John 6:68:

“Then Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’”

Jesus had just delivered some hard teachings. In response, many of those who were part of the crowd that followed Him turned back and left Him. Jesus turned to His disciples and asked, “Will you also go away?” In response, Peter gave the answer that is the Fred List entry for today.

I know I’ve written on this passage before, but this morning God is bringing me back to it. I get the feeling that this is a slightly different approach this morning and so please bear with me. It seems to be a message worth repeating, and there are probably some who need to be reminded of it.

Following Jesus gets tough at times. We need to make the determination in our lives to stay the course. Those who know us know that my wife, Bev, was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago. We look back and ask, “Has it only been a couple of months? It seems so much longer.” Being in the middle of a trial is always hard, and the time seems to drag during the trial. I think it is important to face your fears, and be honest with your feelings when going through trials as this lets God do His best work in your life and through your life.

We had a subtle warning from God before this happened. Our Church bulletin had a devotional in it the week before Bev got her diagnosis. It mentioned that some of us would go through losing our hair. Bev had the feeling the message was for her. The diagnosis confirmed it. She struggled with the fact that she might lose her hair. We asked for God’s Will and I asked everyone to pray for one of two things: 1) that God would let her keep her hair; or 2) that God would give her the strength to endure the loss of her hair.

You and many others prayed believing just as I did. God gave His answer night before last; and she noticed her hair was starting to fall out. This is not to say God did not answer your prayers. It is not to say your prayers were not effective. It is just that God’s Will is being done; and so now the focus is on praying for God to give her the strength to endure the loss of her hair.

This will be difficult for her, but we now know it is the Will of God. We asked God to demonstrate His Will. He has the power to preserve her hair; but for some reason it is part of His Will that she goes through this valley of trials as well.

Cancer seems to be at epidemic proportions in our small Church our pastor is coming out of his chemo phase. The week after Bev’s diagnosis a young man also received the cancer diagnosis. Yesterday a close brother in the Lord shared his wife just got the diagnosis. We need to pray. However, our prayers should not be to avoid the Will of God in our lives. It should be for God to give us the strength to accept His Will in our lives. We never want to be fighting God.

These are the hard teachings. This is the harsh reality of following our Lord. There are no promises that we will not suffer, struggle or even die as part of God’s Will in our lives. Those who teach such things are ignoring major portions of Scripture dealing with Job and Paul. The promise is that God is in control during these times. He sets the limits. He is not doing this without a purpose. And that God will use it to further His Will and purpose. We will grow through it; but we still must go through it.

So as we look at the road ahead of us, it is like this passage of Scripture. Jesus has revealed some hard things for us. The flesh wants to turn away. We mistakenly believe that by turning from our faith this trial will end. It won’t. But Jesus looks at us when the news is delivered: “You have cancer.” “You’re losing your hair.” “You’ve just lost your job.” “You’re now broke.” “You’re going to lose your home.” “Someone you love has just died.” This is the reality of the world. These are the truths we are dealing with. We cannot ignore them. God’s trials hit you right in the face and wake you up. You reevaluate your life and your faith and your God. Jesus sees our reaction. He knows the fear creeping into our lives and asks, “Will you also go away?”

Are we willing to commit to following Him knowing the price? Peter’s response is the only honest response we can make. “Where else can we go?” There is nowhere else. If we turn from Jesus, we turn from someone who loves us so much He died to save us. He gave up Heaven and became a man to redeem us. If we turn from Him the only other option is a cold, cruel, uncaring world.

As believers we do not walk this valley alone unless we choose to. We can push everyone away, or we can reach out to Jesus and let Him walk with us. We can share with Christian brothers and sisters and they take our hand, give us a hug, and you see your pain in their eyes as they choke back a sob and say, “We’re praying for you.” And you know they mean it.

Where else can we go? There is no where else to turn. Trials force us to turn to Jesus. They force us to cling to Him as He wraps His arms around us and gives us His warmth, His strength and His compassion. We’re still going through, but He’s going through it with us.

Finally, He has the Words of Life. The words of the doctor, or the world are not Words of Life. They are, at best, words of death. They cannot give us hope. They cannot reassure us we will get through. The world lacks the power to fulfill on its promises. Jesus has that power. He will deliver. When He speaks, His promises carry the power of the Words of Life.

So as you hear the news. As Jesus reveals to you the cost of being His follower, stop and count the cost; but there are two prices before us. We will pay one or the other. If we choose to follow Jesus, the trial lies ahead. But Jesus will be there with you giving you the strength to endure and to go on. Or you turn away and face it alone. Where else can we go? Where else can you go? There is nowhere else that makes any sense of it all except for to continue to follow our Lord who loves us so. Only He has the Words of Life and can fulfill His promises.

Dennis

“It Is A Good Thing To Give Thanks Unto The Lord…”

[As tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we need to spend time with family. I am going to take the weekend off. I will start the Fred List back up on Monday morning. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank each and every one of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. - Dennis]

Psalm 92:1:

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto your name, O Most High.”

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I found myself coming back to this verse. It was a praise song we sang in the early 1970’s. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. That means that it is beneficial to us to take time out of each day and to thank God. It takes our focus off the world around us. It makes us look for God working in our lives.

God is working in each life, every day. The problem is that God is subtle. He does not drop major miracles on us all the time. We would come to expect them. He moves quietly. He works behind the scenes. He encourages here. He slows us down there. He lifts us up. Someone says something we need to hear. Something does what it’s supposed to do. Something doesn’t act the way we expect it to.

God is all around us, literally. But He is not calling attention to Himself. He goes about His work in a quiet and unpretentious manner. You have to stop and look at things taking place around you to spot His fingerprints. If you want to find God, He will be there. As we saw in one of the Fred List entries earlier this week, “We will find Him when we search for Him with our whole hearts.” Jeremiah 29:13 [paraphrased]

Fred Palacios – for whom this study is named – had a favorite expression: “coincidence is not a kosher word.” He would tell me that the rabbis point out that there is no Hebrew word for coincidence because the rabbis do not believe there is such a thing as coincidence. It is a subtle proof that God is working in our lives.

We need to stop for a moment throughout the day and look for the evidence that God is there – that God is working. Unless you look, you will miss it.

I wrote a poem back in my high school days called The Red Fingers of Morning. It was a compare and contrast poem. The character was going about his daily duties:

“The red fingers of morning
Flex across glowing skies
The coffee pot is bubbling
In the skillet a scrambled egg fries…”

We see things in nature that speak of God’s handiwork. Our main character gets in his car and drives to work. He goes about his job. He comes home and watches television. All the while birds are singing, the sun is setting, the moon comes out and the stars glow overhead. The poem ends with the comment:

“…Isn’t it rather odd,
He tosses and turns in his sheets
And wonders “Where is God?”

Unless we look for God, we will not find God. He does not beat down the door with a sledge hammer. He is there working to make things happen.

That is what this verse is all about. It is a good thing – it is beneficial for us – to take the time out during our busy day and look for God. Don’t stop looking for God until we see evidence that He is there working. Recognize that God is involved in your life. When you find Him there, thank Him. As we see more and more of God in our lives – it is a skill we have to develop – we will do more than just thank Him. We will get excited about His work. We will start to sing praises to Him.

We celebrate Thanksgiving once a year. It’s good that we do it. Many people would never stop and look at their lives and realize all they have to be thankful for unless we shut the entire world down for one day and made them do it. Some people do not even do it then. The Psalmist called for us to make every day a Thanksgiving. Giving thanks makes us realize we are not alone. Giving thanks makes us realize we have friends and family. Giving thanks makes us focus on the positive rather than the negative.

Last year at Thanksgiving, I quoted the verse from Paul where he said, “I thank God for you all.”  I still do. Bev’s cancer has made me even more thankful for God and for you. Each year God brings us through another trial. It might be financial. It might be health-related. It might be relationships. It might be career-centered. It might be the loss of a loved one. But each year God brings us through it. He brings us through it by His Holy Spirit and through those He places around us – you.

So let me take a moment to thank God for all he has done, all He is doing, and all He is going to do. I want to quote I Thessalonians 5:24:

“Faithful is He who called you, who will also do it.”

We can count on the faithfulness of God. We can count on friends and family because those are the ones God uses to bless us through and with.

Thank you…Thank you all.

–Dennis–

Image by Alastair Dunning via Flickr

 

“…I Will Follow You…”

 

Luke 9:61 – 62: “And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow you; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.’

 

And Jesus said unto him, ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

 

This seems like a harsh standard on the part of Jesus, but it is what following God requires. Now there is a part of this standard that we all seem to overlook: none of us are fit for the Kingdom of God. None of us can earn our way into God’s Kingdom. Each and every one of us will fail God at some point. This does not mean that God will reject us. It does not mean that God does not want us to try.

 

Each one of us has come to God with a sincere and honest desire to follow God. We have every intention of making our best effort to do what God wants us to do. Unfortunately, good intentions only get you so far. If we take this teaching of Jesus at face value, then all of us should not even bother to come to God. None of us are worthy of salvation. So accept our fate and move no.

 

But contrast this verse with John 6:37:

 

“All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he who comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”

 

Is there a contradiction in teachings here? Not really. I notice that in Luke’s passage Jesus is telling us that we are not fit for the Kingdom of God. He does not say that He will not accept us. Jesus was dealing with a specific situation and we run into problems when we take the response of Jesus to a specific situation or person and then try to give it universal application without first checking to make sure it has that kind of application.

 

Jesus was addressing a half-hearted commitment in Luke’s passage. Jesus was calling out to people to follow; but each person wanted to negotiate with Him before committing. Their hearts were not in it. I believe that this is the key to the response of Jesus. They were not sincere about their following God. But by contrast in John’s passage Jesus notes that God has to be the one bringing each person to Jesus. As God draws us, our hearts are responding. Anyone who comes to Jesus sincerely will be accepted by Jesus. Neither God nor Jesus are willing to let anyone go to Hell. Both will do all that They can to encourage each person to come to them. The invitation is made to all.

 

Someone once complained that “How can God let someone go to Hell?” In response the minister pointed out that in order for someone to get to Hell they have to step over the body of Jesus who is blocking the road to keep them out. They have to knock Him down as He stands in front of the door yelling for us to go back. They have to pry the fingers of Jesus off of the doorknob that opens the door to Hell, and then tear the hands of Jesus off their arm and leg as He tries to hold them back from jumping through the door. Jesus has done everything He can do to keep us from going there. The only thing He did not do or cannot do is make the decision for us.

 

So the invitation is made to all: “Follow me.” But the response must be sincere. People who go forward to an invitation as “fire insurance” and there is not commitment in the effort run the risk that if it is not a sincere response to God; God may fail to recognize it. God wants to recognize it; but there is a legal system controlling how we are saved. God cannot ignore those legal requirements.

 

In a legal system we have to sign the contract for the contract to be binding. A half-hearted commitment is not signing the contract. It’s picking it up. It’s putting it into your pocket and offering to look at it later. But until you take it out of the pocket, open it up and sign it; it is not a commitment. If you are willing to commit; then Jesus will do all He can to bring you into the fold and make you one of His own.

 

The choice to follow Jesus is the most important choice you can make. While the acceptance of Jesus as our Savior is the first step in following Jesus, the decision to follow Jesus is not just a one-time thing. Now don’t misunderstand me. The decision to accept the offer of Jesus to save us is a one-time decision. It is binding for the rest of our lives. It’s the signature on the contract that lasts forever. But following Jesus is the daily decision. Success is rarely by accident. It is a focus of the mind and the heart.

 

We take up the cross daily. This expression literally means that each day we have to make the decision of dying for Christ. We take our desires, our plans, and our goals and kill them. We then replace them with God’s desires, God’s plans and God’s goals. If we don’t make this conscious decision each day, then we lose our focus. Our goals begin to slip back in. Our plans begin to have priority. And without coming back and making this conscious effort each day to do what God wants us to do our focus is lost.

 

You might wonder why Jesus used the expression of putting your hand to the plough. There is a very specific reason and unless you’ve heard the reason or actually plowed a field, you miss it. To plow a field the old-fashioned way with a horse and plough involved focus. You had to pick a point at the other end of the field and keep your eyes focused on that point. That point has to become your goal – your only goal. And as your focus is on that point and nothing else, everything involved in plowing the field follows.

 

However, if you start to plow that row and start looking around, the focus is lost. The horse veers to the left or right. The row is curved or crooked. But an experienced farmer sets the plough in place. He focuses on the exact spot where he needs this plough to go. His mind draws a straight line from where he is to where he wants to be. He then starts the horse and guides the horse by keeping his eyes focused on the point ahead.

 

Christ is the point on the other side of life that we want to reach. Where we are is our place in life right now. We need to focus on the goal. We need to commit to reaching it. These efforts will create a straight line toward Jesus and the focus will keep us on the path.

 

When a farmer realizes that he has made a mistake, he stops. He repositions the plough. He resets his focus and starts again. If he doesn’t reset the plough he adds to the mistake. In some cases he may have to go back to where he lost the focus and start from there. But to succeed he has to keep the same point in focus. Jesus is that point that we must focus on. He is the constant in our life.

 

If you find that your walk with God is not as close as it once was; or the desire to follow God is not as strong as you want it to be; it involves coming back and making the commitment once more. And then you need to make the commitment to commit – each day. 

 

 

 

• What is the Spirit and Soul?

  

  Image by Loci Lenar via Flickr

  The spirit and soul are interchangeably used in the bible meaning the same thing. It is the immaterial part of our body which intercedes for us. The spirit/soul endures all the body experiences to regenerate, indwell, restraint, and provide service. Only believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are said to be “Spiritually Alive” and unbelievers are “Spiritually Dead”. The Spirit is the immaterial facet of man allowing us to have an intimate relationship with God. Mankind has a spirit but we are not a spirit.  When we use the word spirit, it refers to the immaterial part of man, including his soul. Man is a soul and the word soul simply means life, thus life is removed at the time of death.  Soul refers to the material and immaterial of man. In Genesis, Man’s sin tainted our soul but God already had a plan to wash away our sins. Whenever soul is used, it can refer to a person alive or after death. Soul and Spirit are the same in the manner they are used but different in reference.The Soul is man’s horizontal view of the world and Spirit is man’s vertical view of the world. Both refer to the immaterial part of man but Spirit refers to man’s walk with God and Soul refers to man’s walk with the world, both material and immaterial.  The bible show man’s eagerness to sin and man’s naturally evil works against the spirit/soul as a result of Adam’s sin.

  1 Corinthians 2:11
  ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

  Hebrews 4:12
  ¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  (Only scripture mentioning the spirit and soul can be divided only by God)

  James 2:26
  ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

  1 Thessalonians 5:23
  ²³May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  Spirit is the Greek word “pneuma” which means “breath or breeze” referring to a human “spirit” the rational “soul”. The soul is the Greek word “psuche” which means “breath” and by implication “spirit”. Thus, the use of the two words does not indicate the immaterial part of man could be divided, but rather used simply for emphasis. There are not three parts to humans (body, soul, and spirit) but only two parts (body and “soul or spirit”). Throughout the scriptures we see the two terms “spirit” and “soul” used interchangeably.

  Hebrews 6:19
  ¹⁹We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

  1 Peter 2:11
  ¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

  2 Peter 2:8
  ⁸for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard

  Genesis 2:7
  ⁷And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

  Luke 10:27
  ²⁷And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.

  In Peter we find the word “soul” can also be the “spirit”, the eternal part he put into us when we were conceived (made alive). In Genesis, the Lord breathed into man the breath of life which is the “spirit” or “soul” that our body can be made alive and breath the air. In Luke, the word for “heart” refers to the mind’s thoughts or feelings. It does not refer to the flesh of the heart that pumps blood but the “mind” in the sense of our “soul” or “spirit”. The Greek word for mind is “dianoia” which refers to our “deep thoughts” or “the exercise of our minds”. The heart and soul is use for emphasis referring to the same thing, the spirit. We are to love our God with our actual thoughts. In summary, the “spirit” and the “soul” are one and the same, two words meaning the same thing: the eternal immaterial part of each person.

• How is the Spirit or Soul created?
  Creationism holds that all spirits/souls are created directly by God (with Eve’s substance, material and immaterial, being taken from Adam). God creates a new soul/spirit when a human being is conceived. The scriptures that differentiates the origin of the spirit/soul from the origin of the body.

  Ecclesiastes 12:7
  ⁷and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

  Isaiah 42:5
  ⁵This is what God the LORD says-he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:

  Zechariah 12:1
  ¹This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares:

  Hebrews 12:9
  ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

  Traducianism believe an individual spirit or soul is derived from the spirits or souls of the parents. This implies the spirit or soul of Adam was created directly by God with Eve’s substance, material and immaterial, being taken from Adam. The scriptures below reads the body, soul, spirit came from the parents.

  Genesis 2:7
  ⁷the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

  Genesis 5:3
  ³When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.

  Genesis 2:2-3
  ²By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

  Both Creationism and Traducianism agree that the soul does not exist prior to conception. God creates each individual soul at the moment it is need.

• Is the spirit/soul mortal or immortal?
  The human spirit/soul is immortal whether they are saved or lost will spend eternity someplace in heaven or hell. Our spirit/soul will live forever either in the presence of God in heaven if we are saved or punished in hell if rejected by God’s gift of salvation. Our spirit/soul will live forever and our bodies will resurrect. God is the only one who can restore our spirit/soul to the body after death.

  Psalm 23:3
  ³he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

  Ecclesiastes 12:7
  ⁷and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

  Daniel 12:2
  ²Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

  Matthew 25:46
  ⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

  1 Corinthians 15:12-19
  ¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.