When I say I'm a Christian

by Carol Wimmer

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I’m not shouting, “I’ve been saved!”

I’m whispering, “I get lost sometimes

That’s why I chose this way”

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I don’t speak with human pride

I’m confessing that I stumble -

needing God to be my guide

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I’m not trying to be strong

I’m professing that I’m weak

and pray for strength to carry on

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I’m not bragging of success

I’m admitting that I’ve failed

and cannot ever pay the debt

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I don’t think I know it all

I submit to my confusion

asking humbly to be taught

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I’m not claiming to be perfect

My flaws are far too visible

but God believes I’m worth it

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I still feel the sting of pain

I have my share of heartache

which is why I seek God’s name

When I say, “I am a Christian”

I do not wish to judge

I have no authority

I only know I’m loved

Wednesday March 26th, 2014

We will have class the first Wednesday and last Wednesday of April only, due to the school holidays (class on April 2nd and April 30th). For next week, the homework is to complete Lessons 1&2 of 1John.

The purpose of the Bible: Looking to Christ

Our conclusion of God's Amazing Book focuses on the purpose of the Bible - Christ.

Last week I tried to make a connection between Jean Valjean from Les Miserables and us: when the priest opened the church door to the gendarmes with the criminal Jean Valjean in their custody, and the stolen goods of the silver, and then the priest pardoned him for stealing the silver.... and not only proclaimed to the officers that he had given it to Jean Valjean as a gift, but furthermore, he was to have the candlesticks as well.

Now Jean Valjean could have cried out NO!  I don't want your pardon, or your grace!

Such an utterance would not have been in his favor - admitting that he did indeed steal the silver, proclaiming that he didn't want to be pardoned, and that he didn't want the candlesticks for that matter either.

Of course, only a fool would do such a thing.  It seems only a fool would turn down the offer of such amazing grace and pardon.  And yet, in our world today, many people do indeed turn down such an offer.  An even better one in fact.  The offer of salvation through Christ Jesus.  

Question 2 from our study this week took us to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe, and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Saved - that sounds pretty nice, doesn't it.  What do you save....what things in your life, maybe material things, or perhaps memories, do you save?  I save too much...I save my kids papers, I save clothes I don't wear, I save books I don't read...but I also save precious photos, little things the kids have done, cards that my husband has written for me...special and valuable things.  

But what about saving a person?  We are not talking about lifeguarding at a swimming pool, or saving someone from getting hit by a car, etc.  

What does it mean that I want my children to be "saved"?  Just what is salvation anyways?

What does it mean to be "saved"?

These have become common Christian terms - part of a regular conversation - are you saved?  Do you think he is saved?  Anyone new to Christianity might find the terms unusual.  Even for someone who has been a Christian a long time, it's important to revisit the details of this most important element of Christianity.  One that doesn't exist in other religions.

So, what are we talking about?

In my Student Bible Dictionary salvation is defined as "Safety, deliverance from evil, eternal life (Isaiah 12:2, Luke 19:9).  Salvation comes only by God's grace and through Jesus Christ when a person accepts Christ as Lord and Savior (Acts 4:12, Titus 2:11).  It begins on earth and finds completion at death or at Christ's return."

In the New Testament, salvation can be in the past, the present and the future...

Past

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.

Titus 3:5 He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done but because of his mercy.

Present

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Future

Romans 5:9-10 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!  For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

1 Peter 1:5 This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Real salvation also brings forth change in the believer's life (Question 2d) - "the new life God gives".  The questions took us to verses explaining we have a  new life and the verses provide encouragement to stand strong in our faith.  I love the image of Ephesians 6:10-18 "put on the full armor of God - belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with readiness from the gospel, shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit."  

It's a battle out there, every day.  This world is one of stress, challenges and difficulties.  You might think as a Christian, that the longer you are in the faith, the easier the walk becomes.  And yet not so.  The longer we are Christians, and the more we study the Bible, often we see our sin even more clearly and are even more convicted.  Christians are not perfect, nor are we immune from difficulty....quite the contrary!

When we are saved, we are keenly aware of our own brokenness and our need for a savior.  Trying to be holy is a good goal, but we "all fall short".  Let's remember that.  I appreciate the women in this group who have been brave enough to share their personal stories - I am humbled to be among such amazing souls - we are REAL women in this group.  None of us is perfect.  Only Christ was perfect.  That's why he is our savior.  

There are endless stories of changed lives, miracles and healing, restored relationships - this is the fruit of salvation and such solid proof of God's work.  

This little booklet has taken us on quite a journey - a fly over in my opinion - looking at the Bible from a big picture view.  We've learned the basics of the Old Testament and the New Testament, how the books came to be divinely inspired and how they are organized, the archaeological evidence for the Biblical stories, the manuscripts of the earliest Bibles, the prophecy that has been fulfilled...there is no other book like this.  

This is our book.  This is God's Word.  

I'm really looking forward to our new study, 1John.  A major purpose of 1John is to give believers assurance of salvation. I am hopeful that we will have a much deeper understanding after our study of 1John.

Looking to Christ: The Purpose of the Bible Wednesday March 19th, 2014

The purpose of the Bible - looking to Christ

Are you a fan of Victor Hugo’s story Les Miserables? - I am!! I love the book, I love the musical, I love the movie! Today's lesson brought me to think of my favorite scene.

The lesson began with the first question asking us, "what is the underlying theme of the Bible?" Wow, big question! Yet, simple answer: Jesus Christ.

The Bible is complicated, overwhelming, and massive….yet at the most basic level, it’s about Christ - how God loved us so much that he sent his son to redeem us, even though we are unworthy.

Now, back to Les Miserables….my favorite scene is this:  After stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his sister’s starving family, Jean Valjean (hereafter referred to as JVJ) was sentenced to 5 years hard labor.  He served his sentence and extra time for trying to escape - 19yrs total, when he was freed in 1814.  Jean had almost nothing when he left prison, was bitter and hard (hearted).  Finally one night, with no where to go, he sought shelter in a church.  The priest offered him reprieve - a meal and a bed.  But JVJ woke in the night, and couldn’t help himself from stealing the Priest’s silver, which would fetch a nice price when he sold them.  He takes the silver and flees.  Some time later, he is caught.  The gendarmes drag him like an animal back to the church, summon the priest, who will then take his silver back and thus send JVJ back into the prison system - certainly for life now.  However, in a shocking change of events, the priest exclaims, “Ah! Here you are.  I am glad to see you!  But what is this?  I had given you also the candlesticks, and you forgot them.”  JVJ is speechless.  The gendarmes stare in disbelief: “but monseigneur, he was running away, with this silver”...The priest says, “that is your mistake”. They leave, and there is JVJ with the priest.  “My friend, the priest says, before you go, take the candlesticks…(JVJ trembles and remains speechless) my friend. you no longer belong to evil, but to good.  it is your soul that i buy from you, I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and i give it to God.”  That moment of pardon is my absolute favorite scene.  It awes me.  From this point onwards, in this epic novel, we see JVJ as he struggles to live a life worthy of this gift, a life under the grace of a forgiving, loving God....demonstrated in the actions of the priest.

Can you imagine?  Someone who steals from you….and when they are brought to you for punishment/confirmation...you offer them more?  it seems beyond human nature.  That is because it is - that kind of grace is from God - and the priest tells JVJ just that - that he has bought his soul for good - and is giving it to God.

Just like JVJ, we do not deserve God’s grace.  We try to live right, but we are human.  God sent His son to us on a rescue mission.  The Israelites had become so regulated and outwardly religious that there was little love in their hearts and actions.  Sacrifice - the very word can be beautiful and ugly at the same time - giving something up, sacrificing something means a loss, yet the purpose is for good, to atone, to heal something.  So it was with the Israelites, they needed to continually atone for their sins, again and again and again.  They were so focused on the laws, that they had forgotten grace.  Interestingly, Les Miserables is a story of just that - the law vs. grace & redemption.  

Just when the Israelites are at their best with outwardly religion and rule following….

there is a rescue mission.

John 3:16 says…For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD: it doesn’t start with us loving him. HE loved us first.  This is not the love I have for my husband, this is not the love I have for my children, the love I have for my friends, for my parents, anyone…

This is a supernatural, surpasses all understanding love.  It is a love of the world and ALL of us in it.  A love for the human race - all of us - me, you, our friends, families, our enemies, in means leaders of every country - good and bad, it means everyone - deserving or not.

LOVE IS GOD.  GOD IS LOVE. 

God loved us first:

sample of what we’ll be getting into with our next study booklet!!

1 John 4: 7-12…

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us,we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This week’s lesson is essentially showing us the basic premise that this book is ultimately a book about Christ - from beginning to end.   

Last week we looked at prophecy, and the number of prophecies fulfilled in Jesus is over 300, therefore we KNOW it was not coincidence.  He was not just some guy.  He was not one of many.  He was Gods one and only begotten son.  God became flesh in Jesus, to be with us, to live and walk among us, to feel our pain, to feel our suffering, and our joy and our challenges.  

When I first became a Christian, I rarely looked into scriptures of the Old Testament.  It seemed bizarre.  But after studying some of it (mostly Moses) in a Bible study similar to ours, my eyes opened to see Christ everywhere.  In the book of Matthew, twelve times you will find the term “fulfilled” along with a connection to the Old Testament (that it might be fulfilled, was fulfilled, etc”)

The blood system of sacrifice was finished with Jesus - He was the lamb of God.  Sacrifice and substitutionary atonement were the foundation of the Old Testament and the people’s relationship with God.  God is holy, we are not - we must approach him through or with something that shows our respect and due honor to him.  

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I admit I still don’t understand some aspects of the Old Testament but I take encouragement in that the New Testament is here to explain how Jesus came to complete the Old Testament scriptures - Question 5 in our study “Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

John 3:16 - God loves everyone - WHOEVER - for everyone, unlimited….

God knows everything about me, scary.  He sees how unloveable I am.  He sees my selfish thoughts.  He sees me in the morning when I go to facebook instead of my faithbook.  And he loves me all the same.  He sees me seek happiness when I should be seeking holiness.  And he loves me all the same. He sees me when I suffer - and I go off to send a text instead of remembering I am blessed.  And he loves me all the same.

And for me, in this ugliness, he sacrificed his very own one and only son?

Just like the priest rendered JVJ completely dumbfounded by his grace and forgiveness, above and beyond that generosity; God has pardoned our sin, all of our faults and yuck, and given us his son, to not just give us a new life, but an abundant life:

John 10:10

“I came so that all might have life; and have it to the full”

Wednesday March 12th, 2014 "Amazing Predictions!"

Study 9 & 10

A book of amazing predictions

Our group visit to the British Museum!

From a very young age, we want to know what is going to happen next.  A child will get very upset if someone stops in the middle reading a story! We have a hard time turning off the TV, putting down a good book, etc. We want to know the rest of the story.  

We want to know what happens next!!

We all want to know how things are going to turn out.

Guess what.  The disciples were no different.

Matthew 24:3 

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.  "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Most of Chapter 24 of Matthew is his answer.

Why do we have prophecy?

1Corinthians 14:3 "Those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort."

For good - to help us, to guide us.  

IT IS OKAY FOR CHRISTIANS TO HAVE DIFFERING CONVICTIONS ABOUT PROPHECY.  Do you think God wants to see his children bicker and fight over when and how the world is going to end? None of us has enough information to know all the details about what is going to happen in the future.  We have only that which is in the Bible, and that may convey a different meaning to different people - we must approach prophecy discussions with a spirit of peace and love.

WHAT IS PROPHECY?

Prophecy means speaking on behalf of God, delivering His message or words. There are prophets in the Old and the New Testament. Some prophecy delivers the will of God for his people - teaching, directing, warning.  A second kind of prophecy predicts the future - this is usually what we think of when we think of prophecy (who doesn’t want to know the future, right?).

We study prophecy not only to learn about the future, but to understand our daily lives - we have an advantage over those who do not know their Bibles - we can rest in the certainty of Christ's victorious ending - “that every knew shall bow” (Phil 2:10, Roman 14:11) - giving us strength, steadiness, and confidence in the midst of our day to day anxieties, stress, or hard circumstances.

WHY IS BIBLICAL PROPHECY IMPORTANT?

-prophecy encourages Godly living

1 John 3:2-3  

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."

Knowing the future stirs us to holy living in preparation of meeting to the One who is pure. PURE - I love the Bible verses about purity - there seems to be so little of it in this world today.

-prophecy gives us hope

Revelation 21:4

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for he old order of things has passed away"

When we see suffering, tragedy, sin around us - let us cling to this verse and the truth and hope in it!

We live in a complicated world, with pressures and international conflicts.  

But we know that God is in control.

--We should not attempt to guess at the date of the end times.

Matthew 24:36

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father."

Many people feel they see “signs” of the end times.  I have an aunt who is I'm sure well meaning but constantly sending emails about warnings of the end times...

It gets to be a turn off.  

Instead of trying to calculate such things and obsess over the aspects of our world that are clear signs of the end times, we should be alert and ready, ready in our hearts, and motivated to help as many people as possible to come to know Christ Jesus (through our actions and love).

Here are some visuals with great examples of prophecy from the Bible

Now with all this accurate prophecy, we would think that people would just GET IT.  The Bible is God's true word to us.  EASY.

But no.

We are stubborn aren't we?!

We're going to look at 3 things that critics say, so you can be prepared with a response when talking to others.

First, people say, it is pure coincidence.

COINCIDENCE = GOD'S WORK

Guess what, it cannot possibly be coincidence.  

How many prophecies did we say Jesus fulfilled?  Yes over 300.  

Here are a few of them.

Mathematicians will assure you, this CANNOT be coincidence!

Secondly, some people are going to say that because the Bible was written by men, that once we knew about Jesus's life, they were smart enough to go back to the Old Testament and change all the verses about him so that it all matched up.  Yes, they took all the events of Jesus's life and then went back and edited the OT so that it all makes sense.

Why is that wrong???  

What do we know from our last few lessons?  

From about 433 BC, the OT was complete and DID NOT CHANGE after that - we know this because of all the archeological evidence - manuscripts, scrolls, etc that have been unearthed - and low and behold it is the same text we have today!

Finally, some will argue that because they had the Old Testament, and we know Jesus knew it all right - that he then made sure that he was checking all the boxes to be "The Messiah".  He made it all happen for himself.  Hmmmm.....how many of us choose the place of our birth and death?  Do you think he could control the Roman guards?  There are just frankly too many "coincidences" (again) for this to be orchestrated.  Impossible!

So what does all this prophecy stuff mean for us.  

We learned from this week’s lesson  - the fact that the Bible is 30% prophecy and so far the accuracy is spot on, we have trust in this book - as the Word of God.  It is a supernatural book.  Being able to predict the future can only come from Him who knows the future - from our supernatural God - our Alpha and Omega.  

Prophecy gives us warnings and encouragement - God will make everything right - justice may seem deferred but it will never be denied.  God is already working to fulfill his purposes through Jesus - through Christ he entered the suffering of the world, bore the world’s sin, and fights against evil.  He will continue to show us His faithfulness!

God does not want us to worry about the future or try to predict it ourselves....

George MacDonald said:

No man ever sank under the burden of the day.  It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear.  Never load yourself so!  If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s.  He begs you to leave the future to him, and to mind the present.