Listen to this: Last night at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference God prompted me to worship and pray. When I arrived here three days ago I was told there was a special 24/7 prayer room here somewhere. I asked a conference coordinator where it was. She was speechless for a few moments.

She said that she honestly did not know where the prayer room was. Then she said that in her six years of working at this annual conference, this was the first time anyone asked about the prayer room. What she meant was that few if anyone she knew of went there.

Another coordinator knew the room was just up the stairs over where we stood. I went up and had it to myself.

Remember saints, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, in spirit and in truth. From heaven God will hear your prayers and give you the knowledge of His perfect will after He is satisfied with the glory due His Name.

I am attending the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference this week. God has blessed so much. Just to get here He gave me a full-ride scholarship. This morning I met the man who provides the scholarship, author Cecil Murphey. This afternoon I had my first agent meeting. Terry Burns of the Hartline Agency wants a book proposal for my "Christian Mythology" manuscript.

I cut and pasted each post on worship into a single new chapter which will introduce my manuscript Christian Mythology. Now I am editing it in anticipation of elevator speeches in two weeks at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference.

OK So It's Been a While

Up until today, I wrote when God wanted me to write. Yesterday He changed direction.

My wife and I are parents of a son with Asperger's Syndrome. We like to kid one another about where he got it from. The truth is, he probably got it from both of us. We have read a lot of studies which suggest that male and female "Aspys" tend towards one another for marital relationships. As social skills (or lack thereof) tend to be our biggest issue, this only seems natural that we would only be comfortable around someone else of our own kind. (We are not entirely convinced of this as a fact however since we see our son and the other Aspergers kids clash quite a bit.) But anyway, I am convinced that my wife and I are the progenitors.

One of my symptoms is an intense fear of the editing process in general and certain types of editors specifically. Since not too many people understand me, finding the right editor can be very difficult. Needless to say, I do not go out of my way to find them. This unfortunately leaves one other side effect. I have a lot of manuscripts sitting around in that great first draft form.

Two weeks from now I will attend my second ever writer's conference. This time, I won a scholarship, full-paid admission, room and board to the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference in Estes Park, CO. The entry requirement was for me to write an essay about why I should receive this scholarship, what I wanted to get out of this conference, and what God wanted me to say with my writing.

I wrote about the same subject that is on this blog, the same subject that fills three of my current manuscripts. Awake unto righteousness and sin not. The conference leader/scholarship judge is of the same heart and thus sent me notice of my acceptance.

That left me in a bit of a quandry because now I felt like I had to do something more with those manuscripts.

In the meantime, God was working on my life in a seemingly different area. Waking up is hard work. Discipleship is hard work. Living the holy life is hard work. These things are all the Christian's personal responsibility under the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Two days ago as I was pondering all this, God drew the parallel. God did all the work in saving me by grace. I do all the hard work of working out my salvation. God did all the work in giving me my writing as it first appeared. But editing is hard work and He clearly pointed out to me that it is my responsibility!

Well I wasted no time in getting right to it and spent the flight home yesterday editing the Introduction and Chapter One of the first manuscript "Christian Mythology". God wants me to get it "sale-ready" for this conference where I will meet with agents, editors, and publishers.

Pray this job gets done. Pray that there will be one like-minded agent/editor/publisher there that I will meet and agree with to advance these works to publication. I believe that God wants to quicken His saints to worship, discipleship, witnessing, and holy truth.

What's Fun About That?

As God led me to salvation, one big question I had was, "What's so fun about being a Christian? What do you guys do for fun?" Reggie and Jeff (the guys who witnessed to me) always had the same answer, "Bible study and prayer!" Needless to say, that answer was not convincing.

But today I say without hesitation that they were right. I'll rephrase it though so perhaps the meaning will have more impact. "Spending time with Jesus reading His Word and talking and listening to Him bring me great joy."

It is a joy incomparable. Often words cannot describe it. I try to tell people and just get tongue-tied with glee. Sometimes I think it is like the moments Paul spoke of in II Corinthians 12:2-5, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities."

I believe this is the glory we share with Jesus as He prayed for us in John 17:22-24, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

I pray you desire to spend time in heaven with Jesus to experience this joy. It is for His glory, not your experience. This is a truth for believers, not sinners. This is not the gospel. It is just a wonderful gift of God.

The Fear of the LORD

Did you know:

Today we must learn to fear the LORD - "...the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children." (Deuteronomy 4:10)

Praise God the day will come when He will put his fear into our hearts forever - "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." (Jeremiah 32:40)

My only question is, does this also apply to the saints? For these were written specifically to Israel. I can find no such reference pertinent to the saints.

Whose Faith is it Anyway?

Having fully explored the way of worship, I am moving on to the facets of faith. God says we are to enter worship boldly. We can only do this in holiness. If there is sin present in our lives, we must deal with that first. We can also do that boldly and presently. But how do we maintain the holy life? What are we responsible for, if anything? And what is God's part in all this?

The just shall live by faith. Let's pick Romans 1:16-17 as the text for this for it describes the beginning of our faith.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

The question is, whose faith or what kind of faith shall we live by? God answers that in Galatians 2:20:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Notice that little word "of" next to "faith". Too often translators and Christians erroneously substitute "in" for "of" here. If it truly were "faith 'in' the Son of God" then it would be a works salvation. It puts the requirement of belief as a condition of salvation upon the sinner. But this is simply not possible. After all, before salvation, the sinner is dead already in God's sight (John 3:17-18). And upon salvation, the newborn Christian is now dead to sin in Christ. As I have said many times before in this blog, a dead man can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Jesus affirms this in John 15:5.

Therefore it is the faith "of" the Son of God which saves. Only He is worthy and able to save us from our sin. It was His faith without measure as the Son of Man that is able to believe that His Atonement would satisfy His Father.

And yet there is another facet to the statement that the just shall live by faith. We alone are responsible to maintain the holy life by faith, our personal faith. This faith is "in" the Son of God, that His Atonement is sufficient for salvation, justification, righteousness, and holiness. This faith we must exercise when sin arises in our lives and we must take personal responsibility to do the following:

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." - Proverbs 28:13

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - I John 1:9

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:11

"But 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." - Hebrews 11:6

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" - I John 5:2-5

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

Finally, I want to share with you a beautiful exposition of the demonstration of personal faith. I heard this in a sermon last week while visiting a church in Japan. It is based on Hebrews 11:13, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

The things that God promises He will do require faith on our part to believe that He will indeed do them. Look at the action words in that verse which demonstrate that kind of faith - seen them, persuaded of them, and embraced them. It is that last phrase which God deeply impressed upon me as I was wavering about the desired salvation of a Japanese friend.

God wants us to embrace His promises. To embrace a promise in faith means (in the Greek) to literally hug it closely and tightly like a hug whether for dear life or a hug for a dear loved one. It is full of affection, emotion, desire, focused attention, and virtue. (Virtue is that very first thing we add to our faith - II Peter 1:5)

This is new to me but altogether precious. What great power flowed through that faith and prayer. I knew right then that my prayer for my friend was right from the throne of God, full of grace, and right from His heart, that none, even this one, should perish, but come to salvation. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16 It was the most powerful hug I have ever felt. It is this kind of faith, I believe, which is represented by Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." That hug was God's tangible substance and evidence that He will do the thing purposed in His heart.