If God Disappears...

Ant Talk on a Warm Summer Evening

2009-07-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

An old allegory came home with added force one summer evening. My daughter Shawna, her little brother Jonathan, and two little friends of theirs were strolling with me through the neighborhoods surrounding our home outside downtown Portland, Oregon.

The kids--as kids will do--decided to make our walk an adventure. "Let's look for bugs on the ground," Shawna suggested, and they all began to scan the ground for signs of life.

I'm not sure where all the other insects were, but the kids found evidence of subterranean ant colony after ant colony in various cracks in the old, pre-World War I sidewalks. Curiosity soon gave way to mischief, however, so I had to ask the kids not to squish unsuspecting ants with their fingers and sandaled feet.

"Why, Daddy?" asked Shawna.

Because God made ants and we don't needlessly kill things God has made, I explained.

"Oh."

That settled it and the kids playfully but carefully continued exploring ant colony after ant colony, yelling down the little holes if no ants were topside at the moment.

While most of the ant colonies had holes somewhere near the center of the sidewalks we traversed, I spotted one ingenuous colony in the process of digging a new home on the edge between the sidewalk and the hard packed dirt strip next to a busy Portland street.

Just as I spotted the thousands of ants hard at work, one of Shawna and Jonathan's little friends stepped smack on top of them, easily killing hundreds with one fell swoop.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking a bit sad as he peered--face near the ground--at the mass havoc he'd created. I wasn't sure what to say, so we moved on, finding the ant colonies fewer and farther between now where fresh concrete had replaced the original sidewalks.

As we walked, I tossed out an old philosophical question to my six-year-old daughter. "Suppose you really loved ants," I said. "I mean, really loved them. And you found out the city planned to tear up some of the old sidewalks back there and kill all those ants. What would you do, Shawna?"

"I'd tell the workers not to do it," Shawna said earnestly.

"What if the workers said they had to tear up the old sidewalks to put in new ones?"

"I'd tell the ants to go some other place."

"You would? What if the ants didn't leave? You don't speak ant language, and they might not understand what you were trying to tell them." Shawna thought about that for a minute, then I continued.

"Suppose scientists could take a Honey-I-Shrunk-the-Kids machine and make you as small as an ant. Would you do it, Shawna, so you could go down and talk with the ants?"

"Of course, Daddy."

"But, Shawna, it wouldn't work. You still wouldn't know how to talk ant-talk."
Shawna thought about that, too.

"Suppose they could take a machine and turn you into an ant, but there were only a 50-50 chance they could turn you back into a little girl afterward. Would you do it, anyway?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"But, Shawna, if there were only a 50-50 chance we could get you back, you wouldn't do it really, would you? What if you didn't come back? Your mommy and your older sister and your brother and your friends would be so sad. And your daddy would cry for days and days. Would you still do it-for a bunch of ants?"

"Yes...I mean, no, I guess I wouldn't, Daddy." We continued walking a few more steps.

"You know, Shawna, that reminds me of what Jesus did for us." After a pause, I asked, "Are you lots bigger than ants?"

"Yes!"

"How much bigger?"

"A hundred million times bigger."

"Is that how much bigger God is than us?"

"No, Daddy, He's even bigger than that. A zillion times bigger!"

"How much bigger?" I asked, gesturing in mock disbelief.

"Infinity!"

I thought about that, then suggested maybe Jesus Christ becoming a human was like one of us becoming a germ...intsy-wintsy, microscopic. By then we were walking down another old sidewalk on our way back toward home, and the kids were beginning to find ant colonies again.

"Would you really want to become an ant, Shawna? What if you went to tell these ants they had to listen to you and follow you to save their lives and they didn't believe you? What if they said, 'Who do you think you are?' What if they decided you must be an enemy from another ant colony they didn't like? What if they called you horrible names and started hurting you? What if they finally killed you? We'd cry and cry for weeks."

By now Shawna was in full agreement she wouldn't become an ant, no matter how much she loved them. I told her I was glad.

"Think about what Jesus did for us, Shawna. Even though He is God and made the whole universe, He became an intsy-wintsy human being. That's what Christmas is all about. And once He became a human, He stayed a human. He still was God but in a body that's this tiny [I gestured with two fingers held close] compared to the universe He'd made. And He still has that body today," I added. We both thought about that for a minute.

"What did people do to Jesus, though, when He came to earth?" I continued. "Did they receive Him gladly and believe what He said?"

"No, they crucified Him."

That's a horrible, horrible way to die, I explained to Shawna. Much worse than being obliterated like so many unfortunate ants. Yet why did He go through the agony of Good Friday?

"Because He loves us very, very much?"

"Yes, Shawna. He does. Jesus loves us so much He became a human being and died for us, to save us. But that's not the end of the story, of course. Because He's God, He also rose from the dead. He's alive!"

By then we'd rounded the last corner. Several of the kids dashed ahead of the others, and 45 minutes later my two little ones were tucked into bed with a kiss, a hug and a heartfelt prayer.

Many times since then, Shawna and I have reminisced about our ant talk--and what Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter really mean. I fervently hope that none of my children will ever grow too old to understand more about God from what they see around them on warm summer evenings.

Real Love

2009-06-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Real Love

A Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13—One of the Bible’s Most Famous Chapters

by David Sanford

If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask about your needs and then help you, I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.

If I graduate from theological seminary and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it…and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul, and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but I fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m nothing.

If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God’s service and burn out after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people—the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting—if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.

Here is what love is like…genuine love. God’s kind of love. It’s patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just got rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t.

Love doesn’t act in a loose, immoral way. It doesn’t seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose its cool. It doesn’t turn on and off. Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over the evil in this world, but it rejoices over truth.

Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down and finds out what is wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way.

Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish, or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love succeeds 100 percent of the time.

That, my friend, is what real love is.

David Sanford serves as a lay teaching pastor at Spring Mountain Bible Church in Clackamas, Oregon (www.springmountain.org). He and his wife, Renée, are the general editors of the new Focus on the Family Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family (Tyndale House Publishers). Permission granted for churches to reprint this paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 in its entirety (including this notice). All other rights reserved. You can write to the author at david@credocommunications.net.

Moira Brown

2009-06-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

My good friend Moira Brown, who’s interviewed me twice on 100 Huntley Street, “gets” the message of my book in a big way. One reason why: her own story.

There was no reason to suspect bad news when my uncle appeared at the door on January 6th, 1970. But as he walked with my mother to the living room, an invisible cushion of support came around me and a clear impression that “something’s coming, but it’s going to be all right.” Within minutes, my siblings and I would learn that our father had died suddenly of a heart attack while skiing on the very slopes where actress Natasha Richardson had a fatal fall this spring – Mount Tremblant in Quebec. At age 47, Dad was gone, leaving six children and a 39-year-old widow “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34 NIV)

It would be many years before I realized that the supernatural comfort and strength I experienced during those tumultuous days was the provision of my heavenly Father. Deuteronomy 33:27 was a thrilling discovery, identifying my mysterious “cushion”: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….” Those arms of love have guarded and guided me ever since.

You can read Moira’s whole article online at www.christianity.ca or www.crossroadstv.ca. As well, you can catch my second interview with Moira online at

Mike Paolicelli's incredible story

2009-06-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Mike Paolicelli gave me permission to share his incredible story.

He writes:

I wanted to tell you about something incredible that happened Monday, June 1, 2009, while I was in for my chemotherapy. I know you probably read lots of "stories" and wonder if they are true. This one is true, and I happened to be in the thick of it. I think this will encourage you. The ending is amazing, if you are patient to through read it.

Monday marked my tenth chemo treatment. The nurse who attended me was someone who never treated me before. Our boys, Titus and Simeon, were with Janet this time around, to visit me at the start of treatment. This is a rare occurrence, for practical reasons, and because children are not officially allowed in the cancer infusion area (used for chemotherapy).

All of us were standing at the entrance to the infusion area, awaiting my turn, and doing our best to keep our healthy boys' talking away from other patients. Simeon was particularly talkative, and loud at times, making it difficult if not impossible for him to stay much longer without causing significant distraction for the other chemo patients. My attending nurse came up to us and said, "Would you like a private room where you and your family can sit?" This never happened before. We took her up on her offer, and away we went. The rest of this would not have happened were it not for Simeon -- but God was actually working through him. Were it not for Simeon's being out of character at this moment, the rest of this story would not have happened.

Eventually, it was time for the family to leave, and for me to begin my first chemical injection, commonly called "The Red Devil," because of it's appearance like red kool-aid. The injection must be given gradually, in the back of my hand, over about a 20 minute period. Just before giving the injection, this nurse, whom I don't recall ever seeing before, said, "So, I hear you are a pastor?" I responded affirmatively. Then she opened up.

"I'm Catholic. But I have so many questions, and I want more," she offered.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I queried.

"Sure," She said.

"On a scale of 1-10, where 10 is I am absolutely sure, and 1 is I am absolutely unsure, would you say that your sins are forgiven and that if you were to stand before God today, He would let you into heaven?"

"I'm a 5," replied the nurse.

"Would you like to know for certain your sins are completely forgiven?" I asked.

"Yes, I would," she responded.

"Suppose you owed someone $5,000,000. How would you feel?"

"Terrible!" She laughed.

I went on, "But suppose that person came up to you one day and said, 'This is your lucky day! I'm going to entirely forgive you of $2,500,000 of that debt you owe me.'" I then asked, "Would you be happy?"

"No," she replied. "I'd still owe $2,500,000! That's still too much!"

"Exactly!" I said. "How would you feel if God only forgave you some or most of your sins, but not all of them? When Jesus was on the cross and said 'It is finished', he didn't wink. Jesus either died for all your sins or you are still in your sins, guilty before God, dead spiritually, and separate from Him."

Then I asked her the key question in life: "Have you ever given your life to Christ for the forgiveness of all your sins? You may know that Jesus died the sins of many, but what about you? Do you realize that your sin was enough to send Jesus to the cross? Have you accepted what He did on the cross for you?"

She quickly responded, "No."

"Would you like to?"

"Yes!" she said. I then motioned to her to come and sit next to me. It was there and then that she closed her eyes as I led her in prayer to acknowledge Jesus' death for her, the forgiveness of her sins, and she invited Him to be the Master of her life. Jesus became her Lord and Savior for the very first time. This is what it means to have Jesus as one's personal Lord and Savior. Amazing.

When we finished praying, I asked her what time it was. She looked at her watch and I said, "Remember this day and this moment. This is when you crossed from death to life." She smiled. Then I read her Ephesians, chapter 2, and explained that though we all have heartbeats, we are all dead -- spiritually dead, and in need to be made alive by God. This is what God did for her, made her alive, the moment she accepted Christ. And there I was, part of her story, involved, yet witnessing the greatest miracle of all before my very eyes: the resurrection of a dead soul to life with Jesus Christ. Does it get any better than this?

Then she said, "I'm just worried about my husband. He may not be interested." I told her to not worry, but to pray and simply share what happened to her that day, her story.

It just so happened that I had a copy of the first in our current message series at Renew with me (I never do). It's the first message in our series "Rediscover Jesus Christ." I gave it to her and she was all excited, as well.

To think, my sickness and my son's loudness led to this amazing event. Don't think for a minute that God can't or doesn't use your difficulties for a purpose larger than yourself. He does.

This nurse was "ripe" for God's picking. She had been prepared by God. There are others just like her all around you. Are you sharing your story with others? Are you looking for God to use you?

Mike Paolicelli
Pastor & Visionary, Renew Church
President, Godfactor, Inc.
www.Godfactor.com
704.800.1207
m ike@godfactor.com

Copyright (c) 2009 Mike Paolicelli. Used by permission. Permission granted to freely share with family and friends. All rights reserved.

God’s Answer for Those Who Mourn, Grieve, and Despair

2009-05-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most beautiful passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, Isaiah 61:2-3, says that the Lord will comfort those who mourn and provide solace for those who grieve — bestowing on them “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

What a relevant biblical promise for so many who are hurting these days due to financial losses, job losses, marital strife, and worse.

Relevant, that is, if we understand the word pictures that the prophet Isaiah employs in these verses.

In biblical times, abject sorrow and grief and mourning and anguish and despair were expressed in very tangible and physical terms.

First, the individual, family, community, or citizens of a given region would tear the garments they were wearing.

Second, they would throw ashes and dust on their heads.

Third, they would tear out, cut off, or shave the hair on their heads.

Fourth, they would remove their shoes, refrain from wearing nice clothes, quit using facial creams or oils, and stop perfuming themselves. No soap. No showers. No deodorant. No fresh clean clothes every day.

Fifth, they would dress in sackcloth — the equivalent of wearing a rough, scratchy, but sturdy farmer’s market potato sack.

Sixth, they would sit in silence or cry or weep and then sing songs of lament.

Seventh, they would fast, refraining from food and sometimes from water for a time.

So what are some of the ways today that we can submit ourselves to God and demonstrate our trust in His mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love?

First, let’s remember that while physical expressions of humility before God may take different forms in various cultures, they’re as valid today as ever.

Such physical expressions of humility before God can include bowing down before God, lying prostrate on the floor before God, weeping over sin in our lives or the lives of others, washing each other’s feet, praying for one another, and taking time off work for the purpose of silence and meditation and prayer and Bible reading.

Physical expressions of humility before God can also include doing difficult or menial but necessary acts of service in the church, in the workplace, in institutions of learning, in hospitals and care centers, on the streets and rescue missions, in your home, in other people’s homes, and in the community at large.

As well, physical expressions of humility can include public confession.

Second, let’s not forget seven very important words: “Life is a long lesson in humility.” For our wedding 26 and a half years ago, someone gave my wife, Renée, and me a napkin holder imprinted with that statement. Again, those seven words are: “Life is a long lesson in humility.” If you think about it, that’s a very bold and telling thing to say to a young couple—but very true. And very good. Even when the lessons are hard.

Third, let’s not forget that in time humility bears rich fruit. True, Renée and I have learned hard lessons in humility—including several severe losses of our own—but we have learned the sweetness of humility as well. Because God is near to the humble, God gives grace to the humble. So Renée and I want to be where God and His grace are.

Fourth, let’s always remember that humility is not denying the amazing strengths, talents, abilities, blessings, and gifts of God at work in and through my life.

Fifth, let’s not overlook the fact that humility is dependence on Jesus Christ and the strong awareness that God is at work in all his love and power in the other person’s life just as he is in mine.

Sixth, let’s not overlook the fact that one of the paths to humility is thankfulness. Thankfulness for what God has done in and through my life, in the lives of those I love, and in the lives of my church family.

What about you? Where is your heart today? Are you wholeheartedly following Jesus Christ? Are you dependent on Him? Do you feel humble, righteous, and wise in the Lord’s eyes? Do you feel cleansed, forgiven, blessed, and honored by God? Do you feel thankful for all He’s done in your life and in our midst? I hope so.

Or perhaps you’re feeling conflicted inside. May you’ve experienced crushing circumstances or overwhelming temptations that have all but shipwrecked your faith. Perhaps you’ve lost more money this past year than you ever thought possible. Perhaps you’ve lost the best job you’ve ever had, to boot.

Let’s never forget that the Lord will comfort those who mourn and provide solace for those who grieve — bestowing on them “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:2-3).

Stopping America's Greatest Epidemic

2009-04-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

"My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered away from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God" (James 5:19-20, Message).

Let's Go After the Millions Who Have Lost Their Faith

Q. How can I help my friend who has left church and seems to doubt everything he or she used to believe about God, the Bible, and the Christian faith?

A. Since the publication of my new book, If God Disappears: 9 Faith Wreckers and What to Do about Them (SaltRiver, Tyndale House Publishers), I've heard this question a lot.

Here's how to go after your friend in the name of Jesus Christ...

First, love your friend unconditionally.

Second, invite your friend to tell his or her story. When they do, just listen. Don't ask questions. Don't interrupt at all, except to quickly affirm that you're actively listening.

Third, be unshockable. Truth be told, we've all broken the Ten Commandments, at least in our heart. Confession is good for the soul, so let your friend just talk. Don't react to anything he or she says, no matter how ugly or angry. They're not angry at you, even if it sounds that way.

Fourth, after your friend has finished talking, remain quiet. Keep listening. While on business in Orlando I met a man who poured out his heart to me. When he was done, I kept looking into his angry, deeply hurt eyes and didn't say anything. After a minute he finally told me, "All I needed was hope and mercy." What a profoundly sad statement. But if I had started talking, I never would have heard what he needed.

Fifth, once your friend tells you what he or she needs, clarify that list. Make sure you both agree on what was or is needed.

Sixth, don't promise to meet your friend's needs. Often they want to know "Why?" You don't know. Don't even try to guess. Speculation will only ruin your credibility.

Seventh, if you and your friend have a mutual friend who has a strong faith in God, explore the possibility of inviting that mutual friend to join you at some point in the future. If your friend can share his or her story with a second person, it's often helpful. That mutual friend may be a pastor, a professor, a psychologist, or another gifted Christian leader. Or that mutual friend may be an "ordinary" but wise individual you both know you can trust.

Eighth, ask your friend if you can pray for them. If they're in agreement, pray right then. Then remind them from time to time that you're still praying for them. Prayer invites God back into the picture.

Ninth, at the right time invite your friend to read the Bible with you. Read one of the four Gospels together. As you read, pray that your friend will fall in love with Jesus again.

Finally, stay in touch with your friend no matter what. Your friendship can't be contingent on whether or not your friend comes back to faith in God. That's up to God, not you. You may have to hang in there for years before your friend re-embraces faith. No problem. Never get up on your friendship. True, some will walk away. But never let it be said that you walked away.

Yahoo Atheist Wonders About God Disappearing

2009-04-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

For 13 more hours, you can reply to a Yahoo atheist named "Jefferson S" by logging onto http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090424080059AAcKGvO.

Jefferson's query: "Believers, what would you do if God disappears? I'm atheist but I'm just interested about what you would do if your imaginary god hypothetically poofs out of existence? What would happen to your morals when there is no reason to be righteous anymore? (no eternal punishment)."

As you can imagine, a lot of atheists and Christians alike have submitted responses over the past three days.

Here's what I said in my reply:

My father is an atheist. While I was growing up, he emphatically told me there was no god and, therefore, no rules. "Don't obey anyone," he told me in no uncertain terms. "Don't even obey me."

When I decided for myself that I believed God has appeared and that I wanted to be a follower of Jesus Christ, however, I found out our family did have a religion and a hard and fast rule. The religion was atheism and the rule was you couldn't follow Jesus Christ.

Buddha? Fine. Confucius? Terrific. The great atheists of the past four centuries? All the better. But Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. My paternal grandparents disowned me. My father unleashed his anger on me.

I paid my dues by studying under a German existentialist philosopher. My challenge to her: Convert me back to atheism or I'll be a follower of Jesus Christ all my life. After studying the great atheists over the past four centuries, I came to some amazing conclusions. They could write brilliantly about any subject under the sun except God, the Bible, and Christianity. Even those who wrote great textbooks on logic couldn't piece together a logical essay against God's existence.

For them, God's non-existence was a matter of faith. It's a faith I couldn't accept. I've written two books telling my story and addressing these issues in depth. I've listed both below.

If God Disappears: 9 Faith Wreckers and What to Do about Them by David Sanford (SaltRiver, Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), www.IfGodDisappears.blogspot.com, www.IfGodDisappears.com

God Is Relevant: Finding Strength and Peace in Today's World by Luis Palau and David Sanford (Doubleday, 1997)

April 1 -- Who Is the Biggest Fool?

2009-04-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

In many parts of the world, April 1st is known as APRIL FOOLS' DAY.
In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus talks about...

In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus talks about...

THE RICH FOOL

What's the Rich Fool's name?

If you asked the judge Ehud, he would have told you King Eglon of Moab, an extremely wealthy and obese tyrant who oppressed God's people for eighteen long years before his gruesome demise (Judges 3:12-20).

If you asked the prophet Samuel, he would have told you Eli, a well-to-do priest who scorned the things of God and suffered the same fate the Lord predicted would befall Eli's two utterly wicked sons (1 Sam. 2:27-4:18).

If you asked King David, he would have told you Nabal, a mean and dishonest man who had grown rich, threw a big party in his own honor and then was struck dead by the Lord (1 Sam. 25:2-38).

Scripture makes it clear that wealth can be a blessing of God.

But material wealth also can be a snare of the Devil, turning our heart from the eternal to the temporal--from wisely choosing God's will to blindly pursuing our own pleasures (Deut. 8:1-20; 1 Tim. 6:6-10).

If we've learned anything the past six months, it's that temporal wealth is just that--temporal. It can be here today, gone tomorrow. So let's hold it lightly, as a gift from God. And as a gift, let's use it and give it away and do things that matter for eternity while we can.

Unlike the Rich Fool, let's always remember that everything we have is God's--and do all we can to store up treasure in heaven.

After all, Jim Elliot was right: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

What many people don't know is that Jim's older brother, Bert Elliot, left for the mission field three years before Jim did. Bert and his wife, Colleen, have given their entire adult lives to serving the Lord in Peru, South America.

Among their many accomplishments, Bert and Colleen have planted well over 100 churches in the Amazon jungles, Andes mountains, and coastal desert regions of Peru. On many occasions, they've risked their lives.

On one occasion years ago Bert and I were walking along a jungle path when he told me, "I expect to leave Peru with a bullet in my head." Little did we know that the Shining Path terrorists had just signed a pact with the drug lords in those very jungles. Among other things, they put a price on Bert's head. Less than three days later they attacked the jungle town where Bert and I had left our wives. Thankfully, God spared their lives. But I quickly learned that it isn't always hard to become a martyr.

What's much harder is living for God with one's whole being for one's whole life. Then and there, I made a commitment to do just that.

I hope you've made the same commitment to "keep the faith" through thick and thin, in poverty and wealth, for as long as you live...whether to age 25, 45, 65, or 85.

On Saturday, April 25, Bert is scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

He is no fool, indeed.

The Christian Post "Keeping The Faith" Blog

2009-03-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've had the privilege to contribute to a brand-new "Keeping The Faith" blog on The Christian Post's website. Here are links to some of the articles featured over the last couple weeks:

Trust by Nancie Carmichael

When God has us in a hard place... by Rich Rollins

The Greatest Temptation: "Losing" Our Faith by David Sanford

How Fast is America Losing Faith? by David Sanford

Millions of Americans Have Lost the Faith: Could It Happen to You? by David Sanford

Following Jesus Christ Until the End by David Sanford

Losing Everything by David Sanford

Coming Evangelical Collapse?

2009-03-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

The most viewed and arguably the most controversial article published in The Christian Science Monitor this past week? An analysis of the massive economic tsumani waves hitting everyone, everywhere around the world? No. Instead, it's a deeply troubling "must read" article by Michael Spencer that begins by saying:

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

You can read the rest of this “must read” article here. What do you think?

"...I will finish strong."

2009-03-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest temptations you and I will ever face in this life is to spiritually drift away from the Lord. No one is immune—no matter how long and faithfully they have walked with the Lord.

The late Dr. Joe Aldrich, former president of Multnomah Bible College, is one of several godly men who have motivated me to stay in the Christian race until the end. I still remember many of the lessons I learned under his mentorship nearly 30 years ago. On Dr. Joe’s desk at his death a few days ago was the following statement: “I surrender my life into the hands of God, knowing He has predestined for me His best. I will count the cost and by God's grace I will pay the price to become the best that I am capable of becoming. I will hold to my course and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will finish strong.” Powerful words from an amazing man whose ministry and life were cut short by Parkinson’s disease.

Besides Dr. Joe, few men have influenced me more than Dr. John G. Mitchell, founder of what is now Multnomah University. Dr. John F. Walvoord once said Dr. Mitchell reminded him of an aged apostle. Never have I met a man who was more in love with the Savior. On two occasions Dr. Mitchell made a point of reminding me—more than sixty years his junior—that there are only three reasons Christians die. These reasons are true in Scripture, in church history, and in our experience today. Believers die (A) because of the discipline of God, 1 Corinthians 11:29−30; 1 John 5:16, (B) for the glory of God, John 21:18−19, and/or (C) because their work is finished, 2 Timothy 4:6−8. Dr. Mitchell also urged me to make sure, when it comes time to die, that dying is all I have left to do.

Thanks to the influence of Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Joe, and others, I love God’s Word. As a teenager, I started reading it from cover to cover, and before college I had memorized nearly 100 pages of Scripture. I’ve read through the Bible dozens of times. And I’ve discovered that only four chapters don’t talk about sin and temptation. From Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 we find that the biggest temptation is for believers to experientially “lose” our faith. How? We stop doing what the Lord says. Why? We stop believing what God’s Word says.

The startling truth is no one exempt from the temptation to experientially “lose” his or her faith. Not even Dr. Mitchell. Not even Dr. Joe. Thankfully, both did finish well. The question is, how will you and I die? Are we willing to make Dr. Joe’s commitment our own?

Consider it again: “I surrender my life into the hands of God, knowing He has predestined for me His best. I will count the cost and by God's grace I will pay the price to become the best that I am capable of becoming. I will hold to my course and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will finish strong.”

Wisdom from Paul

2009-03-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the encouragement of my wife, Renée, and good friend Michael Tso, M.D., earlier this decade I became friends with Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D.

Dr. Paul Metzger serves as Professor of Christian Theology & Theology of Culture and Director of the Institute for the Theology of Culture, New Wine, New Wineskins at Multnomah Biblical Seminary.

The past two years I’ve had the privilege to serve on Multnomah Biblical Seminary’s New Wine advisory council. During our most recent council meeting, Dr. Metzger opened with a half-hour meditation from God’s Word. Some thoughts I jotted down as Paul spoke:

The apostle Paul went for broke because Jesus was willing to be broken for him.

The end of the rope is where God lives.

God gives us this profound opportunity to trust him in the midst of our journey.

God’s character is never jeopardized by his emotions.

Knowing the answers doesn’t eliminate all of our existential angst.

Jesus redeems our story to share in his hour of glory, but he doesn’t do that by giving us all the answers or getting rid of our problems.

Jesus’ good news goes forward when we’re victimized and yet we go forward vs. staying in bitterness.

We are participants of Jesus Christ’s sufferings.

Am I willing to go for broke because Jesus was willing to be broken for me?

The Problem with Me, Continued

2009-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

As I said earlier, swear words aren’t the only words that should make us wince.

We all have had hurtful words spoken to us that we can still remember years later…words no one should ever hear. Yet in anger or spite someone said them to us. What words come to your mind? They may be words that changed how you felt about yourself, about God, about trusting others.

Passages like James 3:5-12 couldn’t be more clear-cut. Such words should never come out of our mouths. But put me in a car and I can say them to an inanimate object like my new GPS unit…or to my wife…or to my children. There’s no way I can justify such outbursts or snide remarks. They’re never from God. They’re always from the Devil.

When I flew home last Friday, Feb. 13, I already had made plans to take my wife, Renée, out for lunch for Valentine’s Day. Toward the end of a wonderful brunch at a nice restaurant on the Columbia River, I made three promises to Renée. The third promise was to show how much I cherish her by changing the way I speak to her when I’m frustrated, no matter what’s frustrating me. I promised to own the problem 100 percent.

There’s no way I want to transfer my frustration onto her by my words, tone of voice, attitudes, or actions. Better to be silent than to say anything that could hurt her.

After all: “The tongue is a fire and also a world of injustice. It is a part of the body, but it defiles the whole body, sets the entire created world ablaze, and is itself set ablaze by hell” (African Bible Commentary, page 1513).

The word “hell” in James 3:5b isn’t just a swear word. It’s a translation of the Greek word Gehenna. It’s the only use of the word outside the words of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The word Gehenna speaks not only of hell, but of the Devil, whom Jesus said is a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a destroyer.

Unlike other writers, James says that the tongue is a fire. Is he right? Doesn’t he mean the tongue is like a fire? No, the second part of verse 5 is clear. The tongue is a fire. It’s either lit by the Holy Spirit filling us to overflowing with words of grace and mercy and love, or it’s lit by the Devil and sparks a forest fire.

On the news we’ve seen the devastating effects of carelessness in California, arson in Australia, and a terrible plane crash in New York that took 50 lives. But have you ever seen the devastating effects of careless, angry, critical, or slanderous words you have said?

Then again, has anyone else ever said words that deeply hurt you? Has anyone ever said words that inflicted serious damage to your soul? As quickly as possible, put out the fire. Don’t let it burn within you any longer. And certainly don’t spread it further by anything you might say.

Instead, what should we do? James doesn’t tell us in this passage, but the rest of the Scriptures do.

First, we need to understand that our words—whether flippant or angry—all come from the same place. So we need to guard our heart and watch for any signs of fire.

Second, we need to understand that it’s not enough to bite our tongue until it bleeds. Instead, we need to confess our sins to God — and, as He prompts us — we need to confess them to the people we have hurt. I certainly have had to do that with Renée and my children and a number of friends.

Third, beyond confession, we need to ask God’s Holy Spirit to flood us with living water. Such living water will heal our hearts and tongues. Such water also will make our tongue fireproof.

Fourth, we need to understand it’s not enough to be filled with the Holy Spirit for an hour or two, or a day or two. We desperately need to ask for God’s washing, cleansing, and flooding with living water every day of our lives.

Has the Lord spoken to your heart this week? I hope so. Now, with His help, let’s take care of some unfinished business.

The Problem with “Bonnie” and Me

2009-02-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Since New Year’s I’ve learned how to use my new GPS unit. But as I said yesterday, it will never make me a saint.

When I started working with my GPS unit, I tried all of the computerized voices and arbitrarily selected “Bonnie.” I checked off several other preferences, keyed in our home address, and loaded several addresses I knew I’d need in coming days. But using a GPS is a little trickier than that.

Almost predictably I ran into a number of problems. I had driven across two state lines before I discovered that I didn’t want to follow the yellow line “Bonnie” was showing me. Instead, I needed to follow the dark red line. No wonder I was getting frustrated whenever the two lines split apart with the yellow line heading west while “Bonnie” was telling me to head east.

An even worse problem was translating what I heard “Bonnie” telling me. She likes to say things like “keep left and then keep left” only to repeat herself five seconds later. To say the least, how she phrases things is quite different from what I would say in the same situation. And her constant repetition unnerves me. Of course, heading from Atlanta to Birmingham, “Bonnie” sat there not saying a word for a couple of hours, only to fall asleep with a worn out battery right when I needed her the most.

Plugging in the power cord fixed everything, I thought, until “Bonnie” started getting too chatty when I came to some road construction, discovered the exit was closed, and realized I needed to take a different route. “Bonnie” kept protesting non-stop so I finally turned her off to get her to shut up.

The fact is when “Bonnie” is chatting away I can get pretty sharp with her, especially when she pulls stunts like telling me to take an exit in ½ mile and the Atlanta freeway system has two such exits side by side at that spot. There I am yelling, “Which one do I take, Bonnie?” and then smarting off by saying, “Don’t tell me I just took the wrong exit, Bonnie. You’re the one who didn’t tell me whether to take I-65 North instead of I-65 South. Thanks a lot for nothing!”

One evening last week I spent 3½ hours on the road at night driving through a huge storm that sparked more than 19,800 lightning strikes and was spinning off deadly tornadoes, including one that killed 8 people. There I was driving in driving rain hour after hour, only to have “Bonnie” take me to the wrong hotel. I had a few choice snide remarks for her, to say the least.

I never got into the habit of swearing. But swear words, of course, aren’t the only words that should make us wince.

Why I’ll Never Be Called St. David

2009-02-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

Lest there’s any misunderstanding, just because I don’t use profanity or swear words doesn’t mean I’m a saint. The fact is I can use “polite” language in very ungodly ways through my tone of voice, my angry attitudes, and worse. Not surprisingly, that happens most where I spend the greatest amounts of time alone or with my family: at home and in the car.

I can get so miserable in the car three or four times a year that my family finally bought me a GPS unit for Christmas. As anyone in Portland may recall, we had a bit of snow and ice around that time. Before heading to our church’s elders and wives New Year’s Eve party, my wife, Renée, and I went on a couple of errands. I hadn’t learned how to use the GPS unit yet, however, so I got turned around. Thankfully, Renée has a great sense of direction.

Unfortunately, my frustration at getting turned around while driving on icy roads added a bit too much undercurrent when I asked Renée which way to head back toward Sunnyside Road. I honestly wasn’t frustrated at Renée. The opposite. I love the fact she knows her way around so well. But what Renée heard was frustration, not thankfulness. So she froze up.

I looked over at Renee, knowing she knew exactly which way to go. Still nothing. “Well?” I snapped. Now Renée knew I was dumping my frustration on her. Of course, at first that was the farthest thing from my mind. But frustration at this is clearly a loss of self-control that can swing quickly to frustration with a loved one. Renée knew that. And sure enough, that’s what I did.

Thankfully, since New Year’s I’ve learned how to use my new GPS unit. But believe me, it will never make me a saint.

Being Gracious and Evangelistic

2009-02-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

I remember when one of my older kids hit 18 and went off to university. Their vocabulary stretched by a word or two. I winced, but I didn’t offer a rebuke. Instead, I cheated and simply prayed. The Holy Spirit convicted them a while later, and even later during a visit they told me about it. My decision not to say such words had become their own personal conviction—literally without me having to say a word.

In essence, they realized they had never once heard Mom or Dad say such words, and they felt convicted by God to not use such words either. Now, clearly, those terms were “off limits” before they were 18 in our home, but even then not because we had such rules in our family.

Instead, we had simply talked with our older children about how to handle it when others use such terms or make harsh remarks. In our family, we explained, we have made the choice not to be offended. Instead, we always want to be gracious and evangelistic.

When I arrived at my hotel in Nashville this past Tuesday night, the hotel manager was training a brand-new employee. The woman in line ahead of me was nearly finished checking in. The brand-new employee was very polite, but made the mistake of saying the woman’s room number out loud, a huge taboo in the hotel industry for security reasons. Immediately, the manager rebuked the rookie as the woman walked away.

The tone in the hotel lobby was tense. I saw my opportunity, stepped up to the front desk, and cracked a joke. Humor is one of the best ways I’ve found to earn the right to witness to others. I used it with Nick, as I said yesterday. And I used it last Tuesday night with the hotel manager and trainee. I followed up with some more joking around, got them laughing, and then threw out a hook.

I started using a story to present the basic Gospel message, then paused. They asked what happened, so I finished the story and started a second one. They asked what happened, so I told the rest of that story. They agreed that they needed God in their lives, so I explained how later that evening they could pray to the Lord and place their trust in Him.

We traded contact information, they asked me to send them a book that explained the Gospel further, and walked away thanking God. I thanked God for having a great sense of humor and for giving the gift of humor to humanity, and for making humor, storytelling, and other wonderful, fun ways to share the Gospel with others.

After all, in their heart, almost everyone wants God, even if they have no idea that God is who they’re looking for.

Not Easily Offended

2009-02-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I remarked that God doesn’t want any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), no matter how colorful or limited someone’s vocabulary is.

I saw this again on my way to Chicago recently. I talked for a couple of hours with a young man named Nick. He’s 22 years old, graduating later this spring from one of the top universities in Massachusetts. During the course of our conversation, Nick dropped several "bombs" while telling me about his New York family’s decades’ long commitment to a Hindu guru who moved to Oregon many years ago. It was both humorous and intriguing as Nick tried to convert me to this guru’s main tenets of faith. Then again, humor is a great segue into talking about our deepest religious beliefs and convictions.

After a while, Nick started railing against evangelicals. Without tipping my hand, I countered some of Nick’s misperceptions of evangelicals by saying I’ve read a lot of evangelical writings and never heard anyone espouse the things he was saying they believe and teach.

When Nick asked what I did, I briefly told him about my new book, If God Disappears, which he said sounded interesting. In fact, he seemed quite interested. So I told him about my blog where I said he could find a link to read the first chapter of my book. I then gave him my IfGodDisappears@gmail.com e-mail address and asked him to let me know what he thought after reading what I had to say.

Later that evening in Boston Nick went online, read some of my blog postings, and then read the opening chapter of my book. Nick then turned around and wrote a lengthy, profusely apologetic letter to me via e-mail. He was seriously worried that he had offended me. No, he hadn’t, I assured him. Why? I consciously made a decision long ago not to be offended by someone’s vocabulary or remarks. It’s a decision we all have to make. It’s counterintuitive, I know. But just because I’ll never use such words in anger doesn’t mean I have to judge others who use such terms, especially if they use them flippantly.

Yes, I realize some can use such words to denigrate others, which I do find deeply offensive. But Nick wasn’t trying to denigrate me. So there was no reason for me to feel offended or ask him to clean up his vocabulary. Any such remarks easily could have been more offensive than anything Nick was saying.

What Rolls Off Our Tongues

2009-02-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Perhaps there’s no other area in life where it’s harder to keep the faith than controlling what comes out of our mouths.

Why? In part, because we’re prone to speak, then think. In part, because what we say so quickly reveals the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. In part, because words can have such devastating, damaging, long-lasting effects on others.

True, some of us talk more than others, but all of us—all of us—say things we shouldn’t.

Interestingly, Scripture isn’t focused on not saying curse words. In high school and college I never got into the habit of using profanity. But swear words aren’t the only words that should make us wince.

In fact, as Jars of Clay reminds us, some so-called profanity can be genuine, heartfelt prayers like the phrase “Oh, my God!” in a sudden emergency.

Furthermore, some curse words like “hell” or “damned” can be sober facts we say with tears in our eyes and the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts.

Then again, some swear words are simple facts of life. I was reminded of this while watching a PBS documentary with my son Benjamin. I used it as an opportunity to teach him that one offensive swear word is used by non-Christians when they realize they need God, remember they turned their backs on him in their youth, and now are facing certain death.

The PBS documentary was a made-for-TV movie called Touching the Void, which tells the true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two British mountaineers who embarked on a daring and reckless attempt to climb the previously unconquered western face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes mountains. After successfully reaching the 20,800-foot summit, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates felt like they were on top of the world. But shortly after starting their descent, Joe broke his leg. Rescue was absolutely impossible. Despite Simon’s best efforts, risking his own life, Joe falls hundreds of feet to his demise.

Somehow, however, Joe later wakes up alive inside the belly of a massive glacial crevasse. He’s barely alive, freezing cold, dangling on the edge of another deep crevasse, his leg now severely mangled. He’s without food or water, utterly trapped, looking up 75 feet at the ice roof he broke through during his fall, realizing Simon thinks he’s dead. In other words, in two or three days Joe will be dead. No question.

In that context, Joe yells a particular swear word at the top of his lungs over and over as he beat his hands against the crevasse wall that’s entombed him. Of course, I told Benjamin ahead of time what our family’s standards are about never saying that word. We wince at such language, but I believe God heard Joe admit the bankruptcy of his atheistic worldview. God not only heard it, but miraculously saved him.

Which God did that? The cosmic killjoy God? The angry, judgmental God? No. Instead, it was the God who doesn’t want any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), no matter how colorful or limited someone’s vocabulary is.

Still, the fact is 99.9% of all swearing is unnecessary. But if someone happens to swear in my presence, I’m not easily offended.

Another Unlikely Hero of the Faith

2009-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

It’s shocking enough that God could take a crusty old pagan like Abraham and make him a hero of the faith.

By the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 and James 2:20-26 lists another unlikely hero, a woman named “sister” Rahab.

For the first few decades of her life Rahab was an idolater, just like Abraham. In fact, her city, ancient Jericho, like Ur, was particular famous for its worship of the moon god. If you had be invited to Rahab’s 25^th birthday party, held in Jericho’s coziest little inn, I’m sure you would have liked her. She was a neo pagan. An idol worshipper. A very friendly innkeeper. A little extra business on the side. Again, what’s there not to like?

We’re not talking Mother Teresa, all old and wrinkled and saintly. We’re talking street-wise, sexy, and just a little too friendly Rahab the innkeeper. Honestly, if she walked into the average church and sat on the front row, would that be a good thing? What would you say or think?

Yet what does God see when he looks at Rahab? The Lord looks beyond her past and gives her an opportunity to make her small seed of faith real. And that opportunity came with a knock on her door.

Two strangers ask if they may come in. Rahab correctly guesses who they are and why they’ve come. The moment of decision has come. Rahab motions for them to follow her onto the roof of her home between Jericho’s inner and outer walls. There she hides them, promising to return.

What is Rahab doing? She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s willingly, knowingly risking her very life. As predicted, the king hears word about the two spies and sends soldiers to arrest them. Rahab feigns innocence and then sends the soldiers on a wild goose chase. What in the world is she doing? She’s willing to trade her life for theirs. Why? It doesn’t make sense. Unless God has been at work in her heart. Has He? Listen to Rahab’s profound professions of faith.

First she tells the two spies: “I know that the LORD has given this land to you” (Joshua 2:9).

Then Rahab goes on to profess her belief that “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below” (2:11).

In other words, Rahab was saying, “I’ve rejected my people, my old way of life, my worthless idolatry. Your people are my people. Your God is my God.”

Exactly a century ago, archaeologists working at the site of ancient Jericho confirmed that the walls around the city collapsed with one fell swoop. All the walls, that is, except one small section. Between the two walls in that one section was a house where, well over 1,000 before Christ, Rahab and her family waited to be rescued by the two spies and led to safety.

What’s remarkable is that toward the end of Joshua chapter 6, Joshua affirms: “And Rahab lives among our people to this day.” In other words, she was accepted as a member of God’s chosen people. No longer was it “Rahab of Jericho.” No longer was it “Rahab the prostitute.” The prophet Joshua considered her “Rahab the woman of faith in the one true God.”

Even more amazing, we learn at the end of the book of Ruth and later at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew that Rahab was the great great great great grandmother of Jesus.

In other words, two former pagans, both moon worshippers, were deliberately chosen by God to be part of Jesus’ lineage.

God gave them the gift of faith. And then God uses risky, difficult, and sometimes even life-threatening circumstances to test and stretch and grow their faith. They didn’t barely have faith. Instead, their faith became vibrant, robust, and strong.

Even more remarkable, God can give the gift of faith to anyone.

If He gives someone that wonderful gift, God wants to see it grow and mature and bear fruit — fruit by what we say — and fruit by what we do.

An Unlikely Hero of the Faith

2009-02-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

It’s bad enough that I’m likely the great great great grandson of slave owners.

But 4,000 years ago “father” Abraham was a slave owner. Just as bad, for the first 75 years of his life Abram was an idolater. He openly and publicly worshipped various false gods in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. This ancient city was particularly famous for its worship of the moon god. If you had attended Abram’s 75^th birthday party, I’m sure you would have liked the guy. He was a crusty old pagan. An idol worshipper. A slave owner. What was there not to like?

Sometime after Abraham’s 75^th birthday, God reveals Himself to Abraham and gives him the gift of faith in the one true God. The Lord then calls Abraham to leave Ur and “go where I will show you.”

While Abraham is slowly making his way toward the Promised Land, God gives Abraham a set of amazing promises that reverberate to our own day.

Some time later, after arriving in the Promised Land, two sets of kingdoms go to war and Abraham’s nephew is taken away as a prisoner. Abraham demonstrates amazing courage and defeats the opposing set of kingdoms. Then, while talking with one of the pagan kings, Abraham does something even more amazing. To the king of Sodom, of all places, Abraham publicly declares his faith in “the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.”

A short time later, the Lord reiterates his amazing promises to Abraham. In response, in Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, we read one of the Old Testament’s most famous verses: “Abrah believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

Did that make Abraham a saint overnight? No. For decades Abraham struggles between belief and unbelief, between faith and fear, between courage and cowardice behaviors.

Many years go by. Finally, at about age 115, Abraham is called by God to make the ultimate sacrifice and for the first time in recorded Scripture, Abraham instantly responds with obedience. Further, he responds with a depth of faith that hasn’t been seen since the days of Noah.

No wonder the apostle Paul later called Abraham “the father of all who believe” whether Jew or Gentile, whether before Christ or after Christ. It took many years, but Abraham truly became a hero of the faith.

Today Abraham still is revered by nearly half the world’s 6.75 billion residents.

More importantly in God’s plan, Abraham is the great great great great great grandfather of Jesus Christ.

If God can transform Abraham, imagine what he can do in the life of the person you consider the least likely to ever believe in God (or believe in him again).

Surprised by Faith

2009-02-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I mentioned a core theme we see presented from start to finish in the New Testament, starting with what some scholars believe was the earliest book—the epistle of James.

That core theme?

True living faith planted by God in one’s heart is to be professed and ultimately put into practice by one’s actions, deeds, and good works.

Allow me to translate what I’ve just said in my own life and experience.

God didn’t save me because I was such an example of faith and godliness.

The David Sanford writing this blog post is descended from a long line of unbelievers stretching back at least a century.

Long before I was born, numerous Southern plantation owners named “Sanford” laid claimed to 259 African slaves in the state of Georgia alone in the year 1850.

Long before that a fiery preacher hailing from Medway, Massachusetts, by the name of David Sanford served as a chaplain during the Revolutionary war against Great Britain.

The David Sanford writing this blog post was at least four generations removed from any family claim to faith and godliness when God first spoke to my heart.

Believe me, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that God planted the seed of faith in my heart when I was a child, and how thankful I am that God caused that faith to take deep roots in my heart by the time I was 13 years old.

But whatever faith I claim to have had as a teenager or young man doesn’t matter to God.

Instead, God wants to know if His seed of faith has really taken root in my heart. He’s looking at the evidence. Skip what I write and say. Is there solid evidence that I’m bearing good fruit in my family, in my church family, in my neighborhood and community, and in my job?

After all, true faith always produces good works. The two go hand in hand.

What’s your story? I invite you to write to me today.

Faith Produces Results!

2009-02-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

The past few days I’ve been meditating again on the principles of faith taught in what probably was the first of the New Testament’s 27 books—the book of James.

Among other things, we quickly see that James is much more interested in one’s practice of faith than in one’s mere profession of faith. James wants to see results!

So it’s clear, James wants his readers — and that includes every Christian or potential Christian down through the ages, around the globe, from every continent and nation and region and locale…including you and me — to publicly profess our faith.

Faith is a gift from God that is planted in the heart, takes root . . . and then is professed or confessed or expressed through our words. But that’s not all.

True living faith in one’s heart is ultimately put into practice by one’s actions, deeds, and good works.

All the apostles of Jesus Christ — and Jesus Himself — agree with what James says. In fact, these truths are woven into the fabric of the entire New Testament.

Among other places, we see these truths clearly laid out toward the end of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. We also see them preached by the apostle Peter after the Day of Pentecost in the early chapters of Acts.

Furthermore, we see them proclaimed by the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10, in all three chapters of his letter to Titus, and many of his other New Testament writings.

Just don’t make my mistake of thinking that if I love God, believe in Jesus Christ with all my heart, and am doing plenty of good works, that God won’t “disappear” and test my faith to the limit.

You’ll find my story posted on the home page of my www.IfGodDisappears.org website.

Interview on Steve Brown, Etc.

2009-01-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

Today I had the privilege of joining Dave Schmelzer, author of Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist (SaltRiver, Tyndale), on Steve Brown, Etc. What a kick! Steve Brown, Dave, and I had an hour to discuss what it means to find, lose, and re-embrace faith.

In Dave Schmelzer’s case, he dropped out of church by age 7, became the campus atheist as a teenager, but then lost his atheism during his first two years of college and became a sold-out follower of Jesus Christ. My story is a mirror opposite of Dave’s. In my case, I visited church at age 7, became a solid-out follower of Jesus Christ by age 13, and then during my first two years of college paid my dues to my atheistic father by studying under a German existentialist philosopher.

I absolutely love Dave’s very readable / super smart book, resonate with much of what he wrote and said during our hour together on Steve Brown, Etc., and highly recommend his blog.

You can catch today’s Steve Brown, Etc. interview on his website.

Multnomah University Alumni Chapel

2009-01-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the honor of speaking at Multnomah University's "Alumni Chapel." I spoke on the importance of keeping the faith (2 Timothy 4:7) and shared many stories from my own life and experiences.

You can listen to the message online on Multnomah's website.

I Didn't Win the Lottery

2009-01-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

I often struggle with the way traditional Christianity has claimed that “salvation and going to heaven is the greatest deal on earth.”

According to this line of thinking, only the lucky, the blessed, the preordained who agree with me (whoever “me” happens to be) get a country club estate along one of heaven’s finest avenues.

I’m sorry, but I didn’t win the lottery when God gave me the gift of faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Instead, God “won” me by paying the steepest price possible. And He paid that price for everyone (1 John 2:2), not just me.

Please hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that in the end everyone will be saved. I’m also not saying that I don’t rejoice that God has promised heaven when Jesus returns (for me when I die or for all of us in one fell swoop, if He so chooses during my lifetime). Scripture is clear that Jesus commanded 72 of His disciples to “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Believe me, on my good days I find that one of the easiest commands to obey.

But I don’t rejoice in my salvation and future in heaven in a worldly, juvenile sort of way as if I’ve won the lottery — and as if “you and you and you” haven’t (insert plenty of attitude here).

The same Jesus who said “rejoice” also wept over those who rejected God’s gracious gift of faith, mercy, grace, and salvation from the coming judgment here on earth (at the hands of the Roman Empire) and even greater judgment beyond this life (at the hands of the Almighty Creator and Governor of the universe).

No, I didn’t win the lottery. Instead, I received something infinitely better when God gave me the gift of faith and brought me to my knees. And the same God who saved me doesn’t want anyone else to perish. Instead, He wants all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

I know many will reject Jesus Christ to their dying day. But I’ve seen too many saved in their dying days to believe God somehow stops caring about the unrepentant after age 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 or 100.

Never give into the fear that one of your loved ones or friends hasn’t won the heavenly lottery yet. No one ever has — or ever will.

100 Huntley Street -- Watch it Here!

2009-01-20T18:32:00.000-08:00

My 100 Huntley Street interview is now posted on YouTube. You can find the twenty-two minute interview in two segments:

David Sanford, "If God Disappears" - 1/2

David Sanford, "If God Disappears" - 2/2

Again, it was a tremendous blessing to be with the staff at 100 Huntley Street and to have the chance to share my story!

100 Huntley Street

2009-01-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday I had the honor of being interviewed on 100 Huntley Street regarding the themes of If God Disappears. If you're interested in watching the segment, you can access the show on their program page (program #8239). My interview starts at 32:20 and lasts for twenty-two minutes.

I am thankful to 100 Huntley Street for allowing me to return to their program and share my heart about If God Disappears.

Lyrics :: Andrew Peterson

2009-01-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

"The Silence of God" by Andrew Peterson (Love and Thunder album) is another song that compassionately and accurately depicts the struggle of wondering if God is there and if he cares. It ends by saying something that is often difficult to believe, but that is true nonetheless:

And the Man of all Sorrows
He never forgot
What sorrow is carried
By the hearts that he bought

You can listen to the whole song on YouTube.

Even when our prayers are met with silence, we are not forgotten by our God.

Lyrics :: Natalie Grant

2009-01-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

Throughout this month, I will be sharing portions of lyrics to the most meaningful songs I have found regarding losing--and keeping--the faith.

Today's song is "I Will Not Be Moved" by Natalie Grant (from her Relentless CD, Curb Records):

I have been the wayward child

I have acted out

I have questioned Sovereignty

And had my share of doubt

You can watch Natalie perform the song on YouTube as well.

What do you think? Can you identify with her words and her experience? Do you too feel that though you may be swayed, you will not be moved...because of God's grace? Or could you sing this song as a re-commitment to God, no matter how "moved" you have been before?

Beyond Being Shaken

2009-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

This morning for half an hour I was on a call-in talk show broadcast on the Faith Radio Network. Five minutes before I was supposed to go off the air, guest host Stephanie Bakke and I took a call from Robert. Robert said he used to be active in church, but now his faith is “beyond being shaken.” He went on to say he’s lost all hope after foreign investors eliminated what he called “the best job in the world.” He’s had three jobs since then, each pushing Robert further into discouragement and despair.

When Robert finished, Stephanie reminded me I had only 60 seconds. What do you say to someone like that? There are no quick, easy, 1-2-3 answers. The reality is, I wish I would have had 60 or 90 minutes to hear all of Robert’s story. Because until I hear his whole story, it may not really matter what I have to say to Robert, no matter how compassionate, personal, practical, biblical, and theologically on target I may be.

What’s your story? Are you struggling with your faith? Or have you experientially lost your faith? If so, I’d love to hear from you and I promise I’ll write back.

PS Pray for me as I prepare for a 15-minute TV interview on 100 Huntley Street next Tuesday, January 13. The interview is schedule to air live across Canada and again later the same day across the U.S. It also will be posted online for anyone to watch anytime.

When is it too late?

2009-01-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

One question I hear a lot is:

Q. When is it too late to “come back” to God?

A. Some teach that if someone experientially loses her faith, he or she can never come back. In essence, they teach that such persons have sealed their fate. That’s false.

Again, so it’s clear, I’m not talking about losing one’s salvation. I’m talking about losing one’s faith, which is a wonderful and invaluable gift from God. Someone can have lots of faith, and then lose it. Do they still have at least a “mustard seed” of faith? Yes. But it’s so small the person often is not consciously aware of it.

It is never too late to come back to God, no matter what you have gone through or what you have done. God wants to be back in relationship with you. Even if it's been a long time since you last spoke, you can come back to him today.

A Prayer of Faith

2008-12-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord,

Thank you so much for the gift of faith, which you offer to each and every person.

Thank you so much, God, for the gift of your presence, which you promise will be ours now and always.

Thank you so much, Lord, for the gift of your Word, the Bible, which builds up our faith and assures us you will never leave us or forsake us.

We love you, Lord. Please strengthen our love, our hope, and our faith.

Please use us to encourage and come alongside those who are struggling.

Help each one of us to “keep the faith” until the very end of our days.

We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

A Prayer for All of Us

2008-12-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

O gracious and holy Father,

give us wisdom to perceive you,

diligence to seek you,

patience to wait for you,

eyes to behold you,

a heart to meditate upon you,

and a life to proclaim you,

through the power of the Spirit

of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

--Benedict of Nursia (Italy/480-547)

Good Tidings of Great Joy

2008-12-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

How radical is the idea behind Christmas? The religious leaders at that time scoffed at the shepherds’ report of the angelic announcement of Jesus’ birth. They no longer believed in angels. They certainly couldn’t imagine God Almighty—Creator and Governor of the universe—humbling Himself to visit planet Earth.

Yet the Bible predicted this. Among other things, Isaiah had proclaimed 750 years earlier that Jesus would be born of a virgin and would be called Immanuel, which in the original Hebrew language means “God with us.”

Furthermore, God sent an angel to convince Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father-to-be, that his fiancée’s unbelievable story was really true: “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).

So profound were the events of that first Christmas that thousands—perhaps millions—of angels celebrated. As the Gospel of Luke tells us in words immortalized by Linus each year on A Charlie Brown Christmas:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:8-14 KJV).

“Fear not,” the angel told the shepherds. Why? “For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” So great that Luke, himself a Gentile, would be asked of God to write the longest and most detailed of the four Gospel accounts. And what was the great news? That on the first Christmas, two thousand years ago, God became one of us.

But of course, that’s only the beginning of the story. Christmas isn’t the climax of history, merely the opening chapter of the greatest story ever told.

By itself, Christmas is miraculous. But it’s not miraculous enough. In Scripture, the “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” is never understood in terms of Christmas alone. The Gospel according to Luke immediately goes on to say, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

The Good News is always to be understood in terms of Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. You see this not only in the Gospels, but throughout the New Testament.

In other words, God’s greatest gift wasn’t simply sending His Son, but sending His Son to live among us, to die for us, and to rise again…to offer us the forgiveness of sins, redemption, and adoption into His family forever.

May we never grow too old to contemplate the wonders of the greatest story ever told.

Risking Everything at Christmas

2008-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. Last in a series of six meditations.

If you’re married, what risks did you take to win your spouse’s heart? How long did you seek his or her “I do”?

The Magi risked everything. The Wise Men became holy fools—desperate, compelled, finally obsessed. They traveled perhaps 1,000 miles or more, probably in a small camel train, to find “the newborn king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2).

These men may have come from a prestigious city of the ancient Medes, Persians, or Caldeans—almost certainly not Jews. Why then their intense dedication to find Jesus Christ?

Somehow, they knew that God in heaven had sent his Son to earth. Nothing more spectacular had ever happened in human history. They felt driven to welcome this child and to present him with exquisite gifts of great wealth.

Braving extreme heat, sand storms, and the constant threat of thieves, these Magi traveled for months through many foreign lands to the far west—to within a day of the great Mediterranean Sea.

Why such persistence and risk? What in the world did they hope to gain? A story? Yet who would believe?

Like the Magi, you and I have a terrible, haunting choice to make.

Are we willing to risk it all? For what?

Waiting a Very Long Time

2008-12-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. The fifth in a series of six meditations. Special thanks to my wife, Renée, for writing this one.

Simeon and Anna were quite elderly, but they certainly weren’t waiting around to die. Instead, every day they woke up with the expectation that today could be the day they’d dreamed about for decades.

Simeon had the Lord’s promise that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Anna had no such guarantee but, like many others, she knew the time of the Messiah’s coming was near (Daniel 9:20-25a). While they waited, they lived righteous and devout lives, walking with God in obedience and worshiping him with all their hearts.

When Mary and Joseph entered the Temple one morning with baby Jesus cradled in their arms, they looked like any other devout couple fulfilling their duty to God. But to an old man and an old woman, both led by the Holy Spirit, they stood out like a beacon. The small child and his parents were welcomed to God’s house as no family had ever been greeted before.

Like Simeon and Anna, you and I can wake up each day looking forward to the promise of Jesus’ coming—again (Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 1:3-13). But unlike them, we don’t know when.

We very well may not see Jesus Christ’s return in our lifetime.

It’s so hard to wait.

Who Would Believe?

2008-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. The fourth in a series of six meditations.

God had visited the fields of Bethlehem with singing before. A thousand years earlier, his Spirit inspired a shepherd boy to sing dozens of great melodies of praise (many of the Psalms in our Bibles today). Every Israelite knew that shepherd boy left the fields to become Israel’s greatest king.

But no one had such hopes for these particular shepherds. Much more important people—King David’s descendants—filled the rooms of Bethlehem’s inns as they came back to be counted in their ancestral home.

Yet it was not to any of the VIPs that God sent his angel and the armies of heaven to announce the birth of the Savior, the Son of David. Instead, God displayed his extraordinary concert and light show to these shepherds—and invited them to come and see the Messiah everyone else had been waiting for.

Although initially stunned by the glory of God and the message of the angel, these shepherds immediately ran to see this miracle. There lay the baby, swaddled in cloth and snuggled in the hay—just as the angel said. This baby fulfilled every Israelite’s deepest hope and answered every Gentile’s greatest longings. His birth was “good news that will bring great joy to all people” (Luke 2:10)!

The shepherds couldn’t stick around all night, of course. But as they headed back to the hills and their sleeping sheep, Scripture tells us that they told the miraculous news to everyone they met. Sadly, I’m sure they were mocked. After all, who would believe a bunch of shepherds?

Yet, after disappearing for four centuries, God had just announced the Messiah’s birth with multitudes of angels. Then this ragtag bunch had seen the Christ child with their own eyes.

It mattered not if others believed. They knew.

Risking Everything for the Sake of Christmas

2008-12-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. The third in a series of six meditations.

Have you ever been credited—or blamed—for something you didn’t do? Have you ever wished you could change your reputation?

Only after Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection did people come to think of Jesus Christ as “the son of the virgin Mary.” For more than thirty years Jesus was commonly referred to as “Jesus, the son of Joseph” (Luke 3:23, John 1:45). The assumption was obvious and the social stigma great.

In all probability, for many years only Mary’s elderly relatives Elizabeth and Zechariah, and Mary and Joseph themselves, knew (beyond question) that Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ real father. After all, no one else had received a divine revelation announcing this spectacular miracle. Not surprisingly, many chose to believe the rumors whispered about Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (John 8:41).

To his credit, Joseph believed what the Lord revealed to him in a series of dreams —no matter how incredible those revelations were. Each time, Joseph quickly translated his belief into action—at great personal cost.

Consider what Joseph lost:

* his reputation as a godly individual

* his extended family relationships

* his home and country

* his security

Not once, however, does Scripture record that Joseph hesitated to instantly follow God’s leading. He took to heart the reality that “just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my [the Lord’s] ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

Like Joseph, you and I have a choice to make. Each day, will we choose God’s will and ways no matter what the cost? Or today will we decide to go our own way?

What God Asks Us at Christmas

2008-12-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. The second in a series of six meditations. Special thanks to my wife, Renée, for writing this one.

How many young women have trembled with trepidation or delight when their doctors announce, “You’re pregnant”?

It’s almost too hard to believe that a child is growing inside when everything still looks the same. Even the most ordinary, well-planned pregnancy seems like a dream at first. No wonder the angel’s announcement in Luke 1:26-38 left Mary astounded.

How could Mary really fathom becoming pregnant when she knew beyond question that she still was a virgin? Of course, she couldn’t figure it out—but she could believe the Holy Spirit would fulfill the angel’s words. And she could eagerly anticipate mothering the baby who would fulfill the prophets’ promises from long ago.

While her elderly relative Zechariah couldn’t fathom the angel’s announcement that his wife was going to bear a baby, Mary readily believed God could do something new and unheard of. Mary willingly accepted the miracle of this unique pregnancy and all the consequences that followed.

In all likelihood, the Lord could have asked Mary to do anything. As a humble servant of the Lord God, she was dedicated to doing whatever she could for him.

Whether it’s a high calling or difficult chore that the Lord gives us, are you and I ready to respond like Mary?

Unanswered Prayer and the Meaning of Christmas

2008-12-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

The birth of Jesus ben Joseph haunted those who knew his true identity. The first in a series of six meditations.

Who is more anxious to see our most heartfelt prayers answered? You and me? Or God?

In the very last paragraph of the Old Testament, the Lord declared: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).

Four hundred years later, it’s time for that prophecy to be fulfilled. By lot, a priest named Zechariah, a revered relative of the virgin Mary, is chosen to enter the sanctuary and burn incense to the Lord. He’s probably waited his entire adult life for the privilege of approaching God’s presence to pray. What’s foremost on his mind? The deep yearning he and his wife, Elizabeth, have for her to bear a son.

Of course, Zechariah isn’t expecting God to answer him audibly. But answer him he does by sending the angel Gabriel—the same angel who had explained part of the Lord’s timetable to the prophet Daniel six hundred years earlier. Gabriel announces to Zechariah that his wife indeed will have a son who “will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).

Even though he was a righteous and godly priest, Zechariah’s first response is one of unbelief. Like Zechariah, you and I may find it hard to believe that God will ever answer some of our most important prayer requests.

Have you felt like Zechariah yet this Advent season?

Then again, imagine how Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, must have felt a few months later when his young relative, Mary, came for a surprise visit.

God hasn’t finished writing His story yet…in your life or mine.

Still, it’s so hard to believe, isn’t it?

Q & A -- What if God Left?

2008-12-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

One question I hear a lot is:

Q. What if it’s God who did the leaving?

A. I know some people talk about when God “left” them. Experientially, that’s what it feels like to them. But it’s how they feel—it’s not what really happened.
            God never leaves us. Instead, God disappears. There’s a big difference.
            In Scripture, God sometimes disappeared for 400 years at a time. But people of faith still believed and obeyed the Lord. And God was still actively involved in their lives. He still spoke to them through the Scriptures, meditation, music, and silence. He still answered prayer and performed miracles.
            I never have to worry about God leaving me. I never have to worry about God disengaging from my life. Instead, when I don’t feel the Lord’s presence, I need to go back to the “faith builders” that help me experience God at work in and through me for His glory and my good.

Tchere--Faithful to the End

2008-12-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

My wife and I have had the privilege of trekking through the Amazon jungles, hiking through the Andes and Alps, and traversing the Sahara desert. The most daunting and memorable of all those travels, of course, was traveling west to east across the middle of the Sahara desert.

The sub-Sahara desert west of Sudan and south of Libya is no-man’s land. Travel nine hours by truck due east from N’Djamena, capital of Chad, and you’ll come to the tiny village of Korbo. There you’ll meet Tchere Ouday.

Tchere Ouday is dressed in a long white robe. His face is weathered and his mostly bald head sports some white stubble. He sits cross-legged on a mat inside his mud hut.

More than 35 years ago, Tchere became the first Christian among his people, the Dangaleats in the Guera region of Chad. For many decades he worked as a mason. He is more than 70 years old now and has reduced his activities—yet he still continues to serve as an elder of the Korbo church.

In the past two years drought and caterpillar infestations have substantially reduced the amount of food the Dangaleat people have been able to raise. Typically Tchere would offer guests a meal. But on this day he offers a small cup of sweet tea, a bowl of peanuts, some washed lettuce, and a few slices of tomato dipped in salt and ground red pepper.

“How can we pray for you, brother?” you ask him.

Usually Dangaleat Muslims and Christians say the same thing: Please pray that God will give us more food. That is on Tchere’s mind too. But it’s not the first thing. Instead he says, “Pray that we might remain firm in our faith in our old age.”

Who could be more faithful than Tchere? Even against threat of death he refused to recant his faith during the horrific Chadian civil war that raged through the Guera in the late 1970s. He’s served the Lord steadfastly ever since. Still, Tchere knows better than to take his Christian faith for granted.

Although Tchere doesn’t have the complete Bible in his language yet, he knows that one of the greatest temptations you and I will ever face in this life is to spiritually drift away from the Lord. No one is immune—no matter how long and faithfully they have walked with the Lord.

My friend Tchere is one of several godly men who have helped motivate me to stay in the race until the end.

My prayer is that when I am Tchere's age, I will still be serious about staying firm in the faith. I know I am not immune to other challenges and spiritually dry points ahead, but I want to be faithful to the end--just like Tchere.

It's Never Too Late

2008-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Through my intensive study of Scripture, church history, and contemporary experience, I have become convinced that it’s never too late for someone to come back to God – whether he or she walked away from the faith or felt God was the one who left.

Jesus himself repeatedly warned against losing one’s faith—or causing others to lose their faith. In fact, Jesus said it would be better to be drowned (something most ancient Israelites deeply feared) than to cause someone to lose his or her faith.

Of course for many years I thought these biblical warnings didn’t apply to me. Then a decade ago, I was hit with a rapid-fire series of crises. I felt that the hand of God was crushing me in every way. In my despair—and I say this with deep trepidation—I started doubting God’s character.

Experientially I was in danger of losing my faith. Why? Because I’d failed to heed the clear warnings of Scripture. I’d let my circumstances temporarily overshadow what I knew to be true. So, what is true?

Not everyone experientially loses his or her faith. But everyone has or will face crises of life and faith. These pivotal times are part of each person’s spiritual journey.

God allows us to go through deeply troubling, faith-testing periods that can last for weeks, months, years, even decades. The question is always the same: Will we remain true to God no matter what?

If we persevere, God does something remarkable. He blesses our life’s work and impact to an extent we never could have imagined. That certainly is true in my own life and experience. And I find the same thing true all through history and all around the globe.

Tomorrow, we'll meet my friend Tchere, who lives in Chad, Africa. His faithfulness to God--no matter what--has inspired me and I pray it will inspire you too.

What if God Talks to You?

2008-12-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

My good friend Carol just gave me permission to reprint this letter. I hope you find it encouraging!

Thanks so much for sending me your book. I have enjoyed reading it and seeing even more of your faithful and gracious spirit through it. Thought you might enjoy an encouraging story...

Last weekend I was reading it on a cold Sunday evening in front of my fireplace. I had positioned pillows just right on the floor and was enjoying a cozy time. I read the story of the woman who was moved to pull over and pray for a man who was near death following a car accident. As I read the story, I prayed, “Oh, Lord, that I might have that kind of sensitivity to Your Spirit.” Just then, I heard the Lord way, “Go and read your book at Caribou (the local coffee shop).”

Of course, it was easy to deny that it was truly the Lord speaking, as I was quite warm and comfortable. But the thought persisted, and so I finally got up, combed my hair (ha!), and put on my winter coat. As I walked into the coffee shop, I prayed that the Lord would be at least honored by my obedience--even if there was no other purpose in my showing up.

After I ordered my latte, the young man behind the counter said, “What book are you reading?” I gave him a brief description of your book, which then launched him into a lengthy dialogue about his search for truth. He talked on and on about his exploration of various things, including Buddhism and reincarnation. He also admitted that he had recently purchased The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, as recommended by a friend. He had’'t read it yet, but he felt he needed a whole lot more proof that Jesus was the only way.

After several minutes and a few more customers passing by us, I finally wrapped up the conversation by telling him that I would pray for him as he read The Case for Christ. I said that I would pray that Jesus would show up and prove Himself to him—if He really is the only way. Then I asked him for his first name. “Thomas,” he said. I smiled as I thought of his biblical counterpart who also needed pretty specific proof!

Anyway, Thomas invited me back some week to continue our discussion. I'm praying for him in the meantime. Although I am only about a third of the way through your book, I thought you would enjoy hearing of some fruit!

I can’t say “Thank you!” enough to my publisher, Tyndale House, for creating such an attractive, “What book are you reading?” cover design for If God Disappears.

I’m also so thankful that God loves books. He not only uses them as “silent evangelists” when we aren’t around. He also uses them to get us out the door and into coffee shops when we can give an answer for the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15).

Haunted by the Prayer of Mother Teresa

2008-12-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

On Monday evening I had the privilege of joining Suzie Slonaker, Dr. Tony Campolo, Dr. Paul Louis Metzger, Clark Blakeman, and about 20 others for dinner at the Aquariva Restaurant just south of downtown Portland. The funny thing about meeting at a hip restaurant on a Monday evening is -- you just about own the place. To say the least, we didn't have a problem hearing each other. And that's a good thing.

The discussion over dinner was how we, as followers of Jesus Christ, can be more intentional about loving "the least of these." Suzie and her staff and volunteers and supporters at REACH Ministries are champions at doing just that. Their mission, through the love of Jesus, is to extend compassionate care to those affected by HIV/AIDS and all life-threatening illnesses and situations.

I wish I could share a video or audio recording of Monday evening's discussion. It was lively, engaging, challenging -- and deeply resonated with me at every turn.

At the dinner, Suzie shared this prayer from Mother Teresa. The words of this prayer continue to haunt me:

Deliver me, O Jesus,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the desire of being popular,

Deliver me, O Jesus,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being slandered,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being suspected.

Amen.

If you google "David Sanford" or "If God Disappears," you'll find a wide assortment of rants and raves. Just remember there is more than one "David Sanford" in the world! Still, I've received a lot of harsh words over the past decade and a half since the Internet first went public. I talk about those harsh, angry words in my new book -- knowing, as I wrote it, that I would receive plenty more.

Some have wondered why I link to the critical, negative, and even harsh reviews of my new book on this blog. That's easy. I trust you, whether you know me or are visiting my blog for the first time, to decide whether what someone says about me or my book is worth believing.

Besides, we've all said things we later wished we could take back. I certainly have. Others have shown me an immense amount of grace. Maybe Mother Teresa's haunting prayer will help me to do the same more consistently and authentically.

When All Is Said and Done

2008-12-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

I thank the Lord often for the godly men and women who have helped motivate me to stay true to God until the end of my days. Probably none has influenced me more than the late Dr. John G. Mitchell, founder of Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary. The late Dr. John F. Walvoord once said Dr. Mitchell reminded him of an aged apostle. Never have I met a man who was more in love with the Savior.

On two occasions Dr. Mitchell made a point of reminding me—more than sixty years his junior—that there are only three reasons Christians die. These reasons are true in Scripture, in church history, and in our experience today. Believers die:

· because of the discipline of God (1 Cor. 11:29−30; 1 John 5:16)

· for the glory of God (John 21:18−19)

· because their work is finished (2 Tim. 4:6−8).

Dr. Mitchell also urged me to make sure, when it comes time to die, that dying is all I have left to do.

Thanks to the influence of Dr. Mitchell and others, I love God’s Word. As a teenager, I started reading it from cover to cover, and before college I had memorized nearly 100 pages of Scripture. I’ve read through the Bible dozens of times. And I’ve discovered that only four chapters don’t talk about sin and temptation.

From Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 we find that the biggest temptation is for believers to experientially “lose” our faith. How? We stop doing what God says. Why? We stop listening to and believing what God’s Word says.

What are the nine (9) biggest faith wreckers? Based on my research the past decade, they are:

1. Experiencing evil and suffering

2. Living recklessly as a rugged individualist

3. Making our own rules, whatever the cost

4. Believing that anger is justified when my vision of God is clouded

5. Neglecting my time with God and failing to see him in my life

6. Studying about God without heart devotion

7. Experiencing the most crushing circumstances in life

8. Giving myself permission to do as I please—especially sexually—pushing reality (and God) out of sight

9. Being wounded in or by the church

The startling truth is none of us are exempt from such trials and temptations, no matter what our age — 13 or 113. So let’s stop fooling or deceiving ourselves. Let’s sit up. Let’s pay attention. Let’s live differently.

It’s bad enough when the economy messes up our lives. Why in the world would we bring further disaster on ourselves?

Instead, let’s seek God’s favor and blessing and joy and strength and peace. Not material or financial success, but — first — let’s seek a closer relationship with Jesus Christ — and second — let’s seek to be used by Jesus Christ to bless our family, church, and community in His name.

Throughout Scripture in the writings of Moses, Joshua, Job, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the words of Jesus and his apostles, the same promise is given over and over again: God will bless and prosper us if we actively listen to and obey God’s Word.

Over and over, I have to emphatically dissociate “blessing” and “prosperity” with the material.

It’s what’s currently unseen — spiritual — immaterial — that is most real.

What Have We Become?

2008-12-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

It’s been wisely said: “Silently and imperceptibly, as we work or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak; and at last some crisis shows us what we have become” (B.F. Westcott).

In the past 77 days, what have you become?

It’s been 77 days since Americans started feeling the massive economic tremors that have rocked Wall Street and Washington and the world at large. Before the tremors hit, were you growing strong or growing weak? Since the massive crisis hit, what have you done?

Many of us have discovered that we made the huge mistake of laying the American Dream on top of our Christian faith. Of course, the two shouldn’t go together at all. And for certain the American Dream never should have gone on top. Even if we kept our faith on top, it was a fatal combination.

Sadly, I made several mistakes myself. Now, when I look in the mirror, I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur anymore. We enjoyed three good years in business, two bad years when the publishing world slipped into recession, another relatively good stretch in 2008 until mid September — and then boom!

Again, now when I look in the mirror, I see myself as a Christian who still loves God and is more humbly accepting the Word of God as my Bible, period. More than ever, I want to experience and enjoy God’s spiritual blessing in my life. Material wealth will come and go. Earthly prosperity will rise and fall. I am currently in the process of selling our business to a larger company. The sale will be final two weeks from yesterday. But it is well with my soul.

More than ever, I want to grow stronger in my faith and more actively follow Jesus Christ in the days, weeks, and months ahead. How? By embracing these nine (9) faith builders:

1. Telling my story to a friend who knows God

2. Cultivating relationships of humility, trust, and submission

3. Being courageous enough to make choices based on the truth

4. Experiencing the power of love with grace

5. Reclaiming God’s promises even if I have to wait

6. Asking questions, wrestling with doubt, and embracing hope

7. Seeing God as he is and believing that he is working behind the scenes

8. Rediscovering God’s ideal and allowing him to write a vibrant new script for my life

9. Awakening to our calling as God’s new prophets to the church

I’ve written quite a bit about these faith builders in my new book, If God Disappears (Tyndale). But writing isn’t the same as living today.

I’m not focused on the “good old days” in the past. Instead, I’m focused on what I’m becoming.

Not Forgetting Who We Are

2008-12-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

This year I’m joining other friends at my church in an eight-month trek through one of my favorite books of the Bible, the epistle of James.

In recent days I’ve been mulling over the second half of James chapter 1. In verse 19, James urges us to be quick to listen. The idea is to be ready to instantly and actively listen to God and others. Then in verse 22, James warns against passively listening to God’s Word. If we do that, the implication is clear in verses 23-25. We will forget who we are in God’s eyes. And we will fail to make spiritual and moral choices that honor God and bring about God’s blessing in our lives.

Imagine forgetting who we are. Three nights ago my wife, Renée, and I watched the movie Net 2.0. In the movie, the main character, whose name is Hope, accepts a huge salary to take a super high tech job in Turkey, only to arrive there and have her identity completely and absolutely stolen. This main character, Hope, is almost immediately accused of murder, relentlessly chased, nearly killed, brutally arrested, and then psychologically tormented under the guise of an exhaustive maximum security police interrogation. But the main character refuses to give up the one thing the rogue police interrogator can’t take from her. Despite everything, she refuses to deny her true identity. In essence, she says: My name is Hope. My name has always been Hope. Do whatever you want. You can’t make me deny who I am.

What would it take for you and me to deny who we are? Sadly, the greatest crisis in America today is the huge number of Christians who no longer see themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. When they look in the mirror in the morning, the man they see — the woman they see — is anything but a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

What about you? When you look in the mirror, who do you see?

According to James 1, who you see in that mirror will directly impact what you do and how you live. If you find yourself passively resisting God’s will for your life, James tells us, check the mirror of God’s Word. It’s perfect. It offers true freedom to fully be the man or woman God designed us to be, experiencing His love, joy, and peace in our lives.

Throughout his fast-paced book, James addresses three different kinds of Christians. Some are brothers and sisters in Christ who love God with all their hearts and obey Him in every area of their lives. These individuals know and experience God’s spiritual blessings in every sphere of life. Some, however, have wandered from the truth of God’s Word — and still others are being tempted to wander away from God.

In reality, which of us hasn’t been tempted? Everyday, we face spiritual and moral choices to follow God or slowly start walking away from Him.

It’s been wisely said: “Silently and imperceptibly, as we work or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak; and at last some crisis shows us what we have become” (B.F. Westcott).

In the past 77 days, what have you become?

I Believe

2008-11-29T13:53:00.001-08:00

Tom Zehnder of the band Zehnder recently sent me his latest CD, "Going Up?" One of the songs particularly resonated with me, and Tom has given me permission to share the lyrics with you:

And oh the grief, to say goodbye,

Sing out wailing through labored sigh.

Swing white hot fury to black despair,

Dare you to find your God in there!

I believe, help my unbelief. I belief, help my unbelief.

["I Believe" from "Going Up?" (2008) by Zehnder]

You can find the lyrics for all of Zehnder's song on their website.

What about you? Have you asked God to help you with your unbelief?

Good King Jotham

2008-11-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Think about the most famous Bible characters, men and women. Did any of them wander away from the faith? Did any overtly rebel against God? Sadly, yes.

What happened to mighty Judge Samson (Judges 14-16)? What happened to powerful King Saul (1 Samuel 15-31)? What happened to wise King Solomon (1 Kings 11)? They all fell away.

What about the good kings of Judah—Abijah (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 13), Asa (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 16), Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18-20), Joash (2 Chronicles 24), Amaziah (2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25), Uzziah (2 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 26), Hezekiah (2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 30-32), and Josiah (2 Kings 22-23, 2 Chronicles 34-35)?

They followed God for a number of years, then (with the exception of one king you’ve never heard of, good king Jotham) each one turned away, at least for a time. They didn’t lose their final reward, but they lost God’s blessings and reward for staying true to Him until the end. We see this throughout the Old Testament.

Only Jotham walked “steadfastly before the Lord his God” all the days of his life. Only Jotham. The most exemplary king in all Israelite history. And what do we do? We’ve all but forgotten him. Why? Because Jotham never rebelled against God or did something self-destructive or wicked against other people. Instead, Jotham was truly good. He loved God. He loved his family. He loved his people. He should be our hero.

You can read more about good King Jotham in 2 Kings 15 and in 2 Chronicles 27.

One day...

2008-11-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

“None but the Lord himself can afford us any help from the awful workings of unbelief, doubtings, carnal fears, murmurings. Thank God one day we will be done forever with ‘unbelief.’”

—Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

The Folly of Being Double-Minded -- Part 3

2008-11-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

Continued from yesterday….

St. James himself knew what it was like to be double-minded. Before Jesus appeared to James after his resurrection, James saw Jesus in purely human terms. For several decades James refused to recognize Jesus’ divinity. But once James did believe, he became quick to tell the difference between true godliness and insincere religious talk. Later as an elder and leader of the church in Jerusalem, James’ own faith was plain for all to see.

After persecution broke out and Christianity spread throughout the Roman empire, James was the first to pen a letter to the Christians scattered abroad. In his book, James encourages us to demonstrate the reality of our faith through our perseverance in times of testing, through our dependence on God for wisdom, and through our heartfelt desire to grow stronger and stronger in both God’s Word and good deeds.

But we can’t do it alone. I have to submit myself to godly individuals I respect and know I can trust. I have to humble myself and admit when I’m struggling with Peter double-mindedness due to past wounds and present fears. I have to admit when I’m struggling with Jonah double-mindedness, too. You and I cannot do this life on our own. The waves will get us every time.

Where are you at today? What is the need of your heart? What do you need right now more than anything? Courage to keep persevering? Wisdom on how to live in these uncertain economic times? More faith in God’s heart, God’s power, and God’s love for you? Remember, God wants you to ask. He won’t chide you for having needs. He certainly won’t reprimand you. Instead, He will say, “I thought you would never ask. Yes.” Just don’t forget that God often answers us indirectly through the words of wisdom, courage, and faith of other believers.

Thank you, Lord, that you are maker of heaven and earth. All true wisdom comes down from heaven. Your Word. Your Son, Jesus Christ. Your Holy Spirit to fill and guide us. Thank you, Lord, that you offer us forgiveness, healing, courage, wisdom, and strength to persevere no matter what our circumstances are here on earth. Lord, please forgive us for all the times and all the ways we have been double-minded, torn in our allegiance to you. Wash us, cleanse us, fill us, renew us this day. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Folly of Being Double-Minded -- Part 2

2008-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Continued from yesterday….

To say the least, I can imagine just a bit of what the apostle Peter felt when he was out at sea with Jesus. Now Jesus had calmed the winds and seas before. Peter had seen it firsthand. But memories as a veteran fisherman die hard. Peter had been scared of drowning for years. So when he was caught in another storm with the disciples alone, he thought it was all over. And then what should he see, but a ghost walking toward them on the waves. The other disciples cry out in terror. But Peter recognizes it is Jesus. And he does the unthinkable: Instead of asking Jesus to calm the storm, he asks Jesus for the power to conquer drowning. “If it’s you, Lord, let me walk on the water too.”

It’s a surreal moment as Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking on the water. And then he drops into a big swell and sees a large wave crashing toward him. In an instant, Peter is double-minded. Fear of drowning. Believe in Jesus. Fear of drowning. Believe in Jesus. Fear of drowning.

When push comes to shove, fear kicks in, old wounds grip our hearts, and we’re tempted to doubt God’s heart, God’s power, God’s love. It can happen to any of us. Believe me.

Was Peter sinning in those fleeting seconds torn between faith and fear? No, I don’t think so. Instead, I think Peter’s double-mindedness simply revealed some of the wounds in his heart, wounds that faith in Jesus Christ would but hadn’t yet healed. Only after spending six weeks with Jesus after his resurrection, and then being filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, were Peter’s fears healed and his faith made fully alive.

I wonder if you can relate at all to Peter’s struggles? Do you know what it’s like to be torn between faith and fear? Did you feel any of that struggle September 11, 2001? Have you felt any of that struggle the past 50 days in the midst of the global economic shockwaves that have hit us all?

If you’ve been tempted to doubt God’s heart, God’s power, God’s love, I urge you to ask God to heal the old wounds gripping your heart. Take each wound, each fear, to God. Lay them at his feet. Only then can you pray for heavenly wisdom to know what to do — and have the sheer, utter confidence that God will answer your prayers.

Of course, Peter isn’t the only story about a double-minded mind caught in a violent storm at sea. Jonah’s story, however, is completely different. In Jonah’s case, he preferred drowning to obeying God. Why in the world was this God-fearing Jewish man so double-minded? Because he preferred the Judeo Holy Land Dream over the idea that God could have any other plan for his life.

What about us? Is it possible we’ve intertwined the American Dream with our Christianity? If so, we’re double-minded and most likely ill-prepared for what’s happening right now economically.

Recently the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Oregonian newspaper confirmed what many of us knew anecdotally the past few weeks —that suicide rates are up here in Oregon. Why? Satan does his best to intertwine our hearts’ allegiance. When our American Dreams all fall apart, he pulls out the suicide trump card and whispers it’s the ultimate escape. What a pack of lies.

Do you see the utter danger of Jonah’s kind of double-mindedness? If you’ve been caught in the same trap, thank God there’s hope—lots of hope. Whatever you do, confess the error of your ways to God. As well, I urge you to confess the error of your ways to someone you know you can trust.

Believe me, I’ve had to confess my Peter kind of double-mindedness to the elders of my church and other respected friends. And I’ve had to confess my Jonah kind of double-mindedness as well. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is and I would be lying if I pretended otherwise.

Continued tomorrow.

The Folly of Being Double-Minded -- Part 1

2008-11-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I talked about specific individuals I know I can trust through thick and thin. Why? Because when it comes to interacting with me, they’re not double-minded. It’s not, “Hey, David, great to see you!” one week and “Oh, no, not David again” the next week. And the same is true of my heart’s responses to them.

But is it possible that you and I sometimes act double-minded toward the Lord? Listen to what James says in chapter 1, verses 6 through 8:

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

So, what does it mean to be double-minded? It means to be torn in one’s allegiance between God’s wisdom from heaven above and Satan’s so-called “worldly wisdom” from hell below.

Who were the most double-minded people in biblical history — “respected” men who grew more double-minded until the day they died? Personally, I would say the three worst were Balaam the double-crossing greedy and treacherous false prophet, Solomon the two-timer who pretended to still worship the Lord while becoming deeply engrossed in idolatry, and Judas the betrayer who sold Jesus to His enemies for the price of a slave. In the end, their evil hypocrisy was obvious for all to see.

But the reality is, being double-minded isn’t always obvious. Often, it’s quite subtle, actually. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked back over the past three years and lamented the times I thought, talked, and acted in a double-minded manner.

James says that a double-minded man is like a storm-tossed wave. Because ancient Jewish men feared drowning above all else, James is using a powerful word picture. Two biblical stories can help us see the differences between subtle and outright double-mindedness. But first, let me share a personal story.

This past year my son Jonathan and I decided to go sea kayaking along a stretch of the California coastline about 15 minutes south of San Luis Obispo. The trick with sea kayaking, of course, is to get past all the waves so you’re in the open ocean and can turn and follow the coastline without getting hit by a wall of water. At least, that’s the theory. Jon was in the back of our two-man open sea kayak and I was in the front, taking wave after wave in the face as we pushed further and further out into the ocean.

Unbeknownst to us, a storm we couldn’t see further out in the ocean was churning up more and bigger waves with every passing minute. Jon and I grew increasingly frustrated. When are we ever going to break past the waves? we both wondered out loud.

At one point one of us started arguing that the waves would never end so we might as well turn left and head down the coast. The other person argued that we still needed to push further out to sea. Otherwise the waves, which were only getting higher, would toss us like so much driftwood. We couldn’t agree on a course of action. We were double-minded.

So Jon and I kept paddling harder and harder. Any idea I had about staying dry was long gone. Taking the brunt of each wave, I was soaking wet and chilled to the bone. On and on we paddled.

Finally, we started debating again about whether to turn left and head down the coastline or keep going further out to sea. One of us argued, “We can ride out the waves. Look, I’d lean the opposite way you do. We can do it.” The other one of us insisted that we’d never make it more than three or four waves before a big one would catch us and fling us in the air. But in the end one of us quickly swung the kayak from due west to due south. Like it or not, the argument was over and we both started paddling for all we were worth.

No sooner were we deep within the swell of the second big wave when Jon yelled “Oh no” and a huge wave scooped us up — and then tossed us like pencils in the air.

That’s a picture of what James is talking about when he warns us against being double-minded. Of course, flying through the air right before slamming into the freezing cold Pacific ocean, I was quite willing to agree with James. He’s right: Double-mindedness doesn’t work.

To say the least, I can imagine just a bit of what the apostle Peter felt….

Continued tomorrow.

Looking for Wisdom

2008-11-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

When it comes to seeking true wisdom, we have three valid options.

First, we can open the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse our hearts and help us to hear what God has to say to us.

Second, we can give priority to the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, again asking the Holy Spirit to apply the Gospels to our hearts and lives.

Third, we can talk with godly individuals who we know have feared the Lord for many years, know God’s Word very well, live exemplary lives, listen to our questions and concerns, and then look to God to give them the words to speak to us.

Such individuals hear the whole story, weigh what is said, ask lots of good questions, consider the whole counsel of God in this book, and then apply biblical principles to life.

Furthermore, such individuals aren’t quick to answer, aren’t 100% certain they know all the answers, aren’t quick to offer pat answers, and are willing to join us for the journey.

Do you have one or more such individuals in your life right now? If so, who are they? What name or names come to mind?

Personally, the names that come to mind include Jim Hislop, Mike Fox, Mike Fajen, Gil Woo, Paul Goodrich, Paul Schroth, Rex Koivisto, Bob McNicol, Jon Marks, Joe DiCarlo, Steve Burg, Kevin McKinney, and Paul Govert. I’ve had the privilege of serving as an elder with each of these men. They know me well. More importantly, they know God well. They know the Bible well. Yes, sometimes I’ve let them down. I’ve disappointed them. I’ve hurt some of them. But we’re in this Christian life together. And they know I love and respect them, and I know I can count on them through thick and thin.

Why can I count on these individuals? Because when it comes to interacting with me, they’re not double minded. It’s not, “Hey, David, great to see you!” one week and “Oh, no, not David again” the next week. And the same is true of my heart’s responses to them.

What Does It Mean to Be Wise?

2008-11-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

Down through the ages, the followers of Jesus Christ have affirmed that He is the personification of all true wisdom. This was true not just when Jesus was an adult, but even in his early youth.

In Luke 2:41-52, for instance, we read that Jesus listened and observed what others said, asked questions, demonstrated profound understanding of God’s Word, and answered the questions of the leading rabbis gathered at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Remember, this wasn’t a bar mitzvah Sabbath School class. Instead, Jesus was in the temple courts sitting among the greatest teachers of His day. Even at 12 years of age, Jesus demonstrated the characteristics of a godly, wise person.

Perhaps the question for this generation isn’t simply “What Would Jesus Do?” but perhaps more accurately: “Where Would Jesus Listen, Ask Questions, Demonstrate Profound Understanding of God’s Word, and Answer the Toughest Questions of His Day?”

Your thoughts?

St. James, Life’s Trials, and God’s Wisdom

2008-11-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

One of my all-time favorite verses is familiar to many:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5 NIV)

“If any of you…” addresses anyone reading this blog with the possible exception of my oldest friends Emma, Bob, Leonard, and Katherine.

“If any of you lacks wisdom” is interesting. Why did James decide to talk about wisdom? Well, in many ways, this whole letter of James is the New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament’s wisdom literature found in the middle of our Bibles in books like Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. So, actually, James is tipping his hand. Not only has James packed a lot of practical, everyday, godly wisdom into this book, but James talks a lot about wisdom itself. It’s something all of us should long to have in abundance. We should long for it more than anything that Hollywood, Madison Avenue, or Wall Street has to offer.

Of course, that begs the question, why does one need wisdom? We urgently, desperately, consistently, without ceasingly need wisdom to face the tests of faith, to preserve through trials, and to become mature in faith. So we should ask for wisdom instead of living by old assumptions or trying to figure things out on our own power. Instead, God wants us to ask, seek, and knock until we get wisdom.

The next question is, where does one go to get wisdom? Half a dozen times in the Old Testament wisdom literature we read that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Simply put, that means that the more we have a correct, accurate, well-rounded, complete understanding of who the Lord is—and respond appropriately to God with reverence, awe and fear—the wiser we will be.

We’ll be wiser first of all because we will take very seriously whatever the Lord says. After all, God speaks to us today by His awesome person, His abiding presence, and His eternal words found in this book. Talk about generous!

God doesn’t judge or condemn us when we ask for wisdom. Instead, He generously has given us 1,000 pages of eternal wisdom. Do we read it? Do we heed it? Do we long to know more? I hope we do. I trust we will. After all, God promises to give us wisdom in abundance. It’s ours for the asking and taking.

Thanks for the tremendous reader responses so far...

2008-10-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

It’s been amazing to see If God Disappears generating so much pass-along and word of mouth. I’m already hearing from people who say they’re the fifth or sixth person to read an individual copy of my book. If all I ever had were the phone calls, letters, e-mails, heartfelt blog postings, live radio call-in conversations, lengthy book signings and face-to-face conversations of the past few weeks, all the work I did writing If God Disappears would have been worth it.

Many people have told me they read my new book in one sitting. Of the scores of blog postings by readers, the one that touched me the most was from a guy my age. His marriage is ending in divorce after years serving the Lord. He heard about my book, read it, and wrote on his blog that my book “near saved” his faith. He went on to write: “At a time when everything and everyone I’ve loved is slipping away from me, to have this reminder that God is still there AND still loves me couldn’t have shown up at a better time. I cannot thank Mr. Sanford nearly enough for writing this.”

I’ve heard the same thing from people of all ages — a large number of students, of course, but also many people in their late twenties and thirties, and many more who are middle aged and older. Even retirees are struggling with faith issues to a surprising degree. Just as meaningful are all the people telling me how easy it has been to give my book to loved ones and friends who are struggling.

Even my atheistic dad, age 73, picked up a copy of the book and read it in a couple of sittings. It’s had a profound impact on him. I can’t wait to see him let go of the past and trust Jesus Christ after all of these years. He’s closer than ever. I’m almost in tears just writing those words.

What’s your story? I’d love to hear from you. You can post a comment below or write to me at IfGodDisappears[at]gmail[dot]com.

Which church?

2008-10-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

When a newly married couple walks down the aisle and heads out of church for their honeymoon, one unresolved question often lingers: “Are we going back to the same church after the honeymoon?”

If he went to Church A and she went to Church B before the wedding, where do they go afterward?

Michael and Shari weren’t sure.

Michael grew up in the Catholic church. Shari attended a couple of different denominational churches over the years. After their wedding, Michael and Shari bounced back and forth between their two churches, couldn’t decide which one to call home, and eventually stopped going altogether.

Things changed after their first child was born.

“I can remember it to this day,” says Shari. “It was a Sunday morning. Our son was a baby and I just felt God calling me to go. So I told Mike, ‘We need to go to church,’ and he said okay.”

Many factors conspired against Mike and Shari finding a common church home, but “We prayed it out and worked on it…together,” she says. They’re now active members of a Free Methodist Church.

There’s no one right way to answer the “which church?” question.

For Jon and Linda, the answer has changed over the years. Right now, Jon and Linda and their three children attend her church on Sunday mornings. That way, the whole family can worship together. But on Saturday evenings, Jon often attends his church. It’s the best of both worlds, Jon says.

If you or your spouse have had a bad church experience in the past, you’re not alone.

Approximately 31 million Americans say they are Christians and have made a faith commitment to Jesus Christ, and say that commitment is still important to them, but they have struggled with faith or relational issues and quit going to church.

Typical reasons for a bad church experience:

A. Individuals feel like they didn’t “fit in” at the church they attended.
B. They felt confused or overwhelmed by church expectations.
C. They felt rejected, humiliated, or hurt by someone in church.

Don’t forget—the apostles of Jesus Christ had some bad church experiences, too. The apostle Paul was maligned by several imposters who infiltrated churches he had started. Even in his old age, the beloved apostle John reported that certain people were “gossiping maliciously about us” (3 John 10 NIV).

Thankfully, the U.S. is blessed with lots of churches—more than 315,000 at last count. If you have had a couple of bad church experiences, it’s not time to write off every church.

The bottom line: you and your family may want to explore several options until you find what seems best for you.

David and Rachel's Story

2008-10-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Can God really bring anything good out of crushing circumstances?

David Prince knows something about physical suffering. While he was still a young pastor, the health problems began for him and his wife, Judith. She had to have a brain operation; he later lost his eyesight. A few years later, David had to have a double transplant for a kidney and his pancreas.

Just months after his transplant, David was given three days to live because of multiple infections in his blood. He survived, but only two years after that, he and Judith were involved in a head-on collision. Ten days later, Judith died in intensive care.

By age thirty, David had lost his wife and his health. His kidney transplant was failing. He had to go back on dialysis three days a week. But once again, God provided a new kidney. Throughout the whole process, David continued to trust his Savior, and remained committed to his church ministry.

Eight years after Judith’s death, David met a wonderful Christian woman named Rachel, and two years later, they were married. They now live in South Yorkshire, where David is still involved in Church ministry and writing and composing songs. They travel the country, sharing David’s story and songs in concert.

Can God bring any good out of crushing circumstances? Both David and Rachel reply with an emphatic “yes!”

I invite you to visit David and Rachel’s website or write to them.

Merissa's Story

2008-10-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

If anyone has ever been become disillusioned by the church as a lay leader, it’s Merissa.

Several years ago, Merissa and her family were spending some time in the Caribbean, and Merissa was taking a break from some of her regular duties.

As she stood on a deck, looking out onto the great expanse of a calm sea and a cloudless sky, she was struck by how “crowded” she felt inside—crowded with fear, disappointment, and disillusionment. She cried out to God, aching for something she couldn’t articulate.

Suddenly Merissa realized that she had been hanging on to all the hurt in her life. She decided to let it go, there on the shores of the Caribbean. “In the days that followed I felt that God and I were in an empty room together,” she recalls. “The room was my heart and I could feel the emptiness echo off its walls. Slowly, over the length of our stay, my heart began to fill with good things.”

When she returned to her home in Alberta, Canada, Merissa took a position on their church board, full of hope and passion, eager to share the magic she was experiencing. Sadly, halfway into the three-year term she stepped down, completely expired, wounded, and disillusioned. The decision-making over finances, staffing, one case of moral failure, severe congregational discontent, and gut-wrenching relational issues had taken its toll.

During that time Merissa had seen two sides—she saw miracles happen as people cared for one another. But she also saw how mean and calloused Christians could be to each other.

The year following her resignation was difficult. She preferred not to go to church—where she had experienced so much pain—but her children loved going so much, and she didn’t want to squelch that desire in them.

Merissa’s heart went back to her time in the Caribbean, to that pivotal night when she let go of all her hurt. The process of relinquishing was more difficult this time, though. She says, “Truthfully, my faith in mankind took a harder hit than my faith in God. But largely (and strangely) thanks to the efforts of others, it is also being restored.

“There are many things I cannot explain or understand. The world is full of tragedy and triumph. So far, God has not asked me to endorse his actions. He seems quite able to stand on his own, full of mercy and mystery. But he has made clear a path for me, and I want to walk in it.”

Like Merissa, many of us have been disillusioned with the church. Have you let go of the hurt yet? What’s your story?

To me, religious labels are relative

2008-10-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

What mantra have we heard more than almost any other the past generation?

“It’s all relative.”

Relativity started as a scientific theory, of course. The most immediate applications were new understandings of time. Not that any of this caught God by surprise.

Think about time from God’s point of view.

It’s rather startling to realize that every 60 minutes, 24 hours go by globally—somewhere on Earth, each minute of a day from 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. occurs within that single hour.

Even more mind-boggling is the realization that the nearly 6.75 billion people on this planet fast-forward through an entire millennium of time collectively in less than 4.7 seconds. Then again, Scripture has told us all along that to God one day is as a thousand years.

According to Albert Einstein, however, time isn’t the only thing that’s relative. And that’s where relativity goes from helping us understand God and Scripture better to tripping us up if we’re not careful.

Throughout his life, Einstein changed religious labels more than once. Two of the most prominent labels he wore were “atheist” and “deist.” Which is the better label depends on your point of view.

My friend Jim Hislop likes to remind me that labels aren’t always bad. They’re often good. They’re only bad if we don’t check what’s inside first—or if we willfully mislabel someone.

All of us have had the experience of being mislabeled, sometimes maliciously, by others. Just as sad, sometimes I’ve talked with people who have mislabeled themselves.

If someone tells me she is a “former Christian” and an “atheist,” that may mean that she no longer believe in God or His existence. Then again, it may mean that she feels God walked out of her life, let her get terribly hurt, and she’s so angry she’ll never forgive God. In any case, “former Christian” and “atheist” don’t tell me anything negative about her. It tells me only that I want to hear her story.

If you told your story to me, what labels would you use to describe your religious convictions or lack thereof?

What do those labels mean to you?

What should they mean to me?

I'll take a mocha...and a miracle please

2008-10-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

The following story is from my friend Ann Dunagan, a missionary, homeschool mom, and author of several excellent books:

Last Friday morning, I woke up to an urgent phone call regarding a troubled teenage girl. She'd run away from home, been found wandering along the highway, barefoot, and she'd been "cutting" herself again.

Ugh.

God's "grace" for me to keep helping this girl was running thin . . . and wearing me out.

Earlier in the year, I had prayed with this 16-year-old to receive Christ, she'd been baptized, and our family had been attempting to bring her to church, whenever we could. I knew she'd had a problem before with "cutting" herself, and I knew I needed assistance with her situation, more desperately than ever.

More than anything, I knew this girl needed help at home, and so did her mother.

Quite a few times, I had attempted to talk with the girl's mom about God, but she was totally resistant. Our home group had been praying for her for about a year, with seemingly no headway. Any invitation to attend church was totally rejected. Besides working at Wal-Mart and buying necessities, this mom had kept herself practically locked-up alone in her trailerpark home for years, consumed with the idea that she couldn't go to a church because she couldn't be around people.

As I hung up up the phone and began praying, I felt very specifically that it was the day for this woman to return to the Lord. There was such an urgency in my heart, and it was amazing. I felt like God gave me a specific little mission. I called her up and invited her to coffee, so we could talk for a few minutes about her daughter.

Later that afternoon, we met at a little coffee shop a few minutes from this lady's home. With love and frankness, I shared, once again, about her need for God's help and salvation. But this time, her reaction was totally different. In less than ten minutes (and before she'd taken more than a sip or two from her mocha), this hardened woman was weeping and surrendering to the Lord. She began to reminisce about songs from her childhood days in Sunday school, and how she knew that I was right.

On Sunday morning, this woman did something she hadn't done for years. She brought her daughter to church, and at the end of the service, both mom and daugher came forward and were kneeling at the altar of our church, and hugging each other with tears streaming down their faces. Both wanted to come back to church, and the the mom even hung around afterward to talk and to meet people. I'm serious, this was totally a MIRACLE!!! God totally changed this woman's heart, and he set her free.

And God is going to help this woman with her daughter (and at last, I have just the right person to help bring this teenager to church!).

So, if the Lord prompts you to witness or to share with someone, step out and obey. You never know what awesome things God may do. This whole outing lasted only about 45 minutes, including the driving from my home and ordering at the counter . . . but it totally made my week!

Now that's a coffee break!

Eternity: Slow Train Comin’ -- Day 5

2008-10-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I commented about how the evangelical church is once again beginning to understand its place within the broader Church, within the much larger family of God, and within the much, much larger kingdom of God.

God’s kingdom. God’s family. God’s Church.

They’re not the same, but how are they different?

The fact is, God not only can use anyone to advance His purposes, but God often uses them as a means of drawing them into His family and church today. Take the apostle Paul as a classic example. The fact is, the more opposed someone is when God starts using them, the more likely it is that God will draw them to faith in Jesus Christ. It sounds counterintuitive, but we see this over and over in Scripture, in Church history, in modern biography, and in contemporary experience.

Let’s make a distinction, however, between “servant” and “citizen.” Not all “servants” in God’s kingdom are “citizens” yet. Citizens are going to spend eternity with God. Servants may or may not. God’s desire, of course, is that none perish, but that all come to repentance.

Who is God using in your hometown, in national politics, on Wall Street, in the sports world, in the entertainment world? Who comes to mind? Have you ever thought of them as God’s servants? Have you ever prayed for God to use them? Have you ever wanted to see God transform their lives?

We need to pray for new eyes to see people as God sees them. How many of you have heard Bebo Norman’s haunting new song, “Britney”? Here’s the story behind that song in Bebo’s own words:

I was up late, couldn’t sleep, watching some news channel, when yet another story about Britney Spears came on. My first instinct was to scoff and write it off, but then there was this freeze-frame shot of a look on her face of utter and absolute despair and confusion and brokenness—a look that I recognized… I think that night I saw her through the eyes of Jesus for the first time. I imagined what Jesus would say to me in my darkest hour and realized that those are the words we should speak to this world, to this culture, and even to Britney Spears in their darkest hour. “I’m sorry. Hope is here.”

“I’m sorry. Hope is here.” Sometimes, those are the first words we need to say to someone God wants to save. Not, “I have the answers.” Not even, “I know God, He changed my life, and He can save you too.” Just “I’m sorry. Hope is here.”

Many in God’s kingdom are His, some are not and some are on the way:

Are you willing to memorize those words, take them to heart, and speak them to someone this week? “I’m sorry. Hope is here.” Hope because of who God is, because of what God is doing, and because of what God envisions and wants to be true for all eternity.

When Bob Dylan recorded his landmark album Slow Train Comin’ and first told the world that he was serving the Lord, many cheered, many others jeered, and still many others didn’t know what to think.

Based on what we’ve just considered, what do you think?

Eternity: Slow Train Comin’ -- Day 4

2008-10-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I commented about how the evangelical church is once again beginning to understand its place within the broader Church, within the much larger family of God, and within the much, much larger kingdom of God.

God’s kingdom. God’s family. God’s Church.

They’re not the same, but how are they different?

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. In addition, all of God’s people are part of His forever family. Beyond that, however, Jesus Christ is the rightful, exalted King of God’s kingdom.

God’s kingdom is the context through which He is advancing His purposes through humanity here on earth.

That context includes God’s work around the world and down of all ages through emperors, kings, prime ministers, presidents, governors, mayors, and other government officials, whether or not they believe in God yet.

You see, God can use anyone to advance His purposes here on earth. If God could use ancient Pharaohs, and kings Xerxes, Cyrus, and Nebuchadnezzar, and ancient Caesars from Julius to Augustus to Nero, God can use anyone.

We see this in Revelation 21:24, where the apostle John records that fact that “The nations will walk by [God’s] light, and the kings of earth will bring their splendor into it.” Then look down two verses to Revelation 21:26, where we read: “The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into” the eternal city of God. Then look down three more verses to Revelation 22, verses 2-3: “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.”

So, in these last two chapters of the Bible, we see God’s Church, God’s Family, and God’s Kingdom clearly in focus.

So what’s the take-away value of looking at God’s Kingdom in light of eternity?

It puts a whole new perspective on everything in this life — as we look back through history, as we look at the first few years of the 21st century, and as we look ahead to what may be coming.

It doesn’t matter what happens in Russia, the Middle East, and America. It doesn’t matter how bad things get on Wall Street. It doesn’t matter who’s preparing to take over the White House. No matter what, God’s kingdom is advancing His purposes through humanity here on earth.

It grieves me when we look at someone who is different from us, who may be politically different than us, and assume that God can’t use that individual to advance His purposes on earth.

Eternity: Slow Train Comin’ -- Day 3

2008-10-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Among others, God’s family includes all authentic Jewish believers in Old Testament times.

We see this in Revelation chapter 21, verse 14, where we read that the eternal city of God has twelve gates. “On the gates where written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.”

God’s family includes even more ancient individuals like Noah, Job, and Abraham who believed in God long before the ancient Israelite nation, the Jewish faith, and the Hebrew Scriptures existed.

God’s family also includes Muslims today who come to faith after Jesus appears to them in visions and dreams. On Friday I spoke with two former Muslims who have become outstanding evangelists proclaiming the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They and other experts tell me that Muslims are coming to Jesus Christ by the tens of thousands around the world. One of the most amazing things is how many report that they first heard the Gospel from Jesus Christ Himself, who appears to them in dreams and visions.

I am so thankfully we can be sure that eternity will be enjoyed by all of God’s children down through the ages. Among other places, we see this in Revelation 22:16b, where Jesus says: “I am the Root and the Offspring of David and the bright Morning Star.” There He speaks both to the ancient Jewish people who believed in Him—and to others who, like the ancient Magi or the tribal chief, can see God’s reality, power, beauty, and might in creation and passionately long for that reality in their own lives.

Eternity will be enjoyed by all God’s children down through the ages….

Eternity: Slow Train Comin’ -- Day 2

2008-10-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I commented about how the evangelical church is once again beginning to understand its place within the broader Church, within the much larger family of God, and within the much, much larger kingdom of God.

God’s kingdom. God’s family. God’s Church.

They’re not the same, but how are they different?

The first and smallest sphere in our diagram, again, is God’s Church.

The New Testament clearly teaches that Jesus Christ is the Head of His Body, the Church.

The Church is made up of all true followers and disciples of Jesus Christ from A.D. 33 to 2008 and beyond. It’s amazing to realize that you and I belong to the same Church that Mary, Peter, James, John, Paul, and others belonged to 1,975 years ago.

Thankfully, the Church is front and center of God’s plans for eternity.

Look at what the apostle John wrote in the opening verses of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Revelation 21, verses 1 to 3:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."

The exclamation point of heaven isn’t the pearly gates or streets of gold. Instead, the exclamation point of heaven is seen here in verse 3: God is living with men and women from every nation, culture, and people group.

So who do we find in heaven? Well, first, we find God’s Church. Revelation 21:14 says: “The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” This speaks about how the Church was built on the faith on Jesus’ closest friends and followers, often called the twelve apostles.

We see the Church referred to again in the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, verse 16, the last red letter verse in the Bible. There Jesus says: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.”

Eternity will be enjoyed by all the authentic followers of Jesus Christ….

Eternity: Slow Train Comin’ -- Day 1

2008-10-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I had the privilege of doing an interview with Alexandra Alter with the Wall Street Journal. Alexandra called me to ask for feature story ideas. I asked her what kind of story ideas? She said she was looking for ideas for feature stories at the intersection of Christian faith and other spheres of life (besides business). I was intrigued. What ideas would you have suggested to Alexandra? Actually, I still have a blank check from her to pitch new feature story ideas. What would you recommend?

One feature story idea Alexandra and I discussed, of course, were some of the key themes from my new book, If God Disappears. Why is it that so many Christians walk away from the faith before they go to heaven? One explanation, of course, is that we have overlaid the American dream on top of our Christian faith. As a result, we’re expecting too much from this brief life and are too little focused on eternity with God and His people forever.

Another feature story idea I could have mentioned to Alexandra is how the evangelical church is once again beginning to understand its place within the broader Church, within the much larger family of God, and within the much, much larger kingdom of God.

God’s kingdom. God’s family. God’s Church.

They’re not the same, but how are they different?

At the risk of oversimplifying what the Bible teaches, allow me to use the image of three concentric circles.

In the first and smallest sphere, we see God’s Church.

In the second sphere, which encompasses God’s Church, we see God’s even bigger Family.

In the third sphere, which encompasses both God’s Church and God’s Family, we see God’s much bigger Kingdom.

Thankfully, Scripture doesn’t blur the distinction between these three spheres. So, let’s look at them briefly one by one over the next few days.

Assumptions

2008-10-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

My older son, Jonathan Sanford, is a junior at Cal Poly. He wrote a review of If God Disappears on his blog earlier this week. He had a great insight, which he has given me permission to share:

[My dad] outlines nine faith wreckers in his book, but I would assert that there is only one faith wrecker (from a purely human perspective); an unwillingness to reevaluate our assumptions. Any of the faith wreckers can be viewed as a variation on this theme. We had a bad church experience so we assume that our view of 'those christians' reflects the Christ they claim to worship. We have experienced horrible, traumatic events in our lives so we assume that God isn't there or doesn't love us. We get lost in ritualistic religion, bewildered at God's apparent departure and assume that it must be something wrong with Christianity itself not with our misconstrued perception of what God desires. These are just examples; in any crisis of faith it is essential to reevaluate our assumptions and reorient ourselves around what we know is true. When I have found myself wandering away from my Savior and Lord I remind myself of all the times God has worked in my life for good. I remind myself of what He declares in His Word. Aren't we all so forgetful, like the Israelites under Moses, and in constant need of a reminder of the presence of the great I AM. We get so caught up in our petty assumptions that we forget what we know is true.

Though there are many things that threaten to steal or erode our faith, Jonathan is right that the "one faith wrecker" is an unwillingness to evaluate or reevaluate our assumptions. I have to ask myself: what assumptions am I holding onto that are false or harmful? What about you?