The Glory of Watering the Sacrifice

"Work smarter, not harder." Maybe, if you're like me, you grew up hearing this regularly. It's a bit of household wisdom passed down and usually applicable in any situation. Make your life easier by thinking through the job, rather than just throwing your back into it. Why would we ever not want to follow this wise counsel?

How strange it must have seemed to Israel, then, when Elijah the prophet was preparing his sacrifice on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). If you don't know the story, Elijah is a faithful prophet of the LORD. But Israel is under the domination of ungodly leaders. The people, while giving lip service to the true God, are also worshiping Baal, a chief god of the Canaanites. Elijah decides to challenge 450 prophets of Baal to a duel: both parties will prepare a sacrifice, but not light the fire. Whichever deity sends fire to consume the sacrifice will be recognized as the true God. The unspoken penalty for whichever prophet fails is death. Elijah has a lot riding on this challenge!

Given all this, you would think that Elijah wants to make things as simple for the LORD as possible. Pick the driest wood for the fire. Pick a small, easily consumed animal. Maybe wait for a dry day. Work smarter, not harder, Elijah. But that isn't what the prophet does. 

First of all, he allows the prophets of Baal to go first. He's got a lot of confidence that Baal is NOT going to answer. In fact, Elijah lets them go all morning, until noon and even then he doesn't start! He just begins to mock the false prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 18:27) Like some arrogant boxer boasts before even setting foot in the ring, Elijah throws down the gauntlet to Baal's men.

After waiting a long time and mocking his opponents, Elijah finally gets to work. He prepares the altar, digs a trench around it, and gets the wood and sacrifice ready. Then he does something crazy. He orders his servants to get a bunch of water, four pots full, and dump it all over his preparations. The sacrifice and the wood are all drenched in water. Then he orders them to do it again and a third time. Three times Elijah has his sacrifice covered in water. I don't know if you've ever tried to start a fire with wet wood, but it's a pain. It's challenging enough just to get the stuff to catch flame, never mind make a big enough flame to consume a whole animal!

He's purposefully making God's job "harder"! Apparently his parents never taught him about working smarter instead. Elijah goes before his drenched sacrifice and wood and offers a simple prayer to the God of Israel: no showiness, no elaborate ceremonial dance, (1 Kings 18:26) no cutting himself to get God's attention (1 Kings 18:28). A simple prayer to God...and the God of heaven sends the fire to consume the sacrifice. The wet wood instantly ignites in a roaring fire. It burns up the animal sacrifice, and even vaporizes the water in the trench around the altar. Why does Elijah do it this way?

The prophet is deadset (literally) on showing the supreme power of God. If the challenge is going to be completed, he wants there to be no doubt that it was the God of Abraham who did it. God must get all the glory! In the eyes of Israel there must be no question that the LORD alone is God. And it works! The people see the miraculous power of God, fall on their faces, and worship. In a demonstration of their renewed loyalty to God alone, the 450 prophets of Baal are taken down to the brook Kidron and executed. No false gods and no phony prophets will be tolerated in Israel anymore. 

I was meditating on this story while thinking about ministry the other day. In many ways, the little ministry that God has entrusted to me has a lot of water on it. My congregation meets in a funeral home (ick!); we have a simple worship service, primarily focused on the explanation and application of the Bible (snoozer!); we don't even have acoustic guitars (yet!). We sing from a hymnal and even psalms from the Psalter (who even does that!?). There are many reasons why, from a worldly perspective, this thing just shouldn't work. Too much water!

But I delight that these things are the way they are! Lord willing, as my little congregation continues to grow, there will be no doubt that it is God doing the work. The only way this sacrifice is burning up is if the fire of God's Holy Spirit falls on it and sets us on fire for the Lord! God willing, 10 years from now, when we've seen lost sinners saved and brought to faith in Christ; when we've seen families redeemed and children discipled into mature Christian adults; when we've seen an impact made by this ministry, there will be no doubt in anyone's mind that it was God who did it. It wasn't the preacher (he's a bit of a dunce). It wasn't the programs (we didn't have any). It wasn't the building. It had to be the Lord alone. In that day my prayer is that I will see the glory that came from watering the sacrifice; not glory for me, the church, or anyone else, but glory for God the LORD, the only one who can give the fire from heaven. The only with power to consume completely all the wet sacrifices we bring Him.

Speaking, Not Striking

Ever felt like you've totally lost control of a situation? I know I have! The reality is that we aren't ever really in control of anything that happens, but we like to act and think as if we were. Moses was put in one such situation in Numbers 20. The people of Israel have been going through the wilderness, complaining pretty much the whole journey, and they end up in a place called Kadesh. Kadesh made for great camping, except that it didn't have any water! Numbers 20:2 says, "Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, 'If only we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!" When the people complain, Moses and Aaron initially act wisely: they go to the Lord. V.6 says, "So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them." 

The best response to a crisis is always to first turn to the Lord! And God appears to Moses and Aaron in His glory. He gives them the answer to the people's needs: "Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water." God has an answer ready for the people's need: they will receive water from the most unlikely place. The rock at Kadesh will be split open and pour out enough water to satisfy the millions of Israel and their animals! But Moses is only going to speak to the rock. Just as he laid hold on God's presence by simply seeking God in prayer, so he will receive God's provision by simply speaking to the rock. It is God's power, not his own, that will split the rock and provide for the people.

But Moses is frustrated! He has had enough of the Israelites and their accusations against him. So instead of approaching the situation as God directed him, Moses gathers the people and says, "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod". Moses' good start in going to God in prayer is now ruined by his angry attitude toward the people. He not only gets angry at these "rebels", but he sinfully puts himself in God's place. Notice how he asked, "Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" GOD is the one who provides the water, not Moses or Aaron. On top of that, Moses expresses his self-glorifying attitude by striking the rock (twice!) instead of speaking to it, as God had commanded. 

When we're thrown into those out-of-control situations, our sinful instinct is to always try to fix the problem ourselves. We see that we aren't as "in charge" as we imagined and we want to reclaim our imagined sense of control. Instead of looking to God to split the rocks for us, we speak of bringing water out ourselves. Instead of speaking to the rock, we strike hard in our own strength. 

When Jesus was teaching about not being anxious and trusting God instead He said these words, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matt 7:7) God knows everything that you need, Christian, and He has promised to provide for everything you need. The water is going to pour out of the rock! But receive the water by asking, not demanding. Don't strike the Rock, but speak to Him. He will answer the one who asks Him in faith. 

Does God Want Our Creativity?

Does God want us to be creative in worship? That's the question I've been wrestling with after overhearing an interesting conversation at the coffee shop the other day. Two young women were catching up and sharing about their Christian lives. One began to discuss her involvement in a local megachurch. She was enthusiastically sharing about her artistic pursuits and delighted with how this megachurch had allowed her to grow, expressing her artistic creativity through the outlet of worship.

My study of the Shorter Catechism the last couple weeks has been on the 2nd commandment, so worship was already on my mind. One of the things the catechism writers saw in the 2nd commandment is what we call the Regulative Principle of Worship: the truth that God establishes in His word how we are to worship Him, and we are forbidden from worshipping Him in any ways He has not commanded. 

To many evangelicals today that idea seems very restricting. It feels almost like a straitjacket on our ability to be "authentic". How am I supposed to really worship God if I'm just doing all the things God said to do, and not doing the things He didn't say to do? Where's the outlet for creativity? 

All of this drove me back to God's word, and in particular one of the most interesting places in the Old Testament: Exodus. In the book of Exodus, when you get to the Mount Sinai sections, God gives His people His law through Moses. The law encompasses all sorts of different things, but one thing it deals with is worship. Much of the last portions of Exodus are all about the tabernacle: how it is to be constructed and how worship is to take place within it. At the end of Exodus 35, God gives instruction on who will oversee the tabernacle construction:

30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, 32 to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.

34 “And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works.

There are Isrealites whom God has specifically gifted, filling them with the Holy Spirit, to make all types of workmanship. These are God's artists, equipped with skill to create beauty which glorifies God. If there was ever a group of people we would want to let run wild with artistic license, it would be these guys! But God doesn't seem inclined to do that. Instead, the very next chapter starts off like this, "And Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whom the LORD has put wisdom and understanding, to know how to do all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, shall do according to all that the LORD has commanded."

In other words, the creativity of these artists isn't expressed like most children play with Legos: "Here's all the pieces, let's see what you come up with!" Rather than that, it's more like putting together models, with detailed instructions telling the creator exactly what to do with all these pieces. 

I think to many in the modern evangelical world, this sounds like God is stifling the creativity of these artisans! They are to paint, but it's a paint-by-numbers kit God has given them. Where's the excitement in that? There are many areas of life that God leaves us to discover, working by the general principles of His word. But when it comes to worship, the stakes are far too high. To come before a holy, holy, holy God in our own fashion or preference always ends in disaster for the worshiper. 

Think of it using the analogy of the fire and a fireplace. There are two ways for that setup to go wrong: you can have a well-constructed fireplace, but a poor fire, barely smoldering. This is sadly where I think many Reformed congregations find themselves. But the other way this can go wrong is to have an inferno of fire, but uncontrolled by the fireplace. The fire's burning great, it's also burning the house down! I sincerely believe this is where most modern evangelicals fall off: all passion, no direction; good intentions, heartfelt expression, but not focused and regulated by God's own word. 

The best thing is always to do what God says. Simple obedience to what He has told us to do is ALWAYS better than the most elaborate, beautiful service we come up with apart from His command. "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." (1 Samuel 15:22)

So, if we circled back to our original question, "Does God want us to be creative in worship?" I think the answer is a resounding yes! But God wants our creativity to be honed in and focused by the boundaries of His word. If our creativity and passion in worship is like that fire, God wants it red hot! But He wants the fire in the fireplace of His commands. That is why I love the regulative principle! It enables us to burn hot in praise and zeal and to know that our fire is actually accomplishing what we want: the sincere worship and glorifying of our great God!

Let the Little Ones Go!

 It's one of those moments they never train you for in seminary: you're preaching hard, really getting into the text, flourishing the sword of God's word with all your pastoral might!...and then little Johnny decides it's time to start competing with you using all the noises he can muster, great and small. Heads start turning. Focus is lost. You quickly try to regain control of the congregation's attention, but it takes a few moments for everyone to reset. We wait for mom to take Johnny out of the service until he can learn to stop making any noise. After all, the church service, above everything else, should be calm, clean, and serene. Right?

It is this attitude that leads many churches to shuffle the children out of worship for some time in the service, usually during the sermon, if not the entire time. On some level, I think we all get it. Moms and dads need breaks. Kids are going to struggle to just sit still through the service, never mind actually understanding the points of the sermon! Surely it's just better for everyone if junior goes somewhere where a trained teacher can give him something more digestible. And mom and dad can not only catch a break, but actually pay attention to the service and benefit from the preaching.

Let me be clear that I am not universally opposed to these practices. Some churches do them very well, in a way where children at a young age are being trained to participate ASAP in the worship service from start to finish. Many churches just do this for the youngest children in their midst and keep youth in the service as much as possible. All this can be God-honoring and it is not my desire to throw shade at anyone else's practice. 

It was in my Bible reading today that I was especially struck by this issue. Specifically, I am reading through the Old Testament this year and am in the first half of Exodus. As Moses and Aaron are interacting with the Pharaoh this exchange occurs: 

"So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, 'Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?' And Moses said, 'We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.' Then he said to them, 'The LORD had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go! Beware, for evil is ahead of you. Not so! God now, you who are men, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desired.'" (Exodus 10:8-10)

Moses is adamant that Israel must go and worship the Lord God away from the Egyptians. And when asked specifically about who would go to this feast of Yahweh, he says, "Everyone! Young and old, sons and daughters." He even says that all these must go, "for we must hold a feast to the LORD." A feast to God, with sacrifices offered in worship and then shared in the celebration meal, must have everyone involved. It's not enough that the men of Israel be free to go, the little ones must come, too! 

Every congregation must decide for itself how it's going to approach the inclusion of children. I am not going to sit here and say that the issue is 100% black-and-white. I don't know where we got the impression that church was supposed to be a silent, serene affair; I don't see it in the Bible! But I can say honestly that those moments like I described at the start, those little voices bursting out in the service, give me a lot of joy as a preacher. Little voices remind us that worship is a feast to the LORD! And whoever heard of a silent feast? 

Does junior understand everything in the sermon? Of course not. But if he doesn't understand anything, I would say the answer is for us to be better preachers, not to send him packing! I'm reminded of a quote from Martin Luther that I'll paraphrase, in which he described how he aimed his preaching at the little ones in his church, not the doctors and professors. If he aimed at the children, the old men would get something, too. And if the doctors and professors believed such preaching wasn't sophisticated enough, he'd point them to the door!

God told Pharaoh, "Let My people go." Not just the men. Not just the adults. All the people. So let the little ones go, too! Or, as Jesus put it so well, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14)

A Renewed Call to Thanksgiving

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. 
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever.

Who remembered us in our lowly state, for His mercy endures forever.
And rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever.
Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever.

Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever. (Psalm 136:1-3, 23-26)

If you're like me, 2020 has been a crazy year, filled with lots of reasons to be unhappy and bitter. But that spirit comes from forgetting what is most important, which, despite what every Hallmark movie has told you, is not family, community, or small-town living. The most important things to remember, and the reason I will be giving thanks this year with vigor, is because God has not changed. He is still more than worth thanking and praising! That's the lesson we see in Psalm 136. 

Psalm 136 is one of those psalms that totally upends any complaints about the repetitive nature of contemporary worship songs. It is a 26-verse psalm with each verse consisting of two lines. The first line is different, but the second line is the same repetition in each verse: "For His mercy endures forever." It is a psalm that calls on Israel, God's people, to give thanks to God for His greatness. God is praised for His creation (v.4-9), for delivering Israel from her enemies (v.10-22), and for raising her out of a low estate (v.23-26). An overview of God's great works is rehashed and all Israel is meant to respond with gratitude. But the most important that Israel must remember, and the chief reason for them to give thanks to the Lord, is that His mercy endures forever. His steadfast, covenant love, in fulfillment of all His covenant promises, remains the same. 

This is good news for the end of our 2020, friends! God's love for His people has not diminished, changed, or wavered. His mercy still endures and will endure forever. Our Creator is also our Redeemer and Friend. He has saved us, He is saving us, and He will save us. Whether you and your family are able to gather this year, or not; whether your holiday traditions are all kept up, or not; whatever the situation, this one thing remains constant: God is good and His mercy endures forever. Give Him thanks in all things and enjoy the blessings and the trials that He has sent you this year!

+ Blessings in Christ +

A Call to Lament for These United States

4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

5 And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, 6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; 9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ 10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. (Nehemiah 1:4-10)

Our nation is in a time of great turmoil. A buildup of racial tension, fueled by several murders of black individuals, culminated in the unjustified killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Over the last week or two, the justifiable outrage over such a travesty of justice has increasingly given way to rioting, looting, violence, and anarchy in the streets of major American cities. Just this morning I read a story about 77 year old David Dorn. Dorn was a retired police officer in St. Louis who was murdered while trying to help defend a pawn shop from looters. He was also a black man. Apparently, if you get in the way of the bloodthirsty mob, your black life doesn't matter anymore. 

A seemingly infinite number of voices have come forward with all sorts of declarations: solutions to problems, demands for recompense, even working toward the tear down and restructuring of our entire society. This post is not an attempt to add to the clamor. Somehow, as it seems to always be these days, everything comes back to politics. I don't think it's any coincidence that all these things come mere months before another election cycle. I think one of the best things Christians can do in a time like this is to be slow to proclaim solutions. As one fellow ARP pastor has recently put it, we need to relearn the process of lamenting.

That's what we see in Nehemiah's case. Nehemiah is in exile and receives a report from home: the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and the gates are burned with fire. In other words, the report ain't good! Everything seems to have fallen apart, perhaps even irreparably. But Nehemiah's first response is not to proclaim a solution. He does not suddenly become a self-proclaimed expert on how to restore the city. The first thing Nehemiah does is to sit down, weep, and mourn with repentance for many days. 

Notice the progression of Nehemiah's prayer: first, he begins by remembering who God is, "You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments." If we do not know who God is, and receive Him by faith, we will never truly understand the world around us. We won't even understand ourselves. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)

Second, Nehemiah confesses sins; both his sins and the sins of his people: "and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned." 

In the midst of our current crisis, there has been discussion of injustice, wickedness, evil, perhaps even some have used the dreaded word, "sin." There are two things we need to remember about this: there is such a thing as societal sin; a people can be guilty of wickedness, even if not every particular individual has committed that sin. This is true about our nation with the guilt of abortion, pornography, and a host of other heinous sins. It may equally be true of something like racial pride or malice. Even though our hands may individually be clean, our nation's hands may be bloody with sins. 

However, it is equally important to remember that God defines sin. Sin is the failure to live up to, or the transgression of, God's commandments. Sin is not whatever happens to upset the Zany Zeitgeist, the Sensitive Socialists, or the Craven Commies in our midst. Just because someone gets very mad about something does not mean that that "something" actually makes God mad. Nehemiah defines his sin as "not keeping the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses." 

Is God angry over the unjust killing of a helpless, restrained man already in police custody? Absolutely. Without question. It was an egregious injustice and requires punishment for the offendor(s) (which, biblically, would be the death penalty). God is also mad about our pornography addictions. He's mad about our Sabbath-breaking. He's mad about our idolatry and our rejection of Jesus Christ as Lord. He's mad about the millions of babies we've butchered in the womb. He's mad about our horrendous treatment of our elderly. He's mad about George Floyd's killing. And He's equally mad about the killing of David Dorn. If you cannot give an amen to that, you aren't really concerned with God's justice, you just want your own way in the world. If we are going to deal with our societal sins, let's deal with them, according to God's true commandment and in God's ordained fashion of dealing with sin. Let's deal with them the way Nehemiah did: with true repentance from true sin, as defined by the true God.

And let us also look to a true hope for the future. Nehemiah looks to God with hope, reminding God of His own word, "but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name." There is always hope for the future, as long as Jesus is still on the throne. There is hope for greater racial reconciliation in this country, but only if we pursue it based on the finished work of the cross. The cross of Jesus has already broken down the middle wall of separation, reconciling us to God and putting the enmity to death (Ephesians 2:14-18). The only thing that remains for us is to live like that were true, by faith and obedience in Jesus Christ.

And so, reader, follow Nehemiah's example: remember who God is, for the first time or the hundredth; search your own heart for sin, confess it to God, and turn away from it to Jesus; and pray in hope of the glory of God. Perhaps our societal turmoil and trouble is only the birth pangs of a great revival of love, righteousness, and worship in our land. But it only comes as we seek it from Jesus Christ, the only King of kings and Lord of lords. May He be pleased to send repentance and revival to the shores of these United States again.

The Place of Doubt in the Christian Life

"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" I strongly believe these words are some of the most profound words ever uttered, not only in Scripture, but in all human history. So much is contained in this simple confession of faith and doubt. So much of the struggle of the human soul is revealed in these six simple words. In Mark 9 Jesus encounters a father who has a demon-possessed son. The demon possessing this man's child has been plaguing him since his childhood, maybe even since he was born. The father has watched for years as his son, under violent assault from a power outside of his control, has thrown himself into fire and water. For years, this unwelcome enemy has been attempting to destroy his son, and the father has never been able to protect his boy in the way all good fathers do.

But one day, in the midst of this terrible darkness, a glimmer of hope beams in. The father hears about a wandering teacher named Jesus, who apparently has demonstrated power to cast out demons and even heal people like his son. The father brings the boy to Jesus' disciples, a last ditch effort to try and procure healing for his tormented child. But the disciples cannot cast the demon out. What a sinking moment! All those years of despair and helplessness, interrupted by what appeared to be a ray of hope, but his son's demon is simply too powerful to be defeated, even for these trusted devotees of Jesus.

Is it any wonder that in Mark 9:22 the father seems to doubt Jesus, "But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." If You can do anything, Jesus. If you can help me, please do it. Otherwise, just leave me in the darkness of my despair and fatherly failure. Jesus' response seems almost callous in the face of all these things: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." The father had an "if": if you can do anything. Jesus also has an "if": if you can believe.

It's here that the rubber meets the road in our thinking on faith and doubt. Jesus tells this man, essentially, "If you have faith, all things are possible." If you have faith, your son will be healed. Sounds almost like Jesus has gone into the Word of Faith camp! Is Jesus saying here that if a person has faith, they can have anything they want? And, on the contrary, if they don't get their prayers answered, they did not have enough faith?

The father's response is telling: "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Lord, I have faith; help my doubt! There are three things that we see in this father's words that help us think through our faith and doubt as Christians.

First, notice how the father addresses Jesus: "Lord". This is the essence of faith: the confession that Jesus is Lord (Phil 2:11). The father has faith in Jesus as Lord, even though his faith may be nothing more than a mustard seed.

Second, notice how the father's faith is mingled with doubt. He does not simply say, "Lord, I believe you perfectly." Far from it! Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! He has true faith that Jesus is Lord and can do something to help heal his son. But that true faith is small and surrounded by a sea of doubts. Anyone who would tell you that being a Christian means not having doubts is either deceived or a liar. Any televangelist or faith healer who says that you need perfect faith, or doubtless faith in order to receive good things from the Lord never read this part of their Bible.

Do you and I not struggle, Christian? Do we not have doubts about God's promises or the trustworthiness of His word? Can you say with no deceit that you don't wrestle with God in any of these ways? If so, I envy you! But for most of us, doubts are a common companion. We read of stupendous miracles in God's word and we hear the serpent's whisper again, "Did that really happen?" "Can I really believe that?" We struggle with it! And true faith can and does exist in the midst of those doubts and questions.

But notice the third and final thing from this father's plea: his doubts are not a welcome companion. He cries out, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" The Greek word for help boethei is the same word used when he asked Jesus to "have compassion on us and help us." He asked for Jesus' help in ridding his son of the demon, and he asks for Jesus' help in overcoming his doubts. This father has doubts, but he does not do what so many modern evangellybean Christians do by making his doubts a perverse source of pride; as if true spirituality was achieved by doubting God more than believing Him. Doubts are a present reality for the believer, but they are an unwelcome one. The Bible condemns unbelief as a sin. Although we remain wrestling with sin in this life, all sins, including doubt, are things to be overcome by faith.

We are not told anything about the father after Jesus casts out the demon. We imagine, however, that the experience strengthened his new faith in Christ and further established his trust in God's promises. This is one thing that separates biblical faith in God's promises from the prosperity gospel teaching. The prosperity gospel generally tells you that doubts are something to be overcome so that you can receive God's promises, having spoken them into your life by the "word of faith". But true bible religion teaches that our doubts are to be overcome as we receive God's promises, receiving them totally by faith through God's undeserved mercy.

In short: true faith is often surrounded by doubt, even for the Christian. But God's promises remain sure and true. Our doubts are unwelcome burdens to be overcome, not by closing our eyes tighter and praying harder, but by simply receiving God's gracious promises through faith, even if that faith is no bigger than the mustard seed.