,"Thy raiment waxed not old upon you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 6. You shall also consider in your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so the Lord thy God chastens you, 7. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear Him."
In giving his charge to the Israelites before they entered the promised land, in verse 7, Moses told them three things that they would be wise to heed: "to keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him." The command to keep the Lord's commandments was obviously a reference to the ten commandments. These were not suggestions but they were commandments. The Israelites had probably forgotten the importance of these commandments, and needed to be reminded of them. (Exodus 20:1-17) Moses reminded the Israelites of these commandments, and obviously stressed the importance of them. They obviously needed a reminder about the ten commandments. They probably knew them but just did not keep them. We are pretty good at this too. (just saying) To obey the Lord's commandments is to "walk in His ways." We are definitely not reminded of the importance of these commandments as often as we should be reminded. We also have the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters 5-7, to help us to walk in the Lord's ways. We have to consciously remind ourselves of the importance of walking in the Lord's ways, because we will forget about their importance if we do not. We also need to listen to the Lord's voice as He speaks to our hearts to remind us of "walking in His ways." I don't think that we need to be reminded of what it means to obey the Lord. Finally, they were reminded to "fear the Lord." This does not necessarily mean to feel terrorized by the Lord, for we are to also love him, but it does remind us of the danger of walking in our own ways instead of walking in His ways. We would do well to fear the chastening of the Lord. When He chastens us, He means business, as those of us who have experienced His chastening, will testify. Look into your heart, and ask yourself if you really fear the Lord? Bro. Joe
0 Comments
"And now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love."
I call faith, hope and love "the big three" because each of these are of ultimate importance, because without them we could not have a personal relationship with Christ. Paul reminds us here that the "greatest (of the big three) is love." Why is this true? We have to put our faith in Christ in order to be saved. We are reminded in Romans 3:23 that the "righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ." People ask what they can do to be saved, when what they need has already been done through Jesus. Faith is, indeed, a big word in salvation. After all, we are going to put our faith in something it might as well be faith in Christ if we want to be saved. The only way that we can have hope in this life is by entering into a faith relationship with Christ. Faith and hope work together, because without faith in Christ we can never hope to be saved. Christ did for us what we would need to be saved when He died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father. This brings us to the greatest of the three words i.e. love. Why is love the greatest of the "big three" words? Because it was the love of God that made salvation possible for sinful mankind. John 3:16 reminds us: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." There is much more about the importance of God's love in our salvation, but John 3:16 seals the argument. We can be saved in the first place because God loves us. Keep in mind that this means that God loves you. Grab that to your heart and hug it close. Bro. Joe “I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”
"Glad" is a good word. It means "to express pleasure, to cause pleasure or to be pleased." (American Century Dictionary) This should describe the life of a Christian. I will relate something from my life to share my own gladness. I am glad that my mama made me go to church - literally. I was not always glad about that. I didn’t realize that while I was wishing that I could be at home instead of at church, it was making an impact on my life and impressing me in ways that I could never explain. At a young age, I was not aware of the value of Christian fellowship. I just called it “going to church.” As I reflect on those days, I see how being in church on Sunday influenced me and served as a reminder that real life is found in Jesus. (I guess I should tell you that one of my nick names at church in my early years was "worry wart." Hey, nobody's perfect.) In fact those early years in church helped me to know when I got older that God was calling me into the ministry, and I’m glad for that too. My life has been enriched because of Christian ministry in so many different ways, I don’t think that I could fully explain it? Enough about me, let’s turn to you. What makes you glad? Are you glad that you are a Christian? If you are not a Christian, you are missing out on the abundant life. Sometimes we see people who live only for the world seeming to really enjoy themselves and we feel a little envious. This business of being a Christian does not allow us to have “fun” the way the rest of the world does. This kind of “fun” does not last forever. There are people who go from party to party and just live it up. But all of this will end. There will be a last party, a last shot at fun, and life will become empty and void. This does not mean that we spend every moment of our lives doing “church work.” It means that we have a lasting relationship with Christ, and serving him adds depth and strength to our lives. If I’m not careful here, I will leave the impression that I do not believe that life should contain humor and fun. I do not mean that at all. I believe that we should laugh a lot, and that we should not be “holy kill joys.” Having Christ in our lives makes our days glad. Do you remember this old song: “He has made me glad, He has made glad, I’m so glad that He has made me glad.” I hope that you can sing this song and really mean it. I haven’t even scratched the surface of Christian gladness, but I think that I have written enough to make you examine your own life. If you are not a glad person, you need to ask yourself why, particularly if you are a Christian. I don’t mean that a glad person is happy all of the time. I do mean that a glad Christian has every reason to have a glad heart and to live a glad life. This glad heart will make life better in spite of the unhappy and trying moments. A glad heart will sustain you through all of life – the good and the bad. If you don’t have this gladness in your heart and life, I challenge you to find it in Jesus. Bro. Joe “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit comes into our lives when we are saved, and brings three particular gifts into our lives. The first of those gifts given was “joy.” Jesus promised us joy in John 14:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Observe: The Holy Spirit brings the joy of Jesus into our lives. I want to share three aspects of this joy. First, the joy that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives is joy in the Lord – joy of the Lord.” I love an Old Testament reference to the joy that the Lord gives in difficult circumstances in Nehemiah 8:10b: “…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” This was a message to the Israelites as they rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. The joy of the Lord is our strength because it is joy in spite of the hard circumstances that we face in life. I’m not just preaching it, I have experienced it in the last twenty-five years of my life as I faced some serious illnesses – all of which could have killed me. I am not bragging on myself, but I am sharing that the joy of the Lord is real, even in difficult circumstances. Second, the joy that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives is joy in Christian fellowship. We are not saved in a vacuum. We are saved individually, but we are ushered into fellowship with fellow Christians when we are saved. The joy is that we do not have to travel this road of life alone when we are saved. We have fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters. I served churches for fifty-three years and I encountered problems, of course, but in the midst of that was the joy of fellowship with fellow Christians. This joy is part and parcel with the joy of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Thank God, we do not have to walk this road alone. The joy of fellowship with Christians over the years is still with me after all of the years. Third, the joy that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives is the joy of service. Frankly, I never thought, as I went to work in the morning, that I was really going to work, but I was going to serve. Even as I write Couch Potato articles, I do not consider it work, but I consider it as Christian service. It brings joy to me that I can send these articles out into the ether for anyone to read. It has been a joy to hear from Christians as far away as Pakistan. That is not work, it is joyful service. If you are doing what God put you on this earth to do, you should enjoy it as service for God. If you are not doing what God put you on this earth for, find out what it is and go to it! This is certainly not all that the Bible teaches about the “joy of the Lord,” but they are three things that we should pray about and seek that joy in all circumstances of our lives, in Christian fellowship and in service for Him. Bro. Joe “God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; Selah 2.That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.”
I see in this text four important things that pertain to our lives. Following is what I found to share with you: We need God’s mercy: “God be merciful unto us.” We are reminded in the Bible that we are sinners and stand in need of God’s mercy. The word translated mercy is also translated as gracious. However we translate the word, we need for God to give us His mercy, and be gracious to us. We can claim God’s mercy and grace by faith in Jesus Christ. We need God’s blessing: “…and bless us.” We need His spiritual blessings in our hearts and minds, and we need His outer blessings in our lives. God will send His blessings to us through Christ. I pray for God’s blessings everyday upon my life and in the lives of my family. Let us be thankful that God is the God of mercy who gives us His blessings. We need God’s light: “…and cause His face to shine upon us.” We need God’s light to shine upon us, through us and out from us, that is, we need to reflect His light to the world. Here is what God wants of us: “That thy (God’s) way be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” God’s wants us to share His mercy, His blessings and His light with the world. We can do this through prayer, and through participation. We can pray for God’s work throughout the world. He can use you to share his mercy, blessings and light wherever you are and wherever He sends you. Are you sharing these important things that God has put into your life? You need to think about this today. Selah Bro. Joe “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath made the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.” KJV
“When the times are good be happy; but when times are bad consider: God has made the one as well as the other; therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.” NIV As we have seen in earlier articles, Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon, is unpredictable. Solomon was writing as a world-weary fellow who had everything that his heart desired and he found it rather boring and empty. The idea was that the full meaning of life is found in fearing God, or as we would say from the New Testament perspective, reverence and trust in God. In this verse he reminds us that good and bad will happen, and that we will have uncertainty about the future. His first advice is be joyful when things are going good. This seems like unnecessary advice, but is it really? Sometimes we can’t enjoy the good things because we are worried about a lot of other things. Like Martha, we are sometimes “careful and troubled about many things.” (See Luke 10:38-42) Or like the seed in the parable of the sower that fell among the thorns, we become choked up by the cares of this life that we are so negative that we can’t really rejoice over the good things. We need to adopt the verse from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It could be that some people might be so depressed that they can’t recognize the good and prosperous times even in the midst of them. His second advice was when we face days of adversity that we "consider." You might want to ask at this point, what does this mean? In my estimation it means several things. One is when we face adverse times we need to consider that adverse times are bound to come, and consider, or think about it and find out what God is trying to teach us. When Paul was enduring his “thorn in the flesh” he went to God in prayer and was told that he would keep his “thorn in the flesh,” and that Christ’s grace would be sufficient to see him through it. Considering this answer Paul saw that through his weakness he could better discover God’s strength. In other words, he saw his complete dependence on Jesus. A second thing is that we need to consider that other people have experienced adversity. In other words, we are not the only ones who have gone through times of adversity, and that we are not too good to have them. Sometimes they might be reminders from God that we need to make some changes in our lives. Another thing that I have discovered is that the adverse times will end. One of my favorite sayings when I am going through adverse times is to say, “this too shall pass,” and it always does. Some adverse things last longer than others, but they, too, will eventually pass. These up and down changes in our lives can make us wonder about the future. This is when we need to say: “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” (I know, I know, that is an old cliché, but it is still true even if it has been quoted over and over again.) This will cause us to realize that God is with us and ministering in our lives through the good times and the bad. It will also help us to know that the God of the present is the God of the future. There will never be a time that He will forsake us, whether things are going uphill or downhill in our lives. Solomon is right, we do not know what is in the future or what we will have to face in the future. That is why it is ultimately important to face each day with faith in Jesus Christ. Faith does not help us know what the future will be for us, but it does make us realize that we do not have to dread the future, for God will be a part of it. It is my prayer that whether you are prospering or in adversity, the One who holds the future will hold you and see you through. Bro. Joe "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth (looks on or examines) the hearts." Proverbs 21:2
"But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord sees not as man sees: for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1Samuel 16:7(This was said to Samuel when he was choosing a successor to King Saul from the family of Jesse in Bethlehem. It was said concerning one of David's older brothers, Eliab.) Most of us worry about what people think of us. We work hard to keep up appearances in order for people to have a high opinion of us. Is this the right way to live? It is not according to the two texts written above. We might look good in our own eyes and in the eyes of others, but God is more concerned about our hearts, i.e., what is inside of us, than He is in our appearance. The Lord cautioned Samuel to not choose Israel's next king based on outward appearances, but on what was in the future king's heart. The Lord knew David's heart and knew that he was the right one for the task. (In fact, David was once called, "a man after God's own heart.") So today we need to consider that God is not judging our lives, and our Christian service, based on what they appear to be, but based on what they really are - what is in our hearts. He is concerned about what our real motives are. One translation of proverbs 21:2 has it that "the Lord considers our motives." Our real motives are those that come from our hearts. Why do we do what we do? Do we do religious things to impress people, or do we act in faith to please God? That is a huge question. It gets right to the heart of the matter. Jesus dealt with this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters 5-7. For example. in chapter 6 He took the Pharisees to task for doing religious things to appear righteous to people. He mentioned that when they gave alms for the poor, they were not to advertise the fact, but just give from their hearts. This would please God. Jesus mentioned that when they prayed, that they should not pray loudly on the street corners, but shut themselves away from the world and seek god privately. He was not condemning all public prayer, only that which is done as a religious show. We should weigh our motives very carefully, and ask ourselves whether we are serving for appearance' sake or for Jesus' sake? It is not that for our service to please God, it must alienate people. It is not bad if people are pleased and happy with what we do. It is bad if to please them is our only motive. We need to keep careful check on our hearts. We need to weigh our motives. The most effective service is that done from the heart, not for self-aggrandizement, or to hear people brag on us, but to please God. Serving God from the heart will be better for people, in the long run, than serving just to please them. Bro. Joe “Withhold not your tender mercies from me, O Lord: let your loving-kindness and your truth continually preserve me.”
“And whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two.”
Wherever the Romans ruled, they had certain expectations of their captives. One of these was that if a Roman soldier told a man to carry his heavy military equipment a mile, he had to do it. The rule was that the man only had to carry the equipment a mile and no more. Jewish men listening to this would probably not be happy to hear it. I read that some Jewish men had mileage markers placed along the road from their houses and they would only carry the equipment from one marker to the next. Jesus told them to do more than was expected of them. In verse 39 of Matthew 5, Jesus told the men that if someone struck them on the right cheek to turn the other also. Man, you talk about tough demands. It was the same message to go beyond what is expected. To go beyond what is expected, we must have our egos under control. Pleasing the Lord must be more important than what we think should be expected of us. When we apply this rule to our lives, it will cause us to be more effective servants of Jesus. It will make us more Christ like, since He certainly went the extra mile and turned the other cheek for us. In order to go the extra mile we have to be very secure in our faith in Jesus, and secure within ourselves. If we will do this, it will make a difference in our lives. How? First, it will mean that we are being obedient to Jesus’ hardest demands on our lives. It is easy to obey Jesus if it doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice any of ourselves or our time. If we go beyond what is expected, we will serve on a deeper level than the normal service. Jesus has no problem asking us to go beyond what is expected of us. He knows that it will be hard on our egos and on our sense of “self,” but His purpose is to help us realize that everything is not about us. He wants us to realize that it is important for us to take people seriously and serve them in the love of Jesus. Second, it will make us more effective witnesses of Jesus Christ. All Christians have been called to be witnesses for Jesus, and urge people to enter the kingdom of God by faith in Him. Going beyond what is expected of us will make an impression on people about the seriousness of our Christian faith. It will help people to know that we really love and care about them. We are more attractive witnesses when we do the things that Jesus Himself would have done, and going beyond what was expected was a way of life with Him. The Bible tells us that when Jesus was tired and would have preferred to take a little time for Himself, people would come to Him with their needs and He would take the time to meet their needs. Early Christians went beyond what was expected of them when they continued to serve Jesus, even though they knew they would be persecuted. That kind of dedication is contagious. Christians today in many countries go beyond what is expected of them by serving Jesus in spite of threats of persecution, which in some places can mean death. Surely, this should compel us to go beyond what is expected in our safe environment. Third, this kind of service will make us feel better about ourselves. I know that this is not the major reason to go beyond what is expected, but it doesn’t hurt for us to feel good about what we are doing. When we are selfish, self-serving and mean-spirited, Christ in us makes it impossible for us to be satisfied with this lifestyle. There is something very satisfying about knowing that we are obeying Jesus, and that we love people and that we are ministering to them as Jesus would have done. It is good to know that no soldier is going to come along and demand that we carry his equipment a mile, but we will be confronted with situations in daily life that will make the same demand. Let’s do it. Bro. Joe “Nevertheless I am continually with you: you have held me by my right hand. 24. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. 26. My flesh and my heart fails: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
It is interesting how I can read something in the Bible over and over again, and the beauty and value of it does not appear, and then one day, like this morning, I read it and it shouts out to me. This has been the case this morning with Psalm 73:23-26. It reminded me that God is always near and that I do not need to fear that He will ever be absent from my life. I hope that as you read this you will catch the spirit of it and feel God’s closeness to you. This is especially true for today, because we have the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promised to give us, to be with us and to remind of God’s presence at all times. The text tells us that God is present in our lives: “Nevertheless I am continually with you.” Asaph acknowledged that he is always with God and God is always with him. Notice the word “continually.” This means that God’s presence is an ongoing reality in our lives. (Let’s stop here and praise Him.) It is wonderful that this came after Asaph’s confession of his own faults and foibles. We see this in verse 22, “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before you.” It reminds me that I when I am at my worst, God is still at His best, and that He still loves me and has promised to never forsake me. Whatever you are dealing with today, just remember what I wrote above and seek Him, because He can surely be found. The text tells us about God’s guidance: “You have held me by my right hand. 24. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” God personally holds us by the “right hand,” and guides us in life. We just need to feel His touch and know that He is there. But God also leads us with His counsel. I see His counsel in two ways. One is the counsel of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The other is the counsel of scripture. The Holy Spirit who inspired the scriptures is the same Holy Spirit that is with us on a daily basis. Jesus promised in John 16:13 that this would be true: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth…” We are not on our own, even when we read the scriptures. There is nothing like having the author present to guide us into biblical truth. Notice that it doesn’t end here, “and afterward receive me to glory.” He will guide us here, and will ultimately guide us into eternity with Him. As Jesus promised in John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” The text tells us that God is our greatest resource for everything, and every day, in our lives: “Whom have I in heaven but you: and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. 26. My flesh and my heart fail: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” (I used the word “resource” for lack of a better word.) The Lord wants to touch every aspect of our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves trying to go it alone, and we discover that this will not work. We have the great promise that the Lord will be available to us at all times, and we can depend on His presence and His help. Like Asaph, our “flesh and hearts fail, but God is the strength of our hearts and is our portion forever.” This is a good thing to remember in the trials of life. Claim the promise of it for yourself! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|