Are You Trapped?

In my many years of ministry, I have had the opportunity to meet Christians from various nations and different ethnic, social, and church backgrounds.  This gave me an opportunity to see and hear how other believers are doing in their walk of faith.  I tried to encourage as many as possible to remain firm in the faith.

Over the past several years I have become increasingly aware that many Christians I met—whether in Asia, across the US, or right here in Stillwater—were struggling in many areas of their lives.  There is testing in their marriages, jobs, finances, health, and moral purity.  I hear so often from people that, "whatever could go wrong, has gone wrong" in their lives.  It seems that, knowing time is short, Satan has been working overtime in the lives of all that identify as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many believers have become disillusioned in their walk and service to God.  There are two different traps that struggling believers have fallen into.

The first is the danger of legalism.  So many have been decimated by a legalistic church atmosphere, where unbiblical rules, traditions, and principles are forced on them.  These types of environments are poisonous,

and many people simply give up under the burden of these rules.
They simply cannot keep them.

Many believers have found themselves trapped in a spiritual desert.  Legalism is a vicious, yet subtle, master.  It promises living water for the soul, only to fill your mouth with sand.  Young people are deserting these churches by the thousands.  If you find yourself in this position, you must realize that one of Satan's favorite strategies is to cause Christians to wilt and dry up from the inside out.  He doesn't care what we believe, as long as it isn't that the Gospel gives life and nourishment to our souls.

The scripture tells us, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ...These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:8, 17)

If you find yourself trapped in the failure to obey human rules, I encourage you to put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not in the rules and traditions of men.

The other trap many believers have fallen into is the belief in a "prosperity" gospel.  At first, everything seems

In the next 24 hours God will bless you with 

Plenty of Money.

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well and good, but as the poison of this belief works its way through your life, you will find yourself moving farther and farther away from God.  Eventually, your faith will weaken and your heart will grow less responsive to God's Word.  In the end, the prosperity Gospel will only bring death and destruction to a believer's life unless God removes it from your system. 

The Bible warns us about the danger of false gospels.  Paul reminds us when he says, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all. 
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (Galatians 1:6-8)                                                           
Be aware that the prosperity Gospel goes much deeper than money and finances alone. It is a wide-spread philosophy that if you do and say certain things, then your life is guaranteed to get progressively better.  But the truth is that Jesus told us we must take up our cross daily (be prepared to be crucified) and follow Him.  He promised that the world would hate us and persecute us.  Yet, this was not to scare us.  He told His followers that, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

As soon as hardship comes along, people who believe in the prosperity gospel collapse, because the false foundation they have built their lives upon begins to disintegrate.

How can you tell if you have fallen into these traps?   Over time, the prosperity gospel believer begins to lose their fear of God.  Sin becomes tolerated and even practiced, rather than something to be feared and avoided.  This false teaching is so destructive that believers start acting as if God is their servant, and they have the power to order Him to do what they want. 

Paul tells us that we need to, "...hold on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith."  (1 Timothy 1:19)

If you find yourself struggling because you are trapped by a false teaching, I encourage you not to give up.  As long as you continue to breathe there is hope.  The cure for those caught in legalism is the same as for those caught in the prosperity gospel. 

The answer is Jesus!  The reality is found in Christ!

As the world grows darker, we must humble ourselves before the Living God and depend on Him to steer us clear of these two dangers.  Both are places of destruction that millions of believers fall into.  If you are struggling, don't hide from God like Adam and Eve did.  Instead, come running into the arms of God. 

Remember these words of our Lord and allow them to soak into your heart and mind, “Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:35, 37-40) 

Would you like to have a personal relationship with God?

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Last Saturday morning, at approximately 10:30am, a young woman drove into a crowd of bystanders watching the traditional Oklahoma State University Homecoming parade here in Stillwater.  The end result was 4 people dead and as many as 47 people injured, several critically.

I’m sure there are many people today asking themselves, “Why?”

As many of my close friends know, I too, have struggled with this question as it relates to my own life and the lives of others.  Only by coming to terms over time with something terribly sad in my life have I come to understand the role God plays when human tragedies occur.

I now believe that my God does not send bad things to punish us, or test us.  In fact, God does not send them at all.  Rather, I sense there are powerful forces loose in the world, forces like evil, disease and death.

So, what is God's role in all this turmoil?  If God is not sending the accidents, tragedies, the diseases, then why not step in and prevent them?

For me, this is the more difficult question.  The experience of the individual cries so clearly for divine intervention, for healing, for salvation from emotional or physical pain.  Although sometimes miraculous healings do occur, which confirm the presence of the Divine, in my experience there generally is not much physical intervention.

However, the "intercession" I have experienced has been as powerful as anything physical.  I have grown certain that God actually grieves for these horrible events with us; that God is as sad, even more so, about what is happening to me as I am.  God's role, I believe, is to be "by my side," to understand me, to comfort me, to "…lead me beside quiet waters, as He restores my soul" (Psalm 23) in the symbolic "valley of the shadow of death" which I face, as does every other person in the world.

Finally, and most importantly, God is always beside me, loves me, and wishes me to know love without limits and community without end.  And He wants to help me collect the broken pieces—help me become whole again.  As whole as I was intended and created to be from the beginning by this loving God.

Take some time this week to be in prayer for those struggling in the hospital, and for the families of those who have died.  

Would You Like to Have a Relationship With God?