Our church began a series through the book of Habakkuk this week where we are looking at questions regarding God’s justice and goodness in our world. It’s an age-old question to ask “if God is good and powerful, why does evil exist?” As we look around our world, we see evil, disease, natural disasters, and more around us that can cause us to wonder if God cares at all or if He is able to do anything about it.

But something struck me as I walked through the first 11 verses of the book of Habakkuk. The prophet’s first concern was not the evil out in the world, but the evil among God’s people. In the first 4 verses, as he pours out his first complaint before the Lord, his focus is on the evil within the people of Israel. He is going to eventually get to the evil in the world, but it seems his primary concern is the sin of God’s covenant people.

It got me thinking: do we really care about all evil? Often when we pour out our complaints to the Lord about the evil in our world, we are talking about the unsaved all around us who are committing terrible acts. But how often do we cry to the Lord about the sin among the people of God - or to make it more personal - the sin of the people in our local church. Better yet, how often are we grieved over the evil in our own hearts?

Habakkuk was grieved that the people of God were walking in constant sin and it didn’t seem that God was doing anything about it. When is the last time you cried out to the Lord over the sin in your own heart or the sin that you see in your brothers and sisters around you? When did you last add to your prayer list the sin that the people in your local church are struggling with?

If we are going to be a people who are truly concerned about the evil in the world, shouldn’t it start with an honest assessment of our own hearts and churches?

I’m not suggesting that we become judgemental and make our every prayer about the sin of the people around us. I am suggesting that we judge rightly with godly discernment and ask God to break our hearts over the sin that breaks His. Could it be that one of the reasons the Church seems to not take evil in the world seriously is because we don’t take the evil in our own hearts and homes seriously?

Here’s the good news - this conversation doesn’t end with guilt and shame. If we humble ourselves and truly repent before the Lord for the evil in our hearts and the sin in our lives, He always hears and forgives (1 John 1:9). When we get serious about dealing with sin in the camp, I believe the Lord honors those efforts. As a matter of fact, one of the purposes of the church is to help one another walk in holiness (Hebrews 10:24).

So let’s be grieved over the evil in our world around us, but let’s begin by grieving over the evil in our own hearts and in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And let us cry out to the Lord in repentance and ask Him to purge the evil from among us.

Yesterday I wrote a short blog about how many Christians abuse the phrase, “God told me.” That inspired me to think of a few other things that Christians often say either without much thought or simply because it’s something we’ve grown so familiar with, we’ve lost the meaning of it. As I said in my last post, I’m not trying to be nit-picky or single anyone out, but I do believe that the words we say matter. I also believe that sloppy speech leads to sloppy theology - and sloppy theology leads to sloppy living. Many of these are not wrong to say and can even have times that they are appropriate, but I want us to focus less on the statements themselves and more on the theology that's often behind them. Let’s get going.

1. “God is in this place.”
This is most often found in worship songs with lines such as “we invite you in this place.” One of God’s attributes is that He is omnipresent - which means as John Frame says that He is “in every place and time.” Frame also notes “To say that God is “present” is to say that he is here with us, really here, not absent.” We cannot ‘invite’ God anywhere, He is already there and will never require our permission.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Psalm 139:7-10

2. “That was a ‘God-thing!’”
Often after some prayer request is answered the way we desire, or something really important happens, we throw this one out there. Now the heart behind this one is most often right because we are trying to bring glory to God for the event that just took place. But when we only attribute this to the big, exciting events of life, we are acting as though there are things that God is in control of and things that He is not in control of. Or worse, we are saying that God is only responsible for the good things that happen, but is not in control when bad things happen. I’m not saying that this phrase is wrong and that we should never use it, but let’s make sure that we give glory to God in the small and hard things as much as the big amazing things.

3. “Church was amazing today!”
As a pastor, you can imagine that I wish everyone walked away on Sunday mornings saying this, but I also realize the danger in this mindset. Most often, we use this phrase when emotions were high and we left the service feeling happy and encouraged. We almost never use this phrase when we walk away from the gathering feeling convicted or when the pastor just wasn’t as energetic as we would like. The factors that often go into this statement rarely have anything to do with the main goals and purposes of a local church gathering. While there’s nothing wrong with this statement in itself, we should ask ourselves why we said that.

Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself when leaving a church service: Was Jesus Christ glorified during that service? Was the Word of God faithfully preached? Did we truly seek to encourage one another? Were the songs that we sang true about the character of God? Were our hearts seeking to magnify Christ or get a spiritual shot in the arm for the week? Those are not all the questions we should ask, but it’s a starting point. If you can answer yes to all of those, then church was indeed ‘awesome’ that day whether or not the band was ‘on point’ or the pastor was ‘engaging.’

4. “I wish God would show me a sign.”
I want to be sensitive with this one, but honestly, it’s really time for us to stop saying this. More importantly, it’s time for us to stop asking God for signs. He has already given you what you need in His Word to know how you should live. Asking for a sign is a good sign that you’re not doing the hard work of studying the Word, praying, and seeking to walk in the Spirit day by day. I know there are many people out there who are in really hard situations and you really aren’t sure of the way forward. Maybe you have been praying and seeking the Lord and things don’t seem any clearer now than they did at the beginning of all this. It could be that God is trying to teach you what He taught Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 - “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It could be that He has you in a state of uncertainty in order to drive you to depend on Him more than you depend on having clarity and comfort in life.

That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll do another post like this in the future. If you’ve got a suggestion for more phrases Christians need to stop saying, send them my way by commenting on this post.

Something that Christians often say without giving it much thought is, “God told me.” There are variations to this such as: “God impressed on my heart,” "or “God spoke to me,” but the premise is the same. But I think this can be a very dangerous phrase at best and blasphemy at worst. I don’t believe that we intend to do either of those things, nor am I attempting to question the motives of anyone who uses those phrases or similar ones. I simply want us think more deeply about how we use such words. Let’s begin with words from a guy names Agur who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these words:

“Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”
Proverbs 30:5-6

I believe these words should cause us to tremble whenever we are using the words “God told me.” If those words are not immediately followed by direct quotes from Scripture, you are seriously in danger of “adding to His words.” For example, if you said “God told me to not take His name in vain,” you would be quoting from God’s actual words in Exodus 20. But if you say something like “God told me to move to California,” you would be making a bold statement that god Himself said something to you that no-one else can verify. In other words, you would be claiming to have ‘special revelation’ from God Himself.

Does God still speak?
I’m often met with this question in response to the above explanation. Well-meaning Christians want to know that God still speaks to His children. My answer is often “Yes, He has spoken and continues to speak to us by His Spirit through His Word.” Or I will take them to Hebrews 1:1-2 - “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” In other words, God speaks to us in accordance with His Word that He has already spoken. This should not scare us or make us feel helpless to face life’s decisions because His Word has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). He guides us, not by telling us what city to move in, the name of our future spouse, what job interview to attend, etc, but by His Spirit through His Word to live lives that seek His glory above our own.

This provides us with immense freedom because we do not have to “wait on a word from the Lord” since He has already spoken and His Word is sufficient. Does the Holy Spirit still guide us? You bet He does, through the sufficient, inerrant, steadfast Word of God already spoken to us - and as Agur has told us “Every word of God proves true.” I don’t have to say things like “I feel like God is telling me…” I can confidently say, “The Lord has said.”

I know there are some of my charismatic friends who will disagree with some of what I’ve presented here and I am not accusing them of seeking to add to the word of the Lord. I am simply begging us to be very careful to utter “God said” when He has not. One thing I do know, I don’t have to be careful in proclaiming “God said” when I am reading His Word.

The next time you are about to say “God told me” I pray you will evaluate the next words out of your mouth according to the Words already written down for us.

I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but my mind tends to wander into deep thought when I’m walking our dog. Since he only weighs 6 lbs and is really chill, he doesn’t require much effort, so I can allow my mind to drift off 2-3 times a day while walking him. Anyway, on a recent walk, I began thinking about Jesus’ words in John 13:35…

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is a well-known and often preached on passage of Scripture with good reason. Jesus has just defined what that love is supposed to look like in verse 34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” In other words, it is in laying our lives down for our brothers and sisters in Christ that will cause the world to know we are His disciples. We often conclude that what this means is if we would just get along and love each other, the lost would come to know Christ. The problem with that interpretation is that isn’t what Jesus said. He said, “they will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” Nothing is mentioned by Jesus on whether that would always result in salvation or not.

Think with me to the early church in the book of Acts. It wasn’t often a positive interaction for the apostles and early disciples to be recognized as followers of Christ. As a matter of fact, it often got them hatred, imprisonment, and even death.

What am I getting at with all of this? The Bible never says that our love will make the Gospel attractive to unbelievers. But how many times have we been taught that? We often hear things like, “the reason the world wants nothing to do with Christianity is because of all the division and bitterness among Christians.” Hear me clearly, hatred, bitterness, and strife have no place in the body of Christ. It should always be called out and those involved called to repentance. But Jesus nor the Scriptures ever told us that if we were just nicer to each other, more people would be saved.

Instead, we find things like “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18) and “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Does this distinction matter though? I believe it matters a great deal because when we see the world hating us and rejecting the Gospel if we believe that it’s always simply a result of a lack of love on our part, we begin to become more silent about the Gospel in an effort to not offend and make the Gospel more ‘attractive.’ Yes, Jesus’ love and compassion drew many great crowds, but it was his proclamation of the Gospel that also drove most of them away. Our compassion does not save anyone. It is only God’s compassion, love, and grace, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves - that’s what we are called to proclaim.

So the next time you read the words of John 13:35, remember that the world recognizing we are disciples of Christ is a good thing, but it also may lead to hatred and persecution like it often did for the early church. Don’t let men and women’s rejection of the Gospel cause you to water it down in an effort to appear more loving. True Christlike love proclaims the truth. And yes, do so in kindness, gentleness, and love. But also do so with boldness. In that moment when someone recognizes you as a Christian because of your love and asks you for a reason for the hope that’s in you, be ready to give an answer, and then give it. (1 Peter 3:15)

Now that I’m a father of a toddler, I’ve become quite the expert on Disney movies like Frozen. In Frozen II there is a song sung by the snowman, Olaf where he is in the woods alone and afraid. My favorite part of the song is when he hears a noise and exclaims: “Samantha?!” Okay, I understand if you haven’t seen the movie that will probably not make any sense to you whatsoever, but what’s so funny about it is how random it is given the fact that he doesn’t even know anyone named Samantha.

That was my poor attempt to illustrate how many Christians claim to hear God’s voice. Something happens in their lives and they have a strong feeling about what direction they should take and therefore, they assume they have ‘heard from God.’ Others do claim to actually hear God’s voice audibly or at least clearly in their hearts. For those of us who have not experienced that, it can be frustrating when we really need to hear from the Lord, but don’t think He speaks to us like he speaks to other Christians.

So the question becomes: How does God speak to His people? The author of Hebrews begins his letter by answering that question for us.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world”
Hebrews 1:1-2 (ESV)

Did you catch the part that I underlined? “He has spoken to us by His Son.” If you’re waiting on God to speak to you, don’t miss the fact that He has spoken to you through His Son Jesus Christ who is “The Word made flesh” (John 1). Can God speak audibly to His people? Yes, God can do whatever He wills to do. However, in His revealed will (the Bible) He has informed us that although He used to speak in various ways, His method of speaking is now the Living Word (His Son: Jesus) Who is revealed to us in His written Word (The Bible).

The old adage still holds water: “If you want to know the will of God, read the Word of God.” You see in those moments of life when we are desperate for God to speak, He has given us an eternally gracious gift of His revealed will written down for us to dig deep into. While the Bible doesn’t tell you what job to take, or how to fix your broken faucet, it does reveal to us God’s will for our lives. The Bible is sufficient for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

If there is a time when you ‘felt’ like God was speaking to you, go to the Word and measure what you felt or heard against that. Certainly, we have the Holy Spirit in us who guides us, but Jesus told us that what the Spirit guides us into is the truth of Who Jesus is and what He has said (John 16:13-15).

The beauty is that this frees us to know exactly what God expects of us. As St. Augustine said “Love God, and do what you want.” If your love for Him is first and foremost and you’re seeking to walk in His ways, then allow Him to change your desires to line up with His and then live your life.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 10:12 (ESV)