WARNING: This blog has content not appropriate for whiny, thin skinned, easily offended, immature Christians.
Now that I have your attention:
The next few days, I want to consider our Father’s command, written through the apostle Paul, to the Ephesians and hence to us to ”be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Before doing that, I want to look at how easy it is to get caught up in a nice sounding song, that for the most part is scripturally sound; but we mistakenly incorporate it into our theology. If viewed as commentary on the songwriter’s experience, it is not a problem. The problem occurs when we misinterpret the lyrics and assume that the songwriter’s experiences are a basis for theology.
The song is: “Through It All”, song by Andrea Crouch. If viewed as a song expressing his personal growth as a believer, there is no problem. It reflects many of our own walk as believers; but it is not how God would have us learn. In the first two verses, the songwriter explains how through all his trials, he has learned to trust in Jesus. Everything is fine so far; but in verse 3, he makes a theological statement that is scripturally false; all be it, a statement of his growth in faith. He says:
“For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith could do.”
We should not have to experience problems in order to know what faith in God could do. That is not what God wants. He has told us over and over again in His Word, what faith can do. He has shown us through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, David, Samuel, Solomon, the Judges, the Prophets, the Apostles and most of all His Son Jesus, what faith in God can do. It is a very sad commentary on our trust in God’s Word that we have not learned what faith in God can do by reading His Word.
It tells us that we are more like doubting Thomas who said:
“Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Jesus answered him by saying:
“Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
As a parent, do you want your children to know what a hot stove does by placing their hand on it, burning it; or believing that it will burn based on your word.
God does not want us to learn “what faith in God can do” by experiencing all of life’s problems. He wants us to learn “what faith in God can do” by reading, believing, and trusting His Word. He would have us making Satan miserable, rather than having Satan wreck havoc in our lives.
Problems will come, just like they did to Paul; but Paul said:
“in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It is a sad commentary on today’s church that we have the theology that what I experience is more real, more reliable, more trust worthy, more authentic, better basis for faith, than God’s Holy Word.
God wants His church to be a powerful church that brings Him glory; not one “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
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