“He that diligently seeks good procures favor: but he that seeks mischief, it shall come to him.” KJV
“He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.” NIV One day I came across the text printed above and it begged to be written about. It is telling us that if we seek the good and the right, we will find them and that if we seek mischief and evil, we will find those too. I am asking you, as well as myself, “What Are You Seeking?” If you are seeking to do good, you are seeking the will of God for your life. It is for sure that if we are seeking to do God’s will for us that we will do good. Now, I know that no one perfectly follows the will of God, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t seek to do it. If we are going to do good in this life, we must find out what it is that God wants us to do and do it. Sometimes it seems that God’s will leads us into trouble. I think that Paul would say that this is certainly true. Paul did God’s will and he found a lot of opposition, but he kept on doing it. A lot of good came to Paul when He found God’s will and did it. He lived a victorious Christian life, wrote about one-third of the New Testament, founded several churches and, though he had hardships, he had the reward of knowing that God was pleased with his life. At the end of his life, Paul wrote: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Seek God’s will for your life. If you want to seek the good in your life you need to love people and seek to do good to and for them. Jesus threw out a challenge to His disciples in Matthew 5:16 to do just this: “Let your light so shine before (people) that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” How can we let our lights shine? We do it by how we treat people and whether or not we seek to do good to them or to bring harm to them. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus expanded on this idea: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”Are you seeking to do good to and for others, even those with whom you disagree, or even those who hate you? If you want to seek to do good, follow the example of Jesus. I know that we are not saved by following Jesus’ example, but by faith in Him, but if we want to live lives that honor Christ, we will follow His example. Jesus did good for all who came across His path. He did good for the rich man Zacchaeus, and He did good for the poor woman who merely touched the hem of his garment and was healed. In John 4 Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well, even though her life was in shambles because of wrecked marriages and an illicit relationship with another man. Read the Gospels and you will see that Jesus always went about doing good for all who came across His path. If we follow the example of Jesus, we will not fail to love people and do good to them, even though they might not “be like us.” The promise of the text is that if we seek to do good, good will come back to us, and if we seek to do evil that will come back to us as well. Those who live genuine Christian lives, seek to do good – period. Bro. Joe
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“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept thy word.” Verse 67
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn from thy statutes.” Verse 71 “Afflict” is defined in my New Webster’s Dictionary, “to give continued pain to; cause distress and grief.” Therefore to live in affliction is to live in continual pain. This can be physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, or all three of these at the same time. It appears that affliction is a bad thing, but in our two texts, the psalmist had good things to say about it. He seemed to be telling us that affliction is good for us – thus my title. The two verses written above, give us some information about this. First, I want to point ;out that we are not expected to go out of our way to be afflicted. I’m sure the psalmist would agree with that. In my bout with cancer in 2011-2012, I did not tell God that I wanted cancer so that I could learn from it. I met a lot of people in the infusion room where we got our chemo treatments, and I did not meet one person who was shouting for joy because he or she had cancer. I just want to make it clear that we do not learn from affliction because we want it, but because when we are afflicted, we do not have a choice. How we react to it is up to us. We can either react to it with faith or with complaints, but how we react to it will make a difference in our faith; therefore, it will make a difference in our lives. . Second, I want to point out that the psalmist was going astray, and then when he was afflicted, he ceased straying. Because of his affliction the psalmist kept God’s word. In other words, he went to the scriptures that he had and not only learned from them, but also kept them. Affliction of any kind will cause us to draw closer to God, or move us away from Him. We can either blame God for allowing our affliction, or we can go to Him for help in our affliction. We can whine and complain and ask why, or we can accept the reality of the affliction and turn to the Lord and to His word and learn from it. In my own affliction, I leaned on Christ and His word like I have never leaned on it before. This doesn’t mean that I ignored the Bible and prayer before my affliction, but that both meant more to me in my affliction, because His presence was evident in my life. Whatever your affliction at the present time, do not let it make you bitter, but let it make you better. (I know, I know. That is a cliché, but I couldn’t help it.) Run to your Bible and to your prayer closet and let God go through it with you. Third, I want to point out that the psalmist wrote in verse 67 that he learned from his affliction. What did he mean that he learned from his affliction? When we are going through afflictions of any kind, we will either learn from God or we will not learn from Him. We might as well use the moments of affliction to let God teach us instead of whining and complaining. Paul wrote about his affliction that he referred to as his “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12. He asked Jesus three times to rid him of that affliction but Jesus told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) What did Paul learn from this? He tells us in the remainder of the verse: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” whatever it was, taught him more about the power of Christ. Paul reminds us in verse 10 of another lesson he learned from his affliction: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” I don’t know what afflictions you are encountering in your life now. Your affliction could be emotional, spiritual, physical, or all three, but whatever your affliction is, Jesus wants you to know that He is going through it with you, and, like the psalmist, you can glean more from God’s word, or you can learn some things about God and yourself. It is really your choice. If you have no afflictions, thank God, and get ready for afflictions to come when you least expect them. Bro. Joe “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
The first thing that I need to do is to define ritual so that there will be no doubt what I mean: “a manner of performing a divine service.” Ritualism is defined as: “adherence to and fondness for decorous ceremonial customs in public worship.” (New Webster's Dictionary) Hosea was writing to the northern kingdom of Israel about God’s judgment on them for the way they were living. The problem was that they were going through all of the rituals of animal sacrifices that God had prescribed through Moses, but that was not enough. The sacrifices were intended to remind the people of who and what God was/is and how they should live. In other words, Israel was going through the motions of religion, but their hearts and lives were not in it. What the people of Israel did not understand was that God did not just want their empty ceremonies as much as He wanted their hearts. He wanted them. It is the same with us. It is important for us to worship together in church, sing, pray, give and preach. But the act of doing those things in public worship does not mean much if the life that we bring to the worship experience is devoid of dedication to God. God wants us to let our rituals make a difference in the way we live our lives. Let me give a personal example. I have been in church most of my life, and I have sung the old hymns over and over again over the years. In fact, I know a good many, if not most, of the familiar hymns by heart. I sing them in the shower and to myself at night before I go to sleep. (I know verses 1, 2, and 4 of the four verse hymns, because we usually do not sing the third verse.) I guess that is commendable, but I am aware that when I stand before God to receive my rewards, He is not going to say, “Joe how many hymns do you know by heart?” He is also not going to condemn me because I don’t know third verses. What the Bible tells me is that I will be judged and rewarded by my genuine acts of service to the Lord. That will include my treatment of people. It is not enough to just “go to church.” Going to church is a good thing, but it is a means to an end. To just go to church and not let it have some effect on our lives, is like the Israelites taking their sacrifices to the altar without it touching their lives or making a difference in how they lived. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.” Therefore it is important to attend public worship, but our mere bodily presence is not enough. I compare going to church to fueling my car. I do not take my car to the service station (usually convenience store) to buy gas just for the sake of buying gas. The church is our service station where we go to get fueled up to live each day for the Lord, just as I take my car to buy gas so that it will take me where I need to go. You can’t get what God has for you at your church if you do not go, but if you do not take away from the service a renewed faith in Christ, and a greater desire to serve the Lord, you have missed the point. It is not enough to just read the Bible. Reading the Bible can be an empty ritual if reading it does not help us to live better lives. One of my daily rituals is to read eight chapters from the Bible each day. But when I stand before the Lord, He is not going to commend me for arbitrarily reading eight chapters each day. He is going to be more interested in what reading the Bible did for my life. We can feverishly read our Bibles each day to keep up our quota of reading, but we need to let the words penetrate into the deep recesses of our hearts. We will not be commended for just reading the Bible, but we will be commended for the difference that reading it makes in our lives. Don’t misunderstand me, ritually reading the Bible is not a bad thing, for if we do not read it, we cannot know what’s in it. But the reading of it should make a difference in our lives. As you live your life today, remember that God “desires mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Bro. Joe “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the spirits (motives).”
It is difficult for me to read through Proverbs because I have to stop and “chew” on each one. (Obviously, Proverbs inspires a lot of my blogs too.) Proverbs 16:2 is one of those Proverbs that I have “chewed” on. It contains some lessons that we all need to consider. One lesson is that we do not know ourselves as well as we think we do. Another lesson is that God does not always see us as we see ourselves. 1Samuel 16:7b tells us: “For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God sees things inside of us that even we cannot see in ourselves. Another lesson, on which we will dwell in this article, is that God knows our real motives for Christian service. Why do we do the things that we do? What are our real motives? We need to ask ourselves if our reason for service is for other people to see us and brag on us. For example, Jesus took the Pharisees to task for praying and giving in public in order for people to brag on them – “to be seen of men.” Jesus said that their being noticed was its own reward, but that God does not reward this kind of service. Serving the Lord is not about us but about Him, and He should get the glory from what we do. I have written in other articles that there is nothing wrong with getting satisfaction from our service, but getting satisfaction of knowing that we have served God well is not claiming the glory for ourselves. We need to ask ourselves if we serve the Lord gladly or grudgingly. Psalm 100:2 reminds that we are to “serve the Lord with gladness.” Do we really want to, and feel led of God to do what we do? I have heard people say that they are doing such and such because no one else will do it. If no one else will do it, maybe it does not need to be done. Is it possible that we might begrudge the time that it takes to serve the Lord? Really folks, we should be getting joy out of serving the Lord, and if we are really serving the Lord, we will get joy out of it. Sometimes the joy will be fuller than at other times, but overall it should be joyful service. Remember this: We serve the Lord because He allows us to serve Him. We are not doing Him a favor by what we do; rather, He is doing us a favor by letting us serve Him. If we realize this, we will not serve grudgingly. We need to ask ourselves if we serve the Lord because we love Him. The supreme motive for doing anything is love, and when it comes to serving the Lord, we should serve out of great love for Him. Jesus greatest commandment was that we love God. This is where love really starts in our lives. Are we doing what we do because we love Jesus? Then we must ask if our love for Him is helping us love our fellow human beings. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God, and then He said that the second one was like it, that “we love our neighbors as we love ourselves." Our motive for service in the church and in the community at large is that we love God and that we love people. This was the supreme motive of Jesus and it should be the supreme motive of our service. Jesus went to the cross because He loved us and wanted us to be saved. We need to thank Jesus that He loves us and that He enables us to love people. Search your own heart and get your motives in line with your service. Bro. Joe “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10. I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins (search the mind), even to give every man accordingto his ways, a according to the fruit of his doings.”
There is a quasi-romantic saying that what we need to do is to follow our hearts. The thinking is that surely our hearts will not lead us astray. We need to rethink that. A lot of people have “followed their hearts” off of the proverbial cliff. We can use David as an example. David was a man mightily used of God to lead God’s people to victory after victory. With the Lord’s blessings, David built a great kingdom. But in a moment of weakness he saw a beautiful woman that he wanted. David “followed his heart” and we know the rest of the story. If you don’t know it here is what occurred: David committed adultery with this woman and his kingdom was nearly destroyed. Before you follow your heart, you had better stop and ask what is in it. What does it mean that “the heart is deceitful above all things?” It means that if we are left alone without the leadership of God in our lives, our hearts will lead us into all sorts of dangerous paths. Time after time, the Bible warns us of the dangers of following our own inclinations. The thinking is that if something brings pleasure to me, then it must be the right thing for me. That is why many people have been led off of the deep end of drug addiction and alcoholism. That is why many people are grieving because their lives took a wrong turn and they ended up in desperate situations. We need to know that left alone our hearts are “desperately wicked,” and that left on our own, we cannot really know and trust our hearts. What is the answer? Is it hopeless? Verse 10 gives us the answer: “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins…” We do not have to be left alone to let our hearts lead us in the right direction instead of in the wrong direction. The Lord searches our hearts, which means that He knows what is in our hearts. He also “tries the reins.” Another translation of this is that God “examines the mind.” We do not have to follow our own inclinations, for we have a loving God who knows what is in our hearts and minds, and seeks to lead us in the right paths instead of the wrong paths. The same David mentioned above, wrote about this in Psalm 23:3b: “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness.” If we turn our hearts, our reins, over to God He will lead us in the right direction. The conclusion of this matter is that we need is to turn our hearts and minds over to the Lord and let Him lead us in the way that He wants us to go. Here is what Jeremiah 17:7-8 tells us about the person who turns his or her heart over the Lord: “Blessed is the man (meaning person male or female) that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Trusting in the Lord and following His leadership makes all of the difference in the direction of our lives. I don’t know what or who is in control of your heart right now, but I think that this text should tell you that if it is not the Lord, you need to change directions. Give your heart to Jesus and let Him lead you. Bro. Joe “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13. Bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity.”
Some people had come to Colossae and called that church away from the primacy of Jesus to legalism. (These people were commonly called "Judaizers," who taught that one had to become a Jew before becoming a Christian.) Paul is calling upon them to keep their focus on Christ. In our text verses, he is reminding them about the Christian lifestyle. This has not changed, and it is good advice for us. In verse 12, Paul called them to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” A close look at these virtues will reveal that they are virtues practiced by Jesus in His sojourn on earth. We are called upon to be compassionate and kind. This seems simple, but if we will reflect on our feelings and reactions to other people, we will know that we need to work on these two virtues. Today people are becoming more and more callous towards each other. If we are not careful, we will be callous as well. I try to remind myself when I get in a “heated” situation that I must be compassionate and kind. All of Adam’s blood in me wants to strike back, but the blood of Christ that saved me reminds me to be compassionate and kind. (Paul didn’t promise that it would be easy.) This is where humility and gentleness (meekness) comes in. We have to remember that we are not out to win arguments or to lord it over people. Like Jesus, we are to be humble and gentle in our relationships with people. This does not mean that we lie on the ground and invite people to walk over us. What it means is that we are confident enough in our faith that we don’t have to “win” to feel good about ourselves. We are also urged to be patient with other people. To me this is the most difficult of the virtues listed here. We just need to remember that when we become impatient and argue, we have closed off our witness. This is how we should live if we want to be effective witnesses of Jesus. In verse 13, Paul told them “bear with each other and forgive what grievances you may have against one another.” We need to know that grievances are the most prominent of sins committed in churches. When we live in community with people, things happen that cause us to disagree, and, if we aren’t careful, we will form grievances. This is what causes churches to split. We are called upon to be better than that. This is what happens in the world all of the time, which a quick perusal of a newspaper will show us. It should be different in Christ’s church. Instead of holding grievances against each other, we should forgive one another. We seem to think that to forgive someone, against whom we hold grievances, will take something away from us. That is one of Satan’s great lies that keep our churches from being effective witnesses to our communities. Paul told them to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The Lord practiced grace on us and we are to practice grace on others. In verse 14, Paul told them, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” If we don’t love people, we can’t practice the virtues mentioned in this text. When we love as God loves, we will be able to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. We will be able to forgive others instead of forming grievances. We need to check our love quotient, and see if we are living as we should live based on this text. Bro. Joe “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
I wonder why some people are so negative about the Bible. I think it is because they think that the God of the Bible somehow wants to rob them of something. They think of all of the things that the Bible forbids, but they do not think of all of the things that the Bible promises. Why would it be a negative thing to receive Christ as Savior and have the Holy Spirit’s guidance on a daily basis? The truth is that if people really want to do themselves a favor they will turn to the Bible and all of its many promises. The text for today is a good example. Here is how these two verses tell us that we can do ourselves a favor. If you would do yourself a favor, you would seek God first. After all, He is the God of the universe and anything beyond that. Why not seek first the one who created the world and watches over it even today? Why not seek the God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for us? Why not seek first the one who will forgive us for our sins even though we do not deserve it? Specifically, the text tells us to “seek ye first the kingdom of God.” This is an invitation to join the kingdom that can give you a better life here and will give you life in heaven when you die. The invitation to the kingdom is an invitation to come to Jesus and to let Him bless your life. I really can’t see a down side to that. Whatever you have to give up from the world, you will gain from your relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul wrote that all of God’s promises are “yes” in Christ Jesus. This means that through Jesus all of God’s promises will be available to you. If you have done yourself this favor, stop reading and praise God right now. You made a wise decision. If you would do yourself a favor, accept the God who wants to bless you. The promise in verse 33 is, “All these things shall be added unto you.” “All of these things” include the promise that God will provide for us those things that we need, like food and clothing. But beyond that, God wants to bring many blessings into our lives. We are reminded in James that “we have not because we ask not.” We just don’t realize how much God wants to bless us. There is a song that we used to sing in my prison ministry that speaks about the blessings of God: “Every time I turn around, God is blessing me, every time I turn around God is blessing me, every time I turn around God is blessing me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, God is blessing me.” You read that right; there were several prisoners who really claimed the blessings of God. They quit fighting God and society and claimed the blessings of God. You can too! If you would do yourself a favor, you would stop worrying about tomorrow. There are a lot of things today that we should be concerned about, but there is nothing that we should worry about. The same God who was present today will be present tomorrow. It is true that God “has the whole world in His hands.” It doesn’t seem like it sometimes. If you will think about history, you will remember that there have always been difficult times, but somehow we made it. We shouldn’t worry because God will not stop loving us and he will not forsake us. If He doesn’t take us over it, He will take us through it and beyond it. We just need to trust Him each day, and ultimately we need to trust the future to Him. Matthew 6:27 reminds us that: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.” Worry accomplishes nothing. Do yourself a favor and put your faith and trust in God. Bro. Joe “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all….”
I am assuming that you know something about the afflictions of Job. Job had a good life. He had a good family, a lot of cattle, and a lot of money – whatever that meant in that day. He was also a man who pleased God. He pleased God so much that when Satan said that Job was so good because his life was so comfortable, God took him up on it and allowed him to put Job to the test. (He’s God! He knows what He’s doing, so don’t question His perfect wisdom here.) Three of Job’s good friends heard about the misfortunes that had happened to Job and came to visit him. Their names were Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. This is where we come to “miserable comforters.” In the beginning, they were not miserable comforters. In Job 2, we note that when they heard about Job’s troubles, they packed up and went to visit him. When they arrived at Job’s place, they wept and mourned with him when they saw how bad the situation really was. In Job 2:13 we read: “So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was great.” At first, they did the right thing. They sat with him for seven days and seven nights. This means that they were really good friends. They were also wise in that they sat with Job and did not say a word. To use my own vernacular, they kept their mouths shut. If you don’t want to be a miserable comforter, when you are with grieving friends, don’t say a word, because usually at those times you will say the wrong thing. I discovered in my own grief ministry, that my being there was enough. At most I learned to say, “I have come to grieve with you.” There are other good things to say, but if in doubt keep your mouth shut. After seven days of friendly ministry, they decided to try to find the cause of Job’s problem. To make a long story short, they blamed God for Job’s problems. To be sure, God allowed Satan to do what he was doing, but it was Satan’s dirty work that caused Job’s misfortunes. One preacher, whose name escapes my mind, wrote a quote that has stuck with me over the years: “Why do we blame God for all of our troubles? Why would we make Him our enemy, when we need Him most as our friend?” Even if God caused the problem, we should not blame Him, because whatever he allows to happen in our lives happens for a good purpose. Instead of blaming God, we should praise Him, for He is always worthy of praise. Blaming God is never the answer for the misfortunes of our friends, or for the answer to our own misfortunes. In the process of blaming God, they judged that the reason Job was in his dire straits was because of his own behavior. They figured that God was punishing Job for some bad thing that he had done. Space doesn’t allow me to quote everything that these three friends said; suffice it to say that they did not really help Job by putting the blame on his behavior. Remember, Job was being tried by Satan’s acts because he was living the right kind of life. Job’s three friends just assumed that they knew what God was doing. We don’t help people when we judge them for what is happening in their lives. What grieving friends need, no matter what the cause of their grief, is a word of encouragement. If they really need to make changes in their lives, we should do it in a loving way and not in a judgmental, self-righteous way. We preachers are always reminded that when we point a finger at the congregation, there are three fingers, and a thumb, pointing back at us. That does not apply only to preachers. Think of your own reactions to people. They are not usually seeking our advice, but our friendship and our comfort. Remember that Job’s three friends did the best thing when they sat with him and kept their mouths shut. When they opened their mouths the whole thing fell apart. We would do well to remember that in all of our dealings with the world. Bro. Joe “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, in Him was yes. 20.For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”
We can say that Jesus is God’s yes to the world. We know that God says no to a lot of things, but all of the good things from God, all of the blessings of God, are yes in Jesus. In other words, as we saw in the last article, there are times that we should say no. We should say no to Satan, and to the wrong things, at all times, but we should learn to say yes to Jesus in all of the right things, because He says yes to us in all of the blessings that He wants to give us. If we want to be Christ like in our lives, especially, in our dealings with people, we need to learn to say yes to the good things. We should say yes to God’s will in our lives. James warns us in James 4:13-15 that we should always consider God’s will: “Go to now, you that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there for a year, and buy and sell and get gain. 14. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.” Jesus set the example in Gethsemane when He said yes to God about going to the cross. Specifically, Jesus said, “Father if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” If Jesus was willing to say yes to God’s will on our behalf, we should certainly be willing to say yes to God’s will for our lives. We should say yes to the Holy Spirit in decisions that we make each day. All of us know right from wrong. Even when I was doing Bible studies in prisons, I never had one prisoner say that he did not know right from wrong. But in some things we need the Spirit’s leadership to say and do the right thing. The Holy Spirit will keep us from seeking revenge. He will keep us from saying things to people that we should not say. When we want to say negative things to another person, we should listen to what the Holy Spirit is whispering to our hearts. We will be glad that we listened to the Holy Spirit when we get away from the situation and really think about it. The Holy Spirit will actually help us in knowing and doing God’s will in our lives. He will help us say yes to the things that we should say yes to and no to things that we should say no to. We should say yes to loving other people. We will certainly need the Holy Spirit for this. There are people who are easy to love and there are people who are difficult to love, but their being unlovable does not give us an excuse not to love them. It is a fact that the New Testament never gives us a reason for not loving another person. Almost every day we are given opportunities to show Christ’s love to the world, by having loving attitudes and acting in love toward people. Jesus allowed himself to be put on the cross because of His great love for us. We should remember this when we are confronted with unloving people. One of my great temptations to act unloving is when I encounter sour operators on the telephone. I don’t know why this is so irritating to me, but I have to listen to the Holy Spirit not to be sour to them as well. There are many other things that we should say yes to, but what we have dealt with here should help make long strides in learning to say yes to the right things. Bro. Joe Ecclesiastes 10:1: “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour (odor): so does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor."
Matthew 13:33: “Another parable spoke He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” I do not mean to change the word of God, but I want to propose that one dead fly in the ointment would make it stink. I know that if I found a dead fly in anything that I was going to apply to myself, or eat, it would be time to throw whatever it was away. In the same way, it takes only a little leaven, or yeast, to cause the dough to rise. The same is true of events in the world, our churches and our lives. Sometimes it just takes just one bad influence to ruin everything. As the old saying goes: “One rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel.” This has been true in history. There are plenty of historical examples, but one comes to my mind – Adolph Hitler. I am a student, not a scholar, of WWII, and one can’t study that war and not study about Hitler. He was one man who had twisted ideas about human nature, and about Jews, and that one man stirred a whole nation to follow him into the folly of his ideas. Let us say that Hitler was a “fly in the ointment of history.” One thinks of Joseph Stalin, who took the idea of communism and turned it into a murderous weapon against his own people. Both Hitler and Stalin had people who influenced their lives, but they sure muddled things when they were in charge. This has been true in churches. It doesn’t take a whole lot of people to “stir up a mess” in a church. Most of the time it is one person who has an ax to grind, and they grind it for all that they are worth. The problem is that they can usually get other people in cahoots with them, and can stir up trouble for everybody. Sometimes it begins in a Sunday School class, or some other organization in the church, and it permeates the whole church. This is bad but it happens and it happens when a little leaven is put in the dough, or a dead fly gets in the ointment. Now that I have you depressed about the human situation (lol) let me go in a more positive direction. This principle also applies to the good that can be done in the world and in the church. Dwight L. Moody, the great 19th Century evangelist, when asked about how revival starts said: “Every great movement of God began with a kneeling figure.” Great revivals have started because one person caught on fire for the Lord and “leavened the whole lump.” When one thinks of the “Great Awakening” he thinks of Jonathan Edwards, whose sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” helped to stir a nation to revival. Edwards didn’t do it by himself, but his influence was felt throughout the movement. Now I will go to the source –the Bible – God’s word. Of course, we think of Jesus who was one God/man who changed the world, but I want to illustrate this point with a man. This man’s name was Saul of Tarsus. He caused havoc for the followers of Jesus Christ. He was bent on destroying the churches, and his influence was felt throughout the church. But when Saul of Tarsus met Christ on the Damascus Road, and became Paul the Apostle, he was influential in the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the area, beginning at Damascus and reaching all the way to Rome. Paul didn’t do it by himself, but he was the “leaven” that made a difference in his time for the Lord’s work. I will conclude by asking you about yourself. What difference are you making where you are? Are you a “fly in the ointment” or are you an influence for good in your family, your community, your church and etc. Something to think about isn’t it? Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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