Tag: bible

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post

Staying in Grace

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter from David C., used by permission.                                                                                                               

I was having lunch with my friend Drew today and he asked me a question (he is really good with questions).  How do you personally keep from drifting away from grace and moving into Law?  I don’t have well thought out answers.  I have a few thoughts though.

Embrace the brokenness.  I don’t care how sharp a person is, if they measure themselves against the absolute, holy Law and standard of God—they are toast.  In Galatians Paul says that one of the functions of the Law is to show us that we are lawbreakers and in need of Christ.  The more I see of the beauty and majesty and glory of Jesus in the scripture, the more I am aware of my tattered, shabby, grubby nature.  At my best I am a victim of the mercy and grace and love of God.

A proud person will have difficulty embracing grace.  They don’t need it.  There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.  God is always opposed to the proud and He always give grace to the humble.

Embrace genuine fellowship.  Acceptance is hard to come by in a ministry committed to performance.  There are a few brothers I have with whom my life, in all of its brokenness, is accepted, cared for, encouraged.  Such people are a rich treasure.  The critical, legalistic, high performing people I try and avoid.  Paul says we are to accept one another as God has accepted us in Christ.  How is that for a goal to strive for?

Embrace the relationship through the Word.  The problem with the Scripture is that you can read it, study it, memorize it, just like the Pharisees did but they missed Jesus.  It is being willing to sit in the relationship at His feet and believe that we are wanted, desired, loved.  If the ministry is your preoccupation, your focus, your passion…it will be difficult to engage relationally with the Lord.  I am not anti-ministry.  It is an incredible privilege to participate with the Lord when we are invited into the process, but it is His work and His glory.  Paul makes the comment in 1Corinthians 3.  “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So, neither the one who plants not the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”  Our value, I believe, is in our relationship with God as His sons and daughters.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us

Being totally, utterly, completely accepted by the Lord. 

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter from David C., shared with his permission

There is something incredible about being totally, utterly, completely accepted by the Lord.  We are accepted because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and our sins are forgiven and we are filled with the Holy Spirit and adopted into His family.  I don’t merit or deserve what God gives me.  It is a wonderful and rare thing when you also experience acceptance from another person.

62+ years walking with the Lord and I am realizing that I will carry my brokenness into the kingdom.  It is a fantasy and an illusion to think that I can clean my life up, deal with the problems, get my act together, stop sinning, etc.  I tell believers sometimes that sin does 2 good things in my life.  It keeps me grateful for the mercy of God, and it allows me to identify with my fellow broken brothers.  We are either ok as we are now or we will never be ok. 

In my daily prayer list and time with the Lord there is a section where I am asking God to grant 3 things to me.  1-that I would not be wise in my own eyes.  2-that I would offer to God the sacrifices that are pleasing to Him—a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.  3-that I would walk and live in the shoes of the Tax Collector in Luke 18 (God be merciful to me, the sinner).

I have one of those head colds.  Congestion, sore throat, cough, headache.  Not bad enough to seek medical help and not good enough to function well.

I am grateful that joy and happiness are very different.  Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and we can express it regardless of the way that we feel.  It is independent of our circumstances.  It doesn’t mean it always works well for me. 

It is funny but, in my experience, emotion rarely supports faith.  Faith is a willingness to hear the Word of God and obey it.  Faith always involves God speaking and us obeying.  It is almost never a matter of “feeling like it”. 

The foggy head is having trouble wrapping this up well.  Imagine that.  When all is said and done, may our Lord be praised!  May His name be magnified and may we speak of His glory, power, coming kingdom, and nature!

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post

Ascribe To The Lord The Glory That Is Due His Name

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

This Letter was written by David C., used with permission.

The Army has a saying “embrace the suck”.  I think for me, a good saying in the Christian life would be “embrace the brokenness”.  We seem to be on a continual journey to improve, get better, fix stuff, shape up, get it right, etc.

Paul’s comment is 2Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

There will always be a qualitative difference of the glory of God expressed within us and the flesh in which it is contained.  My desire is for personal glory.  I want people to look at my life and ooh and ah.  It is sin of course.  John the Baptist had it right when he said, “He must increase but I must decrease”.  We live in a narcissistic culture in which everything is about the person, their success, their glory, their accomplishments.  It is the Holy Spirit who helps us lift our eyes to Jesus and ascribe to Him glory and honor.  I like Psalm 115:1  “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your loving kindness, because of your truth”.

It leaves me with 2 goals.  

One, is not to attempt to fix my brokenness for my glory.  I have flaws and brokenness that will be with me as I come into the presence of Jesus.  If I were to write a book, I would title it, “The Fellowship of the Broken”.  Some are more “healthy” than others but all are broken in some way.  Some things God works on, some He fixes, but most remain so that His glory might be displayed.  2Corinthians 12 is a good read.  If anyone had a reason for confidence and was sharp…it was Paul.  Yet he comes to the place where he will boast in his weaknesses.

Two, is to ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due His name.  I will speak of the goodness of the Lord, His majesty, His works, His power, His coming kingdom all the days of my life as He gives me grace.  Psalms 29 and 96 say basically the same thing, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due His name”.  What do we talk about?  What speech fills our time?  What is our agenda?  No one gets it right all of the time of course.

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Turbulence develops and refines our character to be more like Jesus.

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Weekly Letter from David C.

When I get to the 5th of the month, I am delighted with Psalms and Proverbs.  I love the contrast between Psalm 21 and Psalm 22. {David reads 5 Psalms a day. He multiplies the calendar date by 5, and the last of the 5 Psalms he reads that day is that number. On the 5th of each month, he reads Psalms 21-25.}

In Psalm 21 David is living the ideal Christian life.  “You have given him his heart’s desire, and you have not withheld the request of his lips.  For you meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.”  Ideal.  Wonderful.  Every Christian’s desire and hope for how the Christian life will go.  David is getting what his heart desires and his prayers are being answered.  Sign me up!

In Psalm 22 David is in the pit of despair.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.  O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but I have no rest.  Yet You are holy.”  What has happened?  David is troubled, in despair, and he can’t get God to answer him and do what he wants.

Welcome to the normal Christian life.

Welcome to the walk of faith.

It is in the turbulence of this life that our character is being refined to be more like Jesus and the evidence of Jesus is being manifested.  Paul encouraged the Christians in Philippi to “do all things without grumbling or disputing”.  Why?  So that Christ could be manifested to the watching world.  

Do I believe that God works all things together for good for His children?  Do I believe that I am to give thanks for everything for that is God’s will for me?

We never get it right all of the time.  Jesus did and it is His righteousness in which we are clothed as believers.  We are in the process of being grown up, matured into the likeness of Christ. 

Your brother,

David

David Coffield

Is the Lord righteous in all of His ways and kind in all of His deeds?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Letter to me from David C.

Two things that the Scripture teaches that I need to embrace daily.  The sovereignty of God and the goodness of God.  If God is not sovereign; then life is a roll of the dice and there is no guarantee of a desirable outcome.  If God is not good; then we are subject to evil and calamity.

But God is both sovereign and good.  Psalm 145:17 “The Lord is righteous in all of His ways and kind in all of His deeds.”  My failure to understand it does not change the reality of it.

We struggle to think that God is good and sovereign when we watch bad things happen in our lives and the lives of others.  We tend to “sell” Christianity as a life enhancing experience where God is committed to our happiness, success, pleasure, health, etc.  Hebrews says that God “scourges every son that He receives”.  What?!  Why?  Because we need it.

We need it to grow into the image and character of Jesus.  Years ago, before I purchased a bench grinder, I had a hand file to sharpen the lawn mower blade.  It was slow, hard work.  There are elements in our lives that I think God is working to refine, sharpen, change, improve.  It takes time.

I get really irritated with Christians who preach that you can take 2 verses, memorize them, and you will be fine.  Really irritated.  We have been shaped by our experiences in life over time and, for the most part, they are not easily fixed.  God is growing us up.  It is through the crucible that refining comes.  Proverbs says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts”.  The word “tests” is the same thought of “refining”.  God doesn’t wonder about the status and nature of my heart…He knows.  And He knows how to refine and shape me towards the image of His Son.  There is far more pain involved in the process than I am happy with.  

You hear occasionally in the Special Ops community the phrase “embrace the suck”.  It is the willingness to lean into the pain and push through.  For the believer it is giving thanks in all things because our loving Father is both sovereign and good.  Is it pleasant?  No.  Can we rejoice?  Yes.  We have the Holy Spirit and the ability to choose to override our emotions and lift our eyes to our Father.

Your brother,

David

David Coffield, Featured Writers, Guest Post, Jesus, Yahweh

How do we measure spirituality? Discipleship?

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

A letter from Dave C.

A metric is how we measure or evaluate something.  For age, it is about the passage of time, years, days.  For weight, it is usually about pounds.  For height, it is about inches.  How do we measure spirituality?  Discipleship?  What is our “metric”?

We used to work at the 7 basics of the Christian life—Quiet time, Scripture memory, Bible Study, Witnessing, Prayer, Application, Fellowship.  On my team we used to evaluate every week the quantity and quality of our engagement in those activities.  I often say that a Navigator would make a good Pharisee.  How do we evaluate if a person is a disciple?  It used to be the completion of the Design for Discipleship Series, the memorization of the TMS, regular participation in the group activities, and good progress in the basics.

Of course, John 8:31,32 is the only definition that Jesus gives of what it means to be a disciple of His.

Our couple’s study is looking at Luke 18 and I was struck hard by the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in 9-14.

The Pharisee was at the top of his game in terms of religious performance.  The best of the best.  He was religiously righteous, and he knew it.  He was outperforming everyone around him easily.

The Tax Collector was the bottom of the Jewish culture.  A person working for Gentiles who was taking money from his fellow countrymen.  Abhorrent.  Tax Collectors and prostitutes got along well.  But the Tax Collector’s statement was, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner”.

The Lord’s conclusion?  “I tell you the Tax Collector went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee.”  

I am beginning to think that our metric ought to be the humility of the heart and not the religious performance.  Pride is a terrible thing, and I suspect we are often blind to it.  I haven’t plumbed the depths of this, but I sense something profound and powerful lies here.  May the Lord give us eyes to see our own hearts and the hearts of those around us and to walk in humility.

Your brother,

David

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Three Reasons My Friend David Prays

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

I can think of 3 reasons that motivate me to pray.

One reason is the relationship.  Prayer, in my simple understanding, is talking to God.  You can talk; you can pray.  You can think, you can pray.  God speaks to us through the Word, and we speak to Him in prayer.  It is a relationship based on the sacrifice of His Son Jesus that adopts us into His family as beloved children.  When we get performance focused, we drop the relationship because of the guilt we carry of an “inadequate” life.

A second reason is praise.  We are instructed, “In everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”  When we are focused on self, life tends to revolve around us.  Our pains, our joys, our problems, our glory, etc.  When we are focused on Him, it lifts our attention and our hearts into His presence.

A third reason is people.  Paul was fanatical in his praying for people.  We unfortunately focus on his ministry and short him on his praying.  “I do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.”  “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”  We don’t tend to value prayer for people because we usually don’t see God doing what we asked Him to do.  That doesn’t mean that the prayer is not valuable, critical.

There is a verse in Psalms that I like by David, “Evening and morning and at noon I will complain, and murmur and He will hear my voice.”  We are always invited to pour out our hearts before Him and it doesn’t need to be pretty.    God is the one entity in the universe who completely understands us, completely loves us, and is delighted to fellowship with us.  He will never fail to do what is good in our lives (although we get into an argument about what is good).  I know what I like, He knows what is good.

Your brother,

David C.

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Even though there are 3 S’s against us (Self, Society, and Satan), Greater are the 3 S’s for us (Sovereign God, Savior Jesus, and Holy Spirit)

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Paul says that we are to “take the shield of faith with which we will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one”.  Satan is described by Jesus as a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies whose desire is to steal, kill, and destroy.  He has free access to our lives.  Sobering, isn’t it?

Paul further says that we are not ignorant of his schemes.  The first time I read that I thought, “I’m ignorant”.  The flesh is straightforward.  No mystery about it.  You can read the 15+ list in Galatians 5.  The world is a little more subtle trying to conform us into its thinking.

Satan attacks our faith.  He attacks our confidence in the goodness of God (why would a good God who loves you let (fill in the blank) happen to you?  He attacks the word of God, our willingness to accept the word simply and believe what is said.   Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded permission to sift him like wheat.  If I had been Peter I would have said, “Surely you told him no?”  Peter gets sifted and he learns something invaluable about himself.

Satan is described also as the “accuser” of the brethren.  He gets an ear, and he whispers things like, “you are no good, you don’t measure up, you are a failure, you are a subpar Christian, God really doesn’t love you, He won’t come through for you, etc.”  The antidote is to take the shield of faith.

Faith to me as a simple definition is God speaking and me obeying or believing.  God speaks through the Scripture.  A Christian without the word in his life is on dangerous ground.  I choose to believe what God has said and is saying, not the lies of Satan or the world in which we live.

Your brother,

David

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I am free to fail because my Father loves me unconditionally, apart from my performance.

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Yesterday my heart was heavy, and I was in dialogue with my massage therapist.  She made the comment, “Failure is a beautiful thing”.  It resonated with my soul.

Our lives are spent trying to avoid failure, hide failure, minimize failure, and keep from failure at all costs.  But how do we learn anything of significance without failure?  We fear failure because it strikes at the core of our self-image.  We spend our lives trying to secure a good self-image through performance.  We are special, we are high speed, low drag.  We are elite.  It goes on and on. 

Each day in my dialogue with God, I ask Him to help me believe that my value to Him resides in my relationship with Him as His son and not in my performance for Him.

I am always struck in John when Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water and the heavens part, and the Father leans out and declares, “You are My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased”.  Jesus hadn’t done anything!  It was Who He was that mattered to the Father, not His performance.  The performance of Jesus would come because of the relationship, not to secure the relationship.

Almost no one in this world (apart from some believers) feels that they are ok apart from their performance.  School, military, job, our culture—they all teach acceptance based on performance.  

But our God is about grace.  When you look at Psalm 113 & 1 Corinthians 1, you can see the people that God picks for His team.  The poor, needy, barren, foolish, weak, base, and despised.  A bunch of losers.  I am bringing up the back of that pack.    He chooses these so that He will receive the glory.

I am old enough now to know that I am never going to “get it together”.  My brokenness will be with me as I stagger into the Kingdom pointing to the marvel and wonder and grace of Jesus!  I am free to fail because my Father loves me unconditionally apart from my performance.  Blessed is the name of our Lord!

Written by David C.

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Read Your Bible For Relationship

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

I went through AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Ft. Sam Houston years ago.  When the cadre asked our class how many were going airborne, about ¾ of the class said they were.  When the day came to board the bus to Ft. Benning, 3 of us got on.

It seems like you can get a Christian to do anything except spend time in the Bible on a daily basis to seek the face of the Lord.

The only definition I know of given by Jesus as to what makes a person a disciple of His is given in John 8:31,32.  “If you abide in my words, then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Not much different than Joshua being told “this book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night…”  Or the Israelites being instructed by God in Deuteronomy 6, “There words, which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up…”

If there is one thing Satan hates, it is a Christian in the Bible.  If there is one thing the flesh hates, it is a Christian in the Bible.  And, if there is one thing the world hates, it is a Christian in the Bible.

Read it for relationship!  In the early years of my walk with the Lord I didn’t have the mindset that the Bible was essentially God speaking to me.  You can go to the Bible and miss Jesus.  The Pharisees did it.  Paul makes the comment that “knowledge puffs up, but love edifies”.  It is as a result of beholding the glory of the Lord in the Scripture that we are being transformed into the image of Jesus. (2Corinthians 3:18)  

When I rise in the mornings my request of the Lord is that He would speak to me, that He would let me hear His voice.  Psalms, Proverbs, the gospels.  

Written by David C.

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Our Work = Believe & Abide In Jesus

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

I have found myself recently with a growing sense of unease about accomplishing the works that God has set aside for me to do.  (Eph 2:10).  What if I miss them?  What if I don’t show up?  What if I can’t do them well enough?

And then I remember John 15 and the message that I preach to others.  The primary work that God wants us engaged in is abiding in Jesus.

The second great visual illustration Jesus gave prior to going to the Cross was at a vineyard on their way to Gethsemane.  Jesus stops (I think) by a large grape plant, takes hold of the large vine growing out of the ground and says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

The purpose of the branches is to bear fruit.  The concern of the branches is to abide in the vine.  A failure to abide will result in no fruit being produced.  It is the rich life of the vine that allows the branch to bear fruit.  The better the connection with the vine, the better the fruit produced.

You can go to John 6 and the Lord’s response to the people asking Him what must they do to do the works of God?  Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent”.  You can also go to John 14:12 where Jesus said, “He who believes in Me the works that I do he will do also…”

Why do we go so quickly to works?  Maybe because we get glory out of it.  Leading someone to Christ, making a disciple, training a laborer, etc.  We feel good and people applaud.  Leading a class, organizing an event, speaking—we feel like we are excelling and doing good, better than most.

There is little glory in reading the Scripture, hearing the voice of the Lord, walking with Him, engaging in prayer, serving in the background.  And yet, if we will abide in Him, we can have the confidence that God will do in our lives and through our lives that which is pleasing to Him.  So, the application is not to worry about works but focus on abiding in Jesus and trust the works to the HS.

May God give us the grace to stay focused on Him.

Written by David C.,

David Coffield, Featured Writers, God Loves Us, Jesus, Messiah, Yahweh

Let’s Be With Father God!

Michael J. Weiss, Sr.

Matthew 11:28-30.  These are verses that I pray for myself and for a number of others as well.  I love the passage.  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I love that Jesus describes Himself as “gentle and humble in heart”.  It is the only place I know of where He describes His nature, His character.  There are lots of places where He speaks of His titles, His position, etc.  I can hang with a person that is gentle and humble in heart.  Very encouraging.

When He says, “take My yoke upon you and learn from Me” He is inviting us into a specific relationship.  It is a relationship where we are willing to do what He wants us to do, participate with Him in His work, keep our focus on Him.  He is inviting us to walk with Him in life day by day. 

We are invited into a daily relationship with Jesus that results in an easy yoke and a light burden.

It is possible to be mighty in the scriptures and barren in one’s relationship with Jesus.  The Pharisees lived it.  It is possible to labor mightily in the ministry and miss the leading and work of the Holy Spirit.  Matthew 7 speaks of a group that will consider themselves “qualified” based on their performance alone.

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus”, “seeking first His kingdom, His righteousness”, responding in love to the incredible invitation to walk with Him, to fellowship with Him, to learn from Him.  May the Lord so grant!

Your brother,

David