In The Woodcarver (Vivendi Entertainment), Matthew is a troubled young man from a broken home. After vandalizing the local church in rebellious revenge to his parents, Matthew has to repair the damage. In the process, he meets Ernest, an accomplished wood carver who helps him restore his faith in God and in life.
[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. —1 Corinthians 13:7
Why be filled with the love of God? In the time of testing, in the time of trial, does it work? And the apostle Paul pauses, almost dramatically, to show that this love of God will not only enable us to be like Jesus, but also will support us in the time of severest trial. We can put up with anything if we have this love.
The verse contains four descriptions of love: love trusts, hopes, protects, and perseveres. And these four descriptions stand alongside four envisaged situations. They are four negative situations that you and I face all the time. Paul shows how love meets each particular situation. These situations are listed in ascending order with regard to the amount of pressure that they have on us. So the minimal level, or the minor pressure, is where a wrong has been done to us. Alongside this Paul says, “Love always protects.”
Then there is the next level, that of moderate pressure where there is an external want in our lives. Alongside that Paul says love “always trusts.” Then there is a higher level, that of major pressure, where a worry totally dominates us. Alongside that Paul says love “always hopes.” But the highest level, that of maximum pressure, is spiritual warfare. Addressing this situation, Paul says love “always perseveres.” So, at each level of pressure, we are given descriptions of love, but there is more. We need to see that the grace that equips us for the situation is that which also enables us to protect, trust, hope, and persevere.
Paul is showing us the benefits that are ours that enable us to cope in the time of pressure. He says that we protect, we trust, we hope, we persevere. He doesn’t say we will be shouting “Glory! Hallelujah!” all the time. He doesn’t say, “Oh, this is wonderful!” Nothing like that. But what he does say is that it works.
Excerpted from Just Love (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1997).
These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. —1 Peter 1:7
Everybody is either in a trial now or between trials. You have either just had one, you are going to have one, or you are having one. But why call it a “fiery” trial as Peter does? This is because by its light the fire reveals precisely what we are spiritually.
It is apparent, of course, that this only appeals to those who have a desire to be godly.
For example, our endurance can be tested during a trial by how we respond to it. If we begin complaining and murmuring, we will acknowledge later that we did not stand up to the trial very well for we did not display a godly nature. Thus trials will test our ability to manifest all the fruit of the Spirit. They test our work whether we have been walking in the light, and they expose how spiritual we really are, which is the sum of all that has gone on before.
What makes a trial a trial is that God, as it were, leaves us, and we feel deserted and betrayed. We say, “God, I don’t believe this; why would You do this to me? Why desert me at a moment when I needed You the most?” Is that not the way you have felt? That’s why it is called a “fiery” trial; God leaves you to test you, to see what is there. And so, this is the thing about the trial by fire: it exposes how spiritual we really are—which is the sum total of all our Christian living so far. We are forced to see ourselves, and we can find out how Christlike we truly are.
Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. —Galatians 5:25
What does flowing in the Spirit mean? It is moving along with Him, keeping in step with Him, and missing nothing He may be wanting to do through us. There is such a thrill in flowing in the Spirit. You feel what you are doing is worthwhile; you feel authenticated, you feel loved; you feel you are part of something very important—the kingdom of God. You feel this when visiting a sick person or resisting temptation, when you walk to work or do work in the office. It is a twenty-four-hour-a-day possibility.
This is what Peter and John were doing when they were walking toward the temple one afternoon but were unexpectedly stopped—only to see the healing of a forty-year-old man who had never walked. (See Acts 3:1-10.) There are two questions that emerge: (1) Why were these disciples led at this particular time to administer healing to this man? (2) How did they know this man would suddenly be healed?
The Holy Spirit was sovereignly at work, carrying out the Father’s will, when Peter and John came upon this man at the temple gate. That is the only explanation for the healing right then and not before.
But the question still remains: how did they know that God was going to heal this man? It was because they were walking in the ungrieved Spirit; the heavenly Dove was remaining on them. The easiest thing in the world to do is to grieve the Spirit, and the extent of His sensitivity cannot be exaggerated. But Peter and John were enjoying sweet fellowship with the Spirit and with each other, so they did not miss out on what God was prepared to do. It gave them great joy to be involved in this miracle. Since we live in the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Excerpted from Pure Joy (Charisma House, 2006).
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. —1 John 2:15-16
There are Christians who are marked by worldliness. I believe worldliness comes down to three things: sensuality, sophistication, and secularization.
Sensuality is the lust of the flesh: people obsessed with sex, as opposed to a lifestyle of self-denial. Sophistication can be thought of as the lust of the eyes: people obsessed with culture, learning, and refinement as opposed to simplicity. Secularization—John calls it “pride of life” —is the obsession with material things as opposed to spirituality.
Worldly Christians who would rather stay home and watch television on Sunday night are nevertheless often the first to criticize things. They appear godly and righteous when they are, in fact, hypocrites.
This is why Christians do not tithe! They can look for every reason in the world why they should not have to do it. It is the worldly spirit that looks for a way not to tithe.
This is why they do not pray. I was talking to someone not long ago whose marriage is on the rocks. I just said to them, “How much do each of you pray?” I was not surprised to hear, “Not at all.” How much time do we spend in prayer, by ourselves? How much time do you take to be alone with God? Thirty minutes a day should be the minimum for each of us. I do not care how busy we are. It will give me no pleasure to stand beside you at the judgment seat of Christ and watch a videotape of these words flashed before you, when in fact you justified how busy you were at the time.
Rule of thumb: get immediate gratification because you want to enjoy the things of the world now, and you will erect a superstructure of straw; but if you have the love of the Father in you, it will be a superstructure of gold.
Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self . . .to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. —Ephesians 4:22-24
Do you know that self-righteous people are the hardest people in the world to reach?
I would rather deal with anybody rather than a self-righteous Christian. I have begun praying, “God, save me from self-righteousness.” It is the easiest trait in the world to enter into my own life when I literally think I’m in the right and it’s the other person that is in the wrong.
When you are dealing with a self-righteous person, you have a battle on your hands. And this is why smugness is so dangerous.
We can recognize smugness in other people although seldom can we see it in ourselves; yet it is one of those things that is hard to prove. You find it wherever you go; they all believe that they are the ones that have got it right: “We are the ones God is blessing; we are saying this, this, this . . .” Where is that one who will say, “There is something wrong with us!”
In order not to have to listen to what God may be saying through someone else, we justify ourselves as being the ones through whom God is going to work; if blessing comes, it will come through us! We do not like to think that God could be doing a work somewhere else with someone of whom we do not approve.
Perhaps you do not like this teaching. But if this sounds like you, then if you go on that way I guarantee you, one day your superstructure of smugness will come out. The truth is that smug people have no objectivity about themselves; they live in a dream world. They do not think, for they know they are right!
The rule of thumb, therefore, is stay smug, and you will erect a superstructure of straw. Be broken, and you will erect a superstructure of gold.
Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993)
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. —Hebrews 13:2
When we get to heaven, I have no doubt that we will get to see the angel who was sent to be with us from the moment of our birth. Not just from the moment of our conversion, but from the moment of our birth. Because “are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14, emphasis added). Could we not all testify to an awareness of God looking after us before we came to faith?
Would you like to entertain an angel? Three suggestions:
Do you want God to appear? What if, by being gracious to someone you didn’t think could help you, you got a word that was life changing in return? What an honor! It could happen to you even today.
Excerpted from When God Shows Up (Renew Books, 1998).
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar. —Romans 3:3-4, NAS
Everyone, at some point in their lives, feels that God has betrayed them and let them down. They find He seems more like an enemy than a friend. Nine out of ten people say, “Well, God, if that’s how You want it to be, then I’ll go my way and You go Yours.” Only one out of ten, I reckon, breaks that betrayal barrier and holds on, like Jacob who wrestled with the angel and said, “I won’t let go unless you bless Me.”
The same kind of thing happened to Abraham. We read in Genesis 22:2 how God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son—his only son. That made no sense to Abraham. But Abraham showed he was willing to obey God, and God honored him for what he was prepared to do.
Sooner or later, God will ask you to do something that makes no sense at the time. Perhaps the barrier you have to break is the one that doesn’t make sense at the time, but you must give God the benefit of the doubt. Abraham obeyed God and was never sorry.
We want God to be partial for us, but we have to come to the place where we allow God to be God. Would we affirm Him if He were to work powerfully in another church, in another denomination? Would we say, “That is God”?
During the American Civil War, someone came up to President Lincoln and asked, “Is God on our side or their side?” Lincoln’s reply was, “All I want to know is whether we are on God’s side.” That is what we need to learn. When it comes to understanding God, we need to be on God’s side and let God be God.
Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).
“Supernatural faith is the key … the kind God provides through His Spirit and with words of encouragement.”
—Michelle Dyett-Welcome
Sowing Into Marriages
I loved the article “How Much Have You Invested in Your Marriage” (by Iris Delgado, February). So many people want to reap the benefits of a healthy marriage without tilling the ground and sowing the seed. The steps outlined are practical yet doable! There are so many problems in marriages and high divorce rates; people need practical, Bible-inspired ways to keep their marriage together.
KarlaShavon McEwen, via Facebook
A Powerful Testimony
I had never heard of Riva Tims before the February issue. Her testimony is an awesome story of integrity, perseverance and forgiveness—qualities lacking in today’s world. She chose to take the high road even with all the verbal and emotional attacks against her. What a shining example of Christ’s commands for us to forgive and to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” I pray that God will increase her anointing and bless her in a mighty way.
Ginger Howell, Houston
Wow! I can feel for Riva Tims—I also went through a divorce and experienced a broken heart. I was involved in local ministry, and it was very difficult to stand in a place of leadership and yet watch my own world crumble. It’s sad to see that this is where the enemy is attacking our families in the church today.
Susan Blanc, Pensacola, Fla.
I enjoyed the February issue very much, especially Riva Tims’ testimony. I didn’t know much about her, so it was awesome to hear how God has pulled her through tough times. God is so amazing and He is good! He is for us not against us!
Danielle Hall, Orlando, Fla.
Supernatural Faith
Lee Grady’s “A Word for the Weary” (February) was a timely word of encouragement. Supernatural faith is the key—it isn’t the faith we can muster for ourselves, but the kind that God provides through His Spirit and with words of encouragement. This was a powerful reminder of how we overcome and accomplish the tasks assigned to us. With this type of faith, all things are possible.
Michelle Dyett-Welcome Far Rockaway, N.Y.
If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is . . . —1 Corinthians 3:12-13
How do we know whether our own individual superstructure is comprised of gold, silver, and costly stones?
First, our application of teaching. We must first understand it. Then we must receive it for ourselves. Thereafter, we must make it change us.
Second, our approach to temptation. What do we do when we are tempted? Maybe we are going to face real temptation, but it is up to us whether we resist it or succumb to it.
Third, our attitude toward trials. We cannot avoid trials. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). As Christians we will face trouble and trials, perhaps even worse than we have known before. Our attitude toward trials will often largely determine what comprises our superstructure. You can look at trials as God’s invitation on a silver platter to move up higher, or you can discredit it, show contempt for the trial, and after it is over be no better off because you refused to dignify it.
There is a fourth way of finding out what you are made of, and it is probably the main one: our ability with the tongue. In Matthew 12:36-37, Jesus described the day of judgment:
But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.
That does not refer to whether you are saved or lost, because in the context the person has already been assumed to be saved. Here He is talking about our words. What you and I actually say will in all probability be what gets us into trouble and will grieve the Holy Spirit. I guarantee you, gold, silver, and costly stones will be our own superstructure largely to the degree to which you and I control our tongues.
Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).