Offended Faith

For many of us, there will come a time in our lives when offense will come. It may occur as a result of a catastrophic event in our lives, such as the death of a loved one. It may occur because of a divorce, an unanswered prayer, or the desertion of a friend. Whatever it is, it will be a situation or a circumstance that doesn't "fit" with our perception of who God is or should be. Regardless, when the offense comes we will be confronted with the question:

Will you walk away or will you have faith?

John 6:53-66 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

The reality of the Bible is that it is not a "watered down feel good" story. There are many things in the Bible that are "hard sayings". In the passage above, the disciples and followers of Jesus have just been confronted with one. Many went back because the teaching was not only hard to understand, it did not conform to their image of the Messiah. The offense had come and now a decision had to be made.

John 6:67-68 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Man, I love that scripture. It just clarifies everything for me. There was a time in my life when I was offended - not at man, but at God. I questioned everything I knew or had ever known about Him. But in the end, it all came down to the exact same statement as the one made by Peter.

"Where else can I go, You alone have the words of eternal life".

If your faith is based upon experiences, then what happens when God doesn't show up?

If your faith is in prayer, then what happens when the prayer is not answered?

If your faith is in other Christians, what happens when they fail you or desert you?

You see, faith - lasting, enduring faith - cannot be based upon anything other than the person of Jesus Christ. During times of trials and testing, all of these other things can be taken or pulled away from you. But Jesus made a promise that He would never leave us or forsake us. When all else fails, He will always be there.

James 1:2-3 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

I Don't Belong Here

Have you felt it? It's a feeling that passes as quickly as it appears. It comes at different times and in different situations, a feeling that you can't quite put your finger on. It can happen while you're looking into the face of your child or glancing at the night sky. It sometimes appears while watching television or reading a book. It's a feeling that you were made for something different -a feeling that where you are at the moment is not your true destiny, your true calling, your true home. Have you felt it?

I don't belong here.

I'm at a conference on business. One evening I have to attend a hospitality at a restaurant for our clients. The talk is of politics and sports and work. Who's divorcing who, who's in line for a promotion, who's moving on to another job. People are drinking and smoking and having a good time. I try to fit in, to talk the small talk along with them. But I just can't shake the feeling.

I don't belong here.

I walk outside to my truck one summer night to get something. On the way back into the house I look up in sky and notice how beautiful it is. It's one of those nights where everything is so clear that you can literally see millions of stars. Your life seems so small and the universe so big. The feeling is fleeting, just there for a second.

I don't belong here.

You're with some people and everyone is talking about the election. Some are excited that their candidate has won, sure that everything is going to change. Others are dejected because their candidate has lost and they are sure this is the end of America as we know it. In the midst of the conversation, you realize something. It's not that you don't care, but the things that are so important to everyone else at that moment are just not that important to you. There it is again.

I don't belong here.

I'm watching a television show where they pick families to build a house for. In this one episode, they've built a house for a deaf family, and someone has donated college scholarships to the children. It's just people helping people - one person showing mercy and compassion to another. As my eyes fill with tears, that feeling comes again.

I don't belong here.

Romans 8: 22-23 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

There's something in us that knows we don't belong here, that we were made for so much more. And every once in a while we catch a glimpse of it and that feeling rushes in for just a second and then it's gone. This is not our home, not this earth and not this body. One day we'll see clearly, and what an unbelievable day that will be.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Appendix

The appendix is a puzzling thing. It seemingly serves no function in human body. All other body parts, no matter how small or insignificant, seem to have a purpose. But not the appendix. Doctors are just now in the past couple of years beginning to venture some theories on it, but the fact remains that you can remove the appendix from the body and the body doesn't even miss it.

Paul said that we are all members of the body of Christ. We are all to serve a purpose in the body. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, helpers, administrators, givers and encouragers. We are to exhort one another, pray for one another, rejoice and mourn with one another, care for one another and suffer with one another.

1Corinthians 12:12-27 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

As part of the body, we should all ask ourselves this question: What is my purpose in the body? For the body to be strong and function the way that God intends, we must all do our part. We can't all be pastors or evangelists or teachers ... but we can all help, we can all serve, we can all give.

If you were removed from the body, would the body miss you?

Rooted and Grounded

A couple of months back, I was reading the book The Best of A.W. Tozer and in it I ran across the following paragraph:

"The heart of a man is like a musical instrument and may be played upon by the Holy Spirit, by an evil spirit or by the spirit of man himself. Religious emotions are very much the same, no matter who the player may be. Many enjoyable feelings may be aroused within the soul by low or even idolatrous worship. The nun who kneels 'breathless with adoration' before an image of the Virgin is having a genuine religious experience. She feels love, awe and reverence, all enjoyable emotions, as certainly as if she were adoring God. The mystical experiences of Hindus and Sufis cannot be brushed aside as mere pretense. Neither dare we dismiss the high religious flights of spiritists and other occultists as imagination. These may have and sometimes do have genuine encounters with something or someone beyond themselves. In the same manner Christians are sometimes led into emotional experiences that are beyond their power to comprehend. I have met such and they have inquired eagerly as to whether or not their experience was of God."

I have really thought a lot about that. Can Christians have experiences that they believe are from God, experiences that included feelings of awe and reverence, but that experience not be of God? As I was thinking this through, I happened to be on the internet one night and ran across this blurb while doing some research on the 'Bridal Paradigm' teaching.

"The Bridegroom message is a call to active intimacy with God. The Bridal message speaks of God’s invitation for us to experience the deep things of His heart (emotions, affections). To enjoy active intimacy with Jesus includes feeling His heart for us. The Bridal message speaks of experiencing Jesus’ emotions (desire, affections)."

What really jumped out to me here was the references to "experiencing" and "feeling". Now I don't necessarily have anything against experiences. However, I do think there is a real danger in putting your focus on experiences and feelings. Too many people today are chasing after emotions - looking for the next experience that will give them goosebumps. But when I read the Bible, the vast majority of experiences I see referred to are bad ones - or at least 'bad' in the sense that they don't appeal to the flesh.

Look at what Paul says:

Romans 8:38 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see, Paul was convinced that Jesus loved him. Not convinced by feelings or emotions - in fact looking at the things he went through he was convinced even in the absence of them. He realized that true love is not about feelings - true love is an agape love - a sacrificial love.

This love is explained best in the following statement:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Doesn't our relationships in life itself teach us this very lesson? Love starts out all full of emotions and feelings, but over time you realize that real love - true love - is not about that at all. True love is so much deeper. And if you continue to chase after those first feelings and emotions, you'll be sorely disappointed over time. In fact you'll just move from one relationship to another - one experience to another - forever chasing that elusive satisfaction.

It's the same in our relationship with Christ. We should be rooted and grounded in His love, confident of His love whether we feel it or not. He has already told us that we will experience tribulations, trials and sufferings. But He also said that he would never leave us. He will always be there, whether I feel it or not. If we continue to chase after the emotional highs, we may find ourselves allowing our heart strings to be 'played' - experiencing feelings that may not be from God at all.

Ephesians 3:17-19 That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.