Now I am not going to go on and on about the book, but in the story the main character is forced to fight to the death and if she didn’t then she’d die. Now this might be a large leap from the story to your own life, but I ask what are you willing to fight to the death when it comes to your spiritual life?

 
God has sent His Son to die in your place for the sins you’ve committed in life, but what desires of the flesh are you willing to give up out of gratitude? God’s offer of salvation if free to everyone who accepts it, but faith without works is dead. Can we earn our salvation? No way! But God desires…no demands a changed life…one that is working towards becoming more like Jesus.

 
Sometimes God puts challenges or trials in our lives to force us to grow and trust God even more. I love James 1:2-4 where he writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” I know in the midst of a trial the last thing we probably feel is joy, but I came across an illustration that I think can help us see how trials and storms of life can actually drive us closer to God.

 
“The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. If the vine is on the side opposite the wind, the great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the storm only presses it closer to the trunk. In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him.”

 
What storms has God used in your life to draw you closer to Him? Hanging onto God and fighting through your trial to the end will give you victory and as James put it you’ll be, “Mature, complete and lacking nothing”. I recently read a sentence that stated…stop telling God how big your storm is and start telling your storm how BIG your God is! Hang on in the midst of the storm till the end!

I’ve seen so many people who claim to have a relationship with Jesus simply stay the same person for years on end without any change in their spiritual lives. It is sad. But it motivates me to share with others…there’s more to the Christian life than living in a lukewarm relationship with Jesus. Now I am not saying that we gain or earn our salvation through works because that is simply non-Biblical. We are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), but there is a response or a duty on our part. God gives us the free gift of salvation but we need to do something with it. God has saved us FROM something (wrath and deserving death) but has saved us FOR something (spiritual fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, etc; and to a changed life) too!

I like how David Platt explains it in his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, he states, “The danger of spiritual deception is real. As a pastor, I shudder at the thought and lie awake at night when I consider the possibility that scores of people who sit before me on a Sunday morning might think they are saved when they are not. Scores of people who have positioned their lives on a religious road that makes grandiose promises at minimal cost. We have been told all that is required is a one-time decision, maybe even mere intellectual assent to Jesus, but after that we need not worry about his commands, his standards, or his glory. We have a ticket to heaven, and we can live however we want on earth. Our sin will be tolerated along the way. Much of modern evangelism today is built on leading people down this road, and crowds flock to it, but in the end it is a road built on sinking sand, and it risks disillusioning millions of souls.” I believe it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who called this kind of Christian life, Cheap Grace.

 
Jesus came and paid it all with His death on the cross. How are you showing your gratitude for His sacrifice in your own life? Are living for your own ways and your own desires, or are you following hard after Jesus Christ…even when it goes against the American Dream?  If you’d like to share send me an email at rob@caldwellchristian.org, I’d love to hear from you.

Platt, David (2010). Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (p. 38). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

When God moves there is nothing better than being a part of what He’s doing. Sometimes it takes a kick in the pants to get us to move…I know I’ve had a kick or two in my life. Buy it’s in these times we grow in our character.  I always say by now I should be quite a character but God is not done with me yet.

How has God motivated you lately? I have more than one story of how God has motivated me. Share your story if your want at rob@caldwellchristian.org.

I don’t know if it is me or Foster’s writing style but I found that I was never able to connect with this book.  I found the premise of each chapter getting muddled in the mix of a series of rants about loosely fitting stories. 

I don’t agree with Foster that everything we do needs to be a journey. There are times we are to stop and ‘Be still and know I am God’ (Psalm 46:10) and even Jesus taught ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ (Matthew 11:28). 

I agree Spiritual growth demands change and movement.  Trials in our life should move us to maturity in Christ if we let them.  I agree with Foster that to move forward we often need to get rid of junk in our lives.  To be on a journey takes preparation and as Foster states, ‘there are three stages at which you can leave things behind: at the very beginning…in the course of the journey…or at the end.’

As far as recommending this book to others I wouldn’t recommend it to the average reader, but leave it more for a small group setting where the ideas could be discussed.  For the average reader I would recommend The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Janet O. Hagberg and Robert A. Guelich.  I found it more helpful to understand faith as a journey than I did with Foster’s book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Soon it seems libraries will be obsolete because you can just ‘order’ a book on your Nook or Kindle (or if you have one of the above items you can just put an app on it) and you can have your book delivered wirelessly to you (for a fee of course) in a moment’s notice.  Taking this new technology to the Christian realm, now you can download the Bible to most of these electronic devices for free and instead of opening the pages of your Bible for your devotion time or on Sunday morning service, you can just pull out your phone and with a push of a button you have God’s word in front of you.

Now that’s dealing with God’s word, but what about money?  I know that is a huge jump in most people’s minds, but you can now begin to give your offering right from your phone with several apps that are out there.  I consider myself somewhat of a techie type of person and there is a new app out there that just plain and simply scares/baffles me.  Several banks are beginning to use this app where you can simply take a picture of the front and back of a check and submit it to the bank and they will deposit the check just like you had driven across town and handed your check to a teller. Check out an article about it here http://usat.ly/cshLdq.  Some might say this could be the beginning of a cashless society…I think that might be jumping the gun a little, but at any rate it isn’t how money was handled 50 years ago, let alone 2 years ago.  Now if I can just get the bank to deposit money into my account without me knowing how it got there…wink, wink.

It does make me wonder how the church can utilize this new technology to further the Kingdom of God?  It is definitely time to begin some forward thinking.  Any thoughts?  I’d love to hear them.  Leave a response or email me at rob@caldwellchristian.org.

Coming from Jesus, one of the most important questions a human can be asked is, “Who do you say I am?”  It doesn’t matter what your parents, family, friends, or spouse says; it comes down to this one simple question, “Who do you say I am?”  It cuts to the core of who we are.  It doesn’t matter how much you make, what race you are or what sex you are because with Jesus you’re either in or out.  If you’re in, you’re a part of the Family of God and if you’re out, then you are on the wrong team and essentially an enemy of God. 

This whole idea reminds me of a quote from the movie Oceans 11.  It goes like this, “You’re either in or you’re out.”  If we’re in then we need to be contributing to the cause and not just getting a free ride.  A few months ago April joined a local gym and she has been going regularly (which I’ve been kind of jealous of) because I was not a member.  She was in and I was out.  Last week I finally joined the gym and have only gotten to go one day in over a week.  I am finally in, but it is up to me to do something with it.  Otherwise I’m just wasting something that can be beneficial and life changing.  Jesus wants a relationship with us and wants us to do something with it.  The goal is to get as many people “In” as we can.  Jesus wants to know are you in or out?

An observation that was brought up in one of my classes a few years ago was how John used darkness and light to represent evil and goodness.  In the case of Nicodemus, he’s coming out of the darkness (v 2) and coming to the light of the world.  Then we can see in John 13 where Judas leaves the Upper Room to go and betray Jesus that he went out, “and it was night” (v 30 NIV), which is symbolic of Judas leaving the Light of the World and giving in to the desires of the Devil.  It makes me wonder how often humanity purposely turns their back on Jesus and walk towards the dark.  Walking in the light can be challenging at times but the purpose of life is to stay in the light and let the light of God shine out of us and into the darkness and win souls for Jesus.

I guess that is why I love the practice of discipleship.  I enjoy nothing more than people learning to live in the light and grow closer to Jesus.  Discipleship usually happens outside the walls of the church.  It’s over a cup of coffee or meal when most life changing discussions happen.  When people take the time to purposely set aside time to spend with others for the purpose of changing their lives, the Holy Spirit moves in a great way and spiritual growth happens. 

As the New Year rolls around in a few weeks it is my personal goal next year to spend even more time with the people around me to challenge them to grow in their faith.  Then they can take what they learn and go out and do the same.  Only Jesus has all of the answers of life, but it is a great joy to help others on their journey.

What I noticed with the lights is that as we were driving up to the display, from a distance they looked absolutely beautiful but as we got out and into the middle of the lights it was still exciting but I could see the lights for what they were…a bunch of wires, light sockets and the bulbs themselves. The large designs of flowers, trees, and shapes that were obvious from a distance were just a bunch of light bulbs.

We spent quite a bit of time fighting the cold and dampness as a family because the joy of having this time together far outweighed the elements.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the light display. From a distance I was excited to go jump into the middle of it, but once there it seemed almost like a let down.  I couldn’t help but begin to think about those lights on my drive home that night.

As I drove deep in thought I began to think about those lights in comparison to the church. From a distance the church often looks perfect and beautiful but once you go a little deeper you realize that the church is made up of people. People are not perfect. Sometimes their wires and sockets are showing, but the important part is; in the midst of their imperfections are they doing their job in the Body of Christ? When the people who make up the Body of Christ come together to serve a common purpose their light will shine and make a beautiful display for the world to see. The imperfections they may carry are hidden by the light of Christ they emit.

This Christmas season may your light shine bright for all the world to see.