“I will praise the name of God With a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. 31. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. 32. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.”
Praising God is important. I looked in my concordance for the word “praise” and I found line after line of scripture references about praising God. I did not count them, but there were a lot of them. Psalm 69:30-32 is a case in point. In verse 30 David tells us how to praise God. He says that he will praise God with a song. My personal take on this is that God put a song on David’s heart and he would sing the song to the Lord. I sometimes praise God with singing the old hymns that I have sung over the years. (I know a lot of them by heart, except for the third verse of most four verse hymns. I think you know why.) When a song arises in my heart, I find myself singing it to God. But this “song” can also just be silent praise of God/Jesus. David also wrote that he would magnify God with thanksgiving. The NIV translates “magnify” as “glorify.” Both words mean that God's presence in our lives is so overwhelming that we will praise Him with great thanksgiving. The song and the thanksgiving can come at the strangest times. It can come when we are sitting in church; it can come when we are driving, or it can come when we are in the middle of a workday. This praise and thanksgiving does not have to be loud, or public, it just has to come from our hearts if not from our mouths. Do you have a song in your heart that leads you to thank Him? In verse 32 David tells us one of the results of praising God: “This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.” What this means is that the praise that comes from our hearts is more pleasing to God than the religious things that we do. The reference to bullocks is a reference to the animal sacrifices made at the tabernacle, and later the temple. To us this means that God is more pleased with praise than He is if we just “go to church” and it doesn’t make any difference in our lives. I think that we have to have some ritual in our public worship, but when it becomes the end rather than the means to an end, then we are not pleasing God. God is pleased when we praise Him, not because He has an ego that needs it; rather He is pleased when we genuinely praise Him because He knows that we need to do that and that it is good for us spiritually. If you want to please God, you can please Him by genuine heartfelt worship. Of course, this is not the only way that we can please God, but it is certainly a good start. . In verse 33, David tells us that our heartfelt praise influences other people: “The humble (or the meek) shall see this, and be glad…” I think this means that the people whose hearts are open to seeking God will be influenced by our praise. It is important, however, that our praise cause them to praise God rather than praising us. Our witness serves as a witness to people about our God. But David added something that means our influence will be inward as well: “and your hearts shall live that seek God.” When we praise God our hearts come alive, our faith grows, our witness becomes more powerful and our lives are changed day by day. The point is that when we are secure within our own hearts, we will be a greater influence on others. What happens when we praise God? We draw closer to God, we please Him and we influence others. Bro. Joe
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“And (Moses) cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.”
The Israelites were on their journey from Egypt when they became thirsty and looked for water. They found water, but the water was bitter, which means it was probably stagnant. Moses took a tree and threw it into the water and it became sweet – or fit to drink. Before that the people had complained to Moses because they were thirsty. This was not the first time that they complained and not the last, but at that moment bitter waters were made sweet and Israel’s thirst was satisfied. What can we learn from this event? The first thing that we notice is that this was first and foremost an act of God. Exodus 15:24-25 will reveal this to us: “And the people murmured against Moses saying, What shall we drink? 25. And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.” It is important to note that “the Lord showed him a tree.”This was not a magic tree, and Moses was not a miracle worker. It was God who enabled Israel to have water to drink. Psalm 24 tells us that “the earth is the Lord’s and fullness thereof…” We should recognize that it is God who provides the means for our own “bitter waters” to be made sweet. We need to recognize that what God did for Moses and Israel, He has done and will do for us. God will turn the bitterness of sin into the sweetness of forgiveness. The main problem with the human condition is sin. People have always tried to redefine sin and make it less bitter, but they have not succeeded, nor will they succeed. It is the bitterness of sin that causes so much consternation in our world. It is the bitterness of sin that caused Jesus to say that there would always be “wars and rumors of wars.” Sin is the main problem of every human being. It is only when we recognize that we have “sinned and come short of the glory of God,” that we will seek the forgiveness of Jesus and have our own “bitter waters” made sweet. The great thing is that, even when we sin after we are saved, Jesus has promised to forgive us and to cleanse us. We do not have to live in the bitterness of sin. God will take away our bitter attitudes and put sweet attitudes in their place. Throughout His sojourn on earth, Jesus was mistreated by religious leaders. The wonderful thing was that He did not become bitter in His spirit. We know this because His first words from the cross were sweet words: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” If you know anything about the apostle Paul, you know that he was mistreated. From the day that he turned from his bitter ways to become a Christian, he was under a death sentence. People did not just disagree with Paul, they wanted to kill him. In spite of this He was able to write in Ephesians 4:31-32: “Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate), forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” I think you see the point that I am making here that all kinds of things that could make us bitter can be sweetened by the Lord. Jesus stands ready make the bitter things sweet in our lives. Throw yourself on Him in faith and let your “bitter waters be made sweet.” Do it! Bro. Joe "Christ and the Common People" Mark 12:37
“And the common people heard Him (Jesus) gladly.” I think that Abe Lincoln had it right when he said, “God must love common people, because He made so many of them.” I don’t know if we would care to be called “common people” but we must admit that most people in the world are just that. Common people are people who are not in power. They are everyday people who live their lives in anonymity and who kind of live in the background. In reality, this is most of us if you give it a broad definition. In fact the people who were not part of the power structure loved what Jesus said; therefore, “they heard Him gladly.” Why did they hear Jesus gladly? Let me tell you why I believe the common people heard Him gladly. They heard Jesus gladly because they knew that He genuinely loved them. People know when they are being schmoozed and when they are hearing someone who is genuine. The gospels give some passages where Jesus interacted with children. Children will not be fooled by less than genuine love. They can pick up on a hypocrite quickly. When His disciples tried to keep children from coming to Him, He told them to “forbid them not.” In just the same way, the people knew that Jesus was genuine and that He really loved them. They heard Jesus gladly because they knew that He recognized their worth. This is easy to prove by Jesus’ choices for His disciples. Jesus did not call one disciple that was part of the religious hierarchy of the Jewish people. His first four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John were all common fishermen who had no formal training. Matthew was a tax collector. He might have been part of some power structure, but not the Jewish power structure. In fact, Matthew would have been hated by the Scribes and Pharisees for being in tandem with the Roman government. But Jesus chose these men, and others, anyway. I’m sure that this did not go unnoticed by the common people. They heard Jesus gladly because He spoke with authority. When Jesus finished what we call “The Sermon on the Mount,” Matthew wrote: “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”(Matthew 7:28-29) When the people heard the scribes teach, they simply quoted from the various laws that the people were expected to live by, though many of them were manmade and not in scripture. They recognized that Jesus’ message did not have its source in the world, but that what He spoke was genuine. Much of what Jesus taught in The Sermon on the Mount was refuted by the so-called authorities. They heard Jesus gladly because He spoke plainly. What Jesus taught them was not difficult to understand. It might have been difficult to live up to, but they had no problem understanding what He was saying. You would think that someone who came from heaven would not be able to communicate with common people, but this was certainly not true of Jesus. It is not difficult to understand such words as “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” It is plain and simple. It is not difficult to understand the “Golden Rule” written in Matthew 7:12: “Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” It would be impossible to give all of the reasons why common people heard Jesus gladly. I hope these will suffice. Bro. Joe` “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
The disciples were rejoicing that they were able, through Jesus, to see people healed, etc. Jesus told them that this is not the reason to rejoice, but that they should rejoice because their “names are written in heaven.” This is also a reason for us to rejoice. This statement of Jesus has a wider meaning, and I want to share that wider meaning with you. If our names are written in heaven, it means that we have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. This means that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. We do not have to walk through the maze of life without guidance from the Lord. Jesus gave a promise of this in John 16:13: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and will show you things to come.” A relationship with Jesus means that we have divine guidance in understanding scripture, doing the right thing in decisions that we make in life and we have the power to help us live victoriously and witness effectively. Because of this relationship with Jesus, we can have daily fellowship with Him, and we can call on Him in prayer all day every day. Because of this relationship with Jesus, we have said yes to God’s eternal plan of salvation. If our names are written in heaven, it means that we have fellowship with others who have their names written in heaven. It is a shame that we have come to see Christian fellowship as having a party after church on Sunday night. This is one example of the misunderstanding of Christian fellowship. Real Christian fellowship is not a matter of just attending church together, although that is certainly part of it. As I have grown older and have been through a real crisis in my life in the past three years, I see Christian fellowship as having people praying for you on a daily basis. There is nothing to take the place of knowing that people are praying for you, and that they really care about you. This kind of Christian fellowship reaches far beyond the local church. But I do not want to demean fellowship in the local church, because that is an important part of Christian fellowship. In the local church fellowship, we study the Bible together, we pray together and we worship God together through singing, giving, preaching and responding to the message. We also minister to each other and encourage each other during trying times in life. I thank God that I am part of a local fellowship of Christian people. If our names are written in heaven, it means that we have assurance of eternal life. We need to remember that eternal life does not begin when we die and go to heaven. Eternal life begins when Jesus indwells us with His Spirit and gives us the divine resources that only He can give. Eternal life is the gift that God gives us for putting our faith and trust in His Son. It is an invitation to never-ending life. Jesus made a promise to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in John 11:25-26 that applies to us as well: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 26. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die…” That is an amazing promise. It means that death is not the end of life, but the beginning of a greater life than we could ever know on this earth. My prayer for you today is that your name is written in heaven because of your belief in Jesus Christ. Bro. Joe “Who is the (person) who delights in life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good? 13. Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. 14. Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.” (HCSB)
We call a person who “delights in life” a happy person. These three verses tell us what can make us happy people. First, if we want to be happy people we should “keep (our) tongues from evil.” This could be a reference to evil in general, such as cursing, but I see it as an admonition not to speak evil of other people. I have discovered that gossips are not happy people. They are not happy because they observe people only to criticize them or to tear them down. This kind of thinking comes from malice in the heart. Malice is anger that has settled into a person’s mind and heart and seeks to do evil. Those who speak evil of other people are malicious people. I have heard it said that: “small minds discuss people and great minds discuss ideas.” Malicious people are small-minded people. A lot of people have been destroyed by gossip, and a lot of churches have been torn apart by gossip. If you want to be a happy person, do not speak evil of other people. Second, if we want to be happy people, we should “Keep (our) tongues from deceitful speech.” This means that we should be truthful people. There is something intrinsically bred into the human heart that longs for truth. That which is untrue is not real, in fact, it is counterfeit. Just as a counterfeit twenty dollar bill is worthless, a counterfeit tale is worthless. We have probably all known people of whom it could be said that you never know whether they are telling the truth or not. Most of the time this deceitful speech comes in the form of exaggeration. Some people have a tendency to “stretch the truth” when they are talking about themselves. The problem with people who habitually lie, or deceive, is that we cannot trust them. A person who cannot be trusted cannot be a happy person. Third, if we want to be happy people, we should: “turn away from evil and do good.” We are faced with choices everyday as to whether or not we are going to do good or evil. You have seen cartoons where a person will have an angel on one shoulder telling the person to do what is right, and a demon on the other shoulder telling the person to do what is evil. We know that the angels and demons are not literally there, but the cartoon does represent a truth. The devil, whose very purpose is to deceive, continually goads us to do wrong. The Holy Spirit continually urges us to do right. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what is right. This is especially true in our relationships with people. We should seek to always do, or say, what is good for the other person instead of what is evil. We should seek to do, or say, that which will build up another person instead of tear him or her down. Happy people do good instead of evil. Fourth, if we want to be happy people, we should: “seek peace and pursue it.” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed (happy) are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” If you want to be a happy person, seek to bring peace wherever you are instead of discord. You can’t be happy if you sow discord wherever you are. Based on this text, are you a happy person? Bro. Joe “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 16. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
At some point in life one has to grow up. The same is true of Christians: At some point we have to grow up in the faith. Paul wrote this about growing up in 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man (adult), I put away childish things.” He wrote this in the great “love chapter”of the Bible. He grew up when loving God and others became one of his priorities in life. I don’t think that we can claim growth until we learn the importance of love in our lives. We are given no choice in the New Testament but to love people. This does not mean that we will love the way all people behave, nor, for that matter does it mean that we will always love the way we behave. Though it is scoffed at today, I think that “love the sinner and hate the sin” is a good philosophy to adopt in a grown up Christian’s life. This does not mean that we can demean and belittle people, but it does mean that we that we can lovingly disagree with people about various things. Paul also wrote to the Ephesians about growing up. He wrote this in the context of using our God-given gifts in growing up in Christ. When we grow up as Christians we become settled in our Christian beliefs and are not easily fooled by what Paul described in another place as “wolves.” There are always those people out there who try to push off almost anything as Christian belief. When we mature in Christ, we realize that anything that detracts from the centrality of Christ in our lives will be detrimental to our faith. We should grow up to the point that we can be no more, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” At some point, we just need to wise up. Here comes that word “love”again. Paul doesn’t leave room for us to be insulting and self-righteous with people, because he points out that we should “speak the truth in love.” This means that when we grow up in Christ we become more Christ like in our approach to people. This is one reason that I have stopped arguing with people about my faith (and my politics). When we start to argue, love goes out the window and being like Christ takes a back seat to proving our point. Obviously, there are times when I would really like to argue, but I know that it always ends disastrously. I think that quitting arguing has been part of my growing up in Christ, and it has come late in my Christian life. Love is important in Christian growth, but it is not the only element involved. Of course you know that prayer and Bible reading have a part in Christian growth. There is no way that one can grow up in Christ without prayer and Bible reading. These are two disciplines practiced by every great Christian who has lived over the last two-thousand years. They disagreed about a lot of things, but they certainly agreed on this. I think that another thing that ties into our Christian growth and is an outgrowth of our prayer, Bible reading and love, is accepting all of the circumstances of life in a Christian spirit. I must confess that I have been put to the test over the last year and a half because of cancer and surgery, but I think that I grew up in the midst of it. I have heard it said that “time and circumstance happen to all people.” This is true, and we have to learn to “roll with the punches.” This is what Paul meant when he wrote that he had learned to be content in all things –whether good or bad. Like growing into adults in life, it is the same in our Christian lives. We have a lot of stops and starts, ups and downs, and we have to cope with them in faith. It is my prayer that you have learned that and that I have learned it well too. Bro. Joe “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
We do not read far into the Bible before we discover that evil is going to be a problem for all of mankind, and womankind, lest women feel left out. In fact, we don’t get more than three chapters into Genesis before we see evil raise its ugly head. Evil is present because of on evil personage – the devil. All you have to do to spell devil is to add a d to evil. We have to deal with evil from the time we are born until we leave this earth. Paul knew that evil could overcome us, so he exhorted us to overcome evil with good. The first thing we need to know about evil is that it does not look like our concept of evil. We think of evil as something ugly and deranged. Even pictures of our concept of the devil show him to be an ugly red creature with horns and a pitchfork. That concept is not what we find in the Bible. Paul wrote about Satan in 2 Corinthians 11:14: “And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” The devil is smart enough to not make evil look bad, in fact, it sometimes looks very good. Think of how the old serpent Satan made the forbidden fruit look to Eve. It was almost as if she had to have that fruit to find fulfillment in life. No, evil does not always resemble what we call evil. The pornography industry is making billions of dollars by making evil look good. I am reminded of a country song that was on the charts in the 1970’s, entitled “It Don’t Feel Like Sinning to Me.” The song was about a woman who was having an illicit affair and since it didn’t feel like sinning, it was alright. Go ahead and confess that evil does not always, or rarely, look like our concept of evil. To be fore warned is to be forearmed. The second thing we need to know about evil is that we will always have to deal with it. The devil would not leave Jesus alone, and he certainly will not leave us alone. He tempted Jesus to do his bidding on what we have come to call “The Mount of Temptation.” In one of the temptations, he told Jesus to behold all of the kingdoms of the world, and he would give them to him if Jesus would fall down and worship him. Aren’t we glad that Jesus refused to do his bidding!!!! Perhaps the devil thought that this was a weakness within Jesus. It wasn’t a weakness within Jesus, but it is within us. The devil knows our every weakness and he will play on our weaknesses all day long. That is why we need to bathe our days in prayer. I’m not sharing something here that I have heard about; rather; I am sharing something that I know firsthand all too well. He loves to destroy the witness of a Christian, and he does it all of the time. The third thing we need to know about evil is to share Paul’s admonition in this verse pertaining to evil, i.e., “overcome evil with good.” One way we can interpret this is that if the devil tempts us to dislike, or hate, someone we should make every effort to love them. I will warn you that the devil will not make this easy. Another way to interpret it is that if you want to say something hurtful and spiteful to someone, instead say something kind and uplifting. Again, this will not be easy. I could go on and on giving illustrations of how we can overcome evil with good, because there is no limit to the ways that we can do this. Jesus told us that when people say ugly things to us we should bless them instead of react in kind. I don’t know about you, but this has been a hard lesson for me, and I still have to work on it. I guess that the best thing to say is that when our minds turn toward evil we should turn them toward good, and depend on Jesus to get us through it. Become aware of the evil around you and overcome it with good. Bro. Joe “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.”
The title “The Lord Is Good" seems redundant. To say the least, it is to state the obvious. No one in his right mind would say that God is not good, or that God is bad. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible reveals the goodness of God. The text verse puts God’s goodness in perspective. There is a statement of fact about God, that He is good. What does that mean? Does it mean that God is good in that everything He does, He does to please us? This is not how the Bible describes the goodness of God. The goodness of God is revealed in the fact that God does what is best for us whether we agree with it or not. For example, the goodness of God is seen in Acts, where Paul is trying to get to Rome to visit the church there and to take the message of Christ to the most important venue in the world at that time. Out of His goodness, God willed for Paul to go to Rome. In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that he wanted to visit them, and that he planned to visit them soon. Paul’s plan was probably to get on a ship and go to Rome – period. But that’s not how it happened. In the process of getting to Rome, Paul almost lost his life, went through a two year imprisonment in Caesarea, lived through a storm and shipwreck, was bitten by a snake, and eventually got to Rome as a house prisoner. Out of His goodness, God sent Paul to Rome, but He did it the way He would do it. (Hey, He’s God!) How is God’s goodness seen? Think of all the people that Paul encountered during all of the time that he was running for his life, undergoing imprisonment and taking a sea voyage. All of these people needed Jesus as much as the people in Rome, and Paul was used as God’s instrument to reach those people. Who is say that in all of the good and bad things that happen in your life, God is not trying to use you for the benefit of others? There is a statement of fact about the goodness of the Lord – He is good to all. This is difficult for us to see since there is so much suffering all over the world. That God is good to all does not mean everything is going good for all, but that God’s intention for the world is good. What has God done out of His goodness for the whole world? Read it: “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.” To most of the world, this news falls on deaf ears, but that is not God’s fault. We live in a fallen world, and in a fallen world suffering, war and all kinds of things take place, but this does not erase the fact that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to redeem it. Jesus died for the whole world, and the whole world goes its own way regardless of what God has done out of His goodness. Suffice it to say, God is good to you, and wants to bless you. Stop running from Him and experience the goodness that He has for you!!! There is a statement of fact about the nature of God – “and His tender mercies are over all His works.” The God of the Bible is a merciful God, and His mercies are included in everything that He does. The Bible tells us that God disciplines those He loves, those who belong to Him. He disciplines us out of His great mercy to keep us from making worse mistakes than we have already made. It is out of His mercy that God reminds us of our need to live for Him and not for the world, or just for ourselves. If people do not experience God’s mercy it is not His fault. When people run away from our merciful God, He lets them run and they pay the price for it. Throw yourself on God’s mercy! Depend on Him! See your need for Him, and you will experience His “tender mercies.” Bro. Joe “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle you.”
Floods have been used as a metaphor for the things in life that seem to carry us away on their currents. I remember the flood that we experienced in our area in 1994. I learned a lot about floods during that time. They do not just overrun you with water, but they bring a stinking mess with them and smell up the whole area. Life’s floods are like that too. They do not just overrun us; they stink up our lives as well. One thing is certain: we will all face “floods” of one kind or another. In these “floods” we learn to recognize the real danger and horror of sin, which makes us know that we need God to help us face, live through, and overcome these floods. The floods that we face should make us aware of our proneness to sin. Imagine that you are being overcome by flood waters. Imagine the helpless feeling that you would have if flood waters were flowing over you and carrying you away. This is similar to what sin often does in our lives. We feel helpless in the face of the temptations that seek to lead us astray. We say that we just can’t help it, the temptation was too much and we were in a weak moment. We need to learn to look at those temptations to sin like we would look at the water that was carrying us away. We need to be horrified about the direction that it would take us in life. Too often, people look back after the flood of dissipation has carried them away and say, “What was I thinking?” Think of sin as a river that will drown you if you let it have its way. The floods of life should make us more dependent on God. The only way out of the flood of sin is through Jesus Christ. In Romans 7 Paul told of his own experiences with sin. He was forlorn that, left to his own devices, he was helpless to overcome sin, to not do the things that he should not do and to do the things that he should do. How did he deal with this flood of sin? His solution is in verses 24-25: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25. I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." In Romans 8:1 Paul shared with us the result of turning to Jesus: “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Surviving life’s floods is not a “do it yourself project.” We need Jesus to help us not just stay afloat in the flood, but to deliver us from the flood. In Psalm 23:2b David gave us the answer to overcoming life’s floods: “He leads me beside still waters.” When the flood of dissipation seems to be overcoming us, we need to reach out to God and He will lead us away from the flood waters to still waters. If we are willing to learn, the floods of life can teach us about the love of God for us. He loves us enough to take our hands and lead us "beside still waters." He is powerful enough to stanch the flow of the river of sin and help us to stay spiritually alive. Too often, we underestimate the love and power of God. Jesus is not just a resource for us; He is the answer for us. Peter found this out when he was walking on the water to go to Jesus. He turned his eyes to the wind and waves and began to sink. He cried out for the Lord to save him, and the Lord reached down and lifted Peter out of the water. Jesus will do the same for us. Because of Jesus we are not powerless as we face the floods of life. Rejoice! Bro. Joe “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world; 13. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ: 14. Who gave Himself for us,that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
The world is always looking for a blessed hope. All over the world people are looking for hope. In some areas of the world hope is a hard thing to find because there is so much poverty and war. What the world needs to know is that we already have that blessed hope. We read about it in Titus 2:11-14. Here is the essence of that blessed hope. It is based on “the grace of God that brings salvation.” The Bible presents God as the source of all hope. This is why many people never find the hope that they are seeking, because they are looking for it in the world. The problem is that everything in the world is temporary, and the hope that people really need has to come from a higher source. God has given the blessed hope of salvation by His grace. This means, of course, that the world does not deserve it, but God gives it anyway. All over the world where people have received Christ by the grace of God, the blessed hope lives. One of the reasons why people do find the hope that they long for is that it is hope that changes our lives. We can’t have the blessed hope on our own terms. We can’t live like we want to and realize the only blessed hope that is available. Here is the goal of God’s hope in our lives: “Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” It is this that turns a lot of people off. They want the peace and safety that hope brings, but they do not want that hope to change their lives. We call this,“trying to eat your cake and have it too.” This means that if we want God’s hope, we need to find it God’s way, and if we refuse that we do not realize the eternal hope that God has for us. The fullness of the message is that what happened was, “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Jesus was/is the game changer. He brought the blessed hope to us because “he gave Himself for us…” Here we read the content of the blessed hope that Jesus Christ brought into the world. First, “Jesus gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” This means that Jesus bought our hope with His lifeblood. Paul wrote of this in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Second, “Jesus gave Himself for us…that He might purify unto Himself a peculiar people.” The blessed hope leads us to a live of purity. Jesus called us to be pure, partly as an example to the world. He called us to be “a peculiar people.” “Peculiar” as used here does not mean that we are to odd balls, but that we should be different from the world. The blessed hope calls us to be examples to the world. Third, “Jesus gave Himself (that we might be) zealous of good works.” The first two points inform us that God called us to be what He wants us to do. The third point calls us to do what God wants us to do. We are to take the blessed hope to the world and we are to do it zealously, which means that we will be serious about it. The world needs to know that there is real hope and that this hope is found in Jesus Christ. Bro. Joe t |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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