My Brother's Testimony

 Brother and sister, Rex and Betsy Lewis, 1982

My brother and I, not too surprisingly, share many things in common.  One of those is having been saved much later in life than we originally thought.

This past Sunday my brother was re-baptized, so that he could experience baptism as a truly converted person.  As part of the service he gave his testimony, and he has kindly given me his permission to share it here.

His life story, like mine, makes many people nervous because it underscores the tragic fact that false assurance really does happen to people.  But it's vital for people like my brother and me to share our stories, because they can help others to examine themselves as the Scripture commands us to do.

I hope his testimony, given in its entirety below, blesses you as it blesses me.

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I grew up in a home that had a thin layer of what looked for all the world like Christianity, covering a mountain of hypocrisy. My parents were founding members of our church and we children rapidly learned how to fit in. I made a profession of faith at a very early age and became the poster child, so to speak, for our church; filled with promise for a fantastic future of service to God. I could clearly describe the Gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and believed the facts. But God had not wrought the truth of it in my heart. I guess you could sum up my view of things with the phrase, “God is really blessed to have me on His team.” The problem is, it was all a sham; a sham that even fooled me. I guess you could sum up God’s view of things the way Jesus did.

Mat 23:27, 28, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Or, as He said later to the church in Sardis, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

I waited until I was in Bible College to be baptized, mainly because my father believed that baptism was not for the Church age. At the time I was being baptized at a beach in the southern part of Pinellas County, the presence of two coast guard boats and a helicopter searching for a body made for a strange ambiance. Little did they know that right near their search grid, a dead man was being baptized.

With that foundation of hypocrisy firmly in place, I entered full time ministry. After “serving God” in Miami and Tampa, I began to prepare for overseas “service.” During that time of training and preparation, God opened my eyes to the pharisaism in my heart. I went through a major transition in my theology as God allowed me to learn the truth about many of the Scripture’s great doctrines. I don’t know why God chose to do things the way He did, perhaps he will let me know some day, perhaps He won’t. But the revelation of my hypocrisy was only the beginning of a period of over 10 years where I was in ministry but was unsaved for most of it. Though He taught me many wonderful things about the Gospel, He still had not made the Gospel’s effect real in me. I guess we could sum up my view of things during that time by saying, “I am so happy that I know these things.” But I think we could sum up God’s view of things by what Jesus said, John 5:39, 40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” I understood that Jesus had died and risen again because of my sin. I understood that I had to believe in Him, and I did believe. But I really didn’t know what it meant to repent. I didn’t know just how terrible my sin was that I needed to repent of. What’s more, God had not yet given me the sweet gift of repentance unto life. Gradually, I began to see my evil more clearly. I began to see it in the light of God’s holiness. It brought me to the place where I, though I wanted to be right with God, was willing to accept His eternal condemnation if only He would be glorified by it. It brought me to the place where I was hanging for my life on the truths that I had so confidently believed all those years.

Some time later, God challenged me with 2Co 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

What God revealed to me through that examination was that there is, indeed, a new dimension to my life. Although I still struggle with the flesh, the fear of man and the desire to impress, there is now something within me that operates on the level of eternity instead of time. For instance, instead of merely refraining from outwardly doing the evil that I secretly long to do, I sincerely long for sin to be defeated in me and long for the day when I will be totally free from it. Instead of just believing a set of doctrines, I now depend on their truth in my own life and seek to understand what they reveal about the character of my God. I really can’t nail down the moment when the change occurred. I only know that I can’t trace it back all that far. And I can rejoice that it has happened. I guess you could sum up God’s view of things now by what He said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD,” and what He said through the writer to the Hebrews, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And I guess the best summary of my view is, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

Rex Lewis

The World's Most Dangerous People

I don't do many posts on current events.  But one has caught my eye and my heart this week, and I feel I cannot remain silent about it. 

If you read many Christian blogs, you've probably already heard about 7 year-old Lydia Schatz.  She was being raised by what were, by all accounts, a very sweet, loving set of Christian parents.  And she was horrifically, torturously murdered by those parents.

In an effort to save her soul.

Let me say it again.  The parents who systematically, coolly beat that little girl to death were quite normal, well-liked people in the Christian and homeschooling circles where they lived their lives.  And their decision to beat the child the way they did was based on the teachings of a couple named Michael and Debi Pearl, who are apparently very popular in conservative Christian circles. 

How can this be?  How does it happen?  Because from what I'm reading, the Schatzes were no different from a whole lot of Conservative Christians.  And I say that as a conservative Christian homeschooler myself.

What happened?  Did they "snap," as many are describing it?

I don't think they did. 

I think they beat that child because they had come to believe that that's what love does.  Worse, they believed that that's what God wanted them to do.

A blogger called "Water Lilly" says it best (emphasis added by me):

The plumbing-supply-line whippings went on for several hours. To me, this would indicate that it is more likely that the parents were calm rather than angry. I’ve been angry with my children…but that anger burns hot and FAST… Anger and rage are exhausting, and they don’t last long...I want to suggest that only two types of people will beat their children for hours. The first type are sadists who enjoy hurting others…  The second type are parents who desperately care for their children and their eternal salvation. They believe that this world is but fleeting, and that their children’s eternal salvation is the most important parenting goal.

I know from reading a few more of her entries that "Water Lilly" cares as deeply about the salvation of her children as any godly parent does.  Indeed, any truly godly parent longs with all their hearts to see their children saved.  It's one of the most powerful instincts in a Christian parent's being.

Nothing is more powerful than love, and that power has worked tremendous good in the world.  It was because of love that God sent Jesus!  But when love gets twisted, perverted, confused and distorted, its power makes it incredibly dangerous.

I am coming to believe that there are no more dangerous people on the face of the earth than those who believe that love and God are on their side while they pursue an evil which they've mistaken for goodness.  How can they repent, when they believe they're holy warriors?

How does it happen?  How does a loving parent get convinced that beating their child for hours over a minor infraction is an act of love?  (In the case of the Schatzes, the "infraction" was mispronouncing a word!)

I can think of several key ingredients for this horrific stew:

• The parents are deeply religious in a legalistic way, not living as people saved by the grace of God.
• They see how the concept of grace has been abused, and they conclude that grace is nothing more than permissiveness.  They do not know what grace does, and they fear it is only a get out of jail free card.  So they reject it, and will not even consider anything other than punitive measures.
• They are terrified about their children's eternal destinies.
• They know that sin is the problem, but they believe in manmade solutions.
• They believe that they have the power to rescue their children from Hell, and that love requires them to use whatever force is necessary to save them from it.
• They do not know that salvation is a miraculous work of the Spirit which only God can accomplish.  They believe it their duty to force their children to accept Christianity, rather than leading them toward a real relationship with the only true Savior (who saves by grace).

There was a time in my life when all of the above described me.  You know the proverbial road to Hell that is paved with good intentions?  I was firmly on it, and was paving it further under my children's feet.  I thank God that I never heard of the Pearls before I was truly saved, because I would quite possibly have fallen for their schemes.

Listen to how it works.  One mother asked on the Pearls' website, "How do I deal with an angry child? When he doesn't get his way, when I fix a breakfast he's not fond of, he acts angry and blames me.  He often tells me that spankings only makes him angrier. What am I missing?" 

Here are excerpts from the Pearls' response:

"He is manipulating you…He controls his weak mother, but the world is not made up of weak mothers…I regularly go to a prison that has over 1200 men in it. Many of them were just like your son when they were his age...  Mother, I am trying to make you angry—not hurt, not guilty, and certainly not timid. The Devil is running away with your child. You can stop it. You can break the spell." (emphasis added)

(Note the appeal to fear…that would have hit me hard.  If I don't follow the Pearls' methods, my kid will end up in prison!  The devil is running away with him, and it's my fault! Note also the idea that the parent is the messiah, the savior, the answer.  And see…the answer is found in the parents' anger!  To the Pearls, the wrath of man does produce the righteousness of God.  I used to believe that, too.  Note also the insults and accusations heaped on this presumably "weak" mother.  It gets worse.)

Your son needs to run smack dab into a big, high, unmoving fence of authority. You, mother, are a pushover, a sucker…To give over to his demands, even once, is like a mother giving drugs or alcohol to her addicted child…Display indifference with dignity… Like an army Sargent [sic], state your will and accept nothing less…If you think it is appropriate and you spank him make sure that it is not a token spanking.  A proper spanking leaves children without breath to complain. (Emphasis added.)

(The Pearls often make statements against child abuse, and many people use those statements to try to absolve them. But the ugly truth of what they advocate can't be buried under the nicer words they sometimes publish. Their advice is rife with counsel that is abusive, no matter what they may say in other places. Lydia was not the first child to be murdered by a parent under their approach.)

So here is a mother who wants what is best for her children, and who knows that her children need to be made right with God somehow.  Along comes an "expert" with:

• a self-assured style,
• proud boastful assertions of what he himself could do to miraculously transform her child in a mere 10 days (further on in the same article),
• an arsenal of fear, guilt and insults which he sprays liberally at her, calling her a sucker and a drug pusher!
• tantalyzing promises that, if she only had the backbone to beat her child until he "had no breath to respond," and to be "indifferent" to him, she too could be her child's savior. 

As I said, there was a time in my life when I might have fallen for it.  I had never experienced the transforming work of the Spirit in my own life, so what did I know of what my children really needed?  I knew that sin was the problem, but I knew nothing of grace, so why wouldn't I have believed the lovely promises of all the beautiful results that would come if only I loved my kids enough to…(fill in the blank with any atrocity you like.)

Do you see how it happens?  Love can be convinced to do even unspeakable horrors if it believes it's acting in a child's best interests and in obedience to God.  Praise God I have not been an abusive parent, but reading even a small amount of the Pearls' advice left me speechless with gratitude that God kept their influence out of my life back when I might have been deceived by it. 

It could have happened.  It could have.  That's why, as horrified as I am by what the Schatzes did, I can't think myself superior.  It is God's truth which is superior.  His love and wisdom are pure and peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy… (Jas 3:17).  And while the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God (Jas 1:20), a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (Jas 3:18).

People of God, live grace!  Teach grace!  Love grace!  And just as importantly, understand what grace truly is.  If people knew its transforming power, they would realize that the hope for their child comes from Christ, not a lash.

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Please do not use the "Comments" section to debate corporal punishment.  I'm not saying that it never has its place, within reason (though right now I'm not sure exactly what I believe about its place and its reason.)  But I do know that corporal punishment in and of itself never saved a soul, and trusting it to save is a deadly error and an idolatrous defection from the only One who saves.

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• in which I discuss the unthinkable (lauriemo.blogspot.com)

Quotables for 2/24/10

"A sermon 'zinger' used to encourage church plants instead of resuscitating old churches goes like this: 'It is easier to have a baby than to raise the dead!' Jesus, however, did only the latter. Evangelism is a bit more complicated than the sound bite conveys, simply because people are. Whether or not they are consciously aware of it, many non-Christians are seeking a deeper, ecclesial reality in their life, not a gospel that caters to their present one."

~ Matthew Milliner, "Attack of the Ugly Babies," Evangel

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“Never did the love of God reveal itself so clearly as when he laid down his life for his sheep, nor did the justice of God ever flame forth so conspicuously as when he would suffer in himself the curse for sin rather than sin should go unpunished, and the law should be dishonored. Every attribute of God was focused at the cross, and he that hath eyes to look through his tears, and see the wounds of Jesus, shall behold more of God there than a whole eternity of providence or an infinity of creation shall ever be able to reveal to him.”

~C.H. Spurgeon, quoted in Miscellanies.

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"If I were an unbeliever and I attended these [seeker-driven /purpose-driven] churches and listened to all their sermons week after week, how would I define the term "Christ Follower"?

Here's the answer I came up with after reviewing the sermons preached at these seeker-driven / purpose-driven churches over the last 24 months:

Christ Follower: Someone who has made the decision to be an emotionally well adjusted self-actualized risk taking leader who knows his purpose, lives a 'no regrets' life of significance, has overcome his fears, enjoys a healthy marriage with better than average sex, is an attentive parent, is celebrating recovery from all his hurts, habits and hang ups, practices Biblical stress relief techniques, is financially free from consumer debt, fosters emotionally healthy relationships with his peers, attends a weekly life group, volunteers regularly at church, tithes off the gross and has taken at least one humanitarian aid trip to a third world nation.

Based upon this summarized definition, I've come to the conclusion that the world is full of people who can fit this definition but who've never repented of their sins and trusted in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins."

Chris Rosebrough (read the rest here.)

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I have decided to limit postings of "Quotables" to one day per week, to avoid the risk of becoming simply a compiler of other people's work to the exclusion of my own.  I deeply appreciate my readers, and ask for your prayer as I continue to try to find and follow God's direction in how I spend the time He gives me.

Wearied by Sacrifice

Image via Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Bible reading schedule has me in Leviticus right now.  If you know the Bible, you know what that means.  I'm reading regulation after regulation regarding the various types of sacrifices for the various types of sins.

I often find it to be rather tiresome going.

Haven't you ever thought about it…how quickly you would have gotten sick of hauling animals to be slaughtered, toting flour cakes and drink offerings and you-name-it to the Temple, every time you sinned?  I never would have gotten anything else done!

As those sorts of thoughts flitted through my head this morning, the Spirit whispered a bit of perspective.

Are you saying you're glad that it's easier to get away with sinning as a Christian?

Oof.  That hit like a punch in the gut.  It's amazing how a still, small Voice, speaking gently, can pack such a wallop.

I had to step back and examine my whole perspective.  And the first thing that came to mind was just exactly how God felt about those who were wearied by sacrifice:

Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand… You say, 'What a weariness this is,' and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts…Shall I accept that from your hand? (Excerpted from Mal 1:10-13)

Every other time I've ever read that passage over the years, I've felt sympathy with those who complained about the 'nuisance' of the sacrifices.  But subconsciously I was saying that, if I had lived in those days, I would have wished I could just sin freely and get away with it!  I mean, come on, God!  Get over it!  Why do You have to make such a big deal about it? I might not have had the guts to put it in those words, but that's what I was feeling.  The sacrifices were a total drag.

But that attitude toward the Old Testament sacrifices supports one of the heresies I most despise in modern Christendom…the idea that Jesus' sacrificial death on our behalves accomplished "carefree sinning" for us. 

It's true that Jesus was the Final, Perfect Sacrifice, and that we no longer bring offerings to any Temple for the forgiveness of our sins.  And praise God for that!  But the way we look at that fact reveals a lot about our hearts.

Are we "sin-centered" or "God-centered?"

A sin-centered person in Old Testament times would have resented the sacrifices.  A sin-centered person in the age of Grace is thankful for Christ's sacrifice…but not for the right reasons.  Such a person is thankful because they believe they've gotten a "Get out of jail free" card. 

The sin-centered person in the Old Testament may have brought sacrifices, but God did not receive them from his hand.  They did him no good.  And a sin-centered person in the age of Grace cannot hope to invoke the holy name of Jesus as an excuse to freely wallow in the very slime that Jesus died to save them from.

Think about this…the "blood money" that Judas got for betraying Jesus was so unholy that the Chief Priests wouldn't accept it into the Temple Treasury (Matt 27:6-7), even though they were the ones who had originally paid Judas that money in the first place (Matt 26:14-15).  They recognized that the money was dirty because it had paid for a grievous sin to be committed.

Those who view Jesus' blood as their "ticket to sin" are in essence calling His blood "dirty money" which pays for sin…not for salvation from it, but for the free continuation of it!  They are calling His blood an unholy thing, unfit for use in any sacred context.  Surely it is for such people that Heb 10:29 was written!

A God-centered person in the Old Testament would have loved coming to the Temple with their sacrifices.  Why?  Because they loved the fact that they could be restored to fellowship with their God, the source of their joy (Ps 43:4)!  For them, their own sinfulness was the "nuisance," and the sacrifices were a blessed way to be renewed in their fellowship with the God they loved. 

For the God-centered person of the New Testament, Jesus' sacrifice is a never-ending wonder.  They cannot fully comprehend why God would have given them the forgiveness and cleansing they need to freely return to fellowship with Himself, to righteousness, and to godliness (not to sinning)!

The lover of God, who comes to Him through Christ alone, has nothing to fear from Heb 10:29 when he sins.  Such a person hates that he has broken fellowship, and can rejoice that the precious blood of Christ has bought his forgiveness and cleansing and restoration to fellowship.  He does not profane that blood, or insult the Spirit of Grace.  He sinned, and it was horrible of him, and he does not take it lightly.  But he sees Christ as his Savior from sin, not as his sin-enabler.  And that makes all the difference.

The lover of sin, who comes to Satan's altar with the blood of Christ on his hands as his "escape clause," is the one who needs to tremble at this verse.  Oh adulterer, what is His blood to you, that you should think to pour it out on the filthy shrines of His sworn enemy; that you should raise your chalice of sin along with all the fiends of Hell to toast His grace with mocking lips?  Do you sing "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound" at your orgies of wicked indulgence?

What is His blood to you?  What is the Holy Sacrifice?  Is it really there just to remove the "nuisance" of Temple sacrifices and make sinning easier for you?  If you had lived under the Law, would you have scorned the way of atonement that God made, or would you have rejoiced that He should have made any way back into His sweet presence at all?

Are you sin-centered, or God-centered?

Which am I?

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Co 13:5)

 

An Open Halloween Letter from an Ex-Pagan

Image by Tattooed JJ via Flickr

I'm delighted to bring you a guest post from my dear friend and prayer partner, Pennie DeWitt. I hope you will read her words carefully and prayerfully. Now I'll let her introduce herself:

Hi. My name is Pennie De Witt and I'm a recovering occultist. A former slave to Satan. Below are just some of the thoughts that have been pouring through my mind today.


Can I do pagan things if I just don't think of them as pagan?


What if I dance naked around the fire for Jesus instead of for Hecate?


What if I get a new deck of Tarot cards, assign each of them a Bible story, and use them to get closer to God?


Why don't I redeem orgies and abortion for Christ while I'm at it?


For that matter, why don't I just open back up for business as a psychic and dedicate it to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?


Isn't it okay to do house cleansings with a rattle? Well, how about if I ditch the rattle and just wear the mask? Would it be better if I put a smile on the mask? And how about, while I'm wearing the mask I go reveling with my friends, but only for candy? How about if I just make a Talisman and put a cute, innocent, funny-face on it?


Of course I would never do such things!


It doesn't matter if you change your intentions. If you read the Bible you'll see, as I have, that the one thing that always ticked God off the most was when His people adopted the customs of the pagans. It was an abomination to Him.


He is the same yesterday, today and always. And it still angers Him today when we adopt pagan customs, even if we try to do them "with different intentions," and "redeem them for Christ."


As I sit and watch many of my Christian brothers and sisters posting on Facebook about their Halloween festivities, my heart breaks. I'm frightened for them, for our nation, and for God's people.


You see, I spent 26 years in the occult. I started out with Wicca as an adolescent, and throughout the years moved on to every corner of alternative spirituality that I could find - Shamanism, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Eastern Mysticism - you name it.


At age 24 I became a professional psychic. I spent fifteen years serving Satan this way. I made a lot of money, got my own radio show and developed a world-wide following. I thought I was on top of the world.


Slowly, my world started falling apart. Before it was over, I was being evicted from my home, and my daughter was writhing on the floor, growling, hissing and clawing at the carpet on a daily basis.


I sought answers. I tried all my techniques. I reached out to others and, eventually, I started praying. I told God that if He didn't give me some answers soon, I was going to kill myself so I could stand before Him and get them myself.


Then one morning I was hiking behind my house, and I noticed something moving next to my shoe. I took a couple steps past it and turned around. It was a rattler, coiled, and ready to strike. I looked around and realized I was alone on that mountain. If I got bitten, I could definitely die.


Suddenly, as I stood frozen in front of that snake, it was like the sky opened up, and I saw the King of the Universe sitting on His throne. And for the first time in my life I feared Him. He was so perfect.


I thought, "I could never measure up to that perfection. No matter how perfect I made myself, I could never come close to that."


His purity was like a clean fire. It would burn me up in an instant. That's when I started thinking, "Maybe those Christians have a good idea with that redemption thing."


So, you know what I did after that? I went home and did the only thing I knew to do. I looked up "snake" in my power animal dictionaries. In dictionary after dictionary, the message rang loud and clear: "Give yourself over to transformation, let the old die so that the new may be reborn, let go, new life, new spiritual path..." It would have been almost spooky if it hadn't been so precious. He met me right where I was, and he spoke to me in MY language. I wouldn't have listened to anything else.


I knew those terms, "reborn," and "new life." I knew those were from the Bible. I wondered if perhaps the Christians could help me, so I went to church and started investigating Christianity. It took several months of reading and studying, seeking answers to my questions and facing my fears.

Finally, as I sat on my bed one night, reading "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel, it finally hit me! That twisted, tortured figure on the cross was there out of compassion for ME! Jesus died for ME! God cared about me so much that He came to this planet in human form and did this for ME. He saw me, He knew me, He understood my pain and my suffering. He felt it, and He wanted to carry it for me. My whole life culminated in this one moment, and I could see that it had all happened for a reason, that God had been pursuing me through it all. I mattered.


I curled up in a little ball and just sobbed. I was ready to give it all up to Him and let Him take care of me.


That Sunday, Sept 9th, 2007, I got saved. I admitted I was wrong, that I had disobeyed God. I renounced all my occult practices and was set free.


The following Saturday I burned all my occult books and paraphernalia, and eleven decks of Tarot cards, per Acts 19:19-20.


Sunday, Sept 16, 2007, I was baptized.


A few weeks later, my sister got saved and left prostitution and the porn industry.


I sit here watching some of my loved ones turn away from the occult, and yet I see many others still entrapped - people dying in sweat lodges, for example. And then I see the very people who threw me the lifeline now turning toward what nearly destroyed me.


I don't understand. Is Halloween that important? What is so valuable about costumes and Jack-o-Lanterns and candy that it can't be renounced for this God who loves us so much?


I've read articles in which people say things like, "I'm not going to let Satan take away my fun." What is Satan's "fun" compared to the joy of the Lord? He can have Halloween for all I care! There's no fun for me in celebrating Satan's schemes.


My daughter, who was raised from birth in occultism, doesn't miss it at all. She once said, "I can't wait 'til Halloween so we can NOT celebrate it!"

Halloween is pagan, it's based on witchcraft, and it's part of my old life. All things have been made new for me. I don't even feel I need an alternative. I'm not missing anything. In fact, I plan on spending my evening in prayer for those who are still in slavery to Satan. I am eternally grateful to the Lord for the sacrifice He made, and giving up Halloween is the least I can do. I'm free now! Why bother putting my chains back on for one night, in the name of fun, or tradition, or anything else?

Moses, Joshua, and Jesus

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals." So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."
Num 20:7-12

I’ve always felt sorry for Moses when I read this account. After all, we all sin, and this seemed like such a small error. God said, “Speak to the rock,” but Moses struck it instead. Not a major incident in a life full of obedience, right?

Evidently God thought it was huge. Because of this one act, Moses would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.

Why did God make such a big deal out of this? Why were the consequences so dire?

It would be easy to take this in any of several directions.

• We could talk about the fact that all sin is serious, and there’s no such thing as a small sin.
• We could discuss how damaging it is when leaders sin
• We could draw out inferences about how pride and anger lead to sin
• We could point out that all sin springs from disbelief, and results in failure to hallow God in the sight of others.

All of those things would be true and worthy of discussion, but there’s another aspect I want to address today. Because one of the amazing things about the Bible is how the Gospel is woven throughout, even many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. And this story spells out part of the Gospel in vivid detail.

The Old Testament is a living allegory, spiritual truths written into the reality of flesh-and-blood lives. Don’t misunderstand…I’m not saying that the stories are mere allegories, as if the events never happened. What I’m saying is that the events, which actually happened, paint pictures of Spiritual realities far beyond the awareness of those who lived them. And in the meta-narrative of the Children of Israel, metaphors abound.

• Egypt represents the believer’s old life of sin before salvation.
• Moses represents the law.
• The Promised Land represents the believer’s ultimate destination…Heaven itself.

And the whole picture would have been marred beyond recognition if Moses had been allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.

Why?

Because Moses represents the Law, and the Law cannot save.

So who got to lead the people in? Someone named Joshua. In Hebrew, it’s Yehoshua or Yeshua. In New Testament languages, it is translated “Jesus.”

It means, “Jehovah saves.”

He does indeed.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son… (Rom 8:3)

Isn’t God awesome? The Gospel is right there. The Law (Moses) can’t bring us into the Promised Land. Jesus (Yeshua or Joshua) does.

Let’s look at some of the other symbolism here.

~~~

Joshua’s leadership ministry was inaugurated by the miraculous passage through the Jordan, which was done to prove that “God is among you”

(Jos 3:10,13).

Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated by the miraculous events surrounding His baptism (the descent of the Spirit, and the Father’s verbal affirmation) in that same Jordan river, which were done to prove that God was among us

(Matt. 3:13-17).

~~~

Immediately after this dramatic inauguration, Joshua was instructed to choose 12 men

(Jos 4:1-2).

After His dramatic inauguration, Jesus chose 12 men (Matt 10:2-4).

~~~

Joshua did not lead his people into unconquered territory. He led them into warfare (see most of the book of Joshua).

Jesus waged all-out war on the forces of evil (Luke 4:41, for example), and leads us in spiritual warfare all of our days, until we enter our rest in our Promised Land (Eph. 6:12)

~~~

There are probably more awesome parallels than these, but you get the picture. These things were written for us to learn from (1 Co. 10:11).

Moses certainly didn’t understand this. If he had, I’m sure it would have comforted him. But as it is, he carried the pain of his punishment until the day he died. In his human frailty, he even stooped to blaming the people for what happened to him that day (Deu 1:37). He had no idea that God had meant it for good, to draw a beautiful picture of salvation through the Heavenly “Joshua,” our Lord Jesus, and not through the Law.

The Scriptures have been written in full for us…at least while we’re here on earth. But there are still holy words being recorded in Heaven (Mal. 3:16), words which I’m sure we’ll see when we get up there. Words which describe the things that people do, and which will record for all of eternity how God painted our lives into a glorious mosaic.

Right now we are just as blind as Moses was to the metaphors built into our stories. We can’t imagine the ways that they will bless others. But I’m convinced that much of eternity will be spent examining the incredible pictures that God crafted from each of our lives. We’ll see how God made the ordinary places of our lives holy by His presence, even when we weren’t aware of it. We’ll see the shadow of Calvary and the glories of grace inked onto every one of our pages, and we’ll come away with an eternal case of holy goosebumps.

What part of God’s mosaic are you living today?

Be a worthy paintbrush for Him. Trust the artist to showcase Christ through whatever your circumstances may be, even if they’re painful. All of creation is looking forward to the day when the masterpiece will be unveiled. When that happens, it will all have been worth it.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
(Rom 8:18-19)

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Why Calvary? Gospel 101(b)

Contrary to popular Western opinion, God is not the least bit interested in “getting sinners off the hook.” His desire is far richer and deeper than that.

He wants to restore them. Save them. Re-birth them.

In the light of that, what was the point of Calvary? Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t there have been some other way?

Those of you who know your Bibles well will probably answer, “Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” (Heb. 9:22). And of course you’d be right.

But WHY is there no remission without the shedding of blood? God makes the rules, right? He’s not bound by anything higher than Himself, because there is nothing higher than Him. He could have come up with any plan He wanted to to save us. He didn’t have to make the Gospel so bloody, did He?

So why was there a Calvary?

It’s my belief that God’s work at Calvary is the only thing that can restore what we lost in Eden. And what we lost in Eden was our God-centeredness.

Sin is, by nature, a turning away from God and toward idols (including the huge idol of Self). To make things right again, God had to bring us back to Himself! (Titus 2:14, 1 Pet. 3:18, 2 Co. 5:19). Any “gospel” that tries to get us off the hook without bringing us to God is a false gospel.

Adam and Eve decided to find their lives and their joy outside of God, and from that dreadful day onward, mankind has suffered from a warped view of God and of himself. He has invented religions which make God vindictive and in need of placation, or else portray Him as easy-going and unconcerned about sin. He has imagined God displaced and humanity enthroned.

Calvary shatters those notions.

Jesus was not the only member of the Trinity present at Calvary…but He’s the one we most like to see. The Forgiver. The Savior. But if He is the only one we see there, we’ve missed much of the point of the drama on Golgotha. Because it was not primarily human treachery which inflicted the wounds and brought death to Jesus.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, He has put Him to grief (Isa. 53:10).

God the Father bruised God the Son on our behalf. Calvary had to be bloody. Why?

• So we would know how horrible and how deadly sin is. Sometimes we can’t know the awfulness of a thing until we see its terrible consequences. Sin naturally brings about death (Eze. 18:4, Rom. 5:12, Rom. 6:23, Jas. 1:15), and Calvary shows us that truth in vivid detail. (Think about it…how would you feel about sin and about God Himself, if God had sent Jesus to “time-out” to save us?)
• So we would know how holy God is, and how much He hates sin. (It’s vitally important that we know who God is! See John 17:3)
• So we would know that God’s justice must be satisfied. What kind of God would He be if He were to allow injustice to continue?

And why did Jesus take that punishment for us? Was it because we would have been destroyed without remedy if it had fallen on us? Was it so that He could be our substitute?

Of course it was, and those are magnificent truths, but they alone don’t give us the full Gospel. Remember, the Gospel isn’t just a gift from God, it’s the gift of God. Somehow, in the Gospel, God gives us Himself.

At the very least, Jesus took God’s wrath:

• To spare us
• To be our substitute
• To show God’s love and shatter our notions of a vindictive God
• To restore us to God-centeredness

Every false religion is man-centered…either expecting man to atone for his own sins, or honoring man as too good to deserve God’s wrath. Only Calvary shows us that salvation is a work of God alone: necessary because of His holiness, initiated by Him, carried out by Him, honoring of Him, satisfying to Him. Calvary is the place where God brings us to Himself, to find all that we need concentrated in Him. After all, humanity’s only contribution to Calvary was the sin that nailed Jesus there.

The Gospel must be God-centered because our salvation can be nothing less than an act of God that restores us to a proper relationship with Him. Because He is God, the only way to relate properly to Him is to center on Him. Saving ourselves by our own merits would shift the focus to ourselves. Calvary sets it straight.

When humanity fell into sin, we chose our own life. In so doing, we also chose our own death.

When we believe in God through His Gospel, we die to that self-life, and to the death that comes with it. We receive Christ’s death instead of ours, and His life in place of ours (Rom. 6). We receive His righteousness instead of our sin. We feast on Him, quench our thirst with Him.

Saving faith is not quantitative. We needn’t worry about whether we “believe hard enough.” Saving faith is qualitative. It restores the natural, proper relationship of man to God, with God as center and source, and man as joyful worshiper and partaker by way of God the Son (John 14:6).

No mere repetition of a “Sinner’s prayer” will save anyone. Any gospel which places its faith in an act of man is, by definition, man-centered. That’s why we can only be saved by His grace (something that He does) through our faith. Our faith is not a work we perform. God is concerned with our belief, and insists on it, because our faith is simply our empty-handed acceptance of the truth of who He is, and the work which He performed. It is submitting to the way things truly are (with God as our life, our joy, our salvation, our all), and delighting in it. It’s a relationship thing. A love thing. And so this Gospel is immensely practical and relevant to our needs, because it brings us to the One we need most.

The God-centered Gospel is spelled out with beautiful clarity in a marvelous Old Testament passage:

I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.
Mic 7:9

Who is the judge in that passage? God. Who is the lawyer who pleads the sinner’s case? God. Who executes justice in a way which brings the sinner forth to the light? God. Whose righteousness in highlighted in this wonderful salvation? God’s.

Is this the salvation you know?

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. (Rom 11:36)

As Good As His Word

Today I’m interrupting the series on “Gospel 101” so I can participate in this week’s

Monday Manna

Joanne Sher at An Open Book is hosting this week, and she provided the following verses for us to use as our topic.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

Remember that fine old expression, “He’s as good as his word?”  It means faithfulness to one’s commitments.  “If he says he’ll do it, he’ll do it!”  He’s as good as his word.

We couch the same idea in a warning, too.  As I often remind my children, “You’re only as good as your word.”  We cannot trust or respect those who don’t say what they mean or mean what they say.

How good is God’s Word?

“And God said, “Let there be…” 

Three little words, and the cosmos obeyed.  Stars ignited.  Planets danced around them.  Gravity reined everything into proper orbits.  Light shone.  Water coalesced.  Life roamed, and slithered, and flew, and swam. 

Because of the Word.  His Word.

What is a perfect word?  You and I can’t utter them.  Our humanly-spoken words carry with them only the representations of ideas.  If someone understands our language, then our words carry meaning.  To a foreigner, our words are so much noise.

God’s perfect Word is no mere representation.  It is His declaration of His Will, and so it carries the power to make His Will happen.  Let there be light…and there was light.  (Gen 1:3)

His Word is His Truth conveyed (not merely represented) to us.  Your Word is truth (John 17:17).

It is His expression of His very Self.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Jesus is that Word.  The very same Word which spoke creation (John 1:3), now wrapped in flesh.  God’s Life in the form of human life, His glory shining brightly despite its imprisonment in a jar of clay (John 1:4).

Jesus said to him, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

Never think that our Heavenly Father is a hateful, vengeful being, and that Jesus came to save us from Him.  I’m sad to say that I saw God that way in my younger years.  God forbid that we should think such blasphemy!  Jesus came to save us from the sin which separates us from the Father!  He came to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18), who is our exceeding joy (Ps. 43:4)!

How good is our God?  He is as good as His Word.

As good as a promise made back in the garden.

Look at the part of the Genesis account where the creation of man is explained in greater detail (Gen. 2:7).  Do you notice something different about the creation of man compared to all of the rest of creation?

God did not use the Word alone for that one.  He did say, “Let Us make man…” (Gen. 1:26), but He gave His Word hands for that task…hands which formed the man from the dust of the ground.  And then He breathed life into him.

Why?

All of the rest of God’s creatures live their stories and die when their curtains close.  For them, a single act of creation was enough.  Flesh and life were given all at once.  But for man…

For man, there had to be something more.  The props were all put in place, and the supporting actors knew their parts, but what was this drama now disclosing, as God broke form and made man in a different way?

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

Do you see the Gospel being sculpted from the dust?  Animals and stars are what they appear to be.  They have bodies, and the living creatures have a form of life.  But for humans there must be something else.  The physical form is not all there is.  When it dies, we do not.  There is more.  Much more.

Adam awaited the breath of God.  Until that was given, there was no life.

Do you know that the Hebrew word for “breath,” נשׁמה(neshâmâh), also means “Spirit?”

Adam and Eve forfeited their divinely-given life when they chose the way of death.  And when that happened, God gave them a promise.  A coming One who would crush Satan under His feet (Gen. 3:15).

The Word who spoke creation would create us anew by His life and His Spirit.

Have you been created only once, or are you a new creation now (2 Co. 5:17)?

God breathed only one Word for our eternal life, and His name is Jesus.

And God is as good as His Word.

---------------

Be sure to drop by An Open Book for links to more devotionals on this subject.

Lost and Found – Gospel 101(a)

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What was lost in Eden?

Generally, we think of Eden as the place where humanity lost its innocence, and of course that's true. But there's more to it than that. Eden was the place where humanity lost its God-centeredness, and only when we understand that will the Gospel make complete sense.

After all, what's the connection between a bite of fruit and the repetition of a "Sinner's prayer?" How does one supposedly make up for the other? Is it even possible that one could make up for the other? (If you’ve followed this blog for long, you know where I stand on that question!)

How does the Gospel restore what Eden saw fade?

Eden declared the glory of God.

If the heavens declare the glory of God now, even after the fall of man (Ps. 19:1); if all of creation still speaks of God’s eternal power and divinity (Rom. 1:20); if the knowledge of our Creator’s existence still lies embedded in every depraved soul (Rom. 1:21), then how much more were God’s attributes magnified in the perfections of Eden and in the eyes of innocent humanity? Eden was created for man, but Eden wasn’t about man. It was about God’s goodness, and man’s extraordinary privilege of enjoying that goodness to his heart’s content. His glory was their joy.

And Adam and Eve didn’t want it any other way.

You see, they met with Him, face-to-face in the garden. They knew He was their greatest joy. They knew He had made all of the lesser things that they also took pleasure in. And they knew that He was in charge of them. Adam worked because God told him to. And because no sin yet warped his soul, he enjoyed his work thoroughly.

God was their center. God was their source. God was their purpose. God was their all.

It changed when, at the suggestion of the Fallen One, they decided to look elsewhere for their happiness. And mankind has been looking elsewhere for its happiness ever since.

Somehow, the Gospel is the answer to man’s problem. And though I grew up under solid Biblical teaching, I have to confess that the Gospel never made sense to me. It seemed so arbitrary, this method God chose to make things right. It seemed like it came out of left-field, and it bore no discernible connection to my need. I was miserable in my life, and doomed in my death, and by faith I had to believe that Jesus had somehow applied His death to me in order to give me life. Okay, I’d believe it, but it seemed so bizarre.

Sure, I knew that He was punished in my place. But that didn’t make sense to me either.

If I were dying of thirst in the Badlands, and someone came up and told me, “Don’t worry. A couple of thousand years ago, thousands of miles away, someone died to give you water! When you die, you’ll have all the water you want. Do you believe that? Get up and get back to living if you do. Be happy!” Would that really meet my need?

I might be able to believe it, but I couldn’t see how it would help my parched throat now. And if anyone had wanted to help me, why would they do it that way? It just seemed so disjointed.

How is a two thousand year old gospel, or the events surrounding that old wooden cross, supposed to relate to me today? Why did He choose to save me that way?

When I dared to ask, the answer I generally got was, “Don’t question it. Just believe it.” But questions are good things, if they lead us to seek our answers in God.

In God.

As John Piper so aptly says, God is the Gospel. (Though I’ve never read that book, I’ve absorbed enough of Piper over the years to feel pretty sure of what he means by that phrase.) As Eden was about God, and as Heaven is about God, so the Gospel is all about God as well. And the Gospel that revolves around God is the only one that makes sense.

As Oswald Chambers reminds us, “Eternal life is not a gift from God. It is the gift of God.” In the Gospel, God gives us Himself.

How? What does the Gospel give us that nothing else could? I can think of a few points offhand (which sounds like it could turn into a series if I’m not careful…)

Like nothing else could, the Gospel gives us:

1. Who God is
2. What we are
3. What is the deepest need of our soul
4. How to have what we need

Yep, this is going to need at least one more entry to complete.

What are your thoughts? How does the Gospel give God to us? Why is it important that we believe it…so important that the fate of our eternal souls rests on it? Why is God so big on belief? How is the Gospel relevant to our needs…not just in an abstract way, but very practically? How does it restore what we lost? I look forward to your comments.

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The Aroma of Life to Life

Once she hid, alone
Guarding a dead husk,
Hoping it still lived.
Precious, it was,
And the only one
She would ever have.

Shriveled,
Wilted,
It did not respond
To her touch
Or anyone else's.
Deep inside she knew
It had no breath.
But if she admitted
That it had none,
Then she would have to admit
That neither did she.

You see
It was
Her soul.

It rattled, dryly scraping
In the slightest breeze
And she hoped those were sounds
Of life.
But the truth was a terror
Which haunted her dreams.

One more wound,
One more grief,
One more betrayal,
One more lie,
And the tiny spark of life
If there was one
Would surely ebb away.
She would become a zombie
The walking dead.

The image awakened her in a cold sweat
Night after night.

How can
A dead
Soul live?

She had no close friends.
Even her family
Was kept at bay
By her smiles which lied.
She was okay
Or at least she would be
If everyone would just
Leave her alone
To stare at her husk
And convince herself
That it lived.

People make demands.
They drain you.
I'd love to have something to give
But I only have this husk
And I will die without it.
Better to live here, alone
Than to let anyone take it from me.

A dead
Soul's better
Than none.

But there was an aroma
A scent
Which sometimes drifted into
Her loneliness
And when she smelled it
She wept
For joy.

But it didn't happen often.
What can dry husks savor?

Most of the time
Rage simmered
Against any and all
Who even dared to want
Much less need
Anything from her.

You're trying to kill me.
You will use me up
Until there's nothing left.

Then He came.

She knew He was behind
Everything that happened
In the universe He'd made.
So she hated Him
Most of all.

And yet
He brought
That scent

And on one dark night
He did the unthinkable.
He picked up the husk
And showed it to her
Forced her to see it
For what it was
For the very first time.

Ugly rot
Decaying stench
Lifeless corpse.

It lay in His hand.
A scarred hand.
And she knew she was helpless
Against Him.
He could close His fist
And it would be crushed
Forever.

And yet
Her fear
Met love.

Her gaze, for once
Forsook its idol
And moved upwards
To see His face.
Pounding heart
In mortal peril
Yet felt calmed.

Though He slay me
Yet will I trust Him.

How could
She feel
This way?

She knew before she looked.
The husk lived.
She lived.
The perfume infused a soul
Which once could not draw breath.

Every whiff I sensed before
Was a miracle from His hand
I should not have been able to smell it
But He knew I needed to.

All those years
When she had thought she was
The guardian of her soul
It had been Him
Him
All along.

Tender One
Living Water
Reviving Breath

She is safe.

Life still hurts.
But she has no more dreams
Of zombies.

Life still hurts.
But she no longer
Craves her solitude.
At least not all the time.

Life still hurts.
But life is sweet
Because she knows
How it feels to be
Without it.

Life still hurts.
But no one can take it from her
Because it rests in the hands
Of the One who will someday
Take all the hurt away.

Life still hurts.
But love grows
Where fear no longer reigns.
And it especially grows
When it senses that aroma
From the souls of others.

Precious, beloved others
Even those she's never met
Still move her heart because
They share His life.

Life still hurts.
But those who bear
His aroma
Touch her with it
And she knows
A foretaste
Of healing.

Even some of those who were
Her family by flesh and blood alone
Are now her family in the Spirit, too.
And there is joy
Even when there's heartache.

The perfume wafts
From petals crushed.
The Rose of Sharon
The Lilly of the Valley
For love's sake
Bruised for her.

For you.

Can you
Smell it
As well?

-------------------------------------

Copyright Betsy Markman, 2009

Why This Jesus?

In the last entry, “Which Jesus?” we looked at the heresy which claims that it’s the name of Jesus that matters, not His actual identity. In other words, it doesn’t matter who you believe Jesus is or was, it only matters that you believe in someone called “Jesus.”
I referenced an article which showed alarming statistics about American Christendom’s view of Jesus (including the belief that He was a sinner), and then I made the following statement:

Whenever someone claims to believe in Jesus, it might be wise to ask, “Which Jesus? Why Him?”

The previous entry then went on to address the first question. Today’s entry will look at the second.

Why Him?

Why should people believe in the Jesus of the Bible, and not the Jesus of the New Age, or the Islamic version, or the Mormon version, or the Jehovah’s Witness version? If the above-referenced Barna statistics are accurate, many of America’s self-described Christians don’t take the Bible seriously enough to even use it as their source of information about who Jesus is.
Why should people believe in our Jesus, the one the Bible teaches?
I can almost hear the reply coming back, “Because He’s the true one, that’s why!”
I know, I know, and that works just fine when you’re talking to people who are already convinced of the truth. But it falls flat on the ears of those who are not convinced. My question is on behalf of those people, the outsiders, the ones who need a good reason to believe in the true Jesus Christ. What can we offer? On what can we base our appeal?
Can we appeal to tradition, to upbringing? Do we want “insiders” to stay true to Biblical teachings just because they were raised that way? Then how do we justify asking people who were raised in other faiths to convert to ours? Clearly, if we try to convert outsiders, then we don’t really believe that being raised in a faith is a good enough reason to be loyal to it.
Do we want people to accept the truth of the Biblical account because there are so many wonderful proofs of the historical and prophetic accuracy of the Word? Well…there’s nothing wrong with winning someone’s mind with a good argument. I’m very grateful for solid Biblical apologetics. But while convincing the mind may be important and helpful, I don’t believe it is sufficient. What happens when someone comes along with a better-sounding argument? Do we want people to be tossed to and fro with every new scientific theory or religious whim that can be presented convincingly?
On what can we base our appeal for their faith? Should we fall back on the “Cover all your bases” approach to enlightened self-interest, the fire-escape theology which says, “Hey, if I’m wrong, no harm done to me, but if you’re wrong, you’re going to burn in Hell, so you might as well play it safe and…” (Here the witness usually inserts some act that he wants the other to perform, such as repeating a prayer.) We can’t appeal to true faith with such an argument, since by definition those who are using “Jesus” to cover First Base are doubtless using others to cover Second, Third, and Home. Besides, every religion out there can use the same argument right back at us. The Jehovah’s Witnesses may not have a Hell to threaten us with, but they can tell us that we’ll be annihilated and miss out on Paradise Earth if we don’t believe in their version of things. The New Ager can threaten us with a loss of pleasure and power in this life, and a less-desirable reincarnation. I can’t really imagine a weaker appeal than the “just do it to be on the safe side” approach…especially since true saving faith can’t spring from it.
Ok, so let me ask you. Why do you believe in the Jesus of the Bible?
If it’s your tradition, that’s wonderful…but is that the only reason? What if you’d been raised some other way? Would you be just as loyal to that way, because your faith is just something handed down like old clothes?
Have evidences in science or convincing religious outlines led you to believe? Great! But do you feel a sick twisting in your gut when someone makes a logically appealing argument for another path? Could you be wrong? How do you know you’ve heard the best argument out there?
Or are you just trying to do whatever you can do to buy up fire insurance for the next life? Do you have a policy with someone named “Jesus?” Is that what faith means to you? How many other policies do you have? If this is the only one, do you find yourself wistfully hoping it will do the trick for you? What’s holding you back from buying more policies elsewhere?
Is it pride? Is there something in your soul that rises up in anger if someone dares to imply that you could be wrong? Is your faith in your own inherent “rightness” more than in Christ?
Why do you believe in the Jesus of the Bible?
Are you squirming now?
Or are you smiling?
If you find yourself described in one of the “shakier” reasons for faith above, please don’t push your concerns away. They could be the best things that have ever happened to you. The Lord is calling you to seek Him, so let your response be, “Your face, Lord, I will seek (Ps. 27:8). He is wonderfully good to those who seek Him (Lam. 3:25), and He will be found by those who seek Him wholeheartedly (Jer. 29:13). Immerse yourself in His Word. Ask Him to grant you a heart that hungers and thirsts for Him, that is possessed by Him, sealed by Him as His very own. Ask Him to make you new, and to give you a heart that loves Him. If you don’t sense His answer right away, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking (Matt. 7:7). His delays always have a good purpose, and His timing will eventually show itself beautiful (Ecc. 3:11). Hope in Him, because He will not always hide His face (Isa. 8:17). Know this: we are always seeking. Either we are seeking Him, or we are seeking idols. So no matter what, keep seeking Him!
If you were smiling through my probing questions, I know why.
You believe because of His Spirit in you. You know Him. You sense Him. You love Him. He convicts you of sin, convicts you of righteousness, and convicts you of judgment (John 16:8). He pours the love of God into your heart (Rom. 5:5). He is God’s “Seal of Ownership” on you (2 Co. 1:21-22 NIV), and He testifies to you that you belong to God (Rom. 8:16). These things aren’t mere points of doctrine to you. You know His touch.
New scientific theories, new clever-sounding arguments, new heresies cannot move you. You don’t appeal primarily to tradition, to intellectualism, to superstition, or to pride for your confidence. Those things may factor in, but they aren’t your main focus. You simply can’t help knowing the Spirit is there, just like you can’t help knowing there is air in your lungs.
You can say along with Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Your feet are planted on the rock, because you can’t deny that it is under your soles. You remember how it felt to flounder on sinking sand, and you know that Jesus is the Mighty One who put you on the solid ground. Let all Hell be unleashed against you, and though your feelings may sway, and your confidence may have seasons of weakness, your overall conviction will stand firm. Why? Because you’re so strong? No, because it is God who makes us stand firm in Christ (2 Co. 1:21 NIV). You certainly do feel your own shakiness, but you also feel His omnipotence. And so you stand.
And it shows. (I’m telling you this, brother or sister, because you probably aren’t aware of how much and how often you affect others for Christ. Because it’s Him working through you, you aren’t self-conscious about it.) Others see Him in you, which is far more valuable than if they could just see you. The good works which you do are different from those untouched by the Spirit. You impact lives with something they may not even be able to name.
Help them name it. Help them name Him.
How? To go back to our previous question, to what will you appeal?
But of course that’s the wrong question, isn’t it? God forbid that we should try to manipulate others, trying to do in our flesh what only the Spirit can do. We don’t appeal to a thing, we appeal to Him. We may use whatever tools God leads us to use in any given situation, whether apologetics, or reasoning, or whatever. But if salvation is a miraculous work of the Spirit (and it is!), then we must first and foremost pray for Him to speak through us, and share Him with our lives and our words. Tell them who He really is. Tell them what He’s done for you. Tell them of a salvation that’s for here and now, not just for the future. Ask them if they have any sins that they hate, and if they’ve longed to be free. Those who are still in love with their sin will mock, but you will not have failed because of it. You will have succeeded, because in obedience to Christ you will have sown a seed that another may water. (If you lead an unrepentant person in a “prayer of salvation,” then you will have failed, because there’s no salvation without repentance.)
Others will listen to your witness, because the divine Gardener has been tilling up the soil of their hearts. Because you are speaking the Way, the Truth, and the Life to them, your words will resonate with the work that the Spirit is doing in them. You may not be saying anything fancy or impressive, but in cultivated soil the truth will take root. The Spirit will make sure it does.
Do not fret over your “inability to witness.” A witness is one who speaks of what they’ve seen, what they’ve heard, what they know. If you truly know Him, you can be His witness. If you truly love Him, others will be drawn to Him as well. If you are truly led by Him, then those who are also feeling His pull will recognize the direction you’re heading.
Do not fear, child of God. Just walk and talk in simple faith and obedience. God will use your witness in ways you may not know until you stand with Him in glory.

If the Spirit of Jesus

is shining through you,

Others will trust

in the true Jesus, too.