Forward Facing Faith

I want to have a living breathing faith that grows and moves ahead, but to do that I need to move myself forward or at least lean that way.

BUT, there does seem to be something treacherous going on in me because I find I like the idea of moving forward more than the actual working faith that it will take to do it.

I don't want to stay the same, yet I want to change without things changing around me.

Bottom line, I do not want to stay where I'm at today in my faith,

no matter how good that is, but especially true if it's a bad place.

This requires a constant leaning forward, a looking up ahead to things that will be and not being content with the Status Quo no matter how comfortable that seems to be at the time.

Like the Apostle Paul said, and he accomplished enough for three lifetimes,

... I keep going on, trying to grasp that purpose for which Christ Jesus grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have grasped it fully even now. 

But I do concentrate on this:

I forget all that lies behind me and WITH HANDS OUTSTRETCHED to whatever lies ahead I GO straight for the goal – 

my reward the honour of my high calling by God in Christ Jesus.-Philippians 3:12-14

There is a price to pay for NOT moving forward that is greater than the cost of proceeding forward, for faith once it has been birthed in a soul never really dies nor will it be denied.

In the bible, very often growing trees and flowing rivers are used to describe a growing and flowing life.

If the tree isn't watered and tended it withers, dies and turns to fertilizer.

The river if it stops flowing turns into a swamp and only snakes, lizards and crocs live there.

The cost of moving forward is the tree being occasionally trimmed which hurts but causes continued growth. And, the rivers can and will flood their banks from time to time. The waves will get boisterous and come near to drown us, and some things will come to a painful end, but the seeds from these must be buried deep so they can one day grow into the great shade trees they were designed to be.

We're not the people we were twenty years ago or even yesterday, and it will take a lot of leaning into the wind and rowing against the tide to get us to our tomorrows. 

I couldn't see it back then but as I look back now I can see that a Forward Facing Faith no matter how much, fear, sweat and sacrifice has been worth it.

To stay the same would have been a life filled with regret. 

Nobody wants that.

We need to strive for life rather than just survive.

Breath of Forgiveness

How many times do we read the bible and say to ourselves, "Sure, He was Jesus or He was God"?

How easy is that to shift the blame or responsibility, in a twisted sort of way. ? Again and again Jesus tells us to forgive, and if we don't, by the way, we can't be forgiven ourselves. Oh, how bad do I want that not to be literally true!

Before Jesus died, he often used the phrase, "or my Father in heaven won't forgive you."

Matthew 6:15

But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Try not to look now, but Jesus said that right after, and within the same breath of telling people how their prayers should look. Now called the Lord's Prayer, but really should be called Our Prayer.

Even while a representative segment of the world's population, lead by His Chosen people, beat, maimed and crucified Him. He still wouldn't let up on this topic.

Jesus said(while hanging from a cross), "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.-Luke 23:34

He found this as easy as breathing, for even after He had died and His closest friends were cowering in fear, He shows up, walking through the walls no less, and breathes on them.

He tells them to receive the Holy Spirit, but then still not letting up on the forgiveness thing, tells them to forgive and if they don't nobody gets forgiven.

Within the same BREATH He told them,

"If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. "John 20:23

So whether dead, alive, risen or dead we are to forgive and it's to be as easy and common as breathing.

Lord help us All!

What Doth Hinder Thee?

Ok, it's not the catchiest title, what with the Old King James language and all, but this is a sermon I heard at least 21 years ago, and that's at least part of my point.

That sermon rocked me and it was sticky, what all sincere Preachers of the Gospel hope, strive and pray for.

I don't even remember for sure who preached it, but I still recall the fragment of scripture the Preacher used as his tag line, a modified "what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Stripped down to its core idea, what doth hinder me?

Acts 8:36

And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water:and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

From a story in Acts Chapter 8 of an Ethiopian driving a chariot and reading the Hebrew scroll of Isaiah, he senses that it has more meaning and Phillip a disciple of Jesus comes along, miraculously, and explains it. This leads the man to faith and a desire to complete his belief by the rite of Baptism.

His question to Philip is, does anything prevent me from going through with this? To which he replies, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

The preacher the day I heard this message (then as a recently converted and excited follower of Christ) was asking in essence, "What keeps you from believing all the way?"

"What keeps you from going all in?(all in with this "Jesus Stuff" as my detractors have called it")

Is it your present sinful condition?

Is it your doubts, fears and worries?

Is it your fear of losing something and gaining nothing?

Is it your worry over what people will think?

Jesus has an answer for all of these, and I can tell you from my experience as a disciple in the church for ten years followed by eleven years of starting and pastoring a church in a city foreign to me (but still in the same state) and now two years after leaving that church to another man to continue,

I still ask myself occasionally "What doth hinder me?"

Now I ask you "What doth hinder YOU?"