What Does Your Doorpost Say?

Since January, the Holy Spirit has been at work in my life shaking things up.  Rearranging my priorities, my goals, my agenda.  I found out I was gluten intolerant and so even what I eat has been shaken up.  But as I’m being shaken I feel that I’m also being refocused.  I find myself asking deep questions and having to dig for the answers.  I’ve grown up in church my whole life.  I’ve had a Bible for as long as I can remember.  I went to a Christian University.  I work at a church part time.  Yet, I find myself wondering if put to the test, could I defend my faith?  If it came down to me and someone from another faith could I articulate what I believe well enough to defend what’s true?

I know what I believe.  I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died and rose again so that our sin could be forgiven and communion with the Father could be restored.  I believe that I was a sinner and that because of God’s amazing grace and the finished work of Jesus on the cross I’m now forgiven.  I believe the Holy Spirit is alive in me and guiding me as I walk out the journey of daily sanctification.  I believe that Jesus is coming again.  I believe there is a hell.  I believe there is an enemy – his name is satan.  I believe that God is love.  I believe there is a right and wrong and that not all things are equal.  I believe in One True God and no other.

But can I defend what I believe.  Can I explain the history and quote scripture?  Is my life an ever present demonstration of the Fruit of the Spirit?  Am I full of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control?  Do my interactions with others draw them closer to Jesus or push them away?  Is my life so transformed that it’s evident what I believe is true to those who don’t know?  Am I passing down the truth to my children in a way that will allow them to defend their faith?

I keep coming back to Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

It goes on to say you’ll go into the land I promised you and receive amazing gifts that have been prepared for you.

But verse 12 says

“Then watch yourself, that you do no forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

I pray that I never forget the Lord God who has freed me from slavery.  I pray that I diligently pass down to my children the knowledge they need to defend their faith.  I pray that my life would be a living demonstration of the Holy Spirit at work in me.  I pray that I would love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul, and all my might.

I am not perfect, but I am ever thankful for the sanctification that is happening moment by moment, day by day.  I am thankful for the shaking happening in my life that is challenging me to go deeper.