Paul loved the Thessalonian believers, and was deeply concerned about their faith in God. Listen to how the ESV expresses his worry when it came to their faith:

“For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.” 1 Thessalonians 3:5

[Page 2]: Let me ask you a pretty simple question today:

Has the tempter been working on you to nullify your faith? So many Christians fall by the wayside because of sin and temptation. So many get wayward in their walk with God because they allow sin to fester, unhindered, in their lives. Are you one of those Christians? Has the enemy won back ground in your life?

Today I want to challenge you to search the recesses of your heart for unconfessed sin. I want to ask you to stay strong in your faith, by being thorough in your pursuit of forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 promises that if we confess, God will forgive. The Thessalonian believers were fending off the tempter, and I’m sure were claiming 1 John 1:9 frequently, as they did.

[Page 3]: What about you? Are you living a forgiven life? Are you staying in the right place with God, fending off the tempter, by seeking forgiveness of your sin? Don’t let the tempter win, stay strong in your faith!

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in HIm, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

Lets focus on the three things Paul says should be a part of our “living in Christ” in these two verses.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through the Spirit in your inner being…” — Ephesians 3:16

We have some friends who recently adopted a little boy. After the adoption was final, the mom shared with the church this interesting truth: “Adoption is the only legal procedure that cannot be reversed or undone.” You can reverse a business contract. You can choose to undo your marriage license through divorce. You cannot undo adoption.

3 John is a one-chapter book with just 14 verses but it’s packed with an awesome comparison of the lives of two different men. One, lives the truth of the Gospel out in love; the other lives for himself. Let’s read about these two men and as you do keep asking yourself the question: “Which of these men am I most like?”

Don’t ask, “Which of these men do I wish I was more like” or “Which of these men would I most like to be like,” but look hard and fast at the daily actions of your life. Your daily actions will reveal whether you are more like Gaius or Diotrophes.

At the end of the day, the will of God as it applies to you me, rests in simple obedience. When we know what God wants for our lives, we must obey, doing what He has commanded, following where He has led.

This is the part five of our series on knowing the will of God. Beginning with clear principles about purity, joy, prayer and thankfulness, we’ve come to understand that knowing and obeying God’s will is part of our identity as God’s children, and part of our worship as true believers. As our minds and lives are transformed by the work of God’s Word and Spirit, our understanding of God’s will is sharpened so that we can know and obey His will.

Do Good

As a young man in Bible college, I remember being struck by the idea that God wanted me to love Him and serve Him out of this deeply devoted response to His goodness in my life. In other words, I was just supposed to serve Him without the need to be motivated by anything but Him. I thought mature Christians just didn’t need any external help.

Faith and Love

God wants each of us to express our faith in Him through our love for others. Remember, when Jesus was asked, “What is the most important commandment?” He replied, “Love God…love others.” Saving faith in God should always express itself in love to others.

The Power of the Word

As you spend some time today in God’s Word, listen for Him speaking directly to you.

Before you go to the next page take time to pause and pray. Ask God to meet you during this time. 

God is with you!

Anything?

Living here in the Pacific NW, I’ve grown up loving the mountains. Almost everyone here loves the mountains, from Mt. Hood near Portland, to Mt. Rainier near Seattle, to the mini-mountains of the coastal mountain range to the multi-peaked Cascade Mountain Range — we love seeing our giant mounds of dirt and rock!

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because those who come to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him — Hebrews 11:6.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24).

Mark 2

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 

Jesus’ message drew people to Him. There were people at this gathering that loved Jesus, people that wanted to see a miracle and people that would be shouting to crucify Him in due time. Why do you gather at church, in your home, at school, at work? Is it to hear from Jesus? Is it to fulfill a duty? 

Let’s be more specific. Why are you hear right now reading this? Is it to hear from God? Is it to check this off your list? Our prayer is that this is a place where you can meet with God and not be distracted by all the things of this world.

Have you ever witnessed to some one and tried to share the Gospel only to have them reject the message? Maybe not just once or twice, but several times? I certainly have and it’s actually one of the main reasons Christians don’t share their faith at all — the fear of rejection.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” — Hebrews 4:16

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess…” — Hebrew 4:14

The history of Christian Martyrs goes back as far as Abel in Genesis 4 and continues today with the Iranian Pastor Yoseph that is facing execution by his government because he converter from Islam to Christianity. These men and women throughout history have stared down death and when given a chance to change to back down from their spiritual fervor, they chose to burn for Christ even brighter! Their deaths call us to a higher living, through every generation of history.

Would you stand?

Have you ever felt like you were trusting God and following Him in faith yet feeling like every step you took was further into a period of darkness in your life? I’ve been there. I’ve had moments where I thought that trusting God was far more difficult than trying to live life on my own.

It just seems that God often leads us into the wilderness before he refreshes us in the valley.

During one of Paul’s most severe trials, he called out to God and pleaded for Him to intervene. Paul begged God to take away a “messenger of Satan” — this thorn in the flesh — but God repeatedly answered with a “no”. The third time Paul prayed to God, God reminded Paul that God’s grace was sufficient for anything Paul was going to face.

"My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" — Corinthians 12:9

Do you trust God?

Stand Guard

In 2 Timothy 2 Paul wrote this:

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer” — 2 Timothy 2:3-4

This past week during Hurricane Irene, we got a great picture of what it means to “endure hardship like a good soldier” when this picture was taken of an Old Guard Sentry keeping his post at the Tomb of the Unknowns while Hurricane Irene ravaged the East Coast.

Epic Lives

I want to keep today’s Tenth Dot real simple. Yet, I want us to think deeply about our lives. The presupposition of this TD is that God has called each of us to an epic life (biblical language "the abundant life"). What’s your story? Does your life reflect the epic life God designed for you? What can you do today to live significantly different so that your story isn’t average or mediocre? 

Consider this:

2 Corinthians 5:7 

For we live by faith, not by sight.

What are you doing that requires faith?

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

 Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 

Faith is the fuel our lives are based on. It’s not about seeing. It’s about putting our hope in the God who continues to show up in unseen ways. We have seen Him do it before so we trust that He will do it again. Even in the midst of the storm we know that God has not and will not abandon us. We might not see Him but our faith reassures us that He is with us. Faith is being sure, positive, confident in His character! We never give up because our faith assures us that He will be there for us even when we don’t see Him.

Read the familiar words of James 2. This is copied down form The Message Bible:

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup — where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?  – James 2:14-17

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast — Ephesians 2:8-9

The moment is permanently etched in my mind.

Have you ever struggled to pray for some one who doesn’t have a major issue going on? When some one is in crisis, it’s relatively easy to pray for their busted up marriage, a wayward child or a sick family member. But how do you regularly pray for someone who’s doing fine?

Check out this prayer by the Apostle Paul for the believers in the book of Colossians. This will be a great model of prayer for you and I to follow in praying for one another.

He who dies with the most toys…still dies.

Are you ready for God to do the impossible, in your life, in 2011?

 What does your faith in Christ cost you? Jesus warned repeatedly that following Him would be costly and yet often I don’t think faith in Christ costs us much, especially here in the Western world.

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” — Luke 2:25-26

It’s amazing how little we know about Jesus’ earthly father. Somehow in the equation of Jesus’ life, Joseph didn’t factor in to the story much, yet he played a very significant role.

As we think about the great Christmas celebration upon us this weekend, let’s take a couple of days to learn from those closest to the birth of our Savior, starting with Mary.

Are you ready?

“And now these three remain:  faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love” — 1 Corinthians 13:13

“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” — 1 Thessalonians 1:3

“We always thank God…when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints — the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven…” — Colossians 1:3-5

Jude, 65 of 66

I [Joe] have a personal confession:  I love boxing.  I always have.  Part of it is because I grew up when Saturday morning fights were shown on TV and I got to watch “Iron Mike Tyson” make quick work of his opponents.  My dad and I used to spend hours arguing over whether or not Muhammad Ali could have stood toe-to-toe with Iron Mike when both fighters were in the their prime.  I contend “no way” while my dad questioned my sanity as he said “of course he could!”.  Thus our arguments lasted hours!

Acts, 44 of 66

Acts 3:19 contains another one of those amazing promises from God.  If you’re life consisted of nothing more than what Acts 3:19 promises, you would live an amazing life.

Work & Faith

[Thanks to Tenth Dot friend and previous contributor Eunice Chung for today's Tenth Dot!]

Many of us know James 2:17 well:

“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Using this passage as a rule of thumb, we might find ourselves trying to prove our faiths by working harder.

We might take on more ministries at church. We might make more effort to be nice to people. We might go on ministry or mission trips. We might get involved with various fellowship groups. We try our best to say “yes” when people ask us for favors.

Jeremiah, 24 of 66

One of my Bible profs in college used to call Jeremiah the “wailing prophet”.  He spoke early and often and he message was never good.  In fact, quite frankly, Jeremiah’s whole life didn’t seem to go well.  Every time he spoke people got mad at him, every time he pronounced judgment on Israel, the people scorned him and wished him dead.  He actually got thrown in a pit in the stocks and people came by and through rotten food at him.  All because Jeremiah conveyed the message of God to a stiff-necked and perverse people.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does — James 1:22-25

Can I summarize this passage for you?  “Put up, or shut up!”

In I Peter 4:7-11 we come across another one of those ‘since/then’ statements.  One of the bible writers tells us that ‘since’ one thing is true, ‘then’ we are to act a certain way.  In 1 Peter four, Peter reminds us that “the end is near” and he follows this with several key commands.  One of them is the command to keep using our gifts to serve others:

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Every once in a while it seems like God makes the Christian life pretty simple.  I’m not making matters easy, believe me, just sometimes it’s simple:  Simple and easy ARE NOT the same thing.

For today’s Tenth Dot, would you take out a piece of paper and use it to answer questions after each page?  Take some time to really think through your answers and answer the question(s) on one page before moving to the next.  Don’t worry, there’s just a few pages but your answers will help you make real application to your life.  Pull out that paper, or journal, or word processing document and then get started!

Many of us talk about “walking by faith” but I’m afraid few of us ever actually live by the faith we profess.  After fourteen years of pastoral ministry I’ve come to see that many Christians define faith as a step we take with minimal risks…faith has become riskless.

Yes, God gave us minds and He expects us to use our brains to make thoughtful decisions.  But in our Western culture that’s become an excuse for not stepping out until all reasonable risk has been eliminated.  Once we’re sure things are relatively safe, we’re all-too-happy to step out “in faith” and see what God has in store.  Our faith is small and I think we see that in the fact that the results are in proportion to the trust.

Have you ever been pushed to the limit with your faith?  I don’t necessarily mean your faith in God, I mean just your faith in anyone/thing at any time?  Have you been pushed to place where you really had to check yourself and see what you believed or more importantly, how hard you believed?

Acts seven is a powerful chapter on what it really means to stand up for God — even to the point of death!  Stephen was the first to "stand and deliver" the powerful message of the Gospel to a totally hostile crowd making sure all the glory went to God.  This bold presentation of God’s truth led to Stephen’s death and the first martyr of the early church.

PROGRESS:  Living for today, planning for tomorrow

Day 10 of 28 (start at day 1 by clicking HERE)

The Joseph Mindset:  Day 3

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment.  And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new.  Right now.  ~Author Unknown

PROGRESS:  Living for today, planning for tomorrow

Day 9 of 28 (start at day 1 by clicking HERE)

The Joseph Mindset:  Day 2

The past is our definition.  We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.  ~Wendell Berry

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I’m free to choose what that something is, and the something I’ve chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

-Jimmy Carter

God’s first promise of a coming Savior is found in Genesis 3.  The second major promise comes in Genesis 12.  Look at these amazing words:

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

What are you known for?  Take a moment to read Colossians 1:3-4 and note what the people of Colosse where known for:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— Colossians 1:3-4

For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. — Psalm 57:10

 Understanding the Fruit of faithfulness, I believe, requires us to understand the faithfulness of God.  Since it is God who produces the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives, understanding His faithful nature will help us to better understand what He desires to produce in us.

*This is part 8 of a 10 part series on the Fruit of the Spirit that started on November 23, 2009.  You can access past material by using the calendar archive button on the right side of the screen.

How do you define success? God measures our success by our obedience, our faithfulness, and our love for Him. Successfulness by the world’s standards has to do with our personal gain, but God is concerned with our personal sacrifice for Him and His Kingdom. He is in complete control of our success or lack there of. Our success is not based on possessions but on position. Being positioned in God’s presence changes everything. When we are obedient to Him, God puts us in a position for success.

Examine your heart as you ponder these verses…

These are words that we long to hear.

Well done, good and faithful servant!

- Matthew 25:21

Lamentations 3:22-24

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”

One of the dangers of following Jesus is becoming complacent: Grace becomes ordinary. Jesus’ sacrifice becomes familiar. God’s love becomes normal. The power of the Spirit becomes something we teach about but never experience. Prayer becomes boring. Life becomes mere existence.

The faith we are a part of is no less than extraordinary. Unless we constantly remind ourselves of the enormous lengths of God’s everlasting love, we will miss out on the life that God designed for us.

Today as you ponder these verses, your life, and God Almighty, let God remind you of the deep and remarkable life He has for you.

Words inspire us. They motivate us. They shape our culture. Today I want us to think about a very specific word, a wonderful word. It’s such a fun word. It’s used in a variety of ways. The word is- whatever. Here are a few "whatevers" from God’s Word.

How do you determine what to do today? What steps to take? Who to call? What to say yes to and what to say no to? Do I go this way or that way? Which direction does God want me to go?

These are deep questions that we have on an ongoing basis. Today, I want us to think deeply about some verses, and ponder the implications of these passages on our lives.

May the God of HOPE fill you

with all joy and peace AS you trust in HIM,

so that you may overflow with hope 

by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

- Romans 15:13

In this passage, we get to glimpse into a conversation with Jesus and a woman going out to draw water from a well. If you pay close attention, you can hear Jesus’ love, passion, and challenge to this woman. Stop when you get to the part where Jesus says, "Believe Me". Ponder the significance of those words and the implication of those words for our life.

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THINK about this passage. Take time to allow God to speak to you through His Word. Let it sink from your thoughts into your HEART.

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