Trusting God

God wants us to trust him. The Bible goes so far as to say, “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Trusting God to forgive us, and having confidence in Christ to save us from the penalty of our sins is just the beginning (as the rest of Hebrews 11 goes on to illustrate). We face important opportunities to trust God when we encounter health issues, financial challenges, relationship problems, and all the varied concerns about our security and safety. In all situations our task as God’s children is to be faithful in doing what he has commanded us to do and to sincerely trust him to provide. Consider God’s directive to the Israelites when he instructed them to gather their manna in the wilderness. He told them, “Gather it, each one of you” and so they did (Exodus 16:16). But considering all the variables between each family’s abilities, capacities and needs, we would assume that some would not have enough and others would have too much. But as God would have it, “whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack” (Exodus 16:18). Our faithful God lovingly and perfectly provided for his people when they diligently worked and sincerely trusted him for the outcome. He did so then, and he does so now. Not wanting this truth to be forgotten, God had Israel memorialize this event when he told Moses, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout the generations” (Exodus 16:33). For centuries that jar sat nestled in the ark of the covenant in the middle of the Old Testament worship center as a perpetual reminder that God can be fully trusted, day in and day out, because he is a God who perfectly provides.

For more sermons and devotionals on Hard Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org   

Hard Truth

We all work to make our lives as comfortable and pain-free as possible. We buy all sorts of appliances and gadgets to make hard jobs easy, and seek out any available remedy to alleviate our bodily aches and pains. And this makes perfect sense. Only a masochist would willingly accept pain that could easily be eradicated. But we dare not take this natural inclination into our study of God’s word. Our theology must never be shaped by a desire to eliminate hard truths and downplay painful passages. Remembering that we are fallen people awaiting our future glorification, we must gladly hold on to uncomfortable doctrines and prickly principles that grate against our human sensibilities. We can expect that the assortment of God-breathed truths speaking clearly about our perfectly just and infinitely holy Creator will not all sit well in our minds this side of heaven. So instead of reaching for a commonly heard rationalization designed to quickly take the edge off of a text that hurts, remember that God’s word is perfect and we are not. Remember that we must not allow its truth to be shaped by our thinking, but that instead we are called to conform our thinking to the truth of God’s word.

For more sermons and devotionals on Hard Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org  

Apologetic Discussions

In a culture where our cognitive attention span is sadly being reduced to a series of sound bites, and important arguments are perceived to be settled with witty one-liners, it is increasingly difficult to engage in meaningful discussions about the truthfulness of Christianity. But we must. Our biblical job as disciple-making ambassadors includes demonstrating the reasonableness of following Christ. We are not promoters of “cleverly devised myths” (2 Peter 1:16). What we advocate consists of “true and rational words” (Acts 26:25). And so we must be “prepared to make a defense”, giving a thoughtful “reason for the hope” that we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). This will require effort on our part to slow down the conversation, carefully identifying and highlighting the legitimate objections our non-Christian friends raise regarding the veracity of the Christian faith. Once we sort out the honest intellectual questions from the defensive smokescreens that hide volitional stubbornness, we can begin to methodically pursue answers. Because the defense of our faith should not be seen as a ten-minute, ego-driven dispute to be won, but rather as a pair of human beings dialoging about the meaning and purpose of our existence, we should get used to the idea that biblical apologetics is usually a long series of involved discussions that take place over weeks and months. While our evangelism always feels urgent, profitable dialog with skeptics can rarely be rushed. So slow it down and take the needed time to “provide a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org 

Hard Work

The Bible has a lot to say about working hard, being disciplined, and fighting all slothful tendencies. The Christian work ethic we derive from the teaching of both the Old and New Testament leaves no room for leisurely lives, lethargic attitudes or half-hearted work. Solomon advises us to “Go to the ant” and learn her wise ways (Proverbs 6:6). No one has to stand over her shoulder to prod her along. Threats are not needed. Like the rest of God’s insects, the ant is an industrious self-starter. “Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (Proverbs 6:7-8). The Apostle Paul equates idleness with sin, going so far as to say that we shouldn’t even associate with a Christian who is lazy (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Paul points to his own example and tells how he, Silas, and Timothy “were not idle” but instead “with toil and labor we worked night and day” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-8). Of course, scheduled times of rest and refreshment were built into the pattern of creation, but a life of leisure was never the goal. God created us to be creators, thinkers and workers. So instead of being discouraged about past failures or any previous patterns of sluggish work, why not pray for a fresh start and for God’s encouragement, then approach the next thing on your schedule with a purposeful enthusiasm. And always remember that “whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Four Things God Cannot Do

For years on playgrounds everywhere church kids have been stymied by the agitator’s questions, “Can God do anything? And if so, can he make a rock so big he can’t move it?” While children may struggle with the answer, I hope the rest of us do not. Thankfully, we can offer a resounding “No!” and feel good about it – really good! God tells us that he is a God who cannot do several things. And for that we should be eternally grateful! Consider the amazingly gracious promises he has made and inscribed for us in the pages of the Bible. All of our hope and strength regarding those promises is derived from the fact that God cannot do at least four things as it relates to those commitments. First, God is holy and therefore is incapable of deceiving us (2 Timothy 2:11-13). All of his good promises are true because he could not and would not ever lie to us (Titus 1:2). Second, God is omniscient, always knowing all that can be known (Psalm 139:1-6). And because he is omniscient he cannot possibly forget a promise that he has made (2 Peter 3:8-9). Third, God is immutable and therefore cannot change (Malachi 3:6). A gracious promise he makes in 750 BC will not be rescinded because he has grown, matured, or changed over the centuries (Psalm 102:25-28). Fourth, God is omnipotent, possessing all power (Jeremiah 32:17). Therefore, all of his good promises will succeed because nothing has the power to thwart his purpose – he simply cannot fail (Romans 8:31-39). Every promise about our future is certain and sure because God cannot be less than he is. He cannot lie, forget, change or fail! And that should provide us with a kind of confidence that engenders “strong encouragement” each and every day (Hebrews 6:17-19).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org