Here we get into the details about faith and life

A Mirror

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

We have telescopes so we can peer into the depths of space and study galaxies, stars, planets and other bodies. We have binoculars to bring natural wonders up close. We have microscopes so we can see what can’t be seen with the naked eye. We marvel at all the details each of those bring out. We celebrate each observation and discovery.

Many times we treat Scripture like a pair of binoculars, or a telescope or a microscope. We want to use it to expose the failures of others, to highlight the shortcomings of society and culture and politics. We spend our time dissecting statements and motives and actions, and we report on our findings.

But mirrors are a different matter.

We often shy away from mirrors. Mirrors make us face our flaws. They destroy our illusions about the pounds or the wrinkles or the gray hair. They cause us to evaluate and take inventory.

Scripture is meant to be a mirror. It’s personal. I can use to it measure my progress as I work towards my goal. I can review what’s behind me. Each and every day, it confronts me. It challenges me.

Until the image looks more like Jesus and less like me.

Honesty and Grace

By Paula Wiseman

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18

Who hears your deepest, darkest secrets? Who knows all about your biggest failures and regrets? Who has seen the “real” you? Only the people you’re sure will love you anyway, right?

See, there is a connection between honesty and grace. If I am not certain, absolutely positive, that a relationship is founded on grace, I won’t risk total honesty, whether it’s with a friend a family member or even my husband. The possibility of rejection and the threat of exposure are too much. I’m guessing you are the same way.

This affects our relationship with God, too. We have a mental grasp that He is loving and gracious, but until that gets hold of us at our core we hide from Him just like Adam and Eve did. Even though He invites us to come to Him dozens of times over and promises us rest and acceptance and love when we do, we still struggle with being honest with God.

Maybe it conjures up images of an interrogation room with bright lights forcing us to a sweat-drenched confession. Maybe it’s more like a swath of red marks when we’ve tried, only to fail miserably. Or maybe we hear God in a voice that sounds far too much like someone else, someone we could never please or satisfy.

Genuine honesty with God isn’t like that at all. In fact, it is a supreme expression of our faith in His goodness. It underscores our utter trust in His boundless grace. It demonstrates a desire for deep intimacy with Him in our willingness to turn loose of anything and everything that might stand in the way of that.

In Isaiah, God offers one of His many invitations.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

It’s an invitation to honesty and it’s backed with a promise of grace. An invitation worth accepting.

Define Good

By Paula Wiseman

“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10

What is good?

Job defines it just the way we would. Good is what pleases us. It’s what is satisfying to us. It makes us comfortable. It makes our life easier, less complicated. It benefits us.

By the same token, adversity is anything uncomfortable or painful. It causes us difficulty or runs contrary to our plans or our wishes.

We avoid adversity whenever possible, and chase after good.

But sometimes, especially in the middle of the situation, we don’t know which is which. If my dog gets out and makes me late, maybe that’s not adverse, but it is at least contrary to my plans and definitely annoying. If I find out later that the delay meant I missed being in a four-car pileup at the on ramp, then maybe it was good after all.

It’s that inability to see and know everything that skews our view of what’s good and what’s bad.

God isn’t bound by those same limitations, and He is the very definition of good. Therefore, by extension, anything that drives me to a deeper dependence on Him, or brings my thoughts and actions more in line with His, is good. Anything that feeds my selfish instincts, my laziness or my apathy is bad.

More often than not, it’s the comfortable and the easy, the very things I strive for, that are bad. And it is the uncomfortable or difficult, the things that I avoid, the things I usually ask God to relieve me of, that are working in my ultimate favor.

Fear or Victory

By Paula Wiseman

Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight. Judges 7:3 NLT

In Judges 7, we read the story of Gideon. You probably remember the amazing story of the three hundred soldiers who defeated a Midianite army who outnumbered them 400 to 1. Before the battle, Gideon stands with his army of 30,000 men and God says to send home everyone who is afraid. Twenty thousand men–inexperienced soldiers who have done the math and knew they are facing over a hundred thousand professional soldiers–go home.

God doesn’t berate them, or shame them. Gideon doesn’t beg them to stay or offer incentives. Just a simple announcement, “If you are afraid and want out, you are free to go.” And they did.

It seemed like a rational decision. I’ll be honest, if my husband had been in that number I would have more than glad to see him home early and in one piece.

But here’s the thing. Yes, the fearful survived unscathed, but they didn’t get to participate in the victory.

I know I have had plenty of opportunities present themselves, doors that God has unmistakably opened, and I’ve gone home rather than go forward. I’m afraid I won’t measure up. I’m afraid of what it will cost. I’m afraid it will be hard.

And I miss a victory.

Here’s what I know about fear, though. It makes us take our eyes off Him. It distracts us from what He calls us to do. Fear never comes from God. Paul stresses that in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

John reiterates it 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

Perfect love, that’s the kind that God has for each of us. Fear is a sure sign we don’t grasp or trust that love or the God who demonstrates it.

Millstones

By Paula Wiseman

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. Mark 9:42

Prom was this past weekend, and my son was one of the scores of tuxedoed young men with a Cinderella on his arm. After enjoying the paparazzi treatment and a dinner with food that didn’t come in a wrapper, my son and his date arrived the main event. He came home disappointed and disillusioned, not with his date, but with a number of the kids around him. He recognized many of them from various youth meetings and had heard their testimonies. Prom night, they were testifying to something completely different.

And I’m not writing this post to condemn those kids, but rather as a caution to all of us. We hear all the time that the world is watching our behavior, and they are, but young believers are watching us as well. They don’t expect us to be perfect. Far from it.

But they do expect us to be authentic.

They expect our Saturday nights to look just like our Sunday mornings and our Tuesday afternoons.
They expect our conversation and attitude to be consistent no matter where we are or who we’re with.
They expect us to show them it’s worth taking a stand even if it means standing out or standing alone.
They expect us to choose holiness over worldliness.

Whether we realize it or not, they are following us. Let’s take care where we are leading.

Stay or Go

By Paula Wiseman

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

In Numbers 13, Moses sent a group of spies to check out Canaan. Forty days later, they returned. The land is great, they said, but the people are intimidating and the cities are fortified strongholds. They’re unreachable. However, Joshua and Caleb added, “The Lord is with us. Do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:9) God brought us here, He gave us the land, He will see to it that we take possession of it.

We know how the story goes. The nation listened to the majority report and a generation died without receiving what God had promised. They chose to believe what they saw rather than the God who sent them.

Fast forward hundreds of years. Jesus stood on a mountain and He said to go. Now we go and we scout things out and we report back to Him, “But Lord, the people are intimidating and the cities are unreachable.” We don’t go any further. We stay and we wander and we die off.

Except for a few.

A few who understand what Jesus meant when He said “All power, all authority has been given to me, and I’m telling you to go.”

A few who believe ‘the Lord is with us, do not fear them.’

Too often, most times even, I’m one of the “we.” Intimidated. Staying. Wandering. But here’s the thing. It’s not just the generation of believers who will die off. There’s a generation of folks who have never heard the name of Jesus except as a swear word. A generation who only knows Christians as silly caricatures or sign-waving protestors. They’ve never met the life-changing Savior who redeems, who heals, who transforms. And they’ll die off too.

Unless I and the rest of the “we” choose to trust God and His power and His plan more than I and “we” trust what we see.

What are “we” gonna do? Stay or Go?