“Then came Peter to (Jesus) and said, Lord how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? 22. Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.”
Some of my great moments of truth come to me in the morning when I am shaving and looking at myself in the mirror. When one comes face-to-face with oneself, he just has to face the truth. This happened this morning as I was shaving, for I said to myself: “Get over it.” God did not reveal to me what I specifically needed to get over, but He knows what is in my heart, mind and soul. This put me in theologically-philosophical frame of mind (That’s deep. lol), and I felt a blog coming on. Whatever, or whoever, it is that is stuck in our sub-conscious, or conscious minds, we need to get over it. That is basically what Jesus was telling Peter in Matthew 18:22. Peter thought that forgiving seven times was a gracious plenty, but Jesus told him differently. (Don’t start doing multiplication here, for what Jesus meant was that we are to just keep on forgiving – period.) Why do we need to “get over it”? First, if something is eating away at us, it is not hurting the person who caused the “eating,” it is hurting us. We need to get the grudge out of our systems. Years ago, I read about a fish that is called the “hog fish” – at least I think that is what it was called. This fish attaches itself to a larger fish and begins to eat the fish from the inside. That is sort of like what happens when we fail to forgive and move on with our lives. We will not move on, or grow in Christ, until we just get over whatever it was that has eaten at us. We will just be eaten away a bit at a time. Second, we need to think about the times that we have hurt other people. I don’t think that it ever occurs to us that we might be the cause of someone’s hurt or grudge. There are people out there who need to forgive us for the wrong that we did them. When we look at it this way, it should make it easier for us to forgive those who have hurt us. Perhaps we need to forgive ourselves for wrongs that we have done others. Third, we need to forgive others because we have been forgiven by Jesus. Ephesians 3:31-32 gives us this advice:“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be you kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” The fact that we have been forgiven so much by Jesus should be an incentive for us to forgive others. Fourth, we need to forgive others, because God expects it of us. In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:12), Jesus said that we should pray to be forgiven our “debts, even as we forgive our debtors.” In verses 14-15 Jesus went on to say: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Now this should really give us even greater incentive to forgive others. This doesn’t mean that you will be eternally lost, but it does mean that your Christian growth will be at a standstill until you find it in your heart to forgive others. Let me put it this way: God is serious about this matter of forgiveness. We seem to think that our failure to forgive is not very important, but according to Jesus it is very important. No one knows better than you what you need to “get over.” Today would be a good day to settle that matter. Jesus is waiting, ready and able to forgive you. Bro. Joe
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“Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again. 7. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes and whither (which way) it goes: so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus what it meant to be “born again.” The fact is that the work of the Spirit cannot be explained, it just must be accepted. We cannot always explain what God is doing when we allow the Spirit to lead us. We can just see what He has done. However, there are times when we are not aware of what He has done. This is why I explain to people that I like to mow the lawn: I can look back and see that I have done something. Anytime we serve God something is going to happen. Any time we share the word of God with someone, or as in my case, preach the word of God to someone, something happens, and we do not always know what the Spirit has used us to accomplish for the kingdom. That is not always true, but it probably happens that way more often than not. “Whichever way the wind blows” it is accomplishing something for God. I think that this is true partially because if we knew all that God has accomplished through our feeble efforts, we might want to take the credit for ourselves. This is always a danger for those who serve God. Our egos are such that we want to think that surely our great talents, and our great biblical knowledge, had something to do with the success. And we can be assured that God used our talents and our knowledge to accomplish something for Him, but without His Spirit nothing could have been accomplished. Whenever you serve the Lord in some way, even if it is just to minister to some lonely person in your community, God is at work in what you do. You might never know how much good you did, but God will know and that will be enough. After all, our service is in God’s hands, and He will do with it what needs to be done. The above being true, we need to see ourselves as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ being used of the Spirit of God to serve Him and to serve our fellowman. The Holy Spirit is a fact in our lives. Jesus promised that He would send His Spirit to all who believe in Him. If you have Christ in your heart, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, leading you and empowering you for service. In Acts 1:8 Jesus gave His disciples a task that they could not possibly do on their own, i.e., He told them to go to the whole world, beginning where they were and reaching to the “uttermost part of the earth.” How could they do this? Jesus told them: “After that the power of the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.” Their mission, and ours, is accomplished under the power of the Holy Spirit – period. Understand that God uses our Spiritual gifts and talents to get the task done, but the success of all that we do depends on the power of the Holy Spirit. This should be a source of great comfort and relief to us. It seems to us sometimes that we are losing the battle, and that the devil has finally won the hearts and minds of men. This is not altogether true, for the “wind” of the Holy Spirit is still blowing across our nation and our world. Things are being accomplished for the kingdom that we might or might not see, but rest assured, “whichever way the wind is blowing,” it is blowing ultimately in favor of the kingdom of God. Jesus died on the cross, arose from the grave, ascended to the Father, and is interceding for us for this to be true. It is up to us to believe it and keep on keeping on whether we feel “successful” or not. Always remember, God did not call us to be successful, but He did call us to be faithful. So be faithful “whichever way the wind blows.” Bro. Joe “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Your Name, O most High. 2.To show forth your loving-kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night.”
We have a season that we call “Thanksgiving,” but thanksgiving should be a part of our everyday lives. We should be eternally thankful for all of the good things that Jesus has done in our lives. We see all of the beauty around us and we know that He is the author of it. We think of the coming of Jesus into the world, dying on the cross, rising from the tomb, etc. and we know that He is the One who made it all possible. We enjoy the fellowship that we have with our fellow Christians, and we know that He gave us each other. Yes, thanksgiving is a good thing. The psalmist suggests some things that should result from giving thanks unto the Lord. The psalmist wrote: “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto your name.” We sing praises to God because He has put a song in our hearts. What is the source of the song of praise that we sing in His name? It comes from the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts. I know that this is not always true, but sometimes when I look out over a congregation and see that some are not singing, I can’t help but wonder if they have a song in their hearts. I’m not known for my great singing, but I do a lot of it in church, in the shower, in the car, etc. (I did sing bass with “The Harper Trio” on a couple of occasions – by their grace. lol) Hymns just come naturally to me when I want to celebrate what Jesus has done for me. I sing aloud when I am alone and silently when I am with others, for obvious reasons if you have ever heard me sing. (I know three verses of many of the great hymns that I have been singing all of my life. That is because we usually skipped the third verse if a song had four verses.) Anyway, the song of thanksgiving does not need to be beautiful, it just needs to come from the heart. That is music to God’s ears. The psalmist wrote that to give thanks unto the Lord is to “show forth,” or proclaim, God’s “loving-kindness in the morning.” The suggestion that we show forth his loving-kindness in the morning and His faithfulness at night means that we should continually proclaim both. We are not only to be thankful for the fact that God loves us, but we are to share it with other people. It should be obvious to the people that we encounter on a daily basis that we are loved by God because we show them His love by the way we talk to them and treat them. We should proclaim that love to our families, our co-workers, or fellow Christians, people who are not Christians, and cashiers where we shop and waiters and waitresses where we eat. Part of being really thankful is sharing the joy of it with others. As mentioned above, the psalmist also wrote that we proclaim God's faithfulness when we are thankful. We know of God’s faithfulness in our hearts because we have experienced it by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. However, it is not a secret that we keep but a joy that we proclaim to others, mainly by the way we live. We should proclaim God’s faithfulness just as we proclaim His love, by how we treat people. We should also proclaim God’s faithfulness by telling people about how He has been faithful to us. Surely, we all have experiences with God’s faithfulness to us that we can share with others. There are people out there who are just waiting to hear about God’s faithfulness. If we are Christians, we have testimonies of God’s faithfulness that others need to hear. By all means, be a thankful person for “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.” (And don't wait until the November Thanksgiving season to stress your own thankfulness.) Bro. Joe “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
A few days ago I was watching “Coyote and the Roadrunner.” (Okay, I know that this is on the Cartoon Channel. But these cartoons are all classics. That is my story and I’m sticking with it.) What ran through my mind was that the old coyote just kept on trying. To be sure, his efforts always ended in tragedy, but it occurred to me that we could learn from his consistency. Wouldn’t it be good if we Christians kept on keeping on in the good that we should do for Christ and never quit? Jude wrote to the recipients of his letter to “earnestly contend for the faith.” “Earnest” is a good word. What it means is to really care about something and be dedicated to doing it. We should certainly be earnest in our endeavors to serve Christ and win people to Him. Wouldn’t it be great if we would be as earnest about the faith as we are about our favorite football teams? (just sayin’) I think that what we would say today instead of "be earnest," is “hang in there.” We need to just keep on keeping on in living for Jesus, serving Him and spreading the faith. We don’t know a lot about Jude, except that he was probably the brother of Jesus, but we can know that he was earnest about his faith and that he hung in there in the living and practice of the faith. The Bible is filled with good examples of people who hung in there in their service to the Lord. Moses comes to mind. Think of what he had to face every day in leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt and across the desert. If anyone ever had reason to quit, Moses would have been the one. Of course, Paul comes to mind who wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7 as his martyrdom approached: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Notice the italicized words: “finished” and “kept.” These are the words of a person who has hung in there and served in all kinds of situations – good and bad. Throughout church history there have been people who hung in there and kept the faith going through good times and bad. Let’s look at a few reasons today why people quit and do not earnestly contend for the faith. First, I think of “feelings.” I have almost come to the conclusion that in the estimation of many church members, their feelings are the most important things in the world. If someone “hurts their feelings” they feel perfectly justified in quitting and going their own way. There are people that require us to walk gently around them, lest we hurt their feelings. We shouldn't have to waste time dealing with hurt feelings. Second I think of power. Sometimes in church we are about as bad as Republicans and Democrats. We sometimes can’t get anything done for the kingdom because people had rather argue about how to go about it than to go about it. Actually, it is called a “party spirit.” Paul dealt with it in the church at Corinth and told them to stop it. If what we are doing isn’t moving us forward, it’s probably moving us backward. The real power in any Christian work is Jesus Christ, Who is to have first place in all that we do. Third, I think of the attitude of “let the preacher do it.” (Or “let the music director, youth leader or a deacon do it.”) God has gifted every Christian with spiritual gifts to keep His work going on an even keel. He has gifted leaders and followers, and they all have work to do in His service. Fourth, I think of the fact that some think that certain Christian work is beneath their dignity, or their great talents. If the cross was not beneath the dignity of Jesus, and if washing His disciple’s feet was not beneath His dignity, then there is no service beneath our dignity. Let’s make up our minds that we are going to “earnestly contend for the faith," and hang in there in our service for the Lord. Bro. Joe “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which (Jesus) has purchased with His own blood.”
I have been thinking a lot about the church today. What I am sharing here is not an exposition of the text, but a mention of the declaration of the church. (When I write “the church” I do not mean that there is only one entity called “church,” but that all Christians together make up Christ’s Church.) But I am writing from the standpoint that each local entity of the church is important in the ongoing business of the church. Let me stop here and share with you what I have been thinking about Christ’s Church. “Church” is not just a concept of man, but the idea of God. Acts 20:28 tells us that Jesus bought His church with “His own blood.” The idea of Christians being together in worship, fellowship, evangelism and missions is written about throughout the New Testament. Most of Paul’s letters are written to local churches, and even those to individuals deal with churches in one way or the other. The Book of Revelation is written to seven local churches. Do not write off the importance of the local church in the work of God. A man once asked me if I thought he could be a Christian and not be part of a local church. I told him that I guess he could but why would he want to? Surely, if something is important to God, it should be important to us. Church should be seen by us as an agent of accountability. If I am involved in something by myself, I can make of it what I want. It is easy for us to forgive our own sins, no matter how bad they look when other people do the same thing. The fact that we are in this together gives us a natural accountability to one another. I don’t mean that we in the church should snoop on one another, and sit in judgment on one another, but that we have each other to remind us when we get off of the path. Church is a means of sharing our lives in Jesus with other people. I spent several months when I had to attend the “great church of television.” To be sure, I heard some good sermons, but what was missing was the shared experience with God’s people. Mary and I can have fellowship, but it’s just not the same as being with all of the other people. When I have gone through difficult times, it has been good to be part of a church. Other Christians have been there to pray for me, visit me and to encourage me. It is through the church that a lot of ministry has taken place in the lives of people that would not have been done without the group of Christians called “church.” Being part of a church is not always easy. After all, the church is comprised of human beings with different personalities, different likes and dislikes and different opinions. This didn’t start with your church. Most of the New Testament, after the gospels, deals with problems in churches. At no time did Paul demean the importance of church, even when he was dealing with problems in particular churches. He dealt with the problems because the church was important to him, and the problems needed solving. Paul did not give up on the idea of church, but he toiled to make churches better. Do not give up on church. If you absolutely cannot get along in your present church, go to another. But I warn you, after awhile there will be problems there too – just saying. Just think of the church as being important enough to Jesus that He shed His blood for it. If the church is important to Jesus, it should be important to us as well. I haven’t really delved deeply into the importance of the church, but I hope that what I have shared here will help you as you consider your part in the church that you attend. Bro. Joe "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your
strength, but you would have none of it." (NIV) Hezekiah, the king of the southern kingdom of Judah, was trying to make a deal with Egypt to help him fight Assyria. Assyria was at the time dismantling the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah 30:15 tells us what Hezekiah was doing wrong. Thankfully, God spoke to Hezekiah through Isaiah, and he eventually depended on God instead of Egypt. Assyria never captured the southern kingdom because Hezekiah listened to God's message through Isaiah. But suppose he had not listened and had carried out his original plan? The history would be totally different. There is a message here for us. We need to depend on God to help us with the difficult moments of life. Of course, at times the Lord will lead us to help that the world gives. But God should be the first source of help that we turn to. What does the text give as the solution? First, he mentions repentance. We need to repent for our lack of faith in God, and an almost worshipful faith in human reason and wisdom, which can be our "Egypt." We need to remember that repentance means to turn away from the direction that leads away from God to the the direction that leads toward God. In Navy boot camp we called it "about face." If our direction in life is leading us away from God, it is the wrong direction. We never reach a stage in life when we do not need to repent. The first command that both Jesus and John the Baptist gave was to repent. Second, he mentions rest. If we would put our faith in God in the first place, we would not suffer from the anxiety that we experience. During the fight that we have with the difficulties of life, we are not at rest because we use our own resources to overcome them. We can be at rest because we know that God is with us, whatever might happen. These difficulties can be from many sources, e.g., physical illness, public pressure, worries over finances, etc. The fact that God is with us is all-important to us both spiritually and mentally. I know that my mind is at rest when I know that God is with me. I think that it would be difficult to make it in this world without a knowledge of His presence. I know it would be for me. Third, he mentions "in quietness and trust is your salvation." David expressed this perfectly in Psalm 23:4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me." In "quietness and rest" David depended on the Lord's rod and staff, not his own. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that I am more spiritually centered when I get alone with Christ in "quietness and trust." Finally, he mentions "but you would have none of it." Fortunately, this did not turn out to be true of Hezekiah, but sometimes it is true of us. Don't let it be said of you that "you would have none of it." In "quietness and trust" depend upon God. Sadly this could be the epitaph of many people: In reference to salvation and abundant life in Christ, they "would have none it." Bro. Joe “And (Jesus) entered into one of the ships, that was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when He left speaking, He said unto Simon, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught (catch)….10b “From henceforth you will catch men.”
The first four disciples were fishermen; therefore, nets were important to them. In Luke 5:1ff, Jesus commanded His disciples to “let down their nets for a catch.” After they caught a great number of fish, Jesus said to Peter, “from henceforth you will catch men.” What can nets teach us? Meaning of the Nets Nets are used to catch fish. (duh?) Peter, Andrew, James and John could not catch fish until they let down their nets. Jesus used this event to illustrate for the disciples that “from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” Jesus meant that they would “let down their nets” for a different kind of fishing. We are to "let down our nets" for the same purpose. How do we let down our nets? We can go from house-to-house witnessing to people. We can take opportunities to witness as they arise in daily life. We can attempt to get people to attend Sunday School and worship services so that they can hear about Jesus. There is really no limit to the ways that we can “let down our nets” to catch people for Jesus. The problem is that we often have the same attitude of Simon Peter when he said: “We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. (Luke 5:5a) I can hear it now: “We have tried and tried to reach people, but they never give a positive response.” We need to remember the old cliché: “Jesus didn’t call us to be successful; He called us to be faithful.” We need to remember what Peter said in Luke 5:5b: “Nevertheless at your word, we will let down the net.” You can “let down your nets” anyway that you can, just be sure that you let them down. Let me make a confession here. After fifty-three years of “letting down my nets,” I have never been comfortable going house-to-house and calling on people who do not know me and did not know that I was coming. But God did not call me to tell others about Him only doing what is comfortable. In the four gospels, we are given challenges to “let down our nets.” Marring the nets Luke 3:6 tells us that “when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net broke.” The net that they used to catch fish broke from the strain of the great number of fish. I do not know a lot about fish nets, but I do know that they have to be tended to or they will break. Nets even become worn from use. Perhaps this was the problem with the disciple’s nets, and it could be our problem as well. We have been so busy going about “business as usual” in our churches that our nets are not able to take the strain of winning people to Jesus. Indeed, our nets can become marred and possibly useless. However, wouldn’t it be great if we could catch so many people that our nets would break? What would we do then? Would we quit fishing? In Matthew 4, when Jesus called James and John, they were in their father Zebedee’s boat mending their nets. Good news! Marred nets can be mended. How? God is the God of grace and forgiveness; therefore, He is in the mending business. He has empowered us to catch people and He will forgive us and fill us with a new desire to catch people. Jesus will mend the broken parts of our lives that keep us from letting down our nets. Let's ask Jesus to renew us and fill us with a resolve to catch people. What has been broken can be mended. This includes us. We need to "let down our nets for a catch." If our "nets" need mending, the One who called us to His service will mend our marred nets so that we can be about His business. Bro. Joe “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in terrors of my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28. Beside those things, that are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”
We think that we have stress.... I don’t deny that we have stress, but I don’t know if we could equal Paul’s stress. On top of all of the problems mentioned above, there were people who wanted to kill Paul. If I have this right, Paul was under a death threat almost every day of his life. I want to share some texts that can explain how Paul handled his daily stress. Maybe we can learn from these texts about how to deal with our own stress. 2 Timothy 1:12: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Paul had a deep faith in Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus could help Him through anything. He didn’t ask Jesus to deliver him from everything; rather, he asked that Jesus be with him in what he went through. Paul did not have faith in faith that gave him great confidence. He had faith in Jesus, in whom he put his trust and gained confidence from Him. Paul’s faith was not a faith that he took out and exercised only when he was in one of his many crises. His faith was of the everyday variety. I think that Paul’s faith grew in times of crisis and his faith stayed strong because of the crises he faced. We need to think about this when we are stressing out about negative things that are going on in our lives. Believe me, I’m not pointing a finger at you, for I have to constantly remind myself of this as well. Paul learned from Jesus that His grace would help him prevail. Paul really believed Jesus when he took his “thorn in the flesh” to Him and he was told: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s response was: “Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing: but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. 7. And the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Paul depended on prayer to keep him going. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 he wrote: ”Pray without ceasing.” He wrote this because He practiced it. Nothing can relieve stress like a good prayer session. With all that the great apostle faced, he “let his requests be made known unto God.” Because of this, he faced life in faith and poise, for he claimed the “peace of God which passes all understanding.” But Paul did not pray and walk off and go about his own business. Paul put feet to his prayers. Throughout the Book of Acts, we read about his many missionary trips. He faced crises in all of those trips, but he kept on going. This does not happen if a person does not spend time in prayer. As we meet the stresses of our lives, we need to take all of them to Jesus in prayer and let Him give us peace in whatever we have to face. This is not a psychological treatise about overcoming stress. It is a reminder that we have a God who is with us in all of our stresses, and we need to put our faith and trust in Him, pray daily and put feet to those prayers. Remember, there is no stress that we face that Christ is not aware of!!!! Bro. Joe “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”
There are texts in the Bible that, in my opinion, can stand on their own. John 3:16; Psalm 23; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 4:8 & 13 come to mind. Ephesians 2:8-10 is another, and this article will be based on this text. It tells us that salvation is made possible by God’s grace and that it becomes effective in our lives by faith. It tells us that salvation is a gift of God, not of works, meaning that we can’t earn salvation, we simply have to accept it in Jesus. But verse 10 is where I want to dwell at this time. It tells us that when we are saved, we become the workmanship of Christ in order for us to do the good works that God has foreordained that all of His people do. Jesus goes to work in us through His Holy Spirit, and He works in our lives to help us grow and progress in the way that He would have us grow. Paul explains this process to us in Philippians 3:12-13: “Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” This doesn’t mean, as some suggest, that you can work out your own way to be saved. Jesus took care of that on the cross. What it means is to literally work out what God has put in. Read verse 13. It tells us that we are to work out what God has put in so that we can do His will and serve at His pleasure and not our own. The Christian faith is not worked in; rather, it is worked out from within us as we serve Christ under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Jesus works in us through the Holy Spirit to do the works that God has “before ordained that we should walk in them.” Basically, this means that He called us to do the works that are common to all Christians. But I also think that it means that God has plans for our lives and that when we become Christians, God has plans for what we do with our lives. For some that means to enter the ministry and serve as pastors. For some that means that they are to use their gift of teaching to teach in Sunday School. For some this means that God wants them to serve as missionaries in far-away places. For all, however, it means to simply live the Christian life and serve Him in ways that reflect His care, love, and mercy. It is important for all Christians to understand that God has plans for their lives. Verse 10 plainly expresses this, and we should believe it of ourselves. Jesus works in us to make us more like Himself. When Jesus comes into our lives, we are to love all people. This does not mean that it will always be easy, but it will always be Christ like. When Jesus comes into our lives we are to forgive people who “trespass against” us. Love and forgiveness characterize the life of Jesus as no other words can. But He also expects His people to be active in their service for Him. This does not mean that everything that we do for Jesus has to be done in the church. It will include such service, but it means that we will serve Him in the communities in which we live and, certainly, in our homes. It means that when we see needs that should be met, we will do what we can to meet those needs. Jesus did not live His life in seclusion. He was involved in the world around Him and He expects the same of us. Remember, Christian, that you are the “workmanship” of Christ Jesus. Rejoice in that fact and live it out before the world. Bro. Joe “And the word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.”
Great things were happening in Jerusalem. In Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, three thousand people were added to the church, making a total of 3,120 Christians. People continued to be added to the church, even though Jewish authorities tried to put a stop to it. What the devil could not do through persecution, he tried to do through internal church problems. The Greek widows in the church accused the apostles of neglecting them in favor of the Jewish widows in the daily distribution of food. This caused quite a stir. As a result, seven godly men were elected to oversee the distribution of the food.. What happened after this trouble is interesting. With the problem solved revival broke out. What happened after the trouble? First, “the word of God increased.” This means that the church got back to the word of God and began to take it more seriously. At that point the predominant scriptures were the prophecies about the Messiah and Old Testament types of Christ. Of course all of the existing scriptures were important. Anyway, this means that Christians talked about the word of God wherever they were. They talked about scriptures pertaining to the Messiah, and about the fact of His resurrection at home, in the streets, at work, etc. Of course they talked about it in their worship services. With all of this, I think the word of God increased because they were living what they learned. That is important. Whatever the trouble is in your church, your home or your life, the word of God should increase in your life. The Bible is not a magic book filled with magic incantations that you can use to magically make your life better. The Bible has a message that makes your life better, and your troubles seem less, because it shows us the way to victorious living. Let the word of God increase in your life by reading, studying, and applying it to your life. Second, “the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem.” Today we would say that they evangelized Jerusalem. This evangelistic effort brought great dividends to the church in Jerusalem. When the church got beyond a bitter internal struggle and began to take the word of God seriously, and to share it with unbelievers, people began to take the church seriously. When this happens in our churches we will see the results. When this happens in our lives, you will see the results. They even reached a group that they would not have expected to reach: “A great number of priests were obedient to the faith.” Third, individuals began to make a difference, for “Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” Can we be like Stephen in our families, churches and communities? We will if filled with the Spirit, the word of God will increase in our lives. We will see the difference in our lives, our churches and our Christian influence if we will just let the Lord have control as they did. The trouble about the Greek widows could have been a devastating blow to the church in Jerusalem, but it was not. Why? Because they followed the Lord’s leadership, solved the problem, forgot about the problem and moved on with the work. Our problem is that we do not solve the problems in our lives and in our churches. We need to confront our problems, do what needs to be done to solve them and get on with the work. The greatest days in your life and in your church might be just ahead – after the trouble. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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