Right down to the very small things

"Therefore I run: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into submission, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

-- Romans 9:26-27

 I run. If one can actually call it that.

For the past seven years, the period between when Daylight Savings Time begins in the Spring and the start of school in the fall has been my annual running season. More or less.

The "less" would be the years where I don't really get going until mid-Summer (cough, cough .. this summer) or I suddenly drop off mid-summer.

But, for the most part — and to varying degrees of success — I run.

Now, over time, here's what I've come to realize: The more effort I put into the small things around my running routine (stretching properly, participating in an appropriate diet, performing moderate strength training on my off days, ensuring I get out and run on a regular schedule) the more I actually enjoy running.

And out of that, a simple spiritual truth has risen to the surface.

The amount of time I spend getting the small things right across the board in my life, the more substance my walk with Christ takes on.

Now don't get me wrong — There's nothing anyone can do to earn spot in heaven. That work has already been done on the cross and is accessible to anyone who would profess Jesus as Lord.

However, the things you do — every one of those small things you take care of — has a direct effect in bringing those around you to the cross.

Of course, it is the Holy Spirit that provides the revelation, and it is ultimately up to the individual to make that profession of faith. But the work we do as Christians, dedicated and entrusted to our Lord, helps draws others to Him.

Simply, our joy as Christians during our time on earth will be ultimately proportionate to the amount of discipline  we exhibit in our daily lives.

It comes down to our thought life, and our prayer life. The amount of time we spend in God's word and the chances we allow Him to use for His good purpose. It is through that that we find opportunities to witness by the Spirit. It's through that that God can use our lives to reach those He's bringing across our paths, and through that allow us a greater joy out of watching Him work.

Now, God can use anyone or anything at any moment to proclaim His glory. Don't miss that point. But when we are plugged in to Him, dedicating every new thought to Him and allowing every situation be an opportunity for prayer, we receive a greater benefit in seeing Him move. He has more of an opportunity to show us how He'll move.

We tend to think of life decisions in broad, sweeping terms but the reality is that who you are, and how you act — the essence of your character  — is developed through the smaller things.

Consider the Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemane. It's where He made His final plea to God the Father to allow any other way for our salvation. Through great emotion and physical toll (the man sweat blood from his forehead!) He received His answer. And the following day, we received our Salvation.

Now, popularly, we see this as the moment where Jesus chose to die for us. But that's not it at all. Had He not chosen to give every moment as an offering before that, He would have been disqualified as a perfect offering.

Sin doesn't normally happen in one big decision. It wiggles in through the little concessions and compromises we make with ourselves over time. It's in our very nature, and that's why Paul, in the section quoted above, speaks of bringing our bodies into submission through discipline.

Similarly, as much as we can say we'll live for Christ in one big statement, it's not going to happen without a constant surrender of our lives through every moment.

So I ask you today, will you strive with me to give the small things to God?

###

"I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of  God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -- Romans 7:21-25

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." — Romans 8:11.

The Great Surrender

"Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, 'Whom are you seeking?'"

-- John 18:4

"Jesus of Nazareth," they said. "We're seeking Jesus of Nazareth."

Even in His surrender, Jesus Christ knocked His captors to the ground, literally.

"I am He."

John says that at those words, the detachment of troops and officers, bearing lanterns, torches and weapons, drew back and fell to the ground.

The moment changed our eternity. You'd expect it to be somewhat earth-shaking.

What you can't miss here is that Jesus does the same thing in our lives upon our surrender.

Upon our confession that Jesus "is He", he knocks down our captors. He's already won the battle. He takes it from there.

His journey to the cross was for all mankind, any who would come to call on His name. Free for the taking, given at the highest cost.

This was His great joy. This was His surrender for His beloved.

###

"Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world. And my delight was with the sons of men." -- Proverbs 8:30-31

Prayer changes things

"And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

-- John 17:26

John records this intimate prayer between Jesus and the Father as the hour of the Christ's greatest trial rapidly approaches.

While this chapter gives amazing insight into the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, something more striking emerges.

When faced with a trial, do you focus your prayers on the Lord getting you through the trial? I know I do.

Jesus, after praying briefly for Himself, turns his attention on His disciples. And then He prays for those that would believe in Him in the future.

His prayers turned toward others, and not only that, but that others would come to a belief in Him.

He knew, well in advance, that His trial would ultimately bring about the salvation of many. He'd set aside His life so that we could live. That's an incredible thing.

Romans 8:28 states "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

The natural assumption -- at least mine -- has always been that God works all things together for my good.

To a certain extent, that is true, but it drastically skews the scope of the verse. It says He works all things together for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

God will indeed see us through our trials, but we can't miss the idea that our trials also serve the body of Christ -- both present and future.

What happens to us isn't about us at all. It's about Him, and what He wants to do through our lives.

Jesus knew He would ultimately overcome His trial -- death. He knew more so that His trial served an ultimate purpose -- eternal life.

What can others see about God through our trials? How can God be glorified through our trials? How can an unsaved world be drawn toward Him through what happens in our lives?

These are hard, but appropriate, questions to ask of God while praying over situations that arise. He is ready, and willing, to answer them -- but we have to listen with patience.

Prayer is commonly, and inaccurately, seen as a means toward our intended-resolution.

True resolution, I'm learning more every day, is found through seeking the revelation of His will through prayer. It truly changes everything.

###

"Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me, nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." Luke 22:42

Let not your heart be troubled

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."

-- John 14:1

Jesus speaks to His disciples, just hours away from His greatest anguish as He would hang on the cross, with a message of encouragement.

It was for His followers then, and His followers now.

What was about to happen, what happened 2,000 years ago, was His gift to us. It was His offering for a dying world. And He wanted us to know that beyond a doubt.

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."

Believe in Him. Believe in what He has done. Your heart will not be troubled.

Undeniable Testimony

"But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus."

-- John 12:10-11

This is such a fitting picture of Satan's approach in battling the believers in Christ.

The plan was to put to death the man Jesus had just raised from the dead.

How circular is that logic? To kill that which has already died and been brought back to life. Did the chief priests really believe that would work? What would it prove? How would you quiet the many witnesses to the event?

But this is the enemy's approach in our lives today -- to devalue our testimony.

Having given our hearts to Jesus Christ, we have literally been presented with new life -- eternal life.

The world will attack our past -- that which has already died -- in an effort to divert our attention from the fact that we are unpreventably alive through His blood.

The world will attack our present flesh -- that which is continuously decaying -- in an effort to divert our attention from the fact that our future is permanently sealed in His presence.

The world will attack our faith -- that which has given us new birth -- in an effort to divert us from the fact that on our account many would come to Jesus, seeking eternity.

The enemy would love nothing more than to hide your testimony. At its most basic, that's what the pharisees were trying to do with Lazarus.

It is a futile effort, though, because our testimony -- the idea that we were lost, but now we are found -- is undeniable.

People have witnessed it and seen the change in your heart. They can see life where there wasn't any before.

We can't forget what our testimony is for -- to proclaim Jesus as Messiah and Savior to the world.

Whatever attack or trial you are under, keep at the forefront of your mind that God will use even this for His glory. And through that, you -- and anyone who happens to be watching -- will be blessed.

###

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." Revelation 12:11

The death of the One for the life of the many

"And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said the them, 'You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."

-- John 11:49-50

There's probably no way Caiaphas could have known that in privately originating the plot to kill Jesus, he was uttering an outline of what would become the doctrine of our salvation.

Even John goes on to say in the next verses that "this he (Caiaphas) did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. (John 11:51-52)."

The episode that brought this unintentionally (at least in Caiaphas' mind) prophetic statement on was Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead after four days in the tomb.

It's an incident that struck Caiaphas and the chief priests deeply.

One teacher points out that as Jesus was dying on the cross, the chief priests mocked him, saying "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. (Matthew 27:42)."

And once again, intended as an insult, they unintentionally gave exposition into the nature of the sacrifice.

They saw the crucifixion as an ultimate end to a perceived enemy. They couldn't understand that it was God's ultimate beginning to victory over mankind's true enemy -- sin.

If Jesus had indeed saved Himself, all others would have been lost. All that would have been proven was Christ's power over death for Himself.

But He gave His life as an offering for the sin of the world -- Sin that never was, and never would be, His own.

When that righteous blood spilled, it was poured out on the world -- on us -- to cleanse us of our sin, if we would only repent of it.

If this was to be the purpose of His death, He indeed could not save Himself. Not that it wasn't in His power to do so. Rather, to save Himself would have been to wander outside the will of the Father and to lose the very world He'd come to save.

Repeatedly through the book of Acts, Jesus Christ's resurrection is qualified by the phrase "whom God raised from the dead."

Having given Himself completely unto death, Jesus was raised by His Father in heaven. And through that, we are saved.

"He saved others, Himself He cannot save."

True indeed.

Just as Caiaphas and the high priests were violently opposed to Jesus and were still used for His Glory, consider the people in your lives that just seem to live in opposition to God.

Not only can God use them to speak of His Grace and Salvation, but He can save anyone, because of the sacrifice He has given.

It's always a good question to ask, where these private exchanges between the teachers of the law occur in the gospels, how they came to light in scripture?

Whether it be the Apostle Paul, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea or some pharisee scripture doesn't record, these sections come from someone who started out opposed to God and ended up under His Mighty Hand of Forgiveness.

Then again, any Christian's story follows the same arc.

###

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Genesis 50:20

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." John 12:24

The Compass

"All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits."

-- Proverbs 16:2

If you think long enough, and hard enough, you can justify just about anything you do. To yourself. Most of the time it doesn't take that much thought at all.

Left to ourselves, it's a pretty easy sell -- this idea that at the end of the day we're pretty good people.

Our fleshly nature desires affirmation and approval -- the idea that our decisions are right and those that don't agree just don't understand the situation the way we do.

One of the biggest wake-up calls after I got married a little less than five years ago was learning how frequently I'm wrong.

It seems, once you're closely-quartered with someone on whom your decisions have a profound and direct impact, and whose decisions profoundly and directly impact you, you start to get an idea of where you, your most reasonable logic and your moral imperative stand in the grand scheme of things.

It's at that point that you either have to submit your differences to the Lord and seek His direction, or choose to continue on in your "rightness" and see how well that works out. (Remember, in taking those vows, you promise to lay your life down for that person. If it is ever going to work, you've really got to do it and it really does mean dying to yourself -- but that's another entry for another day, one about finding a greater whole than you ever could have imagined on your own. I digress.).

Call it a blessed humbling.

That's why God saw fit to give us His law. It was, a) to show us the rules of living rightly as defined by the only one ever found to be righteous and, b) to show us how incapable we are of upholding it.

Until we're shown the wide-ranging breadth of the demands of His law, we can't even begin to fathom the depth of the mercy and grace we've been given in bridging the gap between man and God.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, it says "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

It is a freeing thought, knowing that for all of the things I can't grasp about God, it doesn't much matter, because He -- in every sense of the phrase -- is so much bigger than I can imagine. His power is bigger, His wisdom is bigger, His holiness is bigger, His righteousness is bigger, and His love is bigger.

So who am I to determine the purity of my own ways?

That's the miraculous thing about this love relationship God has given us with Jesus Christ. My ways are purified once I've been reconciled to Him through the repentance of my sin.

It is God who searches hearts and discerns motives. But it is also God that makes His heart and His will known to man.

###

"Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? He who instructs nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge? The LORD know the thoughts of man, That they are futile. Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, And teach out of Your law, That You may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked." -- Psalm 94:8-13

Psalm 121

"The LORD shall preserve your soul from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD Shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth and even forevermore."

--Psalm 121:7-8

Just some encouragement for today. Wherever you are, wherever you are going, God is with you, keeping you. Preserving you. Whatever happens, you are kept and preserved by the hand of the Creator. He will sustain you through your darkest days and carry you to places of His brightest Glory.

It's snowing where I am today. I thought this song was appropriate. Consider today the nature of Him who saves us. His peace resembles His coming:

###

"I lift my eyes to the hills -- From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth." -- Psalm 121:1-2

Are you satisfied?

"The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above."

-- Proverbs 14:14

You've heard it said that the grass is always greener on the other side.

A wise friend of mine said it better that the grass is always greener where you water it.

In every sense, the latter is true.

The thought is amplified when you consider what scripture has to say about water and hold it up against today's verse.

"Jesus answered and said to her 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'" --

John 4: 10.

"He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." -- John 7:38.

"For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; They will spring up among the grass Like willows by the watercourses." -- Isaiah 44:3-4

Water, throughout scripture, is used to describe or demonstrate God's Word, blessing, peace, depth, satisfaction, cleansing, purity and even deliverance.

The common thread? Every one of those things, in their truest forms, comes directly and only from the hand of God.

So if the grass is greener where we water it, then are we truly watering our lives?

If our "water" is from God, then our lives resemble that green field of grass we so desire -- vibrant, fresh, strong, firmly-rooted, free ... alive.

But if not from God, our "water" really isn't water at all. Our lives wilt, particularly under heat or duress. What was fresh become old, stale and crunchy. Frankly, without real water, we die.

Today's verse isn't claiming we're satisfied from above because we're good. It's more that in when we seek satisfaction through our own ways, we literally have become back-slidden --we've let something else try to provide the "water' that only God can.

When that's the case, we'll always ultimately be left unsatisfied with our lives.

When God is in His rightful place as the first priority in our hearts, it seems that satisfaction just falls naturally into place.

So I ask you today, are you satisfied with life? Or are you left feeling consistently frustrated, like there should be more to this job, this marriage, your health, this house, this car, or this (whatever it takes to fill in the blank here.)?

I'd suggest there is there is a simple, but extremely convicting solution to your dissatisfaction.

It all starts with where you find your water today.

###

"And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." -- Revelation 22:17

Fighting

"And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it -- lest you even be found to fight against God."

-- Acts 5:38-39

I try to imagine the frustration the teachers of the law felt during the time of the early church.

Here was this Man making the "blasphemous" claim that He was the Son of God. He performed miraculous signs, raised the dead and really tended to get in your face whenever it came to the traditions you based your belief system on. You brought Him to trial and you had Him executed. That should have been the end of the story.

It should have been. Strike the head and the body dies, right?

But what if, just maybe, this Jesus was who He said He was? Worse, what if He is who He says He is.

No, no. He's dead. You watched it happen. You watched those nails being pounded into his hands. You heard the that righteous cry as He expended His last breath. Forgive me? Because I don't know what I'm doing?

It's taken months to shake the shiver of that moment off your spine. That was not a desperate Man you hung on that cross. That was a Man of Purpose. He knew exactly what He was doing. But He died. You saw it.

Still, three days, three nights and that tomb was empty. There's no disputing that. And these people just won't keep quiet about having seen Him. Forty days, they say. He was among them for 40 days, showing the wounds you gave Him. Impossible.

But still, that's a lot of a people telling the same story. Impossible.

And now, here are these two, Peter and John. Healing, speaking with boldness and authority, striking chords deep within the hearts of man.

You thought you dealt with this already, but now there are two more? Neither one will take the credit for themselves. They keep pointing our people back to this Jesus.

So you forbid them from saying that Name. If you can't strike the Man from the record, surely you can withhold His name.

But that only grew the following.

More healings, even Peter's mere shadow falling on those he passed seemed to have power. The numbers continued to grow. People were starting to look at you, wondering what your real relevance was anymore.

Enough. This could not stand. You grab all 12 of those apostles and throw them behind bars.

If you can't kill the movement, surely you can contain it.

But it seemed even the sealed hole and armed guards couldn't keep them. Why does this seem so familiar?

The next morning, there they are, in our temple, teaching that Name. Impossible.

So you haul them back in. "Explain yourselves," you demand. "Why do you insist on saying that Name. Why are you intent on pinning that Man's blood to me?"

"We ought to obey God, rather than men," they say. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins."

That gets you going. Kill them. Rid the earth of them. You've done it before, what's a couple more? What's a hundred more, a thousand more if it means bringing balance back to the council?

But what's this? Your teacher, Gamaliel, has something to say. Seems he's seen enough. He sends those "apostles" out of the room. He wants to speak just to us.

He references other uprisings, how they play themselves out in time. How giving them opposition only strengthens their resolve.

"Keep away from these men and let them alone," he says. "For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it -- lest you even be found to fight against God."

You nod. Everyone nods. No one wants to fight against God. But this Jesus is not of God. We've already declared our sentence on that. No going back on that now.

You send the apostles away with a severe beating. That doesn't stop them. They only teach and preach all the more.

What is it that drives these men?

More time passes. The miracles continue. The number expands.

You kill more of these "Christians." You set out to destroy them. The "jailbreak" slips into a distant hint of a memory as you fight the good fight.

Then one day, as you journey with your companions to round-up these believers from Damascus, a bright light pierces you to your very soul.

You hear a voice. You've heard it before. But now He speaks directly to you.

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

In that single moment your teacher's words come flooding back.

You have been fighting against God.

No more. Not any more.

---

A word of caution about the above tale. You may not come down on the side you think you do. I know I didn't.

A friend pointed out the other day that we, the church, tend to treat non-believers like the enemy. This happens because we miss who the real enemy is in all this -- Satan. Sin.

Do we reach out like Jesus reached out? To everyone? Do we teach and witness like the apostles did? Without reservation -- even to the point of physical harm and death?

A lot of times I have believed I've been on God's side in an issue, fighting vehemently for it (if even in my own thoughts) only to realize later that I was actually fighting against Him -- hindering the message to those He wants to reach.

I've come to realize in such situations that I'm no different than a pharisee -- fighting against what God is trying to do instead of first seeking His will and then obeying.

When you find yourself fighting for the faith, take a good step back and consider who it is you are actually fighting. If your object is to defeat a person or a group, consider how it is God would instead reach out to that person.

Remember, at the end of the day, the battle belongs to the Lord.

###

"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." -- 1 Timothy 1:15

The Conditioned Response

"You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light."

-- John 5:33-35

It's subtle, the way faith is presented by the world today.

Have you really thought about it? Everyone has widely different beliefs and through this growing movement of "all-inclusiveness" we have come to regard belief -- faith -- as a matter of personal preference.

What I'm trying to say is that we've watered down the meaning of the word "believe."

I can say, "I believe in Jesus."

But today, I might as well be saying "I believe the Red Sox will win the World Series this season," or "I believe pizza is the best food on the planet."

You could make an argument for both of those things, sure, but the condition of the words "I believe" today is such that it purposefully leaves the door open for other arguments. I may believe this, but you may believe something else.

I've found lately, to my shame, that I talk in these sort of "I believes" when it comes to sharing my faith in God.

I fear that in this society where "Everyone has a right to believe what they want," I, along with a good portion of the modern church, have fallen into a state of near apology when it comes to sharing and witnessing.

The things I say to non-believers often tend to begin with, "Well, I believe ..."

And then Jesus says, "Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved."

He's talking of John the Baptist, speaking of one who would bear witness to the truth -- that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.

In belief, there is proclamation of interpretation and there is acknowledgment of truth.

God requires from us the latter. He does not need the former.

Think of it this way:

Belief as proclamation of interpretation is very similar to saying, "I believe skydiving is dangerous."

Belief as acknowledgment of the truth is like saying, "I believe in the law of gravity."

In the first case, there is reasonable evidence to suggest its truthfulness. A vast majority of people would probably agree. But the presentation leaves the door open for argument.

In the second, there is no arguing the existence of gravity. Present whatever arguments you'd like -- at the end of the day, we all know what's going to happen when I drop a rock off a cliff.

That's why being born again is such a remarkable process. All God asks, in return for eternal forgiveness and never-ending life with Him, is a two-fold confession: He asks for the acknowledgment of ourselves as sinners and the acknowledgment of His Son as the Risen King.

We can interpret and reason the two all day long, but until it is acknowledged unquestionably as true, it means nothing in our lives.

You have to know it like you know the effects of gravity. And we have to present it to others the same way.

Very simply, it's the difference between saying something with your brain and saying something with your heart. In one instance, you're well convinced something is true. In the other, there is no doubt in your being that it is true.

I realize there is a broad difference between presenting the truth in love and hammering someone over the head with the Bible. But we can't use that as an excuse to stray away from the absolute validity of the truth presented within scripture. Present it in love, but present it exactly as it is.

I thought perhaps I was alone in what I've come to realize is a growing epidemic among the Christian church. I've since heard a teacher I respect immensely call it "The Great Soft Sell" -- presenting your beliefs in Christ and leaving it as an "option on the table" for whoever would listen.

But God is adamant through scripture that His Son is the only way. Ultimately, every individual must make a confession of their own accord -- whether or not they believe in Christ, the Son of the Living God. There's nothing "soft" about deciding either way. It's as hard and as real a decision as a soul will ever make.

God provided His word to make that decision as simple and as easy as possible. Through it, He gives us everything we need to know about Him. He gave the Holy Spirit to open eyes and hearts to the truthfulness and faithfulness of His word.

Consider what Jesus goes on to say in this same section of scripture:

"But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me."

He laid it all out there, not in order to prove Himself to us, but to show Himself to us -- much like dropping that rock off that old cliff.

There's a song (read this blog for any amount of time and you'll quickly find out who my favorite musical artist is) that describes the progression of the meaning behind the great confession as a Christian grows in his walk with the Lord. It sums up better than I can the point of what I'm trying to say.

###

"But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (That is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." -- Romans 10:8-10

Leaning

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

-- Proverbs 3:3-5

When you lean on something, you sacrifice your balance to that object. If the object is sturdy, you'll be just fine. If not, you end up flat on your back -- in my case, usually in front of a big crowd of people.

I wrote last week about the dangers of trusting in your own heart. The key in this verse today is that it says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and in all your ways acknowledge Him.

If you just trust Him with some or most of your heart and acknowledge Him with some or most of your ways, you're essentially just kind of leaning toward Him, not on Him.

What's the problem with that? I mean, people can generally see you pointing His direction and you theoretically have a safety net waiting, should you happen to fall that direction. Right?

The danger is that in those "some or most" moments, we're not actually leaning on anything. And if there is any solid truth to the world, to sin, it's that the last direction the enemy wants to push you is into the arms of the Loving Savior.

The attacks always comes from the reverse direction. When your balance is compromised, it takes only a light shove to topple you. And, in our physical nature, our tendency is to over-compensate into the direction of the attack. It can really be a tragic cycle.

But God gives us hope through His word. We hear of the wise man who builds his home upon the rock. When the storms come, the house does not fall. We also hear of the man who builds his house on sand, only to watch it fall under the crushing waves of the storm.

What often gets lost in the re-telling is that both men heard God's word, but only one followed it (see Matthew 7:24-26).

Place your trust in God today. Do the things He tells you to do. Lean on Him and you will not fall. Simple as that.

###

"For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?" -- Psalm 18:31

"You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and my song, And He has become my salvation." -- Psalm 118: 13-14

He must increase

"He must increase, but I must decrease."

-- John 3:30

The gospels are, at their most basic, the fallen nature of man held up against the perfect nature of God. The comparison shows us both the enormous gap between the two and the supreme and inexplicable desire of the Superior to reconcile the inferior to Himself.

Repeatedly through the scriptures within the four gospel, Jesus Christ reveals Himself by word, deed and perfectly-fulfilled prophecy. And repeatedly, His revelations are answered with the absurdities of man’s religion -- most of which continue to play out today.

It would almost be humorous if it weren’t so real.

During Jesus' time on earth, the disciples were constantly arguing who among them would be greatest. These debates would arise almost exclusively after Jesus would dispense a lesson on what His purpose actually was here -- to make Himself the lowest of all men, to the point of death on a cross, in order that we could commune with the most-high God.

The teachers of the law, the pharisees and sadducees, constantly called into question His ministry through the misguided filters of their skewed tradition rather than the clear lens of God's law. And their biggest disputes would arise after Jesus did something uncompromisingly miraculous.

Heal a crippled man's arm? Open a blind man's eyes? Well, He did those things on the sabbath, and you know what they say about working on the sabbath. Cast out a demon? Surely only a demon king could show such power. Whatever divine power was shown them, it seemed they always came up with a mortally flawed response in an attempt to explain it away.

And then we get this account of John the Baptist and his followers in John chapter 3.

Jesus and His disciples had returned to Judea and Jesus began baptizing there.

John's disciples see people flocking to this New Baptism and felt a sudden tinge of jealousy.

"He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified -- behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him!" they cried to John.

When you read it out of context, with the advantage of time passed, this is kind of a "Well, yeah," type of moment.

But John was able to see past the situation and quickly instruct his followers back onto the same page.

John had never given any miscommunication as to what his ministry was -- a preparation for the Messiah.

"You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but 'I have been sent before Him,' John said.

Now that Christ's ministry had arrived, it seemed even John's disciples wanted to hold on to what they had always done, rather than embrace the Author of the Faith. Now where else in the gospels do we see that?

John the Baptist didn't want his disciples to make the same mistakes at the teachers of the law and ultimately miss the advent of their Eternal King.

It is part of human nature to desire to be right, or to at least be on the right side of an issue. We want to believe we've attached ourselves to the best answers -- to have rightly interpreted a situation and to have everyone else see it likewise.

Think about how this affects our present-day circumstances. With so many different denominations and minor quirks and differences in our beliefs, do we allow such matters to cloud the real point of faith?

Do we get John's-follower-syndrome, where our ministry, if even momentarily, becomes more important than the ministry of Jesus'. So often, our beliefs and intentions increase at the expense of Jesus' nature decreasing.

Is Christ's love sacrificed at the expense of proving a doctrinal issue? I've heard it said that it is ultimately better to be loving than right.

The two (Jesus' ministry and our ministry) not only should become one but need to be one. There can't be any separation. It's an idea fielded throughout scripture on a variety of levels.

In the greater Christian church today, I have often seen the need to be right on an issue prevail over the most important issue, which is whether or not a soul casts their faith on Jesus Christ as Lord. We tend to want our church, our study, our ministry and our particular beliefs to be the most popular.

But the danger there is that little about Jesus Christ was, is, or ever will be popular.

The tendency is to forget that it was the large religious mobs -- those with the numbers fully believing they were on the right side of an issue -- that brought about the deaths of Paul, Peter, Stephen and so many others along the way. It was the mob that condemned Jesus Christ to death.

As John says here "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Serving Christ is not just about aligning your beliefs and purposes with Him, but allowing His nature -- His very being -- to prevail over your heart.

He does not seek the number of people that align with you -- He seeks the hearts that will serve Him.

At the end of the day, that's all that matters. Not who you studied under or what church you attended or how you interpreted minor scriptural issues.

What matters is whether or not you rightly represented Jesus Christ as Lord of All, King of Creation, Healer of the wounded, Forgiver of our trangressions and Savior to the lost.

###

"He who comes from above is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." -- John 3:31-36

He has dealt bountifully with me

"Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."

-- Psalms 116:5-6

I haven't had much time to write these last two days, but here is a cool video! Enjoy!

Behold, I make all things new

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former thins have passed away. Then He who say on the throne said 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful.'"

-- Revelation 21:1-5

Where are you anchored?

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. But whoever walks wisely will be delivered."

-- Proverbs 28:26

It seems the prevailing idea toward planning your life in the world today is to "follow your heart."

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us the impracticality of such an idea.

Think of it like this: Consider yourself, your life, to be something of a boat floating through the waters of this world. There will be times of gentle breeze carrying you along and there will be times of gale force winds threatening to capsize your very existence.

When those storms rage, though, what is it you truly seek? Solid footing, right? You want to believe you won't be moved or shaken. You want to maintain your course and not be blown into oblivion.

When you've found a place you want to be, what do you do? You cast an anchor. And who in their right mind casts the anchor inside the boat? No one, right?

But that's essentially what trusting in your own heart is. It's casting your anchor within in the hopes that you'll not only find what you are looking for but that you'll be able to stick there once you find it.

In the meantime, the tides of life, even the softest of breezes, float you to wherever the world would take you. Before you know it, given any length of time really, you're far off course.

It's in those times that we start to say, "What happened here?"

Simply put: We weren't anchored.

But there's another degree to it, when it comes to matters of the heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?"

So more than casting an anchor inboard, your heart could be considered a liability at best -- casting a jackhammer below deck and hoping against hope it doesn't turn on.

Our hearts alone, they do more damage than good. We were created with a need to worship something. God's intention was that it would be Him.

Our hearts desperately grasp for something to fill the void within, and often bring in a whole lot of things God never intended to be in that position. While God fills a life, every other thing in creation -- left alone -- will sap a life.

Trusting in our hearts becomes a process of trusting a ravenous vacuum. It will draw us toward whatever will temporarily suffice that appetite.

So in our boat analogy, not only are you constantly being blown off course by the breezes and rolling waves, you also slow sink as your heart takes on more and more baggage, leaving gaping holes in its wake.

So, getting back to today's original verse, how do we walk wisely?

The answer comes in the follow-up verse from Jeremiah. "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind even give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

When we cast our anchor overboard, it must land on The Rock we know as Jesus. He has known us from the beginning and He knows not only the best course for us, but the His own purpose for us through whatever trial we come against.

We can't trust our hearts. We must trust in the One who searches and fills our hearts.

So today, as you face the storm this life can be, consider strongly where you are throwing that anchor.

He will change your outlook on whatever you face.

###

"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." -- Hebrews 6:20

Steady As She Goes, by Andrew Peterson

I see the thunderheads rise
In the northern sky
And my heart is sinking
In the threatening tide
'cause my portside's heavy
with the worries of life
and the worries of dying
on the starboard side

Well, I wonder, am I really
Stouthearted enough?
'Cause the ocean is rolling
and these waters are rough
There's a storm cloud brewing
In the sky above
So let my vessel be sturdy
Let my anchor be tough

'Cause the clouds are known to gather
and the wind is prone to blow
I'll keep my eyes on the horizon
Not below
And keep her steady as a river
When the wild wind comes to blow
I've already been delivered
So I'll keep her steady as she goes

Well, I shiver in the wake of the raging storm
And my rigging is tattered
And these sails are torn
Gonna cast this cargo overboard
But I ain't setting my headings
For no change in course

Though the clouds are known to gather
And the wind is prone to blow

I'll keep her steady as a river
When the wild wind comes to blow
I've already been delivered
So I'll keep her steady as she goes

So when you can't find the faith to slumber
When you're thrown by every swell
You know that you're not going under
With the captain at the helm

Under The Fig Tree

"Nathanael said to Him, 'How do You know me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Nathanael answered and said to Him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!'"

John 1:48-49

Fig tree? Who said anything about a fig tree?

Well, Jesus did -- for starters.

Here Jesus is beginning to draw followers to Himself and we have the encounter with Nathanael -- pretty much the only time he is mentioned directly in scripture -- who ends up being one of the 12.

Philip, upon accepting Jesus' invitation to follow, tracks down Nathanael and says they've found 'Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.'

After initially balking -- because "what good could come out of Nazareth?" -- Nathanael goes to check things out for himself.

As he approaches, Jesus declares "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit."

When Nathanael asks how Jesus knew him, Jesus responds by saying He saw Nathanael under this seemingly random fig tree.

The personal significance of the fig tree to Nathanael is unknown. Whatever it was, it really struck a chord with him.

Perhaps under a fig tree at his home or in his village is where Nathanael studied the scriptures to which Philip referred. Or maybe he was under a fig tree during a significant moment of his life. It could simply have been the fact that Jesus was able to pull something presently unseen from Nathanael's life and attach it to his identity.

Consider this for our lives today: The fig tree, referenced 30 times throughout scripture, is presented as varying types of the nation Israel, the law, tradition, ritualism and works of man.

We can gather that Nathanael was waiting, searching, for the Messiah based on his and Philip's knowledge of Old Testament prophecy.

Being under the law, and knowing the words of the prophets as he did, Nathanael had to know that his current state was not what God ultimately intended for his life. He had to know true salvation from the Messiah was near.

That's why, when presented with the hometown of his Messiah, Nathanael was able to look past his own expectations and see Jesus for who He is.

Jesus saw him under the fig tree. Take it for what you will, but practically speaking -- Jesus saw Nathanael, as he does all mankind, under a broken system -- a fig tree.

Whether it was the pharisee or sadducee, clinging to tradition over truth; the nation Israel seeking a glorious conquering king over a humble but flawless servant and choosing the convicted murderer over the Righteous Savior; or even Adam and Eve trying to cover their sin with the very leaves of the fig tree, God looked down on His creation and saw us.

He saw the machinations we'd create in an attempt to find our own righteousness. He saw the traditions and the rituals of religion that we'd grab hold of in order to numb the desire for a vibrant, living relationship with Him. And He saw that ultimately, for as impressive and big as our "trees" might grow, there would come a time where no fruit would be found on them. There would come a time where they'd wither.

For every broad-spreading tree we could ever plant in attempt of reaching heaven, no tree could reach high enough to get us there. So God provided a different tree for us to kneel under. A Righteous Tree. A Perfect Tree. A tree flowing with streams of mercy.

That's Jesus' message to you today. He saw you. He came here to die for you. He wants you to follow Him. Forget all your trees, only He can bridge the gap between you and heaven.

"Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe?" Jesus said to Nathanael. "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Jesus drew on Nathanael's knowledge of the scripture, knowing he'd remember the story of Jacob seeing a ladder between heaven and earth in the book of Genesis. And in this one thought, Jesus showed that the ladder -- the tree, for lack of a better word -- was Himself.

###

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings." -- Genesis 3:7

"And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response, Jesus said to it, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.' And His disciples heard it." -- Mark 11:13-14

"He also spoke this parable: 'A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that, you can cut it down." -- Luke 13:6-9

To Him the day belongs

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."

-- Proverbs 27:1

There's not much to say about this one. Trust in God not only for tomorrow's provision, but also in recognition that He is able and wanting to use today -- this moment in your life -- for His Glory.

In every situation today, every interaction, try to take a step back and ask God, "What would you have me do here? How can I serve God through this?"

###

"This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it." -- Psalms 118:24

Who is like the Lord our God?

"Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?"

-- Psalms 113:5-6

This is the love of Jesus -- That He would leave His glory at the Father's side in heaven to live on earth with us. That He would humble Himself not only to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth, but to be submitted unto death at the hands of His own creation.

John chapter 1 references the idea that not only was Jesus there from the beginning, but that "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that is made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

The idea of us finding life through Jesus' victory over death wasn't something God just threw in midstream as a lifeboat.

No, in providing for our salvation, He used the same source He'd used to bring all life into existence -- Jesus.

And Jesus humbled Himself to dwell among what had been made through Him, to be ultimately subject to the sentence issued by hearts he'd kneaded together in the womb.

If you are ever grasping for proof that Jesus is who He says He is, consider this: He died at the hands of sinful men for the hearts of sinful men. But the reason death could not hold Him is that in Him is life -- not simply that He is alive, but that He is -- and always will be -- the source of life.

That's why it is Jesus alone that has the power to save us from death -- because it's through Him alone that all life was made.

A friend recently posted a C.S. Lewis quote that seemed appropriate for today's verse:

"A creature revolting against a creator is revolting against the source of his own powers--including even his power to revolt ... It is like the scent of a flower trying to destroy the flower."

###

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." -- John 1:1-3

What I'm Reading Now: Revelation, Numbers, John, Proverbs, Psalms

An encounter with the Risen One

"And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

-- Luke 24:37

The fate of human history had just been cast a remarkable ray of hope, and those closest to Jesus were still desperately trying to grasp the meaning of the empty tomb.

There seemed to be various stages of disbelief and guarded hope among His disciples, but to a man, it seemed they were only able to grasp what had happened once they encountered the Risen Christ.

This continued into the early church with the Apostle Paul's conversion and it continues into the modern church.

You can give someone chapter and verse of the entire Gospel, but until someone personally encounters the Risen Christ, it's just a lot of words.

Fortunately, every word of Scripture points toward that Christ, so it's only a matter of time once a seeking heart enters into His word.

Luke gives an encounter of two disciples (their names are never mentioned) who venture from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus about seven miles away on that same Resurrection Day.

As they tried to make sense of everything they'd heard, Jesus approached.

They did not recognize Him, but after they explained the events of the day, He rebuked them for not understanding what the prophets had spoken about Him.

He then launched forth into what has to be the best exposition of the Old Testament ever heard on this earth. And he delivered it to an audience of two.

Now, it takes the average man about an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes to walk seven miles, so these two had a front row seat to a virtuoso master class from the Author of the Faith for a considerable amount of time.

And after almost two hours of this, they still had not recognized Him.

He went to stay with them in the village, and sat at a table for dinner with them. He broke bread for them, blessing it first, and gave it to them. In that act, their eyes were opened. In the same moment, He vanished.

How significant is it that in the act of breaking bread -- the same act He'd used just days prior to give an example of how His body would be broken and offered for the many -- His identity was revealed?

I'd say very much so.

They'd heard the teaching of the Master Teacher for a good portion of the day and only in His act of service, in the example of His offering, was He known.

Marveling at what had just happened, the two exclaimed, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

I used to think it was such a shame that the gospels did not give an account of what had been said on the way to Emmaus.

But, reading just a couple verses further, it says that the two returned to Jerusalem, found the Eleven and told them everything that had happened along the road, starting with "The Lord is risen indeed ..."

What Jesus had taught the two, undoubtedly became a basis of the early church's teachings for the many.

The men who penned the New Testament books by the leading of the Holy Spirit had those Emmaus teachings to draw from. They could go back through the Old Testament -- Moses and the prophets -- and see where the Lord had revealed Himself.

And it all started with an encounter with the Risen Christ.

###

"You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come Me that you may have life." -- John 5:39-40

"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" -- John 5:46-47

What I'm Reading Now: Revelation, Numbers, Luke, Proverbs, Psalms.

A Call to Urgency

"Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'Surely we did not know this,' Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?

-- Proverbs 24:11-12

The going philosophy of the world today is to live and let live. What everyone believes, let them believe it for themselves and let God sort it out in the end.

Reading through Revelation these last few months, though, the thought has been stabbing at my heart more and more what tragedy and agony awaits those who do not come to a right, personal relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The only thing that separates the believer from the unbeliever is Jesus Christ. There is nothing better about the believer that makes us more deserving of paradise, or nothing worse about the unbeliever that makes them more deserving of hell.

The difference is, the believer has submitted themselves to the Lordship of the King. That's it. That's all it takes.

A free gift has been given that literally separates life or death, and it's not enough for the believer to just rest in the security of his or her future knowing a wide majority of the world either isn't aware of the gift or hasn't accepted the gift.

There needs to be an urgency in sharing Christ with those He has placed in our lives. These people, as implied in Proverbs, are drawn toward death and stumbling toward slaughter.

Scripture equally shows God as merciful and just. He is a God of Judgement as much as He is a God of Forgiveness.

People will use the excuse, "How can a loving God send anyone to hell?"

The answer is that He gives seeking hearts every opportunity to accept Him.

People will ask "What about that nomad in the heart of Africa who has never been approached with the Gospel?" All through scripture, you see God reaching out to those who had not heard of Him previously. Abraham is a prime example in Genesis. Philip being sent to the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts -- Peter being called on by the centurion Cornelius too, for that matter. Even Revelation was a process of God revealing Himself and His plan to John while John had been in isolated exile on the Isle of Patmos.

The question is isn't about some hypothetical man out in the middle of nowhere. The question is about the unbeliever in the moment they are presented with the Gospel.

God doesn't wish torment on anyone, but He also will not force belief in Him. If he did, it wouldn't truly be a love relationship.

That doesn't excuse the fact that there are consequences for living against Him. Outside of the Blood of Christ, we are all condemned to death. Once we have accepted Him and repented of our sins, there is no more condemnation.

For the believer, I say do not forget what you were bound for before Christ entered your life. In that same thought, recognize that while your eternity is sealed, God has brought lost souls in need of His love into your life so that you might share with them.

It's not that we have a better way. It's that Jesus is the only way.

###

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -- John 14:6

Permit even this

"When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, 'Lord, shall we strike with the sword?' And one of them stuck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, 'Permit even this.' And He touched his ear and healed him."

-- Luke 22:49-51

The world says, "seeing is believing."

Scripture says "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).

For the disciples, this event in the Garden was the culmination of something Jesus had been telling them would happen for a long, long time.

Even in the hours leading up to this moment, he'd talked of how he'd be betrayed by one of His own. He spoke of how He'd be deserted. He told Peter that he would deny Him three times before that very night was over.

In the moment of truth, everything clicked for the disciples because it was happening right in front of their face. These are the types of times, when we think we see what is happening, that it is best to draw back and inquire of the Lord -- and wait on His reply. But's that's an entry for another day.

What happened next (both immediately and in the following hours) became a subtle object lesson in how God would have us present His son to the world.

It also begs the question in our daily lives of how much do we listen to what God is actually saying and how much do we hear what we want to hear?

Make no mistake -- it's no irony that it was the ear that a disciple (Peter) chopped off of the servant (Malchus) to the high priest.

If the disciples had been listening, they would have heard that these events were things that had to happen. Simply, this was why Jesus had come to the earth.

But instead they saw the events unfolding. They asked, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?" but they did not wait to hear His answer. They just sprung into action and hacked someone's ear off.

Is this how we treat witnessing in our own lives? Do we suddenly get revelation into God's plan and charge ahead, swords drawn?

Earlier that same week, as the group headed up to Jerusalem, Jesus told His disciples that they were going there so that He would be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and teachers of the law. He said He would then be condemned to death and handed over to be mocked, flogged, spit on and killed. He also said He would rise three days later.

The disciples responded by asking who could sit at His right and left when He came into His glory.

As he dispensed communion, He again talked about one of the 12 betraying Him and gave an example what His entire time here was for -- to be a Servant King.

The disciples responded by arguing over who should be considered the greatest.

Then, as they made the trek into the Garden, He told them to pray. They responded by falling asleep.

And in the moment of betrayal, their actions were to quell the injustice, rather than allow for the onset of the Age of Grace.

Their hearts were in the right place, but they missed the bigger picture.

In attempting to defend Jesus, they hacked off the ear of one who served the high priest.

Do we do this? Do we use the Bible like a hacksaw on the ears of unbelievers? It's a fair question. Is that how we view the world?

Take a long look at Jesus' actions here.

In the moment of betrayal -- just minutes after His prayers had drawn beads of blood from His forehead as He implored His Father in Heaven for another way -- He restored the servant of the high priest.

If His disciples had waited for God's answer, they would have heard, "Permit even this."

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says further, "Shall I not drink from the cup that my Father has given me?"

He healed Malchus' ear so that he might be a witness to the events of the following days.

Scripture doesn't tell us the fate of Malchus. You have to believe, though, that to be touched by the very hand of God -- brought back from the threshold of death so that you might live (let's face it, no one is that accurate with a sword in the heat of battle so as to make a clean cut without missing that important piece of matter just inside the ear) -- you would take at least a passing interest what happened next. You have to believe that something in that man's heart changed.

Could it be he is referred to as a servant of the high priest because in that moment he became a servant of the eternal High Priest?

God is the one who opens ears to His gospel. It is our responsibility to dispense it, but it is God who heals the ears.

Look at those who simply witnessed the events of the crucifixion and were forever changed.

We read of the thief on the cross, who initially mocked Jesus. After watching the Son of God permitting what was happening, he cried, "We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

We read of the centurion, who had attended to Jesus' death. Seeing everything unfold, as the earth shook and the sky grew dark, the centurion proclaimed, "Surely, this is the Son of God."

These are the same confessions that we, as sinners, make today when we ask Jesus into our hearts.

It is what Jesus did on the cross that changes hearts. That's what saves us. In proclaiming that good news, we have to always be careful how we are presenting it.

Are we swinging a sword in defense of our Savior? Or are we nudging them toward the One who can heal them?

###

What I'm reading: Revelation, Numbers, Luke, Proverbs, Psalms

It is well ...

"A man's steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?"

-- Proverbs 20:24

I ran across the story of one Horatio G. Spafford this morning. Perhaps you've heard it before, but it touched my heart and I felt compelled to share it here (As a note of full disclosure, the wide majority of the following text comes from www.biblestudycharts.com):

Mr. Horatio Spafford lived with his wife, Anna, in the Chicago during the 1860s.

He had made quite a name for himself as a successful lawyer and businessman. He was also a close friend and supporter of D.L. Moody.

In 1870, the Spafford's only son died after contracting scarlet fever at age four. A year later, the great Chicago fire wiped out every one of Spafford's many real estate holdings along the shores of Lake Michigan.

Battered from the tragic course of events, Spafford decided to take his wife and four daughters on a vacation to England, curing which they planned to help Moody with his evangelistic campaign.

They aimed to meet Moody in England in 1873 and traveled to New York to take a steamship across the Atlantic Ocean.

Just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Mr. Spafford to delay. Not wanting to deprive his family of their long-awaited trip, he urged them to continue on without him with the promise he'd meet them later.

So Anna headed to Europe with their four daughters and Mr. Spafford travelled back to Chicago.

Nine days later, he received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: "Saved alone."

On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her.

Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up.

When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair.

Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose." She immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife.

Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge.

"A careful reckoning has been made," the captain said, "I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep."

Mr. Spafford returned to his cabin and put pen to paper.

The Lord brought the story of Elisha and Shunamite woman who lost her only child to Mr. Spafford's mind. When Elisha had seen the woman approaching from a distance, he sent his servant out to see if she was alright.

While her son was ultimately restored to her, Mr. Spafford found more comfort in her initial response to the servant.

She had replied, "It is well."

Sailing three miles above where his the bodies of his children rested, knowing their souls had already had gone home to a God that occupied his own heart, Horatio G. Spafford wrote the words to a hymn that would last through the generations:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

We will rarely understand our steps -- these paths that the Lord leads us down -- but we can take great comfort in knowing those steps are of the Lord. In that thought, regardless of what comes, we can say "It it well, with my soul."