“If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
It is so easy to say that we should set our affection on things above, it is quite another to actually do it. After all, we have a lot of people on this earth that we set our affection on, and we have a lot of things that we set our affection on too. We need to be careful with this command, because it can be easily misunderstood. Some people take it seriously, as they should, but in the process they become self-righteous and look down on people who are not like they are. I think that it was Dwight L. Moody who said that “some people become so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” On the other hand, there are people who have no interest whatever in setting their affection on things above and put all of their love on the earth. What, then, does it mean to "set your affection on things above”? It does not mean that we can set our affection only on things above. After all, when Jesus walked on this earth, he loved people. He also looked after people’s earthly needs. When Jesus was confronted with a crowd of more than five-thousand people who were hungry, He took a small amount of food and fed all of them. He was concerned about their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. In the Old Testament, when the Children of Israel left Egypt, God took care of their earthly needs as well as their spiritual needs. God certainly expects us to set our affection on spouses and children. In fact, Jesus told us to love all people. According to Jesus, the two greatest commandments are to “love the Lord thou God with all of your heart, mind and strength, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” God certainly expects us to take care of the people who are put under our care. So, to quote Moody, we can’t “become so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good.” It means that we are to love the Lord above all else. If the Bible is clear on one thing, it is clear on the fact that the Lord comes first. Paul made this clear in Colossians 1:16-18: “For by (Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. 17. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. 18. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead: that in all things He might have the preeminence (first place)." We have only one Savior, only one person who died for our sins and saved us by His blood. He deserves first place in our lives. Read on: It means that if we love Jesus above all else, that the people that we love on earth will be better off for it. Jesus does not want to be in competition with wives, husbands and children. He would never let our love for Him keep us from taking care of the earthly responsibilities that He has given us. These responsibilities mean our families, our work and our churches. The more we love Jesus, the more we love people and the more responsible we are for our earthly duties. Setting our affection on things above, does not rule out living a good life on this earth. It just means that we love Jesus more than we love the things of the world. This does not make us self-righteous and condescending, but it makes us loving and compassionate. In other words, setting our affection on things above makes us better human beings. Let’s look, again, at the earthly life of Jesus. He was God on earth, but the way He loved people, and the way He took care of His responsibilities also made Him a good human being. If we really want to be like Christ, we will love Him first and let His love make us love people. Bro. Joe
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“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came everyone from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was great.”
I’m going to assume that you know something about the book of Job. It is one of those biblical narratives that we hear a lot about because of its unusual nature. In the book God allows Satan to rip Job’s life apart by causing him to lose everything, including all ten of his children and all of his wealth. The gist of the narrative is that Satan thought he could make Job curse God, and God knew that Job would remain steadfast throughout the ordeal – which he ultimately did but not before he asked a lot of questions and agonized over his ordeal. In the midst of Job’s suffering come his three friends. Here is where we will see that we do not need to be like Job’s friends. In verse 13, we note that these three friends came to Job in the first place to comfort him. They got off to a good start, because for the first seven days they sat with him and did not say a word. The lesson here is that as long as Job’s friends kept their mouths shut and just shared their presence with Job, they did fine. The problem with them arose when they began to run their mouths and try to straighten Job out. They were trying to convince Job that he was being punished by God for all of the sins that he had committed. Let me give you one example of a “word of comfort” from Job’s dear friend Eliphaz: “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity; and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:7-8) Wow! How is that for comfort? He couldn’t have been further from the truth. Here is what God said to Satan about Job in Job 1:8: “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and escheweth evil?” We should think before we speak, because words, unfortunately, cannot be called back into our mouths. Sometimes it is just best to keep our mouths shut and just be a friend. Job’s friends purported to speak for God, when they were just giving their own opinions of what God was doing in Job’s life. I have discovered that I have a hard enough time determining what God is doing in my life without trying to figure out what he is doing in the lives of others. We need to be careful when we speak for God, because we may just be speaking for ourselves. We need to think long and hard before we give advice to suffering friends, particularly in the spiritual realm. We might think that we know the mind of God for that person, but we probably do not. What could Job’s friends have done for Job that would have been better than what they did, and for which they had to repent? (Read Job 42:7-10) They could have just stood by him as they did at first and kept their mouths shut. They could have just prayed for him silently and vocally, and asked God to relieve their friend. They could have just let Job talk about his troubles without giving their self-righteous feedback. They could have heard Job’s complaints and not have given their judgments about them. They could have just been his friends – period. The lesson for us is that we are to just love our friends, pray for them and help them when we can. When we can’t say something encouraging, it might be a good idea to follow what Job’s friends did in Job 2:13. Bro. Joe “And one of the company said unto (Jesus), Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14. And (Jesus) said unto him, Man who made me a judge or divider over you? 15. And (Jesus) said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses.”
Jesus was not reacting to just what the man said, but what Jesus knew was in the man’s heart. The man was making this request because he was covetous, or as we would say today, he was greedy. Then Jesus told the familiar parable about the farmer who had a bumper crop one year and instead of sharing it with others as Jewish law required, he built bigger barns and claimed it all for himself. Jesus, who created everything, and who actually owns everything, was not covetous, and He certainly warned us against it as well. What is wrong with being covetous? A covetous person is thinking only of himself or herself. Let’s refer back to the parable. The man in the parable did not wish to share his good fortune with others, but opted to keep it for himself. (Count the personal pronouns in the parable.) Jesus Himself was certainly not selfish, nor does He want us to be selfish. Paul wrote about this in Philippians 2:4: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” A covetous spirit says that I am the only person that counts. That is counter to everything that is taught in the Christian faith. God is a giving God and He wants His people to be giving people. The Bible does not teach that it is a sin to be rich, but that it is a sin to be ruled by riches. Jesus said that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to go into the kingdom of God." He did not say that it was impossible. He did intimate that it is easy for possessions to take us over and make us act selfishly. A covetous person does not own things, rather he or she is owned by things. This was illustrated by Jesus’ encounter with what we have traditionally called “the rich young ruler.” This incident is recorded in Luke 18:18-23. The gist of it is that the young man wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life. After Jesus talked with him about the commandments, the young man said that he had kept all of those. So Jesus told him that he lacked one thing and that what he should do is to sell all that he had and distribute it to the poor, then he would have heavenly riches. Jesus did not make that demand on all rich people, but he saw into the heart of this young man and knew that he was possessed by his possessions and that he would never take a step of faith as long as he depended on his possessions. It is easy for we affluent Americans to be owned by our possessions, because we have so many of them. A covetous person cannot be a genuinely happy person. This goes against everything that we believe today. People across America spend millions of dollars playing the lottery, thinking that if they win all of that money they will be happy. There has been follow-up on many of these big lottery winners, and a good many of them did not end up happier. In all fairness, this does not speak of all lottery winners, but it does speak of a lot of them. (One of their complaints is that they discover that they had kin folks that they never knew they had.) Money and possessions do not make us happy. A person who has a lot of money is happy if his or her money does not rule his or her life. Not all rich people are covetous, and there are middle class and poor people who are covetous. Whatever your financial standing, what you possess cannot make you happy. You have to be happy in your heart, mind and soul. I pray that you are not a covetous person and that you are not owned by what you possess. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in your possessions. Bro. Joe “Create in me a clean heart O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” KJV
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” NIV Psalm 51 is David’s confession after his sin with Bathsheba. He confessed a lot of things in the psalms, and this verse is one of those. He committed adultery with Bathsheba because his inner spirit was not in tune with God. What is a “right spirit”? It can be translated as a “steadfast spirit,” or a “constant spirit.” This carries with it the idea of having a spirit that is clinging to God and what is right instead of clinging to the world and what is wrong. Anyway, a quick reading of this verse today caused me to wonder what I think that a “right, steadfast, constant spirit” is. What follows is what I think it is. This spirit is brought about by a dynamic faith in the Lord. We cannot have a “right spirit” if we are not living by faith in Jesus. Hebrews 11:6b tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” It seems to me that a spirit that is constant, right, and steadfast would be pleasing to God. David knew that what he did with Bathsheba and to her husband, Uriah, was not done in faith, nor was it done in the right spirit. I’m sure that we can think of times in our lives when we have disappointed God because we did not follow the internal dictates of our faith, but followed what we wanted instead. Perhaps what we did was not as drastic as what David did, but it was bad nevertheless and was not done in a spirit that was right with God, that was not steadfast in adherence to the will of God and was not constant with our faith in God. It is true that the “just shall live by faith,” and this faith will move us to do right things instead of wrong things. Real, dynamic faith will steer us in the right direction and create a “right, steadfast, constant spirit” within us. This is brought about by daily dependence on the word of God – the Bible. I don’t know how in the world people who profess Christ think that they can have a spirit that is pleasing to God if they do not spend time daily in the word of God. I realize that since I am retired, I have more time to read the Bible than most people, but if a person is sincerely interested in having a “right, steadfast, constant spirit” that will be pleasing to God, he or she will find the time to read and study the Bible. I mentioned that having the desired spirit would be brought about by daily dependence on the word of God. What else can we depend on to keep on the straight and narrow way? I know that we can pray, but our prayers need to be bathed in the knowledge of God’s word. So many people today who claim Christ as Savior seem to be able to ignore the clear teachings of the Bible. We can’t have the spirit that David desired, and that we should desire, if we ignore the plain and simple word of God. Every Christian should be a Bible student, and should take seriously what we read. This is brought about by daring to trust everything to God. Years before David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he dared to stand against the nine feet tall giant Goliath, simply because he trusted that God was with him. Somehow, he let this daring spirit slip when confronted with a “giant” lust for a beautiful woman. If we have a “right, steadfast, constant spirit” we will dare to step out on faith in the light of daily temptations and daily challenges. In many ways the world system has challenged our faith in Jesus. This is nothing new. Every generation of Christians over the past two-thousand years has had to deal with the challenges of the world system. What we need to realize is that we live in a fallen world and we have to live for Jesus with a daring faith that trusts everything to God and not to polls. We need to pray with David and ask God to “renew a right, steadfast, constant spirit” within us. Bro. Joe “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.”
My Granddaddy Cooper had a saying when someone disagreed with something that he said: “By jingoes, I know what I know.” This is kind of like what Paul was relating to Timothy and through the scriptures to us. Paul had suffered a great deal, and at the time of this writing was in prison and was about to be beheaded for his faith, and he wanted Timothy to know that he was not ashamed of what he had suffered, and was still suffering, for the sake of Jesus. This was to encourage Timothy in his own suffering and to encourage us in our suffering. Paul could suffer graciously because of what, or whom, he knew – Jesus Christ. There are people who say that one can’t really know whether or not he or she is a Christian. I think Paul would really disagree with that. He wrote: “I know whom I have believed…” This was serious business, because Paul was about to die for this belief. One does not quibble when one is about to die for belief in Christ, because it would be too easy to recant and disavow one’s belief in Christ. Paul was willing to die because he knew what he knew. He knew that on the road to Damascus many years ago, he had encountered the living Christ, who turned his life around. Paul didn’t just know about Jesus; he personally knew Jesus. This is the problem that a lot of people have. They know about Jesus and think of Him in a positive light, but they do not know Him personally. They have not surrendered their lives to Him. There is a great deal of difference between knowing about Jesus and personally knowing Him. . How could Paul write with such certainty about his security in Jesus Christ? I have already mentioned Paul’s experience with Jesus on the Damascus Road. He was going to Damascus to further persecute Christians. He was absolutely opposed to Jesus and to His church. He wanted to stamp it out, but when Paul got up from the ground on the Damascus Road and went into the city, he met Ananias who further taught him about Jesus. From that day on, Paul’s whole life changed. He gave up all of his education as a Jewish lawyer. He gave up all of his Jewish pedigree of which he had been so proud. He wrote about this pedigree and all of his accomplishments before becoming a Christian and concluded: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Paul’s certainty did not come from any of his accomplishments, before and after the Damascus Road, but from his simple belief in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul could write:“And am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.” Paul knew that he was going to be with Jesus forever, because he took Jesus at His word and believed Him. He didn’t just believe about Jesus; he believed in Jesus. What do you “know that you know” about Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus was a good man who came on the scene approximately two-thousand years ago and did a bunch of good things and then died for His cause? Do you believe that Jesus made you a good deal when He died on the cross and saved you no matter what you believe? Do you believe that Jesus saved Paul, and a lot of other people you know, but that He didn’t mean for you to be saved? A lot of people believe these things and a lot of other things that have nothing to do with true salvation in Christ. “Whosever will” can heed the call of the Holy Spirit, realize that they are sinners and that Jesus died for their sins, confess their sins in a spirit of repentance, and invite Jesus into their lives. It’s not really complicated. Like Paul, you can “know whom you have believed.” You can “know what you know.” Isn’t that good news? Bro. Joe |
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