How do you “be” a Christian? What makes a person a Christian? Is it a personal decision or a personal experience? Are there different types? Many people have asked these questions.

Think of what it means to be a witness in a court room. You are called to the stand to give your account of what is being scrutinized and judged. You are allowed to speak because you were present first hand at the occasion that is on trial. You give your personal rendition of what happened: what you saw, how you felt, what you did, and what others did. You have sworn to tell the truth – all and only. After you have your say, you step down from the stand and are seated in silence. Now that your testimony has been given, it’s up to the jury and judge to make a decision based on what they have heard and observed. Your words may be argued against by the next person on the stand. They may refute and oppose everything you said. But they, too, have sworn to tell the truth.

After all parties have had their say, it’s decision time. The powers present in the judge and jury will determine the outcome of the case. They have power to sentence someone to a prison term or to acquit them and release them from the charges against them. You remain seated and silent as the verdict is read and the case comes to a close. You are just a witness, but your words carry great persuasive power. Your words will influence life altering decisions for some who hear them.

Think of the idea of being a Christian again. Think of the defense Jesus used when He was being tried before Pilate, before being sentenced to death by crucifixion. For the most part, He was a silent as a lamb before the shearer. Pilate asked Him if He was aware of the power he had over His life. Still, Jesus was silent. It wasn’t until after his death, burial, resurrection and ascension back into Heaven that His witnesses came to the stand to speak of what they saw, heard and experienced while Jesus was among them.

Thousands upon thousands of people from all around the world are still speaking their testimony to a suspicious, critical, condemning, skeptical and questioning court room as Jesus sits down and lets His witnesses take the stand. Their words persuade some and provoke others. There is no denying them. They speak with authority and confidence. Their words fall upon deaf ears and into searching hearts. They speak with Earthly languages as ambassadors on a mission. They speak in heavenly languages with an utterance and power from another realm. They speak with authority which has been given to them from the One whom they represent. The entire world stands guilty before the judge of all the Earth. After His witnesses have all had their say in the great courtroom of the universe, Heaven’s judge will give a righteous decree.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  — Acts 1:8 (NIV)

They read and find that, far from a rule book, the Bible is complex and multilayered. Long-forgotten or even unknown ideas and doctrines reveal themselves. Stories present moral quandaries that are never resolved. Some areas of life are not even addressed directly. Questions bubble up, multiply, and spill over the edge. They may even turn to their local leadership for answers — and receive none.

To my mind it is the greatest ecclesiastical failing of our time that many pastors and teachers have been raised up to know more about people skills and agreeableness and less of God’s Word. It is a failing of churches that do not focus on the truth of scripture, who start with a little of the Gospel and then retreat behind the safety of becoming a social club. They are great hearts, perhaps, and eager to improve the state of others, but powerless to resist the evil that oppresses everything around us. It is in this state that eager souls are turned away from the truth, made bitter, and formed into tragic enemies of God.

How did things get so twisted in so many places? That reminds me of the story of Stephen Glass. Stephen was a reporter for The New Republic magazine at the end of the last decade. In search of sensational articles, he began to fabricate parts of his stories. Eventually they were complete lies.

In a 2003 interview with 60 minutes, Mr. Glass detailed the way he would sell people on his stories. First he would write something true, a verifiable fact. Then there would be a slightly shaky piece of information, but still mostly true. Then mostly false. Finally came the out-and-out lies. But by that time, people were so interested in the story that they didn’t notice or didn’t care. By the end, Glass’s readers had no way of grasping the truth of a situation and were forced to accept his version of the story.

Most lies work that way — at least, the really effective ones do. A lie that fools millions of people doesn’t start off as a lie. There is a gradual leading away from truth, even when that truth is used as the bait to keep people listening. Yes, the most engaging lies begin with a truth.

How does this relate to our former church-goers? Many, if not most, have been the victims of a monstrous lie: the lie that Christians can live life with only a shallow knowledge of God, His principles, or His Word. Perhaps they began with the truth and slowly allowed their hunger to be sated and their thirst to be quenched with a little less of God and a little more of their own philosophy. Year after year, congregations began to lose the vigor and strength that God has freely available for the Christian. A little less of God and a little more of ourselves. No need to expose people to hard questions; no need to give them answers. A little less of Bible truth and moral living, a little more of “the good life” and compromise, until the only trace of God is a remnant.

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.”   — Alexander Pope

So I issue a challenge to you this week: dig in and dig out. Dig in to the Word, if you don’t already read it, and get the truth for yourself. Find out what God has to say about your situation. And dig out — if someone you know is having a hard time or has questions about the Bible, help them study to find the answer. Pray that God would show you the explanation. Don’t settle for less. Don’t give a little here and a little there. Drink largely of the living water!

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”  – John 8:32

I was utterly lost. I knew that I was kneeling at an altar of some sort, and that I was too warm, almost burning. I heard shouts around me, but I was in a fog, hopelessly lost in a fog that was Jesus’ presence.  My mouth moved, speaking words I did not know; my eyes dripped with tears and sweat. I was thirteen, and though I knew much about the call of Jesus and His intense love and devotion, I had never been completely sure that I heard His voice. I was drowning in this fog, learning to lose myself in God’s presence. Then a voice drew me towards Him. God’s precious light shone down upon me, and for the first time, I heard a sweet, tender, Fatherly voice clearly speak John 8:32 in my ear. There was no mistaking God’s voice. There was no mistaking that verse, which I had often heard in Sunday School. I felt hands touching me, praying for me, but I didn’t know how to move—I didn’t even know how I was still speaking, because I was somewhere else. At a simple youth camp service, on a Wednesday night, I fell in love with my Master and Savior: the gentle voice that whispered my name.

What is truth? To a young child, the truth is telling Mom that he did steal the cookie or pinch his sister. To a working adult, a lie might be eating your co-worker’s lunch out of the fridge and telling him it wasn’t you. But the truth can be many things, and it is our responsibility to seek out His truth. If I told you that I thought the moon was a huge ball of cheese, you would probably laugh. You’d think I was joking, because everyone knows that the moon is not cheese. But what if I truly thought that the moon was cheese? I might be able to convince a couple young children before someone proved to me that I was horribly wrong.

So ask yourself another question: what if someone truly thought that God didn’t love and care for them? What would you say? The truth is that God loves us all more than anything, with a love that cannot be compared, broken, or lost. Even when we fail, He will never leave us or forsake us. If you are reading this right now and you aren’t sure of God’s undying love for you, you need to know that you are His precious pearl that He gave Himself for so that He could spend eternity with you. That is the truth of God’s infinite love.

God gives you an innate sensor to know when His truth is being encroached upon. God’s truth, not just about His love, but also His mercy, grace, and delivering power, is as hard as diamonds, as beautiful as the songs from heaven, and as real as He is. After that camp meeting I laid in bed, knowing that God had given me a revelation. I was not to question Him, but to seek out the truth and reality of who He is. I was to desire Him every day of my life, and to trust that His truth would prevail. I was to seek out His truth!

How I could do that? What did it mean to seek out His truth? Truth is more than the words that come out of your mouth; it’s the lifestyle you lead. God would have to show me. “…Not by might or power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). We can desire truth in our lives every day, and apply it. God is always faithful to reward them that diligently seek Him.

Are you searching for God’s truth in your life, or do you let your enemy plant lies in your life?

That reminds me of a similar story. Jonah received a clear command, and just like a certain motorist from Cleveland, Jonah made the wrong decision. Jonah’s instructions did not come from a police officer, but they were no less clear and direct. In Jonah 1:2, the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah made his big mistake and got on a ship headed in the opposite direction, to the city of Tarshish. Before long, Jonah was thrown off the ship and spendt the next three days and nights in the belly of a fish!  Both of these stories are pretty comical to me. If Jonah had followed God’s orders the first time, he would never have been thrown overboard and eaten by a fish. If the driver had pulled over in the first place, he probably would have driven away with nothing more than a ticket.

We shouldn’t have too much fun at their expense, however.  I wonder how many times I’ve behaved like Jonah? Has God ever asked me to do something, but I ran in the opposite direction? I imagine I’m not the only one who has disobeyed God in this way. One lesson we can learn from Jonah is that God wants the best for us and for the people around us. When we turn from Him and act disobediently, we hurt ourselves and the people we influence. We have a choice: we can run blindly, jumping fences into prisons of sin with long lasting consequences for ourselves and the people around us, or we can be obedient to a clear command and fulfill God’s will. Like the citizens of Nineveh, people are lost and looking for truth. Like Jonah, we have an opportunity to share Jesus with them. We have the keys to unlock the prison gates. Will you open the gates?

There are many references to God as a rock or stone in the Bible. We have already seen that one name for Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. Psalm 118:22 calls Him “the stone which the builders rejected”. It is clear that Jesus Christ is intended to be our foundation (I Corinthians 3:11). Paul expounded on this theme to the Corinthian church:

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” – I Corinthians 10:1-4

Sorry to disappoint you Greek scholars, but there’s no hidden meaning to the word “rock”. Paul meant what he said, referencing the rock that followed the Israelites through the desert, providing clean water to drink. That physical rock, a type of Christ, became sustenance for physical Israel. Paul makes the point that everyone enjoyed the benefits of that rock, but some of them paid attention to the spiritual side of things and some did not. Everyone had the same basis, but not everyone made it to the promised land.

Likewise, Christians share the same firm foundation of faith, the rock Christ. If we want to remain with Him, we have to take our cues from the parable of the builders in Matthew 7:24-27 — the wise man built his house upon the Rock, willfully choosing the good and solid foundation when he could have gone elsewhere. The message is clear: Christ is perfect and secure, but we must choose to build and continue to build our lives on Him.

Faithful & True

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”  – Revelation 19:11-13

The Greek word translated “True” in this passage is alethinos, which literally means “not concealing”. God is open about His nature: He is what He says He is. God is not concealing the truth and does not have anything up His divine sleeve. He is the Truth-Giver and revealer of secrets (Daniel 2:47). So in considering the meaning of “Faithful and True”, we know that God’s faithfulness (or “trustworthiness”) is constant. It’s the full disclosure, the real deal. With a foundation like that, confidence should spring up inside to fill the gaps of our faith: where experience fails, knowledge of the One we trust will take over.

In John 15:1 Jesus says “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” He called Himself the true vine. This can trouble some people because, well, aren’t there many vines in the world? Many teachers, philosophies, and ideas? So many are around us, and yet there is only one true vine — how does that make sense? It’s not what you think.

“Vine” in Hebrew is “ampelos.” This word translated means “to wind about for support.” If we apply this to John 15:1, then God is saying that He is our support: the one thing that is strong and does not move. Perhaps like me you thought that “The Vine” was just another name, but God meant something different and profound when He said this. Vines are pretty strong. They climb up the sides of buildings, fences, and even trees. Vines are something truly powerful and yet God is the True Vine, stronger and more stable than any other.

Rose of Sharon

Jesus has many awesome and powerful names such as “The Almighty,” “Master,” and “Strong Tower,” but did you know that He also has some sweeter and more fragrant names? In Song of Solomon, a book of poetry with application to our relationship with God, chapter 2, verse 1, the speaker says “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.” When God said He was a “Rose of Sharon,” He did not mean that He was a pretty flower. Again it had a significant meaning. The Hebrew term “sharon” means “right, pleasant, and prosperous.” That fits so perfectly. The rose is one of the most beautiful and most commonly used flowers in the world, and Jesus chose that name for himself. Just like His name, the One who is right and pleasant and prosperous became common so that we could share in and enjoy what He has.