“But godliness with contentment is great gain…”
This verse is in the middle of a discussion on whether or not financial gain is godliness and will bring contentment. Anyone who has lived any length of time knows that this is not true. In fact, there is no such thing as ultimate contentment on this earth. There are moments of contentment, but that contentment does not last. For example, our favorite football team wins a game, and for that moment, we are content. But there will be another game next week and we ask, “Will we win?” Discontentment sets in again. Another example is that we want to get away from it all and go on vacation. We will probably be content while we are on vacation, but, like all other things, vacation will end and we will be back in the race. There is just no such thing as final contentment. There is no time when we can say, “At last, I will be content for the rest of my life.” But all is not lost. Paul wrote that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” This means that we can’t find contentment in this world from outside of ourselves, rather it has to come from within ourselves. Godliness is a matter of the heart; therefore contentment is a matter of the heart. How can we attain godly contentment? First, we can find this contentment when we get right with God. Martin Buber, a Jewish theologian wrote that: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in each of us.” This means that there is a natural longing for God in our hearts, and until we make it right with Him, we will not find inner contentment. The psalmist stated this longing wonderfully in Psalm 42:1-2: “As the hart (deer) pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God.” That is the secret longing of every human heart. We are not content in our souls, our innermost selves, until that “God-shaped vacuum” is filled with Him. And not just any “god” will do. He longed for the “living God.” That is the God that we have come to know through Jesus Christ. Second, we can find this contentment in God’s forgiveness. When we are out of sorts with God, our souls cannot be content. By its very nature, sin separates us from God. You remember that Adam and Eve were walking in the Garden of Eden when they heard the voice of God. They had heard His voice before, but this time things were different. Sin had entered the picture. Instead of welcoming that voice, they ran and hid. Until we ask for God’s forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, and get it, we cannot be content in our souls. We will play “hide and seek” with God instead of welcoming our fellowship with Him. We find that forgiveness through confessing (admitting) our sin and asking Christ to forgive us. (Read 1 John 1:9) Third, we can find this contentment by living in right relationship with other people. This means that we should not only seek God’s forgiveness, but the forgiveness of anyone that we might have offended. We also need to forgive anyone that we need to forgive. Until we forgive those whom we need to forgive, we cannot have contentment in our souls. Godliness does not live in an unforgiving heart. Because of this, contentment cannot live in an unforgiving heart. This is by no means all that can bring godly contentment, but it is surely a good start, and soul contentment will not come until we do at least these three things. Based on this criteria, are you content? Bro. Joe
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“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all who love His appearing."
When Paul wrote 2 Timothy, he was in prison in Rome waiting to be martyred for the faith. Knowing that this is true the letter is bittersweet for me. I see a note of rejoicing in the text, as well as a note of victory. I want to concentrate for this article on verse 6, where Paul wrote, “I have fought a good fight.” It would be great if all Christians could say that they had “fought a good fight,” and that they had “finished the course,” and “kept the faith.” What did it take for Paul to fight a good fight, and what will it take if we are going to do the same? The first thing that it will take is Christ. It was Christ who captured Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, saved him and called him into His service, primarily to the Gentiles. Paul’s ministry was a dynamic one, but it was not the driving force of his life. In Philippians 1:21, Paul wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Furthermore, in Galatians 2:20 Paul wrote, “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 for me.” Christ was not just a religious figure, or a good example for Paul; rather Christ had become Paul’s life. All of the missionary work that Paul did, all of the church-planting, all of the suffering that he encountered he did gladly, because of Christ. Without Christ in our lives there is no “good fight.” Where do you stand with Christ? What are you sacrificing to serve Him? If you want to “fight a good fight,” it must be undertaken through and for Jesus Christ. The second thing that it will take to “fight a good fight” is commitment to Christ. Paul started many churches, and he was devoted to ministering to them as best he could, but Paul’s commitment was not just to the church but to Christ. He recognized Christ’s church as being important, but Paul’s paramount commitment was to Christ. Here is what he wrote in 2 Timothy 1:12, “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 have committed unto Him against that day.” Paul fought a good fight because Christ was his life. He lived and breathed for Christ. Paul “fought a good fight” because his life was committed to Christ. Paul had other responsibilities, like tent-making and various other things, but his total commitment was to Christ. If you want to “fight a good fight,” you need to be fully committed to Christ. This doesn’t mean that you would neglect your earthly responsibilities; it means that you would do better with your earthly responsibilities if you were committed to Christ. The third thing that it will take to “fight a good fight” is courage. Every time Paul entered a city, or a synagogue, he risked his life. In Acts 14, while Paul was in Lystra, he was stoned and left for dead outside of the city. A person with a lesser commitment to Christ would have quit then and there and said, “that’s asking too much of me.” When Paul was about to go to Jerusalem, he was warned not to go, because he would be in trouble. His answer was: “What mean you to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” It takes courage to keep going when whatever we undertake to do could mean death. Paul could say at the end of his life that he had “fought a good fight,” because of Christ, his commitment to Christ, and his courage to continue in Christ’s work in spite of danger and death. If Paul could do it, we can too. Let’s fight a good fight. Bro. Joe “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts: 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me.”
I have preached and written about this text for many years. There might even be a blog about this text hidden in the midst of the blogs that I have written over the last three years. I saw something in the text in this reading that I had never seen before. Notice that my title is, “God, Introduce Me to Myself.” My meaning will become clear as you read through the article. David wrote: “Search me, O God.” My question when I read this was if God already knows everything about us, why does He need to search us? The fact is that God doesn’t need to search us as much as we need for Him to search us. When we have a medical test, the doctor is searching our bodies in order to make a diagnosis, and also to inform us about what is wrong with us and what should be done to correct the situation. I imagine David saying, “Lord search me and help me to know what I need to do to be a better person – a better follower of yours.” If there is anyone who knows us inside and out, it is God. In our case as Christians, we have the Holy Spirit within our lives to search us and inform us. Paul dealt with this in Romans 8:26-27: “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 27. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” David prayed for God to search him and “know his heart.” It is easy for us to lie to our hearts, as it is easy for us to overlook our mistakes. Having done a lot of writing over the years, I have discovered that I am not good at proof-reading my own material. I will invariably read what I thought I wrote without knowing that I left “the” out of the sentence. We can do the same thing in proof-reading our own hearts. That is why we need for the Lord to search our hearts and help us to know them. Jeremiah reminded us of this in Jeremiah 17:9-10: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it. 10. I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins (conscience, inner life), even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” We are warned about this in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Let us say that the Holy Spirit is our divine “proof reader.” He knows what we need to do about our hearts, for He knows our minds and hearts. We need to listen for His still small voice in our hearts, and let Him inform us as to what we need to change. David prayed that God would “know (his) thoughts.” We have never done anything that didn’t begin with a thought. There is an old saying that “the thought is father to the deed." How many times have you said after making a dumb mistake, “what was I thinking?” Just like we cannot trust our hearts, we cannot trust our thoughts. We need to turn our thought processes over to the Lord and let Him guide us in our thinking. Good lands, I seem to be coming across as awfully righteous at this point, but I’m not being arrogant. I’m telling you that I have to watch my thoughts all of the time just like you do. I need to be guided by the mind of Christ. All of what we think is not bad, but Satan likes to get within our minds and hearts and plant “thought seeds” that will lead to our destruction. This is why it is imperative that we pay attention to this text and ask God to search us and know our hearts in order for Him to inform us about what we need to do that is right. As the title suggests, we need to ask God to introduce us to ourselves. Bro. Joe “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
Recurring themes of CouchPotato articles are peace, faith and love. This is because they are major themes in the Bible, and are things that I always want in my life. I have no doubt that these things are important to you. Romans 5:1-2 includes these themes. Love is not mentioned, but it is certainly implied here, because without the love of God for us none of these would be possible. What I want to write about now is peace. It is possible to live at peace in a war torn, weary, unloving world. This text gives us the key to that inner peace for which every human being longs. Notice that peace with God has its origin in faith in God/Jesus. Faith is defined in the Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is not possible for the unseen God to be real to us unless we put our faith in Him. It is faith that brings Jesus alive into our lives when we are saved, and it is faith that sustains us as we seek to live at peace in an unsettled world. It is faith in Jesus that gives substance to our hopes, and is the evidence that we need to accept God’s reality. On many occasions when Jesus healed people, or did some other work of grace in their lives, He told them that it was because of their faith that the wondrous thing took place. Faith is tantamount to peace, because without the certainty of the existence of God, the love of God, and the presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit, there will be no peace – at least not the eternal peace that Jesus gives – the real peace. The next important word in this text is “access.” This is a very important word, because it tells us that we can have access to the eternal God through our faith in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we can actually approach the throne of the eternal God who rules the universe. In fact, in Hebrews 4:16, we are invited into the throne room of God: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and grace to help in times of need.” By His death on the cross, Jesus tore away the veil of the temple that only gave access to the Jewish High priest. By His grace, Jesus opened up the throne room of God and invited us in. We have access to that throne twenty-four seven, as the saying goes. It is knowing that the presence of God is available to us at all times that we can live at peace in this world. This is remarkable! For example, call your doctor and tell him or her that you want to see him or her right now. You will not talk to the doctor, you will talk to a nurse who will tell you to make an appointment. Try going to the White House and demanding to see the president right now. You won’t even get on the compound, let alone seeing the president. I’m not suggesting that we should have immediate access to our doctors, or our president. I am suggesting that it is remarkable that the eternal, almighty God is accessible to us, and that is much more important than access to our doctors or our president. Because of faith in Jesus, and because of the access that Jesus gives us, we can, “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Jesus gives us peace in our hearts through faith. He gives us access to the throne in heaven, and this causes us to rejoice. In Revelation, the people in heaven are seen rejoicing around the throne. Rejoicing in the peace of God is real rejoicing and has eternal meaning. You either have this promised peace or you do not. It is available to you right now if you will give your life to Jesus through faith. Bro. Joe “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
In these two verses Paul is attempting to encourage people to live the Christian life effectively. He points out that the whole thing begins with God’s “mercies.” In order for us to have the new life in the first place the mercy of God is required. So how can we effectively live the Christian life? First, we have to “present our bodies.” That means that we present ourselves to God, but it is not just a matter of presenting our bodies, because the process calls for sacrifice. When Jesus called people to follow Him, He never painted a pretty picture for them, but told them that living for Him would require sacrifice. Specifically, Paul wrote “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God.” This means that we will have to give up some things that are pleasurable to us, but not in line with what is “holy and acceptable unto God.” We are to give up doing only things that are acceptable to the world but not to God. Of course, it is possible that these can be the same, but it will not be easily done. How do we make this change? Second, we have to become nonconformists. This does not mean that we become “square pegs in a round hole.” It does mean that we should live a life differently from the general course of the world. This particular part of the passage has been translated, “do not be poured into the world’s mold.” We talk a lot about how young people want to be like everybody else and not stand out – at least not in a negative, unappealing way. When we become adults, this is no longer a problem – right? Wrong! Adults are just as bad. We sometimes hide the light of Christ in our lives because we don’t want to be different from the other people in the office, the factory, the store, etc. (And, yes, sometimes the church.) This is what is called being “poured into the world’s mold.” We let the world determine about how we are to live instead of making the sacrifice by not conforming to the world’s standards. This doesn’t mean that we must act self-righteously and condescendingly towards other people. In fact, it means that we will show them the love of Christ. It means that they will see an appealing difference in our lives by the positive attitude that we have. People who are on their way to heaven should live a life that would reflect what Jesus would do. It means that we would be kind and easy to talk to. We can be non-conformists without being weird and unlikeable. Third, we are to be transformed. The Greek word used here is “metamorpho.” You probably recognize this word that is used when the ugly caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful butterfly. We call it the process of metamorphosis, which is like what happens when Christ comes into our lives. We are changed from being citizens of the world into being citizens of the kingdom of God. Christ does not take us out of the world; rather, He uses us for His purposes. In His prayer for His disciples in John 17:15 Jesus prayed: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.” Of course, you know that the “evil one” is Satan. He will do everything that he can to destroy our witness. Jesus leaves us in the world to shine for Him. Fourth, we are to be “transformed by the renewing of (our minds).” We can put “heart” in here as well as “mind.” When we have renewed minds and hearts, we do not seek to prove ourselves to the world, but by the way we live, we can “prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.” This would, indeed, make us different in a good and appealing way. This is what it means to be a Christian nonconformist. Bro. Joe Romans 14:22 – “Hast thou faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that does not condemn himself in that thing which he allows.”
James 5:11 – “Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful (caring), and of tender mercy.” The Greek word that is used in both texts is “markizo.” It is an adjective in Romans and a verb in James. The root meaning of the word is “blessing.” In Romans, happiness describes a happy person, and in James happiness is shown as an action. It is important to differentiate between joy and happiness. Joy is something that we have as a gift of God, given to us by Jesus in John 15:11. In other words, whether or not we are happy people depends a lot on us and how we look at ourselves, and how we look at the world around us. We can decide to be happy or unhappy. What can we do to be happy people? First, we can look at the basic meaning of the word, which is “bless” or “blessing.” If you think you are a blessed person, you are a happy person. A blessed person will not just want to be blessed within his or her life, but will seek to be a blessing to others. Did you know that you cannot be a happy person if you only think of yourself? This was the basis on which Paul placed happiness in Romans 14:22. The verse is in the middle of Paul’s admonition about not being a stumbling block. There are things that you can do as a Christian, but if what you do will have a negative effect on a fellow, less mature Christian, then don’t do it. Think about somebody besides yourself. Satan is the master of getting us to be selfish, and the more selfish we are, the unhappier we are. This doesn’t mean that other people control everything that we do; it means that we care enough to forego what will be a pleasure to us in order not to stand in the way of a less mature Christian. This principle applies to all areas of our lives. We cannot be happy people if we think only of ourselves. We cannot be happy people if we are not seeking to be a blessing to other people. A daily prayer of mine is, “Lord help me to be a blessing today.” Second, we can look at the relationship between patience and happiness. James used Job as an example. This doesn’t mean that Job did not complain about his condition. Instead, it means that Job endured what he was going through without losing his faith in God. That was the whole purpose of the suffering that Job endured. Remember that Job was not happy with his condition, but he did not let his suffering turn him away from God. God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is the secret to our happiness. We need to remember Him when we are going through trying times. We need to remember what David wrote about this matter in Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me.” David was victorious and maintained happiness because He depended on the presence of God to get him through the hard times. There is good advice here for us: We do not need to turn away from God in times of suffering. Though our circumstances are not happy at the time, our hearts are happy and at peace, because, like Job and David, we cling to the presence of our loving God. No matter what you are going through, if you belong to Him through faith in Christ, God has not forsaken you. Be happy! Third, I want to turn to a passage out of Proverbs to close out this article: Proverbs 3:13: “Happy (blessed) is the man/woman who finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding.” Happiness comes from fearing God, for the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. (Which we read about in Proverbs 1:7: “For the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”) Being afraid of God does not add to our happiness, but holding Him in great awe, knowing His power is at work in your life through the Holy Spirit. I trust and pray that if you are going through an unhappy period in your life, you will remember what is written here: (1) You need to think of somebody else instead of always focusing on yourself. (2) You need to endure the hardship, knowing that God is in it with you and has not forsaken you. (3) Holding God in great awe and realizing that He has given you His power to endure. Be happy! Bro. Joe “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God: and the prisoners heard them.”
The setting of Acts 16 is the jail in Philippi. Paul and Silas had been unfairly thrown in prison because they healed a demon possessed girl who made a good living for them by telling fortunes. The sorry characters had Paul and Silas arrested and put in prison. As it turns out this was possibly from God, because in the final analysis, after an earthquake destroyed the jail, the terrified jailer asked how he could be saved. He probably meant how could he be saved because of escaped prisoners, but no prisoners escaped, but Paul and Silas told him how to be saved eternally and he and his family were saved. That’s the background of the text. The thing that we will deal with here the fact that before the earthquake, Paul and Silas had been put in stocks, but they were singing and praying instead of complaining. This is the seminal moment in this event that probably brought about all of the miracles that occurred. We have to admit that this was an odd time to pray and sing. But it was important. The first thing was that they prayed. Let this be a lesson to you that nobody can keep you from praying. They can put your feet in stocks and make you immobile, but they can’t keep you from praying. (Don’t tell your children they can’t pray in school. If they can think they can pray.) Paul and Silas knew that prayer was the key to calling down God’s power. I don’t know what they prayed for, but I imagine that they prayed that God would use them as His witnesses in this distressing situation. This is what happened, because after they prayed the power of God came down in the form of an earthquake, and as a result the lost Philippian jailor was saved. What has you “jailed” now? Try praying! We need to get the point here that when we are in a weakened position of any kind, our God is not weak, and we need to invite Him into the situation. The second thing was that they “sang praises to God.” I can imagine that what they sang also served as a witness to the people around them. They probably sang from the praise psalms, or some of the early Christian hymns. The jailor was not accustomed to hearing people sing and pray when they were in his jail. One thing that the verse tells us is that when we are in dire straits, we need to sing praises to God. Instead of groaning and complaining we need to sing. First, singing praise to God can be an encouragement to us. I know that I sing a lot of the old hymns in my thoughts, and the old words encourage me. (I know three verses of most of the old hymns. We usually leave the third verse out if there are four verses.) I think that self-encouragement was part of why they sang praises to God, but, second, I think that they also sang so other people, who were also in dire straits, could hear them. This brings us to the third thing, and that was that “the prisoners heard them.” Instead of yelling about lawsuits and unfair treatment, Paul and Silas prayed and sang, and the other prisoners heard them. We are not told what happened with the other prisoners, but we do know that when the earthquake made it possible for them to escape, they did not. After Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, the earthquake occurred: “And suddenly there was a great earthquake……and immediately all of the doors were opened, and every one’s hands were loosed.” When the jailor saw that, he took out a sword to kill himself, for escaped prisoners would have been a death sentence for him. But Paul told him, “…Do yourself no harm: for we are all here.” Perhaps, the praying and singing of Paul and Silas had an effect on all of the prisoners. It is certainly possible that the other prisoners heard Paul tell the man (After he had asked “What can I do to be saved?”) “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Perhaps the Holy Spirit used those simple words and the other prisoners were saved. There is the value of “praying and singing praise to God” instead of complaining. Perhaps the world needs to hear us do more praying and singing to God and less complaining. You reckon? Bro. Joe “In the beginning God….”
The first words of the Bible do not tell us that God is real only if we choose to think He is real. The God of the Bible is the reality that every human being will have to deal with in one way or another. Every human being has the right to believe whether or not God is real, but if they choose to not believe that does not kill the God of the Bible. (I refer to the “God of the Bible” because god can be anything to anybody.) Try as people might, they cannot escape the God of the Bible - Who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I want to share with you what the Bible tells us about having a relationship with the God of the Bible. The first thing is that we are created in the “image of God.” Let the Bible speak for itself: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He them; male and female created He them.” (Genesis 1:27) Due to this fact, we cannot escape our need for God, for Jesus, for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. People might think that they have escaped their need for God because they think they are free to do so. They are certainly free to believe this, but this does not make it true. No matter how far one runs there is always, “In the beginning God,” and “So God created man (generic for male and female) in His own image.” You can escape your belief that this is true, but that does not make it true. All people will have to answer to the God who created us in His image. The second thing is that in our natural state we are sinners. Romans 3:23 gives us an unchangeable truth that is illustrated throughout the Bible: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The two people, Adam and Eve, who were originally created in the image of God, rebelled against God and ate the forbidden fruit. Sin is rebellion against God, and that is what Adam and Eve did, and what everyone else born after them has done. (We call it “original sin.” You can call it whatever you want, but it was the original sin.) As the old preacher told the young man who told him that he could not swallow the doctrine of original sin: “Young man you don’t have to swallow it, for it is already in you.” To quote Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Or something like that. J) The very first thing that a person has to do to be in a saving relationship with the inescapable God is to confess, “I am a sinner.” That doesn’t mean that you are a bad, bad person, it also does not mean that you are not. What it means is that sin is standing between you and your creator and you need to do something about it. Wait! It is not hopeless for there is good news. The third thing is that God has taken the initiative to deliver us from the damning nature of sin. Here is the good news: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) God hates sin but He loves the sinner. He loves sinners enough that He sent His Son, Jesus, to offer a way out for us through His death on the cross. Why? Because the God of the Bible who created us and loves us is the God of grace. (Grace is God’s unmerited favor, it is not something that we can earn but that God offers freely.) It is simply stated in Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. 9. Not of works, lest any man (or woman) should boast. 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” We cannot work our way into the salvation offered by God. We can, however, confess our sins and ask Jesus into our lives, believing (having faith) that He will do just that. According to Ephesians 2:10 we are not saved by works, but we are saved by a faith that works. As James wrote, “faith without works is dead,” but the opposite is true also, works without faith is dead. You can’t work your way into God’s kingdom, but He will surely give you work to do for Him when you put your faith in Him. Whether or not God is real is not our choice; therefore, we have to deal with Him. I have shown you how to deal with Him from the Bible. Do it if you haven’t. If you have, praise Him and tell somebody else about it. Bro. Joe Luke 11:23: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters.” Joshua 24:15: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
We have all kinds of choices in this life. We just need to know that according to the Bible, not all of choices, or options, are equal. There are some choices that we make that have little bearing on the course of our lives, but there are others that make all of the difference in the world. Looking back, as I am doing just now, and thinking of the bad choices that you have made, you know that all choices are not equal. You, like I, have paid a price for wrong choices. When you read this, it is my prayer that you will think about the choices you have made, and the choices that you will make today and in the future. We have a choice to make about Jesus. He declared, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters.” In the choice that you have made about Jesus, you are either on His side and gathering people with Him, or you have declared yourself His enemy and you are scattering people away from Him. The reality of Jesus is not just a biblical fact, it is a historical fact. I know that people try to deny this, but it is true. I want to add, however, that Jesus does not consider you His enemy because of your choice not to follow Him. Jesus loves you and wishes to have you on His side. If you have rejected Jesus, you have declared that He is your enemy. You cannot be indifferent about Jesus. You cannot think that it does not matter to Him whether you choose to follow Him or not. Not only does the quality of your life here and now hang in the balance, all of eternity hangs in the balance as well. I am not being judgmental when I write this, nor am I looking down my nose at people who refuse the “Jesus option.” It is my prayer that all people will choose to follow Him in faith. This is not a philosophical argument, it is not an argument at all; rather, it is a matter of where one wishes to spend eternity. We have a choice to make about who, or what, we will follow. Joshua issued this challenge to the Jews: “…Choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Like people today, there were many Israelites who thought that it did not matter which gods they served, or which way of life they chose. God has given us the choice about who or what we will serve. When He put the “fruit of the knowledge of good and evil” in the Garden of Eden, God did not put a high fence around it, nor did He place the fruit too high on the tree for Adam and Eve to reach. The choice was theirs. As the biblical narrative goes, it did make a difference which choice they made. This has not changed. There are all kinds of philosophies and religions that are available to people. We think, “whose business is it of anyone which options I take.” You surely won't have to answer to me, or any other human being for your choices. But we will all have to answer to God for the choices that we make. That was the spirit of Joshua when he issued this challenge. In essence Joshua told the people what his choice was, and the implication was that it would be better if they made the same choice. We who are followers of Jesus need to be careful how we confront this issue today. We should not seem pleased with ourselves that the choice we have made makes us righteous. Paul gave an admonition in Ephesians 4:14-15 concerning this matter: “That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” The admonition is not that we apologize for our choice; rather, that we love people like Christ loved them. I think you get the idea. Bro. Joe “He (God) gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength.”
It is always amazing to me how much one verse can say. Some say that when you preach, teach or write on one verse, you take it out of context. The content of this verse is impossible to take out of context, because it tells us much of what the rest of the Bible tells us about God. He is our giving God. I just wish everyone in the world could experience His desire to give, but most people are so busy denying Him, arguing about Him or just ignoring Him that they cannot see Him as the personal giving God. Let’s see what this text tells us about our giving God. The first thing that caught my attention about this verse was the simple statement, “He gives…” This is a perfect biblical description of God. When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them the Garden of Eden to dress and keep. When Cain murdered his brother Abel, he became an outcast, but God gave him a place to live in the land of Nod. God gave Abraham His blessing and promised that he would not only be blessed, but that he would be a blessing as well. He gave Abraham various places to live in Canaan. God gave Israel many blessings in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. Like us, they did not see the great things that God did for them. Stop now, and think of all that He has given you in your life. If you are a Christian, you have become a recipient of, perhaps, the greatest giving verse in the Bible – you guessed it- John 3:16, which begins “for God so loved that He gave…..” John 3:16 was about God’s gift of Christ, but it could be the beginning of many things that God has given to us. The second thing that caught my attention was what I closed the above paragraph with – Jesus. No one would doubt that Jesus is God’s greatest gift. What it amounts to is that God gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, since Jesus is called Emanuel – “God with us.” Jesus is God incarnate – infleshed. My question for you is have you accepted the gift that God gave in His Son? Jesus is available to all who will call upon Him. Jesus did not come to give us something to argue about, but a person to enter our lives and save us from sin, self, Satan and hell. If you do know Jesus as Savior, are you really living the abundant life that Jesus has given you? The third thing that caught my attention in this powerful verse was that, “He gives power to the faint.” The NIV translates this, “He gives power to the weary.” Life has a way of grinding us down, making us tired. I know that I feel this sometimes. Life can be a wearisome affair, particularly if we do not live the faith that God has given us. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said: “Come unto Me all who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. With Jesus we do not have to plod wearily through life, grumbling and complaining about how unfair life is. No wonder we are weary if we have such a jaded view of life. The verse promises that God gives “power to the faint – the weary – the fed up.” It did not say that God will give power to the faint. It said that He gives power to the faint. Brother or sister, you either are, or can be, a recipient of this power. Jesus gives the power of the Holy Spirit to people who put their faith in Him. Let Him give you that power. The fourth thing that caught my attention was that God increases the strength of “them that have no might.” Actually, this is a description of the vast majority of the human race. We do not have to throw our hands up and say “it’s no use, I have no might.” If you are a believer in Christ, and a recipient of the Holy Spirt, you have the might of God. It is not political, social or worldly might. He gives you the might that you need to be a good father, mother, son, daughter, church member, citizen of your community, etc. The point is that God will give us the might to live the life that we should live in Him. This will probably not make you famous, but it will mean that you are living free in Him. Thank God that He is, indeed, the giving God. Bro. Joe |
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