The Action of Faith

Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? tell me, what do you have in your house?"  "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."  II Kgs. 4:2


Perhaps you may remember that the prophet Elisha was the successor of the great prophet Elijah.  Elisha too however was a great prophet in his own right.  Elisha was a man of extraordinary faith who could see the power of God at work in the affairs of everyday life.  Indeed, that was the essence of his greatness.

For Elisha, faith was not found in what one said about faith.  Faith was based in action. Action was evidence of faith and nothing else.

Our narrative is about a woman who had been the wife of a man 'from the company of the prophets.'  The man was now dead and his poor widow had been set upon by her late husband's creditor.  The creditor must be paid or he would take the widow's two sons as slaves for the debt.  The distressed widow took her situation to Elisha.

When she meets Elisha the first thing that he said to her was not, "How are you this fine day?"  She cries out to him and told him her distressing story.  There was an urgency in her tone of voice that resonated with Elisha.  He therefore asks her how he could help her.

He was not condescending and nor was he patronizing to her.  He had genuine concern for her and noted the compelling agony of her heart.  Still he asked her how could he assist her?  Curiously, he said to her, "What do you have in your house?"

What did that have to do with her situation?  Why did he need to know that?  Her life was coming apart and she was being devoured by fear and anxiety before him  How could he ask about what was in her house?

She said, "Nothing...except a little oil."

He told her to go around and ask all her neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for a few.  "Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.  Pour the oil into the jars, as each is filled, put to one side.  She kept pouring until all the available jars were filled.

She went and told Elisha of the extra-normal event of the filling of the jars, and he instructed her further to go, sell, and pay your debt.  She did so and the remaining money provided an income for she and her family.

My friend, faith is a verb in the Scriptures.  It is demonstrated in what we do.  The widow believed the words of the prophet.

God helps those who believe His Word.

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Creative Dimension of Adversity

"That no man should be moved by these afflictions:  for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto." I Thess. 3:3


One of the most powerful factors in the appropriate psycho-social development of individuals is the ability to experience and negotiate personal adversity.

This highly important aspect of human growth and development was the subject of a study conducted by Mark D. Seery of the University of Buffalo and E. Alison Holman and Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California at Irvine, California.

The title of their study is compellingly titled:

"Whatever Does Not Kill Us:  Cumulative Lifetime Adversity, Vulnerability, and Resilience"

A summary of their article states:  "Exposure to adverse life events typically predicts subsequent negative effects on mental health and well-being, such that more adversity predicts worse outcomes.  However, adverse experiences may also foster subsequent resilience, with resulting advantages for mental health and well-being."

What is so highly impressive about this article is the subject matter of course and the fact that it has taken up a theme that has been the subject of theological discussion for centuries.  For instance in the 1st century A.D. the brilliant intellect Paul of Tarsus wrote the following words to a group of individuals who were suffering adversity for their faith-confession:  "...that no one be moved by these afflictions."

It is interesting that Paul did not seek to overthrow their collective experience of adversity by telling them that their experience was atypical.  On the contrary he understood the importance of adversity and encouraged them to not be shaken by it.

The researchers in our study further noted:  "In a multi-year longitudinal study of a national sample, people with a history of some lifetime adversity reported better mental health and well-being outcomes than not only people with a high history of adversity, but also than people with no history of adversity.  

Specifically...a history of some but nonzero lifetime adversity predicted relatively lower global distress, lower self-rated functional impairment, fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms, and higher life satisfaction over time.  Furthermore, people with some prior lifetime adversity were the least affected by recent adverse events.

Paul wanted people to turn resolutely in a certain direction.  He wanted them to know that spiritual power is available to them through the Iesous that would enable them to endure adversity.

My friend, adversity is sure to come. Or maybe it has come to you.  "It came to pass" was the way one brother spoke of adversity.  "It came to pass" but "it did not come to stay."

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Be Filled with the Knowledge of His Will, Part II

Paul continues his assault upon the false teachers by bypassing a direct point by point repudiation of their doctrines and focusing on the spiritual weapons that the saints needed for this conflict.  The saints needed the Word beyond mere words.  Paul knew that if he used conciliatory rhetoric the faith of the saints would disintegrate.

Lesser intellects think that the greatest achievement in the world is to have both sides agree to the sensible logic of their seemingly well-reasoned position.  Paul knew this self-congratulatory position to be a fallacy.  The saints of God deserve more from its leadership.  But the Church has been overrun by what C. S. Lewis called 'Men Without Chests."  Persons who believe that they are of greater intellectual capacity because they believe themselves so.

Paul knew that the knowledge of his will must be conjoined with the necessary 'all wisdom and spiritual understanding.'  Paul realized that there are times when the 'Cure of Soul' is not confined to the everyday problems of living.  He knew that there were times when subversive forces think to undo us by cunning trickery and deceit.

And, if we are enfeebled by the mediocrity of weak teaching about the person of the Iesous we take the field of spiritual battle under- prepared and ill-equipped.  We need the knowledge of his will in order to super-know how to conduct our lives.  It is this type of knowledge that creates boldness and spiritual confidence in the saints.  Without this type of deep and rich awareness we are prone to go adrift because we have no anchor of the soul.

Spiritual understanding is the incomparable mind of Iesous directing the saints through the Spirit.  Spiritual understanding is critical insight in how to evaluate people, things, and circumstances.  Notice that it is the critical faculty that gives intense perception into all areas of life.

The saints did not need a handbook on apologetics they needed powerful teaching to help them to unlock the treasures of super-rich Grace in the person of the Iesous.  Please carefully note that Paul said to these saints that prayer on their behalf with the specific request that they might be filled with epignosis was his appeal to Theos.

Our next installment will deal with a further reason for Paul's prayer imperative on their behalf.

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Be Filled with the Knowledge of His Will, Part I

"...that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding..." Col. 1:9


Paul was fiercely loyal to members of the ekklesia - that called out group of persons who corporately are the church.  Originally the church or ekklesia did not refer to any type of building or physical structure.  It referred to persons. There is always in the Biblical documents this primacy of persons.

The called out ones in the Lycus Valley were facing the compelling presence of false teaching that proved as always to be very seductive.  It promised them a greater freedom and a way to achieve spiritual satisfaction by their own efforts.

According to Zodhiates the false teachers taught ... "one could achieve perfection by progressing through a number of initiations and levels of wisdom in spiritual mysteries."

Herein enters the profound intellectual prowess of Paul.  I've carefully noted the approach that he took in combating this formidable foe.  Paul's defense or apology for the saints at Colosse was not to engage in a comparative argument for the Faith.  Paul took them deeper ever deeper into the knowledge of the Iesou.

This is what they needed.  They needed to possess or be filled with the knowledge of the will of Iesous.  The word for knowledge is our text is deliberately used by Paul to overthrow the intrusive aberration of the false teachers. Paul knew that false teachers were always intoxicated by the elixir of their own arrogance.

The word for knowledge is epignosis.  Epignosis is a word that involves a through participation in the object of knowledge on the part of the subject. Paul didn't say "go out and show the false teachers what you know."  He said, "be filled with the knowledge of the Iesous in such a manner that they will witness who you know."

Paul's statement of faith was always the compelling reality of a life transformed by the Grace of God.  For Paul, the philosophical 'know thyself' is superseded by the greater 'knowledge of His will.'

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

The Power of the Metabolized Word

"And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before your, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel."  So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.  Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it."  So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.  Ezekiel 3:1-3


God told the prophet that he must "eat" of His word.  There was no argument here.  Ezekiel must not fill his heart with pious platitudes or religious formulas.  Ezekiel must do as God instructed him.  He must feed on the only source of encouragement to the child of God.  Ezekiel must so control and master his time so that he could study the word of God.

Ezekiel must not merely read the Bible.  Bible reading is good, but Bible study is better.  For Ezekiel, to know the mind and heart of God - he must know the Word of God.  God said to Ezekiel, "...eat that I give to thee."

This is God's word for us this morning: " ...eat that I give to thee."  This is Heaven's diet.  All of Heaven must eat that which God gives.

Ezekiel states that God prepared a banquet for him.  Ezekiel said that the message that God gave him was filled with lamentations, mourning, and woe.  It was a message of judgement.  God said, "eat that thou findest."  Ezekiel had to eat or metabolize a 'hard' message.  God wanted him ready.  Therefore, God had to prepare the prophet by allowing him time to eat or metabolize a message of judgement and doom.  Ezekiel had to have the mind of Christ if he was to be fruitful to God.

God could not let Ezekiel merely go before the people and read to them a message that he did not understand or believe.  Ezekiel had to know with accurate certainty that he knew his message and would  and fearlessly proclaim it.

Even though Ezekiel was a priest already he had to return to Bible School for further training.

How we need to study and learn what God has to teach us from studying the call of Ezekiel.  How we need to rethink our calling from God.

For more information about Dr. Rich's teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Overcoming the Spiritual Pathology of the Tongue

"But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison therewith bless we God, even the Father and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God."  James 3:8-9


Over the years I have become more and more impressed with distinctive richness of Biblical Spirituality.  For instance, the verses above point out an undeniable reality.  The Bible has a great deal to say about the tongue and its ability to contort, distort, corrupt, and create worlds of militant denial where lies reign in destructive power.

'But the tongue can no man tame' is a remarkable spiritual revelation.  It removes from all of us, or so it should, the belief that we can do what the Bible explicitly states we cannot do.  Unequivocally, no person can restrain or curb the human tongue.  This is a powerful diagnosis of this particular aspect of the human condition.  Not only is the tongue unable to be restrained by us, but the writer superimposes upon the primary revelation two resultant realities of the tongue:

1. ...an unruly evil...that is, the tongue is incorrigible and unrestrained. It is therefore important for us to know the reality of the condition before one can prescribe a cure.  The writer does not disappoint he goes on to use the word 'evil' with regard to the tongue.  The Greek word for evil is 'kakos' and it means one that is evil and as such get others into trouble and the synonym is poneros which means willful harm to others.
2. ...full of deadly (fatal) poison (venom, as emitted by serpents).  This denotes the power of the tongue to destroy the lives of others and one's own life too.  The Bible warns that life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat the fruit thereof.  Iesous also warns that that which comes out of a persons is the source of personal defilement (pollution).

The Bible is the Spiritual Center for Disease Control (SCDC) and explicitly teaches of the epidemiological nature of this disease of the spirit.  The Holy Spirit of God has the necessary power to control the tongue.  We surrender our spiritual well-being when we fail to let God lead us in this area.  Of course, one can have the veneer of religiosity or spirituality and be within the sphere of inner unrest because of enslavement to the contradiction of the tongue.

If you want to have optimum spiritual health surrender the tongue to the Lord and ask him to renew a right spirit within you.

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Get Real With Iesous

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke 6:46


Words are the vehicle by which we communicate.  Words strung together in a certain manner or syntactic units are called sentences.  There are times in which a single word may be a sentence.  Note the telling interrogational power of this sentence.  (The following verses 47-49 illustrate its point).

The above sentence doggedly assaulted my conscience at one time in my life.  There were times when they were thunderous, and at other times probing and surgical, and then at other times a relentless whisper that would lay siege to what I was doing - I was living outside of God's will for my life.

These words were barnacles that my 'chosen' intellectual passions and social affiliations could not wash away with any bristled spiritual denial.  And I did cultivate denial.  But at every point my fabricated denials were pierced through with the unapologetic intrusion of these words.

"Why do you (Josiah) call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

The Iesous looked deeply upon my lie and quietly invested himself in  me.  He was there in the midst of my denial.  I knew he was there and I would not acknowledge him - until he confronted me with me.

"Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?"

He pursued me through his relentless word to me.  I countered with feeble attempts to control my destiny.  One day a wonderful thing happened, I could no longer fight him.  At that point he showed me that he was never my enemy and that I was my own enemy.  The irony was not lost upon me.

My friend, have you been called to give your life to Him?  Are you tired of the battle raging within you?  Come to the Iesous and you will find rest for your soul.

For more information about Dr. Josiah Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.