I have been on this one social blogging website for about a decade, which seems kind of ridiculous when I say it out loud. But in that time, I have seen the Christian community on that site break into factions a few times over theological matters. The current movement is an opposition to the prosperity gospel.

What I find especially notable about it is that the condemnation of the prosperity gospel is happening alongside posts, rarely even on the same blog, that talk about 'claiming' miracles by the end of February or changes in the coming year. There doesn't seem to be a full recognition of the relationship between these things. The thing is, the prosperity gospel doesn't come out of nowhere. There are promises in scripture that, read without hearing the message the Bible actually contains, sound an awful lot like the prosperity gospel. There are stories about servants of God receiving great blessings. Why should we assume these don't apply to us?

The people of Jeremiah's day had good reason to believe what the false prophets were saying. It wasn't just comfortable for them to hear, it sounded like it made sense. God had said He would establish the throne of David forever, He had protected Judah many times in the past, He had made promises of protection and wealth and success. In light of that history, it certainly sounded like God wouldn't let the kingdom fall. The problem with the interpretation, like so many other false reads of scripture, is that they do not include a knowledge of God Himself.

The Word of God is a higher authority than our interpretation or our experiences. We have to hear what God is actually saying to us and our situation. We need to constantly go back to the scripture, and seek to truly know the God behind it, if we are ever going to make sense of the claims being made within it.

In J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God, he relates a story of a friend who had been effectively kicked out of his ministry over some disagreement. In discussing the matter, his friend is cited as saying, "It doesn't matter, for I have known God, and they have not." I cannot recommend this book highly enough, but this particular story strikes me as it seems to have struck Packer on first experiencing it. This man, faced with total rejection from the people who should have been ministering into his life, took it all in stride and looked onward to the work God was doing. He had no doubt in God's faithfulness, because he knew God well.

God is absolute in His ways. There is no variance with Him. What He has set out to do, He will do, and there is no force that can stand against Him. God can state with certainty that His word will be carried out, His will shall be established, and His plan will come to fruition.

​When God grew angry with the people of Israel for worshiping a golden calf and laid down a justified condemnation of them, Moses went straight to the promises of God to plead on their behalf.

Moses understood that God would do as He had promised. No amount of sin practiced in the camp of Israel could make God cut off the line of Abraham that He had promised to multiply and through whom the whole world would be blessed. Israel still faced judgement; three thousand men died that very day, for starters. But the promise of God would be carried out. On this, Moses knew he could rely, and David would echo this understanding repeatedly across his psalms.

Those who have known God best have known His faithfulness. Abraham and Moses, who talked to God as a friend; David, called a man after God's own heart; the apostles, after walking with Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit; all of them understood keenly that God would do what God set out to do. There was no room for doubt.

Did they recognize God's faithfulness because they knew Him so well, or were they able to know Him so well because they trusted Him and saw His works displayed? Well. We can seek to know Him, and we can seek to trust Him, and it is only a matter of time before one begins to inform the other.

This life is not meant to be done alone. The basic promise God makes over and over again throughout scripture, in fact, is that He will be with us. Ever since leaving Eden, mankind has been cut off from relationship with God, and the condemnations laid down on Adam and Eve broke their relationships with each other and with nature. The work of restoring relationship with God is fundamental; all other relationships flow from it.

The Law was a mediator. Within very tight restraints, the people of Israel could experience a relationship with God again. They could experience being His people and having Him as their God. David wrote many psalms where he found his rest in knowing that God was with him. Jeremiah was given an incredibly difficult job, and God affirms twice in the first chapter that there is no need to fear because He would be with him.

There is much that can be said about the role of community in the life of a Christian, but that community is founded on having relationship with God. All of the promises of scripture culminate in the person of Jesus, who initiates a relationship with us that does not require constant sacrifice, or extensive ritual, or any mediator but Christ Himself. The final fulfillment of the promises of God is found in the New Heaven and New Earth, when God dwells with us for eternity.

​Our first desire must be for Him. Every other desire worth having is built on it.

​The descriptions of the tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament are terrifying. God demands a massive amount of accuracy in every detail, down to a single strand of blue to hang from the front of the high priest's turban. The cost of entering the wrong room without the right role and at the right time after taking the right preparations was death. Who, indeed, can stand before God?

In the New Testament, we are told that we may now boldly approach the throne of God as sons, and I have reminded people elsewhere that it is important to still remember that it is a throne. Boldness does not negate honor and respect for the One we approach. We must have a sense of how impossible it is for us to approach God on our own strength, on our own morality. We must see the lofty heights and know we cannot fly to them. Only then do we fully appreciate the fact that the path was made for us.

The Lord is blameless; we must be made blameless by Him. He is our shield and rock; we must receive our strength from Him. And if we seek to ascend to the throne of God, it is God Himself who brings us to the high places. How glorious is our God, that He not only desires to know and be known, but that He would do for us what we can never do for ourselves!

What does faith look like?

The disciples were going through a bad time. The fishermen among them, especially, knew exactly how bad this storm was, and what the odds were that they would make it through safely. It is difficult to believe they were overselling the severity of the storm; the tax collector and the zealot might have gone their whole lives without encountering a storm-tossed sea, but according to Luke 5:5 the fishermen were accustomed to working through the dark night on this very sea, and must have operated with little warning about coming storms, considering they apparently noticed no signs of this one.

So they are doing the best that they can in the circumstances. And they know Jesus can do something, otherwise they wouldn't bother calling for Him. It is unclear, of course, what exactly they expected Him to do, maybe it was as simple as bailing water out of the boat. Regardless, when Jesus was done calming the storm, He turned to them and asked them about the state of their faith. It seems that their actions, marked by fear while trying to solve the situation on their own power, were not particularly full of faith. But they did call on Jesus to help them, right? Isn't that enough?

Consider the example of David. What sort of faith does he display in this psalm? There is no fear, only trust. David proclaims that he can face any situation, no matter how dire, as long as God is with him. Not only that, but while enemy forces gather around him, he is content to sit and enjoy the blessing God has laid out before him. There is no room for staring anxiously over the roast to make sure the enemies aren't drawing closer. There is no place for putting aside a full cup until the problem of being surrounded is resolved.

The disciples had their eyes on the storm and the sea. And Jesus worked to draw their eyes back to Him, though the act of doing so fills them with fear of His awesome power. In this psalm, however, David has his eyes on the blessings and power of God, and is able to enjoy a feast and anointing. Where we fix our eyes matters. Let us fix them on Him.