Will Davis Jr.'s Blog, page 50

God Knows How

God Knows How

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation.

2 Peter 2:9

I hate temptation. I mean, I really hate it.

I hate it because it lies to me. I hate it because it makes the unattractive and the awful look attractive and wonderful

I hate it because it never delivers what it promises and it always charges more than it initially advertises. There’s always fine print with temptation.

And, I hate it because I often don’t know how to fight it off.

That’s why this verse is so encouraging to me. I don’t know how to resist temptation, but God knows how to rescue me from it. God knows how to make me godly, and keep me godly.

When I’m in the midst of temptation, I don’t just need to resist it, I need to be rescued from it.

It’s the friend that calls just at the right time, just wanting to see how I am.

It’s the Bible falling open to just the perfect verse.

It’s my screensaver showing the perfect picture to redirect my thoughts.

It’s God’s Spirit swooping in and embracing me, even when I’m contemplating jumping off the deep end into sin.

It’s a rescue, and it’s what I need every day.

Are you being tempted? Are you flirting with a really bad decision? Does he/she/it look attractive even though you know in your gut that there’s only heartache on the other side of he/she/it?

Look around. Your rescue is at hand.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1Co 10:13 ESV)

The Highway of Holiness

The Highway of Holiness

A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

Isaiah 35:8

I love Isaiah Chapter 35. When I read it, it feels like I’m reading a description of Jesus’ ministry or one of the early chapters of Acts. The lame walking, the blind seeing, etc. And yes, it was written 700 before Jesus walked the earth.

Then Isaiah starts talking about a highway, a holy highway. Don’t you just love that image?

I’ve been on many different kinds of highways, and so have you: from the picturesque to the boring, and from the dangerous the deserted. But none of those highways are what Isaiah speaks of here.

What Isaiah saw was a holy highway. A road, a path, that we might just call Main Street in God’s Kingdom. It will be holy, not because of where it goes or the rich nature of its pavement, but it will be holy because of who walks on it

You and me. Because we’re there, it will be holy.

Let me expand that idea: because we’re there—blood-bought and sealed by God’s Holy Spirit–the way will be holy. The holiness we display will not be the result of anything we have done. We won’t be able to boast in it or take any credit for it. We’ll be holy simply by the grace, mercy and redemptive work of Jesus.

Jesus’ presence in us will be so prevailing that our steps will make the very path we’re on holy.

And you know what’s really cool about this holy highway? We’re already on it. Isaiah wasn’t seeing heaven, he was seeing the Kingdom. And the Kingdom began the moment Jesus rose from the dead and poured out his Spirit on us. If you’re a Christian, you’re holy—now, today, right this minute, even as you read these words.

Welcome to the holy highway. Be holy today.

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isa 35:8-10)

 

 

 

 

Holy Jealously

Holy Jealously

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24

Don’t be misled or put off by the description of God being jealous. It’s God’s own description of himself and it has nothing to do with human jealously.

On the earthly, human level jealously is a sin. It’s a cousin to discontentment and a sibling of covetousness. Human jealously always involves looking at what others have or who they are instead of being grateful for what God has done for us.

Divine jealously is completely different. The word for jealous is also translated zeal. In God’s world, jealously and zealousness are closely related. What God is zealous about he is jealous for. What God loves passionately he protects fiercely. He doesn’t divide his love or loyalties, and he doesn’t allow those who serve him to divide theirs either.

God is jealous for us—he wants all of us.

Here’s the relevant question: what does God have to compete with in your life? What relationships, habits, hobbies, addictions, jobs and/or careers are slowly reducing the access God has to your life, your love and your resources?

God doesn’t compete. He doesn’t share. He doesn’t have to. He is gracious, compassionate and merciful, but he will not tolerate divided loyalties.

Today, purge your life of anything that competes with your love for God. Don’t let busyness, good things, relationships, hobbies or jobs creep in and close off God’s access to you.

Pray for the wisdom and boldness to fiercely protect your relationship with God.

Pray that you will be as zealous for God as he is jealous for you.

Pray with David from Psalm 86:11: Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Waiting for God

Waiting for God

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. Acts 1:14

Sometimes it’s what you’re not doing that matters most. Sometimes, when you’re not working, not striving and simply waiting, God is working behind the scenes. Get out of the way and let him work.

Right before Jesus ascended to Heaven after his resurrection, he gave his disciples instructions to go back to Jerusalem and to wait for him. He promised to fulfill the ancient prophecies and to pour out his Spirit on them. In other words, he promised to change history through them.

He didn’t tell them how long to wait; he just told them to wait.

Waiting is hard. I hate waiting. As a wired-up spiritual activist, I often see waiting as a waste of precious Kingdom time.

But waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing; it means getting out of the way.

During the ten days that the disciples waited for the Spirit, they did some very important things: they prayed and they remained unified. They affirmed their commitment to each other under Jesus’ name and they prayed for Jesus to come to them in his Spirit.

As they got out of the way and waited in prayer for Jesus, he came to them. And he changed history in the process.

Are you waiting for God? Has he given you a promise that he seems slow to keep? Are you growing weary? Do you feel like you’re wasting your time? You’re not.

If God has told you to remain faithful to him and to wait for his fulfilled promise, then you’re not wasting time. Waiting matters. Waiting has Kingdom purpose. God is working and wants you to stay out of the way, at least for now.

So pray. Stay unified with God and his people. Don’t quit and don’t grow weary. The wind will blow. The Spirit will move. God will keep his Word.

 

A Week Before Thanksgiving, Here’s Your One-Stop Christmas Shop

Don’t get caught up in the Christmas glitz and glamor this year. Give gifts that have eternal impact. Here are a few suggestions:

For the coffee lover

 

 

Coffee grown by Haitian farmers. Each bag of coffee sold provides a child a hot, nutritious school lunch for one month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the person with a terminal illness or who has just lost a loved one:

 

 

 

–When Will the Heaven Begin. (NYT Best Seller)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the newlyweds:

 

 

 Pray Big for Your Marriage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loving Your Man without Losing Your Mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the new parents:

 

 

Pray Big for Your Child

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For parents of teens:

 

 

Parenting Your Teen and Loving It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the music lover:

 

 

Penny and Sparrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the new Christian:

 

 

 

Faith Set Free: How to Pray for Yourself

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the person struggling with self-doubt and self-esteem

 

 

Ten Things Jesus Never Said: And Why You Should Stop Believing Them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the person who has everything

 

 

 

Enough: Finding More by Living with Less

 

 

 

The Sign

The Sign

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7

Because of our culture—because of Christmas gifts and birthday gifts and graduation gifts and Valentine’s gifts, etc.—we tend to think that when we get a gift, it’s for us to enjoy.

In God’s Kingdom, gifts are never for us. They’re always for others.

1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 contain the fullest discussion of spiritual gifts in the Bible. If you haven’t studied these chapters recently, do so. They’re pivotal to understanding the nature and role of spiritual gifts.

Verse 7, to be so brief, offers a world of great insight into spiritual gifts:

They’re given . You’re not born with spiritual gifts. They’re not like talents. They’re given to you as part of the Holy Spirit’s deposit in you when you first believe in Jesus (see Ephesians 1:13-14).
They’re universal . By that I mean that all Christians have them. Paul said they were given to each one. That includes you and me. We all have spiritual gifts and we are all accountable for them.
They reveal God’s Spirit . Gifts manifest the Spirit of God. Because they enable us to do work we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, and because the fruit of our gifts lasts into eternity, they reflect their real true source—the Holy Spirit.
They’re for others, not us . Paul said they benefit the common good. He means the Church. Gifts aren’t meant to make us more popular Christians or bring us more earthly glory. Gifts are designed to benefit the direct object of their use. Thus, the Church needs your gifts for it to be healthy. And, you equally need the gifts of others around you. Thus, God has created a beautiful interdependence in his Body by his design of spiritual gifts.

Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Study the passages in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Peter 4. Get familiar with them. Pray and ask God to reveal your gifts to you. Ask others who are familiar with the scriptures what gifts they see in you. Go online and take several spiritual gift surveys.

What God is Looking For

What God is Looking For

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”” 1 Samuel 16:7

God does not choose to use us based on our physical or intellectual abilities. He uses us based on our love and passion for him.

God rejected David’s older brothers, and no one, including the prophet Samuel, seemed to understand why. David’s brothers were strong and handsome and intelligent and well trained in the ways of the world. From every earthly and cultural standpoint, they were more than qualified to lead Israel.

But God told the prophet to keep looking. It seems that God has a different criteria when looking for leaders. He looks at the heart.

God found in David a passion for God and his Word. He found a young man of great faith and great zeal. He found a young man he could use.

The point of this Wake Up Call is not that you shouldn’t go to school or be well trained or seek to gain as much knowledge as you can about your respective field. But you need to know those things don’t automatically make you someone God can use. They’re simply skills that can make you a sharper tool in God’s hand.

What God looks for is internal. It’s spiritual. He wants to know if you love him. He wants to know if you’re willing to stand with and for him when no one else will. And, he wants to know if you’ll believe in him when the giants around you are mocking the both of you.

That’s what God is looking for in a leader. Are you someone God can use? Are you powerful in spirit?

Why not pray right now for God to help seek him with great passion today? Pray for a heart to know God, and then go serve him with all your might.

 

Hey Christians, It’s Time to Take Divorce Off the Table

It happened again just the other day. I was talking to a couple–a Christian couple–about a marriage issue they were having. Actually, they were unable to agree on whether they should adopt a child. In the midst of the conversation the husband said, “Yep, we almost split up over it.”

I was stunned. Did I hear this guy right? Did he really just say that they almost divorced over a disagreement about adoption?

I had heard him correctly. And if I hads been thinking, I wouldn’t have been shocked at all. Divorce has become way too easy and way too much of an option for Christian couples.

Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to guilt or shame anyone. I’m rather simply trying to call our attention back to the biblical standard for marriage.

In this blog I’d like to offer a little pushback, a little unconventional thinking.

First, we need to remember that divorce was allowed in the Bible for only very specific reasons. Secondly, we need to remember that God told us in Malachi that he hates divorce. Those two realities alone should be enough to lead most believing couples to take the option of divorce off the table. If God hates it, we shouldn’t want anything to do with it.

But let’s not be vague here. Let be be specific:

 

I only find two reasons for divorce in the Bible:

Marital Infidelity . See Matt 5:31-32. If your spouse breaks covenant with you by being sexual with another person, then you do have a biblical right to divorce them. But even in the case of unfaithfulness divorce isn’t always a good idea. I’ve seen God heal countless situations of adultery, even serial adultery. So while divorce is permitted because of adultery, it is by no means encouraged.
Your spouse is an unbeliever, and he/she wants to leave the marriage . See 1 Cor 7:15. If you’re unequally yoked in your marriage and your spouse decides to leave you, you’re free to let him or her go.

Those are the only two biblical exceptions for divorce. I will say that I have advocated divorce on the tragic occasions of chronic physical abuse, but only after repeated interventions and efforts to reform the abuser.

My conviction is that we’re approaching marriage from the wrong direction. We’ve let the cultural mantras of “happiness at all costs” and the “me first” mindset affect how we see marriage. And instead of looking for reasons to get out of our marriages, we need to remember the primary reason to fight for them.

God’s favorite metaphor for his relationship with us is that of marriage. He describes himself as a passionate and faithful husband and he describes us as his beautiful and faithful bride. And given that, given that amazing image of marriage that God gives us, it behooves us to rethink our commitment to this holy institution.

Perhaps we need to revisit the Book of Hosea. After Hosea’s wife had birthed two children that were not his own, and after she had returned to her former life of prostitution, Hosea went to the brothel where his wife was being auctioned off as a sex slave. Hosea bid on her, bought her back and took her back into his house.

Then he basically to her:

I. Will. Be. Your. Husband.

That’s a far cry from the “He’s not making me happy” or “I deserve better” reasons we hear Christians giving for divorce these days.

Fellow Christians, we’ve made a disgrace of marriage and God will judge us for the callous way we’ve treated such a beautiful and holy institution. You and I, regardless of how many times we’ve been married before, regardless of how unhappy we think we are in our current marriage or how happy we think we’ll be in another, need to take the option of divorce our of our conversations.

We need to take the word “divorce” out of our vocabulary.

We need to teach and model for our children that divorce isn’t even an option. That if you marry someone, you stay with them . . .no matter what.

We need to add “covenant” back into our language and belief about marriage.

And, we need to hold up the holy standard of Christ and his Church as the role models for our marriages.

Paul gave us great instructions in 1 Corinthians 7. He basically said, “If you’re married, stay that way. If you’re single, unless you can agree to unconditionally love and serve someone for the rest of your life, stay single.”

Oh Lord, please forgive us for the flippancy we’ve shown toward marriage. Please help us to model it for what it is: a holy union.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Most Important Verse I Ever Learned

The Most Important Verse I Ever Learned

 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

I am a classic people pleaser. I mean, for years I struggled with keeping all the different people and groups of people in my life happy. I avoided conflict at all costs. As a result, I made countless poor decisions and looked the other way on countless more, all in the name of pleasing others and “keeping the peace.”

Then I realized two things:

My strategy wasn’t working. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t please everyone.
My people-pleasing efforts were making me sick. I was so stressed by avoiding conflict and by trying to live up to everyone’s expectations that I was basically wearing myself out.

So I began praying for wisdom on how to be less of a pleaser. And God gave be Galatians 1:10. I remember where I was when it slammed into me like a freight train pulling one hundred cars of grace. I’d read it before, but this time it really hit me.

Paul made it so clear for me: Trying to please others isn’t just futile, it’s poor theology. Pleasing others can get very close to idolatry, as we sacrifice anything to gain other’s blessing. And in reality, the only One I’m supposed to live for and try to please is God.

Beyond that, if I was serious about pleasing God I could be sure that I won’t always please others.

God’s message to me that day was unbelievably liberating. It freed me from the futility of trying to keep everyone around me happy, and it called me up to a higher level of commitment to Jesus. My people-pleasing had been snuffing out my discipleship. But when I memorized and applied Galatians 1:10 to my life, everything changed.

Do you struggle with trying to please others? Today, why not do two things:

Focus only on pleasing Jesus. Run every decision and action through the “Is this going to please my Savior?” filter. If you do, you’ll be happier, freer and more fulfilled at the end of the day.
Memorize Galatians 1:10. Then, lie down on that track and let those hundred cars of grace roll all over you.

Will’s Letter to ACF, Nov 18, 2013