The believer looking within:

As I look at my own faith, I get discouraged. My faith seems to be shaky.  The more I look at my faith the more I begin to wonder and question:  “Do I really believe as I should?  Is my faith really good enough?  Am I really a true believer?  This is what usually happens as we get our eyes off the Lord and onto our own weak and frail faith.

Another similar problem is when I look upon my own Christian life.  I contemplate the way I have been living–my failures and faults and failings.  I begin thinking, “How can I be saved if I live this way?  I fall so far short of what I know God wants me to be.  Am I really His child?”

But God never told us to look at our faith for assurance of salvation.  He never told us to look at our own life and our own good works or lack of good works.  No, God tells us to be “looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

The believer looking without:

What a difference it makes when I fix my eyes on the Saviour.  The more I look, the more I discover how wonderful my Saviour is and what a perfect salvation He has obtained for me.  “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17) because it is in the Word that I see my Saviour and learn of His sufficiency!  My faith is not wonderful, but my Saviour is wonderful and He is the One that I am trusting.  I am not trusting my faith, I am not trusting my good works, but I am trusting my Christ.  I’m not a person with great faith; I’m a person with little faith in a great God!  The more we get our eyes on the Lord–who He is, what He has done, what He has said–the more we will have that blessed assurance.

Faith is not some complicated thing.  Faith is simply looking to Christ (Isaiah 45:22; John 3:14-16).  Faith is seeing Christ as God pictures Him in the Word.  The question is not, “How good is my faith?”  The question is not, “How good is my walk?”  But rather the questions is, “How good is my Saviour?”  The question is not, “Am I believing?” but rather it is, “IN WHOM am I believing and in what direction am I looking?”  Instead of desperately searching our deceitful hearts trying to find faith, we need to joyfully search God’s Word looking to find Christ.

Spurgeon once said, “I looked at Christ.  The dove of peace flew in my heart.  I looked at the dove of peace. It flew away.”  The same thing could be said about faith. Faith is fixing my eyes upon the wonderful Saviour of sinners!  When I turn my eyes away from Jesus and start gazing at my own faith or at my own quality of living, this is when I have problems.  I need to look away from SELF and see the Lord.

The Christian life is to continue in the same way that it commenced:   “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord (by looking unto Him in simple childlike trust), so WALK YE IN HIM” (Col. 2:6).  Let’s get our eyes on the lovely Saviour and move forward with our full confidence in Him!

- George Zeller

Middletown Bible Church

But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;

That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.

The times require distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine. I cannot withhold my conviction that the professing Church is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as it is by skeptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things that differ. Like people afflicted with color-blindness, they are incapable of discerning what is true and what is false, what is sound and what is unsound.

If a preacher of religion is only clever and eloquent and earnest, they appear to think he is all right, however strange and heterogeneous his sermons may be. They are destitute of spiritual sense, apparently, and cannot detect error. The only positive thing about them is that they dislike distinctiveness and think all extreme and decided and positive views are very naughty and very wrong!

These people live in a kind of mist or fog. They see things unclearly, and do not know what they believe. They have not made up their minds about any great point in the Gospel, and seem content to be honorary members of all schools of thought. For their lives they could not tell you what they think is truth about justification, or regeneration, or sanctification, or the Lord’s Supper, or baptism, or faith or conversion, or inspiration, or the future state.

They are eaten up with a morbid dread of controversy and an ignorant dislike of party spirit; and yet they really cannot define what they mean by these phrases. And so they live on undecided; and too often undecided; they drift down to the grave, without comfort in their religion, and, I am afraid, often without hope.

The explanation of this boneless, nerveless, jelly-fish condition of soul is not difficult to find. To begin with, the heart of man is naturally in the dark about religion-has no intuitive sense of truth-and really needs instruction and illumination. Besides this, the natural heart in most men hates exertion in religion, and cordially dislikes patient, painstaking inquiry. Above all, the natural heart generally likes the praise of others, shrinks from collision, and loves to be thought charitable and liberal.

The whole result is that a kind of broad religious “agnosticism” just suits an immense number of people, and specially suits young persons. They are content to shovel aside all disputed points as rubbish, and if you charge them with indecision, they will tell you: “I do not pretend to understand controversy; I decline to examine controverted points. I dare say it is all the same in the long run”-Who does not know that such people swarm and abound everywhere?

Now I do beseech all to beware of this undecided state of mind in religion. It is a pestilence which walketh in darkness, and a destruction that wasteth at noonday. It is a lazy, idle frame of soul which, doubtless, saves man the trouble of thought and investigation but it is a frame of soul for which there is no warrant in the Bible.

For your own soul’s sake, dare to make up your mind what you believe, and dare to have positive, distinct views of truth and error. Never, never be afraid to hold decided doctrinal opinions; and let no fear of man and no morbid dread of being thought party-spirited, narrow, or controversial, make you rest contented with a bloodless, boneless, tasteless, colorless, lukewarm, undogmatic Christianity.

Mark what I say. If you want to do good in these times, you must throw aside indecision, and take up a distinct, sharply-cut, doctrinal religion. If you believe little, those to whom you try to do good will believe nothing.

The victories of Christianity, wherever they have been won, have been won by distinct doctrinal theology; by telling men roundly of Christ’s vicarious death and sacrifice; by showing them Christ’s substitution on the cross, and His precious blood; by teaching them justification by faith, and bidding them believe on a crucified Savior; by preaching ruin by sin, redemption by Christ, regeneration by the Spirit; by lifting up the brazen serpent; by telling them to look and live-to believe, repent, and be converted.

This is the only teaching which for centuries God had honored with success, and is honoring at the present day both at home and abroad. It is doctrine-doctrine, clear, ringing doctrine which, like the ram’s horn at Jericho casts down the opposition of the devil and sin.

Let us cling to decided doctrinal views, whatever some may please to say in these times, and we shall do well for ourselves, well for others, and well for Christ’s cause in the world.

The prophet Habakkuk had an attitude worth following:  He made the choice to rejoice.

Habakkuk saw the rapid increase in Judah’s moral and spiritual failing and this disturbed him deeply but he knew God response and that troubled him more.  God would use the wicked nation of Babylon to punish Judah.  Habakkuk didn’t fully understand this but he rejoiced because he learned to rely on God’s wisdom, justice and sovereignty.  Habakkuk ended his book with this words that we as Christians should be shouting.  I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in God of my salvation.

Praising God in our trials turns burdens into blessings -

When we walk in the light, we don’t stumble in the darkness.  How many times have I walked from my bed into the kitchen grabbed a drink of water and made it back into bed without stepping on something or tripping over a chair.  Too many to count

But every now and then that one time, I get off course and BAM.. I step on the dog water dish, run into the island or worse, I step on the dog.  Why does it happen?  I know my house up and down and have for years I can make that walk with my eyes closed. 

 Two issues I think play into this, first as I wrote above, “We get off course”  Every Christian, no matter how hard they try will eventually find themself off the course God has laid out for them.   We have walked this course for a while and soon we feel we know it well enough to do it on our own.  We start to leave Jesus at home or in church and head out on the all to familiar course we know so well.  What could possibly go wrong?

Second reason we stumble is, someone has placed something in our path with or without our knowledge.  Being a Firefighter, I sometimes bring my gear home and set it by the front door.  When I get up to get a drink of water, my path runs (You guessed it) right past the front door and almost every time I will remember my gear as I am falling forward towards the floor.  Or my wife will set something out, and I find it every time.  But these are no different then Satan laying snares in our path.  He knows when we are walking in the light and when we leave the light off and go it alone.  He doesn’t sleep, he is there 24/7 just waiting for you and I to dim our light down just enough so he can trip us up.

If we have called Jesus to be our light, our Lord and Savior, we have the best light possible.  He will shine as bright as the sun if we let Him.   Scottish pastor Alexander MacLaren said: “Rejected light is the parent of the densest darkness, and the man who, having the light, doesn’t trust it, piles around himself thick clouds of obscurity and gloom”.

Failing to trusting the light or rejecting the light all together can and will lead you to falls, heartaches and darkness that will only bring you forever pain.

This coming Christmas season, call unto Jesus to be your light and shine in your life, like the sun on a mid summer day.

Merry Christmas

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world; that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 God loves us, each and every one of us.  We maybe white, black, brown, fat, skinny, tall or short, He loves the WHOLE world.  He gave us His only son.  WOW!!! 

He knew what was going to happen, He knows the story at the beginning, the middle and the end, so He knew man would fail but He still gave us His son.  Why?  Because He loves us and all we have to do is trust and believe in His son Jesus.

Not to perish but have everlasting life and all we have to do is trust and have faith in Jesus.  This is the best gift ever given. 

Thank you Father, and Merry Christmas

A Shepherd’s Story

Jack Kelly

 ²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶ In that day you will ask in My name.  I am not telling you that I will make requests to the Father on your behalf.

²⁷ For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved  Me and have believed that I came from God.

²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹ “Ah!” His disciples said. “Now You’re speaking plainly and not using any figurative language.

³⁰ Now we know that You know everything and don’t need anyone to question You. By this we believe that You came from God.”

³¹ Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe?

³² Look: An hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

³³ I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:22–24).

Considering these words of Jesus, one cannot help but wonder why it is so hard for many of God’s people to pray. After all, if we truly believed these three verses of Scripture, wouldn’t we be running into the prayer closet every day? Wouldn’t prayer be the very essence of our life? Imagine having a friend with a billion dollars tell you, “Whenever you have a need, call me and it will be yours.” Don’t you think you would dial that number once in a while? Yet we have the very God of the universe saying, “I will move anything out of your way that hinders you. I will give you all you desire if you pray and believe.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to finish the race with prayer. I have seen the fruit of prayer in great measure over the years, but I never want to get to the point of concluding that I have received enough. If God has more of His life for me, more ways that He can glorify Himself through me, I would be a fool to stop praying and start relying on something other than the words that come from the very heart of God.

So why is it so hard to pray? Obviously the devil is against prayer. All through the Scriptures we see what happened as a result of prayer—babies were conceived in barren wombs, the old were made strong, the miraculous abounded—so, of course, Satan is going to oppose us whenever we decide to pray. However, is it possible that there is something in our own hearts that hinders us as well?

  OUR OWN HEARTS CONDEMN US
I believe that many people cannot pray because they constantly feel condemned. Imagine how difficult it would be to visit a friend who always magnified your faults and criticized your most sincere efforts. Although you come in happy, suddenly your spirits are dampened as this friend starts pointing out everything that you are not doing right.

Have you ever encountered something similar in the prayer closet? When I was a young Christian, I had a difficult time with this. If I prayed fifty-eight minutes, I would walk away and a small voice would say, “What? Could you not pray with Me one hour?” If I prayed an hour and five minutes, the voice would say, “Is that all of the twenty-four hours of your day that you can spare for the Lord?”

Of course, this constant condemnation was from my own heart, although it is easy for us to mistakenly attribute such thoughts to God. Because of this, we enter the prayer closet in a manner much like Peter in Acts 10. The Scripture says that Peter went up on a rooftop, and as he began to pray, a sheet was let down by its four corners and contained all kinds of unclean beasts, birds and insects. This is exactly what our prayer life can be like—as we go into that secret place and get on our knees to pray, immediately a sheet comes down containing all our failings, faults, struggles and shortcomings.

Does this sound familiar? All the things you did wrong, all the places where you fell short as a Christian, all these little things come to your mind—as if that is all God remembers. However, notice that the Lord instructed Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat” (Acts 10:13). In other words, “Be nourished, Peter. Strengthen yourself during this time of revelation that I am giving to you.” Peter insisted, “No, I can’t do that because there is such uncleanness here.” In a similar way, many people today cannot grow in grace or lay hold of the promises of God because of a constant awareness of their uncleanness.

The Lord replied to Peter, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:15). When we go into the prayer closet, we must understand that we have been cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are not to call ourselves unclean anymore. The Bible says that in Christ we are the righteousness of God. In other words, we are as clean as God is—which would actually seem almost blasphemous if it were not written in the Scriptures.

I thank God for the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ. I thank God that I do not have to be strong to go into the prayer closet. As a matter of fact, the book of Hebrews tells me that it is in my time of need that I should go to the throne of God. It is when I need strength, direction, empowerment and help that I should go boldly to the throne of grace (see Hebrews 4:16). As His children, we have an open invitation to come into the presence of our heavenly Father.

Remember that the apostle Paul said, “Be careful for nothing…” In other words, do not be weighed down; do not let the enemy or your own heart condemn you. “…but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). How can we come into the prayer closet with thanksgiving if we do not believe that we are already received of God? We must be convinced that it is God’s delight to manifest the life of His Son in us—to give us the things that we need to represent Him on the earth. That is the key to praying with thanksgiving.

  ASKING AMISS
Another reason we may have difficulty praying is because our desires are not in line with God’s desires for us. “…Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2–3). You and I are left on the earth to make known the love of God—the love that sent His Son to a cross—and to glorify the Son. Christ bought the redemption, but we are to bring the reality of that redemption—the reality of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Yet when we forget this purpose, we ask amiss, and then we wonder why our prayers are not answered.

Think for a moment of what can result when we pray in line with God’s desires. When the 120 came out of the Upper Room in the Book of Acts, God had supplied them with the strength that they had prayed for—a supernatural strength that replaced mountains of fear and unbelief. There they were, 120 predominantly uneducated people, simply bursting into the marketplace among those who still had the blood of anger on their lips toward followers of Jesus Christ. Yet these disciples were filled with boldness and the presence of God.

The Greek word megaleios means they were speaking of the anticipated outworking of the inward life of God. They were speaking about what God was going to do, what He had given them, the faith that was alive in their hearts. The religious looked at this and essentially said, “Wow! There is nothing of our religion that has ever given us anything like this! What must we do to be saved?”

Or consider the story in Genesis 24 where Abraham told his servant to go back to his country and find a bride for his son Isaac. This servant journeyed out to the land of Abraham’s family and prayed, “Lord, if You have prospered my journey, and if You are going to be favorable to my master, lead me to the bride for his son” (see Genesis 24:12–14).

The Scripture says that before he was done speaking, Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder (Genesis 24:15) before he was done speaking! This servant had traveled a long distance, was in a very large place among a crowd of strangers, and did not even know where Abraham’s family was. However, he prayed, and the miraculous began to unlock. I thank God that Abraham’s servant was not a strategist. I thank God there were no phone books or cell phones available. In that generation he did what every man should do—he prayed! And when he prayed, God sovereignly began to answer that prayer. Rebekah was grafted into the lineage of Jesus Christ, and from this came Jacob, the patriarchs ofIsrael, and ultimately the Son of God Himself. What incredible results we see when we do not ask amiss!

  FEAR OF WHAT GOD MAY ASK
Many times we cannot pray because we are unwilling to follow the pathway that may open up before us. We are afraid that God is going to ask something of us that we are not willing to give up. In Acts 8, we read the account of a man named Philip who had a marvelous ministry inSamaria. Multitudes were being saved and healed and even the original apostles had taken notice of his ministry. Yet, while in prayer, Philip was asked to leave what most would view as security and success—all to go to a barren place, into a situation he did not understand.

You and I tend to have a view of what our lives should be and what success is. Therefore we are not willing to go into the prayer closet lest God ask us to do something that is not on our agenda. That is why some churches today are filled with people who are simply using Jesus Christ to further their own agenda rather than the will of God.

Philip chose to obey God and leftSamariafor a desert place. It was in that desert that he experienced a miracle—a man of authority fromEthiopiabeing brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. After baptizing this Ethiopian eunuch, the Scripture says that Philip was translated by the Spirit of God. The Lord just took him and placed him in another city about thirty miles away! Obedience to leave what we view as success can actually be what opens to us the supernatural.

Of course, that does not mean that once we have a willingness to obey, we suddenly understand the full picture. God simply calls us to take that first step of obedience by faith. Philip’s obedience brought the gospel—the first record we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ—into the northern parts ofAfrica. As we walk in obedience to the will of God and our desires are in line with His, we have the right to come into the prayer closet and say, “Lord, I need this” and suddenly we see the miraculous begin to unfold.

Later in the book of Acts we find the story of a disciple named Ananias. As Ananias was praying one day, God said to him, “There is a man called Saul of Tarsus staying down at his house onStraight Street. I want you to go down and lay hands on him. I am going to heal him and fill him with the Holy Ghost” (see Acts 9:11–12). Ananias essentially replied, “Lord, is this the same Saul that has done great harm to Your people inJerusalem? I have heard that he has authority from the priests to put in prison all who call upon Your name. Now You are asking me to go lay hands on this man?”

Nevertheless, Ananias obeyed the word he received in prayer. As he prayed for Paul, scales fell from Paul’s eyes and he soon began to go out and preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ. Thank God for Ananias’ obedience! What if he had not obeyed God—if he had gone into the prayer closet and pushed out of his mind everything that was detrimental to his own safety and security?

I cannot get over the thought of the incredible, explosive power that is available if we have the courage to go to prayer and ask, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”—and then have a heart that is willing to obey whatever God asks of us.

  SPEAK TO THE MOUNTAIN
Just preceding our opening Scripture (Mark 11:22), Jesus had cursed a fig tree that had an appearance of fruitfulness but was actually barren. He had come to what was a type of religion, a type of a relationship with God. He looked for life on it, but there was none. The fig tree represents everything within us that has no ability to let the power and strength of Jesus be manifested through us to others—everything in us that hinders, everything that does not represent the life of God, all that falls short of His glory. Remember, it was fig leaves that Adam and Eve used to cover themselves in the Garden of Eden. You and I have the power in Christ to curse this—to speak to this area in our own hearts and say, “No longer will you govern me.”

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Jesus said we have the authority to speak not only to the fig tree but also to the mountain. The mountain is the soil—that which gives life and allows things that do not represent God to survive. We have the power to cast into the sea everything that feeds this powerlessness and allows God look-alikes to flourish in our lives. We can cast them away and expect God to replace them with what we need to glorify Him on the earth.

In other words, whatever the devil has said you cannot do, whatever your own heart says will never change, whatever fear there is within you—that is the mountain. That is where you must stand and say, “I do not believe the lie—I believe what Jesus has spoken. Today I speak to this mountain, and I command it in the name of Jesus Christ to be cast away from me and planted in the midst of the sea!”

It is time to have faith in God. It is time to pray and expect the Lord to answer. Oh, what an hour to rise up and be the Church again! What an hour to go into the prayer closet with boldness despite all our weaknesses and come out with the strength of God. What an hour to have a clear mind, a clean heart, a fresh vision for the future, new strength that comes from God alone. What an hour to be equipped with the power of God.

Thank God that as we come to Him in faith, He will hear our prayers and give us strength. He will open our mouths to speak His Word. He will vanquish our enemies, endow us with giftings that we do not naturally have and enable us to face the days that we are living in now. There is going to be a new song in our hearts, and we are going to finish the race with prayer!

Carter Conlon
©2011 Times Square Church

Psalm 16

 ¹Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

 ²O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

 ³But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

 ⁴Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

 ⁵The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

 ⁶The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

 ⁷I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

 ⁸I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

 ⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

 ¹⁰For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

 ¹¹Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.