4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:4-5 (NLT)
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Tag Archives: religious
Let There Be Light (Video)
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Choices And Obligations
Have you ever felt you were obligated to do something you didn’t want to do? For me, when those situations occur, it always happens when something better is going on and I have to pass on it in order to do something I felt obligated to do. That causes frustration, disappointment, and a bad attitude. I spend the whole time thinking of what I could have done instead of being stuck doing what I felt obligated to do. It’s very disappointing to say the least.
Have you ever felt that way spiritually? Have you felt obligated to do something you knew wasn’t right or that God didn’t approve of? We all have at one time or another because we’ve all failed God. In every situation or temptation, we have a choice. We can do what God wants or what our sinful nature wants. Many times we choose what our sinful nature wants while knowing what God wants. After a while, we can begin to think we can’t beat the sin, so we give in to it every time.
James 4:17 says, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (NLT). When we do what’s wrong when we know what’s right, we have the same emotions we do when we do something out of obligation over desire. In Romans 7, Paul talks about the struggle of wanting to do what’s right, but not being able to. When that happens, we realize we are a slave to sin and feel obligated to do what it wants instead of what God wants. In those moments, we can feel frustrated and disappointed in ourselves.
Coming out of that chapter of failure to do what God wants, I like what Paul reminds us of in Romans 8. He said, “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.” You and I don’t have to have those feelings of disappointment. We don’t have to feel like we let God and ourselves down. We are not obligated to sin just because that’s what our mind and body wants. We can choose to do what God wants and forego the guilt and disappointment that comes from doing what’s wrong.
We don’t have to be slaves to our sinful nature. Christ has set us free from the law that binds us to go against God. He has placed His Spirit within us to bring the freedom to choose what God wants us to do. Once you accept Jesus as your savior, you are no longer obligated to do what you used to. You are no longer a slave to sin. You have been set free to live a Spirit-led life free from your obligation to sin. If you’re struggling still with slavery to sin, pray that God would give you a Spirit-led mind so you’ll be set free from slavery to sin and do what God wants.
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Free From Condemnation
If you’ve ever watched “Duck Dynasty”, you know who Uncle Si is. If you don’t, he’s the crazy uncle we all have, but would never put on TV! Uncle Si was asked by someone once what his favorite Bible verse was. He told them John 3:17. He then said, “Most people can tell you what 16 says, OK. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.’ But they don’t know nothin’ about 17. It says Jesus didn’t come to condemn us. If anybody had a right to condemn someone, it would be the son of God. If he didn’t do it, then hey, we definitely are not qualified to do it. (1)”
As crazy as he can be on that show, there’s a lot of wisdom in what he said there. As Christians, we have to be careful because it’s easy to forget where we’ve come from. When that happens, we think of ourselves as more righteous than others and begin to look down on the lost or unsaved. The problem with that is that the One who is the very embodiment of righteousness did not come to the world to condemn it, but to seek and to save those who are lost. If He didn’t come to condemn the world, what makes us think it’s our job? We should have the same mission as Christ: to help the list find salvation instead of condemnation.
Another thing for believers to be careful about is condemning each other. People who consider themselves more righteous (religious) than others have a tendency to bring condemnation on others who do not believe the way they do. The problem with that is that Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (NLT)” If someone has accepted Christ as their savior, then we have no right to bring condemnation on them because their sins have been forgiven.
If you’ve been living under condemnation either self imposed or given by someone else, let me encourage you to read Romans 7 and 8. In chapter 7, Paul was very frank about his shortcomings as a believer. We all fall short. We all still sin. We all struggle to do what the Bible tells us even after we become believers. After Paul admits that he’s one of us, he flips in chapter 8 to remind us that there is no condemnation for being human. He reminds us that God does what we cannot do and that is salvation. It’s His work, not ours.
If you’ve been the type who condemns others, think back to the words Jesus spoke to the adulterous woman in John 8:10-11. “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, ‘Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?’ ‘No, Lord,’ she said. And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I.'” (NLT) If you’re a Christian and you’ve been living under condemnation, then set yourself free based on Romans 8:1. If you are not a Christian and want to live free of condemnation, go back to John 3:16-17. God sent His Son to die for your sins. He took your condemnation for you so that you could be free and go to Heaven. He didn’t come to bring condemnation. He came to set you free from it.
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Religious Roadblocks
Last night a tree fell across the road to our house. It had snapped about 15 feet up and part of it was still attached so it wasn’t an easy removal. We called for the county to send out a crew to remove it. About 30 minutes later, a truck pulled up and a man got out. I thought, “How is one person going to move this?” He walked all the way around the debris looking at it, thought about the best way, grabbed a chain, wrapped it around the fallen trunk, tied the other end to his bumper and tried pulling it off the road and from its connected trunk.
It did not easily separate from the base. It took several attempts of squealing wheels on the pavement to finally break it free. He kept driving once he had momentum and drug it off the road. He took a chainsaw and cut off any branches that were sticking out towards the road. We cleaned up the debris that was on the road and then took a look at the bare trunk that was still standing. It was clear that it was hollowed out. From the outside, it looked healthy and vibrant, but on the inside it was hollow and rotten.
It reminded me of the religious Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They blocked the roads of others with unrealistic rules in the name on religion. They appeared to be the only ones who could uphold these rules so they looked down on others. There was no real way anyone could fully live according to all the rules they had subjected the people too. They took what God intended as a way to communicate with people and put up road blocks separating them further from Him.
Jesus saw them for what they were and it made Him angry. In Matthew 23:27 He said, “Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside, but filled with dead people’s bones.” They appeared to be healthy, but like that tree, they were hollow and dead inside. Nothing made Jesus more angry than people who traded a relationship with God for religion. Relationship with God is empowering because it creates communication with Him. Religion separates you from Him through shame and failure because there are rules you can’t follow.
Jesus came to restore the relationship that the rules of religion had severed. He was the one person God sent with the power and ability to remove the tree that was blocking our ability to get to Him. His desire was not to condemn through rules and regulations, but to save us through relationship. He was about empowering us to live godly lives not to shame us because we couldn’t live up to the standards of religion. The religious leaders hated Him for it. He took their power grabbing scheme and exposed it for what it was. They ended up killing Him because of it not realizing that when they did, they had cleared the path for relationship.
Have you viewed Christianity as a list of rules that you could never follow? Have you seen God as the king of thou shalt not’s? That’s not who He is. Man took what God intended to create relationship and put in rules that separate. If you’ve been separated from a relationship with God because you thought Christianity was about a bunch of rules, I encourage you to leave the religion behind and build a relationship with God through Jesus. It has been His intention to have a relationship with us since He created us. Get rid of the roadblocks of religion and embrace a relationship with Him today.
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The Check Engine Light
The check engine light has been on in my car for a while. Like most people, I’ve ignored it. The car has run well and has not given me any issues, so I’ve continued to drive it. This month, it’s time to get the annual inspection done and you can’t get it inspected with the check engine light on. I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend trying to figure out what the problem is. I’ve been able to clear all the problems except one. I’m continuing to try to solve that one so my car will be in perfect working order.
I started thinking how many of us have our spiritual check engine light on. We ignore warnings that there is something not right in our lives. We see the light, but we keep going because we either think we’re fine or that it’ll be too costly to fix. I know because I’ve done it. The Holy Spirit would let me know that there was an issue, but I’d counter Him by saying, “It’s all right. This is a one time thing. I’m not going to make a habit of this.”
After we continue to ignore His warnings, it becomes like that light in my car, we hardly even notice anymore. We continue on in our lives, knowing what is right and continuing to do something else. What we said was a “one time thing” becomes a root for something even bigger. Sin rarely starts off big. It starts as a small step and leads to another small step. We justify each step until something happens and we realize we’re a long way away from where we should be.
We should each perform inspections like we do for our cars. In I Corinthians 11:28, Paul tells us to examine (inspect) ourselves before we take communion. For some churches, that’s every week. For others, once a month. However long it is between for you, that’s a perfect time to see if your spiritual check engine light is on. It’s also the time you need to figure out why it’s on and to do what’s necessary to get it turned off. The good news is that the price has been paid, we just need to do our part to replace the things in our lives that are causing it to be on.
What I’ve found is that the longer I continue to go without examining or inspecting myself, the more I have to repair in my life. Typically, it’s relationships that I have to repair, and my relationship with God is the first one that needs to be repaired. After that, I go to others whom I’ve ignored or offended and seek forgiveness. It’s not easy and it requires time and effort. I have to put things in place that keep me from going back and doing the things that caused my spiritual check engine light to come on in the first place.
What about you? Is there something in your life that you’ve ignored that God has given you a warning over? Have you continued on in your life so much that you hardly even notice anymore? How long has it been since you’ve done an inspection of your life? Let me encourage you to do it today. Don’t go another day without fixing the issues in your life that are causing God to warn you that something is wrong. It starts with repentance and ends with a life running full throttle for God.
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My 2013 Theme
Great organizations and companies have vision and mission statements. They also have themes each year that are reflective of their goals. Whether it’s a Fortune 500 company, a church or any other organization, it’s important that everyone on the team knows what the goals are so they can work together. As a reminder, they put out a theme for the year and keep repeating it so that others can run with them to accomplish their goals.
In January of this year, God spoke to me out of Ephesians 4:1. The scripture says, “Lead a life worthy of your calling.” He said that this was to be my theme this year. All year long I have tried to make changes in my life that were reflective of that theme. When an opportunity showed up, I would ask myself if that would help or hurt my theme of living a life worthy of the call. By making better decisions based on my theme, I saw incredible growth in my spiritual life this year.
Was I able to live a life worthy of that call 100% of the time? No. Am I closer to being who God wants me to be because I have tried harder than ever to live a life worthy of that call? Yes. I believe having that theme has helped me in many ways. It kept me on track where I would have usually failed, it helped me turn my daily commute into prayer time, it helped me to be obedient in starting this blog and it helped me share with others the calling that I have.
Since tomorrow is the start of the new year, I have a new theme. My theme for 2013 is found in John 3:30. It says, “I must decrease and He must increase.” Everything I do in the coming year will be reflected and measured by that verse. The question I will ask in each situation is, “Will this be for my glory or for His?” If it’s for mine, it will go against the theme and be detrimental to my overall goals.
“I must decrease and He must increase” means that I am to put God’s needs above my own. I need to see that His ways are more important than mine. I must recognize that His message and will are more important than my own. This is not an easy theme to follow. It will go against my very human nature. It will take crucifying my flesh and desires daily. Honestly, I’ll need help from others to keep me on track. It’s not something I can do on my own.
Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.” Quite simply, this is why companies and organizations write out their themes and keep mentioning them. It is so others who read it can run with it. I’m writing mine out so that anyone who reads this can run with me and help me to accomplish what God wants me to this year. I know a few of the things God has in store for me this year and they will require me to decrease my desires and put His first. I’ll be writing about them for sure.
What is your theme this year? I’d love to know so that I can run along side of you to help you accomplish what God has for you this year.
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Sinking Like a Rock
About 15 years ago, a buddy and I went to Cancun for vacation. We had a great time planned out and were excited to be going on an adventure. When we checked into our hotel, they said that each day the hotel would be hosting games and activities. If we met in the lobby at a certain time each day, they would tell us the activities.
At one such meeting, they told us about a snorkeling trip. That sounded fun. I had been snorkeling in the Red Sea and it was an amazing experience. We decided we were in! They gave us life jackets, snorkeling gear and then took us out in a boat. They dropped us off in groups and we were to follow the flags to get the best experience. While I was admiring the ocean floor and sea life, I saw something that didn’t belong. It was my buddy.
He was steadily sinking like a rock with his arms waving and he had a look of terror on his face. I looked up for the boat, but it had gone off about 200 yards. There was only one thing to do. I had to go against everything I’d been taught. I took off my life vest, I swam down to get him, grabbed him, kicked off the bottom and swam for the surface as hard as I could. As soon as we got there, he did what experts said he would do, he panicked and pushed me under.
All of a sudden I was in a battle for my own life. I couldn’t break free from his grip. I had to punch him to get him to release me. When I got to the surface for air, he was still thrashing the water looking for anything to hold onto. I yelled at him to relax. “You have a life vest on,” I told him. “Relax and let it do its job.” Once he did, he found that he was floating. I told him to lay his head back and breathe while I got the boat’s attention.
As I was yelling for the boat, a wave came over his head and water got in his eyes and mouth. Panic set in again. He grabbed me, pushed me under and began thrashing the water again. I punched him, got away from him, made it back to the surface and calmed him down again. Finally the boat came to pick him up. He stayed in the boat until we got back to shore. That’s when he told me he couldn’t swim.
Many of us find ourselves in his situation on life. We are overcome by waves and we panic. We are sinking to the bottom. Drowning in problems. Our life preserver isn’t working like we thought it should. The opposite of what’s supposed to happen is happening. We thrash and kick and fight. The more we do, the more we sink. We are overcome with life.
God is looking down through the water. He sees you looking up at Him. He is not unaware of where you are. He has given you a life preserver in His Word. Read the Bible. Cling to His promises. Proverbs 4:22 tells us that His words are life to those who find them. Hebrews 13:5 echoes, “for He, God Himself, has said, ‘I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not (3 times) in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down or relax my hold on you!'” Wow! That’s a powerful promise from God. Hold on to that today and trust in Him. Just like in swimming, if you’re drowning, quit fighting and trust. You will rise to the surface and get air again. God is on your side even when you can’t see Him.
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Living by Faith
I grew up in a family with a modest income. Early on as a child I learned what it was like to live by faith. I watched as God supplied our needs daily. When we needed a car, someone gave us one. When we needed food, someone brought us food. When we needed money to pay the bills, someone gave money. Each time a need presented itself, God spoke to someone to provide for it. I know there was a lot more that was provided for than I ever saw, but what I did see, showed me that God was our provider.
Now, as an adult, I can appreciate more what God did for us through others. I understand the stress that living by faith can bring. I also understand the depth of faith you get when you solely rely on God. Growing up, I would pray that God would someday allow me to be on the giving end to where I could help provide for others in need. God has definitely answered that prayer and continues to answer it.
Somewhere along the way, my mind started equating being poor with living by faith. I’ve learned that when you don’t have much, you have a greater opportunity to live by faith. When all you have is a prayer, you don’t have a choice except to trust God. That doesn’t mean that when God blesses us monetarily we can’t live by faith though. It just becomes more difficult to. We begin to trust in our abilities and in the blessing rather than the Provider.
In Mark 10:17-27, there is a story of a man who approaches Jesus and asks what he needs to do to get to Heaven. Jesus lists off the Ten Commandments and the guy’s face lights up. “I’ve done that ever since I was a kid”, he replied. Jesus said, “But there is one thing you haven’t done. Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow me.” The man’s countenance fell as he walked away unwilling to commit to that.
That young man was trusting in his possessions rather than the One who provided them to him. I believe if he had truly been living by faith, he wouldn’t have had a problem giving them up. It comes down to perspective. Do you believe that what you have is yours or God’s? Did your hard work pay for what you have or did God use your job to provide for you and you purchased those things with His money? I was always taught that what I own is not mine. It is God’s. I am merely a steward over what He has given me.
When you learn to see things this way, God will allow you to be on the blessing end of living by faith. In order for the poor who are living by faith to have their needs met, there needs to be people who have more than enough to live by faith. While God can and has used the wealth of the wicked to be laid up for the righteous, why should we pass up the blessing of giving and allow others to take care of those in need? No matter where we fall on the scale of living by faith, one principle remains: Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap.
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Liaisons for the Lost
If you knew someone famous and your friends knew it, would you give in to their pleas for you to introduce them? Most of us probably wouldn’t. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with the famous person in order to satisfy our friend’s desire. I wonder how many of us fail to introduce our friends to Jesus. We won’t introduce them for the opposite reason though. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with them instead of being concerned with our relationship with Jesus.
In Mark chapter two, four friends take another friend to see Jesus. When they arrive, the place where Jesus is speaking is full. There are so many people that they are spilling out into the street and these four guys can’t even get near the door. They are desperate for their friend who is paralyzed to see Jesus. They take him up to the roof of the place where Jesus was speaking and then start digging until they’ve created a hole big enough to lower their friend through.
When Jesus sees the faith of the friends, He speaks to the man who was lowered down and forgives his sins. Jesus was more concerned about healing him spiritually than he was physically. I don’t even know if is friends were thinking he needed a spiritual healing. I’m sure they were just looking for a physical healing. A physical healing is pointless without a spiritual healing first though. A physical healing is temporary, but a spiritual healing is eternal.
A friend of mine spoke to me yesterday about being a liaison for Jesus. When he mentioned it, I though of this story. These men were liaisons and made sure their friend was placed In front of Jesus. They didn’t care what else was going on, what Jesus was doing or whose house they were tearing the roof off of. They just knew that their friend needed help and Jesus was the one who could heal.
Each of us have people in our lives that need to be taken to Jesus for healing whether it’s physical, spiritual or both. What are we doing about it? Are we just mentioning our friend in passing? Do we get to the door, see it’s full and go back home? Or do we find a way to get on a roof, dig through all the layers of things that separate us from Jesus and make a way to get in front of Him? It was always those people who got more than they hoped for.
The woman with the issue of blood couldn’t get to Jesus. She wasn’t big enough or strong enough to push through the crowd to get to Him. Instead she got on her hands and knees and crawled through the dirt and muck so that she could at least touch the hem of His garment. Where’s that kind of tenacity in our prayer lives today? Where’s that kind of determination to see people healed and forgiven? I know I need to have more of it. I think when we get that kind of fire in us, we’ll start to make the difference we were called to make.
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Devotions by Chris Hendrix 