Day of Reckoning

2  Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear  before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Where the rubber meets the road"?  I feel obligated to give a brief warning this morning regarding a future event that none of us will escape.  It is the Judgment Seat of Christ.  As we see in the verse this is a real event that will happen and each of us must attend.

The word "appear" comes from a Greek word that means "to be made manifest."  The idea is that we shall be turned inside out, to be laid bare, stripped of every outward facade of respectability, and openly revealed in the full reality of one's character.  Every thought and deed will be open to the scrutiny of Jesus Christ.  Scary, huh?

We are establishing our future enjoyment of heaven with each day we live on earth. Regardless of how we live here on earth the believer will be saved.  But there will be a reckoning of how we lived our lives and we will be rewarded and/or suffer loss of that reward accordingly.  The reward is not only simply something tangible (a crown) received from Christ at the judgment seat but also the privilege to reign with Him in His earthly kingdom.  I do believe there will be a time when God wipes away the memory of wasted opportunities but this will be after the thousand year reign on earth and the great white throne judgment of the unsaved when the new Jerusalem will be introduced.  At this time the Bible says that God will wipe away all tears which I believe are shed by those who wasted their time on earth; maybe all of us will have some occasion to shed the tears of regret in heaven, but surely there will be those  whose weeping will be seen and heard for a thousand years.

God pleads with us to "set our affections on things above" (Colossians 3:2) that we may experience all that He has to give us through salvation.

1 John 2:28 "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."

Fully Persuaded

Romans 4:21 "And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."

Do you ever stop to think that most of us found it easy to believe in the power of the gospel at the time of salvation?  Most of us have little trouble in believing that God is capable of saving us and rarely ever doubt our salvation.  We find it easier to trust in a God we have never seen to deliver our souls from a hell we have never seen and take us to heaven, which again we have never seen.  It's almost like as long as the issue is  dealing with things we have never seen then we are fine with trusting the Almighty to care for us for all of eternity.

Then we have the other side of the coin.  In matters of normal life we suffer greatly from unbelief because we somehow doubt His ability to care for the needs we can see (food, money, debt, health, etc.) that impact our lives daily.  How absurd is this?  Our minds live in two separate worlds...one for the spiritual and the other for the tangible.

The truth is that God is able to meet our every need both the seen and unseen.  We must, as Abraham, be fully persuaded that He is able to perform all His promises.  The problem is being fully persuaded.  We tend to be fully persuaded in the might of our strength and the ways of this humanistic world order. 

Romans 8:31-32 "What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?"  Considering this truth why would we ever doubt or be anything but fully persuaded that He is willing and able to perform His promises concerning our well-being?

God's Word is replete with promises that God will provide for His own and would never withhold from us anything good that we need to be happy and secure.

God has provided all you need to have a great day today...make it happen!

The Sin of Impulse

I just finished reading an article in the magazine Scientific American Mind that was very interesting regarding how our minds work.  The article discussed one's ability to withstand temptation.

In essence the author's conclusion was that when we yield to temptation it is an act of impulse which is focusing on the immediate without regard to the future.  When we are able to control a desire and not yield to it's urging this is an act of reflection or the ability to think in long-term effects.

It always amazes me when scientists "get it right."  This battle is exactly what the Bible calls the battle between good and evil or flesh and the Spirit.  The article went as far as to say that the old picture of having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other is an accurate idea of what is going on in the mind.  It is impulse verses reflection.  The devil says, "There it is, you want it, you have a right to it, so do it now."  The Spirit on the other hand is saying, "Just a minute, is this right and would Jesus do it if He were here?" and "What will the consequences be if you do this?  Take your time to think about it."  

Impulse verses reflection.  The desire of the flesh to satisfy lust or yielding to the Spirit to think and apply wisdom/judgment to a situation in order to discern the right course of action.

This was the downfall of Adam and Eve.  In seeking to satisfy their lust they failed to reflect upon the command of God and the consequences of disobeying His will.  Had they taken time to reflect upon the decision in light of His command they quite easily may have chosen to honor God instead of pleasing self.

Once again we are reminded that the battle will be won through our ability to "search out a matter" (Prov. 25:2)...being disciplined to take our time to gather the facts and make an informed decision.  Reflection is the key to overcoming impulse.

MacBook Pro or x86 PC...It's Your Choice

I have been saved for 32 years and if I have learned anything during this time it is this...in order to live a successful Christian life and experience God in a real and fulfilling way you must desire the things of God. This is God's original plan that we would desire Him and trust that everything He tells us is the only way to true happiness and prosperity.

To the extent that we desire the things of the world we will find the ways of God to be hard, unpleasant, and uninteresting.  This does not mean that you never wish you had more interest in Him but that interest never produces fruit because we have rooted our ways in the philosophies of this world (see Mark 4:1-20).  We seek happiness, fulfillment, love, excitement, success, and all other issues of prosperity through the world's ungodly system of humanism.  It's like many Christians are seeking to reap the benefits of a 2011 MacBook Pro while operating off the original MS-DOS system for x86 PC's.  You're expectations are impossible to achieve. You are seeking cutting edge, efficient programming with beautiful images on your screen and all you're getting is orange letters, numbers and no pictures on a black screen.  You must update your operating system.     

Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled."  This is a promise of God to all those that would desire greatly His ways.  This is the operating system we should install and update on a daily basis.  

A Thought For Men

Ephesians 5:25 "Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;"

I love researching words to better understand what God is saying in a verse.  Such is the case with the word "gave" in the verse above.  

The word "gave" means to put into the hands of another.  Whenever we put something into the hands of another we are also giving that person the right to choose what to do with it... correct?  I find this thought to be convicting for the following reason.  Often I find myself not in agreement or at outright odds with the  individual whom I have given something because of the way they choose to use it or treat it.  If I honestly gave it to them I also handed over to them the responsibility for the care and use of it.  

Application: Have we really given our lives to God for the sake of our marriage as Christ did for the church? He put His life in the hands of God the Father and suffered unconscionable torture and suffering at the hands of those that hated Him.  Do we give this way that God might sanctify our marriages with healing and cleansing?   

We say, "Yes, I give my all for my wife working 40, 50, and 60 hours a week to support her." But then we come home and expect to be waited on hand and foot as the lord of the house!  You never saw this in the way Jesus gave it all.  He became the servant surrendering His very life for His bride, the church, therefore many people struggle today in their marriages because of the man's refusal to submit to the will of God the Father.  Why do men require submission from the wife when they neglect to submit to their authority?

Just a thought...

Be Slow To Speak

James 1:19 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:"

A very quick reminder today that we must disconnect the flesh from the mind in order to serve the Lord in righteousness.  The godly man has put his flesh under subjection to the will of God and lives his life through the mind (Acts 20:19; Phil. 2:5; Rom. 7:25).  In Proverbs we are told that he that does not control his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls (Prov. 25:28).  Meaning that he is vulnerable to the attacks of sin be it in the form of the devil, the world, or his own lust and is defenseless against them.

There are many emotions that cause us to become rash in our actions and decisions.  There is anger, jealousy, fear, bitterness, and all manner of insecurity.   One great way to live with these emotions and not be subject to their desires is to be "slow to speak."  

Often people say "I said it because that's what I was thinking."  Well, there is no law that says we are to say everything in our minds and I believe that the action of speaking what is in your mind makes the thought that much more real and right to you.  Having a thought is one thing but when we verbalize the thought it becomes more concrete in the mind.  

Be slow to speak; analyze the thought before you speak.  Scrutinize your thinking and allow the Spirit of God to approve the thought or rebuke it.

Have a great day!

It's Not Rocket Science

Acts 10:38 "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him."

God is so good to "dumb it down for us" when it comes to what is expected of us today and every day.  This verse totally simplifies the greatness of Christ by saying that He went about "doing good."  The truth is that life is really not rocket science.  The situations we face today that will require a decision on our part generally are not that difficult...simply "do good."  

Emotion, being the great enemy of clarity, will attempt to distort the facts but we must not allow anything to complicate what God has simplified. 

When faced with temptation to do wrong...do good.

When faced with persecution...do good.

When faced with trial...do good.

When faced with confusion...do good.

When faced with fear...do good.

Whatever the choice is today, identify the "good" choice and do it.

Not only has God simplified His will but He also anoints us with the power to "do good."  What a great set-up!  

The Mixing Bowl

Hebrews 4:2 "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

We know that God's Word is powerful (see verse 12 of this chapter) but there is one thing we must add in order to release the full power of the Word of God and that thing is our faith. Our faith "mixed" (to unite one thing to another) with the Word of God make it profitable in our lives.  Often believers struggle with the wonder of why they do not see God's Word working in their lives as they see in someone else's and the reason is in most cases they simply have not put their faith in His Word.  They may acknowledge that the Bible is God's Word but never put their faith in it.  

We must exercise the very faith that God has given to each man by mixing it with His Word and then and only then will we see great things from Him.  The simple act of reading His Word never ignited the truth of God to begin a profitable work in anyone.  Many hear the gospel but are never saved because of their unbelief...lack of faith.  Many believers wonder aimlessly through life without any real focus or measure of growth because they are living in the wilderness.  They stopped mixing their faith with the Word of God after salvation.  The desert will forever be their dwelling because they trust in sight and not in the Holy One of God.  They have left out the key element needed to unleash the power of God Himself.

Lord, help each of us today to mix our faith with your Word that we may enter in the rest promised to all those that put their trust in thee.

 

A Closer Look At Failure

From the time Adam and Eve fell, all of mankind was destined to sin because of the sin nature passed to all of us from Adam.  It never is a surprise to God when we sin because nothing ever surprises God.  It is not to say that our sin does not frustrate or hurt Him because the Bible teaches that our sin does affect the heart of God.  But we must not be too hard on ourselves regarding our sin.  (Easy now, don't label me a heretic just yet.)  Jesus paid a great ransom to deliver us from our sin and this act was completed over 2000 years ago.  

I find though that many of God's children relate their acts of obedience to making God happy and that failure brings God's wrath or disgusts Him.  If we are not careful this  makes the issue all about us; it's just another "works" thing.  In other words when we sin and find ourselves broken and remorseful we are commanded to return to Him and seek His grace.    Why else would He make forgiveness such an easy thing to get from Him?  To beat yourself up over sin is to make you the issue and this is never in agreement with the mind of God.  Forgiveness is for sinners of which the Apostle Paul said he was the greatest.  We are in good company.   

There is a fine line between beating yourself up over sin and using the grace of God as a license to sin (Romans 6:1).  Matthew 5 teaches us that blessed are they that mourn (for their sin) for they shall be comforted.  This mourning for our sin is to lead us to the wonderful comfort of His forgiveness.  Often our sin shakes us back into the reality that we need Him more than ever and our failures are a constant reminder of this truth.  

Our obedience should originate from a heart full of love and admiration for Him and not a way of proving to Him that we are becoming like Him.  However close I am to being like Him is for Him to consider and not me.  I am not out to prove how I have acheived some greatness.  I am to exalt Him in my heart and allow that to overflow into my life.   To be sure the Bible teaches that our works make our faith alive in the eyes of others but God looks on the heart.

It has never been sin that brought the wrath of God upon His people; it is the unrepentant heart and the refusal to get right with God that always brings judgment.

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  This doesn't sound like an angry God, but One that is coaxing us back to Him that we may receive forgiveness and be restored. 

We are sinners and this is no revelation to God.  The issue is not how good you can be but how closely you walk with Him, love Him, and desire to please Him.

Have a great day!! 

  

"O Taste And See..."

Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

I have tasted of the Lord and He is good!  So why do I far too often leave the great buffet of food He has prepared for me?  I believe that living as a spoiled American we spend most of our time seeking how to please ourselves through the flesh and why do we do this...because we can.  We have far too many possessions and too much "food" to ever feel as though we need Him every minute of every hour. But the truth is that we are forever more starving ourselves spiritually and we don't even realize it.  We attempt to have a great faith and wonder why we fail at the smallest of tests.  It is impossible to see great things from Him based on the way most of us provide for our spirits.  We are suffering from spiritual malnutrition.     

When God jerks the rug out from under our feet we find it easier to hunger and thirst after Him but when we are "full" we say "Who is the Lord?"  (Proverbs 30:8-9 "...give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?...")

It can be dangerous to dwell on the failures of one's life but it can also be very helpful to allow the Spirit of God to make us aware of our frailties that we might see ourselves as the poor and needy children that we truly are.  

May we today hunger and thirst after righteousness that we might dwell in Him and in His land that flows with milk and honey!  

Suffering...There's Nothing Like It!

Suffering...it is all that it's cracked up to be.  

Christ's strength is made perfect...check!
Suffering purifies us...check!
The purification is noticeable in one's life (to himself I mean)...check!
God has huge shoulders on which to cast our every care...check!
There are places (profitable) only suffering can take us...check!
"Things of earth grow strangely dim" through suffering...check!
Regardless of the circumstances, Jesus and I make a majority...check!
The more intense the suffering the more visible Jesus becomes...check!
God's grace is sufficient (to be possessed of unfailing strength)...check!

It is true that when the Lord chooses to purify us through suffering all things change...for good or bad and it is our choice how the change affects us.   All that He teaches us through His word about suffering becomes crystal clear!  SUFFERING IS FOR OUR GOOD and just as Paul welcomed it (2 Cor. 12:9) so should we.

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." - 1 Thess. 5:18

We have such a wonderful God!

Lions, Tigers, and "Snares", Oh My!

Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soeth that shall he also reap."

Proverbs 29:6 "In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice."

Without getting into a long theological discourse, we all know that the Bible teaches that we often receive that which we have given whether it be good or bad.  The world calls it "what goes around, comes around."

In reading Proverbs 29:6 the other day I was stopped for a time regarding the snares.  For some reason the word snare "ensnared" me that day...pun intended!  I began to research the word and the verse and want to share with you briefly what I found.

The basic teaching is that when we sin we set a snare for ourselves that will entangle us somewhere down the line.  The more one transgresses the law the more snares he sets for himself.  The Bible gives us many ways in which we set snares for ourselves.  Space does not give me the opportunity to share them in this post.

What impressed me that morning was that having a snare out there waiting on me that I could not see or anticipate with any real sense of security bothered me a great deal.  I know I am being selfish but this to me is a real problem!  And to think that I set it!!

The thought I would like to leave with you is that there truly are consequences for sin and they often come in the form of snares seeking to entangle us, injure us, and even sometimes kill us.  Obviously this is not God's choosing for our lives for He loves us beyond comprehension.  The next time we are tempted to sin maybe this thought will race through our minds that we are setting snares for ourselves that will bring harm to us.

Finishing on a good thought, I believe that these snares are set when we sin and do not make it right with God.  I believe the confession of sin to the Lord lift the snares out of our lives.  There will always be negative consequences for sin but when we are right with the Lord we at least do not have to worry about the snares.

No Comment Needed

Often we attempt to explain the Bible in order to help others understand what it is the Lord is trying to accomplish through His Word.  This is acceptable as we see in Nehemiah 8:8 "So they read in the book of the law distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

There are times though that we need not to comment on His Word as it is very simple and plain for all to comprehend.  Such is the case with the passage below.   Prayerfully consider what God has said.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it?  But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.  See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.  But if thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear , but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.  I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:  That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

God help us to "choose life" today.  Amen.

Those Bleating Sheep!

1 Samuel 15:14 "And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"

Samuel was rebuking Saul for his incomplete obedience in the destruction of the Amalekites.  Saul was to kill everything alive including all people and animals.  Instead Saul brought back the best of the animals to offer to the Lord.  Surely in his mind this was acceptable.  Apparently not as God said in verse 11 that He regretted that He made Saul king over Israel.

Today it would be like a person giving his money to the church and thinking this will satisfy the Lord and make up for his obvious spirit of disobedience in other areas.  The sacrifice of our substance does not and never will exalt the Lord as we go through life with an unyielded heart.  Nothing honors Him as does obedience born out of a surrendered heart to the ways and mind of God.  1 Samuel 15:22 "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Does the Lord hear the "bleating of the sheep or the lowing of the oxen" in our lives this very minute?  My great prayer is that I would offer Him the sacrifice of a yielded spirit to do His will today.  

John 14:15 "If ye love me keep my commandments."  

A Process of Delusion

This post will deal with a point from my adult Bible class lesson yesterday.  It will be a review for any of them that read this (which does not hurt any of us) but I wanted to share this thought with those of you that would not have been there.

It is amazing to me in my own life how when tempted with sin my mind has a tendency to focus on the pleasures of sin.  The effects that the sin will have on my life and spirit  seem  either absent or at the most a faint whisper.  Why is it that the "new man" does not throw a fit, kicking and screaming at the notion of my being tempted to violate the Word of God?   I will never say that the new man never has victory but far too often I find myself under such a powerful force within me that wins the battle.  We must first realize that our flesh is far more powerful than we think!  This battle is the one described by Paul in Romans 7.  It helps to know that I am in good company in my fight.

The point I want to make is that the process of sin is a process of delusion.  We know sin brings with it shame, fear, suffering, and death.  We know that obeying the principles of God's Word bring happiness, peace, blessings, and abundant life.  This process of delusion convinces us that the way to happiness, joy, prosperity, etc is through sin (see Eve in Gen. 3:6).  If we could only realize this process in action before it results in sin we would have a greater opportunity to yield to the Spirit of God and His power over sin therefore winning the battle.  

I know this is an age old battle that all God's children face on a daily basis but I for one am not happy to sit by and with apathy say "Oh well we'll never be perfect this side of heaven anyway."  God commands us to "Be ye perfect (mature) even as your Father in heaven is perfect." - Matthew 5:48     

Psalm 119:9 says, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy Word."  The Word of God is powerful and has the ability to strengthen us in this battle with the flesh.  Plain and simple, the more time we spend in His Word the more powerful we become in our attempts to live as He did.  John 15:5, "I am the vine ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit (victory!): for without me ye can do nothing (defeat!)."  His Word is fully capable of cutting though the delusion the flesh creates granting us the clarity of mind to comprehend the grave nature of what is going on when tempted of sin.  We will never have complete victory over sin 'til we see Him, but we can experience more and greater victory as we honor Him in all we do through the power of His Word.

Consider It Well

Proverbs 24:32 "Then I saw it, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction."

I can recall many times in my life that I made decisions that led to awful, painful, and at times embarrassing consequences.  Often I remember saying in my mind if not aloud "What was I thinking?"or "Why in the world did I do that?", and "What on earth could have possessed me to say that?".   

When Solomon went by the field of the slothful man and noticed the shape of his vineyard he immediately began a process of thoughts that fueled the observation made in verse 32.  It is not important to this study what the thoughts were that Solomon had regarding the slothful man but what is important this morning is that he took time to "consider" what he had seen; he even considered it well.  

The word "consider" means to discern, to understand the difference, to recognize or identify.  I believe this is a lost art in our lives.  We just do not stop long enough to think anymore...to identify the facts and weigh the options that offer themselves to us in making the appropriate decision regarding the issues of life.  A great example of someone doing this is Joseph, Mary's husband, in Matthew 1:18-25.  Think of all that must have been going through Joseph's mind when he was told by Mary that she was with child.   But what do we see him doing?  God says that Joseph "thought on these things" (1:20) and did not act hastily out of anger, hurt, or jealousy.   Even the law condemned those that commit fornication to death.   Instead Joseph took his time to consider what he would do.  It was during this time that the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and explained God's plan and gave him direction on what to do.  What if Joseph had been a man given to anger?  What would have happened?  Actually nothing would have happened because he would never had been chosen of God to be the husband of Mary and would never have had the great privilege of rearing the Son of God.  That wonderful opportunity would have been given to another man.   

We are admonished in God's Word to be slow to speak (James 1:19)  and act.  The Bible often condemns the quick and hasty ways of man (Pro. 29:20) in making decisions that at times carry grave consequences.  We need to give our spirit time to digest the facts and choose our answers and actions with wisdom and prudence. 

For God's sake and for our own quality of life...S-L-O-W  D-O-W-N and consider it well.