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Month: September 2011

How the Bible Comes to Life

Posted on by Bob Christopher

At the beginning of my freshman year at the University of Georgia, I had determined to be God’s guy. Reading the Bible daily, I thought, was the key to getting me to that goal. The first morning of my college career I picked up my Bible and started reading the Gospel according to Matthew. I read four chapters that day, and four the next, and so on for several months.
I have to confess. I didn’t get very much out of what I was reading. If someone asked, I could tell them the chapters I read, for example, Matthew 9 – 12, but I couldn’t speak with understanding about the content of what I read. Honestly, it was nothing more than words on a page. But why? What was I missing?
It was four years before the answer came. When it did, the Bible came to life. Here is what I learned and what I am continuing to learn.

  •  The Bible is about Jesus; it is God’s testimony concerning His Son. Jesus put it this way: “These are the Scriptures that testify about Me” (John 5:39). We are to read the Bible to know Jesus and discover all that He has done for us. That is what I missed. I was reading to ascertain the rules and regulations I was to live by in order to be God’s guy. For some reason I was trying to make the Bible about me. But the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points us to Jesus. The Bible is His story, and when we read it with that understanding, we grow in our knowledge of Him.
  • God’s Spirit teaches us the meaning of the Bible. We cannot figure out the mind of God through human intellect, logic or reason. Our finite minds are not capable of such an enormous undertaking. Paul made this point to the Corinthians: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV). God wants us to know what He has prepared for us. He never intended for His love and grace to be unlocked mysteries. He sent His Spirit to us so that we can understand what He has “freely given us.” Apart from God’s Spirit, we cannot comprehend the meaning of the Scriptures. When reading the Word of God, do so with a dependent attitude, a teachable spirit, trusting God’s spirit to open your heart and mind to the meaning.
  • The Spirit of God reveals the meaning of the Bible to us through the lens of the New Covenant. As believers in Jesus, we live in the New Covenant, not the Old. Trying to blend the purposes of these two covenants leads to great confusion. Everything in the Old Covenant was written to point us to the New. The Old consists of shadows and types and examples. In the New Covenant, we see and experience the realities of all that God has for us in Christ. Those days in college, I approached the Bible with an Old Covenant mindset. I was looking for rules, regulations and commandments. I was reading the Bible with a veil over my eyes and I missed Jesus. Seeing the Bible through the New Covenant lifts the veil and enables us to see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

The Bible is unique among all other books. It contains the very words of God, and specifically His word, or testimony, concerning His Son. God wants us to know Jesus and to share His life. The next time you open the Bible, do so knowing that God’s Spirit will take the message of Jesus and make Him real in your heart.

What's Love got to do with it?

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Paul may be the first on record to give an answer. To him, it meant everything. Just check out 1 Corinthians 13. Love is more important than speaking in tongues or giving all that you have to the poor, or even having the faith to move mountains. As impressive as these may be (can you actually imagine that any of these would impress God?), if they are done without love, they are meaningless; just a bunch of noise makers. Of the three things that will remain, faith, hope and love, love tops the list.
It holds that top position because it is the very nature and character of God. John tells us, “God is love.” He is the source. When love flows through us, it comes from Him. It is not something we can produce through human effort or legalistic obedience. Love is the fruit of the Spirit. And it is the evidence that we have been born again and indwelt by the resurrected life of Christ. John put is this way, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7 ESV).
If you don’t know what love looks like, Paul paints a detailed picture. It is patient, kind, and never easily angered. Love does not keep records of wrongs, it does not delight in evil, and it always rejoices in truth. Love protects, trusts and hopes the best. Love perseveres. This is the love of God. This is how He loves you. This love never fails.
What’s love got to do with it? I hope in your life that His love means everything.

God's Workmanship

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Most of us are familiar with Ephesians 2:8-10. This is the passage quoted most often to affirm that salvation is a free gift, not something that can be earned through human effort. Here is the passage:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Most of us stop with verse 9. When we do, we miss the full impact of God’s purpose in saving us by grace. According to verse 10, this gospel message that leads to salvation extends well beyond that moment when we cross over from death to life. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection ushers us into a new way of life altogether, one characterized by good works.
These good works have been prepared for us beforehand by God. And as a new creature in Christ, we are to walk in them. But how do we know what they are?
In one of their many conversations with the Lord, the disciples asked Jesus this: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28)
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).
Paul echoes this truth in Colossians 2:6: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” This new life that we have been raised to live is a life of faith. But this still begs the question concerning good works. Isn’t there something that God wants us to do other than merely trust Him?
In a word, no. We are His workmanship. What counts as far as God is concerned is faith in Jesus. As we trust Him and our hearts respond to the leading of His Spirit in us, we will see the good works He has prepared for us begin to flow through us. And they will be recognizable.
Here is how. First, God gives us new desires. Paul calls them the desires of the Spirit. According to the terms of the New Covenant, these desires equate to the laws God puts into our minds and writes on our hearts. They flow from God’s love and are different, night and day, from the desires of the flesh.
Forgiveness is one of those desires God’s Spirit works in us. It is not normal, humanly speaking, to want to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. But as children of God, forgiveness of others is a work God has prepared for us to walk in. We know it because God places that desire to forgive in us.
Next, the results of walking in those desires, living them out, can be attributed only to God. We can never be sure how someone will respond. Our imaginations are quick to jump to the negative possibilities, but God always has a better outcome in mind.
Calling up all the courage that we can, we step out in faith and extend forgiveness. What we first experience happens inside. Extending forgiveness calms the soul, brings peace to the heart and turns an anxious moment into one that surpasses understanding.
And then we see God’s work within the relationship. Maybe not instantly, but over time, it becomes clearer to us just how He is working what was a painful situation together for good. Couples on the verge of divorce have testified to the power of forgiveness in restoring their marriage. Assemblies of believers that were divided have come back together as they have walked in the forgiveness of God.
What happens both within and without is far too extraordinary to attribute to human effort. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Let’s walk in them.

Walk in the Spirit

Posted on by Bob Christopher

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). To live in the Spirit is to be controlled by the love of God. When the New Testament speaks to the new life we have been raised to walk in, faith in Jesus expressed in love to others is it. Through His Spirit, God has poured His love into our hearts and has given us the desire to walk by faith in Jesus. As we do, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Learning to say “no” is the by-product of saying “yes” to the Spirit.
It is important to understand this distinction. So many well-intentioned believers spend a life time trying to overcome sin in their lives. They wake up each morning with this prayer on their lips: “Lord, please help me to not sin today.” At the end of the day, they look back only to see their prayer went unanswered.
A better prayer is this: “Lord, teach me to abide in you and to follow the leading of God’s Spirit in my life.” God’s Spirit is never going to lead us into sin. He leads us to trust in the Lord, to live righteous and upright lives. He leads us to love and serve others. If living out the Spirit’s work in our lives, we will automatically be saying “no” to sin. Peter put it this way:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Walking in the Spirit is trusting God to complete the work He began in us. We can count on Him to complete this task, even when we do not fully cooperate. This is His promise to us: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…”
When we do get off course, and we will, the Holy Spirit merely recalculates our journey and continues His work in conforming us to the image of His Son. He does so without condemnation. Nor does He manipulate us with fear and guilt to get us back on track. He uses our mistakes, reminding us of the forgiveness we have in Christ, and works them together for our good. He comforts our hearts with this amazing promise: “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
You are not alone on your journey. Jesus is there with you every step of the way. Trust Him, rely upon Him, and live out what He is working in your life. When you do you will be saying “no” to sin and “yes’ to the will of God.
The center of God’s will, that’s the place where believers are to live their lives. Temptation may look exciting; the world makes sure of that. But it has nothing on its menu that can satisfy the soul and bring contentment to the heart.
The world promises happiness, but delivers pain, sorrow and misery. There is only one person who does deliver on his promises, Jesus. And He gives so much more than mere happiness. Peace, contentment, a life of godliness and love: these are His gifts of grace to us.
And there is nothing more rewarding than experiencing Jesus living His life through you.
It is time for us abandon ourselves to Jesus, to put all that we are in His hands. It is time for us to live out Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Let’s walk by the Spirit and discover that His will is good, pleasing and perfect for us.

Three Questions

Posted on by Bob Christopher

Is your mind boggled by the fact you belong to Jesus Christ? In spite of all the junk that comes your way, the daily trials and tribulations, does the love of God still rock your world? Of all your relationships, are any as satisfying as the relationship you have with God and the fellowship you experience with Him through His Spirit?
What would happen if we started asking ourselves these tough, penetrating questions on a regular basis? Paul’s hope in raising these issues in his letter to the Philippians was to help his readers live out what ultimately matters in life.
Here is their story; one you will see is much like ours today. They were affluent and worldly, but they had become complacent and discontent in their hearts. They complained, they argued, they exalted themselves above others, they took pride in their flesh, and they worried about the future. They held tightly to their worldly possessions. They were uneasy, restless, always striving for something more. The busyness and clutter of life bogged them down and robbed them of the joy of knowing Christ.
We’ve probably all been there and know exactly what that feels like, and it is not good. But is doesn’t have to be that way. We really can say that nothing compares to knowing Christ and experiencing the joy of our salvation. Sometimes we just have to be reminded what we truly have in Him, and that He is the source of our contentment and joy.
Ask your self these questions. Digest what it means to belong to Christ, to know and experience the love of God, and to walk in fellowship with His Spirit. These are the realities that matter, the realities that bring satisfaction and contentment to the soul.