I was off in a ditch on the grace side of things. And it doesn’t matter which ditch you are on, grace or faith, you still end up being stuck.

Balance Between Grace and Faith

In truth there is a balance between grace and faith.

Here’s a statement that I used to struggle with: Salvation has been provided for everyone.

Jesus didn’t just pay the price for those who will eventually believe. He paid the price for everyone – “the sins of the whole world.”

Even the vilest unrepentant degenerate has had his sin’s paid for. His salvation has been provided for.

So everyone is going to heaven, right? Nope.

Jesus said that more people would take the road that leads to destruction rather than to life.

So how can it be that many will head off to destruction if their salvation has already been provided for?

Well, just because some provision has been made doesn’t automatically mean that a person will actually use that provision.

For example, how many people die every year in car crashes because they choose not to wear their seat belts?

Honestly I don’t know. But just because the safety feature of being restrained during a crash has been provided for, it stands to reason that anyone who refuses to accept that provision (i.e. doesn’t fasten their seat belt) won’t see the benefits of that provision. They may very well be thrown from their car in a crash and die.

God in his grace provided salvation for everyone. However, few exercise their faith and choose to accept that provision.

There is a balance between grace and faith. Both parts are required.

I was off in the grace ditch, stuck and ineffective. How about you? Are you stuck in a ditch on either the grace or the faith side of the road?

Or are you moving down the middle of the highway between the ditches?

If you would like to learn more I recommend checking out this book: Living in the Balance of Grace and Faith: Combining Two Powerful Forces to Receive from God

Some believe certain symbols have significance.

Recently I heard someone say,

I prefer not to “believe” anything. I like to know…..or accept I don’t know until I do know.

That sounded silly to me even though on the face of things it sounds rational and wise.

I mean, I prefer to make decisions based on the best possible evidence. I don’t see anything wrong with that part.

Seeing is Believing

But there is a school of thought out there that sees all “belief” as bad. To this way of thinking the only valid concepts are those which can be observed with our 5 senses, measured and neatly quantified.

These folks tend to say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

But to take that whole concept to the extreme say, “I prefer not to “believe” anything,” makes no sense.

What is Belief

I could go into a whole long thing about what belief is. Oh, wait. I did just that not too long ago when I talked about the difference between faith and belief.

In a nut shell,

Belief is an opinion or judgement in which a person is fully persuaded.

You see, here’s the thing. Regardless of whether you choose to believe something is, or something is not, you are still believing something.

Beliefs in Action

A belief is simply what we hold to be true. The only way to put that belief into action and have it serve us is to apply faith.

And this is where some folks get tripped up, especially the “seeing is believing” crowd.

Faith involves believing something to be true without complete proof. Unfortunately many twist the understanding of faith to mean believing something in spite of contrary proof.

But that’s not faith. That’s foolishness.

Secular Faith

Faith is not just a religious thing either. The secular world taps into faith all the time.

We humans are naturally creatures of faith. We hope for things that don’t exist yet and then go to work in the confidence that we can bring those things we hope for into reality. Every great achievement, things like Olympic champions, great engineering feats, huge corporations, or mighty military victories, started with an element of faith.

Take the Olympic champion as just one example.

No one wins the gold medal without a ton of faith that they can become a champion. Before they actually do win they are just one of many contenders. But actually winning requires a strong belief that they are going to win coupled with a tremendously disciplined workout regime that is exercised in every confidence that the gold medal is going to be theirs.

Many will have similar faith and not win the gold. But no one who wins the gold is completely without that faith.

Seeing is believing? No. The truth is exactly the opposite. Believing is seeing.

If someone doesn’t have some idea in their mind that they can create something that doesn’t yet exist or do something that hasn’t been done (i.e. they are without faith) then nothing new will ever be achieved by humanity. Scientists that are working on cures for diseases work in the faith that one day a cure will be discovered.

Everyone believes something. The real question is this. Is what you believe true?