THE CHURCH!

 

Thursday, June 30, 2022

 

THE CHURCH!

 

1 Tim 3:14-15

14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:

15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

 

          Because church leaders have been a bit wishy-washy in describing the church, our culture is understandably ignorant of what the church actually should be. We have formed their expectations of the church by inadequate teaching and now we are frustrated that the church has taken on misshaped and monstrous proportions.

 

          The church is comprised of those who are “born again” and not just those who are “seeking” something. We are, of course, glad for the seekers, as the random attendees are called, because we will help them to find what they are not looking for. Saved people comprise the church! Their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). Do expect the church to be different from the unsaved world!

 

          The church is comprised of “disciples” or learners. They study (2 Timothy 2:15) and strive to become increasingly more like their Master, Jesus. Do not expect to be happy in a church if you are not willing to have your opinions and morals challenged by the teachings of the Bible. If transformation and new life is not what you are seeking, then you may be disappointed when you find a real church.

 

          The church has one mission and that is to win the lost and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). The church does not exist to entertain and amuse you. You will be confronted with a way of life different from that of most of the world. Expect it to be different – almost weird. Expect the church to be mocked and laughed at. Expect the world to think it to be out of sync with the times.

 

          Never evaluate a church by the comfort of the pews and the strength of the coffee.

 

Dear Lord, You are the head of the church. We are the feet and hands. Help us to know our business and do our work vigorously. AMEN

GOD IS FAITHFUL!

 

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

 

GOD IS FAITHFUL!

 

2 Thess 3:3

3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

 

1 Cor 10:13

13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

James 1:17

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

 

God is so very constant that we take Him for granted. Angels gathered around Him are in a perpetual amazement at His glory and their praises never cease. We breathe His air, feast upon His bounty, and walk upon the ground fashioned by His hands but we ignore Him. God is faithful to the children of men!

 

Ruth gleans after the reapers in the field of Boaz and they drop handfuls on purpose. God does the same for us day by day. Found treasure is dropped from the pocket of the Almighty. We, the needy, walk along and discover today’s provision. We think ourselves lucky, but it is the hand of God that fills our apron. We carry home a bushel. We feast upon it and sell the rest in the marketplace. God is faithful! The morning sun warms our cheek, a bird sings and we fill our breast with the freshness of a new day. God is faithful.

 

God’s faithfulness is part of His own nature. It is not possible for Him to be un-faithful. When He withholds, it is not due to lack or neglect. It is full of purpose. When he withdraws it is to create in us a sense of loss and a thirst for His presence. Everything He does is full of purpose. He has not lost sight of you. He knows your name. He restrains kings for your sake.

 

God’s faithfulness is not manipulated by our own. Our un-faithfulness cannot cancel out His! “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” (2 Tim 2:13) God blesses those who curse Him and provides for those who believe not. He cannot deny himself.  

 

Lam 3:22-23

22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

 

Lord, words fail in my effort to describe your faithfulness! Thank you! AMEN

DEALING WITH INJUSTICE

 

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

 

DEALING WITH INJUSTICE

Eccl 10:4-7

4 If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; [do not resist irrationally] for yielding pacifies great offences.

5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceeds from the ruler:

6 Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.

7 I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

 

          Solomon observed the chaos that will naturally occur when unqualified leaders are in authority. Kind follows kind, and a leader who is full of folly will attract all manner of weirdness and damage to himself. Servants are given horses and princes are forced to walk.

 

          Our Supreme Court has but one function and that is to assure that laws created in the echoing halls are not contrary to the original intent of our founding documents. They are ever adjured to bring those laws in line or to eliminate them. It is unreasonable to expect anything but outrage from those who would rewrite an unalienable right.

 

          There is, of course, a higher court before which we all must stand – even those who disavow this court. They shall stand with their placards, hastily scrawled on empty Amazon boxes with left over lipstick – but they will stand. They will plead their cause, but they will not be judged by the volume of their voice but by truth.

 

          Justice cannot be transformed by our angry response to it, for that would produce injustice. Whenever injustice is resisted with reason and truth, it is unreasonable to expect anything but rage which is meant to restore the injustice. Truth cannot become a lie by burning its house down!

 

Matt 24:12-14

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

Lord, your next coming seems to approach with blinding speed. Let us be ready. AMEN

IT IS A SIN PROBLEM!

 

Monday, June 27, 2022

 

IT IS A SIN PROBLEM!

 

We are now beginning to see that the problem of our nation is a sin problem. The economy is broken by our greed! The home is in shambles due to our failure to love! Our government is oppressive due to a lust for power. The following verses seem clear enough.

 

Here is the problem: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. (Isa 1:2)

 

And here is the result: Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. (Isa 1:4-7)

 

Here is the solution: Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isa 1:16-20)

 

What our nation needs is not another Tea Party but a communion service!

 

Dear Lord, make our message clear and plain. Open ears and hearts and minds to your truth. Heal our land. AMEN

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME

 

Sunday, June 26, 2022

 

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME

Luke 13:34-35

34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

KJV

 

          The exercise of free will, given first as a gift by God, and manipulated by Satan, is the root cause of today’s ills. It is as if God has cast a vote in our favor and Satan has cast a vote against us. It is a tie! We cast the deciding vote but doing so requires discipline and comes at a cost.

 

          To vote with God will require discipline because Satan has awakened us to pleasure and pride, but a vote with Satan demands a high cost. We gain knowledge of certain pleasures, but we become brats. We stand with our fists on our hips, and we shout “you can’t make me” at anyone, including God.

 

          The result is damage and the very opposite of what we expected. As Jesus viewed the Temple, His language indicated that He had abandoned it. Your house, ho oikos, is still there but it has been abandoned. I now leave you to the consequences of your own choices.

 

          In just a few days we will celebrate a liberty we no longer enjoy because we have abandoned it gradually. It is no longer the land of the free, and who can find the brave? But wait! You can change your vote and your circumstances.

 

Heb 4:7-9

7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

 

Dear Lord, grant us a chance to change our minds. Let us huddle under the shelter of your wings. AMEN

CHOOSE LIFE

 

Saturday, June 25, 2022

 

CHOOSE LIFE

 

Deut 30:19

19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

 

          For the past fifty years, the debate regarding abortion has either raged or seethed. It is a moral choice with societal pressures and an entire shift in language and word definitions have been developed to prop up certain positions.

 

          Choice is not the opposite of life. At this point I have lost at least some of my audience. No, the opposite of life is death. In Texas, the legal definition of manslaughter is as follows: Manslaughter is referred to as a type of criminal homicide in §19.01 of the Texas Penal Code, which states that

 

(a) A person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence causes the death of an individual.

 

Ex 21:22-25

22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

 

          Dr. Warren Wiersbe comments: “Scholars don't agree on the translation of verse 22. Is it "and she gives birth prematurely" (NIV) or "and she has a miscarriage"? (NIV margin, NASB) The clause "but there is no serious injury" (either to the mother or the child) would suggest that the first translation is to be preferred, since a miscarriage would certainly be a serious thing.

(from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)

 

          Dr. Adam Clarke adds: “…if the child had been fully formed, and was killed by this means, or the woman lost her life in consequence, then the punishment was as in other cases of murder-the person was put to death; Ex 21:23.

(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

 

          “But it may save the life of the mother!” Certainly, there are extreme circumstances which may call for terminating a pregnancy – taking a life, but those who shout the loudest about this, do so from what they see as a right. Right, unlike wright, is one of the most commonly used words in the English language. It has numerous meanings and grammatical functions. Right can act as a noun, verb, adjective as well as an adverb. To suggest that a woman, because she bears the child, has the right (an inherent liberty) to decide to curtail approaching motherhood, just doesn’t seem “right.”

 

          Population control. The gritty underbelly of our current argument is simply about allowing a woman to avoid the consequences of sexual activity. I don’t know a softer way to express it! However, the “choice” should be made prior to coitus. Indeed, there are dozens of methods and mechanisms to avoid pregnancy. For the sake of the child, one should be used.

 

          She ran away weeping! My wife was at a ladies’ home Bible study when the topic of abortion came up. Suddenly one woman began weeping uncontrollably and ran from the living room to a bedroom. My wife followed trying to console this woman. She learned that she had, in the past, aborted a pregnancy and the guilt was smothering. Sometimes it is not the consequences that form the best argument. Sometimes it is the consequences of the consequences!

 

Ps 139:13-17

13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

 

Oh, God! Heal our heart and our land. AMEN

STRANGE!

 

Friday, June 24, 2022

 

STRANGE!

 

Acts 17:17-20

17 Therefore disputed he [PAUL] in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.

18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?

20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.

 

          The whole idea of Christianity is strange to the irreligious man or even to the hyper-religious man. It is strange to imagine that all that we see was created by a God we cannot see. It is strange that this God, who evidently has a son, would send that son to be a sacrifice for sin. It is strange that God’s son, completely against nature, would be born of a virgin.

 

          It is strange that Jesus would preach a doctrine so completely foreign to all known philosophies that they would kill him because of it. It is strange that after three days he came to life again and walked around for forty days before disappearing into a cloud before witnesses.

 

          Even more strange is that for thousands of years people from every nation, language, culture, and economy would believe all these things. Strange too is the fact that believers have gladly died for their belief. Christian martyrs do not die with explosives strapped to their chest in one final act of angry disgust. No, Christian martyrs die with a Bible in their hand and a tear in their eye in one final act of love for infidels. Strange!

 

          It is strange that the Bible predicts a global path of moral decline which leads to the end of the world. Stranger still is the fact that the world persists in following that plan so closely that we can see the end drawing closer.

 

          If you think Christianity is strange, consider this. If, at the end of life, Christianity is wrong then we have only forfeited our lives. If it is right, then you have forfeited your eternity.

 

1 Cor 2:14

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness [absurdity] unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

Dear Lord! Thank you for revealing yourself to us, giving yourself for us, and pursuing us relentlessly with love. AMEN

UNSPOTTED!

 

Thursday, June 23, 2022

 

UNSPOTTED!

 

James 1:27

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

 

          Being a Christian in this current moral and political climate is challenging. It doesn’t seem to take much effort to rise above the general muck around us which means that we seldom rise to the heights we should. The “dumbing down” of religion has made casual Christians appear to be glow-in-the-dark saints. The only thing that seems to set us apart is our T-shirts.

 

          James boils it all down for us when he focuses on what is clean and unsoiled before God. Never mind what others think! What does God think about my particular brand of Christianity? The key elements seem to be a practical application of goodness. The word “visit” simply means “to go see and to relieve” widows in their affliction. This gets God’s attention.

 

          The second element requires herculean effort! We are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. This is as challenging as a white bunny in a mud wrestling arena! By “the world” James means “society without God.” But how does an average believer keep himself clean?

 

          There must be a steady relationship to God’s Word. “Wherewithal (or how) shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” (Ps 119:9) In the front flyleaf of my Bible is scrawled these words: “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.”

 

          There must also be an intentional association with God’s people at church. The reason that racial and ethnic integration fails is that similar people prefer to be together. To put it another way, “Birds of a feather flock together.” That’s why larger cities have a “China Town” or a “Little Italy.” Christians have churches!

 

1 Cor 15:33

33 Be not deceived: evil communications (companions) corrupt good manners (morals).

 

          Without practical benevolence and personal moral purity, a professing believer has no well-founded evidence that he is a Christian.

 

Dear Lord, fill my heart with your compassion and let me act upon it. Help me to keep myself clean in an impure world. AMEN

TRUST GOD IN THE DARK

 

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

 

TRUST GOD IN THE DARK

 

Gen 28:10-16

10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord  God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

 

Matt 14:23

23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

 

          What your faith is in the darkness, when you are alone, is all that it truly is. All the rest is just posturing and window dressing. It is those quiet and private thoughts that pass between you and your God that is the true measure of your trust. Merriam – Webster defines “trust” as: “assured reliance on the character, strength, or truth of someone or something; confident hope.”

 

          How confident is your hope? It is a horrible question! It is like the bonus question at the end of a major exam. If we get it right, we pass but if not we fail – even if we answer all the other questions correctly. Personal and not corporate trust is all the trust we truly own. There is a jab among preachers that serves as a way marker for our faith. We will say to one another: “Do you really believe that – or are you just preaching?” How strong is your faith when trouble wakes you in the night, when the outcome of many endeavors are in question? 

 

Hab 3:17-18

17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

 

Dear Invisible God, let me build a relationship with you that will survive the cold sweats of those dark and alone times of doubt. AMEN