Lessons from the Laps #2

If you believe that you must make additional laps around the desert of doubt before you can enter into the “promised land” of assurance and peace, you will make them. But I must tell you that the Christian life is a life of faith and freedom In Christ. ‘The righteous man shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17.

In response to my essay, “Lessons from the Laps,” I received the following statement from a good brother: “It gives me concern as to the number of laps I have already made and how many more I must make to be pleasing to our Lord (emphasis added).” Meaning no offence but only encouragement, I want my brother, along with the rest of you, to know that no Christian who trusts the Word of God is in a desert making laps. This experience is for the weak and indifferent, the stubborn and rebellious—those who do not rely on the grace of God for salvation and assurance. You my brother, and all Christians who doubt, should have left the wilderness years ago when you gave your life to Christ and accepted His forgiveness. Were you ever more sincere and contrite in your life than then? Do you suppose penitence will accomplish something for you in the future that it could not accomplish for you in the past? Millions of people spin a prayer wheel as they pray, supposing that the spinning wheels will somehow transport their prayers to God. Is making useless laps around the barren desert of doubt any different? The whirling dervish spins himself round and round until he enters an altered state of consciousness, which he calls a religious experience. Is making useless laps around the barren desert of doubt any different? One is neither saved nor kept saved by spinning wheels, whirling or making futile laps around a desert; he is saved and kept saved by the incomparable grace of God. Why do so many Christians feel that they must spend their lives working for an elusive peace, as if the Prince of Peace has not paid the full price for their sins?

Laps around the desert in our analogy result from doubt. If you had had sufficient faith when you were saved, you would not have gone into the desert in the first place. If at any time you had developed sufficient faith, you would have gone free. If you have faith today this will be your day of deliverance. If you do not have faith today, how can you be sure you ever will? Something must be done about this today! It is high time, after all these years of service, that you confess your faith in Christ, renew your commitment to Him, deny your doubts and accepted your deliverance once and for all. Trusting Christ in freedom, you will be able to help others find freedom and peace. You could not serve others in a better way than to assure them that, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal. 5:1). And then tell them that freedom is for freeing so they can help others find deliverance from doubt.

An elephant got too old to pull the ropes that raised the big circus tent, so they tethered him to a stake in the field where he would go round and round until the circus was ready to move on. One day they let him go free, hoping that he would stay in the field. He was so habituated that he still went around in circles. Likewise, churches have become so fixated by their private interpretations of scripture, church doctrines, and routine “patterns” of worship that they esteem these more highly than grace and freedom. Keeping members caroled by guilt is an old sectarian tactic. They, like the old elephant, go around in circles not realizing that they have been freed from the tether of sin and guilt. Circles around the desert of doubt merit nothing, they only reinforce habits. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (spinning prayer wheels or whirling, private interpretations of Scripture or church doctrines, routine patterns of worship or making useless laps around a desert), but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 13:17. How could it be otherwise; this is the Christian life!

I believe it was President Lincoln who said, “Most folk are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Likewise, most Christians are as free as they make up their minds to be. Why all these unnecessary laps? God has no provision for you, nor will He ever have, other than what He has already given.

Letter to My Email Correspondents

Following is a letter I sent to my Email corrrespondents, which will serve as an update for all who are interested. My next essay will be possted on 9-26-08 and other articles and matters of interest (I hope) will follow. Comments and questions are welcome and may be addressed to me at www.truebeliever@aeroinc.net


Dear Email Correspondents,


I believe my blog site is functional and ready for posting my weekly essays (for the benefit of those who are not on my correspondent list to receive them via Email), random articles, views, comments, questions and answers, and helpful ideas. I'm excited about the prospect of receiving response from you, which I can share with all my readers. All my essays will carry the lines that appear at the bottom of this page. You can click on my blog link to view this information. Questions and comments are encouraged and will be dealt with promptly.

If you click on "view profile," you will see my picture, which you can enlarge with a click and look me in the eye. Below the picture, you can click "Email" and send me your comments and questions. Helpful comments and good questions, with my answers, will be posted on the blog for everyone to read. Comments should pertain to the essays in order to prevent wandering, but questions may be on any biblical, theological or timely subject.

Come on now, get with the program! This can be an enjoyable and helpful venture for us all.

I don't know for certain what I am getting into; this may be demanding and time consuming. So, because time is precious and I have my limitations, let me make a request of you. Please be very selective in the things you send me. I am interested in your personal comments and suggestions and not in killing time. And please do not send chain letters and pass-it-on items, unless they are very special. I seldom acknowledge these or pass them on, because there are many busy people out there who do not like to receive them. They fill one's In Box so rapidly that he doesn't have time to read them but only to delete them. Let us concentrate on the things that matter most. Let us "encourage one another and build up one another" (I Thes. 5:11). " Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another" (Rom.14:19). I shall be looking forward to hearing room you.

Best wishes and blessings in Christ Jesus, our Lord,


Lacy Williams
"The True Believer"

Why Christians Doubt

“When therefore it was evening…Jesus came and stood in their midst. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord… But Thomas, one of the twelve…was not with them when Jesus came” (John 20:19, 20, 24). We have no idea why Thomas was not there, but he acquired the name “Doubting Thomas” because he was absent. “The other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I shall see in his hands the imprints of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe’” (v. 25). In modern parlance, he might have said, “I guess you’d have to been there.” Do you suppose you would have believed something as strange as a man, having been mutilated, killed and dead for three day, suddenly coming alive again?

Thomas’s doubt was only temporary. “And after eight days again His disciples were inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” “Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believe” (vs. 26-29).

Thinking of future generations, John wrote, “These (facts) have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (v. 30).

How could one say that he believe the above facts if he does not believe that Jesus will lift him out of his doubts to walk with Him on higher ground? Why would one continue making circles around the desert when he can walk right out any time he have the faith to do so? So why do Christians doubt. Here are some of the reasons.

1. Some doubt because they have never been taught to trust Jesus. They were taught the story of Jesus in Sunday School but were not taught to trust Him in life. They remember singing, “Jesus loves the little children of the world,” but have never comprehended the fact that Jesus loves them. They believe that He had power to do all those miraculous things in the Bible but they doubt that He would favor them with His power.

2. Some doubt because they have not accepted the fact that assurance is a matter of faith. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

3. Some doubt because they have been conditioned to doubt. While some churches make boastful claims about the power of their faith, others deny that such power exists today... Children grow up to be like their seniors, “holding to the form of godliness but have denied its power” (II Tim. 3:5. When they grow into adulthood, they are vocal in their denial and teach the next generation to doubt. I have never believed that everyone or just anyone has been given the faith and power of the prophets and apostles, but I sincerely believe that what Jesus promised us He will fulfill—when our faith overcomes our conditioned doubt. I was brought up on obedience, not on faith; consequently, I made circles around the desert of doubt for many years, thinking that one day I would be given assurance. But when I had had enough, I requested my freedom and was graciously delivered. Since then I have enjoyed a life of faith.

4. Some doubt because of their indifference toward Jesus. It is simply easier to doubt than to believe. Faith comes by the Word of God and they are not in the Word.

5. Some doubt because they have never exercise their faith by assuring others. If you don’t trust Christ to deliver you now, the likelihood is that you never will. If you don’t share your assurance with others, you will likely lose it. But if you believe He has delivered you, you will tell others. David used another analogy for deliverance, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He … brought me up out of the… miry clay. And He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm” (Psa. 40:1. 2).

"He lifted me out of the deep miry clay; He settled my feet on the straight narrow way; He lifted me up to a heavenly place, And flooded my soul each day with his grace" – Lawrence E. Brooks

Lessons From the Laps

Everyone knows that Israel spent forty years as nomads in the Sinai Desert because they didn’t have faith enough to enter the Promised Land. “The word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard…Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest (which faith brings), lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:2, 11). Several years ago, when one was slow to believe and keeps making the same mistakes, someone would say, “That means another lap around the desert.” Some people spend their whole lives in the desert, just as that generation of Israelites did, simply because they will not step out in faith and follow Christ. I don’t want to dwell on the desert in this essay, but I do want to share some lessons to be learned from the “laps” around it.

1. In the desert you learn that God means what He says. Most folk never learn to trust God. They are like the man who said, “I lived for myself, I thought for myself; for myself and none beside, as if Jesus had never lived, as if He had never died.” Or like William Ernest Henley who, having lost a foot early in life from a bone disease, thirty years later languished in a hospital for three years, having the other leg removed and then died at the age of 54. Yet in his Invictus he wrote
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Then there was the salesman I tried to talk to about the Bible when I was a new Christian. He said, “I’ll go along with the Bible as long as it goes along with me.” He went his rebellious way and I went to Bible College. I would later learn the lessons of the desert.

2. In the desert you learn that one must live by faith in Christ. “We walk by faith and not by sight” (II Cor. 5:7). Christ is not just a part of our Sunday life; He must be our total life. Paul wrote, “You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3, 4). Christ must be in our lives, our homes, our relationships and our activities. A few years ago people were wearing T-shirts with the letters WWJD, “what would Jesus do,” printed on them. We would do well to ask that question daily, and then live by the answer.

3. In the desert you learn the need of following the Bible as your road map. Jesus said in His prayer to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). One may suppose he is following the Bible but if he ends up in the desert he will realize that he has been led by his own preferences or the church’s interpretation of the Bible and not by the clear teaching of the Bible. Our concern is not, “what does the Bible say to the church” but “what does it say to me.” And you will never know unless you study it for yourselves. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of myself” (Jesus in John 7:17). You can know the truth first hand, and you must learn it for yourself; you cannot totally rely on a fallible church to interpret the infallible Word of God for you. David said, “I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for Your commandments” (Ps. 119:131). And Jesus spoke of hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matt. 5:6). Has there ever been a time in your live when you just had to know what the Bible says on a given subject? Have you learned to use a concordance and find it for yourself?

4. In the desert you understand that you must live what you learn or lose it. Some are “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:7).” Live what you learn until it becomes a way of life with you.

These are lessons you must learn, even if you have to learn them in the desert. And there you may have to make many laps. You should learn these lessons now while they are on your mind. If you fail to do so, unbelief is all you have—or will ever have. All of Israel went into the Sinai Desert but only two of the middle-age men of that generation, Joshua and Caleb, had faith be delivered and to enter the Promised Land. The rest died there. Take heed lest you fall through following the same example of disobedience.

"Now I Can be Annie"

I once had a dear black sister in Christ who taught me a lot about the joy of freedom. She grew up in the south and married young during the Great Depression. In a conversation about Christ and Christian freedom she said, “When I was young I was my father’s daughter, when I married I was Johnnie’s wife; I have never been Annie. When her husband died she said, “Now I can be Annie.” How sad that she had only a few months to live as Annie after her husband died. But she had a great love for Jesus and was free at last.

Think of all the people you know who have never been free to be themselves. It seems that everyone who can be controlled will be controlled by someone, something, or circumstances. Are you in this category? Must you wait until someone dies before you can be yourself? I heard a man say of a woman who was in such a state, “She will never be free until there is a good old fashioned funeral!” Or perhaps you are so busy controlling others that you are in bondage to your own need to control. To be sure the fault is most often with the controller, but it is sometimes with the controlled as well. Paul wrote to the weak Christians at Corinth, “You bear with anyone if he enslaves you… if he takes advantage of you, if he exalts himself” (II Cor. 11:20).

There is no bondage more burdensome than religious bondage because it binds the mind and conscience. We understand that cults, sects and other aberrant groups control their members, but so do mainline churches, who control by tradition, customs, taboos and church doctrine—as opposed to the doctrine of Christ. I was a controlling minister in my early years because I belonged to a controlling church. It took me years to learn that I could not be free if I deny others their freedom. Why do people control others? Why do they allow it? Jesus said, “If therefore the Son of Man makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). And Paul said, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). This was said to the churches of Galatia but it is also for individuals.

Some who have grown accustomed to controlling circumstances are not able to accept their freedom. Many slaves wanted to remain with their masters, the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt, and church members would rather stay in a controlling church than to go free in Christ. A few decades ago Minute Made, out of concern for their migrant workers, built them temporary housing, gave them health insurance, and cared for them as they had never been cared for before. What did they do? They complained, saying that Coca-Cola, owner of Minute Made, was trying to run their lives. It took some convincing to assure them that they had been given a new measure of freedom. On the other hand, when some who have been in bondage are set free they use their freedom to control others. When the American slaves were freed, some of then went to other nations, notably Guiana, West Africa and became masters of the indigenous people.

Considering all the possibilities of bondage, who can say he is truly free to be himself? One might issue a personal declaration of independence but that doesn’t mean he is free.

I have found His grace is all complete, He supplieth every need; While I sit and learn at Jesus’ feet, I am free, yes, free indeed. – Barney E. Warren

Don’t wait for an oppressor to die or something spectacular to happen. Don’t allow anyone or anything to dominate your life and take away your freedom to be yourself. It’s time to say, “I have been controlled and never been allowed to be myself, but now I can be ___________ because Christ has set me free.”