Thus says the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. 6. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when God comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited.”
I have felt a need all morning to write about dependence on God. When I searched in my trusty concordance, this text is what I found. If I wasn’t so lazy, I could write a book on dependence on God, but I think that my blogs should be based on scripture. (One might call it “depending on the Lord.”) Jeremiah wrote during a dark time in Jewish biblical history. He wrote to condemn Judah for their apostasy, and for their lack on dependence on God. They had switched their allegiance to either other gods or to trust in in man instead of on God. Leave it to the great prophet Jeremiah to come right to the point. Don’t misunderstand Jeremiah or me, we do need to trust people, but we do not need to trust in people. (Don’t miss the “in” or you will miss my point.) There are a lot of people that I trust, but I do not entrust my soul and my commitment to higher things to them. My dependence for my life, and for my well-being rests on God and not on people. I depend on God to watch over my life and over the lives of those for whom I pray. Every day I pray for my immediate family and put them, at least from my standpoint, in the hands of God. You are probably getting the idea that I am trying to tell you that it would be profitable for you to do the same. God paid a great price to show that we could depend in Him by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, and giving us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in life. His is not to turn us into self-righteous automatons. His aim is to turn us into His obedient servants. The life of Jeremiah proves that depending on God does not deliver us from the hardships of life. We cannot use the Christian faith as a shield against hardship. Jeremiah paid a dear price for his obedience. He was mercilessly persecuted for obeying God and sharing His word with a recalcitrant people. We can move to the New Testament and look at the disciples of Jesus, minus Judas, and how they suffered for their obedience. Each of them died violent deaths except for the apostle John, but he was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos where he ostensibly wrote the book of Revelation as well as his epistles and his gospel. One of the main points that I want to make about this article on depending on God is that we cannot use that as a route to an easy life. When we are saved by our faith in Christ, we are called to a higher purpose for our lives. This higher purpose can lead to a lot of joyful things and to a victorious life, but it does not mean that we will be delivered from all hardships. This is a misunderstanding that a lot of people have and are disappointed when they attend church a few Sundays and when something bad happens, complain that this “faith thing” did not work. The “faith thing” works because it is based on truth as revealed in Jesus, not because it gives us Teflon skin where the hardships of life are concerned. Jeremiah had some harsh things to say (or write) about people who depend on people instead of on God. He compared them to a “heath in the desert.” What in the world is a “heath in the desert”? According to The Holman Christian Study Bible: “The people’s misplaced trust is like a Juniper in the Arabah, a bush that shriveled in the scorching heat.” (The “Arabah” is a desert that stretches from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah in ancient Edom.) In other words, the person who depends on people entirely instead of on God live shriveled, dried up lives. The worldly life might seem exciting and glamorous, but it ultimately leads to nowhere. A life that is lived in obedience to, and in dependence upon God, is rewarded with intangible blessings here and tangible blessings hereafter. Why not choose to be “a rose in the garden of God,” instead of a “juniper in the desert of Edom”? Seems like a no brainer to me. Bro. Joe
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“And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen. 17. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I want you to think about the possibility of Jesus using you as one of His witnesses. It is possible that you feel doubtful about that. I guess that’s about par for the course for a lot of us, because it is difficult to determine when we have adequately served the Lord. If you are like a lot of people, and I mean A LOT OF THEM, you question whether God can use you at all. This is where Peter and Andrew come in, as well as James and John who were called to be used by the Savior right after Peter and Andrew. These men prove to us that Jesus can and will use us. The four men that Jesus called that day were not out of the ordinary. In fact, they were very ordinary – they were fishermen. There was nothing wrong with that profession. It was just not a profession that qualified one in the eyes of people of that day to do anything remarkable. That should be an encouragement to us, for most of us are ordinary. (I remember that Abraham Lincoln said: “God must really love common people, because He made so many of us.”) Take Billy Graham for example. He was just a raw bone North Carolina farm boy. Who would have thought when they saw him at school, church and at work, that God would use Billy Graham to be the evangelist to the world? (No one was more incredulous than Billy Graham himself.) I am not putting myself in the league with Billy Graham, but who would have thought that God would use me to touch people’s lives with the gospel? My cousin Johnny and I were nicknamed “worry warts” at the Smithville Baptist Church. God started calling me when I was about twelve years old to preach His word, but I had a lot foolishness to overcome before I finally surrendered at age 21. If Jesus could use Peter, Andrew, James, John, Billy Graham and me, He can use you as well for whatever purpose He has for your life. Notice that Jesus called them to be “fishers of men.” What Jesus meant by that was that they were to tell others about Him. While He called them from their fishing boats to follow Him and evangelize the world, that is not what He demands of everyone. There have been millions of people who have become “fishers of men” and stayed at whatever location or task that they were doing before. It is important that we realize that Jesus is using people who work at ordinary jobs to reach other people for Him. First of all, Jesus wants us to live lives before people that will reflect Him. Second, He wants us to give a verbal witness to people that we encounter when He leads us to do so. He wants to use us right where we are, doing what we do every day to reach people for Him. Furthermore, you can make yourself available to the Lord to be used by Him in whatever way He wants to use you. He wants to use you at your church, but He also wants to use you in the community where you live. I don’t know what He wants to use you to do, but there are plenty of opportunities to be used of Him as you encounter people daily. He wants to use you in the mundane things of life. For example, when you encounter a cashier and he or she makes a mistake, He wants to use you to show them how Christians are supposed to act. He wants to use you at work around the people with whom you work every day. They should be able to tell by your actions that Jesus is making a difference in your life. Of course there are also things that He can use you for at your church, just be available to Him to use you as He sees fit. Just remember this – God will use you too!!!!! Bro. Joe “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart, and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts….”
This short passage is advice that King David gave to his son Solomon as he was about to ascend to the throne as king of Israel. I am aware, as you probably are, that Solomon did not follow this advice, but it is good advice nonetheless. It is advice that we would do well to follow. The text gives us “A Description of a Good Servant of God.” (I wrote this with the understanding that all believers in Christ are servants of God. If you are a believer, you are a servant of God. Read it carefully.) A good servant of God knows the Lord: “Know the God of your Father…” The “God of his father” was not only David’s, but he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God, Yahweh, who created the world, who called out Abraham to serve Him and to ultimately bless the world with the Messiah. We should know Him in a personal way. For us that means to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. According to the New Testament, if you do not know God through Jesus Christ, you do not really know Him. Pause and determine whether or not you know the Lord. A good servant of God has a “loyal heart and a willing mind.” The first Commandment given in Exodus 20:3 is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” David was advising Solomon to abide by the first Commandment. Solomon did not follow that advice. He let his pagan wives deceive his heart and worship their gods. We can use Solomon as an example of what we should not do. It is easy to be seduced by the world, as Solomon was, to not have a “loyal heart, and a willing mind.” It is important that we keep our eyes on Jesus and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we are to willingly serve Him. Psalm 100:2 tells us to “serve the Lord with gladness.” We should gladly serve Him, and not begrudge the time we spend serving Him. Search your heart. Do you have a loyal heart? Search your service, do you have a willing mind? A good servant of God knows that the Lord “searches all hearts.” God knows what is on our hearts. He knows whether or not we are serving Him with a loyal heart and a willing mind. We can never fool God, for He knows the intents of our hearts. He knows whether or not we are serving whole heartedly. It is important for us to know this and to keep it on our minds and hearts. No matter what our service to God, He searches our hearts and knows whether or not we are serving Him with a loyal heart. This should not alarm us, for we serve a God who loves us and wants the best for us. He does not search our hearts in order to be able to play a “gotcha” game when we fall short. He searches our hearts and calls us to loyalty because He knows that is what is best for us. Pleasing God is always what is best for us, and we should please Him joyfully because of His great love and concern for us. A good servant of God knows that He “understands all the intent of the heart.” Intentions are important. If we aren’t careful we will be self-serving and call it serving God. We sometimes think that if something is good for us that it is what God wants of us. I think that Paul would disagree with this. He knew that serving God could lead him to some hard places, but he did not hesitate to go there. On the other hand, Solomon forgot this advice and the intent of his heart was to amass great wealth, and amass three hundred concubines and seven hundred wives. Our intentions can either be like Paul’s or like Solomon’s. (Minus the wealth and the wives, or husbands…lol) I have not written this to make you feel guilty. I have written it to remind you, as well as myself, of the importance of being good servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our times demand it. Use this article to gauge your own service and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in the right direction. Bro. Joe “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from sin. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
God knows that we are flawed, every last one of us. We are reminded in our text that we cannot say that we have not sinned, nor can we say that we have never sinned. We can say it, but that does not make it true. Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” I write all of this to remind you, and myself, that, though we have all sinned, God has made it possible for all of us to be forgiven for our sins through Jesus Christ, and to be used by Him. We are reminded in verse 9 above that: “If we confess our sins, He/Jesus is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness." PERIOD! Through this radical forgiveness, God has enabled us to serve Him and to be His witnesses to the world. The only people that God has to serve Him are flawed human beings who have been radically forgiven for their sins. The fact that I am serving God through preaching, teaching and writing, proves that God uses flawed human beings who have been forgiven for their sins. No one who serves God in any capacity is perfect. The world likes to make fun of, and point fingers at, people who stand up for Him, yet in the past they have sinned grievously. This morning I read Hebrews 11, which is about people who set a great example of faith. Every last one of them were flawed human beings. For example, Moses is mentioned. If God was not going to use a flawed human being, He would never have used Moses. Forty years before God called Moses to lead His children out of Egypt, he murdered an Egyptian who was persecuting one of the Hebrew slaves. David is mentioned in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart.” As a young shepherd he wrote the beautiful Psalm that we know as Psalm 23. Yet, after all this, and a lot of other great psalms, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed in battle to try to cover up the sin after Bathsheba told him that she was pregnant. Yet, both David and Moses continue to be heroes and examples of faith throughout the Bible. I could go on giving examples of flawed human beings used of God in the Bible, in Christian history and today, but I want to get to my main point: God uses flawed human beings who have been forgiven for their sins. It is God’s radical forgiveness that made Moses, David, Peter, Paul, and those of us today who serve Him able to serve Him. God uses us in spite of our past sins when we seek His radical forgiveness. The text that is printed above shows us this radical forgiveness. Verse 7 points out that it is the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on Calvary, which enables us to be forgiven and walk in the light. Verse 8 shows us that when we sincerely (I stress sincerely) confess our sins, Jesus is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” “Faithful and just” are not put here just to fill in space. He really is faithful, which means He will always forgive us, and He is really just, which means that He, and He alone, can forgive us for our sins. When Jesus forgives us, He cleanses us “from all unrighteousness.” Through this radical forgiveness, Jesus enables us to be His servants. Therefore, we should never scoff at an individual who has sinned and then takes a stand for Christ in our increasingly pagan society, for when Jesus forgives us, we are cleansed and enabled to serve Him. The only human beings that God uses are flawed human beings, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This means that He can, and will, use you….. Just Saying! Bro. Joe “And if a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.”
This text is the second of the metaphors that Paul used in 2 Timothy 2 to explain to Timothy, and to us, how we must live if we want to be effective servants in our daily battle against Satan and his army. In verse 4 he used a soldier as an example of obeying orders, and not getting enmeshed in the problems of the world. In verse 6 he used a farmer as an example of one who works hard and reaps the rewards of his labor. In verse 5 he used the athlete as an example of playing by the rules. An explanation is in order here: The word translated “masteries” in the KJV is from the Greek word “athlay.” (It is where we get our word “athlete.”) It referred to one who competed in the “games,” and is a reference to a foot racer. No matter how fast he, or she, can run, he, or she, has to compete by the rules to win. This is true of all athletic contests. I want to give two examples of the importance of playing by the rules. Foot racers have a lane that they must stay in if they want to win the race. If they get out their lane, no matter how fast they are running, it doesn’t count. If we want to be victorious in our faith, we will stay in the lane that is laid out for us. We can say that we need to stay in “straight and narrow way” if we want to live victoriously. Understand that our salvation does not come from staying in the lane, but our effectiveness as Christ’s servants comes from staying in the lane. This means that we need to be careful what we do, what we say, how we treat people, etc. We are saved by grace through faith, but after we are saved we are called upon to work, to serve, and to live the Christian life. The Bible lays out the “lane” that we must stay in if we want our works for the Lord to be effective. Paul gave us an example of this in 1 Corinthians 9:27: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” He didn’t mean that he would be no longer saved, but that his work for the Lord would not prosper and that he would be sidelined. In other words, Paul wanted to stay in his lane in order to be victorious and prosperous in his service for the Lord. We can also use a football player as an example of “playing by the rules.” A football field is laid out with boundaries in which the game will be played. If a player crosses the boundary line, the play is ruled “out of bounds” and that is where the play ends. No matter how fast a football player is, if he runs out of bounds, the play is halted there. No matter how great a pass is thrown and no matter how great a catch is made, if the catch is made out of bounds, it doesn’t count. As the foot racer needs to stay in his or her lane, the football player has to play within the bounds set out on the field. Let me give an example of how we can go “out of bounds” in our lives. We can say that we love people, but that does not mean that we really love them. If we claim to love people, but we treat them in an unchristian way, we have run “out of bounds.” The Bible tells us that our love for people should be genuine. Another example is how we live our lives. We can talk about and teach that we should live pure lives, but we might excuse impurity in our own lives. We have to be careful about this, because people notice the way we live, and they know when we have run “out of bounds.” I think that you get the idea here that we have to play by the rules in order to be effective in our service for the Lord. This is not a call to be legalistic and self-righteous in our service. It is a call to humbly serve the Lord, knowing that there is a right way and a wrong way to live. That is why Bible study and prayer are so important. It is so easy to get out of the right lane, or to run out of bounds in daily living. James 4:7-8 gives us advice that can help us play by the rules: “Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you….” We need to stay close to the One who is always in the right lane and is always in bounds. He will help us stay there. Bro. Joe “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
When Christ came into our lives, He came to stay and to grow us in Him. This is a reality for Christians. Our responsibility is to stay close to Him through His word, prayer and Christian fellowship. He sent His Spirit to live in us, to guide and teach us in the right way. As it was when we were in school, we need to pay attention to what the Spirit is teaching us and where the Spirit is leading us. It is in this spirit that Paul wrote Colossians 2:6-7. He wrote, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Take this walk with Jesus seriously, for He seriously saved you. He tells us how to do this in verse 7. Paul tells us to be “rooted….in Him.” In order to grow and flourish, a tree or plant has to have a good root system to survive. If we want to be alive and fruitful in Christ, we must be deeply rooted in Him. This means several things. It means that we should be rooted in our faith in Him. We were saved by faith and we are sustained by that same faith. The faith that saved us is the faith that brings us to victory in Jesus in our daily lives. We must be rooted in our faith in difficult times as well as in good times. It means that we need to be rooted in prayer and Bible study. It is impossible to build a good root system if we do not anchor ourselves in prayer and Bible study. It means that we need to be rooted in a healthy relationship with other Christians. One of the main things that Paul dealt with was a problems in the fellowship of the churches. Christians need to learn to enjoy fellowship with each other instead of fighting with each other. It certainly means to be rooted in the person of Jesus Christ – in His reality and in His presence in our lives. We need a root system in our lives like the “bamboo” plants that I had in my back yard several years ago. It took me three years to dig up all of the roots to keep the “bamboo” plants from taking over my back yard. We need a root system that Satan will have a problem “digging up.” Paul tells us to be “built up in Him and established in the faith.” If we would be “established in the faith,” we must be “built up” in our faith. The Greek word for “built up” is a long one: “epoidomoumenoi.” One meaning of the word is to be “built up as part of a spiritual structure.” This means to be built up in Christian fellowship in the church. We are being built up together in Christ. More personally, it means to be built up in spiritual advancement. We call this “growing in Christ.” The aforementioned Bible study, prayer and fellowship with other Christians we grow in our relationship with Christ. In order to be effective servants of Christ, we must grow in our faith in Christ and in our availability to be used by the Spirit in service to Christ, whether in the church, in the community or in the world. If we aren’t being built up, we are stagnant in our growth and not as useful as we could be, and should be, in our lives. Paul tells us to be “abounding in thanksgiving.” Very simply, “abounding in thanksgiving” means to be very thankful. It means to be a thankful person. Being a thankful person is different from being a person that just gives thanks. Thankful people give thanks even when things are not going well. Paul’s letters were written in the midst of unceasing persecution. He, and all Christians, were persecuted by unbelieving Jews and also by the Roman Empire. We will not be thankful people if we are not “rooted and built up in Him.” In order to abound in thanksgiving, we have to have daily fellowship with Jesus in our lives, and when we go through difficult times, we say with David, “Yea though I walk the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) That was the confession of a thankful man, a man who knew that God with him at all times. Are you “rooted and built up in Him”? Are you “abounding in thanksgiving”? Bro. Joe “But will God in very deed dwell with men on this earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built.”
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The prayer of Solomon in 2 Chronicles 6:18 was made on the occasion of the dedication the first Temple built in Jerusalem. The temple was built to remind the people of the presence of God among them. It was also built for God to come mysteriously among His people in a cloud of glory in the Holy of Holies in the temple. Solomon was amazed that God would “dwell with men on earth.” Little did Solomon know what God was willing to do by grace on behalf of, not just the Jewish people, but of all of the people on earth. The first thing that I noticed about Solomon’s prayer was his confession of the greatness of God. Solomon realized that God was much greater than the temple that had just been built. He knew that “the heaven of heavens cannot contain (God).” If this prayer had been made today, Solomon would have said the universe cannot contain God, for that is what “the heaven of heavens” is. It is impossible for humans to configure the greatness of God. There is nothing that we can measure up against God. His greatness is unique in our universe and beyond. (By beyond, I mean whatever is beyond the created universe and is the abode of God.) We cannot figure God out. What we know of Him is what He has revealed to us in scripture. Our responsibility is not to explain God, but to believe in Him, entrust our lives to Him and tell others about Him. Which brings us to the second thing that I noticed: When I read this prayer of Solomon, my mind went immediately to John 1:14, where we are told that “the word (Jesus Christ) became flesh and dwelt among us." Without meaning to be, Solomon was prophetic in this text. Solomon was amazed that God would come to the temple and be among His people, while in the heart of God, He had already planned to come to earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. (We could say to Solomon, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”) Solomon might have had an inkling of the grace of God, but God’s grace had not yet been fulfilled in all of its glory. God did, indeed “dwell with men on earth.” He did not just come to the temple, but He came to earth and lived among men revealing the “grace and truth of God.” With our two texts we are shown the greatness and the grace of God. Which brings us to the third thing that I noticed: Both the greatness and the grace of God are seen in the two texts as being for the benefit of people. God came among His people, Israel, to assure them of His presence and to forgive them for their sins. Jesus came among His people to not only forgive them for their sins, but to die on the cross to forgive them for their sins. This is so incredible that most people will not believe it. Because of the greatness of God, a lot of people cannot fathom His existence. On the other hand, there are those who might believe in the greatness of God, but they cannot accept that He would stoop to come among us and die for our sins. For whatever reason, people have come up with ideas to belittle the greatness and grace of God. But the New Testament tells us that it is true. It takes us into the world of the time that Jesus was on earth and gives us a glimpse of what His coming meant. John wrote, “and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” There it is: We do not have to explain the greatness and grace of God; we simply need to believe it, and put our faith and trust in Jesus. John explained it to us in John 3:16: “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.” Believe it! Bro. Joe “Now the end of the commandment is charity (love) out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned (a sincere faith).”
I don’t know how many times I have read 1 Timothy 1:5 and have not seen the treasure that is revealed in it. Paul’s letter to young Timothy was written to encourage him in a difficult work. In the preceding verses, Paul urged Timothy to “remain in Ephesus” and to continue the work in spite of the difficulties. In verse 5, Paul reminded Timothy that the purpose of his commandment, or charge, was love. Service without love is not real, or at least effective, Christian service. Though Timothy was having a difficult time with the people in the church and in the city of Ephesus, and though the work was difficult, Timothy was to love them. Then he described the love that Timothy should have for the people. Here is the message that we should get from this as well as we live the Christian life in an increasingly hostile environment. Timothy’s love was to be from “a pure heart.” Now, what in the world is a “pure heart”? It is a heart that really and truly loves Jesus and is totally devoted to Him. In the beatitudes, Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) “Blessed” means happy. We are happy when our love for Jesus and people is pure. We are happy when our motives are pure. Love from a pure heart is trustworthy and the recipients of that love know that they are loved and that they will not be manipulated by the one who loves them. Too often we say “I love you” and do not really mean it. When we love from a pure heart that is not the case. Timothy’s love for the people was to be sincere. This is a good message for us. Do we really and truly love people, or do we just tell them that we love them because that is what is expected of us? This lesson is important not just for church work, but for our families, the people with whom we work, and the people we encounter in life. Love that issues from a pure heart makes us good witnesses for Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we are just going through the motions of serving Jesus and people. Timothy’s love was to be “of a good conscience.” The first thing that this means is that we know that we are loving from a pure heart. We have a good conscience when we know that we are truly serving Jesus and that we really and truly love the people whom we are serving in His name. Loving in a good conscience is the same as living with a good conscience. For example, when you teach that class, sing that song, or whatever you do for Christ, your motives are pure and you genuinely want to serve those to whom you minister no matter what the service may be. We can’t love and serve with a good conscience if we are not living the Christian life in our daily lives. Timothy’s love was to spring from a sincere faith. This meant that Timothy’s faith in Christ was to be genuine. Paul was not assuming that Timothy’s faith was not sincere; rather, it was a reminder that love for the people would not be genuine if it was not backed up by sincere, real, unadulterated faith. We need to be reminded of this. I continually pray that God will strengthen my faith in order for it to be seen by people. Not so they can say, “Man, what great faith he has,” but that they might want that kind of faith for themselves. Loving people with a pure heart and with a good conscience is a daily struggle. We meet people that make it difficult for us to love them. That is why we need a sincere faith in Jesus Christ. If our love is not mixed with a sincere faith in Christ, it is not real Christian love, and will not minster to people. Let’s make Timothy’s challenge our challenge. We need to examine our hearts and see if we are loving from a pure heart, in a good conscience with sincere faith. Give yourself a reality check now! Bro. Joe Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Most of the sermons and lessons that we hear, or read, on giving are about our giving, but we are not asked to give by a God who does not Himself give. I don’t know who it originated with, but I have always heard that you can’t out give God. He is the best giver as our text verse suggests. We are to be givers, but we need to realize that as we are giving we are getting back from God. Why is God the best giver? God is the best giver because His gifts are always good. James wrote that “every good and perfect gift is from above." No gift that we give to God is perfect, but His gifts to us are always perfect. God’s gifts are always genuine and solid. John 3:16 tells us who God’s greatest give was: “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." Jesus was/is a “good and perfect gift.” God also gives us “things,” but His greatest gifts are inward and spiritual. These gifts cannot possibly be evaluated by dollars and cents. We cannot put a price on the gift of forgiveness for sin. The gift of divine Sonship is priceless; therefore, it does not have a price tag. Knowing that we have an eternal home in heaven is a gift that cannot be bought. In fact, it can only be given by God’s grace. Which means that we don’t deserve God’s gifts, but we get them anyway – as some say, we get them “in spite of.” The fact that God’s grace gifts do not have a price tag does not mean that they are cheap. They came to us via the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We need to remember Psalm 103:2: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” God is the best giver because His gifts always bring greater purpose into our lives. God does not give His priceless gifts merely for our selfish enjoyment. I don’t mean that we can’t enjoy them, but the greatest enjoyment comes from realizing His great purpose in our lives and in the lives of others. For example, God has provided the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who are true believers. God has also provided the gifts of the Holy Spirit. No one has ever provided a complete and exhaustive list of these gifts. We think of teaching, preaching, encouragement and leadership, to name a few, but the list just goes on and on. God gives us spiritual gifts in order for us to live full lives. God gives us spiritual gifts in order for us to be able to serve Him more effectively. These gifts enable us to serve God according to His will. If you are not aware of the purposeful gifts that God has given to you, now would be good time to evaluate your life and discover those gifts that God has for you. God is the best giver because He is always giving. From Genesis to Revelation, we see God giving and giving and giving. He gave deliverance to Israel. He gave them manna to eat every day while they were in the desert wilderness. He gave Israel Canaan in which to live and serve Him. When we come to the New Testament, we find God giving us His Son as our Savior. As we receive the gifts of God into our lives, He continues to give and give to us in order to enrich our lives. It is a mystery why many people think that if they give their lives to Christ, it will somehow diminish their lives. Indeed, it will enrich their lives if they will only give it a try. On top of that He gave us each other. Together, we comprise His church. His church provides fellowship for us and serves as a vehicle for our service to Him. God wants to give eternal life to you. He wants to enrich your daily life with His presence, and with the fellowship of His people. For heaven’s sake, let God give you all that He wants to give you. Bro. Joe “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comfort delights my soul.” NKJV
Like all of us, the psalmist had to deal with anxiety. But anxiety was not a way of life with him, because he had the comfort of the Lord to allay his anxieties. When I read that, I began to think about my own anxieties and how I have been able to deal with them. I decided that the singular “comfort” could be plural “comforts” in my case. I want to share two of these comforts with you in the hope that they will help you with your own anxieties. The first comfort is faith. I do not mean faith in myself or in any manmade resource. I mean faith in Jesus Christ – period. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are “saved by grace through faith.” This saving faith, however, is not meant to just take us to heaven when we die; it is also a resource for living on this earth. One of the sure things of living on this earth is anxiety. Who could read or hear the news today and not be anxious. Every day we are bombarded with negative things about our world. These things are real and not imaginary. Muslims really do cut off people’s heads. China does have a powerful army. Russia is not the friend that we hoped she would be after the fall of communism. People are really being killed in Syria for the sake of a corrupt regime. Children are really abducted and killed by perverts. (Have I made you anxious enough?J) These are just a few examples of what awaits us each day in the news. On top of all of that are the many things that we have to deal with in our own lives. I can’t explain how faith in Jesus comforts me in the midst of all of this; I just know that it does. I take Jesus at His promise that if I come to Him, He will give me rest. He promises me that if I trust Him, He will comfort me. E. Stanley Jones wrote: “Worries and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil.” How true. Believe today that you can trust Jesus in all of life. The second comfort is forgiveness. A lot of our anxiety is caused by guilt, because we know that we have done wrong from time to time. We have not loved people as we should. We have not treated people as fairly as we should. We have given in to corrupt thoughts that we knew could not have come from God. In order to overcome this guilt, we just need to know that our God is a forgiving God. He has promised in 1 John 1:9 that if “we will confess our sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” You don’t have to “feel” forgiven; you can know that you are forgiven because you take God at His word. If He has promised to forgive you, He will forgive you! You might say: “But you don’t know what I’ve done.” But I do know what David did when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he was forgiven. I do know that Simon Peter denied Him, but Jesus forgave him. I do know that He has forgiven me many times, and will do so in the future. I ask you today to embrace the freedom from anxiety that comes with being forgiven by a forgiving and loving God. You will find that He has waited lovingly for you to seek His forgiveness. Give faith and forgiveness and try in your own life. (I do not mean to come across as glib and "know it all" in this article. I have just shared what Christ has done in my life and can do in your life.) They are as available to you as they are to me. Jesus will forgive you and save you if you will come to Him by faith. Jesus will forgive you and sustain you in your faith when you have done wrong in spite of it. Jesus wants to deliver you from the anxieties of this life. Let Him do it through faith in Him and forgiveness by Him. Do it! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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