April 2022 - Daily Faith Walk

Growing Faith

By Galen Harrill / April 29, 2022 May 9, 2022

It is so easy, like Peter, to step out with a conviction of faith onto the surface of the water, eyes riveted on Jesus, and believe fully in the power of God working in our lives. I believe it is easier still to see how God has led us somewhere out in the middle of a lake that’s a bit choppier than we bargained for and lose the faith that got us into the realm of the miraculous to begin with. We pray for something for years and when we see God moving us into the answer we wanted we can’t believe it because it stretches us beyond what we thought was possible. Or we are delivered from a pressing danger and think God saved us by the skin of our teeth rather than by His enormous ocean of grace. Most often, however, we recognize with great spiritual hindsight how God pulled us through our difficulties but doubt He can get us through our present dangers.

We are in good company. When we take a look at that great hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11 we see some amazing men and women whom the writer says the world wasn’t worthy of. Receiving their dead back, shutting mouths of lions, chalking up great victories. And suffering, dying, getting tortured for their faith. But when we dig down, we also find so many of them who did not always live out their faith. Rather, they gave in to fear and worry and chose to do things their own way instead of God’s way. I think in our times of weakness, we can be encouraged to know that people like us can become people like them. How?

First, I think we need to recognize faith is a journey, not a destination. Paul alluded to this in I Corinthians 13 when he said that many gifts will pass away but that faith, hope, and love remain as we move toward what God wants us to be. We are getting ever closer to God until we finally reach the goal of faith, the salvation of our souls (I Peter 1:9). Faith, therefore, must be applied to our entire lives in our ever-changing circumstances until God ultimately calls us home. Home is the destination – faith gets us there.

Second, we’ll hamstring ourselves with notions that since only God is perfect, we don’t need to try. Paul makes clear in Ephesians 4:13ff that spiritual maturity is possible now. Faith is the critical ingredient. He uses future tense, comparing us to babies in comparison to what we will be, growing, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Whole. Fullness. That’s strong, definitive, end-game-in-this-life language we dare not ignore.

Finally, one of my favorite Proverbs is Proverbs 13:20, which tells us to walk with the wise so we will become wise. It’s the same with faith! If we want to be people of faith, we need to walk with people of faith! The writer of Hebrews speaks of a cloud of witnesses in chapter 12, referring again to that hall of fame of faith in chapter 11. But that hall of fame is not limited to those in our Bibles. It’s also about those we are with in our church homes. That’s why the same author makes a point of telling us to keep meeting together (Hebrews 10:25)! From our family’s personal experience, I can tell you one of the biggest helps to the strengthening of our faith has been to be with those whose faith is strong, learning their wisdom, learning to be patient, learning to see Jesus. Do I do it perfectly yet? No – but I’m working on it. And we’ll get there together….

Come Walk with Us!

Getting Spiritually Fed

By Galen Harrill / April 21, 2022 April 29, 2022

“I’m just not getting fed!” I can pretty much guarantee when someone says that they won’t stay at their church much longer. But Christianity is full of paradoxes and in this idea of feeding there is another; if you spend your spiritual life looking for food, you won’t find it.

Jesus’ words about spiritual and physical nourishment are often enmeshed. Consider – in Matthew 6:25-26, Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat. He then points us to the birds in the air and says they are fed by God Himself. The point, as Martin Luther points out, is to get about the business of living life as God intended and God will take care of your needs. It’s the same in our spiritual nourishment. When we do what God wills, we will be spiritually fed. Consider Jesus in John 4. He is moving through Samaria and while His disciples are trying to find food, Jesus is talking with the woman at the well. Jesus, always keeping in mind what God wants, speaks to the woman about spiritual matters. When the disciples return, they are surprised to find Jesus talking to her. As she runs off to the village to tell everyone about finding the Christ, the disciples encourage Jesus to eat. He tells them He has food they don’t know about. After expressing their confusion, Jesus explains His food is to do the will of the one who sent Him.

Understand please – Jesus is sitting there, tired from a long journey. He engages this woman in a serious discussion. It revitalizes Jesus. He sees a harvest in front of Him. The woman hadn’t even given Him water as far as we know. If Jesus had focused on His thirst or His hunger, He would have missed an opportunity. He would not have been doing God’s will. And He would have remained weak and needy.

Is this a corrective? Absolutely. When we are feeling spiritually starved, this is not the time to look for people who are going to feed us. Rather, it is a time to spiritually feed others; to serve; to keep in mind the things of God. Returning to Matthew 6, Jesus ends the matter this way – seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness – and He’ll supply our need.

Come Walk with Us!

True to the Truth

By Galen Harrill / April 7, 2022 April 7, 2022

Who says Bible translations can’t be funny? I remember reading Acts 17:5 for what was probably the first time several decades ago in my old NIV and laughing out loud at the part about “rounding up some bad characters from the marketplace” like we were somewhere at the OK corral and not in Thessalonica. Other translations have “lewd fellows of the baser sort,” “wicked men of the rabble,” and “thugs.” I used to go into Bible bookstores and look this stuff up!

The content, however, is serious. My wife pointed this out in our Bible class this past Sunday as our teacher had us look at the context. So, Paul and Silas (and some others not named) are in Thessalonica convincing people about the truth of who Jesus is and quite a few people become Christians because of it. Paul had the weight of truth on his side as was clear from the scriptures he taught from. Pristine logic applied to true historical accounts bore fruit. Win/win!

Except there is another group who was not having any of what Paul was saying. Verse 5 says they were jealous, but another thing is clear too – they were willing to use any means to stop what Paul was doing. Any means. Hm. This is weird. Because these jealous types were from good God’s-chosen-people stock. They had the law and the prophets. They knew about justice and righteousness, mercy and humility, and the consequences of bearing false witness. Yet, when confronted with the truth and the power of that truth, they turn to the darker side of humanity and try to beat the life out of truth. In doing this, they completely obliterate their credibility as good-faith seekers of truth. This is not honest doubt they harbor, it’s rather evil malice revealing their hypocrisy.

What I want to get to is this – the truth wins by being true, not by clubbing opposing arguments into silence. I love what Peter says in I Peter 3 – “always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have – but do this with humility and respect, keeping a clear conscience….” I’ve got to admit – sometimes people say things against my faith that really bother me. It’s at times like these I need to make sure I am being true to the One who is Truth Himself. Sometimes the avalanche of untruth in the world can make it tempting for us to fight the proverbial fire with fire – they play unfair, we’ll play unfair. That is never Jesus’ way. More subtle however, is when I am challenged in my belief with someone else’s deeply held convictions. I have found when I feel threatened in these situations it’s because I haven’t thought something out clearly enough. I’m not ready with an answer. That’s the time to listen; that’s the time to explore. I may find I was right and come out on the other side stronger because of it. Or I may find I was wrong and come out on the other side better because I listened, explored, studied, and appealed to God for wisdom. Acts 17:4 shows there were those in Thessalonica of that kind. I pray we are too….