Category Archives: Bible

With All Confidence

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In our desire to serve the Lord, we may often feel that our resources are falling short, our opportunities limited, and our gifts and abilities not what they need to be.  Honestly, that’s OK.  What’s important is that we keep going anyway – and that we truly do whatever we truly can.  One of the way God leads us is through the seemingly limited opportunities that we have. 

No doubt Joseph felt limited in Egypt.  Gideon could hardly be called a visionary when God first spoke to Him.  Yet we rightly see both of these men as heroes and examples in the faith.  Their success depended upon God and not themselves.

Paul may have been tempted to grow weary during those tedious trials and difficulties that he faced in Acts 21-28.  (I actually find it tedious just reading about them.)  But what do we see at the end of the book of Acts?  An apostle defeated and hopeless?  No.  Rather, we see a resilient, determined, active apostle, working within the confines of house arrest in Rome.  Only God knows the long-term effects of his ministry at this time.

“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” – Acts 28:30-31 (NKJV)

Living on Borrowed Faith

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It’s possible for some people to borrow someone else’s faith and use it for a very long time.  We see this often with children in the families of believers.  They look like Christians, act like Christians, talk like Christians and for all practical purposes seem like the real deal – until something somehow pulls away the curtain to reveal what’s underneath.  Such was the case of King Joash. 

“Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.”  – 2 Chronicles 24:1-2 (NKJV)  

As long as Jehoiada was alive Joash looked like a servant of the Lord.  But alas, something happened:  The old priest died.

“Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.” – 2 Chronicles 24:17-18 (NKJV)

Joash even went so far as to order Jehoiada’s son to be stoned for prophesying against him.  In the end Joash’s servants conspired against him and killed him on his own bed.  As a finishing touch to his tragic life, Joash was not buried among the kings.  That honor was given instead to the priest Jehoiada whose faith Joash borrowed while he was young.

Purifying Fires

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One of the best things to come our of our difficulties – and sometimes the only good thing – is the repentance that takes place as a result.  Trials are perfect times to clear the conscience.  Suffering in the present can prepare the way for a deeper, more fulfilling, more committed Christian experience in the future.  And there need not be any glaring, awful sin in our lives to take advantage of this process.

Take the example of Jeremiah.  If there was anyone in Jerusalem who had conducted himself uprightly in the days leading up to the city’s destruction, it was him.  The prophet was likely the man closest to God in the entire place.  Yet he includes himself in a call to repentance after the ruin arrived.

“Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.”
          – Lamentations 3:40-42 (NKJV)

Repentance and growth are closely tied together.  Sin at any level or in any amount is not worth holding on to.  Our fellowship with God is much too vital to allow it to drift into the distant past.  The moment of greatest difficulty provides the greatest motivation to turn from even the smallest sin and draw that much nearer to Him.