“And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: 19. Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20. My soul has them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul: therefore will I hope in Him. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.”
The book of Lamentations, written by Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the Israelite people in Babylon, is exactly what the title implies – it is a lament about the suffering of God’s people in exile. It is not what one would call a “happy read.” It is filled with doom and gloom. Yet in the midst of this gloom and doom, eight verses rise up as from the ashes and reveal the hope and faith that Jeremiah still had in those dark times. Like everything else in the Bible, it is a word of hope for us as well in the midst of our doom and gloom. Verse 19 tells us of Jeremiah’s suffering: “Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.” (Wormwood and gall refer to his bitterness.) Yet even as Jeremiah lamented Israel’s pitiable condition at the time, there arose in his heart and mind the hope that only God, as we know Him in Christ, can give. He wrote: “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” In the midst of his gloom, Jeremiah had a thought from God that because of God there was still hope. In verse 22, he wrote of the “mercies” and “compassion” of God. He recalled that the people of God were defeated but they were not consumed. After all, Jeremiah himself had written of the hope of post-exilic times that God’s people would rise from the ashes and again rejoice. This is the same Lord that we worship. He is still merciful and compassionate. He has not stopped loving us, though we might be going through dark times. In the midst of whatever gloom we my face, the radiance of God shines forth in our hearts and reminds us that we are still loved by our merciful and compassionate God. The Babylonians had the temporary victory, but Jeremiah’s, and our, hope lies in the hands of the eternal God who loves us and is compassionate towards us. These verses are especially relevant today. As I write this there is a worry about the dreaded Ebola virus. There is the incessant news about those barbarians that we know as ISIS, or ISIL - according to who is speaking. Besides these things, there are earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods that have always been bad news. f But the message of the Bible is that those dreadful things that we face today, and whatever dreadful things will be in the future, are not surprising or unbeatable as far as the eternal God is concerned. We have to remember that we live in a fallen world. We have never been promised utopia on this side of heaven. He do have, however, the promise that God is aware of all of the things that are happening and that in the midst of it all, He is present with mercy and compassion. Our hope lies, not in the fallen world, but in the eternal God who created it all and oversees it all. It is still true that, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are (still) new every morning: great is (His) faithfulness.” Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Whatever is weighing heavily on your mind today let the reality of the Living Lord lift the weight and give you the freedom to rejoice in His great name. Do it! Bro. Joe
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“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (encouraging) one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.”
This text is commonly used to remind people of the importance of attending church, and rightfully so. But it is asking more than that of us. I think one of the problems with the Christian faith is that many people think that attending church is all that is required of them. We should see attending church like taking our cars to the gas station – we go there to get filled for life out in the world. Church attendance is important, but it is not the end, it is the means to an end. It is important that we get together. Let’s look at a few of the reasons why it is important. We need to get together to worship the Lord. I am aware that we can worship the Lord at home as well as at church. The fact is that we should personally worship the Lord each day. Worship does not take a formal setting. You can worship God driving down the road. (Just keep your eyes on the road.) You can worship God from the sanctuary of your den, your bedroom or your living room. But, still, the bible tells us here “not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." This tells us that we need to get together to worship the Lord in our common experience of Jesus. One of the main tenets of the Christian faith is that we worship God together. At one point in my life, during an extended illness, I was unable to get together with God’s people at the appointed times. I worshiped God in solitude and heard more preaching on TV than I would have heard, or done, when I was well. However ,it was a great day when I was able to go back to church and worship with God’s people. We need to get together to do battle with Satan. If we are to serve as God’s army in the world, we can’t do it by always doing our own thing without consideration for anyone else. Jesus died to save individuals, but He also shed His blood for His church – His people. Here is what Paul said about the matter in Acts 20:28: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.” It was, and is, important that the church be fed, because “He has purchased (us) with His own blood.” It is important to that we serve the Lord through His church, because “He has purchased (us) with His own blood.” It is important to serve the Lord at work, at school, at play, or wherever, but that does not preclude the importance of serving the Lord together. If we desire to be God’s Christian soldiers, we have to march together. We need to get together to encourage one another. Encouragement has two faces; one is to be encouraged to overcome depression and discouragement. Another is to be encouraged to stop doing things that we should not do. My experience in the church, which has been a part of my life for most of my life, has included both of these aspects of encouragement. Through my fellowship with God’s people, I have been encouraged when I was discouraged, and I have been encouraged to do better with my life. The hymns that we sing at church are written to encourage us. The sermons that we hear in church are used to encourage us to overcome discouragement and to challenge us to do better than we are doing. Preaching and teaching in the church should do both. These are three reasons, among many more, why we should get together. Bro. Joe “Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another. 11. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; 13. Distributing to the necessity of the saints.”
These verses from Romans 12 tell us how we should relate to people. Verse 10 tells us to love people, and to “outdo one another in showing honor.” We are not to look out only for ourselves, but consider other people and their contributions. Verse 12 tells us how we should respond to life’s challenges: “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (trouble, afflictions), persistent in prayer; and helping to meet the needs of the saints. In other words, we are to be selfless in our service. For this article I want to focus on verse 11, which tells us what our attitude should be in Christian service. We are not to be “slothful in business.” The Holman translation of this is “do not lack diligence.” We are not to serve the Lord through the church or in the community in a “who gives a flip” attitude. I am afraid that all too often we go about our service to God in a matter-of-fact way, that says to the world, “I don’t really want to do this, but since nobody else will do it, I guess I will do it.” This goes against the advice in Psalm 100:2, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” We wonder sometimes why visitors do not return to our churches. It could be that the people who visit do not want to be a part of a fellowship where people are not excited about serving the Lord. For example, I don’t think that we preachers need to necessarily be loud, but we do need to be diligent in our presentation. I’ve heard loud preachers who came across as angry more than diligent, and I’ve heard soft-spoken preacher who kept me on the edge of my seat because they were excited about their text. (Of course, it can be vice-versa as well.) We need to be diligent in living the Christian life and in presenting it to the world. We are to be “fervent in spirit.” This means that we are to take our Christian work seriously. It does not necessarily mean that we are to go around the community fervently arguing with people about the Christian life, but conducting ourselves in such a way that people will see Christ in us. We should be excited about the privilege of living and sharing the love of Christ with the world. We should not mistake fervency with negativity. There are times when we need to be negative when we confront the world, but there are more times when we should be fervently patient and fervently loving. As I have written before in Couch Potato articles, we do not need to argue with people about accepting the biblical message about Jesus. When we do that, it becomes “me against him or her,” which is not an ideal situation. I think that people will weigh our behavior more than our words. If we are fervent in spirit, and not just fervent in words, people will pick up on that and are more likely to give us an audience. We are to “serve the Lord.” This means exactly what it says: We need to serve the Lord and not ourselves. We need to serve the Lord instead of serving the church. We are to go out in the name of Jesus, not in the name of our church. (We should invite them to our church.) I am aware that serving the Lord also includes doing service for the church. I love my church and I want people to come to it, but I want them to come to the Lord first, and then serve Him through the church. It doesn’t make any difference what our gifts are or what our particular service is, we are servants of God first and foremost. This is true of every Sunday School teacher, nursery worker, choir member, music director or usher. We are serving the Lord and we should know it and conduct ourselves accordingly. Bro. Joe “…And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” When he was born, Jacob was holding onto the heels of his twin Esau and never stopped. If you remember, he cheated Esau out of his birthright as the older son with some pottage, or red stew. Then he and his mother Rebekah cheated Esau out of the blessing that normally went to the older son. (You can read all about it in Genesis 25 and the ensuing chapters)When Rebekah heard that Esau was planning on killing Jacob because of his deception, she sent Jacob to her brother Laban, who was as crooked as Jacob, in Padan-Aram. Then we read of all kinds of deceptions between Laban and Jacob. I might add here that Jacob, the deceiver, met his match in his uncle Laban. There is much more to the story, but I have related enough of the story to make the points that I want to make in this article. Read on: Often, we feel that we are not worthy to be used of the Lord in His ongoing work in the world. We are right because no one deserves to be used of God, but Jacob teaches us that He uses us anyway. When you feel that God cannot use you, just remember Jacob, who was a deceiver, and know that if God can use Jacob, He can use you as well. Remember, however, that Jacob changed as time went on after a dramatic encounter with God at Peniel. The point here is that no matter what your past has been, God will change you and enable you to serve Him in whatever way He wants you to serve. You might think that you do not have the talent to do anything for God. Remember this; God will have something for you to do in your church and community if you will just release yourself to Him to be used of Him. If God can use the man whose name was “deceiver” He can certainly use you. Surrender to His Lordship and see what He will do with you. Now, what about Jacob’s twin brother Esau? He was totally different from Jacob, for the Bible tells us that Esau was what we call “a man’s man.” He loved to hunt and was at home in the fields, while Jacob was a “stay at home” kind of guy. Why did Esau get such a bad deal by having his birthright stolen, and by losing the blessing from his father, Isaac, had to give? To get a picture of what was wrong with Esau, we need to go back to the stealing of his birthright. Esau had been in the fields hunting all day, and when he came in from the field, Jacob was making a mess of porridge. Esau was real hungry and wanted some of that stew, so he gave his birthright to Jacob for a mess of porridge. By this we know that Esau was a compulsive person who lived only for the moment. For example, when he was hungry and was about to faint from his hunger, he didn’t consider the future ramifications of giving up his birthright. The lesson for us is that we need to be careful about what we do in those trying moments of our lives. Satan loves to get us backed into a corner where he figures that we will compromise our faith. Like Esau, in a moment of hunger for the things of this world, we can make decisions that will affect the rest of our lives. We need to be aware that the decisions that we make now will affect the quality of the rest of our lives. We need to learn these two lessons from these brothers: God can and will use you in spite of your past, and He wants you to be careful about obeying your own sinful impulses. Bro. Joe “Don’t let your heart envy sinners; instead always fear the Lord. 18. For then you will have a future, and your hope will never fade.” (CSB)
The tenth commandment admonishes us not to covet anything that anybody else has. In fact coveting means that we want something that somebody else has. A word that is closely aligned with coveting is envy. Proverbs 23:17 tells us: “Don’t let your heart envy sinners.” We look at someone whose life in no way honors God, and we wonder why they are doing better than we are? We might say: “It looks to me like God would help me to have more than the person who is not living right.” In the first place, this is the wrong motive for serving God. If we are serving God for what we can get out of Him, we need to take another look at our service. The fact that someone else has more than we do is no measure of our standing with God or with the world. What another person has does not take anything away from us. The most important thing is not what we have, but what we are in our hearts. In fact, to go beyond this text, the Bible tells us not to envy anybody. Christians should rejoice in other people’s successes, and be the first to congratulate them and be proud for them. We cause ourselves a lot of problems when we think that we have to “keep up with the Joneses.” The truth is that if you could get what the “Joneses” have, you would then want what the “Smith’s” have. I think you get the point here: Be satisfied with what you have and do not worry about what other people have. If we envy someone, it is difficult for us to love them and have a good relationship with them. It bothers me that there seems to be a lot of envy of rich people in America today. It seems to me that to build an argument on envy is to build a poor foundation for life. If somebody worked for what they have, they deserve it. If someone inherited what they have, they also deserve it. It is not any of my business how they got their wealth. If they got what they have by breaking the law, I will leave that between them, God and the law. I just know that I do not want to waste one minute of my life, envying what someone else has, no matter how they got it. Envy does not promote love, and it does not promote good relationships between people. We cannot build our lives on envy and live close to God. Our text tells us that instead of envying sinners, or anyone else, we should “fear God.” That means that we are to have the utmost reverence and respect for God, and we cannot have that if we are wasting our time on envy. First, envy does not, and cannot, please God. If something cannot please God then it will certainly interfere with our relationship with Him. When we envy, we are focusing on “things” instead of on God/Jesus. When we envy, we are not concentrating on serving the Lord. When we envy, we harm our relationship with God. Envy is a sin and sin always decimates our relationship with God. We will not stop envying until we realize that it is a sin. When we realize that envy is a sin, we will know that it is not a good thing to have in our lives. We need to examine our hearts and minds and determine if there is anyone that we envy for any reason. If we discover that there is envy in our hearts, we need to confess, repent and turn from it like we would any other sin – and stop it! Why? Envy is the pits and will not bring anything good into our lives. Bro. Joe k here to edit. “Jesus Will Never Change” Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Change is, perhaps, the only permanent reality that we have to deal with. Everything on this earth is always changing. One thing that we can depend on in the midst of all of the change going on around us is that Jesus Christ will not change. A lot of changes take place because certain things need to be better; therefore, they need to change. Jesus is perfect and there is no need for Him to change. The Jesus that is prophesied in the Old Testament, the Jesus that we read about in the New Testament, and the Jesus that we expect to return at any moment, is the same Jesus that we worship and serve today. The love that Jesus has for us will never change. It is difficult for us to realize that Jesus loves us as much as He does, because we know that we occasionally, or often, let Him down. Because Jesus loves us, does not mean that He doesn’t care what we do. In fact, it is the opposite. We can use our relationships with our children as an example. We love our children and grandchildren, but we do not want them to do whatever they want to do, because we know that a lot of things that they want to do will harm them. Out of love, we discipline our children, because we want them to do what is best for them. Hebrews 12:6 reminds us, “For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” The love that Jesus has for us that drove Him to the cross is the same love that He bestows upon us in our daily lives, and we can rest assured in that love. The power of Jesus to save all of those who come to Him by faith will never change. John 6:37 is still true, “All that the Father gives me shall come to me: and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” It is written in the Bible that all who believe in Jesus will be saved. Of course, to believe in Jesus is not just giving mental assent to His reality. This kind of belief, or faith, means that we have surrendered our lives to Him to be used by Him for His purposes in our lives. He had the power to save the wicked tax collector, Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus did not deserve the salvation that Jesus brought to His house, but He received it anyway. Evidently, Zacchaeus had been cheating the people from whom he collected taxes for many years, but of all the people in Jericho, Jesus went home with him and saved him. No one who comes to Jesus to be saved deserves it. It is all made possible by God’s grace. It could be that someone reading this does not believe that Jesus will save them. Let me assure you that if you come to Jesus in repentance and faith, He will save you. His power to save people from their sins will never change. The providential care of Jesus will never change. This means that Jesus will always be interested in our lives and in the problems that we encounter. Matthew 11:28-30 will never change: “Come unto Me, all you that 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 you shall find rest unto your souls. 30. for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” No one lives a problem free life. We live in a fallen world and bad things are bound to happen, but that doesn’t mean that we should give in to despair. Jesus has promised to go through all of the things that we have to go through in life with us. He is really that friend that, “sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) Inevitably, when we think of His closeness to us we think of Psalm 23:4, “Yea though I walk through 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.” All of this, and more, is true for you if you will come to Jesus by faith. Bro. Joe “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. 2. looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There is so much to preach about and write about in this text. It almost “falls apart” into a sermon outline. But for my purpose today, I want to focus on just three words, “Looking unto Jesus…” No better advice is given in the Bible than this. Whether things are going our way or away from us, it is always fitting and wise to look unto Jesus. Why is this true? The text tells us that Jesus is the “author of our faith.” Jesus did not come onto the worldly scene accidentally. It was in the heart of our triune God that Jesus would come as the Savior of the world. John 1:1-2 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God." The origin of the Word, or Jesus, was not at His birth in Bethlehem, but way back before the creation of the world, the Son was ordained to be our savior. Revelation 13:8 tells us, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This is the Bible’s way of telling us that it was always intended that Jesus would come to earth and would be slain for our sins. We should look unto Jesus, because He is the author of our faith. The text also tells us that Jesus is the “finisher of our faith.” These four words might get lost on us if we did not pause and think about the meaning of them. In John 19: 28-30, we see the ultimate significance of these words: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst.” 29. Now there was a set vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30. When Jesus therefore has received the vinegar, He said, IT IS FINISHED: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.” We need to look unto Jesus because He finished the work on our behalf that had been in the heart of God “from the foundation of the world.” The “it” in “it is finished,” is the plan of salvation that had been worked out before one person was created. Only Jesus could have achieved this for us. Hebrews 12:2b explains it this way: “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” There is one more thing in this text that we need to see that will tell us why we should look unto Jesus. It is found in Hebrews 2c: “…despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." This means that death did not end the saving ministry of Jesus Christ. He arose from the grave and taught His disciples for forty days and ascended to the Father. Jesus is still alive and is interested in your life and mine. Hebrews 7:24-25 sheds some light on the meaning of Jesus’ continuing ministry with us: “But this man, because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for us.” As incredible as it may seem, Jesus is eternally interested in our little lives, and ministers to us from the “right hand of the throne of God.” Then, it just makes sense that we would look unto Jesus, because He can actually make a difference in our lives. here to edit. “Thus saith the Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am God.”
I want to focus on the mistaken idea that the Syrians had about the God of Israel. They thought that he was like their limited gods and that He could only save His people in the hills but not in the valleys. God sent “a man of God” to give the message to the king of Israel, Ahab, that because of their mistaken idea about God the “great multitude” of Syrians would be defeated. We need to be careful that we do not underestimate God as we know Him in Jesus. Our faith in Jesus demands that we know of His great power that is at work in our lives. After all, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Just because we cannot see what Jesus is doing in our lives at all times, does not mean that He is not at work in our lives. Our faith in the unseen hand of God will help us overcome. I want to share some ways that we need to be careful not to underestimate God. We should not underestimate the power of the faith that we have in God. Understand that this power is not caused by our faith, but by the power of God that is at work in our faith. The apostle John gave us a witness of this in 1 John 5:4-5: “For whosoever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” We can do things by faith that we could never otherwise do. In Acts 3, Peter and John encountered a crippled beggar at the “beautiful gate” of the temple. The man wanted them to give him a little money, but Peter had more to give than a mere pittance. Peter answered him, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” The man did rise up and walk, much to the man’s own amazement and the amazement of the people who witnessed it. When he was questioned about the event, Peter replied: “And His name (Jesus) through faith in His name has made this man strong…” (Acts 3:15a) In other words Peter made it plain that it was not his own power that healed the man, but was the power of Jesus in whom Peter had faith. Do not underestimate the power of your faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus might not give you the gift of healing, but He will give you the power to do His will in your life. Do not underestimate the power of prayers of faith in your life. Tennyson wrote: “More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of.” Great things happen in our lives and we might think that these great things occurred because of our own innate goodness. These things probably happened because someone, or some group of people, was praying for us. We do not need to forget that we can accomplish more for the Lord by prayer, than we can accomplish without prayer. The philosopher, William James, heard someone say that there are no real answers to prayer and that these answers were mere coincidence. James wrote: “It is interesting that these ‘coincidences’ happen more often when we pray than when we do not pray.” Even this sophisticated philosopher saw the power of prayer. Having been a recipient in recent years of the prayers people all over Georgia and beyond, I can attest to the fact of the power of prayer. Having seen God’s answers to my prayers, I can attest to the power of prayer. Do not underestimate the power of prayer in your life. Do not underestimate the power of God in any area of your life. .Bro. Joe
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” |
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