Believers or Followers

Believers or Followers?

By Mark and Jennifer Carson

What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? Can a person be a Christian who does not actually follow God? Is it merely an intellectual decision? A simple agreement with the right doctrine? Or am I really supposed to be different after coming to know Jesus?

These questions, and others like them, are not some exercise in intellectual futility. Rather they are questions which make us grapple with what our faith actually is. Is my faith something of substance? Will it actually carry me through when I need it to? Is it all about spending eternity in heaven with Jesus? Or is there something to it that can change my life here and now? What is the Christian life supposed to be like? And more importantly--am I actually experiencing it? Or am I-deep down--constantly frustrated with wondering if there is more to the Christian life than what I have experienced so far?

Before we deal with these questions, let's do away with one very common religious belief. Many people who attend church regularly believe that--simply put-life is a balancing act. That is to say, that our standing with God is determined by a scale. Our good works are piled on one side of the fulcrum and our sins on the other. If the balance of our life's works tips to the left, we receive God's eternal rewards. If the balance tips to the right, then we become the object of His punishment. Make no mistake. If a person attempts to earn favor with God by their good deeds and wonderful ready-for-heaven resume, God's Word will deal him a crushing blow (Ephesians 2:8). Relying on our own efforts to bridge the gap with God does nothing more than drive us further away from His grace and into the arms of our own self-righteousness.

As for all those good works, ever wonder how they appear through God's eyes? Isaiah 64:6 says that in God's sight "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." According to Romans 3:10-12 "There is no one righteous not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless: there is no one who does good, not even one." Truthfully speaking, we all need a savior--a sinless sacrifice for our sins. Just as God provided a ram for Abraham when a sacrifice was required, God willingly provides a sacrifice for us: Jesus. "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21).

Faith in Jesus is the only way to bridge the gap between the Creator and His creation. Jesus confirms this with His own words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). We are separated from God because of our sin. The only way back to God is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, both His sinless sacrifice on the cross and His glorious resurrection. Clearly, this is what the Bible teaches.

Many of you will agree with what I have said so far. You're probably thinking: "I believe that. Jesus died for me, and I have put my faith in Him to get me to heaven because He is perfect and I am a sinner. My salvation is secure because I have believed the right things and have put my trust in His sacrifice rather than trusting in my own efforts to get to heaven." But is believing these things enough....or does real faith require an element of something more?

I mean, what is faith really? Is it as simple as believing all the right things? Or is it possible that saving faith in Jesus Christ cannot be separated from the call to follow Him? Was Jesus' death on the cross really only about getting us to heaven? Or do we sometimes set up the bull's eye on the wrong target?

If we are aiming for heaven, can we truly bypass the authority of God over our lives in the here and now? In our evangelical church circles, we deeply desire to see the lost saved. In longing to secure people's eternal dwelling place, we are fond of asking people to invite Jesus into their heart so they can spend eternity with God in heaven. But the question remains: Can God actually come into a heart over which He is not allowed to rule? Can we really bypass God's authority and still get in on the good stuff (heaven)? Many people say, "Yes. Absolutely. God's grace will surely get me to heaven, but there's no need for that same grace to change other areas of my life."

We often aim for heaven when sharing the gospel with others, but what was Jesus aiming for when He called people to faith in Himself? In Luke 9:23-24 Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Later, in Luke 14:31-33, Jesus says, "Suppose a king is about to go to war with another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask him for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." Jesus was after far more than making sure we had a good place to spend eternity. He was looking for followers.

Praying a simplistic prayer of salvation is fine with many. But the idea of actually following God, now that is a much harder pill to swallow. Anybody still with me? You may be thinking: Let Him rule over me? Allow Him to be in charge of me? That is something that if I am totally honest, I am just not interested in. Isn't believing enough? I don't want to follow. I don't want to give up control. I like being my own boss and making my own choices. Can't I just believe in what God did at Calvary ? Does the Gospel of Jesus really demand that the life I'm leading should actually change after conversion?

Now we are back to our original question: Am I really supposed to be different after coming to know Jesus?

The answer to that question lies at the heart of the Gospel. You see, God didn't have His Son crucified on a cross solely so we could be delivered from an eternity in hell. Don't believe me? Answer this question. What is hell, anyway? It is a place of eternal separation from God, right? Why are we separated from God? Because of our sin. God's Son hung on a cross so that we could be delivered from sin. Understanding sin is the key to unlocking the heart of the Gospel.

We have all heard of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, how they ate from the tree that God had forbidden them to eat (Genesis 2:16-17). Because of their disobedience they were banished from the presence of God and sent out of the Garden of Eden. This story is often referred to as the fall of mankind (Genesis 3:1-24). Adam and Eve usurped God's authority and made a decision to go their own way. It was the first time a human being asserted his will over God's will.

Since that time, all humans have repeated this cycle without exception (Romans 5:12) . The essence of our problem is that from the time we come out of the womb, we set up our own kingdoms. We create a kingdom of self-will. We construct a realm-namely our own life-where we are the supreme authority. We make ourselves the king of our own lives. We are in charge; we are firmly in control. We make our own choices; we are our own boss. Just like Adam and Eve, our will reigns supreme. This is the essence of our sin problem.

So you see, God came to deliver us from a life of self-rule and bring us back to a life where God rules. After all, isn't the kingdom of heaven the place where His rule reigns supreme? If we are to spend eternity in His presence, don't we have to submit our will to His? Otherwise, heaven wouldn't be heaven, right? In order to reside in God's Kingdom, we must surrender our own will. We must repent of a life of self-rule. The solution to our sin problem is receiving God by grace through faith-real faith-in Jesus Christ. That is a faith that will reorient the compass of our lives. Through real faith, God will forgive us, lead us, reign in us and make a one time enemy of God into a follower of God.

For those who exercise real faith, heaven is a certainty. We exercise real faith when we come under God's reign through faith in Jesus. Real faith always involves an element of surrender. Surrender is not a work. It is a cessation of resistance. It is like the losing king's army surrendering to the winning king's army or the losing wrestler giving up the fight to the winning wrestler. In the same way, when we give up our right to be in control of our own life, we surrender our personal kingdom. This surrender ushers us into the Kingdom of God . This allows God to become our loving leader, which is the way it used to be before Adam and Eve made their fateful choice.

I'm sure all of this leaves you with some questions. Is Jesus actually asking me to let Him be God in my day to day existence? Does the claim God is making on me really involve giving Him my life? I know what you're thinking. I sure hope He's trustworthy. I mean, really trustworthy. If I 'm going to let Him lead my life, I will have to trust Him implicitly without any doubts about His character.

Any reasonable person would have the same kinds of thoughts. It's true: If any of us is going to give God control of our whole life, we must be able to trust Him on a much deeper level than what we have ever experienced before. Next time we will take a closer look at what God is really like and why He is the leader that we can trust. In the meantime, why don't you spend some time in prayer and ask God to reveal His true character to you.

The Worst Possible Light

Discipleship Corner

“The Worst Possible Light”
by: Tammie Friberg

Has anyone ever taken the things you have said or done, and expressed them in the worst possible light to you or to others who know you? While you would think truth would truly guide the upright, there are times we all respond to someone else by immediately thinking the worst of them when they frustrate us. Everyone from time to time jumps to the wrong conclusions and misunderstandings occur. But when we respond to someone regularly this way, it points to something much deeper, something hidden maybe even from ourselves. It may be that inwardly we have great storerooms full of
--fear or jealousy,
--pride when confronted with wrong-doing,
--resentment,
--unforgiveness,
--unresolved conflict,
--transference of anger toward someone in the past to someone who reminds you of them,
--trying to subvert justice or protect someone,
-trying to protect oneself or hide one's own sin,
--evidence of deep seated bitterness.

Think about it, why else would we continually interpret someone's actions or words disturbingly opposite of what they actually are? For these reasons, I believe it is one of the greatest tools Satan uses to cause suspicion, injustices, and discord among God's people. I was reading on the Internet the other day about this very issue. And what seemed to stand out is the fact that people who see someone else in the worst possible light tend to also see themselves in the best possible light! After all, in our minds the other person is always the greater sinner, right? But it seems to me there is something obvious here is that being missed. When someone is making these kinds of judgments, it really says more about their own hearts and fears than it does about the person they are blaming.

How can we be careful to not jump to these kinds of conclusions about others? Let us consider the following things.

As believers we must identify these judgments we make of others as sin. And as much as we do not want to admit it, we must consider the great possibility that we are exercising a form of retaliation, hostility, and possibly even hatred when we suggest the worst about someone. We need to ask God to search and heal our hearts. Evil suspicions of others is listed in Scripture as a deed of the flesh (1 Tim. 6:4).

When we think the worst of fellow believers, we are not allowing God's love to control us (2 Cor. 5:14). Instead, we are allowing our hearts filled with hatred, dislike, fear, or bitterness to interpret what we see and hear, twisting and bending the truth into something quite different than it really is. All of these things lead in differing degrees to bearing false testimony by construing events and words together to form our own "court cases" against someone. It is amazing how such hatred and bitterness can cloud our perspective. So instead of harboring these forms of resentment, consider Leviticus 19:17-18, “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” As leaders if we do not love others, our message and life becomes a loud gong or clanging cymbal to other's ears (1Cor. 13:1), because we do not live what we preach. Further, Jesus links hating our brothers to murder because hatred is the underlying feeling that brings forth the action. It is in the heart that Jesus wants to be Lord.

It may be by seeing others in the worst light, that we are protecting others or ourselves, avoiding the admittion of sin in our lives or those closest to us. In America we have several slang phrases to describe this: "turning the tables (turning the focus of wrong back on someone else)," "monkey on your back (placing blame entirely on an innocent person)," "passing the buck," "blackballing (marking someone as bad or someone to stay away from)," and/or "scapegoatism (where someone takes the punishment and blame for something someone else did)." I have even heard ministers caught up in modern day psychology say that someone experiencing these things is just "playing the victim," while they themselves lacked the insight to see when someone was experiencing this scapegoatism or passing the buck from others. Even King David spoke of people who would twist his words and falsely accuse him, and he spoke of people who plotted his harm. Psalm 56:5-6 says, “All day long they distort my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. They attack, they lurk, They watch my steps, As they have waited to take my life.” As leaders we need to be sharp enough and wise enough to see when someone else is being blackballed. In fact, the Bible says, “Whoever says to the guilty, "You are innocent"-- peoples will curse him and nations denounce him” (Proverbs 24:24). And consider also Leviticus 19:15, “You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.”

Another aspect of this viewing others in the worst possible light has to do with a lack of understanding. When we face conflict, we tend to trust our own interpretations and past experiences more than we do what someone tells us. Remember, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him” (Proverbs 10:17). As believers, we need to seek understanding between each other. Understanding is an interesting word in the Bible, because it encompasses justice, mercy, and love all-together. Take a moment to think on that one a little bit before continuing. You see, having understanding goes a long way in getting to the truth of a matter, and once truth has been established, justice should follow. Continuing on, we better understand each other and so compassion and love intertwines justice. But in our culture, there are few people who really take the time to understand a situation between them and the person in which they have had a disagreement. We are exhorted in Scripture to, “Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," And call understanding your intimate friend” (Proverbs 8:4). Further, one of the Hebrew words for wisdom is the word, Abigail. Yes, it is a girl's name. But it also has a special meaning in Hebrew. It means the ability to see things from every angle. Remember Abigail went out to bring David food because she could see the situation brewing between David and her husband from every angle (1 Samuel 25). As we seek to know things from every perspective, we are able only then to proceed with right actions. If we have not acquired understanding with wisdom, we are likely to allow our emotions and our own judgments of others to prevail over love and justice. All in all, just as in life wisdom, understanding, and justice are linked together, so also the Scriptures present these three together. Proverbs says, “A leader who is a great oppressor lacks understanding, But he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days” (Proverbs 28:16). So when we are listening to disputes between others as leaders, we must be watchful and aware people tend to view others in extremes when they are angry and when they have themselves not sought understanding and acceptance of the person.

Finally, realize that the foundation of God's Throne is righteousness and justice. How much more should we try to reflect God's righteousness and justice in our relationships? “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Loving-kindness and truth go before You” (Psalm 89:14). God's judgment is pure and holy. King David exhibited this kind of quality when he would say, “The Lord judge between you and me.” What a wise thought! Some things we just need to leave to God. It is a comfort to me that in the end, “He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist” (Isaiah 11:3-5). Claiming to know someone's intent or motivation for something, and then passing judgments on them is simply taking God's rightful place. It is not to say we should not reprove others. It is to say we are to be very careful in how we judge because so much of ourselves and our hearts get in the way when we are really close to a situation.

In summary, all of these distorted views of others are actually a distorted view of oneself, a form of self-deception, and a blindness to the sinfulness of our own hearts. We must ask God to help us discern our own motivations for viewing others in the worst possible light. And finally, let us focus on how to, “Stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Heb. 13:24).

Eyewitness account of situation in Goma, DR Congo Nov. 2008

Hi dear Tammie

The Lord reigns. He is good all the time.

By God’s grace we are still alive. Blessed be his name.

It is certain that you heard or watched what was happening around our town which you know very well and in which he gave you the opportunity to minister.

I was coming from Butembo and this time I resolved to come by bus. Though people forbade me from traveling by road, I had the conviction that I had to travel by road. We started off at 7.00am and by 3.20 we wre in Goma to our amazement without any harassment whatsoever.

On Sunday, just after the worship service, one of the deacon who was sitting beside me who listened to the testimony that the Lord protected me on the risky road came tome and said: “you were protected by Him because those who came this morning will not reach Goma because the war is going on at almost 48 kms from Goma and the 2nd large barrazck in the country located there has been under the control of the rebels”. I begun inquiring from friends and irt was true. The following day they ere fighting at almost 25kms from Goma and then on Tuesday, they were progressing to Goma at less than 15 kms. On Wednesday we went to work as usual but at when it came to 2.00 pm, the UN troops based in Goma begun evacuating their staff and then we were asked to go back home as so as possible. It was not easy to find a way on the main road because the soldiers were fleeing the battle field. They came with their tanks at a high speed and others were in Lories some others in jeeps and others were running on foot. This brought a big panic and commotion into the town. Thank God, I was on motorbike and managed to find a way home where I reached to take care of the family and organize them.

As they were fleeing, those who were running on foot were, at the same time snatching buses and motorbikes to flee with and they are still lost.

Late in the evening, then the uncontrolled soldiers in the town started looting shops and houses until late in the night but around 2.00 am, the Government sent other troops that helped master the looting.

The following day, we realized that the rebels did not capture the town and we believe the Lord fought for us using the international community to stop the rebels who were reported to be at the Airport already. But many shops were looted, more than 11 people killed and many others injured and still lying in the hospitals.

For the time being, the situation seem to be calm and life is coming back in the town slowly and timidly but still in danger. There is scarcity of food commodities and the cost has gone high (double or triple). Many Displaced people in the town and around the town of Goma and not enough food to fee the people. This is the time we highly need prayers and help.

The churches are overwhelmed with IDPs (internal displaced people) coming for help and safety.

For almost 5 days, the church members were collecting food and clothes to minister to the IDPs but since they themselves are facing the same challenges, they are limited in continuing to help these dear ones. This is where we call upon brothers and sisters to come to the rescue of the church in Goma. Some church members are hosting families of displaced people for the sake of Christ and his hospitality.

The danger is not yet over because we are told that even though the rebels declared a ceasefire, Rwandese troops are still deployed at almost 25kms from Goma to prepare the an imminent attack on Goma. But we still trust the One who fought for Israel to fight for us. But we request our brothers and sister in the world to assist us in this time of trial and to mobilize the international community intervene to denounce what is being planned against our town and our country and its people. It is a pity to see innocent aged people, women and children to suffer because of cupidity of some people. It is sad.

As I told you earlier, I was from Butembo and I met my son who told me how you blessed him. May the Lord bless you. You have helped the entire family and may the Lord reward you and keep his face shine on you and your family. Greet your lovely husband and hug him for me. A. is doing fine in Butembo and we hope that he will do well this time with the hep of the Lord. We are missing him. His sister is also in Beni nowadays doing her university studies there.

My wife is greeting you. She is having now a busy time prepare the ladies in our church to give psychological and emotional help to the many people who were affected by these sad traumatic events because as you know she is a counselor by profession and we are praying that we will be able to establish an office or a counseling center for her to prepare people for such events.

M. is doing fine with his family. I also talked to him after the events and he related to me how the Lord took care of them: him and his family

Because He lives we can face tomorrow.

Blessings dear
M.