“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.”
We could have the mistaken idea that David’s one desire was to stay in church all of the time. Keep in mind that the tabernacle, and later the temple, was not a place where people gathered to worship like we do in our church buildings. They later had synagogues for that purpose, but in David’s time there were no synagogues. What, then, was the one thing that David desired of the Lord? David desired to stay close to the Lord. The tent that David set up as the tabernacle was where the Holy of Holies was. This was the part of the tabernacle that held the Ark of the Covenant where God was present among His people on the Mercy Seat. David simply meant that the one thing he desired was to stay close to the Lord. Each day of his life, David wanted to have fellowship with the Lord. When David, or other Jews, prayed they prayed toward the place where the Holy of Holies was. Shouldn’t we all desire to stay close to the Lord? We cannot live for the Lord if we do not seek to be close to Him. We get into spiritual trouble when we are not in close proximity to the Lord. Actually, we are not at our best when we are not close to the Lord. We must keep that in mind, because the Lord is always close to us, and if we are not close to Him it is because we have moved. He has promised to always stay close to us like a shepherd stays close to his sheep. Jesus said, “Lo I am with you alway….” The desire to be close to the Lord should be our desire too. David wanted to behold the beauty of the Lord. David desired to stay close to the Lord in order to constantly observe His beauty. Another translation of “beauty” is “delightfulness.” Being close to the Lord, David could delight in Him. Among other things, to observe the delightfulness of the Lord is to observe His grace. What would we do without God’s delightful grace at work in our lives? If we do not stay close to the Lord, we can’t really enjoy His grace. It also means to observe God’s great love for us. We should delight in His love everyday of our lives, and never take it for granted. I know that my life would be miserable if I did not know and serve the God who loves me and wants the best for me. Do we really stay close enough to God to observe His grace and love on a daily basis? David desired to “enquire in His temple.” As related earlier, the temple was not yet built but it was in the mind and heart of David. He did everything that needed to be done for Solomon to build it. What David wanted in his closeness to God was to pray every day. In Psalm 55:16-17 David wrote: “As for me, I will call upon God: and the Lord shall save me. 17. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud:and He shall hear my voice.” In his desire to stay close to the Lord, David felt the need to pray and communicate with God. Could it be that prayer is difficult for us sometimes because we are not as close to the Lord as we should be? The closer we get to Jesus, the more we should want to talk to Him and have Him speak to our hearts. We should always be aware of our need for prayer and closeness to our Lord. We need to ask ourselves if we desire to be close to God. Could it be that we do not see His delightfulness as we should, and that we do not pray as often as we should because we are not living close to Him? Let Psalm 27:4 remind you of the importance of staying close to God every day. Bro. Joe
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“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
I remember a childhood game called “follow the leader.” The idea was to do everything as best you could, that the person leading did. Life is similar to that game. No matter how independent we think we are, we are going to follow someone or something. We need to be sure that the one we follow is going in the right direction. If we must play “follow the leader” we need to follow the One who knows the way. Proverbs 3:6 tells us to acknowledge, or heed, the Lord. It also tells us how to follow Him. We should follow Him completely. “In all thy ways” means that if we want to follow the leadership of Jesus, we must follow Him every day and in every way. Jesus does not want to be the Lord of our “church lives,” yet be ignored in our everyday lives. Jesus actually wants to be our Lord, our leader, when we are at home. He wants to be the leader of our lives when we are at work. He wants to be the leader of our lives when we are on vacation. We cannot take vacations from the leadership of Jesus. We can trust His leadership in the use of our time and our talents. We should follow His leadership in every word, every thought and every action in our lives. I know that none of us will do this perfectly, but it is a good goal. (Don’t you agree?) We would surely stay out of a lot of trouble if we would closely follow Jesus. Frankly, I have not always found this easy to do in my life. The human will is strong and needs to be tamed by the Lord. You will not find it easy either, but you will find it rewarding. How can we do it? Proverbs 3:5 tells us how: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” We should follow Him willingly. “In all your ways acknowledge Him" means to pay attention to Jesus and heed what He says. It means to pay attention to the Holy Spirit given to us by Jesus to give us proper leadership. Jesus alone is worthy of the leadership of our lives. When Paul addressed the philosophers on Mars Hill about their “Unknown god” in Acts 17, he told them, in effect, that he knew God. In verse 28 he told them: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” That is the God that we know through our belief in Christ. We should be willing to follow the One who has this power. Someone has written: “We must hear (Jesus) as teacher, trust Him as Savior, love Him as Father, follow Him as master, obey Him as Lord, and honor Him as supreme in all things.” Good Point! This is what it means to follow Jesus willingly. We should follow His directions. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” As written earlier, we will follow someone or something. It amazes me what people will follow today. They need to know, if they will believe, that when Jesus directs the path it is the right path. There are a lot of “leaders” out there, as there was in New Testament days, seeking our attention and our loyalty. None of them deserve to direct our lives. None of them came from heaven, died on a cross, or rose from the dead for us. If you want to go in the right direction, trust Jesus for He will never lead you astray. I pray that you will meditate on this today. Bro. Joe “Now when (Jesus) had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your net for a draught (catch).”
The background for this text is the occasion when, because of the crowd of people pressing Him, Jesus got into Simon Peter’s boat and began to teach the people, probably from the stern of the boat. When He had finished teaching the people, Jesus told Peter to go into deeper waters and let down his nets for a catch. Peter told Jesus that they had fished all night but had caught nothing, and then he added: “Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net.” Peter did let down the nets, and they caught so many fish that the nets broke. As I read this, I thought: What if Peter had not let down the net? The answer, of course, is that Peter and his companions would not have caught as many fish as they did. That made me think of how we need to heed the voice of Jesus when He tells us to “let down our nets.” This means that He has a greater task for us and if we obey Him we will see great things happen. It occurs to me that some churches do not see great things happen because they do not “let down their nets” when Jesus tells them to do so. He tells them to go into deeper waters, where the “fish” are, and they decide to stay within the four walls of their church buildings and be satisfied with empty nets. The churches that do “launch out into the deep and let down their nets” see the rewards that come with it. It also occurs to me that individual Christians do not see great things happen because they do not “launch out into the deep and let down their nets.” When we refuse to obey Jesus to go deeper and “let down our nets” we miss out on a lot that Jesus has for us. Let’s think of some things that we might miss out on if we do not obey Jesus in this matter. Let’s think of the victories that we might not have because we have decided to stay right where we are spiritually. Of course, the metaphor lends itself to winning people to Jesus, but there are other results when we go deeper and cast our nets. “Going deeper” means that we are going deeper into our faith, and this comes about by much prayer and Bible reading. For example, it might be that you cannot have victory over some habit that you know is stunting your Christian growth, but you just cannot give it up. Believe me; I know how this can be. You will not have the victory that you can have if you will overcome the habit in the power of Jesus. That is just one example of what it could mean in your life if you would just cut loose, “launch out into the deep and let down your nets.” I’m sure that you can think of other areas of your life that need the powerful touch of Jesus. Like everything else, we overcome by faith in Jesus and by obedience to Him. Let’s think of the blessings that we might not experience because we have decided not to obey Jesus. When we “let down our nets” in the world by witnessing to people, we have the blessing of seeing them saved and their lives changed. We will not have such a blessing if we do not obey Jesus' command to “let down our nets.” We might also miss the blessing of deeper and more meaningful fellowship with Jesus and with our fellow Christians if we stay in the shallow waters. Think of the joy that Peter, Andrew, James and John had when their nets were full. They were blessed because they obeyed Jesus. If you want to experience the greater blessings that Jesus has for you, you need to get out of the shallow waters, go deeper with Him and “let down your nets.” There is no time like the present to do it. Bro. Joe “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
This text comes at the end of the saga of Joseph and his eleven brothers who sold him into slavery. This is years later, when Joseph had the time to look back on everything that had transpired since his brothers had betrayed him. He tells his brothers that he knows that they really wanted to get rid of him, not caring whether he lived or died, but that God had a greater purpose for all that transpired in that event. In other words, Joseph came to realize that after all is said and done, God was in control of that situation, for He knew what would take place with His people Israel, and He took the evil that they intended and turned it into good for His people. This has not changed, for God is still in control of all of the things that take place in our lives. It might not seem so at first, but as things work out, we can look back and see the handiwork of God in our lives. Recognizing God’s control in our lives is all-important. We need to see that it does matter who is in control of our lives. The sinking of a ferry in South Korea that is in the news as I write this is a case in point. The captain of the ferry turned the control of the ferry over to a novice who had never taken the ferry through those treacherous waters, and the result was the needless loss of many young lives. This is what happens in our lives when we cease to recognize God’s control in our lives. Many lives are “shipwrecked” today because they took control of their own lives, or turned their lives over to someone besides the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s control in our lives is important because God alone knows what the end of the matter will be. We might have something that takes place in our lives that shakes us to the core. For example, it might be a serious illness that sidetracks us for awhile. During that time we can feel useless, or we can use the time of suffering to draw closer to the Lord. We just need to trust the Lord day by day that He knows what is going on and what the result of our illness will be. I would never accuse God of making us ill, but I do know that He uses those times to grow us and to lead us to His successful conclusion of the matter. It might be a setback in your plans for your life. It might be that you lost your job and did not know which way to turn. That would not be pleasant, but if you will seek God’s control, you might find that God had something else that He wanted you to do. God’s control is important because He knows what we really need in our lives instead of what we think we need. Many people have decided when they were young to follow some career that would bring them riches and maybe even fame. But God had other plans, and began to steer us in the direction that He knew we need to go. We might have been well-meaning in our plans, but God meant better for us. “Better for us” is always what God wants of us instead of what we want for ourselves. If you have been disappointed in your life at this point in your life, consider whether or not you have surrendered to God’s control, or to your own control. We like to think that we are “masters of our own fate,” but we make poor masters for ourselves. Surrender all that you are and have to God’s control and see what can happen in your life. Like it was with Joseph, you might meet many pitfalls along the way but in the final analysis, your life will be better and you will be better off under His control. It could be that the Lord has you reading this article now, because you need to turn control of your life over to Him. Go quickly to prayer and start to seek God’s guidance and see what a difference it will make in your life. Bro. Joe “I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me.”
We can learn a lot from the Apostle Paul’s experience. From the day that he became a Christian his life was in danger. When Paul became a Christian, he did a complete U turn from his former way of life. He went from persecuting Christians to preaching Christ. It was very difficult for Paul’s former friends to accept his new life. This would make a difference to a lot of people, but it did not make any difference to Paul. When Jesus saved Paul, it was a real experience and he could not be turned from it because of the problems that his conversion created for him. The problems that people caused for Paul could not stop his life in Christ, nor could they stop His commitment to serve Christ. We need some of what Paul had. What can we learn from Paul’s experience? We can learn that being a Christian is not always a “bed of roses.” There are some people who teach that when one accepts Christ, he or she will have a problem free life. It is for sure that when Christ is in our lives He will help us either around or through problems, but life will certainly not be problem free. Leonard Ravenhill wrote that everywhere Paul went there was a revival or a riot. When he was in Philippi with Silas, he and Silas ended up in prison because they healed a demon possessed girl. Their feet were actually anchored to the floor in stocks. Now, I would call that a problem. But this problem did not stop Paul, for after he and Silas were delivered from that experience, they went on to other places preaching the Gospel. Paul knew that it was not about him but about Christ. We have a tendency to want to quit when we encounter problems, for example, at church. We will quit if we think that it is about us instead of Christ. When we put Christ first, we can get up and go again after we have fallen. When we put Christ first, quitting is not an option. I don’t know what problems you are encountering now in your life, but don’t let them keep you from serving Christ. We can learn that we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens (us).” That is found in Philippians 4:13. We are timid sometimes about what we can do for Christ. Believe this: If Jesus wants you to do something, whatever it is, in the church or in the community, He will give you the wherewithal and the power to do it. There was very little in Paul’s background that prepared him for serving Christ, but Christ used him anyway. There was very little in my background that prepared me for the service that I have rendered for over fifty years, but He has given me the strength to do it. There might be very little in your background that prepares you to do what you know that Christ wants you to do. Step out by faith and do whatever it is. If Jesus didn’t think that you could do it, He would not have put it on your heart. Get up off of it and serve the Lord, for He will give you the strength to do it. We can learn that the anxieties of life do not have to get us down and keep us from the joy and happiness that we can experience in Christ. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing (do not be anxious about anything) 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 all understanding, shall keep your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus.” If anybody had things to be anxious about, it was Paul. But his anxieties could not keep Paul down, because he prayed and depended on God to get him through. We are no different from Paul. The same God who helped him overcome anxiety and get on with his life is the same God who can help us to do the same. I pray that we can all learn from this great man’s experience. After all, we serve the same Lord that he served. Bro. Joe The first three verses of Psalm 1 are about the godly person. Verse 3 says of him or her: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
The teaching here is clear: A tree that has a constant supply of nourishment will be a fruitful tree. When this is applied to a godly person, it means that he or she has a constant supply of spiritual nourishment that makes his or her life fruitful. The lesson here is so simple that it seems almost unnecessary to write it, but obviously we need to be reminded of it. First, a godly person will read and study the Bible daily. Bible reading is absolutely essential to a fruitful life. This being so, why don't we Christians spend more time in the Bible? Second, a godly person will, to quote Paul, "pray without ceasing." This does not mean that he or she will have to be on their knees all of the time, but they will stay in constant contact with Jesus. Every Christian needs a special time of prayer, but we need to remember that the ear of God is open to us all day everyday. Third, a godly person will be involved in the fellowship of God's people called the church. Jesus shed His blood to create this fellowship of believers. We need the church because we need each other. Our problem is that we stress attending church more than we stress being church. The godly person is in good fellowship with fellow believers and is willing to learn from them. Fourth, the godly person, in order to be frutiful, will have to take all of the inspiration from the Bible, prayer and fellowship and go out and tell others about Jesus. We call it witnessing. All of this needs to be wrapped in our love for God and for each other. I'm sure there is more that could be written about this verse, but these points should suffice. This seems almost too simple to be written, but the state of Christianity seems to dictate that it is a lesson that we need to remember and to practice. Bro. Joe “These that have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
The scene of this text is in the city of Thessalonica because of what Paul did in a synagogue. What did he do? He preached Jesus to those present. Some of the people believed, but those who did not believe staArted a riot. The KJV says that they “took of them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar: and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” They took Jason and other Christians to the “rulers of the city” and that was when they accused the Christians of "turning the world upside down.” What this meant was that the Christians were trying to get them to change. What a compliment! When was the last time a group of unbelievers accused your church, or mine, of trying to turn their world upside down? This might be understandable, since the Christian faith is not as revolutionary now as it was then, but we need to consider that we might be a little more revolutionary. The county that I live in, in the Bible belt of Georgia, is eighty-five percent unchurched. What would it mean if we began to “turn the world upside down”? First, it would mean that our own world had been turned upside down. Do you think that the main preacher, Paul, had not had his world turned upside down? He went from being a critic of Christians to a champion for Christ overnight. The world of all of the Christians of Thessalonica had been turned upside down. Maybe our world needs to be turned upside down too. Perhaps, then, we could be more serious about our faith in Christ, and in our dedication to Him. In a way this would turn our worlds upside down. It would mean that we were spending more time in prayer and Bible study, which would mean that we would have to give up some of the other things that we enjoy doing. It would mean that we begin to act in love towards other people, and not always so attentive of ourselves and our petty concerns. It would mean that we would have to give up some of the entertainments that we enjoy so much. Though it was different, all of these things happened in the lives of early Christians like Paul, and in this case, in the lives of Christians in Thessalonica. If their worlds had not been turned upside down, they would not have been accused of turning the world upside down. Second, it would mean that instead of turning the world upside down, we would be trying to turn the world right-side up. This was what those early Christians were trying to do. Remember, the accusation of “turning the world upside down” was made by unbelievers. It was not bragging by believers. They were trying to get people out of their pagan religions to Christ – which would turn their world right-side up. Trying to get people to believe in Christ and give their lives to Him is a noble purpose, and anyone who has turned from unbelief to belief will readily admit that their world has been turned right-side up. Turning the world right-side up is the daily task of every Christian. First, we should rejoice that our world is right-side up and live so that others could see how good that is. Second, we should tell others about what it means. One of the greatest joys of a Christian is to see the changed life of someone to whom he or she has witnessed. This means that this person’s world has been turned right-side up. We rejoice when we see someone turn from drugs, alcohol and worldly living, because we know that something wonderful and positive has happened in their lives. Obviously, I am not advocating starting a riot in our communities. I am advocating that we be about the business of telling the world about Jesus as the Christians in this text were. We will have to admit that our world certainly needs "turning right side up." It has to begin with His church - and that it us! Bro. Joe (The beginning of every year is filled with expectations. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 presents some good expectations as we begin this year. Read them and take them to heart.)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require (expect) of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 13. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” The Book of Deuteronomy is actually a sermon by Moses as the children of Israel waited to enter the "Promised Land.” It is a summation of Israel’s travels and events from Egypt to that present time. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives some summary statements that serve as advice for God’s people as to how they should live. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 is one of those summary statements. It answers the question as to what basic requirements, or expectations, God had for Israel as they entered Canaan. It is good advice for us as well. The first expectation was “to fear the Lord thy God.” This does not just mean to be afraid of God, but hold Him in deep reverence and awe. One of the problems that Israel faced and that we face today is that, “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” God, as we know Him in Jesus, is not just “the man upstairs.” He is the creator of the universe and the master of all that He created. We would do well to heed Moses' advice. Do you really hold God in awe and reverence? The second expectation was “to walk in all His ways.” Moses wanted Israel to understand, as we are to understand, that there are two ways that we can walk – God’s way or our way. Moses knew from experience that Israel had a penchant for walking in their way as opposed to God’s way. God allows us to choose the way we will walk. If we walk in His way, the way might be rough sometimes, but it will be the rewarding way. If we walk in our way, we will eventually walk into disaster. I know what I’m talking about here, and you probably do too. God wants His people, including those of us who belong to Him through Jesus, to live right, to make right decisions instead of making wrong-headed decisions. I think that the disastrous journey of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an example of what can happen when we take God’s resources and go our own way. He took a rough route until he came to his senses and sought out his father. The third expectation was “to love Him.” Jesus said that the first commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” We should love God with all of the fiber of our being. If we will just think of all that He has done for us in Jesus, we should have no problem loving Him. When we love Him, we are returning the great love that He has for us. The fourth expectation was “to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord…” Notice that we are to serve Him from our hearts. Everything that we do that really counts in our lives comes from our hearts. If He has our hearts, we will serve Him wholeheartedly. Our salvation from God begins in our hearts, and everything else in our lives should come from our hearts. We are to serve God with all of our souls. This means that our service should proceed from who and what we are in Him. The “soul” is who and what we are, and it should be defined by our devotion to God/Jesus. We are to serve Him with our minds. When Christ saved us, He did not kill our minds. God wants us to keep our transformed minds on Him, and to think when we serve Him. We should serve Him with “the mind of Christ.” How are you doing in these areas of your life? Do you hold God in deep reverence (fear)? Do you walk in all His ways? Do you really love Him? Do you serve Him from deep within yourself? Think about it. Bro. Joe “But exhort (encourage) one another daily, while it is called Today: lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. 15. While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.”
We need to note that today is all that we have. We have all of our yesterdays, but we can’t do anything about them. We can think of all of the mistakes that we made, and all of the sins that we committed yesterday, but all of these are “water under the bridge.” If we have learned from these mistakes and sins, we can use today to rededicate our lives to do better. We also plan for the future, but we can’t live in days that have not yet come. (duh) We can’t let the wrongs of the past and the fears about the future rob us of the possibilities of today. Hebrews 3:13a tells us to “exhort (encourage) one another daily, while it is called today.” One thing that you can do today is to find someone who needs encouraging and go encourage them. You might ask, but what can I do to encourage someone? Well, you can pay them a visit and tell them that you were thinking about them. There is no telling how many people are out there who really need to know that someone is thinking about them. You could take them a book that has meant a lot to you, or you could bake a cake, or pick one up at the grocery store, and take it to them as a token of love. I don’t know about you, but I need encouragement from people, and I think that if you are honest, you will confess the same. That’s why we should think of encouraging others – today! Hebrews 3:13b tells us to watch out for sin in our lives today lest we be hardened. Perhaps you have a pet sin that you just can’t seem to get rid of. You might have a grudge against someone that you can’t get over. You might have a habit that is bad for you, but you are so hardened to it, you can’t seem to give it up. Hey, God has given you today. The cereal commercial reminded us: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” You can’t unravel the problems of yesterday, but God has given you today, so take advantage of it. Another scripture comes to mind when I think of today: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV) Wow, that passage is loaded. As we face today, we do not face it alone, for through the Holy Spirit, God is blessing us and renewing us day by day. Claim His blessings and His renewal today. God wants you to make today a special day, so that all of your tomorrows will be lived by faith in Him. Remember that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” Do not let whatever you have to grapple with today rob you of the joy that only faith in the Living Christ can bring. Remember that “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Hear the voice of Jesus in your life today. Dedicate today to Him. As you live today, remember that He is calling us to a place where it will always be “today.” Bro. Joe "At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders." NIV
What I want to call attention to in this text is the word "so." It is a teeny little adverb that speaks volumes. It carries the meaning of the bigger word "consequently." It can also mean "as a result of." Now catch the meaning of "so" in the text. Paul and Barnabas encountered great opposition to the gospel message. One would have thought that the Jews would have received it gladly, but they did not. They stirred up the Gentiles, who were probably considering embracing Judaism, and "poisoned their minds against the brothers." This is where "so" comes in. One would have thought that Paul and Barnabas would have just given up and stopped trying to teach about Jesus. But what we read here is that as a result of the opposition that they encountered, they stayed on there for a considerable time and spoke "boldly for the Lord." What does this "so" message mean to us? It means that when we encounter opposition, which we do increasingly today, we are not to give up and move on, rather we are to "hunker down" and keep preaching and teaching the good news of Jesus Christ. If the message about Jesus was that important to Paul and Barnabas, it should be that important for us. It does not mean that just because a group of people oppose the gospel they are right. These Jews were wrong in their opposition to the gospel, just as people who oppose the gospel today are wrong. If we are presenting a message about our politics or our own ideas, then they might be right. But if we are presenting the good news about Jesus Christ, they are wrong. Just because people disagree with what we have to say about Jesus does not mean that we have been naughty and need to have our hands slapped. Indeed, we are doing what Jesus told us to do. But we need to be careful here about our attitudes toward those who oppose the gospel. We must remember to act in a loving way and not in an argumentative and confrontational way. It has been my experience that the hostile approach does not work, and besides this, it is an unchristian approach. I know that it is difficult not to become angry when, for example, that which you hold dear is denigrated by someone. In those cases, we just need to remember that Jesus forgave all of those who crucified Him – including us. He said: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do. It means that we should not use opposition to the gospel as an excuse for not obeying Jesus and spreading HIs word to the world. We might say, "Well, if they feel that way about it, we just won't tell them about it." Then we huff and puff and stomp off. This is not what Paul and Barnabas did. As a result of opposition Paul and Barnabas hung in there and preached the word. This is what we are to do. There were times when the apostles "shook the dust off their feet" and moved on, but that was God's decision and not theirs. We need to "stay with it" until God tells us to move on. We need to pray that when we face opposition to the gospel, we will not let that stop us and fill us with our own doubts. We need to remember that early Christians like Paul and Barnabas kept going, even under death threats. "So" what does this say to us? It tells us that we need to follow the lead of Paul and Barnabas and let nothing stand in the way of telling others about Jesus. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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