Ministry of Love

The intention of this blog is to share Biblical messages at least on a weekly basis. Any response is appreciated. I do not expect everyone to agree with my interpretation of Biblical passages. I will try to respond with love and thoughtfulness.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Musings:02/16/10 Forgiving by John

Forgiving...

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He gave all of us one item that is sadly lacking today. It is forgiveness. We are to forgive others, and we usually go along with that, but when we begin to talk about who "others" are, we run into opposition. It is easy to forgive family members, isn't it? It should be, but you probably know families where one of more members do not speak, or communicate in any way because someone is holding a grudge against someone else in the family. Sometimes it is brother against brother, or sister against sister. Once in a while, much too often, a young adult is ostracized or disowned because their "lifestyle" doesn't meet family requirements. I'm thinking of children who are classified as homosexual, but there are many other reasons. I've visited people in jail who do not admit they have family because when they were convicted and imprisoned, their families, not legally, but effectively disowned them. I've also visited institutions and seen terribly deformed children who are never visited by their families, never at all. When they die, the state buries them. I hope all of these situations come to an end some day, but I am not optimistic about it. We tend to get rid of problems by getting them out of sight, don't we?
All of the above leave families accusing and excusing one another, and there is always a need for forgiveness.

Churches also suffer from internal strife. Christians struggle with salvation and living their lives like Jesus did. We used to say you could tell when Baptists were arguing. Their mouths were open. That's not literally true, but it is true too often in all churches not Baptist only.

We usually just think of this as a social problem, not a spiritual, but it is definitely spiritual. We forget that Jesus told His disciples that we should ask God to "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those trespass against us." Our pastor reminded us today that after the prayer, Jesus said to the disciples, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men when they sin your Father will not forgive you." (Matthew 6:13,15). It is a reciprocal situation. God forgives us ALL our sins, and He expects us to forgive others ALL their sins! I capitalized "all" because there are no exceptions.

We find it hard to forgive, don't we? Can we forgive the men who crashed the planes into the Twin Towers? Can we forgive the German soldiers who slaughtered the Jews in WW II? What person have you not been able to forgive? I made it a priority in my life many years ago to forgive all wrongs done to me personally, and to my family. I've found it hard to keep. Some years ago, a dear lady in my presence prayed that God would send a pastor who would preach the Gospel. Several years later I received a letter from her asking forgiveness. I was so happy that I could answer her letter and tell her she was forgiven when she prayed it! I would like to tell you I've always been able to forgive like that, but I can't. It doesn't happen by itself. It's a constant struggle, but it is one I have to win.

Think about it. God has forgiven me every single terrible sin that I've committed. He's forgiven all of the failures I've had when it comes to witnessing the good news of Jesus, the times I was silent when I should have spoken. He's forgiven me for the times I've held a grudge against someone, and when I've refused to help someone in need. I require a lot of God's forgiveness because this adopted son is so much drawn to this world we live in!

There are others who have committed much more visible sins than I have, but what I am saying that all of us are in the same boat until we get out of it and walk to Jesus in simple faith. When He takes our hand, like he did Peter's when Peter walked to Him on the water, then we begin instantly to change. We begin to take responsibility for those broken relationships, for those who so obviously need Jesus, and those who are physically hungry, sick, in jail, in the hospital, and the list goes on and on!

We concluded a study this morning with the statement, if you don't forgive others, something is wrong between you and Jesus, and it is time to check your own salvation. Are you really committed to Jesus?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Musings:02/13/10 The Sower Revisited by John

The Sower Revisited

In Mark 4:2, Jesus began telling all those who listened a parable about a farmer who sowed his seed expecting a harvest. He sowed indiscriminately, so seed fell on ground unused for crops as well as good ground. That way he covered all the ground that could and would produce crops. Today with our machinery we only put seed where it should be. To do otherwise would be considered a wasteful, but sowing by hand you can't be so accurate.

Jesus seemed surprised that the apostles did not understand His parable. He had to explain it them. The seed represented God's Word, the good news about Jesus. For some people who hear the Word, it never takes root, and Satan takes it away. It means nothing to those people. They make it valueless to themselves. Some are just so glad they have heard it! They are all set to really live for, and with God. When worldly troubles invade their lives, as they always do, and they are called on to suffer for Jesus, they fall away because they have no depth of belief. Still others have a chance to live forever, but the worries of this life such as keeping up financially with the neighbors, and the deceitfulness of riches come into play. The seed, God's Good News, is choked out of their minds and hearts! These three things happen to people today all around us and make the Gospel unfruitful! Now, I've written only about the Gospel, but the Law is not fruitful to any of these either. They allow Satan, fear, and their own desires to keep them out of the Kingdom of God!

Oh, but a lot of the seed fell on good ground verse 20 tells us. It springs up and grows without the sower's help! He has done his job, and now it pays off. These hear the Word, and they accept it. They bear fruit, some multiply the amount planted thirty times, some sixty, and some a hundred!

I believe these figures are illustrative, but they aren't in any way limiting. I like the way Jesus put it in John 15:1-5, He said He is "the true vine," and the Father cuts off any branch that does not bear fruit. The only ones who don't bear fruit are like those first three named in Mark 4. Then He tells us that every branch that does bear fruit, His Father prunes so that it becomes more fruitful. Then in verse 5, He tells us when we remain in Him, we will bear much fruit." Now, there has been a lot of discussion about what fruit He is talking about. Some say, the fruit of a Christian is another Christian! I have no problem with that except that we don't do the saving. Jesus does that. We already know that the word of God was the seed sown in Mark, and it was considered the fruit there. Some others say that the fruit is a life lived in the Spirit. Galatians 5:22, 23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Just as salvation comes from Jesus, all these things come from the Spirit! That leaves us something to think about, doesn't it? I certainly don't have a definitive answer as to what exactly the fruit Jesus spoke of is. I am satisfied that if I spend my life seeking to be like Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit free rein in my life, then I will bear some degree of the fruit Jesus spoke of. I invite you as an old hymn says, "Fix your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Real value is in our relationship to Jesus."

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Musings:02/07/10,Joy Before Happiness by John

Not one of the prophets ever laughed as far as I can tell from reading the Scripture; yet, many of today's prophets (pastors classify Biblically as prophets) laugh often and much. Is the difference just a matter of the chroniclers not recording the prophet's laughter? Could it be they had nothing to laugh about until Jesus came? Was it because the Old Testament prophets were being persecuted and were constantly struggling to stay alive as they served the Lord? Perhaps it was a little of all these things.

Jesus told His disciples, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." According to this, joy is the direct result of obedience. It is not dependent on circumstances. That's why Paul and Silas could sing when they were chained in jail. Acts 16:25 says, "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them." I'm sure one reason they were there was for the conversion of the jailor and his household.

Happiness usually depends on our circumstances, doesn't it? I'm sure Paul and Silas were not happy about being imprisoned and bound with chains, but joy is God's gift as a result of our obedience. He may also change our circumstances as He did for Paul and Silas, and that may result in happiness, too.

Our work-a-day world strives for happiness and seems to be unaware it only lasts a moment. The joy God gives is eternal!

Were the Old Testament prophets happy? I doubt they were too often. Did they have joy? I can't be sure about that either, but I do know they were on the right track. They obeyed God. Jonah is a story about a prophet not caring for lost people who were different from him, and who tried to run away from God rather than obey. God brought him back into line very gently and instead of being grateful God didn't strike him dead, he was angry with God! Still God treated him gently. We just don't understand how much God loves us, and how wonderfully He treats us even when we are disobedient! In Philippians 1:3-6, Paul wrote, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Paul's joy in this instance was a gift from friends. That's a different use of the word, but the two usages are directly connected since the friends were obeying God, too, and they had joy within themselves.

I must add that obedience is not coerced compliance. Obedience comes from a person's heart. It is our love of God that causes us to joyfully do what He asks and just as joyfully refrain from doing the things He tells us not to do.

One illustration: Jesus told us if someone slapped us on one cheek to turn the other. I am sure He did not mean we were to like being slapped. He meant God wants us to treat others like He treats us, not the way someone else treats us. That's worth thinking about, isn't it?

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Wisdom? Who Is Wise? by John

Wisdom? Who is Wise?
Proverbs 11:30

1. Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who wins souls is wise."
2. I see three things in this verse:
(1) The righteous life bears fruit to eternal life.
(2) Since the writing is poetic in form, the Hebrew rule is, the second half of the verse rephrases the first, or adds something else to the first.
a. Considered the second way, it is wise to win souls.
b. Taken the first way, a wise person wins souls.
c. I take it that the Scripture is saying we can get people to change their minds toward God. (It will be His Spirit that changes their hearts).
3. We may persuade people to trust the Lord, but it is the Lord, and only the Lord, Who does all the saving.
4. Before Solomon's day, God told us how to recognize a wise person and how we can become wise.
5. The process is simple to state, but not so simple to accomplish.

I. First, Do you really want to be Wise?

1. Persuade men to put their trust in the only real God, the One Who reveals Himself both in the Bible and directly to the human soul.
2. How can you do that?
(1) First, live like Jesus did when He walked the earth. I John 2: 5b and 6: "This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."
a. If you don't live spiritually as Jesus did, your claim is untrue.
b. Worldly people can tell a real Christian from a phony in the blink of an eye!
c. It's true that people let Satan confuse them sometimes, but if they go directly to God in prayer, He opens their understanding to the truth.
(2) Second, fill your life with good and avoid the bad the rest of the world does. People know and notice the difference! They are not likely to change their minds, if our claim doesn't ring true.
(3) Third, love people the way God does.
a. I'm talking about the kind of love that the Father displayed when He sent His only born Son to die for us.
b. Again, lost people know, and they can spot a phony. Satan aids them in that! In fact, Christians out of fellowship with the Father are one of the strongest tools Satan uses to keep lost people lost!
(4) Fourth, deliberately seek to lead others to the truth of the Gospel.
a. Most people hear preaching at church if they go to church, or on the radio, or TV, but too often they don't really apply it to themselves. As the old saying states, "It just goes in one ear and out the other!"
b. Your visiting with them will cause them to say, "Hey! You mean the preacher was talking about me?" Or, they will at least get the idea God cares!
(5) Fifth, we must pray for, and if possible, with the people we want to meet Jesus.
ill. When I was very young, I was in church every Sunday morning and night. I never applied the message to myself. I just wondered how long the preacher was going to preach, or when the Sunday School bell would ring ending the class. I had a very strong, uncontrolled temper. When I got angry, my mother took me into the bedroom, knelt by my dad's bed, pulled me down beside her, and she prayed for me. When I asked her why, she said, "I don't want you to end up in the penitentiary. That would break my heart!" Those prayers did not make me a Christian, but they did make me scared of doing wrong! She really got my attention, not through scolding, but through prayer!
When you pray with lost people, they get the point that you, and probably God, care about what happens to them in their future! And you've shown yourself to be wise!

II. A Wise Christian is a Soul Winner.

1. I don't think most Christians understand what a soul-winner is because we think that when we do the things we've already mentioned, people will automatically become Christians.
(1) If that doesn't happen, we think we are at fault! And we may be, but that's not necessarily true.
(2) Maybe there's unconfessed sin in our lives, and that lost person sees it.
(3) That may happen, too, but we don't save people!
(4) God does the saving, and He uses the Gospel to do it.
(5) If we give the Gospel to people, we've given them the one thing they need to live forever!
ill. If you saw a person drowning in a swimming pool, what would you do? Jump in and save him? Call the lifeguard? Dial 911? What would you do?
When I took lifesaving in college, they taught us how to go about every possible circumstance to save the person drowning, and to be safe ourselves.
The very first rule was, don't go into the water if it is not absolutely necessary! Use that long pole with a crook on it. Throw the person a life preserver. Those things you can do even if you can't swim!
When you are dealing with lost people, be aware of your limitations and theirs, but don't let them keep you from doing God's will. Use your limitations to do it right!

III. Connecting this text with Jesus' Words in John 15:5: seals your wisdom.

1. Every Christian bears fruit because of his relationship with Jesus, the Vine.
(1) How much fruit you, as a Christian, will bear is variable.
(2) He first states simply that you will bear fruit. That means every Christian will bear some fruit.
(3) The second indicates you will bear more fruit.
(4) The third indicates you will bear much fruit.
(5) Considering the parables Jesus used, we have to be aware that some of us will bear more, some less.
2. Again, Jesus does all the saving. It is our job to point people to Jesus in a winning way.
3. To do that requires two things:
(1) We need the powerful presence of God's Holy Spirit.
(2) We need to be in contact with lost people.
a. We may visit people we just think are lost specifically to tell them about Jesus.
b. We may tell people we already know, perhaps really love, about Jesus.
c. We may stage activities to attract and educate people about Jesus.
2. But when all is said and done, the fact is, you will bear fruit because you are part of the Vine,
Jesus! Producing fruit is absolutely natural and certain for Christians!
(2) But we must be sure the glory of all we do
goes to our heavenly Father, to His Son Jesus, and to God's Holy Spirit Who seals every person to the very day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 says: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." "Sealed" is past tense and means every believer who places his life in the Lord's hands is immediately sealed all the way to heaven!

IV. Please God!

1. We've talked about being wise, and about winning souls.
2. We have not paid much attention to the first part of that verse, "The fruit of the righteous."
3. It seems reasonable to say that the fruit of a Christian is another Christian, but since we don't do the saving, is that true?
4. Perhaps we need to consider the word, "righteous." (It is tsaw-DEEK in Hebrew, 6662 Strong's Concordance).
(1) The righteous man or woman is moral, upright, someone who is dependable.
(2) Someone recognized by his neighbors as a good person.
(3) Such a person in Solomon's time would be highly respected and should be now.
(4) The person from the New Testament on is a Christian rather than a godly Jew.
5. Perhaps you feel you are too much a sinner to fit that description.
(1) Let me remind you that Isaiah said in 64:6:"...All our righteous acts are like filthy rags..." Without Jesus we could not be clean!
(2) Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
(3) Whatever righteousness we have comes directly from God. We haven't, and we can't, be righteous apart from Jesus!
6. The point is, it is wise to trust Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. Everything good comes from just one Source! Jesus!
Conclusion:
1. Without Jesus, we are no different to any other person in the world, and with Him, we become fellow-workers with God.
3. Our words, our actions, our thoughts, make up our godly character, and we witness to the truth of the Bible, to the reality of our Lord Jesus and of other people's need of forgiveness and salvation.
4. Our first wise act is to trust Jesus and commit our lives to Him.
5. It is wise to guard our lives from sin and live uprightly.
6. It is wise to show the world how wonderful belonging to Jesus is.
7. People notice the difference in our lives, and they want to know Jesus, too.
8. Perhaps you haven't given your life to Jesus... Look around you. Most of these have given their lives to Him.
9. Give yourself to Jesus right now. The altar is open for you. We will pray with you, counsel you, and help you to know our Lord Jesus!
10. I only mentioned two of the three things I see in that verse. The third is reproduction. Every soul who comes to Jesus, will bear fruit, and when you lead one person to Jesus, that "tree of life" has already started growing! It should continue growing until Jesus comes to take us home.
11. If you aren't a Christian, give yourself to Jesus and start a whole new tree of life!

Completed February 2, 2010