The Marks of a True Believer

I was listening to a sermon today that said generous giving was a mark of a true believer. Without it, your salvation could be in question. It was one of those statements that I agreed with to some extent, but couldn't agree in the fullest. I had to pick apart why that was. And here's where I got with my thinking...

While generous giving is certainly a mark of a believer, it is really just one of many, many signs. The real and true mark of a believer is regeneration, which is the bigger, wider picture of what is going on in a believers life. Giving, in this sense, is like one particular branch of a much bigger tree. You would certainly hope that it was there, but it doesn't, in itself, make the tree.

The trouble with gradual sanctification is it takes someone time to grow. Just like a tree, the more it grows, the stronger it gets and the more branches, shoots and fruit it produces. But in the beginning, there's hardly anything to see. It's barely a twig. It might only have one leaf.

So really, generous giving is just one of many marks that you are likely to see in a mature believer. It's a single mark of a much greater evidence: regeneration.

Spurgeon made me laugh...

“There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write ‘damnation’ with your fingers.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Bible” in Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol. 1, 33.

Clinton E. Arnold On Community

From 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare:

"Much spiritual vulnerability comes from being detached from the body of Christ."
p128

"The message and the community go hand in hand. When a person becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit not only unites the person to Christ, but also to other Christian. Believers need each other as they grow to maturity.
     There are not many themes in the New Testament about which more is said than community. Yet it appears that there is less community now in the church than at any other time in history."
p128

Clinton E. Arnold On The World, The Flesh & The Devil

"It is crucial to recognize that these three influences do not work separately but in concert. It is extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for us to make sharp distinctions among the three in trying to understand our own personal struggles and those of other people."

Illustration and quote taken from 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare, p35

Clinton E. Arnold On Satan

From 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare:

"Satan not only works in blatantly evil ways but he also works in ways that appear right and good. He can masquerade as "an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14)."
p54

"One of Satan's key ploys has been deception. If he can't prevent people from turning to Christianity, he can alter the Christianity to which they turn and make it into something that is not Christianity at all."
p60

"Satan continues his work of deceit, attempting to pervert a true and proper understanding of Christ ... Groups such as the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Christian Scientists all teach a different Jesus than the one revealed in the Bible and confessed by the church throughout the centuries."
p62

"The classic way Satan operates is by enticing believers to sin, which has garnered him the title "the tempter" (1 Thess. 3:5). According to John, this has been one of the devil's primary modes of operation since the beginning (1 John 3:8).""
p97

"As "the Accuser," the Evil One brings indictments to God continuously against believers (Rev. 12:10). He likewise reminds believers of their shortcomings, unworthiness, and sin. By stimulating feelings of guilt, he hopes to keep Christians from feeling well-assured in their relationship to Christ and unworthy to receive his empowering grace."
p99

"Tertullian asked rhetorically, "What man is there to whom an evil spirit does not adhere, even at the very gates of his birth, waiting to ensnare his soul?"
p109

"As Martin Luther said regarding the devil in his famous hymn, "one little word shall fell him". That word is Jesus."
p112

Clinton E. Arnold On Prayer

From 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare:

"The very act of prayer is an admission that "there is someone greater than I" and that "I am not able"."
(Ephesians 3:14 – For this reason I kneel before the Father)
p43

"Prayer is communication with the commander-in-chief during the battle. Our awareness of the battle heightens our sense of need to stay in constant touch with our superior officer, who can resupply us and provide us with our orders."
p46

"Prayer is more than just vocalizing a list of needs to God. Prayer involves asking God how we should pray and then acting on the promptings and impressions the Spirit places on our minds."
p46

"God is near. We have the privilege of entering his presence regularly as children."
p46

"The heart and essence of spiritual warfare at any level is prayer."
p187

"Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is in providing direction an guidance in how we pray (Eph. 6:18)"
p188

Lessons From Clinton E. Arnold

Some great quotes and one-liners I lifted from 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare by Clinton E. Arnold...

"The Christian life is a lifelong struggle, not a one-time fix."
p36

"The struggle is a daily affair. The wrestling event for the Christian is not over in twelve minutes or even half an hour."
p38

"This is not a time to settle down and relax. This is a time for mission and doing the work of the kingdom."
p38

"There are certain periods of time, however, when Christians face a flurry of terrible difficulties or when temptation seems to come with unusual power."
p38

"We often do not realize the extent to which naturalistic assumptions have permeated our thinking."
p30

"Very little of what we do is disconnected from how we think."
p66

"Eternal life is just as much a present experience as a future aspiration (cf. John 17:3)."
p21

"Spiritual warfare is an integral part of the entire Christian experience. It is a fact of life. To think that a Christian could avoid spiritual warfare is like imagining that a gardener could avoid dealing with weeds."
p19

Radical Generosity

A great point from Tim Keller's 'Radical Generosity' sermon: if you wanted to give 10%, you could. Because if you suddenly took a 10% pay cut you would simply make do. It would be painful – but you would make it work.

Giving - A Theory (Part 2)

Why is it that the poorest people are often the most generous? It's both awesome and humbling.

Only One Question

There's so many questions surrounding Christianity like pain and suffering, the Big Bang, evolution and the hiddenness of God. There's so many things that clutter your mind. But what you realise after a while is that everything stacks behind this one big question.

Was Jesus Christ the Son of God?

If he was, and is, nothing is impossible.

The belief that a man can be subject to the most brutal and complete death, entombed, and then raised back to life three days later is one that is totally miraculous. That sort of thing just doesn't happen. But it did. According to Josh McDowell it is the most well documented fact in history. (See his book, The Resurrection Factor).

If Jesus Christ was God himself, all these other questions become secondary.

Does God exist? Absolutely.
Is the universe six thousand or thirteen billion years old? Either. He could create it in an instant.
Is the Bible the perfect word of God? Jesus seems to think so.
Is there a reason and an answer for every question you could possibly think of? There absolutely must be.

So all in all, Jesus really is the cornerstone. Every line of thought, every reason, every question and answer stems from him. When it comes to his divinity, we have an inexplicable sum of evidence, and no explanation to the contrary.

Totally Human, Totally Divine

"As Jesus Christ was totally human and totally divine, so is the bible."
ESV Study Bible, Crossway, p2569

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:16-17

I was debating the nature of the bible with a friend as to whether it was the perfect word of God, completely infallible and without error, or just a normal book like any other. Trustworthy to some extent, but ultimately flawed. I obviously subscribe to the former and not the latter. But here's a thought:

It's either totally perfect and infallible, or it's unbelievably dangerous. Like a bowl of chocolate ice cream with shards of glass ground in. You wouldn't touch it. No matter how hungry you were.

If the bible distorts our picture of Jesus, if the gospel wasn't quite recorded right, if some of the truths and commandments aren't wholly accurate then we really are bleeding from the inside.

Jesus only gave us two options: either he's the Son of God, or a delusional madman. And the bible presents the same scenario. It repeatedly claims to be the unadulterated word of God. It's either accept or reject, there's no middle ground.

"The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times."
Psalm 12:6

Try, Try, Try Again

I once read a No Fear poster that said "You miss 100% of the shots you never take". Trouble is, most of us don't set ourselves a goal. We don't know where we're running and we've got nothing to shoot at. It can feel a little unproductive.

A goal has to be clearly defined. You've got to mark it out exactly and play towards it. It pretty much applies to everything in your life that your life that you want to be fruitful in: generous giving, bible reading, daily prayer, dating your wife, health and fitness, leading a life group, earning a living... on and on. You've got to mark out your goal and track your progress.

If you take the picture further, most of the excitement games like football isn't found in the goals themselves. There might only be two or three in 90 minutes. It's in all the action leading up to them: the passing, the tackling, the shots from 40 yards that ricochet off the post. It can all be really exciting. And I guess it's the same in life. You don't always succeed on your first attempt. But it's exciting seeing how close you came. You try, try, try again until that ball is in the back of the net.

Correct Approach

With regard to preparing life group bible studies (or any sort of preaching or teaching), there is nothing worse than a indolent, slothful approach. The word of God is "sharper than any double-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). It's not the sort of thing you just pick up and chuck at your friends.

It's the thing you work at and sweat over. You rehearse your swing over and over until you get it perfect. You constantly push yourself to become more skillful and accurate.

I've come to the conclusion that if you can't do your absolute best on a given topic, on a given week, for whatever reason, it's good to just leave it. As my dad always use to say, "if you're going to do the job, do it properly".

Life Group Talk: Giving

Here's a link to a PDF of a talk on giving that I recently did for my life group. It combines various re-written blog posts from this site and some new, original thoughts on the subject.

http://www.sa-design.co.uk/blog/Giving_Jan_2011.pdf

It also refers to this article titled "The Sandra Bullock Trade":

http://www.sa-design.co.uk/blog/Giving_Jan_2011_The_Sandra_Bullock_Trade.pdf

Enjoy!