You Are the Salt and Light

Salt, light, trampling, bushel baskets, cities, hills, mockery, persecution, lies. Believe it or not, these are all pieces to a puzzle that, when properly assembled, clearly reveals this picture: God loves those of the world that have turned away from Him and He wants us to help Him get them back. (And by the way, our participation isn’t optional.)

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)

Jesus taught that great rewards come to those who follow Him. He also taught how we could tell we were getting the ‘follow Him’ part right. His teaching on the subject contains a whole list of objects and indicators – salt, light, trampling, bushel baskets, cities, hills, mockery, persecution, lies. A proper understanding of this confusing stack of stuff reveals fundamental underlying principles. To help navigate through all of this, we’ll hijack two of Newton’s Laws of Motion (anyone remember these from science class?) and repurpose them as “YouTruth Laws of Spiritual Motion.”

Jesus taught us that once saved, we assume a vital role in a great ‘redirection project’ for the world. The bottom line: Those of the world are heading in the wrong direction. God loves them and desperately wants them to turn to Him. (It’s important to remember that those redeemed by Jesus once belonged to this group.) We are to help turn them around (see Matthew 28:19). How to do it and how to know you’re getting it right is the core of Jesus’ teaching in our passage. In it He tells us to bright and salty. Let’s start to dissect and understand His teaching by rolling out our first principle:

The First YouTruth Law of Spiritual Motion

The world, in a state of uniform motion away from God, tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Jesus used two examples to illustrate how this spiritual law works—salt and light. The proper use of these items is akin to applying an external force, influencing and changing that to which it is applied.

Salt

Salt was used as a seasoning in biblical times as it is today. Salt was also used as a preservative. In order to change the taste of unseasoned food, salt must have flavor. In order to halt the steady decay of meats, salt must be ‘salty.’ In both uses, ‘salty salt’ makes a difference. It turns things around. It’s qualities slow decay or give bland food pizzazz. It is an external ingredient that, when applied, undoubtedly changes that which it touches. Once salt has lost its flavor it becomes useless for either purpose. Such ‘used up’ salt was used in biblical times to cover walkways and roadways, much like gravel might be used today. Thus Jesus described it as ‘trampled by men.’

Light

In order to change darkness into ‘lightness’, a force that is fundamentally different must be applied. Simply put, light is the opposite of darkness and therefore qualifies, but when covered by a bushel basket, would lose its differentiating quality from darkness and would thus have no effect on it. Unencumbered light, as with the lights of a city upon a hill on a dark night, makes such a difference that it can be seen for miles.

We are to be like these things. We must make a difference. Our presence, words, and deeds, must be markedly different. They must, as the law states, be external. They must come, not from the world, but from God. Then, and only then, can they turn people of the world, heading in the wrong direction, around. How do we know when we’re getting it right? How do we know, when we are sufficiently ‘bright and salty’, letting God direct our actions and our testimony? Let’s look at our next principle:

The Second YouTruth Law of Spiritual Motion (see Matthew 5:11)

For every godly action, there is an opposite worldly reaction.

Many will wrongly expect the world to receive our testimony with open arms, willing acceptance, and maybe even applause and accolades. While some will embrace the message, there will always be those who don’t. You see, the world likes the direction it is going. A life of material self-focus is very comfortable and fully acceptable to those who don’t know that God has something far greater for them. And the world will fight to protect these comfortably ways. When we follow Jesus, the world will press against us. There will be opposition at every turn. This opposition will often be unpleasant and sometimes downright nasty. People will mock us. People will tell lies about us. We will face persecution. When this happens, Jesus says to receive it with joy! Why? Because the 2^nd Law instructs that we are not on the right path, we are not heading in the right direction, we are not following Jesus if we are not facing these consequences. If we are not facing opposition, we are not on the path to the great reward Jesus promises! It is Jesus’ great reward, and only Jesus’ great reward, that can bring us true joy. As it turns out, mockery, lies, and persecution are exactly the assurance we are looking for. And the world unwittingly provides it.

Jesus was no passive teacher on this point. (see Hebrews 12:1-3) He led by example. He died a shameful, agonizing death on the cross because of the joy He knew would be His for having done so. There are many other examples of faithful people that faced worldly opposition too. Prophets, apostles, and countless others who were simple, average folks like us, were beaten, ostracized, even killed. These predecessors form a ‘great cloud of witnesses’ that surround us everywhere, every minute of every day, especially when we are facing opposition ourselves. They remind us of the joy of the prize and to not lose hope or grow weary (see Hebrews 11:1 – 12:1). That’s the truth.

You are the salt of the earth. So you are called to be salty! You are the light of the world. So you are called to let your light shine! You are called to be the external force that turns the direction of the world around. You will face opposition. When you do, receive it with all joy! It is the assurance that you are on the road to great reward in heaven!

That’s the YouTruth – You Are the Salt and Light.

If You Have Not Love

Did you ever think that you could do a kind thing and not be doing the will of God? Me either. But Paul taught in his first letter to the church in Corinth that God’s will is not found in the act, but in the love behind it. With God’s love behind it, our kindness is God’s kindness. Without it, we’re just banging and clanging.

“If I speak in tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

1 Corinthians 13:1

If you’ve been to a Christian wedding ceremony, you’ve probably heard a reading of some or all of 1 Corinthians 13. Understanding Paul’s focus in this chapter requires the context provided by chapter 12. When reading the two chapters together, we discover that chapter 13 is not a discussion about love in the marriage relationship as is often thought. It’s really a discussion about putting spiritual gifts to their proper use and the depravity of intentionally, or unintentionally, using those gifts improperly.

(Be sure, citing Paul’s description of true love from chapter 13 in a wedding ceremony is not improper at all. It speaks into the narrow focus of the relationship between God, husband, and wife—one of the many relationships the passage can be applied to.)

Paul’s list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians includes working of miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and the power to heal. Other spiritual include hospitality, administration, giving, and mercy. Most of us would immediately associate such things with God. If we experienced someone using these gifts we would assume that God was behind it. But that is not always so!

Understanding that spiritual gifts can be misused (or worse, hijacked by Satan for his misuse) is very important. Consider a chain saw. In the hands of a skilled lumberman it can be used to quickly create a stack of perfectly formed logs. In the hand of an untrained, inexperienced user, it can maim or kill operator and bystanders alike. The same is true with the spiritual gifts God gives to people of faith. They are tools designed for a purpose and they are to be used in accordance with that purpose. Whatever gifts God has entrusted to us, we can’t take these gifts or the responsibility for using them lightly. We do great damage when we do, many times without even knowing it.

Thankfully, God’s Word gives us the simple, direct way to measure the use of a spiritual gift. Start with asking the question, “Which came first?” Now we’ve heard the similar, paradoxical question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” This is not a question like that. This is a question with a clear answer. Let’s use two basic truths to examine the use of spiritual gifts:

Truth One: The two imperatives

When asked, Jesus boiled all of the Jewish Law down to two commandments:

Love God.

Love others.

Therefore, any use of spiritual gifts that does not accomplish one of these two objectives falls outside of God’s will, tumbling into the category of misuse. So our evaluating question must always be, “Did love come first?” We can’t assume that the act of using a spiritual gift is automatically righteous. We must ask the question, “Was there sincere love for the other person first, and was the act that followed performed in response to that love?” An affirmative answer to this question is required. If not, we don’t do the will of God, we bang gongs and clang cymbals instead.

Truth Two: God is love, Satan isn’t

Satan longs to convince as many people as possible to reject God’s offer of an eternal, love relationship with Him by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Satan uses loveless application of spiritual gifts as a method of deception to this end. Using the gift in our passage as an example, if we speak in ‘tongues of angels’ without love, we confuse. No one can understand what we’re saying. Those confused by our actions will turn away from our witness. If we speak and interpret tongues in love, we edify and inform. Those informed by our actions will experience God’s love and be drawn to it. Satan loves loveless miracles, loveless healing, loveless prophecy because he knows God is not in them! They contribute to the confusion he thrives on. The more phony, loveless, God-less acts there are, the easier it is to convince non-believers that God is really not necessary, not real, not important. . .

There are two paths a believer can take in the use of spiritual gifts, and as much as we would like, there is no neutral territory for their use—they are either used as a means of expressing God’s love to others or they are used in a way incompatible with God’s purpose for them. That’s the truth.

If you speak in tongues of men and of angels but you have not love, you are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If you have not love as the central motivation for using any of your spiritual gifts, you do not use them in accordance with God’s will. If you have not love, Satan is surely nearby, ready to use your gift for his purposes.

That’s the YouTruth – If You Have Not Love.

Wisdom Will Enter Your Heart

When we think of wisdom we usually associate it with intellect and knowledge. This view falls well short of God’s version of wisdom and those who hold it miss out on the most powerful aspects of God’s wisdom – it’s based on the absolute truth and its power to change you.

“For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.”

Proverbs 2:10 (NIV)

Anyone familiar with the goings-on in a kitchen will know that culinary success depends on following the recipe. Each recipe contains ingredients and directions. Leave out an important ingredient and you don’t get what you expect. No yeast in bread will leave it flat. Fail to follow the directions and you’ll also fail. Neglecting to mix the ingredients for cake batter before baking it will result in part cooked egg, part powdery flour. The recipe must be completely followed to arrive at the tasty conclusion. If anything is missing, you get something else. Wisdom has a recipe. It has ingredients. It has directions. If you seek after wisdom without considering the total recipe, you get something else. As we examine in detail we will find that what world offers up as wisdom comes up short because it is missing important ingredients and directions.

The World and the Mind
For the world, wisdom is thought of as understanding, intelligence, knowledge—all things that reside in the mind. The acquisition of knowledge is an ongoing process of assessing, thinking, and revising one’s point of view to respond to ever-changing input. What constitutes knowledge today, will face certain revision in the future. For example, much of medical practice from the 18th century has been completely refuted by subsequent discoveries about the human body. None of us will be getting a blood-letting to rebalance our bodily fluids from our family doctor this week. This flow of ever-changing knowledge sets worldly wisdom on the swells and currents of a sea of uncertainty. Now let’s be clear—the acquisition of knowledge and understanding is a noble exercise and should be an integral part of a Christian’s walk. They are both mentioned favorably and often throughout Proverbs, chapter 2. We just need to recognize it for what it is—a temporary understanding of the world around us. We also need to remember that having knowledge doesn’t, by itself, compel you to any action. Because one knows how subatomic particles behave when they collide together at near-light speed doesn’t drive any inherent behavior. At best it is morally neutral.

Let’s review:
Ingredients: knowledge, intellect
Directions: think, assess, continually revise
Result: a temporal, morally neutral understanding of the world around us.

Is this what we are really after? Is this truly wisdom? No!
Using this recipe is like setting out to bake a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies while leaving out the chocolate chips and failing to use the oven! Let’s make it right.

The Missing Ingredient – God
Let’s get God into the mix. If we want to really mean something, base it on the unchanging, absolute truth rather than the flux and volatility of worldly knowledge. God, as the author of the truth is also the source of true wisdom. In fact, wisdom is the fabric of which all of God’s creation is made. To take it a step further, wisdom is the very essence of God designed into all of creation.

The Missing Directions
So how do we incorporate the key ingredient into the mix? The bible gives us three steps to take—the missing directions in the world’s wisdom recipe:

Fear God – coming to the realization that God has all wisdom is the first step. Revering Him as the author of all creation , wisdom, and truth sets a yearning for Him. (Fearing God is not being afraid of God—for more on this read “The Lord Is Your Helper” in our archives.
Invite Him into your heart—when you invite God into your heart through faith in Jesus Christ, His wisdom comes along for the ride! Your heart becomes the vessel that holds God’s wisdom. If you haven’t invited Him into it, you simply won’t have it.
Ask Him for His wisdom –once His wisdom resides in your heart, you simply have to ask for it when you need it, and He will give it to you (see James 2:5)

Now let’s review the total recipe, ingredients, directions and all:
Ingredients: God, knowledge, understanding, intellect
Directions: fear God, invite Him into your heart, ask Him for His wisdom, think, assess, continually revise
Result: solid, bedrock, unchanging principles to apply to every situation you find yourself in and a changed heart to do it with.
That’s the truth.

For wisdom will enter your heart when you fear God, when you invite Him into your heart, and when you ask Him for His wisdom.

That’s the YouTruth – Wisdom Will Enter Your Heart.

Cast All Your Anxiety on God

Worry. It’s one of those things we do that God wishes we didn’t do.

Care. It’s one of those things God does that He wishes we understood better, because if we fully understood the depth of His care, we’d stop worrying.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

1 Peter 5:7 (NASB)

Anxiety. Worry. Uneasiness. Stress. Ouch!

These are words we are all too familiar with. God wishes that they were as unfamiliar to us as nuclear physics is to an infant. And yet there they are, all too present in most lives. Peter encouraged the readers of his letter to rid themselves of all their anxieties and taught them how to do it. By great faith? Indelible hope? Perseverance? Steadfastness? Well partly yes, but there’s an underlying method that doesn’t usually come to mind—humility. The opposite of humility, human pride, is what gets the whole ‘anxiety ball’ rolling. And oh how it can roll, like a snowball, gaining mass and momentum until it is too big for us to deal with. Let’s look at the relationship between pride and anxiety and discover what God wishes for each of us – life without worries.

Pride and Anxiety

Let’s start by asking the question “Will God meet our needs?”

The answer to this question for people of faith is a resounding “Yes!” Jesus taught us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field (see Matthew 6:25-34). Their every need is met by God. And check this out – they don’t even have the capacity to worry. So, God provides for every need absent of even one ounce of worry of their part. Thus Jesus concluded that worry accomplishes absolutely nothing! (see Matthew 6:27). And yet we all do it. Why?!

Pride.

By humbling ourselves, we set aside our own plans for God’s plans and submit ourselves to them completely. Peter implored his readers to ‘humble [themselves] under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6).’ When we fail to do this we experience worry and anxiety. Why? Because, we begin to expect that our ‘wants,’ the children that are born of our own prideful plans, will be met instead of our ‘needs.’ We further delude ourselves with the notion that God’s promise for provision extends to those things we want. It doesn’t—He clearly promises only to meet our needs. Once ‘wants’ get introduced into the equation, uncertainty quickly enters in as well. Jesus guaranteed us that our needs, whether earthly material needs or eternal, heavenly needs, would be abundantly provided for. There’s no room for worry in this equation. Oh, but start to introduce things that we want, now we’ve got reason to worry. Our wants are quite uncertain. In fact our wants, since they are born of pride, often directly oppose God’s will for us (see 1 Peter 5:5, Proverbs 3:34).

God’s Care for Us and His ‘Casting Method’

When one cares for another, he provides something that the other cannot provide for themselves. Doctors provide health care for patients that cannot heal themselves on their own. Nursing home workers provide care for the elderly who can no longer care for themselves. So it is with God’s care for us. When it comes to the Kingdom of God, we can do nothing to provide it for ourselves. It takes the free gift of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ to secure it. Therefore we must approach Him humbly in order to receive it. Pride focuses us on things that distract us from the true riches of abundant life and the Kingdom of God and there is nothing that God wants less for us than to be distracted from His true rewards! Herein lies God’s method to casting your worries on Him—make the Kingdom your primary concern (Matthew 6:33). It’s guaranteed. It’s a done deal. And it requires humility. So chase out the nasty twins of pride and anxiety and ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).’ Our needs will be so overwhelmingly, abundantly provided for, you will see anxiety and worry for the completely ineffective, useless, activities they are. That’s the truth.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. If you will do this, He will provide for you all the things you need in great abundance! If you will do this, He will exalt you at the proper time. If you will do this, all your anxiety will be cast on Him. God wants this for you because He cares deeply for you.

That’s the YouTruth – Cast All Your Anxiety on Him.

God Is Keeping an Inheritance for You

When we think of receiving an inheritance, we think of someone dying and leaving things to us. When God promises an inheritance to us, it’s a different ball game. Yes, Jesus died for our sins and through that death an inheritance can be passed to us. But, that’s where the comparison stops. Jesus’ resurrection changed everything else about our eternal inheritance.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you”

1 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)

The process of passing down an inheritance was very important in biblical times. Fathers owned the family’s assets and passed them down as an inheritance to his surviving family as specifically directed by the God’s Law when he died. Land was most precious as it was the means for making a living, for grazing animals or raising crops. Similarly, and even more importantly, God, our heavenly father, has an inheritance to pass on to us. Let’s look at our passage from 1 Peter where we will encounter all of the very basic conditions for an inheritance to be passed. Along the way let’s be sure to understand who’s responsible for each part, and what God’s inheritance looks like. The first condition, of course, is a death; in order for an inheritance to be left, someone has to die…

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

God came down to the earth in the human form of Jesus for a singular, glorious purpose—to live a sinless life and pay the death penalty for the sins of humankind. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, His death initiated the eternal process by which His inheritance could be passed to us, but that’s as far as God goes. We have to do the rest. Which brings us to the next fundamental condition—surviving family.

New Birth into a Living Hope

In order for an inheritance to be passed down, there must be living family members to pass it to. This sounds ridiculously obvious, but there’s more than meets the average worldly eye going on here. You see, being born of a human mother, qualifies us for neither being alive nor being a member of God’s family. We are not born into God’s family, we are re-born into it. When, and only when, we accept God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord do we become eternally alive. Before we accept the gift of God’s grace, we are dead, living in the state of sin that separates us from God and keeps us from eternal life. Until we address the matter of our sinful nature, we are not eligible to receive the inheritance God has for us, because we have not fulfilled the very basic qualification—being alive.

Upon fulfilling the requirement of being alive, God’s grace does its further work by making us family. By His grace, we are adopted into the family of God, making us co-heirs with Jesus for His inheritance (Romans 8:15-17).

So, what is the inheritance that eternal life qualifies us for?

Well, eternal life.

Eternal life achieves both establishing us as living children of God, eligible to receive His inheritance and being the inheritance itself. It is the means and the reward all rolled up into one—a God-given, two-for-one deal! Jesus’ resurrection from the dead assures us that the inheritance to be handed down would be significantly different from the inheritance handed down from earthly fathers to earthly surviving children. Let’s explore this some more.

Eternal life is kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:4)

Unlike earthly inheritances, it is certain. If a father on earth squanders all of his assets, the family may not receive any inheritance. As long as the father is alive, the inheritance is uncertain. Your God-given inheritance is certain. He’s already died and proven that eternal life is available through Him. Nothing can take that inheritance from you. It is kept in heaven for you! It’s a done deal.

Eternal life takes place in the Kingdom (Matthew 25:34)

God prepared the Kingdom of heaven for you before the foundation of the world. It’s always been there, it will always be there, and one day, His Kingdom will be returned to earth (Revelation 21:1-2). Those who are of His family, that have received His inheritance, will be administrators of His Kingdom. It will be a great responsibility filled with great purpose and joy! Can you imagine the joy of administering a Kingdom in which no death, mourning, crying, or pain exists (Revelation 21:4)?!

We can add to the riches of eternal life while here on earth (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus taught that when we focus our heart on things of eternal value, we lay ‘treasure in heaven.’ Our heart is a conduit, a channel or pathway through which the eternally valuable things we do here on earth are deposited into our ‘inheritance account’ in heaven.

God’s already done His part to guarantee that the inheritance will be there for us. We’ve got to do our part and then add to our inheritance each and every day. That’s the truth.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has given you a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, securing an inheritance for you that can never perish, spoil or fade. Where your heart is, there the treasure of this inheritance will be, kept in heaven for you.

That’s the YouTruth – God is Keeping an Inheritance for You.

Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” is something you would expect people of faith to say. But why are the lives of faithful people so hard to distinguish from the un-faithful? Usually it’s because the “choose this day” part is missing.

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

After the great military campaign that brought the Israelites to the promised land, Joshua called a meeting of all the people. He reminded them of the amazing things that God had done, both recently and throughout history to bring them to the land He had promised them. He implored them, in the glow of the promise fulfilled, to serve the Lord only and to set aside once and for all, all idols past and present. The people rallied around Joshua’s cry and collectively promised to always serve the Lord and to never worship idols again. So what followed was an extended period of singular devotion to God and prosperity for the people, right?

Well, no. The people fell away. When we’re not careful, we fall away too. Choosing this day whom you will serve is not a quick and easy decision but a series of important choices made in concert with the truth. Let’s start building a strong tower of ‘choosing this day’ that will better stand the test of time.

Choose this day the true definition of ‘idol’

We most often associate idols with the carved statues that people of old worshipped. We might conclude that keeping our homes free of Buddha statues, lucky rabbit’s feet, pentagrams, and other non-Christian symbols, that we have sufficiently removed the idols. But idols are more than just figurines. An idol at its core is anything that has a higher priority in our life than our relationship with God. Anything. Idols don’t exist on our mantle, they exist in our hearts. If they are swept off our mantle, but not driven from our hearts, they’ve not been removed at all. Money, prestige, power, gambling. Alcohol, drugs, lust, gossip—these are common idols. There are many others. Their allure is strong. And when we pursue them contrary to God’s will for us, they’re idols. Choosing a too-narrow definition of idol, leaves us susceptible to having slews of idols without even knowing it.

Choose this day to beware of the culture that underlies all idols.

Idols cannot exist on their own. No one would devise a false god or place a statue of it on their mantle if there was no cultural pressure to do so. Idols grow from collective human desire. God chose to place His people in the Promised Land so that they could build a culture that reflected His nature, not the nature of the world around them. It was to be a distinctly different culture that rejected false gods and served only the one true God. We are called to do the same. But if we do not consciously and intentionally push away from the cultural pressures that would draw us to the world’s idols, we will be quickly absorbed into the culture of the world. So does that mean we must be reclusive and separate ourselves from everyone else? No! Jesus taught very specifically that we needed to be in the world in order to be witnesses for His Kingdom (John 17:18). Jesus modeled this by coming into direct contact with the culture of the world and teaching about its depravity (Matthew 9:9-13). So, instead of running away from the idolatrous culture of the world we must. . .

Choose this day the appropriate social activity for our situations

For Christians, there are two types of social activity, fellowship and witness. When we are in contact with other people we are doing one or the other. When we are around other Christians who also love God and are constantly seeking a stronger relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ, then fellowship is a blessed time of togetherness and relationship that God intends for us to enjoy. Many misinterpret Jesus’ willingness to ‘sit with the sinners’ as fellowship. Operating under this misconception causes us to fall into the trap of engaging the culture of the world in an attitude of fellowship which causes the world’s culture to seep into us, oftentimes without us even knowing it is happening. No, Jesus engaged those of the world around Him in the mode of witness. His single intention was to teach them about the downfall that awaited those of the world and the eternal blessing of God’s grace that was imparted to those not of the world, those of His Kingdom. Because He loved them and did not want them to meet the fate that awaited them, He witnessed!

So when we find ourselves among those who are of the culture of the world, we should likewise deliver loving witness. Or leave. Witnessing to the world draws a firm line around us, protects us from the world’s influence, and causes the culture of God’s Kingdom to seep into the world’s culture and change it! We must always be the ‘seeper’ because if we’re not, we will be the ‘seepee.’ Now granted, there are some situations where simply leaving is the best witness. There are far fewer of these situations than we might think, but nonetheless every situation is not conducive to delivering testimony. So we should leave. Remember, remaining in such a situation without actively witnessing, is fellowshipping. Each day will bring a whole new set of situations to deal with, so we must…

Keep choosing this day

We need to do as Joshua directed and ‘choose this day.’ Once one day passes and a new day comes, the day on which you chose is now ‘that day.’ The new day is now ‘this day.’ It is important that we consciously and intentionally renew our vow to serve the Lord each and every day. Otherwise, our guard will slowly come down, our enthusiasm for witness will fade and we will allow the idols and the culture that supports them to seep back into us.

That’s the truth.

Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose this day to sweep all of the world’s idols out of your heart. Choose this day to beware of the culture of the world, and to protect your heart from it. Choose this day to enjoy fellowship with those of His Kingdom and to witness to those of the world. Choose to renew your commitment each and every day that for ‘you and your house, you will serve the Lord.’

That’s the YouTruth. Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve.

The Lord is Your Shepherd

Do you like being in charge? Me too. Are there times in your life when you feel like you’re not in charge anymore? I have times like those too. God has something to say to us about being in charge. During those times when we feel like we’re not in charge anymore, we’re right. He’s in charge. During those times when we feel like we are in charge, we’re wrong. He’s in charge then too

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Psalm 23:1 (NASB)

The 23^rd Psalm is probably the most familiar and most quoted of all 150 psalms in the Bible. It was written by David, King of Israel. Now if there was anyone in his time that understood what it meant to be in charge, King David was the one. But we find the opposite sentiment in his Biblical writings. We find a man that, while having a position of great power, openly confessed he was not in charge at all. Psalm 23 is a powerful expression of this truth. Let’s walk through it and discover what King David knew – God is in charge, completely in charge, and that’s a good thing.

The Lord is my shepherd

If we are sheep with a shepherd, we are not in charge of anything. The shepherd controls everything—where we eat, where we drink, where we rest, when we rest, if we rest, and so on. Now, sheep can survive without a shepherd, though probably not for long, since they are not equipped to protect themselves from any predator. It is best for sheep to have a shepherd. But having a shepherd by itself is not necessarily a good thing. If the shepherd is not very good at shepherding that may not work out so well for his sheep. We are fortunate, unlike sheep, in that we get to choose if we’ll have a shepherd and who that shepherd will be. David tells us in this psalm that he has a shepherd and that shepherd is the Lord. And a good choice it is! The Lord is not only a good shepherd but He is The Good Shepherd—He does everything for His sheep even giving His life for them (John 10:14-15).

I shall not want

A good shepherd provides for all the needs of his flock. The Good Shepherd provides everything we need; we will never be without anything we need, ever. Oh, but we love to use the word ‘want’ here don’t we? It says so right there in verse one! We may complain to God, “My cup of ‘wants’ is practically empty, what’s the deal?”

Listen closely. Hear that dripping sound? Or is it more like a rushing sound? Turn around and look! Those are our cups of needs overflowing like water over a spillway! Hear all that peace, comfort, goodness and mercy spilling out? With the Good Shepherd as our shepherd, we will always have more than we will ever need. We will have such an abundance of it, we will be able to (and will be called to) pour it into the cups of others.

He makes me, leads me, guides me

A good shepherd doesn’t pose choices for his flock to consider. The Good Shepherd doesn’t offer up suggestions or options either. The Good Shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures, leads us to calm streams, and guides us to the righteous path. He knows we will not find them on our own. He knows the world will scatter us from each other and drive us away from the things we need. When we stray, He will use the tools at hand, His rod and His staff, to bring us back into the fold. If we stray so far as to become lost and completely separated from the rest, He will search us out and find us, and even carry us on His shoulders back to the fold (Luke 15:3-7)! So He keeps the flock together and on the path that will keep our cups overflowing.

The valley of the shadow of death

A good shepherd knows that his sheep will not live forever. The Good Shepherd knows that we will all face death; we will all walk through the valley. Though we won’t want for that day to ever come, the shepherd knows it must. And when it does, The Good Shepherd will be there with us. When we walk through the valley because of the loss of a loved one, He will be there. He may even use His rod and staff a little to keep us walking because He knows we must continue through the valley to get to the green pastures and still waters on the other side. When we walk because our own time has come, He will be there. He may even use His rod and His staff a little to keep us walking because He knows we must continue through the valley to get to the eternal green pastures, the eternal calm streams, and eternal banquet table that He has set especially for us.

He is the Good Shepherd.

He is the Great Shepherd.

He is the Greatest Shepherd of all. That’s the truth.

The Lord is your shepherd,

You shall not want.

He makes you lie down in green pastures;

He leads you beside still waters.

He restores your soul;

He guides you in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

You will fear no evil, for He is with you;

His rod and His staff, they comfort you .

He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies;

He has anointed your head with oil;

Your cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life,

And you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That’s the YouTruth. The Lord is Your Shepherd

Yours Is Not a Timid Spirit

Satan loves it when we are too timid to witness to others. It makes his job so much easier when we choose not to share the Good News with someone who does not yet know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Satan knows that God did not give believers a Spirit of timidity and fear. And it makes him shudder. What empowers Satan is when the believers themselves forget that.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord.”

2 Timothy 1: 7-8a

God did not give believers a spirit that is timid or fearful. Satan knows that. When believers remember that they have been given a spirit of power, love, and discipline, Satan shudders because he knows what he’s up against – Fire!

Fan the Flame

In our passage, Paul encouraged Timothy to ‘fan into flame’ the gift of God. Paul did this because he knew Satan fights with fire. So we must fight Satan’s fire with a fire of our own. God’s gift was delivered in a mighty way on the day of Pentacost. With the sound of a violent wind and the appearance of tongues of fire, the gift of the Holy Spirit arrived. This fire turned Jesus’ disciples from discouraged, shaken men into powerful witnesses who poured into the streets preaching the Good News in many languages. Thousands were saved (see Acts 2:1-41)! It is this same fire that we too as believers have received. This fire contains the power, love, and discipline that strikes fear into Satan. But only if we use it!

When firefighters are battling wildfires, they often have to set ‘backfires’ to stop its progress and ultimately extinguish it. So it is when we are fighting the fires of disbelief, apathy, and untruth set by Satan. Our backfires are our testimony to the truth, empowered by the fire of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus commanded us to light them, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19a)

The Spirit of Power

The very power that created the universe, that raised Jesus from the dead, that empowered His disciples to witness to crowds in languages they didn’t even know, is the same power that dwells in each believer in the person of the Holy Spirit. (see Ephesians 1:19-22, Acts 2:1-41) Enough said!

The Spirit of Love

Witnessing to non-believers is an act of utmost love. Though we may hear many arguments to the contrary, such as “who are you to tell me what I believe is wrong?” or “who are you to force your beliefs on me?” Christian believers who take their call to witness to others seriously, may often be called out as intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded—not descriptions associated with a loving nature. Let’s clear this up by using this analogy: If we were to see someone running toward the edge of a cliff, what should we do? We should do anything we can to stop them. That would be a loving thing to do, wouldn’t it? Of course! Simply standing by while they run off the edge and plunge to their death would be a hateful thing to do. Would it matter that this person did not believe that a cliff edge was there? No! Should we allow them to continue along in their belief or should we tell them the truth before it is too late? A Christless eternity separated from God is a horrible, terrible fate. Jesus Himself described it as ‘outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (see Matthew 24:51).’ It is like running of an eternal cliff edge. We are called to use the Spirit of Love to warn non-believers that the cliff is there and that Jesus is The Way to keep from tumbling over its edge. To do anything less would be hateful, indeed!

The Spirit of Discipline

Witnessing is not often easy. Christian witnesses face skepticism, confrontation, and hate. Some witnesses in extreme situations are ostracized, face violence, or even death. Jesus told us it would be so (see John 15:18-19). It is much easier to avoid such unpleasantness. Thus, we can see that the easy way out is the way of timidity. Discipline is the ingredient that allows us to do what is loving and right when easier, more expedient options are available. Even better is that the spirit of discipline God gives us allows us to draw upon His very power to do what is loving.

“A” vs. “The”

God did not give us a spirit that is timid. So let’s not act like He did! God not only gave us ‘a’ spirit of power, love, and discipline to witness with, He gave us ‘The’ Spirit of Power, Love, and Discipline. And let’s use it to fulfill all that we are called to do in our time on this earth: “Love God, and love our neighbor.” Our testimony to the truth we have come to know is our loving gift to a dark and hurting world, filled with dark and hurting people. That’s the truth.

I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. For you have not been given a timid spirit. You have been given the Holy Spirit! You have been given the Spirit of Power. You have been given the Spirit of Love. You have been given the Spirit of Self-Discipline. You are called to use this gift of God to testify about your Lord.

That’s the YouTruth. Yours is Not a Timid Spirit.

For God So Loves You

The world is a mighty big place, and it is easy to get lost in it. You might feel anonymous among the masses and unnoticed amidst the noise. But God cuts through it all, reaching out to each one of us individually. You see, to God, the world is not a huge mass of humanity, but a glorious collection of unique and treasured individuals—and that includes you!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 (NIV)

John 3:16 is probably the most familiar passage in the entire Bible. Familiarity can cause us to take something for granted. But since this passage expresses the fundamental truth about God’s plan for salvation, we certainly don’t want to take it for granted! So let’s explore the concepts of love and life and how they relate to God’s Son. Let’s renew the power of this oft-quoted passage.

The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). He is the wellspring from which love flows. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13: 7,8). Like God, it is eternal. So God’s love of the world isn’t reduced to a kind act performed a long time ago. No, He continually pours Himself out for us.

The Bible also tells us to accept God’s love and to love Him in return (1 John 4:19). In other words, since God loves you, love Him back! It works much like an electric circuit. When the circuit is broken, electricity will not flow. It’s the same with love. When we love God in return, the circuit is complete, and there is an endless flow of love between God and us (John 14:21). The Bible says we return God’s love in two ways—directly, by loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and indirectly, by loving others (Matthew 22:36-40). When we return God’s love, we become the embodiment and expression of His very nature. It sounds like an amazing place to be, doesn’t it? It is!

It’s called life. God invites us to have it!

But, alas, our circuit is broken. Sin causes the break in our circuit. And sin and death go hand in hand (Romans 6:23a). That’s the bad news. But there’s good news! God has made a way to complete the circuit! If we believe in God’s Son, Jesus, we can complete the circuit (Romans 6:23b). Believing in Jesus is more than just acknowledging that He exists. Believing in Him looks like this:

We admit that we sin.
We ask God to forgive our sins.
We turn away from our sins and seek to stop sinning.
We completely trust that Jesus came to earth to restore love and life to us—to repair the break in the circuit.
We completely trust and openly proclaim Jesus as the Lord of our life.
Repeat steps 1-5 over and over again, every day!

That’s the truth. And that’s good news! But there’s more! Inside every truth is the YouTruth. God personally invites you to repair the break in the circuit and become part of His true love, His true life, in Jesus.

For God pours out His endless loving nature upon you by giving His one and only Son for you, that if you believe in Him, you shall no longer be dead, but you shall be truly alive, an active part of the embodiment and expression of God’s loving nature now and for all eternity.

That’s the YouTruth—for God so loves you.