“Then there passed by Midanites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph into Egypt.”
I am assuming that if you are reading this, you have at least a passing knowledge of the story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph did not help himself when he told his brothers of his dreams of them bowing down to him. (Which they eventually did.) Since Joseph was already Jacob’s favorite son, his brothers already did not like him. When Joseph went searching for them far away from home, his brothers put him in a dry cistern (dry well). The result is printed in the text above. The amazing thing about this story is Joseph’s reaction to what unfairly happened to him. He served as a good example to us of how we should react to adverse incidences in our lives. Joseph did not get discouraged. Think about it. He was sold into slavery by his half - brothers. (You might say that he was a victim of a dysfunctional family – to say the least.) He was taken by people he did not know and taken by them to a country that he knew nothing about, and was sold as a slave. This would have discouraged most people. In fact, you kind of want to get discouraged for him when you read about it. He served as a slave in Potiphar’s house. Instead of being bitter and discouraged, Joseph was eventually put in charge of Potiphar’s house. The Bible tells us that Joseph had God’s favor, and because of this was successful. Joseph maintained his faith in God who favored him and instead of being discouraged, he thrived. I’m sure that he was homesick and perhaps unhappy, but in spite of this he thrived instead getting discouraged. Joseph did not let his circumstances defeat him. We see this in two ways. First, when Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, Joseph did not give in to the temptation. He refused to dishonor God or the man who had put him as the head of his house. Second, he was betrayed by Potiphar’s wife and wrongly accused. Because Potiphar believed his wayward wife, Joseph ended up in prison. Another defeat! But while he was in prison, Joseph once again, because of God’s favor, rose like cream to the top and he was put in charge of the other prisoners. At this point, I want to deal with how Joseph handled God’s favor. Joseph enjoyed God’s favor because he had faith in Him. Even with God’s favor, Joseph could have thought only of himself and how bad he had it and become discouraged and defeated. Here is where we can learn from Joseph. He used his faith in God to deal with his negative situation and succeeded in spite of the fact that he had been mistreated by his brothers and enslaved in Egypt. This is how we can succeed in being effective human beings and effective servants of God. We cannot let the troubles of life embitter us, discourage us and defeat us. We need to trust that our sovereign Lord will enable us to prevail over Satan and all of the obstacles that he puts in our way. James 4:6b-8a gives us good advice here: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 7. 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…” This is what Joseph did years before James wrote this. We would do well to have this attitude. Finally, Joseph did not hold a grudge against his brothers. He was removed from prison and was soon in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Because of a famine in Canaan, Joseph’s brothers came to him for help. He did play a little game with them for a while, but nowhere near what they deserved. In the final analysis, Joseph saw the larger picture of what happened. Here is what Joseph said to his brothers about the situation in Genesis 50:20-21: “…As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day to save much people alive.” Like Joseph, we need to take the high road when we encounter problems in life, which we inevitably will, and instead of becoming discouraged and defeated, trust God and want His will above all else. That’s why I maintain that Joseph served as a good example to us. Let’s pay attention to it! Bro. Joe
1 Comment
“You are of God little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
We are always looking for an advantage. Our text shows us a big advantage. You can’t get any greater than God. The good news is “greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” This is not good news for everyone in the world. It is for those who are “of God.” How does one get to be “of God”? The answer is in 1 John 5:4-5: “For whatsoever (whosoever) is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.?” It is through faith in Jesus that we overcome the world, and why “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” He is greater than our greatest enemy – Satan. He is the one who is “in the world.” Satan started his ugly work on us in the Garden of Eden and has been at it ever since. A lot of people do not believe in the devil. If a person believes what the Bible says, he/she has to believe in the devil. Anyone who is living for Jesus believes in him, because he never lets us alone. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we can overcome him and defeat him. When Jesus died on the cross, He defeated Satan. Satan has lost the war, but he continues to battle us and try to tear us down. Thank God that Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to enable us stand up to him. No one does it perfectly, but we have the guarantee that our faith in Jesus gives us ultimate victory over him. He is greater than our greatest worry. The world can give us a lot to worry about, and Satan does all he can to help us find things to worry about. This has been a battle for me, for I was a chronic worrier. I have learned to turn things over to Jesus, but there are times when I put things in His hands and then take them back. But I can rejoice because I have grown way beyond what I would have grown without Jesus. I am joyful that when I start to worry, I talk to Jesus about it. It is a joy for me to know that Jesus is greater than my greatest worry. He is greater than your greatest worry too. What is it that you are worrying about right now? If you have put your faith in Jesus, He is greater than that worry. If you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, He can be greater than that worry. The Bible tells us that if we will turn from our sins, confess them and invite Jesus into our lives by faith, we can be overcomers. You are either an overcomer, or you can be an overcomer. He is greater than our greatest fear. Satan really loves to make us afraid. With our world situation, he can have field day with us if we haven’t overcome through Jesus. The ironic thing about our overcoming fear is that it is done through love. God’s love for and in us is one of the great results of our faith in Jesus. 1 John 4:15-16: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God. 16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in Him.” Isn’t it wonderful how faith and love work together to help us overcome fear. It is because of these two great powers of Jesus that we can overcome fear and have peace. Paul wrote about this in Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which passes understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I hope that I have written things here that will make you rejoice that “greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world,” or that you will want to join those of us who have faith in Jesus and can make that claim. Bro. Joe “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
I read this verse in James this morning. He quoted it in the process of showing how false pride promotes strife and does not bring good into our lives. I want to stress the word “humble” in this article. It is a vastly misunderstood word. Today, the word often carries negative connotations. If we call a person “humble,” it is not a compliment, but it means that he or she is inferior in some way. This is not how the Bible presents humility. Our text is a good example. It shows that God is not on the side of the prideful, but on the side of the humble. Why am I writing that it pays to be humble? A humble person is willing to give others first place. Jesus advised people that when they went to a feast, not to take the best seat, but to let others have that seat because the master of the feast might tell them to step down when someone that he deemed more important came in. (Luke 14:7-11) The point is that it should not matter to us who is in the best seat. We do not really need to be recognized as the most important person, or to be given first place in everything. The humble person will receive recognition and not let it go to his or her head. When I think of humility, I think of Billy Graham. Here is a man that was for years the pastor to presidents, yet he did not brag about himself or put himself forward in any way. He received a lot of accolades, but he received them in humility and put them in proper perspective. We can learn from this example. It does not hurt us to let someone else go first. Why is the humble person willing to give others first place? It is because the truly humble person is submitted to the Lord. He or she desires the smile of God more than the smile of people. When one is always putting himself or herself forward, we say that he or she has a big ego. This might be true, but more likely than not it means that they have a big ego need, and that they can’t feel good about themselves unless they are number one. Prideful people spend their lives forever trying to convince themselves that they are the best at everything. The problem is that nothing that they do, nothing that they excel in ever satisfies that massive ego need. Here is the point: Humble people do not need to feel that they are the best at everything. What they want is to do the will of God, and if that means that they excel in any endeavor, they give God the credit for it. In other words, humble people do not try to impress other people or themselves; their main aim is to impress God and receive His blessing. Humble people do not enjoy losing. That is just not the most important thing in their lives. Their ego satisfaction is primarily in God. The bottom line is that humble people are secure in Jesus. What this means is that humble people are people of faith. We are saved by grace through faith, but we also live that saving faith each day. We need to have faith in Jesus that He is taking care of us even when things do not go our way. We tend to think that when we lose at something, or when we are not praised that we have done something wrong. We need to discover what people of faith have always discovered: God is ministering to us in the valley as well as on the mountain. God has some purpose in all of the events of our lives, and we need to accept that this is true of the good and the bad. I look back over my life, and I can see the hand of God in events that have taken place in my life. (I can also see how I messed up when I forgot about God’s purpose and went my own way.) When we realize that our security is in God and not in our ego satisfaction, we are living humbly. We can safely assume that no one is perfectly humble. In fact, the moment that we claimed to be humble, we would no longer be humble. We can’t say, “I’m humble and proud of it.” But we can trust in God and not always in ourselves. We can attempt to please God and not people. We can feel secure in Jesus and know that “he has our backs” – If I may use a cliché. Just remember: It pays to be humble. Bro. Joe “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
I don’t know how old Paul was at the time he wrote Philippians. I know that he was under house arrest in Rome, and that his circumstances were not the best. I needed to read this text this morning, because I had been dealing with the fact all morning with the fact that I am getting old. I thought that perhaps I might as well “hang up my spurs,” and go out to pasture. After all, I have retired, but am still serving through preaching, teaching, pastoring and writing. This text helped me to see that Satan was tempting me to quit. Let me share what I discovered in this text that will be good for you whatever age you are. The first thing I noted was Paul confessed that he had not arrived in his spiritual growth. He wrote: “I count not myself to have apprehended.” The imprisoned apostle knew that he needed to grow in his relationship with the Lord. The problem with a lot of people is that they think they have arrived, and that there is no more growing to do. Let this text give you an opportunity to look at your own situation. Where are you in your spiritual growth? Do you love Jesus more today than you did yesterday? Are you getting more satisfaction out of your relationship with Jesus and with your fellow Christians? Are you happy in the service that you are rendering for Jesus in your church? The point is that if you think you have “apprehended,” you are unhappy with your spiritual growth and your spiritual service. Just remind yourself that if Paul had not apprehended in all that he had done for the kingdom, including going to prison for his faith, we shouldn’t think that we have. You, like me, have some growing to do. Second, Paul wrote that he was not hindered by the past, but continued to “reach forth to those things which are before.” Satan loves to tempt us with past failures. I don’t know this because I read about it, I know about it because of my own past failures, both personal spiritual lapses and failures in my ministry. Past failures are like “siren songs” that beckon us to just give up, “fold up the tent” and lick our wounds. No matter how old you are, you can be held hostage by past failures and foibles. Paul just did not let Satan win that battle. Just think of Paul’s past. Before he was converted, the great apostle persecuted the church. He was unmerciful in his judgments against Christ and Christ’s followers. If anyone could have felt defeated by their past, Paul could have. But he wisely wrote, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before. There is nothing in your past that can keep you from “reaching forth” if you have made things right with the Lord through repentance and have received his forgiveness. Third, Paul wrote: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” I like the word “press.” The Greek word that is translated “press” in the King James Version is dioko, and it means “to pursue.” It can also mean “to press on.” J.B. Phillips translated it, “I am still fighting.” I love that translation. Paul is saying that he will keep fighting the fight of faith, and that he will continue to claw and scratch and serve wherever he is until he receives the “prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The “prize” that Paul referred to is heaven. Paul would keep on fighting until he was in heaven. Paul was saying that he would continue to fight until he died. He did this, for in the last letter that Paul wrote before he was martyred, he wrote these words, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) “Press on,” keep on praying, reading and studying your Bible and serving in whatever capacity the Lord Jesus would have you serve. Do it! Bro. Joe "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
This is one of those verses that can be taken out of context and still be true for everyone and for all time. The occasion of the question is when Abraham, who was one-hundred years old, and Sarah, who was ninety years old, were told that they would have a baby. Sarah had been barren until that time. Of course, she laughed and questioned whether this could happen. To make a long story short, it happened. Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. It is tempting to tell the whole story here, but rather than deal with the historical context of the question, I want to deal with the question itself: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God put the question to Abraham in reference to Sarah giving birth to Isaac. Both Abraham and Sarah found out that nothing is too hard for the Lord. It was God’s will that Abraham and Sarah have a baby in their old age – and it happened. It happened because God wanted it to happen. I guess it has happened again somewhere that two old people have had a baby, but it is out of the ordinary. But we need to remember that God often acts out of the ordinary. The Bible is full of incidents where God did what seemed impossible. God still does the impossible today. He does not do the impossible because we demand it. He does it to fulfill His purposes in our lives and in the world. One of our problems with the question before us is that bad things have happened in our lives and we wonder why God didn’t do anything about them. Things happen sometimes that cause us to ask where God is. It was like God didn’t care. Well, in a fallen world bad things happen. They happened in the Bible. They have happened throughout history and they will continue to happen until God brings in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Get used to it. But God is not absent in our fallen world. The same God who divided the Red Sea is the same God who sent His Son to die on Calvary for our sins. I need to make a valid and important point here: It is often in the bad things that happen in life that God is the most active. There are many stories, including my own, about how God acted in a bad thing that happened and brought about changes that needed to be made in people’s lives. Because of the bad thing that happened, they became better people with a strengthened faith. I know that this is true because it is my story too. God allowed me to have two cancers (Some of you might be tired of hearing about this.:-) or:-( ) It was during recovery from chemotherapy and three surgeries that God got my attention and straightened out some things that I needed to deal with. It wasn’t too hard for God to heal the cancers, but that’s not what He chose to do. In those trying times, God’s sovereignty in my life became more real than ever before. I can’t explain this, but I know that it is true. It is in the unexplainable that God shows us that nothing is too hard for Him. I also need to make the point that often God does prevent bad things from happening. There are many stories in the Bible, and in people’s lives today, about how God healed people. God healed them because this was what was best for them. They did not need to go through the hardships of illness because God knew that the healing would be sufficient. This can also be said about things besides illnesses. For example, God has healed marriages that seemed doomed to failure. God acts out of the ordinary in many aspects of life. Perhaps there is something that you want God to do in your life today. Take the need to Him and trust Him to act in your best interest. Trust that what He does will be for the best, will strengthen your faith and make you a better person. Just remember that there is nothing too hard for the Lord. He will take you around it or through it, but your need will not be too hard for Him to meet. Bro. Joe “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
A lot is written about sheep in the Bible. One text that comes to mind is Psalm 23, which is called the “Shepherd Psalm.” David, "the man after God’s own heart," was a shepherd as a young boy. When the birth of Christ was announced by an angel, it was announced to shepherds “watching over their flock by night.” In John 10, from which our text is taken, Jesus referred to Himself as “the good shepherd.” God’s people are referred to as sheep, and our text is a prime example of that. This one line verse from John 10 tells us a lot about being one of Christ’s sheep. Jesus referred to His sheep as “my sheep.” Christ’s sheep belong to Him. From what I have read about sheep and shepherds in the Bible, the sheep often did not belong to the shepherd. Jesus referred to those shepherds in John 10 as “hirelings.” They did not really care for the sheep because the sheep did not belong to them. Christ’s sheep belong to Him because He has given His life for them. In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” It was because of His death on the cross that Christ’s sheep could become His. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Christ’s sheep belong to Him because He gave His life, His blood, for them. Because Christ’s sheep belong to Him, they shall never perish. Jesus said this in John 10:28: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” How did Christ’s sheep become His? The rest of the verse explains this: “My sheep hear my voice…” Jesus’ sheep belong to Him because when He called, they heard Him, and by faith, accepted Him as Savior. Jesus was, and is, always calling people to really hear Him. A good example of this is found in John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my voice, and believes on Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Christ’s sheep do not just hear words; they actually hear Jesus and understand what we He means. This means they listen with their hearts, not just their ears. It is not a vocal call, but a call by the Holy Spirit to the heart. They hear and they believe. They do not just believe that Christ is real, or just that the Bible is true. They believe in Jesus, therefore in “Him that sent me,” and take His word to heart. They do not just believe about Jesus but in Jesus. To really hear Jesus is to give your life to Him, not just hear it and say, “Man, that sounds like a good deal to me.” The call to be Christ’s sheep is not only a good deal, it is a divine privilege that results in eternal life. The result of hearing the voice of Christ is what follows in the verse: “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” Jesus called upon people to “take up your cross and follow me.” To take up Christ’s cross is to give your life to Him, make Him Lord of your life and to follow Him wherever He leads. This is the call that made a lot people turn away in the New Testament. When they realized that they would have to surrender their lives to Him, the deal did not sound so good. This has not changed. People love a Jesus who loves them but makes no demands on their lives. Christ’s sheep willingly follow Him. Years before Jesus came into the world, David described partially what it means to follow the shepherd in Psalm 23:2-4: “He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside still waters. 3. He restores my soul: He leads me in paths of righteousness for His names sake.” Christ leads His sheep to some very good things. Another aspect of following Jesus is His call to His first disciples: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) Christ’s sheep take His call seriously and follow through with it by giving their lives to Him and following Him in whatever direction He leads. This is what it means to be one of Christ’s sheep. If you have not really heard and followed Him do it now. If you have, rejoice! Bro. Joe “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
I do not know if you know what I mean when I say that I have been feeling the heaviness of life for the last few days. I am retired and not on a strict schedule, but I have been feeling the pressure of demands on my life and on my time. Mostly, I have just felt a great need for the Lord. I was searching for a scripture reference that would speak to my need. Psalm 46:1 came to my mind, so I read it, meditated on it, prayed over it, and then felt the need to share my thoughts on the text with you. “God is our refuge…” I remember a gospel song that I heard years ago, and haven’t heard for a long time, that spoke to this. The song was “I Found a Hiding Place.” I don’t remember all of the words to the song, but the thought behind the song spoke to me this morning. When we feel that the world is rushing in on us and that the demands of life are becoming too heavy, we can escape to that hiding place and find the security that we need to go on and to meet the demands that life places on us. It is just good to take refuge in God sometimes and just let Him minister to our sore hearts and minds. When we go to Him for refuge, He reassures us of His presence and of His love for us. It is also in this hiding place that the Lord feeds our faith and lifts our spirits. “God is…our strength.” It is nice to take refuge in the Lord, but we cannot stay there. When we are in the “hiding place” and He is ministering to us, He is preparing us to go on and do His will for our lives, and to meet the demands of our lives whatever those demands may be. It is in these times that He gives us the strength to leave the hiding place. I praise Him that the strength that He gives us is His strength. It is Holy Spirit strength. The promise of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus is not an idle promise. The Holy Spirit is not in our lives to just give us some “holy thrill” and some talking points for our next fellowship meeting. He gave us the Holy Spirit to minister to us on a daily basis and to give us the strength that we need to live and to serve. The text did not say that God just gives us strength. He does give us strength, but the text says that God is our strength. We need to remember that when we have Him in our lives, we have His strength. It doesn’t hurt to ask for His strength, but we should remember that we already have His strength because we have Him. (At this point we pause and say “Thank you Jesus.”) “God is…our very present help in trouble.” The NIV translates this: “God is our ever present help in trouble.” I like both translations. God is our “very” present help. There is no doubt about it. But He is also our “ever” present help in trouble. We can know that there will never be a time when He will not be our “help in trouble.” I think that the whole Bible story from Genesis to Revelation shows us this. I have found in my life that God’s help in my troubles takes different forms. For example, there are times that I go to the hiding place whining and whimpering. That is when He “takes me to the woodshed” and tells me to get over it and get on with it. There are other times that I go to Him in real need and He ministers to my heart and gently shoves me back out into the fray. We need to be sensitive to what God is telling us when we go to Him for refuge. When He gives us His strength in those times of refuge, He gives it to us to serve Him and to do His will for our lives. But we can be assured that when the Lord Jesus has a plan for us, and that He will be with us while He carries it out through us. You can take this verse personally. Let the Lord speak to your heart now through this verse. Let Him be your refuge today. If you are a believer, know that He is your strength, and that He is present in your life for whatever trouble you might encounter. Believe it! Rejoice in it! Do it! Bro. Joe “Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” KJV
“Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord; but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” NIV The Bible used masculine nouns for man, but I think that we can understand this to ultimately mean “happy is the person…” The text is certainly relevant to both men and women. The point of the verse is that it is not wise to harden our hearts against God. The verse begins by reminding us that a person is “blessed” or “happy” when he or she fears the Lord, or reverences the Lord. I can think of no circumstance in life when we should not take God seriously, and give Him reverence. The Jews take the name of God/Yahweh so seriously that they will not even say or print His name. We do not go that far, but we should certainly learn the lesson that the Jews are trying to teach us, i.e., that God alone is worthy of our reverence and praise. The verse says that the happy person is he or she who fears, or reverences, God “always.” This means that we should not let our guard down at any time in our lives. God is holy and worthy of our worship all of the time, whether we feel like worshiping Him or not. As we go through life, we change the way we look at life and our opinions change, but this should never be true of God. The only thing that should change in our view of God as we progress in life is that we have a deeper understanding of Him and of His love for us. Those of us who believe that “the word became flesh and dwelt among us,” should certainly feel this way. The verse gives a warning about ceasing to fear God: “But he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief.” (The NIV translates it “fall into trouble.”) Whichever translation you prefer, it means that when we fail to worship and reverence God, we have hardened our hearts toward Him and that means trouble for us. I like the word “mischief” because my parents often used this word referring to the trouble that I was in. It was: “You have gotten into mischief,” and unfortunately, that was often. Since it is out of our hearts that the “issues of life” proceed, our hearts should always be right with God. The fact is that how we regard God in our hearts will determine how we live our lives. If we fear God, we will be careful how we live our lives. Let me give some examples: When we think that God does not care how we live, we will do things that will certainly be displeasing to Him. There is nothing in our lives that God is not interested in, and we get into mischief when we forget this. I think, perhaps, that David forgot this when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. That moral lapse certainly caused him a lot of trouble. We can probably remember times in our lives when we have forgotten this, and could testify that it got us into trouble. (I’m using “mischief” and “trouble” interchangeably.) When we think that God will not judge us, we will do things that will be displeasing to Him. Often, we care more about how people judge us than how God judges us. When we fear the opinion of the world more than the opinion of God, we have hardened our hearts against Him are headed for mischief. Worse, still, when we think that God does not love us, we will do things that are displeasing to Him. I know that when I got into mischief as a youngster, I felt that I had betrayed mama’s love. (I wish that she had known that her tears were more effective than the switch.) In the same way, if we know that God loves us, we will find it much more difficult to displease Him. None of us will please Him perfectly, but even knowing that, we should want to please the God who loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins. When we wander from the love of God, we get into mischief. Anyway, if you want to be blessed and happy in your life, do not harden your heart against God. If you feel that you have, seek His forgiveness and, if you are sincere, He will forgive you. Bro. Joe “For whatsoever 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 who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
The question is what is your faith doing for you? I know that the first answer that you will give is that it has given you eternal salvation. That is the most important and profound thing that faith does for believers, our text reveals to us that we can “overcome” because of our faith. Jesus spoke to this in John 16:33: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (trouble, problems, etc.): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The promise is that because Jesus has overcome the world, He also helps us to overcome the world. What should our faith do for us? Our faith should help us overcome the inevitable temptations that we will have in this life. If a person thinks that temptations stop when he or she becomes a Christian, he or she is in for a great awakening. If Satan did not leave Jesus alone, he will certainly not leave us alone. I don’t think that anyone overcomes all of their temptations, but I believe that our faith can help to severely minimize Satan’s power in our lives. I know that I put up a whole lot better fight now than I did when I was not living by faith. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul wrote: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." This would not apply if we did not have faith in Jesus. By faith we can overcome. In Philippians 6 Paul wrote about the “whole armor of God.” One thing that he mentioned was: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." The armor that Paul described was patterned after the armor of a Roman solider. Each soldier had a wooden shield that he could get behind in the heat of battle. When a “fiery dart” was thrown at the soldier, the shield would stop the “dart” and put the fire out. Paul was telling us that our faith can be used to shield us from the many temptations that we face. Faith can help us to live in loving harmony with our fellowman. With our faith in Christ, we have His love in us as well. It bothers me that we Christians do not utilize our faith as forcefully as we should in this area. When we are tempted to dismiss a fellow believer and not sit with him or her in church and not speak to them, we are not using our faith. It is not surprising that people who do not have faith might not live in harmony with others, but our faith should help us to overcome this temptation to quarrel and dislike fellow Christians. After all, our faith ties us to each other in a partnership with the Holy Spirit. Our faith can certainly help us to overcome the temptation to dislike fellow Christians. But we should love non-believers as well, and live in harmony with them as best we can. Faith enables us to serve God in whatever way He wills for us to serve Him. In my case it is God’s will for me to be a preacher. I will assure you that without faith I would never have pursued this calling. It took faith to go to college and seminary, which I did because of God’s will. (That’s not to say that every preacher should do this, but it was necessary for me.) It takes faith to minister to people and to stand before them and share the word of God in sermons. If faith in Jesus has helped me to do what God wants me to do, it can certainly help you do the same thing. Faith in Jesus does not mean that we will not have to struggle daily to live for Him. But living for Jesus would be impossible without faith. Remember: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” It’s yours for the asking. Bro. Joe “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing humility to all men.”
All us, unless some of you were perfect children, have heard, “You better behave yourself.” This is kind of what Paul was writing to Titus about the people on the Isle of Crete. It is a good message to us about how we should behave ourselves before all people. First, Paul wrote, “Be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey magistrates…” This looks like we should be subservient to government and do whatever they say. We need to remember that a lot of Christians died because they disobeyed the Roman Empire’s order to show loyalty to Caesar as a god. What it means is that Christians should be law-abiding citizens, i.e., we should be good citizens. When we have to choose between God and man, we should choose God and obey what he wants of us. Otherwise, we are to live within the laws of the land that do not go against the word of God and that do not make us deny our faith. Second, Paul wrote, “Be ready for every good work…” What this means is that as we go through each day, we need to be spiritually astute enough to see opportunities to witness and minister to people when they arise. We never know when an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus might arise, or when an opportunity to serve someone in the name of Jesus might arise. This can take almost any form of service. Christian ministry is not really complicated. When we see an opportunity to really help someone, no matter how unimportant it might seem, that is probably an opportunity to do a “good work.” Third, Paul wrote, “to speak evil of no one…’ This means, of course, that we need to be careful how we speak to people. In the course of a normal day, we will speak to a lot of people. We will have encounters with cashiers, waiters and waitresses, store clerks, etc. If there is a problem with them, we need to be careful not to speak abusively to them, or to anyone else to whom we speak during the day. Sometimes we want to give someone a “piece of our minds.” What I do is remind myself that I do not need to lose a “piece of my mind.” You would do well to remind yourself of the same thing. When it comes to how you speak to people, “behave yoself.” Fourth, Paul wrote, “to be peaceable, gentle/considerate, showing humility to all (people).” (I added the parentheses, since “men” is used generically here and means all people.) This might seem a bit lame, but Paul is telling us to be nice to people. It is not Christian to be rude and inconsiderate towards people. Boorish behavior does not give a positive Christian witness, nor for that matter, does it give a positive Christian image. This certainly does not mean that we can’t confront society when society needs confronting. Paul, who wrote this, confronted evils in the society in which he lived, and in the churches that he served. He just plainly told the truth, which is what we should do, but we need to be careful not to lose our tempers when we do. (Which I will admit is not always easy to do.) All that I have written here is right out of the Bible. It is as good a guide to Christian social behavior as there is in the Bible. We would do well to heed it. Our concern is not to give a “positive image,” but to give a positive Christian witness. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|