WATER OF LIFE

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” SHOW ME YOUR FAITH WITHOUT WORKS< AND I will show you faith from my works. James 2:18

But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2:18 (NIV)

There are several translations (NASB, ESV, KJV, ASV) of the Bible that say ‘works’, the ISV says ‘actions’, the NLT says ‘good deeds’, and the NIV just says ‘deeds’. Todays CHRISTIANS HAVE EQUATED James’s ‘works’ to mean ‘good deeds’. True works revealing faith aren’t superficial acts of kindness. Works are visible acts of risking ourselves for others and the unseen struggles of the heart when applying God’s Word to our lives, following His leading and trusting His promises.

“In verses 15-17, James gave the example of a Christian who saw a brother or sister in need and wished him or her well, but did nothing to help meet the need. This again illustrates James’s point that such faith is useless.” (Life Lessons Learner Guide Fall 2009)

There are those who act like they are meeting someone’s need by giving cliche advice or baking something for them and don’t bother to try address or even try to understand what their real need is—especially if it might get them out of their comfort zone or cost them the time and energy it takes to really understand. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE James talks about who wishes you well and walks off.

Some people think that works revealing faith is about serving others at church. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we should serve our brothers but I don’t believe this counts for works that reveal faith because we’re just blessing those who bless us. Also acts like giving someone a book don’t qualify because that falls under the good deed mentality—instead James gave the example of Abraham and Rahab. Their works were ones of obedience to the point of hardship, trusting God’s promises in the face of impossible odds, and risking their lives for others, for God’s truth, and God’s people. These are acts and actions that truly require faith.

Many times works that reveal faith involve the pain of dying to self:

“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”
2 Corin. 4:11-12

God commands us to put others needs above our own, and love others by acting in their best interest. The superficial level is bringing food for your co-workers. The obedient level is honoring your boss by deferring to their opinion and not slandering them behind their back. The meaningful level is praying for your bosses and co-workers, ministering to them, and sharing God’s truth.

True works that reveal faith is trusting God when your heart is screaming out in a desperate need to react to something using your own power instead of believing God can and will do it with His power if it’s according to His will. Abraham gave into Sarah and gave her a baby through her servant. This wasn’t God’s plan but they gave into that scream in their heart telling them they have to take things into their own hands. Abraham is used as an example of works that reveal faith but even he failed at times, so it ain’t easy, but it is a living faith.

On May 5th I had a dream and wrote about it in my blog here. This dream was more literal (or prophetic) in meaning than purely symbolic as I had interpreted it. It’s good to journal dreams because God may later reveal more and give you a better understanding. I spent some time looking into the meaning of the dream but it didn’t hit me until May 23rd that this dream was about the class we started attending the day after my dream. I had been praying for a way to teach our kids more about the Lord and there was a flyer for a class for kids to teach them about Genesis. I thought this was an answer to my prayer—and it was—but what God was showing me through this dream was that this class would have just as big an impact on me as it would our kids.

This class introduced us to Answers in Genesis (AiG). To say this class has rocked my preconceptions about creation, the solar system, and the dinosaurs is a gross understatement. AiG is nothing other than God’s own divine truth revealed. I have read the whole Bible twice but this class has taken God’s Word to a whole new level for me. It has removed the deception that the secular world had brainwashed me with, and shown me how God’s creation really happened.

The biggest impact for me is about dinosaurs because it’s so obvious in the Bible. AiG explains the dinosaurs in the Bible as the Leviathan, the Behemoth, and dragons. “Job 41 describes a great animal that lived in the sea, Leviathan, that even breathed fire. This ‘dragon’ may have been something like a the mighty 55 foot long Kronosaurus, or the 82-foot long Liopleurodon.” (Ken Ham, What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?)

“Take a look at Behemoth, which I made, just as I made you. It eats grass like an ox. See its powerful loins and the muscles of its belly. Its tail is as strong as a cedar. The sinews of its thighs are knit tightly together. Its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs are bars of iron. It is a prime example of God’s handiwork, and only its Creator can threaten it. The mountains offer it their best food, where all the wild animals play. It lies under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds in the marsh. The lotus plants give it shade among the willows beside the stream. It is not disturbed by the raging river, not concerned when the swelling Jordan rushes around it. No one can catch it off guard or put a ring in its nose and lead it away.”
Job 40:15-19-24

Some Bibles say the Behemoth is an elephant, hippo, or mythical creature. However, you can certainly catch and lead an elephant and I’m sure that God wouldn’t be talking to Job about a mythical creature so only dinosaur fits the description. Dragons are mentioned in the books of Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Revelations and in the legends of many cultures. It makes sense that these dragons are what we today call dinosaurs. In addition to the other evidence presented by AiG, I have no problem now believing that the dinosaurs were created on the six day with all the other animals and thus are only 6000 years old and became extinct like so many other plants and animals in this fallen world we live in.

As I read my Daily Bible for the third time this year, I thought God was going to take me deeper into Revelations but He took me the exactly opposite direction. Instead of the end of time He showed me the beginning of creation. This has so much meaning on so many levels. First off, I don’t consider myself a man of science—I find it very interesting but I don’t base my beliefs on it. I take God’s Word as truth based on the miracles he has done in my life. But God wanted to show me His Glory even deeper and He gave me the scientific explanations even when I wasn’t asking for them. And He gave them to me on a level that I could understand and even explain to my kids. This is how my prayer to teach my kids about Him was answered. Also, I believe He is taking me farther in the direction of teaching and He showed me ‘creation science’ because He wants me to share it with my future students.

Why did it take until May 23rd, eighteens days after my dream, for me to understand what my dream was about? I didn’t read all the packets they had given us in the class until after I was intrigued by the third weeks session on dinosaurs. Then it became clear to me as I was reading the one of the packets on the solar system. There was an article from a Ph.D. astrophysicist (from my home state of Colorado no less), who explained the fallacy behind the big bang theory: “Despite claims to the contrary, we’ve never seen a star forming. Star formation seems to be nothing more than a secular attempt to explain the universe without invoking God.” (Dr. Jason Lisle, The Stars of Heaven Confirm Biblical Creation) This is when I recalled my astrophysics dream. I mean how often do I do anything with or read anything about astrophysics in my life? Never!

One question I raised during a couple sessions of the class was about carbon dating. One theory is that carbon could have been different before the flood (Doesn’t Carbon-14 Dating Disprove the Bible?). I didn’t realize that carbon dating is just used for living things and radioisotope dating is used to determine the age of rocks. In my mind (and probably in many others) this carbon/radioisotope dating was key to my belief about the millions of years of creation. “The world is awash with evolutionary propaganda centered on dinosaurs. This has resulted in the thinking of even Christians being permeated by evolutionary philosophy.” (Ken Ham, What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?)

The problem with ‘historical’ science is that we really can’t tell how things age over many years—it’s just guesswork and theories that are presumed to be fact. “All radioisotope dating methods assume (among other things) that the decay rate of a given isotope (an atomic nucleus with a given number of neutrons) is constant—that it has always been what it is today. The RATE researchers have uncovered several independent lines of evidence that strongly indicate that nuclear decay was much more rapid in the past.” (Dr. Jason Lisle, RATE research reveals remarkable results—a fatal blow to billions of years).

Here is my own thought: Adam lived 930 years (4000 BC to 3000BC?) and Moses lived to be 120 (approx. 1500 BC), and now we live to be about 80 years old (2010 AD). God changed mans life-span after the flood (3000-2500BC). Noah lived 950 years but after him each generation had successively decreasing life spans. This was a fulfillment of God’s Word (Genesis 6:1-3) to make man’s life-span 120 years. Decay began with the first sin but it sped up after God’s pronouncement to decrease man’s life-span and His judgement with the flood. And today the average life expectancy has fallen much lower than 120 years. If God radically changed the decay of man how can we make any assumptions about nuclear decay over six millenniums?

Nuclear engineering obviously involves nuclear decay. Once again how often do I have anything to do with nuclear engineering in my waking life? Yet, God prophesied to me in my dream that I would be studying that along with astrophysics. I believe God gave me this dream to confirm the truth that He was about to reveal to me and the effect it would have on me. It was truly like in my dream where the astrophysicist unexpectedly became a nuclear engineer. I had no clue what He was about to show me through a class I thought was for my kids.

As Christians we must speak the truth about the fallacy that’s at the core of the evolution “science” and philosophy. Ken Ham states, “A non-Christian is not Neutral. The Bible makes this very clear: ‘The one who is not with Me is against Me, and the one who does not gather with Me scatters’ (Matthew 12:30). Evolutionary science scatters theories around presuming to be fact and ends up deceiving children, adults, non-Christians and Christians alike.

“Down through the ages, people such as the Egyptians have worshiped the sun. God warned the Israelites, in Deuteronomy 4:19, not to worship the sun as the pagan cultures around them did. They were commanded to worship the God who made the sun—not the sun that was made by God. Evolutionary theories (the ‘big bang’ hypothesis for instance) state that the sun came before the earth, and that the sun’s energy on the Earth eventually gave rise to life. Just as in pagan beliefs, the sun is, in a sense, given credit for the wonder of creation.” (Ken Ham, Six Days or Millions of Years)

I dreamed that I was with someone else shooting bad guys. He had a big gun that look like something from an 80s TV show. I was shooting down all the bad guys no problem. It looked like they were all shot but I was worried and hurriedly reloading my guy fearful that there was still a sniper out there. I asked the other guy for some ammo and he gave me his bullet belt and mine had a few left on it. I was loading all these into the cartridge and my children were there and I was telling them to watch out cause there still might be gunfire. And I was worried that the bullets that I was loading might go off. There was some dust where I was putting them and thought it might be gunpowder that would set off the bullets.

I woke up at 5am and when I can’t sleep I usually read my Daily Bible but I felt led to pick up my Life Application Study Bible. I had an old sermon stuffed in it. I reviewed it and realized this sermon held the meaning of my dream. Pastor Ed Silvoso preached on Luke and stated that there was a hostile spiritual climate in Luke chapters 1-9 but after chapter 10 and through to 24 there was a favorable spiritual climate. Silvoso said that in a favorable spiritual climate you are no longer confronted by the devil.

The online dream dictionary states that “to see a bullet or bullets in your dream, indicates anger and aggression directed at you or someone else.” I believe God is telling me that I have moved from a hostile spiritual climate to a favorable one (maybe in one area of my life). That I need to put away the bullets (anger and aggression) and my fears (and worries about my children) and stop preparing for another attack. If I put away my bullets I don’t have to worry about insignificant things (dust) setting off my bullets.

Pastor Silvoso pointed out a four step strategy when things turn to a favorable spiritual climate.
1. Bless them (Luke 10:5)
2. Fellowship with them (Luke 10:7)
3. Minister to their felt needs - offer prayer (Luke 10:9a)
4. Proclaim or preach the gospel. (Luke 10:9b)

Pastor Silvoso said Jesus sends us out before him to the places He plans to visit to do these four steps with with signs and wonders (Luke 10:1).

Let me take it a step farther past his sermon. Jesus said, “I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can even walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.” (Luke 10:19). As we apply this four step strategy we will be walking among snakes and scorpions. I see snakes and scorpions as symbolic of people. Snakes are clever, guileful, and deceitful to others and themselves. My grandmother used to say “you old snake in the grass” when someone was acting sly or sneaky. Scorpions are poisonous with their stinging comments, gossip, slander, and foul language.

My step-father said one of my best qualities is that I’m honest so it’s not surprising that I STRUGGLE WITH THE SNAKES DECEITFULNESS> I’m more insightful and intuitive than clever like a snake. I’ve been called a weasel before because I weaseled into a good deal (but not dishonestly!) like a good job or benefit or bonus, but I’m not a snake. I don’t struggle with scorpions as much because I also have a critical and condemning side that can be poisonous too. I guess I’m more forgiving with scorpions because I also need grace in that area. Sometimes snakes and scorpions claim to know Christ or be a Christian. That’s not surprising because even demons admit to knowing Jesus (Mark 3:11, James 2:19) and the devil disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).

Lastly, to tie this back into my dream I don’t need to prepare for an attack and load bullets anymore because God has moved me into a spiritual climate where I can now walk among snakes and scorpions without fearing injury.

One Christian pointed out that God has transformed the hierarchy at his work and he has found more favor. We have lived in our townhouse complex for a few years and God has recently moved in a two Christian couples who we have befriended. I think this coincides with the changing of the spiritual climate both at my work and in my neighborhood. Lastly, when we move into a favorable spiritual climate we start to see salvations occur around us, as demonstrated in Luke chapter 19.

Jesus responded, “SALVATION HAS COME TO THIS HOME TODAY< FOR THIS MAN HAS SHOWN HIMSELF TO BE A TRUE SON OF Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost."
Luke 19:9

I had a dream where I’m with my son and daughter at CSU (where I used to work) in something like the engineering building. I trying to find a way out of the building. We go down some stairs and over some metal ladder that is quite a tight squeeze to get over. I see signs for an emergency shampoo bath for those who get chemicals on them in the rooms below. We had already gone out this way once before but this time I didn’t want to have my kids go down in that area near those rooms because of the danger of chemicals. The way back over the ladder is even smaller than before and I don’t think I can get through. I talk to someone on the other side and they try to tell me how to get through.

Next thing I know I’m downstairs with my kids (we ended up going there after all). There are some people and one is a guy talking about how he was an astrophysicist but got into nuclear engineering because he took a chance and applied for a highly competitive scholarship that he thought he would never get.

I believe God is telling me through this dream that I’m already on the narrow way (that is following Jesus) and that I just have to proceed forward and release my fears (claustrophobic feeling of wanting to get out) and worries about myself and my kids. I have to go the way down, because the way up is down. The way to live in Christ is to die to self. The way to be lifted up by Christ is to humble ourselves. Here is a great sermon on being “downwardly mobile“.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3

The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. Psalm 147:6

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. 1 Peter 5:6

Humility comes before honor. Proverbs 15:33, 18:12

Here are some dream dictionary symbol definitions:

Astrophysics - a branch of astronomy dealing esp. with the behavior, physical properties, and dynamic processes of celestial objects and phenomena.

Nuclear - of relating to the atomic nucleus -reaction -physics, used in or produced in a nuclear reaction -fuel -waste -energy.

Nucleus - the central and most important part of an object, movement, or group, forming the basis for its activity and growth.

Engineering - the application of science or mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy are made useful to people.

ASTROPHYSICS AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING SEEM SIMILAR TO THE LAYMAN LIKE ME—HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL, BUT AFTER LOOKING AT THE definitions I can see the difference and how it applies to my life. God, like the nucleus, is the central and most important part of everything and is the basis for all our activity and growth. Engineering is the application of God’s Word by which His power is made useful to all people. Astrophysics is the study of the behavior, properties, and processes of celestial objects. Celestial objects is a symbol for God.

I could probably spend more time unpacking all the symbols in the dream but I think I’ve gotten the general gist of what He’s trying to say to me. I believe He is telling me I will move from focusing on understanding the character of God and the processes He has gone through with man (the history in the Bible) to the application of his power here on earth in all kinds of situations (kind of like the way we can use nuclear energy for different purposes). It will require me to take chance on something I think is impossible but ultimately is possible for God (e.g. applying for a job I think I have no chance of getting).