Category: Character

Follow Jesus


Romans 14   Disagreement between believers.

In Rome believers squabbled over whether or not to eat meat or whether to observe Jewish holy days and customs. If they had kept their convictions to themselves, there would’ve been no problem but they began to criticize and judge one another. The squabbling hasn’t abated even today. We argue over many more things, such as the color of carpet or which flowers to put out on a certain day or week. Some churches argue over even less important things than these, but the point is…we are supposed to be united in Christ! Regardless of our denomination or doctrine, yet the collective church is very divided in many ways.

Verses 1-12

In this section of the chapter, Paul begins and ends it with an admonition. He addressed those who were strong in their faith and did not waver toward holy days or diets but kept their freedom in Jesus Christ. He also addressed those who were worried about their diet or the Law and told them that they were immature in their faith. Many people think that Christians who follow strict rules in their faith are the more mature, when it is really the other way around. In the Roman church, the weak and immature Christians were judging the more mature Christians and the strong Christians were despising the weak Christians.

Paul told them to welcome one another and gave four reasons why they should. We are only focusing on one today.

The first reason is: God has received us into His family

It is not our individual responsibility to decide the requirements for Christian fellowship in a church, only the Lord can do this. To set up man-made restrictions or rules based on the personal prejudices or convictions is to go beyond the Word of God. Perhaps St. Augustine got it right when he said: “In essentials-unity; in non-essentials-liberty; in all things charity”. We are free in Jesus Christ to do that which brings honor and respect to the church and to the Word which we hold as the Truth.

When God sent Peter to take the gospel to the gentiles, the church criticized Peter because he ate with these new Christians. But God revealed His acceptance of them because He gave them the Holy Spirit just as He had done in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Peter did not stay in this freedom because later he refused to fellowship with the Gentiles at Antioch, where Paul had to rebuke him.

God showed both Peter and Paul that Christian fellowship was not to be based on food or religious calendars, but on their faith in Jesus and the freedom that we are given through Him.

In every church there are some who are more mature in their faith and some who are weak. The weak and the strong, young Christians in the faith and those who have been studying God’s Word for many years, are not to look down on each other because one feels freedom through Jesus and the other sees being a Christian as “following the rules”.

Peter asked the Lord, “Lord, what shall this man do?”; the Lord’s reply was, “What is that to you? Follow thou me!”

In other words, the Lord told him this: “Peter, make sure you have made Me Lord of your life. Let Me worry about John” or any other believer. When other Christians are criticizing other Christians for what they do, we are being judges. Don’t worry about what someone else is doing, follow Jesus and let Him be your Lord!

Paul emphasized this in verse 8 when he said: “Whether we live, therefore, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”. Our responsibility is to the Lord and following Him in our life, not worrying about other Christians and their lives. If your brother in Christ is still drinking beer, don’t chastise him. If Jesus hasn’t convicted him of this, let him be. The same goes with smoking or any other so-called “vice”, follow Jesus in your life and let Jesus take care of other Christians.

Paul asked those who were young in their faith, the weaker Christians, “Why are you judging your brother?”; then he asked the same question to the stronger more mature Christians in the church. Both of them will stand at the judgment and be judged by the Lord in their walk with Him, so what is that to you or me?

All of our works, good or bad, will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ by the Lord Himself. It is not our place to do so in this life and it has nothing to do with our sins or our salvation since Christ paid the price for all of them and as believers our sins cannot be held against us anymore. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 Paul compares our ministries in Christ with the building of a temple. If we build with cheap materials, the fire will burn them up. If we use precious, lasting materials, then our temple (works) will last. If our works for the Lord pass the test, we receive the reward. If they are burned up, we lose our rewards but we are saved “yet so as by fire”.

Anything that we do in this life for the Lord and through His Strength will last, we should make sure of our faith in Him and our belief in Him. Your life is your witness just as every word and deed which others see you do. If it is done to please Jesus and would be approved by Him, then you are secure in your salvation. Don’t worry about what others say or do in their walk with Him, because Jesus is the final Judge and it is His approval which we should seek!

Our bad side and our good side


During disasters, which seems to be the only time, much of the goodness comes out in people. You see people helping others, regardless of color of skin, without regard to nationality or political party. Nobody asks if you are a Democrat or a Republican, how much money do you have or where do you work, but when people are in need of help, people do show up to help.

There are some exceptions of course. During a hurricane or tornado or rather afterwards, there will also be some who show up to see if they can find something for free. The come to steal from people and from businesses who have left their home or business because of the flood waters or the damage caused by the tornado. While the law enforcement can’t be everywhere, that is when these people take advantage of the situation and steal electronics and anything else they can carry away.

Two sides of society which are present in almost every place where there has been some disaster to happen. The only time I have never seen anyone doing these things is in areas where fire has destroyed homes and woodlands and grasslands. Why? Mostly because there is nothing to steal and what may be found in cars and homes after a fire isn’t worth stealing.

we-are-not-born-racist-people-learn-to-be-racist-6800532.pngWe need more helpers in America and around the world too. More people willing to help, regardless of the cost or any expectation of reward. It does seem that there are more of the helpers than there are of the looters and those who were shooting at rescuers. But honestly, there shouldn’t be anyone stealing during a time like the people in and around Houston are having!

God loves all of us and the times that we have to live through tragedies and disasters are just proof that Satan is in control of much of our world. The storm and the damage it caused may be used by God to bring out the best of us, regardless of the damage that it caused. Does God use disasters like this? Of course He does! There were far more good stories which have come out of this than bad ones, so far.

Seek to do good for people, like Jesus did, no matter the cost. Your reward for this will be in Heaven and in the smiles and the joy that you feel in helping others who truly need your help.

Taking advantage…


Do we take advantage of our opportunities or do we miss them or even throw them away? De we even notice when something comes along?

I am not talking about taking advantage of people in order to make money from them. I am speaking of taking advantage of an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. We have these opportunities many times during our week, whether at home or at work or even at a restaurant…but, do we use those opportunities for Christ?

john317Many of us actually don’t! Even if we are Christians and we are actually living our lives like we are supposed to, we just don’t speak up. Why is that? Are we afraid that we will be looked at as kooks? Jesus told His disciples to go and tell the gospel message to all of creation and they did! So…why can’t we?

In our world today it is not politically correct to tell someone about the Truth in Scripture, specifically if you are trying to get them to believe in Jesus. Today, in some parts of the world, it is dangerous to tell people about Jesus. But, it was dangerous for His disciples too, so why don’t we let people know about our Savior?

I think it has more to do with being rejected or maybe the rejection of our witness to them. In reality, it has more to do with the fact that they aren’t rejecting us but they are rejecting Jesus like the Pharisees did in His day. Tell someone about Him regardless of their reaction. If they want to know more, great! Invite them to church or open a Bible and show them Who Jesus was! If they tell you to leave them alone, then tell them if they want to know more they can call you. Then pray for them and leave. Let God work on them for a while.

Don’t brag….


I saw a picture a while back and it brought this to mind for me to write:

Animals don’t have to tell you what they are or what they are capable of, you just know by looking at them.

Lion

People usually have to tell you what their job or vocation is because when you look at someone, usually you can’t tell what they do for a living. Especially if they are not wearing a uniform. When you see someone with jeans and a nice shirt, you can’t tell if they might be a policeman or woman or maybe a doctor or lawyer…maybe even a nurse.

Our society looks at outward appearances such as the kind of house they live in or the car that they drive in order to figure out their worth and importance. God doesn’t look at any of that! He sees their heart and knows exactly what He gave them as far as their talents and abilities. Whether they are using them for Him or not is a totally different matter.

Sometimes it takes a very long time for us to find out what our talents are or even to realize that God gave them to us. We are born with some talents and some develop over time but God is the Creator and He gave each of us at least one talent to use for His Kingdom and purpose. Seek Him and find out what your real talent is today. You won’t be disappointed.

Understanding your role (part 3)


I didn’t realize that my sermon was quite so long, so I am having to add another post to finish it. I hope that you enjoy it. Remember, the first part is at http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com.

Part 2 was published on this site, so it should be easy to put them together. Try to read them in sequence so you get the context of the whole sermon.

This is the final piece so here it is:

In other words, do what Jesus did in that He took care of those having faith in Him with prayer and supplications often and He healed their afflictions in so much that it would give glory to God the Father. Of course, He kept himself from the sins of this world which is nigh impossible for us to do except that we have to  live in the Word and be praying to God for the strength to do so while we are present in this body.

Why does James call us to be strong in our faith and our walk with Jesus? Because of the witness that we have by claiming Jesus as our Savior. If you aren’t living out your faith on a daily walk with Him, then how will people be able to tell if you are a true Christian?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said it like this when he preached from this chapter:

“It is your faith which is tried. It is supposed that you have that faith. You are not the people of God, you are not truly brethren unless you are believers. It is this faith of yours which is peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world which lieth in the wicked one. The hand of faith is against all evil, and all evil is against faith. Faith is that blessed grace which is most pleasing to God, and hence it is most displeasing to the devil. He rages at faith because he sees therein his own defeat and the victory of grace. Because the trial of your faith brings honour to the Lord, therefore the Lord Himself is sure to try it that out of its trial praise may come to His grace by which faith is sustained. It is by our faith that we are saved, justified, and brought near to God, and therefore it is no marvel that it is attacked. Faith is the standard bearer, and the object of the enemy is to strike him down that the battle may be gained. It is by our faith that we live; we began to live by it, and we continue to live by it, for “the just shall live by faith.” Hold fast, therefore, this your choice treasure. It is by faith, too, that Christians perform exploits. Faith is the conquering principle: therefore it is Satan’s policy to slay it even as Pharaoh sought to kill the male children when Israel dwelt in Egypt”.

(http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/spurgeon/all_joy_in_all_trials.htm)

In conclusion, we are to live out our faith daily, sometimes hourly if the temptation is ongoing, so that we will be counted as God’s adopted and influence others to want what we have found in Him! Amen?

Which god do you follow?


In today’s society, we have many gods. Phones, careers, cars, games, family, Facebook, all qualify to some extent as our “gods” at one time or another. Sometimes, we have more than one. We can’t leave the house or even get up in the morning without checking our phones and then we check in on Facebook. If we lose our phones, we will nearly tear the house apart trying to find this pocket computer which demands our attention every day!

Don’t make that face about this, you know that what I have written here is true because you have seen it in church or at home and certainly on the highway, although I hope not while you are driving. So, yes we have many gods which seem to claim so much of our time on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly, because I have seen people in my family at the dinner table or walking outside with the phone in front of them. They can’t seem to see past that four or five-inch screen in front of their faces.

I may be showing my age here but…how can you live like that?? There is so much more beauty and life going on around you without that screen taking all of your attention and you are missing most of it because of status updates or messages!! Whoever came up with that word certainly had the right idea to begin it with “mess”, because that is exactly what they do! Keeping up with those balloon messages and notification tones keeps many people occupied so much until they can’t pay attention to the rest of their life!

CallofDutyHow much better would our society be if we paid that much attention to the Bible? If we had to have it with us every day and read a part of it every hour of our waking day, wouldn’t our world be so much better than it is? I know we would offend many people by having our Bible out when we eat at the restaurant or when we sit to drink some coffee. But, wouldn’t our society really benefit much more in the area of morality and decent behavior if we patterned our life around God’s instructions for life, His Word?

A novel idea which, in my opinion, has come full circle and it is time for it to take its place in our society again. In schools, in the home, in business and in government, God’s Word should be consulted for all of these. Not as a state religion but as a guide to get our country back on the path which it started out on to begin with.

Unreasonable expectations


In today’s world every person on Earth looks for something or someone who is unreasonable, impossible even because we are looking for that “perfect specimen”. We not only look for an immortal beauty but we want her to be strong but gentle and one who can fulfill all of our desires and our needs. No woman or man exists which can fulfill these expectations! Sometimes we get these ideas from watching movies or reading books like romance novels or maybe some other form of lesser entertainment.

But…perfection in all areas doesn’t exist in this mortal plane. There isn’t a man or woman on Earth who can be all of these and be in love with us because each of us is also imperfect. If the perfect man or woman exists then anyone or anything less than perfection, such as you and me, just won’t cut it! It is something which we learn as young adults usually to our own peril and disappointment.

Just as Galatea and Pygmalion, we too are bound by expectation and disappointment to some extent. In the story, he prays for her to be made into a woman who is like his ideal and his goddess grants his request. In reality, unless perfection is mated to perfection, the relationship is doomed to fail because an imperfect being, such as you or me, cannot fulfill the expectations of the other.

God can change you into a new creation when He comes to live in your heart, but until you are brought to Heaven there will always be a human who fails and falls in this life. Is it possible to have perfection in this mortal body? No, it is not. It is an unreasonable expectation of our existence to even think that it is possible.

Even God cannot look on us and we cannot look Him in the face without dire consequences. Perfect love and sinless Life cannot stand in our presence without causing our death because we are unable to be perfect in any of those areas. Perfection doesn’t exist in this realm of existence and since God exists outside our reality it only exists where He is. Did God expect too much of mankind? No, because He knew when He created them that they could not be obedient in all of their imperfect ways.

God does give us an image, an ideal to work toward in the person of Jesus Christ, and we can strive toward that goal but in this life we will never attain it. Learning about Jesus, following hard after Him in this life, reading and studying Scripture and prayer asking Him to grant us wisdom enough to understand Scripture’s true meaning, these are the works which guide us toward Him and His image.

As long as we don’t create an imperfect, human inspired image of Him, changing Jesus into a more attainable human ideal then we will do fine. If we do that then we are guilty of creating an idol of our own which resembles Jesus only in our minds, because it is not Him but an imperfect copy. Our copy or idea of Jesus or even God is based upon the only form that we are familiar with and that is ourself.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Don’t forget Mom


Ephesians 6:1-3

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”


Exodus 20:12

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.


Deuteronomy 5:16

16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.


Consequences For Disobeying Your Mother


Deuteronomy 27:16

16 “‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’


Proverbs 20:20

20 If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.


Proverbs 30:17

17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

 

God speaks a lot about giving honor and attention to your Mother and Father in His Word, so it seems that He puts a lot of weight on how you behave around them and for them. Truly, your parents are the example for you to live by and the example by which you will raise your children one day. Mother’s day is a day of honoring our Mothers because they are our mothers and because of God’s command to honor both of your parents.

Why did He specify giving honor to your Mother and Father?

God wants us to revere the aged in our family, not because they are a burden to be taken care of but because they have borne the burden of caring for us and they need the same care given to them as well. Consider that in America there are fewer children in most houses than there are pets, so when you reach an age that your children should take care of you, helping you to live gracefully into your later years, you may have to rely on the family pet more than them. That is not a prospect for aging that I would want to live with.

Protestant culture, such as in America and England, tends to favor the young which places the elderly in a difficult place. They are no longer working or maybe their health keeps them from working, their children don’t come around much which just adds to the loneliness and depression.

God places a very high amount of respect and honor on the aged, the crown of the elderly is their grandchildren.
So with a nod to St. Augustine and his mother, I place this sermon in your mind. Consider all of the things which your Mom and your Dad do for you, think about it today and every day because one day, they will need you just as much or more than you needed them when you were young.

Responsibility


nots in your lifeAre we responsible for our actions? It seems that many people don’t want to be. Seeking safe places where their feelings won’t get hurt or disregarding laws and officers of the law seems to be a national pastime, at least according to the news. Being responsible for your moral decisions and actions seems like an old-fashioned idea that many don’t want to subscribe to anymore. Why is that?

Could it be that our society is living with a sense of entitlement today? I think so. The past couple of generations have gone from being brought up in the church to visiting it once or twice a year on certain holidays or on Easter and Mother’s Day. That doesn’t say much at all toward proving that our nation is the Christian nation that some polls say that we are. What happened to being responsible for yourself and your actions? Is that also a quaint idea that needs to be swept under the collective rug?

I was told once that I shouldn’t judge people, especially those who are addicts to drugs or alcohol. I don’t claim to know the depths that those addictions take you to. I was a drunk in high school every Friday night, occasionally on other nights depending on how I felt. I have used drugs although none of the so-called “hard drugs”, until I began having some really bad nerve pains and bone pains in the last couple of years. I don’t like the way hydrocodone makes me feel at all which is why I haven’t had it refilled in almost six months.

Responsibility needs to be taught to young people and some older ones and soon! Why? Because in a decade or so we won’t have anyone who will take responsibility for their actions!

God loves you and you knew that I was getting back to this. There is no substitute for His love and compassion for you. It doesn’t give you a high feeling nor does seeking His wisdom give you a euphoria that you want to come back to until you can’t get enough of it. Giving your heart and life to Jesus by believing in Him will get your sins forgiven IF you will turn away from them, with His strength, and become a follower of His on a daily basis. He gave His Son for you to have access to eternal life and forgiveness, the only thing you have to do is accept it.

It is a gift of God. It can’t be earned, bought or bartered for, but it can be accepted if you will repent and seek Him out in that repentance. He can take away the cravings for alcohol and drugs and give you a desire for His Wisdom and His purpose in your life. God does love you, whether you know it or acknowledge it or not. Whether you will follow Him is already known by Him, yet it is still your choice to do so or not. He will not force you to be a Christian just as nobody can be forced to love someone. Seek Him out today, learn of His ways in the Bible, pray for His wisdom to come to you when you read it and He will answer all of these prayers and more.

Today, tomorrow, forever


Today is the present day that you are living in, moment by moment, so enjoy all of its beauty and goodness that God gives you to enjoy. Tomorrow isn’t here yet and by the time it is, it isn’t tomorrow anymore, so don’t count on it. Live today as if Jesus was coming back tonight! Forever is a time that we will spend after this life is over, whether we spend it with Jesus and other Christians or not is your choice!

God has always intended for us to be with Him forever, but humanity has rebelled every step of the way. Even when we only had one rule to follow, we still thought we knew better than God. After that, it was all downhill. God has always had a plan in place to bring us back to Himself and the reason is simple: He knew that we couldn’t do it on our own, so He gave of Himself in order to pay the price for our disobedience.

He didn’t have to do it that way, but He did! Tomorrow never really comes because when it gets here it is today, so make the most of today, every day. Seek out the One Who holds tomorrow in His hands so that your eternal home will be with Him and all of the joyous people who will be thanking Him for His love and mercy! Why do I say that we will be doing this? Because without His love and mercy, we wouldn’t be worthy and forgiven in order to be in Heaven!