WORRY and The GOSPEL

Do you worry? Does anxiety get the better of you at times? Different people have different things they worry about. (Think for just a moment... Did you pinpoint your worry issue?)

Question: What do you believe about "you" when you worry? This summer, a group of 100 adults were asked this question. The following are their top 4 answers:

• I worry because I'm not in control of a situation; maybe even things are out of control.

• I worry believing that doing so will somehow help.

• I worry believing that if I put enough focus & energy on the problem I will come up with an idea.

• I ultimately worry because I'm fearful. My value as a person is in danger and I'm anxious about that.

Question: What do you believe about "God" - even subconsciously - when you worry? The same 100 adults answered as follows:

• I worry because I actually believe that God is not in control of my situation.

• I worry because I don't believe God has a plan to work things out positively.

• I worry believing that if God is in control and God does have a plan, God must not care about me in my situation.

• I worry because I don't really believe that God is the One who gives me my true value.

These are honest answers. These are also root answers.

And the reality is that "root produces fruit." The fruit of a tree is never inconsistent with it's root. The fruit of Worry will grow when the root of belief is as listed above.

The issue is one of truth. Are the above beliefs about God.. "true truths" about God or "false truths" about God? The answer is found in the gospel of Jesus; the good news about God's Son. And the gospel of Jesus is always rooted in the cross of Jesus. So let's explore the truth found in the gospel.

• Is God in control? Yes. Even in the darkest moments of the cross, God was saying: "I've got this. Although it appears that Jesus has been defeated and all is lost, I am in control." But Jesus dies... And then God raises Jesus to life again!! God is always... in control.

• Does God have a plan? Yes. God never does not have a plan. History always proves that God has a plan. God had a plan through the cross and God has a plan through your circumstances.

• Does God care for us in our crisis situation? Yes. God loves us. God gave His one and only Son to prove how much God loves us and cares for us.

• Does God give us our value? Yes. God placed the "price tag" in us when God gave His only Son to die for you and for me. God loves us.

There is a wonderful concept that Jesus talked about: "repentance." We mostly misunderstand it when we repent and we say "I am sorry for my actions, my behaviour." Worry is behaviour and it is fruit. We might say or sing: "Don't worry; be happy." And it even sounds like repentance, but it's not. The root of belief is the same therefore the fruit of worry will continue to grow.

But the repentance Jesus talked about was repenting of our belief. There is something false about God I am believing and that is what needs to change. In 1 Thessalonians 1:8-9 it says: "Your faith in God has become known everywhere... how you turned to God from idols." Repentance is that: turning to the true God from a false God.

So, what will change the fruit of Worry to the fruit of Peace? New beliefs about God and about what God says about you. 

• God I repent of believing You are not in control and that I need to be. You are in control and I can rest in You.

• God I repent of believing that You don't have a plan so I need to come up with one. You have a plan and I will wait for You.

• God I repent of believing that You don't care for me in this situation or others like it, so I hold onto fear about my value. You love me and place value on me through the cross of Your Son. I will hold onto that.

The result? The gospel changes the fruit of Worry to the fruit of Peace because the root of belief is in the solid truth contained in the gospel of Jesus.

May you and I live in this life-giving and freedom-producing reality!

Time With God (Authored by Sarah Smith)

I have been following Jesus for about 10 years now. I grew up in the church but walked away because I did not understand who God was, and why He asked us to follow a different path than the world. My return to church in the last 10 years has really challenged me to get to know God. I started by going to church more regularly, listening to more worship music and reading Christian books. This all helped, but I hit a wall a few years back. I realized the most important resource to know God, I wasn’t using. The Bible was my missing piece. This was a changing point for me in my relationship with God. I made a choice to start the practice of reading the Bible every single day. I carefully use the word “practice” because I do not always get to it. I have had many days where I lay down to go to bed and God gently reminds me ‘I missed you today being in my Word.’

I have struggled for so many years knowing that I need to read the Bible, but I never made time, effort, or a plan to do it. I needed to start making a planned choice every day. The Bible is long and very complex. It is not a book you pick up, read through once, and get what you can out of it. If we truly treasure God, our hearts will long to know Him more and spend time with Him. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I recently heard someone describing the Bible as one big story with lots of little stories inside. The big story is where you find out who God is. We can’t just call God and ask him to have coffee with us, so we can get to know Him. God gave us His Word, the Bible, where anyone can get to know Him. God built us for relationship. To create a relationship, you need to spend time with a person. Think of your best friend. How often do you talk with them? Do you plan time in your busy life to spend with them? Building a relationship with God and Jesus is no different. Want to know who He is? Spend time reading about Him. Everything we want to know about God is in the Bible. He even gave us Jesus to study.

Jesus was the only blameless person to walk the earth, and what did He spend his time doing? He spent time with people and with God. He is the only example in the Bible of who God wants us to be like. As it says in John 14:7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.

At the beginning of my commitment to the Bible, I tried to just fit it in each day. It took me far too long to realize that this was not enough. This led me to creating a daily routine I could follow at least five out of seven days, and I started to practise my new routine. Practice makes progress, and progress can take us a long way.

I believe an important step of faith in God is acknowledging the truth of the Bible. When we acknowledge the Bible as God’s truth, we can measure everything against it. 2 Timothy 3:16 says it best, All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It’s like a measuring tape. Before we can use it, we need to learn how to read and interpret the measurements. The Bible is the same. We won’t know what truth it holds unless we read it and learn to interpret it. This requires time and practice.

Do you have to spend hours in the Bible each day? No, each person can find the amount of time that works for them. I believe that we need to make the personal choice each day to sit with God’s Word. When I started to make that choice, it took almost a year and a half before I could say, “I’m reading God’s Word almost every single day.” Daily Bible reading can be as long or as short as you have to give. It only takes about 10-15 minutes a day to read the entire Bible in one year.

If you have never attempted to read the whole Bible, that’s okay. There is no time like the present. Take a look at your day and choose a time when you can consistently keep a scheduled meeting with God. Set a timer on your phone every day, block it into your calendar as a meeting, or choose to get up 10-15 minutes earlier each day. Whatever you choose, just make a conscious choice to read God’s Word.

Not a reader? That’s fine too, there are many options to listen to the Bible. Listening still counts as reading, as my husband recently accepted. Before everyone had their own physical or digital copy, believers would gather to have the Bible read to them. Even if you like reading, try listening to the Bible as well as reading it. When you don’t have to stumble through some of the incomprehensible Hebrew names in the Old Testament, you can focus on the story line instead.

Life is busy, I know that far too well. I also know that we can make the things that matter happen. The practice of daily Bible reading is fundamental for all Christians. My prayer is that each one of us, those seeking God, and those who have found Him, would make the Bible a priority every single day. God’s Word has the power to change us. I am living some of that amazing change right now in my life. When we say yes to the important things in life, it means we have to say no to other things. Start practising today, and every day, until we join God in eternal glory.

Bible Plan Resources:

YouVersion App or Bible.com (Can be read or listened too)

The One Year Bible

Bible In A Year

Daily Audio Bible:

dailyaudiobible.com

Our Daily Bread:

ourdailybread.ca

The Habits of Emotionally Healthy Couples

If you are married or going to be married, the following article is so good, it is worth reading, writing down the 4 keys points and implementing every day of your married life.

https://mailchi.mp/83d59b47047a/the-three-challenges-of-change-1622069?e=5334866bcd

4 HEALTHY HABITS:

PRAY TOGETHER AND TRUST GOD

RESOLVE NEGATIVE FEELINGS DAILY

HAVE FUN TOGETHER AND BECOME BEST FRIENDS

BUILD CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

Is Technology Sinful?... Wrong Question

James Kelly, Founder and Director of FaithTech - (faithtech.com: a growing movement of Jesus-followers and spiritual explorers who are interested in all things faith and technology) - wrote this excellent and insightfully relevant blog post recently. James says:

I once had a friend ask me, “Are video games sinful?” In classic fashion, I asked a question back: “what do you think?” His answer surprised me:

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m asking the wrong question. Maybe it’s a Hebrews 12 type thing.” A Hebrews 12 type thing? Never heard of that.

Lay Aside Every Weight and Sin

My friend was referring to Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The context of Hebrews 12 is important. The “cloud of witnesses” refers to the great men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 that set the example of how one should run with perseverance the race marked out for them. They were defined by their faith. Not for purely avoiding sin, but for living for God and others. For taking risks for the Lord. For running with God.  

The power behind Hebrews 12 is that a Christ-follower’s framework for morality is not, “is it sinful?” The proper framework is, “does it help me run with Jesus?”

So now the question is Does technology bring us closer to or further from Jesus?

A Mirror Into Tech Consumption

Have you seen Black Mirror? I felt a particular pull to watch the show because of my role leading FaithTech. It was intriguing — and, at times, terrifying! — to see a dystopian vision of futuristic technology and the way it can shape us. It certainly gave me pause!

But I can tell you this: I did not walk away from Black Mirror more holy. I was not more pure.

But why was I watching?

Was it to pass the time? Was it to numb my pain? Was it to blindly follow culture? If so, did the show help me run with Jesus and make me more holy?

No. But maybe it could have.

I could have chosen to watch Black Mirror grounded in prayer, asking Christ to reveal the cultural idolatry found in this parable. If my purpose in watching was to better equip myself to speak and live wisely in our culture, then Black Mirror would have helped me run with Jesus.

A New Phrase

Now, some of you may be thinking to yourselves, Aren’t we supposed to be “in the world, but not of the world?” Christians like to use this phrase, and it comes from passages like John 8:22-24, 15:19, and 1 John 4:5. However, I think this phrase can be misleading to a lot of Christians - making us believe we are placed in this world, but must retreat away from it.

So let’s consider another passage from John: John 17:14–19. On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus prays to his Father:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

What this passage says is that we are to be grounded in the word and set apart in truth, but Jesus says we are to be sent into the world! That is profound. We are not retreating from the world, but going directly into it.

The phrase should not be, “in the world, not of the world?” The phrase should be, “not of the world, but sent into the world.”

With this framework, we can use technology to better send us into the world, as long as we are checking our hearts. As long as we are thinking deeply and critical on why we are engaging with technology.

Reflecting on the Right Questions

Forget “Is technology sinful?”

Is it making us more like Jesus? Is it helping us be a better witnesses of the truth?

Take a look at your life, your technology use, your habits, your use of spare time, your connections with friends and family, your work. What areas can you reexamine with this lens? In which areas can you lay aside weights that are preventing you from running your race?

It is time for a new framework for making decisions. You are not of the world, but sent into the world.