NUMBER TWELVE, 2021
In this issue 3
Time with God
charles r. swindoll
Leaders: Lives and Lessons 8
Nehemiah and Opposition
11
Shake It Up a Little
steve johnson david carl
Purposeful Living 12 Purpose to Live According to Your Position and Identity in Christ steve johnson
Beyond the Broadcast 14 The Magnet That Still Draws Us Close
Puzzle 15 Identity in Christ
Insights is published by Insight for Living Canada, the Bibleteaching ministry of Charles (Chuck) R. Swindoll. Chuck is the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Texas. His international radio program Insight for Living has aired for more than 40 years. We hope this publication will instruct, inspire, and encourage you in your walk with Christ. Copyright © 2021 Insight for Living Canada. All rights reserved. No portion of this monthly publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture passages are taken from the NLT. Unless otherwise noted, photography and illustration by Tim Schellenberg. IFLC is an autonomous ministry and certified member of the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities. Printed in Canada.
TIME WITH GOD by charles r. swindoll
Cover & Article Photo: Kelly Sikkema on unsplash.com
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was raised to believe in the impor- pose Hymn 26, “Vindicate me, O LORD, tance of a “quiet time.” To the surprise for I have walked in my integrity, / And I of some, the original idea of that concept have trusted in the LORD without waverdid not come from the late Dawson Trot- ing. / Examine me, O LORD, and try me; man, the founder of The Navigators, but / Test my mind and my heart” (26:1–2), from the Lord Himself. he wasn’t whipping up a few emotional Replete through the Scriptures are thoughts to wow the reader. Those words references to the value of waiting for splashed from the depths of his troubled the Lord and spending time with God. soul, like the salty spray that explodes On such occasions, the debris we have when waves crash against the rocks. gathered during the hurried, busy hours Time with God? Who experienced its of our day gets filvalue more than Job tered out, not unlike May your time with God after he lost everythe silt that settles include us more than thing he owned? In where a river widens, ever in your prayers. worship he wrote: and we are able to see “Naked I came from things more clearly... One of these days in the my mother’s womb, not-too-distant future, / And naked I shall to feel God’s nudging more sensitively. return there. / The we will know the David frequently Father’s perfect will for LORD gave and the underscored the LORD has taken away. us, which, by the way, / Blessed be the name benefits of solitude. will also be His perfect of the LORD” (Job I am certain he first became acquainted will for this church we 1:21). And Job’s quiet with this discipline trust didn’t wear thin; love and serve. as he kept his father’s the man continued sheep. Later, during those tumultuous to commune with God. Remember his years when King Saul was borderline confession? What makes it even more insane and pursuing him out of jealousy, remarkable is that he stated it while surDavid found his time with God not only a rounded by those who accused him: needed refuge but his means of survival. "But He knows the way I take; When he wrote, “Wait for the LORD; / When He has tried me, I shall come forth Be strong and let your heart take couras gold. age; / Yes, wait for the LORD” (Psalm My foot has held fast to His path; 27:14 NASB1995), David was intimately I have kept His way and not turned aside. acquainted with what that meant. When I have not departed from the command he admitted, “I waited patiently for the of His lips; LORD; / And He inclined to me and heard I have treasured the words of His mouth my cry” (40:1), it was not out of a context more than my necessary food.” of unrealistic theory. The man was hurt(23:10–12) ing, deeply pained. And when he tore a That’s it! That is exactly what occurs page from his journal and used it to com- when we get alone, remove ourselves
deliberately from the fast track, and keep our appointment with Him who made us. His words take on greater meaning than a good meal. What great thoughts He has for us...what insights...what comfort... what reassurance! And the best part of all is that such divine breakthroughs come so unexpectedly. Though you and I may each have met in solitude with God morning after morning, suddenly there comes that one day, like none other, when He reveals His plan...and we're blown away. It happened to Moses. Alone with his father-in-law Jethro’s flock of woollies on the backside of the desert, perhaps after the howling night winds of the wilderness had settled and the searing rays of the Sinai sun began to peek over the awesome slopes of Horeb, God spoke from the midst of a bush that was strangely ablaze. And what was it God said? What was it that the 80-year-old, over-the-hill shepherd heard? In effect, “Lead the exodus!” The night before, who would’ve ever guessed that an otherwise ordinary dawn would find the old man reeling in disbelief ? Least of all, Moses. F. B. Meyer wrote with eloquence: There are days in all of our lives that come unannounced, unheralded. No angel faces look out of heaven; no angel voices put us on our guard; but as we look back on them in later years, we realize that they were the turning points of our existence. Perhaps we look longingly back on the uneventful routine of the life that lies beyond them, but the angel, with drawn sword, forbids our return and compels us forward. It was so with Moses.¹ Understand, those phenomenal moments are the exception, not the rule. If God spoke to us like that on an
everyday basis, burning bushes would be as commonplace as traffic lights and ringing phones. Fact is, never again in all of time has the voice of God been heard from a bush that refused to be consumed with flames. You see, God is into original works, not duplicated recordings. But never doubt it: He still longs to speak to waiting hearts...hearts that are quiet before Him. As David wrote in one of his “Maskil” (“instructive,” “contemplative”) psalms: Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. (Psalm 32:6–8) To bring all this home, I'd like to offer you an example from my own life, at a time in 1993 when I was considering leaving our church in Fullerton, California, to accept the invitation to become the president of Dallas Theological Seminary. In the midst of the process of waiting on the Lord, I wrote the following letter to our congregation: As most of you know, Cynthia and I are currently waiting for the Lord and spending an extensive amount of time before Him. In my initial announcement to the church, I stated that we were seeking His mind and trying to discern His will. I realized that such an announcement was unusual—especially
since it had nothing whatsoever to do with some deeply personal problem in the realm of moral or ethical failure. Pastors don’t normally announce their inner struggles or alert their congregations to something as private as their own personal “stirrings,” lest it become complicated by rumors which are not true, creating a spirit of unrest and distrust among the congregation. Due to this risk, most pastors keep their churnings to themselves. My decision to come up front and announce our situation—prompted by our board of elders—was actually a compliment to all in our church. We felt that the Fullerton Free Church flock not only could handle such an unorthodox announcement but would appreciate knowing that their senior pastor and wife are genuinely seeking to know God’s will for the future. Furthermore, by doing so, I would be enlisting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of caring, fellow Christians to pray with us and for us during these days and weeks of waiting. As a result, I am confident all of us have intensified our time with God.
Cynthia and I want one thing: to be doing only what God wants us to do, where He wants us to do it, and to do so with all our hearts. As soon as I know for sure, I'll say so. May your time with God include us more than ever in your prayers. One of these days in the not-too-distant future, we will know the Father’s perfect will for us, which, by the way, will also be His perfect will for this church we love and serve. When circumstances like these arrive in our lives, we all need to have developed the habit of spending time with the Lord. I never could have imagined the journey God would take us on in answer to those prayers offered many years ago. He is full of surprises! So let me urge you to remain faithful in your quiet times with God. He will certainly be faithful to provide the answers you need...just as you need them. 1. F. B. Meyer, The Life of Moses: The Servant of God (Lynnwood, Wash.: Emerald Books, 1996), 31. Copyright © 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
The Magnet That Still Draws Us Close SINGLE CD MESSAGE
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NEHEMIAH AND OPPOSITION by steve johnson
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esus said, “I will build my church” ence and power through prayer. This is and in the same breath added, “and why prayer without ceasing, prayer in any all the powers of hell will not conquer it” and every situation, is critical if we are going to build a life that honours God. It (Matthew 16:18). When a Christian says, “I will rise up is in the context of facing opposition that and build” the enemy says, “I will rise Paul writes, “Pray in the Spirit at all times up and oppose.” This was certainly true and on every occasion” (Ephesians 6:18). for Nehemiah who wanted to rebuild the Through prayer we wait on the Lord for walls of Jerusalem but who also faced His grace to supply what we need. opposition and obstacles of all kinds— A Reaffirmation of Purpose Nehemiah’s ultimate purpose was to ridicule, threats, misrepresentation, and honour the Lord. To that end he had a false accusation to name a few. goal to rebuild the wall You and I want to build When a Christian says, and he never lost sight a life that honours God (1 Corinthians 3:11–13) but “I will rise up and build” of that goal. When Scripthat desire brings opposi- the enemy says, “I will ture says, “The people… worked with enthusiasm” tion. From Nehemiah we rise up and oppose.” (Nehemiah 4:6), it was can learn three strategies because they were focused on their purfor handling opposition. pose of bringing glory to God by building A Response of Prayer From start to finish Nehemiah bathed the wall. This focus fuelled their enthusieverything in prayer. From the time he asm. They stayed with their purpose and first heard of the condition of Jerusalem to conquered their opposition. Nehemiah every time he faced a challenge or attack, had a job to do and he did it. He and all the Nehemiah went to the Lord in prayer. He people kept pressing on toward the goal. continually derived grace in the form of After 52 days they completed the wall direction, wisdom, inner strength, and (Nehemiah 6:15). God’s purpose for every Christian is to encouragement from the Lord. Prayer helped him keep his perspective clear on glorify Him in thought, word, and deed. who God is and who his enemies were. It But when we lose sight of that purpose, we lose our momentum and enthusikept him grounded in his purpose. “We are human, but we don’t wage war asm. We become ripe for succumbing to as humans do” (2 Corinthians 10:3). The opposition. This is where prayer comes in thing our enemy fears most is a believer again to keep us grounded in our purpose who is continually invoking God’s pres- as it did for Nehemiah.
A Resoluteness in Perseverance Nehemiah was very aware of the various types of opposition against him but continued the work anyway. He persevered in building. Instead of entering into debate with his detractors he took steps to arm the workers ensuring that the work continued (Nehemiah 4:13). Put simply, the goal of opposition and obstacles is to stop the progress of building. Knowing this, the best response to opposition is to persevere in the work and not get sidetracked by engaging with it. Since Satan failed to keep believers from coming to faith in Christ, his objective now is to keep us from glorifying God. Our enemy has many weapons in his arsenal. Opposition comes to us in many forms, but we need to be wise to
them, as Paul wrote, “so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The book of Nehemiah is a great study on the types of opposition and obstacles our enemy uses. The common denominator with every type of opposition thrown at Nehemiah were the strategies of prayer, purpose, and perseverance. The enemy of our souls wants us to stop praying, lose sight of our goal, and to stop working. Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for Living Canada.
Our national office is located in Abbotsford, BC but our program airs across the country. To find a station near you visit insightforliving.ca/find-station
SHAKE IT UP A LITTLE b y d a v ID c a r l
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it up is to worship at an Anglican or a s I get older, I am starting to see a contemporary church, to visit both large pattern emerging in my life. My congregations and small start-ups. They attention is getting more focused—that’s all worship God differently, with varia good thing. I don’t like my schedule to ous traditions and styles. Many of the be disrupted too much—not so good. I am churches I’ve visited I wouldn’t want getting increasingly set in my ways—not to attend every week, but it is so good good at all. It has become very clear to me to see wonderful people serving God in in the last several years that one of the different ways. most obvious characteristics of a disciple of Christ is that he or she is enthusiasti- 2. Take a day of silence and solitude I have long wanted to do this, but it is cally in a state of change. None of us completely out of my comfort zone. I “arrives” as a Christian—we are always on feel down deep that I need to cultivate the journey. the disciplines of silence I am prone to avoid I want to be wholly and solitude in order to change and disruption, rooted in Scripture understand things I have but if I do, I will become the thing that has been and willing to jettison not understood before. the cause of so much secuanything that keeps There is a lot to this—and most of it I don’t yet comlar finger-wagging: I will me from pursuing Him. prehend—but I’m going become the controlling, to start learning. Jesus went away for unconcerned Christian. I really don’t want silence and solitude often; I guess I to become that guy—Jesus was not that could start and do it once. guy. Instead, I want to be wholly rooted in My list includes other ideas, but I want Scripture and willing to jettison anything that keeps me from pursuing Him. I have to encourage you to make up some of your made a list of things that I want to do this own. Open up the windows of your life year to “shake it up”—to keep myself open and let the wind blow through. Shake it and winsome and spiritually agile. Here up, and don’t let yourself become controlling and unconcerned. Don’t let yourself are a couple of them. 1. O c c a s i o n a l l y, w o r s h i p w i t h become “that guy” or “that gal.” Christians from other traditions I was raised Presbyterian/Baptist/Evan- Copyright © 2009 by Insight for Living, Inc. All gelical Free. A great way for me to shake rights are reserved.
PURPOSE TO LIVE ACCORDING TO YOUR POSITION AND IDENTITY IN CHRIST
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hat do you see when you look in the mirror? How do you perceive yourself ? Someone has said, “Perceptions are reality.” Someone else said, “Whatever you think you are—you are!” Here is a bold statement: If you see yourself as a sinner, saved by grace, you will sin and your Christian life will be mediocre at best. You will be riddled with guilt and open to Satan’s attack along that line. In other words, what we believe about ourselves determines our behaviour. One of Satan’s most successful schemes is that of keeping Christians ignorant of their true identity in Christ. Since that is true, it is critical for us to understand our position in Christ and intentionally purpose to live according to our identity in Him. For that to happen
there are four significant things to understand and believe. Our New Position Picture two fields beside each other with a fence running between them. We were all born into the one field. Some of the biblical phrases describing our position there are: in Adam, under law, in the kingdom of Satan, enemies of God, in darkness, separated from God, spiritually dead in our sins, and condemned. But in grace and mercy God transfers all whose faith is in Jesus Christ from that field into the field on the other side of the fence. Our position changes from being: in Adam to in Christ, under law to under grace, in the kingdom of Satan to in the kingdom of God, enemies of God to reconciled to Him, in dark-
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by steve johnson
ness to in the light, separated from God to Once we understand these things, here’s united to Him, spiritually dead in our sins to how to be purposeful about our new idenbeing alive unto God, condemned to acquit- tity in Christ. ted, and destined for hell to having our citi- Appropriation zenship in heaven and being heaven-bound. Appropriate and apply these truths to Our New Identity ourselves. “In the same way, count yourAlong with a change of position our iden- selves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ tity changes. Our identity changes from Jesus” (Romans 6:11 NIV). Mentally shift being: a sinner to a saint, slaves to sin to how we perceive ourselves. free from sin, not in God’s family to a child Action of God and an heir, an enemy of God to a Head—Change our thinking about friend of God, an old creation to a new cre- things by washing and renewing our mind ation, cursed to blessed, broken to whole, with the truth of God’s Word. rejected to accepted, and insignificant to “Don’t copy the behavior and customs significant. This new identity comes not of this world, but let God transform you from what we have done, or what people into a new person by changing the way say about us, but from what God has done you think. Then you will learn to know for us and what God says about us. God’s will for you, which is good and Our New Union pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) The new position and Heart—To tap into the What we believe about resources of Christ in us the new identity are because we are brought ourselves determines our continually surrender to, into union and comand be under the influbehaviour. That is why ence munion with Jesus in of, the Holy Spirit. we must purpose to live “…Be filled with the Holy such a way that what is true of Him becomes according to our position Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). true of us. His resources Hands—Put off and and identity in Christ. become ours. put on. As our thinking And it is even more than that. It is a is being renewed, we are to kill off the double union. The life of Christ is now in habits remaining from when we lived us by His Holy Spirit so that the life we in darkness. “So put to death the sinful, live is to be Christ living through us. “My earthly things lurking within you. Have old self has been crucified with Christ. It nothing to do with sexual immorality, is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in impurity, lust, and evil desires” (Colosme” (Galatians 2:20). sians 3:5). Starve old sinful habits and Our Old Ways feed new godly habits. Even though we have a new position What we believe about ourselves and identity sin still lurks in these bodies. determines our behaviour. That is why We have patterns of thinking and behav- we must purpose to live according to our ing consistent with our old position and position and identity in Christ. identity that were not eradicated when we were saved. That’s why we end up Steve Johnson is the executive director at Insight for doing things we shouldn’t and not doing Living Canada. things we should.
“When all the necessary and predicted events had fallen into place, the Saviour came exactly where God appointed Him to be born and at the time God wanted Him to come." — CHUCK SWINDOLL
The Magnet That Still Draws Us Close
Jesus’ birth was no last-minute, hopeit-works plan! Jesus was born exactly where and when God intended. God’s predetermined plan was like a magnet, pulling together the events surrounding Christ’s birth so that Jesus was born at just the right time, in just the right place. This study for Christmas reminds us that God sovereignly gets His way, often through circumstances no one expected. The magnetism of God’s plan drew Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem; it summoned the shepherds to the manger to worship Jesus; and it shone the way for the wise men on their quest to find the King of Kings. It still draws us to Jesus like a heavenly magnet as we come together and worship our Lord and Saviour at Christmas. On that first Christmas, the divine Son of God took His first human breath as He entered humanity as one of us. The moment of Jesus’ birth was an event like none other in history, and it changed the world forever. Its appeal was...and still is...irresistible! Observing God’s sovereign plan at work in the details of Luke’s Christmas narrative
leads us to a better understanding of “the fullness of time” in Galatians 4:4. Read the following verses and reflect on the meaning of this phrase. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4–5 NASB1995) How had biblical history culminated according to God’s timetable and reached its “fullness” at the coming of Christ? For a hint, turn back one chapter in Luke and read Zacharias’ prophecy of Jesus’ birth as the fulfilment of God’s promises to David and Abraham (Luke 1:68–73) and the ultimate fulfilment of God’s rescue of His people (1:74–79). Based on this passage, what promises were fulfilled when Jesus was born? By fulfilling the teaching and prophecies of the Old Testament, the coming of Christ signalled a new era in God’s redemptive plan—a new era radiantly marked by the Messiah’s star rising in the east!
“The Magnet That Still Draws Us Close” is from Chuck Swindoll’s series The Season That Still Touches Hearts. You can stream this message online anytime at insightforliving.ca/audiolibrary.
Puzzle — Word Jumble Puzzle
Identity in Christ Difficulty ● ● ○ ○
The objective of this puzzle is to unscramble the letters to form a word or phrase that describes our identity in Christ. Words are from the NIV translation and found in Romans 8:1–2,17, 2 Corinthians 5:17–21, Ephesians 1:1–13, and 2:6–10; Colossians 3:1–4.
