"And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled in their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil." Zephaniah 1:12
"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." 2 Peter 3:9 There is a hapless theology called "Deism." The gist of this theology is that there is a God but that He created the universe, then just forgot about it. According to this theology God will do neither good nor evil. Basically, this means that God will do nothing. He is just out there in the ether somewhere doing "god things" while we work it out for ourselves here on earth. The Biblical view of God is that He is involved in every aspect of human life. He will do good, i.e., He will bless us (good), or He will judge us (bad). If you believe the Bible, God is not neutral concerning our lives, nor is He neutral as to how we live our lives. What does this mean? Does it mean that I am trying to scare you into belief in the God of the Bible? I mean the exact opposite. God is not neutral concerning your life. He is concerned about your life. The Bible tells us that even the hairs of our head are numbered by God. That means that, while He is not always pleased with us, He still loves us - that includes you. Peter wrote in his second letter that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Without trying to be insipid, I am telling you that God is on your side; that He is pulling for you. In His great heart, God is longing for you to have a relationship with Him. That is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to die to save us from sin. God does not want to mess up your life, rather, He wants to give you abundant life. If someone came to you and said, "I've got a lot of money that I want to give you so that you can have a higher standard of living," you would probably accept it. Well, through Jesus, God wants to give you abundant life here and eternal life in heaven. You can be cynical and say that you do not need this, but that will not mean that you do not need it. It would mean that your life would change, but the change would be for the better. I have been on both sides of this, and I can tell you that, with Jesus in it, my life is a whole lot better. I am certainly not perfect, but I have a quality of life with Jesus that I could not have known without Him. Take the Bible's word for it. God is not neutral about you. He wants to make your life better. You might be a drifting Christian or a non-Christian, whichever, God is on your side. Believe it!!!! Bro. Joe
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Proverbs 21:2 - "All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart."
1 Corinthians 4:5 - "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time, wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God." Why do we do what we do? Do we do good works to win the praise of people, or do we do them because it is what God wants? I will concede that if we do a good work on our own and people are helped in some way, they will be grateful, but we should pray that their gratitude would be to God as well. I will confess that the temptation to win the praise of people is difficult to overcome. All of us want to be appreciated for what we do. Somebody asked me one time if I got tired of people saying, "I enjoyed the sermon." My answer was, and always is, "no." Would I want them to say "lousy sermon today." The important question is what was my motive when I preached the sermon? If I preached because I was led of God to do so, then God was pleased, and, because He was, the people were blessed. All I can say when people say nice things to me about my preaching, or any other Christian service, is "thank you." If I know in my heart that my motive was to please the Lord, I don't need to explain that to them. They will also give God the credit. Over the years, I have discovered that the greatest motive that the Lord lays on our hearts is love. We minister to people because we love God and people. Indeed, preaching should be done from the motive of love, whether we have a negative point or a positive point to make. The motive should never be, "I'm gonna tell'em today." Love should be the motive for every Christian, not just preachers. The important message is that God knows "the motives of men's (and women's) hearts." God knows why we do what we do.. Our prayer should be what is expressed in Proverbs 19:21: "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." That should be what we pray for when we serve. Bro. Joe "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself." 5.Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes." (NIV)
These two proverbs seem to contradict each other, but they do not. In the first place, if you are talking to a "fool" and you have a disagreement, do not argue with him or her, because you will be acting just like him or her. In the second place, in another situation you might need to answer him or her to straighten them out, lest they "be wise in (their) own eyes." Different situations demand different responses. Some moments are teachable moments and some moments are not. If we don't learn to tell the difference we will become "fools" ourselves. Let me tell you what I thought about when I read this. First, I have decided that there is very little that is worth arguing about. I have gotten to a point that when I hear something that I disagree with, I zip my mouth shut, because anything I say is not going to change that person's opinion. Second, I consider to whom it is that I am talking. There are some people that you can have a friendly disagreement with, and it will turn into an interesting discussion. In that case, we both learn something. But there are other people that you do not dare disagree with, because they will take offense. I'm not going to call the other person a "fool," but if I proceed to argue with him or her, I will become a "fool." I should know better. Third, I will not say anything at that moment, but in the future, in different circumstances, I might be able to talk with that person about the issue. In that case, I have moved from verse 4 to verse 5. Fourth, I have to remember that I can be kind of "testy" myself at times, so I try to abstain from arguing because I might end up being the "fool." If we will look honestly at ourselves, we will admit that we can "play the fool" sometimes. I do not know if I clarified this issue for you, but it was clear to me. I have been in too many arguments in my lifetime where nothing was accomplished but hurt feelings. That is why I try not to argue. A fellow told me one time that he didn't think I cared, because when he said something that he knew I disagreed with, I wouldn't say anything in return. It didn't bother me, because caring does not depend on trying to prove your point when trying to prove your point is pointless. Bro. Joe “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17. That the man of God may be perfect (complete, mature) thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the most complete definition of scripture that we have. We cannot divorce the scriptures, or Bible, from anything that has to do with the Christian life. We cannot say, “I believe in the Bible…..but.” The Bible is al-important and in this text Paul tells us why. First, the Bible is given by inspiration of God. There is a theological argument about what this means, but one thing is unmistakable: The Bible is a God-breathed document that stands alone in its authority in our lives. There are a lot of good Christian books, but not a one of them is inspired as the Bible was inspired. The apostle Peter made this clear in 2 Peter 1:20-21: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Second, the Bible is the only seed-bed of doctrine. I know that there are many doctrines that genuine Christians disagree on, but there is one Bible doctrine that has to stand undisputed in all Christian circles, and that is the doctrine of Christ. We can disagree about a lot of things, but we can’t disagree about Jesus. It is Bible doctrine that God’s Son came to earth from heaven, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died as a perfect sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all mankind, arose on the third day and after forty days ascended to the right hand of the Father. When any group gets away from the centrality of Christ to the teachings of some man or woman, they have gotten away from the Bible. Third, the Bible has authority in the lives of Christians. It is from the Bible that reproof for our sins comes. People cannot define sin to their own liking, and when they err from the teachings of the Bible on sin, they are reproved by it. For example, there is no question in the Bible that adultery is a sin. It is never seen in a good light in the Bible. Adultery has already been assigned as sin by the Bible and we can’t change that to suit our own ideas of morality. (That goes for all of the other sins condemned in the Bible.) It is the Bible that corrects us about our behavior as to whether it is sin or not. It is not a popular stance today, but if the Bible condemns our behavior, we should stand corrected and cease that behavior. I must add that we all are subject to this correction for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We should be as concerned about correcting our own sinful behavior as we are the sinful behavior of others. It is also written here that it is the Bible that instructs us in righteousness. The righteousness that is portrayed in the Bible is not just concerned with what we don’t do, but about what we do as well. There are sins of commission (what we do) and sins of omission (what we do not do). Therefore, the Bible tells us when we do good and when we do not do good. Fourth, the man (in the generic sense, meaning male and female) of God matures based on the Bible. A Christian cannot claim maturity if he or she does not read and study the Bible. Furthermore, we are prepared to do “good works” based on the word of God. One good example is when Jesus washed His disciple’s feet in John 13 to illustrate Christian humility for them. Surely if Jesus humbled Himself to do a good work, surely we must as well. We became Christians in order to do the good works of God on this earth in order to win people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is what I mean by "the Importance of Scripture.” Bro. Joe “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.” John 17:1b
“Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, or one mind.” Philippians 2:2 Jesus prayed that we might be one. Paul encouraged the Philippian church, and us, to be “of one accord, of one mind.” Both of these texts remind us that we are to stay connected if we are to be effective in declaring the gospel to a lost world. There is no such thing as “solitary Christianity.” We are saved individually, but we are bound together by the Holy Spirit in church fellowship to be what Christ would have us be in this world. In other words, we are to be connected. The first thing that we should do is to stay connected to the main source. How do we make a lamp shine? Do we just turn the switch on? No. The first thing that we must do is to be sure the lamp is connected to the source in order for the electricity to course through the wires and provide the power to shine. In the same way, we need to be connected to Jesus Christ in order for the power of the Holy Spirit to course through us and provide power for us to shine. If we are not careful, we will disconnect from the power source and attempt His work in the flesh. Our connection to each other will be meaningless if we are not connected to the main source. We can stay connected by staying in touch with Him through prayer. Also, we have to stay in His word. The second thing is that we are to stay connected to each other in Christian love and Holy Spirit power. In Philippians 4:2, Paul wrote: “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.” Two women who had effectively served with Paul, for some reason, were out of sorts with each other and because of this the whole Philippian Church was suffering. When we disconnect from each other, our churches suffer as well. As written above, if we are out of sorts with Jesus, we will inevitably be out of sorts with each other. It is Jesus, the love of Jesus and His love in us that keeps us connected. We need to remember that in churches we do not just have fellowship, we are a fellowship. The Greek word translated “fellowship” is “koinonia.” Basically, this word means “partnership.” We are partners in the Lord’s work. Let’s go back to the lamp mentioned earlier. The lamp can be plugged into the right source but still not shine. Why? Perhaps the bulb is loose and not making the needed contact with the electrical source. We can be like that loose bulb if we are not careful. The source is working fine, but we are disconnected. When we are disconnected from each other we cannot shine as we should. How can we reconnect? Paul gave us the answer in Colossians 3:12-14: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies (compassion), kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all things put on charity (love), which is the bond of perfectness.” As partners in Christ’s work, we should love and forgive each other. Are you connected to the source – to Jesus? Are you connected to your fellow Christians? If sharing the gospel is the most important work on earth, shouldn't we make sure that we are connected? Bro. Joe "The Lord, the First and the Last" Isaiah 41:4
“Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He.” KJV “Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, with the first of them and with the last – I am He.” NIV Doubting the existence of God did not start with the present age. Even in Isaiah’s day people were questioning the authority of God. The thing that is difficult for unbelievers to understand is that God has always been. They cannot imagine a Being who has always been and always will be. I will admit that it is difficult to wrap our finite minds around a Being such as God. In order to be God He has to be beyond our understanding. In fact, it was Isaiah who wrote, quoting God: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) It should come as no surprise to us that God is superior to us and that He is well aware of that fact. This need to be superior to God is a lot of what the Bible is about. There are some things that we need to realize about God that will be understood by believers but not by unbelievers. God has always been. (I know that this seems to be an inane statement, but keep in mind that this is a reminder of some things about God.) He said: “Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning.” The Bible begins: “In the beginning God” – period. The Bible does not begin by attempting to prove the existence of God, nor does it intend to argue the point. It just presupposes God’s existence and proceeds to tell His story. He is the creator and we are the created. I don’t know why we always have to be reminded of this, but evidently, we do. We don’t just need to accept the truth of the eternality of God; rather, we need to revel in that truth. Why? Because it means that we are not alone in the universe. We are not at the mercy of the universe. We do not really have to worry about meteorites, etc. because there is a God who is in control of all of it and sustains all of it. We also need to revel in the eternality of Jesus Christ because of the biblical witness to it. Let Paul tell us about it in Colossians 1:16-18: “For by Him (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: 17. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. 18. 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 the preeminence (first place).” We can trust Jesus, whom we trust in as Savior, as all of God as well as all of man. It is not simple-minded to believe in the eternal God. It is not naïve to believe in Him and trust Him. Over the years, in Old Testament times, New Testament times and throughout history, people who are intellectually astute have believed in and trusted in God's eternality and in His power. We should not let the world convince us that we cannot believe in God and be considered intellectually astute. You can trust God and you can trust what His word, the Bible, says about Him. We can count on His word when He tells us: “I, the Lord – with the first of them and with the last – I am He.” Rejoice!!!! The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their trouble. 18. The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.”
As I read these verses I became keenly aware that there are many advantages to being a child of God. In verses 17 and 19, David refers to “the righteous.” This is not referring to people who are perfect, or who are legalistic and mean-spirited. (One thinks of the Pharisees here.) “The righteous” are not so religious that they are above getting their hands dirty in their service for the Lord. In fact, they are not “religious” at all; they are dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ, not a religion. Looking at this text from the standpoint of the New Testament, “the righteous” are people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, are living for Him and it shows in their lives. The promise in this text is that the Lord will not let us down. Initially, I need to point out that Christian people of God, are not promised that everything will always go their way. In verse 17, David mentions that God delivers His people from trouble. This means, of course, that like all other human beings, God’s people will have troubles. In verse 19, David wrote: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” When you read the Bible, you become aware that even the great men of God, like Moses, David and Daniel, had to go through some hardships, struggles and afflictions. It concerns me that many people want to walk away from their commitment to God when they encounter troubles, as though God has broken some promise to them that they would never have to endure sorrows and troubles. I don’t know where they got that idea, but I know that they didn’t get it from the Bible. What then are the advantages of being a child of God? In verses 17 and 19 David wrote about the deliverance of God. Though we go through trials and troubles, dark days and troublesome times, God is aware of what is going on in our lives and is set to deliver us from them. We do not have to read self-help books, or go running to the world’s counselors to help us get through hard times, because we have the Lord, who has promised to deliver us. Please consider that whatever dark moment you might be experiencing right now, God is already at work on your deliverance. When you have learned what you need to learn, and have grown sufficiently in your dependence on His grace, God is ready to deliver you just as He delivered people in the Bible. In my mind, verse 18 has the promise that we need to hold tenaciously to when we encounter hardships and troubles: “The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken spirit and contrite heart.” The promise is that God is near us when we belong to Him. In Psalm 23:4 David wrote: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” David did not blame God that he had to walk through “the valley of the shadow of death;” rather he praised God that He did not abandon him while he went through it. The same is true for you, for God has not changed. He is still near us. When our spirits are broken, instead of pouting and complaining, we need to be “contrite in heart” and realize that we are dependent on God. David wrote in Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” This does not mean that we should be depressed all of the time. It does mean that we are to remember that God is near us and will deliver us from, or through, whatever it is we have to endure. Whatever you are dealing with in your life right now, remember the promise of God and go to Him, totally depending on Him to deliver you. Bro. Joe “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 4. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
The more I read these two verses, the more they spoke to me. I said, “man these two verses are loaded.” What I finally concluded about the verses is that they reveal to us the value of trusting in God. Frankly, I don’t even want to think about life without putting my trust in Him, but a lot of people today do not put their trust in Him. One value of trusting in God is that He keeps the person who trusts Him in “perfect peace.” The word that struck me here was “keeps.” This means that when we trust in God He holds onto us, and He makes sure that we have perfect peace. (It is “perfect” peace because it is given by Him.) I am reminded of what Jesus said to His disciples about His peace in John 16:31: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Jesus did not promise, and He still does not promise, that we would be in peaceful circumstances all of the time; but He did promise that we will have peace in all circumstances if we put our trust in Him. In a sense, Jesus was telling His disciples, and us, that He will keep us in “perfect peace.” This inner peace can only come through trusting in Christ. I am happy that I know where my peace lies. It does not lie in circumstances, but in Jesus. I hope that you realize the same thing. Praise Him now because of this. Another value of trusting in God is that we can have this peace when our minds are “stayed” on Him. One thing that the devil does not want is for our minds to be “stayed” on God. David Jeremiah wrote: “We battle against principalities and powers that would seek to take our minds off of God who is our salvation. Anything the devil can do to make us doubt God’s love, Christ’s sufficiency, and the power of the Holy Spirit, he will do. Peace is kept by staying focused on what is true, on what God says.” I can only add a hearty “amen” to that. I personally know, and you probably do too, that the devil will do anything to keep me away from the Bible, from prayer, from Christian fellowship and from good Christian literature, because when he does that my mind is not “stayed” on the Lord. This reminds us that we are completely dependent on God for peace in our hearts. This peace is promised to those whose minds are “stayed” on God and on those who trust in Him. The last value of trust that I see in this text is that our trust is in one who has “everlasting strength.” Strength is one thing, but “everlasting strength” is another thing. There are all kinds of strong people out there. There are people who can lift vast amounts of weight. But there is no man on this earth who has everlasting strength. We can trust our lives, and the well-being of our families to God because His strength is above anything in this world that we can lean on. In the Old Testament, Jewish kings got in trouble when they trusted in the powerful nations of their day to deliver them instead of leaning on the strength of God. I know that when things are not going well, we can be tempted to look to the world for the strength that we need. And, yes, God has people out there who can help us, but we need to be sure that our ultimate trust in is in our great Lord. He alone has the everlasting strength that we need to get us through. It is my prayer that these two short verses from Isaiah have given you a lift and a new vision of what trusting in God can do for your life. Bro. Joe "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to Christ."
Paul wrote that Christ "hath given to us the ministry of reconcilation" in verse 18, and in verse 19 he wrote "...and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation." We who have been reconciled have been given the ministry of helping other people be reconciled to Christ. Because of this ministry we have become "ambassadors for Christ." As ambassadors we have been sent on a mission to tell others about Christ. What does an ambassador do? Let's begin with what he does not do. He does not go to another country and do his own thing, or tend to his own business. He does whatever the leader of his country tells him to do. Therefore, as "ambassadors for Christ," we are to do as Christ tells us to do. For example, there are people who have been called to be "ambassadors for Christ" in faraway countries. They raise their children in that country, and many of them spend their days until retirement in that country. That is one example. Another example is people like most of us who are not called to be ambassadors in faraway countries, but are called to be ambassadors, or witnesses, where we are. We are to do what Christ tells us to do here where we are. We sometimes have the idea that because we are not called to go to another country, we do not have to be ambassadors. The Bible says "go ye." "Go ye" means all Christians. We are all ambassadors, or missionaries, for Christ. This is as true where you live as it is in Africa, Japan, Korea, etc.. We need to remember that it is an honor to be appointed an ambassador. Our country does not send people to other countries as ambassadors unless they are smart, tactful and able to get along with other people. An ambassador also has to have some knowledge of the country to which they are assigned. In order to do this, I imagine that they have to study and learn about the country to which they are going. It is a privilege to be an ambassador for the kingdom of God. We should take our ambassadorship seriously and learn and do all that we need to do to be the best ambassadors that we can be. Let's determine that in this crazy world in which we live, we will be Christ's ambassadors. Bro. Joe |
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