Mercies of God

God is merciful and this is really beneficial for us! And that is an understatement.

In Romans, Paul focuses on mercy in chapters 9 and 11. God shows mercy to whom He shows mercy. This is referring to an act of God, a merciful act, showing compassion to a person.

That’s the way Paul uses the word until he gets to chapter 12, “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice. . .”

We do not present our bodies as living sacrifices because God has shown us mercy, he uses a different Greek word for “mercies.” This word emphasizes who God is, His bowels of mercy, His merciful condition of heart.

The point may be this: We do not present ourselves as sacrifices because God showed us mercy; we present ourselves because God is merciful, it’s who He is. Perhaps an overtatement of a minor distinction, but there’s always a reason the Bible uses the words it uses.

God is merciful and we want a merciful God to have our lives.

Problem Solving and Faith

Everyone has problems and they are always happy to share. Christians, being people, are no different.

The primary difference between Christians talking about their problems and other people is that Christians will end their whine session with a short, out of context verse that makes both sides smile and say “have a nice day.”

“All things work together for good,” wink-wink, nod-nod.
“Sufficient to the day is the trouble thereof,” wink-wink, nod-nod.
“This too shall pass,” wink-wink, nod-nod.

It is my observation, both in watching myself and others, that people with serious problems that they seriously desire to be solved, will not talk about it much. They will ask or tell you the problem, but people who are deeply troubled will be quiet and listen.

Our society is geared for talking about problems. Kids sit in circles and share their feelings in Guidance Class. Adults go to therapy, group sessions, tribal yelling, coffee houses or prayer groups.

All this talking. Whining. Moaning. Groaning.

People with serious problems that they want solved get quiet and listen. Then they do what they were told.

Don’t get me wrong, the whining, moaning, groaning people want their problem solved too, they just want someone else to do it in a pain-free way for them.

This is not a reasonable request, they know it, which is why they still have the problem they are now whining to you about.

People who want their problem solved will be still and know God. They will sit before the Word. They will ask experienced elders about it and then listen. They won’t pop off excuses, they won’t whine about how hard it will be and how “I would but . . .”  They will listen and then apply.

Faith comes by an individual hearing. Never once has faith arrived by talking instead. Someone has to say the truth, this is true, but the one with the problem needs to hear. You can’t hear if you’re talking. It won’t happen. It can’t.

If you have a problem, this is your answer, every time. Please hear it.

Extreme Faith

Yesterday I talked about Boring Faith. One might get the idea that I am calling for extreme faith, as in “extreme sports” kind of faith. The faith that bungee jumps.

I see this all over the place now with Extreme this’s and that’s, with an “X” prefix included just to let you know how extreme it is: it’s so X-treme we don’t even have time to spell it right! Awesome!

Extreme faith is like X-treme bass fishing, it just doesn’t exist. It can’t. It just doesn’t work that way. Bass fishing is still just sitting in a boat fishing with very little extreme anything, I don’t care how much beer you drink.

Many people look for extreme faith, or faith that is thrilling. On the edge with Jesus kind of stuff. This doesn’t really exist. But the suitable alternative is not boring faith.

Non-boring faith acts on what God says. Non-boring faith is a faith that simply does what Scripture says. Boring faith says that Scripture doesn’t work, so I won’t even bother.

Our experience is the greatest cause of boring faith. He didn’t answer my prayer last time, so why pray this time? He didn’t give me back ten-fold last time, so why give this time?

None of us has extreme faith, we don’t even have the faith of a mustard seed. God has never asked us to move a mountain though. He has asked us to witness, to pray, to give, to love enemies and lots of other things that will indeed take the boredom out of faith. That’s what we need.

The just shall live by faith. This is everyday obedience to God’s Word that simply trusts that God will work as I move with Him. It’s a faith that doesn’t give up.

It’s not racing toward precipices and jumping off bridges, it’s just calm and abiding, carrying you through, doing what God asks of His people. A faith that really, honestly, truly believes that nothing can separate me from the love of God and that God has true power that still works.

Boring Faith

Bored Christians are a huge problem. Being bored with your faith is a problem that darkens light and de-flavors salt. It’s a dis-grace.

Being bored in your faith does not mean you are not busy in your faith or that you aren’t doing “ministry” or doing Christ-like activities you get paid for, or doing obligatory prayer and Bible reading. You’re probably doing these things.

Being bored in your faith does mean that you haven’t taken a risk in faith in a very long time. You haven’t stayed up late to pray in a long time because you don’t see the point. You haven’t given sacrificially in years, if ever. You haven’t invested significant time and resources into a person whom you pray for who is not related to and who can’t pay you back.

God works through weak people and His work terrifies these people. Even Paul said he got up trembling to speak. He was scared to confront a whole church that was living in sin.

If you haven’t trembled in your faith recently you are bored with your faith. You don’t think it’s all that real. Christ is just an add-on to the browser of your life.

It’s high time to wake up.

John Owen and Growing in Grace

“The prophet says of Ephraim “He loved to tread out the corn” (Hosea 10:11); he loved to work when he might eat, to have always the corn before him: but God, says he, would “cause him to plow”–a labor no less needful, though at present not so delightful.

“Most men love to hear of the doctrine of grace, of the pardon of sin, of free love, and suppose they find food therein; however, it is evident that they grow and thrive in the life and notion of them. But to be breaking up the fallow ground of their hearts, to be enquiring after the weeds and briars that grow in them, they delight not so much, though this be no less necessary than the other.

“This path is not so beaten as that of grace, nor so trod in, though it be the only way to come to a true knowledge of grace itself.”

Heathens Should Not Starve to Death

They should, however, repent.

My interpretation of 1 Timothy 4:3 is this (it also is consistent with John Piper’s interpretation, which may not mean anything, I’m just sayin):

God did indeed create food only for believers to enjoy with thanksgiving. That is what the verse says. It was not made for unbelievers, although, because of God’s grace, they may still eat it.

The little known fact though, is that every time they eat His food they are sinning. It was intended for believers who give thanks. An unbeliever cannot truly thank God (without faith it is impossible to please Him).

Oh the depth of our sin! When I was a baby sucking on a bottle I was sinning. Every meal I had as an unbeliever was one more sinful act on my part. We have so little idea how vast our sin problem is.

Due to our shallow understanding of sin, we also have an equally shallow (at best) view of God’s grace. Oh how magnificent it is!

Should All Heathens Starve to Death?

OK, I got a question for you. I graciously waited until the afternoon of a Monday to ask you this one. Think it over. Here’s a verse, which I will follow with my question.

The context is Paul talking about the apostasy of the latter times of this age, talking about the sinful and how they will forbid people to marry and command that people stop eating meats. Paul says this about meats:

“. . . meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”

God created meats, this word is a generic word meaning “food, stuff you eat.” It does not necessarily refer to the flesh of animals. Here’s my question:

Is eating food a sin for unbelievers?

What Makes an Apostate?

Charles Spurgeon said the following:

“The raw material for a devil is an angel. The raw material for the son of perdition was an apostle; and the raw material for the most horrible of apostates is one who is almost a saint.”

Playing around with Christianity, pretending to be familiar with Christ because you know a couple verses, said a few prayers and went to a few churches, is not necessarily getting you ready for heaven.

It could be you are laying the groundwork for the great falling away, the huge apostasy predicted for the end of this age. Make your calling and election sure. Test yourself whether you are in the faith.

Distinctive Ignorance

People are dumb. This point is not up for debate. Even I’m dumb, we’re all dumb. But I have also found there are differences of dumbness and these differences are very important.

Malachi is a book that gets little attention and that’s too bad. if there is any book that is highly relevant to modern American churchianity, this is it.

He points out all their faults and their response, over and over again, is “What? How have we done that?” To every charge they respond, “How have we done that?”

They are completely ignorant of their sin. They have no clue. Can’t see the point. See no basis for the charge. Who me? They go so far as to say that those who do evil are actually good with God. Sound familiar?

Contrast that with Jesus’ words in Matthew 25. When I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink. Here’s the response of the righteous:

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?”

The response of the righteous is, “What? How were we ever good? I don’t remember that.” They are completely ignorant of their good deeds. They have no clue. Can’t see the point. See no basis for the charge. Who me?

I love it. What we are ignorant of is highly telling.

The Shepherd’s Presence

A. W. Tozer preached about Shepherds and he said a little something like this:

The safest place for a sheep is by the shepherd’s side.

Wolves are not afraid of sheep. They aren’t even afraid of all the sheep in America. What can sheep do? Gang up and Baaa louder? Give a wolf enough time and he will clean out America of all sheep.

But the presence of a shepherd changes everything. Shepherds can scare off wolves. They can kill and hurt wolves. If it weren’t for shepherds, wolves would have enacted the survival of the fittest on the sheep.

Here’s my riff off of that: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.” They don’t follow at a distance either, they get right up close to Him.

People who say they are saved and yet don’t live like they are next to the Shepherd are deceiving themselves. Odds are they’ll get eaten by a wolf soon enough. Who wouldn’t want to be with our Good Shepherd?

Apparently lots of people because there are an increasing number of wolves. Be careful out there. Be a true sheep by following the True Shepherd.