Tenants of Faith

Positioning is pivotal in acquiring knowledge or developing talent. Put yourself around people who are more informed and skilled in the sport.

In my earlier years of Bible study, I would have a list of questions for my parents. I needed their help to seek out the answers. I have yet to arrive at some expert level of scholarly Biblical wisdom, but my lists are a tad shorter now. However, the questions I bring have gotten more complex.

My mother loves to encourage me in my studying. She sets me ablaze with her beliefs in the scriptures. She takes the Bible at its word and has never seen it fail. Some questions were straightforward, while others seemed complicated. At these, mom would pause and then pass the question to my father. With his dry humor, Dad tells me he appreciates my early morning inquiries that rattle the brain before six-thirty AM.

I recall checking off a list early one morning. Mom and dad patiently answered my every question. I was like a sponge. Everything they would speak, I cataloged it in my mind for easy distribution later or took detailed notes, which I kept in a notebook.

Dad looked at me and resolutely declared, “The Bible is full of truths that cannot be dissolved; statutes that are non-negotiable – doctrines that cannot be changed. These are called the Tenants of our Faith. Some of these include: Believing in the virgin birth of Jesus and the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Knowing that the Bible is the inspired word of God, written by men through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Understanding there is no other way to Heaven except through the blood of Jesus. Testifying of your faith through water baptism is an outward act of obedience to the scriptures. We believe in justification by faith, the sanctity of human life, and marriage between one man and one woman.”

I was anchored in the Word of God in these black-and-white moments that seemed less than colorful. In these types of settings, our children sketch their concepts. Be sure to solidify the truth so their anchor holds as they grow.

Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law. We are not privileged to much information about him, yet he is one of my favorite Bible characters. Moses became the hero (and rightly so), but Jethro taught him how to be a shepherd, lead the sheep to water, and avoid confrontation with other shepherds. It was Jethro that taught Moses how to care for the herd, how to get his hands in their wool so that the lanolin would cover his fingers as he rubbed the oil over the sheep’s faces to protect their eyes from pesky insects. In the desert, Jethro gave him refuge, a home, and a family. Moses may have led the people out of Egyptian bondage, but Jethro led Moses out. Unknown to most, but to Moses, he was his father in the faith.

The first house we built sat in the back of a newly developed subdivision. The backyard opened to a beautiful lake spanning five acres, give or take a little. I was gently reminded of sidewalks and street lamps out the front door. It was a beautiful home, but I had roots calling to me from cottonwood trees and whippoorwills. That’s something city bustle and silence from strangers cannot understand.

The lake was a place my husband and I enjoyed daily. We would walk around it with the dogs and enjoy fishing regularly. The solitude from the back porch brought the quiet serenade of the bullfrogs enjoying their haven. Eva loved to catch small crappie out of the lake when she was born. It was the perfect place for Chuck and me to find footing.

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Behind the lake was a marshy wetland. It was good for nothing but hunting ducks and providing a perfect environment for snakes. There were a couple of creeks that flowed into this marsh. Unfortunately, many people dumped loads of trash, which would wind up in the swampy wetlands. When heavy rains fell every winter, the swamp waters would rise and spill over into our lake, bringing all of the trash with it. I love the beauty God created and do not like to see it mishandled. Trash belongs in a trashcan.

I brought this dilemma up to several influential people, who told me I would never get the issue fixed. No one cared about a small subdivision on the South end of town where a swampy marsh dumped trash into a neighborhood lake. I was defeated and disappointed. People’s irresponsibility often tainted my beautiful lake. Something had to be done.

I took my request before the Lord. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him,” James 1:5. I began to walk around the lake and thank the Lord for showing me a solution to the problem. God is a problem-solver. If you ask Him, He will show you the answer – Every time.

A few months went by, and still, nothing changed. All the while, different ones would tell me to drop it, that nothing would ever be done about the swamp, but I knew deep down circumstances change.

One day, while walking, I had an idea (wink). I called the County Commission. Knowing I wouldn’t get very far, I called anyway. I was connected to the voicemail where I left my concern. Never hearing anything back, I continued to thank God for helping me find the key to unlocking this mess. Many more months passed with no visible sign of a fix and no return phone call from the County Commission.

Moseying around the lake with Samson and Maximus one afternoon and pushing Eva in her stroller, I heard limbs snapping and large machinery. I quickly turned Eva around and headed in the other direction to see what the commotion was about. There it was; backhoes and bulldozers, chainsaws and manpower. It was a sea of machinery and bright neon vests!

For three weeks, I watched as these men showed up and shoveled out the trash, cut trees, moved dirt, and created trenches. When they were finished, our lake was no longer tainted, and my view became more splendid as new grass seedlings began growing around a once-polluted marsh. “Insignificant tasks that we perform become the seeds for our harvest,” Mac Hammond.

A preacher asked a famous stage actor, “How can you pack out theaters, but I’m preaching to empty pews?” The actor replied, “Because an actor acts as if his fiction is true while a clergyman preaches the truth as if it were fiction.”

We can talk about our Tenants of Faith until we are blue in the face, but what is acted upon will have the most significant impact on those around us. God’s word changes not. The Word will work if you will work the Word.

The years we spent on our neighborhood lake have never ceased to amaze me. As skeptics continued to ask me how I got the county to clean up the swamp, I replied, “I asked God to help me.”

As the years passed, God heard my prayers for woods and woodpeckers, but another couple was praying for a lake house in the suburbs. My mess became someone’s miracle. Today that same couple is enjoying a beautiful view from the back porch. We added some ducks we called “The Duckerson’s,” who still make their evening nest in the backyard of our first home. Before moving, I told the new owners, “This house was built by faith. The framework was marked with scriptures as we watched our home being nailed together. We loved here; we grew here. I pray you do the same.”

John Wesley watched the Moravians (German Christians) during a storm at sea when he was on his way to Georgia. He said, “Could it be, he wondered, that there is more to Christianity than mere readings of prayers and quoting of scriptures?” These Moravians were not afraid of the storm at all. Out of curiosity, John approached one of these men and struck up a lasting friendship that changed his life. John asked the man how to get that kind of peace. The man looked at John and proclaimed, “Preach faith till you have it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith.”

John and Charles Wesley changed the world with their faith. Susanna Wesley, much like Jethro, went unnoticed. Never making her mark on the world like she thought she would. But the Tenants of her Faith were deeply rooted in her children. Not known to the masses but only around the supper table and in the quiet hallways while teaching her children their daily duties – Susanna changed the world. Two of her sons, John and Samuel Wesley, turned the world upside down with the Gospel.

The back side of the mountain teaches us the tenants of faith. The storm reveals the anchor. Contend for the faith and make Jesus famous.

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