What does that mean? Read this article from The Navigators to find out!……………………..
Category: Jesus
In part four of this series on saving faith, Andrew Davis talks about the necessity of the reliance on Christ. In fact, there can be no faith if we are independent and self-reliant. From Two Journeys………….
https://twojourneys.org/articles/detail/1450270/faith-active-reliance-on-christ/
Here is my takeaway from this neat little article: Jesus is not just our spiritual mechanic Who fixes what is broken; rather, He loves us and sympathizes with us in our pain and weakness. From Biblical Counseling Coalition…………………
This article reminds us that the presence of Jesus is our assurace that we have been forgiven of all of our sins, and that His grace will sustain us until we reach the rooms He has prepared for us in His Father’s house. From New Growth Press…………………..
This short devotional reminds us of the great love of God for us, His children, and since we are His children, we have nothing to fear and everything to hope for….including becoming more like Jesus! From Learning From God’s Word……………
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been […]
Our sin speaks out against us. Our Saviour speaks out for us. — Learning From God’s Word
Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World by Mike Cosper (IVP Books; 2017)
Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper tackles the very real difficulties that Christians in the West face to try to connect with and commune with a transcendent God, while all the world around us screams that there is no God or no better place other than the broken and disenchanted world all around us. Cooper makes a point of discussing the “disenchantment” of society in the West in anything outside our sense experiences, and that there is no absolute truth, and nothing to hope for after one dies. While fully and honestly admitting that life is very hard —- even for Christians (no “name it and claim it”) —- still, God’s grace can be easy at times to appropriate. This is the aim of Cosper’s book.
After a brief review of our post-modern and materialistic society and its impact on all people, including Christians, the author quickly launches into what he calls “pathways” to regaining our enchantment for the world around us, as well as the spiritual realm which is actually more real than what we can see and experience with our five senses.
The pathways that Cosper fleshes out are: One —- Re-enchanting Our World; Two —- Experiencing Grace; Three —- Bringing Scripture to Life; Four —- Withdrawing With God; Five —- Practicing Abundance; Six —- Throwing a Feast; and Seven —- Writing a Rule of Life. Cosper writes not as an expert in mastering these pathways, but rather as a fellow struggler who is learning how to live a transcendent life through wrestling with God, like Jacob did in the Old Testament. I believe a vast majority of believers struggle mightily in this area of living as God being the most real Person and true reality, and would greatly benefit from a book like this one. Highly recommended!
BOOK REVIEW
THE IMPERFECT DISCIPLE by Jared C. Wilson ( Baker Books; 2017)
This book is about discipleship but takes a different approach from most Christian books on this subject. The typical book by a pastor or Bible teacher who wants to explain how the Bible defines discipleship and how a person can become wholly sold out to Jesus — like the author! But this book is written by a former pastor who had to give up his pastorate due to stress, depression, and burnout. And he sets the goal for himself to write a book that encourages the average Christian who is trying to walk with Jesus while raising kids, going to school, and working long hours at a job that they are not exactly crazy about.
Wilson accomplishes this goal by openly admitting how messed up and thoroughly ordinary he is. He is no kind of example for other believers to follow. But this is the point, because until a believer is honest enough to admit how hopeless they are in trying to walk like Jesus on their own skills and willpower, the sooner they will be able to recognize the extraordinary grace found in the gospel. The author makes an interesting point that our Christian lives can be summed up in Romans 7 and 8 — that we fail in our sins daily, but God has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment of His intention to cause us to become like Christ through the efforts of the Spirit. And that God will not give up on us until we become glorified in heaven with Jesus and all of our spiritual brothers and sisters.
Wilson writes in a humorous and passionate style that is both engaging and encouraging. And he does a beautiful job in showing how spectacular and amazing God’s grace and love are and that any believer can live in confidence that by being a follower of Christ — even one who constantly stumbles — they are greatly loved and cared for by our heavenly Father. Highly recommended!
HEARING GOD (PART THREE)
This is the third article in the series of teachings from the book Hearing God by Dallas Willard. This article covers lessons learned from Chapter Three, “Never Alone.”
Before discussing hearing God’s voice, a believer must first have an understanding and trust that God is present with them. This understanding of God’s presence usually grows in stages. First, there is a simple faith that it must be true that God is with us, maybe because of some unique past experience or the faith of others in this fact. But we might have no direct awareness of His being here with us specifically.
Then, through time and experience, we might move to awareness at times of a powerful feeling or impression of God’s presence. This type of understanding makes itself known at times when a number of people on a church project, for example, find that their thoughts and activities have been synchronized through a sense of God’s presence and intentions.
Finally, we perceive God acting in conjunction with our actions in a way that changes the circumstances not possible through simple human effort alone. But these three phases of the sensing of God’s presence are only the beginning because of our relationship with God as priests for Him and as His adopted children. God wants to relate to and converse with us actively. This leads us to what Willard defines as our full purpose in God: “A conversational relationship with God where we are consistently and deeply engaged as His friend and co-laborer in the affairs of the Kingdom of God.”
Next time, we will look more closely at the idea of God speaking to us directly on a consistent basis.
This article gleans the teachings on having a relationship with God from Chapter Two of the book Hearing God by Dallas Willard. That chapter discusses some general guidelines on hearing from God.
Willard says the first guideline in hearing from God is to know that God intends to develop a relationship with us as two persons who freely love each other with genuine agape love. This means we should not just want to hear God speaking to us but becoming someone engaged in a mature and loving relationship with Him. To have any meaningful conversation with God, we must be in communion with Him.
Willard then states that the second general guideline for hearing God is to believe that the people in the Bible were basically like us. If God could choose to communicate with those people, we have to believe that the Lord can speak to us today.
Finally, the third truth to keep in mind when considering receiving a word from God is that it does not necessarily mean we are righteous or what we believe He said is correct when He speaks to us. So, we must always be humble and curtail the temptation to announce, “God told me.”
Our next article in this series will focus on the fact that God is always with us and attentive to us.
This article will be the first in a series in which I discuss the wisdom I have received (and am still receiving) from the book Hearing God by Dallas Willard. This book is all about how to develop a conversational relationship with God.
Willard says that when we look at all of the examples in the Bible of God’s intentions for His relationship with humans, God deals individually with each person. So, there is a tremendous amount of evidence in both Scripture and the history of the church of the existence of God’s personal guiding communication with us. But paradoxically, there is also a pervasive uncertainty about how hearing God’s voice actually works today. This leads to many believers having so little clarity on what they should expect God’s voice to be like and how to deal with it that it only leads to more confusion when His voice does come to them.
To resolve this paradox that hinders people in their relationship with God, Willard says they need a clear understanding of God’s usual ways of guiding and communicating with us. Three ideas need to be reviewed before actually looking at specifics for communicating with God.
First, it must be recognized that God’s communications to us come in many different ways and forms. But we need to know about the methods that God has generally preferred to use in the Bible and Christian experience. Second, believers may have wrong motives for wanting to hear from God. An extreme preoccupation with our own security and comfort rather than a Christ-like attitude to commune with the Father or seek others’ wellbeing may result in God keeping silent with us. Third, our understanding of God’s communication will be flawed if we have the wrong conception of God’s nature and His intentions toward us.
