“For the word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper
than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Yesterday’s blog was about my love for the Bible. Today I want to share with you what I view as the depths of the Bible. You know that I will not be able to do this subject justice in this short blog, but I think that I can give you some insight into those depths. First, Hebrews 4:12 reveals the word of God as a sword that goes deeply into people’s hearts and minds and affects the “thoughts and intents of the heart.” God’s word is not just a good “read” it is a life-changing experience. This might not have been your experience, but it has certainly been mine. Reading the Bible makes a difference in my life, and in the lives of all who view it as the word of God. It is the word of God to all who read it, but not all who read it view it that way. Second, the depth of the Bible is seen in the revelation of the nature of God. The Bible reveals the sovereignty of God. This means that He is all-powerful, all-knowing and ever-present. There is nowhere that His power is not available. There is nothing that He does not know, and there is nowhere that He isn’t present. When Moses asked the Lord what name he could use when he told the Hebrew people who He is, the answer was “I Am.” That is His eternal name. There was never a time that he didn’t exist, and never a time when He will fail to exist. The Bible reveals the sovereign God who is eternal. Third, the depth of the Bible is seen in the dynamic love of God. Of course, John 3:16 comes to mind: “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.”God’s love as revealed through Jesus is deep and wide. The Greek word that is translated “love” in John 3:16 is the word “agape” (a-gah-pay). It translates the most dynamic love. It is the same word that is used in the “love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13. It is the word used in 1 John when God’s love is mentioned. Agape is a sacrificial love that will cause one to die for the beloved. It is a love that cannot be earned and that can only be accepted. Fourth, the depth of the Bible is seen in God’s grace. The usual definition of grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” My favorite definition is that “you can’t earn it, but you get it anyway.” The Bible reveals that all human beings are sinners. I guess we could say that some are worse sinners than others, but it makes no difference. Sin is sin and we need God’s intervention to save us from it. Ephesians 2:8-9 gives the dynamic message of salvation by grace: “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man (or woman) should boast.” Grace paved the way and faith opened the gate. God’s grace is the most profound teaching of the Bible. It means that we have never deserved forgiveness for our sins, but that God took the initiative by sending His Son to earth. What a profound and wonderful message. The God of the Old and New Testaments is involved in history and He wants to be involved in our lives. The gods of other religions are not personally involved in people’s lives.There are other aspects of the depths of the Bible, but these are enough to let us know that we are loved by God, that He is interested in our lives, and that He takes the initiative to be involved in our lives. The word of God is deep and wide. Bro. Joe
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“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17. The the man (or woman) of God may be perfect (mature), thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
There are a lot of people who have just given up on the Holy Bible. They have evidently found some other literature that gives them more satisfaction. It might be that they think they have outgrown the Bible, or that they cannot be considered “with it” if they read and believe the book. Now, I will be the first to admit that as I read the Bible, I sometimes scratch my head and ask: “Why in the world did God do that?” But then I remember that He is God and I am not. He owes me no explanation, nor does He owe anyone an explanation. Whatever God does is ultimately for the benefit of His people, and for that matter, of the whole world. It’s not like I have not tried other ways. There was a time, when I was about twenty years old, that I dabbled with atheism, or agnosticism. What the Bible recorded and my reality did not seem to mesh. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I finally had to admit that the “meshing” was my problem and not the Bible’s or God’s. It’s also not like I have not studied the Bible from an angle that veered from the normal Southern Baptist way of interpreting it. The seminary that I attended was deeply involved in critical studies of the Bible. That brought on another struggle of faith in my life, but it ultimately deepened my faith. At the risk of seeming like I’m boasting, which I am not, I am not an uneducated, ignorant person who has never read anything but the Bible and Southern Baptist literature. My faith has been put on the line in classrooms, seminars, and various encounters with unbelievers. I did not come to love and appreciate the Bible, the word of God, by ignoring what its critics have to say. I have come to love and appreciate the Bible because, of all the books that I have read, it speaks to my heart and to my mind. I find it amazing that a lot of people who do not believe the Bible believe that you have to be a real ignoramus to believe the Book. Well, I have read some far out things that would have made me an ignoramus if I had believed them.I have read other things, and have had to deal with doubts, but after all is said and done I choose the Bible. I do not want to bore you with another “cancer story” from my recent bout with that disease, but I must refer to it to help you understand why I love the Bible. When they told me that I had cancer, and I had to hear it twice, I just could not believe it. I was immune to such a thing. But it was real. I credit my faith in God, and His word, for helping me through this trying time. I know that I came through it with the help of the prayers of the people of God. I can never express my thanks enough for that. But it was my meticulous study of the Bible that ultimately enabled me to face it with faith and poise. (That’s not to take anything away from the power of the prayers of God’s people.) Over the years I have read the Bible through many times, but I had never needed to read it as much as I did in that fight with cancer, chemo treatments and surgery. As I read every word of The Book, it spoke to me personally as never before, and the God of the Bible spoke to me through His word more personally than ever before. I can’t make you love the Bible as I do, but I can urge you to read it, uncritically, and accept God at His word. Remember, it is the only source that we have of Jesus, who died on the cross to save us from sin. I challenge you to read the New Testament through, beginning now and bask in the love of Jesus. Do it. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4. In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh (people) can do to me.”
Notice that the psalmist wrote: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee…” It can also be translated: “When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” This was an admission by David that he would be afraid, but that when fear came upon him, he would not be ruled by it, but would trust in God. If you remember, David had a lot to be afraid of. King Saul chased him all over “kingdom come” trying to capture and kill him. Saul was very serious in his pursuit. David would have been more than a human being if he could face a daily death sentence with no fear at all. Then there was the problem with his son Absalom. When David was older, his son Absalom took over the kingdom. He did not ultimately succeed, but in the process David was again under a death sentence. It is no wonder that he said, “When I am afraid I will trust in thee.” Get this down good: fear is not a sin. Some great general, whose name I can’t remember said that “courage is fear that has said its prayers.” Another great general, whose name I also can’t recall, said while waiting to go into battle: “Afraid? Me Afraid? If you could see my knees shaking right now, you would know that I am afraid.” When does fear become a sin? It becomes a sin when it takes over our lives and we live in fear every day. There are people who are literally afraid of life. They can’t enjoy life because they are afraid of what life might bring. Life can bring all sorts of things, but we need not fear them. When life brings negative things, we just need to “buck up” and live past them. What do I mean by “buck up”? Read on…………… In our text, David gave the key to facing life without being ruled by fear. First, he wrote that when he was afraid, he would trust God. I am so glad that I believe in a God who loves me, has my best interests at heart and will lead me through anything that I might face. If you don’t believe in the God who you can trust, I would not join you in your misery. If I thought that the only tools that I had to face life with were the tools at my command in this world, I would be very afraid. When you are afraid, you can trust God. He will lead you through, over, or around whatever life brings. I have certainly had dreadful moments in my life, and at times I was afraid that they might defeat me. But God has delivered me through them all. The same can be true for you. Trust God! Second, David wrote: “In God I will praise His word.” When we are afraid, we can turn to the Bible for comfort. I have favorite scriptures that I turn to when all else seems to fail. In fact, the text used in this blog is one of my favorite texts to turn to in times of fear. Another is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I can turn this text into: “I can go through all things that life brings through Christ who strengthens me.” Jesus told Paul: “When you are weak then I am strong.” (Not a direct quote) Jesus invites us to lean on His strength as we face the contingencies of life. His grace is always sufficient for us. Third, he wrote: “I will not be afraid what flesh (people) can do to me.” My Granddaddy Cooper once told me: “Don’t ever be afraid of any man.” He lived up to that credo. There are some people who are fearsome, but they are not greater than God. What are you afraid of today? Reread the text at the top of the page and rejoice. Bro. Joe “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us….” The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this verse:“Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to His power that works in us.” What this tells us is that God can do a whole lot more with us than we believe that He can. We sometimes limit the power of God in our own minds. That brings me to the conclusion that God can use you. Our problem in serving God is not that we underestimate ourselves, but that we underestimate God. We do not realize that if God/Jesus wants us to do something, He will give us the wherewithal to do it. Doesn’t the Bible teach us this? Take, for example, the Children of Israel in Egypt. They were held captive by the most powerful nation on the face of the earth at the time. But God heard their cries and He sent a man named Moses to deliver them. Moses did not feel up to the task, so God had to educate him about His power. Put yourself in Moses’ place and ask yourself if you would have been up to the task? If you within your own power are up to the task, it is not a task worth doing and is probably not of God. It was the hand and power of God that enabled Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt. But God used Moses to do the human part of the task. I know that when they got to the Red Sea, Moses probably felt a little despair, but his faith in God had become so strong that He believed that God could get them beyond it. Of course you remember that God parted the Red Sea for them. God could have done it without Moses, but that’s not how He chose to do it. There are plenty of things that God might ask you to do that are beyond your capacity. You might feel that He has placed too much on you. Understand this: God will never put more on you than He knows you can bear. We need to learn that God’s adequacy overrules our inadequacies. Do you believe that if God was with Moses that He will be with you as well? Another example is the battle between David and Goliath. Understand that I am not in favor of betting, but if they had laid odds at that battle, Goliath would have been the favorite by far. Here was a man over nine feet tall going up against a boy, who was of normal height. However tall David was, he came nowhere near the height of Goliath. The situation looked impossible. David told Saul that as a shepherd he fought a lion and a bear and killed them and that he could do the same with Goliath. Here is what David said to Goliath as he faced him in battle: “This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee…” Notice that David said that “the Lord will deliver thee into mine hand.” As our text suggests, God was more than adequate to enable David to defeat Goliath. Now, thinking of Moses and David, what is it that God wants you to do? That is a very personal thing and unless you tell somebody, it will be between you and God. There might be a Sunday School class that you can teach, a youth group that you can work with, or a ministry to the elderly that God wants you to lead. There are many things that God might want you to do. Your feeling of inadequacy is no excuse. Whatever it is that you are being led of God to do does not depend upon your strength but on His. If you believe the Bible, you can believe that God can use you to do whatever it is that He wants you to do. If you are a Christian, He has something for you to do. Put your trust in Him and do it. Bro. Joe “But godliness with contentment is great gain…”
This verse is in the middle of a discussion by Paul on the fact that people think that financial gain will bring contentment. Anyone who has lived any length of time knows that this is not true. In fact, there is no such thing as ultimate contentment on this earth. There are moments of contentment, but that contentment does not last. For example, our favorite football team wins a game, and for that moment, we are content. But there will be another game next week and we ask, “Will we win?” Discontentment sets in again. Another example is that we want to get away from it all and go on vacation. We will probably be content while we are on vacation, but, like all other things, vacation will end and we will be back in the race. There is just no such thing as final contentment, no time when we can say, “At last, I will be content for the rest of my life.” But all is not lost. Paul wrote that“godliness with contentment is great gain.” This means that we can’t find contentment in this world from outside of ourselves, rather it has to come from within ourselves. Godliness is a matter of the heart; therefore contentment is a matter of the heart. How can we attain godly contentment? First, we can find this contentment when we get right with God. Martin Buber, a Jewish theologian, wrote that: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in each of us.” This means that there is a natural longing for God in our hearts, and until we make it right with Him, we will not find inner contentment. The psalmist stated this longing wonderfully in Psalm 42:1-2: “As the hart (deer) pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God.” That is the secret longing of every human heart. We are not content in our souls, our innermost selves, until that “God-shaped vacuum” is filled with Him. And not just any “god” will do. He longed for the “living God.” That is the God that we have come to know through Jesus Christ. Second, we can find this contentment in God’s forgiveness. When we are out of sorts with God, our souls cannot be content. By its very nature, sin separates us from God. You remember that Adam and Eve were walking in the Garden of Eden when they heard the voice of God. They had heard His voice before, but this time things were different. Sin had entered the picture. Instead of welcoming that voice, they ran and hid. Until we ask for God’s forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, and get it, we cannot be content in our souls. We will play “hide and seek” with God instead of welcoming our fellowship with Him. We find that forgiveness through confessing (admitting) our sin and asking Christ to forgive us. (Read 1 John 1:9) Third, we can find this contentment by living in right relationship with other people. This means that we should not only seek God’s forgiveness, but the forgiveness of anyone that we might have offended. We also need to forgive anyone that we need to forgive. Until we forgive those whom we need to forgive, we cannot have contentment in our souls. Godliness does not live in an unforgiving heart. Because of this, contentment cannot live in an unforgiving heart. This is by no means all that brings godly contentment, but it is surely a good start, and soul contentment will not come until we do at least these three things. Based on this criteria, are you content? Bro. Joe “And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead. 31. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”
“The parable of the Good Samaritan” is one of the most well-known passages in the New Testament. The parable is given in answer to query by a “certain lawyer” who wanted to trap Jesus by His words. He asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what the law said. The lawyer answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus told him to do this and he would live. But the lawyer asked, “And who is my neighbor.” Jesus answered with what we call, "The Parable of the Good Samaritan.". One of the main things that strikes me about this parable is that the priest and Levite, both servants at the temple of the Most High God,“passed by on the other side” when they saw the man lying there half dead. Why this callous behavior? It is quite possible that both of them were en route to the temple to carry out some important ritual there. Since they were on an important journey, they did not feel that they could take the time to help this poor man. They had forgotten that religious ritual cannot supplant “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” The welfare of the stricken man was more important than whatever they were going to do in the temple. But they will ever be remembered as the two men who “went by on the other side” when they saw a man lying half-dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Religious ritual has significance in our Christian lives, but it is not more important than loving people and seeing to their welfare. We should not pass by on the other side when we look at the needs of the people around us. This is true of their physical needs and it is equally true of their spiritual needs. To be the best Christian witnesses possible, we should put loving people enough to minister to them in its proper perspective. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to witness and minister to people, whether they are “down and out” or “up and out.” Jesus did not save us to make us more religious, rather He saved us, in part, to make us better people. Jesus saved us in order that we might be as He was when He walked the earth, and that means loving and ministering to people who are on the side of life’s road. The bottom line is that the priest and Levite were too busy with their own lives to consider other people's needs. This can easily happen to us if we are not careful. It is interesting that Jesus made the hero in His parable a hated Samaritan. (Jews and Samaritans hated each other.) The Samaritan had the right idea, because he did not go by on the other side. He took the time and effort to do what needed to be done for the stricken man. Jesus told the lawyer that if he would love his neighbor as himself, he would do as the Samaritan did. i.e., he would take the time to minister to people. He would take the time to be a good human being. Jesus wants us to get the same message, and that is, to be a good neighbor to anyone who has a need that we can help them meet. John Wesley gave some advice along this line: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” Good advice. Let’s take it and go with it. Bro. Joe “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29.Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. When I read it, I get a picture in my mind of Jesus standing on the side of a mountain with His arms outstretched, bidding the whole world to come to Him for rest. That is a great message for this tired old world. He does not invite us to sit down and do nothing, but to find our rest in Him. Saint Augustine said: “Oh God, you made us for yourself, and we are restless until we find our rest in you.” How true this is. It is rest for our souls, the deepest part of us. When we come to Jesus, He gives us what Paul called “peace that passes all understanding.” He rids us of our fear of life and fear of death. We can go about our business daily, knowing that we are resting in the powerful arms of Jesus. All of the twelve apostles of Jesus (except Judas)underwent terrible persecutions. They willingly gave their lives as martyrs as the years went by. At least one of them, the Apostle John, lived to a ripe old age, but according to some accounts, he was martyred as well. Why were they willing to give their lives for this former carpenter that they followed for three years (THEY REALIZED THAT HE WAS MORE THAN A CARPENTER) They heard His promises, and they heard Him say that He would give rest to those who come to Him. It is not just rest in this life but rest in the life to come as well. When we are resting in Jesus, we are not afraid even of death. Besides resting in faith and confidence in Jesus, knowing that He is with us and will not forsake us, we are called to rest in His“yoke.” No doubt you know that a yoke was the instrument that was placed over the necks of oxen to lead them in the work that they were to do. When we come to Jesus, He places His yoke on us and calls us to service. One thing about the yoke that we need to know was that it enabled its owner to guide it where He wanted it to go. When we come to Jesus, He leads and guides into what He wants us to do. We can rest in that yoke, because we know that Jesus will not guide us into anything, or to anywhere, that He will not be there with us. Another thing about the yoke is that it was usually designed for at least two oxen. Jesus called us to serve Him in yoke with our fellow believers. We can rest because we know that we are not in this alone. Jesus has yoked us together to serve Him and rest in Him together. The “yoke” illustrates for us that there is no such thing as a solitary Christianity. We are all in this together, and we are, or should be, a comfort to each other. That’s right, as we rest in Jesus, we rest in fellowship with other Christians. This fellowship is very important in our service and in our sense of well-being. Jesus put us in His yoke together so that we can pray for and encourage each other. The author of Hebrews wrote this: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (encouraging) one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24) Come to Jesus and get the soul rest that He promises you in your service together with other Christians. Bro. Joe “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 17. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.” Beauchamp translation: “He can’t take it with him…”
Echoing the above text, Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, praise the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 (CSB) The Christian comedian, Dennis Swanberg said: “Here’s a simple test: if you can see it, it’s not going to last. The things that last are the things you cannot see.” The great figure of the Reformation, Martin Luther, wrote: “Many things I have tried to grasp and have lost. That which I have placed in God’s hands I still have.” The point here is that there is nothing that you can amass in this world that you can take to the grave or to your eternal destiny with you. One of my favorite sayings is that: “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.” I want you to stop and think about this with me: When we die, it will not matter what kind of clothes they bury us in. It will not matter what kind of house we lived in, whether a mansion or a hovel. It will not matter whether we were considered winners or losers. It will not matter whether we were rich or poor. The only thing that will matter is whether or not Jesus Christ was our Savior. Some of you might not agree with this, if you do not believe in Jesus or in the Christian faith. In all candor I will tell you that I would not take your place for all of the tea in China. If I should be proven wrong, I would have nothing to lose. If you are proven wrong, you have everything to lose. The stuff that we accumulate here will lose its significance to us if we will just stop and think of how temporary it is. I read about a preacher who had been in the ministry for over fifty years. He had all of the paraphernalia of those years in the ministry stored in his basement. This would include Bibles, sermon notes, records of marriages and funerals, awards that he had received, etc. One day a water pipe burst in his basement and everything stored there was totally destroyed. He wrote that he sat on the basement stairs and looked at the mess and cried. As he did this he began to think about what had really counted in all of these years of ministering to people. He decided that all that he had lost in the basement was just “stuff.”It was stuff that he had accumulated, but the fact that it was destroyed by water proved that it was not eternal. What really counted was all of the people who had become Christians during his ministry. What really counted was all the lives that God had used him to touch through personal ministry, e.g. preaching, teaching, weddings, funerals, etc. He was then able to drain the water from the basement and clean up the mess without a great deal of regret. He just realized that if he could hold it in his hands and call it “his,” it was not eternal and would not go with him to heaven. Thinking of this, I remembered that no one has ever come up to me years after I left their church and said, “Bro. Joe I will always remember the second point of that gem of a sermon that you preached thirty years ago.” What they do remember, and were blessed by, was that I was there when their father died, or when they were having problems in their family and I came and prayed with them, or when I witnessed to their children and they accepted Jesus as their Savior. These are the things that are “written up” in eternity. What is the “stuff” that you hold so dear to your heart? They might be precious family heirlooms, or expensive baubles, but you cannot take them with you when you go. One fellow who had a very wealthy friend who had died, was asked by another friend, “how much did Sam leave?” His answer was “all of it.” Exactly!!!! Think about it. Bro. Joe |
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