Book Study

The Fundamental Truth of the Christian Faith

May 24, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I have to admit this chapter surprised me. Like many I thought it would be “justification by faith alone, by Christ alone”. But this truth is deeper than that even.

Now don’t misunderstand me, this is a VERY important truth of the church to understand that justification is by faith alone, through Christ alone. It is, churches have fallen for not understanding the fundamental nature of this truth.

By the basis of the Christian Faith is this… the triune God. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Consider who God is: Truth, Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign Lord. This Lord God who is always the initiator of relationship and beingness.

And then we have God the Son. Perfect servant of the Lord God, showing us who God is, doing what God does, never acting independently, always working in conjunction with the Lord God and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, working always with the Lord God and God the Son. Strengthening Jesus in his work on our behalf, working within as we live out our faith.

Throughout the whole of the bible we see the Triune nature of the Godhood. From Genesis 1 through to the book of Revelations. This eternal fellowship is what sustains the heart and soul of the believer.

And yet this question is begged. How often we pay attention to this pivotal truth of the church? How often do we pay attention to how the Triune God shapes our lives as believers? From how he forms the church visible and invisible, how he moulds our hearts and calls us his own?

This question is asked “What time do you give to pondering the revealed glory of our Triune, Saviour God? What honour do we ascribe, in our personal and corporate worship as the church, to the Persons, beings and actings of our Triune God?” (p21)

For something that is so deep, so pivotal to the Christian faith, do we really spend any time thinking of what this all means? I fear too often we don’t. We don’t strive to understand it as much as we should you know?

The Faith Shaped Life

May 10, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

You know how I was going through A Mom like you? Well… the next two chapters caused me to say NOPE not going to do this book, so I’ve moved on to The Faith Shaped Life by Ian Hamilton. My Mom-in-law gave me this book for Christmas this year and I promised her I’d read it so here we go. 43 chapters in this book so if I do one chapter a week, I’ll be doing this book for most of the coming year.

I do want to assure you that there’s nothing really wrong with A Mom Like You, but it’s just not the book I need to read at this stage in my life. I’m post the child having years of my life so some of the topics just don’t suit my life. Ergo when I was searching for something more suitable I was reminded of mom’s Christmas present to me.

The Faith Shaped Life

I love the opening line of Chapter one… “The Christian life is a faith-shaped life”. I think part of the reason I love that line is it keeps popping up in the devotional on the Heidelberg Catechism I am reading with the lad, it comes up in my devotions on John, and just my every day living. Seeing how faith is a daily choice you know? This is why that first sentence resonates with me so.

“The fundamental principle at the heart of the Christian life is that, like Moses, we persevere because we see him who is invisible”. Faith is sight for believing eyes. It is, isn’t it? The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see him doesn’t he? He’s the one who reminds of us God through the storms in our life when it is so easy to forget that God is God and we adore him for all of who he is. For faith is easy when life is easy isn’t it? So easy to pray and talk and study the things of the Lord when life is easy. When storms are hard though, when times are tough, it is SO easy to get side-tracked, to get lost in the moments of grief, pain, confusion, loss and more. The bible is full of psalms crying out to God for relief and help, to no longer feel forgotten.

Why this happens:

The question this raises for me is, why does this happen? Why do hard times makes our faith seem so tenuous? Is it because we stop seeing God so clearly? Or because we feel abandoned by God? Or is it that where we are looking changes? Do we stop looking by faith and only see the circumstances of our life? So the physical jumps into focus and the spiritual, the looking at the unseen that only by faith we can truly see, grows dimmer? I’m thinking that is what it is, what say you? We just lose our proper focus unless we work to keep it where it should be.

What does it mean to live by Faith?

It means we trust God, no matter what happens in life. We trust God, we keep our eyes fixed on him. It means we keep trusting God and to ACT like we are trusting him. It’s not an easy thing, you know, living the life of a Christian. We face trials, we have an adversary in the devil, and we’ll find ourselves in a battle.

So what do we do? AH… we remember… oh we remember to, moment by moment, trust God. To trust in him, to trust in his word, in his goodness, in his purposes and his unfailing love. This we need to do.

This book’s aim is help us to flesh out what it means to live by faith and to point us relentlessly to Jesus Christ who is the founder and protector of our faith. Should be an interesting journey eh? 🙂

Our Christain Faith … A Process of Becoming

April 12, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence

without fault and with great joy. Jude 24

This past Sunday we attended a service where the pastor taught this important truth. Growing up is a process. You can’t feed a 5 year old child, 10 years worth of food one day and then the next expect her to be a teenager. Growing up takes time. It’s no different for a believer… growing up into the Lord is a process. AND just like it would be indicative of something being wrong if a child didn’t grow up, so it is indicative of something wrong if a believer doesn’t mature in their faith over time.

It’s a conversation I have with my son frequently who has it in his head he’s supposed to know everything already. “Lad, you don’t have to apologize for not knowing something… all it means is that now you have a teaching moment. I get to help you learn something!”

Everything is a process you know? An orange ripens, a car is made, a rabbit is born and grows up, a job is started and in time is done smoothly, a 12 page paper is written (years in the making), or a house is built. It all takes time. It all is a process of being.

We need to remember that our faith is a process too. A learning and growing and becoming more like the Saviour we love and follow. Not only that though.. our brothers and sisters in Christ as learning and growing and becoming more like the Saviour too. It’s ALL a process for EVERYONE.

Let that sink in.

I need to let that sink in.

Just like I can tell a child “be careful, you might spill” and then seeing them spill time and again, until they learn what is the right amount to put in a glass if you plan to carry it. They learn it and then spilling doesn’t happen (unless there’s an unforeseen complication….. in our house that would be Miss Lizzie) 🙂

Knowing that the process of becoming more like Christ (sanctification is another word for it) is indeed a process. What does that mean for you?

I know for me it means time in prayer, time in God’s word, time listening to others.

All these things (prayer, God’s word, listening to others) tell me if my perspective is getting skewed, or if I need to slow down, or if I need to change what I am doing. It’s a necessary thing. Being in communion with God is a time taking event. A necessary part of the process in being part of the Lord’s family.

It makes me wonder, why do we rush around so? Why do we hurry each other to catch up or learn more or???? Why? Is there a reason we don’t stop and realize that we are all on the journey, and just like children growing up, we’ll learn important lessons at a different pace from another? Why can’t we be as patient with each other as the Lord himself is with us? Let us have a mindset to encourage and build each other up. Just as we’d say well done to a child learning a skill, or applauding a fellow finding a job, or a teen getting good grades on her report card. Let us applaud when a fellow believer finally gets something they have struggled with for far too long. That would be a goodly thing to don’t you think?

Finding the Balance

April 5, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. Colossians 3:23

Over the past several Thursday’s we’ve been considering Mary and Martha and the lessons they have to teach us. Did you know that this story is sandwiched between the story of the Good Samaritan (that reminds of our relationship with each other) and the Lord’s Prayer (that reminds us of our relationship with God)? I have to say that I hadn’t really thought of that before it was brought up in Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. To think of the balancing act it is in our service to God and our service to people.

Don’t you find it hard sometimes?

I think about how sometimes families will leave the worship service early during church so they can go out and prepare coffee. The coffee needs doing, but the worship needs happening too. Or when an Easter Son-rise service is happening and a good portion of the “helpers” are out of service getting it all ready. Which admittedly is wonderful! I love the breakfast and how quickly it is ready, and I love helping with the clean up afterwards, but sometimes I wonder is the not coming to worship worth it?

How do we balance the spiritual and physical? Both needs are real. Both goals are great. They both need to be met. It is so easy to just focus on one or the other at times in our lives.

I have to admit that I am no expert. I struggle with how much to do and when to do it. It’s a battle to see the needs…like for instance the lad and I work on the foodbank once a week. He does his schooling and helps wherever he can when called upon, and I work with clients and keep things organized. And sometimes I wonder if it makes a difference, or if when my week is busy if I should just cancel it, or what. It’s not always an easy fit you know? And then I look at this week and how I’ve managed to have devotions once because life has been a bit more hectic this week than I would have planned and so my worship of God, my service to God has suffered. The balance just hasn’t been there this week.

How Does One Maintain Balance?

It leaves me pondering…how does one maintain balance?

I think part of it is this:

Needing to plan out my life just a bit more. To be able to say I have this and that and that thing to do, so how do I fit in my must, my need, my want, my desire in-between it all?

Steps to take:

Planning. Noting the big things in your life and making sure the important gets done and working the rest around it.
Spiritual inventory. Taking note if you are feeling stressed or downcast or off-kilter. Are you spending your time wisely? Reaching out to God? Talking to him? Learning from him? Sharing of yourself with those around you?
Rest. Are you taking a day to just rest. Seriously.. God gave us a day of rest for a reason. TAKE IT! Spend time chilling, spend time with your spiritual family, Spend time with the people important to you. Take the rest.
Remember who your centre is… always circle back to Christ. Remember that he is the strength behind anything we do. Whether it is service to our fellow beings or service to God. Without Christ as the wind beneath our sails none of it is truly possible.

It was intended

March 29, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
John 12:3

Reading over the verses that precede this one I am reminded of how after Lazarus was raised from the dead, how some of the Jews went off to tattle-tale to the Jewish leadership over what had happened. They didn’t need to do that, it was a decision they freely made. Mary, Martha and Lazarus must have had a lot of friends as we read in John 11: ⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

This is course, led to a discussion among the Jewish leadership about what to do with Jesus and from that day forward they sought to take his life.

As a result, Jesus withdrew from being among the people. He instead stayed with his disciples in an area near the wilderness, a village called Ephraim.

When we come to this story, which takes place in Bethany, Jesus had taken some quiet time with his disciples. They were having a nice dinner together. A meal given in Jesus’ honor. Six day before Passover. Mary and Martha were serving the meal, then Mary comes out with a bottle of really expensive perfume. The most expensive thing she owned. In a day when perfume was kept in bottles that needed to be broken before they were used. She took it and anointed Jesus with it.

You know I sit here and wonder at that.

Thinking that wow…. could I have wasted perfume like that? But she simply did it. We dont‘ know the state of her heart and mind, whether it was done from the Spirit’s prompting, or out of the generosity of her heart, or whatever. We don’t know.

What we do know is that she put it on his feet. Feet that would have had contact with a messy dirty road, feet of a man used to spending most of his day walking around. But Mary paid that no nevermind. Poured the perfume on and USED HER HAIR to wipe his feet. Not an ever ready towel that women carry around to clean up messes and the like, but her hair.

Can you imagine doing that? Using your hair to wipe perfume over someone’s feet… even someone you cared about desperately? Would it be an easy thing to do?

This is what Mary did.

She gave of herself and her person to anoint the Lord. Jesus’ response was this : It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.

Jesus knew he was going to die…and now his disciples knew it too. Did they understand it? Did Mary really understand it when she heard those words? I don’t know. I just don’t. I suspect the disciples didn’t really understand it based on how Peter stuck close to his side. I know that it sends a chill down my back reading it and I know that Jesus came to die for me. For my sin. To make me right with God. To know that it was foretold that Mary would keep that bottle so she could anoint him… just touches my inner part you know?

Makes me wonder a bit, what does the Lord know that I will do for him?

Will I know it when it happens?

Mary had learned to seek after the Lord, to cling to his words. Anointing him with this oil undoubtedly sprang out of this clinging to him. So when I consider what the Lord might have planned for me, clinging to him and his words seems like a vital step to take doesn’t it? I must continue to cling to him, to seek after him, to keep sussing out what the Lord himself would have of me. Join me?

Having a Teachable Heart

March 22, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  
Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.   John 8:31-32

I have to admit that today was a bit of a struggle. But in that struggle, I came to, what to me is a startling conclusion. I’m becoming too settled in my ways. I’m becoming one of those older people who prefers to have things a certain way and doesn’t want them to change. GAH!!!! I need to stop that way of thinking. I need to remain open, with a teachable heart and spirit! No being a close-minded curmudgeon for me!!!!

The thing is, to avoid becoming such a person I have to make sure that I do hold to what is true and right. Not letting the winds of change give me any reason to doubt the veracity of what I know to be true. Truth must be held to but I must remain open to change that is just window dressing you know?

So how does one maintain a teachable heart?

It’s a hard question to answer in some ways. Which is silly you know? I think about my boy and how he heeds my words, how I can point him to a good resource, and show him a book. I can show him a youtube video or watch a lesson from Drive Thru History and hear “I never knew that before”. I hear words like “Mom, tell me if I’m wrong ________________________” and I can either say ‘yes, that’s right’ or ‘almost but think about _____________’ and occasionally ‘no’. He has a teachable heart.

Now I have a teachable heart. There are times my lad tells me something I didn’t know before and it’s like wow.. that’s cool Or I’m doing my devotions and discover a new truth and think..neat how nuggets of truth are sometimes just hidden away. So it’s not like a don’t have a teachable heart right?

What then IS a teachable heart?

Is it the willingness to go beyond knowing stuff? To be able to take knowledge and apply it in some way to your life, learning and position? Is that having a teachable heart? For instance, taking the knowledge that ants always work for the good of the colony (a lesson from my boy)… and remembering from scripture that God tells us to look to the ant in Proverbs 6 (a lesson from God). Putting those two bits together and thinking how as “ants” we should be looking to the betterment of the Christian Family and work diligently at it? Is that having a teachable heart? Is having a teachable heart realizing that just because words to my favourite hymns have been changed doesn’t make them bad or annoying… it’s just changing words to fit the times we are in? Is having a teachable heart mean accepting rebuke and letting that rebuke (assuming it’s an accurate one) change your perspective and heart and therefore your actions?

How does one foster a teachable heart?

As I think about what it means to have a teachable heart I have to consider how one gets from point a (learning) to point c (doing).

Point A needs to be a willingness to learn, to be taught, to listen to those who know something you don’t. God’s word is full of information I don’t know. Teachers in books and in school know information that I don’t. But if the willingness to learn isn’t there, the learning will come MUCH harder you know? No drive to learn, no push to remember right? It’s like a delayed doing a spelling program with my lad because he had NO desire to learn, he was content with where he was. But this year he wanted to learn spelling, and so that internal push has helped him immensely to learn to spell better which is very good.

Point B. Applying what you learn. Take my lad and his spelling. He asks how to spell a word and now if I ask him what would be at the end of a word with a long vowel.. he can fill that in. If he tells me something about his ants and asks a question I can usually answer it now because he talks and I listen because it’s important to him that I do. (do I really care that much about them???? honestly no..but I care about him so I learn and find ways to apply that knowledge that make him smile). Ants like crusty honey and dead insects! (So they now get the dead flies I run across). 🙂 Practical application is a great thing to do.

Point C accepting correction if the learning didn’t happen well. My son had a spelling list to go through today. He forgot that consonants are doubled at the end of a word if they have a vowel in front of them. I corrected him and his response was “oh right mom, I’ll remember that for tomorrow”. Acceptance of correction. When I get mad at someone for cutting me off in traffic and I feel that inner tug on my spirit… that’s correction. My change in perspective is my acceptance of that correction.

When it’s hard

I have to admit that sometimes it’s hard you know? Like when I feel the tug that I need to do something different…. like trying to get poetry published (it’s a goal.. just one poem this year in a magazine of some sort)…but Oh….stepping out of one’s comfort zone. I don’t want to. I want to stay in the safe “maybe I’m good enough” zone.. instead of stepping out into the possible rejection zone. Just not sure I want to make that leap you know? It’s hard.

When I recall a lady on the crew saying she carried a bag of stuff with her to give to homeless people. I feel a tug that perhaps I should do the same. But don’t because of the what ifs…what if that person rejects the offer? What if they only want cash and dump out the offering. It’s hard.

Should we let the hardness stop us? I tell my lad that just because it’s hard to learn something doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. Perhaps the learning has to happen a different way. If you want it to happen though, it will. I need to take my own words to heart eh? To keep trying to learn new things (new blog anyone???) to not get stuck in my befuddlement and concern.

What’s the point?

The point is… learn. Keep learning. Keeping finding ways to apply what you learn. Keep working through your mess ups….because they will happen.

If God teaches you something from scripture… put it into practice, even if it’s hard. Find a way to hold to those truisms and don’t get locked into traditional ways of doing things. Take a risk with what you learn. It’s how we cement the knowledge gained.

So tell me, what steps do you take to maintain a teachable heart? What are you learning lately and have you figured out how to put it into practice?

When God Does Things Differently

March 15, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. John 11:1-6

Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. People who loved each other. Mary, Martha and Lazarus knew that Jesus could do amazing things. Ergo, when Lazarus got rather ill they sent a message to Jesus. My guess is they hoped that Jesus would come and make Lazarus better.

But Jesus didn’t come. In fact he waited two days before he went to be with them. Jesus said that the illness wouldn’t end in death and would be the God’s glory in the end.

I wonder if his disciples thought that meant the Lazarus would die. That everything would turn out great. It’s hard to know right? We aren’t told in scripture what they thought. A person can wonder a bit. What we do know though is that Jesus didn’t do what was expected. Jesus tarried.

He had a reason, though he wasn’t explicit when he talked with the disciples, other than to say he died “and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe“.

11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Honestly, if I had been in the disciples shoes I would have been very curious. How could the death of Lazarus affect my belief??

I can imagine the heart break of Mary and Martha though, knowing the Jesus was close enough to come, yet knowing that he didn’t. Seeing their brother die. How difficult that must have been for them.

I found it fascinating to read this sentence “So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ” We’ve gone from Mary sticking close to Jesus wanting to learn from him to Martha going to Jesus while Mary stayed behind. Martha talking with Jesus, acknowledging that Jesus could have saved him…and then the joy of seeing Martha’s faith…knowing the Lazarus would be raised again.

Therefore we know that Martha at least knew that Jesus could have saved Lazarus, but he chose not to. He chose to tarry while Lazarus died.

For What Reason Could God tarry?

What do we do when we expect God to do something and it seems like he is just tarrying. Waiting to show up after it’s too late? How does one understand that?

We know that God’s plan was Lazarus’ illness end in his glory. The biggest realization we need to come to is that sometimes God has a good reason to tarry. It can be to show for his glory at a later date.
Jesus alluded to the fact that Lazarus’ death would increase their faith. This tells us that the Lord tarrying could be a matter of helping us by increasing our faith. Causing us to need to trust him all that more.
God’s ways are higher than our own. We can’t always tell why God acts as he does, but he always has a reason.

What can our response be?

What should our response be when it seems like God tarries?

Remember who God is, recall to mind what you know of God.
Remember a delay is not a denial. It’s just a waiting period.
Know that when God is ready, when the time is right, he will reveal what is meant to be.

Jesus met Mary and Martha where they were at. Seeing their pain and misery. Weeping along with them. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.

See when we are waiting, Jesus isn’t ignoring us. He knows where we are at. But look at what happens, see what happens next! He doesn’t leave us there. See look… look!

8 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

What do you think that did to Mary’s faith, Martha’s faith or the faith of the disciples? To see God in action like that? Wouldn’t it have just blown your mind? To see Lazarus walking out of that tomb in response to a call from the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now Jesus did challenge them to have faith, to believe him. He told them if they believed they would see the glory of God. AND THEY DID. They opened the tomb. They saw Lazarus walk out alive. Their faith was strengthened. The tarrying of the Lord had good reason.

Take heart! When the Lord tarries, there is good reason for it.

Book Study

The Fundamental Truth of the Christian Faith