“And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and read the book, neither to look thereon. 5. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not: behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”
The context of Revelation 5:4-6 is the occasion of the opening of the seven seals. John was shown a book, or a scroll, that was sealed with seven seals. He wanted to see what was in it, but no one was able to open it. Then one of the twelve elders told him who could open the scroll: “The lion of the tribe of Judah.” This is a designation for Jesus Christ, who was born into the family of David. But when the Lion came to open the book and break open the seals, he had become “a Lamb as it had been slain.” This is what I want to settle on in this article: Jesus described as “the lion of the tribe of Judah,” was then described as “a lamb as it had been slain.” This is an interesting depiction of Jesus. He is, indeed,“the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” but thank God, He is also a "slain lamb." The Bible describes Jesus as the “Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” He was/is the mighty Messiah, who came to earth, born of a virgin and lived a perfect life. Jesus showed throughout His ministry that He had power over death, disease and nature. He raised dead people to life, healed people of all sorts of illnesses, and walked on water. When Jesus spoke, most people listened and marveled because “He spoke as one who has authority." In many ways in His life on earth Jesus revealed Himself as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Jesus became the “lamb slain” when He surrendered Himself to die on the cross for the sins of all people . Paul wrote about Him: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8) In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul wrote: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It was all-important for us that the Lion become a Lamb, for he had to die as a sacrificial lamb in order for us to be saved. If we have any righteousness, it is righteousness imputed, given to us, by Christ. It is important for us to see that the “Lion of the tribe of Judah,” became a “Lamb as it had been slain” for you. It is a personal thing. We come to the One who humbly gave His life on the cross to save us from sin and we discover that He is also the Lion who brings His power into our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the way God does things. Jesus did not become our Savior just because He was “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” but because He was the “Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” In seeming weakness, God showed His great strength. If you do not know Him as your savior, receive Him by faith today. If you do know Jesus as your Savior, come to a greater appreciation of what Jesus has done for you by saving you and working in your life to make it more abundant. Thank Him today for who and what He is in your life. Bro. Joe
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“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to His power that works in us. 21. Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen.”
We need to understand that when we serve the Lord, whatever that service is, we are not in it by ourselves. In our flesh we are limited as to what we can do. In His infinite wisdom, God has shown me what I can do in my flesh, and that is mainly to make a mess. Whatever your task is as a Christian, you cannot do it by yourself. You need the power of God. I think that this is the crux of the problem in a lot of church work today. We go about church business as though it is simply our business, not realizing that it is not simply “our” business. Before Jesus was crucified and ascended, He promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to work within them. That promise was not just for the disciples, it is also for us. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and He is not in you just to give you some holy thrills. He is in you to enable you to do whatever it is that God wants you to do. He is in you to help you live the Christian life. We depend every day on that “power that works in us.” If we are not depending on Him, then we are not getting done for the Lord what He wants done. You might say, “Wait a minute, do you mean that when I keep the nursery at church that I need the power of the Holy Spirit to help me do it?” I will assure you that if my job at church was keeping the nursery, I would need every bit of the Holy Spirit to help me do it. Don’t you think that tending babies is a gift from God? Not everyone who tends babies is serving God, but if you are doing it in His kingdom work, it is a gift from God. That’s why we don’t need to take any task that we do in the church or the community lightly. God does not take anything that we do for Him lightly. Read this very carefully: What the church needs today is for all of her people, whatever their tasks, to depend on the Holy Spirit, who can give them the power to serve. Of course, that doesn’t just apply to the things that we do at church. It also applies to the things that we do seven days a week. We need to depend on the Holy Spirit when we are at work. Don’t you think that God wants to use you on a daily basis? The problem is that you might feel surrounded and intimidated by those who work with you. We need to always be reminded about what is recorded in 1 John 4:4: “You are of God. Little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” There is no need to feel intimidated, because we are not in it by ourselves. Remember that you belong to God and that He has empowered you with His Spirit. If God has something that He wants us to do, no matter how menial it may seem to us, it is important because God wants us to do it. Do not belittle your service to Him. Sometimes our service might be to just be quiet Christians, quietly living out our faith before the world. Just remember as you face life’s daily challenges, that God is working in you “according to His power that works in us.” God’s power is never menial, and it is never unimportant. Let’s just go out into the world, into the church, or wherever, with the understanding that God’s power is at work in us. Bro. Joe “Do all things without murmuring and disputing. 15. That you might be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in a dark world.”
The point of Paul’s reminder to the Philippians was that they conduct themselves in a way that they would “shine as lights in a dark world.” This was one of the first commands that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16) Just as Jesus saw the world in darkness, so did Paul, and so will we if we will just look around. This darkness did not start in the last few years. According to the Bible, the world has always been a place of darkness in need of God’s light. As Jesus ordered and as Paul admonished, we are to be the means of showing God’s light to the world. How do we do this? We do not do it by being religious, judgmental or acting like Pharisees. We let our lights shine through the lives that we live. Paul gave two examples of things that we shouldn’t do if we are to “shine as lights in a dark world.” He wrote for them to “do all things without murmuring….” The modern translation of this word is complaining. Before I come down hard on complaining, let me remind you that we all complain at some time or other. Let’s just go ahead and confess it at the outset. The problem is that for a lot of people, even Christians, complaining is a chronic condition. What is wrong with complaining? One thing is that its source is anger, and when complaining is chronic it means that the anger has found root in the person’s heart. When anger becomes engrained in the heart it tends to make one dissatisfied with everything. This is one of the devil’s tools. He loves to maket us angry and get us to complain about everything. Another thing wrong with complaining is that it is not grounded in love. If we constantly complain about people it means that we do not love them as we should. Yes, I know that some people constantly get on our nerves, but we should not let them determine how we talk or act. Evidently, complaining had become a problem in the Philippian church and was dimming the church’s light; therefore, Paul reminded them that they needed to stop complaining. If complaining was making their lights dim, it will make our lights dim as well. He wrote for them to do “all things without disputing….” The modern translation of this word is “arguing.” A more colloquial translation is “fussing.” (In Southwest Georgia, it would be translated “fussin’.”) I have to admit that it is difficult not to argue or fuss sometimes. If a person says or does something that is so obviously wrong, we want to straighten him or her out. What I have discovered, however, is that when we argue with someone we don’t get them straightened out. The main result is usually that our blood pressure is raised. I have to admit that there was a time in my life when I was more argumentative than I am now, but after multiple fusses, I began to realize that fussing and arguing didn't solve anything. It really doesn’t solve anything in Christ’s church. There was a problem with fussing and arguing in the church at Philippi. In 3:2, Paul asked the church to “beseech Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” Evidently, Euodia and Syntyche were two powerful women in the church who were having an ongoing argument and it was causing trouble in the church. We do not realize how our fussing can affect other people. If we want to shine as lights in this dark world, we need to remember that if our behavior does not reflect the love of Christ, we will not shine for Him. We need to be careful that we refrain from constantly complaining and arguing. Bro. Joe John 15:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of Spirit is…joy.”
Jesus promised us His joy in John 15:11 and Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit makes Jesus’ joy active in our lives. How does this joy take shape in our lives? First, it is the gift salvation. We cannot know the joy of Jesus until He is alive in our hearts. We can experience earthly joy and happiness in the right circumstances, but the deeply rooted joy of Jesus, in all circumstances, comes into our lives through salvation. Salvation is the result of repenting of sin, confessing them to Jesus and inviting Him into our lives. If you have Jesus in your life, you have His joy because you have His promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. You can claim that joy now by just turning from sin through confession and repentance and inviting Jesus into your life. Second is the gift of worship. It is through worship that we express the joy that we have in Jesus. Some people express their joy in quietness and stillness. This is how I express my joy. Some people express their joy in..well..loud praise. There is no right or wrong way to share your joy through worship and thankfulness for His salvation and for the gift of His Holy Spirit. Don’t let anyone tell you that the way you express your joy in Jesus is the wrong way, just do it the way you feel it. You can worship Him alone as well in public worship. Third is the gift of service. Our joy in Jesus is complete when we take the joy of our salvation, and joy of our worship into service for Jesus in whatever way He leads. We all have our gifts for service, and we need to use them in service. The word that is translated as “worship” can also be translated as “service.” There is a sign that you have probably read in many church bulletins: “Enter to Worship-Depart to Serve.” There is great joy in Christian service, whether it is visiting and ministering to someone who is ill, or witnessing to someone about their need for salvation. There is so much more that could be written about this gift of joy. I think that the three gifts here can apply to any life. Do you have this kind of joy in your life? Bro. Joe Galatians 5:22-23 mentions “the fruit of the Spirit.” In the articles for the next few days, I will describe the different aspects of “fruit” that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives when He indwells us when we are saved. Notice that “fruit” is singular. I liken it to an orange that is one fruit with many sections. All of these comprise a single “fruit” in our lives and this means that all of them are present with the Holy Spirit. For the next few days, we will look at each aspect of the fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” “The Fruit of the Spirit Is Love” Love, especially Agape (ahgahpay) love, is one of the main themes of the New Testament. Love is given as the main motivation for Jesus’ coming into the world to save sinners. It is also one of the main motivations for our service to God and people. Fittingly, love is the first part of the “fruit of the Spirit.” When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, He brings love with Him. This means that we do not have to search for love, or conjure up some sort of pseudo love. We have the genuine love of God in our hearts already because of the indwelling Spirit. This certainly erases any excuse that we might have for not loving people. God has planted His love within us. (Thank Him!) We are to live in love and share the love of Jesus with others. The Holy Spirit did not bring Jesus’ love into our lives to lie dormant, or to just be used with family and friends. Anybody can do that. The fact that love is a fruit of the Spirit says that it is supposed to do something in our lives and in the lives of others. In essence this means that love is a gift of God. It is a gift that is given to every Christian to be used in His service. Christian service that is given without the fruit, or gift, of love will usually come across to others as legalistic and sterile. We can learn every “plan of salvation” that has been printed, but if they are not presented with love, they will just be words. Because we are given divine love, we can learn to love the unlovable. We simply cannot say that there are people that we just can’t love. It is certainly tempting at times, because there are people who do not exactly endear themselves to us, but there is no one so obnoxious that God cannot love him or her. Since we are infused with God’s love, we can love the unlovable too. In John 5:36 Jesus said: “For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same?”Anybody can love people who love them. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to help us love those who do not love us, or who are obnoxious to us. Love should be the main motive in everything that we do. For example, why do people teach Sunday School? Is it to merely share knowledge about the Bible? If so, that is an inadequate motive. The main motivation should be because we love God, love people, and want to share God’s great love with them. It would be the same with all of the offices of the church, and in all that we do in the community. The Holy Spirit urges us with His love to serve God and people. This should do away with uninspired, half-hearted, legalistic, cold service. Think of a church with people in every office who are motivated by love. What an influence that church would have on the world!!!! It is a privilege to have love as a fruit of the Spirit, but it is also a challenge. Love makes us different from all other people in the world. Love is not an option for us. Jesus saw to that when He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. Bro. Joe “For by (Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: And He is before all things, by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead: that in all things He might have preeminence.”
Notice that Jesus is to have preeminence (first place) in all things. This is comprehensive, isn’t it? Jesus is not just to have first place at church but in the home, at work, at school, etc. When Jesus becomes a part of our lives, He wants to take over all of our lives, not just the “religious” portion. Otherwise, we have what is called “Sunday religion.” Why are we to give Jesus first place? Colossians 1:16-18 tells us why. Jesus should have first place in our lives because of who He is. First, He is the One who created all things in heaven and in earth. People do not usually think of Jesus as the creator, but that is what Paul wrote in Colossians 1:16. He created everything from the greatest thing in the universe to the smallest atomic particle. Second, He created all things for Himself: “All things were created by Him and for Him.” Jesus is not just the Lord of our lives; He is the Lord of the whole universe. For example, Jesus created our solar system for Himself. Every star in the heavens belongs to Him. All of what we call space belongs to Him. Third, He is the One who holds it all together: “by Him all things consist.” This is a word of great comfort. If Jesus can hold the universe together, doesn’t it stand to reason that He can hold our lives together? Seeing all this, giving Jesus first place does make sense, doesn’t it? Jesus should have first place in our lives because of what He is. First, Jesus is the “head of the body, the church.” This is not a reference to the building that we worship in but a reference to us. We (all Christians) are the church. He is the head of our corporate body as “church.” The church that you are member of does not belong to the members; rather, it belongs to Jesus. Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Jesus is to have first place in all matters in our churches. Second, Jesus is "the firstborn from the dead.” This simply means that in His resurrection Jesus defeated death for us. Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Three days later He arose. All of this happened to Jesus in order for us to be “saved by grace through faith” in Him. We did not do this for ourselves. There is no such thing as a “self-made” Christian. Jesus died for our sins, rose again, and is alive at the Father’s right hand now; therefore, He should have first place in our lives. Third, to get back to where we began, all of this was done “that He might have preeminence.” He does not want to have first place for His sake. After all, He already has first place throughout the universe. Jesus wants to have first place for our sake. We need for Jesus to have first place in our lives. We will be better Christians, indeed, better human beings when we give Jesus first place in our lives. Does Jesus have first place in your life? Does Jesus have first place in your family? Does Jesus have first place in your life where you are employed, or where you are in school? Does Jesus have first place in your church? Do yourself a favor and give Jesus first place in everything. Bro. Joe “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
Philippians is mostly a positive letter to a church that sent Paul a monetary gift while he was imprisoned in Rome. The prevailing problem in Philippi, and other churches, was a group called “Judaizers,” who were teaching that in order to become a Christian one had to first be circumcised and become a Jew and live according to the law. That is why Paul wrote, “For we are the circumcision,” meaning that a Christian is right before God, not because of circumcision, but because of his faith in Christ. We are not saved by keeping rituals and laws. We are not saved by becoming religious, but by putting our faith in Christ. In the rest of the verse, Paul tells what this means. Instead of circumcision and law, we “worship God in the Spirit.” We were convicted of our sins by the Holy Spirit and convinced that Christ could be our Savior by the Holy Spirit. The Gentile Philippian Christians were made right with God, not by what man could do, but by what God could do. Circumcision served its purpose in indentifying men who belonged to God through their relation with Abraham, but since Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension, faith in Him was the key. We don’t worship God from the standpoint of the law, and by what we do, but by the Spirit of God who has changed us from within. It is not through being religious and following ritual that we are saved but through the resurrected Christ. We worship God, not just as one who sits in heaven, but as one who lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It can be that the rituals of worship serve their purpose in giving guidance and substance to our worship, but it is the Holy Spirit who makes the worship meaningful and life-changing. Instead of rejoicing in our accomplishments, “we rejoice in Jesus Christ.” In all of his letters, Paul makes it plain that our salvation did not come from what we did, but from what Christ did on the cross. We rejoice in Christ because it was He who gave us new life and a new lease on life. It was Christ who changed our lives. We were not changed because we “turned over a new leaf.” Someone once said that the only thing that you get when you turn over a new leaf is the other side of the same leaf. We rejoice in Christ because by our faith in Him we will be given abundant life here, and will live with Him eternally in heaven. People who depend on their initiative and their own religiosity to draw close to God rejoice in what they have done. Rejoicing for Christians is not in our accomplishments, but in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Instead of putting “confidence in the flesh,” in what we can do, we put our confidence in Jesus. What Paul means by writing that “we do not have confidence in the flesh,” is that we do not put our confidence in our religious achievements, but in Christ as we are led by the Holy Spirit. A good example of this is given to us through the Pharisees in the New Testament. They actually thought that they were righteous based on what they did by keeping rules and regulations that over the years went much further than the Ten Commandments, and actually became laws of men. In essence they were “measuring themselves by themselves.” They were following rules that they made up. We are led by the Holy Spirit. This means that we are not putting confidence in the flesh, but our confidence is in God. We need to remember always that it is not by human compulsion that we are led to live the right kind of life; rather, we are led by the Spirit of God. It is not what we have done, but what Christ has done that makes us right before God. Bro. Joe “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”
This verse is part of the psalmists description of godly and ungodly people. This is a description of what the godly person delights in. (By “godly” I do not mean self-righteous and condescending.) What we delight in will tell a lot about our lives and what is really important to us. We occasionally need to pause and ask ourselves where our real delights are. We can delight in a lot of things, but we need to be reminded that some things are more worthy of our delight than others. There are some things that we should delight in if we want to live godly lives and be effective witnesses for Jesus. In the context of this verse, the godly person delights in “the law of the Lord.” This means that his delight is in the word of God – the Bible. We should delight in God’s word because it steers us in the right direction. I will admit that not all of it is delightful to human eyes, but it is delightful in what it teaches us. There are parts of the Bible that I delight in more than others, and this is, no doubt, true of you, but when taken in its totality all of God’s word is delightful because it is from God and because it was written, not just for our information but for our good. The Bible is a treasure trove of God’s wisdom and God’s actions through the ages. We can never understand the working of God if we do not read, study, and delight in the Bible. We can never fathom the ups and downs of life if we do not acquaint ourselves with the word of God. The Bible helps us understand suffering, it helps us understand righteousness, and it helps us understand all of the difficulties of life. We should delight in God Himself. After all, the Bible was given to us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order for us to have a better understanding of God. The Bible depicts God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The triune God is not revealed in the Bible to puzzle us, but to inform us of the true nature of God. It is only as we see Him as the Father sending the Son to die for our sins, and the Son sending the Spirit to dwell in our hearts and lives, that we understand that He takes us personally. All of the world’s religions that recognize a god, see him as one who is distant and so far above humanity that he could not possibly be interested in their lives. How can one delight in a god who has no interest in his or her life? How can one delight in a god who creates but does not relate to His creation? We can delight in God because He not only wants to relate to us but has gone to great lengths to relate to us. All the way through the Bible we see God working out His relationship with us, warning us, seeking us and ultimately saving us through faith in His Son. We can delight in our God, for He is the true God of the universe. We should delight in the worship of God. I think that church seems boring to us sometimes because we see church attendance as a duty that we have to perform. Church worship is not a duty, it is a privilege. We gather together as God’s people in order to delight in our corporate worship of Him. But we also need to remember that we can delight in our worship of Him on a daily basis. We can have a time of personal worship, but we can also delight in worshiping Him as we go through each day. Don’t you sometimes look up to the beautiful blue sky and just praise and worship God just because He is God? Don’t you sometimes just want to burst out in praise and adoration for Him, because you know that He is present with you, loving you and wanting the best for you? Some people do not delight in worshiping God, because they do not understand His love and concern for their lives. Don’t be one of them! This would be a good time for you to pause and ask yourself what you really delight in and at least turn your attention to the three things that we have looked at today in which we should delight. Bro. Joe “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.”
Here is the profound request: “Give me love; give me chastity, give me faith.” This is a quote from Columbanus, a missionary in the 6th and 7th centuries. This should be our request if we are to live in obedience to the Lord. I want to share my thoughts on it with you. “Give me love…” Who does not need to pray for God to shower His love upon and through us? 1John 4:7, expresses it: “Beloved, let us one another, for love is of God.” This is not actually a request, but it is a command. It is a command that has come through the centuries to the present day. Love is the essence of the Christian gospel, and we sorely need to practice it in our daily lives. When Jesus was asked “which is the great commandment of the Lord?” Here is His answer: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." “Give me chastity…” “Chastity” is not a word that we use today. We use the word “pure,” or “holy.” What it means is that we want God to enable us to live pure lives. This is more easily asked than accomplished. That is why we need for God help in living pure lives. When Jesus ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to help us to live pure lives. Paul nailed the essence of this in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” “Give me faith…” Of course, what he was asking for was greater faith in Jesus Christ. Actually, we do a lot of things by faith on a daily basis without really thinking about it. We need to consciously look to Christ in every aspect of our lives. John wrote about this in 1John 5:4: “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” We have all of the faith that is needed to overcome, we just need to claim it in the name of Jesus. We need to pray for the Lord to give us love, chastity and faith. Bro. Joe “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us. 2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of grace.”
In order to run the race of life, we need to get rid of the things that will weigh us down, but in order to run the best race we have to run with patience. What does this mean? First, it means that we should run with endurance. A foot racer has to be in good physical shape to run effectively. It is a reminder to us that we have to be in good spiritual shape in order to run effective Christian lives. We must run with faith in Jesus, remembering that He gives us His strength through the Holy Spirit. Of course our faith is strengthened through prayer and Bible study. We are saved by faith, and we are sustained by faith, with prayer and Bible study to strengthen that faith. Second, it means that if we are to run with endurance, we need to run wisely. In order to run the best race, we need to maintain our spiritual energy on a daily basis, and not let the devil rob us of the spiritual energy that we need to run effectively. We should not let Satan sidetrack us with things that do not matter, things that will take our eyes off of Jesus, and off of the life that He wants us to live. Third I want to share some things that can sidetrack us and rob us of spiritual energy: 1. I repeat: Satan wants us to keep from spending time in prayer and in the Bible. These are just two things that we cannot ignore…..period! 2. We get sidetracked by not loving people as we should. We just don’t need to let people “get under our skin.” You know what I mean. Grudges will stunt our Christian growth and keep us from living the best life. Grudges rob us of spiritual endurance. We need to forgive other people. This is not always easy, because some people hurt us badly, but, no matter, we need to forgive. 3. We get sidetracked by not being patient with ourselves. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t take sin seriously. What I mean is that when we have been forgiven, we should accept God’s forgiveness, and move on. It robs us of spiritual endurance when we continue to kick ourselves for sins that have been forgiven and cast out. Just as we forgive other people, we need to forgive ourselves. I find that this is more difficult than forgiving others, but we have to do this in order to maintain our spiritual stamina. I trust that you get the idea of what it means to “run with patience.” Consider your own “race” and run well. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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