(I first wrote this for one of my relatives. Maybe it can help you.)
Going off to college was a turning point in my life. I think we have many turning points, but for me this was one of those major ones. I knew God, read my Bible and had even witnessed to friends a few times before this. When I got back to Northfield, Minnesota, I met people my age who were also Christians. They had a joy and confidence that I didn’t have. I also felt humbled, because, although I had heard the Word all my life, some of these new friends studied the Bible and knew parts of it better than I did; and I knew that they hadn’t been Christians as long. That got my attention.
More to the point was the joy, peace, and confidence I saw in their lives. These are for me still things I can’t live without. So here I was – away at college after four years of off-and-on conflict with my dad. It was about my dating life and the company I kept. On the one hand, I was involved in church and music ministry, for which he was glad. But I was stuck in some habits. The tension between my dad and me – and also between my conscience and my actions – was wearing me down. Part of the reason I left Tacoma and went to the Midwest for college was to tear myself away from my environment and habits and try to get a new start.
I remember a few times tip-toeing into the house long after the time I had promised to return home. Once it was way after midnight; the light was on in the living room. As I rounded the corner and tried to sneak up the stairs to my room, there was my dad. (That's him pictured in the sketch above.) He sat quietly in a living room chair, reading and waiting. He spoke in a low, controlled voice.
“Where have you been?”
I told him I had taken my girlfriend home and we had talked for awhile. He reminded me of the time I had agreed to return and asked why it was so much later. After stumbling through an excuse, I asked why he didn’t trust me. He was ready for that, and he responded right away, “Because you’re not trustworthy.” That stung, but I knew it was true.
There wasn’t much more conversation. It was late and he had made his point. There I was, soon to be a grown man, and he and my mother had spent 17 years raising me.
I remember another occasion, when I was again tip-toeing in after midnight. This time no light was on and I made my way upstairs, presumably undetected. As I slid into bed my heart raced and pounded for quite awhile before I was finally able to relax and fall asleep.
The reason that joy, confidence and peace mean a lot to me is that they were so elusive in those days! I suppose if I had to name qualities opposite to those things, I might say that I was “depressed, hesitant, and conflicted.” The weird thing is that in the midst of all that I saw myself as a Christian, and now still believe that I truly was. But maybe that’s why this was all such a raging battle! My experience and actions were pushing hard against where my heart wanted to truly go – where I knew I belonged.
So off I went to college. Sixteen hundred miles from Tacoma. I poked my way through classes and found myself struggling to make decent grades. (I went to Highline – in the SeaTac area – the year after that.) But in the midst of that year away, far from home, I did some soul-searching and got closer to God. It took some humbling. There were times of loneliness and it took work making new friends. I got involved with teams of students who went out and put on programs and led worship services at churches nearby. Sometimes we hitch-hiked several hundred miles to get to the church or youth group we were assigned to for the weekend.
So, now 40 years later, what does it look like for me to be sure life will bring confidence, joy and peace? How do I know for sure that I won’t have a herky-jerky ride that delivers only a weird mix of surprises I can’t depend on? The answer I’ve found of course is that the source of joy and peace is Jesus Christ. But for all of us the big question is how to maintain a life-line to him. To use that water illustration - one can have a lake of cool, fresh mountain water. But how do you get a good pipe to it and draw up the water for what you need every day!?
For starters, those who say that Jesus Christ is not Lord of all and giver of life – they are simply wrong. If you have been rationalizing away what people have testified to you about him, that’s a problem. If one wants the peace, confidence and joy that comes from the forgiveness of sin, Jesus Christ is the only one who delivers. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Communism, Globalism, humanism – all these make empty promises.
But back to the water illustration. In John 7 we see Jesus attending the third major annual feast of the Jewish year, the Feast of Booths (Succoth). He stands up and says with a loud voice, “If any one trusts me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. (He was talking about the Holy Spirit, which those who trusted in Him were going to receive).”
God’s Holy Spirit actually lives in the person who trusts Jesus Christ. It’s sort of like you and me living in a house and making it our home. The Spirit of God lives in our body and makes it His home. And when He does, He brings with Him all the good gifts of Jesus Christ and daily reminds us that they belong to us. This is genuine good news. If you keep reading, there can be unbelievable benefit to you.
Maybe I should remind you, the gifts of God are not “spiritual” in the sense that they are for monks and nuns. They are not “other-worldly” in that you don’t get them until you die. Nor are they so hard to understand that only someone trained as a scholar can grasp them.
God gives daily food. He gives friends. He gives wisdom, jobs, understanding and insight. He gives laughter, and happiness in families. The Bible says that “all good gifts” are from God. (James 1:17). Without minimizing things such as eating, drinking and physical pleasures, perhaps relationships are the biggest.
When I would sneak into the house late at night and hoped to be undetected, my fear was not that my parents would never forgive me. Nor was it that God would send me to hell for being disobedient. I knew that He was forgiving. I knew that’s why Christ died, to pay for my sin. What I was stuck on was that my behaviors were chopping me off at the knees. I wasn’t owning up to things, and this was undermining my relationships – with Christ and other people. I now know that the opportunity to break away and go off to college was also a gift from God! This time away helped me back away from my situation and look at it. This became a time during which I got to meet a whole different group of people who affirmed, loved, and served the same Lord my parents served. (My parents weren’t perfect, of course, but they were trying their utmost to serve God and help their four boys do the same.)
God cleaned me up. He got me more deeply into His Word. He gave me a fresh look at people who walked the walk. Those people weren’t perfect either, but somehow this all helped. Jesus said, “You are made clean by the word I have spoken to you.” Jesus is the living Word. His blood atones for our sin. But to really know, experience and revel in that “clean-ness” every day is to be able to name the sins that need cleansing. Like Luther says, we don’t have to belabor this and forever make a longer and longer list of our ugly sins. Forget that. It’s impossible. But when God brings to my mind something I’ve done wrong, or an attitude I persist in that stinks, He’s putting a finger on it. He’s calling me to name it with my lips – between Him and me. (If my sin is also between me and another person, I need to name it to that person too, for we are all called to be family under Christ.)
The good news here is that this humbling and naming brings freedom. Freedom brings power over the evil. Naming and confessing defeats Satan. The power we gain brings joy and celebration. I really see this when I look around at so many people who live in the sewers of life. That’s where I was headed. I’m glad God helped me.
Where is all this going? Maybe you have some big decisions that are looming. I can’t walk you through all the applications of the gospel to your life. But I can tell you this: Through Christ, God who made you in His image is your Heavenly Father. He knows your needs and has the power and will to help you. He’s calling you now to trust Him.
Faith is the condition. Faith, and only faith. To have faith doesn’t mean you can explain it all. Faith is simply trusting that Jesus Christ died for your sin. Often it is a re-affirming faith: you re-visit that place where you once trusted Christ, say “I have wandered off the track,” and ask the Father again to restore to you the joy of salvation. Faith, in order to be faith, must look away from self. Break the mirror. Look only to Jesus Christ. This is a daily discipline. No one has this all figured out. Everybody has to learn to walk daily as little children do, step by step.
You might hear voices that tell you the “fear of God” is old-fashioned and must be discarded. But instead, discard those voices. They are liars, deceivers. (This is not said for dramatic effect. See John 8:44.)
Enjoying life is ultimately only possible by failing in love with Jesus Christ. Fall in love with Him. He’s in love with you. This is true not because you or I are always loveable. It’s because of His very nature. “Beloved, let us love one another…for God is love.” God loves people. That’s what He does. But of course, it all comes on His terms. Pull the clear water out of the reservoir. Drink it by faith. Let His scriptures – especially maybe the Psalms and the New Testament – daily build your faith. “Faith comes by hearing…the Word of Christ.” You won’t find faith deep within your own heart. By nature you and I are unbelievers. We are doubters and skeptics. Crush the mirror; pick up the Word.
Going off to college was a turning point in my life. I think we have many turning points, but for me this was one of those major ones. I knew God, read my Bible and had even witnessed to friends a few times before this. When I got back to Northfield, Minnesota, I met people my age who were also Christians. They had a joy and confidence that I didn’t have. I also felt humbled, because, although I had heard the Word all my life, some of these new friends studied the Bible and knew parts of it better than I did; and I knew that they hadn’t been Christians as long. That got my attention.
More to the point was the joy, peace, and confidence I saw in their lives. These are for me still things I can’t live without. So here I was – away at college after four years of off-and-on conflict with my dad. It was about my dating life and the company I kept. On the one hand, I was involved in church and music ministry, for which he was glad. But I was stuck in some habits. The tension between my dad and me – and also between my conscience and my actions – was wearing me down. Part of the reason I left Tacoma and went to the Midwest for college was to tear myself away from my environment and habits and try to get a new start.
I remember a few times tip-toeing into the house long after the time I had promised to return home. Once it was way after midnight; the light was on in the living room. As I rounded the corner and tried to sneak up the stairs to my room, there was my dad. (That's him pictured in the sketch above.) He sat quietly in a living room chair, reading and waiting. He spoke in a low, controlled voice.
“Where have you been?”
I told him I had taken my girlfriend home and we had talked for awhile. He reminded me of the time I had agreed to return and asked why it was so much later. After stumbling through an excuse, I asked why he didn’t trust me. He was ready for that, and he responded right away, “Because you’re not trustworthy.” That stung, but I knew it was true.
There wasn’t much more conversation. It was late and he had made his point. There I was, soon to be a grown man, and he and my mother had spent 17 years raising me.
I remember another occasion, when I was again tip-toeing in after midnight. This time no light was on and I made my way upstairs, presumably undetected. As I slid into bed my heart raced and pounded for quite awhile before I was finally able to relax and fall asleep.
The reason that joy, confidence and peace mean a lot to me is that they were so elusive in those days! I suppose if I had to name qualities opposite to those things, I might say that I was “depressed, hesitant, and conflicted.” The weird thing is that in the midst of all that I saw myself as a Christian, and now still believe that I truly was. But maybe that’s why this was all such a raging battle! My experience and actions were pushing hard against where my heart wanted to truly go – where I knew I belonged.
So off I went to college. Sixteen hundred miles from Tacoma. I poked my way through classes and found myself struggling to make decent grades. (I went to Highline – in the SeaTac area – the year after that.) But in the midst of that year away, far from home, I did some soul-searching and got closer to God. It took some humbling. There were times of loneliness and it took work making new friends. I got involved with teams of students who went out and put on programs and led worship services at churches nearby. Sometimes we hitch-hiked several hundred miles to get to the church or youth group we were assigned to for the weekend.
So, now 40 years later, what does it look like for me to be sure life will bring confidence, joy and peace? How do I know for sure that I won’t have a herky-jerky ride that delivers only a weird mix of surprises I can’t depend on? The answer I’ve found of course is that the source of joy and peace is Jesus Christ. But for all of us the big question is how to maintain a life-line to him. To use that water illustration - one can have a lake of cool, fresh mountain water. But how do you get a good pipe to it and draw up the water for what you need every day!?
For starters, those who say that Jesus Christ is not Lord of all and giver of life – they are simply wrong. If you have been rationalizing away what people have testified to you about him, that’s a problem. If one wants the peace, confidence and joy that comes from the forgiveness of sin, Jesus Christ is the only one who delivers. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Communism, Globalism, humanism – all these make empty promises.
But back to the water illustration. In John 7 we see Jesus attending the third major annual feast of the Jewish year, the Feast of Booths (Succoth). He stands up and says with a loud voice, “If any one trusts me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. (He was talking about the Holy Spirit, which those who trusted in Him were going to receive).”
God’s Holy Spirit actually lives in the person who trusts Jesus Christ. It’s sort of like you and me living in a house and making it our home. The Spirit of God lives in our body and makes it His home. And when He does, He brings with Him all the good gifts of Jesus Christ and daily reminds us that they belong to us. This is genuine good news. If you keep reading, there can be unbelievable benefit to you.
Maybe I should remind you, the gifts of God are not “spiritual” in the sense that they are for monks and nuns. They are not “other-worldly” in that you don’t get them until you die. Nor are they so hard to understand that only someone trained as a scholar can grasp them.
God gives daily food. He gives friends. He gives wisdom, jobs, understanding and insight. He gives laughter, and happiness in families. The Bible says that “all good gifts” are from God. (James 1:17). Without minimizing things such as eating, drinking and physical pleasures, perhaps relationships are the biggest.
When I would sneak into the house late at night and hoped to be undetected, my fear was not that my parents would never forgive me. Nor was it that God would send me to hell for being disobedient. I knew that He was forgiving. I knew that’s why Christ died, to pay for my sin. What I was stuck on was that my behaviors were chopping me off at the knees. I wasn’t owning up to things, and this was undermining my relationships – with Christ and other people. I now know that the opportunity to break away and go off to college was also a gift from God! This time away helped me back away from my situation and look at it. This became a time during which I got to meet a whole different group of people who affirmed, loved, and served the same Lord my parents served. (My parents weren’t perfect, of course, but they were trying their utmost to serve God and help their four boys do the same.)
God cleaned me up. He got me more deeply into His Word. He gave me a fresh look at people who walked the walk. Those people weren’t perfect either, but somehow this all helped. Jesus said, “You are made clean by the word I have spoken to you.” Jesus is the living Word. His blood atones for our sin. But to really know, experience and revel in that “clean-ness” every day is to be able to name the sins that need cleansing. Like Luther says, we don’t have to belabor this and forever make a longer and longer list of our ugly sins. Forget that. It’s impossible. But when God brings to my mind something I’ve done wrong, or an attitude I persist in that stinks, He’s putting a finger on it. He’s calling me to name it with my lips – between Him and me. (If my sin is also between me and another person, I need to name it to that person too, for we are all called to be family under Christ.)
The good news here is that this humbling and naming brings freedom. Freedom brings power over the evil. Naming and confessing defeats Satan. The power we gain brings joy and celebration. I really see this when I look around at so many people who live in the sewers of life. That’s where I was headed. I’m glad God helped me.
Where is all this going? Maybe you have some big decisions that are looming. I can’t walk you through all the applications of the gospel to your life. But I can tell you this: Through Christ, God who made you in His image is your Heavenly Father. He knows your needs and has the power and will to help you. He’s calling you now to trust Him.
Faith is the condition. Faith, and only faith. To have faith doesn’t mean you can explain it all. Faith is simply trusting that Jesus Christ died for your sin. Often it is a re-affirming faith: you re-visit that place where you once trusted Christ, say “I have wandered off the track,” and ask the Father again to restore to you the joy of salvation. Faith, in order to be faith, must look away from self. Break the mirror. Look only to Jesus Christ. This is a daily discipline. No one has this all figured out. Everybody has to learn to walk daily as little children do, step by step.
You might hear voices that tell you the “fear of God” is old-fashioned and must be discarded. But instead, discard those voices. They are liars, deceivers. (This is not said for dramatic effect. See John 8:44.)
Enjoying life is ultimately only possible by failing in love with Jesus Christ. Fall in love with Him. He’s in love with you. This is true not because you or I are always loveable. It’s because of His very nature. “Beloved, let us love one another…for God is love.” God loves people. That’s what He does. But of course, it all comes on His terms. Pull the clear water out of the reservoir. Drink it by faith. Let His scriptures – especially maybe the Psalms and the New Testament – daily build your faith. “Faith comes by hearing…the Word of Christ.” You won’t find faith deep within your own heart. By nature you and I are unbelievers. We are doubters and skeptics. Crush the mirror; pick up the Word.
