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You will understand that God is all you need when God is all you have.

In Jeremiah 42, the people left behind after Babylon took most of Judah captive come to Jeremiah seeking God’s will. They had just been betrayed and their leader assassinated, and many of them wanted to go to Egypt to seek safety. But before they left, they asked Jeremiah to find out God’s will for the choice they had to make. They went so far as to give their word they would obey God’s will, whether is be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee…” (verse 6).

To those who remained in the land, Jerusalem and Israel was the least safe place that they could possibly live at this point: no leader, enemies on every side, a city that was totally defenseless, their family and friends carried away into captivity. Yet Jeremiah returned to them with an unusual answer, “Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him; If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon… for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand” (vv. 9-11). Contrary to what made sense and seemed rational, God said they needed to stay in the land.

Faith often requires us to do that which makes little or no sense from our perspective. The children of Israel must have felt ridiculous while marching silently around the city of Jericho for six days, but when God tore down the walls on day 7, they saw that God always knows what He’s doing. Peter probably regretted saying he wanted to step into the water with Jesus when it came to actually getting out of the boat, but he was the only disciple that got to see how looking unto Jesus makes the impossible happen. No doubt people mocked Elijah for three times pouring water onto a sacrifice that was supposed to burned, but when the LORD brought down fire and consumed that sacrifice, no one was laughing or mocking anymore. In our passage of Scripture, the people thought it suicide to stay in Judah, but God gave them a clear commandment along with a sure promise. You see, where God guides, He provides; and He promised the remnant that if they stayed where He wanted them, He would not only protect them, but bless them incredibly!

But the people already had their minds made up. If you’ve read the previous blog post, they already had their minds made up about what they would do. They were basically trying to get God to conform to their will instead of being willing to conform to God’s will.

So often, we try to force Almighty, infinite God into this tiny box o what we think His will should be. Often these are not bad things, they just aren’t God’s perfect will. Settling for anything other than God’s will (no matter how good it may be), is simple rebellion. I’m afraid that many of us will never see God do amazing things simply because we are, like the people of Jerusalem, unwilling to put ourselves in a position of total dependency upon the Lord. Faith is a scary word to many because it implies a giving over of control. But Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” God rewards faith. He will not ruin the life of any individual that humbly lays down his or her life before Him and says, “This is 100% yours.” Don’t withhold anything in your life from God. He didn’t withhold even His only Son from us. When you finally decide to make yourself wholly reliant on the Great I AM, He will show you a life more incredible and full than any you could have imagined for yourself, but you must first surrender all.

God’s desire is that every single person come to know Him personally as their Savior, and be spared from judgment in Hell (2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”). God’s desire is not to send anyone to Hell, and in fact He does not send anyone there.  John 3:18 says that anyone that does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation “is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

God gave us a free will so that we could love Him (no free-will = no love), and after the fall of man (Genesis 3) from his original innocence, it became necessary to make a way back for the lost race of man. God knew that there was absolutely no way that sinful men could ever earn His favor through “good deeds” of any shape or size (Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”). That is why Isaiah 64:6 describes all the good things that we could ever do as “filthy rags,” like the ones that lepers used to wipe their disgusting skin. No, any kind of work would be insufficient for God to grant a man, woman, or child pardon from sin; so Jesus Christ had to die on a cross for the sins of all humanity, giving every person that has ever lived — you see, this death was predicted way back in the Garden of Eden, right after the fall of man (Genesis 3:15) — the opportunity to believe on this Savior, and trust His sacrifice alone. Salvation has always been, and will always be, “by grace… through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

Now, when an individual accepts Christ by putting faith in Him alone, he is transformed into a whole new individual (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is such an exciting and miraculous transformation that no one could ever give God enough praise for that moment of new birth. But sometimes an interesting phenomenon takes place after a person accepts Christ as Savior — a phenomenon that has become all too common in 21st century churches. A believer, who has done nothing to earn or keep his salvation, may begin to live the Christian life as if the only part God plays in a person’s life is to save them from Hell. This person starts to worry and fret and struggle underneath a burden that God never intended for anyone to carry. He sees very little victory in his life despite how hard he has tried to quit the bad habits and start the right ones. That beer can still binds him, and the little circular tin in his back pocket still dictates part of his life. He sees temporary victory now and then, but eventually sinks back into the bad and out of the good.

However, the Bible still says “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How can someone who has been transformed into a whole new creature and has the promises of victory in Jesus to claim still wallow in the works of the old nature? Many of us have faced this same heartbreaking and agonizing cycle at some point in life and wondered if there was even a way out at all. Thankfully, John chapter fifteen gives us a solution that will always work. In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples:

“I am the true, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5)

Jesus begins with the illustration of a vine, which would have been very common to the geography of Israel at the time. Grape vineyards were all over the place in 1st-century Palestine. If you’ve never seen a grape vine, they almost look like little trees. Essentially when Jesus said He was the True Vine, He was saying that He was the trunk of the tree: the important and central part of the plant. Christ immediately informs us that He is, in fact, the important and central figure in the universe. He is God after all, and deserves all the glory and honor and praise of God. He then explains that as He is the vine, we as believers are the branches.

The truth that He draws from this illustration is so incredibly important for us to understand. A branch draws all of its nutrients and strength from what the trunk or vine gives it. It’s just like your arms and legs. They get blood from the heart and signals from the brain. A branch all by itself is about as useful and full of life as an arm with no body. The only way for a branch to exist and for it to be a healthy, fruit-producing member of the plant, is for its connection to the vine to be strong and healthy.

The Christian life is intended to be lived exactly the same way. You and I are just chunks of dirt: sinners saved by the grace of God. On our own, before salvation and after, we are just as useful and vibrant as a branch broken from its vine. Salvation doesn’t make you any more able to please the Lord with your self-produced effort. God does, however, intend for us to work for Him and produce fruit (such as the fruits of the Spirit and the fruit of seeing others trust the Savior); but He has a plan for just how that is supposed to happen. The secret to a victorious, abundant, and productive Christian life is found in the success of a branch. As long as you make sure that your connection to the True Vine, Jesus Christ, is healthy and strong, He will take care of the rest.

What this means is that you as Christian have to develop your relationship with God for yourself. Borrowed spirituality is killing our churches. God doesn’t want you to try to ride the coattails of anybody else, and He is not interested in what you can work up within yourself. What God is interested in is someone who is willing to get thoroughly and genuinely right with Him, someone who has that craving and thirsting for Him like David did (Psalm 61), and someone that is actively seeking and relying on Him. Yes, it will take sacrifice as you give up adequate time to get to know your God through Bible reading, study, memorization, and meditation and through prayer; but if the Lord of Heaven really did save you from eternal damnation in Hell and gave you a relationship with Him as well as an eternal home in Heaven, don’t you think that He is worth seeking with your whole being? The word “abide” means to dwell or remain. What we need today is some Christians who are willing to get with God and stay there.

Remember, this isn’t an option to successful Christianity. It is the only way to successful Christianity. Jesus leaves us with the same heavy and serious reminder that I will leave you with. Your life cannot please God unless you walk in the same faith that saved you. You cannot do anything for God unless you abide in Him. “…for without me ye can do nothing.”

“My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother” – Proverbs 6:20

“Keep” in the Old Testament often means to guard, protect, or preserve. When you “keep” God’s Word, you are guarding it, or protecting it. But what does that mean exactly?

Consider this word picture:

In the Middle Ages, particularly the 10th through the 12th centuries, castles became very important places in warfare. They were designed to be impregnable fortresses against any attack. There were many elaborate designs of castles. They all included some basic elements though. The first line of defense was the outer wall, which was several feet thick (sometime more than 20 feet). There were tall towers along the walls and at the corners, through which archers would attack the enemy. There was often a large moat and elaborate drawbridge. The gates, which were the weakest part of the who complex, were modified with many defenses and traps in order to compensate. There were often several series of inner walls, all with their own towers and gates. A castle was a very difficult place to besiege successfully.

The central part of castle, the innermost structure, is known as the keep. It was essentially the absolute last line of defense, should the enemy break through the other series of walls. These keeps were sometimes nothing more than a hall surrounded by very strong walls. With the developement of battering rams, keeps went from a box-like construction to a cirucular one, as curved walls are harder to break through with a battering ram. Such keeps were also not just used for defence but for actual living accommodation for the royal family, storing armoury and often to guard the main well.

Our heart, then, is the keep of our souls. It is the central, the innermost part of our being. “Keep thy heart with all dilligence, for out of it are the issues of life“ (Proverbs 4:23). It is where you are truly yourself. It is where you store those things that are precious to your memory. Your heart can either be your last and best line of defence, or your weak link. It all depends on what you put in your keep. If you “keep” God’s Word in your heart, if you defend it and protect it inside your heart, God can defend your heart and life from all evil.

So what are you keeping and protecting God’s Word from in your heart? From it slipping from you memory, from it being disobeyed and neglected. You must protect it from the apathy and sinfulness of your flesh, which wars against you every day. When your outer walls are breached, and even your inner walls of spiritual protection crumble, if God’s Word is in the keep of your heart, you have a Sword which cannot be stopped. You have the very power of God to fight for you. Scripture memory and mediation are not just cool ideas that we’ve just recently come up with. They are commandments from God Almighty (look it up if you don’t believe me). More than that, they are powerful tools, weapons, and guides. A Christian who is intimately familiar with his Bible is a force to be reckoned with. The Word of God is your final, and yet your first, line of defense.