Tag: Faith

  • Proximity Doesn’t Produce a Profession

    Do you really know Jesus?

    An empty church pew with sunlight streaming on it reenforcing the theme of proximity, closeness

    I was thinking about Pat, a late friend from “the cowboy church,” recently. She attended and served at churches her entire life but later in life realized she didn’t know Jesus. She had thought that attending church and doing “Christian” things made her a Christian. After truly becoming a believer, she was an unstoppable force, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but with a zeal matched by very few.

    I have met so many people like that, faithful in church, but without Jesus. What a tragedy it will be when He says to them, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” 

    I’m not judging them; I’m going by the fact that they told me of their conversion experiences later. It’s not for me to judge someone’s salvation; only God himself can do that. 

    Being near the holy doesn’t make you holy, or, as a nicely alliterated sermon title, “Proximity doesn’t always produce a profession.” That shouldn’t surprise us. Judas Iscariot walked with Jesus for three years and didn’t believe. Jesus worked signs and wonders, and people didn’t come to him.

    When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. John 6:60-66 ESV

    I have met people who have told me, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.” Of course it didn’t. “Christianity” has no power to change anyone. We must be changed by the Holy Spirit, be born again and be in the process of being made Christ. God has the power, not some vague definition of Christianity.

    The Apostle Paul warns

    For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:4-8 ESV

    It’s possible to go to church, have a Christian family or family members, and receive some of God’s blessings by being in their proximity without knowing Jesus. That’s a sobering thought.

    It’s why I believe that every sermon should point to the cross explicitly or implicitly. It doesn’t have to be the key point of the message, but it’s likely in most (every?) congregations that there is someone there who doesn’t know Jesus.

    What are you trusting in? If you aren’t trusting in Jesus by faith, you need to change direction.

    May you know the Lord and be bless by Him,

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    I think about my late friend Pat, who served faithfully in church her whole life before realizing, late, that she’d never actually known Jesus. Her story is a reminder that proximity to church doesn’t equal salvation, and every one of us needs to ask honestly what we’re really trusting in.

    TAKEAWAY

    Being near church, Christian family, or “Christian” activity doesn’t make anyone a believer — only faith in Christ does.

    Scripture shows this is nothing new: Judas walked with Jesus for three years without believing, and many disciples turned back after a hard teaching (John 6:60-66).

    Hebrews 6:4-8 warns that tasting the blessings of God’s presence isn’t the same as bearing real fruit — the question every reader must answer is what they’re trusting in.

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  • The Rainbow’s True Meaning

    God’s Covenant Promise

    A piece of rainbow obsidian

    This gorgeous stone is a piece of rainbow obsidian, a type of volcanic glass. It comes in a wide range of colors and patterns. I suspect it was a piece my father had in his lapidary stuff, but I don’t recall for sure. 

    If you are churched at all, you are familiar with the story of the flood during the days of Noah, as God’s righteous judgment on a sin-filled world. You will know the sign of His covenant.

    I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13 ESV

    We see the rainbow and remember God’s promise. Yet do we understand what the rainbow actually symbolizes and the depth of that promise?

    The Hebrew word for rainbow is קֶשֶׁת (Qeshet). This term also means a war bow, reflecting the connection between the rainbow and God’s promise after the flood.

    In ancient times, a covenant was typically a solemn agreement between two parties, with the consequences for breaking it clearly laid out. If one party made the covenant alone, the consequences were still laid out.

    In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham. It seems strange to us, with figures walking between the remains of bloody carcasses while Abraham slept. The people of the day would clearly have understood that God alone was making the covenant and was alone responsible for keeping it. If he failed, the consequences for Himself would have been grave.

    So it is with the Noahic Covenant. The rainbow, really a Qeshet, a war bow, is pointed, curved side up. The ancient Hebrews would have understood the symbolism of a bow with an arrow pointed straight up at the heart of God. If he broke the covenant, his very heart was to be pierced.

    Only God made the covenant and put up the symbol. Only God is responsible for keeping it. We can see the Qeshet bow and remember God’s promises.

    God is faithful to keep His promises. When He promises to redeem by faith and hold us fast against everything, it is better than money in the bank. He will not fail us.

    Hold fast to your faith no matter what comes. God has us in his hands.

    Be blessed today,

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    I explore what the rainbow really meant to the ancient Hebrews, a Qeshet, a war bow pointed at the heart of God Himself, and how the Noahic Covenant shows that God alone is responsible for keeping His promises to us. God is faithful to keep His promises, so hold fast to your faith no matter what comes, knowing God has us in his hands.

     

    TAKEAWAY

    The Hebrew word for rainbow, Qeshet, also means “war bow,” tying the sign directly to God’s covenant after the flood. 

    Ancient covenants normally bound two parties, yet God made both the Abrahamic and Noahic covenants alone and bore the risk alone. 

    The bow’s upward curve symbolized that if God ever broke His promise, the consequences would fall on His own heart, not ours.

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