Are you dressed for battle?

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 3)

God gives believers the great privilege and responsibility of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), the truth of His power to redeem us never changes. Unfortunately, people will try to undermine, alter or distort the truth that we are saved by grace and called to holy living.

Jude draws our attention to such people. “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord… these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.” (Jude 4 & 8)

Jude exhorts us to fight the false ideas these people represent. In order to contend for the faith, first we must know the truth, then stand firm in it. Consider each charge Jude makes.

• Change the grace of our God into a license for immorality – For godless people, grace becomes a reason to sin more, rather than the reason to surrender our selfish ways to God.
• Deny Jesus Christ – Jesus put on our humanity, but remained fully God. A right relationship with God comes only through Jesus.
• Pollute their own bodies – Jude’s reference to Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7) shows he means sexual sin. We cannot continue a sexually immoral lifestyle and serve God.
• Reject authority – Many today refuse the idea of absolute truth. But God calls us to submit to authority and the institutions established by Him, like marriage and the church.
• Slander celestial beings – Those who mock the idea of Satan and disbelieve his existence deceive themselves. We don’t battle against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil. (Ephesians 6:12)

Father help me to stand up for what is right and true and not allow others to distort the incredible gift of salvation that You give through Jesus. Amen.

Questions: Why must we contend for our faith? How have the ideas of “godless men” influenced your life?

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Learn how to share your journey of faith with others
Read more from Michael Horner

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Questions about God – 7 of the most commonly asked questions about God and Christianity

I’m the third of four children. From all outward aspects, we were the average suburban family, living outside a large city in eastern Canada. But we were not a perfect family – we had our “hidden secrets,” and our “we don’t ever talk about that” situations.

What people saw on the outside of our home was not necessarily a reflection of the inside. From an early age, there were events that took place in my life that left me with a longing to have a ‘new beginning’.

A hard beginning

As a teenager, the sudden death of my father was very difficult for me; my father and I were close, and he was my friend. The void in my heart increased with his passing. I was heading into rebellion, but his death – along with the ongoing deterioration of my relationship with my mother – hurled my life into self-destruction.

At nineteen, I left my family and moved to Canada’s Pacific coast, determined to have that new beginning. Within three months, I met Tom. Two months later, we began living together. We fought our way through the next year-and-a-half, and I believed the solution to the turmoil was to get married. The following year, in 1971, we did. In 1973, our son, Pernell, was born. One year later, I was pregnant again. After much turmoil, it was determined that I should have an abortion. In 1976, our daughter Sara was born.

By now our home was like my childhood home – what you saw on the outside was not a reflection of what was taking place on the inside. Once again, I had become a master at covering up the imperfections and pain, longing for a way to wipe the slate clean. By the age of thirty, I was becoming dependent on prescription drugs; as a consequence of post abortion syndrome, I experienced depression and thoughts of suicide.

Trying to cope

I took the two children and went back to see my family. I considered staying back east, to try and find a new beginning. I would have done so had my husband not called me several times and persuaded me that the children and I belonged with him, and that if I returned there would be changes. I knew I really loved him and I wanted our marriage to work. So I returned – to make a new beginning.

In 1981, Jonathan was born. My husband was laid off a year later and could not find a job. I went into the work force. Shortly after that, he stopped looking for work.

Our relationship was as stormy as ever, and my coping mechanism was to turn my energies to a career. I enjoyed the enormous amount of responsibility that came with my position, along with the great rewards of appreciation, elegant dinners, lots of positive attention and relationships outside of my marriage. But there was a price – long days and weekends at the office, regrets at night and an ever increasing longing within.

Five years later – having barely seen my children, having no relationship with my husband, having unhealthy relationships outside of my marriage and a career that was going somewhere when I was sober – my longtime friend Barb took me for a walk and said, “Sara, ever since I’ve known you, all you ever wanted was to be a mom and a wife. If you don’t make changes now, you will come home one day and find your kids have grown up without you and you will have missed it.”

I knew she was right. I thought about a solution: if I took the kids and left my husband, ended the unhealthy relationships, cut back on the drinking and the hours at the office, perhaps then I could have a new beginning. In October 1987, I put the kids in the car and drove away.

Learning of a new love

My first and biggest challenge as a single parent came within weeks, when I tried to obtain custody of our three children. As I had worked for five years outside the home, I could not presume that I would be granted custody. I left for the courtroom that day, very fearful that I would lose my children. Before I left the office, my manager, Jim, offered to pray for me. I had turned to him for advice because he was a gentleman whose life was a marked contrast to mine!

Jim did not smoke, drink, or swear. He was patient, calm, very wise in business and family and faithful to his wife of many years. Definitely a life under control – while mine was out of control. When Jim mentioned prayer, I said “Well great, you pray, I’ll go” – to which he replied, “Sit down.” Then I asked, “Will you be praying out loud?”, to which he answered “yes.” So I sat there, with my eyes open, while he prayed about the custody. As soon as he said “amen,” I bolted for the door.

At the courthouse, my lawyer advised me that I might have a better chance if I were to seek joint custody. But as my husband’s lawyer got up and gave a very uncomplimentary – but true – description of my lifestyle for the past five years, my head dropped. I felt the judge would never consider me a fit parent. Then, because of a technicality, the judge negated my lawyer’s efforts to defend me. I believed my dreams of motherhood were over at that point. Yet to my amazement, a few minutes later, the judge granted joint custody with equal access to each of us.

At last I knew that there was a God, who must love me – as Jim had often told me – and that this God had intervened on my behalf. I ran out of there to call Jim. As he answered the phone, I blurted out, “Okay – I want to know more about this God of yours. You obviously have a direct line and I’m prepared to listen.”

Rescued from hopelessness

In the following weeks, Jim shared more with me about Jesus, whom I had always thought of as merely a baby at Christmas and not much more. Jim told me often that God loved me and created me to know Him personally. Sometimes when I would come into the office with a hangover, Jim would patiently tell me that the reason I wasn’t experiencing God’s love in my life was because I was insisting on going my own way – and that way was sin. I always thought of sin as murder, stealing, lying . . . etc. Besides, I reasoned, I wasn’t any worse than the rest of the people in the office.

As Christmas approached that year, my problems remained the main thing on my mind. For the first time since becoming a mom, I would be spending Christmas Eve and morning alone without my children. On December 22, as I drove Jim to the airport, he said to me, “You know you have nothing left to lose. After thirty-seven years of you being at the controls, you don’t have a home, a husband or your kids. All you have is your car, and your job – and that’s only because I am your boss. So, why don’t you give control of your life to God and experience a new beginning.”

It wasn’t the first time Jim had made this suggestion. My first response came from my discouragement: “Well, that may be fine for you, but it won’t make any difference in my life. It’s easy for you – your life just goes along smooth no matter what.” Jim again patiently asked if I would repeat a prayer after him. Again I said, “You pray, I’ll listen.” With that, he told me that the Bible said if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, I could be rescued from my hopelessness. I challenged him: “Where does it say that?” He answered. Accurately. Word for word.

So I prayed, repeating what Jim was saying. It went something like this: Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Saviour and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

I never thought at that point that it would change anything, let alone give me that elusive fresh start. However, before I said “amen,” lifted my head and opened my eyes, something profound had happened inside me. I could not explain it, but I knew it was real. For the first time in my life – the emptiness inside me was gone. When Jim told me I was forgiven for all my sins, I knew what he said was real somehow and I felt very free. I didn’t know why, but I knew for the first time in my life I could really start over.

A new life

In the ten years since that night, there have been many storms to go through. My son, Jonathan, fought a battle with lymphoma cancer. During his treatments, my mother suddenly passed away. My two oldest children have been off traveling the world, and had some very frightening and disappointing experiences. But my life slowly changed.

As I began to read the Bible and pray, listen to teaching tapes and then eventually start to go to church, my responses to life’s turmoil began to change. My old habits of smoking and drinking, angry tirades and unhealthy relationships all began to fade away. The strongest evidence has been that, if I am faithful to read my Bible and to pray, there is always an unexplainable peace that presides over every day and every circumstance.

Working through the ongoing and as yet unresolved issues with my children’s father, having to deal with the day to day aspects of life as a single parent, running a household and working full time . . . I cannot imagine trying to cope with life alone, without having the assurance that God is in control. I can honestly say that I have a new life. God gave me my new beginning.

Is this the life for me?

Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope

If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised. Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

Today is a day for hope, but it’s also a day that raises a lot of questions. If you read the comments on CNN and elsewhere there are almost equal numbers of commenters saying “Praise God for rescuing them” as there are comments suggesting that the God should not have let them get trapped in the first place.  Some people will see this situation as proof that God cares, and some will see it as a sign that He does not.  How will you respond?

God and suffering

In Christian circles we talk about how God and suffering can both exist.  We’ve all run the gamut from Sunday school answers when it’s someone else’s suffering, to deep moments of prayer and study when we find God in the midst of our own pain.  Suffering is not an easy question but we know that both God and suffering are very real.

If you have people in your life questioning the existence of God, what do you tell them?  Rick Warren has an excellent article on common spiritual questions.  In it he addresses the issue of suffering and evil in the world.  He writes:

If God exists, why is there evil in the world? You know, this is a difficult stumbling block and question for many people. The simplest way to look at this question is to examine God’s nature and his desire for mankind. Look at the logic. God loves us and wants us to love him back. And how could we love him back unless we have the freedom to not love?

God could have made us like robots who do nothing more than say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” But we’d be forced to do that and that wouldn’t be real love. Love is a choice. And if you have a choice you have to be able to choose not to love and that in itself is the nature of evil. Evil is choosing not to love. So when God gave us the freedom to choose, he gave us not only our greatest blessing, but he also gave us our greatest curse because we can choose to do right or choose to do wrong.

Suffering in the world does not disprove God, or even the idea of a loving God. If you know someone who is struggling with the idea of suffering, recommend this life lesson “Understanding Pain”.  If you or someone you know is suffering right now and needs someone to talk to, we have mentors available.  Just use this form to send in a request and we’ll match you up.

How do you answer the question of suffering in the world?

The Genesis Debate

- 24 Hour View: The days in Genesis 1 are six sequential days, each one being 24 hours long.

- Day-Age View: The days in Genesis 1 are six sequential ages of time, each one being of unspecified but finite duration.

- Framework View: The days in Genesis 1 are presented as normal days but are intended as a figurative expression of God creating and resting.

The question I’m curious about is not which of these views is right, but instead whether this issue is worth fighting about among Christians? All of these views attempt to take the biblical text seriously, and all affirm that “God created the heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1) I’m not at all suggesting that the issue is irrelevant, but should we be so fixated on the “how” that we lose sight of the “who” and the “why” behind creation?

Too often Christians find themselves fighting not against the sin and corruption in our fallen world (and in ourselves), but instead against one another. How can we as Christians know which issues are worth fighting about and which issues we can respectfully disagree? And how can we seek to have respectful dialogue among those with whom we disagree?

Related reading: Brigitte Straub’s devotional “The Call to Unity” explores the importance of being united in Christ.

Dads, Princesses, and the Power of Woo
I’ve been told by culture (and a few friends) that a father’s most important job is to provide. Be strong. Be courageous. And bring home the cash. On TV the only other option is to fill the role of a bumbling, awkward individual — the comedic outlet in the family fabric (see world-famous dad Homer Simpson). Is there room for a father to “woo” his daughter and reflect God’s heart for her? Are those moments as rare as a dance at a graduation, followed by another at her wedding? Read the full article.

Take action: Improve your home life for your kids by exploring our series of Marriage online interactive life lessons!

You said it: This week Rochelle shared on the Wait For It women’s devotional, saying “Thank you Suzanne, I love receiving the devotionals. I am a mom of 4-teens, and 1-8yr old. To answer the question. God has helped me to wait him with my children coming to him. Helping me to see that he is already working in their lives.” Join the conversation on TheLife.com Devotional for Men and TheLife.com Devotional for Women, each updated daily!

Video: A Father’s Love
Watch the heartfelt and inspiring story of “Team Hoyt” and how a father’s love for his son has touched so many lives. Read more

Experience TheLife Blog: Conversations: Who made God?
How can Christians eloquently and winsomely address the question “Who made God?” This hypothetical conversation imagines one way to respond. Read more

Devotional: Remember
Throughout the scriptures, we read that God pleaded for His people to remember Him and how He proved His faithfulness to them. God, the Father, wanted His children, to remind themselves of how He proved Himself time and time again in their lives. Read more

Coming up next week: One of the topics of our upcoming online chats is “Honoring Our Fathers” Join us in the chat room June 21st 2009 @ 12:15pm EST for this chat or see also our full chat calendar for other upcoming topics.

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.

For a further discussion of this argument, see Dr William Lane Craig’s article “The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe“. (Craig is also the author of a book, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, on this topic.) The inference, as discussed at the end of Craig’s article, is that God is the best explanation as a cause for the universe.

Here I’d like to consider a possible objection to this argument. It can be phrased in many ways but the most simple is: Who made God? Let’s imagine a hypothetical conversation to explore this objection:

Christian: The cosmological argument is strong evidence that God exists.

Skeptic: This merely raises the question “Who made God?” It just pushes the question back one step further.

Christian: This seems to me to be a category error; it confuses the uncreated creator with His created creation. God doesn’t need a maker because God was never made; He was and is eternally existing.

Skeptic: That’s seems like a cop-out. Why is it okay for God to be eternal and uncreated, but not the universe?

Christian: We have good reasons, both philosophical and scientific, that the universe is not eternal, but no such reasons exist to believe that God is not eternal. God isn’t limited like the material world He created. The cosmological argument doesn’t say that that everything requires a cause, but whatever begins to exist requires a cause; if God did not begin to exist (and there is no reason to believe He did, unlike the universe) He requires no cause.

Skeptic: Even if we agree that the universe is not eternal, why must its cause be God?

Christian: Whatever created time and space must transcend time and space. Also, there are numerous other attributes which can be reasoned about whatever created the universe: It must have power, intelligence, volition, and so on. So the creator of the universe is an entity which is beyond time and space yet still possesses certain attributes and is personal. This sounds to me a lot like God.

Have you considered this argument before? Do you think it’s a good one for God’s existence? Why or why not?

Weed it and Reap
Someone has said: “It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers; he must also hate weeds.” This really reminds me of our Christian life. Our life is like a garden in God’s kingdom which He has given us to tend. The more beautiful His gardens are, the more attractive and inviting His kingdom will be to others. But if our garden only grows weeds, well, the Bible says it’s only good for being burned. Read the full article.

Take action: Spend time growing your faith this spring! Check out our Growing in Faith series of online interactive life lessons.

You said it: This week Mohaloaloha shared on the Because of His Mercy women’s devotional, saying “It’s a good reminder for ourselves to bring us back on track and into perspective. I would say all too often and almost daily I’m thrown into the “acts” and then I get stressed because I feel like I can’t possibly be doing the best I can to follow Christ and be a good Christian, but it’s nonsense I’m filling myself with by telling myself that! :)” Join the conversation on TheLife.com Devotional for Men and TheLife.com Devotional for Women, each updated daily!

Experience TheLife Blog: The God Debate: Craig vs Hitchens
On April 4 2009, a public debate was held at BIOLA University between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens. The topic: Does God Exist? Read more

Devotional: Aphids and Sin
Take a moment to check your heart today. Do you have sins in your life (noticeable or secret) that need to be confessed? Read more

Coming up next week: One of the topics of our upcoming online chats is “Developing Great Communication Skills” Join us in the chat room May 31^st 2009 @ 10:00pm EST for this chat or see also our full chat calendar for other upcoming topics.

Craig is one of today’s foremost Christian philosophers. He has earned doctorates from the University of Birmingham and the University of Munich. His books include Reasonable Faith, The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge & Human Freedom, and The Son Rises. (All of which are, in my opinion, excellent.) Hitchens is a literary critic and writer, and is the author of several books including the recent bestseller God is Not Great.

One atheist blogger commented on the debate by saying “Craig was flawless and unstoppable. Hitchens was rambling and incoherent, with the occasional rhetorical jab. … This always seemed like a pointless matchup to me. One is a loudmouthed journalist and the other is a major analytic philosopher.” Of course, this blogger does not agree with Craig’s conclusions, but nonetheless concedes that Craig won the debate.

Unfortunately the debate video/audio is not available for free online. A DVD version will be released soon, so if you are interested I recommend that you pre-order from the official debate website. I personally look forward to seeing it.

Do you think debates like this are worthwhile pursuits? What purpose do you think they serve? And if you were engaged in a conversation and your conversation partner asked you why you believe God exists, how would you respond?

Further reading:
- Reasonable Faith book – An excellent, scholarly introduction to defense of the Christian faith (recently updated & re-released in a second edition)
- Reasonable Faith website – Dr Craig’s personal website
- The Veritas Forum – A source of scholarly lectures & debates with video/audio held on campuses all over the world, including many by Dr Craig