Posts Tagged ‘trust’

Habakkuk: Five Qualities of a Godly Man in Difficult Times

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Yes FM Morning Munch Devotional August 13th – 17th

Monday  –  Passionately Involved

Tuesday – The Hard Questions

Wednesday – Ready to Listen

Thursday – Ready to Believe the Unbelievable

Friday – Obedient

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Nisa Faith

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2012| 2 Comments »

                  (Nisa- Miracle)

Faith

Guidry

We have prayed for this day for 9 years.  We have ached for the losses and doubted our faith.  We refused to give up even when we were labeled as a “Chronic Miscarriage” case.  When the entire world (and even God himself from a purely worldly standpoint) seemed to be saying emphatically NO, the Holy Spirit whispered in our ears to leave it in the Father’s hands.  So we did.  Don’t get me wrong we cried, we wailed, we begged over and over again.  We wanted at times to throw in the towel and act out of our own understanding.  We still do not completely understand, but understand this:  We have a mighty heavenly Father who cares for us in ways that I cannot begin to fathom.  He loves us in a way that is so far beyond my understanding that I only touch the edges of what AGAPE really means!

Several weeks ago while in prayer God gave me the name Nisa Faith.  Indeed she is a miracle of faith, not the simple faith of a single prayer or even the cry for healing but the faith of a 9 year journey.  She represents to us the faith of Abraham as he led his entire family to Canaan.  She represents the faith of Joseph as he waited in slavery, in prison for God to act.  She is even now, yet in the womb that miracle, an incredible act of God.

The difficult part to grasp is that my statement about our Father’s love for us is not just true because Nisa is healthy and strong.  It is an eternal truth that is expressed in both the tragic and the joyful.  He does not love us more now than he did on the very days that we miscarried our other seven precious babies.  The reality is that our journey to the fulfillment of the call that He had placed on our lives led us directly through David’s “Valley of the Shadow of Death”.  While we might prefer a detour around the Valley, God does not promise that.  He does promise that he will be with us, standing by us with His rod and staff and even more importantly for New Testament believers dwelling in us.  Many times it is not until after we are through the Valley that we are able to look back and see that God wielded His rod and staff on our behalf as we walked that  difficult road.

Even more than she represents the miracle of life to us, she is the miracle of faith itself.  Perhaps a better way to say it is that she is an expression of miraculous faith.  Faith inspired by the ongoing presence of God in our lives.  It is the faith that kept Abraham going on his 400 mile journey.  It is the faith that kept him in relationship with God even when he arrived only to face famine.  It is the faith that saw the birth of Isaac and the substitution of a ram for his only child on the mountain before God.  It is not a faith of the perfect life or of perfect people. It is a faith that traverses pitfalls and carries us through our own mistakes; faith that originates not with us but in the very heart of God and comes to us as a gift from the hands of our heavenly Father.  It is Nisa Faith.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me to lied down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.  Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

PSALM 23

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Walk in Love

Posted in Bible Study, Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

She stood by her seat watching Allana lead the children in dancing to the praises of our savior.  Just her toes wriggled to the music.  She had already been asked several times if she would like to join the children up front and dance but had said,” N0.”  Still she stood there staring and wriggling.  I walked over and asked her again, “Would you like to go up and dance with the other kids?”  She shook her head no but kept staring and wriggling.  “You don’t have to belong or have to know the songs you can watch Miss Allana”, I tried.  Still no, but then I could see her gather her will together and she looked straight at me and said, “I’m afraid.”  Her face turned red with this moment of pure honesty.  “Tell you what, why don’t I walk up there with you and put you right between Miss Allana and Sami so you can follow right along with them.”  Her eyes got big and she slowly shook her head yes and whispered, “OK”.  I walked her up, placed her between Sami and Allana and then watched her blossom to life dancing with all her heart for the next 30 minutes.

Sometimes people will respond to tracts, tv shows, invitations to church services, revivals or even altar calls.  But sometimes they are waiting for someone to take that long walk to our Savior with them.  It seems like just a short and easy stroll to us but they are afraid.  They can see the joy, the fun but for whatever reason that walk is terrifying.  They are waiting for someone to walk with them, hand in hand; to introduce them personally to Jesus and then to tuck them in right between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Maybe they should grow up and get over it.  Maybe they should not be so stubborn and afraid.  Or just maybe we just need  to be ready to walk that walk with them.

There was a man who lived in Jericho, a wealthy and powerful man.  He could have easily summoned Jesus to him or approached Jesus through the crowd using his many servants to clear the way.  But he didn’t.  He ran ahead and climbed a tree.  I think that perhaps he had listened to the greatest lie that Satan ever came up with, “You are not the sort of person that Jesus could love.”  Still he wanted to see Jesus.  How surprised he must have been when Jesus stopped at that tree and said, ” ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he hurried and came down and received him gladly.  When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’  Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.  for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  (Luke 19:5b-10)

“Zaccheus stopped…”  After the invitation there was the long walk back to Zaccheus’ house.  For Zaccheus it was a walk of shame, a walk that reinforced the lie of Satan.  It is a walk that so many are unable to take alone.  Jesus took that walk with Zaccheus.  It was not in the safety of his home that Zaccheus found salvation.  It was not kneeling at the altar or standing in the revival.  It was walking with Jesus.  “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”  (Ephesians 5:1-2:  bold  lettering is mine)

Maybe it is time for all of us to take a little walk, to pray that the Holy Spirit will point out those Zaccheuses waiting up in a tree to walk with us;  those little girls wriggling their toes waiting by their chairs to dance, giving us the opportunity to be imitators of God Himself and walk in love.

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Bionic Christians

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

I recently participated in a discussion of Galatians 2. While the discussion narrowed in on 2:20, it was 2:18 that caught my eye.

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified[b] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[c] were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.  

This chapter cycles through some of Paul’s relationship with the other Apostles and the leadership of the Jerusalem church.  It begins with their acceptance of the Gospel message that God had commissioned Paul to deliver but then moves into a point of contention between Paul and Peter.  As I read through the chapter and came to verse 18 I was reminded of a TV show that I watched as a child, The Six Million Dollar Man.  The main character had been physically destroyed in a horrible accident, those of you who are old enough will remember the tag line, “We can rebuild him, we have the technology.”

Paul called Peter out for being a bionic Christian.  When we commit our lives to Christ our human nature, our sinful nature is destroyed.  In this process we hand over everything that we are, will be and hope to be over to God.  But our nature strongly opposes this process.  Just as the scientists were driven to use their technology to rebuild Steve Austin physically, we are tempted to rely on our own abilities to justify ourselves before God.  The corollary is that we often believe that we have arrived and need to hold others accountable to this standard also.  Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into the likeness of Christ we rely on ourselves to rebuild us; hoping to achieve an improved model.  We become bionic Christians and so end up mired in sin so subtle that we believe we are headed in the right direction.  When we rely on our own understanding and abilities we negate the very core of the Gospel. We rebuild the very thing that separated humanity from God in the first place, our will over His.

 

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Meeting Julius

Posted in Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Perhaps the next time that someone asks me about what we do at The Lewis House I will say, “We meet Julius where he is at.”  I first met Julius on the sidewalk in front of TLH.  He asked me for $10.00 and then moved on when I said that we could supply food and personal items but that we did not deal in cash.  Several days later he stopped out front and asked again for money but this time did not decline the offer of a meal.  Since then he has become a regular visitor to the house.

There are many ways and places to meet people.  As I read the Bible I see a recurring theme.  While it is true that some followed Jesus everywhere, they followed Jesus as he went to meet them where they were at.  Whether it was on the hills of Judea, up in a tree, coming to a well in the heat of the day, across the sea naked in a graveyard or up on a rocky crag named Golgotha, Jesus was ready to meet them exactly where they were at.  He came to feed them, to eat with them, to speak truth to them, to free them and ultimately to die and rise again for them.  Then when it was time for him to return to the Father he passed the torch on to the disciples,  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20) while still assuring them (and us) that he would always be here to meet them where they are at.  Being missional is just about that, meeting people where they are at.  While God has placed us here in Toledo at TLH, He has also placed every person reading this blog somewhere that has people who need God’s love and a little truth in their lives.  Once we live God’s love and speak God’s truth then it is up to the Holy Spirit.

There has been no radical change, no epiphany for Julius, but his stories seem a little truer and he keeps coming back.  He listens a little longer and is just a little softer with each visit.  That brings me to the other important part of meeting them where they are at, prayer.  The Holy Spirit can meet Julius wherever he is at, at any time and won’t you join me in praying that He does?!

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Do You Feel Safe?

Posted in Bible Study, Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I was asked an interesting question today, “Do you feel safe?” It was in relation to the fact that we are urban missionaries and live in an area prone to crime but it really got me thinking.  I live in probably the worst neighborhood that I have ever lived in.  Yet I can honestly say that I feel safer than perhaps I ever have before.  When I look back at times in my life when I felt unsafe and insecure I see that it was really a matter of self-doubt.  It was when things were out of my control or beyond my control that I would feel unsafe.  The reality was that while I believed in God, I trusted in my own abilities.  Yet I understood the limitations of those abilities.  So then my feelings of personal safety were a function of my surroundings and how equipped I felt to handle them.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, My God , in whom I trust.”  Surely hew will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

It is only when I move the trust and responsibility for my safety into the hands of  God that I can truly feel safe.  It is the feeling of safety that accompanied Daniel to the lion’s den in Babylon.  (Daniel 6)  But it is also the feeling of safety that shone on the face of Stephen as he was stoned to death on the outskirts of Jerusalem. (Acts 7) When our trust is truly in God then our feeling of safety is no longer dependent on our circumstances, skills or even our faithfulness.  As the Psalmist states “His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

Just as our salvation is not based on anything that comes from us (Ephesians 2:8) so too is our safety, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)  It is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ which is the basis for our safety.  The writer of Hebrews beautifully expresses this relationship, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.  He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:19-20)  He is a high priest who has been assailed in every way just as we are and held firm (Hebrews 4:15) in a way that is completely beyond the ability of our fallen nature.  So then it is by His intervention that we may “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16) It is this confidence in  God’s faithfulness expressed in the person of Jesus Christ that is at the base of the safety that we enjoy as His children.

So, do YOU feel safe?

“What then shall we say in response to this?  If God is for us, who can be against us?… Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  Romans 8:31, 35, 37

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So What do you do when God says, “Send your army home”?

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , on June 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

I find the fact that God is laying Gideon on my heart a little concerning.  I don’t want to send my army home.  I want to rely on my talents, skills, intelligence and education to do the things that he has called me to do.  I am finding that there is a great but often unrecognized difference between using your God given gifts and relying on your own resources.

As I begin this summer of service to him I find myself staring at that dividing line.  Sometimes it seems precise and clear.  Other times it seems blurry and tenuous.  I find myself praying, “Lord help me send the army home and rely on YOU! AND help me use the GIFTS that you have given me to bring your KINGDOM to the very best of my ability.”  I am excited that even at this late time in my life and after years of relying on myself God has given me great opportunity to serve HIM.

OK ARMY, I guess it is time for you to go home….

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The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her,

Posted in Bible Study, tagged , , , , , , on June 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have been thinking about Gideon lately.  God has me running Judges 7:2 over in my mind. 

 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her,

I am ever amazed at the unity of a book written over a period of millenia. 

If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about–but not before God.  Romans 4:2

 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the LORD.”  I Corinthians 1:27-31

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

God wanted to save Israel by faith.  So he reduced her to the point that there was NO salvation except by His grace.  Here lies the tension between faith and works.  Gideon could have all of the faith in the world but if he had not stepped out in obedience to God, it would have been dead faith.  This is what James is talking about in James 2.  When we accept our own absolute inability to contribute in the slightest bit to our own salvation and step out in faith because he said to, that is when God says ok, now I will do it because in this you will know that I am God.

  When we send the majority of our force home, when we stand facing the Red Sea with Pharaoh at our backs, when we step onto the stormy sea because He said to….then we say with David “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalms 18:2).  When God asks you to give up your advantage, take the risk, it is because he is preparing to do great things.

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