Even if you are not one of the world’s quarter-billion twitter users, you probably still know that twitter-sent messages or “tweets” can only be up to 140 characters in length.  Those who use the social media service know that as a result of the restricted length it’s somewhat of an art form to get a perfect tweet.  Anyone can say something in 140 characters, but to really get a worthwhile message across is not always so easy. 

I read recently that a perfect tweet needs to do three things: get the reader’s attention, make a complete statement - preferably without abbreviations, and leave the reader with a memorable point.  Each aspect is simple enough, but it’s the ability to get them all together in such a short form that makes a tweet truly excellent.

In the book How God became Jesus, Michael Bird (forgive what might seem like a pun) makes the point, in passing, that the Gospel of John “tweets” the incarnation. This is what he says: “John 1:14 in Greek is exactly 140 characters: 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, full of grace and truth’” (p. 68).  This set me thinking in terms of the perfect tweet. How does John’s statement fit the rules?

Hopefully noticing who ultimately sent the message in John 1:14 gets our attention, so that aspect should be taken care of,  and John’s words certainly make a complete statement without abbreviation. So how about leaving the reader with a memorable point?  That’s where John really excels!  In the space of those 140 characters John delivers the incredible news that God became man, and that the One who is described as “the Word,” or the Son of God, actually dwelt among us. This is a  massive concept in itself, but John continues with two other amazing truths – that this is not just a story, it is something that was witnessed by numerous individuals – and not just glimpsed, but actively seen to the degree that the witnesses could see God’s nature, as being “full of grace and truth.”  That’s really three hugely important statements about the Christian faith all in the same “tweet” space.  

The one thing this “tweet” doesn’t tell us is why these three connected and vital things occurred, and for that we have to turn, of course, to another of John’s tweet-size statements – that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).   This statement tells us three things, also. It describes God’s love, shows us the need for faith, and tells us the outcome we get when the two things are put together.

Looked at that way, if we  focus closely on his words and think about them, John was able to preach a very large part of the gospel in two amazingly small, tweet-sized statements. How does that apply to us? It should remind us what incredible depth there often is in just a few words in the Gospel of John and, of course, in many other parts of the Bible.  It reminds us why we hear so often that we shouldn’t just read the Bible, but that we should truly focus on all that is in even the smallest statement that tells us something about God. We don’t need to focus that intently on the average tweet to grasp all its meaning, but when it is God who is sending the message, there is often a great deal in the space of only a few written characters.

If it were not for the Tenth Commandment, it is likely that most of us would never hear or use the word “covet.” It’s certainly not common in modern English.  But as it is, the word is one every Christian knows.  We know covet means “desire.”  It sounds like a King James Version word, and it is: “Thou shalt not covet…” (Exodus 20:17 KJV) is how many of us met it.  But even though the word “desire” is a readily available synonym, the word covet is still used in most modern translations of the Tenth Commandment (see NIV, ESV, NKJV, etc.), so the word's image as representing something bad persists. 

But coveting isn’t all bad. There is a good side to coveting that we should not forget. Look at these two examples:   Psalm 19:7-10 - where the Law of the Lord is to be coveted, and Psalm 68:16 – where God Himself covets us to dwell with Him.   In the original Hebrew, exactly the same word, chamad, is used in these instances as in the command “you shall not covet,” so what’s the difference?   In reality, the biblical use of the word “covet,” just like “desire,” can be good or bad depending on context. In the Ten Commandments we are given examples of specific things that we should not covet or desire – our neighbor’s wife, house or, in fact, “anything that is his.”   So biblically, it’s not wrong to covet or desire a wife, or a house, or anything else – just so long as it does not already belong to someone else, and that it doesn’t become an obsession, of course, which would break the first commandment.

In the New Testament the Greek word epithumia has the same dual usage of a right and a wrong desiring of things.  Luke 22:15 tells us that  Jesus desired or  coveted to eat the Passover with His disciples, and 1 Timothy 3:1 tells us if a man covets after the office of a bishop, he covets or desires a good work.

So the Bible certainly gives plenty of examples where coveting things wrongly led to very bad consequences. But it also gives a great many examples where coveting things is fine.  In fact, the positive use of the word is more common in the Bible, and that’s an understanding we can apply to ourselves. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words carry some extra weight that “desire” doesn’t always have. We  can desire food when it’s meal time, for example, but “desire” (just like the word “want”) doesn’t always convey deep desire – that we really want something badly. That’s more the aspect covered in the word “covet.”

This context can help us to see the real significance in 1 Corinthians 12:31 where the apostle Paul commands us to “covet earnestly the best spiritual gifts” (KJV – most modern translations say “desire”). He outlines what those gifts are in 1 Corinthians 13, but Paul isn’t just reminding us that those gifts of God’s Spirit are things we should find appealing – he is saying they are things we should want badly!  God doesn't want us to mildly desire the things He offers, but to deeply, passionately and actively want them. 

So, remember, there are some things we should not covet – but there are others we should, and we have a direct command regarding those good things, one that we need to be applying in our lives on a daily basis: “You shall covet!”

There are a number of useful Bible apps out there that can be run on smart phones or computers. However, a new start-up - The Bible App Project – is planning some fresh and we think important  new apps, so take a moment sometime to look here at their site.

Note that we at LivingWithFaith.org and our sister site TacticalChristianity.org have nothing to sell (we don't even accept donations), and we do not endorse or advertise products for sale.  In this case, The Bible App Project is operating in a way we are happy with - they plan to generously provide some of their fully-functional basic Bible apps for free download, with the option of pay-for  upgrades or additions.  That seems like a fair way to produce Bible-based software (and still be able to stay in business to provide the service!)

The Bible App Project is just getting started, but check out their website.  We look forward to being able to let you know more, in future announcements, about this exciting project.

It often seems that the greater the sacrifice involved in what we give to God, the more God uses the gift and the greater good He brings from it.  If this sounds radical or merely speculative, consider examples ranging from the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-5) to the sacrifice of Jesus Himself (Hebrews 9:28), and consider the story of Hannah.

Hannah was one of the two wives of the Israelite Elkanah, a woman whose story is a lasting testimony to sacrifice and blessing (1 Samuel 1-2).  Although she was loved by her husband, Hannah was childless and was tormented by her co-wife, Peninnah, who had borne children to him.  Every year Elkanah went up to the sanctuary at Shiloh to offer sacrifices, and it was on one of these occasions that Hannah went into the sanctuary and prayed before God while the High Priest, Eli, was sitting nearby.  In her anguish Hannah prayed silently yet fervently for a son, promising that she would give the child back to God, as a lifelong servant, if He would answer her prayer (1 Samuel 1:10-11). Such was the fervor of Hannah’s prayer that Eli thought she was drunk and rebuked her, only to change his correction to a blessing when he realized the truth of the situation.

As 1 Samuel shows, God heard Hannah’s prayer and blessed her with a son; but true to her word, after she had weaned the young boy, she returned to Shiloh and presented him to Eli for the service of God.  Notice Hannah’s words: “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord…” (1 Samuel 1:27-28).  But a more literal translation of the last part of this passage might be as follows: “I also have given back what was asked [i.e., prayed for] to God …”  The more literal translation puts focus on the fact that Hannah had given back a gift from God – which meant a great deal to her – and returned the gift to God, despite the fact that it was doubtless a great emotional sacrifice. 

We see two things regarding this returning a gift to God in the story of Hannah.  First, that God often blesses those who give back His gifts to Him even more than before.  After sacrificing her beloved only son to God’s service, God blessed Hannah with more children (1 Samuel 2:21) and, doubtless, happiness.  The other lesson we learn from the story of Hannah is that God often uses the gifts which are true sacrifices in very powerful ways.  Of course, Hannah’s son Samuel grew to be one of the greatest prophets of ancient Israel and God’s leading servant in that time.  We see this pattern in the lives of a number of biblical figures – that those who are dedicated to God and sacrificed to His purpose perform great deeds, as we see repeatedly in the lives of individuals such as Samuel and Samson and in no less a person than Jesus Himself:  the greater the sacrifice, the greater that which is accomplished through it.

God’s word shows that He does honor the sacrifice of what He gives; just as He honored the sacrifice of Hannah’s only son, God honors what we sacrifice and give back to Him, also.  We have all received gifts from God (James 1:17), and if we are willing to give some of them back, God will not only bless us, but also will often use those gifts to an extent we might not even expect.

Scripture in Question:  Mark 6:5

Mark’s Gospel records the famous statement of Jesus that  “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home” (Mark 6:4). These words were spoken in a context which explains them, but which may seem puzzling:  “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them” (Mark 6:5).

Reading these words, that “He could not do any miracles there…,”  we understand that it was the lack of acceptance and faith in who he was that led to the lack of miracles, but does Mark mean that Jesus was unable to do miracles in his home area?

We should first understand that the divinity of Christ was not dependent upon man in any way and could not be limited by man (John 1:1-4). God can perform miracles in any circumstance whether the onlookers believe or not.  So Mark must mean something other than that Jesus was unable to do the miraculous works he would have normally done.  Remember, Mark does say he performed some healings, and Matthew’s account confirms that he “did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:58).  

The use of “He could not do any miracles there” in Mark can be understood in the same way that we use the expression “cannot” in circumstances where we should not or feel constrained not to do something. If  we are encouraged to do something we know is wrong by someone, we might say “I can’t do that” –meaning that we are constrained by our beliefs or moral obligations.  The Greek expression used in Mark 6:5, ouk edunato “he could not,”  is often used in the same way. It appears, for example, in Jesus’ parable of the neighbor who is invited to a feast but says “I cannot (ou dunatai) attend because I have just been married" (Luke 14:20).  It is not that the invited man was physically unable to attend – just that he felt constrained not to do so.

The Son of God could certainly have performed many miracles in his home area had he chosen to do so, but he clearly felt constrained by the unbelief of the people there.  Remember that the miracles Jesus performed were not just displays of power – they were signs of His divine authority and witnesses to his call to people to repent and obey God. If he knew the people in his home town of Nazareth were not ready for that message, or willing to accept it at that time, they might have been jeopardized by the fact that they were given signs but still refused to obey God. Doubtless it was with sorrow that Jesus withheld the power he could have used there.

Is there a lesson in this for us? Perhaps there are times in our own situations when God would be pleased to perform certain things in our lives, but chooses not to do them because we lack the faith to receive them or are not ready for the responsibility such things would bring.  We must remind ourselves that this is the purpose of continued growth in faith – the more we grow, the less God constrains Himself in what He accomplishes in us.

"There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't."
– Robert Benchley, American Humorist.

Benchley’s wry comment touches on the truth that most of us do see life in terms of duality:  hot and cold, old and young, tired and rested, hungry and full. It’s an attitude that naturally spills into our spiritual lives where we may think in terms of good and evil, saved and unsaved, love and hate – and in prayer – answered and not answered. 

I have heard of Christians who are firm believers in the power of prayer who keep a record of their prayers, marking down when they feel their requests are answered or remain unanswered.  That may help people remember the many prayers that clearly do get answered in life, but the approach can also hinder our full perception of the power of prayer.   When we presume that prayer is either answered or unanswered, we limit ourselves from seeing other possibilities and may even cut ourselves off from a confidence that comes from seeing beyond the black-white dichotomy.

Instead of thinking of prayer as just answered or unanswered, it is often more profitable to think in terms of three answers – all of which are positive: “Yes!”  “Yes, but not yet!” or  “I have something better in mind!”

Sometimes prayers are answered immediately, sometimes we have to wait to see the positive  answer, and other times the answer takes an entirely different form from what we presumed it might be, but the answer is clearly better than what we had asked for.   In fact, a prayer can be answered in all of these ways.  Think for example of the prayer of Hezekiah, king of Judah. 2 Kings 19 tells us that when Jerusalem was surrounded by an overpowering Assyrian force, God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and defeated the enemy.

That answer was a resounding “Yes!,” and  from our perspective the answer was virtually immediate, though God’s help actually came later that night, so from Hezekiah’s perspective, for a number of hours, it may have seemed like a “Not Yet!” answer.  In fact, the answer to Hezekiah’s prayer may also be an example of “I have something better in mind!” The king simply prayed for Jerusalem to be delivered from the enemy army (2 Kings 19:19), but he may well have presumed his own army would have to fight to gain the victory.  As it was, 2 Kings tells us that God took care of the problem His way, using His power, and Hezekiah’s army did not even have to fight.

So, perhaps that is what Jesus meant when he said “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you” (John 16:23).  Remember that Jesus was speaking to his disciples, and not necessarily to everyone when he said that, and we do have to qualify to claim his promise (see our full article “When Prayer is Unanswered”). But if we are doing our part we can be confident in a positive answer whether the answer is immediate, given later, or perhaps different to what we expected.

Serious loss or continuing problems may be hard to understand as positive answers, but they can be.  The answer to believing prayer really isn’t an either/or – it’s a situation in which the best answer is always given – whether immediately, at the best time, or in the form of something better in the long term than what we asked. 

Why did Abraham stop at ten?  You remember the story in Genesis 18:16-33: The Lord appeared to Abraham and told him that He planned to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their evil.  But Abraham boldly pleaded with the Lord for the cities and for any righteous people who might be living in them:

“Then Abraham … said ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’” (Genesis 18:23-25).

You remember what happens next. The Lord agreed that for the sake of fifty innocent people he would not destroy the cities. Abraham obviously knew how bad those cities were because he then begins to lower the number of people for whom God might spare the cities. He asks if God would spare the cities for the sake of 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10 people. In each case God agrees that He would spare the cities for those smaller numbers.  Then Abraham stops!

Many readers of the Bible have wondered why Abraham stopped at 10 people, and some have even written that the Patriarch “ran out of steam” as it were –  that he lacked faith to continue to plead for fewer than ten people.  Others have thought that perhaps Abraham thought that if there were fewer than ten righteous people, perhaps there was no excuse for those cities.

This kind of speculation forgets an important detail in the story. Notice that immediately after Abraham pleaded for ten God answered: “‘For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.’ When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home” (Genesis 18:32-33).  Notice that it was God who ended the conversation – before Abraham could plead any more. Given the pattern he had utilized, it is likely that Abraham might next have pleaded for the sake of five people, but God knew that there were fewer than five righteous individuals in the two cities and He chose to spare those very few -  the family of Lot (Genesis 19) – and to destroy the cities of sin.

There are a great number of things we can learn from this story.  Not only does the episode show obvious things such as the seriousness of uncontrolled sin and its potential for judgment, but we see much regarding the mercy of God and the effect of even a few upright people in protecting communities from judgment.  We see in this story God’s willingness for His people to pray for those who are in dire danger – no matter what their moral state – and perhaps we see the desire of God to look for and to see the compassion of his servant Abraham in this situation.  And remember that Abraham did not plead that the righteous would have opportunity to vacate the cities, or to be miraculously protected from the destruction – he clearly was pleading for the cities and their inhabitants as well as any righteous citizens.

God doubtless knew that Abraham would have continued to plead for those cities if even fewer than ten righteous people were to be found in them, but knowing His own purpose God ended the conversation when Abraham got as far as ten. Nevertheless, it’s something we might ask ourselves:  would we have gone as far as Abraham? At what point would we have stopped asking for mercy on others?

“A weed is just a plant in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Whoever wrote that didn’t have a garden.  After spending way too much of my day wrestling with crabgrass, dandelions and other assorted  non-cultivars today, I almost titled this post “Weeds are Sins.”  That may seem extreme, but after several hours of weeding I might be able to make a case for it. 

At the very least, we can say weeds are connected to sin - as the Book of Genesis clearly shows.   When Adam failed his first job as a gardener and ate from the wrong plant in the Garden of Eden, he was told clearly:  “Cursed is the ground because of you…It will produce thorns and thistles for you” (Genesis 3:17-18). 

Since then, weeds have been with us and we humans have found little good to say about them.  Do you remember what the final words of Job were as he ended his defense as recorded in the Book of Job? He expressed his frustration and misery with the most discouraging words he could think of (and he thought of quite a few): “… let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley” (Job 31:39-40). Then there is Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds found in Matthew 13, of course.  It was a parable that he doubtless knew would make a point in a hand-powered farm-to-fork agrarian society.

But why do I think weeds are like sin? Well, back to my garden.  If your yard is anything like mine, you know weeding takes a lot of time.  I  frequently put down weed killer (don’t worry, I buy the earth-friendly kind), but the weeds still show up.   They not only show up, but they seem to always find the hardest places to dig them out of.  And if I don’t dig them out, they not only thrive, they multiply (ever wonder why weeds seem to produce so many more offspring than the plants you want?), and as they multiply they spread – even (and I must say this quietly) into my neighbor’s yard.

The parallels with sin are all too obvious.  Even with frequent use of God’s sin-weed killer, the Bible, sins still show up – often in the most unexpected areas of life.  And you know what happens if we don’t dig them out  as soon as we become aware of them.  Neither the “I’ll get the weeds next week” or the “I’ll quit this sin soon” plans ever seem to work out very well. 

What’s the answer?  There doesn’t seem to be an easy one in both cases.  Pulling out weeds and tearing out sins are both exhausting work. They both seem to be never ending jobs.  But you know what?  When I see how much better things really are with the latest outgrowths of crabgrass, envy, dandelions, gossip, and other weeds and sins gone, I realize it really is worth the constant effort.

That way, we can get back to the job of growing the good plants – the faith and good works that God wants to see in our lives – as Isaiah says: “For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth...” (Isaiah 61:11).

After all, that’s what the gardens, and people, of God are supposed to be like: “Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters” (Numbers 24:6) - and as you see, there is no mention of weeds.

I recently read a very fine short piece by Ken Moll, called "Faith in the Gap." The article deals with a subject that is of the greatest importance to all of us, and it's of particular interest to every student of biblical faith. 
What does Ken mean by that intriguing title, "Faith in the Gap"?  We are happy to say that you can find out, because he has granted permission for us to reproduce his article and you can read it here, in our "Faith Survival Kit" section.   It's thought-provoking and encouraging. Don't miss it!

We have a great selection of biblically-based blogs planned for the coming weeks – topics to help you in growing your understanding and strengthening your faith.  The same is true for our sister site, TacticalChristianity.org, so be sure to check that site out as you go along.  Our websites are reaching many thousands of people in over forty countries, so we will be striving to provide material of interest and value to you - wherever you are.

“He who does not see the gift, does not see the giver.”

There is an old saying that “yesterday’s gift is already twice forgotten.”  We may express appreciation when we receive a gift, but it’s a human proclivity to forget it after a little while; and even important gifts become parts of our everyday lives  that we don’t think about any more.  We even say something is a “given” if it is accepted and something we no longer need to focus on. 

But when the apostle Paul wrote that we should be “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20 ESV), the “always” and “for everything” would certainly seem to include past gifts that we still enjoy rather than only those new ones of which we might be more aware.  But human forgetfulness still stops us doing this as much as we should. So how do we make our appreciation stick?  There are four things that help:

Give thanks for it.  That’s exactly what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 5:20.  We need to offer thanks to the One from whom all gifts ultimately come (James 1:17) – no matter who delivers them.  And occasionally we need to remind ourselves of the most basic gifts of all.  The average human heart beats around 100,000 times a day, 35 million times a year, but how many of those mega-micro-gifts have we ever given thanks for?  The more we see small gifts, the more we see large ones in true perspective.

Write it down.  It may be hard to write down every gift we receive, but complete recording is not the point. The more we think to write down our gifts, the more we become aware of them.  Writing down the things for which you are truly thankful at the end of each week in a “gratitude list” gives you a way of keeping the memory and appreciation of them alive.

Tell someone about it.  This is easy enough if we have mates, family members or close friends with whom we can talk openly.  Naturally, our significant people don’t need to know that we are thankful that we didn’t burn the toast again this morning, but telling others about serious blessings is the opposite of confession – it tells others how good God is and helps them realize the gifts they have.

Share it with someone.  By “share” I mean literally share the gift or part of it where this is appropriate.  We may not be able to share some of the most basic  gifts in life, but  then again, sometimes we can.  We can share many aspects of our physical blessings by giving part of what we earn,  loaning items to people who need them, giving of our time and by sharing in many other ways. If you read through your "gratitude list" every so often, you may find a number of things that are appropriate to share. Whatever it may be, when we share a gift we focus on it and often appreciate it more ourselves.

The more of these basic techniques we employ, the more we appreciate what we have – and the more the appreciation sticks with us.  And there is another aspect to this.  The more appreciative we become, the more we live our "attitude of gratitude." As John F. Kennedy wrote:  “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible...Faith begins where man's power ends.” – George Müller

Born Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller (often spelled Mueller) in a small village near Halberstadt in what is now Germany, Müller’s early life was marked by its absence of faith. It is said that he stole from his father, and that at 14, while his mother was dying, he spent the time drinking and playing cards with his friends.

But Müller's father encouraged him to take a religious education and while studying divinity at the University of Halle, Müller began to seriously read the Bible and was converted.  He soon desired to be a missionary and began preaching regularly in churches in and around Halle.

In 1829, Müller travelled to London and worked in a number of church-related positions including serving as a minister, although in 1830 he renounced his salary for that position and began what would be a lifetime of trusting God for his needs and the needs of his phenomenally productive work.

Müller founded the “Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad” to assist Christian schools and missionaries. Through this institution he successfully distributed over 285,000 Bibles, one and a half million New Testaments and almost a quarter of a million tracts and also established a number of Christian schools and orphanages.   He received no church or government support for this work and accepted only unsolicited gifts, but his organization received and used well over one million pounds (around 90 million pounds  - or some 155 million US dollars - today).

Beginning in 1836 Müller and his wife organized their own rented home to receive orphaned girls and then began to add more homes as dedicated orphanages for boys and girls. Eventually he ran five orphans’ homes which cared for over ten thousand orphans during his lifetime.  Müller also established 117 Christian schools which taught over 120,000 children, many of whom were orphans.

Throughout all this Müller never appealed for financial help, nor went into debt, but continually asked God in faith for the things needed. It is known that many times unsolicited gifts of food and other supplies would arrive right at the time they were needed. On one documented occasion, Müller  gave thanks for breakfast with all the orphan children sitting at the tables, although  he had no food to give them.  As he finished praying, the local baker came to the door with a gift of sufficient bread to feed everyone, and a local milkman also arrived with a large amount of fresh milk because his cart had broken down right outside the orphanage.  These and every other gift accepted by Müller – down to the smallest quarter penny – were carefully noted down, and the records of what was received and spent were made available for public scrutiny.

Müller also accomplished a great deal of missionary work in over thirty countries – as widely scattered as Egypt, China, Australia and the United States.  His efforts remain an inspiration to anyone who is willing to look at the good he was able to effect with virtually nothing but trust; and his accomplishments challenge us to ask ourselves what we might accomplish in our lives through faith.