The Hammer of Faith

The subject of faith has, for the last several weeks, been weighing on my mind. I've spoken about it in private conversation, I have preached sermons on the subject, and I find myself thinking about it quite frequently. The importance of faith cannot be overstated for the Christian experience, nor can it be adequately explained or expressed in human terms. Nevertheless, we must try to understand and exercise our faith. The question is, "How do I do that?"

Well, one way is to dream big. I know it sounds a bit cliché but I believe one of the reasons we accomplish so little is because we dream little. I'm all for being realistic, but I honestly feel that we need to have aspirations that are far beyond what we "think" we can possibly do. Recently in a sermon I recalled something my grandfather, himself a former pastor, used to say: "Shoot for the moon. If you hit the streetlight, at least you got off the ground." I really liked that growing up, and as an adult and pastor, I often referred myself to that old saying.

But I realized something: perhaps we are held back as individuals and in our churches because of that very reason: we are aiming at the moon, but we're perfectly content to hit the streetlight. We accept even the smallest success as sufficient success, and we stop there. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that small successes are less valid. In fact some of the greatest accomplishments in life are small. But we should still not be afraid of big dreams. Yes, the moon is farther away than the streetlight, but the moon has a much better view. Perhaps if we'll just take a step or two to the side, we can avoid the streetlight and rise higher than we thought possible. The more we try, the more we accomplish, and the more we try and achieve the greater and stronger our faith becomes.

Another way to understand and exercise faith is to believe. You might be saying, "Isn't that what faith is: believing?" Yes, that's one way to put it. But the belief I'm talking about is a belief in the impossible. It's easy to believe your car is running once you turn the key in the ignition and the engine comes on. It's easy to believe in healing when you're not sick. It is up to us to believe even when it seems like it's an impossibility that what we're believing in will actually come to pass. The way we do this is to take the focus and trust off of ourselves and place that focus and trust on God. You see, we are frail, finite and prone to failure. When we focus on or trust in self we are bound to be let down. By turning our attention to God, who is omnipotent, infinite and unable to fail, we are able to increase our level of hope. All things are possible with God, even the impossible. And as Jesus said, "If you can believe, all things are possible for those who believe."

Understanding and increasing faith also requires an open ear and an open heart. We need to listen to the Lord as He bears witness to our spirit. If the Lord calls you to do something, it is not a call to failure but to succeed. We shy away from so many things, refuse to move for fear of failing, of letting ourselves or others down, or for fear of disappointing the Lord. But the only way the Lord is disappointed is if we refuse to try. When it comes to risking something for Christ, remember that IT IS NO RISK! He wants us to serve Him. He wants us to be strong, unafraid, and bold enough to move in faith toward wherever or whatever it is He's leading us. And remember that the Lord doesn't call for results; He calls for obedience. The results are in His hands. As Paul put it, one plants, another waters, but it is God who gives the increase. Life's greatest disappointments come when we look back and see what could have been. Since success in Jesus is limitless, we should focus not on what could have been, but on what still can be!

I can't help but think of Noah. Noah had his own life, his own plans, but then God showed up. The Lord shared with Noah what His plans were for destroying the earth, and His mechanism for preserving the human race: the ark. It was up to Noah to lay aside self, obey the call of God and start building the ark. In a similar way God also tells us His plans today. His plans include our obedience to His call, our service to His ministry; He calls us to be witnesses, to work, and to be faithful. When we obey His plans for us, we are like Noah: exercising our faith and growing stronger in Him.

Over the one hundred years it took Noah to build the ark, he no doubt had to deal with a great many problems, insults, and any number of other things. But with each swing of his hammer, his faith was made stronger and in the end his faith was justified. You see, God had promised to send the waters to consume the earth and everything in it. It was Noah's job to prepare the ark. And that, my friend, is the lesson: we need to be swinging the hammer of our faith as well.

Sometimes God must have the ark built before He can send the rain. This goes for the positive as well as the negative in life. On the positive side, it sometimes takes great preparation and effort before we're ready to experience the full flood of God's blessings. Yet through the work, in the process itself, we learn a great deal about the Lord as well as strengthening our faith every day. Once we're ready, the Lord can pour His blessings out upon us. And sometimes there are bad things that life throws at us. Through our faithfulness to obey and serve God, we are increasing our faith again. Only this time the strength of faith will enable us to endure, to find the silver lining of Christ's grace which enables us to victoriously make it through any and all of life's great challenges.

All of us are building some kind of ark. I'm sure Noah made extra sure that every crack was filled, every weak spot reinforced, so that no matter what kind of storm hit his ark he'd still stay afloat. That's what we must do. Pay attention to the Lord, allow Him to show you the weak places and cracks in your own life. Then, through prayer and faith, let Him help you fix those problems. In this way, you can weather the storms of life and reap the blessings of God at the same time. It might take a lifetime, but keep swinging that hammer of faith because in the end, you'll be glad you did.

 © 2008, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press.  All rights reserved.  All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States.  It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by leaving a comment (with your request) which will be forwarded to Chris Keeton. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted.  Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.

Learning a New Skill

As a kind of update of the update, I am a week or so away from the start of publication of a weekly (or as close to weekly as possible!) Soulscape e-newsletter. It's been an interesting process, learning the programs, tweaking here and there to make the final product actually look somewhat decent and presentable in your inbox. As far as content, I hope to continue the general pattern of the blog (which I will still be updating with the same content; the e-newsletter is just a more convenient format and is easy to forward, but you can always visit here for the same updates), including a little humor, observation, and Scriptural commentary.

What I have discovered in this process that, as we age, it is increasingly difficult to learn even the most basic of skills. I say this as a still relatively young man, and about an area of knowledge in which I have been fairly well-versed over the years. What should be intuitive has become a difficult process of trial and error, of a sort of "okay, now what am I supposed to do because the last seventeen things I tried didn't work" situation.

Perhaps that's one of the things that keeps the playing field level for everyone. I've said over and over again that everyone is equal in the eyes of the Lord, no matter what their circumstances or age. Adults are often frustrated that children are sometimes slow to pick up on the most basic of principles which will help keep them safe and help them develop the wisdom they need to successfully function in this life. Yet we as adults are guilty of many of the same "transgressions" our younger counterparts are: failure to learn from our mistakes, continually trying to do things ourselves, thinking we know what's best at all times, and a general state of arrogance.

Life is hard sometimes. It's difficult to learn new skills or even retain the skills we've already learned. But just as we are patient with young folks as they grow, so God is patient toward us, His children (of any age) who continue to learn and grow, who make plenty of serious and many times avoidable mistakes, and who, given enough time, can grasp those things that make our lives and the lives of others so much better.

So with that in mind, I'll continue trying to learn these computer programs, and learn a little more about life, so that I can bring my observations to you. Hang in there, and we'll see you soon!

© 2008, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press.  All rights reserved.  All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States.  It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by leaving a comment (with your request) which will be forwarded to Chris Keeton. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted.  Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.

To Explain the Delay

As technology moves ever-forward, other methods of communication present themselves. That fact, coupled with a little bit of money to afford said technologies/software programs, will help explain the time since my last entry. Needless to say, I got sicker following the last entry, and it took several days before feeling better. Trying to catch up on things following that illness, and the recent acquisition of a few new programs, have all come together to occupy the majority of my time.

In the next couple of weeks, I hope to be able to institute an idea I'd floated a while back: a Soulscape e-Newsletter. I have to learn the programs and things before being able to actually get down to business, but I hope to have things back up as soon as possible. I will be posting here as usual, but will also be developing an e-newsletter to send Soulscape straight into your inbox. I'm also trying to create an e-newsletter for my church.

Great things are happening, and I look forward to sharing them with you. Please stand by. I appreciate your patience during this time. Don't give up on me yet! I'll be back very soon, and hopefully better than ever!

If you're in the mood for a sermon or two (or more!), stop by http://feeds.feedburner.com/westwoodonline for recent sermon audio additions. You can download them or just listen straight from the webpage. Or you can visit iTunes and search for Chris Keeton, then click on the Westwood Church of God podcasts to subscribe or listen.

God bless!

Does God have RSS?

(NOTE: It is currently five minutes before church is to start on Wednesday, but I'm at home, sick with a cough and bad throat, two things which make it a bit difficult for a preacher. At any rate, I was unable to post yesterday and, in a desire to actually feel useful at a time when I should be in church, I thought I'd write a little something. And, knowing me, I should finish about the same time I would normally wrap up a sermon!)

I was perusing the features of my particular web browser and discovered a way to easily subscribe to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for many of my favorite web sites. And with a few clicks of my mouse, BANG! Updates right there in front of me! I am a creature of habit, visiting the same websites, in the same order, day after day. Now it will be easy to find daily the relevant and updated information on those little islands I visit in the great sea that is the Internet.

Well, in my weird little way of trying to bring my daily life and experiences to Soulscape and here put a spiritual or inspirational spin on them, I got to thinking about a title for this entry, and it suddenly came: Does God have RSS? And I say YES!

In this case, I would contend that RSS stands for "Really Spiritual Syndication," and God's RSS feed is updated on a moment-by-moment basis. He's had this RSS feed much longer than the Internet, much longer than computers. In fact, He's had His RSS feed for thousands of years. We usually call it by a different name, but the principle is the same: we call it PRAYER.

I've done a lot of writing on prayer in the past, so I'm not going to go into a great exploration of prayer (time and my current health prohibit), but I did want to put a modern spin on an ancient truth. What does God want for us? How can He help us? Does He still speak to us in modern times? The way to find out the answers to these questions is through prayer. Take some time to spend with the Lord in prayer. Don't just talk to Him when you need or want something. Seek His guidance and His fellowship.

The Bible is indeed an ancient book; there is no disputing that. But its relevance can only come to light when we seek God and His will through Jesus Christ. As we pray, we find elements of our own lives in the familiar stories contained in Holy Scripture. When we recognize some path, some similarity, that's God speaking to us. When we feel the warmth of peace and grace in our hearts during a time or a situation where those things should not logically exists, that's God speaking to us. When we pray with the knowledge that even if we don't feel anything spectacular or don't see "results" immediately, that knowledge is God speaking to us.

Since we can get this information any time, it pays to visit the Lord often. We don't want to miss anything He has for us. So I would suggest that you subscribe to God's RSS feed. Just sign up through prayer. You don't even need to worry about entering any other information, since God knows it all anyway. Just express your interest and commit yourself to going to Him regularly, and you will be able to find what you need from the Lord, and what He wants for you.

© 2008, Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press.  All rights reserved.  All material printed on this site is protected by the copyright law of the United States.  It may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Chris Keeton and Soulscape Press, obtainable by leaving a comment (with your request) which will be forwarded to Chris Keeton. Altering or removing any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content is not permitted.  Any and all portions of material copied from the Soulscape Blog must be properly attributed to Chris Keeton and Soulscape, and cited with original blog web address.