“Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
We have all probably wished at some time or other that we could inherit a fortune. We probably did not think about the fact that someone would have to die for us to be inheritors. Be that as it may, we do not have to wait to be rich heirs. The Bible tells us that through Christ we are heirs of God. Why? Because when we accepted Jesus as our Savior we became sons and daughters of God through our faith in Christ. If we are heirs, what have we inherited? Paul gave us a hint of the extent of our inheritance in Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Think about all of the riches of God. The Bible tells us that everything belongs to God, in heaven and on earth; therefore, we have an extensive inheritance. What are some of these riches that we have inherited? The first thing that comes to my mind is that we have inherited the richness of God’s love, mercy, and grace. How thankful we should be that God did not continue to treat us as slaves, but in His love He accepted us into His kingdom and made us His children. We do not ever need to feel unloved, because we can be assured that God loves us all of the time. Just as our salvation is based on His grace, His love is also based on His grace. He loves us in spite of ourselves. The second thing that comes to my mind is that we have inherited His forgiveness. Guilt is a big part of being human, but God forgives us so that we do not have to be consumed by guilt. We have the Bible’s promise that if we will “confess our sins (Jesus) will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Not only that but He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Keep in mind that we cannot earn the forgiveness of God, but He gives it to us freely out of His “riches in glory.” The third thing that comes to my mind is that we have inherited His peace. In John 16:33, Jesus gave a promise concerning His peace: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (trouble); but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul gave us a promise concerning the peace that Christ gives us. He promised that if we take all things to God in prayer: “the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” We cannot earn the peace of God that “passes all understanding,” but we can claim it by grace as part of the inheritance of “His riches in glory.” This peace is beyond our understanding because it is eternal peace that abides in our hearts, even as in the world we have troubles. These are all great reasons to rejoice in our inheritance, but the greatest of all is eternal life in heaven forever and forever. We are heirs of God and we need to remember it and rejoice in it. Bro. Joe
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“ And Saul was consenting unto his death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.”
“That day” referred to here is the stoning of Stephen. After Stephen’s death, the persecution of Christians really picked up. But something good came out of this persecution. People, who had been converted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2-3, and after, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Until that point all of the action of the church had taken place in Jerusalem, but now the witness was spreading. This fulfilled what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” I’m sure that when Jesus gave them tha charge that they did not know how it would be carried out. Here is what I really want us to see in this text: Persecution did not kill the church, rather it scattered it and began a movement that would be worldwide in a few short years. Let’s go back and look at something that happened as Stephen was stoned. They laid their robes at the feet of a man named Saul. Then we are told that he was “consenting unto (Stephen’s) death.” Who would have thought that in a short time this persecutor of the church would be a part of it and be one on the main characters in carrying out Acts 1:8? God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways. If we planned it out, it would not be like this. We would appoint committees and discuss being “witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth” to death. We would ask, “Exactly what did Jesus mean and how can we plan this thing out to everybody’s satisfaction?” This is not how God did it. He used the stoning of Stephen as the catalyst for scattering his church beyond Jerusalem, then, on the Damascus Road, converted Saul and turned him into “the Apostle Paul.” In order for the gospel to reach“the uttermost part of the earth” Gentiles would have to be converted. Again, if we had planned it out, we would have appointed committees, asked for resumes of good Gentile Christians, discussed it to death and come up with someone to witness to the Gentiles. This is not what God did. He found the meanest Jew that He could find, converted him on the Damascus Road, and sent him to witness to the Gentiles. Paul’s witness and the witness of Peter and other apostles enabled the gospel message to reach all the way to Rome and beyond, thus carrying out Jesus’ command. What lessons can we derive from this? First, we can understand that bad things that happen to us can turn out to be used of God for great purposes. Who knows but what some suffering that you have encountered has blessed someone else’s life in ways that you could not have planned out. Second, we can understand that when the Lord gives a command He means it, and He will see that it is carried out. If we didn’t send missionaries into the world, God would see that some were sent anyway. Perhaps, until the stoning of Stephen and the ensuing persecution, converted Jews were reluctant to leave Jerusalem. God had different plans and scattered them to other places. Third, God might want you to “scatter” from where you are in your life today and go and do what He wants you to do. (I’m not necessarily referring to location as much as I am referring to lifestyle.) At least give it some consideration. Bro. Joe “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
We do not read far into the Bible before we discover that evil is going to be a problem for all of mankind, and womankind, lest women feel left out. In fact, we don’t get more than three chapters into Genesis before we see evil raise its ugly head. Evil is present because of on evil personage – the devil. All you have to do to spell devil is to add a d to evil. We have to deal with evil from the time we are born until we leave this earth. Paul knew that evil could overcome us, so he exhorted us to overcome evil with good. The first thing we need to know about evil is that it does not look like our concept of evil. We think of evil as something ugly and deranged. Even pictures of our concept of the devil show him to be an ugly red creature with horns and a pitchfork. That concept is not what we find in the Bible. Paul wrote about Satan in 2 Corinthians 11:14: “And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” The devil is smart enough to not make evil look bad, in fact, it sometimes looks very good. Think of how the old serpent Satan made the forbidden fruit look to Eve. It was almost as if she had to have that fruit to find fulfillment in life. No, evil does not always resemble what we call evil. I am reminded of a country song that was on the charts in the 1970’s, entitled “It Don’t Feel Like Sinning to Me.” The song was about a woman who was having an illicit affair and since it didn’t feel like sinning, it was alright. Go ahead and confess that evil does not always, or rarely, look like our concept of evil. To be fore warned is to be forearmed. The second thing we need to know about evil is that we will always have to deal with it. The devil would not leave Jesus alone, and he certainly will not leave us alone. He tempted Jesus to do his bidding on what we have come to call “The Mount of Temptation.” In one of the temptations, he told Jesus to behold all of the kingdoms of the world, and he would give them to him if Jesus would fall down and worship him. Aren’t we glad that Jesus refused to do his bidding!!!! Perhaps the devil thought that this was a weakness within Jesus. It wasn’t a weakness within Jesus, but it is within us. The devil knows our every weakness and he will play on our weaknesses all day long. That is why we need to bathe our days in prayer. I’m not sharing something here that I have heard about; rather; I am sharing something that I know firsthand all too well. He loves to destroy the witness of a Christian, and he does it all of the time. The third thing we need to know about evil is to share Paul’s admonition in this verse pertaining to evil, i.e., “overcome evil with good.” One way we can interpret this is that if the devil tempts us to dislike, or hate, someone we should make every effort to love him or her. I will warn you that the devil will not make this easy. Another way to interpret it is that if you want to say something hurtful and spiteful to someone, instead say something kind and uplifting. Again, this will not be easy. I could go on and on giving illustrations of how we can overcome evil with good, because there is no limit to the ways that we can do this. Jesus told us that when people say ugly things to us we should bless them instead of react in kind. I don’t know about you, but this has been a hard lesson for me, and I still have to work on it. I guess that the best thing to say is that when our minds turn toward evil we should turn them toward good, and depend on Jesus to get us through it. We should be aware of the evil around us and overcome it with good. Bro. Joe “I will praise the name of God With a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. 31. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. 32. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.”
Praising God is important. I looked in my concordance for the word “praise” and I found line after line of scripture references about praising God. I did not count them, but there were a lot of them. Psalm 69:30-32 is a case in point. In verse 30 David tells us how to praise God. He says that he will praise God with a song. My personal take on this is that God put a song on David’s heart and he would sing the song to the Lord. I sometimes praise God with singing the old hymns that I have sung over the years. (I know a lot of them by heart, except for the third verse of most four verse hymns. I think you know why.) When a song arises in my heart, I find myself singing it to God. But this “song” can also just be silent praise of God/Jesus. David also wrote that he would magnify God with thanksgiving. The NIV translates “magnify” as “glorify.” Both words mean that God's presence in our lives is so overwhelming that we will praise Him with great thanksgiving. The song and the thanksgiving can come at the strangest times. It can come when we are sitting in church; it can come when we are driving, or it can come when we are in the middle of a workday. This praise and thanksgiving does not have to be loud, or public, it just has to come from our hearts if not from our mouths. Do you have a song in your heart that leads you to thank Him? In verse 32 David tells us one of the results of praising God: “This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.” What this means is that the praise that comes from our hearts is more pleasing to God than the religious things that we do. The reference to bullocks is a reference to the animal sacrifices made at the tabernacle, and later the temple. To us this means that God is more pleased with praise than He is if we just “go to church” and it doesn’t make any difference in our lives. I think that we have to have some ritual in our public worship, but when it becomes the end rather than the means to an end, then we are not pleasing God. God is pleased when we praise Him, not because He has an ego that needs it; rather He is pleased when we genuinely praise Him because He knows that we need to do that and that it is good for us spiritually. If you want to please God, you can please Him by genuine heartfelt worship. Of course, this is not the only way that we can please God, but it is certainly a good start. . In verse 33, David tells us that our heartfelt praise influences other people: “The humble (or the meek) shall see this, and be glad…” I think this means that the people whose hearts are open to seeking God will be influenced by our praise. It is important, however, that our praise cause them to praise God rather than praising us. Our witness serves as a witness to people about our God. But David added something that means our influence will be inward as well: “and your hearts shall live that seek God.” When we praise God our hearts come alive, our faith grows, our witness becomes more powerful and our lives are changed day by day. The point is that when we are secure within our own hearts, we will be a greater influence on others. What happens when we praise God? We draw closer to God, we please Him and we influence others. Bro. Joe Ecclesiastes 10:1: “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour (odor): so does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor."
Matthew 13:33: “Another parable spoke He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” I do not mean to change the word of God, but I want to propose that one dead fly in the ointment would make it stink. I know that if I found a dead fly in anything that I was going to apply to myself, or eat, it would be time to throw whatever it was away. In the same way, it takes only a little leaven, or yeast, to cause the dough to rise. The same is true of events in the world, our churches and our lives. Sometimes it just takes just one bad influence to ruin everything. As the old saying goes: “One rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel.” This has been true in history. There are plenty of historical examples, but one comes to my mind – Adolph Hitler. I am a student, not a scholar, of WWII, and one can’t study that war and not study about Hitler. He was one man who had twisted ideas about human nature, and about Jews, and that one man stirred a whole nation to follow him into the folly of his ideas. Let us say that Hitler was a “fly in the ointment of history.” One thinks of Joseph Stalin, who took the idea of communism and turned it into a murderous weapon against his own people. Both Hitler and Stalin had people who influenced their lives, but they sure muddled things when they were in charge. This has been true in churches. It doesn’t take a whole lot of people to “stir up a mess” in a church. Most of the time it is one person who has an ax to grind, and they grind it for all that they are worth. The problem is that they can usually get other people in cahoots with them, and can stir up trouble for everybody. Sometimes it begins in a Sunday School class, or some other organization in the church, and it permeates the whole church. This is bad but it happens and it happens when a little leaven is put in the dough, or a dead fly gets in the ointment. Now that I have you depressed about the human situation (lol) let me go in a more positive direction. This principle also applies to the good that can be done in the world and in the church. Dwight L. Moody, the great 19th Century evangelist, when asked about how revival starts said: “Every great movement of God began with a kneeling figure.” Great revivals have started because one person caught on fire for the Lord and “leavened the whole lump.” When one thinks of the “Great Awakening” he thinks of Jonathan Edwards, whose sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” helped to stir a nation to revival. Edwards didn’t do it by himself, but his influence was felt throughout the movement. Now I will go to the source –the Bible – God’s word. Of course, we think of Jesus who was one God/man who changed the world, but I want to illustrate this point with a man. This man’s name was Saul of Tarsus. He caused havoc for the followers of Jesus Christ. He was bent on destroying the churches, and his influence was felt throughout the church. But when Saul of Tarsus met Christ on the Damascus Road, and became Paul the Apostle, he was influential in the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the area, beginning at Damascus and reaching all the way to Rome. Paul didn’t do it by himself, but he was the “leaven” that made a difference in his time for the Lord’s work. I will conclude by asking you about yourself. What difference are you making where you are? Are you a “fly in the ointment” or are you an influence for good in your family, your community, your church and etc. Something to think about isn’t it? Bro. Joe “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…..For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
If we are honest with ourselves we will agree that we sometimes wish Jesus had not said the words printed above on forgiveness. However, they are there in black (or red) and white in the Holy Bible. Let’s just admit that there are times when we would like to hang onto our unforgiveness for awhile. At these times we need to remember that Jesus is not telling us to hang onto unforgiving spirits. This kind of thinking could only come from Satan. Forgiveness is indispensable in our lives. Let’s begin with the most important aspect of this: We should be forgiving because we have been forgiven. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:13, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” Paul did not make this a suggestion to the Colossians but as a command. Because Christ has forgiven us, we must forgive one another. In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus told the parable of a man who had been forgiven a ten thousand talent debt by the king. (This would be millions of dollars today.) After the man was forgiven this great debt, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him “an hundred pence,” a mere pittance. He would not forgive this small debt. When his fellow servants saw what he did, knowing what he had been forgiven, they reported to the king, and the man had to pay the penalty for his great debt. Like all of Jesus’ parables, He was not just talking about this man but about us as well. In verses 34-35, Jesus said: “And his lord was wroth (angry), and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.” The point is that since we have been forgiven the great debt of our sins, Jesus expects us to forgive others. Let’s admit that forgiveness is not always easy. Some things are easily forgiven, but others are not so easily forgiven. If what was done to us was like a small pin prick, we can easily forgive. But if what was done to us hurt deeply, we do not find forgiving so easily done. I know this from experience, and so do you if you are honest with yourself. Jesus said, however, that we are to “forgive everyone his brother their trespasses.” This means that we are to forgive every trespass. In the hard cases we will have to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us forgive. We will have to remember the depth of Jesus’ forgiveness from the cross when He prayed: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” The Jewish and Roman authorities put Jesus through a false trial, beat Him unmercifully, drove nails into His hands and feet and stretched Him out on a cross to die. Yet He forgave all who did this to Him, including us, for our sins put Jesus on the cross too. There have been times when I have had a difficult time forgiving, that I have said to myself: “They did not nail me to a cross,” meaning that they have not treated me as badly as Jesus was treated. Jesus set the example for us. It behooves us, then, to forgive one another. Remember that in order to be in good fellowship with God and fellow Christians, we need to forgive “everyone his brother their trespasses.” Go ahead and forgive now. There is no better time than the present. You will be a better person for it, and your life will be better for it. Bro. Joe As I deal with a case of "writer's block," I went back to 2012 to remind us that time really does fly. jb
"For all of our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you. So teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:9-12 ESV) "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV) It is true that "time and tide wait for no man." We wake up and it's Monday, then it's Friday, then it's Christmas, then it's New Years Day - again. Our lives pass so fast that we really have to be careful how we handle each day. Unwise people just let time pass by without making any plans or without considering what their lives should mean. That is why the psalmist wrote: "So teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom." "Numbering our days" means that we live one day at a time and grasp what we need to be or to do each day. It is irrevocably true that time "will soon be gone and we fly away." When we number our days, we have a "heart of wisdom," which means that our hearts are in tune with God's wisdom for our lives. Paul admonished us to "make the best use of our time." If we do less than this, we will be foolish and we will not "understand what the will of the Lord is." The best way to make the best use of fleeting time is to get in tune with the will of God for your life and follow that will each day. Then you will walk in wisdom - God's wisdom. Bro. Joe “And there came there certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. 20. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. 21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch.”
What does a football team do after they lose a game? Do they get together in the locker room afterward and declare to never play football again? No! They pick up and go again. They go out the next week and practice even harder. This is sort of like what Paul did after he had been stoned (Had rocks thrown at him in order to kill him. just saying) and left for dead. One would think that Paul would have surmised that this “Christian thing” was just too dangerous. That’s not what he did. He got up and kept going. In fact, they went back to the cities they had preached in and even went to Lystra, where Paul had been stoned. There is a good lesson for us here. We need to learn to “get up and keep going.” When we are going through periods when it seems that nothing will ever go right again, we need to take that as a challenge and go forward instead of quitting. I know that life can hand us some hard blows, but even the hardest of blows cannot keep us down if in our hearts and minds we do not intend to stay down. When I was seventeen-years-old, I quit high school, at the end of the tenth grade, and went into the Navy. Needless to say, I did not feel like a great winner, but something was awakened in me, which eventually proved to be the Lord, and I stopped being a “high school dropout” in my own mind, and started to go forward. It certainly was not “ever onward” from then on, but I recovered from it. Without Jesus it would never have happened, and I would probably be dead now, having drowned in self-pity. The Lord gave me a good swift kick where I needed it, and awakened me to a better life. If we want to get up and go again, we have to believe that the Lord has a purpose for our lives. If I hadn’t discovered that truth in my life, I would have quit. The Lord got hold of me, and in spite of my innate sorriness, led me on. None of us are here by accident, for God has a purpose for everyone. Including you! Bro. Joe "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief..'
We looked at "His (God's) Story" yesterday. Today we want to take a look at "Our Story." I do not pretend to know the story of your life, or even all of mine. lol This will be a sketch of our story of receiving Christ as our Savior. First, the story begins when we realized that we were sinners in need of a Savior. Some might have a problem referring to themselves as "sinners," but the Bible teached that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." If Paul could make that confession, so can we. We do not accept, or receive Christ, until we do confess that we are sinners in need of a Savior. This doesn't mean that you are a bad person, but that sin is part of the human existence since the Garden of Eden. Confession of our sin is the beginning of our story with Christ. Second, our story continues by our belief in Christ. In John 3:16 the Bible says that whosoever believes in Christ, "shall not perish, but have everlasting life." This does not mean to just believe about Jesus, but to believe that He is real, that He came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died as a sacrifice for our sins." This is what we mean when we say that we need Christ, because He is the key to our eternal salvation. That is what He came to earth to do, and it was finished when He died on the cross. He paid a steep price to save us from sin, and we should take Him up on it. Third, our story continues when we commit our lives to Christ, through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and are baptized and live our lives for Him through Hs church and in our daily lives - at home and at work. The H9ly Spirit came to live in our lives and " to guide (us) into all truth." We were given spiritual gifts to guide us in our service for Jesus. I want to emphasize that we are not gifted to just work in the church but in our daily lives. I hope and trust that this explanation o f "Our Story" has been enlightening to you. Bro. Joe "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: Is there anything too hard for me?"
The text from the book of Jeremiah, is God's answer to Jeremiah concerning His power. The answer to the question is "no." This is a part of the story of God's dealings with the world. Of course, this is a take on God's history with the world, which becomes His Story. What is "His Story" with the world? It is a story of great power. (We can also call it "ultimate power.") God is omnipotent, meaning that He is all powerful. This power is illustrated in many ways in the Bible, but no clearer than in God's creation of the world. He literally spoke the universe into creation. Everything we observe in the night sky is evidence of God's power to create. The universe did not just happen because of a great explosion, called "the big bang." Chapters one and two Genesis tell us the story of God's creative power. When you look up into the sky at night, everything that you see was created by God. It is, indeed, a story of great power. It is a story of great love. Of course, this is revealed in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Considering the great power of God, it is better that He love us than to be indifferent about us, or worse, to actually hate us. The history of the world would seem to cause Him to hate us. It is true that he hates sin that destroys our lives, but in spite of sin, He loves us and will save us through belief in His Son. Romans 3:23 reminds us of our sinfulness: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." However, Romans 3:24 reminds us that we can be "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." There is much more to "His Story" than what I have covered, but the two that I have shared are enough evidence to know that "His Story" is good news for us. The four accounts of God's Son, Jesus, as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are called "the four gospels." The definition of "gospel" is good news. "His Story" is good news for us. Thank God! Bro. Joe |
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