What do I believe?

Mark 9:23            And Jesus said to him, “If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”

All things are possible to him who believes!! Jesus references belief or unbelief many times in His teachings. If Jesus thinks that this topic is important enough to mention many times, then I believe it is an important topic for us to take note of.  What does it mean to believe? I think most of us know the obvious answer to this question, it is that a person is telling the truth, so we believe them and leave it at that, but I think Jesus is going much deeper than this. I think that He wants us to look at the core of our beliefs.

The Greek word originally used for the word believe in this text is “pisteuo”, which means to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit: by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ): believe, commit (to trust), put in trust with.

When you see the definition of the word originally used it is more than just believing what Jesus said but it is believing or putting your trust in Him.  I think this is very evident when we back up and see why Jesus said this in the first place.

If we back up in Mark 9, we see that Jesus was not with all the disciples because He and three of His disciples (Peter, James and John) were up on a high mountain and when they came back down, there was a large crowd and some scribes surrounding the remaining disciples arguing with them. Now, I have read this scripture several times and did not really get the reality of what was happening. Think about it, Jesus went up on a high mountain. Back in this day, it was not a short trip because they had to (more than likely) walk up this mountain. There wasn’t a car around for them to make this a couple hour trip, so it may have taken days because the scripture says a high mountain.

When Jesus came back down from His long trip, He sees a crowd (including scribes) arguing with His disciples and the scripture doesn’t say how long this was going on but it could have been days, so He asks what they are talking about. The scribes were experts regarding Jewish Law, so this appears to be a volatile situation that Jesus is walking into.  Someone in the crowd steps forward to tell Jesus that he brought his child to Jesus to cast out a spirit and the disciples could not help in Jesus absence.

Why couldn’t the disciples help this child? They had seen Jesus heal the sick and cast out spirits, they knew the power was there, but they lacked the confidence to help. Jesus walked into a crowd of unbelief and maybe volatile, which was not an atmosphere where the glory of God can manifest. In Matthew 13:58, Jesus had gone to His hometown where people questioned who He was, and He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. There needs to be an atmosphere of belief for manifestation of God’s power and Jesus addresses this in the scripture above. He was asked, by the father of the child, “if He could do anything” and Jesus’ reply is “If You can?”.  Jesus does seem to be a little frustrated with those who still hold onto their unbelief and doubt after all that He had done. Once again, Jesus takes care of business and casts out the spirit and the disciples wanted to know why they couldn’t, so Jesus tells them.

Mark 9:29            And He (Jesus) said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

This statement by Jesus is not talking about how He cast out the spirit because when you read the account in Mark, He commanded the spirit to come out. Jesus is answering the question asked by His disciples. Why could we not drive it out? Jesus is addressing the disciple’s unbelief.  Our belief in the finished works of Jesus is vital and cannot be compromised by what we see in front of us. When we are facing something that we are unsure of, take it in prayer to God, just as Jesus told the disciples to do.

I would encourage you to read Mark 9:14-29 and see what God has to say to you in these scriptures. Try to visualize exactly what was going on and what type of atmosphere there may have been. I believe when we take the time to really understand what may have been going on in these scriptures, they come alive.

God wants to help us through our unbelief and get us to a place where we can rely and trust in Him. Paul states this very prayer in Ephesians 1:17-19:

…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

Many times, we are asking God to bring us a miracle when what we really need is to know more about Him and the greatness of His power. You notice that it states, “toward us who believe”. This may be a time of asking God to help us understand and help us believe all that He has for us. The father of the child in the story we read in Mark 9 did this. We can too. I pray that we all come to a place of pure belief in all the finished works of Jesus and the love that God has for us.

The Blessed Life

My husband and I attended a funeral this week for a sweet woman that started attending our church about a year ago. She was 88 years old just six days before she went to be with Jesus. The amazing part of it was that she still lived in her own home and she also still drove herself everywhere she went.  I will remember Claudine because she carried a joy with her when she entered a room. She was not able to hear well so she would talk really loud and because of that everyone in the room could hear what she was saying, which was perfectly okay because she had such joy. I remember hearing her say “God has big plans for me, He is going to use me”. Many others recall her saying this or something similar. I don’t think that she realized just how true that statement was. While attending the funeral, we were given the opportunity to stand up and share something about Claudine and that’s when I realized what a special lady she was. The man that runs the mission in town (which hands out food and supplies to those in need) stood up and shared how Claudine would come in weekly to visit and spread her joy along with a donation to help them out. Another man with a ministry that feeds people in need stood up to tell about how Claudine would bring food to them along with a donation on a regular basis.  She would bring in drink boxes and tell them to ensure those little ones have something to drink. Someone else shared that Claudine would visit the nursing home each week. This was the first time I have been to a funeral where so many things come to light about someone's caring behavior. I know that Claudine would bring food or drink to the church if we were having an event because she wanted to contribute, even if she wasn’t going to attend.

All I know is that Claudine got it! She had her focus on God and he directed her path. She may not have been the richest woman in the world, but she sure did have a blessed life because she spent her life caring for others and this is what she will be remembered for.

Today we spend so much of our time trying to be successful and planning for our future that we miss the part of life that means the most. The relationships in our lives are the most important things that we have, and Claudine spent her time on this earth blessing others that she was in relationship with.

I have heard it said by many that we spend our youth trying to gain wealth sometimes sacrificing our health in the process and then we end up spending our wealth trying to regain our health later in life. I believe this is a very true statement about our culture today.

God wants to be our source, all we have to do is look to Him and let Him guide us.

2 Corinthians 9:8 NASB

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have and abundance for every good deed.

I believe that God provides all that we need in this life if we will just let Him and get out of the mindset that we have to do this on our own. On her last day here, Claudine had her morning routine, then sat down in her chair and peacefully went to be with Jesus. I believe that Claudine lived her life with a reliance on grace.

Rivers of Grace

I love how God has woven the finished works of Jesus throughout scripture. During my study time for our women’s bible study, God opened Psalm 46 to me in a whole new way and I would like to share.

 Psalm 46:1-3 NASB         

God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.                                      Selah

This Psalm opens with how God is our refuge, our shelter and He is our help. By knowing this we don’t have to worry when things seem to get crazy in the world. Look closely at the verses above, when you see things like the earth changing and mountains slipping into the sea, you may wonder how this pertains to today. Think about all the talk today about global warming. Here is a little information that I found on global warming:

·         Average temps have climbed 2 degrees Fahrenheit around the world since the late 19^th century.

·         The arctic is feeling the effect the most. Average temps in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average.

·         Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months were the warmest on record for those respective months.

·         Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040.

·         The Montana Glacier National Park has only 27 glaciers left from the 150 that were there in the year 1910.

·         Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming; the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers and the expansions of sea water as it warms.

Information from National Geographic News Online

I don’t know if you have ever seen a video of ice breaking off into the sea, but it really looks like a mountain slipping into the heart of the sea. When you look at the information gathered about global warming and then look at the scripture above, you can see a modern day take on what God’s word said.

 Psalm 46:4-7      

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High.  God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

This reference to the city of God is the kingdom of God. Jesus talked about how the kingdom of God was at hand while He walked the earth. The kingdom of God is what Jesus brought us. This is also clarified at the end of this verse when He says the holy dwelling places of the Most High. Where is that? Inside of us. Notice it says places, plural!!! Then look at the next line, God is in the midst of her. Who is her? The city of God, the holy dwelling places, this would be the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell in all who believe in Jesus.  The river in this verse is running to us, so what is the river? Let’s see what the bible says about the river flowing from the temple:

 Ezekiel 47:1-12  

By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

I just have verse 12 listed here but I would advise you to read verses 1-12 because they describe what God showed Ezekiel. The river flowed from the temple to the sea and its waters healed and prospered everything it touched. The sea was made fresh and fish thrived, the trees thrived, and the leaves of the trees were for healing.  The river is the finished works of Jesus flowing from God to each and every one of us continuously. There is a constant flow of grace from God to us and we can receive that flow on a continuous basis or we can reject it. The supply is there already, we don’t have to beg God for it. All we have to do is believe that it is there and let the supply flow into us and then live from it because in Psalm 46:4 we are told that the river is flowing to the dwelling places of the Most High and that is us.

Psalm 46:8-11    Come, behold the works of the Lord…

These verses are reminding Israel all the battles that God fought for them. He is bringing them to a place of trust.

How has God helped you in the past? I like to journal (go figure) and every once in a while, I will look back at the different things that God has done for me because remembering these things will strengthen your faith.

Psalm 46:10-11 

Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.                                                  Selah

This is God reassuring us that He is here, and He will be exalted. How will He be exalted? Through us, that’s the only way that people can see how awesome our God is. When we trust Him, people will see the result of that trust in our lives.

 

This reinforces my reliance on Grace!

Intro

Hi, my name is Shelley and this blog is about relying on the grace of God. My husband and I have been relying on grace for the last five years and they have been the best years of our lives.

In July of 2013, we followed our hearts and packed up all we had to move from our home in Colorado to a small town in Texas that we felt God was calling us to. This was not a spur of the moment decision, we thought long and hard about it and we had several conversations with God because we had a good thing going in Colorado. We had family, friends, good jobs and a beautiful home. Life was good, and the unknown can be scary. Honestly the more conversations that I had with God about it, the more excited I was to start our adventure. We had several garage sales to down size (because we had a lot of stuff) and we sold our house. We bought a large RV to live in and a truck to pull it, packed up our belongings and hit the road. Now this was scary and exciting all at the same time, I continued to seek reassurance from God that we were doing the right thing and He continued to give me little signs that all would be okay.

Now, I have family that live in our destination so it’s not like we were moving to a place that we knew no one, but it was not a place that I would say that I really looked forward to living, not because of the people but because of how small the town is and the distance you have to drive to get to a big city. With that said, we felt called to go so we went with no jobs and no clue as to what we were to do. We decided the first step was to plug into a local church. We went to a church that my family attended and visited a few others. After a couple months we settled in a church and that is when we started to find out why God had called us to this small town.

You see, I would have loved it if God had showed us the whole plan before we moved but He didn’t. We had so many people ask us what we were going to do, and we had to answer, “we don’t know”.  I’m sure our friends and family thought we had lost our minds. We heard things like, “they will be back”, “how are you going to live?”, and “what are you going to do?” but we knew what God had told us and could not explain it all because we didn’t know it all.  It definitely takes courage to step out in faith especially when you don’t know how the story is going to play out, but we know the one who knows.  For encouragement, God led me to what He said to Abram.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”                                                                                                              Genesis 12:1-3 NASB

This direction from God to Abram is very vague. He doesn’t tell him where he is going or what he will be doing but to go. One thing that God does tell him is that He will take care of him when he goes. I don’t know about you but to me this is an awesome deal! I get to go on an adventure and I know that I will be taken care of by God, all I have to do is follow His lead, to have full reliance on grace.