Having a Biblical Worldview

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." -Hebrews 4:12

According to research, the majority of Americans consider themselves Christians.  (Seventy-six to eighty percent, respectively.)  But, very few of us have a biblical worldview.
What is a biblical worldview?  By and large, it means that our beliefs align with that of the Bible.  Barna.org defines a biblical worldview as the following:

• Believe that absolute moral truth exists
• That the source of moral truth is the Bible
• That the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches
• That eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned
• That Jesus lived a sinless life on earth
• That every person has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others
• That Satan is a living force, not just a symbol of evil
• And finally, that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today

According to Barna.org, just five percent of us have a biblical worldview. Why is it important to have a biblical worldview?  When we believe with all our heart the truth about Jesus, and we are aware of the enemy’s plan to steal our destiny, we are much better equipped to fulfill the call God has placed on our lives.  There are wonderful depths to God that we may never know, but believing these truths sets us up to live out a passionate faith, versus a luke-warm religion.

Why not seek God at a deeper level today?



Source:  http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/174-most-adults-feel-accepted-by-god-but-lack-a-biblical-worldview?q=biblical+worldview


 

What Is Tithing?

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”  -Genesis 14:18-20

What is tithing?  Many people might argue that tithing is outdated, that it is an “old-fashioned” idea.  But is it?  Why did God want His people to tithe?

In Hebrew, the word “tithe” actually means 10%.  Tithing is giving 10% of all our “increase” (what we get paid) to God as an act of worship to Him.  We do this for various reasons - most of which are beneficial to us versus God.  God doesn’t need our money, but he does want our obedience.  Tithing is an act of worship meaning we agree that everything we have is His.  We are managers of all that is entrusted to us.  What we have is because of His goodness.

Craig Hill, founder of Family Foundations and author of several bestselling books on money cites the following 7 reasons why he believes each of us should employ the practice of tithing as a part of our worship to God:

• It builds faith in our hearts for God as our Source of provision
• It breaks the power of greed: “money managing me” vs. “me managing it"
• It breaks the power of fear of lack
• It establishes discipline
• It distinguishes between the Source of provision and channel of provision
• It provides support to kingdom activities
• It qualifies us to be trusted with more of God’s resources

Where should we tithe?  Malachi 3:10 talks about bringing the whole tithe “into the storehouse.”  Since we don’t have physical storehouses today, we can relate a storehouse to a place where we are being spiritually fed. More that likely this is a local church, but could be more than one place.

Have you employed the practice of tithing?  Pray and ask God how you might incorporate the practice of tithing into your life. “Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” -Malachi 3:10

Rachel vs. Leah Faith

"Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, 'I’ll work for you for seven years if you’ll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife.'" -Genesis 29:18

Do you have a dream?  You might be at a stage in your life where you want to do something great with your life, but not sure what.  Or, you may now exactly what you want but no idea how to get there. There may be a few of you that know exactly what you want, and are taking the steps to get there.  You may have already accomplished some of the dreams and goals God has put in your heart. Whatever the case may be, you have probably encountered “Leah” faith at some time in your life.

Leah was the eldest daughter of Laban, in the Bible. Jacob saw Leah’s sister Rachel and fell in love with her immediately.  But he was tricked by Laban into marrying Leah.  The Bible says Leah had “weak eyes” while Rachel was beautiful.  Fourteen total years had to pass before Jacob could get what he really wanted, Rachel.  

Isn’t that sometimes the case with us? Leah represents the things that we don’t want to do, in order to get to the things that we really want to do in life. We don’t want to put up with Leah, but sometimes we have to.  But Jacob knew what he wanted.  He wanted Rachel.  In his eyes, Rachel was worth 14 years of labor and 7 years of putting up with what he really didn’t want, in order to get his bride, the one he loved and really wanted.

Do you have faith enough to make it to your “Rachel” dream?  I pray each of us have the strength not to settle for “Leah” so that God can birth the beautiful, passion-filled dreams in our lives.

Religion Trips Us Up

"So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses."  Galatians 5:16-18

Have you ever heard the story of the big red button?  I used to see it often in cartoons as a kid.  The cartoon character is presented with a situation in which there is a "big red button" he or she was not allowed to touch, and sooner or later they can't help themselves. 

I think this is a lot like religion versus a relationship with God.  When we're living in religion, we’re bound by a set of rules that we have to live by in order to be accepted by God and others in our faith.  The success or failure of our religion is based upon our ability to perform certain activities or refrain from certain ones based on the nature of what our faith law says.  But Jesus came so we wouldn't have do that at all on our own.  He was the fulfillment of the law, and yet set us free from it.  He came first so that we might have life, and life more abundantly.  He came to set us free! 

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit."  Romans 7:5&6

If we feel bound, I think it means we have not fully embraced the resurrection life that God desires for us.  Jesus sets us free from a list of rules and regulations, but we learn how to follow them when we simply place our trust in Him.  Our sanctification is God-birthed, versus self-birthed.  Sooner or later, we have no desire to press the big red button, because Jesus fills our hearts in every area that lacks.

Are you living under religion or are you led by the Holy Spirit?

Building God's House

 

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,' says the LORD. 'You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?' declares the LORD Almighty. 'Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. -Haggai 1:7-11
 
Five-hundred and twenty years before the birth of Christ, a prophet named Haggai cited the urgency of rebuilding God's temple after the Israelites were freed from captivity some 18 years earlier. In Haggai 1:3-4, it states, "Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 'Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?'"
 
Although only two chapters long, the book of Haggai is an important reminder for us to not loose sight of building God's kingdom on the earth and to build His house. Although we tend to live very busy lives, we need not be so concerned with our own houses that we forget God's. This is, after all, the place where we find our purpose - in living out our calling in Him.

When talking about the word "church", there are two distinctions we should make. There is God's house, as in His temple where we gather together and worship Him, where we establish roots and make connections with other believers, and then there is building His kingdom here and now by worshipping Him in everything we do, and together as a body of corporate believers. This doesn't depend on denomination or where you worship. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" 1 Cor 3:16 Revelation says that Jesus is coming back for His bride, (as in the church, "Ecclesia", the body of believers) and Ephesians talks about this bride being "without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Eph 5:27

Building God's kingdom in both of these areas involves sacrifice. It involves giving up selfish desires so that God's nature can be revealed in us. Most often, this happens in three spheres: Time, treasure, and talent. Are we bringing our gifts as sacrifices to Him? God in turn promises to bless us when we honor Him with our sacrifices. "'From this day on I will bless you.'" (Haggai 2:19b) The local church is where we can offer up these talents and treasures and where blessing can flow from our lives. Being planted and connected to a good local church is like being planted next to a river with unending supply.

Are you neglecting the place where you bring your worship, your gifts, or your talents? May we each be connected to a healthy local body so that God's purposes in us might be fully revealed in every aspect of our lives.

Remaining Pure

“Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”  -1 Corinthians 6:18-20
In our society today, it is expected that people have sex before marriage.  A study done back in 2002 found that 95% of people have had premarital sex, and 93% of them had by age 30. (In comparison, of women born in 1940, 90% had had premarital sex.)1  
However, I don’t think these facts about premarital sex should be surprising, when we have so much predisposition to early sexualization through the media and through early sexual abuse. Among the top 20 TV shows watched by teens, 70% contain sexual content of some kind, while only 10% of these shows referenced the responsibilities or risks.2  As many as 1 of 4 girls and 1 of 6 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18, and this number is likely much higher due to unreported cases.3
Aside from spiritual concerns, pre-marital sex has other effects on our emotions and physical health.  Twenty-five percent of teen girls who said they were sexually active also said they had been depressed ‘a lot of the time' or ‘most of the time,'" while most who refrained from sexual activity were "never" or "rarely" depressed.4  About 22% of people have an STD, with many cases unreported. According to the CDC, “Young people represent 25 percent of the sexually experienced population in the United States, but account for nearly half of new STDs.”6  This is not a put down for anyone who has an STD, but a warning that this risk is very real in our world today.
I love the Message version of the verse above:  “Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever - the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another.” -1 Cor 6:16-18
The point behind this verse is not what we can’t do, but rather experiencing the blessing of this wonderful gift in its best context - within the protection and commitment of a loving, God-centered marriage. If we have fallen short in this area, there is still grace and forgiveness, and the opportunity to begin again. 
Do you honor God with your body?


References:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-19-premarital-sex_x.htm
http://www.education.com/reference/article/how-much-sexual-content-media/
http://nctsn.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/.../ChildSexualAbuseFactSheet.pdf
http://www.ucg.org/christian-living/world-news-and-trends-teenage-sex-linked-serious-depression/
http://www.dhhr.wv.gov/oeps/std-hiv-hep/stds_stis/Pages/STDSTIsInformation.aspx
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats10/trends.htm

Battleground of the Mind

“So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” -Romans 8:6 

Has your mind ever gotten the best of you?

Every day, there is a great temptation to believe the worst about someone or something that has happened to us.  Even greater, is the temptation to believe the worst of God, that due to something that has happened or not happened; that He is not good, and He is not on our side.

It is so true that our minds are a battlefield.  The enemy uses this battlefield to gain ground - to try to use things and situations that have happened to us to turn us away from God.  He reminds us of our past, brings up regrets, and brings others to mind who we think have it better than we do, all to get us off track.  He tries to discourage us from the things that are important to us.  The enemy wants us to be nothing more than worms, thinking negative, discouraging thoughts, all the time!  He doesn’t want us to inherit the destiny that God has planned for us.  His greatest weapon is to knock us out of faith and trust, straight into doubt and discouragement.

Perhaps there are people who do have it better than us.  Perhaps what happened to us was indeed really bad! But when all we can think about is the fact that everyone has it better than us, we are letting our mind and the enemy get the better of us.  Therefore, it is essential that we thank God every day for the thing or things that are good in our lives, (even if it doesn't seem like a lot).  Even if it doesn't seem good to us, there is always someone who is going to be worse off than us. We have to train our minds to think faith-filled thoughts, instead of negative ones. We have to fill our minds with scripture. We need to put ourselves around people who can encourage us, and whom we can encourage too. 

Don’t let your mind get the better of you.  Pray that God will help you fill your mind with good, helpful, and encouraging thoughts - and that this would propel you into the very places that God has ordained for you.