“And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”
Jesus is involved in every part of the Christian’s life. Without Him there would be no Christian life. Colossians 3:17 reveals His all-inclusiveness in our lives. Whatever we do is to be done In the name of Jesus. Not in the name of our church, denomination or ourselves but in the name of Jesus. All of our work in the church and in all other facets of life should be “Jesus work.” “Whatever” means all. I want to share some observations on Colossians 1:17. Everything that we do should be worthy of the name of Jesus. Someone might say, “But I could never have fun.” Whoever says this has been terribly misinformed and has no idea what the life of a Christian is like. Jesus was present at festive occasions, which reveals that Jesus was not against “having fun.” Why do we equate fun with sin? The point of our lives is to bring glory to Jesus. In John 17:10, Jesus said: “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine, and glory has come to Me through them." If we do not serve in Jesus’ name, we will not bring glory to His name. I have discovered that there is a great deal of joy in that kind of service and, I might add, a lot of good, clean fun. There are some specific ways to do “all in the name of Jesus.” Let me give you some examples. First, we can accomplish this by what we say: “in word.” Words used to profane God’s holy name will not do it. Words used to belittle people will not do it. In Matthew 12:36, Jesus said: “But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment." Second, we accomplish this by what we do: “in deed.” We will also be held accountable for what we do. What we do reflects who and what we are and to whom we belong. We are God’s people – Christians. Our works should reflect that. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.” Third, we accomplish this by being thankful: “Giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Nothing can enhance the name of Jesus like thankfulness. Look at what thankfulness can accomplish: (1) Thankfulness erases bitterness. (2) Thankfulness causes rejoicing. (3) Thankfulness results in kindness. (4) Thankfulness enhances compassion. (5) Thankfulness calls out the best in us. (6) Thankfulness reveals “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) Notice that we thank God by and through Jesus. It is Jesus, in whose name we do all things, who makes us thankful. If you will stop and think about all that Jesus has done for you, you will be thankful. If you can’t recall that He has done anything for you, you need a spiritual checkup. It is safe to assume that if we apply Colossians 3:17, we will live in the name of Jesus. We are going to live in the name of something, why not Jesus? That is definitely not too much to ask in the light of all that He has done for us. He died as a sacrifice for our sins. He arose from the grave, and promised to be with us throughout the ages. When we came to Jesus by faith, He saved us. Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit to indwell us and fill us. He has promised to come again to receive us unto Himself. Why shouldn’t we do all in the name of Jesus? Will we do this perfectly? Probably not, but it sure won’t hurt to give it a try. Bro. Joe
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(This is a reprint from 2012. I thought new readers might enjoy reading it, and you who have been readers for a while might enjoy reading it again.)
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: 9. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” Okay, I know that the right title for the “booger man” is “bogeyman.” But in Smithville, where I grew up in Southwest Georgia, he was called the “booger man.” We were told as children that, if we did not behave, the “booger man” would get us. The dictionary defines a “bogeyman” (if you insist) as “a frightening person, etc.” (Let’s just call him a frightening entity.) In Smithville, the term “booger man” usually called up thoughts of ghosts, werewolves, or even Frankenstein’s monster. My older brother and I shared a bedroom. His bed was across the room from mine. He went to sleep most every night with his radio on. One night, after he had gone to sleep, and I hadn’t, the “Inner Sanctum” was playing on his radio. You older folks will remember that this was the program that came on with a squeaking door. As I listened to the scary tale, I just knew that the “booger man” was about to get me. I wanted to walk across the room and turn the radio off, but I was afraid that the “booger man” would get me if I did. Now that I am more or less grown up, I know that the dreaded “booger man” was only a figment of my imagination, but the Bible has a “booger man” who is real, and even scarier than werewolves. He is called the devil or Satan. He is at work in the world, and has been since he fell from heaven because of his rebellion against God. Now, I know that some of you think that this “booger man” is as bogus as the “booger man” of my childhood. I know that one cannot be considered sophisticated or even avant-garde if one believes in the devil. Some of you think that you discarded this wily character when your college professor told you that this Biblical stuff was all a myth. It doesn’t help that we have made him a comic figure. He is usually depicted as a little red fellow with a forked tail, who is ugly but not very scary. Well, if you believe the Bible, you believe in the devil. It is interesting to me that a lot of people who do not believe that the devil is real, believe that angels are real. (Angels are a vastly misunderstood group in the Bible too, but that is a story for another day.) How do I know that the devil is real? He works on me every day, and he works on you every day as well, whether you believe in him or not. He is the source of our penchant for doing evil. He is the source of all strife, envy and hatred. He is the source of the doubt that keeps us from believing in a loving God, who sent His Son to die on the cross for us. He is having a field day in the world today, as he always has throughout history. He is having a field day in the church as well. It would be nice if he would stay away from church, but he is not nice and he loves to stir up God’s people and make us look foolish to the world. (And we often do not disappoint him.) It is true that he is walking about “seeking whom he may devour.” He does not care whose life he ruins. He loves to see people addicted to drugs and alcohol. He loves it when people get hooked on pornography and keep their minds on the seamier side of life. He loves it when we in churches gossip about each other and tear down the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in the world. He will have a field day in our lives until we stop believing his lie that he does not exist, or that, if he does, he is a harmless little red fellow with a forked tail. We used to say: “The ‘booger man’ will get you if you don’t watch out.” Well, Peter warned us about the real “booger man.” Let’s be aware of his presence and “resist him steadfast in the faith.” Only Jesus can handle Him. Trust Jesus to keep the “booger man” from getting you. Bro. Joe “Thou shalt not…”
These words from the Ten Commandments mean what they say. Exodus 20:4 tells us, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…” It meant stop when you start to bow down to an idol, for idols are false gods. In our present vernacular, “thou shalt not” means stop. I have discovered, for example, that when we come to a stop sign, it means that we are to stop. At least two times, or maybe three, policemen have reminded me of this when I came to what they called “a rolling stop.” Which meant that I looked both ways, didn’t see anything coming and ran the stop sign. Well, at least I slowed down, but as the policemen told me “a rolling stop is not a stop.” The word “stop” is seldom used in the Bible, as I found in my Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, but it is certainly implied many, many times in the Bible. Jesus told us to stop when we are observing a member of the opposite sex. Today, we call it “girl watching,” or in some cases, “boy watching.” Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard it said by them of old time, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ 28. But here is what I say unto you, ‘that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart.’” This, as I have already observed, applies to both sexes. It means that we need to watch our imaginations and say “stop” when our thoughts lead us onto dangerous ground. Jesus told us to stop when we want to strike back at people who misuse us. I know that some of you, maybe many of you, will roll your eyes when you read this, but we cannot take it out of the Bible. I will admit that this is difficult for me as well. There is something in our human nature that wants to strike back when we are struck, but Jesus told us to say “stop” when we want to strike back. This should be true whether we are physically struck or verbally struck. Jesus said that “whosoever shall strike you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39) There is something in this word that makes us cringe. Several years ago a friend told me that Jesus did not tell us what to do after we turned our other cheek. I somehow think that he missed the point that Jesus was making. Jesus understood that when we strike back, the striking never ends. There is no end to retaliation. If you get me, I get you back, then you get me back, then I get you back – it never ends until someone puts a stop to it. We need to learn this in our families, at our businesses and in our churches. We can certainly answer people when peopel verbally strike us. Proverbs 15:1 informs us on this: “A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” We can solve problems with each other if we will refrain from arguing and discuss issues calmly. Jesus told us to “stop” when we want to hold a grudge against someone and not forgive them. In the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:12 and 14-15, Jesus said: 12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” 14. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Jesus put a high premium on forgiveness. Jesus’ first words from the cross were “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) I think that you will agree that we have plenty of opportunities to forgive people. This is true in our families. I have seen families torn apart because people would not forgive their parents, or brothers and sisters. This is true in our churches. I have seen churches destroyed because people would not forgive each other. If you are having a problem forgiving someone, take it to the Lord in prayer and try to straighten it out in your own heart and with the other person. In this matter of stopping, we need to heed the wisdom of Jesus. Some of the things He told us to stop might seem impossible, but Jesus said: “The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.” Bro. Joe “As the deer pants after the water brooks, So pants my soul for You O God. 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before Him.” NKJV
All of us understand what thirst is. If you have ever been thirsty for any length of time without being able to get something to drink, you understand the importance of thirst. What the psalmist is writing about here is a thirst for God. He wrote, “So pants my soul for You.” His longing for God came from the deepest part of himself. The question that we need to ask in our affluent society is that with all of the things that we are “thirsty” for, are we really thirsty for God? I want to share some thoughts that came to me about what we should thirst for in our thirst for God that would satisfy our souls. There is the thirst for the presence of God. When Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life and died on the cross, He promised us that He would be with us all of the time – “till the end of the ages…” He promised His disciples in John’s gospel that He would send the Holy Spirit to live in them, and in us as well. This is a spiritual reality, but there are still times when we feel that God is not as close to us as we need. We need to remind ourselves that the fault is ours, because He is always with us. This is when we should keenly feel this thirst for the presence of God. We need to go immediately to God in prayer in order to realize that closeness. In the latter part of verse 2 the psalmist wrote: “When shall I come and appear before Him.” This appears to me to be a longing for the presence of God. If Jesus is not your Savior, you can have that closeness by asking Him to be your Savior and He will give you His presence through the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, you have that closeness and your thirst can be satisfied completely. There is the thirst for His empowerment. Jesus promised His disciples that when He ascended to the Father, they would “receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We have been promised the same empowerment. The question is do we really use the power that Jesus makes available to us? I think that we will use it when we develop a real thirst to use it. This empowerment was offered so that we could be witnesses for the Lord. I feel this thirst when I preach. I also feel this thirst when I read articles like the one I am doing now. I pray that God will use my preaching to help people know of their need for Jesus, or for them to realize their responsibility of serving Him. I get excited when writing these articles for CouchPotatoRedux, because I don’t know who is going to read them, or where those who read them will be located in the world. I am thirsty for His power in my daily walk as I encounter people . We need to be thirsty for the power of the Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives in the use of our spiritual gifts. There is the thirst for the realization of God’s great love for us. I think sometimes that we do not realize the profundity of that love for us. It is a love that surpasses anything that we can know from people. It is a love that we have, although we do not really deserve it. I know that God loves me, but I have to admit that there are times that the reality of His love is not as evident in my life as at other times. I realize that this is my problem, not God’s. He loves me, and He loves you at all times. But we need to develop a thirst for that love and be aware of it every day of our lives. We should also be thirsty to speak about that love to people. We should be thirsty to help people know that God loves them. What joy that would bring to their lives. So many people out there feel unloved; therefore, they need for us to share that love with them, and create a thirst for God’s love for their own lives. If you are thirsty, what are you thirsty for? Is it for God, for His presence, His empowerment and His love? Bro. Joe “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica…”
If my name had been mentioned in the Bible, I would not have wanted it to be because I was a quitter. This is the legacy that Demas has in biblical history. I’m sure that he has been used as a bad example in many sermons over the past two thousand years. At the time 2 Timothy was written, Paul was old, sick and about to be killed. Some stuck with him, but Demas quit to join the secular world. (Perhaps he got what he considered a “better deal.”) Demas personified quitters today. We are in a great spiritual battle, and many people are joining Demas to join the secular world. Using Demas as a background, I want us to look at quitting as it relates to us. There are times when we should quit. We should quit when we realize that we are wrong, or that we are headed in the wrong direction in our lives. The Prodigal Son comes to mind. He went in the wrong direction and decided to quit being stupid and get back to his father. Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, is another example. Paul quit what he was doing because Jesus turned his life around. We should also quit when we realize that our actions do not match our convictions. We should quit when what we are doing, or saying, is needlessly hurting other people. There are many reasons why we should quit bad behavior. This does not make us quitters, but it makes us wise people. There are times when we think we have ample reason to quit. We might think that we have ample reason to quit when we feel that we are being mistreated, and we feel like giving in to our feelings and quitting. If what we are doing is God’s will, we should just put our feelings aside and “soldier on.” We might feel like quitting if we think that our efforts are unappreciated. This might seem like a good reason to quit, but if being unappreciated was a good reason to quit, Paul would have quit after they tried to kill him in Lystra. (Acts 14:19) Elijah comes to mind here. He had a great victory on Mt. Carmel, then Jezebel threatened him and he headed to the Juniper tree, where he tried to quit, but he didn’t. (Read about it in 1 Kings 18-19.) Sometimes we feel like quitting because we think that we are too tired to go on. If this was a good reason to quit, a lot of people would be out of work. There are times when we feel like quitting because people have disappointed us, or let us down, in some way. I think of Moses and the Israelites. If Moses had quit because of people disappointing him, he would not have made it through the Red Sea. There are great people of God who did not quit who serve as good examples for us. I have already mentioned Paul and Moses. These two people always come to mind when I think of people who stuck with what God wanted them to do in spite of all of the hardships that they faced. Let’s take another look at Moses. He had led the Israelites right up to the door of Canaan at Kadesh Barnea. He sent twelve men to spy out the land and come back with a report. After their foray into Canaan, ten of the men were afraid of the big people, the Anakites, who made them feel like grasshoppers. Only Joshua and Caleb wanted to go on and take the land. The Israelites, overcome by fear, refused to go into Canaan. (Why did they think they left Egypt?) God made them wait forty years until all of that generation died. If Moses had been a quitter, he would have quit at Kadesh Barnea. But he stayed with them forty more years, and then died before he got into the Promised Land. But he did not quit doing what God called him to do. Don’t be like Demas. If what you are doing is God’s will for you, keep at it until He releases you. If where you are attending church is where you are supposed to be and you get disappointed, stay with it until God tells you to go somewhere else. In other words, don’t be a quitter. Bro. Joe “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not works lest any man should boast.”
The traditional definition of grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” Another definition that Dr. C. Roy Angell gave in one of his sermon books was “needed but not deserved.” John 1:14 says of Jesus, “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.” The fact of Christ’s coming to earth in the first place was based on the grace of God. We did not deserve Christ’s coming, but we needed Him and got the salvation that He offered. Let’s look at the importance and indispensability of grace. We need grace. We need grace because we are all sinners. At least, that is what the Bible tells us. Romans 3:10: “There is none righteous no not one.” (Quote from Psalm 1:14) Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” No person has lived since Adam and Eve who can say that they have not sinned. If one really believed that, he or she, would be lying to himself or herself. The “all” in Romans 3:23 means just that – all. The apostle John understood this, for he wrote in 1 John 1:10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His word is not in us.” God has declared us all sinners; therefore, we are all sinners. That is why we need grace – “God’s unmerited favor.” We cannot do anything about sin in our own strength. We can “turn over a new leaf” but that won’t last long. I have heard it said that when you turn over a new leaf, all you get is the other side of the leaf. This means that the other side is the same as the side was turned. We need God’s grace and His strength in order to be saved. God gives grace. God obviously gives it in spite of the fact that we do not deserve it. Two attributes of God come into play in his dispensing of grace – love and mercy. For an example of this we can look at the thief on the cross. By his own admission, he deserved to be on the cross. He knew that he was really a thief and probably a murderer as well. But when he turned to Jesus by faith and asked to “be remembered” when Christ “came into His kingdom.” By grace, Jesus told him “today, you will be with me in paradise.” The thief could absolutely not have done anything to deserve joining Jesus in paradise, but he was given the access to paradise by Jesus. That is just pure grace at work. I like the old hymn that says: “The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may I though vile as he, wash all my sins away.” We do not deserve salvation any more than the thief did, and we need God’s grace as much as he did. Jesus shows us God’s grace in action. He is God taking the initiative for grace over the power of sin. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is God’s grace proven and established. His saving power is God’s grace claiming the victory. Jesus’ return will be God’s grace consummated. We need to practice God’s grace in our lives. When we are saved, God literally gives us His grace and we need to practice it in our dealings with our fellowman. I would like to be able to claim here that I do this all of the time, but I do not. But unlike an unsaved person, I am aware when I have not practiced God’s grace, because He convicts me of it. We need to practice God’s grace in our dealings with the world. We need to practice God’s grace in the church with our fellow Christians. I think sometimes that we don’t practice God’s grace in church any more than we do in the world. If we practiced God’s grace more effectively we would make a greater impact on the world. We need to practice God’s grace in our families and among our friends. We certainly need to practice God’s grace in our work places. To practice God’s grace we need to be willing to forgive others. This is not always easy, but it is necessary if we are to practice God’s grace. Bro. Joe “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. 24. But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”
Jeremiah had been called to prophesy the doom of the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had been carried into captivity about 136 years before that. Over the years, from the time they entered Canaan, the Israelites had forgotten the commandments of God and were living as they pleased. Instead of glorying in the Lord, they gloried in what they wanted to glory in. We can’t be too hard on the Old Testament Jews, for we see the same thing happening today. We need to reassess what it is we glory in and in whom we glory. Jeremiah gave a warning to the people of his day, and it can serve as a warning to us as well. (Notice that Jeremiah was directly quoting the Lord, for he wrote: “Thus says the Lord.”) He warned the wise not to glory in their wisdom. The Bible states explicitly that if one wants to be truly wise he will fear the Lord. Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” The greatest earthly wisdom is nothing compared to the wisdom of God, who is all-knowing and all-wise. We would do well to remember this lesson in this computer age when we think we know so much. We certainly have more information today than in years gone by, and we know a whole lot more than people in the past, but we still do not know more than God. We need to remember that true wisdom and knowledge belong to God. Solomon reminds us: “And the knowledge of the holy one is understanding.” All of the wisdom and knowledge of this world should not carry us beyond the knowledge of God. Next, Jeremiah wrote: “Let not the mighty man glory in his might.” We need to remember that the God who is all-wise is also known as the "Almighty," meaning that He is all-powerful. All of the nuclear arsenals on this earth are nothing compared to the might and power of Almighty God. Zerubbabel was commissioned to rebuild the temple after the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews. He had plenty of opposition to this rebuilding and needed to depend on the power of God to get the job done. Here is what Zechariah wrote in order to encourage Zerubbabel: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” It is still true that we do not serve the Lord in our own might, but by the might of the Spirit of God. Then, Jeremiah wrote, “Nor let the rich man glory in his riches.” Jesus gave this warning concerning earthly riches: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) If we are tempted to glory in our riches, we need to remember what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Finally, in verse 24, Jeremiah tells us what (or whom) we should glory in: “But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.” The Lord is the true source of our wisdom, riches and might. We would do well to remember this in spite of what the world tells us. Bro. Joe “Thus saith the Lord, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said. ‘We will not walk therein.’”
The text comes in the middle of a denunciation of Judah and is a direct quote from the Lord. Judah refused to walk in the “old paths,” as mentioned in the text. They are called upon to "take the old paths." There are some lessons in this text for us. We notice, first, that the Lord calls out to His people. “Thus said the Lord” means “listen.” This obviously doesn’t mean that His people will listen. Well, they might hear, but they do not always heed. The Lord is constantly calling to us. The question is are we listening? Are we listening with our hearts? This is where God really speaks to us through His Spirit. Are we listening through the circumstances of our lives? God speaks to us through circumstances, we just need to pay attention. If you are a Christian there is never a day that the Lord is not speaking to you in one way or another. Some of the greatest experiences of my life have arisen out of the Lord’s speaking to me in unusual circumstances. We notice, second, that the Lord challenges His people. He challenges us as to what we should do. He said, “Stand in the crossroads and look.” (NIV) He challenges us as to what we should do: “stand…” He wants us to take our stand for Him. He wants us to stand for something. You know the old saying, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” If you know anything about the history of Israel, you know that they fell for a lot of things. It wasn’t that they weren’t warned. They just did not listen to the Lord’s words through His prophets as they warned them time after time and for many years. He challenges us as to where to stand: “at the crossroads.” The crossroads are places of decision. When you come to a crossroad, you have to make a decision as to which road to take. Judah took the wrong road at the crossroads and ended up in captivity in Babylon. We are called upon to make all kinds of decisions. In fact, the decisions that we make at the “crossroads” decides the quality of our commitment to the Lord. He challenges us why to stand: “and see…” This means that we should open our eyes as to what is going on and rededicate our lives to live for Jesus in these trying times. We notice, third, that the Lord counsels His people: “…and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” Just because a way is old does not mean that it is good, nor does it mean that it is the right way. However, in this case, the “old way” was the good way and the right way. The “old paths” were not always perfect, but they were better days that those days preceding the Babylonian Captivity. In Judah, and Israel’s, history, there were such people as Abraham and Moses. They were not perfect men, but they obeyed the Lord. The old paths are the paths of obedience. They are the paths of righteousness and commitment to the Lord. The Lord counsels us to look into our histories, find the good things and follow them instead of just going along with the crowd. It would do us good to find the biblical paths and follow them. There are men in the Bible, like Paul, who can show us how to walk in God’s paths in spite of what the world says about our faith. We need to be sure that we are taking the way that will lead us to good and not to bad. We notice, fourth, that the Lord comforts His people: “rest…” Taking the right paths in life will lead us to the Lord’s rest. The Lord’s rest is the rest of the heart, mind and soul. It does not mean that God makes us lazy, but that He gives us peace of heart and mind. Remember that Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Listening to the Lord’s voice, accepting His challenges and listening to His counsel leads to rest and peace that we seek in this life. If you haven’t tried it – give it a try. Bro. Joe "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4 begins by telling us that Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” Why did He need to go through Samaria? Jews and Samaritans hated each other, and when Jews traveled from Judea to Galilee they went around Samaria to avoid making contact with them. The ensuing verses tell us why Jesus had to go through Samaria. He had a divine appointment at Jacob’s well with a sinful woman and with a village full of Samaritans who needed the Messiah. Jesus made the woman a promise in John 4:13-14 that seems impossible to fulfill. But the thirst that the woman had, and the thirst that all human beings have goes beyond physical thirst. Jesus promises “a fountain of living water” that will satisfy the thirst of the longing in our souls, which transcends our need for physical water. It is a thirst for something, or someone, greater than ourselves. The woman’s real thirst was a thirst for God. The human soul longs for God. Many do not realize that their dissatisfaction with life is a thirst for God. Martin Buber wrote that there is a “God-shaped vacuum” in every person in the world. People will worship something, even if they have to worship science. Jesus alone can fulfill that great need that we have for God. Jesus alone can furnish that “fountain of water” that will satisfy our longing for one greater than ourselves. It is a thirst for a life that transcends this life. Jesus told the sinful woman He would give her a fountain of water that would be “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” There is not only a thirst for someone beyond ourselves, there is a thirst for something beyond this life. Paul said it eloquently in 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” He wrote that in favor of the resurrection not only of Jesus but in favor of our resurrection as well. There is something missing in life on this earth that makes us aware that there must be something beyond this earthly life, something better and more fulfilling. I pity the people who think that we die, and just like our pet dog or cat, that is the end. We know that there is more to life than this physical life that we now live. Jesus alone can fulfill that need that we have for life beyond this one. It is a thirst for a spiritual relationship that is greater than all of our physical relationships. The fact is that we need a relationship with God. We need to know that He not only exists but that He loves us and wants to be part of our lives. The Bible is filled with God's invitation to satisfy our thirst for such a relationship by entering into relationship with Him. Long before Jesus came into the world, Isaiah wrote about this thirst in Isaiah 49:8-10: “Thus saith the Lord, ‘In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee as a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages.’ 9. That thou mayest say to the prisoners, ‘go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in high places.’ 10. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them.” Jesus might have had this passage in mind when He promised the woman at the well, “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” If you haven’t taken a sip of this “everlasting water” do it now.” Bro. Joe “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comfort delights my soul.” NKJV
Like all of us, the psalmist had to deal with anxiety. But anxiety was not a way of life with him, because he had the comfort of the Lord to allay his anxieties. When I read that, I began to think about my own anxieties and how I have been able to overcome them. I decided that the singular “comfort” could be plural “comforts” in my case. I want to share these comforts with you in the hope that they will help you with your own anxieties. The first comfort is faith. I do not mean faith in myself or in any manmade resource. I mean faith in Jesus Christ – period. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are “saved by grace through faith.” This saving faith, however, is not meant to just take us to heaven when we die; it is also a resource for living on this earth. One of the sure things of living on this earth is anxiety. Who could read or hear the news today and not be anxious? Every day we are bombarded with negative things about our world. These things are real and not imaginary. Muslims really do cut off people’s heads. China does have a powerful army. Russia is not the friend that we hoped she would be after the fall of communism. People are really being killed in Syria for the sake of a corrupt regime. Children and really abducted and killed by perverts. (Have I made you anxious enough?J) These are just a few examples of what awaits us each day in the news. On top of all of that are the many things that we have to deal with in our own lives. I can’t explain how faith in Jesus comforts me in the midst of all of this; I just know that it does. I take Jesus at His promise that if I come to Him, He will give me rest. He promises me that if I trust Him, He will comfort me. E. Stanley Jones wrote: “Worries and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil.” How true. Believe today that you can trust Jesus in all of life. The second comfort is forgiveness. A lot of our anxiety is caused by guilt, because we know that we have done wrong from time to time. We have not loved people as we should. We have not treated people as fairly as we should. We have given in to corrupt thoughts that we knew could not have come from God. In order to overcome this guilt, we just need to know that our God is a forgiving God. He has promised in 1 John 1:9 that if “we will confess our sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” You don’t have to “feel” forgiven; you can know that you are forgiven because you take God at His word. If He has promised to forgive you, He will forgive you! You might say: “But you don’t know what I’ve done.” But I do know what David did when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he was forgiven. I do know that Simon Peter denied Him, but Jesus forgave him. I ask you today to embrace the freedom from anxiety that comes with being forgiven by a forgiving and loving God. You will find that He has waited lovingly for you to seek His forgiveness. Give faith and forgiveness a try in your own life. They are as available to you as they are to me. Jesus will forgive you and save you if you will come to Him by faith. Jesus will forgive you and sustain you in your faith when you have done wrong in spite of it. Jesus wants to deliver you from the anxieties of this life. Let Him do it through faith in Him and forgiveness by Him. Do it! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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