How Can We Live by Faith More Consistently?

by Eldon

First, here is an explanation for those of you who may be new to this site and maybe don't know the intended context of the question, "How can we live by faith more consistently?"  The faith being addressed here is the belief that God exists and has revealed Himself and His plan in the Bible and that He rewards those "who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11).

People live by faith in the Lord God and His Word because they are convinced or persuaded that who He is and what He has revealed about Himself and His plan is in fact true.  And believers in Christ Jesus should live like they truly believe what they say they believe.  The problem is this: we are often weak and frail and fail do this as we should.  Our faith waivers.  We become entangled or weighed down with sin.  If we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ and provided deliverance from sin and death and eternal life with Himself forever by means of sacrificing Himself through His awful and horrible death, we should live by faith in thankfulness to Him.  But why don't we do this more consistently?  The most important explanation and answers are given in the letter to the Hebrews in the Bible.  We do not keep on "fixing our eyes on Jesus" as we should (Hebrews 12:1-3).  We do not set aside the sin that so easily entangles us.  And when we do confess our sin we often do not ponder the truth of Christ and His love for us following our confession (1 John 1:5 - 2:2).  We live by faith more and more consistently as we keep on looking unto Jesus, bringing to mind who He is, what He has accomplished for us, and most importantly, how much He loves us.

The people who first read the letter to the Hebrews (or more often than not heard it read or cited from memory in their time) struggled to live by faith much like we do.  So the Spirit of the Lord moved the author of this wonderful epistle to include the great "hall of faith," as it has been frequently called (Hebrews 11).  Believers in the Lord who had great faith lived out their faith in the Lord and revealed this in their decisions to act upon what they had become convinced was true.  Believers such as Moses who could have settled for a comfortable life as a prince in Egypt but instead identified himself with his relatives, the children of Israel (Jacob).  The amazing thing about these believers of great faith like Moses was that they lived before Christ Jesus came to earth.  And yet they showed they had great faith by the way that they lived!  Shame on us who live after the cross and resurrection of Christ for not living by faith more consistently.  And what's our problem?  We just don't fix our eyes on Jesus and ponder who He is and what He has done for us.  We do not renew our confidence and trust in Him like we should from day to day and hour to hour.

Notice I said we!  I'm right there with you.  I often do not live by faith like I should.  But I'm crying out to Jesus for the grace to live be faith and please Him more today than I did before.

So what's our Lord Jesus, our Savior, calling you to do this day to express your confidence in Him, obviously showing that you have been persuaded that His Word is true?

Grace to Think Like Jesus Thinks

A number of years ago WWJD became a popular challenging question. Yes, it is a good thing to ask ourselves, "What Would Jesus Do?" when facing decisions about what to do in a given circumstance. But before we can do what Jesus would have us do (quite franky we can't do what He did in many respects), we have to think like He thought. We have to have God's viewpoint--the divine viewpoint that applies to a particular course of action.

There are verses in the Bible that tell us what was at the very heart of Jesus' thinking. And believe me, we can't begin to think like He thought in the way He thought about His life and ministry without God's grace to do so.

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:3-8; New American Standard Bible)

Need I say more than what the Apostle Paul has declared by the Spirit in these verses? But maybe a few thoughts will be helpful.

In order to serve us the One who existed as God in all eternity past decided to not express all that He was as God. In joining Himself to a human body like ours he "emptied Himself" by setting aside the complete and free exercise of all that He is as God. The One who owns everything looked out for our interests and our greatest need in doing this.

It has been said that grace is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just think about it! Jesus loved you so much--He looked out for your interests--by dying for you so that you could live with Him and enjoy Him and all who have believed in Him forever.

Do you struggle with being self-centered like I do? Cry out to Jesus to think more like He thinks so that you will look out for the interests of others, serving them in meaningful ways.

Ask God to give you the grace to think more like Jesus thinks.

God's Grace for No-Fear Love

God wants to pour out His grace upon us so that we will experience no-fear love. How often do we fail to reach out to others to meet their needs because fear disables us from doing so?

How fantastic an experience it is to focus on the Lord Jesus and His love and receive the grace from Him and His Spirit that casts out fear in our life. With all that is going on in this fallen sinful world we live in there could be great cause for fear; fears that disable us. But as 1 John 4:18a declares, "Perfect love casts out fear!" Here's a translation, partly from The Amplified Bible:

"There is no fear in love (dread does not exist), but full-grown (complete, perfect, mature) love casts out fear!"

The verses that lead up to this declaration have drawn a great deal of attention to the awesome love God has for us as demonstrated by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus (4:7-17). The Lord Jesus came to this earth in a real human body so that He could ultimately suffer and die in our place, bearing our sin and thereby satisfying (propitiation) the righteous and just demands of our holy God (1 John 3:16; 4:1-6). Jesus clearly has shown us what God's love means. God the Father has shown us how His love is defined by sending His Son to give His life for us. The Father sent the Son to earth and the Son willingly came to do battle for us and win the victory over sin, death and all evil.

When we become more and more occupied with Jesus Christ and His love for us, we will find that His love has cast out our fears more and more.

A 5-year old boy named Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go in alone. He said, “It’s dark in there and I’m afraid.” She asked again, but the boy continued to resist because of his fear of what might be lurking in the dark. Finally Johnny’s mother said, “It’s OK—Jesus will be in there with you.” Johnny walked hesitantly to the door of the dark pantry and slowly opened it. He peered into the darkness of the pantry, but his fear began to overcome him and he started to close the door. But suddenly an idea came to him. He said, “Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?”

We chuckle at Johnny and his way of dealing with his fear of entering the dark. But we might be very much like that five year old boy when it comes to fear of other things in our life. We may wish that Jesus would suddenly appear from the darkness and put an end to what we fear. We should know that in a real sense Jesus is available to us and wants to appear from the darkness to shine the light of His Word upon the solution to our fears. The Lord certainly does not want us to be plagued by fears that disable us.

Nearly everyone (if not everyone) has experienced disabling fears to some degree or another. Disabling fears are those fears that keep us from doing what we would really like to do. For believers in Christ Jesus who want to please and honor Him, the most frustrating of all disabling fears are those fears that keep them from doing what they know Jesus wants them to do.

There are a lot of ways people have overcome their fears through counsel and psychological maneuverings. But, as 1 John 5:18 indicates, God's love brought to maturity in us is what casts out fear.

How does God’s love reach a level of maturity in us so that it casts out fear? By being occupied with the love God has shown us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. (Study and ponder 1 John 3:16-18 and 4:7-17 to appreciate the context leading up to 4:18.)

I remember vividly the time in my life when I begin to realize that the fears that had previously kept me from doing what I knew the Lord wanted me to do seldom hindered me any longer. What had happened? By God's grace I had become more occupied with Christ and what mattered was pleasing Him. I no longer was plagued by concern over what others thought of me and what I was doing or not doing. What mattered most was pleasing the One that had given His life for me.

A main result of being occupied with Jesus Christ and His love for us is a change in our relationships with others. When our perspective is there you are as we look to meet the needs of others and not here I am (no longer being occupied with self or being occupied with self less and less), fears are “cast out” of our life because God has given us His mature love by His Word and His Spirit. A mature love that is primarily concerned about others and not what is happening to us.

Occupation with Christ Jesus and His love and grace demonstrated by His person and work provides the knowledge base required so that the Spirit of God can bring you to the place where you can express no-fear love.

Yes, God's love brought to maturity in us casts out fear! This is God's work in us by His grace for His glory.

It's About Time!

by Eldon DeBoer

When the New Year rolls around we find ourselves saying things like this:

It hardly seems possible that a new year has rolled around already.

We will have to get into the habit of writing 2012.

Where did the past year go?

It’s only natural that our thoughts more frequently turn to how quickly time is passing us by when we put up our new calendars.

The New Year is the time when we hear or read from the media things like, “The year in review.” And it is a good thing to look back and think about our own personal “year in review.”

A question serious believers in Christ may ask themselves is, “How much of the time did I invest for Christ last year? Another way of asking this question is this: “How much of last year was invested by walking in the light in fellowship with Jesus Christ?”

A passage in Romans may be viewed as the basis for this last question. Maybe this following section of Paul’s letter has come to your attention, especially now at the turn of the calendar year.

Romans 13: (NIV)

9b. "Love your neighbor as yourself."

10. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

11. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

12. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

This challenge first given to the believers at Rome is fitting for us to consider as we are more thoughtful of the passing of time at the turning of the calendar year. And we shall see that loving your neighbor as yourself is to put on “the armor of light,” which is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Following the teaching about the role of government in our life, the Spirit inspired Apostle Paul brings into view that the main thing we owe one another is love that is of God.

The context of the verses:

7. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

8. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

9. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

10. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

11. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

12. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

13. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

14. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Since the “night is nearly over” and “the day is almost here,” let’s “put aside” sinful deeds. Off with the bad and on with the good. Let’s get serious about investing time by putting on the “armor of light” (13:10).

The “Day” Time Is Near

But what is meant by the “night” being “far spent” (NKJV) and the “day” being “at hand” or “almost here?” To help us answer this question, the New Living Translation (NLT) provides this interpretation of Romans 13:10-12:

Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living.

From the larger context of the teachings of the New Testament, the NLT provides a good interpretation of the text. The “night” time of the darkness of sin and evil upon the world will come to an end. The “day” time will soon come when the light of Jesus Christ will shine throughout the earth and He will put an end to the free expression of sin.

But, however soon Jesus’ return and the establishment of His kingdom will be and the creation of the new heaven and new earth that follows, we should be mindful that time is fleeting and we will very soon be standing before our gracious judge, Jesus Christ (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). It won’t be long before our time here on earth will be over and the fruitfulness of our life will be evaluated by the Lord Jesus at His judgment seat for believers. Time invested by putting on the armor of light will be rewarded by our Savior.

The Passing of Time and the Final Judgment

The Apostle Peter by the Spirit of God warns mockers of God’s Word that they should not assume God’s promise is not good when it addresses the coming day of judgment and the end of the world as we know it (2 Peter 3:3-18). In this passage Peter makes reference to how God views time from Psalm 90:4.

2 Peter 3:8-9 has application to unsaved people who might scoff at the biblical teaching of the return of Christ. They should not conclude that the promise of Jesus Christ’s return is not true and will not be fulfilled for it only seems that a long time has passed since the warning of a day of final judgment from God was given from their limited perspective. They should understand that God does not view the passing of time as we do.

How God Views the Passing of Time

The inspired song written by Moses tells us how God views time in Psalm 90:4

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,

And like a watch in the night.

A thousand years is a long time for us, but not for God. He does not view the passing of time like we do. So from God’s perspective we should think of the first coming of Christ Jesus as having taken place only two days ago.

If you ever have an opportunity to get in on a conversation in which people scoff at the promise of a coming day of judgment, you might want to direct them to this passage and ask the question, “How much time has passed since God created the world and then brought judgment upon His creation?” Scientists who are experts in the field of geology recognize that there is evidence for a catastrophic event in history that brought death to most of the world’s population (Scott Garney, “Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood,”Discovery, November, 2007, 66-67).

Since God does not view the passing of time like we do, in light of His patience, we should always have an awareness of the judgment that we will escape by His grace.

Yes, another year has come and gone and still Jesus has not returned to rapture His people and set in motion the events that lead up to His glorious return. Will Jesus return this year? Only time will tell. But a longing and love for His coming is to be characteristic of all our days (2 Timothy 4:5-8). We are to be serious about the reality of “day” time of Christ Jesus.

Since we understand, since we know what time it is on God’s clock, there should be at least five results in our life:

(1) Since you know God’s time, you should keep on responding to God’s spiritual wake-up call. Romans 13:11

As you think about applying this passage to your life, keep in mind what has been stated in Romans 12:1-2 (cp. James 4:12-17).

(2) Since you know God’s time, “put off the deeds of darkness.” 13:12a

Romans 12:13 points out what some of the “deeds of darkness” are:

Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. (NASB)

(3) Since you know God’s time, “put on the armor of light.” 13:12b

Whenever you apply the truth of God’s Word in the power of the Spirit, you are putting on the armor of light.

When you love your neighbor as yourself, you are putting on the armor of light.

(4) Since you know God’s time, “love your neighbor as yourself.” 13:7-10

(5) Since you know God’s time, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” 13:14 (cf. Ephesians 5:8, 14-18)

Romans 13:14 (NASB)

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

To love your neighbor as yourself is to put on the armor of light which is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we love one another with the self-sacrificial love of Christ we are shining forth His character, His integrity. This is how we are to invest our time.

What Year Is It?

When we distinguish time historically we usually refer to the present time as A.D. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini (pronounced ainou dominai) the year of our Lord, dated from the year of Jesus birth.

It probably won’t warm your heart to read that it is quite likely that our calendars are five years off, give or take a year. Technically speaking, we would be more accurate by writing 2017 A.D. for this year. This is because after our Christian calendar became popular in the Western world following the twelfth to the fifteen centuries A.D., chronologists realized we made a four to six year mistake. From historical events uncovered and from comparatively recent archaeological discoveries dated to the time contemporary to the time of Jesus’ early life we can determine with reasonable accuracy the year of Jesus’ birth. One of the key events in determining the time Jesus was born was the death of King Herod who demanded the death of the infants in Bethlehem. As contradictory or strange as it may sound to our ears, Jesus most likely was born about 5 B.C.

Whatever the date might be that we find printed on our calendars, the fact that time passes ever so quickly should be very sobering to us. The night and darkness of this evil world will soon be over and the way we can make a difference is by cloaking our life with the light of the truth of God’s word.

Question of Application: Since I will see my Savior very soon, how serious am I about investing time for His glory by putting on the “armor of light” in the application of His Word?

"The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ" Revealed at Christmas

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9; NASB)

by Eldon DeBoer

What matters is what the text of God's Word says. My prayer is that what I write will help you understand a little bit more about what it says, what it means and how it applies in your life.

2 Corinthians 8:9 is truly a wonderful Christmas verse. In the thoughts of God in eternity past He always knew that He would create us. He knew that we would fall into rebellion against Him. He knew what it would cost Himself to deliver us, His beloved ones, from our own rebellious, lost and sinful condition. He would have to become poor. He would have to set aside the wealth He has as God to be united with a body that He created—capture Himself in space—so that He could deliver us. The One who owns everything was born in a barn to a poor and despised mother who He Himself chose. Everything belongs to God. He owns everything. He is rich beyond our imaginations. There is so much about who He is and what He has that we have only begun to grasp a little bit of it. The God over all that exists decided to set aside His wealth so that He could serve us to the extent that He gave His own life for us on that cross of Calvary. (Does the omniscient God ever “decide” anything?) Now that's grace! Grace is God giving Himself to us so that we could enjoy Him forever. Grace is Christ Jesus becoming poor and suffering and dying in our place so that we “through His poverty, might become rich.” God wants to share some of His wealth with us. So He came to serve us on that first Christmas. We'll be walking on streets of gold! But there is so much more than that. We'll know the Lord Jesus like never before. We'll experience more of the wealth of who He is.

This grace of God was something that the Corinthians knew about. It is something every believer in Christ Jesus should know about. When we first believed in Jesus we knew very little about this awesome truth. God the Spirit revealed to us how much He loves us and we began to learn of His grace. The Spirit wants to keep on opening our eyes to more about Jesus Christ—who He is, what the promise of eternal life means and the significance of what He has done for us.

Some of the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" was revealed on that first Christmas and more was revealed and will be revealed in our future as believers in Christ.

May we continue to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). And, as we do grow in His grace and knowledge, we will find that we will have more of the spirit of giving like the Son of God has than we did before. Amen?

Christmas Is About the HU and K

by Eldon DeBoer

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14; NKJV)

The awesome truth that the Word, the great God who always was (John 1:1-3), united Himself with flesh is truly mysterious and amazing. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around it. Yet here it is recorded by a man of God who was moved by the Spirit of God to write it down for us just exactly as God wanted it written.

In recent weeks I've been getting acquainted with facebook abbreviations and I must say they are handy in communicating quickly. One of the most common ones is lol, laugh out loud. Yeah, I know, most of you are familiar, but just in case.... And there's BFN, bye for now. And LYL, love you lots. And God loves us a lot!

In the spirit of fb (facebook), let me introduce HU & K. And I'm certainly not making light of what these letters represent. But isn't it helpful and edifying when a couple of words flood our minds with meaningful truth?

The HU stands for Hypostatic Union. These are the technical theological terms that have been utilized to present the truth of what happened when “the Word became flesh.” The term hypostatic presents the reality—as mysterious as it is—of God joining Himself with the human body of flesh like that which He created in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. Hypostatic is from the Greek term hupostasis which draws attention to the natures united together in the one Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. A brief definition of the HU that represents what has been taught historically is this: The Lord Jesus Christ is undiminished deity united with true humanity, without mixture or confusion, in one Person forever. One writer has expanded upon this in stating, “Jesus' two natures are not 'mixed together,' nor are they combined into a new God-man nature. They are separate yet act as a unit in the one person of Jesus” (Matt Slick, “Jesus Two Natures: God and Man,” http://carm.org/jesus-two-natures ).

The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man united in one Person. And this, without a doubt, is a mysterious truth. But when we pause and think about what God did for us, even though we readily admit we cannot fully comprehend it, we should become overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it. He chose in eternity past, knowing all things and what would take place, to unite Himself with the very flesh He created so that He could serve us. Our great God, our Creator who has the ability to speak things into existence, chose to unite Himself with true humanity so that He could deliver us from sin and death and have victory over Satan and all evil. God chose to bring about the HU. He loves us that much!

This brings us to the K which represents the kenosis of Christ. The Greek verb form of the noun kenosis is used in Philippians 2:7 where it draws attention to how Christ “emptied” (NASB) Himself. When the Word became flesh He set aside the full and complete exercise of the function of His attributes as God to serve us. The context in which this word is found explains it:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8; NASB)

What an attitude Christ Jesus had! He became the servant of His creatures. He became our servant so that He could “humble Himself” and die in our place. And we are to have the same attitude in ourselves. We are called to lay down our life for others. How's that for a Christmas message? Jesus Christ was born to serve and die. And so may we serve one another and give our lives for each other.

May I remind you that we cannot do this on our own. We desperately need God's grace, the filling and enabling work of His Spirit, to apply this in our life.

May the HU and K be impressed upon our thoughts this Christmas and always. Why? Because the depth of our understanding of the Christ, who He is and what He has done for us, should cause us to love Him more and more. And we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:7-19).

Jesus Wants to Be at Home in Our Hearts! Now that's amazing grace!

It absolutely astounds me that the great God of the universe, the God that spoke all things into existence, wants to be at home in our hearts. He wants to be at home within our inner-most being. But this is understandable. It is what He intended from the beginning. He created us to have a close, personal and intimate relationship with Himself. He wants us to truly enjoy Him!

We shall see at the close of this article that this closeness to God in Christ is where we get our strength to live the truth.

When we believed in Jesus and became children of God, the Spirit of Christ came into our life. The Spirit moved Paul to write of this truth, this reality:

You are sons [children] of God through faith in Christ Jesus . . . And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 3:26; 4:6)

What the Spirit of Christ cries out within us is an expression of a close, intimate, trusting relationship with our heavenly Father. Christ's Spirit confirms the truth within that the perfect heavenly Father places within us the capacity to have a close relationship with Himself.

The Aramaic word, “Abba,” is much like our word, “Daddy.” It is a word of endearment. A word used by children who sense a closeness to their father. “Daddy!” And this is what the Spirit of God cries out within us.

I recall Francis Schaeffer speaking of this relationship from the perspective of a child holding up his arms, reaching up to his father and saying, “Up, Daddy, Up!” And so we as God's children look up to our heavenly Father, reaching up to Him for consolation and counsel. "Daddy!" And that's what He wants.

But, sadly, stuff in this life gets in the way of enjoying a close relationship with our heavenly Father. We are our own worst enemy in this. Thankfully, the Spirit of God draws us back to Himself as He helps us realize what has happened. We can confess, admitting our failure and once again enjoy intimacy with God the Father and Jesus (1 John 1:9). But after acknowledging our sin we should renew our minds with the truth of God's Word and keep on reflecting on it. We especially should ponder the truth of how Jesus Christ has demonstrated His love to us (Romans 5:6-11).

Include in the Apostle Paul's prayer for the believers of Ephesus is the request that Christ Jesus might be at home in their hearts:

. . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts [be at home in your hearts] through faith . . . (Ephesians 4:16-17)

When God the Son is at home in your hearts because you are trusting Him and walking in the light of His Word, your receive His strength to apply the truth. Paul's prayer is my prayer for everyone who reads this. May you enjoy having Christ Jesus be at home in your hearts as you ponder how much He loves you. And may you thereby experience His strength. And when you do you are experiencing His amazing grace!

As always, I welcome your comments and questions ( eldondeboer@yahoo.com ).