4SpiritualSecrets

“And a great windstorm arose…but He said to them, ‘How is it that you have no faith?’…and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4: 35-40)

If you read the story recorded in the verses referenced above you will see that Jesus directed the apostles to get into their boat and cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  On this sea crossing a great storm fell upon them.  They woke Him with the question, “Don’t you even care that we (including Him) are all going to drown?” After turning the great storm into a great calm He asked them the great question, “How is it that you have no faith?”

Jesus had been teaching them that He was the King of the Kingdom of God and they were subjects in that Kingdom.  Did they really think all of this was going to come to an end at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee?  One translation renders His great question “Do you not even yet believe in me?” Another puts it “When are you going to get some faith?”

Before we are too hard on the apostles, let’s apply the essential truth of this story personally.  Jesus has promised us that He will take us to the other side of this life to the next dimension called heaven.  While we are on that journey if a great storm falls upon us, do we believe that storm declares all His promises to be null and void?  Or do we have a quality of faith that can turn that great storm into a great calm?

This story teaches us that storms in our life are a classroom in which God wants to strengthen, grow and authenticate our faith.

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles…” (Isaiah 40:31)

The Golden Eagle in the Mediterranean referenced in the Bible likes to build its nest at least ten thousand feet above sea leve, preferably in a Craig near the top of a cliff.  From that elevation the eagle can see a storm approaching while the storm is still far off.  With great patience the eagle waits until the winds of that storm reach a very high velocity and engulf the eagle and its nest.  The eagle then leaps fifteen feet from its nest directly into the adverse wind of that storm.  This adverse wind gives the eagle the lift and aerodynamics it needs to soar over that storm.

When the prophet Isaiah exhorts the people of God to mount up with wings as eagles do, he is referring to this storm strategy of the eagle.  When a storm comes into our life, our reflex response should not always be to ask God to deliver us from the storm.  We should consider applying this exhortation of Isaiah.  We can wait on the Lord until He shows us it is the right time.  Then we can leap into the adverse winds of that storm and find in them the spiritual aerodynamics to soar over that storm.

When the Church was born at Pentecost the great miracle happened after the apostles had waited on the Lord for forty days.  The apostles found miraculous spiritual aerodynamics by moving out against severe persecution, obeying the Great Commission,and making disciples for Jesus Christ.

When God permits or directs a storm into your life and mine, are we willing to wait on the Lord until He gives us the power to soar over that storm?

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

 The way we see things can be the difference between a life filled with light, or happiness, and a life filled with darkness, or unhappiness and depression. Jesus and the entire Word of God will consistently challenge our mindset and show us how we should see things.

Have you as a believer ever found yourself in a funk and realized that you needed to have an attitude adjustment?  I certainly have and I have learned there are times when an attitude adjustment can pull me out of what I have come to label a “pit fit.”  The two letters “AA” represent many things.  But let them remind you to make regular attitude adjustments when you need to make them.

There are times when the best defense is a good offense.  That is especially true when it comes to attitudes.  Instead of erecting a strong defense of attitude adjustments, the better part of wisdom is to put in place a strong offense of God ordained positive attitudes that will raise us above the devastating effects of “stinkin thinkin.”

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught us that if we want to be part of His solution, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we must begin by having eight attitude adjustments.  In your Bible turn to Chapter Five of the Gospel of Matthew and study closely what we call the eight blessed attitudes or beatitudes of Jesus.

When you understand and apply them they will make your life the light of the world!

 “…  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces…”   (Romans 5: 2, 3)

When Paul writes his theological masterpiece to the believers in Rome, he states that God has given us access by faith into all the grace we need to live a life that glorifies Him as we stand for Him in this world.  When he wrote to the Corinthians he declared: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).  That is the most superlative verse in the New Testament regarding the grace God has made available to authentic believers.

Can you and I imagine how God must feel when He knows how much grace He has made available to us as He observes us moving through our life in Christ without implementing that grace?  In these wonderful verses Paul was telling us that we should rejoice in our sufferings because they force us to access the wonderful grace of which he was writing to the Romans and the Corinthians.  In this context suffering produces.

One of my favorite mentors wrote that sometimes when we read verses like this we must allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament.  God has not oversold grace.  We simply do not know how to access that grace. As you rejoice in your salvation, are you also willing to rejoice in your sufferings as they force you to access the grace of God?

“ … who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

When the Apostle Paul wrote these words he had just been through a terrible time of suffering.  When he regained consciousness he was surrounded by a circle of disciples who were praying for him.  He then revived and went back into the city (Acts 14: 19, 20).  Some scholars believe this was when he was caught up into the third heaven which he described in 2 Corinthians Chapter 12.

He is writing to the Corinthians about that awful suffering in the verse quoted above.  He is declaring that at least one purpose of that suffering was that he might be equipped to comfort others with the comfort he found when that experience of suffering drove him to the place where he discovered the comfort in God Himself.

An evangelist is one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is, and a minister of comfort is one hurting heart telling another hurting heart where the comfort is. When you need help with a problem your best counselor will be a believer who has experienced that same problem and victoriously worked their way through that problem.

A man fell into a mud hole.  He was not able to pull himself out of the hole.  A friend saw his plight and jumped into the hole with him because he had been there himself and knew the way out.  Are you willing to accept this explanation as at least one reason God has permitted your suffering — that you might be equipped to be a minister of comfort?

“And they sang a new song…”(Revelation 5:9)

 Have you ever wondered why God gave us the miracle of music?  We find a clue in the Old Testament book of Chronicles where David divided the Levite priests into courses of four thousand: “four thousand praised the Lord with musical instruments, ‘which I made,’ said David, ‘for giving praise’.” (1 Chronicles 23:5)

There are times when we have a need to express the inexpressible.  When we are infatuated with love we often give each other nicknames.  I had a old girlfriend in California I did not tell my wife about when I met her in Virginia.  I called that girl “Punky” and she called me “Hunky.” We had written letters to each other using those nicknames.  About the third month of our marriage when I came in from work my wife called me “Hunky darling!” How I wished I had burned those letters. We invent nicknames because we are trying to express the inexpressible.*

The greatest need we ever have to express the inexpressible is when we enter into the divine presence of Almighty God.  In the last book of the Bible, we read that when a door opens into heaven we find every creature in heaven worshiping a Lamb on the throne of heaven.  For that occasion they are given a new song because the need to express the inexpressible will be so very great. I can’t wait to hear what that new song will sound like!

For believers the purpose of music has been, will be, and is now to express inexpressible praise to God.  Whether it is in a congregation with a choir, or a worship group leading a large congregation, or in your private prayer closet let music express the inexpressible for you.

*Editors Note:  After 56 yrs of marriage (& counting), Dick still calls Ginny his “Angel Face” and she calls him her “Angel Pie.”

“As they approached, Jesus said, ‘Now here is a genuine son of Israel – a man of complete integrity.’ ‘How do you know about me?’ Nathanael asked.  Jesus replied, ‘I could see you under the fig tree…’” (John 1: 47, 48)

In the first chapter of his Gospel, the Apostle John records Jesus choosing men who will become His apostles.  When He meets Nathanael Jesus exclaims, “Now here is a genuine Jew – a man of complete integrity!” Nathanael is shocked and responds, “How do you know me?”

Nathanael apparently had his devotions under a fig tree.  We might even assume that he enjoyed supernatural relationship with God under that fig tree, but nobody knew about this except Nathanael.  In so many words, Jesus was saying that He was the One Nathanael was communicating with under that fig tree.  This accounts for the enthusiastic response of Nathanael to these words of Jesus.  If you read his response in the verses that follow you will see that these words of Jesus completely convinced Nathanael that Jesus was the Son of God!

A personal, devotional, and practical application I want to make to this interview is what I like to call “The Fellowship of the Fig Tree.” Be challenged by these questions: Do you have a place where you regularly meet with God?  Have you ever experienced the divine presence of Almighty God?  I challenge you to have a time and place where you regularly meet with God.

Establish this discipline in two ways: meet with Him in prayer and in His holy Word.  When you pray you talk to God; when you open God’s Word you should expect God to speak to you.  Are you willing to do that?

“You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)

This verse is not a contradiction of the teaching of the Apostle Paul.  James actually wrote before Paul. We might put it this way: “Faith alone can save, but the faith that saves is never alone.”  We are justified by faith alone, but our works show that our faith is authentic, because good works always validate true faith.  What we really believe we do.  All the rest is just religious talk.  And nobody needs religious talk without works.  This is the essence of what James is writing.

The story is told of the headmaster of a Christian school in the Philippines who was holding chapel with his student body when the Japanese soldiers entered the school.  In front of all the students he was ordered by the Japanese to tear down and spit on the American and Christian flags. He refused and was shot in the stomach.

He survived and after the war a news correspondent visited him, and asked him what was going through his mind when he made that decision to be shot rather than do what he had been ordered.  His response was, “It occurred to me that a time comes in every man’s life when he must show by his actions what he believes. That was my time.”

James is writing that it is not at one time but at all times we show by our actions what we believe.  He is not writing that we are justified by our good works but that authentic faith is always validated by good works.

Are you validating your faith by actions that show what you believe?  

“… as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”     (2Peter 3:12)

Jesus gave a great discourse on His Second Coming (Matthew 24, 25).  In that discourse He proclaimed: ^“And this gospel … will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24: 14).  The prophets and the apostles proclaimed an event that is called the Day of God, or the Day of the Lord.  When Peter added his voice to the chorus he gave an awesome description of that Day (2 Peter 3).

Peter also gave a prescription regarding that Day.  Peter wrote that it is possible to speed the coming of that Day of God.  When you, as a thinking person, ask the question, “How can we speed the coming of that Day?” Jesus gave us the answer when He declared that the gospel must be preached in the whole world as a witness to all the nations and only then the end will come.

That means we can speed the coming of that Day by doing everything we can to get the gospel into the nations of this world.  I believe this means that one day the gospel will be taught in a nation somewhere in this world and then God is going to say, “Now I can bring down the curtain.  I can have My Day because the gospel has been proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to the nations!”

By helping ministries like the Mini Bible College get the Word of God into people and people into the Word of God, together we can speed the coming of the Day of God!

“Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1: 15)

In this verse James gives us what we might call the anatomy of a sin.  One day more than twenty years ago, my wife had to be gone for six or seven hours.  As I watched sports television in the evening, every thirty minutes or so there was an advertisement promoting pizza.  I truly love pizza but I’m not supposed to have it because I am a diabetic.  Each time the commercial was shown I developed a stronger desire for that pizza.

I had a telephone and some money, so eventually I called and ordered a pizza.  I told them I was in a wheelchair so please walk in.  When the delivery man arrived, I told him to place the pizza on the blanket in my lap and take the box with him (to leave no evidence.)  When my wife returned, however, as she picked up the blanket to fold it a small pizza crust dropped to the floor.  The consequences were disastrous!

According to James sin involves a lure, a look, a strong desire, and eventually temptation – then sin and death, which means “the pits.”  It is as if the lure is a piece of metal and our strong desire is a powerful magnet.  If we don’t do something to break up that magnetic field between our desire and that lure, we will sin.  I didn’t do that, so the pizza landed in my lap.

James shared this with us so we would understand the importance of breaking up that magnetic sequence of sin.  Are you willing to do that?