“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small….”
“Adversity” is often the result of suffering, or a disastrous experience. We all meet it at some time or other. The question is how we meet adversity when it comes. Our attitude is important during these times.There are some things that can happen when we meet adversity. Following are three of them. First, we can quit. It has been said that “A winner never quits and a quitter never wins.” What if Peter had quit after his denial of Jesus? There would not have been a “Pentecostal Sermon” or first, second and third Peter in the New Testament. What if Paul had quit after the extreme persecution that he faced in his first missionary journey? A lot of our New Testament would be missing if Paul had quit. What does a quitter look like? Judas is an extreme example. He just ended it all after his betrayal of Jesus. Have you ever thought of the fact that he could have been forgiven? If Paul could be forgiven and used after his extreme persecution of Christians, Judas could have been forgiven but he chose to quit. Don’t let adversity cause you to quit. Second, we can feel sorry for ourselves. For example, some people have a “gigantic pity party” when adversity strikes. They think, “Why Me? Why do these things happen to me?” Haven’t you felt this at some time in your life? And I think that you will agree that this was not your finest moment. I think of the adversity that Moses faced when he led the Jews in the desert. He had moments when he didn’t act wisely, as when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it to get water, but he did not give in to even that, and kept doing all that God called him to do. I think of the adversity that Daniel faced when he was thrown in the den of lions for merely praying. He did not fuss and say, “You can’t throw me to the lions.” In fact, he went into to den of lions and came out victoriously. Third, on the positive side, we can seek the Lord when we face adversity. God is our only real source of strength in overcoming adversity – at least this has been true in my life. Only God can give us the strength and understanding not to quit, or to feel sorry for ourselves or become bitter. The Lord gives us the courage and faith to accept our lot in life. He can give us the knowledge, courage and faith to realize that He is in control and that He will see us through whatever adversity we may face in life. He can use our hardships to build our character. It is in the school of testing and trial that we learn to use our faith in God. Remember the text: “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” because you did not depend on the Lord. Bro.Joe
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“A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous (harsh) words stir up anger. 2. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness. 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
Proverbs is so full of good advice that one scarcely knows where to stop and reflect. These three verses gave me pause recently, and I want to share what I found in them. First, we are reminded that “a soft answer turns away wrath.” I must confess that when I taught sixth grade back in the mid to late sixties, I could really give some harsh words to misbehaving students. One day I decided to try an experiment, which proved that this verse is true. At the start of the school day I whispered as the students came into the classroom. I am not lying when I say that even the most boisterous students started whispering. They told each other that “we are whispering today.” I don’t know how long this lasted on my part or on their part, but my soft answer that day did not stir up, either my anger, or theirs. I try to remember this lesson in my daily contacts with people. Second, we are reminded that: “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright: but the mouth of a fool pours out foolishness.” This verse gives us some good advice on every level of our dealing with people, but what I took away from it this time is that we need to careful what say to people. Words have meanings and words have consequences. What we say, even humorously, can build up or tear down people. Perhaps, we mean no harm whatever; however, our words carelessly given might do harm. I try to remind myself of this when I am dealing with people. I must confess that I forget this from time to time and need to apologize to any that my humorous quips might have hurt. (I was convicted of this as I wrote…) We need to be careful what we say to people and be sure that we are not “pouring out foolishness.” Third, we are reminded that everything that we say or do is seen or heard by the Lord: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” This is a sobering reminder that our Sovereign Lord is aware of everything in our lives. He sees the good things that we do and the bad things that we do. He hears the good things that we say and He hears the hurting things that we say. We also need to remember that God sees and hears everything that we tweet, put on Face book or put in Emails. We need to remember, however, that the Lord who sees and hears everything also loves us and sent His Son to deliver us from our sins. We also need to remember that His forgiveness is always available when we sincerely repent and confess. There is a lot of good advice in these three verses; we would be wise to take notice of it. Bro. Joe “(Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief: but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
Abraham is an example of almost any good thing that I can think of because he was “strong in faith, and giving glory to God.” Building a strong faith is similar to building a strong body. Let me give you some examples of what I mean: First, to build a strong body, or strong faith, we have to exercise. We exercise our faith in Christ by using it. When Abraham was called to literally start a new people of God by going where God told him to go, he did it. Abraham took a step of faith, and after Genesis 12, the whole Old Testament is about what he started. Abraham could not have done the great things that he did if he had faint faith. We will never know what Christ can do with our faith until be obey Him, and do what he wills us to do. When is the last time you really exercised your faith? I’m not implying that you have not exercised your faith; I’m just asking you to think about. It. Your faith will not be strong until you exercise it. We grow strong bodies by eating right. We need to be careful what we put into our bodies if we want them to be stronger. Our faith is made stronger by our spiritual diet. For example, how much time do you spend reading and studying your Bible? I’m not implying that you have not spent time in your Bible, I am just asking you to think about it. Naturally, your diet of prayer will make a difference in the strength of your faith. Do you take advantage of all of the opportunities that you have to talk with Jesus, and listen with your heart to what He says? I have discovered that I can pray any time, or wherever I am. You can think a prayer, and Jesus will hear it and will answer. It is good to have a special time and place to pray, but we can pray any time at any place! Our bodies grow stronger when we take time to rest. To grow stronger in our faith, we need to obey Jesus and come to Him for rest. This is what He said in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. 29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Our rest in Him is in our service for Him and letting Him minister to the world through us. We need to lean on Jesus each day, and depend on Him to rest our souls and strengthen our faith. Learn to lean on Jesus, talk to Him, read His word, and worship Him on a daily basis. You will find that His strength is adequate for successful service in His kingdom. Take Jesus’ invitation and go to Him for rest and strength. Exercise your faith through Bible study, prayer and worship. Get under His “yoke” and let Him use you and strengthen you in your service for Him. Bro. Joe “O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.”
Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” That is true, but what is even truer is that you cannot ever fool God. He is omniscient (all-knowing). We cannot hide from God. David wrote that “thou knowest my foolishness.” When I read that this morning, I thought, man I am really in trouble. If God knows my foolishness, He knows a lot about me. (Don’t laugh it probably applies to you as well. Lol) What is foolishness? According to The American Century Dictionary it is “lacking good sense or judgment, unwise.” This is why the Lord told us in Proverbs 3:5-7: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding." 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Since God knows so much about us, it is understandable that He knows all of our thoughts. There is one illustration I have occasionally shared with churches: “How would we like it if all of our thoughts were placed over our heads like thoughts and words in comic strips?” We would all know what everyone is thinking and I imagine that a lot of relationships would be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Then we would know a lot of what God already knows about us. That leads to a question: If we care that much about what other people think about our thoughts, why aren’t we as concerned that God knows our thoughts? David also wrote: “and my sins are not hid from thee.” This means that God not only knows what we think but what we do as well. There is nothing that we ever do that God does not see, but God6 has all-seeing eyes. All of the things that we ever think that we have done in secret were not secrets to God. That is a sobering thought isn’t it? As the old saying goes: “You can run but you can’t hide.” I don’t know at what point in David’s life this psalm was written, but when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, he found out that this is really true. Even if David could have hidden what he did from the people and the prophet Nathan, he still would not have gotten away with it, for God already knew it. God knows our every thought and our every deed, but He loves us anyway. That is the good news of the Bible. We are sinners who sometimes think bad thoughts and do bad things, but He loves us anyway Understand that He is not always pleased with us, and because of His love for us will discipline us, but He will also forgive and clean the whole slate. That’s why I’m glad that: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Bro. Joe “My soul longs, yea even faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”
Have you ever thought about the deepest longing of your soul and what your “heart and flesh” really cry out for? That’s a question that we all need to ask ourselves. Let’s take a few minutes and think about what are the real longings of our souls, and the deepest need of our “heart and flesh.” In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus shared a parable about a young man who thought that the deepest longing of his life was to leave home and live like he wanted to live. His father made this possible because he gave him his inheritance. He went off into what Jesus called “the far country” and began to fulfill his selfish longings. When a famine came, he ran out of money and consequently, he lost his new “friends.” He became destitute, and was about to starve to death when he came to his senses and decided to return to the father’s house. He had gotten what he longed for, and discovered that what he longed for was not as satisfying as he thought it would be. In his moment of deepest need the young man thought of his father and longed to return to him. Fortunately, he was welcomed home and even given a party to celebrate his return. This made we wonder that if our deepest longings were fulfilled, would they really satisfy us? If our deepest longings are for more “stuff” would we find that this “stuff” would give us real satisfaction? Have you ever received anything that gave you soul satisfaction and fulfilled the desires of your “heart and flesh”? It might have given you a momentary thrill, but eventually the thrill wore off and you were soon needing something else. The point that I want to make in this article is that our deepest needs are eternal. The prodigal son in Luke 15 made this discovery. Psalm 84:2 gives us true direction as to what the longings of our hearts and souls should be. He longed for the “courts of the Lord.” This was not a desire for more church. The “courts of the Lord” was where God came to dwell among his people in the “Holy of Holies” in the temple. He wanted to be close to where he knew that God would be present. He longed for “the living God.” I know that the Lord is with me, but there are times when I literally cry out “Oh, Jesus come to me.” It’s not that I think He has left me, but it is that I want, and need, more of Him, more of His love, more of His word, more of His power, frankly, more of His attitude. These are times when I have wandered from closeness to Him and just long for that closeness. I find that, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He is waiting for me and comes to me with all of His love, more of His word, more of His power, and more of His attitude. This will be true of you too. Just ask Him. He is waiting!!!! Bro. Joe “I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
This verse teaches us that we should be givers, because it is more “blessed to give than to receive.” It is a hard lesson to learn, but it is good lesson and is true. We should seek to be givers. We need to give money. (We might as well start with this one and get it over with.lol) Throughout the Bible we are taught to be generous with our money. The young man that we call the “rich young ruler” was told about the importance of this. He wanted to know how to receive eternal life. Jesus told him that he should sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and he would free himself to really see the need for eternal life. The lesson from this incident is that the man’s money and possessions were keeping him from surrendering himself to the Lord. We should give our money to the Lord’s work and be generous with what is left. Jesus was trying to teach the young man that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” We will not learn this lesson until we learn to give our money to some causes beyond ourselves. We need to give of ourselves. We not only need to give our money, we also need to give of our time and effort for someone beyond ourselves. This does not mean that we do not need to look out for ourselves; it just means that we keep ourselves from life’s blessings when we fail to give of ourselves. Writing these CouchPotato articles is one way I have of giving of myself. Of course, it is not the only way, but I started this when I could not do anything else because of illness. The Lord taught me that this was how I could give of myself, even if I could not get off of the couch. I can get off of the couch now, but I still feel the need to share in this way. What are you doing to give of yourself? We should give compassion. It is easy to become self-indulgent and uncaring in this “land of plenty” in which we live. We need to not just feel compassion, but we need to also act with compassion. I am sure that the priest and Levite felt sorry for the man that they passed by on the Jericho Road, but their feeling sorry for him did not help him. When the “Good Samaritan” came along, he did not just feel sorry for the man, but he reached out to him with compassion and actually helped him. There is a lot more to being a giver than the three things that I have dealt with, but they are a good place to start. Be a giver! Bro. Joe (From the archives with thanks to my brother James, who gave me the idea in 2014.)
Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 2:21: “For all seek their own, not the things which are Christ’s.” My younger brother did not know that he was giving me an idea for an article when he shared with me in an Email that a speaker that he heard pointed out the contrast between these two verses. I read them for the Lord only knows how many times, but I had never put them together like that speaker did. Needless to say, this got my imagination to whirling and I suggested to my brother that he would see this on a blog. What we have in these two verses is two opposing philosophies of life. I will begin with the negative philosophy: “For all seek their own, not the things which are Christ’s.” In the first place, this is a selfish way to live. There are many people who live each day only to satisfy their whims and fancies. When we do what comes naturally, we live by this philosophy. Go back to the Genesis account of the first sin. God told Adam and Adam told Eve that they were not to eat the fruit of the “knowledge of good and evil,” because if they did they would die. One day Eve was tempted to eat of the delicacy, or what she must have considered a delicacy, and she succumbed. Then she gave to Adam and he ate the fruit. This first sin was rebellion against God, because Adam and Eve decided to “seek their own” and satisfy their own desires. In the second place, this is a foolish way to live, because while people are “seeking their own,” they are not thinking of “the things which are Christ’s.” The NIV translates it: “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” This is the philosophy of the person who does not know Christ. All he knows is to look out for his own interests. Some of those interests might be good, but they are leaving Christ out of their lives. Now we will turn to the positive philosophy: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This means that Christ was at the very center of Paul’s life, and can also be the center of our lives. Paul wrote it in this way in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself from me.” Paul’s positive philosophy was the result of his faith in Christ, and of His appreciation for the fact that Christ “gave Himself for me.” In the first place, this is a selfless way to live. This is not to say that people who live by this positive philosophy are always selfless, for none of us are perfect. But it does mean that if we have this selfless philosophy, we will seek to follow God’s will for our lives. It also means that when we put Christ first, we have better relationships with people. In the second place, this is a wise way to live. Paul advised in Ephesians 5:15-16: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. 16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Living “circumspectly” means to live carefully. In other words, we need to watch our step lest we do something foolish. If Christ is at the center of our lives, we are more likely to live wisely. Make sure that you live by the philosophy of Philippians 1:21 and stay away from the philosophy in Philippians 2:21. Bro. Joe “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”
Our text reminds of one of the main themes of scripture: It is wise to trust in the Lord. It is a lesson that I have come to understand in my own journey through life. I thought of some of the advantages of trusting in the Lord. The first advantage is suggested in our text, i.e., that it is safe to trust in the Lord. When we try to make it through life just trusting in our own judgment, we make all kinds of mistakes. I know that in the times of dire illness in my own life, I learned to just surrender the days to the Lord and trust that He would work it out, and in His will I would be safe. It is great to know that we can surrender time and circumstance to the Lord and He will take care of it – whatever “it” is at the time. Surrender your will to the Lord’s will! The second advantage of trusting the Lord is that we will approach life with greater confidence. I remember when we decided to move from our financial security where we were to go to seminary in North Carolina we would have never done it without trusting in the Lord. We made the move trusting that this was what the Lord wanted us to do. Trusting in the Lord, we made the move with confidence, knowing that we were in the Lord’s hands. When Paul made his missionary journeys, he confidently moved from place to place knowing that he was guided by the hand of God. Whatever you are planning, ask the Lord for His guidance, and you can move with confidence that you are doing the right thing. The third advantage of trusting in the Lord is that we can approach life with a greater sense of security. I often recall the promise that the Lord make to Israel in Deuteronomy 33:27: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….” I believe that the “everlasting arms” are available to us in our own situations in life. I can’t imagine facing life without knowing that the Lord is present with me, and that underneath are His “everlasting arms.” They are there for you as well as you face the trying situations of your own life. The fourth advantage of trusting in the Lord will enable us to face life with a greater sense of joy and peace. I have certainly found this to be true in my life. Jesus promised both joy and peace to those who trust in Him. Two verses that I think of often are the promises that Jesus made about joy and peace. The first is John 15:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” The second on John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Remember these verses as you face your own problems in life. Surrender your life to God’s will and trust Him to lead you in the right direction. Bro. Joe “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted in the earth. 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
The two verses of our text are among my favorite verses. They are full of promise for our lives and I want to share that promise with you. I call it “A Formula for Victorious Living.” The first promise is that if we will “be still” we can learn about God: “Be still and know that I am God.” We need to pause in the turmoil around us and take stock of our lives and of our God. We need to stop and reflect on Jesus and all that He means to us. The voice of the Lord is often drowned out in the midst of all that is going on around us, and He wants us to “be still” and know that He is God." Do you ever stop and ponder the Lord, just ponder Him in all of His majesty? I think that these moments of pondering and praying draw us closer to the Lord and give us a greater understanding of who He is and what He means to our lives. Just stop for a moment, listen to God with your heart, think, and meditate, deeply on the Lord! I promise you it will be rewarding. The second promise is that we can know that He is God. You might be thinking that you know that He is God. How profoundly has this affected your life? No doubt you do know that there is a God, but do you ever stop and think about what He means to your life? Psalm 100: 3 reminds us: “Know you that the Lord He is God: and it is He that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” Do you ever really think about what it means to be “His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Because of your faith in Jesus, you literally belong to Him. Meditate for a moment on the depth and profundity of this truth. Stop and think about some of these wonderful truths: (1) you know that God loves you. Just stop and say “God loves me.” (2) You know that because of your faith in Jesus, you have a personal relationship with the living God. (3) You know that you will never be hopeless in your life because you have placed your hope in the God of all hope. Will you stop for a moment today and contemplate, and pray about what this means to you? .This is the path of victorious living! The third promise is that: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” You will never be alone, because the Lord has promised to be with you. Stop and rejoice about the presence of the Lord in your life, for the promise that the Holy Spirit will be with you through all of the joys and pitfalls that you will face in your life. One of the greatest joys in my life is that I can go to Him for refuge, and He will sustain, teach and encourage me. I also take comfort in the fact that He will rebuke and discipline me to keep on the right track. Don’t you agree that these two verses can help you to live victoriously? Then: “Be still and know that (He is) God…” Bro. Joe “Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.”
As I was sitting here in my “easy chair” the other morning half asleep (gee imagine that), a thought flitted across my mind, i.e., “What is the basis of your hope?” Before I go any further with this thought, I want to share the definition of hope from The American Century Dictionary: “1 expectation or desire for a thing 2 Person or thing giving cause for this 3 what is hoped for, etc.” The Greek word that is normally translated as hope, and is true of our text, is “elpis” and it means to have great expectation of something that is certain. We usually use the word “hope” to mean something like, “Gosh, I hope so and so happens, but it might not.” The basis of our hope should be certain – not maybe. In the beginning of his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote of “Christ Jesus” as our “hope.” Jesus is a real and eternal basis for hope. I love the opening words of the old hymn, The Solid Rock: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” I’m not sure what a “sweetest frame” is, but I think it is something, or someone, in this world that we might lean on instead of Jesus. Some people put their hope in politics. Be sure that I have my political opinions and I could bore you to death for hours discussing them, but my hope is not in politics. I have lived long enough (from FDR to DT) to know that politics is one of the “sweetest frames” mentioned above. Who is in control in Washington is too tenuous to be a basis for hope. I have seen the political spectrum switch from “pillar to post” in my years on this earth. We Americans are really fickle when it comes to who is to control in Washington. We will try one party for eight years and then try another - ad infinitum. You can be deliriously happy that your candidate won, but the years will go by and the delirium will turn to dismay, then the other party will be in control. I just can’t put my hope in politics. I read a lot about politics and there are people on all ends of the spectrum who really and truly put their hope there, but I don’t want to be one of them. I do not want my hope to be on something that the fickleness of human beings can destroy. We will just live our lives, and be happy or grin and bear it, until the next election. Politics cannot take the place of Jesus. Some people put their hope in their bank accounts. That’s why some rich people killed themselves at the beginning of “the Great Depression” in 1929. They just could not take not being rich. Hey, I want my fair share, so to speak, but I can’t put my hope in it. There is any number of things that can serve as the basis of your hope, but if the basis of your hope is not Jesus, you are leaning on something, or someone, that is a poor basis for hope. If Jesus is not your hope already, put your faith in Him now, and trust Him here and for all eternity. Do it! Bro. Joe |
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