As a Christian, we are promised tribulation but we are also promised overcoming. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in every believer, we are assured victory. I take umbrage with those who emphasize the suffering, as this leads to Christians leading defeated lives in the earth realm. Jesus gave us authority over all the ability of the enemy; when we exercise that authority, we do not eliminate tribulation and suffering but we certainly mitigate them.

© 2012 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

I have frequently taken the position that God hates religion. I studied this in great detail. I concluded that since there was no religion (or, at least, the conventionally accepted manifestation of it) in the Garden of Eden, it had to be something devised by man and, therefore, rejected by God.

I was totally right. And totally wrong.

The Word  of God says, “let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). For the sake of this discussion, I’d like to modify this to say, “let God be true and ME be a liar!”

I’ve searched multiple translations of scripture and every translation renders the word, “religion,” the same. Now, I know that James was written to Hebrew Christians and that the term “religion” was used as a frame of reference, thus making the passage contextual. However, that word, “religion,” persists.

Therefore, there must be something God is trying to communicate to us here. Whenever you read a “therefore” in scripture – or use “therefore” when rendering a conclusion, you need to find out what the “therefore” is there, for!

Now I can go real deep on this but I will keep it simple as this is material for an upcoming book (shameless plug). Suffice it to say, religion is not your system of belief – rather, correctly applied, it comprises the steps by which individuals or groups express their belief. The problem is that man has permitted the steps by which faith is expressed to become a belief system in and of itself.

True Christianity, then, is not a religion, it is a lifestyle or state of being. It is the overarching principles by which we experience relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ Jesus.

Expressed another way, you have a relationship with your spouse. The love you share is the overarching principle of your marriage. However, this relationship must be maintained. You have to have “date-nights,” purchase gifts, perform acts of service, be complementary, be kind, listen, etc. Another analogy would be ownership of a car. The car, itself, is the overarching principle. But in the glovebox, there is an owners manual, which contains a service schedule. If you don’t follow the service schedule, the car will not perform as designed and may fall apart well before its designed service-life. In both cases, the maintenance is critical to the survival of the relationship.

With that in mind, pure religion (James 1:27) is what we do to maintain relationship with the Father through Jesus. Mind you, God’s part was finished on the Cross at Calvary. However, we have to walk our part out. Let’s make it clear, though, this doesn’t render Christianity works-based; indeed, that would reduce it to mere religion and defile it.

Pure religion undefiled means operating and walking in love. When you walk in love, you will not allow your  brothers and sisters in Christ – especially the weakest ones – to be destitute or in lack. You will go out of your way not to offend them. You will stand up for and defend them. The will, culture, and intent of the Kingdom of God is grounded and rooted in love and when you operate according to Kingdom principles you demonstrate the kind of religion defined in James 1:27.

That’s love. That’s religion…that proves whom you are in relationship with.

© 2012 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Today we observe the birthday of a great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is clear the nation owes him a debt of gratitude for what his accomplishments in the realm of social justice and equality. However, I would like to speak briefly regarding Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the man of God.

Dr. King understood something the Body of Christ misses today: that if you want to change the social fabric of a nation, you must first change the hearts and minds of that nation. He understood that what plagued America was a spiritual problem and that it required a spiritual solution.

There were other civil rights pioneers that proffered solutions to racial inequalities. Booker T. Washington believed that social change would follow addressing economic disparities. W.E.B. DuBois believed the path to change lie in education and political empowerment. Rosa Parks and Bayard Rustin thought that embracing socialism was the means to that end. All of these efforts were doomed to fail because they addressed symptoms without treating the root cause.

Dr. King studied the successful employment nonviolent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi in the liberation of India. Mr. Gandhi, in turn, derived his strategy by studying the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, while a King in command of the heavenly army, withstood insults, beatings and, ultimately, crucifixion without resistance of any kind. As a result, Jesus changed the entire world!

Today, the country (indeed, the world) is plagued with all manner of social ills. In spite of Dr. King’s efforts, racial inequality is still an issue. There are violent political disagreements. Proposed changes to the social order (e.g., homosexual “marriage”) threaten the very fabric of our nation. Hunger, poverty, and physical illness still pose serious problems. But, like Dr. King, we must come to the realization that the root of the problems are spiritual and, likewise, the change must be spiritual.

The reason why the Civil Rights Movement was successful is that it had the Church as its power-base. It was only when the Church and its leadership stepped up and stepped in that the Movement gained traction.  Similarly, it is high time that the Church steps up and asserts itself to impact the world with the will, culture and intent of the Kingdom of God. Dr. King understood the Church was the world’s  spiritual trauma center and rehabilitation facility and sought to engage it to treat and correct social injustice.

Romans 8:19 declares that “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” In other words, the whole world is waiting for God’s people — the church — to stand up and speak out against the ailments of the world. Jesus, Himself, said it best:

For verily I say unto you , That whatsoever you shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (Mark 11:23)

The problem today is that we — the Body of Christ — are reluctant to speak up. But it is when we speak God’s Word to the situations of the day — then standing in faith that we have what we speak — that we begin to see change!

Dr. King was a mighty drum major for justice but, first, he was a mighty man of God. He understood the power of speaking to the mountain. Today, we need to pick up where he left off — see the problem and then SPEAK GOD’S WORD  to the problem!

This is the season when many Americans celebrate what has come to be known as Thanksgiving. For the sake of brevity, I will not rehash what the history and symbolism of this “holiday” are, but it is commonly held that this is the day that we give thanks for our many blessings.

I, for one, do not think a single day is sufficient to express gratitude. Furthermore, I do not think it is enough to thank him for the things He has blessed us with.

King David rendered it thusly:

O give thanks unto the LORD: for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever (1 Chronicles 16:34).

In other words, we are to give thanks to God simply because He is good. The correct perspective for the Disciple of Christ is to focus on the Giver, not the gift! America, in contrast to much of the world, enjoys a higher standard of prosperity than any other nation. As a result, we have become spoiled – we want bigger and better, and we want it now. Because of our lusts for material things and creature comforts, an entire ministry segment has emerged that caters to the materialistic mentality. This segment proffers that if you simply exercise faith and worship God with your money, God will respond as if He were a “blessing genie,” and indulge you with all your material wants.

Don’t get me wrong, the Bible is crystal clear that material blessing is part of the believer’s benefits package:

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant (Psalm 35:27).

But I digress. There are exactly 29 occurrences of the word “thanksgiving” in the King James Bible. And while the Bible clearly teaches us that “thanksgiving” is an act that believers perform to honor God, the Word teaches us that there is a higher, unsaid act that, I think, should be the hallmark of any Disciple of Christ:

Thanksliving.

Thanksliving is a paradigm shift from world or religious living to Kingdom or relationship living! I have long held, and teach relentlessly, that you cannot do something without first being something. My prime example of this is the passage of scripture, “…be ye holy for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16). You cannot do holy without being holy. And, frankly, you cannot do anything holy without first being in Christ – because Jesus is the source of both holiness and righteousness.

That said, we must be grateful in order to live a Christ-like life. We must have an attitude of gratitude! And our gratitude can no more be a once-a-year expression than our worship can be a once-a-week event.

The life of Thanksliving is a life of thanksgiving. You cannot truly live without loving and you cannot truly love without giving! Therefore, a grateful life is a giving life. I’m not talking about feigned or coerced giving, but giving as Jesus taught in Luke 6:38:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

or how the Apostle Paul rendered it in 2 Corinthians 9:7:

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

So we see that the concepts of Thanksliving and thanksgiving go hand-in-hand, joined by love and giving.  But there’s another component to the life of thanksgiving that cannot be ignored: joy.

Joy and happiness are similar but are not the same. Happiness is conditional, based on circumstances; the more favorable the circumstances, the happier a person generally is. Joy, on the other hand, is a choice. You must choose to have joy! Joy is that feeling of peace and confidence that abides in the heart of every true Disciple of Christ.

That peace and confidence that comprises joy persists in spite of circumstances! If you have a new car, you have joy. If your old car breaks down, you have joy. If you have a great career that allows you to work in your God-given purpose, you have joy. If your stuck in a dead-end job, you have joy! When you choose to have joy, you can focus on the source of your joy and not circumstances. When you have joy, you focus on the Giver, not the gift. When you choose joy, you love in spite of how you perceive how you’re treated. When joy abides in you, you give, not because you expect to receive anything, but because you want to reflect Jesus, who gave His life for you.

If you get this down in your spirit, you will experience Thanksliving daily and won’t have to wait for a “special” day to give thanks!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Have you ever given thought to that breath you just took? Or the next one you anticipate taking? Every breath you take is precious because it is that one breath that separates your existence from the temporal to the eternal. Each breath you take delivers vital oxygen to your cellular structure and removes carbon dioxide and other less-than-beneficial gasses from your body.

God showed me that, for most of my life, I had been breathing autonomously; even accidentally!

The Breath of life is illustrated in Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

When God breathed the breath of life into man, He imparted Ruach (Hebrew) — the spirit nature — into man. This Ruach was intended to be the part of the man that communicates with God’s Spirit, the Pneuma (Greek).

Now, theological scholars may rake me over the coals over my mixing of Hebrew and Greek, but stay with me…

God does EVERYTHING intentionally! There are no accidents; no “Plan B.” Moreover, He created us to live life purposefully and intentionally. God created us with a specific purpose in mind but we have to tap into His will, culture, and intent for that purpose to be fully revealed.

That said, if He was so deliberate with the breath of life, we, too, should be deliberate with our breathing.

Since this revelation, I make a conscious effort to breathe intentionally. I take time during each day to breathe deeply — drawing in as deep a breath as I can take, holding it briefly, and exhaling. This manifests two blessings: first, being aware of each breath teaches me to be a good steward of the breath God has given me and, second, the deep breathing invigorates and energized me and reminds me that God has paid for my healing by the stripes of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24).

Don’t get it twisted, though! I’m not talking about some new-age foolishness; I’m talking about being conscious and aware of one of the most fundamental, essential gifts God has given us. I’m talking about Christ-centered spiritual and physical refreshing.

I pray this will help you in both your walk of faith and the quality of your natural life!

© 2011 – Derrick Day (www.derrickday.com)

Love and the Garden 2 – Lesson 12 of The Love Walk, a video teaching series by Bishop Derrick Day

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