Do Not Disturb

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

 and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20

Of all the verses in the Bible, this one is probably the most misapplied.  We hear it used often at revivals.  We have probably used it ourselves when sharing Christ with the lost.  However, what many Christians don't realize is that this verse was intended for believers rather than for the lost.

Now don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that we cannot use this verse when leading someone to the Lord.  However, since Jesus was speaking to us, the Church, when He said this; surely it is vital that we look at what He said in that context.  Jesus is knocking at the door of the Christian's heart (our heart) and asking to come in.  How can that be?, we may ask ourselves. As a believer, we have already accepted Him into our hearts.  Why would Jesus need to tell us that He is standing at our heart's door and knocking to come in?  The reason is that many of us have hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on our heart.

Why would a believer hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on their heart?  The answer is simple enough: We are afraid of what Jesus might ask us to do.  After all, if we open our hearts completely to God, He may ask us to risk our jobs by witnessing to a lost co-worker.  Or He may question the emphasis that we place on our children's sports programs.  If we answer the knock on our heart, Jesus might come in and interrupt our weekly schedule- and that might mean missing our favorite TV show or the time we spend with our favorite hobby.  Opening that door might invite Jesus to begin messing with our finances; and do we really want to answer to Him about how we are spending our money?  Even worse, He may ask us to re-evaluate into whose hands we have placed the education of our children- and why.

Face it, opening the door to our hearts is scary.  There is just no telling where it might take you, but I do know this:  Opening the door to Christ will take you off that sofa and into a dark, lost world.  It will bring you hardships and sorrow- and you may never be able to call another minute your own.  But by letting Christ in, you will begin to have the kind of spiritual relationship that you were meant to have.  So throw open that door and let Christ use you to change the world.

Gotta go.  I think I hear someone knocking at the door...

Willingly Ignorant

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

II Peter 3:5 - 6

This week I attended an Answers in Genesis conference with my grandkids. It was a special event for me because I remembered attending this same conference with my children when they were about the same age. What really made the occasion special was knowing that my daughter is providing the Biblical foundation that my grandchildren need to combat the philosophies of this world. Like Ken Ham, I believe that the battle for the minds and beliefs of our children begins with Genesis.

When I started college, I had only been a Christian for a year.  When we began to study evolution in my biology class, I quickly realized that there was a gigantic chasm between what the Bible teaches about our origins and what our science classes teach.  For me, there was no spiritual conflict over this issue.  I believed that God's Word was literal and inerrant; therefore, there had to be error in what my teacher was telling me.

Over the next few years, I read every book (Christian and secular) that I could on the topic of evolution- even Darwin's Origin of the Species. The more that I read, the more certain I became that evolution was fiction.  I learned that evolutionists frequently put forth their own assumptions and assertions as "facts" even when their is little or no actual data to support their theories.  For example, a tooth or a portion of a skull is "reconstructed" into a new "species" of early man. 

Now, decades later (with a Master's degree in Archaeology) I know that what passes for science today is 10% facts and 90% supposition.  Whether its evolutionary biology, theoretical physics, or geology, what we actually know for sure is just a drop in the bucket compared to what we do not know.  If you think that I am exaggerating, ask yourself why our science books have to be updated every 5 to 10 years.  It isn't because we are adding that much new knowledge, but that we are changing our suppositions regarding those few facts that we know.

God's Word is different. It is immutable and inerrant. It doesn't have to be updated or revised because it is infallible.  In all my years of researching the origin of man, I have never found one single fact that calls into question the credibility and accuracy of the Scriptures.  The scientific evidence of a young earth, created in six days, is overwhelming.

However, my faith isn't built upon the science of creationism.  My faith is founded in the Word of God.  Ultimately that is where we all stand or fall as Christians.  Do we put our faith in the word of man or do we put our faith in the Word of God? That is the foundational choice that determines the course of our own personal walk.  We can choose to try to avoid making the choice or we can try to waffle on the decision by trying to put together some hybrid mix of faith and science; but by doing that we are actually choosing to mitigate the truth of God's Word.

Walking by faith cannot be a half-hearted action.  If we are not 100% certain of the reliability of God's Word, then Satan will slowly and surely chip away at us until our faith collapses like a house of cards. If you haven't given this issue much thought, maybe it is time that you did.  If you've been on the fence about creationism, trying to live with one foot in the world and the other with God, then maybe its time that you asked yourself this question: How is that working for you?

Reflections on Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day.  After all, being a mother is usually a pretty thankless job.  Kids seldom notice the sacrifices that you make for them when they are young, so it is nice that for one day out of the year you get to be gushed over. What's not to like about that?!

For me, it is also the day to remind myself that the children that I had birthed do not really belong to me.  God had allowed me the privilege of caring for them, but in reality, they belonged to God.  It's what I call Stewardship Parenting.  As Christians, we tend to be aware (at least in theory) that our money, belongings, and time actually belong to God and that we are just the stewards of those things.  God allows us to use six days a week to do the things that we need (and want) to do, but reserves one day a week for Himself.  He allows us to spend 90% of our money on ourselves, but expects the tithe to go toward His work.

However, we often forget that the same holds true for our children.  We make the mistake of thinking that they are ours- and that gives us the wrong approach in child rearing. We focus on what we want for our kids (happiness, success, security) rather than what God wants.  The reality is that the Christian walk requires sacrifice and suffering.  As parents, we often do all we can to shield our children from those things; forgetting that those experiences are the things that build faith, character, and integrity. 

Our natural instinct as a mother is to protect our children.  However, we are (in essence) tying God's hands when we rush in to protect our kids from the consequences of poor choices. It is vital that children learn the principle of sowing and reaping by experiencing it first hand.  We are opposing God when we try to mitigate the consequences of sin in our childrens' lives.  If we saw a loving parent trying to discipline their child, we would never rush in and try to stop them; but when we shield our children from God's discipline, we are doing just that.

It isn't easy to practice Stewardship Parenting.  It means that we have to truly give our children up to God.  It wasn't easy for Abraham to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice and it isn't any easier for us today.  Giving our children back to God may mean that they end up on the other side of the world doing mission work or live in semi-poverty to minister to native Americans in South Dakota.  While we may feel compelled to transfer our own hopes and ambitions on to our children, Stewardship Parenting means that we enable our children to pursue the course that God has laid out for their lives- even if it means laying down their lives for the Gospel.

Looking back on all the wonderful Mother's Days that I've had, it's great to be honored as a mother; but it's even better to set aside my own selfish desires and expectations of motherhood so that I can be the kind of mother that God wants me to be.  After all, that is what a great mother really is.