Whispers of Truth

Lately it seems that my life has a theme: the costliness of following Christ. Maybe that’s not the theme so much as it has been where my focus has been. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I am really not into conflict or pain or hardship and deprivation-- comfortable suits me just fine. Fortunately for me, God hasn't left me to my own limited idea of what my life should be. He challenges me (constantly it seems) in order to cause me to grow and to cause me to realize that I must depend on His strength because I have absolutely none of my own. These are lessons worth learning, and the reminder Jesus give s His disciples in Mark 8:34 is timely: ‘“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me”’(NASB). As I've studied Kay Arthur's Covenant over the last five weeks, she has made it clear that the covenant relationship we have with Christ is a "walk in...

“Dead” isn’t always exactly desirable, but there’s a deadness mentioned in Colossians that is not only desirable but necessary in the Christian walk. In this passage in Chapter 3, Paul is reminding those in Christ to keep seeking heavenly things instead of the earthly things that often consume us, and he is encouraging us to have a mind set on things above instead of the things of the flesh. This can only be accomplished with a prerequisite of death: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3, NASB). The list of things we should be dead to is comprehensive: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which equals idolatry (vs. 5). Lest we think we think we’re above needing a reminder from the Word about practicing such “evil,” Paul continues the list in verse 8: “Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth” and anyone who escaped the first list probably got slammed by the second one. Paul goes on to remind us that we’re al...

I firmly believe that one of the hardest teachings of Jesus is found in Matthew 7:1-6. Jesus teaches in these verses that Christians who are forgiven much are not to engage in judging others. The reason Jesus gives for avoiding judging others is powerful—He says that we can avoid being judged by the same standard we carelessly use on others. Ouch! I know that if I have a choice between receiving judgment and forgiveness, I will always choose forgiveness. What this tells me is that I’m often too harsh on others and far too easy on myself. I am quick to see and even point out someone else’s sin in a judgmental way while overlooking things in myself that I should be dealing with. After all, it’s so much easier to see another’s sin than to see my own, and I’m afraid that it’s far more satisfying to my flesh to point that sin out than it is to deal with my own issues. Jesus points out to His disciples in Matthew 7:3-4 that people tend to quickly see even small things in others’ lives while ...

“Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy." Hab. 3:2 I had the thought this week that we (as people, a nation, and sometimes even the Church) have lost our fear of God. That might sound like a good thing because we think of fear as a negative term, but Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary helps clarify the type of fear I mean: In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. We reverence very few things, and we lack a holy awe for God because we have so little understanding of His character. Simply put, my awe of Him increases proportionately with my knowledge of who He is. If I understand who He is, then I will learn to ha...

          When Jonathan made a covenant with David, he took on the (probably) smelly, grubby, worn garments of a shepherd and exchanged them with his own royal robes. He willingly and knowingly risked the wrath of his father, King Saul, because he loved David. Jonathan subsequently protected David from his father’s evil plots as best he could.           Likewise, Jesus initiated a covenant with sinful man. We were his Father’s enemy because of our sinful nature, yet Jesus willingly took our smelly, grubby, sinful garments and exchanged them with his pure, white robe of righteousness. He willingly and knowingly accepted the wrath of his Father for us because he loved us, and it is His blood covering that makes us acceptable to a righteous God who cannot tolerate sin. Don’t mistake me. There is no comparison between Saul, the King, and God, the Father. But when I look at the picture of Jonathan...