The Spirit in Family

Growing up, I avoided fights at all costs, but later realized that fighting the good fight for freedom was one I couldn’t run from.

Many of my male friends loved to tussle and fight. Even if they were the best of friends, they might scrap. Not me. Since I was skinny and lacked a muscular build—and possessed a mild-mannered nature—fighting wasn’t on my to-do list. I didn’t care for a bloody nose, busted lip, or missing tooth. Nor did I want a pair of broken glasses. I couldn’t see without them. Mom and Dad had instructed me to care for them, and I didn’t want to walk around half-blind as I had before I got them.

I can only remember two times when I almost got into a fight. One involved my best friend. He pushed. I pushed back. He pushed back harder. I walked away. The other occurred when a high school peer accused me of doing something I hadn’t done. Luckily, a friend intervened.

Not getting into physical fights took effort. Bullies abounded. Guys who walked around looking for a fight. Boys who, if you looked at them wrong, wanted to punch you.

But Paul talks about another kind of fight, one that’s just as challenging: the fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).

Paul had to fight the fight of faith because many folks didn’t buy into what he preached: that God sent Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and that they needed to trust in Him. He thought the fight worth fighting. And fight he did. Spiritually. Through shipwrecks, snake bites, misunderstandings, persecutions, lashings, and prison stays.

Not all who heard Paul believed, and their descendants have come down to our time. Some believe. Many still don’t. And some of those who don’t want to fight those of us who do. They attempt to squash our rights to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. They want to take away our freedom of speech (about religion). They want to remove all trimmings of religion from society. They want to jail us … to kill us.

But our fight is not with others. The fight lies between good and evil … God and Satan. And the struggle takes a lifetime. Good will win out in the end, but the very end. Not necessarily before our life ends.

The good news is that we’re not alone. Others fight with us. More importantly, God fights with us through the power of His Spirit. Some will die in the fight. Some will avoid the fight. Some will walk around injured from the fight. But fight we must. The cause is worth it. People need to know God loves them and wants to forgive their sins so they can live in heaven with Him in the future and enjoy the life He plans for them in the present.

Don’t give up in the fight for the faith. Keep fighting the good fight for freedom.

The new Interstate 65 overpass bridge near our home had been under construction seemingly since the Spanish-American War.

About forty-five minutes south of Nashville, Tennessee, this Interstate exit that connects with Bear Creek Pike was never one of the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s finer moments.

Engineers had to sandwich the exit ramps and overpass bridge from the original interstate construction into an awkward space, shoehorning them between a cemetery, a pipeline right-of-way, a substantial creek, and a gas station/convenience store. The results weren’t pretty.

Bear Creek Pike actually curved under the interstate bridge. Because of that bend, drivers couldn’t see what was coming from under the bridge when they came off the interstate exit ramps and stopped to turn on Bear Creek Pike. Major accidents were common. After a few years, a truck stop was built at the exit, adding a constant flow of eighteen-wheelers to an already dangerous situation.

Finally, the county, state, and DOT decided the infamous I-65 Exit 46 would get a makeover. As I said, it feels as if it were a few centuries ago, since we’ve been dodging orange barrels and negotiating wild lane changes for decades.

One day was worse than usual. I pulled onto Bear Creek Pike and headed toward the interstate, only to be greeted by a blocking row of the ubiquitous orange barrels and a sign that read, Road Closed. Find Alternate Route. No helpful detours or even an arrow suggesting which way to go. Just Road Closed.

I can’t tell you how often I’ve run into a similar proverbial road sign in my often-wayward life. A sign that would flash in my brain like a neon sign: Road Closed. Find Alternate Route. And I’m embarrassed to say how many times I ignored that warning and breezed merrily on to near disaster and ruin.

It didn’t have to be that way. I knew there was an Alternate Route—one found in the Word of our Lord. But I had to read, study, and live God’s Word to find the detour. The Bible did me no good sitting as a leather paperweight on my desk.

The Word of God is a seed. The more I plant it inside me, the more it grows and fills me (2 Kings 6:19). Most importantly, when I encounter one of those life-changing Road Closed situations, God’s Alternate Route lights up in my heart like a neon sign.

Plant the seeds of God’s Word where they can grow and guide you when you face your next detour. 

My heart ached as I watched a video of a Christian, solid in the faith, asking college-aged students to define love, happiness, and God.

Their answers were staggering. Many seemed to have no idea of God's love. Their idea of happiness was doing what the cosmos led. Cosmos? When asked what they would say if a forty-year-old man told them he wanted to be a student in a first-grade class, many responded, “If that is where he feels he needs to be.” These students were clueless about Christ and had no idea how to question something they knew was innately wrong.

I laid my head on the table and sobbed. What happened to the absolutes we once knew?

The writer of Hebrews felt the same frustration when he reminded the people that they'd been believers long enough to have moved on in their study of the Word (Hebrews 5:12-13). Instead, their hearing was dulled. They’d made no progression in their knowledge of the Word. They still fed on milk and were not ready to feed on the meat of the Word, much less teach it.

The problem has changed little throughout the ages. With such extraordinary technological capabilities at our fingertips and our expanded capacity to learn and teach, we give little focus to knowing God’s Word proficiently. Many in our churches still feed on the milk. Our zeal for knowing Him better has diminished.

Christ brought us so much with His entrance into the world. He raised the bar from strictly obeying the law to knowing the Father’s human, tender, and fruitful side. Yet as time passed, we have folded under the world’s demands and allowed the absolutes of who God is, why He came, and why He left to slip from us.

If ever there was a time for God’s people to know Him fully, it’s now. Study to show yourself approved in the Word. Not only will you grow, but you will also be able to share Him in the fullest and most accurate way. He waits for you to respond. Answer.

It was the middle of the night, and I tried not to cry. I also tried not to shout.

That might sound confusing, so let me explain. I was up with my nine-day-old son, who was resting on my chest as I sat on our sofa. It was the first one-on-one time we had together, because we had only welcomed him into our family twelve hours earlier. The Lord had brought him to our family through the amazing process of adoption.

Years of praying and preparing had led to this moment, and emotion overcame me. But I was also overcome with the reality of the gospel. I grew up in church and sang the song “Family of God” countless times. As a believer, I understood that I was a part of God’s family, but that truth took on a deeper meaning as I sat on that sofa with my son.

I recalled the passage in Galatians 4 that explains how God has adopted us into His family (Galatians 4:6). I am His son. As I sat there with my son, I realized that I did not consider him my adopted son; he was just my son. If I, an imperfect father, felt this way, how much more would a perfect heavenly Father? To know that God has welcomed me into His family and loves me so deeply is a source of great comfort and joy.

But I am not the only one who experiences this. The Lord welcomes every believer into His family. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit bears witness within us that God is our Father. He loves His children perfectly, and nothing can change that. This is a truth we need to rest in because we hear so many voices telling us many different things about who we are, what we’ve done, and what we will become.

God adopts you into His family, where you are loved, not because of what you have done, but just because He loves you. And nothing can change that. Welcome to the family.

I met God on a smelly path between a septic pond and a river—an apt metaphor for my life that day. As a new pastor, I was consumed by guilt and doubt, questioning my role as a husband and a pastor and my worth to God. “Why would You love me?” I cried out as the stench of the rotting sewage filled my nostrils. His answer rushed in and washed away my doubt. “Why not you?” That day, I learned that the message, method, majesty, and mystery of the life and purpose of Jesus boil down to one word: grace.

God forgives us. We forgive others. And we forgive ourselves. That’s the life-changing message of the New Testament. It’s the method behind the madness of the cross, the majesty of God displayed in seeming disgrace. Grace is the mystery that is a stumbling block to those who live by the law and foolishness to the learned. But to those summoned by God’s grace, it is the wisdom and power of God.

God’s love for us has never been in question (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). Grace clarifies this love and summons us to love Him in return, freeing us to fulfill the first and greatest commandment: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Grace is also the key to unlocking our love for our neighbors and ourselves. Until we wipe the smudge of sin from our glasses, we will never see the beauty of the person before us. In the same way, we must wipe the film off the mirror to see ourselves. Grace removes the stain of sin so we can love.

And yet grace is the one thing we struggle with the most. The Law gives us clear boundaries. Grace forgives us when we cross them. Wisdom grants us sophistication. Grace seems too simple to be true. But to those who get it, grace is a life-giving flow of love and acceptance.

Live by grace by receiving it freely and then offering it to others.