Spirits...testing, testing...

1John 4:1-6
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

An intelligent young man with whom I am friends on Facebook, pointed out something which I have mentally chewed on for many years. Denominationalism; or perhaps better put; why do we argue so much about things that don't really matter in the long run and get caught up in divisions that tear apart people of faith rather than building them up?

The apostles spent a fair amount of time fighting just that in the early Church. Early divisions occurred around the topics of circumcision, meat sacrificed to idols, etc. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul nearly came to blows with Peter about the latter apostle's treatment of gentiles in the church. Later issues came up with groups like the Nicolaitans, and the Gnostics. 

The apostle John, dealing with early gnostics in the Church, wrote about the "Spirit of Antichrist" and its presence in the world. The Gnostics believed several things that were out of line with the core teachings of scripture. These teachings, based on the thinking of man and heavily influenced by the Greek Sophists, detracted from the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.  

Having grown up in an ultra-conservative Baptist environment where legalism was a way of life, I've seen that same spirit at work up close and personal. It's not a pretty thing. Consider that the greatest commandment of scripture, according to Jesus Christ Himself, is "Love God with all your heart soul and mind, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself," well, it seems God's greatest commandment is a "do" command, not a "do not" command. Legalism is by its very nature a denial of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ because it assumes that we must do more things on top of what Christ already has done.

The Apostle Paul, who called himself a "Jew among Jews" due to his training and early devotion to the Jewish faith, spent a lot of time in his letters to the early Church, correcting the erroneous thinking that what we do not do, or what we abstain from, is what makes us people of faith. Not at all.

There is only one thing that makes us people of faith: "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9 NIV). That's it. Nothing else. Yes, after receiving God's forgiveness, He does a work of grace in us to produce good works (See Ephesians 2, or James' letter), but that is not our doing, it is His.

I'm not saying here that it's not important for one to know what one believes; on the contrary, understanding at least the basics of theology is helpful for spiritual growth and not knowing at least those basics is a recipe for being led away into various traps that the spirit of antichrist will lay for us (including legalism). What I am saying is that we should know the most important teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles, carry them with us in our hearts and our minds, and live them in such a way that others will see Jesus Christ living in us, rather than us living in a downward spiral of infighting and hypocrisy.

So, we test the spirits. We watch, we pray, and we do...we love.

To quote the great Yoda: "Do, or do not...there is no try"...Ok, well, that doesn't really fit, but he's green and muppetty, so we will let it slide.

Faith's refuge

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

The other day, I woke in a panic. I realized I had misjudged when a bill would fall and was unsure if there would be money in the right account to cover it. I'd been praying for peace, and for a provision of some sort, but I couldn't push the fear aside. But then, I woke, and above my panic, the above verse played itself over in my head just out of the blue, and the peace was there, and the bill didn't fall until the next day, when the money was there to cover it. 

The work I do is a ministry. It's not easy and the pay is not great, but something I've learned over the years is that God takes care of those who serve Him; those who take refuge in Him, if you will. There is a joy to be had in watching the Heavenly Father provide, and when you work in any kind of ministry He has to provide a lot. 

Earlier in the same passage, the psalmist writes:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
    he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
    and he delivers them.

This promise is huge! I've seen it again and again. If we are faithful, God's provision is vast. Working in any sort of ministry can require seat of the pants faith, but God loves us so much and is such a great deliverer, He rewards that faith and sends his angels to protect us. It's so amazing to live in the middle of God's provision.

This isn't anything like the "God wants you to be rich" message some folks preach. No, it's a "God wants you to rely on Him," message. Do His will, trust in His grace, and He will provide.