As we approach Christmas so many people get caught up in the stress of trying to find the perfect gift for family and friends, but what if we thought “Outside The Box” this Christmas and consider doing something special for a complete stranger or for a person we don’t know well? What if we prepared something unique and special that would demonstrate God’s love to this person? When we think about sharing our faith in God, or witnessing for Jesus during December, we often get intimidated by the complexity of the story rather than keeping things simple and to the point. Jesus made it simple for all of us when he said:

If there is anything I have learned from being a believer with a bad past and pastoring people who have a past of brokenness and bad decisions, it is that we often mistakenly carry our past failures and mistakes into our Christian experience. With the extra baggage our transformation slows to a crawl, or only lasts for a short time.

Now, to be sure, I believe Christ changes us from the inside out. But we tend, if not always, to take with us some of our brokenness into this new life, often without realizing it. I can’t tell you all the lives I have encountered that struggle with things of their past that they never really got over even though they are bible believing Christians who read scripture regularly.

The question is: why would we contaminate our new lives in Christ with our past mistakes and woundedness? Let me say at the outset that many of these broken things in our lives are because we are ignorant of God’s truth about them, and because we refuse to identify them and own up to our need for change. A case in point is how many Christians have you met who believe in horoscopes and follow them, even after becoming a believer? How many Christians can’t seem to break their addictions they brought into their Christianity? There are so many cases in which people genuinely believe in Christ and yet stumble with their refusal to give up baggage from the past, and they think they can keep these things hidden from those around then when in fact people see the baggage of brokenness in us, they just don’t bring them up to us personally.

There is a story in the book of Acts that defines such a person who carried wrong motives and baggage that were logged in his heart even though he accepted Christ and was baptized. Some will try to make this man out as not being truly born again, but if we read scripture honestly without coloring it for our own comfort we will see the truth that he was born again but still brought the baggage of pride and witchcraft with him.

Acts 8:9 & 12-13

Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;

But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

The problem with Simon was that he was captivated by the adulation and praise of people. His baggage was pride and praise mixed with his addiction to witchcraft, and he brought these addictions into his relationship with Christ. None of us come to Christ without some hindrances towards transformation. It takes time and humility to expose and overcome these hundrances.

Acts 8:9-10

Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, This man is what is called the Great Power of God.

God has designed victory for everyone who accepts Christ, along with the power of three major elements to overcome the baggage we bring into our life in Christ. Here is the catch: it doesn’t happen automatically. They must be applied regularly and together. They are Scripture, Discipleship and the Holy Spirit. If any one of these, or all of them, are not applied regularly we most likely will become imprisoned and trapped in the addictions of our past again. Too often these assets of victory are underutilized because of the lack of sound teaching in the local church.

In Simon’s case he was so consumed with the tools of his former life that he could not get past the addiction to them. Christ does not reject us because of our baggage, but the road to recovery and wholeness will be harder, if not impossible, when we cling to such baggage. Simon just couldn’t resist his old ways and tried to bribe Peter for the power he had.

Acts 8:18-20

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!”

Getting saved and growing in Christ takes having the formula of real God-inspired discipleship, regular reading of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to work properly. Not giving up our old baggage often cripples us, even though we have experienced Christ’s love and forgiveness.

In Psalms 119:105 it states that God’s word is a lamp or light to our path but if we are not letting the revelation of God’s word reveal the path before us we stumble.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19 that we are to go into the world and make disciples. He didn’t say build church buildings and teach sermons. We so often replace real one-on-one discipleship for sermons. Is there any wonder, then, that the average Christian has a spiritually stunted growth in God?

Jesus said in John 14:26 the Holy Spirit will teach us and remind us of what Jesus said. Without this help we are forced to figure out this Christian life on our own and we all have seen how that turns out.

God will expose the baggage we are either ignorant of or unwilling to give up simply because he loves us and wants the best for us. One of the ways he does this is by equipping the body of Christ so that through the gifts of the Holy Spirit these things can be revealed: like a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom or prophetic utterance. But if we, and those around us, are not led by and inspired by the Holy Spirit we walk in the dark, even though we have God’s word.

My advice is to bring your baggage, no matter how small or large, to the Lord and let him deliver you. Forcing God to confront us is far more painful. Let the love of God through the Word, discipleship and the Holy Spirit set you free from the past and keep you free.

Questions:

1) As you grow in God and his word are you being disciple? If not, why not? Don’t be like Simon who got saved and was still bound to his past.

2) Have you approached a person who is more mature than you are to ask them to disciple you? Make yourself vulnerable and be honest with a brother or sister who has demonstrated maturity, and ask them for help.

Pastor Dale

If we read the scripture without a social or commentary bias, this story about Jesus sending his 12 disciples to the next city when evening was approaching is very interesting. Little did the disciples know there would be a strong storm coming that evening, though they knew the sea of Galilee was known for storms happening quickly. The question I have is: did Jesus know he was sending the disciples into trouble or did this just happen?

Mark 6:45

Immediately after this, Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and head out across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home.

Things to remember in answering this question is remembering Jesus always was led by what he saw the Father do.  In other words, this was the Father’s will to send the disciples into this storm.  Doesn’t that bring comfort to your heart! Secondly, Jesus often would put problems in front of the disciples in order to evaluate their heart and perception about doing God’s will. Often, these problems exposed hidden issues in the disciple’s hearts and their thinking.  Jesus wanted to address things they should have learned earlier and facing problems helped to sort out where the disciples trust was weak in their Heavenly Father. Without tests, there is no true evidence of faith.

Within this story, scripture says Jesus went to pray alone while he disciples herded for Bethsaida, which was about 4 miles along the coast. Considering what happened to the disciples, was Jesus praying for them or just praying about other things? My best guess is he knew this would be a test and they would either lose ground in their spiritual walk because of it or they could advance in their walk with God, which I believe is always God’s heart for us. So, I think Jesus was interceding for them to pass the test the father had laid out in this storm.

Here is the thing. Somehow many believers think that if they pray for safety or protection then nothing bad will happen to them. In some cases that is true but certainly not in all cases. Sometimes God has to let us walk independently into harms way in order to awaken us to our need of him. Our personal independence from God often is a problem for every believer and thus the Holy Spirit develops ways to manifest it to us so we can address it. The sad thing is the more we get to know God and his word the tendency is to act more independently because we “Assume” God is always with us and therefore we don’t need to pursue him as hard as when we were more immature.  It is paradoxical how knowledge can make us foolish or wise.

This story is in all four of the gospels so it must have greater importance than other stories or principles in scripture. That being said, I think we all have heard this story in sermons and thus it’s easy to think we know all it has to give us and therein is another problem. Shutting down our hunger to know more prevents us from seeing more, especially when it comes to our self reliance in reading scripture or hearing God’s voice. If our souls are not constantly adjusting to new revelation from the Holy Spirit we get stuck in religious thinking instead of flowing in the spirit. We fool ourselves into thinking we are more mature than we really are.

Verse 48 contains one important fact.   It says Jesus was going to them but then he started to go past them. Why? Why go to them and then seemingly decide to go past them? Maybe the disciples’ ability to overcome their fear of the storm would be exaggerated by the fear they saw a ghost. Fear is the opposite of faith and they were swimming in it with the storm.

Mark 6:48

He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning he came to them, walking on the water. He started to go past them,

Is it possible Jesus felt they would just freak out by seeing him walking on water so much so he figured it’s best to pass them by and then just meet them at their destination? I wonder how many times I didn’t have an encounter with the Lord because my heart and mind were so captivated by my problem or my trial?  Likely more than I realize, just like the disciple seemed to be. Maybe your fear clouds your ability to hear and feel the presence of the Lord, just like it did the disciples on that stormy night.

Near the end of this story, I think there is a hidden truth that applies to the disciples and to us. It states that the disciples didn’t get the “Significance” of the previous miracle of feeding the 5,000. Scripture literally says their “Hearts” were hard, which means not open to what God was trying to teach them. Again, they often react to miracles like you and I do. We forget the significance rather than having it build our faith and relationship with God.

Mark 6:51-52

Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were astonished at what they saw. They still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the multiplied loaves, for their hearts were hard and they did not believe.

I hate to say it but many times my heart is hard or resistant towards what God is trying to speak to me.  Therefore, he has to allow hardship or trouble or great struggle to happen so that my heart becomes broken and moldable all over again. I’m sure the Lord doesn’t desire harm to come to us yet he knows if it does it will help us have a soft heart so he can teach us the secrets of the kingdom.

Psalms 34:18

The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

You and I have the ability to have a “Teachable” spirit or a stubborn one. We can stay moldable in the Father’s hand or we can become stiff and resistant to what he wants us to learn.  Sometimes we are ignorant because we want to be and sometimes we are ignorant of what God is saying because we have become entrenched in our habits and ways of thinking.

I hate to say it but the disciples were just like us in some ways. They wanted to understand the words of Jesus but there were times when Jesus spoke and thy just couldn’t comprehend his words.  An example of this is when Jesus told them that the son of Man was going to be killed.  They heard his words but didn’t understand them because in this area they were not moldable because it went against what they wanted. They wanted a king that would overturn Roman rule, not a king that would be sacrificed for their sin.

Mark 9:32

But they didn’t understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.

That inability to understand Jesus hurt them more than they understood because when the time to stand up for their messiah came in the garden, they all ran away.

I pray you and I will constantly ask God to help us be moldable like clay so that his words to us will be understood and we will bless his heart because of it.

Questions:

1) Can we point out troubles that have come our way because we lacked the ability to see some weakness in our character without it? Confess your desire for God to make your heart soft and pliable like Isaiah did ( Isaiah 64:8)

2) Do you regularly ask God to keep you from testing? The Lord’s prayer encourages us to pray that we would not be led into temptation – that word is about “Testing” (Matthew 6:13)

May the Holy Spirit help us to keep soft hearts and open minds so our tests would be few rather than great,

Pastor Dale

I have learned there are a lot of people who claim they hear from God or from the Holy Spirit who told them to do something, but often times it’s nothing more than justifying their own desire. It seems they just want to say it’s ok to do something they want to do and God’s voice becomes their “Rubber Stamp” of approval. Granted, there are people who do hear from the Lord but maybe, just maybe, there are more pretenders than practicers in the body of Christ than we realize.

Today we often hear in church that God wants to heal our broken heart but have we ever thought God might want our hearts broken instead? Is it possible that God requires a brokenness in our souls in order for us to be truly healed? In scripture we often get confused when understanding how and when God restores us and thus we may in fact fight against the process He designed for our own restoration.

When you read books about Christianity written before the 1900s, or even the early 20th century, they often used different words to described what a person coming to Christ should look like and act like. Generally, they did not use the word “SAVED” or even ”Born again” but rather they used a word like “Converted” to describe the change in a person’s life. Why is this important and and how should we look at our own salvation or the experience of others who have been “Born again?”

These days very few writers talk about the fear of the Lord because I think that they probably don’t understand the topic from God’s perspective in the scripture and because they think it is only an Old Testament concept which is outdated because Jesus came. So, is the topic useful to those who believe in Jesus or is it an outdated concept for Bible believing Christians?

Have you ever felt like God is not listening to your prayer? I know I have, and that feeling may not be wrong depending on the motive of our hearts when we pray, and whether we have kept short accounts with God regarding our sins. Although I believe God wants to hear us our own “Position” in life may deny us such access. Consider what king David wrote about God and his prayers, and see if you understand his insight concerning whether God is listening or not.

We are often told that fear is bad and there are a multitude of book & tapes on how to overcome fear but what if we are trying to get rid of something that is meant for our good? What if fear can actually enable us to succeed in life rather than fail?

This may seem like and odd question but trust me there is a logical reason for asking it. I listened to a sermon the other day that asked if Jesus was first our teacher before we embraced him as our savior. The idea he was trying to bring across is the problem that many churches today are trying get people to embrace Jesus as their savior without knowing what he teaches or requires of them.