I Confess That I'm Still Working On My Penmanship

How do we teach people to live out their faith?

  
When my children were very small, they would come home from daycare with papers that had letters to trace, and pictures of something that started with the corresponding letters on them.  Amanda and I would help them to trace the letters and then color the pictures.  For the first few times with each letter, we would actually take their little hands in ours to do it.  I remember wrapping my adult sized hand around Taylor’s little one and helping her move the crayon over those dotted lines several times.  We would move our hands together until she learned to make the movement on her own.  Maybe it was an excuse to hold hands with her, and then a little later with Nick, for just a little longer, but it was the best way to help them develop the skill when they were starting out.  Eventually, we would make letters on the paper and encourage them to mimic what we had just written.  And we would explain why.   If they didn’t shape their letters in a certain way, what was formed would be unrecognizable.  Once they had the basics, it was up to them to practice and become better.  And they did.  Well kind of… I can read their handwriting MOST of the time LOL.  (And don’t get me started on Shae!  But we didn’t get her until later though, so I’m not totally responsible for her handwriting.)

  

Teaching people how to live a life of faith is like that in many ways.  When we’re new, more mature followers must take our hands and guide us to living by demonstrating actions that become habits.  Then when we get a little “older” in our faith, begin will mimic what we see them doing.  Likewise, our ability to explain why becomes more and more important.  If we do things simply because “we’ve always done it this way,” then we will never grow and become better at living lives of faith.  What we form will be unrecognizable because it isn’t really a faith.  It’s simply a motion.  And finally, people have to come to a faith of their own, a belief in Christ that is theirs personally, before they can move beyond simply mimicking movements to a practice that helps them grow in Christ.

I Confess... We Need Transformation, Not Decoration

Acts 17: 23 (NKJV) - “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:”

 

What’s happening in our culture is proof that a vague theology, and an appeasing message of a god we can relate to, has failed to offer real answers to complex human difficulties.

 

The evil represented by the Klan, or Neo-Nazis, or Nazis, or white nationalists, (of whom some CLAIM to be Christian) is born of an attempt to bend God to look like them rather than the other way around. Some in that movement point to scripture and say, “It’s in the Bible!” A god that doesn’t offend them, is a god that believes like they do. Consequently, deception, and modification, and twisting of God’s revelation to their own vile purposes ensures that the Lord of Glory will remain an unknown God to this world.

 

Likewise, twisting Jesus into some sort of social justice poster-boy presents an incomplete picture of a Messiah who came in the flesh, and died to redeem the world, not just make it better. Justice is a PRODUCT (see also, result, outcome, consequence, effect) of a relationship with God through Christ... NOT the other way around!

I Have To Confess, I've Found That As Long As It's His Will, There's Always A Way.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE WILL OF GOD?

How often has each of us struggled with an important decision?  We’ve considered the alternatives, and often discussed the decision with family and friends.  Sometimes we’ve prayed over it and sought God's direction.  We ask ourselves, "What does God want me to do?"  Unfortunately, there’s some confusion about the subject of the will of God.  Even among believers.  

The words, "It’s God’s will," are sometimes used too freely I think.  God gets credit for a whole lot of things that have more to do with human will than God’s.  A catastrophe happens and people say glibly, "It's his will."  We sometimes do inappropriate things and pass them off by saying God willed that we did it, mainly because it’s something we really wanted to do.  Beyond that, we often talk about searching for the will of God as if it were somehow lost and needs to be found.

So how do we know the will of God?  I mean REALLY know…

Well, there are 3 basic principles that I have found that help me out in that area.  Reminders that help me to discern if a choice is God’s direction, or just my desire.  I thought I might share them with others who may need some help in the same area.