The Dance of Hope and Faith

“In his great mercy he has given us...a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ...In this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have had to suffer grief...these [trials] have come so that your faith...may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:3-4, 6-7.

If we are walking this earth we are alive and breathing.  The other certainty that accompanies our journey is that we will suffer trials of various kinds while on earth.  This morning the word ‘living’ jumped off of the page when I considered the hope that God has given us through the resurrection of Christ.  Our hope cannot be some dead attitude but a hope that is alive and breathing.  It is a hope that can expand beyond limits...a hope that as long as it is breathing will be maturing and actively progressing towards our inheritance.

What does an inheritance look like on earth through our hope staying alive and anchored in Christ?  It looks like the hope of a new job to a man out of work.  It looks like healing for a heart who has sustained the death of a loved one.  It looks like fresh life being pumped into a stale marriage.  An inheritance is hope that God will change the heart of a wayward child.    

God has already been merciful in His gift of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Our hope and future inheritance will be grounded in the refinement of our faith.  Through our emerging faith hope cannot stand still.  Hope dances to the same tune of faith and cannot forsake itself.  As our faith might be stunted by unbelief so will our dance.  God has reached out His hand and invited us to come to the dance and be His partner.  As we spin around the dance floor God will be revealed and through our living hope we will have a future inheritance...a future song in our hearts of God’s faithfulness.

Words Are Everything

“…but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” James 3:8-9, 11.

I love my morning coffee and Bruce loves his morning tea. We cannot begin our day unless we have prepared, settled in and sipped on our energizing beverages. But what if we were to prepare our morning drinks with salt water? The outcome would not be quite so enjoyable. The taste would change and the experience would be less than desirable.

The same is with our tongues when preparing our speech. James wrote 12 verses exhorting and cautioning us to tame the tongue. Acts 2 uses the metaphor of the tongues of fire coming from heaven as the Holy Spirit was sent from God to rest on His chosen. James compares the tongue in its most evil form as deadly poison, ‘corrupting the whole person’ and ‘sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.’ James 3:6. It seems to me that the difference in our words is the motivation from where they originated…the compassionate and merciful heaven or the judgmental and condemning gates of hell.

We use the tongue more than any other part of our body. James also states, ‘Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak…’ James 1:19. Proverbs 10:19a lends us its wisdom as it is written, ‘When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.’

The most effective way to use our tongues when speaking at all is to believe God in Exodus 4:12 when Moses didn’t know what to say. God comforted him with the truth of how man should prepare his speech… ‘I will teach you what to say.’ If we become a ‘quick to hear, slow to speak’ people and allow God to speak through us with His teachings our spring will run fresh and clear with His living waters.

May our tongues become restless to share the things of God with everyone we meet instead of becoming full of deadly poison. Our words either build up or tear down and we are the drivers of our mouths. May our words be full of God's grace and a vessel for His comfort to others.

Strolling Through Cemeteries

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” 2 Cor. 5:17

I don’t know about you but this is great news for which I am both humbled and grateful!  I only have to consider the old things to be thankful they have been replaced some new things.  I certainly have much more work to do in ridding myself of the flesh but thankfully I have the awareness to strive for new things.  Once we are in Christ, we cannot afford to stroll through the spiritual cemeteries where we have laid certain behaviors to rest.

In my cemetery, gossip and judgment have their headstone.  In my cemetery, frivolous spending and dishonesty marks a spot.  There is a shrine in my cemetery that reads ‘Look at the great things I have done’.  We all have markers that reveal who we were before we allowed Christ to reign in us and through us.  It is only human to revisit old markers, but the success is when we do not linger.  To linger around old behaviors is to open ourselves up to losing our conquered land.  If our old things are judgment and gossip we must stay clear of others who still struggle with those attitudes.  If our old things are unforgiveness and bitterness, we must make intentional time for the Holy Spirit to settle our emotions.  If our old things are taking credit for the good we must humble ourselves before the Lord.

Our new things will always resemble freedom!  Freedom in Christ...freedom from whatever has held us captive in the old life...freedom from the natural flesh.  The less of ourselves that people see mean they will see more of Christ’s character.

What old things in your life have been replaced with the new in Christ?  What behaviors are you still praying to pass away?  Whatever flesh challenge that is still a struggle for you can be choked out of your life through prayer and submission to God.  It all begins with the mind and the things on which we are to focus.

‘Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God’ Col. 3:1-3.