Chapter 1
His Trustworthiness for Your Trust
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:9 NIV
1 The Surest Thing
A sure thing is something certain with no doubt whatsoever. Such things and events are scarce as calluses on a fashion model’s hands. Death, taxes, robocalls, spam, and fraud make the list. Not much else. It’s short because you live in an uncertain world.
Where’s the bedrock on which you can stand amid the shifting sand of an ever-changing, uncertain world? Old Testament characters frequently swore an oath, “As surely as the LORD lives...” to make their statements more believable (King Saul in 1 Samuel 28:10).
“As surely as the LORD lives” appears thirty-three times in the Old Testament. The LORD’s living is surer than tomorrow’s sunrise, water’s running downhill, or a Florida vacation’s punctuation with mosquito bites.
The good news is the LORD lives. The better news is He promises His presence to those who trust and obey Him. He will live with them.
He promised Moses His presence and rest (Exodus 33:14). He promised His presence when two or three gather to deal with His sinning followers (Matthew 18:20). He abides in those who abide in love (1 John 4:16).
He promised He’d be with and keep Jacob, wherever he went (Genesis 28:15). He promised He wouldn’t leave or forsake His followers (Hebrews 13:5). He promised His presence in life’s darkest valleys (Psalm 23:4).
Someday, He’ll dwell with His people, and they’ll enjoy His presence forever (Revelation 21:3). The LORD lives is the surest thing!
How did the LORD’s living certainty affect how you thought, felt, and behaved yesterday? Read Matthew 1.
2 Sure Things
Part of wisdom is separating sure things from pretenders. “Sure things” involving people are an endangered species.
Friends make promises but don’t keep them. Advertisers overpromise and underdeliver. Humans eventually fail you.
Even things you think are sure aren’t necessarily. Tonight, there’s a 100 percent chance of darkness (unless it’s June 21st and you’re at the North Pole!). One-hundred-degree temperatures make you sweat (but older folks wear sweaters!).
Rivers flow into other rivers or oceans (but the Jordan River, ends in a landlocked lake). Most human beings twist the truth to benefit themselves. A few don’t.
Can assurance that you’re a child of God be a “sure thing”? Absolutely!
It can be because God doesn’t lie. “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19 NIV).
The assumed answer to both questions is “no.” Jesus Christ is God’s one and only Son, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Assurance that you’re God’s child rests eternally and unshakably on God’s trustworthy promises. You become God’s child when you receive Jesus as your Forgiver and Leader (John 1:12).
When you invite Jesus into your life, He will enter and fellowship with you (Revelation 3:20). You have eternal life immediately. God won’t condemn you (John 5:24, 1 John 5:13).
Jesus suffered for your sins to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18). He rose from the dead (Mark 10:34). More than five hundred people saw Him (1 Corinthians 15:6). Your assurance isn’t based on your undependable performance. It depends on God’s keeping His promises! That’s a sure thing!
How does God’s keeping His promises being a sure thing make you feel? Read Matthew 2.
3 Would Your Horoscope Lie to You?
Throughout most of history, astrology has been an intellectual pursuit. Now it’s considered a pseudoscience. It has no scientific validity or explanatory power.1
People looked to the stars and planets to interpret their lives for thousands of years. Astrology in the West includes horoscopes. They explain your personality and what will happen to you based on your birth date.
Believing horoscopes is living according to someone else’s baseless guesses rather than your own. How can you tell an astrologer making $100 or more per hour is lying to you? Watch for moving lips.
Why do people consult astrologers? They want to know unobtainable information. They’re looking for power and control when life veers out of control.
Astrologers, like politicians, are liars who pretend to help you. They’re taking care of themselves.
So, how do you interpret the uninterpretable? You trust in the One who knows everything about everything. He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
He knows the names of the sextillions of stars He created (Psalm 147:4). Do you think He knows your name and circumstances too? Of course!
Take comfort that He who didn’t withhold His only Son but sacrificed Him for you will also freely give along with Him what you need (Romans 8:32). Trust in God is the antidote for life’s adversity. Ask Him for wisdom (James 1:5). Trust the light of His word to guide you (Psalm 119:105).
How does it make you feel that God knows your name and circumstances and will freely give you all you need? Read Matthew 3.
4 Believing in God Is Not Enough (1)
About thirty years ago George Barna found that 74% of American adults strongly agreed and 12% agreed somewhat that “there is only one true God, who is holy and perfect, and who created the world and rules it today.”1 If that’s so, why were the moral values of our society “circling the drain” then and even more so today?
James connected belief and behavior when he wrote, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead (James 2:26 NIV). If people don’t live their “beliefs,” do they truly believe them? The Greek word for “believe” means “to persuade, give credit to, trust, or confide in.”2
Belief is only as good as its object. If you trust a friend to repay a dollar she borrowed, her failure won’t ruin you.
Sometimes, belief puts your life at stake. Some who have trusted a barrel to protect them during a plunge over Niagara Falls have been disappointed to death!
My mother trusted a doctor to operate on her competently. He didn’t. She died.
Daily, you risk your life when you trust other drivers to remain on their side of the road and not hit you.
Believe is an action word. Robert Chesebrough believed in the healing properties of the Vaseline he invented. He repeatedly burned, cut, and scratched himself to demonstrate his trust in it.
People could see the wounds now healed and scarred over and realize both the value of Vaseline and the depth of Robert’s faith in it.3 Do your daily actions demonstrate your faith in God?
“Believe” is a relationship word. Most people believe that God exists. Few have a relationship with Him that affects the way they live.
John Paton translated the New Testament into the language of the New Hebrides in the South Sea Islands. Their language didn’t have a word for “believe” in the sense of trust.
Finally, he found a solution. Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailor that God would save him if he believed in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:31). Paton’s translation was, “Lean your whole weight upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.”4
How do your words and actions demonstrate that you’re following Jesus?
Read Matthew 4.
5 Believing in God Is Not Enough (2)
Belief is more than agreeing that God exists. The demons believe that (James 2:19). But they’ll be on the wrong side of the pearly gates.
Belief is more than agreeing that the Bible is true, that Jesus is God’s Son, and that He died on the cross for the sins of the world. True belief includes trusting in and doing what God says.
Such faith transforms your “ugly duckling” character into an increasingly beautiful “swan.” Without it, you can’t please God (Hebrews 11:6).
Amid life's unpredictable, ever-changing circumstances, Christians keep their eyes on Jesus. They don’t rely on faith or their goodness. They trust their eternal destiny to Jesus alone and His finished work on the cross.
They depend upon His resources to meet everyday problems. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Circumstances change. He doesn’t. The Christian trusts Jesus’ character and promises.
Belief centers on a living person. Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today! In 2016 the American people didn’t elect George Washington. They selected and put their faith in a living person.
Christians put their faith in Jesus. They know Him, and He knows them (John 10:14). They listen to His voice (John 10:27).
They share His peace (John 14:27), joy (John 15:11), resources (John 16:24), and mission (John 20:21). He’s their Shepherd. He loves them (John 15:9) and gives His life for them (John 10:15).
God’s final judgment is a raging class-five hurricane somewhere over the horizon. No radar can detect it.
Jesus is the Captain of the only ship, the church, which will survive it. No one forces you to enter His vessel and join His crew. You can build your boat and captain it yourself. You can take your chances with another boat. The choice is real and personal.
Don’t imagine you’re inside a safe ship with a decision to stay or leave. You’re in a rocking rowboat. The question isn’t whether the hurricane will hit—it’s when.
Rejecting Jesus’ offer to take you aboard means you’re still in the rowboat. Putting off the decision means the same. Your decision is the most important you’ll ever make. It has eternal consequences.
Belief is a personal response. You can accept or reject Jesus and all He offers. Putting the choice off is rejection on the installment plan.
How will you show today that your faith is more than just mental agreement with facts about Jesus? Read Matthew 5.
6 Believing in God Is Not Enough (3)
Christian belief makes you right with God. Romans 8:16–17 NIV describes that relationship: “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
Faith transforms relationships with others. “We know that we’ve passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who doesn’t love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:14–16 NIV).
Faith changes you. It’s summarized in 2 Corinthians 5:17 as becoming a new creation.
You’ve got a new sense of freedom because God removes your guilt and forgives your sin. You want to please God and serve others.
You possess a new love for other Christians. You discover a new power over sin and a new joy and confidence. You find a new supply road opened to God’s storehouse through prayer.
In early April 1978, I drove fifty miles to go ice fishing. I traveled from Fargo, North Dakota, to Cormorant Lake, Minnesota. At the lake, I discovered two feet of open water ringing the ice around the shoreline.
I wasn’t about to give up. Although my faith shook as much as my knees, I took a deep breath and jumped. I feared the milky white edge would break when I landed. It didn’t!
When I drilled a hole about fifty yards from shore, I discovered the ice was thirty-seven inches thick. Although my faith was weak, the yard of frozen water wasn’t.
God is like that ice. When you believe, you take a leap of faith. You land on the unflinching trustworthiness of God’s character and promises. It’s not the size of your faith, but whether you place it, small or great, in the trustworthy One.
Believing in Jesus includes your intellect, emotions, will, and body. Faith isn’t contrary to the facts of history. The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is substantial. Yet faith is more than merely agreeing that Jesus is all He claimed.
If you depend on feelings to gauge your relationship with God, your spiritual life will resemble an elevator!
Responding to God is a choice. It includes giving God your body (Romans 12:1). Don’t you think you could trust someone with your body who sacrificed His body for you?
Why does depending on your feelings to gauge closeness to God bring great instability to life? Read Matthew 6.
7 Believing in God Is Not Enough (4)
Belief has content, but you must go beyond agreeing with the facts. The first four letters of the alphabet summarize the narrow way to eternal life.
A represents admit. To begin a right relationship with God, you must admit you have a disease the Bible calls sin.
The symptoms are denial of God’s right to rule over you, rejection of His moral boundaries, and a right-living deficit. If you ignore this disease, the inevitable result is separation from God forever (Romans 6:23).
B is what you need to believe. Becoming a Christian requires knowing Jesus is the Lord and God in the flesh who has come to your rescue. He became as fully human as you and died on the cross in your place to pay the penalty for your sins (1 Peter 3:18).
He’s alive forever because of His resurrection. He asks for your loyalty. He offers to live within you and use His resurrection power to free you from the paralyzing grip of sin (John 8:36).
C is considered the cost of following Jesus. Jesus said the one who tries to save his life will lose it (Luke 9:24).
Three questions sum up the cost. Will you let Christ clean up the wrong things in your life? Will you give Him the king’s chair of your life? Will you publicly identify with Him and His church?
D stands for doing something. You need to receive the gift God offers—Jesus. In John 1:12, “receive” means “believe.” If I offer you a twenty-dollar bill and ask whether you believe it’s yours, you demonstrate your belief by taking it. Faith is active.
Revelation 3:20 pictures Jesus knocking at the closed door of an individual’s life. It’s dark inside. It stinks.
The lazy boy in the living room is the “king’s chair.” The house represents your life. Jesus offers to come in, turn on the light, and clean up the mess. He wants the king’s chair. He alone qualifies to run the new operation.
He’s cleaned and lit hundreds of millions of other homes. Will you let Him do the same for you?
Have you ever invited Jesus to come into your life and take control? If not, are you ready to open the door of your life to Jesus now?
One way to say yes is through the following prayer. The words aren’t magic. They reflect the heart of someone ready to follow Jesus:
Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross in my place and taking my sin, death, and judgment upon yourself. I open the door of my life to you. Come into my life and take control. Turn on the light and clean up the mess. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me a child of God. I want to be like you. Amen.
If these words express what you want, make them your own. Realize that you’re talking to the living Lord Jesus. He knows your sincerity and will honor the invitation to come into your life.
When did you invite Jesus to come into your life and take control?
Read Matthew 7.
8 Believing in God Is Not Enough (5)
Jesus promises, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20 NIV).
He said if you open the door of your life to Him, He’ll come in. He keeps His promises. You can depend on it! Don’t expect a wonderful feeling inside. God honors active belief.
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever doesn’t have the Son of God doesn’t have life” (1 John 5:11–12 NIV). God promises eternal life to all who have Jesus, the Son.
If you have Jesus, you have eternal life. Take God’s word for it! Don’t depend on your feelings. They can lead you astray very quickly.
Now what? Here are six ways to grow in your relationship with Jesus.
Read the Bible daily. Begin with Matthew. Write briefly in a notebook what you’ve learned and will try to apply to your life (1 Peter 2:2).
Pray daily asking Jesus to control you and show you how to apply the Bible to your life to make you more like Him. Turn your worries into prayers (Philippians 4:6–7).
Attend worship in a local church (Hebrews 10:24–25; Luke 4:16).
Join a discipleship group that will nurture your faith.
Share your time, talents, and treasures cheerfully. Jesus wants to serve others through you. Tell others how you received Him and the difference He has made in your life.
Yield continuously to the control of the Holy Spirit of Christ who lives in you (Ephesians 5:18).
Which of the six disciplines will you add to your to-do list?
Read Matthew 8.
9 I Became a Christian—Now What?
Deciding to follow Jesus is step one of a life-long commitment to change how you think, feel, and behave. Marathon runners train for their event. As they discipline themselves to run faster, so must you to live better. The goal is to become like Jesus (Romans 8:29).
Only God can make “chicken salad” (the Jesus-like) out of “chicken feathers” (the self-centered). You must exert ongoing effort and make continual sacrifices—just like Olympic marathon gold medalists.
Discipleship self-destructs without discipline. The Apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12 NIV).
Earthly achievements don’t compensate for spiritually unfruitful living. Helping the needy impresses God more than making newspaper headlines, accumulating multi-millions, or winning awards. “Then he said to them all: “’ Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23 NIV).
A Bossa Nova zucchini bears its first fruit in 37 days. It produces more fruit as it continues to grow. You can influence others for Christ right now. But Christian maturity requires at least two years.
Daily reading, understanding, and applying the Bible to life are discipleship essentials. The Bible’s spiritual food feeds and reprograms your mind to cherish what Jesus values. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2 NIV).
Only God can make sorghum and yams grow. Only He can enable you to grow spiritually. The spiritually mature apply the Bible wisely to life’s daily decisions.
Other essentials for spiritual growth include talking with God daily (prayer), worshiping with other believers, and obeying Jesus, your spiritual leader.
How has discipline helped you accomplish a goal? What will be your next step in applying spiritual disciplines to become more like Jesus? Read Matthew 9.