"Give In To The World?"

  Here was the nation of God's people facing a major problem that another nation has promised to either destroy all the people or they could surrender and they would have peace and be spared. Look at their track record. So far there has not been one nation able to stand against this brutal nation and you will be no different. Isaiah, the prophet of God, assures God's people that God is with them. God speaks: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!" (Isa. 43:1)

  When we hear God speak of such in the midst of a difficulty, do we trust Him? Where is our faith in His promise and attachment to us? That would make a great song for a Sunday assembly, wouldn't you say? That would make a great sermon at a lectureship filled with those wanting to hear lessons. But what about the wife whose husband has walked out leaving her with three kids and a lives to set in order? What are they to do with such? What about the one brutalized during a camp at Auschwitz? What are they to do with such? How is the one to cope with that lost child in an accident?

  Yet here we have God speaking to His people to give assurance that all would be well. Isaiah speaks many times for God in ways above yet they don't seem to do much for us (and it didn't do much for them). We read that in Christ, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."  (Rom. 8:28) What are we to do with that when our lives are broken by a lost job, lost home and no direction on what to do? Or that little baby that is sick and is going to die, what are we to do with such words from God? The person(s) going through suffering and loss are to find themselves under the redemptive outworking of God? The answer is yes!

  Jesus faced death. He came to earth for one purpose...a cruel death in order to redeem those who have faith in Him. It cost Him His life so we could have life. He came to die at the cruel hands of man. Too many times our faith never takes us to the big picture, eternity! We look only at the here and now. That's walking by sight. What do many who claim a faith in Jesus do? They give in and sell out what faith they have. Give in to the world, other faiths have! Give in to the world so you won't starve and struggle, that only seems logical! Give in to the world because the whole world is offered before us and there are wonderful things to be gained! Give in to the world because you can't beat it so you might as well join it! That's what many do and we preach many times in our psychology filled lessons.

  Jesus didn't give in to the world, He overcame the world. When we face great obstacles, suffering of any kind and it looks like things are at their bleakest, listen to God. He has our best interest at heart and that interest is redemptive in bringing us close to Him and setting our lives for eternity! Just as God was committed to His redeemed people in the past, He is just as committed to us today. God had this all written down to show His faithfulness and purpose. Faith grasps that and will not give in to the world!

"Holy Behavior"

  Why don't we know much about the holiness of God? Peter speaks to the Christian that "like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." (I Pet. 2:15) Holy behavior. What comes to your mind? Perfection? That's where most go when speaking of holiness.

  God is holy, the Holy One. Anyone who claims to stand in relationship to Him should have in their heart holy behavior. David speaks in Psalm 15 asking who may stand in the presence of God, dwell on His holy hill? The answer: those who walk (live) with integrity. A person of integrity is concerned for right and wrong and what is true. They speak truth in their heart. Read the Psalm and you will see those who may stand in God's presence.

  But holiness reaches even further. At the heart of a person of integrity (and God) we find discernment. They distinguish between what is common and what is not common. All mankind is common, made the same. But those who have come to Jesus, finding their sins wiped away, given a new self made in the likeness of God, they are no longer common. They belong to God and they know it! They know others who stand in this same relationship are not common either. They treat the church as God's holy ground. It has an effect on their attitude, their actions and speech. They live a life of holy behavior.

  Many wonder how to attain that kind of holiness. Look to Jesus! Jesus is the holiness of God in the form of man. He lived with God, for God, desired God's truth and lived by that truth. That's not common! That's holiness. When we find that God desires us to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29) then there has to be the power and ability to attain to that or God lied. The problem lay is most do not put forth any effort to come to know Jesus. They only want to know facts. It becomes a life of head knowledge rather than a life of holy behavior. Holy behavior has discernment at its core. Many cannot discern what is proper and improper. They can when it comes to BIG sins or issues but no discernment in living their lives and what they involve themselves in.

  Here we find ourselves first, presenting ourselves back to God because of His mercy toward us. Show yourself alive to God by offering your whole being back to God as a living and holy sacrifice. Your body, you life is no longer common ground. It's God's ground! Here is where many fail. If there is no offering back, there will be no progress from this point. Integrity will not mean much. There will be little discernment. The result? No transformation into the image of Jesus because the mind is not being renewed from His word. We will at best hit and miss on being holy in our behavior. The bottom line is holiness is found in Jesus which should be found in us who claim Him!

"Don't Shut God Out"

  It comes from a lot of different things that happen in our lives. I'm speaking of bitterness. When one becomes bitter about something, that bitterness makes it way into the heart and as long as that bitterness resides there, it skews the way we look at everything and everyone from that point. All our assessments and the way we deal with others are seen through bitter eyes.

  Someone feels slighted by an individual or the elders didn't take my needs into account or didn't do something the way I thought it should have been done. The stage is set. Choices will be made and we choose bitter! The heart is tainted and through those bitter eyes we begin to make our assessments about that individual and the situation. It might not be expressed at first but eventually it will. Another situation arises and the bitterness from the past arises in the heart. We begin to express our dissatisfaction of the present and then suddenly, the past bitterness that has settled in the heart begins to flow out of the mouth. We begin speaking about this injustice that we believe was perpetrated upon us. Angers flare and the more we speak, things continue to spiral downward. This is the reason that bitterness will cost your soul!

  The Hebrew writer speaks that bitterness is the one thing that will make one come short of God's grace (Heb. 12:15). Bitterness allowed to fester in the heart will stop God's grace toward you and leave you alone in your bitterness. Then that bitterness begins to defile and cause trouble, many times upon the innocent because you want them to hear. One act of bitterness and the defilement has spread to others. That's the way it works. Bitterness shuts out God! We are left with our own misery and powerless!! The situation that made us bitter now begins to be rearranged in the mind and heart to justify our actions and attitudes. It is to make us feel better about being bitter but in reality, it shuts God out!

  No wonder God calls us to put away all bitterness and wrath, all anger and clamor (railing against another), all slander and malice. (Eph. 4:31) Instead we are to be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving just as God HAS forgiven us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 4:32) If you are forgiven from the Lord, what should your heart embrace? If you aren't forgiven, what will your heart embrace? Why is this so important? So the grace of God toward your life won't be shut out! 

"Job and Us"

  Job is a wonderful book that many refer to when suffering unjustly. But what about this book and the man Job? It's easy to say we think of Job but do we really realize how he went about things? Do we go about suffering the same way? How many times do we say, "'Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?' In all this Job did not sin with his lips." (Job 2:10)

  When Job was put on the spot by Elihu, God stepped to the front and answered Job. What a frightening experience it must have been for God to answer Job from a whirlwind and then a storm. How did God sound? I don't know. But this we do know, God exposed Job's ignorance about this world by asking questions that Job had no clue about. Even more, God did not explain anything! It makes us think that when God steps in a suffering life, God exposes our ignorance and asks us to if we are qualified to challenge the righteous God governing this world. Job heard the Lord loud and clear.

  Job railed at God in responding to his friends. Job wanted a face to face with God and he got it. It was more of calling God into account and demanding the Lord of heaven and earth give an account to 'dust' made man! Job was putting God under his beckoning call and control, or at least he thought so.

  God stepped in, making Job tremble and asked Job unanswerable questions. God did not approach Job in a quiet hour, putting His arm around Job's shoulders, patting him gently saying, "There, there now. Do you feel a little better? It will all be alright!" No, God pointed out to Job that the human world is filled with creatures beyond the control of man! Not only is there a world of creatures beyond man's control there is also 'wild' humans that man cannot control! And man wants to try to govern God? Man wants to try to figure God out or demand of God answers as to why things are the way they are in our lives? What do we learn? When suffering in this life, we need to realize that we too are in the presence of the Lord God Almighty! He is aware of every hurt and question that comes into our feeble minds. It's then we need to realize we're ignorant, powerless and need to be humble before the Lord. It's not about figuring things out or demanding answers. It's about submission to Him who is above all, controls all and just one word from His lips will change everything. Above all, we need to remember since Christ our Lord has come, we have more reason than ever to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding! Somewhere we must put faith in "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance." (Jam. 1:2-3) Yes, as sovereign Lord, God can govern this world any way He sees fit and we need to trustingly bow before His righteousness in our suffering knowing that Jesus is still ours in the midst of the trial. 

"A Brief on Love"

  Too many times we associate the wrath of God with loveless, don't we? When God's wrath is kindled against the sinfulness of man, is that the absence of love? God is love (I John 4:7-8). God can never act loveless. The wrath of God is the form of love when He must chastise man! Just think about your own children. When they did things that were sinful and destructive to their lives or harm of others, did you chastise them because you were loveless? No! The chastising was your love for them to get their attention so they would change their attitude and heart. And so it is with God.

  If we keep defining love as all embracing and never correcting, we have a very distorted view of love. We will have a distorted view of God! Didn't we learn that love never rejoices in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth (I Cor. 13:6)? Love always goes after righteousness. When it comes to brethren, sometimes we must chastise them if the continue in their walk of rebellion or godless behavior. Sometimes my brother or sister might want to revile others in the church. That must be stopped for the sake of love! It involves all. Sometimes a brother or sister might be a swindler or a coveter. Love deals with that. Too many in the church seem to think that we can't say or do anything against anyone because we don't want to hurt them or get them upset! Love is concerned for the eternal destiny! Love moves to chastisement to help them turn away from whatever it is they are practicing.

  We need to stop making love out as some sort of 'touchy, feely' embrace that we all get along while turning our eyes away from the practice of sin. After all, if we correct someone and they are such workers in the church and that's the basis on which they are right with God, what does that reveal about our understanding of love? What does that say in our understanding of God?

"God Confronts"

  It's hard to imagine that God 'hungers' to be in fellowship with us. We see it from the beginning of creation, to the building of a tabernacle in the presence of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness. We see it especially clear in the Lord Christ Jesus as our offering.

  But in all this, there is another message sent to man. In the garden, when man sinned, one cannot have fellowship with a holy God while in sin. Man was sent away from His presence because of sin. In the tabernacle, while God dwelt among them, there were two veils that stood between man and God to indicate that sinful man cannot stroll into the presence of God. Man has no right to do so. This separation was a reminder that fellowship with God was a gift, not a right! And we come to Jesus. The death of Jesus is a reminder that He alone stands between us and God because of our sins. We have no right on our own to approach God. Jesus is God's gift! Yet many today think they have this right to approach God, do things as they please, with their own concepts and teachings and God is thrilled. People like this never understand the holiness or the love of God.

  God takes sin, our sin seriously. What seems to be missing in our teaching/preaching is people are no longer confronted by God in our sinfulness. Congregations fight and quarrel about who knows what. God wants to confront us because that is wrong. People are offended because of this or that. Rather than try to heal and remove the barriers, they gossip and slander behind backs while God is trying to confront us in our sins that if this continues, you will lose it all! Our sins are 'homegrown'! In other words, we are the cause and no one else.

  What are we to do? Not forgive yourself, that's for sure!! We have no capability to do that. God confronts us in our sins to humble our hearts before Him that if we are to make any progress spiritually, it will be by His help, not ours! God looks for humble and contrite hearts and those who tremble at His word (Isa. 66:2). Too many are self-righteous, thinking they are self-made. God speaks that we must be willing to confess and reach for His forgiveness, moving us away from our self-destructive attitudes and responding to His grace for us in Christ Jesus. In all, God will not allow anyone to wallow in their sin and have fellowship with Him. It just won't happen. We must be willing to listen, heed and respond from the heart so God can do the work in our lives that shape us into the image of His Son. God confronting us in our sins is not to push us away but a life-giving way to bring us into His holy presence, with a holy sacrifice creating a holy life knowing it isn't us, it's all Him!

"My Thoughts On Shrinking"

  Yesterday I was sent a link to look at a blog titled: "Why Are Churches of Christ Shrinking?" I was asked to give my thoughts on the article. Sometimes things like this are of little value because there will always be a debate about which is right and wrong. Saying that, I will say little but give a brief thought from my view because I was asked.

  In the article it concludes by giving what needs to be done differently in order to reach people. Basically the writer of this blog tells people that we need to be more consumer friendly. Use videos, a three projection screen, dim the lights, use testimonials, making preaching/teaching applicable and culturally relevant, use music before worship, engage body, soul mind in worship, and emphasize community. These were the conclusions on how to start the path to growth. There are several more parts to the series that I did not read but let me make one observance both from what I read and through my many travels and speaking engagements.

  Too much of the conclusion sounds like becoming "world" friendly to me. That's just my thinking. I'm not trying to tear down the writer, please understand that. To become more like the standard of those around is not the way to go about things. The Lord speaks that we are to be converted to Him which means there must be a change in heart and mind. The Lord calls everyone to repentance which points to a changed heart and mind of people. We are not a people with a few minor flaws. We are sinful, steeped in our lusts. The Lord is calling us into fellowship with Him and trying to get us to drop our lusts. That's why when one is immersed into Christ Jesus, not only are their sins washed away but they are to put on a new self, "which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." (Eph. 4:24) A new self. That's what everyone needs and only in Christ can that come about. It's not about catering to the lost around, no matter what kind of experience the younger are looking for. The Lord calls us to change by the power of God and not some cultural calling or change. If anyone is going to be saved, it will be by being transformed and not conforming (Rom. 12:2). This is why growth is stopping. The message is no longer being preached or many don't know what message to preach so that makes us gear to being consumer friendly. Paul went into a Gentile world steeped in all sorts of worship experiences and idols but he had a message and didn't adjust to them but called man adjusts to God if they were to be saved.

  There is another side to this. You have those who that all they want to do is keep preaching/teaching the same old stuff that could not and did not create faith in the Lord. It was called defending the faith when all it was doing was making people dull in hearing. The legalistic side of working your way to the Lord and a relationship with Him. The legalistic side of music and why we are right and everyone else is wrong. This too is just as bad and is killing the Lord's church is many areas.

  Here is a great example of what I am saying. A preacher came and asked me how we continue to grow and what I preach after being in a place so long. I said Jesus and Him crucified. There's the power! He said he would start doing that. About 3 months later, he came back to me and said he had exhausted all the lessons on Jesus and Him crucified. Right there told me that he had no clue what that means. The word from beginning to end is about Jesus and Him crucified. I haven't stopped preaching the cross for the 21 years I have been here!

  My take, for whatever it is worth. We have lost sight of the Lord Jesus Christ! We have no message for the lost. We have no confronting our sins and sinfulness. Our preaching/teaching are not about creating faith, but stories and things that cannot help. We spout psychology, encourage to think like the world in what we embrace and believe. When I opened God's word this morning, it still said the gospel is God's power to save everyone who believes it! (Rom. 1:16) It was Paul who spoke to the church at Corinth that had wandered away that he wanted to know nothing, nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Cor. 2:2). If the gospel is God's power to save, and we are shrinking, maybe we have moved from His powerful message?