How to be Closer to God

First, let me explain what I mean by being closer to God. Think of it this way. The closer a person is to God, the less room there is for things and people and situations, etc. to come between that person and his relationship with God. Our being close to God suggests an intimate relationship with Him, and the Bible is filled with promises of the peace and blessings that God bestows upon those who love Him this way.

This is an important discussion topic because sometimes I hear people say something like, “I know I need to get closer to God.” Oftentimes, they say that after they have made a big mess of their life, and others can see the mess. Also, it is not unusual for a new convert to Christianity to ask the question, “How can I get closer to God?”

I submit to you that our relationship with God is not happenstance. We have much to do with the quality of that relationship. Yes, I am saying that there are things we can do to be closer to God. For instance, the Bible says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8a). According to this verse, we must draw near to God to initiate the process. God, in turn, reciprocates.

Are you one who desires to be closer to God? I certainly am. And get this, I am very pleased with, even amazed by, my current relationship with God. But there is always room for us to get even closer to God, and that is a present passion of mine.

To be sure, our just coming to church faithfully won’t get us there. In other words, a person who has been faithfully attending church for fifteen years is not necessarily closer to God than someone who has been attending for only one year!

As a case in point, consider this verse: “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Hebrews 5:11, NIV). This verse suggests that these believers who should now be able to teach others had not progressed spiritually but had actually regressed over time.

So the question is, how do we progress from being a babe in Christ to becoming a mature Christian? The answer lies in the next verse: “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (verse 12).

Note the phrase “who by constant use have trained themselves.” I believe this is the key. You see, it’s good that we attend a Bible-believing church and we study the Bible, pray to God, and attend worship faithfully. But our quest to be closer to God requires more. We must train ourselves by constantly using what we learn. The more passionately we do this, the more intimate our relationship with God will become.

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Beauty is More Than Skin Deep

These days, we place way too much emphasis on a person’s physical appearance. When you look at TV, for instance, you are bombarded with paid programming and ad campaigns promising to give you the total makeover you need to become the "new you." Diets, dream pills, cosmetic surgery, home gyms, beauty products, you name it, it’s out there for you. And the reason these many products and services exist is because our beauty craze has created the market.

Now, just for the record, I have nothing against physical beauty. I believe that we should be good stewards of the body God has blessed us with. But today’s excess emphasis on physical appearance is misguided because it suggests—strongly suggests—that beauty is only skin deep.

The good news is that, in God’s eyes, a woman does not have to be a size 5, and a man does not have to have a sculptured physique to be deemed beautiful or handsome. You see, God sees things differently from the way man does. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Since this is a Christian blog, I am writing specifically to the Christian community, though the gist of what I am saying applies to everyone. My observation is that the Christian community has gone down the same misguided road of the world in overemphasizing physical appearance. It’s certainly OK for us to dress up and look our best when we attend the house of God, but if we want to please God, we must concentrate on being beautiful within.

For instance, here is an interesting passage in the Bible that speaks to Christian women: “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:3-4).

The message in these verses is not that Christian women can’t wear jewelry and fine clothes and braid their hair. Rather, the message is that these things are not to be regarded as the source of the woman’s beauty. Clearly, in the eyes of God, beauty is more than skin deep. As His children, this is also the way He wants us to see others.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Wait on the Lord

Bottom line up front: I don’t like waiting. I’m sure that doesn’t make me unique to anybody else. None of us likes to wait. For one thing, the world has taught us that waiting is a bad word.

My lack of patience caused problems early in my relationship with the Lord. Not unlike most preachers and pastors, I wanted to do a great work for the Lord, and I wanted success to come overnight. But over the past 30 years, I have learned a lot about the inevitability of having to wait on the Lord.

Furthermore, I have seen God answer my prayers in such huge ways in certain areas of my life that now I am persuaded that it pays to wait on the Lord. Hence, in this post, my goal is not to try and convince anyone of the value of waiting on the Lord. Rather, I want to underscore the importance of something the Bible says on this subject: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart” (Psalm 27:14).

I am sure that some of you arrived at this post because you inputted a keyword or keyword phrase pertaining to waiting on the Lord, and the search engine came up with search results that included this post. It is reasonable to assume that some of you went on such a search because you have been praying about and believing God for something or some things, and the wait is wearing on your patience. So, reflecting on the verse above, here is a question: how do we wait on the Lord and be of good courage at the same time? This is not a natural combination because, remember, we don’t like to wait.

Let me share with you a couple of helpful truths I have learned in this area:

God’s ways are not like ours (see Isaiah 55:8). Some of the discouragement we experience in waiting on the Lord results from our ignorance of God’s ways. Hence, it is important that we study our Bible that we might learn the ways of God. Dealing with Him is worlds apart from dealing with our next door neighbor. God is God. Our neighbor is but a man—or a woman. Hence, we don't intuitively know the ways of God. The more we understand His ways, the less alarmed we are when He acts differently from how we think He should.

God moves in the fullness of time. His perspective is always superior to ours. Sometimes, we think that if God doesn’t answer our prayer by a certain date, we are finished, but God knows better. He knows the optimum time to respond to us. Plus, He has the power to redeem our situation whenever He "shows up." If we don’t trust God on this one, we can’t have peace while waiting on the Lord.

So what pressing issues do you have in your life today? I want to encourage you to have faith in and wait on the Lord, as opposed to simply doing what's convenient or acting out of desperation. Sometimes it’s not easy, but always it is best to wait on Him.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

What Young Christians Want from the Church

(Article first published as What Young Christians Want from the Church on Technorati)

A couple of weeks ago, the Barna Group posted an article on its site that really grabbed my attention. The article stemmed from the findings of a five year project the group had done between 2007 and 2011, to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with teens and young adults striving to grow in their faith while living in a fast-changing culture.

According to the Barna Group, 59% of young Christians leave the church after the age of 15, either for a long period of time or permanently. From the study, six dominant themes emerged as to why young Christians leave the church, which I will state below in my own words:

• Youths want to connect with their world, but to them the church seems overprotective in this regard.

• Teens and young adults view their experience of church as shallow—God seems to be missing.

• In this highly technological age in which teens live and work, Christianity seems to be anti-science.

• In our sexually pervasive culture, the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date.”

• In a culture that promotes open-mindedness and tolerance, youths view the church as antithetical to that mindset.

• Youths feel that the church is not accommodating to Christians who have doubts about and who struggle with their faith.

Wow! This is a mega-sized challenge. As I read the Barna Group’s post, I thought about my children. As parents, we know that the six reasons stated above do a pretty good job at characterizing the culture that our teens and twentysomethings live in. Thriving in their world while growing in the faith is not an easy task for youths in Christ.

Based on the findings of the study, I believe that what young Christians want from the church is for those of us who are church and spiritual leaders to present Christianity in such a way that it is relevant to the culture in which teens and young adults must live and function. Moreover, I do not believe we have to abandon biblical truths to accomplish this.

In a nutshell, the aforementioned is the objective of the gospel message. Christianity was never meant to be shallow, out of touch, or hypothetical. Rather, God has blessed us with the priceless wisdom found in the Bible so we can provide real answers to real people with real challenges and who live in a real world. And to reverse the tide of our youths leaving the church, present-day Christianity must find out how to do exactly that.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Learning How to Trust in God

The Bible is filled with wonderful promises from God. And I believe everybody in his right mind wants to see God’s promises fulfilled in his or her life. But let’s be honest-- learning to trust God is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

For instance, in chapter 5 of the Book of Luke, the Bible talks about a time when Peter and other fishermen had fished all night and caught nothing. After the disappointing night, they proceeded to wash their nets. Then Jesus comes along and tells Peter to go out into the deep of the waters and let down his net for a catch (verse 4).

 Say what! “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net,” Peter replied (verse 5).

Peter’s response is significant because he was a fisherman. He knew how to fish. You see, if I had said the same words to the Lord they would mean nothing because I don’t know how to fish. I have never caught a fish in my life. But Peter said he and his fishing buddies had fished the waters all night long and had caught nothing.

A real challenge here is that the Lord was advising Peter in an area in which Peter was very knowledgeable. That can be a tough one for us because we may think we know it all. But as for Peter, though the circumstances suggested that what the Lord was asking him to do would avail nothing, Peter obeyed the Lord and let down his net.

And the Bible says when Peter and the others let down their nets, the catch was so big that their nets broke (verse 6)! The point here is that when we make it a habit to trust God, He blesses us for that. So from this biblical account, let me quickly share three things that are necessary, if we are to learn how to trust in God:

• First, we must invite Christ into our lives to be our personal Savior. When we accept Him as our Savior, He helps us to successfully live the Christian life. Without Him, success in this area is not possible.

• We must spend time with the Lord daily. The more time we spend with a person, the better we get to know him or her, and the stronger the bond of trust becomes. Our relationship with the Lord works the same way.

• We must put the Word of God into action. The Lord spoke with Peter in person, but to us, primarily, the Bible is how God speaks to us. And the only way we can learn to trust in God is to obey what He says so we can experience His faithfulness.

Oh, one more thing: No one in the Bible has ever gone wrong by trusting in the Lord.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

God’s Promises for Difficult Times

I believe most if not everyone who reads this post will agree that these are difficult times we are living in. God does not exempt us from being tested just because we are Christians. But He has given us promises in His Word to give us inner peace and to serve as an anchor for our soul during difficult times.

It’s hard to ignore it when we are going through a difficult time. That’s because we feel the weight of the test. We may know what the Bible says about God’s faithfulness during those times in our life, but we tend to focus more on the agony of the test than on the consolation of God’s promises. So in this post, let me share several of God’s promises that we should bear in mind when we are tested:

• “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). Based on this verse, it is not always true that when a person goes through difficulty in life that it’s due to his or her wrongdoing. Even the righteous will see many afflictions. But the good news is that God delivers him out of them all. If you are a Christian, you should never accept difficult times in your life as being lifetime sentences. God’s desire is to deliver you out of them all!

• “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Even when God allows difficult times to come in our life, He makes sure that they don’t overwhelm us. The Bible says God is faithful in this regard. We may feel as though we can’t bear the burden of our test, but we can if God allowed us to be subjected to it.

• “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally….” (James 1:5). In prayer we ask God for lots of things, but how often do we ask Him for wisdom? This verse invites us to. Moreover, this verse, taken from the book of James, specifically addresses times we when we are tested. So let us accept God’s invitation and pray to Him for wisdom on how to endure and overcome difficult times in our life.

The aforementioned verses only scratch the surface of all the promises of God that speak to those difficult times in our life. When we embrace them by faith, they give us peace amidst the storms of life.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

How Healthy are America’s Churches?

(Article first published as How Healthy are America's Churches? on Technorati)

The spiritual health of America’s churches is mostly on a downward trend. That’s a finding of a new survey report published by Faith Communities Today (FACT). The report is based on a series of FACT surveys involving 28,789 randomly sampled congregations. Surveys were done in 2000, 2005, 2008, and 2010. One of the reasons for the FACT survey series was to monitor the vital signs and health of American congregations.

Some of the health indicators from the survey series are:

Fewer members in the pews. The number of megachurches doubled during the past decade, but they amount to about one half of one percent of all churches, according to the surveys. Those megachurches notwithstanding, more than 1 in 4 churches had fewer than 50 attendees in worship in 2010. Just under half had fewer than 100 worshipers. Overall, the median weekend attendance to worship dropped from 130 to 108 during the past decade, according to FACT surveys. This represents approximately a 17 percent decline.

A steep drop in financial health. The percentage of churches in excellent financial health dropped from 31% in 2000 to only 14% in 2010. It should be noted that part of the reason for the steepest drop, from 19% to 14%, occurring between 2008 and 2010, was the recession of 2008 and 2009.

Continuing high levels of conflict. One disturbing revelation from the 2000-survey was the “dramatically high level of conflict” that existed in local congregations. This was found to be even slightly higher during the 2010-survey. Almost two out of every three congregations had experienced conflict in one of four key areas in the past five years. In a third of the congregations, the conflict was serious enough that members left or withheld financial support, or a leader left.

The spiritual health of America’s churches is a reflection of the spiritual health of the members who make up those congregations. Hence, the findings of the FACT survey series should serve as a wake-up call to spiritual leaders. The trend suggested by the above indicators is the antithesis of spiritually healthy churches. In turn, they suggest something seriously lacking at the grassroots level in our churches. For in healthy congregations, membership increases over time, not decrease. And as people of faith mature, interpersonal conflict gives way to more peace, not less.

Not all of the news from the survey series was bad, however. According to David A. Roozen, author of the study, research shows that contemporary worship in combination with other innovative practices has resulted in pockets of vitality among churches. FACT's complete report is a free download.

Copyright ©2011 by Frank King. All rights reserved.