Monthly Archives: March 2010

“And the Lord said, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’” Luke 17:6

We find this saying in two places in the Gospels, and in Luke it comes in response to a request from the disciples: “increase our faith.” We must look carefully at how this familiar teaching applies directly to this request.

Who among us would not ask God to increase our faith? We treat faith like a vitamin. A little faith, the grain of a mustard seed faith, is good. More must be better! Give me more! That is the disciples’ logic, and it’s ours. Thus many of the inspiring testimonies we hear revolve around what so and so did and what great faith it took to accomplish this or that. We love to hear about more faith, and we long for more faith.

Notice, however, that Jesus did not say “You have asked for more faith, and that is a good thing. God will surely give it!” No. Instead He underscored the incredible effectiveness of even the smallest amount of faith. Why?

Jesus’ point here, and the point we often miss, is not the amount of faith you have, but what you do with the faith God has given you. Indisputably God has given the gift of faith to every person. We all have a will to believe. Something pulls us higher and leads us to believe in God. You have faith. Now I say this gently, instead of whining for more faith why not act on the faith you have? You think it is too paltry? Jesus did not give you an excuse for having a tiny amount of faith. He taught you the possibilities of using that tiny amount of faith.

We see these possibilities in Jesus’ life. In both Matthew and Mark we find this teaching after His entry into the Jerusalem, a week prior to His death. In fact, reading this past Sunday the story of His triumphal entry is what drew me to this passage. His imminent death was a tremendous challenge for Him, one that He even prayed to avoid. Yet after those prayers in the Garden, He rose with a resolve to go the cross and lay down His life for you and me. Think about it. The Son, in His full humanity, relied on His faith to act. The cross was faith in action.

Goethe said that thought without action is a disease. I say faith without action is a fantasy. If you do not act on your faith, you will feel helpless and only plead for more faith. Your request is completely irrelevant. God’s answer is that He has given you what you need. Now act. Use the faith He has given you. What is the task before you? By faith, take care of it! What is the burden you have borne alone? By faith, cast it upon God and leave it there. What impulse to serve have you too long ignored? By faith, get to it!

You believe you have only little faith? You probably do. We all do. But it is enough! Act on your little faith.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” Matthew 10:29

This familiar verse has a familiar meaning. Jesus taught that because God cares for sparrows, then certainly He will care for you. Specifically, the verse appears to teach us that a sparrow does not die (fall to the ground) without God’s knowledge.

Only recently did I let that verse rattle around in my mind for a while. Frankly, something bothered me about it. The nub of the problem for me is that while it is somewhat comforting to know that God knows about the death of a sparrow, it is a little curious to think that He only takes notice when they fall to the ground. What about their lives?

Let’s look closely at the words Jesus used. The New Testament was written in Greek. While Jesus probably spoke and understood Greek, as well as Hebrew and probably Latin, the language of every day life in the first century was Aramaic. Jesus almost certainly spoke Aramaic when He said the words of the verse above.

The Greek word for “fall” literally means to fall, and can imply a death, as in fall to the ground. The underlying Aramaic word, however, might be better translated here as “to light” as in “to light upon the ground.” The meaning then would be that God notices not just the death of a sparrow, but its everyday life. He watches as it lights upon the ground to eat or gathers twigs for its nest. I think God is interested in those kinds of activities too.

Jesus emphatically and repeatedly tried to impress on us God’s interest in all aspects of our lives. This interest is not an overbearing vigilance, but a gracious offer to be involved in your life, throughout the day, every day. In His infinite wisdom, joy, and love God can watch a sparrow go about its daily task and take delight in that feathery blessing. Even more importantly, and this is Jesus’ point, He watches you and gently guides, blesses, and takes delight in your life.

The filaments of God’s grace work deeply into every moment of the day, so that every moment is divine. God lovingly watches and cares for you. You are not overlooked, forgotten, or neglected. Your life is important to Him. “Your smiles, your frowns, your ups, your downs” are all familiar to Him. You have a joyous, loving, heavenly Father who enjoys you, loves to be a part of your life, and can bless each moment.

So don’t leave Him out of this moment or the next. Work and pray to become more deeply familiar with Him. Invite Him into each moment. He is there already!

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints the length, width, height, and depth of God’s love; and to know that Christ’s love for you surpasses all knowledge and fills you with the fullness of God.” Ephesians 2:17b-19

God loves you. You know that don’t you? But you have heard it so often that it risks sounding trite or maudlin. What is indisputably true is that most Christians live as if they are unaware of God’s love. Your challenge this week is to recapture some of the grandeur of the fact that God loves you.

Here’s how you will do it. Pretend you are an Ephesian Christian in the first century. You live in one of the truly magnificent cities of the empire, one of the top half-dozen or so. Due to its location on a major trading route, the city’s financial impact reverberates through the empire. The same it true of its political might. And religiously? Before you became a Christian you could have worshiped in scores of temples dedicated to dozens of different gods and goddesses. The centerpiece is the Artemision (later called one of the Seven Wonders of the World), the temple dedicated to the city’s patroness: Artemis, whom the Romans adopted from the Greeks and equated with Diana. You worshiped there.

Actually “worshiped” is a bit of stretch. Temples practically were little more than elaborate eating clubs. Worshipers cooked and ate the sacrifice as part of “the service.” You may have participated in a number of such gatherings. They were social events. You respected Diana, but your sacrifice was more of an appeasement. Like most of your fellow Romans you went through the rituals in order to keep Diana off your back. Seriously. You did not love her any more than she loved you.

Diana was like all the gods and goddesses; capricious, capable of the very worst morals, and generally completely uninterested in people. Love her? You could never love something that dangerous or uncaring.

So what led you to become a Christian? It was the good news that a heretofore unknown God deeply loved you. He was nothing like Zeus or Apollo who were more like humans with superhuman powers. No, this God was supremely good and so glorious that He could not be depicted in any art form. The Christians that shared this good news with you explained that He was the only God, the Creator of all, and most amazingly, had sent His Son to show His great love for all people, to die to remove sin and guilt, and to rise three days later. What truly struck you, however, was the love part. This God loves you. You were so overwhelmed that you became a Christian. When you read the words quoted above from the letter addressed to your church you are still a little stunned, but warmed and encouraged beyond words to know the one and only God loves you.

Now back to today. The passage from Ephesians for this week’s GraceWaves is one of the most tender and emphatic declarations of God’s love to be found anywhere in the New Testament. It ranks with John 3:16 and Romans 8:38-39. The personal love of God for all people is the single most important, transforming revelation that enabled Christianity to convert an empire. God’s love was not greeted with a yawn in the early centuries, and it shouldn’t be today.

Yet most Christians never give ten minutes of serious consideration to this tremendous truth. The great God of the universe knows your name! He knows your history! He loves you deeply! Today you must recapture some measure of the grand vision that God loves you. No doctrine is more important. It all begins here. Waves of grace flow from God’s loving character. Never forget this greatest truth, and never allow it be diminished either by familiarity, or by the challenges you face this week. God truly loves you.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3

Jude wrote his letter to warn churches against the influence of false teachers, a common problem in the early church and not so uncommon today. These “grumblers, malcontents, loud mouthed boasters” (v. 16) taught a perversion of grace (v. 4) and practiced a licentious lifestyle (v. 7). In response, Jude appealed to Christians to “contend for the faith.” The word for contend is built on the word for “agony.” The stakes were high. The effort would need to be intense.

These early apologists started a long line of intellectual inquiry and engagement that persists to the present day. We need good Christians who will fight for the faith, define it, identify threats to it, and encourage Christians to embrace the teaching of the New Testament. They battle on behalf of the entire church body.

This “corporate” defense of the faith has a personal dimension also, and that is what I want to address in this week’s GraceWaves. Individually we face many challenges to believe. It may come in the form of a clever argument against the resurrection or authority of Scripture. For example, occasionally I run across someone who has heard or read about The Jesus Seminar, a collection of scholars who have reduced Jesus’ teaching to a few Farmer’s Almanac proverbs and have completely dismissed His divine nature and atonement. While they may have given doubt a patina of academic respectability, they also have become increasingly difficult to take seriously. Gratefully, we have strong apologists who can engage and refute them, and thus help the church at large to embrace “the faith.”

Much more common, however, is the doubt that creeps in because of personal disappointment. You have suffered some hard blows. You are disappointed in a church. Or you just don’t seem to get much out of reading the Bible. Prayers seem hollow. Denominational bickering disgusts you. Etc. This affects “your faith.” I know a great many Christians who, because of long-running doubt, have set the bar so low that they expect little and receive less. You may be one of these Christians. Doubt has lodged in your heart. What can you do?

First, do not embrace doubt as a virtue. Doubt is a challenge to be faced. It is a reality, a “black dog” of the spiritual life. But the fact that it is a common problem does not mean doubt should become a self-justifying excuse. Yes, you may have doubt; and yes, we all do sometimes, but that is all the more reason to contend for your faith! In other words, don’t let the seed of doubt root its way into your soul. Fight it!

How? Remember that faith, and growing faith, is both a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23) and a gift of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:9). Ask God to help you. The Spirit loves to remind us and encourage us! That is His task. God does not expect you to manufacture faith on your own. He expects you to exercise it, like a muscle, and grow stronger in the process. If you haven’t worked your faith in a while, start again by calling for the Spirit’s help.

As a practical matter, read the Scripture, pray, worship, sing hymns, and lead a life worthy of your calling. Serve and encourage one another. The Biblical word for faith has a strong element of perseverance in it. See Hebrews 11 for a list of people who kept believing. When challenged, do not fling away from what you know is right and good.

In the end, we are all like the father who came to Jesus pleading for his son’s healing: “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). We are all schizophrenic mixtures who need regular reminders that God does help us to believe, and at the same time urges us to fight for our faith. This week’s GraveWaves is your reminder. Contend for your faith.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:5-6

Psalms 113-118 are called the Hallel (meaning praise) psalms, and were sung during the celebration of Passover. Psalms 113-114 were sung before the meal, Psalms 115-118 after the meal. Jesus sang the above verses after the Passover meal, just prior to His arrest (Mt. 26:30).

Think about this scene carefully. Jesus knew what was about to happen. He was already feeling distress, and the pressure would become even greater as He prayed in the Garden. At that time, He may well have prayed these very words. He called upon the Father out of His own distress. He knew the Father would hear and answer. He trusted the Father would set Him free.

In what way did God set Him free? For Jesus, freedom was the removal of a cross (“take this cup from Me”). For the Father, freedom was the courage to rise from that prayer and face the most difficult test anyone has ever faced. Jesus accepted that freedom, and went to the cross.

As you face a measure of “the day’s own trouble” (Mt. 6:34), this psalm of praise can help you.

First, reclaim the powerful truth that because Jesus was tested, He is able to help you in your test (Heb. 2:18). He knows from very personal experience what is like for a human being to experience distress. Through the incarnation, God’s sympathy became empathy. He knows and understands the trouble you are facing.

Second, call on the Lord. Prayer is your lifeline. It connects you to spiritual resources God makes available to you. You were not created to meet your present distress through knowledge or experience. You were created to meet your distress in fellowship with God. Prayer connects you vitally to Him. Even Jesus did not try to live without prayer! Do not neglect prayer. Share your distress with God. Tell Him about it.

Finally, trust that God hears and will set you free. Also, trust the form of freedom God provides. Many times God has provided for me a solution I could not have anticipated. I thank Him for that freedom. Other times God has allowed the distress to remain, but has provided me a courage to face that challenge. In that experience I have grown. I have learned to thank Him for any expression of freedom He provides.

Jesus sang, and perhaps prayed, these words during His greatest test. You certainly should pray them during your present distress! Literally repeat them as you pray (praying the psalms is actually a great spiritual discipline). Through this prayer you will rediscover, “with the Lord on my side I shall not fear.”

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis