Author: S. Tory Teller

“Stan, do you ever get in arguments with others about your faith?” I asked him one morning.

“I try not to do that,” was his response.

“Isn’t it important to bring others to the truth?”

“Absolutely, but that is totally different from arguing about it.”

“I don’t think I could ever argue someone to accept the truth about God,” Stan said with resolve.

“Rather,” Stan continued, “I am to present the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”

“Hey, that’s pretty clever.  Did you just make that up?” I asked.

“No, it has been attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.”

“Well, whatever.  It’s good advice.”

“Yes,” Stan replied.  “I try to remember that approach with every person the Lord brings before me.  Present the truth of the Gospel by how I live.”

“After all,” Stan continued, “it is God who draws people to Him.  It is up to Him how He draws such people.  My role is to be available so He can use me to draw if that is what He wants.”

“And I don’t think He wants me to argue with anyone about it.”

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No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him.  John 6:44.

Prayer:  Lord, you drew me to you, and I am eternally thankful for that.  You drew me and when I responded by drawing closer to you, you responded and drew close to me.  Your incredible gift is that we keep getting closer!  I ask for your help in being always available to you in what you want to do in drawing other people to you.  Help me to not argue with anyone about you, but to always present the truth by my life.  Amen.

“You know what keeps me from seeing what God is doing right now?” Stan asked.

Without stopping to even let me respond, he continued, “It is self.  I have my eyes so focused on what I want, and what I want to see happen, that I can’t see what He is doing.”

“Sounds to me that you are being too critical of yourself,” I responded.

“Not true!” Stan replied.

“I cannot be too critical for failing to get myself out of the way so I can see what God is doing, and what He wants to do in and through me.”

“Couldn’t that just lead a person to spent all the time looking for God’s activity and never get anything done?”

“OK,” Stan replied.  “Good point.  I am not to sit around like some Guru on the mountain top looking for God’s activity, but I am to be so close to Him in my daily life that I do not miss what He is doing.”

“Alright,” I said, “I can agree with that.  What is supposed to happen when I see something that God is doing?”

“Acknowledge it, embrace it, and see how you can join Him in being a part of what He is doing.”

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Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power.  Psalm 110:3.

Prayer:  Lord, I need your moment-by-moment help in getting myself out of your way so I can see, understand, and embrace what you are doing around me.  I need that help and I ask you for it.  Then, when you show me what you are doing, please lead me to what you have for me to do and to be in joining you in your activity.  Lead and help me to follow. Amen.

“I think there are two essential views I need to take all of the time,” Stan began.

“Views of what?”

“God’s activity.”

“What are those views?” I asked.

“Looking backwards and looking at the present.”

“What about the future?” 

“That is not within my ability to see,” was Stan’s response.

“But the others are?” I asked.

“Absolutely.  And absolutely essential.”

“First, let’s examine the essential of looking back,” Stan continued.

“If I don’t continually examine what God has done in and through me, I will miss the essential opportunity of knowing Him better.  By examining what has happened, I see God’s goodness and greatness, and am able to acknowledge His loving and caring provision.”

“I can understand that with good things,” I asked,  “but what about the bad?”

“Same thing.  I can testify that God has done marvelous things in and through me in circumstances that other people might describe as being ‘bad.’  Nothing that God does in accord with His will is bad.  It is all good.”

“Keep that focus.  Examine where you have been, where you are now, and how you got here.  You will be amazed.  I know I am when I look back at my life.”

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We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28.

Prayer:  Lord, you work in and through me all of the time.  Forgive me for not always taking the time to see what you have done and, therefore, not being able acknowledge your activity and use those opportunities to know you better.  It is my loss.  I ask you to move in me to open me to examine where I was, where I am now, and how you got me here.  Amen.

“Pretending,” Stan began, “is what keeps a lot of Christians from growing in their walk with God.”

“Pretending about what?” I replied.  “Pretending they are Christians?”

“No, they don’t pretend to be Christians, but they do pretend that everything is just fine in their relationship with God.  They are secure in their salvation, but they stop short of what God intends for them.”

“As an example,” Stan continued, “I have an older friend who likes to say, ‘I’m retired; don’t bother me.’  While he says it in kind of a jest to indicate he does not want to do anything but rest, there is an unfortunate truth in what he says.”

“He’s a Christian, but there is little evidence of any growth in his relationship with God.  It’s like he is saying to God, ‘Don’t bother me, I’ve got my ticket to Glory.’”

“Sounds serious,” I said, “any hope for him?”

“There’s always hope,” Stan replied, “but the first step with him and with anyone like that is to stop pretending that everything is just fine.”

“It’s a heart condition.  The heart is simply not in the right place.  There is a proudness that the person is just fine.”

“Unfortunately,” Stan went on, “that heart condition is a disease that is contagious.  Those who pretend everything is just fine tend to infect and affect others.”

“So, stay away from them.  Is that your advice?”

“No, I try to help them, but I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of pretending that everything in my relationship with God is ok.”

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Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.  Proverbs 16:5.

Prayer:  Lord, thank you that you want a relationship with me that is constantly growing deeper.  You know my tendency to be lazy with you and to pretend that everything is just fine in our relationship.  Please help me in not falling into that trap.  Help me in following your lead to wherever you want me to be.  Amen.

“Your encouragement has not accomplished what I hoped,” I said to Stan one morning.

“I’m not sure what you are talking about,” was his response.

“Journaling,” I said.  “You’ve convinced me of its impact on you and your relationship with God.  I have tried to journal with no success.  I just can’t get in the groove of doing it regularly.”

“Maybe I can help,” was Stan’s response.  “Some time back, I had a similar conversation with a young woman who wanted to journal but just couldn’t do it consistently.”

“I told her she needed to have a template.”

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“Have a set pattern for what you do each time you sit down with your journal.  Say, for example, you have a particular devotional you like.  Start with it each day and write about what the Lord tells you about the devotional entry.”

“Then, again merely as an example, start making your way through the Book of Psalms little by little, writing about each verse or verses you cover.  Then you might start making your way through the New Testament in the same way.”

“I can virtually guarantee,” Stan concluded, “that if you follow this sort of template you will get into a routine that makes journaling something to anticipate, rather than something about which you feel a failure.”

“I’ll give it a try,” I said.  “Thanks.”

“A word of caution, my friend,” Stan said.  “Make absolutely certain that your journaling is being led by God.  Take the time with all you are reading and writing about to make certain that it is in accord with God, not in accord with yourself.”

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Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31.

Prayer:  Lord, you know I want to have a deeper and growing relationship with you.  Sometimes it is difficult for me to maintain pursuing that on a regular basis.  I need and ask for your help in growing ever closer to you.  Amen.

“Growing up,” Stan began, “I had an older brother who delighted in scaring me.  He would hide behind a door in the dark hallway of our house, jump out, and scare me.”

“I wasn’t very old and for the life of me I can’t figure out why my parents allowed my brother to do that.  It had a real impact on me.”

“I don’t mean to be impertinent, Stan, but why did you continue to go into a dark hallway?  Why didn’t you just turn on the light?”

“You know, as dumb as it might sound, I never thought of that until you mentioned it just now.  Of course, that would have been the end of my brother’s reign of terror!”

“To get serious,” Stan said, the world is a dark place.” Continuing, he said, “And I have walked in spiritual darkness.  Thankfully, I now know the light, the true light, that is the cure for all such darkness.”

“Darkness does not want to change in any way except to get darker, so it hates the light and all who are illuminated by the light of Christ.  It hates it when I flip the switch to turn on the light that will shine into the darkness.”

“Hate what God hates.  Hate the darkness, but do not be afraid, for He is with you.”

“Flip the switch,” Stan said in closing.

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The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Proverbs 4:18.

Prayer:  Lord, you brought me out of the darkness into your light.  I am eternally thankful for that.  You want me to be light into this dark world.  That is I want as well.  I need and ask for all of the help you can provide in being the light you intend for me to be.  Help me to shine my light before men in such a way that they see good works, want to leave the darkness, and glorify you. Amen

“Early in my days as a Christian,” Stan began one morning, “a fellow asked me if I was doing my part.”

“Your part in what?” I asked.

“He was talking about salvation, about how God had done His part, and how I was supposed to do my part.”

“Your part in salvation?  I thought it was God’s free gift.”

“Oh, it is,” Stan replied, “there was nothing I could do to earn God’s salvation, but when He gave it to me He certainly expected me to do something with it.”

“You know,” I replied, “that is sort of what the fellow at the train station told me before I met you.”

“He was one hundred percent right,” Stan said.  “I am not just to sit around and do nothing while I wait to go to heaven, I am to work.”

“Work your way to heaven?” I asked with a grin, knowing that is not what Stan meant.

“No, of course not.  You know better than that!”

“I am to work to spread the truth of the Gospel.  All of the truth.  Not just the truth of salvation, but also the truth of what we are supposed to do with that salvation.”

“It is working to do my part in response to the wonderful free gift of salvation.  But the work is not to be work under my direction.  The work is to be done under the direction of God through His Holy Spirit.”

Stan continued, “My work is not your work, and vice versa.  Bur each of us is to be obedient to doing our own part in God’s plan of salvation.”

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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  Philippians 2:12, 13.

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for your free gift of salvation.  Thank you for making it clear that there is nothing I could ever do to earn that free gift.  And thank you for making it clear that I am to work out that salvation by being who and what you intend.  You know all of the help I need to do that, and that is what I ask.  Please lead me and help me to follow your lead.  Amen.

“Stan,” I began, “I want to thank you for your faithfulness in being here.  You haven’t missed a single time you said you would be here.”

“You know what my friend?” was Stan’s reply.

“What?”

“That is what I want to hear from my heavenly Father!  I want Him to say to me that He is thankful for my faithfulness.”

“Not only in being here when I said I would, but in everything.  I want Him to be able to say, ‘good job, Stan, you have been faithful in everything I had for you to be faithful about.’”

“Isn’t faithfulness just an expression of faith?” I asked.  “Kind of an expression of my faith in God?”

“I don’t think so,” was Stan’s reply.  “It is much more than that.”

“Faithfulness, for me, is getting myself out of God’s way so He can do exactly what He wants in and through me.  If that means not doing something else I may want to do so I can be where He wants me, doing what He wants, that is faithfulness.”

“Being faithful and true to what God has for me to be and to do;  that is what gets me out of bed each morning,” Stan said with a big smile.

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Well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.  Matthew 25:23.

Prayer:  Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness to me in everything.  I ask that your Holy Spirit’s fruit of faithfulness be made alive in me so that I am faithful to you in everything you have for me to be and to do.  I ask for your help in being faithful as you define faithfulness.  Amen.

“There’s another point about the transfiguration that I want you to see,” Stan said.

“And what is that?”

“After God the Father had spoken from the cloud affirming Jesus and telling the disciples to listen to Him, there was no more voice.  In addition, Moses and Elijah were not there any longer.”

“Yeah, I remember,” I responded.  “Then they went down the mountain.”

“But there was something else before then, and that is what I want both of us to remember.”

“Tell me.”

“Mark’s account says the disciples looked around and saw only Jesus.”

Stan then went on, “That is what I want my entire life to be, that I look around and see no one but Jesus.”

“I want every single aspect of my being to be so focused on Him that He is all I see.”

“You’re right, Stan,” I said. “There is so much to look at in the world that I can be very easily distracted from what is important.  I, too, only want to see Jesus.”

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They looked around and saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.  Mark 9:8

Prayer:  Lord, I am constantly distracted by all of the things of the world.  I know you want me to focus on seeing only Jesus.  That, too, is what I want, but I need your constant help in not being distracted by what is not important.  Lord, please help me in what I want to see.  Amen.

“The ninth chapter of Mark’s gospel,” Stan began, “has the story of the transfiguration.”

Continuing, he said, “Jesus went to a mountain and took with him Peter, James, and John.”

“I remember the story,” I said.  “Jesus was changed in appearance, thus, it is called the ‘transfiguration’.  Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus.”

“That’s right,” Stan said, “and the disciples had no idea of what to make of what they were seeing.  The gospel account actually says they were ‘terrified.’  And I can well imagine that it was true.”

“An interesting point,” Stan continued, “is that Mark’s account doesn’t indicate how the disciples knew who they were seeing, but that is besides the point.”

“What is the point?” I asked.

“I think,” Stan replied, “that what happened next is the point.”

“A cloud formed.  And out of the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is My beloved Son, listen to Him’.”

Continuing, Stan said, “God the Father was clearly speaking and telling the disciples what to do.  They were told to listen to Jesus.”

“And,” he added, “I hear the same thing every single day from the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Listen!”

“The Father did not say, ‘hear My Son’; He said ‘listen’ to Him.  And there is an important difference between hearing and listening.  I need to remind myself of that difference on a continual basis and truly focus on the listening part. If I hear, but do not listen in that I am not paying enough attention, I am way off base.”

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This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!  Mark 9:7

Prayer:  Lord, thank you that you want me to listen to Jesus.  I know there is an important difference between hearing and listening. And I confess that too often I do not truly listen to what you have for me to hear, understand, and obey. Please forgive me. And please, Lord, lead me in not being distracted from all you have for me; help me to truly listen to you. Thank you I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.