So you believe?

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder." James 2:19.

What does faith look like? Is there a way to quantify it? I mean, faith isn't something that we can see is it? It's not something we can touch. So I ask again, what does faith look like? And what about belief? Is the act of believing enough? Does it matter if we believe something to be true or not? What does faith (or belief for that matter) produce, if anything?

I have been thinking a lot about these things in this last year. God has truly impressed upon my heart to consider the activity of faith, and the fruit of a faith that moves. I have also found myself asking the question "Is it enough to believe?" In this life, are we called to believe? Is that where it ends? What separates faith from belief? Is there a difference? In this conversation (I hope you find yourself talking to me as you read what I have written) I hope to unpack these answers, and I hope to explain well why I believe that they are extremely important in our walks as Christians.

What we first must look at is the object of our affection- Jesus Christ. He alone is the object of our faith, our belief, our trust, everything. To be called a Christian is to literally entwine our identity to that of Christ. And if Christ is the object of what we claim, then we should know who He was, and what He was about. What did He say? What did He do? What did He think? How did He live? Why did He live this way? What was said about Him by those around Him? How did He respond to these accusations? What was written about Him after He died (and again rose to glory!)? All of these questions have answers long enough to fill 1,000 blogs of their own, so I will not attempt to do this. I will give an overarching answer to them, however. Love. This is the very character of Christ. What He did, what He said, how He lived, what was said about Him, it all comes down to love. So, by default, the object of our faith/belief is Christ and His unbelievable love. This must be understood (I don't mean comepletely. That's NEVER going to happen. And I don't mean you have to have the seminary theological terms either!) before we can talk about faith and belief. If this is not understood as a precursor to the entire point, then this will simply be a philosophical topic, and we cannot, we MUST not turn faith into a philosophical topic, standing next to other philosophies and doctrines that do not base themselves in the perfect love of Christ. This is so much more than that. With this in mind, let us unpack faith and belief, and why I think that belief is not enough. It must be faith, active and moving, that we have.

What do these two words mean? Is there a difference?

Belief-confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.

Faith-confidence or trust in a person or thing (thanks dictionary.com!)

According to dictionary.com, belief and faith both mean in essence a confidence in something else. Why then would I say that belief is not enough? Why would James write such a challenging verse in Ch 2 Vs 19? I would like to thank dictionary.com for its willingness to help, however I am going to slightly change how these words are defined, in view of what I see in scripture. From a Christian perspective, I believe whole-heartedly that these two words do not mean the same thing. Though they derive from the same thing, having a confidence in something else, or, an object of affection, I would like to argue that this is not a complete definition of faith. According to Hebrews 11:1 (one of the most well known verses of our generation) "Faith is the confidence of what we hope for, and the assurance of what we do not see." (NIV) This looks a lot like the dictionary definition, however, I think there is more to it than what we see at first glance. Faith is the confidence of what we hope for. What is it we hope for? To answer quickly, we hope for life eternal. We hope to live an eternal life for the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Now we know that eternity is forever, that's what the word means. Life eternal, therein, means a life lived forever for the glory of God. For some reason, from what I have seen/heard, this is treated as a future hope. It is treated as a hope that we do not live in yet. Now there is certainly some truth in that statement. We do live for the hope of life after death in eternity with Him, and that the completion of our hope will come at the bowing before Christ in heaven! Amen! But. And this is a big but. Like, it deserves its own TV show, big but. This hope that we live for, the confidence that we have in it, begins the moment God takes ahold of your heart. It continues through this life, and is COMPLETED upon seeing Christ seated at the right hand in glory! And if it begins now, if it is being persued now (this hope I mean), what does faith mean? Faith is the confidence of what we hope for. All through scripture, from the days of the first sin, through the last days described in Revelations, man's hope, man's cry to God is simple: Change me. He gives praise to God for saving him, for taking away his sin. He begins to see his heart change and that he hates his own sin as God does. He prays that God would be with him, that he might not boast about anything other than God. And did God answer these cries? Absolutely! Abundantly He answered them! And why? Because of their faith. Their faith was always accompanied with an action, proving that their faith was real, that it was more than talk. It was more than a simple "belief" or claim towards some all-powerful being that they liked. No, they staked their lives on God's provision. Many times over! The rest of Hebrews 11 goes on to describe many "heroes of faith" throughout the old testiment that did something faithfully, trusting that God was with them, that He was protecting and providing for them. It was accredited to them as righteousness! They were called righteous by these faithful actions! Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the assurance of what we do not see. Faith is not simply believing that something is true. It's living like it!

And this is the very reason why I have been thinking so much about faith and belief. I found myself asking this question- Do I live like I really believe what I say I believe? In many ways, I found I could answer yes to this very tough question. I also found that in many ways I had to answer no. No I am not living like I believe what I claim to be true. Why do we do this as Christians? We have been given the greatest truth anyone could ever know! We have been saved by a grace we could never deserve! We have been counted righteous by His blood, which atoned for the sins we have done! We have been saved, changed, moved, and enlightened by His very actions! And far too often we do not live like this is true. Let me tell you a story, a parable of sorts, to explain this better.

A man sit on death row, awaiting a sentence he had received 15 years ago. You see, he was to be executed in one hour for brutally murdering his neighbor over a simple disagreement. As he sat in his cell for so long, he found himself growing sorry for what he had done. He longed to change it, though he knew he could not. He wished he could ask forgiveness from those he hurt, though that seemed as unlikely a chance as anything. As he sat here in his final thoughts, a man approached his cell. The guard walked up beside him, opened the man's cell, and took hi post once again. This second man, a stranger to the first, said nothing but instead took a seat beside him. "You probably don't remember me, but you killed my father." It was his neighbor's son, grown up from the years that separated this day and that. Before he could go on, the murderer fell to his knees sobbing. He grabbed the boy's grown hands and kissed them. "I am so sorry for what I did. I know now that what I have done is wrong. I don't deserve it, but can you forgive me?" The second man listened and thought for a moment before saying, "I came here today hoping for two things. I'd hoped you would say that to me so I could say this to you- I forgive you. And not only do I forgi you, but I have bought your freedom. I spoke with the judge, told him it should be me who sat in you bed, not you. I told him I was the one who killed my father. You are free to go." The first man wiped his tears, confused as he looked up. "Why would you do this for me? I killed the one you most loved! I ruined your life! You are innocent!" The second man smiled. "My life was not yours to ruin. I do this, so that you may go tell everyone what has happened here today. I have saved you because my life is over, but yours is not. Use this freedom to live as a changed man! Do not repeat the same mistakes that led to this conversation. Live differently." At this, the man smiled, pulled his hand back, and laid down. The first man stood up, thanked and kissed his savior on the head and turned around. He faced an open door for the first time in 15 years...

I stop here to ask this question- What happens next? You might answer "Well duh, the man walks out of the cell a changed man! He's been given a new life! A story of incredible circumstances and timing that would be unbelievable if not for the fact that he was there, alive, telling the story himself! He lived differntly!" My response to you, then, is this: Why don't we? Why do we allow our "belief" stop us from living out the faith to which we are called? I fear that we too often allow ourselves to stay in our prison cells telling Jesus "Thank You for all You've done for me!" while He is all the while telling us to leave our prisons, to tell the world what He's done for us, and to live differently! Do we really believe that He has saved us from our prison cells? Then walk out of them. If we are saved from them, if the door has been opened, then take that step of faith. I mean, it has to be faith to walk through that door. In the parable the guard is standing post right there. He could easily kill the man for trying to escape. I mean, this scenario isn't necessarily very popular on death row, right? What if this guy was just his new cell mate, and was crazy? To take this step would require great faith. It would require going against all of the habits and lifestyles that he had grown so accustomed to. His prison bars were comfortable at that point. But they were still bars. And I fear that we are still living in too many prison cells that Christ died to free us from! I fear that too often we are praising Jesus from the beds He has now taken, instead of praising Him by going, living in freedom, telling the world of what He has done for us!

My challenge for you is that your life would begin to look like you believe what you say you believe. That your beliefs would instead become active steps of faith, trusting and having confidence that God will provide! Because He has promised to do so!

I thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope it has if nothing else, allowed you to think. Please please please feel free to leave any questions, comments, disagreements, favorite parts, anything. It is a blessing when we can rejoice together, amen?! Thank you and God bless.

From Dawn to Dusk

Well this certainly has been a week, let me tell ya! No, really, let me tell you-

It was a fairly uneventful week around here actually. I was able to go get a very much-needed hair cut and shave, which was wonderful. Went to a little cafe for the first time, and ate a very tasty chicken burger. Okay, I ate two. They were delicious, don't judge! ;) We basically spent the week getting ready for Friday and Saturday, two very big days for us that needed quite a lot of preparation. Friday was the monthly evangelist meeting here, where many (nearly 100!) of the ministry's evangelists come here for a conference where we share the word, pray together, talk about the previous month's programs and any fruit that is seen thus far, as well as discuss the coming month's programs. Saturday was going to be a big trip to Chennai (which is the cultural center of Southeast India!) and the coming of the first missions team!

Thursday, I was asked to prepare a lesson for Friday to teach the evangelists. I decided on speaking about the life of Paul. I began with 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Follow my example as I follow  Christ's example." Follow me as I follow Him. Wow. Think about that for a second. It may come off as a very prideful, boastful statement, but it isn't. Just read his letters to find Paul's heart. He was so confident in his faith, and in who God had made/called him to be, that he knew he was walking in the light. What a challenge! Can we confidently say these words to someone? Can we tell them 'follow me as I follow Him'? I know I am gaining more and more confidence in my faith all the time, yet I don't know if I could ever write these words. And to put in this statement into a bit of statement, Paul has just said to not ever make anyone stumble, whether Jew or Greek or Gentile. He goes from 'do not make anyone stumble ever' to 'follow me as I follow Him' in two verses! I pray to have the Holy confidence to say these words one day!

I then talked about when we first meet Saul (spoiler alert!!! Saul=Paul! What?!) the men who are witnessing the stoning of Stephen are laying the coats at his feet (Acts 7:58). And then in Acts 8:1 we find out that "Saul approved of their killing [Stephen ]." This murderous, religious zealout of a Pharisee turns into the man who are over half of the NT! Why? Because Jesus was never anything less than absolutely real to him after his conversion (Acts 9). Paul dedicated his life to living for Jesus. He always had a 'live is Christ, die is gain' (Philippians 1:21) mindset. He lived his life by these very words. And you couldn't touch Paul. No matter what you did! They'd threaten him with death, and he'd say to die is gain. We'll keep you alive then, they'd say, and he'd say to live is Christ. My life is for His glory. They'd beat him, stone him, drag him out of the city thinking he was dead, and he just got up and WENT BACK INTO THE CITY (Acts 14:19-20)!!! He shipwrecks multiple times. At the end of Acts 27, Paul's life is spared when the other prisoners were killed because he encouraged the men by praising God for His provision! In the first part of Acts 28 he gets bit by a viper, a freakin viper, and just shakes it off like it's nothing. He "suffered no ill effects" (Acts 28:5) and shocked the men around him! Then when he's thrown in a Roman prison, which isn't a nice place in case you didn't know (remember how they tortured Jesus? Yeah, they knew what they were doing. When God saves Peter miraculously from prison in Acts 12, Herod has all of the soldiers killed when they can't find him! This is a serious place!), he preaches to the Roman guards and converts them! Come on! This dude could not be touched! No matter what you did to him! He wrote more then half of his epistles with chained wrists! He wrote some of the most encouraging words in the NT while in a prison cell! And then he asked for prayer. He always asked for prayer! And what prayer did he ask for? "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:19-20. He didn't ask to pray to have things happen to him, for him. He didn't ask to pray to see his circumstances changed. No. He asked that they would pray for him that WHENEVER he speaks that words may be given that he would FEARLESSLY make the gospel known. And why? Because he knows he should. What a bold, confident, humble faith Paul delivers! At the end of Acts 28, we see the end of Paul's ministry, and it is another incredibly challenging thing for me. "For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ-with all boldness and without hindrance!" Acts 28:30-31. With all boldness and without hindrance. Wow. This man was awaiting his death sentence, and it only allowed him yet another opportunity to preach boldly the gospel (good news) to anyone and everyone, never finding a hindrance against him. Why? "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for u, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31. Because God was with him. And he never lost sight of that, and always proclaimed that simple yet incredible truth. This is what I had the honor and challenge to preach about to the evangelists of this wonderful ministry. It is contiuing to stay in my mind, challenging me to remember to be like Paul in ministry.

Sunday we went to Chennai, leaving here at 5:15 in the morning. I'm sure you can assume how excited about this I was lol. It was a bittersweet thing for me, actually. I was so very excited to have two more Americans joining me for a couple of weeks, yet it was so dang early! We got on the road, and drove for a couple of hours before stopping for a roadside breakfast. We had these things called idly which are little rice cake, patty-like things. They're sweet and tasty, and you put a chutney or curry over it. I very much enjoyed this breakfast! We made it to Chennai at about 8:30, and began a long day of errand running, which was often pretty boring for me. However. There were also many moments of highlights that I HAVE to tell you about lol. Some amazing things that I saw- The single most wonderfully beautiful feathered Mullet I have ever seen. This thing was sooo good, just flowing in the wind as this man rode on the back of a motorcyle passing by us. It went by in slow motion, honestly. I ate pizza at pizza hut. Yes, they have pizza huts here I guess. Found that out quite recently, and was very happy to have found this knowledge to be true! We had a pepperoni pesto pizza (alliteration ftw!) and a chicken sausage pizza. First off, this pizza hut was the nicest pizza hut ever, I swear! There was a hostess, and a restaurant menu with servers bringing you your pizzas and drinks and such. Cool wooden tables and chairs. Hip American music in the background. Yeah, it ruled. I almost fell asleep in a tire shop as we got a new tire on our truck, which was rather entertaining. Then, my pastor wanted to go get a cut and a shave, so he left me and the driver (who speaks as much English as I speak Telugu) to wait for him. He put on the radio, and changes it to the American music channel (yeah, there's that too!) and begins rocking out to the song. We listened to three songs. All three were heavy beat songs that we both just jammed to. They were (no lie) Ke$ha, T-Swift, and J Biebs. It was glorious. Just rocking out, jamming to hilariously fun pop music with this Indian dude who is jamming as much as you are, smiling huge smiles allthewhile, was one of my favorite parts of the day! We then made our way to the airport to pick up Kari and Merri, two sisters from America who have been a huge blessing so far. Their plane was 40 minutes late, but they took next to no time to come out once they'd landed, so it evened out in the end. We then drove back home and took to bed at the wonderful hour of 2am! haha I will write about the adventures of three Americans soon, but this post is slowly finding its way to the end!

I love you all so very much, and thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! You are all wonderful and I cannot say how much I appreciate them! Please continue to pray that our ministry and work would be righteous and fruitful! Pray for protection physically and Spiritually! Thank you so much! Love ya! See you soon!

Joel

Roses are red, violets are blue...

Lord, please change us by your word. Amen.

I heard these words prayed three times by a man teaching a young school group that I was hosting while intering at Crista Camps. They will never leave me. This man honestly and earnestly prayed these words before he spoke each time. It was not a rehearsed word of encouragement or a key-phrase that let the students know that it was time to get serious. No, it was a broken man's prayer. It was beautiful. And I believe whole-heartedly that it was heard. I echo his prayer often, that I would not read the bible, but instead that I would be changed by the ever-active, living breath and word of God. I have often made this my prayer as I study His word here in India. And it is my prayer that it is the fruit of this prayer that is seen and heard in this blog post.

Lord, I pray that my words would be Yours. I pray that my heart would be Yours. I pray that I would not be hypocritical, nor extra critical. Lord, please tame my tongue to be uplifting and righteous. Let me praise You and exalt You in everything I say and do. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You. Lord, I pray these things in the wonderful, beautiful, precious, and powerful name of Jesus. Amen.

Roses are red, and violets are blue. Interesting to think about red and blue right now, isn't it? Seems like that's all anyone can talk about. Leftist political point here, right-wing counterpoint right back at ya, bub! (Random tangent, whoever came up with "bub" thank you!) As many of you may know, I am a very opinionated person. I know well why I hold the opinions I have, and why I don't hold the opinions that I don't. I do not make a light-hearted, ignorant opinion (at least I greatly strive not to.) but rather I search to base my opinions in well founded thoughts. This is why I have decided to write this politically-charged post. Please, bear with me and show a bit of patience and grace as I unroll my points. Thank you.

Honestly, people. I am sick to my stomach right now. I spent a great deal of time in prayer to the point of tears earlier as I read the after-affects of the election. The thought that things could be where they are, and seeing where they could possibly go, quite frankly disgust me. Now before you cheer me on or sneer at me, allow me to explain this. Again, patience and grace, please. As many of you know, I am not one for short-winded explanations.

Yesterday, I sat in a small cafe here with a friend (the first time I've done so, it was wonderful!) and began to read the only English newspaper that they had in the place. It's called (I'm fairly certain) The Hindi and it's one of the more prominent newspapers in all India. The center story of the front page, which as you know is the "most important" storyline in the paper, was an article on the American Presidential race. It spoke about two men, the Democratic incumbant Obama and the Republican challenger Romney, fighting it out for the seat of 'the most powerful man on the planet' with last minute appeals to swing state voters and the like. The story beside it, another front page story, though not as "important" as the election in a foreign land, was about the floods in northern Andhra, the state that I'm living in here in SE India. These floods are quite comparable to the affects of superstorm Sandy. Many thousands were left without power, food, water; roads and homes were destroyed, helicopters were flying in food drop after food drop while rescue boats drove the streets in search of injured and lost.

I got home some time later, and checked my facebook, as I often do, memories of the newspaper still riding my thoughts. And then I read post after post of politically charged thoughts and opinions, and some daring comments upon those threads. I read things like "If Obama wins, I'm going to Canada (or Mexico, or the Philippines, or some other place)" and "I don't understand how a person who calls themself a Christian could vote for Obama" and "If Romney wins-" with much of the same after-thoughts... And then today, I get on and open up two windows on my internet. The first was Facebook, and the second was NY Times. I wanted to find out who won, before I read about the many opinions that would surely await me. Obama wins reelection I read. Romney conceeds at 10pm after losing Virginia, I read. Then I take a breath, and go to Facebook. What I read was one of the hardest newsfeeds I've ever had to read. Allegations of all kinds were made from all points of political view, and were then argued from other sides. And then I read post after post about how "whether or not I agree with who the President is, I'm going to pray for them" followed by some verse about praying for those in authority over them. I read posts of verses of taking joy in Him no matter what happens. I read posts with verses about remembering humility and the like. And I began to cry. Literally, I felt a wrenching in my stomach and began to cry. As I type this now, I fight back tears thinking of it. I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh or anything but gracious rebuke, but I feel that I must address this sad fact.

First and foremost, the Bible does not have a precondition of "in case of emergency" or "use when you feel lost" to it. No, the Bible is not a tool for comfort when 'the times seem tough' for you. You might argue that it is these things, and as I would (of course) agree with you, allow me first to remind you that its purpose is to reveal the greatness of God and the hopelessness of the sinner without Him. Nothing else. The Bible is His story of redemption, which glorifies Him. Our comfort, our sense of direction and identity come from Him, not emergency verses of the feeling of comfort. It comes from His presence, His goodness, His love, from Him. Many of the verses that I read came from either a Pauline epistle or a Psalm of David. Let's put that in perspective. Paul wrote these words while in prison. Prison. Literally chained wrists held his writing hands. He was in prison for professing his faith, awaiting the judgement of death to come. David often wrote his psalms of comfort while hiding in caves from Saul and his army who sought to kill him. He was running for his life, while leading people in hope and safety. Or he wrote them out of a confession and repentence of sin (i.e. Bathsheba).These warriors of the faith wrote these incredible, wonderful and beautiful words as they were facing the sufferring of death and despair. They did not write them so we could pull them out when "our guy" loses or wins. They did not write them so we could quote them from our bedrooms and dorms as if we were being persecuted. Like someone making an obligatory "don't bring religion into politics" remark could ever constitute as persecution! Come on! Now, I am absolutely not saying to not find solace in the incredibly powerful and beautiful words of God. They should be what define our lives, as He changes us through them. But they should never be used in such a non-chalent manner. I am also not saying to not have an opinion. Absolutely have one. I have one. In fact, I am one of the most stubborn and opinionated people you will ever meet, as many of you can (often unfortunately) attest. What I am saying is do not ever let scripture proceed opinion. It should always preceed opinion. Period. Your guy lost? Oh no! Your guy won? Great... You know what happened to my guy? They beat Him relentlessly for hours. They tore at His flesh with the worst tools of torture imaginble. They mocked Him allthewhile, tearing into His very soul, attempting to plant the seeds of doubt and regret. They made Him carry the very tree that they would use to hang Him upon through the streets of the city after all of this. He walked up a hill, where they fashioned His hands to that tree, and then nailed Him with three nails to it. They freaking nailed Him to it! They then hung Him up for all to see, as they mocked Him more and more. And they did not even give Him His own hill on which to die. No, He instead shared it with two thieves, telling Him that He was as worthless as they. He died in six hours. That's it. Six hours. It took nearly three days on average for a person to die of crucifixion. They were so surprised that they stabbed His side to make sure He was dead. But He did not stay dead, no! Instead, He rose from His earthly tomb, and walked into glory just as He said He would! Amen! Our lives are not dictated by those in earhly authority above us. No, it is dictated by the One who endured all of this for you, for me. When did the church lose sight of this? The church becomes politically active, making claims for this and that in the Name of God, instead of loving people. Biblical principle should always preceed our opinions, our principles, our actions, our love. It was disgusting for me to see how so many people who I know to be wonderful loving members of the body of Christ slander so many in the name of political view. Perspective? Four years<Eternity. No matter what you may think politically, or even religiously for that matter you cannot argue that. Four years will always be less than forever. And our hope is in eternity, enthroned as the Name above ALL Names, sitting at the right hand of the very God and creator of everything. Our hope is not in an election, or that our opinions are right, so very right, the most right that right could be.

Thank you so much for reading this. Please please please leave any and all thoughts that you have. If you want to message me on FB, that we could talk privately, I more than invite you to. If you disagree with me, I am so okay with that, but please tell me. Let iron sharpen iron. If you agree with me, or have more to add, please feel free to do so. I truly and deeply love you all, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers so very much. Please know that this was not easy for me to type. I find myself being convicted and guilty of everything I've written...so excuse any lack of flow or thought, as I was very emotional and passionate as I wrote! I'm sure you understand!

I'm sorry if this seemed as a rant, and I can see how it reads as one, but I assure you that my heart in typing these words is to challenge you to live as the church, as the very bride of Christ. I am sorry if you feel attacked by this, but I hope that you see rebuking as loving instead of sinful and hurtful. I very much hope and pray that these words are a blessing to you, and a challenge to remember that we as the church are called to love people. Three scriptures I leave you with to chew on are Luke 10:25-37, 1 Peter 3:8-22 and James 3. Please read them, pray on them, and respond to them in life and love. I know I am.

Joel