How do we get to a place of faith like Paul and Stephen? They both died for their faith. They knew as it was happening what was coming and surrendered. As we celebrate this Easter, there are some sobering stats about the state of faith in America. Just 20% of American self-professed Christians attend church on a weekly basis. That number climbs to 50% for Easter. What this might tell us is that the church is failing in its job to show Jesus. Many Christians haven't really met Him. Romans 10:9 is the origin of the salvation prayer, but many don't think about the true meaning and intent of those words. The heart is at the center of life: all physical, spiritual, and soul (thoughts, desires, purposes), flow from the heart. In order to trust God, we have to develop a relationship with Him and if we have a damaged heart because we have been burned by people or the church, we might not want to open ourselves up. We have to learn to trust God and give up control, with three areas where we must surrender to deepen our relationship with Him. First, we build trust through His Word. Romans 12:2 reminds us to renew our minds. Ask yourself: What am I spending more time doing - watching tv or spending time in the Word with God? If we don't desire to spend time in the Word and learn more, it is a dangerous place to be, making us an easy target for the enemy. Second, we build trust with God through prayer. We talk to Him and share our thoughts, feelings, concerns, and fears. Check out Matthew 7:11, Philippians 4:6, 1 John 5:14, and Colossians 4:2. Third, we build relationships with other believers to encourage one another and walk together as in Hebrews 10:24-25. To have a deep relationship with God, we must be willing to sacrifice, whether that is things, relationships, or our selfish desires, to completely surrender our lives to Him. Some questions to ponder this week: What am I prioritizing above God? What am I holding onto that is keeping me from the promises of God? Step into surrender!

Reading the Bible Supernaturally - Part 6 by

Do we have a preconceived notion about God - how He should heal us or deliver us? Like Naaman, do we think we know how it will go and limit what we are willing to do to receive freedom? How many times are we offered a way out and we don't take it? Like Martha in the story of Lazarus, we turn away the only one who can help us when we reject God because our deliverance doesn't look like we thought it would. Instead of listing excuses why it can't happen, we need to accept God's healing when we ask for it and take Him at His word. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts because they will direct our lives. Ask yourself: How is my heart? Is it broken? We may have blockages in our heart that prevent us from living life the way that we have received with Jesus. Those can be selfishness, bitterness, rejection, and evil thoughts. We must be honest with ourselves about what we have done to ourselves, what we have allowed to fester that others have done, and make the decision to feed ourselves with good food for our minds and spirits, not junk. Ask the Holy Spirit today to show you where your blockages are!

Amen!

In order to be free to love God and be ourselves, we have to receive the love of God first. God created us in three parts with an order to all of it: a spirit that must be redeemed; a soul that must be restored; and a body that must be re-purposed. 1 Corinthians 2:14 reminds us if we aren't in the Spirit, we won't be able to understand and our bodies and souls can reject the Word. While we are saved at the point of salvation, we aren't mature Christians. It takes time to learn and grow and we must be nurtured in order to reach maturity. God can do an amazing, immediate transformation like He did with Paul, but it may also come in degrees. The enemy can also move us off the right path by degrees, so we must be watchful. As we grow in our spirit, we become one with God - 1 Corinthians 6:17. Christ will often give us a song of our heart. Do you have one? Do you remember it or have you let it leave your heart?

The soul is restored when it comes in line with the Holy Spirit. Our soul is also three parts: our mind (thinking and reasoning); our will (making choices); and our emotions (believing, feeling). For our minds - do we know God or do we know of God? Sometimes we don't recognize miracles for what they are or we take credit for them or treat them as normal, such as finding a job that allows us to provide for our family. The miraculous surrounds us everyday if we will look differently at the world around us. It requires us knowing who is driving our thoughts. The good thing is we can change our destination!

The body is the last part and involves works, our flesh and all the things we do in our own power. Have you ever noticed the harder you try to get out of sin in your own power, the tighter its grasp seems to be on you? We must be ourselves, especially around the people closest to us. Otherwise, we can't experience the fullness of Christ. Knowing our identity is key to being in the fullness of Christ. Our identity is not what we do for a living. Do you know your identity? If you don't, ask God to show you through His Word. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that He chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. He did so in love.

Let's remember that God does not condemn. Galatians 5:19-23 tells us about the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. This is not to condemn, but to warn us, to help us recognize the dangers and to know the benefit of the Spirit. It is then that living in the tree of Life becomes tangible and exciting!

Reading the Bible Supernaturally - Part 5 by

There are lots of things that we don't talk about in church: porn addiction, sex, adultery, etc, but who told us we can't talk about those things? If we all put on our church face and don't talk about the things we struggle with, we can't get free. This is why you see the same statistics in the church as in the world. Faith is believing in what God says over everything else, but if we don't have confidence in Him, we won't trust that He can provide what He says He will. Look at Abraham and Sarah. Their names were changed to mean "mother and father of multitudes". God spoke that over them before He provided it to them. God does the same with us. We were once slaves, but like Galatians 4:7 says, we are now sons and heirs. God equips us and He is right here among us - we don't have to wait till we get to Heaven to encounter Him and be free.

So many of us are bound up by shame, so we pray over small stuff and don't address the big things with God when we should be transparent because He knows it all anyway. Satan blackmails us by reminding us of what we have done when we try to step out in faith, such as when we go to pray for someone struggling with relationships and he reminds us of our failures in that area. The best way to counteract his blackmail is by admitting it - confessing our sins and laying it out so it's not hidden anymore. Galatians 5:1 reminds us that we have to fight for our freedom because we can become bound up again in our sin and shame. This can be especially hard for believers because we know better! Remember Romans 8:1-2, which tells us the law of the Spirit of life has set us free and there is no condemnation for those in Christ. People in our body have been burdened by shame for promiscuity, abortion, pornography, homosexual desires, racism and many other things. We must remember that our sins are no better or worse than anyone else's, but we are all first and foremost, children of God and that is how He sees us. What we have done is not who we are. The Word tells us to make allowances for each others' sin and to show mercy. Let's not continue the trend in so many churches of further injuring our wounded. Let's allow honesty and vulnerability and show God's grace to all so that all who come to Sandbox can leave different than they were when they arrived!

Amen!

Reading the Bible Supernaturally - Part 4 by

How many of us are tired of the slick marketing and false advertising of commercial church? How many don't have time to go through the motions anymore? The church's answer to leprosy has always been to put the leper outside the church/city. This was true in the Bible and it's true now. Drugs, adultery, addiction to porn, etc - these things happen in the church today, but if you ask people how they are doing, you will get the "oh I'm good, we're all good" answer. So many put on the mask and an act on Sunday when they are falling apart. Why? Who are we trying to impress? We have to be like the leper who approached Jesus and asked to be healed. He wasn't afraid of his mess and Jesus wasn't either. We think we have committed unforgiveable sins, but the only unforgiveable sin is an ongoing rejection of Jesus. Our church has to be a place where people can bring their ugliness and their brokenness and we meet them exactly where they are - just as Jesus did. James 5:16 says to confess our sin so that we can be healed. If you look throughout the gospels, Jesus saved his criticism for the religious people, not for the sinners. We can be bound up by the destructive force of shame, but if we look at the people God used to do amazing things, many of them had really messed up and sinned. Our bodies were not designed to carry shame and it starts to break down our lives - our minds, our souls, our bodies - so that we can't do what God has for us to do. It's then that we need to remember Jesus paid it all so we don't have to.

Knowledge doesn't solve everything and God doesn't expect perfection from us, but we shouldn't lower our expectations or stop trying to be like our Father. We just have to remember we need His help and can't do it in our own power or works. As imperfect people, we can share about a perfect Jesus and impact the lives of those around us. Satan will remind us of what we have done and we can remind him of what Jesus has done!

As we read our Bibles and pray, our heart should be to come to know God, not just to check a box, to please Him, or try to attain righteousness through our actions. It's how we will come to know our worth so that we can find freedom. As we close, ask yourself, are you willing to go after your freedom, your righteousness that Jesus already gave and not accept anything less?

Amen!

Reading the Bible Supernaturally - Part 3 by

John 8:36 tells us if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. Galatians 5:1 tells us "do not be burdened AGAIN by a yoke of slavery". We can be free and then go back into slavery. How free are we, really? Even as Christians, we have accepted a certain level of fear in our lives. Jesus did the work, but if we don't fully accept the freedom He offers, we will be ineffective in helping others find freedom. Why aren't we free? John 10:10 tells us that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is the ultimate con artist, leading us to doubt our freedom by lying and doing all he can to distract us from God's plan. Our circumstances may not change and we may be in a storm, but with freedom, we can have peace in the storm that surpasses understanding. It's like that old adage - we are what we eat. The same is true for our minds. If we fill our minds with God's Word and good things, that is what we will believe. The opposite is also true - fill your mind with garbage, and you'll see the effect in your life. If we don't know the truth, we can't walk in it. A lot of our beliefs don't come from the Bible - they come from men. We may rely on our leaders or teachers too much and not know the Word ourselves. When we look back at Genesis chapter 2, we see the tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In chapter 3, Satan tempted Eve with a level of godliness. When we get wrapped up in the knowledge part and focus on that instead of the relationship of knowing God, it is easy to see how we can get off target and focus on the man-made rules. God is all about the relationship. Look at John 5:39-40. The pharisees had thousands of rules and knew the scriptures, but they didn't accept Jesus. Jesus distilled all of the rules down to two basic ones: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Our confidence must come from how good and faithful God is, not how good we are, or we will always be disappointed. We can never do enough, but Jesus has already done it and we just have to receive it. Every human relationship is performance-based, but God loves us no matter our performance. We search scripture so that we can learn more about God, not to earn His approval. If we truly understand the love of God, sin will lose its allure. We must remember that we will not be righteous based on our works, but on Jesus. James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and be healed and that the prayer of a righteous man is effective. Once we confess and Jesus forgives us, by that forgiveness, we are now righteous! Look also at 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 14:15; and Deuteronomy 30:15-16. If we fall in love with Jesus, the rest will take care of itself! Our love for Him will lead us to follow His commands and walk in relationship with Him.

Amen!