Better than Life

"Thy lovingkindness is better than life." ( Psalm 63:3 ) 

One way you can detect if a teaching is biblical truth or false teaching is that false teachings are "me" centered. In other words, if what the speaker is selling revolves around what "I" deserve and what "I" am entitled to as a believer, if the emphasis is on what "I receive" and not on what "Christ has done," beware. 

We are commanded in Scripture to pray for everything and to pray without ceasing; however, "Jesus promised us an easy life, perfect health, and lots of wealth by his death," says no biblical text anywhere. 

Tell that to Joni Eareckson Tada who has spent the last 55 years in a wheelchair, and yet has done more for the kingdom of God than just about anyone I know. And Joni is solid - there's nothing superficial about her faith. She's just one example.  

We don't need to go looking for suffering or even like it, I mean, seriously, who likes it? Joni joked that one day God will send her wheelchair to hell. She said that when she finally holds Jesus's nail scarred hands she'll tell him,"But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would have happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.”

Jesus told us that we would have trouble in our present life. In John 10:10, the abundant life Jesus says that he brings to us is not even in the context of money or health. Good grief. 

Jesus is better than this. 

And anyway many of the false teachers telling people that it's always God's will to heal and that one just needs to have enough faith are wearing glasses and getting pacemakers themselves. Please don't listen to that nonsense. 

The Bible is so much better than this. 

Friend, Jesus said that all you need to move a mountain is faith the size of a mustard seed. Even though this saying was a common colloquialism of Jesus's day, it means you have plenty of faith. If God withholds something from us, we can trust that he has a very good reason. He's already not withheld his only Son - he's trustworthy. Think about that kind of love. 

Jesus told us in Sermon on the Mount that God feeds his birds and clothes his flowers, and we are of more value to him than they are. Psalm 107:20 tells us that God has already sent his word and healed us. He sent Jesus. 

Ephesians 1:3 tells us that we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. "Spiritual," not "physical," not in this life anyway, but most certainly in the next. What more could we ask for? 

Listen to these promises: 

God promises he will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus died for us while we were sinners! The Holy Spirit is with us forever! We are God's fellow workers here on the earth. He equips us and will finish the good work he began in us. He will deliver us from every evil deed and lead us safely into his heavenly kingdom! ( Deuteronomy 31:8, Romans 5:8, John 14, 16-27, 1 Corinthians 3:9, Philippians 1:6, 2 Timothy 4:18 ) 

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him, deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" ( Matthew 16:25 - 26 ) 

We can't come to Jesus only if he promises to give us an easy life. The Bible tells us that it's all or nothing. And he is so worth it. 

Remember the enemy embeds a bit of the truth in a false teaching. That's how I fell for it. If we know our Bibles, he can't deceive us. I didn't know my Bible. Some false teachers are pretty slick, but they are depending on the biblical illiteracy of their audience. 

An easier way to spot false teaching is the absence of sin or repentance - and these are core to salvation. In fact, without understanding our sin and our need, and then repenting, we can't come to faith in Christ. 

I remember when I was in a word-faith church they would define sin, on the rare occasion it was mentioned, as "bad choices," "mistakes,"or "not quite living the way we should."

The Bible describes sin as full-on rebellion against a Holy God. God did not send Jesus to die and drink from the cup of his holy wrath and suffer the worst suffering in the history of mankind just for our bad choices and silly mistakes. That has to be blasphemous. 

The Bible is so much better than this. 

Jesus is so much better than this. 

You've heard the claim that doctrine divides, right? It's suppose to. It divides truth from error, light from darkness, the lies of the enemy from the truth. 

And we have to be careful not to label everyone a false teacher or enlist ourselves as the theology police. And getting prideful. One thing I hear from the Farmer on a continual basis when I start to get all fired up over false teachings: "Babe, we used to believe it too." 

"And we're still susceptible," I might add. 

This is why we must know our Bibles. This is why we must obey the command to contend for the faith, but also learn to divide the Word rightly, to examine it and handle it with fear and trembling, not adding to it or taking away from it, to test the spirits, to beg God in prayer for the Spirit of discernment, because it's a jungle out there in the world and inside of my impressionable heart. 

But Jesus has overcome the world and my heart and he's better than life. 

"Thy lovingkindness is better than life." ( Psalm 63:3 ) 

Happy Weekend! 

💜