The title of this lesson may seem to be rather unusual. After all, we would suppose the church to be a safe place – right? However, unfortunately, the church has sometimes been a place where many have experienced wounds instead of healing. In fact, statistics show that a great percentage of persons who cease attending church, do so because of some type of offense or injury to their feelings that happened there. Sometimes these occur because of the insensitivity of the church; other times, people are themselves at fault for being too touchy or sensitive to misunderstandings. In any case, it is sad that such experiences ever occur, because the church is an indispensable part of the believer's life. Not only does it provide a place to worship, serve and learn about God, but it is also a community where Believers can practice love toward their brethren as the Bible requires; "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
Whatever you do, don't give up on the church. God requires you to be faithful to it and to be accountable to its spiritual leaders. (See Hebrews 10:25; 13:17). If you have been hurt there, don't run away – but equip yourself with the protection of God's Word. You may not be able to stop offensive things from happening, but by applying God's principles you can stop them from hurting you. "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them" (Psa 119:165 KJV).
The following steps can help believers protect themselves from getting hurt in a church:
Avoid developing unreasonable expectations of the church — “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.” (Psa. 62:5).
The definition of disappointment is “the failure to attain one’s expectations.” Don’t expect things from the church or the minister that they can’t deliver, or that the Bible doesn’t teach for them to do.
Occasionally people get disappointed when they find out their church can’t supply all their earthly needs. Most ministers and churches do attempt to help people in every way they can especially during crisis and emergencies. But a church cannot meet all of member’s financial needs.
Learn to place your expectations upon God — He will always be faithful to His promises in His Word and will never let you down.
Don’t place an absolute trust in people — “This is what the LORD says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD.” (Jer. 17:5).
Come to terms with the fact that everyone is human and will fail you at some time or another. Even the pastor will make mistakes. The only one you can trust entirely without fail is God.
There’s a difference between “love” and “trust.” It’s possible to love and forgive someone, without placing an absolute trust in them.
Remember that love and forgiveness is granted unconditionally, but trust must be “earned.” Since all of us have potential for failure, we should never put all our trust in anyone but God.
Focus on common ground — “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).
Avoid becoming highly opinionated. Our “opinions” can cause division or promote sinful debates and quarrels (Rom. 1:29). Opinionated people are prone to get hurt when others disagree with them.
Naturally every believer has his or her own convictions about a great many things, but if you continually try to push your opinions on others, conflict will eventually emerge. Avoid controversy over scriptures which are vague or “grey” and can lead to many interpretations — stand fast upon those common, basic truths — Jesus, His life, death and resurrection!
Don’t expect any church to be perfect — “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. (Rom. 7:18-19)
It is remarkable to consider that the Apostle Paul openly confessed that he was not perfect. Like us, he experienced struggles in his flesh to do the right things. If Paul admitted to this, it should not seem too strange if we find others in the church struggling with imperfections too.
Since churches are made up of people like you and me who have imperfections, there will never be such a thing as a perfect church. Unless people understand this, they’ll have an unrealistic view of the church, and will eventually become disillusioned and hurt.
Avoid blaming the church for personal problems — “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (Isaiah 26:3).
When you go to church, you should try to dissociate the church from the other personal problems you deal with. The majority of hurt feelings in a church result from wounds and sensitivities people carry in with them. Such things as a low self esteem, abuse as a child, marital problems, personal offenses, family conflict, a root of bitterness, health problems or job dissatisfaction can twist your interpretation of words and actions. You may imagine misinterpret well-intended words as an offense. Trivial problems will seem like big problems. Remember this: Don’t jump to conclusions over anything, because things are usually not as bad as they seem.
Treat others as you wish to be treated — “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12).
Human beings tend to reflect the way they are treated. Be gracious, encouraging, and a blessing for others to be around. If you have a negative, critical attitude toward people it will tend to generate their critical attitude toward you.
Many hurt feelings can be avoided if we will realize that people usually react to how we deal with them. Take a close examination at the way you say things. Don’t be rude and impolite. Check your attitude that you’re not overbearing and bossy.
Have a teachable, cooperative attitude — Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. (Heb. 13:17).
As long as you are a part of any particular church, you must come to accept that the pastor and leaders are in charge there. Regardless of how unqualified you might think they are, God recognizes them as the authority in that body and will hold them accountable to that responsibility. Consequently, God holds you accountable to respect their authority, to pray for them, and to cooperate — not to be defiant and rebellious.
Always be cooperative, willing to humble yourself. If you have a rigid, inflexible attitude in the church you will probably get hurt.
Be devoted to love and forgiveness — “Anyone who loves another brother or sister is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.” (1 John 2:10).
Without doubt, it is not possible to have a relationship with a group of people without occasional misunderstandings and offenses. However, Christians will avoid a lot of problems if they will just commit themselves to an unconditional love for their brethren. The practice of loving the brethren — all the brethren, not just the lovable ones — keeps us from stumbling. Never forget that Jesus takes personally how we entreat our Christian brothers and sisters. When we love even the “least” of our brethren, Jesus accepts that love toward Himself (Matt. 25:40). You cannot love the Lord any more than you love the least in the body of Christ. “If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20).
Be quick to forgive and don’t hold grudges. Unforgiveness and bitterness is one of the greatest reasons why people get hurt in the church and probably the greatest cause of apostasy — falling away. Remember that unforgiveness is one of your greatest enemies. See what Jesus says: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matt. 6:14-15).
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
My God’s not dead … but neither is Satan
My God’s not dead … but neither is Satan
My God is not dead, He is alive … is so true. In fact it is a statement that we as Followers of Christ can live by … It is a statement that we can stand on.
Here is the problem … We know that the God we worship is alive and well, but we often forget to remember that his enemy … Satan … The Devil … whatever it is that you prefer to call him is not dead either. In fact he is very much alive and is working in this world each and every day.
In fact, at least sometimes, it is easier to see the work of Satan than it is to see the work of God, which is a shame. Yet think about it … How many people do you know who have problems with addictions to drugs, pornography and alcohol? How many people do you know who are having marital problems? How many people do you know who are tied up in a lot of things that aren’t of God? Well guess what? That is the work of Satan. That is Satan tempting those people to do things that go against the word of God, just as he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.
After God instructed Adam and Eve about not eating “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” (Genesis 2:17 NIV) Satan came and tempted them. Eve listened to Satan's voice instead of saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan." (Luke 4:8 KJV) This is exactly the way the Devil works today. He comes to young people, new or weaker Believers and whispers to them to do this or do that, tempting them in things which are not right in the sight of God. Instead of turning aside they often listen to him speak.
So here is a warning for anyone … Don’t ever think that just because you worship a living God who wants the best for you … that you will not or cannot be tempted. In fact, you can probably sure that Adam and Eve thought that when they were walking in the Garden.
The truth is, the closer you get to God, the more that Satan is going to try to tempt you … Simply because he doesn’t want anyone becoming a warrior for the army of Christ.
In fact, Satan knows more about us that we know about ourselves … which means that he knows our weaknesses … which means he knows exactly where to tempt us. He isn’t going to tempt you with things that mean nothing to you … He is going to tempt you with whatever it is that you are going to be most likely to give into. Which means we always have to stand guard against him and his tactics.
Scripture tells us that “Stay alert! “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ” (1 Peter 5:8).
The great thing about temptation is the fact that God’s word clearly states that no Believer will ever be tempted by more than they can stand. It goes on to say that any time you are tempted, God will give us a way out, as long as we are willing to stand strong and look for it. “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (1 Corinthians 10) Unfortunately, we don’t always take His way out!
Someone once said, "You cannot stop a bird flying in your hair but you do not have to build a nest for him to stay in."
Remember this as well … Jesus came to be a perfect example of what we were to become … and during that time he was tempted my Satan. In fact, he was tempted multiple times during the 40 days he spend fasting in the wilderness. (Remember last week’s lesson – What We Can Learn in the Wilderness.) Yet we know he never gave in … and we can also learn a valuable lesson from his temptations. Know the Word of God!
Have you ever noticed how Jesus, our perfect example, stood up to Satan? He simply quoted scripture that went against whatever it was Satan was tempting him with? Maybe we should learn to do the same … of course we would have to know scripture in order to do that, but that isn’t all bad … in fact it’s a good thing.
Back to the Garden of Eden for a moment -- Satan, once the angel of light, deceived our first parents by questioning God's Word: He asked Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1b) Are you sure this is what God says in His Word? Perhaps God did not say that after all. Perhaps He did not mean what He said! Hell may not even be a literal Hell. And certainly God could not mean for us to accept the Bible literally when it contradicts modern scholarship and scientific teaching! Yes, our Adversary the Devil is very much alive today and is working to destroy the authority of God's Word, the Bible.
The Devil is not terribly interested in leading men and women into gross sin as you might expect. He would be satisfied just to get person’s heart away from God. So he works in a special way in the realm of religion. He wants to substitute his own word for the Word of God. He wants men and women to be in subjection to him rather than to God. He substitutes his own lies for divine truth.
Satan knows the Bible and how he loves to quote Scripture in order to destroy faith. Remember how he tried to persuade Jesus to throw himself down from the temple roof? He argued from Scripture! He told Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you…..’ ” (Matthew 4:6)
Note this well! Satan does not always try to ruin faith by saying, “The Bible isn’t true;” he often tries to destroy our faith by affirming some passage and using it to lead us into disobedience.
All Christians get our “life” from God’s Holy Word. We will perish without it. We cannot let it be taken from us. We should be willing go to jail rather than stop reading it. So what does Satan do? His one aim is to destroy our faith. The Word of God alone keeps faith alive. But we cleave to it and Satan cannot tear it away. So he studies it. How else could he quote “scriptures” to Jesus in the wilderness? He studies it. And he studies how to distort it and pervert it by misinterpretations that kinda’ make sense to us. Especially when we are looking for the easy “way” to be a Christian! Yes, Satan’s distortions of God’s Word must be reasonable so that we are more easily led astray from the actual Word!
Jesus quoted Scripture against Satan’s use of Scripture. He knew the Bible better than Satan.
So what does this mean to us? 1) Do not believe everyone who can quote you a text. History is strewn with cults who twisted the Scriptures to their own destruction. Peter writes of some of Paul’s letters: “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16). 2) Read widely in the Bible and ask yourself continually how this part fits with that part and that with this. It is when the pieces start to fit together that we are most secure from distortion. 3) Pray that God will open our eyes to see true and wonderful things in his Word. 4) Obey what you do understand and you will understand more.
So just remember … It is great news that Our God is not dead … but never forget that his evil enemy Satan is not dead either. He is surely alive, and he is living in order to try to get us as Christians to fall …
God's Not Dead by Newsboys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghC3gqNQJPQ
My God is not dead, He is alive … is so true. In fact it is a statement that we as Followers of Christ can live by … It is a statement that we can stand on.
Here is the problem … We know that the God we worship is alive and well, but we often forget to remember that his enemy … Satan … The Devil … whatever it is that you prefer to call him is not dead either. In fact he is very much alive and is working in this world each and every day.
In fact, at least sometimes, it is easier to see the work of Satan than it is to see the work of God, which is a shame. Yet think about it … How many people do you know who have problems with addictions to drugs, pornography and alcohol? How many people do you know who are having marital problems? How many people do you know who are tied up in a lot of things that aren’t of God? Well guess what? That is the work of Satan. That is Satan tempting those people to do things that go against the word of God, just as he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.
After God instructed Adam and Eve about not eating “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” (Genesis 2:17 NIV) Satan came and tempted them. Eve listened to Satan's voice instead of saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan." (Luke 4:8 KJV) This is exactly the way the Devil works today. He comes to young people, new or weaker Believers and whispers to them to do this or do that, tempting them in things which are not right in the sight of God. Instead of turning aside they often listen to him speak.
So here is a warning for anyone … Don’t ever think that just because you worship a living God who wants the best for you … that you will not or cannot be tempted. In fact, you can probably sure that Adam and Eve thought that when they were walking in the Garden.
The truth is, the closer you get to God, the more that Satan is going to try to tempt you … Simply because he doesn’t want anyone becoming a warrior for the army of Christ.
In fact, Satan knows more about us that we know about ourselves … which means that he knows our weaknesses … which means he knows exactly where to tempt us. He isn’t going to tempt you with things that mean nothing to you … He is going to tempt you with whatever it is that you are going to be most likely to give into. Which means we always have to stand guard against him and his tactics.
Scripture tells us that “Stay alert! “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ” (1 Peter 5:8).
The great thing about temptation is the fact that God’s word clearly states that no Believer will ever be tempted by more than they can stand. It goes on to say that any time you are tempted, God will give us a way out, as long as we are willing to stand strong and look for it. “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (1 Corinthians 10) Unfortunately, we don’t always take His way out!
Someone once said, "You cannot stop a bird flying in your hair but you do not have to build a nest for him to stay in."
Remember this as well … Jesus came to be a perfect example of what we were to become … and during that time he was tempted my Satan. In fact, he was tempted multiple times during the 40 days he spend fasting in the wilderness. (Remember last week’s lesson – What We Can Learn in the Wilderness.) Yet we know he never gave in … and we can also learn a valuable lesson from his temptations. Know the Word of God!
Have you ever noticed how Jesus, our perfect example, stood up to Satan? He simply quoted scripture that went against whatever it was Satan was tempting him with? Maybe we should learn to do the same … of course we would have to know scripture in order to do that, but that isn’t all bad … in fact it’s a good thing.
Back to the Garden of Eden for a moment -- Satan, once the angel of light, deceived our first parents by questioning God's Word: He asked Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1b) Are you sure this is what God says in His Word? Perhaps God did not say that after all. Perhaps He did not mean what He said! Hell may not even be a literal Hell. And certainly God could not mean for us to accept the Bible literally when it contradicts modern scholarship and scientific teaching! Yes, our Adversary the Devil is very much alive today and is working to destroy the authority of God's Word, the Bible.
The Devil is not terribly interested in leading men and women into gross sin as you might expect. He would be satisfied just to get person’s heart away from God. So he works in a special way in the realm of religion. He wants to substitute his own word for the Word of God. He wants men and women to be in subjection to him rather than to God. He substitutes his own lies for divine truth.
Satan knows the Bible and how he loves to quote Scripture in order to destroy faith. Remember how he tried to persuade Jesus to throw himself down from the temple roof? He argued from Scripture! He told Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you…..’ ” (Matthew 4:6)
Note this well! Satan does not always try to ruin faith by saying, “The Bible isn’t true;” he often tries to destroy our faith by affirming some passage and using it to lead us into disobedience.
All Christians get our “life” from God’s Holy Word. We will perish without it. We cannot let it be taken from us. We should be willing go to jail rather than stop reading it. So what does Satan do? His one aim is to destroy our faith. The Word of God alone keeps faith alive. But we cleave to it and Satan cannot tear it away. So he studies it. How else could he quote “scriptures” to Jesus in the wilderness? He studies it. And he studies how to distort it and pervert it by misinterpretations that kinda’ make sense to us. Especially when we are looking for the easy “way” to be a Christian! Yes, Satan’s distortions of God’s Word must be reasonable so that we are more easily led astray from the actual Word!
Jesus quoted Scripture against Satan’s use of Scripture. He knew the Bible better than Satan.
So what does this mean to us? 1) Do not believe everyone who can quote you a text. History is strewn with cults who twisted the Scriptures to their own destruction. Peter writes of some of Paul’s letters: “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16). 2) Read widely in the Bible and ask yourself continually how this part fits with that part and that with this. It is when the pieces start to fit together that we are most secure from distortion. 3) Pray that God will open our eyes to see true and wonderful things in his Word. 4) Obey what you do understand and you will understand more.
So just remember … It is great news that Our God is not dead … but never forget that his evil enemy Satan is not dead either. He is surely alive, and he is living in order to try to get us as Christians to fall …
God's Not Dead by Newsboys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghC3gqNQJPQ
Monday, March 5, 2012
“What We Can Learn in the Wilderness”
“What We Can Learn in the Wilderness”
Jesus is almost ready to begin his public ministry, but first He must go through some things as final preparation. First, He submitted to baptism. Then He had to face temptation. Each of us face slightly different temptations and yet we do not have to give in to any of them because Jesus is sufficient to handle whatever life brings our way.
Wandering in Our Wilderness--Immediately after Jesus was baptized by John and heard God’s voice from Heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11 NIV), things began to change for him. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness ….” (Matthew 4:1) Jesus went from a very positive experience to an undesirable wilderness. A wilderness is any place we don’t want to be. This wilderness was a place where He found himself alone. His friends were not there. He had no support team to encourage him. Maybe He felt the aloneness intensely--maybe He wandered around for awhile thinking, “What do I do next? Where do I go? How do I handle this?” Mark is the only Gospel writer who says “He was out among the wild animals” (Mark 1:13). As He was in this environment, He was surrounded by danger--a person out there alone at night could have been torn apart by the wild animals.
There are many thoughts we can apply to our own lives from this experience of Jesus. We also have wilderness experiences where we feel alone, feel we are wandering around without knowing what to do or where to turn. We are surrounded by many dangers and temptations that are every bit as threatening to us, or more so, than the wild animals that Jesus faced. Scripture tells us that “Stay alert! “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ” (1 Peter 5:8). The devil wanted to tempt Jesus there in His wilderness in order to destroy his work and cancel His mission on earth. Satan did not want Jesus to accomplish the mission he set out to do. He wanted to sidetrack him and he had a perfect opportunity to do so when he was alone in the wilderness.
Satan especially wants to sidetrack all of us from accomplishing our calling for God. He can sidetrack us very subtly and easily. We live in a world of many dangers--danger not only of crime and violence and physical dangers to us but even more so the subtle attacks on our faith. Many people are succumbing to these dangers--first of all by being led away from church, from the teachings of the scriptures and by a greater tolerance to “questionable” things. We begin to compromise--the wild beasts of indifference and apathy toward spiritual things devour us. People more and more will say, “I believe in God and I am a Christian but I don’t go to church.” This is a trick of the devil because church is the place where we are to be built up and nourished in our faith.
Jesus needed to experience a difficult wilderness experience in order to identify with us today--although the things he experienced were different from what we face in our 21st century technological age--there was the same pull of temptation for him to go ahead and give in to sin. Jesus needed to experience the invitation to sin because scripture tells us that He was “…. tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Heb. 4:15 NIV).
Jesus had the invitation to sin. He said, “No thank you. I’ve got other plans.”
Jesus was alone in the wilderness--he had no support group, and no one to give him advice. When things began to hit him adversely, he could have wondered, “Has God abandoned me? Is God not pleased with me? Does God not love me anymore?” These are things Satan uses on us to make us doubt and feel discouraged.
A wife told her husband one day, “You never tell me that you love me. Why don’t you? Why are you not like other men to let me know that you love me?” He answered, “I told you once that I loved you when we got married. If it ever changes I will tell you.”
When God spoke at Jesus’ baptism, He had to rely on that Word, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” He was not hearing repeated confirmations of His Father’s love and concern while out there in the wilderness. God had spoken and He had to believe that Word. In the wilderness there was not the constant reassurance of God’s love. We, too, need to believe God’s Word to us because sometimes there are periods of silence when we don’t feel God’s presence and we don’t hear His Voice reassuring us of his love and concern. We need to hold fast to His promises and scriptures and not allow Satan to tempt us into believing that God has abandoned us or that He does not love us. We need to know what is in Scripture so that it is second nature to us and there when we need it. When God gives you a promise at least once, hang on to that promise. You don’t need to be reassured all of the time. Psalm 119:89 says, “Your eternal word, O LORD, stands firm in heaven.” And this very important (but probably one of the most misquoted scriptures in the Bible) “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” 1 Corinthians 10:13
We face situations in our everyday life all the time of one sort or another. We are not the strong person we think we are. The wild animals of temptation sometimes devour us. But they didn’t devour Jesus. Why? He could have given in. He had choices to make just like we do. He had constant conflicts throughout his future ministry, not just during the wilderness experience. We do too. Don’t be surprised when things hit you hard at times. Don’t be surprised when your faith seems to be almost devoured. How do we tame the wild beasts that try to devour us in our daily life at work, at home, or any place else that we go?
Examining the Darkness of our Lives--Jesus had to be alert to the dangers surrounding him as he walked around in his wilderness. He had to be aware of what was lurking around the bushes ready to pounce on him unexpectedly. He had to be aware of the deception of Satan who came to offer him, “A good deal.” As the earlier scripture stated we must “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (I Peter 5:8). You say, “Well, what can I do about that? I don’t have any control over the circumstances of my life.”
1 Peter 5:9 gives us some answers. “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.” We have to examine the darkness and wilderness areas of our lives and then begin to resist the devil in those areas just as Jesus did in His wilderness. Just where do we stand in our relationship with the Lord? Have we allowed our faith to be devoured in certain areas? Have we allowed the things of the world to subtly tear us apart to where we no longer know what to believe? Have we become Christian in name only? Has our church attendance become “once in awhile?” and our Bible become lost somewhere in a stack of papers? Let us examine our wilderness. Where are the places we are losing the battle? What are the things that are constantly attacking us--addictive habits, procrastination, conflicts and anxieties. Worries of all kinds that eat away at us? What is trying to come against you to tear you apart? Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine.” (II Cor. 13:5).
Are you doing this? Are you thinking about the things in your life that really get you down? What are your greatest temptations? What do you give in to time and time again? Things that just seem to have a hold on you? We need to be able to identify those things in our own individual lives. In his Gospel, Mark does not point out specific things. Maybe it is because there are all kinds of “wild animals” trying to get to us--to endanger us in our spiritual journey. What are your “wild animals” that need to be tamed?
Reclaiming God’s Call on our Life--You may say, “Yes, Jesus was successful. He didn’t give in because He was Jesus.” He had the opportunity to make a choice just like we do. He made the choice. He could have made a bad choice and never have gone on to fulfill His mission to bring salvation to humankind. He could have checked out when the going got rough. He could have made other plans when he felt alone and abandoned by His Father. In the garden that night when he was arrested, Jesus told his Apostles: “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? (Matt. 26:53) He could have....
How can we reclaim God’s call on our individual lives once we have identified the things which so easily tempt us and drag us down to failure.
In Psalm 25, David says “O LORD, I give my life to you. (Psalm 25:1). Jesus did exactly that. Alone in the wilderness, where did he turn for help? Did he try to do everything himself? No, he put his dependency upon God and His Word to defeat the trickery of Satan. In the Old Testament times, David had also learned this--to look up in his wilderness--to deliberately lift up his soul to the Lord. By doing this David professes his desire toward God--he had a fixed thought and active faith. I am turning my face toward God--I am putting my dependence in God.
Today have you turned your thoughts to God in your daily life? Not just on Sunday morning but in each day of your life? David did this first of all. Then in the next verse he asks for several things. Rather than asking for a pat answer to his problems he asks for something better verse 4 He says, “Show me the right path, O LORD; “point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”Many people today just call the psychic hotline for a specific answer to a problem. Here David is not asking for specific answers to one problem--he is asking for God to continually show him the Total Ways of the Lord.
He asks direction from God and also prays to God to teach Him. We can Walk in the Spirit throughout our day--not just once in awhile --because God will be showing us His ways--he will be teaching us to choose one path over another--he will lead us into truth
How does this apply to us? Remember that Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” When we follow Him we know that we are being led in His ways
In our wilderness, we learn that we must intentionally Lift Up our soul to the Lord. It can’t be just once in awhile that we think about the Lord. It needs to be intentional and consistent. We have to make a decision to go to church. A deliberate decision to learn the Scriptures. Not a haphazard “once in awhile” thing.
Then when we ask the Lord to show us his ways, we must intend to follow the ways or why else would he show them to us. We can say, “Lord show me your ways and if I like them I will accept them or if not I will ignore them.” We must determine that we will make every effort to accept His ways once we know what they are.
Our prayers should be: “Lord I lift up my soul. Show me your way. Teach me. Guide me and instruct me.
We have the assurance that He will do exactly that. Psalm 25:8-10 says, “The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Jesus is almost ready to begin his public ministry, but first He must go through some things as final preparation. First, He submitted to baptism. Then He had to face temptation. Each of us face slightly different temptations and yet we do not have to give in to any of them because Jesus is sufficient to handle whatever life brings our way.
Wandering in Our Wilderness--Immediately after Jesus was baptized by John and heard God’s voice from Heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11 NIV), things began to change for him. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness ….” (Matthew 4:1) Jesus went from a very positive experience to an undesirable wilderness. A wilderness is any place we don’t want to be. This wilderness was a place where He found himself alone. His friends were not there. He had no support team to encourage him. Maybe He felt the aloneness intensely--maybe He wandered around for awhile thinking, “What do I do next? Where do I go? How do I handle this?” Mark is the only Gospel writer who says “He was out among the wild animals” (Mark 1:13). As He was in this environment, He was surrounded by danger--a person out there alone at night could have been torn apart by the wild animals.
There are many thoughts we can apply to our own lives from this experience of Jesus. We also have wilderness experiences where we feel alone, feel we are wandering around without knowing what to do or where to turn. We are surrounded by many dangers and temptations that are every bit as threatening to us, or more so, than the wild animals that Jesus faced. Scripture tells us that “Stay alert! “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. ” (1 Peter 5:8). The devil wanted to tempt Jesus there in His wilderness in order to destroy his work and cancel His mission on earth. Satan did not want Jesus to accomplish the mission he set out to do. He wanted to sidetrack him and he had a perfect opportunity to do so when he was alone in the wilderness.
Satan especially wants to sidetrack all of us from accomplishing our calling for God. He can sidetrack us very subtly and easily. We live in a world of many dangers--danger not only of crime and violence and physical dangers to us but even more so the subtle attacks on our faith. Many people are succumbing to these dangers--first of all by being led away from church, from the teachings of the scriptures and by a greater tolerance to “questionable” things. We begin to compromise--the wild beasts of indifference and apathy toward spiritual things devour us. People more and more will say, “I believe in God and I am a Christian but I don’t go to church.” This is a trick of the devil because church is the place where we are to be built up and nourished in our faith.
Jesus needed to experience a difficult wilderness experience in order to identify with us today--although the things he experienced were different from what we face in our 21st century technological age--there was the same pull of temptation for him to go ahead and give in to sin. Jesus needed to experience the invitation to sin because scripture tells us that He was “…. tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Heb. 4:15 NIV).
Jesus had the invitation to sin. He said, “No thank you. I’ve got other plans.”
Jesus was alone in the wilderness--he had no support group, and no one to give him advice. When things began to hit him adversely, he could have wondered, “Has God abandoned me? Is God not pleased with me? Does God not love me anymore?” These are things Satan uses on us to make us doubt and feel discouraged.
A wife told her husband one day, “You never tell me that you love me. Why don’t you? Why are you not like other men to let me know that you love me?” He answered, “I told you once that I loved you when we got married. If it ever changes I will tell you.”
When God spoke at Jesus’ baptism, He had to rely on that Word, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” He was not hearing repeated confirmations of His Father’s love and concern while out there in the wilderness. God had spoken and He had to believe that Word. In the wilderness there was not the constant reassurance of God’s love. We, too, need to believe God’s Word to us because sometimes there are periods of silence when we don’t feel God’s presence and we don’t hear His Voice reassuring us of his love and concern. We need to hold fast to His promises and scriptures and not allow Satan to tempt us into believing that God has abandoned us or that He does not love us. We need to know what is in Scripture so that it is second nature to us and there when we need it. When God gives you a promise at least once, hang on to that promise. You don’t need to be reassured all of the time. Psalm 119:89 says, “Your eternal word, O LORD, stands firm in heaven.” And this very important (but probably one of the most misquoted scriptures in the Bible) “God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” 1 Corinthians 10:13
We face situations in our everyday life all the time of one sort or another. We are not the strong person we think we are. The wild animals of temptation sometimes devour us. But they didn’t devour Jesus. Why? He could have given in. He had choices to make just like we do. He had constant conflicts throughout his future ministry, not just during the wilderness experience. We do too. Don’t be surprised when things hit you hard at times. Don’t be surprised when your faith seems to be almost devoured. How do we tame the wild beasts that try to devour us in our daily life at work, at home, or any place else that we go?
Examining the Darkness of our Lives--Jesus had to be alert to the dangers surrounding him as he walked around in his wilderness. He had to be aware of what was lurking around the bushes ready to pounce on him unexpectedly. He had to be aware of the deception of Satan who came to offer him, “A good deal.” As the earlier scripture stated we must “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (I Peter 5:8). You say, “Well, what can I do about that? I don’t have any control over the circumstances of my life.”
1 Peter 5:9 gives us some answers. “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.” We have to examine the darkness and wilderness areas of our lives and then begin to resist the devil in those areas just as Jesus did in His wilderness. Just where do we stand in our relationship with the Lord? Have we allowed our faith to be devoured in certain areas? Have we allowed the things of the world to subtly tear us apart to where we no longer know what to believe? Have we become Christian in name only? Has our church attendance become “once in awhile?” and our Bible become lost somewhere in a stack of papers? Let us examine our wilderness. Where are the places we are losing the battle? What are the things that are constantly attacking us--addictive habits, procrastination, conflicts and anxieties. Worries of all kinds that eat away at us? What is trying to come against you to tear you apart? Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine.” (II Cor. 13:5).
Are you doing this? Are you thinking about the things in your life that really get you down? What are your greatest temptations? What do you give in to time and time again? Things that just seem to have a hold on you? We need to be able to identify those things in our own individual lives. In his Gospel, Mark does not point out specific things. Maybe it is because there are all kinds of “wild animals” trying to get to us--to endanger us in our spiritual journey. What are your “wild animals” that need to be tamed?
Reclaiming God’s Call on our Life--You may say, “Yes, Jesus was successful. He didn’t give in because He was Jesus.” He had the opportunity to make a choice just like we do. He made the choice. He could have made a bad choice and never have gone on to fulfill His mission to bring salvation to humankind. He could have checked out when the going got rough. He could have made other plans when he felt alone and abandoned by His Father. In the garden that night when he was arrested, Jesus told his Apostles: “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? (Matt. 26:53) He could have....
How can we reclaim God’s call on our individual lives once we have identified the things which so easily tempt us and drag us down to failure.
In Psalm 25, David says “O LORD, I give my life to you. (Psalm 25:1). Jesus did exactly that. Alone in the wilderness, where did he turn for help? Did he try to do everything himself? No, he put his dependency upon God and His Word to defeat the trickery of Satan. In the Old Testament times, David had also learned this--to look up in his wilderness--to deliberately lift up his soul to the Lord. By doing this David professes his desire toward God--he had a fixed thought and active faith. I am turning my face toward God--I am putting my dependence in God.
Today have you turned your thoughts to God in your daily life? Not just on Sunday morning but in each day of your life? David did this first of all. Then in the next verse he asks for several things. Rather than asking for a pat answer to his problems he asks for something better verse 4 He says, “Show me the right path, O LORD; “point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”Many people today just call the psychic hotline for a specific answer to a problem. Here David is not asking for specific answers to one problem--he is asking for God to continually show him the Total Ways of the Lord.
He asks direction from God and also prays to God to teach Him. We can Walk in the Spirit throughout our day--not just once in awhile --because God will be showing us His ways--he will be teaching us to choose one path over another--he will lead us into truth
How does this apply to us? Remember that Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” When we follow Him we know that we are being led in His ways
In our wilderness, we learn that we must intentionally Lift Up our soul to the Lord. It can’t be just once in awhile that we think about the Lord. It needs to be intentional and consistent. We have to make a decision to go to church. A deliberate decision to learn the Scriptures. Not a haphazard “once in awhile” thing.
Then when we ask the Lord to show us his ways, we must intend to follow the ways or why else would he show them to us. We can say, “Lord show me your ways and if I like them I will accept them or if not I will ignore them.” We must determine that we will make every effort to accept His ways once we know what they are.
Our prayers should be: “Lord I lift up my soul. Show me your way. Teach me. Guide me and instruct me.
We have the assurance that He will do exactly that. Psalm 25:8-10 says, “The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Discipleship: Following Jesus
46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. Luke 6:46-47
Jesus asks a “serious” question. 46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?
The great issue that Jesus confronts us with here is HIS LORDSHIP in our lives.
Jesus has just finished delivering the greatest sermon in history - His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. He is very aware of those in His audience who are “onlookers” - “observers”. Oh, they nodded their heads in agreement, they even said “Amen!” in appropriate places - if you asked them what they believed they would most likely answer “We follow the great Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth”. But for many of them, Jesus teaching (which they enjoyed) had no radical impact on their lives.
Jesus knows the frustration that many preachers experience most Sundays ... looking out on a group of nodding believers who say “Amen!”, and thank him at the door, but then never do anything with the truths they’ve been presented.Jesus knows that frustration not only on Sundays, but every day of the week in fact, as Christians open their Bibles out of duty and read the portion suggested by their daily reading guide, say “Thank you Lord”, close their Bibles and head off to work - forgetting all that they’ve read by the time they reach the front gate.
And so, as Jesus ends His great sermon, He closes with “the appeal” ... “why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”
If Jesus is Lord of our lives, there must be obedience to what He has to say!
Matthew records Jesus’ words this way ... 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Three things immediately stand out about these poor people who are going to stand bewildered before Christ - found wanting in the Day of Judgment:
A) They cry ‘Lord, Lord’. These are obviously ones who thought they were alright. They know the “lingo”. They’ve called themselves His followers.
B) There are ‘many’ of them. Jesus says: “many will say to Me”.
C) This is frightening! Note their claims: We’ve prophesied in Your Name! We’ve cast out demons in Your Name! We’ve done wonders in Your Name!
These are all good things - but they are “side issues”, every one! (Jesus says the real and central issue is: “I never knew you!”)
So many in the Church today are becoming taken up with “side issues” - giving them more priority than the Scriptures do. And of all the side issues stealing the limelight in the Church today, these three that Jesus mentions figure very prominently in some churches and TV ministries today!
We need to be careful not to put so great an emphasis on one part of Scripture that we become all involved with some side issue that takes our attention away from simply following Jesus.
Don’t be deceived; we need to watch our lives and what we believe closely.So, there will be many who will cry “Lord, Lord”. But His reply to them will be, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
What a tragedy for any person to have in their hands the teaching of Jesus - the living Word of God - but then to lay aside it’s instruction to follow after side issues ... focusing to much on “minor” issues ... and neglect the basics of growing in a relationship with Jesus. Following Him.
Can that really happen? Oh, yes! It does happen.In verse 47, Jesus calls for decisive action.Here we read of the kind of action that Jesus is calling for from each of us who would own Him as Lord. “…when someone comes to me,..”
Here is the first step. But it’s something we have to keep doing. Every person must come to Him for themselves; but then we have to keep coming back to Him every day. Keeping Him as our focus; trusting in Him alone as Savior and Lord.
Not coming to every voice taking the airwaves at the moment - the latest Christian “guru” video or cd - not the latest book doing the rounds! But coming to Him!
Often we will hear someone saying: “I heard this preacher on video say such and such”, or “I read in this book so and so, AND IT DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT!” This is good because it’s exactly what Jesus said ... “They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” John 10:5
Unfortunately Christians DO still get deceived; believers get side-tracked. We’ve got to be on our guard at all times. Which of the sheep in the flock gets picked off by prowling enemies ... wolves? It’s the ones on the fringes. The ones furthest from the Shepherd. So the answer is – stay as close to Jesus as possible. Get right in by His side; get in the center of the flock (the local church) as much and as often as you can; and get to know His voice clearly.
“…when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching….”
We must be listening what Jesus has to say. Where do we find His teachings? In the Word of God!
The Scriptures are absolutely primary and fundamental. We need to be constantly in the Word of God.
Be careful not to be just reading what others have written about the Scriptures. Our main reading as a Christian ought to be the Bible! Everything else must be secondary. It is the number one way God will minister into our life. In fact we can probably say that much or most of what God will say to us will be out of His Word!
If you’re not in the Word you won’t hear His voice, because He will not substitute His Word with something else for the benefit of the busy! Part of the reason for the phenomenal growth of the Christian book industry over the past 15-20 years has been because of the times in which we live - A fast food generation who don’t have time to find answers in the Word for themselves and so they say “Summarize it for us ... give us five steps to effective prayer ... show us ten steps to improve our relationships.”
It is also not good to just sit around and wait for God to speak to us. God has been so gracious to put His Word in our hands; why would we feel we need anything else? Get into His Word.
“someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.”
There must be a response to Jesus’ words. Obedience. What is the key requirement of Christian discipleship; knowledge? ability? ministry gifting? vision? anointing? NO! None of these very good things. Absolutely central is OBEDIENCE. All these other things flow when we are being obedient!
All the talk, and all the good intentions, in the world are no substitute for one moment of OBEDIENCE. Great knowledge is no substitute. So-called “spirituality” is no substitute. In fact, there IS no true spirituality without simple obedience. Living the life that Jesus laid down for us to live; following His footsteps and obeying His commands.
Jesus says, “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it”.
Jesus asks a “serious” question. 46 “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?
The great issue that Jesus confronts us with here is HIS LORDSHIP in our lives.
Jesus has just finished delivering the greatest sermon in history - His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. He is very aware of those in His audience who are “onlookers” - “observers”. Oh, they nodded their heads in agreement, they even said “Amen!” in appropriate places - if you asked them what they believed they would most likely answer “We follow the great Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth”. But for many of them, Jesus teaching (which they enjoyed) had no radical impact on their lives.
Jesus knows the frustration that many preachers experience most Sundays ... looking out on a group of nodding believers who say “Amen!”, and thank him at the door, but then never do anything with the truths they’ve been presented.Jesus knows that frustration not only on Sundays, but every day of the week in fact, as Christians open their Bibles out of duty and read the portion suggested by their daily reading guide, say “Thank you Lord”, close their Bibles and head off to work - forgetting all that they’ve read by the time they reach the front gate.
And so, as Jesus ends His great sermon, He closes with “the appeal” ... “why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”
If Jesus is Lord of our lives, there must be obedience to what He has to say!
Matthew records Jesus’ words this way ... 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Three things immediately stand out about these poor people who are going to stand bewildered before Christ - found wanting in the Day of Judgment:
A) They cry ‘Lord, Lord’. These are obviously ones who thought they were alright. They know the “lingo”. They’ve called themselves His followers.
B) There are ‘many’ of them. Jesus says: “many will say to Me”.
C) This is frightening! Note their claims: We’ve prophesied in Your Name! We’ve cast out demons in Your Name! We’ve done wonders in Your Name!
These are all good things - but they are “side issues”, every one! (Jesus says the real and central issue is: “I never knew you!”)
So many in the Church today are becoming taken up with “side issues” - giving them more priority than the Scriptures do. And of all the side issues stealing the limelight in the Church today, these three that Jesus mentions figure very prominently in some churches and TV ministries today!
We need to be careful not to put so great an emphasis on one part of Scripture that we become all involved with some side issue that takes our attention away from simply following Jesus.
Don’t be deceived; we need to watch our lives and what we believe closely.So, there will be many who will cry “Lord, Lord”. But His reply to them will be, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
What a tragedy for any person to have in their hands the teaching of Jesus - the living Word of God - but then to lay aside it’s instruction to follow after side issues ... focusing to much on “minor” issues ... and neglect the basics of growing in a relationship with Jesus. Following Him.
Can that really happen? Oh, yes! It does happen.In verse 47, Jesus calls for decisive action.Here we read of the kind of action that Jesus is calling for from each of us who would own Him as Lord. “…when someone comes to me,..”
Here is the first step. But it’s something we have to keep doing. Every person must come to Him for themselves; but then we have to keep coming back to Him every day. Keeping Him as our focus; trusting in Him alone as Savior and Lord.
Not coming to every voice taking the airwaves at the moment - the latest Christian “guru” video or cd - not the latest book doing the rounds! But coming to Him!
Often we will hear someone saying: “I heard this preacher on video say such and such”, or “I read in this book so and so, AND IT DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT!” This is good because it’s exactly what Jesus said ... “They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” John 10:5
Unfortunately Christians DO still get deceived; believers get side-tracked. We’ve got to be on our guard at all times. Which of the sheep in the flock gets picked off by prowling enemies ... wolves? It’s the ones on the fringes. The ones furthest from the Shepherd. So the answer is – stay as close to Jesus as possible. Get right in by His side; get in the center of the flock (the local church) as much and as often as you can; and get to know His voice clearly.
“…when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching….”
We must be listening what Jesus has to say. Where do we find His teachings? In the Word of God!
The Scriptures are absolutely primary and fundamental. We need to be constantly in the Word of God.
Be careful not to be just reading what others have written about the Scriptures. Our main reading as a Christian ought to be the Bible! Everything else must be secondary. It is the number one way God will minister into our life. In fact we can probably say that much or most of what God will say to us will be out of His Word!
If you’re not in the Word you won’t hear His voice, because He will not substitute His Word with something else for the benefit of the busy! Part of the reason for the phenomenal growth of the Christian book industry over the past 15-20 years has been because of the times in which we live - A fast food generation who don’t have time to find answers in the Word for themselves and so they say “Summarize it for us ... give us five steps to effective prayer ... show us ten steps to improve our relationships.”
It is also not good to just sit around and wait for God to speak to us. God has been so gracious to put His Word in our hands; why would we feel we need anything else? Get into His Word.
“someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.”
There must be a response to Jesus’ words. Obedience. What is the key requirement of Christian discipleship; knowledge? ability? ministry gifting? vision? anointing? NO! None of these very good things. Absolutely central is OBEDIENCE. All these other things flow when we are being obedient!
All the talk, and all the good intentions, in the world are no substitute for one moment of OBEDIENCE. Great knowledge is no substitute. So-called “spirituality” is no substitute. In fact, there IS no true spirituality without simple obedience. Living the life that Jesus laid down for us to live; following His footsteps and obeying His commands.
Jesus says, “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it”.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Learning to be the Light
CLick link below to listen to song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Jh911AkcM
The Light of the World
We live in a darkened world, and when God “saves” us He expects us to disseminate light into the darkness - to “learn to be the light”.
You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus said this during His ‘greatest of all time sermon (Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5) there on that hillside…to the disciples. Now, you’ve never seen a more common group of guys, by the world’s standards, than this group. So ordinary, and very, extremely unimportant, humanly speaking of course. When Jesus said they were the light of the world, it was in spite of the fact that it was the Greeks who were known world-wide for their superior knowledge, architecture, art, and philosophy. Aristotle, Plato and Socrates had already given their teachings centuries before Jesus told this unassuming group of men that THEY were the light of the world!
And Jesus is saying that to all His followers, including us today. It should make us wanna’ lift up our heads and realize what a grand and glorious thing it is to be a Christian and a child of the King and a “light of the world”.
Light is miraculous. It’s almost impossible to define light…it’s a mystery. Webster’s Dictionary will tell you that ‘light is something that makes vision possible.’ Big help, Mr. Webster, Thanks so much!
The Bible says that God is light. Intellectually that means the knowledge of God is light. Morally that means the holiness of God is light. Physically that mean the glory of God is light.
When Jesus says that we are the light of the world, it means God has deposited His nature inside of us (Through the Holy Spirit), and we are to let it out. It’s in there! It just needs to be allowed to shine forth. So we need to be “learning to be the light”.
Christian, you aren’t the only person ever called ‘the light of the world.’ Who else? Yes, other Christians, but who else? Jesus!
12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12 So, Christ is in us, and we aren’t really, in and of ourselves, the light, but the light is in us! And we need to learn to use it!
That’s further proof that the world is dark today… 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9. Without Him, it’s a dark place, that is, unless He shines thru us! Soooo, we need to learn to be the “LIGHT”!
Now, many people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil…but many are seeking the truth. Will they see our light, set on a hill?
The only way they will get to know Jesus as the true light of the world is if they see that light reflected by us, and shining in us!
Here’s how it happened. Man started in the light, for God is light, but chose to sin, and plunged himself into darkness. Humanism says the opposite, that man starts in darkness, but is getting better and better, and closer and closer to the light. We know better. Sinful mankind is in darkness, but we are to be the light of the world, showing them the way out.
So, God loves man so much, and wants to help people in darkness to see His light, so He deposited the light in 3 places:
a. The scriptures
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
But not everyone will see the light in the Bible.
b. The Savior
Jesus came as the light of the world. But many reject Him. And then He left.
c. The Saints (Believers)
Like fireflies across your yard in the evening, Christians are to shine as the lights in this world. The first Bible some people in your life will ever read will be the Bible of your life. The first sermon they will ever hear will be a sermon in shoes…you!‘
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
by the deeds that you do, by the words that you say
men read what you’re writing, whether faithless or true
Hey, what is the gospel according to you?’
Someone once said, "I'd rather see a sermon, than hear one any day.”
The only way they will get to know Jesus as the true light of the world is if they see that light reflected by you, and shining in you!
A lot of us are unwilling to be different, to be the light. We don’t wanna’ be laughed at or thought of as strange…so, we follow the course of the world, and go with the flow, instead of heading upstream … taking a stand. That worldly attitude is a bushel that will snuff out our light.
A pastor warned a young man in his church that was moving away that the company he was joining was very worldly and could be a bad influence on him, and furthermore, they would treat him very badly for being a Christian. Months later he heard just the opposite, that the boy’s experience had been ‘nothing but pleasant.’ The pastor asked, ‘you mean they haven’t persecuted you for being a Christian?’ He replied, ‘Nope! Matter of fact, they haven’t even found out!’
How about it? Have the people in your life even found out you are saved? Work / family / neighbors / friends? Does our life, our talk, our actions reflect the “light” of the Lord? Our desire to ‘blend in’ to our environment can be a basket that is keeping us from “showing the light” to the “world”!
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. Matthew 5:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Jh911AkcM
The Light of the World
We live in a darkened world, and when God “saves” us He expects us to disseminate light into the darkness - to “learn to be the light”.
You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus said this during His ‘greatest of all time sermon (Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5) there on that hillside…to the disciples. Now, you’ve never seen a more common group of guys, by the world’s standards, than this group. So ordinary, and very, extremely unimportant, humanly speaking of course. When Jesus said they were the light of the world, it was in spite of the fact that it was the Greeks who were known world-wide for their superior knowledge, architecture, art, and philosophy. Aristotle, Plato and Socrates had already given their teachings centuries before Jesus told this unassuming group of men that THEY were the light of the world!
And Jesus is saying that to all His followers, including us today. It should make us wanna’ lift up our heads and realize what a grand and glorious thing it is to be a Christian and a child of the King and a “light of the world”.
Light is miraculous. It’s almost impossible to define light…it’s a mystery. Webster’s Dictionary will tell you that ‘light is something that makes vision possible.’ Big help, Mr. Webster, Thanks so much!
The Bible says that God is light. Intellectually that means the knowledge of God is light. Morally that means the holiness of God is light. Physically that mean the glory of God is light.
When Jesus says that we are the light of the world, it means God has deposited His nature inside of us (Through the Holy Spirit), and we are to let it out. It’s in there! It just needs to be allowed to shine forth. So we need to be “learning to be the light”.
Christian, you aren’t the only person ever called ‘the light of the world.’ Who else? Yes, other Christians, but who else? Jesus!
12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12 So, Christ is in us, and we aren’t really, in and of ourselves, the light, but the light is in us! And we need to learn to use it!
That’s further proof that the world is dark today… 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9. Without Him, it’s a dark place, that is, unless He shines thru us! Soooo, we need to learn to be the “LIGHT”!
Now, many people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil…but many are seeking the truth. Will they see our light, set on a hill?
The only way they will get to know Jesus as the true light of the world is if they see that light reflected by us, and shining in us!
Here’s how it happened. Man started in the light, for God is light, but chose to sin, and plunged himself into darkness. Humanism says the opposite, that man starts in darkness, but is getting better and better, and closer and closer to the light. We know better. Sinful mankind is in darkness, but we are to be the light of the world, showing them the way out.
So, God loves man so much, and wants to help people in darkness to see His light, so He deposited the light in 3 places:
a. The scriptures
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
But not everyone will see the light in the Bible.
b. The Savior
Jesus came as the light of the world. But many reject Him. And then He left.
c. The Saints (Believers)
Like fireflies across your yard in the evening, Christians are to shine as the lights in this world. The first Bible some people in your life will ever read will be the Bible of your life. The first sermon they will ever hear will be a sermon in shoes…you!‘
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
by the deeds that you do, by the words that you say
men read what you’re writing, whether faithless or true
Hey, what is the gospel according to you?’
Someone once said, "I'd rather see a sermon, than hear one any day.”
The only way they will get to know Jesus as the true light of the world is if they see that light reflected by you, and shining in you!
A lot of us are unwilling to be different, to be the light. We don’t wanna’ be laughed at or thought of as strange…so, we follow the course of the world, and go with the flow, instead of heading upstream … taking a stand. That worldly attitude is a bushel that will snuff out our light.
A pastor warned a young man in his church that was moving away that the company he was joining was very worldly and could be a bad influence on him, and furthermore, they would treat him very badly for being a Christian. Months later he heard just the opposite, that the boy’s experience had been ‘nothing but pleasant.’ The pastor asked, ‘you mean they haven’t persecuted you for being a Christian?’ He replied, ‘Nope! Matter of fact, they haven’t even found out!’
How about it? Have the people in your life even found out you are saved? Work / family / neighbors / friends? Does our life, our talk, our actions reflect the “light” of the Lord? Our desire to ‘blend in’ to our environment can be a basket that is keeping us from “showing the light” to the “world”!
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. Matthew 5:15
Monday, February 13, 2012
Valentine’s Day: A Love Worth Giving
Valentine’s Day: A Love Worth Giving
Well, Tuesday is Saint Valentine’s Day! Do any of you know the story behind the origins of Valentine’s Day. You know, it is called Saint Valentine’s Day for a reason.
Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a priest by the name of Valentine. He lived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius came to believe that only single men would volunteer for service, so he issued a royal edict that banned all further marriages in the Roman Empire, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel.
Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favorite duties as a priest was to marry people. So Valentine secretly continued performing marriage ceremonies. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, Valentine did hear footsteps at his door. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown in jail and sentenced to death. Valentine tried to stay cheerful. Many of the young couples he had married came to visit him in jail. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.
One day, he received a visit from the daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell and they often sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and performing weddings. On the day Valentine was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.” That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D.—a day that was set aside in honor of a man who gave his life for God and for love. Now, every year on this day, people remember Saint Valentine, but most importantly, they think about love.
Everyone loves love! We want to be loved and we want to give love. The problem is—our love is lacking just like we are. It’s often conditional upon our own mood or our loved one’s actions, appearance or attitude. When it comes to love, all of us fall a little short, don’t we?
The question for today is—how do we develop and nurture a love worth giving on Valentine’s Day and every day?
The answer is found in God’s Word—John 15:9-17 to be precise. Let’s read what Jesus has to say in this passage.
I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command… This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:9-17 NLT)
Jesus had a lot to say about love, and his final night with his followers was no exception. During the course of the evening (which began in John 13 and carries on through chapter 17) Jesus uses the L-word no less than thirty times in eighteen different verses. It doesn’t take Bible scholar to see that love meant a lot to Jesus, that this was his central message to his disciples. Zeroing in on this brief excerpt from the evening, though, Jesus reveals for us how to obtain a love worth giving. It all begins when we receive his love for us!
• RECEIVE HIS LOVE
Jesus knew that the time for him to leave this world had come. He knew that the time he had left with his disciples was short. And he wanted to spend that time showing them the full extent of his love. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.” (vs. 9). “I love you,” he told them! He loves us too.
A preacher once said, “Everything I ever needed to know about theology, I learned from just one song: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”. This song has been translated into more languages than any other song. It’s often used by missionaries as a teaching aid, because they favor its simple and easy-to-learn chorus.
Why has this simple song become so universally known and loved? Because it expresses the single most significant and profound truth known to humanity in three simple words—Jesus love me! Years of seminary and a Doctor of Divinity degree won’t teach us anything more significant than this one song sung in Sunday-School classrooms all over the world.
Receiving the love of Jesus and living in his love everyday, is the first and most essential step in having a love worth giving. Jesus explains it this way: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NLT). In other words, as we draw closer to Christ and stay connected to him, he funnels his love into our hearts; only then will we have a love worth giving, because his love is the only perfect a pure love this world has to offer. His love is characterized by sacrifice: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” Jesus said (vs. 13 NLT). And that’s just what he did. Receive his love—accept the wonderful, undeniable truth that Jesus loves you and draw close to him, allowing him to pour his love into your heart. That’s the first step in obtaining a love worth giving. The second step is to reciprocate his love.
• RETURN HIS LOVE
In Jesus’ day, a rabbi’s disciples were generally known as his servants. But Jesus changes that. He says: “You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (vs. 14-15). In our relationship with God, Jesus promotes us from servant to friend—which sort of begs the question: what kind of friend are you?
It’s one thing to say, “Jesus loves me.” It’s whole other thing to say, “I love Jesus.” Can you say that? Do you love Jesus? Do you love God? Is your love for him reflected in how you live your life? When we sing “Oh, how I love Jesus,” do you mean it? We will never be able to love the people God has put in our lives, if we don’t start by loving God himself.
Jesus said that the first and greatest command is this: “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” (Mark 12:30). Our love for God, for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit—must be the driving force of our lives. If everything we do isn’t spurred by our deep love for God, then nothing we do really matters.
So how can we return God’s love in practical ways? Well, it’s not too different from any other love-relationship. It’s built on trust, communication, adoration, etc. In other words: faith, prayer, and worship. The thing about loving Jesus, though, is that our love for him needs to be all-consuming. That’s essentially what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and abide in his love for you—it affects every aspect of your life.
Going right along with what Paul says in Romans 12:1, loving Jesus means “to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.”Now, as we continue to receive and return God’s love, there is a third ingredient that completes the recipe—recycling his love.
• RECYCLE HIS LOVE
Repeatedly throughout this passage and the rest of the chapter, Jesus says: “This is my command: Love each other.” (vs. 17). Once we’ve receive the love of Jesus into our lives and return his love, then we’re ready to recycle that love—to share that love with the rest of the world.Jesus was very specific, though, about how we should love people. He said, “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). This commandment knocks the walls out of any definition that would limit the scope and intensity of love. We are to love as he loved.
Nothing, according to Jesus, is more important than loving God and loving people. Let’s make that our goal—not just on paper in the bulletin, but in our hearts every moment of every day. If we love each other as God has loved us, then we will become a church of love that will act like a magnet, drawing people who are starving for love into the presence of Jesus and the salvation that he offers.
Well, Tuesday is Saint Valentine’s Day! Do any of you know the story behind the origins of Valentine’s Day. You know, it is called Saint Valentine’s Day for a reason.
Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a priest by the name of Valentine. He lived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius came to believe that only single men would volunteer for service, so he issued a royal edict that banned all further marriages in the Roman Empire, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel.
Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favorite duties as a priest was to marry people. So Valentine secretly continued performing marriage ceremonies. He would whisper the words of the ceremony, while listening for soldiers on the steps outside.
One night, Valentine did hear footsteps at his door. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown in jail and sentenced to death. Valentine tried to stay cheerful. Many of the young couples he had married came to visit him in jail. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love.
One day, he received a visit from the daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell and they often sat and talked for hours. She believed he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and performing weddings. On the day Valentine was to die, he left her a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.” That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day he died, February 14, 269 A.D.—a day that was set aside in honor of a man who gave his life for God and for love. Now, every year on this day, people remember Saint Valentine, but most importantly, they think about love.
Everyone loves love! We want to be loved and we want to give love. The problem is—our love is lacking just like we are. It’s often conditional upon our own mood or our loved one’s actions, appearance or attitude. When it comes to love, all of us fall a little short, don’t we?
The question for today is—how do we develop and nurture a love worth giving on Valentine’s Day and every day?
The answer is found in God’s Word—John 15:9-17 to be precise. Let’s read what Jesus has to say in this passage.
I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command… This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:9-17 NLT)
Jesus had a lot to say about love, and his final night with his followers was no exception. During the course of the evening (which began in John 13 and carries on through chapter 17) Jesus uses the L-word no less than thirty times in eighteen different verses. It doesn’t take Bible scholar to see that love meant a lot to Jesus, that this was his central message to his disciples. Zeroing in on this brief excerpt from the evening, though, Jesus reveals for us how to obtain a love worth giving. It all begins when we receive his love for us!
• RECEIVE HIS LOVE
Jesus knew that the time for him to leave this world had come. He knew that the time he had left with his disciples was short. And he wanted to spend that time showing them the full extent of his love. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.” (vs. 9). “I love you,” he told them! He loves us too.
A preacher once said, “Everything I ever needed to know about theology, I learned from just one song: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”. This song has been translated into more languages than any other song. It’s often used by missionaries as a teaching aid, because they favor its simple and easy-to-learn chorus.
Why has this simple song become so universally known and loved? Because it expresses the single most significant and profound truth known to humanity in three simple words—Jesus love me! Years of seminary and a Doctor of Divinity degree won’t teach us anything more significant than this one song sung in Sunday-School classrooms all over the world.
Receiving the love of Jesus and living in his love everyday, is the first and most essential step in having a love worth giving. Jesus explains it this way: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NLT). In other words, as we draw closer to Christ and stay connected to him, he funnels his love into our hearts; only then will we have a love worth giving, because his love is the only perfect a pure love this world has to offer. His love is characterized by sacrifice: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” Jesus said (vs. 13 NLT). And that’s just what he did. Receive his love—accept the wonderful, undeniable truth that Jesus loves you and draw close to him, allowing him to pour his love into your heart. That’s the first step in obtaining a love worth giving. The second step is to reciprocate his love.
• RETURN HIS LOVE
In Jesus’ day, a rabbi’s disciples were generally known as his servants. But Jesus changes that. He says: “You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (vs. 14-15). In our relationship with God, Jesus promotes us from servant to friend—which sort of begs the question: what kind of friend are you?
It’s one thing to say, “Jesus loves me.” It’s whole other thing to say, “I love Jesus.” Can you say that? Do you love Jesus? Do you love God? Is your love for him reflected in how you live your life? When we sing “Oh, how I love Jesus,” do you mean it? We will never be able to love the people God has put in our lives, if we don’t start by loving God himself.
Jesus said that the first and greatest command is this: “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” (Mark 12:30). Our love for God, for Jesus, for the Holy Spirit—must be the driving force of our lives. If everything we do isn’t spurred by our deep love for God, then nothing we do really matters.
So how can we return God’s love in practical ways? Well, it’s not too different from any other love-relationship. It’s built on trust, communication, adoration, etc. In other words: faith, prayer, and worship. The thing about loving Jesus, though, is that our love for him needs to be all-consuming. That’s essentially what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and abide in his love for you—it affects every aspect of your life.
Going right along with what Paul says in Romans 12:1, loving Jesus means “to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.”Now, as we continue to receive and return God’s love, there is a third ingredient that completes the recipe—recycling his love.
• RECYCLE HIS LOVE
Repeatedly throughout this passage and the rest of the chapter, Jesus says: “This is my command: Love each other.” (vs. 17). Once we’ve receive the love of Jesus into our lives and return his love, then we’re ready to recycle that love—to share that love with the rest of the world.Jesus was very specific, though, about how we should love people. He said, “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). This commandment knocks the walls out of any definition that would limit the scope and intensity of love. We are to love as he loved.
Nothing, according to Jesus, is more important than loving God and loving people. Let’s make that our goal—not just on paper in the bulletin, but in our hearts every moment of every day. If we love each other as God has loved us, then we will become a church of love that will act like a magnet, drawing people who are starving for love into the presence of Jesus and the salvation that he offers.
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Potter, the Clay and the Fire
Through The Fire by The Crabb Family
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujzOtnuY0k
So many times I’ve questioned certain circumstances
and things I could not understand.
Many times in trials my weakness blurs my vision
and that’s when my frustration gets so out of hand.
It's then I am reminded, I've never been forsaken.
I've never had to stand one test alone.
As I look at all the victories, the Power of God starts rising up in me.
And It's through the fire my weakness is made strong.
(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.
Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again
(Bridge)
I know within myself that I would surly perish
If I trust the hand of God, He'll shield the flame again.
(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.
Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again
Just Hold On
Our Lord will show up (YEAH)
and He will take you through the fire again
The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the LORD gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:1-6
I was raised close to two potteries. I even worked with the potter some. Clay is not very pretty when it is just clay. It is dug up and hauled to the potter’s shop. It is dry and not pliable. The potter may blend several types of clay together to get the product he wants. Water is added to the clay to make it more workable. The potter will begin to work with the clay before putting it on his potter’s wheel to get out all the rocks, trash or any other impurities. He may use someone else to do this (this is what I helped do) but when it comes time to put it on the wheel the potter is the only one who can turn it into something beautiful and/or useful.
Even when it is finally put on the potter’s wheel is still just a glob of ugly clay. We don’t have any idea what it will turn out to be but the potter does. He had a plan before he even started working with the clay. The clay is now on the wheel and the potter begins to work with it. The wheel starts turning and his hand begins to form the piece of pottery. It begins to take shape. If we watch closely we can begin to get an idea what it will be – a jug, a churn, a pot, a dish, a coffee cup or even a vase.
As he begins to form the piece, the potter may find that the clay is the wrong consistency, it may be to wet or to dry. It may just not feel right. He may smash the piece back into ball of clay. He can add water to make it more pliable or add some dry clay to make it drier. He may even decide to make it into a completely different piece. He may want to make something beautiful like a vase or he may want to just make something that is just plain but very useful. Either way the power to make the clay into something is completely in the potter’s hands.
As the piece turns on the wheel and the potter begins to thin out the walls he may find a piece of trash or a pebble that was not gotten out in the beginning. (Remember, this was my job) This could cause him to have to start over again. Why? First of all even if the imperfection is not visible, he will know it’s there. Also, the imperfection may be hidden from the human eye but when the piece is put in the kiln or furnace and subjected to the intense heat from the fire it could explode and ruin what would have been a beautiful or useful work.
Why must the pottery be put through the fire in the furnace? When the potter has finished turning the piece of pottery it is very fragile! Even after it dries it is still easy to break and not at all useful. Not usually very attractive. Kinda’ dull looking. Sometimes a glaze (like paint) is brushed on the piece to make it more attractive or to just give it some color or to make it shine. When the glaze is brushed on it is usually very dull and the actual color doesn’t come out until it goes through the fire of the furnace. After the piece of pottery has been subjected to the intense heat, hundreds of degrees, it will come out very beautiful and/or useful and will last forever. Pieces of pottery have been found that have withstood the elements for thousands of years.
What does all this mean to us?
We're the clay, He's the potter; the wheels--what about them? The revolving wheel represents the daily round of life, whether it is joyous or sad. It's on the wheel that the design of the potter's mind is transferred to the clay. The fire is what makes it durable and beautiful, but it can also find the flaws. Mark 9:49 says, “For everyone will be tested with fire.”
If there weren't any designs or differences in them how could we explain the tangles of life's circumstances? The potter's making them all--temperament, environment, bereavement, poverty, disappointment, misfortune, sickness. They all contribute to the perfecting of the vessel that He is fashioning on the wheel and will put through the fire. Amazing, isn't it? All of these things--bereavement, poverty,disappointment, misfortune, sickness--we say to the Lord, "Why are You doing this, Lord?" He says, "I'm making a vessel, a useful vessel."
Romans 9:21 says “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” Do you realize that complaints against your circumstances are really directed against the Potter who ordered them? How stupid can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you. You are only the jars he makes! Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "He didn't make us"? Does a jar ever say, "The potter who made me is stupid"? Isaiah 29:16
No other circumstances than those in which you find yourself as a Believer at this moment could achieve His highest beneficent purpose. What we need is not so much a change of circumstances as a changed attitude towards them.
Life is no blind whirring of wheels, but it's a combination of circumstances ordered with meticulous care by a loving Father. If we rebel against them, all we achieve is our own unhappiness and the marring of the vessel of our life.
And what about the clay? Job said in Job 33:6 “… I too have been taken from clay. A statement, which is true both materially and spiritually. Because it was made of the earth that God first formed man. "Man is but a handful of dust along the road of life," someone has said. The clay is the frail human nature. We are the raw material for the kingdom of God.
Clay is so common that it's practically valueless. It is very common stuff. It wasn't worth much of anything until they made it into a pot. And someone has said, "It is the art, which gives the value--and not the material." Left to itself clay would remain clay, but yielded to the shaping hand there are no limits to its possibilities.
Like clay, a human life is a thing of almost infinite possibilities. Geologists tell us that there are endless varieties of clay, each locality having its own peculiar varieties. No two of which can be treated the same. The heavenly Potter recognizing the fact that no two human beings are the same, doesn't deal with us as a group but bestows on each His individual and undivided attention. His dealings with each of us are unique and exclusive.
Are you willing to be molded and made and put through the fire by the Master Potter? Are you going to complain and say, "Lord, why are you doing this to me?" Or will you remember that He's shaping a vessel for His own use. And know that He will be with us and take us through the fire and make us useful and strong.
Could it be that God wants you to see that the trial you're facing today is a part of the bigger plan of shaping you into a vessel He can use?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujzOtnuY0k
So many times I’ve questioned certain circumstances
and things I could not understand.
Many times in trials my weakness blurs my vision
and that’s when my frustration gets so out of hand.
It's then I am reminded, I've never been forsaken.
I've never had to stand one test alone.
As I look at all the victories, the Power of God starts rising up in me.
And It's through the fire my weakness is made strong.
(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.
Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again
(Bridge)
I know within myself that I would surly perish
If I trust the hand of God, He'll shield the flame again.
(Chorus)
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
and the hill would not be hard to climb.
He never offered a victory without fighting.
He said help would always come in time.
Just remember when you're standing in the valley of decision
and the advisory says give in, Just hold on.
Our Lord will show up right on time
and He will take you through the fire again
Just Hold On
Our Lord will show up (YEAH)
and He will take you through the fire again
The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the LORD gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:1-6
I was raised close to two potteries. I even worked with the potter some. Clay is not very pretty when it is just clay. It is dug up and hauled to the potter’s shop. It is dry and not pliable. The potter may blend several types of clay together to get the product he wants. Water is added to the clay to make it more workable. The potter will begin to work with the clay before putting it on his potter’s wheel to get out all the rocks, trash or any other impurities. He may use someone else to do this (this is what I helped do) but when it comes time to put it on the wheel the potter is the only one who can turn it into something beautiful and/or useful.
Even when it is finally put on the potter’s wheel is still just a glob of ugly clay. We don’t have any idea what it will turn out to be but the potter does. He had a plan before he even started working with the clay. The clay is now on the wheel and the potter begins to work with it. The wheel starts turning and his hand begins to form the piece of pottery. It begins to take shape. If we watch closely we can begin to get an idea what it will be – a jug, a churn, a pot, a dish, a coffee cup or even a vase.
As he begins to form the piece, the potter may find that the clay is the wrong consistency, it may be to wet or to dry. It may just not feel right. He may smash the piece back into ball of clay. He can add water to make it more pliable or add some dry clay to make it drier. He may even decide to make it into a completely different piece. He may want to make something beautiful like a vase or he may want to just make something that is just plain but very useful. Either way the power to make the clay into something is completely in the potter’s hands.
As the piece turns on the wheel and the potter begins to thin out the walls he may find a piece of trash or a pebble that was not gotten out in the beginning. (Remember, this was my job) This could cause him to have to start over again. Why? First of all even if the imperfection is not visible, he will know it’s there. Also, the imperfection may be hidden from the human eye but when the piece is put in the kiln or furnace and subjected to the intense heat from the fire it could explode and ruin what would have been a beautiful or useful work.
Why must the pottery be put through the fire in the furnace? When the potter has finished turning the piece of pottery it is very fragile! Even after it dries it is still easy to break and not at all useful. Not usually very attractive. Kinda’ dull looking. Sometimes a glaze (like paint) is brushed on the piece to make it more attractive or to just give it some color or to make it shine. When the glaze is brushed on it is usually very dull and the actual color doesn’t come out until it goes through the fire of the furnace. After the piece of pottery has been subjected to the intense heat, hundreds of degrees, it will come out very beautiful and/or useful and will last forever. Pieces of pottery have been found that have withstood the elements for thousands of years.
What does all this mean to us?
We're the clay, He's the potter; the wheels--what about them? The revolving wheel represents the daily round of life, whether it is joyous or sad. It's on the wheel that the design of the potter's mind is transferred to the clay. The fire is what makes it durable and beautiful, but it can also find the flaws. Mark 9:49 says, “For everyone will be tested with fire.”
If there weren't any designs or differences in them how could we explain the tangles of life's circumstances? The potter's making them all--temperament, environment, bereavement, poverty, disappointment, misfortune, sickness. They all contribute to the perfecting of the vessel that He is fashioning on the wheel and will put through the fire. Amazing, isn't it? All of these things--bereavement, poverty,disappointment, misfortune, sickness--we say to the Lord, "Why are You doing this, Lord?" He says, "I'm making a vessel, a useful vessel."
Romans 9:21 says “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” Do you realize that complaints against your circumstances are really directed against the Potter who ordered them? How stupid can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you. You are only the jars he makes! Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "He didn't make us"? Does a jar ever say, "The potter who made me is stupid"? Isaiah 29:16
No other circumstances than those in which you find yourself as a Believer at this moment could achieve His highest beneficent purpose. What we need is not so much a change of circumstances as a changed attitude towards them.
Life is no blind whirring of wheels, but it's a combination of circumstances ordered with meticulous care by a loving Father. If we rebel against them, all we achieve is our own unhappiness and the marring of the vessel of our life.
And what about the clay? Job said in Job 33:6 “… I too have been taken from clay. A statement, which is true both materially and spiritually. Because it was made of the earth that God first formed man. "Man is but a handful of dust along the road of life," someone has said. The clay is the frail human nature. We are the raw material for the kingdom of God.
Clay is so common that it's practically valueless. It is very common stuff. It wasn't worth much of anything until they made it into a pot. And someone has said, "It is the art, which gives the value--and not the material." Left to itself clay would remain clay, but yielded to the shaping hand there are no limits to its possibilities.
Like clay, a human life is a thing of almost infinite possibilities. Geologists tell us that there are endless varieties of clay, each locality having its own peculiar varieties. No two of which can be treated the same. The heavenly Potter recognizing the fact that no two human beings are the same, doesn't deal with us as a group but bestows on each His individual and undivided attention. His dealings with each of us are unique and exclusive.
Are you willing to be molded and made and put through the fire by the Master Potter? Are you going to complain and say, "Lord, why are you doing this to me?" Or will you remember that He's shaping a vessel for His own use. And know that He will be with us and take us through the fire and make us useful and strong.
Could it be that God wants you to see that the trial you're facing today is a part of the bigger plan of shaping you into a vessel He can use?
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