“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning…”
The Lord, whom we know through Jesus Christ, and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, is a giving God, of which James reminds us in James 1:17. I want to focus on three indispensable gifts of God. The first indispensable gift that God gives us is His love. The love that He gives us is selfless and sacrificial. This love is illustrated for us in 1 John 4:9-10: “In this was manifested (revealed) the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10. ¬Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” We cannot always say that God is pleased with us, but we can always know that He loves us. Whatever your view of God, it has to include the fact that He loves you. If that irritates you, get over it, and accept the love that He offers you through Jesus Christ. He also gives us the love that we can have for our fellow human beings. Look at 1 John 9:11: “Beloved if God also loved us, we ought also to love one another.” The love of Jesus should overflow from our lives to the world. The second indispensable gift that God gives us is His truth. The same person, who brought God’s love into the world, also brought God’s truth. In John 14:16, Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes unto the Father but through me.” John 8:31-32, sheds some light on this for us: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. 32. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The clear biblical teaching here is that if we want to live in truth, we will live in, and for, Jesus. The truth is that if we want to know the truth, and live the truth, we will give our lives to Jesus through faith and serve Him. I am leaving out a lot about God’s truth, but I think what I have shared is sufficient. The third indispensable gift that God gives us is His presence through The Holy Spirit. John 14:16-18: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter (Holy Spirit), that He may abide with you forever: 17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: for you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” The Lord will be with you whatever challenges you my face in your life. Understand that in Christ, and in His Spirit, you are never alone. This was not intended to be an exhaustive study of all of God’s gifts. I chose love, truth and presence, because I think that these gifts are tantamount to our being Christians, and living effectively for Him. Bro. Joe
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“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”
There are texts in the Bible that, in my opinion, can stand on their own. John 3:16; Psalm 23; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 4:8 & 13 come to mind. Ephesians 2:8-10 is another, and this article will be based on this text. It tells us that salvation is made possible by God’s grace and that it becomes effective in our lives by faith. It tells us that salvation is a gift of God, not of works, meaning that we can’t earn salvation, we simply have to accept it in Jesus. But verse 10 is where I want to dwell at this time. It tells us that when we are saved, we become the workmanship of Christ in order for us to do the good works that God has foreordained that all of His people do. Jesus goes to work in us through His Holy Spirit, and He works in our lives to help us grow and progress in the way that He would have us grow. Paul explains this process to us in Philippians 3:12-13: “Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence of only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13. For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” This doesn’t mean, as some suggest, that you can work out your own way to be saved. Jesus took care of that on the cross. What it means is to literally work out what God has put in. Read verse 13. It tells us that we are work out what God has put in so that we can do His will and serve at His pleasure and not our own. The Christian faith is not worked in; rather, it is worked out from within us as we serve Christ under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Jesus works in us through the Holy Spirit to do the works that God has “before ordained that we should walk in them.” Basically, this means that He called us to do the works that are common to all Christians. But I also think that it means that God has plans for our lives and that when we become Christians, God has plans for what we do with our lives. For some that means to enter the ministry and serve as pastors. For some that means that they are to use their gift of teaching to teach in Sunday School. For some this means that God wants them to serve as missionaries in far- away places. For all, however, it means to simply live the Christian life and serve Him in ways that reflect His care, love and mercy. It is important for all Christians to understand that God has plans for their lives. Verse 10 plainly expresses this, and we should believe it of ourselves. Remember Christian, that you are the “workmanship” of Christ Jesus. Rejoice in that fact and live it out before the world. Bro. Joe “But the word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.”
Does God speak to us? Yes. He speaks through scripture, but He also speaks to us personally. How do we know that it is God speaking? You will just know because it is God’s word – the word of faith. We need to hear the word. We need to listen carefully to God’s word when it comes to us. Acts 10:44: “While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.” While Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his household, there were those who actually heard God’s word. They were not just listening to words, but they recognized that it was God’s Spirit speaking to them. Some people just hear words, but those who are listening in faith hear God’s word for them. When I have heard the word of God, it has changed my life and led me in the right direction. God is speaking to you through scripture, but He is also speaking to your heart and you will recognize His voice when you are listening. We need to heed God’s word. There is certainly a difference in hearing and heeding. To heed is to pay careful attention to the word and internalize it, i.e., make it a part of our lives. When the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts, what He says will make a difference in how we live. I can personally vouch for this. How did I know that God’s was speaking to my heart about entering the preaching ministry? It was a persistent voice from when I was about twelve years old until I finally surrendered to it at twenty years of age. Because of God’s word, my life took a different direction. I have not followed this direction perfectly, by any means, but it has certainly been a different direction. When God speaks to your heart, heed what He says, internalize it, and obey it. James 1:22 tells us not to just be “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” We need to hope in God’s word. Peter advises us in 1 Peter 2:2: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” We hear God’s word when we sincerely want to hear it, when we desire to hear it. We hear what we desire to hear, and when we are listening for God’s word we will recognize it. When we hope in God’s word, it makes a difference in the decisions that we make in our lives. I can look back over my life and wish that I had been hoping in God’s word instead of doing what my flesh wanted. (Come on, Christian, you know what I mean!) Are you hearing God’s word, heeding it and hoping in it? Only you can answer that question. Bro. Joe The Lord speaking to Ananias after Paul's conversion: "15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel. 16. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake."
Old Testament prophets had mentioned that the Lord would reach out to the Gentiles. When Christ came, He broadened the scope of God's concern by going into Samaria and into Gentile country. Though the Jews did not wish to share this glory with Gentiles, it was inevitable that it would happen. How was Jesus going to reach the Gentiles? One would think that He would find a fine, upstanding Gentile, convert him and send him to his own people. This is not what God did. He found the meanest Jew that He could find, converted him and sent him to witness and minister to Gentiles. Saul of Tarsus had wreaked havoc on the Christian church. His aim was to stamp out this movement before it infected the whole world. He made a fateful decision to go to Damascus, arrest Christians and send them bound by chains to Jerusalem to be tried for heresy. On the way to Damascus, the Lord Jesus Himself stopped Saul, and converted him. Just that quickly, a hater of the Christian faith became a follower of the Christian faith, and became one of its most eloquent defenders. From chapter 11 until the end of the Book of Acts, the book becomes a chronicle of Paul's work among the Gentiles. In the end, he wrote one-third of the books of the New Testament, and much of our Christian doctrine is based on his letters to churches and individuals. Only God could accomplish something like this. Why am I writing this? I want to point out that God knew what he was talking about when He inspired Isaiah to write that, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways." (This is not a direct quote. Let's just call it a "Beauchamp" translation.) We should not expect God to do as we would do, or as we would want Him to do. God does things that only He can do, and uses people that only He can use to carry out His purposes. Some of my high school friends were amazed when I became a preacher. Frankly, I was a little amazed myself, though God had been dealing with me since I was twelve years old. I humbly submit that this was God's choice for my life. As you read this, you might wonder if God can use you to aid in carrying out His purposes. Indeed, He can use you. If He could use Paul and if He can use me, He can certainly use you. Listen for God's voice in your life and let HIm lead you to what He wants you to do. Think about it. Selah Bro. Joe “After they had come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not.”
Paul and Silas wanted to go into Bithynia and the Holy Spirit said “no.” In short, God said “no” to their plan. This seems strange to us, because we forget sometimes that God forbids what we plan to do. But God never does anything without a purpose. When God says “no,” He knows better than we do about what we need, or what we need to be doing. For example, in the event in Acts 16, instead of Paul turning to the right and going into Bithynia, he was directed to go straight into Macedonia. Did the people in Bithynia not need Jesus? Of course they did, they just didn’t need Paul to do it. It was a job for someone else. God knows where you need to be, and you need to listen to what it is that God wants you to do. When God says “no” He means “yes” to something, or someone else. Many a person has had his or her heart broken, only to discover that God had their real love waiting for them. We think that we can know in our hearts exactly who, or what, we want, but with these finite minds of ours we cannot always discern what is best. I know that this is a great understatement, but we need to always take into account that God knows what we need. Sometimes people get angry with God because He knows that He knows better than they do about what they need, or where they need to go. Keep in mind, that when God says “no” He wants more for you than you want for yourself. When God says “no” he is keeping us from getting out of His will. In the Lord’s model prayer, Jesus said “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is not just a friendly prayer reminder from Jesus. It is serious business, and He wants us to be in His will. Believe me I have learned the difference in serving in His will and serving in the flesh, so to speak, and I can tell you that it is better to be in His will. Saul of Tarsus was going to Damascus to stop the work of Christ, en route he met Jesus and ended up going into Damascus and doing the work of Christ. And the rest is history….. I do not want to leave the impression that I think God always says “no.” I think that He has said “yes” to me more than He has said “no.” When He has said “no” I have been thankful that He did. If He says “no” to you, thank Him! Bro. Joe “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto (Moses) in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush: and he looked and behold, the bush was not consumed. 3. And Moses said. I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. 4. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. 5. And (the angel) said, Do not draw near: put off your shoes from your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground.”
Why was this common ground declared “holy ground”? It was holy ground because Yahweh was present there and spoke from the burning bush. I remember that Old Testament professor, Dr. J. Leo Green, when we discussed this passage, told us in a wry way that there is more here than a burning bush. The importance of this incident is based on the presence of God. It was holy ground because God had a holy purpose for Moses. God’s people, the Hebrew people, had been enslaved in Egypt for over forty years. At this bush, God was calling Moses, at this point a simple shepherd, to deliver His people from Egypt. Here is part of the call to Moses in verses 9-10: “Now, therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10. Come now therefore, and I will send you unto Pharaoh, that you may bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.” It was a holy calling that took Moses by surprise, and he tried to get out of it in ensuing verses. He said that he was not a good speaker. Some suggest that Moses had a problem with stuttering. Among other things God reminded Moses that he created his mouth, and the He would help him speak. He also did not know who to tell them the name of the One sending him. God told him that His Name is “I am that I AM. He also told Moses to tell the people that He is “the God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” It was holy ground because of the concern of the Lord for His people. God had called their father Abraham in Genesis 12 and told him that he would become a nation. They had gone into Egypt seventy strong, and four hundred years later there were thousands of them. Some say that it could be as many as 3 million people. This was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham – a holy promise with a holy fulfillment. God sent an angel to call Moses’ attention to the burning bush, but it was the Lord Himself Who gave Moses his marching orders. As reluctant as Moses was at the burning bush, he took up the mantle and with his brother Aaron led God’s people out of Egypt. This was a holy place, with a holy calling and a holy purpose. He might be calling you to a holy purpose where you are!!!!! Bro. Joe “But the Lord said unto (Ananias), go your way for he (Paul) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.”
In my Bible reading this morning I came upon two scriptures that seemed odd. My text reflects one of these and the other is from 1 Samuel 17, where David killed the giant Goliath. Wasn’t it odd that God chose the young boy, David, to kill the giant, Goliath? Even as David approached the giant to kill him, he was surrounded by an army of grown men who had been afraid to face Goliath. David’s brothers, who would not face Goliath, had been aggravated with him for asking so many questions about Goliath. Saul himself was surprised that this young fellow was willing to face Goliath, but he consented to David’s request. Against all odds, the boy killed the giant and won the battle for Israel. Wasn’t that odd? Wasn’t it odd that when God needed someone to witness to the Gentiles, He chose Saul of Tarsus? Saul was en route to Damascus to arrest Christians and take them to Jerusalem for trial, when he was encountered by Jesus, who called him to witness to Gentiles. Some of you have probably heard me say that when God wanted someone to witness to Gentiles, He saved and called the meanest Jew that He could find to do the job. Wasn’t that odd? I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, after deciding to write on this subject and said to myself: “Wasn’t it odd for God to call me to preach, pastor churches, and even for over twenty years minister to churches and ministers.” Also, I never had any idea about teaching the Bible to prisoners, but for over twenty years I taught the Bible in two prisons, even as I ministered to churches and pastors as an Associational Missionary. I looked quizzically at myself and thought, “Did you really do that?” The answer, oddly, was “yep.” When I thought about David, Paul, myself, even some of you (lol), I said that it wasn’t odd at all. After all God knows us and knows what He can empower us to do if it is His will. It would not be odd for Him to use you! Bro. Joe “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.”
This verse does not mean that there is nothing that we can know about God. It means that we cannot capture the nature and wisdom of God by human reason alone. The Bible reveals some things that I want to remind you of that we need to remember about God. We need to remember that God loves us. This does not mean that God is enamored by our righteousness. In fact He reminds us that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The Bible reminds us that God loves us enough that He gave His Son to redeem us from sin. We need to grasp the biblical fact that God loves us, and that He wants us to love Him. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all they mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) Without question the Lord loves you, but do you love Him? Have you accepted His love for you by inviting Jesus into your life? We need to remember that God wants the best for us. This is not “pie in the sky” gospel; it is based on biblical truth. But He also wants us to want the best for ourselves. The best thing that we can do is to endeavor to live for Him, and to give Him the best of whom and what we are. There is not enough space in this article to explain all that this means; we just need to accept this as truth and “give of the best to (our) Master.” None of us will do this perfectly, but we need to prayerfully and carefully obey the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to claim God’s best for us. I know that when I have sought His best for me, my life has been better than when I have gone my own way. We need to remember that God will forgive us when we sincerely seek His forgiveness. I want to share with you a passage that I have quoted many times in Couch Potato articles that we need to remember: 1 John 1:8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” Jesus is longing to forgive you. He died on the cross in order to forgive you. Accept His forgiveness today! These are three things that we need to remember about God and accept them as reality in our own lives. Do it! Bro. Joe "How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors?" (NIV) This verse is one of many in the Psalms, and throughout the Bible, that asks the question: "How long?" I know that I have asked this question and you have probably asked it many times. Since we are not God, we cannot always fathom God's reasoning. After all, He told us in Isaiah that, "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts." Our human reasoning tells us that God owes us an explanation as to why things don't always work out for our benefit. The bad news is that God does not owe us an explanation, and the good news is that God does not owe us an explanation. He is God and we aren't. (Now there is a bit of news isn't it?) My conclusion is that we just have to let God be God and in the final analysis, He will work everything together for the good of His people. ( Romans 8:28) We come to Jesus by faith. We trust that He will save us and use us in His work.. We just have to accept that sometimes His work is carried on by the negative things that happen to us as well as the positive things. We would like to think that when we surrender our lives to Jesus, the road before us will always be smooth. The Bible does not lead us to that conclusion. What is occurring in the world cannot lead us to that conclusion. For example, I'm sure the Christians in China must ask the "how long" question many times. One would think that, because of the persecution of Christians in China, the Christian movement would just dry up and blow away. It is a surprise to us that many people in China are coming to Christ, even though God has not made the road smooth for them. In His own way, God is working among His people in the midst of persecution and seeing great things done. We get nowhere by questioning God. To the contrary, we do better when we just trust Him. We have to live in the world as it is and serve God through the good and the hard times.. The early Christians had to accept this, and so should we. Instead of asking God "How long?" we should ask "What next?" Then we will move on in our lives, trusting that God knows best. Give this some thought today. Bro. Joe I'm taking a "medical test" break. I will post again on Wednesday. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”
No one can claim to have a perfect knowledge of the ways of God. This verse was the conclusion of Paul’s treatment of the sovereignty of God. “His ways (are) past finding out.” I want to use the example of two Bible characters to help us understand How God’s ways are beyond human knowledge. The first person that I want to share is Moses. Think about the call of Moses. When God came to Him on Mount Horeb when, he was watching his father-in-law’s sheep, he had been out of Egypt for forty years and was eighty years old. (Good lands, he was older than me….) When God called him to lead His people, Israel, out of Egypt, Moses tried to talk God out of the call. He was not a good speaker, and he did not have a clear idea about what he could tell the people. Also, he did not have a clear concept of God. (All of this is in Exodus 3:1and verses following.) But God called him, a shepherd, tending another man’s sheep, to go to Egypt and tell the Pharaoh of, the most powerful man in the world, to let God’s people go. Plus he had to convince those people, about two or three million of them, that God would deliver them. But Moses did it because he believed God. There is a lot more to the story than I have given, but I think you get the point that God’s choosing Moses at that time in his life for such a massive service was “past finding out.” The second person that I want to share with you is Saul of Tarsus. I am assuming that you know something about this man. From the beginning of the Christian’s ministry in Jerusalem, Saul of Tarsus had been the lead persecutor of the church. In fact when he was converted, he was on His way to Damascus, Syria, to further his persecution. When he encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road, he accepted Him and was called to carry the Christian message primarily to the Gentiles. What? Didn’t God have a good Gentile that He could call? Instead, Jesus called the meanest Jew that that He could find converted him and sent him to minister to the Gentiles. I repeat: God’ s "ways are past finding out.” I’ll tell you someone else that God’s call seems “past finding out” is His call to me. There were a couple of Sunday School and Church Training teachers who did not seem too surprised, but they were in the minority. I wasn’t surprised, for Jesus had dealt with me since I was twelve-years-old, but my life was certainly not what it should be. Even today, when I stand to preach, or teach, I am surprised that God uses me, and I’ve been doing this almost fifty seven years. Why God would use me as one of His preachers is way, way, “past finding out.” You could probably say the same about His using you in His service. Just know that He can and will use you. God’s ways are often “past finding out,” but aren’t we glad that we are in His “way.” Say Amen! Bro. Joe |
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