“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
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“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather silver or gold.”
What is a good name? If it is “rather to be chosen than great riches,” it certainly needs definition. It is certainly true that it is good to have a good name. Our reputations are very important when we want to do almost anything in our society. This is true from borrowing money to getting a job. But my question is not about the broader society, but what does it mean for a Christian? In order for a Christian to have a good name, he or she must be in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. This does not mean that one has to say that he or she has a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, one’s life should prove that he or she has a good relationship with Jesus Christ. A good relationship with Jesus will show in daily life. For example, if one is in a good relationship with Jesus Christ, he or she will be trustworthy. One of the great est compliments that I can give a fellow Christian is that I would buy a used car from him or her. This would mean that any mechanical problems had been resolved before he sold it to me. How we live as Christians has everything to do with our witness. We cannot claim to be Christians and cut moral corners in business, or personal life, and have a good name. To have a good name for a Christian, one should be in good fellowship with other Christians. There has always been an argument about whether or not one can be a Christian and not attend church. When I was out visiting in a community in which I was holding a revival, a man said to me, “Preacher, you know that I can be a Christian without going to church.” My answer to him was that I guess that he could, but why would he want to? After the gospels and Acts, the New Testament is written to churches or in the context of churches. For example, the letter to Timothy was all about the church of which he was the elder, or as we would say, the pastor. I pointed out to him that the Revelation of Jesus Christ was written to seven local churches. Surely, the church should have some importance in the life of a Christian. But putting “church” aside, there is no such thing as “me and Jesus got our own thing going.” Jesus saves us individually, but he saves us to be in fellowship with other Christians. No matter how you define “church,” you need to be in good relationship with your fellow Christians. Too many people say they love Jesus, but they do not love people. That is impossible. Some people are harder to love than others, but if we have the love of Jesus in our hearts, we will have good relationship with fellow Christian, or as the saying goes, “we will do it, or we will die trying.” If you want a good name, be in good fellowship with your fellow Christians. To have a good name as Christians, we should not just love our fellow Christians, but we should attempt to love all people. I personally know that this is not easy. For example, there some atheists who are very difficult to love. They say ugly things about God, about the Bible, about Christ’s church, and about everything that has to do with decency. But Jesus told us that we are to love our enemies. Here is specifically what Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-44: “You have heard that it has been said, “Thou shalt love they neighbor and hate thine enemy. 44. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Jesus certainly didn’t make having a good name easy. Perhaps what I have written about here is not normally what we think of as having a good name, but I think that what I have written is important. It is true that “a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” A good name is as important now as it was in Bible days. 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 “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13. Bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity.”
Some people had come to Colossae and called that church away from the primacy of Jesus to legalism. (These people were commonly called "Judaizers," who taught that one had to become a Jew before becoming a Christian.) Paul is calling upon them to keep their focus on Christ. In our text verses, he is reminding them about the Christian lifestyle. This has not changed, and it is good advice for us. In verse 12, Paul called them to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” A close look at these virtues will reveal that they are virtues practiced by Jesus in His sojourn on earth. We are called upon to be compassionate and kind. This seems simple, but if we will reflect on our feelings and reactions to other people, we will know that we need to work on these two virtues. Today people are becoming more and more callous towards each other. If we are not careful, we will be callous as well. I try to remind myself when I get in a “heated” situation that I must be compassionate and kind. All of Adam’s blood in me wants to strike back, but the blood of Christ that saved me reminds me to be compassionate and kind. (Paul didn’t promise that it would be easy.) This is where humility and gentleness (meekness) comes in. We have to remember that we are not out to win arguments or to lord it over people. Like Jesus, we are to be humble and gentle in our relationships with people. This does not mean that we lie on the ground and invite people to walk over us. What it means is that we are confident enough in our faith that we don’t have to “win” to feel good about ourselves. We are also urged to be patient with other people. To me this is the most difficult of the virtues listed here. We just need to remember that when we become impatient and argue, we have closed off our witness. This is how we should live if we want to be effective witnesses of Jesus. In verse 13, Paul told them “bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another.” We need to know that grievances are the most prominent of sins committed in churches. When we live in community with people, things happen that cause us to disagree, and, if we aren’t careful, we will form grievances. This is what causes churches to split. We are called upon to be better than that. This is what happens in the world all of the time, which a quick perusal of a newspaper will show us. It should be different in Christ’s church. Instead of holding grievances against each other, we should forgive one another. We seem to think that to forgive someone, against whom we hold grievances, will take something away from us. That is one of Satan’s great lies that keep our churches from being effective witnesses to our communities. Paul told them to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The Lord practiced grace on us and we are to practice grace on others. In verse 14, Paul told them, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” If we don’t love people, we can’t practice the virtues mentioned in this text. When we love as God loves, we will be able to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. We will be able to forgive others instead of forming grievances. We need to check our love quotient, and see if we are living as we should live based on this text. Bro. Joe "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God..." This morning I was continually humming the chorus "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." Where can we find the "beauty" of Jesus? I saw this as a challenge, and began to jot down a few ideas. What follows is where I found the beauty of Jesus. The first thing I thought of was the love that Jesus has for people. The "manner of love" that the Father has bestowed upon us is the sending of His Son to live, die, arise and ascend for us. (And has promised to return for us...) We see the beauty of Jesus in many ways in the Gospels, but the greatest way that we see is the love that He had for people. Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends..." That is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. The second thing that I thought of was the purity of His life. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Does this mean that in the entirety of His life on earth that Jesus never sinned. That is exactly what it means. He was the only person to ever achieve this level of purity. "He was tempted in all points as we are." This means that Jesus faced all of the temptations that we have and never sinned. The third thing that I thought of was Jesus' spirit of forgiveness. We read about this throughout the Gospels, but the one that comes to my mind is His prayer from the cross: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) To me, this is the apex of forgiveness. People usually faced this awful punishment by screaming and cursing, but Jesus only thought of us, and prayed for our forgiveness. (It was all of our sins that put Jesus on the cross, not just the sins of the people present that day.) I am certain that there is much more that could be added to Jesus' beauty, but if we can live His love, His purity and His spirit of forgiveness, the "beauty of Jesus" can be seen in us. Bro. Joe "Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down." (NIV) Occasionally, one verse of scripture expresses truth so eloquently that it grabs your attention instantly. Proverbs 26:20 is one of those verses. (Of course, Proverbs is full of these kinds of verses.) The truth is that gossip is like wood that is added to a fire; as the wood is added the fire grows bigger. I guess all of us have seen this illustrated in about every area of life. You've probably seen gossip blow up "nothing things" at work. One person decides to add a bit of gossip to an issue that has arisen and it goes all through the company until it is all out of proportion. This is certainly true in the political arena. I don't know why in the world anyone would want to run for high office, because people with armloads of "wood" are out there just waiting to pile it on. I can't figure why anybody with anything negative in his or her past would run for public office. "Wood haulers," another term for gossips, are also alive and well in the church. I have seen things that have no significance at all become large issues in the church. For example, the pastor might say something to one of the church members in a private conversation. The person to whom the pastor spoke tells someone else what the pastor said. That person tells it and changes it a little bit. By the time it gets around the community via telephone it is nothing like what the pastor said. You've probably played the game of "Gossip." People sit in a circle and whisper whatever was said by the first person to speak; thus it goes around the circle. Invariably, what was first said has been blown all out of proportion. This is the way gossip is. Truth has nothing to do with it as people add their own embellishments to whatever is being gossiped about. Christians need to be careful what we say about each other. As gossip makes its rounds, truth goes out of the window. Surely, we would not want to be a party to a lie ruining someone's reputation. We need to get out of the "wood hauling" business. Don't you agree? Bro. Joe "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:14
"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." We saw in the last article that God sent His Son to become our Savior because He loves us. In this article we will consider that God sent His Son because we need Him. We actually become Christians at the point in our lives that we know we need Him for our lives to be complete. The Father sent the Son because the Son was, and is, necessary for the plan that God had/has for His world. Jesus came to give us abundant life here and now. In John 10:10b, Jesus said: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Until Jesus is part of our lives, we are missing out on the best, and the abundance that God has for us. This does not necessarily mean the world's abundance, but the spiritual abundance that God has for us in Jesus. If you have that abundant life, you know what I mean. Jesus came to help us to be better people. This is illustrated in the difference that Jesus has made in the lives of people when He has come into their lives. Accepting Jesus as Savior changes people for the better. This is pointed out in scripture, but it is also demonstrated in the lives of Christian people today. I do not even want to think about what my life might be if I did have Jesus in my life. I have not always made good and wise choices in my life, but my life is better because of the presence of Jesus, and because of the forgiveness of Jesus. Jesus came to give us eternal life in heaven. There is no greater question that we will face in life than where we will spend eternity. In Jesus that eternal life begins here and now, and continues into the life beyond. Jesus is the answer to that question. Simply "turning over a new leaf" is not the answer. Simply attending church is not the answer. But giving our lives to Jesus Christ by faith is the answer, and these other things will come later to enrich our lives. The short answer is that Jesus came to keep us out of hell. The ultimate question for your life is "What have you done with Jesus?" Bro. Joe "And ,Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
"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 People are lost and need a Savior. God knew the need, and He sent His Only Begotten Son to save us. Why did He do it? I want to answer that question as the best that I can. First, God did it because He loves us unconditionally. This means that He sent His Son to die for us in spite of ourselves. His first prayer at Golgotha was "God forgive them, for they know not what they do." He wants us to come to Him in even though He knows that we are sinners. He loves you! Second, God did it because He loves us sacrificially. Jesus went to the cross because He knew that He was our only chance to be saved for eternity. His sacrifice for us was illustrated by one of the thieves that was beside Him on a cross. The thief said, "Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus replied: "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." Can you imagine the joy that that condemned criminal had after Jesus said to him that He would be with Him paradise? Third, God did it because God loves us greatly. In John 15:13, Jesus said: "Greater has no man than this that he lay down his life for another." That is exactly what Jesus did for us. What you really need to understand is that Jesus loves you greatly. He came to earth for you. He died on the cross for you. He rose again and ascended to the Father in order for you to put your faith in Him and be saved. Why did God do it? You have the answer above. Read it again and rejoice in it! Bro. Joe "His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations."
There will never be a time when God's mercy and truth are not needed, for "His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations." Many believe that belief in God is outdated, or old fashioned, but this is not so, for there will never be a time when we do not need His presence, His mercy and His truth. I thought when I read this that we need to grab ahold of eternity. I remember that when my cousin Johnny and I were children we were discussing what eternity meant. It dawned on Johnny that eternity is a long time. We decided that eternity just goes on forever and ever. The reality of this was difficult for two children to grasp, it even blows my mind in my old age. If we have two choices where we are going to spend eternity in heaven or hell, we need to make the right choice and take the narrow road that leads to eternity with Jesus. Physical things are not unimportant, but they are not eternal. We do not own any physical thing that will not eventually wear out, or, like the cap pistols of my childhood, lose their usefulness. (You will agree that wearing a fancy two gun holster set with "Roy Rogers" imprinted on it at my present age would not be cool.) One of my favorite "preacher stories" is about an elderly preacher whose basement was flooded. He kept all of his memorabilia of his years in the ministry in that basement. He sat on the basement steps and looked at all of the sermon manuscripts, certificates of achievement, favorite books, etc. etc. that were ruined, and he wept. Then the thought came to him that even as important as all of that material was, it was "just stuff." He got over it and went on with his life. There is nothing that we can do about growing old and forgetful. (Believe me, I am experiencing this today.) But this is not the final chapter. Through Jesus Christ we can look forward to spending forever and ever with Him. Bro. Joe "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name, 5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting."
Thinking about all that we have in the Lord, we should be the most thankful people in the world. It would be a good thing for us to pause here and ask ourselves about our own thankfulness. The psalmist said to enter into the gates of His temple in a spirit of thanksgiving. Think about your own "spirit of thanksgiving." Are you thankful when you pray? Think about what a great opportunity it is for us to take our thoughts and needs as prayer requests to God, and that He has promised to hear and answer our prayers. I read about a berry in Africa that is called a "taste berry." Whenever one eats this taste berry, everything eaten afterward tastes good. Thanksgiving is such a "taste berry" for us. When we meet life with thanksgiving, the rest of life tastes good to us. We are to offer thankful praise to the Lord when we pray. In a sense, every prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving. When I think of what God has done in my life in spite of me, I have to be thankful. You can also offer thankful praise whenever you pray. Think of it! When we go to the Lord in prayer, we have His undivided attention. Think of what it would be like to have the undivided attention of the President of the United States. We would have the undivided attention of the most powerful man in the world. Now think about this: When you go to the Lord in prayer, you have the undivided attention of the God of the Universe. We are to thank God for His goodness and mercy. Have you ever given a lot of thought to what this means for your life? God loves us and listens to us in spite of our sins. It would be good for you to think about God's goodness and mercy toward you. That's enough to be thankful for, if you will think of the alternative. Think of it! We should be thankful for God's goodness and mercy. Pause here and thank God! Bro. Joe |
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