On December 9th our pastor was away and I filled in giving the message. Below is the transcript .
Enjoy and may our most Holy Father continue to watch over you.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am going to ask you to do some thinking and calculating this morning. I have a lot of questions to ask you today. I know it’s Sunday morning, for some of us it’s our only “day off”. I am not going to ask you to speak or raise your hands or anything, BUT, I feel compelled to ask for your complete attention to the questions I am about to ask. I also feel compelled to remind you of what is written in Acts 5: 1-10, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property to give the money to the young church, but then lied about how much they sold it for. The key verse here is the second half of vs. 4 where Peter says; …You have not lied to men, but to God. I’m not implying that you will die, just that the Lord knows what is in your heart when you answer these questions to yourself.
We are awake about 16 hours per day.
How much time each day do you spend watching (listening to, background noise) TV?
How much time listening to commercial radio?
How much time in a non-Christian work environment?
How much time do you spend in God’s Word?
How many of you remember the old saying, “You are what you eat?”
I think it applies here as well. You are what you listen to, you are what you read, you are what you continually expose yourself to. As an example, I was never a professional painter. I was not even a very good painter. ( I don’t mean as in art, I’m not good at that either). Last year I was given the job as the “paint specialist” at work. I don’t know if I would call myself an expert now, but I am very knowledge able about paint. Why? That’s what I do all day long.
In today’s New Testament lesson, Romans 15:4; For whatever was written in the earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and encouragement of the scripture we might have hope.
I think what this is saying is that the more we know about what God has done in the past, the more confidence we will have about what he will do in the future, our future. So, we should read our Bibles diligently to increase our trust that God’s will is what is best for us.
Romans15:13 takes it a step further. Paul says to the Romans; Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at that word power. In my concordance the Greek word is dynamis…another way of translating it is ability. …that you may abound in hope by the ability of the Holy Spirit. Where does the Holy Spirit apply His ability to work within us and direct us? Through God’s word!
What is the result of following the Holy Spirit’s direction? We will bear “good fruit”. In today’s Gospel Matthew 3:8, John the Baptist warns us to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. That would be the “good fruit”. And, in vs. 10 he says to the Pharisees and Sadducees; And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Why did he say this to them? Because they were not following God’s Word, but man made laws that gave them more power and wealth.
Even in those “simpler” days Satan, the world, and the flesh (our sinful nature) were trying to convince the people that it was power and wealth that made them a “somebody”.
A day or two before I sat down to start the outline for this message, I received a magazine called Good News, a conservative Lutheran publication. The Power of Sin was the topic of this edition.
In Romans 5:12 Paul states; Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. In this article the writer creates the analogy of sin being a disease. Furthermore he says Holy living can not cure this disease. No one can control their sinful thoughts. As proof he offered up Romans 7:19-21 (one of my favorites) Paul says; For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
Since we can’t cure this disease, how do we control it?
With God’s living medicine! What is that?
Paul says in Romans 6:12; Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.
Satan tries to lead us into sin, and who has defeated Satan? Jesus! Because Jesus reigns in us then He will help us subdue sin. How do we get Him to reign in us? Through Baptism.
There’s more, Jesus himself tells us, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. (From John 41:23)
Through baptism, God comes to reign in us. Our hearts become His throne from which he rules our lives, and helps us to resist Satan and sin.
How do we abide in His word? How are we able to take God’s medicine regularly? Through our ears as we hear Christ-centered sermons each and every week, through our eyes as we read our Bible for devotion every day, and through our mouth as we take communion regularly.
Not to mention that the more familiar we are with His Word the faster we will recognize the sinful thoughts that we have. The faster we recognize them the faster we can call on our Lords help in quelling them.
Now we have talked about reading God’s Word so we can bear good fruits, we talked about His Word helping to control the sin in our lives. Now let’s talk about how we feel when we leave church on Sunday mornings. I don’t know about you, but I feel awesome. How would you like to keep that feeling of strength, peace, and comfort all week long? I know what helps me…Reading, meditating, and praying on our Lord’s Word everyday. God wants us to do this. He has put the time in our life.
Has this thought crossed anybody’s mind this morning? “Look, I’m really busy! It’s tough out here on the east end of Long Island. I come to church every week and I listen closely to the things the Pastor says. That’s the best I can do right now.”
How many of us have kids in school? Especially in high school. Or are taking classes or going to school ourselves? What kind of grades would we expect if they or we only studied one hour once a week?
We spend many, many hours immersed in “the world”. We spend very little time in hearing or studying God’s Word.
Which “subject” are we going to do best in?
Which subject is most important, the power and wealth that the world calls us to, or eternity with our Holy Father?
Satan knows the power of God’s Word in our life. He tries to lead us to the distractions that will take us away from The Word AND, it awesome power. Do you remember that word and what the Scripture said about it a moment ago? Romans 15:13; …that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some of us do our best to spend time in The Word. So Satan will try to convince us that having noise around us at all times is OK. We spend so much of our time bombarded by noise and distractions from the TV, radio, and even instant messaging on the computer. These things sometimes block out the quiet voice of our Lord. Yes, there are times when He yells at us to get our attention, but usually He talks to us in a quiet voice, that we will never hear with all the distractions that can encroach on our time. We need some quiet time to truly ask for our Savior’s guidance.
Again, that time is available.
We just shouldn’t be tricked into thinking that the time we spend in study and listening to God’s word isn’t important. It is important for our forgiveness. It is important for strength, the strength to resist sin, and that helps us in holy living.
While the things I have been led to say here are for everybody, men, women and kids, the Holy Spirit has been keeping men in the forefront of my mind while writing this. So, for the men and young men, this next point especially is for you. We are responsible in God’s eyes for the path our families are on!! We need the help of the Holy Spirit to guide us, and we need other Christian men to help us persevere. PLEASE, do not buy in to Satan's scheme that to be real men we must be independent. IT IS NOT TRUE!!!! First and foremost, we need to be dependant on Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, but also on other Christian men to help keep us accountable for our actions AND forgive and nurture us when we fall.
I know I have asked a lot of questions. I hope you noticed though that we found all the answers in the Bible, God’s Word. There are many questions that come to us each day. Some are easy, what will I eat for lunch? Should I go to work? The answers to these types of questions mostly come from our values and morals. The basis of which come from having God reigning in our hearts. Some of the questions are hard, dealing with worldly temptations: There’s no one home, should I check out that porn site on the computer the guys at work were talking about? It was a terrible day at work, should I just drop on the couch in front of the TV with a six pack of beer so I don’t have to think about it? From Gospel we know that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days, how did He respond? He used God’s word and was strengthened. Other questions might deal with how we treat our others: I can’t believe that woman at work got the job I wanted. Should I find a way to get back at her? As the people of Israel were crucifying Him, and He was dying on the cross, Jesus said “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Through the Gospel Jesus shows us how to resist temptations and about forgiveness, among many other things. Our exposure to the Word of God enables the Holy Spirit to guide us through our tough questions.
And let’s remember that Jesus set aside time for us, so that we might live forever in Heaven with Him.
Shouldn’t we set aside some time to be with Him and learn from Him everyday? I’ll let you look up the answer to this one yourself.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds, through faith, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Which way do I need to go?
I’m back… did you miss me?
It has been 4 months since my last entry, and a lot has happened in that time. Thinking back on that time I can see where God was opening and closing doors to direct my path to where I am now. However, during June and July I had troubles determining what I was supposed to be doing. It had been a rough time.
So what has made those months more difficult?
One day as I was thinking about how mixed up things were, and praying for direction, I realized I had not had the time to read my men’s devotional in quite a while. A few days later I managed to pick it up and read the day’s verse and the author’s take on what it meant. It was Ephesians 3:19 – and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all fullness of God.
The author said that the journey toward spiritual maturity lasts a lifetime. If we don’t study God’s Word, obey his commandments, and live in the center of His will, we will become “stagnant” believers.
A day or two later I heard a speaker on the radio say that God speaks to us through His Word. If we do not continually read and study God’s Word we will have a hard time hearing and understanding what direction He wants us to go.
It finally began to sink in. I had been doing my best to keep God’s commandments, and I was trying to live in the center of His will, but I had not been studying His Word. That was the missing piece. As I got back up to speed in study the Bible, things started to smooth out and become clearer.
After a presentation I made several months ago some people asked me if the fact that they came to church every week, but had not done a Bible study in many years made them religious and not spiritual? I am now better able to answer that question. Both things are important. One without the other is not a good thing. Without studying His Word the things we do can become to religious, we begin doing things because they are what has always been done. We become caught up in the tradition.
In Matthew 15:3 Jesus admonishes the Pharisees and scribes for worrying more about man made traditions than God’s commandments.
Paul warns in Colossians 2:8,
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
How do we keep this from happening? Look at Ephesians 4:13-16
…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants …
Without studying God’s Word we do not grow in our faith and understanding of what our Lord wants and expects from us. The Holy Spirit uses His Word to direct us. Without the continued input our human understanding takes over. His Word does make it easier to make all of our decisions and understand the path He is leading His people down.
P.S. There is a difference between reading and studying. But that is for another article.
For the Glory of God
Bill
P.S. If you have questions or comments please click on comment bellow.
It has been 4 months since my last entry, and a lot has happened in that time. Thinking back on that time I can see where God was opening and closing doors to direct my path to where I am now. However, during June and July I had troubles determining what I was supposed to be doing. It had been a rough time.
So what has made those months more difficult?
One day as I was thinking about how mixed up things were, and praying for direction, I realized I had not had the time to read my men’s devotional in quite a while. A few days later I managed to pick it up and read the day’s verse and the author’s take on what it meant. It was Ephesians 3:19 – and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all fullness of God.
The author said that the journey toward spiritual maturity lasts a lifetime. If we don’t study God’s Word, obey his commandments, and live in the center of His will, we will become “stagnant” believers.
A day or two later I heard a speaker on the radio say that God speaks to us through His Word. If we do not continually read and study God’s Word we will have a hard time hearing and understanding what direction He wants us to go.
It finally began to sink in. I had been doing my best to keep God’s commandments, and I was trying to live in the center of His will, but I had not been studying His Word. That was the missing piece. As I got back up to speed in study the Bible, things started to smooth out and become clearer.
After a presentation I made several months ago some people asked me if the fact that they came to church every week, but had not done a Bible study in many years made them religious and not spiritual? I am now better able to answer that question. Both things are important. One without the other is not a good thing. Without studying His Word the things we do can become to religious, we begin doing things because they are what has always been done. We become caught up in the tradition.
In Matthew 15:3 Jesus admonishes the Pharisees and scribes for worrying more about man made traditions than God’s commandments.
Paul warns in Colossians 2:8,
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
How do we keep this from happening? Look at Ephesians 4:13-16
…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants …
Without studying God’s Word we do not grow in our faith and understanding of what our Lord wants and expects from us. The Holy Spirit uses His Word to direct us. Without the continued input our human understanding takes over. His Word does make it easier to make all of our decisions and understand the path He is leading His people down.
P.S. There is a difference between reading and studying. But that is for another article.
For the Glory of God
Bill
P.S. If you have questions or comments please click on comment bellow.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Prayer and God's Word
Several weeks ago my Pastor was led to ask me to do the sermon while he was away. Before I wrote it, I asked the Holy Spirit to use me as a tool to do God's will. What follows is that sermon, that was delivered on May 13th.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
“woot woot” A couple of years ago that was a popular teenage slang for “cool”. The first time I used it around my kids, they told me that that wasn’t what was said anymore.
Have you ever had the feeling as soon as you got where you want to be in this world that it wasn’t important anymore?
Long before I realized that I belonged to Jesus, I belonged to the world. Let me explain what I mean. As Christians we live “in” the world, but we do not belong to it. This world is not our home. Our home is with our Father in heaven.
You see, unlike many of you, I have not known Jesus my whole life. I went to church with my family as a child and when I visited my parents. I never knew Jesus. I followed the world’s suggestions.
The result ... loneliness, and a constant struggle to achieve what the world said I should have, and just when I thought I was getting there, the world changed what was important! I can remember wishing there was a rule book or a how to book. I spent thousands of dollars on self help books and tapes, looking for The Book that would help me make it in the world. Unfortunately the “wise” information from these books changed every few years.
Finally, I found life’s instruction manual, and it never changes.
The Bible!
It wasn’t even when I started coming here(to Our Redeemer Lutheran), that I figured this out. I didn’t have time for the Bible. I was to busy making the “ends meet”. (And not doing a very good job of it, as my family can attest to.) It wasn’t until our Don Bracken, a church elder, asked me to become a reader in our worship services. You see, I had to make sure that if I was going to get in front of people and read, I had to know what I was reading. In order to do that I had to read what was before and after the verses I was responsible for.
Thus began my journey into God’s Word.
The best part is that the Holy Spirit really started convicting me. He started proving to me that being in God’s word was important in today’s world. The Holy Spirit did this by pointing out where things I had read directly pertained to my life, or something would happen and then I would read about it in the Bible. Soon I got a concordance, which is a book with every word in the bible and it’s meaning in the original language. I bought it so I could better understand what I was reading. I started doing more reading. Then I was led to the knowledge that I can’t accomplish anything of value WITHOUT Gods help.
I did more reading.
God helps us when we PRAY!! I learned later that God helps us when we pray, just not always the way we want or in our time frame.
In my worldly days, I can remember praying to God to help me when I was in trouble. I remembered a verse from Luke 11:9 where Jesus says “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”. As I mentioned I had gone to church as a child and on occasion with my parents when I was older.
So I prayed to God on my own merits, promising to be nicer than I thought I already was, if He would help me to win lotto so I could pay my rent or mortgage. I never won! In this case He, God, was of no help.
But then I began to grow in my faith here, my praying had not changed much; however, God was making things happen for me. Still, the only answers that he gave me were those that brought me closer to Him. This doesn’t mean I always liked or understood the answers! In retrospect even the “no’s” brought me closer to Him.
But, there is more to prayer.
{1 Peter 3:12} For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayers, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
The word righteous refers to a person in accord with God’s standards.
Now in John 15:7 Jesus says "If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you”.
This verse from John specifies “If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you.” The IF makes it a conditional statement. That condition… is reliance upon God. Reliance upon God is part of being righteous, which brings us back to 1Peter 3:12, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears attend to their prayers.
…More reading…
The more I got into His word the more I understood about praying. In today’s gospel (John 16: 23-24) Jesus says; “…Truly, truly, I say to you, “if” (there’s that condition again) you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask (as a response to and from faith), and (notice no if) you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”
So, does this mean we ask Jesus so he can go to His Father on our behalf?
Let’s skip down to verses 26-27. “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, - the Father Himself loves us! – because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
Awesome!
We can talk to God himself! “He” is going to answer our prayer. God’s response, is based solely on Jesus’ love for us. (I struggled with this part for a while, but the Holy Spirit made it clear). Why does Jesus love us? Because we love Him and believe that He came forth from the Father.
But wait… Here’s a tough one. Can we truly love someone we don’t know? We were not there 2000 years ago to get to know Jesus. We didn’t travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. Do we really know Him? Do we really know Jesus? When we study our Bible we do. In the New Testament we travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. His words and the words He inspired the apostles to write is who He is. Because you know His words you will know Jesus, and you will know that He travels with us, listens to us and eats with us. You won’t be able to keep from loving Him and carrying out his will.
Hmm… Three things here. First…
We are to bring people to know who Jesus is… Not just His name, but WHO He is, that means we have to know and share His word.
Second…
Husbands, we are to “love” our wives as Christ loves his church…
Two things here; how do we know how Christ loved His Church?
From His word.
Second, how do we come to love (agape) our wives?
We have to know them…we travel with them (I don't mean to the supermarket, I mean through life), we eat with them, we need to listen to them!! Communication !!
Third...
As Christians we are to “love” our neighbors…
A couple of weeks ago, while I was working on this lesson, I was driving up the island listening to the Mars Hill Network, A Christian station, and the speaker was telling a story. He said his room mate had a poster that showed a drunken bum passed out on the side of the road. Beneath the picture were these words “You can only love Jesus as much as you love the person you love least.” Then my radio went dead for about 10 minutes… Not full of static, dead quite! During that time those words kept going over & over in my mind. God really knows how to make a point.
Do you see what is happening here? If we just read the words in today’s gospel we learn we need to pray in Jesus’ name. We learn that if we love Him, God will answer our prayer. But, when we know more of the Bible, and Study His word we will know the spirit of His word. With that, the power of prayer, and a living relationship with Jesus we will go to places we can’t even imagine. Three years ago I could not have imagined I would be standing up here giving a lesson. Five years ago, running & biking in the woods was how I was “close” to God.
Let’s say we went out to eat a few times this month, and we didn’t just go to our local pizza place, but instead went out to some really nice restaurants, jacket & tie kind of places. Now the mortgage comes due, and we are $400 dollars short. We start praying to God to let us win lotto. What do you think His response is going to be?
Let’s say the father of the family next door looses his job, and their mortgage is due and they are $400 short. You and your spouse pray and ask God if you should give them the $400. What do you think Gods response will be this time…
You go to work the next day and your boss comes up to you and says remember that idea you had a few months ago, well we tried it and, well, here is a $500 bonus. Thanks.
To the worldly minded this sounds ridiculous. To those of us who know His grace best, this is exactly how He works.
Let’s go back to the last part of vs. 24 in today’s gospel. “…ask and you will receive, that your JOY may be made full.” What will give us joy? Loving Jesus, walking in his light, and accomplishing His will!
So… we should pray for what will increase our love for Jesus, help us walk in his light, and help us accomplish His will! Pray for what will assist another to love Him. Then see how God answers your prayer and increases your joy!
Study His word; Pray without ceasing; Experience God’s awesome power in your life!
He truly is An Awesome God!!
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds, through faith, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
“woot woot” A couple of years ago that was a popular teenage slang for “cool”. The first time I used it around my kids, they told me that that wasn’t what was said anymore.
Have you ever had the feeling as soon as you got where you want to be in this world that it wasn’t important anymore?
Long before I realized that I belonged to Jesus, I belonged to the world. Let me explain what I mean. As Christians we live “in” the world, but we do not belong to it. This world is not our home. Our home is with our Father in heaven.
You see, unlike many of you, I have not known Jesus my whole life. I went to church with my family as a child and when I visited my parents. I never knew Jesus. I followed the world’s suggestions.
The result ... loneliness, and a constant struggle to achieve what the world said I should have, and just when I thought I was getting there, the world changed what was important! I can remember wishing there was a rule book or a how to book. I spent thousands of dollars on self help books and tapes, looking for The Book that would help me make it in the world. Unfortunately the “wise” information from these books changed every few years.
Finally, I found life’s instruction manual, and it never changes.
The Bible!
It wasn’t even when I started coming here(to Our Redeemer Lutheran), that I figured this out. I didn’t have time for the Bible. I was to busy making the “ends meet”. (And not doing a very good job of it, as my family can attest to.) It wasn’t until our Don Bracken, a church elder, asked me to become a reader in our worship services. You see, I had to make sure that if I was going to get in front of people and read, I had to know what I was reading. In order to do that I had to read what was before and after the verses I was responsible for.
Thus began my journey into God’s Word.
The best part is that the Holy Spirit really started convicting me. He started proving to me that being in God’s word was important in today’s world. The Holy Spirit did this by pointing out where things I had read directly pertained to my life, or something would happen and then I would read about it in the Bible. Soon I got a concordance, which is a book with every word in the bible and it’s meaning in the original language. I bought it so I could better understand what I was reading. I started doing more reading. Then I was led to the knowledge that I can’t accomplish anything of value WITHOUT Gods help.
I did more reading.
God helps us when we PRAY!! I learned later that God helps us when we pray, just not always the way we want or in our time frame.
In my worldly days, I can remember praying to God to help me when I was in trouble. I remembered a verse from Luke 11:9 where Jesus says “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”. As I mentioned I had gone to church as a child and on occasion with my parents when I was older.
So I prayed to God on my own merits, promising to be nicer than I thought I already was, if He would help me to win lotto so I could pay my rent or mortgage. I never won! In this case He, God, was of no help.
But then I began to grow in my faith here, my praying had not changed much; however, God was making things happen for me. Still, the only answers that he gave me were those that brought me closer to Him. This doesn’t mean I always liked or understood the answers! In retrospect even the “no’s” brought me closer to Him.
But, there is more to prayer.
{1 Peter 3:12} For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayers, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
The word righteous refers to a person in accord with God’s standards.
Now in John 15:7 Jesus says "If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you”.
This verse from John specifies “If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you.” The IF makes it a conditional statement. That condition… is reliance upon God. Reliance upon God is part of being righteous, which brings us back to 1Peter 3:12, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears attend to their prayers.
…More reading…
The more I got into His word the more I understood about praying. In today’s gospel (John 16: 23-24) Jesus says; “…Truly, truly, I say to you, “if” (there’s that condition again) you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask (as a response to and from faith), and (notice no if) you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”
So, does this mean we ask Jesus so he can go to His Father on our behalf?
Let’s skip down to verses 26-27. “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, - the Father Himself loves us! – because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”
Awesome!
We can talk to God himself! “He” is going to answer our prayer. God’s response, is based solely on Jesus’ love for us. (I struggled with this part for a while, but the Holy Spirit made it clear). Why does Jesus love us? Because we love Him and believe that He came forth from the Father.
But wait… Here’s a tough one. Can we truly love someone we don’t know? We were not there 2000 years ago to get to know Jesus. We didn’t travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. Do we really know Him? Do we really know Jesus? When we study our Bible we do. In the New Testament we travel with Him, listen to Him, and eat with Him. His words and the words He inspired the apostles to write is who He is. Because you know His words you will know Jesus, and you will know that He travels with us, listens to us and eats with us. You won’t be able to keep from loving Him and carrying out his will.
Hmm… Three things here. First…
We are to bring people to know who Jesus is… Not just His name, but WHO He is, that means we have to know and share His word.
Second…
Husbands, we are to “love” our wives as Christ loves his church…
Two things here; how do we know how Christ loved His Church?
From His word.
Second, how do we come to love (agape) our wives?
We have to know them…we travel with them (I don't mean to the supermarket, I mean through life), we eat with them, we need to listen to them!! Communication !!
Third...
As Christians we are to “love” our neighbors…
A couple of weeks ago, while I was working on this lesson, I was driving up the island listening to the Mars Hill Network, A Christian station, and the speaker was telling a story. He said his room mate had a poster that showed a drunken bum passed out on the side of the road. Beneath the picture were these words “You can only love Jesus as much as you love the person you love least.” Then my radio went dead for about 10 minutes… Not full of static, dead quite! During that time those words kept going over & over in my mind. God really knows how to make a point.
Do you see what is happening here? If we just read the words in today’s gospel we learn we need to pray in Jesus’ name. We learn that if we love Him, God will answer our prayer. But, when we know more of the Bible, and Study His word we will know the spirit of His word. With that, the power of prayer, and a living relationship with Jesus we will go to places we can’t even imagine. Three years ago I could not have imagined I would be standing up here giving a lesson. Five years ago, running & biking in the woods was how I was “close” to God.
Let’s say we went out to eat a few times this month, and we didn’t just go to our local pizza place, but instead went out to some really nice restaurants, jacket & tie kind of places. Now the mortgage comes due, and we are $400 dollars short. We start praying to God to let us win lotto. What do you think His response is going to be?
Let’s say the father of the family next door looses his job, and their mortgage is due and they are $400 short. You and your spouse pray and ask God if you should give them the $400. What do you think Gods response will be this time…
You go to work the next day and your boss comes up to you and says remember that idea you had a few months ago, well we tried it and, well, here is a $500 bonus. Thanks.
To the worldly minded this sounds ridiculous. To those of us who know His grace best, this is exactly how He works.
Let’s go back to the last part of vs. 24 in today’s gospel. “…ask and you will receive, that your JOY may be made full.” What will give us joy? Loving Jesus, walking in his light, and accomplishing His will!
So… we should pray for what will increase our love for Jesus, help us walk in his light, and help us accomplish His will! Pray for what will assist another to love Him. Then see how God answers your prayer and increases your joy!
Study His word; Pray without ceasing; Experience God’s awesome power in your life!
He truly is An Awesome God!!
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds, through faith, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Surviving the Lion's Den
Walk in His word and so be blameless; and your enemies won’t be able to harm you. Through His word we see that we are to use the blessings and gifts He gives us to bring glory and honor to Him. While our enemies may inconvenience us, they will not defeat us.
And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den.
Daniel 6:17
Daniel continually used the gifts and blessings that God had given him to show his captors the glory of the Lord. As a result, his enemies used deceit and lies to destroy him. But after spending the night with the lions he emerged unharmed. God had protected him.
Pilate said to them (the Pharisees), “You have a guard; go make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27:65-66
Likewise, Jesus’ enemies used deceit and lies to have Him crucified. They too covered him with a stone, but to no avail. He emerged ALIVE.
Just days after reading some devotionals about the above verses, I had an experience that also put me in a potentially bad place. However, for the last year or so I have made it a practice to be in God’s word at least an hour a day, and I have been using the gifts and blessings that were given to me to bring glory and honor to our Lord. After speaking to my Pastor and praying about what had happened I realized that the situation was very complex, but my part was supposed to cause me to stumble. Satan had tried to bury me. He tried to get me to cave in and return to the way I was many years ago, before I discovered that I belonged to Jesus. But, the Holy Spirit brought out all the lessons I have learned through God’s word, and I did not falter. I stood strong in the one true faith.
We are all very busy working at making “the ends meet”. Our enemies are also very busy preparing our “Lion’s Den”. Now that God’s word is a priority in my life, when my enemies come after me, God protects me. God gives us all of our gifts and blessings to use to bringing glory to Him. Through studying His word we not only learn how to do that, but we also gain the tools that allow the Holy Spirit to protect us from those who would cause us to stumble.
What are your thoughts on this?
Please feel free to leave me your comments, insights or questions. Just click on "comments" below.
May our Lord continue to bless you and your family.
And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den.
Daniel 6:17
Daniel continually used the gifts and blessings that God had given him to show his captors the glory of the Lord. As a result, his enemies used deceit and lies to destroy him. But after spending the night with the lions he emerged unharmed. God had protected him.
Pilate said to them (the Pharisees), “You have a guard; go make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27:65-66
Likewise, Jesus’ enemies used deceit and lies to have Him crucified. They too covered him with a stone, but to no avail. He emerged ALIVE.
Just days after reading some devotionals about the above verses, I had an experience that also put me in a potentially bad place. However, for the last year or so I have made it a practice to be in God’s word at least an hour a day, and I have been using the gifts and blessings that were given to me to bring glory and honor to our Lord. After speaking to my Pastor and praying about what had happened I realized that the situation was very complex, but my part was supposed to cause me to stumble. Satan had tried to bury me. He tried to get me to cave in and return to the way I was many years ago, before I discovered that I belonged to Jesus. But, the Holy Spirit brought out all the lessons I have learned through God’s word, and I did not falter. I stood strong in the one true faith.
We are all very busy working at making “the ends meet”. Our enemies are also very busy preparing our “Lion’s Den”. Now that God’s word is a priority in my life, when my enemies come after me, God protects me. God gives us all of our gifts and blessings to use to bringing glory to Him. Through studying His word we not only learn how to do that, but we also gain the tools that allow the Holy Spirit to protect us from those who would cause us to stumble.
What are your thoughts on this?
Please feel free to leave me your comments, insights or questions. Just click on "comments" below.
May our Lord continue to bless you and your family.
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