Month: January 2020

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”1 Thessalonians 5:14-18.

We make decisions every day and we would like to make decisions that are compatible with God’s will. But how do we know God’s will? I believe that about 99.99%of God’s will can be found in the Bible. If we think we have found God’s will but our decision is contrary to the Word, we can be assured that it is not God’s will. But it is not that easy!What about things that are not spelled out for us. What if we are trying to decide what job to take, which house to buy, or even where to put our money, can we really find places in the Bible that can help us?

When making decisions like this, the first thing we should do is to see which of our decisions will be more compatible with God’s Word.  If the decision will result in compromising a Biblical truth, then it would probably not be a good decision.  Let’s say we were considering taking a new job, but that job would greatly interfere with our ability to spend any time at all with our kids.  Because there are many verses in the Bible that point to importance to family, we might see this as an indication that that job might not be God’s will and thus not to our advantage.

So where do we find these very helpful verses?  All through the Bible!  Let’s just take a look at five verses from 1 Thessalonians and look at how many valuable aids Paul has left us if we are trying to do God’s will.  If we are making a choice and that choice will violate one of the following instructions, we should think twice before making it.

Take a moment to think about these clear and powerful exhortations concerning the will of God for believers in our verses from Thessalonians. These exhortations express the specific will of God in relationships with others, with ourselves, and with the Lord. Packed into these short verses are patterns of life and behavior which will receive His blessing in these relationships.

“Warn them that are unruly…” When we know people who are idle, undisciplined, pleasure seeking, they need to know the danger they are in. Watching silently as people destroy their lives is not in the will of God. Other parts of God’s Word show us how to approach them; these words just tell us we should.

“Comfort the feebleminded…” We should comfort people who are disheartened, disoriented or confused.  We should come alongside them with brotherly affection, encouraging words, and prayer.

“Support the weak…” Our natural tendency is to despise and neglect weaker people, to stay away from them since they have nothing to offer us, can damage our reputation and often require a long-term time commitment. Jesus says find them and lift them up whenever we can.

“Be patient toward all men…” We must realize how patient God is with us, and that “patience” is the first thing that love is. See 1 Corinthians 13:4 for confirmtion!  Patience means waiting in love and hope, with prayer, for people to see what they need to see, do what they need to do, change how they need to change.

“See that none render evil for evil…”  We should not allow evil men in this world to corrupt our own behavior and character. This is a constant temptation throughout life because evil people are everywhere, including the church.  It is easy for us to compromise our own faith because others do it. We need to stay strong in light of worldly influences.

“Follow that which is good…”  Doing good of every kind is our lifelong mandate as believers; there are millions of ways to obey it. (unfortunately also as many ways to disobey it)  God’s will for us to do good toward all men – even those who don’t deserve it!

“Rejoice evermore…”  This is sometimes a tough one to get a handle on, but we know that Jesus has rescued us from an eternity unspeakable misery and pain to everlasting joy and pleasure. This constant reality in our lives can give a reason to rejoice even when the woes of this world attack us.

“Pray without ceasing…” Some of us might find the idea of praying constantly just a pipe dream. The Lord, however, is wide open to communication with Him 24/7, why not continually include Him in your words and thoughts?  He should never be far from our minds and we should continuously look for reasons to speak to Him.

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you…”;  Before we pray, before we work, before we travel, we should be do so in the spirit of thankfulness.  Gratitude can change our whole approach to everything.  Thankfulness to our Redeemer in all things lets Him know that we know who is in charge and what He has done for us.

Just think what the result would be if all Christians followed just these instructions from Thessalonians on a daily basis.  It is often said that if all believers looked like believers, it would cause the biggest evangelistic explosion the world has ever seen.  God’s Word shows us how to be the kind of people we should be.  If we will search for God’s will in the scripture and will act on the His will, we will be different.

The will of God is not so hard to figure out when we realize that these kinds of verses we see above are throughout the entire Bible. Just obeying these exhortations in these verses can give us direction in many, many decisions. Wherever the Lord calls us, He calls us to live out these things. God’s Holy Spirit inspired these words, and He alone gives us the power to carry them out. Our part is to believe and act, and He then will direct our paths.

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13

Sometimes we openly and deliberately defy God. Other times we try to resist him in passive ways, giving God the silent treatment as we refuse to pray, worship, or even talk about him. Another strategy we sometimes use for resisting God may be the worst of all. We pretend to be following God. We merely go through the motions, looking okay on the outside, fooling even the most keen observers and maybe even fooling ourselves.

We can do that same thing in many other areas of our lives. We may dutifully go through the motions of fulfilling our spouse’s demands, our boss’s demands, our kid’s demands, while inwardly resenting the burdens placed on us. We may technically do the tasks that are put upon us, but inwardly we’re not doing them willingly. When we have this attitude toward God it is doubly bad because, for one, He cannot be fooled and two, pretending leads our lives into destruction.
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There is a story about a little boy who is told to stand in the corner by his mother. He defiantly sits in the corner. He is mother tells him to stand up. He stands, but yells back over his shoulder, “I may be standing on the outside, but I’m sitting on the inside.” When we look like we are taking a stand for God, but are actually “sitting on the inside,” we can’t fool anyone for long. Eventually the charade will catch up with us. Sincerity of heart has always and will always be how God views our actions. When our kids were kids (some of you remember), we didn’t like it if a task was assigned and they rolled their eyes. Rolling the eyes is a show of dissatisfaction with the task at hand. Too often we roll our eyes at God when doing work for Him.

If we appear to be participating wholeheartedly in the things of God, but it’s mostly for appearances, we will not grow. We will be eventually hit by something that requires “realness.” If we have spent all our time learning to fake it, we will be unprepared for times of actual spiritual need. A counterfeit bill might get by before it is tested, but once it is tested it is worthless. The same goes for us. If we sing in worship or participate in a Bible study, but our participation is a pretense having to do with what we should do rather than what we want to do we will eventually be found out- usually under fire. We have counterfeited honoring God and it will not stand true scrutiny.

When I was young, my brother, sister and I used to put records on and fake like we were singing and put on concerts for our parents and other family members. We sounded just like the Beatles or Dave Clark Five or a hundred other groups. When I tried out for choir in sixth grade, I think I was the only one not to make it. Acting like a singer did not make me a singer. Acting like a servant of God does not make us servants of God. Being a servant of God does. One of the scary aspects of “religion” is that we can easily “fake it.” But we are not in a religion, but a relationship. That is harder to fake.

It is possible to go through the motions in church for years while carefully keeping God at arm’s length. The result is usually a religiosity that lacks a real relationship. Without that relationship there is no joy, no peace, no satisfaction. Eventually, they say, “all pretenders will be separated from true contenders.” I think that is true. Remember, we are called to contend for the faith. We can’t do that by pretending.

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7

I once heard a wise saying that brings the perspective of distractions into focus for me. “Whatever is not your assignment is your distraction.” I used to talk to my athletes a lot about this, especially on game day. I would say that during the game your assignment must be primary. If the guy across the line gets you thinking about him and the way he is holding you on every play or starts talking about your mother or even tells midget jokes about your head coach, you cannot let your mind go to those things. They are merely distractions that interfere with your assignment.

A distraction is anything that divides the attention, prevents concentration, diverts, or entertains. Wow, is that almost our entire world! Television, radio, video games, smart phones, sports, hobbies, are all available at a moments notice, and these are only a few of the hundreds of activities that are ready and willing to take up our time. How do we discern between distractions of the world and assignments of God? How do we stay on task in a world that provides so many play things.

Most of us welcome distractions into our lives. They divert our attention from those more mundane things that can close in on us at times. Unfortunately, if we are not careful the distractions become our lives. Distractions in and of themselves are not necessarily bad, but when they interfere with more important assignments with regularity, it is time to reevaluate. Our spiritual life is important. When it becomes a rather small part of our day as opposed to other activities, it is probably time to do a distraction check.

One of the devil’s greatest weapons against Christians is our own ignorance. If he can deceive us, he can beat us. But do we allow our distractions to keep us from the assignment of knowing God? The Apostle Paul said, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.” (Colossians 2:4) If we put all our energy into things that don’t strengthen our spiritual lives, we will remain ignorant and thus vulnerable. God warns us in Hosea that, “My people perish for a lack of understanding.” (Hosea 4:6) So to keep from being deceived and to keep from perishing, we need to know God better. To know God better, we cannot be live in a state of distraction from Him.

We can gain better understanding by reading the Word, listening to Christian music or sermons, fellowshipping with other Christians, praying, serving… well, you know the drill. If we were to draw a line in the sand and wrote all our time commitments that do not include God on one side and wrote down all the things that increase our spiritual understanding on the other, what would those lists look like? No matter how spiritual we are, the spiritual list will be shorter. We all have jobs, some of us have children, some of us have wonderful hobbies and all of us have a multitude of activities. It is not whether the spiritual list is shorter, it is whether it exists at all.

In Colossians 2:4 Paul attempts to expose the things that would keep us from growing in spiritual wisdom. The verse reads, “I am saying this so that no one will deceive you.” But his actual meaning is, “I am saying this so that no one will distract you.” The original language in Colossians 2:4 uses the word “beguile” which is a synonym for distraction and deception. What Paul is trying to say is “be aware.” Knowing that we cannot be in church 24-7 and knowing that there are many activities in our life, we must be careful that we do not involve ourselves in the world to the detriment of the things of God. Paul says in Romans, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:19-20). If we don’t allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, Satan will be crushed by God. If we allow distractions to keep us from knowing God, it is us vs Satan and we are sorely overmatched.

We need to test our distractions. How do we do that? God told us in Philippians 4:8 when he said, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable–if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise–dwell on these things.” If our distractions don’t include these things, we may want to find some other distractions to be involved in. If they do, that probably means that we have Christ where he should be in our lives- at the center.

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”  Luke 15:17

We have all heard the story of the Prodigal Son, but made little application to ourselves.  After all that is the story of someone involved in egregious sins that lead to the pigpen. It is obviously speaking of someone else.  It  is the story for the other guy. But really, the story of the Prodigal Son describes us all as the children of God. We are all unfaithful children of our benevolent Father and have squandered the abundant inheritance he so graciously has bequeathed to us. We have a place set for us at the banquet table, and though we may not be eating with pigs, many of us are, at the least, eating in the basement.

Let’s set all physical pleasures aside for a moment and concentrate on the spiritual blessings God has promised us. In Philippians we are told that, “God will supply every need of ours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)  This seems to be a promise, but do we live lives that reflect those blessings?  If we do not, is it because God’s promises are false, or is it because we live lives that don’t allow his promises to exist.

Sin is an insane, unreasonable, illogical, self-destructive way of life. It negates the plain hand of our heavenly Father, full of every provision we need, and follows after the hallucination of worldly pleasures and fulfillment. We look at our lives, however and think, “I have not thrown away everything; I am not running with harlots; I am not eating with the pigs; I am not the prodigal, but are we positive about that?  Has our Father set the table of spiritual blessing for us and we are satisfying ourselves with less?  Are we running with a corrupt world and eating mush instead of marvelous meals?  Are we prodigals not miles from our Father’s house, not outside the country, but close at hand, seeing the blessings, but hanging out in the courtyard, the garage, the basement, knowing the blessings are close, but not experiencing them anymore than the Prodigal.

We are the King’s children! He tells us in Isaiah 41:10 to “Fear not, for (He is) with (us); (we need not) be dismayed, for (He is our) God; (and He) strengthens (us), (He) will help (us), (and) will uphold (us) with (His) righteous right hand.” Isn’t that blessing?  Isn’t that an invitation to the table where we can receive from Him, what we cannot receive from the world. He is serving up peace for us, strength for us, help for us, and perseverance for us?  And that is just the entree’s.

No one God’s house is hungry or wanting, and yet here we stand in the fast food line of the world indulging ourselves with empty calories and wondering why we feel so weak and emaciated.  We have an open invitation to the table when we have Christ as our savior.  We walk into the banquet room and God the father looks at Christ the Son and Jesus says, “He is family,” and God says “Please grab a plate.”  On the menu are all the blessings promised in the Word.

Here is a thought.  Once we taste the blessing of God, why don’t we walk out to the courtyard and tell those who are also part of the family about the feast within. Let them know that there are no spiritual corn dogs being served in there.  Tell them about the warm welcome that awaits them and the banquet table that is set for them.  Of course, to tell them about what we have seen, we need to have seen it.  In our own way, we are all prodigals if we have not taken advantage of the spot God has set for us at His table.  No reason to wait. I am sure we are pretty hungry.

“If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 4:10)

This is a wonderful verse. It is a great reminder that we do not exist alone on this earth, nor should we. When God made Adam he said it wasn’t good for him to be alone. I don’t think that need for companionship was confined to marriage alone.

God gave us a need to have others in our lives. We especially need people when times are hard. The verse above begins with the word if, but it could just as well be the word when because we will all stumble at times and when we stumble we need someone to reach out to.

In Galatians Paul reminds us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) We are told that we need each other and also that we need to be there for each other. We sometimes think we can rely totally on ourselves, but that is seldom true. Often we need to come to the rescue of others and often, even though we don’t like to admit it, we ourselves need rescuing by others. Although our best friend and rescuer is God Himself, He gives us each other because sometimes it is good to lean on someone with skin on.

Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball, ran into some very tough situations while breaking baseball’s color barrier.  He faced jeering and antagonistic crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. He stood like that until fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.

We will all run into times when we need someone to stand with us.  When we need an arm around us.  There may be times when we need to be that pillar of strength to someone else. We should constantly work on our relationships with others to prepare for those times, especially those closest to us. Whether it’s a friend, neighbor, sibling, child, parent or spouse, investing time in these relationships will help us and them get through difficult times.  Once we have these friendships we need not be too proud to lean on each other when tough times come.

The body of Christ is a family. Like our worldly family, no member of our spiritual family should ever have to bear grief, or pain, or problems alone. As the Word tells us in detail and infers from cover to cover, we should  “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Through Christ’s sacrifice we are to bear one another’s burdens. We are able to encourage others through the power of Christ.  Let’s not walk this world’s rocky path alone.  A friend in need is a friend indeed.  Sometimes we meet the need for others; sometimes we have the need ourselves. 

John Wesley once said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”  Bearing each other’s burdens is part of that good.