"And (Jesus) arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought Him for her. 39. And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her: and immediately she arose and minsitered unto them."
We do not know anything about Peter's wife, but we know that he had one because he had a mother-in-law. All we know about his mother-in-law is what we read in passages in Matthew 8, Mark 1 and in the text written above. All of these passages are about the same event. We do not know a lot about her, but one thing that we can surmise from this text is that she had a servant's heart. She had been bed-ridden because of a fever, Jesus rebuked the fever, it left her, and she got up from the bed and began to serve them. She could have expected them to minster unto, or serve, her, because she had been sick. But what she did was to immediately begin to serve them. The kingdom of God depends on people like Peter's mother-in-law. It is people who have a heart to serve that keep the work going. Everyone who is saved is expected to serve the Lord, but there are those people who do not have to be elected to serve the Lord - they just do it. You might say: "Wait a minute, preacher, the Bible does not say that she served the Lord but that she served Jesus and His disciples." I discovered years ago that to serve God is, in a large part, to serve people. I discovered as a pastor that the major part of the service I did had to do with serving people. For example, I spent a lot of time in hospitals and homes by sick beds ministering to people. People who had problems would come to get Biblical counsel, and I would serve them. When I preached and taught the Bible, I was doing them in front of people. But not everybody is a preacher. Well, what about Sunday School teachers? Who do they teach but people? . Most of what we do in serving God has to do with people. Jesus, Himself, had three main ministries - teaching, preaching and healing. Everyone of those ministries involved serving people. Peter's mother-in-law had the right idea. Instead of expecting to be served, she served. Look at what Jesus told His diciples about service, when they were arguing about who was the greatest: "And whosever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all, for even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many." I think that we can call that a very good example of Christian service. It should serve as a catalyst to service for us. Bro. Joe
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"Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us"?
I used to think that my mama had eyes in the back of her head. I figured it must be true, since she knew what I was doing, even when her back was turned. I also thought that she could see around corners, or through walls, because she would know what I was up to even when she was not in the same room. Since I have grown up and am a little more mature, I realize that if I had been behaving myself none of that would have made any difference. This is what Isaiah 29:15 was about. Isaiah 29 is an indictment of Jerusalem. They were accused of "honoring God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him" (verse 13). Isaiah also censured them in verse 16: "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say to the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" (NIV) The people of Jerusalem thought that they could hide from God because He was no longer real to them. They had no fear, or respect, for God; therefore, they did what they wanted to do. They had become what we might call "practical atheists," i.e., they might have believed in God, but they acted as if He did not exist. This looks an awful lot like what is going on in our world today. For example, Europe has all but abandoned the Christian faith and the Christian church. The same is true in our own beloved country. A majority of the people in the USA believe in God, but they live like He does not exist. We need to realize that God is not deaf, dumb and blind. We cannot hide from Him. He sees and knows all that is going on in our lives. We can pretend that He does not exist, but He does and He is aware of our follies. We ignore the Bible as well. It makes no difference what the Bible teaches, if a majority of Americans believe something is alright, it is alright. It's as though morality is determined by polls. Lest I seem too self-righteous here, we need to straighten up our act in churches too. God sees everything that is going on. He knows our every thought and our every word. He even knows how many hairs we have on our heads. We can't hide from God - period. Bro. Joe "Peter declared, 'Even if all fall away, I will not.' 30. 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'today - yes tonight - before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.' " (NIV)
I read about Peter's denial this morning, and it got me to thinking about denial of Jesus today. I think Peter really and truly thought that he would stand up for Jesus when the time came for Him to be arrested. According to John's gospel, it was Peter who cut off Malchus' ear - a pathetic attempt that was condemned by Jesus. (See John 18:10-11) Peter did not yet understand that Jesus had to die in order for us to be saved. Jesus told him as much when He said to Peter, "...You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Human beings cannot stop what God has put into motion. But I do not want to deal with this theological truth, I want to deal with the fact of denial. Do we think that we could deny Jesus, or that we have ever denied Him? I think that we probably have denied Him, maybe, not realizing that we have done it. Anytime that God gives us an opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus, and we fail to do so, we have denied Him. Anytime that people make fun of people who are devoted to Jesus, which goes on a lot today, and we do not disagree with them, in a sense, we have denied Jesus. Anytime we hear people talking about what religion you have doesn't matter as long as you are faithful, and we do not disagree with this, we have denied Jesus. I remember hearing Ann Graham Lotz tell about a school meeting that she attended where the discussion was about buddhism taught in school. The consensus of the group was that it did not matter. Ann Lotz asked them: "Why are you ashamed of Jesus?" Anytime we put another religion or anything else ahead of Jesus, in a sense, we have denied Him. The world today is giving us plenty of opportunities to deny Jesus. I do not mean that we should argue with people all of the time; I do mean that we should stand up for Jesus when people put Him lower than He is. If we really believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came to save us from our sins, then we should stand up for Him. This does not mean that we should get into religious arguments. It does mean that when Jesus is demeaned, we should speak up for Him. Obviously, denial is not an unforgivebable sin, for Peter was forgiven, but we should be careful that we do not inadvertently deny Him when the need arises to stand up for Him. At least think about it. Bro. Joe "O Lord, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep." (KJV) "How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts." (NIV) 40:5: "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward: They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."
Often I will come across a verse in the Bible that will spin me around, so to speak, and will drive my thoughts. Psalm 92:5 was one of those verses this morning, followed by Psalm 40:5. The psalmist wrote about the great works of God. God's works are not difficult to see - just look around you. How marvelous are His works. But as great as His works are, His thoughts are even greater. They are deep and they are profound. The amazing thing is that the God who created all of these works that we see around us has centered His thoughts upon us. Note this thought from Psalm 40:5: "....and thy thoughts which are to usward." That's the KJV way of saying that God's thoughts are about us. The Bible is literally rife with this great truth in both the Old and New Testaments. According to the Bible, His thoughts are both negative and positive. They are negative in the sense that He realizes that we are prone to sin - to misbehave. They are positive in the sense that He realizes that only He can make us do better. God's plans and thoughts for us are delineated throughout the Bible. Look at His plans for His people, Israel, in Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts (plans) that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." As disobedient as Israel had been, God's thoughts and plans for them were still of peace. This is not far from Romans 5:8, which declares: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We call this "grace." Grace, as you know, is "God's unmerited favor" toward us. This means that in spite of our fascination with sin and wrong, God still loves us and will save us. What amazes me is that I can depend on the fact that God's thoughts about me, in spite of me, are loving thoughts. This means that God/Jesus wants what is best for me. The same is true for you. We can never live up to it, but in His grace and love we can grow into His likeness as time passes. Give that some thought today. Bro. Joe One of the most misunderstood words in the New Testament is the word "hope." The way we use the word, it means maybe or it might be. This is not the meaning of hope as it is used in the New Testament. The Greek word that is translated hope is the word elpis. Elpis does not mean it might be, but it will be. In the New Testament sense, when we say that we hope for a better day, we mean that we expect a better day. There is a lot of difference between we might have better days and we will have better days. When we say that our hope is in Jesus, we certainly do not mean that Jesus might save us or that He might deliver us from temptation. We mean that He will save us and that He will deliver us from temptation.
I am concerned when I hear people say that we cannot know that we are saved because the Bible says that it is based upon our hope in Jesus. When they say that what they mean is it might be that if we come to Jesus in faith He will save us. That is not what it means at all. It means that when we come to Jesus by faith, He will save us. Do not confuse the word hope as we use it and the way the New Testament uses it. The New Testament promises that we can have some great expectations because we have put our hope in Jesus. There is the promise of a better life here on earth. We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to have a good life, we can have a good life right here. This good life does not mean that it will be a life of total ease and comfort. It means that we will have the resources of the Lord to help us through whatever we face in life. His presence in our lives is our hope. David wrote in Psalm 23:4: "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and they staff they comfort me." David's comfort came from the presence of God in the midst of his trials and troubles. There is the promise of a better life after death. The Bible does not tell us a lot about heaven or hell, it just reveals their reality. But from what I know about both of them, I know that I want to go to heaven. My hope of heaven is based on my trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible promises that if I put my faith and trust in Jesus, I will go to heaven. That hope does not mean that I might go to heaven, but that I will go to heaven. Do not define hope as "it might be," rather define it as "it will be." Bro. Joe "God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds; 3, Who being the brightness of His glory and the express (exact) image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,,,"
In the last blog that I posted, I wrote about the silence of God. The psalmist wanted God to make Himself known - to not be silent. I pointed out that God's silence meant that He did not have to prove Himself to us and that He wants us to come by faith and not by sight. But in the fullness of time, God did shout. He shouted through sending His Son to earth as His ultimate revelation of Himself. His shout is only heard by those who will put their faith in the Son, i.e., God reveals himself to us by faith in His Son. We only hear the shout of God when we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling us to the Son, and when we take the step of faith in His saving power. We need not look for any other "shout" from God, for Jesus is the ultimate "shout." There are many voices in the world shouting to us to follow them. There is the voice of materialism, which tells us that our hope is in our possessions. Materialism shouts that if we will just amass "things" life will have more meaning. It is sometimes expressed by men that, "the one who has the most toys wins." But these" things" will rust and decay and will leave us as empty as they found us. Then there is the shout of religion. Religion is a good word, but can be awfully deceiving. Religion tells us that if we will do this or that ritual, we will find fulfillment in life. There are rituals of worship in the Christian faith, but they are not the end, they are means to an end. Satan loves to get us involved in religious activities that will soften the voice of God. God calls us to follow Jesus, not a set of man made rules and regulations. This is where the Pharisees went wrong. Religion can mean anything. Our faith is in Jesus, who is the only means of salvation that God has provided for us. In Jesus we become involved in activities that will give meaning to our lives and fulfillment in our relationships. After all is said and done, which is the meaning of "in these last days," God's voice is heard. when led by the Holy Spirit, we seek Jesus. If God is silent, He is silent to those who refuse to follow Jesus. Bro. Joe |
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