A Line in the Sand...

     We all draw lines in our lives.  We all have the freedom and ability to determine what is acceptable to us and what crosses the lines we have drawn.  In order to maintain our boundaries, we must enforce the limits on ourselves and defend them from others.  At times, we defend these limits vehemently, and at times we cross them ourselves!
     But what lines do we draw concerning our faith and why?  Are our limits determined by our own denominations? Our own upbringings?  Our life experiences?  What about our own reason or understanding?
     Whatever the criteria, we must have clearly defined limits of right and wrong - good and evil - if we are to live lives which please God.
     But I have come to realize as of late that these boundaries (and the criteria behind them) are often hindering our walks with God!  In recent months, I have felt the challenge in my life to question many of my boundaries, and many of them have been either drastically redefined or altogether obliterated as I grow in my faith and understanding.  Often these changes have been well outside of my "comfort zone", but what I'm trying to get at goes well beyond mere comfort.
     Ask yourself:
      ...Do I limit my faith and obedience to God?
      ...If so, how and why?
      ...What areas of my life are "off limits" to being changed or challenged?  Finances? Career? Hobbies? Entertainment? Love life? Family and friends? My established beliefs and traditions?  My denomination and its teachings?
     Be brutally honest with yourself.  Then, ask the most important question....

If I am His child, if I am His servant, why am I the one defining the boundaries???

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net 

    What I have learned is this - when God's Word, His Truth, shows us what is right, we have only two choices.  We can be His people - we can obey, change, correct ourselves, whatever it takes.  Or, we can defend our own boundaries - whatever they may be.

     There is an account in the Old Testament where Moses draws a line in the sand and all the people must chose their side - Moses and God or rebellion and self.  What happened to all those who chose wrongly?  The earth opened and swallowed them up!

     If we are sincerely seeking God and His ways, He will show us.  Take it from me when I tell you - His ways are not generally the easiest!  He is, I believe, drawing a line in the sand for us today.  Many of us draw an alternative line as if to say in response, "I will go this far and no further!"  Are we really so foolish as to think God would, then, re-draw His boundaries to include us in our obstinance and rebellion?  Isn't He God?  Who are we???

     I will be sharing with you some of my own stories of God redefining my obedience to Him.  It started with me having to face the questions that I'm presenting to you now.  In order for me to be able to make any of it make sense to you, I have to start here.

     We will all have to choose our side of HIS line - in spite of other factors.  It may be that we do not have the support of friends or family.  It may cost us time or money, and we may have to make hard, uncomfortable changes.  But, if we are not willing to cross these self-imposed boundaries, we will stand, ultimately, in rebellion to Him!

     Please give this heart-felt consideration!  In the mean time, be blessed and enjoy the beautiful day He has made for you!

"Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

- Jesus (Matthew 7:21)

Our First Giveaway!!!

     Check it out!!!  On the right side of the page, you can enter for chances to win our first giveaway!!!  This month (I'm hoping to make this a regular thing) we're giving away a copy of Eric Metaxas' book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy!  It was the first book review done on this blog!!!  If you've not heard of it, check the previous posts for the review.

     As for the format, I aim to please!  If you are a Kindle or Nook owner and you're willing to give me your e-mail address, I will send it to your device!  Or, if you prefer, I will mail you a hard copy!  Just keep an eye out for the winner announcement - the giveaway ends in one week!

Book Review: Radical

     Radical by David Platt has been on the market for a while now.   I had heard good things about it from others, so I decided to check it out myself.  I have to say that i was not disappointed!  Platt, a pastor in Alabama, takes a serious, objective look at how the American Dream has influenced our faith.  Then he issues a no-holds-barred challenge to all American believers to return to the biblical gospel, leaving comfort, cultural norms, and self-focus behind. 
     It is refreshing to hear any Christian leader urging the faith community to go beyond themselves in pursuit of God and His will, and Pastor Platt does so in a way that is as conversational and inspiring as it is challenging.  The book reads more like a brother calling out to family than a superior railing or criticizing subordinates.  It is obvious that his heart is in his message, and that he himself is pursuing the heart of God. 
    I highly recommend this book to all believers.  We need this challenge in our church culture today, and we need to be asking ourselves the questions this book raises!  

Selected Quotes from Radical:  (I read on a Nook, so page number may not match printed book.)

"This brings us to the crucial question for every professing or potential follower of Jesus:  Do we really believe he is worth abandoning everything for?  Do you and I really believe that Jesus is so good, so satisfying, and so rewarding that we will leave all we have and all we own and all we are in order to find our fullness in him?  Do you and I believe him enough to obey him and follow him wherever he leads, even when the crowds in our culture - and maybe in our churches - turn the other way?

In this book I want to show you that, with the best of intentions, we have actually turned away from Jesus.  We have in many areas blindly and unknowingly embraced values and ideas that are common in our culture but are antithetical to the gospel he taught.  Here we stand amid an American dream dominated by self-advancement, self-esteem, and self-sufficiency, by individualism, materialism, and universalism.  Yet I want to show you our desperate need to revisit the words of Jesus, to listen to them, to believe them, and to obey them.  We need to return with urgency to a biblical gospel, because the cost of not doing so is great for our lives, our families, our churches, and the world around us."  (page 21)

*******

"Fundamentally, the gospel is the revelation of who God is, who we are, and how we can be reconciled to Him.  Yet in the American dream, where self reigns as king (or queen), we have a dangerous tendency to misunderstand, minimize, and even manipulate the gospel in order to accommodate our assumptions and our desires"  (page 25)

*******

"Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, 'You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life.  Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.... In the gospel God reveals the depth of our need for him.  He shows us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to come to him.  We can't manufacture salvation.  We can't program it.  We can't produce it.  We can't even initiate it.  God has to open our eyes, set us free, overcome our evil, and appease his wrath.  He has come to us.  Now we are getting to the beauty of the gospel." (p.28)

Radical Official Webpage:  Here

Radical at Barnes and Noble: Here

Radical at Amazon: Here

Follow and Stay Connected!

This year, I have committed to working more on this blog.  My hope is to build it up both in readership and content!  To begin, I have created both a Facebook and a Twitter account.  You can find the links for both on the right-hand side of the main page!

I'm also looking into other means of building our community, so keep an eye out!  There are even plans underway for a giveaway!!!  If you have any other suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know!

Be blessed!

Article Share - Lost in Translation

Good morning, friends!

Today, I would like to do something a little different.  Instead of writing for you myself to share what I have found, I would like to share the original article with you.

This article, "Lost In Translation:  Rediscovering the Hebrew Roots of Our Faith", by John Klein and Adam Spears, shares details pertaining to the traditional Hebrew wedding and provides many insights concerning our relationship with Christ.  I found it to be very faith-building, as it gave me many details I had not known before.

Take a few moments today to read this passage.  I can guarantee it will speak to you and give you much to think about!

www.watchmanbiblestudy.com/Articles/LostinTranslation.htm 

True Faith?

     If you've read my page "Faith by Default," then you know that this is one of those subjects that weighs heavy on my heart.  It's been several years ago now, but God changed my faith greatly when He began to deal with me concerning the nature of true faith vs. false faith.  The scriptures are clear that we are saved by FAITH ALONE through Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:16)  If we somehow get it wrong in the area of faith, we've missed it all together.  What a terrifying thought!  I could spend my whole life sincerely believing in and (at least in my understanding) serving Jesus, and then, on judgement day, I could be rejected???  Ouch!
     It becomes obvious, then, that we MUST have a true biblical understanding of what constitutes faith.  Otherwise, we could not possibly judge our own standing with God, much less be able to encourage or lead others into faith!  This understanding should be "Bible 101" for all believers!  Sadly, however, there are many varying teachings about faith, and they can't all be right!  What we've been told may not be entirely true - we would be foolish not to take a healthy, soul-searching look at biblical faith.

     In his essay, "Hebrew Thought Compared With Greek (Western) Thought", (available here: www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/heb_grk.pdf), N'tan Lawrence briefly explores this very topic. He writes:

Similar to this concept is the Hebrew word for faith (emunah), which not only means belief as in mental ascent, but also means faithfulness, or the actions following the mouth's confession to belief in something. For example, there are far too many nominal Christians who have at some time in their life pronounced the words, "I believe in Jesus Christ and accept him as my Lord and Savior" (as per Rom. 10:9-10) as if these words were merely some magical mantra or formula which when pronounced guarantee one's eternal security regardless of subsequent lifestyle and actions. Hebraically, such a concept of pronouncing a word without following it up with actions makes the word null, void, and meaningless. This is the concept that the writers of Scripture had when they penned such popular Christian salvation passages as Romans 10:9-10. To not understand the proper meaning of the words of Holy Scripture Hebraically can result in false teachings going forth leading to false conversions leading to many people thinking they are spiritually saved when in reality they are the walking damned! (p.6)

     Did you catch that????  Words are "null, void, and meaningless" if they are not followed up with action!  This makes perfect sense, and it bears out in scripture when we consider that we are to "bear fruit".  Jesus taught us that a tree is known by its fruit - not by the noise it makes!  Paul outlined for us what fruit we should be seeing in our lives and the lives of other Christians (Galatians 5).  But we tend to separate this from our saving faith.  Scripture does not!  One is the proof of the other!
    Have you ever asked anyone to make you a sandwich, only to hear them say, "POOF! You're a sandwich."?  It doesn't work in Christianity, either.  The Bible gives no support to, "Say this prayer...POOF! You're a Christian!"
     My intention is not to criticize or point fingers at others in any way.  But, if we don't straighten out our thinking on the very DEFINITION of our faith, we are indeed the "walking damned."  And, we will likely create more "walking damned" and praise ourselves for evangelizing!
     Scripture tell us to examine ourselves to prove whether or not we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5), and we would do well to listen!  We must set ourselves straight before we can even hope to help others or lead them into faith (Matthew 7:3-5).
     What I am saying should be no revelation.  I have known many ministers and pastors who have noticed and struggled with the inefficiency and failings of our modern approach to "salvation".  Men and women of God are beginning to realize where things have gone astray, and they are fighting to make things right.  Let's have the same strength in our own lives.  Let's take it seriously and have the courage to change in our lives (or even ministries) whatever we feel has not lined up with the Word of God.  There is still time to get it right, but there won't always be.

"And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy Father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind:  for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts:  if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him He will cast thee off forever."

(2 Chronicles 28:9)

*Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

So, What's Up?...

My last post, "A Note To My Readers", may have left you wondering what I could possibly be going on about.  A lot has changed for me lately, and all because God sparked one seemingly minor change in my understanding of the Christian faith.  If you watched the message I included with my last post, you may have seen what I'm talking about.

For me, it started around the middle of October.  I've always been interested in foreign languages, anyway, and I'd heard some interesting things about Hebrew.  I decided to check it out, and I found Passion For Truth Ministries' You Tube page (which has a very good series on the Hebrew alphabet).  Through that "chance" finding, however, I was taken somewhere I did not expect.

The questions have been presented to me in the last year or two, mostly through my own church, but also in my own Bible study, as to why there seems to be such a discrepancy between what we see in the "church" today and what is described in the scriptures.  The apostles, continuing ministry after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, were seeing and performing miracles - and on a regular basis.  Healings, resurrections, you name it; they saw the Holy Spirit move in ways that we seem to be begging for today.  Why do we pray and ASK for God to heal, when they simply commanded it to be done and it was? (See Acts, chapter 3)  Why don't we see people flocking to the gospel today as they did when it was preached by the apostles?  Jesus said that those who believe will heal the sick (Mark 16:17-18), so why aren't we?

I have come to realize that many of God's people are seeing these discrepancies and feeling dissatisfied, not with Christ, but with our seeming innability to do His work.  We feel as if there's something we are missing - something that, if we could grab a hold of it, would bring everything together for us.  Sincere believers, laymen and Pastors alike, are seeking God and trying to grow in our faith and understanding of God so that we, too, can do the work the apostles did.

So, by "chance" (of course, God's hand is in all - nothing is truly chance) I inadvertently stumbled into what has been coined, the Hebrew Roots Movement.  Having only been listening in for 2 months now, I do not know enough about the movement itself and all of its beliefs, etc. to feel comfortable recommending to to you outright.  However, I found that they address many of the issues that I mentioned.  Not only that, but their explanations are definitely worth a serious look.

Their premise is that we (Christians) have separated ourselves from the original faith.  In the time of Christ (and for a few hundred years after), the Christians were simply Jews (and, ultimately, Gentiles) who believed that Christ was the Messiah - we were a sect of Judaism.  It wasn't until after this several-hundred year period that we ended up being a separate entity.  Fast forward a couple of thousand years, and now, we're attempting to find power in a religion that bears little resemblance to the teachings of Christ and the examples of His disciples.  We are following a Jewish Rabbi and Messiah that we don't understand by reading His Words (translated several times over, and not always accurately) from a Western world view with little to no understanding of the background and foundation of our faith.  The Hebrew Roots Movement is an attempt to go back to the first-century understanding and practice of the faith in order to reclaim the Power of God the first century believers experienced.

I have found the teachings that I've heard thus far to be insightful, sensible, and sincere.  Only the Word of God can validate whether or not they are true, and I will leave you to determine that for yourself, if you are inclined to do so. 

However, the changes in my life that are resulting from this minor change in my faith have not been minor, and they've not always been well-received by others.  There are concerns that I am leaving Christianity, and that some of the changes I'm making amount to a rejection of my family and the Christian church.  As I said, this "series" in my blog is meant to be basically a journaling of my own journey (hoping to find others of you who are interested in or experiencing the same things), so I will be addressing these objections in future posts.  This one, seems to me, to be quite long enough!  I am not trying to sell you on the teachings of this movement, but I am blogging through this so as to create a forum where these things can be debated, discussed, and shared.  Today, however, I'll leave you with links to 2 YouTube accounts that I have found helpful.  The first is Passion for Truth Ministries, as mentioned before.  The second is Michael Rood.  His videos are much shorter, in case you're in a time crunch (which you very well could be if you've read this whole thing! ;) )

http://www.youtube.com/user/PassionForTruthVideo

http://www.youtube.com/user/aroodawakening


*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net