“And she (Mary) shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”
The verse printed above is the angel’s message to Joseph about what the child that Mary would give birth to would be named. The name Jesus means Savior. The following is an acrostic of the name Jesus that will explain what He means to us, and the difference that He makes in our lives. J – Justified – “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Justified” means to be made righteous through our faith in Jesus Christ. When we were saved, we did not earn righteousness, but were given Christ’s righteousness through our faith. E - Entrance – Jesus is the entrance, or the door, by which we enter the kingdom of God. In John 10:9, Jesus said: “I am the door: by Me if any man/woman enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” By faith in Jesus, we gain entrance into the kingdom of God, i.e., we become Christians. S - Saved – Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. 5. Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us (given us life) together with Christ, (By faith you are saved.)” When Christ justified us, and granted us entrance in the kingdom of God, He saved us. In Ephesians 2:8 we are reminded: “For by grace through faith are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Jesus becomes our Savior when we confess our sins and, by faith ask Him into our lives. U – Use – Jesus saves us, not just to take us to heaven, but to use us in His kingdom’s work. In Acts 1:8, Jesus gave a message to His disciples, that is a message for us as well: “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jesus also wants to use you. S – Speak – As Jesus’ witnesses to the world, we need to speak up about Him to the world. We need to echo Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:19 in our own lives: “And (pray) for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth, boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” This acrostic reminds us who Jesus is in our lives and what He has called us to become and to do in His kingdom’s work. This includes you! Bro. Joe
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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness faith, 23. Meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.”
The text printed above, reminds us of the spirit that we need to take in our lives. Everything in this verse is positive, and that is the spirit that we need to have. Here is your spirit check: Do you have a critical spirit? People that I do not like to be around are people who have critical spirits. I really have a difficult time when that person is me. It is so easy to find fault in people and circumstances. It is so easy to look for the worst in people and circumstances than it is to look for the positive. Check your attitude! Really! Are you a critical person? If so, stop it! Do you have a complaining spirit? I guess we all want to complain occasionally, but if it is part of our lifestyles, we need to put the brakes on it. Chronic complainers really get on my nerves. (See how easy it is to complain and complaining people?) Again, when that person is me, I am not happy with myself. I recall reading about a family who were discussing the worship service in their church as they ate Sunday lunch. Mom complained about a silly hat some woman wore. Dad complained that the sermon was too long. Sis complained about the music. Smart aleck son said: “But it was a good show for a nickel.” Check your complaints before they leave your mouth, or before they make a home in your heart. Do you have a caring spirit? Now here is the spirit of our text. We have a caring spirit when our hearts are filled love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self control)…” Read over this list from Galatians 5:22-23. Are these the qualities that you take to work or school? Are these the qualities that you have within your family? Do you take these qualities to church with you? In other words, do you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to have a caring attitude? Do you have a committed spirit? What have you committed your life to? Is that commitment worthy of your walk with the Lord? Frankly, I frequently have to do a spirit test in my own life. I want to be sure that I am not committed to criticizing and complaining. I want to be sure that I am committed to a caring and positive spirit in my own life. At least commit yourself to do a spirit check in your life, and make whatever changes you need to make in your spirit. Well…do it! (I just did....) Bro. Joe “Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8. If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. 9. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10. Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
David’s written statement in the above text proves the thesis of this article: “God is not aloof.” I have often told myself that if I feel that God is far away from me, God has not moved…period. God is always available to us. I want to share the important ways that God is available to us. God is available to us through Jesus. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Jesus promised us that He will never leave nor forsake us. When you think that your last friend has left you, Jesus will not be one of them. We are reminded that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” When you feel alone and God forsaken, reach out to Jesus, and He will be there. God is available to us through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, He told them: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter (Holy Spirit), that He may abide with you forever.” Christian, whenever you feel that you are fighting the battle alone, remember that you have received the Holy Spirit, Who “will abide with you forever.” God is available to us through scripture. God has made Himself known to us through His written word, called the Bible, or scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17. That the man/woman of God may be perfect (mature), throughly furnished unto all good works.” You can learn a lot about God through reading the Bible. This might seem like a dumb and needless statement, but it is obvious that a lot of people need to be reminded of it. Study of scripture is why being part of God’s church is important. It is through the study and preaching of scripture that God’s presence becomes real to us. God is available to us through prayer. You probably wondered when I would get to this point! Prayer is the culmination of the above-mentioned points. Our relationship with Jesus, the urging of the Holy Spirit, and the reading and studying of scripture will lead us to prayer and daily contact with God. Think about what you have just read!!!! Bro. Joe “And these are they which are sown among the thorns; such as hear the word, 19. And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.”
You will probably recognize these verses as being part of the parable of the sower, or of the soils. This illustrates how we can become unfruitful, or unproductive, in our Christian lives. We become unfruitful when we get bogged down in the “cares of this world.” I don’t think that I have to explain to you what I mean by this. All of us have disconcerting worries and cares that claim our attention. They become a problem if we let them consume our lives. (It is possible that this is happening to you as you read this.) If we want to get out of the “thorns” we need to remember that Jesus is ready to help us out of them. He has invited all who “labor and are heavy laden” to come to Him and He will “give them rest.” This means that Jesus will help you through, around, or over the cares and troubles of your life. Do not let the cares and worries of this life choke you out of the joy of living free in the arms of Jesus. Surrender your cares and worries to Jesus now. Stop reading and do that NOW! Name them and surrender them to Jesus. He is ready to receive them. We become unfruitful when we allow “the deceitfulness of riches” to consume our lives. Who has not had money worries at some point in life – or at every point? Hey, money is a good thing to have (duh), but if we let our worries about, or our love for money and things, claim all of our attention we can become unproductive. “Riches” are deceitful when we think that having a lot of them will give us peace of mind and heart. The more we have the more we want, and the more we want the greedier we become. It is possible to have lot of money in the bank and still be unhappy. I think that the unhappy lives of many famous people, proves this to be true. You can have money and things and be happy if you will not let them take over your life. The basis of the problem is revealed in these words: “And the lusts of other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.” “Lusts” is also translated as “desires.” Instead of building your life as a desire for things and money, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) Pray now for the Lord to give you rest from your cares and worries, and from your desire for more money and more things, and that He will help you to put all of these things in proper perspective, and find rest in Him. Bro. Joe “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? Behold I say to unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.”
We are going to do a lot of looking in our lives. It occurred to me today that we need to be careful how we look, what we look for and what we look at. Here are what I have called “good looks.” We need to look around. In the text printed above, Jesus told His disciples that they should look around and see that there are many people around them who needed Him. This has not changed over the last two-thousand years. The field of the world is always “white (or ripe) for harvest.” If we look around we will find many ways to serve the Lord in our daily lives. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:4: “look not evcry man on his own, but everyone on the things of others.” We are not just to look out for self, but we are to be aware of other people and their needs. Jesus set the example His ministry to the world. We need to look up. By this, I mean that we need to look up to God in prayer daily. We sometimes get so focused on our troubles, that they become what we think about all of the time. We need to look up to God in the good times and the bad. Often, we will get so bogged down in our own worries that we forget there is a God who loves us and is interested in every aspect of our lives. I have to guard my own life in this matter. We get so close to a problem sometimes that this is all that we see. I don’t want to get maudlin here, but if we will look up, we will find God looking down. He is waiting for us to look up to Him, to seek His guidance and leadership. We need to look out. I thought of a scripture that I have used often in my writing that fits here: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks around seeking whom he may devour.” Hey, this ain’t no joke. The devil is real and he really want to “devour” our entire lives. He wants to make us think that he can give us great pleasure and great happiness, but in the final analysis all he brings is misery and shame. Look out, for you have an adversary who wants to mess up your life. I need to remind you to look into your life and see what needs changing and what needs an application that only the love of Jesus can make. Do it! Bro. Joe My medical test came out fine yesterday - all clear for the time being. "How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors?" (NIV) This verse is one of many in the Psalms, and throughout the Bible, that asks the question: "How long?" I know that I have asked this question and you have probably asked it many times. Since we are not God, we cannot always fathom God's reasoning. After all, He told us in Isaiah that, "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts." Our human reasoning tells us that God owes us an explanation as to why things don't always work out for our benefit. The bad news is that God does not owe us an explanation, and the good news is that God does not owe us an explanation. He is God and we aren't. (Now there is a bit of news isn't it?) My conclusion is that we just have to let God be God and in the final analysis, He will work everything together for the good of His people. ( Romans 8:28) We come to Jesus by faith. We trust that He will save us and use us in His work.. We just have to accept that sometimes His work is carried on by the negative things that happen to us as well as the positive things. We would like to think that when we surrender our lives to Jesus, the road before us will always be smooth. The Bible does not lead us to that conclusion. What is occurring in the world cannot lead us to that conclusion. For example, I'm sure the Christians in China must ask the "how long" question many times. One would think that, because of the persecution of Christians in China, the Christian movement would just dry up and blow away. It is a surprise to us that many people in China are coming to Christ, even though God has not made the road smooth for them. In His own way, God is working among His people in the midst of persecution and seeing great things done. We get nowhere by questioning God. To the contrary, we do better when we just trust Him. We have to live in the world as it is and serve God through the good and the hard times.. The early Christians had to accept this, and so should we. Instead of asking God "How long?" we should ask "What next?" Then we will move on in our lives, trusting that God knows best. Give this some thought today. Bro. Joe I'm taking a "medical test" break. I will post again on Wednesday. “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.”
We should want to be mature Christians. 2 Timothy 4:5 gives a good illustration of what I mean by "A Mature Christian." A mature Christian will be alert: “Watch thou in all things.” Other translations say such things as “be sober” or “be serious in all things.” The word means to be alert and serious about life. Peter incorporated both ideas in his definitive advice on Christian watchfulness: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9a) A mature Christian is aware of such temptation at all times. No one does this perfectly, but the awareness of temptation will keep one from making serious mistakes.The devil doesn’t care what it takes to get us off track, he will do it. Being the devil, he is not above anything. A mature Christian will endure:“Endure afflictions.” We might interpret this as illness, but in Timothy’s case it meant persecution. The mature Christian will take whatever comes and continue in devotion to the Lord and His work. Immature Christians will not endure afflictions, but will quit when the slightest affliction comes. One thing is for sure, afflictions in some form will come. Perhaps we will not have to face severe afflictions that were common for Christians in Timothy’s day, but they will be severe to us. We need to endure in faith and persevere – keep on keeping on. Mature Christians understand that life is not all about them, and that the Lord’s work must go on whether we are enjoying good times or enduring bad times. A mature Christian will be a witness: “Do the work of an evangelist.” We sometimes call evangelism “soul winning.” What it means is to tell others about Jesus by how we live and by verbal witness. Every Christian is an evangelist. Every Christian has been empowered by the Holy Spirit to win people to Jesus. How many people have you told about Jesus? When we feel led by the Spirit, we should tell other people about Jesus. A mature Christian tends to his or her duties: “Discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (NIV) Every Christian has a ministry. When we received Jesus as our Savior, He gave us the Holy Spirit and the gifts that come with having the Holy Spirit. We use these spiritual gifts to fulfill whatever ministry, or ministries, that Jesus wants us to fulfill. Mature Christians know what their spiritual gifts are and use them in the Lord’s service in the church and the community. If you know what your gifts are, you know what your ministry is. Based on 2 Timothy 4:5, are you a mature Christian? Bro. Joe "Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 15. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
When I get up in the morning and look in the mirror for the first time, my first thought is not that I am the light of the world. You probably have the same thought. It is difficult to realize that we are the light of the world, except that this is what Jesus called us. Before we get too proud of ourselves, however, we need to read John 8:12: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Putting these two texts together, we can see that we are the light of the world because Jesus is the light of the world. It is not our light that people see, rather, it is the light of Jesus shining through us. That is why we need to stay close to Jesus! How can we be the light of the world? First, we can live the Christian life. I do not mean that we become religious and speak in stilted "stained glass tones." I mean that we live moral lives that reflect the values of Jesus. We will never do it perfectly as He did, but we can do the best that we can with His help. A lot of Bible study and worship can help to make this possible. Second, we can love people like Jesus did. Jesus said: "This is my commandment, that ye love another, as I have loved you." Jesus also said: "By this shall all (people) know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." We begin by loving each other, then we love all people as Jesus did. Does the world see Christ's love through what goes on in your life and at your church? Do people see Christ's love through how we act in our daily lives? Third, we can minister to people in the name of Jesus. Ministry is helping people anyway that we can, from a smile to actual acts of service. We encounter all kinds of people in our daily lives. God loves everyone of them. We might find them lonely, suffering from sickness, steeped in the ways of the world, dirty, down and out, up and out, or just plain mean, but they all need the love of Jesus. Jesus died for everyone of them! We can minister the light of Christ to them by loving and helping them as Jesus did. They might not really want your help, but if Christ's light is shining through you, you can get through to them. Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before (people), that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." They will probably appreciate your efforts, but, ultimately, if what they see is the light of Christ, they will glorify God. If you belong to Jesus, you are the light of the world. Go out there and shine!!!! Bro. Joe "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to Christ."
Paul wrote that Christ "hath given to us the ministry of reconcilation" in verse 18, and in verse 19 he wrote "...and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation." We who have been reconciled have been given the ministry of helping other people be reconciled to Christ. Because of this ministry we have become "ambassadors for Christ." As ambassadors we have been sent on a mission to tell others about Christ. What does an ambassador do? Let's begin with what he does not do. He does not go to another country and do his own thing, or tend to his own business. He does whatever the leader of his country tells him to do. Therefore, as "ambassadors for Christ," we are to do as Christ tells us to do. For example, there are people who have been called to be "ambassadors for Christ" in faraway countries. They raise their children in that country, and many of them spend their days until retirement in that country. That is one example. Another example is people like most of us who are not called to be ambassadors in faraway countries, but are called to be ambassadors, or witnesses, where we are. We are to do what Christ tells us to do right here where we are. We sometimes have the idea that because we are not called to go to another country, we do not have to be ambassadors. The Bible says "go ye." "Go ye" means all Christians. We are all ambassadors, or missionaries, for Christ. This is as true where you live as it is in Africa, Japan, Korea, etc.. We need to remember that it is an honor to be appointed an ambassador. Our country does not send people to other countries as ambassadors unless they are smart, tactful and able to get along with other people. An ambassador also has to have some knowledge of the country to which they are assigned. In order to do this, I imagine that they have to study and learn about the country to which they are going. It is a privilege to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God. We should take our ambassador ship seriously and learn and do all that we need to do to be the best ambassadors that we can be. Let's determine that in this crazy world in which we live, we will be Christ's ambassadors. Bro. Joe “Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life: for they are they which testify of me.”
If we are looking for answers to the puzzles, fears and worries of life, we need to look to the scriptures, “for they are they which testify of (Jesus.)” I want to share a few of the promises of scripture that can help us in coping with life’s difficult moments. The scriptures give us a promise of peace. We have the word of Jesus on this from John 14:27, in a promise that Jesus gave His disciples, and certainly applies to us: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Seek the peace of Jesus for your life today…He will give it! The scriptures give us a promise of strength – spiritual strength, which is the most important kind. Paul gave a promise in Philippians 4:13 that is a great prescription of biblical strength: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Jesus has the strength that we need to face whatever challenges life may bring. Go to Him today to find the strength that you need that the world cannot give you. How? You might try just asking and believing!!!! The scriptures give us a promise of forgiveness in Colossians 2:13: “And you. being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” We have the promise of forgiveness for all of our sins and short comings through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross for our sins. This is a promise that you can claim now when you will honestly confess your sins, and ask for Christ’s forgiveness. The scriptures give us a promise of salvation by faith in Jesus today. This is a promise of Hebrews 6:2b: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is no better time than right now to accept the salvation that Jesus offers you. Confess your sins and invite Jesus into your life now. There are many more promises than this in the scriptures, but these should give you some encouragement for now. Bro. Joe |
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