Category Archives: Scripture Memory

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Finding God’s Will

It's About A Relationship

SYNOPSIS: In the final analysis, pursuing God’s will is not so much about a technique, a method or a litmus test. The will of God is not about a formula; it’s about a friendship. God’s will is not to be found in not a rule, but in a relationship where you invite the Creator of the universe to walk with you side-by-side, moment-by-moment, opportunity-by-opportunity to show you what he wants for your life at each step of the way. And that is where life gets really exciting!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

One of the most fundamental questions we ask in life is how to discern God’s specific will in the decisions we face.  In his book, Take Another Look At Guidance, author Bob Mumford offers this helpful illustration,

“A certain harbor in Italy can be reached only by sailing up a narrow channel between dangerous rocks and shoals.  Over the years, many ships have been wrecked, and navigation is hazardous. To guide the ships safely into port, three lights have been mounted on three huge poles in the harbor. When the three lights are perfectly lined up and seen as one, the ship can safely proceed up the narrow channel. If the pilot sees two or three lights, he knows he’s off course and in danger. God has also provided beacons to guide us…these lights must be lined up before it is safe for us to proceed.  Together they assure us that the directions we’ve received are from God and will lead us safely along his way.”

Allow me to give you some harbor lights, as it were, that I believe should become a litmus test for determining if the decisions you are making, the guidance you are receiving and the direction you are taking is really God’s specific will for our lives:

The first guiding light is the teaching of Scripture in its entirety.  Honestly ask yourself, “does my decision line up with the will of God as revealed in his Word? Does it align with Scripture? What does the Bible say about this?”

The second guiding light is the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit that come through prayer.  Not only should you align your thinking process and decisions with God’s Word, but you must also ask, “have I adequately devoted myself to prayer regarding this issue? Have I asked God about this—and listened?”

The third guiding light is the God-shaped circumstances of life. Ask yourself, “do the events, circumstances, open doors and closed doors I am currently experiencing indicate this desire or direction is of God?  Is God at work here?”

The fourth guiding light is the counsel of wise, godly people.  You need to ask, “have I submitted this plan to people to whom I’m accountable? Have I given permission to someone I trust to speak truth into my life about this?”

And the fifth guiding light is congruity with God’s unique design for my life.  Here is where you ask quite frankly, “is this consistent with my unique spiritual thumbprint—my spiritual gifts, my God-given temperament, my natural talents, and my spiritual passion?”

If you are to find God’s specific will for your life, then each of those harbor lights need to align.  If they do, you can be confident that a Greater Hand is guiding your steps. If they don’t, pause!

But in the end, pursuing God’s will is not so much about a technique, a method or a litmus test. The will of God is not about a formula; it’s about a friendship. God’s will is not to be found in not a rule, but in a relationship where you invite the Creator of the universe to walk with you side-by-side, moment-by-moment, opportunity-by-opportunity to show you what he wants for your life at each step of the way.

And that is where life gets really exciting!

“To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge! To do the will of God is the greatest achievement!” ~George W. Truett

Reflect & Apply: Are you facing an important decision? Go back and think through these harbor lights—and make sure they’ve aligned before you take the next step.  Most of all, do it in relationship with the One whose will for you means a bright and successful future.

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The Cost of Discipleship

No Easy Believism Allowed

SYNOPSIS: Jesus made no promises of an easy, breezy, carefree Christianity. Rather, he demanded complete obedience, costly sacrifice, and selfless servanthood from those who wanted to be on his team. He told them that they would have to “eat his flesh and drink his blood” if they wanted a part in him. (John 6:53) He said people would hate them, misunderstand them, reject them, persecute them, and put them out of the synagogues. And he even promised that people would kill them, believing that in so doing they were helping God out. Yet the eleven disciples (one of them, Judas, got cold feet) fully bought into Christ’s call to costly discipleship. Will you?

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Matthew 16:24

Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Salvation is free…but discipleship will cost you your life.”  I’m pretty sure he was quoting Jesus on that one.

Does Christ’s call to self-denying, cross-bearing discipleship seem a little extreme in comparison to the “easy believism” that passes for some brands of discipleship today? You will likely hear a lot more about a life of comfort, security and success these days from spiritual leaders than the straight talk Jesus laid on his would-be followers.

Jesus made no promises of an easy, breezy, carefree Christianity. Rather, he demanded complete obedience, costly sacrifice, and selfless servanthood from those who wanted to be on his team. He told them that they would have to “eat his flesh and drink his blood” if they wanted a part in him. (John 6:53) He said people would hate them, misunderstand them, reject them, persecute them, and put them out of the synagogues.  And he even promised that people would kill them, believing that in so doing they were helping God out. (John 16:2)

Yet the eleven disciples (one of them, Judas, got cold feet) fully bought into Christ’s call to costly discipleship. They gave up everything they had and left everything they knew for a life that promised nothing except a chance to advance God’s kingdom in a resistant, hostile world. They fully understood that the overwhelming bulk of their rewards would come only afterwards, in the afterlife.

Despite Christ’s less than appealing recruitment campaign, however, these first disciples, followed in the years to come by countless thousands of other hungry seekers, flocked to this self-denying, cross-bearing brand of Christianity. Jesus was a tough act to follow, to say the least, but these disciples eagerly signed up—and they changed the world.

How? Simply by doing what Jesus had asked: They denied themselves, took up their crosses, followed his way daily and laid down their lives for his sake— literally in many cases. Without a political voice, financial resources, social standing, and military might, this unlikely ragtag band of followers conquered the Roman Empire in less than three hundred years.

Such was the radical power of this brand of fully committed discipleship.

Do you worry, as I do, that Christ’s call to costly discipleship would empty most churches of its people in our day? Though most believers give mental assent to cross-bearing and self-denial, in reality there is very little evidence of it in their lives, or in their churches. A.W. Tozer comments,

It has become popular to preach a painless Christianity and automatic saintliness. It has become part of our ‘instant’ culture. ‘Just pour a little water on it, stir mildly, pick up a gospel tract, and you are on your Christian way.

If Jesus rebuked Peter (Matthew 16:23) — “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” — for suggesting Christianity without a cross, what do you suppose he would say to us who have suggested Christian discipleship without cross-bearing?

We must aggressively and boldly reject that brand of faith, because that is not the discipleship to which Jesus has called us. And that is not the discipleship that I want for my life.

How about you?

 The first mark of a disciple is not a profession of faith, but an act of obedience. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Reflect & Apply: Bonhoeffer once remarked, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” No matter how long you have been a Christian, Jesus is calling you to a more ruthless brand of discipleship. Are you ready to follow?

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What Makes You Irresistible To God?

Faith That Walks In Trust

SYNOPSIS: Between the journey of faith and the destination of faith—faith obeys. It grits out a determined obedience in a faithful direction, by believing, trusting, and expecting that there is no more important issue in this life than to follow the call and carry out the commands of God. And it does so with great delight—not because it has to obey, but because it wants to serve. As J.R.R. Tolkien said, “In the last resort, faith is an act of will, inspired by love.”

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

What is faith? In its simplest form, it is belief. Yet it is more that mere intellectual assent, because the Bibles tells us, “Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19) Belief is important, but it is only the beginning; belief begins the journey of trust.

Faith that walks in trust says, “I will put my complete confidence in God and his promises—even though I may not see any evidence at this point that those promises will be fulfilled.” In fact, sometimes the evidence even seems contrary to the promises of God. But faith trusts anyway. It is sure that what is hoped for, that is, what God has promised, will come to pass, relying on that certainty as the evidence of faith itself. (Hebrews 11:1) Aquinas wrote,

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. 

Trusting faith is expectant faith. It believes that God rewards. It believes that at the end of the day, the earnest journey of faith will be met with the eternal joy of God—both the joy that is revealed in the smile of God at our faithfulness (itself, the biggest and best reward of all) and the joy that is felt as the crown of righteousness (along with all the other tangible wonders of eternity awarded in that moment) is placed upon the head of the faithful.

In the meantime—in those steps taken between the journey of faith and the destination of faith—faith obeys. It grits out a long obedience in a faithful direction, believing, trusting, and expecting that there is no more important issue in this life than to follow the call and carry out the commands of God. And it does so with great delight—not because it has to, but because it wants to. As J.R.R. Tolkien said, “In the last resort, faith is an act of will, inspired by love.”

You see, faith, more than anything else, is both focused on and fueled by relationship with Almighty God himself. It is not the results of faith that drives the faithful, it is the relationship experienced along the way that is most important. That is the very heart of Hebrews 11, the greatest chapter in the Bible on the lives of the faithful. None of them saw God’s promise tangibly fulfilled in this life, but they were commended for their faith because they kept a penetrating focus on the next world as the real object of their journey. (Hebrews 11:13, 39-40) That is why God was pleased with them. (Hebrews 11:16)

You, too, can join that illustrious list of God-pleasers if you will live by faith—believing, trusting, expectant, obedient, God-focused faith.

He finds that irresistible!

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. ~Thomas Aquinas

Reflect & Apply:If it is impossible to please God without faith, then the most important investment of your life’s energies and resources will be in nurturing your faith. Not always an easy task, but a worthy one. Take a moment to consider what Gordon McDonald wrote about faith: “To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken, to keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice, and where seems no hearing; to see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved, caring for no life, nor shifting a hairbreadth for all entreaty, and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving; to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand; to wait patiently, ready to die of hunger, fearing only lest faith should fail—such is the victory that overcomes the world, such is faith indeed.”

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The Powerful Word

I Am Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

SYNOPSIS: The gospel is the power of God that saves us—past, present and future. For that reasons, not only should we not be ashamed of it, but  we should be actively and even aggressively enthusiastic about it. Why wouldn’t we be? It is the only hope for humanity—which means on a more personal and practical level, it is the only hope for your unsaved loved ones, the people you work with, go to school with and those who live next door to you. It is the only hope for real people you really care about. The Good News, written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is now waiting to be expressed through your lips and by your life.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

I echo Paul’s words: I am not ashamed of the Gospel! Why should I be? It is the very power of Almighty God to transform a life for all eternity. The Good News—written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is what saves us.

The Good News saves us in the sense that we are rescued from our sins and brought into the forever family of God. We commonly refer to that as salvation; being born again. The Good News also saves us in the sense that day-by-day in this present life, we are being transformed by it into the very likeness of Jesus Christ. That is what we refer to as progressive holiness. And the Good News saves us in the sense that when this earthly journey is complete and we stand before Almighty God, we will be welcomed into the eternal kingdom. That, of course, we longingly refer to as our ultimate and final redemption.

For those reasons, not only I should not be ashamed of the Gospel—and neither should you—but you and I should be actively, even aggressively, enthusiastic about it. Again, why wouldn’t we be? It is the only hope for mankind—which means on a more personal and practical level, it is the only hope for your unsaved loved ones, the people you work with, go to school with and those who live next door to you. It is the only hope for real people you care a great deal for.

The Good News, written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is now waiting to be expressed through your lips and by your life. Other than its proclamation by preachers, that is the most compelling way it gets proclaimed these days—exemplified in word and deed through you. So let’s quit keeping the Good News to ourselves and begin looking for opportunities to slip it into our conversations at every chance we get.

I like how Eugene Peterson translates Romans 1:16-19 in The Message:

It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

The Good News really is good news—and it’s powerful. So proudly proclaim it today! You will be glad you did—and someone who might hear and respond to it will be even more glad you did!

“This is the new evangelism we need. It is not better methods, but better men and women who know their Redeemer from personal experience…who see his vision and feel his passion for the world…who want only for Christ to produce his life in and through them according to his own good pleasure.” ~Robert E. Coleman

Reflect & Apply: Lynn Thomas wrote, “I’ve often thought the first class we should teach on evangelism should probably be, ‘How to Make New Friends.’” Perhaps establishing some new “redemptive” friendships could be your first step toward a more evangelistic life.

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What’s In God’s Wallet?

The Bible In One Verse

SYNOPSIS: John 3:16 is the whole Bible in just one verse. There’s not a simpler, yet more profound truth in the Bible than this: God loved the whole world so much that he gave his Son to die for it. But that is not just some moving statement of God’s universal love; it is also a profound declaration of his personal love for you. Said another way, God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // 1 John 3:1

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us it that it did not know him.

The man who penned this heartwarming verse arguably understood the love of God better than any other human being. It was John the beloved, the Apostle of love. Of course, he was also the author of the most well-known, well-loved verse in the entire Bible—John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

That is the whole Bible in just one verse. There’s not a simpler, yet more profound truth in the Bible than this: God loved the whole world so much that he gave his Son to die for it. But that is not just some moving statement of God’s universal love; it is also a profound declaration of his personal love for you. St. Augustine, the 4th century North African Bishop, one of the most influential figures in church history, purportedly said it this way,

“God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.”

Did you realize that if you were the only person on this planet, God would’ve loved you so much that he still would have given Jesus to die for your sins? There would still be John 3:16 if you were the sole human being ever created. Max Lucado wrote an entire book just on that one verse called “3:16”. Here is how he put it,

“If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it.”

I don’t know if you really get this or not—and I pray that somehow, somewhere it becomes reality to you, perhaps even before you finish reading this blog, or maybe as you memorize and reflect on this verse. But the truth is, God has a crazy, inexplicable, unreasonable love for you! He really does.

Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex theologians of the twentieth century, writing volume after volume on the meaning of life and faith. A reporter once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Barth thought for a moment and then said:

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

That’s the whole of God’s truth in a single phrase. Lean into that today—you are the object of his lavish love; you are Abba’s favored child. That is what you are!

Reflect & Apply: Peruse Ephesians 1-2 and make a list of all the things that God has lavished on you through Jesus Christ. Your list should have at least 10 “spiritual blessings” on it.

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What God Wants—And Deserves

You’re Reason for Being

SYNOPSIS: A.W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” An everlasting preoccupation—that’s what worship is. That’s your highest purpose, your very reason for being. The Westminster Confession and Catechisms, written in the mid 1600’s as a tool for studying doctrine, asks and answers 196 theological questions. The very first question is this: What is the chief and highest end of man? And the answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever. That is why you exist:  To worship God and enjoy him forever! Today, and each day hereafter, make sure you are fulling your rai·son d’ê·tre—you reason for being!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Isaac Watts was a prolific author, writing over 50 books, more than half on theology. He is best remembered, however, for his hymns, writing over 700. Even today, three centuries after he died, most hymnals have at least twenty of his songs.  It is said that as Watts was dying he was reciting one of his favorites: “I’ll Praise My Maker While I Breathe.”  Isaac Watts was captivated by the worship of God.

God has created us with a tremendous capacity, as well as a duty, to worship him. He wants—and deserves—that we, too, would praise our Maker while we breathe.

Victor Hugo said of his pastor: “He didn’t just study God, he was dazzled by him.” That is want God wants—and deserves—from us: To be dazzled by him.

A.W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.”  An everlasting preoccupation—that’s what worship is. That’s our highest purpose, our very reason for being. The Westminster Confession and Catechisms, written in the mid 1600’s as a tool for studying doctrine, asks and answers 196 theological questions. The very first question is this: What is the chief and highest end of man? And the answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

That is why we were created:  To worship God and enjoy him forever…

To be agents of praise…
To be dazzled by his being…
To be captivated by his presence…
To be everlastingly preoccupied with worship!

That’s why you and I must fight to maintain, or perhaps reclaim, a Biblical understanding and a right experience of worship as God wants—and deserves—in our lives and our church. Paul is urging that in Romans 12:1,

“I appeal to you therefore, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.”  (Amplified)

Did you catch that?  You and I must purpose to offer our whole life to God. Not just lip service, but life service. God-pleasing worship is more than inspired music and enthusiastic singing; it means bringing everything we are and everything we have to God in a joyful recognition of his mercy. William Barclay gave one of the best definitions of worship I’ve ever come across when he wrote,

True worship is the offering to God of one’s body, and all that one does every day with it. Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, and a ritual, however magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to him, not something transacted in a church, but something which sees the whole world as the temple of the living God. As Whittier wrote: ‘“For he whom Jesus loved hath truly spoken: The holier worship which he deigns to bless, Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken, And feeds the widow and the fatherless.” A man may say, “I am going to church to worship God,” but he should also be able to say, “I am going to the factory, the shop, the office, the school, the garage, the locomotive shed, the mine, the shipyard, the field, the byre, the garden, to worship God.”

We are not just to honor and worship God with our words on Sundays only, but also with our entire existence in all we do from Monday through Saturday. Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

That means how we rest, play, handle money, feed our minds, care for our bodies and engage relationally is all worship! Whether it’s the fruit of our lips on Sunday or the fruit of our lives on Monday, the kind of worship that pleases God means we must always bring our “A game” and place it before God “… as a living sacrifice…” It’s the least—and best—we can do. It’s what God wants—and deserves!

That’s what God wants—and deserves—the sacrificial surrender of our everyday lives to him in worship.

We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal. (J.I. Packer)

Reflect & Apply: Stop at the very first word of chapter 12: “Therefore”.  Whenever you come to a “therefore” in the Bible, you ought to ask yourself, “what is it there for?” What Paul goes on to say in these first two verses comprises what is arguably the most important duty of all true Christ-followers: The offering of our everyday life to God as our only and reasonable act of worship. “Therefore” …what is the basis of this call to Christian duty? Hint: Go back to the previous verse, Romans 11:36.  Read and reflect on what that verse means for your life.