Hey Everyone,

First of all… it’s good to be back.  I think I may be changing the way I blog… it was getting tough to figure out what to say on my own so now I’ll add to this blog when I have a wild idea of when someone asks a question.  I just got one from a friend of mine and I thought to myself… “I should add this to the blog, I imagine we all struggle with kind of stuff from time to time… I know I do ;0)”

So… here it is.  But also I need to let everyone know the Riverside email list has been lost.  This isn’t horrible news since it was becoming unwieldy anyways.  So now the list is automated.  If you want to sign up again to be on the list click here.

Anyways… here’s the question I got today:

I’m having a rough go of it with my ex wife. I don’t want to feel angry towards her or bitter but it’s so hard. She really knows what buttons to push on me, and I’m sure I do the same to her, I would hope I do them unintentionally now but I don’t know. I feel anger, resentment, bitterness, all the things I don’t want to have. She is the only person that can draw that out of me so strongly. Why does it seem easier to keep hate when it comes to her than to forgive her. I don’t want to like her, I just don’t want to hate her if that makes sense. I know what I need to do, but it’s so tough to always forgive when she’s going to continue to be mean and nasty. I wish we could both fogive… I wish I could forgive… Any suggestions how to handle it?
Thanks Ed

And here is my reply:

Actually it sounds like you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. working on it instead of just letting yourself go with all the feelings your ex is bringing up in you. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things we have to deal with and everyone struggles with it. The key is not just giving in. Also don’t beat yourself up too much for your feelings… I firmly believe that dealing with an ex is the hardest thing most people will ever do. You can’t really just forget about them, especially when your kid is involved and you have to work out shared custody stuff.

I used to really beat myself up over the thoughts I was having. I’d wonder why i couldn’t just stop thinking bitter or angry stuff. I figured i was failing at the whole following Jesus thing. But then I read a quote from Max Lucado in his book “Just Like Jesus”. He said that you are not responsible for the thoughts you have. You’re just responsible for what you do with those thoughts. Martin Luther said, “you can’t stop the birds from flying about your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair!”

Paul put it this way in 2 Cor. 10:5:

“We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ”

I think what he’s saying is, put a guard shack at the entrance to your mind and decide if the thoughts you’re having are helpful or not. And it sounds to me like you’re already doing that… you’re just bummed out that it’s harder than you wish it was. Welcome to the club ;0).

Just remember that as you’re doing this… the more you face these things and do your best to deal with them the way Jesus would the stronger you’re becoming. it’s a process and some things will always be tough… but the payoff is amazing. as you’re working through your interactions with your ex I’d suggest you just keep reminding yourself of 2 scriptures:

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:7

I say that verse and mentally picture myself turning away from the temptation to let my emotions fly… then i mentally picture myself turning towards God and trying to choose the emotions of the Spirit rather than the emotions of the flesh (Gal. 5 lists both of those if you’re interested… that’s pretty helpful to remind myself of too… what different emotions that we give ourselves to lead to in our lives).

Second scripture to remind yourself of:

The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine.
But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker—  travelers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces.

Proverbs 4:18

now that one’s from the message paraphrase so be careful who you’re quoting it to… some good christian people don’t like the message much.

but it gives a really clear insight into what’s happening as you work on giving your life over to the life of the Spirit rather than the other options… you’ll never be perfect at this and you might struggle with your ex and your feelings about her for a really long time. Just remember that as you walk on the path God lays out for you your life will shine brighter and brighter… you’ll become stronger and stronger.

Also remember that the opposite is true too… the more you give in to emotions that aren’t part of your life in the Spirit the weaker you’ll become.

It’s just like working out… you don’t become the strongest man on earth because you work out one day. it takes a lifestyle of exercise to get strong. And the opposite is true to… you don’t become a 98 pound weakling because you fail to do the right thing (work out) once or twice or even over a short period of time. The key is which lifestyle are you choosing? Nobody is going to be perfect at this… but if you choose the right kind of lifestyle (following the Spirit) you will become stronger and stronger and your life will shine brighter and brighter.

I hope that makes sense… I’m going to take the personal references out and add this to my blog… I think most of us struggle with this on a daily basis.

Ok… that’s it for this entry.  If you have any questions you’d like to ask you can post them here or send them to ednjude@gci.net so everyone else doesn’t know it was your question I’m attempting to answer.

Ok… I know it’s been a while.  I’ve been having blog block.  But as Easter approaches and I sit waiting for Jonathan’s testing to be done so we can go home I figured I’d give it another shot.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been talking on Sundays about why I choose to follow Jesus.  There’s a big difference between believing and following.  Believing is about who you think is right… following is all about who is worthy of your trust.  And for me, over and over again Jesus has proven Himself worthy of that trust.

As far as I’m concerned, one of the greatest promises in the Bible is found in Romans 8:28:

And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.

What exactly does that mean?  What exactly is God promising here?  Does that mean that only good things will happen to followers of Jesus (I hope it’s not what it means cause bad stuff continues to happen to me)?  Does it mean that God can make the bad stuff good?  I don’t think that’s it either… so what does it mean?

I think it’s kind of like a recipe for chocolate chip cookies… not everything in the recipe is good all by itself.  Oh sure… the chocolate chips are pretty good, the milk is fine, the sugar isn’t bad all by itself either.  But the raw eggs?  The dry flour?  The brown sugar (ok… maybe I slipped up a little on that one… I could eat brown sugar by itself and be pretty happy about it). 

My point is, not everything in the recipe is good by itself, but mix them all together and bake them and they are one of the greatest proofs for the existence of a good, kind & loving God!

The same thing is true in our lives.  Jesus told us that the recipe of our life would contain lots of good stuff:

I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.  John 11:10

But He also warned us there would be plenty of trouble added to that recipe:

I told you these things so that you can have peace in me. In this world you will have trouble, but be brave! I have defeated the world.  John 16:33

One of the things I like best about following Jesus is the promise that even though there will be plenty of trouble in my life… when He gets done mixing it all up and baking it in the oven of this world the result is something an awful lot like chocolate chip cookies.  And like chocolate chip cookies… the life that is surrendered to Jesus is another proof for the existence of a good, kind & loving God.  Maybe you never thought of yourself as a cookie before, but that’s what Jesus wants you to be.  A cookie that draws people to him.  Just don’t forget that cookies have to go through the oven (although some people like the cookie dough best but that’s a discussion for another time that doesn’t really fit with my illustration;0)

Ok… now that we have the framework for the Adam & Eve story let’s proceed with how that fits in with the growth of our faith.  Remember the scripture from Tuesday?

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

That scripture (as far as I’m concerned) is the key to becoming a person of great faith.  But it takes risk.  Trusting always requires risk… even with God.  Why?  Because if you’re like me God’s paths don’t always make the most sense to me.  My own paths often seem like the smarter way to go (or at least the more natural to me).  Only when I trust God and take the risk of trusting His paths (by following them even when they don’t make sense to me) will my faith grow.

And that brings us to Adam & Eve.

Do you remember the story of the garden of Eden?  Adam & Eve were given everything.  God told them they could eat whatever they wanted to… there was only one limit for them. 

You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.  Genesis 2:16-17 (NLT)

What I think God is saying here is,

“I want you to trust Me… but I’m not going to force you.  Because to force you to choose the right way wouldn’t lead to a deeper relationship… it wouldn’t lead to love.  So you’re going to have to trust that I have your best interests in mind.”

Have you ever struggled with the question of whether God had your best interests in mind?  Have you ever asked yourself whether or not He’s right?  These are scary questions to bring out and look at in the light of day, but I think these questions are at the heart of most sin (at least in my case they are).  Adam & Eve struggled with them too.  And those questions are what the serpent plays on when he tempts them.

He starts out completely twisting God’s words:

Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?  Genesis 3:2 (NLT)

And Eve sees right through the serpent’s lies.  But the temptation hits home… the serpent plays on Eve’s doubts (that I think must have been there already or it wouldn’t have been so easy):

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 (NLT)

I think it’s interesting here that Satan doesn’t try to make the sin look good, as much as he tries to make God look stingy.  Ultimately, that’s Satan’s only lie that works.  His only lie is that God doesn’t have our best in mind.  His only lie is to cast critical doubt on the character of God.  And although we know that both Adam & Eve fall for that lie, I think it’s important to understand that faithfulness would have worked in this situation.  If they had decided to trust God rather than the lie of the serpent the story would have turned out much different (at least on that day).  They could have said,

“that’s a convincing argument you’re making… but God has always proved Himself to be trustworthy so we’re going to wait and talk to Him about this.”

They could have chosen that path… they could have chosen the path of trust and faith and risked obeying Him even though they were confused about why they couldn’t have any of the fruit from the tree that looked so yummy.  But instead they choose a path that took them away from God… they embraced their fear and confusion that God wasn’t looking out for them and moved into a brand new world of self reliance.  The trouble was, they weren’t nearly as good at caring for themselves as God was at caring for them. 

So they run from God and their whole world falls apart.  They ran because they found themselves in a place of doubt, fear, & confusion.  The worst of it was, what they ended up finding was even more doubt, fear & confusion.  And pretty soon this story of Adam & Eve begins to sound more and more like my own life.

If we’re not careful we’ll find ourselves spinning out of control all because we chose to trust our own judgments over God’s.  When it’s at its worst I just want to yell, “stop this ride, I need to get off!” 

Luckily there’s nothing keeping us on the “doubt, fear & confusion” ride in the carnival from Hell.  God can work with us any time we decide to start trusting Him again… are you ready?  I know my life ALWAYS goes better when I trust God over my own (completly immature) judgments.

Peace.

Hey, remember me?  It’s been about a month since I’ve done anything at all on my blog… almost two full weeks of vacation (it was awesome & warm) and then almost two full weeks of being sick (not so awesome) but I’m finally starting to feel better.

Today I want to talk about something I’ve been trying to work into my lessons over the last couple of weeks but haven’t been able to yet… I want to talk about the concept of risk-trust-faithfulness-growth when it comes to relationships (I know… if you’ve been listening to the last couple of lessons you know that’s about all I’ve been talking about, but I want to come at it from the point-of-view of Adam & Eve this time).

First a little background to set it all up.  As I’ve been harping on during the last couple weeks, relationships can only grow if we are willing to take a risk by trusting.  Then when the person we trust proves faithful the relationship deepens and grows.  It’s the only way relationships grow and you’ll never have deep relationships without risking.  This is also true in our relationship with God. 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

We have to trust Him in order for Him to be proven faithful… and if you’re anything like me that trusting can feel pretty risky sometimes.  Why is it risky?  Because God’s plans for us often seem like the exact opposite of what makes sense or feels natural to us.  So in order to follow God’s path for us, it can feel like a big risk.  But when we take that risk, God ALWAYS proves Himself to be faithful and our relationship grows. 

People often tell me the wish they could be people of great faith.  The implication is that great faith is reserved for only a select few that God specially picks out and the rest of us are relegated to the second class section.  But the Bible suggests that’s not true at all… people of great faith (and you’re probably thinking of someone right now that you consider to be in that category) are simply people who have taken a risk and trusted God by following the path He showed them (read that scripture from up above again) even when it didn’t make a lot of sense to them.  Men & women of great faith are nothing more and nothing less than people who have discovered that Jesus was right about things we have a hard time getting our heads around:

 Forgiving is better than holding a grudge (even though holding the grudge feels natural)

Being generous is better than living a stingy life (even though holding onto our stuff with a  death grip feels natural)

Asking for forgiveness when we hurt someone is better than being self-righteous & judgmental (even though we often feel justified in our actions and behaviors that hurt others)

When we trust God and take the paths He lays out in front of us even though it feels like a huge risk to us… our relationship with Him deepens and we become more and more the people of faith we admire.  When we don’t trust God’s paths… our faith shrivels.

That’s the basis for what we’ll be talking about this week… it took longer than I thought to set it all up so we’ll hold off on talking about how Adam & Eve can teach us a lesson about all of this til Thursday.  Hey, it’s almost like previews…

Next time on Pastor Ed’s Ramblings… Adam & Eve don’t choose God’s way… how did it work out for them???  Tune in Thursday and see for yourself.

It’s good to be back.

Ed

 

Well, I’m getting ready to go out of town (Jonathan & I leave on Thursday morning to go to California to spend a few days with my mom before we head to San Diego to meet Judy and then hop on our cruise to Mexico) so my blog updates may be fairly sporadic or nonexistent for the next couple of weeks. 

But today I’d like to continue with the Faith & Doubt theme looking especially at the question of

How Much Faith Is Enough?

We talked in detail about this on Sunday at Riverside (if you missed it you can listen in by clicking here) but I think this is such an important question for some of us (especially me) that I want to explore it some more.

There are a couple of instances where Jesus says something like

Oh ye of little faith.

At one point Jesus’ disciples asked Him why they couldn’t cast a demon out of a boy that Jesus had no problem with He said:

 “Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. All things will be possible for you.”

I grew up being told that unless we had lots of faith we wouldn’t be able to move mountains.  Now I’m not sure what He means by “moving mountains” but that verse and the whole concept of mountain moving troubled me a lot as I journeyed with God.  Why did this trouble me you ask?  Because I’ve never seen a mountain move.  I saw a skit one time where a couple of kids were walking along talking about Jesus’ mountain moving comment.  One kid said that the Bible says, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you could tell a mountain to move and it would move.  He said he tried it and the mountain didn’t move.  His friend commiserated with him until the first kid said:

I didn’t really expect it to anyway.

Have you ever felt that way?  I know I have (although it’s hard for the preacher in me to admit it).  I pray for people all the time who are struggling with life altering problems (sickness, pain, emotions, relationships… you name it) and I ask for healing in God’s name with as much faith as I can muster.  I have seen people who were sick get well and credit God with miraculous healing.  Those stories make for great testimonies to the power and faithfulness of God.   But there have been other times when people I’ve prayed for didn’t get better.  They got sicker and sicker and I watched helplessly as they passed away wondering what the difference was between them and others I’ve seen who got better.  What do you say to someone whose loved one wasn’t healed in response to our prayers?  What does that say about passages from the Bible like the one above and many others that say:

“Anything is possible if a person believes.”  Mark 9:24 (NLT)

My well rehearsed answer is,

I don’t know…

I really don’t know.  I have studied this subject for as long as I’ve been truly serious about my faith (going on more than 24 years now).  I’ve read books on the subject.  I’ve watched DVDs and religious television (not something I’d recommend to the easily influenced among us).  And most of all, I have talked to other Christians who firmly believe that it is never God’s will for us to be sick and that miraculous physical healing is as much a part of the healing power of the cross as is the forgiveness of sins.  I know many good, honest, thoughtful and devoted followers of Jesus (many of them members of Riverside) who firmly believe this.  I can see where they are coming from.  There are lots of passages that suggest such a view.  What I have a tough time with is my experience with reality.  I have never met the person who can tell me that everyone they’ve prayed for got the miraculous healing that they believe God guarantees to every believer.  That’s what I have a hard time understanding. 

I believe that when a person gives their life to Jesus they are forgiven of their sins.  Completely.  Whether they know it or not, they no longer have to worry about guilt, shame or regret.  There are plenty of us who still live with those things but it’s not because of Jesus’ lack of power… it’s because of their lack of understanding.  Maybe it’s just me but it seems like if God intended physical healing to be a part of every Christian’s conversion then it would happen whether they knew it was supposed to or not, just like forgiveness.  Maybe it’s that people are healed by the cross, they just don’t realize it and have to suffer with their ignorance of their physical healing like people who are forgiven sometimes suffer with guilt, shame & regret?

Is  my doubt showing?  I can really spin myself up in knots!  I don’t doubt God’s power to heal but I sure do doubt either my faith or my understanding of passages that say nothing is impossible if you believe.  So how have I learned to handle my doubts?

I think I have spent most of my life focusing on the wrong parts of those scriptures.  Jesus says that if you had the smallest amount of faith (as small as a mustard seed which is pretty tiny) then you could move mountains.   I think I’ve been focusing on the moving mountains part of those verses instead of how much faith He says we need. 

Just a little bit.

With just a little bit we can do things we never dreamed we could do.  I may not understand everything about physical healing and miracles, but I have seen God do miraculous things in my life that I never dreamed would be possible through my pitiful excuse for faith.  Do you know why?  Not because I’m so great (those of you who know me well just said a loud, “Amen!”) but because God is.  God is still in the miracle business… let Him do one in your life.   Even if you do have your doubts, God can still work with you.  Just like the father from the story we looked at last Sunday, maybe you should just try saying:

I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!  Mark 9:24 (NLT)

You say you have your doubts?  So do I.  So do a lot of people.  I imagine the dad from the story in Mark chapter 9 had at LEAST as many doubts as you, and Jesus worked a miracle for him.  Take as much faith as you can muster (even is the most you can muster is a mustard seed) and pray the prayer that changed the world almost 2000 years ago… I do believe, but help me with where I doubt.

 

So I’ve been saying I was going to get to the resurrection for a few days now… so here we go.

I have to admit that when I was in my early 20s I had been brainwashed (my definition of what our culture had done to me) by secularists who ridiculed people of faith.  I believed that science had proven that faith in God was only for the weak minded and that all the “proof” (I use that word now with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek) completely legitimized the secularists belief that life is just an accident and completely ilegitemized (if that’s even a word) the belief of Christians.  I thought I had to check my brain at the door whenever I went to church because there was no way to logically believe in God, creation, miracles or the resurrection.

Have you ever had a Snapple?  Their lids are pretty cool.  They have little trivial tidbits of information on them that you’d never learn anywhere else.  On one of their lids is this interesting little morsel of info:

Frogs cannot swallow with their eyes open.

First of all, how do they know?  Is there some scientist somewhere that does nothing at work all day except watch frogs eat to make sure they never swallow with their eyes open?  Second of all, who cares?!?!?

But the more I think about it… that’s the way my faith used to seem to me.  I thought there were all these “stories” that I had to believe if I was going to be “ok”, but they were a little tough to buy.  It was as if I had to close my eyes before I could swallow them.  We’ve talked a little about creation & miracles… today let’s take a critical look at the resurrection.

When it comes to the resurrection, everybody agrees that Jesus’ followers claimed that He rose from the grave.  Even in the days following His alleged resurrection the Jews had to deal with the claim.  They didn’t try to pretend that Jesus’ body was still in the tomb… because everyone knew it was gone.  Instead they acknowledged Jesus’ body was gone, but they said it had been stolen.

As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.  A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe.  They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’  If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.”   So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.  Matthew 28:11-15

People throughout history have continued to make this claim as being the most logical, the most likely.  After all, Jesus’ followers must have wanted to start a religion based on Jesus’ teachings and they would gain power & prestige by being leaders in this new religion.

But do you know what it was that finally made me believe that the resurrection was not only possible, but was the much more likely explanation for what happened to Jesus’ body?  It was when I started to realize that with only one exception (the Apostle John who died of old age in Ephesus when he was over 90 years old) the followers of Jesus died horrible deaths for their testimony that they saw Jesus alive after the Romans had crucified Him. 

I can understand the idea that His followers might want to steal His body (although how His ragtag band of disciples could swipe a body from under the noses of a few Roman guards is beyond me) and spread a rumor that He was alive… after all, He had promised them that He would come back from grave after three days (which is why the Roman guards were posted at His tomb).  I can understand that.  What I have a tough time understanding is how all of those men and women would go to their deaths without somebody finally crumbling and taking the Romans to the place where they had laid His bones.  That’s what amazes me.  As soon as the persecutions started (they wouldn’t even have had to get to the killings with me… just threaten me with beatings and I would have caved) I would have led them straight to where I hid Jesus’ bones.  Because nobody’s going to die for a pile of bones.  But for a resurrected Savior?  People will give their lives for something like that.  They did it 2000 years ago and people are still giving their lives for Him today.

And He invites all of us to do the same… even if you have your doubts.  After his resurrection Jesus spent like 40 days with His followers.  I think He stayed with them so that they wouldn’t wonder later, “did that really happen?”  But even after 40 days with them when He took them up to mountain where He was going to leave this earth from we read this:

Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!  Matthew 28:16-17

Some of them doubted!  Can you believe it!  After all they had seen, they still doubted.  What do you think He said to those doubters?  Maybe something like, “I am shocked and appalled that you have doubts… be gone from me you doubters!”  Seems like something I might say if I were Jesus (luckily for all of us I’m not).

No, Jesus told those doubters the same thing He told everyone else (some people have the gift of faith… it just comes easier for them).  He said:

“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,^£ baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20

He said, “you doubters… you go.  You go change the world for me.  You risk your lives for me.  And as you go… you just might find that your doubts are healed.”

You want to know what Jesus wants you to do with your doubts?  Be honest about them.  Don’t be afraid of them.  If you take them with you as you go into the world for Him you will have a better chance of changing those who struggle with doubts than people for whom faith comes very easy.  It’s not easy being a person who struggles with doubt… but Jesus can use you just as well (although differently) as He can anyone else.

Continuing with our theme of faith & doubt… I want to go back to the concept of doubting the miracles in the Bible.  This is a tough one for a lot of us… especially if we grew up being taught to doubt the things that religious people take for granted.  Our culture has done a pretty good job of painting believers in the Bible as superstitious zealots who believe what they believe in the face of all evidence to the contrary.  But I think it’s important to point out that belief is something you can’t force.  In other words, I can’t make myself believe something that my mind tells me is untrue.

For instance, I can try to tell you all day long that I am the smartest person in the world, but your ability to discern the evidence will lead you to believe that this isn’t the truth (not even close… in fact I more closely resemble Carl much more than Jimmy).  You can try to make yourself believe it, but in the end it just won’t work.  Sometimes people do this with faith.  They will try really hard to manufacture faith but what that leads to is a toxic faith that does people more harm than good.  I can decide I want to be a person of greater faith and do the things that can lead to that faith (reading the Bible, praying, learning about how other Christians have lived & most importantly, being faithful to what I already know) but ultimately it is only God that grow my faith. 

So if you want to become a person of great faith the best thing you can do is stop trying to manufacture certainty and be willing to look at your doubts in the light of day.  One thing that has helped me with my doubts and my faith is learning more about what science really teaches about the origins of the world and what the Bible says.

I read once about something called the principle of analogy.  Now I’m no expert in scientific stuff (although with me pulling such scholarly terms as “stuff” out of my arsenal I’m sure you will find that hard to believe) but I have heard scientists say that miracles (which are an event for which there is no prior precedence or example) are impossible to believe in because they go against the laws of science.  That as I understand it is the principle of analogy.  The “Principle of Analogy” states that because we live in a closed system, every event must be like another event. Another way of putting it is:

 No event can be unique. There can be no radically new event introduced into the system.  As things have been, so they will always be, because there are no outside forces at work. 

 This theory sounds very rational.  The problem is, there is at least one (and I believe many more than just one) event for which there is no analogy and that is the creation of all the stuff that makes up our universe.  One of two things has to be true about the stuff that exists today:  either it spontaneously

Is it all an accident? Or was it always here? Or maybe it just sprang from nothing one day?

sprang into existence (for which there is no scientific analogy) or it has always existed (for which there is no scientific analogy).  And from what I can tell about the latest research, scientists believe there was a beginning to our universe now.  All of this may seem very simplistic to people who have been dealing with science their entire lives but this is how I see it.

Now what amazes me is this.  Somehow the people who believe there is no God are credited as so much more rational and logical than those of us who do.  I mean track with me here.  I believe there is a God who has always been there.  I admit, that’s a tough one to understand.  But atheists either believe that the stuff that makes up our universe has either always been there (just as tough for me to believe as believing there’s a God who’s always been there) or that all of this matter just spontaneously sprang into existence from nothing (even tougher for me to believe than either of the previous ideas).    Why is their idea so much more rational and logical than mine?  Why aren’t they considered to be superstitious when they state that matter has always existed.  There is not scientific basis that I can think of that would support that concept.  Like I said, the culture has done a pretty good job of making people of faith seem like idiots while making people of science seem so smart.

I said I was going to talk about the resurrection today but I think I’ll save that for Saturday… so for the next couple of days be thinking about what you believe.  How do you think the universe got started?  What do you believe about God?  One thing that the Bible seems to teach is that doubters aren’t discounted by God… He welcomes them into His family right alongside those who seemingly don’t struggle with their faith.  I guess I’d say don’t let your doubts get in the way of you living out what you already know and believe.

 ps:  I have a feeling that most atheists would have a much easier time believing in God if it weren’t for the poor behavior of many of God’s children.  Many atheists I’ve known were awfully angry at a God who they claimed didn’t exist.  I also believe many people struggle with their faith because they grew up thinking about Christians in a certain light that they have a hard time casting themselves in now.  I feel your pain.  I have a really tough time being lumped in with many of the people who call themselves Christians but don’t seem to be at all like Jesus.  I guess I’d say, don’t let the way others behave/believe keep you from having the life that only Jesus can give.

Peace.

Ed

 

First off let me apologize for not getting this blog out last night… I was struggling with a cold and took some medication that made my thought processes even less coherent than normal (I know… hard to believe but it’s true).

Today we are going to continue with the theme of faith & doubt focusing in on one of the things that makes belief difficult- miracles.  The Bible is full of them.  From healing sick people to the manipulation of the laws of physics to resurrection from the dead and ultimately to the creation of matter where none existed before.

Miracles can be tough for people to come to grips with… especially if they didn’t grow up in a community where those miracles were taught and talked about and taken for granted.  I grew up in a community where it was believed (and taken for granted) that miracles were something that God did in the past (during Biblical times) but that now God has stopped that kind of activity.  And maybe before we go any further we need to define what a miracle is and why God used them in the past.  In John 20 we read:

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 Now I’m no expert on miracles… but one of the reasons God uses miracles is to prove to people that He is at work in the ministry of His ministers.  Like I said, the church I grew up in taught that all miraculous work of God ended when the Apostles died (that’s an overly simplistic explanation of the argument but I really don’t want to go into the whole thing right now).  They taught that God can still work miraculously on behalf of His people in response to prayer (i.e. someone with cancer getting better) but that He no longer uses “faith healers” to miraculously heal anyone.  Not only that… I was also taught that if anyone claimed that kind of healing power they were actually agents of the devil… not God.

So it was very strange to come to Eagle River almost 10 years ago and join Lee Fiske (the preacher here at the time).  Lee was part of a ministerial alliance that joined Baptists, independents, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.  The only requirement to be part of the group was a belief that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was raised from the dead (basically an agreement with the Apostles Creed).  There were lots of people involved who were pentecostals or charismatic’s (belieif in the miraculous work of God through His people) and that caused me to rethink what I believe about all of this.  What I noticed was that there were lots of people who believed differently than I did (specifically about the miraculous work of the Spirit) who were just as devoted to their faith in Jesus (and often better at living it out) as I am.  My entire world view was shaken.  I finally decided that I was going to stop telling God what He could and couldn’t do… I was going to stop thinking I had the whole thing figured out.  I was going to let God work however He wanted through whomever He wanted to without clearing it through me first (I’m sure God was very relieved that I cleared Him to do things however He saw fit).

But I still struggle somewhat with this.  At Riverside we have lots of people who believe strongly in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.  They pray for people and believe that God still heals miraculously through the gifts of His people.  I believe this too but I have to admit I still struggle with my doubts about how exactly this works.  Maybe you struggle too.  Unfortunately many hucksters & frauds have claimed to heal in the name of Jesus and been caught.  This can make it even harder to believe when the real thing happens.  I have to admit I also struggle because it doesn’t always seem to happen the way it seems like it should happen.  As I listen to some people (not people at Riverside but from other churches) talk about healing it’s almost like a magic bullet.  That anyone who prays for healing gets it no matter what.  And while I don’t believe that it is God’s will for anyone to be sick, I also see that people of great faith and devotion to God struggle with physical illness and aren’t healed sometimes.  This can stir up some doubts in my life about my understanding about miraculous healings (and the fact that I have some doubts stir up even more doubts… that ever happen to you?).  

Let me be very clear here… I don’t doubt God’s ability to heal… I just doubt my understanding about what the Bible teaches about this subject.  However, there are people I know who don’t doubt or struggle with any of this… they believe wholeheartedly in the things I struggle with.  There are many things though that I don’t struggle with, that others do struggle with.  So what’s the answer?  How much do we need to believe in order to be ok with God?

I feel like I’m digressing from the point… I don’t have time to go into detail about the whole concepts of faith healing… I only bring it up to make a point.  I think we all struggle with different aspects of miracles taking place and our level of struggle probably has more to do with how we were brought up than anything else. 

So what is the baseline amount that someone has to believe in order to be “ok”?  Well, the Bible doesn’t talk a lot about that.  One thing that it does talk about is the belief in the resurrection of Jesus (something that was difficult for people to come to grips with even in the first century).  In 1 Corinthians 15 the Bible says:

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

The Bible never talks in terms of how little do you have to affirm in order to be “ok” with God.  Instead God invites us to trust Him with whatever level of faith we can muster and then let Him prove Himself to us.  That’s the way it worked for Thomas (who’s name is now synonymous with doubting) and that’s the way He will work with you if you let Him.  That’s one of my favorite things about Riverside… people who are working through their faith & doubts can do so safely without worrying about religious people berating them for a lack of faith.  We’ll talk more on Thursday about the resurrection and why it has become one of the foundations of my life. 

Did any of that make sense?  Maybe the Nyquil is still doing that talking… 

Ok… I started off last time saying we were going to go “off topic” and then I ended up staying “on topic” by talking about dinosaurs… today I am going “off topic” and we’re going to talk about how forgiveness (or maybe more accurately unforgiveness) can impact our faith and give us doubts.

I firmly believe forgiveness is one of the toughest parts of  following Jesus… for most of us the tough part is offering it to those who have hurt us (although there are those out there who have a tough time accepting the forgiveness that God offers us).  Every time I start to talk about forgiveness at Riverside I can see invisible

Don't cute pictures like that just melt your heart and make you want to forgive everyone who's ever hurt you? No? Me neither!

walls being built to keep whatever I might say from impacting people.  They think they already know what I’m going to say… they’re expecting a Hallmark greeting card sort of sermon and we’ve all learned that forgiveness just doesn’t work that way.

 

And yet we struggle with doubts because we really don’t know what forgiveness is… we just know it’s important.  The Bible tells us in Colossians 3:13:

Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

That’s pretty self explanatory, right?  God forgave us, so we have to forgive one another.  But in many circumstances it’s easier said than done.  And when we struggle with forgiving someone it can often just make us feel guilty.  Jesus Himself said at one point:

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others.   If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.  Matthew 6:14-15 (MES)

Now I don’t know about you… but that sounds pretty scary, right?  Maybe you’ve heard someone say before (maybe it was me) that when we fail to forgive we burn down the bridge over which we ourselves must cross.  But what does that mean about my relationship with God?  If I’m struggling with forgiveness am I going to Hell? 

I don’t think so… but it has a lot to do with your attitude.  I always cringe when I hear someone say:

I will NEVER forgive them!

Never say never.  God has a hard time working with someone who says  NEVER because when we do we tell Him we don’t need His guidance… we’re doing just fine on our own.  Instead say:

Lord, I’m having a really tough time forgiving them

Or

Lord, help me forgive them.

Why?  What’s the difference?  It’s all in the attitude.  And understanding what forgiveness is (and what it isn’t) can really help with the whole attitude thing.

So what is forgiveness and why is it so important?  First of all, forgiveness is NOT a Hallmark card.  No where in the Bible will you read the words, forgive & forget.  God says He will forget our sins, but humans aren’t capable of forgetting.  But there are some things that are required if I’m going to forgive the people in my life who have hurt me (and we’ve all got a few of them, don’t we?).

First off all, forgiveness is giving up my right to get even.  At its heart, forgiveness is simply letting go of my right to get revenge. 

Never avenge yourselves.  Leave that to God, for He has said that He will repay those who deserve it.   Romans 12:19 (LB)

But that’s not easy, is it?  If you’re like me you want to make sure the miserable so & so’s who hurt you get what they’ve got coming.  The problem with that kind of thinking is it hurts you more than the miserable so & so who God wants you to forgive. 

Nobody wants to be a Porcupine Pete!

When we decide not to do the hard work of forgiving people we become like human porcupines, hurting everyone we come into contact with.  God doesn’t want you to forgive people so they can feel better (although there’s some of that… but let’s be completely selfish for the moment).  God wants you to forgive so that you and the people who are closest to you will have better lives.  Another challenging scripture on forgiveness is:

 

Be careful that none of you fails to respond to the grace which God  gives, for if he does there can very easily spring up in him a bitter spirit which is not only bad in itself but can also poison the lives of many others.  Hebrews 12:15 (Ph)

 

When we fail to forgive, we don’t just hurt ourselves and the ones who hurt us… we hurt those closest to us and poison their lives with our own unforgiveness. 

Stormy Omartian says,

Forgiveness doesn’t make them right… it makes you free.

And who doesn’t want to be free?  It is SO important if we are going to have healthy relationships that we choose to do the hard work (and heartbreaking work) of learning to forgive.  If we don’t we damage even the relationships that aren’t even a part of the conflict.  That’s why I always tell anyone who asks (and that doesn’t happen very often) not to date for at least a year after a divorce.  Because it generally takes that long for us to come to grips with our pain and begin the heaing process.  But I digress…

Another big part of the forgiveness process is learning to respond to the pain with healing.  Jesus said:

If you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who hurt you. Luke 6:27-28 (NLT)

Did you notice how He began that sentence?  “if you are willing to listen…”  Why do you think He said it like that?  Because we often are unwilling to listen to what Jesus has to say about how to handle our enemies.  Why should I do good to them?  Why should I respond to the hurt and pain with healing?  Because it’s going to bring healing to YOU.  The benefit to the forgivee is a secondary benefit I believe.  Ultimately, God wants you to forgive so you can become more like His Son and receive the healing that He died to provide you with.

Do you remember what the final words of Jesus were?  In John 19:30 He said:

Did you know that those words, that exact phrase was a technical term used in the first century banking community?  If you borrowed money you would post a contract with the bankers and when you had finished paying off the loan the banker would write “it is finished” on the note (literally “paid in full”).  That’s what Jesus did for us.  We needed forgiveness (if you’re like me you needed LOTS of it).  Jesus provided it for us… he wrote “paid in full” on your spiritual loan paperwork.  And now, if you’re going to be healthy and be able to have healthy relationships you need to choose to practice doing the same thing.

So how do you forgive someone?

1.     Identify who has hurt you (be specific, who it was, what they did, how much it cost you, etc.).

2.     Figure out how much they owe you for what they’ve done (again, be specific).

3.     Cancel the debt! (write “paid in full” on the bill)

Have you struggled in the past with forgiving someone?  How did you get past that?  Let us know how you have handled this tough subject in the past.

Today I’m going to go “off topic”.  Instead of talking about faith & science I’m going to do my best to answer some of the questions/doubts/struggles that have been coming in to the website (anonymously).  I can see there are a wide range of things that get in the way of our faith and I think maybe it’s a good idea to deal with them as they come up.

One of the questions I got this week was:

Were dinosaurs on Noah’s ark? I saw a children’s picture book that showed dinosaurs on the ark and I had never thought about it before.

I guess this one isn’t really off topic at all… in fact I guess it fits right in with the whole realm of faith –vs- science.

So what is the deal with dinosaurs?  Scientists will tell you that dinosaurs and humans didn’t live on the earth at the same time (unless you count komodo dragons, alligators & lizards).  So does that disprove the Bible?  I don’t think so (but I’m a preacher… I make my living by saying that, right?).

First off, I guess I’d say something similar to what I said in my last entry about how the universe got started… I don’t really care if dinosaurs and humans lived on the earth at the same time.  But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that they did.  There is ancient artwork that depicts dinosaurs (artwork that was made

Ancient Inca burial stone

before there any museums to go to and see skeletons of these dinosaurs).  There are examples of dinosaur footprints and human footprints found together… including one example of a human footprint having been left inside a dinosaurs footprint before the mud had a chance to dry.  And the Bible even has some descriptions of “animals” that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen outside of a museum display of dinosaurs.

 

“Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.  What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly!  His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit.  His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron.  He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.  The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.  Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh.  The lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him.  When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.  Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?

 

What kind of an animal is God (who is the one speaking in this part of the story of Job) talking about?  I have heard people say that the behemoth of Job chapter 40 is an elephant or maybe a hippopotamus… but I’ve never seen a hippo or an elephant with a tail that sways like a cedar tree.  The only thing I can think of that fits that description is something from the kids movie, The Land Before Time (think of little foot).

Does that mean that dinosaurs existed at the same time as humans?  I’m not sure… kind of seems like it to

I don't actually think Jesus ever rode a dinosaur... but I thought this picture was hysterical!

me.  But when we go around making this point the most important part of our discussion with those who are searching for God we often make ourselves seem irrelevant.  Whether it’s true or not… science is winning the public relations battle for the hearts and minds of those who are unsure about God and if we want to convince them to give God a try we need to stop seeming like we discount every aspect of science with our own ridiculous theories (not that they are ridiculous… but we need to consider what we sound like to outsiders).  God invites us to be a breath of fresh air to a corrupt world that is dying all around us.  Let’s be thoughtful about how we do that.  I’m not suggesting we water down the truth… but let’s think about where we use what few credits we might have with our culture to bring about change in their lives. 

 

I think on Saturday we’ll deal with some of the other questions that have been coming in that don’t have to do with science at all but rather with questions of doubt, relationships, forgiveness, etc.  Until then you can continue to ask your anonymous questions by clicking here.

Peace

Ed