Bible reading Archives - Jacqueline G Wallace.com

July 5, 2016

Why It’s Not About “Accepting Christ” (Repost)

Last week I clicked on the link to read Susanne Maynes’ latest blog posting (you can read it on her blog here). Susanne is one of my blogging friends whose articles are thoughtfully written and rich with truth. I respect Susanne’s writing so much I asked her a few months ago if she would read and write a review of my book, Brokenness to Beauty, which she kindly did. You can read it on Amazon reviews (click here to read her review).

After I read one of Susanne’s postings, I often leave a comment, letting her know how much I appreciated what she wrote, how it encouraged me in some way. It’s sort of like a verbal “high five,” digitally sent hundreds of miles from my computer to to hers.

This time I read Susanne’s blog post and not only thanked her for saying so well what I believe and have tried to live, but told her I wanted to repost her blog post. She enthusiastically gave her assent. Thanks, Susanne!

Below is what Susanne had to say about a very important issue for us today:

Why It’s Not About “Accepting Christ”

Have you ever read through the whole Bible chronologically just to get a feel for the over-arching story of God? If so, you may have noticed the same phrase which stood out to me this time around.

In my read-through for 2016, I was struck by the New Testament theme of “Obey the gospel.”

Nowhere did I read, “Accept Jesus as your Savior.” Nowhere did I see an invitation to “ask Jesus into your heart.” No, the call of the gospel is to die to the old, selfish way of life and rise to an entirely new life in Christ.

How do we do this? By means of obedience.

Please hear me out before your “legalism” trigger goes off.

It bothers me — nay, troubles me deeply — that the Church has reacted against rule-keeping to the point where we no longer talk about obeying the commands of Jesus.

Jesus said:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15

Real faith is more than just accepting an offer for forgiveness. That’s the starting point, but it’s our obedience to Christ that demonstrates a changed life.

However, we’ve allowed pop psychology to worm its way into our thinking. We’ve bought the notion that Christianity is a self-improvement plan, the ultimate 12-step program, a way to feel better about ourselves and to fulfill our potential.

So we advertise a gospel that is really only half the story.

We talk about a Savior who has mercy on us and died so our sins could be forgiven. This is wonderful news — but there’s another dimension to it!

Jesus doesn’t just forgive us. He empowers us to live a different life. A holy life. A life that spreads the fragrance of his beautiful name in the earth.

God’s goal for us is not to make us comfortable and happy, but rather to transform us into the image of Christ (see Romans 12:2 and Corinthians 3:18).

God’s goal for us is not to make us comfortable and happy, but rather to #transform us into the…

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Going back to my New Testament reading, I’ve placed our theme in italics here:

Romans 10:16 refers to the importance of preaching the gospel, and says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel…”
2 Thes. 1:8 refers to the second coming of Christ and God’s judgment on “…those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
I Peter 4:17 refers to God’s judgment beginning with believers, and “…if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

That’s just a smattering of references to this idea, but do you sense the seriousness of the apostles on this topic? They’re telling us that some people will not obey the gospel — and that’s bad.

Did you catch the wording? It’s not that some will not “accept” the gospel. It’s that they won’t obey it.

One comedian describes how, as a boy, he would whine endlessly about a toy he wanted until his mom relented — whereupon all his pleading and grousing quickly turned into a flippant, “Thanks, Babe!” as he ran out to play.

Too often, we demonstrate a “Thanks, Babe!” attitude towards the Lord Jesus. Problem is, we can be guilty of inviting unbelievers into a flippant, shallow faith — a faith that fails to produce change.

Paul writes this to the believers in Corinth so they will follow up on their promise to send a generous gift to another church:

“…others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ… —2 Corinthians 9:13

Wow! I want obedience to accompany my confession of faith. I don’t want to be a “Thanks, Babe” kind of believer.

You?

Visit Susanne’s blog at Susanne Maynes: Unleashing Your Courageous Compassion. Check out her website. She has good things to say, and write.

Leave me a comment; go to Susanne’s website and leave her a constructive comment about this post. Share it with others. This is a message we need to hear.

January 3, 2016

A Marketing we will go

About three days ago, as I was reading in Isaiah, I came to this verse, “Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us” (Isaiah 26:12, NIV).

I had to stop and ponder it. In light of my current whirl of anxious thoughts and activity, I bowed my head and thanked God for what he has done in this one area of my life this past year: my book Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life, was completed and edited; the cover designed; all reviewed for any errors and changes; and just before the end of 2015, sent off by the publisher to the printer! Brokenness to Beauty will be ready for purchase very soon!

Happy days, right? Well, yes and no.

How to market my book has consumed my thoughts and activities online for several weeks. Hand-wringing new territory. Again. Another whole field of endeavor to master! Will my learning curve never level off?

For weeks I’ve been reading theories about and strategies for how best to market a book, especially as a new, unknown author. Which way to turn? What advice to follow? How do I maximize my little budget?

All this time, lots of prayer to God for him to lead me. I don’t know the “how,” but he does.

The other day, after weeks of this, I realized I was withdrawing in my spirit, pulling back from the conflict in my soul. All the unknowns, the “which way to turn” as I view before me so many paths in my “yellow wood” of book marketing. Instead of joyful anticipation of the release of my book, Brokenness to Beauty, I wanted to run away from it!

So I took myself by the scruff of the neck, figuratively speaking, of course, and turning my head upward to my Father I said, “Lord, I don’t want to be this way, it is crazy after all you’ve done! I choose now to hitch up my britches and plow ahead into the fray, to take on a positive rather than fearful and negative attitude. I will move ahead.”

I know God led me to write Brokenness to Beauty; it wasn’t my idea. I believe he wants me to get this book out there because the message I have is for others, to strengthen them in their times of struggles and trials in life. So he is helping me market it, I just can’t see it yet.

I know God has been with me and taught me all along the way as I wrote this book, which was done over the course of several years. I’ve learned so much through this experience of writing a book!

And I know that what God starts, he finishes, as my good friend, Claudia Cooley (http://claudiacooley.com/), herself a published author, reminded me yesterday as we talked on the phone. She was there in the early days when I was only talking about writing this book!

And above all, I know God is with me in all these pursuits. He is going to answer my prayers. He is the one working within all my efforts to accomplish his work, as Isaiah said.

And he is the one who gives me peace in the midst of it all.

I am moving ahead!

If you’d like to be part of my marketing scheme for Brokenness to Beauty, if you have an idea of what you could do to promote Brokenness to Beauty among people you know, or if you have successfully marketed a book and so have experience you could share with me, leave me a comment and let’s talk!

It’s only January 3rd in this New Year of 2016, but I’m beginning to look forward to January 3, 2017, to look back over the year and say, “all that we have accomplished you, Oh God, have done for us”!

Yellow wood is a reference to Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.”

New International Version (NIV)

February 6, 2015

Let-us Gathering: Fear!

“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.” (NIV)

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” (KJV)

“Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” (NASB)

I found it interesting that in this verse we are told to fear something. It got me to thinking about 1) what we are to fear, and 2) how often in scripture (well, at least the New Testament) we are told to fear something or someone. There are many passages where Jesus or the writers of scripture tell us not to fear, and I take courage from them to “not fear.” But there are also definite things we are to fear. One is here in Hebrews chapter four. There are others but you’ll have to look them up yourself. I’m going to focus on what we are to fear.

Since we are to fear something, what does that mean? Or more to the point, what did the writer, by inspiration of the Spirit of God, mean by the word used? Bottom line: What is God telling us? These are his words to us.

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” (ESV)

In the first three chapters of the book the writer of Hebrews had been building an argument for taking heed to (hearing and doing) God’s Word, which had been spoken in the past by prophets and finally through his Son, Jesus Christ (Heb. 1: 1-3). He presents evidence that Jesus is greater than the angels, those spirit-servants of God, because Jesus is God (1: 4-14). So then we should anchor our lives to what we have heard so we do not slide away from the truth into sin and the penalty of disobedience (2:1-18).

Then the writer makes a comparison between the position of a servant in a household to that of the builder of the house who is, in fact, the builder of everything: God. Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, but Jesus is greater because he is the faithful Son over God’s house. And we are that house of God over which the Son resides, “if it be that” we “hold fast or maintain our confidence and the hope of which we boast firm unto the end” (3:1-6).

So in light of that, and the fact that there is still a Rest of God open to us, we are not to be like the Israelites who refused to believe God’s word and therefore could not and did not enter that rest (3:7-19). (There is a whole study in itself on the Rest of God, but I can’t go there now; you’ll have to jump on that yourself.)

We are all too much like those Israelites; we have the same sinful, fallen nature they had. But we also, like them, have the freedom to choose to believe God—or not. They heard the words of God, we have heard the words of God. Will we believe and obey (for to believe is to obey)?

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” (ESV)

The word “fear” in this verse carries the sense “to be fearfully anxious.” It is a strong admonition. This is not to be taken lightly! There are dire consequences to ignoring and disobeying the word of God. Look at the Israelites (Numbers 13-14).

How did the Israelites “hear,” and how are we expected and warned to “hear”? They didn’t believe God and live by what he said. They heard the same good news which has been handed down to us, and which we have now heard as well. Do we believe God? Do we believe and obey him in the hard times as well as the easy times of our lives?

This is how we are to differ from the Israelites in the way we “hear” the word of God: do not harden our hearts; hear with the intent of obeying. We must humble our hearts (3:12-19). We are to be fearfully anxious that we do not allow our hearts to become hard to the things God says. And miss out on his promised rest.

And not just for our individual selves, but we are to “encourage one another” (3:13).

Peter put it another way, a more positive way, as a command to action to intentionally add to what we already know and do (II Peter 1:3-11; 3:18). Paul said it another way as well: work out your salvation with fear (same root word) and trembling, for it is God who is working in us (do we know that?) to do his will and that which pleases him (Philippians 2—the whole chapter is gripping).

The more I think about it, the more I see the Spirit of God saying the same things throughout scripture. It is all of a piece.

Hebrews 4:1 is one of the Let-us commands: Let us fear. We are to be fearfully anxious that we not allow our hearts, individually and corporately, to become hard against God by lightly dismissing his word, by not being intentional to carve out time to read/hear and obey it, by ignoring it, by refusing to obey it.

I’ve only begun to scratch at the surface of the riches of this one verse. There is so much here in this book of Hebrews!

What will we do with the Word of God? Anchor our lives to it or cast off and drift away from it?

See also Interlinear for the rest of us: the reverse interlinear for New Testament word studies, by Wm. D. Mounce, published by Zondervan; and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong, published by Hendrickson Publishers.

Scriptures taken from Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/

January 23, 2015

Gettin’ up off the duff

“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’” (Mark 8:31-38, NASB, companion passage to Matthew 16: 21-27)

So now we have determined the time we will set aside to intentionally read and study God’s word. That’s the first step in a “camp out” in the scriptures. You have to be reading the Word to experience a passage standing out, calling you to come aside and spend some time there.

I do not avoid the seemingly difficult or hard sections of scripture. I remember when I would sit in church and felt like I could go through the motions of the morning service half asleep and not miss a beat. Those were the days of the stirrings of a desire to know God and his Word, when I began to seek a challenge from what God said, to understand it and run with it. Surely there was more to Christianity than these boring formalities. Whatever that “more” was, it would be like a splash of cold water on a sweltering day. Refreshment. God’s Word would wake me up!

Now let me clarify, I was feeling frustrated and bored with church not so much because anyone else was doing something “wrong,” but because I was a baby Christian and God was bringing me from spiritual crawling to the point of beginning to stand and walk.

A baby has to want to walk and not be satisfied with crawling on all fours. That’s where I was, spiritually speaking; tired of the old, itching for the new. But I didn’t understand that yet; all I knew is that I was frustrated with the boredom of church as usual. God was nudging me to get up and walk.

In our women’s Bible study this week we were asked to write a prayer for ourselves as we begin the study of the book of Hebrews. My friend Betsy wrote: “Challenge me to be intent on my study in Hebrews, that I will grow spiritually during these weeks. Thank you for the gift of Your Word—may it become more alive for me daily.”

We should seek to be challenged by God’s words. When we are confronted with things too big for us to understand in our human finiteness, that is the very moment we have the opportunity to expand our faith in the God who spoke those difficult to understand words. We can choose to rise to the challenge.

Do we reject and turn away from something we cannot mentally grasp or a problem we can’t solve? If we all did that in ordinary life, we’d still be living in caves and gnawing on raw meat.

In the same way, we should not reject or avoid challenges in our spiritual lives or from God’s Word. God intends us to stand up and learn to walk, meeting the challenges to our ideas and interests and adopting God’s ideas and interests. This is one reason he sent his Spirit to be with us, to teach us.

Mastering our time and rising to the challenge set before us by God in his Word, learning to embrace God’s interests as we unwrap our arms from our own interests, this is what camping out in God’s Word can stir up in us.

Scriptures taken from New American Standard Bible (NASB). http://www.lockman.org/

January 19, 2015

The Right Time-Today

“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’

But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’”

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.’” (Matthew 16:21-27)

This passage is worthy of a campout, metaphorically speaking. We need to set up our camp chair, pitch our tent (ok, maybe an RV), build a fire pit and settle in for a stay.

If you are a fisherman you take your chair down to the lakeside and cast your line into the rippling waters. Let it sink down into the depths of the waters, into the world of the fish, a world quite different from our world of air. You sit in quietness patiently awaiting your prize, a big fish for dinner.

If you are a hiker and explorer, you put on your hiking boots and gather your supplies for a day hike into the surrounding countryside. Your eyes are keen to see every sight; you don’t want to miss the smallest plant or bird or animal. Your ears are alert to the call of an eagle, the delicate and joyful songs of the forest birds, the rushing of the river waters and the wind in the pines. You breathe in the fresh, invigorating scents of the out of doors. Rounding a bend or cresting a summit, you thrill at the vista before you. Your heart expands with the beauty and wonder of it all. These are the treasures you anticipate and spend your energies for.

Camping out in God’s Word can bring us panoramas and thrills and joys in a deeper, more profound way than even the most treasured moments of our favorite activities.

So how do you camp out in God’s Word, exactly? First of all, when you go camping anywhere, you have to carve out time to do it. The camping trip becomes a priority.

We must become the masters of our time, rather than Time being our master. It is a fact that we will do what we want to do. We will find a way to do whatever is important to us. We will: That is simply what it is all about, a matter of the will. Do we want to know God more deeply by spending time with him? And are we willing to do what it takes to make that happen?

I struggle with this very thing. I want to spend more time in God’s Word, really hearing him in the words so I can learn from him. Personally, I require solitude, or at least quiet, to do that well. That’s just how I am.

On the opposite pole is a dear pastor I know, a wonderful and gifted teacher of the Word, whose favorite place to write his sermons is the neighborhood McDonalds! I find that unbelievably funny because there is no way I could accomplish writing anything in a noisy, bustling McDonalds! Yet it works for him, and he is a witness for Christ to the patrons and workers while preparing spiritual food for those of us who come to church on Sunday.

I find it amazing and wonderful how God has made us all different. He is loving it too, I’m sure, when he sees us pursuing him in all our differing ways.

Anyway, back to our will to master our time in order to spend time with God, reading and studying his Word. We do what we want to do, when we want it badly enough.

Want to have more faith? Want it badly enough to make time to read? Because faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). Need encouragement? That too is found in the Bible; encouragement comes from the scriptures (Romans 15:4). Need instruction for living and examples of what not to do and be and also what to do and be? Guess where to look: the Bible (I Corinthians 10:11).

I want to have time to write more, so on many mornings I get up earlier to be able to do so. I snatch times later in the day to focus my thoughts and energies on writing. I also want to read the scriptures more, so I make that a priority for my mornings. Somewhere time can be found. Somewhere in my own 24-hours-a-day allotment of time.

One of my friends listens to scripture on CD when she drives. Another listens to it when she is working around her home. Talk about multi-tasking! They are making time and technology serve them.

We can creatively make time our slave, rather than be a slave to time. We can use technology to serve us, furthering our goals to spend time in God’s Word.

There, in God’s Word, we can increase our faith. And find encouragement to press on. And gain instruction and examples for living in this world.

Master (your) Time. “‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds’” (Matthew 16: 27).

“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts …” (Hebrews 3:13-15).

September 26, 2014

Chapter 2: Importance of the Bible–Decisions, Decisions

When I made the decision to praise God, it was really the decision to submit to His Sovereignty in my life, just like my dad did when he gave me up to God. All the rest of my decisions have been shaped by that initial choice, and my emotions trailed along behind. The Bible played a key role in this decision and the consequences flowing from it.

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”. (Romans 15:4)

These two things, perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, are important factors in getting through tough times. The scriptures are full of encouragement because they are about God’s dealings with people, people just like you and me. Here is an excerpt from my first blog, written days after my first cancer surgery:

What is hopeless and impossible with man is not so for God, for all things are possible with God. Am I scared? Of course I am. Do I have anger and fears? Absolutely. I cry to the Lord who hears and understands, and who alone can do anything about them. I cast myself on his mercy. If others hadn’t been in similar situations we wouldn’t have the scriptures which are full of such agonies. Now I choose to affirm my faith in the God Who Is. And He highly values faith.

Encouragement of the scriptures only comes from reading the scriptures on a regular basis. This is what I was talking about earlier, when I said I continued my reading in the Psalms after my cancer diagnosis. I had made reading scripture a part of my life, really hearing what it has to say and letting it sink in. No one hands encouragement of the scriptures to you apart from reading or hearing the scriptures. From the Bible I learned about what others have gone through down through the centuries, many of them much worse than my circumstances. I read how God was present with them and helped those who trusted in Him, and I gained encouragement in the midst of my scary situation.