"At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders." NIV
What I want to call attention to in this text is the word "so." It is a teeny little adverb that speaks volumes. It carries the meaning of the bigger word "consequently." It can also mean "as a result of." Now catch the meaning of "so" in the text. Paul and Barnabas encountered great opposition to the gospel message. One would have thought that the Jews would have received it gladly, but they did not. They stirred up the Gentiles, who were probably considering embracing Judaism, and "poisoned their minds against the brothers." This is where "so" comes in. One would have thought that Paul and Barnabas would have just given up and stopped trying to teach about Jesus. But what we read here is that as a result of the opposition that they encountered, they stayed on there for a considerable time and spoke "boldly for the Lord." What does this "so" message mean to us? It means that when we encounter opposition, which we do increasingly today, we are not to give up and move on, rather we are to "hunker down" and keep preaching and teaching the good news of Jesus Christ. If the message about Jesus was that important to Paul and Barnabas, it should be that important for us. It does not mean that just because a group of people oppose the gospel they are right. These Jews were wrong in their opposition to the gospel, just as people who oppose the gospel today are wrong. If we are presenting a message about our politics or our own ideas, then they might be right. But if we are presenting the good news about Jesus Christ, they are wrong. Just because people disagree with what we have to say about Jesus does not mean that we have been naughty and need to have our hands slapped. Indeed, we are doing what Jesus told us to do. But we need to be careful here about our attitudes toward those who oppose the gospel. We must remember to act in a loving way and not in an argumentative and confrontational way. It has been my experience that the hostile approach does not work, and besides this, it is an unchristian approach. I know that it is difficult not to become angry when, for example, that which you hold dear is denigrated by someone. In those cases, we just need to remember that Jesus forgave all of those who crucified Him – including us. He said: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do. It means that we should not use opposition to the gospel as an excuse for not obeying Jesus and spreading HIs word to the world. We might say, "Well, if they feel that way about it, we just won't tell them about it." Then we huff and puff and stomp off. This is not what Paul and Barnabas did. As a result of opposition Paul and Barnabas hung in there and preached the word. This is what we are to do. There were times when the apostles "shook the dust off their feet" and moved on, but that was God's decision and not theirs. We need to "stay with it" until God tells us to move on. We need to pray that when we face opposition to the gospel, we will not let that stop us and fill us with our own doubts. We need to remember that early Christians like Paul and Barnabas kept going, even under death threats. "So" what does this say to us? It tells us that we need to follow the lead of Paul and Barnabas and let nothing stand in the way of telling others about Jesus. Bro. Joe
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"Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."
This is a good message to our hurried and impatient world. It tells us to "be still." The essence of "be still" is to actually "stop." (It is translated "stop" in other places in the Bible.) I remind myself of this often as I hurry and rush through life. The psalmist is reminding us that we sometimes just have to stop and think about what we are thinking or about what we are doing. I know that there are a lot of things that I have done in my life that I would not have done if I had just stopped and thought. We sometimes ask ourselves after some rash thing we have said and done: "What was I thinking?" God's word is telling us, in our vernacular, "Use your head." We are told here to stop and think, and to remember who we are and whose we are. If we will inject God into our thinking, I think that you will agree we will be less prone to do some of the things that we do. I can look back over through my eighty years of life and wonder where I missed the God quotient in some of the less than smart things that I did. (I guess I should have used stupid things that I did. But do not be too hard on me, you can probably think of some of these times in your own life.) If David had stopped and thought, he might not have had the Bathsheba episode in his life. If Simon Peter had stopped and thought, he might not have denied the Lord three times. I could go on and on with this, but I think that by now that you understand that "using our heads for something besides a hat rack" applies to the decisions that we make in life. What is the purpose of our stopping? The psalmist tells us that we need to stop and know that God is God. God is not a figment of our imaginations; rather He is the God of the universe, our creator, our redeemer, our hope. We need to remember that God Almighty takes us seriously, and He that He takes the decisions that we make in life seriously. Won't you agree that there were a lot of things that you have done that you would not have done if you had stopped and considered that God knew what you were doing? Where God is concerned, nothing that we think or do is a secret! What are to learn from this short scripture? We need to stop and consider that nothing is hidden from God, and before we make a decision in our lives, we need to stop, think, and consider the implications of what we are about to do where God is concerned. What will God think about what we are about to do? I will admit that my life would have been less complicated if I had stopped and thought about God before making some of the decisions I made in my life. And, if you will be honest with yourself, you will admit that this is also true in your life. Bro. Joe "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
This verse is loaded with encouragement for as we face the devil's temptations. It reminds that God is our refuge. I remember the old gospel hymn: "I found a hiding place, a blessed hiding place..." Whatever we face, we have a place of refuge in our Lord. We need to remember this verse when we feel overcome by life. Nothing that happens in our lives is beyond the notice, or the help, of our God. We do not have to face life alone, for God is "a very present help and strength." This reminds us that God is always present in whatever we may face in life. You can read this: "God is my refuge." I think that we sometimes forget that we are not facing life's battle alone -- in our own strength. We have a promise in this verse that God is our "very present help in trouble..," Another translation of this is that God is "a helper that is always found in times of trouble." "Always" means that God never leaves us to fight the battles of life on our own. You might think that you are facing something now that you cannot defeat. Just remember that you cannot gain the victory in your own strength, but you can find victory in the strength of Almighty God. That strength is available to you when you place your trust in the Lord. The Bible constantly reminds us that God's people face troubles and temptations of all kinds, and that they are delivered when they lean on the strength of God. God's strength is available to you. If you will reach out to God, you will find Him reaching out to you. Remember that God "is your refuge and strength." Find that refuge and strength for your own life today. Bro. Joe "Psalm 36:5: "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.”
Messages about God's nature can be very confusing today. If you listen to some preachers, God has given up and encourages us in any old kind of lifestyle. If you listen to others they tell you that God is so mad at you that He literally wants to send you to hell. Of course, both of these are caricatures of the two natures of God portrayed in the Bible. He is a God of wrath. Anyone who reads the Bible knows that is true. You could talk to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah about whether or not God will show His wrath. Ask the spies that Moses sent out to spy out the “promised land.” Because they refused to go in and take the land, that whole generation (40 years) had to die out before the Jews could go into Canaan. Ask the people who were buying and selling in the temple and had turned it into a house of merchandise instead of a holy place. If you remember, Jesus went into that part of the temple and raised havoc with those people. Ask the self-righteous Pharisees, who certainly felt the wrath of Jesus when He literally called them a bunch of snakes. He even refers to Himself as a "jealous God." What He meant by that was not that He was insecure in His relationship with His people, but that He longs for them to live the kind of lives that He would have them live. I think this basically means that our behavior sometimes breaks God’s heart. The Bible teaches us in 1 John 4:8b that "God is love." I hope that you will notice with me that the Bible never says that “God is wrath,” nor does it ever say that “God is jealousy." Thank God that He is the God of mercy (and grace). If He wasn't we would all be in very deep trouble. The greatest example of His mercy, of course, is the coming of Jesus Christ into the world to share His mercy on the cross. Jesus is God's personal statement of His mercy - "mercy in the flesh." Without the mercy of God, we would have to live daily with His wrath. What I know about His wrath from the Bible, I prefer mercy. I do not have space in this post to share all of the references to God’s mercy in the Bible, but I will share two. In Psalm 23:6, in the great “Shepherd's Psalm" David declared that God’s “goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life.” Psalm 119:4 informs us that: “The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.” The second aspect of His love is Faithfulness. Throughout the Bible, God proves himself faithful. John 1:9 states that "If we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." This means that if we sin and come to God in true repentance, He will practice mercy and be faithful to forgive us. Being faithful means that when we come to Him in true confession, the Lord will always forgive us. This is one of the greatest promises of the Bible. God is always faithful to His people. For example, we read in Psalm 37:8: “For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” Paul gave us an example of God’s faithfulness in Romans 8:31: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Let us be grateful that in His great love, God did not leave us with only His wrath, but that He practices mercy and faithfulness in our lives. Thank Him! Bro. Joe "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. 13. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain (or spring) of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
If you are seeking a god who does not care what you do, do not read Jeremiah. He was God's prophet in Judah just before the Babylonians invaded Judah, destroyed the temple, killed many people and took others captive to Babylon. He was called as a young man to warn the people about their coming doom, which he did in plain and simple language. Jeremiah 2:11-13 is an example of this plain and simple language. The people of Judah had made a bad trade when they traded their worship of Jehovah for the worship of useless idols. In verse 13, he pointed out two evils, or we might say two useless things, that Judah had done. First, they forsook "the fountain (or spring) of living waters." This is a metaphor for the favor of God versus the favor of the world. God is depicted as a refreshing spring that flows with refreshing water. Second, they traded the refreshing spring for cisterns of their own making. A cistern did not have a natural flow of water. It was a hole in the ground that caught rainwater. To make matters worse, the cisterns they dug were porous and would not hold water. This meant that the idols they had chosen over God were useless. The choice of rainwater over refreshing spring water is a bad choice - a bad trade. Second, in Jeremiah 2:27-28, the prophet tells them how bad this trade was: "They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us.' 28. Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns." (NIV) They had traded God, who could really help them, for gods who were absolutely useless. If you have forsaken your Biblical faith, what have you traded it for? Many have traded their faith for secularism. Any trade for genuine worship of and service for God/Jesus is a bad trade. If you are maintaining your faith, be grateful that you have not made a bad choice. Bro. Joe “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. 8. with him only is the arm of the flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.”
Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz, who was a wicked king of Judah. My understanding of it is that Hezekiah saw the futility of his father’s leadership away from God and wanted to do better. At the time Hezekiah became King of Judah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had defeated the northern kingdom of Israel and was threatening Judah. Hezekiah turned to the Lord and put his faith in Him, knowing that God could deliver His people. In our text, Hezekiah told the people “do not be afraid or discouraged.” That is a good message for us in the trying times in which we live. Why did Hezekiah tell Judah not to be afraid or discouraged? Hezekiah had put his faith in the Lord, and had listened to the godly counsel of the prophet Isaiah; therefore he was assured that Judah would be safe. He realized that the Lord was greater than the king of Assyria. Here is what he told his people: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and his vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him.” That is s statement of faith that is as relevant today as it was when Hezekiah made it. For example, here is what John told the recipients of his letter in 1 John 4:4: “You, dear children are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” The “one who is in the world” is Satan the enemy of God and His people. We should not be afraid or discouraged because our Lord Jesus Christ is greater than any enemy that would defeat us. This is not always an easy lesson to learn. I find myself getting discouraged and afraid sometimes. That’s why I read the Bible every day. We need constant reminders of the greatness of our Lord. What Hezekiah said and what John wrote is still true: “There is a greater power with us than with (the world)," and He that is in us is “greater than he who is in the world." Furthermore, Hezekiah could make this claim because he knew this about Sennacherib: “With him is only the arm of the flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” Do you think that the passage of time has made this any less true for us than it did for Judah? God forbid that we believe that the God who delivered Judah at this time is not able to deliver us in our times of trouble. If we will believe we can overcome everything that would hinder us. This does not mean that we will not meet with problems along the way. What it does mean is that we will still have the help of the Lord to get us through to the other side of our problems. I hope that your response to Hezekiah’s confident message will be like Judah’s: “And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.” Judah believed what the king said because it came from God. We can believe what Hezekiah said and what John wrote about God being greater than Satan and “the arm of the flesh.” This remains forever true. We think that because life is not all smooth sailing that God is not fighting our battle. We need to remember that we live in a fallen world, as Hezekiah and Judah did, but we have strength that is far above that of Satan and the world. Settle in your mind and heart today that you will heed and believe the message that we do not have to be discouraged or afraid. Bro. Joe "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His name. 5. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His mercy endures to all generations."
The picture given here is of entering into the gates and courts of the Jerusalem temple. We are to enter with thanksgiving and praise. When we pray, we should be thankful for the opportunity, and our hearts should be full of praise. It is not required of God to let us into prayer to Him, and we should certainly be thankful for the opportunity of prayer and praise. The question is, do we enter into prayer with the feeling of thanksgiving and praise? Do we ever stop to think of what a privilege it is to be able to pray? All we have to do is open ourselves to God, and He hears us. Because of God's grace and love, He wants to hear from us. How often do you take advantage of the prayer opportunity? God wants to hear from you -- so pray, and be thankful for the opportunity. The text also mentions that we should not only be thankful for the opportunity of prayer, but that we also enter into prayer with praise. This does not actually mean that we should just verbally praise God, but that our hearts and minds should also be filled with praise to Him. After all, what is in our minds and hearts when we pray is important. Our God of grace and love, actually wants to hear from us. How often do you open up your heart and mind in prayer and praise to God? We should start each day with prayer, pray during the day, and as we close our eyes in sleep. we should be in an attitude of prayer. Why should be pray to and offer praise for God: "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." Because of God's goodness, His eternal mercy and His enduring truth, God wants to hear from us. Please do not believe that God is "out to get you." Actually, He is out to "get" you, because He wants the ownership of your life, and because He wants to be in eternal fellowship with you. How can one say "NO" to the God Who says to "YES" to us in spite of our sins? He wants to apply His mercy and truth to your life. If you have not already done so, apply His mercy and truth to your life. He actually wants that to happen in your life. Ask for His forgiveness, and invite Him into your life and you will personally discover God's everlasting mercy and His enduring truth. What on earth could keep you from seeking and finding God's everlasting mercy and eternal truth for your life? How? Sincerely ask Him and open your heart and mind to Him. God's mercy and truth are available to you, either ask Him for it, or praise Him because of it! Bro. Joe 'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. 3. Know ye that the Lord He is God: It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves: we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture."
These verses call us to joy in our Christian profession. I think that joy is the missing ingredient in our personal witness and in our corporate, or church, witness today. It is almost as if we endure church instead of joyfully serving Christ in our corporate witness. First, they tell us that we are to remember to be joyful in our worship. This does not mean we are to necessarily be loud in our worship of God, but that we are to be joyful in our worship. What comes to my mind is that in our congregational singing, we are to sing with joy in our hearts, and not just sing words. I try to concentrate on the words in the hymns that we sing, and I find that they were written to encourage us in our faith, and to be offered as a musical praise of Almighty God. In other words, I do not want to just sing words, but to stamp the historic meaning of the words on my heart. Second, they tell us that we are to "serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing." Are we glad that the Lord enables us to serve Him? The service that we are called to, whatever that might be in our individual commitment and in our gifts of service, is obviously important to God and should be important to us. For example, if you teach a Sunday School class, do you teach it gladly or grudgingly? Think about that sentence for a moment, and ask yourself if you gladly serve the Lord? I recall standing in the vestibule of a church in which I was the guest preacher one Sunday, waiting for the worship service to begin, and when the time for the service to begin a deacon standing there with me said: "Let's go in and get it over with." I remember thinking that he was really not looking forward to the ensuing worship service. Well, what is your attitude toward corporate worship in your church? Do you want to "get the service over with," or do you look forward to it with gladness? Are you a glad worshiper or a grudging worshiper? Are you a glad servant or a grudging servant? Third, verse 3 reminds us that we are to remember Who it is that we are worshiping and serving: "Know ye that the Lord He is God, it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." We should be glad that the God Who created us loves us and wants to use us in His service. We are worshiping God - our creator, Who loved us enough to send His Son to be our Savior! This thought should gladden our hearts and cause us to "make a joyful noise" unto Him. Look at this way: Are you a glad servant of God or a grudging servant? Are you a glad worshiper, or a grudging worshiper? Let's praise Almighty God with gladness, and be joyful, and glad, in our Christian service! Bro. Joe “Thou therefore endure hardness (hardship) as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
In first and second Timothy Paul was giving his “son in the ministry-Timothy” some advice about enduring what he had to in order to serve Jesus Christ. Here he told Timothy to “endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Another biblical word for endurance is perseverance. Both mean to keep on keeping on no matter what. This morning as I was doing my arm workouts, I thought to myself: “How much longer will I have to do this?” Then a little “still small voice” said: “You can quit doing this when you want flabby ‘grandpa arms’.” (Lest I lead you astray about my fitness, I will add – “flabbier than they already are.”) The idea is that there are disciplines that we must maintain if we want to stay fit. Things like lifting weights (Not "pumping iron" by any means.), walking on my treadmill, or riding my stationary bike, are disciplines that I have to maintain if i want to stay fit. These things seem like a hardship, but they are not really when I consider the good that they do for me. Of course, this got me to thinking about other disciplines in my life that are not necessarily hardships, but things that I must maintain if I am to stay spiritually fit. Remember, this is not just about me, but about you as well. There is the discipline of prayer. Every morning when I get up, I go to my place of prayer and pray for the people in my life, for the ill, for missionaries, etc. I don’t mean to be smug about this, but prayer “centers” me before I have to face whatever I have to face during the day. I want to recommend that you have a discipline of prayer as well. If you aren’t a morning person, you can find the time that is best suited for you, but do it. I know that we can pray any time during the day that we want to, but I have found that keeping this prayer vigil each morning is a help to me during the day. By the way, when I finish my prayer time in the morning I do not say “amen,” because I’m not finished praying for the day. Paul reminded us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.” There is the discipline of Bible reading and Bible study. After my prayer time each morning, I read eight chapters from the Bible – two from the New Testament and six from the Old Testament. (The reason for this is that the Old Testament is much longer than the New Testament.) I made a commitment over thirty years ago to be in the process of reading the Bible through all of the time. This usually means in a year, but not necessarily. It is very important that you find time to read the word of God each day, and that you read it systematically. The Bible is not just a book of religious teachings; it is a book about God’s redemption. I strongly urge you to make a commitment to read your Bible every day. Paul gave Timothy, and us, this advice: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15' There are other disciplines that I could write about, but I think these two are the most important to us personally as we seek to grow in Christ. I wrote above that these disciplines are not necessarily hardships, like working out flabby arms, but they can seem that way if we aren’t careful. Satan will do anything to keep us from our prayer closets and from the Bible. He trembles when we pray and when we read the Bible. Satan wants us to think that all spiritual disciplines are hardships, and not as pleasant to our senses as some other things that we could do. But listen to the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit, who will urge you endure in spite of the temptation to surrender the time that you spend in prayer and Bible study. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to live a victorious Christian life without incorporating prayer and Bible reading into your daily routine. Bro. Joe “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. 26. It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord. 27. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.”
If you know anything about the Book of Lamentations, you know that, for the most part, it lives up to its name. It is the book written by Jeremiah as he lamented over the Babylonian Captivity of Judah. But there are bright spots within the book too. One example is in verse 22 of chapter 3: “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end…” Then there are the verses that are printed above that hold out hope in God, even through difficult times. It is about waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord can be difficult, for He does not work within our time frame, but He works within His own time frame for our good. Jeremiah tells us that “the Lord is good to those who wait for Him.” All I have to share with you on this particular verse is what I have experienced in my own life as I have waited on the Lord. When Jeremiah writes that the “Lord is good to those who wait for Him,” he means that God is doing good things in our lives while we wait for Him. God’s Spirit is always active in our lives, and He ministers to us through all of the events of our lives and through all of the things that happen in our lives - good and bad. The important thing is that we will not realize God’s goodness for us while we wait, if in the process we do not seek Him and seek His will and way for us. What are you waiting for right now in your life? (I guess that we are always waiting for something.) This is the time to seek the Lord, to draw from His wisdom while you wait for the next thing that He is going to do. I should tell you that the Lord might remind you that you are waiting for the wrong thing and that He has something better for you. I have discovered that seeking the Lord while I wait is not a painful process. In fact it is a wonderful process, for while we wait, we learn a lot about our Lord if we will just open our minds and hearts to Him. So, while you are waiting, trust in God, listen to Him, and know that He only wants the best for you, and that He wants you to see what is best for you as He does. I have stopped trying to predict what God has next in store for me. I guess that the best thing to do is to wait quietly for Him and enjoy the wait. Whatever you are waiting for today, stop and pray, seek the Lord, for He has an answer for you. Remember the admonition in verse 26: “It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord.” Don’t get impatient with God, and stop complaining about the wait and get ready for God’s deliverance. Verse 27 offers the best advice for us while we are waiting: “It is good for a man (or woman) to bear the yoke while he (or she) is still young.” I don’t think that I will change the word of God if I shorten this a bit to say: “It is good for a man (or woman) to bear the yoke” whatever stage of life he or she is in. Bearing the yoke is a biblical way of saying that we are to serve God. Oxen are put in the yoke to work. While we are waiting on the Lord, we do not sit idly by and just meditate on what His master plan for us might be. He wants us to be active while we wait. He wants us to serve Him while we wait. Waiting on the Lord does not make us selfish. It does not just lead us to navel-gazing and wondering what’s next for us. While we are waiting, there are needs out there that God wants to use us to meet. There are people out there who need a word from God from us, whether it is a vocal witness or an encouraging word. God wants us to reflect on His part in our lives and on His will in our lives, but He does not just call us to quiet reflection. He calls us to reach out to a world in dire need of Him, and share with the world what we know of Him. Take the advice of Jesus: “Look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35b) Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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