“Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
I don’t want to be misunderstood, I believe in individualism and the rights of the individual, but individualism, like everything else, can be taken to extremes. If we aren’t careful in our free society it can become narcissism. A narcissist only thinks of himself or herself. That runs counter to what Jesus taught in the New Testament. For example in Luke 6:21 Jesus said: “And as you would that men should to do you, do you also to them likewise.” (We call that the “Golden Rule.”) As Christians we need to realize that we can’t always do what just satisfies “me.” Let’s look at how we can avoid the all-important “I.” We can realize that when we became Christians, we became servants of God. Jesus told His disciples that even He “did not come to be served but to serve.” In a beautiful picture of servanthood, Jesus washed His disciple’s feet. Jesus demonstrated a selfless act for them, and demanded that they have the same view of servanthood when he told them that as He, their Lord, had washed their feet, they should also wash each other’s feet. You know, it takes a lot of inner security and faith to do something as selfless as washing someone’s feet. If we consider ourselves servants of Jesus, we should follow His example. He will help us realize that when we stoop to serve we don’t lose one iota of our individualism. In fact, we become better individuals. We can realize that the world is watching us and determining what kind of Christians we are by how we are willing to forget self and serve. I think that this all-important “I” is seen all too often in churches when we gather into cliques and demand our way. I have known people in churches who had the idea that “it is my way or the highway.” I call that carrying individualism to extremes. In fact, I have to admit that I have to be careful not to have this attitude, and if you are honest you probably have to watch the same thing. But this all-important “I” is seen as well by how we live our lives outside of the church. If we are selfish, it will show and it will be a poor witness to a world that is in dire need of good Christian humility. We can realize that what we want is not always the most important thing in the world. Jesus gave a parable of a farmer who had a bumper crop. As he looked at his good fortune, he thought only of himself. He said: “Here’s what I’ll do, I’ll build bigger barns to store all of these excess goods. I will say to myself, ‘eat drink and be merry.’”(Beauchamp translation) It did not occur to this greedy man that he could share his good fortune with others. He was tragically unaware that there might be people who could use some of these goods that he stored up for himself. This man’s attitude betrays a lack of trust in God and lack of love for people. These are two important things in the Christian life. We are saved by trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior and we are saved to love people. Jesus Himself said that people “will know that we are Christians by our love.” Selfishness and love do not mix well – kind of like oil and water. We need to take a good long look at our own lives. We need to check and see if our instinct is to always look out for ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we should never look out for ourselves, but that this should not be our predominate lifestyle. The world is literally crying out for us to act like Christians and not always give way to the all-important “I.” This is a challenge for me. I'm certain that it is a challenge for you. Bro. Joe
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"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
I want to spend one more day on 2 Peter 3:9. As I read over the text today, I found some points that should be added to the points I made in yesterday's article. The first thing that I noticed was the love of God. God is longsuffering because He loves us. We cannot ignore John 3:16 which tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Looking at the history of the world before and after the New Testament account of Jesus, we cannot ignore the fact that God loves us. God is not always in agreement with us, but He, nevertheless, loves us with a love that is beyond human understanding. The second thing that I noticed was the patience of God. God is longsuffering because He is patient with us. I know that I am sometimes not very patient with myself, and I wonder sometimes why God is patient with me. I know that He has been patient with me because I know that there have been many times that I have tried His patience. (Don't blame me, for you have also tried His patience. Even the "self-righteous" Pharisees tried His patience, and He will be tried by our self-righteousness. But in the final analysis, God is patient with us and we should praise Him for for it. (Praise Him now! The third thing that I noticed was the forgiveness of God. We need to realize that God forgives us when we realize the need for His forgiveness. Ask Simon Peter about this forgiveness. I am sure that you remember that Simon Peter denied Jesus when confronted by the people who accused him of being a follower of Jesus. Obviously, Jesus forgave Peter, and used him in great ways in the future. Jesus also looks beyond our foibles, forgives us and uses us. (That's right, Jesus will use you too in spite of your own foibles.) It is important for you to realize that Jesus loves you, is patient with you and will definitely forgive you. Believe it! Bro. Joe "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
The recipients of Peter's epistle were concerned that Jesus had not returned. In these verses, Peter reminded them that God operates on His own timetable, and that they should not second guess Him. Peter is reminding them that God is not limited to hours, days, weeks and years. God lives in eternity where there is no calendar. This is difficult for us to wrap our minds around, but that is because He is God and we are not. God will do what He wills to do. He does not need our help in determining the timing of His actions. Peter reminded them that God is not hesitant (slack) about His plans. He will do what He is going to do in His own time, and His timing will be perfect. God wants us to serve Him, but he does not need our input. I, obviously, cannot remember a time when I tried to explain to God what He needed to do. I could never imagine myself trying to explain to God about what He does not understand about my life. It is not going to happen. Peter reminded them that God keeps the promises about His days, and Christ will return when the time for His return is right in God's mind and heart. "God is longsuffering toward us and is not willing that any should perish." In God's economy of time, everyone has a chance to be saved. No one will be able to say that God did not give them a chance to be saved. This is what Jesus longs for because He does not want anyone to perish. No one can blame God for not giving them time. We just need to confess that God knows what He is doing, and we need to remember that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) Pray believing that God really knows what He is doing - even in your life. Bro. Joe “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 is about commitment. Commitment is an important word in the Christian faith. We need more real committed, “Galatians 2:20 Christians” if we are to get anything done in the church or the world. The challenge for Christians today is to live for Christ in such a way that people will know that we are serious, and that they should be serious about it too. Truly, we need more solid commitment to Jesus in the part of members of our churches. I want us to consider what our commitment should be. First, we should be committed to Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:20 informs us of Paul’s commitment to Jesus. Jesus had literally taken over Paul’s life. Before his conversion Paul was committed to Judaism and to a Jewish lifestyle. After his conversion Paul’s commitment was given completely to Jesus Christ. Jesus is our first commitment. If we are not committed to Jesus, no other religious commitment will make any difference in our lives or in the lives of others. If we want to impact the world, we need to have Paul’s kind of commitment. We don’t need to water down our Christian faith in order to reach the world. To the contrary, we need to get on fire for Christ. During Christmas we see a lot of signs that say “Jesus is the reason for the season.” This is true, but it is also true that Jesus is the reason – period. He is why we do everything that we do in our personal lives, in our homes, at our work and in our churches. Second, we should be committed to personal growth in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We should be committed to the Holy Spirit to help us live the best lives that we can live and bring glory to Jesus. We should commit ourselves to a Christian lifestyle that will be a witness for Jesus in this world. We should commit ourselves to claim all of the blessings that God wants to give us in order for us to be blessings to other people. With this commitment, we should be committed to our families as extensions of ourselves. We should be committed to be the best spouses that we can be, and the best parents that we can be in order to bring glory to Jesus and to impact this pagan world in which we live. Selfishness does not fit into the Christian lifestyle. Other people should be better off because we are in the world. Third, we should be committed to our churches. Church members can sometimes get what I call “churched out.” Being a member of a church can be, or is, an emotional experience. Since churches are made up of human beings, there will always be disagreements of some kind. If there is more than one human being in one place there will be disagreements. We just need to remember that the churches to which we belong are bigger than us, bigger than our opinions, and bigger than our egos. Furthermore, we need to remember that church is about Jesus and doing His will and work in this world. There are many good organizations in this world. At one time I was a member of the Lion’s Club – a great organization. But Jesus did not shed His blood to establish the Lion’s Club, but He did shed His blood to establish His church. There is only one organization (or organism) that has the distinction of belonging specifically to Jesus Christ, and that is His church. What, or who, are you committed to? Your commitments will tell you a lot about yourself. If you are not committed to Jesus, in order to be the best self that you can be and the best member that you can be of your church, then you need to make that commitment today. Don’t you agree? Bro. Joe “And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 14. And He came and touched the bier; and they that bare him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say unto you, Arise. 15. And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother.”
The incident began when Jesus was approaching the city of Nain, where He saw a funeral procession. The dead man had been the son of a widow. He was the only son that she had, which meant that she was left alone. Jesus did what only Jesus could do – He raised her son from the dead. Jesus didn’t raise every dead person He saw, but He did raise those He was supposed to raise. This incident reveals some interesting things about Jesus. Jesus knew that the dead man was the only son of the widowed mother. This was a desperate situation because there were no social safety nets like those we have today, e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, welfare or Social Security. When her only son died, the woman was left alone in the world with no one to care for her. It could have been that some of her family might help, but evidently Jesus knew that this was not the case. Isn’t it great to know that Jesus is aware of desperate situations like this? I use “is” because Jesus has not changed. He is still aware when we are in desperate situations, and He will help us in whatever way we need helping. I hope that when you are in a situation where there seems that there is no solution that you will look to Jesus, for He will have an answer for you. It is not usually as dramatic as our text, but He will be there in our desperate situations. Notice that Jesus had compassion for the woman. This is typical of Jesus. When Jesus looked out over the multitude of lost people in Matthew 9:36, it is recorded that: “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Whatever the situation, when Jesus saw people having seemingly insoluble problems, He had compassion on them. He has not changed. He still has compassion for us. Do you think that as Jesus looks out over the world today that He is not moved with compassion? Jesus doesn’t look at the lost multitudes around the world and turn away with an indfferent shrug. He doesn’t look at people who are hurting in many kinds of situations and just shake His head and say “poor dears.” Just as Jesus had compassion for the woman in the text, and just as He had compassion on the people in Matthew 9, He is still filled with compassion. Indeed, whatever you might be going through Jesus has compassion for you. Rejoice! It is interesting that Jesus acted on His compassion, raised the woman’s son from the dead and returned him to her. Jesus acted on His compassion for the lost multitudes in Matthew 9:37-38: “Then He said unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send laborers into His harvest.” Do you get the point? Sometimes those of us who are His followers are called upon to act in compassion on His behalf. No one else could have raised the widow’s son from the dead, but that was not true of the lost multitude. Jesus wants us to look at the world with the same compassion that He had while He was on earth and still has today. Jesus does not want us to turn away in disgust, though we see many things that disgust us, but He wants us to be filled with compassion and go lnto the fields which are “ripe unto harvest.” Could it be said of us that we had compassion for the world as Jesus had compassion for the woman in the text? Bro. Joe .When we think of Jesus, we think of all that is possible because of Him. I thought today of some things that are impossible in our relationship with Jesus. Before you write me off as a heretic, read on and let me explain.
It is impossible for Jesus not to love you. I did not say that He always agrees with you, but that he always loves you. I know that I love my two daughters, but that doesn't mean that I always agree with them. (and vice-versa) I still love the old hymn that I sang in Junior Choir: "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." I hope that this reality has not escaped you, for you cannot keep Jesus from loving you. In fact, if you have not come to Him for salvation, He longs for you. Go ahead, sing it and believe it: "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so..." It is impossible for Jesus not to want the best for you. This was a fact that I preached again and again to the prisoners that I ministered to for several years. I always added, "but you need to want the best for yourself." Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that Jesus overlooks our sins. Because He wants the best for us, Jesus cannot overlook our sins. It is sin that gets us in trouble in the first place. But the fact that Jesus will forgive you, means that that He wants the best for you. (You read this correctly: "Jesus loves you and wants the best for y-o-u.") However, I have discovered that we need to want the best for ourselves - just saying. It is impossible for Jesus to refuse you if you come to Him in true faith and repentance. Faith and repentance are very important when we come to Jesus. Jesus will forgive you, save you, and use you in His service when you truly believe in Him and are truly sorry for your sins. What Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 is still true: "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man (person) hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come to him and sup with him, and he with me." That appears to me to be a proposition that we need to take seriously and to act on. Of course, this is just a short list of "impossibilities" relating to Jesus, but they are of utmost importance. Believe them! Bro. Joe (I brought this over from 2012. It reminded me of this reality, and I thought that you might also need this reminder.)
I am going to take this statement made by Daniel out of context: "But there is a God in heaven." Daniel actually made the statement to Nebuchadnezzar to explain how he could relate the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams. What I am going to do with it is to share what the statement related to me as I read it. First, when you are having health problems, whether they are serious or not, you can remember, "But there is a God in heaven." You can be assured that I thought about this over the last few years with the health problems that I have faced. Second, when you are having a difficult time at work because of bad relationships with certain people. Or it could be that you have an arrogant boss who never thinks that you do anything right. Either one of those situations would be a good time for you to say to yourself, "But there is a God in heaven." Third, when you are having family problems, and you and your spouse are having a difficult time, or those sweet children that you were so proud of have become teenagers. (You know what I mean.) Mark Twain once wrote that "when a child gets to be thirteen you should put him or her in a barrel and put a hole in it for them to breathe through. When he or she gets to be sixteen plug up the hole.(LOL)." They can really drive you to say: "But there is a God in heaven." More seriously, if there is a problem between you and your married children and you never get to see your grandchildren, you really need to remind yourself that "there is a God in heaven." I sure don't want to be alienated from my grandchildren. Fourth, when your church is having relationship problems, and you are caught between two sides you need to remember: "But there is a God in heaven." There is nothing more difficult to deal with than relationship problems in the church, because everybody on all sides think they are right and everybody else is wrong. That's when you call on the God in heaven and say, "We are all wrong because we are not listening to Jesus, and we all need to repent of our egotism and selfishness and get together on what Jesus wants." I haven't even scratched the surface of the situations that would remind us of Daniel's statement, but you know your situation. Pause right now and say, "But there is a God in heaven." AND THANK HIM THAT HE IS NOT JUST IN HEAVEN, BUT PRESENT THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT, AND THAT HE IS WILLING TO HELP YOU WITH WHATEVER SITUATION YOU ARE ENCOUNTERING ON EARTH.. Bro. Joe "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13. For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is His name."
I have always focused on "prepare to meet thy God" when teaching or preaching on this text. As profound a reminder as that is for all generations, we don't need to ignore the fact that Amos wanted them to stop and consider the kind of God they should prepare to meet. He reminded Israel that He is the God that creates something from nothing. No one else can do that. Also, no one else is "The Lord, The Lord of hosts." What Amos is telling them is that they are fooling around with the eternal God who created the world and will call it to account. No one should have needed to remind them about who and what God is. After all, these were God's chosen people, the people whom God delivered from Egypt, saw them through forty years in the wilderness and gave them the Promised Land. These people to whom Amos wrote did not personally experience any of that, but it was an integral part of their history and they should have been taught that history from cradle to grave. They ignored God in order to worship wood and stone. They ignored God's moral order and did what they desired. We are not Israel, but we do know their history and we know what God did for them. We know that He is the God who sent Jesus to save our sinful souls. It seems to me that with the spiritual climate in our country, and world, today we would do well to: "Prepare to meet (our) God." This needs to be taught and preached until the Lord comes. Bro. Joe “And (Jesus) spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
Luke 18:1 reminds us that Jesus prayed and taught His disciples to pray, because prayer is ultimately important. The New Testament mentions several times that Jesus went apart to pray. If Jesus, God’s Son, saw the importance of prayer in His life, we certainly need to see it too. Paul also saw the importance of prayer for he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” The Bible reveals to us that prayer is the lifeline of the Christian. I want us to look at three good reasons to pray. The first reason to pray is that it is our means of communication with God. Communication is one of the important elements in human relationships. Some marital counselors say that communication is the number one element in marriage. If we need to communicate with each other, we surely need to communicate with God. If husbands and wives do not communicate, they grow apart. The same is true of our relationship with God/Jesus. God has given us the privilege of communication with Him; therefore, we should take advantage of it and follow Paul’s admonition to “pray without ceasing.” The second reason to pray is that it is our means of fellowship with God. We put great stock in our fellowship with each other; therefore, we should certainly do the same with our fellowship with God. In order to fellowship with each other we have to meet. This fellowship can be at church services, homes, or etc. We must also meet with God in order to fellowship with Him. We can meet Him any where at any time during the day, but it is meaningful to have a special place to meet with God in prayer each day. (I realize that there are differing opinions on this, but some, like myself need this discipline.) We need to view prayer primarily as fellowship with God, not just a time for asking Him for things. This prayer fellowship with God makes a difference in the way we live. The third reason to pray is that it is one of our means of releasing the power of God in our lives. It is unthinkable that a powerful Christian would be one who does not pray constantly. Someone once asked Charles Hadden Spurgeon, the great nineteenth century British preacher, about his power in the pulpit. He took the questioner to the basement of his great church in London. There the man saw about two hundred people on their knees in prayer. This was the reason for Spurgeon’s great power and his great success. He was a great preacher, but great results from preaching do not result from mere oratory. It takes a lot of prayer by the preacher and the people to whom he preaches. I read one time, or heard someone say, that if you want a better preacher pray daily for the one that you have. It is no wonder that people were saved at the Metropolitan Tabernacle every week. Dwight L. Moody believed so much in the power of prayer that he once said, “Every great movement of God begins with a solitary figure on his knees.” If we really want access to God’s power for our lives and for our churches, we will do as Paul suggested and “Pray without ceasing.” There is absolutely no substitute for prayer if we want the power of God. Bro. Joe “And (Abraham) believed in the Lord, and it was counted unto him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:6 is famously referred to in Galatians 3:6. Abraham is a central Bible character, because he became the father of the Jews. In fact, the whole Old Testament after Genesis 12 is a history of the descendants of Abraham. In fact Jews, Christians and Muslims claim Abraham as their ancestral father. We can learn a lot from this man of God. The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that Abraham was a regular human being, not an angel. What I love about the Bible is when it shows us the “heroes of the faith” it shows warts and all. When we read the account of Abraham we discover that when he obeyed God and went into Canaan, when a famine came he went to Egypt out of the will of God. While there he lied and called his wife Sarai, his sister. He was half right because she was his half sister. Another example is his relationship with his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar. He was given permission by Sarai but he didn’t have to do it. All of this, and other things, point out that the father of our faith was a human being. But even considering all of that, the Bible shows us that he was a great man of God. Despite our humanness, we can be servants of God. To be sure, Abraham was forgiven for his sins, as we can be too. Genesis 15:6 and Galatians 3:6 tell us that Abraham was a man of faith. In Genesis 12:1ff, Abraham was called by God to leave his home in Ur and go to Canaan, which he eventually did after his father’s death in Haran. It took faith for Abraham to leave everything that he knew in his homeland to take a trip to a country that he had never seen, and would never claim as his own country. In Hebrews 11:8-10, we read this about Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which he would after receive for an inheritance, he obeyed; and went out, not knowing where he went. 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles (tents) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” This is the same Abraham that I wrote about in the first paragraph. I did not do that to put Abraham down; rather, I did it to encourage you to see that no matter what you have done in the past, if you will turn to God and seek His forgiveness, He can use you. The only perfect person that ever lived on this earth was Jesus Christ – period. In Isaiah 41:8, Abraham was given a great compliment: “But you Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend." If you go by that verse too quickly you will miss the compliment. God told His prophet, Isaiah, that Abraham was His friend. To be called anybody’s friend is a compliment, but when God calls you His friend that is more than a compliment, it is a cause for rejoicing. What made Abraham a friend of God? Among other things, when God called him to go to Canaan, He went. We call this obedience. It is important that we obey God in our lives. We need to obey Him in our daily lives in all of the little things that we do in life. We need to obey Him when He calls us to special service as He did Abraham. What if God called you to be a missionary in some foreign country? You might say, “Who me?” You are as qualified as Abraham was if God has called you to this special service. I hope you get my point here. God calls people to do what He knows they can do, and He qualifies them to do whatever it is that He has called them to do. The point is that even if Abraham had not been qualified to do as God told him to do, God would have qualified him to do it. Whatever service God calls us to, from the most menial in the eyes of the world, to the most important, God qualifies us to do it and it is important because it is of God. Bro. Joe |
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