“A lot of people try to pray their troubles away,” Ben reflected. “I’m not advertising that we should not pray some troubles away. I’m just saying that our obsession with having a trouble-free life by rebuking all manner of trouble, regardless of discernment, is not the way it should be.”

“Sometimes when you rebuke trouble nothing happens because you are actually rebuking God, who has allowed the trouble to happen in order to work for our good,” Doug explained. He opened his Bible and read aloud from James 1: “‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.’ And then over in Matthew 5:11 it says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.’

“You see, trials and hardships can be a purpose of the Lord in our lives. Hebrews 12 really draws this point out…I am going to read verses 5-11: ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.’

We need to understand that in the world we will have trouble, but we take courage because Jesus has overcome the world and has given us His peace. We have to have our identity in Christ because that is where the peace is. We can’t have peace that passes understanding in the world in the midst of tribulation and suffering outside of Christ.”

“I like how you just read that Scripture and then just moved on,” smiled Tim. “I thought you were going to explain it, but you just went on to your next thought. You’re right. It doesn’t really need explaining; it’s quite clear. One thing I’d like to point out, though, is that it plainly says to ‘endure hardship as discipline,’ not to wait for God to tell you if your hardship is discipline. If Romans 8:28 tells us, ‘All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose,’ then I can accept any kind of hardship, or ‘trials of many kinds,’ as discipline for my ultimate good.”

“That’s fortunate,” said Doug, “because my second point is this: I’ve noticed that life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another is waiting.

For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.

Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at http://www.theblackthornproject.com/merch.

Tim nodded, “So we’re talking about two natures here, spirit and flesh, at war inside us. And to be in Christ—or to walk according to the Spirit—requires the Holy Spirit because the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned. I’m referring back to that passage in I Corinthians from our last discussion, and to Romans 8:1 which says, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.’”

“Being in Christ is a process,” Doug explained. “As you believe in Christ and as you walk in faith, your mind is being transnewed and you are taking on the new image of who you are in Christ. And as you take on that image of being in Christ, then your life is no longer your own. It is in Him that you live and move and have your being, and it is no longer you but Christ in you working though you. You have become one in Christ.”

Ben admirably waited for Doug to finish making his point, but couldn’t contain his laughter any longer. “I think you just invented a new word, Doug!”

His voice became official, as if reading from a dictionary: “Transnewed: being both transformed and renewed.”

Everyone laughed. Ben, not having missed the truth in what Doug was saying, continued, “The more you trust in Christ and the more intimate you become with Him, the more you understand His work and His heart for you. I see myself being moved into an arena where I’ve realized my entire atmosphere—the entire surrounding of my journey—has changed. My perspective is being changed. I am in Christ. I’m really in Him.”

“You are now looking through the eyes of Christ as God sees and loves the world,” said Doug. “Then some things become clearer, like the Scripture that says that God is not counting our trespasses against us but that He has given us a ministry of reconciliation that we might reconcile men to the Father.

“The natural man only looks at the downfall or the temporal things that he can see. What God has called us to now that we are in Christ is to call forth people’s destiny and to know them according to the true identity of who they are in Christ. A lot of times people don’t even understand what their purpose or their destiny is. That question is asked all the time: ‘What am I supposed to do?’ Part of being fathers in the Lord and men and fathers of faith is calling people into their destiny, and the only way to find that destiny is to encourage them to come into an understanding that their life is in Christ. Because their destiny is in Christ. It is not in what they do. It is not in what they don’t do. It is not in performance. It is in Christ alone.”

For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.

Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at http://www.theblackthornproject.com/merch.

For eight days I’m posting excerpts from each of the eight chapters in Back to Basics: Eight Foundations for Kingdom Living, the book I co-authored with Doug Roberts and Ben Pasley.

Each day I’m also going to give one 50% refund on the price of the book to the first person to gift a copy of Back to Basics to a friend from our merchandise page at http://www.theblackthornproject.com/merch.

“Well good mornin’,” said Doug cheerily.

Tim got out of his truck, rubbed his cold hands together and took in the sunrise. He pulled a chair up close to the small fire that was already crackling and popping. “Mornin’,” he repeated groggily. As Tim shuffled around the campfire he thought to himself, ‘I have never been awake before Doug, and he has a mood at six in the morning that I can’t find until after breakfast and two cups of coffee. How does he do it?’

“Has Laurie had that baby yet?” Doug said, interrupting Tim’s thoughts.

“You think if she did I’d be in the woods with men?” Tim chided. “No, but any time now.” Tim had driven down the mountain after last night’s recording was finished in order to sleep at home with his wife, who was due to have their second baby right at the end of the camp-out.

“She must really think a lot of you to let you spend your days fishing, hiking, and hanging out with guys while she’s pregnant and has a two-year-old running around the house. Or maybe she just wants to get rid of you,” he smiled.

“Or she knows your book won’t be any good without me,” Tim shot back slyly despite his sleepiness.

Ben stepped out of the RV with scrambled eggs and some large strips of bacon and presented them to Tim and Doug.

“Thanks, I’m so hungry,” said Tim, who started eating without any hesitation whatsoever.

Ben followed with fresh cups of coffee, which Tim held on to like a man lost in the ocean clings to a raft.

Breakfast was quiet except for talk of afternoon showers in the forecast, the dreaming-up of canoeing and fishing plans for the evening, and the comforting crackle of the campfire. Beams of sun came over the treetops and changed the landscape. As the embers cooled from orange to gray, the three men leaned back in their chairs and felt the warmth on their faces.

“All fueled up?” asked Ben. They threw their paper plates in the fire and hopped into the RV, ready to record another discussion.

Doug fired away, “I am going to talk about the most controversial gift that the Father has given us. The devil despises and hates it so much. And the spirit of religion really doesn’t like it much either.

“It is the promise of the Holy Spirit.