If we are not fighting for faith we are drifting and drifting leads to numbness and eventual hardening.

We have adopted a very mushing view of faith, and have adopted psychological views of it rather than seen it for what it is a gift from God to be nurtured and fought to keep and grow.

Faith is proven and matures as it is tested, tried and applied to doing hard things.

Some of Paul’s final words, he exhorts Timothy,

1 Timothy 6:12

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called”

2 Timothy 4:7

“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

Look at King Asa, and how faith weakens and the importance of faith as a fight, it has to be nurtured like muscles or it will atrophy.

LESSON NINETEEN

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 14:1-8; Genesis 2-3; Ephesians 5:25, 6:4; 1 Corinthians 16:13

As the king goes, so the nation goes. As the character of men go so the culture and nation go. To seek the Lord and work too please the Lord brings personal and national peace.

Read 2 Chronicles 14:1-8

2 Chron 14:1-8

God favors the person and even nation that is serious about honoring Him and will bring internal and external peace so that the nation can build and develop in a healthy way. To seek the Lord brings inner peace and even national peace. It also requires men being men, men of valor who know what it means to be men.

There may be no greater need of our time than the fight of faith for godly mighty men of valor in our churches, homes and nation.

Simply back to the Garden, Adam got passive in upholding the commands of God and protecting Eve and the rest is history.

Ephesians 5:25

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Ephesians 6:4

“Fathers, do not provoke you children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”   We must remember it is the father that has that powerful identity stamp upon his children  -oh what a responsibility.

1 Corinthians 16:13

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

(slide)

“No culture will ever rise above the character of its men: fathers…The only hope for stability and the only hope for sanity, the only hope for peace in a society is masculine, virtuous men…Oh, there are lots of men at the gym, pretty buff, have some muscles, but they’re doing virtually nothing to stop the tide of evil in the world…Weak, immoral men abuse women, and they produce more weak, immoral sons…We are in some serious trouble because the current crop of men are infecting the children…Weak men produce the death of society…Something has to break the cycle?” (Pointman, Steve Farrar)

(slide) this is a prophetic statement and we are living in it today

“Our young are the first people of whom the following can be said: if they are males, they and their fathers and their brothers and sons and all the males they know are overwhelmingly likely to have been reared under the direct domination and supervision of females from birth to maturity…After all, this has never held true of any substantial proportion of any population for even one generation in the history of the world before the last fifty years…But most of those living today will live to see what this will be like!” (1966, Dr. Marion Levy, Modernization: Latecomers and Survivors)

Call men into discipleship, learning how to follow Jesus in the way forward to learn how to truly be a man, a man of valor, a mighty man, who knows how to sacrificially love his wife and lead his children and fight evil in the world.

This is very personal to me now, with 4 daughters, praying for a godly man and now my involvement with sons in law, it takes intentionality and i can’t speak into them if I haven’t spoken into my son what it means to be a man, a mighty man of valor.

Ladies, this in no way minimizes womanhood, it creates the environment in a marriage, home and culture for women to truly thrive. The lie of the world is that it has to tear down masculinity to raise femininity – this only leads to a culture that will further objectify and abuse women and leave them vulnerable and not safe in a lawless, chaotic culture.

If this strikes you wrong, please search the scripture and we would love to discuss with you.

LESSON 20

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 14:9-15:19; 1 Corinthians 10:12-13; Romans 1:16-17

Peace will never last in this world until Jesus returns and unites all things in heaven and earth together. Until then we need to be watchful and ready for the testing of our faith, the strengthening of our faith and the outworking of our faith to bring the lasting peace of the Gospel to human hearts.

Asa, was comfortable, blessed, able to be a nation builder, but suddenly the enemy arrives and not any normal enemy, but an army of 1M! The test of faith we must always be ready for in this life. Asa and his mighty men of valor don’t budge! Asa leads them in seeking the Lord’s aid, calls upon the Lord.

He will not tempt us beyond what we can handle, the test is never too much if we rely on Him, even a million man army.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed least he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with  the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.”

Romans 1:16-17

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith.”

The phrase “the Spirit of God came upon …” was common in the Old Testament for an activity of the Spirit particularly in reference to prophetic inspiration. The Chronicler used it several times (20:14; 24:20; cf. 1 Chr 12:18; 28:12).

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, p. 269). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The verse seems to have in focus the troubled period of the judges, when they ignored their God and his law. It is not that the Torah did not exist at this time, any more than that God did not exist (cf. Jer 10:10), but that it was not taught.

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, pp. 269–270). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

2 Chron 14, mighty miracles of God, again they do not instill lasting faith in and of themselves, relate to john 14, where Jesus says to believe on the miracles themselves

LESSON 21

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 16, 16:9; James 5:13-18

Be watchful for drifting faith which leads to rebellion rather than repentance and a hard heart rather than a pure, whole heart, trusting in the promises of God.

Oh the danger of drifting faith, where once Asa relied upon the Lord and sought the Lord, he here somehow got to the place of just relying on politics and man’s wisdom, which from a pure political standpoint seemed savvy. But the Lord was not sought, so the Lord turned Asa over to his will, what he wanted.

16:7

The important role of the prophet going straight to the king. What about today? Where are the true prophet voices who are not swayed by money, power or privilege but are zealous for the will of God in our churches and nation?

Nothing is known about Hanani apart from this entry in Chronicles, although his son, Jehu, is given a brief mention elsewhere (19:2; 20:34). This insertion of Asa into the story served to underline the consequences of falling away from the Lord. The verb “rely on” (šaʿan) that occurs in 14:11 is used again as an expression for trust, except this time Asa’s trust was not in the Lord. Asa’s sin was to rely on the king of Damascus-Aram rather than on the Lord. The incident is reminiscent of Isaiah’s condemnation of Ahaz when faced with a threat from the north (Isa 7). Had Asa remained faithful, he would have conquered Baasha as well as Aram. As it was, Syria (Aram) escaped from Asa’s hand and remained a threat to both Judah and Israel in costly wars later on.16:8 The two periods of Asa’s life are here contrasted. Early in his reign when he relied on the Lord, a great army (Cushites and Libyans) with many chariots and horsemen were delivered into his hand (14:9–15). Now in the latter period of his reign, despite appearances, he was a defeated man. He had done a foolish thing, and henceforth war would plague him (cf. 1 Sam 13:13).

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, p. 275). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Highlight 2 Chronicles 16:7-10, especially 16:9 as a promise from God

Oh the danger of drifting faith which leads to rebellion rather than repentance. And a hard heart, even on his deathbed he didn’t seek the Lord for repentance and healing. Refer here to James 5, much healing comes from repentance and reliance upon God.

2 Chronicles 16:9 – Do we believe this today? Getting God’s attention

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless (whole) toward him.”

Possibly tie to the readiness and reliance of the 5 virgins of Jesus’s parable, are we being watchful, or like Asa getting comfortable since the bridegroom is delaying? No one can give faith to another, each us has to fight for faith and are responsible before God.

Like Asa, we can see the level of our reliance upon the Lord is how we deal with physical health, the church today is very little different than the world and we rely more on the word of the medical profession than getting a word from the Lord. Oh, we give lip service to God, what ask him to use the doctors to heal us, great but what about the faith process before – do we labor with God first, should we are should we not take the drug, should we are should we not get that operation, etc.

2 Chronicles 16:9 – What a promise!

“For the eye of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

Provide some quick biblical steps: what does reliance upon God look like for mental and physical health:

1.) First, is this mental or physical ailment a result of God’s discipline? if so, repent and trust for healing, James 5:13-18

2.) If not, ask the Lord for healing, if He tells you like he did Paul with his thorn that it is for your good, then stop praying for healing and press on in faith trusting that your strength is made perfect in your weakness. My grace is sufficient.

3.) If God, doesn’t tell you He isn’t going to heal you, then press in for healing and wait upon the Lord and fight for faith.

4.) Ask the Lord if you are free to get medial advice, if so pursue medical help, but bring their advice to the Lord for an answer before proceeding.

5.) We must learn to fight for our healing by faith, to build our faith, to build the church’s faith, to hear the Lord’s voice, to attain healing, to keep our healing. God is our Healer, the Great Physician.

1 Timothy 6:12

“Fight the good fight of faith”

2 Timothy 4:7

“I have fought the good fight. Have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

So what we can see from Asa is that faith can be forfeited, otherwise why would Paul say he has kept the faith at the end of his race?

The post Are We Fighting for Faith? appeared first on Stephen Woodrow.

Do you have a vision for aging? Maybe you are like most people and know that aging is inevitable, but don’t want to think about it. Some are in denial and even try to fight it.

My hair started turning gray early. I am pretty much fully gray now at almost 54. I recently told someone that I had salt and pepper hair and my wife said, “Not much pepper among the salt.” I also had someone even recently suggest I color my hair. But, I am no longer bothered by my gray hair and beard. I actually am learning to embrace it!

One of the big missing pieces of discipleship within the Church has been the lack of equipping in the area of aging. We have not adequately taught or modeled how a follower of Jesus should grow old. Sadly, many believers are handling aging no differently than those who do not have a strong faith.

I had the opportunity this summer to speak at the Summit Aspen event and my title was “Older and Bolder.” I talked about Caleb being 85 years old and still ready to go to war against giants. Caleb’s words in Joshua 14:11-12 are part of my vision for aging:

“I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

Another key verse for my vision for aging is Deuteronomy 34:7, which states:

“Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated.”

I do not plan to live 120 years. I am not real concerned honestly in how many more years I have as much as how I am living now and how I will be living when I do finally die. We do not know when we will die, but we do have a say on how we live now and up to when we die. Both Caleb and Moses’ vision for aging flowed from lives that had surrendered to God’s grand purposes in the world. As they grew older they grew more in their passion for God’s grand purposes and surrendered more of their time and resources to those purposes. Is this modeled within the Christian community in America? For both Caleb and Moses as they grew older they grew bolder for God. They did not let their age make them play it safe and comfortable. They kept stepping out in faith and taking risks for the Kingdom. The Deuteronomy passage says that Moses’ “eye was undimmed and that his vigor was unabated.” I pray this verse regularly, that God would allow me to never have my eyes dimmed or for me never to lose my vigor for His kingdom. Our eyes are windows into our souls. If you have been with dying people or animals their eyes go dim as they come close to death. Sadly, for many their eyes go dim well before they die as a result of a lack of purpose and hope deep in their soul. Jesus says in Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” It seems that today too often Christians as they age they lose their vigor for God’s kingdom and their willingness to step out of comfort for God’s grand purposes. Physical aging does take a toll, but we can pray for divine health. It was a promise for the Israelites and in the New Testament we do not see sickness or disease completely sidetracking the early believers from serving the Lord.

Another passage that is part of my vision for aging is Philippians 1:20-21, “…with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” For Paul his vision of aging was that whether in his life or in his death that Christ would be glorified. Do we think about our death as an opportunity for God to get glory? Do we ask God that we might die for Him? Obviously, not all of us will be martyrs, but we can ask to have our death bring Him glory. But this is a result of living now for His glory. We can’t truly see death as gain unless we are learning to live today as Christ.

What do we have to fear? Jesus has conquered death for us! The day we met Jesus was the day we truly started to live and we will never die – for all eternity. So, old folks – why not grow older and bolder? Why not take more risk the older we get? Why not take on bigger giants the older we get? The younger generations are waiting to see us live like this.

The post A Vision for Aging appeared first on Stephen Woodrow.

So, for the next 5 weeks we will be talking about Building the Healthiest People Possible by looking at 5 biblical truths:

1.) A Healthy Person prioritizes interior life over exterior life

2.) A Healthy Person stewards time rather than uses time

3.) A Healthy Person embraces sacrifice over selfishness

4.) A Healthy Person works for the greater good of others

5.) A Healthy Person hangs around other healthy persons

One of the ways we are able to prioritize our interior life over our exterior life and build our interior life is by learning to pray New Testament soul-awakening prayers. Most of the prayers in the N.T. are prayers concerning the interior life not the exterior life. One easy way to determine if we are prioritizing our internal life over our exterior life is by evaluating our prayer life. Are we praying for ourselves and others primarily for internal spiritual awakening and blessing or are we primarily praying for external material things?

A Call to Prayer Leading Up to Resurrection Sunday:

Please join the Crossroads family by praying the soul-awakening prayer found in Colossians 1:9-12. We are committing to pray this prayer for ourselves, our family, and whoever else the Lord puts on our heart everyday leading up until Easter Sunday.

⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you (______), asking that you (______)may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ May you (______) be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you (_______) to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:9-12)

We are expecting to hear about the great things God has done as a result of His people joining together to pray that we may become the Healthiest People Possible and help others become the Healthiest People Possible.

The post Building the Healthiest People Possible appeared first on Stephen Woodrow.

I believe there are three primary areas, which we can be in bondage for approval:

appearance, performance and status. How we view each of these is integral to developing a healthy identity. This bondage to approval can start young if those closest to us do not affirm us in healthy ways in each of these ways. If we are overly affirmed for our appearance we can develop an unhealthy focus on our outward appearance over our inward health. This can lead to a highly superficial life and with highly superficial relationships. All we have to do is look to the entertainment community and online community to see its affects. If our appearance is under affirmed or negatively affirmed we can easily develop an unhealthy lifestyle of seeking affirmation in all the wrong places. If our performance (i.e.: grades, athletics, etc.) is overly affirmed we can become driven to perform but suffer from never “being good enough.” Performance based relationships are toxic. Now what about “status”? Interesting, that the “status symbol” is really a symbol of trying to gain approval. It is evidence of bondage for approval to a certain level of status. A person who is in bondage to status sizes people up and puts them into “classes” according to perceived status. Status based relationships are toxic.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. The bondage that comes from having to gain approval in these areas has had a destructive impact on the quality of relationships and all of life. The majority of people’s lives are lived believing their approval ratings are down and are striving whether they know it or not to gain approval. Now, if this bondage has such radical affect upon our relationship with others what kind of impact does it have on our relationship with God? Every religion in the world is based on this bondage to approval except Christianity.

Can you imagine a life free from having to gain approval from others?

What if there was a way to boost our approval ratings forever? It would be a treasure of incalculable value.

The good news of Jesus Christ reveals to us that our approval rating with our heavenly Father is 100%! This reality once in our hearts explodes a desire to seek Him and serve Him with expectation of incalculable reward! It also births a whole new level of healthy relationship with others. Here is how:

Stop striving to gain approval from others and from God (Matt 6:1-18)

Start believing you are approved by God in Christ Jesus and that He rewards those who continue to seek Him (2Cor 5:21, Hebrews 11:6)

Seek God’s plan, power and purpose for your life (Matt 6:33, 7:7-11)

So, we know that when our practicing of righteousness is done with an audience of One we are free from having to gain the approval of others and free to want and expect reward from our heavenly Father. At the core of this reward is greater knowledge and intimacy with God and with others. The greatest things is life are “relationships.”

As we grow in our understanding and experience of God’s love-approval over us we are now in a position to develop healthy relationship with others. And our heavenly Father desires to bless us with abundant healthy relationships. So, Stop, Start and Seek and reap the blessings from your heavenly Father!

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