There are many things people try to prepare you for when you’re becoming a parent for the first time. There are big things and small things; from warnings about the looming sleepless nights and allowing yourself to get rest where you can to the savoring of every moment. Between bottles, diapering, feeding, sleep schedules, and keeping up with baby’s milestones, there’s a lot to learn and focus on– and that’s just the first stage of a child’s life!

A river runs through our town, and at this time of year, it’s partially frozen. The thing about a river is that for it to be totally frozen is rare. The temperature has to be way below freezing for an extended period of time in order to overcome the constant flow of water and freeze it solid. If you look at a river that is starting to freeze though, you’ll notice that the ice is primarily on the banks, where the current is the slowest. 

I’ve lived in some interesting places with some cool history. 

I’ve lived on Long Island, where the Revolutionary War was fought and lots of that history is still being preserved. I’ve lived on the coast of North Carolina, where Civil War and pirate history is kept, including the wreck site of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which was infamously captained by Blackbeard. I’ve lived and studied in Cape Town, South Africa, which still remembers Apartheid and is a melting pot of many different cultures.

What makes something valuable? 

My mother would say it has something to do with what something is made of. When I was younger, I wanted a pair of boots. I was so set on the look and style of the boots, that I wasn’t paying attention to what it was made of. My mother, helping me shop for this pair of boots, was focused on what they were made out of. I might think I found the perfect pair because they were exactly what I wanted in my head, but my mom would say, “They’re synthetic leather. They’ll start falling apart after a few wears. You’re better off spending more money to get real leather boots that will take years to fall apart.”

The Bible is clear about martyrs and the fact that many will suffer for the gospel. Hebrews 11 famously talks about believers that were tortured, stoned, mistreated, and viciously killed for spreading the word of God. We know that this kind of persecution for faith in God continues today, especially in countries that have no freedom to practice Christianity like China or the Middle East.

But a lot of the time, we don’t share stories of those martyrs and the truths they died for. And why? Because in the end, they are stories that could help to strengthen and fortify our own faith. The truth is, we’re deeply blessed. We live in a country where it’s still widely condoned to go to church and practice our faith, but what if that weren’t the case?

This year, I gifted Sam a rather unusual gift. It was a framed illustration I drew of a three-legged stool. Without context, it’s a little bit of a head-scratcher, so let me clue you in. Recently, we heard a story from medieval church history. In 1625, King Charles I ascended to the British throne. Being of the Anglican church and a staunch believer that he had a divine right to rule the church as king, he was not a popular figure in Northern Scotland where the people were largely reformed protestant. Together with his archbishop, the king introduced a book of prayer throughout the kingdom that was much more in line with the Church of England.

The devil is a roaring lion. He roars constantly. He roars during our persecutions. Asking why God would do what He’s doing? Why would He let us suffer in this way? Where is He? Has He forgotten you? He roars during times of uncertainty. How can God possibly work through this? Didn’t He say He loved you? Didn’t He claim nothing was impossible? Maybe that promise was for someone else. Not for you.

When we’re little kids, temptation looks innocent. Maybe it’s the late afternoon, dinner is in the oven and the table is set, but your mind just can’t get off of that jar of cookies on the counter. You try to resist temptation, thinking of how your mother would tell you no, but then you think to yourself that just one won’t ruin your appetite. Maybe you can just sneak one and no one will ever know. So you reach your hand in and grab it, but then think to yourself that you’ll probably want more– because just one won’t be enough when you could have three– and you swipe two more. Maybe you get away with it. Maybe your mom doesn’t find out.

Everyone knows and loves the story of Moses and Israel’s exodus from Egypt. There are movies about it, songs, coloring pages, teaching curriculums, you name it. The story is full of miracles and unbelievable moments from plagues to the parting of the Red Sea. When you’re talking about the awesome power of God, there is no story like this one. And the grand finale of it all is just as Israel is making their last push out of Egypt. They go out and camp just along the shores of the Red Sea, waiting for God to show them the next steps of their journey. Meanwhile, Pharaoh has changed his mind and gathered his army to go and re-capture the Israelites. You would think, after losing so much in ten plagues– including his firstborn son– Pharaoh wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with God again.

Before you ask, no, I have not had the baby. Last week’s lack of devotion wasn’t a silent announcement, it was just pregnancy brain. And in the past week, Sam and I have been learning a whole new lesson in patience and waiting for the Lord’s time. It’s not something we’re unfamiliar with. We waited on God to date. We waited on God to get married. We certainly waited on God to conceive this child. And now, we’re waiting on His appointed time for her to come.

Up until this point, we’ve gone through a lot of false gospels that run rampant in the charismatic or modern-day church, but we haven’t talked about the ways that traditional, old-school church can lead people astray from true, God-glorifying faith. Because the traditional church was so popular 50-60 years ago, chances are, you’ve been to at least one service and know what I’m talking about.

A pitfall of the American church is that it relies on carnal means to try and entice lost and worldly people into saving grace. The issue is, when we know real grace ourselves, we understand that there is nothing a person can say or do that can convince someone to sacrifice their worldly comforts to live a God-honoring life. Instead, we have to rely on God’s revealing Himself to someone in order to draw the lost to Him. And because we minimize that fact into a minor detail of church culture, Christians tend to strive in certain things in order to try and get imperfect people to see Jesus using imperfect means and methods.

In 2019, I left the church I attended my whole life. As a child, teenager, and young adult, it was a wonderful place to learn about and develop a relationship with God. The leadership was amenable to allowing youth to serve and be heard, and in turn, that made me and my friends excited to be a part of that body of believers for many, many years. But at the age of 25, I felt the Lord leading me into a new direction. In a lot of ways, that transition out of everything I knew was scary. I was comfortable in that church and it had a large hand in shaping me into who I was. I loved my pastor and the community that I’d trusted and gotten so used to. But once I left, I realized that up until that point, I didn’t really know my Bible. I had taken everything that was preached from the pulpit as gospel. And that’s not to say that my pastor was a false teacher or anything, but it is to say that I never really tested the full measure of scripture for myself, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself in the Word to me on a personal level.

Last week, we discussed the prosperity gospel– what it entails and why it isn’t gospel. Primarily, we focused on the financial side of the movement and how teachers of prosperity gospel twist the Bible to claim that God is the way to health, wealth, and material success. In my personal life as someone who wants to make freelance writing into a career, I follow a lot of freelancers or writing coaches to study their business models and tips. The weird thing is, without fail when talking about the “spirituality” or “mindset” of the lifestyle, they tend to mention that they subscribe to people that are known teachers of prosperity gospel: Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, and the list goes on.

Live your best life now. God wants us to live a life of health and wealth. Speak it into existence. Pray your way to a better life. I’m sure you’ve heard some of these taglines before. Last week, we spoke about the importance of knowing your Bible, and knowing the full counsel of God’s word so you won’t be led astray by false gospels and teachers that peddle an inferior version of the Way, Truth, and Life. Now, the Lord has been weighing heavily on my heart for some time that we need to meet some of these false gospels head-on. Unfortunately, the American Church is full of “gospels” that lead people away from Christ in droves, and it’s not because they are outwardly evil or obviously false. They often preach things that people love to hear and subscribe to.

You’re probably tired of hearing from me at this point, but it’s a concept we need to constantly be reminded of: The Bible is the only thing we need in order to understand God. Are commentaries helpful? Yes. Are there teachers out there that are helpful in taking scripture, unpacking it, and explaining it to us? Yes. What’s the problem with that? You can’t always trust people to be right in exegeting scripture, and you certainly can’t depend on a person to reveal the heart of God.