Tag: Christian

Beyond The Headline

Published on by James Travis2 Comments

Have you ever been taken in by a headline? It was just so shocking or attention-grabbing you had to watch, or read, or listen?

Every time we switch on the T.V., or pick up our phones there are headlines to read. Some true, some partially true, some not at all true. There are, research says, around 2million blog posts, 864,000 hours of video, and 400million tweets put out into the world every day ¹. Each comes with a headline that wants you to fully consume, digest, and act on their content. 

What does this mean for us, then? Well, it means the headline and the first bits of information we take in are very, very important. It’s important to think, do I want to pursue this information, or not, and how am I going to act once I have? Let’s look at a Biblical model and draw a conclusion.

In 2 Samuel 1.1-16 we see David getting information, investigating the information, and then responding accordingly to the information, and it’s a model for us in our Christian walk.

In vv.1-4 David gets the headline – Saul and Jonathan are dead. He lets the messenger give the news, in full, before asking any questions or even before speaking. How often do we want to jump in and ask questions, clarify things, argue, or interrupt?

In vv.5-10 David actually checks and investigates the claim with astute questions. 1 Samuel 31.4-6 and 1 Chronicles 10.4-7 seem to suggest that this guy was not telling the whole truth. 

In vv.11-16, David responds accordingly.

So David got the information, checked and investigated, and responded accordingly. If, though, David took the headline and acted on it after v.4 without asking questions, then this Amalekite could have been rewarded for his dishonesty, and David wouldn’t have had the full picture.

For us, it’s important that we look beyond the headline. It’s important that we don’t get caught up in and act upon stories that have a grain of truth in them covered with a large helping of opinion and conspiracy and agenda. 

Let me say it this way – Christian, you have no business in the proliferation, promulgation, or proclamation of highly charged cultural commentary, conspiracy, or agenda-driven soap-boxing.

Let me make it simpler – Don’t read it, watch it, listen to it, share it, post it, or comment on it.

Let me make it even simpler – Don’t.

Jesus didn’t die to give you a spirit of gullibility, conspiracy, or susceptibility. He came, lived, died, rose, and ascended to give you a spirit of power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1.7). Believer, control yourself when presented with content that contains more falsehoods that verifiable facts.

Control what you listen to, watch, share, and indulge in (Philippians 4.8).

Control what you are fixing your mind on (Colossians 3.1-2). 

Filter what you take in through what you know to be true (John 17.17). 

Be very careful, it’s a slippery slope.

As Charles Simeon once said, 

“Once a man engages in [controversies like this] it is surprising how the love of it will grow upon him; and he will find both a hare in every busy, and will follow it with something of a huntsman’s feelings.”

Simply, once you get started in this kind of story watching, this kind of keyboard-warrioring, it will be very, very difficult to stop. Use that spirit of self-control to regulate what you allow into your life, use that spirit of love to think of others before you post or comment, and use the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to keep your mind fixed firmly on things above, where Christ is. 

Life Defined

Published on by James TravisLeave a comment

All I am
my life defined
By I’ve been crucified with Christ
The life I live
I live by faith
In Jesus Christ who lives in me

Identify seems to be something of a hot topic nowadays, doesn’t it? Everyone seems to be choosing who they are and what they want to be, who they want to be, defining themselves.

I heard someone say recently that at the core of this is a rejection of authority. People don’t want to be told that you are made in God’s image, because they reject the authority and actuality of God. 

People don’t want to be told that your life has worth and dignity and value because of the price paid for you at Calvary, because they reject the idea that they need salvation.

But what about those of us who accept the authority of God, how are we defined?

Our Christian worldview will only make fullest sense when it affects and influences all we are, and our lives are defined by the fact that God is real, He made us, He sent His Son to die for us, and through faith in this we are defined.

The Bible uses many terms to define you, such as;

Adopted son/daughter – Galatians 3.26, John 1.12

Heir – Galatians 3.23-29

Believer – 1 Timothy 4.12

Saints – Colossians 1.2

The church – 1 Thessalonians 1.1

The life we now seek to live in one of faith (2 Corinthians 5.7); faith in God, faith in Jesus, faith in the fact He now lives in us through the person of the Holy Spirit, and faith that any definition of ourselves that we can come up with will never be as good as who He says we are. 

Life Defined starts at 12:00 minutes.

Spiritual Depression – Men As Trees, Walking – Mark 8

Published on by James TravisLeave a comment

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

D.Martin Lloyd-Jones has said multiple times so far in our mini-series that ‘it is sad and tragic that a Christian should ever be miserable‘, and he stated that some are miserable because they do not know they are justified before God purely by faith, requiring nothing but belief on their part. Today he offers up problems and remedies for two groups of people.

The first is the person who unhappy with who they are. They are unhappy with the world, themselves, themselves in the world, and often despair over the ‘hand life dealt them‘, as they may say. They have seen the problem with the world, but not the hope of believing in Jesus. They have asked no-one for help, and are not likely to.

Others see the ‘excellencies of the Christian life‘, and wholeheartedly exhort others to live the kind of life that Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount. They know they cannot save themselves from the consequences of sin, but have not yet fully understood justification by faith, and this tension is difficult for them. They have asked to be healed of their blindness (vv.22-23), but have not yet said that things are not all that clear right now (v.24).

Lloyd-Jones offers the remedy in simple form;

  1. Learn and understand the principles and doctrines of the matter at hand.
  2. Fully engage the heart and mind to the matter at hand.
  3. Commit your will to the matter at hand.

The teaching of the full counsel of God’s Word, properly understood, taken to heart, and allowed to influence our will, over time, will remedy both the hopeless and the tense.

Seeing ourselves for who we truly are and seeing Jesus for who He truly is, seeing what we can and can’t do and seeing what Jesus has done, and understanding the teaching of Scripture on how we are saved will take away the hopelessness from the hopeless, and will take away the tension from the tense.

If we don’t understand the teachings and the doctrines instantly, that’s ok, but find someone in your life that you trust to walk you through it all, reach out to them, and ask.

We don’t want to see a world full of trees walking around, we want to live our lives with the clarity that comes from being honest with ourselves, with the Lord, with those around us, and asking for more.

Lloyd-Jones writes this,

Do you believe that the Son of God came from heaven and lived and did all He did on earth, that He died on a cross and was buried and rose again, that He ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, in order to leave us in a state of confusion? It is impossible. He came that we might see clearly, that we might know God…

…If you are unhappy about yourself as a result [of being honest with yourself], come to Him, come to His Word, wait upon Him, plead with Him, hold on to Him, ask Him…and He will do it, and you will no longer be an uncertain Christian seeing and not seeing.

Marks Of A True Christian

Published on by James TravisLeave a comment

This originally appeared on the Saar Fellowship app as three daily devotionals in May/June 2019.

After being exhorted to serve their local assembly of believers – something we all need regular reminding of – Paul then starts a section detailing the character and actions of believers (vv.9-21), almost like instructing them how to live as a disciple of Jesus. It’s broken into three parts; relating to those in the family, relating to those outside the family, and relating to those in the church, bigger picture. Today, then, in the family. 

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

In the family, love should be genuine, and we should have the strongest dislike for what is evil. We hold fast to what is good by honouring God in all we do, both in our individual families and in the church family. One way to do this is by holding His Word in the highest regard. His Word is His revealed will to us whilst we are here on His earth, His Word became flesh and dwelt among us, His Word is what changes us, His Word is what saves our souls (James 1.21b). 

V.11 is great, isn’t it, simply – don’t be lazy! Get off the sofa and do some stuff! Get involved and serve, serve the Lord by serving His people, serve the Lord by serving His bride, the church, serve the Lord and do not be slothful, don’t be lazy! Yesterday we talked about gifts, we are all uniquely but in a unified manner gifted to serve each other, it takes dozens of people to make a church service happen, dozens of different people! Don’t be slothful, get involved and join them! Contribute to the needs to the saints by serving the Lord.

These few short verses could not be clearer; a believer in Jesus is one who serves. As James writes, I will show you my faith by my works (2.18b). 

So, mark of a true Christian in the family – one who serves the rest.

After exhorting the Roman believers, and us by extension, to contribute to the overall health of the assembly (vv.9-13), Paul now turns attention in one verse to how we interact with those outside the church family.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 

Is this not the hardest thing in the world sometimes? To bless those who persecute you seems to unnatural, doesn’t it. We are not talking about minor disruptions here, either. Paul is talking about serious persecution, perhaps even to death. Written around 57 A.D., believers in Rome were just a few years away from the first wave of organised persecution against them by the Roman Empire, so even now, in 57A.D., the climate must not have been too receptive to Christians.

Rather than trying to claim persecution for something like poor driving on the highway, rather than trying to claim persecution when we are passed over for a promotion at work which had nothing to do with your faith, rather than trying to claim persecution when things in our lives are just not going too well on that particular day, we should remember the generations that went before us, and for that matter, those who still face trials and tribulations like this in different parts of the world. There are believers who are targeted for their Christian faith, there are believers, heartbreakingly, who are killed for their Christian faith. 

What does the Word of God exhort us to do? Bless and do not curse. In such a radical call to love, we are told to model the love of Christ Himself when He was killed for His mission. In the midst of His most painful experience on earth – both physically and spiritually – Jesus said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

We too are called to love this radically, this counter-culturally, and this fervently. Bless, do not curse those who mock you for your faith, pray for those who persecute you, bless them by raising their name in prayer to the Lord.

It is what He did, and it is what we are called to do.

Finally in this mini-series right in Romans 12, Paul exhorts us to certain behaviours in relation to the church, bigger picture.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

What a list of character traits to display, we could talk for days about this! 

How do we do v.15? By doing v.16! Living in harmony with each other, genuinely caring about each other will result in us rejoicing when our family rejoices, and weeping with those who are weeping. Being in unity results in this kind of relationship with each other. 

There are a couple of key words in v.18, so far as it depends on you…Here we see that we are to do our best to live peaceably with all, but that sometimes, the world, the flesh, and the devil will put people in our paths that it is just not possible to live peaceably with. Now, how we handle this will be a mark of our true Christianity. We do not curse those who oppose us, we do not fight with those who antagonise us, we do not slander those we do not agree with, simply, we bless them and move on.

When we relate to those in our church family, those outside of it, and really anyone we cross paths with in this way, there will be something noticeably different about us.

You can take this to the bank – what we read in Romans 12.9-21 is not the standard pattern of human interaction, so when you conduct yourselves like this, you are witnessing for the Lord, you are representing your faith, you are mirroring Jesus to them. 

This will, through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and His ability to convict people of their sins and turn them to Jesus, overcome evil with good. Our job is to simply live like this, reflect His love, mercy, and grace, and watch Him change lives for the better.