kguy Bible study, Uncategorized

Faith that endures trial

(1 Peter 1:6-12)

September was a hot, dry month for us here where I live.  Smarter people than me talked about record years, but all I know is that it hasn’t rained much.  As the month neared its end and now that October is here, it’s time for the farmers to get to work.  

Harvest time has arrived for tobacco.  Although I don’t particularly like what the plant produces, it is beautiful to watch it grow.  As the summer comes to an end, the leaves of the tobacco plants turn a beautiful lime green.  All around the fields are full of row after row of lime green glory.

But drive by the next day and the fields tell a different story.  Lime green stalks stand bare, stripped of all their leaves.  Limp, ragged leaves lay strewn haphazardly across the road, having blown off the trailers hauling the tobacco harvest. The once beautiful fields now just look dusty and forlorn with rows of naked stalks.

As I view field after field whose grandeur has been wiped out, I wonder if I don’t look the same in affliction.  Trials are real.  They leave us stripped bare, limp and scattered, barely upright.  I admit that given the choice, I would choose an easy, tension-free, peaceful to the point of boredom life.  But Jesus promised trouble would inevitably come (Jn. 16:33). 

Peter too recognizes God’s power to guard us (v. 5) does not shield us from all difficulty.  Our lives and our circumstances are bound up in troubles and trials that grieve us (v. 6) and test our faith (v. 7).  We are burned out and burned up, the flames licking our faith, warping it and scarring it as we walk through suffering of all kinds.  

Yet the trials are not without purpose.  God’s priority for us through the trials is to prove the genuineness of our faith (v. 7).  I imagine this isn’t so much proving our faith to him, the one who knows everything about us, but proving our faith to ourselves.  In the trials, our faith burrows deep as we struggle to determine if God is truly worthy.  And we discover he is endlessly faithful, wholly able, always willing.  Even in the wrestling with him, he proves our faith in him is never misplaced and will never be let down.  

And when we have proven our faith genuine and at the revelation of Jesus Christ, God himself will praise, glorify and honor us for this tested and proven, but not perfect, faith (v. 7).  I imagine approaching God to offer him my dinged, charred, warped, smudged faith, and receiving his joy that I used it long and well.  Clinging to this faith through the turmoil says I believe it is worth it, I believe he is worth it.  To survive with that faith intact at the very end, however mangled it may be by then, proves that I deemed it a treasure and a priority, and proves it is real and genuine because it was tested, tried, and used.  This is the faith that lets loose God’s salvation in our lives (v. 9), since it is through faith we are saved (Eph. 2:8).  

From the original sin of Adam and Eve, God has been plotting and moving and preparing this plan of salvation until finally ushering in Jesus to secure this for us through his death and resurrection.  The prophets of the Old Testament wrote of it, searched for it, inquired God about it (v. 10-11), sought it desperately, and yet it wasn’t the time.  Even the angels long to know this salvation, since salvation is for man and not angel (v. 12).  God has come to rescue us from our sin, death, and ourselves, and we usher him in by faith.  This extraordinary salvation is ours, our blessing and our privilege.  

Knowing this salvation, what can we do but love the Father who gifts it (v. 8)?  What can we do but rejoice with joy that our hope is secure (v. 8)?  In knowing God and receiving his salvation, we are marked with love and joy, now and forever.  Whether in trials or not, confident in the salvation we have now and the completed work of salvation that is to come, knowing our full inheritance awaits us, along with God’s own praise, glory and honor for our faith – in this we rejoice. 

Father, the trials are real, the weight, suffering, indignity, and brokenness in them.  But yet you are there, calling us to yourself and inviting us to experience more of who you are, the author and perfecter of our faith.  Although we face trials, you have already obtained for us our greatest need, salvation, and secured our eternal future with you, that we may know you and enjoy you forever.  What love, what goodness, what grace and mercy!  How great you are, how good you are, how you love us.  You are worthy of all the glory, all our praise and worship, all the honor, and even more, now and forever.  Amen.

kguy Bible study, Uncategorized

Dear Friends

            What if we could confidently approach Scripture, knowing that when we sit down to read it, we will come away with exactly what God wants us to get in that moment?

            What if we didn’t need anyone else to help us understand our Bible?  Not a pastor nor a Bible study book, not even commentary nor that smart old lady at church.

            What if, every time we sat down with the Word, we knew that God was inviting us in, opening himself up to us, showing us the depth of his love and care and concern for us? 

            What if it wasn’t about checking Bible study off our list for the day?  

What if we were sure your Bible study (or lack thereof) had no impact on our standing before God, declaring us either a good or bad Christians?  

            What if?

            When approaching Bible study, so many of us are anything but confident.  Or maybe we actually are confident… confident we are doing it wrong, confident we aren’t understanding the Bible, confident there’s some secret we don’t know.  We might still read, but walk away unsure. We don’t trust ourselves, our wisdom, our understanding when it comes to the Word of God.

            But what if what we are really saying is that we don’t trust God?  

            As a believer in Christ Jesus, God has given you everything you need to read, study, and understand His Word.  

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual person judges all things… 1 Corinthians 2:14

            Before we believed, we lacked understanding of Scripture and were not even capable of it.  But now we have spiritual discernment, thanks to the Holy Spirit working in us.  

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13

            One of the roles the Holy Spirit plays in our lives is that of teacher (John 14:26).  As we study the Word, the Holy Spirit illuminates Scripture, allowing us to understand what we read and to interpret what God means.  Through the Spirit, we receive spiritual discernment, not because of our own smarts, but because of God’s great desire to connect intimately with us.

            By giving us his Word and his Spirit, God is inviting us in.  He is beckoning us from the pages of Scripture.  Come, see me.  Understand me.  Know me. And in knowing me, love me.  It’s a beautiful picture of God’s desire for us, that he would give us this book full of himself and the power, access, and authority to know through its pages a holy God.  

            And if that wasn’t enough, God actually gives us himself in the form of the Holy Spirit, God himself living and residing in us. Who are we that we should receive such immeasurable grace?

            What God has not given us is the right to open His Word and make it about ourselves – what we like to do, what we think is right, what we want God to be.  When we have God’s Spirit in us, conviction will come when we lose sight of what Scripture is really about.  Being part of the larger church community is one way God keeps us in check.  If what I think I’m reading doesn’t stack up with what I am hearing in the body of Christ, I know it’s time to seek counsel. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is real.  It’s swift. And it’s unrelenting until we seek truth, confess and repent of our sinful desire to make the truth of God fit our mold. 

            But we don’t walk into Scripture in fear that we will mess this up.  We walk into Scripture with the confidence that God has designed his Word to be understood and has given us the very key to understanding in the Holy Spirit.  He has set this up for us to win.  

            And this Scripture comes with power – the power to change us, to transform us into the likeness of Christ, to root out sin and shed light in the dark places of our hearts, minds and souls.  It is alive and gives life.  It cuts away what is dead and grows what is right.  

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12

            Will you trust God?  Will you believe that his design is right and good and trustworthy? Will you believe with confidence that you can understand Scripture because he has given you everything you need to do so?  Will you step out in that faith?

            Lord, you long to show us the depths and riches of your Word.  You desire to meet us there in the pages, unleashing the power of your Word in us. May we be brave enough to come with our confidence in you, knowing you have given us all we need to study your Word. May we boldly seek you and know by faith we will find you.  Amen.