I wrote this several years ago for a friend who wanted to read the Bible through. It is a good suggestion for you.
I don't want to seem too negative, but even church people do not read and study the Bible. A young lady said to me a few years ago, "I wish I knew the Bible like your wife does." I said, "You can." She said, "How?" I said, "Read it like she does.". If you really want to know your Bible you have to read it. It doesn't suffice to just read books about the Bible. Sunday School is a good thing, but going to Sunday School will not help you to know your Bible as you should. You have to spend some time alone with your Bible carefully reading it. I don't mean that it will be enough to skip from book to book and read a verse here and a verse there. You need to read your Bible systematically. By that, I mean that you start at the beginning of a book and read it all the way through. You don't do that in one sitting, but you do it day by day until you finish the book. I suggest that if you have never read the Bible through that you undertake to do that. If you will read it everyday, you will eventually finish the Bible. The Bible has a story to tell from Genesis to Revelation, and you cannot grasp that story if you do not read it through. You have to set aside a time to read your Bible and do it everyday. Some people have more time than others for Bible reading, but you need to carve out a time and be as faithful to it as you are to your favorite TV shows, or your favorite sports teams. You have a Bible. Read it! Bro. Joe I suggest that you read three chapters in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament each day. Keep at it until the you have read through to Malachi and Revelation. It is important to read the Bible systematically until you have read it through. You cannot know the Bible story about the coming of Christ until you have read it through. You might read the New Testament through twice before you finish the Old Testament. Make that commitment and do it!
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“But you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you….”
Every Christian has been given the power of the Holy Spirit. As in our text, it is the power to witness, but it goes beyond that. It is the power to live victoriously. Several years ago the city of New York spent several days in darkness because of a power outage. If electricity cannot get to homes, there is no power to turn on lights, or anything else. We have a power outage when we fail to depend on the Holy Spirit as we should, because He is the source of our power. When do we have “power outages” in our lives? We have “power outages” when we do not seek God in the plans for our lives. I think that we would call this “prayer power.” We always need to seek God’s wisdom and direction when we want to serve Him. If we don’t seek His wisdom and direction, we might go on our own, and we have no innate power. This is illustrated in the ninth chapter of Joshua. The Gibeonites were afraid of the Israelites and were afraid that they would be overrun by them. They pretended to live far away from the Israelites, though they did not. God told Joshua to take all of the land of the Canaanites, and the Gibeonites lived in Canaan. Why did Joshua and his leaders make that mistake? Verse 9:14 tells us: “And the men took their victuals, and asked not the counsel of the Lord.” They found out later that they were neighbors, but it was too late to do anything about it, because they had “made a league with them.” (Read Joshua 9 if you would like to get the whole picture.) It was a simple matter of seeking the Lord. We have “power outages” when we do not stay close to God. James gives us a promise in James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” When we ignore the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we lose our closeness to God. We need to consciously stay close to the Lord by daily reading of the Bible and by spending time in prayer. One thing is for certain, if you are not close to God at the present moment, it is because you have moved. Jesus promised just before He ascended back to the Father, that He would “be with (us) always.” Jesus has not moved and He will not move. The Holy Spirit also has not moved away from us, we have just ignored His leadership in our lives. When we do this, we pay a price in one way or the other. This is one reason that the Bible tells us that God disciplines those He loves. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” We have “power outages” when we have human relationship problems. Jesus gave us His love, and He intends for us to share His love with other people. When we allow relationships with fellow Christians to go sour, we cannot serve with the power that we can when we are right with them. But we are not supposed to love just fellow Christians; we are expected to love all people. I know that this is not easy, but if we want to stay clear of “power outages,” we should have good relationships with our fellow human beings. This is difficult in the workplace and it is also difficult in the church. But if we want God’s power in our lives we need to stay right with people. We have “power outages” when we do not forgive other people. There are many Christians who are not serving as powerfully as they should because they have not forgiven someone for some affront. If Jesus could forgive us, we should certainly be able to forgive others. If there is anyone that you have not forgiven, ask God to give you a forgiving heart. This is not an exhaustive list of “power outages” in our lives, but I think they are among the major ones. Bro. Joe "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
David is transparent in this prayer. He admits that he does not always understand why he does what he does, and that he needs God to help in his behavior. He asks God to know his heart. Of course, David never read Jeremiah, but he knew the meaning of Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" He knew that he needed God's help in dealing with his heart. If we are wise we will pray the same prayer. He asks God to "try (him) and know (his) thoughts." He wanted to be in control of his thoughts. If this psalm is after the Bathsheba affair, and I'm not sure about the date, he is probably remembering how his thoughts went wild that night and led him to do terrible things. It is true that "the thought is the father of the deed." Do we dare invite God into our thoughts? He wants God to uncover any wicked way in him and lead him "in the way everlasting." What he wants is to live with eternity in mind each day. We really need the courage to pray this prayer. We need to be honest with ourselves and, in turn, be honest with God and seek His help to help us live better lives. I don't know about you, but this prayer would be good for me. Bro. Joe “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
With his history of persecution, Paul understood how amazing grace was in his life. It was the same with the former slave trader, John Newton, who wrote the song “Amazing Grace.” I want to share my thoughts on the subject. Grace is so amazing because it reminds us that God loves us in spite of ourselves. There is no way on this earth that we can earn the boundless love that God has for us. Jesus loved us enough that He died for our sins. I identify with the song that says, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.” (Or something akin to that.) You probably feel the same way. That is love beyond human understanding; we just have to accept it as amazing grace. Grace is so amazing because it is through grace that God forgives us in spite of our sins. You might think that your sins are so enormous that Jesus cannot forgive you. Read the text written above. If Jesus could forgive Paul, He can and will forgive you. On the other hand, you might be one of those people who says that you do not need God’s grace, that you are good enough without it. That is why you will never experience amazing grace until you come to him in humility, confessing the sin of pride. We all need to grasp the meaning of 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though, He was rich, yet for your sake He become poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.” Grace is so amazing because it is through grace that the Holy Spirit is actively at work in our lives, using us for God’s work in spite of our sins. Paul was amazed that God used Him in all that He did. I am truly amazed that God has used me in spite of myself. Every time someone tells me that something I have said, or written, blessed them, I truly have to thank God for it, for it was His amazing grace working through me. God can use you too in spite of yourself. For example, it might be that the Sunday School class that you teach has been a blessing to many people, beyond what you could imagine. That solo that you sang, probably blessed many people beyond what you imagined. I could go on. Just suffice it to say that whatever you do for the Lord, His grace is working through you to be a blessing to others. My epitaph will be: “By the grace of God he was a blessing.” (That will truly be on my tombstone.) Grace is so amazing for thousands of reasons beyond these three points. Thank God for His grace in your life. Bro. Joe Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
As I was drifting off into sleep last night, I thought about God's love. (Now, there is a good thing to think about before going to sleep.) I want to share these thoughts with you. First it is good to know that the God Who created the universe loves little old us. In 1John 4:8b it is recorded that "God is love." He is love and is the progenitor of love. We think that love is not our idea, but love has been part of God for all eternity. We need to learn to think about God as the One who loves us. Not everyone thinks about Him that way. Many think about Him as the One who is out to get them, and take away all of their fun. Second, it is good to know that God acts on His love for us. The above text tells us that God sent His Son to become a perfect sacrifice for our sins. God knew that we could not defeat sin and Satan on our own power. It is because of God's great love for us that Jesus came to earth and died on the cross in order for us to be forgiven for our sins. John 3:16 tells us that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That is the gospel message in one verse. I have used it many times to witness to people. Third, it is important for you to come to the conclusion that God loves you. Have you ever thought, or said, "God loves me." That is the greatest conclusion that we can draw about God. It is not just that God loves the world but. that He loves us individually. I think that many people do not come to God because they cannot conclude that He loves them. But He does love you, and He gave His Son to be your Savior. You might go to a mirror, look into it, and say: "God loves me." He really does love you. He loves you enough to forgive you and save you for all eternity. Bro. Joe “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear….”
Jesus uttered these words after He had given His disciples the parable of the seed and the sower. Maybe Jesus was like I am a lot of times when I am preaching, i.e., I wonder if the congregation is really hearing what I am saying. I think that Jesus was telling them to really listen to the parable, grasp its meaning and let it make a difference in their lives. I also know that as I was growing up, I was told a lot of things by my parents, preachers, teachers, etc. and I heard words, but I really didn’t listen. You can imagine that there were many times over the years that I wish that I had listened. We need to really listen to what people try to tell us that will be good for us. My late good friend, and former coach at Lee County High School, Sherman Hall, sat me down in the locker room one day and had a heart-to-heart talk with me. Looking back, it was good advice. He was telling me that I needed to start studying and to get my life together. I heard every word Coach Hall said that day, and still remember his words today – but I didn’t listen. At least I didn’t listen at the time, but in ensuing years, through the Navy, college and seminary, the advice was remembered. There are people that we need to listen to even after we grow to adulthood. I know that we say that advice is cheap, but sometimes not taking it can get very expensive. Listen when people try to tell you things that will be good for you. We need to listen to what our Sunday School teachers and pastors tell us. I don’t mean to talk down to you, because if you are reading this you are probably an adult, but we never get too old to listen. Over the last two years I have had to hear more preaching than I have listened to in all of my years in the ministry. Man, has it been good for me. I really needed to stop and listen to somebody else for a change. I think that it would do all preachers good to have to hear others preach for awhile. We never get too old to listen and learn. In fact, the longer I live, the more I realize the need to listen and learn. We need to listen to the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit when we are in church, in prayer or reading the Bible. Jesus is always trying to communicate with us and He does this through the Holy Spirit. You might be asking, but how can I know that it is the Holy Spirit speaking to me? I honestly can’t tell you how you can know, but if you are a Christian you will know when it is the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Let me give you an example of how I know this. One day I was driving from Camilla to Albany and enroute I saw a big man walking away from his truck with the hood up. Now, like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, I was in a hurry and didn’t stop. Just after I passed by the man, I saw my reflection in my rearview mirror and said to myself: “You are a real hypocrite. You preach about ministering to people and you get the opportunity and you drive on by because you are too busy doing 'the Lord’s work' to really do the Lord’s work." Needless to say, I knew that it was the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart, or “knocking me side the head.” When I got to the next place that I could turn around and go back and help the man I did. I picked him up and he and I had a good conversation on the way to getting him to a service station. (This was during pre-cell phone days.) I didn’t witness to him because he was already a Christian, but the Holy Spirit wanted me to lend him a helping hand. I’m glad that I listened that day and acted on what I heard in my heart. Your life will be richer if you will just listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you. It might keep you out of trouble. It might keep you from gossiping. It might keep you from saying things to other people that you should not say. You get the point…. You have ears to hear – so listen! Bro. Joe “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
You probably already know that the above text is about the young man that we call “the Prodigal Son.” The young man took his father’s inheritance and wasted it on what the KJV calls “riotous living.” In the parable, I think that the prodigal son represents Gentiles and the elder son represents the Jews, but the metaphor can go beyond that. For our purposes let’s just say that the prodigal son represents us. When he finally came to himself, the prodigal son realized what an idiot he had been. (I Beauchampized that a little.) Let’s say that in my life, particularly in my younger years, I was the same kind of idiot that he was. (Now, don’t you get self-righteous on me; you could probably say the same thing about yourself at some point in your life.) What I want to stress is that “while he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. “ The father in the parable represents God, and the parable gives us a good portrait of Him, for God is the waiting Father. There is no doubt that the younger son broke his father’s heart when he took the money and ran off into the world. I think that we break God’s heart when we take what He has given us and run off into the world. But He does not give up on us. I think that God/Jesus just waits for us to return. Now, God will probably discipline us when we wander, but that is because He loves us and does not mean that He will not welcome us back into our fellowship with Him. I think that when David committed adultery with Bathsheba he was like the younger son. After all, David committed adultery, lied, had her husband killed, etc. Man, David really went on a tear of breaking commandments. God certainly disciplined David, but when he repented (see Psalm 51) God was waiting for his return and called him "a man after His own heart." Is it possible that God is waiting on you to return to your fellowship with Him that you inherited when you became a Christian? Maybe you have not gone off into “riotous living,” but you have drifted from your closeness to Him. It’s possible that at this point in your life you are out of fellowship with your church. You might need to find a new church, but not before you make up with the Christians in your present church. When we are out of fellowship with our fellow Christians, we are really out of fellowship with God until we make it right. Believe me, I know how difficult this can be. But understand that God is waiting for you with arms wide open to reestablish the closeness that you had with Him. It might be that you have developed some habit that is drawing you away from your closeness to God. He wants you to “come to your senses” like the younger son did, run to Him and you will find Him running to you to “hug your neck and kiss you” as the father did in the parable. Whatever has you feeling that you are in a far country from God, realize that He still loves you and is waiting for you. What Max Lucado wrote is true: “He’s waiting for you. God is standing on the porch of heaven, expectantly hoping, searching the horizon for a glimpse of His child. You’re the one God is seeking. God is the waiting Father, the caring shepherd in search of His lamb….He scales the cliffs and traverses the fields. He explores the caves. He cups His hands to His mouth and calls into the canyon…And the name He calls is yours.” (The italics are mine.) This is the God that has saved, or will save you, and He is waiting with arms outstretched. Run to Him and you will find him running to you. Praise Him!!!!! Bro. Joe “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort (encourage) you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Jude intended to write about “our common salvation,” but the circumstances demanded that he write about contending for the faith. I think that we live in a time like this as well, but I don’t want us to necessarily read that as a call to fight. There are many things that make me angry today, but anger will not make me a good witness. We need to fight, but we need to remember that the weapons that we use in this warfare are spiritual. I want to give you my opinion of how we can contend for the faith today. I will begin with one thing that we should not do in order to contend for the faith. We do not need to argue with people about the faith. I don’t mean that we do not need to speak up for the faith. What I mean is that when our witness, or discussion, turns into an argument all it does is raise our blood pressure and it does not contend for the faith. I have never argued anyone into the kingdom of God. Let’s move to what we can do to contend for the faith. The first answer is simple: We can live what we preach. There is no advertisement for the Christian faith like a person really living for Jesus. This means that our moral lives are upright and beyond question. This certainly doesn’t mean that we will be perfect, but it does mean that we will watch our behavior, privately and publicly. I know that a lot of people are turned off by church because they see church people living like the rest of the world. Early Christians turned the world upside down because they lived authentic Christian lives. We contend for the faith when we obey Jesus’ admonition that we love one another. In John 13:35, Jesus said: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” This means that Christians are to love each other, but beyond that, it means that we are to love people in general. Now, I know that this is not an easy command to follow. There are some people in the church, out of the church as well as people who are opposed to the church, who are not easy to love. We have personality conflicts. We have differences of opinions. We have doctrinal differences. We have moral differences. We are to help people live better lives, and we will be more effective in that endeavor if we love them. I love the saying: “People won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” If we want to contend for the faith, we need to stand up for the faith. This doesn’t mean that we should tear into people, foaming at the mouth, condemning them. We cannot, however, contend for the faith if we are ashamed of Jesus or ashamed of what we believe. Paul admonished us in Ephesians 4:15 to “speak the truth in love.” We need to speak the truth, and we need to do it in love – but we do need to speak the truth. If we say what we say out of love and concern and by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need to worry about what the other person thinks, for we have done what we have been commanded to do. This post is by no means comprehensive on the subject, but I think that it gives some sound advice on contending for the faith. Bro. Joe “After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. 24. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and He took notice.” HCSB
During a time of famine the Hebrew people found respite in Egypt. About four hundred years later, respite had turned into slavery. There arose a Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph,” and persecution and hardship came on unabated. Where was God? Had He abandoned His chosen people? No! He was a cry away, just as He is today. The conditions for the Israelites were terrible. Verse 23a tells that “the Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor.” They had to work all day everyday on Pharaoh’s extensive building projects. They had no choice, nor did they have recourse. Furthermore, life and death hung in the balance all of the time. Their Egyptian masters did not care whether they lived or died. They felt God-forsaken, but God was not unaware of their suffering. Whatever you have been through, are going through now, or will go through in the future, your conditions cannot be more terrible than this. You are not alone. You may never know the reasons why God has allowed your terrible conditions, but this does not erase the fact that Jesus knows and cares. He will go with you through it or around it, but be assured, you are not alone. As a result of Israel’s suffering, they cried out to God. Verse 23b tells us that “their cry came up to God.” As they were beaten by the slave driver’s whips, as they staggered in abject poverty and misery, the Israelites cried out to God. Perhaps this continual hope kept life from becoming meaningless to them. There were probably Israelites who stopped crying out to God, and their lives did become meaningless. Without the hope of God, life does become meaningless. We must not stop crying out to God as we face the many trials and temptations of life. Prayer is an act of faith, and in the very act of continual prayer, we can overcome. When we stop crying out, we merely cry, and that becomes self-pity. Through all of the years of suffering, they had a compassionate listener. For example, we find out from verse 24 that “God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” When the time was right, God reacted to the cries of His chosen people. This seems a harsh and cruel reality to swallow at times, but the fact is that God reacts when His time is right, not ours. It is really better that way, and we will “understand it better by and by.” Let this be imprinted on your heart: God cares and He hears you! In His infinite wisdom and grace, God looks upon you and remembers His covenant with you in Jesus. Your loving God and Savior will act in your life and deliver you in a way that will not only bring relief to you, but will result in glory for Him. After all, we do wish for our lives to bring glory to the Lord – don’t we? If our momentary suffering brings glory to God we should be glad that we can be instruments to bring glory to His great name. God uses the positive and negative events in our lives to serve as a witness for Him and to bring glory to Him. Learn to look at it this way, have faith and continually cry out to God. Do not stop crying out to God. He hears you, He will answer you, and when He acts on your behalf the results will be glorious. Bro. Joe "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes."
What does the psalmist means when he writes that it was good for him to afflicted? I think that he meant that when things were not going well for him, he learned more than when things were going well. I have illustrations of this from my own life. While I would not say that it was good for me to have two cancers for about two years, but I will say that it was good that I learned a lot during those days spent mainly on the couch, and going through six cancer treatments. I thought a lot and learned a lot during those times. First, learned that I am not afraid to die. I do not want to go on the next load, but I know that I am ready to go when the time comes. I am not bragging on myself, I am just glad that I know that I am saved and that the Lord is with me. Second, I learned a lot more about the Bible. When one cannot get up and around, he can spend time watching television reading and thinking. I did a lot of reading. Had I not been afflicted. I would not have read as much. (I watched a lot of TV too, lest you think me too holy.) Being afflicted encouraged me to read the Bible more closely and deeply, because I had all of the time that I needed. Take the time to read your Bible. It will not be wasted time. Through His word, the Lord speaks to our hearts and minds. Third, I learned that people really care. A lot of ministry takes place when a person is sick. The churches of the Tucker Association cared and prayed for me. The First Baptist Church in Camilla, where I was a member, cared. They made sure that we had meals on Wednesdays, etc. People in the Georgia Baptist Convention, as it was called then, cared. There is no end to the care that Christian people will give you. Fourth, of course, I learned more about the love of God. When we are afflicted and "stand still" we will experience His love more deeply than ever before. Do not misunderstand me, I do not seek to be afflicted. I love to be up and around, and going about the business to which the Lord has called me. I just wanted to illustrate that I know that David meant when he wrote that "it is good to be afflicted." He wrote: "It is good for to be afflicted, that I might learn your statutes." That is kind of what I experienced and all who let affliction minister to them. Bro. Joe |
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