In the wake of tragedy, like the one recently experienced in Nashville, we are faced once again with the perennial problem of evil. Why is evil rampant in the world? Where is God? What redemption can come from the deaths of innocent children and good people? In a heart laden with these very questions the story of Easter resonates.

Easter is the most epic holiday (holy day) that we could celebrate because it centers on the most epic event in human history. What better time to remind ourselves of the truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected from the grave? When evil is staring us in the face is the best time to consider the truth of Easter and what it means for us.

In I Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul relates the full import of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on our lives. Because Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, we have victory over “the dark side” in each of us. While none of us would like to think we could carry out the atrocities of a mass murderer, we all have a dark side. Expressing that dark side in a murderous way is unlikely for most of us, but we all express that dark side in our own ways. The apostle Paul’s testimony is that he was “not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (I Corinthians 15:9). As Saul, he had arrested Christians and even killed them. Saul was complicit in the death of the Spirit-filled Stephen. Yet Paul’s testimony continues in verse 10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Now standing before the Church as the apostle Paul, he gave all the glory to God. It is by God’s grace, afforded to us by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that any of us are not completely given over the darkness lurking in the corners of our hearts. If someone gives in to Christ, rather than giving in to his sin, he will be delivered from the depths to which sin could drag him.

So often the one we are trying hardest to escape is ourselves—our own selfishness, pride, fear, and doubt. This is what makes the gospel so liberating. I Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which ye also received, how that Christ died for our sins, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.” It was not enough for Jesus to die for our sins and be buried with them. A dead Savior would be no savior at all. Sin nailed Him to the cross. Sin sealed Him in the grave. But then Jesus overturned sin and its power when He rose again in defiance. The final act that completed the work of Christ was His resurrection from the dead, sealing His victory over sin. Easter means that all who believe on Jesus Christ are also victorious over sin.

Not only does Christ’s resurrection give us victory over sin, but it also gives us victory over the consequence of sin. Sin is like a deadly poison. Once ingested, the only natural outcome is death. The entire creation is groaning with the death-pangs of sin (Romans 8:22). The good news is that there is an antidote! I Corinthians 15:21-22 says, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” When Jesus rose victorious over sin, He simultaneously conquered death. Easter means that all who believes on Jesus to save them from sin are simultaneously saved from the ultimate result of sin—death.

Another aspect of Christ’s conquering death for us is that redemption from even the worst situations is possible. Evil will not have the last word on our lives. Satan may be the prince of this world, but he is not the king of the universe. Jesus Christ is truly the King, the Sovereign of the world who will have the last word. He reigned in heaven before the incarnation, He is reigning in heaven now, and He will once again reign on earth. According to I Corinthians 15:25-26, “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Because Jesus resurrected, evil, sin, and death do not have the last word on human history. Jesus does.

Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection has created a new future for His believers. His resurrection is not merely symbolic. It was a literal, physical, bodily resurrection. As Christians, we await our own bodily resurrection, just like Jesus’ bodily resurrection. I Corinthians 15:53-57 victoriously concludes:

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy string? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The victory we have over sin, death, and evil is not a victory for which we had to fight. This victory is a gift, given to us by God, bought and paid for through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are victors not because we are stronger or bolder than the forces of evil at work in this world today, but because the One within us is infinitely strong and bold. I John 4:4 says, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” While we may be no match for the forces of spiritual darkness at work in our world, neither are they any match for the Spirit within us. He has already won the victory. He has already written the end of the story. And He is working to redeem people along the way. Easter means that redemption is possible, and redemption is coming!

In a world racked with sin, death, and evil, Easter means everything! As C. S. Lewis put it in his book Miracles, “He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because he has done so.” We may not be able to make sense of every individual act of evil, but Christianity makes infinitely more sense of evil than any other worldview. Christianity offers hope because it is founded on the God-man, Jesus Christ, who entered this evil world and suffered with us and for us. Christianity offers hope because it is based on the reality of a resurrection—Christ’s resurrection which is the first fruits of our own resurrection (I Corinthians 15:20). Easter means that righteousness triumphs over sin. Easter means that life claims victory over death. Easter means that redemption has the final word over evil. To the battered heart, Easter is the balm that not only eases the pain but truly heals, restores, and revitalizes. Even amid grieving, may we preach the Easter message to ourselves and those around us.

The post What Does Easter Mean? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Especially when it comes to seeking and knowing the truth, is curiosity enough?

In the Bible, two kinds of people encountered Jesus. Some were curious about Jesus and the truth He embodies, while others were committed to Jesus and the truth He embodies. Not every curious questioner of Jesus was an honest seeker of Jesus. The Pharisees, for example, asked Jesus many questions in hopes of confirming their assumptions about him. Still others went beyond their curiosity and accepted Jesus for who He claimed and demonstrated Himself to be.

These two categories of people are on full display in the narrative of Jesus’ arrest and trial. In John 18, Jesus had been arrested and hauled before the Jewish religious leaders. The religious leaders questioned Jesus about his doctrine. When Jesus responded that they already knew His doctrine because He had taught it publicly throughout His ministry, the religious leaders revealed their true motives. Their curiosity about Jesus’ doctrine was not in pursuit of truth. They knew what Jesus had taught, but they did not want to believe what He had taught. So, they condemned Him! They found Jesus guilty of blasphemy because He made explicit claims to deity (see Mark 14:61-62). Since they had no authority to execute him, the Jews brought Jesus before the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition.

Pilate found himself alone with the famous “Jesus, of Nazareth.” Perhaps he thought, “Wow, Jesus is literally my captive audience!” So, Pilate asked his own questions of Jesus. He asked Jesus if He were “King of the Jews,” perhaps trying to discern if Jesus was a political threat or perhaps truly curious about His identity.

To this, Jesus responded, “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?” (John 18:34). It is almost as if Jesus were asking Pilate, “Do you really want to know who I am?” He was testing Pilate’s heart. Was Pilate merely curious or committed to the truth?

Subtly, Pilate shifted the focus from himself and placed it back on the religious leaders who had delivered Jesus to him. Essentially, Pilate said, “Don’t bring me into this. I’m just trying to understand their problem with you. What have you done?” Jesus explained that His kingdom is not of this world. He had no fight with Rome. If His fight were with Rome, then Jesus’ servants would not have allowed Him to be captured.

Jesus’ otherworldly response piqued Pilate’s curiosity even more, and he asked, “Art thou a king then?”

Jesus replied, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37). Jesus lays it all out there for Pilate. Jesus is clear that His mission is to share the truth with others. He is also clear that everyone who is an honest seeker of the truth will listen to Him. Everyone who truly wants it has access to the truth.

Then, Pilate gave his now infamous reply, “What is truth?”

His response is infamous because Pilate did not stay for an answer to his own question. Until then, Pilate had asked Jesus very direct questions, and Jesus has given very direct answers. But John 18:38 says this: “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews . . .” This verse is stunning! Pilate said his question. While it may have ended in a question mark, Pilate clearly did not want an answer. He left the question hanging in the air between him and Jesus. As soon as he had said it, Pilate left Jesus and went back to the crowd. Why didn’t Pilate stick around for Jesus’ answer? We did not hear Pilate’s tone, but we can speculate. Perhaps he meant it as a rhetorical question, a sarcastic statement like many postmodernists today would have meant it. Or maybe he was afraid to hear Jesus’ answer!

Ah, there it is. That is the problem with mere curiosity.

Pilate’s response demonstrates that curiosity about the truth can bring you to the brink of discovery, but it takes more than curiosity to push you over the edge. In his book, Christian Apologetics, Douglas Groothius explains the problem of mere curiosity in the search for truth, saying, “Curiosity is not intrinsically good because it can lead to gossip, violations of privacy (snooping) and wasted time and effort—as represented by the content of any issue of People magazine. In other words, curiosity can be a vice . . . Studiousness, on the other hand, earnestly inquires after what ought to be known.”[1] Anyone can be curious, but it takes courage to commit oneself to honest truth-seeking.

This conversation between Pilate and Jesus in John 18 also demonstrates that curiosity can be held simultaneously with pride. Matthew Henry commented on this passage: “But many put this question that have no patience and constancy enough to persevere in their search after truth, or not humility and sincerity enough to receive it when they have found it.”[2] Curiosity is beneficial because it prompts us to ask questions. But if all we ever do is ask questions without staying to hear the answers, curiosity can keep us in a state of skepticism. While some pass off their skepticism as humility, saying, “Well, I just don’t know. Who can ever know?”, skepticism is not the same as humility. Humility is recognizing that there is such a thing as Truth and submitting myself to Truth. Humility is admitting that I don’t know everything and never will, while also taking responsibility for the truth that I can know and do know.

In contrast with mere curiosity, commitment can keep us humble yet confident in a postmodern world where the question “What is truth?” swirls everywhere. Curiosity may lead you to Jesus, but you must take a lingering look and listen to really know Jesus. Will you stay long enough to hear Jesus answer the question, “What is truth?”

Thankfully, we have examples of people in the other category as well. In John 3, a Pharisee named Nicodemus approached Jesus with a similar question. It was question of Jesus’ identity and the truth He possessed. Nicodemus asked hard questions and received hard answers. But Nicodemus stayed long enough for Jesus to explain those hard answers. In contrast with the skeptics and Pilates of the day, Nicodemus was more than curious. He was committed to finding the truth. He wasn’t just curious about Jesus; he wanted to know Jesus. Likewise, the centurion, when he felt the earthquake and saw the blackened daytime sky that accompanied Jesus’ last breath, made a confession of faith: “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” These men were not merely curious about Jesus; they believed who Jesus claimed and demonstrated Himself to be.

What application can these two categories of people, hold for us today? Whether Christian or not, all people fall into either the curious or committed category. If you are a Christian, you have already accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior that He is. That’s wonderful! But learning about Jesus does not end at salvation. How are you doing as a disciple of Jesus? To be a disciple of Jesus, you must be more than curious about Jesus. Jesus has said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). So, disciples of Christ are more than just curious spectators; they are committed followers. They are obedient servants of Christ! Asking questions like, “What would Jesus do?” is great for provoking thought, but we cannot stop there. We mustn’t passively ask what Jesus would do in theoretical situations when we know what Jesus has commanded us to do in many specific situations.

If you are not a Christian, ask yourself whether you are just curious about Jesus or whether you are willing to commit yourself to the truth of the gospel. This means that you must admit that you are a sinner deserving of God’s judgement. This also means that you must accept Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on your behalf as enough to merit God’s favor. You must reject the premise that anything you are, or anything you could do is enough or worthy to be added to Christ’s finished work on the cross. When you humbly turn away from your work and turn to Christ in complete dependence on His work, that is commitment to the gospel.

When you accept Jesus Christ as your only Savior, then God accepts you as His child. John 1:12 says it this way: “But as many as received him [Jesus Christ] to them gave he power to become to the sons of God, even to them that believe on his [Jesus’] name.” If you are curious about Jesus, great! So was Pilate. In the end, although he tried to wash away his guilt with water, Pilate will give account for what he did with Jesus that day. How about you? As you see Jesus standing in Pilate’s hall, will you stop at curiosity like Pilate did? Or will you allow your curiosity to lead you to the truth, and then will you commit to that truth? Jesus stands with open arms, ready to welcome any honest seeker!

[1] Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 141.

[2] Matthew Henry, “Commentary on John 18 by Matthew Henry,” Blue Letter Bible, Last Modified 1 Mar, 1996, https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jhn/Jhn_018.cfmBlue Letter Bible

The post Are You Curious or Committed? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Now, what is the work Jesus Christ has called us to? Hasn’t He called us to get people saved? Well, yes and no. Jesus didn’t exactly tell us to get people saved. He told us to give the gospel to people. The Great Commission, given to his twelve disciples and, by extension, every disciple to come is this: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). We are called to preach the gospel to those we meet as we go about our business. Since the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), we should expect that those to whom we preach the gospel will be saved. However, we must make sure we understand our place in the process and God’s place in the process.

In I Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul paints an analogy that helps us gain this proper perspective. He uses the analogy of planting seed and watering the seed to yield a crop. Just as cultivating crops is a process, so “winning souls” to Christ is a process as well. And just like people working the field attend to different responsibilities, so members of the Church may have various parts to play in the process of giving the gospel.

First, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that the men who led them to Christ were simply servants of Christ. Addressing divisions in the church over different leaders, Paul poses a rhetorical question in verse 5, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?” Paul even goes on to explain that these men had different parts to play in the process of bringing them to Christ, saying in verses 6 and 7, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” The first point Paul makes here is that our part in the process is not to “make the sale” or, to keep with Paul’s analogy, “reap the harvest.” We are nothing special. We are not responsible to reap the harvest or win the soul; that is God’s part to play. However, we do have an important role, which gets to Paul’s next point.

Second, Paul says that as members of the Church, we are on the same team, striving for the same goal; but our work as individual members of the team matters. He says in I Corinthians 3:8, “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” For this reason, it makes no sense to make “soul-winning” a competition. We are a team and, as a team, we have different parts to play. The key is that when we play in cooperation with each other, we get more accomplished together than any one player would on his own. Now, being a team player does not mean you sit back at let the rest of the team carry to load. As Paul also notes, we work together for a common goal and God rewards us individually for our own work. A team player works in cooperation and coordination with other team members, but he also must focus on doing his part faithfully.

A third point that Paul makes which can shape our perspective of witnessing is that we are fellow workers with God! In verse 9, he says, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry.” Paul describes us as God’s field but also as God’s fellow workers in the field. The truth is that we are not responsible to win souls for God; we are winning souls with God. We are never alone in our endeavor as God’s witnesses; God goes with us and works alongside us! We are the vessels that carry to the gospel to others and the Holy Spirit is the power that convinces someone about the truth of the gospel. How incredible that God has chosen to do His work with and through us! He could have done it any way He wants, but He chooses to use us because He knows it will bring Him glory and benefit us.

Sometimes, we are so concerned with being a “soul winner” that we become discouraged if and when someone does not accept Christ during every encounter. As a result of this discouragement, we may fail to be a faithful seed-scatterer. Thus, it is important to realize, at the end of the day, “winning souls” or “reaping the harvest” is something God does. We can lead a soul to Christ, but God is the one who ultimately wins them.

Paul’s analogy in I Corinthians 3 helps us to see that witnessing for Christ is not about how many souls we can say we’ve won; it’s about being a team player; it’s about being a faithful field worker. My question should not be “How many souls have I won to Christ?” or “Have I won more souls than Brother so-n-so?” or “Am I a soul-winner like Sister so-n-so?” Rather, my question should be, “Am I a faithful field worker?” Answering in the affirmative means that I have taken every opportunity to open my mouth with the gospel, or share the love of Jesus, or grapple with difficult questions someone has about faith. Have I made the most of every encounter? I may not “close the sale” every time I open my mouth to witness to someone, but that is not what determines my success or failure in God’s eyes. I am simply responsible to consistently, faithfully plant the seed and water the seed. Sometimes, I will be blessed to be there at the moment that God reaps a harvest or wins the soul. Certainly, that is exciting and encouraging! But whether this is a regular occurrence, I can know that my seed-scattering and plant watering is not in vain. Why? Because as the passage says, the Church is striving together for the same goal. Some plant, another comes by and waters, and another is there when the harvest is reaped. It is a process that requires “all hands on deck” . . . or “all hands in the field” to keep with Paul’s analogy.

Having this proper perspective of witnessing can guard us against pushing people into “making a decision” or “saying a prayer” before they are ready; it can guard us against becoming discouraged or disillusioned because we don’t “win a soul” every time we open our mouths; and it can help keep us in our place as the servant and God in His as the Master of the field. This perspective can also help us to be flexible with our method of sharing the gospel. Every person is not the same and, therefore, we should not expect every encounter to be the same. Some encounters you will spend clearing away obstacles to the gospel—like someone’s religious background or atheistic worldview. Other encounters will look like sharing a quick presentation of the gospel, ending with the person promising to think about it. Still others will be a quiet handing out of a tract to someone who may or may not be interested. But all of it matters and all of it is success if you are simply doing the work every time. I think it is fair to pray that God will bring someone across your path who is ready to accept Christ. I have prayed that way! In the meantime, however, keep scattering and watering the seed.

Each of us will have an opportunity to play every part of the process. We will each have an opportunity to plant and to water and to be there when the harvest is ready. To be ready for any role at any moment, we must simply focus on being a faithful field worker. Being a witness for Christ is not like being a door-to-door salesman. Our success as ambassadors for Christ is not measured by how many “sales” or souls we got this month. Our success is measured by how much seed we scattered, how much we made of every opportunity, and how well we work together with our fellow workers in the Church.

The post Are You a Faithful Field Worker? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

According to one article, the “post-Christmas blues” is a “short-lived mental distress, anxiety, and sadness that arises after the holidays.” The article explains that “common symptoms” include   feelings of emptiness, stress, loneliness, and loss. Have you ever diagnosed yourself with the post-Christmas blues? For many people, the first day of “normal life” after the holidays can feel like a day of emptiness and loss. All the anticipation building up from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day has now all been emptied by the parties and family functions. When the family and friends pack up and go back home, we feel a sense of loss. We look ahead and see only dreary winter days without the warmth and cheer of twinkling Christmas lights or the anticipation of another party.

For those of us who understand that Christmas is a holy day, we have not been emptied of anything or lost anything. For believers, December 25^th or January 1^st is not the end of the celebration. It is only the beginning! While the family and friends may leave and return to their respective homes, that does not mean the joy and hope of Christmas leave as well. Just because the Christmas cookies are all eaten and the decorations are stored away in the attic, does not mean we must box up the peace and love that Christmas radiates. Why? Because the Christmas season is not just about nice stories, family reunions, gifts, and Santa Clause. Christmas is a birthday. Actually, it’s more than a birthday.

Christmas is not just about a miraculous virgin birth—although that is certainly worth celebrating! When the angel announced Christ’s birth to Joseph, he said, “thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). When John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, saw Jesus for the first time, he cried, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus himself said He was born “to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  So, Christmas is more than just a birthday. It’s a celebration of life—Christ’s life.

Jesus Christ was born on Christmas, but He lived the day after that and the day after that. In fact, Jesus lived 33 years on this earth. He lived the righteous life that you and I were meant to live but have not lived. Then, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin—a sacrifice that only a perfect man could make. Jesus was the only one qualified to save us, and He did! When anyone places his faith in Christ’s finished work, Jesus exchanges His righteous life for the sinner’s life. This is what the Christmas season is about. It is about a miraculous birth, a righteous life, an atoning death, and a triumphant resurrection. In a sense, the Christmas season is just a season of anticipation for another grand celebration. In just a few more months, Christmas Part 2 is coming! The celebration of Christ and what He was born to do culminates in the Easter holiday—also known as Resurrection Sunday.

As Christians, we don’t need to feel drab about Christmas being over, because it isn’t. Christmas Day is just Part 1 of the story! The Christmas story that we celebrate on December 25^th continues through the year, just as the life of Christ continued after His birth. Yes, our calendars are marked with special days set aside to reflect on specific portions of Christ’s life—His birth, death, and resurrection. And we should punctuate our lives with traditions and celebrations that emphasize these aspects of Christ’s life. Yet we must not forget in between that the celebration continues in our mindset and actions every single day. Philippians 2:5 tells us to let the humble mind of Christ be in us. Ephesians 4 encourages us to grow up into Christ in all things (v. 15) and to live our new lives created in Christ’s likeness (v. 23).

So, what new year’s resolutions have we made that carry eternal weight? What goals have we set for the new year that include growing in Christ? For Christ’s disciples, every day is an opportunity to retrace Christ’s step. Each morning is a chance to conform more to Christ’s image by thinking, speaking, acting, and loving like He would. The best way to celebrate the life of Christ is to seek to live the life of Christ daily. We won’t be perfect at it, but the goal is to always strive toward it. This infuses every day with purpose, meaning, peace, hope, love, and joy. This is how we keep celebrating Christmas!

The post Keep Celebrating Christmas first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The first people that God chose to tell about Christ’s birth is quite instructive. Luke 2:8 says, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.” Since we are so familiar with the story, we do not even blink while reading that the shepherds were the first to hear about Christ’s birth. However, shepherds were on the exact opposite end of the spectrum from royalty and nobility. They did not hold privileged positions of leadership like the priests or Levites did. They were hired hands that worked with the dumbest creatures on God’s green earth. They were dirty, smelly, and ill-kempt, low-class workers with no clout. And yet God chose to tell them first. Why would God do that? As the story unfolds, two reasons become apparent.

The first reason is found in the angel’s message to the shepherds. In Luke 2:10, that angel says to them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” God wanted to impress on our minds that Christ’s birth was for everyone. The gospel is for everyone! As if this weren’t enough to make an impression on the shepherds a whole host of angels joined the first and declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will toward men.” There it is again—peace and good will toward men. The gospel wasn’t just for some men. It was for men like the shepherds. The only people that the gospel excludes are those too proud to receive it. The gospel is for anyone who is humble enough to admit that he is a lost sinner in need of a Savior. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus also emphasized the universality and exclusivity of the gospel. In Luke 5:32, Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” God chose to tell the shepherds about Christ’s birth first because they were the least likely people to be inflated with their own importance and worthiness to hear such a message. The shepherds represent the sinners, the humble, the lost, the “least among us”—the prime candidates for the gospel! If we are honest, we should see ourselves in the shepherds.

Another reason that God may have told the shepherds first is found in the shepherds’ response to Christ’s birth. The shepherds “came with haste” to see the Christ child and then they went out with joy, making known to others what God had made known to them!  (Luke 2:16-18) This shows that, as He has since the beginning of time, God chooses the foolish things of this world to bring about His purposes. I Corinthians 1:26-27 says, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” God chose the meek Jacob over the mighty Esau. He chose the stammering Moses over his charismatic brother Aaron to confront Pharaoh. He chose the foreigner Ruth to be in the line of Christ. He chose the shepherd boy David over his soldier brothers. And he chose the shepherds of Bethlehem to be the first witnesses of Christ’s birth. Before John the Baptist had made his first fiery sermon, these shepherds had awakened all their neighbors in Bethlehem to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ. The shepherds show us that those the world would discard are the ones God delights to use.

If you feel that God’s calling on your life is too much for you, then join the club. Moses felt that it was too much for Him, too. And that is why God used him. That is why God chose the shepherds. That is why God has chosen you! II Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Whether it is a glittering angel in the heavens or a grimy shepherd on the hillside, it is not the messenger that is significant but the message. It doesn’t matter what gifts, abilities, or beauty we may think we have on the outside; we have the treasure of the gospel on the inside. Like the shepherds, we should be grateful that God would see fit to use us. Luke 2:20 says, “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” Like they did, we need not feel sorry for ourselves because we are inadequate, but grateful to God because He has chosen to use us.

When it comes to our service for God, we must remember that it is not about what we have to offer. We have nothing to offer God. After all, anything good that we are or that we have came from God in the first place. The story of the shepherds reminds us that the sufficiency, whether of the gospel to save or of the witness to share, is in God Himself (II Corinthians 3:5). The fact that we need a Savior should be enough to remind us that we are insufficient in every possible way. But just to drive the point home, God let the shepherds be the first to know and the first tell about the Savior’s birth.

This Christmas, may we be like the shepherds—enthralled with the knowledge of the gospel and the privilege of sharing it with others. May we spend this season praising and glorifying God for the miracle of Christ’s birth and our partnership with God in telling others about it. The message of Christmas is for all of us and any of us can be messengers of Christmas.

The post The First Messengers of Christmas first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In Matthew 1:18-19, we are introduced to Joseph. The Bible tells us only a few critical details about this man. He, like Mary, had not asked for this part in the Christmas story. Just as surely as Mary’s had been, Joseph’s life was about to be radically rearranged.

Have you ever considered what it was like for Mary to tell Joseph about the miraculous life inside of her? The first person she told was her cousin Elisabeth and, in her, Mary had found an understanding and encouraging friend. Now, Mary was back from her months-long visit with Elisabeth. By now, she was probably showing. She had to tell Joseph. But how could Mary tell Joseph—the man she was betrothed to marry? How could she make him understand? Even though she believed in God, Mary was probably afraid to tell Joseph. I can imagine her pacing back and forth, rehearsing exactly the words she needed to say. Finally, taking a deep breath, she walked into Joseph’s carpentry shop and spoke the words. Maybe they didn’t come out as she’d practiced them. Maybe they were perfectly scripted. Either way, it couldn’t have been any easier for her to say them than it was for Joseph to hear them.

Again, I’m indulging my imagination here, but I wonder if, after hearing her words, Joseph took a few staggering steps back from Mary. Perhaps he put his hands up in astonishment as Mary’s eyes welled with tears. “Do you believe me?” she may have asked. Perhaps Joseph said something like, “I think it would be best for you to leave. I need some time . . . to think this over.” Initially, all Joseph knew was that he was betrothed to a woman who was pregnant, and not by him. Mary had just told him that she was pregnant miraculously, as a virgin, because of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Would you have believed that the first time you heard it? It is one thing to accept the virgin birth in retrospect as we read it in Scripture. But this wasn’t a Scripture reading for Joseph. This was his life!

What Joseph was asked to believe and to do was no small thing. While he was not chosen to physically carry the Christ child, Joseph was asked to be the legal father of a child that was not his own. Yet we see from Joseph’s response that he was just the right match for Mary. God knew what He was doing when He put them together. Like Mary, and much like the Joseph of Genesis, this Joseph was a person of durable character that could survive the storms of God’s testing. We see this in two decisions that Joseph made.

First, we see Joseph’s godly character in his initial response to Mary. Matthew 1:18-19 says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.” Matthew 1:19 says that Joseph was a “just man.” Joseph’s responses to Mary was that he wanted to do the right thing by her. Based on the information he had at first, Joseph knew that the right thing to do would be to break off his engagement with Mary. Now, this was not an easy decision. This kind of engagement was not the kind of engagement we have in modern America (those are hard enough to break off). This kind of engagement was basically as binding as marriage. Breaking off this engagement looked more like divorce than a break-up. In other words, this decision would cause much emotional suffering for the two parties involved (Mary and Joseph) as well as much embarrassment for the others involved (their respective families).

Many people in Joseph’s position probably would’ve done the right thing according to the laws of that day. But Joseph did not just want to do the right thing by Mary. He wanted to do the right thing in the right way. Matthew 1:19 also says that Joseph was “not willing to make her a public example” and “was minded to put her away privily.” Under the laws of his day, Joseph could have made her a public example. He could have allowed all the shame to fall on Mary and her family. That could have been considered the right thing. But there was another option, another “right thing,” that would bring the least embarrassment for Mary. The fact that Joseph wanted to do the right thing in the right way shows he must have really loved Mary. He did not react to her in a vindictive way which, based on the information he had initially, would have been justified by the laws of that time. Rather, Joseph reacted to her in a way that was right but also gracious.

Still, the weight of this decision was heavy on Joseph’s heart. He knew that the right thing (lawfully) was to break off the engagement, but he wasn’t ready to commit to a decision yet. He was still thinking about his options, likely weighing the “right thing” against his feelings for Mary. And it was at this critical moment that God once again dispatched an angel to appear to Joseph in a dream. In Matthew 1:20-21, the angel gives Joseph the details that had already been given to Mary: “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” The angel goes on to explain how this child is the promised Messiah of prophecy.

We also see Joseph’s godly character in his response to God. Matthew 1:24 records Joseph’s response, “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.” Once Joseph had received more information from God, he simply believed and obeyed God. Much like Mary did, Joseph simply took God at his word when it was revealed to him. Mary had said, “Be it unto me according to thy word,” and Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him.”

The Joseph of the Christmas story is quite similar to the Joseph of Genesis. Both had their lives drastically rearranged. Both had great reasons for bitterness and great opportunities for revenge. Of course, in the latter Joseph’s case, he had not been wronged. But he probably thought he had been at first! Yet Joseph adjusted his thoughts and actions when he received more information from the Lord. As it had the Joseph of Genesis, “the word of the LORD tried him” (Psalm 105) and Joseph passed the test admirably.

From Joseph’s story, we can take two challenges. We can consider how we respond to other people’s actions or perceived actions toward us. Joseph wasn’t like a character out of a Hallmark movie who let a little assumption or misunderstanding govern his decisions. Neither should we! How we respond reveals what is in our hearts—the motivation behind our choices. Are we doing the “right thing” out of a heart of bitterness or a spirit of vengeance? Or are we seeking to do the right thing in the right way? If people like the two Joesphs above could do the right thing in a spirit of love and graciousness, then we can too. Whatever has happened in your life, whatever anyone has done to you, God can strengthen you to do the right thing in the right way just as He did for Joseph.

Additionally, we can consider our response to God when He reveals more information to us. As Joseph’s story demonstrates, God does not give us the entire plan all at once. He reveals His will to us a step at a time. Are we willing to accept God’s will for us as He reveals it to us? Can we say like the psalmist, “Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” (Psalm 26:1-2) Joseph is an example of someone who walked in integrity—who was honest with himself, with others, and with God. When the word of the Lord tried him, his heart was revealed to be trusting in God. Just like Mary, Joseph simply took God at His Word about the miracle of the virgin birth. If Joseph could accept God’s rearrangement of his life, surely, we can accept God’s rearranging of ours. The way we respond to God’s rearranging our lives reveals the true character of our hearts as well.

The post The Forgotten Character of Christmas (and What He Can Teach Us) first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The Bible tells us just enough about Mary to know that she was a normal girl with a normal life. Mary was a young virgin, living in a small insignificant town called Nazareth, engaged to a humble carpenter named Joseph. It seems that Mary’s life was neatly arranged. Certainly, she had prayed for the promised Messiah, but we have no indication that she excepted him to come through her!

So, it’s no surprise that she was amazed when Gabriel greeted her, saying, “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” This was quite the greeting! The Bible says that Mary “cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.” In other words, Mary thought, “Who in the world is this and what in this world is he talking about?” She may have looked around the room and then gestured as if to say, “Who me?” The angel reassured her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.” Then Gabriel explained what that meant: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” This message harkened back to Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin would bring forth a son (Isaiah 7:14) who would occupy the throne of David and rule forever (II Samuel 7:12-16). Talk about a lot of information to take in all at once!

Perhaps just as surprising as the angel’s appearance is Mary’s response. Mary responded to this impossible thing with faith, and she responded to God’s rearrangement of her life with joy. Her faith is immediately apparent. In Luke 1:34, Mary asks, “How shall this be seeing I know not a man?” Considering the angel’s message, the fact that this was her only question—how? not are you sure?—says much about her character. The promise had been made centuries before through the prophet Isaiah, and now it was going to be fulfilled through her—young, insignificant Mary of little, insignificant Nazareth. Her only question was how God was going to do it! She simply took God at His Word about a seemingly impossible promise. Mary’s response was faith—believing that God’s promises would be fulfilled.

The angel answers her faith-filled question in Luke 1:35, explaining that this miraculous birth would be performed through the Holy Spirit’s power. Messiah’s birth was not anything like the so-called “virgin births” of pagan myths. It was not some sordid relationship between a supposed deity and a human woman. No, this was something utterly unique—a true miracle. The word overshadow in verse 35 means to cover with a cloud or to invest with preternatural influence. This overshadowing is the same overshadowing that happened on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). This covering cloud is the same cloud that abode in the tabernacle of God (Exodus 40:35). This overshadowing cloud represents the glory and presence of God. Just as God’s glory did a great work on the mount of transfiguration and  in the wilderness, so God’s glory was going to do a great work in Mary’s life.

Then, Gabriel shared that God had also blessed her cousin Elisabeth with a miraculous pregnancy, remarking in Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” According to some Bible commentators, this phrase could also be translated, “For no word of God shall be powerless.” Either way—the truth remains. God can do anything that He wills and everything God says will come to pass. How could a virgin have a child? How could the God of heaven also be God with us? Everything about this message seems impossible. The only explanation is that God’s Word never fails. As Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.” The verses previous to and following Isaiah 40:8 prophesy of the Messiah’s coming and of one who would go before him. These prophecies—these words of God—are being fulfilled through Mary and Elisabeth in Luke chapter 1.  Mary’s response to all of this is, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary simply took God at His Word—that He could and would perform what He promised and that “with God” she could see this impossible thing come to pass in her life.

While becoming the mother of Messiah was a wonderful opportunity, it was also a major rearrangement of her neatly arranged life. What if other people misunderstood her or even mistreated her? How was she supposed to raise God the Son? While these were certainly valid questions, Mary did not let worry overshadow her joy. Mary responded to God’s rearrangement of life with joy. This is evident in the fact that she couldn’t keep the news to herself. Soon after Gabriel’s visit, Mary visited the one person who could understand what she was experiencing—her cousin Elisabeth. It is during her visit to Elisabeth that Mary exalts God saying, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” She then recounts a brief history of God’s dealing with Israel—how He had put down the proud and lifted up the humble. She praises God for “remembering his mercy”—his promise—to her people.

Mary’s exaltation reminds us that God is the Keeper of impossible promises. It reminds us that “no word of God shall be powerless.” Her example should boost our faith in God’s promises to us and bolster our joy in God’s will for us. So, what impossible thing do you need to take God at His Word about today? What promise do you need to start acting on and praying through? What rearrangement of your life do you need accept with joy? What is it that God has asked you to do that seems too impossible? Like Mary, we should respond to Luke 1:37— “For with God, nothing shall be impossible”—with Luke 1:38—“Be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary did not do anything except trust and rejoice in God. It was the Holy Spirit who worked out the impossible in and through her. Mary’s story demonstrates that, if we will have faith in Him, God will be faithful to us.

The post The Keeper of Impossible Promises first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

This is where the Thanksgiving vs. Christmas debate kicks in! When is it acceptable to break out the Christmas decorations and crank up the Christmas music? I’ll admit I have been one to get my Christmas on in late October! However, more recently, I have enjoyed relishing the Thanksgiving season and saved the Christmas décor and music for the day after Thanksgiving…mostly.

Wherever you may fall in this debate, I think we can all agree that these two holidays are quite complementary. Without Christmas, there would be no Thanksgiving. Sure, Thanksgiving is tied historically to the pilgrims’ first harvest in the new world. On the first Thanksgiving, they gave thanks to God for their newfound home, freedom, and provisions. However, neither the pilgrims nor any of us would have anything to be eternally thankful for were it not for Jesus’ Christ’s birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection.

This is the truth highlighted in I Corinthians 15. This passage contains one of the earliest Christian creeds—that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again. The entire rest of the long chapter (58 verses) is about the gravity of the resurrection and what it means for us. While this passage begins with a despairing thought: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” it ends with thanksgiving, saying in verse 57, “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What is this victory for which we are to give thanks? Well, we can give thanks for at least three victories.

First, we can give thanks for victory over who we once were. Paul’s story is a case in point. In verses 5-8, Paul describes the many eyewitnesses to the risen Christ, of which he is one. He says in verse 9, “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Paul is an example of what we might call “an impossible case.” Before he was the apostle Paul, he had been the religious zealot Saul who dragged Christians to prison. This Saul had stood by while the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was killed. Then, he was confronted with Jesus Christ and accepted Him as his Savior. What a radical change! If there is hope for someone like Saul (Paul), then there is hope for anyone.

Like Paul, we owe our status as a child of God to the grace of God. Romans 6:4-14 describes our transformation: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life…knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 4:17 that “God be thanked” for this. This victory over our old selves is a reason for thanksgiving!

A second reason for thanksgiving in I Corinthians 15 is victory over death. Behind every fear is the ultimate fear in all of us—the fear of death. Behind the fear of sickness, disease, and crime is the fear that it will usher in the uninvited visitor—death. Most people fear death because it is the ultimate unknown in life. Everyone that you or I may know who has experienced death cannot come back to tell us about it. We don’t know what it’s like, really, and we are afraid of the experience. But what if death has been defanged? What would we really have to be afraid of? Christ’s birth, death, burial, and resurrection gives us victory over that great enemy called death. I Corinthians 15:22 reminds us, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Verses 25-26 continue, “For he [Jesus] must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Jesus Christ destroyed that enemy when He said, “It is finished” on the cross (John 19:30).

What use would it be to thank God for the bounty of food, friendships, or finances we have if we could lose it all to death? The good news is that we can enjoy good gifts because we will lose nothing of value to death. If death should come for us before Jesus does, we need not fear that because death is merely the gateway from this life into eternal life, and we know that Jesus will walk through that corridor with us (Psalm 23:4). We were made for light, for salvation, and for life with God forever. This is our future, this is the inevitable end to our story, and this our ultimate reality.

But wait . . . there’s more! In this present life, we will still wrestle with the works of the flesh and the devil. Yet we do not have to be victims; we can be victors. We can give thanks for victory over Satan’s attacks. I Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye that steadfast unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” The concluding verse begins with “therefore,” pointing us back to everything that has proceeded. This verse is saying that because of victory over our past and over death, we can have victory over Satan’s attacks on this earth. We can stay strong (steadfast) and unswerving (unmovable) in our faith, and we can pursue lives of eternal significance (always abounding in the work of the Lord). On our own, we are no match for Satan and his devices. But Jesus’ resurrection dealt the death blow to Satan’s head. When we are in Christ, we have all the power we need to resist the devil and stay steadfast, unmovable, and abounding in the Christian life. I John 4:4 says, “Greater is He that is in you [the Spirit of Christ], then he that is in the world [Satan and his minions].” Even if no other blessings were sent our way, victory in Jesus over sin, death, and Satan would be cause enough for thanksgiving this season.

The gift God gave us in the person of Christ at Christmas is the cause for our gratitude at Thanksgiving. As the apostle Paul put it in II Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” So, whenever you break out the Christmas lights, don’t skip over Thanksgiving! And whatever else you’re thankful for this year, don’t forget the unspeakable gift that makes all the others significant.

The post No Thanksgiving without Christmas first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In John chapter one, we see that Jesus is looking for the seeker. At the dawn of His earthly ministry, Jesus met a couple seekers who had been following his cousin, John the Baptist. John 1:35-36 says, “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” John the Baptist fulfilled his purpose of declaring Who Jesus Christ was and what His mission was. As a result of this declaration, two curious disciples of John followed Jesus to find out more about Him. Verse 38-39 says, “Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.” These two were seeking for the Messiah. All it took for them to find Him was a faithful John the Baptist who declared Him. A few verses later, we find that one of these seekers, Andrew, then declared Christ to his brother, saying, “We have found the Messias, which is being interpreted, the Christ.” (John 1:41) When this seeker had found what he had been looking for, he shared that discovery with others. And what did Jesus say to such seekers? He said, “Follow me.” (John 1:43) Jesus came for the seekers.

John chapter 4 tells the story of woman who represents another category of people for whom Jesus came—the sinners. Now, while all of us fall into this category by nature (we are all sinners) I am referring to those that even society would label sinners. I mean the one who is an outcast, who is called dirty, unwanted, and unlovely. That is who Jesus found by a well in Samaria. In John 4:4, the Bible says that Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” In those days, a “good” Jew never needed to go through Samaria. In fact, they would go out of their way not to go through Samaria. Yet Jesus went out of His way to keep a divine appointment. In the heat of the day, Jesus stopped at a well and met a woman who came alone to fetch water. To her surprise, Jesus spoke to her, “Give me to drink.” (John 4:7) This led to a conversation in which Jesus gradually revealed His identity. First, the woman asked Jesus, “Art thou greater than our Father Jacob?” (v. 12) Next, she says, “I perceive that thou art a prophet.” She’s getting warmer. Then Jesus lays it all out there, saying, “I that speak unto thee am he [Messiah].” (v. 26) This revelation motivated the woman to go on a mission of finding others like herself. She exclaimed to them, “Is not this the Christ?” (v. 29) Bingo! She got it. She may have been someone that people in that day would have considered to be the lowest of society, but she responded to Jesus. Jesus then tells His disciples to look for others like the Samaritan woman. In verse 35, Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” The Samaritan woman certainly hadn’t wasted any time finding people like herself. She told everyone she knew what had happened to her and brought them to Jesus so they could see and hear Him for themselves. As a result, “many more believed” (John 4:41). Those she brought to Jesus did not proclaim Him to be the Savior of the few. Rather, they proclaimed Jesus to be “indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42). Like He was then, Jesus today is looking for the sinners.

As John 5 shows us, Jesus didn’t just come looking for the seeker and the sinner. Jesus also came for the skeptic—for those who do not intend to find Him. After healing a man on the sabbath, the religious Jews of that day wanted to kill Jesus because He had disregarded their rituals. When they confronted Him about the miracle, Jesus attributed it to His Father God. This made the Jews want to kill Jesus even more “because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18) These Jews had all the evidence of Jesus’ identity before them, yet they remained skeptical because they did not want to believe in Jesus. Jesus does not strike them dead or even ignore them. Rather, Jesus confronted them with the truth. Jesus again laid out the evidence for His deity, saying, “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.” Jesus then went on to warn them of the coming judgement day when everyone will be held accountable for what they have done with the Son. Yet in all this hard, confrontational truth-telling, Jesus’ objective was the same as it had been for the seekers and the sinners—“but these things I say, that ye might be saved.” Jesus made it clear that whether they believed or not was their own decision. However, He didn’t leave them without laying out the poignant evidence for His identity. He didn’t leave them without the admonition to reconcile their supposed belief in the book of Moses and their disbelief in the One of whom Moses had written. Jesus didn’t shun or ignore the skeptic. He sought out the skeptic.

Then, in John 6, we see another category of people for whom Jesus is looking. In Galilee, a great multitude followed Jesus because of the miracles He had done. After Jesus met their physical need for food, the multitude sought Him out again for more of the same. In verse 28, they ask Jesus, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” By this they meant, how could they perform the miracle of providing food for a multitude like Jesus had? Jesus redirects their focus, answering, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” In other words, Jesus wasn’t looking for mighty disciples who could do amazing miracles. He was looking for ordinary people who would believe on Him. So, this category of people is the catch-all category. Maybe you don’t identify as a seeker, or a sinner, or a skeptic. Maybe you’re just curious about Jesus, like these people were. Well, that’s okay because God is looking for you!

None of us—whether seeker, sinner, skeptic, or curious—naturally come to God. On our own, we are lost sinful creatures that want nothing to do with Christ. Just like in a relationship, someone has to initiate interest and another must respond, so God initiated interest and He is calling on us to respond. We know God has interest in us because God has sent us an invitation in the Person of His Son. In John 6:44 Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” God’s drawing is not in competition with man’s free will here. God’s drawing people toward Jesus does not equate his forcing some to believe on Jesus and others to reject salvation through Jesus. According to one commentator, “Drawing, or alluring, not dragging is here to be understood.” Later, in John 12:32, Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” So, Jesus is God’s invitation to come and be saved, and this invitation is addressed to “all men.” That includes everyone—the seeker, the sinner, the skeptic—and you.

The point of Jesus’ statement in John 6 wasn’t to make the multitude of people introspective and wonder whether God had drawn them to the Messiah. Obviously, He had because they were talking to Jesus! Rather, His statement was poignant, “putting the ball back in their court.” Jesus was telling them that God had invited them, He had drawn them, but they were the ones pushing back and pushing themselves further from the Father. The point today is that Jesus is looking for you. You are the one Jesus came to seek and to save. He is drawing you. That is not a matter of question. The only question is, how have you responded to Christ’s invitation?

If you have already responded to Christ’s invitation, then it is good to remember again how we came to Christ. Who brought you to Him? Perhaps it was a friend, like Nathaniel’s friend. Any honest seeker, sinner, or skeptic that comes to Christ on His terms can have the promise of forgiveness, peace with God, and heaven for eternity. Remembering this should inspire us to be sharing that invitation with others, whether we place them in the seeker, sinner, or skeptic category. We should see others the way Jesus did—simply people who need to hear the invitation to come to God. No one is beyond the reach and power of the gospel. We should be like John the Baptist, declaring the news about Jesus to the seekers. We should be like Jesus Himself, going out of our way to discover the “sinners” hiding away from society. We should be like Jesus who confronted the skeptics with truth. Jesus is seeking, Jesus is drawing, and Jesus is still in the business of saving. So, we should be sharing.

The post Who Is Jesus Looking For? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Cultural trends such as social justice, gender confusion, and socialism have “crept in unawares” (Jude 4), infiltrating our churches and families. When lies like these are perpetuated long enough and loud enough, even good people begin to believe them. They believe them out of sheer exhaustion from being assaulted daily by the media, social media influencers, and entertainment. Even the very companies from which we buy every-day products tout the same anti-biblical messages. It is easy to feel like your voice doesn’t matter. Perhaps we would say as Elijah the prophet once did, “I, even I only, am left.” Something else we hear often is, “Well, it’s obvious we’re living in the last times!” By this, we usually mean that the end of the world is likely to come in our lifetime. What’s the point of launching out into the culture and trying to reverse the trend toward wickedness and socialism?

Well, the truth is we have been living in the “last times” since the apostle Peter wrote to the churches in Asia Minor. When we look at the epistle of I Peter, we see that our situation is not so unique. God has a purpose for His people living in the last times—this era between Christ’s death and His rapture of the Church. I Peter 1:17 admonishes us to “pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” The idea of passing the time is not killing time. Rather, we are to be using this time for a purpose, with an attitude of reverence and sobriety.

The book of I Peter is not an admonition to “batten down the hatches” and “hold down the fort” until Jesus comes. Instead, Peter gives guidelines on how Christians should live in an ungodly culture so that they can influence the culture for Christ. To this end, Peter addresses every aspect of life in society. He addresses citizens, servants (or employees), wives, husbands, and Christians in general. This letter to the Christians in Asia Minor can also encourage us to actively engage our culture for Christ. So, how can we? I Peter gives us at least six ways.

1. Think! I Peter 4:7, “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober…”

We can’t very well engage the culture if we cannot think clearly about our convictions and about challenges presented in our culture. The word sober here carries the idea of being of sound mind and self-controlled. A sound minded, self-controlled person must be a thoughtful person. So, what should we be thinking about?

First, we should evaluate our values and our beliefs. Do they align with Scripture or are they more consistent with worldly philosophy? Colossians 2:8 says, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” As I evaluate my values and beliefs, I should also consider what may be influencing them. Who am I reading, watching, or listening to on social media or the internet? Do the ideas they promote align with worldly philosophies (such as materialism, socialism, etc.) or do they align with godly philosophies? Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Metaphorically speaking, we should have a bouncer at the doors of our hearts, ready to throw out any worldly philosophies or vain deceit. Once we have evaluated our own values and beliefs, we are ready to influence others’ values and beliefs.

Second, we should cultivate discernment in our thinking. Philippians 1:9-10 speaks to this ability, saying, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement; that ye may approve things that are excellent.” We should be able to see distinctions between God’s thoughts and worldly philosophies on a matter. We should be able to see the difference between practices that are bad, good, better, and best. As Christians, we should be striving for a lifestyle that is characterized by the “best” practices. I Thessalonians 5:22 says, “Abstain from all appearances of evil.” We do not help our culture when we crowd the line between good and evil. Discernment is essential to being self-controlled and above reproach in this chaotic culture. If we are going to influence the culture, rather than the culture influencing us, then we must be thinkers. We should evaluate our beliefs and cultivate discernment.

2. Pray! I Peter 4:7, “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.”

Prayer is perhaps one of the most powerful and most underused weapons in the Christian’s arsenal. We seem to have the time to complain about our country to each other and online. Do we not also have the time to pray for our country? At my church, my pastor often reminds us to be in prayer for our state, local, and national politicians and officials. I Timothy 2:1 instructs that prayers “be made for all men.” We should know who our elected politicians and officials are and pray for their salvation and wisdom to lead. We should pray for family and friends who are being swept away in our culture’s tide of wickedness. We should pray for Christians who are involved in politics to stay strong and steadfast in the faith. We should pray for revival among Christians in America. We should pray that God’s grace will allow our country to remain a beacon of freedom in the world.

3. Love! I Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent charity…”

The idea of loving each other is rampant in the epistles. Just as the churches in the last times of Paul and Peter needed to stay connected in Christian community, so do the churches living in these last times. Galatians 6:2 tells us to bear one another’s burdens “and so fulfil the law of Christ”—the law of love found in John 13:34. We should be building and nurturing relationships with other Christians so that we can gain strength to engage an ungodly culture. Christians are to be working together in a concerted effort to influence the culture for Christ. How can we if we don’t even know each other, or if we are bickering with and backbiting each other? Colossians 3:12-14 says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Jesus said that the world would know we belong to Him because of our love for each other. I Peter 4:9 goes on to say, “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Opening our homes to each other, caring for each other, giving to each other is a way for the world to see our love. So, now is not the time to be slacking off in church attendance or losing touch with Christian friends. Now is the time to be tapping into the resource that is the Church of Christ.

4. Serve! I Peter 4:10, “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

God’s people are gifted people. As Christians, the gifts we have are received, not merited; they are varied (as I Peter 4:11 explains); and they are for serving others. What gifts has God given you? Get involved in your church by helping with music, teaching a class, or participating in your church’s outreach efforts and activities. We can use these gifts beyond the doors of our churches as well. Volunteer at a non-profit organization, help with voter registration or other political efforts if you are so inclined. If we are to be good stewards of God’s grace, then that means we must be using His gifts, not keeping them to ourselves. When we start looking for opportunities, we may even find there are more than we could handle at once! That’s why there are many members of the body of Christ. And that is why every member can and should be serving.

5. Speak up! I Peter 3:15, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of hope that is in you.”

While we are out and about serving with our gifts, we should also be opening our mouths for the truth. The familiar I Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready with a reason for the hope we have in Christ. The word translated answer is apologia. In other words, we are to be making a case for our faith, just like a defense attorney makes a case for his client. This requires living in such a way that others will be provoked to ask us about our faith, but it also requires breaking our silence in the public sphere and speaking up about our faith. The way we speak or make our case for Christianity matters, too. I Peter 3:15 says we are to speak “with meekness and fear.” Similarly, Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” The assumption is that we will be speaking. The exhortation is that we should speak graciously in a way that brings a good flavor to the truth. When we talk to people, we should leave them with a good taste in their mouths for the gospel and the Christian worldview. If we are going to be “seasoned” speakers of the truth, as Colossians 4:6 says, this requires that we be thoughtful and prayerful—two points we’ve looked at previously.

6. Live out loud! I Peter 2:15-16, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.”

Here, I Peter instructs Christians living in the last times to do the opposite of what we instinctively want to do sometimes. Rather than hiding in bunkers until the battle is over, I Peter calls us to live out our Christianity loudly for all the world to see. The presupposition supporting Peter’s epistle is that Christians are living holy lives in a perverse culture. In fact, they are being so obviously Christian, that some unbelievers are speaking against them for it. Likewise, we should be living our faith out loud in the public sphere for all to see. We should bring our values to the ballot box, the school board meetings, classrooms, and breakrooms. First and foremost, we should use apologetics in our homes, on our own children, instilling them with confidence and courage. If we win them, we can turn out more truth-tellers who will engage the culture for Christ.

When we live out loud in the public sphere, we influence the culture. When we influence our culture, we change the tide of politics. When we change the tide of politics, we shape the policies that touch people’s everyday lives. Just as Peter exhorted the Christians living in the last times back then, we should live in these last days with purpose. We can engage our culture for Christ if we will think, pray, love, serve, speak up, and live out our convictions.

Above all, we should never let others convince us that our faith should remain inside church walls only. We should not allow well-meaning Christians to convince us that the culture and the country are too far gone for us to make a difference. That is not I Peter’s assumption. Why should it be our assumption today? Jesus did not leave us on earth after He saved us so that we could hide behind church doors. No, Jesus tells His disciples to “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). The word occupy means “to carry on business.” We are to be carrying on the business of Jesus Christ—the one who ate with publicans and sinners, who debated with Pharisees and skeptics, who reached out to social lepers and literal lepers with the gospel, the one who sought out the seekers. Like Esther, we have been planted in a hostile culture for such a time as this. It’s true—we are living in the last times. So, let’s get busy!

The post Living in the “Last Times” first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In addition to humility—realizing we don’t know everything about our lives—we must practice gratitude. God is good and is demonstrating His goodness in our lives even when we can’t feel it. Like Naomi, we often tend to overlook the good things that God has sent our way in a season of hardship. As we enter a new season of life, Naomi’s words may resonate with us: “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty.” Humanly speaking, these feelings may be valid, especially if you’ve experienced the kind of loss that Naomi had. However, we must look to the Bible for the truth that contradicts our feelings. And the truth is that God never sends us into a new season empty handed. We may feel like we are empty and abandoned but, if we look for it, we will find God’s faithfulness written all over our story. Naomi didn’t have to look far—Ruth was right there! Neither do you or I have to look far to see God’s faithfulness and steadfast love for us. His blessings may look unassuming at first glance. (Ruth was a Moabite woman whom no one assumed would be in the lineage of the Messiah!) But God uses unassuming little blessings to add up to life-altering blessings. We must look for these unassuming blessings—like Ruth was to Naomi—and proactively thank God for them.

While urgency and faulty assumptions make power grabs for the steering wheels of our lives, there is another thing that can drive us. And it leads to a much smoother ride. We find this driver in the driver’s seat of Ruth’s life. Naomi seemed to indicate that Ruth was better off with her pagan gods than with Jehovah-God whom she assumed was against her. However, Ruth did not accept that lie. She believed that the best path was that of God’s people. Just as determined as Naomi was stubborn, Ruth said, “whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” Ruth the Moabitess claimed Jehovah as her God and basically said, “Let the chips fall where they may.” Simply put, what was driving Ruth’s life was faith. She simply believed that God was real and that He was the covenant-keeping King that Naomi and her sons had probably described Him to be. She not only believed that truth, but she took the risk of following Naomi, or rather Naomi’s God, to a new land. She chose to seek God first and let Him take care of the rest. While we often fret over all the things we feel we need in life, we really only have one responsibility. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness;s and all these things shall be added unto you.” Ruth tested out this principle and God added unto her not only food, clothing, and shelter, but also a husband, and a baby, and…well so much more than she could have possibly understood at the time.

We know the rest of the story for Naomi and Ruth. Ruth, the Moabite widow, just happens to start working in the field of a wealthy and kind Jewish man, who just happens to be their kinsman redeemer, who just happens to truly love Ruth and just happens to agree to marry her and redeem the land and lineage of Naomi’s husband. Then, this Moabite widow turned cherished wife just happens to have a baby boy. It reads like a fairytale but better because it is real. So, it turns out that nothing just happens in the story of Naomi and Ruth. God was behind is all!

The book of Ruth concludes with a genealogy. Again, it may look unassuming, but this genealogy connects Naomi and Ruth’s stories with the story of the Messiah. Their story continued with the coming of the Messiah, it continues now in heaven, and it will continue into eternity. Someday, your story and mine and theirs will all converge as we will all enter God’s eternal kingdom. The fraction of the story we read in the book of Ruth is just the beginning of the eternal story of redemption and glory that is written for all who put their faith in Jehovah.

So, are you experiencing a chaotic ride or a joy ride? The answer depends on what is driving your life. Urgency and faulty assumptions are reckless drivers, but faith takes you to the most beautiful destinations. So, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

The post What Drives Your Life? Lessons from Ruth Part 2 first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

You’ve probably watched a scene like this in a movie as I have. Perhaps, also like me, you have felt that your life is like this—a chaotic car ride with opposing drivers vying for the wheel. To resolve the inner turmoil that comes from opposing drivers, we must first note the possible drivers vying for control, and then consider which driver should have control.

We can see a couple of these a couple of these drivers in the Old Testament book of Ruth. The characters in this story are quite relatable because they were real people just like us. And they made life choices driven by unseen forces, just like we do.

First, we see Elimelech—a Jewish man, husband and father faced with the hardship of famine. In a tight spot, Elimelech transplanted his family to the land of Moab—a forbidden land inhabited by a pagan people. What drove Elimelech’s life-altering decision? All Elimelech could see was famine in the land of promise. How could this be the promised land if it was now a barren land? Elimelech had no idea when the famine would end. So, he allowed a sense of urgency—a desperately felt need to escape an uncomfortable situation—to overtake the wheel of his family’s life. Often, our lives are driven around by the same sense of urgency. When we find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation for an indefinite period of time, we tend to look for the fastest way out rather than waiting on God’s clear direction. As the apostle Paul admonished in Philippians 4, uncomfortable situations can teach us to be content in any season and trust that “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” If we bail at the first sign of hardship, how will we ever experience the supernatural provision of our Heavenly Father? We must be on guard when urgency starts reaching from the passage seat and grabbing at the steering wheel of our lives.

A second character we can learn from in this story is Naomi, the wife of Elimelech and mother to two sons.  Over a period of at least ten years in Moab, death robbed Naomi of her husband and both of her sons. In despair, Naomi decided to return to her homeland of Judah. When her surprised neighbors welcomed her back home, Naomi insisted on being called Mara, which means bitterness. She not only felt bitter over her losses, but she also identified as bitterness. How had she come to a point in her life where she had chosen a name for herself based on her bitter feelings? Naomi had allowed wrong assumptions about God and herself to take the wheel.

When her daughters-in-law pleaded to go with her to Judah, Naomi replied, “it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me” (Ruth 1:13). In these words are encapsulated at least three faulty assumptions. First, she assumed that God was against her. She also assumed that God’s opposition to her had made her a menace to everyone around her. She felt like bad luck to her daughters-in-law. Surely, it would be better for them to return to their pagan gods than to remain with her and the God she assumed was against her. Naomi also made wrong assumptions about her future. As she told her tearful daughters-in-law, “Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband” (Ruth 1:12). Naomi had lost all hope of experiencing love and provision again in her life, and she assumed that if her daughters-in-law accompanied her back to Judah, they would lose all of hope of love and provision as well. All Naomi had to go on (all we have to go on, humanly speaking) was her past experience. Her past experience included sorrow and loss. She then took that past experience and extrapolated it into the indefinite future, as if all that she could ever experience would be sorrow and loss. Naomi assumed that her story was over. You and I know, of course, that this was only chapter 1 of her story! Hang on for another chapter, we might urge Naomi, and you’ll see that redemption is coming!

The post What Drives Your Life? Lessons from Ruth Part 1 first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

What is certainly an historic and should be a joyous day for Constitutionalists and pro-life Americans has been overshadowed with darkness. Although the Court’s decision could be called a “step in the right direction,” the violent protests from the pro-abortion side have signaled that as a nation, as a people we have drifted in the wrong direction very far indeed.

According to Live Action—a leading non-profit organization in the pro-life movement—since the Supreme Court’s opinion draft was leaked in February, 16 churches have been vandalized, at least that many pro-life pregnancy centers have been vandalized, and 4 pro-life pregnancy centers have been firebombed. Pro-abortion protesters belonging to a group called Ruth Sent Us, descended on Justice Clarence Thomas’ home, chanting, “Thomas is a treasonous turd” among other slanderous slogans. Another group of protesters, donning “blood-stained” outfits and carrying baby dolls, clamored outside Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s home. A man arrested near Justice Kavanaugh’s home admitted to police that he had flown from California with a bag of weapons, intending to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. He turned the corner only when he saw U.S. Marshalls already outside the justice’s home.

Even our nation’s lawmakers have demonstrated utter disdain, not just for the Conservative justices who voted to overturn Roe, but for the institution of the Supreme Court itself. Because the Court did not act as the political arm of the pro-abortion movement, some Democratic politicians have suggested packing the Court. Others have failed to hide their complete disdain for the institution itself. Representative Maxine Waters told a crowd gathering outside the Supreme Court, “[To] hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them.”  Such violence and disregard for America’s institutions is indicative of a problem that touches the very foundation of our nation.

The problem is that, as a people, we no longer share common moral values. For years, we have given away pieces of our soul until, now, many Americans are literally mourning the restoration of states’ rights and the increased protection of innocent human lives. How did we get to a place where protestors parade with bloodied clothes and baby dolls? The mask is off, and the pro-abortion movement has exposed abortion for what it is—a cult-like sacrament, sacrificing babies on the altar of so-called women’s bodily autonomy. Long gone are the arguments for “safe, legal, and rare” abortions. The chants we hear now are for abortion, on demand, at any point because a woman’s right to choose supposedly trumps a child’s right to live. We have come to this gruesome exchange because we, as a culture, have accepted some lies.

We have accepted the lie that the value of a life hinges on society’s estimation. When there is no Creator, no God to estimate our value or hold us accountable, then we are left with only the state to decide such matters. Once again, the arguments over when life begins have long been left in the past. Scientific advancements have demonstrated to us, without a doubt, that life begins at conception. The problem is not that we do not know when life begins. The problem is that we simply do not care. We do not esteem the unborn child’s life as inherently valuable. Life is only valuable when it is convenient, when it is productive—when society deems it as such.

Another lie that we have accepted as a society is that motherhood is second class. Not only have we devalued the life of the pre-born, but we have devalued their mothers as well. The culture has peddled the lie that to be equal with men in society, women must be like men. In swallowing this lie, men have not been belittled, marginalized, or erased. Women have been. In trying to be like men, women have been forced to become men. And in trying to become men, women have been erased as a protected class of citizens. We never hear men referred to as the sum of their parts or masculine functions. But you do hear women referred to as “birthing persons,” “pregnant people,” and “menstruating people.” Ironically, such crass terminology seeks to include men in the female experience but does not include women in the male experience.

In other words, in trying to make women equal with (or rather into) men, our culture has made motherhood a burden to, rather than a beautiful expression of, a woman’s success. For this reason, abortion has become the cornerstone of the modern feminist movement. In order to achieve the goal of equality with men, women have been told that they must deny the special design of their bodies to create and nurture life. They must sacrifice their children to have a career. The lie is that they are not strong enough to have a child as well as a place in society. They must choose between them. Many women who have abortions in this country do not get them because they are being “forced” to carry a pregnancy. They are doing it because they are being “forced” to make a false choice: Will it be their lives or their babies’ lives? The first woman to receive a degree from an American medical school, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, recognized abortion as the destroyer of motherhood and devastator of women that it is. She wrote in her diary: “The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation and awakened active antagonism . . . I finally determined to do what I could [to stop this] form of hell.” A true supporter of women, Dr. Blackwell detected the lie underlying abortion—that motherhood is second class.

In contrast with these lies, the pro-life movement recognizes that life is inherently valuable and that women have the strength to choose life both for themselves and their babies. The pro-life movement recognizes that human life, from the moment of conception, is inherently valuable because God is intimately involved in its creation. As the psalmist exclaimed in Psalm 139:15-16, “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” This scripture indicates that a pre-born child “yet being unperfect” is still a human being. A person born with “birth defects”—“yet being unperfect”—is still a human being. A person living with disabilities—“yet being unperfect”—is still a human being. Human beings are valuable because of the God who created them. Furthermore, every human being is created in the image of God with the purpose of reflecting God’s character to the world around them. Therefore, every life, in every age and stage is inherently and inestimably valuable.

Additionally, while the world disdains motherhood, the Bible highly esteems motherhood as an indispensable career. Back in Genesis, God promised that the redemption of mankind and the vanquishing of sin and Satan would come through the woman’s seed! Gentile women like Rahab and Ruth were redeemed by God and placed in the line of Jesus Christ. They gained this exalted status through motherhood. The angel Gabriel addressed the virgin Mary in Luke 1:28, “Hail, thou that art highly favored . . . blessed art thou among women.” She was blessed because she was called to be a mother—the mother of the promised seed, the Messiah.

In His sovereignty, God has used motherhood to unfold His grand redemptive plan! Perhaps this is the reason that the Devil has directed so much of his anger and warfare toward women and mothers! In contrast with our culture’s lie that motherhood is something disgusting and burdensome to women, the Bible always depicts motherhood as something beautiful and redemptive. Women were created with the biological capability of bearing and nurturing life. This is something that their male counterparts, no matter how the language changes, cannot and never will be able to do. For this reason, motherhood is not something to be disdained or feared, but embraced and revered as extremely valuable. Strong, courageous, loving mothers are essential to the health and longevity of our society.

How can we, as pro-life Christians, recreate a culture that values life, truly empowers women, and properly esteems motherhood? The answer is simple, although it is not easy. We must continue to do the hard work that we have been or should have been doing before the overturning of Roe. That is the hard work of truly loving, helping, and persuading people.

Truly loving and helping women has been the work of the pro-life pregnancy centers and organizations across this country for decades. They have offered free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD testing, education, resources, prenatal care, post-abortion counseling, and so much more. And that work will continue. As Christians, we should make sure we are getting in on this work, too. Perhaps that will look like volunteering at a pregnancy center. Or maybe that will look like reaching out to an unwed or single mother that we know personally. It could look like stepping up to foster a child or adopt a child ourselves. If any type of family should be scooping up the abandoned, orphaned, or homeless children of our nation it should be Christian families! Certainly, not every Christian family will be called to this ministry, but perhaps they should at least ask themselves if God would call them to this ministry. It is time for Christians to roll up our sleeves and love not in word but in deed (I John 3:18).

Our loving and helping others will support our work of persuading them. The shrill and illogical cries of the pro-abortion side today demonstrates that they have not had to make a coherent argument for abortion in years. It has simply been accepted as the law of the land. They have not had to persuade anyone. But the burden of proof should be on them. We should be asking why a child’s life should not be protected. Why is it ever okay to take an innocent human life? Why must we accept the false choice of loving either the baby or the mother? Why must we accept the lie that women must view their children as the enemy in order to have successful and significant lives in our society? Our probing questions can be more persuasive than their screams ever could. The truth is that no one can scream a human heart into submission. We must persuade, and that involves making calm, clear, logical arguments for the pro-life position.

In this work of persuasion, we will hit a roadblock. That is the hardness of the human heart. Sometimes facts do not penetrate a heart that has been hardened in lies and sin. By far, the best thing we can do to combat the evil of abortion is preach the gospel. The gospel is the solution to every social ill in our society. Why? Because the sinful human heart is the cause of every social ill in our country. And the prescribed cure for a sinful heart is a transformed heart by the power of the gospel. As the apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). The gospel can reach the crevices that our best arguments cannot. The gospel can do the surgical work that our greatest speeches cannot. The power necessary to change hearts is the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel is not in man—it is the power of God. The power of God is the power to save anyone who believes. If we can become a gospel-saturated people, we can become a united people with a set of common values. We can become a nation that values life, esteems motherhood, and upholds our liberty-affirming institutions.

So, let us rejoice over the right decision of the Supreme Court. Roe is gone. Now, let’s keep working.

The post Roe Is Gone. Now What? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

After we have come to Jesus and entered a shared life with Him, we must learn of Jesus. The word disciple itself means “learner.” If being a disciple means anything, it means being a learner, as Jesus invited in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” This is a life-long process. II Peter 3:18 says, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Much like a plant grows gradually and constantly as it takes in nutrients, so we grow gradually and constantly as we take in knowledge of our Savior. Ephesians 4 says that God has given us spiritual leaders, such as pastors, teachers, and evangelists, to aid us in this spiritual growth. They minister to us so that “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . .” As we absorb the spiritual nutrients provided by their ministry, Ephesians 4:55 says that we “may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” As we learn of Christ, through the preaching and teaching of spiritual leaders and our own personal Bible study, we are to grow up into Christ. This reminds us that the ultimate goal of discipleship is to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). The point of learning more about Jesus is to become more and more like Jesus. While this process is gradual, it should be a constant process in our lives. Someday, it will be completed when we see Jesus face to face and are glorified as He is (I John 3:2).

This spiritual growth necessitates that a disciple follow the example of Jesus. For our knowledge of Christ to result in growth in Christ, we must act on that knowledge. We must take Jesus’ steps after Him. While Christ’s primary mission on earth was to save the lost, He also left an example for the saved. Jesus showed us what true leadership looks like. In Matthew 11:29, after He told us to learn of Him, Jesus said, “for I am meek and lowly in heart.” In asking us to learn of Him, Jesus is not asking us to become or do something that He Himself is not or does not do. His leadership was the kind that says, “See what I’m doing? Follow me!” Let’s look briefly at two areas in which we can follow Christ’s example.

Christ’s earthly life demonstrated the nature of love. Before His last supper with His twelve disciples, Jesus performed a servant’s task. He washed His disciples’ feet. In John 13:15, Jesus said, “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” Later that night, Jesus said to them, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35). Jesus disciples are identified by their love for one another. We are Christ’s disciples when we follow His example of self-sacrificial love.

In addition to love, Christ left us an example of submission. In the garden, Jesus prayed for the anguish of the cross to be taken away from Him, but He ultimately surrendered to the Father’s will. Philippians 2:5-8 tells us, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross . . . .” The mind of Christ in us is one of humility and obedience. The call to discipleship is one of radical self-denial and submission to God. During His earthly ministry, Jesus made sure that His followers knew the cost of discipleship. In Matthew 16:24, He admonished, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” In submission to the Father, Jesus took up His cross, denied His human will, and gave His life for us. If we are going to follow His example, then we must also take up our cross, deny our human will, and give our lives to Him. While this element of discipleship is radical, it is only reasonable.

Jesus left us examples in so many areas, but His examples in love and submission are foundational to discipleship. Disciples are learners. However, learners who do not put into practice what they’ve learned will fail the test. True disciples follow the example of Christ.

So, how would you score on the test of discipleship? Based on Christ’s words in Matthew 11:28-30, to be a disciple we must come to Jesus, share the life of Jesus, learn of Jesus, and follow the example of Jesus. As we’ve briefly looked at each of these elements of discipleship, we have still only scratched the surface. Though difficult, the most significant, satisfying, and rewarding path we could walk is that of a true disciple of Jesus Christ. No turning back.

The post What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple? Part 2 first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The two most recent mass shootings bear sad and striking similarities. They are similar, not just to each other, but to the many others before them in a few ways. First, both the Buffalo supermarket shooter and the Uvalde school shooter were young men (18) with disturbing mental health histories. In addition, both young men had spoken of their violent intentions via social media before and/or during the attacks. Third, both young men had either dropped out of or discontinued their education and had recently quit their jobs. Yet another striking similarity is that both came from disengaged families who were unaware of their sons’ mental states, intentions, and activities. The Buffalo shooter described himself as “isolated from family” and said that he had lied to his parents about attending community college. He allegedly said, “My parents know little about me.” In the Uvalde shooter’s case, his father was out of the picture, his mother was struggling with drug addiction, and he was living with his grandmother—the first victim of his violent rampage. The Uvalde shooter’s dad, who has a criminal record including a conviction for assaulting a family member, admitted that he “had no idea what was brewing inside his son.” The two had not been on speaking terms. The dad even told reporters, “My mom tells me he probably would’ve shot me too, because he would always say I didn’t love him.” Like the many mass shootings before, these two shootings were carried out by mentally disturbed, isolated, (effectively) fatherless, and truly toxic young men.

These similarities tell us that the problem goes much deeper than just the obvious gun law violations they committed on the way to carry out their violent acts. If we care about putting an end to this rise in mass shootings, then we should care enough to dig beyond the superficial “solutions” and address the root of the issue. While gun ownership in America has not risen along with the number of mass shootings, something else has. What has risen significantly along with the number of mass shootings in America is the dissolution of the nuclear family in America.

The nuclear family is another way of describing the biblical family. In His Word, God has defined a family as one man and one woman, married for life, living together with their children (Genesis 2:25, Matthew 19:3-6, Psalm 127:3). In America, the nuclear family has been under attack from all sides—entertainment, social pressure, institutions of education. Third wave feminism has played a role. The third wave of feminism brought the idea that motherhood—bearing and rearing children—was a burden of female biology rather than a blessing. The idea was that women’s child-bearing capabilities was a huge factor in keeping them “behind men” in society. Therefore, a woman who would choose to prioritize child-rearing over a career would be sabotaging her own potential and equality in society. Essentially, third wave feminism said that to be equal with men, women had to become men.

Simultaneously and ironically, this third wave feminism told us that men were generally oppressive and unworthy of any respect. Therefore, men must be “feminized” to make them less oppressive. This denial and disdain of the biological and natural inclinations of men and women slowly began to dissolve the most basic relationship between men and women—marriage.

From 1960 to 1990, the rate of divorce nearly doubled in America. As of 2014, the Pew Research Center found that “Fewer than half (46%) of U.S. kids younger than 18 years of age are living in a home with two heterosexual parents in their first marriage.” The study also found that about a third of America’s children are living with one unmarried parent or guardian. Of those children, 5% are not living with a parent at all.

In tandem with the rise of divorce is the rise of fatherlessness. According to Pew Research, the percentage of fathers living apart from their children has risen from 11% in 1960 to 27% in 2011, with “more than one-in-four fathers with children 18 or younger now [living] apart from their children.” Fatherlessness has been shown to be strongly related to a host of social maladies—especially for boys. For example, 85% of juveniles in prison, 80% of rapists, 71% of high school dropouts, and 63% of youth suicides come from fatherless homes. So, we should not be surprised that one study has found 85% of the most famous school shooters came from fatherless or, at least, dysfunctional homes. While the Buffalo shooter’s home may have looked “normal,” he did not describe his parents as aware of or involved in his life. The trend is clear: absentee fathers make for hurt boys. And hurt boys hurt society.

We can explain this phenomenon scientifically. According to Dr. Warren Farrell, in The Boy Crisis, “When boys testosterone is not well-channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world’s most destructive forces. When boys’ testosterone is well-channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world’s most constructive forces.” The secret ingredient in this process of channeling male instincts is an involved dad. While mothers are vital to a boy’s development, mothers cannot provide everything a boy needs. Most obviously (at least, it should be obvious), mothers cannot model positive masculinity say. Only a dad can say, “Look at me, son! This is what it means to be a man.”

We can also explain this problem biblically. God created boys with the responsibility and need to lead, to fight for and protect something and someone that they love, to take calculated risks for the good of others, and conquer challenges. While every human being created in God’s image needs purpose, boys find their purpose in leading, fighting, protecting, and conquering. There is a reason that the Bible uses the phrase “quit ye like men” in I Samuel 4:9 I Corinthians 16:13. The idea is basically, “Pull yourself together, man! Run into the fray and do what needs to be done.” While women certainly need to be courageous as well (Queen Esther, anyone?), we often associate courage with men because they are designed to be bold protectors. So, what happens when boys are not given anything to fight for, protect, or conquer? What happens when the primary role models of biblical masculinity—dads—are taken out of the home? What happens when society tells them that a dad is interchangeable with two moms or three “dads” or no dad at all? When inclinations that God placed in men are suppressed, they become perverted. Rather than being protectors, neglected boys become destroyers. Instead of being leaders, hurt boys become abusers. If they are not given a good fight to fight, ignored boys will fight simply for the sake of fighting. If they are not given a challenge to conquer, unrestrained boys will be conquered by their own lack of self-discipline.

This is not to excuse the evil of the two most recent shooters! They bear full responsibility for their atrocious crimes. Neither are we implying that every fatherless and failed boy will turn out to be a mass murderer. Of course, that is not true! However, the statistics do indicate that violent young men were failed by their fathers long before they made such fateful choices. The very creation testifies to the fact that un-channeled masculinity is a dreadful force.

All of this brings us to an important conclusion: the nuclear family is the foundation of any healthy society. When the nuclear family—a married man and woman living together with their children—began to dissolve, so did our society. When our culture belittled motherhood so that women felt pressure to prioritize careers over childrearing, the importance of the family was undermined. When our culture said that two moms were just as good as a mom and a dad, fatherhood became a dispensable commodity. For years, our culture has pretended that the nuclear (biblical) family does not matter, but we cannot get away with it. Our boys are paying dearly for it, and so are we all.

So, if you are a parent of boys, take your responsibility seriously. The Proverbs is an illustration of the relationship between an involved dad and a cultivated son. The father in the Proverbs is constantly asking for his son’s ears, eyes, and most importantly—his heart. In Ephesians 6:4, God commands, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” On the negative side, fathers are not to provoke their children to wrath. A neglected, ignored, or abused child is one that will be provoked to wrath. On the positive side, fathers are called to bring them up. This indicates an intimate and involved relationship throughout the child’s life. Specifically, bringing up boys would include cultivating their male inclinations. It would mean channeling the instincts in our boys so that they can blossom into loving leaders, bold protectors, and courageous conquerors. While perverted masculinity is deadly, cultivated masculinity is indispensable force for good.

This responsibility we have to our boys requires all hands on deck! We need wives, mothers, and women to support and encourage the men in their lives to be initiators, protectors, and conquerors. We need husbands, dads, and men to do what only they can do—model positive masculinity. Men, we need you! If you are a husband, we need you to confidently step into your role as the spiritual leader, loving provider, and bold protector of your family. If you are a dad, we need you to tenaciously model biblical manhood for your children, and especially your sons. Teach them self-discipline, meekness, and mental and physical fortitude. If you are a teacher, coach, pastor, or spiritual leader of young men, we need you to initiate mentorship and accountability with those under your influence.

Enough is enough. More gun laws can only do so much to protect our young men from destroying themselves and innocent people from getting hurt. More gun laws is not the preventive measure that we need most fundamentally! The first and primary line of defense is the family as God designed it. As the psalmist said, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). The foundation of society is the family. And it is beyond time that the righteous in America took seriously the task of rebuilding that foundation.

The post Feminism, Fatherlessness, and Failing Our Sons first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

While these events are certainly significant, the best decision you could ever make is the one to trust Jesus Christ with the forgiveness and salvation of your soul. But once we have made the decision to believe on Christ for salvation, what is the next best decision we could ever make in our lives? That would be the decision to become a disciple of Jesus.

Our initiation into discipleship is baptism. Throughout the Bible, baptism is described as the first step of obedience after salvation which publicly identifies the new Christian with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Walking in this “newness of life” could be described as discipleship. What does walking in newness of life look like? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ today?  In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said to a multitude, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” So many elements of discipleship are packed into these words of Jesus. Let’s break it down.

First, to be a disciple, you must come to Jesus. The first command Jesus ever issues, the first invitation Jesus ever makes to anyone is that of “Come unto me.” As mentioned above, you must be saved by Jesus before you can be a disciple of Jesus. Has there ever been a time when you put your faith exclusively in Jesus Christ as your way to heaven? If not, then that is the first step: come to Jesus for salvation. Then, as a Christian, you must come to Jesus in surrender. Has there ever been a time when you surrendered your life to Jesus, telling Him that you were willing to do whatever He may ask of you? Have you ever stopped trying to “make life happen” and rest in the plan Jesus has for you? Our existential angst is calmed when we finally surrender and accept Jesus’ invitation to come. Romans 12:1 famously calls such surrender our “reasonable service” to the One who saved our souls. This surrender requires the denial of self, the death of self-will. As Jesus said in Luke 14:27, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Before you can be a disciple of Jesus, you must come to Jesus for salvation and then come to Him in surrender to His plan for your life.

Next, to be a disciple, you must share the life of Jesus. The second command and invitation that Jesus gives in these verses is, “Take my yoke upon you.” In that day, a yoke was an instrument that joined two oxen together so that they could pull together for the completion of a task. The yoke split the burden between two coworkers, making the burden more bearable. In using this metaphor, Jesus is inviting us to share in His life. He is not asking us to bear the burden of Christian living on our own. Jesus is inviting us to share a yoke with Him, to pull together with Him for the completion of a task. What an incredible invitation! We are joint-heirs and co-laborers with Christ! Disciples share the life of Christ in four primary ways.

One way that disciples share Christ’s life is in His mission. Jesus stated His mission in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” He then invited His original disciples to share in this mission in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” When Jesus invites us to become fishers of men, He is imparting to us His evangelistic mission. The seekers for truth are out there. The question is whether we will share Christ’s mission and seek out the seekers! As Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 9:37, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Sharing in Christ’s life means being a co-laborer with Christ in His mission of evangelizing the lost.

In sharing Christ’s mission, we also get to share Christ’s power to complete the mission. Before He went to the cross, Jesus encouraged His disciples with the promise of this power source. In John 16:7-13, Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. . .. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he will not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he shall shew you things to come.” We often say that these disciples went on to “turn the world upside down for Jesus.” That is not completely accurate. These disciples simply took on Christ’s yoke and, as a result, experienced the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them. We can experience that same power today! While the physical Jesus may not be present with us now, the Spirit of Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit is indwelling us. He is the power source which helps us to carry on Christ’s mission.

A third way in which disciples share Christ’s life is in His suffering. In I Peter 2:21, God addresses the persecuted Church, saying, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” When we face persecution for doing right, we must emulate the example of our suffering Savior. This is not to be counted a drudgery, but an honor. I Peter 3:14 and 18 says, “. . . if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled . . . For Christ also hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”  Suffering is part of the human experience in a fallen world. Sometimes we may feel it isn’t fair, but we can never say God doesn’t understand. The only difference between our suffering and Christ’s suffering is that Christ suffered, not for His sins, but for ours. Even when suffering is not a result of our sin, and it often isn’t, we will never suffer as innocently or as extensively as Christ did. We suffer because it is thrust upon us in this fallen world. Christ chose suffering because he condescended to this fallen world. If our suffering is ever compounded with the mental anguish of, “It’s not fair,” we need to look at the cross. We must turn to our empathetic High Priest who suffered perfectly for us and realize that we are in good company. I Peter 4:12-13 says, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” When we are suffering persecution for doing right, we are sharing in Christ’s suffering. This brings comfort and joy even in the suffering.

While it is comforting to know that we are not alone in our suffering, it is also good to know that suffering is not the ultimate reality. If we share in Christ’s suffering, we also share in His victory and glory! I Peter 4:13-14 continues, saying, “but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirt of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.” When Christ died and rose again, He won the victory over, sin, death, and the devil. We can stand, fight, and live in that victory today! And someday, we will be glorified as Christ is glorified! Romans 8:17 reiterates this promise: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Those who suffer in Christ will also be glorified with Christ! On that day, the suffering will seem slight compared to the weightier glory. Such knowledge and hope matures, strengthens, and grounds us. As I Peter 5:10 puts it, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” Did you notice the contrast between “a while” of suffering and an eternity of glory? Right now, we may experience suffering like Jesus did when He was on this earth. Yet we have an eternity of glory to look forward to because we are partakers in Christ’s life. Being a disciple means sharing the life of Christ—His mission, His power, His suffering, as well as His victory and glory!

As we have looked at this important decision of discipleship, based on Matthew 11, we have found it to be a simple but all consuming one. To be a disciple means we must come to Jesus in total surrender to His will, and it means to share in the life of Christ. A disciple accepts the privilege of sharing in Christ’s mission, power, suffering, and victory. Matthew 11:28-30 still contains some more elements of discipleship which we will explore in part two of this article. Have you taken these first two basic steps of discipleship?

The post What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple? Part One first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

If Memorial Day is about remembering, then it may do us good to create some traditions or rituals that will help us remember. First of all, it is difficult to observe a holiday properly if you don’t’ even know how it landed on the calendar in the first place. (You can read about the origin of Memorial Day here.) Another way to remember is through story-reading or storytelling. For example, my great, great uncle died at the age of eighteen on the shores of Iwo Jima. It may be helpful to retell his short but influential story as a family. Perhaps, there is a fallen hero in your family that you could read about or talk about around the family dinner table. Or maybe you could visit a national battlefield, museum, or memorial. There are many creative ways with which we can intentionally remember the sacrifice of our fallen heroes for our freedom.

In addition to created rituals that help us remember, we must remind ourselves of the great responsibility and task with which our fallen heroes have left us. This time of year, we often throw around the slogan, “Freedom isn’t free!” Yet we often live as if it is. As significant and precious as the blood of our nation’s fallen heroes is, that is still not enough to guarantee freedom for ourselves and our posterity.

As Abraham Lincoln noted in his famous Gettysburg address, a momentous task faces those of us who are still living. In his speech commending the sacrifice of Union soldiers for the unity of the states and the freedom of all men, Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the lats full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  In other words, those who died in the Civil War, and the many more in wars since then, have begun the good work of preserving the freedom of the people of the United States of America. Freedom is a fragile thing and, just as it required a new birth during the Civil War, it often requires reviving. Thomas Jefferson observed in a letter to a friend in Paris in 1787, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” In this fallen, messy world, freedom is not free. From time to time, it must be purchased with the blood of our fallen heroes! Yet the task of keeping that blood-bought liberty—that the task of the living. This is my job and your job.

Now, the question is how we are to keep or maintain liberty. The Founding Fathers were prescient on this matter also. The Founders loved freedom, but they realized that freedom is the fruit of something else more valuable. They contended that freedom was the fruit of virtue, and that personal virtue was essential to its survival. In April 1776, just months before signing the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote in a letter to Mercy Otis Warren about the impending duty of the colonies to set up a new form of government. In that letter, he wrote: “Such a Government is only to be supported by pure Religion, or Austere Morals. Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private [virtue], and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” After the War for Independence and during the Virginia Ratifying Convention for the Constitution in the summer of 1788, James Madison admonished, “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea.” The idea that just any kind of people can live in a democratic republic and enjoy the level of freedom we do in America is, as Madison put it, a naïve one.

This poses a challenge for us in America today. Virtues like honesty, integrity, self-discipline, gratitude, fidelity, and purity are on the decline in America at large. This is evidence of a decline in these virtues on the individual level as well. The truth that freedom is the fruit of virtue is as scientific and real as the laws of gravity or sowing and reaping. Those who cannot or will not govern themselves will be governed by others. For example, any American citizen of age has the freedom to drive a car in this country. However, if he cannot govern himself enough to restrain from driving while under the influence of alcohol, then the government will restrain him. His freedom will be taken away because of his lack of virtue.

While we like to lay blame at the feet of our government leaders (and surely such blame is warranted), we must begin our critique on the personal level. The people in Washington are representatives of “we the people.” They reflect the values and virtues of the people who elected them. We cannot bemoan the vice of Washington if we are not vigilantly developing virtue in our own lives. And we cannot remain a free people if we will not be a virtuous people. So, the real question is not, “How virtuous are the people in Washington?” The first question should be, “How virtuous am I?” Are you a person of honesty, integrity, and self-discipline? Do your children see the virtues of courage, determination, gratitude, and grit exemplified in you? Are you faithful and pure in your commitments and relationships?

So, the task of the living is to develop virtue in our personal lives. If we do that, it will nurture virtue in our families, communities, cities, and eventually our nation. We the people must be a people of virtue if we are to be a people of freedom. The story goes that as Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention, someone asked him what kind of government they had constructed. To this he supposedly replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” That is the task of the living. Our fallen heroes have purchased our freedom, and it is our job to keep it. This Memorial Day, let us be intentional about remembering our fallen heroes, and may we take our responsibility as seriously as they did.

The post The Task of the Living first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Recently, it struck me that one virtue is not only important to Christianity, but it is preeminent in Christianity. As I have been reading through the New Testament, I have seen at the center of Christianity this virtue called love. So, let’s explore what love is in Christianity, and why it is preeminent in Christianity.

We cannot very well understand why love is preeminent if we do not even know what we mean by love. In contrast with the world’s definition of love, the Bible definition is not based on mercurial feelings or fleeting fashions. Biblical love is based on action and on the unchanging character of God. For instance, I John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” Later, verse 16 says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” From these verses, we learn that love is something integral to the character of God. Love is something God is. If we continue in I John 4, we find that love is also something God does. I John 4:9 says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God sending His Son to die as the only satisfactory sacrifice for our sins was the ultimate act of love. This love was not a warm and fuzzy feeling for sinners like you and me. This love was an action, rooted in God’s just and loving character, to secure the best interest of others—namely the eternal salvation of our souls.

Since love is something that God is and God does, then only God has the right to define love for us. Throughout the Bible, God defines love as righteous action. During His last supper with them, Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” The command is to love, but what does that look like? Well, Jesus gave the qualifier, “as I have loved you.” How had Jesus loved them? Earlier in the evening, Jesus had taken a towel with a basin of water, stooped down, and washed His disciples’ feet. Afterward, He had said, “ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15). Jesus reiterated His command to love in John 15:12-13, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And that is exactly what Jesus did for His disciples! Later that evening, Jesus was arrested and subjected to a series of unjust trials. Then He was crucified and died as the sinless sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. That is how Jesus had loved them. He had served them and sacrificed Himself for them. That is what biblical love looks like—self-denial and self-sacrifice for the best interest of others. Jesus showed us that love is righteous action.

Another illustration of love as righteous action is found in I Corinthians 13. This chapter is a list of things that love does and does not do. For example, love does suffer long but it does not envy (v. 4); love does rejoice in the truth, but it does not rejoice in iniquity (v. 6). The Bible does not say, “Love feels like.” The Bible says, “Love acts like.” This is furthermore demonstrated in I John 3:11 and 16, “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another . . . Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Once again, we see in the example of Christ Himself that love is self-denying, self-sacrificing, righteous action which seeks the best interest of its object. Just as Christ denied Himself and took up His cross for the best interest of others, so we must do the same.

Now that we have established what love is—righteous action—we can explore why love is the preeminent Christian virtue. Throughout Scripture, we find that love is the preeminent Christian virtue because it identifies us with Christ, it constrains us to live for Christ, it’s foundational to the other commandments of Christ, and it binds us together as the body of Christ.

The first reason for the preeminence of love is that it is the primary way we identify with Christ. As Christians, or “little Christs,” we have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us. When we let the Spirit control our lives, we bear fruit that demonstrates our faith in Christ. Most likely, you are familiar with Galatians 5:22 which lists the fruits of the Spirit. Guess which one tops the list? That’s right! Galatians 5:22 begins, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .” Now, I’m not saying the fruits of the Spirit are necessarily listed in order of importance. However, the rest of the Scripture would indicate that love is preeminent in its role of identifying us with Christ.

For example, during His last supper with His disciples, Jesus gave His disciples a “new commandment,” or a reiteration of the Old Testament commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. In John 13:35, Jesus gave the reasoning behind this new commandment: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” This biblical love—a love that acts in the best interest of others regardless of feelings or fashions—shines in stark contrast with the world’s carnal love. This self-denying, self-sacrificing love reflects the Christ that we follow. I John 4:12 says, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” The people we meet in the world cannot see God, but they can see the love that we have for one another. When they see that love, they are seeing a reflection of the Christ we follow. Without love, we cannot identify with Christ as we ought. Without love, we cannot reflect God to the world around us as we ought. The primary way we can identify with the Christ who gave Himself for us is through our love one to another.

A second reason for the preeminence of love is that it constrains us to live for Christ. II Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” If Jesus died and rose again for us, it only makes sense that we should die to ourselves and be raised again to live in Him and for Him. It is Christ’s love for me and my love in return that drives me to surrender myself as a living sacrifice to God. As Ephesians 5:2 says, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” Love is what compelled Christ to the cross! Just as Christ gave Himself a sacrifice for me, that same kind of love should compel me to sacrifice my life to Him. Loving Christ and keeping His commandments are intricately intertwined. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). We show our love for Christ when we live for Him, when we keep His commandments.

This brings us to the next and related point: Love is preeminent because it is foundational to all of Christ’s other commandments. Love is the Great Commandment of the Old Testament and the New Commandment of the New Testament. In Deuteronomy 6:5, we find the Great Commandment: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God also commanded His people in Leviticus 19:18, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.” When Jesus reiterated this Old Testament commandment in John 13:34, this meant that the love commandment is not just for the Jewish people under the old covenant; it is for all God’s people under the new covenant. When asked what was the greatest commandment of the Old Testament law, Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). In other words, if we can get a handle on the Great Commandment to love God with all our being and the New Commandment to love one another, then we will be able to get a handle on Christ’s other directives in Scripture.

We can keep the whole of Christ’s commandments if we will endeavor to keep one. According to Galatians 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Romans 13:8-10 puts it this way: “Owe no many any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” God requires us to keep and observe many commandments. When looking at them all, we may become overwhelmed! But the Bible says that this great body of commandments is “briefly comprehended” in the foundational commandment to love. If I love my neighbor, am I likely to kill my neighbor, or steal from him, or commit adultery with his spouse, or lie to him? Each of these acts would be contradictory to love, which is defined as righteous action. Therefore, the Bible says, love is the fulfilling of the law. If we love God and love people, we will obey God and do right by people.

In case we need more support for this teaching in Scripture, let’s look back I Corinthians 13. Why did the apostle Paul say that all his spiritual gifts were useless without love? The reason is that love is the very foundation for everything we do in the Christian life. Without the foundation of love, our spiritual gifts and good works fall flat and float away in the storms of life. This is the reason Paul says that of three great Christian virtues—faith, hope, love—love is the greatest. Our faith, without works (of love!) is dead. This means they are useless to others and displeasing to God (James 2:8-17). See how closely tied good works are to love? What makes our works good is our love for God and others. And our love is demonstrated in our good works toward God and others. As I John 3:17-18 says, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” So, true love is love that is in deed. In I Corinthians 13, we are warned against doing good works without love for God and man. And in I John 3, we are warned against saying we love God and man while failing to act in love. Love and good works go together. Love without deed is not true love (I John 3) and deed without love is not a truly good deed (I Corinthians 13). Love, as God defines it, is the foundation for all of Christ’s other commandments.

Finally, love is the preeminent Christian virtue because it binds us together as the body of Christ. When we consider God’s design for the New Testament Church, it is clearly to reflect the image of Christ to a lost and dying world. This is the reason that God uses the imagery of a body with various parts or members. The Church represents Christ’s body, with each individual member of the Church functioning as a part that composes the whole. Obviously, in order for a body to be whole and healthy it must be unified. The theme of unity in the Church is expressed throughout the epistles. However, the virtue that sustains such unity is…you guessed it …love. Love, as the primary way we identify with Christ, is also the primary virtue of the Church.

For example, I Peter 3:8 says, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” In order for members of the body to be unified in mind, to be showing compassion, pity, and courtesy to each other, they must love each other.  Later in I Peter 4:8, the apostle writes, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” The context of I Peter is a Church suffering persecution for Christ’s sake. In such dire times, the unity of the Church is paramount. In order for this unity to be a reality, love must be “above all” the things mentioned previously in the chapter. Those things would include being sober, watchful, and prayerful. As one commentator put it, this is not to say “that ‘charity’ or love is placed above ‘prayer,’ but because love is the animating spirit, without which all other duties are dead” (Jamison, Fausset, & Brown). We have already established that love is the foundation for all of Christ’s other commands—including prayer. Prayer is Christian duty. Love is the Christian virtue that supports it and animates the Christian to perform that duty. Love is what animates the body to use its members in ways that please God and accurately reflect Christ. Colossians 3:14 similarly says, “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Love is the virtue that binds the body of Christ together in perfectness, or wholeness—unity. Love animates the body of Christ to complete its evangelistic mission. The love of Christ and for Christ is the common thread that runs through all believers, binding them together as one body.

Truly, the greatest of these is love. Love is what identifies us with Christ. Love is what constrains us to live for Christ. Love is the foundation for all other commands of Christ. And love is what binds us together as the body of Christ. The virtue that animates all other Christian virtues is love. So, how are you doing? Are you keeping the Great Commandment and the New Commandment? Perhaps you can join me in praying for growth in the area of Christian love for God and others.

This is a prayer the apostle Paul made for the Ephesian church. Ephesians 3:14-19 says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto he Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” The “cause” or reason for Paul’s prayer is that these Christians will persevere through trials. He wanted them to remain steadfast and unified as a body of believers. He wanted them to be strengthened and to experience the fullness of God. All this would come if they would be “rooted and grounded in love” and would “know the love of Christ.” As the Ephesian Christians were exhorted to do, we must be rooted and grounded in Christ’s love for us and our love for Christ. If we do that, we will grow in other areas as well. When you don’t know where to start in Christianity, start with developing the preeminent Christian virtue—love.

The post The Preeminent Christian Virtue first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

So, how can we stay spiritually fit? The epistle of I John was written so that Christians can know how to stay in fellowship with God. We might say it is our instruction manual for staying spiritually fit in a distracting and deceiving world. The book of I John gives us three ways to stay spiritually fit: remembering the purpose of spiritual disciplines, keeping short accounts with God, and remembering our motivation. Let’s look at each in turn.

1. Remember the purpose of discipline. The Greek philosopher Aristotle is credited with having said, “Through discipline comes freedom.” Well, before he said it, Jesus Christ said something similar. In John 8:31-32, Jesus told the Jews who believed on Him, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Disciples of Christ are to be disciplined. To be disciples, we must continue in Christ’s words. I John uses the word abide to describe this idea of continuing or being disciplined in our walk with the Lord. I John 2:24 says, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” As we abide, or stick with, the commandments God has given us from the beginning, then we are abiding with the Son and the Father.

At the end of the chapter, John writes, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” We are told to abide in Christ. That word abide means “to stay in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy; to continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry.” Can you see the idea of discipline in this word abide? We are to stay with Christ, to endure with Him through whatever life brings. We are to be present with Christ—to consciously choose to be with Him through reading His Word daily and praying always. We are to remain with, to stand by, and to tarry or linger with Jesus during the day and in the night seasons. Abiding means being constantly connected to Christ as our power source. It means making such practices as Bible study and prayer a daily discipline.

The purpose of discipline is not the pain. Neither is the purpose of discipline to make ourselves feel virtuous. The purpose of discipline is freedom. When we say no to little things along the way that hinder our growth, we are actually saying yes to the best things—spiritual growth and rewards. The purpose of discipline is to help ourselves survive what life hurls at us and then to thrive in life. When we observe physical disciplines like diet and exercise, we do so, first of all, in order to survive—to get healthy and extend our lifespans. As we stick with those disciplines and seek to maintain them, these disciplines become a matter of thriving, of staying healthy and strong.

It is the same with Bible reading, prayer, and becoming contributing members of the Church. We must observe the daily discipline of Bible reading and prayer, not because it hurts or because it makes us automatically good Christians, but because we need it for our very survival. How are we as Christians to stay grounded in a chaotic, wicked world unless we hear directly from God through His Word? How are we to see the power of God at work in our lives if we are not pursuing Him in prayer? Why should we expect to “get a blessing from church” if we are hardly there or sit like lumps when we are there? The first step to staying spiritually fit is realizing that we need basic spiritual disciplines. When we are disciplined in our spiritual habits, we find the freedom to live, not just the surviving Christian life, but the thriving Christian life!

2. Keep short accounts with God. Just because we are developing spiritual disciplines in our lives does not mean that we will never make mistakes. As Christians living in our natural bodies in a fallen world, we will struggle with sin. We may have less than charitable thoughts and actions toward others. At times, we may surrender to fear rather than yield to the Spirit’s leading in our lives. We may even directly flout one of God’s commandments. When we have made a mistake in our physical regiments, what do we do? Do we quit pursuing our goals simply because we ate something we shouldn’t have or skipped a workout? Of course not! We start fresh the next day. That is the same attitude we should have in our spiritual life!

When we relapse into sinful habits, we can and should seek a fresh start with our Heavenly Father. The familiar verse I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The word confess here means “to say the same thing as another, to agree with, assent.” When we confess our sins, we are saying the same thing as God does about them. We are agreeing with God about the wickedness of our sin. We are assenting to His estimation of our sin. Confession is difficult because it takes humility to agree with God about how wrong we have been. Yet God responds to our confession with forgiveness. I love the meaning of the word forgive in this verse! It means to “send away, lay aside, forsake.” God does not excuse our sin. However, when we confess our sin, God literally sends it away from us. In His mercy, God lays aside our sin as if it were forgotten. He wipes our slate clean and gives us a fresh start. At that moment, our fellowship with God is restored. This forgiveness of God is faithful, meaning we can count on it every time. God is also just to forgive, meaning that we can know our forgiveness is judicially recognized and settled. What a joy to have the forgiveness of our Heavenly Father!

3. Recognize Christ’s return is imminent. A third way to keep ourselves spiritually fit is to keep our motivation at the forefront of our minds. Have you ever been in the middle of a particularly difficult workout and the only thing that kept you going was visualizing your ultimate goal? Every good physical fitness routine needs a good motivation. That source of motivation may be different for each person. But the fact remains that without the proper motivation, the success rate decreases significantly. When it comes to our spiritual fitness, we need to have the proper motivation as well!

The good news is that all Christians have the same motivation. This motivation is not God’s favor because that was already given to us by Christ’s finished work on the cross and our faith in Him. That motivation is not fear because we are eternally secure in Christ who holds us in the palm of His hand (see John 10:28 and I John 2:25). As I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” God’s love casts out our fear of judgement. Since God has already judged Christ in our place, those who have placed their faith in Him will never face the eternal judgment of God. As we are made perfect, or mature, in God’s love, we are released from that fear.

So, if God’s favor and our fear of judgement are not our motivators to be spiritually fit, what is? We find our motivation in I John 3:2-3 which says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” The imminent return of Christ is our motivation to stay diligent and spiritually fit. Someday, when Christ appears to us physically, we will see Him in all His glory. At that moment, we will be like He is—glorified! Those of us who have this hope of Christ’s return are purified by this hope. The word purified means “to make clean, sanctify.” The hope of Christ’s imminent return sanctifies the Christian!

This is not an intimidation tactic. If we are abiding in Christ through daily Bible reading and prayer, and keeping short accounts with Him, then the thought of Christ’s return at any moment should not intimidate us. This verse uses the word hope—we have hope in His return. This hope is not an anxious wish; it is a sure expectation. And this is not something that conjures fear but fervency to live for Christ. When we are living in expectation and confidence of Christ’s imminent return, we will become more sanctified in our Christian life. In contrast, if we are living in forgetfulness of His return, we may be tempted to sinful and lazy living.

For example, remember when you were a child and your parents left you at someone else’s house while they went out together. If your parents were like mine, they likely gave you advice that went something like this, “Remember whose kid you are!” By this they didn’t mean, “Don’t get amnesia and forget your family.” They meant, “Remember we are coming back for you soon because you’re our child. Act accordingly.” This was their way of motivating us to behave in a way that would not embarrass or tarnish the family name.

In the same way, Christ wants to motivate us with His soon return for His children. In Matthew 25:13, Jesus said something much like our parents used to say to us, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” For God’s child who is in fellowship with his Father, these words are not ominous. Rather, they are motivating to keep walking as Jesus would walk, to keep running the race, to keep fighting the good fight. Putting Christ’s return at the forefront of our minds helps to keep us pure and make us more like the Christ for whom we are watching and waiting. Christ will come back for us at any time, and that is our hope and motivation for Christian living.

So, how would you do on your spiritual fitness assessment?

From I John we find at least three basic steps to spiritual fitness—remembering the purpose of spiritual disciplines, keeping short accounts with our Heavenly Father, and remembering our motivation of Christ’s return. As we develop basic spiritual disciplines, they will become more than just items on a checklist. They will become the spiritual nutrients that we crave every day. We will not want to miss a day of Bible reading or prayer because it is so essential to our spiritual wellbeing! In addition, the sweet forgiveness of our Father for Christ’s sake will keep us in fellowship with Him. As long as we keep Christ’s imminent return in our minds, we will grow in the sanctification and purification process. God has given us everything we need to stay spiritually fit and thriving in the Christian life.

The post How to Stay Spiritually Fit first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

As aspiring disciples of Christ, we can learn some lessons from the three disciples closest to Jesus that night in Gethsemane. When Jesus asked his three chosen disciples in Matthew 26:38 to “tarry ye here, and watch with me,” He was inviting them to share in His life. What is incredible about being a disciple of Jesus, then and now, is that we are invited into a shared life with Jesus! Sharing in Christ’s life means sharing both His sorrows and triumphs. Romans 6:5 says, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” When we believe on Jesus Christ, we are planted together with Him. Our old sinful self has been crucified with Him and our new righteous self has been raised to life with Him. We identify with His sorrow and death, but we also identify with His resurrection and triumph! This is what the ordinance of baptism represents—identifying with and sharing in Christ’s life. When we share in Christ’s life, we may experience suffering because of persecution, just as He did. I Peter 4:13 says, “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” Even when we are persecuted for Christ’s sake, there is joy in knowing that we will also share in His glory.

From these verses, we see that being a disciple is not just about following a set of rules that Christ has given us, but it is about following the example Christ has set for us. It means to walk with Him, talk with Him, tarry with Him, and watch with Him. It means taking Christ’s steps and thinking His thoughts after Him. It means to sorrow over that which Jesus sorrows. It means to love what Jesus loves. This is discipleship—sharing the life of Christ.

From the disciples’ response to Christ’s request, we can learn a second lesson about ourselves and being a disciple of Jesus. After His first season of fervent prayer, Jesus returned to find His disciples sleeping where He had left them. Hadn’t they heard Jesus tell them about His exceeding great sorrow even unto death? Their bellies full from the Passover supper they’d just shared with Jesus, the disciples neglected Jesus’ request for companionship and prayer (Matthew 26:38). How could the three innermost disciples of Jesus let such a precious moment and opportunity slip by them? The disciples allowed carnality to rob them of spiritual blessing the same way any of us do today. They missed the moment because they failed to read the moment. They were not tuned into Jesus’ sorrow or His words. They were tuned into their tiredness. As a result, they slept when they needed prayer the most. Had they prayed then, perhaps they would have responded better when the crowd came for Jesus later that night. But because they had slept then, they fled later.

As humans, we are naturally in tune with our own needs and wants, sometimes to the point that we tune out Jesus’ words to us. How can we avoid failing our Lord and fleeing the face of adversity? A good disciple must take to heart Jesus’ words—the words that these disciples seemed to ignore at the time. Those words are found in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” As human beings, we often have good intentions. We are willing to follow Jesus, but our natural needs and wants sometimes get in the way. If we are going to be faithful disciples of Jesus, we will need more than our good intentions. We will need to heed Jesus’ command to watch and pray.

The first part of Christ’s command to His disciples is to watch. To watch means “to keep awake or to be vigilant.” We see this admonition to keep awake and vigilant throughout the Bible. I Corinthians 15:34 says, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” As disciples of Jesus, we must be intentional about pursuing righteousness. If we are passive, if we fall asleep, we will fall into sin and miss opportunities to share the gospel of Christ with others. Another reason we must keep and awake and be vigilant as a disciple is that the Devil wants to devour us. Earlier that night, Jesus had warned Peter that the Devil desired to have him (Luke 22:31). To this, Peter hastily insisted that he was up to the task of following Jesus to the ends of the earth. Perhaps Peter did not take the threat of the Devil’s designs on him seriously at the time. It would seem that he didn’t, since Peter fell asleep in Gethsemane! Rather than mimicking Peter in Luke 22 and Matthew 26, we must take to heart the warning that Peter, under inspiration, later delivered in I Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Perhaps Peter remembered that night in Gethsemane as he penned these words. The sleeping Christian is no match for the roaring lion that seeks to devour him. Yet the Devil is no match for a watching Christian who is sharing in Christ’s life.

Not only did Jesus ask His disciples to watch, but He also asked them to pray. Prayer is a disciple’s primary line of defense against sin and the Devil. The reason prayer is such a great defense is that it is an expression of our submission to God. As we are told in James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we are submitting ourselves to God, we are simultaneously resisting the Devil. A praying disciple means a fleeing Devil! While the Devil is not afraid of the disciple, he fears the One protecting the disciple. When the disciple submits himself to God’s authority, he is also putting himself within God’s protection. I John 5:18 says, “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” The believer that keeps himself in Christ, or holds fast to and observes His commands, is untouchable to the Devil.

Perhaps this is why the Bible is so emphatic about prayer. We are told to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17), to “continue you in prayer, and watch in the same” (Colossians 4:2), and to be “praying always . . . and watching thereunto with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18). Watching and praying go together. When we neglect prayer, we slip back in negligence rather than vigilance. Negligent, self-reliant disciples, like the three in the garden that night, become sleeping disciples. Then, when the temptation comes, they are caught off guard. Rather than making the Devil flee from them, they flee because they were sleeping rather than praying. When Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the evil judge in Luke 18, He made this point: “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” If we are praying, we will not be fainting or fleeing when temptation comes.

We can learn from the three disciples who spent that night in Gethsemane with Jesus, even if theirs is a negative example. From the remainder of scripture, we know that these disciples learned from their mistakes that night and followed Christ whole-heartedly. Because of their renewed decision to watch and pray until Christ’s return, God used these same disciples to turn the world upside down with the gospel! The Christ that we see in Gethsemane—this fully human and fully divine Jesus—can do the same with you and me today! If we will choose to enter a shared life with Christ, to watch and pray always, God can use us to influence our world with the gospel! As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, let’s not miss the lessons of Gethsemane. Let’s linger with Jesus in Gethsemane and awake to true discipleship.

The post Glimpsing Gethsemane, Part Two first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

When glimpsing Gethsemane, it’s hard to miss the humanity of Jesus. Mark 14:33 says, “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.” The words sore amazed mean “to alarm thoroughly, to terrify,” and the words very heavy mean “to be troubled,” or to be in “great distress or anguish.” Jesus knew what was coming and, as a man, He was dreading it. He was terrified of the cross and He was in anguish over the impending judgement of the Father. Jesus shares this very human moment with these three beloved disciples, saying in Matthew 26:38, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.” In this moment, Jesus was not just relating to them as their master teacher and Lord; He was relating to them as a close friend. As a man, Jesus asked for companionship and comfort in His time of greatest anguish.

The truth is we cannot even imagine the level of anguish felt by Jesus because we have never been as close to the Father as Jesus was. He was one with the Father and yet He was about to be forsaken by the Father for our sakes! Luke’s account of this night gives us a glimpse of the level of anguish Jesus was experiencing in the garden. As a medical doctor, Luke adds another detail that the other gospels do not. Luke 22:44 says, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Sweating blood is a rare physical phenomenon called hematohidrosis, “in which the capillary vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.”[1] If you knew that you were about to be tortured at the hands of evil men, bear the sins of the entire world, be forsaken by your Heavenly Father from whom you’d never before been separated, and then die on a cross, would you feel terror and anguish? Jesus Christ felt the most extreme level of suffering that any human being can feel, starting that night in Gethsemane and continuing until He finished His work on the cross.

What makes Christianity different from other religions is that the Christian God initiated the reconciliation of God and man. He didn’t just demand that people climb to Him because He knew that we could not possibly do it. So, He came down to us and lived with us and among us. He experienced our hunger, pain, and temptations. He took our sin on Himself and experienced an eternity’s worth of torment compressed into a matter of hours. From Gethsemane to Golgotha, He suffered everything we deserved and more. This is the reason that we can never say to Jesus, “You don’t understand what I’m going through! How could you let me suffer like this?” As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, we have an empathetic High Priest who has already felt the most extreme pangs of suffering for us, so that we will never have to feel them.

In his humanity, Jesus also modeled the appropriate attitude of prayer to the Father. He managed His human emotions with prayer. Matthew 26:39 tells us that Jesus “went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed.” Jesus Christ was prostrate in prayer—the classic position of humility and submission. In His sorrow, Jesus prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (v. 39) Jesus supplicated with God to take away the anguish He faced. Yet even while He asked for what He wanted in His humanity, Jesus also submitted to the Father’s will. As Jesus Christ prayed, so we ought to pray honestly and humbly. We pray with our hands open so that God may remove from them whatever He wants and place in them whatever He deems best. Christ’s humanity is essential to God’s redemptive story and it was on full display in Gethsemane.

While Jesus’ humanity is obvious in Gethsemane, never once does Jesus set aside His divinity. Despite the sorrow and the anguish, we see Jesus’ divinity and sovereignty in His response to Judas’ betrayal. Jesus was not surprised by Judas’ betrayal. He was completely aware of the devices of Judas’ heart. During the last supper, Jesus had predicted that one of His disciples would betray Him and even went so far as to point him out (Matthew 26:21-25). However, the other disciples did not seem to comprehend Jesus’ prediction of betrayal. His last words to the three disciples before His arrest were, “He is at hand that doth betray me” (Matthew 26:46). Jesus responded to Judas’ betraying kiss with a rhetorical question, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?” (v. 50).  Like any of Jesus’ questions, this question was not for His own sake, but for Judas’ sake. As Jesus said those words, perhaps He and Judas made momentary eye contact. What a painful gaze that must’ve been for Judas! With His rhetorical question, Jesus made it clear that He knew what was happening.

Another expression of Jesus’ divinity and sovereignty even in Gethsemane is His response to the crowd that came for Him. When they entered the garden with lanterns and weapons, Jesus stood calmly while His disciples finally stirred awake. Now fully awake, Peter drew his sword and assaulted the high priest’s servant. In response, Jesus said, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (vv. 52-54). Jesus wanted Peter to know that He did not need his protection. With one word, Jesus could have saved Himself. Perhaps if Peter had stayed awake to listen to Jesus’ earlier prayer to the Father, he would have realized the unity of Christ and God the Father. He would have realized that the Son was not being seized, but that that Son was simply being surrendered to the Father’s will.

In case the crowd there to arrest Him was under the same delusion that Jesus was helpless, Jesus said to them, “Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid not hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” (vv. 55-56) It was not that their timing was perfect and they had finally caught Jesus off-guard like a hostile thief in the night. Quite to the contrary, they were operating according to God’s time-table. As Jesus said moments before this in verse 45, “Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” Jesus knew what was coming. Jesus was not being taken, He was fulfilling the scriptures. He had predicted this in John 14:30-31, saying, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” Jesus was saying that, although the Devil was coming for Him, the Devil would ultimately have no claim on Him. Jesus would not be killed by the Devil. Jesus would be obedient to the Father, even to the point of death on the cross (Philippians 2:7-8). This moment in Gethsemane illustrates the complete unity and sovereignty of God the Son and God the Father.

Glimpsing Jesus’ humanity and divinity in Gethsemane reminds us that the Father knew exactly what was needed for our redemption. Jesus did not allow His humanity to eclipse His divinity. While He felt the full spectrum of human emotions in Gethsemane, yet He fulfilled the Scriptures perfectly and proceeded to the cross. II Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” God the Father knew that only a man could pay for the sins of humankind, but He also knew that only a perfect man could be the satisfactory sacrifice. This is why the God-man, Jesus Christ, was the only One who could be that Passover Lamb for the entire human race. Because He was both God and man, a wonderful exchange has taken place: our sin for Christ’s righteousness.

[1] Jerajani, H R et al. “Hematohidrosis – a rare clinical phenomenon.” Indian journal of dermatology vol. 54,3 (2009): 290-2. doi:10.4103/0019-5154.55645

The post Glimpsing Gethsemane, Part One first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

So said the existential philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. Existentialism is the philosophy that there is no God and that life is intrinsically meaningless. Free from God and the absolute meaning, value, and purpose He imposes on us, each person becomes his own creator. Existentialism says that we are totally free—free to create our own meaning, determine our own values, and pursue our own purpose. Some, however, have acknowledged the dark side to this freedom. Freedom from God means slavery to everything else. The existentialist believes that the moment he stops moving, the moment he stops creating—he stops existing. This is why Sartre says that men are condemned to be free. It is completely up to him to make life happen, and that freedom turns out to be the worst kind of tyranny.

Here we find another paradox of the Christian life.  As my dad often puts it, “The more I own, the more I worry. The less I own, the less I worry.” Often, we humans believe that if we could just control all the variables in life and get our desired outcome, then we would be carefree and fulfilled. However, being in control of every variable is not an option. For that reason, the more we try to own everything in our lives, the more those things in life own us. When we fool ourselves into believing that we can control all the variables in life, our attention is arrested by and divided among those variables. This enormous responsibility we place on ourselves plunges us into anxiety.

To demonstrate just how little control we have over our own lives, Jesus says in Matthew 6:27, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” The question is a rhetorical one. Jesus then drives His point home with a second question in verse 28, “And why take ye thought for raiment?” In other words, if you can’t even add a smidge to your height, why do you think you can control anything else about your life? Jesus continues in verses 28-30, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Jesus pointed out that even Solomon didn’t have it as good as these lilies of the field. While Solomon had to toil for His sumptuous lifestyle, the lilies do not have to worry about their most basic needs because God takes care of them.

Now, Jesus is not saying that we should not work to provide for ourselves. Rather, He is saying that we shouldn’t overwork our minds trying to control every variable to get a desired outcome. If God would take care of the lilies, which do not toil or take thought for their lives, He will certainly take care of us—human beings created in His image. We do not have to feign ownership because God has complete ownership. We do not have to fake control because God is in control. We do not have to take thought because God will take care.

So, how can we be like the care-free lilies of the field? How can we win over worry in our lives?

First, we need to remember that there is more to life than the variables. Jesus said in Matthew 6:25, “Therefore take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Here, Jesus reminds us that our basic life needs—those variables we so often seek to manipulate—are not really what makes our lives meaningful after all. We cannot create ourselves, our meaning, value, and purpose no matter how much we manipulate the variables. Our divided attention among these variables will do us no good in the end. We will remain anxious and owned. Before we can win over worry, we must give up the futile fight for control.

Next, in order to win over worry, we must worship God. The word therefore clues us into the fact that Jesus is still talking about the same general theme: focus. The verse before this, Matthew 6:24, reminded us that what we focus on is what we will serve. Well, Matthew 6:25-33 teaches us that what we focus on is what we will worship. Jesus says in verse 31-32, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Believers in Christ should realize that their heavenly Father is aware of their needs. Unlike the Gentiles (or unbelievers), believers do not need to spend their energy trying to manipulate the variables. Where should their energy and attention be directed if not toward their basic life needs? Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The word seek, again, speaks of focus—focus on God’s kingdom and His righteousness. This focus on God as the rightful owner of my life and captain of my destiny is a form of worship. Worship is attributing worth to God for Who He is and what He has done. What better form of worship is there than surrendering my life, my perceived ownership to God (Romans 12:1)? We can release our vice-grip on life, we can win over worry with worship of God. The next time worry tries to take over your mind, push it back with worship of God. Begin to extol God for His attributes and for what He has done for you in the past. Tell Him that you are giving Him ownership of your life because He alone is worthy of it. Beat back worry with worship.

A focused Christian does not fall into the trap of “Christian existentialism.” A focused Christian does not seek to create meaning and purpose in his life by trying to control the variables. A focused Christian realizes that his meaning and purpose has already been created for him. It is a simple purpose and all he has to do is recognize and pursue it. That purpose is not to be well-respected, or to have a lofty career, or to garner a great paycheck, or to accumulate a lovely estate. That purpose is simply to glorify God by doing His will.

When we accept and pursue this purpose, the anxiety melts away. The pressure is off because we don’t have to make life happen. We don’t have to make our lives meaningful or purposeful. God already made them so. All we need to do is seek God and work on building His kingdom through Bible reading, prayer, witnessing, and exhorting fellow believers. When we are focused on this—when we are worshipping—we don’t have time to worry about all the other variables. And we don’t have to because Jesus promised that He would add all these things unto us. Jesus has the capacity to be aware of and take care of all of life’s variables at once. We cannot because we were not created for such a purpose. What peace there is in relinquishing a responsibility that was never mine and pursuing my true purpose instead.

So, what variable are you trying to control today? Do you think you need food, clothing, something to do or somewhere to live? Do you want love, respect, or purpose? You will find all these things and so much more when you stop seeking them and start seeking God instead.

The Christian life is filled with paradoxes. One of the most profound is that those who seek to save their lives will lose them; and those who lose their lives, or relinquish ownership of their lives, will preserve them (see Luke 17:33). Life isn’t what you make it, as the existentialists would say. Life is what you allow God to make it. It is God’s job to calculate and control all the variables; it is our job to seek Him first. The power of focus is that Jesus will add to us if we will worship Him.

The post The Power of Focus, Part Two: Worry or Worship? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

While it has always been a fearful world, some of us are feeling that reality more poignantly right now. Many young people from my generation have not lived through extreme adversity. Freedom is to us what paint is to our walls—we live with it, but don’t often give thought to how it came to be there. Unlike the generations before us, we have not lived through something as severe as the Great Depression, the World Wars, or even the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. The cancerous spread of Communism is something we have read about in the history books. And yet, now, all of these historical events—from economic depression to totalitarian government—are beginning to look less like history and more like a revived reality.

When we look at history, we see that the Church has always thrived in adversity. The forces of evil have tried but have never succeeded in crushing the Church. Built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, not even the gates of hell can prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18)! In fact, Christianity has multiplied during adversity. In a fearful world, what is the Church to do? In II Corinthians 4:8-10, God used the apostle Paul to exhort the Church, saying, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” How can we, the Church today, be resilient like the Church of history? We can be resilient Christians when we hold onto three main truths found in II Corinthians 4 and throughout the Bible.

1. We have a life that cannot be destroyed. As II Corinthians 4:8-10 says, because we have identified with the death of Christ, we can also share in the life of Christ. This life that we have in Christ is eternal. I John 2:25 says, “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” Nothing and no one can take that kind of life away from us. Romans 8:35 asks the rhetorical question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” At the end of the chapter comes the obvious answer, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, no any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The greatest threat that Satan had to hold over your heads—sin and death—has been destroyed by Christ. Satan and his tools of evil have nothing over you anymore. If our greatest enemy—death—has been destroyed, what is there really left to fear? We can now live in courage for the cause of Christ because we have a life that cannot be destroyed.

2. We have a power that cannot be diminished. Not only do we have eternal life in Christ, but we have the life of Christ in us. II Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” The earthen vessels are our mortal bodies and the treasure is Jesus Christ and His gospel. When we accepted the gospel, the Holy Spirit moved into our bodies. As temples of the Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to yield to the Holy Spirit’s control. When we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we can and will do the things that Jesus does. We can love like Jesus loves, give like Jesus gives, empathize like Jesus does, and comfort like Jesus comforts. Christ’s life in us cannot be snuffed out by any outside force. It is up to us whether or not Christ’s life will be lived through our bodies.

Remember, II Corinthians 4:7 said that this power we experience is “not of us,” but it is in us. The power is of God who is residing in us. I John 4:4 reminds us, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The Holy Spirit can empower us to discern between the truth and false doctrine. He can give us the words to say in the moment we need them. He can give us power to resist temptation and do right every time. Because Christ has already overcome the world (John 16:33), we already have victory in Him. All we need to do is, by faith, claim that victory. I John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” It is our faith in Christ that gives us the victory over sin and every adversity we face in this life. It is our faith and His power that overcomes the world. Because it is God’s power, this power cannot be diminished by outside forces.

3. We have a hope that cannot be dimmed. In II Corinthians 4:14, the apostle Paul encourages the Corinthian believers with the reality of the resurrection. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so He will raise up those who are in Christ. “For which cause,” Paul says in verse 16, “we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Every day, a Christian can wake up with renewed peace, joy, and hope. Why? Because the hope we have as Christians is not wishful thinking. It is a reality, albeit not yet fully realized.

I Peter 1:3-6 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” We may be in heaviness right now, but we can also be rejoicing because the heaviness is not eternal. It is not our ultimate reality. We have the resurrection, eternal life with Jesus, and an incorruptible inheritance in heaven to look forward to. Our hope is a lively hope because it is anchored in a living Savior—Jesus Christ.

With this hope in the forefront of our minds, we can press through temporary adversity. As II Corinthians 4:17-18 concludes, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Our affliction today seems light when compared to the weightiness of our glorious future. The most real things are not the things we can see right now. Right now, we can see trials, pain, suffering, wars, and threats of war. Those are realities, but they are only temporal realities. The ultimate reality—the eternal reality—is God and His plan of redemption. This is the reality that will win out in the end! So, why should we allow our perspective to be consumed with temporal realities that conjure fear? Instead, we should allow our spirits to be renewed daily with this lively hope—this ultimate reality—that will soon be fully realized. As Christians, we know the end of the story. And it’s a good ending for us. Our goal should be to invite as many other people into that happy ending as we can.

Just as the Church of generations past shone as a beacon of hope in a troubled world, the Church of our generation can and must do the same. There is more than one way to look at a troubled time. Yes, it is a time of discomfort and adversity. But it is also an opportunity to strengthen and add to the Church. During troubled times, people are searching for the greater reality. As Christians who are living in that greater reality, we are responsible to tell others about it, see them saved, discipled, and added to the body of Christ. Now is not the time to hunker down and hold down the fort. Now is the time to swing wide open the doors and launch out into the highways and byways looking for souls. Based on these three main truths, what have we got to lose? Church, it is our time to shine for Christ!

The post Church, It’s Our Time! first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Before six the next morning, my dad peered out the window to look at our truck. As was his custom, Dad had parked the truck within eyeshot of our hotel room. This morning, he didn’t see it. At first, he wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But then his eyes caught a glimpse of taillights—our truck’s taillights—just as it was pulling around the building. Still in shock, dad walked out to the parking lot and stood in the space where he’d parked the truck the night before. He had parked it right under a light pole with a sign posted on it reading: “Not responsible for lost or stolen items.” The night before, two police cars had been parked directly across from this spot. To make sure the truck was missing, Dad walked around the parking lot twice before calling the police to report the truck stolen.

Hours later, the police arrived. They were very kind, but they were also very swamped. We learned that Albuquerque, NM has one of the highest rates of car theft in the United States! One more truck stolen wasn’t a big deal for the police. After we had rented a van and were a few hours into our trip, we got the call that our truck was found! When we drove back to Albuquerque to pick it up in a junk yard, we discovered a battered version of our truck and no trace of our stuff! Among the lost items were some expensive hiking gear, an iPad, a laptop, my brother’s dress clothes and a good portion of his wardrobe, some school books and dvds, sermon notes, and other items with sentimental value.

At the time, I was miffed about the things I had lost. I even shed a few tears over them! I felt angry, and sad, and violated in a way. From this experience, I learned two things. First, my affections were much more devoted to my possessions than I had thought. Later, I realized that my possessions did not make as much of a difference in my life as I had thought. Just a couple years after the event, I could not recall all the items I had lost.

Perhaps you can think of such a loss in your life. Most likely, yours was more significant than the one I shared here. Whatever loss you’ve suffered, such losses make Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:19-20 even more poignant.

In Matthew 6:19, Jesus warns us against a misplaced focus—a focus on accumulating earthly treasure. He says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.” As good as they may be, the treasures we can accumulate here are extremely vulnerable. Clothing is vulnerable to the destruction of moths. Metal is vulnerable to the corrosion of rust. Everything is vulnerable to the thievery of dishonest men. Perhaps the apostle Paul described earthly treasure most accurately when he said in I Timothy 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches.” Similarly Proverbs 23:5 says, “For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” The problem with earthly treasure is that it simply cannot be trusted.

Such a love of earthly treasure is a misplaced affection. Earthly treasure is not a worthy object of our love because it is temporal. As I John 2:15-17 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any many love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” Our hearts do not have the capacity to love two opposite things at once. We must choose the object of our affections. If we choose to make earthly treasure the object of our affections, then our purpose will pass away when the world and its treasures pass away.

How can we focus our affections on a more worthy object?

First, we must recognize our tendency to wrap our affections around earthly treasure. My pastor recently preached from Luke 12:15. Here Jesus admonished, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Why would Jesus issue such a strong admonition unless we have a tendency toward covetousness—toward wrapping our affections around earthly treasure? On one hand, it is understandable that we would become attached to earthly treasure. After all, earthly treasure is what we can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. It gives us a false sense of control and security. This earthly treasure may not be money for you. It could be a position, a person, a career, a passion, or another possession that captures your affection away from God. What is it for you? What are you most invested in? Whatever your heart says is the ultimate source of your peace, happiness, hope, or security is the thing that has captured your affections.

In addition to recognizing this tendency, we must recognize the trap it lays for us. The Bible does not say that earthly treasure is intrinsically evil, but it does that the love of earthly treasure is a trap. I Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When we inordinately love earthly treasure—when all our time, resources, and energy is put toward laying up earthly treasures—this breeds greed, covetousness, and discontentment in our lives. These vices lead to self-inflicted sorrow. On a small scale, my temper-tantrum over losing my stuff in Albuquerque illustrates this truth. The more tightly our affections are wrapped around earthly treasure, the more painful it is to be pried away from our earthly treasure.

This brings us to the third step we must take toward focusing our affections. We must realize what is our true treasure. And that is Jesus Christ and the inheritance we have through Him! When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we received two great treasures: eternal life and the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but we also received, as joint heirs with Christ, a heavenly treasure. This inheritance is a promise as Ephesians 1:11 says, “In whom [Christ] also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” God has predetermined that anyone who will be His child will also be the beneficiary of His inheritance! This promised inheritance is also a lasting inheritance. I Peter 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” In contrast with the earthly treasure vulnerable to corruption (Matthew 6:19), our heavenly inheritance is incorruptible. Unlike our earthly treasure that will pass away with the world (I John 2:17), our heavenly inheritance will never fade away.

Now that we have realized our true treasure in Christ, we are ready to take the fourth step toward focusing our affections. We are ready to place our affections on the only worthy object.

As Christians, we are called to a higher purpose, a grander pursuit than accumulating earthly treasure. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” Seeking is a matter of focus. When you are seeking for something you’ve lost, you put away all distractions around you—even good things—so that you can find the one thing you need. So, when we are seeking godliness, we must put away all the distractions of earthly things. We cannot divide our affections among positions, prestige, and possessions while seeking godliness at the same time. Seeking is the opposite of divided attention. Seeking is directed attention; it is focus. We must direct our attention and focus our affections on God and His will. As I John 2:17, doing God’s will is the only legacy that will last.

When I reflect on that day in Albuquerque, I’m reminded of C. S. Lewis’ words in The Problem of Pain: “All these toys were never intended to possess my heart. My true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ.” (Lewis, p. 106) Any earthly treasure that could capture our affection will pass away. This is not to say that we should not love any thing or person on earth. Rather, this is to say that no earthly thing or person should capture our affection away from God. Sometimes God has to strip things away from us in order to help us realize that our greatest need, our deepest desire, our truest treasure is God Himself. Everything else is just an added bonus! We must ask ourselves, “Are my affections captured by earthly treasure or focused on things above?” A life of peace, purpose, and contentment testifies to the power of focused affections.

The post The Power of Focus, Part One: Captured of Focused Affections? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Like me, your heart has probably been heavy. Headlines seem to come out every minute with new details about the conflict in Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine has been characterized as the most significant crisis in Europe since WWII. The images of people huddling in subway systems for shelter and neighborhoods destroyed makes our hearts ache for people we don’t even know. It hurts to see families being separated, as some are fleeing to safety and others are staying to defend their country. It’s enraging, and terrifying, and saddening. It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of such a crisis. So, how can we pray for the conflict in Ukraine?

1. Pray for innocent lives to be protected and preserved. In Psalm 74:21, the psalmist cried, “O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.” Let’s join the psalmist in praying, “Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand . . . to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may not more oppress.” (Psalm 10:12, 18) This should be our prayer for the people of Ukraine. We can also claim the truths in Psalm 9:9, “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble,” and Psalm 103:6, “The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” We know that God values all human life. We know that He is the righteous Judge of the universe. While we cannot explain why He allows certain evil to happen, we can trust that the righteous Judge of the universe will do right (Genesis 18:25).

2. Pray for Putin’s plans to be thwarted. We know that Putin’s disregard for innocent human life is not pleasing to God. We can be confident that we are on God’s side when we are opposing Putin’s action. As the psalmist did, we can claim this truth in Psalm 146:9: “The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.” Let’s pray that God will turn upside down the designs of President Putin. To this end, we can also pray for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to be protected, and to have the strength and resources he needs to defend his country.

3. Pray for our world leaders to make wise decisions that signal strength. We may not have faith in our current President, but we can have faith in God’s ability to influence him. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithsoever he will.” We know that God is ultimately in control and that He can influence world leaders to make right decisions. So, let us pray that God surrounds President Biden with wise counselors that will give him sound advice. We can pray that President Biden and other decision-makers will make decisions that signal strength in the face of tyranny, while also acting in the best interest of America and her citizens. In addition, we can pray for other world leaders (like President Zelensky of Ukraine and NATO leaders) to respond with wisdom, strength, and precision.

4. Pray for Christians in Ukraine to stand firm in the faith and to stay safe. As I have seen videos surface of Ukrainian Christians singing and praying together, it has made me feel connected to them. All God’s children share a unique bond. We may not know each other personally, or share the same language, or live in the same place, but we “stand fast in one spirit,” and we are “striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27) While we may not be able to exhort each other physically, American Christians can exhort our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in prayer.

The apostle Paul begins many of his letters by mentioning his appreciation and prayer for his fellow believers (Eph. 1:16, Phil. 1:9, Col. 1:3, 9; I Thess. 1:2, II Thess. 1:11). As Paul prayed for the believers in these churches, we can pray for the Christians in Ukraine to stand strong in their faith during this trying time. We can pray that God’s sufficient grace will strengthen them (II Corinthians 12:9), for His perfect peace to keep them (Isaiah 26:3), and for His deliverance from danger. Let’s claim Psalm 33:18-19 for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters: “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.” Psalm after psalm describes the mercy, care, and protection that God provides for His people. These are the prayers we can pray over the Ukrainian Christians.

5. Pray for the furtherance of the gospel. Many missionaries in Ukraine are faced with the difficult to decision: should they leave Ukraine or stay? They may be torn between the desire to make sure their own families are safe and the desire to remain with the people to whom they minister. God may have a different desire and will for each family. Nevertheless, we can pray that each missionary will be confident of what God wants for them and that their ministries will continue to flourish whether or not they remain there physically.

Throughout history, Christianity has faced severe opposition. Yet the flames of the Christian Church have only ever been fanned by the winds of opposition. We can pray that, as people are seeking for security and hope right now, they will find that in Jesus Christ and His gospel. Let’s pray that Christians, missionaries and their people, will have wisdom to know how, when, and where to share the gospel with seeking people. Since we know it is God’s will for His gospel to go forth, we can be confident that He will answer this prayer (I John 5:14-15).

This is a turbulent time for the world. Our hearts echo the words in Revelation 22:20, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” We know the end of the story: Jesus will come again and create a new perfect heaven and a new perfect earth. King Jesus will make all things right.

In the meantime, Christians are resilient in adversity because we are overcomers in Christ. Jesus said, “In this world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We are overcomers because of our faith in Him (I John 5:4-5). And we are overcomers because we have a force in us that is greater than the forces of the world (I John 4:4). With the apostle Paul, Christians in Ukraine, Russia, and all over the world can say, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed . . . For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (II Corinthians 4:8-9, 17) Truly, it is wonderful to be a Christian.

The post 5 Ways to Pray for the Conflict in Ukraine first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

“Perhaps you were made for such a time as this.” These were Mordecai’s words to his cousin, Queen Esther, when she was debating whether or not to get involved in the fight for the Jews’ lives. Mordecai reminded her that, in reality, she didn’t have much of a choice. Not only was it her moral duty to get involved, but she was also one of the them. It was her people that were going to die. Her life hung in the balance with theirs.

If only we could look at abortion that way. Sometimes, even as “good Christians,” we are hesitant to get involved in the fight for the lives of the unborn. We are afraid such a move would be viewed as “political” or “right wing.” The truth is that being pro-life is not a political statement at all; it is our moral duty. In Psalm 82:3 God confronts unjust leaders, saying, “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.” Similarly, Proverbs 31:8-9 commands us to speak up for the voiceless. And, just as Esther’s life was entangled with the Jews, so our lives are connected to our unborn children. After all, we are one of them. Each of us were as they are at some point in our lives. Perhaps you were made for such a time as this.

It’s time for Christians to see the pro-life cause as not just another political or Conservative cause, but as a practical application of living out Christian love. James 1:27 says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” So, how can we practice pure religion in our world today? Let’s look at four practical ways that Christians can help women and babies in their communities.

Love. In I Corinthians 13:3, the apostle tells us that our good deeds are ineffectual without love. Love is the foundation and motivation for our pro-life work. It was love that compelled Christ to go to the cross for us, and it is love that compels us to follow in His footsteps. Jesus said that we are to love as He has loved us (John 13:34). And how has Jesus loved us? Jesus served with humility (John 13:3-15 ), and Jesus sacrificed Himself for others (John 19:30). We can love as Jesus did when we serve women in their unplanned or unwanted pregnancies.

While good deeds are useless without love, love is still expressed through good deeds. As I John 3:17-18 says, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue;, but in deed and in truth.” So, our loving women and babies will look like action.

For starters, we cannot love someone if we have not listened to their story and gotten to know them. Understanding them will help us to know how to better serve them. If we put ourselves in her shoes, we can think of many acts of service that could improve the quality of life for mom and baby. Perhaps you could offer to babysit a woman’s other children or help her with some housework. Maybe you could make some meals, clean the house, or do repair work for an overwhelmed expectant mother. Offering to counsel her on child-care before and after her baby is born is another way to serve and sacrifice. Loving babies and their mothers will require that we serve them with humility and sacrifice our time and energy in seeking their best interest.

Pray. From Christ’s example, we can also see that love motivated prayer. In the garden of Gethsemane, in His hour of greatest anguish, Jesus prayed for the best interest of His disciples and of the ones who would later become His disciples (John 17). If we are going to love like Jesus, that means we must pray for women and their babies. We must pray that God will change the hearts of abortion-vulnerable women, that God will protect the lives of the unborn, and that God will provide hope and help for women in unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. We can pray for the strengthening of our fellow pro-life advocates. And we can pray for wisdom about our part in all of this.

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable about a woman who persisted in asking an unjust judge to advocate on her behalf until he finally relented and answered her request. What was the lesson Jesus wanted us to learn from this story? We “ought always to pray, and not to faint.” If we are always praying, that doesn’t leave us much time to feel sorry for ourselves and give up, does it? As long as we are praying, we will not be fainting. We are to persist in prayer. After all, if an unjust judge would answer the request of a persistent woman, how much more likely is it that our loving Father in heaven would answer our prayers? Furthermore, we can have confidence that God will answer when we are asking within His will (I John 5:14-15). Certainly, it is God’s will for women to come to Him with their lives and the lives of their children. Let’s love like Jesus by praying boldly and persistently for lives to be saved, restored, and regenerated by the gospel.

Give. Being pro-life is not just about being pro-birth (Psalm 139:13-16). It is also about being pro-life-after-birth (James 1:27). It also means being pro-eternal life and pro-abundant life (John 11:25). This means that we are to be encouraging women to keep their babies, but also providing them with the resources to take care of that child and themselves after they give birth. It means that we are to be counseling new mothers and discipling new Christians so that they can have eternal life and an abundant life today.

If any people should be giving their money, resources, time, and energies to the unborn and their mothers, it is the Church. Jesus said that we all have something to give. The apostle Paul exhorted the elders of Ephesus with this truth in Acts 20:35, saying, “I have shewed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We may not have much money, but we all have enough to give. We may not have many resources, but we all have something to offer. We may not have an abundance of “free time,” but we can choose how we use that time. Our giving may look like donating to a local pregnancy center or pro-life organization. It could mean volunteering some of your time to help at a pro-life event or local pregnancy center. Perhaps it would look like donating baby clothes or other supplies to your local pregnancy center. Or it could mean investing time, energy, and creativity into throwing a baby shower for an expectant mother who has decided to carry her child.

We can give our support, our time, our resources, and our counsel to these women. If you stop to think about it, you will find that you actually have much to offer because it is Christ who gives through you. Let’s not miss out on sheer joy of giving.

Vote. While we understand that our hope is not in politics, laws still do matter. They matter because they affect real flesh-and-blood people—people like vulnerable women and their unborn children. As Christians, we are called to influence our societies for good. Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth, meaning we are to preserve righteousness in the space we occupy (Matthew 5:13). And He said that we are the light of the world, meaning that we are to expose corruption wherever it is found and exemplify godliness wherever we go (Matthew 5:14-15). As American Christians, we are blessed with the freedom to have a say in our laws. It is our responsibility to be good stewards of our voice. We can do this by voting for candidates that will oppose pro-abortion legislation and promote pro-life legislation. Another way we can do this is by informing ourselves and others about the legislation in our own states.

We are all praying for a world without Roe. And it looks like that prayer could be answered in the summer of 2022. Whatever the outcome, we must be prepared to offer a loving alternative to abortion. The Church should be on the front lines of the pro-life movement, sharing the gospel, loving and counseling women, protecting and providing for their children. There are so many ways to be involved in this work. Let’s get busy because God put us here for such a time as this.

The post A World Without Roe? Part Four first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

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Nearly every year since the Roe decision in 1973, an abortion case has come before the Supreme Court. As Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart began the oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson in December, “Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey haunt our country. They have no basis in the Constitution. They have no home in our history or traditions. They’ve damaged democratic process. They’ve poisoned the law. They’ve choked off compromise. For 50 years, they’ve kept this Court at the center of a political battle that it can never resolve. And 50 years on, they stand alone. Nowhere else does this Court recognize a right to end a human life.” Since its decision in 1973, the Court has become and has been viewed as more of a political arm than a neutral arbitrator. The Court has been embroiled in one of the most morally and politically polarizing issues in America—abortion.

The question the Court is answering is whether all pre-viability abortion bans are unconstitutional. There seem to be a few plausible ways the Court could answer this question.

1. The Court could uphold Roe and Casey, subsequently striking down the Mississippi law as unconstitutional. In so doing, the Court would affirm that abortion is a constitutional right. This would mean that the viability-line and “undue burden” test remain as the standards that govern when and how states may regulate abortion.

2. In a compromise, the Court could “limit” Casey by doing away with the viability line and, therefore, uphold the Mississippi law. Chief Justice Roberts seems most interested in this option. During the oral arguments, he said that abandoning the viability line would not affect the central holding of Roe because “as far as viability goes, I don’t know what that has to do with the question of choice at all.” He also noted that Mississippi’s 15-week ban is not radical and that many other countries have similar standards. (In fact, it is interesting to note that the United States is one of the seven most lenient countries on abortion, in the company of countries like China and North Korea.) So, Chief Justice Roberts is leaning toward maintaining Roe—and therefore, the Constitutional right to abortion—while abandoning the arbitrary viability line. States would then have more freedom to regulate abortions. However, this outcome would only land more abortion cases in the Supreme Court’s lap. It would not resolve the issue of the unworkable standards set by Roe and Casey.

This case leaves little room for compromise. Either the Court should affirm Roe and Casey and strike down the Mississippi law, or it should overturn them both and uphold the Mississippi law. After all, the Mississippi law directly flouts the stipulations of Roe and Casey. As for overruling either Roe or Casey or “limiting” one of them, this is difficult to do because the two are interdependent. Casey’s “undue burden” is defined using Roe’s viability line. It would seem that in Dobbs v. Jackson, the clearest path forward is an “all or nothing” decision. This brings us to a third way the Court could answer Mississippi’s question . . .

3. The Court could uphold the Mississippi law by overturning Roe and Casey. In contrast with some of the language being pushed by the pro-abortion side, overturning Roe and Casey would not illegalize abortion. Rather, it would leave the responsibility of weighing the “right” of women to abort against the right of unborn children to live with the people of the several states. As it was before Roe, the issue of abortion would once again be left to state legislatures. As the state of Mississippi argued in December, “The Constitution places its trust in the people. On hard issue after hard issue, the people make this country work. Abortion is a hard issue. It demands the best from all of us, not a judgment from just a few of us. When an issue affects everyone and when the Constitution does not take sides on it, it belongs to the people.” This option would return the Court to its neutral position on abortion. It would be a win for life and liberty.

This Court is perhaps the most Conservative we’ve had in a long time. As the chief justice, Justice Roberts is concerned with protecting the Court’s image. Therefore, Justice Roberts seems to be leaning toward the more “moderate” decision of abandoning the viability-line standard in Roe without overturning Roe and Casey. While it is difficult to predict what the five more Conservative justices will decide, we can speculate. Justice Clarence Thomas seems to be the most staunchly set on overturning Roe, having called abortion precedent in the past “grievously wrong.” As pro-life Christians, we must pray for the other four Conservative-leaning justices—Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh—to take full advantage of this chance to overturn Roe and Casey. As we have seen from the previous two articles, the Mississippi law has science, morality, and legality on its side. In contrast, Roe and Casey have completely disregarded science (especially as it has developed since 1973!), morality, and the actual meaning and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Let’s pray that these Conservative-leaning justices will see that fact and decide accordingly!

If Roe and Casey are overturned, the pro-life work will be far from finished. Currently, 21 states have laws (either unenforced pre-Roe bans, post-Roe “trigger” bans, or post-Roe restrictions that are currently blocked by courts) that would automatically either ban or restrict abortion further. In contrast, 15 states would continue to protect abortion. Of those states, three (and D.C.) protect abortion throughout pregnancy and twelve of them protect pre-viability abortions. A world without Roe would not be a world without abortion. Rather, the attention of pro-life Christians would simply be shifted to the state and local levels more narrowly. As Christians who are called to love like Christ, we must be equipped to create a culture of life, no matter the outcome in this case. In our next article, we will look at how Christians can be ready to help women and babies in their communities.

The post A World Without Roe? Part Three first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

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Now that we have considered the sordid legacy of Roe v. Wade, we may wonder how and why it has taken the Court so long to revisit the Roe decision. In the past, when the Court has had such an opportunity, the Court has followed the doctrine of stare decisis. The Latin term means literally, “to stand by things decided.” The principle is that, when a legal question has been settled by the Court, the precedent should be respected. This principle is important because it provides stability in the law and credibility for the Court.

When it comes to the precedent set by Roe, many pro-abortion advocates have emphasized the importance of following stare decisis. In fact, they have made it a sort of litmus test for Supreme Court nominees that have been appointed by Republican presidents. For example, during her confirmation hearing in 2021, Amy Coney Barrett was asked whether she considered Roe v. Wade to be “a super precedent” (meaning a decision that is so undisputed that it cannot be overruled). Judge Barrett responded, “I’m answering a lot of questions about Roe, which I think indicates that Roe doesn’t fall into that category [super precedent].” Certainly, Roe has been a disputed decision since it was handed down in 1973. According to scholars at the Heritage Foundation, “Roe remains one of the most controversial judicial decisions in American history for both its result and the means the Court has used to reach it.” Considering this fact, it makes the liberal politicians’ clutching of stare decisis in this case appear even more strange.

So, let us consider why, in this case, the Court should not uphold precedent.

First, the Court should not uphold its own precedent because Roe is simply a shoddy legal decision. As we have looked at the legal trail that led to where we are today, we can see that the legality of Roe is extremely shaky. It has no constitutional basis! During oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson in December, Justice Clarence Thomas asked U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prolegar, “What specifically is the right here that we’re talking about?” After throwing out words like “autonomy,” “liberty,” and “equality,” she could not clearly identify the right at issue in this case because abortion simply is not protected by the Constitution.

Even pro-abortion legal scholars admit that Roe v. Wade is bad law. According to pro-abortion Yale Law School professor John Hart Ely, “What is frightening about Roe is that this super-protected right is not inferable from the language of the Constitution, the framers’ thinking respecting the specific problem in issue, any general value derivable from the provisions they included, or the nation’s governmental structure. . . . At times the inferences the Court has drawn from the values of the Constitution marks for special protection have been controversial, even shaky, but never before has its sense of an obligation to draw one been so lacking.”[1] In other words, justification for the contrived right to abortion cannot be found in the text of the Constitution, the intent of the Framers, or even the principles in the amendments the Court used in its decision. The Fourteenth Amendment (which justices used to justify abortion) actually prohibits abortion because the government cannot deprive a person within its jurisdiction of life, liberty, or property. At the time the Fourteenth Amendment was written (1866), abortion was illegal in nearly every state. So, a woman’s right to kill her own child was not the intended outcome of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Beyond that, as Professor John Hart Ely noted, the Court overstepped the boundaries set by the U.S. government structure to come to its decision. While pro-abortion advocates may say that conservative justices would be overstepping their bounds to overturn precedent, the Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in setting the precedent. Rather than simply ruling based on what the Constitution actually said, the justices imposed their will on the Constitution and contrived a new right to privacy and, subsequently, abortion. In so doing, the Court violated the states’ rights to legislate in matters not explicitly given to the federal government to decide (Tenth Amendment). The Court did not provide a choice; rather it took away the choice of the people in their respective states to decide if and how abortion should be regulated. The Court’s job is to weigh conflicting rights in the balance of the United States Constitution. It failed to do that in Roe and Casey.

Another reason that the Court should not follow precedent in this case is that the Court can and has overturned precedent in the past when circumstances have changed to reveal just how wrong the precedent is. While following precedent is often preferred, it is not required. After all, the Court is not infallible, and it can and has set bad precedent. If the Court has made a bad decision, it can be reversed if the Court overrules its own precedent or an amendment overrules the Court’s decision.

For example, in Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Court ruled that the plaintiff, Dred Scott, as a descendant of Africans, was not an American citizen and, therefore, did not have standing to sue for his freedom. The Court applied the “substantive due process” doctrine (as it did later in Roe) to claim that the right of Scott’s “owner” to his property (Dred Scott) could not be infringed. As one OB/GYN noted, “No one alive today with a rational mind and any sense of right and wrong, would defend Dred Scott v. Sanford today on the grounds of stare decisis, or any other grounds. Yet Roe v. Wade, also decided in a 7-2 decision, used some of the same arguments to justify abortion that were used to justify slavery.”[2] The Dred Scott decision was then overruled by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments.

Just as the Court failed to address the personhood of Black people in the Dred Scott case, so the Court failed to address the personhood of unborn people in Roe v. Wade. Justice Blackmun himself admitted, “If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [Fourteenth] Amendment.” In this discussion, the personhood of the unborn, regardless of subjective standards such as viability, has been completely overlooked. With scientific and technological advancement, we can be confident about the personhood of the unborn. These new circumstances should be enough reason for the Court to revisit its decision in Roe and Casey.

Another example of the Court overturning its own precedent would be the case that Justice Kavanaugh brought up during the oral arguments in December. He brought up the Court’s decisions in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court affirmed the “separate but equal” principle, saying that segregating accommodations based on race was not unconstitutional. Sixty years later, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court ruled that the “separate but equal” principle was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court admitted that it got it wrong in Plessy, based on a proper understanding of the Constitution.

Some have argued that Roe and Casey should be upheld because an entire generation of women has come to rely on the Court’s decision. The argument is that overturning it now would take away that security. However, as Justice Alito pointed out during the oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson, the South had also come to rely on the Court’s decision in Plessy. He said, “It was an improper reliance. It was reliance based on an egregiously wrong understanding of what equal protection means.” It could be argued that modern women’s reliance on Roe is also an improper reliance on an egregiously wrong understanding of the due process protection of liberty. One American’s liberty ends where another American’s life and liberty begins. That’s what the Court demonstrated in overturning Plessy and that is what it could demonstrate if it were to overturn Roe and Casey.

The Plessy precedent was overturned and replaced with the Brown decision. In her confirmation hearing, Amy Coney Barrett said of Brown, “People consider it to be on that very small list of things that are so widely established and agreed upon by everyone calls for its overruling simply don’t exist.” In other words, the Court overruled its precedent in Plessy and set a new precedent in Brown that should be considered super precedent. The Court can and should follow stare decisis in that case because the decision is undisputed. However, as we have already discussed, Roe v. Wade does not fall into the same category as the Brown decision. Its legality and validity have been in question since the beginning. As it has done in the past, the Court should overrule its own precedent in this case because the legal and scientific circumstances justify it.

The Court is not bound to follow precedent when such a precedent was wrongly decided in the first place and has since been invalidated by legal and scientific understanding. As pro-life Christians, we have science, logic, and legality on our side. We do not need to give credence to the argument that the Court would be totalitarian in overturning Roe’s precedent. The inverse is true: The Court was totalitarian in setting such a precedent. And in our next article, we will discuss the options the Supreme Court is considering in this case.

References:

[1] John Hart Ely, “The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade,” 82 Yale Law Journal, 920, 935-937 (1973), Accessed December 13, 2021. [emphasis added]

[2] Brent Boles, M.D. Supremely Wrong: The Injustice of Abortion, United States: NEWTYPE Publishing, 2019.

The post A World Without Roe? Part Two first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States contrived a new Constitutional right—the fundamental right to abortion. Fast forward to December 2021 and the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments for the most significant abortion case today. The reason that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health is so significant is that the Court has agreed to answer the question: Are all state laws that prohibit abortion before viability unconstitutional? If the Court answers the question with a “no,” it will strike at the very core of Roe v Wade. After hearing the oral arguments on December first, the Court is expected to announce its decision in June 2022.

In a series of articles, we will seek to answers a few questions on the topic of abortion in America. First, what is the legacy of Roe and how did we get to the point we are today? In this case (Dobbs v. Jackson), should the Court’s precedent be upheld? If the Court rules in favor of the Mississippi law, what could this mean for Roe v. Wade? What can Christians do at such a time as this? Over the next few weeks, we will seek to answer these questions from a Constitutional and Biblical perspective.

In a nutshell, the legacy of Roe is nearly 60 million dead babies since its passing in 1973. The first question we should ask when looking at the legacy of Roe is . . . well . . . how did we get here? How did we get to the place where abortion is considered, not just a necessary evil, but a fundamental, constitutional right? How did we get to the place where, every time the Court looks at an abortion case, it is within the framework of abortion as a Constitutional right?

In Roe v. Wade, the Court ruled that states could not prohibit abortions in the first trimester and that they could only regulate abortions in the second and third trimester as long as those regulations were “reasonably related to maternal health.” Before Roe, abortion laws were left completely up to the people of the individual states. In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court overruled 46 state laws based upon the argument that these laws, made in the nineteenth century, were archaic and failed to conform to evolving societal standards. This restriction on state laws was based on the Court’s previously contrived “right to privacy” supposedly found in the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Blakmun, who had formerly worked in a Minnesota clinic that provided abortions and wrote the Court’s opinion, admitted, “The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy. In a line of decisions however . . .  the Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution. This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”[Emphasis added] Basically, the Court overturned the state law simply because the Court did not like them. The Court then pieced together “principles” from numerous constitutional Amendments to find justification for its decision. So, the Roe decision was not based on the will of the Constitution itself; it was based on the whim of the Court.

Not only did the Roe decision make abortion a constitutional right, but it also made abortion a fundamental constitutional right. The Court’s Roe decision gave abortion an extra layer of protection through a doctrine called “substantive due process.” This is the idea that some constitutional rights are so fundamental (or substantive), that no measure of legal process may justify the state depriving a citizen of those rights in any way. By applying the doctrine of substantive due process to abortion, the Court made it even more difficult for states to restrict abortion in any significant way. A state would have to prove “compelling interest” in protecting the life of the fetus or maternal health before it could restrict abortion pre-viability. This is the reason that abortion activists have sought to challenge state laws, like Texas’ heartbeat bill and this Mississippi law. Such laws seek to regulate or prohibit abortion before the age of viability.

In Roe’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the Court ruled that a doctor may perform an abortion after the first trimester when it is necessary for the health of the mother. The Court then expanded the definition of “health” to include “all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to the well-being of the patient.” Together, Roe and Doe, in practical terms, legalized abortion-on-demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy nationwide.

Affirming Roe, the Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) imposed a new standard to determine the validity of a law restricting abortion: the undue burden test. This means that an abortion law cannot impose an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion. An “undue burden” is defined as “a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.” This adds just another layer of protection for abortion against state regulations.

In brief, let’s consider the significance of these three cases. Roe did three significant things when it comes to abortion. First, it made abortion a constitutional right. Second, it made abortion a fundamental (ultra-protected) constitutional right. Third, it made viability the standard by which state laws would be judged either constitutional or unconstitutional. (Viability refers the baby’s ability to survive outside the womb, which is usually considered to be around 24 weeks. The viability standard is an extremely subjective standard. As modern technology advances, the age of viability changes. Today, babies as early as 20 weeks have been able to survive outside the womb.) Doe made it possible to get an abortion for practically any reason by broadening the definition of “health.” And Casey created the latest standard by which state laws are judged—the “undue burden test.” These three cases (Roe, Doe, and Casey) conspired to make abortion a fundamentally protected, constitutional right that can be chosen for practically any reason at practically any time during pregnancy. Therefore, whenever the Court has looked at an abortion case, it has always been within this framework of abortion as a constitutional right.

Now, the Court has a prime opportunity to reconsider Roe’s legacy. Ironically, while the Roe and Doe decisions have allowed for the killing of 60 million other babies, the women whose names were used in these cases did not kill their own unborn children. Roe (Norma McCorvey) decided to give birth to and put her child up for adoption and Doe (Sandra Cano) never sought an abortion. Both women later regretted their involvement in the cases and came out against the Court’s decisions. They were not proud of the legacy Roe left and neither should the Court be. Neither should the American people be.

So, how did we get to this point where abortion is an ultra-protected right? We got here by allowing the Court to contrive new rights that have no basis in the Constitution. As pro-life Christians, we can be confident in pushing back against Roe because we have not only morality, but also legality on our side. Next time, we will delve more into the legality of the Roe decision and whether or not the Court should uphold its own precedent.

The post A World Without Roe? Part One first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

This is the discouraging circumstance in which we find Israel in Nehemiah 13. While Nehemiah had returned to the Persian palace for a span of time (some commentators say he was gone for 10 to 12 years), the children of Israel violated the three specific commitments they had made to God in chapter 10. When Nehemiah returned, he found Israelites unequally yoked with unbelievers. He found the people buying and selling on the Sabbath. And he found that the Levites had left the temple and returned to their fields because the people had neglected the house of God. Nehemiah’s response to their failure was an act of love. He was trying to spare them from God’s judgement because of their return to the sin that made them captives in the first place. From Nehemiah’s response, we can learn three keys to keeping our commitments to God.

The first key to keeping our commitments is cleaning out the clutter. Nehemiah had left a people who were on fire for God. They had restored the temple and the rituals that went along with it. They had rebuilt their city and committed to live the way God had intended for them. Imagine Nehemiah’s dismay when he returned to find Tobiah—a member of the opposition to the wall-building—living in the temple! Eliashib the priest had made an alliance with Tobiah and even made him comfortable living quarters in the courts of the temple. Nehemiah 13:8-9 says, “And it grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and frankincense.” Much like Jesus did with the moneychangers in the temple, Nehemiah threw Tobiah along with all his stuff out of the house of God. The temple was supposed to be a holy (clean, set apart to God) place but it could not be holy with unclean and worldly stuff cluttering the space. Nehemiah did not beat around the bush. He cleaned out the clutter.

If we are going to keep our commitments to God, we will need to clean out the clutter in our lives as well. As God’s children, we are the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells (I Corinthians 3:16). With such a wonderful privilege comes a great responsibility. We are to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:16). Our bodies must be set apart to God (Romans 12:1). This means that we will need to declutter our lives from time to time. As it did Nehemiah, does it grieve us when sin is cluttering the way between ourselves and the Lord? Is there any stuff—possessions, activities, entertainments, hobbies—that are hindering our holiness and cluttering the way between ourselves and our Lord? As the hymn goes, “Keep the way clear. Let nothing between.” In order to keep our commitments, we need to take stock of our lives often in order to clean out any clutter and keep the way clear.

Another key to keeping our commitments to God is guarding our hearts. Nehemiah saw that the temptation to buy and sell on the Sabbath was too great for the people because the gates of the city were wide open on the Sabbath. This allowed merchants to enter the city and bring business to the Israelites on the sacred day of rest. Nehemiah solved this problem by eliminating the influence. Nehemiah 13:19 says, “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.” Nehemiah shut the gates in order to keep the wrong influence out of Israel. He even posted guards at those shut up gates as assurance that the gates would remain shut.

Similarly, if we are going to keep our commitments to God, we need to keep the gates of our heart shut to wrong influences. Proverbs4:23 says “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The word “keep” means to guard. Just like a gate guards a city, our ear-gate and eye-gate can guard our hearts. Just as Nehemiah was intentional about what he let through the gate to Jerusalem, we must be intentional about what we allow through our ear-gate and eye-gate and into our hearts. Perhaps we know that at a certain time and place, there will be a certain temptation. We can post a guard, like Nehemiah did, at those times and places in order to makes sure our gates remain shut to those influences.

The third key to keeping our commitments is being careful about your alliances. Earlier in the chapter (v. 4), Nehemiah noted that Eliashib the priest had “allied unto Tobiah”—one of the ungodly men that had scorned the wall-builders. Such an alliance had not reformed Tobiah but had defiled the house of God. Not only had the religious leaders of Israel made alliance with unbelievers to defile the house of God, but the men of Israel had married pagan women. Because of these unequal marriages (II Corinthians 6:14), their children had grown up mixing the religion and customs of the Jews with the religion and customs of their pagan mothers (Nehemiah 13:23-25). The issue here was not the “mixed race” of the children, but the “mixed religion.” Nehemiah says in verse 26, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.” Like Solomon, the people had made intimate alliances with unbelievers who were stealing their hearts from God. Not only were they being drawn away from God, but their children were being handed down a diluted, perverted faith. Their children’s faith was syncretistic—mixing Jehovah-worship with paganism. When people seek to mix Jehovah-worship with anything else, they are no longer worshipping Jehovah at all. Jehovah is a jealous God because He alone is God, and He will not share His worship or His position with anything else.

As Christians, we must be careful about our alliances with unbelievers or even wayward Christians. This does not mean that we should not be friends with unbelievers or wayward Christians. In fact, we should form relationships with such people in order to share the love and gospel of Jesus Christ with them! However, there are certain levels of alliance, or partnership, that we can have with such people. While it is fine for us to partner with unbelievers for a common cause (such as the pro-life cause), partnering with an unbeliever in spiritual work or in the sacred union of marriage would not be wise. For example, a born-again Christian should not ask a Catholic priest to pray at a revival meeting or church function. Allowing a Catholic friend to think that there is no real difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Catholic church by inviting him to help lead a Christian service would not be the loving or neighborly thing to do. Likewise, marrying an unbeliever would be unwise because marriage is the most intimate level of alliance or partnership on earth. Like the children of the Jewish fathers and pagan mothers, the children of an “unequal” marriage may become confused about the “faith” that is being passed down to them. In order to keep our commitments, and our children, we must be careful about our alliances. We must pray for discernment to know what level of alliance we should be making with unbelievers.

The children of Israel had experienced great revival and made a grand commitment to God. The problem came in keeping that commitment. Their backsliding probably did not happen as soon as Nehemiah left. Most likely, the backsliding was gradual. It probably began with allowing little things, clutter, to hinder their relationship with God. As the stuff piled up, their motivation to keep their hearts waned. Before they knew it, they had not only allowed merchants in their gates on the Sabbath, but they’d also allowed pagan spouses in their hearts. All of this conspired to bring Israel right back where they started before their captivity. As a result, they were ashamed when Nehemiah returned from Persia.

As Christians, we don’t have to be ashamed when the Lord returns for us. We can avoid this vicious cycle by the choices we make every single day to clean out the clutter, keep our hearts, and be discerning in our alliances. These choices will come naturally if we are abiding in Christ. I John 2:28 says, “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” In this passage, “abide” simply means to remain, to tarry, or to continue to be present. We need to remain with Jesus. We need to linger in our conversations with Him. We need to continue to be present with our Savior. Of course, Jesus is always present with us (Hebrews 13:5 ), but we can choose whether or not to be present with Him. For example, have you ever been “talking” with a friend and they accused you of not being present with them in the moment? Maybe your eyes had wandered down to your phone, or your own thoughts had distracted you and your glazed-over look betrayed your absent mind. The same can happen in our relationship with Jesus. We must consciously choose to be present with Jesus when we open our Bibles to read or listen to a sermon at church. If we are staying in close relationship with Jesus, we will be able to make the choices necessary to keep our commitments to Him.

The post 3 Keys to Keeping Our Commitments first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In Nehemiah 12, we find four essential elements to worship. Here, the children of Israel are ready to dedicate the newly rebuilt wall of Jerusalem to God and restart the Temple worship. The revival that had swept through the children of Israel had renewed their desire to do things the right way. Nehemiah 12:27 says, “And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness . . .”  The Levites were chosen by God to lead the people in worship of Jehovah and that is the reason the children of Israel were now seeking them. For them, worship was an act of obedience that included at least four essential elements that we find in this chapter.

The first element of worship that we find here is purification. “And the priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.” (Nehemiah 12:30) Before the worship service could begin, the priests and Levites needed to pursue purification. The Levites first purified themselves, then the people, and then their surroundings. They realized that they were about to enter the presence of a holy God. If you ever wonder what the big deal is about entering God’s presence, just read Leviticus! The Levites were instructed to go through extensive and specific procedures in order to be able to enter God’s presence because He is holy, and we are not. Entering His presence is not to be taken for granted; it is a privilege! Thanks to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we as New Testament Christians no longer have to go through the procedures that the Levites did in Leviticus or here in Nehemiah. Christ’s intercession for us makes it possible for us to come before the throne of grace boldly. However, this does not mean that we should flippantly enter His presence. Like the Levites in Nehemiah 12, we must be pure before we can truly worship God. Psalm 24:3-4 says, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” How can we declare God’s worth when we are grasping dirty sin in our hands? How can we attribute worth to our holy God when we are harboring sin in our hearts? First, we must make our hands clean before we can lift them up in praise. We must make our hearts pure before they can be filled with God’s worship. Purification—from sin and self—is an essential element of worship.

Another element that is essential to worship is singing. Nehemiah 12:27 continues, “ . . . to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.” Verse 42 says, “And the singers sang loud.” This chapter mentions several musical instruments, choirs (or companies), and singers. Nehemiah dedicated two choirs for singing praises to God. As verse 31 says, “Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks . . .” The psalmist and king David had instituted music and singing as part of the Temple worship and they wanted to reinstitute that part of the worship service. Like the psalmist David, they understood that God created and loves music. The psalms are filled with singing to God in worship. Psalm 95:2 puts thanksgiving and singing in the same context, “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms!” Psalm 96:1 says, “O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth!” David understood that his voice had been given to him for a reason in Psalm 104:33, “I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” Even when Saul was hot on his trail, David worshipped God with song, saying, “But I will sing of thy power; Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.” (Psalm 59:16) Again Psalm 100 (often referred to as a thanksgiving psalm) says, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” The Lord gave us our voices so that we could use them to sing praise to Him. The psalms wouldn’t mention singing so often if God didn’t intend for us to actually sing praises to Him. That is what we will be doing for all of eternity, so why not start practicing now! Whether we are doing it corporately in a church service, or alone as we go about our daily business, singing praise to the Lord is an essential element of worship.

This brings us to our third essential element of worship . . . thanksgiving! The choirs that Nehemiah dedicated were called thanksgiving choirs because their sole purpose was to sing praise and thanks to God. Verses 27 and 31 say, “And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps. . . . Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks . . .”  Thanksgiving was a central part of their worship service.

This is a theme throughout the Bible. For example, the psalms are filled with worshipping God through thanksgiving. As the psalmist says in Psalm 50:14-15, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him: and bless his name.” Psalm 106:1, “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 107:1, “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” So much is contained in those phrases, “for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” There is so much to thank the Lord for—no wonder it took two choirs in Nehemiah 12 to give thanks. Their singing was not tepid or sheepish singing either; it was heartfelt and enthusiastic! As verse 43 says, “for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” The neighbors could hear their songs of thanksgiving, and what others heard could only be described as joy.

That is what our songs of worship should sound like to others as well! We cannot worship (attribute worth to) God without acknowledging all that He has done for us. And we cannot acknowledge all He has done for us without being filled with joy—a joy that overflows in loud songs of thanksgiving. Worship is all about giving God the credit and the glory due His name. Nehemiah and the people recognized from the very beginning that the wall building was God’s work, and it was His glory now that the wall was completed! As it did for them, it only makes sense that thanksgiving is essential if we are attributing worth to (worshipping) God.

The last element of worship that we see in this chapter is giving. “Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy. . . . And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.” (Nehemiah 12:43, 47) God had set up a system to provide for His ministers. When the people gave the portions to the singers and the porters and the holy things unto the Levites, they were really giving back to God. Worship is about giving back—giving back the worth, the honor, the glory due God’s name. As the children of Israel were then, we are expected to give to God’s ministers today. And we are to give more than just a tithe in church. Jesus said that when we give of ourselves, our time, and our resources to “the least of these,” we are giving unto Christ himself (Matthew 25:34-40). Giving to others, to brothers and sisters and strangers in need, is an act of worship to God.

From the psalms, we find that giving to God is not so much about money as it is about trusting and surrendering all that we have and all that we are to God. Psalm 4:5 says, “Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.” After David had confessed his sin and sought forgiveness and cleansing from the Lord, he concluded in Psalm 51:19, “Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with the burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.” God doesn’t want our stuff until He has our selves. Psalm  54:6 says, “I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good.” The ultimate act of worship is giving ourselves up to God. If God has our selves, He will have everything that comes with us. When we give ourselves, our time, and our resources back to God, we are attributing worth to (worshipping) our God.

Nehemiah 12 gives us a glimpse into what a worship service might look like. Chances are, the worship service at your church looks and sounds very different than the one described in Nehemiah 12. But what can and should remain the same are the essential elements of worship: purification, singing, thanksgiving and giving. With these elements present, we can worship God anytime and anywhere. And we should.

The post 4 Essential Elements of Worship first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

How about you? Which emotion is stronger in you as you look ahead at the new year: hope or fear?

For some of us, we would have to say fear is stronger. We are afraid that things will not get any better, nationally, globally, or personally, than they were last year. We are afraid that our health will not improve, or that our family will not be restored, or that our deepest longings will not be met, or that our society will devolve in dystopia. We are afraid that our jobs will be insecure, or that our churches will continue to struggle, or that our prayers will continue to be on hold. Whatever is triggering the fear in you at the start of this new year, the first step to conquering it is facing it. We have to address the elephant in the room before we can lead it out of the room.

If we boil our fears down to their most basic component, we will find that we really all have the same fear. We are afraid for our lives—the quality and the longevity of our lives. While we say we are afraid for our health, we are really afraid of how our health will affect the quality and longevity of our lives. We may say we are afraid of losing our jobs, but we are really afraid of how losing that job will harm the longevity and comfort of our lives. When we say we are afraid for our family relationships, once again those relationships have major influence on the quality and longevity of our lives. Our fears may look complex, but they are made up of the basics: “What will we eat? Where will we live? What will we wear?” As humans with a strong self-preservation instinct, what we are really afraid for is our lives.

This fear for our lives is exactly what Jesus addresses in His sermon on the mount. In Matthew 6:24-26, Jesus says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Now, we may think that verse 24 is a different subject than verse 25, but the connective word therefore tells us that Jesus is talking about the same subject in both verses. Jesus is telling us that we cannot serve two masters. We will serve, but we must choose who or what we will serve. The choices are God or mammon, meaning wealth or things that are trusted in to sustain life. If we choose to serve the latter master, it makes sense that we would be fearful all the time. We will be constantly asking ourselves, “What will I eat? Where will I live? What will I wear?” Our attention will be constantly divided among these issues of life. But Jesus wants a better way for us. This is why He says, “Therefore . . . take no thought for your life.” While Jesus is not saying, “don’t think about your life,” He is saying, “don’t be anxious for your life.” At this point, we may be tempted to say, “But if I don’t look out for myself, who will?” Jesus answers that question, too. He continues in verses 26-30, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you be taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Jesus addresses our most basic fear—the fear for our life—and assures us that He will take of us.

So, how can we go from being characterized by anxiety to being characterized by peace? Is Jesus saying, “Worrying doesn’t change anything anyway. Just stop worrying.”? No, we cannot flip a switch and “just stop worrying.” Jesus does not expect us to do that. Rather, He simply expects us to focus. In Matthew 6:31-33, He says, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these thing do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Notice the contrast in these verses: “Take not thought” (don’t be anxious) and “Seek ye first” (focus).

What we focus on consumes our thoughts and energies. Focus, by definition, is “a center of interest or activity” or “directed attention.” If you are focusing on something, you are looking away from everything else, clearing away all distractions, and making that one thing the center of your interest or activity. Focus is directed attention, which is the opposite of divided attention. Oftentimes, anxiety is the result of divided attention. The economy, our health, our family problems, our friends, politics—all of these important issues are jerking our attention this way and that. The urge to multi-task—to fix everything and make life happen all at once—breeds the emotion we identify as anxiety. We can’t sleep, or eat, or function the way we normally do because we are anxious . . . because of our lack of focus.

So, when Jesus commands us to seek, He is commanding us to focus. And what should be the center of our interest or activity? Toward what are we to direct our attention? We are to seek (or focus on) the kingdom of God. You see, when Jesus said we can serve one of two masters, Jesus was talking about our focus. What we focus on is what we serve. If we are focused on building our own kingdoms—the quality and longevity of our lives—then we are serving mammon. However, the promise is that, if we focus on Jesus, He will take care of the issues of life. While it is not wrong to care about the quality and longevity of our lives (in fact, it’s normal and healthy), we do not have to be overwhelmed with care for our lives. We don’t have to wring our hands about the economy, or wail over the state of our society, or weep about unrealized dreams. We can focus on serving Jesus and watch Him provide everything else. The apostle Paul experienced this peace, as he says in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” God created the world to work in such a way so that when we focus on Him, all the other issues of life become clear. What we should do, where we should go, who we should be with—all of these things are added unto us when we make Jesus our focus. This does not mean that we stay at home all day, every day, only reading our Bibles. Focus is simply a matter of priorities. Is our relationship with Jesus the center of our interest and attention? If it is, then all the other important things we must do will fall in the correct order under Christ’s kingdom.

This new year, we need focus. Rather than being distracted with all the unknowns, we need to be focused on what we do know—Jesus and the tasks He’s given us in this season. Whatever our hopes or fears for this new year, we can be sure of one thing. The joy of Christmas does not fade with the seasons. The joy of Christmas is Immanuel—God with us. God came to be with us at the incarnation of Christ, but He has been with us ever since. God is still with us in the form of His Holy Spirit. And this year, we can rest in the certainty of God with us, even amid the uncertainty of everything else. What do we need in the New Year? We need focus on Immanuel.

The post What Do We Need in the New Year? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Yet, if there was such talk, Mary and Joseph did not let the talk get to them. Each of them had accepted God’s will for them. They were both at peace with their part in God’s grand story of redemption. As difficult as it must’ve been for them to fully comprehend, they were now ecstatic about the fact that they were chosen to the be the earthly parents of the promised Messiah! Like any other parents, Mary and Joseph were most likely preparing their home for the arrival of a newborn baby. Perhaps Mary was making baby clothes while Joseph was carving the baby’s bed. Whatever they were doing to prepare, their preparations were suddenly halted by yet another unexpected rearrangement in their plans.

This time, the news didn’t come from an angel. It came from Caesar Augustus. Luke 2:1-3 says, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David;) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.” Remember, Mary and Joseph were people just like you. When they received this news, the same thoughts raced through their minds as would have raced through yours. The first things to jump to their mind at this news was probably not, “Oh yes, this is how God will fulfill the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). How amazing is God!” Joseph probably thought, “I can’t make a long journey right now. I have work to do in order to provide for Mary and the baby. And I certainly can’t leave Mary in this condition. How inconvenient!” And Mary may have bemoaned, “I’m expecting to deliver a child any day now. I don’t want to be without Joseph, but I don’t want to make such an arduous journey in this condition. How uncomfortable!” As human beings, what first came to their minds was probably how inconvenient and uncomfortable this latest rearrangement was.

Still, Mary and Joseph did not allow this inconvenient or uncomfortable rearrangement shake their faith in God’s will for them. Mary and Joseph complied with the governor’s decree and made the long, arduous journey to Bethlehem. Just because they obeyed doesn’t mean that the rest of their story is one of convenience of comfort. The Bible tells us in Luke 2:6, “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” If you have grown up in Sunday School, then this verse probably makes your feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It conjures sweet scenes from your Bible story flash cards or the Nativity resting on your grandma’s coffee table. But this was not necessarily a sweet scene for Mary and Joseph. It was a scene of inconvenience and discomfort. Like you would have, Mary and Joseph likely had a general plan of where they wanted to stay while in Bethlehem. The word translated inn in Luke 2:6 is used one other time in the Bible and, in that case, it is translated guest room. Most likely, Mary and Joseph went to a relative’s house to stay in their guest room, only to find that some other relatives had already beat them to it. At that point, Mary and Joseph were relegated to stay in the lower portion of the house—often a room carved out of the side of a hill, much like a cave—where the animals were kept at night. Whatever their plans for accommodations in Bethlehem, it probably wasn’t a cave with the animals. This was most likely not the place that Mary pictured giving birth to baby Jesus. And yet we do not hear about any complaining from Mary and Joseph. They were just as submitted to God’s will now as they had been in the beginning.

Mary and Joseph’s response to inconvenience and discomfort reminds us of a beautiful truth about God’s will. Whenever God rearranges our lives, it is always for our good and His glory. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Joseph and Mary’s stories are ultimate proof of this truth. God’s working in their lives, even when it looked like inconvenience or discomfort, was for their good. As Mary recognized, God’s rearranging her life brought her Savior into the world (Luke 1:47). Joseph also realized this when he obeyed God and called the child’s name Jesus, a name meaning “the salvation of Yahweh” (Matthew 1:25). Their inconvenience and discomfort on the night of Christ’s birth was nothing compared to the inconvenience and discomfort Christ would experience one day on the cross. Inconvenience and discomfort are not the appropriate words for what Christ endured for us. What Christ endured for us, for our good and God’s glory, is well worth any discomfort or inconvenience we may endure for Him.

Sometimes, we may begin with a good attitude toward God’s will, like Mary and Joseph. However, in seasons of inconvenience or discomfort, we may be tempted to doubt God’s will for us. If it feels this awkward and arduous, can it really be God’s will? If it hurts this much, how can it really be what God wants for me? If I’m receiving this much pushback, how can it really be right? Just because things aren’t going smoothly, just because you are inconvenienced or uncomfortable does not mean you are out of God’s will. In fact, that may be a good indicator that you are in it! While it may have appeared to Mary and Joseph like Caesar Augustus was ruling the world, that he was responsible for rearranging their lives, they trusted that their God was ultimately in control. Maybe it looks like some other force is dictating your life right now. Like Mary and Joseph, we need to be able to look past those inconveniences to see the King of the Universe. Look beyond the discomfort to see Jesus. He is the real writer of your story, the real King of your life, and He is a much better King than Caesar.

Dear Christian, don’t allow discomfort to dissuade you from the will that God has plainly revealed to you. Trust Him with the plot twists of your story because He has a purpose for all of it. Like Mary and Joseph, be just as submitted to God’s will in the difficult times as you were in the easy times. As Romans 12:2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” If you are a living sacrifice, then you have no say in the plot twists of your story. If you are living sacrifice, you are completely vulnerable to God’s prerogatives. While this may sound terrifying to our human ears, Romans 12 reminds us that this is the best position in which we could find ourselves. Why? Because God’s will is not something to be feared. Although it will not always be convenient or comfortable, it will always be good, acceptable, and perfect. So, don’t allow your current feelings about your current circumstances to make you doubt whether or not you are in God’s will. Let God’s Word determine that. Then, like Mary and Joseph, find freedom in submission to God’s rearranging of your life.

Next time you are afraid of God’s will, look at the Christmas story. The story of Christmas is about impossibilities that came to pass, about lives rearranged for God’s glory, and about hope finally realized. God only writes good stories. Trust Him with yours.

The post Lessons from the Characters of Christmas, Part 2 first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The angel’s message was special also. In Luke 1:13, the angle says, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard.” What prayer was the angel referring to? Well, the angel explains, as the verse continues, “for thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” From this, we can infer that, like many other parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth had desired and prayed for a child. But Zacharias and Elizabeth weren’t just like many other parents. We should probably preface this statement, with another statement about Zacharias and Elizabeth in verse 7 which says, “And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.” So, this wasn’t just an answer to prayer for a child to a young married couple desiring their first child. This was an impossible answer to prayer. This was doubly impossible because, not only was Elizabeth barren, she was also now too old to have children anyway! This message from the angel was impossibly special.

In fact, the angel’s message was too special for Zacharias to accept. In case the angel hadn’t noticed, Zacharias informed him, “Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.” In modern English, Zacharias was saying, “How do I know that you’re not kidding me? I mean, I’m an old guy. And my wife . . . well, she’s really old. If this is really going to happen, prove it.” Zacharias’ response was not one of faith-filled curiosity about how God was going to perform this in his life. His response was one of skepticism that God was going to do it at all. And how could we really blame him? This answer to prayer was too good to be true! No, it was too impossible to be true. For years, Zacharias had prayed for the same thing—a child. As the years went by, the prayer became more impossible. The Bible doesn’t tell us that Zacharias had stopped praying for a child in his old age. Perhaps he had kept praying because it was habitual or a discipline for him. Maybe he continued praying because he half-hoped something would come of it. Or maybe he had stopped praying altogether because he assumed the chances of an answer were too slim. And now, out of nowhere, an angel appears and says his long-time impossible prayer will be answered?

From this story, we can see that doubt it inherent to human nature. It’s not something new or something unique to you if you’ve ever struggled with doubting God. Zacharias doubted when he received an answer to prayer literally delivered express mail by an angel! So, who are we to think that we will never struggle with doubt? Perhaps you are in a season of doubt right now. You have been praying about something for a long time and still have received no response from heaven. Maybe you think the window of opportunity is closing on your prayer request. Certainly, that was the case for Zacharias. Maybe you don’t want to keep praying because you are afraid of being disappointed. Zacharias very likely didn’t readily accept the angel’s message because he was afraid of being disappointed. What if it didn’t work out? Like Zacharias, you are faced with a choice. You can continue praying in faith that you will receive an answer, or you can give up in doubt that God will ever respond.

The human struggle with doubt isn’t the only insight we can draw from Zacharias’ story. We can also see the blessed truth that God does respond to impossible prayers—even when they are received with skepticism. Even better, God responds to impossible prayers with impossibly good answers! You see, Zacharias did not just get a child, he got a child in his old age. And Zacharias did not just receive a child in his old age, he received a child in his old age with a purpose that would transcend time! How epic is that? In Luke 1:14-17, the angel expounds on this child’s purpose: “And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” It is normal for there to be joy and gladness from the parents at the birth of their child. What is unusual is for many other people to rejoice at the birth of their child. This child was a gift, not just to his parents and immediate friends and family. This child was a gift to the nation of Israel because he would prepare their hearts for the ultimate gift to the world—the Messiah. Zacharias’ prayer may have been an impossible one, but God’s answer was above and beyond, impossibly good.

Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayer at the time or in the way we want because He is preparing to give us more than we asked. In our finite humanness, we cannot see the big picture. We are not aware of all the moving pieces involved. We are oblivious to the grand-scale plan of God. All we can see is our part in the story, but God is writing the entire story. God doesn’t just want to give good things to us; He wants to give good things through us to others. Like it did for Zacharias, this may require a different answer than the one we were expecting. As Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” God has a greater purpose for our prayers than we do. Ultimately, His purpose in prayer is to glorify His name. How amazing that we and our feeble prayers (which lack so much context) are included in bringing God glory and achieving His grand purpose? God certainly gave Zacharias an answer to his prayer that was exceeding, abundantly above all that he could ask or think. In Zacharias’ case, there was no doubt that the answer was according to God’s power—not his or Elizabeth’s! God wants to give you exceeding, abundantly above, impossibly good answers to your prayers, too. His goal for you is not to merely make you happy. It is to bring about a greater purpose in your life—one that will help others and glorify His name!

From Zacharias’ story, we can learn that while doubt is a normal response to impossible prayer, we don’t have to let doubt dampen our prayers. While we are praying, God is doing something! What is your impossible prayer? Maybe it is for an unsaved family member, an unfulfilled desire, or an unmet need. Whatever it is for you, it can’t get any more impossible than Zacharias’ prayer. If God could respond to Zacharias’ impossible prayer with an impossibly good answer, He can do that for you as well. So, don’t give up on your impossible prayers. Keep praying. Don’t assume that God isn’t listening or doesn’t care just because He hasn’t answered yet. Keep praying. Keep praying because you have no idea what He is preparing you for and what He is preparing for you.

The post Lessons from the Characters of Christmas, Part 1 first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

In Nehemiah 10, we see that their commitment was personal but contagious! The chapter begins with the names of the people who were “sealed,” or signed their names to this covenant with God. Guess whose name is at the top of the list?  That’s right—Nehemiah. He took the initiative to sign his name on the dotted line. His leadership inspired others to take the lead in their spheres of influences. It began with the “chief of the people,” (v. 14) and trickled down to “the rest of the people.” (v. 28) This commitment to God didn’t stop with Nehemiah and a few leading men of the community. It spread to “their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge and having understanding.” (v. 28) In other words, this was not just a whim. This was a real and contagious change.

What does it take for a family, or a church, or even a nation to experience revival? Sometimes we look around at our families, churches, and our nation today and shake our heads in dismay. It seems they are too far gone to be revived. Surely, some major miracle would have to strike in order for these institutions to be revived, we may think. However, the story of revival in Nehemiah 10 shows us that revival starts with one person, just as fire starts with one spark. All it takes for a family, or a church, or even a nation to be revived is for someone to take the lead. If other people can see our commitment, this will not only be a blessing to them but to us as well. And this leads us to the next aspect of the commitment in Nehemiah 10.

Their commitment included accountability.  Nehemiah 10:29 says that the signers “clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law.” Here again it is obvious that this was not a casual decision. They didn’t give themselves an easy exit from this covenant. The signers of this covenant demonstrated to God and to other people that they were serious about keeping their commitment

If we are serious about our commitments to God, then we should also seek out accountability. Allowing other Christians to know about and encourage us in our decisions for Christ is a Biblical principle. Accountability sometimes sounds like a menacing word, but it is meant to be a comfort, not a terror. When we have a Christian community that “keeps us accountable,” that means we have fellow-laborers who will help us bear the burden of the Christian life. Galatians 6:2 commands us to, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And what is the law of Christ? Well, Christ told His disciples in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” True biblical love is simply doing what is right by another. Romans 13:10 says, “Love worketh no ill to his neightbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Doing right by others can look like many different things. Sometimes it looks like encouraging them as they follow Christ. Other times it looks like confronting them when they are disobeying Christ. James 5:16 says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another.” Now, this does not mean that you need to announce in front of your entire church your every failure. This does mean that you should have a trustworthy godly group of Christians with whom you can be honest about your struggles and your decisions for Christ. When we confess to each other, and pray for each other, we draw closer together as the body of Christ and closer to our Head, Jesus Christ. This accountability will help our commitments to last.

While their commitment included accountability, it was also liberating. When they were living in sin, they had fancied themselves free to do as they pleased. However, they soon found out that they were slaves, not just to sin but to foreign captors as well. Confessing to God, Nehemiah records in chapter 9, verse 16 and 17, “But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage.” Their rebellion was their return to bondage. How senseless and needless to return to bondage when they had been freed by God to live under His provision!

This principle that sin brings slavery but righteous bring liberty is seen in the New Testament as well. Romans 6:16-18 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” We were created to walk with God, just as Adam and Eve did in Eden before the fall. Yet our fallen natures kept us bound by Satan to walk in sin. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we were recreated to walk with God again, to walk in His Spirit and in His light! What wonderful liberation! Every time we make a commitment to God, we are walking with God. We are liberating ourselves from the sin that no longer has any right to dominate us. While fear of being restricted might hold us back from making needed commitments to God, this passage helps us to see that righteousness is true liberty. The psalmist understood this, saying, “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” (Psalm 119:45). The truth is that rebellion to God’s laws is about as productive as rebellion to the law of gravity. It drags us to the ground! Rebellion to God always leads back to bondage. Surrendering to God always leads to true liberty.

Last and perhaps most importantly, we see that their commitment was specific and based on God’s Word. The people had heard the Word of God read to them (Nehemiah 8), they had been convicted and repented (Nehemiah 9), and now they were making their commitment to do right official (Nehemiah 10). The children of Israel’s covenant with God was composed of three specific commitments. They were not whims or ideas from Nehemiah. No, these commitments came straight from God’s Word. As the latter end of Nehemiah 10:29 says, the people chose “to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.” Nehemiah 10:30-39 continues, “and that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: and if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath . . . Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the House of our God . . . And we cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law: and to bring the firstfruits of our ground . . . also the firstborn of our sons, and our cattles, as it is written in the law . . . and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage . . . and we will not forsake the house of our God.” Did you notice the phrase “as it is written in the law” sprinkled throughout that paragraph? The three commitments written in the covenant were: to avoid unequal marriages (believers with unbelievers), to keep the Sabbath (not buy or sell), and to take care of God’s house and God’s ministers. Each of these decisions were specific and they came straight from God’s Word.

Just as the children of Israel’s were, our commitments should be specific, based on what God has already commanded in His Word. A vague commitment is not really much of a commitment, and a commitment to something that we have made up is not honoring to God. Commitments that are specific and based in God’s Word are the ones that are most likely to last.

In Nehemiah 10, the children of Israel did business with God. We can learn many things from their written covenant with God, but one of those lessons is about our commitments to God. Our commitments to God should look like theirs did. They should be personal but contagious to those in our sphere of influence. They should include accountability. They should liberate us to walk with God, just as we were created to do. And they should be specific based on what we’ve been convinced about from God’s Word. Those are commitments that are built to last.

The post Is Your Commitment Built to Last? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

A third part of revival that we find in Nehemiah 8-9 is repentance. We cannot long bask in the light of Who God is without also realizing who we are—sinners. This realization weighed heavy on the children of Israel in Nehemiah 8. “And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.” (Nehemiah 8:9) The people had been confronted with God’s standard and their sin, and they were sorrowful over their sin against God. They were convicted, we might say. Conviction really just means that we are convinced about something. In the context of revival, we are convinced about the truth of God’s Word and our need to make ourselves align with that truth. This is repentance! Repentance happens when we change our minds about our sin and return to God’s righteousness. Yes, sorrow and mourning may be included with conviction. There may be a number of emotions that accompany conviction. But what is important is the act of repentance—turning from our way of thinking to God’s way of thinking about our lives.

Repentance also includes confession. Confession is simply admitting that what God says about our sin is true. We certainly must confess our sins to God, but if they have affected other people, we should confess to those people as well. In Nehemiah 9 the children of Israel publicly confessed to God. “And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.” (Nehemiah 9:2-3) Their confession meant that they agreed with God about themselves, as Nehemiah 9:33 says, “Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.” Every revival service should include repentance. Remember, the goal of preaching is for the listeners to hear, receive, and act on the Word of God. This will bring repentance in the lives of the listeners.

While sin brings sorrow, the end of revival is always rejoicing! Rejoicing is a choice, and it is the appropriate response to preaching and reviving. To those sorrowing over their sin, Nehemiah said, “Go thy way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.” (Nehemiah 8:10-11) God does not convict us so that we can wallow in sorrow. He wants us to be changed (through repentance) and to rejoice at this transformation that He has wrought in our lives. Chapter 8 ends with saying, “And there was very great gladness” because the people had simply received God’s Word and repented. They did not dwell on the sin which caused sorrow. They rejoiced in making it right! God always gives us sorrow for the purpose of turning that sorrow into rejoicing. The psalmist David experienced the transformation of revival in Psalm 30:11-12: “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever.” God always takes our sorrow and uses it in a way that brings Him more glory. While there may be an atmosphere of somberness for some time at a revival, the majority of the time should be characterized by rejoicing. Joy should be the spirit of every revival service because that is the end goal of revival. The joy of the Lord gives us the strength to live for the Lord. Revival is not about grieving, but about rejoicing!

The final part of revival that we see in Nehemiah 8 is a renewed commitment to doing right. The point of conviction, confession, and repentance is renewed commitment. What good is being convinced of something if we do not put that belief into practice? What good is agreeing with God about our lives if we do not follow up on that agreement with action? What good is changing our minds about something if we do not act accordingly? The children of Israel understood the point of revival to be a renewed commitment to doing right. They had been reminded of Who God is and confronted with their own failures. In response, they took action. Nehemiah 8:16 says, “So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in the courts, and in their courts of the house of God, and in the street of the watergate the street of the gate of Ephraim.” For years, they had neglected the feast of tabernacles commanded in the law of Moses. The feast of tabernacles was given to remind the children of Israel about God’s blessings on their family and nation. Because they had forgotten to keep God’s command about the feast of tabernacles, they had forgotten God Himself! But now, the children of Israel returned to observing this feast in order to remember God’s blessing in their lives.

In Nehemiah 9, the people decided to put their renewed commitment to do right in writing. Nehemiah 9:38 says, “And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.” Their decision to do right was not a flippant one. They intended to hold themselves to this decision. That is the reason they put it in writing. They wanted something that would remind them of the decisions they were making and keep them accountable to each other and to God for that decision. Like the children of Israel, we should seek to keep ourselves accountable to other Christians and before God. Revival will be as long-lived as our commitment to doing right. If we renew that commitment often, we can experience revival often.

The children of Israel were in desperate need of revival in Nehemiah 8-9, just as many Christians are today. Their revival service likely looked much different in style than many revival services in American today would look. However, we can and should share some things in common with the revival service in Nehemiah 8-9. Like theirs, our revival services should include preaching, worship, repentance, rejoicing, and a renewed commitment to doing right. If they do, then we can experience the same transformation that the children of Israel did in Nehemiah’s day.

The post What Should a Revival Service Look Like? Part Two first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Have you ever wondered how unbelievers celebrate Thanksgiving? Well, many of them probably celebrate it not much differently than you do. They also enjoy the traditions that we just mentioned. Many Americans gather around a table with friends and family, enjoy a big meal, and go around sharing things for which they are thankful. So, what makes the difference between how an unbeliever may celebrate Thanksgiving and how a Christian should celebrate Thanksgiving?

Well, the word itself gives us a clue. According to Merriam-Webster, thanksgiving is “the act of giving thanks.” Giving is in the word! And giving requires both a giver and a receiver—a subject of the verb and an object of the verb. We know that we are the subjects—the givers of the thanks. But who is the receiver, the object of thanksgiving?

The book of psalms makes it abundantly clear. Psalm 75:1 says, “Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.” Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise ye the LORD, O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 107:1 says, “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good.” Several other psalms begin with the same exact phrasing as these. The remainder of each of these psalms lists things for which we are to give thanks, but only after establishing to whom we are to give thanks. It emphasizes giving thanks to someone, not just for something.

So, what is the secret to living a life of thanksgiving? Well, based on these psalms, it seems as simple as keeping our priorities straight. For example, Psalm 75 contrasts two kinds of people: the haughty and the humble. In Psalm 75:4-7, the writer warns, “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.”  The haughty prioritize the things they have gotten for themselves or made to happen rather than prioritizing God. Why is it foolish to be haughty and to seek to lift ourselves up? Ultimately, we are not responsible for promoting ourselves. God is.

We may think we are more spiritual than the “fools” that the psalmist addresses here, but we can just as easily slip into this self-dependent, self-promoting attitude. Have you ever thought, “But if I don’t look out for myself, who will?” The self-preservation instinct is strong in all of us, and it is not wrong until it mutates into a self-promotion instinct! When we have this self-dependent, self-promoting attitude, we cannot be thankful people. We are ungrateful because we do not have anyone to thank for our successes but . . . well, ourselves! God warns us that when we think we have lifted ourselves up, we are actually setting ourselves up for a fall. The scripture is full of this principle. Luke 14:11 says, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The latter part of James 4:6 says, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Later verse 10 says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” I Peter 5:6 echoes this principle, saying, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” You get the idea, right? As Psalm 75 says, promotion comes from God, the Judge. The two kinds of people contrasted in this psalm are the ungrateful haughty and the humble who are thankful because they realize from whom anything good comes.

So, why does God despise ungratefulness so much? For one thing, he hates it because it really stems from a heart of pride. But He also hates it because it leads to “greater” sins. We see this progression in Romans 1:21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their own imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The passage goes on to describe sins like idolatry and immorality. How did it all start for them? They failed to glorify (or exalt) God as God in their lives and instead glorified themselves. This self-promotion led to ingratitude, which then led to sins like idolatry and whatever else sprung from their vain imaginations. We may cringe and think we could never be as evil as they were, but ingratitude is like putting our foot in the door to greater sins.

Take for example the history of Israel. Psalm 78:11 says that they “forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.” The following verses describe the miracles that the children of Israel had seen with their own eyes! But rather than thank the Lord for His provision, they complained when they felt they needed more. Verses 17 and 18 says, “And they sinned yet more against him . . . And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.” Rather than thank God, they asked for more from God! In His astounding mercy, God gave them what they asked for, but verses 30-31 says, “They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them.” When we are not estranged from our lust, we become estranged from our God. This was Israel’s problem: they were fixated on what they could get from God rather than on God Himself, the Father of lights, the Giver of all good things. Before they knew it, the children of Israel had erected a golden calf and were worshipping that hunk of metal as if it were the one that had led them out of Egypt! How in the world could they sink to such a low? Simple. They failed to glorify God as God, neither were thankful.

The same danger faces us today. Ingratitude is simply a matter of misplaced priorities. It’s failing to see God in our lives because we are so busy looking for things that we think we need or want. When we put the gifts before the Giver, we are fertile ground in which haughtiness and ingratitude may grow. Sometimes we may post a picture of our family or share a testimony in church and put the emphasis on what we are thankful for. While it is certainly not wrong to express gratitude for people and things, we must guard our hearts against glorifying them instead of God, the Giver. We say things like, “I feel so grateful” or “I’m just so thankful for . . .” Well, unbelievers can say things like that, too. But what if thanksgiving is more than just a positive feeling swelling inside our chest cavities? What if we started those phrases with, “I feel so grateful to God . . . “ or “I’m just so thankful to God for . . .”? This lets others know what our priority is—the Giver not the gift—and it encourages them to focus on God, too. When we start with the object of our thanksgiving, we are glorifying God as God in our lives. When we fixate on the Giver of the gifts, then the gifts He gives just become that much more satisfying. Psalm 107:9 says, “For he [God] satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” It doesn’t say “things” or “a person” satisfies the longing soul. It says God does that. When we are satisfied in God, the things He gives us are like a cherry on top of an ice cream Sunday. Psalm 115:1 says, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.” Thanksgiving is simply acknowledging God in our lives and giving Him the credit due His name. Thanksgiving Day should be about celebrating God—Who He is and what He has done.

So, is your thanksgiving in order? Giving thanks for things is imperative! But giving thanks to the Giver is the first priority. This Thanksgiving Day let’s keep our priorities straight. If we do, we will shine as lights in this world (Philippians 2:15). Not only that, but we will find Thanksgiving so much sweeter, too.

The post Is Your Thanksgiving in Order? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

When you think of a revival service, what comes to mind? Perhaps it’s visions of loud preachers and people falling to their faces in the aisles. Maybe you hear crying and see white knuckles gripping the pews. Perhaps you picture a large tent filled with hundreds of people and services that drag long into the night. Whatever you may associate with revival, revival itself is simply a return to God’s Word and the normal Christian life it prescribes. A revival service may come in a variety of styles, but what is essential to revival? What should be a part of every revival service?

In Nehemiah 8-9, we see a great example of what a revival service should look like! It had been a long time since God’s people had heard God’s Word. With the wall project completed, the children of Israel gathered in the street for a revival service. A revival service, whether it is in a Baptists church today or a dilapidated city centuries ago, includes preaching, worship, repentance, rejoicing, and a renewed commitment to doing right.

The central element of the revival service in Nehemiah 8 was preaching. “And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.” (Nehemiah 8:2-3) From these verses we see that both the preacher and the congregation has a part in preaching. The part of the preacher is to bring the Bible to the pulpit and to read it to the people. The congregation’s part is to give reverence to the reading of God’s Word by being attentive and listening. Nehemiah 8:8 gives us more details, “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The goal of the preacher is to expound on or explain God’s word, to discern the meaning of the text, and to help the listeners understand what it means for their lives. The congregation then is to seek to understand what is being expounded from God’s Word. The point of preaching is for people to hear, receive, and act on God’s Word. Romans 10 also makes clear the part that both the preacher and the congregation have in preaching. In verse 14, God says, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” So, the part of the congregation is to hear and to believe God’s Word. They can only do their part if the preacher is doing his part—bringing, reading, and expounding the Word of God. Without preachers, there are no converts or renewed Christians. Without preaching, there is no revival!

Not only was preaching part of the Nehemiah 8 revival service, but worship was also an important part of revival. Nehemiah 8:6 says, “And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” After a long dry spell, without hearing the Word of God, the children of Israel were once again confronted with Who God is and what He expects from His people. Worship happens when we return to the realization of just Who God is and who we are in comparison. Such a realization drives us to our knees before our holy and loving God.

We see this element of worship in Nehemiah 9 as well. As the revival service continued on, the Levites led the congregation in worshipping God. “Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherabiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorioius name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” The remainder of chapter 9 is dedicated to worshipping God for all that He is and all that He has done. When we reencounter Who God is, we find endless reasons to worship Him. We must worship Him because He alone is Jehovah who has created the heavens (v. 6). If the hosts of heaven worship, who are we—mere mortals—to deny Him worship? (v. 6) We must worship Him because He chose Abraham and made a covenant with him to fulfill His redemptive plan (v. 7). Those of us who are not Jewish are direct beneficiaries of this covenant! We must worship Him because He has kept His covenant in His righteousness (v. 8). As His children, we can always know what to expect from our faithful, covenant-keeping God. We must worship Him because He is our Guide through the wilderness (literally in the children of Israel’s case). (v. 12) We must worship Him because He is ready to pardon, gracious, merciful, slow to anger, longsuffering, patient, kind, and faithful to us (v. 13-31). If you want to know how longsuffering and patient God is with us, just look at Israel’s history recorded in Nehemiah 9! That is the same God who gives you and me new mercies every morning. Part of being revived (brought back to the Christian life) is returning to a realization of Who God is, and this inspires our worship!

Soon we will consider three more elements of revival from Nehemiah 8-9 in Part Two.

The post What Should a Revival Service Look Like? Part One first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The funny thing is, this kind of temptation doesn’t go away as we grow up. Even as adults, we find ourselves faced with temptations, distractions from the job at hand. And those distractions don’t always come from the “bad kids.” Sometimes, they come from the very people we thought were on our side. Life is hard enough with haters of God constantly trying to trip us up and tempt us to do wrong. What’s really hard is when that temptation comes from the good guys. As Julius Caesar said to Brutus, “Et tu, Brute?” How can we be ready rather than caught off guard or lulled into temptation when it comes from the good guys?

This is the kind of distraction that Nehemiah faced in Nehemiah 6. At first, the bad guy, Sanballat, tried to distract Nehemiah from the work. The work was almost complete. There was no breach left in the wall. As Nehemiah probably expected, Sanballat heard about this and had another trick up his sleeve to stop it. Sanballat sent a messenger to Nehemiah, inviting him to meet with him. Nehemiah was on his guard, responding, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3) But Sanballat was relentless, continuing to send messengers with invitations to Nehemiah. Every time, Nehemiah stood firm because he discerned that Sanballat’s intentions were not good. After all, Sanballat had been trying to stop their work from the very beginning! Finally, Sanballat’s tone turned from cordial invitations to belligerent threats! Sanballat threatened to tell the king that the wall builders were planning a rebellion. Of course, this was not true! Nehemiah was quick to set the record straight, saying, “There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.” (v. 8) Next, Nehemiah prayed for strength to do what God had given him to do (v. 9).

Yet Nehemiah’s confrontation with temptation and distraction was not finished. In verse 10, Nehemiah received an invitation from one of the good guys, a prophet named Shemaiah. Yet Nehemiah perceived that what Shemaiah was asking him to do was not right, and he resisted him as well. How was Nehemiah so ready to push back against temptations, no matter where they came from? Nehemiah was ready when temptation came from the good guys because he was informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.

First, we see that Nehemiah was able to resist temptation, even from the good guys, because he was informed with God’s Word. Hardly before Sanballat’s harassment had ended, Nehemiah was faced with another distraction. It wasn’t a Horonite, like Sanballat, who was tempting him. It wasn’t an Ammonite like Tobiah that was distracting him. It was a fellow Hebrew! Apparently, Nehemiah knew this man because he went to his house to visit him. This man is also called the son of a priest and was thought to possess the gift of prophecy. Shemaiah was someone that Nehemiah would have considered to be one of the good guys, a friend even! The story continues in verse 10, “Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee.” Now, Shemaiah’s invitation may seem friendly enough. It appeared to come from concern for Nehemiah’s safety. He was saying, “Why don’t you just retire from the work? Your enemies might come and kill you in the night! The sanctuary of the temple will be a safe haven for you.” Yet his invitation to go into the temple sanctuary was against the law of God. II Chronicles 23:6 says, “But let none come into the house of the LORD, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of the LORD.” Only priests were allowed in the innermost parts of the temple and Nehemiah was not a priest. Nehemiah responds to Shemaiah’s invitation, saying, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.” (Nehemiah 6:11) It might have been easy for Nehemiah to be caught off guard by a seemingly well-meaning invitation from one of the good guys. Without even thinking about it, he could have followed Shemaiah into the temple, the holy place of God, to protect his own life.

Yet Nehemiah remembered who he was—God’s servant, God’s workman. He knew what God had said about the temple. He didn’t fall prey to the illogical thinking of special pleading: “I know what the rule is, but I really need to hide from Sanballat!” Nehemiah stood strong against temptation even from a supposed friend because he knew what God had said. This made his choice very simple. His knowledge of God’s Word gave him discernment that he might not have had otherwise.

Like Nehemiah, we can be ready to resist temptations even from the “good guys” if we will be informed by God’s Word. When we know God’s Word on any matter, we will be able to discern what is right and wrong in a given situation. II Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” If we will study God’s Word, we will not be ashamed (or caught off guard) when temptation comes for us. We will have the gift of discernment, like Nehemiah had.

In addition to being informed with God’s Word, Nehemiah was also in touch with God’s wisdom. He didn’t just rely on his own perceptions of the situation. His reasoning could have led him astray. Rather, he leaned on the wisdom that God gave him in that moment. In verse 12, Nehemiah says of Shemaiah’s invitation, “And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.” As it turns out, Shemaiah was not a friend after all. He was a turncoat hired by Tobiah and Sanballat to stop Nehemiah from completing the work that God had entrusted to him. How could Nehemiah have known this if he had relied solely on his own senses and perceptions about the situation? The Bible warns us against leaning on our own senses and sensibilities in Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Because he feared the Lord, Nehemiah did not fear treacherous men. His reverence for God’s opinion above his own gave him access to God’s wisdom on each situation as it came. Although Nehemiah was surrounded by enemies, even those who should’ve been friends, Nehemiah never gave up on the work God had entrusted to him. He was protected from all of their attempts to stop him because he was in constant contact with the Lord. From the very beginning, Nehemiah had consecrated this work to the Lord. It was God’s vision, God’s servants, God’s work, God’s strength to complete the work. And it was God’s wisdom that saved Nehemiah here in this chapter.

We, too, can have Nehemiah’s confidence in the face of temptation, even when it comes from the good guys. James 1:5 promises, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that  giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” The context of James 1 is perseverance through trials. Certainly, we might classify temptations and treachery from the good guys as a trial! God promises that we can have His wisdom on this matter. Like Nehemiah did, if we make fearing the Lord, leaning on His understanding, and talking to Him constantly our lifestyle, then we can go through life with confidence. We will know what to do when the time comes because it will not be our senses, but God’s wisdom that guides us.

Sadly, Shemaiah was not the only supposed “good guy” who had taken sides with the bad guys. He wasn’t the only supposed friend that was trying to stop Nehemiah from pursuing God’s vision. Nehemiah prays in verse 14, “My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.” If anyone should have encouraged Nehemiah in the Lord, it should have been the prophets! And yet Nehemiah didn’t let their temptations dissuade him because he was informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.

As a result of Nehemiah’s resolve, the Bible says, “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month, Elul in fifty and two days.” (Nehemiah 6:15) The Devil had used discouragement from the enemy and even temptations from the good guys to stop the wall-building. If Nehemiah had been confused and succumbed to Shemaiah’s invitation to hide in the temple, God may not have used him to finish the wall. Yet God’s plan will always be accomplished, with or without His human vessels. The question is, will we be distracted with temptation or will we ground ourselves in God’s Word and God’s wisdom? The temptations didn’t stop, but neither did Nehemiah. Like Nehemiah, we can be unstoppable in pursuing our vision from God, if we will be informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.

The post When Temptation Comes from the Good Guys first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Well, in Nehemiah 5, God’s people were not acting like what they were. They were not “practicing Hebrews,” meaning they were not living out the practical application of their faith in Jehovah. Just after an intense battle with outside opposition had temporarily subsided, the wall builders now faced internal opposition to the work. Nehemiah 5 begins, “And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.” This time the problem was not coming from outside enemies and foreigners, like the Horonite Sanballat and the Ammonite Tobiah. It was coming from brethren, fellow believers and fellow countrymen! The problem was that, at this time, money, food, and resources were becoming scarce. Some of the Jews leveraged this situation to their advantage, lending money to their neighbors at high interest rates. As a result, some of the Jews were so indebted to other Jews that they had mortgaged off their lands and houses in order to buy food. Some had even allowed their children to go into slavery in order to pay off their debts! When Nehemiah discovered what had been happening, his righteous anger was kindled. “And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them. And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold unto us?” (Nehemiah 5:6-8)

Nehemiah calls what the Jews were doing to their disadvantaged brethren “usury.” Usury, in this context, means high interest rates, but it also means what it sounds like. They were using their brethren, taking advantage of them in order to help themselves. Much like Jesus when He confronted the money changers in the temple, Nehemiah did not pull any punches when confronting the Jews about their treatment of each other. Then Nehemiah went on to explain the root of the problem. “Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” (Nehemiah 5:9) The reason that the Jews were treating each other wrongly is that they were not walking in the fear of the Lord. They were not “practicing Christians,” we might say. Rather, they were treating each other the way that their foreign enslavers had. In so doing, they were not only hurting themselves, but they were also hurting the work of God.

The same kind of problem can creep into the Church today. We can hurt each other and the work of Christ when we fail to be “practicing Christians.” While we may be Christian (born-again believers) and identify as Christian (go to church), we may be simultaneously acting as if we are not Christian. James 1:26-27 puts it this way, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” Pure religion—the practice of our faith—is caring for and giving to each other. It is keeping ourselves separate from the world. We are not living separate from the world when we treat each other the same way that unbelievers would treat each other! The Bible says that when we act like unbelievers, our “religion is vain,” meaning that it is empty. James 2 continues this theme, saying, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?” God warns us not to have “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ” (or be/identify as Christian) while also having respect to persons (or treating others unjustly). James 2:8-9 says, “If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” What James 1 calls “pure religion” could be summed up in what James 2 calls the “royal law.” When we live according to the royal law (love your neighbor as yourself), then we are practicing pure religion; we are practicing Christians. James 2:14-17 continues, “What doth is profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” James is not saying that if we don’t act like Christians, we won’t be saved from hell! No, he is saying that if we don’t act like what we are, we can’t expect God’s mercy and blessing in our lives. He is not saying that if our faith is not demonstrated through works, we do not really have faith! No, he is saying that if our faith is not demonstrated through works, it does no good to the people around us.

The Church has endured and prevailed through numerous persecutions from the enemy. And yet the greatest threat to the effectiveness of the Church may indeed be those within the Church! In the context of James, the problem in the Church was partiality and neglecting each other’s needs. In the context of Nehemiah, the problem among God’s people was taking advantage of each other during a time of great need! The problem was taking rather than giving; using rather than sharing. Galatians 5:13-16 says, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This is say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Sometimes, we need to ask God to protect us from ourselves, from internal strife that will threaten the work of Christ. However, if we will “walk in the fear of our God” (Nehemiah 5:9) or “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), then we will be effective in the work of Christ. As in Nehemiah and James, we see in Galatians the parallel between pure religion and loving our neighbor. A practicing Christian is characterized by love for his neighbor. The effectiveness of our churches depends largely on the “practicing Christians” within them.

In Nehemiah 5, the work of God was threatened once again. This time, it was internal strife that nearly halted the progress on the wall building project. If we will be wise, we can learn from Nehemiah’s response to the Jews who had taken advantage of their fellow Jews. “Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them. Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. . . . And the people did according to this promise.” (Nehemiah 5:11-12, 13) Sin had threatened the work, but rather than giving up in defeat, Nehemiah and the people addressed the sin. They restored what had been taken. This is the same procedure we must follow when we find that our churches are being harmed by sin. We can and should treat each other with love, mercy, and forgiveness because we all share the same Creator, the same Savior, and the same cause of Christ! So, how are we treating each other? Are we treating each other like people in the world might treat each other? Are we giving God’s enemies reason to reproach us? Or are we practicing true religion? We might ask, “Are you just a Christian, or are you a practicing Christian?”

The post Are You a Practicing Christian first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

If you’re experiencing this kind of attack right now, you are not alone. Nehemiah and the children of Israel would understand. Just as the work on the wall was taking off, discouragement came for the workers. Nehemiah 4:1-2 says, “But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? Will thy fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?” From these verses we see that Sanballat mocked the workers’ ability to build the wall (feeble Jews), and wrongly characterized their job as impossible (will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are buried?) Basically, Sanballat told them, “You can’t do this job! And even if you could, it’s an impossible job!” Not only did Sanballat mock the Jews, but he did it publicly so that others could join in the jeering. And that’s exactly what Tobiah did, adding in verse 3, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” According to Tobiah, even what the Jews’ did accomplish was worthless. One setback, and it would all come crashing down!

That’s how the Devil works. He waits to see if you are serious about serving God and then he sends something to discourage you. How did Nehemiah respond to the Devil’s discouragement in the form of Sanballat and Tobiah? Nehemiah and the people did three things that we can do when we are faced with discouragement.

The first thing that Nehemiah did when faced with discouragement should not surprise us. Nehemiah is known as a man of prayer because . . . well, he made a habit of prayer. Prayer to the God of heaven, to his God, was Nehemiah’s mode of operation. And Nehemiah’s prayer was often characterized by boldness. This prayer was no different! Nehemiah asked the Lord to visit retribution on the discouragers, the enemies of the children of Israel. Nehemiah asked for God to turn the tables on their enemies. He prayed, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: and cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.” (Nehemiah 4:4-5) Nehemiah’s prayer wasn’t just for relief for the workers, so that they would no longer have to endure taunting from the discouragers. His prayer went further than that. Nehemiah asked for the discouragers to experience the same kind of reproach they had been shelling out to the workers. He asked for God to pour out his righteous vengeance for His own name’s sake. Since Nehemiah recognized God’ sovereignty over the workers and the work, he recognized the discourager’s taunts as against the Lord Himself. We can ask boldly, when we are asking for the sake God’s reputation and His glory.

The second way that Nehemiah and the people responded to discouragement was to fortify their minds. The very next verse, after the conclusion of Nehemiah’s prayer, says this: “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” (v. 6) Nehemiah and the people continued their work even amidst the discouragement. God had not yet thwarted the enemy. Yet they kept working through the discouragement. How could they do that? They pushed through it because they had fortified their minds. The battle against discouragement really is a battle for the mind. The bad guys didn’t go away. In fact, they had gathered together to fight against the people of Israel! (v. 7-8) But as long as their minds were on God and the work, the discouragers would not get the best of them. To fortify something means to protect or strengthen against attack. As Christians, we need to protect and strengthen our minds against the attacks of the enemy. We can only do this by habitually filling our minds with God’s truth. For example, Nehemiah told the people, “Be not afraid of them: remember the Lord.” (v. 14) How can we put fear or discouragement out of our minds? We can put fear out of our minds when we put the Lord in our minds. We can make our minds dwell on God and His promises, rather than the problems in front of us. One such promise is found in I John 4:4, which says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” Our minds will be fortified against attack when we are dwelling on the One within us rather than the problems outside us.

In addition to praying and fortifying their minds, Nehemiah and the people prepared. They prayed, they got their minds in the right place, and then they did what they knew to be the next right thing. After they heard of Sanballat’s conspiracy against them, Nehemiah 4:9 says, “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” We see from this verse that prayer and preparation go together. Sometimes the sentiment expressed by the phrase “thoughts and prayers” is criticized as an alibi for inaction in the face of problems. When it is used as a substitute for action, then it is rightly criticized. But prayer and action are not mutually exclusive! They go hand in hand. The first (prayer) informs the other (action). In the same verse that Nehemiah tells the people to put the Lord in their minds, he also tells them, “Fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” (v. 14) Nehemiah 4:18-20 says, “For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.” These verses demonstrate that Nehemiah did not downplay the immensity of the work or the reality of the threat to that work. Neither did Nehemiah shirk their responsibility to prepare for fighting against that threat. Still, Nehemiah did not just mention their part in this preparation; he also mentioned God’s part.  He said, “Grab your swords,” but then he also said, “God shall fight for us.” In other words, they were ready to do their part while relying on God to do what only He could do—His part. Too often we use “trusting God” as an excuse not to do what we know to be right at the moment. While we must certainly trust God with everything, we should not expect God to move mountains and part waters when we refuse to do what we can. We cannot be lazy and hope that God will fulfill His part of the plan. God responds to faith, and faith, by definition, is an action. Faith is doing what we know God has told us to do, even when we don’t understand how it will all work out. Faith is obedience to God, trusting that He will do what only He can when we have done what we ought. May we be Christians of both prayer and preparation.

The hard truth is that anything worth doing will come with its fair share of discouragement. The good news is that discouragement does not have to stop us. Take heart! If discouragement is picking on you, then you are in good company. Like Nehemiah and the wall builders, we can deal with discouragement if we will pray first, fortify our minds, and prepare to do what we can.

The post How to Deal with Discouragement first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

First, the work was set apart to the Lord. “Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.” (Nehemiah 3:1) The wall-builders realized that they and their work belonged to God. This mission was not about them, their abilities, their merits, or their glory. It was all about God and what He wanted to accomplish through them. Like the wall-builders and their work, the Church and her mission to evangelize the world is set apart to God. Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” So, the church is God’s idea! The Church’s people and the mission also belong to Christ. Just as Nehemiah and the wall-builders stood out among the people of the earth as holy (or separated) unto God, so the Church should stand in stark contrast to the rest of the world. Just as Nehemiah recognized God as the Redeemer of Israel, Christ is the Redeemer of the Church. The church is all about Christ. It is His idea and His work! If you are a member of the Church (meaning you are a born-again believer), then you are sanctified (or set apart) to God. As it did for the Hebrew wall-builders, standing out in this world may bring persecution our way. But since we are God’s and our mission is His, then we can have confidence that the Church will prevail come what may.

The second parallel we see of the wall-builders and the Church is that the work was made up of individual members. Chapter three begins with listing Eliashib the high priests and the priests under him and then continues with “and next unto him . . .  and next to them . . . and next unto them . . . and next unto them . . . and next unto them . . .” followed by other hard-to-pronounce names. (Nehemiah 3:1-5) Every person mattered and made a difference in the work. They were individuals working side by side for a common goal. Similarly, the Church is made up of individual members working alongside each other for a common goal. I Corinthians 12:12, 14 says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. . . .For the body is not one member, but many.” Like the wall-builders, we are one team, bound together by a common mission, but we are individual members. Every member of the Church body matters. As I Corinthians 12:18 says, “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” We are where we are in the Church, not by our own merit, but at the pleasure of God! Just as God placed certain people in certain places in the wall-building project, so God has placed certain members in certain positions in the Church.

There is no room for pride or pettiness in the work of Christ. We see that this was a problem among the wall-builders. Nehemiah 3:5 says, “And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.” These members of the wall-building project—the nobles—perhaps felt above the rest of the members and too good for the work. The phrase “put not their necks to the work of their Lord” carries the idea that they did not submit to the Lord and the position that He would have for them. God’s work went forward without the Tekoite nobles, but they certainly missed out on God’s blessings. In the Church, there is no member who is above another member and no member too good for the work of the Church. I Corinthians 12:19, 21-25 says, “And if they were all one member, where were the body?. . .  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, and are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” We are all individuals, meaning we are not all the same. As this passage says, if we were all the same member (like an eye), then there would be no body! The body is composed of individual members! So, it is ridiculous to think that because someone else is not just like you, they are somehow less than you. Just because you are a noble (based on our Nehemiah illustration) does not mean you cannot take part in particular work at your church. Every member matters. You matter, and so does another individual member of the Church. Just as every member of the wall-builders had to do his part so that no breach would be left in the wall, so every member of the Church must do his part so that there is no schism (or divide) in the Church. What you do or don’t do in your church does make a difference to the function of the whole. We should care for each other, knowing that each member is important to the body of Christ and to the mission He has given us.

Not only was the work made up of individuals, but the work was also made up of individuals with different skill sets and positions. “Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall. . . . And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters. . . . From above the horse gate repaired the priests . . . After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith’s son unto the place of the Nethinims, and the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner. And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.” (Nehemiah 3:8, 12, 28, 31, 32) The wall-builders were made up of goldsmiths and apothecaries (or pharmacists we might call them), of sons and daughters, of rulers and merchants. Each of these members brought with them a different skill set suited for a different position in the wall project.

The same is true for the members of the Church! I Corinthians 12 says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. . . . . Now there are diversities of gifts, but it is the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all . . . . . For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of the spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” This passage uses both the words diversities/differences and the words same/all. In other words, we have all been given different spiritual gifts and skills, but those differences come from the same Spirit. That Spirit is the giver of all of our different gifts; He is the creator of our diversity. And He has done this so that He might place us in different positions in the Church. Just as the daughters in Nehemiah 3 may have brought a unique set of skills to the work that suited them to a different position than the sons, so the daughters of Christ are suited to different positions in the Church than the sons of Christ. Just as the goldsmiths had different giftings than the rulers, so different members of the Church will have different giftings that suit them to different positions in the Church. Like the wall-builders, we should not focus so much on our differences, but on the Spirit that makes us the same. If we do, we will be “striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27)

Next time you go to your church, remember that your church is God’s idea. The Church is sanctified to God for the purpose of shining His light in this dark world. Remember that your church is made up of individuals, and that includes you! Every individual member matters because they all make a difference in the way the body functions. And then remember that each member will have a different skill set, gifting, and position in the body. Isn’t God’s design amazing? He knew exactly what was necessary for the walls of Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and He also knows exactly what is necessary for His gospel to go forth in this world. He has chosen to use the Church. Let this encourage you to find joy, excitement, and purpose as a member of the Church. Don’t be like the Tekoite nobles who missed out on the work. What is your part on the wall? Roll up your sleeves like the other wall-builders did and discover your part in the work of Christ’s church.

The post What Is Your Part on the Wall? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

When we are introduced to Nehemiah in chapter 1, we quickly become acquainted with Nehemiah’s problem. His brother comes from Jerusalem and tells him about the people and dilapidated gates of Jerusalem. When Nehemiah, living in the Persian palace as the king’s cupbearer, hears about the affliction of Jerusalem, he immediately reacts with sorrow. Have you ever had someone tell you that you need to sit down before they tell you some news? Well, apparently, Nehemiah’s brother forgot to tell him to sit down first because the news pushed Nehemiah to his seat. Then Nehemiah spends a long time crying, fasting, and praying. Nehemiah ends his prayer with this, “O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of the this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.” (Nehemiah 1:11) Wow! Nehemiah asks for quite a lot here. He asks for God’s attention, for God to prosper him in what he was about to do, and he asks for favor with the king. Oh, and he calls the king of the known world at that time “this man,” as if he were any other random person. It seems like a bold ask, doesn’t it? How could Nehemiah be so bold in his prayer? Nehemiah was bold in prayer for three reasons that are apparent in chapters 1-2: He caught God’s vision, he surrendered to God’s sovereignty, and he claimed God personally.

First, Nehemiah could pray so boldly because he caught God’s vision. Why was Nehemiah so heartbroken over the state of the people and the wall in Jerusalem? While he was related to them ethnically and culturally, he did not necessarily have a personal relationship with them. Nehemiah’s heart broke for them not because he was in close proximity to these people, but because he was in close proximity to their God. Although Nehemiah was safe and secure in the palace, he had empathy for God’s people far away. We know that this burden, this vision was from God because Nehemiah identifies it as “what my God had put in my heart to do.” (Nehemiah 2:12) We need people like Nehemiah who are so close to God that they feel His heartbeat and catch His vision. Nehemiah took on God’s burden for Jerusalem and asked what his part was in bringing this vision of rebuilding the wall to fruition. This gave Nehemiah boldness in prayer because it wasn’t just Nehemiah’s burden or vision—it was God’s.

We can have this same confidence because I John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desired of him.” If we have caught God’s vision and we are praying about that vision, we can know that we are in God’s will. And if we are in God’s will, we can know that God will perform it in His own way and in His own timing. This is not to say that we cannot pray for things which we do not know to be God’s will. Rather, this is to say that we can be confident when we are praying for things that we know are God’s will. For example, we know that it is God’s will for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4). When we pray for the salvation of our leaders, or of anyone, we can know that God will hear and act on that prayer. We also know that it is God’s will that we be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), that we love one another (John 13:34), that we share the gospel (Mark 16:15), and that we do good at every opportunity (Galatians 6:10). When we pray about these things, we can be bold because we are praying within God’s will and He is just waiting for us to invite Him to perform these things in our lives.

A second reason for Nehemiah’s boldness in prayer is that he surrendered to God’s sovereignty. Remember how he called the king “this man”? Well, that wasn’t Nehemiah being flippant and disrespectful of the king’s position or power. That was Nehemiah recognizing that in the sight of God, the king was simply a man like Nehemiah himself. Nehemiah realized that no matter who appeared to be on the throne of the world at the time, God was, is, and always will be the true Sovereign of the universe. Perhaps he was familiar with Moses’ song in Exodus 15:18, “The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.” In his prayer to God, Nehemiah called himself “thy servant” and the people in Jerusalem “thy servants.” Even though the king of Persia supposedly owned Nehemiah, humanly speaking, Nehemiah recognized that God owned the king himself. Nehemiah didn’t wait for a promotion in the palace or connive to take more power for himself before he acted on the vision from God. Neither did Nehemiah wait to make sure all the conditions were in his favor before he made his request to the king. He acted immediately and boldly. Why? Because Nehemiah knew that he, his people, and his king all belonged to God. The real Sovereign, the “God of heaven,” as Nehemiah calls him frequently, was the only One who could give him the favor, power, and opportunities he would need to get the job done.

Perhaps you feel like you cannot accomplish anything for God in your place of ministry because you do not have the favor of a certain group of influential people. Maybe you are disheartened with the lack of power you have in a country that seems to be straying ever further from the biblical principles that have made her free in the first place. Do you feel like you cannot have any real influence on your coworkers or boss because you feel you are in the minority? Then, like Nehemiah did, you need to remind yourself who the real Sovereign is and surrender to His control. Don’t wait to act on what you know to be right in your ministry, your country, or your workplace simply because you think you need more favor, more power, or more prominence. God’s people have never needed human favor, power, or prominence to get the job done. They have only ever needed God. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Earthly kings, like Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and Artaxerxes of Persia, have thought they were in control before only to find that it was the God of heaven that rules the world. The sooner God’s own people recognize this, the better! When we surrender to God’s sovereignty, we unleash His power on our behalf. And the power of “this man,” whoever he may be for you, pales in comparison to the real Sovereign’s power.

Not only did Nehemiah surrender to God’s sovereignty, but he was also aware of God’s personality. Nehemiah claimed God personally and this gave him boldness in prayer. Nehemiah wasn’t just praying to some distant God of his fathers or of the people miles away in Jerusalem. Nehemiah was praying to a Person that he knew, loved, and trusted intimately. While Nehemiah calls Him the “God of heaven” four times, noting His sovereignty, Nehemiah also calls Him “my God” three times, noting His personality. In his prayer, Nehemiah makes his request personal to himself and to God. Nehemiah invokes God’s special covenant that He had made with Nehemiah’s ancestors. Nehemiah prays, “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.” Of course, God did not need to remember his covenant, but Nehemiah wanted God to know that he was mindful of it and that he was trusting in God’s Word. Nehemiah continues in verse 10, “Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.” Nehemiah referenced God’s past interventions in their lives. He knew God, not just as the God of heaven, but as the Redeemer of Israel. He had seen God in a personal way, and he leaned on that relationship to get him through this trial. His past experience with God boosted his boldness in prayer to God about the current situation.

We may not be the children of Israel, but you and I have a personal relationship with the same God of heaven. How wonderful that I too can call the “God of heaven” my God! Like Israel, we have promises from our Heavenly Father upon which we can base our faith and our prayer. For instance, He has promised us His love in every condition (Romans 8:37-38), His peace in every place (John 14:27), His presence in every circumstance (Hebrews 5:13), His strength in every station (Philippians 4:13), His provision for every need (Philippians 4:19), His power for the great commission (Acts 1:8), His wisdom for every issue (James 1:5), and He has promised to work all of it together for His grand purpose for us—to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). Surely, we have seen these promises at work in our own lives. We can claim God as our Redeemer, as our Father, as our Friend. Do not forget God’s covenant with you as His child! Do not forget the ways that God has shown up in your life. Remember God, claim God as you own, and then let that fuel your confidence in prayer. Lean on your personal relationship with God and see how it emboldens your prayer life!

When we think of Nehemiah, we think of boldness and prayer. Nehemiah was bold in action because he was bold in prayer first. And this was thanks to his catching God’s vision, his surrender to God’s sovereignty, and his claiming God personally. We can do that, too.

The post How to Pray Like Nehemiah first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

1. You are obsessed with your social media profile. Have you ever logged on to social media just to look at your profile and see your posts? You wonder what it would look like from another person’s perspective. What would they think of your profile? Would they follow you? Have you ever bemoaned the fact that you are following more accounts than are following you? Are you one of those people who periodically thanks the new followers and touts having reached “5K!”? Most social media feeds are filled with selfies, self-promotions, and broadcasting personal accomplishments. We have to do this in order to gain followers and “make connections” on social media. Other social media users are happy to oblige us by leaving comments like, “Wow, you’re so beautiful!”, “You two are #goals!”, or “What a thoughtful husband you have!” They hope that we will return the favor on their posts. Our hearts skip a beat with each notification, each new emoji-filled comment, and gushing DM. We feel pressure to post the same type of content as everyone else. Before we know it, we have become obsessed with ourselves, or at least the social media version of ourselves.

Even some non-Christians recognize that social media feeds our human tendency to self-obsession. Dr. Elias Aboujauode of Standford University wrote a book entitled, Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of E-Personality, in which he said, “What used to be thought of as narcissistic, vain, and self-centered behavior is now the guiding norm of society. We’re living in an era where humans are putting forth these edited and inflated versions of their lives, this ‘idealized self,’ and then they are, quite literally, falling in love with themselves.” If a non-Christian can see that about social media, then we should be able to see that danger, too. Before we post, we should ask ourselves: “What is the point of posting this? What’s my motivation? Is it about others’ or is it more about me than anything else?” If we find that the sole purpose is to build an online image, or if we find ourselves constantly re-watching the stories we post on Instagram, we should reconsider our use of social media. These are signs that social media is feeding the pride that is within all of us.

2. You have a false sense of community. Have you ever put your phone away after an hour of scrolling social media and felt this strange wave of loneliness wash over you? Ironically, while social media is about connections, networking, friends and followers, spending too much time on social media can lead us to a false sense of community. Our virtual friendships are all based on likes, calling each other beautiful or awesome, and saying ilysm (I love you so much). In reality, we don’t really know them or hang out with them in person.

If we are not careful, we can spend more time “connecting” online than we do truly connecting with real people irl (in real life). As one study found, “Instead we might be occupied with worrying why we weren’t invited to a party we’re seeing on Instagram or making sure we don’t miss a single post from a friend. But if we’re always playing catch-up to endless online updates, we’re prioritizing social interactions that aren’t as emotionally rewarding and can actually make us feel more isolated.” God created us for face-to-face personal interaction. In person relationships are where the strongest connections and deepest relationships are formed. Online relationships are a starting point, but they are not the goal. While it’s not wrong to engage with people online, it’s much more worthwhile to build authentic friendships with the people immediately in your life. Bond with friends over things deeper and more important than that cute outfit or that gym selfie you posted on social media.

3. You have difficulty being in the moment. Have you ever been “talking” to a friend and the only response you get is “mhmm,” as he scrolls on his phone? It hurts to not be listened to, especially when the person you’re talking to is listening to their social media feed instead. Social media is like a magnet for our attention, with every new swipe bringing us another shot of dopamine. We are so busy posting about our experiences real time that we forget to live our experiences real time. We are robbed of the peace that comes from just being in the moment. As one psychotherapist noted in an article, “Young people now seem to be creating an image of who they are in place of becoming who they are, posting their life rather than living it. . . . Life experiences are not lived directly so much as they are used as opportunities for announcing what kind of person you are.” If you find yourself struggling to put down your phone during an event, activity, or some other life experience, that may be a warning sign that you are no longer in the moment. Is your first thought during an amazing experience, “Oh, I have to post this!”? If posting our experiences is keeping us from living our experiences, then that is not a healthy relationship with social media.

4. You struggle with comparison. Social media gives us access to more intimate details about more people than we were ever meant to have. This overload of knowledge shoves comparison in our faces. We automatically size ourselves up next to that young woman who just posted a selfie. We measure our career success according to the job promotion that he just posted. We are content with our lives until we get a glimpse into someone else’s lifestyle (or at least the one he projects on social media). We enjoy our own family until we see that mom post about her seemingly perfect #momlife. According to clinical psychologist, Rachel Andrew, “I think what social media has done is make everyone accessible for comparison. In the past, people might have just envied their neighbors, but now we can compare ourselves with everyone across the world.” But you don’t need a psychologist to tell you that social media can stoke envy in your heart. Have you ever had that sinking feeling in your stomach after scrolling through Instagram and seeing a classmate or a casual acquaintance tout their latest vacation, job promotion, or relationship? With a whole world now open for us to compare ourselves to, the temptation to covet, or became envious and resentful about what others have is strong. Hebrews 13:5 warns, “Let you conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” The truth is that we don’t need our virtual friends’ vacation or promotion to be content. Christ’s constant presence with us is all we need. I Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” We have something far greater to brag about than our vacations or promotions. How often do we use our social media posts to brag on Jesus instead of ourselves? (You may not get as many likes or reactions.)

5. You struggle with anxiety and depression. After an hour of scrolling on social media, do you usually feel more fulfilled, content, and just plain happy? Or is the reverse true for you? Whether you’ve thought about it or not, the influence of frequent social media use on our mental health has been in question for a while. Studies have been conducted that suggest there is a correlation between social media use and anxiety and depression. But a more recent study found a causal link between frequent social media use and anxiety and depression. Researches monitored a group of 143 undergrad students at the University of Pennsylvania for three weeks. These students were randomly separated into two groups. The experimental group was limited to 10 minutes per day on three social media platforms, adding up to 30 minutes a day on social media. The other group had unlimited use of social media. At the end of the study, those in the experimental group who had started with the greatest levels of depression reported the greatest decline in depression. While a study like this does not reveal the reasons for the causal link between social media use and anxiety and depression, we can probably make some pretty good guesses.

Not only does social media give us access to the entire world for comparison, but also to the burdens of the whole world. While it is good to be informed on national and world events, we were not built to bear the burdens of the entire world on our shoulders. The constant news cycle makes us constantly aware of all the bad that is happening in the world. In addition to this awareness, we feel the pressure to comment on current events, as if we are experts. Anyone with social media can be an expert and most act as if they are, posting about current events, social controversies, and politics with certain hashtags. Seeing such posts makes us feel like we too must jump on the bandwagon. We must have a stance on the issue, and we must make it known! We are required, not just to care about everything, but to say something and do something about everything. We feel this responsibility to fix the world, and when we cannot, we feel like we have failed the world. The problem with that is that . . . well, we are not God! Only God has the capacity to know about, care about, and do something about everything that goes on in the world.

This concoction of comparison to others (envy, self-loathing) and the save-the-world complex plays a major role in the feelings that lead to chronic anxiety and depression. We can’t sleep because the last thing we look at before we go to bed is the news and people’s response to that on social media. A better nighttime routine for our mental health would be to make the Bible app the last we look at before bed, rather than the Twitter app. (Preaching to myself here.) Yes, we are called to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), but we are also called to cast all our cares upon Him (I Peter 5:7). We are told to care about, pray for, and help others, but we are also to take all of that care and ultimately entrust it with Jesus! We are not in control, but He is. So, instead of spending most of our time scrolling through the outrage and backlash on social media, let us spend more time praying for our friends, neighbors, church, city, and state. Our mental health will be better for it.

When I deleted my Instagram account, I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference on my mental health. While it wasn’t the only factor that improved my mental health, it played a much bigger role than I thought it would. I’m not saying that everyone out there should delete their Instagram accounts, too! I’m simply saying that if you can relate to any or all of these warning signs, maybe you should consider at least cutting back on your social media use. Social media, like any other technological tool, can be a great force for good. We can use it to connect with more people worldwide. We can build online communities based on similar interests or stages in life. Anyone anywhere can build a platform on which to influence, inspire, and exhort others. Yet when we go from being the user to the used, social media can wreck our mental health. The difference maker is being extremely intentional about our social media use so that it is a tool which works for us, rather a leech that sucks the very peace, joy, energy, and life out of us.

So, how is your relationship with social media right now?

The post 5 Warning Signs That Social Media Is Harming Your Mental Health first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

This new generation that Moses addressed in Deuteronomy 1 had seen the results of such disbelief and disobedience. They had the same advantage that their parents had had forty years before—the advantage of seeing God work in the past. Now it was up to them whether they would take what they knew about God in the past and apply that knowledge to their situation in the present. Would they interpret their current situation according to their senses or according to God’s character? To do the former would be short-sighted. The latter would require surrender.

While we often think ourselves so much more spiritual than the children of Israel, we often fall into the very same trap. When a new situation arises that we have never seen before, we assume that God’s approach to the situation will be new as well. We tend to interpret our present situation according to what we sense and feel rather than according to God’s unshakeable character and unbeatable track record. We look ahead at the unknown instead of looking back at the evidence for God’s trustworthiness. The very definition of short-sighted is allowing some new situation to shake our belief in the God who has proven Himself again and again.

In contrast with that short-sighted approach to a present and scary situation, we can and should choose surrender. Surrender is not a blind leap of faith. It is a reasonable decision, based on the unshakable character of God and His unbeatable track record of fighting for us. Surrender means rest. In Hebrews 3, God attributes Israel’s disobedience to their hardened hearts. How could they disbelieve God after clearly hearing His Word and seeing His works? Their hearts had been hardened through short-sightedness. They had judged their situation based on their own senses so often that they simply could not overcome the hurtle of crossing the Jordan River to take Canaan.  As a result, God said, “they could not enter.” (Hebrews 3:19) Yet God offers this same rest to us in Hebrews 4, if we will learn from Israel’s mistake. Hebrews 4 defines this surrender—this rest—as ceasing from work. The author compares this rest to God’s rest from His work of creation on the seventh day. It paints the picture of someone leaning back, taking a deep breath, and closing his eyes. This is what God wants us to do—He wants us to lean back into His arms, take a deep breath, and close our eyes to our own perspective. Hebrew 4:9-10 says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” This rest—or surrender—means that we cease from working to keep ourselves afloat and start trusting in the God who fights for us. Just as we ceased from our work and rested in Christ’s finished work for salvation, so we must cease from our work and rest in Christ’s work for sanctification.

Like Moses pled with the new generation of Israelites standing on the brink of the Promised Land, the Holy Spirit is pleading with you. Do not be fooled by your own senses about a new and scary situation. While it is true that you have never been here before, God already has. Gain strength and confidence from the battles God has fought for you in the past. Rather than trying to fight this one, surrender it to God. As He had done for the children of Israel, God has already provided a plan and path forward for you. All He is waiting for you to do is surrender.

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses finishes his history lesson with this exhortation, “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thine heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” (Deuteronomy 4:9) The children of Israel are not alone in this human tendency to forget in a moment of fear. As finite humans, we are constantly stumbling upon situations that are new and scary to us. In those moments, we tend to go on autopilot—trust our senses about the situation. We tend to be short-sighted and, therefore, are misguided. This means that we must be on guard, diligent, intentional about remembering the unshakable character and unbeatable track record of the God who fights for us. We need to keep God’s character and track record in our own hearts as well as pass it down to our children after us.

History has given us all the evidence we need to believe in God for today. Why would we be so short-sighted as to depend on our own senses? Let us take to heart the question that Moses posed to the Israelites on the brink of Canaan: Are you short-sighted or surrendered?

The post Short-sighted or Surrendered? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Maybe you can relate. Like me, perhaps you are a restless soul rather than a patient person. It’s one thing to be patient when you’re waiting in line at the coffee shop or waiting for the leaves to change colors. It’s quite another kind of patience when you’re waiting for a trial to end. And that is the kind of patience that the book of James addresses. When you think of patience, you may picture someone with clenched teeth, clenched fists, hunkering down until the problem is past. However, the biblical picture of patience is not passive. It’s much more active. James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience haver her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Why does God expect us to “count it all joy” when we face trials? We can count it joy because no experience is ever pointless or wasted with God. Through the trial, God is taking us somewhere! He is developing a character trait in us that will help us through much more down the road. That character trait He is developing in us is patience.

Now, before you roll your eyes, thinking about “grinning and bearing it,” let’s consider the biblical picture of patience. The word patience here means “constancy, endurance.” According to Strong’s concordance, this is “the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose.” A better picture of biblical patience would be a marathon runner. He keeps a steady pace, and endures the race, knowing that the finish line will come eventually. He is unswerving in his purpose to cross that finish line. His patience pays off because, in the end, he is a stronger, although tired, runner. The same is true for those of us who exhibit patience (constancy, endurance) in the Christian race. James says that patience will make us perfect. James 1:4 says that if we let patience have her perfect work, patience will make us perfect or complete. We will not be lacking in character once patience is through with us! James begins with a call to patience—to consistency and endurance—because God has a purpose for every trial we face.

Just as James begins with patience, the book also ends with patience. James 5:7-8 says, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waitieth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” In verses 7-8, the phrase “be patient” means “to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart.” We see the idea of consistency again. We should be in the race for the duration, pacing ourselves and enduring every step of the way. How can we be of long spirit, not losing heart in this arduous Christian race? Well, like the marathon runner or the farmer waiting for his crops to grow, we have something worth waiting for and it is coming soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ will return, and it could be any day now. We are to be patient by “stablishing” or “placing firmly” our hearts in the hope of Christ’s return.

We have great Bible examples of believers who were patient through afflictions. Job is one of those examples. He did not enjoy his fiery trial, but he was patient (constant, enduring) because he was firm in his purpose. In Job’s words, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain my own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation.” (Job 13:15-16) Job didn’t necessarily know how his story would end, but he did know his purpose and he resolved to “maintain” his way, to be consistent in his relationship with God. Job didn’t understand why he had to face this trial, but he did know where his hope came from: God was his salvation. Job’s story not only demonstrates that patience is possible even through the worst trials, but also that the Lord is merciful and compassionate even in those trials.

So, how can we be patient when we are facing a personal trial? How can we be patient when the world seems to be falling apart? How can we be patient when we feel helpless to do anything about the problems in our country and countries abroad? Patience is not a feeling we conjure but an action we take. Patience is a choice to put our hope in Christ, not our current circumstances. Patience is doing the next right thing and doing so consistently, not just when we feel like it. It means studying our Bible every day, praying without ceasing, and fulfilling our responsibilities on a consistent basis. Patience looks like endurance. It’s taking life one step at a time, but not missing a step. Patience is like running a marathon. We pace ourselves but keep going because we know what is waiting for us at the finish line. God is taking us somewhere. The end result is worth it! Remember, patience makes perfect.

The post Patience Makes Perfect first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Recently, have you felt exhausted, angry, depleted, sad, and helpless about what is going on in the world? I have, too. Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, oppressive takeovers, corrupt leadership, the list goes on. Maybe you are feeling these same emotions about what is happening in your own little world. Whether on the macrolevel (global), on the microlevel (personal), or both, many people around the world are feeling this way. The world is broken, and the worst feeling is that we do not know what to do about it. It’s easy to be overcome with the evil of natural disasters or wicked oppressors rather than to be an overcomer of evil.

It’s easy to look at the evil and the oppression around the world and ask, like the psalmist in Psalm 94:3, “How long shall the wicked triumph?” In psalm 94, the psalmist is calling down God’s righteous vengeance on the wicked. When we are overwhelmed with the wickedness in the world, we can be overcomers when we do what this psalmist did. Like the psalmist, we must recognize God’s sovereignty, rest in God’s immutable character, and appeal to God’s name.

Like the psalmist, the first thing we must do to be an overecomer is recognize that God is the Overcomer. He is sovereign! In Psalm 94:1-2, 5, the psalmist says, “O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.” God owns vengeance, God owns the oppressed, and God owns the oppressors as well! In prayer for deliverance from the wicked oppressors of God’s people, the psalmist says in Psalm 74:12-17, “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driest up mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.” The psalmist recognizes that God is in control of nature—the sea, the beasts, the weather, the day and night cycle—and He can use it all to fulfill His purposes. Like the psalmist, when we are distressed by natural disasters, tyrannical dictators, failing leaders, or corrupting nations, we can find comfort in the fact that God is sovereign over it all. The earth and all its inhabitants, the weather and all its disasters, the oppressed and the oppressors alike belong to the Sovereign King who is our God.

In addition to recognizing His sovereignty, we must also rest in God’s immutable character. When the psalmist’s own thoughts about the present situation tormented him, the comforts of God delighted him. Psalm 94:19 says, “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.” What are some of God’s comforts? Well, we can take comfort in His character—what He does and how He relates to us. We can see God’s character very clearly through His promises to us. In Psalm 74:20, the psalmist clung to God’s promise to the nation of Israel, saying, “Have respect unto the covenant.” If there is one thing we have learned from history, it is that God always respects His promises to us. After all, He sent His Son Jesus Christ, didn’t He? After all, He raised Jesus Christ from the dead, didn’t He? If God could respect such astounding promises, then we can be confident that He will respect others.

For example, we can be confident when God promises in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” God is the leader who will never leave you behind. We can know that Jesus is with us because He promised in Matthew 28:20, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” No matter where we are or what we face, we can be sure of one thing: we are not alone. We can claim the confidence of David in Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The Bible tells us that David certainly faced real fear fostered by real threats to his life and wellbeing. But we also know that David was comforted by God’s immutable character.

Another promise that we can cling to during troubled times is His imminent return and restoration of all things. He has promised that He is coming again to judge the earth in His righteousness and His truth (Psalm 96:12-13). He has promised that He will make a new heaven and new earth, the way that this world was originally intended to be before Adam and Eve sinned. The reason that our hearts break so at the injustice, the violence, and the destruction in this world is that it was not supposed to be this way. And we know that deep down in our souls. We know that we were created for life, not death. We understand that we were meant for eternity, not the grave. While we all may intellectually understand that all humans are mortal, it doesn’t make death an any more welcome visitor. We desire peace, justice, and life. As C. S. Lewis puts it, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[1] We were made for eternal life with God—the source of peace, justice, and life. And one day, according to His promise, that hope will be realized. C. H. Spurgeon said, “Here is the world’s true hope of rescue from the fangs of tyranny . . . The time will come when all races of men shall own their God and accept him as their king. There is one who is ‘King by right divine,’ and he is even now on his way.”[2] There is coming a day!

Even when we do not feel God’s presence, God is present. Even when we have been forsaken by our earthly leaders and people in power, God has not forsaken us. Even when our leaders have broken promise after empty promise, God is a covenant keeper. And He will not break His covenant with us!

A third element to the psalmist’s prayer in Psalm 94 is an appeal to God’s name. This psalmist was bold in His prayer! He called down vengeance on his enemies! How could he do that? He could do that because he was praying down vengeance for the Lord’s name’s sake. He says to the LORD, “shew thyself” in verse 1. In Psalm 74:22, the psalmist prayed a similar prayer of judgement on enemies, saying, “Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.” Again, in Psalm 79:9-10 the psalmist pleads, “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.” Appealing to God’s name, His glory and reputation among the heathen, is one of the strongest appeals we can make in prayer. It is strong because, no matter what, God’s glory will shine through and His name will be vindicated! There is power when we invoke the name of the LORD God, Jehovah! When we are on His side and we pray for His name’s sake, we can know that He will act.

Like the psalmist in Psalm 94, we can be overcomers even in a world overcome with evil. While we may feel helpless, there is plenty for us to do. At the very least, we can be praying down God’s righteous vengeance. We can pray recognizing God’s sovereignty, resting in God’s character, and invoking God’s name. Be bold. Be praying. Be not overcome, but an overcomer.

[1] C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity, 39.

[2] Spurgeon, Charles. “Psalm 82.” Blue Letter Bible. 5 Dec 2016. Web. 1 Sep, 2021. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/tod/ps82.cfm>.

The post Are You Overcome or an Overcomer? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.