Category: Christian Living

Q. What does the Bible say about decision-making?

One of the most significant things the Bible says about this is that when we have an important decision to make, we should seek the counsel and advice of wise friends. “In a multitude of counselors there is safety.” The Bible teaches us that all of us, as individual people, are limited in our knowledge, experience, and perspective. We need others to help us see things from further perspectives; to consider things we would not have considered otherwise; and to learn from the experiences, both good and bad, that others have had as a result of the decisions they have made in comparable situations.

I think that if we went to people and said, “I have an important decision to make and I’d like to ask your advice about it,” the kind of people whose counsel would be valuable would be very happy to listen and help. So think about who those people are in your life.

But those whose counsel we are to consider include not only those who are alive with us today but also those who have gone before us. “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

“Ask the former generation
    and find out what their ancestors learned,
for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
    and our days on earth are but a shadow.
Will they not instruct you and tell you?
    Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?”

The Bible itself is a repository of the ancient wisdom of godly people, and so reading and studying it regularly puts this type of counsel at our disposal.

It is important to stress that our counselors and advisors must be godly people. “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.” Here and in many similar contexts, the Bible uses the word “fool” to mean not someone who lacks intelligence or education, but someone who lives without regard for God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The word “fear,” for its part, refers not to being afraid of God, but to not daring to do anything that we know God would disapprove of. “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.”

This all points to a second significant thing that the Bible teaches us about decision-making. Often we face a decision between two courses of action; one of which seems like a shortcut or expedient, but involves some sense of moral compromise, while the other seems longer and more difficult, but also has a clean, honest feel to it. In such cases, we should always choose the latter option. I recall a conversation in which a friend brought up a decision that she needed to make. One person there suggested that she could expedite the process in view by saying a certain thing that didn’t happen to be true. “But that would be lying,” I observed. “Well,” this person responded, “if you’re not prepared to help yourself out like that, then I guess you’ll have to take the long way around.” This friend did take “the long way around,” and she was much better off for doing so.

Sometimes “making a decision” is actually a matter of seeking and receiving guidance from God. We come to a crossroads, and there is a specific road that God wants us to take forward. In such situations, understanding God’s guidance is, as I say in this post, typically the result of a convergence of factors: “the teaching of Scripture, the advice of trusted counselors, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, what the circumstances permit, the God-given desires of our hearts, etc.” (We might also mention other factors such as whether we have peace about a possible path and whether pursuing it would require faith.)

But at other times, “making a decision” means determining what a wise course of action would be in a situation where God is not necessarily guiding us forward in one direction or another. We just need to make a wise choice about our present circumstances. In such cases, what I have said about cultivating godly wisdom and seeking godly advice would certainly apply.

And there is a third possibility: In many circumstances, we may simply be free to make a choice. I believe that God loves to see his creatures develop into their fullness. Parents, by analogy, don’t want to have to keep telling their children what to do; they want them to develop into mature individuals who can make good choices for themselves. At a certain point, for example, parents stop dressing their children and instead have them decide what to wear each day.

I think it’s the same thing with God. Suppose you are going to host some friends for dinner. I’m not sure that God would ordinarily send you divine guidance from heaven about what to serve. I think God would be delighted to see you plan a great meal and pull it off. I do think that in such circumstances, we could ask God to help us have good ideas. But in the end, we will probably feel, with gratitude to God, that that was just what happened: We had a good idea.

Q. How can I have a closer relationship with God as a Christian?

I think the principles that apply generally to having good relationships with people also apply to having a good relationship with God. You describe yourself as a Christian and so I take it that you are already aware of having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. But you have asked about having a closer relationship, so let me share some thoughts about that.

First, I would say that it is important to spend time with God. Time spent together is the oxygen that relationships need to breathe. Without it, they suffocate. That is why, when spouses, friends, parents and children, etc. are separated temporarily, they make it a priority to speak regularly on the phone or by video chat, to stay in touch by email or text message, etc. People who are in close relationships and who want those relationships to remain close know that they need to invest time in them.

So, think about how you spend time with God. Put another way, when do you feel that you are in God’s presence, or that you are experiencing God? For some people, this happens during times of prayer, meditation, silence, solitude, and simplicity. By quieting all other voices, they hear the voice of God. Something similar happens for other people when they read Scripture or valuable books. For still other people, spending time with God happens when they are out in nature. They experience God in and through his creation. For others, this comes during times of service. Jesus, speaking of helping people in need, caring for the sick, showing hospitality, and visiting people who are lonely, said, “As you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me.” In such experiences, some people say, “God, I can’t do this for you personally, but I’m going to do it for this other person as if it were you.” And in those circumstances, they feel, experientially, that they are doing something loving directly for God.

Each person’s experience will be different. There may be as many different ways of “spending time with God” as there are people. The key is to recognize what your way is and to be diligent in investing in it. It has been well said that time together with people who are important to us doesn’t happen by accident. We need to be intentional about making it happen.

A second way to invest in having a good relationship with a person is to do what that person likes, not what the person does not like. A simple illustration is this: If you are the person who prepares the meals in your house and you know what meals the others in the house like and do not like, you show your courtesy and appreciation for them by making meals that they do like. By being attentive to their tastes and preferences, you demonstrate that you value them as people. This also shows that, to the extent that it depends on you, you want them to be happy and enjoying life. This is all a very good “ante” for a good relationship with a person.

A specific and important component of this consideration is that if we want to have a good relationship with a person, we will not intentionally do anything that is harmful, hurtful, or demeaning to that person. That actually sends the message that we do not value them and that the quality of our relationship with them is not important to us.

So what are the things that God likes and does not like? We cannot answer this question in terms of favorite meals or pastimes. But we can recall what God said through the prophet Micah: “O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” If we do what we know is right, if we show generosity and compassion, if we cultivate humility, then we are investing in our relationship with God by doing what God likes. There is a wonderful promise in Psalm 25: “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him.” In this context, “fear” refers to not daring to do anything that we know would be displeasing to God. We can see that investing in a relationship with God in this way leads to the “friendship” that we desire.

I would like to mention a third thing as well. It is actually inspired by a line from the movie Chariots of Fire, although I believe there is also a biblical basis for it. In that movie, the character of Eric Liddell is explaining why, though he ultimately intends to become a missionary to China, he has been spending time training for the Olympics. He says, “God made me for China, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” While the Bible describes our relationship with God in many ways, including child to parent and (as we have just seen) friend to friend, the Bible initially describes the relationship as creature to Creator. And we must recognize how much joy it gives a person who creates something to see it becoming all that it was created to be. A limited analogy might be that of an inventor whose invention finally works, or of a programmer who finally gets some software up and running and discovers that it works better than could have been imagined.

So, my last observation about how to cultivate a good relationship with God would be this: Be yourself. In other words, do all that you can to discern why God put you on this planet, and then fulfill that destiny. I think that when you do that (necessarily starting with an initial understanding and accomplishment, but then to an ever-increasing extent), you will feel God’s pleasure. And that is another sure sign of a good relationship.

Q. Jesus repeated that we are to follow His ways and obey God. Jesus’ law and ways were largely found in the OT and the Torah. As Christians today, what is our relationship to be with the law as it is written out in the Torah? Are we to follow it—not to put our hopes of salvation in it, but as a means of obeying Jesus?

The apostle Paul wrote much in his letters about how Christians are to relate to the Law. He said, for one thing, that “the law is good if one uses it properly.” Paul made clear in many of his letters, as you say yourself, that we are not to look to the Law as a means of salvation. That is, we are not to try to become or remain acceptable to God by following the rules in the Law. So how are we to use the Law “properly”?

I would say that the Law has a role for the Christian in both teaching and restraint. Simply stated, the Law teaches us what is and is not in keeping with God’s intentions for human life; knowing that can keep us from doing things that are contrary to the Law. As a pastor, I sometimes had the occasion to ask people who were considering a particular course of action, “Would it make a difference to you to recognize that this would be breaking one of the Ten Commandments?”

The Law, however, is not able to give us the power to do what it commands. As Paul also makes clear in his letters, it is the Holy Spirit who must give us that power. And once the Holy Spirit is living inside us and transforming us (as is the case with everyone who has genuinely trusted in Jesus for salvation), then we can concentrate on positively doing things “against which there is no law,” as Paul writes in Galatians, rather than on negatively avoiding things that are against the Law.

Those things against which there is no law are the “fruit of the Spirit,” the character qualities that God wants to build into our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus is our example of living out these qualities, and the Holy Spirit inside us encourages us to grow into them. Instead of asking “what rules should govern my conduct here?” we ask “how can I show love here?” or “how can I remain joyful in this situation?”

If we consistently do the things against which there is no law, we will never be breaking the Law; instead, we will be keeping it in its truest sense. The ideal is to reach the place that St. Augustine once described: “Love God, and do what you will.” In other words, nothing that is contrary to God’s wishes will ever proceed from a deep and genuine love for God. The more we grow in our love for God, the more we can act freely and spontaneously as his child, not checking our actions against a set of rules but simply doing what we know will bring him joy.

Q. Please help! I have struggled so hard to believe. I have begged God to take away my doubt and give me the faith and belief in him that He desires. I have done all of this with a truly sincere heart and I have asked all of this in Jesus’ name. Yet no matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I pray and beg God to take away my doubts, I just can’t fully believe.

I hope it will help you to hear that believing fully does not mean having no doubts.

The capacity for faith and the capacity for doubt are the same. If you did not have any doubts about what you believe, you would not be believing it by faith.

Faith is the reasonable belief in something that we cannot prove. Because we cannot prove it, there will always be some doubt about it. But that does not mean that it is not true or that it is not a reasonable thing to believe.

So please stop tormenting yourself for having doubts. They come with the territory of being a Christian. All believers have them. As we grow in our faith, more and more of our doubts are resolved. We come steadily to have more faith and less doubt. But this is a process—a natural process—and we can’t rush it. But that’s okay with God. He knows that we humans are finite and need to grow into our faith.

Here’s how I know that this is okay with God. The gospels record how a man asked Jesus to heal his child: “If you can do anything, help us,” the man said. “‘If you can’?” Jesus responded. “All things are possible for one who believes.” The man replied, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Jesus did not rebuke him and say, “Well, if you really believed, without any unbelief, I would help you, but since you have doubts, you don’t really believe, and so all things are not possible for you.” Instead, recognizing that the man had genuine faith, even though it was still mixed with doubt, Jesus healed the man’s child.

Some ancient manuscripts say that this man “cried out with tears” when he told Jesus that he believed but needed help with his unbelief. Certainly it was very distressing to him to think that he might not believe fully enough for his child to be healed. But Jesus treated him with kindness, mercy, and compassion. And Jesus regards you in the same way that he regarded this man. He does not condemn you. He sympathizes with you and will walk with you on the path to greater and greater faith. Please show yourself the same kindness that Jesus is showing you. Thank you.

Q. I recently came across the concept of non-duality, specifically what Rupert Spira shares about an infinite consciousness as the concept of “I,” that beneath (or above?) our self, thoughts, and feelings, it’s this consciousness that exists. I have been gravitating towards this, but I am concerned that it could be a false teaching that would pull me away from God. Can you help shed some light on this, whether it’s okay for me to believe in this non-duality or the infinite consciousness? I only want to serve one master and that is our Lord.

I must admit that I am not familiar with Rupert Spira or his teachings. Your question is the first that I have heard of them. I’m not sure that I would do justice to them if I tried to track them down and look them over briefly in order to give an opinion in response to your question. So let me respond this way: Do you have peace in your heart about these teachings? Or do they make you, as someone who only wants to serve Jesus, uncomfortable? If they make you uncomfortable, then I would recommend not pursuing them. I am suggesting that you can rely on spiritual discernment—the Holy Spirit in your life leading you into all truth—to decide about the character these teachings. Someone else may have occasion to read and study them thoroughly and give an evaluation of them in the light of biblical truth. But I think for your own purposes at this point, if you have these concerns about them, they are probably better left alone.

Q. Is it permissible for a Christian to drink alcoholic beverages?

As I understand it, this would be a matter of individual conviction. In Romans 14, Paul discusses various things about which Christians of good will can have honest differences of conviction. At the beginning of the discussion, he mentions eating meat (probably in context meaning food offered to idols) and observing the Sabbath. The principles Paul teaches are that each person “should be fully convinced in their own mind” and that everyone should “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” That means specifically not doing anything that would lead fellow believers to violate their own consciences and fall into sin. At the end of the discussion, Paul says by way of summary, “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.” This suggests that he considers whether or not to drink wine also to be a matter of individual conviction, like Sabbath observance and eating meat.

The Bible does stress that drunkenness is a sin. So any Christian who feels the liberty to drink alcoholic beverages such as wine must do so in moderation. This is a second qualification on the freedom, in addition to the mandate not to cause a fellow believer to sin.

I should also note that in that same discussion in Romans, Paul says, “Let us stop passing judgment on one another.” On matters of individual conviction, we answer to God, not to other people’s opinions of what we should or should not do. Paul says this even more strongly in Colossians: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Ideally we can recognize that choices that rest on individual conviction are minor matters, and we can concentrate on major matters, which have to do with how we can all grow up into the image of Christ.

Q. What should a Christian do if he is currently struggling with understanding the doctrine of the Trinity? What should he do if he he is having a hard time viewing God as being one God who is three persons at the same time (i.e. that it seems hard to differentiate the doctrine of the Trinity from the idea of there being three Gods)? Should he just accept the doctrine of the Trinity on faith and accept on faith that the doctrine of the Trinity is monotheistic (e.g. “This is what the Bible teaches, and I know that the Bible is true, even though I don’t really understand the doctrine very well”)?

I think that one thing a Christian can do who is struggling with the doctrine of the Trinity is to recognize that the Christian faith involves many things that are paradoxes. A paradox consists of two things that seem as if they both cannot be true at the same time, but which are actually both true.

One paradox of the Christian faith is that God is three, but also one. But there are also other paradoxes. The kingdom of God is already here, but it is not here yet. Jesus on earth was both fully human and fully divine. God is completely sovereign, and yet human beings are morally accountable. And so forth.

The way to come to terms with a paradox that the Bible teaches is not to choose one side over the other, but to recognize that the truths of God surpass the capabilities of our human minds. We can trust what God has revealed to us in his word even if our minds are not yet able to grasp how two things that his word affirms can both be true at the same time. It may be helpful to think of the analogy of a child not understanding, for example, why his parents, who supposedly love him, are punishing him. The child is not yet able to understand that discipline is an expression of love. The child only feels hurt and humiliated, and people who love you are not supposed to hurt and humiliate you. But hopefully the child will appreciate, relatively young in life, that good parents correct and discipline a child for his own good, and that it is actually much less loving not to discipline a child.

Perhaps another way to come to terms with the doctrine of the Trinity is to work to understand it in light of what I think is the best analogy we have available here on earth. We don’t know any other beings who are both three and one, but we can consider that the spouses in a healthy marriage are two who have become one. There is no loss of individuality; rather, individuality is actually enhanced. But something beyond the individuals has also come into being, and yet it consists of those individuals: a married couple. That couple functions as a being of its own in many ways. For example, while the spouses have each other’s company, “sometimes the couple gets lonely,” as my late wife used to say, and the couple needs the company of another couple or of other couples.

Personally I also find it helpful to appreciate the implications of the doctrine of the Trinity. It means that at the core of God’s being is relationship, community, cooperation, and interdependence. Humans are created in God’s image, and so when we cultivate and experience these things as true worshipers of God, we are sharing in the essence of God. That is something that the doctrine of the Trinity has for us even though we are not able to grasp it fully with our minds. So I hope you will not see that doctrine as a burden, something you have to believe even though it is impossible for your mind to understand. That would be a burden indeed. Rather, see it as a doctrine that reveals something about the nature of God, by which I mean not his threeness and oneness, but his essential relationalness.

Well, my spell-checker is having trouble with the words in that last sentence! That shows how hard it is to put the doctrine of the Trinity into words. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t put it into practice.

Q. I went to church Sunday. When I got home, everything went wrong.
Could Satan be messing with me?

The Bible teaches clearly that all those who seek to follow and obey God in this life will encounter opposition from “the world,” “the flesh,” and “the devil.” These phrases refer, respectively, to the worldwide system of interests opposed to God; to that part of us that wants to live without regard to God; and to evil spiritual beings who hate God and work to defeat those who believe in him. It is often difficult to determine exactly which part of this evil triumvirate we might be up against, and so I find it helpful to think of them as a collective and not try to parse things any more finely. We can just say, “I think I’m up against the world, the flesh, and the devil here.”

However, it is also true that we human beings are perfectly capable of creating problems for ourselves! So when things go wrong, we shouldn’t automatically conclude that we are facing spiritual opposition. Nevertheless, sometimes, through spiritual discernment, we do get a sense that it is happening. Recently I suffered a minor injury right at a time when I needed good health and strength to do some important work for God. I was speaking to my pastor about this, and I said that I suspected the injury could be the result of spiritual opposition, although I also acknowledged that accidents do happen in this world. “We don’t need to blame the devil every time somebody stubs their toe,” I observed. “No,” my pastor replied, “but you can tell.”

I think that often we can indeed tell. The fact that you made a connection between going to church and “everything going wrong” when you got home suggests that perhaps, by spiritual discernment, you did recognize that “Satan was messing with you.” (That is, that you were up against the world, the flesh, and the devil.) I don’t know whether you meant that you had returned to church after some time of not attending, but if that was the case, then it would surely be likely that you would encounter turbulence as you moved from one set of commitments and activities to another set that reflected a renewed resolve to follow God. But even if you were already attending regularly, there might have been something in the experience of attending worship that day that had inspired deeper and stronger devotion, and it would not be a surprise if you encountered turbulence after that as well.

I would say that the most important thing to keep in mind in such situations is that the main goal of the forces opposed to God is to get you to act unlike a child of God. As one of my professors in seminary used to say, for as long as God has purposes to accomplish through you on this earth, “you are immortal.” The forces opposed to God cannot take you out. But if they can make you act unlike the son or daughter of God that you are, then that is a partial victory for them.

So even if one thing after another goes wrong and you are getting very frustrated, ask yourself, “How can I act as a child of God in this situation?” Recently an online vendor cancelled an order that I had placed and paid for, and the vendor only refunded a small part of the purchase price. Several weeks later, I am still trying to sort this out. But it dawned on me, when I first recognized the problem, “This is my chance to be nice.” I have made an effort to be very courteous with every person I have spoken with on the phone about this. They have noticed and thanked me for my patience. Will I eventually get the rest of my money back? I certainly hope so! But in the meantime, I want to act in this situation like a son of God.

So, I encourage you to continue attending church. Don’t let the turbulence keep you from that. Instead, you can say, “If the world, the flesh, and the devil are so upset about this, I should really keep doing it!” And if everything goes wrong again when you get home, see that as your chance to live in the situation as a son or daughter of God. God bless you!

Q. Why were certain foods considered unclean in the Old Testament? What was the reason/purpose for this? Why was circumcision required? What was the reason/purpose for this? I know these were based on God’s commandments, but I’m not sure of the reason/purpose. Was it for health reasons? Or something else? If it was for health reasons, doesn’t that imply we should follow these commandments today too?

Both being circumcised and keeping kosher were “insignia,” that is, signs that the people who did those things belonged to God as members of his covenant community.

Regarding circumcision, God said to Abraham, “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. … My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.” The Hebrew idiom for making a covenant was to “cut” a covenant, since this often involved a ceremony in which sacrificed animals were cut up and the parties to the covenant walked between the pieces to indicate, “If I break this covenant, may this happen to me!” Circumcision also involves cutting, and in that way it was a symbol for covenant membership. (But note that the Bible only envisions male circumcision. It does not provide any warrant for so-called female circumcision. Women belonged fully to the covenant even though only men were circumcised.)

Distinguishing between “clean” and “unclean” animals (that is, between those that could be eaten and those that could not be eaten) was also a covenant sign. God said to the people of Israel through Moses, “I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations. You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. … You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” (The phrases “set apart” and “make a distinction” translate the same Hebrew verb.)

So these provisions in the law were ultimately ways by which the people of Israel were to identify themselves as God’s people. There are some similar “insignia” for the New Covenant, particularly being baptized and observing the Lord’s Supper, but the most important markers of God’s people now are the “fruit of the Spirit,” the character qualities that the Holy Spirit builds into the lives of believers: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things we should be most careful to build into our lives as God’s people today. I believe we are free to make our own choices about circumcision and kosher.