"Us Compared To Jesus"

  "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 2:5) What attitude? Humility of mind!

  It was on a news program that comes on weekly and it was featuring a school which put "self esteem" above everything else. They had one student after another stand before the class telling everybody of their own individual greatness. Many of them couldn't do their school work, some were struggling greatly in simple things of reading and writing that should be learned in school but they all had "self esteem." What made the program worse is the teachers were thrilled!

  It becomes very difficult not to equate this so-called modern day "self esteem" with what God's word speaks as "pride" and "vanity." Too many are on a diet of their personal greatness that God condemns. I once heard a statement made: "Pride must die in you, or nothing in heaven can live in you."

  Maybe we need to examine our lives standing next to Jesus. Here are a few things for us to think about:

(1) We are proud of our status - Jesus emptied Himself taking on the form of a bond-servant.

(2) We are proud of our profession - Jesus was a carpenter, a rather lowly profession in His time.

(3) We are proud of our family status - Jesus grew up in the home of a peasant.

(4) We are proud of our "luxurious homes" - Jesus had no place to lay His head.

(5) We are proud of our "wealth" - Jesus had none.

(6) We are proud to rub shoulders with those in "high reputations" - Jesus walked with fisherman.

(7) We are proud of our "high social circles" - Jesus was in the homes of sinners and tax collectors.

(8) We are proud of our "abilities" - Jesus said He could do nothing of Himself.

(9) We are proud of our "education and learning" - Jesus never attended a place of higher education.

(10) We are proud when we push enough to "get our way" - Jesus sought God's way.

  It should make us pause and look at who we really are. Did we make ourselves, create our lives or did it come from a heavenly eternal source? How did we become reconciled to God? What have our efforts really done for us?

"Our Purpose?"

  Sometimes I wonder what many of my brethren believe is the work of the church. I wonder what leads us forward? Is it God's word or our word thinking it is God's word? Too many insert a verse here or there thinking they have found the nugget to prove their point while there are other verses that speak differently to their conclusion. What are we to do?

  If we are the church Jesus spoke of in Matthew 16 that He would establish and build, we need to build things according to Him and not us. That means everything done is about His glory, not ours! The church didn't come into existence by the people!! It came into existence because of the sacrifice of Jesus. It was Jesus who called us to Himself. It was God who showed His grace and glory to man and we responded. It was God that worked everything out over the many centuries after the counsel of His will and formed the whole. The church is not a "community church" but a Christ-centered people that reflect a Christ in all His glory. People need to be drawn to Jesus not the church. The church never saved a soul but the saved are the church because they belong to Jesus!

  For the church to do the work the Lord intended must be built upon what the Lord intended. Listen to Peter's admonition: "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from you own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (II Pet. 3:17-18) That's the conclusion to Peter's inspired writings from the Holy Spirit. It is easy for us to be carried away if we aren't careful. How does it happen? We stop growing in the grace and knowledge of or Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We stop seeking and presenting His glory and insert ours. For the church to continue on the truthful and right track it takes sound preaching in line with the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It takes brethren committed to the same. It takes hearts set on loving Jesus which means they will be warm and loving toward others in the body. That will reflect on those outside the fellowship of Jesus to make them want to find what we have found.

  To glorify the Lord, to grow in His grace and knowledge means our purpose in this life is to save the lost! That is and always should be our goal. That means we MUST share a message of salvation with this community. When we have an outreach, it must be with a saving message, not just doing nice things! As a part of the New Covenant Church we need to help people find the covenant that God has brought to man through Jesus. The world, no let's start here, our city needs to hear the gospel truth and we need to commit ourselves to growing in that gospel truth (grace and knowledge) so we can share that with others. That's the plan of Jesus! 

"If We Live To 70"

  Let me make a brief observation about our time and see what we really do in our lifetime. We all have been given an equal portion of time. No one has less or more than another. We have 24 hours in the day and 365 days a year (except leap year which adds one)!

  Let's use 70 years of age as the average life span. In those 70 years we will sleep 23 years of our lives based on sleeping 8 hours each night. Over that same 70 year span you will spend approximately 14 years working, 6 years eating and 5 years traveling. Let's take it a little further. Let's add watching television since it has become such a great central part in the lives of many. It is said from a recent poll (and I'm not too trusting of polls but we will use it as a base) that the average American watches 6 hours of television each day. I will adjust that to 4 hours per day since 6 seemed a little high to me. That amounts to 28 hours per week, 1460 hours per year and in a 50 year period that would 72,000 hours of television watching. In just 50 years that is more than 8 years of televsion viewing!

  Let's compare the above with our spiritual lives. If we were to begin at birth (I am reaching for the highest impact to make a point) spending five minutes each morning and evening in prayer (which is more than most) and three hours per week in worship/Bible study (which is more than some), by the age of 70 we would have invested a total of just over 20 months of our lives! Let's add an additional three hours per week in reading our Bibles at home. That would make our total amount of spiritual food and gain a total of 3.6 years by the age of 70! That's the amount of time we would devote ourselves to knowing the Lord and growing. That's rather eye opening.

  Our children are being raised on a daily diet of self with an increased time spent on pleasure. How careful are we being with our lives and our children's lives? How serious are we about the spiritual matters of God? Do we really desire to grow spiritually? The days are evil and time is fleeting. Understanding the will of the Lord is the greatest blessing we could grasp (Eph. 5:15-17).

"Imputed"

  What is it like to not have your sins "imputed" against you? What does it mean to not "impute" sin? David speaks of  his sins before God as being "imputed" in Psa. 32 and Paul repeats David's statement in Rom. 4:7-8. Depending on the version you use, some will use the term "count". Some will use the term "reckon". Others will use the term "not guilty". Is there such a person living today to whom the Lord does not "impute", never count, not reckon, not consider guilty of their sins? Yes, those who are in the covenant relationship with the Lord. "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." (Heb. 8:12) That's the covenant we are under when we came to being immersed into Jesus.

  In the book of Philemon, there was a runaway slave named Onesimus. Onesimus had some way (by the help of God) found Paul and Paul led him to Jesus. Paul said that Onesimus was useless and because of Christ, he was now useful. Paul sent Onesimus back to his master Philemon. That's what the law required. Apparently Onesimus had stolen from Philemon when he ran away. Here is Paul's statement to Philemon: "If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account." (Philemon 17-18)

  How could Paul say such? Where did Paul learn that kind of heart? He got it from the Lord! We have debts we could not pay because of our sins. Our debts were tremendous and we were doomed. When we came to Jesus, God gives to us in the place of our debts Jesus Himself! Jesus was treated like we should have been treated. Jesus took our pains, our scourging and our punishment. Why? So God could treat us like He should have treated Jesus!! Here is Jesus who says to the Father, "Accept Brent (put your name here) as you would accept Me, and if Brent has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to My account." SINS IMPUTED!

"The Journey Back To Babel"

  We read about it in Gen. 11. The peak of man's insolence came at the tower of Babel. When you read it carefully you see man's arrogance and pride making a go of things without God! They wanted a name for themselves, to be somebody's in this world. This tower that will reach upward to heaven will be our rallying point and the center of man's life that will show our self-sufficiency. This marvelous, grand tower would stand above the earth that we can boast in our doings and in all this, it can be done without God!

  With all this, man's ignorance and foolishness gets exposed. It began in a garden where God blessed man, which man gave back to God their treachery by being led into believing we could be as wise as God, not needing God. Eventually the flood dealt with man's sinfulness showing this world that man cannot live without God and man quickly went back to their conceit and pride being daring and self-willed worship on the plains of Shinar. Here they were on this plain where mankind came together united against God. God once again showed that it took one moment of one word spoken from Him to confuse man's language and it stopped man in their tracks! No more center for man, no common cause and now without a home or name. Man scattered! The loss of home and community came through sinful and prideful independence. 

  At the right time in the history of man, God built His center in a man called Jesus Christ. Being lifted up on a cross God was showing that if there was going to be any unity, it would rally around Jesus. Jesus was to unite the fragmented world of the arrogant Jew and rebellious Gentile. On Pentecost, the Lordship of Jesus was made visible (Acts 2) which undid everything that happened at Babel! 

  It didn't take long and this one community of believers that came into existence called the church (there was only one and no such thing as denominations), that rallied around the Lordship of Jesus Christ as the center of their lives and His truth brought them as one, began to fragment. People leading others under this name of Jesus into different beliefs and independence. The grand structures built with man's name on it, glory in man, the apostles and anyone tied to religion. Positive thinking, psychology and ideas of man have become a staple all under the disguise of the name of the Lord. But really the name of man is behind it. We are just smarter about it today...or are we? Slowly but surely, over the last two thousand years as hundreds of hundreds of groups have fragmented with different teachings making man's thoughts their center and traditions made up as their religion. It makes us wonder if once again we have begun the journey back to Babel? I wonder what God is getting ready to do? 

"$UCCE$$"

  It's sometimes taught as the "gospel of success"! We live in a day and time where the media, social outlets and even preaching and teaching worship the god of "success." What America claims are role models are looked at as "successful." Professional athletes with multi-million dollar salaries are "successful." Corporate heads who command vast commercial empires are "successful." Autobiographies are written about those self-made "successful" people and become big sellers. Musicians, actors, entertainers with huge fan clubs and bulging bank accounts are envied by many and viewed as a great "success" in life.

  Where does that leave the rest of us? The many multitudes? Are we (they) "unsuccessful?" The ordinary person who works hard, planning out things, clawing, scratching, scraping and doing what is right just to get along in life. What about those of us who follow Jesus? Is it possible the world's mad-dog rush and mob-like clamor for "success" has invaded the church from the podiums, classrooms and outreach? In all this talk about "success" and being a winner, is it making it more and more difficult for us to hear the voice of the Son of God? Was it not Jesus who spoke these words: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26)? The Lord of heaven and earth hasn't changed His mind, has He? When is the last time we thought about His words: "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."? (Luke 12:15) Is our life really about physical "success?"

  Let's be honest here. Where do we find where Jesus taught His disciples to "succeed" in their physical well being? Where did God inspire His holy apostles to teach the church to be "successful" using worldly criteria? What is happening in the church when disciples want positions of greatness and dominance over others? Maybe we need to go back and read about Brother Noah working on an ark because it was a matter of life and death in listening to God. He led his children to listening to God's voice to save them too. It meant they had to reject the lifestyle of those around. Look at Jeremiah as he weeps in prison over Judah's unfaithfulness, suffering with those who have acted ungodly. Read about Paul, sitting in a prison cell, awaiting to hear if he would be executed or set free because of His Lord's message. And what about Jesus as they drove nails in His hands and feet?

  "Success" has become a goal of many. I'm not advocating to not try your best or be lazy. I am wondering if we have forgotten that the gospel is still God's power to save and it is the only means to do just that. We will live in eternity with the Lord only by and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who spoke that those who humbly submit to Him, walking in His love and serving where we can while preaching Jesus and Him crucified to our friends and neighbors. The only "successful" ones in the end will be those who serve their Master allowing Him to save their souls. 

"Marriage"

  "Beautiful is the marriage of Christians, two who are one in hope, one in desire, one in the way of life they follow, one in the religion they practice.

They are both servants of the same Master. Nothing divides them, either in flesh or spirit.

They are two in one flesh, and where there is one flesh there is also one spirit.

They pray together, they worship together, instructing one another, strengthening one another.

Side by side they visit God's church; side by side they face difficulties and persecutions, share their consolation. They have no secrets from one another; they never bring sorrow to each other's hearts.

Unembarrassed they visit the sick and assist the needy. They give alms without anxiety.

Psalms and hymns they sing. Hearing and seeing this, Christ rejoices. To such as these He gives His peace.

Where there are two together, there also He is present; and where He is, evil is not!"

Tertullian of Carthage

c. 160-230 AD