The Right Prescription

Getting the wrong medication can be inconvenient, painful, and even life threatening. Even the wrong dosage of the right medication can be disastrous. Furthermore, many medications come with a list of side effects as long as your arm. What are we to do? Sometimes it seems like the cure is worse than the disease! Fortunately this is not the case in our spiritual life. As we continue to move on towards maturity and growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. His word is a precision scalpel, cutting to the heart of our need (Heb. 4:12). What is more the Lord is able to engineer ever circumstance, every difficulty, every trial to our exact needs. We can look at every day, every trial, every difficulty with the firm and confident assurance that this is the Lord's tool in my life to draw me closer to Him. Whether it is in my life by His permissive will, or His explicit will it is exactly what He is going to use to draw me to Him. That is an assurance, as we never need to ask if our prescription is correct. Praise the Lord, who cares for each of us!

Self-Control

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

Proverbs 16:32

How often is a difficult situation made worse by a knee-jerk reaction? How many times is a relationship hurt or destroyed on the basis of a misunderstanding that quickly explodes? Sadly the stories of influential, famous or powerful people whose quick tempers destroyed their personal lives are known to each of us. The world system doesn't help us as we seek to understand this phenomenon. Some may use their angry, fearful, patterns of their flesh as an excuse to commit great atrocities. Saying, "I couldn't help it, I was just so mad." While our culture may at times accept this excuse it is not in keeping with the Biblical view of maturity...it is not what God is making us into as He conforms us to the image of Christ.

The Proverbs warn us that the person who is controlled by his emotions alone is in danger. This is not to say that anger is bad, but it is an extraordinarily powerful emotion and left unchecked can be incredibly destructive. In Ephesians 4:26-27 we are told: "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." So we know that to feel the sensations and feelings surrounding the emotion of anger is by no means sin, but it easily leads to sin. By what means can we hope to control it? Counting to 10 never seemed to work for Donald Duck. Deep breathing and excusing yourself when you feel you are getting to hot? These types of methods may have some value, but the Bible offers us a more lasting solution:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Notice all of these wonderful characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit! How does fruit grow on a branch? Why by remaining connected to the Vine (see John 15). Self-control is the character of someone who is resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not controlled by anger, or the passing winds of any emotion. The one who is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) is able to experience anger, not be controlled by it, yet act appropriately to resolve it. On rare occasion it may exhibit itself as it did when Christ turned over tables, but most commonly the appropriate and Christlike response will be lead to a more peaceful conclusion.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

All Used Up

Perhaps you've noticed it in your every day life, perhaps you only notice when things get really tough. It is a regular occurrence for many of us. We get to the end of our rope, out of energy, out of resources. We find ourselves looking dismally into the mirror and finding that there is nothing that we can do to fix things. We realize quickly how limited our resources are, and how little that we can do. This can even lead us to discouragement, frustration and depression. For some this is the darkest hour that life has to offer. For us, as believers, I believe there is another way to describe this moment: the most glorious moments of our lives.

Is this surprising? Are we shocked and disturbed when we come to the end of OUR resources quickly? Should we have expected more out of our own strength? Why should we expect more of ourselves when we know Apostle Paul understood his own limitations: "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on me." (2 Corinthians 12:9) Are we so much stronger than Paul that we can do on our own what He had to rest in the Lord's strength for? More to the point - are we foolish enough to believe that we are strong enough to do things on our own?

The moment when we have nothing left, we are used up, we are incapable of any more is the moment when we should realize that we are operating from the wrong power source. That is the moment when we cry out in honesty to the Lord and hear his loving reply, that he never intended us to be operating on our own power to begin with. That moment of darkness is the moment that we must turn "...to Him who is able to exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us..." (Ephesians 3:20). We don't have to run out of our own steam to rest in Him, it is our choice. Will you choose this day to spin your wheels, and see how much you can do; or will you rely on His resources and see what He will do through you? There is a correct answer. There will be a test.

Doulos

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth with accords with godliness... Titus 1:1

In a quick study of Scripture we see that Paul describes himself this way repeatedly, as does Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1) as well as Jude (Jude 1:1). What is this title that they all use to describe themselves? In the New King James Version we have it brought across as "bondservant of God" but could just as well be brought across with the word "slave." When we think of slavery we think of the tragedy that occurred in our own country (and much of the rest of the world) that reached it's peak in the American Civil War. This however was not the context of slavery that Paul and the other New Testament writers lived in.

While many important observations could be made about the system of slavery in Rome, and the systems that occurred throughout the ancient world, I believe their is something directly from scripture that each of these men were thinking of when they described themselves as "slaves of God." Exodus 21:5-6 give us the most beautiful picture of slavery I know: "But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' then his master shall rbing him to the judges. He shall aslo bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."

In this Old Testament picture we see a slave who is scheduled to be free (a clear difference between the slavery that we know about and the biblical system of slavery) but he loves his master, he loves the care that he has received, and he wants to be BONDED to that master for the rest of his life. This process was painful (the ear of the servant was pierced with an awl into the doorpost of the house) and the result was that person was forever bound to that household. This, I believe is the picture that Paul and the others had in their mind when they proclaimed themselves bondslaves of God.

Branching Out

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4

As we continue to study the various ways our relationship with God is illustrated throughout the Bible I pray that we are are growing in the understanding of the reality that the Faith of the Bible is a relationship indeed, and one greater than we could ever imagine. This week we get to look at the image that Christ gave us proclaiming us to be branches connected to Him, the vine. The reality of this is easy to understand, as God commonly uses the physical world that He created to display spiritual realities to us.

As we imagine a branch attached to a vine we see that it gets all of its definition from the vine to which it is attached. The branch can only become stronger by being more firmly attached to the vine. The life, energy and power of the branch to produce fruit rest solely, wholly and completely with the vine. Christ speaks so clearly that apart from him we can do nothing, why do we question Him? Why do we waste our energy and spin our wheels trying to produce love, joy, peace, patience, etc. When we really can go only to the source. If those qualities and characteristics are missing from our life we don't need to "try harder" we only need to turn our eyes with Christ and abide, once again, in Vine apart from whom we can do nothing.

A Relaxed Mental Attitude

Dr. Troy Welch is president at the seminary I did my academic work through. He is a godly teacher and the Lord's love is evident through His life and ministry. One of my favorite phrases of his that I love to borrow is this phrase, "Relaxed Mental Attitude." It is Dr. Welch's contention that the mature believer should possess a "Relaxed Mental Attitude." Why does he believe this?

Our faith is built on Jesus Christ and all that He has done on our behalf. Once we understand this, we can begin to comprehend Grace. What it means that our salvation is totally of Him and not at all of us. Furthermore, our sanctification is totally by His work and our part is resting, relying on Jesus Christ and His finished work at the cross (John 15; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 1:3-14; Hebrews 2-3). Once we understand this reality we are able to trust Him with the major and minor details of our life. It does not mean we are inactive, we actively submit to Him. We actively pursue beholding Him through the Bible. It gives us a peaceful mindset and confidence that knows that there is no room for fear, worry or concern for us who are in Christ Jesus. And that is a great way to go into each and every day.

My peace I leave with you...

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 (NKJV)

I can't seem to move away from John 14-17 in my Bible reading. I don't know precisely why. It hasn't been that I cannot look elsewhere in Bible reading and study, because I have been all over, but for some reason I continually return to these chapters of comfort and assurance constantly over the past six months. There are so many nuggets of joy, of peace, or assurance. It feels so very intimate. Jesus talking to His friends just before He leaves them. Giving them all of these wonderful promises and gifts that they don't even understand why they will need. But I need them. There is so much deep intimacy and love to be had as we seek after Christ. The peace of Christ is given to us, not as the world gives. The world always seems to want something back, something in return, some favor for future redemption. Peace, as the world can provide, has a cost, is merely a delay of oncoming conflict. Christ's peace is deeper, rooted in who He is and who we are to Him.

I love the promise of a Comforter. I don't allow the Holy Spirit to comfort me. I don't allow myself to see Him as such. First as a Person and second as a Person who sees what goes on inside and out and wants me to realize that my sole and entire need is for Him. There is a sort of self-forgetfulness about peace, realizing that the peace is rooted in Christ forces me to look at where I am in order to receive and live in that peace. What a comforting statement Christ makes upon discussion of the ruler of this world: "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me." (John 14:30) Then I realize that I am in Him. The place that God has put me in Christ is a place where no evil can touch me because our enemy has nothing in Christ and that is where I am. (John 17:20-23; Eph. 1:3-14) What a blessing! These words wash over my mind and enrich every moment of my life.