Worrying and Certainty... two sides of the same coin

The following was a blog I wrote 6 years ago today.  It's amazing how things God has told you in the past can speak to you in the future.  So I thought I'd share this with you.  It speaks to a lot of what I'm going through and maybe it will speak to you too.  What's funny, is that 6 years ago I hadn't met Joe yet.  I would meet him a few weeks after I wrote this.  To say that where I am right now and what I am doing is surprising would be a huge understatement.  My life is completely 180 degrees different then when I wrote this blog.  But the God I serve is still the same.  In that, lies my comfort.  :)

Life being what it is, there are always obstacles and trials coming at us.  We really have no control over this.  What we do have control over is how we respond to it.  And as Christians, we are always trying to make sense out of what we're going through.  How we do this and why we do this says a lot about who we are as people.

With the advent of Facebook, it's so easy to see what our friends are going through and how they are dealing with it.  Status updates are filled with hope, despair, and everything in between.  It's not unusual to see someone praise God for the definitive work He is about to do in their life and the next day when that thing falls through, plunge into despair and worry.  This doesn't seem to be the way to go, now does it?  Nor does it seem to glorify God.  As Christians, I don't feel we should be so up and down all the time.  I'm talking to myself too, as I have fallen into this trap as well.

Matthew 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Many of us have heard this a million times, and for good reason.  I think the main point of this is seeking His kingdom first.  It doesn't say that after awhile of seeking you won't need to keep seeking. We will never reach a point where we can stop seeking God.  This is the danger we fall into when we have no challenges or trials facing us... when we have more than enough money in the bank and when we and everyone we know are all super healthy and safe.  We stop seeking.  It seems to me that if we seek God we will cease to worry.  And seeking is something we do everyday.

Certainty

Seemingly the opposite of worry, right?  Not so much.   Certainty of what our future holds and even what we think God will do in certain respects can be just as dangerous as uncertainty.   Let me explain with these scriptures...

James 4:13-16
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard Christians say "I'm going to do this... I'm going to do that." Or "It's definitely God's will that I will go here and do this or get this job or move to this place".  And you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I believe God does reveal His will to us sometimes in a very clear way.  But I think Christians suffer from the pressure of knowing exactly what's going on all the time in every situation.  And sadly, this can lead to boasting about where their life is going, taking pride in seemingly knowing all the details as if this was brought about by their own works and righteousness.  And in their rush to feel like they have God's approval on everything, they fall into the sin of presumption.  We see others with what appears to be perfect lives having everything figured out and we think, "I love God, I want to do what He wants, so naturally I should have everything figured out as well."  We can have such a certainty about what God is or isn't doing in our lives that when things start to go the opposite way of what we thought, we exhaust ourselves at every turn telling God what He ought to be doing at the moment. When at the end of the day, we are scared that what we thought was God, wasn't.

I've have been privy to this myself, and it comes down to a pride issue.  To open myself up to the possibility that God's plans aren't necessarily my own all the time makes me face the fact that maybe I'm not as wise in my own eyes as I think I am.

This scripture tends to go against common Christian thought on knowing God's will. The scripture in James that says "If it is the Lord's will, we will do this or that..."  What that verse is saying is that there is a possibility that YOU don't know what the Lord's will is in every situation and that you're just going to have to trust Him.  It's saying that sometimes His will cannot be known until the thing comes to pass.  To think, we as Christians can live Godly lives and still be in the dark about aspects of our life.  That not knowing His will is not always a byproduct of sin or faithlessness.  But that sometimes God just wants to see that we trust Him no matter what the situation is.  And that some of the trials you are going through that you blame on the enemy, is really God working in your life.  And by holding onto what you thought was God, is really you fighting Him, and "kicking against the goads", so to speak.

The reason that this can be dangerous is because a lot of times when we are so sure of something, we stop bringing it before God.  We stop acknowledging Him in all our ways.  That's how "Certainty" is like "Worry".  In both instances you stop acknowledging God. And there is nothing the Father wants more, than to talk to you every day.  Too often we view prophecy and such as fortune telling... hoping that the words that are spoken over us is the destination and not the direction He is pointing us in. They are guidelines and not a full picture of what we are to expect.

If we prefaced our plans with "If the Lord wills..." life wouldn't seem like such a roller coaster.   By acknowledging God's right to do as He pleases, we are more flexible when the unexpected shows up. And to be sure, the unexpected will show up.  Regardless, if you have no clue of what God is doing in your life, or you feel like you have it all figured out, there is a peace and rest that comes from relying on God daily to work out the details.  Do what you feel like He's telling you to do, but also know that God can do what He wants, when He wants, and is not obligated to tell you anything.  He loves when we trust in Him, knowing that He is always looking out for our best interests.   Plus there is a humility that is attractive to God when we acknowledge that we are not in control.   I'm not saying to give up on dreams that God has given you, but leave yourself open to the fact that maybe it will come to pass at a time and in a way that you are not privy to right now.  Remember, God let's us believe what we need to believe to get us where He wants us to go.  Be consistent in what you believe about God and who He is.  That is true faith.

Intimacy at the Feet of Christ: Knowing vs. “Knowing"

Luke 7

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

I love this story in the bible.  Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees are always so fascinating.  The contrast between who they think they are and who Jesus thinks they are is so vast.  It is very satisfying to see the Pharisees get their comeuppance and to see the depths that Jesus is willing to go to love the least of these.  The sad part of these stories is the parallels these Pharisees have with many of us in the Church today.  I say, “we”, because I believe all of us have struggled with being Pharisees from time to time.  But what struck me in this particular story, this particular time I’ve read through it, is how much a story of salvation and intimacy this is.  

Other Gospels have a similar story inasmuch as there is a woman, sometimes called Mary, who comes and anoints Jesus the week before His crucifixion.  And the theme in those stories is one of preparing Jesus to die for the sins of the world.  This particular account in Luke, chronologically takes place more towards the beginning of Jesus’ ministry than towards the end.  And the theme is one of salvation and intimacy.  Let me dive into this a little bit.  

³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.

Most biblical scholars believe that this woman was a prostitute.  Now as you can imagine, biblical times weren’t the most fragrant period in history when it came to personal hygiene.   Oils and perfumes were used whenever there would be close interaction.  People didn’t have their own showers for daily bathing, so they needed to mask their scent.  So if you were going to be in close proximity with someone, you would usually put some oil or perfume on.  And especially if you were going to be having sex with someone, perfume was going to be a big must(no pun intended).  The reason she had over a year's wages worth of perfume was because she was having sex a lot.  The reason she could afford to have it is because she was paid to do so.  

The perfume was held in an alabaster jar.  Now an alabaster jar looks like this.  

Couple quick things about Alabaster.  Alabaster is primarily translucent and usually appears milky white.  It also is a material that erodes if kept outside.  So if you kept something in an alabaster jar, it would be kept indoors, hidden from the elements.  I’ll come back to this later.  

³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

This is such an interesting picture of saving faith as verse 50 states. Notice that Jesus doesn’t reject her affections.  Why?  Simon the Pharisee is correct in his assertion that she is unclean and that no one, least of all a prophet, should allow her to touch Him.  

 

 

⁴⁴ "Then he turned toward the woman..."

 

Simply, Jesus saw her.  He saw her heart.  He saw what those actions meant.  He saw the tears that flowed from her eyes… filled with sorrow and shame.  In that moment, she knew that it wasn’t just laws she had broken, but the heart of the God who loved her.  Jesus saw her let her hair down, which women never did in public and only in the privacy of their own homes with their husbands.  He saw the intimacy that she was communicating with Him.  She used her fallen hair to clean the feet of the Messiah.  Jesus saw her break open the alabaster jar of perfume and anoint His feet with it.  That jar represented all of the sin in her life.  It represented literal wages of her sin life.  And it not only represented all the moments of intimacy she had shared with all the other lovers in her life to that point, it represented all of the moments of intimacy she was going to share in the future.  The jar was full.  Full of future moments of wasted intimacy spent on lovers who didn’t deserve it.  What Jesus saw in the breaking of that jar of perfume was that all of her intimacy was now reserved only for Him.  She spent all of it on Him.  She was done spending her devotion on worthless idols.    

 

Jeremiah 2

⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves."

Jesus.  Saw.  Her.  And in that moment, in His eyes, she ceased to be worthless.

And she couldn’t stop kissing his feet.  

 

Romans 10:15

"… As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 

We kiss beautiful things.  We kiss babies.  We kiss our loved ones.  We kiss our lovers.

 

Jesus brought her the good news… that He was the Messiah.  That He was her Savior.  That He loved her and that she had worth in His eyes.  This woman who was passed around as property(probably by the very same people hosting this party) was now a daughter of the Most High.  With the tears of her repentance, she washed the feet of her Savior.  She laid her sins bare at His feet and anointed Jesus’ feet and dried them with her intimacy.  And she kissed His feet… those beautiful feet that had brought her the Good News that God desired to have a relationship with her and that her past would no longer be a barrier to partake in the intimacy that God always intended with those He loved.  In that moment, she was “known” spiritually.  And in that moment she “knew” Jesus spiritually.  

 

I don’t mean known in the sense of intellectually knowing something, I mean “known” in the biblical sense.  And if that’s too coded for you, I mean the same kind of “knowing” that the bible uses to describe Adam making love to Eve.  

Genesis 4 (KJV)

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. 

Genesis 4 (NIV)

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 

These intimate gestures this woman displayed before Jesus were all gestures that were saved for when you “know” someone else.  This is the kind of intimacy God craves with each of us!  God is a jealous God and He does not want to share us with other lovers!  Other idols!  When we come to know Christ, all of our intimacy is saved for Him.  It’s all His.  

 

Contrast this “knowing” with the knowing that the Pharisee displayed.  Simon, as a Pharisee, would have known the old testament by heart… all of it.  So that means that Simon would have known more about the Messiah than anyone.  He would have known all the prophecies about the Messiah.  Yet Simon’s actions show that all of that knowledge was worthless as he has the Messiah in HIS HOUSE(!!!) and yet couldn’t recognize Him.   

⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

It was customary to wash the feet of a guest or at least have a servant do it since the roads of the time were completely filthy.  Also, depending on the distance traveled, it would soothe the feet.  It was customary to greet a guest with a kiss.  It was customary to provide olive oil at the very least to put on ones face so as to smell better and to moisturize the skin after being out in the hot sun and desert.  All of these actions are the bare minimum when it comes to receiving a guest and being a good host and Simon failed to do all of them.  He intentionally disrespected Jesus and you could see through these actions what he thought about Jesus.  Simon had all the biblical knowledge one could know about God and the law.  Yet keeping the law and knowing about God couldn’t substitute “knowing” God.  God desires intimacy.  God wants to know you and for you to know Him.  

Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised that the reason that Simon knew who this woman was is because he’d been a client of hers.  He didn’t seem surprised to find her in his household.  She didn’t seem unfamiliar with her surroundings.  The difference between the two was that she knew she needed a Savior, while Simon did not.  Which brings me back to the Alabaster jar.  That jar had to be protected indoors if the contents were to be contained properly.  If it was kept outside the elements would have eroded the Alabaster and the contents would have spilled out.  

So many of us hold all of our darkest secrets, most terrible pain, shameful deeds and insecurities inside ourselves well protected in a place that looks white and clean on the outside.  It reminds me of something else that looks clean and white on the outside but on the inside conceals death and sin.    

 

Matthew 23

²⁷ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

God’s primary concern for us is not our righteousness… is not our behavior.  It is knowing Him. Out of that knowing, we receive our righteousness.  Knowing about God won’t save you.  Even demons know the name of Jesus.  But do you know Him?  Really know Him?  Are you intimate with God?  Has He captured your heart like a lover does?  

There were two Alabaster jars in the room that day… only one of them was broken.  

⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

"What's up with my son's tumor?" or How to trust in Father God when He disappoints you.

First Point:  God’s Word describes God’s character.  Knowing God’s character or His nature can ensure you aren’t disappointed when things don’t go your way.

Character - the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

Nature - the basic or inherent features of something, especially when seen as characteristic of it.

As Christians, we are familiar with Romans 8:28

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  

And Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

These are promises that God the Father has for us, His children.  But who is it that is making these promises?  Is He trustworthy?  What is His personality like?  Who does He say He is?  In our minds, we all have a definition of what a good father looks like even if we’ve never had a good one.  When we speak of what a Father is, there are a few definitions.  

Father - 1. a man who has begotten a child.  Pretty self-explanatory.  

               2. one that originates or institutes

But I think the definition most of us think about when we hear the word Father is: 

               3. to assume as one's own; take the responsibility of.  Paternal protector or provider.  

Rightly or wrongly, that is what many of us set as the expectations for our earthly fathers and have judged them accordingly to how they have protected us, provided for us and claimed us as their own.  But that’s not it.  It’s possible to have a distant Father who claims us, takes responsibility for us, protects us and provides for us and yet not know who he is.  Maybe you had such a father.  One who for whatever reason didn’t make it a priority to connect with you.  To reveal himself to you.  And since there was distance… since there was a disconnect, it was totally possible for you to second guess his love for you.  To be disappointed in him.  It is so much easier to know a person’s motives when you spend time with them and get to know them.  In spending time with someone, their character is revealed.  Their nature.  Who they are.

One of the ways that God reveals who He is, is by the various names He has in the bible.  God literally has 100’s and 100’s of names.  And why is that important?  Why has God shared His names with us?  It’s because names denote nature.  It’s not like nowadays, where some of us have names that are totally random or arbitrary.  Words meant something back then.  God wanted us to be able to know Him.  And He communicates who He is by His names.  In order to know something, you must be able to name it.

So often in our culture, we hate being labeled.  We hate when people label us a certain way.  And why is that?  Well one reason, we don’t like being labeled incorrectly.  We don’t like being told we are one way, when we feel we are another.  I believe another reason we don’t like being labeled is because if we are labeled, we have to embrace the behavior that goes along with that label.  And depending on what label it is, we don’t want to be responsible for it.  I’ll give you an example.  If you are driving and someone cuts you off, what do you do?  You could lay on your horn.  You could speed up and cut the other person off, maybe using a hand gesture in the process.  You could speed up and roll down your window and give them an earful.  How many of us have done that?  Now dear people, think of that same scenario with a Jesus fish on your car or a “Jesus is Lord” bumper sticker on your car.  How has your options changed?  Would you consider any of those a valid option?  That label on your car gave you a responsibility to live up to.  Didn’t it?  That’s partially why we don’t like labels.  Because we don’t want to feel like a hypocrite when we don’t live up to them.  But here’s the great thing about God… He does want you to label Him.  In fact, He gives you hundreds and hundreds of labels that give you an idea of how this God you serve, this Heavenly Father you have, is supposed to act.  And He isn’t afraid of letting you down because He can’t help but live up to each and every name He has given Himself.  Let me read you a few of the many names of our Lord.         

JEHOVAH JIREH:"The Lord Will Provide" (Genesis 22:14) – the name memorialized by Abraham when God provided the ram to be sacrificed in place of Isaac.

JEHOVAH-RAPHA: "The Lord Who Heals" (Exodus 15:26) – “I am Jehovah who heals you” both in body and soul. In body, by preserving from and curing diseases, and in soul, by pardoning iniquities.

JEHOVAH-NISSI: "The Lord Our Banner" (Exodus 17:15), where banner is understood to be a rallying place. This name commemorates the desert victory over the Amalekites in Exodus 17.

JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH: "The Lord Who Sanctifies, Makes Holy" (Leviticus 20:8; Ezekiel 37:28) – God makes it clear that He alone, not the law, can cleanse His people and make them holy.

JEHOVAH-SHALOM: "The Lord Our Peace" (Judges 6:24) – the name given by Gideon to the altar he built after the Angel of the Lord assured him he would not die as he thought he would after seeing Him.

JEHOVAH-ELOHIM: "LORD God" (Genesis 2:4; Psalm 59:5) – a combination of God’s unique name YHWH and the generic “Lord,” signifying that He is the Lord of Lords.

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU: "The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:16) – As with YHWH-M’Kaddesh, it is God alone who provides righteousness to man, ultimately in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, who became sin for us “that we might become the Righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

JEHOVAH-ROHI: "The Lord Our Shepherd" (Psalm 23:1) – After David pondered his relationship as a shepherd to his sheep, he realized that was exactly the relationship God had with him, and so he declares, “Yahweh-Rohi is my Shepherd. I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH: "The Lord Is There” (Ezekiel 48:35) – the name ascribed to Jerusalem and the Temple there, indicating that the once-departed glory of the Lord (Ezekiel 8—11) had returned (Ezekiel 44:1-4).

JEHOVAH-SABAOTH: "The Lord of Hosts" (Isaiah 1:24; Psalm 46:7) – Hosts means “hordes,” both of angels and of men. He is Lord of the host of heaven and of the inhabitants of the earth, of Jews and Gentiles, of rich and poor, master and slave. The name is expressive of the majesty, power, and authority of God and shows that He is able to accomplish what He determines to do.

This is why worshipping a God who cannot be known doesn’t make any sense.  If God can’t be known or if He doesn’t have any names, then He has no responsibility to you.  And guess what? You don’t have any responsibility to Him.  If God can’t be known… if your heavenly Father cannot be known… How would you know what kind of son or daughter you are?  God reveals Himself to us and in so doing, reveals who we are to Him.  We find out who we are when we find out who He is.  And when you know who God is, it’s a lot easier to believe that He works out everything for the good of those who are called according to His purpose or that He has plans for us, for a hope and future.  When you know God, it’s easy to believe that He is just the kind of God who would work out everything for us.  That’s the difference between having a Father you know and one you don’t.  

Second point: If you know God's character, if you know His nature, you know that if You haven't received something He's promised, it's because He's giving you something better.    

Sometimes God can break our hearts with what He asks of us.  

Genesis 22:1-2

22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Genesis 22:9-14

⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.^"13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Hebrews 11:17-19

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Abraham was familiar with God.  He knew God.  He knew that God was trustworthy and had come through on all the promises that He had made to Abraham in the past.  He obeyed God even though it was breaking His heart.  And what did God do?  He spared Isaac’s life.  

John 11:1-43

11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.² (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

⁴ When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, ⁷ and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

¹¹ After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹² His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” ¹³ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
¹⁴ So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
²¹ “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
²⁴ Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
²⁸ After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
³² When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
³⁵ Jesus wept.
³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

How do you think Martha and Mary felt when Jesus didn’t show up to heal Lazarus especially after Jesus said that he wouldn’t die?  Even though Martha was devastated by God not healing Lazarus, she still had faith.  Martha was familiar with Jesus.  She believed He was the Messiah and that God would give Jesus anything He asked.  Even in their hour of mourning, there was hope that Jesus could raise the dead.  Now Jesus could have showed up and healed Lazarus before He died.  Martha and Mary had seen Jesus heal before.  But Jesus instead chose to do something that they had never seen before.  He chose to raise Lazarus from the dead.  God wanted to do something greater than either Martha or Mary knew.  And why?      

⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”  

It comes down to God’s glory.  Which leads me to my last point. 

Third Point:  God does things for His glory, not according to our desires.

You ever felt like God lied to you?  Or that He didn’t come through for you?

Look at the Jews in Jesus’ time.  They believed the Messiah was going to bring an earthly Kingdom through them and that they were going to rule and reign with Him.  To the Jews, Jesus was a huge disappointment.  But God had it in mind to glorify Himself in a greater measure than just having an earthly Kingdom.  He didn’t want to be Lord and Savior to one people group, but to all people groups.  His vision was greater than the Jews.  God’s vision is greater and more magnificent than our vision.  

Isaiah 55:9

⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

John 9 

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸ His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
¹⁰ “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹ He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”  

We seek fault with others and ourselves when God disappoints us.  But no matter what our circumstances look like, we can be confident that God will answer us in a manner that gives Him the most glory.  

“but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  

My son Kai Rey is two and a half weeks old right now.  I am a proud papa.  When Alaina was around 7 months pregnant we had an ultrasound.  Now in this ultrasound they found out that Kai Rey had a pretty big tumor on his arm.  This is what the doctor actually said.  "We have no idea what is on your son's arm.  I've never seen anything like it in any other baby.  In fact, when he's born, can you call us and let us know what exactly it is that is on his arm."  I got to say, when doctors tell you that they don't know what the huge mass that is growing on your son's arm is, it can be a little disturbing.  Along with all the other feelings that go into having your first child, adding unknown tumor into the mix isn't the best feeling.

Alaina and I left the hospital and we both looked at each other and said, "I believe he's going to be healed."  That's what we felt like God was saying to us.  We felt like our son was going to be fine.  So we went home and had a peace about it.  I didn't even look up on the internet what it possibly could be because I didn't want to give into any fear.  I told several people that I believed that God was going to heal our son and that his arm would be perfectly fine.  Alaina and I put our faith out there.  We trusted God that the tumor would be gone by the time he was born.  

Fast forward to the delivery room.  Alaina gave one more push and our beautiful son, Kai Rey, comes into this world  And then in the midst of our joy, we see his arm.     

Obviously, Alaina and I were crestfallen when we saw his arm.  We were disappointed that, in a moment where overwhelming joy should be the only feeling, we had a tinge of sadness that God didn't come through the way we thought He would.  

Had we heard from God correctly?  Had our faith not been enough.?  Was God displeased with us or worse yet, not as powerful as we thought?  Did He not care about us or our son enough?

These are the questions that could have gone through our heads.  But what did go through our head and what we couldn't shake was the knowledge of who God is and what He's done in the past for us.  We remembered.    

We remembered that God can be trusted.  He’s been trustworthy in our lives over and over again.  We know what God’s character is and how He’s interacted with us in the past.  I don’t know why Kai Rey’s arm is like this.  But I know God is going to be glorified in it and that His ways are higher than my ways.  I know that He loves Kai Rey more than I do even though that sounds impossible since I love him so much.  

And here's the thing... what God told us was that Kai Rey’s arm would be fine.  Even in the moments after his birth, the doctors and nurses around us couldn't tell us what it was.  It wasn't until the next day when we saw the Pediatrician that he alleviated our fears and told us what this mystery tumor was.  it is a Hemangioma.   A Hemangioma is basically a benign tumor of tangled blood vessels that will go away on its own, usually by the time they are 5 years of age.  It doesn't hurt my son.  It's not in the muscle or the bone, it's just under the skin.  He is perfectly fine and it will eventually go away on its own.  That's a great report!  God told us He would be fine and He will be, Praise God!  It just didn't quite happen like we thought.  

God knows what He’s doing.  And He knows what will bring Him the most glory.  I’m excited and expectant to see what God is going to do through my son.  There's a reason it all happened this way and I can rest in the fact that God has a plan.  There's peace in that.
    

2 Corinthians 1

²⁰ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Since we can know God's character we can trust Him when things don't go as planned. 

If you don't know God's character… if you don’t know his nature… you will be disappointed all the time. 

And as God does things for His glory, so should we focus our lives around giving God glory.  And how do we do that?  Giving glory to God is tied in with the knowledge of God (revelation of God), and knowing God personally (response to God).  That means we know everything we can about God… and we know Him personally.  The combination of those two will bring God the most glory. And the more God is revealed to us and the more we interact with God, the easier it will be to trust God and believe that He is working out everything for the good of those who love him, and who have been called according to His purpose.

Awake, O Sleeper! - Letting God Transform Your Darkness into Light

Ephesians 5

 ⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.  

¹⁴Therefore, it says:

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,

and Christ will give you light.”

2 Samuel 22:29

You, Lord, are my lamp;

the Lord turns my darkness into light.

I feel like the Lord led me to this to show me the importance of remembering where we come from.  So many times, once we come to Christ, we fail to tell people about what Christ has set us free from, and instead, present ourselves only in the light of the righteousness we now walk in as sons and daughters of God.  And not that showing ourselves as a completed work in Christ is in anyway wrong(far from it), but incomplete.  Our testimonies consist largely of what God has called us out of.  Namely, darkness and death.  The power of our testimonies come from the journey that we have with God which is not unlike a good movie or story.  All movies are broken down into 3 Acts.  So are our lives.

Act 1 - Our life before meeting Christ.  

Act 2 - Our life when we met Christ.

Act 3 - Our life after meeting Christ.    

So often when trying to reach the people in our lives for Christ, we are uncomfortable talking about who we used to be.  Usually this is rooted in shame or in a need to have people see us as different from what we used to be for fear that people won’t believe our transformation in Christ.  We fear we will be judged on who we used to be and so we keep it in darkness as it were, which leaves it unfruitful (Vs. 11). 

There is also another factor.  Our own sin habits.  As Pastor Joe says, “The power of sin is broken.  The habit of sin needs to be undone.”  But if you don’t know that your old nature is dead, you may question whether you are truly a new creation or not.  And if you’re not sure, you’re probably not going to tell others about it for fear of being called a fraud or a hypocrite.  Son and Daughter of God… your “old man” is dead and never coming back.  You are hid with Christ Jesus and co-heirs with Him.  

Colossians 3

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.    

Romans 8

¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

The sins you commit now are based on your soul(mind, will and emotions) conditioned to the desires of your old nature.  If you have questions on if we have two natures or why we as Christians still sin, please check out my earlier blog below:

http://whowithunveiledfaces.blogspot.com/2014/04/as-christian-do-i-have-two-natures.html

What’s amazing to me about verse 13, is that Christ’s light not only removes the shameful deeds of darkness but that when the light reveals them, it also transforms them into light itself.  When our sins and mistakes come in contact with the Lord and are illuminated by His truth, they themselves become light.  All the terrible things that you have ever done… all the areas where you have fallen short… all of the shameful things that you have kept in the dark… when they are given over to God, he makes them lights!  All of those things that the enemy has used for evil, God can use for good!  Everything the light touches is transformed and now can be used as light itself.  

There are people in your life who are struggling with their lives and looking for a Savior but they don’t know that change is possible and more importantly that it is found in the person of Jesus Christ.  Your life is a testimony to the miraculous power of Christ Jesus!  Let people, not only know the Jesus saved you, but what He saved you from!  Because that’s what they need.  That’s what they are looking for.  Tell them the Good News!  

This weekend at Encounter Church we will be sharing the Gospel.  We have asked everyone to pray for a plentiful harvest and to ask God about who He wants us to bring to church this Sunday to hear the Good News about His Son.  And as you seek God, pray about your role in introducing people to Christ.  God could use your testimony to bring someone into His Kingdom!  In fact, God may prefer that it be you who leads them to Himself instead of in a church service. 

1 Peter 3

¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have within you.

And as you present yourself as a completed work in Christ, share what God completely saved you from.  Let God transform your darkness into light and insodoing, shine a light that transforms someone else's darkness into light.      

“Awake, O sleeper,
    and arise from the dead,

and Christ will give you light.”

Two Glories - No Hope without Suffering

Romans 5 

5 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

  

Glory is mentioned twice in this passage.  

Hope of the Glory of God - Christ in you by grace

Colossians 1:1

²⁴ Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We have gained access by faith into this grace(Romans 5:2).  This is the hope of the glory of God.

Hope out of the Glory of our sufferings

Romans 5:3-4

"...suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope."

God was speaking to me about this a couple weeks ago and it helped me understand this passage a little better.  He pointed out an area of my life where I have not been living out of hope.  I have struggled with the discipline of eating right and exercising consistently for a litany of reasons.  But He showed me that my lack of discipline is linked to my lack of hope in this area.  There are many lies that I have believed when it comes to getting in shape.  Such as:

"I don't have the time to commit to any of it."

"I don't want to think about it."

"It's too hard to work out since I have lingering injuries from playing football and other sports for many years." 

"My life is so busy and stressful at times that food is a welcome reprieve from all I have to deal with and I enjoy not having to think about it or limit myself in what I want."  

"I have lost a lot of weight in the past and I know how hard it was and my current situation is much worse than that so it will be too hard."

"I'd rather do anything else besides working out."
"Dieting has the word "Die" in it.  That can't be good." 

Sound familiar?  There's more where that came from.  But God showed me even though I never said eating right and exercising was hopeless, that's what I was believing.   Then He lead me to these Scriptures.  I'm gonna break it down in reverse.
  

I was without HOPE in this area.  I didn't believe that I was ever going to get the end result that I desired.  I didn't believe it was possible.  That in turn affected my CHARACTER.  Character is defined as RIGHT DOING or RIGHT BEHAVIOR.  So I wasn't acting rightly... and why was that?  Because I hadn't PERSEVERED through the SUFFERING.  See, if I truly had hope in the end result... if I believed that I was capable of persevering through the suffering or difficulties associated with eating right and working out, I would gladly submit myself to it.  It wasn't just the end result I had a hard time believing.  I had a hard time believe that I could make it through the process. 

For me, working out and eating right is suffering.  It may not be for you but it is for me.  So the first couple of days of working out you are in agony because you are working on muscles that you haven't worked out in a long time.  There's pain associated with working out.  Same thing with eating right.  Changing your diet is painful because you have to not only choose better foods for you, but you have to learn to eat things you wouldn't necessarily choose.  Because consistently persevering develops right behavior, you'll find out your character has no other option but to improve.  And how many of us know that once a behavior is developed, it is so much easier to maintain?  If you don't have hope in the end result, you will stop behaving rightly.  You will cease to persevere because you will ask yourself, "What's the point?"  Why bother suffering if ultimately, you won't get what you hoped for?  And if you don't believe you can make it through the process, you will stop engaging in it. 
        

The "Glories" are linked
 

Look how many "I" statements are above.  That's never a good sign.  "I... I... I..."  
"I" statements reveal an inherent self-centeredness either in our successes or our failures.  Pride and Self-pity are two sides of the same coin and "I" statements are the inscriptions on that coin.  

Pride is glorifying ourselves through what we've accomplished.   
"Look at what I have achieved."
Self-pity is glorifying ourselves through what we've been through.  
"Look at what I have suffered."

Both keep the focus on ourselves and off of God.  The key to the hope that is out of the glory of our sufferings is that it is linked with hope of the glory of God.  It is by the grace of the first hope that the second hope is even possible.  Ultimately, we can't persevere through our sufferings unless God walks with us through it.  We lose hope when we believe it is all up to us to persevere through the suffering.   Through God's grace (the hope of the glory of God), we are able to persevere through the suffering.  Because He walks with us, empowering us through the Holy Spirit.  And through that, our character is formed.  A character that is conforming to Christ's.  And as that character is formed, hope just wells up within us because we realize that ultimately what we are hoping for is Christ Himself!  And we already possess that which we are hoping for!  And not only that, we are becoming like what we are hoping for! 

Philippians 3:10

¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

We do not suffer alone.  Christ is with us.  The Holy Spirit helps us persevere.  Through that perseverance, the Father forms our character until it is like Christ's.  And because we know that Christ is not only our inheritance but the author and finisher of our faith we rejoice because we have no other choice but to become like Him because He does all the work because we, in fact, are His handiwork.

 Ephesians 2   

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Rest in that, dear ones.  Be free in that.  Rejoice in His sufferings.  Remove the "I's" from your statements and boast about what He has done.   Stop striving.  You are God's handiwork.
           
 

 

Are You Unarmed?

Do you want to follow God or serve a king? 

1 Samuel 8(NIV):
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
 
The age of the Prophets was known as a Theocracy because Israel followed God through the words of His Prophets. Literally, a government led by God. The Israelites grew tired of listening to the voice of God and longed for a King who would fight their battles for them.
 
So many times people give up their personal responsibility to seek the Lord. They desire that God’s anointed do all the work of the Kingdom for them. They refuse to hear or take up the Word of the Lord and long to have God’s will dictated to them by someone greater who they wish to have fight their battles.

Look at the modern church today and you will find many who have put the burden of their spiritual walks on one man, the Pastor. They want the Pastor to preach, prophesy, lay hands, teach, greet, run bible studies, cast out demons, lead worship, collect the offering and raise our children. They have not equipped themselves with the Armor of God(Eph.6:10-17), instead they wait for a man of God to do the dirty work for them.

And many Pastors have bought into this by refusing to replicate their leadership. In so doing, they have limited the church to the extent that they are able to carry out the vision themselves.

1 Samuel 13(Living Bible): 
19 There were no blacksmiths at all in the land of Israel in those days, for the Philistines wouldn’t allow them for fear of their making swords and spears for the Hebrews. 20 So whenever the Israelites needed to sharpen their plowshares, discs, axes, or sickles, they had to take them to a Philistine blacksmith. 21 The schedule of charges was as follows:

For sharpening a plow point, 60¢
For sharpening a disc, 60¢
For sharpening an ax, 30¢
For sharpening a sickle, 30¢
For sharpening an ox goad, 30¢

22 So there was not a single sword or spear in the entire “army” of Israel that day, except for Saul’s and Jonathan’s.

To me it’s no surprise that the Israelites were unarmed. Earlier they asked for a king who would fight for them. Removed of their responsibility, what would they need weapons for?

If we are not possessing our own Sword(the Word-Hebrews 4:12), the world will fashion the tools of our growth(plow point, disc, ax, sickle and ox goad) for us. And the world will sharpen those tools to its own benefit and it will cost you. If you aren’t carrying your own “sword”, you won’t have anything to fend off the enemy when he attacks. And where will he attack? Your mind.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And it’s the Word that “…is alive 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.”
 
You can’t have a Sword without the Word. If we aren’t in the Word… if we aren’t seeking God’s voice ourselves in prayer… we will be unarmed and unable to fend off the enemy. If we do not wield our s(word), we will allow the world to dictate how we should grow. And we will live out of that.

Romans 8
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Thankfully, as sons and daughters of the Most High we don’t live according to the flesh.

Romans 8
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

So we pick up our S(word) and this is what we do with it.

2 Corinthians 10
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The S(word) penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

We need more Blacksmiths We need more people who are willing to equip God’s people to defeat every scheme of the enemy. The people wanted a King to fight their battles. They wanted the King to carry the s(word) because they didn’t want to. King Saul should have been equipping the people to wield their own s(word) so that he wouldn’t have to do all the fighting by himself.

2 Peter 2
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We are all God’s Anointed! All of us are called to hear God for ourselves and …to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.

2 Timothy 3
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Ephesians 4
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

With the Word you are equipped for every good work!
 
Let each of us pick up our S(word) and hear God for ourselves so that we may grow according to the Spirit, not according to the world.

And let each of us become Blacksmiths so that Christ’s body is equipped for works of service, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Arm yourself. Arm others. The enemy is afraid of a church that knows who it is and whose it is. The Kingdom of God is advancing and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.