Category: Bible Knowledge

So God is calling me to do something…or is he? I haven’t heard an audible voice but somehow I have the sense that God is saying something – just to me. I don’t want to be gullible – perhaps it is just wishful thinking or my own ideas formulating. On the other hand if it is God speaking to me I certainly don’t want to be disobedient. If only I knew for sure it was God’s voice… The problem is I have heard too many crazy claims. I’ve heard boys say to girls, “God has told me that you should be my girlfriend”. And I’ve heard a girl respond to this somewhat creepy chat-up line with an abrupt, “Well he hasn’t told me that so push off”. I’ve also read more sinister stories like the primary school teacher who recently physically attacked skateboarders because apparently Jesus told him to. On an almost daily basis we hear news of atrocities committed because somebody thought God was telling them to do it. But I have also seen people clearly led by God to do incredible things – adopt children, quit their jobs to help the vulnerable, become a a social worker or a politician or a scientist. I even met someone who felt God told him to give away a year’s wages. So how can we know if God really is speaking to us? Here are five pathways that may help: 1. Search your heart Sometimes saying we have heard from God is simply a means of justifying what we wanted to do anyway. The infatuated young man who seeks divine backing for asking the object of his affections out on a date is one obvious example. Many of the wars waged around the world involve egomaniacal leaders who put words in God’s mouth so that they hear him saying just what they want him to say. So if we think God is speaking to us, we must first check our hearts and our consciences to see if we are using God as a ventriloquist’s dummy for our own desires. One way we can respond to God’s voice is to pray with the Psalmist, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). 2. Search the Scriptures I have all sorts of strange thoughts that come into my head, often influenced by how much coffee I have imbibed or how much cheese I have eaten before I go to sleep. I can easily be moved by a movie or a news story. My priorities and ideas shift around depending on who I have spoken to, what I have read and how I feel. Having an external reference point to assess God’s voice and priorities for me is vital. For Christians the Scriptures provide the clearest revelation of what God wants of us. Scripture provides both clarity and authority when it comes to God’s direction in our lives. We get clarity through direct commands such as the Ten Commandments where God sets out what he considers normative for Christian obedience. We get authority from the fact that Jesus himself demonstrated how to use the Bible appropriately to remain obedient to God. I say ‘appropriately’ because even our use of Scripture can be biased, whether it is our love-struck young example pointing to “You shall go out with joy” (Isaiah 55:12), or those egomaniacal dictators pointing to genocides in the Old Testament. Sadly, Scripture has been used to justify many horrific things. We must make sure we have done our homework to understand the original intent and context of the Bible. If we are feeling led to do something that is contrary to the clear teaching of the Bible, however sincerely we may feel it, we are being misled. 3. Search out the counsel of friends Our consciences are slippery and our desires and hopes are too easily confused with God’s voice. Even our use of Scripture can easily become self-serving. But we can employ another way to test the guidance we think we have received from God by searching out the counsel of others. Having friends whom we can use as sounding boards when we think God might be leading us can be very helpful. It is often easier to justify something to ourselves than it is to convince others. Sharing the leading we have received can bring a sense of objectivity to our reasoning. Of course this is not an infallible measure either, as we could subconsciously choose friends who will tell us what we want to hear, or perhaps, as was the case with Job’s friends/comforters, all of our friends could be mistaken. But as part of the checks and balances of listening to God, involving others in our reflection is vitally important. Christian discipleship was never meant to be a solitary practice. It was always intended to take place as part of a church community. Not that this always makes it easier – as different friends add in their views, God’s voice sometimes becomes even less clear – but as we continue to pray and discern with praying and discerning friends, if God is trying to tell us something there will be clarification. 4. Search your wisdom and experience Some people treat divine guidance as intentionally irrational, but this runs counter to what the Bible actually says. The Proverbs describe the search for wisdom and discernment as one of the highest goals of human existence (Proverbs 2:1-11). The quest for wisdom comes with the promise that we will know how to make good decisions and choose the right paths. Being a Christian disciple means loving God with every part of our being: “heart, soul and mind”, as Jesus puts it, and deliberately choosing to ignore your mind is deficient discipleship. Of course our reasoning can be flawed and biased. Sometimes in the Bible God asks people to do things that didn’t seem wise at all…

It’s been overemphasized how husbands are called by God to be the leaders of the household. In fact, it’s been said so many times that husbands are starting to get cocky and wives are getting sick of it. Allow me to add to that long list, but don’t worry, I’m not cutting the husbands any slack today. In fact, we need to make one thing clear today that will hopefully challenge men to step up and do more. Ephesians 5:23 says, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” It is very clear in scripture that husbands are called to be the leaders of the home and of their wives. But one thing that many husbands fail to realize is that the Bible also makes clear how men are to lead their households. Scripture also tells us that men are to lead “as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” We all know what Christ did for the church. It was Christ who did the hard work of laying down the foundation, building and even sanctifying the church through His own death. In the same way, husbands are to lead their wives the same way Jesus did — by serving and sacrificing. Doesn’t sound all too comfortable, does it? That’s because God never meant for leadership to be perk-filled and easy. God calls men to lead their wives by serving them. Husbands do not rule over their wives. In case we have forgotten, there is only one person who can rule over families, and that’s God Himself. Leading and ruling are not one thing. The leadership God calls husbands into is in the context of service and love, pointing our family always to the one true Ruler of the home. So where are we supposed to get the energy to love and serve our wives and families? John 13:34 tells us, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The first step husbands must take to be effective in the way they lead their families is to experience the love, grace and power of God, and then let it trickle down to their families. Leadership has always been described by God in the context of serving others, and we serve best when we realize how much Jesus — as our leader — has served and loved us so that we can lead our families with love and grace as well.

Easter is a celebration with a powerful message that all people need to hear. I doubt that there is even a message more powerful than the Easter message, and it has nothing to do with barbecues and egg hunts. The message of Easter is that of hope and life. It is the message that our God came down as man to die for our sins. Although he died a death of earthly nature, death could not hold Him, so on the third day He rose again, establishing His authority over all the earth. That man was Jesus. This is the message that we need to hear, not only on Easter but every day of our lives. It’s also a message that all mankind needs to hear. This is the message that we should be giving on Easter. Without the power of Christ’s resurrection, we would still be slaves to our own sin. But because of His death, burial and resurrection, we are now given life and power to overcome death. Our salvation comes because God came down to rescue us, not because we have the capacity to save ourselves. Here are some verses that share the message of God’s power, as displayed through His resurrection. Romans 4:25 “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day.” Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Acts 4:33 “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Isaiah 25:8 “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” Job 19:25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” 1 Corinthians 6:14 “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” Romans 8:34 “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

We’ve heard it all before: “Why can’t you just quit your bad habits?” Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? So why is it that many believers struggle with habitual sin and cannot seem to be set free? Are we really to just accept that maybe we should just rely on repentance and live with our bad habits? Whether it’s a bad habit of drinking, smoking, watching pornography, or working too much, we’ve all had a bad habit that we found hard to break. One thing that is for sure is that if we are all to expect it to go away overnight, then we’re probably dreaming a tall tale. Some people get released from their sinful habits right away while others go through a long process of pruning in their lives, but one thing for sure is that God is working to set us free from habitual sins. Here are three points to remember when battling habitual sins. Acknowledge that there is a flesh that battles your spirit The reality is that we live in two realms all throughout our life here on earth — that is the flesh and the spirit. Many times our spirit will go against the flesh, and we must make a choice which realm we will fall under. Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Realize that we cannot help ourselves Here’s some really bad news that you have to understand: Your sin is much bigger than you. Anyone who believes that sin is harmless does not understand the weight and power there is behind sin. It’s so powerful that just one sin can sentence us to death and separation from God for all eternity. Our sins are extremely big problems and we cannot solve these problems by ourselves. On our own, we can never completely break free from our sinful habits. Rely on God’s power and grace Thank God that Christianity is not just about the bad news, but about the good news of what hope we have. Sure we cannot save ourselves, but there is one person who can and has already saved us from sin — that’s Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Because of God’s grace, we are not only freed from the consequence of sin but are also given the ability to say no to sin. When we start pursuing God more and continue to be filled by His presence, we are slowly relieved of our desire to sin over and over again. It is God’s in-filling that pushes out the desire of sin, not our willpower. Spiritual discipline does not come by pruning the flesh out of us, but by growing the spirit by experiencing the Spirit more and more.

CS Lewis once described “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” as the most unpopular of the Christian virtues because in Christian terms “neighbour” encompasses enemies and because of this the command requires that we forgive our enemies. If you’ve ever had to forgive someone for doing something that really hurt you then you’ll most likely be able to understand where CS Lewis was coming from. Forgiveness isn’t easy among the best of friends, let alone the worst of enemies. The act of forgiveness defines so much of the Christian faith and the thought of what Jesus did so that our sins could be forgiven is overwhelming and inspirational. But process isn’t always viewed as this positive when we have to forgive someone for how they’ve wronged us. The parable of the unmerciful servant holds a mirror up to how we can act when we have to forgive someone. The servant whose debt is cancelled by the King has had an amazing gift bestowed upon him. He has been set free from an enormous and incomprehensible debt. But this same same servant showed no mercy to another who owed him a debt which was insignificant in comparison to the one that he had previously owed the King. The sins that others commit against us can feel anything but insignificant at the time but what the story reminds us that we too have sinned and been forgiven at a cost. God’s grace provides us with the perfect guide on which to model how we forgive others. What we learn from what Jesus teaches us about forgiveness is that true forgiveness knows no bounds, it doesn’t run out and we receive it even though we don’t deserve it. Jesus ended the parable with, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart,” (Matthew 18:35). Here we’re reminded that love is at the centre of this act. To truly forgive someone we have to abandon all hopes and wants of exacting revenge and do away with our tally of their wrongdoings. Forgiving someone can be an extremely difficult thing to do and it can take a long time before we work up the spiritual strength to do so. Meditating on God’s grace and praying for the power to forgive can help us reach a point where we are able to wipe the slate clean. Thinking about how we’ve been forgiven is instrumental in understanding and working towards forgiving others. The impact that forgiving someone can have on our frame of mind, spirituality, physical health and our relationships is phenomenal. We don’t always realise but holding bitter thoughts or resentment towards another person can have devastating affects on our wellbeing. Not only does the act of forgiveness help set us free, but as forgiven people we have a duty to forgive others.

Last month my esteemed Christian Today colleague Martin Saunders wrote a piece about the “three words that could save the internet (and make you happier)” – an irresistible headline that turned out to refer to “Be Kind Online”. “It feels good to help each other, to encourage, build up; shine a light into someone’s day,” he wrote. I’ve tried, I honestly have. And in writing about a National Geographic author interview with someone who’s written a book about the 12 apostles, I will make a titanic effort not to say exactly what I think about the editorial policy that lets such books into print. The work itself, Apostle, isn’t out till next month, so I haven’t read it. Normally, therefore, I wouldn’t comment on it. However, by giving an interview to the Nat Geog, author Tom Bissell has made himself fair game. Bissell, a lapsed Catholic, set off “to discover whether the Twelve Apostles were actual historical figures or merely characters in a fictional story”. His idea of historical research is to walk the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrim route in Spain, visit the place where Judas reportedly hanged himself, and hunt (in vain) for a mysterious monastery in Kyrgyzstan where Matthew is supposed to be buried. He admits one of the greatest inspirations for the book is Monty Python’s Life of Brian. He tells the interviewer: “A couple of the names recorded in the New Testament are probably actual people. There was probably a Peter and a John, definitely a James (the brother of Jesus), and probably a Thomas. Beyond that, there’s nothing historical that verifies their existence other than the gospels themselves. So I think they’re a mixture of fact and fiction.” The trouble is that this might equally well be said of Bissell’s book. He tells us, for instance, that James, the brother of Jesus, “definitely existed”, but uses contested evidence from the Jewish historian Josephus to back up his claim. He asserts, on no evidence whatsoever, that James was Jesus’ older brother and that this “confounds everything orthodox Christians accept about the virgin birth”. Of the infamous “James Ossuary” which supposedly contained his bones, he says: “I’ve not seen the ossuary and I’m not a trained archaeologist, but I’m perfectly willing to believe that James could have had a secreted away tomb, with an ossuary.” But it’s in his comment about what would “verify the existence” of the apostles that he shows his hand, and a pretty poor one it is. For something to be “true”, he says, it has to be confirmed by a secular – and therefore rigorously factual, unbiased and trustworthy – account. If it’s only in the Bible, you can safely assume it’s fiction. All we have to go on is the interview, and the book might be full of far more detailed analysis, but I doubt it. So here are my gripes about this kind of writing, which has more in common with Dan Brown than with any serious historical research. 1. It fails to take the Bible seriously as history. Bissell – and plenty of others like him – have decided the apostles probably didn’t exist on grounds that would also rule out the existence of Jesus and Paul. If you’re going to pick and choose what you believe, at least be honest and say that’s what you’re doing. 2. It’s bad history. Anyone who blithely asserts that James was the elder brother of Jesus and so this disproves the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is not a serious historian. 3. It privileges the secular over the sacred. It assumes ‘real’ history comes from outside the Bible; anything in it is automatically suspect. But granting – as Bissell himself does – that these stories were shaped toward an end rather than being bald narrations of fact, the idea that the authors would simply have invented whole chunks of narrative just doesn’t hold water. They were concerned for the truth. We might, depending on our theory of biblical inspiration, accept they made mistakes; accepting they told lies is a different thing altogether. 4. It appears to argue from the insecurity of later traditions about the apostles to their non-existence at all. But if Bissell goes to Santiago de Compostella and finds no evidence James was there (it’s not clear from the interview), this says nothing about the existence of James. Ditto if he goes to Kyrgyzstan and finds no evidence for Matthew. There’s no earthly reason why he should, and the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Most Christians are perfectly at ease with biblical criticism and with the idea that the Bible can be analysed in terms of how and when it was written. Things aren’t always as they seem, we know that. The last 200 years has seen the Bible comprehensively taken apart. But it’s also seen it put back together, as well, and the onus is still on those who doubt the fundamental reliability of the New Testament stories to prove their case. In fact, nothing’s more likely than that the minor characters in the Gospel story should have disappeared. The story is not about them, it’s about Jesus. A far more interesting question than why most of the apostles faded out of history is, why Jesus has not.